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Hello Friends,

Welcome to my talk page.

I'd love to have your comments, responses and brickbats (if any). Earlier a newbie, now just a bull in a China shop, so am bound to trod on a few toes, but I'm ready to stand a drink in that case :). Am enjoying being a contributing and participating member of this global community.

My main field of work is on Indian butterflies and reptiles.

Regards, AshLin 11:43, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

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Contents 1 infoboard mr 2 GAC Backlog Elimination Drive 2.1 Official invitation 3 Help / Advise needed ... 4 GA Sweeps 5 Thanks ! 6 Welcome to WikiProject Plants! 7 From JMGarg1 8 Orsotriaena 9 WikiProject Lepidoptera - Importance rating guidelines 10 Need your support 11 Question for member of GA article sweeps 12 Hope you get better soon 13 RE: 14 Jahll1234‎ 15 WikiProject Animals 16 British butterflies 17 Comments on Heath Fritillary 18 The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XIX (September 2007) 19 Delias needs some study 20 ID check 21 Snake scales 22 The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XX (October 2007) 23 Yuwaraj's photos as requested 24 Rememberance Day 25 OhanaUnited's RfA 26 LepIndex 27 Index of authorities (of scientific names) 28 Excellent photos of the banded krait 29 Personal opinions 30 Thanks 31 Re: Skipper ID 32 The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXI (November 2007) 33 Butterfly books (personal message) 34 Snake 35 Maurya Empire 36 Photo correction for promethea silkmoth... 37 Support 38 League of Copyeditors roll call 39 Speedy deletion of Madras Engineer Group 40 Interesting material 41 The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXII (December 2007) 42 Military history WikiProject coordinator election 43 The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXIII (January 2008) 44 GA Sweeps update 45 WikiProject Birds March 2008 Newsletter 46 Broken Arm 47 The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXIV (February 2008) 48 Why India? 49 WikiProject Birds April 2008 Newsletter 50 The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXV (March 2008) 51 WikiProjet Birds May 2008 Newsletter 52 Ornithoptera croesus 53 The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXVI (April 2008) 54 Archives 55 Advice - when is an article no longer a "stub" 56 Gallery 57 WikiProject Birds June 2008 Newsletter 58 The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXVII (May 2008) 59 Holly Blue

[edit] infoboard mr

नमस्कार! AshLin,Wikipedia Embassy from Marathi Wikipedia(आंतरविकि दूतावास) invites you to Marathi Wikipedia!This template shall keep you informed about support and contribution required in various Marathi Wikipedia articles in times to come.

Thanks to all Wikipedians who have been supporting Marathi Wikipedia through various means like interwiki linking etc.

• Article nominated for peer review on Marathi Wikipedia is जर्मनी.
• Find article nominated for collaboration of the month (मुखपृष्ठ सदर २००८)is जर्मनी
• Atricle nomiated for English to Marathi translation isभाषांतर
• Marathi Wikipedia help page
• List of Marathi Fonts and editors
• Discussion Page
• email list]
• If you are Marathi Language knowing wikipedian please do help us in updating this notice board tempalte time to time atTemplate:User interwiki infoboard mr

With warm regards to you all,

~~~~

Marathi Wikipedia Welcome team

Portal:Maharashtra	WikiProject Maharashtra	wikt translations	विकिकॉमन्स	मेटाविकि	मिडीयाविकि	ट्रांस्लेट विकि]
विक्शनरी	row 1, cell 2	row 1, cell 3

[edit] GAC Backlog Elimination Drive

		The Good Article Medal of Merit
		Normally I would only hand out the Working Wikipedia barnstar. But your reviews are so fantastic that my heart told me to award you the GA Medal of Merit! Thanks for your reviews, and we hope you can help us more. OhanaUnitedTalk page 01:22, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Official invitation

I'm inviting you to join the GA Sweeps. We are sweeping every single GA to ensure that they maintain GA standard after they are promoted. The initial stage of sweeps is only open to those that are invited because we don't want any bad quality articles slip out of sight. By sending this invitation, I have strong hopes that you can help us to bring GA standard to a new level. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 01:22, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help / Advise needed ...

Hi, I saw a photo of the Instrument of Surrender (1971 Bangladesh Liberation War) being signed on the Jagjit Singh Aurora page ... I think this photo could be included in the Instrument of Surrender (1971) page .... so I posted on the talkpage of Instrument of Surrender (1971) page asking if anyone has any objections to doing so ... but no one has replied ... so I guess it is ok to do so .... Can you please guide me about how to do so or could you do it yourself?

--Saggod 01:29, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GA Sweeps

Hi Ashlin. Thanks for your interest in the GA sweeps. For this initial sweep, which will be going over all listed GAs (eventually), only experienced reviewers have been invited to participate. This is to ensure that the GA criteria is maintained amongst all good articles. I do, however, hope that you can help the process by reviewing articles at GAC, to lower the backlogs there as several of the reviewers have taken their time from that to help with sweeps. If you have any questions about this or would like to discuss it with me further, please drop a line on my talk page or message me on Yahoo!, my ID is L33tLara. LaraLove 23:14, 16 September 2007 (UTC) I take that back. Considering your military career and knowledge, it is actually a very good thing that you review those articles. However, considering you are still a fairly new reviewer, please contact me or other reviewers if you find yourself unsure of any aspects of your reviews. LaraLove 23:26, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Haha, you are too slow, Lara. I already invited him to join us! Don't feel it's a burden to review articles because everyone has their own problem and diffculty. Regardless, an article sweeped is an article deserved to be GA. I personally will be less active in GA from now till the end of December due to my school work. I hope your stay at the hospital won't be so bad. Get well soon. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 23:32, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

I just realized that right before I saw your message! I wish I'd noticed it earlier so I would have been prompted to look more thoroughly into the reviews. I don't want just anyone jumping into the sweeps, but we certainly need good reviewers. LaraLove 00:44, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

You don't need to resign from the sweeps simply because you're not feeling well. We'll always be here awaiting for your return. Take care. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 13:45, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks !

Thank you ... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Saggod (talk • contribs) 05:32, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Welcome to WikiProject Plants!

[edit] From JMGarg1

Thanks. Already done & will follow. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jmgarg1 (talk • contribs) 03:38, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Orsotriaena

The move has been done. Hope you are keeping well. Shyamal 14:43, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Lepidoptera - Importance rating guidelines

Dear AshLin, you wrote: "Thats become guidelines. Go ahead. See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Lepidoptera#WikiProject_Guidelines. The two step is high/low. See the table please and we trust your judgement. There are thousands of minor pests - every one cant be high priority. In case of IUCN prioirity, go ahead, use your judgement again. There are very many on the list but only the seriously endangered (English language context, not IUCN) deserves high priority. Perhaps well discuss it someday but I have a swollen throbbing right forefinger, the one I type with, so I'll just close abruptly. Hope this helps, regards, AshLin 17:29, 13 August 2007 (UTC)"

• However, when I go to the link, I still find a multitier system... Nevertheless, I have graded or regraded all UK BAP butterfly species as "High". Cheers, GRM 15:47, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

• AshLin: sorry about being "dense" there—now I get it! Thanks. However, it might need to be made a little more explicit within the table that species may be graded as "high" or "low" only...?

On the issue of "BAP", this stands for "Biodiversity Action Plan", the UK "red data" list. Lepidoptera have rightfully been recognized for their important role as indicator species, espacially vis-à-vis global climate change; hence, the more-than-doubling of lepidopteran BAP species in the 2007 listing. In reality, the conservation bodies wanted to list a whole lot more species, but the government bodies applied strict guidelines (and probably some censurship) with a view to keeping the list to a "managable" number. I think that it is fair to consider all British BAP species as "high priority". Sometime, I'll move on to listing the moths as well. Thanks for the interaction—GRM 18:22, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Y Done—thanks, AshLin—GRM 19:47, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Need your support

Hi AshLin! After I recently fixed up the entire python section, renaming a few articles in the process, I currently find myself in a conflict with someone who seems to be much more WP savvy then his edit history suggests. His problem is that I renamed "Ball Python" to Python regius and he wants it changed back, having requested a move from the administrators and a third opinion. Unfortunately, that last one went badly for me (even though the person liked my reasoning). Therefore, I would be grateful if you could spare a few kind words here in support of my efforts. Cheers! --Jwinius 22:42, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Ash, I'm speechless. You didn't have to go to all that trouble, but thank you very, very much for your support. --Jwinius 12:42, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

PS -- Under "Arguments in favour of Common Names", it says "Firstly, they claim that articles named after common names make it harder for people using common names as a search term to locate the article; this is manifestly untrue..." Isn't that supposed to be scientific names? Cheers, --Jwinius 13:51, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I do get mixed up when I feel passionately about something. A weakness of mine. :-) AshLin 15:51, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Question for member of GA article sweeps

If you've got a moment, I was wondering if you could answer some questions I'm curious about? They are:

1. What GA articles have you worked on and submitted to GA review?
2. Have you ever worked at getting an article to FA status?

Hopefully won't take more than a moment of your time. - Ta bu shi da yu 13:54, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hope you get better soon

Hi AshLin, I noticed on LaraLove's page your message about being ill. I'm sorry to hear about this, and thought that I'd send you a message of support. I hope you get better soon! - Ta bu shi da yu 14:29, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the update, AshLin. I'm very sorry to hear that you aren't in good health. I hope the treatment goes well and you are feeling better soon! Best wishes there. As for the sweeps, considering the projected end is somewhere around 2012, I think your reviews can wait. ;) Your name shall remain on the list and the military articles will await your review. Best regards, LaraLove 15:43, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] RE:

Hello. Yes, I have cross-checked my edits with ITIS. With regard to A. Stolatum and several others of the same genus, I simply added the name of the subfamily Natricinae.

I am very interested in participating in WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles. I have added my name to the list and plan on making regular contributions. Am I right in believing that I can simply join and participate? Is there anything else I should know? Thanks!

AshLin wrote:

Hi, thanks for your edit to Amphiesma stolatum. Just wanted to check with you whether the taxonomic edits you are doing are as per ITIS classification. That is the agreed upon classification for snake articles on WikiProject Amphibians and Reptlies. Best wishes and have fun doing up snake articles. AshLin 18:28, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Jahll1234‎

Looks like we made Jahll1234 angry. He's been busy adding {{Copyedit}} and {{AARTalk}} tags to many of the snake articles, no doubt because he wants us to fall in line with AAR and TOL. Jeez, you stick your head up above the crowd, and they just do their best to cut you back down, since they have no vision themselves. BTW, it was suggested to me earlier that we start up a WP:Snakes (see my talk page). That sounds like a good idea, but if it mostly ends up attracting folks like jhall1448 (he just added himself to AAR) it could end up being more trouble than it's worth. What do you think? --Jwinius 13:50, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

This is constructive obstruction. Nothing to be done unless he goes about undoing edits for which you could take him up. But wikipedia does have rules and guidelines. Why not go with the flow. Why dont you put up a suggested format at WP:AAR for discussion? A common format for snake articles could be evolved? As you are aware Wikipedia requires at least some consensus. Perhaps, Jhall is right to the extent that you need to work alongside others and develop consensus. Would that be something you are not wiling to do? AshLin 16:38, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Wow, you have gone off the wall. I've been alphabetically adding Quality Ratings to all articles within the WP:AAR scope, because we have nearly 1000 unassessed articles. Every one of the articles I've edited already had the AARTalk template added, I've simply given them importance and quality ratings. The only reason some of those articles were snake articles, is because they happen to start with the letter "A", which I'm working on at the moment. Jwinius, you really need to take a step back and reflect on all of this, as you seem overly insulted by my intent at Ball Python, when in fact, I've done nothing but applaud your efforts (especially you bringing several Stub articles to Start quality).

I've recently made the move to start an Animals Wikiproject (it had been suggested before and didn't go anywhere), and I'd personally like that you both join it (if you're interested). If we have enough people interested, one of the first things I'd like to do is have a common format for naming conventions on articles, and obviously, I'd want a consensus before we departed from WP:TREE. I think you'd both provide good insight, because I'm the type of person that likes differing views. J. Hall • ^(Talk) 18:41, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Guidelines and consensus: the Achilles heel of Wikipedia. Everyone with any experience agrees that the WP:TOL guidelines *do not work* on the larger scale, but as long as all that is required to vote in these matters is an opinion, the consensus in any such project will always be to follow them to the letter anyway, at least to begin with. Only when it can be demonstrated how seriously messed up things have become as a result, is there a chance that a majority can be persuaded do anything differently (e.g. WP:Botony).
Snakes are not a particularly popular subject, and thus far I've pretty much done as I pleased. I've always been certain that my decisions regarding naming and layout were correct, while my explanations for doing so, combined with the quality of my work, have apparently been good enough reasons for others to allow me to continue. However, I've always been haunted by the lack of any consensus behind my choices. I hoped that if I worked hard and set a good example, the advantages of my methods would one day become more obvious. I guess not. Jhall1468 (I should be more respectful of him) just doesn't get it, and he's obviously not alone. Like I said to him last on the P. regius talk page, I guess you just have to have tried your hand at organizing this kind of stuff before you can see it, but most people are simply not in that category.
Ash, if this comes to a vote and the core principles behind my methods are rejected, that's the day I quit working here altogether. Tree steps forward, two steps back; what a waste. I've been overworking myself recently, which is probably why I let Jhall1468 get the better of me, but I've also been spending far, far too much of time here during the past 18 months, and it's high time that I paid some attention again to my chosen profession. Eventually, my money will run out and I'd like to complete a rather tricky exam before the end of the year, so either way I need to take some time off from this madness. I'll see you around. Cheers, --Jwinius 01:28, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Me too. Im in hospital unergoing treatment for CML and I have been taking advantage of the fact that the medical staff do not object to me handling a laptop from my bed. I also have put far too much time into all this. Im now reducing my editing work drastically, espescially as my good nature appears to have been shot to kingdom come. Anyway, WP:OWN is what I seem to violate all the time. But I would advise a break right now. We are not in the frame of mind to discuss anything rationally. My unsolicited advice to you. Take a long break. When you are back, dont edit snake articles, but discuss your methods at WP:Snake/Animals/TOL, wherever. Look for mediation, try to come to a compromise that people will accept and go ahead from there. If you still feel the same way then, leave. But dont take decisions at this time. Wish you a good vacation. And remember, Viperidae is a great piece of work and thats more than most people will ever achieve in WP. You dont have to sort out the whole of Serpentes to feel good about your accomplishments. Regards, AshLin 02:30, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

What rotten luck; I feel very badly. Life is so coldly random. On the one hand, we're very lucky in that we've both learned enough to marvel at the complexities of life and the universe that we live in, but on the other your predicament reminds me that for us there is no escaping its cruelty either. Of course, we would not otherwise have met and been able to exchange such observations, but still. I hope very much that you are receiving the best medical care available -- you're a good man and you deserve it.

Regarding WP, I was just talking to a friend today about my decision to quite (or at least take a very long sabbatical). He was saying that Wikipedia's is actually an age-old problem of wisdom vs. ignorance, the latter always being more plentiful. For example, if you have a wise man for a dictator, everything is okay until the day an ignorant man takes his place. Likewise, in a democracy all is fine as long as the elected officials are wise, but if ignorant people are elected, terrible things can happen just the same. My feeling is that if WP can never tell wisdom from ignorance among its editors, then the quality of its contents will never increase beyond a certain point. For instance, I could hang around here for the rest of my life in order to uphold the quality of the articles I've worked on (if this is what you mean by violating WP:OWN, then I'm guilty for sure), but when I'm gone, what then? If there's no one to take my place, others may be able to recognize and revert simple vandalism, but beyond that a steady decline seems inevitable. It's as if WP was built using unstable proto-matter. ;-)

I hope these depressing thoughts don't put any more of a damper on your own wiki experience, since you've also put in some serious work that you can be proud of. On the bright side, I will never consider the time I've spent here as a complete waste; I think I've improved my communications skills in general, met some very interesting people, and developed a new understanding and appreciation for the scientific method.

Anyway, I'm going to leave a notice on my user page now and sign off. Hopefully, we can stay in touch via email; I don't know about you, but I've still got the same address as before. In case you've lost mine, you can always start by mailing me again via my user page. Sincerely, --Jwinius 00:35, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Animals

I added a formal proposal to the WikiProject Council. I'm hoping to garner enough interest to make this a reasonable project and would love to have you join the project if you have time. Thanks J. Hall • ^(Talk) 18:33, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Yes, Im interested in joining, but my majority of time would be on WikiProject Lepidoptera which I started and help to moderate, Indian butterfly and snake articles. I also dont have expertise at the Kingdom level. However, with immediate effect, Im reducing this addiction of mine to reasonable amount of time. Best wishes with WPr:Animals. AshLin 02:50, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

No problem, any help is appreciated. Interest is relatively high so I've created the project here. Thanks, J. Hall • ^(Talk) 07:10, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] British butterflies

Dear AshLin,

Thanks for your message and invitation on my Talk page. I'd love to be involved, but the problem is time... you may have noticed that my work on Heath Fritillary has already stalled. Given that I can't make the time to work on my "pet" topics (including Steenbok), it would seem a bit too adventurous to suggest that I champion the British butterfly species across Wikipedia, even though there are only 59 regulars. I am a writer and editor by profession, so I could cast an eye over any rough text anyone can throw in...

As I say, happy to contribute, but maybe not the best choice to spearhead the project. Cheers—GRM 20:20, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

• So...if I say "OK", where does it need to be highlighted? On my page, on the Lepidoptera Project page, others?—GRM 18:57, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
• AshLin, In an attempt to start on my alloted task, I have tried to complete Heath Fritillary. Please give it a look-over and tell me what you think of it. I did rejuggle some of the information as I was editing to fit the template, but Habits just had to be deleted (covered under Life-cycle). Thanks a lot—GRM 20:53, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

• Thanks for the feedback on Heath Fritillary, AshLin—GRM 19:34, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Comments on Heath Fritillary

Dear AshLin,

Again, thanks for your feedback.

• I come from a conventional science publishing background and am more comfortable with the Harvard referencing system than using footnotes. I was already "tricked" into changing the Steenbok article into the latter format, but was obviously delighted to learn that either is within Wikipedia style conventions. I'll stick with Harvard if it's OK with you...
• Re images: I am a very visual person when it comes to wildlife, so I like to see as many images as possible of the creature I'm interested in. If this is considered somehow unprofessional or perhaps untidy, I will swap out the Gallery for a cross-reference to the WikiCommons page for the species—please advise.
• I'll make a mental note to include "interesting" behaviour under a "Habits" heading, but I am using a reference in which such information is included (at least in part) under life-cyle, so I followed suit in this case.
• Thanks again for the encouragement. We'll see how the UK butterflies project grows.

—GRM 19:55, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Dear AshLin: I hope the above comments did not sound (or rather read) in any way critical of your advice. If they did/do, please accept my apologies. Having worked in cross-cultural situations for much of my career, I have come to the decision that straight and to the point is best, but I may be guilty of insufficiently expressing gratitude by doing so. Yes, I can see your point about images, and did not check back to the version of the specified article of which you were critical. That said, my comment/offer still holds: if you as an apparently "leading light" in Project Lepidoptera see the use of large galleries of images as excessive, I think a link to the species page in WikiCommons would actually work quite well. This might even be an issue on which we could formulate some Project Lepidoptera style policy... I also read somewhere about the dearth of images. I would love to help out, but I seem to be one of the few Brit lepidopterists who doesn't have a digital camera with decent macro facilities. I have recently used my old SLR with macro doubler. I am particularly hopeful that pictures of Vapourer female, mating pair, egg-laying and eggs turn out well—we shall see! Anyway, keep up the good work—GRM 16:18, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

• Dear AshLin, may I seek your advice? I am somewhat aggrieved by the changes made to the article, and wondered where I should seek advice on policy re simply reverting to a former perfectly adequate version. Please see the comparisn [1], which shows the changes instituted, all of which I consider cosmetic and not actually aesthetic! Any thoughts welcome. Thanks--GRM 16:37, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XIX (September 2007)

The September 2007 issue of the Military history WikiProject newsletter has been published. You may read the newsletter, change the format in which future issues will be delivered to you, or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Thank you.

Delivered by grafikbot 08:55, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Delias needs some study

http://www.delias-butterflies.co.uk/ suggests that many of the Delias are misnamed and some may need to be merged. Shyamal 01:51, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] ID check

Hi Ashwin, please check my id of the picture on Tagiades litigiosa. Many pictures on the way from my recent Wayanad trip. I checked the Bibasis sena desc and added a note. Shyamal 14:32, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Another image id debated here (Jamides celeno). Shyamal 16:08, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Thats Lampides boeticus the Peablue. AshLin 16:29, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Snake scales

Is here Image:ColuberScales.png. Shyamal 01:36, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XX (October 2007)

The October 2007 issue of the Military history WikiProject newsletter has been published. You may read the newsletter, change the format in which future issues will be delivered to you, or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Thank you.

Delivered by grafikbot 12:55, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Yuwaraj's photos as requested

Common Banded Demon	Common Awl	Chocolate Demon	Black Angle WSF
Black Angle DSF (surprise!)

Here are Yuwaraj's photos uploaded as requested! Shyamal 13:00, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rememberance Day

I think this is especially important to you since you serve in the army.

OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 18:54, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. But on my talk page I got 2 messages from you OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 03:21, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] OhanaUnited's RfA

[edit] LepIndex

Thanks for the heads up on this! I will start adjusting my sources. Richard Barlow 11:46, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Index of authorities (of scientific names)

Dear AshLin,

I seem to recall reading somewhere that there was an index of authority names. If you know about it, please point me in the right direction. many thanks—GRM 20:59, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Try Category:Entomologists, List of entomologists, and User:VirenVaz/Taxonomists. AshLin 10:17, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, AshLin —GRM 17:23, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Excellent photos of the banded krait

Just a quick note to congratulate you re. your photos of the banded krait. They are excellent and will be a definite asset to Wikipedia. - Nabokov 20:29, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Personal opinions

Hi Ash! It's not been more than two weeks since I've started editing again and I just can't seem to keep out of trouble. I'm afraid it's the pythons again. With them being so popular as pets all around the world, I suppose it's no surprise as to the kind of people these articles attract. Perhaps I should never have ventured beyond Viperidae, but take a look at this conversation: User talk:Viridae#Morelia_spilota. He may be an administrator, but that's not stopping him from forcing his own opinion on everyone else here. From the looks of his talk page, he's not always been that popular here in his official capacity either. How many more of these people are there? --Jwinius (talk) 13:44, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

I find myself in an unusual position here, being hotter headed and much more uncouth than you are at times! However, I shall still venture forth where angels fear to tread to advise you, as a friend. Jaap, cool down and think about it. In a totally open society (WP) which has evolved to encourage contribution by a great diversity of people, anything except an outright violation of MOS or WP tenets is game. Like my edit of common names, you will have to learn to live with many things which you dont like. I let my edit go so that you could have your way. You had a good faith way of doing things and I was convinced that this was ultimately in the best interest of wikis which I care about. But everyone wont do that and they will stand their ground and defend it ferociously especially if you start handing out statements about their attitude, learning capacity or what have you. In effect, in WIKIPEDIA, you cant decide on a 'correct style ' and defend it to the point that you immediately revert good faith edits AND expect people to believe that you are right and they are wrong! All you will get is unnecessary aggression and heartburn!

My best wikifriend Shyamal feels, style is a subsidiary issue to content and no way is he going to allow his emotions to prevent himself from the important covenant that he has taken upon himself of bringing Indian nature to the people of the world. In my civilisation, there is a concept of 'maya' that the world is illusory; none of it is real. In such a case, attaching importance to material goods, or even intellectual goods is futile and will bring you not happiness but pain. As Gautam Buddha said, we can be free from pain, only when we give up attachment. I'm pained to see that you persist in remaining attached to your concepts even after the wikibreak. To misquote another, I looked at the enemy and he is us!

So, Let it go! Let it all go! I could tell you, that if its so important to, put time in between your activities, add a lot of content while undoing a particular edit so that its lost in the clutter; but I wont! You are the cause of your own unhappiness, and only when you realise it, you can move ahead in life and proceed onto a course of action which will keep you sane and polite and bring you happiness from Wikipedia instead of the unhappiness as of now! And I certainly dont mean running away from it all, as it appears you did the last time! I hope my bitter advice doesnt break our wikifriendship, but its time you looked into the mirror!

AshLin (talk) 03:54, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Not at all! Wise words indeed, and a very interesting philosophy too. When I started this conversation, I didn't really know what I wanted anyway. Now I think I have what I was looking for. Thank you, my friend. --Jwinius (talk) 13:03, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

AshLin, Thanks for the greeting, actually I am meeting Shyamal tonight. You may be interested I saw many different butterflies (and Dragonflies) in Mollem National Park last week, but sorry got no pix of them. I did collect some good info and pix of the place that I will use later to upgrade this article. Cheers,Marcus (talk) 05:57, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Skipper ID

Hi Ashlin,
I'm reasonably confident in the ID - I had it checked by the Melbourne Museum entomology department. Hopefully it's accurate! --Fir0002 01:12, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

Update: your fears were quite well founded, it was misidentified by the Melbourne Museum, the CSIRO entomology department just emailed back with a different ID which looks more convincing given these links: [2] [3] [4] --Fir0002 07:22, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXI (November 2007)

The November 2007 issue of the Military history WikiProject newsletter has been published. You may read the newsletter, change the format in which future issues will be delivered to you, or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Thank you.
This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot 00:05, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Butterfly books (personal message)

Dear AshLin,

I have a great opportunity to travel to Sri Lanka this month, just for a week, but with an excursion into the centre of the country-island. Is there a reasonably priced South Asia butterfly field guide you could recommend (I've got the bird book already)? Many thanks—GRM 17:24, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

• Thanks, AshLin. Do you reckon I'll be able to pick up a copy in Colombo easily enough?—GRM 17:06, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

• Thanks again, AshLin—GRM 20:19, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Snake

I do plan on a Taxon section, probably this weekend. I'm still just trying to clean-up and expand what's already there. To be honest, 3-4 times I've considered just rewriting the whole thing, but there's alot of good info, looks like you made some good edits, yourself!--Mike Searson 16:23, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Maurya Empire

Have lowered it to semi-protect - seems to have been protected from 2 October and no sign of any level-headed discussions on the edit war. Shyamal (talk) 09:06, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Photo correction for promethea silkmoth...

I posted a photo of a promethea silkmoth which was apparently misidentified. The photo was reviewed closely and is actually a photo of a tuliptree moth. So... I'm going to attempt to "undo" the edits on that page affecting that photo. I noticed that you had also made alterations to the page since the photo was updated. The process of undo-ing the photo modification may mean that you will have to re-apply the last edit you performed. A comparison of your last edit with the previous version of the page shows that you edited lines 18 and 42.

The page in reference can be viewed at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callosamia_promethea —Preceding unsigned comment added by Limerickman53 (talk • contribs) 14:47, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Support

Hi AshLin! Good to see that you're also still busy in the holiday season (okay, I don't really know if many people celebrate Christmas in India). I was wondering if I could have your support for a merge proposal. Yeah, it's that same issue as last month, but I'd still like to see it resolved, albeit peacefully. Here's the discussion. Assuming you agree with the proposal, a simple word of support will suffice. After that, we'll wait patiently and see how things turn out. Cheers, --Jwinius (talk) 23:31, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, Ash! --Jwinius (talk) 12:50, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] League of Copyeditors roll call

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Melon‑Bot (STOP!) 18:30, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Speedy deletion of Madras Engineer Group

A tag has been placed on Madras Engineer Group requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section A7 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article appears to be about a person or group of people, but it does not indicate how or why the subject is notable: that is, why an article about that subject should be included in an encyclopedia. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, articles that do not indicate the subject's importance or significance may be deleted at any time. Please see the guidelines for what is generally accepted as notable, as well as our subject-specific notability guideline for biographies.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the article's talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. —BoL 04:32, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Interesting material

Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal. 1 July 1851 Contributions to the Military Medical Statistics of the Bombay Presidency. By John Kinnis, MD, Deputy Inspector-General of Her Majesty's Hospitals. Full book Shyamal (talk) 08:18, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXII (December 2007)

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[edit] Military history WikiProject coordinator election

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[edit] GA Sweeps update

This is a form message being sent out to all of the GA sweeps reviewers. Thank you for all of your dedicated work in the difficult and time-consuming task of ensuring the quality of articles within the GA project. Many reviewers have taken time out of reviewing articles at WP:GAN (this may be one factor in the expansion of the backlog), writing articles, and probably getting some sleep! I have sent this message out to update you on our current progress and to remind you to please keep up with completing your reviews and updating GARs/holds. As of March 1, 2008, we have swept 20% of the 2,808 GAs we started with. At our current progress, all of the articles will be assessed in just under three years (based on when we started). If we want to complete the sweeps sooner, we need to continue reviewing at a higher rate (consider doing one or two more reviews a week or whatever you feel comfortable with) and inviting new, experienced reviewers. If you are taking a break, focusing on GAN, writing your own GAs, or are already reviewing articles like crazy, I still want to thank you for all of your hard work and hope you are pleased about our current progress. Keep up the good work and happy editing! --Nehrams2020 (talk) 09:07, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

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[edit] Broken Arm

Dear Ashlin After 4 months of physiotherapy I was discharged last week so now I can properly get back to work. I sent a few scans from Adalbert Seitz Macrolepidoptera to Shyamal who has cleaned them up and uploaded them.He is a busy man indeed and marvellous with the new technologies.Many thanks for your kind wishes.Kind regards from Ireland Robert —Preceding unsigned comment added by Notafly (talk • contribs) 16:49, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

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[edit] Why India?

Hallo AshLin! First, I want to express my sincere admiration as to your many contributions to the Wikipedian butterfly articles! You have done a great work indeed!

But do you have a special reason for adding the List of butterflies of India article to the see also section (while the species, genus or even family is not endemic or otherwise mostly Indian)? It just leaves a false impression to the reader that the subject of the article would be somehow more associated with India, rather than Great Britain, China, or say, Poland? Kaarel (talk) 23:45, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

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[edit] Ornithoptera croesus

Greetings Ashlin, I got the chance to do some more studio shots of butterflies.Here is one result- Ornithoptera croesus (taxobox), a truly astounding insect.('The beauty and brilliancy of this insect are indescribable, and none but a naturalist can understand the intense excitement I experienced when I at length captured it. On taking it out of my net and opening the glorious wings, my heart began to beat violently, the blood rushed to my head, and I felt much more like fainting than I have done when in apprehension of immediate death. I had a headache the rest of the day, so great was the excitement produced by what will appear to most people a very inadequate cause' Alfred Russel Wallace The Malay Archipelago (1869)).More photos soon, I go around 100 shots altogether and a lot more with my tiny Ricoh.I will do my best to find some of the butterflies in your poem, if not freinds will help I trust. Warm regards from Ireland. Robert aka Notafly (talk) 19:39, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

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[edit] Archives

Archives are not my area, but I do know some archivists.E-mail me with an outline of what you need and I will see who I can find.In the meantime this chanced upon site looked useful http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/noteToReader.asp Best of luck Robert Notafly (talk) 20:37, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Advice - when is an article no longer a "stub"

Hi, AshLin, it's been a while.

I have been working on upgrading Hamearis lucina and was wondering what "rule of thumb" to use for removing the "stub" label. Any advice? Thanks—GRM (talk) 17:58, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Gallery

From the Himalayan experience. User:Shyamal/images4 Shyamal (talk) 05:01, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

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[edit] Holly Blue

AshLin, Given that this species goes under a different English-common name in India, should we transfer it to the Scientific name?—GRM (talk) 20:23, 6 June 2008 (UTC)