User talk:Gradivus

... Enjoy! --DarkLantern (talk) 05:36, November 5, 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, Dark Lantern. I've seen this site before, usually finding it via Google. I'm also a frequent contributor to Wikipedia, under a different "handle." I haven't put "4" down in the lore and literature knowledge sections, because I don't think anyone (including myself) without a full-time job researching and/or editing Tolkien literature (or an eccentric millionaire with nothing else to do) could be justified in saying he has an "encyclopedic" knowledge of those subjects. Christopher Tolkien could probably qualify, but few others. I have, however, spent the past 20 years at a job that requires me to edit English language documents while paying very careful attention to the specificity of language and the demands of preciseness and style. I'm not perfect, but I'm not half bad at it. - Gradivus, 17:52, December 18, 2012 (UTC)

Editing Battle Stats
Lately, I've seen many instances of contributors changing both the composition and numbers of combatants and casualties in info boxes about battles. Most of these give no justification for their changes. From now on, if I see such changes with no support or justification, I will change them back to what they were before. If you want your edits to be kept, make sure to leave a citation or explain the exact source (including page numbers or URLs, so they can be easily located) from which you obtained the statistics: such information can be left in a footnote (created by using the  code), in the "Edit Summary" box while editing, or on that page's "Talk" page.

- Gradivus, 13:51, February 6, 2013 (UTC)

Task
I have a task for you if you'll accept it. I have been trying to get others to do it for years now but neither have come through. The pages List of Minor Battles in Middle-earth and War of the Ring Battles has been voted to be merged into one article known as Battles of the War of the Ring will include all the battles of the War of the Ring summarized but not detailed with a link to the already existing page if there is one. This means all the battles of the War of the Ring major or minor will be listed modestly summarized but NOT detailed like the main battle articles. If you could do this it would be most helpful. Do you accept and understand?--DarkLantern (talk) 03:33, December 20, 2012 (UTC)


 * If I need only merge them I could do it, if I didn't have to add new info that isn't already on the pages (I have only the text of LotR handy). But I probably couldn't start doing it until January at least. Although if it's only the battles listed on those two pages it shouldn't take long  --Gradivus, 03:53, December 20, 2012 (UTC)


 * Consider tackling the rewriting issues here as well: Forum:Project: Tolkien Gateway and Wikipedia copies removal Thank you for your contributions here.--DarkLantern (talk) 05:11, December 20, 2012 (UTC)


 * Rewriting entire articles is a considerably greater undertaking. Short of hiring someone to do the research it would take (i.e., for real money), my suggestion (and what I would be willing to do) would be to put a basic (one or two paragraph) "summary" of the topic, perhaps essentially lifting it (perhaps slightly edited) from the "Encyclopedia of Arda" (which actually encourages that sort of thing, as long as it includes a proper citation back to the source), deleting everything else, and then allowing people to subsequently add their own material to build the article in a typical Wikipedia-type manner. That would, of course make the pages drastically shorter (to start with), and I'm not sure you'd want me to do that.


 * If I did that, then for example this (or something like it) would be my entire entry for "Elves":""

Summary

 * "In Tolkien mythology, the Elves were the first children of Eru, The One, called Ilúvatar by the Elves."
 * "The first Elves awoke by Cuiviénen, the Water of Awakening in the far east of Middle-earth, long Ages before the Rising of the Sun or Moon. Unlike Men, the Elves were not subject to illness or physical aging."
 * "Some, known afterward as the Eldar (People of the Stars), were brought by the Valar from Middle-earth to Valinor, where they were taught by the Ainur. But after the Silmarils were stolen by Melkor, some of the Elves returned to Middle-earth, where they remained until the end of the Third Age."

On Current polices location
You are right about your suggestion on the location of the LOTR:Current polices page. Could you help me find out the place in the System messages where I can make that change?--DarkLantern (talk) 01:18, December 22, 2012 (UTC)


 * I'm not a Moderator or Admin, and I don't know how to do that - or even how the "System messages" section works. How does one edit the basic page template to add a new selection under the green "On the Wiki" tab?

I'd put "Wiki Policies" to the right of "Photos".

Un-easily-reachable User-page
Is there a reason that your signature is un-linked? That would be helpful. HiddenVale 21:51, December 27, 2012 (UTC)


 * I don't know why that is; I just do ~ or press the signature button. No idea why no link is made, or how to fix it. --Gradivus, 22:13, December 27, 2012 (UTC)

Discussion about edits
Listen here laddo, why have you deleted all my awesome info on orc appearance and my slideshow? That took ages and lots of hard work!
 * No need to be snarky, and please sign your entries so I can see who you are.


 * First, thanks for asking me on this page. I certainly did not want destroy your hard work. Let me take a look and see what happened; what has been done can be undone. Was this on the "Orcs" page? Take a look at it now; most of what you added is red and looks very strange. See if you can fix it up: remember to always make edits using the "Source" tab; making edits in the "Visual" area can lead to all sorts of unsightly artifacts. - Gradivus, 18:48, December 28, 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, yes i did put some information on the orcs page under appearance. First I put a Tolkien quote about how the orcs resembled 'Mongol types' and about how this was often read as racist by some scholars. I then did a long bit on how orcs were shown in the Peter Jackson films but i made sure it was labelled as in the films rather than the books. I also added a slideshow of different orcs that was over 20 images long. Did i put this is the wrong place? Why has it all been removed, was it not needed? I thought the appearance section was pretty brief. Did the film stuff have to go in a different section even though it was about appearance? Sorry and sorry for being 'sarky' i was just a bit annoyed it had all gone as it took me a while. (The Great Goblin (talk) 19:00, December 28, 2012 (UTC))
 * I saw it and I liked it. I don't know what happened to remove it. Would you like me to repair the page, or would you like to do it? (I can restore it pretty quickly.) But yes, movie info should be in a "Portrayals in Adaptations" section -- which might not be set up for that page yet, but which should follow all the info from Tolkien's writings. - Gradivus, 19:30, December 28, 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for that, yes can you re-add it please I'm not sure how to do it in the neatest way possible. Move anything if it's in the wrong place or delete it if you don't think it's needed, but can you explain why if you do delete anything so i know for future. Thank you and sorry (The Great Goblin (talk) 19:31, December 28, 2012 (UTC))

Thank you for restoring the info and slideshow, much apprieciated, sorry for the hassle (The Great Goblin (talk) 20:05, December 28, 2012 (UTC))
 * My pleasure. I'm always willing to work with people if they talk to me. I'm not trying to mess anyone up. - Gradivus, 21:16, December 28, 2012 (UTC)

Rollback rights
Because of your interest in ridding the wiki of vandalism, inaccuracy and for your general interest in the topics here, I am offering you rollback rights so you can revert them quicker. Interested?--DarkLantern (talk) 17:39, December 31, 2012 (UTC)


 * Sure, although I'm not sure what you mean by that because I can already "undo" them. Another thing I could use is the ability to ban unregistered vandals.


 * Rollback rights means you can on one click of the Rollback option hyperlink you will see to the right of contribution log, instantly revert the wrongful edit by somebody. See help pages on Wikia if you still need help understanding. I'm afraid the blocking of vandals, deleting of pages, and protecting of pages is reserved for administrators only. Congratulations, Rollback rights is yours!--DarkLantern (talk) 18:14, December 31, 2012 (UTC)


 * Your changing of the infobox parameters of Faramir Took I and Sauron didn't work. It is "Gender" not "Sex". Does the rollback I gave you even work?--DarkLantern (talk) 14:49, January 2, 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, I noticed that. Sex is linguistically correct (the current politically correct version, gender, refers more to psychological self-identity when speaking of persons), but I see the template works with gender only. And yes, I figured rollback out, after a couple of misfires. You can't leave a history explanation with it though, can you?


 * You keep using undo. Your still having problems with the Rollback aren't you? Why?--DarkLantern (talk) 01:07, January 4, 2013 (UTC)
 * No, I'm not having problems with it. But as I mentioned above, I use "Undo" when I want to give the person who made the edit an explanation of why I deleted it, so he won't just make the change again. "Rollback" is a one-click operation, so there doesn't seem to be away to leave an explanation in History. Would you prefer I use "Rollback" and then give the explanation in the persons Talk page? - Gradivus, 03:57, January 4, 2013 (UTC)


 * You can use what ever method you want. I just thought it was not working right.--DarkLantern (talk) 13:59, January 4, 2013 (UTC)

Re: Bot
I do, using AutoWikiBrowser to find the typos and fix them up. :-) - Wagnike2 (talk) 20:40, January 2, 2013 (UTC)

Anar
The info about Anar is from War in the North: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BP8S6EmoGY&list=SPA7616F403F1289E1 3:31. 01:20, January 4, 2013 (UTC)

Regarding Signatures
Gradivus, to edit your signature, first you need the right codes. I've created a page at User:Gradivus/Help:Signature where you can see some basic codes. Once you have done that, click on your name in the top right corner and go to My Preferences. Then paste your code into the text area where it says "custom signature". Make sure that you tick the box "I want to use wikitext in my signature". Then go to the bottom of the page and click save.

Regarding Templates
If you are referring to userboxes, then here is a starter code for you:

If you are not referring to them, you can see other templates in the page Catgory:Templates. I will send you info on new tutorials. Thanks for asking me. Keelan717  (  Talk  ) 10:49, January 6, 2013 (UTC)

your templates
Why Dont u give yourself en-2 instead of just english speaker TheDragonLord (talk) 22:51, January 7, 2013 (UTC)


 * Intermediate? Bah - I put down en-N (Native English speaker) - can't get better than that. But I threw in en-4 just for emphasis. My knowledge of English is better than the average college English teacher's, because I went to primary school in the early 1960's - back when they still called it grammar school (and for good reason). ;-) Gradivus, 23:07, January 7, 2013 (UTC)

Non-Canon
Gradivus, you only need to put NonCanon templates on made-up characters from LOTR games, not units. That would be a large waste of time. ....or at least don't put it on pages about the game themselves. HiddenVale 04:43, January 10, 2013 (UTC)
 * Perhaps if you tell me to what you're referring, I'll better understand what you mean. What characters? What games? What units? What page(s)? - Gradivus, 04:57, January 10, 2013 (UTC)
 * Dwarven Guardians and the Pelennor Fields level of Return of the King. It's of course already stated that they're from a game based off of LOTR, as opposed to someone e.g. in the films who are not in the book. HiddenVale  05:03, January 10, 2013 (UTC)
 * Pages about games are immediately obvious (as to their nature) from the title of the page. I will continue to put NonCanon templates on pages about made-up  characters, units, situations, modules, etc. for consistency so that the non-canon nature of the page is immediately obvious, and the reader does not have to wade through the text to discover that it's not subject matter from Tolkien's writings. - Gradivus, 21:36, January 20, 2013 (UTC)

Change of mind
I've changed my mind about your colored notices at the top of those Kinslaying articles! Go ahead and put back up that format you created! Of course, that means you will have to change it for all such disambiguation pages. Good luck!--DarkLantern (talk) 23:50, January 15, 2013 (UTC)
 * Oh, okay. When I can, as I come across them. I use the below code:
 *  [text] 
 * - Gradivus, 23:53, January 15, 2013 (UTC)

Message from TroyTroodon
Thanks for editing my page Morgul Knights

Note to "battle stat" editors:
Lately, I've seen many instances of contributors changing both the composition and numbers of combatants and casualties in info boxes about battles. Most of these give no justification for their changes. From now on, if I see such changes with no support or justification, I will change them back to what they were before. If you want your edits to be kept, make sure to leave a citation or explain the exact source (including page numbers or URLs, so they can be easily located) from which you obtained the statistics: such information can be left in a footnote (created by using the  code), in the "Edit Summary" box while editing, or on that page's "Talk" page. - Gradivus, 22:27, January 20, 2013 (UTC)

On Balrogs have Wings
You should consider removing all the theories of whether Balrogs have Wings and putting them into their own page, like you did with Theories about Tom Bombadil.--DarkLantern (talk) 20:34, January 21, 2013 (UTC)
 * Done: Did Balrogs Have Wings? - Gradivus, 21:05, January 21, 2013 (UTC)

I don't understand your slogan there
Quis curat te "non curare de minimis"? Nemo! quia ET rebus parvis ET rebus magnis scilicet necesse est nobis facere recte. Ergo quid apud te significat illa sententia quae scripsiras, id est "De minimis non curo"? - HiddenVale, 00:52, 23 October 2013‎
 * De minimis non curo means "I don't worry about trifles." I try not to worry about changes or matters that are of comparatively little importance. - Gradivus, 05:24, October 23, 2013 (UTC)