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Revision as of 02:41, 22 August 2013 by Homunculus(talk | contribs)(Clean up bot messages + archiving others)
Thanks for the heads up. Looks like I created the new category a week after the CfD discussion began; were I aware of the discussion I would have waited to see its outcome. I don't have time at this very moment to read through all the comments there, but it seems as though part of the debate centers around the question of whether 'political prisoner' is a valid concept. Is that more or less your reading of it? If so, that's...interesting. Homunculus (duihua) 20:54, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, I've read a bit more carefully now. I think there are valid concerns with the categories, but they don't outweigh their utility, in my view. I've replied. Homunculus (duihua) 21:39, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
There is a general trend to remove helpful categories that are related to history and politics, including a lot of cats on terrorism-related subjects and anything that can be defined as "victims of political repression" (the latter was referred to as "victimology" during CfD discussion). May be this is because of US-centered views of contributors who work with the categories. For example, defining person as a "terrorist" is something controversial in modern-day US politics. After reading something like this, one can conclude that there is no such thing as terrorism because no one knows what terrorism is. See my comment here. You understood it correctly: these contributors believe that there is no such thing as political prisoner. My very best wishes (talk) 01:44, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
That's an interesting parallel, but it complicates the issue for me. I wouldn't feel comfortable with 'terrorist' as a category; it seems to be incompatible with WP:LABEL, and possibly WP:BLPCRIME (terrorism generally being regarded as a crime, but one where habeas corpus often doesn't apply. My understanding is that we're not suppose to describe people as criminals unless they have been so convicted). Moreover it's a pejorative and often politically charged term that can be applied extremely broadly. China, for instance, calls Tibetans who try to go to India without permission 'terrorists.' I think we need to be much more conservative when applying negatively charged labels like this, especially to living persons. Homunculus (duihua) 02:56, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I think this is relatively simple, even in the most controversial of controversial cases. We have already categories "terrorism by country". Let's take any country, such as Category:Terrorism in Indonesia. It includes a number of pages about notable terrorism acts in the country. There are no doubts that each of them is actually a terrorism act. Exclude all disputable cases, like US bombing of Japan during war time. Find people who actually did each terrorism act (usually they are convicted or at large) and include them in the corresponding category "terrorist by country". This way one can avoid marking people who are actually not terrorists (your example). My very best wishes (talk) 03:19, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I see. Well, the battleground has lost its charms for me (not that it ever really had any). Lately I've enjoyed writing about deceased international legal scholars. I've developed a real fondness for this guy, who seems like a real rule-bound academic, with maybe a touch of pedantry. I feel I can relate to him a little, and best of all, no one comes along to engage in mass section blanking on pages like this ;) Homunculus (duihua) 07:04, 29 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
You did excellent work with this article. He looks to me as a very interesting man. So, he said in 1935 that "Nobody except perhaps Russia would gain from our victory in such a war". True. And as we know, Stalin probably already planned to gain from this war during this time or may be a few years later. And he actually gained his new communist empire, including Eastern Europe, North Korea, and China, from the war see this old version. But that was mostly deleted by Russian political partisans here. My very best wishes (talk) 18:42, 29 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I really ought to devote more time to Soviet history. It was one of my first loves, you know, and helped disabuse me of utopian fantasies. But China ultimately proved far too interesting. Homunculus (duihua) 19:37, 29 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Good job. I started Ronald Macleay, red linked within in, you might find more on him. I noticed a lot of bare google book URLs. Just paste them into here and it'll draw them up for you, just click last name to reverse author names to surname first♦ Dr. Blofeld17:52, 2 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Looks like a good start. I'll take a closer look in a few days. I love MacMurray's comment about Macleay, though evidently he felt badly afterwards, as he struck through it in his final submission to the state department. Homunculus (duihua) 05:30, 5 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Judicial system of the PRC
I was just looking at the talk page history for Talk:Judicial system of the People's Republic of China, and saw your (very old) comment. This is likely the longest article I've found that cites no references. It's strange how these barren deserts emerge on Wikipedia, and on top-importance articles no less. In any case, I'm thinking of having a crack at reordering the page. If you have an ongoing interest in the topic, please partake! Regards, Homunculus (duihua) 06:15, 26 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed! It looks like a lot of that was due to the wholesale copying, which has since been deleted. Now the article is needing expansion again, hopefully this time with a better balance of outside assessments of judicial independence, domestic perspectives, and good old basic facts. -- Beland (talk) 00:07, 4 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Yea....this has been on my list for a long time now. I guess I'll try to revisit it soon. I might start with proposing an outline on the talk page and fleshing it out from there. We'll see. Homunculus (duihua) 05:31, 5 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Liao Yiwu speech
Hello, I saw the speech live on German TV (www.daserste.de) this Sunday. Unfortunately no full text of the speech seems to be available online anywhere now - neither in audio or video nor in text form. I think I will be able to provide a source once Monday's newspaper are out in Germany. -- 78.53.147.5 (talk) 03:19, 15 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I see. In that case, I am going to remove the material for now. Wikipedia is quite strict about sourcing in biographies of living persons, as you can read about here. You are welcome to restore the material when a source is available (you can consult the article's history to see what you wrote before—everything is archived here). You may also want to familiarize yourself with WP:NPOV. Happy editing! Homunculus (duihua) 03:28, 15 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Hi there, I'm notifying you as I noticed your impressive work on the GA Quality article, Weiquan movement. If you're interested, here are some easy things you can do:
Back mid-November? That seems to coincide with the expected concluding time of a certain political party's largest confab... not that there would be any connection. TheSoundAndTheFury (talk) 20:53, 1 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not totally offline till mid-November. Just dealing with some demanding writing deadlines and such. Come to think of it, one of those deadlines is related to the congress... ;) Homunculus (duihua) 20:58, 1 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Category:Political prisoners and detainees of China
Dear Homunculus, Please, if you have time, take a look at the artice on Xi Mingze I just created. I just want thoughts on the article, whether positive or negetive, from a long time China hand. I am still trying to add content about the DPRK and China but it is an uphill struggle. Please edit, suggest, or critque. :) Geraldshields11 (talk) 17:11, 8 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Hello again Hom, this is Scott, the Gutter oil guy. Gre's have tired me out and I'm ready to get back to wiki for a bit.
Any thing of importance that I can assist with or do the leg work on? Let me know 67.183.192.63 (talk) 09:14, 25 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Hey Scott, glad you're back. I think I left you a note a while ago asking if you'd be interested in helping with an article I created on the Shifang protest in China. That one is in reasonably good shape now, but it could still be expanded. I also started work on the related Qidong protest, and it needs lots of work. Let me know if you're interested. I may think of other things down the line. Cheers, Homunculus (duihua) 01:34, 26 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Qidong protest, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Weibo (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.
That was a mistake, hence the self-revert. In light of our earlier exchange, when I saw your name pop up on my watchlist today I decided to check in and see what you were working on. I think I must have accidentally hit "rollback" when perusing the article history, and didn't even notice until a while later. I've concluded that rollback rights don't get along with checking wikipedia on small touch screens—too much room for error. Anyway, that's not to say I agreed or disagreed with your edits. If you scroll up on this page, you will learn why I no longer contribute to that topic. You may find it enlightening. Homunculus (duihua) 01:40, 15 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Wow. That's kind of outrageous. I mean the arbitration, not that you were following my contributions or anything ;) Can you do anything about it? TheBlueCanoe13:50, 15 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Not sure what you mean by "do anything about it." What I've done is write articles in other areas of interest, and regain a more normal work/life/Wikipedia balance. I hope you can appreciate why I will not discuss it further here. You're welcome to email me if you really want to. Good luck. Homunculus (duihua) 19:16, 16 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Homunculus, I started the review for Shifang protest. This looks excellent to me; I've only suggested one small addition to the lead. You can see details on the review page. Thanks for your work on this one! -- Khazar2 (talk) 14:39, 28 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, Homunculus. You have new messages at Hanteng's talk page. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.
I see you've been busy. What projects are currently on the docket and need help? I need to return to things slow so helping a bit with others would suit me well. Let me know. Take care hom. I can't sign <dounai> — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.49.93.246 (talk) 07:10, 20 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Hey Scott, good to hear from you again! I haven't been very active on Wikipedia these days either; several months ago I moved to a new country for a job opportunity, got busy, and then inertia set in. I think the last time I reached out to you I was working on articles about NIMBY protests in China (eg. in Qidong and Shifang), and thought you might like to edit in that area. I'm also thinking to update/create some new pages on Chinese rights defenders like Cheng Hai, Li Chengpeng or Guo Feixiong, all of whom have been in the news lately. More broadly, I've found articles related to the Chinese environment to be underdeveloped, but it's a fascinating and important field. Do you have ideas for what you'd like to work on? If so, I'm happy to help. Maybe you can provide some motivation for me this time...Homunculus (duihua) 02:38, 22 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
