User talk:Nhjoavi

Hi. Please check that things are actually nouns before you change abbreviations to nouns: e.g. CLS, sm are not nouns. Equinox ◑ 21:02, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

(Can't figure out how to just reply to your message.) Anyway, I'll be careful. But what would you call sm if not a noun? And FYI, I am only making such changes where "Please replace this header" appears, and I was under the impression that that message was to encourage us to replace abbreviation/initialism/acronym headers with part-of-speech headers. If I'm not understanding this correctly, please let me know.I'm doing my best, but the best part-of-speech to use is not always cut and dried. Nhjoavi (talk) 21:27, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

OK, on second thought, you're right about sm. So how would you classify an instruction? Verb? Nhjoavi (talk) 21:46, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, it says "replace this header", but you have to replace it with an appropriate header :) I suppose "slip marker" (or "clear screen") is an imperative verb phrase, but there are no meaningful inflections for the abbreviations sm and CLS. I personally feel that "abbreviation" is more useful than any other part of speech here, since sm and CLS are clearly just stand-ins for longer phrases that would take too much space on the page (or too much typing on the keyboard) otherwise. There does now seem to be a general consensus on Wikt that we don't like "abbreviation" as a header (and I admit it's not a "part of speech" as such), but I don't feel great about it. If you are absolutely dying to turn sm into a verb, then fine, I suppose, but consider marking it with an "imperative" gloss, and ideally discuss at WT:TR so that we can see how Wiktionarians feel about cases like these. Thanks. Equinox ◑ 23:30, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply. I will be careful. I've followed some of the more recent discussions on the abbreviation/etc. headers and am aware that's not a totally settled issue and there are mixed feelings in the community, but I have trouble ignoring those "please replace this header" messages when I encounter them, so I'll probably keep editing them until either I'm banned or they're all gone. I've also been editing a lot of other things that seem to use deprecated Wiktionary conventions. Again, I do my best, but sometimes I'm not sure whether I'm stepping on someone's toes with my changes. It's actually great to know people are watching, and I can see you're a veteran here -- would you be open to answering occasional questions when I have them? Thanks again. Nhjoavi (talk) 00:23, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

I've been in the same situation, actually, 'cause we have Category:Requests_for_quotation_by_source, and sometimes it's easy to find the quotation but very hard to find the exact year and source. So, the temptation is just to add the partial information, because it will help to empty the category. I have been doing this, because frankly nobody else is doing it, and with these near-mediaeval texts (old bishops etc.) it's hard to find the source on Google Books anyway; but it's not ideal. Yes, feel free to ask me about stuff, if you like. I seem to offend a lot of people, and I don't know everything inside out, but I have been here for a while and I mostly try to be nice. Equinox ◑ 00:41, 10 March 2015 (UTC)