Talk:Kerala/Archive 2

message: Does anyone watching this have  or -licensed free photos of pookkalam of Onam? If so, please upload them. --  10:23, Jun 23, 2005 (UTC)
:I hope there are more contributors now. Does anyone have the images? -- Sundar \talk \contribs 06:03, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Is :Image:Pookkalam.JPG what you're looking for? Unfortunately, it doesn't have a tag, but I'm guessing that the uploader (User:Sunithapp) took it himself — you could always ask him/her to clarify the license status. Saravask 06:47, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Exactly. I've emailed her as she's not edited after her first day here. -- Sundar \talk \contribs 06:57, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Images 

message: It is good to have a picture of valia palli of the knanaya people. However the exterior of this church does not show anything unique to the outsider. The uniqueness of a Syrian Malabar Nasrani palli (temple) is that the holy of holies or tabernacle is separated by a red curtain, just like in a Jewish synagogue. A picture showing the exterior of the knanaya palli does not bring this out. It is very important to have a picture of a nasrani palli showing a red curtain to bring out the ethos of the nasrani temple.
It would be better to replace the exterior picture of the knanaya palli with its former interior picture until we might be fortunate to find a better picture of the valia palli showing the holy of holies separated with a full drawn red curtain. Robin klein 11:51, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: With all respect, more details crammed into an image ≠ more informative. Images need to be eye-catching, so that readers will be drawn into reading more about the subject. Who will want to read more about that church after looking at some dim and unremarkable image exhibiting a pathological case of horror vacui? If it had been a well-framed and appealingly lit still life image of one of the more important or beautiful relics, then I'd understand. But this? With the ceiling fans, flat backlighting and all? Especially in comparison to this? Your argument could be used regarding any monument with unique interiors (the Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake Tabernacle, Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Taj Mahal, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque) — yet why do all the articles on this pages use exterior shots in the lead to visually introduce the subject to readers? Saravask 19:00, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

text: Anyway, I put a link to the interior shot in the caption with the label "Click here for an interior shot". I hope that's a good compromise. Saravask 19:58, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Picture of Knanaya temple

message: I needed to make changes to the blurb and lead, including an image change (I wanted to use an image w/ a high height-to-width ratio to maximize the size of the image on the main page; also I think its more eye-catching). If people have problems, let me know or go copyedit the blurb/lead directly. Thanks. Saravask 02:31, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Fixed the second point ("1911" -> "19th century"); for the first, feel free to reword the blurb at WP:TFA as much as needed to solve it (I didn't mean to imply that connection). Thanks. Saravask 04:30, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Revised lead/blurb 

message: Kjrajesh has added many nice pics in many sections. Does wikipedia have any guideline for image gallery in articles? I personally feel that image galleries are not needed. I would like to hear other people's view about this. regards --Raghu 16:42, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Image galleries (like "Trivia" sections) are nonstandard and frowned upon by most serious editors. I agree that we don't need inline galleries to break up the flow of the text. The galleries should either be deleted or condensed and moved to the very end of the article (see Saffron#Image gallery for what I mean) or deleted. Saravask 03:59, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I've been bold and removed them. There's already a link to commons, which is sufficient. The pictures are beautiful, nevertheless. -- Sundar \talk \contribs 05:23, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

text: You're right about good web design, Rajesh. That's why we have relevant images inline. But a gallery is somewhat unencyclopedic. I think Saravask has fixed the issue. -- Sundar \talk \contribs 06:38, 22 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Image Additions 

message: Can someone go through and convert my American English writing/spelling to Indian English? Also, does anyone know where to find reliable data on the proportion of Keralites living in slums or in poverty? Thank you. Saravask 06:05, 22 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: This link gives the relevant information about the slums. --Raghu 06:58, 22 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks; I added the slum info. Saravask 02:03, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Requests 

message: After much thought, I've reordered the article's topics by chronological order (which is what I did at Saffron): thus, since Kerala's geography and biota are the oldest (hundreds of millions to billions of years since their emergence), I've put them first. Next comes (human) "History" (which is only around 3,000 years old). Next, the districts, (modern) politics, culture, etc in the same order they were before. Will be glad to discuss/answer questions. Saravask 07:06, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  More logical chronological topic reording 

message: Is it written in BrEng or AmEng? There are a few inconsistencies. 
It's rather heavily linked, which is making it a little difficult to read, and looks a little messy on the screen. Although most of the links are useful, a few common words might be delinked. (But I won't do that without your permission.) Tony 11:49, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: *(1) Indian English (almost same as BrEng) (2) Yes, overlinked - please rm links as needed. I started doing this several days ago. (3) Good work so far, but please don't rm the oxford commas though. Saravask 00:19, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

text: Yes, use "-is" per InEng sp. All the "iz" cruft is mine; I already posted a request for Indian English speakers to go through and convert them (see Talk:Kerala#Requests). Saravask 23:14, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

text: I don't have an opinion on this — maybe others do? Saravask 23:14, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

text: No opinion — others are free to comment. As long as the poverty figures, GDP/PPP estimates, etc. are correct, labels shouldn't matter too much. Saravask 23:14, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  "in some respects, India is far more developed than wealthy Western nations."  I'm pretty much lol over here on that one, guys.  More to the point, however: Why don't we just use the terminology used by the World Bank or IMF to describe India, which is probably "emerging economy?"  I don't think that most people are going to argue with the fact that India can safely be included with the developing or "third" world, but whatever's good enough for the appropriate international organizations is good enough for me.  Same goes for the developed world (not all developed nations are in the West, after all - Japan, Australia, New Zealand); it's so standard and accepted that it doesn't denote bias. Oldkinderhook 02:54, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  two queries 

message: Should the Red rain in Kerala somehow be mentioned in this article? --Khoikhoi 01:57, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Added. A fascinating read — good find. Saravask 02:20, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks! Btw, the way you phrased it makes it sound like it happens all the time. It only occured in 2001. --Khoikhoi 02:21, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Fixed — thanks for the pointer. I'm amazed at how little vandalism this article is receiving so far (compared to most other TFAs). Maybe it's just the subject ... Saravask 02:28, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: You spoke to soon. Lol! --Khoikhoi 02:49, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

text: Btw notice the vandal got an account called User:Redrains. --Khoikhoi 02:51, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Red rain 

message: The claim about gender relations is hardly NPOV.  Some value system is being embraced here.  A less value-laden term (“egalitarian”, if that is indeed what applies) should be used. Gamahucheur 02:52, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  “Equitable” 

message: I just wanted to congratulate the authors of of this article. There a wide variety of information, with something for everyone. The pictures are beautiful too. Veej 03:50, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I'll third what everyone else is saying!  Kudos on the article!  Nicolasdz 21:40, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Thanks to the authors 

message: Why not someone knowledgeble about the followings which are peculiar to the ‘movements culture’ of Kerala in social fronts.
* -	Something about the ‘Literecy movement’  Sakshara Keralam; Sundara Keralam (Literate Kerala; Beautiful Kerala) 
* -	and the latest Akshaya program to make the state 100% IT literate.
* -	So is the title "the world's first baby-friendly state" conferred to Kerala by United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). Achived the milestone by means implementing certain practices (such as avoidance of syntetic foods, mandatory breast feeding etc etc)
* -	Also about the Panchayat , the grassroot level administrative system.
These are something peculiar to Kerala, atlest the efficiency or metriculous nature of its implementation. That makes the differentiations on the indexes.
Someone knowledgble on these please comeup…. Pratheepps 12:06, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: You're always welcome to add the info yourself, as long as you use good sources. Saravask 01:28, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Someone knowledgble on these (social movements) please comeup…. 

message: Looks like the main article is too huge (with images) already!!!
Pratheepps 13:11, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  What about the Official - Animal, Bird, Flower, Tree...of Kerala  

message: First off, this is one of the best illustrated featured articles I've seen.  The images are vibrant, and both topical and interesting.  Kudos to those of you who contributed images. My only concern is that Kerala's literacy rate — 91%[54] — and life expectancy — 73 years[54] is understated as making Kerala among the Third World's longest-lived, healthiest, and most literate regions, their literacy rate is higher than all 50 African countries, and much of Europe. Theiri life expectency puts them higher than about 75% of the world.  I think it's a tad perjorative to refer to those two statistics only in terms of the third world Sherurcij (talk) (Terrorist Wikiproject) 22:17, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: We try to be conservative in our descriptions: IMHO, when we say "among the best", we are talking about the top ten regions — not the top 25%. We don't want accusations of POV aimed here, after all. But an interesting observation nonetheless. Saravask 01:21, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

text: The state has achieved 100% literacy (99.something) . On April 18, 1991 the state declared ‘complete literacy’. It was declared by the then 65 years old new literate Chelakkodan Aysha, when she read the statement from a piece of paper at Calicut in Kerala.
Over the years the literacy rate has ‘sided’ a bit downward. Many things are attributed. The primary being difficulty with the older generation who became the new literates. They’ve grown older and many of them find it difficult to read and right as compared to those days (due to old age memory problems, lack of dexterity, absence of booster programs for the old etc). Even Aysha herself finds it difficult with letters at the age of 80. 
And therefore over the years from 1991 the rate started sliding slowly but stabilized at around  about 92% Pratheepps 04:20, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Praise, and question

message: Not related to the article but did anyone else notice that the day after Kerala was the featured article on English Wikipedia, the United States was the featured article on Malayalam Wikipedia? Interesting eh...somewhat of a tit for tat.
Don't the tigers have a taste for women? I wonder whether there's a gender-neutral term for 'man-eating'. English is
becoming more sensitive to gender-specific terms. Tony 01:55, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Practically speaking, I doubt that many female readers will be offended by the phrase "man-eating". Also, we don't need to prefix such phrases w/ "potentially". Saravask 22:42, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Interesting to Note