Talk:Switzerland/Archive 6

message: made small change to the currency ( original saying swiss franc, changed to swiss franks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.219.90.247 (talk • contribs) 16:11, 16 January 2006
:... and I reverted it, since "franc" is the correct English spelling. Schutz 15:22, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Swiss franc vs Swiss Frank

message: The article has been relatively stable for quite some time now; we could maybe think about bringing it to featured article status ? In any case, there are a few things that should be done even before starting a peer review, including: (please complete list, or strike if done): Schutz 20:23, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Fair enough; even if we don't get there in the near future, it is still good to start improving... Schutz 10:46, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  On the path to featured article ? 

message: I'd like to know how each of them would react, and what they'd say. Factor how they live in their home countries to how they'd describe their visiting countries. 
Their country names sounded similar, so I thought I'd ask.--Shultz 14:55, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Is this homework? Lupo 15:09, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: not even; the names are entirely unrelated, one to Schwyz and the other to siSwati, what teacher would ask something like this as homework?? dab (ᛏ) 15:42, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: To Compare & Contrast. Would someone care to let us know, please? I can't get it out of my head until I get answers, sorry. --Shultz 15:55, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: we've answered it, haven't we? there is no connection whatsoever. dab (ᛏ) 16:40, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: No, no. I mean, if a Swazi took a trip to Switzerland, and a Swiss took a trip to Swaziland, what would they possibly say about the countries they visit? --Shultz 17:35, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: what? What's the difference from, say, a Swiss taking a trip to Zimbabwe, or a Swazi taking a trip to the Netherlands? They are not going to confuse their nations if that's what you mean. Maybe you should ask, rather, what will happen if George W. Bush visited either Swaziland or Switzerland, but I doubt the similarity of names makes a difference there, the man can hardly keep track of what continent he is on. dab (ᛏ) 17:41, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Look, I've been wondering for YEARS about it, because Switzerland and Swaziland sounds SO SIMILAR. Because of this, I've wanted to know what they'd find better, worse, and brand new to them about the countries they visit. I've asked the Ref Desk. Hopefully they'll provide something useful and to the point. If you want to do better and post your answer here, be my guest (or you could post your answer there too I guess). --Shultz 10:52, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: that's fine, maybe you'll get an answer to your satisfaction. Note that the similarity exists only in English. Swaziland doesn't sound extremely similar to Suisse or Schweiz or Svizzera. dab (ᛏ) 11:25, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

text: such questions are, however, welcome at WP:RD. And if people are willing to answer them on talkpages, why not ask? dab (ᛏ) 16:40, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: What if a Swazi visited [[Switzerland]] and a Swiss visited [[Swaziland]]?

message: It has been suggested that Voting in Switzerland be merged to this article.  I think that it should be inserted under Direct Democracy as a stub but still retained as its own article.  The Switzerland article is quite long as is.  What does everyone think? Hdstubbs 19:14, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, that sounds right.  Add a blurb & continue to link to main article. ¦ Reisio 20:17, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

text: Looks good to me; I think there is too much material to cover (with 23 or 26 voting systems with subtle differences...) to integrate it completely in the main article. Schutz 20:23, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: It should be made sub-article of Politics of Switzerland and Swiss Federal Constitution. The article is lacking sources, and should make clear which procedures are constitutional and which are simply which are cantonal, and which are merely communal, incidential or projected (such as internet voting). I'd say it merits a cleanup tag. dab (ᛏ) 21:57, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think that it would make a good sub-article under Politics of Switzerland but I disagree it merits a clean-up tag; I know it needs work but it isn't that bad.  There are several users actively working on the article and putting a cleanup tag is like putting up a sign next to a construction worker that says, "Keep Working".  Hdstubbs 01:05, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: A yes, I agree of course; I had thought the article had been found abandoned :) dab (ᛏ) 11:23, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Merge with Voting in Switzerland

message: Nice work, by the way, I've only seen this now. These things are what make Wikipedia so extremely cool (and addictive). dab (ᛏ) 11:46, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno]]

message: This new notice board might be of interest to editors here. You can help with our current projects or ask for help with yours, and ask any related question on our talk page. Hope to see you there, Kusma (討論) 15:20, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Wikipedia:German-speaking Wikipedians' notice board]] 

message: WTF? What does this list of clichés do in this article:
:The Swiss are noted for their banks, their chocolate, their cheese, their pocket knives, their watches (particularly the famous Rolex and the Swatch), their private boarding schools and their strengths in engineering and the sciences.
The first is superfluous, there's already a link to Swiss bank in the "Economy" section. The next six are famous export products, but hardly a cultural factor. Boarding schools would deserve a minor mention in Education in Switzerland, but also have nothing whatsoever to do with culture. I suggest we remove the whole phrase. Lupo 21:34, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Removed. Lupo 08:44, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Culture 

message: Is there a Swiss laws page?
JP 14:32, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: There is category :Category:Swiss law, but it does not contain that many entries (including a brand new page on Copyright law). Are you looking for something in particular ? Schutz 15:03, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Other page 

message: Serbia and montenegro are still unified with the north seperate for some reason, and holland is split in two. doesn't seem to conform to the way all other location maps are shown. very strange. can someone fix it? Pure inuyasha 02:20, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: well spotted. This was inherited from :Image:Europe_blank_map.png, which seems to be fixed now. This map should be fixed too, if anyone can be bothered. dab (ᛏ) 00:01, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Thr map is weird. 

message: In the opening paragraph, the article gives the names of Swiss people (ie a Swiss male) in the various languages (Swiss French, Swiss German). However, where the article mentions 'Swiss Italian', the link is to the Italian language and not a Swiss Italian dialect. To the best of my knowledge, there is no difference between the Italian spoken in Switzerland and the standard version. I could be wrong, so I thought better of changing 'Swiss Italian' to just 'Italian' without mentioning it on the talk page. I shall make the aforementioned change, but if anyone knows of a difference, could they please make the link to 'Swiss Italian' (The article will appear maroon, so an article on Swiss Italian would need to be started). Nicholassharland 12:07, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Hallo Nicholassharland. I am myself of swiss-italian origins. Of course the standard-Italian, that people use for official communication is not different to the normal Italien used in Italy, although sometimes the use of words may be different sometimes. As a general rule, you can compare the situation to the relation between Swiss German and Standard-German. As in Swiss German the dialects spoken in different valleys are very different. Then the dialects in the Grisons are much more appart from standart Italian as the dialects in the Ticino. In the Ticino dialects are also sometimes socialects, what does not occure with Swiss German. To illustrate the difference between standard Italian and the dialect of Poschiavo:
Standard Italian: – Dialect of Poschiavo, Puschiavin'
giorno – diu
latte – lait
muro – mür
buttero – buttèr
notte – noit
I myself am not a specialist with languages, so unfortunately I cannot start a new article. But I'm pretty shure, somebody will start one soon. Sidonius 12:39, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

text: WP has articles on Ticinese and Lombard, but nothing specifically on Pus'ciavin or the Mesolcina and Bregaglia variants thereof. I don't know whether "Swiss Italian" is commonly used in linguistics or everyday speech. ---Sluzzelin 17:37, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

text: Just to make it clear - there are special Swiss Italian dialects, but the term "Swiss-Italian" ist unknown in Switzerland. One would never translate any official documents using an italian Dialect. The only place where you can find officialy used dialect is in the maps of the federal topographic bureau (swisstopo): names are mostly used in there local dialect form. Ciao, Sidonius 13:28, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Swiss Italian

message: What does the country code CHE stand for? Is it Confoederatio Helvetica? Thanks for any help! Perhaps something about this should be added to the article? 86.133.50.100 12:43, 30 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: You're talking about ISO 3166-1 alpha-3, I presume. "CH" is the abbreviation of Confoederatio Helvetica, but why they chose the "E" for the third letter, I don't know. "CH" is explained in the lead of the article. Lupo 13:26, 30 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  What does CHE stand for? 

message: He there! This might be a weird request but I didn't know where too ask. I'm a member of Wikipedia:Wikiproject Ice Hockey and was wondering if any of you have some information about Martin Plüss, a swiss ice hockey player. I'm currently working on a number of player articles but there isn't much info out there about Plüss in english or swedish. If someone has some info about him and his impact in the Swiss nationalliga A and the Swiss national team. I don't know what the quality of other swiss player articles are but if you have time maybe put up some info on  the other more famous swiss players like DiPietro, Von Arx and so on. Cheers! --Krm500 23:25, 6 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: English or Swedish? Don't know, except :sv:Martin Plüss. In German, there's :de:Martin Plüss. Lupo 09:26, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Martin Plüss 

message: Switzerland and History of Switzerland seem to have a number of inconsistencies.  According to these articles, Switzerland won de facto independence from the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire in 1315, 1385, and 1499, with no mention of becoming dependent between these dates.  In addition, the article on Habsburg indicates that the Habsburgs weren't in control of the Holy Roman Empire on the first two of these three years (during which the House of Luxembourg had control of the empire, such as it was).  Even if these seeming contradictions are somehow technically true, they should be clarified so as not to confuse readers. Calbaer 19:29, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Answer at Talk:History of Switzerland. Lupo 07:26, 15 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Independence 

message: It is biased to just note that Switzerland neutrality was compromised by their banks actions towards Nazi Germany. Switzerland also helped out the other side as well by being a base for spying activities against the Axis powers. So their "neutrality" was compromised on both sides.
:Not sure you understand the concept of neutrality.  Neutrality is basically 'treating all rivals or disputants equally'.  If Swiss banks 'helped out' the Nazis, there were probably some that did the same for other interests.  If they spied in Switzerland, other powers probably did, as well.  Neutrality is not exclusion. ¦ Reisio 12:17, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The spying bit is very one sided. I mean, wasn't switzerland a hotbed of spying on both sides? To say that the spying on one side helped win the war is stretching things quite far...
See: Laws of War: Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers and Persons in Case of War on Land (Hague V); October 18, 1907
Art. 9. Every measure of restriction or prohibition taken by a neutral Power in regard to the matters referred to in Articles 7 and 8 must be impartially applied by it to both belligerents. A neutral Power must see to the same obligation being observed by companies or private individuals owning telegraph or telephone cables or wireless telegraphy apparatus. Sidonius 13:52, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Swiss Neutrality 

message: Switzerland didn't "declare independence" in 1291. There can be no talk of "Switzerland" prior to AD 1500. At best, from 1291-1331, there can be talk of an eternal alliance of the three forest cantons, which isn't the same as "Switzerland", and of an expanding confederacy 1331-1501. The cantons didn't consider themselves "independent" from the Holy Roman Empire either, they just aspired to reichsunmittelbarkeit, i.e. freedom from feudal lords, being still a part of the Holy Roman Empire. dab (ᛏ) 10:23, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree, but the 1291 was the start of an evolution. So the box should mention 1291 as "first alliance". Because there are other estblishment, people will understand that was not a definitive or true establishment and they will read the text for more information. But we need a date and the other dates are more as "It is a fact that Switzerland exists", and not an "creation" date. Cate 12:11, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: this is semi-mythical. 1291 is a pretty arbitrary date, that didn't have any special meaning before 1900. See also Swiss National Day, Federal Charter. I don't see how 1291 is any more of an "establishment" or the "start of an evolution", than, say, the permament settlement of Alemanni in 406. These pre-modern "establishments" in infoboxes on contemporary states are a problem more generally, see also my note on Talk:India . dab (ᛏ) 12:37, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: "Establishment"

message: I think  is an ugly gimmick. Do we decide whether to keep it here, or on the template talkpage? Indeed, the article is just plastered with other useless templates like  , , , it is really beyond me how people can enjoy heaping up these things. dab (ᛏ) 14:10, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: removed. --Bob 16:47, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Geographic Location (8-way) 

message: "On May 18, 2003, Moratorium Plus asked about an extension of an existing law forbidding the building of new nuclear power plants." - What is Moratorium Plus? A magazine? A party? It's quite unclear. Can someone change this for clarity's sake? Iain 14:03, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: A moratorium is a timely limited law that forbids doing something. The Moratorium Plus was a constitutional initiative (Volksinitiative) that wanted to fordbid the construction of new nuclear power plants for 10 years. This time should have been used to find a better solution to energy problems. It was denied however by people's vote (58% No) in 2003. Nevertheless, no new nuclear power plants are planned. You can find all information about the Moratorium Plus initiative here:  (in German, English not available) -- Hakwea 2006-12-11 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.132.239.8 (talk) 13:07, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: ''Moratorium Plus''

message: This may be a function of my browser, but on *my* screen the edit links for both section 1 and section 2 show up right next to the picture of Zug - in the middle of a paragraph, rather than by the section heading. My first clue that something was wrong was when I initially had my browser window at less than full-screen, those 2 edit links were actually superimposed on the text of the paragraph!  Somebody will know where a little jot is out of place, causing this to happen, but that somebody isn't me!  <g>  Thanks!  -- Newbie Mpwrmnt 08:24, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Placement of section edit links 

message: In my ongoing efforts to try to include every country on the planet included in the scope of a WikiProject, I have proposed a new project on Switzerland at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#Switzerland. Any interested parties are more than welcome to add their names there, so we can see if there is enough interest to start such a project. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 17:02, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Proposed WikiProject