Wikipedia talk:Local Embassy/Archive 1

message: I translated (poorly) the little welcome blurb under the list of French speaking users. If others would like to translate those same sentences for the other sections that would be amazing. Ëvilphoenix Burn! 21:36, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I've done the same with the Spanish text. Again, please make corrections as necessary. --Lor 15:48, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Translating the little request for help bit 

message: An anonymous user, 200.125.110.99, has left the following message on Talk:Main page.  It seemed that a response other than disregard was indicated, but I didn't know what that was.  I've suggested that we may have an obligation to look into his situation, and so set about finding the right place, which may in fact be here.
Here is the message,
dears Friends:
In the Wiki in  spaniard languaje.
En la Wikipedia en idioma español es:Wikipedia
algunos "bibliotecrios" (CEST) bloquean a su capricho o antojo a aquellos colaboradores del wikiproyecto que no les gusta o no les place, se nota lo que en español (spanish) se llama "amiguismo": "aquel que no es amigo, es "enemigo" y, a la menor ocasión es bloqueado bajo cualquier pretexto, o sus artículos son borrados (censureds) o alterados hasta la tergiverzación total bajo pretexto de "wikification", a estas horas por ejemplo un sujeto que se apoda "taichi" o algo así está bloqueando vandalicamente al proyecto de toda la wiki, ese sujeto increiblemente ha llegado a ser (por "amiguismo") nombrado "cest" y, aunque el reglamento o estatuto de Wikipedia diga todo lo contrario se cree "dueño" de la Wikipedia en español y con los "botones"  que se le han cedido está bloqueando e incluso borrando  lo que otros wikipedistas editan e informan. Si el proyecto sigue controlado a nivel "bibliotecarios" (así se les llama en la Wikipedia española) pierde toda credibilidad.--200.125.110.99 05:01, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  An interesting ambassadorial matter, perhaps 

message: How can I become an ambassador?  I speak and write Spanish fluently and can read French, Latin, and Italian relatively well.  How can I join?
User:Andrew C. Bowman 21:31, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sign up on the page there! I've been an Ambassador for months now, and noones bothered me at all, its great? Er...Ëvilphoenix Burn! 23:58, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

text: I think he's talking about this page, i.e. the page this talk page refers to =) There's also an Embassy page on the Meta-Wiki, you may have to root around for that. --Lor 20:28, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Becoming an Ambassador 

message: I understand that we have a translation department which translates requested articles between the various language wikis, but I was wondering whether it would be helpful for the Embassy to promote cooperation and knowledge sharing between these different langauge wikis. 
Certain people may already do this, but I think it'd be great if we could take advantage of the larger pool of multilingual users we have at our disposal when we take into account all of the other language wikis together. As the Embassy we could contact users of the other wikis and give them information and help regarding any articles that need translation into English. In turn we could provide translators from the EN wiki to other language wikis to help them translate articles from English into their language. 
This is just a rough idea at the moment, and I understand that the Embassy isn't necessarily primarily concerned with translation, but it's just a thought I had about how to make the Embassy more pro-active. Anyone have any comments, suggestions? --Lor 10:00, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Promoting Cooperation between Language Wikis

message: is this:
"in what countries do the authors of Wikipedia articles live?"  
Isn't it possible, almost easily possible, to find out the location of every author via their IP address?  I don't mean to tread on anyone's civil liberties, all I want to know is whether, say, German language Wikipedia authors are in Germany or Switzerland or Austria or elsewhere; English language Wikipedia authors in the US or UK or Canada or Australia and so forth; Chinese language Wikipedia article authors in the PRC or Taiwan or ..., the same question over and over, language by language.  This ought to be easy to do, I think.  
I realize this has nothing to do with ethnicity or nationality/citizenship or tracking "mother" tongue or anything else, those would be technically much harder.  What I seek ought to be almost automatic, no?  And fall under Wikipedia:Statistics?
There is so much to learn from this, or at least it would provide data to help begin answering questions like why does on Wikipedia grow and another not: is this a cultural, socio-economic, socio-political, geographic, technological...question?  I don't know who would need to implement such an information gathering project, but surely if we can count hits to read the Wikipedia by country of origin, we can count hits to write the articles, no?
It would also, I think, be really interesting to collect/see statistics about the translation projects.  Which language pairs are most active?  And are more translations done into or from a given language should be equally easy to learn.  And where the translators (in any given direction) live should likewise be information that we are already getting, we just don't seem to be keeping it anywhere I can find.
Thanks, and I would be happy to "talk" further about this with anyone.
Prairie Dad 19:18, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  A question that applies to all languages, not just English 

message: How do I become a member of the embassy? Laleena
: Stick your name in the appropriate place on the page, I think – Qxz 20:15, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  I would like to know something 

message: Why aren't Americans able to contribute to Wikipedia off-line through human service? 208.100.195.22 20:17, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  A few questions 

message: hi embassy,i ve been trying hard to get my visa ticket in order to travell to united state to study,but coundnt get one,please am a student with ambition to study electrical and have skills,i will be greatly happy if my request for  travelling is treated urgent with syphatic mind,i dont have money any more please help.my name is christian (E-Mail removed for security purposes) intrested personel should help,am 21 male. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 196.1.190.6 (talk • contribs).
:Wonderful edit! Looooooooooooooooool! Snowolf (talk) CON COI -  20:31, 11 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Unfortunately, we can't help you with that. -- ReyBrujo 22:09, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

text: LOL! Maybe we should clarify some things about this particular embassy. Wouldn't it be great, though, if Wikipedia was involved in international affairs? We can appoint some people to the UN as observers...Ed ¿Cómo estás? 04:31, 13 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  cry for help 

message: Hello, I am a Romanian surfer and I'm wondering about the mechanics of this website. Especially what concerns it's multilingual aspect. Are the articles translated from one site format to another ? And what does it take to get Romanian language included in the site's structure? Thank you,85.204.222.235 14:50, 13 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Hello there. Actually, there are many different "Wikipedias", theorically as many as one per language. You can find the full list at List of Wikipedias. The romanian language is at http://ro.wikipedia.org, if I recall correctly. Commonly, every Wikipedia develops its own articles, although it is possible to just translate articles from a language to another (in example, if an article about a Romanian artist is very good at the Romanian Wikipedia, Romanian users from the English Wikipedia can translate the text to improve the one in English). Text in Romanian, however, is not used here unless it is to give a context and in Romanian articles. Cheers! -- ReyBrujo 16:23, 13 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Multilingual 

message: Will you have wikipedie soon in Thai language? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 157.130.142.14 (talk • contribs).
:There is already one at http://th.wikipedia.org -- ReyBrujo 20:26, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Thai 

message: Must I sign all posts using four tildes?  This something which I find wastes electro-resources and is generally counterproductive to the nascent mission of Wikipedia. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.96.212.147 (talk • contribs).
:It is really recommended, because as more join the discussion, it is necessary to be able to distinguish who is saying what (and also, it allows other contributors to quickly notice when someone is trying to edit the comment from someone else). There is a bot who signs for you when you don't, but sometimes it misses some comments. -- ReyBrujo 03:22, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Sign

message: Dear Sir/Madam,
I was wondering if it would be possible to set up a UK Wikipedia, only I have noticed that the English Wikipedia only accepts American spelling, causing UK residents to become acquainted and misled by a foreign tongue. One comment I found rather foolish, namely, "Humourous is not a recognised word in any language of the modern era". I would really appreciate it if the UK could be provided with its own embassy and Wikipedia. Thank you very much for your time and effort. Whiskey in the Jar 09:48, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It is generally accepted that British topics can use British spelling, North American topics can use US spelling, and the other topics can use whichever spelling they either decide on the talk page, or the first spelling used in the article (which most of the time is American). Creating a new Wikipedia for UK spelling seems a kind of waste of time (personally!), it would be like having a Spanish version for Spain and another Spanish version for Latin America Spanish. But then again, we have a neutral Spanish that both should use. Note that if an article has a spelling (either American or British) and someone changes it all to another without a good rationale (which, of course, does not include "I use X", "X is the most used here", "X looks better", etc), it should be reverted back, and continuous modification may result in user block (as happened when someone changed the spelling of "colour" to "color" without justification). In any case, if you do want to hear opinions, you should head to meta:Proposals for new projects (note that you need another account, since it is in the Meta Wiki) and ask around. -- ReyBrujo 11:58, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for the advice, tis kinda confusing but I'll try and stick to it! Whiskey in the Jar 12:05, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

text: Humourous is a word as is Glamourous in British English and also in Australian English. I don't know about the other dominions. This was all the more obvious as many people in Australia believed Fergie to be spelling the word incorrectly. 124.186.59.76 04:56, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Humourous is an adjective found in British English and International English. It means to be "full of or characterised by humour." It is this kind of ignorance that British Wikipedia users have to put up with on a day to day basis with regard to edits being revoked due to apparently, "poor spelling".  Oliverwk  talk 22:53, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  English: US vs UK 

message: Hi my name is Allara and I would like to know what I would need to travel from Cairns (Queensland,Australia) to Dublin (Ireland)? Do I need a Visa etc etc....... could you please let me know what i will need as i am planning for a trip over there by next year february! My email address is as follows: [email address removed]
Yours Kindly,
Allara
:As said below, this is not a real embassy so we don't do that kind of stuff.  You might be able to look on Wikitravel or on an actual Embassy website. -Skunkmaster 03:46, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  My trip to Dublin, Ireland 

message: I have noticed just of late that your site has began to show a featured page. What qualifies an entry as a featured page? Also does your site offer the ability to stream videos or even post videos.
A featured page must meet the Featured article criteria. Once this criteria is met, any editor (=anyone) may nominate the article here.
Unfortunately Wikipedia does not enable the streaming or posting of videos. --Puchiko 21:26, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Featured pages; 

message: i want to know how to apply into america visa form,and the real web site,thks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 41.219.212.110 (talk • contribs).
:Sorry, but this is not actually a real Embassy or has anything to do with real embassies. If you want, you can ask at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous, where you may find someone actually able to answer your question. -- ReyBrujo 01:06, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  america  visa form 

message: Hello I would like to introduce myself to the English Embasy. I can understand your people, but am nor English. If you would like any help with trasnlation, let me know.
Thank you and God bless  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.173.49.230 (talk) 08:15, August 25, 2007 (UTC) 
:Translation to what? --Skunkmaster 03:58, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Myself 

message: I need to contact a user who uses the Volapuk wikipedia but for some reason I cannot access the Volapuk Wikipedia. Can we use the Embassy to contact users in other languages? He speaks english but is not active on the english ones apparently so I have not been able to reach him.
Thanks,
Skunkmaster 03:43, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Communication w/ user on different language 

message: I think we should put somewhere on the Embassy page that tells people that we are not a real embassy and that we cannot help them w/ visas, passports, etc.
Skunkmaster 03:51, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Embassy 

message: Hello
If you require help translating to/from English to/from my native language, I can help, as I am very fluent in both
Thank you God bless
203.173.44.84 00:50, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Help with translation 

message: Hi. I know that for the languages on the list, you just stick your name under the language. However, my native language (Czech) is not on the list. Can I just add it? I think it would be beneficial as Czech has over 10 million speakers, and the Czech Wikipedia  has over 78 000 articles. --Puchiko 15:38, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Can I add a new language

message: -BEBEL71-Bebel71 06:36, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I think that you should post your question here. Puchiko (talk • contribs • email) 16:17, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Looking for information

message: I want to ask the Ambassadors, have they received ever a help request?
Because I'm wondering if the page helps something or, as I suspect, it's not very much used :(
Happy editing, Snowolf How can I help? 23:09, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Question to all the other Ambassadors 

message: Greetings. I've imported a number of English translations of ancient Koine Greek texts into the English Wikisource. I'd like to import the original Greek texts into the Greek Wikisource, and link to them, but I don't know Greek. This means I don't know the Greek versions of , , etc. I've imported wikisource:el:ΚΛΗΜΕΝΤΟΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α, and I was wondering if someone would be able to add the relevant header information to it for Wikisource texts. If so, I'll import many more there. (I can't find the embassy on the Greek Wikisource, or I'd ask there.) Thanks, – Quadell (talk) (random) 13:22, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Any Greek Wikisource users here? 

message: good morning i am doing my family tree i would like to know how far irkutsk is from warsaw. thankyou kind regards linda [email address removed] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.104.162.150 (talk) 10:57, 2 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi. Though such questions are best asked at WP:Reference desk, I'll answer it anyway. The distance between Irkutsk, Russia and  Warsaw, Poland is 5344 kilometres (3321 miles)-counted "as the crow flies". Source:City Distance Tool Welcome to Wikipedia and happy editing! Puchiko (Talk-email) 14:20, 2 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  how far is warsaw from irkutsk 

message: Hello 
I apologise for the intrusion, I know it's very irregular, but i'm
desperately trying to find a lady that I knew 1966, in Braemar.
We worked toghether at the " Invercauld Arms Hotel ". Her name 
Christine Stewart. If possible, I would like to know how I can
inquire about her; to know if shi is still alive etc. Again, forgive
me, I never meant to disrespect you. I know leave in Toronto and 
my name is Graziano Da Riva. If there is fee to be paid, I'll pay
it.Respectfuly.
Graziano Da Riva
PS I don/t know what else to do.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.138.101.234 (talk) 05:19, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Sorry, but we are not able to help you with this kind of tasks. You may be able to contact the hotel to ask for some contact information, but Wikipedia is not able to help you. Sorry again. -- ReyBrujo (talk) 17:24, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Finding somebody 

message: Considering the huge number of misplaced queries, I think we should make a header on the top of this page, something among the lines of: Welcome to the Embassy's discussion place. This page is for discussing Wikipedia-related multilingual coordination. Please do not enquire about visas, passports, missing persons, or general geographical information, as we are unable to help yo with such queries. Okay, that obviously sucks. But if we slightly reworded it, and put it on the standard yellow background common for talk page headers, I feel we could greatly reduce the number of off-topic posts. Puchiko (Talk-email) 09:28, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: That would be necessary, yes. Also, we could have a template with a standard reply. -- ReyBrujo (talk) 17:26, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Okay. I've made a quick rough draft of the header at Wikipedia talk:Local Embassy/Header. Lets improve it, and transclude it on the top of this page when it's done. --Puchiko (Talk-email) 22:15, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Probably link to it from the community portal also rather than the main page as it is now. - cohesion 05:23, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Banner 

message: When I tried to find a French speaking person to reply to the above message, I looked through quite a few users before I had found somebody who has edited in the last week  or so. I didn't mind, I looked through the contributions, and for a language like French it wasn't long before I found somebody who's edited recently.But then a thought came to my mind. The primary target of this page doesn't speak English and is often new to Wikipedia. If he leaves a message at an ambassador's talk page, who has left Wikipedia, he will not get a response. The newbie is then frustrated, he has left a message yet he got no response! What on earth is he supposed to do now?So my idea is, that we should go through the list and check out the user contributions of each ambassador. If he hasn't contributed in the past half year, I'd remove him and leave a message at his talk page explaining what happened, and encouraging him to re-add his name should he return.Or if that's too much work, we could do what some WikiProjects do. Just give the list of ambassadors to a bot, who will leave messages at talk pages encouraging those who still want to participate to sign up again. Puchiko (Talk-email) 10:46, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Seems like a good bot job - but reduce the time to 1 month. The bot should run once a month - this way, the maximum lag is 2 months. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 09:09, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removing inactive ambassadors 

message: Is there any thing about the 'ZimorodA
No well Im needing info about IRONSIDE  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.144.108.239 (talk) 18:24, 12 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Hello and welcome to Wikipedia. I'm not sure if you're looking for the 11th century English king (in that case, the information is available at Edmund Ironside) or the 20th century British soldier (in that case the information you need is at Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside).By the way, this isn't the best place to ask, try the WP:Reference desk next time. --Puchiko (Talk-email) 14:47, 14 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edmund Ironside 

message: Even before I thought about defending the tradition, culture and language of historical Kingdom Wu. 
How come the Chinese Communist party (CCP) already select a
deputy in their central committee (Dr. Wang), who promised to stick to Marxism as hinted to me in TV to monitor the movement of preserving one of an unique sample of creation?
Dialect Wu already missed her letter expression, only the soft beautiful tone resilient over the submergence and encroaching of official language of PRC: mandarin. Do the people who share the tongue from their parents need hard toil to make her fullbrown language or just behold the heavenly wonder of beloved endorments?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Juyuefen (talk • contribs) 19:40, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi. Unfortunately, we are unable to help you with your query. The Wikipedia Embassy is to help those from other language Wikipedias find someone who speaks their language and can translate. We are unable to help you with real life issues. --Puchiko (Talk-email) 13:52, 23 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dear ambassador 

message: Soy bilingue en ingles español, mi idioma materno es el español si puedo ayudarlo mi email es (email removed for security reasons)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.64.32.222 (talk) 22:28, 22 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: That's great that you would like to help out, the first way to start is to create a wikipedia account. Look at the top right hand corner to get started, then come back and find this page. Josh 23:22, 3 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Español/Ingles 

message: J'ai souvent collabore pour des articles concernant des villes d'Haiti et quelquefois apporter des modifications sous le couvert anonyme dans des articles presentes avec des erreurs ou fautes, cependant je n'ai pas vraiment collabore pour des editions creoles puisque je parle plus en francais dans mon milieu. Mais quelquefois j'en ai mal de voir certaines traductions creoles dans les documents que presentent surtout les Etats-Unis pour les haitiens vivant en diaspora dans l'etat de la floride. J'aimerais bien apporter une collaboration dans ce domaine.
contact
Rony Jean-Pierre, Gestionnaire-Comptable
Professeur de Belles-Lettres
(email removed for security reasons)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.229.97.10 (talk) 17:09, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Collaboration 

message: Du bearbeitest diese Seite unangemeldet. Wenn du speicherst, wird deine aktuelle IP-Adresse in der Versionsgeschichte aufgezeichnet und ist damit unwiderruflich öffentlich einsehbar. Fetter Text  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.138.128.86 (talk) 16:34, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Was ist Ihre Frage? Seddσn talk Editor Review 20:43, 25 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Du bearbeitest diese Seite unangemeldet. Wenn du speicherst, wird deine aktuelle IP-Adresse in der Versionsgeschichte aufgezeichnet und ist damit unwiderruflich öffentlich einsehbar.  

message: I finished Wikipedia:Featured articles in other languages/Telugu and I would like someone who can read Telugu to create the two articles Featured on that Wikipedia, but not here. I hope this is the right place. Thanks, SpencerT♦C 18:28, 14 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Anyone here speak Telugu 

message: Maybe someone could do a translation from the Esperanto article, which is on their featured article list? I don't know a word of Esperanto. Vltava 68 (talk contribs) 07:27, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Václav Havel]] Article 

message: Espero que por este medio encuentre a alguien que me pueda ayudar con la busqueda de parte de nuestra familia.  El abuelo de mi mama imigro a La
Republica Dominicana hace muchos anos atras.  Yo me imagino eso fue como
para el 1940 no puedo decir si fue antes o despues.  Yo quisiera tratar
de encontrarlos.  El nombre de el abuelo de mi mama era Leonsio Bonilla,
nacido en Puerto Rico. Nosotros tenemos conocimiento de que el tuvo hijos
con su nueva esposa.  Ellos deben de tener el apellido de el.  Ellos son 
hijos legales de un puerto riqueno por tanto ellos son ciudadanos americanos
tantos sus hijos como los hijos de sus hijos.  Por favor si pueden ayudarme
mi correo electronico es (censored)@example.com, cualquier informacion
que puedan darme va hacer apreciada por nosotros.  Muchas gracias por haber
tomado el tiempo de leer esta carta y por favor dejemen saber si pueden 
ayudarme.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.189.42.237 (talk) 02:41, 2 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  '''Buscando mis familiares'''