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Revision as of 23:03, 27 February 2008

Little Mary Sunshine

I need help in editing the "Little Mary Sunshine" article. The article is too superficial: it fails to describe the many specific allusions provided by each of LMS's songs. I have deduced the many allusions and have prepared a fairly long, song-by-song description of the Broadway antecedents of the songs. I have also prepared a minor revision of the first two sentences under "Background." These sentences overstate the play's dependence on Victor Herbert, Rudolf Friml, and Sigmund Romberg, overlooking four of five other composers whose work is alluded to.

I am not a techie. I could not possible master the technique of editing a Misplaced Pages article. I can't even get started in the sandbox. So, I need a volunteer to copy and insert in the "Little Mary Sunshine" article my new material.

I'm willing to try (again) to post the copy here (doesn't seem to work), send it to you by email, or send it by snail mail. Earlier today I tried posting it here with a similar request for help. When I hit the "Save" button, this message came up (in red!): "Sorry! We could not process your edit due to a loss of session data. Please try again. It it still doesn't work, try logging out and logging back in."

That message is a real enigma. In the first place, I did not submit an edit, so what do they mean in saying they couldn't process an edit? I presume "loss of session data" means, as soon as I hit the "Save" button, Misplaced Pages's computer erased everything I had written. Does "Save" mean erase? I took it to mean "Post," since there is no "Post" button and no other button that comes closer in meaning to "Post" than "Save."

Anyhow, do I have any volunteers who know how to edit a Misplaced Pages article and will do it for me if I provide the copy?

I suggest that you post your suggestions to the WP:MUSICALS discussion page. Then editors there can discuss it and help you edit in the info. Do you have citations to published sources]] for this discussion? See WP:RS and the "five pillars of Misplaced Pages" referred to below. Best regards! -- Ssilvers 21:26, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Welcome

Hello, Saul Tillich, and welcome to Misplaced Pages! Thank you for your contributions so far. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

• The five pillars of Misplaced Pages
• How to edit a page
• Editing tutorial
• Picture tutorial
• How to write a great article
• Naming conventions
• Manual of Style

If you need help, post a question at the Help Desk or ask me on my talk page.

Take a look at Consensus of standards. It is always wise to read the talk page of an existing article before making major changes on it, to see if your idea has already been discussed. Even then, it is often helpful to suggest a major change before making it, to see if anyone objects or wants to discuss it. Do not delete materials on other people's talk pages or on the talk pages of articles.

When you contribute to a talk page, please sign your name using four tildes: ~ ~ ~ ~ but without the spaces.

Again, welcome! -- Ssilvers 20:25, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

I just found this reply. It's helpful: I have bookmarked the Manual of Style (though I'm likely to follow Chicago without checking Misplaced Pages) and have printed out "How to Edit a Page." (I'll dig through the latter later to see if I can find pi.)

Saul Tillich 01:52, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Automatic date software

Hello again. I notice that you have been adding commas into wikidates. You don't need to do that, because when you write a wikified date, the software automatically adjusts it to suit each reader's automatic "preferences". For instance, if I write January 1 2007, a U.S. reader will see "January 1, 2007" and a UK reader will see 1 January 2007. If you put in the manual comma, you don't allow the software to work properly. Thanks! -- Ssilvers 21:22, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Oh, oh. This advice comes too late. I've been enclosing the year in commas whenever the month is followed by the day, and I changed one "Navy style" date (e.g., 7 December 1941) to conventional style. The change to conventional style, however, was fully justified: other dates in the article used conventional style, and stylistic consistency within an article is basic to good writing. In the future, I'll avoid putting commas around years that have an accompanying day of the month.

If you want to survey the damage, I've edited the articles on The Vagabond King, The Desert Song, The Student Prince, The New Moon, Oklahoma, Carousel, and The Sound of Music. The Showboat article has way to much material on racial issues (including black English), a problem made worse by the material's appearing under at least three headings (it should all be in one place). Major cuts are needed, but I'm not the person to make them.

RegardingShowboat, I could hardly restrain myself from adding a comment under the Canadian production. I saw it here in Washington, DC, at the Kennedy Center when it was touring in the 1990s. And I wanted to say that the producers really screwed up when they had Captain Andy's wife, Parthy, sing "Why Do I Love You?" to Nolie's baby as a lullaby. That song, one of the all-time great songs from Broadway, is also one of the all-time-great duet songs: it should have been sung by Gaylord and Nolie--as a duet, of course.

Saul Tillich 01:52, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Editorial projects

By the way, if you like musicals, check out WP:MUSICALS. Also, if you like Gilbert and Sullivan, check out WP:G&S. The purpose of the projects is to bring together editors who are interested in a subject to collaborate and help each other to improve Misplaced Pages coverage of the subject. Happy editing! -- Ssilvers 22:33, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Actually, I'm not a Gilbert and Sullivan fan. It just happens that, way back in the 6th grade (we're talking 1942), I had a music teacher (Mrs. Holt) who spent most of her time teaching us classical and semiclassical music, including Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concert, "Buttercup" and "I am the Captain of the Pinafore" from HMS Pinafore, "My Hero" from The Chocolate Soldier (she even took us to the Rise Stevens, Nelson Eddy film of Chocolate Soldier one evening), and lots of other good stuff. That's how I so quickly picked up the connection between "Heap Big Injun" and "I am the Captain" in Little Mary Sunshine. -- Saul Tillich 01:52, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Hello, Saul. Thanks for the e-mail that you sent me, but I had nothing to do with the "Karpathy" stuff. That was another editor. Best regards, -- Ssilvers 03:52, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

please discuss paul tillich changes on article talk page

hello, i've reverted your edits thus far, as they fail on policy basis and within the context of cooperative editing. please discuss your desired changes on the article talk page. thank you. Anastrophe (talk) 20:09, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

January 2008

Welcome to Misplaced Pages. Everyone is welcome to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia. However, adding content without citing a reliable source, as you did to Paul Tillich, is not consistent with our policy of verifiability. This is especially important when dealing with biographies of living people, but applies to all Misplaced Pages articles. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. If you are already familiar with Misplaced Pages:Citing sources, please take this opportunity to add your original reference to the article. Thank you. Anastrophe (talk) 18:14, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

please respond

i've posted an inquiry on the talk page for the paul tillich article. please respond. thank you. Anastrophe (talk) 05:27, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

WP:SOAP

Please stop obstructing discussion at Talk:Paul Tillich with your personal and tendentious essays. This has been reported to WP:ANI. Gordonofcartoon (talk) 00:14, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

I have told you: please stop adding disruptive material to Talk:Paul Tillich. These lengthy personal essays arguing Tillich to be an atheist do not serve any purpose and are a clear attempt to obfuscate discussion. Misplaced Pages is not a soapbox: Misplaced Pages is not a soapbox, a battleground, or a vehicle for propaganda and advertising. This applies to articles, categories, templates, talk page discussions, and user pages. Gordonofcartoon (talk) 02:20, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

February 2008

Hi, the recent edit you made to Paul Tillich has been reverted, as it appears to be unconstructive. Use the sandbox for testing; if you believe the edit was constructive, ensure that you provide an informative edit summary. You may also wish to read the introduction to editing. Thanks. - Milk's Favorite Cookie 02:06, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Please stop. If you continue to delete or edit legitimate talk page comments, as you did at Paul Tillich, you will be blocked for vandalism. Please do not further refactor other user's talk page comments, as you have done here. As a side note, you have WQA case that can be seen WP:WQA#User:Saul Tillich.

I suggest that in the future, you take up discussions at the primary talk page instead of edit warring, and to refrain from personal attacks and from making bad faith assumptions. Seicer (talk) (contribs) 14:54, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Please do not delete content from pages on Misplaced Pages, as you did to Paul Tillich, without explaining the reason for the removal in the edit summary. Unexplained removal of content does not appear constructive, and your edit has been reverted. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox for test edits. Thank you. Anastrophe (talk) 03:52, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi, the recent edit you made to Paul Tillich has been reverted, as it appears to be unconstructive. Use the sandbox for testing; if you believe the edit was constructive, ensure that you provide an informative edit summary. You may also wish to read the introduction to editing. Thanks. - Milk's Favorite Cookie 22:57, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

The recent edit you made to Paul Tillich constitutes vandalism, and has been reverted. Please do not continue to vandalize pages; use the sandbox for testing. Thanks. Antonio Lopez 22:58, 25 February 2008 (UTC))

Please stop. If you continue to blank out or delete portions of page content, templates or other materials from Misplaced Pages, as you did to Paul Tillich, you will be blocked from editing. Anastrophe (talk) 03:12, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Message for Anastrophe and His Colleagues: May I remind you, Mr. Anastrophe, that you are deleting my edits as often as I am deleting yours. Back in January you took pleasure in quoting to me the following: "If you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly or redistributed for profit by others, do not submit it." Well, just as you have been editing my work mercilessly, I am doing the same with yours, which I am entitled to do. I am deleting your false descriptions of Tillich's theology because they are false, and false material does not belong in Wiki. That is not vandalism; that is editing. Please do not "continue to blank out or delete portions of page content, templates or other materials from Misplaced Pages, as you did to Paul Tillich." In other words, stop blanking out and deleting portions of page content, templates, or other materials.

That you and your compatriots regard my article as "unconstructive" is irrelevant. I regard your work as unconstructive -- false and naive. In the talk discussion, you have never been able to support your position with quotations. Instead you use ad hominen argument and sarcasm. Worse, you dishonestly accuse me of attempting "do discredit Tillich," whereas I am doing no such thing. Your accusation seems to reflect a belief that, as a theologian, Tillich could not possibly be an atheist. In the process, you ignore the evidence I have presented that a very strong majority (not your "tiny minority") of Tillich's interpreters regard him as an atheist -- either a pantheist, a mystic, or a complete nonsupernaturalist. To base an article, as you are doing, on nothing but personal prejudice and a closed mind is the epitome of "unconstructive" behavior.

So come off your high horse, cut out this holier-than-thou nonsense, and accept the fact that I have as much right to edit as you do. Grow up, learn that people disagree on many things, and realize that disagreement does not constitute vandalism.Saul Tillich (talk) 23:03, 27 February 2008 (UTC)