User talk:VestDan

For long names, make the short one as a redirect to the formal one, which is what I have done somewhat :-).

Make the text of the redirect aticle:

#REDIRECT [[the name]]

Thanks.Voice of All(MTG) 16:37, 13 December 2005 (CST)

See, You say that like its obvious or I should know what you are talking about, heh. Besides, a few of the formal names aren't really proper themselves. How does the redirect thing work? VestDan 16:40, 13 December 2005 (CST)

When I said "always", I ment as a rule of thumb, that is how it is done at Wikipedia and Britanicia ect...I should have worded that better, but I was rushing to get the stubs out of the way, plus I have had a 5 hour headache that is getting worse by the minute.

Anyway, are you a sysop yet? I know I haven't been promoted yet. If you are, you will see a "Delete" tab and a "Protect" tab. We might have to wait, as only admins can delete articles.Voice of All(MTG) 17:08, 13 December 2005 (CST)

So many stubs... make mine eyes bleed... Finished with Weatherlight saga characters, started with Mirari saga and decided to call it a night. VestDan 01:51, 14 December 2005 (CST)

Categories

I noticed that you fixed to incorrect categories. I am cut and pasting these in, and sometimes I leave in a wrong category. Please correct them on site, you need not explain yourself.

I wonder when that Logo will be fixed...:-(.Voice of All^Talk 15:22, 14 December 2005 (CST)

I am saying that you don't have to explain, not that you do. That is because it is tedious, as you said.Voice of All^Talk 15:42, 14 December 2005 (CST)

Template

Try writing {{c|CARD'S NAME}} for a few cards you know, and then clicking it, like . I think I like the purple, as opposed to regular blue links. Press cntrol-f5 first, to refresh the mediawiki JS in your browser. Make sure you are not blocking popups.Voice of All^Talk 16:43, 9 April 2006 (CDT)

Oh, i think i get it now... VestDan 17:58, 9 April 2006 (CDT)

• In response to your question to The Squirle Master, a ret-con is when something considered fact in a work of fiction has been retroactively changed by a later addition to the series. For example, if Batman were to be killed, and there was a big funeral for him, then six months down the line he returns, the events of the night he 'died' will have been ret-conned to show how he didn't really die. RMS Oceanic 11:31, 7 May 2006 (CDT)

Something that anyone with a passing familiarity with Star Wars fiction knows all too well. Virtually everything ever written about Boba Fett got blasted to crap when Episode II came up, so they had to go back and explain how they weren't completely wrong about everything. :) --Binary 13:09, 31 May 2006 (CDT)

I already told him that in a PM ages ago, but thanks nonetheless ;) The Squirle master

Articles for Deletion

hi, same entries have been there for some time, it should be safe to delete them. --Oracle of Truth 05:29, 18 May 2006 (CDT)

I wasn't aware that was actually my job... I'll get on it this evening

Guilds

I'll be happy to further detail the rest of the Guild pages. It'll take me some time to do it though. Randel 17:45, 22 May 2006 (CDT)

VestDan,

Thought you ought to know that I've gotten kind of side tracked. I'd be happy to conintue the responsibility of detailing the various guild pages, but it will be quite some time before I can get to it or even come back to contributing here at all. Sorry, Randel 17:04, 6 July 2006 (CDT)

Oh-so many individual MtG character stubs

Why not just make one wiki for all the minor characters, until they are prominent enough? Just a suggestion. Also, can we get groups/teams up on MTGSWiki, please?--Magic Mage 06:10, 23 November 2006 (CST)

Thanks for your reply regarding this matter, VestDan. Apropos the MtG character wikis I shall say that it's all too justified and practical to leave it as it is. As for the teams, I also see the "flaws", shall we say, of this system. Anyhow, thanks.--Magic Mage 03:07, 24 November 2006 (CST)

Please do this, VestDan.

Please delete the Loran16 page, and move it to Loran16's userpage. Reason: Significant, etc. Thanks, VestDan.--Magic Mage 06:19, 30 November 2006 (CST)

You might also consider the Diggy page, which has identical content as the User:Diggy page. Ta.--Magic Mage 06:37, 30 November 2006 (CST)

Because you can do it, please delete the Ironmaiden article, which has absolutely no bearing with MTGS. Thanks, VestDan.

Sorry to be a pain in the rear, but hey I can't do this, now can I? :) --Magic Mage 06:41, 30 November 2006 (CST)

Me again, yes, that's right. Anyway, this time please delete NecroBlade's selfless wiki entry that will be of utmost succour to progeny. Ta. The info is also doubled on his userpage.--Magic Mage 07:08, 30 November 2006 (CST)

Hi!:) Well, firstly, thanks for fixing up those pages, and secondly, sorry for categorising the disambiguation page(s) (Loren).--Magic Mage 09:30, 2 December 2006 (CST)

Thank you for clearing that clutter, VestDan.

Thanks.--Magic Mage 00:14, 6 January 2007 (CST)

Re: Message on Wickeddarkman's Userpage

But one other thing... Wikipedia is purging all its Magic articles? Zoiks. How do you know this, and maybe we can copy/paste the stuff here?VestDan 22:56, 25 January 2007 (CST)

---

Wikipedia is purging all Magic articles; the MtGS one was cruft, and so was the MtGNews one - they have already been purged, and only sysops can access them now, someone like Staxringold, who is Stax.

This is James' Wikiuserpage, if you need further confirmation.:) Magic Mage 00:55, 26 January 2007 (CST)

Also, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:WikiProject_Magic:_The_Gathering

Purpose of the Wiki

I'm not stepping into this debate any more than I have too. I've discussed with WickedDarkman the things I feel he needs to improve. Now, I feel I must defend what I believe he is doing right and defend what I feel has a place in the wiki.

First, WickedDarkman is contributing and quite prolifically. Specifically, he is contributing to the highly under-developed theoretical and strategic side of the wiki. Second, he is contributing in ways that no one else is, for example, his work in Simulations is very useful even if his writing in that same article leaves much to be desired stylistically. His additions to Mana curve fall in a similar vein. I, for one, also need to read related articles and see that people are in fact interested in what I write to maintain my own interest, it is no coincidence that I started posting again after someone significantly added to Mana curve. I feel the most appropriate response to his stylistic problems is to mark the top of the offending articles as "in need of revision." I will not defend his trolling.

Let me now diverge briefly. A wiki is not about content or style. These are both important and useful but they are not central. The reason for a wiki is structure. This is something that can't be built in forum posts and is far more constraining when applied to published articles. A subject centered wiki lets thoughts become organized into a knowledge or discipline. This structure can chain or tree a complex topic down in to related articles that explain minutia and then sweep back together for synthesis. Or this structure can allow interrelated topics to weave back and forth each adding relevance that the other doesn't possess on its own. Other more rarefied structures exist, webbing or rings, for example are more typical of the Internet itself than to the interior of a wiki.

Finally, I'd like to make my support clear for articles that deal with Magic theory, card evaluations, and even the as yet completely undeveloped practical and experimental Magic. --Fishysua 13:19, 29 January 2007 (CST)

Wicked talk's

Hey VestDan, I have a real problem with destributing my simulations, you see I have only learned to program in basic (commodore 64) and I use an emulator on a pc in my home. I have no internet and mostly use public libraries or any comp at a worksite where I'm substituting. At the public areas they have no entries for data-exchanging units and I'm not allowed to feed any comp at work, so I cant transfer the simulations directly. At phyrexia.com I have tried to get someone to fetch the emulator, then write my program on their own comp. Unfortunately the site that has c64 emulators have screwed their newest "updates" of the emulator so it cant store the programs written. I am pretty frustrated because the more people that would use any of these simulations, the faster the data may be acumulated when people would share their individual results. What I could do is write down the entire program structure and hope that someone else would be able to build some of these simulations in another programming language and then share it with other people. Wickeddarkman/Faceless Wanderer 11:10, 14 February 2007 (CST)

Are you familiar with the concept of memeticism? It is a highly speculative study which currently is trying to be claimed scientifically valid, but it has a strong opposition (mostly from religious individuals because it's impact would make all religion into lie). I would love to create a page on the impact of memes in mtg... But since memetics are not a scientifically established fact anything like that would be of a totally theoretical nature. Faceless Wanderer 11:01, 28 February 2007 (CST)

About Memes

The term meme (it's pronounced like dream or cream) was coined by Richard Dawkins, Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. As examples he suggested “tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches”.

Memes are habits, skills, songs, stories, or any other kind of information that is copied from person to person. Memes, like genes, are replicators. That is, they are information that is copied with variation and selection. Because only some of the variants survive, memes (and hence human cultures) evolve. Memes are copied by imitation, teaching and other methods, and they compete for space in our memories and for the chance to be copied again. Large groups of memes that are copied and passed on together are called co-adapted meme complexes, or memeplexes.

The word “meme” has recently been included in the Oxford English Dictionary where it is defined as follows “meme (mi:m), n. Biol. (shortened from mimeme ... that which is imitated, after GENE n.) “An element of a culture that may be considered to be passed on by non-genetic means, esp. imitation”.

According to memetics, our minds and cultures are designed by natural selection acting on memes, just as organisms are designed by natural selection acting on genes. A central question for memetics is therefore ‘why has this meme survived?’. Some succeed because they are genuinely useful to us, while others use a variety of tricks to get themselves copied. From the point of view of the “selfish memes” all that matters is replication, regardless of the effect on either us or our genes.

Some memes are almost entirely exploitative, or viral, in nature, including chain letters and e-mail viruses. These consist of a “copy-me” instruction backed up with threats and promises. Religions have a similar structure and this is why Dawkins refers to them as ‘viruses of the mind’. Many religions threaten hell and damnation, promise heaven or salvation, and insist that their followers pass on their beliefs to others. This ensures the survival of the memeplex. Other viral memes include alternative therapies that don’t work, and new age fads and cults. Relatively harmless memes include children’s games, urban legends and popular songs, all of which can spread like infections.

At the other end of the spectrum memes survive because of their value to us. The most valuable of memeplexes include all of the arts and sports, transport and communications systems, political and monetary systems, literature and science.

Memetics has been used to provide new explanations of human evolution, including theories of altruism, the origins of language and consciousness, and the evolution of the large human brain. The Internet can be seen as a vast realm of memes, growing rapidly by the process of memetic evolution and not under human control.

The field of memetics is still a new and controversial science, with many critics, and many difficulties to be resolved.

___________________________________________________________________

Many other sites provide definitions, FAQs and other basic information on memes. See Links.

For more on definitions see Blackmore,S.J. 1998 Imitation and the definition of a meme. Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission, 2.

Faceless Wanderer 11:03, 28 February 2007 (CST)