User talk:Xil/Archive 3

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Archive 4

Hoping for your eventual return!

:-( PētersV 01:07, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Disputed fair use rationale for Image:Dziesmusvetki.png

Thanks for uploading Image:Dziesmusvetki.png. However, there is a concern that the rationale you have provided for using this image under "fair use" may be invalid. Please read the instructions at Wikipedia:Non-free content carefully, then go to the image description page and clarify why you think the image qualifies for fair use. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to ensure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If it is determined that the image does not qualify under fair use, it will be deleted within a couple of days according to our criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot (talk) 04:15, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Back in the summer

Zoomed to and from Latvia just for our concert, the choir stayed to record the concert on CD. I'll be back and with my wife Silvija in summer, perhaps we can get together and discuss history and politics over an Užavas at Līdo. :-) And to the topic above, after I get back to practice in February, I'll check to see if anyone has a picture they'd be glad to contribute from the last Dziesmu Svētki. —PētersV (talk) 20:08, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

A free picture of song festival would be great indeed - the current one isn't irreplacable and unique - I uploaded it shortly after I discovered Wikipedia and didn't fully understand what is going on here, so I'll just let them delete it ~~Xil...sist! 20:29, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Re: Portal Latvia

Hi, may I ask why did you change design of the portal ? It was disccused here that flag colors look bad and the pink background, in my oppinion, is terrible, besides you seem to have made several inaccuracies in the process (like misspeling name of the country) ~~Xil...sist! 18:24, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi there, Xil. Firstly, apologies for making such abrupt changes - I had assumed the portal was inactive seeing as is it was unfinished and had the "under construction" tag on it. That aside, I think it would be great to get the portal up to featured standard to showcase all the good work being done on Latvia. I've been working on a few other portals and one good feature is introducing randomised selected content, so that the page is different every time you visit. I'll see if I can sort that out and will stay away from the formatting changes, sorry to have stepped on your toes. Seaserpent⁸⁵ 18:34, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

I've reverted all the colour changes on there, back to its former glory! I've implemented the randomised content on a "selected article" section, what do you think? There are surprisingly little standards with regards to portal layout so we can pretty much put anything up there that is relevant. As an example, the Iceland Portal has a "selected panorama" section and many other portals have a "selected biography". Let me know what you think of the randomised content, would be nice to get the portal up to a decent standard! Seaserpent⁸⁵ 20:49, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Your copyedit request

On 16 September 2007, you made a request to the League of Copyeditors for a copyedit of Freedom Monument (Riga). Because of a heavy backlog and a shortage of copyeditors, we have been unable to act on your request in a timely manner, for which we apologize. Since your request, this article may have been subject to significant editing and may no longer be a good candidate for copyediting by the League. If you still wish the League to copyedit this article, please review this article against our new criteria and follow the instructions on the Requests page. This will include your request in our new system, where it should receive more prompt attention. Finetooth (talk) 03:45, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Brīvības piemineklis

Implemented the image map per your idea, see what you think. —PētersV (talk) 01:19, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

It's fine, though maybe description of the image should be shortened and references to it should be put in the text, but I'm still short of time, so I'll take a closer look later. ~~Xil...sist! 17:46, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Ok. Do you think you'd be willing...

Do you think you'd be willing to help me make a wikipedia page for my site? Then i could add it as a See Also to the Lāčplēsis page? I'm 23, and 1/2 Latvian--and i love gaming!! I waned to incorporate some Latvian culture or words into the gaming world. If fellow Latvian gamers can find my page when looking up Lāčplēsis, I think that'd be great. Please let me know what you think =) Oh, my last name is Malmanis. VirtualWar (talk) 20:38, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Barnstar

The Order of the Three Barnstars I, Zalktis, hereby award you the rank of lielkrusta komandieris of the Order of the Three Barnstars for your selfless efforts to constantly improve and develop WikiProject Latvia. This has been a long time coming, but is nonetheless rightfully deserved. Paldies! — Zalktis (talk) 08:19, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Issues with List of Presidents of Latvia

You may want to have a look at Talk:List of Heads of State of Latvia. Philaweb T 14:40, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Stanley Babin

Is there any reason in particular as to why Stanley Babin is part of WikiProject Latvia? Philaweb T 19:23, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

No, I sometimes tag articles found by User:AlexNewArtBot and then the fact that someone has been born in Latvia is good enough reason to tag it, if you don't agree just remove it ~~Xil...sist! 22:22, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

I'll remove it since he was one year old when his family left Latvia, the article does not mention any relations with Latvia afterwards. Philaweb T 22:39, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Congratulations!

...on Freedom Monument making the main page today! It's worthy recognition of all your diligent work to make it a great article.

Ar cieņu, PētersV (talk) 18:55, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks :) ~~Xil...sist! 21:07, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Brāļu Kapi

P.S. I think Arlington National Cemetery might be an obvious model for Brāļu Kapi--organizational structure is pretty good, there's the very detailed long/lat coordinates that put you right on top of various landmarks,... also need to read through my Soviet era book to see what it says about the bourgeoisie. :-) PētersV (talk) 02:54, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, I knew about that already - indeed obvious to think about, unfortunately it seems to be only article of the type to be B-class, so I wrote down a list of contents of similar articles and decided to make something up on my own.

P.S. The almighty Soviet Union most likely isn't concerned enough to let someone write about some cemetery, and after all red riflemen and red army soldiers lay there - nothing to worry about, everyone might forget about it, if it isn't spoken about ~~Xil...sist! 11:22, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Most of the books written about the Brāļu kapi are actually issued during the Soviet period Worldcat search result. ^Talk/♥фĩłдωəß♥\^Work 21:44, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Judging from how Worldcat can't find existing books from ISBN, I'd say it might be somewhat incomplete. I was more refering to my own Soviet books than his, as I don't know what he's got. I didn't meant to say there wasn't anything, just that some might have wanted to keep it small (for a reason [1]) ~~Xil...sist! 22:17, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

You are right that books issued during the Soviet period are to be read with a certain mindframe, i.e. one has to decipher the terminology used. The example you link to is excellent reference material for the article and typical for Soviet paranoia. Worldcat is not perfect, I know... but mostly does the job. ^Talk/♥фĩłдωəß♥\^Work 22:32, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Do you have the "Brāļu Kapi" book that I believe is one of a series on various places around Latvia (it's handbook-sized something like 15 x 15 cm), I recall having it packed away somewhere. I do have plenty of pictures (surprise!). The Soviet era book does have some interesting stuff, like the lighting of the eternal flame (the flame lighting it was carried from Leningrad, oops, St. Petersburg). It's a Latvian SSR government publication, so I believe that makes it public domain material. —PētersV (talk) 19:44, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

I looked around for FA articles which might be similar in scope, I only came up with Shrine of Remembrance. I think there were only 4 or 5 military memorial/cemetery articles listed for FA quality, Freedom Monument being one. —PētersV (talk) 19:56, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

I don't think I have it (for that matter I mostly have encyclopedic books about Latvia at home, which generaly don't give much detail), but I haven't looked for references yet. There are some pictures on Commons, which seem to be potentialy useful (and that's also surprising). As for copyrights - I wouldn't be so sure, that depends on who holds copyrights - works by Latvian government apparently are copyrighted, if the author of the work is known it also would most likely be copyrighted, maybe it is concidered work of Soviet Union's government, which, as far as I remember, had shorter term, but I don't know exactly - perhaps you should read licensing information here in Wikipedia or in Commons - it might give some insight. I've already looked trough FA and GA, I realy doubt there is anything else, though there always is a chance, that something remains hiden away.

P.S. BTW perhaps you know if War grave is proper term to describe such cemeteries ? Latvian Wikipedia has an article on them wihch has interwiki links to Mass grave, which I think is incorrect

P.S.S. Why Leningrad ? ~~Xil...sist! 20:58, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Ojārs Spārītis uses "The War Cemetery" in his book about Rigaʹs Monuments and Decorative Sculptures - reference list. ^Talk/♥фĩłдωəß♥\^Work 22:45, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Most buried there were from the war of independence so I would go along with war cemetery as its primary function, although military cemetery would work as well since there were later burials. I only wish there were a more eloquent translation for the name other than Brothers' Cemetery or Brethren Cemetery... something like "Cemetery of Our Brothers" or simply "Cemetery of Brothers". At any rate, response to Leningrad is on my talk. Now that you mention the altar being built in the 30's I recall something about the flame not being lit but don't quote me on it. I'll follow up on Soviet government publications. —PētersV (talk) 02:26, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Ref on pub... it also has a section in French ("Le Cimetière Fraternel") and in English ("War Cemetery")

• "Brāļu Kapi", Rīga: Latvijas Valsts Izdevniecība, 1959
• Redaktore Sk. Cielava, Māksl. Redaktors M. Osis, Tehn. Redaktore I. Vasiļevska, Korektore B. Putiņa
• Nodota salikšanai 1959. g. 1. jūnijā, pārakstīta iespiešanai 1959. g. 9. septembrī. papīra formats 60x90 1/8. 18,75 fiz. iespiedl. 18,75 uzsk. iespiedl. 15,58 izdevn. L. Metiens (assuming name here, everything is capitalized in the original) 30 000 eks. jt 22476. Maksa 18 rbļ.
• Latvijas valsts izdevniecība
• Rīgā, Padomju bulv. 24. izdevn. nr. 12114-m740. Iespiesta Latvijas PSR kultūras ministrijas poligrafiskās rūpniecības pārvaldes paraugtipografijā Rīgā, Puškina ielā nr. 12. pasūt. nr. 787. 73S.

Whew! If that's not an official publication I don't know what is. :-) —PētersV (talk) 02:52, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm not saying it isn't official, I just think that it might be protected by copyright not in public domain ~~Xil...sist! 16:48, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Agreed, it's definitely a gray area as it's not an official government edit. More research required. Regardless there might be fair use rationale for the Kalberzins torch picture, for example--not something that would be found anywhere else.—PētersV (talk) 03:14, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Not in the public domain, author/editor rights preserved, per:

Labdien,

Katrai grāmatai kā autora vai autoru kolketīva darbam ir saistošas LR Autortieību likumdošanas normas. Grāmatas autoru - teksta, tulkojuma, ilustrāciju uc. autoru - tiesības ir aizsargātas likumā noteiktā kārtībā.

ar cieņu,
Ieva Dombrovska
 Assistant Head of Documentation and Distribution Dep
 Documentation issues
 AKKA/LAA

So, as with any other text, we can cite, quote; and photos are fair use only. —PētersV (talk) 14:09, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

BTW, this seems to be fine place to look for other similar articles - Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Military memorials and cemeteries articles by quality ~~Xil * 17:27, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

I took a look through, definitely some good ideas around organizing the stages of definition, design, and construction. And yes, I just keep accumulating watched pages... :-) —PētersV (talk) 17:39, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

LV independence war map

Hello, remember you promised me some scans? :P Just wanted to check on the status. Renata (talk) 03:07, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

In progress, I probably will e-mail it today ~~Xil * 13:58, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Got the email! Thank you, but WOW, that looks complicated :) I'll need some time to figure out what's where and how it fits to the bigger picture. For now I probably going to make the five maps of simplified stages - those look simple & quick to make and I really think it helps to explain the general situation much better. So probably on Sat-Sun you should see some results. Thanks again, Renata (talk) 02:47, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Ok, so here comes the first one. Let me know if you have any suggestions before I produce the other four maps. Renata (talk) 19:54, 13 April 2008 (UTC) And please also add the source (the atlas) of these images on the description page. Thanks! Renata (talk) 20:01, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

And just to keep bugging you... :) I added white arrows to show movements in Latvia to this map. Could verify that I am interpreting the maps you scanned correctly. Sometimes it's hard to see exactly what's going on and they are not entirely clear in some places. Renata (talk) 03:52, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Results:

• 
  1918
• 
  March 6
• 
  April 16
• 
  June 22
• 
  November 11

Please use in some article :) Renata (talk) 03:20, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Could you translate something for me?

Hy Xil, sorry to bother you but you are the only person known to me who speaks Latvian, therefore I have a favor to ask. Could you tell me what this says? It's from the Artis Rasmanis article, a source:

• Artis Rasmanis
• Dzimšanas gads : 1971.
• Pilsonība : Latvijas
• Dzīves vieta : Cēsu rajons PRIEKUĻU PAGASTS
• Izglītība : vidējā Darba vietas un amati : SIA "Rasmanis & Dankers", direktors
• SIA "Rasmanis & Dankers", direktors
• Pabeigtas šādas mācību iestādes : Priekuļu lauksaimniecības tehnikums, 1990, lauksaimniecības tehnikas mehāniķis
• Latviešu valodas prasmes pašnovērtējums : dzimtā
• Tautība : latvietis

I'm assuming 1971 is his birthyear but I'm not sure wether it states his birthplace too. If you can help me, thanks a lot, if not, no big deal, thanks anyway. Have fun,EA210269 (talk) 11:43, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your help, it gives me the birth year at least. I thought it might be a school record but election makes more sense. It cmae from here.EA210269 (talk) 14:15, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

I scanned through about 200 google hits, mostly they are in Latvian and to pick out useful information for a non-latvian spaeker is very hard but what I found and with your tranlation its not a bad start. Hopefully somebody comes along and adds some more. Also, the Rasmanis website is still under construction, more might come from it one day. Thank you,EA210269 (talk) 14:39, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

• Born: 1971
• Citizenship: Latvian
• Residence: Cēsis region, Priekuļi county
• Eduction: middle
• Place of employment and occupation: Director, "Rasmanis and Dankers"
• (repeat)
• Graduated from following schools: Priekuļi agricultural technical school, 1990, agricultural technology mechanic
• Latvian language skills: native language
• Nationality: Latvian

Didn't see that Xil had answered on your talk. —PētersV (talk) 03:36, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Kurzemes cietoksnis

I have a pressing personal commitment over the next couple of months (long story). I'm not planning to do anything on the article for now other than keep an eye out. However, my first step will be toscan both the LPSR encyclopedia (if there's anything) and the Latvju Enciklopēdija -- the article there is over 40 pages long and covers both military operations and civilian events. If there's interest, perhaps we could get a couple of folks involved in translating/distilling. It's really the perfect example of Latvian/Baltic versus Soviet historiography: Latvia's last desperate stand against the Soviet onslaught versus Soviet "liberation of their Baltic republics" (!) from Nazism. If we could get an additional verification of your source, that would be baigi forši!
P.S. I tried scanning Latvju Enciklopēdija, but the print goes too close to the binding, I'll be needing to get that book scanner I've been considering. In the past I've actually bought extra copies of a book to disassemble and scan, this isn't one of those. (There's only one copy available to buy online and it's $495.00!) —PētersV (talk) 16:18, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Auseklis

I think it's better to leave the articles Auseklis and daina top importance... Auseklis is the main symbol of Latvia, it's used everywhere. And the dainas is the main source of the latvian folk-lore. So, plz, don't change the importance. Ok? Denis Tarasov (talk) 13:30, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Note

I'll make a note to avoid your page, however you can use {{nobots}} to avoid edits from other users. --Samuel Pepys (talk) 01:20, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Baltic cinema task force

Hi Xil,

There is an opportunity to support the establishment of a Baltic cinema task force here: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Films#Proposed_Baltic_cinema_task_force

Fort Hood

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Talk:Andrejeva v. Latvia

Answered.Fuseau (talk) 15:45, 8 December 2009 (UTC)