User talk:Alphasinus

Your GA nomination of Refugee controversy in Sjöbo

The article Refugee controversy in Sjöbo you nominated as a good article has been placed on hold . The article is close to meeting the good article criteria, but there are some minor changes or clarifications needed to be addressed. If these are fixed within seven days, the article will pass, otherwise it will fail. See Talk:Refugee controversy in Sjöbo for things which need to be addressed. Lord Roem (talk) 03:04, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Changes look great! I will now promote! Congrats! :-) Lord Roem (talk) 17:52, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Blue at Eye color

Hello, Alphasinus. I'm not sure why you keep dividing the Blue section up like this, but there is no need to split the section up like that and give the eye color blue more prominence than the other eye colors. It comes off as WP:UNDUE (the more prominence aspect, not the viewpoint aspect). Further, most of the sections are extremely small, which only further showcases that no division is needed. It also encourages people to add more to the sections, ignoring the other eye colors and continuing to give the eye color blue more prominence. This is why I reverted you. That, and because of dubious changes made by others. If you are going to continue to insist that the sections be divided that way, then let me know. I am more than willing to listen to your rationale for why the Blue section should be divided, and I will bring other editors in on the matter as well, as I am not interested in getting into a WP:Edit war with you over this. I'll post a section about this at the Eye color talk page, and you can respond there instead of on my talk page. Flyer22 (talk) 15:55, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for offering your reasons for the change. I replied on the talk page, and will continue to reply there on the matter. Flyer22 (talk)

Invitation to take part in a pilot study

I am a Wikipedian, who is studying the phenomenon on Wikipedia. I need your help to conduct my research on about understanding "Motivation of Wikipedia contributors." I would like to invite you to a short survey. Please give me your valuable time, which estimates only 5 minutes’’’. cooldenny (talk) 17:52, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Battle of Nessos

Hi! I have already written almost everything I could find about this battle in the article for Battle of Naissus. I think the only extant source about it is Zosimus' Historia Nova

You could not find any more details because the sources of this period are extremely confused. It seems that Romans won a major or (according to another view) a minor battle against the Herulian branch of the invasion.--Dipa1965 (talk) 21:08, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Leonardo da Vinci

Concerning his nationality, this has been discussed endlessly on the talk page. In art histories, he is always referred to, by convention as an Italian painter. There are histories of "Italian" painting, which deal with the art of the entire landmass and begin with the Etruscans. The sort of purism that insists that Italy didn't exist, because tit didn't exist politically doesn't work for practical purposes. Amandajm (talk) 06:45, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

lead of article Germany

Hello Alphasinus, just wanted to thank you for considering my critical comments to improve the article about Germany. As this article has seen it's fair share of back and forth editing (by other editors), it's much appreciated, when differing opinions can be handled so constructive. In my view there is nothing wrong with brief additions in history, we just need to keep it's overall size in mind. GermanJoe (talk) 09:01, 4 July 2011 (UTC)

Handel's nationality

Hi. Just a quick word about your edit in which you removed the "British" part of Handel's nationality. There has been a long-standing consensus at the article to describe Handel's nationality as "German-British", and your edit has been reverted to that consensus. Before making a similar edit, please keep in the mind the following:

• Reliable sources (such as Grove) recognise Handel's nationality as having a British component.
• Handel lived in England for almost fifty years.
• Handel legally became a British citizen (on 13 February 1727).
• Handel adopted English customs (for example he dropped the umlaut above the "a" when signing his own name).

Taken together, the above are more than sufficient reason for the consensus position of "German-British" in the article. Thanks for taking an interest in the Handel article. Cheers.
GFHandel ♬  22:54, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

Through a portage

Alphasinus, once again, do you realise that this image doesn't illustrate Varangians? It is called originally "Волокут волоком" which means "Pulling through a portage", and it doesn't say the men illustrated are Varangians? Do you see that they wear traditional Russian and Slavic white clothes with national red ornaments? GreyHood ^Talk 17:11, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

I don't know much about traditional Slavic clothes, but it's quite obvious that those are viking ships. In addition, the practise of pulling ships through portages was very characteristic of how the varangians navigated their travels in Russia.

Firstly, Slavic ships looked very similar to Viking ships (or at least they do look in modern depictions). Secondly, not only Varangians, but obviously Slavs themselves and maybe other peoples navigated in the same way. Sorry, but your choice of this picture as a lead one is blatantly wrong. It is obviously much more Slavic than Varangian. I'm removing this picture from the article. GreyHood ^Talk 08:05, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Do you have a source for your claim that Slavs created similliar ships with dragon heads on the prow? In this book it says that many local people helped pull the boats.Encyclopedia of European People Rus Alphasinus (talk) 08:29, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Dragon heads were not exclusive to Varangians or Vikings. According to one hypothesis, Slavs have early adopted the Varangian shipbuilding techniques, and basically the early Slavic ships, called ladya, were similar to longships in many ways. Slavs, however, navigated the East European rivers and the Black Sea even before the Varangians, starting from the 6th century, and Slavic/Varangian river-going ships were not so long as ocean-going western longships for the reason of maneuverability on the rivers. Here, for example, is an illustration of a Slavic military ladya with text from a book "История корябля" (History of ships). Also, remember that Slavs not only pulled ships for Varangians, but for themselves as well, and Slavs were a majority. GreyHood ^Talk 08:51, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

The text just tells about that war as an example of ancient Russian navy expedition, the image is not necessarily related to it. And the text in general is about Slavic ships. GreyHood ^Talk 14:04, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

As for the Anti-Normanist theories, they are not fringe and you know it perfectly, since you should have read the article on Rus' people in Britannica. And almost all written history of Varangians in ancient Rus' is the history of Rus' people. GreyHood ^Talk 14:08, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Your quote from a certain Yuri Shilov about the Varangians being a band of Baltic Slavs is definately fringe. Alphasinus (talk) 14:12, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

By the way, here are some pics Google gives on request "Славянская ладья" (Slavic ladya). As you may see most modern pictures and reconstructions have dragon heads. And it is quite a stereotypical feature of ancient Slavic culture. You seems to have a very poor background in Slavic history if you don't know it, sorry. GreyHood ^Talk 14:19, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Varangians, or at least some of them, being Baltic Slavs is a little supported theory, but not fringe. Also, you should understand that we could speak of fringe theories only in case if the main, "non-fringe" theory has a very strong and unambiguous factual base and a vast majority of scholars support it. However, the data on the 8th-10th cc. is relatively scarce and not at all clear or conclusive, while Anti-Normanism is a centuries-long tradition in Russian historiography with many famous historians supporting it. Anti-Normanism has not been proved or disproved, and since it is a significant point of view it should be represented in the article (I agree, however that Scandinavian origin of Varangians is a primary hypothesis and should be given prominent place in the article). GreyHood ^Talk 14:29, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

It does not seem to be disputed in this version of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Varangian Alphasinus (talk) 14:34, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Really? A sentence from your link: This legend served as the starting point for the creation of the antiscientific Normanist theory of the origin of the Russian state, which appeared in the 18th century and has been discarded because of its flimsiness. GreyHood ^Talk 14:37, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

What i mean is that even the Soviet encyclopedia writes that the Varangians are Norsemen... Alphasinus (talk) 14:43, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

You both realize that this is a painting made by an artist? If you want to argue that it depicts either russians or varingians you would have to show that that is what the artist meant to depict.·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 14:47, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

I do realise it very well. The name of the painting doesn't say anything about who it depicts, however since it is painting by Roerich it obviously depicts old Russian history (Slavic/Varangian/Rus' people without necessary distinction). However, the people depicted wear Slavic clothes, and the ships have no obvious ethnicity. Just typical ladyas which were built both by Slavs and Varangians at that time. GreyHood ^Talk 15:05, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Norman, you mean. Yes, because the article is very short, and they even don't explain the difference between Normanism and Anti-Normanism in detail. Note however the last sentence: In most Russian written monuments, “Varangians” as a general term for all Scandinavians was supplanted as of the second half of the 12th century by concrete names for different Scandinavian peoples— Svei (Swedes), Murmany (Norwegians)—and by the term Nemtsy, which was general for all western peoples. Up to the 18th century, the Baltic Sea was called the Varangian Sea, after the Varangians. Before the 12th century Russians didn't have any significant contacts with any non-Slavic or non-Finno-Ugric peoples from the west but Scandinavians. So the term Varangians denoted any people from over the Baltic (de-facto mostly Scandinavians), just as the term Nemtsy did it later. Also, remember that in Byzantium, from where the term "Varangian" might come to Rus', the Varangian guard was composed not only of Varangians, but also of Anglo-Saxons and other Germanic peoples, which reflects the wider meaning of Varangians, which should be reflected in the article. GreyHood ^Talk 15:05, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

The term Varangian is probably derived from the "Varangian Guard", and is more a word than the ethnonym of a dictinct people. In English, the term is synonymous with eastern Vikings. Remember that this is an encyclopedia and not a dictionary. Varangians Alphasinus (talk) 15:21, 19 August 2011 (UTC)