Lla Dafern/Archive 15

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Bengwenid! Bieńwięty! Moyn moyn! Bemmeinde! Pemmenut! Benvenuto! Welcome!

This is Lla Dafern, or, as the Saxon invaders call it, The Pub. It is one of many places where the members of Ill Bethisad enjoy meeting each other informally. It is the place where opinions can be exchanged and questions can be asked concerning Ill Bethisad in general or about topics that do not fit in the Talk compartment of individual wiki pages. It is also the place where technical questions can be asked to the moderators of this wiki.

THE MENU: Our chef, whose nationality for reasons of security will remain undisclosed, offers you a broad assortiment of Helvetian and other specialties, such as Montreiano Sea Elephant steaks with rended blubber, or if you prefer a side of Pacific white sided dolphin babyback ribs. He will be more than happy to give you a demonstration of his culinary talents. Just keep your health insurance card ready! And if you aren't particularly hungry today, he will also happily treat you on a rosy-scented Jervan Muscatel, a cool Dumnonian cider, a warm Irish or a cold Batavian beer, or, if you are amongst the more daring, a true Venedic jekwiała. For those who appreciate fine wines we carry the rich red wines of Bordeaux and les Ozarques, Brandy or Montignac, and bin ruper from Hostreht in Xliponia. For the discerning, a good 1984 vintage Arvorec anaf aval is recommended as an apéritif. Especially for minors and teetotallers we also serve Coke, orange juice, goat milk, Italian Limonata, and Neofrancian Spruce beer. If you prefer a more active pursuit to accompany your imbibition, there's a rousing game of puir-man whummlin going on out back. There's even an occasional pickup match of hibercrosse. Cheerio!

WARNING: Please don't pay attention to the smoke, the noise and the mess. Watch your steps and don't break your neck over cables, books, broken chairs, empty beer cans, leftovers of cigarettes and snacks...our bus boys get to it when they can...

DISCLAIMERS: The management is not responsible for physical or mental damage inflicted upon our guests, especially when it is caused by the food, by the BioCola, by the regular rioting here, or by any other kind of misbehaviour on anyone's part.
Any similarity to what the Wikipedians call The Village Pump is not entirely coincidental.

NOTA BENE: You can sign your messages by typing ~~~ for just your name and ~~~~ for your name + timestamp.

The current Ill Bethisad Collaboration of the Fortnight is: Franco-Prussian War. Every fortnight a different topic, stub or non-existent article is picked by nomination.
Please read the nomination text and improve the article any way you can.

Archive

Schlock Junkie: New Member

Hello, everybody! My name is Schlock Junkie, and I wiki'd my way into IB in pursuit of my passion for alternate history. I don't know anything about linguistics and couldn't construct a language to save my life, but I have a fairly well-rounded (albiet rather Euro-centric) knowledge of history and am a self-confessed and unrepentant military nerd.

So, my first piece of work will be turning the source material on the Continental Army into a full article. Most of my stuff will be rather technical or within previously established history, however, I'd just like to present a couple of proposals for your review:

The NAL-SLC sent troops to fight in Europe during the Napoleonic wars, as one of the conditions for recognition from the Mother Country.

The NAL only joined GW1 towards its close, as *here*.

And the verdict is?

As far as the Napoleonic Wars go, it is likely that there were American troops fighting in Europe (there as well as here) and it would be an interesting detail in getting the NAL-SLC accepted. I don't have any objections per se, save that perhaps the NAL military only barely existed at that point.

Now, we've established that when Sir Alfred Laurier died suddenly, his two immediate successors to the post of General Moderator were not at all keen about taking part in the First Great War. Simply put, they had other fish to fry. But my own reading of events was that aid and help were given, albeit with fewer numbers and less efficiency than might be hoped by the Allied Powers. This is actually a bit crucial because there was no large infusion of troops in 1918 which made an allied victory certain. Hence no humiliating Treaty of Versailles, no forced abdication of the Kaiser, no Weimar Republic, no rise of National Socialism, etc. Also keep in mind that the NAL is not as populated nor materially rich as the United States so its aid would not be as complete. So I'd want to hear/read more of what specifically you have in mind.

A couple of quick notes. First, you should sign your posts with three or four (preferably four) tildas. Second, just so you'll know, I am the caretaker of the North American League so I'm the 'point man' as far as that nation-state is concerned. Thanks in advance! I'm already looking forward to your contributions! Zahir 09:59, 30 July 2007 (PDT)

My return

Hello to everybody!

First of all, my sincere apologies for being virtually non-existent for almost a year. Virtually, because even though I haven't participated in any IB related discussion since last September, I have been working on my Wenedyk pages every now and then; I've added a few new pages, a Polish translation of the site is being worked on, and many new words have been added to the vocabulary, which now lists about 3400 words.

My disappearance was in no way connected to any sort of discontent on my part with the course of IB, let alone desinterest. I quite regret that I had to leave in the middle of several highly interesting developments and threads, not taking my responsibility as an overseer Eastern Europe in IB, as a PTB, as the owner of the Conculture group, or as a Wiki administrator. All that was prompted by private reasons only: losing my job, some pretty weird experiences I had in September and after (several people seemed to think I had gone nuts), subsequently my marriage that went completely boom in January... Since that time, I've been spending about half of my time in Poland, the other half in the Netherlands. Currently, I'm looking for a job in Poland.

Ah, and in June I had the pleasure of visiting Lithuania, where I also met our mutual friend Abdul-Aziz! :)

I have to say: when I took custody over the RTC, I hadn't been in Poland for quite a few years. It's really good to be back there again. Being the RTC's caretaker (and creator, to a high degree) I can't really look at Poland with the same eyes as before!

Well, that's about it. I've been hoping and planning for my return to IB for a few months now, but what withheld me was the fact that I completely didn't know what was going on. With many hundreds of unread messages, I didn't even know where to start. In the mean time, the pile got higher and higher. During the last few days, I've worked my way through about half of it. I hope to be up-to-date in another couple of days.

So, let me just ask: what important stuff have I missed? Any questions about the RTC, Russia or the Batavian Kingdom that haven't been answered yet? Any important international developments I should know about? Please, inform me!

Best regards,
—IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 02:17, 2 August 2007 (PDT)

De gros bizoux, et rebienvenu! I had begun to wonder if the complications you mentioned above had taken over your life. I'm glad to see you're back, and a hearty welcome. If we're not too far off, let's reschedule our luncheon for quite soon, and NO HELVETIAN CHEFS! BoArthur 16:50, 2 August 2007 (PDT)

Welcome back. Like IJezeren Jen, I've been nearly non-existent, but I maintained coming back at least every week to check up on things... I'll attempt in the near future (in two weeks or so, due to a vacation), to begin regular postings once more. Seth 2:23, 3rd August 2007

Nice to see you back at the Wiki and it was nice to meet you in Vilnius. There were quite a number of developments I guess (I wrote the most in field of Pakštuva probably but in various other places as well) but we left Veneda largely untouched :-) . Abdul-aziz 04:32, 3 August 2007 (PDT)

Welcome back to the place! Sorry to hear/read about your personal struggles, but here's hoping they make you stronger and wiser in the long run. Meanwhile, I look forward to once again reading your feedback and ideas! Zahir 06:49, 3 August 2007 (PDT)

IB Shopping

Just in case some people don't check the list, I copy the following message:

Jan's reaction to my SNOR t-shirt got me thinking about making some items available for sale for those who might want to.

After checking some suppliers, I could offer the following 2 items:

- SNOR t-shirt (2 colours silk-screen on black) 25 $au (around 15.50 Euros)

- IB Logo baseball cap (machine stitched) 29 $au (around 18 Euros)

About the pricing, the cap is sold at cost, that high price is due to steep setup charge. The cost doesn't include transport charge and are based on the assumption that I get at least 10 request.

So if you are interested, just reply on this list or email me on majan_ca@yahoo.com

--Marc Pasquin 23:10, 11 August 2007 (PDT)

Left-Hand Driving

Just contributing to the discussion that has been going on: We drive on the left in Xliponia too! (Wouldn't have it otherwise) See here. Kyrmse 06:36, 14 August 2007 (PDT)

nassian pages updated after... erm... two years :)

to whom it may concern!

sudden appearance of Jan I. pushed me to place all the recent work on Nassian topics to net. i havent touched the pages for two years, great gods, and they are out of date definitely. so, the language pages are almost done (except for alphabets, lexicology and syntax), the Nassland pages are updated except of images and the history pages, but those have new design. the work is in progress and will hopefully be finnished ;) this week.

question: how do i join the IB ring? i have missed it when it appeared to exist... mea culpa.

anyway: http://ark.wz.cz/conlangs/nashian.html

Jan II. 23:40, 19 August 2007 (PDT)

Lots of Proposals

Dear all,

Skimming through the Very Long List Of Proposals, I notice that there are lots and lots of proposals that have been there for longer than a year now, sometimes even longer than two years. I've taken it upon myself to deprop a few things myself, even if it wasn't me who submitted them and even if it's not my area of interest they're dealing with.

I think it would be A Good Thing if we got rid of most, if not all, proposals that haven't been submitted during the last couple of months. I still believe that if we want the Cycle of Proposals to work properly, we can't have 150 or 200 proposals at the same time. Let me reiterate a few things from one of our Policy Pages:

First of all, do not launch every idea as an official proposal. If the scope of a new article remains safely within the boundaries of your country/area of expertise, and you know in advance that it doesn't violate QSS, then there's no need for "group approval". If everything we write up needs to be approved by the rest of the group, we'll never get anywhere. Conversely, dó list an idea as a proposal when it touches "the world", or at least the territories of other members. In other words, if you write the bio of an ancient king of your country, don't use the {{proposal}} tag. But if you suddenly remember that there was a devastating war with Russia in the 19th century, then by all means do.
The "proposal" status an article should expire at a certain moment. In general, one month is long enough for an article to be on the proposal list. Once it has been there longer than that, the proposal tag should be removed.
Of course, certain proposals can stay on the Proposal List longer, for example when they have a very deep impact, or when they touch the realm of a currently inactive member. But even then, a proposal should not remain a proposal forever.
Everybody is responsible for his own proposals. After submitting a proposal, please keep track of it, and after a certain period (say, a month or so) remove the tag yourself. If no one has reacted yet and you want to be sure, just mention it in Lla Dafern.
Always keep in mind, that even an article that has been deproposed can still be modified or expanded. QSS means that we accept the basics; details can always be discussed, and inconsistencies must always be fixed.

So, let me just ask everybody around here to take a good look at the proposals on the list and where possible to depropose them. When there's doubt about something, we should discuss that. If you ask me, there shouldn't be more than say 20-30 proposals "active" at the same time.

—IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 05:22, 26 August 2007 (PDT)

Thanks much for bringing this up. For what it is worth, I agree and have been trying to deprop some things myself lately. Zahir 07:21, 26 August 2007 (PDT)

I deproposalised a number of things today as well. I think that point 1 can't be emphasised enough. If you are caretaker of a country, or have a strong interest in a coutry, you don't need to tag everything you write up for that country as a formal proposal. I noticed not a few persons / fictional characters (like the GM's daughter) and NAL provinces -- those are really ready-made pieces of the IB puzzle and don't require our general concensus. If an issue should arise (QSS dispute for example), it can always be discussed later. As for when a proposal should expire, I thought we'd talked once about the term being in the neighbourhood of one year. Elemtilas 11:43, 26 August 2007 (PDT)

Thanks! I've depropped another bunch... I realise we can't depropose everything at once, but I think in problematic cases it would be good to have a look at them and take some final decision. —IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 03:15, 27 August 2007 (PDT)

35 proposals left!

Well, I'm happy to announce that for now, there are only 35 left on the List of Proposals. Just a few days ago there were over 160, reason enough to be satisfied. At this point, I think that could be deproposed without much trouble has been depropsed. All the remaining proposals are either too problematic or too new to depropose them right away. While working on this, I noticed something funny: the less proposals there were left, the more I started seeing the articles that would really require some work, attention and/or discussion before we can finally decide they're ok. I don't know if the others feel the same way, but I'm starting to have the feeling that this is precisely what "proposals" are about: to be reviewed and discussed.

Anyway, let me call your attention for a few of the remaining ones:

Alba Nuadh. There was some small disagreement, discussed on the talk page. Is the article in its current state satisfactory for everybody?

Personally, I don't have a problem with it. Then again, I wasn't participating in the debate. Sectori 19:36, 1 September 2007 (PDT)

Austro-Prussian War. Officially still our Collaboration of the Fortnight. Hasn't been worked on for a long time. Shall we say the work is done and choose another CotF? If so, I think First Great War would be an excellent candidate. It's of interest to virtually everybody, the article contains lots of source and rough materia, and in its current state would rather qualify as a Work in Progress than as a Proposal. I'd love to turn this into a group effort.

I for one am totally in favor of working on GW1. Zahir 23:24, 28 August 2007 (PDT)

I suggest we make some moves in that direction, then! —IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 02:29, 1 September 2007 (PDT)

Azande Chiefdoms. Minor border issue. See talk page.
Pope Gregory XVIJ and Pope John XXIIJ. Caused a lot of trouble and irritation a while back. I'd say Padraic should have the final say about them, as he's the one in charge of the Roman Catholic Church.

I have nothing to do with those articles! Elemtilas 16:20, 29 August 2007 (PDT)

I know, but a proposal can go two ways: either it's accepted or it's rejected. And that decision IMO is up to you. —IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 02:29, 1 September 2007 (PDT)

I've tried to merge two conflicting proposals and some remarks by Padraic into a new proposal for Cyprus.
Is the Caribbean League still existing? Or has the idea been replaced by something else? I'd say this shouldn't be a proposal, but just an article that it in need of an update.

The article, which describes a potential future of the Caribbean region, is OK. It doesn't need to be listed as a proposal; though neither should it be taken as gospel. It's way too soon for any serious dialogue on such a matter (as it would involve not only local governments, but also England, Scotland and Kemr jointly and severally as well as the SR, France, Batavia etc. According to the article, there is no concensus as to even pushing forward with the idea, so it may well fail. The future of the Caribbean region is still very much in the open. Elemtilas 16:20, 29 August 2007 (PDT)

England. Anybody have a problem with deproposing this one?

Perhaps it doesn't matter, but I do not. Zahir 23:24, 28 August 2007 (PDT)

Kerguelen... Two conflicting proposals. I might actually come up with a third one.

As australasia caretaker, my vote goes to the castaways under french rule.--Marc Pasquin 21:55, 28 August 2007 (PDT)

I see no good reason to quibble over these rocks, so withdraw the Australasian claim. Elemtilas 16:20, 29 August 2007 (PDT)

See Talk:Kerguelen. —IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 02:29, 1 September 2007 (PDT)

There seem to be a lot of dragons in Roman History.

Opinions/input very much sollicited! —IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 13:45, 28 August 2007 (PDT)

Creating an Account

I'm pretty sure this has come up before, but there seems to be a problem with the "create an account" function. How did any of our newer members get around it? Sectori 12:28, 15 September 2007 (PDT)

From what I understand, the "create an account" function was disabled in order to thwart Spammers in their attempts to take over the Wiki. It is possible for Sysops and the like to create accounts for others, and I've done this for two or three of our recent participants. This method allows to decide whether a potential participant is earnest in their desire to work on the project or only interested in spamming. If a message suddenly appeared on Conculture that said "Hey, is your pencil too short? There are many non-surgical means of pencil lengthening available to men today. Why not try it now? By the way, how can I get an IB Wiki account?" I'm sure we'd take that as slightly suspicious. Elemtilas 07:46, 17 September 2007 (PDT)

A friend of mine has expressed an interest in taking up a country that hasn't had too much work done (specifically, Hijaaz or Saugeais, although he probably should do some more reading about Hijaaz if he takes that on), and was going to register and introduce himself here (running any major proposals to Conculture through me, as he doesn't want to register for a yahoo account). I'll ask him if he's serious about wanting to contribute (it would probably be sporadic, but even that is better than having ideas and not sharing them). Sectori 18:34, 17 September 2007 (PDT)

A Yahoo account is not necessary for joining the Conculture group. Sending an empty e-mail to conculture-subscribe@yahoogroups.com should do the trick. It's important to realise that Conculture is our main discussion forum; it's where new members introduce themselves, where proposals are being presented and discussed, and where new ideas are being fleshed out. The Wiki is meant to be a place where information is stored that doesn't really fit on a website. Anyone who might wonder why we don't simply make it our primary meeting place should take a peek at The June Revolt.

So, if your friend is interested in working on Hijaaz and/or Saugeais, I'm sure he can count on a warm welcome from all of us. Of course, he would have to cooperate with Pedro and Steg in the case of Hijaaz and Marc and Dan in the case of Saugeais.

—IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 01:24, 18 September 2007 (PDT)

Aha! So there are people who are working on those. I didn't see any mention of them on The List. I will share that information with him, and the news about Conculture. Thanks! Sectori 17:40, 18 September 2007 (PDT)

I wouldn't say they are really "owned"... it's rather a matter of good neighbourship. Marc and Dan are more or less co-responsible for France, Steg and Pedro for the Middle East as a whole. If your friend is interested in becoming caretaker of Saugeais and/or Hijaaz, there is nothing that should stop him from making a proposal! —IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 11:01, 19 September 2007 (PDT)

Hello

Just introducing myself. I've been posting at the Yahoo group for a few days. I'll be doing work on Te Pito O Te Henua (Easter Island). I'm thrilled to join! Benkarnell

Welcome and well met! Zahir 20:59, 16 September 2007 (PDT)

It's a great pleasure welcoming you here in the wiki as well! Just in case: please make sure that you are familiar with Help:Contents, particularly the "Other pages pertaining to Ill Bethisad". Everything about how IB works is explained there, in order to avoid possible misunderstandings in the future.

Good luck, have fun, and compliments with your excellent start!

Cheers, —IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 02:07, 17 September 2007 (PDT)

Buongiorno e benvenuto! È un piacere conoscerti. Best of luck to you in your work. Improving the Pacific is certainly a commendable goal--it's probably the least developed geographic region, excluding Japan and China. Sectori 18:39, 17 September 2007 (PDT)

Welcome, and I look forward to your help on the wiki. I myself head Grand Fenwick, the Conch Republic and not much else... Oh well, always great to see some new blood anyway! Seth 02:51 18 September 2007

Keep in mind that the size of the country you work with has nothing to do with your status as an IB member. For example, I've always admired Deiniol's work on Armorica - a very small country indeed, but highly elaborated and refined, featuring one of the best conlangs I've ever seen, lots of great ideas regarding culture, state and religion, a great-looking website, and so on... Believe me, working out a country in such detail is fun! —IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 11:06, 19 September 2007 (PDT)

Proposed

Well, I've finished my initial work on Te Pito O Te Henua and launched it as an official proposal. Over the next few months I'll work on things like early history, racial divisions and South American connections, and hopefully even create the writing system. But for now... it's there if you're interested. Benkarnell 18:15, 18 September 2007 (PDT)

Upload image...

Yeah, in all the time I've been here, I have never had to upload an image... How does one do it? This is for my future reference, and I have a flag I wish to upload... Seth 19:44 19 September 2007

To the left of your screen, in the "toolbox", you'll find the option "Upload file". If you click there, you'll easily find out what to do. —IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 13:09, 19 September 2007 (PDT)

Map

Could anyone provide me with a blank map of IB's Europe, with national borders but no country names? I'm finding it impossible to locate a borderless map of Europe, on which I would draw in the borders, anywhere. Any help would be much appreciated. Sectori 18:39, 19 September 2007 (PDT)

If my geocities weren't always bandwidthed to death, you could probably abscond with one of them. (If any of you were inclined to host some maps or something, that would be much appreciated!) And alas, I don't have my psd's...dead in a computer crash. But I thought I sent one to Jan van Steenbergen... BoArthur 18:53, 19 September 2007 (PDT)

German imperialism

I've noticed that while Bismarck and Prussia were gaining dominance over Germany (much like *here*), there seems to have been no effort to expand overseas. *Here*, of course, securing a ,,Platz an der Sonne" for Germany was one of the cornerstones of Bismarck's policy. If you search Conculture for "German colony" you'll find that the idea has been occasionally brought up, then brought back down again. Now while it's clear that Bismarck's Germany *there* got into the game a little late, there seems no reason why they ended up with no colonies. Here's a list of German colonies from real life, and what happened to them in IB:

Southwest Africa: Batavian colony (somewhat important in the Boer War) (this is undoubtedly a Good Thing for the SW Africans, since German rule resulted in the worst genocide of the 20th century in terms of percentage of the targeted ethnic group killed.)
Ger. East Africa/Tanzania: Chinese East Africa colony for centuries
Kamerun/Cameroon: Portuguese colony of Came Rao (this is important in the 2nd Great War, so that Ethiopia invaded an Allied rather than a German colony.)
Togoland: Austro-Dalmatian colony.
Northeastern New Guinea: Apparently part of Papua-New-Guinea, former Kingsland/Scottish colony
Solomon Islands/Bismarck Archipelago: Ditto
Western Samoa: Currently dependency of Aotearoa; unknown status in 19th C.
Marshall Islands: Ralik and Ratak Islands (kingdom and Japanese protectorate)
Caroline Islands: Part of Micronesian Confederation (Japanese protectorate)
Mariana Islands: Rajadom shared between Micronesia and Filipinas, apparently has some past relationship with Japan (see History of Filipinas)
Palau: Another rajadom, same story
Nauru: Uncolonized republic

Now it seems to me that Samoa could easily be a German colony that was handed over to Aotearoa after one or another of the Great Wars. Either Palau or the Marianas might have a similar story, only replace Aotearoa with Japan (?). I think that a German presence could be squeezed onto New Guinea and Solomon Islands without getting into anyone's way. Finally, *here* Walvis Bay was a British enclave in Ger. SW Africa. Could it instead have been a German enclave in Batavian SW Africa?

I'm not trying to recreate a Place in the Sun. I had just noticed that a lot of the Collaborations have involved Germany, and this would help us understand some of that history. Also, I wouldn't mind looking a little into Samoa and its history.

Benkarnell 21:09, 9 October 2007 (PDT)

It is only southeastern papua which was a kingsland dependency. I have no objection with germany having control of samoa prior to the first great war.--Marc Pasquin 23:34, 9 October 2007 (PDT)

Proposed German colonies (nominally colonies of the HRE, actually administered solely by Prussia):

Walfischbai-Kolonie (Walvis Bay Colony): 100-mile wide strip of land extending into Dutch Southwest Africa from Walfischbai to Windhoek. Surrounded on all sides by SW Africa. Transferred to SW Africa after GWI.
Kamerun: transfered to Portuguese Republic after GW1.
Deutsch-Neuguinea: Northeastern New Guinea and the Bismarcks. Transfered to Australasia after GWI.
Samoa: Transfered to Aotearoa after GWI.
Clipperton-Insel: Extant colony administered by the Diet, pop. 115. Main trading partner is Mejico.
An enclave in India administered by HRE, relinquished after GW1 or GW2.

Benkarnell 07:20, 11 October 2007 (PDT)

By the way, I've made a proposed article on Rickerman-Insel. Benkarnell 14:41, 11 October 2007 (PDT)

Update: The Conculture discussion indicates that German colonies never developed due to a number of factors (not simply neglect on the part of the participants). So... never mind. Benkarnell 09:14, 12 October 2007 (PDT)

Not All Images Visible

Some of the images pertaining to Xliponia are not hosted on the Wiki, but only referred to, being hosted on the official Xliponia site ( www.geocities.com/xliponia/ ). These images are not visible - only their addresses appear. Should they be uploaded to the IB Wiki, or am I doing something wrong? Help appreciated! Kyrmse 05:12, 11 October 2007 (PDT)

... Later ...

I have solved this problem to a great extent, after uploading the "offending" images to the IB Wiki. The only trouble I still have relates to the infoboxes atop the pages for Xliponia and its provinces (Ançec, Atmar, Bovlai, Hastr, Hostreht, Lim, Meirç, Monnalp, Orflain, Vont), where the national flag (Flag_an.gif) and the provincial coats of arms (Provincename.png) and location maps (Prov-Provincename.png) do not display. So I still need help from someone more knowledgeable in the mysteries of infoboxes! Thanks in advance. Kyrmse 11:01, 11 October 2007 (PDT)

Methinks I've fixed this for you. Let me know if this is what you had in mind. Zahir 14:12, 11 October 2007 (PDT)

Yes, and thanks again! Or, as we say in Old Bovlai: Crassui! 04:08, 17 October 2007 (PDT)

Letters on Licence Plates

Since I have just updated the page on Xliponian licence plates, a question left as exercise for the readers:

I travelled to Greece some years ago (pre-euro), and noticed that the only letters they used on their licence plates were ABEHIKMNOPTXYZ. Any idea why that should be so? Kyrmse 04:07, 17 October 2007 (PDT)

Apparently they want to avoid letters that do not occur both in the Latin and the Greek alphabet, but I've no idea why! In any case, the same thing happens in Bulgaria and Russia, where they use only letters that exist both in Latin and Cyrillic. A bit of a pity, if you ask me. Wouldn't it have been much nicer if Greek and Bulgarian licence plates had a little more couleur locale? The Serbians from that point of view are a bit more original - I believe I've seen cars with KŠ and ČA and the like. Not Cyrillic, but at least particular.

For that reason, I decided to allow Polish/Wenedyk letters on RTC licence places (unlike Poland, where no diacritics are allowed). And so we have SŁ for Łódź, ŚKŁ for Kłarmęć (Częstochowa), GLĘ for Lębłyk (Leszno), and ŻKN for Kaunas.

In any case, nice work you did on the licence plates! —IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 03:59, 20 October 2007 (PDT)

I had devised the design for the plates used in New Francy a few months ago: http://marcpasquin.iquebec.com/images/nf-plaque.png No letters but the full name instead.--Marc Pasquin 23:53, 21 October 2007 (PDT)

Jan, I had reached the same conclusion - which is of course the correct one! ;-) And yes, the couleur locale on RTC plates is charming. Marc - couldn't reach your pic... Kyrmse 09:22, 22 October 2007 (PDT)

Henua news blog

The fact that IB is a living world with regular news updates is, IMO, one of the coolest things about it. So I started a blog with news updates every couple of weeks. The back story is that it's an Oregonian research team issuing press releases to IBAP; presumably one of their members has been officially licenced to do so and is paid a very modest stipend for it (I can't imagine IBAP having a permanent office there). So far the three releases have mostly involved the comings and goings of the research team itself, but the writer will be branching out one of these days. But the result is some rather mundane stories that aren't altogether earth-shattering. Should I be doing anything with these stories, like submitting them for general approval, or is it enough just to keep them on the blog? Benkarnell 13:07, 22 October 2007 (PDT)

And on a related note, I hope I'm not being presumptuous by having Oregonians running around Henua offending people. It seems more or less in character for them. Benkarnell 13:20, 22 October 2007 (PDT)

Wonderful Relief Maps

[This] should interest all or most mapmakers... Kyrmse 08:33, 27 November 2007 (PST)

Blogs about IB

Here's a few links I stumbled on:

In Russian, talks about Jan van Steenbergen a fair piece.

A dutch one...

... and a passing reference to us.

Thought y'all'd find it interesting. Oh. And I'm not dead, just drowning in real-life. BoArthur 10:51, 3 December 2007 (PST)

Question about Africa

I was just looking on the Flags of Ill Bethisad site and found a fairly developed history for the Islamic Kingdom of Guinea. This wiki has no record of the country existing; the world map says that the country's territory is still French Guinea. I've been looking around but can't find any record of the country being consciously decided against. It sounds interesting-- the only strictly Muslim nation in West Africa by the looks of it. Seems a shame to just let it drop. Benkarnell 22:34, 9 December 2007 (PST)

I noticed that some time ago. Honestly I would rather see better developed the history of Guinea as it appears at FOIB web-site (which sounds to me a nice point of departure) than Guinea as still just a department of France (as it appears at the French Guinea tiny article).--Pedromoderno 17:18, 10 December 2007 (PST)

I wonder if we could simply divide it, so that France still has a department there... Let's see... Wikipedia... OK, Boffa, given as the capital of Fr. GU, is at the center of the Bauxite-producing reguion of Guinea. Maybe the French held onto it, whether as a department, or an old-fashioned sphere of influence, or... (no!) a condominium of some kind. The map could look like... hold on... There.

Dividing Guinea in two could be a good possibility, in my opinion.--Pedromoderno 16:56, 11 December 2007 (PST)

As one of the caretakers of France, I'm going to have to look into this. Probably have to review it with Marc Pasquin, too. Not to say that I'm going to put the kibosh on your Islamic Kingdom of Guinea; it may well go the other way. I'll have to look at it. Thanks for delving the depths of our history and finding this forgotten QSS. :) BoArthur 07:51, 13 December 2007 (PST)

It's not mỳ Islamic Kingdom. I just found it and thought it sounded neat. Isn't FOIB Marc's thing anyway? And I really enjoy delving. FOIB is full of such forgotten pieces.

Benkarnell 12:09, 13 December 2007 (PST)

FOIB was created by ferko, not me.--Marc Pasquin 16:11, 13 December 2007 (PST)

Oops. You have made a lot of good flags, though, that's for sure. Benkarnell 16:26, 13 December 2007 (PST)

Looking at the discussion page of French Guinee, it looks as if it must and does indeed exist, at least per Jan van Steenbergen. That being said, I'll have to look further at the issue. BoArthur 07:54, 13 December 2007 (PST)

Regarding the new edits to French Guinea: Maybe the Islamic Republic info is ambiguously worded: the 1956 revolution established the Republic of Guinea, basically just like *here* except that, it tunrs out, the French *there* held onto the most valuable land. The Islamic Kingdom was then established in 1984. It doesn't even seem to have been an "Islamic Revolution" at all, just a new spin on a military coup (perhaps in order to get support from Maghreb?). Benkarnell 14:37, 17 December 2007 (PST)

Conculture Group?

The conculture group seems to have gone missing. At least I keep getting and "invalid group" message from yahoo. Zahir 10:03, 19 December 2007 (PST)

It shows up when I search for Conculture. Heck, I even discovered that there's a Dutch group called "concullowlands" which, apart from being in Dutch, concerns Batavia and the Lowlands of IB.

I have heard of the disconcerting disappearance of some Yahoo groups (exolinguistics being one), though. That doesn't bode well. Elemtilas 19:01, 19 December 2007 (PST)