User talk:Dpbsmith/Billion

From VfD:

This page truly confuses me. I do not know if this is an edit gone wrong or what. There is a page for the number billion already apart from this one. I do not know if this one has information not contained in the other one. If it does, this information should obviously be transferred before deletion. Indrian 03:55, Aug 19, 2004 (UTC)
It's a user subpage. I don't think (although I could be wrong) it's even a candidate for VfD because of that. Let Dpbsmith do what he will with it. Yelyos 04:15, Aug 19, 2004 (UTC)
- There's currently a discussion going on about how to handle the deletion of user subpages - see Wikipedia talk:Votes for deletion#Deleting user subpages. —Stormie 05:18, Aug 19, 2004 (UTC)
Can't really follow: On one day it is suggested, that people should prepare larger articles in a user subpage (instead of posting a substub and complaining about its listing on VfD), and a few days later a user subpage (which obviously is "work in progress") turns up right here... Leave him alone, it's his terrain. --Palapala 05:53, 2004 Aug 19 (UTC)
Did you try the incredibly radical step of asking Dpbsmith what the reasoning behind the subpage was? -- Cyrius|✎ 06:26, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Keep. Deleting user subpages should be a rare exception, as in the case of IndigoGenius, or Information-Ecologist. Drafts in subpages = good thing. Ambi 06:59, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Keep: User subpages are not VfD fare unless they violate very specific policies. This doesn't. Geogre 12:43, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Oops! I did not realize this was a user subpage (though I suppose it should have been obvious). Please disregard my complaints. Indrian 14:03, Aug 19, 2004 (UTC)
comment I hope Dpbsmith finishes it up and publishes it as I was about to do a similar article myself.--Nabla 17:18, 2004 Aug 19 (UTC)
Keep. No case to answer. Andrewa 20:10, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Of course keep. Bishonen 23:21, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Comment. I sometimes use my user subpages when I'm making big revisions to a big article; or when I'm developing something that I don't think is a decent article until it has reached a certain degree of finish; or when I'm doing work that involves big cut-and-pastes from various places. Or sometimes when I just want a handy Wiki-WYSIWYG editor. I get nervous about losing my work if I just keep using "Show preview," and saving the Wikitext in a text editor is a pain... Then when it gets done I blast it out into the world all in one piece. As Ambi says, I thought "Drafts in subpages = good thing."

As for "billion," I've gotten a little discouraged about that. If Nabla wants to use anything from my work-in-progress, go ahead. It seems as if there are a fair number of people who hold the unaccountable-to-me belief that one of the meanings of billion is somehow right and the other is wrong. I learned the fascinating piece of information from Robert Munafo that Chuquet's own work is actually inconsistent; in one place he uses byllion to mean 10¹² and in other he uses it to mean 10⁹. I mentioned this in Billion, and was surprised when someone interpolated the phrase "without any proof." Apparently they didn't even bother to click on the link where Munafo quotes the text from one part of the work and provides a facsimile page image from the other part! Even when people from England tell me that usage is mixed, both meanings of "billion" are in wide use, and 10⁹ is currently taught in schools and used in official government reports, and even when the usage in France has changed back and forth several times and Anthere tells me that in her experience people say mille milliard rather than billion, there are apparently enough people determined to uphold The Truth that I think it will be quite laborious to get any of the articles—Chuquet, Billion, Names of large numbers—into a form that is well-written and stable and NPOV. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 23:59, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Keep. Obviously a work in progress. Fire Star 00:29, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Keep. User sub pages should not be deleted except as a means to harrass designated trolls, users who challenge the ruling sysops, or unpopular people we don't like. Free speech except for unpopular minority speech that deviates from sysop-determined community consensus! -- orthogonal 22:52, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)
- That was unnecessary and petty. -- Cyrius|✎ 23:03, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)

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