User talk:Absentminded

New Wikithon badge

Some people made the Wikithon happen again this year. Worth making a new badge with S. Davan's illustration? http://images.bwog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Feature-WikiCU-Stephen-Davan.jpg cds2148 11:33, 29 January 2014 (EST)

Images

Why aren't image embeds working? cds2148 14:28, 19 November 2013 (EST)

I don't know. Ask User:Admin. Absentminded 15:08, 19 November 2013 (EST)

OK. cds2148 18:51, 19 November 2013 (EST)

Lit Hum exam links

Good find in the Spec archives. Amazing that it's recurred like that. cds2148 15:27, 11 November 2013 (EST)

I'm tempted to add Lit Hum exam leak to the Traditions category. Absentminded 16:47, 11 November 2013 (EST)

Sounds worth it. Most Columbia "traditions" aren't that old, anyway. cds2148 18:15, 11 November 2013 (EST)

Resident Halls Infobox

Nice infobox. Admin 23:49, 18 March 2007 (EDT)

You have no idea how long that took :) Absentminded 23:50, 18 March 2007 (EDT)

Style guidelines

I think it would be a good idea to follow Wikipedia's capital letters policy with two equals signs for the main headings on a page. Right? Admin 21:31, 24 March 2007 (EDT)

I leave it to you. I typically nest headings 1, 2, 3 equal signs. And I typically adopt, or try to, as convention any corrections you make (External Links ---> External links). Absentminded 21:54, 24 March 2007 (EDT)

Thanks for noticing that! I think 2 equals makes sense because the main headings on any page should be subordinate to the page heading. Admin 22:17, 24 March 2007 (EDT)

Grammar foibles

A: i noticed you confused "it's" and "its" twice on the page about GSAS. you might wanna keep an eye out for that.

UPenn/Ivy League edit war

lol. at least they're sort've paying attention. happy boxing day. Nateoxford 09:45, 26 December 2010 (EST)

Sabbatical

Obsessing you a bit too much? Pacman 00:06, 2 April 2007 (EDT)

For a guy on sabbatical, you're awful busy... Feinstein 10:43, 4 April 2007 (EDT)

CC Admissions

Reasons for deleting the other info? Pacman 16:28, 6 April 2007 (EDT)

it's vs its

dude. you have a real problem with it's vs. its. i keep changing them. please keep an eye out for that. Foobar 21:47, 9 April 2007 (EDT)

Its a common mistake Feinstein 22:09, 9 April 2007 (EDT)

I love Absentminded's contributions, but seriously, this is Columbia. We need to exhibit proper grammar. Pacman 23:30, 9 April 2007 (EDT)

Fascist! Feinstein 00:59, 10 April 2007 (EDT)

Dude seriously, even if it's a common mistake, it's a simple rule. You just made another one in Hartley_Hall "it's" only if it's a contraction. bokay? Foobar 06:39, 21 November 2007 (EST)

Back...

• Good to have you back! I've been relatively inactive myself over the past 2 months... but my summer internship ends in a couple of weeks. When the Columbia term kicks off again, I expect to have a little more time for contributions. OK, a lot more time!  − Reaganaut  17:32, 21 August 2007 (EDT)

Nice finds!/(First attempt at research guide)

Nice work with Crocker institute+Pegram. I had never heard of either. also the reference/links were good, esp the old NYT listings. any tips for other wcu contributors looking to flesh out/discover forgotten columbiana? Foobar 05:10, 21 February 2008 (EST)

• 1) Find something you know nothing about and pursue it doggedly. A good source is old photographs and campus maps.
• 2) Do a columbia site search through google (site:columbia.edu "search term"), using all kinds of variations on parentheses to find the term
• 3) repeat the same on google in general. and the nytimes website, which has indexed issues back through 1851 and lets you look at clippings for free up through 1923.
• 4) Make ample use of google book search, because there are so much literature indexed there. In fact, read some of the older volumes listed at Books about Columbia for ideas to pursue and flesh out (e.g. Camp Columbia, something I've seen pictures of and references to)
• 5) Stick everything you find into an external links section or referenced footnotes! I can't stress this enough. So much of this is hearsay, inferential, or even conflicting. Unless it's coming from one of the few canonical works we have (e.g. McCaughey and Dolkart's books), having links to the sources makes sorting things out easier as we learn more. In the course of researching one topic, if I find some tangential reference intriguing, I bookmark it and make sure I come back to it later. I've got about a dozen spec articles bookmarked regarding turmoil in the public affairs office follow Bollinger's arrival. The whole Emily Lloyd issue etc. (which I've already fleshed out a bit)
• 6) Check out the USOpera article I linked on Brander Matthews Hall page. It's got a lovely anecdote that shows how poorly Columbia tends to its own legacies, as well as a great article idea (Columbia Opera Workshop) Absentminded 08:29, 21 February 2008 (EST)

• • could this be placed somewhere prominent? e.g., a FAQ for new contributors?

Faculties Article

Similarly, those are some great finds on the article re: faculties. Could you provide citations for more information? E.g., in the history you say "recent" for the formation of GSAS --- when was that? Also why is engineering a "professional" school? student get a BS that's not *that* differnet from CC's BA.

• I've attached a link to the history of FAS on the FAS page. I didn't have a source while I was writing, just working from memory. It's pretty complicated, as the article glosses over. Sovern and Rupp went through administrative hell trying to reorganize the faculty following the McGill-era budget slashes and hiring freezes.
• Engineering is treated as a professional school in all University literature (specifically, check The Faculty Handbook linked on the Faculty article where I derived all the info from. I can't think of a concrete definition other than its not part of the traditional Arts and Sciences academy. It Handbook explanations correlate to the presentation of data in the Statistical Abstract, possibly my favorite Columbia resource of all time.
• Also, I'm nowhere near done with that article. I just ran out of gas, and the layout with the departments was turning to crap. Fun tidbit, of the 79 departments, one isn't part of any faculty - the department of physical education. Absentminded 18:03, 25 February 2008 (EST)

• Great. i'm looking forward to the rest of it. i agree that professional school seems like a tautological definition / anything not A+S is professional. it's odd because on CU's main website, and, at least among my fellow u-grads, the boundary seems pretty porous. it's odd that the e-school faculty are some how more like the b-school faculty than the science faculty, by the provost's taxonomy. just my $.02. Foobar 10:33, 28 February 2008 (EST)

• Holy CRAP this looks cool! Foobar 10:36, 28 February 2008 (EST)

Stratford Canning

Brilliant find! A character from my senior thesis. It's all come full circle. Where are you finding this stuff? Pacman 17:50, 29 April 2008 (EDT)

New Dean

Is she the dean or is she not? Hard to know these things up here...I nominate you to give birth to her article. Pacman 19:29, 1 March 2009 (EST)

Do you, by any chance...

...read Uniwatch? Just curious, after observing your devotion to researching the University Shield. Nateoxford 03:07, 12 October 2009 (EDT)

Answered your question, I think

Admin 23:52, 2 May 2013 (EDT)

PrezBo Award

Thanks! That means a lot. cds2148 18:16, 13 June 2013 (EDT)

And thanks for fixing the sizes of the boxes! cds2148 19:02, 23 July 2013 (EDT)