User talk:Aficionado538

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I have sent you a note about a page you started

Hi Aficionado538. Thank you for your work on Francistown West. Another editor, MPGuy2824, has reviewed it as part of new pages patrol and left the following comment:

the results are wrong. they seem to be of francistown east.

To reply, leave a comment here and begin it with {{Re|MPGuy2824}}. (Message delivered via the Page Curation tool, on behalf of the reviewer.)

-MPGuy2824 (talk) 06:08, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@MPGuy2824: Fixed it, thanks for the heads-up. Aficionado538 (talk) 12:51, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Followup

I had other stuff to do than get back to that discussion before it closed, but this is worth addressing, in the same order as the points you raised:

You seem unclear on what "colloquialism" means in a linguistic content. I surmise, from what you wrote, that you think it means something like 'informalism, verging on slang'. It does not. It means 'everyday usage, especially within a group or range users of a language', which is precisely what the terms Batswana and Motswana are (being regularly understood in Southern African English but not otherwise). That is, my point and your point on this were not actually at odds with each other, but you have reacted as if they are.
No one said they are not used in Southern African English, so browbeating me with the fact that they are used in Southern African English is rather pointless. The entire import of MOS:COMMONALITY is to use language understood by our entire readership, and not rely on specialist knowledge (like fluency in a particular national or regional dialect) to make any sense of it.
The suffix -tswana does not "easily give readers a hint" of anything (certainly not that a demonym is at issue), unless they happen to be Southern Africans (or, by random accident, outside specialists in Southern African history, ethnology, or linguistics). Your insistence that the Botswana/Motswana case is somehow, as if my magic, different from every other case involving endonyms familiar to people in a particular region but unfamiliar to the rest of the world, comes across as jingoistic, and utterly missing the MOS:COMMONALITY point. Further, your various other comments in that thread making arguments about "wrong" vs. "right" and "correct" versus "incorrect", and similar language, treating any usage you don't like as if it is objectively an error, is patently prescriptivist and proscriptivist, which is incompatible with Wikipedia's approach to usage (or any other subject, including when someone is convinced it is important or when they are convinced they are experts and are bringing The Truth.

In the end, this entire debate has probably been a bunch of pointless bikeshedding. An obvious solution is simple: If there's an article in which one wants to use Batswana and Motswana, then simply explain these terms (either in situ or with a link to an explanation) at first usage. End of problem. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 22:21, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, I suppose you could have pointed out these qualms in the RfC and not coming to my talk page after the close of the discussion. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with all this besides just taking note of your grievances with me. Have a great day mate! Aficionado538 (talk) 22:28, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

May 2025

Hello, I'm Greenman. I noticed that you added or changed content in an article, Botswana Democratic Party, but you didn't provide a reliable source. It's been removed and archived in the page history for now, but if you'd like to include a citation and re-add it, please do so. You can have a look at referencing for beginners. If you think I made a mistake, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. Greenman (talk) 10:57, 11 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Working on it. Thanks. Aficionado538 (talk) 11:04, 11 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

ITN recognition for Edgar Lungu

On 9 June 2025, In the news was updated with an item that involved the article Edgar Lungu, which you updated. If you know of another recently created or updated article suitable for inclusion in ITN, please suggest it on the candidates page. Schwede 66 02:38, 9 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The World Destubathon

Hello. You're invited to participate in The World Destubathon. We're aiming to destub a lot of articles and also improve longer stale articles. It will be held from Monday June 16 - Sunday July 13. There is over $3300 going into it, with $500 the top prize. If you are interested in winning something to save you money in buying books for future content, or just see it as a good editathon opportunity to see a lot of articles improved for subjects which interest you, sign up on the page in the participants section if interested. Even if you can only manage a few articles they would be very much appreciated and help make the content produced as diverse and broad as possible! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 18:28, 15 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]