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This is (unsurprisingly) my talk page. MinorProphet (talk) 06:43, 3 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, MinorProphet. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or draft page you started, "Knights for the body".

In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material, the draft has been deleted. When you plan on working on it further and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.

Thank you for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 17:53, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion/G13

• Hi, I'm MinorProphet, and I would like to request the undeletion of this draft, which was deleted under CSD G13. You might consider restoring the page so that I can make edits to it. Thanks for your kind assistance. MinorProphet (talk) 16:00, 3 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Yay, Draft:Knights for the body is back, thanks. Now, about those other 20 un-finished drafts (ahem) ... MinorProphet (talk) 11:36, 4 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

And happy new year! Viriditas (talk) 02:28, 29 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Viriditas: Thank you, much appreciated. Have you read any more Iain M. Banks? HNY to you too. MinorProphet (talk) 03:47, 31 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Made it half way through Matter (the eighth book in the ten book series) and stopped and never picked it up again. The writing was kind of boring and predictable but visually a feast. He tends to reuse words and phrases over and over again and that bugs me. I hope to pick it up again soon. Viriditas (talk) 05:03, 31 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, I just figured out why Banks writes this way, and it makes perfect sense. He isn't writing for people like me, who are going to read all ten books in the series. He's writing for someone who is going to pick up one book and read it, and decide later if they are going to read others. This is why each book stands alone in the series (I think). In other words, you can pick it up at any point in the series, so Banks isn't worried about repeating himself or going over the same ideas. Also, maybe it is expecting too much. There are about 1.4 million words in the series, so some repetition is likely. Viriditas (talk) 23:39, 3 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Viriditas: I bought it in 2009, read it once and haven't really thought about it since. I just hauled it off the bookshelf (not a slim volume, eh?) and realised I didn't remember a single character or anything that happens in it. Next on the list, then. I do most of my reading on the bus (30 minutes each way into town), but it will barely fit in my bag... MinorProphet (talk) 11:50, 4 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

My copy has 593 pages, with an additional ten pages of extras (an interview with the author). However, quantity has never been an issue for me. If you like the material, it goes fast. I think the Three-Body books (Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy) took me a month, as it was highly enjoyable. It was around 1700 pages or so. Viriditas (talk) 21:15, 4 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

You said "I would rather herd cats for free than organise even five wiki-editors to do anything" in a recent discussion.

Awhile back, I encountered an editor/article subject who needed help with "his" WP-article. He was refreshingly polite, reasonable, patient and cooperative, so me and another editor put some effort in, re-wrote it mostly from the ground up, even spoke to a couple of admins on his behalf. A bit into the exercise, I noticed he was the author of Herding Cats: Being Advice to Aspiring Academic and Research Leaders. Based on how he "handled" Wikipedians, it's a pretty good book. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:54, 6 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Gråbergs Gråa Sång: Thanks very much for your thoughtful message. Similarly, a few months previously I came across a comment somewhere that WP has–in a certain way–become an unacknowledged interface between academia and the general public: and that the more scholarly (?better-reffed?) articles reflect this interchange of concepts. In connection with a question on the Ref Desks a year or more ago, I was privileged to have a zoom call with a Professor of Medieval German, and he said that he was a regular contributor on WP in other subjects than his own. Personally, I think that the Wikipedia Library is one of the greatest advantages open to us mere mortals (failed B.A. in Russian, Hull University). If I cite an article on jstor it is often supplemented by someone/a bot{?) with a doi, for example. I'll hunt around for the publication you mention. HNY, MinorProphet (talk) 05:52, 8 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]