User talk:Macdonald-ross

Words:
Every now & then we get editors changing words on the basis of their ideas on what is simple. Words also have to be accurate (we are an encyclopedia).

Big: certainly simple and popular with children, but a term almost never to be used about living things. Is a giraffe bigger than an elephant? Think about it. It is almost always better to use a more exact word, such as longer, heavier. Is a star big? Does that mean its apparent size or its intrinsic size? Ditto stars being bright.
Rich is an ambiguous word. A cake can be rich, and a person can be rich. However, only a person can be wealthy, so prefer that word. Neither word is on the extended list of simple words, incidentally, so use the more precise word.
Very: another childhood favourite. In spoken English it is an intensifier, but it has almost no function in prose. It may be the most frequent word copy editors cut out as redundant.
Die: we all die, but species become extinct.

Now here's the tricky bit. Technically, a species which is not extinct is extant. Extant is the opposite of extinct. However it is a very rare word, and we use the common word "living". So we talk about living species. It sounds natural, and is right for us.

Animal: that includes jellyfish and beetles. If you mean mammals, say so.
Reside: On Simple you don't reside somewhere, you live there.
Rare: an essential word in ecology, and supported by definitions in the literature. Steaks can also be rare, but that would not be good to use on Simple.

Thank you for being one of Wikipedia's top medical contributors!

please help translate this message into the local language

	The Cure Award
	In 2013 you were one of the top 300 medical editors across any language of Wikipedia. Thank you so much for helping bring free, complete, accurate, up-to-date medical information to the public. We really appreciate you and the vital work you do!

Mars opposition

Can we do something with the opposition discussion in the Mars article? The word "opposition" as used in astronomy is technical and not likely to be known by our readers (perhaps not even the equivalent word in their native languages if it is not English). Kdammers (talk) 00:41, 4 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

At the moment I'm not seeing this section: can you point it out? Macdonald-ross (talk) 05:35, 4 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

At a glance, this might seem okay now

"It occurs when sulfuric acid loses two protons. If it is only loses one, a hydrogen sulfate ion is made".--Feel free to add this to any article, or to any Talk page.--(i will be busy fixing other articles). 89.8.134.252 (talk) 21:27, 8 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What is the problem with these sentences? Why were they removed? I added them back. 73.170.137.168 (talk) 21:29, 8 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Too advanced for our target readership, I thought. On this wiki it's not enough to be correct, it also has to be appropriate for a school-level readership. Macdonald-ross (talk) 06:17, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Mabu forest...

Hello, I brought over a tanslation of Mount Mabu, which might look relevant ot the Mabu forest article you recently created. Just letting you know.. Eptalon (talk) 09:15, 16 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page stalker) to^ :) Cactus🌵 ^spiky ^ouch 12:57, 16 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]