Phil Gyford

Articles

Phil Gyford has written four articles:

Annotations and comments

Phil Gyford has posted 773 annotations/comments since 27 December 2002.

Comments

First Reading

About Claire Tomalin answers questions

Phil  •  Link

I haven't changed anything on this site! Maybe you've changed your default text size in IE's View menu? Anyway, I'm glad it's working - email me if you want to continue this further!

About Claire Tomalin answers questions

Phil  •  Link

The problems may be related. I'll pick up any lessons I learn from that experiment and try them here and we can move on from there.

About Guidelines for annotations

Phil  •  Link

Replying to Hhomeboy's comment here: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

First, I posted "commentary" on that page to tell others I'd noticed your error in posting another overly-long annotation and that the matter was being dealt with; to prevent further off-topic posts.

Second, as the FAQ states, entries are posted at 11pm UK time. Sometimes I make a mistake and it doesn't happen then. So sue me. I'm not going to log on every day at 11 for the next nine years to make sure things are up-to-date.

As *you* are aware, I am working on a discussion forum. But I have to work for a living and a decent long-term solution is not going to happen overnight. I'm sorry if you're too impatient to wait 7-10 days (which I mentioned over email) until you can post your lengthy thoughts on the diary.

If you think I have an obsession with length you are looking at my complaints superficially. My utmost concern is with making this a site that others find valuable, enjoyable and usable. Lengthy posts that have no immediate relevance obstruct this aim.

I may well be asking for moderators for a forum. However, I can assure you that if I do I'll be looking for people who have shown evidence of sensitivity towards their fellow diary readers and and the ability to follow a service's ground rules.

If you continue to post long annotations that have little immediate relevance to the day's entry I can and will stop you from posting. I'd prefer not to because, as others have said, you have valuable things to say. But it's possible to say them far more concisely and to hold back on other material for a week or two.

About Monday 5 March 1659/60

Phil  •  Link

Email sent to Hhomeboy:
"Hhomeboy, please make your annotations shorter in future. I don't want to restrict yours or anyone's access to posting annotations but I am prepared to do so."

About Claire Tomalin answers questions

Phil  •  Link

Re font sizes...

It concerns me that some people are still having problems with fonts being too small as I thought I'd fixed it, and I can't replicate the problem on any browser I try. I'd really appreciate it if those with problems try my experiment here, which should help me solve the problem: http://www.gyford.com/phil/writin… Thanks!

About Viol

Phil  •  Link

Viol. From Wheatley

About Poor Knights of Windsor

Phil  •  Link

Not technically politics or government, but the best place for this to live for the moment.

About Billingsgate

Phil  •  Link

Latham gives the location of the fish market as being "below London Bridge."

About Saturday 3 March 1659/60

Phil  •  Link

Or some American could give this Brit a definition (judging solely from HHomeboy's email address and domain name, he's in America). Clear language is good.

About Guidelines for annotations

Phil  •  Link

Pauline: The post *was* irrelevant to that day's entry. Sure, it was relevant to the diary as a whole, so the poster could have emailed me and asked me what should be done with it. I'd probably have posted it in this section.

Censorship was used to make the site more usable for people and remove irrelevant annotations -- once the original annotation was removed the handful following it were also irrelevant. They certainly weren't removed to "save faces".

You ask if someone can be censored for "a dogged interest in some topic raised by an entry." Although there are limits the general answer is no, because it would be a topic raised by an entry, whereas the annotation concerned was not related to the entry.

About Guidelines for annotations

Phil  •  Link

Michael [Hayward]: On this occasion the editorial cleanup was not in service to posterity but to immediate usefulness. People had already complained about the length of the post (1,477 words). It was also entirely irrelevant to the diary entry and did not continue on from any previous annotation (which makes topic drift more acceptable).

About Ralph Widdrington

Phil  •  Link

This page http://26.1911encyclopedia.org/W/… says this about Ralph:

"Ralph Widdrington (d. 1688), was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he made the acquaintance of Milton. In 1654 he was appointed regius professor of Greek at Cambridge, and in 1673 Lady Margaret professor of divinity."

He was also, according to Latham & Matthews, the tutor of John Pepys, Samuel's younger brother, at Christ's College.