TheStorminMormon

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am the user named "IonNerd" who provided a new translation of the Cyrus Cylinder. You provided some harsh criticism of my work, and I would like the chance to respond.

First, I just want to say that I acknowledge the validity of your criticisms, and I now understand why I should not have included my own interpretation of the text. I am new to Wikipedia, and my inexperience shows. However, calling my postings "unprofessional" is, in my own biased opinion, missing the point. I provided a scholarly translation of the Cyrus Cylinder. As far as I know, no one has done that before for that particular Wikipedia article. The source I used is a textbook that collected various documents concerned with the history of the ancient near east. The translation that was posted before mine was, if I am not mistaken, taken from the Internet, so its veracity is very hard to ascertain. Before attacking me for my "unprofessionalsim" or because I made spelling errors, please consider that I have provided a scholarly piece of primary evidence. If you are such an expert on Wikipedia, then maybe you should have taken the time to dig through books and copy out the translation of the entire Cyrus Cylinder. You may have noticed that it is very long and in a fragmented form (hence the number of lacunae); it took a fair amount of time and effort to copy it out.

I do not wish to start an argument. I reiterate that I understand and acknowledge your criticisms, but I am asking you to please tone down the rhetoric. The Cyrus Cylinder article is, quite frankly, something of a mess already because everyone has been using it as a forum to voice their own ideological or nationalistic sentiments. I merely tried to find an unbiased translation from an accepted scholarly source. I apologize for going beyond that, and you can be sure that I will be more careful in the future. But calling my post "unprofessional" is, in my own biased opinion, ignoring the contribution that this better translation can make to the article in question.

Sincerely, IonNerd

P.S.: If you would like to respond to this letter (even though I neither expect it nor request a reply because I do not want a fight to erupt from this), I have marked this page on my Watch List, so I can be alerted if you do post a reply.

In some benign wp:CANVASSING

Community input is politely requested for Jimbo's tkpg with regard ur expertise in gen. notability per wp:GNG & applicabilities of eg wp:PROF, wp:AUTH, etc. w/in AfD's
... here: User talk:Jimbo Wales#Suggested fix.--Hodgdon's secret garden (talk) 00:45, 28 March 2017 (UTC)