Talk:Checkpoint Charlie

	Poo Lit Surprise-Winning Article
This article was chosen as the Best Re-write in the Summer 2013 Poo Lit Surprise writing competition.

		This article was nominated for deletion on June 10, 2013. The result of the discussion was Keep.

I wouldnt mind keeping this page nice, short and succinct. Making it an actual checkpoint would be mildly entertaining, I think. Perhaps add as many languages as possible (Thedivinebovine 03:28, 7 June 2007 (UTC))

It's a nice try, but I'm not sure why I should actually be laughing at it, if you see what I mean... -- (but) Untrue  Whhhy?Whut?How? *Back from the dead* 18:22, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

It is a literal checkpoint on the way to the Berlin Article, as opposed to an article on the checkpoint. Is this unfunny? If so, just give me a second opinion and I'll take the article in a different and/or more extended direction. (Thedivinebovine 18:26, 7 June 2007 (UTC))

Second opinion: It's a nice concept, but something there is missing. You could try a full page graphic version of the page to make it more checkpointy like, ask Spang about it, he's good with that sort of stuff....~ 21:30, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Proofreading

The second word of the Russian(?) text "ВЫ ВЫХОДИТЕ ИЗ АМЕРИКАНСКОГО СЕКТОРА" doesn't match what is on the picture of the sign. Could somebody please investigate the situation? Thanks. --Pentium5dot1 00:26, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Notified Tepples. OT: Does anyone have objections to Tepples' insertion of a line in Toki Pona? --Pentium5dot1 21:22, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

I fixed Russian. I don't know Russian, but I do know enough about the Cyrillic alphabet to operate Character Map. But are there any Esperanto or Volapük speakers on this wiki? --Tepples 22:09, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm the one who just objected to your use of Toki Pona. Upon careful consideration, it seems to be an anachronism in this context. Esperanto and Volapük might be okay for inclusion in the article, since they did exist while Checkpoint Charlie was in operation. --Pentium5dot1 07:01, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

(arbitrary outdent) An unregistered user added a ja: interwiki link a while back, but the ja: page seems to be just a fork of this one; it doesn't actually have a Japanese translation of the Checkpoint Charlie message on it. (I am quite illiterate in Japanese, though, so I could be missing something.) Can anyone help find the proper Japanese translation? --Pentium5dot1 ^t/_{c ~^_^~} 20:46, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Japanese has been taken care of; see below. --Pentium5dot1|t~^_^~c 04:32, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

very good

good article very amusing, keep it like this Staringelf 04:50, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

New languages/grammar/pig latin

I added several new languages. However, as it was only for the expansion of the article, I have no idea (except for Czech, which I can speak) if any of them have proper grammar (if that doesn't matter, then nevermind). Also, the translator I used didn't make them all in capital letters, so i'll fix those which are all in the normal/Latin alphabet. Those that aren't or have funny additions on the letter, I can't fix. And finally, I'm not sure if Pig Latin was contructed before 1961, and Wikipedia doesn't say so. If it wasn't, you can take it off. Kareljanis, 9:48, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Pig Latin is more accurately considered a language game rather than a typical constructed language, so I would prefer not to include it. I think the point is to only include languages that could plausibly have been used on the Checkpoint Charlie sign had it been visible to speakers of more languages at the time of its use. Also, do some of the languages you added lack a proper translation for "American"? Did you use a machine translator? --Pentium5dot1|t~^_^~c 04:35, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

I'll take off Pig Latin then. Yes, I did use a machine translator, but I could probably fix it by seeing how America is translated on foreign language sites (like Wikipedia in other languages). Kareljanis 9:15, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

OY VEY, No Hebrew? I guess that would spoil the whole joke, would it? How about translating the sentence in one more (and I mean one more) rare, unusual and interesting language? Cherokee would be nice, the kind of military codes the U.S. government used in WWII to stump the Germans and Japanese alike. The Cherokee have their very own alphabet! Tsa-La-Gee! +

'Ꮂ?' 71.102.3.122 17:21, October 31, 2011 (UTC)

Re-write talk page

Not finished yet please do not misinterpret this as my final version of the improvement to Checkpoint Charlie Article. Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 10:27, June 11, 2013 (UTC)

Scott, nothing in userspace gets misinterpreted as final anything. However, this draft, like the original, still suffers from the one substantive thing HTBFANJS has to say about lists (the non-substantive thing being their tendency to attract Anons like moths): that it tells the same joke over and over and over. For example, the absurdity of rendering it in Cherokee comes only after the absurdity of rendering it in multiple different Cyrillic languages. When nominating this, I never did get to the end and notice that the German-language version was smaller, which is the punch line. I bet few readers will. Spıke Ѧ 11:41 11-Jun-13

The list does need to be cut down. No more than 10, in my opinion, and make them larger to contrast with the German. I, personally, don't think a British English version is worth it either. Keep it as simple as possible, and put the picture in so people know what it's parodying. Sir Reverend P. Pennyfeather (fancy a chat?) CUN VFH PLS 11:47, June 11, 2013 (UTC)

You claim I did not need to tell people this wasn't final and then you complain about what I have produced. The only part of the article I have made is the first three lines I do not intend to have the whole list. Now please as I say interpret it as unfinished. Some of the content displayed on that page may be there when it is finished it may not at the moment I have dumped original article on for working on! Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 11:55, June 11, 2013 (UTC)

Not meant as complaints (at least, not yet) but rather as advice. Take it or leave it as you will. Sir Reverend P. Pennyfeather (fancy a chat?) CUN VFH PLS 12:01, June 11, 2013 (UTC)

Ok, but I do know the rules Reverend and thanks for the advice on British I'll chop it out then. Thank you. Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 12:06, June 11, 2013 (UTC)

Language List

I have cut down the list to seven languages and made it so that English speakers get the joke. I have also photoshopped an image of the sign and replaced it with my words so that no one can extend the list. Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 08:13, June 19, 2013 (UTC)

If this a competition, are we not allowed to help others with language, etc. For example, you said in the caption "acuurate" and I don't know if I am allowed to correct it or not. Anton (talk) 19:47, June 19, 2013 (UTC)

You are correct Anton. Please do not interact. This was just meant to be a statement to tell people what I had done not to ask advice on it. Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 20:35, June 20, 2013 (UTC)

Ultimate disposition

Scott, it's not a problem, but you have departed from the article's original intent, which was to be a gateway to the article on Berlin. If your version prevails, it ought not be installed between searches for Berlin and the Berlin article, as Pennyfeather, for example, envisaged. If we do have an article serving this "gateway" function (and also linking to yours), it ought to fit on a single screenful on a typical reader's page so he can get where he's going with minimal confusion.

Separately, perhaps you have deleted and retyped the Cyrillic legend, because letters such as "A" are rendered in my preferred font (which has only Western European characters), while Cyrillic letters that have no Western equivalent are rendered in a different font that has them. Please enlist Anton199 to retype this line on his keyboard. In Unicode, English "A" and Russian "A" are different characters that just happen to look identical. Spıke Ѧ 03:42 26-Jun-13

Actually, Russian 'а' is almost the same as the English 'а'. However, what confused me a little is that in the Russian sentence, Scott put several words with the real 'a' and some with the 'д'. 'Д' actually stands for 'd' and if you replace it sometimes in the sentence, why do you leave the rest normal? Then you have to replace it everywhere. Anton (talk) 05:41, June 26, 2013 (UTC)

Spike I understand about the gateway idea however I personally do not think that was a good idea. As you yourself said people no longer need to travel through Checkpoint Charlie so let us be a bit more up-to-date. It is now an article and I will not put it in as the link to get into berlin.

I am slightly confused by the Cyrillic. I did not delete and re-type but copy and paste. I hope that both of you can see that half of it is Ruaaian but the joke half is made-up so that an English person can get the joke. I did mean to put in a mixture of "A"s and "Д"s as I was already aware that the Russian letter meant "D" (I actually learnt some Russian at a school club for a year) hence an English person would see that both are meant to look like "A"s but be tricked into thinking that a Russian person is reading proper Russian and therefore would see different letters where the English speaker sees "A"s. This enhances the fact that the writing looks like genuine Russian to the English-speaking reader (unless you are Russian, sorry Anton) but only an English speaker could make out the hidden joke. I hope that makes sense! Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 18:07, June 26, 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, it does and I understood your joke immediately but thought that you did not know about д being d, etc. It is funny even for a Russian person. Anton (talk) 18:24, June 26, 2013 (UTC)

Thank you very much. I happen to have picked up a bit about languages along my way in life despite my inability to learn them properly (bar Spanish, which is only because it is facil). I had a friend in my Russian club called "Dom" so you can imagine what fuun we had when we learnt the Russian word for "house!" Hence why I have always remembered that particular Russian letter. Personally I prefer the study of languages and how they have influenced history. Obviously you are much more of a language scholar than I am because you speak at least three languages fluently! Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 18:34, June 26, 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! But my French is actually worse than my English as I have studied it for four years only and English for 7 or 8 years. Anton (talk) 19:06, June 26, 2013 (UTC)

Vandalism

I feel some gratuitous editing coming on. Feel free to revert whatever you don't like, even if that's all of it. I'll put a version here and you can take it or leave it. Sog1970 (talk) 19:09, July 3, 2013 (UTC)

I am sated. Not that it's any better but see what you think. Further turd-polishing awaits before it would be fit for VFH Sog1970 (talk) 21:08, July 3, 2013 (UTC)

Hello, Sog1970 (is it the year of your birth?)! Scott is absent for a week from uncyclopedia and will probably respond you on Monday or during the weekend. Anton (talk) 06:11, July 4, 2013 (UTC)

Only just read this. You realised that you edited this during the time that it was being judged for PLS. I am also very humble to have one of my favourite writers come and edit my work. Checking edits now. Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 08:10, July 13, 2013 (UTC)

Oh, my bad, you made a seperate page thanks. I will add some of your suggested edits in as they are very good. Thanks. By the way do you think that it is VFH worthy then? Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 08:13, July 13, 2013 (UTC)

French

Not entirely sure what the "hablais" bit means. I can't find it in my French-English dictionary and have never come across it before. What did you intend it to mean? Sir Reverend P. Pennyfeather (fancy a chat?) CUN VFH PLS 17:22, July 13, 2013 (UTC)

I thought it was a conjugation of the french word to talk (which I have forgotten). I may be confused with Spanish here. Oh god, it's Parler! Too late to change now. The joke will be that French and Spanish are similar. Thanks. Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 18:10, July 13, 2013 (UTC)

OK, thanks. Congratulations on winning 1.5 times in the PLS. Sir Reverend P. Pennyfeather (fancy a chat?) CUN VFH PLS 18:13, July 13, 2013 (UTC)

Thanks mate, you too. I read your article and laughed at the wonderful British humour. Really good. Unfortunately I have never seen Promethius so I can't judge Modusoperandi's but I trust both you, Puppy and Romartus in that it was a brilliant article. Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 18:17, July 13, 2013 (UTC)

Similar style of humour to a previous one by the same author on Star Trek, which was also hilarious. Sir Reverend P. Pennyfeather (fancy a chat?) CUN VFH PLS 18:20, July 13, 2013 (UTC)

I have seen that film, I shall have a look. Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 18:35, July 13, 2013 (UTC)