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NOTE: This is an archived discussion page. Please see the current discussion page for the latest conversations.

Dablink?

Whats a dablink? Why do you add it to a page and when? just curious. Pydos 17:49, 1 January 2006 (UTC) reply

Thanks. I'll add it now when i need to ensure disambiguation. Pydos 10:28, 2 January 2006 (UTC) reply

userbox proposed policy

Hi - there have been some slight alterations to my proposal (#4) subsequent to your support. I would be greatful if you could re-read the proposition and re-sign your name below the line if you still agree. Thanks, Deano ( Talk) 20:18, 2 January 2006 (UTC) reply

Val Valentino

Issue resolved. Thanks for your help. Fallon17

Fear of Criticism

Hey Mike! Why are you so touchy about seeing Lakoff get criticized? Drop me a note explaining your unusual sensitivity. Also, see my comments under the discussion section. Please leave my book on the list of books discussing Lakoff. Just because you want to protect him from legitimate criticism is no reason to remove it. Wikipedia is a community project. If you don't like my additions, then maybe we should get a third opinion, or go to dispute resolution. Wjkellpro 06:11, 7 January 2006 (UTC) reply

Well, seen one way...

It could be argued that the Glendale train crash is a subarticle of the Metrolink (Southern California) article. It could be that the article started as a small paragraph on the accident section, but grew too long. So the Glendale trian crash article was created to shift all the discussion and add more details to that article. - Hbdragon88 02:34, 8 January 2006 (UTC) reply

Images by state categories

Hi Mike Dillon-- Thanks for filling out the Category:Images of the United States set of subcategories and for the note about them. I'll help work on populating them. Cheers Malepheasant 18:30, 8 January 2006 (UTC) reply

UC Berkeley page

Yeah, man... I have only so much time and patience to edit and clean. It would be great to get the UC Berkeley page to featured status but, like you, I just don't give enough of a crap. I have a thesis to work on! Anyway, may your future edits be clean-cut and well-accepted. best, Joe -- Joseph Lorenzo Hall 01:43, 18 January 2006 (UTC) reply

BTW, I went to UC Berkeley too. Same year even (1996) :) Kaldari 01:05, 30 January 2006 (UTC) reply

Boxcar Betty

Hi Mike, I've added some things to the entry and discussion re. possible deletion of " Boxcar Betty", perhaps this will change your mind. Best, Dan

Elizabeth Zimmermann

Mike, I've been in contact with Meg Swansen, daughter of Elizabeth Zimmermann, about using some of the info from the Schoolhouse Press site. So far I've received permission to use information from their site to expand on the article and I'm wondering what I need to do to satisfy the powers-that-be that we don't have any copyright infringement. Jerry 04:28, 24 January 2006 (UTC) reply

re: Black Star redirects.

Let them die! -- FuriousFreddy 01:16, 9 February 2006 (UTC) reply

Brewbox templates

Sorry, wasn't concentrating. It's easy to get noinclude/includeonly confused at 2 in the morning! ed g2stalk 02:35, 12 February 2006 (UTC) reply

Copyright violations

Hi Mike, thanks for your note on WP:CP about User:Kiop, I've warned him. Let me know if you see any more cv's from him. Next time he does it he gets blocked. Thanks. -- Duk 03:26, 12 February 2006 (UTC) reply

Thanks again for the note, he's blocked until the copyrights start to get verified.
I don't think there is a specific procedure for cases like these. Jimbo recently set a precedent by blocking someone indefinately for this, the block was later lifted as the editor had (earlier) stopped the behavior. Reporting (like you did) at WP:CP or WP:AN is probably the best thing to do.
A lot of new users aren't familiar with copyright law, they think anything on the web is fair game. Or they don't carefully follow Wikipedia's policies. This user might not be a native english speaker, so if s/he indecates any willingness to be more carefull I'll unblock. -- Duk 03:12, 14 February 2006 (UTC) reply
User:Kalsi is blocked. I've been intending to go throught all the edits and clean up, just don't have any time at the moment. -- Duk 03:36, 16 February 2006 (UTC) reply

Black Star

Hello, Mike Dillon, and thanks your note at WP:RFD regarding the copy-paste move. I have fixed it, and all pertinent revisions are now are now in the edit history of Black Star (hip hop group). If you find any more of these, please report them to either WP:SPLICE or my talk page to make sure that attributions are properly preserved. Happy editing. — FREAK OF NURxTURE ( TALK) 05:16, Feb. 16, 2006

Kiop socks

Thanks for the link, Mike. I deleted and then thought better of it and restored Kalsi's Mata Tripta, which appears to be taken from a GFDL site. Let me know if you find any more suspected socks; if the pattern is convincing I will happily block them. It seems like we've accounted for all the images so far, but I'm going to double check. Chick Bowen 17:14, 18 February 2006 (UTC) reply

Sounds right, but it's too uncertain for me to delete it unilaterally (the CSD says "blatant"). Would you mind listing it at WP:CP, with a note similar to what you just left at my talk page? Either others will look into it, or I will when I have more time. Thanks. Chick Bowen 17:55, 18 February 2006 (UTC) reply
Now there is. Chick Bowen 18:09, 18 February 2006 (UTC) reply

OK, User:Kalsi is unlocked after indicating a willingness to stop uploading copyvios. I'm going through the sock's uploads now. -- Duk 20:06, 18 February 2006 (UTC) reply

Reggae cat

Hi Mike - no problems with this - or killing it - I came across it as a red cat on a reggae page and just finished it off to make it go blue - if we don't need it kill it ! Brookie :) - a will o' the wisp ! (Talk!) 16:17, 22 February 2006 (UTC) reply

Lothlorien Cooperative

bleh, computer crashed before the text uploaded...get to type this again.

Anyways, I'm working on the Lothlorien Cooperative, Madison wikipedia page (starting to, anyways) and saw your post on the naming debate that is going on (went on?) for Lothlorien "hall". To add to the complexity, Berkley's lothloreien is not the only cooperative with that name...in fact there are 3. The other is in texas - Lothlorien Co-op 1705 Mohle Austin, TX 78703 (512) 477-9448 - that's all I could find with a google search. Anyways, I'm new to wikipedia, and was wondering how to continue with the naming convention. Any help would be great. Alexhuntrods 08:50, 23 February 2006 (UTC) reply

A wikiproject for Wikipedia:Persondata

As you have been the only one to express interest in a WikiProject for Persondata, I figured I'd talk to you directly. I have never setup a Wikiproject before and I haven't ever been an active participant in one, so I am a little new to this. I am definitely interested in starting a Wikiproject. I also noticed a Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography and I am not sure if it should be possible introduced through that. Let me know what you think. -- PS2pcGAMER ( talk) 08:25, 1 March 2006 (UTC) reply

Re: Arroyo Seco

On a topic like the Arroyo Seco, my sources are many and some are so old I have forgotten where they came from. I live in Altadena by the Arroyo, so much of what I know is first hand. There are so many books on the trains, on Hahamonga, on Rancho San Pascual, on the Dobbins Cycleway, not to mention that I met his 92 year old daughter, the late Dorothy Dobbins Freeman, over 20 years ago, who imparted a lot of new information about her father and the cycleway.

I am a local foremost historian who gets a lot of credit from a lot of people. As a historian, I digest multiples of reference material until I have stories of my own, most of this is quite verifiable from one source or another, but I would be hard-pressed to remember which was which. Don't go pulling this article just because I don't have a list.

BTW: The test of rocket propulsion at JPL were done during the 50's. I used to be able to hear the rocket fire from my house in Altadena. JPL is an alternative campus to Cal Tech. Cal Tech used to have (may still have) a wind tunnel which used to growl late in the evening over the Pasadena nights. I think this was done in the 30' and 40's

Magi Media 03:18, 11 March 2006 (UTC)Magi Media reply

Thanks again for writing me! I've had my articles messed with before, and I never know who's temperamental out there. HOWEVER, some of the best deep history on Pasadena I have read comes from the Hiram Reid book on Pasadena written in 1895. He was a local physician with an exacting way of writing and apparently proud to be one of the new Pasadenans. The book is like a 6x9" hard-bound 2" thick publication on the history of a place that was only 20 years old at the time. So you can imagine how in-depth it was written. The Pasadena library has one of the eight known copies left in the world --- it's like a coveted collector's item. The book ended up being checked out so much (under lock and key) that I think someone at the library was afraid it might get damaged or stolen. So they had several photocopies made of it, still kept as in-house references, but useable by the public. Hiram Reid's article on the Naming of Pasadena goes back to Hahamog-na, because everything about those Indians rotated around the chief's name. So the land they lived on was called Hahamog-na. Reid used that as a tongue-in-cheek possibility for the first name of Pasadena. But even in his foot note on the Indians, he half teaches you the use of the language, that's how thorough he was. His work ends up irrefutable. Magi Media 13:50, 11 March 2006 (UTC) Magi Media reply

Wannsee Conference image

Hey Mike, thank you for reminding me about the copyright permissions for my images related to the Wannsee Conference. I'm sorry for my negligence about this. Also, thanks for the amusing reference regarding Liddell.... Schoen 05:31, 11 March 2006 (UTC) reply

Stub templates go below categories

This is because the stub category is less important than the real categories, so it should be last in the list of categories. -- SPUI ( talk - don't use sorted stub templates!) 04:50, 13 March 2006 (UTC) reply

What are you talking about? The stub template is in the same place - at the bottom of the article - whether or not it's above or below the categories in the wikicode. It's not really part of the article, so it should be at the end. -- SPUI ( talk - don't use sorted stub templates!) 04:58, 13 March 2006 (UTC) reply
I don't negotiate with trolls. Mike Dillon 06:15, 13 March 2006 (UTC) reply

Gabrielenos and Tongvas

Mike! I see you were a contributor to the Tongva articles. It is marked as redirected from Gabrieleno. In July of 2001 there was a bill proposed in Congress to give National Recognition to the "Gabrieleno/Tongva Nation". I believe this article should be moved to Gabrieleno/Tongva, one in the same people. But the etimologies of both the names should be spelled out. What do yoy think? Magi Media 04:27, 14 March 2006 (UTC)Magi Media reply

That's precisely the point I am making. For the sake of Wikipedia readers, if the name Gabrielino or Gabrieleno is entered, some entries go nowhere, and another ends up on the Tongva page which looks like a misdirect. They have only recently regained their recognition as Tongva and have been called Gabrielenos for a long time. But the article name is more important to readers than the tribespeople themselves, or am I wrong? Magi Media 04:50, 14 March 2006 (UTC)Magi Media reply

Rodovid.org

Hi, I found you from the category of Wikipedian genealogists. I wonder if you have heard of/been involved in any of the previous attempts at starting a genealogy wiki under the foundation. Seeing as you were in the category, I thought you may be interested in the new project proposal, Rodovid. This project is currently running at rodovid.org. I would greatly appreciate it if you could visit the site and give me your opinion of it. Any input at all will be useful. Thanks. -- Bjw e bb ( talk) 10:34, 26 March 2006 (UTC) reply

Bypassing redirects

Please stop. See this policy page. -- Smack ( talk) 21:28, 27 March 2006 (UTC) reply

Um. That doesn't even have a {{ policy}} tag. Also, the one you're probably referring to, Holy Cross Cemetery is actually ambiguous and needs to be changed to dab page. Please find your own stuff to do and don't bother me. Mike Dillon 03:00, 28 March 2006 (UTC) reply

Brew Box

Hi Mike. Are you the guy who is developing the beer info box? If so - great! I think it's a fascinating and potentially very useful item. I have been experimenting with the box but I am still undecided as to the right use. I see other info boxes that are useful, but I am yet to be convinced that our current use of the beer box is helpful or attractive. All too often I see brewery articles which consist of little more than lists of beers in a beer info box. That seriously limits flexibility and discussion on the beers; and encourages people to simply list all the beers they can name from that particular brewery. Also there is a focus on selecting a style name for a beer when beer style is mainly an American preoccupation - different countries have different ways of approaching the identification of a beer - in Britain, for example, the beers are identified mainly by abv; while in France the beers are identified mainly by colour. I have been experimenting with different usage of the beer info box to see what elements work best. My current thinking is that it is useful as an address box placed centrally at the bottom of the page, and should perhaps be designed to be wider. It might also be good to include one of those things that link people to other breweries in the immediate area. I like the location, owner, production, date of founding information. This is hard, mostly unchanging info. The beer listing is controversial, long and unhelpful. Anyway - what are your thoughts? SilkTork 00:12, 1 April 2006 (UTC) reply

Benjamin D Wilson

I just edited the article on Benjamin Wilson before I read your messages on discussion. You were right on about 90% of the points made, too bad they weren't in the article. The whole part was missed on his time in Jurupa (Riverside) which includes the discovery of Big Bear Lake. I have no evidence that he started the LAPD eventhough he was often asked to be some sort of Indian police from whom he got his name Don Benito.

As a local Anglo statesman he participated in the defense of California against the Spanish until which time the US became involved with the annexation. Apparently he lost a battle to the Mexicans, was taken captive, was to be executed, was reprieved and eventually released during the pacification (1847). His life was one adventure after another and multi-layered, from a fur trapper to a State Senator.

I may go to the article and do some story adjustments, but I was happy to see how much you accurately knew about the man. Magi Media 15:05, 5 April 2006 (UTC)Magi Media reply

Sorry about moving that article. Won't happen again. Magi Media 19:37, 29 May 2006 (UTC)Magi Media reply

Persondata

Having looked at the Persondata talk page, it looks as if you are right. Sorry about that. A bunch of other people were using article space cats as well in their userspace, and you were caught up in my attempts to clean up. Noisy | Talk 16:38, 9 April 2006 (UTC) reply

Image:Lastscan.jpg

Hi Mike. I've replied at User talk:Meegs#Image:Lastscan.jpg. See you there. × Meegs 04:45, 14 April 2006 (UTC) reply

Rollback of cities in OC in So Cal project

I am confused about the use of the list of stuff in the So Cal project. If this is only to list things that AREN'T done, why are you leaving some items that are already completed (i.e. not red links) in the Orange County section but removing others? Epolk 03:59, 28 April 2006 (UTC) reply

Anaheim Hills Section

Stop deleting the text from the Anaheim Hills section and replacing it with the information that was already there. I have done great research about Anaheim Hills, and I was NOT the original writer of this section as you stated in the Anaheim Hills discussion section. I did great research about Anaheim Hills and comprised it on this page, and you keep deleting the good stuff I put, and replace it with the nonsense that was there before. I dont know where on the website it says that everything has to be approved by you or else it cannot be put onto Wikipedia. Oh wait, it doesnt. So just back off the Anaheim Hills page unless you are going to improve it!-Ericsaindon2 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ericsaindon2 ( talkcontribs) May 14 2006 02:08

Stop wining to Will Beback about your problems with my edits to the Anaheim Hills page. I dont think he has the time, or care to listen to your constant complaining about the Anaheim Hills Page. I have revised it over and over again to suit Will Beback's wants for the page, so if you would like to change it to make it sound better or improve flow, go ahead, but DONT CHANGE IT BACK TO THE CRAP THAT WAS THERE BEFORE, or I will continue to change it back to my way! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ericsaindon2 ( talkcontribs) May 14 2006 04:40

-Are you going to return my message like you told Mike or not? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ericsaindon2 ( talkcontribs) May 14 2006 07:18

FYI, Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion#May 14 - Will Beback 02:35, 15 May 2006 (UTC) reply

You need to site your sources. I cannot just take your word for the facts on your user page. I am afraid that we will have to put a tag on your page saying how the facts on your page arent varifiable. Maybe you should follow the Wikipedia procedures and site all sources. -Ericsaindon2 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ericsaindon2 ( talkcontribs) May 15 2006 02:59

Mike Dillon, I'm new to Wikipedia (less than a year), but for the past six weeks or so I've been watching this all unfold with great interest as a lesson in Wikipedia politics, procedure, and relations. I think your summary on the Anaheim Hills talk page was well written, and your efforts to counter the disruption have been right on. Well done. Soltras 06:42, 15 May 2006 (UTC) reply

Are you happy now? I have cited all my sources as best as I cound on the Anaheim Hills talk page. Now can we just put this issue behind us, and go on editing on Wikipedia without the constant harassment we have both partaken in with other parties involved. Its inhumane of us to constantly insult eachother to other people or on other talk pages. I know that this small page seemed like a big deal that all of it was verified, and I am working on citing more sources and further verifying the sources, and working with city officials to learn some new facts that could even better the page. -Ericsaindon2/Es92808

Also, is there a way for a user to just create a new template that is not already in existence. If there is would you note it on my talk page for Ericsaindon2-Ericsaindon2

So where do you get all the famcy boxes and things like that to create the templates?-EricSaindon2

Sorry

I did not know I'm sorry. But I do think I've been un fairly warned a few time. The warnings from editing Pomona College and Jackson McNeill were totally unjustified so I felt that removing the notice was only proper. I'll leave them up for a while for your sake, but delete them eventually I think —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dingosnap ( talkcontribs) May 16 2006 06:30

Persondata again

I really like the idea of putting a title on for the table. Sorry if this comes rather late in the discussion! TheGrappler 19:03, 20 May 2006 (UTC) reply

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Collateral damage

Thanks for pointing that out. I think they've resolved it for the moment. Cheers, - Will Beback 01:24, 28 May 2006 (UTC) reply

Ok, I have tried to reason, work, and spent hours fixing things that you didnt like, and I still keep getting crap from you. I have cleared up the issue about the recruiting editors thing with the original person the comment was intended for. And the comment was NOT originally for you to answer or edit, but for the original intended party. SO stop trying to irritate and pester me for doing nothing wrong. It is because of your constant complaining and bringing up of nonexistent issues that keeps creating controversy on the Anaheim Hills page. Just stop instigating fights, because the Anaheim Hills talk page is nearly 30 pages of fighting if it were to be printed out, and the majority of the complaining is started by you! -- Ericsaindon2 04:50, 31 May 2006 (UTC) reply


FYI: Talk:Anaheim_Hills,_Anaheim,_California#Compromise. - Will Beback 09:57, 3 June 2006 (UTC) reply

Anaheim Hills

Would you vote on the Final Naming Poll on the Anaheim Hills, Anaheim, California page by Monday, June 6th at 11:00 pm pst. This is a collaborative effort to determine where the Anaheim Hills page will rest forever with no disputes. There are currently four choices to choose from, so go and check it out. -- Ericsaindon2 21:03, 3 June 2006 (UTC) reply

Please see Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Ericsaindon2. Blank Verse 08:58, 5 June 2006 (UTC) reply

Need your help

Hi, I am a new user who found your page by just clicking through links and ended up at Prodego's page. I only know a very little about editing and stuff. Could you tell me where I can learn to write wiki markup and find all the stuff that I need to learn while being here, if there is such a place? Thanks. Twasmetrec 21:42, 5 June 2006 (UTC) reply

Thanks

Hi Mike, thanks for your welcome. -- Dianai 13:15, 22 June 2006 (UTC) reply

Beer & brewery notability criteria discusion document

A discussion document has been opened up. Wikipedia:WikiProject Beer/Notability Criteria. Please put in your views either on the main page or on the attached talk page. SilkTork 16:43, 12 July 2006 (UTC) reply

Let's talk

Hi Mike. I am concerned at what people are saying, and I do wish to get to the heart of the problem. Clearly there must be an aspect or aspects of my editing and/or attitude that is annoying and frustrating people. I note that while you have had the decency not to jump on the current bandwagon, you recently expressed some concern about my editing style in the forum. The incidents that are mentioned are small in themselves, and - to my eye - are part of the collaborative editing of Wikipedia, moving it forward. I make very many beer edits, much of which is stub sorting which either entails a merge, a redirect, or an expansion of the article. It is not, to my understanding, in the nature of Wiki that consensus is sought for what are essentially everyday edits. But I can feel from your frustration regarding the beerbox, that there must be a pattern in my editing that you are uncomfortable with. I totally apologise for any aspect of my behaviour in the past that has annoyed you, and promise to do better in the future. I am hoping that with your help I can learn from this experience and move forward. Please talk to me and let me know your underlying concerns which the recent edits have highlighted. SilkTork 13:47, 19 July 2006 (UTC) reply

Thanks for your comments Mike. I have come to realise my mistakes, and the reasons for them, and that I have behaved in a somewhat arrogant manner in the past. I did behave, in retrospect, in a high-handed manner over the brewbox by making edits to the ones I came upon. I do apologise for that. There has been since then intermittent discussion of the brewbox but no real consensus. I spoke directly to a number of people, but those people tended to say that they didn't really care. I would be happy to revive discussion on the brewbox as I have noticed other people talking about it recently. However, I am not clear myself the best way for the box to proceed. The best boxes I have noticed are those which contain a minimal amount of hard unchanging information. Both the advantage and problem with boxes is that they are in a fixed format - so the person/people who create the box are imposing a control on future editors; therefore the fields should have an agreement and wide consensus of users. There is a sense in which the Wiki Beer Project may not yet be at the point where we have enough people to make such long term and binding decisions. But it might be worth bringing the matter up again as there is A) a desire to use a standard format such as an info-box - people seem less inhibited when using a standard format and B) a desire to list all the beers a brewery produces - a controversial matter which needs discussion in itself. Again, thanks for your comments. I do appreciate the time you have taken. Regards. 11:08, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Hurricane

I've seen your reverts on the pronunciation of the city Hurricane West Virginia.

I was born there and lived there most all of my life. I heard it pronounced "HER' kin" about 15% of the time, usually by those who would coloquialize the pronunciation of most all of their words.

Most all folks say "HER' a cain" as the usual dictionary dictates, in my experience.

Is your experience significantly different as to warrant rolling back my changes?

I simply said either pronunciation was acceptable. I feel pretty strongly that ‘embracing’ a mispronunciation is the wrong thing to do. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.116.28.20 ( talkcontribs)

Eastern Gate (Delft)

I've made a note about your edit (oct. 15, 2005) in Eastern Gate (Delft) on that article's discussion page. Please have a look there. Regards, Jaho 01:09, 27 July 2006 (UTC) reply

Hi Mike

I've seen that you are fairly knowledgeable on Dillon family name. Please can you give me your thoughts and ideas on the link with the Dhillon family name in India as there are many scholars who think the is a possible ancient ancestral link. Kind regards.-- Dfg12 14:32, 30 July 2006 (UTC) reply

As far as I’m aware, the connection given by Indian scholars studying this have sited that the Dhillons came from central Asia (the Caucasus’s) and the tribe split, one went north towards Europe the other half went south towards India. This seems very plausible as DNA tests on Dhillons have shown European DNA markers shared with Germans, Ukrainians and eastern Europeans (no one else in Asia has these DNA markers) so a possible Dhillon/Dillon central ancestral home in Eurasia seems likely.-- Dfg12 02:37, 31 July 2006 (UTC) reply

SP and IWW linkspam

Hi, Mike. I noticed that in the Boxcar Betty AfD a couple of months ago, you were able to identify an anonymous ip that has been included in a long term abuse report. I'm of the opinion that his actions are well-intentioned but counterproductive, and want to get in touch with him as a fellow member of the SP-USA. I was hoping you might know of a way for me to reach him, or pass this message on to him. Please let me know if that is the case. Thanks, David Schaich Talk/ Cont 16:27, 30 July 2006 (UTC). reply

Metadata wikiproject

I was wondering if you had proposed the Metadata Wikiproject or if it still being thought about at all. Thanks! -- Rajah 02:31, 1 August 2006 (UTC) reply

Chinese language templates

There seems to be something wrong with the Chinese language templates, but it might be just my computer. On the artcles China and Sun Wukong, the Hanyu Pinyin seems to stick out from the other scripts. I didn't find any problem with the syntax, so this might be just an isolated problem. Thanks. Mar de Sin Speak up! 20:21, 16 October 2006 (UTC) reply

Thanks, the problem is gone! Mar de Sin Speak up! 21:13, 16 October 2006 (UTC) reply

Delete link

Here's what I did for the JS. It doesn't create the link, but it does the DHTML portion:

function addDeleteLink() {
    var targetSpan = document.getElementById('specialDeleteTarget');
    var linkSpan = document.getElementById('specialDeleteLink');
    if (targetSpan == null || linkSpan == null) return;

    var targetLink = targetSpan.getElementsByTagName("A")[0];
    if (targetLink == null) return;

    linkSpan.appendChild(document.createTextNode(" Delete: " + targetLink.childNodes[0].data));
}
addOnloadHook(addDeleteLink);

I used it on the structure at User:Mike Dillon/Linkshere. Mike Dillon 18:02, 22 October 2006 (UTC) reply

This could probably be better generalized using classes instead ids. Something link this:
<span class="specialDeleteLink">'''<span class="specialDeleteTarget">[[:Article to link]]</span>'''<span class="specialDeleteHook"></span></span>
It gets a little trickier in that case since you have to iterate through node lists to check classes, unlike using getElementById, but the DOM part stays the same Mike Dillon 18:07, 22 October 2006 (UTC) reply
I'm sorry to say that I really don't know a lot about DHTML, so I'm not quite sure what you're saying, but the string needed to make the delete link is
'(<a href="
http://en.wikipedia.org/?title='
+ PAGETITLE
+ '&action=delete" class="external text" title="
http://en.wikipedia.org/?title='
+ PAGETITLE
+ '&action=delete" >delete</a>)';
where PAGETITLE is the page title of the page to be deleted :-). — Mets501 ( talk) 18:15, 22 October 2006 (UTC) reply
I think I have something that works in my monobook.js. It doesn't include the or the uninformative title="NASTY_URL". The first is for spiders only and the second adds no value (it turns that URL into a tooltip on most browsers). The code requires a support script to run: User:Mike Dillon/Scripts/easydom.js. Mike Dillon 18:48, 22 October 2006 (UTC) reply
It works perfectly! You can publish it now I guess :-). Where should we let people know about it? — Mets501 ( talk) 18:56, 22 October 2006 (UTC) reply
Glad I could help. However, I think you'll have to talk to your fellow admins on the publishing and publicizing part. I just happened to be looking at MediaWiki talk:Common.css because of the .metadata thing and thought I'd offer a suggestion for the issues around the delete links. I don't really want to spend any more time on it ;) Mike Dillon 19:00, 22 October 2006 (UTC) reply

Thanks

Thanks for fixing the misplaced bot tags! — Mets501 ( talk) 23:00, 22 October 2006 (UTC) reply

I've gone round and round with CyberSkull on the Unicode character issue (see the discussion page). If your perfectly sensible change gets reverted, feel free to add to the discussion and I will join in. — johndburger 19:12, 29 October 2006 (UTC) reply

My reverts of your edit on Template:Infobox Brewery

It was probably a mistake, since I've been reverting vandalism with some automated help that may have flagged your edit as vandalism, though it puzzles me why I didn't catch that it wasn't. Anyway, sorry. -- Robert 05:28, 12 November 2006 (UTC) reply

Templates

I might have to look for at discussion, but the reason its there is because not all So Cal editors look at the California WikiProject stuff. I would consider it a favor if you left it in both. -- evrik ( talk) 22:50, 17 November 2006 (UTC) reply

Both {{ WikiProject California}} and {{ WikiProject Southern California}} are already on Template talk:CA-FedRep. Do we really need the template itself in an inaccurate category? Mike Dillon 22:52, 17 November 2006 (UTC) reply
  • I just added them. :-) As for the discussion, it happened with Zzyxx. The problem with the California templates is that many of them are very off in the hierarchical tree … the thought was to make many of the templates readily accessible to both projects.-- evrik ( talk) 22:56, 17 November 2006 (UTC) reply

Vandalism?

May you please show what page? or a name i did this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nareklm ( talkcontribs)

Ah i see i was editing alot of articles i wasn't sure what 'Edit summary' exactly means so i did not fill it out. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nareklm ( talkcontribs)

Thanks for the help, But that was a new article or page i made myself so i wasn't quite sure to write anything since i wasn't editing anything i know about the page history but i just wasn't sure about the 'Edit history' thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nareklm ( talkcontribs)


User Page assistance

Thanks for the assistance. I like it better. My screen resolution is set a 1600x1200. Probably 3/4th of machines have a narrower resolution and it might not look as good on them. However, at 1600x1200 it looks O.K. to me.

By the way, do you know a way that I can issue a command to make all the userbox links not show up in my related changes page for my user page? TonyTheTiger 15:13, 18 November 2006 (UTC) reply

Mike, Thanks for the guidance. I will have to spend some time with these commands next week. I am tied up in another editting adventure and it seems that your methods will take some serious thought. TonyTheTiger 18:27, 18 November 2006 (UTC) reply

Mike, I am finally looking at the changes you suggested to help me use the Special:Recentchangeslinked feature for my user page in the presence of userboxes. I am not quite sure I understand what I am suppose to do next. So far I have recreated my user page on the subpage User:TonyTheTiger/Watch related with commands around the user boxes. What else do I need to do?

Thanks for your expertise, patience and promptness. I have by pirating code developed a basic understanding of the <nowiki> </nowiki> brackets. Basically, as I understand it these mean to print the text between the brackets without wikifying them into code commands. I am much less familiar with the even though I have pirated it once or twice as a snippet of other stuff. In your message you did not indicate that this needed a paired bracket. Is there a page where I can learn more about this command. Basically, I think I have done what you suggested. My page is now messed up.
note that you can look at my history to see what I have tried in an effort to follow your advice.

That is neat. Can I use these commands to transclude sections from article space pages. I am trying to transclude Cyber_Girl_of_the_Year#Cyber_Girls_of_the_Year to Playboy Cyber Girl using <noinclude>. I am encountering difficulty.

Oddly, you say main article space pages are not generally transcluded, but the example at Wikipedia:Transclusion is such a transclusion. I understand that what I want to do would cause problems if mulitple people want to transclude different sections of the article than I want to transclude because we would have dueling <noinclude> tags. At this point I was the guy who fought to have the page relisted and I am now trying to edit them. I could just copy the text or create a template. I think I may create a template and transclude it in both pages. I think that is probably the best solution. I have been asking at the helpdesk if I could transclude a section, but have only been able to transclude whole pages. I was hoping your tags might do the trick. However, it seems that the {{}} brackets default to template space if a space such as user space is not defined. Is there a way to tell the brackets to transclude from main article space? TonyTheTiger 05:42, 23 November 2006 (UTC) reply

I am not sure what the change you made did. However, I thank you because I am sure it was well intended and important. TonyTheTiger 19:05, 23 November 2006 (UTC) reply

RE: the Humboldt State Park Article.

My source for the removed information is an aspect of the park itself..its own auxilliary nonprofit.

http://www.humboldtredwoods.org/hrspcultural.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by Norcalal ( talkcontribs)

The website that was cited is a government entity who conducts the interpretation in the park. My goal is only to have the information available from the horses mouth. I can see from your other conversations here that it is more than just citation, but rather also about control. Its ok. I understand that human need. I may attempt to place the reference to the auxiallary organization so interested persons can find the information. After all, is that not what this is all about? Tks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Norcalal ( talkcontribs)

Thanks but no thanks...

Do what needs to be done. I have looked and found no way of destroyong my user account, though I have no doubt that you do. I am no longer interested in this process or the hodgepodge ridiculousness I have encountered here. No doubt it will only get worse. I need to be in the real world and leave this to those of you who live here. I am especially disinterested in seeing the return of the Eureka article to the ridiculousness of its state this morning. But so be it. Perhaps, someone who is willing to go through the motions here will have seen what I was attempting to do and do it the way you want. In the meantime, I am finished. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Norcalal ( talkcontribs)

evrik

Thanks for your message, though it is somewhat redundant. I agree with you, and if you look at Jeffpw's talkpage, I have explained my views there. :) Dev920 (Have a nice day!) 02:29, 19 November 2006 (UTC) reply

Dropping image preview sizes

Um, what are you doing? I agree user preferences work for users who are registered. But please keep in mind that the vast majority of Wikipedia visitors will never open an account (they're too busy with non-computer things like earning money, raising kids, and going to the bathroom), which means they will have no user preferences. Until the thumbnail default size itself is changed (the default width of 180px is just WAY too small for the widely used resolution of 1024x768), your edits will result in a lot of annoyed visitors wondering why the images are so damned tiny. For example, on the Economy of California page, the captions (at the 1280x1024 resolution I use) are as big as the tiny thumbnails themselves, which just looks weird. Of course, if you were to modify the default thumbnail size or get the sysops or hackers over on the MediaWiki side to do it (275px would be nice) then I wouldn't have a problem with dropping the px sizing from articles. -- Coolcaesar 08:09, 19 November 2006 (UTC) reply

List of California agencies

Hi Jreferee. I see that you found my abortive attempt to create a List of California state agencies. Feel free to salvage whatever you can from that page for the new article you created. Mike Dillon 16:29, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

  • I obtained all 500+ agency names for List of State of California agencies, departments, and commissions directly from the California state home page. Where the agency didn't have California in its name or lacked some geographic reference, I added California to the name for Wikipedia purposes. It took about four hours to get it all correct. Your list appears an attempt to create a hierarchy, which I suspect is improbably, even with this chart. My List of State of California agencies, departments, and commissions is accurate so please feel free to create a Ca_State_Gov_Orgchart for Wikipedia! (or at least post a request on the California project page for someone to crate a Wikipedia Ca_State_Gov_Orgchart using all the entries in the List of State of California agencies, departments, and commissions. California is not my bag, and I was just passing through and thought I would lend a hand. I suspect those who contribute to the California project are discouaged at the overwhelming task made even more difficult by the State of California itself.-- Jreferee 03:57, 20 November 2006 (UTC) reply

remove blog link (WP:EL)

I noticed the above edit summary on your edit at Satchel Paige. As one who has used something similar many times, I thought I should point out to you that WP:EL has changed with respect to blog links. Under Links to avoid, it now reads "Links to blogs, except those written by a recognized authority." I didn't look closely at the link you removed, but it looked like it might qualify under that standard. Still, it has to pass muster under What should be linked to, and I don't think it does-- it's pretty general info, that belongs in the article, not in a link. Cheers! -- Mwanner | Talk 16:18, 20 November 2006 (UTC) reply

WikiProject banners

This discussion has been reconstructed at User talk:Mike Dillon/WikiProject banner#WikiProject banners. If you have comments, please make them on that page.

Ah, the interesting things one can discover when going through Recent changes. ;-)

While I hate to rain on your parade, there are a few issues that you might want to keep in mind:

  • The templates used by the larger and more complicated (in structural terms) WikiProjects, such as {{ WPMILHIST}} or {{ WPBiography}}, have an arbitrary—and ever-changing—number of optional parameters (sometimes several dozen of them) that are unique to that particular project. (Most of these have to do with tagging subgroups of the project proper.) There doesn't seem to be any decent way of making these generic, given the current capabilities of MediaWiki; they would need to each be supported individually.
  • Some templates also include non-standard conditional logic based on the values of various parameters—even standard ones.
  • A common template for all projects would be included on 400,000+ (and growing!) pages; any edit to it would likely bring the server grinding to a halt. It would need to be edited fairly regularly, though—particularly if it supported per-project parameters.

(Suffice it to say that this idea has been proposed many times in the past; so far, nobody has figured out a way to implement it in a satisfactory manner.) Kirill Lokshin 05:21, 21 November 2006 (UTC) reply

The job queue helps, but editing extremely-high-usage templates still causes problems. This may not be an issue, though, if your design only gets used by the projects who don't need arbitrarily fancy features, as the largest ones tend to use them extensively.
The brewery design is usable in moderation, but it pushes the complexity out to the template call, which isn't a good thing; it also won't work if the code inside depends on the values of other parameters.
As a template for projects that can't or don't want to bother with designing their own, though, it may be workable (as they wouldn't be in a position to complain about not having access to all the more complex features). I'd suggest letting WP:COUNCIL know once you have something you think would be usable, and we can include it in the WikiProject guide as an alternative to the hand-coded version.
Good luck with getting things to work! :-) Kirill Lokshin 06:01, 21 November 2006 (UTC) reply
It's been discussed a number of times—most recently at the Council, actually—but I can't recall any extant examples of code offhand; I suspect that most of them reside in now-deleted sandboxes. My apologies for not being able to help out more. Kirill Lokshin 06:06, 21 November 2006 (UTC) reply
Clever; but, as long as there's going to be a bunch of ugly code in the project template anyways, it becomes more convenient just to keep the hand-coded version to retain the full flexibility of the layout and function there. (Of course, that's just my opinion, based on my experience maintaining {{ WPMILHIST}}; other projects may be willing to lose control over part of the template's code in exchange for not having to maintain it.)
(And, sadly, no, the job queue isn't very smart at all, and will purge the template once for every edit made to it; that's why edit wars on highly-used templates have sometimes resulted in the developers becoming quite annoyed.) Kirill Lokshin 13:40, 21 November 2006 (UTC) reply

Ongoing Issues with Eureka article

How should the issue of the demand that blow by blow reporting exist in the Article regarding local law enforcement behavior. The editor demands it and yet in the review of dozens of other articles there is no such "reporting." I also see that this editor lists his paper (equally billed) with the two major local daily's and yet no one would consider this to be the case. I was able so far to remove all the detail on ethnic cleansing as that was referred to in another article regarding the indigenous group in question. Shall an article on the Eureka Police Department provide a similar solution....And yet I and at least one other editor are clear that this POV and detail is not appropriate in a Wikipedia listing. Please advise. It seems that the article is hostage to this one editors desire to report his own POVin an international forum no matter what. Thanks also for very recent edit assistance in the Eureka info box. Norcalal 15:32, 22 November 2006 (UTC) reply

My restructuring for the WikiProject for Cities...

Please forgive an error in timing only...as a result of my large restructuring to come into agreement with the WikiProject for Cities...

In my retructuring, I to let you know that I kept all information that existed. In Fact, I left all information that previously existed. By th way, AS you will note the entire Eureka Police Department scandal is intact as written. My only error was to miss the recent changes you made this afternoon.

I hope you will both review carefully and be able to appreciate the work I did. I have tremendous respect for Eureka, the editors herein, and ALL the information that was present as I completed this endeavor.

My earlier irritations have been tempered as I have worked through newcomer status. Again please forgive my missing your changes this afternoon Norcalal 00:11, 23 November 2006 (UTC) reply

Mike, I am very concerned with the elimination of the Notes section for the compacted References only format. I have to tell you that in conversations with the premier expert in history on the North Coast, his number one complaint is a failure for respect of solid academic principles. Is the system you advocate REALLY better in that regard. As I see it, the Eureka, Caflifornia Article will have considerable additions to references in the history section alone. The cultural section has barely been born and that will require notation too. Regards. Norcalal 23:18, 25 November 2006 (UTC) reply

Ok then...Why or how were all my foot notes changed to the less formal reference section? This is NOT accepted by academics and whether we like it or not, they are the authority on published sources? And please show me how I can repair that change. Thanks Norcalal 23:33, 25 November 2006 (UTC) reply

RE: Acceptance of note for consolidated reference notation..."Ewww!" ...But I understand. Jeez, its tough around here...lol Norcalal 23:37, 25 November 2006 (UTC) reply

Janitorial work

You're doing a lot of great clean-up work. You should have a "mop and bucket". Would you allow me to nominate you for adminship? - Will Beback · · 08:01, 23 November 2006 (UTC) reply

Ditto! I'll second the nomination. Blank Verse 14:18, 23 November 2006 (UTC) reply

Template:WikiProject California

This discussion has been reconstructed at User talk:Mike Dillon/WikiProject banner#Template:WikiProject California. If you have comments, please make them on that page.

Thank you for adding the extra parameters to the two California WikiProject templates. When you created the new categories, you probably saw that I had already been using the parameters when I assessed SoCal articles in anticipation of your changes. Blank Verse 14:18, 23 November 2006 (UTC) reply

I took a look at User:Mike Dillon/WikiProject banner. I like it, especially the infoboxneeded parameter.
I wonder if adding a logoneeded parameter would be a good idea. My reasoning is that searching for good Wikipedia-usable images can be a real PITA most of the time, but finding logos and city seals (as well as city flags) is usually quite simple and something most wikignomes and wiki noobies can do.
Another parameter that should be useful for most State WikiProjects would be a county parameter (e.g. county=Los Angeles County).
On the other hand, I'd like to see the attention parameter disappear, since the only times that I've seen it used is inappropriately.
BTW: I saw you corrected imageneeded to Imageneeded at Talk:Compton, California yesterday. Since the parameters are case-sensitive unless you do lots of extra coding, I think that they should all be lower-case unless they are proper nouns. I went and corrected all of the other instances where I'd typed lower-case imageneeded, but I should have edited the {{ WikiProject Southern California}} template instead. Blank Verse 07:23, 26 November 2006 (UTC) reply
On second thought, I don't think the county parameter is that useful. Blank Verse 17:26, 26 November 2006 (UTC) reply

re: Category:California articles needing images and Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in California? It's something that probably should be discussed at the WikiProject Council, because the issue probably involves more than just the California WikiProjects.

What I am planning to do for the Calif. WikiProjects is to add the imageneeded parameter to all the articles that are currently in the requested photos cat. Then I'll delete or modify the reqphoto template so that all of the articles are then removed from the requested photo categoy, so all of the articles are only in one category. Blank Verse 17:34, 26 November 2006 (UTC) reply

After sleeping on things, I think that the parameter should probably be imagesneeded since most articles really need more than one image.
Also, a couple of wish-list parameters, although I will admit that I want them mostly because of the rather braindamaged MediaWiki search engine:
reviewed: This would be for any article that has been peer-reviewed, a feature article candidate that didn't become a FA, and even demoted FAs.
disputed: This would be for any article that has a current dispute tag other than unreferenced.
I've tried looking for those types of articles by, for example, going through the peer-review archives, but it would be so much easier to be able to add the parameter as the articles are assessed so that they would all end up in their own categories. As I've said, they're just pie-in-the-sky wishes, and if adding them is too complicated, I'll understand. Blank Verse 13:48, 28 November 2006 (UTC) reply

discussion at Wikipedia talk:Image use policy‎

Thanks for the heads up on this discussion. I intended to ask some questions when I got some spare time. Glad to see it's getting the consideration the issue deserves. — EncMstr 00:25, 26 November 2006 (UTC) reply

a request for further input

Hi, I noticed your comments at {{ main}} and felt that you may understand a specific goal I'm trying to accomplish. Essentially, the issue is with the way articles on similar topics do not maintain a professional consistency. For example take a look at the the organizational layout of Cat and Dog. You'll see that they have many similarily named headers (e.g. Reproduction/Reproduction and genetics, Nomenclature/Terminology, Characteristics/Physical characteristics) and that these sections follow no consistent organization. In a real encyclopedia, while each article is deserving of its own specific information (I wouldn't expect a section entitled Domestication in Penguin), they should still follow some kind of uniformity. My solution is to encourage the use of transcluded template headers that contain a small amount of the agreed upon text. Now since undertaking the problems associated with animals, biographies, books, or other such large scopes would be a vast undertaking for an admittedly experimental idea, I thought that bringing some order the Pokemon species articles would be a good test. However I have met with mixed reviews at the wikiproject dealing with pokemon, the main concern being vandalism. The other opinion is that templates shouldn't be used for small amounts of text and the threat of vandalism makes it an unnecessary risk. ( discussion) The templates I created and proposed can be found at {{ PokePage}}. It's basically a subst'd template that disseminates all the others. There's been disagreement about boilerplate text, so even though the main template still puts introductory templates into the article, this isn't necessarily a key point and will likely be removed. I want an outsider's opinion, someone who is familiar with templates, and understands their uses outside of esoteric and complex code. I really think this would be good for the whole encyclopedia, but I want to know what someone else thinks. - ΖαππερΝαππερ Babel Alexandria 15:53, 28 November 2006 (UTC) reply

Re: Nakhichevan

Nakhichevan was one of those articles (next to Nagorno-Karabakh) that was a center of Armenian-Azeri POV disputes and edit wars. That changed when Armenian and Azeri editors (myself included) made an all-out effort to work with one another and to POV it once and for all. The project involved extensive research and several debates. I am somewhat proud to say that the article has been virtually unchanged since we completed work on it this past summer. -- Clevelander 22:51, 29 November 2006 (UTC) reply

DillonBot

Unblocked - sorry, but better to be safe than sorry. Also, it would really help if you create the new user whilst logged into this account - as then we can see an actual registered user has made it rather than, say, some random school kid ;) Thanks!  Glen  02:44, 4 December 2006 (UTC) reply

No worries - if it has no edits why not just create the new bot name rather than the hoops of the rename process?  Glen  02:53, 4 December 2006 (UTC) reply

Pipe trick

Do you know about the pipe trick? [[Glendale, California|]] or [[Exposition Park (Los Angeles)|]] become Glendale and Exposition Park. It's my favorite Wikipedia trick. - Will Beback · · 21:06, 9 December 2006 (UTC) reply

Thanks

Thanks for fixing my subst. What went wrong? Dev920 (Have a nice day!) 23:17, 9 December 2006 (UTC) reply

SETTING UP A CATEGORy

Hi

Yes I would very much like you to help me set up a category entitled "Wikipedians who use their real name, not a pseudonym, and would like to encourage everyone to do so." And tell me how to join it (and in general how to join other categories)

It is absolutely fine if you don't then join yourself! Thanks John

http://www.johncmullen.net —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Johncmullen1960 ( talkcontribs) 14:17, 11 December 2006 (UTC). reply

I'm Back!

Hi Mike.

I've been persuaded (against my better judgement) to come back to Wiki and do more work on the Beer Project. Anything interesting happen while I was away? Cheers! SilkTork 17:33, 12 December 2006 (UTC) reply

Thanks!

I just wanted to thank you for your very welcome and well-informed contributions to the discussion yesterday on the Beer project talk page. I have long felt that many of the beer articles seem to have been modified by fans of the bjcp who never fail to leave a link to the "mothership" behind and also include very inaccurate information (from the same source). Anyhow, I just wanted to thank you personally and say that I look forward to seeing other contributions from you in the beer project. Mikebe 12:39, 13 December 2006 (UTC) reply

Announcement

Announcement
The " Help name my baby" Poll has closed :). Greta Annette was born 12/12/06. She weighs 6lbs 14oz and is 19inches long. Mother and baby are both doing fine. Thanks for all the suggestions!

To keep this slightly Wikipedia related I have started Adopt a State, so adopt your state article today! - Ravedave ( help name my baby) 03:45, 15 December 2006 (UTC) reply

lyrics

Excuse me, but why single me out on linking to a lyrics page? Nearly every song/album or band article of any note on wikipedia has links to some sort of lyrics page. It's true that I run the dtt-lyrics site, but had you bothered to view the site, you would see that lyrics are not copied from lyrics sheets, and are transcribed by the efforts of several individuals. We are simply posting what we, as a group, hear, and most of the time it differs from official lyrics sheets (when they are even provided). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by MistaTee ( talkcontribs) 17:13, 17 December 2006 (UTC). reply

The user has done this with numerous other articles also. The key problem is that linking to lyrics isn't encyclopaedic, and mainly the fact it is copyright violation. Let's hope the issue is resolved soon. LuciferMorgan 22:33, 17 December 2006 (UTC) reply

Re: Lyric sites

You can see a small list I had done in the past at User:ReyBrujo/Tasks#Lyrics sites. -- ReyBrujo 02:46, 18 December 2006 (UTC) reply

No, that only indicates no article is currently linking to a page within those sites, only non-indexable links like talk pages. I remember only one site that had a kind of agreement, but can't find it right now. -- ReyBrujo 03:07, 18 December 2006 (UTC) reply

re: Welcome back.

Thanks. The way the editors were intentionally spinning that Michael Richards article had me livid. But I've just learned to stop worrying about the rest of Wikipedia not being accurate or reliable. I'd rather part of it be well-maintained than none of it. -- FuriousFreddy 12:23, 21 December 2006 (UTC) reply

WPSchools Template assistance

Hey Mike Dillon, sorry for asking during the holiday season; feel free to look at this next year. I'm working on a proposed template to replace {{ WPSchools}}, but I'm out of my league now. Can you check my work at: User:Jh12/WPSchoolTest1 to see if remotely does what I want it to do? I'm trying to add the importance and assessment scales as well as a 'needs infobox' parameter. Go ahead and make any changes if you want, or leave a comment at the bottom of the test page. I've also asked User:JoshLMeyer for help. Thanks a bunch and happy holidays! - Jh12 12:32, 21 December 2006 (UTC) reply

  • Wow, thanks so much!! Jh12 18:53, 21 December 2006 (UTC) reply

Lyric farms

Excellent project. 512 links to one site alone! Fortunately the linking to LaRouche sites is not nearly as extensive, and in many cases is appropriate, so I don't think we need this kind of power tool to handle it. Let me know if you need any help with the lyric links. Cheers, - Will Beback · · 01:53, 22 December 2006 (UTC) reply

33-166

Whoops, my bad. I meant 33-166 not 33-106. Cygnus 20:46, 22 December 2006 (UTC) reply

Is the Verdugo Mountains complete at User:Fpo/Sandbox? It seems finished to me. M&NCenarius 06:19, 23 December 2006 (UTC) reply

WikiProject-specific categories for references, etc

Your ideas about using a bot instead of unref and disputed parameters in the WikiProject article talk page banners makes a lot of sense. [Although I'm starting to wonder if all the new uses for bots may eventually have a significant impact of the Wikipedia's servers, at least this use could be only once/day or even once/week, and run when the Wikipedia is least busy.]

On the other hand, I don't think that using a bot for something like imageneeded would work well. It would be easy to find articles that don't have any images, but you'd then have to tag those articles that don't really need images so they wouldn't end up on the list. It would be easy to find any city or school that didn't have a logo in their infobox, but I've seen a few schools (mostly new ones), that don't really have an official logo or even an official image of their school mascot. I think the imageneeded parameter really needs some human intelligence and the ability to add what is needed.

As for the attention attribute/category, I think that I've found a good use for it now that I've discovered how to do something like a watchlist with categories (see the category RC's [recent changes] in the Scope section of the Southern California WikiProject). Articles with short term problems with edit warring or vandalism could temporarily be added to an WikiProject attention category. For example, any article on a topic that has been in the news recently usually see a short-term upswing in vandalism. You could tag the article with the attention tag (probably with a separate WP attention template instead of withinan WP Banner), and WikiProject members would know to check that category occasionally looking for vandalism without having to add the articles to their own watchlists. Blank Verse 00:40, 24 December 2006 (UTC) reply

Is there any easy way to see when articles are added to a category. The only way that I can see to do it is the way that I presume that Mathbot does much of its reports—it keeps an offline database of info, and then looks for changes. Doing it that way also has the advantage of being able to see both articles that have been added and articles that have been deleted to a category. Blank Verse 03:11, 24 December 2006 (UTC) reply
What I really want to see is, for example, everything that has been recently added to category:Los Angeles County, California or it's subcategories. I think that the only way that can be done is by bot. Blank Verse 03:47, 24 December 2006 (UTC) reply

thanks...

Hey I'm pretty new here... thanks for the help with the redirects- Benito Crawford 17:33, 22 December 2006 (UTC) reply

More thanks, then. I'm going to finish this job up the long way (only a few left!) and then figure out the popups... Benito Crawford 17:41, 22 December 2006 (UTC) reply
Ah, good call. Benito Crawford 17:42, 22 December 2006 (UTC) reply
So, I am quite enjoying the popups, but I'm afraid I can't get them to do what you describe! When I hover over a link to a redirect page, what do I click to make it switch the link? thanks for your help- Benito Crawford 00:39, 24 December 2006 (UTC) reply
Never mind, I figured it out- Benito Crawford 16:47, 24 December 2006 (UTC) reply

Because I disagreed with the sentence, "...and should be used in place of this raster image whenever possible". Is there an official policy that says we have to replace PNGs with SVGs? Khoi khoi 06:01, 29 December 2006 (UTC) reply

No, the flag is alright (although not totally accurate yet)...I just hate SVG images in general. I wasn't aware that it was a policy. Oh well. Khoi khoi 06:10, 29 December 2006 (UTC) reply
The SVG image of the flag is still not 100% accurate. Compare this to this. Besides the font being completely different, the star is also smaller, and in a slightly different location. Khoi khoi 06:18, 29 December 2006 (UTC) reply
This is an official Californian governmental website, and the flag looks different from the SVG version. Khoi khoi 06:23, 29 December 2006 (UTC) reply
Well the SVG flag is also "wrong". Khoi khoi 06:28, 29 December 2006 (UTC) reply