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Revision as of 18:48, 28 July 2009 editSswonk (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Pending changes reviewers7,495 edits COI: reply← Previous edit Revision as of 00:19, 29 July 2009 edit undoThe Transhumanist (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers302,803 edits I knew I had seen your name somewhere. :) Welcome to the team!Next edit →
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::As an interested (but not COI) party, what would you think of (including linked list of marks), which includes IRYM as a mark for IRM on ?? Admittedly, it's not from the ARR (the one and only godlike source of this info, per NE2's perception of the situation), but AAR publishes VERY little info, in a manner accessible to non members. ]]] 18:08, 28 July 2009 (UTC) ::As an interested (but not COI) party, what would you think of (including linked list of marks), which includes IRYM as a mark for IRM on ?? Admittedly, it's not from the ARR (the one and only godlike source of this info, per NE2's perception of the situation), but AAR publishes VERY little info, in a manner accessible to non members. ]]] 18:08, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
:::Well, here's a first impression: it's from a hobbyist club, you could have made that entry for all I know. I'm AGF that you didn't have anything to do with it. I know nothing other than what I have read in the past few days about ]. It seems to me that it is something like an ] or an ], a pretty strictly controlled system of abbreviation. Is that the case? Unfortunately, as you stated the controlling body is not like ITU or ISO in its freedom of access, which should probably not be so but maybe they have a reason. Do you know why they don't publish a list? Also, in the link you provided, there is the statement: "The uniform ALPHA code is assigned by the AAR to all organizations that may be involved in handling rail equipment." Is IRYM even that? Is it an alpha code, or just a common abbreviation? The other statement on that page that is a red flag is the intro: "This file contains AAR assigned reporting marks that have been compiled from several sources. A limited number of common railroad abbreviations are also included. The list includes all active AAR reporting marks as of the mid-2008 plus many historical marks which are no longer in use." In spite of that, the lists are headlined "Railroad Reporting Marks" and the distinction of reporting marks vs. abbreviations is not made among the individual entries, i.e. there could be a marker like an asterisk next to entries which are not actual reporting marks. NE2 is being very strict with the interpretation, you seem to be approaching it much more liberally. If someone stated in an infobox that Puerto Rico's ITU prefix was "PR", that would be totally false. If the statement was "Puerto Rico doesn't have an ITU prefix, but they use the US ones, blah blah..." then really that's a misuse of the ITU field on an infobox entry – leave it out if it doesn't exist. I have to step away for a while, but I look forward to some answers here, I am getting curious about this. ] (]) 18:48, 28 July 2009 (UTC) :::Well, here's a first impression: it's from a hobbyist club, you could have made that entry for all I know. I'm AGF that you didn't have anything to do with it. I know nothing other than what I have read in the past few days about ]. It seems to me that it is something like an ] or an ], a pretty strictly controlled system of abbreviation. Is that the case? Unfortunately, as you stated the controlling body is not like ITU or ISO in its freedom of access, which should probably not be so but maybe they have a reason. Do you know why they don't publish a list? Also, in the link you provided, there is the statement: "The uniform ALPHA code is assigned by the AAR to all organizations that may be involved in handling rail equipment." Is IRYM even that? Is it an alpha code, or just a common abbreviation? The other statement on that page that is a red flag is the intro: "This file contains AAR assigned reporting marks that have been compiled from several sources. A limited number of common railroad abbreviations are also included. The list includes all active AAR reporting marks as of the mid-2008 plus many historical marks which are no longer in use." In spite of that, the lists are headlined "Railroad Reporting Marks" and the distinction of reporting marks vs. abbreviations is not made among the individual entries, i.e. there could be a marker like an asterisk next to entries which are not actual reporting marks. NE2 is being very strict with the interpretation, you seem to be approaching it much more liberally. If someone stated in an infobox that Puerto Rico's ITU prefix was "PR", that would be totally false. If the statement was "Puerto Rico doesn't have an ITU prefix, but they use the US ones, blah blah..." then really that's a misuse of the ITU field on an infobox entry – leave it out if it doesn't exist. I have to step away for a while, but I look forward to some answers here, I am getting curious about this. ] (]) 18:48, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

== Outline Update - Basking in the light of knowledge - 07/28/2009 ==

Phase two of outline integration (de-orphanizing outlines by adding links leading to them into article see also sections) is nearly complete. The better that outlines are integrated into the encyclopedia, the more use they will be to readers.

Due to greater exposure through outline integration, and with most of the OOK team on school summer vacation, development activity on outlines has increased a lot...

; New members

: Be sure to welcome our newest members to the team:
:* ]
:* ]

; News<nowiki>:</nowiki> '''''] survives AfD'''''

:The outline was nominated for deletion for being too general in scope. The consensus was overwhelmingly for keeping it.

:The most memorable comment was posted by ]: ''I like the poetic name, anyway. . "Master Plan of Pakistan" and "Rough Sketch of Bangladesh" would be good too.''

:Special thanks to ] for greatly improving the outline, and helping to save it from AfD.

:To keep track of outline AfDs and other outline-related discussions, see ''']'''.

; Who's active '''''on Misplaced Pages''''' this summer?

:Courtesy of ], ].

: It would be nice to get the most prolific Wikipedians involved with ]. If you can, find a good reason to contact one or more of them, and invite them to work on a relevant outline - or all 500!

; Who's been up to what?

:* ''']''', ''']''', and ''']''' have been working on the government sections of the country outlines. Being that there are about 240 of these, with critical information being filled in on each, this is by far the hardest and most important chore of this WikiProject right now.
:* ''']''' is working on a redesign of the top OOK page.
:* ''']''' has done an incredible job developing the ].
:* And kudos also go to ''']''' for his work on ].

Thank you.

Here's what else has been going on...

; New outlines

:Recently created outlines include:

:* ''']''' - '']''
:* ''']''' - '']''
:* ''']''' - ]
:* ''']''' - '']''

; Recently converted to outlines

:These outline articles, which were named "List of...", have been converted to an OOK format and added to the OOK:

:* ''']''' - was "List of Vietnam War-related topics" - '']''
:* ''']''' - was "List of combinatorics topics" - converted by ]
:* ''']''' - was "List of category theory topics" converted by ]
:* ''']''' - was "List of scientific method topics" - '']''
:* ''']''' - was "List of topics related to ancient Rome" - '']''

; Recently merged into outlines

:There are a lot of "List of" articles that are outlines. Some of them are on the same subjects as the "Outline of" articles. The following articles have been recently merged into OOK pages:

:* ] into ''']''' - '']''
:* ] into ''']''' - '']''

; Outlines that have been tagged
:Tags are requests to fix a problem or improve an article in a particular way. Unless we want the tags to sit there for an extended period of time cluttering up the outlines (we don't), it is up to us to fulfill those requests or attend to underlying misassumptions (if any).

:* ''']''' - tagged as Original research
:* ''']''' - tagged as under construction
:* '''] - tagged as in need of attention from an expert
:* ''']''' - tagged as not citing any references or sources.
:* ''']''' - tagged as an orphan
:* ''']''' - tagged as an orphan
:* ''']''' - tagged as in need of attention from an expert on the subject
:* ''']''' - tagged as an orphan
:* ''']''' - tagged as an orphan
:* ''']''' - tagged as an orphan
:* ''']''' - tagged as an orphan
:* ''']''' - tagged as an orphan
:* ''']''' - tagged as an orphan
:* ''']''' - tagged as an orphan
:* ''']''' - tagged as containing original research or unverified claims, and needing references or sources
:* ''']''' - tagged as an orphan

; I can't stress enough the importance of watching

: With so many outlines (now over 500), and a growing number of support pages (guidelines, wikiproject pages, etc.), I can no longer keep up. I need your help watching over it all.

: If you'd like to omnisciently view ''everything'' "from above", see this page:

:* ] - watchlist for copying and pasting into your raw watchlist.

:Or go to these pages (and click on "Related changes" in the sidebar's toolbox menu):

:* ] - a version of the above watchlist for use with "Related changes".
:* ] - a list of key pages related to the OOK, along with their shortcuts.
:* ] - list of discussions pertaining to outlines.

; What's next?

There are a lot of contradictions in guidelines related to outlines. I'll be turning my attention to fixing those.

The number of "Outline of" articles is rapidly catching up to portals, and will probably pass them by the end of the summer!

Keep up the excellent work.

''''']''''' 00:19, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

== Quiddity and OCD / Rock music ==

An implicit edit ban exists at the Quiddity talk page, so I am here. Re: joining ]: I've been in the fifth column, second entry for a while. The category of projects at ] is how I would organize it, thus making the title ]. If that is a project you want to throw my way, I would take it on as my first OOK assignment. ] (]) 00:11, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

: Go for it! ''''']''''' 00:19, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Revision as of 00:19, 29 July 2009


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Hello from Sswonk

Thank you for visiting my talk, and thanks for adding your remarkable talents to the Misplaced Pages project. I welcome any and all comments. I will maintain any feedback without regard to how it makes me look; I have blundered more than once here in Wikispace and want any help I can get to rectify and clarify my beloved topics. Thanks, and enjoy!

surf rock

Hi Sswonk.

I noted you added "surf rock" as an influence on Led Zeppelin. I was wondering if you had a reference for this? Listening to Zeppelin's music, I can't think of any songs that have any surf rock and for all the interviews that I have seen they have never mentioned any surf rock artists as being an influence on their music....--Zoso Jade 18:42, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

George W. Bush

Please stop. If you continue to vandalize pages, you will be blocked from editing Misplaced Pages. ViriiK 05:21, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Welcome to Misplaced Pages and thank you for your contributions. Unfortunately, an article you recently created, George Knight, Boston, may not conform to some of Misplaced Pages's guidelines for new articles, so it will shortly be removed (if it hasn't been already). Please use the sandbox for any tests you may want to do and please read our introduction page to learn more about contributing. Thank you. --Kinu /c 06:03, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Weymouth Fore map

I took a crack at making a map for you - that river is quite a bit smaller than the rivers I usually map, so I changed the style a bit to show the towns. Do check it as you work on the article as well - the stream data I have gets a little sketchy at that scale.

Boswash

Cheers to you, sir, for one of the most bizarrely fine edits to a Misplaced Pages article I've ever seen. You began by making an inflammatory statement that I figured I'd surely need to revert, then managed to so entirely change the meaning of that statement as to bring up a subtle point of great significance to the article that was not previously mentioned and that I had never even thought of. Terrific! Korossyl (talk) 06:05, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Route 99

Unfortunately, I'm not from the area so you probably know much more about the road than I do, even if you've been away for a while. Your draft looks good to me so please do go ahead and change the article. There are only like three people actively adding content to the MA highway articles so I don't think you'll run into any problems making massive changes to these articles. Also, excellent work with the maps! --Polaron | Talk 16:54, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

Late reply

See WP:ENGVAR. It explains the whole "British spelling/grammar for all British/Australian/New Zealand/Canadian/South African basically every English speaking country on Earth minus the U.S. articles" and "American english/grammar for all American articles" rules. Anger22 (Talk 2 22) 01:03, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Image:Ga_user.png listed for deletion

An image or media file that you uploaded or altered, Image:Ga_user.png, has been listed at Misplaced Pages:Images and media for deletion. Please see the discussion to see why this is (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry), if you are interested in it not being deleted. Thank you. BigrTex 02:16, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

RFC on Image:InvitationIndependenceDayGreenwichCT06201825.jpg

My opinion is the image is in the public domain for both age of the source material and also lack of any creative element. I would probably reclassify the image as PD-ineligible. Attribution of the image to E-bay is probably incorrect. Just because the image appeared on E-bay does not make E-bay the source of the image. The source would more accurately be the Purdy family or the engraver. Whether it has any value in the article is another point, but that should be discussed on the article's talk page. -Regards Nv8200p talk 03:03, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Re: Massachusetts Route 62 map

Thanks for the input.- Is it possible in QGIS to define the dimensions of the saved image? Or do I have to resize manually? --Schzmo (talk) 18:06, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Text editor

For the sake of comparison at the VP discuss, could you post an image of a text editor looking at a page with an infobox? - Taj Mahal would do. Cheers, --Joopercoopers (talk) 00:40, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Thx Swonk --Joopercoopers (talk) 01:21, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

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Thanks for the heads up

I've replied to your note in what I realized afterwards is Quiddity's talk page. But the reply fits there, almost. :-/ - Denimadept (talk) 16:49, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

re: template

The template followed the crusty/crufty bits which were weasel worded pov. I was riled enough to tag the junk. as long as the unencyclopedic "yuck" is gone the template can go. Unless it can be applied to other unreferenced "opinion" parts. Your call. Thanks for the follow-up. Libs 01:23, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. I hate "in pop culture" and "trivia" sections. Libs 01:51, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Bad form

Bad form swonk. Are the opposes to oppose again? Better to leave the original proposal in place and restate another for consideration, that way things won't get mixed up again. regards --Joopercoopers (talk) 00:26, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

No - unfortunately we have a frankly shite debating vehicle (talk pages)- refactoring the top of a debate after people have contributed reads with considerable incomprehension to the late comer - start a new section and start again avoids all that. please. --Joopercoopers (talk) 00:40, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Re: Your note. - At this point, it would probably be simplest to just drop the idea of adding anything to the guideline (to avoid instruction-creep, essentially), because if the language is full of caveats, then it will be unclear to anyone who wasn't involved in this particular instance.

Plus, if the hiding-div code is properly understood by all to be a potentially-problematic solution, and isn't likely to spread everywhere immediately, that lessens the need to rapidly caution against it. (The fact that it was happily removed from Cellini Salt Cellar is worth noting.) That all sound reasonable? -- Quiddity (talk) 17:13, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

66.66 IPs MOS violations

Please undo all or most of changes from August 30, 2008 by adding blue, white N,S,W,E plates on icon shields. This is violation of WP:ELG, and he should not make this changes until he discuss over at WT:ELG.--I-405 (Freeway) 00:14, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Curly quotes

Sswonk: See my comments in support of your desire to use curly quotes here on MOS. I think you have the right idea. Greg L (talk) 01:27, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Fore River Shipyard

Please forgive me for running amok with your white space edits. I have finished the material I wanted to add, if you care to take another try at improvements. Thewellman (talk) 22:27, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Tenacity

Sorry, Sswonk, for dragging you deeper into that curly-quote issue further than you wanted to go by quoting you. It’s nice that you had such a complementary and benign meaning to the adjective, “tenacious.” It is a great word because it has so many connotations, such as the Herpes Resource Center, which states that “…herpes simplex 2, is a stronger unit, is more tenacious, virulent, and strikes back, more often, so to speak.” So many connotations. Greg L (talk) 22:01, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Apology is not needed. The tenacity you exhibit is appreciated as well. Sswonk (talk) 22:15, 20 September 2008 (UTC)
Speaking of which :) I didn't participate in the discussions over the short-and-curlies, but reading through, it looks like it was you and Greg in favor. Greg doesn't want to push for it at this time; did any of the arguments on the other side persuade you, Sswonk? I lean towards a guideline that says use straight quotes, myself. - Dan Dank55 (send/receive) 03:22, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
The use of typographic quotes in publications and static electronic media is standard. It is not simply something I support in those contexts; it is the correct character glyph usage. My initial observation on the issue was not meant to "take sides". I gave my 2¢ on the differences between Macintosh and Windows key combination requirements for implementing typographic quotes, and soon thereafter answered a couple of questions about the reasons that Macintosh users may more strongly support typographic standards, and what those standards are. I never really meant to force the issue, only to make thoughtful contributions to the thread.
Greg rekindled the argument several days after I made my observations, and then notified me on my talk asking for additional comment. I responded to him on his talk suggesting that pushing for a change in the standard would be a losing battle, based both on the consensus and on the "relentless" style of a prime mover on the subject, SMcCandlish. After Greg responded, I took a second look at his proposal regarding "mature" articles and decided to lend my support even though I had warned him that it probably wouldn't fly. My suspicions were confirmed and reasonable arguments for the status quo prevailed with the consensus being in opposition to Greg's proposal. Then, a ridiculous edit war ensued. You would be correct in saying User:Fnagaton was "in favor", based on the edit history since I made my final MoS talk page statement on 2008-09-18. Then, User:Yecril snuck in a change that apparantly no one noticed, removing the "exclusive use of straight quotes and apostrophes is recommended" phrase in this diff. Ironically, that change stood for over three days until SMcCandlish reverted it while I was typing this response.
My final statement remains my position on the matter, and I am using typewriter quotes in all edits. Fighting over it is not recommended. The encylopedia is organic, not a finished product ever by its nature as a wiki, so my original comment about which style is correct for publications and static electronic media does not apply. Greg had an admirable idea, but ultimately I don't see it as being practical for wiki editorial purposes. Sswonk (talk) 08:46, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
That's an amazingly helpful answer, thanks! I'll point people here if they want to know the state of the argument. - Dan Dank55 (send/receive) 12:18, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

West Virginia interstates

Which sign drawing is right? 1994 or 2005?--Freeway91 21:05, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

2005, and also ask the WP:WVR for guidance. Sswonk (talk) 23:50, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Re WT:USRD

I have sent you an email. --Rschen7754 (T C) 08:01, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Or not, apparently it won't let me... --Rschen7754 (T C) 08:01, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Re: Noting a bug

Hello there! Thanks for that. Despite me being immensely proud of my user page, I'm afraid I've just "borrowed" parts from others that I liked, and pieced them together. I'm not entirely sure as to how to fix the bug.

Is it major? If you think there's a quick fix, I don't mind you going for it. I'm using Internet Explorer on a PC with a 17" TFT screen. :S --Jza84 |  Talk  00:34, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

Woah! Thanks for that! It does look terrible! I had no idea. I'm not very strong on thing like tables and the various formatting languages etc, and I think it shows. Thing is, I wouldn't know where to start to fix it! But thanks for taking a look at this! --Jza84 |  Talk  11:38, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Link Guidelines

Thanks for your help Sswonk. The guideline usage you explained certainly makes sense and I appreciate Misplaced Pages protecting content for users. We will remove the links we have added. Have a good night.(Mja butterfly (talk) 04:32, 10 November 2008 (UTC))

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Thumbnail photos in lieu of bullets

I'd like to re-start the discussion about thumbnail photos in lieu of bullets on the MOS:ICONS page. I would be happy to go along with the WP:Consensus after a thorough discussion there. What say you? Sincerely, GeorgeLouis (talk) 05:35, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

We should keep it at the lists talk page per Collectonian. At this point, moving it will only serve to confuse late comers. Sswonk (talk) 13:50, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

That suits me. GeorgeLouis (talk) 21:33, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Route 40

Hello, I reverted all my changes that said that these two intersect and I'm not going to argue with the redirect thing so I undid that too (I usually leave redirects but this was a case where the articles were batch moved, creating the redirects). I think the situation is likely as you describe. I know that Vinal Sq has signs for "To Rt 110" which is about 4 miles away in Lowell. So, my guess is that the sign does say Princeton St is Route 3A/Route 4, but it may be incorrect. That stretch of road before the beginning of North St may only have the signs for 3A along its length - gotta check. I'll detour through there on my way to work today. If it does not say "to Rt 4," then what is the correct thing to do? I always figured the closeness in numbers between 4 and 40 was no accident... Thanks, CSZero (talk) 14:26, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Never mind the Route 4/40 stuff entirely :-) The intersection in Vinal Sq. actually signs Princeton St as "Rt 3A to Rt 3." No mention of Route 4, which is sort of silly because the intersection where 4 begins, it's set up so the main flow of traffic leaves Princeton St and 3A to go on Rt 4, and Rt 4 goes to Drum Hill Rotary where you can get on US-3. Coming in the other direction, Rt 4 is signed off Drum Hill as North Chelmsford, and then again, you are not well warned that 4 is ending and you are merging onto 3A when you merge with Princeton I don't think. So, I will leave all of my reversions in place and thanks for the heads up and sorry for the mess! CSZero (talk) 15:47, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Led Zep

I don't have much time or enthusiasm for editing at the moment, but at a glance it seems to read a lot like WP:Proseline at times - ideally this could be ironed out. Also, make sure all your references are formatted properly (author date title url publisher accessdate, etc.). Just a few things at a glance... Giggy (talk) 00:41, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Tabbed Pages

I started a discussion of sorts here - contributions and debate are welcome although I'm rather waiting for the cabal to stop its ridiculous persecution of Giano before resuming full time editing. --Joopercoopers (talk) 18:38, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Tools

Useful checking tool. Do you know another tool which can check within markup text for certain words strings with varibales such as {{# etc? Google can only do the published text and the wikipedia search engine no longer seems to show up the mark-up texts like it used to do before. MegX (talk) 05:22, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

A contest you may be interested in

Hello, Sswonk. There is a new contest for U.S. and Canada roads that you may be interested in. To sign up or for more information, please visit User:Rschen7754/USRDCRWPCup. The contest begins Saturday at 00:00 UTC. Regards, Rschen7754 (T C) 04:08, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

USRD-CRWP WikiCup Status

This is just to let you know that you have been eliminated from the USRD-CRWP WikiCup. However, Scott5114 is planning another contest to open within the next few weeks. Also, there is always next year :) Good luck. --Rschen7754 (T C) 08:59, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Central Artery Revisions

What does that have to do with me? Kevin Rutherford (talk) 14:03, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I think that we can allow the page name to remain the same as it is before. In the case of popularity of names, Central Artery is allowed because it is more known than the official name. Since the state refers to the tunnels by another name, we could always put a disambiguator on the top of the page that indicates that. In the end, I really don't think that it matters what the name of the page is. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 14:17, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

City vs town in Mass.

I recall your changes to {{Massachusetts}} expanding the number of cities to 53. An editor is insisting that Braintree should be called a town. Your comments on this matter are welcome at Talk:Braintree, Massachusetts. Thanks. --Polaron | Talk 21:04, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

libellous vs libelous

Libellous is valid UK spelling. There is no reason to change pages to US spelling.--Scott Mac (Doc) 18:10, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

Just to note, though not relevant to US or UK articles, the Canadian usage is at least pronounced "libelious", though its Canadian spelling I'm uncertain of - "libellious" perhaps, I'll ask a lawyer or two I know.Skookum1 (talk) 03:11, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

re: disruptive user

With regards to Revan ltrl... perhap you might be helpful to look over these pages as I believe there are some similarities between perma-banned Dragong4/Zephead999/Zabrak/etc and this other editor. The Real Libs-speak politely 17:57, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

commas

The non-comma, non-period forms are common on highway signs in Washington, and regularly used in BC as well.Skookum1 (talk) 03:08, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Quincy

Hey, I think I may have changed my mind re: the Quincy seal and flag from our earlier discussion, but I wanted to see what you think. I know that the Quincy seal is wicked cool and artistic, but check out and . They both seem to be well-done and detailed. I'd love if the same thing could be done for Quincy after all. Thoughts? --King of the Arverni (talk) 01:03, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

I disagree, with the basis being my original reasons given on your talk page. I asked you to read the history of the seal, which nicely complements the image that we are using. But, to explain further I would like to point out that as it states on my user page in a Userbox, I am a graphic arts professional, and have been working in graphic arts for many years. I don't know how much you know about graphic arts, but based on the two examples you are providing I think it may be worth explaining the differences between the Boston SVG seal artwork and the Quincy seal. The Boston seal is what is known as line art. As the linked article states, line art is usually printed in a single color. In the Boston flag image, there are two colors, blue and gold and in the Boston seal itself there is only black. The Quincy seal on the other hand is a continuous tone image. It is currently in PNG format which contains a reduced palette of 256 colors from the actual thousands of colors in the painted image. It is not a solid color image, and if it were reproduced as one it would require thousands of curve nodes to simulate even a rudimentary reproduction of the subtleties of light and brush stroke found in the original. That would actually negate the efficiencies gained by saving artwork in vector format, like SVG, because it would be a larger file and would require significant processor work for the browser to draw on the screen.
In my opinion, the current file, which the city has presented in its documents as a color reproduction of a hand painted scene, is a very nice image. To be sure, there are less than perfect edges between objects, caused by low resolution, and problems with the PNG color palette that create some posterization. While having it rendered in vector would smooth out some of the edges, it would worsen the posterization and create a simplified, cartoon version of a very nice painted scene. The only place the file is being used is on the Quincy main page, as is logical in that it only represents the city, nothing else. It serves its purpose very well and would be rendered much less interesting if drawn as a generalized logo. I appreciate that you asked me the question, it's good to know that you understand I have concerns about preserving the integrity of the city's seal. Please get back to me if you have any other questions. Sswonk (talk) 04:52, 7 June 2009 (UTC)
You know what, that's a very good explanation. Sorry for bothering you with this again! I think it helps very much that you're in graphic arts and can explain all the differences between the Boston bits and the Quincy ones. That's very helpful!!! I've worked a little with art but no formal training and not recently, much to my regret. Hey, I was wondering if you'd know -- is this legitimate? --King of the Arverni (talk) 01:58, 8 June 2009 (UTC)
Yeah, that is from the state website circa 2002, here is the Wayback machine archived version. Wait a minute or two for all the flags to load, the site is slow. But, as you can see the image is cropped badly. If you are looking for a flag for the infobox, I could just create one like the following code to simulate that image:
110px Let me know and I will post it and you can add it to the infobox. Sswonk (talk) 02:46, 8 June 2009 (UTC)
That would be awesome, actually. Could you do any work making the seal we have look more like the flag seal, though? That is, the lines down by the year, the circles around the seal border, more yellow and less gold, &c.? I wish I were talented enough to do it myself! Haha, and I just noticed the Metrowest edits in the Mass. template; it made me chuckle ;-) --King of the Arverni (talk) 00:38, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
It may take all night because I have been considering doing it in SVG, but only for the flag, still using the painting image for the main seal image. I'll point you to a link when I finish the flag SVG so you can comment if needed before posting. Sswonk (talk) 00:49, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
By the way, no, the seal is the best version possible and is from official documents from the city, see the seal page on the website. The flag is the way it is again because flags use large sections of colored cloth to simulate the painting. I don't know how many times I need to explain this, but flags and embroidered patches, etc. are stylized and less complex because to recreate the official, painted seal with only a few colors requires that. They are by nature inferior versions of the real image, and it would be wrong to do that for the seal image in the infobox. Sswonk (talk) 00:59, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
Sure, I understand, although I wasn't talking about the seal itself. I was actually talking about the flag, which uses the actual seal in your example. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I'm totally with you now on not making the seal an SVG, so I'm not entirely sure the source of your frustration, but I'm sorry if I caused any confusion. You do realise that you've not explained the flag bit before, though, right? I was just saying that your idea of putting the seal inside a while rectangle with a yellow/gold border is good but that I'd like it to look more like the flag, real-world limitations and all. Speaking of which, I'm not entirely convinced the lines and the circles are necessarily the result of those limitations. I'd love for this to still be collaborative and for neither of us to take umbrage at misunderstandings. Please don't be angry. :-( BTW I think the flag would be just dandy as an SVG if that's what you think is best. --King of the Arverni (talk) 01:26, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
No problem, at first I thought you meant exactly what you just said, "make the simulated flag seal look more like the flag than the actual seal" (paraphrasing), then I posted my first post and somehow thought I read it wrong, who knows. We're on the same page now. I am doing something else at the moment but am going to try to get the flag out, colors, braiding and lettering with bars accurate to the one in the photo, some time tonight if not tomorrow. I was not really angry, just got a little confused. I should have made that clear. Good work on the page today, by the way. Sswonk (talk) 01:51, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
Yeah, sorry for that confusion. Glad we're still on the same page. Just let me know if you need anything from me; alway happy to be of assistance. And thanks! --King of the Arverni (talk) 14:00, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
I swear the border still looks more yellow to me in the photo than in your SVG, but it looks ready to be posted at Quincy, Massachusetts regardless. I would've done it myself but I wasn't sure if I could because the license said that it could only be distributed by the author. Really, well done. :-) --King of the Arverni (talk) 14:30, 18 June 2009 (UTC)
OK, no worries about the license tag at all. The license only applies to uses outside of Misplaced Pages and Commons, since it is directly available by clicking the image here. What that means is that if someone takes that image and uses it somewhere else, like printing a commercial map, they would need to credit me and include the license (see ). This applies to any image you find on Misplaced Pages or Commons with that license, as long as you are just linking to it here you are fine. Regarding the colors, I have been doing this so long I don't think about explaining things, so forgive me for not doing so. Essentially, as I mention in the image description, it is a representation of a referenced image in a different format (SVG vs. JPEG), so it isn't exactly the same. I did it the way I did to show the casual observer that the flag has a yellow seal edge and a gold border around the flag. It is impossible to show metallic colors on computer screens, which is also a problem in printing. In fact, special inks with metals infused into the ink itself must be used for the effect to be seen on a printed piece. You can always tell if a special ink has been used in magazines because the standard four color process method will fail to reproduce the shine of a metallic ink. Images always look different on different media, monitors, LCD panels, time of day, viewing angle, you name it. At any rate, the use of that hex color is intended to simulate the appearance of the gold cloth border - best I can do. Thanks for the comments, the image is ready to use. Sswonk (talk) 14:58, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Question: re: SVG tag added to fair use city logo File:Quincy_seal.png

I believe according to the image use policy, the image should not be converted to SVG as it is too complex of an image. It probably should be a JPG but PNG should suffice. Sorry I took so long; didn't have much time for Misplaced Pages last wek or so. -Regards Nv8200p talk 16:03, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

You might try User:Quadell. He knows a lot about images. -Nv8200p talk 17:53, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

MBTA table

Hi, Sswonk! I wanted to let you know that the MBTA table you added to Quincy, Massachusetts seems to not be working properly. I think you and I use the same browser (or at least we both use Macs), so I'm not sure if that's it or what. I might be mistaken and it just looks real nasty -- it runs into the pictures, doesn't seem to display anything, and feels especially odd stuck in the middle of that section with a general link to the MBTA site, so it doesn't appear to be much of an improvement IMHO. Was there something in particular that you felt was inadequate about the previous arrangement? I thought it served those who were looking for general transportation information well, though I'm certainly willing to lend a hand if there's a need for something else. Then again, for all I know you could've been just having some fun (like I was with the geographic location template, haha). Cheers! --King of the Arverni (talk) 22:34, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Ah, perhaps I spoke too soon for the display issue, but it still looks painfully large out of place to me. Is it necessary? I really think it's overkill but if you disagree on that point then is there at least somewhere else we can put it? --King of the Arverni (talk) 22:39, 19 June 2009 (UTC)
Hola! I forgot to notify you, but I left a message for you last night on my talk page. --King of the Arverni (talk) 20:25, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Quincy 'hoods

Hey, do you know much about Atlantic, Massachusetts Fields, Norfolk Downs, et cetera? I've found some info. that I'm incorporating into that history I mentioned on my talk page last night, but I didn't know if you might have any more sources or information, as well. The biggest markers left that I know of for those three places are the Atlantic school (which I don't know much about), the old Massachusetts Fields school that are apartments now, and the Park and Downs Union Congregational Church on Rawson Road, where Norfolk Downs met Wollaston Park. --King of the Arverni (talk) 20:30, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Not much. I am going to put a few links after this response, give me a few minutes. Sswonk (talk) 20:36, 20 June 2009 (UTC)
http://thomascranelibrary.org/htm/housex.htm is part of the main library photos collection (http://thomascranelibrary.org/htm/quincy.htm). Click on an address and it shows a grouping of photos including the address clicked. Then, click the "Additional Information" link where you can get pretty detailed descriptions of the houses and sometimes neighborhoods. The only problem is, sometimes you have to check the geography because it doesn't make sense. For example, I couldn't use http://thomascranelibrary.org/htm/305.htm as a source for the Quincy Point page because the geography is turned 90 degrees clockwise. Look at the map to see what I mean
http://thomascranelibrary.org/shipbuildingheritage/warrenparker/parkerfiles/parkerindex.html You might find some info there, if nothing else it has photos for reference.
the Pattee book and the related titles found on the bottom left of the Google link at the beginning of this sentence may have some info, but usually earlier history. I'm going offline for a while, but try those. Sswonk (talk) 20:56, 20 June 2009 (UTC)
Thanks so much. I've seen those and used some of them as sources before. I also have the William Pepe postcard history series, which has some more great old photos and has proven especially useful. I'll need to get on the ball with that history file I have saved. TTYL. --King of the Arverni (talk) 21:26, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

List of marinas

I noticed you have edited WP:Lists recently and you have a couple more years of experience than I do, so I am seeking your help/opinion on something I just noticed at List of marinas. Prevostcar (talk · contribs) contributed one 2h42m edit spree to the list adding external links beginning with

http://marinas.com/browse/marina/

for over 50 subsections of the list. I believe this violates WP:Lists and also WP:EL, but can't find an explicit prohibition, like "Do not add external links to lists articles". I am pretty certain these links need to be taken out of the list, but would appreciate your input and also any more explicitly prohibitive guidelines I can point to on this user's talk page explaining why these edits were not helpful. Since this is the only day the user has edited, it may also be a case of spamming. It also may have been done in good faith. I am surprised no one bothered to revert these edits but it's possible they were simply overlooked. Sswonk (talk) 03:42, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

I'm happy to help...
Lists are a type of article, and they must comply with article guidelines unless the list guidelines provide an exception. The guideline on external links applies to lists. Read the first sentence.
The situation you described is also a perfect example of link spam. Misplaced Pages is not a venue for advertising websites.
Nuke the spam, warn the spammer, and if the user ignores the warning and continues being a problem, report the spammer to WP:ANI and/or propose the site be blacklisted.
Good luck.
The Transhumanist    16:55, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Request

Speaking of lists, I've been coordinating WP:WPOOK, and I have been staring at it and at Portal:Contents/Outline of knowledge and its member pages for what seems like forever.

I need to see through the eyes of someone outside this box.

Please browse the outline system - outlines, outline-related pages (the project, guideline, etc.), and the links to and from them - and tell me anything you think is interesting, annoying, or important.

I look forward to your replies on my talk page.

The Transhumanist    17:07, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the save

That was stupid of me. --King of the Arverni (talk) 23:36, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

The Day

Happy Independence Day!--The Legendary Sky Attacker 08:21, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

Disputed tag

The tag goes on the article page the talk page needs a section explaining the dispute. Rich Farmbrough, 21:04, 13 July 2009 (UTC).

"New Quincy Center"

What are your thoughts? Are you pretty excited, and think it's the best think to happen to the city in years? Do you think it's a terrible plan, or do any negative consequences come to mind? I would've emailed you through Misplaced Pages, since this really isn't encyclopedia-related, but it didn't look as though you have that feature enabled. Anyhow, I'm anxious to find out what you think about it all. --King of the Arverni (talk) 16:40, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

I can't think of anything negative, and the quirkiness of current traffic patterns is definitely a deterrent to shopping in Quincy Center. Closing Hancock Street and making it a square seems very logical. The developer has a portfolio on the new website which looks encouraging, I have a friend who lives in Bethesda so I will ask him about how things went there the next time I speak with him. This sort of thing always needs to be taken with a grain of salt, for example the New Rochelle project was a rescue mission for a previous failed project that was probably trumpeted in its time as this one is. There is also the Fore River Shipyard Project, which was supposed to be a mirror version of Marina Bay on the other side of town in Quincy Point, with ambitious plans and architectural renderings. It went from this to this pretty quietly over a few months; things are still on hold - we were introduced to RTKL Associates, who redeveloped Baltimore Inner Harbor - but now it is more along the lines of a marina and wind turbines. I have a feeling this has a better chance, but I was tempted to add the Fore River plans to the Quincy Point article and decided against it, I would wait a while on this project as well. Sswonk (talk) 20:03, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Two Tanks to you...

Tanks #1: Thanks for letting me know about the bad Sami link on this page User:Dinkytown/Sami

Tanks #2: For citing the dispute with the citation to WP:LAYOUT. I had been looking for some type of layout description. Lets see where this goes. Take care... Dinkytown (talk) 22:39, 15 July 2009 (UTC)


About Antietam

But it doesn't make sense! The Union nearly doubled the Confederates at Antietam. Surely they're casualties had to have been higher than the Union's. And, in the article, it says that Antietam was the bloodiest-single day battle in the History of the U.S, that more men killed on this day than on any other day in the U.S. I'd expect the tally to go higher than just 3,654 troops killed--Valkyrie Red 09:38, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

I'm sure you've been surprised by the results of events before, big upsets in sport etc., and I hope reading the Battle of Antietam article and maybe continuing to study some of the referenced materials will help explain to you what the facts are. The amount of troops on either side can't guarantee the same ratio in an outcome measured by casualty counts, and casualty counts don't tell the entire story either. For a recent extreme example of how the ratio of combatants to casualties can be skewed I refer you to the Gulf War, where Coalition forces outnumbered Iraqi forces by a ratio of about 9 to 5 but Iraqi casualties outnumbered Coalition casualties by ratios estimated from 100 to nearly 200 to 1. I don't know why you would expect deaths to be higher. Again, reading closely and studying other sources better able to explain the results you are questioning than I am is recommended. The battle itself has been closely studied for over 145 years, and these figures when given in histories are all very similar, with the exception of the first site you linked on the article talk page, which may have been a typo or purposefully exaggerated for all we know. Sswonk (talk) 02:23, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Massachusetts road template

Will he have the chance to fix it? - Denimadept (talk) 02:59, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Speaking for myself, of course, and I'll help him. I'm not proposing deletion, just asking him to stop tonight so I can discuss it with him. Sswonk (talk) 03:02, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
I'm glad. It seems like an interesting idea. I'm not a road geek, but I can appreciate a good idea. - Denimadept (talk) 03:30, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
I see User:Polaron is involved. Still, that template seems to have come together just today. - Denimadept (talk) 03:32, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
http://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=Special:Log&user=NCStateNo1Fan, so did the user. But, I guess you can learn wikisyntax, template creation and large scale edits in a few hours. Could have been working as an IP before. I am having Comcast modem problems on and off, have been for a few days, so I may have trouble editing for a while. I would have responded sooner, but it looped off again 15 minutes ago. Sswonk (talk) 03:45, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
I added the {{welcome}} note to his Talk page, so he won't think everyone's ganging up on him. :-) - Denimadept (talk) 03:48, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

One extra comment - I don't think it was actually necessary to remove the templates from all the articles before having the talk-page discussion. From a newcomer's perspective it could look a bit agressive, plus you're likely to get more input if the template is still visible in the articles. Just my two cents. Antony-22 (talk) 04:29, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

In hindsight, I should have tried to contact the user at first. I don't know how common it is for someone to create an account, develop a template and make dozens of page edits in under two hours, and a blocked user from the past has recently surfaced as an IP, reference Tony in my contribs to see the full story. Sswonk (talk) 04:38, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Curly quotes 2

Hi. In the infobox thread, you mention 'the "curly quotes" debates at MOS'. I was wondering if you could give me an ultra-brief summary (10 words or less oversimplification-style-thing. i can decode/grok), or link me to a recent thread pointer about that issue. For context, this is purely because I posted this thread about removing them, MediaWiki talk:Edittools#Quotation marks, and I'm wondering if I can goad things in a useful direction, or if I should ignore it for now. Ta. (reply here :) -- Quiddity (talk) 04:00, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style#Punctuation:_Quotation_marks:_.E2.80.9Cregular.E2.80.9D_vs._.22straight.22, which includes a good summary of links to old debates. Pro-life v. Pro-choice is the theme, the debates were drama infused before, why throw gasoline to put out a fire? Sswonk (talk) 04:12, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Boston Roads

Hi. I've stopped adding Boston Road Templates for now. I just happen to see many articles with Providence templates, but thinking Boston is a much larger city with no template. I will hold since I feel I may not be qualified with info about Boston. --NCStateNo1Fan (talk) 11:04, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. The template was prematurely posted but that doesn't mean you aren't qualified, just that you would have been better off making a test template and asking for help with it. A lot of navbox templates get deleted because they are a duplication of effort or because they are created by someone who doesn't realize that editors who work on the articles the new templates are posted to have discussed the issue and decided not to use them because the scope would be too small or too broad. That is my concern, but I don't think your template should be deleted, just reduced in scope a bit. Please join the discussion at Template talk:Boston Road Transportation, we are going over how we think it should be structured. Sswonk (talk) 12:54, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Sears/Willis

Hmm.... you're right about the voting (or should we more properly say discussion) as to anyone who isn't aware of what happened, that would be highly confusing. It would of course be best if we could just convince people to just say Sears or Willis, rather than Support or Oppose, but I'll have to think on that. As regards the controversialness of my move, I think it was the right thing to do in terms of process. If general consensus finds that I took the wrong course of action, I will move it back to Willis. Whatever the name should be, it clear that there is a controversy surrounding it. The original move was undertaken without discussion and should not have become the status quo by virtue of standing for a few days; Misplaced Pages is not meant to work via fait accompli. Cool3 (talk) 19:40, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Noted, thank you for the consideration. I have also pointed out that nearly every project outside the English Misplaced Pages has accepted Willis Tower as the proper title, so this move will have implications elsewhere if it persists. Sswonk (talk) 19:43, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
If you mean that interwiki links have been broken, then they shouldn't be. Redirects still work for those arriving via an interwiki link. As for the point that nearly all other projects (other than the small ones which are probably just behind the times) have renamed their articles, I'd tend to think that is an extremely strong one to be made in the discussion. Cool3 (talk) 19:47, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
No, I'm not talking about interwiki links, I mean that the other projects will see this move back and it will stir questions and controversy there, possibly cause wasted moves back—it is going to be Willis Tower when this is resolved—and in general put the US in the position of appearing to be selfishly resisting world consensus as with the SI, of course I am grossly exaggerating but I am sure you get the point. I do of course realize Brits, Kiwis, Aussies, Canadians exist here as well but again, I think you will know what I mean. Sswonk (talk) 20:06, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

The one user who generated a lot of this brouhah, Empire_NJ (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), was an editor for a grand total of about 2 1/2 days, from the 21st to the 23rd - essentially a single-purpose account - although he might just be taking a long weekend. Baseball Bugs carrots 16:16, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

Possibly a sock or an unannounced alternate login as well were some of my more sinister thoughts. I left a note on his page at the 23 hour point of non-debate just in case he's confused. Sswonk (talk) 16:25, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
There's no harm applying AGF. Hence my qualifying comment that he might be on a long weekend. :) It's also possible he gave up since he's unlikely to win the debate, especially as the usage of "Willis Tower" grows daily. (I suspect "Big Willie" is going to catch on.) One of the more absurd references in that article is, or was, something about a petition resisting the name change. Like they have any say in the matter. If those petitioners want to pool their pennies and re-purchase the naming rights, they are free to do so. Otherwise, they are spitting in the wind. Baseball Bugs carrots 16:42, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
Redirect of Big Willie in the works? Thus joining The Gherkin on the phallic skyline... Sswonk (talk) 16:50, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
Done! I also tried to do it for Big Willy, but guess where that redirects. Probably needs to become a disambiguation page now. Meanwhile... "Big Willie" must not be considered overtly phallic, since the broadcasters on WGN-TV actually called it that the other night. I think you're getting into a fine distinction between "Big Willie" and "the Big Willie". But "The Gherkin"? Obviously, they would never get away with calling it "Big Willie" in England, where the double-meaning of that term is much stronger - but I have to tell you, that's the most phallic-looking man-made structure I've ever seen. "Big Gherkin"? More like "Big Vibrator". Holy Moly! Baseball Bugs carrots 17:05, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
Funny, (scroll down) – one of the references from The Gherkin suggested it be called "The Lewinsky". Sswonk (talk) 17:11, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
Cute. I should point out that the terms "gherkin" and its synonym "pickle" are also phallic euphemisms. Speaking of which, the Nebraska State Capitol building in Lincoln, Nebraska is referred to by locals as "the penis of the plains". No euphemisms there, no sirree. It's near one end of the state, and its naturally-occurring counterpart, Chimney Rock National Historic Site is near the other end. Nebraska is so flat that from the top of one you could probably see to the other, if it weren't for the curvature of the earth. Baseball Bugs carrots 17:37, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
Given the obvious phallic symbolic symbolism of these tall buildings, I propose that instead of being measured in feet (and certainly not meters), these buildings' heights should be expressed in a new unit of measure I would call the "John Holmes". I could elaborate at some length, but I have work to do today, and I've already taken enough of your invaluable time. 0:) Baseball Bugs carrots 17:45, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
To quote a Nebraskan, "Funny, funny stuff." I should point out that I knew that about gherkin and also willie, a related one being wanker which was rhymed by Jagger and Richards when they published some of their earliest songs crediting "Nanker Phelge".(in the middle somewhere) But I digress, good talking to you, I think when it's over, Empire gave up. Sswonk (talk) 18:01, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

Call it the "denimadept" tower and get it over with. - Denimadept (talk) 17:56, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

Not bloody likely! It's Sears! Sears! (previous comment from 2005, somehow got lost in cyberspace and is just now being added to the database) Sswonk (talk) 18:01, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
Yeah yeah, sure sure. You just wait! I'll buy it and make y'all go through this again!!!!!!!!! hahahahahahahahahahahahah (evil laughter) I'll do the same thing with the Triborough Bridge, which is going through an identical sequence right now! - Denimadept (talk) 21:59, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

Eastern

Hey there! Thanks for your input about "Eastern". I originally just added everything from the u/c dab pages and kept ENC because I've known a few people refer to it as "Eastern". But after seeing the search for eastern and college, I had to agree in the end, too. Great job with the Quincy, Massachusetts article in recent days, BTW. Sorry for not being around more; I've been focusing a lot more on various UNI articles lately. --King of the Arverni (talk) 23:01, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

Do you have any input to offer at User talk:Clarityfiend#DAB, as well? --King of the Arverni (talk) 23:03, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
I'll watch the conversation, no concerns right now. It is a little difficult to understand what you are asking there, but give it a few minutes to see how he responds. Sswonk (talk) 23:15, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
Sorry for being unclear. I'm just looking to find out more about why the wikipedia search works the way it does. I suppose I could've asked at the talk page for the dab guidelines, I thought he might be a best person for me to ask since he's the first person I've met who's a member of the dab project. --King of the Arverni (talk) 23:32, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
He might not know the answer, but it's worth a try. Sswonk (talk) 23:36, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
Yes, the two things I'm always interested in are a) learning and b) improving. --King of the Arverni (talk) 23:55, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
Not exactly an answer, but a useful tool nonetheless, may be the Wikepedia "All pages with prefix" page. Sswonk (talk) 15:28, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
(ec) By the way, that particular method of using a search results list is beside the point, which is that the guideline states in part: "where there is no significant risk of confusion", the key word being significant. Since the only people using "Eastern" as shorthand at ENC are either talking among themselves or with people who understand the shortened, casual reference (I would hope), there isn't much risk if any that a disambiguation link is needed. That standard applies very broadly, people often refer to locations, things, historical figures etc. casually in that way when what is meant is understood by the other parties in the conversation. Sswonk (talk) 23:36, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
That's a good point, as well. I don't refer to it as such, but it would make sense that those who do have enough familiarity with the "Nazarene" bit to simply say "Eastern". --King of the Arverni (talk) 23:55, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

COI

Thank you for your recent warning, however it was redundant to this one. I am quite aware of the potential COI situation, and have restricted most of my edits to the IRM article to things like correcting the obviously incorrect # of a locomotive, updating the status of various pieces of equipment, or changing the tense of wording about a past event from future to past. However I did let my emotions get the better of me when our reporting marks (..and yes, they are official, but do not show in the railinc database due to our lack of interchange cars) were removed from the article, with an edit summary ("Eh/") that indicated, to my point of view, either extreme disdain or apathy. While it probably wasn't intended as such, I perceived this as an attack. NE2's further actions only added to my opinion. His removal of {{fact}} templates, and accompanying comments, without discussion or fixing the problems is a major example, as is this.

It is obvious to me, from these events, and previous observations of NE2's editing habits, that NE2 has a perception of extreme ownership over any and every edit he ever makes, and takes ANY disagreement with his allegedly (but unsubstantiated) "expert" opinion as a personal affront. WuhWuzDat 17:26, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Gotcha (meaning, "I get it" not "Caught you redhanded"). Too bad there isn't an official page or file that says "These are the only combinations of letters that can be called reporting marks." Personally, I would stay away from the article altogether and make statements at the talk page instead. If you win support for your views that way and the edits are made by others, a close reading of WP:COI would support that completely. You're pushing the envelope a bit the other way, I think, especially now after these conflicts with NE2. Sswonk (talk) 17:37, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
As an interested (but not COI) party, what would you think of this ref (including linked list of marks), which includes IRYM as a mark for IRM on this subpage?? Admittedly, it's not from the ARR (the one and only godlike source of this info, per NE2's perception of the situation), but AAR publishes VERY little info, in a manner accessible to non members. WuhWuzDat 18:08, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
Well, here's a first impression: it's from a hobbyist club, you could have made that entry for all I know. I'm AGF that you didn't have anything to do with it. I know nothing other than what I have read in the past few days about reporting marks. It seems to me that it is something like an ITU prefix or an ISO 3166-1, a pretty strictly controlled system of abbreviation. Is that the case? Unfortunately, as you stated the controlling body is not like ITU or ISO in its freedom of access, which should probably not be so but maybe they have a reason. Do you know why they don't publish a list? Also, in the link you provided, there is the statement: "The uniform ALPHA code is assigned by the AAR to all organizations that may be involved in handling rail equipment." Is IRYM even that? Is it an alpha code, or just a common abbreviation? The other statement on that page that is a red flag is the intro: "This file contains AAR assigned reporting marks that have been compiled from several sources. A limited number of common railroad abbreviations are also included. The list includes all active AAR reporting marks as of the mid-2008 plus many historical marks which are no longer in use." In spite of that, the lists are headlined "Railroad Reporting Marks" and the distinction of reporting marks vs. abbreviations is not made among the individual entries, i.e. there could be a marker like an asterisk next to entries which are not actual reporting marks. NE2 is being very strict with the interpretation, you seem to be approaching it much more liberally. If someone stated in an infobox that Puerto Rico's ITU prefix was "PR", that would be totally false. If the statement was "Puerto Rico doesn't have an ITU prefix, but they use the US ones, blah blah..." then really that's a misuse of the ITU field on an infobox entry – leave it out if it doesn't exist. I have to step away for a while, but I look forward to some answers here, I am getting curious about this. Sswonk (talk) 18:48, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Outline Update - Basking in the light of knowledge - 07/28/2009

Phase two of outline integration (de-orphanizing outlines by adding links leading to them into article see also sections) is nearly complete. The better that outlines are integrated into the encyclopedia, the more use they will be to readers.

Due to greater exposure through outline integration, and with most of the OOK team on school summer vacation, development activity on outlines has increased a lot...

New members
Be sure to welcome our newest members to the team:
News: Outline of Palestine survives AfD
The outline was nominated for deletion for being too general in scope. The consensus was overwhelmingly for keeping it.
The most memorable comment was posted by Mandsford: I like the poetic name, anyway. . "Master Plan of Pakistan" and "Rough Sketch of Bangladesh" would be good too.
Special thanks to Tiamut for greatly improving the outline, and helping to save it from AfD.
To keep track of outline AfDs and other outline-related discussions, see WP:OOKDISC.
Who's active on Misplaced Pages this summer?
Courtesy of Rich Farmbrough, here's a list of editors by their edit counts over the previous month (8th June to 8th July).
It would be nice to get the most prolific Wikipedians involved with WP:WPOOK. If you can, find a good reason to contact one or more of them, and invite them to work on a relevant outline - or all 500!
Who's been up to what?
  • Buaidh, Highfields, and Gimme danger have been working on the government sections of the country outlines. Being that there are about 240 of these, with critical information being filled in on each, this is by far the hardest and most important chore of this WikiProject right now.
  • Penubag is working on a redesign of the top OOK page.
  • Tiamut has done an incredible job developing the Outline of Palestine.
  • And kudos also go to Eu.stefan for his work on Outline of Buddhism.

Thank you.

Here's what else has been going on...

New outlines
Recently created outlines include:
Recently converted to outlines
These outline articles, which were named "List of...", have been converted to an OOK format and added to the OOK:
Recently merged into outlines
There are a lot of "List of" articles that are outlines. Some of them are on the same subjects as the "Outline of" articles. The following articles have been recently merged into OOK pages:
Outlines that have been tagged
Tags are requests to fix a problem or improve an article in a particular way. Unless we want the tags to sit there for an extended period of time cluttering up the outlines (we don't), it is up to us to fulfill those requests or attend to underlying misassumptions (if any).
I can't stress enough the importance of watching
With so many outlines (now over 500), and a growing number of support pages (guidelines, wikiproject pages, etc.), I can no longer keep up. I need your help watching over it all.
If you'd like to omnisciently view everything "from above", see this page:
  • WP:OOKWL - watchlist for copying and pasting into your raw watchlist.
Or go to these pages (and click on "Related changes" in the sidebar's toolbox menu):
  • WP:OOKRC - a version of the above watchlist for use with "Related changes".
  • WP:OOKDIR - a list of key pages related to the OOK, along with their shortcuts.
  • WP:OOKDISC - list of discussions pertaining to outlines.
What's next?

There are a lot of contradictions in guidelines related to outlines. I'll be turning my attention to fixing those.

The number of "Outline of" articles is rapidly catching up to portals, and will probably pass them by the end of the summer!

Keep up the excellent work.

The Transhumanist    00:19, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Quiddity and OCD / Rock music

An implicit edit ban exists at the Quiddity talk page, so I am here. Re: joining WP:WPOOK: I've been in the fifth column, second entry for a while. The category of projects at Category:WikiProject Music genres is how I would organize it, thus making the title Outline of rock music. If that is a project you want to throw my way, I would take it on as my first OOK assignment. Sswonk (talk) 00:11, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Go for it! The Transhumanist    00:19, 29 July 2009 (UTC)
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