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Infobox C/c-amera

Hi Plastikspork. Could you explain the result in Wikipedia:Templates for discussion#Template:Infobox Camera? I think the params in the two are different. What will delete and redirect mean? Regards! --Bsherr (talk) 05:26, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

And you just explained in the holding cell....Thanks! --Bsherr (talk) 05:27, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
Right, I probably should have just said merge, but the end result should be that the lowercase version should be kept. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:30, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
Yup, agreed. --Bsherr (talk) 05:36, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Bot request

Hi Plastikspork. I have a bot request of the type you've been able to undertake in the past. Could you take a look for me? Wikipedia:Bot requests/Archive 38#Fix transclusion of redirect on user warning block templates. Thanks. --Bsherr (talk) 15:06, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Done? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:57, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
Done! Thanks anyway. --Bsherr (talk) 02:08, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
Oh, you did the protected ones! Thanks so much. The editprotected backlog is ridiculous. --Bsherr (talk) 02:12, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
Yes, a little backlog is good since it allows for people to object, but too much is problematic. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:23, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Infobox Luxembourg commune

HI. Perhaps you can convert one and prove on the deletion page that no data will be lost and that infobox settlement more than caters for it. Dr. Blofeld 11:33, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

I will watch the TFD and try to be of some assistance if I can. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:23, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Templates/Categories

Hi, as you moved the Template:Notable Wikipedians to Template:Connected contributors, I would like to bring to your attention that the linked categories have not been merged: there still is a Category:Notable Wikipedians with entries not included in Category:Connected contributors. I have no clue how (or whether) to address this issue and hope you can have a look at this. Thanks! --Crusio (talk) 16:44, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Right. I remember noticing this while I was closing the aforementioned TFD. The issue, as far as I can tell, is that not all "Notable Wikipedians" (Wikipedia users with Wikipedia articles) contribute to their own article, and hence they are not all "Connected contributors". In addition, not all "connected contributors" are notable enough to have their own article. It would seem as though these categories have a non-empty intersection, but at the same time, one is not a subset of the other. Do you have any ideas? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:19, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
  • Wow, that's a lot more complicated than I thought, I just assumed that these two categories basically were the same thing under a different name... No, I don't really have any further ideas about it, so perhaps best just to leave it as is... :-) --Crusio (talk) 21:50, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Infobox subclassing

No urgency, but when you get the chance I would value your input regarding this suggestion. Regards. PC78 (talk) 22:30, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Looks sensible. I don't really have a strong opinion, so long as it works :) Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:23, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Anontools template

Hello, Plastikspork. You have new messages at Template_talk:Anontools.
Message added 00:26, 23 September 2010 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.
Thanks. I responded there. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:12, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Find a Grave

thank you sooo much for fixing that {{findagrave}} thing...it was driving me nuts! cheers! --emerson7 01:02, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

No problem. It's still not idea, but it's a step in the right direction. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:06, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Catmore1 and Catmore2

Just curious, since the result of this TFD resulted in merge, will a bot go around swapping one template with the other, or will this require manual work? — ξxplicit 05:50, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

I have SporkBot doing it right now. Anyone else can help if they want. Plastikspork (talk) 06:28, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
Ah, I was unsure if SportBot was going to remove the brackets from the template. Looks like I have nothing to worry about. — ξxplicit 06:48, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

It would be ideal if {{catmore}} could be moved to {{catmain}}, then once incoming links are fixed whichever of these two is left could be moved to {{catmore}}. How feasible would this be? On teh other hand, perhaps they would both benefit from a rename to something more descriptive. PC78 (talk) 09:55, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

We are now down to under 200 transclusions. I agree with moving catmore to catmain, and then moving catmore2 to catmore. Also, I think I am going to tweak the recently added link appearance feature to match {{main}}, since that will facilitate the addition of multiple targets like {{catmoremulti}}. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:04, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
See Template talk:Catmore#Rename this template. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:33, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Alanah Rae

Hi! Soory to bother, but i have problems to create this article, because i don't know how to fix some things. Could you take a look at it? Thanks! --Juanromeroty (talk) 01:29, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

I fixed the broken infobox, but I am afraid this one is a lost cause per notability guidelines. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:03, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Please stop altering the explanatory notes

Please stop altering the explanatory notes in the Florida Gators athlete categories. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 13:55, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

See thread above regarding Catmore. In addition, why do you need to point to the same five articles in each one? It would be better to just point to the one with the strongest association. Plastikspork (talk) 14:07, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

Location map USA Alaska

Thanks for fixing Template:Location map USA Alaska and updating the documentation to explain how the X and Y values are calculated. That will be a useful guide for updating the remaining templates which use crosses180: Fiji, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Russia (equirectangular), and Russia Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. -- Zyxw (talk) 02:23, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Okay, I updated all but the Russian map. It has a skew parameter, which is used by Template:Location map skew. Now that Location map supports more general transformations, we can probably do away with {{Location map skew}}. It's only being used in about a dozen places at the moment, so it shouldn't be that hard to replace them with an equivalent skewed transformation. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 06:07, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Deprecating USB_On-The-Go#List_of_devices

Howdy. You altered Category:USB OTG compatible devices, changing {{catmoretext}} to {{Cat Main Section}}. I had actually used catmoretext with the wording you removed in the hope that USB_On-The-Go#List_of_devices could eventually be dropped in favour of the category, but your change removes the clarity that the in-article list should go away. Was that intentional, or would you have an objection if I change it back?  ◉ ghoti 04:46, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

My rationale for changing it was that {{catmoretext}} was only being used in one place, so it seemed as though it could be replaced by something else. I reverted my change and replaced it with a free-form {{rellink}}, which should allow you to be even more specific about what is going to happen. In light of this, I plan to nominate {{catmoretext}} for deletion, unless you see some broader purpose for it? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:52, 28 September 2010 (UTC)
Well ... I only created {{catmoretext}} a couple of weeks ago, so it hasn't really had a change to be adopted, I think. I created it because none of the other catmore templates provided that kind of flexibility. I'm sure there are other places that could benefit from it. Of course, if the trend is to compact everything into {{Cat main section}}, we may lose some of the flexibility of the others as well. Why not just replace the category description with the HTML that rellink would create?  ◉ ghoti 05:07, 28 September 2010 (UTC)
I was thinking that we could add an extra "text" parameter to {{Cat more section}} rather than having yet another template. There are advantages of using free form templates {{dablink}} and {{rellink}}, rather than untemplated wikitext in that they include CSS classes, which can be used to control their appearance. There is always a compromise between flexibility, redundancy, and standardization of appearance. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:11, 28 September 2010 (UTC)
Okay, I've added my vote to WP:Templates for discussion#Template:Catmoretext. I think your point about CSS is the same as my point about having the template; they're both a short-hand. If you add a "text" parameter to {{Cat main section}}, consider adding a "category" parameter as well, so that people can identify the reason for the catmore. "parent", "incomplete", "migrating", etc. Something that can be aggregated into a real WP category (so that someone could decide to fix (for example) "all the articles that contain lists but shouldn't", since a transclusion list will no longer be available. Or, have people add new templates as the need arises, as I did with this one...  ◉ ghoti 05:28, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

A suggestion for AutoEd

Hi Plastikspork, I was wondering if you could create an AutoEd module for spell checking and correcting, the module would contain a list of regularly updated common spelling mistakes such as thier and prevelege and correct them, thier to their prevelege to privilege and so forth. If you could that would be well appreciated :) keep up the good work. Regards and happy editing, —Ғяіᴆaз'§Đøøм • Champagne? • 9:45pm • 11:45, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

If I recall, Symplectic Map created such a script (or started to create such a script) with AutoSpell. I know him in off-wiki life, and as far as I know, he has not been active on WP for quite some time. It might be an interesting project to restart. If I recall, he ran into problems with the script speed. The larger the list of misspellings grew, the longer it would take to check each one. Depending on the length of the page, it may be faster to build a list of all the words on the page, and check each one, rather than check the page for each misspelling. This is something that would take some work. On the other hand, one could probably create a script which adds special search links to the WP:LCM pages, which would generate links to articles which would correct a particular misspelling. The drawback of that approach is that it would be checking one spelling mistake at a time and would not be something one could run on each page. If you have a list of say around 500 words or fewer, I think Symplectic Map's code will run fast enough to make it feasible. Over 10,000 and you are at the mercy of the speed of javascript. Plastikspork (talk) 14:15, 30 September 2010 (UTC)
Sorry intrude but WP:AWB has a "Regex TypoFix" function that might work for you. Best done manually though. –droll [chat] 23:38, 30 September 2010 (UTC)
Ok thanks to you both, I'm having trouble learning AWB :S I could use some help. All I've managed to do is edit one page with AWB... —Ғяіᴆaз'§Đøøм • Champagne? • 9:57am • 23:57, 30 September 2010 (UTC)
Yes, in fact AWB works quite well, thanks for the suggestion. I believe the idea here was to have something integrated into a standard web browser. AWB is great for automated tasks, but not so nice for actually reading WP. The difficulty with using javascript is that the speed of javascript can be quite bad. It would be better to just have a spellcheck extension integrated into the webbrowser, and not use javascript. When I use Firefox in Linux it underlines all words not found in the default dictionary, but you still have to scroll through the entire edit box to check them all. But, the correction feature is pretty good, you just right click on the misspelled word. It would be possible to make a javascript module that uses the AWB spelling regexp list, but I am afraid it would run very slow, unless there is some JS tricks that I am not aware of. Plastikspork (talk) 23:58, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

Add Template:Superimpose functionality?

Hi. I noted the Wikipedia:Extended image syntax page and I thought it would be good to add a location parameter to {{Superimpose}}. I've got a sandbox version and some test cases in my user space. The idea was to mirror the Image location syntax. I also introduced the use of {{div block}}, a template I wrote, which is a wiki markup version of the HTML <div> block. It think it helps produce readable code. The code appears stable but I'd like someone (you?) to take a look at it if you have a few minutes. A thumbs up or thumbs down would be good enough. I won't quote you. Use email if you want. –droll [chat] 23:53, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

I have to step out for about an hour or two, but I will try to have a look in a bit. Thanks! Plastikspork (talk) 23:59, 30 September 2010 (UTC)
Looks good. What is the default? I suppose that will be achieved with a blank class? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:15, 1 October 2010 (UTC)
By the way, if you don't want to use div block, you could always just do something like what I put in {{Nutritional information}} (i.e., "float: left", "float: right", "float: none", and why can't we have "float: center"? :) ) Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:19, 1 October 2010 (UTC)
I got the coding idea from from the HTML generated by the Image syntax. The default currently is class="" but I might code the class="..." into the switch. I'll think on it. Check out {{Infobox protected area/sandbox}} and {{Infobox protected area/testcases}} for an example of where this might be useful.
Thanks for your thoughts. I'm going to sit on it for a day so that I can ponder alternatives. This option might be good in {{Location map}} as well. –droll [chat] 04:35, 1 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks again. My code worked in 5 browsers and in 7 of the 9 skins. It didn't work in "My Skin" or "Simple." I switched from a div block to a table and used your float idea. –droll [chat] 00:44, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

Florida Gators categories see mores

Thank you for compromising on the "see also" text included on the Florida Gators category pages. Your changes look good. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 02:47, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

Glad you agree. Plastikspork (talk) 18:50, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Catmore

Hi, could you give a link to the TFD discussion about "catmore/catmain/catmore1/catmore2"? Just for learning. -DePiep (talk) 17:00, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Reponded on your talk page. Thanks! Plastikspork (talk) 18:50, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

m to ft in and height templates

Your recent changes to the "m to ft in" template seems to have broken the "height" template when "precision=0" is used:

  • {{height|m=1.72}} yields 1.72 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in) - default precision
  • {{height|m=1.72|precision=0}} yields 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in) - precision=0, should not display any fraction but does
  • {{M to ft in|1.72|precision=0}} yields {{M to ft in|1.72|precision=0}} - precision=0, works here

Tewapack (talk) 17:19, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

The difficulty is that we have two different methods for specifying this "precision". One is the "frac" option, and the other is the "precision" option. These two parameters really shouldn't be used at the same time. I will have a look and see if I can identify the best place to fix it. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:59, 6 October 2010 (UTC)
Okay, I have now disabled the "frac" parameter when precision is set to 0. Thanks for noticing the problem. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:04, 6 October 2010 (UTC)
But now the "in" disappears! Tewapack (talk) 05:56, 6 October 2010 (UTC)
Okay, how about now? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 06:46, 6 October 2010 (UTC)
Thanks Tewapack (talk) 15:37, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Template:Infobox Luxembourg commune

If you'd be so kind: [1]. JPG-GR (talk) 17:34, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Will do. Plastikspork (talk) 01:20, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Whatever's easiest I don't mind!♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:03, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Personally I would substitute it, and I think that outcome is more consistant with the TfD, but I have no strong feelings either way. PC78 (talk) 11:29, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Well there isn't many of them so I think that would probably be the best thing to do...♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:47, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Bot requests

"I frequently make bot requests, but those can go for days or weeks without any attention, and it seems a bit silly, since I could just as easily do it myself. "

You can always ask on my talk page, since I don't follow BOTREQ a lot of the time. Rich Farmbrough, 22:52, 8 October 2010 (UTC).

Thanks. I will keep that in mind, although I have a bot now, it's not always approved for everything I would like it to do. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:01, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Infoboxes

Thank you for fixing the oil refinery infobox. I wonder if you are interested also take a look on the template:infobox power station. Right now there is an ongoing process to combine different power station infoboxes (including template:Infobox nuclear power station) into one single infobox. The draft new infobox is here and the discussion is here. Thank you. Beagel (talk) 09:32, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the link. I had that page on my watch list, but have been so busy as of late, that I had not had a chance to look at it in any detail. It looks like things are going in the right direction. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:45, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Gunpowder Plot

Hi there, thanks for fixing that template up. I don't suppose you know how to get rid of the "plot" part, on the above article? Its used in the individual plotters' articles, so needs to stay, but is redundant on the main article. Parrot of Doom 19:18, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Done. Let me know if there are any problems. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:44, 9 October 2010 (UTC)
Fantastic, thanks! Parrot of Doom 21:49, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Nam Tso

hI. Can you add this map I made File:Nam Tso.png to the infobox in Nam Tso?♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:47, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

A response please.♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:13, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Done? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:45, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Fine, thanks. What should we do about Template:Infobox Irish Place. I had begun replacing the infoboxes like Aghada but I can't help thinking the best thing to do would be to just update Infobox Irish place in an infobox settlement format. Of course hundreds upon hundreds of infoboxes are missing from articles which need to be added but the current state is ugly and use thos old horrid green dot maps.♦ Dr. Blofeld 22:21, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

Can you be bold and update? So long as no info is lost I can't see a problem with it.♦ Dr. Blofeld 16:19, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

A better approach would be to start with something in the sandbox, ask if there are any comments or objections, then make the change. There are far too many people watching these pages to make such a bold change. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:45, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

Template:Infobox protected area

I notice you spotted the red error messages on the documentation page for {{Infobox protected area}}. I know its caused by too many levels of transclusion. I'll fix the sandbox version tonight if I can or tomorrow for sure. –droll [chat] 05:59, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

I fudged the documentation so that the error text does not appear. I added some stuff on the template talk page. It seems {{convert}} causes the problem but only sometimes. I have some test cases up here. I keep them there for a few days. As I'm sure you know, its all about too many tranclusions. –droll [chat] 10:44, 11 October 2010 (UTC)
I am going to revert your changes to the doc, since I was using it as an example at Template talk:Documentation. I believe the key is to fix the problem there, or to fix the problem in convert. I will introduce another temporary hack until someone (or I) has a chance to fix the issues in one of those two templates. I think fixing {{documentation}} would probably be easier at this point. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:48, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

Infobox subclassing (again)

Any more on the suggestions I made at Template talk:Infobox? I've sandboxed some changes but I'm a little out of my depth on this one, so ideally I need you (or Chris) to look it over. Cheers! PC78 (talk) 21:38, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

Okay, I will have a look later today. Plastikspork (talk) 14:29, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

City-state template

Plastikspork, I'm hoping you can answer several questions for me. I saw that you included this template in the the Florida Gators women's lacrosse infobox last night. I have encountered this template before, as well as the hostility that many editors seem to have for it. From previous discussions with other editors, I was under the impression that it was somehow less desirable (for some unknown reason) than the old standard format wiki links such as Atlanta, Georgia. Can you please explain to me the purposes and advantages of this template? Thanks. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 10:44, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

Either way works. I was simplifying the lacrosse template, which was using this template to create the link. While I was cleaning it up, I simplified this feature to just "location", since there are some college lacrosse teams outside of the United States, and just moved this up to the articles. However, I agree that it seems somewhat pointless. Plastikspork (talk) 14:29, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

Extra pixels generated by Template:Location map

I started a discussion at on the {{Location map}} talk page. Go here. You seem to understand this template better than anybody. I'd be thankful if you could take a look. –droll [chat] 20:33, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. –droll [chat] 05:48, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

Princeton Tigers men's lacrosse

Thanks for helping with Princeton Tigers men's lacrosse. Why are there no colors on the infobox section background now?--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 02:19, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

How is that? I think it's harder to read, but I suppose there is no other strong reason. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:30, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

Template

Template:Infobox volleyball player medal expand options is by default hiding. how is possible set it by default to show the medals? Thanks Osplace 02:28, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

I am in transit at the moment, but I will have a look when I get home in about 24 hours. Thank! Plastikspork (talk) 03:04, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

Invitation to join WikiProject Bacon !

Oh won't you please consider joining WP:WikiProject Bacon? :)

Thank you for your time, -- Cirt (talk) 08:35, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

Start infobox page

When orphaning, remember to delete {{end}} or {{end infobox page}} too!! --Bsherr (talk) 02:45, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I am well aware. I have orphaned these before, but thanks for the reminder. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:46, 21 October 2010 (UTC)
I should have known, sorry, but I figured better safe than...well, sorry. --Bsherr (talk) 02:53, 21 October 2010 (UTC)
No problem. A reminder doesn't hurt. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 13:50, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Infobox skyscraper

HI, any idea when this will get merged?♦ Dr. Blofeld 15:31, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Will try to get to it this weekend. My new job does not give me nearly as much time to edit on WP. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:06, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Islands infobox

Any more thoughts on what to do about removing the "native language" label from Template:Infobox Islands? I thought your last comment sounded workable. Kahuroa (talk) 19:11, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

I am in transit at the moment, but I will have a look when I get home in about 24 hours. Thank! Plastikspork (talk) 03:03, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
Done. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:18, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Infobox District DE

Template:Infobox District DE has been updated with a wrapper which I'm perfectly content with. pLease close the TFD.♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:43, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

I will have a look later today if it hasn't been closed. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:06, 22 October 2010 (UTC)
Done. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:17, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Infobox person

Can you add the |genre= parameter per the TfM for Infobox performer? PC78 (talk) 10:56, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

I could, but let's propose it on the talk page first to see if there are any objections, or if it is redundant to any of the current fields. I have actually seen this field in a few other "people" infoboxes, so I can see that it would help with merging other templates as well. Although, I don't think it is really necessary here since this info seems to fall under "occupation" or "known_for" in this particular case. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:49, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

native name vs local name

Re template:infobox island: In Prince of Wales Island (Queensland) the parameter "| native name = " is there and no doubt "native name" used to show in the box preceding the native name. Changing "| native name = " to "| local name = " all over the world for the sake of political rectitude would seem to be a damned lot of unnecessary work. Peter Horn User talk 21:33, 29 October 2010 (UTC) Peter Horn User talk 21:36, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

I agree, there is no reason to change them all, which is why you can use both "native name" or "local name", and they both function the same way. I can certainly restore the "native name:" prefix when native name is used if this is desired. We can continue this discussion at Template talk:Infobox islands. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:17, 30 October 2010 (UTC)

Coordinates in geography templates in articles.

Hello Plastikspork, Your expertice is required/needed in User talk:Peter Horn#Coordinates. Peter Horn User talk 15:48, 30 October 2010 (UTC) Peter Horn User talk 15:49, 30 October 2010 (UTC)

Okay, I will comment there if necessary. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:16, 31 October 2010 (UTC)

Happy Halloween!
Puffin has given you some caramel and a candy apple! Caramel and candy-coated apples are fun Halloween treats, and promote WikiLove on Halloween. Hopefully these have made your Halloween (and the proceeding days) much sweeter. Happy Halloween!

Puffin Lets talk! 13:16, 31 October 2010 (UTC)

Native name

Hi Plastikspork. Thanks for adding the "local name" field. It seems the changes to the way "native name" is displayed are upsetting some, who seem to think, mistakenly, that "native name" has been replaced. What if you revert "native name" and "nickname" to how they were while leaving "local name" as it is. Kahuroa (talk) 22:41, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

I think this can be resolved. I will comment over on the talk page for Infobox islands. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:18, 30 October 2010 (UTC)
"| indigenous name = " would have been elegant and less ovensive than "native name". See my remarks at Template talk:Infobox Australian place#Additional field (parametre). I see in Template talk:Infobox Australian place#Multiple size/population/density fields, just above, that at least one Aussie can be quite uncivil, tactless and incapable of assuming good faith. He has no understanding of the meaning of "no personal attacks". Peter Horn User talk 01:39, 2 November 2010 (UTC)
Thanks, I think anyone who has been around here for long enough gets used to dealing the a wide range of personalities. In response to the other point, we can always add alternative names for the same field. I don't really have a strong opinion here, just trying to help out where I can. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:57, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

Infobox Australia place

Hi Plasticspork. I have asked a question you may be able to help with at Template talk:Infobox Australian place#Multiple size/population/density fields. I know there has been some heated discussion about the future of IAp in the past but perhaps there is some middle ground that can be found that will improve the encyclopedia and make editors life easier without resorting to generic "one-size-fits-all" solutions. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 03:54, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

I've been fairly busy lately, but I will see what I can do over the next day or two. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:54, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

Template:Infobox Power Plant

To let you know the edit we are currently conflicting on - the switch was working OK on articles first edit but breaking on the Template docs page (see top right). Parser from http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Parser_functions_in_templates. I'm going to stop editing for a bit so have at it!Corella (talk) 06:05, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

Could you point me to errors? An error in a documentation page can be due to a caching issue, or the extra transclusion depth, or other issues. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 16:09, 6 November 2010 (UTC)
Top right of the page on [2] - see the extra status box that has popped out of a table and repeated on the template page? Rehman seems to have fixed it with a further pipe, much simpler than parser substitution shenanigans I was trying.Corella (talk) 09:40, 7 November 2010 (UTC)
In fact that was you - thank you!Corella (talk) 09:42, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Template:Infobox criminal

Hello, I would like to request if you could change the protection level of {{Infobox criminal}} from Permanent to PC Level 2. I am part of WP:CRIME and there have been some update requests that have gone unaddressed for some time. Thank you! KimChee (talk) 09:17, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

Sure, I step it down a bit. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 16:09, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

FLRC

I have nominated List of Survivor contestants for featured list removal here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets the featured list criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks; editors may declare to "Keep" or "Delist" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. The Rambling Man (talk) 20:16, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Vertical spacing issue + coords

Hi, Plastikspork. Know any way of removing the vertical spacing between the location map and its caption, at template:infobox power station? I tried twice, but it didn't work out.

I believe we can address this the same way it is addressed in {{Infobox settlement}}. I will have a shot at it. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:47, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
Thanks! Rehman 14:57, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Also, I though of asking here since you created it; is it ok if I removed coordinates_format and coordinates_footnote from the template? My reason for the removal of format can be found here, and the reason to the footnote is because it doesn't seem necessary, and would probably be used by very few articles. I know it wouldn't harm keeping stuff in, but the thing is the template loads quite slowly when viewing/editing. So I am just trying cut down things wherever possible ;). Kind regards. Rehman 13:01, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Removing {{{coordinates_format}}} is probably fine. As for the {{{coordinates_footnote}}}, this is used in {{Infobox settlement}} and would break the only method for adding a reference to the coordinates, so I would leave it. With regards to the loading times, I didn't think it was any worse than anything else. It could be due to the recent slowness with the servers. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:47, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
Hey coord ref is a cool idea, I didn't think of that use ;) How about renaming that field to coordinates_ref to make it more specific? Rehman 14:57, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
Sure, we could go with {{{coordinates_ref}}}. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:19, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Settlements

Hi. You remember ages ago the Fritzpollbot proposal. Well this isn't about starting the articles its about creating a backbone to work from... I wondered how easy it would be to ransack the lists by subdistrict on maplandia e.g [3] and each page list from Ainggy-Zigon and how easy it would be to copy these names and paste them and format them into templates like Template:Kawlin Township or at leats into a workspace list so they can be put into templates?. Its just I want at least to have settlements red linked and in the mainspace. This way I can start those which I have a bit of info for and are visible on google maps and gradually we can piece together a guide by country on here. It is possible you could do Burma in this way? Ideally what I want is a set of templates like Wikipedia:WikiProject Burma (Myanmar)/Sagaing Region templates for every region. But to copy the lists manyally and format takes so long manually when I'm certain a bot could be used to process them. For instance I've reached Template:Indaw Township but I had to slowly copy the list from each of the sub pages and even now its need formatting into typical infobox format horizontally without bullet points. Any thoughts? ♦ Dr. Blofeld 18:10, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

I don't exactly see what information you want extracted from maplandia, but assuming it is some regularly structured format, this shouldn't be a problem. As far as the formating issue goes, converting the preformatted vertical list to a horizontal list is something that could be scripted, if I had a list of boxes needed conversion. If you could show me exactly what would be copied from the maplandia page, I can take a look at the HTML source to see if it is easy to have a script identify it. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 18:48, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

OK. See Template:Pinlebu Township. You see how the list was initiallu compiled in chunks and how it is not formatted in the manner you;d desire for a nav box? Now visit the maplandia township page. Scroll down until you see a directory. Click Ale-Chaungbya. Now scroll down to the place it says "browse pinlebu". There should be a small list of settlements. Go back a page repeat this with clicking Chaunngwe -Heha and so on until you get to Z. What I want is a bot which can copy the entirety of the small banks from A-Z and to paste them into a template and format them vertically, with [[ ]] links and in a standard manner you see in nav templates. If you can't paste them into the templates, maybe you could do this ona rough page in the workspace so that the lists at least can be copied directly in top the templates. Do you follow? ♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:01, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

Now on Maplandia if you visit the http://www.maplandia.com/burma/ page scroll down and you'll see browse the regions. If you click say http://www.maplandia.com/burma/sagaing/ scroll down again and you get the list of townships. And you'll see Pinlebu. Whhat I want is for a bot to ransack the lists by structural division in this fashion for each region/township and to paste them onto wikipedia. preferablly formatted into wiki links and neat? Can you do this?

Now see Wikipedia:WikiProject Burma (Myanmar)/Sagaing Region templates. I want is the lists of settlements pasted and for each township relative to the link and to replicate this process for the other regions of Burma. Then once I have a full bank of templates I can distribute them into the mainspace ad start a few of the most notable settlements for eahc township rather than every settlement. This way I can cover Burma soon enough and we'll have a comprehensive bank ready for starting at a later date... Then as I work through hopefully I can expand the township articles like Homalin Township and get us some decent content on Burma..♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:13, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

Do you read me?♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:15, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

The conversion to a flat list is easy. The parsing of the external webpage will take some time to sort out, since it requires parsing their HTML, unless there is an API. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:16, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

Excellent. What I want see Wikipedia:WikiProject Burma (Myanmar)/Township templates is to draw up a full bank of templates for each region by township and just to simply link the settlements within them from maplandia. Once this is done I'll have my "infrastructure" in place and I can begin distributing the templates into the mainspace and starting the biggest settlements. If I have all of the settlements in templates by each township it shows we are working towards building a fuller coverage even if I don't have the time to start all of the articles.. Perhaps you could give the rest of the Sagaing templates a go sometime. Obviously it wouldn't all be done at once. If you did the rest of Sagaing first then I'dd dab them all/start a few and then we'd move on to the next region. Hopefully you can find time to process them into the template every few weeks? P.s. great work with the Peru district infoboxes!♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:24, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

When can you do this then? I also wondered if you cuold change the color of the dot in INfobox protected area to File:Black dot.png given that the green often blends in with the relief maps which are used for protected areas. Remember it was me who introduced the gree pin anyway..♦ Dr. Blofeld 09:54, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

I will try to start this in about 12 hours. As for the dot in {{Infobox protected area}}, you can override the mark whenever you want using marker = Black pog.svg? Also, if you turn on |relief=, it turns the mark to Red, so I'm not sure if you want me to change them all to black? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:05, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

OK great. Can you try a black dot then but make the dot a little bigger? I can;t actually edit the template as it is fully locked.. I think the marker should be darker given that the intention for most countries is to use relief maps for national parks... The goal of course eventually is to have an article on every settlement in Burma like Kutkai which I started earlier. Given that few people know little about Burma to have a comprehensive coverage would be great.. ♦ Dr. Blofeld 17:05, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Okay, I'm still working on the Burma stuff. It appears they may be blocking bots, so I will have to use a slightly different method. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:18, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Blocking bots? What?? Hasn't got anything to do with Xeno has it? ♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:14, 10 November 2010 (UTC) Please explain what you are talking about.♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:51, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Websites frequently block bots in one of several ways: (1) They contain a robots.txt file, which is a sort of "gentleman's agreement" between the bot and the website that they bot will obey the rules, or (2) They check the identification string offered by the bot, restrict its access, or (3) they notice access patterns and blacklist or throttle or otherwise restrict access patterns. The reason for this is that (a) they don't want someone mirror the site, (b) they don't want someone to waste their bandwidth and/or put strain on their servers, or (c) bots don't read adverts, so they don't generate revenue. Now, there are ways around this, which is basically make the bot act more like a casual user. I am currently reading their "terms of use" and checking out the situation. The project is definitely technically possible, but the language in their "terms of use" do state that I cannot copy stuff from the site and I don't know how far that goes. From a more practical point, my initial attempts with a bot were thwarted by some sort of access control. I am doing some more probing to see if this is intentional or incidental. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:49, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
That's crazy. They don't own place names. In fact actually I remember haivng that discussion with Fritzpoll and it was agreed that places names are not copyrightable. The insane thing is that maplandia obviously compiled the list from geo names database or whatever.♦ Dr. Blofeld 16:38, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
I agree that they don't own place names. The key here is that I am not copying content, but just determining the hierarchical structure. If you read their FAQ, they explain where they get their information. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 17:20, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
What Fritzpoll was planning I think was exactly that. Using geonames and just using Maplandia for organizing into municipalities/townships. I remember it was approvedby BAG so shouldn't be a problem.♦ Dr. Blofeld 18:10, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Adjustments

Hi Plastiks, Please see Talk:Big Diomede#Two fields required in the infobox and Talk:Tofua#Map into infobox. Peter Horn User talk 03:29, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Okay, I believe you can fix the issue with two "local names" by putting them both in |local_name=. As for the map in the mountain infobox, you could raise the issue at Template talk:Infobox mountain, since this appears to "require" a new feature, although there are hacks to get around it (we should avoid hacks if they aren't entirely necessary). Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:50, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Demography 4col

Template:Demography 4col has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. (I saw it on your User:Plastikspork/todo page). No such user (talk) 08:19, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

D'oh. I've just noticed that {{Demography}} is awfully coded. Why on Earth it isn't just a plain table with a bunch of unnamed arguments, instead of 500-year worth of named arguments? See how it breaks Amsterdam#Demographics: [4]. It lacks the years before 1600, and it forces the references to be in the second row.
It would be rather easy to make it both simpler and better, so that it's used like
{{Demography
 |1300<ref=foo/>|2,200
 |1400<ref=bar/>|3,800
 |...}}
but that would break the existing tranclusions. Do you perhaps have an idea how to fix it without bot'ing through all transclusions? Is it possible to reach the names of named arguments in a conditional {{#if:|}}, so that we won't have to change all transclusions? (Please reply here). No such user (talk) 09:11, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
Right, we shouldn't be using {{Demography}} either. I believe {{historical populations}} is a far better solution, but the formatting is vertical rather than horizontal. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:42, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Walk The Line Article (Mary Wilson Album)

Dear Plastikspork, "Walk the Line" is an album by former Supremes member Mary Wilson. The article for album needs a inbox photo of the album cover. Can you do this? 10:55, 12 November 2010 User:K.M.D1994 (UTC)

I will have a look, not sure I can help. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:56, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Thank you so much!

You're awesome! Thank you times one hundred for fixing the Template:Infobox instrument thing for MIDI. I wouldn't have been able to figure that out on my own. Now my project for the next few days is to go to some of the General MIDI instrument articles and update their infoboxes. Again, thank you! dogman15 (talk) 08:09, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Some errors in bot update

Hi. There seems to be some big errors in the recent bot update. Please see this discussion; it seems that we fed in the wrong orders to the bot. :( Rehman 14:39, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Hi again. Just to let you know of more bot errors. Kind regards. Rehman 07:39, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes, that one isn't so serious, since the field is blank, but it was only supposed to remove it for duplicates. I will fix the code. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 07:41, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
No problem :) Rehman 07:53, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

I don't have a problem with it, nor have I checked all edits properly, but I just updated the article with the latest infobox, but yet SporkBot did this edit over it... Rehman 09:42, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

...also removed the extra field in this edit. Rehman 03:54, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
Right, I was thinking this field should only be used sparingly. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:56, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
Well, yes, sparingly. Normally when an infobox is copied to an article, the blank fields are left intact, as far as I understand. So that, when the need comes to use a particular field, one doesn't need to go all the way to the infobox to copy the relevant field(s). Rehman 11:04, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
Sure. I am wondering if this field is currently being used for anything other than a "footnote" or a list of "sources" or "external links". It had been used for embedding a location map, but I have changed those to use the {{{location_map}}} parameter. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:44, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
It may be used for a wide variety of things, including adding an infobox within the infobox. Rehman 14:59, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
Interesting that you would mention Hoover Dam, since that one is currently spewing red errors at the moment, and isn't the power station template (although it is certainly related). I have commented at Template talk:Infobox dam. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:10, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Hi. These types of edits seem sort of useless, doesn't it?. Rehman 05:17, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Okay, I will fix that. While we are on the subject, I would say that this is equally useless, as that's what redirects are for. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:25, 13 November 2010 (UTC)
Sorry, I didn't use the right word. What I meant by useless is that removing {{Clear}} via mass bot updates is somewhat controversial; varying from article to article... The Dam→dam edit is my move to eventually delete the earlier per this. Kind regards. Rehman 06:56, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Also, I don't know how frequent it is, but you might also want to look into these types of edits. Perhaps you could block it from editing on non-mainspace pages (just a suggestion)? Rehman 07:01, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Redirects are cheap. I will add a bit to the script to avoid editing outside of article space. Considering how many complaints I am getting, I think I will stop all bot edits in connection with {{Infobox power station}}. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 07:12, 13 November 2010 (UTC)
Please don't consider all the above as complaints, its just mere FYI/side-notes as the updates progress. ;) Rehman 07:53, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Infobox Uruguayan Department

Hi Plastikspork! Thank you for improving Template:Infobox Uruguayan Department. I had seen template settlement, but had also noticed that template country is used for country subdivisions, which is also way more complicated. So I had to go up a steep learning curve to modify that to fit the needs here. Anyway, it works much better as you changed it, in particular the maps. I would much rather avoid the 2 time zone lines, first for the sake of simplicity and second because, for some reason, most Uruguayans I know feel vey displeased with their country observing summertime. Also, if possible, a (cell border) line would look better between the flags and the maps. Thanks again. Hoverfish Talk 09:39, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Sure, removing the second timezone line is fine. I grabbed this from the main Uruguay page. I will look into putting a divider below between the maps and the flags. Some of these things may require proposing changes at Template talk:Infobox settlement, since this is a widely used template. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 17:26, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

One more issue you might be able to help me with. I have added the image size parameters for flag and shield and done some efforts to make them display well and in a good proportion but I can't get them to look as good as they look in Infobox Country. The reason is that Infobox Country uses <... style="width:58%; vertical-align:middle;"> for the cell of the (125px) flag image size and <... style="width:auto; vertical-align:middle;"> for the cell of the (85px) coat image size. The result is much much better. Compare the upper and lower displays here: User_talk:Hoverfish/My_Tools. I have a bad time figuring out how it is meant to be in Infobox Settlement to suggest anything. Can something be done to give a 58% width to the cell of the flag? Hoverfish Talk 13:04, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Okay, this may require adding some features to {{Infobox settlement}}, which is certainly possible. In fact, it was the this template that prompted me to add the additional pushpin_image feature, which was already available in {{location map}}, so it was a simple one-liner. I will think about it a bit, and try to come up with a solution. It may be as simple as turning off the forced percentages when the widths are specified. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 17:26, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

I am aware of the wide use of the template, so whatever could be done to offer some design flexibility would be fine. Thanks again. Hoverfish Talk 21:16, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Re:deleting my old username from discussion page

Can you please help me with this issue? is allready 2 or 3 days that i wrote i know is not important but you have allways been so kind--Sweetcorn (talk) 11:48, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Done. Normally, we don't do this sort of thing, but since the conversation was only between you and me, I don't see an issue with it. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 17:05, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

deleting my old username from discussion page

i tried to go into the edit page of the discussion page of the romanoro article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Romanoro in order to delete my previus username (Gionataconti) and the silly comment i made about photos so no one who sees the article can trace up to me, but i can't can you please do that for me ?--Sweetcorn (talk) 10:16, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

thanks a lot i didn't know you had already done that--Sweetcorn (talk) 11:08, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Your opinion on the cover size parameter

Hi Chris, I would like your expert opinion on the usefulness of the |Cover size= parameter in {{Infobox album}} since the latest changes. Please answer here: Template talk:Infobox album#Cover size parameter – redundant by now?. Thanks in advance. – IbLeo(talk) 06:53, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

My name isn't Chris, but I can certainly comment. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 06:57, 17 November 2010 (UTC)
Ooops, I am messing up names and people. Thanks Spork :-) – IbLeo(talk) 07:43, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Infobox Córdoba

Check out Template:Infobox Córdoba ... Any further developments with the Burma places?♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:29, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Great. I could certainly refactor that one to use Infobox settlement, as I did for Uruguay, but perhaps it's best to just let the TFD run first. As for Burma, I hope to get to that today. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 17:28, 14 November 2010 (UTC)
Unbelievably I've discovered that some entire departments of Argentina are missing, some of them are over a 1000 square kilometres... For some reason though South American wikiproject have been obsessed with making their own blue infoboxes... 17:37, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Shall I draw up the bones for the templates Wikipedia:WikiProject Burma (Myanmar)/Township templates by region like Sagaing or will you be able to do that?

I finished the web-spider script. It's very simple, with the thought that all it really needs to do is determine the hierarchical structure, and return it in a readable format. Once we have the structure, it can processed to turn it into boxes, articles, or whatever. I throttled the spider a bit to avoid causing undue load on their servers. Overall, it was fairly simple to write the spider script, as I have written web-spiders before, so there was some code recycling. The script can now perform the same task for any place on that website. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:13, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

P.S. I need an admin to move Kanmaw Kyan to Kanmaw Kyun and redirect Kanmaw Island to Kanmaw Kyun, Hope this is clear.♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:45, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Done. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:13, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

That's great. But is there anyway you can transfer the names and format them like Template:Hkamti Township horizontally so they can be dabbed and pasted into the articles and templates? Ideally I want to be able to copy the processed lists directly into the templates and dab them acocrdingly...♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:45, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Should be possible. There appears to be some problems with the names not quite matching up, but I am sure you can handle that. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:13, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

I think I'll go ahead and create the templates for the townships. Then as you download them formatted hopeflly I can paste them straight into the templates and dab them, unless you could download them straight into the templates? If you visit the WP:Burma main page you'll see that they are ordered by region. The only thing is that some townships are new or under a different name each Tenasserim... Most should be OK though..♦ Dr. Blofeld 18:55, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

I can do either, so long as there is a regular pattern to follow. I did notice that the names don't match up, so hopefully you can sort that out. What level are the townships? Burma is divided into provinces/states (level 1), and those are divided into townships (level 2)? So, you would have a box for each level 2, which would contain all the level 3 places below it? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:45, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

See Template:Wetlet Township for instance. What I want is you to use your tool to copy the list from the url link given and insert the list into the template but formatted horizontally without bullet points and wiki linked as you'd expect in a nav plate. If I set up all of the township templates in this way Template:Thabaung Township etc can you copy directly from the url ink which will be provided for each one? I think that would be the best way to do it. Don't worry about creating lists that need dabbing as when I come to dab after they are all started I will see "what link here". Basically I am creating the townships of Burma templates which are actually the third-level divisions as there are Districts of Burma which are second -level but not given on maplandia but you needn't worry about that as the lists will be accessed via the urls in the relative templates I make OK?♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:48, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

I will work on this again in about 24 hours. I just noticed that my script skipped a bunch of the links (in particular the links that had gps coordinates in the title), so I tweaked and I am running it a second time to pick up all the places it skipped. It takes about 12 hours to grab all the links due to friendly throttling. Plastikspork (talk) 06:11, 18 November 2010 (UTC)
Okay, it actually took 48 hours to crawl all 41166 pages for Burma. I will start working on a script to convert these to navboxes in about 12 hours. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:34, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Will your bot create the missing templates? I will wiki link them anyway for reference in the regional list pages. .E.g Wikipedia:WikiProject Burma (Myanmar)/Bago Region templates. Can you complete Wikipedia:WikiProject Burma (Myanmar)/Sagaing Region templates? Kawlin needs dowloading and then the rest of them from Mawlaik to the end.♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:05, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

I didn't create the individual templates, but I did generate the code for them, and pasted them on the pages here. I sincerely hope you plan to un-retire at some point, or this exercise was basically pointless. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:34, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Hi. Oh ignore the circus show. If people treat me badly they should expect repurcussions. Thanks for that but it is not quite right. You didn't go one step further with the page accessing and ended up copying the index titles e.g Alaw-Bagon rather than actually accessing the actual lists of villages. IN order to do this you need to click on the headers and scroll down again and they list the villages in sizeable chunks. See here. Ye-Ngan Township of Shan State. Scroll down. You just copied that list of index sub headers right? What I wanted is an actual list of the villages. Try clicking say Alegyaung [21°'0"N 96°'0"E] - Hpa-paik . Now scroll down. Those are the villages as listed below. You copied the index titles village- village rather than the actual villages. What I wanted is for you to be able to copy these for the first one and so on: 

   * Alegyaung [21°'0"N 96°'0"E]
   * Alegyaung [21°0'0"N 96°'0"E]
   * Chaunggyiywa
   * Chaungtha
   * Dahatpin
   * Dalein
   * Daungmi

   * Daungmizon
   * Dokto-ye
   * Gonyo
   * Gwebin [21°20'0"N 96°28'0"E]
   * Gwebin [21°'0"N 96°27'0"E]
   * Hka-lauk
   * Hpa-paik

Rather than just Hpyugyaung - Ka-byin I wanted these copied (again you have to access a page further to collect the lists of villages: 

   * Hpyugyaung
   * Hseywa
   * Hsin
   * Hsinnetchaung
   * Htabyebinhla
   * Hti-laing
   * Indaw

   * Indawgaing
   * Indwet
   * Ingaung
   * Inhla
   * Inhlaywathit
   * Innge
   * Ka-byin

Do you follow?

This is why I've requested some sort of tool to do it as manually you so I had to keep going into each one manually and listing on wikipedia then page clicking back and copying the next one until I'd accessed all the sub indexed list from A-Z and then I would have to format them which was very time consuming. The way you created the templates and inserted the index into them was exactly the way I wanted you to do except I wanted you to actually copy the lists of villages not the sub index headers. If you visit Dr. Blofeld/Shan State for instance you'll see that you have only listed these index headers not the proper lists of villages. Let me know if you follow.. ♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:10, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Okay, this is why I was asking which levels corresponded to which parts of the templates. In your example (using my script's notation), it would go Burma (level 0), Shan (level 1), Taunggyi - Ye-Ngan (level 2), Ye-Ngan (level 3), Alegyaung (21°11'0"N 96°41'0"E) - Hpa-paik (level 4), and then Alegyaung (21°11'0"N 96°41'0"E) (level 5). It sounds like you want me to make one template for each level 3, which contains all the level 5 places, and ignore the level 4? I have all the information for all the levels in a large 41,000 line file, so this post processing doesn't take very long. All I have to do is create another file with level 4 removed, and push level 5 down to level 4, and the same script would work. That is, if this is what you want. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 17:12, 20 November 2010 (UTC)
Okay, this is now done, see here. After removing level 4, it looks like Shan is the only region with non-empty boxes, but I didn't look that closely. Let me know if I did it wrong again :) Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 18:22, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Very strange though what you've done with the nav box headers? All I want is one template for each township. See Template:Hkamti Township (Khamti Township)and note exactly what it contains. No villages or townships with - in them. Just plain villages linked. Now study http://www.maplandia.com/burma/sagaing/khamti/. Note I've not copied the sub headers into the templates I've only copied the actual villages. If you access this scroll down click one of the xxx-xxx(in this case it will be Ainda -Hintiu,then Hkampti-Kadung). CLick Ainda-Hintiu then scroll down agian then copy the list and so on with the others until you have a formatted list like in this Hkamti Township template. Pleas enote that Ainda-Hintiu or whatever is NOT a subdivision it is just their way of indexing villages in small lists A-Z for that township. There is no subdivision beneath Khamti, I don't want to see xxx - xxxxx or xxxx Township-xxxx Township in either the box headers or inside the box. Just a simple list of the actual villages for each township. I thinbk you're getting confused. There is no fifth level division. Hkamti or Khamti however you want to spell it is a third level division. What you see in the Axxx- Cxxxx, Dxxxx-Fxxx etc when you scroll down are not further subdivisions. They are all villages they just split them into small lists alphabetically. What I want is for you to be able to run a code to go through beach one of them and produce a full A-Z list of villages for each townshop like Hkamti and format them into a template like Hkamti Township, Homalin Township etc. You see?♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:44, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

For SHan state, because there are so many townships, its the biggest state, they had to list the townships on the Shan page in small lists also in A-Z bursts like they've down with villages. Taunggyi - Ye-Ngan is NOT a subdivision. There is Taunggyi Township and Ye-Ngan Township. They just have a tendency to make small seperate lists which is exactly why I found it time consuming to copy them.♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:51, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

As you've picked Shan State (which is by far biggest state with most townships) I've done Template:Taunggyi Township. Please note exactly what it contains and how that list was compiled form the sub pages of that url link given. The first 14 villages in the township were copied from here and so on from each sub page of http://www.maplandia.com/burma/shan/taunggyi/ .What I want is for you to be able to copy them like this for each township and wiki link them with a nav box divider between each one. I don't want to see any Taunggyi-Ye-Ngan or any villages listed like that, no Bawbin - Hpahpet, no Hpalit - Htilong or Hti-mawn - Konbaw etc I just want you to clik on each of those and then scroll down and copy the lists. Just the actual villages. If you look at how I compiled that Taunggyi list and cna understand that Maplandia lists Burma, then state, in this case Shan, and then township, in this case Taunggyi. That's it. If you want to do YeNgan Township then you'd access http://www.maplandia.com/burma/shan/ye-ngan/ and the first thing you'd copy for drawing up the list would be the 14 villages linked in http://www.maplandia.com/burma/shan/ye-ngan/places-alegyaung-21-11-0-n-96-41-0-e-hpa-paik.html (which you access by clicking the first set labelled Alegyaung-Hpapaik on the Ye Ngan township page on maplandia as I've linked you.)

Confusing thing is that maplandia wrongly' passes them off as seperate level divisions when they are not. They are just villages. My best advice would be to ignore what maplandia state as a level division and follow what I've said. Basically you should be able to easily access them like http://www.maplandia.com/burma/sagaing/khamti/, http://www.maplandia.com/burma/sagaing/mawlaik/ etc. State/township is all you need to know and then access the sub headers beneath and copy the lists of villages you see once you click onto the next page for each of them..Dr. Blofeld 20:07, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

With the Template:Hkamti Township example if you were starting to draw up a list the first 8 villages are listed in the sub index page here. Ainda-Hintiu is not a lower division is is merely an index. OK?♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:20, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Okay, I get it. The names with long hyphens are just index pages pointing to subpages, and are not actual places. What a strange way to organize the site. In any event, I have run some more post processing on the list, stripping out these long hyphens, and what resulted was a list with no more than 3 levels. So, it would now go Burma (level 0), Shan (level 1), Taunggyi - Ye-Ngan (index, removed), Ye-Ngan (level 2), Alegyaung (21°11'0"N 96°41'0"E) - Hpa-paik (index, removed), and then Alegyaung (21°11'0"N 96°41'0"E) (level 3). Check out the list of pages again, here. They are now almost all full. Hopefully I got it right this time. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:10, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Yeah its very irritating to have to keep going through the sub pages. They could have 'easily listed the villages as one on each page. Fantastic Plastikspork. Fantastic. Can I ask how long it took you? ♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:45, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Writing the webspider was probably a couple hours. Writing the script that corrected the output from the webspider was another couple. Writing the script that parsed the webspider output, created navboxes, and posted them onto Wikipedia was around four hours. Most of this time was spent tweaking the output style, and figuring out how to detect and fix the quirky level hierarchy. Had I fully known the structure of the website before I started, it probably would have saved a few hours. Now that it's done, the scripts are fairly general, and could be used for other related purposes. The actual webspider ran for around 48 hours. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:57, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

I see. Well kudos to you for your efforts and finding the time in our busy schedule to help me. ♦ Dr. Blofeld 16:06, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Template:College Athlete Recruit End

Hey Spork, could you take a look at this if you have a chance? In particular, check to see if I have the right logic for selectively suppressing the refs at the end of the template. Thanks! 134.253.26.12 (talk) 22:09, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Looks good. I just tweaked it a bit. Thank you! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:54, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Need update from Convert/numdisp/sandbox

The edit-protected requests were not processed 20-Nov-2010, and I am hoping to replace Template:Convert/numdisp with new version Template:Convert/numdisp/sandbox, during this weekend (or early Monday pre-dawn). The new version omits {Convert/numdisp/a} to lower Convert's expression-nesting 1 more level. IMPACT: Most of the 326,000 affected articles reformat within 5 hours, I think.

See if edit-request still pending: Template_talk:Convert/numdisp. -Wikid77 (talk) 03:00, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Done. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:12, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

infobox martial artist style reverts

Hi,

Any particular reason for these reverts? As far as I can see there was never any discussion over the template styling, and in particular there doesn't appear to be any need to default to 26em width over the usual {{infobox}} width. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward: not at work) - talk 05:34, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Unfortunately, these main editors don't seem to like to talk on the template talk page, but instead use User talk pages, email me, or just do this. The main reason for using something wider is to keep the fields from wrapping. I am all for trying the default, but I just think it should be discussed first since there has been some history to the use of a slightly wider box. If you propose it, you will most like get no feedback, and the change can be made. Then, a bunch of people will show up to complain since they don't watch the template page, but notice a change in their favorite article. As I am sure you know how it goes ... Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:44, 17 November 2010 (UTC)
If the fields need to be nowrapped then we'd be better doing it in CSS (labelstyle=white-space: nowrap) than hacking it with a wider box (which fails in multiple cases). I'll leave something on talk. Cheers. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward: not at work) - talk 06:38, 17 November 2010 (UTC)
Sure, some carefully sprinkled nowraps would probably do the trick as well. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:12, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

Pictures in french article

Hello, I take part of the french commune projet in the french wikipédia and i take pictures. I inform you that the french article on the french village and town of the department 64 is at 60 % of articles illustrated, you can see here the stats in french. The villages and town illustrated of the department 64 are here. Goodbye. France64160 (talk) 21:57, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Interesting. That's great that you are making the effort to increase the number of places with images! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:10, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

Circulant Matrix Definition

Hello,

Sorry if I am disturbing you. You gave a reply to my initial query regarding the Circulant Matrix definition in its wikipedia page. Please see the reply I have made in its Discussion page. I (strongly) think that the definition given here (or alternately the manner in which eigenvalues are obtained) needs to be corrected.

Happy Thanksgiving, Thanks and Regards, Siddharth, A Student —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.220.140.195 (talk) 00:45, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Okay, I will take a look. I believe that section is a rather recent addition. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:47, 21 November 2010 (UTC)
It looks like someone else has taken care of this. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:09, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

info box French Commune

Hi there,

I've been working on Vassieux-en-Vercors and I was wondering if you could help slim down the info box. It's really large by comparison to others and it seems it's a result of the map. Can we perhaps remove the map and let it stand on it's own so that the info box can be slimmed? Thanks. Malke 2010 (talk) 17:53, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Would the problem be fixed by just adding more text to the article? I will see if I can move the images around. I see you have also posed the question on the talk page for the infobox, which is a good place to ask as well. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:05, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
I'm not seeing any real problem here, really. 270px for the images is a tad large, but it's certainly not 'huge'. I'm also wondering of this would simply be better as a wrapper that invokes infobox settlement. Cheers, Jack Merridew 03:49, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
I tried that before (i.e., making it call IS), but my efforts were resisted. Check the talk page archives for that template, as well as the sandbox. There may be a chance to try again, but I have moved on for the moment. :( Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:51, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
I just skimmed through it and it seems to be one rather half-hearted objector focus on 'look'. I also see Andy and Blofeld supporting you and Rich, and I'll support. Hell, mebbe it'll solve whatever is bothering Malke. If you're up for it, let's give it another go. Really, we need to move policy towards simply converting all such domain-specific templates to an appropriate broad-focused one simply for maintainability. As-is, this sort of things only serves to preserve the chaos. Cheers, Jack Merridew 04:41, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

270px I think is OK. My beef with the french commune infobox is the french land registry notes at the bottom which I think are unnecessary. I would strongly support a wrapper of this French commune infobox to infobox settlement (it would display 250 px default). I suggest we gain a consensus to replace the infobox with a wrapper on the french commune talk page. No doubts though Markussep will do all he can to prevent it. The only thing I would suggest though is that infobox settlement is updated with a hide regional pin map option. If you look at the french commune infobox Markussep did a good job at least with regional map options. If this could be transferred to the infobox settlement this would be ideal. I think this should definately be done like Italy was.♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:23, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

Still unneeded 27 templates Col-1-of-n

This isn't too important, but people are still misusing those 27 wacky table templates: {{col-1-of-2}}, {{col-1-of-3}}, ...{{col-1-of-6}}, {{col-2-of-6}},... {{col-6-of-6}}, {{col-1-of-7}},... {{col-7-of-7}}. All together, there are 27 (2+3+4+5+6+7) total redirect templates, such as all 7 of the {col-n-of-7} redirect to {{col-7}}. Let's TfD the top 13 of those templates, some day soon:

Deleting 13 of 27 leaves only 14 unneeded templates to remove from WP, long term.

Examples of crazy usage: In one article, people changed the total columns mid-stream, going from 2 to 3 columns:

Users are mixing-and-matching columns in crazy combinations, which confuse other editors. Meanwhile, those templates merely disguise the need to know how to set various column widths (as simply |width="15%"| or |width="19%"|) on each of 4 or 5 columns. People have found that setting column 2 as "column-2-of-7" was more narrow than saying "column-2-of-5" so when people see "2-of-7" they think the table has 7 columns, but instead only column 2 has the width as if it were a table of 7 columns, even though actually just 5 columns. It has become the most bizarre "grab bag" of 27 template names to mix-and-match in crazy combinations. Plus, we don't want to encourage people to create tables with 6 or 7 columns, which would be too wide for WP:Accessibility on 800x600 windows. In one article, I replaced 22 of those 1-of-n templates with just 2 templates: {col-3} & {col-4}. -Wikid77 (talk) 01:03, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

I agree that we have way too many of these. Accessibility guidelines also discourage the use of tables for layout. The {{div col}} template is a far better solution for multicolumn text. Plus it allows you to set the width of each column, which is good since not everyone has the same display width. For example, like this. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:08, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

Template:Infobox oil field

Hi, Plastikspork. I would like to ask your help with the Template:Infobox oil field. I think it would be great to have coordinates/location map functions similar to the Template:Infobox power station. I think that the image and map should be placed immediately after the title and not in center as it is currently. Probably the template code needs some optimization. Beagel (talk) 10:35, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Okay, I will have a look in a bit. I agree it would be good to make the syntax similar to the other templates. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:09, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
Thank you very much. Beagel (talk) 05:20, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
And thank you too for doing the second step. It still needs some help due to the mismatch between the documentation and the actual template, but we are converging on something. I'm off now, but I will have a look again tomorrow if I have some time. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:24, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
There is some problem with 'operator' and 'operators' fields. While 'operator' field is functioning ok, there is no field appearing in the infobox when 'operators' field is used instead of 'operator'. I don't have a clue what may be wrong. Beagel (talk) 05:22, 24 November 2010 (UTC)
It seems fine now. I think the issue is that if you leave one blank, and use the other, it breaks stuff. The "ifempty" is more robust, since it will skip the blank one. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 06:32, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

Template:Infobox_islands

Hi Plastikspork

I was wondering about a deprecated param (at least, the template seems to be flagging it as deprecated) in Template:Infobox_islands. Param name is country admin divisions title.

I left a note explaining my question on the template's discussion page. The question basically is: what should be done with that param, is there a preferred param to be used instead ?

Since you seems quite active on this template, I thought you might help answering the question. Thnaks a million in advance...

Okay, I answered there. Thanks for working on this category. By the way, you probably noticed that the category is sorted by which deprecated parameter is being used. So, all the country admi divisions title ones will be in capital C. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 06:08, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

last question : on your family picture are you the one whose body is blue and pierced ? if so, what an awesome look you might have. ;-)

Fti74 (talk) 10:52, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes. When I saw that picture, I immediately thought family portrait, and I am the tall blue one. The small plastic one is my little brother Fry. Interesting that you noticed the piercing. I had never really thought about that aspect before. The blue color is definitely me, although I really like green and brown as well. The blue is definitely the most bold. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 06:08, 24 November 2010 (UTC)


OK thanks Fti74 (talk) 20:25, 24 November 2010 (UTC) I have updated the category page accordingly (I meant the deprecated params, not teh piercing related data).

I totally agree with you about elevation, length (and other one-dimension measures). Area is definitively a bit more tricky. One the other hand after a few hundreds of infobox Island editing, I came to the conclusion that the area parameter is usually empty and therefore can be easily fixed.

Sorry to insist on country admin divisions title but looking at the template code, I was wondering if there wasn't a typo : 

}}{{#ifeq:{{{country admin divisions title}}}|County|[[Category:Infobox islands using deprecated parameters|C {{PAGENAME}}]]

Did you meant CountRy rather than County?

Enjoy your trip.

Fti74 (talk) 21:49, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

That would make more sense, unless I was using it for another purpose that I can't recall. I will change it if it hasn't been changed already. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:38, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks a million, the number of pages having trouble with that parameter dropped dramatically to over a 100 to just one thanks to your template edit. Fti74 (talk) 16:37, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Burma place disambiguation

I've asked Rich Farm if you is able to use his tools to do the dabbing. Could it be done by a bot? Anyway. First point of call will be to make all of the templates. Done two regions already. SHould take a few days. The biggest problem is those with coordinates in the titles which are needed to distinguish same names within a township. There is actually a fourth level division which are called wards but as yet we don't know them exscept for the few Myanmar Management UNit maps of some townships. ♦ Dr. Blofeld 16:06, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Good question. I may be able to do a bit more for the list of repeats, but I will have to think about it. For example. providing some suggested extended names for some of these based on township and/or state/region. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to make a script to do it. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 16:18, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Also posted to Rich Farm. What I'll do first is draw up all of the templates. Most of them do not even have dab pages...Once I've drawn up the templates hopefully you will be able to read the what links here and run something... example:Ahlaw. Perhaps you have something which will be able to read the ... Township links and generate dab pages like Ahlaw with Ahlaw Paungbyin and Ahlaw, Tamu linked and link them in the templates. Bets thought to wait until I've fully created all the templates so the links can easily be accessed in the what links here. Once it is done I wonder if it would be possible to run a script through the links needing dabbing that you drew up and get it to generate dab pages and fix links in the infobox based on a .if ...Township type coding. So it reads the first part of the tonwship name and dabs it, e.g the script would read Ahlaw being in Tamu Township and extract Tamu and dab it as Ahlaw, Tamu. ♦ Dr. Blofeld 17:09, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Using the links to the navbox templates is probably one of the easier ways to determine the need for dabs. I am having my bot run over these boxes right now to check for consistency problems. So far it has already identified a few where the box title does not match the template title. This could be a simple need for redirects, or minor typos. I will generate a list. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 18:31, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

I should have the templates made in a day or two. It would be great if they could be dabbed by bot because say I wanted to start on Template:Indaw Township now it would probably take twice as long to dab them that it would to actually start the articles...♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:28, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

I can take a look, but I am not immediately set up for doing this task, so I have no idea how long it would take. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:26, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes they are the same place. Most of the Burmese townships were started by my old friend a Burmese named User:Ekyaw as one liners but some of his transliterations were spelt a little differently. Just google either of them. Which ever spelling wins biggest number of hits wins.. Yes your help would be appreciated. The dabbing is really important if it can be done using a bot because I go from township to township and start the most notable settlements first like Okpho and Gyobingauk and any which google maps has a label for and you can see is a major village. Those will be first priority and the other villages can be started later. Its just nice to be able to pick any township and have a tmeplate ready and settlements dabbed all ready for starting that's all.. No rush to do the lot, whenever you have a moment.. I'll resume with the Chin State templates tomorrow unless of course you could use some form of automation to paste them into the red linked templates I have ready in the sub pages of WP:Burma?♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:31, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

I copied your makeshift templates into the WP:Burma pages like Wikipedia:WikiProject Burma (Myanmar)/Tanintharyi Region templates except Shan State which I'll do later. Can you run something to insert them into the red linked tmeplates by region? All they need then is the township template category e.g here. I've also yet to red link the Yangon ones..♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:33, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps you could speak to User talk:Hebrides and give him a script or something to dab them?♦ Dr. Blofeld 22:08, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

If I had the script, I could run it myself. The problem is that I will need to write a script to create the dab pages, or at least provide the information so that a dab page can be created. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:11, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

It is possible you could gradually work on one over the next few weeks? As I say there's no rush but it would be a massive help...I'll resume with making the templates today..♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:29, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

Gradually will be the key. Offline work is piling up, and I am going away on travel for about a week. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:56, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

Welcome back your Plastikness. I've been side tracked this week with sorting out jazz articles and various AFDs... I will resume with the Burma templates this week so please keep the dabbing in mind still... Meanwhile I found some more Argentine infoboxes to TFD...♦ Dr. Blofeld 22:18, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Great. I will take a look at some of the more numerous ones first, since doing those by hand may be the best option. In the end, it won't be perfect, and will most likely be discovered as the articles are created. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:21, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Some help is needed

Hi, Plastikpork. Template:Infobox pipeline and Template:Infobox power transmission line use automatic categorization by the year of commissioning (establishments by year). However, when the corresponding field is left blank, pages are categorized automatically to the category:Establishments. Could you please help to fix these templates so that there is no categorization if the field is blank. Thank you. Beagel (talk) 14:22, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Okay, I will see if I can sort it out. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:20, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Color schemes of multiple corporate templates

Hello, I just noticed that a number of corporate templates were switched from their respective logo colors to blue on Wednesday. I read up on the accessibility guidelines here and the color help guidelines which I probably should have done earlier.

It looks like there are some tools I should have been referencing to ensure that color blind readers could easily differentiate between colors/contrasts. I will be sure to do that going forward. If there are any other suggestions, just let me know.

Thanks RevelationDirect (talk) 01:52, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

I think in general we should be going with the default color scheme, unless there is a strong reason not to. Often these navboxes are stacked together, and you can have quite the rainbow at the bottom of the page. The readability problem is an even larger concern. Thank you for you help and feedback. Please keep up the good work. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:34, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

SLT Warrior (NONSHS) Page Deletion

Dear Plastikspork

I'm quite enraged.

Why did you delete my page? It isn't done yet and it is relevant to the school activities we have. It is also one major even in the English club of our school which is quite important to approximately 1000+ people/students. Why did you? Are you perhaps doing this for impressions? Ugh. --Garished —Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.198.64.50 (talk) 13:49, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

It wasn't deleted, but moved to your userspace. See User talk:Garished. Thanks. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:33, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Tag insertion code

Hi P!

I've been trying to modify code in 'function insert_Engvar(v1)' of my Engvar script so that it inserts dated {{Use British English|date=December 2010}} templates instead of {{EngvarB}} (performing at the same time similar substitution for existing templates) and {{Use British (Oxford) English|date=December 2010}} instead of {{EngvarOx}}. Somehow, I have now botched the code; it still functions, but no tag is currently being inserted by the script. Could you possibly take a look and advise how I might achieve the objective? --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 09:30, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

I will have a look. It could be an issue with the pipe not be escaped. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:22, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Portugal infoboxes

See Alcácer do Sal Municipality. An editor named User:Zeorymer is replacing all of your standard infoboxes for Portugal. I personally dislike geoboxes I find them scruffy to edit and I very much dislike maps being placed at the bottom of templates. However, when I previously said I disliked the geoboxes you said you thought they were fine. Are you happy with this situation? i guess they are better than most of the other templates we have but if I wanted to add a pin map now I can't.... At least the infoboxes are informative I guess, but I still find them scruffy. The problem is that they promote inconsistency not only with articles on settlements but also mountains and rivers etc. I was thinking about putting it up for TFD but I suspect you'll vote to keep it, partly because the workload needed to replace them all would be too great and that it does have some use... Maybe I can come to an agreement with WP:Portugal to only use them for municipalities and parishes and use infobox settlement for actual villages to display the pin.. ♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:53, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

That is interesting. My only hope is that no information was lost in the conversion. I do like {{Infobox settlement}} more than {{geobox}} for most things. However, as you have identified, I think it is far better to use either of these over some wonky regionalised box, or even worse, a hard-coded table. My perspective is that the information passed to the template should be in a machine parse-able format, and that we should have as few of these boxes as necessary. Once it is in template form, it is much easier to make massive changes to the formatting and presentation of information by simply modifying the template. As styles change overtime, it is far easier to update a small subset of templates than a large mass of articles. The current transclusion count is about 10 times lower for geobox vs. settlement (20k vs. 220k). Of course, Geobox is being used for more than just settlements, but also Rivers, Mountains, ..., so it's not like one is a direct replacement of the other. If you were to take Geobox to TFD, I wouldn't oppose it, but I most likely wouldn't support it either. I could see supporting some standardisation of appearance and field names for the two templates, which would make it easier for editors. I would also support making {{Infobox mountain}} the standard for mountains, {{Infobox islands}} for Islands, ..., as opposed to trying to use Geobox for all of them. I wonder how hard it would be to get a break down of the transclusion counts for Geobox based on the type (settlement,mountain, valley, island, lake, ...). Basically, I pick my "battles", and so far I have found far more to do confronting issues with other boxes, rather than taking on Geobox. Do let me know if you start any threads on this issue. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:21, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Thank you

Thank you for your help with the template issue. Cheers. 134.253.26.6 (talk) 22:47, 10 December 2010 (UTC)

No problem. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:07, 11 December 2010 (UTC)

Infobox Island

Hi Plastikpork. Sorry to bother you once again with this template but I have a question about intervals {{convert|20|-|40|km}}. I would need your help in editing the template (I am afraid it's off limits to my skills). For more details, please see Template_talk:Infobox_islands#Deprecated_parameters Fti74 (talk) 18:26, 11 December 2010 (UTC)

Great work. I will respond there. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 18:34, 11 December 2010 (UTC)

Emailed

I've sent you an email. "Please let me know off-wiki" what you think.♦ Dr. Blofeld 15:50, 10 December 2010 (UTC)

Okay, I will check my email. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:07, 11 December 2010 (UTC)
Okay, I read it, and will respond soon. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 18:34, 11 December 2010 (UTC)

Responded. Can you let me know off-wiki if you have any ideas to gain support?♦ Dr. Blofeld 16:36, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

Hey, I saw you moved a recently deleted football coach navbox to PaulMcDonald's userspace. Would you mind moving these to my own userspace if you have a chance?:

  • Template:Adelphi Panthers football coach navbox
  • Template:American International Yellowjackets football coach navbox
  • Template:Assumption Greyhounds football coach navbox
  • Template:Bemidji State Beavers football coach navbox
  • Template:Brooklyn Kingsmen football coach navbox

Thanks in advance. Strikehold (talk) 02:41, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

Will do. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:42, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

More template oddities

Howdy - I notice you fixed a couple of template oddities recently. I'm working my way through an automatically generated list of statistically outlying redlinks on templates. The vast majority are typos and oversights, but a few (including the ones you've fixed) require more template expertise than I have to puzzle out. Just on the off-chance you're interested, the next three outliers on my 'I dont want to do it myself' list are: Template:/meta/shortname - Template:Er - Template:S-. - TB (talk) 12:35, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

The {{er}} is from people copying/pasting from the French Wikipedia: see my comments here and category:Articles using E without any arguments. I believe we need some AWB work and/or a bot to clean this up. The others can probably be fixed by modifying templates. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 16:32, 12 December 2010 (UTC)
It would be interesting to create a list of the most common ones that come from folks using a cut-and-paste from another language Wikipedia. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:49, 14 December 2010 (UTC)
Directly, difficult - how about a list of thew few hundred most-transcluded titles that don't exist, for further manual processing? - TB (talk) 07:51, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Okay, had a quick look at this. We have 68646 transclusions of missing templates. Excluding 3813 to Mediawiki:Toc (arguably a Mediawiki bug - changes to global variables do not invalidate pages), 7269 ending in "_style", 16294 starting 'Zh/' (see this), 4117 starting "Chinese_calendar/", and 1502 starting "Data_". The best of the rest can be seen at User:Topbanana/Parse until I check the results more thoroughly - it should be possible to pick out untranslated transclusions by scanning throuhg the list. - TB (talk) 12:58, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Wiki list

Hi I could update WP:List_of_Wikipedians_by_number_of_recent_edits but problem is that the xml.gz file can't be longer accessed is there a way how to get it? it is very outdated and some folks would like to have that, it's no prob for me to parse it. Do you know how to get it, you are person who has been updating this list for some time. Petrb (talk) 17:54, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

If you check http://download.wikipedia.org/ there is currently a message saying that server is down at the moment. With a little luck, it will be back up shortly, and you will be able to retrieve the file. Another possibility is to post a query at Wikipedia talk:Database reports to see if anyone has an alternative way to access the file. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:45, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

This edit (and 8 similar) introduced some weird characters, it might be worth checking. - TB (talk) 22:38, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Oh, that was unfortunate. That happened when I did a copy-and-paste of the template name into a Linux console. I don't foresee that happening again, since that was a one time event. Thank you for pointing it out, and cleaning it up. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:40, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Recent changes to rock music templates (colours)

I reverted your recent changes. To be honest they look fine to me, but if you want to discuss them in general, it seems logical to do it all in once place. The best I can come up with is Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Music genres, but perhaps you know of somewhere else more appropriate. I so do let me know and I will post alerts on relavant project pages. All the best.--SabreBD (talk) 23:53, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

No problem. I was generally cleaning up the whole bag of Skittles at the bottom of an article, and realized that my edit may have been a bit bold. I will start a thread at some point if I can find the time. Thanks for letting me know, especially since I had made more changes than just removing the colours, so I will go back and reinstate those other changes. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:19, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
What was this? Whatever it is, Plastikspork was right ;) I'll find it tomorrow. Cheers, Jack Merridew 06:28, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
Sorry about reverting the format changes in the undo, to be honest I wasn't quite sure which change was doing what. Also I am not quite sure what the original visual problem was, possibly because I wasn't seeing it on my display. If the colours remain and the text can still be read I am pretty much going to be happy. Both of which are true at the moment.--SabreBD (talk) 07:44, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
I've looked at a few of the edits in question. Plastikspork was quite correctly removing inappropriate colouring from navboxs. Yon wikiproject does not own such templates and any opinions there are moot per WP:CONLIMITED. Cheers, Jack Merridew 02:12, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

diff script

Interesting. That looks like a useful script. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 20:17, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
and getting more useful... Cheers, Jack Merridew 02:12, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Indonesian regency maps

Hello Plastik One. Seasons Greetings. You like locator maps right? I'm currently sorting out the Indonesian regencies which urgently need some work but we are missing it seems the entirely of regency locators map which from what I can see exist on Indonesian wikipedia for mnay of the provinces see here. Jack Merridew uploaded one to the commons at File:Lokasi Aceh Kabupaten Aceh Besar.svg which I've added to Aceh Besar Regency along with a nice photo I also uploaded from Indonesian wikipedia. Its a massive improvement. I was wondering if you could bot upload these locator maps of Indonesia so they can go in the articles and I'll start the remaining articles. I've created a category in the commons at here. They just need to be uploaded in sub categories by province. ♦ Dr. Blofeld 09:32, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Do you need the maps made, or just uploaded? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:39, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Maps are already made on Indonesian wikipedia! Have a browse. Have a look through our regency articles and then view the Bahasa Indonesia equivalent on id:wiki. Suprisingly they are top quality too. Just need them bot uploaded to the commons and I'll take care of the rest, unless you can help distribute them into the infoboxes using a script. Shouldn't take much time..♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:03, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Mmm funny looking skyscraper...♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:45, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Automatic google book referencing

An idea occurred to me, I'm thinking of making a proposal. I heavily use google books for writing my articles. The thing is I find that it takes me as long to copy the referencing details as it does to write content. What I'm thinking of is a tool built into the box when you edit an article in which you can paste the url or isbn number? of the book in google books and a bot will read the paramters in the google book listing e.g author, title, publisher. year, edition etc and it will create an inline reference which is fully sourced, saving you having to copy and draw up the references yourself. I don;t know about others but this would save me a massive amount of time and I could reference more articles this way.. E.g this. Scroll down to the bottom. The parameters under Bibliographic information could be copied by automation given that the format is consistent. "♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:51, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Interesting. There is WP:REFLINKS, which helps with filling out citations. There is also {{cite doi}} and a bot that assists with expanding those. Beyond that, I guess you would want something like an equivalent {{cite isbn}} for books. Do you use scripts? If so, it would probably be possible to cook one up that would take a bare URL for google books and then turn that into a full citation for you. If you really want a bot, you should try User:Citation bot, rather than writing a new one. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:38, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

This is exactly what I was looking for. I've programmed it into my monobook to appear on the top itinery but it really ought to be readily accesible within wikipedia for any editor to use. Have a go of it paste http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gF8arqcCAdYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=fork&hl=en&ei=WY4QTZO0EMG2hAfEhJG3Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false into the url and click load. We really ought to have this on every standard editing page.♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:23, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Happy Holidays!

          Happy Holidays!
Dear Plastikspork,
Best wishes to you and your family this holiday season, whether you are celebrating Christmas or a different holiday. It's a special time of the year for almost everyone, and there's always a reason to spread the holiday spirit! ;)
Love,
--Meaghan [talk] ≈ 15:13, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Infobox reactor

Hey, Plasitkspork. Could you reopen that template discussion, or relist it one last time? I believe we could reach a consensus soon... Rehman 01:57, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

Okay, I don't exactly see why that is necessary, but sure. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:01, 23 December 2010 (UTC)
Thank you . Rehman 05:07, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

Changes to Vt athletic divisions

I noticed that you were making some needed changes to Vt. hs Athletic divisions. Thanks.

Just wanted to mention, as you probably noticed, that the divisions were often aimed at football, where available. Many schools, maybe even most, are not in the same division for all sports. If the current divisions suit you, I'd rather go with that. Hate to see n division templates at the bottom of each school, one for tennis, another for field hockey, etc. What a clutter! The kids seem to normally go along with this though a few have entered the correct division for (say) tennis. Mercifully never to the bottom of the page though. It would be a real problem for us to have to maintain ten+ or so templates! Student7 (talk) 14:00, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I noticed. I agree that fewer templates are better. The larger multisection one seems to do a pretty good job summarizing all the sports. I don't have a strong opinion, so long as things are somewhat logical and consistent. Let me know if I can help. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:17, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

Template:Can city COA layout

I was never notified of this deletion discussion, which I should have been as the creator of the page. Could you please undelete and move into my userspace? Thanks. → ROUX ₪ 23:11, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

Infobox Diocese

You closed this as merge, but you didn't clarify which one should stay and which should go. It's currently languishing in the holding cell. — This, that, and the other (talk) 01:40, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

They should be merged into one template. I would imagine the easiest thing to do would be to make the one with the most transclusions the base for the merger. I believe the current trend is to prefer lower case titles, but that can be corrected by moving if necessary. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 17:22, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

I've updated Template:Infobox diocese/doc. I've placed the parameters in the order as they appear in the template. I hope I've got all the parameters there, but please give it a look to make sure I've got it all right. Scrivener-uki (talk) 18:26, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! I can take that off of my to do list. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 18:41, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

Early English cricketers

Hi. I just want to say thank you for your efforts in reformatting the infoboxes in all these articles following the recent merger. ----Jack | talk page 19:33, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

Glad to help. This one was relatively simple, since all the fields were the same. We just needed to add a "columns = 0" to suppress the statistics section. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:38, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

New Zealand relief

Happy new Year plastik! I was wondering if you could sort out the Category:Mountains of New Zealand with Template:Location map New Zealand relief which I made..♦ Dr. Blofeld 14:35, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

No, I don't think I can. You will just revert my edits, so it is pointless. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:32, 2 January 2011 (UTC)
Oh so now we've responded... What's got into you of late? It would have been nice for you to have returned the kind words and wished me a happy new year. Not only did you ignore both good faith messages but you went ahead and reverted the geobox because apparently every change has to "gain consensus" and couldn't even be bothered to inform me of your revert. I considered you a friend on here, well what sort of a friend can't even wish somebody a happy new year?♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:37, 2 January 2011 (UTC)
I don't celebrate the new year on the Julian calendar, but if it means so much to you, then "happy new year". Now will you stop rolling back my edits? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:40, 2 January 2011 (UTC)
I would have nicely asked to add a map to the infobox lake like the infobox river as I have a self-made map of Lake Alexandrina, New Zealand which like geobox is protected but I think it would have been reverted.... As for the New Zealand mountains, I'm pretty sure I can do that myself... But why the sneaky reverting over geobox and ignoring of me? ♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:44, 2 January 2011 (UTC)
So, are you asking me to do something with "infobox lake"? Are you retracting your other request? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:49, 2 January 2011 (UTC)
Well you are busy so I think I can manage the mountains. But if you could add a map to Template:Infobox lake like this this would be a great help. Sorry but it really winds me up when good faith messages get ignored and I am not informed of reverts you made, how was I to know about the geobox discussion? In fact I only found out about it because I was going to request Charles add the map parameter to infobox lake but then I saw your message to him saying the geobox edit was reverted so I though he is probably unlikely to make another infobox change....♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:55, 2 January 2011 (UTC)
There appears to be some pointed wording in the documentation about avoiding maps which only show the location of the lake. Do you know why this is there? I see there is image_bathymetry, and I could add "image_map", but it might be a good idea track down why we don't have this parameter to begin with. If there is no history, then I will certainly implement it and see if anyone complains. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 20:04, 2 January 2011 (UTC)
That's odd... Maybe it was because people were using pin maps to show a lake or something? I've also created File:Lake Alexandrina, New Zealand map.png now... I'll investigate the history and see why we don't have a map option. I've asked User:Docu... ♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:30, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Can't even bring yourself to wish Baldy a happy new year. Miserable git. LOL♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:26, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

I've reverted your recent edits. There is no consensus to do it.♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:19, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Why? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:28, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

You genuinely happy with the map situation in the Azores infobox?♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:04, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Infobox locomotive

Hi, whilst fixing bad params in {{infobox locomotive}}, how about amending |leadingsize=, |driversize=, |trailingsize= to |leadingdiameter=, |driverdiameter=, |trailingdiameter= respectively? Also, for steam tank locos, Diesels and electrics, |weight= could simply become |locoweight= in virtually every case. These changes should reduce the number of pages in Category:Unusual parameters of Infobox locomotive template. It won't clear them all, but I don't think that |weight= can easily be changed for steam tender locos: there are a choice of three to alter it to. --Redrose64 (talk) 19:20, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

I will check these out later. Right now I am working through the list of transclusions using fields which do not exist in the infobox. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:22, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Oh, I see you are sorting out those indifferent to the infobox. Sorry for the mistake. There was me thinking that every frickin edit on wikipedia had to gain "consensus".♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:32, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Why don't you actually come right out and say what you are upset about, rather than just acting out and rolling back random edits. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:34, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Well it would seem every tiny change is reverted and needs consensus.♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:50, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

The edit summary says "revert for now, as discussion is ongoing". I would suggest commenting there, since I am not the one who objected to the change. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:52, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Engvar script - adding functions

Hi Plastikspork,

I could once again do with your expert help in adding functionalities to my Engvar script, the test version of which is here. I am attempting to add functionality for Canadian English, consisting of two additional functions. I have separately tested the two modules, and find that they work as intended. I lost the sidebar buttons since going to the latest version. The current version lacks the menu buttons, but still can be called. Note that function insert_Engvar(v1) has not yet been updated for the Canadian code. Cheers, --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 03:13, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

You caught me just as I was packing for holiday. I may have some time, depending on how the packing goes. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:41, 23 December 2010 (UTC)
This can wait till after the hols. Have a good one! --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 03:43, 23 December 2010 (UTC)
Happy New Year! Hope you had a good break. It seems that I have the sidebar buttons. However, the Canadian button currently sits in the middle and displays as 'British spelling'; the article is tagged {{Use British English|etc after activation although the underlying changes are as per Canadian, as written in the regex rules. --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 08:14, 3 January 2011 (UTC)
So this is for the test version? I will see if it does the same thing for me. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:41, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
Yes, this is the test version. The 'main version' does not yet incorporate the rules for Canadian English. Once it is working, I will copy it over. --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 02:06, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
Okay, did my change work? It looked like the link to case "C" was using "BRITISH" for the text. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:22, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
Try it now. It seems to be working. The only oddity is what it does to the edit summary if you repeatedly push the various buttons. I could fix that as well, but it would require removing prior edit summary before adding a new one. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:13, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

Template:Cat main

If I could direct your attention back to Template talk:Cat main#Edit request, I was wondering whether you know any way to accomplish that which I suggested on the talk page of said template. Thanks. ―cobaltcigs 19:52, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

Okay, I will respond there. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:16, 6 January 2011 (UTC)

Your fix to my archivelist

Thank you!! Now it's perfect! :D -- Ϫ 08:24, 6 January 2011 (UTC)

Missing TFD for Template:Sissinghurst

Hi Plastikspork

In this edit on 30 December you removed the listing of {{Sissinghurst}} from Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Log/2010 December 20, with an edit summary which said "relisting".

Great idea, but AFAICS it was not actually relisted that day (see Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Log/2010 December 30), and AFAICS it has not been relisted elsewhere. If I have missed something, please correct me, but it appears that something went awry and this discussion vanished. (Just as an aside, might it not not be better to follow CFD practice with relistings, and archive the first version of the discussion rather than removing it?)

I'm not quite sure what to suggest, but please can you find some way to restore this discussion so that it can reach a conclusion? If you think that's inappropriate, please can you drop a note on my talk advising me what I should do to reopen this.

BTW, congrats on all your good work with WP:TFD. It seems that a high proportion of the admin work there is being done by you, with commendably little dissent. Well done! --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 07:02, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Whoops. Yes, that was a mistake. I don't think I have ever done that before. Since the others have drifted to the end, I will just relist it now. As far as how we handle relisting, I have see one or two admins use the archiving method, but most seem to just cut and paste it to the new day. I would be certainly open to using another method. Thanks again. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:54, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

moar template work for you ;)

We spoke of this last month, and teh ball is rolling... Cheers, Jack Merridew 00:38, 8 January 2011 (UTC)

Great. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:42, 8 January 2011 (UTC)

Infobox locomotive

I've just worked out what the fields "service" and "serviceclass" are about - they must have been supported once - as they are listed in the documentation of Template:Infobox locomotive auto, same infobox also mentions secondary images.Sf5xeplus (talk) 04:48, 6 January 2011 (UTC)

Oh, that would explain it. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:59, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Can you see any procedural errors on my short contributions page?

Hi plastikspork,

You encouraged me once.

Can you look for errors in procedures on my contributions page?

I see how busy you are; feel free to pass this request along to someone else if so inclined.

Thank you, mikebreakrun3 Mikebreakrun3 (talk) 08:51, 7 January 2011 (UTC).

I took a brief look, and it looks like you are doing good work. You could always try WP:Editor Review, but I have found that not very many people actually take the time to comment. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:58, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

100 year flood

Thanks for sorting 100 year flood. I'll investigate to see what can be done about the issue. Lightmouse (talk) 11:37, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

No problem. I saw the note on your talk page, and took a stab at it. I wasn't able to get the exact same output, but pretty close. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:56, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Template:US county navigation box

Your last edit to Template:US county navigation box seems to have broken the map_size parameter. I was coming across a lot of county templates with extremely large maps, and I had to undo your edit to fix the problem; if you were doing anything important with the template, you'll have to redo it. Sorry about that, but I don't know enough about template syntax to fix the problem any other way. TheCatalyst31 Reaction•Creation 06:34, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

No problem. You did the right thing. I didn't realize that we were supporting the 75x75 syntax as well. Thanks for fixing it! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:55, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Sockblock

Hi. See User talk:Heymid#Merging templates. Thanks. HeyMid (contribs) 11:33, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

WP:TFD

Hello, my fellow TFD-Closing Friend. Any clue why the oldest day (or even the completed discussions section) has been failing to display over the last few days? Too many transclusions, perhaps? An open set of brackets somewhere? It's one of those things that isn't really annoying, but is really annoying. :) JPG-GR (talk) 07:02, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

My theory is its the combined size of the transcluded pages. Basically, we need to get some of the overactive proposers to slow down a bit, or come up with a new way of transcluding the pages, or just ignore the issue. I am personally just ignoring it for now, but secretly hoping for a slow down in massive rate with which templates are being nominated. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:56, 11 January 2011 (UTC)
Ditto. There's three or four users that are killing us, and half of them are, frankly, wasting our time. I'm definitely not interested in overhauling how things are displayed - I used to be one of the resident WP:RM guys until that got "improved", and now the backlog is atrocious! JPG-GR (talk) 00:28, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

on Template:Città dell'Etiopia

i made this template. but i think i made a bit of a mess becouse now, in the cities which are nominated in this tamplate, only in the english wikipedia though, it comes up that there are two links to the italian wikipedia translation (one at the top and the other link in the list).and if you click on the top link it leads you to the page of the template and not to the translated article in the italian wikipedia. sorry to disturb you again, but can you fix this for me without deleting my template which i did on the italian wikipedia? can you let me know in my talk page when you have done that.--Sweetcorn (talk) 15:45, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

i saw where i made the mistake i corrected it--Sweetcorn (talk) 15:56, 12 January 2011 (UTC)
I'm glad you were able to sort it out. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:04, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

NRHP template color change

I noticed that, in the course of making what seem to be otherwise routine updates to the format of the various "National Register of Historic Places in ..." templates, you removed the color coding, reverting to the default blue.

Was there some reason for this? I defer to your knowledge of templates, but no one had ever indicated to us at WP:NRHP that those colors were not OK (nor have I seen any other reformatting of any other navboxes on my watchlist that use other colors). Daniel Case (talk) 03:06, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I noticed that about half were the default and half were the teal/blue, so I tried to make them more uniform by going with the default. If this is controversial, I can change this back, or say have them all get the colour from one location so it stays in sync. Just let me know. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:08, 13 January 2011 (UTC)
Sure, go ahead with the latter. I'm keeping the project updated on the talk page. Daniel Case (talk) 15:27, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Hi

Hi. I haven't been very active of late, but have recently returned to at least some minimal activity. It seem to me a few editors are nomination a large amount of templates. Cleaning up as it were. I noticed they are sometimes being a little overly zealous. I commented on the few cases I noticed. Drop me a notice if you need any help. Debresser (talk) 19:17, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. I made a couple polite requests to throttle the nomination rate a bit. In one case, it appears to have had the desired effect. In the other case, it appears to have not helped at all. I am glad to see I am not the only one who finds this a bit annoying. The biggest problem is that we just don't get the amount of input we need on each template, when there is such a flood of nominations. My only hope is that at this rate, the number left on the "orphaned" lists will become small enough that things will be back to normal. See the section entitled WP:TFD a few sections up from this one, and the comments about post-expand size limits at WT:TFD. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:22, 16 January 2011 (UTC)
It seems to me they are going through it per alphabetic order, so soon enough things should be back to normal. In a way it's better to be over with it. Lack of input is indeed a bad thing, but in most cases I think it would be possible to make a decision to delete based on the fact that a template is orphaned. Please drop me a note if anything specific comes up. Debresser (talk) 21:33, 16 January 2011 (UTC)
This partially explains why one user stopped nominating so many. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:37, 16 January 2011 (UTC)
I remember one of his edits. Which ended with a merge of two templates which I did myself with a simple redirect. Debresser (talk) 21:45, 16 January 2011 (UTC)
Another edit I saw not so long ago raised some valid concerns in relation to a whole set of templates, which still haven't been taken care of. Perhaps you'd care to give your opinion at Template_talk:R_from_other_template#Mistake. Debresser (talk) 22:02, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Cyp

Hi,
you closed Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2011_January_5#Template:Cyp nicely. But imo, you should not have linked a thought (nor Redirect) to "Template:CYP" (all caps). Yes I did introduce that, but only for the caps diff, not for the effect (=function): {{cyp}} is not {{CYP}}. CYP is just a flag:  Cyprus!. I suggest you kill the {{cyp}} (=lowercase), as is NOT a replacement at all for cyp. Again, I know I introduced the word CYP here, but it is OK when read carefully. -DePiep (talk) 01:02, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

I really don't care either way, but since you do, I deleted it. I was just trying prevent this sort of thing from happening again, like Template:Can and Template:CAN, which is just plain confusing. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:07, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

two things, really...

If you look at the first diff, below (mine), you'll see that I removed a ‘Â’ character that was at the end of a url in a citation and that a newline followed before the rest of the template. Deep in the second diff is where the citation, along with the anomalous character was entered. I saw some comment just yesterday about this very issue; it had something to do with Linux and (possibly) Solaris libraries being out of sync. But I can't find it, so I'm posting @ you...

The other thing is about your scripts:

  • wow some toolbox ;)

All sorts of new stuff; thinkin' I need a mop to use some of them effectively. Should I be trying a lighter-weight approach? And I've noticed an interaction with AutoEd; I have some hacked-up stuff in that .js and part of it was about knocking-out some behaviours such as scrunching spaces and newline around section headers (I like those;). With your tools hauled in, that's gone. Thoughts? Cheers, Jack Merridew 04:10, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Yes, most of the scripts that I am using are poorly documented, and many are for admin duties. As far as AutoEd goes, I agree it could use some work. I should have some time this weekend. I will have a look at your other diffs in a bit. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:53, 14 January 2011 (UTC)
Ah, no real hurry. As I said, below, I'm busy and am mostly in a gnomish mode during lulls. Cheers, Jack Merridew 03:13, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Spacecraft

Hello, Plastikspork. You have new messages at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spaceflight.
Message added 23:56, 17 January 2011 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

You previously commented on the idea of new spacecraft templates. The discussion has reached a point where more review of the current (sandbox) draft Spacecraft missions and Spacecraft class templates would be helpful. Info and links are on the Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spaceflight page in the Infobox spaceflight section. Cheers. N2e (talk) 00:00, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

I will have a look as soon as I can. It may be a day or two, but hopefully sooner. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:08, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Random Smiley Award

For your contributions to Wikipedia and humanity in general, you are hereby granted the coveted Random Smiley Award.
(Explanation and Disclaimer)

♠TomasBat 02:04, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Template:Infobox Mandir

Hi. I've noticed a lot of the mandir infoboxes in articles don't have the full parameters. I was wondering if you could use a script to fill them out?♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:57, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Are you asking for me to add all the blank entries? It looks like there are quite a few in there that aren't even in the documentation. I imagine some of these may be deprecated, like "coordinates" for example, which is redundant to "latd/longd/...". I cleaned up the code a bit, and will take a pass through to see what is actually being used at the moment. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:52, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Gracias. Yes I was thinking more on the info here. Just improved parameters that can be filled at a later date.♦ Dr. Blofeld 14:34, 15 January 2011 (UTC) Could you add the parameters even if they are missing to those and the other articles like this? There should be about 29 parameters I think. Most of the mandir infoboxes have less than half this. I updated the Mandir infobox a while back similar to Infobox Tibetan Buddhist monastery but I forgot that they needed updating!♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:27, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Sure, I can take care of the expansion, if you can handle the duplicate hardcoded boxes that I mentioned on your talk page. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:56, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

That's great thanks. Have you done those ones you mentioned on my talk page? I went to edit one and it looked fine, I see you replaced it.♦ Dr. Blofeld 15:18, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

No, scroll down and you will see a hard coded infobox below the actual infobox. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 18:01, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Ah I see, I'll sort those shortly.♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:35, 16 January 2011 (UTC) Awesome job Mr Spork I'm impressed. I found the coordinates for Birla Mandir, Kolkata. I considered making a city locator for Kolkata but the server for OSM as usual is shoddy. I'll try again tomorrow. ♦ Dr. Blofeld 22:25, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

Looks good. My script finished a complete pass through all 300 or so transclusions, so they are now looking much better. I still need to do a bit more, but they are in much better shape now. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:28, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Infoboxes and categories...

As you may very well remember, there was recently an issue brought up on the talk page of the {{Infobox former country}} template regarding the red linked categories it produced. Lucky for you, I found yet another template producing the same! The template in question is {{Infobox German location}}. I came across it when I running into Wandsbek (quarter). I was wondering if you could look into it? — ξxplicit 08:43, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Interesting. The code for the established date is a bit odd. It might be useful having a template which just does the categorization logic for all of these templates (at least three that I have seen so far). I will try to get to it in the next 24 hours. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:07, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
Thanks. Infoboxes really shouldn't be allowed to produce categories, they're a pain in the butt for editors who work with templates and/or categories. — ξxplicit 04:20, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
I agree. Perhaps the better solution would be to just remove it completely? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:22, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
That's probably worth a community discussion, though. It should really be across the board for all infoboxes. — ξxplicit 04:41, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
Agreed. We would also need a bot to go through and add the categories being removed. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:42, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
That too. Any ideas where to get this thing moving? I'm not one to usually propose huge changes like this. — ξxplicit 04:49, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
I suppose that would depend on how many templates/articles are going to be impacted. If we are just talking about the "established" category, then we could start by trying to figure out which templates add articles to those categories, and say start a thread on one of the template talk pages. If we are talking about removing all (or most) categories from all (or most) infoboxes, then I suppose one could find a fairly centralized place and start an RFC or something. When it works, the automatic categorization stuff is nice. When it doesn't work, it's a big pain in the butt. The "established" and "disestablished" categories are an example of when it doesn't work very well. Most of the categories are either empty or nearly empty, and the entire thing is so diffuse that the categories are nearly useless in many cases. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:55, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
If anything, I think it would be better to tread lightly and start with only the established and disestablished fields. An overly confident nomination to remove all fields that produce categories in infoboxes may very well lead to nothing being done in the end. I can sense the WP:NOTBROKEN arguments that would come. In these cases, however, where the established and disestablished fields produce categories and have led to nothing but problems, things are very well broken. — ξxplicit 05:05, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Okay, I believe I fixed this one. It wasn't as bad as I thought, since we have the "Populated places established in XXth century" categories, and don't require the hyphenation, like the "XXth-century establishments" do. Plus, this is a more appropriate subcategory. I still agree that the autocategorization is broken, but this is at least a partial fix to the more immediate issue at hand. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:25, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

kecamatan navboxes

Go easy on those; I uploaded a lot of the lambang from id:wp and worked on a lot of these templates; if they're now inconsistent, someone's been messing with them. I'm pretty bust ATM, but will look into it... Cheers, Jack Merridew 03:07, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

There was only one that was unlike the others. I found them while closing two TFDs which had only redlinks. No actual information was removed, since the city articles contain the list of subdivisions as well. Otherwise, I try to save the info before deleting. Let me know if I can help. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)
id:Lambang are the coats of arms (but they're more like symbols, not about 'arms'). The root of some of the inconsistency is that we, Commons, and id:wp don't have them all; many, but not all. I'm plodding through locator maps for id:regencies, and will then do a pass on the lambang; more are available on id:wp than when I last did batches of transfers to commons. Cheers, Jack Merridew 03:18, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

fyi, this is about how I see a standard navbox for id:stuff looking. Comments? I'll be nudging things in this direction... Cheers, Jack Merridew 05:06, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Looks good. I would support renaming the template to something with spaces in the title, but that's more minor. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:09, 21 January 2011 (UTC)
Ya, I would do that, too; I prefer good alignment with the name of the primary article ;) Cheers, Jack Merridew 05:12, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Aldershot

Any idea what's wrong with the infobox in Aldershot. It has the coordinates but no map?♦ Dr. Blofeld 18:18, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

 Done There were some funny characters in the infobox, preceding most equals signs. These looked like spaces in edit mode, but were something else entirely. --Redrose64 (talk) 18:49, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Thankyou, Red Rose. Plastik what is happening to Template:Infobox skyscraper? Its still widely in use but it was decided to merge it with infobox building about 6 or 7 months ago. I think there was consensus to ensure any outstanding parameters are programmed into infobox building and then it deprecated. But I think its a big task....♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:29, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

The merge is happening, but it's a process. It shouldn't be taking this long, but I have been working on it again over the past few days. There are about 3000 transclusions of skyscraper, and 3300 of building. I am currently getting a count of all the parameters being used, which has identified quite a mangled boxes, or ones using parameters which don't exist. Once that is cleaned up, I will start the actual merger. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:34, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Tokar, Sudan

can you explain me why (and also solve this problem )in the infobox coordinates there is written - 2000)_region:SD 18°25′36″N 37°45′49″E and not only 18°25′36″N 37°45′49″E as it should be. what did i do wrong? please alert me on my talk page when you have done that.thanks--Sweetcorn (talk) 16:33, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

The |population_total= parameter is intended for an exact value, without punctuation. This is because besides being displayed, it's used for certain calculations, and also controls how the coordinates link is generated. Where the exact population is unknown, you should use |population_est=. --Redrose64 (talk) 17:02, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Edits to Chinese city templates

On the templates Template:Harbin, Template:Dalian, etc., I will not contest most of your edits, but I ask why you choose to change from a green colour to the default, ugly blue? Thanks. --HXL's Roundtable, and Record 19:06, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

I changed them because I found the original coloring hard to read, it was inconsistent with the coloring used by other templates in the same category, and I found no rationale for using a coloring other than the default. I am sorry that you find the default ugly. The great thing about using the default is that it can be easily changed by the end user (see Wikipedia:Skin). The other great thing about using the default is that it avoids clashing of colors when multiple navigation bars are included at the bottom of the same page. And a final great thing about using the default is that it centralizes concerns of WP:ACCESSIBILITY issues. Let me know if there is something that I am overlooking. By the way if you really think the default is ugly, you should post a comment at MediaWiki_talk:Common.css. This is the style sheet that controls the default appearance of all the navigation boxes. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:14, 23 January 2011 (UTC)
ok I see where you are coming from. And sorry for the lack of clarification, but I find the default to be ugly mainly in this case, not all of the time. --HXL's Roundtable, and Record 19:55, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

Chinese provincial templates

Hi. I noticed that you'd gone through the templates for provinces of China, putting the map image into the list so the text flows around it, reducing the amount of whitespace it caused. A problem is that something in the code causes a couple of blank lines to appear in the list of cities — after the first and before the last. There's a kluge that'll fix that (User:Wwoods/Sandbox#mask_line-breaks).

However, I'd been thinking of making my own change: moving the prefectures out into the left column (3rd version). That also saves whitespace, though not as much. I don't think you can do both. Do you have a preference?

—WWoods (talk) 02:12, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Both the kluge version, and the one after that look fine to me. It would be great if you could get the "administrative divisions" header to flow all the way over to the right. I think this is possible, but it may require using a "child" box for the second section? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:17, 24 January 2011 (UTC)
(temporary talk page stalker). I noticed the strange and unexplained space between the list of third-level divisions for the provincial/regional capital and the next prefecture. Also, is there any particular reason to have the title on a separate line from the provincial/regional capital? Thanks --HXL's Roundtable, and Record 02:20, 24 January 2011 (UTC)
The reason for putting the title and capital on separate lines, is mostly just convention used by most other boxes, and to reduce the width of the box when it is collapsed. I thought the extra space was intentional, since it was in the version before I started messing with it. I do like it better without this space, which could be easily removed. Thanks for the input. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:22, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

MidStates Football League and 13 Others - Page Deletion

The MidStates Football League and it's member teams (13 other pages) were deleted by you, and I was hoping to receive an explanation as to why?Mad1chgo (talk) 20:59, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Are you talking about a template, or an article? I was able to find Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/MidStates Football League, but I wasn't involved in the nomination, discussion, or subsequent deletion. There is also Mid-States Football Association, but that hasn't been deleted. If you can be more specific, I can try to help. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:35, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

I obtained your info when I Googled 'Mid-States Football League Wikipedia' and it said you deleted the page (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:MidStates_Football_League&action=edit&redlink=1)...although I see what you mean when you say that you didn't delete the page in question. I am just following up to try and see what I can do to get these pages restored. The pages in question were:

  • Mid-States Football League
  • Chicago Mustangs
  • Chicago Thunder
  • Indianapolis Stampede
  • Joliet Buccaneers
  • Kankakee Plowmen
  • Kilbourn City Hawks
  • Lake County Steelers
  • Leyden Lions
  • Lincoln-Way Patriots
  • McHenry County Pirates
  • Mid-State Steel
  • Northern Illinois Cowboys
  • Racine Threat
  • Roscoe Rush

In the following link it show's that you assigned the MSFL template to the user Tom Danson:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Tom_Danson/MSFL&oldid=405080492

Any help you can give me to help get these pages restored will be greatly appreciated. Mad1chgo (talk) 01:53, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Right. I deleted the category, because it was empty. If you check the history for the MSFL template, you will find links to the various AFDs. I could email them to you, or I could restore them as sub-pages of User:Tom Danson, since he appears to be the one who started the articles, and was the most substantial contributor. But, I can't simply restore them, since they were deleted as part of a deletion process. Would either of these options work for you? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:01, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

infobox skyscraper

i noticed with the merger you changed 'former/other names' to just 'former names'. this field was designed to also accommodate buildings that are currently known by more than one name. --emerson7 05:51, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

This template is being merged with {{infobox building}}. I am in the process of merging the syntax of the two templates. I will check the current uses of this field. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 06:01, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the consensus was to add the light silver design to infobox building during the switch. I was responsible for making infobox building plain a while back but I do think the light grey looks better. What do you think? Something to consider at least when infobox skyscraper is deleted... ♦ Dr. Blofeld

Yes, part of the plan was to introduce headers, and section it. This will be part of the merger process. By the way, are we going to eventually merge "Infobox hotel"? I will most likely change some of the skyscrapers to hotel, in the process, but the coloring of that one is hard to read. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 18:46, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

Well, I think eventually its would be good to merge as many building types as possible into infobox building. The thing is I want infobox building to be fully converted to DMS rather than decimal. I am also fond of the maroon and gold header I must admit as those colours are very popular in hotel presentation, but you say its hard to read?... If the infobox building could be programmed to have certain colours for certain building types that would be good.. Maybe if infobox building solely used DMS and pushpin_map and was tarted up a bit I'd be happy to replace infobox hotel....♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:52, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

Emailed.♦ Dr. Blofeld 16:50, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Developing a "Subject bar"

Thank you very much for your offer to help! I would greatly appreciate any help developing the Subject bar. If you don't mind, the first order of business would be cleaning up the style sheets and table so that it's more presentable. Once we know what the output looks like, then we can start generating the template code. I believe that the Book bar and Portal list could stand alone as separate templates, in case people opted not to use the entire subject bar. (I suspect the demand for these bars will be high.) Then the subject bar template could call these templates and populate them by passing parameter values. Therefore, if you could help make sure my style sheet code within those templates is appropriate, then I can go ahead and publish them. After that, we can iron out the appearance of the subject bar, discuss how to handle cases where there are no books, no portals, and/or no interWikis. Once we've worked all of that out, we can begin coding. Sound fair to you? Do you know any other template coders who might be willing to help collaborate? – VisionHolder « talk » 21:36, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

I'm most familiar with the way the portal templates work, so perhaps we could start there. I see the "bar" frontend template as being fairly lightweight, much in the same way {{portal box}} and {{portal}} are lightweight. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:41, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
They currently are fairly lightweight. Like the {{portal box}}, they repeatedly call a conditional statement to catch up to 18 possible portals/books being passed in. (If only we had looping statements or another way to see how many parameters are passed in...) Aside from that contingency, the only thing that those small templates need is a review of their style sheets. We might be able to trim some stuff there. Otherwise, as far as I can tell, they are ready to go live. – VisionHolder « talk » 21:53, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
Okay, these look very good. Is there anything else that needs to be done? You might be able to simplify the CSS a bit by using class="navbox", but you should check the style sheet to see what you get with this. This may also include the "noprint" aspect as well. I haven't looked recently. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:00, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
Like I said, I aspire to being a novice at style sheets. I'll look and see what I can find, but I have yet to find a straight-forward, informative beginners guide to style sheets freely available online. – VisionHolder « talk » 22:09, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
Okay, I checked common.css and class="navbox" will give you the following, but only if you use a "table" instead of a div element
    border: 1px solid #aaa;
    width: 100%; 
    margin: auto;
    clear: both;
    font-size: 88%;
    text-align: center;
    padding: 1px;
    background: #fdfdfd;
Of course, any and all of these can be modified by adding a style= after the class="navbox". Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:20, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
I'm sorry, but my lack of knowledge about this stuff really keeps me from seeing the benefit here. I guess I would have to see it. Why don't I move these templates to the mainspace first, and then if you want, you can edit one of them as an example. (I can then edit the other.) Are you okay with the names I've chosen for those two so far? Or should I name them {{Portal bar}} and {{Book bar}}? Just let me know and I will move them now. – VisionHolder « talk » 23:02, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
The main reason for using a standard css class would be to allow for the user to change the appearance based on his/her own preferences. However, as you said, this could be changed later. The name seems reasonable. That can always be changed later, as well, if someone objects. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:05, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
Alright, we're live. The links in my last post point to the templates. Like I said, feel free to implement a standard css class in one of them, and I'll learn from your example by implementing it on the other. (Or if you know someone who loves playing with css classes, please invite him/her to join the fun!) – VisionHolder « talk » 23:41, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

I am trying a new approach to the combined Subject bar, so please take a look. This new approach should work better at various resolutions. Please share your thoughts. (If you like the old one better, just say so.) Once the wording and appearance is polished up, we can begin coding the template. Sound good? – VisionHolder « talk » 03:18, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

Just FYI, Headbomb has taken an interest in the template and has started to introduce his own edits. (I just reverted a big one, and left an explanation on the template's talk page.) If you have time, having a third set of eyes on the template would be extremely helpful for several reasons, including testing, conflict resolution, and code enhancement. If it turns out that you won't be able to, please let me know. Thanks. – VisionHolder « talk » 23:31, 1 February 2011 (UTC)
The next couple days are going to be a bit busy, but I will try to have a look soon. I imagine most of my input would be on coding issues, rather than pure aesthetics. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:19, 2 February 2011 (UTC)
No problem. I finished the template last night and put it in the main space at {{Subject bar}} for testing and comments. I also made a post about it at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (layout). Feel free to chime in and fix the code if something needs fixed. There's also a sandbox version for more major edits. – VisionHolder « talk » 15:34, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

Template issue

Hello Plastikspork, may you please take a look at this discussion and see if you know what to fix in the template? Thank you, Airplaneman ✈ 06:35, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Done. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:17, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

Irish place

Hi Plastik. Can you update the Irish infobox with a standard settlement infoboxe, maybe with some unique additions (like Irish grid map paramter) like the italian infobox and then show it to the project?. As it stands I am unwilling to continue adding infobox settlement until the Irish infobox is sorted out. I supsect though that coordinates and pin maps will need adding if you were to create a wrapper. But as far as I can see you could mostly do it by some sort of script. It is only use in a few hundred articles I think but it would be good if you could use a bot to insert the infoboxes after updated into all of the settlements by county, would save a lot of time!. I will also try to get hold of some county locator maps for Ireland, although I think Nilfanion said he couldn't do Ireland for some reason.♦ Dr. Blofeld 16:04, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

I will try to take a look soon, but the next couple days are going to be busy. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:16, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

AN/I notice

Hello. This message is being sent to inform you that there currently is a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. Thank you. --Kleopatra (talk) 16:13, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

Bot owners noticeboard discussion

I also posted about the AN/I notice here. --Kleopatra (talk) 16:38, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

Loss of trust in your admin abilities

I mention you here. Let's keep the discussion at AN/I though. --Kleopatra (talk) 16:49, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

RfBA for 27,000 edits to taxoboxes

User:Bob the Wikipedian is under the impression that you are currently using a bot to edit the taxoboxes of 27,000 taxa articles; however, I do not see an RfBA for this task anywhere. Can you tell me if this is true, that this is what you are doing; and, if so, is there an RfBA? You can answer at one of the discussion locations to clear this up. Thanks. --Kleopatra (talk) 05:19, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

Found your bot. It does not appear to be used for editing taxoboxes at this point. I will just follow the bot request when it arises. --Kleopatra (talk) 05:30, 1 February 2011 (UTC)
Well, well. I half-expected the scandal would reach this far...Plastikspork, would you mind holding off for now on completing these edits? I'm posting an RfC just to make sure that my claim for this being noncontroversial actually holds water. If indeed it is controversial, it should have some level of community approval. Thanks for being so cooperative so far, and sorry for the inconvenience. I just don't want to make you look bad, too, for carrying out 26K edits potentially against anyone's will. Bob the WikipediaN (talk • contribs) 05:53, 2 February 2011 (UTC)
No problem. I was running them in a "semi-automatic" mode using my AWB account. Which basically means repeated clicking after inspecting each edit, so not exactly a bot, but still a massive number of edits. I could file an official BRfA, but the RFC works as well. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:57, 2 February 2011 (UTC)
Woah. That's some real dedication! I'm quite impressed! Sorry, gave you the link a considerable deal of time before I finished typing the RfC. It's there, now. Bob the WikipediaN (talk • contribs) 07:30, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

And yet, instead of disclosing to me that you are making the edits with an alternate account you chose to let me believe that your bot is not making the edits.

"Avoiding scrutiny: Using alternative accounts that are not fully and openly disclosed to split your editing history means that other editors cannot detect patterns in your contributions. While this is permitted in certain circumstances (see legitimate uses), it is a violation of this policy to create alternative accounts to confuse or deceive editors who may have a legitimate interest in reviewing your contributions."

I'm going to request that your alternate account be blocked for failing to disclose that you are using it to make controversial semi-automated edits and continuing to use it for this purpose after you were notified that an editor is concerned about your edits. --Kleopatra (talk) 16:00, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

This seems to be a big misunderstanding. First, the reason why I didn't disclose anything to you is that you "retired" hours after posting to my talk page. So, I assumed you were no longer watching my page, or editing on WP. Second, the reason why the edit history is split to an alternate account is to limit the possible damage done by that account, and to isolate the semi-automated AWB edits from my normal editing. The existence of this alternate account is disclosed on my user page. Third, there is really no reason to block the account. As soon as I became aware that the task was controversial, I stopped. I was under the impression that this was more than a cosmetic change, and that there was some consensus for this change. This is the first time I have had any objections to my cleanup work. Sorry for the misunderstanding, and I do plan to file a formal request for bot approval if there is consensus from the RFC. Thank you for the pointers to the various locations where you have commented on this issue. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:01, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
  • Yes, thanks for the clarification. I felt that the block was over-aggressive, not entirely in good faith, and seemed to be making a WP:POINT based on a technicality. That "retirement" was rather baffling – it could be seen as the proverbial 'light the blue touchpaper and retire' scenario. Ohconfucius ¡digame! 02:50, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
See my comments at AN/I. I raised my first concerns about these edits at the bot request board. There were plenty of times for you to disclose you were already making them with an alternate account, like before the additional 1000 edits you made after I raised my first concern. --Kleopatra (talk) 06:13, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
  • I don't know nor particularly care what your retirement plans are. However, if you were indeed planning to go, then I'd suggest you didn't leave whilst creating a drama; if you weren't planning to go, I'd suggest that you remove that banana on your talk page. --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 13:15, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
Why diverting from the primary topic (twice here), Ohconfucius? Now you only deal, selectively, with some fallout. After all, it was Bob the Wikibuilder who first declared it a scandal right in this thread. Why could going the personal path give an outcome anyway? -DePiep (talk) 14:01, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
The scandal I was referring to was my public defamation by Kleopatra across the WP:TOL template talk pages. Bob the WikipediaN (talk • contribs) 14:15, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
  • There's something not quite right about this whole 'scandal'. Just because someone declares a scandal doesn't make it so. AFAICT, Plastikspork is a victim in this whole affair. He undertook a task requested of him by Bob in good faith, then he gets bitten by someone citing a technical violation. I don't feel is exactly fair. FWIW, it may have been a lapse of judgement on Plastikspork's part, or could jolly well have been an elaborate setup by Bob to continue this feud they have been having with Kleo... --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 14:27, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
(ec)re Bob: yes, Kleo posted some to the point remarks there. After which you introduced the term 'scandal' here, pulling it out of the rationalities that could solve it more easily. And my post here said, that Ohconfucius picked up the you-too thread from a late point in time, too late in fact to address your contributions. -DePiep (talk) 14:34, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
(ec?) Re Ohconfucius: you are downplaying PS's actions. As I said at ANI, there were multiple moments & facts where PS decided to walk the way they did. At each point a "lap of judgement", it doesn't convince me. Anyway, PS is not a "victim". We all know that when you start using AWB, you are responsible for every save. At first it was a bot request, not just a "techical issue".
Then, you repeat the word "scandal", and introduce "drama", "victim", "not exactly fair", "[ironically] an elaborate setup". These are all words distracting from the original issue, pulling the talk into an impressionist, personal judgemental, non-rationale sphere. Which is not where Kleo started it. -DePiep (talk) 14:52, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
DePiep, I'm afraid your points on diction are confusing the daylights out of me-- all I'm able to gather is that you'd prefer alternate word choice, and I'm not able to tell by your comments whether you agree with what Plastik and I have said or are saying that we're mistaken. Please keep in mind that most humans don't deliberate upon each individual word they write and try to be clearer in what you're saying. Bob the WikipediaN (talk • contribs) 15:00, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
  • DePiep, which horse is yours? the timeline posted by Kleo is not infallible: it seems that PS was editing using AWB as Plasticspork at the time, so any messages posted to him here at User talk:Plastikspork (as opposed to User talk:Plasticspork) would not have reached him until he returned to editing as Plastikspork. The explanation offered, including expression of regret, is entirely coherent, so enough accusations of bad faith, please. Kleo's actions in the last couple of days –yes, I've been lurking without making any comment – OTOH, are weird, to say the least. --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 15:26, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
Plasticspork and his alternate account were both logged in and editing at the same time; so, the excuse that he would not have gotten the message until he returned does not apply here. --Kleopatra (talk) 23:52, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Well, here is the grade 0 explication then. The key word is: red herring. BtW: you introduced the word "scandal", which is emotional not rational. (Again, it is not a word game, as you try to get us in to. It is about behavior). Thereby making a good solution of the dispute more difficult. Ohconfucius: I don't do horses, I can walk (and still smell a red herring). Please explain this. Above, to Kleo you suggest to "... remove that banana [from your talk page]", and "do not create drama [linked]". Only 70 mins later, you write "Just because someone declares a scandal doesn't make it so" -- but hey, that is about someone else. Go ahead if you feel like saying so, but to me it doesn't line up. It is (like I wrote earlier, 'selective') finding arguments afterwards for an already token position. May I note that your first post here, Ohconfucius, was about a final ANI? And when detailing the argument going back in time, it still is about personal impressions, not communicative reasoning. -DePiep (talk) 18:12, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

I don't think there's a better name for it than a scandal, since (from my end) it appears to be public defamation of what are now multiple admins on several pages. But nitpicking each other about diction is getting us nowhere.
I must agree with OC on his advice against using the retirement banner ("banana", I assume that was a typo) as a means to evade discussion. Bob the WikipediaN (talk • contribs) 01:38, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

I will leave this thread without reply. This is why: I am a guest at PS:Talk here. I know & trust PS every way, but this action, which started from the botrequest, left me astonished. I can only understand this as a singular action of PS. To me, it is way out of PS's behaviour. That is what I wrote here and everywhere else: something is wrong. The rest is at the ANI. To be short: please, PS, don't test my trust again this way. -DePiep (talk) 22:46, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay. I just got back after an unfortunate, unexpected trip. I agree that the burst of 5000 edits was a mistake, and I certainly apologize for that, if I haven't already. I honestly didn't see the message from Kleopatra until right around 00:07 UTC on February 2, which when I stopped. I would have responded to her directly, but when I went to her talk page, I saw that she had retired. The only reason that I can come up with for why I didn't see the message earlier is some javascript bug in my browser, or a conflict with one of the plugins (e.g., noscript or greasemonkey). I did not intend to deceive anyone, and thought that the change had already achieved consensus, and was not controversial. The reason for using an alternate account is to make it easier to isolate my semi-automated edits, and for security, I am not aware how most of the scripting languages store my password. For example, perlWikipedia, which is what I usually use, doesn't use the secure server, and probably stores the password in memory in plain text. Once again, sorry for the misunderstandings, and I can assure you that it won't happen again. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:58, 4 February 2011 (UTC)
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