User talk:Snowmanradio/Archive 16

Main Page appearance: redback spider

This is a note to let the main editors of redback spider know that the article will be appearing as today's featured article on December 19, 2013. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. If you prefer that the article appear as TFA on a different date, or not at all, please ask Bencherlite (talk · contribs). You can view the TFA blurb at Wikipedia:Today's featured article/December 19, 2013. If it needs tweaking, or if it needs rewording to match improvements to the article between now and its main page appearance, please edit it, following the instructions at Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/instructions. The blurb as it stands now is below:

The redback spider is a species of venomous spider indigenous to Australia. It is a member of the cosmopolitan genus Latrodectus, the widow spiders. The adult female has a black body with a prominent abdominal red stripe (pictured). Females have a body length of about 1 centimetre (0.4 in), while the male is much smaller, being only 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) long. Mainly nocturnal, the female redback lives in an untidy web in a warm sheltered location near or inside human residences. It preys on insects, spiders and small vertebrates that become ensnared in its web. Male spiders and spiderlings often live on the periphery of the female spiders' web and steal leftovers. The redback is one of few arachnids which usually display sexual cannibalism while mating. It has a widespread distribution in Australia, and inadvertent introductions have led to established colonies in New Zealand, Japan and in greenhouses in Belgium. The redback is one of the few spider species that can be seriously harmful to humans. An antivenom has been available since 1956, although there are disputes about its effectiveness, and there have been no deaths directly due to redback bites since its introduction. (Full article...)

UcuchaBot (talk) 23:01, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

Congratulations

		100000 Edits
		Congratulations on reaching 100000 edits. You have achieved a milestone that very few editors have been able to accomplish. The Wikipedia Community thanks you for your continuing efforts. Keep up the good work!

If you like you can add this userbox to your collection.

This user has been awarded with the 100000 Edits award.

```Buster Seven Talk 19:14, 11 December 2013 (UTC)

re rate to Redirect using AWB

Hi, all these talk pages that you are performing the edit "re rate to Redirect using AWB", such as this one - have you checked to see why they are the talk pages of redirects? In the very first case that I saw, it was because the article had been cut-and-paste moved with this edit and this, leaving the talk page alone. These need cleaning up: hopefully, when this is actioned, the talk page will be moved to the correct location, in which case it should no longer be rated as a redirect. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:39, 20 December 2013 (UTC)

Re Talk:Stewarts Lane TMD. This talk page can be moved and reverted back to the original class and importance. I have just done this on that talk page. Snowman (talk) 21:14, 20 December 2013 (UTC)

Well spotted. I found one other talk page like that in my last 500 edits and I have moved both talk pages to the correct site. I will look for others and fix them. Snowman (talk) 22:20, 20 December 2013 (UTC)

Thank you --Redrose64 (talk) 01:10, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Happy holiday season....

	Cheers, pina coladas all round!
	Damn need a few of these after a frenetic year and Xmas. Hope yours is a good one....Cheers, Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 09:58, 25 December 2013 (UTC)

Glad Tidings and all that ...

FWiW Bzuk (talk) 20:51, 26 December 2013 (UTC)

About an image you uploaded to Commons a few years ago...

Hi Snowman, I was just wondering - is this Cookie, do you know? It certainly looks like him - and this would be a better lead image for his article, I think. Thought that it was easier to ask you about it here than on Commons, considering that you're more active on this wiki... Cheers - and season's greetings... --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 23:06, 29 December 2013 (UTC)

I recall wondering about that when I uploaded the image, but I have no evidence either way. However, he or she does look like Cookie. You could phone the zoo to find out more. I have occasionally phoned UK zoos to find out more about animals seen in flickr photographs. Snowman (talk) 10:25, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll try emailing Brookfield Zoo later on. I think that Cookie was/is their only MM2 - and extremely old birds do tend to get that 'whiskery' look, because their pin feathers start growing to full length without unfurling, but I can't be 100% sure. --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 14:54, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

I heard back from the zoo - this is definitely Cookie. I've updated the image description on Commons and replaced with old headshot with the new picture in a couple of places. --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 13:01, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

It is a nice picture and it has more interest value now that you have found out that it is Cookie. Snowman (talk) 13:04, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

User talk:Casliber#Deleted user

• See User talk:Casliber#Deleted user. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 06:34, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
• See User talk:Casliber#Deleted user. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 13:59, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
• See User talk:Casliber#Deleted user. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 16:06, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
• See User talk:Casliber#Deleted user. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 05:57, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

January 2014

Hello, I'm BracketBot. I have automatically detected that your edit to Rufous-backed Kingfisher may have broken the syntax by modifying 2 "{}"s. If you have, don't worry: just edit the page again to fix it. If I misunderstood what happened, or if you have any questions, you can leave a message on my operator's talk page.

List of unpaired brackets remaining on the page:

• {{

Thanks, BracketBot (talk) 14:18, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

• • Someone had put the infobox on one line making it difficult to edit. I fixed it and I have put each field on a separate line now. Snowman (talk) 14:44, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

Hello, I'm BracketBot. I have automatically detected that your edit to Little Kingfisher may have broken the syntax by modifying 2 "{}"s. If you have, don't worry: just edit the page again to fix it. If I misunderstood what happened, or if you have any questions, you can leave a message on my operator's talk page.

List of unpaired brackets remaining on the page:

• {{Reflist

Thanks, BracketBot (talk) 14:50, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

• • Whoops. Typo now fixed. Snowman (talk) 14:53, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

Hello, I'm BracketBot. I have automatically detected that your edit to Mauritius Blue Pigeon may have broken the syntax by modifying 2 "{}"s. If you have, don't worry: just edit the page again to fix it. If I misunderstood what happened, or if you have any questions, you can leave a message on my operator's talk page.

List of unpaired brackets remaining on the page:

• * {{wikicite

Thanks, BracketBot (talk) 18:21, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

• Whoops, there are many varieties of the sfn references, which have lots of curly brackets. Snowman (talk) 20:32, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

IUCN2013.2

I have always been a bit mystified about the IUCN part of the taxobox of articles. In Pristidactylus torquatus I included "| status_system = IUCN2.3 " in the taxobox and the result looks OK. In Darwin's iguana I used "| status_system = IUCN2013.2 " and the result is unsatisfactory. How should I deal with this? Cwmhiraeth (talk) 20:07, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

Put "| status_system = IUCN3.1" and you should get the graphic. This works on the bird pages that I have edited. I am not sure if this will work for plants. There are other status systems that might be relevant for some living things. At the present time my semi-automatic script only works for birds. Snowman (talk) 20:27, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. I didn't realise that the status_system was different from the version. I will stick to IUCN3.1 as the status system, especially as I now see that it is mentioned on the IUCN page. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 20:38, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

The IUCN website is at version 2013.2 and this can go in the IUCN template to render it in the citation. Criteria 3.1 (published in 2001) provides the explanations for the conservation statuses and is written in the taxobox. If you see criteria ver IUCN2.3 in a taxobox, then it is out-of-date. I am only referring to the the bird pages; however, I think that the IUCN species pages should tell you everything that you need to know to complete the IUCN citation and also IUCN fields of the taxobox. Look also for the publication year of the conservation status; for birds this is currently 2012 or 2012 and I have been writing 2012 or 2012 in bird taxoboxes. The publication year might be earlier for some animals. Snowman (talk) 20:49, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

Spix's Macaw article revived

Hello Snowman,

In Dec. 2012, if you remember, you participated in a GA review with me for Spix's Macaw article. It had numerous problems with referencing and encyclopedic style. I've since put in a ton of work on the required items. I'd be eternally grateful if you could read over the article and give me your input as it now stands. I'm not going to renominate it for GA until there's consensus that it's ready for that. I've notified Sainsf, the reviewer, to get his input also. Thanks,Sbalfour (talk) 01:07, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

I have had a quick look, but I think that I will have a longer look and reply on the article's talk page probably sometime this week. Snowman (talk) 10:51, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

Hello Snowman. I have pointed out some issues on my talkpage. Would you like to have a look at it? Sainsf <^><sub>Talk all words</sub> 06:14, 8 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, Snowman! Let's move work onto the Talk page of the article itself now, so we preserve the history of the dialog in one place. Maybe Sainsf can move a copy his/her comments to the page as well. What would you like me to do re: Conservation and Threats/Threats, History and Captive Population seections?Sbalfour (talk) 20:57, 8 January 2014 (UTC)

I think that the article would be better after checking and copy-editing. Some of the conservation organisations in the table do not have there own Wiki articles, so some new Stubs might help to wikilink in the main text of the article and the table. Similarly, it might be helpful to make Stub articles for some of the people mentioned in the article, if they do not already have there own articles. Presley could also have his own article. The linked articles could reduce the need for some of the details to be kept in the macaw article. I am going to stand back for a while and see what happens to the article. Snowman (talk) 23:48, 8 January 2014 (UTC)

[Stub Contest] Winner

Winner deserves this

Congratulations. With a final score of 6,492 points, you won the Stub Contest by over double of second place. You were declared the winner at at the contest talk page. There you can find the info to receiver your €100 voucher for Amazon.com. You did an excellent job and earned it. Mitch32<sup>(The man who renounces himself, comes to himself.)</sup> 05:04, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for January 27

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Murder of Daniel Pelka, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Polish (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 09:19, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

Invitation

Hi. I am conducting a survey of most active Wikipedians, regarding reasons they may reduce their activity. I would be very interested in having you participate in it. Would you be interested? (If you reply to me here, please WP:ECHO me). Thank you for your consideration, --<sub>Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here</sub> 00:16, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

• For transparency, I have listed the project at [1]. Let me know if there is anything else you need. Not sure what you mean by ethical justification for the survey, but as food for thought, consider the importance of the asked questions for the survival of the Wikipedia community and the fact that answers to said questions cannot be obtained without a survey. Cheers, --<sub>Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here</sub> 12:07, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for February 5

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited "David Montgomery (photographer)", you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page "Chelsea" (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 09:05, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

Whoops, I guessed that Chelsea was the primary topic. I have fixed it now. Snowman (talk) 10:57, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

Blackcap

Nice pics. On my screen, it doesn't impinge. If there is a problem, my preference would be to make the table narrower and deeper, so that the boring but necessary detail is all together. It would also be possible to put the authority under the subspecies name, which would save a column, but it's not a big deal either way. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 18:09, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

It looks fine on my screen, after I made the table narrower. Snowman (talk) 19:41, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

February 2014

Hello, I'm BracketBot. I have automatically detected that your edit to Frank Leverett may have broken the syntax by modifying 2 "[]"s. If you have, don't worry: just edit the page again to fix it. If I misunderstood what happened, or if you have any questions, you can leave a message on my operator's talk page.

List of unpaired brackets remaining on the page:

• | SHORT DESCRIPTION = American geologist who specialised in [[glaciology

Thanks, BracketBot (talk) 10:25, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

• Whoops, I accidentally did not copy in the trailing "]]", now fixed. Snowman (talk) 10:29, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

DYK for Banded Whiteface

The DYK project (nominate) 00:03, 23 February 2014 (UTC)

File:Caprimulgus_europeus_distr.png

Hi Snowman. You're more knowledgeable about images than me, and I have a couple of queries about this file. It was uploaded by another user, and has a proper reference, although I can't access that page of Holyoak

• I'd like to change it to the project's standard colours if there is any easy way to do so. It's too tedious to do it manually. Any ideas, or do I just leave it?
• The blue stars seem pointless. There is no reason why a silent nocturnal bird couldn't occur anywhere in the general area. Any views?
• The file name is misspelt. Is it too trivial to justify renaming?
• I may adapt the map anyway, I don't like to rely on a single map source at any time, especially when I can't see the original book page

Thanks Jimfbleak - talk to me? 19:21, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

New version at File:Caprimulgus europaeus -range map.png. Any comments? Is it the correct shade of blue for the African ranges? Snowman (talk) 21:29, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

• I made a new image (with a new name), because the image is shown on dozens of language Wikis, which may have different colour schemes. Snowman (talk) 21:29, 24 February 2014 (UTC)
• I hope that the new file name is spelt correctly. Snowman (talk) 21:29, 24 February 2014 (UTC)
• I have removed the blue stars and the blue arrow. Snowman (talk) 21:29, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

That's brilliant! I'll have a look at other sources to see if the map needs adjusting at all, otherwise it's all done Jimfbleak - talk to me? 08:04, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

• File:Caprimulgus_europeus_distr.png moved to File:Caprimulgus europaeus distr.png on Commons. Snowman (talk) 11:40, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Unbaptised

Hi Snow, I'm surprised you objected to this; it's in the source, Chambers and the online OED (the latter under the Oxford spelling with -ize). Since the meaning is obvious, I can't see the point of replacing it with a phrase. Would you me happy with unbaptized (although that has the risk of looking like AE)? Jimfbleak - talk to me? 18:01, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

It is more of a question than an objection. It is not in the OED as "unbaptised" (as it was spelt in the bird article). It is in the OED as "unbaptized". I am puzzled by this spelling, so I have returned your spelling to the article. Snowman (talk) 21:38, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

Re-think. I think I understand it a bit better now and I think that you are correct using "unbaptised" because it is consistent with the use of "ise" and not "ize" seen in the rest of the article. It is probably worth tagging the article with {{EngvarB}} ( not {{EngvarOx}}) to help people doing semi-automatic edits. Snowman (talk) 21:55, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

Good idea Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:51, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

oil droplets

While I accept what you say as far as it goes, it could well still be the case that the cones in nocturnal birds' eyes has fewer oil droplets. The reference I used said that birds that hunt underwater like auks, or in the air, like swifts and swallows, also lack oil droplets because they would hinder their specialised vision requirements, so it's not just a matter of rods v cones. Leave it with me, I'll look tomorrow Jimfbleak - talk to me? 17:59, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

I am not certain of the exact comparative anatomy, so I will be interested to see your amendments. The A & P may be quite complicated. Nocturnal birds may have more rods and also less oil droplets in cones than daylight birds. Snowman (talk) 18:44, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

Surprising difficult to find reliable sources

• Burton (reffed in text) says owls and nightjars have few droplets, doesn't mention numbers of cones
• Holyoak p.67 although nightjars have coloured drops in some of their cones....— this is all I can read, but at least confirms that they have some cones.
• Roots, Nocturnal animals p.4, "Nightjars and frogmouths have cones, but not enough for colour vision."Jimfbleak - talk to me? 17:59, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

The Roots ref sounds a bit dogmatic to me, but it might have to be used as such as a RS. Snowman (talk) 10:41, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

I suggest In many diurnal birds, light passes through coloured oil droplets within cone cells to improve their colour vision. however, Nocturnal birds have a much higher density of rod cells, which lack not not have oil drops, and are more sensitive to light.(Burton ref pp. 44/48) The relatively low numbers of cone cells also have few oil droplets(+Burton and Roots refs). What do you think? Jimfbleak - talk to me? 07:25, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Suggestion: The retinas of nocturnal species of birds including nightjars are adapted for sight in low-light levels with a much higher density of rod cells and a fewer cone cells, when compared to that of most diurnal species of birds. In diurnal birds light passes through coloured oil droplets within cone cells to improve colour vision; on the other hand, sparsity of cone cells (some without oil droplets and some with only a few oil droplets) in nightjars suggests that the adaptation towards good night vision has compromised colour vision. Snowman (talk) 10:37, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

My first sentence seems uncontroversial to me and I presume the general references in the "Bird vision" article will help. The second sentence is harder to write, because of the paucity of information on the topic and I am not sure how much detail to write in. The second sentence may need re-phrasing depending on the requirements of the article and other copy-editing; however, I think I the second sentence does not go beyond what the three references say. I see the Darwinian style for this as just a different and more logical way of writing it and I think that it is not RS. Snowman (talk)

That looks OK, although, as you say, the second sentence needs tweaking. I'll sort out the referencing and have another go later. Any other problems? If not, I'll go through the text a couple more times and then throw it to FAC Jimfbleak - talk to me? 10:47, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

If you are going straight to FAC, then I might write a few comments on the article's talk page. Snowman (talk) 10:51, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

I've written lots of FAs, and I normally only go to GA (or Milhist "A" review) if it's a different type of article, like Melbourne Castle, where I need to be sure that I know what I'm doing. GA is a bit hit-and-miss, reviews are sometimes insufficiently rigorous to be good preparation for FA, and not all reviewers are aware of the FAC standards. I'll probably go to FAC in the next few days, and obviously I'll mention the help you have given in the preparation of the article. Thanks, Jimfbleak - talk to me? 10:44, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

For balance a little more about the birds in Africa, when it is cold in the north, would help. What they eat there, what African habitats they prefer, their behaviour, African predators, how they get there and back. Snowman (talk) 19:59, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

In Africa, there are relatively few ornithologists, and a usually silent nocturnal bird is unlikely to attract many observers out into the mosquito and malaria-ridden night. I've mentioned habitat in the text, I haven't found anything specific on food (although it will be similar but with local moths etc) or predators or anything else much apart from what is in the text. I'll see if there is anything on migration that I haven't covered, but for the same reasons, I'm not hopeful Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:31, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Added a bit on migration Jimfbleak - talk to me? 11:50, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, Snowmanradio. You have new messages at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Birds.
Message added 02:48, 6 March 2014 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

The Bushranger <sub>One ping only</sub> 02:48, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

My new chair

Hello Snowmanradio, I am sitting comfortably in my brand new executive chair (£36) bought from Amazon with part of my stub contest voucher. Very nice. I hope you have been making use of your new gloves.

Every time I look at my watchlist I see your name. Four times in the past twentyfour hours, you have done something or other to one of the articles I have just been involved with, Blue Wildebeest, Poultry, Osedax japonicus and Rufous-tailed Robin. Its almost as if you were following me around, or perhaps we have similar interests. Do I mind? No, not really, you can do what you like and it doesn't bother me. With regard to the Rufous-tailed Robin article, I chose to expand that article because it was due to be "Today's Featured Picture" on 10th March and was pretty thin. I couldn't find much about the bird online so I included as a reference the blog you disapproved of because it did have a bit of a description of the bird and the author was so enthusiastic about his "mega" day. After I had approached Jimfbleak and he had given me access to more information, I did not really need the blog any more but I left the reference in place anyway. So what? You can remove it if you want. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 19:00, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

I have bought a new pair cycling gloves, but I did not get them from Amazon. I have had plenty of opportunities to test them in a variety of weather conditions this winter. You seem to be very quick at writing, but sometimes I think that you have tenancy to have the emphasis or words slightly wrong with your writing about some of the more complex aspects of the basic sciences. As far as I am aware, most of my edits with AWB are uncontroversial and mostly simple tidy up work that would be tedious to do manually. I do lots of edits with AWB and input lots of lists of pages for editing, and I would not spend much time using AWB to edit the pages that you have edited. Many pages are skipped by AWB, because no edits are needed, or I opt to skip pages because the AWB edits are very minor. I mainly edit bird and animal pages; however, I might occasionally focus on a science topic that interests me. The poultry article has an interesting combination of ornithology and basic sciences. I was suspicious of a reference with the title "Punkbirder" in the Rufous-tailed Robin article and I was curious to find out if the reference was RS or not. The other two articles that you referred to needed some simple tidy up work and the pages whizzed through AWB. I recall that beginners on the Wiki are told not to edit the Wiki, if they do not want to see their work re-edited. Snowman (talk) 21:04, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

That's OK. Does your script tidy up references? I have just approved Mendel L. Peterson for DYK but its references are a mess. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 07:08, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

AWB can tidy up certain formatting problems in references, which can be tedious to do manually. I tried AWB on the new article, but it does not have a built-in facility to tidy up those references. Snowman (talk) 10:17, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

@Snowmanradio: - I have been meaning to provide feedback to all articles at the Wikipedia:The Core Contest to give people some more encouragement and impetus for the last 48 hours of the contest. I meant to do this earlier but have been busy and am running out of time unfortunately. I note you've read the poultry article and would value some comments at Wikipedia:The Core Contest/Entries. I am trying to be fair and give every contestant some feedback but some are easier than others. If you felt like giving anyone else some that would be a bonus but don't feel pressured at all to do so as we have a few judges this time. It is saturday morning here and I have a backlog of RL chores that other people would be unhappy if I neglected. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 00:19, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

I wish that I had bought the book "Encyclopaedia of Chickens" that I saw in a charity shop recently going cheep to help with the poultry article. It might have been sold now, because I only saw it the once. I will have another look for the book the next time I visit that part of town. Presumably, feedback can be provided on article talk pages also. Snowman (talk) 12:11, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

The weather here is like Spring today. I am planning to spend more time out of doors and away from my computer in the warmer weather. Snowman (talk) 21:43, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

As you say, the weather is much improved (we had 25 inches of rain in January and February). I also plan to sit less in my new chair in front of my computer screen and spend more time out of doors. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 09:17, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Taxoboxes

There are lots of anomalies in Wikipedia and one of these is taxoboxes not agreeing between related taxons. For example, in the article Termites, I find that an alteration on 30th August 2011 in this edit changed the taxobox from "ordo = Isoptera" to "ordo = Blattodea". This was marked as being a minor edit and there was no explanatory edit summary. Unfortunately it was not followed up by changes to the taxoboxes of other articles in the Category:Termites so you get inconsistencies between articles. I wondered if AWB was suitable for making semi-automated changes to taxoboxes to make them agree. There are 54 articles in the Category:Termites, about half of which include "Blattodea" as the order and half which don't. What do you think? Cwmhiraeth (talk) 12:19, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

• The editing part of the task itself looks easy or very easy, but I would need to be sure of my facts on these insects. I would probably do the task with one or two simple regexes, to catch various formatting methods used in taxoboxes (wiki-linked, not wiki-linked, different white space, wrong capitalization). For the small number of pages that need correcting here, it would also be possible copy and paste the corrections on every page and let AWB turn the pages over, but that would not be as much fun as writing regexes. I found one taxobox with "Order: Blattodea and "Infraorder: Isoptera" and I am somewhat unclear about what needs correcting. Can you explain the specifications for the task or point to a list with these insects put in the correct orders and infaorders? What time zone are you in? A series of edits done with AWB seems to be highly visible and AWB operators can get criticized, if something is done constantly wrong on many pages. I do not promote AWB, partly because of the possibility of making a lot of mistakes quickly with AWB and partly because I think that people who are interested in AWB will find there way to it. Snowman (talk) 20:56, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Some of the articles in the category are correct and others incorrect. Under "A", Amitermitinae and Anacanthotermes are incorrect. There are problems with doing things automatically as the text of the article would need inspection to make sure it correlated with the taxobox. Another thing, one would need to be really sure that "Blattodea" is the currently accepted term. I used the category "Termites" as an example, but there are inconsistencies of this sort all over the place. It is difficult for Wikipedia to keep up when revisions take place and when the scientists themselves disagree on taxonomy. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 06:13, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

It is beginning to sound difficult now. Taxonomy of Wiki bird pages are usually updated manually, because each case needs individual erudite consideration of the evidence. Occasionally, a number of species in a genus need a simple update, so I can do them all together. To do anything, I would need a source of up-to-date taxonomy (that includes taxonomy controversies) to use as a "gold standard". Could you fully correct the two articles under A, so that I can see what modifications need doing. Snowman (talk) 16:57, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

Done. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 19:12, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

I see the edits, but they are unreferenced, so the amendments seem mysterious to me. Generally speaking, I could do those sort of edits in both the taxobox and the main text with a script, but I have not really got any idea of the scale of your task in terms of number of Wiki pages nor number of affected insect families, suborders, or orders. Hence, I can not gauge the complexity of the task nor the length of the scrip at this juncture. Of course, the script would need to have access to relevant reliable data. I wonder if the "gold standard" of insect taxonomy is presented somewhere in a way that is formatted in a regimented way that would permit fully automated analysis by a script. Where is there such a gold standard of insect taxonomy? The script could write in the "gold standard" source as an in-line ref. Could you estimate how many pages you think would need editing? I will think about the task that you are suggesting, but there may be a number other semi-automated tasks that may take priority and have been discussed on the WP Birds talk page a long time ago. I feel more on home ground editing bird pages than insect pages, and I fear that editing on away ground could end up disastrously. Snowman (talk) 19:49, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

Forms of address

Hi, I realize I pissed you off with my edit summary. So we disagree about something and I might not have expressed myself well. Do you think it would help, or hinder, progress if the person who refuses to speak directly via use of my name or at least the pronoun "you" keeps doing that? I mean, how do you ask the person who used a crummy edit summary to go to WP:THIRD if you can't even say his name? Since the ultimate goal is collaborative encyclopedia building, could we at least talk - either constructively or cussing - directly to each other? NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 01:11, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Rather than continue with the ed behavior component of this comment at the project talk page, I thought it would be better to take up here. My view is that being engaged in a content disputes and changing venues without telling the other party might reasonably be expected to make avoidable trouble. Sure it's only an essay and yes, the wikilawyers (not the person who changed venues without telling me) might point out that it relates to noticeboards but still..... see WP:Notification. I appreciate the revisions you made to the Disambig page. They appear to avoid the etymological issue I was instinctively responding to. Next time I run into it, I'll already know the basis for my reaction, so..... thanks. NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 19:33, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Main Page appearance: Atlantic Puffin

This is a note to let the main editors of Atlantic Puffin know that the article will be appearing as today's featured article on April 2, 2014. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. If you prefer that the article appear as TFA on a different date, or not at present, please ask Bencherlite (talk · contribs). You can view the TFA blurb at Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 2, 2014. If it needs tweaking, or if it needs rewording to match improvements to the article between now and its main page appearance, please edit it, following the instructions at Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/instructions. The blurb as it stands now is below:

The Atlantic Puffin is a species of seabird in the auk family and is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean. It breeds in Iceland, Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland and many North Atlantic islands, and as far south as Maine in the west and the British Isles in the east. It has a black crown and back, pale grey cheek patches and white underparts. Its broad, boldly marked red and black beak and orange legs contrast with its plumage. The Atlantic Puffin spends the autumn and winter in the open ocean of the cold northern seas and returns to coastal areas at the start of the breeding season in late spring. It nests in clifftop colonies, digging a burrow in which a single white egg is laid. After about six weeks, chicks are fully fledged and make their way at night to the sea, not returning to land for several years. Colonies are mostly on islands where there are no terrestrial predators but adult birds and newly fledged chicks are at risk of attacks from the air by gulls and skuas. The Atlantic Puffin's striking appearance, large colourful bill, waddling gait and behaviour have given rise to nicknames such as "clown of the sea" and "sea parrot". It is the official bird symbol for the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. (Full article...)

UcuchaBot (talk) 23:01, 22 March 2014 (UTC)

Attaboy! NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 00:26, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

My editor review

The purpose of an editor review is, in my opinion, to identify an editor's strengths and weaknesses. A number of editors have pointed out articles where I have made errors but it is not the purpose of the review just to find more and more articles to criticise. I accept most of the conclusions of participators in the review - I sometimes make mistakes, I sometimes rely on unreliable sources, I may have relied on medical studies which have since been superseded, I may have jumped to the wrong conclusion because I only have access to an abstract of a paper, etc. Others have called the review a witch-hunt.

I am hoping to bring my editor review to a conclusion soon and have moved your latest paragraph to the section pertaining to your view. The "Are all my articles bad?" section is meant to be for editors to review the articles put forward by me and AfadsBad at the start of the editor review, and not subsequently reviewed by Black Kite. Please post in that section only if you review any of those eleven articles. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 19:06, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Re:Editor review

Hi Snowman, thanks for the note. I am aware of the situation (and have been the target of some mudthrowing in the wider discussion) but have chosen not to engage in the editor review/ANI threads directly for various reasons. I have talked to Cwmhiraeth and other users about the issues involved elsewhere (both recently and over the last year or so). If you (or anyone, really) are interested in my views, I'm more than happy to share them- just ask. J Milburn (talk) 22:44, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

I might ask some time, but not now. Snowman (talk) 22:57, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

I do not want to put the judges under any undue pressure, so I have added this to the editor review; "I think that I have done the responsible thing to inform the three judges of this editor review. If the judges do not want to participate here, then perhaps that is understandable, so do not expect too much.". Snowman (talk) 23:04, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! J Milburn (talk) 23:24, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

Message me if you really want to talk about legal use of Wikipedia by lawyers

Hello. You commented at WikiProject Medicine about lawyers being laughed at for using Wikipedia. There are some people planning a law school study about the use of Wikipedia in court cases, and some instances particularly about new technological crimes in which Wikipedia is cited as the most authoritative available summary of all sources. Perhaps you heard that Wikipedia is cited a bit in medicine. If this is a space in which you want to contribute then ping me and I will keep you informed. Blue Rasberry (talk) 16:11, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

See the disclaimer link at the bottom of every Wiki article; see Wikipedia:General disclaimer. Snowman (talk) 16:18, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Clavulanic acid

Clavulanic acid does not act on the kidneys, but that is not directly relevant. Axl ¤ [Talk] 23:32, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Brock reference

Hi, I've added the (Introduction) page ref and Archive.org URL to the Brock citation on vivisection. Brock was thinking about Book III, Chapter VIII in the text itself. All the best, Chiswick Chap (talk) 20:03, 7 May 2014 (UTC)

Anatomy

Just to let you know that I shall not continue watching Anatomy, or this user page, any more. I do not feel, for what it's worth, that the approach being followed is collegiate. I have no doubt that the article is in far better shape than it was before it was brought to GA, and that the GA reviewer made an honest appraisal of it. The kinds of faults that you have been finding are those that in my opinion could be found in almost every GA on the list. I would ask that you do not post to my talk page, this to remain indefinitely unless I invite you back there; and I shall not post here again. If you have any edits you wish to make to Anatomy, find suitable citations for them, secure the agreement of interested editors, and make them. I wish you well. Chiswick Chap (talk) 20:24, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

Snowman, your sustained harassment of hard working editors has been going on for a long time now. Please stop it. If you think you can improve articles then just improve them. There is no need to gratuitously dance about so conspicuously in attempts to make other editors appear wrong. --Epipelagic (talk) 00:02, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

Epipelagic, please assume good faith. Snowman has worked collaboratively with many of us. I agree taht the talk page of the articles in question are the best place for further discussion to continue. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 00:41, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

May 2014

Hello, I'm BracketBot. I have automatically detected that your edit to Esophagus may have broken the syntax by modifying 1 "()"s. If you have, don't worry: just edit the page again to fix it. If I misunderstood what happened, or if you have any questions, you can leave a message on my operator's talk page.

List of unpaired brackets remaining on the page:

• a rich blood supply and vascular drainage. Its smooth muscle is innervated by involuntary nerves ([[sympathetic nerve]]s via the [[sympathetic trunk]] and [[parasympathetic nerve]]s via the [[vagus

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, BracketBot (talk) 12:04, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

Editing style

Snowmanradio, I am unhappy with your editing style on the GAC Esophagus. Please:

• Do not make major changes to the structure or style of GAC without some form of discussion with editors first
• Group your edits together and provide appropriate edit summaries. You have made over 31 edits in the past day, many with vague descriptions such as "readability", "emphasis" and no indication of which subsection or part was changed.
• Ensure that the content you are adding is properly source
• When editing the lead, ensure the content is sourced within the text of the body

Considerately, --LT910001 (talk) 04:21, 23 May 2014 (UTC)

• I think that you nominated the article as a possible GA too soon before it was properly prepared. You should be aware of the weaknesses of the GA process where only one GA reviewer is able to pass an article to GA. Some of my changes were small, but I wrote some longer summaries where it was necessary. The original page organization was abysmal in my opinion and I am surprised that you have criticized me for re-organizing the page. I note that you could not sort out one cn tag and have opted to pick a problem with it. The article is a work in progress and you do not seem to be tolerant of gradual improvements to an article, even if some of the edits were not perfect on first time of writing. You do not own that article. Snowman (talk) 08:42, 23 May 2014 (UTC)

I am happy to collaborate, but not happy that you are making large amounts of changes to an article that is a good article candidate with barely any discussion. You have made 36 edits over 48 hours with barely any form of discussion other than "I think that the article is not ready for GA nomination, so I would suggest withdrawing the current nomination" followed by a list of points that I should change that do not relate to changes you have made. You have not supplied sources to verify your changes and many of your changes are purely stylistic in nature. You have personally attacked my competency as an editor ("It is misleading ambiguities and amateurish style that I am concerned about"). I have posted a list of changes that I have altered and would be happy to discuss them with you. If you are unhappy with the GA process I suggest you take it up at WT:GA. --LT910001 (talk) 22:02, 23 May 2014 (UTC)

• "multiple layers of flat cells". Actually the lower levels are cuboidal and the top layer is squamous. Snowman (talk) 23:06, 23 May 2014 (UTC)
• "The sympathetic trunk supplies the striated muscle of the upper esophagus and the vagus nerve supplies the smooth muscle of the lower esophagus." Innervation of the oeshopagus is complex, but this is a shocking mistake. Snowman (talk) 23:06, 23 May 2014 (UTC)
• Double images are pairs of differently sized images and are not artistically pleasing (on my screen). Snowman (talk) 23:06, 23 May 2014 (UTC)
• I note that over the last 48 hrs you have not contributed anything to the article, but I am pleased that you have made some helpful edits today with comments on the article's talk page, which I have replied to. Snowman (talk) 23:06, 23 May 2014 (UTC)
• I have commented objectively on what I have seen in the article and this is intended to be helpful. I see no reason for you to interpret this as anything other than constructive and helpful. Snowman (talk) 00:17, 24 May 2014 (UTC)

medicine has a higher standard

Thanks for your comments. I made another comment. Getting peer review is never going to happen in wp so disclaimers is the next best thing. Can you help with this? it is the right thing and ethical thing to do. Stephanie Bowman (talk) 17:59, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

First article has actual gone through formal peer review and should be published and pubmed indexed soon. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) (if I write on your page reply on mine) 11:24, 28 May 2014 (UTC)

I do not fully understand. Whose first article? Do you mean a Wiki peer review? Snowman (talk) 11:31, 28 May 2014 (UTC)

Cervix

Thanks for the notification.--TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 22:48, 29 May 2014 (UTC)

June 2014

Hello, I'm BracketBot. I have automatically detected that your edit to Pisiform bone may have broken the syntax by modifying 1 "()"s. If you have, don't worry: just edit the page again to fix it. If I misunderstood what happened, or if you have any questions, you can leave a message on my operator's talk page.

List of unpaired brackets remaining on the page:

• The '''pisiform bone''' ({{IPAc-en|'|p|ai|s|i-|f|awr|m}} or {{IPAc-en|'|p|I|z|i-|f|awr|m}}; also called '''pisiforme bone'''

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, BracketBot (talk) 19:12, 7 June 2014 (UTC)

Whoops, I have fixed it now. Snowman (talk) 19:20, 7 June 2014 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for June 9

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Parathyroid gland, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Oxyphil cell (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 08:50, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

Whoops, now fixed. Snowman (talk) 10:44, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

Cuban Macaw second opinion

Hi, I was asked to get a sort of second opinion on the Cuban macaw article before submitting it to FA. So if you're up to it, it would be appreciated. I think your opinion is usually quite a bit more challenging than that of most other editors, so I thought you would be a good choice... FunkMonk (talk) 21:13, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

I have made some suggestions. Please look at my edit summaries. I have put in an extra line sourced from my secondhand 1980 version of Fuller's book on "Extinct birds". I did not want to use this as a ref, because the 2000 version is currently a ref. I am sure that you could find an suitable in-line ref for the extra line, if you want to keep it or modify my extra line. Snowman (talk) 13:31, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

I've "retooled" the line, since what can be said for the red macaws goes for pretty much all the Caribbean macaws. FunkMonk (talk) 00:40, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for asking me to look at the article. I like that article, but it is a sad story. I will have another look at it in about a weeks time. Snowman (talk) 20:47, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for taking it up! Seems it is already doing well at the FAC... FunkMonk (talk) 21:52, 11 June 2014 (UTC)