User talk:Corinne/Archive 3

Greenland

On November 8, 2013, I reverted an edit to the article on Greenland changing "favor" to "favour" and "defence" to "defense" with an edit summary explaining that, except for three words (these two and one other), the entire article was in American style. Today I just saw an edit made right after that changing the entire article to British English using, I believe, an automated edit mechanism, and a note, "See Talk page". Well, I looked at the brief discussion under the heading "WP:ENVAR" (or something like that) on the Talk page of the article. I looked at the two things in links ("here") to which the editor referred. I do not understand two things about that: 1) Why would a later comment or edit (2003), rather than an earlier comment or edit (2002), decide the style of an article? and 2) I don't see how the later comment/edit referred to in the link ("here" -- 2003) adds or persuades one of anything. There really was no discussion, and no response to my Edit summary. How can someone change the spelling and style of an entire article without discussion? – CorinneSD (talk) 16:47, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

Stevia

In my edit of Stevia, I italicized the word stevia five times. My intent was to italicize when referring to the genus, or to parts of the plant, but not to the sweetener. (In this comment, I am also italicizing the word when referring to the word itself.) The five times I italicized stevia, the word after stevia was always leaf or leaves. I didn't italicize it in "Because stevia has a negligible effect on blood glucose"; "The availability of stevia varies from country to country"; and "the glycosides that give stevia its sweet taste" because these uses reference the substance, not the plant. I may not have been perfectly consistent, and you should feel free to improve the article. By analogy, the article Cannabis usually italicizes that word, but in the sectionCannabis#Psychoactive drug, where the word is used to mean a substance or drug, it isn't italicized. I was thinking along these lines. —Anomalocaris (talk) 03:33, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for the explanation. That makes sense. – CorinneSD (talk) 18:02, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

Error message

I've done a lot of editing on WP, and have had no problems. In the last few days, after making an edit or placing a comment on a Talk page, I have gotten an error message several times. The edit usually goes through, but it is annoying. The latest one had the following details:

Request: POST http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sri_Lanka&action=submit, from 208.80.154.51 via cp1055 frontend ([10.2.2.25]:80), Varnish XID 950015639

Forwarded for: 50.164.201.162, 208.80.154.51 Error: 503, Service Unavailable at Mon, 25 Nov 2013 18:30:52 GMT

Here is another one:

Request: POST http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sri_Lanka&action=submit, from 208.80.154.51 via cp1066 frontend ([10.2.2.25]:80), Varnish XID 672702158

Forwarded for: 50.164.201.162, 208.80.154.51 Error: 503, Service Unavailable at Mon, 25 Nov 2013 18:42:22 GMT

Could someone look into this for me and see if it can be fixed? Thank you. –CorinneSD (talk) 18:37, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

If it's on a sort of pale bluey-green thing, I'm getting it too. I'm also getting quite a few repeat posts on my talk page (even the Signpost arrived twice) due to it. If it goes on, WP:VPT is the place to ask. It's where the techies hang out, in case you've never been there. Peridon(talk) 18:43, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

Thank you! CorinneSD (talk) 19:14, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

• There have been many similar reports on WP:VPT already and the issues Is being worked on. Thanks for your note as wwll. Technical 13 (talk) 19:57, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

Troutbeck, South Lakeland

In the article on Troutbeck, South Lakeland, I noticed two things:

1) When in Edit mode, the short poem or song appears in separate lines, as a poem or song usually does, but in the text of the article it does not appear that way. Should it be made to appear as a poem or song, in separate lines, perhaps even indented?

2) In that poem, there is a word that may be misspelled: it says "they" where it probably should be "thy". Can we correct it?

3) In the bulleted list below that, next to "Jesus Church", it says "preraphaelite" something. Shouldn't "preraphaelite" be capitalized and hyphenated, as it is in the linked article? –CorinneSD (talk) 01:39, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Yes to all. I've fixed them. Rothorpe (talk) 02:15, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Great! Thanks! CorinneSD (talk) 02:54, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Sri Lanka

I just posted a comment on the Talk page of the article on Sri Lanka. I wanted to see if someone could find a more updated map image. I had originally pasted the file name of the image as just plain text only to show what I was talking about. I saved my comment. Then I thought maybe I should have put a link to the image, so I went back and put double square brackets around it. When I saved it, a huge image of the map appeared in place of the file name, in the middle of my comment. I went back and removed the square brackets, and saved, but the huge map image is still there. I don't know what to do. Can you fix it, or tell me how to fix it? I need either just the file name of the image in plain text, as I had originally added it, or a correct link back to the map in the article. Thank you. (Note: This map image has nothing to do with the recent back-and-forth over POV/NPOV images in the article.)CorinneSD (talk) 16:05, 29 November 2013 (UTC)

I have fixed it for you. To fix this in there future just after the square brackets add a :.Clarkcj12 (talk) 17:24, 29 November 2013 (UTC)

Thank you!CorinneSD (talk) 20:25, 29 November 2013 (UTC)

Bolivia

I just finished editing the Geography section of the article on Bolivia. I have a few questions I need to ask you:

1) In the first paragraph of the section, I was trying to remove the link from the square kilometers (k with superscript 2) as I was also putting in the formula for converting to square miles. I didn't see the need for a link.

By the way, I recently added what I think is called Wiki-Edit so that now, when in Edit mode, I see an expanded selection of mark-up characters and tools (just under the "B" for Bold, "I" for italics, "Advanced", "Special characters", etc.) and I see references and notes in color and text in plain black, which I like very much. I see the place to click in order to add a link, but I could not figure out how to remove a link that was already there (links appear in bright blue). Before I added Wiki-Edit and everything was just in plain black characters, all I had to do was remove the double brackets. Now, I don't see double brackets around links that were already there.

• Could you tell me how to remove a link without removing the text?

• Also, could you help me fix the square kilometers in the first sentence in the first paragraph in "Geography"? How does one put in that k plus superscript 2 to indicate square kilometers? Does "sqk" work equally as well?

2) I have improved clarity, sentence structure, and punctuation in the entire "Geography" section. However, upon reading it and looking at it, I feel that it is very detailed, even dense, and a bit hard to read. I notice that it is comprised of several large paragraphs organized by regions and river basins. I'm wondering whether it would be more readable if it were

• in separate, smaller paragraphs, with a different region or river basin in each paragraph;, or

• in separate, smaller paragraphs, with a different region or river basin in each paragraph, displayed as a bulleted list, each item headed by a sub-heading (I believe there is such a list just below this).

What do you think?

3) Finally, since "copyedit Geography section" is on the "To Do" list for the article (see bottom of pink box on the article's Talk page), and I have just done that, can I remove that from the "To Do" list? (Or you can do that for me, if you don't mind.)

Thank you so much in advance for your assistance! – CorinneSD (talk) 21:08, 8 December 2013 (UTC)

• Hello Corinne, I think what you are referring to as wiki-edit is actually the beta-option known as VisualEditor and taking a look at theuser guide at the bottom of the editing links section describes how to remove a link using the tool. If this is what you are looking for there great; if not, then you may be using wikEd, which should still show the brackets which could just be deleted. As far as the rest of your questions go, I'll leave your {{Help me}} up for another user to help you with. Happy editing! Technical 13 (talk) 02:00, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

As to conversion, see {{convert}} and {{Convert/list of units}} (you need unit-code for the template). Examples:

• 1,098,581 square kilometres (424,164 sq mi)
• 1,098,581 square kilometers (424,164 sq mi)
• 1,098,581 km² (424,164 sq mi)

Here "sp" controls spelling. Materialscientist (talk) 03:11, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

I found what I was looking for, the unit code for square kilometers. It is km2. Regarding my question, above, about presentation of a lot of detailed geographic information, since I received no response, I went ahead and organized the information into bulleted lists. I think it is clearer and much easier to read now.CorinneSD (talk) 21:45, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

It is indeed. Rothorpe (talk) 14:19, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

Oh, good. I'm glad you think so. Thank you.CorinneSD (talk) 15:19, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

Bangladesh

I just spent an hour or so editing the section "20th century" under the larger heading "History" in the article on Bangladesh. There is one sentence that I didn't know what to do with. It is the fourth sentence in the third paragraph, and it starts "The Bangladesh Forces". There are problems at both the beginning and the end of the sentence. Do you feel like having a go at it?CorinneSD(talk) 23:47, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

It's not too bad until the end, where the Bahni & Bahini I suppose should be redlinked.Rothorpe (talk) 01:04, 13 December 2013 (UTC)

When I put links on both of those, the second one was blue right away, the first one red. I read the short article for the second one. It occurred to me that the first one, "Bahni", might have been misspelled, so I spelled it "Bahini" and the link turned blue! There was an article for both of them. (I also corrected the spelling of the first word in the first phrase to make it accord with the name of the article.) Then I read the article on "Mukdi Bahini" and realized the definition did not match the information in the paragraph, so I left a question on the Talk page of the article about that.CorinneSD (talk) 01:34, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I saw you'd made the blue links, well done. Now I'll look at the rest.Rothorpe (talk) 03:16, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

Good to see you're doing so well! It took me a lot longer to get stuff like those red links. One tip I found... when you come across a red link that you think might be a typo, click on it. You'll be taken to a page that will let you create an article under that name. Read the top part and you'll come to a Search link. Click that link and you'll get a list of articles that are similar to that name. If a similarly spelled article exists, it will show up on that list. This function makes it easy to turn red links into blue. – Paine Ellsworth ^CLIMAX! 17:11, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors

I want to add my name to the list of copy-editors in the Guild of Copy-Editors. (I'm sorry, I don't remember the exact link; this one is red.) I tried to follow the instructions ("Copy the code above between the "pre" tags, then fill in the fields with the required information -- Name, date of joining, and Special interests"). When I clicked on "Preview", I saw what I had typed, but it was in a gray box above the actual list. I'm not sure if it is supposed to be like that before I click "Save", or whether the information I typed should all be in the top row of the table in "Preview". If the latter, then I'm doing something wrong.

I'm not sure whether I need to place each field (name, date, interests) on a separate line by hitting "Enter", or whether that will be done automatically. I guess I need help.CorinneSD(talk) 18:43, 13 December 2013 (UTC)

I fixed the link above, and I also fixed that page so the example copy/paste appears. That's pretty tricky to use a table to add people's names. One has to know a little something about table code to get it right. Try it again and this time just realize that if you do it correctly, your name will be at the top of the list in the table and will appear similar to all the rest of the entries. Don't worry about breaking the page; it's easy to fix. Joys! – Paine Ellsworth ^CLIMAX! 19:56, 13 December 2013 (UTC)

Thank you, but it still didn't work.

• Where it says subst:Date within curved brackets, do I put the date (in the style that I see in the table) instead of "subst:Date" or not? I didn't.

• Do I copy and paste the "no include" that's at the end, after the last "pre", or leave it off? I left it off.

• Is there a limit to the length of the comment? I wanted to list some of my interests, as others have done (but I have quite a few; I listed about seven, after "Edit, proofread and rewrite for clarity.") Should I just leave out the list of interests?

What am I doing wrong?CorinneSD (talk) 01:29, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure. The date will "enter itself" when you preview or save the page. It sounds like you're copying the code and including the "pre" tags. Remember to copy only the code between the "pre" tags. When you're done it will appear like this in the code:

------AND PASTE IT BELOW THIS LINE ----------------------->
|-
| [[User:CorinneSD|]]
| {{subst:Date}}
| (your comment)
|-
| [[User:Typocrite|Typocrite]]
| 05 December 2013
| Helping to fix every last typo on Wikipedia.
|-
| [[User:Inphynite|Inphynite]]
| 01 December 2013
| Copy-editing articles.

and will look something like this on the page (the appearance isn't exactly the same because of the lengths of the other table entries on the WikiProject page):

Name	Date of joining	Special interests or comments
CorinneSD	14 December 2013	(your comment)
Typocrite	05 December 2013	Helping to fix every last typo on Wikipedia.
Inphynite	01 December 2013	Copy-editing articles.

I wouldn't worry too much about the word limit. They don't say there is one, and others have left some pretty lengthy comments. Let me know how it goes. – Paine Ellsworth ^CLIMAX!02:37, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

Thank you so much. I think it worked this time. There were two things in the instructions that threw me off. They are both in the instruction,

"Copy the code above between the two "pre" tags........and paste below this line." There are a few lines of code just above this sentence. I thought "Copy the code above between the two "pre" tags meant "Copy the code that is just above into the space between the two "pre" tags." I think the word "above" is in the wrong place in the sentence, and I think it should say "cut", not "copy". This time, I filled in the info, copied and pasted, and in "Preview", the info was in the first row of the table but it was also in a gray box above the table. Then I "cut" the filled-in lines of code, and the gray box disappeared. I think the instructions should read something like this:

• "Fill in the info in the code that is between the two "pre" tags, above, then cut those lines without the "pre" tags and paste them below the line."CorinneSD (talk) 04:48, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

The only slight problem with that is that the next person to come along who wants to join won't have a template to use. That's apparently what happened to you when you first reached the page. Someone had cut the template code, so you didn't have the code to work with. You can accomplish the same thing by copying the template code into the table below the illustrated line and then filling in your personal info, can't you? I'll see if I can make the instructions more clear.– Paine Ellsworth ^CLIMAX! 17:18, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

PS. The above is only a "bandaid", because I think it could be done better. So I have copied the top part of the code to my sandbox to work on it.– Paine Ellsworth ^CLIMAX!

That would be wonderful. I was thinking maybe it was I who inadvertently deleted some code. Oh, well. Did you see my note about Tonga and Niue, below?CorinneSD (talk) 18:18, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

Frit

See my response at User talk:Rothorpe#Frit. H Padleckas (talk) 05:20, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

Tonga and Niue

To Paine Ellsworth and Rothorpe: I just saw that an editor made quite a few edits to the articles onTonga and Niue, many of which are deletions. I had gone through both articles carefully about a month ago. I reviewed the many edits just made. A few are all right. However, while I am a great fan of conciseness, I feel that this editor has gone to the extreme of cutting to the bone in many cases, removing words that make the text clearer, more understandable, and more elegant. I wonder if you would mind taking the time to go through all the edits and seeing if you think they are an improvement or not. It might mean reverting some of the edits individually. I am actually puzzled. I thought the text had been, for the most part, concise enough. Perhaps I am wrong and need to learn to cut even more.CorinneSD (talk) 17:05, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

If only people wouldn't make so many edits in one go! Some I agree with and some I don't. Not in the mood just now, but I'll watch them. Rothorpe (talk) 20:17, 14 December 2013 (UTC)