User talk:Invertzoo/Archive 35

ARCHIVE PAGE 35: November 2010

The Signpost: 1 November 2010

• News and notes: Foundation's finances, geodata milestone, interim counsel, museum conference

• In the news: Airplane construction with Wikipedia, lessons from the strategy project, logic over rhetoric

• WikiProject report: Scoring with WikiProject Ice Hockey

• Features and admins: Good-lookin' slugs and snails

• Arbitration report: Arb resignation during plagiarism discussion; election RfC closing in 2 days

• Technology report: Foundation office switches to closed source, secure browsing, brief news

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 03:55, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

Thank you

Thank you, for your edits to Don't Forget the Bacon!. Much appreciated, --Cirt (talk) 13:30, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

talkback

Hello, Invertzoo. You have new messages at Mbz1's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Lack of time

Hi there Susan! You may have noticed it already, but I haven't made many edits in wikipedia lately. Though very satisfying, both my job and my studies have left me with no free time. This will surely change for the better, but not until the end of the year. In the meantime, my contributions will be modest and sparse, or so I believe. Oh, by the way, I think it's time for Eustrombus gigas to be moved into Lobatus gigas. WoRMs is currently accepting Lobatus as a valid taxon, andEustrombus has been synonymized. Since E. gigas is a GA, will the transfer bring about any issues I'm not aware of? Best wishes! Daniel Cavallari (talk) 22:14, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

DYK for Broderick – Terry duel

-- Cirt (talk) 12:02, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

invitation mollusc group

Hi thanks for your invitation. I am new to Wiki and try to find my way.. not sure how much time I am going to spend here. But you are guessing right, I have some interest in snails... Once I know whether or not I like to spend some more time here, I'll sign up :-)

--Snaildoc (talk) 10:50, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

The Signpost: 8 November 2010

• Fundraiser: November 15 launch, emphasis on banner optimization and community involvement

• News and notes: Second Wikipedian in Residence, {{citation needed}} for sanity

• In the news: WP prose praised, Public Policy update, education debate, WP documentary

• WikiProject report: WikiProject California

• Features and admins: No, not science fiction—real science

• Election report: The countdown begins

• Arbitration report: No cases this week; Date delinking sanctions reduced for one party; History ban extended

• Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 16:43, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Re:Questions about the Portal

Hello Susan, I have made some portal updates; hopefully made it easier to add new articles. Let me explain how the portal works using the selected article example. Selected article has many numbered subpages. The portal uses a randomizing logic to pick one of the numbered subpages to be displayed. The {{Random portal component}} template that is used on the portal main page has a "max parameter" that will need to set to the maximum number of numbered subpages that have some populated information. In the selected article example, there are currently 7 populated pages (keep scrolling the selected article page until you see red links and that will give you the max number).

{{Random portal component|max=7|header=Selected article|footer=More articles...| subpage=Selected article}}

If a new article is added to the selected article listing, the max parameter will need to be increased to 8. The same logic applies to selected picture and selected biography and now Did you know. I have added the randomizing logic to Did you know by splitting the big list into numbered subpages with 10 items each.

Please let me know if you have any questions or need clarification. —Ganeshk (talk) 00:03, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Did you know pages have 10 items each unlike selected article which has only item per page. If you would like to show only 5 items per dyk page, then you will need cut and paste the other 5 items into new redlink numbered pages. And after that update the max parameter on the portal page. Here is a example, 5 items from dyk 3 moved todyk 7. And max updated. — Ganeshk (talk) 16:22, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Please make sure to have a {{clear}} at the end of each dyk page. The archive link (on the portal dyk section) does not show up properly if the clear is missing. —Ganeshk (talk) 16:25, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

I have completed splitting the dyks into 5 items each. Please note that it is the page that is getting randomly picked up and not the individual dyk items. — Ganeshk(talk) 23:36, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Australian rainforest snail

Dear Zoo,

Luckily, the Australian Museum identified a snail photo for me. Nitor medioximus. I've written a very brief stub, knowing practically nothing of the animal. Please advise Mr Snek, as the article needs a lot of help.

cheers, Peter Poyt448 (talk) 06:26, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

The Signpost: 15 November 2010

• News and notes: Fundraisers start for Wikipedia and Citizendium; controversial content and leadership

• In the news: How big can Wikipedia pictures get?; fundraising season

• WikiProject report: Sizzling: WikiProject Bacon

• Features and admins: Of lakes and mountains

• Dispatches: A guide to the Good Article Review Process

• Arbitration report: No cases this week; Amendments filed on Climate Change and Date Delinking; Motion passed on EEML

• Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News

Read this Signpost in full ·Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 00:33, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Re: Questions about the Portal icon

Hi Susan, I was wondering about that myself. Thanks for letting me know. The portal box looks really good now. — Ganeshk (talk) 01:23, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

The icon would be great if there was a way to make its background transparent. I do not have Microsoft Photo Editor with me at the moment. —Ganeshk (talk) 01:25, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes, transparent would look great if you get the chance to do that at some point. We have Photoshop but I use it infrequently and don't know how to do that particular thing, plus I don't work with images much here. Invertzoo (talk) 14:03, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

I don't have any photo editing tools that can do transparent colors. Let's leave it as it is for now. — Ganeshk (talk) 23:26, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Re:Thanks!

Hi Susan, You are doing great. My updates were pretty minor. I do the same thing. I will visit other pages on Wikipedia that have similar functionality and copy-paste the code into mine. Templates are what you are referring to as code. Wiki markup and Templates are good starting pages for learning about them. — Ganeshk (talk)01:12, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks Ganesh for your kind words and for the recommendations. Yes, I discovered the Help:Wiki markup help page not long after I left that message for you, but I had not looked at the Help:Template page, or the page on Transclusion. These pages are certainly better than nothing at all, but generally speaking I have to say that I find that the great majority of help pages on Wikipedia are very poorly thought out, and have almost no real explanations, and as a result they are extremely hard to read and understand (unless you already have some degree of working familiarity with the subject in question). That's why I usually just go ahead and wing it, and copy and paste someone else's example of what I am trying to do, and then fix it up the way I want it. That works quite well most of the time, but when you have to work with something like the portal template, where there are so many lines of markup of various kinds, well I find myself wishing I could read and understand the markup rather than it looking more or less like obscure ancient hieroglyphics to me!

I usually tell brand new editors: don't bother struggling to understand the Wikipedia help pages, just copy from another article the things you want to do. When I was new I started a MicrosoftWord document and put in it all the little things that I wanted to remember how to do. I still refer to it sometimes.

Best, Invertzoo (talk) 02:02, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Agree, help pages here are not great. Have you checked out the help pages atMediaWiki. Is that any better?

Meta has help pages too. Do check them out as well. — Ganeshk (talk) 23:28, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

The mysterious disappearance of Anna

Hi Susan! How are things? I am so sorry to have disappeared for so long. A perfect storm of things came up that have kept me too busy to work on Wikipedia. I have one more biggy coming up: I am moving to another apartment in the middle of December. Then, hopefully, things will settle down, and I can get back to editing. All the best to you. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 05:20, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

How's everything?

Hi Susan, I'm thinking about writing a new article in a day or so. Would you have a time to copyedit it? Best wishes.--Mbz1 (talk) 02:59, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Hi Mila, how are you? Can you first tell me what the subject is before I say yes or no? In reality I probably can spare some time now assuming it is a subject that I think I can do well with and really "get behind", however if you have looked at my contributions I have been and still am busy fixing up the Portal:Gastropods in order to prepare it for submitting for Featured Portal status (that preparing is not yet complete), and after that I will go back to finishing creating another 70 needed genus articles. Best, Invertzoo (talk) 14:58, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

I am OK, thank you. Here's the article. Best wishes.--Mbz1 (talk) 21:54, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

OK, no problem, I will do it. I will do a little bit tonight, but please don't be surprised if I don't do very much tomorrow because I am busy off-wiki a lot of the time tomorrow. I will do more the next day and the day after. Best wishes,Invertzoo (talk) 23:03, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Thank you. Please take your time. It is moved yo the main space now: King Philip shipwreck. Best.--Mbz1 (talk) 01:11, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Hi Susan, may I please ask you why you still editing an old version in my user space? Vest wishes.--Mbz1 (talk) 19:20, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes, that was a plain old-fashioned mistake! I was at the computer when I was tired in the evening, I had a lot of windows open and I simply got confused as to which version I was working on. Once I realized the mistake, I copied all of the new changes into the real article. Invertzoo (talk) 19:59, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

It is what I thought, but I wanted to make sure.:)DYK nomination. I believe the hook should be fixed. Best wishes.--Mbz1 (talk) 21:27, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Pascal-Désir Maisonneuve

Hi Susan. I wrote this article about a French artist yesterday. I had visited the day before a new museum of modern art in France and my attention was drawn to this outsider artist who made portraits with seashells. His biography was lacking in wikipedia. So I wrote this article. If you can give it a quick look-over and rephrase where necessary, that would be fine. It wouldn't take too much of your precious time. Thanks. JoJan(talk) 09:47, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, much better now. Don't you think this article contains material for a DYK ? JoJan (talk) 15:11, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

The Signpost: 22 November 2010

• News and notes: No further Bundesarchiv image donations; Dutch and German awards; anniversary preparations

• In the news: Jimbo Wales interviewed and parodied; Wikipedia in politics

• Book review: The Myth of the Britannica, by Harvey Einbinder

• WikiProject report: WikiProject College Football

• Features and admins: The best of the week

• Election report: Candidates still stepping forward

• Arbitration report: Brews ohare site-banned; climate change topic-ban broadened

• Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News

Read this Signpost in full ·Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 00:39, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

Gastropod portal

Wouldn't this 3D-photo Commons:File:Wentletrap 001.jpg (Epitonium scalare ?), that I just uploaded from FlickR, be a nice photo for the portal ? JoJan(talk) 10:17, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

Re: Question on the Portal

Hi Susan, I have fixed the portal box width issue. I had to do some sandbox tinkering to figure it out. — Ganeshk (talk) 22:08, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

DYK for King Philip shipwreck

Materialscientist (talk) 18:02, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Well, it got more than 8,000 views. Are you ready for a new article in a few days :) Best wishes.--Mbz1 (talk) 01:00, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

Over 8,000 views is not bad! By the way, your 2010 image of the shipwreck is quite lovely, even at a tiny size. What is the subject of the new article?Invertzoo (talk) 01:36, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for commenting on my image. A few weeks ago tens of thousands of jellyfishes washed ashore at our local beach. Sadly I missed the show, butat this image there are few. I will write the article first, and let you know, when it is finished. If you have a time and an interest in helping me out with this, it will be great.--Mbz1 (talk) 01:48, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

Sounds interesting. The ones in your photo look to be quite large ones. To my surprise I see in the article on that species that it is not really possible to determine which of the various species are which without genetic testing... Anyway, go ahead and write, let me know when it is ready and I will do whatever I can to fix it up. Best, Invertzoo (talk) 02:40, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

I guess you misunderstood me. My new article is not going to be about jellyfishes. I just shared my image with you. Anyway I will let you know, when I write my new article. Best wishes.--Mbz1 (talk) 02:48, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

I see , yes I misunderstood. OK then, let me know what it's about as soon as you are ready. Invertzoo (talk) 15:11, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

The Signpost: 29 November 2010

• News and notes: Backlog drive; youth and confidence among Wikipedians, brief news

• In the news: Fundraising banners continue to provoke; plagiarism charges against congressional climate change report

• Interview: Interview with Johanna Niesyto and Nathaniel Tkacz from "Critical Point of View"

• WikiProject report: Celebrate WikiProject Holidays

• Features and admins: The best of the week

• Election report: Voting in full swing

• Arbitration report: New case: Longevity; Biophys topic ban likely to stay in place

• Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News

Read this Signpost in full ·Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 21:13, 29 November 2010 (UTC)