Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2019 March 20

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 20

Metaquestion: Is there a way to look up all answers on Ref Desk?

Maybe I'm completely missing a feature, but is there a simple way to find the latest version of a question before it was removed from the page? I usually browse the history of a RD page until I find the version where the question disappeared but that's not the most efficient way is it?

If it's not on WP itself, I hope someone already made a website with all the questions ever together with the full discussion. Joepnl (talk) 01:07, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

Your best bet is to search the archives. There is no other website. --Viennese Waltz 07:51, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

Searching in the archives for specific content with an unknown date is a very tedious process. However, if it was a recent question, just go to the most recent archive and work your way backward until you find it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 09:42, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

There's a keyword archive search box at the top of every RD page, although I agree it's not very user-friendly. There's no way to narrow it down by date nor (as far as I can see, anyway) by desk. An alternative is to use Google i.e. something like "search term" site:Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives. --Viennese Waltz 09:52, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

If it's easier to do a Wikipedia archive search via Google than via Wikipedia itself, then maybe those highly-paid WMF developers could do something useful and enhance Wikipedia's search functions. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:14, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

One thing that can be a bit confusing about searching the archives is that questions are listed by date posted, not date archived. So, if it just disappeared from here yesterday, it could be in the archives with a date a week ago or more. SinisterLefty (talk) 10:48, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

You can search by individual desk here. Matt Deres (talk) 15:27, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

Hey, I never knew that page existed. Thanks. --Viennese Waltz 15:29, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

Either way, the items come back in random date order. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:27, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

Parse ALL THE QUESTIONS 2A02:8109:B5C0:3400:7898:A034:2C22:45A2 (talk) 07:29, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

Pavement Ends road sign

Road signs in the United States says that the sign at right is superseded, but some signs still in use. It doesn't mention any other signs (whether national MUTCD or otherwise official in one or more states) that serve roughly the same purpose. Are there any, and if so, what do they look like? It's easy to find online images of these signs and of signs saying simply "Pavement Ends", but I'm unclear whether they're statewide official, or if they're just put there unofficially (e.g. by a local government that just made up a sign). I've often seen this superseded sign in Virginia, but I don't remember seeing it elsewhere. Nyttend backup (talk) 17:29, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

The MUTCD is available here (30 megabyte PDF). It specifies that the "Pavement Ends" sign (sign W8-3) is the one with the words "PAVEMENT ENDS". Presumably the graphical sign illustrated was allowed as an alternative, but no longer is. --76.69.46.228 (talk) 18:45, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

For pure anecdote, I've never seen that sign before. Here in California I've only ever seen signs consisting of text on the standard yellow diamond or rectangle: "PAVEMENT ENDS 500 FEET", "UNPAVED ROAD", "GRAVEL ROAD", etc. As to "who puts up the signs", here, on surface streets I'm fairly sure it's either city (in incorporated cities) or county government. Caltrans only maintains state and federal highways. --47.146.63.87 (talk) 23:27, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

For what it's worth, the illustrated sign is used in Caanda. The Canadian equivalent of the MUTCD doesn't seem to be available online, but this provincial document from British Columbia from 2000 shows the sign as W-49 (with no textual alternative). --76.69.46.228 (talk) 08:51, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

I often have trouble understanding what these graphic representations mean. Does this one mean the road ends in a wall of honeycomb? HiLo48 (talk) 00:25, 23 March 2019 (UTC)

On the other side of the pond we joke that Americans have low speed limits because they need time to read all that text :) 93.136.119.216 (talk) 01:50, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Yes, it was introduced after this 1978 documentary raised concerns. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.200.138.194 (talk) 03:59, 23 March 2019 (UTC)