User talk:Pigsonthewing/Archive 17

Editing of Wikipedia entries

Andy

As I am relatively new to Wikipedia, and you seem to be an established editor, let me ask you a question as it relates the entry about me.

I was fairly content to let it go where it would go of its own accord, but of late there have been destructive entries made. AlQaeda listed as my client, the adjective 'jewish' appended to my name, 'father of videojournalism' rewritten ad video journalism's idiot.

I went and made corrections and then the vandalism was repeated. I understand I should not be editing or even writing my own entry, however... what is one to do in cases like this? Michael Rosenblum —Preceding unsigned comment added by Michaelrosenblum (talk • contribs) 22:31, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

I sympathise with how the abuse must make you feel. You are free to revert such clear-cut vandalism, but should take care not to add non-neutral or promotional text in your favour. If in doubt, ask on the artcile's talk page, or the Wikipedia:Help desk, or put {{helpme}} on your own talk page. (You can also ask me for help on this page; but obviously I won't always be here, so don't rely on that if the matter is pressing.) BTW, please sign posts on talk pages with four tildes, thus: ~~~~ Good luck and best wishes. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 22:38, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your quick and clear response ~~~~Rosenblum

My pleasure - but the "nowiki" tags around the tildes were so you could see what to type; don't use them when you sign your posts. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 19:26, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

Tone flag

You added a "Tone" tag to the Lickey and some people, including myself, are puzzled as to your reasoning. I have read through the entry and cannot see an appropriate tone problem. I can see lots else wrong with it...it is too short and disorganised...lacks references and depth...but the tone seems fine. Can you explain what it was that you saw, so it can be worked on? Thanks 21stCenturyGreenstuff (talk) 23:40, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

Phrases like "today it is difficult to gain a sense of the well spaced layout and wide boulevards of Victorian Lickey", "Newer developments lack the distinctive style of the older buildings and crowd the Victorian buildings", "the area has maintained its mainly professional and entrepreneurial population" and "The best impression of Victorian Lickey can be felt nowadays in the nearby tiny hamlet of Shepley" are not appropriaote for Wikipedia,. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 23:46, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

Well yes they are a bit weasely...but LOL...with those removed erm...it doesn't leave much of an article. I have just finished building a reasonable entry for Cofton Hackett from a similar sized stub, but I am not sure I have the dedication to do it again for Lickey. Having built up the Lickey Hills Country Park article I am not sure there is a lot of information left for the small gathering of houses that constitute the village. 21stCenturyGreenstuff (talk) 00:10, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm not suggesting that they be removed; but a major re-write is needed; hence the tag. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 00:12, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Canterberry

I know that Checkuser is for detecting sockpuppets. If the issue of whether on not to unblock is raised at AN, then no doubt the IP will wade in, and that would be a good opportunity to run checkuser and see if it really is another sock. If proved as such, my feeling is that consensus will be that the block would stay. Mjroots (talk) 11:31, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Northfield

Where do you actually live in Birmingham? I have been trying to expand and correct the Northfield entry for some months as I used to live there. However, I cannot find much in the way of history references on the web although I know Northfield has a long and interesting history. Are you able to help at all? 21stCenturyGreenstuff (talk) 18:05, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm on the opposite side of the city. Have you tried the Northfield History page on the Council website? Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 18:10, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Well thanks for that, it is a start but I am sure there must be more than that around. Have a look through Rednal I have made a few additions there. 21stCenturyGreenstuff (talk) 18:17, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks!

Thank you for reverting the vandalism done to my user page! Themfromspace (talk) 15:38, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

• Thanks again! Themfromspace (talk) 23:13, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

No problem. Currently listed on WP:ANI. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 23:17, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Jim Messina disambiguation

No need to reply to this message. I just wanted to say thank you for creating that page for me. That was extremely helpful.--Markisgreen (talk) 17:11, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

Pink Floyd citation tags

After you reverted a change re. removal / restoration of tags in the Pink Floyd article, I reviewed them again, and posted on the talk page here. I have proposed keeping one tag and removing the rest. Please comment on that page, otherwise I will presume there are no objections. --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 15:30, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. I've replied there. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 16:31, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Vandalism

No need to reply to this either. Just wanted to thank you ever so much for protecting my page from vandalism. You are the heart and soul of what makes Wikipedia work. Michaelrosenblum (talk) 13:43, 23 November 2008 (UTC)Rosenblum

Edit completion

Thanks, that "undo" link didn't quite work the way I expected it to. — Hex (❝?!❞) 17:20, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Pleasure. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 17:21, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Your reversal at Template:Massenet operas

Your revert at Template:Massenet operas leaves me wondering how and where this template generates any meta data related to the vCard or hCard format. I can't detect any such thing in the generated HTML code, nor can User:Dr pda/persondata.js in the Wiki markup. Are you sure that any of the Category:Operas by composer templates really generate hCard data? I have difficulties understanding what possible hCard data could emerge from these infoboxes. Michael Bednarek (talk) 01:30, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes, the hCard microformat shows up using the Operator extension in Firefox. This has nothing to to with "persondata" Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 01:34, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

It becomes clearer now; I, too, can see the vCard data under that configuration. However, that data seems perfectly useless to me. Here's what's shown under Don Quichotte:

BEGIN:VCARD
PRODID:-//kaply.com//Operator 0.8//EN
SOURCE:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quichotte
NAME:Don Quichotte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
VERSION:3.0
N;CHARSET=UTF-8:Massenet;Jules;;;
FN;CHARSET=UTF-8:Jules Massenet
UID:
END:VCARD

I fail to see any informational value whatsoever in that VCARD. I think all navigation boxes for operas and other works of classical composers should be stripped of the class parameter "vcard". This would also provide consistency with the majority (approximately 70) of the templates in Category:Operas by composer templates which do not (pretend to) provide vCard data; less than 40 do. Michael Bednarek (talk) 05:39, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm working my way through them, gradually. The metadata you cite informs us that the subject of the data is a person, whose first name is Jules and family name is Massenet, as opposed to, say, a ship named after him. "I fail to see" sounds rather like WP:IDONTLIKEIT. There is clear consensus for the use of microformat in infoboxes and navboxes. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 09:11, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

The meta data doesn't inform us (readers) because we never see it; it is also wrong because the subject of the data is not Jules Massenet but Don Quichotte — of which the reader is informed by looking at the page. "I fail to see" expresses my opinion about this pointless exercise. I'm all for attaching machine-readable meta data to Wikipedia pages, but there has to be some informational value in it. Good day. Michael Bednarek (talk) 11:24, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

I referred deliberately to "the subject of the data", not "the subject of the page". This is the correct use of microformats. It is not "wrong". There is informational value in identifying that a person is referred to on a page. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 12:24, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Resolutions

In terms of your comment - what personal information is being collected? Master of Puppets Call me MoP! :D 00:35, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Name/ IP address, time of edit. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 00:38, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

death hCard coord name conflict

Hey Andy, you mentioned an issue with invalid hCards in case of persons (i.e. death locations). Are both the infobox and {{coord}} generatng th hCard? Should we implement a parameter to suppress hCard generation by {{coord}} if it is used in such an infobox? --Dschwen 19:37, 30 November 2008 (UTC)s

{{coord}} was amended, against my advice, to generate a bogus hCard using its name property as the hCard's class="fn org" value. This has nothing to do with infoboxes, but is invalid for people, and damaging in other circumstances, as I advised at the time, and since. The hCard mark-up (if not the entire name parameter, which is broken in other ways) should be removed entirely from {{coord}}. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 19:47, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

YOB instead of DOB

Hi. Concerning this edits of your I would like to inform you that for article pages we use Category:Year of birth missing instead of Category:Date of birth missing. If, there is a reason to add the latter, please add it to the Talk page instead but first read WP:PRIVACY and the instructions in the categories above. Thanks. -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:49, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

If that policy prohibits the posting if a article subject's DoB (which I dispute that it does) then it also prohibits the posting of their name. What nonsense. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 22:37, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Old question

Hi - You asked a question at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Usability/Infobox accessibility a long time ago that I didn't notice. I've posted the answer (if you're still interested). -- Rick Block (talk) 22:59, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. I'll go there now. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 00:04, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

hCard attributes

Hi Andy,

Just to confirm, is "nickname" the right choice here? The data in question in the club's full, proper name... Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 23:16, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for asking: Yes. "nickname" in the only property in hCard for an alternative name (to that given class="fn"). Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 00:04, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Reverting fair-use removal from template sandbox

Hey again,

So I noticed this. We're not actually meant to use fair-use images on anything other than articlespace (my bad in the first place), so this will probably keep happening. You're best swapping those images with placeholders. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 12:52, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Accessibility - Family tree template

Hi Andy,

I refer you to the discussion/s at Wikipedia talk:Accessibility#Family of Barack Obama family tree.

I have started to do a new template based on an entirely different approach, but before I go too much further I would appreciate your comments. (The new approach has some significant advantages over the current approach, but also some disadvantages.)

If, for example I could trouble you to look at User:Pee Tern/Sandbox/Template/Family tree chart/doc#Barack Obama, any comments would be helpful. (Yes, I still have a few things to do to clean up the layouts, but comment about that too if you wish.) You are welcome to look at the rest of the very much a draft doc page too if you wish.

Cheers Peet Ern (talk) 12:49, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm busy now, but will look later today. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 12:53, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

I've finally had a look, and it still seems to me that, when linearised, the meaning is lost. I think nested lists might be the way to go. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 13:08, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback. I will keep at it for a while and see what I can do. I will post further comments back at Wikipedia talk:Accessibility#Family of Barack Obama family tree. Peet Ern (talk) 10:39, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Template:Meetup

Um, I think the formatting of double dates on one line is really not ideal for what should be a compact little box. Is this really necessary? Thanks.--Pharos (talk) 01:29, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

I'll reply on {{Meetup}}'s talk page, to centralise discussion. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 11:47, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

2008 IWF page

Nice table. But maybe worth keeping some note of what odd-looking 404 pages looked like, for future diagnostic purposes; and noting occasional intermittency in the blocks (eg my experience with Orange) ? Jheald (talk) 23:03, 10 December 2008 (UTC)