User:Teratornis/Notes

This is a page of notes about various editing projects I do, a place to test wikitext markup, etc.

Shortcuts
I like shortcuts. They are handy for linking from the Help desk, from edit summaries, and from talk pages. Wikipedia has lots of shortcuts, but not every page (or section of a page) that needs them has them yet. The following sections describe some of my minor additions to the shortcut stockpile.

Adding shortcuts to the Manual of Style
Other editors implemented shortcuts for the Manual of Style (MoS), but the implementation seems incomplete:


 * Not all MoS pages have shortcuts (I think - check this).
 * Some MoS pages have sections with corresponding shortcuts, but not all of those sections have shortcut templates to display the shortcuts.
 * Some shortcuts may use prefixes other than MOS:.

The existing shortcuts with the MOS: prefix are here:


 * Special:Prefixindex/MOS:

All the MoS pages should be here:


 * Special:Prefixindex/Wikipedia:Manual of Style

Adding shortcuts to the Editor's index to Wikipedia
John Broughton wrote the Editor's index to Wikipedia, and he incorporated a few of my suggestions. As of 04:37, 21 October 2007 (UTC), John is busy with other work, and (if possible) I would like to implement the idea for shortcuts we discussed:


 * User talk:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia
 * User talk:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia
 * User talk:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia
 * User talk:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia
 * Wikipedia talk:Namespace

However, before proceeding, I will outline exactly what I want to do and ask John to OK it first. Steps:


 * 1) Make an EIW: page. Copy the content from the WP:EIW shortcut.
 * 2) Add EIW: to the shortcut template at the top of the Editor's index.
 * 3) Add the EIW: prefix to the table of pseudo-namespaces here: WP:SHORT. (Because I will have made the EIW: page, at least we will have one shortcut to link to from Special:Prefixindex/EIW:.)
 * 4) Determine how to use a bot to make a large number of shortcut pages.
 * 5) Construct the list of shortcut pages to make.
 * 6) *Presumably this involves specifying all the page titles, and the content of each page, in some format suitable for a bot to use as input.
 * 7) *I'll need to copy the wikitext from the Editor's index to a local file, and possibly write a Perl script to extract just the headings that have anchors and will need shortcuts.
 * 8) Submit the bot request.
 * 9) Edit the Editor's index to contain shortcut templates for every topic heading that has one or more corresponding shortcuts.

An alternative to running such a bot on Wikipedia would be to run it on a wiki I control, and try exporting all the pages back into Wikipedia. That way I could experiment with my own bot program, but that might be more hassle than it is worth.

Another option is to forget about bots and just edit everything manually. However, creating all the shortcut pages manually would be very tedious.


 * Search Wikipedia:Bot requests with Google

The smart way to add shortcuts to name anchors
17:29, 11 May 2008 (UTC): somewhat belatedly, I recognized a more efficient way of implementing shortcuts in the Editor's index, by following the style of name-anchor shortcuts in the WP:NOT page. See my comments in:
 * Wikipedia talk:Editor's index to Wikipedia - (particularly my comment of 20:36, 25 April 2008 (UTC), and ensuing discussion)

Adding shortcuts to Wikipedia - The Missing Manual
00:22, 25 February 2009 (UTC): see the discussion:
 * Help talk:Wikipedia: The Missing Manual

Citation tools
21:56, 23 May 2008 (UTC): make some notes about citation tools. Copy some links from: WP:EIW to subsections, and take notes about using them. Maybe someday I would write a page in the Wikipedia: (Project:) namespace that overviews these tools and documents them a little.


 * Reference generator - enter info into appropriate boxes, will generate standard text for citation that can be pasted into an article
 * I don't see how this tool saves any work over just editing a template by hand. If anything, having to cut and paste into all the individual boxes is harder than hand-editing a template in a text editor, since with a text editor one can paste in a large amount of multi-line data and edit it into the template in one place, without the need to keep switching between windows.
 * Web page that generates citation from an ISBN or PubMed article (and another, less recommended)
 * The above tool did not work when I tried it on: ISBN 0097075655
 * PMID - automatic link to PubMed
 * User:Smith609/Cite - -o-matic - generates Wiki-friendly citation templates from a Google Scholar search or BibTeX entry
 * Google Scholar enhanced with the Wikipedia citation assistant
 * See below for more notes about this promising tool.
 * Wikicite - Windows program for entering citation info; outputs to the clipboard a Wikipedia-formated cite
 * Citing sources
 * Zotero, an on-line research tool, can export citations in Wikipedia format
 * 06:24, 24 May 2008 (UTC): this sounds like a very capable tool. I will have to try it for use with my book project. See below for additional notes about Zotero.
 * WPCITE - Firefox add-on that grabs some information from web page, formatted as a Cite web template
 * I installed this on May 8, 2008. It works pretty well, but only generates the Cite web template, so it's best for news articles, but not as good for books, scientific journals, and other complicated stuff. It doesn't work at all on PDF files. Zotero looks far more capable, but I didn't find Zotero to be very usable.
 * User:Jehochman says, unfortunately:
 * Sadly, this extension still does not work on Firefox 3. If you know how to use the Firefox 3 API, and would like to port this, please help!
 * User:Mr.Z-man/refToolbar - user script that adds a button to the edit toolbar; clicking that offers a choice of four citation templates. (Also available via the Gadgets tab of "my preferences".)
 * Other:
 * User:DOI bot - Adds Digital object identifiers (DOIs) to citations which use the template cite journal

Citation tool documents
06:09, 24 May 2008 (UTC): try to find whatever documents Wikipedia has about using citation tools. There doesn't seem to be a centralized document that I could call a comprehensive user manual for, say, beginners. Here's a Google custom search: That finds some pages:
 * WP:CITE - merely a list, much like the one in the Editor's index at: WP:EIW, with a sentence fragment or two to describe each tool.
 * WikiProject Mathematics/Reference resources - this looks like a rather weak list.
 * Tools - merely links to WP:CITE, which I already found.
 * Tools/Optimum tool set - mentions the Google Scholar enhanced with the Wikipedia citation assistant which I already found.

Zotero
06:59, 24 May 2008 (UTC): I installed Zotero in Firefox on one of my computers. It looks impressive. Here is the Zotero quick start guide: and instructions on using Zotero to generate Wikipedia citations: See what other Wikipedians have written about it:
 * http://www.zotero.org/documentation/quick_start_guide
 * http://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-wikipedia-perfect-together/

17:04, 31 May 2008 (UTC): shortly after I installed Zotero on two of my computers, I began noticing problems on each of them. The problems did not begin instantly, but after a few days, so I don't know whether Zotero is responsible. But the timing seems suspicious, as neither computer had been having problems recently.


 * On my computer that runs Ubuntu Linux, YouTube videos stopped playing under Gnash in Mozilla Firefox. I cannot recall exactly how soon after I installed Zotero that this problem began. That is, I cannot remember whether I was able to play any YouTube video after I installed Zotero. I might have. Gnash may have stopped playing YouTube videos because of some other problem, such as an automatic update to some other software I have installed.
 * On my laptop computer that runs Windows XP, I installed Zotero and noticed no problems for a few days. Then my laptop displayed a blue screen of death and after that the computer does not reboot, displaying an "operating system not found" error. I had a similar problem about 18 months earlier and I had to reinstall Windows and restore my applications from backups. Obviously Zotero was not responsible for wiping out my hard drive 18 months ago, but who knows about this time.

It might be worthwhile to look for reports of buggy interactions between Zotero and other components on the computers where people install it.

 Universal reference formatter

 *  Google Scholar enhanced with the Wikipedia citation assistant 
 * The new version is: Universal reference formatter
 * This worked pretty well for me, as soon as I noticed how to use it (there was no obvious documentation). In the Google Scholar search results, one of the links below each result entry is . Clicking that link generates a Cite journal template, with fields automatically containing title, author, date, and so on.

17:04, 31 May 2008 (UTC): It would be nice to create a Google template (see: Google templates for a formatted list) that would generate links to this tool, so I could pass search parameters to it from wikitext. The first step would be to create a new template that would send a search string to the unenhanced Google Scholar (I could call it: Google scholar). Once I have that working, I could figure out how to send field values to Google Scholar enhanced with the Wikipedia citation assistant.

05:17, 1 June 2008 (UTC): I created the simplest possible Google templates and it works. It just passes the search string to the basic Google Scholar search form.

Make another template to act as a front-end wrapper for the citation assistant input form. Here is the HTML code from that page, so I can get the field names:



00:18, 4 June 2008 (UTC): from the above code we can see these field names:
 * : the general input field on the simple Google Scholar search form
 * : Title
 * : Author
 * : Journal
 * : Years (from)
 * : Years (to)

Try to manually construct some search URLs for the Google Scholar enhanced with the Wikipedia citation assistant Universal reference formatter:
 * Searches that work:
 * http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~ms609/Wiki/Scholar?q=switchgrass
 * http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~ms609/Wiki/Scholar?q=
 * http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~ms609/Wiki/Scholar?q=switchgrass&as_ylo=2005
 * http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~ms609/Wiki/Scholar?as_ylo=2005&q=switchgrass
 * Searches that do not work:
 * http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~ms609/Wiki/Scholar?q=&as_auth=&as_publication=&intitle=&as_ylo=&=as_yhi&hl=en&lr=
 * http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~ms609/Wiki/Scholar?as_auth=&as_publication=&intitle=&as_ylo=&=as_yhi&hl=en&lr=

So far, the pattern seems to be that any search with a blank  field does not work. This is strange, because I am able to run searches from the site itself without entering anything in the  field. It's somewhat hard to tell what the resulting URL would be, since the site uses  rather than. Try making a local HTML file and with a copy of the above  tag, and open it in a Web browser to see what the resulting URL looks like with. I.e., browse to the search form, click File | Save page as... in Firefox, save it to a local file, edit that file to make the form use, then reopen the page in Firefox and see what URL it generates.

And here is the resulting URL when I search with just the value: 2005 in the  field:


 * http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~ms609/Wiki/Scholar?q=&btnG=Search&intitle=&as_auth=&as_publication=&as_ylo=2005&as_yhi=&hl=en&lr=

Evidently I see that I overlooked the  value in the tests I constructed by hand above. Now it seems that I have enough information to construct a template which will run this search and allow all fields.

Template:Google scholar cite
07:06, 6 June 2008 (UTC): make a template to wrap the Google Scholar enhanced with the Wikipedia citation assistant Universal reference formatter: Google scholar cite. I will start by editing in my sandbox page: User:Teratornis/Sandbox4.

21:32, 6 June 2008 (UTC): I edited a first draft. The standard template call could look like this:

Make a scratch copy of the core part of the template text, with extra line breaks so I can read it:

[http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~ms609/Wiki/Scholar?q= &btnG=Search &intitle= &as_auth= &as_publication= &as_ylo= &as_yhi= &hl=en &lr= ]

See: WM:TEMP. I would like the  parameter to optionally be the first unnamed parameter, and the   parameter to be optionally the second unnamed parameter. That way the user has the option to use a very short version of the template, or a longer version with named parameters.

Updating to account for the new name: Universal Reference Formatter
21:57, 7 June 2008 (UTC): see my comments in User talk:Smith609. I need to edit some things to account for changes by Smith609 (the user formerly known as Verisimilus):
 * Smith609 changed the name of the tool and its URL to: Universal reference formatter. Smith609 already updated Google scholar cite to use the new tool (diff). Update the documentation to refer to the new tool correctly. Done.
 * See what else Smith609 changed after I wrote to him: Special:Contributions/Smith609.
 * Update the reference to the old tool in WP:EIW. Done.
 * Update the Google scholar documentation to mention Google scholar cite.
 * Consider updating Google scholar so it accepts all the fields that Google scholar cite does.

An enhancement to Template:Fact
22:20, 4 September 2008 (UTC): the Fact template (based on the Fix template) displays the link: Citation needed. This isn't as helpful as possible, because the link goes to the Citation needed page, which doesn't really tell the next user how to find reliable sources. One way to turn the template into a teaching tool would be to add an option to create a link to a Google scholar cite search. That way, the many instances of Fact templates would advertise the existence and use of the little-known citation tools such as the Universal reference formatter.

One might argue that if the person who places the template will go to the trouble of constructing a search for the missing references, then that person might as well just run the search, find some references, and add them to the article. Fair enough. However, a large number of Wikipedia editors do not (evidently) know a lot about citations on Wikipedia. A person who does know could usefully educate large numbers of other users by "seeding" articles with "citation needed" notices containing search links that users could click to learn how to use the Universal reference formatter. Giving people examples they find personally relevant may help them learn more efficiently than expecting them to figure out on their own that a tool exists for some problem they perceive. A user might have to read the friendly manuals at some length to get from knowing a statement needs a citation to realizing a tool exists, and identifying it.

The documentation for Fix says:


 * Please do not use this template to create a new inline template without discussing and justifying the need for it at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Inline Templates, or the new template is likely to end up at Templates for deletion.

Therefore I should look at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Inline Templates.

Talk page archives
20:28, 15 June 2008 (UTC): I should archive my talk page, since it is getting rather long. See Archive box collapsible and archives. While I am doing that, I should edit Archive box collapsible so it creates a Google custom search on the archive it links to. For example, a search on my talk page archive would look like this: rendering as:. This would not work in the article Talk: namespace, unfortunately, because Google does not index Wikipedia's article talk pages, but Google does index the other talk namespaces, such as User talk:. So I would have to make the archive search feature conditional on the namespace in Archive box collapsible.

18:56, 17 June 2008 (UTC): make a sandbox copy of Archive box collapsible with a Google custom search on the archive it links to.

Question page archives
Some question page archives are not using Google custom search yet:

| The best way to search the archives is probably to use a search engine, such as Google by using this search string for the post-October 2006 archives, and this search string for the pre-October 2006 archives. | The best way to search the archives is probably to use a search engine, such as google, with: (recent archives), or: (older archives from 2005-2006).
 * Reference desk/Archives uses a plain Google search with the  parameter, which generates a cluttered search form:
 * New contributors' help page/Archive did too, until I edited it to use Google custom instead:
 * Wikipedia:Media copyright questions/Archive seems to have no search link at all.
 * Category:Wikipedia archives lists lots more archive pages, many which do not use Google custom search yet.

Articles for deletion log
19:51, 29 August 2008 (UTC): Wikipedia seems to have somehow defeated Google's ability to index the Articles for deletion log. Pages such as this:


 * Articles for deletion/Log/2008 August 19

do not show up in Google searches:



I first noticed this problem when I was trying to add an example search to Google custom for the Articles for deletion log:

and I found that none of my searches worked, even when I searched for text strings I knew to be in pages in the log. So far, the only possible explanation I have found is that a strange redirect page appears at the top of the log subpage tree:


 * Archived delete discussions - the real page
 * Articles for deletion is actually a redirect to the above page. See: Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Log&redirect=no

This means the pages I want Google to find are actually subpages of a redirect page. I wonder if that is screwing up Google's ability to spider these pages?

Oh, a more likely explanation is that Wikipedia disallows spiders with its robots.txt file:

Disallow: /wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/ Disallow: /wiki/Wikipedia%3AArticles_for_deletion/ Disallow: /wiki/Wikipedia:Votes_for_deletion/ Disallow: /wiki/Wikipedia%3AVotes_for_deletion/ Disallow: /wiki/Wikipedia:Pages_for_deletion/ Disallow: /wiki/Wikipedia%3APages_for_deletion/ ...
 * 1) Folks get annoyed when VfD discussions end up the number 1 google hit for
 * 2) their name. See bugzilla bug #4776
 * en:

Once upon a time I was actually aware of this (Template:Google custom/doc), but I guess I forgot that until just now.

Wikipedia:FAQ search broke
05:01, 25 September 2008 (UTC): I thought I was about 99.99% certain that the Google custom used to work. However, at some time in the perhaps recent past, or maybe it was always this way, the following search stopped finding keywords on subpages of FAQ:

Commander Keane brought this to my attention in:


 * Wikipedia talk:Help desk (permanent link)

For example, try some searches for keywords I know to be on subpages of FAQ:


 * FAQ/Business contains the word "business", obviously, and yet this search does not find the subpage, only the top-level WP:FAQ page:


 * Searching all FAQs for "FAQ" finds only one result, on the top-level FAQ page:

Troubleshooting:


 * Check the robots.txt file to see if it excludes these subpages. I don't see any entry in robots.txt which might exclude FAQ subpages from Google's indexing.


 * Try some more general searches with Google wikipedia:
 * - that does work, finding FAQ/Business as the first result. However, Google displays the page as if it has indexed the content under the old page name that is now a redirect: Business' FAQ. Google says:
 * This is Google's cache of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Business'_FAQ. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Sep 17, 2008 00:57:35 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime.


 * Try some other Google custom searches:
 * - that also works, finding FAQ/Business as the first result, but Google also thinks it has indexed the page under the old name.
 * - that continues to work, finding Signpost articles as subpages, as it should.

It looks like Google did not properly re-index the FAQ subpages that have moved to new names. Google indexes the new page content under their old names. Maybe Google's indexing engine does not detect the effect of a page move. Normally we would not notice this, because if we search on the entire English Wikipedia with Google custom, or even on an entire namespace, we will still find the page we are looking for. Google's search results will link to the redirect, but when we follow the link, Wikipedia will forward us to the current page. Only when we use Google custom to search on a specific subpage tree will we fail to find pages within that subtree when Google indexed them under redirect page names that are outside the subpage tree.

Thus User:Sbowers3's valiant attempt to make the entire FAQ indexable under its own FAQ subpage tree may have been futile.

05:58, 27 September 2008 (UTC): I asked for help with this problem and received some knowledgeable replies:
 * Village pump (technical)
 * Future archive link (probably): Village pump (technical)/Archive 48

I had an idea to change redirects such as Business' FAQ to soft redirects. Then the redirect page would not appear to Google to be a duplicate of the content page. This would slightly inconvenience users who are following links to the redirects, but they would only have to click once more.

Another possibility is for me to learn more about Google's custom search engine. See:
 * Google Co-op
 * Google custom search engine - official site with documentation

For example, the Google custom search engine site page says: "Include one website, multiple websites, or specific webpages." This might allow me, for example, to extend the Google custom template so it accepts an explicit list of Wikipedia pages to search. That would let us search the FAQ pages even if Google indexes them from the redirects that don't follow a subpage tree structure.

However, it's difficult to make sense of Google's documentation. I don't think that the custom search engine documentation actually refers to this type of URL on which Google custom operates:


 * http://www.google.com/custom?domains=en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk&sitesearch=en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk

I haven't yet found a Google page that documents what options you can use with that particular custom search URL. Try searching just on :



I needed to put quotes around "sitesearch" to stop Google from splitting it into "Site search" and finding irrelevant results. The above search finds a bunch of messages on Google Groups that are about these custom search engines. Can I search for the first part of an exact URL with Google? Maybe I can find a Web page that shows the string: "http://www.google.com/custom?" and documents something of what this is about.



Those searches find some pages that display these kinds of URLs as text strings. But so far, I do not see any documentation on additional parameters besides  and   that the custom URL can take. I have not found a page that documents the exact syntax for those parameters, either. For starters, why do we have to specify both parameters, with the same value, in the search URL? However, I am seeing some Google Groups where people are asking questions about Google custom search. I might be able to come up with a coherent question that might lead someone to tell me where to find the manuals I haven't found yet.

There is a Google Custom Search Help group on Google Groups. I'm joining it.

Google custom search engine
08:29, 30 September 2008 (UTC): it would be interesting to design some Google custom search engines. With such engines one can specify a list of sites or specific Web pages for Google to search. The user can then type fairly general keywords, but find results more likely to be relevant because they come only from a set of Web pages that relate to a particular subject area. Some things that might be useful to search this way: Since an individual can "own" a Google custom search engine, that individual can put AdSense on it. It might be interesting to create one or more Google custom search engines for searching Wikipedia, put AdSense on them, and donate the proceeds (if any) to the Wikimedia Foundation. This would be one way to sample the Wikipedia user community's acceptance of search engine advertising (note that this is distinct from advertising on Wikipedia generally).
 * Every page linked from the Editor's index to Wikipedia.
 * Particular subsets of Wikipedia, such as the Help desk archives, the Village pump/Technical archives, and so on. We can already search such subsets of Wikipedia with the Google custom template, but only if they exist in a single subpage tree, and only if Google indexes them in the subpage tree (and not as, for example, redirect pages that are outside the tree).
 * Top 500 external websites to which Wikipedia links - Wikipedia's users are already linking to these sites, so presumably they are all (or are mostly) reliable sources. If lots of Wikipedia articles link to a particular site, maybe the site has still more material that other Wikipedia articles can link to. In the quest for reliable sources, Wikipedia users might try searching the list of proven winners. That would be one option to try, which would not preclude other options.

Image search
00:03, 29 October 2008 (UTC): finding images on Wikipedia and on Commons can be somewhat difficult, because no search software can identify and index the content of image files yet. Only the text content on an image page is searchable, and that will depend on what the person who uploaded the photo decided to add. I'm aware of these search methods:


 * Image: namespace on Wikipedia:
 * - Google custom search on the Image: namespace; for some reason, this does not work very well for some sample searches I tried.
 * Special:Search - the MediaWiki search option works quite well on the Image: namespace, far better than Google custom search for the searches I tried, which is about the opposite of how the two options perform when searching for articles. Unfortunately, I don't see a clean way to wikilink to a MediaWiki search on the Image: namespace. Instead I have to use the  magic word, like this:
 * &ns6=1&fulltext=Search
 * &ns6=1&fulltext=Search


 * Commons:
 * Mayflower - a third-party search tool that seems to work pretty well, depending on how uploaders have labeled their images.
 * commons:Special:Categories lets you look up images by category. For example, these are some categories with photographs of wind turbines:
 * commons:Category:Wind farms
 * commons:Category:Wind power
 * commons:Category:Wind turbines

Finding images on Wikipedia that are not on Commons
07:41, 9 April 2009 (UTC): I do not know how to search for images that are on Wikipedia and not on Commons. The behavior that the bug fixes is actually the behavior I want the option to specify, for example when I am searching for photos of wind turbines on the English Wikipedia that are not yet on Commons. Figure out whether this is possible.
 * MediaWiki 1.14 release notes has this entry:
 * (bug 5101) Image from Commons doesn't show up when searched in Wikipedia search box

New MediaWiki search
07:25, 9 April 2009 (UTC): learn about the new search feature on Wikipedia. See Commons:User:Teratornis/Notes.

Compact links to MediaWiki search forms
21:26, 24 April 2009 (UTC): the above inputbox format is nice, but not compact. For example, I would like to put links to many different searches onto a single small template, like Help desk searches. It would be silly to cram many inputboxes onto a template to provide different search options. Determine whether it is possible to make a link to a MediaWiki custom search that works like Google custom. That is, see if I can construct a MediaWiki search URL that specifies a search prefix.

Google custom allows two basic types of links:


 * A link to a blank search forms that will perform a custom search when the user fills in some search keywords and clicks a search button.
 * Useful for conveying searches compactly to other users, or for documenting a set of different searches (such as on Help desk searches).
 * A link that already contains search keywords, and directly generates a search results page, which also contains a search field pre-filled with the search keywords.
 * Useful for documenting specific searches, to oneself (on notes pages) or to others (on talk pages, help pages, etc.).

It would be nice to create a variation of Help desk searches that uses MediaWiki search.

Try some experiments on MediaWiki search URLs. These are links to Special:Search that I generate with the  magic word.


 * Attempt to display a blank search form to search the Help desk and its archive pages:
 *  &fulltext=Search 
 * &fulltext=Search


 * Another attempt to display a blank search form to search the Help desk and its archive pages, changing the order of URL parameters:
 *  &prefix=Wikipedia:Help_desk 
 * &prefix=Wikipedia:Help_desk

For comparison, here is the equivalent search with Google custom:

The result is not pleasing. The Special:Search page has the text "prefix:Wikipedia:Help_desk" appearing in the search form, and then the search form is broken. I see no obvious way to run a search with the prefix value from the search form. Instead, the special page seems to have converted the entire prefix string into an ordinary search keyword. Searching from the form just reverts to the ordinary search form behavior. Your search namespace preference settings are in effect, for example. That's hideous.

I might have to write a Bugzilla report about this. Or find out whether anyone else has done this already.

Often I would like to have a compact list of useful searches. There are many problems for which one does not immediately know the particular location where someone might have discussed the solution, and yet one does not want to search on an entire Wikipedia namespace because of many false positives if one does not know the most precise search keywords. I suspect I cannot be the only person who perceives a need for more than an inputbox capability to create one rather large search form at a time. Maybe other users would also like to have the option to create compact links to multiple search forms.

Fortunately, I found a working example of a search link with a prefix tucked away in:
 * Wikipedia Signpost/2008-11-10/Search engine
 * Prefix search: It is now possible to search within pages whose title begins with some specified text, by adding  before the search text. For example, try prefix:Wikipedia:Village Pump.
 * URL expanded: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=prefix%3AWikipedia%3AVillage+Pump+&go=Go

I am probably not using the right URL parameters. 23:24, 26 April 2009 (UTC): Try again:


 * Attempt to display a blank search form to search the Help desk and its archive pages:
 *  &go=Go 
 * &go=Go


 * Apparently you do not specify the " " as a separate parameter, but rather embed it within the " " parameter:
 *  &go=Go 
 * &go=Go

Finally, something works. You then have to type your real search term before the resulting: "prefix:Wikipedia:Help desk" in the search form. That's kind of ugly. Plus the search is slower than Google. But note, the example in the Signpost article above is not optimal, because is uses  rather than. The former option searches for a specific page, which is generally not what you want when you do a  search - the search results begin with a spurious "page not found" message above the actual search results. The latter option displays only the search results on the body texts of pages within the  page range, which is what you would normally want with this type of search.

18:47, 27 April 2009 (UTC): A question came up on the Help desk for which a prefix search will be handy:


 * WP:HD (permanent link)

This search finds all pages under Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Chemistry which contain the keywords "ChemDraw" and "SVG":


 * &fulltext=Search

Search template
19:55, 27 April 2009 (UTC): make a template that works like Google custom for searching subpage trees within Wikipedia, which uses the new MediaWiki search feature instead of Google. Then I can use the template to add more links to Help desk searches to give people the option of searching either with Google or MediaWiki. What to call my new template? I would like the name to be both short and descriptive.


 * Search subpages already exists. It generates a big box containing an, rather than a compact link to a search form. Its documentation subpage is mostly some text inside   tags. The template is not in any categories currently, nor does the documentation mention the Google custom family of search alternatives. The template documentation mentions Search archives as being its replacement.
 * Archived deletion discussions is the only page that currently uses Search subpages.


 * Search archives works much like the current Search subpages. It is in Category:Talk header templates. However, the template name reflects an overly narrow bias as to the particular pages one might like to search. There are other collections of pages in other namespaces (such as the Wikipedia: namespace) which someone might want to search.


 * Search link - 04:39, 29 April 2009 (UTC): I only stumbled across this template after I had already figured out how to get my search template to work.
 * Template talk:Search link - contains some discussion by other users who independently figured out what I did about how to code the search URL. The original discussion was in Wikipedia talk:Searching.

"Search subpages" would probably be a good name for my template, but I would not want to overload and confuse the existing template by modifying it to display a link instead of a form. So I will do one of these things:


 * Make a separate template, or
 * Determine whether I can convert the existing Search subpages template to function as a compact link generator.

Look for other existing template names starting with the obvious word "Search":


 * Special:PrefixIndex/Template:Search prefix
 * Category:Search templates - this is where to categorize my template

Possible name:


 * Template:Search subpages link - this name indicates the similarity with Search subpages but distinguishes the new template by function. The name is a little long but not too hard to type or remember.

For now, I'll develop a template in User:Teratornis/Search subpages link as my sandbox (with a clean history). When I get the template to work, I will move it to whatever template name I decide on (which might well be "Template:Search subpages link").

05:38, 28 April 2009 (UTC): a reference to help while I develop the template:
 * mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions

I'm testing the User:Teratornis/Search subpages link template by transcluding it in User:Teratornis/Sandbox4. 04:39, 29 April 2009 (UTC): the template seems to be working, so I will move it to Search subpages link.

Search help desk
06:13, 29 April 2009 (UTC): make a Search help desk template as a cut-down version of Search subpages link, analogous to Google help desk being a cut-down version of Google custom.


 * User:Teratornis/Search help desk - start with a sandbox version.
 * Transclude it into User:Teratornis/Sandbox4.
 * When it works, move it to Search help desk.

07:08, 30 April 2009 (UTC): I'm noticing that some searches work, and some do not. I'm not sure why. Google help desk always seems to work. I will have to make a set of test cases and look for patterns that might determine when the search works.

Tip of the day
06:11, 1 August 2008 (UTC): I noticed one of the tips contains one error, and some information that is getting a little out of date: Namely:
 * Tip of the day/February 7
 * The tip mentions adding Google search links to the External links sections of articles. That violates WP:EL.
 * The tip does not mention our new templates: Google, Google wikipedia, Google custom, etc. Instead it focuses only on the older method of using the  interwiki link prefix. There's nothing wrong with the older method, but the newer templates have some advantages:
 * The templates have documentation pages with examples.
 * Google custom creates a cleaner search form than using the standard Google Search form with the  option.
 * One can check the backlinks to find all uses of the templates, including one's own uses.
 * The templates contain code to display an error message in case someone uses one improperly in an article. The interwiki link prefix, on the other hand, cannot guard against someone misusing it.

Evolutionary psychology
This might someday expand into its own subpage of notes about evolutionary psychology, perhaps after mankind solves its energy problems, but for now I'll jot some notes here.

Why We Feel: The Science of Human Emotions
18:47, 23 August 2008 (UTC): it would be nice to write an article about this book. The author (Victor Johnston) already has an article. Edit a Cite book template for this book:

A Google Books entry for the book: The Google Books entry shows two different ISBNs: Why We Feel: The Science of Human Emotions By Victor S. Johnston Published by Basic Books, 1999 ISBN 0738203165, 9780738203164 210 pages I don't know why. Maybe those are for different editions. See what happens when I search for them: They seem to point to the same book. Oh, according to the ISBN article: I guess Google shows the old 10-digit number and the new 13-digit number. The longer number contains 9 of the 10 digits as a substring.
 * http://books.google.com/books?id=x7CH8m3lWY4C&output=html
 * ISBN 0738203165
 * ISBN 9780738203164
 * Since 1 January 2007, International Standard Book Numbers have been of 13 digits, compatible with Bookland EAN-13s.

Single signon account
23:34, 1 September 2008 (UTC): figure out how to set up a single signon account, so I can upload files to Commons.

Durable building construction
20:44, 11 September 2008 (UTC): as long as I can remember, I've wondered why people who live in areas prone to hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires, and floods so often build buildings incapable of withstanding these hazards. In the poor countries, this is understandable, because sturdy buildings cost a little more, but in developed countries such as the United States, a large fraction of homeowners are wealthy enough to easily afford durable homes. I thought about this topic because I read this quote:


 * Tim Smail, leader of the Resilient Home Program based at the Savannah River National Laboratory ... (said) "There is so much information available but the hardest thing to do is figure out how to get it to the people."
 * Tim Smail, leader of the Resilient Home Program based at the Savannah River National Laboratory ... (said) "There is so much information available but the hardest thing to do is figure out how to get it to the people."

Well, obviously Wikipedia knows something about how to get information to the people, so see what Wikipedia is getting to them now:



This finds some articles:


 * Hurricane proof building
 * Monolithic dome

These articles do not have a navigation template yet. See if Wikipedia has any suitable template already, and look at the related templates if any:


 * - did not match any documents.
 * - did not match any documents.

More general searches:


 * - did not match any documents.

Also look at WikiProject Architecture to see it deals with this subject.

Navbox for Wikipedia:Template messages
19:15, 17 September 2008 (UTC): make a navigation template for the Template messages subpage tree. Reference:
 * Wikipedia talk:Template messages (permanent link)

Start a template in User:Teratornis/Sandbox2. The result is: Wikipedia template messages.

Neurology of addiction
Here is an interesting article:

It would be interesting to know whether automobile dependency also results in changes to the brain.

Things to do on Wikipedia
09:27, 12 November 2008 (UTC): occasionally on the Help desk, someone asks about how they can contribute to Wikipedia. For example:


 * Help_desk/Archives/2008 November 9

Search for (or if necessary create) a list of highly specific tasks people can do on Wikipedia. Try to think of tasks which are simple enough for a brand-new user, and which will actually improve Wikipedia.

Adding Template:Commons cat
09:27, 12 November 2008 (UTC): There are many image categories on Commons. Browse through the categories, than look up corresponding articles on Wikipedia and see if they: This is a relatively simple task which a very new user can do. Since we are only using images that other people have already uploaded to Commons, the new user doesn't have to deal with the complexities of uploading images.
 * Are using any of the images yet. If not, add some.
 * Link to the category with Commons cat.

Move some images to Commons
22:10, 2 December 2008 (UTC): figure out the exact steps to move some images to Commons. Start with the instructions:
 * Moving images to Commons, which mentions the following item which is not self-explanatory:
 * The best practice is to use CommonsHelper to make the move. This tool automatically copies all necessary information and makes things much easier for administrators reviewing the move. This is easiest using the user script CommonsHelper Helper.

I looked at the CommonsHelper Helper page and I don't quite understand how it would help me. I will start by just trying to use CommonsHelper by itself.


 * Commons:User:Magnus Manske/Commonshelper interface/Help en

First attempt: Image:Prince wind farm.jpg
Those instructions look straightforward enough, although they are out of date, because the CommonsHelper window has additional input fields the instructions do not mention. I will start with this image because it is in the public domain:


 * Image:Prince wind farm.jpg

First check whether another image of the same name is already on Commons:


 * commons:Image:Prince wind farm.jpg - No.

Try using the hint at the bottom of the Commonshelper interface instructions:


 * Adding  at the end of the URL will fill in most of the data needed.

This seems to be a proper syntax, using the  and   magic words to encode the base URL and image name respectively. Pre-filling as much of the form as I can from my own URL has the distinct advantage of saving a record of what I did, so I can come back six months later and not have to struggle to remember. After a few tries, I think I figured out the proper URL syntax:


 * , which expands to:
 * &image=&lang=en

Maybe later I could make a template to wrap around CommonsHelper.

The next puzzles appear to be:


 * The "User" field. I cannot being to guess what this means:
 * User: (optional; put your commons username (no "User:") here to get a backlink from the image description page)
 * Backlink to what? Image description page where? On Commons, or on the originating Wikipedia? Would this only be appropriate if I was the original uploader? What does the backlink look like? The field description is uselessly vague, and the outdated documentation page does not mention it. I will guess I can leave this blank. Of course there is no way to test anything with a sandbox upload. It looks like the upload is the real deal on the first guess.


 * The TUSC input fields. The outdated documentation does not mention this.
 * Commons does not accept "anonymous" transfers through CommonsHelper anymore. Don't blame me. Verify your Commons user name with TUSC for direct upload.
 * I don't blame the you behind the "me" for the problem, but it would be nice if the rest of the user community had pitched in by documenting this better. The standard of documentation on Commons seems to be lower than on Wikipedia. I wonder if there is an Editor's index to Commons? There is now.

The puzzle continues:


 * http://toolserver.org/%7Emagnus/tusc.php?language=commons&project=wikimedia
 * Toolserver User Screening Control

I'm attempting to stagger through what looks like a hack necessitated by the Toolserver system not being integrated with the rest of the MediaWiki universe. Maybe uploading images manually would be simpler, by the time I slog through all these vaguely documented steps to use the "simple" tool. But I'll soldier on and see where this goes.

Toolserver User Screening Control Step 2: Edit commons.wikimedia to verify your identity You will have to edit your talk page on that wiki, with a summary containing the following token: 04bdd3fa607e9f6b00169094261c496f You can do that by clicking on this button (will open in a new window): and, provided you're logged in, save the page. Then, come back here, and enter your new password for this new account: New password : (do NOT use your Commons password!

I seem to have a TUSC account now:

Toolserver User Screening Control Congratulations, you are now a verified TUSC user! Weep tears of joy, or something.

I'm going with "or something." At the moment, I am quite far from experiencing Flow (psychology). Here are the form field values I'm using for my first attempt to move an image to Commons:

Move-to-commons assistant Language code: en Image name:   Prince wind farm.jpg New name:     Prince wind farm.jpg (for direct upload only; leave blank to keep original name) Project:      wikipedia            (may also be wikibooks or wikisource) User:                              (optional; put your commons username (no "User:")                                     here to get a backlink from the image description page) Use WikiSense to suggest categories [v] Remove existing categories         [v] Ignore warnings                    [ ] (overwrite existing images) ... [v] Directly upload file (using commons user name 'File Upload Bot (Magnus Manske)')

The upload seems to have worked. I added a NowCommons to the image file on Wikipedia by clicking the button at the bottom of the confirmation screen. WikiSense put the image on Commons into these categories:


 * Commons:Category:Energy in Canada
 * Commons:Category:Science and technology in Canada
 * Commons:Category:Wind farms
 * Commons:Category:Wind power in Canada

which seem satisfactory.

Moving more images to Commons
I should then be able to move the rest of the Wikipedia images I identified as being similarly moveable:


 * Image:Wonthaggi wind farm.jpg
 * Image:Wind Farm PA.jpg
 * Image:Codrington Wind Farm.jpg
 * Image:Out Newton Wind Farm.JPG
 * Image:Somerset wind farm worms eye.jpg
 * Image:Paldiski wind farm.jpg
 * Image:Maple Ridge Wind Farm.jpg
 * Image:Geraldton Wind Farms DSC04308.JPG
 * Image:Canunda wind farm DKC1.jpg
 * Image:Wind Farm Powering Miquelon.JPG
 * Image:IMG 4001 Windy Hill Wind Farm.JPG
 * Image:Mt Millar wind farm DKC1.jpg
 * Image:Ramea Wind diesel Aug 2007.JPG
 * Image:Ballywater WindFarm from MorrisCastle Wexford May2007.JPG

Make some URLs to preload the CommonsHelper form:


 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en

05:06, 3 December 2008 (UTC): I moved all of the above images, and categorized them on Commons reasonably well. Now I can look for some more.

Moving still more images to Commons from the English Wikipedia
I'll stick to the English Wikipedia for now.

Search for: wind farm
Look in these Wikipedia image search results for "wind farm" for images on Wikipedia and not on Commons:
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=wind+farm&ns6=1&fulltext=Search


 * Image:France wind farm.jpg
 * Image:Somerset wind farm all portrait cloudy.jpg
 * Image:Waubra wind farm construction DKC1.jpg
 * Image:San-Gorgonio-pass-wind-farm IMG 6704 060421 143600.jpg
 * Image:Burton Wold Wind Farm 22 Jan 2008 (1).JPG
 * Image:2001352.jpg
 * Image:Cefncroeswindfarm1.JPG
 * Image:HemsbyWindFarm.jpg
 * Image:Scrobysands04.11.2005.c.jpg
 * Image:Scrobysands04.11.2005.b.jpg
 * Image:Scrobysands04.11.2005.a.jpg
 * Image:Madisonfrom20.JPG
 * Image:Madisonwm.JPG
 * Image:DSC03242.JPG
 * Image:DSC03252.JPG
 * Image:HighroydmoorfromThurlstone.JPG
 * Image:Royd3.jpg
 * Image:Windpark Galicia.jpg
 * Image:Fenner1.jpg
 * Image:Fenner2.jpg
 * Image:MapleRidgeWindFarm.jpg
 * Image:Tughill.JPG
 * Image:IMG WindfarmKilmuck1920.jpg
 * Image:Wyomingwindfarm.jpg
 * Image:Lake Bonney wind farmDKC1.jpg
 * Image:Big-pump-king.jpg
 * Image:Tehachapi pass.jpg
 * Image:GolanHeights BneiRasan WindFarm.jpg
 * Image:EmuDownsWindFarm.jpg


 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en
 * &image=&lang=en

Search for: wind turbine
Search for "wind turbine", which finds over 400 images, some of them not yet on Commons. I edited my preferences, Search tab, to display up to 500 results, so I can see all the images from this search.


 * Image:Gull lake wind turbine.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:Stuart Iowa wind turbine.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en

(I failed to save a number of links to images that I copied to Commons. Oh well.)

These images can go into the Stateline Wind Project article (which also needs an update):


 * Image:WindTurbinesWallaWallaRiverWashington.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:WindTurbinesWallaWallaRiver.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:WindTurbinesBlueMountains 2.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:WindTurbinesWallaWallaRiverNortheasterly.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en

Some contributors upload photos of wind turbines with few or no clues about where they are. This one is probably in New Zealand.
 * Image:Windturbine.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en

This one is a bit clearer about the location:
 * Image:Tihutawind.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:19062008187.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:Quebecturbine.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:Capchatwindturbines.png
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:Fenner new york.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:IMG 0504.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:Bentown.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:RuddingtonWindTurbines.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:West Kilbride from Portencross.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:Bowling Green Wind Power.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:Llano Estacado Caprock at Sunrise.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en

Can I move this image to Commons? The image description page says the image is copyrighted, but the copyright holder permits anyone to use it for any purpose as long as they attribute it to the copyright holder. I could see if CommonsHelper lets me copy it. Oh, I found another image with the same license that is already on Commons: Image:Hornsrev16.JPG.
 * Image:HornsrevMOELLEDRIFT 250.jpg

The image needs to be on Commons because this article: vi:Bãi tuốc bin gió Horns Rev is trying to use it. So I will copy it to Commons.


 * Image:HornsrevMOELLEDRIFT 250.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:Windfarm_(44).JPG
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:Windfarm (48).JPG
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:Mod-5B_Wind_turbine2.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:Wind Turbines2.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:StarfishHill.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en

This image file contains no license, so I did not move it to Commons:
 * Image:Toora wind farm DKC1.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:Turbine_aalborg.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:Mod-2 Wind Turbine Cluster3.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Image:
 * &image=&lang=en

Search for: windmill
Search for "windmill", which some people have used to label photos that we could more precisely call photos of wind turbines. Most of the results actually are of windmills, but there are a few modern wind turbines lurking in there. Also note that recently (perhaps today or yesterday), the "Image:" namespace turned into the "File:" namespace everywhere (on Wikipedia and on Commons, it seems).


 * File:Windmills south of Dumas, TX IMG 0570.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:Kirkby Moor.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:Bangui Windmills02.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en

Wikipedia's image search reports 3920 images from the search term "windmill". I cannot find a way to display more than the first 1000. That is too bad, because there are a few images of modern wind turbines hiding amongst a large number of images that are mostly of old windmills. The "next" links on the search results page do not work. I tried increasing the number of results to display, by using my Special:Preferences "Search" tab, but when I specify 5000, I still only get 1000 results.

This is the search URL showing in the browser, but when I click it again, it doesn't find anything:


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&ns6=1&search=windmill+&fulltext=Advanced+search

The same link with the : character uncoded:


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&ns6=1&search=windmill+&fulltext=Advanced+search

I was able to maybe get to the next 500 results with this URL:


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&ns6=1&redirs=0&search=windmill&limit=500&offset=1000

I slogged through the rest of the "windmill" images from Wikipedia's search results. I found a few more images of modern wind turbines that needed better categorizing. It is amazing how many photos Wikipedia and Commons have of old windmills. I find it hard to believe that so many people seem to treasure such obsolete inefficient garbage, while at the same time some people claim to dislike the appearance of modern wind turbines. I guess it's all a question of what people are accustomed to seeing.

More image moves
22:19, 14 December 2008 (UTC): move some more images to Commons that I stumbled across by other methods.

18:01, 31 August 2009 (UTC): the Move-to-Commons assistant is broken right now. It did not move the following image to Commons. I will try again later. In the meantime, prepare the links I will need to move some more images to Commons that are in the Peak oil article. Some of these can go into Commons:Category:Energy use comparisons or a related category. 08:35, 7 September 2009 (UTC): the Move-to-Commons assistant decided to start working now.
 * File:Cleveland's Great Lakes Science Center.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:Clevelands Great Lakes Science Center.jpg - I had to remove the quote character from the filename because Commons did not like it.
 * File:Cleveland at a glance by Lovleet.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:BrownsStadium.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:WindShare Turbine Forward.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:Fentonwindpark1.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:Bliss.windpark.sunset.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:Altamont Wind Turbines 7-11-09.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:Mexican Petroleum Production.PNG
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:MEESchart.png
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:Total World Oil Reserves.PNG
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:OPEC-reserves-thumb.png
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:EIA petroleum consumption of selected nations 1960-2005.png
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:PU200611 Fig1.png
 * &image=&lang=en
 * File:ScienceBargePier84.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en

Badly named images
These are two different images with the same (awful, way too generic and thus collision-prone) name:


 * Image:Windturbinefarm.jpg - an image of (probably) the Prince Township Wind Farm wind farm in Ontario, Canada, north of Sault Saint Marie.
 * commons:Image:Windturbinefarm.jpg - an image of Somerset Wind Farm.

Both images should have different names. How does one move an image? It looks complicated:


 * Image renaming
 * commons:Commons:MediaMoveBot

I left a message on: asking the photographer if he is OK with moving the image on Commons. If he agrees, then I can try to figure out how to do it.
 * commons:User talk:Kubina

I could copy Image:Windturbinefarm.jpg to Commons and rename it: Prince Township Wind Farm from access road.jpg. That would eliminate the name collision.

Images of the University of Cincinnati
20:02, 6 December 2008 (UTC): move these images to Commons:


 * Image:Blegen Library.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Location: 39.129582, -84.519534; use commons:Template:Location dec (see also commons:Template:Location)
 * Image:Carl Blegen.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en

Images relating to petroleum
00:20, 21 April 2009 (UTC): move these images to Commons:


 * File:US Oil Production and Imports 1920 to 2005.png
 * &image=&lang=en
 * Commons:File:US Proven Oil Reserves 1900 to 2005.png - this similar file by the same uploader is already on Commons

There is a Commons:Category:Petroleum production of Norway, but I don't see a Commons:Category:Petroleum in the United States. There is a Commons:Category:Petroleum production which has three country-specific subcategories. Therefore, I will follow suit and make a new category: Commons:Category:Petroleum production in the United States.


 * File:US historical energy consumption.PNG
 * &image=&lang=en

07:12, 22 April 2009 (UTC): CommonsHelper seems broken at the moment. 20:47, 22 April 2009 (UTC)~: CommonsHelper decided to start working. I moved the file to.

Another move

 * File:Windmills at American Wind Power Center in Lubbock, TX IMG 0220.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en

Searching for files on the English Wikipedia and not yet on Commons
23:52, 10 July 2009 (UTC): Special:Search can find images, but it provides no obvious way to restrict the results to images that are only on Wikipedia and not yet on Commons. This makes it difficult to find new uploads to Wikipedia that should be on Commons. For example, a search for "wind turbine", "wind farm", or "wind power" in the Image: namespace produces hundreds of results, including all the images I and other users have already moved to Commons. WP:EIW lists this tool which might help:


 * Push-for-commons – tool to show a set of images from a wikipedia, helping to find license problems, NowCommons candidates, and images that should be copied/moved to the commons.

The tool looks strange at first glance. It has a "Mode" drop-down list with the following choices: but oddly, no search field. However, when I run a search from category and type "Wind power" in the category field, some images come up. Most do not depict wind turbines. They appear to be images from articles in the category I specified, and in subcategories to the depth I selected (which I defaulted to 3). So I guess this works. However, I probably won't find images of wind turbines that are in articles that are in strange categories. Anyway, my first attempt finds a few images I can move to Commons, out of 50 results.
 * Random images
 * Images from category ...
 * Images uploaded by user ...
 * Alphabetically, starting at ...


 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=en&mode_type=category&mode_text=Wind+power&max_results=100


 * File:Beam valley park and turbine 1.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Dagenham beam park and turbine 2.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Dagenham turbine 1 and fords.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Dagenham turbine 2.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Kenthillswindfarm.png
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Massstab.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Mount Storm Wind Farm.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:PEI wind farm 06.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Wind hydrogen.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Wind power canada.PNG
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Wind power coeff.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Wolfe island wind farm ls 09.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en

08:40, 12 July 2009 (UTC): here's one I ran across at random:


 * File:Turbine misty.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en

20:34, 12 July 2009 (UTC): and another:


 * File:Green Building.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en

Move more files, from Category:Renewable energy
20:50, 29 September 2009 (UTC): some more that I found by searching for "Images in category renewable energy and subcategories (depth 3) on en.wikipedia":
 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=en&mode_type=category&mode_text=Renewable+energy&max_results=100


 * File:2006palm oil.PNG
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:2007 EU Uranium sources.png
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:3-ton Slinky Loop.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:7 Meter Sheet Metal Dishes (Flipped).png
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:AmesHydro,CO.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:All hexayurts web dimensions.png
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Anaerobic digestate.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:AngelaMarmontLab.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Atom diagram.png
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Auroville Solar Bowl.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Anaerobic digesters overhead view.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Composting toilet ClivusMultrum.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:EarthShelterRestAreaOH.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Energy.png
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Energy Innovations Sunflower six-unit test 092205.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Ethanol as a fuel.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:EuroDishSBP front.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Fresnel reflectors ausra.jpg - oops, a lower-resolution copy of that file is already on Commons. Ignore it.
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Ganderkesee.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Gemini-house-2001.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Geothermal Systems.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Haase anaerobic digester.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:HorizonWindEnergy.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Hot water heat recycling unit.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:HouseEnergyRatingGraph.png
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:Img 2678.jpg
 * File:Strokkur geyser Iceland Img 2678.jpg - Commons did not like the original name, so I had to change it.
 * &image=&lang=en


 * File:K2 apartments windsor.jpg
 * &image=&lang=en

10:45, 1 October 2009 (UTC): another batch:


 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg
 * File:Photovoltaic array world production 1980-2007.jpg

Move more files, from Category:Solar energy
05:11, 2 October 2009 (UTC): this is becoming somewhat efficient. Move some more images. These are search results starting with Category:Solar energy in Push for Commons.


 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=en&mode_type=category&mode_text=Solar+energy&max_results=100

Move more files, from Category:Wind farms
05:11, 2 October 2009 (UTC): These are search results starting with Category:Wind farms in Push for Commons.


 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=en&mode_type=category&mode_text=Wind+farms&max_results=100

Move more files, from Category:Wind turbines
07:08, 3 October 2009 (UTC): most of these image files are not actually of wind turbines, but moving them to Commons is still useful to get them out of the way of a pushforcommons category search. That way I can more efficiently check for new uploads of wind turbine photos to Wikipedia that should be on Commons.


 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=en&mode_type=category&mode_text=Wind+turbines&max_results=100


 * File:Hotel Nantasket and Auditorium.jpg - CommonsHelper did not like the "&" character in the filename.

Move more files, from Category:Biofuels
09:34, 3 October 2009 (UTC): CommonsHelper finds a bunch of files to move from Category:Biofuels. I wish more Wikipedia users were aware of Commons. I guess by moving images to Commons we can raise awareness, since a bot program comes along later and puts a notification on the uploader's user talk page after I move an image to Commons.


 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=en&mode_type=category&mode_text=Biofuels&max_results=100


 * File:Nambassa 1981 Alt Energy centre Gas Producer Photographer Michael Bennetts.jpg - the above file has a nasty filename which messes up CommonsHelper.


 * File:Wheat Ear milk full.jpg - Commons did not like the original file name.

Move more files, from Category:Global warming
09:34, 3 October 2009 (UTC): CommonsHelper finds a bunch of files to move from Category:Global warming.


 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=en&mode_type=category&mode_text=Global+warming&max_results=100


 * File:Baku 326891.jpg - fix the dodgy name


 * File:Oil rocks Soviet stamp 4086b.jpg - fix the dodgy name


 * File:Devil Hill and lahijan pool.jpg - fix the dodgy name


 * File:Palace of the Shirvanshahs IAA1173.jpg - fix the dodgy name


 * File:Insight url.jpeg - fix the dodgy name


 * File:Lankaran SV100334.jpg - fix the dodgy name


 * File:Baku SV100554.jpg - fix the dodgy name


 * already on Commons as: File:Horses in Mangystau Province, Kazakhstan.jpg


 * CommonsHelper dies completely on the above file.


 * CommonsHelper dies completely on the above file.

23:42, 8 October 2009 (UTC): Next batch:

Move more files, from Category:Peak oil
09:34, 3 October 2009 (UTC): CommonsHelper finds a bunch of files to move from Category:Peak oil.


 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=en&mode_type=category&mode_text=Peak+oil&max_results=100

Move more files, from Category:Climate change

 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=en&mode_type=category&mode_text=Climate+change&max_results=100

Move more files, from Category:Hydroelectricity
Here is a URL for pushforcommons with fields pre-filled (except that I cannot see how to override the default values for the license checkboxes):


 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=en&mode_type=category&mode_text=Hydroelectricity&max_results=100


 * File:Powersite Dam Ow3i407.JPG - Commons disliked the dodgy original file name

19:11, 14 October 2009 (UTC): another one:

Move more files, from Category:Rapid transit in the United States
01:30, 27 November 2009 (UTC): look for transport-related images that should move to Commons. I'll focus on transport that is low-carbon or potentially zero-carbon. That means buses (especially CNG-fueled, hybrid, biogas), trains, trolleys, subways.

Here is a URL for pushforcommons with fields pre-filled (except that I cannot see how to override the default values for the license checkboxes):


 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=en&mode_type=category&mode_text=Rapid+transit+in+the+United+States&max_results=100

That search finds lots of images to move.

Move more files, from Category:Cincinnati, Ohio

 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=en&mode_type=category&mode_text=&max_results=100

That search finds a lot of images to move.

Categoria:Energia eolica on the Italian Wikipedia
07:02, 12 October 2009 (UTC): I found this image just by looking at some articles there:
 * it:File:Poggi Alti 10(3).jpg
 * File:Poggi Alti 10(3).jpg - it is not on Commons yet.

See if this URL for pushforcommons finds anything:


 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=it&mode_type=category&mode_text=Energia+eolica&max_results=100

Pushforcommons does not find the image file I noticed above. Searching from the parent category finds nothing either:


 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=it&mode_type=category&mode_text=Energia+eolica&max_results=100

Either the tool does not work on the Italian Wikipedia right now, or there really aren't any images that meet its criteria there.

Categoria:Windenergie on the German Wikipedia
07:02, 12 October 2009 (UTC): Try a category search on the German Wikipedia:


 * http://toolserver.org/~magnus/pushforcommons.php?language=de&mode_type=category&mode_text=Windenergie&max_results=100

That finds nothing either. Pushforcommons may not be working correctly right now.

Miscellaneous file moves
08:55, 4 October 2009 (UTC): more image file moves. I ran across these by various searches and browses. Such as a Wikipedia image search for wind turbine.


 * File:Kings Highway HEET Entrance.jpg - CommonsHelper did not like the apostrophe in the original file name


 * File:Avenue M Closed Staircase.jpg - CommonsHelper did not like the apostrophe in the original file name


 * File:36th Street Entrance.jpg - CommonsHelper did not like the apostrophe in the original file name


 * File:Avenue J Exit-Only.jpg - CommonsHelper did not like the apostrophe in the original file name


 * File:Tassa 5KW 2 ElectronSolarEnergy2.jpg - as of 05:49, 18 October 2009 (UTC) the image lacks author and permission information. I left a note on the uploader's talk page, asking for clarification:
 * User talk:Kbursten

Improving the efficiency of using CommonsHelper
22:21, 1 October 2009 (UTC): see if I can improve on my procedure. When I find an image I want to move to Commons, I have been editing its name into links like these:


 * File:Evopod July 2009.JPG
 * &image=&lang=en

The filename link is so I can look at the picture, and the URL link points to CommonsHelper with the image name field pre-filled. I've then been clicking a couple more input items manually on the CommonsHelper page:


 * 1) "Remove existing categories" - this checkbox is unchecked by default. I always check it.
 * 2) * The input item ID is "remove_categories". Try setting it to the value of 1.
 * 3) "Directly upload file" - also unchecked by default. I always check it.
 * 4) * name=reallydirectupload. Try setting it to 1.


 * &image=&lang=en&remove_categories=1&reallydirectupload=1

That works. Now make a template as a subpage of this page: /CommonsHelper. Test it:

It works. I used the template to compact the huge amount of wikitext in some of the previous sections.

United States Federal Government images
00:30, 9 December 2008 (UTC): I've never uploaded an image to Commons before. Start by trying to upload the following image (see my notes in User:Teratornis/Energy:


 * http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/images/windmaps/installed_wind_capacity_300.gif (animated GIF)
 * http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/images/windmaps/installed_wind_capacity_561.gif (higher resolution version)
 * from the page: http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_installed_capacity.asp
 * Copyright policy for this site: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/webpolicies/#copyright says the whole EERE site is public domain.

Make some categories to put these images in. Articles on Wikipedia about the relevant departments/agencies/laboratories:


 * United States Department of Energy (USDOE)
 * National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
 * Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
 * Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (article does not exist)

These categories already exist on Commons:
 * commons:Category:Government of the United States
 * commons:Category:Executive Branch of the United States Government
 * commons:Category:United States Department of Energy
 * commons:Category:PD US DOE (evidently what an image goes in if it has the commons:Template:PD-USGov-DOE)

I created some categories to go under the DOE category:


 * commons:Category:Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
 * commons:Category:National Renewable Energy Laboratory

I saved a copy of the installed_wind_capacity_561.gif file to my local disk, and now I'm going to try uploading it on commons:Commons:Upload. That page has a link to Upload work from a government source. The complete list of applicable templates is at commons:Commons:Copyright tags. Here is what I'm putting in the upload form: Local filename:      installed_wind_capacity_561.gif Destination filename: United States installed wind power capacity animation 561px.gif Original source:     http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/images/windmaps/installed_wind_capacity_561.gif Author(s):           National Renewable Energy Laboratory Date of the work:    2008-01-28 Description:	      Animated graphic showing the growth in installed U.S. wind power nameplate capacity in MW, by state, each year at year end, from 1999 to 2007. Other versions: Permission:	      EERE copyright policy says its works are public domain: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/webpolicies/#copyright Additional info: Licensing: 	      Original work of the US Federal Government Categories:          National Renewable Energy Laboratory Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Wind power in the United States

The form does not say whether to type the Category: prefix with the category names. However, it becomes apparent when you start typing category names without the prefix that you don't need it. There is some sort of AJAX autocompletion on the category names.

The image seems to have uploaded:


 * commons:Image:United States installed wind power capacity animation 561px.gif

I can decide whether to add the animated image directly to Wind power in the United States, or to put in just the static image for the current installed capacity, with a link to the animated image.

I browsed back to the upload form with my previous filled-in values, and I uploaded another image, only having to edit some of the input fields:
 * commons:Image:United States installed wind power capacity by state 2008.jpg

More interesting images are here:
 * http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/wind_how.html
 * http://grcimagenet.grc.nasa.gov/SEARCH/SCR_search.cfm
 * http://grcimagenet.grc.nasa.gov/share/scr_stillimages_detail.cfm?year=1975&cnumber=3490&c_numbertextdisplay=C-1975-3490&cnumber=3490&year=1975&txttitle=wind+turbine&date=1942&max_hits=15&dis_opts=shoicons&startrow=0&maxcnumber=2547&maxcyear=1942
 * Google image search for: wind turbine plum brook

Some images of offshore wind farms are here, some of which may be free:
 * http://offshorewind.net/Other_Pages/Turbine-Foundations.html

This paper reproduces several interesting images from NREL which I would like to find in their original locations so I can upload them to Commons: Figure out how I can search efficiently for images like this: I don't see a way to get a directory listing from the Wind Power America site.
 * http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/images/windmaps/or_50m_800.jpg Oregon - Wind Power Resource Estimates
 * - that finds a lot of interesting photos. Many are not on the NREL site. Try limiting by site:

Here is a wiki with an article about wind power, which contains an image of uncertain copyright, possibly from NREL, that shows the evolution of wind turbine technology: One problem with these NREL graphics is that they tend to be gritty low-resolution versions. It would be nice to find the high-resolution originals. It would also be nice to have some efficient method of uploading high-resolution images in bulk from NREL's Web site(s). A very large fraction of them would be useful on Wikimedia Foundation projects.
 * http://www.wikinvest.com/industry/Wind_Energy
 * http://www.wikinvest.com/image/Evolution_of_Wind_Technology%2C_NREL.jpg

We can limit the search by sites, and look for "huge" or "large" images:


 * http://www.google.com/images?q=wind+power+site:nrel.gov&ndsp=21&hl=en&sa=N&imgsz=huge
 * http://www.google.com/images?q=wind+power+site:nrel.gov&ndsp=21&hl=en&sa=N&imgsz=large
 * http://www.google.com/images?q=wind+power+site:eere.energy.gov&ndsp=21&hl=en&sa=N&imgsz=huge
 * http://www.google.com/images?q=wind+power+site:eere.energy.gov&ndsp=21&hl=en&sa=N&imgsz=large
 * http://www.google.com/images?q=wind+power+site:www.windpoweringamerica.gov&ndsp=21&hl=en&sa=N&imgsz=huge
 * http://www.google.com/images?q=wind+power+site:www.windpoweringamerica.gov&ndsp=21&hl=en&sa=N&imgsz=large

This search finds a number of wind power maps: as does this search:
 * http://www.google.com/images?q=wind+power+site:www.windpoweringamerica.gov&ndsp=21&hl=en&sa=N&imgsz=xxlarge
 * http://www.google.com/images?q=wind+power+site:eere.energy.gov&ndsp=21&hl=en&sa=N&imgsz=xxlarge

Try searching for wind turbine:



See if anyone has uploaded images from NREL onto Flickr: That actually finds five images, some of which might be usable on Wikipedia. Probably not this one, although it is cute: Do upload these to Commons:
 * http://flickr.com/photos/green4all/2894102048/ Solar - Carbon Negative Bike Museum Open House - Golden, CO
 * http://flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/2149602551/in/set-72157603561461482/ Average Daily Solar Radiation Per Month December For U.S. (this might already be on Commons)
 * http://flickr.com/photos/8078800@N07/862272302/ National Renewable Energy Laboratory-2
 * http://flickr.com/photos/8078800@N07/861410997/in/set-72157600929997272/ National Renewable Energy Laboratory
 * http://flickr.com/photos/8078800@N07/862273244/in/set-72157600929997272/ National Renewable Energy Laboratory-3
 * http://flickr.com/photos/8078800@N07/862274396/in/set-72157600929997272/ National Renewable Energy Laboratory-4
 * http://flickr.com/photos/8078800@N07/862275270/in/set-72157600929997272/ National Renewable Energy Laboratory-5
 * http://flickr.com/photos/8078800@N07/861415931/in/set-72157600929997272/ National Renewable Energy Laboratory-6
 * http://flickr.com/photos/8078800@N07/862276788/in/set-72157600929997272/ National Renewable Energy Laboratory-7
 * http://flickr.com/photos/8078800@N07/861417287/in/set-72157600929997272/ National Renewable Energy Laboratory-8
 * http://flickr.com/photos/8078800@N07/862278198/in/set-72157600929997272/ National Renewable Energy Laboratory-9
 * http://flickr.com/photos/8078800@N07/861411585/in/set-72157600929997272/ National Renewable Energy Laboratory-10

Wind resource maps
07:00, 24 January 2009 (UTC): it would be nice to have a relatively efficient way to upload a set of wind resource maps from U.S. Federal Government Web sites to Commons. Here are some examples:


 * http://www.google.com/images?q=site:eere.energy.gov+wind+turbine&ndsp=21&hl=en&safe=off&sa=N&imgsz=xxlarge
 * http://www.google.com/images?q=wind+power+site:eere.energy.gov&ndsp=21&hl=en&sa=N&imgsz=xxlarge
 * http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/images/windmaps/ne_50m_800.jpg - map for Nebraska

I had already uploaded such a map for Ohio:


 * File:Ohio wind resource map 50m 800px.jpg

My current procedure is tedious, with too many steps per image:


 * 1) Browse to the image source URL.
 * 2) Save a local copy of the image.
 * 3) Open another browser tab to the Commons upload form: Upload work from a government source.
 * 4) Painstakingly copy, paste, and edit a bunch of separate fields from the sample field values I saved in the previous section of this notes page. In particularly, the method for selecting categories is grossly inefficient. It takes several irritating steps to input each category. There is no way with this upload form to just paste in a set of categories in text form.

It would be much more efficient if I could edit all the input data in a text editor, and then paste it into one input field on a simple upload form. It would be even more efficient if I could paste in the source URL and skip the photo download step, which requires tediously slogging through multiple dialog windows, first to download, then to upload. I should be able to edit a list of input text blocks, and paste them in one shot. (A tool like commons:Commons:Tools/Commonist might help with this. But of course that means installing and learning another tool before I can upload anything.)

The wikitext content of the File:Ohio wind resource map 50m 800px.jpg page looks like this:

== Summary ==

Licensing:
Find the plainest Commons upload form that will let me shove as much of that content in wikitext form directly into one single textarea input field. Then I can edit a text file containing a block of wikitext for each map I want to upload, and I can edit the wikitext for each map, taking maximum advantage of the repetition from one map to the rest.

Well, not too surprisingly, commons:Commons:Upload says:


 * Already have an information template ready? (For instance, generated by the Flinfo tool?) Use the basic upload form.

Thus the possibly simplest way to proceed right now might be to edit a list of information templates in a text editor, then paste them all into the basic upload form one at a time. However, that is still tedious, so I might as well bite the bullet and learn how to use the commons:Commons:Tools/Commonist tool. That might also be useful for uploading a photoset of related photos from Flickr which would all share a mask of common information template parameters, with individual field edits. The Commonist tool looks handy because it appears to have a mask feature, plus it shows a preview of each image next to its information fields. That would make it easier to keep track of which image one is customizing, as opposed to using the all-text manual method.

Since the Commonist tool appears to be suitable for uploading any kind of photo, I will write notes on it in a separate section.

07:14, 26 January 2009 (UTC): I didn't have any luck with Commonist, so I am uploading all these maps the quasi-stupid way. I downloaded 30 wind resource maps from a U.S.D.O.E. site. I edited a big mess of wikitext in a text file, one block of wikitext for each map. For example, here is what I edited for California:

== Summary ==

Licensing:
Now I can repeatedly use the basic upload form to upload each map, as I paste in the corresponding block of wikitext from my text file. This is incredibly tedious, so I understand why nobody uploaded all these maps already. I will definitely have to look into getting one of the Commons tools to work, because there is so much repetition in a task like that this that it cries out for some automation.

One last non-automatable complication: when I upload the file, Commons wants me to type a different name than the filename uses. Whee.

Flickr
21:50, 13 December 2008 (UTC): Flickr is an Image hosting service which has some photos under suitably free licenses. (Side note: Flickr says Flickr is using OpenStreetMap in addition to some other maps. It will be interesting when all the photos have geotagging.)


 * WP:EIW
 * Upload image – tool to upload images from Flickr
 * commons:Category:Flickr
 * commons:Commons:Welcome, Flickr users
 * commons:Commons:Flickr images
 * commons:Commons:Flickr images/Guide


 * http://flickr.com/creativecommons/
 * http://flickr.com/commons/
 * http://flickr.com/search/
 * http://flickr.com/search/advanced/

With some repeated clicking and telling NoScript to allow all of that page, I can get the Flickr search form to select these three search options:
 * Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content
 * Find content to use commercially
 * Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon

which gives:


 * http://flickr.com/search/?q=wind+power+texas&l=commderiv&ct=0 We found 7 results matching wind and power and texas.

That is only a tiny fraction of the number (over 900) that results from not restricting the search to Creative Commons-licensed images that allow commercial use. Even worse, only two of the images are actually of wind turbines:
 * http://flickr.com/photos/fatguyinalittlecoat/3090615704/
 * http://flickr.com/photos/41636321@N00/112792745/

The unrestricted search results contain copyrighted photos, like this one:

Additional Information All rights reserved Anyone can see this photo
 * http://flickr.com/photos/traveller2020/2822699051/

When I checked the first and last Creative Commons boxes, but not the box for content to use commercially, and searched again, I got this:


 * http://flickr.com/search/?q=wind+power+texas&l=deriv&ct=0 We found 43 results matching wind and power and texas.

I think I have figured out how to search Flickr for photos I can use on Commons. Figure out what the other Flickr search parameters are, so I can search for photos under all combinations of licenses acceptable to Commons (it seems the allowable combinations are: CC-BY (attribution) or CC-BY-SA (attribution and ShareAlike)). And see if Commons already has a document that explains how to do this. Perhaps these instructions will work: commons:User:Flominator/Flinfo.

Searching efficiently for acceptably free photos
More about search: starting from the Creative Commons page on Flickr, I can browse to two subpages which appear to group all the photos potentially usable on Commons:


 * http://flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/
 * http://flickr.com/creativecommons/by-sa-2.0/

and those pages have search forms which search for photos with the CC-BY (attribution) or CC-BY-SA (attribution and ShareAlike) licenses, respectively.

Sample searches that show promise:


 * http://flickr.com/search/?q=wind+farm+texas&l=5 We found 11 results matching wind and farm and texas, with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License[x].
 * http://flickr.com/search/?q=wind+farm+texas&l=4 We found 8 results matching wind and farm and texas, with the Creative Commons Attribution License

Of course this was already in the instructions: commons:Commons:Flickr images.

21:28, 30 December 2008 (UTC): I made a template: Flickr free to simplify such searches.

08:48, 13 January 2009 (UTC): somewhat belatedly, I discovered that the  parameter searches for photos under both Creative Commons licenses that Commons accepts, like combining the results of the   and   parameters. (And naturally, I used that parameter in my first search example, but I must have then lost track of it.) For example:


 * http://flickr.com/search/?l=commderiv&q=wind+turbine+texas&m=text We found 16 results matching wind and turbine and texas.

Compare to searching for the two licenses separately:
 * http://flickr.com/search/?l=4&m=text&q=wind+turbine+texas We found 10 results matching wind and turbine and texas, with the Creative Commons Attribution License
 * http://flickr.com/search/?l=5&m=text&q=wind+turbine+texas We found 6 results matching wind and turbine and texas, with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

I will update my Flickr free template so it generates only one link instead of two per search. This also means the template can accept a third parameter to override the default text that displays as the link.

I noticed this while reading the page:
 * commons:Commons:Free media resources/Photography

First upload
For my first attempt at an upload from Flickr to Commons, how about this beautiful image of the Leitwind LT77 wind turbine at Reschen Pass:


 * Image:Reschenpass Suedrampe.jpg
 * http://www.flickr.com/photos/59683764@N00/2058125860/

Some background information about the wind turbine in this image: "South Tyrol, Italy - LEITWIND's second installation completed
 * http://www.leitnergroup.com/content.asp?L=3&IDMEN=150

It took just seven weeks to erect the second wind turbine from the house of LEITNER, a LEITWIND LTW77. The new turbine is again located near Reschen Pass at de:Malser Haide, just one kilometer south-east of the first prototype LEITWIND, which was built in the fall of 2003. Construction of the new LEITWIND - at times under Artic conditions - involved transporting 160 t of steel plus the use of special trucks for the three 37 m long rotor blades. The actual assembly of the 65 m high wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 77 m (hence the LTW 77 type code) went very smoothly with the exception of one interruption due to strong winds. The LTW 77 was commissioned at the end of January and will deliver 3,000,000 kWh of electricity per year, twice the annual generation of the first prototype."

- from the Leitner Group site

Another link clarifies the year of completion as 2006.

Malser Haide appears to be in Province of Bolzano-Bozen (also known in English as South Tyrol). When I get the image uploaded to Commons, I could add it to that provincial article as well as to Wind power in Italy.

"...the machine of Leitwind, based in Vipiteno, northern Italy, just south of the Austrian border. Already in 2003 and 2005 prototypes of two gearless turbines with respectively 1.2 and 1.35 MW were built on the alpine Reschen Pass (1,504 m) located at the Italian-Austrian border. So there was plenty of time to test the designs of the cable railway specialist. “We’re coming from transportation of people. It’s not usual for us to come out with a product after half a year,” emphasises the technical director, Thomas Kässner. He said currently they did not want to reveal further plans, “but it won’t be much longer”. The special feature of this north Italian development is that the synchronous generator is constructed in modules, which is said to make it very maintenance friendly. The heaviest component weighs 35 tonnes. Also unusual is that there is no nacelle cowling. “Everything happens inside,” Kässner explains. This way the load bearing components could also be given protective functions, he adds. The engineer names “maintenance friendliness and reduction of mechanically vulnerable components to a minimum” as the core principles of the Leitwind machine. “The rest is ‘state-of-the-art’.” But the simple things are still complicated enough, he adds."
 * http://www.newenergy.info/index.php?id=1542

- from New turbines on offer

I'm trying to follow the instructions in commons:User:Flominator/Flinfo:

Flinfo is a tool which provides an already filled out version of Template:Information for a picture at Flickr identified by its id.


 * 1) Insert the ID of the picture: You find it in its url (mostly at the end of it) (Example: In  the ID would be 151898652'')
 * 2) "Get Flickr-Info"
 * 3) "Download original size" and save the picture to your local harddisk
 * 4) Check the image description by using "Preview" and change things like i.e. missing categories. Don't save the preview!
 * 5) Click "Open upload form" and copy the contents of the changed image description into it
 * 6) Change the destination filename if necessary
 * 7) Upload the picture
 * 8) You're done.

The ID of the photo I want to upload is: 2058125860. I pasted that into the Flinfo tool. The tool then displays a big textarea box with a bunch of image code to copy. I saved the Flickr largest version of the photo to my hard drive as: Leitwind wind turbine at Reschen Pass 2058125860_e5ba13ca40_o.jpg I got to the penultimate step of the instructions, but nothing happens when I click the Upload button. A pink box appears above the Upload button, with the text: Please give a description of the contents of the file you want to upload. I'm not seeing any place to give a description in this version of the upload form. The Summary box already contains a description. I will try starting with the normal commons:Special:Upload form and copying the information from the Flinfo-generated upload form. Oh, the Description parameter in the Information template was blank. I typed in a description. Now I was able to upload the file to my handy name: Somehow I managed to foul up the filename, with an extra "Leit" at the beginning. I don't know how that happened. And of course on Commons there is no way to change an image name.
 * commons:File:LeitLeitwind wind turbine at Reschen Pass 2058125860 e5ba13ca40 o.jpg

More Flickr uploads
05:14, 16 December 2008 (UTC): here's a nice photo that I determined to be of the Blue Canyon Wind Farm: The original uploader does not identify the wind farm, but claims this is the view north from the access road of Mount Scott (Oklahoma), and the the big line of wind turbines clearly visible on Google Maps north of Mount Scott can only be Blue Canyon Wind Farm. This article says a good vantage point for viewing the wind farm is the intersection of OK state highways 19 and 58, which is just to the northwest of the wind farm, and obvious on the map. So I identified the wind farm in the photo, now I can upload it with the Flinfo procedure. I uploaded it as:
 * http://flickr.com/photos/twofivethreetwo/2412145012/
 * commons:File:Blue Canyon Wind Farm from Mount Scott.jpg

Here are some nice photos of Lamma Winds:


 * http://flickr.com/search/?l=5&q=Lamma+Winds&m=text We found 2 results matching Lamma and Winds, with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
 * http://flickr.com/search/?l=4&q=Lamma+Winds&m=text We found 3 results matching Lamma and Winds, with the Creative Commons Attribution License

This one clearly shows the visitor kiosk at the base of the wind turbine:


 * http://flickr.com/photos/denn/3077630746/

I'm uploading it to Commons as:


 * commons:File:Lamma Winds visitor kiosk tower base.jpg

22:47, 16 December 2008 (UTC): it would be nice to find (or if necessary create) a template that creates links to efficiently search Flickr for photos usable on Commons. That would avoid the tedium of having to edit two clumsy URLs. First see if an existing template does this.


 * Reqphoto - displays a messagebox requesting a photo.
 * Flickr - makes a Information partially pre-filled to put on an image page if the image came from Flickr.
 * Flickr - makes a Information partially pre-filled to put on an image page if the image came from Flickr.

I don't see any templates that do what I want. There is a Free Image Search Tool which I looked at earlier, but it completely baffles me. (The antithesis of the Principle of least astonishment.) FIST does not seem to work like any search tool I have ever used before. There seems to be no way to type in search keywords and find photos based on them - which is how all the rest of the world does search.

I made the mistake of Googling to see if anyone provides a coherent explanation of how to do this kind of searching efficiently. I ran across :

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/16-flickr-search-tools-that-are-fun-to-use/


 * http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/16-flickr-search-tools-that-are-fun-to-use/

including this site which tries much too hard to look cool:


 * http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm/

I might try making a messagebox template to leave on article talk pages, to inform people that suitable photos exist on Flickr, along with instructions on how to upload them to Commons.

I tested my sandbox template here, and replaced it with Flickr free after I created that proper template:



The searches work. While I was looking at a photo in the search results that I had seen before, I noticed it was part of a set, which would be nice to add to the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm article: It would be a bit tedious to import all of those one by one.
 * http://flickr.com/photos/vax-o-matic/sets/72157605884934129/ Benton County Wind Farm
 * http://www.flickr.com/photos/glouis/sets/72157606797431199/ and another

Try some more searches:



None of those searches find anything. Neither do these with the word "windfarm":



I could try relaxing the location requirement, which greatly expands the results:


 * We found 338 results matching windfarm, with the Creative Commons Attribution License
 * We found 227 results matching windfarm, with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
 * We found 460 results matching wind and farm, with the Creative Commons Attribution License
 * We found 341 results matching wind and farm, with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
 * We found 460 results matching wind and farm, with the Creative Commons Attribution License
 * We found 341 results matching wind and farm, with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

I like the images that are geotagged. I should learn more about how geotagging works. If I can search explicitly for geotagged photos, then I have far less difficulty determining what windfarms they depict.

There are lots of interesting wind farm photos in those search results. For example, here is a geotagged set of the Somerset Wind Farm: Some of these photos have already made it onto Commons, e.g.:
 * http://flickr.com/photos/kubina/sets/72157607531460119/
 * commons:File:Windturbinefarm.jpg by commons:User:Kubina.


 * - that finds nothing relevant.
 * - that finds one panorama photo of the wind farm, which would almost be useful, except that even the largest size isn't actually very large.

I would like to find some images of the visitor displays (if any) at ground level pertaining to the Vestas V27 wind turbine at the Great Lakes Science Center.



Here are some good shots of the wind turbine from various points:


 * http://flickr.com/photos/goosegrease/2744261183/ - this one seems to show that there is no ground-level information display near the wind turbine, at least on the side facing the Science Center building.
 * http://flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2880658409/

Look for photos of the Great River Energy headquarters building wind turbine in Maple Grove, Minnesota:



The last search found one relevant result, taken by a photographer who did not know what he/she was shooting, but he/she did geocode the photo (yay!):


 * http://flickr.com/photos/kichigai/2589478493/

I uploaded it to:


 * commons:File:Great River Energy wind turbine 2589478493 f318486f31 b.jpg

I should make an account on Flickr so I can comment on the photos I upload to Commons.

See if Flickr has any usable photos about the wind turbines in Boston:



The only free images are of the wind turbine at Hull, Massachusetts. There are some copyrighted photos of the IBEW wind turbine in Boston. They are not very good, as the vantage point is from the nearby interstate highway. I uploaded this image of the Hull I wind turbine:


 * http://flickr.com/photos/docsearls/2507179597/

Here is a photo that shows the Hull II wind turbine toward the top, left of center, but it's a bit blurry:


 * http://flickr.com/photos/docsearls/2508008252/

I find nothing about Walmart's stores that have wind turbines:



See if Flickr has any good photos of the Ecotricity center at Swaffham:



None of those searches find anything, except a not-so-great photo of the Ecotricity wind turbine at Green Park:
 * http://flickr.com/photos/choffee/74930032/



Here is an unfortunately copyrighted photo of the wind turbine at Swaffham:


 * http://flickr.com/photos/trojanllama/20110603/

Can I find any free photos of the Cleveland water crib?



I did not find any, but here is a copyrighted photo:


 * http://flickr.com/photos/75713071@N00/2680050352 5 Mile Crib from Edgewater

Look for photos of Princess Amalia Wind Farm or OWEZ. None of these searches find anything:



but I did find some non-free photos. Try some more searches:


 * 7 and 4 results, respectively. None are of offshore wind turbines.
 * zero results.

Most (perhaps all) offshore wind turbines are in Europe, so try relaxing the country:


 * 3 and 5 results, respectively; all look usable.
 * 63 and 2 results, respectively; many look usable. Some are redundant with the above search results.

08:12, 23 December 2008 (UTC): These photos of an offshore wind turbine of the Kentish Flats Offshore Wind Farm in the U.K. are pretty nice:


 * http://flickr.com/photos/pjh/185488411/ http://flickr.com/photos/pjh/185488383/ http://flickr.com/photos/pjh/185488397/
 * Offshore wind turbine, Thames Estuary.
 * http://www.kentishflats.co.uk
 * Kentish Flats Offshore Wind Farm - the article exists on Wikipedia as a stub, and has no photos yet.

Here are photos taken from Bergen aan Zee which is near Egmond aan Zee of what must be OWEZ:
 * http://flickr.com/photos/inyucho/1989925330/ http://flickr.com/photos/inyucho/1989119753/ Offshore wind turbines - Taken in Bergen aan Zee, North Holland

There are also a bunch of photos showing the Thorntonbank Wind Farm under construction from Ostend, Belgium.
 * http://flickr.com/photos/lucvanbraekel/sets/72157604152216506/ Luc Van Braekel, Sets, c-power
 * http://flickr.com/photos/lucvanbraekel/tags/thorntonbank/
 * http://flickr.com/photos/lucvanbraekel/2343484493/in/set-72157604152216506/ http://flickr.com/photos/lucvanbraekel/2344313916/in/set-72157604152216506/ - photos of the type I covet, showing a sign for visitors, explaining the wind farm

Toolserver :: ~bryan :: Flickr web tools
05:36, 22 January 2009 (UTC): try this other tool for uploading Flickr images, to see how it compares to Flinfo (which has been going out of service a few times lately):


 * Toolserver :: ~bryan :: Flickr web tools

I first noticed a link to this tool on the basic upload form for Flickr photos that I have been using with Flinfo:


 * http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Upload&uselang=fromflickr&uploadformstyle=basic

I will try it on these photos of the Twin Buttes Wind Farm in Colorado:


 * http://flickr.com/photos/shog9/2177355444/
 * http://flickr.com/photos/shog9/2177355452/
 * http://flickr.com/photos/shog9/2177355462/

Step 1: fill out a simple form with two fields:

Upload image Upload an image from Flickr to Commons. Specify your username and the link to the Flickr image below. Please note that the username must match your Commons username and that you must be logged in to Commons under that username.

Username

Link to Flickr image

The form does not specify whether I need the User: prefix on my username. I'm going to guess I do not. It's rare for a programmer to think of all the ambiguities in his programs. I'll have to contact the programmer.

Step 2: the next screen contains a nice detailed form where I can input all the usual fields that I have been filling out on the Commons special upload form. So basically this tool skips the annoying intermediate steps of requiring me to download a photo to my local computer hard drive and the manually upload it to Commons. The tool directly uploads the image to Commons. But I still have to figure out the description and categories, which can be difficult if (as is typical) the original Flickr user did not give a good description. I should also try the tool on a geocoded Flickr photo to insure the tool is smart enough to read the geographic coordinates (I would be astounded if the tool did not).

The process looks straightforward. However, gratification is not as instant at the end, since the tool schedules the image file for later upload by a bot. I don't know how much later. The photo page is initially empty:


 * [[File:Twin Buttes Wind Farm Colorado 002.jpg]]

19:14, 24 January 2009 (UTC): I attempted to upload the following photos with the evidently broken Toolserver :: ~bryan :: Flickr web tools. While I was waiting for the Flickr upload bot to upload my photos, along came User:ABF and helpfully deleted the files that were awaiting images. Then for good measure, the User:CommonsDelinker came along and deleted all my links to these images in my notes, both on Commons and on the English Wikipedia! So now I can't even see what the tokenIds for these photos are, and all my work to specify the image information has been destroyed (or removed from where I can see it, since I am not an administrator on Commons and thus I cannot see deleted files).

File:Twin Buttes Wind Farm Colorado 010.jpg|Twin Buttes Wind Farm in Bent County, Colorado File:Twin Buttes Wind Farm Colorado 004.jpg|Twin Buttes Wind Farm File:Twin Buttes Wind Farm Colorado 002.jpg|Twin Buttes Wind Farm File:Hutterite colony in Martinsdale Montana.jpg|Hutterite colony in Martinsdale, Montana with an array of reconditioned Nordtank wind turbines

One photo did upload:


 * File:Montana wind farm.jpg

00:25, 25 January 2009 (UTC): I went back to the tried-and-true Flinfo method to re-create the image files. Now they are happy again:


 * File:Twin Buttes Wind Farm Colorado 010.jpg
 * File:Twin Buttes Wind Farm Colorado 004.jpg
 * File:Twin Buttes Wind Farm Colorado 002.jpg
 * File:Hutterite colony in Martinsdale Montana.jpg

Geograph British Isles
Geograph British Isles is a rather amazing site with dozens of free photos of wind farms in the United Kingdom. The site is surprisingly well organized, with a link on evidently every photo to a page that displays boilerplate code for importing the image onto Commons. If I were focusing on Wind power in the United Kingdom that site would make me happy, or at least very well illustrated. Unfortunately I have not found a similarly nice lode of photos about, say, Wind power in Texas.

I could look on Geograph British Isles for images of Ecotricity's wind turbine at Swaffham. That finds many photos of Swaffham, but only three of the Swaffham I wind turbine, one of which was already on Commons. Here are some I haven't seen:


 * http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/228720
 * http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/307309
 * http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/790565

Here is a nice photo of Swaffham II, which lacks an observation deck:


 * http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/123965

05:18, 16 February 2009 (UTC): today I learned that Geograph British Isles stores images no larger than 640 pixels in any direction. That makes it inferior to Flickr as a source of high-resolution photos.

Panoramio
06:29, 29 December 2008 (UTC): Panoramio is another photo sharing site, owned by Google, so its geotagged images appear in Google Maps. Figure out how to search Panoramio for images licensed as CC-BY or CC-BY-SA. I'm not seeing any obvious way to do that. It looks like Panoramio exists primarily to feed photos to Google Earth and Google Maps, rather than to make photos easy to reuse.

For example, I see how to browse photos by location, but I don't see any way to view only free photos. Here are some photos of wind turbines from the air near Sweetwater, Texas, but that are copyrighted: I browsed around the Google map in Panoramio, and I see a lot of wind farm photos around Sweetwater, but I don't see any free photos. I should ask some of these folks if they would consider licensing their photos for free use. I don't know why someone would donate a photo to Google and not to Wikipedia.
 * http://www.panoramio.com/photo/14981519
 * http://www.panoramio.com/photo/15259958
 * http://www.panoramio.com/photo/8747588 etc.

Photobucket
02:30, 4 February 2009 (UTC): Photobucket is another photo sharing site. I'm not too impressed by it; Flickr looks technologically advanced by comparison. The terms of use are rather chilling. Some excepts: Since we prefer our images to have the Four Freedoms, Photobucket is not looking good. That's too bad, because it seems to have a Flickr-sized collection of photos about wind turbines. That could be another potential source of free photos of wind farms and such.
 * Except as provided within this Agreement, you may not copy, modify, translate, publish, broadcast, transmit, distribute, perform, display, or sell any Content appearing on or through the Photobucket Services.
 * The Photobucket Services are for the personal use of Users and may be used for promotional purposes as well, but direct commercial endeavors may only be used if they are specifically endorsed or authorized by Photobucket.

Picasa
05:46, 4 February 2009 (UTC): Picasa is another photo sharing site with some photos that would be nice to have on Commons. However, the copyright policy looks unclear.

Slide.com
Slide.com is yet another photo sharing site. The Wikipedia article claims it is Web 2.0-friendly like Flickr. Try to figure out if they let users license their photos freely.

Shutterfly
Shutterfly...how many photo-sharing sites are there? Evidently a lot. And not many of them seem to understand that Information wants to be free. But see this article:



Creative Commons
09:45, 4 February 2009 (UTC): Creative Commons appears to have some feature to search for content on the Web that is under Creative Commons licenses. Evidently Google has some ability to do this, for Web pages at least. The URL looks interesting:


 * http://www.google.com/search?as_rights=(cc_publicdomain|cc_attribute|cc_sharealike|cc_noncommercial|cc_nonderived)&q=wind+farm+ohio

See if that will work for Google image search:


 * http://images.google.com/images?q=wind%20farm%20ohio&hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi?as_rights=(cc_publicdomain|cc_attribute|cc_sharealike)

Apparently the  option has no effect on Google image search (yet). I guess the Creative Commons free photo search just ends up being mostly a search for Flickr photos. Perhaps none of the other photo-sharing sites have joined up with Creative Commons yet.

Commonist
08:25, 24 January 2009 (UTC): learn how to use the Tools/Commonist tool. It looks to be useful for uploading photos that I might download from anywhere into a scratch directory: from U.S. Government sites, from Flickr, etc. Try to install it; I will start on my Ubuntu Linux computer.

Installing on Ubuntu Linux
commons:Commons:Tools/Commonist says:


 * To install Commonist you need Sun-Java 1.5.0 or newer

Evidently I do:

$ java --version java version "1.5.0" gij (GNU libgcj) version 4.2.1 (Ubuntu 4.2.1-5ubuntu5)

Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

The instructions go on to say, rather tersely:

After you have installed Java:
 * You can start Commonist directly.
 * Download Commonist from http://djini.de/software/commonist/ and unpack it in C:\ . It will create a new folder  (x replaced by version number).
 * On Unix/Linux/Mac-OSX start commonist with
 * On Windows start commonist with, typing this in at Start >> Run

I tried starting Commonist directly by clicking the first link. That caused Firefox to display a series of dialogs asking me what to do with the file, and eventually I just got to an empty browser tab which did nothing. So I don't understand what that is supposed to do.

Since I'm running Ubuntu Linux, I would prefer to install software using the Synaptic Package Manager, which tries to simplify things, but in this case it complicates things because naturally it doesn't know about Commonist. Toss in the vague instructions above and I'm not feeling too confident. The http://djini.de/software/commonist/ page has better instructions, but there are umpty-jillion steps to download and customize everything by text-editing a bunch of setup files. I'm not feeling too eager to slog through all the gotchas and uncertain conditional branches that will surely ensue. By the time I get through all that, I could have uploaded 50 images the stupid way.

I tried downloading and unzipping Commonist to a scratch directory. Of course it does not run; it probably needs some additional Java something package, but I don't know how to tell what package I need from the gibbering output:

~/junk/commonist-0.3.36/bin$ ./commonist Exception in thread "main" java.awt.AWTError: Cannot load AWT toolkit: gnu.java.awt.peer.gtk.GtkToolkit at java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit(libgcj.so.81) at java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(libgcj.so.81) at javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(libgcj.so.81) at net.psammead.commonist.Main.main(Main.java:29) Caused by: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: libgtkpeer: libgtkpeer.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory at java.lang.Runtime._load(libgcj.so.81) at java.lang.Runtime.loadLibrary(libgcj.so.81) at java.lang.System.loadLibrary(libgcj.so.81) at gnu.java.awt.peer.gtk.GtkToolkit. (libgcj.so.81) at java.lang.Class.initializeClass(libgcj.so.81) at java.lang.Class.forName(libgcj.so.81) at java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit(libgcj.so.81) ...3 more

I guess the first message refers to the Abstract Window Toolkit which is part of the Java Foundation Classes. I don't see anything exactly like this in the Synaptic Package Manager. This is the problem with tools you have to install on your computer - your computer is never like the programmer's computer.

Google image search
07:02, 19 July 2009 (UTC): Google image search has not been very useful for me, because it did not have an option to search for freely licensed images. But now it evidently does:


 * Wikipedia Signpost/2009-07-13/News and notes

Sure enough, it works. Here is a sample search:


 * http://images.google.com/images?as_st=y&as_rights=(cc_publicdomain|cc_attribute|cc_sharealike).-(cc_noncommercial|cc_nonderived)&hl=en&q=wind+turbine+ohio&sa=N&start=0&ndsp=21

Editor's index to Commons
00:47, 13 January 2009 (UTC): I don't see any page on Commons like the Editor's index to Wikipedia. See if Commons has enough of the underlying templates and so on to allow a similar index to work here. See: commons:User:Teratornis/Editor's index to Commons. Steps:


 * Construct one or more Google custom search links to search various namespaces on Commons. In particular, I want to search the Commons: (Project:) namespace, which would likely contain many if not most of the pages an editor's index should list. The Template: namespace is also useful to search, since an index page needs several templates, and templates on Commons may not have the same names as templates on the English Wikipedia.
 * Try copying a part of the Editor's index to Wikipedia to my user subpage on Commons. This will test the dependencies, i.e., show how many of the templates the Editor's index uses which are not yet on Commons (at least under the same template page names). That exposes a few problems immediately, but none that would prevent me from starting on the index (with fewer features working initially):
 * Template:AlphanumericTOC - there is no template by this name on Commons.
 * commons:Template:TOC exists and does the job, although it centers instead of left-justifies, and there is no option to change that behavior. For now I don't care, I'll go with the centered TOC. Later I might port the fancier template from Wikipedia. Also see commons:Category:TOC templates, but nothing else in there at the moment looks more useful.
 * Template:Shortcut - there is a commons:Template:Shortcut, but it is not the same as Shortcut on Wikipedia.
 * commons:Template:Shortcut2 appears to do what I want.
 * Template:WP nav pages (header bar) - there is no template by this name on Commons, understandably. This is not very important.
 * commons:Template:Header exists and may function similarly enough.

It looks like all the gizmos I need to make an index work are on Commons.


 * Information sources (pages that list links that could go in the index):
 * commons:Commons:COM
 * commons:Help:Contents
 * commons:Commons:Welcome
 * commons:Template:Welcome
 * commons:Commons:Community Portal
 * commons:Special:Prefixindex/Commons: - an alphabetic list of everything in the Commons: (Project:) namespace on Commons.
 * commons:Special:Prefixindex/Help: - an alphabetic list of everything in the Help: namespace on Commons.
 * commons:Category:Commons help
 * commons:Commons:Help desk - the Editor's index to Wikipedia answers many questions on the Help desk here, so an Editor's index to Commons should work analogously. By reading the answers to previous questions, I can find links to pages that are useful for answering questions on the Commons Help desk, and those links belong in the index.
 * commons:Commons:Help desk/Archives - unfortunately the page naming scheme for the Commons Help desk archive is inconsistent, which might prevent Google custom from searching all the archive pages efficiently. However, the new MediaWiki search features might help with that. Make a separate section below about searching the Commons Help desk archive.
 * WP:EIW


 * Page name: "Editor's index to Commons" might not be the best name. Reasons:
 * Is "Editor" the best title for a user of Commons? Find out what Commons users call themselves.
 * The  magic word evaluates to: "Wikimedia Commons" on Commons. Therefore I might want to call it "Editor's index to Wikimedia Commons".

Problem with the shortcut2 template
05:24, 19 January 2009 (UTC): commons:Template:Shortcut2 seems to be the closest counterpart to Shortcut on Wikipedia. However, the Commons template has some odd problems when it appears in a level two list item. I recall having similar problems with Shortcut on Wikipedia, although the Commons template may be behaving worse. Instead of floating right and drawing a box, it displays its text contents on the left margin, with a short gray horizontal line where the shortcut box should be on the right. Compare the wikitext of the two templates and see if the difference is obvious.

The first obvious difference is that the Wikipedia template uses an HTML table tag to make the shortcut box, while the Commons template uses a div tag. I guess the div tag doesn't work correctly inside a wikitext list item. I made my own commons:Template:Shortcut3, recycling the latest revision of the Shortcut template on Wikipedia. The code isn't too complicated, but more importantly it is self-contained enough so I did not have to port anything else to Commons to get it to work.

21:52, 19 January 2009 (UTC): Now I am updating commons:User:Teratornis/Editor's index to Commons to use my new commons:Template:Shortcut3. I am also updating my editing procedure that uses sed.

I did a one-off update of what I have so far by saving the current wikitext of commons:User:Teratornis/Editor's index to Commons to a scratch file, and sed'ing it:

cp editors_index_to_commons_junk.txt{,.bak2} sed -i 's/{{Shortcut2/{{Shortcut3/' editors_index_to_commons_junk.txt diff --ignore-all-space editors_index_to_commons_junk.txt{.bak2,}

Searching the Help desk archive on Commons
22:27, 14 January 2009 (UTC) To-do: write some notes about how to search the Help desk archive on Commons.

Editing procedure
08:18, 17 January 2009 (UTC): I'm adding links to my my user subpage on Commons. The procedure is straightforward:
 * 1) Examine the entries for each letter of the alphabet in the Editor's index to Wikipedia.
 * 2) Note the main topic headings.
 * 3) Search the Commons: namespace on Commons for pages analogous to pages on Wikipedia under each topic heading.
 * 4) Add links to the Commons pages to my index. Copy topic headings (and their associated anchors and shortcuts) from the Editor's index to Wikipedia as necessary.

In this way, I am building the Editor's index to Commons to follow the existing topic structure from the Editor's index to Wikipedia. This reduces my need to think, and lets me construct the index faster than if I start with an empty page. Of course when the index is reasonably complete, there will not be a perfect correspondence between topic headings with the index on Wikipedia. Some topics on Wikipedia have no direct counterpart on Commons, and conversely, some topics on Commons have no direct counterpart on Wikipedia. However, the two sites have a lot of similarity, so I can slap together a usable index pretty fast just by duplicating the structure that John Broughton spent weeks designing on Wikipedia. Keeping the two indices as similar as possible should allow users familiar with one to understand the other one quickly.

sed commands
10:07, 18 January 2009 (UTC): just for fun, for the technical challenge, and so I can more efficiently repeat this indexing project for other Wikimedia Foundation wikis (such as Wikibooks, etc. which could also use an Editor's index), write some sed commands to search and replace on the wikitext code of the Editor's index to Wikipedia. That way, I can make a large number of changes automatically on a copy of the Editor's index code, so I can then edit it down efficiently to be valid on the target wiki.

I saved a copy of the Editor's index wikitext to a local file on my computer:  which I can bang on with sed.

Change Wikipedia: namespace links to Commons:
This should be a simple substitution, because each such link appears on one line. The idea is that many pages on Wikipedia in the Wikipedia: namespace have direct counterparts on Commons in the Commons namespace. Some examples:


 * Administrators and commons:Commons:Administrators
 * Barnstars and commons:Commons:Barnstars

Therefore, it makes sense on a first pass through the rough draft of the index for Commons, to convert all links that begin with: to:

Then I can probably keep most if not links which do not turn into red links when I paste the code into the index page on Commons. In most cases, if there is a Commons:pagename on Commons corresponding to a Wikipedia:pagename on Wikipedia, the two pages probably serve directly analogous roles and thus they will make sense to link from directly corresponding places in the two indices.

The sed command to make this change will be a simple string substitution on the file in place, which I can verify by first making a backup copy of the file and then running a diff:

cp editors_index_to_commons_junk.txt{,.bak} sed -i 's/\[\[Wikipedia:/\[[\Commons:/' editors_index_to_commons_junk.txt diff editors_index_to_commons_junk.txt{.bak,}

That appears to work.

Change the Shortcut template
Change lines like these:

into lines like these:

And note that multiple shortcuts can appear per line:

I can handle these changes with two sed commands (note that in sed's default regular expression syntax, even most punctuation characters stand for themselves and do not need a backslash to escape them):

cp editors_index_to_commons_junk.txt{,.bak2} sed -i 's/{{Shortcut/{{Shortcut3/' editors_index_to_commons_junk.txt sed -i 's/|WP:EIW#/|COM:EIC#/g' editors_index_to_commons_junk.txt diff --ignore-all-space editors_index_to_commons_junk.txt{.bak2,}

Before trying a complex regular expression, it's smart to test it on some sample text first:

echo '{{Shortcut3|WP:EIW#Admin}}' | sed 's/|WP:EIW#/|COM:EIC#/g'

Change the AlphanumericTOC template
Change lines like these:

to this:

Matching a multi-line pattern in sed is a little tricky. See this entry from the handy sed FAQ:


 * 4.23. How do I match a block of specific consecutive lines?

The bash shell which I use in Ubuntu Linux and Cygwin allows multi-line string constants, so I can test a sed command with a multi-line input string like this:

echo 'Hello there' | sed 's/Hello/Goodbye/'

which generates the output:

$ echo 'Hello > there' | sed 's/Hello/Goodbye/' Goodbye there

Thus I can test my sed command with this input, perhaps duplicated a few times to make sure sed is working correctly on multiple instances of this text:

echo ''

I can't figure out the multi-line sed commands, so I will try acting on each line of the input pattern separately:

echo ' ' | sed 's//d;'

That appears to work. Run it on my whole file of wikitext:

cp editors_index_to_commons_junk.txt{,.bak3} sed -i 's//d;' editors_index_to_commons_junk.txt diff --ignore-all-space editors_index_to_commons_junk.txt{.bak3,}

End of first editing pass
09:08, 8 February 2009 (UTC): after quite a bit of on and off editing, I finished a first pass through the index. I cleaned up most of the links that became red links when I copied the Editor's index from Wikipedia to Commons. I also searched several namespaces on Commons (Commons:, Category:, Help:, and Template:) to find additional pages to put under applicable headings.

To-do list
I have the following things left to do:


 * Edit the lead section to make sense for Commons. The Wikipedia-specific lead section does not really apply, since Commons does not as far as I know have anything like Wikipedia's large population of people who only read and do not edit. Done.
 * Edit the "About" subpage, by copying from Editor's index to Wikipedia/About, and editing as necessary for Commons. Decide how much to copy, and how much to merely link to the original copy on Wikipedia. Barely started.
 * Move my user subpage to the real index page in the Commons: namespace. Done: commons:Commons:Editor's index to Commons is now live.
 * Move the About subpage. Done.
 * Create shortcuts: commons:COM:EIC, commons:COM:EITC; add entries for them to commons:COM:COM (the Commons shortcut page). Done.
 * Check the links and cross-references in the index to make sure they work, and anchors exist for all the cross-references to point to.
 * Click on every shortcut in the index to make sure it works (i.e., it links to the same point in the index where the shortcut box appears). Done.
 * Start citing the index in answers to questions on the Commons Help desk. Edit the index as necessary to make it a better tool for answering real user questions. E.g., if the index does not readily answer someone's question from the Help desk, edit the index so it does. In progress.
 * Compare the existing index-like pages on Commons (e.g., commons:COM:COM) with the Editor's index, to make sure all the pages they link to also appear in the Editor's index. In progress.
 * Identify and repair links in the index that turn out to be redirects after I converted the links from their Wikipedia versions. That is, Commons does not have as many pages corresponding to project pages on Wikipedia as it first appears. Some are merely redirects to other pages. In some cases the index also links to them by their real titles. In every case, the index should link directly to pages and not to redirects.
 * Annotate with a one line description any link in the index that is not completely obvious from its title.
 * Port the Keypress template from Wikipedia to Commons (if it is not already there under some other name), so I can say fancy things like this: Done.

Page move problem
21:50, 13 February 2009 (UTC): Today I ran into the following problem:


 * User:MichaelMaggs (who is a bureaucrat and administrator on Commons, but apparently neither on Wikipedia) moved commons:Commons:Editor's index to Commons to commons:Commons:Editors' index to Commons
 * and commons:Commons:Editor's index to Commons/About to commons:Commons:Editors' index to Commons/About.
 * He moved the pages without discussing the moves first, as far as I can tell. Now the name is inconsistent with the Editor's index to Wikipedia, which has had the word "Editor's" in its name ever since User:John Broughton started the page in 2006 in his userspace.
 * commons:User talk:MichaelMaggs says he is taking a break until February 22 (presumably 2009, but not stated). So basically he moved the Editor's index and left.
 * Since there is apparently no way to contact this user to discuss the move, I thought I would move the page back to the original name and leave a note on his talk page asking to discuss it.
 * However, I haven't un-done a move on Commons before, and it turns out to be more difficult than I expected.
 * I screwed up my first attempt by fat-fingering the key while I had a typo in the page name that I was trying to correct. Thus I stupidly moved the page to commons:Commons:Editor's' index to Commons.
 * I tried to revert my erroneous move, and Commons would not let me, because a page exists at the destination (commons:Commons:Editors' index to Commons, which is now a redirect).
 * So, without stopping to think things through carefully enough, I tried to move the redirect out of the way, to a temporary name: commons:Commons:Editor's index to Commons - temporary, but that does not help, because moving a page appears to invariably leave the original name as a redirect to the new (moved) name. Thus there is apparently no way to "move a redirect out of the way" as I originally thought. The explanation in Help:Moving a page is not as clear as it could be; it says:
 * "If page A has subsequently been edited, or the move software is behaving weirdly, only an admin can sort things out"
 * So now I have made a nice mess on Commons. I would like to un-do the two moves I just did. This should be possible, I think. However, since my first two attempts went awry, I will practice on some dummy pages in my Commons userspace:
 * commons:User:Teratornis/Sandbox
 * commons:User:Teratornis/Test

22:40, 13 February 2009 (UTC): I copied the Editor's index to Commons to my Sandbox page, moved it to my Test page, and moved it back.

I think my difficulty with attempting to undo my move mistake was that I tried to un-do two moves in one step. Un-doing moves is only possible one move at a time, and only if no one has edited the page in the meantime.


 * I was able to un-do my move that had a typo in the name:
 * Move succeeded - "commons:Commons:Editor's' index to Commons" has been moved to "commons:Commons:Editors' index to Commons"

That gets the index page back to the state that User:MichaelMaggs had it in. So at least the page does not have my idiotic typo in the name.


 * I also un-did my move of what is now a redirect at the original name:
 * Move succeeded - "commons:Commons:Editor's index to Commons - temporary" has been moved to "commons:Commons:Editor's index to Commons"

However, Commons won't let me un-do the original move, from commons:Commons:Editors' index to Commons back to commons:Commons:Editor's index to Commons:
 * "A page of that name already exists, or the name you have chosen is not valid. Please choose another name."

Only an administrator can un-do that move, it seems.

07:32, 14 February 2009 (UTC): User:Stepshep cleaned up my move mess. Now commons:Commons:Editor's index to Commons is back to its original name. I left notes about my problem on these user talk pages:
 * User talk:John Broughton (permanent link)
 * commons:User talk:MichaelMaggs (permanent link)

User:MichaelMaggs has not replied yet. I have his talk page on my Commons watchlist.

07:41, 14 February 2009 (UTC): ah, but there is one problem, the revision history seems to have vanished. I'd expect the revision history to be back with commons:Commons:Editor's index to Commons, but it's not. The only edits to the index before the move were by me, except for one edit by User:MichaelMaggs, who added one sentence to the lead section before he moved the page. Here are all the pages and redirects: Oh, actually the revision history is in the page: commons:Commons:Editors' index to Commons which is now a redirect to commons:Commons:Editor's index to Commons. Apparently that's because User:Stepshep is not an administrator on Commons, but rather it looks as if he or she did a cut and paste move. Yikes.
 * commons:Special:PrefixIndex/Commons:Editor

Oh well, I'll probably have to find an administrator on Commons to fix that. In the meantime, I want to edit the About subpage. I should be able to un-do that move if I can manage to avoid bumping the key prematurely again. Try to move commons:Commons:Editors' index to Commons/About back to commons:Commons:Editor's index to Commons/About.


 * Move succeeded - "Commons:Editors' index to Commons/About" has been moved to "Commons:Editor's index to Commons/About"

It's looking more and more like my initial typo created a problem I still haven't quite fixed with the Editor's index to Commons page.

04:40, 16 February 2009 (UTC): commons:User:Finnrind noticed the problem and fixed the cut and paste move. Now the Editor's index to Commons is back to what it was before. When User:MichaelMaggs returns, we can discuss where to put the apostrophe in the title.

Glossary
22:25, 16 February 2009 (UTC): while editing the Editor's index to Commons, I noticed some pages are missing on Commons. For example, there is no commons:Commons:Glossary yet.
 * commons:Commons:Project namespace has a red link to Commons:Glossary. Someone copied that page from Project namespace in 2007, but did not create pages on Commons corresponding to all the pages on Wikipedia the original page links to.

Maps
04:02, 1 February 2010 (UTC): it would be nice to draw some maps. User:Alexrk2 (main user page: de:Benutzer:Alexrk2) has made some maps I like.


 * File:USA Ohio location map.svg
 * File:Windkraftanlagen in Deutschland.png
 * File:San Francisco Bay Bridges map en.svg
 * File:SFOBB map de.png - File:SFOBB map en.png
 * File:SFOBB map de.png - File:SFOBB map en.png

Other map information:


 * WP:EIW
 * WikiProject Maps
 * WikiProject OpenStreetMap - may be inactive
 * Graphic Lab/Resources/Tutorials
 * User:Kmusser/Sources
 * Commons:User:Marianocecowski/Mapas - another user's map data sources
 * Commons:Category:Screenshots for tutorials for cartography

Quantum GIS
07:28, 7 February 2010 (UTC): I have used Quantum GIS a little. Many Commons users use it, but there was no category for their work, so I made the necessary pieces:


 * Commons:Category:Quantum GIS
 * Commons:Category:Created with Quantum GIS
 * Commons:Template:Created with Quantum GIS



Tutorials
The French Wikipedia has some tutorials about making maps. Graphic Lab/Resources/Tutorials partially translates them (and see User:JaneVannin/translations). Here I have Translate wikipedia links to the untranslated tutorials, so I can read machine translations of them. (To-do: add interlanguage links to the translated tutorials that lack them.)


 * fr:Wikipédia:Atelier graphique/Didacticiels cartographiques -

-

Map data

 * fr:Aide:Cartographie/Ressources cartographiques géoréférencées - - georeferenced map data resources

Request for Adminship
18:40, 11 May 2008 (UTC): User:Yellowdesk offered to nominate me for administratorship. See: User talk:Teratornis (permanent link).

Another possible nominator
18:43, 1 August 2008 (UTC): User:Tanthalas39 offered to nominate me for administratorship. See:
 * User talk:Teratornis/2008 January through June (permanent link)

Yet another possible nominator
00:31, 25 February 2009 (UTC): This time a heavy hitter weighs in:
 * User talk:Teratornis (permanent link)

My first request

 * Requests for adminship/Teratornis

07:35, 25 March 2009 (UTC): follow the procedure at:
 * Requests for adminship/nominate