User talk:Braininfo.rprc.washington.edu

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Basal ganglia
Hi -- are you aware that the link you added to the article is already present in the "infobox" at the top, under the label "NeuroNames"? Looie496 (talk) 23:18, 1 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Please respond to this message. Looie496 (talk) 17:03, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

Test reply. We are in receipt of your message and will respond shortly. Braininfo.rprc.washington.edu (talk) 15:28, 9 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Okay, I'll wait. Looie496 (talk) 21:32, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

Dear Mr. Looie496,

Thanks for your message. I had heard that the Society for Neuroscience was encouraging members to help populate Wikipedia with neurosci information and wanted to correspond with someone about it.

We tried to link from Wikipedia to appropriate pages of BrainInfo (then called 'NeuroNames') many years ago, but our links were scrubbed after a few days, because they were judged by someone at Wikipedia to be advertising. We've always thought that was unjust, because BrainInfo is an academic website developed specifically to provide scientific information about central nervous system structures to scientists, students and the general public. Later someone else created the NeuroNames links that you referred to in your message, and we've been pleased to see them there.

Yes, we're aware of the NeuroNames links, but don't believe that they are as valuable to users as they might be. They link through an old template URL, so many of the structures added to BrainInfo in the last couple of years are not accessible. Also, the tag NeuroNames, which refers to the ontology of the BrainInfo website, suggests that by clicking there the user will learn more about the many names for the structure. In fact they will, but they will have to navigate to the names page after they get to BrainInfo. We'd like to go through Wikipedia and change the NeuroNames links so that they bring up the names table, which contains all of the names in English, Latin and six other languages. For example see the several legitimate English and Latin names for field H at: http://braininfo.rprc.washington.edu/synonyms.aspx?questID=440

The entry that caught your attention reflected something we'd like to do at the same time, namely insert into Wikipedia's External Links section a link to BrainInfo's Central Directory for each structure. The hyperlink would be preceded by a couple of words to indicate the broader range of information the visitor will find there... something like 'More info at [link]' For example see the description, internal structure and illustration of area 46 of Walker at: http://braininfo.rprc.washington.edu/centraldirectory.aspx?ID=962

During the last couple of weeks we went through the BrainInfo site and installed some 500 links to Wikipedia pages that have information on the function and/or medical significance of structures. If you have no objections, we'll continue that for as many of the other 1700 NeuroNames structures as Wikipedia has functional and medical information for. See for example Wikipedia's page for 'striatum' by navigating thru: http://braininfo.rprc.washington.edu/centraldirectory.aspx?ID=225 and click 'Functions and Medical Importance'.

So, what is your thinking on all this... particularly the idea of including both a link to NeuroNames for synonyms and to BrainInfo for other kinds of information that may not be in Wikipedia yet?

With best regards,

Doug Bowden http://braininfo.org dmbowden@uw.edu Braininfo.rprc.washington.edu (talk) 00:03, 10 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for explaining. That all makes sense, but I wonder if a better solution might not be to fix the infobox.  If you would like to have NeuroNames changed to BrainInfo, I can do that in the infobox template, and all of the articles that use it will change instantly.  In that case all you will have to do is change the link in the infobox in each article.  Or if you would like both things to be present in the infobox, that would also be possible, although it gets dangerously close to clutter.  The most important thing in any case is that there be some sort of agreement on the approach before you plunge into mass editing.


 * There is another issue that I probably should alert you to. Wikipedia policy is that editors are individual people, not official representatives of organizations, and should not choose user-names that indicate any sort of official status.  If you do mass editing, you are likely to get flak about this, and sooner or later (possibly very soon) you will be required to change your user name.  Regards, and thanks for the information. Looie496 (talk) 16:35, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

I agree with all of the above... let's get the policy issue resolved first. The last thing I want to do is get bounced again.

Just for point of clarification: Who is the 'editor' in this case... you or I? If I, can I change my user name? or is it better to delete the 'Braininfo.rprc.washington.edu' account and create a new account?

Is there any reason I shouldn't use my real name, e.g., dmbowden?

I like the idea of having the links to NeuroNames/BrainInfo in the infobox, but think it would be more useful to have the labels be, not 'NeuroNames' and/or 'BrainInfo', but words that are more informative to the user regarding what kind of information he'll get if he clicks there, e.g., 'Other Names', or 'Synonyms' (for the link to NeuroNames); 'More Information' or 'More Info' (for a link to BrainInfo's central directory for the structure). Is that possible in the infobox, or does it have to be the name of the website?

I'd prefer to have both buttons there, but if you think the box is getting too cluttered, I'd honor your judgment and just put up the button that links to BrainInfo's central directory. Maybe if there are not more than n entries in the infobox we'd enter both; if >n we'd enter only the 'More Info' link to the central directory... and you tell us an appropriate value of n.

One last question: before Saving a page like this, should I click one or the other of the boxes for 'minor edit' or 'Watch this page'?

Many Thanks, Doug B


 * You have so few edits that going through the process of changing your account name is probably not worth the effort -- creating a new one is simpler. If you do, that, though, please leave a message at User talk:Looie496 so I can find you.  The only reason not to use your real name would be a concern about controversies on Wikipedia carrying over to the outside world -- that's my reason, but it probably doesn't apply to you.  Regarding the infobox, I think what you are describing is possible, but I didn't understand it very clearly.  Regards, Looie496 (talk) 00:16, 17 June 2011 (UTC)