User talk:Mad Price Ball/Archive 2

Intro to genetics
Hi there Madeleine, is there any other topics that you think this article should introduce? Tim Vickers (talk) 22:13, 15 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Wow, this is really good!! Great work! I'm so happy someone took the plunge and made this, it's far better than I imagined it could be. :-))
 * But, looking at it critically... I think each article with an Intro to genetics hatnote link should have a section within this article ... eg. you could split off that paragraph on mutation and label it "mutation". Otherwise someone coming to this article from there will be very confused. If you can't see an appropriate section (eg chromosome) it might be best to remove the link? (maybe we should have an intro to cell biology?) Not sure what to do about DNA... but you get the idea, the browsing reader is going to be confused if they don't immediately see how the topic they came from is covered in this article.
 * Thinking of reader oriented topics... they're probably a couple genetic technologies they'll want to know about: paternity testing / genetic fingerprinting, genetically modified organisms, and maybe genetic testing. I think the article is great as it is, but if you're brainstorming for another thing to cover you might try these. :-)
 * some little comments on little things:
 * for "Traits are often inherited, for example tall and thin people tend to have tall and thin children. However, many traits come from the interaction between inherited features and the environment. For example a person might inherit the tendency to be fat, but if there is very little food where they live, they will still be thin." I think these examples should match more (either tall parents/children + poor nutrition causes tall -> short, or fat parents/children + poor nutrition fat -> thin)... fat is a loaded example and I'd be inclined to avoid arguments about its heritability by sticking to the tall/short example.
 * My computer programmer friend got confused when reading Genetics because I used the word "copies" to refer to diploid (I think I tried to remove it in response, but it's difficult). You also use the word "identical". In his mind that meant the alleles had to be the same because if they were different they wouldn't be "copies" or "identical". Honestly, I don't know what the best way to address this is, I can't think of a good other word to use but I thought I should mention it. He's probably not a good example of an average reader, but he was impressively uneducated about genetics (eg. "are all four bases on one strand, or two on each?").
 * Gene notation: I don't think "Bg" is typical notation, I think usually people use the same letter for both alleles. (see ) You could avoid confusion by using a blue/brown example?
 * might want to mention albinos also have white skin. this is the most noticeable feature for the majority of humanity.
 * Thank you for all your work on this, it looks roughly a billion times improved! -- Madeleine ✉ ✍ 22:55, 15 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the comments, I'll work on them over the next few days. One thing you mention I changed deliberately, since I had blue/brown eyes originally, but changed this to make it clearer for blind people using screen readers (I'm partially sighted myself so this is often something on my mind). Anyway, thanks for the excellent suggestions! Tim Vickers (talk) 01:03, 16 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Does braille not have case? That's a tough call, I leave it up to you. It's good to pay attention to these things. Madeleine ✉ ✍ 01:29, 16 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I was thinking about screen reader applications that convert text to speech, something we also do with our spoken articles. A simple solution to the linked article problem (I don't think I can do enough subsections) is to have each link as a term defined in the glossary at the start. This also shows which terms are most important to define. Skimming your list, genetic engineering and GMOs seem like good things to add, since these are often in the news. Tim Vickers (talk) 01:48, 16 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Please don't use edit summaries like this, even if you are feeling annoyed. Tim Vickers (talk) 18:19, 18 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Sorry, it was out of line. Madeleine ✉ ✍ 19:29, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

If you are still watching Genetic Code
There is a new image on the bottom of the discussion page. Doug youvan (talk) 16:45, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I would appreciate some feedback ...
on the genetic code talk page before the figure being discussed is inserted. Doug youvan (talk) 02:40, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Apologies, I've been really too busy for Wikipedia (you'll see I haven't been making edits). I don't have the time it would take to examine this stuff in depth. I was able to make a brief comment regarding SVGs. Sorry. Madeleine ✉ ✍ 02:37, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Thank you for bearing with me through that last edit. My questions are now answered and closed.  Someone more experienced than me should archive the discussion page. Doug youvan (talk) 06:19, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
 * The page is not too big to load (and if it were, the archive should take the oldest sections), and the discussion resulted in changes to the article. I'm pretty sure this sort of thing should not be archived. These things are useful to people who may come along in six months and wonder where the diagram came from... Madeleine ✉ ✍ 15:08, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Introduction to virus
Hi Madeleine, would you have the time to have a look at this and tell my what you think? Best wishes. Graham. Graham Colm Talk 16:47, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry.
I'm sorry for my edit, and I can only hope this explanation allows for my apology to be considered: There was an IP edit, to a high science topic, and the edit summary said "removal of". I hope you see my mistake, and again, I am sorry for the inconvenience. Leonard( Bloom ) 02:22, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Biological imperative
Could you please take a look at biological imperative? It was tagged for wikiprojects genetics and philosophy in the talk page; I added biology. Anyway, the article is of very poor quality; it has issues with citations, tone, and original research. I'd rewrite it if I had the requisite knowledge of the subject, but I don't. I hope you do, or that you know someone who does. Thanks! --Dbutler1986 (talk) 23:18, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Passive voice
With all due respect, I find the drenching of this article in passive voice to be sophomoric and cumbersome.

I intend to re-edit the entire article and make it readable to a literate audience, as I believe that Wikipedia articles should be written in a dynamic manner.

Should you chose to remove all of my edits, I will seek redress.

Again, I do not intend any disrespect to you or to this otherwise worthy article.

Designquest10 (talk) 19:39, 12 July 2008 (UTC)


 * With regard to your posting to me:

''Passive voice Please don't get too passive aggressive with me: [1]. You are unnecessarily confrontational. I was concerned that your attempt to remove the passive voice made the article harder to read by introducing unnecessary vocabulary. If you can do it in a cleaner manner then you are welcome to it. Your comment left on my talk page certainly seems to indicate that you're prone to including words that unnecessarily raise the "reading level" of an article. While it is hardly arduous for me to comprehend your verbiage, I would importune you to contemplate first the lucidity of your emendations before foisting them upon a somewhat less literate audience. Madeleine ✉ ✍ 19:54, 12 July 2008 (UTC) ''
 * I sincerely apologize if my statements seemed passive/aggressive to you. My intent concerned conveying to you that your opinion that the passive voice was just fine stood in direct opposition to my opinion.  If we are not able to resolve this issue, then I will seek assistance; that way, this excellent article can be a superior one in both content and form.

Again, please know that I did not intend to offend you. And, I do hope we can forge an even better article.

Designquest10 (talk) 20:10, 12 July 2008 (UTC)



"US/UK spelling Per WP:ENGVAR, if an article is established with US spelling then it remains that way. Changes to UK spelling in the article is disruptive editing. Madeleine ✉ ✍ 20:19, 12 July 2008 (UTC)"


 * Well, Madeline, I observed some UK spelling in the quoted material, so I assumed the entire article would be framed in UK spelling. Thank you for setting me straight on this issue, as it will save a considerable amount of editing time.

Thank you again, 20:35, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

A question of Genetics
Hello Madeleine:

I have a question that I think, based on some of your other edits, perhaps you can answer. If you have time, will you please look at it?

It is in a section I created here:

Talk:Origin of Latter Day Saint polygamy

I think the basic question raised there is fairly straightforward, but I could be way off in thinking that.

Thank you, Wanderer57 (talk) 01:54, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

WikiSlice work for Spanish Wikipedia
Thanks for getting in touch! Funny you should mention that, I JUST posted something on the OLPC page you listed for me! Please take a look, it summarises our approach. I agree that hitcount does give a reasonable selection, but I'm concerned that articles like List of gay porn stars tend to get high hitcounts! We use a blend of four parameters (one human-based, three machine generated), including the hitcount, and that works very nicely - it greatly reduces the sillier entries like the porn, and it boosts entries that are important but get lower hitcounts. We generate data like this using a bot that resides on the Toolserver. The WikiProject-based assessment system is only currently widely used on the English and French Wikipedias at this time, so we don't have access to accurate quality information there. However, if you provide us with a list of potential articles we can run the bot on the Spanish Wikipedia as well, just selecting by importance. Thanks, Walkerma (talk) 16:23, 18 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Sorry I took a while to reply, I've just been busy or away much of the time. I can send you a comparison of the two via email if you wish.  I used this list as a comparison, and this comes from the same month as our list.  Note that our blended list includes a weighting for article quality as well.  I notice from the English list that List of minor Naruto characters (now a redirect) scored higher than Israel, and YouPorn higher than Christianity, based on hits alone; much of the list is trivia, pop culture and titillation.  I don't mind some of that, but each one of those articles is squeezing out a more encyclopedic topic such as a major Indian city or a chemical element.  Do we want Hamlet pushed out by Fellatio?  Here are just the "titillation" topics found in the 200 most popular articles (almost none of this list is in the "blended" top 1000 - even "Pornography" comes just outside the top 1000).  The first number is the rank, and the last number is the number of hits in Feb 2008.


 * 12	Sex	1221250
 * 21	Edison Chen photo scandal	917054
 * 34	2 Girls 1 Cup	682954
 * 43	Penis	614870
 * 54	Vagina	543156
 * 56	Sexual intercourse	536505
 * 58	Masturbation	534274
 * 73	Anal sex	496347
 * 76	Pornography	494691
 * 78	List of sex positions	486609
 * 113	Oral sex	402606
 * 117	List of female porn stars by decade	396854
 * 148	Orgasm	346007
 * 198	Edison Chen's Sex Photo Scandal (2008)	307131

Here are a few of the articles that appear in the "blended" top 200, but which do not appear at all in the "most hits" 1000:
 * San Francisco, California
 * Kolkata
 * Mosque
 * Uranium
 * Czech Republic
 * Hamlet

This isn't simply extreme cherry-picking - I think you'd agree that the blended 1000 is worthy of any serious encyclopedia! Send me an email if you want a complete list of the two "top 1000s". We still haven't updated our blended list, but we are actively working on that. Cheers, Walkerma (talk) 22:16, 4 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, congratulations on having written much of an article that's read by about 15 million people a year! I'm very interested to hear how you are compressing so many articles down to 100 MB - even the 2007 German 1.0 release without pictures filled one entire DVD with "only" 500,000 articles.  What method are you using?  You're right about numbers, we're aiming to get around 30,000 articles (including thumbnail pictures) on the next release, which means selecting the most relevant topics quite carefully.  BTW, I didn't mention, but our next list should include a column for just importance, so in a week or two we should be able to produce lists ordered by importance alone (excluding article quality).  As for redirects, I know we discussed that issue, but I will be sure to raise that again in our upcoming discussions.  We'll probably be discussing en:Version 0.7 on IRC with the Linterweb/Kiwix people in a week or so, please join us if you wish (let me know). Thanks, Walkerma (talk) 04:17, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Sex talk-page
Earlier today, I visited the Sex talk page for the first time since I’d posted "Opening sentence" there June 2. I saw you had responded to the comment promptly (June 3).

Until recently, I generally did not post Wikipedia comments without watching for replies to them; but when I posted the Sex comment, I decided I wouldn’t bother looking out for a reply. When I saw how quickly you’d responded, I felt bad that I hadn’t indicated that I wouldn’t necessarily be involved in any discussion my comment might provoke.

Should you be interested, you will see that I have posted yet another comment — a reply, of sorts, to your reply. Again — I probably won’t be keeping up with the discussion; but I might look in on it at some point.JohnBonaccorsi (talk) 18:53, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

IRC discussion on Version 0.7
Madeleine, if you're interested in the en:Version 0.7 release planned for fall, we are having an IRC meeting with the publisher (the Kiwix people) at 1900h UTC on Monday, August 11th. Please see more details and a sign-up here. Thanks! Walkerma (talk) 17:09, 6 August 2008 (UTC)
 * FYI, I checked up about redirects in our system. In the original test run that I linked to, redirects were not included, but Kelson from the French 1.0 project has since written a script that now includes hits on redirects in with the main article.  Thanks for the pointer!  Hope to see you on IRC if you can make it, Walkerma (talk) 04:23, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Trouble with Inkspace
Hi! I decided to translate one of your svg pictures, but there are still several bad errors, that I couldn't manage to repair. Could you please look at it and tell me what's wrong or even repair it? Thank you. -Sandris.Ā (talk) 23:01, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Image attribution
Hi Madeleine, I've used one of your images, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DNA_replication_split.svg, for our Centers wiki, http://cphg.virginia.edu/wiki. However, I am having some problems with the licensing page in the wiki, anyway I linked back to you by name at the above link while I work out this bug. Not a bug really, just a new wiki site and I'm still figuring out all of the details. Thanks, Richard (talk) 22:36, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Fred Neufeld
Hi Madeleine. I just wrote a wiki article on Fred Neufeld. Do you think an inkscape of pneumococcal typing would help?

Schmausschmaus —Preceding unsigned comment added by Schmausschmaus (talk • contribs) 17:51, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Looking for input on 'Homologous recombination'
Hi there. I notice you wrote the initial version of the article on homologous recombination, and I'd like to get your feedback on the current state of the article. The article's expanded almost ten-fold since your last edit, with new information on different pathways for HR, effects of its dysfunction, and other general reworking. If you have the time and inclination, could you read the article through for accuracy and completeness? I've submitted it to peer review, so if you get to reading the article before the review closes, please leave comments there. Otherwise, please leave any comments on the discussion page. Thank you! Emw2012 (talk) 20:02, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Introduction to Genetics
Lots of discussion about problems with that entry but it still seems problematic. As an interested layman and technical editor, I see serious needs for rewriting the first section: green eyes are not a good example because that trait depends on more than one gene. So why present it as a basic example and then "contrast" it with more complex situations that have multiple genes? Confusing.

Also the definitions of DNA and Nucleotide in the small boxes overlap too much, creating the impression that nucleotides are more important and the helix itself is less important. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Martindo (talk • contribs) 22:16, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Genetics edit
Hi Madeleine! I understand your reservations re my edits to the Genetics article; specifically, that they're introducing some redundancy, since ploidy and locus are explained later in the entry. Though while reading this section, I felt that it is necessary to at least mention these terms here, because the original phrase "homozygous at that gene" sounded a little clunky and inaccurate, because what is meant here is the location at which a gene resides—hence the introduction of gene locus (wikilinked along with ploidy for those readers looking for a definition) here. Feel free to rv or move my changes if you feel that they jar too much with the overall structure of the article. Malljaja (talk) 21:46, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Shark GAR notice
Shark has been nominated for a good article reassessment. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to good article quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status will be removed from the article. Reviewers' concerns are here.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 04:51, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

Credit - and congratulations
Hi Madprime. I met Charles Foster and am reading his rather good The Selfless Gene. On p66 he has a picture of "the basic chemical structure of DNA" which is credited to you. Congratulations also on your paper. And 2 citations in PubMed already! Best wishes NBeale (talk) 20:37, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

Cat photo credit
I has a question. You uploaded the Cat_tongue_macro.jpg‎ to Cat and credited someone named Pam Beesley. However all links to that name go to another name, Jennifer Leigh. Who is the actual photographer then? http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightmare/388846359/ shows a different name. Is one a screen name? 217.166.94.1 (talk) 15:06, 11 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Don't know, don't remember. Maybe there used to be a different name, or maybe I made a mistake. I've changed it to the name currently attached to the flickr account. Madeleine ✉ ✍ 19:16, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

GA reassessment of Genetic code
I have conducted a reassessment of the above article as part of the GA Sweeps process. You are being notified as you have made a number of contributions to the article. I have found a number of concerns which you can see at Talk:Genetic code/GA1. I have de-listed the article as the referencing is so poor. However, if improvements are made bringing the article up to standards, the article may be nominated at WP:GAN. If you feel this decision has been made in error, you may seek remediation at WP:GAR. Thanks. Jezhotwells (talk) 21:57, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia Campus Ambassador at Harvard
Hi Madeleine, thanks for your interest in the Wikipedia Campus Ambassador role! The estimated time commitment for this role is about 3-5 hours a week, but we would prefer that the Ambassadors also have convenient access to the university campus so that meet-ups (office hours, etc.) with professors and students can be arranged fairly easily. Most of the work for the Campus Ambassadors will be to provide face-to-face support, usually during the weekdays (when faculty members and students are more likely to be on campus). More details about the Campus Ambassador role can be found at http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Campus_Ambassador. If this still sounds interesting and feasible to you, please let me know, so I can send the application to you. Feel free to email me this info if you prefer: alin@wikimedia.org.

We are also recruiting for Wikipedia Online Ambassadors, whose role (as the name suggests) will be to provide online support for students and professors. Let me know, too, if you are interested in this so I can refer you to our Online Facilitator.

Thanks. I look forward to hearing back from you!

Annie Lin, Campus Team Coordinator Alin (Public Policy) (talk) 22:00, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

Hi Madeleine I am hoping to create a new page speaking specifically towards the Arab Christian communities in the United States. I was hoping you could help me as I work through the process of understanding wikipedia and what my page should offer. hope you get back to me either through wikipedia or my email. Mrc78 (talk) 21:44, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Hi, I'm in the UC Berkeley Politics of Piracy course
Hi Madeleine, My name is Derik Ohanian and I'm a senior at the University of California, Berkeley. I'm enrolled in a Politics of (internet) Piracy course and we're working wikipedia articles for the semester. My instructors told me to get in touch with an ambassador for help with the project.

Respectfully, Derik Ohanian —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dohanian89 (talk • contribs) 16:38, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

Contribution team
Greetings! Please excuse this intrusion on your talk page, and allow me to invite you to participate in the newly-formed Wikipedia Contribution Team (WP:CONTRIB for short)! The goal of the team is to attract more and better contributions to the English Wikipedia, as well as to help support the fundraising team in our financial and editing contribution goals. We have lots of stuff to work on, from minor and major page building, to WikiProject outreach, article improvement, donor relations, and more—in fact, part of our mission is to empower team members to make their own projects to support our mission. Some of our projects only take a few minutes to work on, while others can be large, multi-person tasks—whatever your interest level, we're glad to have you.

If this sounds interesting, please visit WP:CONTRIB and sign onto the team. Even if there does not appear to be anything that really speaks out as being work you'd like to do, I'd encourage you to join and follow the project anyway, as the type of work we'll be doing will certainly evolve and change over time. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me, or ask on the team talk page. Regards, &rArr;  Dan  Rosenthal    Wikipedia Contribution Team  22:19, 18 November 2010 (UTC)


 * By the way, this is a human edit (not a bot). I'm specifically contacting you as you expressed interest in the Campus Ambassador position, and the Wikipedia Contributions Team has a lot of commonality in working along with the Campus Ambassadors. You can reach me on my talk page, or by email at drosenthal@wikimedia.org with questions; I can't guarantee that I'll be checking back on your talk page often enough to hold a sustained conversation there. Regards,  &rArr;  Dan  Rosenthal    Wikipedia Contribution Team  22:19, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Your hand!
Hi Madeleine,

I was just looking up something online when I came across a familiar image at http://www.pocdscientific.com.au/eppendorf_pcr_tubes_0.2-0.5ml.php. Click the "background" tab if you don't see it immediately. Looks like they've used edited versions of your pic and of PCR without any acknowledgement, which is naughty.

Anyway, just thought you'd like to know. Cheers, Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 15:27, 7 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Hah! Thanks, fun to see images get reused despite the lack of attribution. :-) --Madeleine ✉ ✍ 22:35, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

Hey I want to ask you aboyt that schem of DNA structure
Hey I want to ask you aboyt that schem of DNA structure, I want to ask you where from did you take it or if its made by you, if I may use it to make a poster about DNA structure and organization of chromatin.I would be greatefull if you allow me for this :). please answer me at the e-mail: monikatoma3@gmail.com

Best regards, Monika. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Monikatoma3 (talk • contribs) 00:37, 6 January 2013 (UTC)

Genetic statement on Paleolithic diet
Hi Madeleine,

I found your 2x2 on the relationship between geno/phenotype very helpful but perhaps I have misunderstood. Would you please comment, on this Talk page, on the statement: "there is no one-to-one relationship between genotype and phenotype", as it seems from your diagram to me to be at best misleading.

Thanks in advance

LookingGlass (talk) 04:22, 20 April 2013 (UTC)

Possibly unfree File:Sickle cell hemoglobin shortened.png
A file that you uploaded or altered, File:Sickle cell hemoglobin shortened.png, has been listed at Possibly unfree files because its copyright status is unclear or disputed. If the file's copyright status cannot be verified, it may be deleted. You may find more information on the file description page. You are welcome to add comments to its entry at if you object to the listing for any reason. Thank you. Magog the Ogre (t • c) 05:34, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

DNA Replication
Hello Madeleine, Thank you very much for offering the free picture for the DNA Replication. I did have a use for it and it was just perfect.

Great work,

Radwan Dabaja — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:4:2D00:4D5:89EA:FB40:4A63:1271 (talk) 04:57, 6 January 2015 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:40, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Welcome to the ISMB/ECCB editathon!
Hi Madeleine Price Ball,

Welcome to the ISMB/ECCB Editathon! We hope you find this a useful session, let myself or know if you have any questions. Thank you again for your improvements to computational biology coverage on Wikipedia, and if you're not already a member of WikiProject Computational Biology we encourage you to sign up! Amkilpatrick (talk) 10:08, 23 July 2017 (UTC)

Genetics
Greetings! I'm not sure if you will ever come back and I'm probably talking to the wall, but if you one day came back, your help at Genetics would be vital. As you are probably aware, articles with many views get unconstructive edits over the years and eventually, an article can lose featured status. If you could take a look at it one day and remove/add whatever is necessary that would be great. Cheers. Wretchskull (talk) 09:37, 3 April 2021 (UTC)