User talk:Nwilson5

lat & long
"Negative" degrees are not "nonsense," they've long been used in computer mapping applications and still work. If you want to change something like -x dgr E to x dgr W please do, but please stop commenting out or otherwise removing coordinates in articles which use negative directional values, they work. Gwen Gale (talk) 22:08, 29 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Responding... Sorry if my response is not customary to wikipedia, I barely use it for updating stuff just browsing and did not see a way to simply 'respond'. Due to projects I've been working with on wikipedia dumps I noticed many inconsistencies in coordinates and was attempting to fix the errors I saw. Are you saying it is right to assume that any time someone stated negative degrees East (which is a contradiction) they meant to simply state negative degrees, which implies west? Because if that is so, I can very easily just look up all the ones that do that and change them because it is sloppy to state negative degrees east or north. Although the coordinate site wikipedia translates that simply to being degrees West or South in those cases, I wasn't going to assume that that was correct in all cases because the original intent when those coordinates were put in by the users are not clear. I don't quite know who you are but since you put a welcome on here I will assume you have some sort of authority. As I said, if it's safe to assume they are all intended to be west/south if a negative is put in, I will edit them as such. Otherwise, if it is uncertain and not easily assumed, then it is right to assume that the data to begin with is not trustworthy or valid and thus it would be right for me to remove it until the person putting it in makes it clear. Nwilson5 (talk) 21:07, 30 October 2011 (UTC)


 * As I said above, negative coords are not a contradiction, they work (when clicked through to the mapping engines) and are widely understood as such in the context of computer mapping. It's very helpful to tidy them, but they are not wrong, as such. Please don't comment them out or otherwise remove them. Thanks. See also WP:Point (I don't think you've done this, but it's easy for new, good faith users to do when they don't yet understand how things are done here). Gwen Gale (talk) 21:11, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

Negative coordinates are not invalid, correct. I didn't say they were. Negative latitude is South. But when someone states negative degrees North it doesn't make sense. The reason why when you click them they actually go somewhere is because they're programmed to just treat those as South. It does not mean it is valid, it means they're programmed to deal with human error and to assume what the individual intended. So, to answer my question then - is it right then to assume every time someone says negative degrees North they intended South? Because if so I will just change them... Nwilson5 (talk) 21:15, 30 October 2011 (UTC)


 * No. Please don't remove them. You can check to see if they click through to the topic location (you'll find they almost always do, now and then don't). Feel free to tidy them with positive NSEW coords, fix the location, or leave them be. By the way, the negative coords show up because with some mapping engines (like Google, at least in the past), an editor will zoom into the location and find that the coords have been spit out that way. The editors aren't trying to be sloppy or odd, they're posting coords that work, are understood and can easily be tidyed later if need be. Gwen Gale (talk) 21:21, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

I won't remove them. And if coordinates are stated as negative degrees North they will show up on the maps but that doesn't necessarily mean they're valid. I have a few hundred cases where that pops up but I'm not about to check the map for every one to see if it's actually right or human error (right being not that the coordinates show up on a map, but rather that the place on the map is actually correctly pointing to that location). It's not about whether or not the coordinates will show up on the map - they will. It's about whether or not that's the actual location of the place in question. In those cases, since the coordinates do show up on the map I will just change it from negative degrees East/North to simply being X degrees West/South, then. If you're telling me also to not do that - then you're telling me that the coordinates are not necessarily valid but to keep them up anyways. If search engines are spitting out coordinates like that, they may not be intending to be sloppy - but they are being sloppy. And I doubt a place like google gives people coordinates in that way.


 * It did a few years back, anyway. The main thing is, -x E = x W. As I said above, when checked they indeed match the topic location by far most of the time, which is to say, negative coords on en.WP articles are not correlated with a plotting error any more or less than all-positive coords (indeed, the "human error" rate on all-positive coords could be higher, because they may have had more human input). Gwen Gale (talk) 22:31, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

catching vandalism
You missed that this edit was easily fixable vandalism, there was no need to blank the buckets. Gwen Gale (talk) 22:21, 29 October 2011 (UTC)


 * If I see it again I'll try to figure out the cause of it. Not familiar with checking edit history. Perhaps there's a way to just report something like that if I am unable to determine the cause of it being so wrong? Nwilson5 (talk) 21:07, 30 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Click on the history tab at the top. It's very easy once one gets the hang of it. Gwen Gale (talk) 21:12, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

welcome
Welcome!

Hello, Nwilson5, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place  before the question. Again, welcome! Gwen Gale (talk) 22:31, 29 October 2011 (UTC)
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * Tutorial
 * How to edit a page and How to develop articles
 * How to create your first article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
 * Manual of Style


 * Thanks for the welcome. I figured I have been using wikipedia dumps writing various programs to sift through them and pulling out relevant information to my needs that I should put a little back in. Nwilson5 (talk) 21:11, 30 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Wonderful! Keep in mind, one's own information needs are not the same as those of an openly edited encyclopedia (which is why the links to all the policies above can be very handy for new editors as they wade in). Cheers, Gwen Gale (talk) 21:16, 30 October 2011 (UTC)