User talk:Pdebee/Archive 9 (2021)

Remembering Brian Boulton
[Message text copied here from User talk:Brianboulton:] Dear colleagues, I wanted to create something by which those of us who have had the pleasure of working with him could commemorate our friend Brian Boulton, who died peacefully on 9 December 2019. Although userboxes are often used for frivolous purposes, it occurred to me that it would be meaningful simply to display the following userbox on our user pages:

To add this userbox to your page, just apply: With kind regards; Patrick. Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)

Precious anniversary
--Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:41, 6 March 2021 (UTC) Thank you once again for your continued, kind support to your fellow editors, dear ! Please keep well, safe and joyful. With best wishes and kindest regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 10:31, 6 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you, also for thank-you-clicks in between, and the lovely flowers that I took to my blushing corner when you sent them first. When reminding of precious, I began looking if a user edited during the last year, and am always so pleased when I recognize a name and know immediately: just edited! I am lazy, - looking up contribs takes time. My kindness to a fellow editor has been interpreted as grave-dancing, so the more: your reply is dearly appreciated. - I am with Bish and Giano, - all uplifting is especially welcome these days. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:18, 6 March 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for the help!
Thank you for updating the member count! I saw the reminder but I forgot while I was adding my name in the list. CodeMyGame Wiki (talk) 23:31, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

Thank you
... for what the flowers you added for User talk:SlimVirgin - missing pictured on my talk, with music full of hope and reformation --Gerda Arendt (talk) 19:09, 29 June 2021 (UTC)

Dear ,

Sending you kind thoughts and smiles, hoping you are keeping well and safe, and also just to fill in some of this blank space... With kindest regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 15:27, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

Userbox in memory of Sarah (SlimVirgin)
[Message text copied here from User talk:SlimVirgin:] Dear colleagues, I created a generic userbox to commemorate our absent Wikifriends, and I keep a copy for Sarah at my user page:

To add this userbox to your user page, just copy/paste:

With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 15:13, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

I just went to tell SV that I had worked on an article she worked on, and I saw your userbox. Thank you, I have added it. I know its silly to tell a dead person that you miss them and have worked on their articles, but it helps me. - Aussie Article Writer (talk) 08:53, 5 August 2021 (UTC) Thank you for taking the time to make contact. I am pleased to know the userbox might be of some help in our grieving for absent friends. Please keep well and safe. With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 18:39, 6 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Dear ,
 * Thank you, SV was very special. Your kindness makes this project better. Thank you. - Aussie Article Writer (talk) 11:25, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:McGarrigles Tell My Sister album cover.jpg
Thanks for uploading File:McGarrigles Tell My Sister album cover.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 17:29, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

Help with efn templates, please
Dear helpful fellow editors,

I am in the process of drafting an article about Jack Whiting and am experiencing two problems: I have been checking and re-checking the wikicode, and consulting Notelist several times, and am now at a loss to understand what’s causing these strange symptoms. I would therefore appreciate any helpful pointers, and/or an explanation of what I am doing wrong, as I would like the current structure of prose, footnotes and citations to remain as I designed them. Very many thanks in advance for your helpful assistance.
 * 1) In the section for Explanatory footnotes, the first two entries in the notelist each have an additional superscripted letter (‘d’) when, in fact, both these footnotes are only invoked three times (‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘c’; which work perfectly). I am therefore surprised that a fourth and totally unnecessary superscripted letter ‘d’ is created, which does not lead anywhere when clicked on.
 * 2) The third (and final) entry in the same notelist ends with , which generates a superscripted digit of [116], but this does not link to the citation, which therefore does not appear in the list of citations, where I would expect it to be listed as citation #116.

With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 21:02, 10 October 2021 (UTC)


 * Geez, this is an annoying issue. The best solution I have is to not use any sfn's in the Explanatory Footnote section, as it seems to really not like that when combined with list-defined references? I'll go ahead and make the change with them commented out for now... sorry that this is pretty sub-optimal. Perryprog (talk) 22:21, 10 October 2021 (UTC)

Thank you so much for your prompt response and helpful efforts. I have now replaced the sfn's with equivalent harvnb's enclosed in  tags and that solved issue #2. I can't figure out why issue #1 occurs but I can live with the superfluous 'd', as it's doing no harm; it's just slightly annoying that it will confuse some readers because of its uselessness. Perhaps a bot will fix this once I've published the article in a few weeks' time, as I am not done with it yet. Thank you once again for your prompt assistance, and for all your other contributions to our encyclopaedia. With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 08:58, 11 October 2021 (UTC) With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 09:11, 11 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Dear ,
 * PS: Actually, the above fix didn't fully solve issue #2; so, I'll have to come back to this later, as I am now needed IRL. More later...

Dear , Good news: I've now changed harvnb's enclosed in  tags to harv's without    tags around them, and it worked (see latest version: Explanatory footnotes). I had used this method before but since the use of harv's without  tags has been deprecated, I wanted to use sfn's instead, especially since they would have provided the reader with a consistent citation method. By the way, this solution also fixes the superfluous 'd' issues, which is most gratifying. Very many thanks once again for all your help and efforts! With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 11:24, 11 October 2021 (UTC)


 * Oh, that's awesome! And of course, I'm happy to help. Perryprog (talk) 12:16, 11 October 2021 (UTC)

Request for photograph(s)
[Message text copied here from Talk:Jack Whiting (actor):] Dear ,

I hope you are keeping well and safe? All is well here. I am hopeful that your earlier offer of assistance with screening and uploading photographs still stands? If so, then I'd be most appreciative if, whenever convenient, you could contribute a photo of Jack Whiting for the present article's infobox, please? Thank you very much Rob, for letting me know if you're able to assist, whenever convenient. Until then, please keep well. With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 16:10, 14 November 2021 (UTC)
 * There is this one, at travsd's blog, which suggests that it might be in the public domain?
 * This excellent photo at IMDb also seems suitable for our purposes.
 * As would this one, at famousfix.com.
 * Hey Patrick, I just loaded a pic. Robman94 (talk) 17:57, 14 November 2021 (UTC)

Amazing!!! That pic is even better than the other three I suggested above! You’re an absolute star, Rob, and thank you so much, once again, for being such a helpful and supportive colleague (and blisteringly prompt! ). With kindest regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 18:10, 14 November 2021 (UTC) With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 15:45, 15 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Dear ,
 * You're welcome. If you want to know how I did it, I just searched ebay for pics of him.  Pics taken before 1978 that don't have copyright markings on them are considered public domain and therefore free to use, so as he died in 1961 any pic of him would be eligible as long as it doesn't have any (C) markings on it.  I downloaded and uploaded the first version "as is", so people can check for (C) markings, then I digitally cleaned it up by removing the autograph, cropping the edges and rebalancing it.  Robman94 (talk) 19:42, 14 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Hi ; thank you also for taking the time to offer the above explanation. I'll copy this section to my talk page, and will continue our exchange from there.

[End of Message text copied here from Talk:Jack Whiting (actor) 15:50, 15 November 2021 (UTC)

Hi again , I really appreciate that you explained the procedure you followed to add that excellent photo of Jack Whiting; thank you! I have read your explanation and have the following comments:


 * 1. I remember your clever trick of looking for images on eBay, and could easily do the same.
 * 2. I have never edited in Commons before, but clicked on the photo you added yesterday and saw the result of your work, including the very useful link to the Hirtle chart, which clarifies all the conditions that apply to copyright terms, and the template(s) to use in each case. I'd never seen this chart before and find it illuminating! I am confident that I could use it as a guide to select the appropriate template.
 * 3. What would help me greatly, please Rob, is to receive from you a step-by-step guide on how to add the selected pic into Commons (like you did before, when you taught me how to save stuff into the Wayback machine, which I have used successfully since then; thanks again!). If you used the example of what you did to upload the Whiting pic, then I am sure I could follow that in future, and also select the appropriate template in each case.
 * 4. Unlike you, I don't have any photo editing software on my desktop, as it's not one of my areas of interest (and probably won't be).

But, if you were able to send me the guidance for point 3., whenever convenient please Rob, then I'm sure I could become a bit more self-sufficient about most of this task! Thank you for your continued help and guidance! With kind regards for now; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 16:30, 15 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Hey Patrick, to tell you the truth, I cheat a little!  In the past I have done some research on what type of old photos would have fallen into the public domain and I already have loaded pics under those licenses in the past, so when I have a new pic to load, like in this case, I first use the Upload File link from the menu bar on the left, then I go through the steps as if it is my own work, then once it's loaded, I quickly edit it replacing all the current text with new text copied from one of my old uploads that's using the same PD license.  You can see all the photos that I've uploaded here.  This is an example of a pre-1978 photo (and it's the one I used to copy/paste the text for the latest pic), and this is a pre-1926 photo (which you may recognize). As for the photo editing software that I use, I just use Microsoft Photo Editor, which came free with a really old version of MS Office. It's no Photoshop by any means, but it's great for cropping and fixing the balance.  I'll send you an email with more info. Robman94 (talk) 23:05, 16 November 2021 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for November 21
An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Say, Darling, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page David Atkinson.

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 06:00, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

Robert Ingersoll address
Dear Pdebee, Would you please double-check a date? Recently you contributed:

Membership of The Lambs
Ingersoll was elected to The Lambs Theatre Club in 1889 and gave an address to their first public "gambol" at the Broadway Theatre on March 3, 1981; his address "brought many laughs". — Robert_G._Ingersoll

1981 is long after his lifetime, but I'm not saying it's untrue — he could have given the address posthumously, if recorded on Edison cylinders. … Which I might enjoy hearing. About me: I'm touching up the OCR work on Frederick Douglass's autobiography. Douglass said the kindest things about Ingersoll :^) — Plan9fromInnerSpace (talk) 18:39, 26 December 2021 (UTC)

With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 19:48, 26 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Dear ,
 * Thank you so much for your interest in that edit, and for spotting my typo: it should have been “1891”, of course, and I’m most grateful to you for pointing this out to me, especially in such a friendly way; I shall correct my error immediately! All very best wishes of the festive season to you and yours, and many thanks once again.