User talk:Rich Farmbrough/Archive/2006 May

Ordinal numbers
I just saw that on Avagadro's number you've changed “19th century” to “nineteenth century.” I haven't found anything in Manual_of_Style_(dates_and_numbers) that says ordinals are discouraged. In fact, I think they're a lot clearer in most cases. Further, the style page mentioned uses ordinal dates. Am I missing something? — Vijay 21:25, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes, you're quite right WP:MOSNUM does use ordinals, both numeric and spelt out. Many users, myself included, prefer to spell out smaller numbers (where the definition  of smaller varies), in particular I see labelling centuries as numeric as note-taking style, and not suitable for an encyclopaedia.  Rich  Farmbrough 22:12 1  May 2006 (UTC).
 * I definitely agree that smaller numbers (I usually use the <100 definition, but I'm flexible) ought to be spelled out. Although I guess I usually have only applied it to cardinal numbers. I've never heard of "note-taking style," and I would be interested in knowing if any publications do use numeral ordinals. Of course, I usually try to make the suffix superscripted in that case, but most HTML renders superscripting quite ugly. Oh well. I guess that I'll denumeralize (new word!) ordinals when and if I see them. — Vijay 23:10, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

okina
I think you have found out now in the hard way that the { {okina} } template is not there for nothing. Maybe one day in future, when most Windows Explorer owners will have updated, we can do away with it. But not yet now, I am afraid. Still suggestions for improvement are welcome. --Tauʻolunga 06:37, 3 May 2006 (UTC) That was a long time ago! Rich Farmbrough 09:40 3  May 2006 (UTC).

hey
hey this is me — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.108.100.212 (talk • contribs) - added to User talk:Rich Farmbrough/Talk Archive 9

Claudia Emerson
An anonymous poster reinserted a blog as an external source. I suspect it's the blog's owner, Mr. Purdy (gwpurdy@yahoo.com). The blog has no information of value not already listed in the article as an external source. I thought we didn't use blogs as sources. I think it's just an attempt to drive traffic to his site. I wouldn't drive traffice to my blog that way. And I have the same links available. What think ye?--Beth Wellington 21:28, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Mr. Purdy is very mad. He's even started a new blog to decry the situation. Sigh.--Beth Wellington 03:17, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm having trouble with dates in a template for references. Tried several things. None worked. I'm sure it's something simple. Help, please and let me know the fix. Thanks mr. Purdy's latest accomplishment. Linking to a site that took a poem from poetry without proper attribution, rather than linking to Poetry He proudly says NPR is using his screed against Wikipedia. He also brags that the admins here removed the complaints about him--actually it was just archived. Sigh redux.--Beth Wellington 00:51, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Rich, if you look at the reference section, when I tried to wikify dates in refernces, the brackets show. Thanks--Beth Wellington08:29, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

'Preciate it!--Beth Wellington 16:49, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

9/11 Wiki
On the main page of the 9/11 Wiki, there is a link to Wikipedia, a page only created since the main page link could not be changed without sysop privledges. Could you update the link to go to Wikipedia's Main Page (or similar) and delete Wikipedia? Also, you might want to look at the "speedy delete" page if you have time. Thanks! Timrem 02:35, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Trial and conviction of Alfred Dreyfus for Portal:Law
Greetings, Rich. I've picked Trial and conviction of Alfred Dreyfus for theLaw portal's next "selected case". I saw that you did some editing on it, and was wondering if you would give it a run-through to determine if anything should be changed. In particular, the case should have a citation if possible, and should note legal appeals of the conviction, if any. Cheers! bd2412 T 16:08, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Eh?
Hi, you might watch your AWB edits a little more closely. This, for example, contains this gem:


 * There were 15.8% of families and 19.2% of the population living below the poverty line, including 12.5% of under eighteens and 35.7% of those over 64. 

That is pretty poor English by any standards. Of course the Rambot census jargon left lots of room for improvement, but this is not. older ≠ wiser 17:17, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Welcome to VandalProof!
Hi, thank you for your interest in VandalProof and Congratulations! You are now one of our authorized users, so if you haven't already simply download VandalProof from our main page, install and you're ready to go!

If you have any problems please feel free to contact me or post a message on VandalProof's talk page. Once again congrats and welcome to our team! -  Gl e  n   TC (Stollery)  22:56, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

Response also posted on VandalProof disscussion pages
Give log into IE, and give it a shot, let me know the results and I will post that up on the welcome page, thanks.Eagle (talk) (desk) 23:30, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
 * If this does not work I will need infomation on your settings for wikipedia. Let me know
 * Ok, this has been seen before, try this solution, if it does not work, reply on the disscussion page... ditto if it works I want to know both ways thanks. (IE Script Warning help, click hereEagle (talk) (desk) 23:51, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Was it the solution I gave you that worked??? If not tell me what you did.... Thanks, my job as a mod is mainly to smooth out this kind of stuff. Agian really appreciate it, you can post your response to my talk page:-).Eagle (talk) (desk) 00:21, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Lol... yes you absolutly  NEED  popups,
 * Add   to your monobook, and let me know what happens or if you need help with my instructions. Eagle (talk) (desk) 00:28, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Ok, tell me where that documentation is, and I will fix that right now:-) Tell me if you are working properly--- All features and everything... and thanks for asking for help.Eagle (talk) (desk) 00:32, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Arlington County, Virginia
Hey Rich, I wanted to let you know that I have nominated Arlington County, Virginia as a candidate for US Collaboration of the Week. The article is in need of much help and with a little group effort, it could be brought to Featured Article status! I brought this to your attention as I have seen you have contributed to the article in the recent past. Please cast your vote with your signature at the US Collaboration of the Week page under Arlington County, Virginia. --Caponer 02:04, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

"Georgia" is at Georgia (U.S. state)
Please try to link the article rather than the dab page. -- User:Docu
 * Strange, I was quite pleased that I was linking to the U.S. State page... Thanks for telling me. Rich Farmbrough 22:15 5  May 2006 (UTC).


 * Good idea BTW. I always wondered why the state wasn't linked. -- User:Docu

Around or before 07:57, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

test on vandal proof
Sounds good, I am having my own problems as well with vandal proof, have a look on my talk pageEagle talk 09:16, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Thank you

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Removed by scanning subsystem
I haven't seen it at all. Can you point out which one you were talking about. Thanks. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 16:04, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
 * That is very strange. Have you contacted the schools ISP? CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 17:35, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Hi, I noticed you'd commented on an anon's page, who seems to be running software to prevent the posting of expletives. Quite likey it is a school. If this becomes widespread it will take some combatting. Have you seen it elsewhere? Rich Farmbrough 16:01 8  May 2006 (UTC).
 * Have a butchers at this diff. I'm scanning the most recent database dump to see if there's more - just found one in Glen Matlock. Rich  Farmbrough 16:08 8  May 2006 (UTC).
 * Same IP. Only one I could find. Rich  Farmbrough 16:18 8  May 2006 (UTC).
 * P.S. time to archive your talk page! Rich Farmbrough 16:08 8  May 2006 (UTC).

Date delinking
I am hopeful that Ambi can be encouraged to fully accept Quadell's remedy. Please look at my talk page. Thanks. bobblewik 19:02, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

"passed away -> died using AWB".....
You're leaving a trail of morbidly amusing edit summaries behind you: at first glance I thought you were saying that these individuals had died using AWB. Now that's dedication to Wikipedia! Cheers, JDoorj a m    Talk 21:16, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

-
"The Lotus Case and Laser resurfacing have been "in use" since you created them..."
 * Fixed. Folajimi 17:04, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Death of Adolf Hitler
In the article Death of Adolf Hitler you modified the form "When she passed away on October 31" to "Immediately before she died". This is not about Kamato Hongo or her death. Use of her persona in connection with Adolf Hitler calls for very carefull choise of words. I have restored the original form. -- Petri Krohn 03:51, 12 May 2006 (UTC)


 * The original said that she was alive when she was dead. I thought that was a bad idea...Rich Farmbrough 18:13 13  May 2006 (UTC).

Date linking
Can you not delink dates such as December 2004? There has been no discussion about removing these. Rebecca 04:25, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Areas: mi² or square miles?
Hello. I'm not sure if I have anything to add to the argument that hasn't already been said more eloquently. My personal opinion is that there isn't anything to be gained, and much to be lost, by using abbreviations that only appear once or twice in an article. Futhermore, I know that mi is an approved abbreviation for mile in the US, but most UK readers will need it spelling out, as mi is not common here (eg it does not appear in the 2000-page Chambers Dictionary, unlike m). Essentially though, I agree with the first dozen lines of Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style_%28dates_and_numbers%29. Mr Stephen 17:30, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Merkey
Please don't post the amount of the settlement, as it will subject you to suit personally from Mr. Merkey. Bad idea.--BradPatrick 19:34, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

DJ Pierre
Has an out-of-order category in the Cite-sources template - hence Pearle spots it. This is really symptomatic of self-ref cleanup tags which, perhaps, like stubs should not be at the top? Rich Farmbrough 13:51 11  May 2006 (UTC).
 * The problem was that someone inappropriately used subst: for unreferenced, which inserted a Category: link at the top of the page, where it does not belong. It is common practice for these templates to be at the top of the page, where they are most visible.  I replaced the result of the subst: with the template itself. -- Beland 18:17, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

Proposed event policy for Wikicalendar
I recently posted some ideas about developing criteria for what should and should not be listed on Wikicalendar events at the Wikicalendar's talk page. Since you're actively involved in this project, I thought I'd let you know so that you can comment or add more suggestions. Thanks :). Fabricationary 23:43, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

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User_talk:193.112.229.150
Okay. Thanks for sorting that out! :) -- Tangot a ngo 08:28, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

"Passed away"
Thanks for your work in ridding Wikipedia of that irritating euphemism. AnnH ♫ 09:45, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

De-linking dates
Hi, I was just wondering why your bot de-linked the year-dates on Levi Yitzhak Bender article? Especially on his birth years? Thanks, Yoninah 07:07, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Hi, since it is notable in that he had more that one birth year, I have re-linked them. In general dates are only linked when the links are useful WP:MOSNUM (the exception being if month and day of month are included when they respond to user preferences, e.g. 3 May).  Historically every date was linked, which means there are many unnecessary links (the "sea of blue"), and, more importantly, new editors are copying this style.  On a tangential point, a huge battle blew up several months ago when an editor proposed using a bot to de-link dates - so let  me be clear this is not a bot.  I have a bot account User:SmackBot which does useful clean up tasks.  Rich  Farmbrough 08:04 15  May 2006 (UTC).
 * Where did you get the idea he has more than one birth year? I'm the only one who's worked on this article, and there's no talk page saying otherwise. These are the dates provided by my published source, Breslov Research Institute.
 * In future articles, are you suggesting that if I don't know the month and day as well as year of birth/death, I shouldn't link the years? Thank you, Yoninah 18:41, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Changing image name
This is just to let you know that you should NOT change image spelling to any images, even if the spelling is incorrect. ie Changing an image that has "middle earth" to its proper "Middle-earth" Wikipedia will assume that it is a diffrent image and (assuming there is no image of that name) it won't show an image at all. Although it is appropriate to correct the spelling if it is in the image's captioning (the description below it).--Ted87 19:18, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
 * No I don't have it. Sorry. Are you a Tolkien/Middle-earth fan? If you are then you may be intrested in joining Wikiproject Middle-earth.

Amon Hen 171
Hi there. I saw your question about this on Ted's talk page. I have this issue of Amon Hen which has the article Tolkien and Beowulf by Michael Kennedy. What exactly do you want to check about it? Carcharoth 21:15, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

Middle-earth spelling changes
Hi again. I also saw the little discussion about changes to the spellings of Middle-earth. I saw the edits where you did this in the Tolkien article, but then reverted yourself. Was this because the "incorrect" spellings you picked up with AWB were actually incorrect spellings in book and essay titles that should be left as they are? Looking a bit more closely, I spot a certain Tolkien and Beowulf essay there! So I think I know why you wanted Amon Hen 171! I can confirm that on both the contents page and in the title, Middle-earth is spelt with a small 'e'. So I've taken the liberty of making that correction. Carcharoth 21:24, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Though actually, I see that the webpage on which this article was republished has it spelt as "Middle-Earth", so please revert me if you think it should be left with an "E". Carcharoth 21:28, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
 * And the Legendarium one is "e" and the Myth and Modernity one is "E" - from book covers on Amazon. The New York Times article, from Google searches (as NYT requires log-in) is "E". The Michael Martinez article is "E". And rummaging around various reliable websites leads me to think that the Caedmon audio cassette is "E" with no hyphen! So the only one I am unsure about is the Kennedy article - the original publication (Amon Hen) is "e", but the online version (and more importantly the more accessible version), is "E". Incidentially, should the reference say Amon Hen, when in fact it links to an online republication of the article? Carcharoth 21:40, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

One Wonderful Day Quotes
Hi Rich. I just wanted to let you know that Dr. Craig did say "passed away" when informing Bree of Rex's death. I would know that since I have it on DVD. I changed it back to "passed away". If you have any comments, feel free to drop me a message or on the talk page. Cheater1908 18:40, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks for fixing that. Rich Farmbrough 11:26 21  May 2006 (UTC).

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Minor barnstar
This is for excellence in minor edits - well done...! Tyrenius 16:32, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

PM
Okay, 5 p.m. is fine. But not one minute later. :-p Femto 13:08, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Nice to know Femto keeps an eye on the pico. Rich Farmbrough 13:34 23  May 2006 (UTC).

Changes to Hordville, Nebraska
Hi, Rich, and thanks for your improvements to Hordville, Nebraska. I have just a couple of comments that might help you if you decide to continue making similar improvements to other city articles.

First, I noticed you changed the link km² to km². To avoid the redirect, perhaps this should be changed to km² (note the -re spelling).

I also see that you improved the following pair of sentences:
 * 11.2% of the population and 10.9% of families were below the poverty line. 9.8% of those under the age of 18 and 0.0% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Your revision was as follows, which is much better:
 * There were 10.9% of families and 11.2% of the population living below the poverty line, including 9.8% of under eighteens and none of those over 64.

I would suggest the wording below:
 * About 10.9% of families and 11.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.8% of those under the age of 18 and none of those 65 and older.

To me, "under eighteens" sounds very clumsy; the original "those under the age of 18" sounds much better. I think you added "there were" to the beginning of the sentence to avoid starting it with a figure, but I don't like how that sounds. I tried to come up with a better way of wording that, and the best I could come up with is to use the word "about". After all, it appears that the Census Bureau does a little fiddling to come up with those numbers. There were 48 families in Hordville as of the 2000 Census. If five families lived under the poverty line, that would be 10.4% of families; if six lived in poverty, that would be 12.5%. So the 10.9% figure must be an estimate based on some statistical analysis, in which case "about" is appropriate. The same goes for the 11.2% figure.

Let me know what you think. —Bkell (talk) 18:10, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your constructive comments. On the first point, square kilometre was a redirect until earlier today, when I recreated it for the second time! So it's a considered decision to go for km², but admittedly a little arbitrary.  On your second point, this is perhaps the most complicated part of the process, because the original wording of  the poverty section was manifestly wrong, therefore a lot of manual changes occurred.  I do take your point, and am not completely happy with any solution I've seen for wording this part, but I will review what I do in light of your comments.  Because the changes are now fairly complex, (and I've done about 3,500 articles already) I may also finish the exercise as is, or very close, and come back with improved wording as a third pass. (The first pass was putting the census results in the past tense.) Rich  Farmbrough 21:16 25  May 2006 (UTC).
 * P.S. I've now incorporated your suggestions for the poverty sentence. Thanks again. Rich Farmbrough 11:48 26  May 2006 (UTC).

edit summary
Can you remove the extra "using AWB" from smackbots edit summary, it currently says it twice. thanks Martin 15:03, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Well spotted. Rich Farmbrough 15:35 28  May 2006 (UTC).

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0.00% in census data
I noticed your bot's edit to Muenster, Texas and thought I'd let you know that I rather think that the 0.00 % figures in census data for a town is necessary for major races. It 1) establishes that the race makes up less than 0.005% of the population (0.00 is not the same as zero) and 2) reaffirms for the reader that the US Census isn't lumping that race under "other races". &mdash; Laura Scudder &#9742; 14:55, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
 * On your first point, I had thought of that, for towns with a population of less tan 20,000 even one person should show up as .005% rounded up to .01%. I will not substitute 0.00% for towns with a substantially greater population, (although I suspect there will be few if any).  Your second point is interesting, "other races" is fairly well explained in the article Race (United States Census) which is extensively linked to from every article.  Perhaps putting "other races" in quotes would emphasise the meaning. See Muenster, Texas, let me know what you think. Rich Farmbrough 15:09 29  May 2006 (UTC).
 * P.S. The largest town I found with a 0.00% was New Richmond, Ohio, with a pop of just over 2000. Rich Farmbrough 13:48 30 May 2006 (UTC).