User talk:Rich Farmbrough/Archive/2013 December

The Signpost: 04 December 2013

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 * EdwardsBot (talk) 06:53, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

Apparent vandalism
This edit should be reverted. Rich Farmbrough, 15:46, 5 December 2013 (UTC).


 * Done, thanks. -- Neil N  talk to me  15:55, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

Skin Cancer
The article currently says:
 * Combined with Australians favoring an outdoor life-style, when temperatures are warmer, under high levels of UV, the associated risk of skin cancer will increase.

I have not been able to find support for this statement in reference (except for the broad relation between UV and skin cancer - which would be better cited to its source F El Ghissassi, R Baan, et al. A review of human carcinogens–part D: radiation. Lancet Oncololgy 2009;10:751–2 ) in the source. I think this should be re-written.


 * Combined with Australians favoring an outdoor life-style, when temperatures are warmer, under high levels of UV, the associated risk of skin cancer will increase.

The first part could be completely removed. I think there is danger also of original synthesis here.

Rich Farmbrough, 23:45, 28 November 2013 (UTC).

Thank you; I've changed it. &mdash; rybec   02:48, 1 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Seasons greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 09:07, 6 December 2013 (UTC).

Strawberry Swing not in citation
"Coldplay sparked an interest at Hispanic influences after having recorded in churches and in Spanish-speaking countries such as in Mexico in America and Spain in Europe, adding an African-sounding influence to the song."

The source cited merely says recorded in, and inspired by, Spanish churches and paintings and other artsy atmospheric stuff (though how one records in a painting remains a mystery). No reference to Mexico or Africa. Moreover Viva la Vida indicates the recording locations of:
 * The Bakery, London;
 * The Magic Shop, New York City;
 * The Nunnery, Barcelona;
 * A church, Barcelona

I suggest the sentence be recast:

"Coldplay sparked an interest at Hispanic influences after having recorded in churches in Spanish-speaking locations, Mexico and Spain (Barcelona), adding an African-sounding influence to the song."

and the uncited parts be raised on the talk page. (It does seem that any African influence comes from family or musical background, rather than the location of the recording.)

(Note: I am assuming the on-line and print version are not substantially different.)

Also worth noting, there is an interview with Shynola at http://www.coldplay.com/newsdetail.php?id=448 which may be a useful external link or even reference.
 * Seasons greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 09:54, 6 December 2013 (UTC).

Mixtape
As well as being completely unsourced (and a little dubious) this section repeats itself and could do with a quick re-write. (Also the lead might mention "mix tape" which seems to have been a very common spelling.)

Seasons greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 10:07, 6 December 2013 (UTC).

Wikidata weekly summary #87
Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week. Read the full report &middot; Unsubscribe &middot; John F. Lewis 21:22, 6 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Discussions
 * Change the resysopping process
 * Inactive administrators
 * Open RfBs: The Anonymouse
 * Events/Press/Blogs
 * Gerard blogs about the Italian Wikipedia search updates (See the Polish Wikipedia's update too)
 * Other Noteworthy Stuff
 * The Italian and Polish Wikipedia now display Wikidata results in their searches
 * A few new features which require your testing!
 * Did you know?
 * Newest properties: NCL identifier, Catholic Hierarchy ID, discovery method, Sycomore ID, SWB editions, IDEO Job ID, ZDB identifier
 * Newest task forces: Periodicals task force
 * Showcase items: Douglas Adams, ethanol
 * Development
 * Finalized localization of quantity values
 * Worked on support for scientific notation in quantities
 * More work on improving diffs
 * Worked on ranks and grouping of statements of the same rank
 * Improved performance of AuthorityControl gadget by a factor of 5
 * Finished work on initial version of ordering of statements
 * Bene* finished the API part of badges support (user interface part is still needed)
 * Database performance improvements
 * Released DataValues Serialization 0.1 https://github.com/DataValues/Serialization/
 * Released Ask Serialization 1.0 https://github.com/wmde/AskSerialization
 * Open Tasks for You
 * Update, expand and translate d:Wikidata:Introduction to make it easier for newcomers to understand what Wikidata is all about.
 * Improve some road items in your country by adding some statements to them.
 * Help fix formatting and value issues for a property.
 * Build a bot for one of the "bot requests".
 * Hack on one of these.
 * Help develop the next summary here!

File:Winchmore Hill Station.jpg listed for deletion
A file that you uploaded or altered, File:Winchmore Hill Station.jpg, has been listed at Files for deletion. Please see the to see why it has been listed (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry). Feel free to add your opinion on the matter below the nomination. Thank you. Sfan00 IMG (talk) 22:03, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Tiffany Page


The article Tiffany Page has been proposed for deletion&#32; because of the following concern:
 * Not notable

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Raykyogrou0 ( Talk ) 15:35, 8 December 2013 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Library Survey
As a subscriber to one of The Wikipedia Library's programs, we'd like to hear your thoughts about future donations and project activities in this brief survey. Thanks and cheers, Ocaasit &#124; c 15:49, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

Progress template wrong?
Why did I have to make these edits to make Template:Articles with too many wikilinks progress show the correct total?

It used to show 1 dated, 1 undated, and 2 total, but since the one entry in the undated category is the "All" category, it should have shown 1 dated, 1 undated, and 1 total, as it does now, after my edits.

According to the documentation of Template:Progress box, the progress box should have been able to do this automatically, since the undated category is simply "All"+the dated category. The documentation says: Where there is no "All" category specified and one is not found by prepending "All" to the undated category name, the total is calculated by adding the component categories.

Do you have an explanation? Debresser (talk) 01:28, 6 December 2013 (UTC)


 * It's this bit of code:


 * It should read


 * (Alternatively, and maybe better, a /core template could be used - or indeed Lua though I'm not sure how well that supports the safesubst: - which incidentally allows (should allow?) one to take a snapshot of the category set, to track progress with individual months.)


 * Further you can improve the call in the specific progress box thus




 * Seasons greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 08:06, 6 December 2013 (UTC).

Also, why does Category:Articles with too many wikilinks say there is a backlog, if there is only one article? What is the trigger for showing the backlog parameter in this case? Debresser (talk) 01:31, 6 December 2013 (UTC)
 * The template was not cut from whole cloth, but made to reflect current usage, as such it calls the  which reflected the then usage (except it used text for sub-cats) - but takes no parameters, presumably because no reliable mechanism for counting entries in sub categories then existed (I am guessing that with Lua all things are possible).  It is not clear, of course, what constitutes a backlog, arguably one article does - and mathematicians would doubtless appeal to the empty backlog.
 * The purpose (or part of the purpose) of the "Safesubst" version of the template was to enable record-keeping to define what constitutes a "backlog" - under the definition "significantly more work-in-progress than normal" (the other part, of course, to see where there is no "normal" but simply an ever increasing pile of issues).
 * If you think this problem (the presence of the message box) is worth attention there are six quick solutions that spring to mind:
 * Get rid of the message box, it is redundant
 * Make it supressable by parameter "backlog=no" to - pragmatically most (I dare not say all, though I suspect it) categories are either backlogged permanently, or never (like uncategorized), for some value of "backlogged".
 * Drive it from the "All blah" category size
 * Drive it from the existence of a "one month ago" or "two months ago" category
 * Drive it from the corresponding Category:Monthly clean up category counter.
 * Use the counting code from.
 * Seasons greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 08:37, 6 December 2013 (UTC).

Why do you say in solution 1 that the backlog template is redundant? I think I may agree, but I'd like to hear your reasoning. I do understand correctly that you mean it is redundant in the Parent monthly clean up category template, right? Debresser (talk) 12:12, 6 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes I do mean that. Either there is a backlog or the sub-cats are empty - which is plain to see, and pretty unusual. Seasons greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 16:52, 10 December 2013 (UTC).

I made the change to Progress box, and now we are back to counting the "All" category in all cases, regardless of whatever the third parameter is. I thought the idea was to exclude the "All" category from the total, no? Debresser (talk) 13:17, 6 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Well, the idea is to use the "all" category if it exists, because that is far more efficient than 72 calls to . The explicit naming is just for when the obvious naming convention is not followed (and, for example, names like "All Wikipedia pages needing...." where the template would assume "All wikipedia pages needing...." was the name of the "All" category).  As you know I consider the "All..." categories pretty useless anyway, but they do at least allow that small benefit.  Seasons greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 16:52, 10 December 2013 (UTC).


 * Thanks for your replies. It was nice speaking with you again. Debresser (talk) 20:38, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

The Signpost: 11 December 2013

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 * EdwardsBot (talk) 04:31, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

Mersey Tunnels Police
The navbox at the bottom is redlinked: it should be, not services. Season's greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 07:56, 11 December 2013 (UTC).


 * ✅, see . Shall we be seeing you on Sunday? -- Red rose64 (talk) 15:51, 11 December 2013 (UTC)
 * I do hope so. Season's greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 04:38, 13 December 2013 (UTC).

Uranus (mythology)
The image (shown to the right) included in the infobox on this article describes the main figure as "Aion-Uranus". Aion (the Anatolian one at least) is more commonly identified with Kronos (a son/grandson of Uranus) or possibly according to Eurpides a son of Kronos. Indeed, although much confusion is engendered by other uses and associations (and the strong distinction between Aion and Chronos, the latter often conflated with Kronos), I am not aware of any serious identification of Aion with Uranus, though I am no expert, and my Greek mythology reference books are mostly not accessible right now. I would suggest that this matter be raised on the talk page, with a view to replacing the image.

Season's greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 06:47, 13 December 2013 (UTC).

Template:AD listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Template:AD. Since you had some involvement with the Template:AD redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion (if you have not already done so). WOSlinker (talk) 11:23, 15 December 2013 (UTC)

Template:MI listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Template:MI. Since you had some involvement with the Template:MI redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion (if you have not already done so). WOSlinker (talk) 11:24, 15 December 2013 (UTC)

The Signpost: 18 December 2013

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 * EdwardsBot (talk) 06:45, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

Merge partner
Hi.

How do you like this edit to Template:Merge sections? I understand there is no difference between "y" and "yes", but I think the addition of the parameters target and discuss, which are after all used in Merge as well, was a good idea.

By the way, I added a target parameter to the code of Merge to, just like we have it in Merge. I find it confusing that the same parameter we are allowed to use in Merge for indicating the target can not be used in Merge to. I hope you agree that is a good idea?

I wanted to ask you the following. In Merge and Merge to, Merge partner passes on only the parameter. I think that in Merge to this could also be the target parameter. Do you agree? In that case, should the code be ? I agree that the word partner was initially meant to mean two articles merging together, but in the case of Merge to, the partner is the target (or the target is the partner, perhaps), wouldn't you say? Debresser (talk) 21:47, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
 * It's . I agree with your sentiments I think. Season's greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 15:50, 18 December 2013 (UTC).


 * Thanks for the fix. Done. Debresser (talk) 20:41, 18 December 2013 (UTC)

By the way, do you see a way of removing Merge sections, Merge sections to and Merge sections from, from Category:Articles for merging with no partner, Category:Items to be merged and in the case of Merge sections also Category:Pages with misplaced templates other than copying the whole codes of Merge, Merge to and Merge from into them (with the necessary adjustments for the fact that section=yes, of course)? And I do not mean wrapping the whole template in includeonly tags, because I think that showing the template in action is a good idea. I have no idea how Merge, Merge to and Merge from do it. Debresser (talk) 22:03, 16 December 2013 (UTC)


 * You can do this by wrapping the category in in a suitable namespace conditional.  As to self-documenting by display on the template page I agree in principle.  It can make better sense to do this in the  though.  Many many templates (specifically infoboxes) have the overhead of making parameter-free stuff look good on the template page, which is carried to every invocation. Season's greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 16:01, 18 December 2013 (UTC).


 * Wrapping the category in a conditional that would remove template namespace would remove the functionality for template altogether, and that is not what we want. If I put them on the documentation, won't the documentation and the template page be categorized? Debresser (talk) 20:41, 18 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes it would, however the instructions make it clear that should not be used on templates.
 * Yes you are quite right, I was suggesting that as a solution to templates containing special code to "rig" their display on one or two pages. E.G. instead of providing a default value that is only displayed on the template page itself the documentation instantiation can include sensible dummy values, that cost (almost) nothing on every other transclusion (depending how smart the Mediawiki software is).
 * Season's greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 20:46, 19 December 2013 (UTC).

Another small question. Is there any difference between, and  ?
 * But these merge templates are still sometimes used in template namespace. That is the problem we have to deal with: how to still detect the merge proposal, but exclude those 3 merge sections templates. Debresser (talk) 21:18, 19 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Functionally, no. Semantically yes. It's like constructing a sentence with an empty subject, no verb and an object that is a full sentence - its a valid sentence, but  funny way to go about it.  Or saying "We have a car design where the front offside wheel is replaced by a traditional car, and all the other components are rendered obsolete." Season's greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 20:46, 19 December 2013 (UTC).


 * I see. Thanks. Debresser (talk) 21:18, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

And a less small question. If I want to sort template namespace with an additional parameter, like in Template:Broken ref which uses an ω, how would I do that with DMC? Debresser (talk) 05:14, 17 December 2013 (UTC)
 * You would need to change DMC so that the category calls look like this:
 * Of course this behaviour might not be wanted by all callees, if so it would either need a switch or a fork. A fork is more efficient (probably) but people will likely complain of a "maintenance nightmare" even though this template has only had one substantive edit in 3 years. Season's greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 20:58, 19 December 2013 (UTC).
 * Of course this behaviour might not be wanted by all callees, if so it would either need a switch or a fork. A fork is more efficient (probably) but people will likely complain of a "maintenance nightmare" even though this template has only had one substantive edit in 3 years. Season's greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 20:58, 19 December 2013 (UTC).


 * Is there any reason that code would be problematic in any other cases? I could suggest it on the talkpage. Debresser (talk) 21:18, 19 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Well it seems basically a Good Thing to me. See the documentation for, and note that new namespace needs adding to the template.  Season's greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 21:25, 19 December 2013 (UTC).

Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood
Could you please check all the references for "Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood" page and also the page for — Preceding unsigned comment added by 14.201.27.142 (talk) 10:18, 18 December 2013 (UTC)


 * 1) ^ Clear, Royal Children, p. 78
 * 2) ^ The Times, 29 March 1965
 * 3) ^ Yvonne's Royalty Home Page — Royal Christenings
 * 4) ^ Leodis, Leodis - Leeds city Archives UK. "Leeds UK Government". Leodis Archives. Leeds City Council UK Gov. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
 * 5) ^ "Royal babies 1920-1929". Country Life.
 * 6) ^ Bradford, Sarah (1989). King George VI. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. p. 424. ISBN 0-297-79667-4.
 * 7) ^ Royal Styles and Titles – 1898 Letters Patent
 * 8) ^ After the accession of her father, George V, she became the child of a Sovereign, and therefore her title changed to The Princess Mary
 * 9) ^ Heraldica – British Royal Cadency


 * 1)  Needs more details :  (if indeed it is the 1981  edition, not the 1984 or other) - in the text it seems odd to say "paternal great-grandmother" without explaining "paternal great-grandmother - Queen Victoria" the first time it is mentioned. (Of course there are two paternal great grandmothers, making the wording even more infelicitous.)
 * 2) This is not available to me right now, but the Times is considered a paper of record.
 * 3) This does not look like a reliable source - it seems to be someone's hobby page (which is not to say it isn't well done, and properly researched, it simply doesn't meet Wikipedia's preferred standards).  It does however list  wealth of useful published sources.
 * 4) Splitting this up into:
 * 5) http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?resourceIdentifier=201069_170837 and
 * 6) http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?resourceIdentifier=20041110_49352664
 * would probably be better.  Better still to find a source about the subject, rather than about postcards.
 * 1) Similarly, this supports the fact, but it may not be the best (or most stable) way of doing it.
 * 2) Can't refer to this book, but it seems a good source on the face of it.
 * 3) This is a reasonably good citation  since it is a straight copy of the document.  Again better to refer to the National Archives original, linking to Heraldica if no better on-line repository is available.  London Gazette is a good place for  things like this.
 * 4) A citation to support this would be nice.  I would format it ... changed to "The Princess Mary"
 * 5) This supports only the cadency, but suffers like #3 from  possibly not qualifying as a WP:RS. There are heraldic directories in most public libraries which might help here.


 * Season's greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 22:13, 19 December 2013 (UTC).

Nomination for deletion of Template:Track length needed
Template:Track length needed has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 19:34, 17 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Adding a category would be trivial (you can use "what links here" instead). Low usage of a maintenance template is not necessarily a sign of non-utility, it can be a sign of the very opposite -  for example. Season's greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 21:13, 19 December 2013 (UTC).


 * reposted at TfD &mdash; rybec   00:11, 20 December 2013 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #89
Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week. Read the full report &middot; Unsubscribe &middot; John F. Lewis 13:12, 21 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Discussions
 * Discussion over the notability of the new Draft namespace on the English Wikipedia
 * Discussion over the notability of template documentation items
 * RfC: Notability of item for all special pages
 * Other Noteworthy Stuff
 * Wikisource is still scheduled to get language links via Wikidata on January 14th
 * Did you know?
 * Newest properties: NLM ID, NDL editions
 * Showcase items: Douglas Adams
 * Fun Fact: The Mayan calendar (Q2012) did not correctly predict the end of the world nor the end of Q items as Wikidata (Q2013) went on to host Wikipedia links this year.
 * Development
 * Happy Holidays from the dev team! Have a great time and continue being awesome ;-)
 * Improved and added a lot of tests
 * Worked on displaying qualifiers in the non-JavaScript UI
 * No longer displaying the table of contents from item/property pages if there would be less than 3 entries in it
 * Caching and database improvements
 * Worked on preventing the import of wikitext into the main and property namespace
 * More work on quantities UI
 * Open Tasks for You
 * Update, expand and translate d:Wikidata:Introduction to make it easier for newcomers to understand what Wikidata is all about.
 * Use the rails, help out the Railways task force!
 * Help fix formatting and value issues for a property.
 * Build a bot for one of the "bot requests".
 * Hack on one of these.

Glad Tidings and all that ...
FWiW Bzuk (talk) 23:34, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #90
Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week. Read the full report &middot; Unsubscribe &middot; John F. Lewis 23:48, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Discussions
 * Discussion over handling of items
 * RfC: Interwiki links for subpages (Notability based discussion)
 * Closed: Inactive administrators
 * Closed: Bot policy
 * Closed RfA: Matěj Suchánek (Successful)
 * Open RfA: GerardM
 * Other Noteworthy Stuff
 * Add the file and translate namespaces to the list of namespaces excluded from Wikibase Client's linking functionality and enable the "Add links" dialog for pages without language links on commons. (#58903)
 * Did you know?
 * Newest properties: chromosome, produces
 * Development
 * Redesign and improvement of bene/itemsbycat/. You can also use short urls like bene/itemsbycat/enwiki/Wikidata.
 * Worked on reorganizing our git repositories and splitting quite a few of them
 * Worked more on parser cache to be able to cache more content (this failed during the last deployment)
 * Some progress on redirects
 * Tests, tests, tests
 * Vacations \o/
 * Monthly Tasks
 * Fix a format or content violation for the Public holiday (P832) propery
 * Hack on one of these.
 * Help develop the next summary here!
 * Help translate on of Bene*'s tools!

The Signpost: 25 December 2013

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 * EdwardsBot (talk) 05:29, 28 December 2013 (UTC)

Deprecated template
In these edits I made the template do what it was supposed to be doing. That is, as I understand the idea of all those parameters based on their functionality and the documentation.

By the way, I reworked the documentation as well.

After all that is done, I am left with the feeling that parameters 4 and 5 should be completely removed in favor of old and new. That will simplify the coding, and the documentation accordingly. If somebody is smart enough to use 4 parameters (1, 2, 4 and 5), then he can certainly use 2 (old and new).

What do you say? Debresser (talk) 09:10, 17 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Hm, well I have sympathy with what you say. I suspect that this construction was not ab initio but based on some perceived need at the time, for example allowing passing of parameters from other templates.  However these components could be easily enough re-added if they are required in the future (and are not currently in use).
 * By the way ise vs ize...
 * Season's greetings, Rich Farmbrough, 21:09, 19 December 2013 (UTC).


 * Then I'll try and make some time for this simplification later this week. Why did you remind me of ise vs ize? Debresser (talk) 16:26, 21 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Here you change the spelling of "categorises". Happy New Year, Rich Farmbrough, 21:32, 30 December 2013 (UTC).


 * These edits removed the parameters 4 and 5. These edits removed a repetition that I never understood why it was necessary. Debresser (talk) 07:43, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

Categorization
I am considering to replace  by , to avoid categorization there of non-template pages that are themselves tagged (like Requests for mediation/OpenNote e.g.). Will that work? Without side-effects?

Also, will it be correct to say  in the code excludes not only transclusions on /doc pages, but also /sandbox or /testcases pages? Debresser (talk) 08:26, 23 December 2013 (UTC)
 * This assumes that {old} is fully qualified.
 * Yes I believe so.
 * Happy New Year, Rich Farmbrough, 22:07, 30 December 2013 (UTC).


 * Done, and works. Thank you. Can you please help with my (hopefully last) question below? Debresser (talk) 23:33, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

Yo Ho Ho


 Ϣere Spiel  Chequers  is wishing you Seasons Greetings! Whether you celebrate your hemisphere's Solstice or Christmas, Diwali, Hogmanay, Hanukkah, Lenaia, Festivus or even the Saturnalia, this is a special time of year for almost everyone!

Spread the holiday cheer by adding to your friends' talk pages.

Guess this was sometime in December : ): Rich Farmbrough, 02:57, 26 December 2013 (UTC).