User talk:Thumperward/Archive 71

User:Xxxx693
Hi there CHRIS, VASCO here,

don't know what has happened, i have not fed the troll in ANY WAY,

could you please block this "user" (for lack of a better word) indef? He continues to DESTROY my user page (funny, the "person" does not even known i did not build it, User:GiantSnowman kindly did it). Attentively - --Vasco Amaral (talk) 03:32, 26 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Also, i'd like to know if XXXX693 and User:Scoelho86 are still editing from the same computer if it's possible. I'm getting sick and tired of this abuse (i may deserve whatever you people think may come my way, but not this!), and last time around, User:Satori Son (100% reliable) told me this may be the same individual. All this for telling the "person" Quique Flores was the most common name in English WP (and they wonder why i lose it now and then)... I have lost if in my reply to this "person"! --Vasco Amaral (talk) 03:43, 26 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Oops, broke my promise of never bothering you again! Sorry. I'll "take it like a man", nevermind paragraphs #1, #2 and #3. --Vasco Amaral (talk) 12:38, 26 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Don't feel that you can't come to me with problems. This is plainly unacceptable behaviour from this user, and if another admin hadn't already issued a final warning I'd likely have indef blocked the account. As for the sockpuppet allegation, the best thing to do would be to bring that up at WP:SPI. I don't have access to the Checkuser tools needed to investigate that. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 12:44, 26 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I just thought that the mere action of coming to my userpage and do what he did, without provocation, granted not only the warning but an immediate block. What's the use of warning these individuals? I remember last year when i, even though i knew i did not have to, sincerely apologized to the other guy if i said anything during the Quique Flores war that upset him, so far i have only received "gay", "i hate the portuguese", "Vasco is a fucking idiot" in return, that and the userpage raids; if he was blocked, at least, as a non-autoconfirmed user, he would not be able to harass me until he got a new account.

Attentively - --Vasco Amaral (talk) 00:09, 28 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Last message from this "human being", from an anon IP, also previously blocked, read: "que ma.r.i.ca tan llorona, menos mal que lo acepta...como le pone quejas a los administradores de WP, a User talk:GiantSnowman, a User talk:Satori Son, a User talk:Thumperward, User talk:Hut 8.5...definitivamente que nenita...lo unico que falta es que le vaya y le ponga quejas a su ma.mi.ta...llorona, y ma.ri.c.a portuguesa"; roughly translated: "What a crybaby faggot, at least he admits it, how he complains to WP admins, what a crybaby indeed, only thing left to do is cry to your mommy, crybaby portuguese faggot".

I have "bitten my tongue" and controlled myself this time, did not reply. I have thought at times moving the page back to QUIQUE SÁNCHEZ FLORES just to accommodate this "person", but then i realized this has nothing to do with it anymore, he's out there to hunt me down. Why? BEATS ME!! No block still, to both XXXX693 account and this anon IP? --Vasco Amaral (talk) 12:34, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
 * 190.84.79.135 - I have blocked this user for 48 hours, for related harassment of Vasco. Good block or not? GiantSnowman 15:01, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Message box titles
Another one you might like to have a look at: Mbox title parameter. Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 15:24, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

a better citation footnote template
User:CharlesGillingham's, not mine. I think it would be great if you, Gadget850, Rich Farmbrough, and Plastikspork all participated and got this going with all nits resolved. Alarbus (talk) 01:56, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Template talk:Ref web

Color TOC
We now have List TOC, it would be great if you could comment at Templates for discussion/Log/2012 March 1. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ (talk) 14:33, 1 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I had Andy look it over and he gave his blessing, so I took it live this morning (although that new dropdown on the move page messed me up). ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 14:36, 1 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Lovely. Thanks, folks. That should allow for another batch of similar templates to be consolidated. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 15:17, 1 March 2012 (UTC)


 * And there was much rejoicing. See Template talk:List TOC for some more thoughts. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 16:16, 1 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I think you are repeating the same lessons I learned in getting the darn thing to align properly. You need the double divs to split the lines, and display: inline-block is the only way I could make it center. ---—  Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 18:55, 1 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I don't think centering it is a deal-breaker. There's surely a cleaner way to work it, but I'd rather start with the simplest code which gives roughly the right effect than fight with the parser any more tonight. :) Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 19:51, 1 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Actually, I just noticed that the new version gives the show/hide link that the div version did not, so you are close. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 19:58, 1 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Would that I could figure out why that was so simple to get working and yet the exact same code doesn't work on CompactTOC10. Sigh. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 15:58, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Good grief...
Have a look at the source of Infobox UK feature! Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 09:27, 2 March 2012 (UTC)


 * (isn't  cute? Alarbus (talk) 09:56, 2 March 2012 (UTC))


 * Meh. In actual fact we probably should be commenting our code, but largely don't due to the limitations of the environment. If editors new to templatespace want to document things as they go along then that's great if it leads to them getting more involved. Of course in this case the codebase was out of date from the start, but the only way to avoid that in future is to make sure that we don't have any prominent bad examples lying around to copy from. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 11:58, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Talkback
ww2censor (talk) 16:03, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

A ferrari for you

 * Made me smile. Cheers! :) Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 10:55, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Infobox public organisation
I've made Infobox public organisation into a wrapper for Infobox organization, but they handle images differently (see Historic Scotland). Is there a fix, or is the only solution to edit the markup on each article transcluding it? (I've asked at WP:VPT also.) Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 10:05, 6 March 2012 (UTC)


 * The easy way would be to modify infobox organization to take an optional  instead of , and to modify infobox public organisation to emit an   instead. In fact, I've gone and done that. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 11:39, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 14:06, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

I need your advice
Hello again. I see your userpage says to drop you a line if seeking advice so here I am.

As detailed a bit further here, I've had some trouble with another user who, basically, has a history of poor editing. The core of the problem appears to be the user's inability to write a plain sentence, whether it be in an article or a discussion. We haven't crossed swords or anything (although it might make things a hell of a lot easier if we had) and I'm at the point where I simply do not know how to deal with him/her.

I've tried completely rewriting their edits, but the backlog of articles this editor messes up keeps growing.

I've tried a simple reversion with instructions to discuss any future edits on the talk page, but to no avail. Anyway, I suspect reversion may not be a constructive way to go.

Communication appears impossible; several editors have expressed cluelessness at this user's words. S/he has been asked repeatedly to write clearer but to no avail. I believe the user's intentions are constructive but their editing style is just too bizarre.

BRD is the obvious solution but fails at step D due to the inability to communicate. Rewriting, then, seems the wisest option but not only do I have other stuff on WP I'd rather be doing, I'm also trying to cut back on how much time I spend here. I don't want to have to chase around after someone who appears incapable of learning from, let alone cleaning up, their own mess.

As I said before, I don't fault the editor's intentions (although his use of multiple accounts is questionable). However, he or she is, to put it plainly, a loose cannon.

I'd appreciate any advice you can give.  Claret Ash  12:59, 6 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I assume you're talking about ? This looks like a case of WP:COMPETENCE. Editors are expected to operate in a collegial and collaborative manner, and not simply to steamroller over the contributions of others. Furthermore, while we welcome non-native English speakers, editors are expected to be able to communicate to some reasonable degree in English. This reply is simply unintelligible, and appears to be the only time in months this user has used a talk page at all. I think this needs to go to ANI for discussion. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 08:28, 7 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the advice and the pointer to WP:COMPETENCE. Over a year and I'm still discovering essays and guidelines. The strange thing is that the user claims on their userpage to be a native English speaker yet everything he or she writes reads like a google translation. Well, off to ANI then. Many thanks for your help. Would you like another ferrari?  Claret Ash  08:51, 7 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Well, that's that. I went to ANI and now the user is blocked. Not a chain of events I'm proud to be involved in.  Claret Ash  12:35, 8 March 2012 (UTC)


 * It happens. Who knows: this might be the prodding necessary to get the user to take greater consideration of our discussion functions. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 12:44, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

Medal templates as a pseudo-infobox
How should we deal with instances of the medal templates, used as a pseudo-infobox? Your comments would be welcome at Template talk:MedalTop. Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 22:53, 6 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Replied over there. Cheers. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 00:02, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

John McMahon (football coach) sorting
Per WP:MCSTJR, the sorting of John McMahon is: McMahon, John

There is no need to convert Mc into Mac. This is this British standard and also what American and British style guides suggest. Bgwhite (talk) 05:48, 7 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I wasn't aware this had changed (we certainly used to recommend normalising to "Mac"), but in any case I simply copied the defaultsort from the page that I split this content from. Thanks for the heads-up anyway. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 08:18, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:Index templates
Please retain this tool and withdraw the nomination. An explanation of what it is used for is provided in the discussion. The Transhumanist 12:58, 8 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I don't see any reason to withdraw the nomination. Ideally, a tool should be able to generate such a page automatically from an appropriately-populated category. Let's see what happens of the discussion. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 13:09, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

List of U.S. Wilderness Areas
is there any way we could suppress the 'Contents' from the TOC? this doesn't happen for CompactTOC8. thank you. Frietjes (talk) 15:50, 8 March 2012 (UTC)
 * another example is United States House of Representatives elections, 1994. Frietjes (talk) 15:51, 8 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Doable, I suppose. With the final migration of most of the boilerplate logic to TOC top, it shouldn't be too hard. Possibly worthwhile to allow for a custom value instead of "Contents" instead. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 15:57, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

see Pratt family
For the strange workaround of removing Huntsman from the "selected descendants" then overlapping the Romney line of "selected descendants" to arrive at exactly the same result that editor initially sought . So much for avoiding the XXX-pushing you had noted. Cheers. Collect (talk) 19:56, 8 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Some editors apparently believe that the rest of us are stupid. Worth having a look to see if this editor's unique approach to neutrality has impacted other articles. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 20:33, 8 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I fear so -- this seems to be his m.o. on anything with the magic word "Romney" in it ... Cheers. Collect (talk) 20:37, 8 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Hey! dunno if the following facts are here nor there w rgd your ensuing discussion  BUT --- although the table in question has shown Geo. Romney's Pratt ancestry since 2007, user:Coemgenus only contributed Huntsman to it but recently, in January. --Hodgdon&#39;s secret garden (talk) 21:05, 8 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Who started it is irrelevant. You are the one currently vociferously defending the current state of the template at the same time as dishonestly circumventing the discussion at the TfD by splitting it into two on an article. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 21:10, 8 March 2012 (UTC)
 * "Dishonestly"? Such was not my intention - nonetheless I will immediately merge the two (which I had done only upon informing the discussion) and link to your statement here expressing your dissatisfaction w the split-out; thanks!--Hodgdon&#39;s secret garden (talk) 21:15, 8 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Done.--Hodgdon&#39;s secret garden (talk) 21:32, 8 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Nice one. Thanks. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 11:00, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Template:National football squad start
Please can you add the ability to sort table rows to the template at Template:National_football_squad_start. I have raised the suggestion twice in three years and have never had anybody voting against it. I have created a sandbox template that can be copied over to the original template. It can sort squads by playing position, forename, age, caps and club. Personally I think it is a great improvement for the template.

Please see talk:WikiProject_Football for a working demonstration. TheBigJagielka (talk) 15:17, 9 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Done. Cheers. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 15:24, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

horizontal ToC
FYI, see here. Frietjes (talk) 16:32, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

forked template
Hi, Chris. I asked Gadget about this and invite you to comment. Alarbus (talk) 10:43, 11 March 2012 (UTC)
 * User talk:Gadget850

Talkback
Toddst1 (talk) 16:30, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Talkback
Redtigerxyz Talk 17:26, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Float style
I started float style to try to simplify (and make a bit more uniform) the float logic in sidebar, location map+, nutritional value, ... if you think this is a bit much, we certainly don't need to use it, but I thought it would be useful. thank you. Frietjes (talk) 19:25, 11 March 2012 (UTC)


 * We (hopefully) won't need it in the long run (as the meta-templates get proper floating support: ideally we want to specify that in CSS with  or the like), but for now it's great. Cheers! Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 09:25, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Template improvements - Fluss1 and mountain hut
Hi Thumps. Thank you for the improvements you have made the above infoboxes. They are both designed as an intermediate step when translating German articles, so that the translators don't have to waste hours laboriously copying data repetitively from one infobox to another. In due course they can be replaced by the en.wiki versions, but that's a task other project members can all help with. In making the changes, we seem to have lost the coloured heading banners and main dividing lines - see River Avon (Hampshire) and de:Werra. Both German wiki and English wiki have them. Are you able to add them in? I am not expert enough with infoboxes to do that! Cheers. --Bermicourt (talk) 19:42, 11 March 2012 (UTC)


 * That was intentional: I was looking for output like infobox river rather than geobox, and tried to strip out as much markup as possible to make the eventual transition to a direct wrapper template that much easier. If we can make the template a direct wrapper then there is no transition cost at all: every transclusion will be a functional infobox river without having to alter them one bit. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 09:23, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

RaWrite and RaWrite2
Some IP reverted your redirection of them, citing that the content wasn't actually merged, just removed - now I really don't know anything about this or what was going on, but was it merged to something else, or was there another reason for removing it? Whatever the case, be obliged if you could look into the matter again. Thanks.  — Isarra (talk)  20:15, 11 March 2012 (UTC)


 * These are zero-content articles which do little more than establish that the software exists. Redirecting was a less dramatic move than taking them to AfD, but that's probably the next step. Not every software utility is notable, especially those which don't even have websites. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 09:27, 12 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Ah, yeah, that makes sense. And I suppose PROD's already been ruled out by the IP and that's why the pages would have to go to AFD now?  — Isarra (talk)  22:52, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

Template:Category TOC
In this edit, you removed the "align|center" parameter. Could you please add it back??!! At least it should default to "center", and be able to be changed by adding "align=left", etc. TY --Funandtrvl (talk) 01:26, 12 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Not that being able to alter the alignment is actually of any use here, but seeing as the request is trivial I've re-added the functionality. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 09:30, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Request for comment: Template:More plot
Templates for discussion/Log/2012 February 21 is closed as keep. However, these issues are still discussed in Template talk:More plot. Please join in discussion for more consensus. --George Ho (talk) 01:46, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Culture by region template
If you're not too busy, would you mind looking into this? I haven't created a template like this before and am reluctant to deploy it without confirmation that it's not gonna bugger up. Thank you.  Claret Ash  06:53, 12 March 2012 (UTC)