Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Takes Manhattan/Fall 2008

Biker gang
Anybody else planning to show up with a bicycle? We can cover a lot more ground than those limited to cars, trains and feet. It's an especially powerful photographic tool in the wilds of Bronx, Queens, and eastern or southern Brooklyn. Jim.henderson (talk) 00:07, 17 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Cool! One of our prizes will actually be gift certificates to a local bike shop (and TOPP, the group we're working with, is very bike-friendly).--Pharos (talk) 01:48, 17 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Also, the TOPP goal list will include quite a few bike-related photos.--Pharos (talk) 20:55, 17 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Splendid if I can replace my lost pump and get some other stuff from a prize. One more week to go. I might find time beforehand to examine and upload the photos from my trip from Canarsie to Gravesend two weeks ago. Always more work to handle the pix than to snap them. But, looks like I'll be pedalling alone since nobody has said. Jim.henderson (talk) 15:35, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Typo
"Bicycle Habitiat" should probably be "Bicycle Habitat", right?  Enigma  message 00:11, 24 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it's too late now, though :) I copied that bit from the Livable Streets page and have already fixed it there.--Pharos (talk) 00:14, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Rain
Is there a rain date? Rain is predicted for Saturday. Mitch 32(UP) 19:38, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Ditto. I might be able to participate if this is rescheduled. Newyorkbrad (talk) 20:37, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Yup. In fact, we've just rescheduled for next Saturday, October 4.--Pharos (talk) 23:00, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Open House NY weekend
Pretty sure I can't join you this time, but you should know that next weekend is the annual Open House New York. They have special tours of various sites throughout the five boroughs, some which are not normally open to the public. For most of the sites, you can just show up, but some require RSVP in advance (ASAP, since some tours fill up). This is a good opportunity to get photographs for Wikipedia. I'm sure that some of the OHNY sites match the list of articles that need photos. --Aude (talk) 16:21, 26 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks, we're aware of this, and we're going to try to integrate some of the OHNY sites into the list to take advantage of the situation.--Pharos (talk) 01:18, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Other cities
Are there currently plans to try this event in other cities? Nutiketaiel (talk) 18:54, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * See Wikipedia Takes The City, including Wikipedia Takes Nashville. In addition to what's listed there, I have heard recent rumblings of possible events in Berlin and Grenoble.  If you want to do something in Philadelphia, it's not that far, we can help a bit with that (and I'd be willing to help anyone anywhere by e-mail).--Pharos (talk) 04:41, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

WTM discussion on Commons
Just thought I'd let you know about the WTM related discussion on commons:Commons:Village pump and invite you to add any imput and opinions on the matter. Cheers Lokal_Profil 12:23, 5 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Sure, but where's the root cat of the tree of categories for those presumed few thousand uploaded pictures? Jim.henderson (talk) 05:50, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
 * The gallery is in progress at Commons:User:WTMuploader/gallery. Unfortunately, we have only uploaded a minority of the pictures as of yet.  Thanks.--Pharos (talk) 03:28, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

Attempt to delete many Wikipedia Takes Manhattan images
Please feel free to comment at commons:Commons:Deletion requests/Image:WSTM Three Blind Mice 0068.JPG, which is basically a request to delete very many of the Wikipedia Takes Manhattan images. Thanks.--Pharos (talk) 02:16, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Looks to me like a consensus against deletion has emerged. Anyway, what's the plan for uploading, categorizing and describing the pix?  Jim.henderson (talk) 23:33, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Uploading party

 * We're having a follow-up uploading party at 7:30 tonight at TOPP to hopefully put the rest of the pics online. As for the description and categorizing, that's pretty much handled by the templates, e.g. Image:WSTM Three Blind Mice 0003.JPG.  There's other work too, but I don't plan on finishing that until all the uploads are done.  Thanks.--Pharos (talk) 21:14, 22 October 2008 (UTC)


 * 'Twould have been possible to join this activity had I known a few days in advance. Far as I see, the upload process is a bit over half done and of course there's plenty of work to be planned and done after that.  Jim.henderson (talk) 17:39, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, this was planned on quite short notice; we only firmed up the scheduling the night before.--Pharos (talk) 16:03, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

All look just the same
I guess this is the place to discuss the fate of our pictures. So, the uploading is continuing, and one may assume it will he sporadic. Meanwhile I was busy sorting my pix taken on other days, and put one in Commons:Category:Bikeways in New York City and then noticed it was a rather big cat with many pictures looking the same. That's because each WSTM photographer took a lot of pix, which is the right way for shutterbugs to operate in the age of cheap digital imaging. Far more than 90% of what I shoot is crap, never to be uploaded. Rather, only what's, well, not necessarily good, but less bad than most, is to be published to someone else's screen.

In WSTM we're uploading everything, which is appropriate for the circumstances, but it looks like we're also putting everything into public categories so people who are looking for good illustrations will find them. That's a bad idea. Of the dozen or so pix taken by each contestant of a particular target, only the best one should go public in this way. Or two, if both are good and each shows a different aspect. All the bad versions can continue to live in the contestant tree for interested parties, but they should be not be exposed to the general editing public. Once the data on the card shots are transferred to the description pages of the good pix, both the cards and the photos not worthy of description should be deleted from topical cats and only left in the contestant categories. Of course I'm interested in opinions of any who may have thought of something I missed. Jim.henderson (talk) 20:03, 29 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree that in future we should develop more sophisticated methods for assessing what should be treated as an "encyclopedic" photo and what should be treated as a context photo. I would be treating the "inferior duplicates" as context photos in this way.  But in general, as long as they're not actual duplicate shots (i.e. substantially the same shot from substantially the same angle), I think it's good that we have a lot of photos in Commons:Category:Bikeways in New York City, even if some are not so great; categories should be big, but only the best few photos would go on a gallery-type page for Bikeways in New York City.--Pharos (talk) 11:00, 14 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, indeed it is more complex than I thought. A variety of file naming methods seem to be in force, with no explanation of the purpose of the differences.  Categories for some files are applied explicitly so they can easily be adjusted, while other files have their cats fixed by a template that locks the Project target category to the general topical one.  Some contestant cats were included in the master category for contestants, some elsewhere, and some were created and merely left as orphans.  Organizing the pictures is clearly a work in progress, and I haven't seen the workers asking for help or announcing a goal, grand plan or a division of labor, so presumably they don't need outside help, so there's no need for the rest of us to get involved.  I trust they will get it all straightened out in good time.  Jim.henderson (talk) 03:38, 3 November 2008 (UTC)
 * The file naming thing is just an unfortunate quirk of the decentralized process, but they are all numbered in order anyway. The template is useful for fine-tuning where swaths of photos of a particular goal code should go, but that is no reason that additional categories particular to the photo shouldn't be added in the usual manner also.  All contestant cats should be in the master category for contestants; some were initially created by folks not familiar with the project and so miscategorized, but I think this has been fixed now.  Thanks for your patience.--Pharos (talk) 11:00, 14 November 2008 (UTC)