User talk:EncMstr

Response

Please see my reply here (User_talk:Docu#coor_deprecation). -- User:Docu

My second reply is there as well. -- User:Docu

Just wondering if you agree with my interpretation of his edits. -- User:Docu

Can you comment on them? -- User:Docu

Alternatively, I'd appreciate if you would withdraw your comment my talk page. -- User:Docu

 Done —EncMstr (talk) 23:32, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, but the problem remains with recent edits by Pigsonthewings: [1], [2]. He seems to be confused how which template works. Can you ask him to stop his spree? -- User:Docu

Perhaps I share his confusion. Both those edits look okay to me, though I can see why you might not like the second one. What's wrong with them? —EncMstr (talk) 04:25, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

"display=inline,title" is missing. Prior to the edits, the coordinates were displayed in the infobox and the usual top right corner. Why would he attempt to convert these two manually? -- User:Docu

Template talk:GeoTemplate#google maps location label

It was causing an error in the scale/type parameter. I left a reply at the above link. Cheers. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 08:15, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Question about edits

Hi, I saw you made a couple of edits to the page for Kulis Air National Guard Base. Could you explain to me what you did, in layperson's terms? I am still learning my way around wikipedia.

In particular, I was interested in the fix to the coordinates. I was wondering when the "W" icon would show up in Google Maps. It hasn't for several weeks now ... is that because i put the coordinates in wrong? 176thWingPublicAffairs (talk) 03:35, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm happy to explain. My edit changes

{{coord|61.1631|N|149.9721|W|type:landmark|region:US|display=title}}

to

{{coord|61.1631|N|149.9721|W|type:landmark_region:US-AK|display=title}}

The purpose of this is to merge the template's sixth and seventh parameters into a single parameter separated by an underscore. (While doing this, I noticed the point was in Alaska, so AK is added to better qualify the region.) This creates a glommed together geo parameter parameter. It's a weird way to specify parameters for sure: they could have used multiple parameters, or at least separate the glommer with commas or semicolons, but they didn't.

(Templates in general and coord in particular are some the most intricate and confusing aspects of Wikipedia, so don't hesitate to ask more questions where I've fallen short here.)

The {{coord}} template takes a number of unnamed parameters (that is, no equal sign is used; example 61.1631). The first unnamed parameters are latitude and longitude components. There may be 2, 4, 6, or 8 such parameters. Optionally, after those is a single (infamous) glommed parameter. All parts are optional, but a full-fledged glommer could be:

type:railwaystation + scale:10000 + region:DE-BB + globe:earth + source:gnis

The delimiter for the glommer parameter is an underscore, so these parameters are written as

type:railwaystation_scale:10000_region:DE-BB_globe:earth_source:gnis

The order here doesn't matter. Each of these parameters has a well-defined set of valid values; see the documentation at template:coord#Coordinate_Parameters. This example declares the point to be a railway station, the preferred map scale is 1:10,000, the point is in Germany (DEutchland) and the first administrative division (state?) is BB (Berlin perhaps?), it's on earth (other possibilities are the moon, venus, mars, etc.), and the data came from GNIS—the USGS official database. This is a silly example since GNIS does not list German points.

In addition, the {{coord}} template takes several named parameters (display=inline,title or inline or title; name=name of point, (if not the article name); format=dec or dms). These are explained at template:coord#Usage. Display=title says only display the coordinate at the article's upper-right corner and not where the template appears. Display=title,inline and Display=inline,title say to display at the article's upper-right and the point where the template appears.

Instead of using NSEW directions, this could be written as

{{coord|61.1631|-149.9721|type:landmark_region:US-AK|display=title}} to give 61.1631°N 149.9721°W / 61.1631; -149.9721 (except I've inlined it instead of title). It means the same thing: North is positive, south is negative, east is positive, west is negative.

As for appearing on Google Maps and Google Earth, Google takes a snapshot of Wikipedia every few months and selects data from that. Google's explanation is here. The form you had the template in should not have prevented Google from gathering it—it just hasn't been long enough. —EncMstr (talk) 06:25, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you SO MUCH for the explanation. I really appreciate it! I've done all or most of the work on these three pages: Kulis Air National Guard Base, 176th Wing and History of the 176th Wing. I am by no means finished contributing to them (I have some nice photos to post, and the history page is only half-finished, for example) but I'd love any constructive criticism or suggestions. I've been "Learning on the Job," so to speak.

176thWingPublicAffairs (talk) 06:52, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome. I made a few edits to the second article. Each article's lead should start out by clearly saying what the subject is. Consider an educated but ignorant foreign national: is the National Guard related to any government, or is it some sort of long distance telemarketing service? Begin by saying what it is. Expand to the next layer by its most important attributes: location, size, active/defunct, etc. Then state why it is notable, and give a few highlights (professionally and respectful teasers) why one might want to read the rest of the article. —EncMstr (talk) 07:18, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

That's an excellent explanation! It may be worth adding it as a sub-page to {{coord}}'s documentation. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 07:31, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

WP:ORE COTW Version 2.2

Hello WikiProject Oregon contributors. It's time for another COTW. Thank you to those who helped improve Kevin Duckworth and the Statesman Journal last week, we received another DYK () for the SJ. This week, by request we have Mr. Ken Kesey and not by request Nike, Inc.. Nike is the only Start class article in the top 30 of those articles selected for the hard copy edition, and it could easily be improved to B class. Once again, click here to opt out of these messages, or click here to make a suggestion for a future COTW. Aboutmovies (talk) 23:49, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks

Hello! :) I just wanted to say thanks for adding my name in 5 languages: DA, DE, FR, ES, and PT to my in many languages page. Thanks again! --Grrrlriot (♠ ♣ ♦ ♥ †) 01:38, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I just wanted to thank you again for adding more languages to my "In many languages" page. Thanks so much! Happy editing! --Grrrlriot (♠ ♣ ♦ ♥ †) 19:55, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

"Main" article

I'll start by noting that this is technically not specified anywhere, but I think it's common sense, and the fact so few articles actually use the template this way reflects it, but yes, the template has no place in these articles. "Main" is used for the reverse relation, but there is no need to indicate it in the "sub"-articles because a well-written one will have the link within the very first sentence, and while linking to a child article with content that is more detailed is always relevant, linking to a "parent" article (or--yeech--articles) is not necessarily useful (especially given that the reader is likely to come from the more-developed topic to begin with!). Circeus (talk) 22:05, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Block of MichaelRogersMacKenzie

Keep it up. The Forest article has been a constant target of vandalism for a long time now. Perhaps if these internet access points find their access to Wiki blocked, they'll find a way to control their errant users better. Cheers, --W. B. Wilson (talk) 18:45, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I've had Forest on my watchlist for some time. You're right: it works well as a vandal trap. You're welcome identify the abuse administrator for each IP vandal and fire off an email asking them to take action. I should create a template for such a message.... —EncMstr (talk) 18:54, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Infobox Protected area coordinates broken

I have recently fixed a couple if instances of {{Infobox Protected area}}, (example) where the display was horribly broken because no seconds had been entered in the coordinates. The only way to resolve the problem in the short term was to add zero seconds, but this is obviously not an optimal solution.

I reported the problem on its talk page over two weeks ago, but no-one has responded. Since you recently edited the template (not that I think you caused the problem) and obviously have better template coding skills than I, can you fix it, please? Thank you. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 07:27, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

I see an intermediate attempt to fix it. Did it? Hopefully it did some good since that fix breaks a number of uses of the template which I've added while clearing out the backlog at Category:Coord template needing repair. —EncMstr (talk) 05:46, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Never mind: I see that this older version is still broken. I'll look into fixing it all.... —EncMstr (talk) 06:08, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 13:26, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Protected Page: Gas

Hey EncMstr, ever since you protected Gas there haven't been any vandals attacking the page. I'm extremely relieved and I can't thank you enough. Hopefully we'll start to see some registered users improve the page soon! Thanks again for the help! Katanada (talk) 04:04, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

My pleasure. —EncMstr (talk) 05:44, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Coordinate normalization of French communes

Hello EncMstr. I've seen your are normalizing coordinates of some French communes. Please, do not add the "display=inline,title" when the "coord" template is used in a "French commune" Infobox, it gives superposed lines in the title. Also, I've noticed that normalization of coordinates ending with 99" are not correct; I think (as for French communes) it's better to replace 99 by 59 insteed of +1' 39". I assume that there is some sort of bug in the rounding method of IGN (the reference, like Result of commune : 'LES REPOTS'). Regards — M-le-mot-dit (T) 10:50, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh sorry. I see what you mean. Sometime I'll have to look into how coord is being amended to do that without being specified explicitly. 99 seconds is among the most confounding errors I've encountered while cleaning up hundreds of these. 60 seconds appears quite often, but always seems to mean +1' 0". There are a few (1 in 100) with something like 289 seconds. The first few I normalized into minutes, but later came to realize it probably came from a source with implied decimal points, so now change 289 into 28.9 and 639 in 6.39 seconds without a carry. The French articles seem to be pretty well organized, with only a few having 99s. I don't remember anything else between 60 and 98, so going forward I'll take your advice. Thanks for the heads up. —EncMstr (talk) 16:40, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Oregon Coast

In Oregon Coast, you changed the ref-link to the Texas Open Beaches Act to a reference. This doesn't work. I would expect any reference to support the preceding sentence "After citizens complained to the state government, state legislators put forward the Oregon Beach Bill (HB 1601), modeled on the Texas Open Beaches Act." My intent was to remove the redlink from Texas Open Beaches Act. Rather than turn it black, I made it a ref-link. I see only 3 good ways to solve this problem: Create a stub article for Texas Open Beaches Act which links to the statute, turn the link black and put the statute in the external references section, or use a ref-link. A forth possibility is to find a reference that supports the preceding sentence, preferably one that itself links to the statute. Before I go with removing the reference and adding an external link, I wanted to get your thoughts. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 14:59, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

I agree: it doesn't work as a reference. Rather more of a note, but an awkward note at that. What do you think of my solution? —EncMstr (talk) 16:15, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

I stripped the "reference" from Oregon Coast, people who need it can find it within the stub for Texas Open Beaches Act that you created. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 18:52, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. If I had been more awake I would have done that too. Thanks for seeing to it. —EncMstr (talk) 19:15, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Coordinate "normalizing" coords of NRHP places

I see you are making numerous edits of NRHP list-articles, and perhaps individual NRHP pages, where there are coordinates that appear wrong to you. You may be correct in replacing "60" by "0", but I am concerned there may be something else going wrong. Maybe it is percentage on a 1-100 scale when you think it is 60 on a 0-60 scale, or something. The source for all of these coordinates is from User:Elkman who developed and maintains several tools for wp:NRHP wikipedians such as the NRHP-list-table-generator, which draws data from a National Register database and prepares tables. If there is some error in his programming or the National Register, I would like for us to get to the bottom of it and fix it in the National Register and/or in Elkman's systems. I would rather this be sorted out sooner, and hope you could do that rather than making changes that might be erroneous or won't solve the basic problem. doncram (talk) 03:35, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Early on this in process, I encountered another set of articles where coordinates were added an Elkman script. Analysis revealed that in fact normalizing them was the proper thing to do—there are never any seconds greater than 60. Discussion at WT:GEO was that it was caused by a rounding problem, so that 2.9998 degrees wants to be 2°59'59.99" but gets rounded to 2°59'60". I am rashly assuming NRHP is affected by the same algorithm. Rest assured that every single NRHP article has fit the pattern.

For a recent confirmation, the last change I made adjusted the entry for Longfellow School at 221 Spaulding Ave, Ripon, Wisconsin so it now shows 43°50′53″N 88°50′0″W / 43.84806, -88.83333. Using Google maps to geolocate the address gives [3]; using ACME mapper to measure the difference between the two points is here and shows a 47-metre (154 ft) SW/NE difference. That seems to be agreement enough to me. What do you think? Does the underlying data have a coordinate reliably published? It ought to be compared with these. —EncMstr (talk) 05:51, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Another problem with "normalizing" coords

In this edit, you replaced the coordinates in the infobox with your standard template, and then put in the edit summary that they're probably bogus anyway. I don't know why you think they're bogus; the description says that the area is near Hwy 72 north of Waskish. Anyway, your edit broke the "dot on map" feature of the infobox and removed the coords from display in the article. What is the purpose of the change? I reverted it, awaiting your response.--Appraiser (talk) 13:39, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

The purpose is to clean up use of the geotemplate {{coord}}. It now pretty thoroughly checks its parameters and has brought many articles to light. Big Bog State Recreation Area refers to 48°10′94″N 94°30′43″W, a value which brings serious doubts about its validity, a sense borne from converting thousands of coordinates in the last week or so. Have you followed it and looked at the map? The article describes it being on the southeast side of glacial Lake Agassiz, yet mapping shows the point to be northeast of Upper Red Lake. I looked around for the former, even following its article's coordinate. It shows a point 400 km NW of this one—in mid-lower Manitoba, Canada. Looks like several things need fixing.

Sorry for breaking the dot on map. That infobox is far smarter than I thought. —EncMstr (talk) 16:37, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

I think the coordinates are pretty close, although it's not clear which side of the highway it should be on. Lake Agassiz is a pre-historic lake that covered 440,000 square km. and the shoreline varied widely over its 5000-year existence, so the phrase "on the southeast side of glacial Lake Agassiz" has little meaning, although this map sort of shows what the author was trying to say. The more important statement is "located on Minnesota State Highway 72, north of Waskish, Minnesota" which is where the given coordinates are pointing.--Appraiser (talk) 17:55, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Your revert

You reverted http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Towel&oldid=240711657 that edit. Why? 78.151.78.249 (talk) 18:49, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Firstly, the previous edit (by 18 minutes) was an obvious act of vandalism. Secondly, a towel and an XBOX seemed so incongruous, I assumed it was vandalism. Thirdly, your edit summary was empty. —EncMstr (talk) 18:53, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Cities subpage

Yes, I know that this page can cause many problems (coords, interwikis, etc). But I am in a process of standardizing all city articles (including coords) and I need a "bird view" to spot any inaccuracies instead of going through each article one-by-one. The page should be gone by next week. Renata (talk) 23:50, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

DYK

On 25 September, 2008, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article White River Glacier (Oregon) , which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--Cirt (talk) 02:11, 25 September 2008 (UTC)