Wikipedia talk:PetScan

The idea behind this page was that I wasn't sure what link to use for the softredirected short cut WP:CATSCAN (direct tool or instruction page) and I wanted a way to mention the template I made at Template:Catscan. So I thought, why not make a little intro page. It makes it easier spread the word about this great tool, since the page can be categorized, and we can use it to list en.wikipedia specific tips.

It might not be a bad idea to make little intro pages like this for other toolserve tools. -- Ned Scott 08:09, 17 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

CatScan template for X-class, Y-importance topic articles

I know that in the past there have been several suggestions asking about making categories for, for example, Start-class, High-importance biology articles, and that they have almost invariably been shot down because of the huge amount of new categories, many of which would be empty from now till the end of time, which would be created as a result. However, we could quite easily create a couple of templates to place on the categories by class and importance allowing for lookup of such articles via CaScan, as that is exactly the type of thing the tool is meant for. I will, I think, go ahead and create the templates after a couple of days, but I'd appreciate a little help from someone - preferably more than one someone - looking over my shoulder at my work and making corrections and additions as necessary. I think I'm going to name the templates {{Class-importance assessment catscan}} for use on categories by class, and {{Importance-class assessment catscan}} for use on categories by assessment, and I can create another template with catscan links for all classess and importances if deemed necessary, for wikiprojects to use how they will. I understand that this talk page probably doesn't get much traffic (it's hard to say if User:Ned Scott even still watches it), so I'd appreciate it if someone who knows more than me could post notices where appropriate pointing back to here. Thoughts? —Dino guy 1000 18:39, 1 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like a great idea to me (if I'm understanding it correctly)! I'm not sure if CatScan can do three points of reference, like your example shows with assessment, importance, topic, but I'm sure we can get it working somehow. CatScan is such a great tool, and finding more ways to use it like this is very good for the project (and oddly fascinating for people like me). I'll be home from work in a little bit (on lunch break) and will be able to comment about this more. As for where to leave notices, I would leave one at each of the three pages at WP:CATSCAN#See also and Village pump - technical. If no one does this before I get home, I'll be glad to leave the notices. Gotta run. -- Ned Scott 21:12, 1 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, CatScan would only be doing two points of reference: cross-referencing a class category with an importance category. The template would handle the topic (via a parameter), determining the title of the "second-tier" (if you will) category, so whoever adds the template to a category would have to pass the topic via a parameter. I would have gone ahead and created these templates, but I wasn't sure of how exactly to name them, and I'll probably also need some help implementing all the parameters (I'm planning to have hideable links for A- and C-class if a given project doesn't implement them, and I need to provide a backup in case a project uses nonstandard naming). If you need me to explain any better, feel free to ask (but shh, don't tell anyone I was online when I wrote this!). —Dino guy 1000 22:35, 1 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]