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Cort and Fatboy Deletion

This is the fist time I have written an admin on Wikipedia about an article. Normally this site is administered very well with little personal bias, but for some reason when it comes to the Cort and Fatboy show's page that changes. There are many articles on Wikipedia with far less content. The articles I have been lucky enough to see before they are deleted, are not spam or advertisements. The articles have multiple legitimate sources. They are a national recognized podcast on a major podcast network. Please put whatever personal beef you have aside and do what is professional. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.108.24.143 (talk) 17:10, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Can you provide a specific link? I checked Cort and Fatboy and Cort and Fatboy Show and The Cort and Fatboy Show. All three were deleted by another admin. Is this a template you are talking about? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:00, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
Okay, I tracked down Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The Cort and Fatboy Show. It was another admin. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:02, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

I suggest you finish the Template_talk:Hatnote_templates_documentation#Merge_with_Template:Section_template_list merge, with all those smart TfD-admin gadgets you have (but hey don't abuse them ;-). ). -DePiep (talk) 20:28, 5 February 2011 (UTC) -- That is, of course, make it a Redirect + good R-template I'd say. -DePiep (talk) 20:29, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Just redirect? I saw a mention to deleting a subtemplate? Thanks, I am a bit slow today. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 20:32, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Bug in your browser and (semi-) automated edits

If indeed there is a bug in your browser you should not be making semi-automated or automated (your bot) edits using your browser until everything is debugged. Again, your idea to block yourself under these circumstances is a good one.

"The only reason that I can come up with for why I didn't see the message earlier is some javascript bug in my browser, or a conflict with one of the plugins (e.g., noscript or greasemonkey)."

It would also be appropriate to put a notice on both your bot and your semi-automated alternative account's pages to alert other editors that there may be additional problems due to this bug in your browser or glitch in your plug-ins.

--Kleopatra (talk) 23:22, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I agree that this problem needs to be identified before using the alternate account again. The fact that my "new messages" light did not pop up when you issued your message is quite disconcerting. There appear to be many editors using alternate accounts for various reasons (public terminals, bots, AWB, ...). I will see if there is a way to have the "new messages" bar pop up when messages are added on a list of accounts. I can think of at least one method, but it may not be the best method (e.g., having the browser check the other pages on every page load). Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:33, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
The first note wasn't on your talk page. The first note was at the bot request discussion. You should have been monitoring that discussion while you were editing according to it--it would have stopped you 975 edits sooner. I keep my watch list in a pop-up window when I'm using AWB and set the refresh rate; it shows the edits I'm making. I've had to undo a group of my edits a couple of times while getting used to AWB, but I was able to catch the errors quickly with this set-up, leaving me with a dozen or half-dozen blunders, not nearly a 1000. --Kleopatra (talk) 23:39, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
That's a great idea. I will use that in the future. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:42, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
A workaround (albeit sometimes annoying) would be to activate the option to have an email sent to you each time your talk page is edited. If you use a desktop mail client, then, such as Thunderbird, Outlook, Windows Live Mail, or Zimbra, you'd get a notification the instant you're emailed (depending on the frequency your client checks your inbox). Bob the WikipediaN (talkcontribs) 23:42, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
Also a good idea. I still want to figure out why my "new messages" light didn't pop up, but having my watchlist autorefreshing would allow me to watch multiple pages. The emailing idea helps, but would not catch changes to the BOTREQ page, unless there is a way to do that as well. For my bot, it currently only watches its own talk page, but I could have it watch more than one. The bot is really a larger issue, since it sometimes runs while I am not logged in. It is programmed to stop if anyone touches its talk page. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:47, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

speedy request

Hi, I saw you were active, would you have a look at these two and consider closing as speedy ..

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Neville_Hunt - and - Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Sophie Gold- this one could be some kind of scam. Off2riorob (talk) 15:39, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for your prompt attention. Off2riorob (talk) 15:45, 6 February 2011 (UTC)
No problem. Both were pretty clear cases. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:46, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Cookbook

Brilliant, many thanks! SlimVirgin TALK|CONTRIBS 00:07, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Birth date

You're right. I looked quickly, and all I saw was that he had replaced the template with no explanation. So, I reverted. Had I lingered a bit longer, I would have understood better what he was doing. Cheers! ---RepublicanJacobiteThe'FortyFive' 04:53, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Code proposal

Hi, I have plans to merge two hatnote templates. They must keep showing the same text. It would require code change in the pp remaining one. What about this plan: Target: merge Template:Other people4(edit talk links history) into Template:Other persons(edit talk links history). Visual outcome shall not change.

  • Step 1: Add code to T:op to cover the extra T:op4 named param

(Done: see Template:Other persons/sandbox(edit talk links history)).

  • Step 2: Test

(Done: see Template:Other persons/testcases(edit talk links history))

  • Step 3: Ask by {{editprotect}} to put new code in template T:op.
  • Step 4: Start TfD/TfM to remove T:op4 from view

My questions (after your freedom to respond as liked):

  • Can you take a look at the code & the testcaces?
  • Is the process OK, or should TfM start earlier?
  • Do we prefer replacement afterwards? (~50 or 75 to do).

-DePiep (talk) 11:27, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

The sandbox code looks good. I could certainly make the change right now, since it wouldn't break anything, but perhaps it is better to drop a note on the talk page for a day or so to see if anyone objects. As far as I can tell, there wouldn't be that many to convert. Once you restrict the transclusions to article space, there are only about 10 or so. I would say the process order looks fine. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:20, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
Done at both talks. We'll revisit in a few days. -DePiep (talk) 11:28, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
Put up for TfD today. Request code change by {{editprotect}} right here & now; but maybe you want to wait till TfD is closed. IMO, it's equal. -DePiep (talk) 12:11, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Undeletion of Template:1992 Spain Olympic Field Hockey Team

The template was deleted because at the time no page used the template. Several pages have been edited and use the template now. To save the effort for recreation, could you undelete it ? Inwind (talk) 12:48, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Done. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:08, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Long-term plans to delete Convert subtemplates

Thanks for fixing Template:Convert/numdisp to show &minus. I will try to give advance notice when I have other changes ready, during the next few weeks. I don't want anyone to feel they should "drop everything they're doing" to update {Convert} within 1 day. No, instead, changes can wait several days, as long as there is a path to progress. Also, User:Rich Farmbrough has offered to help make changes, so others will be able to help as well. My next concern is changing Template:Convert/round to correctly round negative numbers, which are rarely used because most measurements are lengths, as real-world positive amounts. Here is the goal for negative rounding (to same number of digits), where negative and positive will be similar:

  • {{convert|700|ft|m}} → 700 feet (210 m) versus {{convert|-700|ft|m}} → −700 feet (−210 m)

Although it seems shoddy now, to round the negative amount as "−213.4" rather than −210, few users have noticed, because most measurements are positive numbers.
After the fix for negative numbers, I think we should eliminate all special treatment of "imperial units" versus "US customary units" by editing all those subtemplates, as a major step toward simplifying Convert; the plan to edit U.S. & imperial templates is discussed at:

It won't affect the Convert/doc page, because those units would still work the same way, just using hundreds of fewer subtemplates; so, Template:Convert/LoffAoffDbSoffImp (and all "*Imp" or "*USer" or "*USre") would be unused. In fact, I think most of the various US/imperial subtemplates (as "Template:Convert/imp*" and "Template:Convert/us*") are basically unused, so most could be reduced to "semi-protection" to allow easier editing of each, as time permits. However, let's try, soon, to start deleting hundreds and hundreds of Convert subtemplates. More later. -Wikid77 14:31, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Template:Infobox power station

Hi, Plastikpork. There seems to be some problem with {{Infobox power station}} as it does not shows a reactor information for the nuclear power station. E.g. Belleville Nuclear Power Plant has information for the reactor manufacturer etc; however, it is not shown in the infobox. Beagel (talk) 13:51, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

It was a numbering problem. I also changed the turbine_manu to turbine_manu_npp in the article in question. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 17:04, 13 February 2011 (UTC)
Thank you. Beagel (talk) 17:59, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

colour, again

Can't get there from here ;) Jack Merridew 23:14, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Geobox - population density field naming issue

Re Template_talk:Geobox#Auto_population_density_calculation_not_working_for_urban_suffixed_parameters. Perhaps you can let me know once your bot has finished cleaning up the density field names, and I can mark the issue completed on the Geobox talk page. No rush, of course! --papageno (talk) 06:13, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

HELP!!

Can you please help me out with this article-Ooty? I was editing the infobox when suddenly the whole article went out of shape. It's LIVE now! Please help--Suraj T 07:12, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

How to?

I am beginning to port my regex ready for AWB operation and would ask your help and advice...

In general, I'd like to know what parts can be ported directly and run in AWB. Also would specifically like to know if the tagging rules can be used? If not, what adaptation is necessary?

//

var txt=document.editform.wpTextbox1;
 // current month-year
    var currentDate = new Date();
    var currmonth = currentDate.getMonth();
    var curryear  = currentDate.getFullYear();
    var myMonths = new Array("January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December");
    var curryyyymm = myMonths[currmonth] + ' ' + curryear;
 
 // insert 'dmy' template
    txt.value=txt.value.replace(/{{(use (dmy|mdy) dates|dmy|mdy)(\|[^}]*)?}}/gi, '{{Use dmy dates|date='+curryyyymm+'}}');
 
    var rxpdd = new RegExp("{{Use dmy dates\\|date="+curryyyymm+"}}", "gi");
    var dflagfound = txt.value.search(rxpdd);
    if (dflagfound == -1)
    {
        txt.value='{{Use dmy dates|date='+curryyyymm+'}}\r\n'+txt.value;
    }

Here are a few lines of code in my MOSNUM script which are used in Lightmouse's script. He did not recall who gave it to him nor exactly what it does. Can you perhaps tell me?

var linkmap=[];
function Ohc_protect_dates(){
 var txt=document.editform.wpTextbox1;
       txt.value=txt.value.replace(/Image:[^|]+/gi, function(img){
       linkmap.push(img);
       return "\x02"+(linkmap.length-1)+"\x03";
   });

Ohconfucius ¡digame! 14:39, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Most of the date tagging stuff could be simplified by using something like {{subst:#time:F Y}}. I didn't consider that option at first for a couple reasons: (1) I forgot about it, and (2) I wasn't sure if the substitution might occur within a <ref>...</ref> or <nowiki>...</nowiki> or a comment. However, as far as I can tell, that won't be a problem. As for the rest of the logic, this can be ported to AWB. You will just need to use the conditionals in AWB. I am not 100 percent clear what the second chunk of code is supposed to do. It could be used for marking image names to make sure they are not transformed by the script, but I'm not sure. It is strange that it only uses [^|], rather than [^|\[\]], since it would otherwise run off the end of [[Image:foo.jpg]]. Also, it only uses "Image:" and not "(?:Image|File):", nor does it check to if the Image is preceded by [[. So, whatever it does, doesn't seem to be entirely working, as far as I can tell. Perhaps it's just doing nothing at the moment. I will look at it more later. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:22, 16 February 2011 (UTC)
  • Thanks. Now I have a supplementary:

    In my bot application, I have been asked how the bot would detect citation titles that occur in body text or citations that do not use templates? While the simple answer to the second is not to touch anything within the <ref></ref>, or to convert only dmy and mdy dates which are used as parameters within citation templates, I am a bit stumped by the first point. Any ideas? --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 08:16, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

That's quite a long discussion. To avoid the WP:TLDR, is there a simple example of a situation a citation that is not within a ref-tag, or within a citation template, or within an external link bracket? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 20:02, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Fix for Convert/numdisp dropping end-zeroes

16-Feb-2011: Check to see if anyone has re-updated Template:Convert/numdisp to fix the end-zeroes from being dropped on the input amount (such as "4.5000" becoming "4.5"):

It's been almost 2 hours, and an engineering user has posted a complaint at the end of Template_talk:Convert. -Wikid77 18:25, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Done. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:59, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

TfD of Template:NavigationRepYears

You closed Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2011_January_5#Template:NavigationRepYears as "merge". However, it is not clear what should be merged. In my view the /Y pages should be deleted. What was your view of the consensus? — This, that, and the other (talk) 00:59, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

You are probably correct. I had asked Chris to help, but I am afraid he is probably too busy. I believe the key is to simplify the entire collection, moving templates to template space, and eliminating the stub year articles. However, we will want to make sure that links aren't broken if possible. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:27, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

AutoEd issue

You might take a peek at this; seems that unencoding curly-pairs can result in tranclusion instead of linking. In this case, it's a template invocation being used as a section heading that's then linked to. I had to put the nasty.encoding back. Cheers, Jack Merridew 21:51, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Interesting, but not surprising. I have seen issues with the anchor conversion code. Perhaps there is now a critical mass of bugs, and I will actually fix some of them. The difficulty is the amount of time it takes to remember what everything does ... Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:22, 23 February 2011 (UTC)
I've had that problem, too. The worst is the old assembly language, all uppercase, short symbols, and terse comments. In the meantime, I'll preview more carefully. Cheers, Jack Merridew 02:46, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

Irish infobox

Hi Plastik. I'm back! Can you update this with an infobox settlement type appearance? I saw your comment about the Andorra years. Rich's solution is best to do decades. I couldn't find anything else about 1978 in Andorra... I will look to add more on 1970s this afternoon. Better?Dr. Blofeld 13:11, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

There is some resistance to major changes to the Irish infobox, as far as I can tell, unless I am reading the discussion incorrectly. Thanks for the work on the Andorra page. I had feared you had really retired, and that there was no hope in saving it. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:24, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

I almost did, luckily the foundation were cooperative, otherwise I wouldn't be here.♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:39, 24 February 2011 (UTC) You read the discussion wrongly I think. The "I like grey" was about the county maps. I've readdressed the proposal to update infobox irish settlement. We'll see what the response is.♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:43, 24 February 2011 (UTC) PLease see this. There is clear support for you to do it.♦ Dr. Blofeld 17:22, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Okay, I will have a look within the next 12 to 24 hours. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:41, 26 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm Back

Plastikspork, I've decided to share my views on the matter on the talk page and being that your one of the projects biggest contributers, your views are needed. Beast from da East (talk) 20:49, 26 February 2011 (UTC)

Protecting Pages

Hi - I've been working on wikipedia for the last couple of years creating pages related to kickboxing. I've recently noticed that un-registered users are editing fight records. Now this is fair enough but the problem is that they tend to add fight results and not update the fighter fight record (e.g. wins/losses/draws) leaving some degree of confusion (thankfully I have my own spreadsheets but it is still a pain in the butt) - especially as I can not talk to them (no message pages). Even worse is when people change the fighters fight record to something absurb (Mike Zambidis was changed from 95 wins to 144 - admittedly with evidence - Buakaw Por. Pramuk was changed from 195 to 400 - I changed back). Sorry if rambling on but would appreciate some help with it. Cheers. User:jsmith006 (talk) 12:31, 26 February 2011 (UTC)

I will have a look at the ones you have mentioned, and see if there is some justification for semi-protection. If you would like me to semi-protect others, let me know. Sometimes the best way is to just get a group of people to put the pages on their watchlists, or create a page with all of them listed, and use the "related changes" link. Yet another idea would be to create an "editnotice" that pops up when someone edits the page, reminding them about updating the record. Of course, this only helps if they actually read it, and are editing in good faith. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 17:06, 26 February 2011 (UTC)
Sounds good to me - thanks Plastikpork User:jsmith006 (talk) 20:19, 03 March 2011 (UTC)

Damascus

Hi. I've made a Template:Location map Syria Damascus. Can you add the pin locator to Umayyad Mosque?♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:09, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

It make take some time due to unexpected travel, but I hope I will have some free time. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:00, 1 March 2011 (UTC)
Done. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:57, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, Herr Plastik.♦ Dr. Blofeld 14:06, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

Infobox change

Hi, regarding this change, how can we get rid of those pairs of horizontal lines? There are also gaps between these lines and the infobox borders, which look sloppy compared to the previous version. Thanks — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 00:54, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

Strange. I don't see the gaps, but I will see about getting rid of the extra lines. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:00, 3 March 2011 (UTC)
To answer your edit summary, yes. ;) But I still see a few pixels of whitespace between the ends of the horizontal rules and the infobox borders. I'm using IE8 if that makes a difference. — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 01:07, 3 March 2011 (UTC)
Alas, the border-collapse setting didn't fix it, but coincidentally enough, the {{Infobox settlement}} snippet in the following section does not have the same problem. So there is something different about the markup in {{Infobox}}. I shall investigate... — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 17:05, 3 March 2011 (UTC)
I've figured out the difference. {{Infobox}} has the HTML attribute cellspacing="5", whereas {{Infobox settlement}} (and the previous table markup in the Summer Olympic Games article) have no spacing. — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 19:12, 3 March 2011 (UTC)
I see. I don't see this in Firefox. It would be good to make the appearance of {{infobox}} less sensitive to the selected browser. I wonder if it would be possible to move that cellspacing parameter into the CSS, which would make it possible to override it on a case-by-case basis. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:42, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Infobox settlement

Abc
Population
 • City
100 000
 • Urban
50 000

Since you are one of the main contributors of the Template:ınfobox settlement, maybe you can help me to use it properly. The problem is with the population. Among the many alternatives I use two fields; population _total and population _urban. Both fields work fine. But whenever I try to use both fields at the same time, the field population_total yields the population of the town or city.(i.e., the field name authomatically changes) So I either use the total population or the urban population but not both at the same time. At the right is the infobox of an imaginary settlement with 100,000 total population and 50,000 urban population. (You can see that the word total is switched to city.) Thanks Nedim Ardoğa (talk) 12:34, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

Abc
Population
 • Total
100 000
 • Urban
50 000
I see. I'm not the one who designed this method, but there is the "total_type" parameter. See example. Does this help? I suppose this should be the default, but I worry about changing it without some level of discussion, and investigation first. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:23, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

Works fine. Thanks. Nedim Ardoğa (talk) 11:27, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Great. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:40, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Convert: 4 edit-requests

See bottom of Template_talk:Convert/updates, with 4 separate edit-requests. If you are able to update any of the 4, that would be a help, in the next few days. This can wait a while. Thanks. -Wikid77 22:05, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

Great. I will get to this when I get back. I fear making large changes without some level of certainty that I can deal with issues, which is a problem with the sporadic connection that I have at the moment. I should have some time in about 24 to 48 hours, if they haven't been taken care of already. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:39, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

I ran into this page translated it in italian only to find out it was already translated and was the same of this page. I've lost a bit of time trying to translate it maybe the page should be deleted and a redirect created so other people don't waste their time as i did.--Sweetcorn (talk) 20:10, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

Should we just redirect one to the other? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:40, 4 March 2011 (UTC)
I don't know if it is right but what i did is to put a "See also" section in the Hippo Regius article which leads to the Hippone article and another "See also" section in the Hippone article which leads to the Hippo Regius article.--Sweetcorn (talk) 15:52, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
If they are really the same place, it's best to just redirect one to the other, and merge the content. I created the redirect, and pasted the contents of the Hippone article on the talk page. Thanks! Plastikspork (talk) 18:11, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

Burma

Hi. I think I'll stub the Burmese settlements, it's too slow writing one at a time and puts me off covering them.. Can you use a bot or something to help dab the templates? I recall that you created a page with all of the same name settlements on? ♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:14, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

I can generate lists of repeats from a list of all the places. This won't help with dab from places in other countries, or from places that aren't on the list, but I guess it would be a start. It will take some time, since I have never done this before, but should be do-able. I am still on travel, so I am mostly doing mindless stuff until I return. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:38, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

OK. You will find most of the settlements are only native to Burma, Burmese names are pretty distinct. Of course there'll be the odd one like Hin or Soe or something which could possibly be used elsewhere but the majority should be OK I think.♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:58, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

See diff1 diff2--Амба (talk) 02:33, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

Could you explain exactly what is being fixed? I see that the two maps have a slightly different placement of the pin. I could probably figure it out from the diff in the code, but it would be helpful if you could at least explain a bit. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:26, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
Sorry. I do not know, what happened. Bug was created and salved by some changes in MediaWiki?--Амба (talk) 16:43, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Help with a new template

I am interested in making a generic bargraph template, which would be similar to what you have helped develop in Template:Infobox political party/seats. The idea is to have something where the core information (i.e., the label and value for the bar) would be visible by a screen reader, but the additional visual cue provided by the bar would be visible using graphical browsers. I have made a first attempt for a specific case (Template:Georgia, Largest cities, 2009 Census -- Bar_Graph), but after some discussion (Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (accessibility)#Partial replacement for a bar graph) realized that this could be something which is more generally useful. If you have any suggestions, or would like to help out, please let me know (or comment on the thread at MOS). Thank you. Frietjes (talk) 21:29, 10 March 2011 (UTC)

Sure, I am happy to help, but I won't be able to work on it for about 24 hours. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:53, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

I actually have to warn you that there is a slight problem with this connection you wrote in the talk page of Hippo Regius. I tryed to click on it but i doesn't stabilize sort of stuff i really don't know how to describe it.

Can you have a look at it ? Does it do the same trick to you as well ? Or maybe is only a problem with my internet browser ?--Sweetcorn (talk) 20:14, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure. The link works for me. The link wasn't all that important, just an indication that the places are the same. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:11, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Template:In-universe/doc

I think the documentation on Template:In-universe/doc should be made to include the category parameter, to assist editors in sorting articles into the right category. The previous documentation took care of that, but after the Tfd it needs to be changed a little. I'll give it a try, but please check my work in another hour or so. 10:50, 13 March 2011 (UTC)Debresser (talk)

 Done This included some work as explained on Template_talk:WikiProject_Dungeons_&_Dragons#Fiction_parameter. Debresser (talk) 13:34, 13 March 2011 (UTC)
Great! I was meaning to do something like that, but got sidetracked. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 17:00, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Standardized navboxes

Hi. I noticed you closed the discussion, but you did not delete them all. Yes some of them are used, but they should not be. Could you make a bot request to remove those links? (Btw I tried to make a bot requests, but then the solution was unknown). Thanks. Pelmeen10 (talk) 18:03, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

It takes some time with over 10,000 links, see Special:Contributions/SporkBot. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 18:04, 13 March 2011 (UTC)
Oh, great. I thought they're not being removed. Pelmeen10 (talk) 19:08, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Template:Bar graph

Nice work on Template:Bar graph! Only thing is, as far as I know scope="bar" doesn't actually do anything. W3C only defines the scope attribute to have values of "col", "row", "colgroup", or "rowgroup". I could be wrong, but I suspect that a user agent will ignore scope="bar". I'm loathe to mess with your work in case I'm mistaken, but unless you know different, you ought to be using "row". Cheers. --RexxS (talk) 01:20, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Yes, you are correct. That was a search and replace error. When I was converting it over, the prior template used ".../row" for the subtemplate and the new one uses ".../bar". I did a simple search and replace and forgot about the other uses "row" within the template. Nice catch. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:23, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Template removal problem

I do not know what happened with the template removal edit here that blanked the article. Keith D (talk) 01:38, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Oh, that's really bad. I have no idea. I will check the other edits. Thank you very much for bringing that to my attention. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:41, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

{{Infobox Aircraft}} reimplementation

Hey,

Five months overdue, I've finally taken the fifteen minutes I should have in order to fully reimplement {{infobox Aircraft}} as a subclass of the "newer" modular templates. Could you have a look at the sandbox and test cases to sanity check before I propose un-deprecating it? Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward: not at work) - talk 07:47, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

Looks good to me! Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:39, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

Category:States and territories by year of disestablishment

Hi there, I see you added many "States and territories disestablished in (year)" categories recently, which are under both "Category:States and territories disestablished in the (x)th century" and Category:States and territories by year of disestablishment. Shouldn't they be only under the century categories, which in turn should be the only categories under the by-year one? This is the way it works for the establishment categories (with decades as well). As it is, the by-year category is a bit overpopulated. Is there a bot that can do this maybe? --Vossanova o< 19:57, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I had been meaning to do that. I had started with an existing one as a template, but at that time the category wasn't nearly as full. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:50, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

Stateestdecade templates

Hi, thanks for your amendments to {{StateestdecadeBC}} and {{Stateestdecade}} - do you think this has cleared up the issues I described here? --Redrose64 (talk) 15:57, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

I added the additional century category fix from the BC template to the other one, and it appears to be fixed now. Basically, if the second parameter is blank, we want to sort it under 0. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 16:18, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

Template abuse

Please comment at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Navbox madness - or: Template size exceeded for stub. Anomie 16:23, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

Will do. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:23, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

{{collapsible list}} markup

Hey,

Just a friendly ping for comments here about the markup {{collapsible list}} emits. I'm planning on proposing changing it to emit a proper HTML list, which is probably going to cause a bit of fallout. Cheers! Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward: not at work) - talk 23:13, 22 March 2011 (UTC)

Have to sign off for a bit, but I will have a look in the next day or two. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:24, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Thx ^^

I Just like to thank you for helping me adjusting the width in Guangzhou article :P. --LLTimes (talk) 19:02, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

No problem. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:13, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Is TfD Template:Infobox Civil Conflict ready to be closed? Do you think it'll need more discussion? Thanks much, Justin Ormont (talk) 20:51, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Sure, done. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:07, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Coord unknown

Thanks for closing the TfD and making the template less conspicuous. Keep up the good work! —Stepheng3 (talk) 19:39, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

Great, I'm glad you agree. Thanks for the feedback! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:07, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks

for fixing Template:Formula One. I noticed the overlap, but I couldn't think how to fix it. DH85868993 (talk) 08:06, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

I have often wondered if it would be possible to force [edit] to not overlap with the title, but I don't have a clue how that would be done at the moment. Someone who knows more CSS than I would have a better idea. Just increasing the width of the box seems to be the easiest way to fix it. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:20, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

The Biggest Loser (season 2)

The Biggest Loser (season 2)

Hi, some major alterations being made here, as they were uncited and from a user you have previously reverted I reverted back also - I would appreciate you having a look if and when you are online - regards. Off2riorob (talk) 23:28, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. Not sure why the sudden interest in those articles as a vandalism target. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:29, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
No, me neither, I had never even heard of the programs till yesterday. I see you have dealt with them in the correct manner, many thanks. Off2riorob (talk) 11:04, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

Irish infobox

Should be ready to update from Template:Infobox place Ireland/sandbox. Can you move this into the main infobox. As long as you give an edit summary per Wp:Ireland talk page dicussion or something.♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:43, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

Given the most recent backlash, it appears there is no consensus for this? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:29, 24 March 2011 (UTC)
Sigh. That's very unfortunate. The vitriol directed at Dr B was most uncalled for. I've tried to pour oil on those troubled waters, but it might be worth looking for wider consensus, through and RfC. We see this time and again, and it would be good to resolve it once and for all. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 11:16, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

UK counties

Problem has occurred with Northern Irish counties. Really it should use something UK not R of Ireland infobox which should just have a programmed name Republic of Ireland. We have Template:Infobox England county. I've noticed for Welsh counties they use horrid set boxes which should really be updated anyway. Scotland I haven't checked but an idea woudl either be to move Template:Infobox England county to Template:Infobox UK county to be used in England, Wales, Scotland and N Ireland or just simply replace with all with a standard infobox settlement as a "infobox county". Given the limitations of the current infobox you know which I'd prefer. But it would need some discussion with the whole UK project as well as the sub projects to make a full county infobox change. Any ideas? We could probably get away with standard infoboxes for N Irish counties but change any of england's and its likely to raise eyebrows... Wales you could probably get away with adding standard too.. An alternative would be to move the english county template to UK county and create a wrapper in the style of infobox settlement... ♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:22, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

See this also.♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:29, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

Any ideas over the idea of an infobox UK county??♦ Dr. Blofeld 17:47, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, but after this debacle, I would rather not waste my time creating something that is just going to be scuttled. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:03, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

Consistent infoboxes for counties England, Wales and Scotland at least has nothing to do with WP:Ireland.. They are a mess.♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:30, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Burma navboxes

Hello, Plastikspork. I have been in discussion with User:Dr._Blofeld about the creation of pages for settlements in Burma. I've also read through your discussions with him (for example, at User_talk:Plastikspork/Archive_6#Infobox_C.C3.B3rdoba) about capturing data from maplandia and formatting it into the navboxes which are currently at pages under User:Dr._Blofeld/Burma.

The problem with these navboxes which I have been discussing with Dr. Blofeld is the considerable number of duplicate names. I suggested to Dr. Blofeld that before creating articles it would be a good idea to agree a naming convention for all settlements, and to change the navboxes so that they contain piped links to unique pages.

So what I'd like to do is to write code to recreate his navboxes with all the necessary piping inserted into the links. For example, name conflicts within a state would be piped to <town>, <township>, name conflicts in different states to <town>, <state>, and names which are unique in Burma but occur elsewhere in WP would become <name>, Burma.

In the narrative at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Plastikspork/Archive_6#Infobox_C.C3.B3rdoba about the downloading process, some way through that long section, you wrote, “I have all the information for all the levels in a large 41,000 line file, so this post processing doesn't take very long. All I have to do is create another file with level 4 removed, and push level 5 down to level 4, and the same script would work. That is, if this is what you want.” The 41000-line file is an obvious starting point for me to produce a proper disambiguated set of navboxes with a standardised naming convention – before anyone starts creating all the articles. It would make it much easier to write the code if I had the raw table of data which you constructed from Maplandia – otherwise I would have to write extra code to reconstruct that table first.

Any chance I could have a copy of the 41000-line file? Or would you prefer to do the coding yourself? It would just be a similar exercise to the one you did to create the navboxes, but with the extra stage of generating 41000 unique names first so that the links in the navboxes could be properly piped. I was thinking of including a few lines in the code to churn out all the disambiguation pages at the same time…

What do you think? — Hebrides (talk) 15:25, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

I may still have the list. If not, it's probably easiest to back it out of the navboxes I created. I will see if I can find the list. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:23, 24 March 2011 (UTC)
I wasn't able to find the list, so I basically backed it out from the navboxes that were created as subpages of User:Dr. Blofeld/Burma. I pasted the results in User:Plastikspork/Burma‎. You may want to randomly check a few with maplandia to make sure there aren't any gross errors. The bullets indicate the subdivision level (1st, 2nd and 3rd). As Blofeld mentioned there is actually something in between 2nd and 3rd, but maplandia doesn't have it. Let me know if I can do anything else to help. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:04, 26 March 2011 (UTC)
Yeah its Districts of Burma . I think Maplandoa lists states/regions and then townships...♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:45, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
Thanks. Working on the code now. Your list gives 37824 settlements – you mentioned 41000, so have I lost some? — Hebrides (talk) 21:47, 28 March 2011 (UTC)
I was wondering the same thing, but then I found the original file, which has 41166 lines. The first line is level 0, Burma, which I removed. Then, there are (3014 + 28) "index pages", like 'Zawtika - Zwehtaw' or single page indices, which contains settlements in that range. This caused significant confusion at first, since I had original interpreted these as a level, when they were just do to maplandia splitting large pages into subpages. So, 41166 - 1 - 3014 - 28 = 38123 total of level 1, level 2, and level 3. So, we are still off a bit. I will see if I can sort it out. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:09, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
Okay, I took my original list, stripped out the superfluous index pages, and diffed it with the one I uploaded and they are identical, with 38123 lines, so what I uploaded is correct. I am going to upload a new version with subsections, and the bullet level reduced by one. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:16, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
It looks like Ywathit is very popular. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:48, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

I processed your data and discovered that I cannot create unique names for some settlements because the name, township and state are all identical. Take, for example, Arang (two instances in Myitkyina, Kachin) or Chaungzon (two instances in Kalewa, Sagaing). These are actually duplicates in your name list. Are they different settlements, or do I simply eliminate the duplicate? (Not a problem – just one line of code will do it – but I don't want to do it if they are distinct).

You can see my current version of proposed renamings (with rationale) at User:Hebrides/Burma/1, User:Hebrides/Burma/2 and User:Hebrides/Burma/3. You'll see that there are a few (eg Chaunggan) where I had to add both township and state, where one Chaunggan shares its township name with another Chaunggan and shares its state name with a different Chaunggan.

Comments welcome. — Hebrides (talk) 11:04, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

Since writing the above, I've tried eliminating duplicates (reduces the number of settlements from 37824 to 37775). I've also added a test for existing disambiguation pages so that they are not mistaken for article pages (which would suppress the appending of ", Burma"). I haven't uploaded the results yet, so my Burma pages are still the version referred to above. — Hebrides (talk) 12:00, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

You wrote that you "found the original file, which has 41166 lines". Does that file have the coordinates of each settlement, or did you not harvest those? — Hebrides (talk) 10:00, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

No, unfortunately, I didn't save the coordinates. By the way, as far as the duplicates go, those are duplicates on maplandia as well. If you search for those names in the top search box for maplandia, you will see the query return two identical entries. For example, a bit of clicking leads to this page, with Arang listed twice. If you want my webcrawler, I could probably post that as well. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:28, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
OK, thanks, I'll just eliminate the duplicates. I've decided to repeat the crawl and harvest the rest of the data (coordinates etc) for use when creating articles. If I could have your webcrawler code that would save me reinventing the wheel – I can just add the code to extract coordinates from the page. If you don't want to post code on wikipedia, I've registered an email address in my preferences – just email it to me. Thanks — Hebrides (talk) 19:54, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
Now posted at User:Plastikspork/spider. This version may be the one that thinks the "bar - foo" index pages are places, instead of just pointers to pages with places in the range from "bar" to "foo". When I noticed there was a problem, I had already made a full pass, so I just post-processed the data fix the indentation level. I could probably fix it, but it would require some testing, thought, and trial/error. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:58, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Hello, I've seen that you are able to modifiy the Template:Infobox_protected_area. I would like to have the possibility to give another value for the parameter iucn_category (f.e. (permanently) unassigned), because f.e. protected areas of the United States don't have obligatorily an IUCN Category. Please see my Discussion. Also look to this.-- Sinuhe20 (talk) 08:42, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

Okay, I will try to have a look soon. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:22, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

Template ridiculousness...

Hello again! I need your help as an arbiter. After a series of aggressive attacks on my music templates by Memphisto, stripping them of their usefulness (see before and after of Template:Roger Joseph Manning Jr., Template:Primitive Radio Gods, Template:The JudyBats, Template:Walter Becker and Template:Heavy Trash) - I don't know what else to do. The guy is relentless. First he didn't want red links, now he doesn't want blue links or plain text. At all. The point is, as I said in my rebuttal over at Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (see very short revision history), "please do not remove useful information for those interested in the scope of his entire discography." It is my view that firstly, some items do not warrant separate pages - what then? Erase them from the discography? I say, as a fan of musical history, if it shouldn't be a separate page, at least give me the information. Redirects are the best way to do this. And secondly, not everything needs to be linked (see Template:Primitive Radio Gods' "I-Rails" section - purely informational, but there's plenty of blue in the template - so no reason to delete!) Since when is Wikipedia a selective encyclopedia? Arrrgh... Cheers, Wikkitywack (talk) 20:06, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

I am afraid I wouldn't be entirely impartial on this subject, as I agree with most of what is written in Wikipedia:NAVBOX. Basically, that we should reserve the articles for the comprehensive lists, and not leave redlinks and redirects in the navigation boxes. There are obvious exceptions, like when all of the members of a band have articles but one, so you add that person's name in the box unlinked. I would suggest starting a thread on one of the talk pages for one of the navigation boxes, perhaps quoting prior discussions, and then put in a WP:Third opinion request (if it qualifies). If it's more than just you and one other user, go for a WP:RFC, or post the thread at one of the Music Wikiprojects to solicit more opinions. Sorry I can't be of more help here. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:38, 2 April 2011 (UTC)
But a navbox is a comprehensive list that goes with you! You don't have to keep going back to a particular section of the artist's homepage... A template should not only provide links but convey information, right? Are you against plain text in templates as well? I guess I understand if there's a bunch of it (although I think my Primitive Radio Gods example above is defensible...) - but for someone like Roger Joseph Manning Jr. who has just two singles, what is the harm in having a little plain text? It's like QuickFacts. So now it looks like Primitive Radio Gods & Heavy Trash only released one single apiece, and all the rest released zero... this is simply inaccurate and really neuters the template's ability to convey information... Wikkitywack (talk) 02:00, 2 April 2011 (UTC)
Yes, I believe a navbox is for navigation, not for content. A very very limited amount of plain text is sometimes necessary, but the purpose is not to provide a summary (that's an infobox). Like I said, you should probably bring this up at WT:WikiProject Music or WT:WikiProject Musical Artists, since I am not the one who is reverting your edits. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:04, 2 April 2011 (UTC)

Removing italics from Template pages

I saw where you removed italics from the title of Template:Composer navbox. Another approach might be to add a condition to the default case:

|#default={{#ifeq:"{{NAMESPACE}}"|""|{{italic title}}|<!--no italics-->}}

Would this work? If so, it could potentially solve the problem of the calling templates having italicized titles and save a lot of editing of these numerous calling template pages. Do you see any potential problems with this? (Or should something like this be added to Template:Italic title?) --Robert.Allen (talk) 01:21, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Sure that would work, or equivalently wrap the entire thing in {{main other}} would also work. I can't think of a case when we would want a page other than main space to be italicised by {{italic title}}. So it would be a good idea to consider adding this logic directly to {{italic title}}. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:24, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Or maybe it would be better to just exclude the Template namespace rather than all non-article namespaces:

|#default={{#ifeq:"{{NAMESPACE}}"|"Template"|<!--no italics-->|{{italic title}}}}

--Robert.Allen (talk) 01:30, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Sure, that would work too. There is {{template other}} for that :) Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:32, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Are there any performance issues using "#ifeq" versus a template call? --Robert.Allen (talk) 01:48, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Not likely to be anything significant in this case. I tend to use the meta-templates in case there are changes in the software, to make it easier to fix things in one place, and since it makes the code a bit less complicated. However, in this case, I don't see any significant difference between the two methods. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:51, 3 April 2011 (UTC)
And, on other non-English Wikipedias the name of template space isn't necessarily "Template". Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:53, 3 April 2011 (UTC)
It never occurred to me you would get a different answer in other Wikipedias. Do they use our templates, or do they copy them to their Wikipedias? If they have their own copy, they could edit that part of it. Or maybe there should be a set of global constants for various article spaces which are language independent. --Robert.Allen (talk) 10:01, 3 April 2011 (UTC)
Yes, they do just copy our templates, then try to make minimal modifications to make them work. Frequently they start with just copy the English names, then slowly translate the names into the local language, leaving redirects. However, there is a set of global constants, you just use
|#default={{#ifeq:"{{NAMESPACE}}"|"{{ns:Template}}"|<!--no italics-->|{{italic title}}}}
and it will translate into any language, if {{italic title}} is on the other Wikipedia. However, given the difficulties with making the string manipulation templates work with non-English characters, and differing conventions regarding italicising titles, they will probably just remove that part from the template, or replace it with something else. As an interesting side note, as far as I can tell, using the English namespace prefixes will always take you to the correct namespace on other language Wikipedias. Hence, you can type "User:Plastikspork" or "File:Example.jpg" on any Wikipedia and it will take you to "User" or "File" space. However, if you ask for the name of this namespace, it won't return "User" or "File", but will return the output of {{ns:User}} or {{ns:File}}. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:08, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

India maps

Remind me how to update the Indian maps again. I've created File:Location map Uttar Pradesh.png and File:Location map Kerala.png. See Pallipuram Fort for the latter, looks pretty good, I want to rid of those horrid colored maps. File:Blank Map Rajasthan state and districts.png can also replace Rajasthan current colored map in use in the Indian jurisdiction. Unfortunately the Germans stopped making an abundance of maps. I'm not putting up with those colored maps any longer!!.. ♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:32, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

Changing from SVG to PNG seems to be a step backwards. Changing to colouring in the SVG can be done with a simple text editor. I uploaded a new version of the Uttar Pradesh SVG map, with the colouring revised to the grey. It looks much better, and doesn't have the odd pink artifacts in your PNG version, which basically come from trying to do a bucket fill on a converted version of the map. The image editor can't tell exactly where the regions end and the borders begin. Let me know if you want other changes. Plastikspork (talk) 23:35, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for that. Oh yes please, please do blank all of the colors and the outside grey, looks much better. Can you do it for the other Indian states? At least then they'll look half decent until somebody creates some better maps for every state.♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:13, 7 March 2011 (UTC) Please update Indian infobox with File:India Kerala location map.svg..♦ Dr. Blofeld 16:39, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Done. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:11, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Phew, the worst Indian map is now replaced!! Thanks for your work on Sri Lanka. I did consider nominating Template:Infobox Sri Lankan Electoral District too. Is there not a Template:Infobox electoral district? ♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:26, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Mmm, I dislike the current images used in the indian state articles. It should not feature a pin map of the state but it should be a state locator in India like File:India Assam locator map.svg only. Would it be difficult to recode the Indian infobox to do this or maybe replace the state infoboxes with standard ones?♦ Dr. Blofeld 15:45, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I noticed that as well on Kerala. Do we have locator maps for all the states? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 17:01, 13 March 2011 (UTC)
If you look at Assam, it is using the locator map, but as an inset map. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 17:04, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Yeah but the second pin obscures it. Yes of course we have locator maps for all of the states, consistent naming too I'd imagine... It shouldn't be displaying a pin map, it should be a solid map of India with that small window as the sole image.. If anybody wants to see where the capital is they see the article on it..♦ Dr. Blofeld 18:08, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Sure, you don't have to convince me :) With the small number of states, I suppose we could just replace the infobox with {{infobox settlement}} in those articles. The appearance is very similar between the two templates. Of course, someone may disagree .... Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 18:11, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

I have a feeling that the vast majority of those who used to insist upon it are no longer editing wikipedia... If you were to replace just the states, providing now info is lost I can't see why it would cause any problem. You could try a few and wait a few days and see what happens perhaps... WP:India could certainly use a lease of new life, the vast majority of the articles are stale and need sorting out. In fact Indian and Pakistan articles are generally the worst on wikipedia, for places at least... Of course we have some gems for India but we also have some dreadful ones! Most of the states are in pretty good nick though I think, its the districts which are mostly awful.♦ Dr. Blofeld 18:28, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

A good example of what I mean about the capital letters and "famous" claims plaguing Indian and Pakistani articles...♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:16, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Okay, see here, we shall see how long it lasts. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 20:48, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

OK, if anybody does complain though I want to know why they've been hiding for so long!! The Indian project seems to have lost its spark... BTW Ive also nominated the Sri Lanka region template for deletion and the Belgian ones, I also came across one for DRC Congo! Hope this isn't too much at once... ♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:15, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Assam infobox is still there, care to do the others?♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:08, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

Well?♦ Dr. Blofeld 17:46, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Best to name it Infobox state I think, don't want to confuse anybody..♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:38, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Go right ahead. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:41, 27 March 2011 (UTC)
All but five are now done. It's somewhat time consuming, so ping me again in a week and I will do the rest (if there hasn't been any major backlash). Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:24, 27 March 2011 (UTC)
And now all complete. The climate and symbols sections were not directly transferable, so I moved them to other sections. I am wondering if it wouldn't be a good idea to create some sort of subtemplate, where one could embed such sections, rather than trying to deal with a bunch of blank fields. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:47, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Good job, the Indian project is virtually dead sadly. All of the ones who would possibly have objected are likely editing the Indian wikipedias. I'd have to say that it is RedTiger, Nvvchar and myself who are the most active Wp:India editors at the moment and editing Indian articles is just an occasional thing...♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:03, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Infobox skyscraper

You might like to note discussion of {{Infobox skyscraper}} at the TfD for Infobox protected area of Australia. Regards, Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 13:26, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

I see. My slowness to merge that template does not seem to be a strong argument against merging the Australia template. If anything, it shows the level of care being taken in the merger. It first requires cleaning up all the existing uses, aligning parameter names, and making sure that ambiguities can be resolved (e.g., height of a building is roof, spire, or top floor) In the interim, there is no harm in having them both open, since it is basically equivalent to not merging. That does remind me to work on it some more. I have a long list of articles using that template that need to be fixed first. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:25, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

The skyscraper task is a big job, its not as if you've been lazy Plastik... But it still does need to be merged...♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:43, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

Indeed. Nor is it as though here's a deadline attached to such tasks. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 13:12, 30 March 2011 (UTC)
Just a few more issues (see the talk page for skyscraper) and we should be ready for my bot to start the merger. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:24, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
And now started. Just 2500 or so articles to go. This is going to be slow since I feel the need to check each edit. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:44, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Horizontal lists in navboxes

Many thousands of Wikipedia articles have navboxes, in which lists of links are presented, horizontally, without using list mark-up, but instead using {{·}} or suchlike as a kludge. This is semantically poor and has implications for accessibility.

I created {{Flatlist}} in an attempt to begin addressing this, but previous discussion (two-and-a-half years ago) petered out before various concerns were resolved. Now that CSS an browsers have moved on, I'd like us to find a solution. Please contribute to centralised discussion on MoS (accessibility). Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 14:03, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

Okay, will do. It appears flatlist does not work with Elinks. It just appears as a normal vertical bulleted list. Of course, unbulleted list doesn't work either (renders the bullets). Will comment there. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:28, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
Thanks. It works, in as much as it degrades gracefully, in a browser which doesn't recognise the applicable styles; which is what is supposed to happen in such cases. How much of an issue that is - or how much we should pander to such browsers - is a matter for debate. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 13:10, 30 March 2011 (UTC)
I wouldn't say generating a vertical list is degrading gracefully for a navbox. It would be quite a mess. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:23, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
I should imagine it wouldn't be very pretty, but it would be readable and usable, which is what is meant by the term. How many of our readers are using that browser? In any case, I expect there are other parts of Wikipedia which also loose styling in a similar way; and that the users of such browsers are used to seeing sites which don't look as their designers intended. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 17:25, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
I would think that a flat list should gracefully decay into a comma or semicolon-delimited list, rather than into gigantic vertical list. This would seem to be the semantic equivalent. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 06:30, 1 April 2011 (UTC)
If (as is apparently the case; I don't have it running here) the browser does not recognise CSS, how would you prose to achieve that? The only solution would seem to be a feature request to the browser's authors. I also think you're confusing "semantic" with "visual". Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 10:20, 1 April 2011 (UTC)
That would depend on your definition of semantic (e.g., a comma and semicolon are frequently semantically equivalent when it comes to lists, although they are not visually equivalent). Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:43, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Infobox sheep breed

Hi, I've started to convert {{Infobox sheep breed}} (which I created, as an amended copy of {{Infobox chicken breed}}) to use {{Infobox}}, using the former's sandbox, but got muddled, not least by the "this breed is extinct" conditional statement.. Can you help please? Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 22:18, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

I updated the live version with a first iteration. Additional possible tweaks would be to make the traits section collapsible, and/or some additional formating of the weight fields. But, this should work as a start. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 06:28, 1 April 2011 (UTC)
That's great, thanks. I've done some further work, and updated {{Infobox goat breed}} to mirror it. More are needed (pig, cow, etc.) I suppose we might combine into one {{Infobox livestock breed}}, with switches for the |bottom=. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 10:45, 1 April 2011 (UTC)
Yes, some sort of {{Infobox livestock breed}} sounds like a good idea. There is a related thread on Chris's talk page about Infobox horse. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:41, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Emailed

Emailed.♦ Dr. Blofeld 14:48, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, I got it. I understand the frustration, but have no real idea how to fix it. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:08, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

See User:Dr. Blofeld/Ireland.... ♦ Dr. Blofeld 09:43, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for creating a demonstration for the TFD, so folks will know exactly what you are proposing. From the discussion at WP Ireland, I would say that there is some resistance to making large visual changes (i.e., just reduce the spacing, and keep the grey color scheme). We shall see what comes out of the TFD. I could personally go either way, as far as changing the backend or just tweaking it a bit. Certainly just changing the backend would be far easier, in terms of coding. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:37, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Database reports/Transclusions of deleted templates

Hi. I just committed a fix to Wikipedia:Database reports/Transclusions of deleted templates that will hopefully fix the transclusions counts. --MZMcBride (talk) 23:40, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Great, I had been keeping my own list at User:Plastikspork/Transclusions_of_deleted_templates/1, which was basically the same, but with the correct transclusion counts for both article space and other. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:43, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Infobox building

Not sure whether we should add the grey headers and sub headers like infobox skyscraper.. Parthenon etc looks rather good I think as it is.. Maybe just a silver header? I've noticed you've changed some of the infobox skyscrapers for hotels to building infoboxes. This is fine by me. At a later date once the skyscrapers are all converted it might not be a bad idea to consider a merger of the hotel infoboxes too. One thing at a time though, I'll consider it in a few months. ♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:20, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

Given the length of time since the TFD, and the sheer number of articles, I decided to take the minimal steps toward resolving the merger, which is to basically boil it down to a bot-driven task. I am having the bot do a bit more clean-up as well, like adding unit conversions and parsing coordinates. However, it is largely just translating the {{Infobox skyscraper}} transclusions into {{Infobox building}} transclusions. Given that there are hotels using skyscraper, building, and hotel, changing hotel/skyscrapers to hotel/buildings is somewhat orthogonal to the task at hand. No information is being discarded, so one can always develop a list of hotels using the building box if it is desired to change those to {{infobox hotel}}. I do agree its probably even better to merge the hotel template with the building template down the road. We could have a subtemplate which has hotel specific information that could be a plugin module, if necessary. As far as the headers go, that can come next, since that is just a question of the desired visual presentation of information. That is a far more tractable task, compared to the translation of around 3000 infoboxes, which (unfortunately) does require me to inspect each edit since I keep finding strange places that editors like to stick things (like images in the name field), or simply don't understand the parameters (like using the world's highest fields for a building which is only the highest in the city). Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:31, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
By the way, some limited grey/silver headers are there if you go to a building which has a "record height". In that case, the record height section has its own header, and an additional header is added below it to separate that section from the rest. After I am done with the first pass, take a stab at grouping the data into sections, and update the documentation. One option may be to simply have a flag where you can turn off the headers. This is possible in boxes like {{Infobox character}}, for example. But, first things first. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:34, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

AFL player Infoboxes

Please see Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Log/2011 April 5#AFL player infoboxes. Regards, Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 15:25, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Infobox merge skyscraper -> building

I notice you (or Sporkbot) converted Burj Khalifa to use the merged template. Unfortunately, it seems the building status has disappeared on the merged template, though it seems it should be included according to the template markup despite there being no mention of it in the documentation. Any idea why this should be? While the status is of less importance for a completed building like Burj Khalifa, is of particular relevance to skyscrapers under construction or in various states of project management (eg. "proposed", "vision", "topped-out", and so on). Astronaut (talk) 15:50, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

The status field is still there, but it has to be explicitly set. I could have made it come on automatically, but this would have changed existing transclusions of {{infobox building}}. The documentation hasn't been updated yet, but will be as soon. I wanted to try to finish the conversions first to make sure I had a clear sense of the form of the merged template. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 16:21, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

ISO 3166-2 region code for United Kingdom

[1] I think the region code you wanted was GB, not UK. Best regards, —Stepheng3 (talk) 23:08, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

Yes, that was a mistake, and I had intended to go back and correct them. Luckily, it appears there is no UK code, so it should be easy to find and correct. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:24, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Infobox journalist

You recently contributed to the Template:Infobox journalist. Your input is requested for the following discussion: Template talk:Infobox journalist#Twitter. Thank You. --Flyguy33 (talk) 06:49, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Will do. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:22, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

State templates

If you want the colors to change, you're responsible for changing all of the county templates. Don't forget to change the colors for such templates as {{NRHP in Teton County, Wyoming}}. Nyttend (talk) 21:09, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Sure, I am more than happy to change all the counties as well, if that is your only concern. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 21:11, 9 April 2011 (UTC)
Both the standard county navboxes and the NRHP navboxes are colored to match the state templates. I have no complaints if the colors for all of them are changed: it's simply that they need to be consistent, and I don't want to have to do the changing for all the county templates. And yes, the NRHP navboxes are color coded the same way; compare the color coding of the Teton County template with {{NRHP in Beaver County, Pennsylvania}}. Nyttend (talk) 00:49, 10 April 2011 (UTC)
Okay. The only complaint I have received is for Nevada (see below), so I changed those to use the {{NRHP style}} template. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:51, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

Nevada

WP:Nevada cool with the color change? Because I changed the horrid sunny yellow for California a while back and had all 300 or so edits reverted claiming that "the color scheme should reflect the state flag colour/theme". User:Nyttend I think guards the colors.... I also would rather they were standard..♦ Dr. Blofeld 22:03, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

See the thread above, and the thread I started on the talk page for the template. You are correct about California. If someone wants me to revert the changes, I am happy to do so, but would create a subtemplate, like say {{Nevada/color}}, for consistency, and to reduce the number of templates which need to be changed. I plan to suggest that for California. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:24, 9 April 2011 (UTC)
I have no objection with a template to standardize colors like some other WikiProjects have done. However, there was actually a discussion now archived on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject California/Archive 5#colour changes to ca related templates about Dr. Blofeld's color changes to the California navboxes back in October, with at least three other users basically complaining that he seemed to do this unilateral because "he didn't like it", and wanting to revert him and go back to the yellow/gold state colors. Nyttend in the end just seemed to "speed up" the reversions. Thus, any further color changes to your newly created {{California/color}} will also most likely require another discussion and consensus. Cheers. Zzyzx11 (talk) 04:34, 10 April 2011 (UTC)
Sure. I have no interest in changing the color of the California navigation boxes, since there appears to be a rational reason for the color choice, and the level of contrast is pretty good from a readability standpoint. My rationale for creating {{California/color}} is that it is much easier to remember than "ffc94b", and it's clear when reading the template code that the color is associated with California, and that's the reason why it's not the default. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:28, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

Template:Nevada State Historic Places

Why did you change the colors away from what is used for the NRHP templates? It is probably more important for these to follow the NRHP scheme then the Nevada one. Vegaswikian (talk) 23:22, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

See the threads up above. Another user was complaining that they didn't match the Nevada template. I agree that there is probably a case that they should be colored according to the NRHP scheme. I really don't care either way for these templates. Should I change it to use {{NRHP style}}? This would keep things partially in sync? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:27, 9 April 2011 (UTC)
I did not know about "|titlestyle = {{NRHP style}}", but if that works to match the NRHP colors that is fine with me. The Nevada templates for this predate much of the standardization work on the NRHP stuff so a simple change to bring them in color compliance would be fine. Vegaswikian (talk) 23:34, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Big Ten Templates

I believe your deletion of the Big Ten Templates was in error. The deletion demonstrates a lack of understanding of what the Big Ten's overall purpose. A better approach would have been to modify the templates to cover the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. Departments and Colleges within the Big Ten routinely conference with one another as members of the CIC. I suggest you restore the deleted templates, change the title, and add the University of Chicago to the list when appropriate. Nothing irks me more than uninformed deletion. Good day. H.al-shawaf (talk) 00:12, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

Are you talking about Big Ten business schools, or Big Ten law schools, or both? Or are you talking about an entirely different discussion? There is also Big Ten Cities, but that one is older. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:45, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

AcademyAwardBestOriginalScreenplay1940-1949

It is not clear what you did to close Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2011_March_30#Template:AcademyAwardBestOriginalScreenplay1940-1949. It seems you deleted most of the old templates but redirected one. I think they all probably should have been redirected. Can you explain your action?--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 03:34, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I was on the fence about that. I redirected the first one because it had incoming links. For a few of the others, the date spans didn't match up. In all cases, I did a history merge for one representative template. I will go ahead and redirect all of them if you like that option better. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:22, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Friendly AutoEd ping

Hi Plastikspork. Just a friendly reminder that you mentioned you might have some time to look into my issues using AutoEd and the dashes script simultaneously. If you are busy please take your time but if you get a chance I would very much appreciate it. I am hoping to add my own script but currently I can only have it or the dashes script (or AutoEd) installed at once. Thanks. –CWenger (talk) 02:08, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I will have a look this weekend. Thanks for the reminder! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 06:28, 1 April 2011 (UTC)
Hi again. Just wondering if you had a chance to look at this issue over the weekend. If not it's not a big deal. –CWenger (talk) 16:03, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
I did start to look at it, but then got sidetracked. Please continue to ping me if I don't respond in 24 hours. I enjoy the attention :) It makes me feel useful :) Thanks again! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:39, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
No problem, here's another ping! –CWenger (talk) 17:29, 8 April 2011 (UTC)
Any luck with this yet? –CWenger (talk) 04:25, 12 April 2011 (UTC)
Okay, let me make sure I know exactly what you want to do. You just want to add an additional function hook to the AutoEd button? Or do you want to have two buttons, one that does AutoEd, and one that does the dash script? I created something at User:Plastikspork/test.js, that just adds an additional function to WP:AutoEd/complete.js. All I did was take that script, paste your short function into the top of it, then add a call to that short function at the end of the other autoed function calls. You would then install it by importing 'User:Plastikspork/test.js' instead of importing 'WP:AutoEd/complete.js'. If this is what you are after, I can move it to your userspace so you can add more stuff to it. If you are after something more complicated (like additional buttons or using the entire dash script), let me know and I can try to help with that as well. Sorry for the long delay. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:39, 12 April 2011 (UTC)
Thanks again for looking into this. What I would like to do is combine AutoEd modules with GregU's dashes script and my short script for removing spaces around em dashes. Your example seems to work, but is there an easy way to incorporate GregU's dashes script as well? If you add it as another module things stop working, presumably because of the extra functionality it entails. I would like to be able to use it without having to copy the source code for the autoEdDashes() function. Is this possible? Is there a way to import only a single function from a page? –CWenger (talk) 05:09, 12 April 2011 (UTC)
Basically, you would need a way to disable the extra stuff on that page. The easiest would be if you could persuade GregU to split that page into two pages, where one page just contains the bare function, and the other page contains everything after the "Hook to allow using this tool ..." part. The second page would import the first, but would allow you to import it without importing the "Hook" part. It could be possible otherwise, but it appears there is a "namespace collision" where both scripts are using the same variable names. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:16, 12 April 2011 (UTC)
I was just thinking that when you suggested it. Unfortunately GregU seems pretty busy and isn't able to respond much. Another alternative would be to load the dashes script's contents into a string, parse out only the AutoEd function, and then execute it only. I haven't done much JavaScript so maybe you would know if that's possible—namely the first part, the second is definitely possible and the third should be doable with an eval() function call. Until then, I copied GregU's dashes script to my own user namespace and that will do for now. Thanks again! –CWenger (talk) 05:54, 12 April 2011 (UTC)
Sounds like the easiest solution. If GregU isn't updating it, then creating a local copy should be fairly stable. You can watchlist his script to see if he makes any updates. I could split the script myself for him, but I wouldn't do that without permission. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:06, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

FYI

By removing the attribution at Seal of Minnesota you left the page in violation of WP:PLAGIARISM even if the material was PD. Cheers. VernoWhitney (talk) 13:33, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I had that on my list of things to check, but was then disconnected. Thank you for taking care of it. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:03, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

More on buildings

Hi. Can you add a length parameter to Infobox building, breadth also perhaps? Is it possible you can run a bot after you;ve sorted out the skyscrapers and change the parameter from "map type" to "pushpin map"? Also I feel the infoboxes should consistently use DMS coordinates rather than decimal... Basically the same parameters as for infobox settlement... Oh is Template:Infobox Star Trek character really needed?? Can you or somebody TFD it? ♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:52, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

I will look into it once I am finished with the first pass through. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:00, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

I encountered a surprising opposition yesterday to the St. Petersburg pin map I made and the infoboxes I added to Winter Palace. The reverter seems to have a load of people who are against infoboxes and supported him. I've opened a discussion, I was under the impression that infoboxes are generally preferred on here given that they are used in most articles. I think there should be a general consensus made either way which stops people rmeoving or adding infoboxes based on personal preferences but based on those which adequately reflect the mainstream view. Are infoboxes generally accepted on wikipedia, I need some feedback at the pump on this as obviously if I had believed there wasn't I a] would not have added an infobox b] I wouldn't have created a map and c] I wouldn't have asked the reverter not to remove the infobox.♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:22, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Wow, that's a mess. Sorry it all blew up. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:04, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

See also Template talk:Infobox World Heritage Site. I think its time the template was updated..♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:08, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

What exactly needs to be updated? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:04, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

I've been working on the Winter Palace today and aim to promote to GA asap. Obviously though I won't be adding an infobox and altering images! It turned into a disaster yesterday and stacked up votes against infoboxes and me and one provoking comment followed by another leads to some nasty stuff. Who'd have thought, wiki disasters though often brew from the most bizarre and unlikely sources... Never mind now.. Mmm I believe the concern about the WHS infobox is the quality of the information. Some of the data to people like Johnbod seems a bit pointless. I think where possible if should be merged into other templates to avoid clutter.♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:39, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Check out this.♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:26, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

What a mess. Sorry for all the stress and conflict. Hopefully the full protection will help stimulate rational discussion, rather than knee-jerk reactions. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:13, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Oh if all the really bad Spanish municips could be started like Vilallonga del Camp first time with proper infoboxes and information.. Can you believe though both Tongan and Vietnamese had an article on it before us!! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:41, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Yes, it would be nice to have some time to work on Spain. The article you pointed to is quite good. Nice work. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:13, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Character infobox

Just to let you know, i placed the new code in the infobox sandbox (Template:Infobox character/sandbox) with the proposed changes.  BIGNOLE  (Contact me) 16:09, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Okay, it looks like it needs work. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:02, 13 April 2011 (UTC)
I think it needs an appropriate tracking system for any box that is using a category that is no longer going to be active. I don't know how to include that code, because I've never done it before.  BIGNOLE  (Contact me) 18:11, 13 April 2011 (UTC)
I'm mostly concerned with the deletion of parameters which may still be in use. I agree that we need some tracking here. It also looks like you removed some of the unnamed parameters, but left at least one higher numbered one. I think we can work this out, but it needs some closer inspection. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:04, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

season 4

Hi again. ip from tel aviv again, user seems unwilling to discuss, two requests on their talkpage from me and a note from another editor, I don't get it? Special:Contributions/109.67.3.47 - Off2riorob (talk) 11:07, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Very odd. I suppose I could block this one too. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:11, 15 April 2011 (UTC)
Yes, odd indeed - if a simple attempt at discussion was made we would have a chance, but after repeated requests nothing on talkpages at all, assuming good faith is a two way street, regards. Off2riorob (talk) 00:42, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

{{sign}} redirected

You may want to respond at Wikipedia:Help_desk#.7B.7Btl.7Csign.7D.7D_redirected if you were not just correcting a problem.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 15:54, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

It looks like this is resolved. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:10, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Update Convert/hand

Update from Template:Convert/hand/sandbox to handle decimal hands of horse height, where "9.3" hands is 39 inches (almost 1 metre): {{convert|9.3|hand/sandbox|cm}} → 9.3 hand/sandbox[convert: unknown unit]. Thanks for fixing all these Convert features over the past months. -Wikid77 20:12, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Done. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:09, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

default template parameter values

Hi! I'm trying to understand why you made this change to {{Infobox NASCAR race}}, so I can avoid making mistakes in the future. :-) What's the difference between these?

 {{{img_size|200px}}}

and

 {{#if:{{{img_size|}}}|{{{img_size}}}|200px}}

My reading of the MediaWiki template documentation suggests that they should be functionally identical: if the "img_size" parameter isn't set then use a default value of "200px". If there's a difference between them, then I want to understand better what it is. Thanks! —Tim Pierce (talk) 02:11, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

The difference is only seen in the following case
| logo     = sample.jpg
| img_size = 
Notice how the |img_size= is there, but it's blank. In this case, {{{img_size|200px}}} resolves as blank. However, {{#if:{{{img_size|}}}|{{{img_size}}}|200px}} resolves as 200px. This is particularly problematic for images, since without any size parameter, the image will render at maximum size! However, in the case that |img_size= is completely removed (not left blank), there is no difference. Does this make sense? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:15, 15 April 2011 (UTC)
Wow, ugh, that does make sense. Thanks for the explanation. —Tim Pierce (talk) 02:20, 15 April 2011 (UTC)
There is a cool little template, {{px}}, which will take care of most of this for you. Basically you can write {{px|{{{img_size|}}}|200px}}. It will add the "px" suffix if someone just passes a raw number, and leave it alone if it isn't a raw number. If it is blank, it then resolves as "200px". I find this to be typically the best method. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:22, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Hotels

Hi. I see you standardised the colour for some of the templates. They were intended to match the infobox labels. What was the problem? Not that I'm remotely bothered of course, as sometime I think the hotel infobox will meet its death anyway! The gold on maroon was sort of a hotel theme I got going... The worst culprits for colors I think are the US uni and basketball/sports nav plates...♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:51, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Right. My only issue was that I found them hard to read, and that while the maroon/gold combo was interesting, it wasn't really inline with WP:Deviations and WP:COLOR. Like I said in the edit summary, I was hoping you wouldn't mind. You are also correct about the eventual merger of the hotel box with the building box making it somewhat of a non-issue. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:08, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Not at all. Although if we do merge the hotel infobox I'd like to see infobox building converted to use pushpin_map for parameters and DMS, not map-type or whatever and decimal.♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:47, 16 April 2011 (UTC) Any chance you could use a bot to add infoboxes to Template:Municipalities of Rio Grande do Sul? There are basically all one line stubs with not even an infobox! Also the nav template needs adding to the foot of Amazonas State articles like this.♦ Dr. Blofeld 17:59, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

The map I added to Avenue Habib Bourguiba I had to br under title. Can you add a image_map parameter to Infobox street?♦ Dr. Blofeld 22:05, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Emailed. You don't use AWB though do you? I'd normally ask Rich for those Brazil edits but he's no longer in commission...♦ Dr. Blofeld 08:37, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

I do use AWB sometimes, but usually find it easier to just use perlWikipedia. I will check my email. I am going hiking today, so I don't know if I can do much for a bit. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:53, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

Left another question

I left you a reply and another question at WT:AED#Question. Cheers. —James (TalkContribs)9:22pm 11:22, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Afghanistan

See the map I made for Surobi District. I've added them to all the districts of Kabul Province. One problem though. Most of the Afghanistan provinces don't even have proper infoboxes at the moment. Only like Badakshan and few of the first ones are done I think. Most of them still have the ugly pink maps, including Kabul Province. I was wondering if you could ensure they all have proper infoboxes and once that is done I will locator maps to replace them all like Samangan Province. How does that sound? Alsi Iwant to TFD all of the templates in Category:Afghanistan district templates in favour of merging yhem into templates on the relative provinces. Kabul for instance had two templates redundantly.♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:16, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Albania

I would, but alas, I was reverted. I will have to save that one for another day, unless someone reverts the reversion. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:43, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Well, I am to blame for starting off the red and white templates but there was a consensus with the other Albanian folk that this was desirable for Albanian articles.. Perhaps address it to the Albanian project again to change the colour to plain.♦ Dr. Blofeld 09:00, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Infobox skyscraper

I notice that SporkBot has been madly replacing {{Infobox skyscraper}} with {{Infobox building}} despite the two still being significantly different. Shouldn't this be happening when {{Infobox building}} has been updated to incorporate the elements that were suggested at the TfD? --AussieLegend (talk) 04:14, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

As far as I can tell, all the content has been merged, so no information has been lost in the merger. The only thing that remains is to (1) update the documentation, and (2) add section headings. Is there information being lost in the merger, or are the differences that you are noticing cosmetic? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:00, 22 April 2011 (UTC)
The section headings were certainly the most obvious aspect but, based on the comparisons on my user page there seemed to be a fair bit different, with "|year_highest=", "|year_end=", "|est_completion=", "|topped_out=", "|cancelled=", "|developer=" and "|management=" not appearing to have any equivalent in {{Infobox building}}. "Status" didn't seem to work at all. However, having populated a new infobox on the page today and poring through the documentation and code, it appears that some of these are covered by undocumented fields ("|image_size=" and "|management=" were two I quickly found) but I can't get "status" to work, except for displaying "Never built". Some of Infobox building's fields don't seem to work ("|groundbreaking_date=", "|completed_date=" and "|opened_date=" for a start) and the displayed field name for "|location_town=" needed to be changed to "Town or city", since the vast majority of skyscrapers are in cities. The documentation is definitely woefully inadequate. --AussieLegend (talk) 10:07, 23 April 2011 (UTC)
OK, I've now worked out that "Status" appears to be a manual setting in Infobox building, while in Infobox skyscraper it's automatic. --AussieLegend (talk) 15:23, 23 April 2011 (UTC)
Right, the need to specify the "status" parameter and split the "built" into "start_date" and "completion_date" should be the biggest differences (see thread above). The documentation does need to be updated, and I will do this as soon as the bot has finished. I think there is still a fair amount of redundancy. The status field logic was particularly problematic. I found many buildings which were already built, but showing "proposed" or "under construction". The "year_end" parameter was being misinterpreted as "completion_date". As for the other fields, I have included the complete translation table being used by the bot below. Any other fields should either directly translate, or I will take care of them in a second pass which will identify all fields which are being used, but not in the template. I already did this before starting this current task, and had to clean up around 1000 articles. It's a very large task, and unfortunately, requires that I inspect each bot edit by hand, since there are some strange corner cases with splitting the "built" field, and incorrect usage of the "year_end" field. Some articles where showing the highest building in Midland, Texas or in Pakistan as being the highest in the world, for example. Let me know if I missed something. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 17:09, 23 April 2011 (UTC)
my @translate_fields = (
"building_name -> name",
"use -> building_type",
"contractor -> main_contractor",
"constructed -> completion_date",
"engineer -> structural_engineer",
"groundbreaking -> start_date",
"year_end -> highest_end",
"destroyed -> destruction_date",
"year_highest -> highest_start",
"demolished -> demolished_date",
"built -> completion_date",
"former_name -> alternate_names",
"est-completion -> est_completion",
"year_built -> completion_date",
"construction_period -> completion_date",
"height_stories -> floor_count",
"previous_building -> highest_prev",
"surpassed -> highest_next",
"surpassed_by_building -> highest_next",
"preceded -> highest_prev",
"completion_date -> completion_date",
"type -> architectural_style",
"parking_structure -> parking",
"height_of_concrete_section -> concrete_section_height",
"alternate_name -> alternate_names",
"topped_out -> topped_out_date",
"topped-out -> topped_out_date",
);

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One more question. Courcelles
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I've commented on one of your old posts from a year ago. Themeparkgc  Talk  23:53, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Invitation to take part in a study

I am a Wikipedian, who is studying the phenomenon on Wikipedia. I need your help to conduct my research on about understanding "Motivation of Wikipedia contributors." I would like to invite you to Main Study. Please give me your valuable time, which estimates about 20 minutes. I chose you as a English Wikipedia user who made edits recently through the RecentChange page. Refer to the first page in the online survey form for more information on the study and me.cooldenny (talk) 01:58, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Need your help

There are two long-standing template-coding tasks. I consider them important to the point of coding myself, but per inexperience, this would kill too much time (and break something). I've asked one at WP:VP/T, but it went nowhere. Redirect me if you have not time for this.

Task 1 (easy). Chemical elements are core WP articles. Most of their data are listed in the infobox ({{Infobox element}} via a dedicated template, like {{Infobox copper}}) and are taken from chemical elements data references. It is important to link this page because most users don't understand where the data came from, and it used to be linked at the bottom, using {{Elementbox_footer}}. Then {{Infobox element}} had a major update and now uses {{Navbar}} as a footer. This gives the familiar "v d e" toolbar, and this toolbar is certainly useful in linking to the edit button, but we do need to relink the references.

You might suggest a better solution. I thought to add an "r" button to "v d e", by replicating and tweaking the navbar template.

Okay, how's this? We may need a subtemplate of Template:Infobox element to get the spacing to look completely the same. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:52, 24 April 2011 (UTC)
Great (simple solution with no need to edit templates for individual elements). Spacing looks Ok on my PC and is certainly not worth fixing. Materialscientist (talk) 05:21, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Task 2. I was thinking to add a river flow chart to an article from French wiki and realised that we don't really have templates for producing a chart from a table, except for maybe {{Climate chart}}, which is too specific. Obviously, charting templates are very handy for updating data. Ideally, it should be a basic template giving a choice for axes, titles, and other formatting, but even copying the French template would already be a step in a right direction. Materialscientist (talk) 02:10, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Yes. The problem with that particulate template on the FR wiki is that it is completely inaccessible to the visually impaired. However, we should be able to cook something up which can be parsed by a text-based browser. There are some examples of graphs at Wikipedia:Graphs. One that has been approved by WP:Accessibility is Template:Bar graph. We could potentially make a vertical version of this one, but the horizontal one works well, since for a text browser, you just get the list of items with the numbers, which is the essential information. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:57, 24 April 2011 (UTC)
This seems like an open field, which is worth developing and making known on WP. Scientific software combines various graph types, but perhaps it is easier to have a template for every type. Horizontal graphs like {{Bar graph}} are rare. Vertical bar graphs are much more common, but line graph, scatter graph and pie chart are also rather popular. (and there are also histograms :-) X-scale could be manual or autogenerated (to simplify input). The pie chart seems already set up, more or less. Thus my first choice would be to have (i) bar graph with X-scale fixed as months (ii) line (or/and line+symbol or/and bar) graph with the X-scale either taken from a table or generated from 3 input values of start, end, step. Materialscientist (talk) 05:21, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

!infobox settlement

I see. Will put it on the list. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 22:05, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Emailed.♦ Dr. Blofeld 22:13, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Re:Template:Location Map

Hi, I'm hoping you can take a look at the sandbox version of {{Location map}}. Chris Cunningham did some great work and polished the result a bit. The discussion is here.  –droll [chat] 15:52, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Looks good. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:17, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Infobox buildings merge from hotels and casinos

Are you planning on merging {{infobox hotel}} and {{infobox casino}} into {{infobox building}}? Better to have someone familiar with the template give it a go. Vegaswikian (talk) 21:22, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

At some point I think its the most sensible thing to do, although I admittedly like the suitably tacky/exquisite coloring scheme we have going for them.!♦ Dr. Blofeld 22:13, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

I could look into it. There are still some loose ends to tie up with the skyscraper merger. I currently have a bot assisting by checking all 6625 transclusions for repeated field names, missing field names, etc. After that I need to update the documentation. It's going to take a bit of time. Luckily there are far fewer (around 1000) using the hotel and casino box. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:38, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
Well, we could keep the color on the sub headings. :-) Vegaswikian (talk) 05:12, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

Maybe you could programme the template to type=hotel or type =casino and it display the gold/maroon headers. I just think they are veyr appropriate for casinos and hotels. That would be my only objection to merging if we lost that.♦ Dr. Blofeld 07:58, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

When you run the bot can you please replace map_type with the standard pushpin_map parameter and replace any decimal coordinates and map type and make them standard pushpin and DMS?♦ Dr. Blofeld 08:54, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

There is |coordinates_format=dms. I could change |map_type= to |pushpin_map=, but we would need to add that parameter first. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:17, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Seeing as you're an admin...

Care to lock all the wrestling templates until the end of the discussion? I really don't care which state you leave them in, but my contributions is basically a list of them. Crisis.EXE 01:35, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

I could, but I'm not exactly impartial. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:18, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Duplicate parameters in Infobox landform

Hi, Can you help at Template talk:Infobox landform#Duplicate parameters, please? Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 07:52, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

It looks like Droll is on it. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:18, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

A mission for SporkBot?

Hey Plastikspork, do you think your bot would be able to handle the possible task at hand here? Either 6,000 external links need to be tagged or removed.--NortyNort (Holla) 22:22, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

I could, but it would be better to ask User:NoomBot, who is approved for link replacement. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:13, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Antarctica

Plastik, can you add a pushpin map to Lake Burton, Antarctica using Template:Location map Antarctica?♦ Dr. Blofeld 07:59, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

Dearest Plastikspork I am keen to promote this to GA like Lake Untersee but it needs a map, when you have a chance can you add a pin map?♦ Dr. Blofeld 09:23, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Added. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:18, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

I mean in the infobox...♦ Dr. Blofeld 17:12, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Checking my talk page archives, you have asked me to add a map (or location map) feature twice. Both times the discussion went nowhere. I believe conclusion from the last discussion was that you were going to investigate when there is such pointed wording in the documentation discouraging the inclusion of location maps. I have no problem adding it, but I would suggest starting a thread on the talk page for {{Infobox lake}}, waiting to see if anyone objects, and then if not, we can add it. Given the wording in the documentation, it seems as though there must be some good reason for not having it. In the interim, I see no problem with just putting the location map right next to the section of the article where the location of the lake is being discussed. I know you like your maps in the infobox, but in this case, I don't think it's that big of a deal. However, going forward, we can always pursue adding an option to the lake box if there is consensus to do so. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:25, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Very strange that you think it would cause a problem, but I've addressed it on the infobox talk page.♦ Dr. Blofeld 09:33, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

I wouldn't say it is strange that I think it would cause a problem. I would say that it is strange that the template documentation says it would be a problem: "avoid maps showing only the location of the lake". Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:07, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Ah, I see. I wonder why that is then? Because surely a pin of where the lake is in Antarctica is better than nothing?♦ Dr. Blofeld 14:42, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Yobot blocked for updating infoboxes

User_talk:Yobot#Blocked_again. Please comment. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:26, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks

Hello Plastikspork. Thanks for your explanations on two different template pages tonight. Your note about actors changing size in a film made me think of things like The Incredible Shrinking Man. I also pondered on various versions of Gulliver's Travels and then realized that wasn't right as Lemuel stays the same size and it is the groups around him that are different. Odd thoughts like that keep life interesting. Thanks for being the spur for that. Cheers and happy editing. MarnetteD | Talk 02:24, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Afghanistan

Hi. I have a download request. Would it be possible for you to access the PDF/adobe you find at the top of google searching OCHA Afghanistan Settlements Index and download it onto wikipedia but in a fashion that puts the districts /and or provinces in alpha order so we effectively we have a list of villages under each district/province? Is just the vast majority of articles don't know what district it is and the old geonames out of date at times asi found out that some in Sar -i- Pol province used to be in Jowzjan province. As for Burma, I believe Hebrides is planning on creating them himself in May..♦ Dr. Blofeld 18:06, 29 April 2011 (UTC)

Infobox

It seems you're a complete douche. If you hadn't noticed, I had worked on the Infobox on my own space, got the Template working and had started implementing the changes on the pages of the various Popes, and was about to move on to all the various cardinals, archbishops etc. Moreover, I had placed a thing on the template talk space, but there was no reply so I went ahead and did it. Ultimately, the template was doing what it needed to do: Displaying the coat of arms of the said Christian leader underneath their photos. Sure, there were a few glitches on the way, but it was fixed. So how you can call it malformed, I do not know. Surely if something is doing what it is meant to, it's properly formed.........? Rather than just being 'lock' happy, why don't you help other editors out and perhaps fix the errors that you seem to see in their work - or is this not the collaborative effort that the creator intended it to be any more? Has this suddenly become Plastiksporkipedia? Mangwanani (talk) 19:46, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Moreover, it would be good to look at the actual edits across the whole board, rather than just an editor is making a few edits and there may be a few glitches along the way. Try crediting people with intelligence for once that they might actually sort the mess out. Mangwanani (talk) 19:48, 30 April 2011 (UTC)
I have looked at your recent edits in template space. Appears to be quite a bit of stabbing in the dark. Please let me know (or ask at WP:VPT) if you would like some assistance. Calling me a "douche" is not very productive, is it? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 20:05, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

TfD

Not sure if someone has mentioned this to you before, but the templates in this discussion are still tagged as being discussed as TfD, while you closed the discussion back in January with a consensus to merge. Could you please clean that up? Thanks, Logan Talk Contributions 23:15, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

{{NavigationRepYears}} as well, it seems. Logan Talk Contributions 23:18, 30 April 2011 (UTC)
I am about ready to log off now. You can feel free to replace the TFD tags with {{being deleted}} or some {{tmbox}} or whatever. So long as they are in the holding cell, we won't forget about them. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:21, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Template:DentalFormula

There is an issue with Template:DentalFormula which you might be able to solve. It involves the template not accommodating dashes, although it seems it ought to per MOSDASH. I've just looked at the template and don't see how to do it myself. Please refer to User_talk:GregU#Dash_Script_Bug_-_DentalFormula. Cheers, --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 02:15, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

Template:Infobox Arena Football player

Need help at Template:Infobox Arena Football player. WikiCleaner is reporting template not correct begin at |{{{positionplain|}}}}}}''' }} and I can't figure out how to fix it. I tried adding a "|", but that didn't seem to work. I know you like to work on templates, any help would be greatly appreciated! --Funandtrvl (talk) 02:37, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

Did that fix it? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:45, 2 May 2011 (UTC)
No, WikiCleaner is still reporting the error at the end of the "currentpositionplain" line. I'm wondering if it's because there are two "if" clauses in that line. --Funandtrvl (talk) 02:51, 2 May 2011 (UTC)
Interesting. The syntax in that line is correct. I did find some errors in it, but I fixed those. I was considering refactoring that template to match the syntax used by {{Infobox NFL player}}, but that is fairly far down the list of things to do. I am assuming you don't see the same errors in Template:Infobox NFL player? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:59, 2 May 2011 (UTC)
Correct, I didn't find any errors in Infobox NFL player. In fact, I just cleaned up the redirects and the /doc pg on that template. I couldn't figure it out either, and I'm not versed enough in template code to determine if WikiCleaner is picking up a false positive. Down the line, it's probably a good idea to match it to the NFL player template, since it's not showing any errors. I know you're busy, so don't rush!! Thank you again! --Funandtrvl (talk) 03:23, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

TfD for Youth empowerment

While I know it's not a requirement, I hope that in the future you would consider whether the primary editor for a template is notified during a TfD. I was called out here, and the template was (rightly) deleted, without any notification. That's not okay. • Freechildtalk 02:37, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

Now relisted. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:45, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

Template:Category banner

Hello. You deleted Template:Category banner after its TFD. I am not contesting its deletion; however, I would like to refine it and make a proposal. Can you please temporarily recreate it and its documentation page so I can copy it to the user namespace? McLerristarr | Mclay1 04:39, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

Done. Let me know if I missed a page. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:44, 3 May 2011 (UTC)
Thanks. You got them all. McLerristarr | Mclay1 15:26, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

Infobox building

See Chiswick House. Please remove "companies involved" as many houses are built solely by the designers and not by companies. If it must be there maybe "Design and construction". Also can you add another map option so I can place the OSM map inside the infobox. Also address should come before town and city and country.♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:19, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

Mostly done. If I recall, the image parameters can take more than one image if you use the complete syntax, rather than just the file name. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:46, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, Template:Infobox place Ireland has been closed as a delete yet the discussion tag is still there..♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:46, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

IP vandalism 79.182.37.53 range

Perhaps you recognize this. Thanks! Drmies (talk) 20:40, 4 May 2011 (UTC)

Yes I do. It's probably time to consider a range block. Pulling out my IP calculator ... Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:08, 5 May 2011 (UTC)
Happy to oblige. Drmies (talk) 01:18, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

Got it

Ok will do, sorry ;)--Nero the second (talk) 04:45, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

Same user, different IP

Im guessing the IPs 79.180.60.13 and 79.183.16.50 have something in common on the article The Biggest Loser: Couples 2. I think the user is using multiple IPs to get by a block. =p Creation7689 (talk) 01:21, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

Yes. Unfortunately, by my last calculation, a range block would block over a half million IPs. So, for now, I am just blocking them as the pop up. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:11, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

How come i can't see the categories and the link to the article in the italian wikipedia even though i wrote it in its edit page? Please help thanks.--Sweetcorn (msg) 19:52, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

It looks like you were able to figure it out? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:07, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
No, I've been quite lucky, an anonymous user fixed it for me (see article history).--Sweetcorn (msg) 14:32, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

Template:Location map Africa1 listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Template:Location map Africa1. Since you had some involvement with the Template:Location map Africa1 redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion (if you have not already done so). –droll [chat] 18:56, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

Template:Infobox gridiron football person

Maybe you could update Template:Infobox gridiron football person to support birth_date, etc.?I tried but with no success. -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:26, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

Done. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:05, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. Maybe we could finish the job and add support of birth_date to all the remaining infoboxes? For instance: {{Infobox college coach}}, {{Infobox cricketer}} and {{Infobox pro football player}}. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:56, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

Talkback

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Message added 00:07, 15 May 2011 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

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--5 albert square (talk) 00:09, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

and again!--5 albert square (talk) 00:29, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Coronation Street episodes template

Since when has a single delete vote been enough to judge the overall result of a debate? Bungle (talkcontribs) 15:40, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

It's actually not a vote (although there were two "votes" in favor of deletion). If you would like me to reopen the discussion for another week, I can do so. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:04, 17 May 2011 (UTC)
If I'd have known you'd close it without there being a clear concensus then i'd have made my keep vote/opinion/debate submission official, which I could have done originally but chose to try and not add bias (though I made my point clear, regardless). I certainly thought it was premature.. Bungle (talkcontribs) 13:07, 17 May 2011 (UTC)
Discussion reopened. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:04, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

Template_talk:Infobox_college_football_player#Links_to_external_links. -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:35, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

TFD Nearest Stars/Nearest Bright Stars Templates

Dear Plastikspork:

You have incorrectly deleted the entire templates involved, an effort that took the creator in my current estimate 1,000 hours to do. Almost full deletion is not what was the consensus. Your summary at the beginning is basically correct but your action is contrary. Please reinstate the full navigation bars to the status as before, in essence you will have to initiate a full keep. Unless you are willing to do the approximate 300 hours of editing work needed, I will begin to undertake this effort as in the original discussion so that it becomes useful as the consensus wanted. If you cannot do this then I will have to request a deletion review. Deleting all after 10 light years was not the consensus; Rursus was trying to indicate reduction in a more tasteful manner. I will denest the various templates, delink and relink in spherical zonal bands, and remove the excess red links. Please advise. Thor Dockweiler (talk) 22:29, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

The rest were userfied, not deleted, see here. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:00, 17 May 2011 (UTC)
I appreciate at least the userfication. Unfortunately, part of the value of everything were the links. You are now making the entire process even longer than it has to be. Please reinstate as if nothing had happened, then editors like myself can begin the correction process. The existing set-up renders the whole thing useless. In essence deletion then won. What you have done is cause the situation to be much worse than before in that almost everything has to start over from scratch. One of the master templates [nearest bright star systems] even indicates "no consensus" was reached when that is entirely untrue. Both master templates with nested sub-templates need retention. Please revert and advise. Thor Dockweiler (talk) 01:07, 17 May 2011 (UTC)
As part of my closing comments, I stated that "discussion can continue elsewhere as to the most appropriate cut-off for a distance for the nearest". One of the outcomes of such a discussion could be to "reinstate as if nothing had happened", but as far as I can tell, no such discussion has been initiated. Also, there is Special:MovePage, if there is a better place to develop the templates. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:53, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Methinks unapproved bot. --Σ 05:44, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

And I was about to file a BRFA for that task!!! --Σ 06:33, 18 May 2011 (UTC)
Sorry. With such a trivial task, and only around 350 pages, I just used WP:AWB. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:50, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Template help request

Hi there! I was wondering if you would be able/willing to help me resolve a minor template-related mystery. I am currently converting {{Infobox Russian inhabited locality}} to use {{Infobox}} (instead of direct coding), and I'm almost done, save for extensive testing and minor polishing touches. One problem, however, is that the #if statement is not working as it should in the population density section—see the code in my sandbox, within the "Density" ref tag. When taken out of the ref tag, the #if chain returns exactly the values it is supposed to return, but within the tag it always ends up with "most recent population estimate", which puzzles me to no end. Do you have any idea what's going on? Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); May 6, 2011; 21:01 (UTC)

Not sure why it doesn't work in a <ref> but works with a #tag:ref instead. See [2] for an example. -- WOSlinker (talk) 22:05, 6 May 2011 (UTC)
Hmm, I wonder if that could be a bug... Thanks for the suggestion, though. I'll test it out when I return to editing on Monday.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); May 7, 2011; 15:10 (UTC)
If you can present me with a concrete example, I would be happy to try to debug it. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:13, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
Actually, WOSlinker's suggestion worked fine. If you still want to try and debug it (out of academic interest, perhaps), I'll be happy to point you to an example.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); May 12, 2011; 12:03 (UTC)
Yes, using ref tags with parserfunctions is tricky. The order in which they are parsed is not always the best, and what is inside may be taken literally, rather than parsed first. I am glad you were able to sort it out. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:40, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

Help/bot is needed

Urgh. See Category:Articles only referenced to geographic.org. All of them are up for AFD. The nomination is grossly exaggerated, I've spotted only two errors in assessing 350 today. Oman, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan I can sort manually but I need a bot or something to read off of geonames and replace the geographic source which I confused with geonames and correct the Afghan articles and extract the coordinates into the infoboxes, I didn't even use geographic,org. See User talk:The Anome he has downloaded lists of Afghan villages by district using an up to date UN source. If a bot could be utilised to read off of that and correct any province errors and state the district also in the infoboxes the articles could be saved. I've expanded several Omani and Afghan villages into start class articles using scraps, I think they are worth keeping. It is possible you could help in some way with your coding knowledge to help fix this?♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:20, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

It looks like having them incubated is the best idea. This would give you more time to sort out the references. I think programing a bot to update the information would take some time, or it least it would take me some time. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 14:35, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

OK, no worries. I'll see if Anome or anybody else can do anything. If not by the end of the week I'll db-author the Afghan ones, I'v tackled the others manually. With the new district information and lists for Afghanistan anyway it would probably be easy to restart with district and better source anyway, unless a bot is run to correct them and I can skip them..♦ Dr. Blofeld 16:27, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Infobox UNESCO World Heritage Site. The major concern was the "State Party" which is horrid, looks political. Can you change it to Country or Country/entity or something?♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:15, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

So changed. We shall see if there are objections. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:38, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

One more improvement for football biographies

We also need |cityofbirth=, {para|countryofbirth}} to be merged to {para|birth_place}} separated by a comma. Similar for death_place. -- Magioladitis (talk) 08:44, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

That could be done. I will see if there is an easy way to put it in the code. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:37, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

Infobox building

Thanks! --Skeezix1000 (talk) 01:20, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Log/2011 May 20 may interest you. Both hotel and casino are proposed for merger. ♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:16, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

Irish infobox

When do you plan on making the change? Because something is needed to add infoboxes to the many articles without them too.♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:00, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

What change? I thought someone else was taking care of this one. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:35, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

Grey irish infobox was closed as a delete. It still remains..♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:49, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

Why is the pin in the sea for Drumcar House?♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:04, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

Any ideas?♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:55, 26 May 2011 (UTC)

It's not in the sea in my browser. Can you provide a screenshot and/or more details concerning the browser? I know there were some recent changes to {{Location map/+}}, but I am pretty sure the standard location map has been unchanged for quite some time. Droll is also pretty good with fixing such problems, so you might try asking at Template talk:Location map as well. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:21, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

I'm using Firefox. Also when I added an infobox to Forest theatre the pin was in the sea for the Californian map. When I added the Carmel map it worked fine.♦ Dr. Blofeld 08:19, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

Oops

Oops, really sorry! I was copying the template to another Wikipedia and testing it there; turns out I saved one of the revisions here instead by mistake. I apologise. Lynch7Talk 08:09, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

No problem. Just thought I would let you know. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:19, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

Closing discussions when not an admin

Regarding this TfD, is an editor allowed to close a discussion which falls under WP:SNOW? Or can only sysops close one? --Σ 06:41, 26 May 2011 (UTC)

I am not aware of any strict rules regarding who can close a discussion. Some folks get a little testy when they see non-admins closing discussions that aren't nearly unanimous. Generally, closing discussion in which you have voiced an opinion is not the best idea. I personally don't see any harm keeping this one open a bit longer. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:17, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

Redirect talk

Please, delete redirect talk: [3]

Ok? Thanks! Joseph — Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.0.179.42 (talk) 21:27, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for correcting infoboxes

Hello, I noteced your patient and meticulous work fixing the football infoboxes when in case of having some anormalities such as unexpected info included, as you did in this exemple. The data in parentesses was making the transformation of infoboxes difficult, however that data was important because otherwise would provide unprecise numbers about years/caps&goals. I noteced you did this in many other articles where this happend, not just the one from the exemple, so I just wanted you to know that your work and effort is being very appreciated. I had noteced in the past some cases where unfortunatelly people simply deleted the info... On the other side I found some cases where the issue was tackled using the notes tag, similarly to what happends with "Kosovo note" at KF Trepça article, and it also worked in infoboxes ocupiying even less space. I can´t find this cases now because I haven´t memorised them, just noteced troughout the last month, or so. I´ll let you know if I find anything related, and in the meantime I just took this oportunity to thank you for this work. Best regards, FkpCascais (talk) 03:06, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Infobox national football team tracking category

Can you please add a tracking category in {{Infobox national football team}} for pages with |type=women? I did the first part of of the merge described in Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion/Holding_cell. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:42, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

What are we tracking? Do you just want a list of all the ones with |type=women? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:18, 27 May 2011 (UTC)
All with this parameter. I am not sure what we have to do next. -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:29, 30 May 2011 (UTC)
I don't think there is much left to do. Just create a list of all the transclusions with "women" in the title, then make sure each one is using "type = women". Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:04, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Road

Route 1 (Uruguay). Can you fix images?Tibetan Prayer 22:11, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

I moved the marker image. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:03, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Template:Bar graph

I like {{Bar graph}}, but it would be more useful to me if it had an option that would make it float to the right. Would that be a simple feature to implement? WhatamIdoing (talk) 03:26, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Sure, I just added float options with |float=right or |float=left or |float=center. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:57, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Template:Infobox Uruguayan Department

Hi Plasticpork, can you please set coordinates to display both inline and title (by default) for Template:Infobox Uruguayan Department? Thanks. Hoverfish Talk 21:54, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

Perfect. Thank you. Hoverfish Talk 17:49, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Xavier football

Hello there. Just a friendly note that I have re-created {{Xavier bowl games}}, given that sufficient time has passed and the circumstances under which the template was originally deleted no longer exist. Best, Mackensen (talk) 17:58, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

No problem. Although, the other objection was based on the fact that it only has one link (see here). Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 18:01, 4 June 2011 (UTC)
Agreed, but I think that's an objection that can be met. Certainly I don't think it's fatal. Thanks for doing a history merge; I didn't think it would be proper for me to do a straight restore. Mackensen (talk) 18:12, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Re: Infobox protected area

Thanks. –droll [chat] 21:14, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Bieber

Can you boost the image size in the infobox of Justin Bieber. That infobox is very irritating in trying to change image size. So inflexible. I hate infoboxes which have a maximum 220 size or whatever. You should be free to add whatever size you want, every image is different. The image needs to be boosted by a good 100px at least. Perhaps the size scheme for infobox musical artist ought to change..♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:57, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

If you set |landscape=yes, you can boost it up to 300px. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:26, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

Great, thanks.♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:57, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

Could you explain your reason to edit out the collapsed option ? It is much better for all article involved that this navbox be normally collapsed. Mlpearc powwow 04:20, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

And it will be normally collapsed. What I added makes it possible to uncollapse it, and will show it as uncollapsed on the template page, but not in the articles transcluding the template. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:24, 7 June 2011 (UTC)
Thank you, I did not notice the state on the article pages. My Wiki lesson for the day. Cheers. Mlpearc powwow 04:32, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

Hello plastikskpork, how are you?

firstly, I'm a fellow editor (NEW) who updated a subject I had in acting school and the new interesting reality world was the subject. Then it was this person Andre Birleanu, then I had to look up material, and I found plenty that was wrong and plenty that wasn't ... Anyway, I used the material I found and also used in my paper to also update the subject ... Nothing more... I can gladly send it to you if you wish ... But to edit and delete my work when it's all there for all to search it's clearly not cool... Again, I'm not arguing and don't want to bother your time I'm sure you're not even home right now and have other things to do .. the quote from Vh1 is valid and it's on worldwide television, the guy IS a supermodel.. I work in the business and over 100 magazines and campaigns and MTV is 32 countries, is more then entry level model with few cute pictures taken by uncle Bobo.. ahahahahaha.. Ask me and I'll reply with best response .. thank you & good week — Preceding unsigned comment added by Anaphoto (talkcontribs)

Your comments here are far more civil than your edit summaries. I would suggest you take a closer look at the changes that you have made to the article, for example, changing existing categories to non-existing ones, improperly formated references, etc. You may also wish to read WP:POV and WP:SPA. I will certainly take a stab at removing the fluff from that article in the next couple days. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:37, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

Can you look into this, its off, see my most recent stub. I think its to do with the extreme west location. and needs x and y. Can you sort it? I intend to create all 36 villages tomorrow.♦ Dr. Blofeld 22:16, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

I don't see anything wrong with it. Which city is in the incorrect location? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:07, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Template:Episode list

There's an issue with {{Episode list}} related to ampersands in article titles that is well beyond my ability to fix and I was wondering if you could possibly have a look and see if the if the problem is able to be resolved. Following the instructions at Template:Episode list#Sublists, the contents of a sublist should be transcluded to the main article without including the episode summary. For example, see NCIS (season 1) and List of NCIS episodes. If special characters are used in the article title, for example List of That '70s Show episodes, the special character must be replaced by the appropriate code (see List of That '70s Show episodes (season 1)#Episodes) or the entire episode list, including episode summaries, will be displayed at the target article. However, this doesn't work at articles where the main episode list has an ampersand in its title, as in the case of List of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes. This example is being discussed at Template talk:Episode list#What is going wrong?. --AussieLegend (talk) 03:13, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

I will have a look in about 24 hours if it hasn't been solved already. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 04:42, 10 June 2011 (UTC)
On second thought, I just fixed it. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:33, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

help in location map

Hi, again I need your help. I was asked to do something I am not quite sure I understand well enough. I did this location map template: Template:Location map India Tiruchirapalli and made absolutely sure that I have the coordinates right, because I wasn't the one who imported (and then trimmed) the map. The coordinates are OK. Then I applied it to the template Infobox Indian jurisdiction here: Thillai Nagar, but although I assign |latd = 10.8136 |longd = 78.6765, the pushpin dot appears instead at aprox. |latd = 10.8106 |longd = 78.7094. I have spent many hours trying to see where I have it wrong but I don't find a clue. Can you please help? Thanks. Hoverfish Talk 22:20, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

Yes! The problem is that {{Infobox Indian jurisdiction}} doesn't use {{location map}}. By specifying a value for |base_map=, you are substituting a new map image for the default image (File:India Tamil Nadu location map.svg). This only works if the two images use the exact same latitude and longitude boundaries, which they don't. The clue here is that if you remove that line, the pin doesn't move! There are a few options here, but by far the easiest is to just add a second explicit call to {{location map}}. Does this make sense? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:52, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

This is a big coincidence given my recent collaboration with Hoverfish but I had intended nominting this template for TFD this week as I've encountered similar problems. I think a full wrapper of infobox settlement for starters given that amount of articles and then replace fully eventually.♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:57, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

Plastik can you update infobox settlement with shrunk codes section like Adgaon and perhaps add a parliament constituency option. Maybe convert infobox Indian jurisdiction to infobox settlement only with some modified features? I dunno, but I want to get shot of the decimal coordinates and replace all parameters with standard ones. Maybe then it would be better to add these features to Infobox Settlement. Any ideas?♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:41, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

Do we need a shrunken codes section? Once the TFD for IIJ has closed, I will take a stab at reworking the backend (or replacing the template) depending on the outcome. It might take me a bit of time, but hopefully not as long as the skyscraper/building merger (which went remarkably smoothly as far as I can tell). Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:37, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

Infobox NFL player vs Infobox NFL retired

I tried to update a page to Infobox NFL player but I noticed some things that need to be sorted out. Infobox NFL player has larger width than the standard templates, the names "Date of birth", "Place of birth" should change to br separated entries under the name "Born", etc. (I left the same message to User talk:WOSlinker too). -- Magioladitis (talk) 11:25, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

Did you get this sorted out? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:36, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

NRHP Infobox template

Hello. Please see Template talk:Infobox NRHP#NRHP infobox template map where you had made an edit making it possible to add a label to the Map Pin position in the infobox. All my NRHP articles had it. Now it no longer exists. I don't really know what happened, but what do I do? That pin on the map is pointless without a label. -Maile66 (talk) 23:08, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Done? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 23:16, 12 June 2011 (UTC)
Sorry about that. I thought I had incorporated all the changes since the last sandbox update into this new one. Looks like I missed that one. I see you've fixed it. Btw, thanks for adding that zero to the "Significant dates" header. I had recognized the error earlier today while working through some new articles, but I'm not an administrator, so I couldn't fix it. I was going to eventually bring it up on the talk page (suggesting the addition of a "0+", but just the zero by itself apparently works as well). If it's not too much of a hassle, could you change all of the map/image captions to be the same number? Preferably 240px. I thought I had taken care of that in this latest update as well.. looks like I wasn't as careful as I thought :\. I think that's all that I left out, but if there's something else that seems like a mistake, feel free to fix it!--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 03:09, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
Sure. I'm currently cleaning up Category:ParserFunction errors, which exploded with NRHP articles (now waiting for the server to recache after the recent fix). If you want to generate a diff in the sandbox, I can sync the image widths. Although, I am probably logging off fairly soon, so it might have to wait another 15 to 24 hours (unless someone else does it first). Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:48, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
As of right now, it is working correctly. Thanks. -Maile66 (talk) 13:31, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
Great! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:35, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

Ping

Hi, I've emailed you to seek some tech/design advice that may have important implications for WP. Tony (talk) 06:55, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Hi, I didn't get any email from you. I don't know what went wrong. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:35, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

TV.com

You closed the discussion before I and I would assume the majority of other WP editors had any knowledge of the decision. This process is typical of WP backroom decisions, done in a closed minority where few venture. With the template, I have no other place to comment than to ye who made the decision. I'm not here to defend tv.com What I am concerned with is the broader scope of now deleting possibly the only source on many articles. Left bare of a source, they are now subject to the predatory nature of the "unsourced BLP" deletionist brigade. We have a lot of entertainers, not necessarily the top tier, but many who SHOULD be notable, but the only sources that are available on line (things that might confirm the WP:OR individual memory of people like myself) are considered "un-reliable." Most prominently in that list would be IMDB--which I personally find to be highly accurate. TV.com has been a secondary source to find and confirm facts that IMDB already makes note of. Killing tv.com as a source, in addition to IMDB leaves me asking: What alternative source can we use? In the entertainment industry, this creep of designating sources as un-reliable has the potential to kill many articles that should legitimately exist--and subsequently stigmatize them from future inclusion. This is doing potential damage to the knowledge base of the world. Trackinfo (talk) 07:24, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

As far as I can tell, (1) Tv.com is not a WP:RS (since it is a wiki, which rewards users for adding content) and this particular template wasn't being used as a "citation template" but as an "external links" template, (2) Tv.com fails WP:ELNO number 6 since it requires registration for participation, and (3) none of the articles where my bot removed the template were in a position of having no sources. In particular, they all (or 99%) have IMDB in the EL section. In any event, that was my reading of the deletion debate. I would say it is better to have no references than ones that have a high potential of being incorrect (or obtaining information from Wikipedia). The worst possible situation is where someone injects some information here, it is then aggregated by users of TV.com to add to the "guide", and then TV.com is used as a citation here. In three steps you have now made fiction into fact. Does this address your concerns? If your concern is with publicizing discussions, I believe a TFD tag was placed on the template, so the fact that is was up for discussion was visible for about a week. In fact, we had quite a few people contribute to the discussion (more than the usual 0 to 2). If you are still concerned about the deletion of the template, you can always take it to WP:DRV. I kept a log of my bots actions in orphaning the template. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:34, 14 June 2011 (UTC)
I have no problem with deleting tv.com I am much more offended with IMDB not being considered a WP:RS. The fact that it is NOT enough of a reliable source (though it is acceptable to include in EL), causes people to use things like tv.com as a fallback. On a case by case basis, we have steadily lost the most commonly found sources for Entertainment subjects. Essentially if a major newspaper doesn't archive a story about these subjects, we mere WP editors are left with no sources to find. Killing the best sources with no alternative puts articles in jeopardy. Somebody please tell us where to find these reliable sources, when the best source, IMDB is not allowed. Trackinfo (talk) 01:02, 14 June 2011 (UTC)
I agree that IMDB is far better than TV.com. They actually correct errors and are not a wiki. The fact that they are so visible, means the chance for errors is much lower. Agents and publicists for actors and films would certainly report a factual error, or have personal information (like birth dates) removed if they were incorrect (or not to be publicized for privacy reasons). I have seen some cases of birth dates being incorrect, when an actor wishes to appear younger than he/she actually is, in an attempt to get younger roles. However, unless the information is disputed, what can we do? As you said, there are very few resources available. After all, if an actor's official website is considered to be a RS for biographical information, then certainly it would seem that IMDB should be as well. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:10, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

Re: Template embedding

I saw your addition to {{Infobox park}}. I updated the documentation for that template last night. I think template embedding has a great future and I merged two infoboxes in the Central Park article this morning. I think there has to be some standardization of parameter names. The parameter name they used in {{Infobox}} is child. The parameter has the same functionality as embed in {{Infobox NRHP}}. I think child is less ambiguous. In my opinion the name of the parameter that you called nrhp in {{Infobox park}} should be something more generic as in the future any one of a number of Infoboxes might be embedded. In {{Infobox protected area}} I used embedded1 and embedded2 but I'm not satisfied with the name. Maybe infobox1 and infobox2 would be good. Any thoughts. If we come up with something I can write it up at WP:INFOBOX. –droll [chat] 16:11, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I was thinking the same thing, while I was cleaning up the ParserFunction errors page. Basically, what happened is that all the embedded NRHP boxes which were transcluding the {{convert}} template barfed due to the expression depth limit imposed by the MediWiki software. I'm not sure why it popped up all of a sudden, but it seems to have been due to changes in the NRHP code. In any event, to make a long story even longer, while I was cleaning those up, I noticed that there is at least three or four different parameter names used for this embedding feature (1) |module= or |module2= in "infobox person", (2) |extra= in "infobox bridge", (3) |nrhp= in "infobox building", and (4) |embedded1= in "infobox protected area". I really don't care so much what we use, although I suppose we could support more than one choice here, so long as we are consistent (as you suggest). Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:26, 14 June 2011 (UTC)
After more consideration, what is really important is that parameter name should be generic. There is no rush, so I'm going to cogitate on it for awhile. Thanks for the reply. I wish something could be done about the expression depth limit thing. I don't think the developers are going to do anything and I guess the folks who work on {{convert}} are not going to do much either. –droll [chat] 01:05, 14 June 2011 (UTC)
The convert issue is a complicated problem, and I have made a few attempts to work on it. My conclusion is that until we can get some of the core functionality offloaded into MediaWiki parserfunctions or get the devs to increase the expression depth limit, we have no immediate hope for solving the issue. What we need is a simple parserfunction which can perform smart rounding (i.e., detect the number of significant figures in the input, and output a correctly rounded result). Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:13, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

Haylie Duff

You might want to,time permitting of course;remove the "CW link for Haylie Duff",as it no longer appears to be valid,given the removal of the "7th Heaven" page. Silvershrek (talk) 18:24, 13 June 2011 (UTC)Silvershrek

Remove it from where? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:22, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

Okayyyyyyy...go to the page "Haylie Duff." At the bottom,you SEE where there is a link to her "CAST PAGE ON THE CW?" Click that,and see what happens! Silvershrek (talk) 02:05, 14 June 2011 (UTC)Silvershrek

I see. You should go ahead and remove it. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 02:09, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

About Deletion of Jubo League

Jubo Leage is the first youth organization of Bangladesh. It is a strong wing of present govt. I created it on 2008. What happened that none deleted it. Once it was nominated but our admins of Bangladesh protested it. I dont know what have I done! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Abdullah Harun Jewel (talkcontribs) 21:45, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

I'm unsure what exactly you are asking here. The article, Jubo League, exists. Yes, I did nominate it for deletion a long time ago, but it survived the AFD (with the recommendation to add sources). So, what is your question here? Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 00:22, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

Request

Can you add the templates in Category:Côte d'Ivoire subdivision templates to the relative articles using Category:Populated places in Côte d'Ivoire by region as a guidelines as I believe many communes are yet to be added to the templates. The vast majority are completely unused yet contain the articles. Can you use AWB to apply the relative template to the communes by department? Otherwise I fear they'll be deleted as unused. I believe Agnéby region is done.♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:28, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

That looks like it would take some new code generation on my part, and I am unfortunately not able to do much of anything that requires more than about 10 or 15 minutes of programing for the next week. Between travel, work, and searching for housing, I am swamped right now. You might get a quicker response for someone else. I'm sorry I can't be of more help right now. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:37, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

Request 2

Hi, can you please change Template:WikiProject Uruguay so that "Category:All WikiProject Uruguay articles" is not assigned to articles when importance=NA. Thank you. Hoverfish Talk 01:02, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

Okay, I put something in there. Hopefully that works. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 03:34, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

It seems to work fine, thank you. Hoverfish Talk 16:08, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

Major Harris Birthday

Hello!

I'm an occasional contributor, mostly just fixing mistakes as I see them. Thanks to more regular contributors like you for making Wikipedia such a great resource!

I was looking up former West Virginia Mountaineers quarterback Major Harris, and I noticed that his birthplace was inconsistent - Spartanburg, SC in the text and Pittsburgh in the infobox:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Harris

I looked through the page history and traced the addition of the birthdate in the infobox back to you. I don't know Major Harris's birthday, and I have no idea how to check, so I thought I'd let you know.

Thanks!

Raddick (talk) 13:40, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

I did edit that article at one point in time, but I didn't add the date of birth. It was added back in 2005 in this edit. Since there is no source for it, I would suggest we remove it. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 19:08, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

Regex backreferences

Upon reading up about backreferences, I changed a line of my regex to include the '\1' backreference call, and was disappointed to find that it did not work at all. Is this convention flavour-dependent (and is incompatible with ours), or did I miss something? Cheers, --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 09:27, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

I have never had any trouble getting backreferences to work. Your example is pretty long and will take me a few minutes to entirely parse. I usually start with something very very simple, see if that works, and if so, build up to the big regexp. I know I have used backreferences before without any major problems. For example, we use this in AutoEd to simplify piped links, like [[dog|dogs]] to [[dog]]s. I will find the line in that script for you. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 20:33, 21 June 2011 (UTC)
It looks like we are using them in Wikipedia:AutoEd/wikilinks.js, if you look for the '\1'. If I have a chance a bit later, I will look closer at your script. I typically use 'http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/tryit.asp?filename=tryjsref_search' to debug small segments of scripts. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 20:40, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Yo yo yo,

Just letting you know I've pushed a slight change to the deployed {{location map+}} code: looks like the default thumbnail class when no float is specified wasn't working as it should (the default should be floating right). I've pinged Droll as well. If this was intentional then go ahead and revert. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) - talk 09:02, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

The default should be float right, or a bot will need to add this to each transclusion. It's probably easier to make "location map+" the same as "location map", since it has (or had) fewer transclusions. I will hopefully have some time to do some actual editing this weekend. Thanks! Plastikspork (talk) 04:12, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Irish infobox

When are you going to get around to replacing?♦ Dr. Blofeld 09:52, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

I thought someone else was doing it? I recall seeing some sandbox code and a thread discussing the replacement. Plastikspork (talk) 04:11, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Dunno, don't think so.♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:16, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Yes, there is another editor replacing them. See, for example, here, and the thread on the talk page. It looks like everything is being converted as discussed. Plastikspork (talk) 13:46, 23 June 2011 (UTC)
Slowly but surely. Thanks.♦ Dr. Blofeld 15:02, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Infobox ocean

Not urgent at all. Could you please add variable image width (as a separate parameter line) to {{Infobox ocean}}. Thanks. Materialscientist (talk) 00:33, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

I added |image_size=, which will change both images. There seems to be a particular reason for keeping the width set at 240px, to match to box width. If you send me a link to the article/image that needs this feature, I might be able to come up with an alternative solution (e.g., limit the image height). I didn't add it to the documentation, since it would be good to make sure it's entirely necessary. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:00, 24 June 2011 (UTC)
Thanks. As I recall the reason, I wanted to tidy images in Baltic Sea and found it odd that I couldn't enlarge the infobox map to make its text more readable. Surely there are ways around, like moving the map out of the box and placing some landscape or satellite image there, I just thought flexible image is a norm for infoboxes. I haven't looked in other articles where this box is used. Materialscientist (talk) 00:24, 25 June 2011 (UTC)