User talk:RobinLeicester

Bradgate Park

Your expansion of the Bradgate Park geology section transforms the entire article. Very well done. JRPG (talk) 11:20, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

help wanted re list of ancient woods in England

I have been trying to improve the page List of Ancient Woods in England and have for example, added entries for Leicestershire, Oxfordshire, and Cambridgeshire, but am hoping for some feedback before tackling many more counties. There are several issues I would welcome thoughts on:

1. Maps: are they appropriate for each county entry?
2. Additional info: to my my mind grid refs linking to maps, size, status, and such like make the lists much more useful - especially as so few of the woods currently have pages to link to. Is that the way Wikipedia 'Lists of' should be used?, and if so would it be better as a table for each county, or as a bulleted list?
3. Refs: The most useful place for a specific ref would seem to be alongside the particular woodland entry. Under the citing system I have used here, almost the whole list would end up being repeated in the footnotes, which feels very clunky. However policy seems to discourage inline external links. Would it be appropriate to include the direct link relating to a particular wood (eg to an SSSI citation, or Wildlife Trust page) within the list/table itself? The normal reference process could then be used for more general reference works which might cover a particular county or area.

Guidance would be very welcome on these and any other issues you think I should consider. Thanks - RobinLeicester (talk) 23:33, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

I asked in IRC and the feedback I got there pretty much was what I thought, but much more detailed. The major point was that maybe your could do maps for each region ("The Midlands" for instance), rather than each County - would keep page from being cluttered-up and you could pretty much define each region to suit. If you need some specific advice about how to construct the maps (how much detail, maybe to make then clickable, etc.) perhaps post your query/get feedback at Wikipedia:Graphic Lab/Map workshop and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Maps( (& also take a look at Wikipedia:WikiProject Maps). Manual of Style questions about "Lists" can probably be addressed by consulting the information at Wikipedia:Manual of Style (lists) or by posting at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Lists. Hope this helps, Shearonink (talk) 15:00, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Woodeaton

Wychwood

Wytham Woods

class=notpageimage|

Oxford woods

(edit conflict)Firstly, well done, looks like you're doing a good job there. If you're after some thoughts...

1. The maps you currently have in the articles aren't particularly helpful. All they do is show you what the counties look like, which is fine for the article page, but seems a little pointless for this page. However, you could mark the woods on the map, which would make them a lot more useful. (It will take quite a lot more work, sorry about that!) You'll want to use Template:Location map - I've dropped an example to the right.
2. List articles are fairly flexible. There's a lot of information at WP:MOSLIST. Whatever you find more aesthetically pleasing really, as long as it complies with the Manual of style - you're the one who is doing the work!
3. Well, besides grouping refs - things are pretty much as you say. There's nothing wrong with having a lot of refs. If you have a link to the official page of each one, I wouldn't say that's an issue - Not how I'd normally apply WP:EL, but lists are a different kettle of fish to articles.

I hope I've answered your questions - but if I can help more, just let me know. Worm^TT · (talk) 15:05, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Hi Robin, just got your message, have been away for a few days. I expect that looking on the discussion page is the best place to go, I'm not 100% on the maps - would have to keep playing to get much further. It might be that the labels are not helpful, but the red dots can at least be linked. Best that you create a couple versions of the maps, and then perhaps go to the workshop, where they'll be helpful! Worm^TT · (talk) 08:24, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

DYK nomination of List of owners of Warwick Castle

Hello! Your submission of List of owners of Warwick Castle at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Dabomb87 (talk) 16:31, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

DYK for List of owners of Warwick Castle

Calmer Waters 00:03, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Bedford Purlieus National Nature Reserve

Hello! Your submission of Bedford Purlieus National Nature Reserve at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. .

But it is a great example of how to write an article on an SSSI! (I've written a few myself and submitted them to DYK, see one above your nomination on the nominations page). Cheers and well done, Zangar (talk) 11:45, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

DYK for Bedford Purlieus National Nature Reserve

Casliber (talk · contribs) 16:01, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

710 Welsh Peaks; 2,000 Scottish Peaks on cy

1. Many thanks for the work you did here on the Welsh (cy) Wikipedia!!! Absolutely wonderful! Wales still has friends in high places! Diolch yn fawr. I've left you a message on cy.Wiki here; thanks Robin! Llywelyn2000 (talk) 06:06, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

2. Hi Robin. I have an excel database of around 240 Welsh Hillforts, together with OS coordinates in both formats:

• TRADITIONA and NGR_X NGR_Y
• SH219829 221915 382913

The list, as you can see is vertical. Can I batch-convert either format within Excel? Many thanks. Llywelyn2000 (talk) 17:01, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

You've given me the instructions how to transpose OS into geos; can't remember where! Thanks! Llywelyn2000 (talk) 14:53, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Hi Llywelyn, working over two projects is quite confusing! It is on your en talk page. (probably not a helpful place, sorry.) RobinLeicester (talk) 17:13, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Diolch! It's old age creeping up! Llywelyn2000 (talk) 18:04, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

I've done the doings, Robin! Scottish and Welsh peaks articles now cut up into more manageable bits! And do they look good! Thank you for all your help - diolch yn fawr! Llywelyn2000 (talk) 09:37, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

In gratification...

		The Geography Barnstar
		for all your hard work accross the border at the Welsh Wicipedia. Diolch yn fawr! Llywelyn2000 (talk) 02:58, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

SSSIs etc

SSSIs in Anglesey Hey, thought I'd just let you know that I'm slowly working on this - I keep getting distracted (and am somewhat busy in real life). Map to right is for Anglesey, its easy to create a derivative that shows only one SSSI.

However, I've encountered something that in hindsight is no surprise: The Areas of Search appear to be defunct in Wales and CCW uses the modern administrative boundaries. I haven't investigated the other areas yet, but I suspect same story is true elsewhere. That leads to the question should we be using the obsolete terminology at all - wouldn't it be best to just do it by county?--Nilfanion (talk) 19:43, 11 June 2012 (UTC)

I used the position data to select the SSSIs within Anglesey (something that is trivial in GIS software, as that is a core function). The ID codes within the .dbf may mean something, but I can't see an obvious relationship with the UAs. Bear in mind a pushpin will not be appropriate for some SSSIs such as those along rivers, but is ideal for most and alternative highlighting methods can be used for the exceptions.

As for maps of individual sites: The quantity means they will inevitably be time-consuming to produce. This example shows what I'll probably aim for. IMO compatibility with Location_map isn't necessary as they are only ever going to get used on single articles, but it can be provided for. I will provide the full projection/coordinate info for these maps.

However, I think it would be better if large-scale maps of small sites in Britain use the OSGB projection (as opposed to an equirectangular one). The only real drawback is OSGB won't work with location map, but {{superimpose}} can circumvent that if its needed. Smaller-scale maps should use an rectangular projection as location-map functionality is much more likely to be needed.--Nilfanion (talk) 21:12, 29 June 2012 (UTC)

Anglesey churches

Well remembered! St Trygarn's, St Morhaiarn's and St Peter's - none quite in the right part of Anglesey for me (or it seems for anyone else, which is why they remain unphotographed on the Geograph website! I've run out of energy for churches at the moment and have found something else to do WP-wise until my enthusiasm returns, but I'm sure I'll be back on the topic in a little while - perhaps some new photographs to admire will be just the tonic I need! Best wishes, Bencherlite^Talk 17:19, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

Should have said that those Church in Wales links have OS map references, which can be clicked to show the precise location of each church, but I'm sure you noticed that. As a special incentive to you, and a spur to me, if you do manage to get photographs of any or all of the three missing churches I will write articles about them as soon as possible, with an aim of including your photographs in a DYK nomination for them. (Oh the glamour!) Bencherlite^Talk 17:23, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	For outstanding effort in starting a wonderfully informative and illustrated article on the Margam Stones Museum. Keep it up! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 22:56, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

Chimney sweeps??

Robin, given your excellent contributions to history and geography articles and broad range of knowledge, I wonder if you might like to have a look at Chimney sweep which I think has the potential to become a featured article. The article is low priority -as it's misclassified as home living -a category that doesn't recognise its dual importance in both occupational medicine, Chimney sweeps' carcinoma and legislation against appalling child labour conditions of the late 19th century. Any advice or help on moving it forward much appreciated. Regards JRPG (talk) 17:23, 13 July 2012 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

Hello, thank you for your comment. I will go out and take some photos to replace the artwork. Do you think I should mention my artworks in the article? Also, I can not zoom in enough and the dot doesn't turn up on the map. Will look for references too.

RexRowan (talk) 09:18, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Thank you very much for sorting out the map for me, much appreciated. I took some photos today and replaced the artworks. I cleaned up the format a little. The problem is that most of the information I got is from the village information board from Dyfed Archaeology Trust without a definite reference link. I will try to find as much information on this as possible. Also, the link of the artwork will not appear until August, so I will perhaps delete it now and up load it later when the link appears. --RexRowan (talk) 09:30, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
	Thanks a lot! RexRowan (talk) 09:30, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Thank you!

SSSI Barnstar Award For your dedicated work on List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Derbyshire Thank you! — Ma®©usBritish{chat} 16:44, 9 August 2012 (UTC) Unofficial SSSI project checklist

SSSI Barnstar Award For your dedicated work on Lists of Sites of Special Scientific Interest for Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire Thank you! — Ma®©usBritish{chat} 17:19, 13 August 2012 (UTC) Unofficial SSSI project checklist

SSSI development

Thanks for your message and great efforts on the SSSI lists - I'm all over the place with 3 WikiProjects I'm involved in at present, one being new that I'm setting up, so apologies for any delays in replying. With regards to Welsh SSSIs, my personal thought is that they should not be started until England is complete. Looking over the table on User:MarcusBritish/SSSIs, England is getting much closer to completion - some are awarded FL quality, as people pick up from where we've completed the tedious data-entry role, to adding prose and extra info that boosts the quality, which is fair enough.. be nice if they all achieved that, one day.

I think it would be better to complete the English "set" of SSSIs, then move onto Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland separately. That way we're going to be focussed on one country at a time rather than jumping here and there between the four for months with gaps being filled intermittently. The Welsh ones are mostly going to be fresh-start lists what with the change in counties, but I have mentioned those on User talk:MarcusBritish/SSSIs#Welsh SSSIs with a list of the new SSSIs arrangement at User:MarcusBritish/SSSIs/Wales - if that's any use. Scotland and NI haven't even been started, beyond basic lists, so there's a lot of work there for those who fancy it. Cheers, Ma®©usBritish^{chat} 17:41, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

When I started the tracking of SSSIs on my userpage, I went through each and every article, giving them a cleanup and to make them uniform, because some had very wild differences, and layouts. In some cases I turned lists into blank tables in the hopes people would join in with the data-entry process.. and I do appreciate it is very dull and time-consuming to copy/paste all those numbers, having done it myself. I think it is important that they are generally consistent, as that would be the best encyclopedic approach. I'm not fussed if you use templates to speed up the data entry, or even if there are one or two extra columns of data - as long as they are of a similar quality standard, and share the same arrangement, there shouldn't be a problem. Don't mind me doing the "optimise markup" stuff when you've finished a page, I do it with all SSSIs to reduce pagesize, improve accessibility and to iron out anything that is too inconsistent with the others.. bringing them all into line, for the reasons just mentioned. Anyone intending to raise an article to FL would be expected to do the same anyway, so might as well make sure we've given them a good start. Though I personally don't intend to sit through a load of picky FL reviews for weeks on end, other people are happy to. Ma®©usBritish^{chat} 01:19, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

SSSI maps

Hi. Thanks for offering to create an SSSI map or two; can you send me a message once these are up on the site, as I'd be interested to see what they look like. Thanks SP-KP (talk) 16:03, 31 August 2012 (UTC)

Centralised discussion on Welsh SSSIs

Hi. You might like to join a centralised discussion at Talk:Site of Special Scientific Interest#Welsh SSSI lists. SP-KP (talk) 17:27, 31 August 2012 (UTC)

Scottish peaks over 610m

Hi Robin! Can you take a look at your Welsh User page please where I've left a message? Many thanks a diolch! Llywelyn2000 (talk) 11:54, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Warwick Castle Owners

Have added the following to its Talk page: According to the NY Times, the freehold of the Castle wasn't sold by the 8th Earl: only a 99 year leasehold. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/24/world/earl-of-warwick-61-who-sold-his-castle-to-madame-tussauds.html Whether the freehold was later purchased or it is still owned by the family would be interesting to know. Engleham (talk) 11:58, 11 October 2012 (UTC)

Anglesey churches (2)

Fantastic! Many thanks. Real-life work is completely crazy at the moment, and then it'll be half-term so I'll get nothing done then, so I'll try and get round to writing articles to accompany your photos in November... Diolch yn fawr iawn, as they say in Anglesey. Bencherlite^Talk 16:34, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Wrong end of the country for me! Perhaps offer your services at WT:WALES? Bencherlite^Talk 16:49, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Fforest Fawr Geopark

Robin - your addition of an image to this article is welcome but there are one or two factual inaccuracies in the description which you attach to the image. The Waterfalls Centre (note plural) lies in Pontneddfechan (note spelling), though unlike most of the village which is in the county of Powys, the centre itself is just inside Neath Port Talbot county borough (indeed it is owned by NPTCB Council) and not in Carmarthenshire which is many miles away. There are no waterfalls on the River Neath itself but many on its tributaries of course. PS: very much support what you're trying to do as regards maps. cheers Geopersona (talk) 06:52, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Concern

I am concerned about a significant number of this user's contributions which appear to be systematically making small edits to denote Hong Kong as a country. The contributions page suggests very prolific editing - much I would think is not controversial - but on numerous occasions either an info box, list entry or category change is, I would guess, trying to establish a normality for Hong Kong to be treated by Wikipedia in these terms. Am I right to be concerned? Is there a course of action that might be best pursued? It is not an area I am familiar with. I reverted an edit at Members of the Global Geoparks Network. Another editor mentioned something similar on 218.250.159.142's talk page, getting a polite denial that it was problem, and no change in editing practice. The edits are unsummarised, and un-sourced. Some method of handing on the situation to someone with the experience to deal with it would be good to hear about. Thanks. RobinLeicester (talk) 02:00, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

Unsourced content: delete at will, and explain in edit summary and on article Talk page. Ask the local interested editors what they think; likely they'll agree. As you delete unsourced content, warn the IP editor on their user Talk page with escalating warnings, starting with {{uw-unsourced1}} or {{uw-unsourced2}}(my preferred). When they top out at 4 warnings, or go beyond WP:3RR, go to WP:AN/Edit warring‎ or WP:ANI.

As for no edit summaries: mention on user's Talk page {{uw-editsummary}}.

Sorry, but I am also not an expert on Hong Kong, but I'm sure there have been WP:RFCs about it, and even escalations beyond that, due to the intense feelings on both sides of the China/Hong Kong issue. But we don't back down from those who break neutral-point-of-view, or attempt to add unsourced content. --Lexein (talk) 07:37, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your helpful guidance. I initiated a mini-debate at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Hong Kong which had quite a good consensus (so far) that HK can and should be described as a country in info-boxes etc. It is alarming that there are experienced editors making IP edits on far east pages (perhap's there are good reasons), and a wider problem of lack of citations, which will take a much bigger drive to overcome. Best wishes, RobinLeicester (talk) 01:10, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

About HK

I grow increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of knowledgeable IP's participating in the HK discussion, and I can't tell if they are same/different ppl with what positions on the topic (also, I wasn't the one that said PRC "imposes" the use of HK China upon HK). However, I would like to answer your question about "Is it the case that where Hong Kong gets to choose its own name, it always uses 'Hong Kong, China'?".

The short answer is, mostly yes. On top of your examples of Olympics/WTO, there is also APEC[1], WHO[2], Asian Development Bank [3]. etc etc.

"How widely is that followed by others when giving the name of the country?" In general usage, where the govt of Hong Kong doesn't choose it's name, there are plenty of examples of flexibility of just using "Hong Kong". eg, any mundane forum registration will list Hong Kong as "Hong Kong"[4]. The UK foreign office simply says "Hong Kong"[5] (Although it gives HK the full name in the subsection), as does the Australian government [6] as well as your example of CIA factbook.

I believe that this is because Hong Kong acts as a separate entity in most matters, except of course, as I have said, in foreign and military topics (The IP said something about HKers not accepting the basic law - getting a bit political there). So something like the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, I would put Hong Kong or Hong Kong(China) in the country section, and not China. As for the List of National Geoparks, of course use the official name, "Hong Kong Global Geopark of China", however, as dutifully noted, it is listed as a park under "Hong Kong" and not "China". As for MTR, I dunno what's happening over there.

Hopefully I have clarified the problem a little bit, but I understand that there is a deep anti-china sentiment in Hong Kong (I've been visiting for a month and not a day goes by without news about pro/anti-china protests or public debates), and it will be difficult to keep the discussion apolitical. I admire your efforts in building a consensus within the community. Dengero (talk) 02:14, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the helpful background. As all can see, I am not working from any knowledge base! My main aim was to get the people (asuming it is several) to acknowledge a need for sources, which has finally happened. The IP thing is tricky because it looks so covert, which may be fine, or may be not. But at least with a well-referenced discussion, with good reasons for both terminologies, Wikipedia cannot be charged with political manipulation from either side, which was my initial concern, and which I am sure will still be an undercurrent. Thanks for your contributions - it has been a rare diversion from 'proper editing' for me, and thankfully much more polite than some threads I have read. I am intending at this stage to 'hand things back' to the, probably quite few, HK project regulars. Best wishes. RobinLeicester (talk) 02:39, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

Dengero I'm afraid you have unnecessarily oversimplified the whole matter. It isn't simply about pro- or anti-China. It's about the sentiments towards what Chinese tourists/visitors do in the territory, from spitting, not queueing up, smoking or eating on trains, to buying up too many daily necessities (baby formulas, nappies, over-the-counter medicines, etc.), and smuggle (well, it's parallel export) them across the border. It's about the sentiments towards the People's Republic's manipulations and interferences in matters provided by the Basic Law to be within HK's autonomy. And it's about the sentiments towards integrity of the head of government handpicked by the People's Republic, and so on and so forth. From what I know almost all Hongkongers, particularly those of Chinese descent, are pro-China, especially from a cultural sense. I hope Robin isn't misled by your oversimplified picture. 14.0.144.59 (talk) 03:56, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

Btw, Dengero.. Hong Kong doesn't only appear in materials published by official intergovernmental organisations. It also appears in our everyday life, such as materials published by a company on which countries it operates in, or a warranty card of a product that you bought. I'd seriously doubt if you can find "Hong Kong, China" in these materials, given that there's nothing to do with intergovernmental organisation memberships and the Basic Law. Meanwhile, I didn't say Hongkongers didn't accept the Basic Law. It's a hard fact that the Basic Law was passed only by the National People's Congress of the PRC, and never through the Legislative Council or the electorate of Hong Kong. Please make sure you understand other people's opinion before you referred to them. 14.0.144.99 (talk) 04:03, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

First of all, of course I'm simplifying things, in order to get Robin in the loop. Second of all, your points are irrelevant to the topic at hand, and I sense a little bit of personal vendetta in you. Lastly, if you have other concerns, you are welcome to post it on my talk page, instead of building it up over here. Note, please kindly get an account. Thank you. Dengero (talk) 14:22, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

I wouldn't worry to much about simplifications or even misleadings on my user page - I don't think its readership is very wide. I have found the IP (and indeed all) contributions on the project page both interesting and helpful, but our combined objective is to help the wikipedia pages provide reliable and verifiable information - which hopefully the discussion has added to. It is good to have well informed editors, but even when you believe something to be established fact, the first need is to cite sources (and also make clear any points of view). Good editing. I will wish you a (UK) Happy New Year - I am off for a New Year's Holiday. RobinLeicester (talk) 16:15, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

Have fun and enjoy, Robin. 14.0.144.65 (talk) 04:59, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Degero my concerns regarding your remarks were not only for you to read, but Robin too. I referred only to hard facts (e.g., the legislative history of the Basic Law), but your sense of "personal vendetta" is nothing more than personal feelings. 14.0.144.65 (talk) 04:59, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

The reason this knowledgeable IP does not have an account is that he's mostly likely a sock puppet of the banned User:Instantnood. I cannot prove that without admin tools, but his modus operandi is very similar. -Zanhe (talk) 14:42, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Neath and Tennant Canal sources needed

Hi Robin. Thanks for your edits to this article. However, it had previously been assessed as a WP:Good Article, and part of that process requires that the text should be properly supported by references, so that readers know that the content is not just the opinions of an unknown editor. This is actually a general principle for Wikipedia, but is often overlooked for articles which have not yet been through an assessment process. Could you please therefore supply sources for the information which you have added. There are two paragraphs in particular which are now marked with a {citation needed} tag. Thanks. Bob1960evens (talk) 16:28, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Paul Bedson sock puppet

Thanks very much for spotting that, I'm impressed - and apologies for taking so long to reply. You might want to see Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Paul Bedson/Archive to get an idea about the scale of his sockpuppetry. For background, Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Paul Bedson and [7]. He has stated that he will continue to create sock puppets unless he is unblocked. There's no problem with anyone recreating any of his articles that would pass our notability guidelines, and I'd hope any replacements would be better written and better sources. Dougweller (talk) 04:43, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

Welsh peaks beckon... once again!

Hi robin! Left you a message here. Diolch. Llywelyn2000 (talk) 15:32, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

Rather belatedly...

St Peter's Church, Llanbedrgoch, featuring not one but two of the pictures you so kindly took last summer. Thanks once again. Bencherlite^Talk 21:37, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

Not belatedly but timely. There are no deadlines to Wikipedia. Another excellent and informative article. Thanks. RobinLeicester (talk) 13:53, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

15,000 maps of Wales

Hi Robin. Can you please take a look at this post here on Commons? Many thanks, Llywelyn2000 (talk) 07:53, 28 June 2013 (UTC)

Monmouth Wikipedia Training

Hi Robin. It would be really good if you could help out on the Monmouth Wikipedia training 20th at Monmouth. Llywelyn2000 (talk) 18:36, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

A page you started (List of Scheduled Monuments in Vale of Glamorgan) has been reviewed!

Thanks for creating List of Scheduled Monuments in Vale of Glamorgan, RobinLeicester!

Wikipedia editor Missionedit just reviewed your page, and wrote this note for you:

WOW! A very well sourced article. Keep it up!

To reply, leave a comment on Missionedit's talk page.

Learn more about page curation.

Scheduled Monuments in Wales

I see you're very busy setting up lists for Wales and looking at Scheduled Monuments in Wales, you've done a hell of a lot of work. It's great stuff, and good to see Wales leading the way (I don't think Scotland and England have methodical coverage). I just wanted to say keep it up. Nev1 (talk) 11:23, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks. Their biggest shortcoming at present is wikilinking sites to existing articles. I have resisted a blanket linking of the cadw names, as there will be lots of articles that use slight (or very) different names. Once I have got the rest of the counties done, I will be having a bit of a push on that, but the key will be to involve people who have contributed site articles to update the name on the lists. RobinLeicester (talk) 14:20, 31 August 2013 (UTC)

New Wales Coast Path WikiProject

As a member of WikiProject Wales, WikiProject Cardiff or an user who has contributed to Welsh articles we invite you to contribute to a new project, Living Paths!: articles, images, translations... Lonely Planet rated the coast of Wales "the best region on Earth" in 2012, yet there is a very low number of articles on the history and culture of places along the Coastal Path. This promises to be an exciting project as it gathers momentum with many Users joining in across the world.

If you are interested in training groups in Wales, please leave a message on the Talk Page. Let's make this WikiProject, like the path itself, the best on earth! And let's put Wales back on the map!

Cymrodor (talk) 12:08, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Scheduled Monuments in Torfaen

Thanks for your appreciation. Just need to do the same for Scheduled Monuments in Monmouthshire, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, and Newport to get Gwent finished... Then some photos, then listed buildings in same areas! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Robevans123 (talk • contribs) 23:21, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

Very pleased to see you working on these. I am trying to progress powys and pembrokeshire but they are huge lists, so will start of with only the bare details. I find I need to mix the lists with other stuff. RobinLeicester (talk) 00:07, 14 November 2013 (UTC)

Monuments

Great news on referencing GGAT numbers - let me know when it's up and running.

Robevans123 (talk) 19:44, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

Watprn is great! Many thanks. I've not got any excuse now for not double-checking all the GGAT references...

Robevans123 (talk) 13:33, 8 January 2014 (UTC)

Didn't realise that Watprn was going to do Coflein NPRNs as well (just seen Torfaen Scheduled Monuments). Was thinking the other day that something like this would be useful. Excellent - and also avoids the problem of entering the NPRN twice (and occasionally forgetting to copy and paste...) Robevans123 (talk) 18:35, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for your help

With so many millions on en, you're the only one who has joined in the 20-20 Vision Challenge! Welcome to the party Robin! It may be difficult to add 2,ooo bytes onto well developed articles (such as many of the en ones, but that's the challenge! All 20 Galician articles were finished within 7 days of launching the project! Any ideas how to beet the drum more effectively on en? Best regards, Llywelyn2000 (talk) 06:26, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

June 2014

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Many thanks from a very happy Welshman!

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		For your fantastic contributions to the Wikipedia 20 - 20 Challenge. This is well deserved. Llywelyn2000 (talk) 16:28, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

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Ely Cathedral Square Brackets

I think your explanation for the square brackets is spot-on, and I probably won't hear back from their originator. The contributions were very good, so I am concerned that someone (justifiably) removes them for lack of verification.

If you can fill in some of the gaps using the references you have to hand, that would be great. I live about 10 mins from the cathedral, so later on I will pop over there, there is probably a volunteer with encyclopedic knowledge and a shelf of references who can help me to back up the facts your references can't hold up. Let me know when you have done as much as you can. Emerald (talk) 07:27, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

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Watprn upgrade?

Hi again - still happily using this handy template! I've recently updated some articles and (unlike the scheduled monument lists where the refs are explained) thought the refs should be fuller. I had to create them from scratch (see Twmbarlwm#References for examples). Do you think it would be useful to have an extended version of Watprn that allowed for the possible extra details (title, author (very optional but sometimes given), id, date, access date, and fuller (linked) details on the publisher)? I don't whether it would be easier to just create a new template or expand the existing one (maybe triggered if one of the optional parameters is given).

Would be very useful as I hope some work on Welsh listed buildings and scheduled monuments might get done as part of Awaken the Dragon. I'm currently working on missing listed buildings. Hope to make a start on scheduled monuments next... Cheers Robevans123 (talk) 01:15, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

Historic Wales?

Hi again. Have you come across this website? It's a bit clunky but it provides a graphic way of finding Welsh heritage records of different types. It's nowhere near as good as the English Heritage site, but has some use. I didn't think it would be much use to help with references (even though you can pull up a report of a listed building) as the url doesn't change. But I've discovered that when you save a report as a PDF, it gives it a url and it seems to be persistent (at least for a few days). I created a few refs to listed building records in Pen y Clawdd Castle, and the PDFs are still around - it's basically the same info as seen on BritishListedBuildings. Could be useful. Unfortunately Cadw/RCAHMW haven't put up the full records for scheduled monuments yet. Robevans123 (talk) 22:29, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

Wales in Red

Hi Robin, are you back now? Was missing you! Wikipedia:WikiProject Wales/Awaken the Dragon/Wales in Red is running from tomorrow until Sunday, so if feel like doing a lot of creations as part of it this weekend go for it!♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:00, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

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Planning on runnng this without prizes on June 13-20. If you're interested in contributing put your name down at the bottom of Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Wales/Awaken the Dragon. Thanks.♦ Dr. Blofeld 09:10, 5 June 2016 (UTC)

The Anglesey-Gwynedd Challenge

Just a reminder that this is now open!♦ Dr. Blofeld 07:31, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

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Photos of Wales

Hello Robin, you're listed here which seems a good way of reaching out to people editing articles related to Wales. As such I thought you might be interested in a notice at WikiProject Wales highlighting some newly available photos of buildings and places across Wales. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 14:32, 11 August 2016 (UTC)

Leicester's Church, Denbigh

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		Hi RobinLeicester, I'd just like to say congratulations on all your hard work on Leicester's Church, Denbigh. SethWhales talk 13:44, 21 August 2016 (UTC)

OSM maps

Hi, just wondering whether you gained any consensus to make the large scale change to the OSM county/district maps such as you did at Derbyshire? Rcsprinter₁₂₃ (prattle) 09:52, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

Rcsprinter123, Sorry, the honest answer is I just got on and did it. My main reason for such boldness was that the existing content is unchanged - simply repackaged with a better (to my mind) background map, and the addition of a link to a full screen map. The other changes are that it now mentions which districts have borough status. If the change is not an improvement, or has drawbacks I am unaware of, please edit, inform or revert as seems appropriate. RobinLeicester (talk) 17:38, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

Having re-read your question, I now wonder if your concern is over the Open Street Map itself. The answer to that is that all the elements you see only exist within the Derbyshire page. They are created by the template {{Derbyshire districts map}}, which is itself making use of {{OSM Location map}}, which makes use of {{Graph:Street map with marks}} (plus <maplink> for the fullscreen stuff). However, none of this changes anything elsewhere. It simply assembles and displays it in the article. I hope that helps. RobinLeicester (talk) 19:40, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

My only concern really is that the map is now sort of overcomplicated; having a base map isn't really necessary just for showing boundary lines, and so it all looks a bit more big and messy. The reason I asked is that if you were planning to apply this to every county, it might be a good idea to discuss it at WikiProject UK geography first, simply to get some agreement that it is a) needed and b) the best way to do it. Things are much smoother when agreed by consensus. Rcsprinter₁₂₃ (report) 20:30, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

OSM maps

Hi,

Your comment at Border Personnel Meeting point led me to [8] which has been open for two years. I didn't read through it entirely, but it looks like the issue is understood but it doesn't look like much is happening currently. Is there anything I can do to elevate this. Obviously, on the English WP, readers expect to see English map labels and shouldn't be expected to read Chinese or anything else.

On another point, I have created some maps where I couldn't get the zoom where I really wanted it (i.e. 2 is too small and 3 is too big. Do you know if anyone else has every expressed this. Any discussion of finer granularity (e.g. zoom=2.5). I don't know whether that is technically easy or not. MB 01:26, 23 December 2017 (UTC)

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OSM Location Map

Many thanks for the OSM Location Map. I have already placed it in the Murarai I article page. This map requires slight modifications. After carrying out the modifications I shall place it in all the other community development block pages. With the help of this map I will be able to develop maps for other pages also. This would be of great help. Many thanks once again. - Chandan Guha (talk) 23:56, 5 June 2018 (UTC)

Sorry to disturb you. The location map does not seem to be working. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 00:23, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

Sorry again. It is okay. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 01:23, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

New OSL Location Map

I have developed a new OSL Location Map for CD Blocks in North 24 Parganas district. I have placed the map on the Talk:Bagdah page. There are 22 CD Blocks in the district. Only 20 are showing. I feel there may be a limitation in the number of locations that can be shown in a location map. Please help in setting the map right. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 14:01, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

The map in the Talk:Bagdah has been deleted by an admin. I have now placed the map on my talk page. - Chandan Guha (talk) 14:56, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

Many thanks. The map is okay. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 23:25, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

New OSM Location Maps

I have placed new OSM Location Maps on two pages - Garulia and Khardaha (two separate maps). Please have a look. After you okay these I will subsequently place them on numerous other pages. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 10:47, 14 June 2018 (UTC)

Chandan Guha great work on assembling the details. I have re-worked them slightly, to make the maps less crowded. In particular I have used the option to turn off the maps own place-names, to stop them cluttering up the map, and made the labels smaller so they don't overlap so much. I have also used a feature to put the letter codes onto the dot itself, and made the dots different shades of red, to further indicate what sort of settlement it is.

Finally I highlighted the specific settlement covered by the article by making the dot and label black. These could be switched to other places, if the map is re-used on another article, renumbering those settings accordingly. If you think colors, settings etc are not right, feel free to experiment further. RobinLeicester (talk) 19:02, 14 June 2018 (UTC)

It is a great experience and I am thrilled about it. The map is now less clustered. Colours etc. are all perfect. I will only adjust the coordinates a little. I was only thinking if the name of the river (Hooghly River) could be added. Many thanks and cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 23:40, 14 June 2018 (UTC)

Chandan Guha -Done. When you have some more like this, let me know if they need any tweaks. RobinLeicester (talk) 16:46, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

OSM base map for overlays?

Hi. As it seems you have some familiarity with {{OSM Location map}}, I wonder if you could help me with something: do you know how to obtain a suitable base map for preparing an overlay?♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 22:10, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

J. Johnson (JJ), Sorry for the delay in answering. (Wiki-break.) I will try and write up a proper help-page about overlays in the next few days. In the meantime, could you expand your question?

Here is my attempt to set out some terminology: The 'basemap' as I would define it is what {{OSM Location map}} generates, and I would normally start by setting that up to cover the relevant area of map at an appropriate zoom and box-size. I then 'copy' that base-map image and 'paste' it into a suitable graphics program to create an image of the same dimensions as the original. I then (and this can be time-consuming) superimpose the 'source image' of whatever the 'overlay-graphic' is to show, ensuring that it matches the scale and position to the underlying map. Depending on what the source-image is, a selection of automated and hand-drawn processes may then be needed to produce the 'overlay-graphic'. The base-map and any unwanted source-image elements can then both be deleted, leaving just the overlay-graphic with a transparent background, to be saved as an svg and uploaded to Commons, for use in the template.

If you can say, within that process, where you are interested in more detail, I can expand further if needed. RobinLeicester (talk) 23:44, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Yes, thanks. I will review the documentation and formulate a more specific statement. ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 20:32, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

The basic question is not how to create an overlay once a base map is in hand, but how to obtain a properly scaled "base map". Additional information on how to specify the overlay image is also needed.

Regarding transparent overlays, the current Template:OSM Location map documentation (as of 2018-08-12) says:

The specified image file can be any size. Using an .svg image with a transparent background, and annotations that match the scale and location of the base map, it is possible to provide a customised overlay image to show particular features that are not included on the base map.

"Base map" is not well-defined here. Initially I took it to be the master map or database from which OSM generates the displayed image. From your remarks I understand it to be the displayed image, with the extent and scaling of that image depending on the specified width, height, and zoom. With this understanding obtaining a base map is trivial: use the proper browser function to save the display image.

However, it appears that overlays are fixed to the scale (zoom) of the original map, and generating a base map at a different scale requires an overlay prepared for that scale. Right? (And the zoom value should be indicated in the image name.)

It appears that overlay images are handled exactly like any marker image, the only differences being in the nature of the overlay image. This should be mentioned in the documentation.

I am a little confused by a comment in the example that the mark-size "matches the frame" (presumably refering to the frame of the base image). Changing this from the size at which the overlay was created changes the proportions (scale) of the overlay image, but I don't see that it needs to "match the frame" of the displayed image.

I am going to attempt the creation and specification of an overlay file. Based on that experience I might offer some suggestions for the documentation. ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 19:37, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

50km
30miles

  

zoom=7 mark-size=200

10km
6miles

  

zoom=9 mark-size=800

Hi JJ. Your "matches the frame" confusion is entirely justified, as a match is not required. My description was attempting to give a method for achieving a correct fit. But, as you saw, the only thing that ultimately matters is that the size set for the overlay matches the zoom-size of the base-map. Each increase to the zoom parameter doubles the scale of the map. So after you have created the overlay at one size, doubling the mark-size= value, will still make the overlay fit the next zoom up. (although it may trim parts of the overlay that don't fit inside the frame.) Similarly, if you go down a zoom level from the one used to prepare the overlay, then you need to halve the mark-size. As you realised, it is not required that the overlay size matches the frame size - and once prepared, you can also adjust the frame width, height and coord figures for the map too, as long as the mark-coord for the overlay remains as originally set. (I try and remember to note these details during the overlay file upload, so that they can be recovered if required).

To the right are two example uses of the file 'Saugeen River system overlay.svg'. You can see the original at Saugeen River. You will also see that when the mark-size is doubled, all the line attributes on the overlay double as well, which is why very often, you will want to create the overlay at the destination zoom level, to avoid overly thick or thin lines.

Below is the overlay by itself, at it's 'original' size of 360x400px - ie mark-dim=0.9. As you can see, I ended up not needing all of the map area I originally set the base-map to. I will be very pleased to hear how your overlay comes out, and suggestions for documentation. RobinLeicester (talk) 22:39, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

Hi. I haven't forgotten this, just deeply involved in making an svg file. The tools I have previously used don't do svg, and the one that will (Libre Office Draw) is a real bear to wrestle with. I wanted to use inkscape, but there's a library problem. I might have a bare grasp of how to include the overlay, but making the svg file is nearly more trouble than I want to handle. I'll keep you posted. ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 23:31, 18 August 2018 (UTC)

Hi again. Getting a suitable svg was getting to be to much of a drag, so I just grabbed yours and plugged it into my map. And ... it failed. One big black square, not even the right size. I carefully compared my parameters to yours, even replicated your map, still failed. (See my history at User:J. Johnson/Sandbox3#small test.) So back to a classic debugging technique: start ripping out code till the problem goes away. And what find I is: an interaction between different parameters. Which I may broach in a new section. But (silent scream) this template has lots of gotchas, which need to be addressed in the documentation. If not in the code.

BTW, one little thing: I realized this morning I had properly grasped what you were showing above. Would you mind if I rearranged the order of your examples? ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 22:33, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

Hi JJ. Well done with the earthquake overlay. I admire your perseverance, and am pleased you got it working. I can see how you had a conflict between the file name and shape setting. I wonder if there should be a specific overlay-file= parameter, along with attendant coord and size settings, which didn't allow the shapes, labels etc for that one. It wouldn't solve all the difficulties of preparing the svg and sorting scale and placement, but at least it would remove a few potential pitfalls. All the existing marks could still be used for overlays too, should they be needed. But I can see they are confusing. It was only after setting up all the options that I realised how they could also be used as overlays, which is why the documentation is so slight at present. As you have demonstrated, it has massive potential, but I suspect will always be rather complex to produce. RobinLeicester (talk) 15:19, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

Yes, it is getting to be quite a project, and more things to discuss than can be done all at once. And of course, it's only after one has thoroughly explored all the hard ways that the easy way seems obvious. Well, without Inkscape, which I finally got installed, there simply is no easy way. At any rate, I have (I think!) grasped a workable method, and I wrote a how-to last night. When that gets worked out we can look at adapting the documentation.

A question: do you have any idea of how many instances there are of overlay files in use?

I am still quite perplexed with the "shape23" interaction problem. (Did a byte-level examination of the template code last night to see if there were any strange, hidden characters lurking about.) But I'll open a new discussion for that. Perhaps on the template page. ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 18:41, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

I found the cause of the "shape23" problem. It was a tiny-leetle bug in the "OSM_Location_map/core" code. Now fixed. ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 21:49, 26 August 2018 (UTC)

• And it's in! My draft how-to, at User:J._Johnson/OSM_overlay_how-to. Let me know what you think. What it needs now is some complete novices to test-drive it. Know anyone that might be interested? ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 22:13, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

RobinLeicester: I think we should have a category on Commons for these transparent overlay images. (If for no other reason, then so those interested in creating one can see other examples.) What do you think of something like "OSM transparent overlay"? I was thinking of leaving out the "transparent", but on Commons I see images comprised of an overlay on a base map, not an overlay by itself. I am also wondering about a WP category, perhaps set by the template. ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 00:00, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

@RobinLeicester: Any thoughts on suitable categories? Or how many transparent overlay files are in use? ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 21:52, 26 August 2018 (UTC)

JJ. My suggestion would be for a "Category:Overlay maps for OSM". This could be a sub-category of "Category:Maps by type", so that it is obvious it is to do with maps rather than other image overlays. If you are happy to implement something along either your suggestion or this, then please carry on, and I can work through my uploads and add the category.

As far as I know, you are the first to produce one, other than the dozen or so that I have done. From my non-quantative review of the 650 or so current uses of {{OSM Location map}}, the vast majority have a single red pog locator dot, with accompanying label. Quite a few have multiple dots and/or extra labels, and the most popular 'advanced' feature is to add numbered dots, with auto-caption, to act as a key to the dots - but that is still quite a minority usage. I don't know how to do the coding to automatically add a WP template, let alone how to select for it only if an overlay was used.

Well spotted on the mis-typed shape23. RobinLeicester (talk) 00:08, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

Thanks. It seemed quite obvious, but I always feel it's a bit audacious to presume to "fix" something that i don't fully understand.

Categorization looks to be more involved than I had realized. (Thanks for the suggestions.) I hadn't thought of "Maps by type", but a little disappointed to see that category is more about the use of the maps. And what we have here is, strictly speaking, not a map itself, but a component of a map. "Maps by source" gave me a little frisson of excitement, especially as one of its two subcategories is "OpenStreetMap maps". (But only 32 pages listed. I think the template should automatically categorize articles where it is used.) This suggests something like "OpenStreetMap overlays" (or "OSM map overlays") for the overlay files. But here I run into an issue: most of images labeled as "overlays" refer to map images that were created with an overlay, not the overlay itself, and certainly not an image with the necessary transparent background. A further complication: I have found one or two svg images with transparent backgrounds that I think could be used be used with OSM maps (I hope to test that tomorrow), with a prospect that OSM overlays could be shared with applications. (Whew, this is getting deep!)

By "automatically add a WP template": are you thinking of categorizing? (I can make that happen.) Or something else? I don't know how to automatically categorize usage of an overlay, as that is indistinguishable from using any marker file. But we could have an |overlay= parameter to specify that.

Your thoughts? ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 01:34, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

Hi again. I've been busy! On Commons I created commons:Category:OSM transparent overlays for overlay files. On en:WP I created Category:Articles containing OSM location maps, and modified the template to automatically add articles it is used in to that that category. So far it includes 602 pages. Also linked some categories so the OSM maps can be found from Category:Wikipedia maps. That should be enough for today. ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 23:21, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

New OSM Location Maps

I have developed two OSM Location Maps and placed them in the Dakshineswar and Nirsa (community development block) pages. The first one seems to be okay. The second one needs adjustment in the inset map. Please have a look at both the maps and feel free to make any changes/ corrections. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 06:07, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

I have added another OSM Location map and placed it in Sitarampur page. The inset map needs adjustment. Please help. I am sorry to trouble you every now and then. Is there any page/article in Wikipedia or elsewhere where I can learn how to adjust inset maps? I couldn't find it in OSM Location map. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 03:37, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

Chandan Guha - The inset map can be any external image available from Wikimedia Commons, so on your map of Nirsa (community development block) the inset is 'India Jharkhand location map.svg'. If there is already a different map available that suits better, you can add that name to the template instead. However, that is not the same as adjusting the inset. There are a wide range of .svg maps that people have produced - mainly I think using specialist mapping software. Svg's can be created and edited in graphics programs, or even editing the svg text directly if you know what you are doing, and uploaded as a new file to commons. But all of that is well outside the scope of the {{OSM Location map}} template itself.

The one inset map detail you can edit within the template is the locator dot or the red square, which are used to indicate where the main map is located on the inset. These are both a bit clunky but functional. I will try and write up a better help-page for this in the next few days, and will ping you when it is done. RobinLeicester (talk) 22:52, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

I will be looking forward to the help page information for moving the red square. As regards maps, I have not been able to locate any that is of use to me. What is the software generally used for making maps - particularly area maps? The OSM Location map is fine for showing places, but when one wants to show districts or subdivisions, some software that helps in developing area maps would be required. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 14:07, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

I may be able to advise you here. It's not so much a matter of "making maps" as making images. Typically one uses standard graphics software to trace or plot over an existing image. The package I recommend is Xfig. Try it out. If you feel comfortable with it I can advise how to proceed. ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 22:03, 26 August 2018 (UTC)

Many thanks for the information. At present, I am learning how to develop OSM Location maps. Once I get a grip on this, I will try out the other maps. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 13:54, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you

	The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
	Great work in developing maps and going out the way to help. Many thanks. - Chandan Guha (talk) 11:33, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

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OSM Location Maps

All OSM Location Maps on India pages have gone wrong. Please see Garulia - the same problem is there on all pages with OSM Location Map. I feel that some change has been made at the central level template, as a result of which all maps are affected. Please help. Cheers - Chandan Guha (talk) 00:48, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Chandan Guha Sorry about that, I am working on it - may need to just revert for now, and work out what went wrong. RobinLeicester (talk) 00:50, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Many thanks. The maps seem to be okay. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 00:57, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Chandan Guha: I could see a problem on the map I was testing, but am even more confused by the effect my edit had on your maps - really unexpected. I will find a way of doing some safer template testing, but all is now returned to normal. (I was hoping to streamline some color selections, to allow more intuitive methods than the #hexes, but my attempt just then clearly needs more thought!) RobinLeicester (talk) 01:05, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

I think something went wrong with the highlight colour - black. This is just a thinking and I may be wrong. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 01:13, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

OSM Location Map problem

OSM Location Maps are coming up fine on the laptop screens but they are not coming up on mobile phone screens. Interestingly, even the full screen map is okay on mobile phone screens. Only the small map is not coming up. You can check the Gangatikuri or any other page. Please help in rectifying the problem. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 04:20, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Chandan Guha, I have been unsuccessfully trying to work out what is going on here. Many of your maps are still not showing on my mobile, and I have found other examples as well, but plenty of other OSM Location maps show up fine. I have put four examples on my sandbox page. They use various mapping methods, including one that is direct from the {{graph:Street map with marks}} that underlies my own template - to see if the problem is caused further up the line. They initially were blank but now all four look fine on my android phone. Perhaps you could have a look and see if different phones or locations produce different results.RobinLeicester (talk) 00:00, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

I am aware of some of your efforts. I could see that you were trying out solutions. Now that you are wanting me to try out the map in different mobile phones, I will do so. However, one thing is certain that earlier the small map came up perfectly in my phone. I referred you to the Gangatikuri page because the small map went off after some changes on that page. I reverted the changes but the problem persisted. Then I thought that something was wrong somewhere else. My problem is that I am not very familiar with the mobile phone. I can just barely use it. I am more familiar with the laptop. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 00:52, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

I've seen a report somewhere (Phabricator?) that "PHP7's stricter JSON parsing breaks some wiki content". Check if in Special:Preferences you have "PHP7 beta feature" enabled. If so, disable it, and let us know how that works. ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 23:58, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

On my windows 10 the maps are showing fine both with and without PHP7 beta (TheDJ fixed an error in the code to sort it out). But on the Android mobile, I can't see any PHP options, unless I am looking in the wrong place. Some maps are showing on my mobile as blank entries rather than as JSON errors. RobinLeicester (talk) 02:31, 2 March 2019 (UTC)

Which might be data of interest to the folks working on the problem. See https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T214984. ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 22:17, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Each time I think I might have a way in to this problem, something else proves me wrong. It does currently just seem to be restricted to the mobile version of the pages, (seen on laptops by adding an extra 'm.' to the url, eg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangatikuri). Maps that I have added to a page now seem to be displaying fine, link through to the full screen version, but don't then display the marker dots. (see fishweir example at my sandbox), whereas https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gourangapur, added by Chandan Guha on March 3rd has an empty map, but its fullscreen map has all its dots. Some maps added before 7th Feb (when the php changes seem to have been made) display OK, but others don't. I think that there was a period after 7th Feb when the mobile pages were consistently producing empty boxes instead of maps, (eg that Gangatikuri example above). It is possible that this is now a fixed problem, which will eventually work its way through the cached files etc, but it also looks likely that there are still json errors within my template (especially relating to the lost dots) being picked up by some maps but not others. I will attempt to grapple with this 'soon'...RobinLeicester (talk) 23:51, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Chandan Guha, J. Johnson, It would be claiming to much to call this a work-around, but I have at least narrowed the problem down to maps that are in a subsection of the page. If it is in the opening section/lead there is no problem but when viewing a mobile version of a page, maps in a subsection just display as empty boxes. You can see this in my sandbox. The one at User:RobinLeicester/sandbox have different maps, including one direct from {{Graph:Street map with marks}}, and one using {{maplink}}, whereas the mobile version displays the first map (above the 'Subsection') and displays the maplink one, but all the others are just white boxes. My guess is that this is related to the way the graph template expects to find the rendered image, and presumably the mobile sections do something non-standard that messes it up. I have flagged this up on the relevant mediawiki talk page to see if anything might be done. In the meantime the not very satisfactory solution is to include the map at the top of the page. RobinLeicester (talk) 00:25, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

Yes, it is working. On the Kalyaneshwari Temple page the map is there at the top of the page and it is working on my Android phone also. Many thanks for at least a partial solution. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 01:30, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

Interesting. I didn't know about the ".m." bit; that is very helpful. I tried it on my sandbox cases (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:J._Johnson/Sandbox3), got what you described: first instance in the "top" section looks good, but everywhere else the OSM overlay with the annotations doesn't find the basemap. I think the next aspect to look at is: are the problems confined entirely to the mobile urls, or do similar problems show up in the regular urls? And following that: do these problems occur with all mobile devices? ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 23:35, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

J. Johnson I am pretty certain the problem relates to use of 'lazy image loading' - ie to save phone-users' downloads the mobile pages use a trick to avoid loading images unless the user scrolls that far down the page. The OSM maps all depend on {{Graph:Street map with marks}}, and it is this that generates the published version (bitmap image). After some exploration of the html properties of affected pages, I have identified that the lazy-image-loader finds the image to load, but for some reason allocates it a height and width of zero, so the box is left blank. It copes fine with normal images from Commons, and the lazy-loader is only applied to images from the first sub-section onwards, which is why the top map is unaffected. Annoyingly there doesn't seem to be a way of turning off or circumventing the lazy loader. I have not yet raised a response from Yurik, the Wikimedia guy who wrote the graph template. RobinLeicester (talk) 23:48, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Interesting. It looks like you're getting a good grip on the problem. Something I am wondering about: how long has this problem been happening? Could an onset date implicate some kind of software rollout? Keep me posted. ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 19:50, 14 March 2019 (UTC)

SOLVED! J. Johnson, Chandan Guha, I am pleased to report that a solution has been found to the blank mobile-format maps. It looks as though the 'Graph:Chart' version of the graphing module found a way of switching off the lazy loader, so including a 0 height pie chart, on a 1px line, alongside the [fullscreen] text, the 'switch-off' gets applied to any page with an OSM map too. Credit to Nehme1499 for spotting the solution. RobinLeicester (talk) 01:08, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

Excellent. I see that my sandbox example is no longer mis-displaying; did you throw a fix in some where? I didn't see any changes to template, but perhaps a sub-template is involved? We should have this problem with the "lazy loader" documented some where real obvious so the next time it bites it will be real easy to find. ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 21:58, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

So did you apply a fix somewhere? ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 21:55, 10 May 2019 (UTC)

Yes, it was a bit of a moving target, but ended up being resolved via a style.css file attached to {{Graph:Street map with marks}}. More details at the end of phabT216431. RobinLeicester (talk) 23:34, 10 May 2019 (UTC)

That was quite interesting. I gather everything is fixed now. Thanks. ♦ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 18:22, 11 May 2019 (UTC)

Many thanks. - Chandan Guha (talk) 05:22, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

OSM map template question

Hi, thanks for mentioning me regarding the template fix! Quick question, is there any way the map displayed could be "lighter" with some sort of parameter? I know that nolabels does more or less that, but I would still prefer it if there was some way to remove roads, for example. I mean, would it be possible to have the same level of "detail" in zoom=12 as in, for example, zoom=5? Thanks, Nehme₁₄₉₉ (talk) 18:32, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

Nehme1499, I agree that would be useful, but way beyond my ability to effect or influence. The {{Graph:Street map with marks}} template does the work of displaying the maps and marks/labels (developed by Yurik), and the underlying map details etc, derived from OSM, are set at yet further remove from that. Unfortunately there is no active development on either of these fronts, and I have no knowledge of how any of it works. If you know enough Lua, it feels like there might be a way to produce something that separated the zoom value from the detail level - although it may also needs entire sets of world maps at each zoom level/map detail combination. The Phab pages seem to be the place to raise such things, but in last year's round of mediawiki software development the Graph:Street map template didn't even get the localised place name improvements that {{maplink}} got, so indian and chinese places, for example, still have english-language pages with illegible place-names, and vice versa, even though the map sets exist. The development resources ran out before it could be applied to the Graph template. RobinLeicester (talk) 23:05, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

Yes, sadly no movement on WMF part to make any improvements :(. I'm running for the board, and if elected, I might have at least some influence over those matters (chat with local chapters and user groups for support). WRT labels - each zoom shows whatever labels are hardcoded for that zoom. The only hacky way to get less is to get a smaller zoom (e.g. zoom - 1), and stretch that image -- won't look good though (pixelated even more than it currently is). --Yurik (talk) 23:22, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

RobinLeicester No problem, I didn't realize that there were so many technical details going through this. Regardless, thanks for your work. Nehme₁₄₉₉ (talk) 23:29, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

J. Johnson, Chandan Guha, Nehme1499, and anyone else who notices this: One of the main reasons we have the OSM maps available on wikipedia, and particularly the ability to add images and text via the Graph module, is the work by Yurik. His observations above confirm that at present there is no priority for developing the mapping features within Wikimedia Foundation. If you want to see a voice on the WMF board that could speak up for such development, then you could do worse than giving him support, both individually (all editors can vote) and via any local groupings you are part of. The elections are not unil 2020 as they are 3 year terms. (See meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections, but then look out for banner announcements nearer the time.) RobinLeicester (talk) 12:10, 6 May 2019 (UTC)

OSM Map - 30 labels max?

Hi Robin!

I'm testing out OSM Map (great creation btw!) in my sandbox in relation to the tallest buildings in Melbourne. I've hit bit of a brick wall, though. The labels only go up to 30. Is there a way around this? I'd like to ideally add about 30 labels to the existing map (ie. up to label 60). Kind regards, —MelbourneStar☆^talk 14:23, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

MelbourneStar, It's great to see you putting it to good use, and thank you for getting to grips with it. There is no theoretical limit to the number of items that could be included (unless there are template size limits), but various elements of the template make it impossible to to do a 'template start' ... many entries ... 'template end'. So each label entry has to be physically present as a great screed of parameters that relate to that number. More can therefore be individually added, but it is quite time consuming, and needs a fair bit of checking as it goes. I am not able to do any of that this weekend, but maybe by next week I can give it a go.

One option that occurs to me would be to just make numbers 31-60 available as numbered shapes, with no text labels, or other 'extras' except to include shape color and mark-title text. I might give that a try out, and will update here on any progress made. RobinLeicester (talk) 15:51, 14 November 2019 (UTC)

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OSM Location map in Bengali wiki

I have been working on the South 24 Parganas district, just south of Kolkata, for some time. Please have a look at some of the maps that I have added – Bowali, Amtala, Solgohalia, Rajpur Sonarpur, Kulpi, Magrahat and Patharpratima. Interestingly, Nettime Sujata has added the Bengali version of an OSM Location Map in the Bengali wiki. Please go to the Bakkhali page in the English wiki – go to the languages list in the left-hand column, click on the first item বাংলা. You will get to the Bakkhali page in Bengali wiki. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 00:52, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

Really great work on your district articles. I am very impressed that you continue to make progress with them. Also, the Bengali version of the maps is great to see. I am very pleased the template is ported and in use on other wikis. RobinLeicester (talk) 23:41, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

OSM Location map now supports 60 dots

In response to MelbourneStar, (from quite a while ago), I have finally got the map template updated to accommodate 60 dots, marks, labels or whatever. Hope they prove useful. Please let me know if issues arise. RobinLeicester (talk) 11:54, 8 February 2020 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. I have already put up a map with 41 dots - see Madhukunda page. In fact, I had already made two maps for the area and had put them up on different pages and I noticed this. I combined the two maps and replaced the older ones. It is working fine. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 06:37, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

This is a great template - thanks! I've been having a dabble with it this weekend with my first map - but was scratching my head when I'd got to point 61 of 67! I couldn't see the maximum number anywhere on the (very helpful) Template documentation. Is there any plans to increase the number available? Richard ^{( T | C )} 13:14, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

Richard, Glad to see you trying out the map template. Sorry about the current dots limitation. I was never able to devise a strategy that allowed unlimited dots, so each numbered element needs a great chunk of its own code to correctly handle all the labels, dots, angles etc, and then more matching items for the fullscreen interactive version as well. The limitations are therefore around worries about template size and the time needed to edit and check the code. I will see if I can find some time to add more dots soon, and also ensure the details are on the documentation page. (There is probably a case for a separate template that is just for large dot data sets, and the underlying {{graph:Street map with marks}} does describe various strategies for such uses, so if you are looking for a template project to work on.... ) Regards, RobinLeicester (talk) 21:56, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

Boundaries in OSM Location maps

Earlier, the OSM Location maps were showing the International and Indian State boundaries quite prominently. These were definitely enhancing the information value of the maps. Now, the state boundaries have been taken off and the international boundaries have been reduced to a thin line barely visible. Can the boundaries be restored to what it earlier was in the maps? Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 11:56, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

Hi Chandan Guha. Is the problem still there? There seemed to be quite a lot of boundaries on the maps I looked at. Unfortunately I have no control or influence at all on the map content. I know there have been problems with some features not appearing correctly, but that has mainly been lakes and other coloured-in areas. Post here if there is still a missing-boundary problem - ideally with a page where it is supposed to show. RobinLeicester (talk) 11:02, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

Yes, the problem is there on all pages, where boundaries are there. Take for example, the map on the Itahar, Uttar Dinajpur page. The international boundary with Bangladesh was earlier a thick one and now it is so thin that it is barely visible. The Bihar-West Bengal state boundary was earlier there but is not there now. I had marked the boundary - the marking is there. Another example is the map on Chittaranjan page - the Jharkhand-West Bengal state boundary was there earlier, but it is not there now. I think it is a general problem and not a page-specific problem. A few days back, someone must have been trying to fix the boundaries - the effort was visible, but then it did not come up permanently. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 12:23, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

15km
10miles

  

Cities and towns in the Uttar Dinajpur district

Chandan Guha, Very curious. The boundaries are showing up fine on my screen. I have put a plain version here to see what it does. I am seeing the thick national border and a dashed state boundary, so it may be a cache/purge problem at your end. On an affected page, try holding ctrl and click the refresh button. This apparently forces a proper re-load rather than simply re-drawing the page. Let me know if that helps. Cheers, RobinLeicester (talk) 15:36, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

This seems to be a peculiar problem. I am happy that the maps remain same - the discrepancy appears only in selectively transmitted pages. This brings me to another similar and interesting problem. In some (not all) mobile phones, photographs and OSM Location maps are not coming up on Wikipedia pages. For pages other than Wikipedia, photographs are okay. It is just beyond me. Anyway, I am happy that things are okay at the source. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 16:01, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

Wonderful, the boundaries are visible once again in the OSM Location maps. Thanks a lot. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 07:00, 30 March 2020 (UTC)

Oh! It's gone. Anyway, cheers. - 07:54, 30 March 2020 (UTC)

Chandan Guha, I am afraid it remains a mystery. If they are still absent, click on the full screen button, to see if that is any different. Let me know if it has the same problem. Also, I would be quite interested to know what town names you see on the 'full screen' map. This uses maplink, which has more placename options, localised to where you are. So I see place names using latin alphabet on both sides of the border, where it is available, whereas the 'OSM Location map' version in the frame currently only has access to the 'International' version of the place names, so all the Bangladesh names are shown only in the other script. Regards, RobinLeicester (talk) 16:35, 30 March 2020 (UTC)

I think the problem lies with the quality of feed provided by the internet service providers. However, it is okay in the Google maps. In the full screen OSM maps also, the boundaries are not there. In the small maps, Bangladesh towns are marked in Bengali script, but in the full screen maps, all towns are shown in English only. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 00:43, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Help needed

I have placed an OSM Location map on the Rimbick page which is showing <maplink>The JSON content is not valid. I am unable to rectify the fault. Please help in making the map okay. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 13:22, 17 March 2020 (UTC)

Hi Chandan Guha. I managed to pin it down to the shape-colors for marks 19 and 20, where you have managed to miss out the 'C', so there is only 5 characters instead of 6. If it is OK with you, I will let you edit the correction, and give a couple of 'tuition pointers' below:-

To debug a long list like this, you can put in the }} to break the template half way through. If it still doesn't work, you know the problem is in the first half, so move the braces to a quarter-way in and try again. You can then progressively narrow it down to a single (or in this case two) troublesome entries.

My other tip is to make more use of default values. You make good use of the defaults in mark1, but where this is not the default you want you can now specify (for convenience this would be above the 1st label), for example | shape-colorD=#C42222. This overides the mark1 value, and any mark which doesn't define a shape-color will then use this one. You can do the same with label-posD, so that it could default to 'left'. Cutting down the additional entries in this way helps keep the text shorter, and errors get easier to spot.

As always, though, great work on the maps and articles. RobinLeicester (talk) 15:45, 17 March 2020 (UTC)

My efforts at correction have only complicated matters. I feel that you will be able to set it right. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 01:13, 18 March 2020 (UTC)

I think it is okay now. The map needs some more adjustments. I will do it later. Many thanks and cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 05:02, 18 March 2020 (UTC)

Aran Island lighthouses

Inisheer

Hi Robin

Many thanks for the improvements, and implementation of the maps for the lighthouses. I started the map to help understand the local geography, your additions improved that. Much appreciated...Jokulhlaup (talk) 09:34, 20 July 2020 (UTC)

Jokulhlaup I was pleased to see you making good use of the map template, and happy to help. RobinLeicester (talk) 12:50, 20 July 2020 (UTC)

Template:OSM Location map

The edits you made to this template today appear to have messed something up. See, for example, the error messages in Barclodiad y Gawres, and cf. the additional text following the caption in the top map on the template's documentation page. I don't know enough about template coding to know where exactly the problem lies. Deor (talk) 20:17, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Deor, thanks for spotting that and following it up. Width = parameter with no value was the problem. It isn't that is wrong - it is good practice - it is just really hard to allow for, and took me ages to realise the problem. However, you can now choose which side to have the minimap. (Still wondering if I have the oomph to offer top corners as well.) RobinLeicester (talk) 21:36, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for your attention. Deor (talk) 21:48, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Some disturbance in OSM Location map

I find that in some of the maps the international boundary between India and Nepal is not showing. Other international and state borders are okay. You can see the page Singbulli Tea Garden. In the map on this page the large screen version shows the India-Bhutan international border but not the India-Nepal border. Cheers. - Chandan Guha (talk) 14:32, 22 August 2021 (UTC)

City borders

Hi Robin,

I came across your use of the OSM Location template map on the Leicester page and was added something similar to the Brighton and Hove page, but then realised it would be nice to have a city border. I see that you created the city body using an SVG you created from StreetMaps. Is it easy to do? Are you able to direct me to any straight-forward guidance.

Many thanks, Paolo Oprandi (talk) 22:10, 1 November 2021 (UTC) P.s. You will find a similar question on your wikimedia talk page

expanded answer at wikimedia. I just had a go using {{maplink}}, but there is no sign of the town border as yet. I will have a look on OpenStreetMap a bit later. It may not have the right tags, and they can take a few days to 'come through'.RobinLeicester (talk) 22:35, 1 November 2021 (UTC)

Not sure why it has started working, but here is the quick and easy maplink version. You can adjust the size and zoom to suit. (works without coords in preview but not when published. It might be fine on the actual page.)

{{maplink|type1=line|id1=Q1022488|frame=yes| frame-width=400|frame-height=300|frame-coord={{coord|50.8493|-0.1375}}| zoom=11|stroke-color1=#AA1205| stroke-opacity1=0.3| stroke-width1=4}} RobinLeicester (talk) 00:27, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Many thanks, Robin - I will take a look. Thanks! I agree that there are areas that would be much improved with a border such LNRs, SSSIs and so on, and actually, we are in a situation that any area that is not designated for protection is under threat at the expense of nature and wildlife, so these undesignated areas should also be accounted for on wikipedia. Paolo Oprandi (talk) 07:31, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Frustratingly, OSM records NNRs etc as 'shapes', whereas bounderies are 'lines'. I think maplink is planned to properly support the shapes, but at present it works in preview and in full screen, but vanishes when it is just on the page. Neither work with OSM Location map except via the fullscreen. RobinLeicester (talk) 16:58, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Whether using maplink or OSM Location map template the map seems to be the same and does not seem to include many areas such as hill, woodland and valley names. OpenStreetMap itself and Magic Map seem more complete. Is that correct?

I think I agree with you. I like the OSM Location map, because it has feature like the numbered dots but don't like it because it doesn't shoe the border in the wikipedia page. Paolo Oprandi (talk) 22:07, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

OSM json errors

I was looking at Category:Pages with broken maps and there are a lot of errors that look like were caused by something other than edits to the articles. In other words, it looks like the maps were working at one point. It seems that some/many of the errors are caused by colors specified with three digits instead of six (i.e. #FFF, not #FFFFFF. I fixed two and got the maps working again (Design Tech High School and Dakin Building). Do you know what changed? Is there a fix possible to support three digit colors again (if my presumption is correct), or do we need to go through the category and fix these manually? MB 02:39, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

Thanks MB, I have made a wrong asumption somewhere in a recent edit to the template. I should be able to fix it to support 3 digits today. RobinLeicester (talk) 11:52, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

Now resolved. Still not sure why they worked before but not now. My solution was to expand the three digits to 6 internally. I will keep an eye on the useful category.

Yes, the category is mostly empty of articles now. I will watch it also. MB 16:38, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

What template or module assigns this category? It would be helpful to have a separate category "Articles with broken maps" to isolate user sandboxes and test pages from actual broken Wikipedia pages, or to limit the application of this category using {{main other}}, as we do with most infobox parameter tracking categories. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:02, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

Hi, Robin! Could you tell me, please, why this template shows JSON and syntax errors on Lt.wikipedia (such as lt:Kernavės kultūrinis rezervatas) ? I tried to introduce this template to Lt.wiki today, but it does not work... CD (talk) 08:55, 19 February 2022 (UTC)

Hi CD Great to see that you are trying to get the map template working. I think the trouble is with the coordinates. It makes use of a separate template called {{coord}} which can handle numerous formats and then returns the latitude and longitude. My original version, which is retained for compatibility, used two parameters, and you will see in the example below that I have replaced the frame lat and lon and the first mark-coord1 with mark-lat1 and mark-lon1. I think that if you were to do that for all the coords I am hopeful it would work for you. Alternatively, you could see about implementing {{coord}}, about which I know nothing. Best wishes. RobinLeicester (talk) 13:07, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

500m
550yds

6

5

4

3

2

1

  

Rezervato objektai:

1

Bažnyčia

2

Mindaugo sostas

3

Aukuro kalnas

4

Įgulos kalnas

5

Kriveikiškio piliakalnis

6

Lizdeikos kalnas

Seemingly great! Big thanks to you. CD (talk) 14:50, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

Dear Robin, after some updates the map is not working (such as lt:Valstybinis Kernavės kultūrinis rezervatas), though Interactive fullscreen map works well. Do you know how to fix this issue? CD (talk) 09:16, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

Hi Lt:User:CD, Unfortunately the underlying 'graph' program that has been producing the maps has been switched off across all wikis. They discovered there were ways of adding malicious code, so switched it off in April, to consider what to do next. It has been a tricky challenge and they are still considering options. You will see a bit more about this at Template talk:OSM Location map#Broken underlying Graph module. For the english wikipedia I have put in a stop-gap measure that puts a version of the interactive map, instead of the one with text and other graphic options, which you can see in your example above. To do this on your wiki, you could copy the sub-template called Template:OSM Location map/coretemp, and then change the call from 'core' to 'coretemp' at the top of Template:OSM Location map.

You can also follow (and contribute) to the discussion about what may be possible, at mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Graph/Plans. RobinLeicester (talk) 12:40, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

Thank you. I have changed the way you suggested, but in the end I get '<mapframe>: Couldn't parse JSON: syntax error'. Any solvings? CD (talk) 13:48, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

Lt:User:CD - I remember now that I had to make some slight changes to the main template, Template:OSM Location map. Leaving blank defaults in the mark-lat and mark-lon entries was causing it to fail. You can see the changes (could be any non-zero value) here. Well done for pursueing this. RobinLeicester (talk) 14:03, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

I have changed these non-zeros, but still the same :( CD (talk) 14:57, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

My Apologies, CD, I should also have remembered that it needs another subtemplate, which is Template:OSM Location map/MaplinkItemtemp. I have just been visiting the Lt template, but will leave you to add in the new subtemplate, as that way you will know better what has been done. This time, I am 'fairly' hopeful! RobinLeicester (talk) 20:01, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

Now it perfectly works – great job, indeed. Thank you! CD (talk) 20:39, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

Barnstar

		The Mapmaker's Barnstar
		For creating OSM Location map. Grimes2 (talk) 18:29, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

Big Thank You!

Hello, thank you very much for you OSM Locator Map. This is wonderful, so much better than the wasteland that is Wikipedia's other map coverage. I edited the template documentation a bit (mainly to clarify things I had misunderstood) - feel free to revert whatever you don't like. I also found a tiny bug, here. Cheers, AxelBoldt (talk) 21:56, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

Isca Augusta

Lovely map! KJP1 (talk) 18:03, 19 January 2023 (UTC)

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You are now a template editor

You probably didn't see my reply since a bot expired it off the RFPP page, but here is a link to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_page_protection/Decrease&oldid=1204236221

Rather than unprotect the template as you requested, I granted you the "template editor" user right. Use it wisely. ~Anachronist (talk) 04:19, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

Thank you Anachronist for doing that. It is extremely helpful, and I spent quite a lot of last night reading up on what responsibilities come with that user right. For now I will be limiting myself to getting these map template features improved within the limitations of maplink, and maybe one day the original (and hopefully improved) graph version will return. But I will keep a (tentative) eye out for one or two other templates that I know enough to be helpful with. RobinLeicester (talk) 23:49, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

If you find you need any other user right (such as rollbacker, new page reviewer, or pending changes reviewer), leave a note on my talk page and I'm happy to grant it. ~Anachronist (talk) 00:50, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

Malformatted {{coord}}

One of your edits to Template talk:OSM Location map caused the page to be listed in the maintenance category Category:Pages with malformed coordinate tags. Presumably it was this edit, since -179 is an impossible value for a latitude (which has to be between 90 and -90). I tried replacing the latitude with -90, but that altered the appearance of the displayed map somewhat in the preview. Can you figure out a way around the problem? Deor (talk) 14:41, 11 February 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for having a look at that. Late-night brain fog! I should have put -89 which I have now done. Fairly irrelevant use case, but still good to get it off the malformed list. Thanks. RobinLeicester (talk) 16:53, 11 February 2024 (UTC)

Big Thanks

What a job it must have been doing the rewrite of Template:OSM Location map to miss out the graph module. Good work.

I fear the arc-text kerneling bug for font baseline on rendering text in a vertical arc will be difficult to solve. Your transform solution should just work out of the box, but it seems each character is being transformed individually rather than whole text string and its not browser specific.

I also see that if you use svg markers these become a clickable element which while a useless feature now (you just see the full size svg element) raises the interesting possibility of substitution in server side text processing to a more useful link, say to another image or article. ChaseKiwi (talk) 08:21, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

Text as a whole using css positioning is pretty clunky. There is probably a better way, if I can find it. the ArcText wobble is not good. I need to have a proper look at options re the svg links. What it 'really' wants is a pop-up box with mark-title text, which often then includes a link. I will maybe see what can be done in that direction. RobinLeicester (talk) 10:49, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

Agree. Suspect I have found an easier bug to fix - the nolabels = 1 option no longer seems to work. ChaseKiwi (talk) 08:19, 22 March 2024 (UTC)

Alas, as of now it is seemingly not implemented in {{maplink}}. In a discussion from 7 years ago (!) at mediawiki, Yurik, the original Graph:maps author wrote "technically the map without labels was created around half a year ago, but I am not sure it got exposed via the mapframe/maplink tags". It seems likely that maplink could add in the option, so if you have ideas on who to go to regarding this, it may (or may not) be an easy fix. (The maps themselves are all still out there, I believe). RobinLeicester (talk) 12:09, 22 March 2024 (UTC)

Yes, I see Template:OSM Location map/ArcText does decompose the string in ArcText up to 20 times. Is wobble best if left (current),or center aligned . It might be better if center aligned in the span and div created for each rotational element as the code is presently rotating the left corner of each single character text box and it just might work better if its a centered corner given different character widths and heights in most fonts. Well beyond me to understand all of the template code written but I sort of understand the HTML/CSS manipulation done here. Will change initial alignment but that can be adjusted separately by trial and error ChaseKiwi (talk) 08:00, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

It turns out I needed to supply a width value, within which the text is then centered. Once I had got that sorted, and resolved other foolish syntax errors along the way, it is much improved. It still is only a monospaced solution, as it always was, but at least it no longer wobbles. RobinLeicester (talk) 15:22, 15 April 2024 (UTC)

Another big thanks!

A Thank You Barnstar

I really appreciate your edit at the Andrew Jackson page, which let me know that the Template:OSM Location map has been fixed. I really like this template and have used it in a few of the articles I edit. Now that it is fixed, I've updated the Joan of Arc map, which had been hard hit by the changes. Thank you so much for what you've done to maintain and update it. It must have been a lot of work! Wtfiv (talk) 23:49, 2 April 2024 (UTC)