User talk:Shereth/Archive09

Origin of "Terrorism"

My edits were in good faith. Sinneed's first explanation seemed wrong (as has seemed the case before with this editor). I reverted him with an explanation, which he understood and countered sensibly, which I accepted. The ball's now in my court to find a ref that isn't a broken link, so as not to leave (as he pointed out in his 2nd edit) a circular trail of links as the only source. -MBHiii (talk) 19:11, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Barnstar

		The Original Barnstar
		For constantly leaving meaningful and well-thought-out posts on practically every discussion page. Keep it up! –Juliancolton | Talk 02:16, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Not sure what prompted that but thank you - I appreciate the gesture :) Shereth 14:13, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I'm trying to make a habit out of thanking the terribly under-appreciated members of the community. As insignificant is it may seem, I think barnstars go a long way in encouraging editors. –Juliancolton | ^Talk 14:59, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Phoenix meetup

Hey there! Just wanted to direct your attention to the Phoenix meetup page, where we are planning a meet and greet for early December. It is a weeknight due to scheduling difficulties around the holidays. We will plan a weekend meetup early in 2010. --Spike Wilbury (talk) 17:52, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

Welcome messages

Hi Shereth
Just letting you know that I've left you a reply at WT:UAA#Welcome messages. The subject page has too much traffic for me to keep it watchlisted, in particular since you aren't active at the moment, so please let me know if you reply there or elsewhere. :)
Thanks, Amalthea 14:23, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

ArkyBot/Map Projects

Hey Shereth,

It's been a while since last we e-contacted one another. Regardless, I would like your assistance for my Unofficial Wiki-Map Updating Project dealie that has been on hiatus, what with real life and all. I know you developed a PHP script called Arkybot to process US Census map data and upload it to Commons and then update the relevant articles. I also recall reading that the script left alone articles that already had a map in the infobox. Therefore, there are still many U.S. city/town/village/et al. articles that are still using the old dot-on locator maps, and I would very much like to remedy that.

However, I do not have the PHP scripting skills required (nor the Admin privileges granted) to allow me to automatically "fill in these holes" alone. I could continue manually drawing .svg maps, manually saving each one as a separate city/CDP locator map, manually upload each one to Commons and manually add each one to the relevant Wikipedia article. (I just did that for Fairfax County, Virginia and it took two weeks of casual, off-and-on work.) But I was hoping there would be a faster way. Thus, I am asking for your help.

I would like to know if there is any way I could have access to your map-generating script. I have a Web server with PHP set up on my home PC, so I would be able to run it myself. I would also be willing to upload files to Commons on my own, as I have managed to develop a script to help make that process a little faster. The human input would be helpful for identifying the specific articles that still need .svg maps added. And since actually creating the maps is the most time-consuming, having access to your script would make the whole task much less daunting.

Let me know if you're interested. Take care!

Ixnayonthetimmay (talk) 05:18, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

Funny that you bring this up right now, as I was actually working on revamping the script. The previous version of the script was designed to "translate" the ASCII version of the Census' boundary files, separate them by county, and highlight individual cities. Unfortunately these files were only available for the 2000 boundaries and thus are quite outdated. The Census does have updated arc/info shapefiles but I have had to redo the script to work with these types of files. That's the good news.

The "bad" news is the reason that my bot stopped operating overall. I found that I was running in to a lot of opposition from a few states (primarily northeastern) WikiProjects who did not like the maps and did not want them used for those states. In some cases it made good sense, since the whole issue of incorporation is a bit wonky over there, but in other cases it was simply "we don't like them". So what I have been thinking is whether it would be worth the effort to contact the relevant WikiProjects to collaborate a little on an updated solution for the maps, to discuss the issue of what kind of maps are best suited to a particular region, see if there are any suggestions on changes to the format (coloring, etc) of the maps, and so on.

In either case I would be happy to provide you with access to the script once I've had a chance to re-write it. I'll also have to tweak it a little to make it more user-friendly, as-is it is almost impossible to use without understanding its inner workings :) Let me know what you think about making the unofficial project slightly more "official" by getting some input from others; I will hopefully have something useable as far as the script is concerned this weekend. Shereth 14:23, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the timely reply.

I seem to recall some of those issues you mentioned, especially when you were uploading New Jersey maps. The idea of input from others is a good one; I just figured no one else was really that interested in a mundane detail such as locator maps in US City articles.

I don't particularly mind and won't be emotionally hurt if the maps are different; I just chose what I did because I felt it was simple and effective. Dividing by county also just made sense for the first map I made for Maricopa County. However, as far as I'm concerned, as long as the out-of-date, overly-aliased .gif or (*sigh*).jpg files are replaced, progress has been made, humanity bettered and we can all sleep more easily at night. Ixnayonthetimmay (talk) 01:20, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Personally i am just fine with the existing format; I didn't mean to suggest that changes should be made :) The good news is the batch I am currently making (or will be making) should be a little more user-friendly in terms of changing around, as well. I'll get back to you when I have some real progress. Shereth 06:44, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Reply to your reply. My apologies for a late reply, as I was on vacation.

Glad to hear things are going well enough. I do like the idea of introducing separate colors for separate territories and districts, such as Indian reservations. I had even considered including state/national forests/monuments and the like, since much of the source data I referred to when manually drawing the maps usually included this information. However, this might begin to make the maps look too cluttered. What do you think?

I also agree that the inclusion of highways would include better geographical context, (take this slightly out-of-date map I made for instance) but it is a shame the Census data doesn't distinguish the road types. That could just be one of those things where the input of an actual human would be useful, tedious as it may be.

Good luck with updating the rest of the scripts, and let me know if there is anything more useful I can do to help. Take care! Ixnayonthetimmay (talk) 05:03, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

your map at Sarasota

Sarasota_County_Florida_Incorporated_and_Unincorporated_areas_Sarasota_Highlighted.svg Shows you as the creator of the image that is supposed to represent the city within the county lines -- however, that outline is not correct for the city boundaries. I have made a hidden comment at the file name in the edit window for Sarasota and later figured that it would be more advisable to let you know directly. I could not alter the image you created since it is a file type, .svg, that I can not open, otherwise I would have created a new image from yours using the Florida portion and adding my outline of the city. I do not have a map of Florida that can be used to make the full state portion.

I have entered an accurate map of Sarasota in an image I created and uploaded for Tamiami Trail in the article. Please compare it to the outline you have in your image to see the differences and let me know if I can help you make a correction. ----83d40m (talk) 21:34, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

The map is not incorrect. It may be outdated - these maps were based on data from 2000, a new batch based on data from 2009 will be produced fairly soon. Another factor that may be confusing you is that these maps also show the water area that is included in the city's corporate boundaries, whereas the map you are referencing appears to show only the city's land boundaries. While this generally does not make a difference, it can result in certain coastal cities, particularly those whose corporate limits include barrier islands, in having unanticipated outlines. See Miami Beach, Florida for another example. This is due to a limitation in the data set available to me at the time. I am hoping to incorporate accurate shoreline data into the next series of maps that will replace the current ones. Cheers, Shereth 14:14, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your quick response. I shall come back to your talk page for any further discussion as you note -- I prefer keeping things together as well.

The error I see in your map is that it shows a large portion of the city abutting the line separating Manatee and Sarasota Counties.

If you enlarge my map for Tamiami Trail, you can see the correct outline of the land that is within the city along her northern limit.

Only a tiny portion of the city along the bay front abuts the Manatee County line -- at Edwards Drive and Uplands Boulevard -- from the eastern portion of that intersection, the southern portion of Edwards Drive is within Sarasota County without being in the city and the next two streets to its south are not part of the city either. If Edwards Drive were extended to the water, the southern portion of the extension would be in the city (when platted, Edwards Drive was intended to extend to a dredge-filled island created off of the natural shoreline). As it is, all of the western portion of Uplands Boulevard is in the city until it abuts the Manatee County line at approximatley the middle of Edwards Drive.

On the eastern side of Tamiami Trail, an ever larger portion to the south of the county lines is Sarasota County without being in the city, but part of the airport terminal property is in the city. This makes the airport have portions that are in all three of the governmental domains.

It seems to me that there is a signficant portion of land to the west of the city limit shown on your map at its most northern point instead of showing that there is only a slender portion of land abutting the Manatee County line right at the bay front of the mainland. This too large portion is displayed as white and I interpret that as dry land. This is the reverse of the real conformation. The submersed land in the bay would not affect this line as depicted on the map you inserted. The line dividing Sarasota County from Manatee County extends across the bay and Longboat Key as well so I interpret the gray along that line as water.

It is my understanding that Sarasota County has dominion over the waters of Sarasota Bay to the Manatee County line. I do not know how that would affect the dominion over the land, nor your map. For Instance I know that New Jersey owns all submerged land around Liberty Island, yet New York owns the land above the water line -- it can be quite different than expected.

I grant that the Sarasota issue is a small difference, but better to be correct in such matters. I also think that showing the submerged land in the same color as the land may be confusing to our readers. The submerged lands of the state are not shown in the illustration accompanying this and one would expect a parallel in the nature of the two "maps" -- at the least, a mention of the difference might be helpful if there is going to be such a difference. I'd rather provide a dot location in an illustration of the county as a general location of Sarasota than to present something that will be perceived as inaccurate to our readers. Perhaps that would avoid the problem of two "maps" that present information that is not parallel. I hope that my explanation is helpful to you, and again, comparison of the differences between what I have presented and what you have, should be useful.

Maybe putting another map below the exploding one that shoes the city limits (as with Miami Beach) could help also. I see what you mean about the "area" delineated in the exploded view being misleading. ----83d40m (talk) 00:45, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

I see what you are getting at. The problem is not that the map is incorrect but that the resolution of the map itself is causing the boundaries to appear to abut when they actually do not; put simply, the scale of the map is obscuring the little strip of unincorporated territory. If I had rendered the map at a smaller scale the boundary would appear to be more accurate, but the problem is that these maps were generated in large batches and as a result small inaccuracies of this nature are, sadly, inevitable.

For your reference, the source for all of my maps is the data provided by the US Census Bureau. If their data is incorrect I have no way of knowing due to the sheer scale of the data involved - there are many thousands of maps generated by my script based upon this data and it is simply not possible to independently verify the data for each county, let alone each city. As a whole the data from the Census is considered pretty reliable and I would be hesitant to consider their data faulty without strong evidence to the contrary.

Again, as I stated before the maps were based on city boundaries without any regard to physical boundaries. This was a limitation of the dataset available to me at the time. I do have accurate shoreline data to accompany the updated boundaries and this should be reflected in the next series of maps, but it may be a few weeks before such maps are finished up. Shereth 04:12, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

No hurry... let's see what the next generation looks like. ----83d40m (talk) 23:26, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

RfA thankspam

Hello, Shereth! This is just a note thanking you for participating in my recent Request for Adminship, which passed with a total of 93 support !votes, 1 oppose and 3 editors remaining neutral. While frankly overwhelmed by the level of support, I humbly thank the community for the trust it has placed in me, and vow to use the tools judiciously and without malice. KV5 (Talk • Phils)

Policy Report

The community gave feedback on a couple of policy pages at WT:SOCK#Interview for Signpost and WT:CIVILITY#Policy Report for Signpost, and there will be another one in Monday's Signpost that we're putting together at WT:Username policy#Signpost Policy Report. I'm leaving you a message because you've made a recent comment on that talk page. If you want the "short version", I've suggested some questions at WT:U#Questions, but I'm hoping that sometime in the near future I won't have to suggest questions, because people will understand how this works from looking at the previous surveys. If you have questions, feel free to ask at WT:Username policy#Signpost Policy Report or my talk page. Thanks for your time. - Dank (push to talk) 16:27, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

WP:OUTCOMES Overhaul

I just completed a major overhaul of WP:OUTCOMES God help me! inspired largely by your counsel.

There is a lengthy rationale for it on its talk page. Thank you for the answers you gave me, they are appreciated. Now let's see if I get reverted, then crucified over at the talk page! Won't that be fun! If so, at least I was bold. ɳoɍɑfʈ ^Talk! 22:11, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Help!

Okay, so I got reverted, and now a reversion war is brewing. Would you be willing to take a look at what's going on? I just want to talk things out. Thanks. ɳoɍɑfʈ ^Talk! 17:56, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

RfA thanks

Thank you for voting in my RfA, which failed with 21 support, 39 oppose, and 11 neutral. This is highly belated, but I wanted to thank you for your comments in the RfA discussion. I do apologize for taking so long to reply to you, after the failure I laid back for a while for several reasons and WP took a backseat. I just dove into another article and am working more diligently on WP. Your comments about my responses have been taken to heart, I try to properly explain myself in a more articulate way since that time. Thanks for the help.

Jeremy (blah blah • I did it!) 07:10, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

TFD

Thanks for your help clearing the backlog! Plastikspork _―Œ^(talk) 18:14, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Having never really messed with TFD before, I hope I'm not breaking things too badly! Shereth 18:15, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Rachel Uchitel

Very well-reasoned DRV close, imho. If you are willing to userify the article for me, I am willing to take on the task of working towards a policy-compliant article.--Milowent (talk) 22:25, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

The article has been userfied to User:Milowent/Rachel Uchitel. Shereth 22:41, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Was going to say and ask the same thing as Milowent. I guess we'll have to share (though I won't get to it until after the holidays). Nice close all around. Hobit (talk) 02:29, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

Not much more to add that Hobit and Milowent haven't already. I appreciate that you came up with a very well reasoned close for that DRV. Thanks. Umbralcorax (talk) 05:03, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

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Rachel Uchitel DRV

Congratulations on having the nerve to jump in and close it. :-) I agree with your reading of consensus (I was one of the delete/trout voters), and am glad you typed out your rationale in such detail. --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 14:58, 18 December 2009 (UTC)

File:Multilingual Countries Map.svg

Hello! You appear to be the creator of this map so I shall talk to you about where I feel it needs improvement. Afghanistan, Fiji, Vanuatu, Equatorial Guinea, East Timor, Haiti, Cyprus, Andorra and Papua New Guinea all have multiple official languages but are not marked any colour on the map.

Mali has one official language (French) but it's a different language (Bambara) that is the lingua franca so that should theoretically be green.

Could you please clarify anyway what are the criteria for being in the green and blue categories?

Munci (talk) 03:55, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

The Gila Valley Arizona Temple

Sounds good. Thanks for reverting it. --Justin Herbert (talk) 03:16, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

List of state routes in Arizona

I see you reverted changes I had made to List of state routes in Arizona. I don't quite understand the rationale behind your reversion. With the template, it's both readable and organized, so I reverted back to my version. I am trying to avoid making lists of routes look like List of Interstate and U.S. Highways in Washington, which I think is ugly and unreadable. {{Road list}} can take the same information found in the Washington example and lay it out differently so it's readable. --Fredddie™ 21:59, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

I disagree with the notion that it is organized, unless you mean organized by number. The original format of the list makes it clear, at a glance, which routes are extant, which are historical, and which simply never existed; your version of the list would imply to the casual reader that Interstate 410 exists in Arizona, which it never has. Note as well that this is a list of state routes and the previous version of the list emphasised this fact by placing state routes first and foremost in the list. As far as readability/usability is concerned, the old list clearly separated U.S. Route 95 in Arizona and Arizona State Route 95 - they were in separate sections and there could be no confusing which was which. The current iteration of the list places them next to each other and makes the likelihood of a misclick much higher. Finally, the current version of the list takes up a lot of real estate on the screen and loses the TOC, both of which add up to a lot of unecessary scrolling to get through the list to a specific entry. I understand your issues with List of Interstate and U.S. Highways in Washington but the old version of the Arizona list does not suffer the same issues. I am going to have to revert back to the original version until it can be explained in what way the templated version is superior. I'm also copying this conversation to the list's talk page for trancparancy to other users, and it would probably be best to continue dicussion there. Shereth 22:13, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

Xavier football DRV

Hello there. I fear I'm becoming a bore on the subject, but I'd like to discuss the deletion of Template:Xavier bowl games, which you've endorsed. I won't rehash the history of the discussion, but I'll note this:

• By the time of the deletion review, the template's link was blue.
• Because of historical developments in the 1970s, it is unlikely that Xavier will ever play in another bowl game, which means the template contained all the blue links it could ever contain.
• No editor has ever pointed to any policy or guideline which would justify the template's deletion.
• The template conforms to a series of templates maintained by WikiProject College Football to facilitate navigation within college football bowl game articles. The presence of the template is an expected part of an article; it is notable by its absence.

I confess that for once I'm very frustrated by the functioning of this project's processes and am not sure where to turn next. I'm told that templates such as these are often deleted, but no one seems to know why. I don't think anyone was particularly sensitive to the template's relationship to other templates and articles, and I know that my arguments were ignored during the TfD. As an editor, I'm being told that I cannot place a navigational box on an article, but no one will give me an actual reason why not. I would appreciate an explanation and any guidance as to where I might go next. Mackensen (talk) 19:03, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

When it comes to the utility of navigational templates (or templates in general) a key question to ask is the utility thereof, and more to the point, how many pages it will be used on. If a template is likely to only be used on one or two pages, I can see how the argument might be made as to its limited utility; in these cases, it might be easier to simply build it directly into the article it is being used on rather than transcluded via a template. For what it is worth, please remember that as the closer of the DRV, I am not endorsing the deletion of it, merely noting that the consensus was to endorse it. Shereth 04:26, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Sure, I could just use the Navbox on the page, but that'll break if anyone ever tries to edit it. Valid non-prose content re-used on multiple pages is the definition of a template. I'm still at a loss as to how the original deletion is valid, and I feel like no one in the process since then has actually grappled with the deletion policy and how it might or might not have been applied. You can't have a consensus based on a false understanding of policy, so I hope you can tell me how the original deletion was valid. Best, Mackensen (talk) 11:32, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I might observe that the template's name was very presumptious, given the number of other institutions worldwide that are called Xavier or St Francis Xavier, some of which actually have active football programs. LeadSongDog come howl 14:25, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I understand your frustration at the situation. I would say that the situation can be best viewed as the application of an unwritten de facto policy as opposed to a written de jure policy. Remember that for the most part, policy on Wikipedia should be descriptive rather than prescriptive; if, as has been posited in this debate, it is common practice at WP:TFD to delete templates of limited scope and/or utility, then perhaps the relevant policies need to be adjusted to reflect this common practice. My hands are tied with regards to the DRV as the consensus there was unambiguously to uphold the previous closure. My best suggestion as far as where you can "turn next" is to bring this up for discussion somewhere relevant (the talk page[s] of the relevant policies/guidelines perhaps) to determine whether this "common practice" is as common as has been stated, and if so, how to make note of it in policy to avert future confusion. Shereth 14:26, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

In other words, you upheld an outcome you knew to be procedurally invalid? I really can't read that statement any other way. Mackensen (talk) 23:08, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I've started a thread at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#Xavier bowl games. Mackensen (talk) 23:26, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks!

I deeply appreciate your weighing in on that matter at the ANI board. It's appreciated more than I can possibly say. Thank you.  :) --PMDrive1061 (talk) 17:35, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

You are quite welcome. I know I'd probably have gotten hot under the collar in your circumstances as well. Shereth 21:45, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Wondering about Coord template and Illustrated NRHP lists

A couple of weeks ago, you put a message on Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_National_Register_of_Historic_Places about reprograming the coord template so that the illustrated NRHP lists would load faster. Recently I find the lists loading a lot faster - there might be many reasons for this - but if you've done it - I definitely owe you many thanks. It's relevant to another message on that talk page. Users want to break up some more lists. I'd think this isn't necessary if the speed gain is permanent/universal. Any further help would be appreciated. Smallbones (talk) 04:25, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

I can't really take credit for it, as all I did was notice the problem. If changes have been made to make the lists load quicker, then we should be thanking whoever did the actual technical work to implement the change :) Shereth 16:16, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Copy of Goplan's deleted article

Could you please provide me with a copy of this deleted article? Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion|Goplan Thank you very much. GilAbrantes (talk) 00:28, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Articles for deletion nomination of Draconity

I have nominated Draconity, an article that you created, for deletion. I do not think that this article satisfies Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, and have explained why at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Draconity (2nd nomination). Your opinions on the matter are welcome at that same discussion page; also, you are welcome to edit the article to address these concerns. Thank you for your time.

Please contact me if you're unsure why you received this message. Robofish (talk) 23:46, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, Shereth. You have new messages at WP:ANI.
Message added 17:59, 15 January 2010 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

╟─TreasuryTag►Africa, Asia and the UN─╢ 17:59, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Community de-Adminship - finalization poll for the CDA proposal

You are recieving this notice as you have participated in the Admin Recall discussion pages.

A poll was held on fourteen proposals, and closed on 16th November 2009. Only one proposal gained majority support - community de-adminship - and this proposal is now being finessed into a draft RFC Wikipedia talk:Community de-adminship/Draft RfC, which, if adopted, will create a new process.

After tolling up the votes within the revision proposals for CDA, it emerged that proposal 5.4 had the most support, but elements of that support remained unclear, and various comments throughout the polls needed consideration.

A finalisation poll (intended, if possible, to be one last poll before finalising the CDA proposal) has been run to;

• gather opinion on the 'consensus margin' (what percentages, if any, have the most support) and

• ascertain whether there is support for a 'two-phase' poll at the eventual RfC (not far off now), where CDA will finally be put to the community. Matt Lewis (talk) 01:42, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Unreferenced BLPs

Hello Shereth! Thank you for your contributions. I am a bot alerting you that 1 of the articles that you created is tagged as an Unreferenced Biography of a Living Person. The biographies of living persons policy requires that all personal or potentially controversial information be sourced. In addition, to ensure verifiability, all biographies should be based on reliable sources. If you were to bring this article up to standards, it would greatly help us with the current 317 article backlog. Once the article is adequately referenced, please remove the {{unreferencedBLP}} tag. Here is the article:

1. Skip Rimsza - Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Thanks!--DASHBot (talk) 09:38, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Hey, just as a heads-up, said article only has two watchers (including myself), so it would be a good idea to add it to your watchlist if you haven't already. Cheers. –Juliancolton | ^Talk 19:09, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Afraid to say I'm already on that list so that's two of two. I need to get around to tacking on a ref for that one. Shereth 20:41, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

US City Maps Project

Hey Shereth,

I'm not sure where you were with the mapping project, but another user (User:Himalayan Explorer) has begun to replace all the maps in US City articles with SVG-based pushpin-type locator maps. I didn't know if there was some kind of community consensus for pushpin maps over other types, so I went ahead and sent a friendly message to hopefully begin a dialogue. However, if the Powers That Be decide that the pushpin maps are superior to the city/county boundary maps, you should consider whether to even go through the effort of the 2009/2010 Mapping Project at all.

Just thought you'd like to know. Take care.

Ixnayonthetimmay (talk) 22:05, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

As I said, I am happy to compromise like Fort Hunt, Virginia as I think both maps are useful. I would prefer it though if you used different colors to make your maps to make them look smarter. I think the state pin locators are clearer and of a higher quality for a global audience. If you would both prefer that I keep the county locators and add the state pin alongside so not as to undo your hard work (sorry!) I will do this, just trying to improve quality and simplify that's all.

I have to admit though I am not happy with the quality of many of them like File:Sarasota County Florida Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sarasota Highlighted.svg, especially not as a sole locator for a city. Perhaps we can arrange a polished up design and display these maps along with the state pin. That would probably be best as the county maps do provide some useful information in terms of territorial division but I don't think the current format of the maps looks good enough..

Regards. ‡ Himalayan ‡ ^ΨMonastery 22:03, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Your input at the page linked above (2009/2010 Mapping Project) would be highly appreciated and valued. I will address the topic at greater length later but I am about to sign off for the day and don't have an opportunity to at the moment; thank you both for making me aware of the discussion at hand. Shereth 22:47, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Sure. Thankyou both for not biting my head off over this. I know different interests can often clash and result in an ugly heated conflict and edit warring. I hope this won't. I just want to help improve things. I have some recommendations for your county maps graphically which may require a trial and error. But I hope eventually we can come up with ideal county city locators to coexist with the new decent svgs I've uploaded to english wiki for the US states which were long lacking... Have a good day. ‡ Himalayan ‡ ^ΨMonastery 22:53, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

My ideal would be like Aarau. A pin map. But when you click "zoom" it shows the city territory division... Anyway for the meantime I will continue adding the pin maps but from now on I won't remove your county locators..Perhaps those Swiss infoboxes will give you something to think about as I believe they are the best way to do this... ‡ Himalayan ‡ ^ΨMonastery 20:34, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

A Map Question

Hello, I am actively working on the Stephens City, Virginia page. I was looking at other towns' pages to see how they looked (to improve Stephens City's page) and noticed this image. This is a great combination and something I am looking for. I currently have this image of the county, which I would like to keep and this image which is just taking up room.

Would you be able to combine the two images into something like this image for use in the infobox? If you could, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks...NeutralHomer • Talk • 12:30, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Right now I am in discussion with a few other editors on how to make some productive changes to these maps; see the above section for a link if you are interested. Once those issues are clarified, a new set of maps will be generated, and that should include cities in Virginia such as the one you are mentioning. Shereth 15:52, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Hey Shereth, I will check out the thread above. Let me know when you start making the new maps. I would like to keep this image in the final image if possible. If that can be done, I will be most happy. Take Care...NeutralHomer • Talk • 19:17, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

• Hey Shereth, I was wondering how the discussion on the maps was going and if you had begun making new maps. I am still working on the Stephens City, Virginia article and it hasn't gone back up for Good Article Review yet. So hoping to have a new map 'round about the time it does go back up for review. Take Care...NeutralHomer • Talk • 23:20, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Willi Bleicher

I want to create this page (picking it up from Wikipedia Germany). This man was responsible for saving at least one life (and I would suspect many more) at Buchenwald concentration camp. When I went to create this page, a message came up that you had deleted it and recommending I find out why before re-creating the page.

He is mentioned on a page I am currently translating, Buchenwald Resistance, as well as two I just finished, Stefan Jerzy Zweig and Robert Siewert. He may well be on other pages related to the German Resistance during the Nazi era. I think his story warrants telling in English and not just German. Marrante (talk) 10:33, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Coordl

Template:Coordl has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. Plastikspork _―Œ^(talk) 20:43, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Richard Tylman (4th nomination)

Hi, Shereth. Because you closed Wikipedia:Deletion review/Log/2010 January 18#Richard Tylman, you may be interested in Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Richard Tylman (4th nomination). Cunard (talk) 02:18, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

anon vandalizer

• you blocked this person before and now they are back at it: User_talk:70.91.62.126#May_2010 --Rajah (talk) 15:22, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

Incorporated area maps

• I've been putting your awesome locator maps back in the articles for Jefferson County, Alabama municipalities after someone replaced them all with useless pushpin maps. I noted that Tarrant, Alabama doesn't seem to have a map. Is that easy to do? --Dystopos (talk) 15:40, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Lending of expertise for a publisher?

Dear Shereth:

I hope you will excuse me for addressing you here, but this is the only way I know to contact you. The publisher I work for is hoping to produce maps similar to what you have created at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sonoma_County_California_Incorporated_and_Unincorporated_areas_Petaluma_Highlighted.svg. There's a site called Melissadata (http://www.melissadata.com/) that does something similar, but with the outline superimposed on a street grid. We are looking for a person to contract to create maps for the cities and towns of the USA. Would you be willing and available to do this? If not, could you refer us to someone who could? It would be for most of the categories on the Melissadata page in the Maps and Aerial Views column.

Thanks and regards,

lookingup44 Lookingup44 (talk) 23:34, 30 June 2010 (UTC) (I hope I did this right)

Proposed deletion of Ao Ao

The article Ao Ao has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

Unreferenced for nearly 4 years, fails WP:V

While all contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{dated prod}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing {{dated prod}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. The speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Stifle (talk) 11:31, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

Map of Billings, Montana

Hi, can you update the map for Billings, Montana? Here is the current city limits of Billings here at: Ward map of Billings, Montana

I'd do it but I think you do a better job at that:)

Later,

Wolfdog406 (talk) 06:50, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

Maps

Would you mind telling me what tool(s) you use to create the maps like one? Thanks! ++Arx Fortis (talk) 16:03, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Multilingual Countries Map question

I have a query for you at File talk:Multilingual Countries Map.svg. Thanks. —  AjaxSmack  02:30, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

A favor

Can you add source information for File:Arizona State Route 67 map.svg? I'm assuming you used GIS sources to create the map, and we really should be including that information. That way should the article go higher up the scale (it's currently at WP:GAN), well-meaning but less than knowledgeable editors/reviewers won't assume that the map is a copyright violation of a commercial work and tag it for removal and deletion. (Yes, this has happened with highway articles' maps in the past because they look "too professional" to be a Wikipedian creation.) Thanks. Imzadi 1979 → 18:10, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Maps of Wayne County, Michigan

I noticed on Wayne County maps Redford Township is shaded grey as if it were a city or village, as opposed to every other township on the map which is white. I tried editing one of these images myself, but I do not have the software to do so. Just letting ya know in case you wanna help me out ! --75.39.23.117 (talk) 17:26, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:USPlacePop

Template:USPlacePop has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Kumioko (talk) 16:21, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

Deletion of MogileFS

I think you made a mistake when you deleted (or endorsed the deletion of) the MogileFS article. Maybe you felt compelled to defend Wikipedia against the horde of MogileFS users that came in via the usergroup posting, but their arguments were thoughtful and valid. If the articles for Ceph and GlusterFS were held to the same standards those articles should be deleted as well, much to the diminishment of Wikipedia in general. I'm not associated in any way with MogileFS, but I rely on Wikipedia to give me good high level overviews of the different technologies out there.

I was stunned by this deletion. It was even more maddening to see it deleted by an admin who's talk page states "I changed my meds, and I haven't had an episode in three months. I'm stable and ready to recover my tools again." and who "Doesn't Give A Fuck". Really? I'm leaving this on your talk page because you are associated with the deletion AND seem reasonably sane. I won't rehash the arguments. Why should I? All the rational arguments made previously were just straight up ignored. Well maybe it's time to give it another look. MogileFS has enough mindshare out there, to the people that are building scalable SaaS applications. Meekrob (talk) 01:38, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

How did you make those maps?

Hey - can you explain to me how you made the maps of counties like this one [1] I want to make the same kind of maps, and it would be good for me to know how... Thanks! NittyG (talk) 00:18, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

File:Deschutes County Oregon Incorporated and Unincorporated areas La Pine Highlighted.svg

Hi, are you still there? Can you please take a look at this map. It shows the unincorporated census-designated place "La Pine", Oregon as of 2000. In 2006 the people of the area voted for incorporation and since early 2007 "La Pine" is a city now, but only with a tiny part of the area and less than 1/4 of the population of the CDP. Can you find out the borders of the young city and make map with its area highlighted, and change this map to show only the unincorporated CDP? Unfortunately detailed data is not yet out of the 2010 cencus, so maybe it might be wise to wait until the census data is published? rgds --h-stt !? 15:35, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Scref

Template:Scref has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. -— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 15:16, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Re:Arizona State Route 30

[2] shows the I-10 reliever as SR 30. However, if more recent documents refer to it as SR 801, feel free to move it back with the notation that this document refers to it as SR 30. Dough4872 19:07, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Incorporated and unincorporated areas map of the United States

I wanted to create an incorporated and unincorporated areas map of the United States by myself, a large map to see how the urbanism seen, by agglutinating the maps you made, but the images don't have the same size. :( What can I do? Do you have one? Rangond (talk) 03:56, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

I'm afraid that I can't be of much help to you here :( There are multiple problems involved, not the least of which are the size that such a file would take, but also the fact that in different states there are different definitions on what counts as an incorporated or unincorporated area. For example, in Massachusetts, technically the entire state is incorporated under one town or another, but the Census Bureau does not recognize all of the towns in the state as incorporated for their statistical purposes. Additionally, I think you would find that the resultant map would not quite show you what you want to know; take the town of Buckeye, Arizona for example, where there is a large area that has been incorporated but very little of which is actually urbanized - most of it is empty space. Shereth 05:44, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

commons:File:Snohomish County Washington Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Everett Highlighted.svg

Is this map accurate? It shows Everett as disconnected (in two pieces), but Everett, Washington#Geography doesn't say anything about that.—msh210℠ 21:18, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

It is in fact accurate, at least as of the year 2000, if the city has annexed any land since then it will not appear in these maps. See [3] for a map from the city that shows the apparently discontinuous pieces as an inset. As for why the article does not mention this I can not say. It would appear based on the map that the city has annexed the area around Lake Chaplain for water rights purposes. Perhaps this can be researched and properly added to the article. Shereth 23:03, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks.—msh210℠ 00:35, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Commons:File:Adams County Washington Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Ritzville Highlighted.svg

I believe this is yours. I don't see any red highlight for Ritzville. - Jmabel | Talk 21:35, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

MSU Interview

Dear Shereth,

My name is Jonathan Obar user:Jaobar, I'm a professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University and a Teaching Fellow with the Wikimedia Foundation's Education Program. This semester I've been running a little experiment at MSU, a class where we teach students about becoming Wikipedia administrators. Not a lot is known about your community, and our students (who are fascinated by wiki-culture by the way!) want to learn how you do what you do, and why you do it. A while back I proposed this idea (the class) to the communityHERE, where it was met mainly with positive feedback. Anyhow, I'd like my students to speak with a few administrators to get a sense of admin experiences, training, motivations, likes, dislikes, etc. We were wondering if you'd be interested in speaking with one of our students.

So a few things about the interviews:

• Interviews will last between 15 and 30 minutes.
• Interviews can be conducted over skype (preferred), IRC or email. (You choose the form of communication based upon your comfort level, time, etc.)
• All interviews will be completely anonymous, meaning that you (real name and/or pseudonym) will never be identified in any of our materials, unless you give the interviewer permission to do so.
• All interviews will be completely voluntary. You are under no obligation to say yes to an interview, and can say no and stop or leave the interview at any time.
• The entire interview process is being overseen by MSU's institutional review board (ethics review). This means that all questions have been approved by the university and all students have been trained how to conduct interviews ethically and properly.

Bottom line is that we really need your help, and would really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. If interested, please send me an email at obar@msu.edu (to maintain anonymity) and I will add your name to my offline contact list. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can post your nameHERE instead.

If you have questions or concerns at any time, feel free to email me at obar@msu.edu. I will be more than happy to speak with you.

Thanks in advance for your help. We have a lot to learn from you.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Obar --Jaobar ([[User talk:Jaobar|talk — Preceding unsigned comment added by 35.9.34.167 (talk) 21:31, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

An AFD you commented in before, has a sequel

The same articles in a previous AFD you commented in are at AFD again. Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Thelma Harper (2nd nomination) Dream Focus 21:21, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Incorporation map

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Prince_George's_County_Maryland_Incorporated_and_Unincorporated_areas_Accokeek_Highlighted.svg

It is a pity this map is useless as there is no key. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.243.201.72 (talk) 14:35, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Your map of Wayne County, Michigan needs correction AND I offer three solutions

I'm referring to (File:Wayne County Michigan Incorporated and Unincorporated areas.svg) and all its derivatives, which I understand are your doing. Thanks for your effort, first of all.

Here's the problem: I infer that the map convention for US counties calls for incorporated areas in grey and unincorporated areas in white.

Well, that's complicated in Michigan, because "charter townships" are incorporated, per PA 359 of 1947. See: Charter Township Act of 1947, in particular the first few clauses. So, either Redford Charter Township is wrong in every map except its own, or all the maps based on (File:Wayne County Michigan Incorporated and Unincorporated areas.svg) are wrong, wouldn't you agree?

As I see it, there are two "right" solutions; first, to show Michigan charter townships in the same shade as incorporated cities and villages, or alternatively, to use a patterned screen to display charter townships as an intermediate form of government that's between ordinary, unincorporated "general law" townships and incorporated cities. What's the form for resolving this dilemma? (I realize that the latter solution probably opens a larger can of worms.)

A third possibility is that Redford gets changed to the same color as the other townships, and recast the description of these maps as "NAME cities and townships" rather than "NAME incorporated and unincorporated area". That might break too much stuff if modifying the file name is tried; on the other hand, I only see one caption that would need to be fixed.)

What do you think? I'm willing to do the heavy lifting of image manipulation (by hand, even) if you can give me the go-ahead. Thanks! LibertyHiller (talk) 06:39, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

I would suggest contacting the folks at the Michigan wikiproject (I assume there is one) to get some kind of consensus on the matter. I've run into this scenario in other states in the Northeast where the distinction between incorporated and unincorporated areas is not as clear-cut as the rest of the country, and I've found that trying to make a decision between one or two people can wind up ruffling feathers down the road. Best to get a little input from multiple users prior to proceeding, but you don't need my permission to update the maps themselves. Shereth 02:29, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

There is, and they were my next stop; I figured that it was courteous to begin by reaching out to you as the creator of the maps. Thanks for your time. LibertyHiller (talk) 04:54, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

FWIW, I didn't really intend to color Redford gray on those maps, that was a bit of an oversight. So I am absolutely in agreement that the maps need fixed, either by changing Redford to white to match the other charter townships or changing them all to gray (or some intermediary). Either way they should be consistent.

I only lived in Michigan for a year or so, so I can't claim to be intimately familiar with the situation there, but it is my understanding that there does not exist any part of the state that is not a part of a city, town, or charter township, and thus none of the maps would have any white on them at all. Perhaps a caption unique to Michigan letting the reader know that white = charter township while gray = city/town, and thus avoiding the need to actually redo maps? Just a thought. Shereth 07:53, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Discussion on when to update File:Samesex marriage in USA.svg

Hello, there is a discussion here concerning when we should update this map (when a new law/court order/etc. is made or when it goes into effect). You are being contacted because you participated in a similar discussion a few months back. If you are interested, please stop by and leave your opinion. Thegreyanomaly (talk) 00:54, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Philip of Castile (archbishop)

Hello. I was on Wikipedia:Translators available and notice that you were on the list for Spanish to English translators and wondered if you could be interested in translating es:Felipe de Castilla to Philip of Castile (archbishop)? There is a lot of interesting information still left untranslated. Thanks.--Queen Elizabeth II's Little Spy (talk) 21:32, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

Map updates for 2010 census

Do there exist any plans to update the incorporated and unincorporated areas maps (such as File:Ferry County Washington Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Republic Highlighted.svg) with 2010 census data; for example, to add newly-defined CDPs?

It has occurred to me that this would entail updating these CDPs' articles to replace mention of them being an unincorporated community, as well as articles of cities, towns, and CDPs existing as of 2000, to update the maps. TortoiseWrath (talk) 03:24, 31 August 2012 (UTC)

Discussion at Talk:Gila_Valley_Arizona_Temple#Requested_move

You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:Gila_Valley_Arizona_Temple#Requested_move. --ARTEST4ECHO (^talk/_contribs) 21:34, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Hello, Shereth. You have new messages at Talk:Gila_Valley_Arizona_Temple#Requested_move.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Re: Ping

Hey Shereth,

Been a while since I logged into my actual account, so forgive the lateness of my reply. Glad to hear you're still interested in taking up the maps project. As you probably already know, I re-did the Maricopa county maps (link!) based on the "standards" defined in the mapping project page and tried to hit them up there for a consensus. As I lack your PHP/XML wizardry, they were again hand-drawn, and with the addition of bodies of water and major roadways, were tedious indeed. I have actually been working slowly on equivalent maps for Pinal county, but being a new father, I have precious little free time to waste even on the odd video game or book anymore.

What exactly did you have in mind for the new maps? And what input would you like from me in this regard? I am of the opinion that the maps I made for Maricopa county are adequate, and that their style and color palette will satisfy most of the complaints of the old black/gray/white/red locator maps. What's your take on it? Ixnayonthetimmay (talk) 05:16, 14 October 2012 (UTC)