User talk:Sswonk/Sarah images

	M8 motorway
Part of National Road	File:N8 national IE.png
Current length	129 km (80.16 mi)
Planned length	143 km (89 mi)
Direction	N.E.-S.W.
Start	Portlaoise
Primary destinations	Dublin, Cork, Fermoy, Thurles, Cashel
End	Dunkettle Interchange
Location map	{{IRL_motorway_routebox/IRLroadsim\|M8}} Clickable image
Construction dates	1985 – 2010
Motorways joined	– ; M7 motorway (upon completion)
Other National Roads joined	N24, N25, N62, N73, N74, N75
Euroroute(s)

Sandbox page

Sandbox page for collaboration on images with Sarah777 (talk · contribs).

R348 destinations sign

Ballinasloe, Kilconnell, Mountbellew, Castleblakeney

Howz about this one Sswonk? Sarah777 (talk) 09:57, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R348 destinations sign clickable

Sign on the R348 regional road
**Clickable image:** click a sign to go to its destination article

Here is the first image, let me know if you like how I made the "Clickable" template, added to the bottom of the caption with the "hand" icon and small text. Also, on these bigger rectangular signs, I am only making the town name's text (Irish and English) clickable, not the area where the distance in kilometers is shown, do you agree with that or should it be clickable across the full width? Sswonk (talk) 13:35, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Only the name I say. Makes the intention clearer. The finger is good; maybe when clickable images are more widespread we could just have a single symbol, but for now I guess some instructions/explanations are needed. I will lift these into their articles and look for some more examples. Many thanks. Sarah777 (talk) 00:20, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R350 direction sign

Attymon, Athenry, Mountbellew

Another....I'm going for clear signs rather than beautiful photos! Sarah777 (talk) 10:05, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R350 direction sign clickable

Sign on the R350 regional road
**Clickable image:** click a sign to go to its destination article

Same questions as above. Sswonk (talk) 13:47, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Same replies :) Sarah777 (talk) 00:24, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R183 direction sign

Direction sign approaching the R183 in Newbliss

Clones, Cootehill, Ballybay, Newbliss and at the top of the main sign the R189 road.

Here's a somewhat packed one! Sarah777 (talk) 00:37, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R183 direction sign clickable

Direction sign approaching the R183 in Newbliss
**Clickable image:** click a sign to go to its destination article

Brainstorm

Comments

Sarah, while you were placing the R183 sign above I was in the midst of a brainstorm. The above is a clickable of all the major roads, with cities including three in NI also clickable. It is not a new image, just the M8 map we worked on earlier this year. It is not ready to be used anywhere yet. First, I don't know if it will work in infoboxes, and if it does I would want to template it for convenience as was the Ireland counties map. In other words, it would just need to be added as {{Ireland roads map|M8}} or some other such simple method, with a name you decide upon. The base map would change according to the parameter entered in the template, "M8" here. I like how it allows navigation, but especially how it allows one to simply point at a shield to pop up the name of the road legibly to identify it. This took about two hours total, but I couldn't stop once I started. Be thinking of some criticisms and possible enhancements and uses, I'll get to the R183 later tonight (morning there). Sswonk (talk) 02:08, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Great idea! I had a feeling the potential here is vast; from the "anti-slavery" picture to maps to signposts - and much more. Can you figure out if this works in info-boxes? Sarah777 (talk) 20:12, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I can see a Wiki-project on clickable images is imminent! Sarah777 (talk) 20:12, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well that certainly would be welcome; I have a built-in passion for helping you with your Ireland projects but would rather leave the many other requests that might soon appear across Wikipedia to others. A wikiproject or task force with many members would help deal with such a future situation. The possibility that people watching your page might start sending a flood of general requests was a major motivation I had for setting up this area with your goals only in mind. RA, the self-styled "anonymous contributor", seemed to know a little about this subject, maybe he will participate in a project or task force.

I am working on a real-life project at the moment, but plan to look in to the infobox scenario tonight. My initial, gut feeling (is that term common in Ireland?) is that the code for each infobox template would need to be modified. Usually an infobox gathers information entered as a parameter, i.e. "image = so-and-so.jpg", and then the template parser methods add the size and other wikicode, wrapping it in double brackets. However, imagemaps use a different type of coding inside the <imagemap></imagemap> wrapper and would probably conflict with most infoboxes as they are currently constructed. I will report what I find here later tonight. Sswonk (talk) 20:47, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Sswonk. Yes, "gut feeling" is a common expression this side of the pond. Victuallers made the image that started this, though he doesn't seem too interested! I think we can quietly expand the images in the R-roads series for a while before it really takes off. We need the proverbial killer application - but signposts is a good place to start. Maybe trainee killer. Sarah777 (talk) 22:38, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Clickable map, re. I note that the M4 and M6 motorways don't have a version of your map - did you make one? Have I lost it? Maybe you should create a map repository for you work? Sarah777 (talk) 22:49, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

File:M6_motorway_(Ireland).png is on en.wikipedia, M4 is on Commons: I started to move them from Wikipedia to Commons using the infamous TUSC helper app, but never finished. The partial category is here. I did do all of them, see your talk page Archive#26 [1]. ~~Still need to move them all to Commons, I'll see about that at some point. I'm still working on the RL project right now.~~ Sswonk (talk) 23:13, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Done I moved all the motorway maps to Commons. Sswonk (talk) 02:56, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I seem to remember TUSC...it is a commons thingy, right? Sarah777 (talk) 23:37, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it actually went smoothly once I started. If you ever have several images you see need moving, buzz me and I will give you the "best practice" way I found of using TUSC. I am currently revising the infobox imagemap shield sizes to one-third larger, that will make them easier to point to with the hand cursor. The maps are all at commons:Category:Maps of motorways in Ireland if you want to check them out. I will likely end up uploading all new versions for the countrywide maps, with the larger shields. It looks like several of the motorways don't yet have their own articles. Sswonk (talk) 23:44, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That's true. And since you drew the maps new sections of the M6, M7 and M9 have opened - all this week! Sarah777 (talk) 23:51, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Quick check; in the case of M6, M7 and M9 they do have articles but M6 and M9 need maps and the M7 needs an updated one. Sarah777 (talk) 23:56, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Another quick check: Open Street Map has been updated showing all the new bits. Sarah777 (talk) 00:02, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

OK. Here is my plan for the next couple of hours. I will get the R207 to you in a few minutes, then get back to making the imagemap and larger shields on a generic (no route highlighted) country map. Then I'll use that in an infobox example here and finally, look into the OSM link you just gave me. I think you might be sleeping by that time, either way I will start a new topic here with my questions (if there are any) about updating the new motorway highlighting. Are you updating the M6, M7 and M9 articles? I'll be back in a few with the R207 clickable below. Sswonk (talk) 00:08, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Proof of concept

To right I am displaying the infobox which is coded at the top of this subsection. It works, and you can try it yourself. Simply edit this "Proof of concept" section, change the "motorway = M8" parameter to any valid motoryway (but not M2, M3 or M50 which use the Dublin map) and you will see that the map changes while the imagemap continues to function as expected. Of course most of the other elements of this test infobox are going to remain those listed at M8 but you get the idea. There is still some work to be done: the code will have to handle the cases that use the Dublin map, the Dublin imagemap will need to be created, and I think also I should increase slightly the clickable areas over each shield or city name, they are too precise to trigger the hand cursor at the small infobox map size (180px). Nice stuff, Sarah, I think we can move forward unless you find any issues I haven't discovered. It could be that we are able to have this working for all the motorways before the end of the year. Sswonk (talk) 01:57, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R155 destination sign

Ratoath, Fairyhouse Racecourse - Here is another suitable candidate in the R-series. Sarah777 (talk) 22:55, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

These are not as plentiful as I thought. I'm looking for signs with readable names and no redlinks. This highlights the number of Irish villages still without an entry. Sarah777 (talk) 23:03, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R155 destination sign clickable

R207 destination sign

Dowra, Drumshanbo Another candidate. Sarah777 (talk) 23:46, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R207 destination sign clickable

Maps showing newly opened segments

There is a new, generic map with the newly opened parts of M6 and M9 shown. This makes the imagemap I made for the larger shields out of sync for those two roads, so I will have to fix that. We will be using this to update all of the highlighted maps for each motorway, so please make sure this is right. It is 2:30 AM so I am turning in, I'll get back to you with a few questions (curiosity mostly) I still have later in the day. Sswonk (talk) 07:38, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am trying to read some of the news about these roads, obviously you will know much more so I'll ask a couple of questions. The OSM map is showing a small bypass of Nenagh that appears new, but this tells of an entire 38km to Limerick scheduled for completion this month. Is there now a motorway, as I don't see any sort of release from http://www.nra.ie/News/PressReleases/ indicating there is? If we can iron the M7 out I will add its updated extent to the map here and then revise the imagemap to match updated shields. Once that is done, I can make new maps for all the motorways and work on getting the infobox code settled. You didn't answer my question above though, are you updating the articles? This is like the U.S. in the seventies and eighties, the maps were different year by year as the interstate system was being filled in. Another question, what happens to the portions of Nxx roads replaced with these new alignments? Are the simply decommissioned entirely, or do they become secondary roads, etc.? Sswonk (talk) 16:12, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Last first: the bypassed sections of the old National Routes become regional roads. Generally I don't need to update the motorway articles as there is a plethora of roads fans who do that! I generally do the drudge stuff. Re the Nenagh bypass; there was a single carriageway bypass built about 10 years ago and it is being incorporated into the M7 Limerick to Dublin road. The have completed and opened a section of this in the past few days. Other sections are still under construction. Apparently they ran into a bottomless bog between Limerick and Nenagh and they are trying to figure out a way to cross it! Sarah777 (talk) 23:33, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Congrats to us! I updated the maps per your explanations and then revised the {{IRL motorway routebox}} to choose the right clickable map for the given route, for all 12 motorways. See it in action at M8 motorway (Ireland) for example. Changing the infobox "motorway = Mxx" parameter to M2, M3 or M50 will trigger display of the Dublin area map, again clickable. They all work, but certainly you should alert me to any errors in the maps, pointer activation, links etc. and we will get them corrected. Sswonk (talk) 08:01, 24 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Cool! I note the "i" in the blue roundel - that is the sort of thing I'd hope in time would be understood universally (on Wiki) as meaning "clickable image". Or something like that - maybe "ci". Still the little finger looks fine for now. Sarah777 (talk) 00:14, 26 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R747 direction sign

Shillelagh, Tinahely - How about this one to help you digest the turkey??! Sarah777 (talk) 00:07, 26 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A nice image to start the evening with, that's a dramatic scene beyond the field. Dinner was actually beef, the big meal was yesterday and I napped through trying to watch the Boston Celtics beat Orlando on TV earlier today so I'm awake and alert. How about your holiday, was it fun, hectic, relaxing or all that and more? I want to tell you I scrolled down your page Christmas Eve and your picture actually flashed a smile at me, although seen very quickly out of the corner of my eye, I might have been delusional like those people who see Saint Mary in a piece of toast, but a thrill nonetheless. To help you digest, maybe you can check the M50 infobox I just added. It didn't have an infobox before because the "parent" route was required, I changed the infobox template to allow for omission in the case where the road has no parent. See if you think I filled it in properly. I tried to find a source for the route length, that is possibly wrong. Let me know! Sswonk (talk) 00:49, 26 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

M50 map is great - it inspired me to add a reference for the N32. As for Christmas, I know you Yanks have to go to work on St. Stephens Day (what is it called in America btw?) - so Xmas Eve is a big thing. Here it's Christmas day we eat the turkey and exchange gifts, pay an annual visit to relatives etc. I love it all! But I feel like a stuffed turkey now! This year it snowed here on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day - pretty rare to say the least, even in the foothills where I live. Hectic and fun - now I'm relaxing with some red red wine. Soon I'll zzzzzzz....perchance to dream.....Sarah777 (talk) 01:06, 26 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

St. Stephens Day is "the day after Christmas", or to some wags "exchange day" for the folks who didn't like their gift. Actually it is Boxing Day in Canada and here in Boston you hear that occasionally, there are a few Canadians around especially Nova Scotians. The snow sounds nice, and it's great you enjoyed the day. Few have to work tomorrow here as it's Saturday. I'm thinking of emailing you something so don't forget to check your inbox tomorrow. Have sweet dreams ... Sswonk (talk) 01:31, 26 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That was a marvelous reference you added to the N32, I don't think I've ever read anything quite so informative. There is an image on that page that shows a sign, here, which shows M1 heading to city center. This of course contradicts the route of M50 which is the true designation of the motorway to Dublin Port. Or maybe not, then there's this, stunning. Do you think the sign painters are also writing WP guidelines? There is some similarity there. A tradition of bewildering signage exists in Boston as well: I will try to get or find a link to a photo at Southampton Street exit off Interstate 93, where the sign at the top of the ramp simply says "Seek Alternate Routes". Go on then! Love it. Sswonk (talk) 08:34, 26 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R393 warning sign

Forgney

I hate to visit this page without bringing some work! Sarah777 (talk) 11:57, 26 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Actually the sign showing the M1/City Centre was correct before they opened the port tunnel and redsignated the road south of J3 as "M50". So either they are a bit slow to update the signs (standard practice in Ireland) or the photo is out of date. Here when you see a "road flooded" sign the one thing you can be sure of is the flood is long gone! And that exact same "use alternative route" appeared on the R113 road about 5 years ago when it was closed for re-surfacing; since then the R113 route has been changed, the road in question is now only a local road - but the sign is still in place. In fact it is located 50m before a signal controlled crossroads and tells you to "use alternative route" - regardless of whether you had intended going right, left or straight ahead! Sarah777 (talk) 11:57, 26 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R393 warning sign clickable

Thanks for the clarification on exactly why some maps have M1 going to the port. We can smugly point to ourselves as knowing better than they, or they could look it up on Wikipedia and make the change, we'll see. This image is a good case for doing things via this sandbox, because I wasn't sure whether you wanted the black church silhouette clickable or the entire diamond sign. I opted for the sign, and left your caption intact although I think we might want to lose the screamer – newspaper talk for (!) – I'm suggesting "Click on the church to see its article." Let me know about the sign. I like this one, quite innovative. Check for another message – had a lost day yesterday, RL things. Now I have to head off to sleep, but will check in around afternoon your time. Sswonk (talk) 07:44, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

"Click on the church" was for your eyes only! Ignore my captions :) Sarah777 (talk) 01:58, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R395 destination sign

Edgeworthstown, Castlepollard, Collinstown

Another R road. Might consider cropping these pics to make the sign more readable??????

Sarah777 (talk) 02:07, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Agree, and I'll do you one better: I'm going to try to brush out the bush in front of the bottom left corner, something I am pretty good at. On the above caption for the church sign, I added the {{clickable}} template, just change the caption text in front of that to whatever you chose. I almost feel like just using the blue "i" icon, but unfortunately that won't work with the way we are setting these all up with captions. It's tricky, I'll look into doing that when I get time. I will be a half hour or so on cropping and airbrushing this one. Sswonk (talk) 02:23, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R395 destination sign clickable

I applied a conservative crop here, and removed some of the foliage. When you place these here for me to add clicking etc., I recommend just putting them at exactly the size and with the exact caption as in the article. So, that is why I have it as such at left. It will help with visual editing and testing. I think this crop is OK, certainly can be adjusted on your advice. Sswonk (talk) 03:08, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Nice hedge clipping! In future I think I must take signs close enough to read and bring me secateurs - but I'm going through the R roads for suitable candidates. So I guess you can photoshop too?! Sarah777 (talk) 14:46, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R148 destination sign

Enfield, Clonard

Another crop? Remove house on right? And some of the road surface from the bottom? Sarah777 (talk) 14:58, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

R148 destination sign clickable

R148 east of Kinnegad
**Clickable image**

Yes yes, I'll admit Photoshop is one of my many talents! Here's this one again cropped per your advice. Sswonk (talk) 23:27, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You clipped the bottom exactly where I'd have but I forgot to specify. I think you have your eye in! Sarah777 (talk) 02:26, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

R125 directions

Ratoath, Swords, Airport

R125 directions

R125, in a wheatfield
**Clickable image**

Watching (American) college football, the Sugar Bowl, it's a sort of end of year tradition not worth going into. It fills the time to have on the TV. Eye in? As in, someone who has a glass eye sees better with it in. Well, anticipating each others editorial needs is good, eh? Nice light, in a wheatfield. Sswonk (talk) 03:00, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Gone, Gone, Gone

Well, Sarah, this was supposed to be an image but these words will have to do. I had reason to use the Southampton Street exit (16) off of Interstate 93 this morning, and I had my camera to take a picture of the "Seek Alternate Routes" sign at the top of the ramp, so I could place it here. Naturally, after being there for about 10 years, it was gone. It was there the last time I took that exit a few weeks ago. MassDOT has a sixth sense, the zen clock struck a new hour, or any number of other explanations. Sswonk (talk) 17:36, 7 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wha??! Sarah777 (talk) 23:26, 7 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

OK, non-sure about "Wha??!" You mean, "What the hell are you talking about?" re: what I wrote, or do you mean some other "Wha??!" Sswonk (talk) 02:02, 8 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Disclaimer: When I first set this sandbox up, I wanted to have some way of being notified when you put work here, like the "You have new messages" orange box that shows up when someone posts to my talk page. To that end, in December I installed a Firefox plug-in/robot/OCD machine piece of software to frequently and automatically check this page for changes, whereby if it found any it would sound a chime and pop up a little box in the corner of my screen. That way I was notified anytime I was online and the computer was awake, even if I was watching TV or doing something else, I would hear the chime and know you had put a new image or comment here. Beats watchlists, believe me. But, it got to be annoying because in the course of the software's automatic checking it would identify the difference in the page between whether I was logged in to WP or not (the top menu items change based on logged-in status) and give false positives. So, I turned it off. Now I'll just have to check the old fashioned way, and as a result I'll take longer to respond. Regardless, the work will get done.
Above, you mentioned a problem with redlinked Irish village articles. Should there not be a census list, with enough data that all the missing articles could at least be stubbed? Let me know, I could probably take such a list and use a spreadsheet to generate a page full of stub articles, then post the results somewhere and you could do the honor of starting the actually articles. Thoughts? Sswonk (talk) 02:40, 8 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]