User talk:Thatmotorwayguy

Welcome!

Hello, Thatmotorwayguy, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

The five pillars of Wikipedia
Tutorial
How to edit a page and How to develop articles
How to create your first article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{help me}} before the question. Again, welcome! Thryduulf (talk) 11:05, 24 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Tables and the M275

Firstly, yes that was me who put the citation needed template on the M275 motorway. It's there to note that the statement it follows is not supported by an incline citation to a reliable source. See Wikipedia:Citation needed and Wikipedia:Citing sources for more explanation.

Regarding working with tables, the best place to start is Help:Table or Help:Wikitable depending on what level of understanding you already have. If you need any more help, then the Wikipedia:Help desk is a good place to ask, as there is always at least one knowledgeable user who can assist, whereas I'm only a single person (who has other things he really ought to be doing now!), but I'm happy to help where I can. Thryduulf (talk) 13:49, 24 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have just made the same suggestions as Thryduulf on the Help page where you posted, why don't you read the Table guideline pages first and then ask for help if you're still stuck? Captain Screebo (talk) 15:25, 24 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The reason why Wikipedia requires inline citations is so it is clear what is referenced (and to what) and what isn't. This makes the verifiability of content very significantly easier - see Wikipedia:Citing sources for a fuller explanation. Thryduulf (talk) 15:29, 24 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Advanced Direction Signs May 2011

Hi

I have seen your updates and your reference to "Advanced Direction Signs May 2011". Do you mean - "I gathered the above information from Advanced Direction Signs" or "The data shown reflects what is on Advanced Direction Signs"? Where did you get your data? BTW, I was responsible for adding the driver location sign information. Martinvl (talk) 18:53, 3 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hi

I got your message - no offence taken at all. I have been adding the Driver location signs info - click onto the link and you will see what I am talking about. I obtained most of my data from the DfT (unofficially).

Martinvl (talk) 19:25, 3 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Road sign colours

Hi Thatmotorwayguy

I have just been updating your changes to the article on the M25 and I thought that I would draw your attention to the article Wikipedia:WikiProject UK Roads. That article lists the correct colours to use for any road signs - for example the green that you used for the A282 was rather bright - I have toned it down.

Regards Martinvl (talk) 19:54, 7 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hello there, thank you for the colour change, I didn't notice it was the wrong colour. I got the original colour from the separate A282 page, so that may need changing on there too. Thatmotorwayguy (talk) 20:01, 7 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

UK motorway junction table names

As the tables are tables of motorway junctions, is not a title Mxx Motorway Junctions better than merely Mxx Motorway? Traditionally tables are labelled according to their contents. Would not the better thing to do be to amend all instances to the properly descriptive name? --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:11, 16 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That so, I have not created the motorway articles, I merely follow the template and update the information. I conformed to the other pages, which I think all UK motorway articles should show symmetry. Which they do in the tables, if we have a few with different titles then it looks unprofessional. Regards, Thatmotorwayguy (talk) 17:20, 17 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I heartily agree that titles and the entire look and feel of tables across motorway articles (and indeed of all aspects of) motorway articles should be consistent. I just happen to think the de facto standard fails in a fundamental way to describe the contents of the table. This is a highly pedantic point, but we're here to do the pedantry so as to produce the best product we can. The title should describe the contents of the table: that's elementary. The content of the table is motorway junctions. The title should be Mxx Motorway Junctions. If the table contents were "points of interest" or "bridges across" we surely wouldn't hesitate to label the table as "Mxx Motorway points of interest" or "bridges across the Mxx Motorway". I"d be happier to see us change to what I think is the better title across all motorway articles - a start on which I'd made - than to leave things as they are. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:59, 17 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with what your saying, and if you so desperately want to see a title change, then I'm happy to see that. As long as you don't edit any of the information my company and myself added, and when re-titling the table I think a simple (example) M25 Motorway Junctions should be maintained in all UK motorway articles, including the (M) prefixed motorways (such as the A3(M) and A48(M) articles). Separate titles for bridges and special interchanges don't, in my opinion, need a new title, as they are usually already pointed out. But I'd be glad to see a change to the current table layout, so I'll support your edits, as long as they follow the above that is. I'm happy to see users engaging in active change and improvement to articles. Regards, Thatmotorwayguy (talk) 23:36, 17 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That works for me, thanks. No intention to change any of the other data. But I"m currently slowly going through Wikipedia:WikiProject UK Roads unassessed articles, so I'll come back to this in a few days. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:54, 17 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Coords on motorway tables

You're possibly aware of the ongoing discussion as to whether columns of coordinates should be permitted on road junction lists. The discussion seems to be cranking up again here. Given your interest in the articles, you might want to have a voice in the debate. --Tagishsimon (talk) 15:02, 18 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for pointing this out to me, however I do not want to participate in a immature tiff. As far as I'm concerned the coords shouldn't be added to the tables, as people can independently look for locations. Unless they are to incapable of doing so, which is probably bone idleness. The tables look professional and clear in their current form, and I wouldn't want to see a change, especially adding additional columns. I also believe only miles should be displayed in the tables, not kilometres, as the UK road network doesn't measure in Km's, therefore not requiring their presence. My companies role is to provide public information services, we took on the wikipedia projects as the tables were in dire state, as far as the junction information was concerned. We spent countless hours recording live information, then uploading it on here, and my aim is to keep the articles as up to date as possible. Thatmotorwayguy (talk) 15:45, 18 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Thatmotorwayguy

I agree with you that coordinates should not have a column of their own, though it was me who designed the format whereby they are discreetly referenced close to the junction number. May I however take you up on your assertion that only miles shoudl be displayed on junction lists - the values currently displayed are taken from driver location signs (DLS). I for one, when about to drive on a motorway with which I am unfamiliar, check not only the junction numbers, but also the distances. Since DLS's are in kilometres, I work in kilometres to plan my stops en route. Also, the grid references of the Welsh marker posts are available on the web, again givign values in kilometres.

Finally I believe that Driver location signs should be publicised so that people know what they are and how they can be used - it might save a life by getting the emergency services to an incident quicker. For the record, similar signs are used on Italian "A roads" and they often advertise country restaurants, garages etc by referencing the location as "Via Salaria 19.7" (ie the restaurtant concerned is at km marker 19.7". Martinvl (talk) 09:59, 19 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom elections are now open!

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:45, 24 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Europe 10,000 Challenge invite

Hi. The Wikipedia:WikiProject Europe/The 10,000 Challenge has recently started, based on the UK/Ireland Wikipedia:The 10,000 Challenge. The idea is not to record every minor edit, but to create a momentum to motivate editors to produce good content improvements and creations and inspire people to work on more countries than they might otherwise work on. There's also the possibility of establishing smaller country or regional challenges for places like Germany, Italy, the Benelux countries, Iberian Peninsula, Romania, Slovenia etc, much like Wikipedia:The 1000 Challenge (Nordic). For this to really work we need diversity and exciting content and editors from a broad range of countries regularly contributing. If you would like to see masses of articles being improved for Europe and your specialist country like Wikipedia:WikiProject Africa/The Africa Destubathon, sign up today and once the challenge starts a contest can be organized. This is a way we can target every country of Europe, and steadily vastly improve the encyclopedia. We need numbers to make this work so consider signing up as a participant and also sign under any country sub challenge on the page that you might contribute to! Thank you. --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:09, 7 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]