This is an archive of past discussions with User:MJCdetroit. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
Stones in automotive articles
Hello! I noticed in this edit that your bot replaced {{weight}} with {{convert}}, and provided a conversion from pounds to kilograms and stones. It seems very unusual to me to describe the weight of an automobile in stones, and I was wondering if it was a mistake. TomTheHand (talk) 22:53, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
The list was supposed to have only people on it but somehow that and Ford Straight-6 engine got on there. They're fixed. Thanks. MJCdetroit (talk) 23:34, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
You're welcome. I placed {{weight}} up for TfD after seeing that there wasn't any links to it. However, something must of went askew because what my computer said was only one link it was actually a few thousand. I should have used my Mac. I have a bot doing the replacing right now. Pretty simple find and replace stuff. In the meantime, there is a TfD for {{weight}} located at Wikipedia:Templates_for_deletion/Log/2008_January_5#Template:Weight. Your input would be greatly appreciated. —MJCdetroit (talk) 00:23, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
Bot in error
Your bot seems to be flawed on two levels; first it is giving stone measurements eg 15.1st which is clearly wrong, secondly it is affecting British based players, giving their weights in pounds alone. CorleoneSerpicoMontana (talk) 02:51, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
The bot is replacing {{tl|weight}} which is by itself lb and kg (not stones). The bot was programed to swap out {{weight|lb=xx}} and {{weight|kg=xx}} to {{convert}} and add stones. It would not displays pounds alone. I thought this would help you Brits out, but after your complaints, I've taken the stones out. MJCdetroit (talk) 03:05, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
I don't understand this complaint. I work on a lot of sumo articles and being from the UK I'm much more familiar with stones than pounds. I think it's a shame that measurement has been removed. Pawnkingthree (talk) 17:33, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
The complaint is that stones are in decimal form not stones-pound form. I.E.: 13.2 st and not 13 st 3 lb. If the stones pounds are listed first then {{convert}} can handle that conversion. Example {{convert|13|st|3|lb|abbr=on}}
--->13 st 3 lb (84 kg; 185 lb). Here in America and Canada, we only use pounds, I was just trying to help out you Brits and the Aussies too. You can feel free to restore the st measurements if you like. —MJCdetroit (talk) 17:52, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
Since {{weight}} was always abbreviated and because template weight was mostly used within infoboxes, I had the bot add the abbr=on function to template convert. If I didn't, I would of have had 6,000 infoboxes with pounds and kilograms spelled out instead of lb and kg and a whole lot of angry people.
Sorry to intrude again but there isn't one for Mexico. I tried adding one to Teocelo, Veracruz and it red linked. I think it would be extremelt useful to use the same settlement box and locator map for every country and place -I think they of much benefit to the articles. Does it take long to fix ? Theres also a provincial map showing for Bolivia also -I tried to add one to Achacachi. Do you have any idea which countries haven't got the pin maps yet? ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦Talk?22:04, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
I've begun creating a list of missing locator maps User:Blofeld of SPECTRE/Missing locator maps (I didn't add the flags I just sifted through the List of countries and checked them in the infobox -I;ve reached as far as F -only takes a few minutes to check. I think it would be very useful to ensure that every country is compatible with the infobox settlement and I and others are free to add infoboxes and locators to places in different countries. If you could just tell me where I get the coordinates to create the templates from and how to add it I can do many of them myself. ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦Talk?22:58, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
Location map are all listed by default at {{Location map}} once they are made.
I tried to do a map for Mexico in the past but the map that was available did not line up correctly. The bigger the country the more off it is if it is not in equirectangular projection, I'm not sure what that means either, but basic because the Mexico map wasn't, a border town would show up North of the border. On a lighter note, I'm sure that Mexican border town's population is already living in the United States anyway. In any case, you can see my Mexican map discussion on the Location map's talk page. —— MJCdetroit(yak)02:44, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
I just used Google Earth in the decimal degrees option (it in Degrees, Minutes, seconds by default) to figure out where the sides of the map are. I'll look at the Bolivia map. — MJCdetroit(yak)16:22, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
OK I've red linked the templates ready for creating here -see User:Blofeld of SPECTRE/Missing locator maps I've begun working my way through them. As always Dutch wikipedia has everything sorted out and has the digits which can be quickly copied. I've begun creating them like Template:Location map Argentina this is correct? I'd appreciate it when you have a moment if you could help. I'll do most of them myself though rather than bother you but if some other people could get them set up too this would be useful. ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦Talk?13:20, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
Apologies for this but I began creating the missing templates and they don't seem to be coming out correctly despite copying the existing ones exactly and copying the exact digits from dutch wikipedia. I've begun going through Missing maps but the infobox isn't reading them correctly. E.g see Monte Hermoso for Argentina. I've got as far as East Timor but something isn't quite right with them. ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦Talk?14:31, 12 January 2008 (UTC).
I think I;ve figured it out. It is still correct evne with the Dutch coordinates at 2 decimal places. However when I added the interwiki link on the Yemen template it messed up the map ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦Talk?14:59, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
You had 47 degrees when it should have been 44 degrees. I try to do some more later tonight based on the Dutch (Sjabloon) maps. I have to start my Saturday now. —— MJCdetroit(yak)15:06, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
It worked for some of the border towns in Mexico and Cancun. The blank map that you used was slightly different then the one I found months ago. Where is that locator dot missing? — MJCdetroit(yak)19:21, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
I don't think that the province map is in equirectangular projection, therefore it wouldn't work. It would put Monte Hermoso in the ocean or put Buenos Aries in Uraguay. I reverted back to the ugly green one. — MJCdetroit(yak)14:42, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
Is there a way I could paint art the ugly green image to a lighter colour. The same map but in a different color. Would this work? E.g just shade the horrid green to a light blue or something? ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦Talk?16:57, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
Everything seems correct now anyway -all it is is adjusting the right hemisphere. One thing though do you know how to display work groups on regional projects banners e.g see Talk:Dolores, El Petén. What I;d like to see is at the bottom of the banner e.g
Could you see about adding this to the WP:Central America template so when you add the parameter e.g Guatemala=yes it natually displays the relevant work group. Thanks ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦Talk?22:19, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
It will be OK -its hidden in additional info on the template at present. Thanks MJ also for sorting out the Tibetan/Chinese parameters in the monarch template. You should be able to have some peace from me now!! Such a shame Nygaard is not blocked any more. He'll never change will he. Sigh sigh ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦Talk?16:50, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
Wrestling articles
Please fix your bot to avoid wrestling articles since it is messing them up. The agreed format for Template:Infobox Wrestler does NOT use the auto height/weight format (and especially does not use "Stones" for weight). It for some reason also swapped Curt Henning (an AMERICAN wrestler) to have metric measurements as his default height/weight when we only do that for wrestlers from countries that use metric for the default. Having to manually fix your bots errors is annoying. TJSpyke02:03, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
The bot replaced the deprecated template weight for template convert. That means that template weight was already being used on the page. There wasn't any errors. The Kurt Henning article was listed as 117 kg before the bot got to it. The bot simply switched the conversion templates and did not switch the order of the units; kilos first is how it was found and kilos first is how it left it. —— MJCdetroit(yak)02:25, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
My bad. Why is the bot replacing the templates anyways? The only places that still use the stone as a weight measurement is the UK and Ireland, and even there it's just as common to use Kilogram. Seems kinda useless. TJSpyke03:23, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
MJCDetroit, you lied about template:Weight being deprecated on 10 January. Furthermore, the addition of stones was your doing, too, MJCdetroit. Gene Nygaard (talk) 21:36, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
You also pulled the same shenanigans with "stone" for National Hockey League players. The only stones most of them are aware of are the 42-pound stones used in curling. Gene Nygaard (talk) 21:39, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
I neither lied nor did anything improperly and trying to a provide additional information is never considered shenanigans. The question is: why are you consistently such an individual that is so bitter and ripe with contempt and incivility toward— well— everyone. Perhaps, it is time to turn the computer off and come out from your basement bedroom and live a little. Find something or someone to relieve your stress before you end up living in a shack in Montana and writing your manifesto. — MJCdetroit(yak)23:28, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
Yes, you lied. You may have been mistaken at some earlier time, I'll grant that. But not when you made the claim above. When you went to TfD, ca. 5 Jan 2008, you know it wasn't deprecated on 10 Jan. AND that TfD discussion wasn't closed until 13 Jan 2008. You improperly set your bot to work deleting all the use of template:Weight when you opened that discussion, not after it was closed. Yes, that is improper. Gene Nygaard (talk) 04:07, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
Furthermore, if I went to every article that has a conversion from kilometers to miles, and added a conversion to feet, that would be "shenanigans" like those you have been involved with. The choice of which units are reasonably included in an article is not a trivial matter; there is no general rule that "more is better". To the contrary, you really should have a pretty good reason to use more than two. There are lots of cases where such good reason exists, but not for the weights of American actresses or Canadian ice hockey players. Gene Nygaard (talk) 04:39, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
When you explained your three reasons for the change, I didn't mind it. But now you've put metrics as the main units in an explicitly US-related context (Alaska), and the use of US spelling for kilometres compounds the oddness. Why not go back to pre-Crissov? Tony(talk)15:38, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
I stumbled on a number of pages that are in desperate need of an infobox. I'm creating one now, and I have just one question: how does one convert values programmatically from metric to english and vice versa? I looked at the Template:Infobox U.S. County page but I don't really get what's up with all the formatnumber stuff.
In short, I just want a user to enter a number (square meters), and then I convert it to square feet. Is there a template that does this for us? Is there a standard way of doing it?
The simplest way to do that is to incorporate {{convert}} within the code. It would probably look something like this {{convert|{{template_parameter}}|sqm|sqft|abbr=on}}. Of course, there are hardcoded ways that will allow more flexibility. Let me know when you are most of the way finished with the template and I'll see what I can come up with hardcoding. —MJCdetroit(yak)14:24, 20 January 2008 (UTC)
There are also the templates which are used as subtemplates of {{Infobox Settlement}} – such as {{Areadisp}}, which in turn calls {{Mi2km2}}. These could be adapted slightly to show square meters and feet instead of square km and miles. The advantage of this method is that the infobox user can choose whether to supply the metric or imperial measurement, and can also choose (or have chosen by default based on other parameters) which of the metric or imperial is displayed first. If you think these features are going to be useful in your case, I'd be happy to help if needed.--Kotniski (talk) 13:21, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
Also, I just looked at your user page, heh. Do you think that I am having problems in this new millennium since I have spent more than a few decades now always stopping to think WWDVD? before I did anything? -- carol14:46, 20 January 2008 (UTC)
Heh, (warning! quite old school!). I know more about Dick Vitale from his WRIF days, circa 1970-1973 (I am mostly sure it was the RIF, I used to turn the dial and listen to several stations back then). He was funny and interesting to listen to; that would have been 3rd to 5th grade for me. I discovered that one of my favorite sports jokes was actually his -- more than 30 years later when I read the quote. This acronym being funny to me now, I suppose it is because I am older and my sense of humor is more sophisticated; it is not as funny as what Coach Vitale said back then though -- they were talking about some championship game which was being played at that time. He said something about "Didn't somebody win that last year?"
I missed out on Kid Rock -- I was about 10 to 20 miles too west in the nineties for any of my radios to get much from Detroit. These are some of the real boundry lines perhaps. There were only a few people there who had heard Detroit broadcasts and the people who grew up in the center of Michigan had really never heard international radio or seen international television as I had -- just being about 20 miles closer to Detroit (Bozo was from Windsor, for instance). I have been thinking a lot about the real divisions like that and how much I did not explore what was available to me then.
Thanks for the images of Pictured Rocks -- if I saw those (I think that I did) it was when I was even younger and I have almost no memories of those vacations that my family and I went on. And the "corrections" that I tried to make to those images -- if you think that it did not help them, I can revert them or show you how to -- I don't know how different the wiki software is between the two wiki. It took me a while to figure it out (since for me, reading documentation seems to be one of the better inventions for inducing sleep).
I am listening to The Drew and Mike Show on the RIF right now. Although, it is not the same without Drew. I don't remember Bozo coming from Windsor, but I do remember Seaseme Street coming from Windsor and they had a small portion of the show where they would teach you French. —MJCdetroit(yak)13:28, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
Heh, you are younger than me and I had no idea that Sesame Street ever came out of Windsor! I am guessing without looking this up, but it should have been WTVS the Detroit Public Television station. Sesame Street was there for my brother although, it was entertaining enough that I did not complain too much when it was on. It was Dick the Bruiser towards the end of my high school years. I never thought that I would be this old. And, thinking of old, is Arthur Penhallow still on those airwaves? -- carol19:12, 21 January 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by CarolSpears (talk • contribs)
I am really thinking about that and well, I grew up closer to the land and time which sprouted Bob Seger and Iggy Pop. BS said "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" -- and Arthur must be very close to 70 years old by now. My mom mentioned that he was kind of an old guy in a young guys business about 20 to 30 years ago. This is a lot to think about.
I have been staying up nights and sleeping during the day lately because I have been working with images on my computer and the nighttime has been very good for seeing the images -- I probably lose about 40% of the detail when the sun is up. So, here at the end of my day, thinking about Arthur on the radio is making me as sleepy as reading documentation tends to do. Art was a family friend. Him and my mom -- I remember once he was watching as she turned the radio dial from WABX to WRIF once when he was visiting and the conversation which came after that. The dial turning might have went the other way, that doesn't matter so much this long after -- it was perhaps the first real editorial I heard about what was going to happen from too much standardization and too much nationalization, actually. WABX was very independent and experimental. This was all before disco, btw -- everything changed then; and I don't think that everything is too strong of a word for what happened. He justified the station/dial change my mom was making (and it was difficult for him) by saying that WABX was superior. The thing that I miss most in this future from then: one expert, being given their time slot and allowed to make a 'show' of what they know -- without interference, without prejudice, without statistics. Arthur was a pioneer of FM radio -- that is how old he is!
I wrote a little obituary for WDETs Dave Dixon on my commons talk page. In California, I have had the inverse amount of movies and television viewing vs radio listening that I had for the same amount of time in Michigan. Two radios playing two different stations and my computer playing my cds. I am homesick and maybe a little timesick from thinking about these deejays, the dead ones and the old ones and Dick Vitale, heh.
Thank you, sir -- for this really big update about life in Detroit and who is still alive there. What I can say about California is that complaining about the lack of weather is not the same as complaining about weather. -- carol20:31, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
You can listen live to the RIF on the internet at www.wrif.com, click "Listen Live". In any case Arthur P, will be on in 15 minutes or so from now 20:41, 21 January 2008 (UTC), if you can stay up. —MJCdetroit(yak)20:41, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
I really didn't change anything from what you had originally. I just temporarily took out the acres part until I could create the sub template Template:Convert/acre sqm. When that was created I place the acres back in the equation. —MJCdetroit(yak)00:38, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
{{Infobox Settlement}} can only handle sq km, sq mi and in limited situations durams (for middleeast articles). Adding hectares or acres would probably add a lot to the code, but I'm not positive. In anycase you can convert hectares to square kilometers using an online site like http://www.onlineconversion.com/ or you could use {{convert}} to at least get you the right value in sq km: {{convert|2034|ha|sqkm}} -->2,034 hectares (20.34 km2). Now just enter the value into the area_total_km2 field and make reference to the ha in the footnotes field. —MJCdetroit(yak)00:20, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
There is also an error in your code that you are using. Your code has the line
When you change an image you'll need to adjust the coordinates to match. This, below to the right, is a better map anyway. I'll make some changes later. I need to get back to the extremely boring task of placing 1 US fl oz of a thick uncooperative UV adhesive into 30cc syringes. What a pain... —MJCdetroit(yak)19:54, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
{{Infobox Settlement}} can handle that very easily. I set up one in Iténez Province and got some additional information from the Spanish wiki, even though I don't know Spanish. Notice how when |name= is filled in and |settlement_type is filled in, a blue banner is shown across the top displaying the settlement type. —MJCdetroit(yak)02:13, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
That looks really good thanks. I really do think its best we keep templates simple rather than creating different ones unnecessarily. I'd been meaning to alter the ones for Cambodia such as Malaii District in the same way ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦Talk?10:15, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
French commues and Greenland
HI. Any idea why the French communes have infoboxes with awkward pin points like Aix-en-Provence? I would love to add an infobox and locator to them but the pushpin is different for Infobox French commune. Is there any way you can add the standard locator to that template to I can add a normal locator map to places in France? ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦Talk?10:43, 27 January 2008 (UTC)
The French infoboxes use an X Y pinpoint maps and it has nothing to do with the coordinates. {{Infobox Settlement}} has a similar feature, but it is called "|image_dot_map". Sorry, I don't have the time to take on the French over their infoboxes. I would love to standardized those infoboxes but I've learned that those editors are extremely protective over those infoboxes. Maybe at a later date somewhere down the road.
It worked? Thats good. I'll create one for chile now. If you could add the points this would be useful thanks. Yes I agree with you about standardising all settlement boxes. I didn't used to but as I have ained more experience in using them I strongly believe it is best to get some consistency ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦Talk?19:10, 27 January 2008 (UTC)
Mmm. Chile wouldn't look good. I'd rather change the color of the greenland one also but when there are many islets its very difficult to do. I'm surprised there aren't maps available. For some reason the chilean data is missing on dutch wikkipedia for the locator ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦Talk?19:14, 27 January 2008 (UTC)
I've completely reorganized cities towns and vilages in chile in Category:Cities, towns and villages in Chile by region -this avoids complicated overlapping city and town categories as what is a city is often subject to debate. I've added an infobox to settlements in a few regions already.I've added an infobox to half of Greenland also -makes a big difference.
I did the same with Category:Cities, towns and villages in Burma -organized by region as eventually there will be thousands of articles on each region. I'll gradually get around to sorting out all the categories and articles for most of the places in africa, latin america and southeast asia but of course this will be gradual and under no pressure to take on so much. Any help you can give in adding infoboxes and locators would be much appreciated when you have a moment spare. Regards ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦Talk?13:53, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
In your Darwin example's infobox, this line: |population_density_urban_mi2 = should read |population_density_urban_sq_mi=. We deprecated the "mi2" in favor of "sq_mi" to reflect the actual abbreviation used. Other than that looks good to me
Mmm. Unfortunately I don't know how to get rid of the lines and it doesn't look too good does it? Its a shame the other maps doesn't work. I don't understand why those standard maps work on other locators but not countries like Madagascar and Bolivia ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦$1,000,000?21:27, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
This article is supported by the Guatemala work group.
This article is supported by the Nicaragua work group.
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