User talk:GerardM
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Beavertail Cactus
Thanks for your corrections on Beavertail Cactus and related pages. As you might have suspected, I just created the page for the image I took. ;-) --snoyes 07:41, 1 Jan 2004 (UTC)
Cultivar
Hi I reverted your deletion at Cultivar, on the grounds that the opening sentences of a good Wikipedia entry should answer the question: "Huh? What's that?" It's good to be obvious at the start, dull to be too obvious later on. Hope you agree. But if you really feel the phrase should stay deleted, delete it again and I'll leave it be! Wetman 04:25, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Gasterosteidae
Hi Gerard-- thanks for the nice picture on Gasterosteidae. Is it free and clear to use elsewhere in Wikipedia? I'd like to put it also on the new three-spined stickleback page. I see you have included a photo credit: is it a condition of use that this should also be included? If so, could you put a note of this on the picture's talk page, please (you get there just by double-clicking the image), so people know? thanks. seglea 17:11, 26 Feb 2004 (UTC)
- Hoi, yes you can use it on the three-spined stickleback page. No, you do not NEED to but as we have been given a lot of great quality pictures taken while diving, it would be nice to keep the credit in. There is a nl:Driedoornige stekelbaars page so you can link to that one. I have a great photo of an Atlantic cod as well that I may use. I am doing the last fishes that can be found in the sweet waters of the Netherlands and Belgium. So if you are interested you may find pictures if you follow the link to "Lijst van zoetwatervissen in de Benelux" on nl:wikipedia.
- Have fun, GerardM 20:23, 26 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Tree of Life
In the ToL discussion you stated that things were worse in the past, enlighten me please: how is it better? I am open for arguments I just need to hear them. GerardM 16:49, 28 Feb 2004 (UTC)
It's not that it was wrong, but it was less convenient. The advantage of having the descendant list in the taxobox is that it lets a person view both the information about the group in question and the list of its children at the same time, without having to scroll down or go through a link. This makes it easier to navigate through different groups, since paths up and down are right there instead of hidden somewhere in the article body, and it can help recognize the group in question, since at a glance one receives both a description and a list of examples.
In some cases, this is the only value the taxobox has. For many protists, the position is to arbitrary and variable to make it worth giving on its own. And for high-level groups like mollusc, heterokont, and flowering plant, all the placement box tells you is that they're a phylum or division of such-and-such a kingdom, which you can figure out by looking at the first line of the text.
I'm very aware that descendant lists can't always be given, but then neither can range maps. It shouldn't stop us from deriving value from them when we can, unless there are disadvantages to using them. So far, I've seen a few positives and no real negatives. -- Josh
Hi Gerard. Excuse my long silence. I've been away again - lately, I seem to spend every spare weekend travelling in search of yet more wildlife pictures - and then had web connection problems. So maybe, after the passage of several days, there isn't much to say now! No matter. See you pn the fauna pages. Best wishes -- Tony (Tannin)
Deletion tips.
Image:Persepolis1.JPG Image:Persepolis2.JPG both have been replaced with pictures under a different name. NB I had tried to upload the pictures under the same name, but that did not work. GerardM 06:24, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Then simply edit their image pages and post this code: {{msg:delete}} along with an explainer on the TALK page on why you want a deletion and a sysop will remove it for you. No need to post on VFD. and good job on the pictures. Davodd 09:38, Mar 3, 2004 (UTC)
Heron taxonomy
Heron taxonomy is a mess, and none more so than Great Egret (=Great White Egret = White Heron =Kokuku]], Ardea alba or Egretta alba or Casmoderius alba. For the sake of consistency, Wikipedia species' lists follow Handbook of the Birds of the World. Otherwise, as you can imagine, the articles would be impossible to organise in any logical way. I'll note the alterative scientific names. jimfbleak
taxoboxes and translation
Good idea about the {{msg}} entries for taxons - that should indeed ease translation. BTW, the English for zoetwater is "freshwater", not "sweetwater"; the latter word does not exist in English. seglea 05:05, 23 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Ruffe
You've had a {{msg:inuse}} tag on Ruffe for nearly 2 weeks with no edits. You might want to take it down. -- Cyrius|✎ 02:50, Apr 5, 2004 (UTC)
Persepolis thumbnails
When you reverted my thumbnailing on Persepolis, you gave the reason "Thumbs are a bad idea as long as they do not a "media"". Unfortunately, I can't quite figure out what you mean here. Why are thumbs a bad idea? They are a standardized way of letting the user know that there's a bigger verison to be had by clicking on the image, I can't see a good reason not to use them here. Bryan 07:25, 13 May 2004 (UTC)
- Thumbs may be standardised, but the implementation of the enlargement is by providing the detail page. When a picture is too big it will not fit as with the Persepolis pictures. On the detail page, there is a button that says something like "Persepolis1.JPG", this will do what the "media" keyword does for you; fit the picture on the screen.
- Therefore, for small pictures thumbs may be OKish for large pictures they are not. GerardM 07:38, 13 May 2004 (UTC)
wiktionary message translation
Velen dank voor dat! +sj+ 07:51, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Ford Ka pictures
The reason I cropped was simply that the picture showed a lot of background relative to the car -- meaning that if shrunk to a reasonable download size in the page, the car would be too tiny.
I don't quite understand not liking going to the detail page when clicking on a thumbnail - why? The same image shows ... is it an aesthetic preference?
Would you rather in future I put a cropped version up under a different filename and then linked to the original, uncropped version? —Morven 20:40, Jun 5, 2004 (UTC)
- First of all I prefer you NOT to crop pictures. The consequence of cropping is that a high quality picture is replaced by a less quality picture. Then I would also prefer the thumb technology not to provide the detail page of a picture, I prefer the thumb to produce the "media" quality. (media being a keyword).
- It is not only aesthetic but also; if you want to see an enlarged picture, you do not necessaraly want to see the details. They are not really relevant. With a media implementation, you get the best view your monitor can produce even when the picture exceeds the size of your monitot. GerardM 14:14, 6 Jun 2004 (UTC)
Hybrids
Hi Gerard--wonder if you could help me with something? In writing about dog hybrids and crossbreeds I used the word 'cultivar', which I learned from the hybrid article. Sounded like a really useful and descriptive word for my purposes. However, the article at cultivar indicates that the word is exclusively used for plant varieties. I need to know if it can be used to describe animals as well or if I should go amend the dog hybrid article for accuracy.
Also, there are a couple more questions at Talk:Hybrid. Thanks! Quill 20:58, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- Many cultivars are one offs and are not propagated in a sexual way; they are most often clones. This is not applicable to animals. It is one reason if not the reason why animals do not have cultivars. GerardM 22:03, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- Thanks--I'll change it! Quill 22:48, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Internationalizing taxoboxes
Following on from the mailing list discussion, I was thinking about how to internationalize the templates and their values.
Currently we have something like:
<nowiki>{{Taxobox_begin | color=pink | name=Blue Whale}}<br />{{StatusEndangered}}
{{Taxobox_image | image = [[Image:Bluewhale877.jpg|250px]] | caption = }}
{{Taxobox_begin_placement | color = pink}}
{{Taxobox_regnum_entry | taxon = [[Animal]]ia}}
{{Taxobox_phylum_entry | taxon = [[Chordate|Chordata]]}}
{{Taxobox_classis_entry | taxon = [[Mammal|Mammalia]]}}
{{Taxobox_ordo_entry | taxon = [[Cetacea]]}}
{{Taxobox_subordo_entry | taxon = [[Mysticeti]]}}
{{Taxobox_familia_entry | taxon = [[Balaenoptiidae]]}}
{{Taxobox_genus_entry | taxon = '''Balaenoptera'''}}
{{Taxobox_species_entry | taxon = '''musculus'''}}
{{Taxobox_end_placement}}
{{Taxobox_section_binomial | color = pink | binomial_name = Balaenoptera musculus | author=[[Carolus Linnaeus|Linnaeus]] | date = [[1758]]}}
[[Image:cetacea_range_map_Blue_Whale_2.PNG|thumb|none|250px|Blue Whale range]]
{{Taxobox_end}}
</nowiki>
Typically the problematic bits are the section
{{Taxobox_regnum_entry | taxon = [[Animal]]ia}} {{Taxobox_phylum_entry | taxon = [[Chordate|Chordata]]}} {{Taxobox_classis_entry | taxon = [[Mammal|Mammalia]]}}
where we are piping from the latin to the vernacular spelling.
How about we put this section into another template, Template:Taxobox_mammalia say, and insert that into all mammal articles?
Advantages :
- Other language wikipedias copying articles will only need to translate this template once rather than translating [[Animal]]ia etc. over and over again.
- Reduces the amount of repititve code in every article
- If we want to change the taxonomy (e.g. inserting vertebrata and tetrapoda as the subphylum and infraphylum) we could do this easily. This might actually be useful - there are so many different ways of describing the top of the tree
Disadvantages:
- We would need a new template for each class.
- However I think this is not too bad a disadvantage because:
- There are not *that* many classes, particularly well-populated classes
- The template naming convention {{Taxobox_CLASS_NAME}} is intuitive and copyable.
- We don't need to do this as far down as orders, because people tend to use proper scientific names rather than pipe to common names that far down the tree.
- However I think this is not too bad a disadvantage because:
What do you think?
The problem with the suggested animalia etc message, is that there would be a need for *many* such messages and this makes it just to much particularly on smaller wikipedias. Ease of adoption is the key thing to make it usable and used.
Taxoboxes and internationalisation
Given the discussions on wikipedia-I I was thinking along different lines:
- The taxoboxes will be copied to WikiSpecies. (technically this can be WikiCommons; from a technical point of vieuw the destinction is immaterial.
- The copying from en: will be done by a bot. Each moved taxobox will be linked to the en:article by the bot and the other links for the other languages.
- A Wikispecies taxobox will when called provide the standard latin name when called upon. The function will be called from within a wikipedia and have as a parameter optional vernacular names. The vernacular name will be local to the wikipedia or alternatively the interwiki will be used for the vernacular name; along these lines [[en:badger {animal}|badger]]. The taxobox will then show both the latin name and seperately the vernacular name.
- A Wikispecies taxobox can be generated (within Wikispecies) for each known taxon irrespective of there being an article in any wikipedia.
- Something has to be done for names that have not been validly published (a salesman trick); do we have a taxobox for them as well ?? A joke example nl: example "Penis aqua-rosa".
- As far as I know a template exists for each taxon.
One thing not discussed is, what do we want to see in a Taxobox. There has to be discussion about this with the fr: de: and other folks. The best place would be meta. GerardM 09:11, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Mammillaria sensu Reppenhagen
Hoi, Two things, there is a Wikispecies mailinglist, because of the subjectmatter largely being like ToL, it could be used for ToL stuff as well. When it is made clear that ToL people of all nationalities are welcome on this list, it would converge things, which would be welcome.
It would. In general my preference would be to keep discussion on the wiki itself, so that it will be open to the entire community. This is possibly a minority view, though, and in this case there will be people interested in coordinating standards but not in the new project. Either way I think it is extremely important to make sure everyone knows what is going on and that they are welcome to contribute, since there has been very little communication so far.
Have you had a look at the article Mammillaria sensu Reppenhagen on Wikispecies ? I really welcome comments. There would be similare pages like Mammillaria sensu Luthy.. Thanks, GerardM 16:44, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I think it's the first worthwhile suggestion on how wikispecies might work, but as it stands probably isn't something we can follow in general. I can see two main problems.
The first is duplication. The entries on Mammalia carnea will have to mention that Reppenhagen included the former species Mammalia subtetragona, so this information shouldn't be repeated in entries on the genus. Many large groups have been subdivided in radically different ways, and listing all the correspondences between them will be much more difficult if we insist in doing it in the higher level entries. Similarly, when some minor group is transferred between pre-existing animal phyla, there's no reason the entries on the kingdom need to pont this out.
Second, there needs to be a way to relate different versions of the same group. A classification of the insects will typically include the family Formicidae, but rarely attach itself to a particular version of their subdivision. For the Euglenozoa test entry I simply listed all the different versions together, but this can quickly become impractical. It would be nice if there were a way of moving around within a single system. I'm not really sure how to make this work, though. Incidentally, anything sensu so-and-so should definitely include a date, since authors often make multiple revisions, and probably a citation of the original publication when possible.
By the way, this discussion should probably be moved to the wikispecies community page, so everyone can offer their opinion. Or possibly it should go on the mailing list?
Thanks, Josh 08:02, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- I had hoped that you would copy it to WikiSpecies, today I have.. GerardM 07:41, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Wikinews demo up and running
Hi!
I'm writing to let you know that the Wikimedia Board of Trustees has approved the first stage of the Wikinews project. There's now a fully operational English demo site at demo.wikinews.org. This will be used for experimenting with various review models and basic policies before the site is launched officially in about a week. demo.wikinews.org will become the English version later.
You voted for the Wikinews project, so I'm asking for your participation now. Everything is open, nothing is final. What Wikinews will and can be depends in large part on you. There already is a global Wikinews mailing list (http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikinews-l) for discussing the project. If you are interested at all, please subscribe -- coordination is of key importance. There's also an IRC channel #wikinews on irc.freenode.net. Realtime discussion can help to polish up articles.
If you're looking for something to do, check out the articles in development (http://demo.wikinews.org/wiki/Category:Articles_in_development) and articles in review (http://demo.wikinews.org/wiki/Category:Articles_in_review). Or start a new story in the Wikinews workspace, or ignore the proposed review system - it's up to you. I hope you'll join us soon in this exciting experiment.--Eloquence* 01:59, Nov 17, 2004 (UTC)
Image:Gymnocephalus cernuus.jpg
Greetings! I was wondering if you could clarify the licensing on Image:Gymnocephalus cernuus.jpg. On the Dutch page, you quote the photographer:
- Begrijp mij niet verkeerd. Ik vind het hartstikke mooi wat jullie doen en ik wil graag mijn bijdrage leveren, maar ik kan nog niet zo goed inschatten of men er op zit te wachten. Uiteraard neem ik aan dat jullie daar onderzoek naar gedaan hebben en er zeker in geloven. En als ik het zo bekijk ontbreekt het wel aan plaatjes en je weet "een foto zegt meer dan 1000 woorden" Dus ga gerust je gang, maak er iets moois van.
I can't read Dutch (and Babelfish is no help on this one); can you provide an English translation of this? Are these GFDL-compatible terms? Thanks. —Tkinias 02:23, 28 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- It is the photograher giving his blessing for us to use it. I have contact with the man every now again. With proper creditation, the usage is fine.
Article Licensing
Hi, I've started a drive to get users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to either (1) all U.S. state, county, and city articles or (2) all articles, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) v1.0 and v2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to Wikipedia's license, the GFDL, but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles. Since you are among the top 2000 Wikipedians by edits, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles. Over 90% of people asked have agreed. For More Information:
- Multi-Licensing FAQ - Lots of questions answered
- Multi-Licensing Guide
- Free the Rambot Articles Project
To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the "{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}" template into their user page, but there are other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:
- Option 1
- I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:
- {{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}
OR
- Option 2
- I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions to any [[U.S. state]], county, or city article as described below:
- {{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}
Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace "{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}" with "{{MultiLicensePD}}". If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know what you think at my talk page. It's important to know either way so no one keeps asking. -- Ram-Man (comment (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=User_talk:Ram-Man&action=edit§ion=new)| talk)
Image license
Hi! Thanks for uploading Image:Dreissena polymorpha.jpg. I notice it currently doesn't have an image copyright tag. Could you add one to let us know its copyright status? (You can use {{gfdl}}Template:Gfdl if you release it under the GFDL, or {{fairuse}}
This work is copyrighted. The individual who uploaded this work and first used it in an article, and subsequent persons who place it into articles assert that this qualifies as fair use of the material under United States copyright law.
If you uploaded other images, please clarify copyright for them as well, otherwise the images will eventually be deleted.
Thanks, Denni☯ 01:39, 2004 Dec 13 (UTC)
- The license is that it can be used by wikimedia projects as long as the original photographer is recognised. (see nl:wikipedia. GerardM 18:42, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Netherlands
Why did you, on the subject of "The Netherlands vs Holland" on the Netherlands page, remove the qualification "incorrect" from the use of "England" for the United Kingdom? Aliter 23:09, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- When you say that it is similar, you imply that people are aware of the other situations. In the next sentence it is also mentioned that some object so it is redundant. GerardM 10:40, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)
While "similar" does imply that knowledge, "incorrect" explained the situation for those lacking it. By removing that explanation, the entire reference is implied, which means it should be removed and replaced by an explanation of the actual meaning, history, etc.. This can also be seen from the next sentence where "other parts" has now become a very weak reference, as it's now based on indirect implied information only. (Wouldn't the anti-holland sentiments be largely a matter of - the city versus the country?) Aliter 17:27, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- Not really, Holland are two provinces that was the centre of gravity both cultural, economic and political from the start. There is plenty of country in the old Holland. So reducing it to city vs country is too simplistic. GerardM 10:37, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Please tame your WikTIONARY bot
GerardM, your bot on wiktionary is not marked as a bot! Recent changes is still getting flooded...please fix!
IFAP cheer
Hi Gerard,
I didn't mean to snap at you earlier on IRC. If I could understand how your grant proposal might fit the requirements, I would love to help you with it :-) As it is, I am annoyed that you are not addressing that crucial issue. It doesn't matter how good a proposal is if it doesn't suite the grant. +sj + 22:51, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Image:zilverr.jpg
| Image deletion warning | The image Image:zilverr.jpg has been listed at Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion/Unverified orphans because it lacks source and license information, and it is not used in any articles. If you feel that this image should not be deleted, please go there to voice your opinion. |
- Can you update the image page with the English translation of the licensing info. found in nl:Afbeelding:Zilverr.jpg: "zilverreiger open bron/ parkservice"? This would help us decide whether to delete the image (e.g. copyvio or obsolete) or move to commons or take some other steps (The English article Great Egret has many other images so this probably would not get added to the article). Thanks! -- Paddu 05:56, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Sound files
It's just not a direction I want to see Wikipedia go. Wikipedia is an open system, I'm allowed to disagree in the early stages of an experiment. Why? It should be a separate Wiki project since it will never end and will clutter every article. Plus, it's an obvious place for more sophisticated forms of vandalism. Separate project. Separate site. Daniel Quinlan 19:09, Mar 19, 2005 (UTC)
- You do not want to see it happen... And suggest that it is a different project what would that project be ? And why would it be seen as clutter ? Because it IS an open system and because it adds information that we currently do not hold and as it introduces the concept of words that cannot be pronounced when the origin is a different language. I think it makes excellent sense to have this.
- I fail to see what kind of vandalism it could spark .. GerardM 11:13, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Image:Arab-league1.JPG
I have listed this image you have uploaded on images for deletion because it's now obsolete. Jeltz talk 11:43, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Translation Systems
These folks might be handy to stay in touch with:
- User:taw : A clever fellow who likes coding stuff, and has done some translation coding before
- User:PZFUN : Next to being a photographer (:-P), also knows as many langauges as frodo has fingers.. He lives in brussels, and he enjoys visiting the Netherlands regularly.
I've asked PZFUN to help you out already, and he says he'll at least listen to you :-)
Kim Bruning 19:00, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)
www2.dict.cc
Spotted on IRC:
(PZFUN) kim_bruning > You should tell Gerard to look at www2.dict.cc
Kim Bruning 18:08, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
sent some linguists at you with wild stories
Just wanted to warn you that I told some linguists about ultimate wiktionary.
See if you can manage to get things set up for to work with these folks. They might need grants to work though ^^;; This might increse your workload immeasurably, or might even prove to be impossible .
But they're actual linguists on wikipedia. And who knows. :)
Kim Bruning 22:35, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Wikimania
Elian suggested you might be going to Wikimania from Amsterdam. I am trying to plan my trip, and was thinking of flying into Amsterdam, spending a few days there, and then making my way down to Frankfurt. Was wondering if you had any thoughts on the best way to do this: plane or train? Is there a discount airline that makes that trip? If by train, are tickets available on short notice or would I need to purchase them in advance? Are buses on option?
No idea if you would know any of this, but if you happen to have any advice for me I would be grateful - TimShell 13:41, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)