User talk:Afil

Haeremai, welcome, talofa, Willkommen, bienvenue, welkom
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Please leave a message on my talk page if you think I may help with anything! -- Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (Talk) 19:21, January 14, 2011

links
you can convert a link to Wikipedia link by adding a "wikipedia". So New Brunswick, New Jersey can become New Brunswick, New Jersey and then the "wikipedia" can be hidden by New Brunswick, New Jersey --Richard Arthur Norton I 02:35, January 15, 2011 (UTC)


 * "w:" here leads to "Wikia"; "wikipedia:" is still needed for Wikipedia. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:05, January 17, 2011 (UTC)

Questions
Thank you very much for the questions on my talk page. I've replied there for convenience. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:05, January 17, 2011 (UTC)

Facebook
Don't forget to add a profile for people in your family at Facebook. I have about two dozen. It lets you store high resolution photos. Each biography I write I store in 5 places on the Internet: Facebook, Findagrave, Familypedia, Knol, and Geni.com Here is an example: Oscar Arthur Moritz Lindauer (1815-1866) Here is the secret link for creating a Facebook page from inside a Facebook account. http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Engineering Wikia
If you have any spare minutes in the day you may enjoy adding yourself to the list of retired engineers who contribute to the Engineering Wikia. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 00:58, January 21, 2011 (UTC)

Category:People of ...
I see you energetically creating useful categories. However, one sort in particular, though it occurs frequently in Wikipedia, is one we decided was too general for use here, and even ambiguous. So, where Wikipedia uses "People of ..." or "People from ...", we use "Born in ...", "Married in ....", "Resided in ...", and "Died in ...". I've redirected some of yours, as you may see if you follow them from people pages. We have handy shortcut templates used in conjunction with some of those, particularly at state and county level. See, inter alia, Familypedia:County navigation templates. We haven't yet extended them to Romania as far as I know, but I'd be pleased to cooperate with you in adopting what we have to Romania and other countries. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 08:21, January 29, 2011 (UTC)

Administrative divisions of Romania
I've copied Administrative divisions of Romania from Wikipedia. Lots of red links so far, but we can gradually create articles to deal with most. I recommend that you use that page for creating place-name articles (unless there are inconsistencies, in which case we should have redirects and/or cross-references). You may copy any or all from Wikipedia, noting our Help:Copying from Wikipedia page.

I see that the main administrative divisions are called counties, which can fit easily into the "county" box in our standard forms. Above them are regions (in either one level or two, depending on viewpoint!). You may like to write some notes about which regions we use for the "nation subdiv1" box, which uses Property:Nation-subdiv1. I see also that in 2010 there were proposals for reorganizing. So maybe we should not hurry.

— Robin Patterson (Talk) 09:13, January 29, 2011 (UTC)

Counties
As mentioned (lower on this page) a few minutes ago, I'm giving county pages some categories. The full slate of what I am giving to "new" pages is as follows:

The top line of that block starts with a complex template that creates a navigation box with links to three dozen existing or proposed pages about the county (almost identical to what we use for counties of the United Kingdom). It should remain untouched when you add other material to the page.

The shorter template in the top line is the template that creates a box at top right linking to the Wikipedia page. If anyone later copies some or all of the Wikipedia article, with the standard acknowledgment and link, that template can simply be deleted but it can remain there. However, if a new article is created without using material from Wikipedia, that template should be left as it is, with all new material below it but above the categories.

The three or four county pages that were already created before I started this process have been given most of those additions.

Robin Patterson 06:59, February 6, 2011 (UTC)
 * REVISED Robin Patterson 11:42, February 6, 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for responding. I'll be preparing replies to your long message over the next few hours. Robin Patterson 03:42, February 7, 2011 (UTC)

Now replied on my talk page, as you may have noticed. Somewhat inconclusive in parts. And, as noted at Forum:Romania, I stopped including the counties category on the pages. You're proceeding nicely with the categories. And I've just copied the Counties ... page from WP. Robin Patterson 00:55, February 8, 2011 (UTC)

Andrei, you've created most of the county categories. Good work, mostly. However: Maybe you can have another look at Category:Alba County then use its code to replace the others. Here it is for ease of copying:
 * 1) Some of them don't seem to have Catmore+, which is a pity;
 * 2) More important: some are in their own categories (i.e. members of themselves) rather than in Counties of Romania.

Warm regards. Robin Patterson 12:35, February 8, 2011 (UTC)

Questions 2
Andrei, thank you for the recent questions on my talk page. Now answered, as far as I can, in that same section. As you will see, some of us are as puzzled as you are by some of what the site is doing. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:43, January 30, 2011 (UTC)

Surname categories
Save yourself and others a bit more time, Andrei. Just on the pages, please.

See Help:Surname. Robin Patterson 06:37, January 31, 2011 (UTC)

Given name categories
Please note that we do not need to categorize given names. They're properties, so that you can use a query to find everyone with the same name. Note that categories take valuable server time. rtol 21:46, January 31, 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for marking them for deletion. Some admin can fix them during a maintenance run. For most sorts of category you are likely to want, we probably have models already in place. If you have ideas for a new group of categories (or anything else), you can float the ideas on the Watercooler. Robin Patterson 01:37, February 2, 2011 (UTC)

"Break" tags in articles
Hello again, Andrei.

I'm adding some technical categories to counties of Romania, which should make them "autocomplete" and thus be easier to enter in forms.

The last one I edited looked odd. Examining the code before adding the categories, I noticed that many line breaks had been replaced by tags, notably straight after headings (so that they didn't work as headings) and before asterisks (so that they didn't work as bullets). I fixed some but by no means all.

If you are copying straight from a Wikipedia edit box, that should not happen. Maybe you have a different process, where "br" tags may get introduced?

Kind regards. Robin Patterson 06:22, February 6, 2011 (UTC)

Now more of them in Trnava Region. I've replaced the tags after the headings. I see lots of them in tables - possibly unnecessary, but I haven't looked closely at what effect they have, if any, there. Robin Patterson

Nobility
Please note that individuals are never part of a category "Nobility of Country". Individuals can be part of the category "House of Noble" or "Title of SuchandSuch". Houses and titles are in turn part of the category "Nobility of Country" (or perhaps there are more subcategories in between). rtol 16:56, February 6, 2011 (UTC)


 * Sorry for being unclear. Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu is categorized as "House of Aviz". The "House of Aviz" is then categorized as "Noble houses of Portugal", which is in turn categorized as "Nobility of Portugal". Ferdinand is also categorized as "Dukes of Viseu", which is part of "Dukes of Portugal", which belongs to "Noble titles of Portugal", and then on to "Nobility of Portugal".


 * The convention (not always followed) is "Noble houses of Portugal" rather than "Portuguese noble houses", because the people involved may not be Portuguese at all. Ferdinand is, of course, but the nobility of Ireland, for instance, have been Danish, French and English for most of history. The early nobility of Portugal hailed from France. rtol 23:08, February 6, 2011 (UTC)

Template:S-rom
Here's my latest offering before I go to bed. See Category:Settlements in Suceava County. How easy is that? Robin Patterson 13:05, February 8, 2011 (UTC)

Now that it's documented - S-rom/doc - you can confidently create B-rom (or B-ro for something a little shorter) and several others in the same class. You'll find models in the template categories. Robin Patterson 04:31, February 13, 2011 (UTC)

Migration
Please don't call me sir. I'm Richard.

The migration template is simple. It compares the birth nation to the death nation. If there is no birth/death nation, it takes the birth/death locality and check whether that is associated with a nation.

There are two problems with this. First, borders change. The solution is to make sure that birth and death nation are specified. Second, people may die during a holiday or military campaign. There is no solution to this yet. rtol 15:17, February 15, 2011 (UTC)


 * The solution does not work when people are born and die in the same locality but borders shift. In the case of the countess, she migrated legally but not physically. Not sure what to do with that. rtol 15:23, February 15, 2011 (UTC)


 * Czechoslovakia redirects to Czech Republic, so Czechoslovakia is automatically replaced by Czech Republic. The solution is to edit Czechoslovakia. Remove the redirect and add contents. rtol 15:35, February 15, 2011 (UTC)


 * I put migration back into showfacts biography. That's the simplest way to run it on all pages. The alternative is to run a bot to put migration as a separate call on all existing pages, and I do not want to do that while the servers are still fragile. I'd much rather adjust migration to solve any issues. rtol 22:39, February 15, 2011 (UTC)


 * migration now tests whether birth locality = death locality. Works for the countess. Will go wrong if someone moves from Sydney (Scotland) to Sydney (Canada) rtol 22:52, February 15, 2011 (UTC)

Please note that wikis work if people are constructive, that is, improve (rather than delete) the work of others. Removing migration would wipe out the recursive property ancestry.

Marie Henriette Chotok migrated. In historic-legal terms, she was born in Austria-Hungary and died in Austria. That's what the migration category says. In current-legal terms, she was born in what is now the Czech Republic and died in Austria. Do you think that that's the right answer? Or what is the right category? rtol 06:40, February 16, 2011 (UTC)

Ahnentafel templates
Andrei, when I looked hard at the documentation of the templates you edited, I saw that you had directed then to the documentation for the other set. The two sets work differently. So I've now created separate documentation. You may like to see Ahnentafel/5 for someone whose ancestors all have their own Familypedia pages, until we get the /tree pages working properly. I have temporarily changed the standard /tree coding so that it displays that instead of nothing. Robin Patterson (Talk) 13:10, February 25, 2011 (UTC)

Brunswick von Korumpa
Note that there are a number of other branches of the Brunswick family already on Familypedia, under the name Braunschweig. I haven't come across any Korumpa, but their ancestors must be there. rtol 06:16, March 1, 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm glad you checked the Brunswicks. Reconciling duplicates is a pet hate. rtol 08:31, March 1, 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes, it is hard to find and deal with duplicates; we need more redirects and need more alternatives listed on surname articles (as mentioned on the front page). We also need Wikia search to be better, but that's out of our hands. See also http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Category_talk:Candidates_for_deletion#Articles_that_have_an_error_in_their_names. --- Robin Patterson (Talk to me) 09:31, March 1, 2011 (UTC)

Family categories
Andrei, I copied your posting to a forum, the best place for questions that affect many users. I'd like to be "God" here, but we have a good cooperative community.

To keep up with the forums without having to remember to look at them often, you can put Category:Help desk and Category:Watercooler on your watchlist and get an email whenever anyone adds an item. --- Robin Patterson (Talk to me) 01:53, March 9, 2011 (UTC)

Categories generally
I've just corrected a recent creation of yours. It said Categories:Families of Romania but should have said Category:Families of Romania. I've done the same sort of thing myself more than once. Do you know that there are shortcuts for typing category names? Both above and below the edit box.

When creating new categories that match Wikipedia category names, you might help yourself and other editors by including the standard link to Wikipedia: AlsoWP. If you think there should be a matching category on Wikipedia but are not sure, you can use Trywp.

Kind regards. --- Robin Patterson (Talk to me) 06:51, March 16, 2011 (UTC)

Eastern European Nobility
Good stuff on the Gediminids.

Note we have a Project European Royalty. This is an accounting tool, really, but also handy for finding spouses from other families. The project is more or less complete for the descendants of Charlemagne (747-814), but erratic for others. Lithuania, Russia, Sweden and Ukraine are particularly incomplete.

Keep up the good work. rtol 07:19, May 12, 2011 (UTC)

and then there were two
Zoe Palaiologina (c1448-1503) = Sophia Palaiologina (c1455-1503)

I'd say keep the first and add the new information contained in the second entry. rtol 06:04, May 17, 2011 (UTC)

Popes
I do not think this issue was ever discussed, and I do not think there is a guideline.

For women, there is a clear rule: Use the maiden name. This makes genealogical sense as it connects families. It can be confusing, because many women are much better known by their husband's name.

For noble men, the rules are not clear, but we typically use the highest title achieved. Igor of Kiev was born as Igor of Novgorod.

There is thus a precedent for both Bruno von Worms and Gregory V. I think the former makes more sense, but the latter is better known.

I'll raise this at the forum. rtol 05:27, May 20, 2011 (UTC)

Categories from Wikipedia
I notice you copying articles from Wikipedia. One of the annoyances of this wiki is that "it has been decided" that we would use different names for various categories, compared with the ones on Wikipedia, so we have to recode the category names. So where we find: in a Wikipedia articles, we have to recode them as:

There are numerous other examples. Thurstan 06:51, May 21, 2011 (UTC)

No more question-marks in page names, please
The software can't handle them properly. That's why several pages containing instructions or discussion have stressed that point. A couple of forums dealt with the matter when we discovered the problems.

If death year is unknown and can't be estimated with reasonable precision, just leave nothing after the hyphen. For living people, some of us prefer to have no hyphen because it implies an unknown but prior death date. No consistency on that point, so I don't remove hyphens that others have put in. One of our biggest contributors liked to show just birth year even when death year was known, and I tend to leave them alone too, though some contributors add the hyphen and death year when found.

If death year is known but not birth, just have nothing before the hyphen.

If neither year is known or reasonably estimatable, some other distinction is desirable, though I usually use "c" with a round-figire birth year because it's rare for anyone's birth year estimate to be more than about 20 years wrong if there are children or other relatives with known dates.

See Familypedia:Page names for the current roughly-agreed standards, and Form:Person for some of the standards as they are presented to people using the forms to create articles. Maybe I need to add more cautions to Data entry without using Form:Person.

Thank you for your continued good work! (And try to remember to log in for every edit.)

-- Robin Patterson (Talk) 06:14, May 31, 2011 (UTC)

Rurik
You may have noted that I have been working on the roots of the Rurikid dynasty. I'm at Vladimir I of Kiev (c958-1015) now, where it gets complicated. This is just FYI, so that we don't duplicate work. rtol 05:40, June 8, 2011 (UTC)