User talk:Thurstan/Archive4


 * 2008 Archive
 * 2009 Archive
 * 2010 Archive

New people pages
Please: Happy New Year! — Robin Patterson (Talk) 14:00, January 1, 2011 (UTC)
 * 1) Remove "?" from names before creating more subpages
 * 2) Remember http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:Standardizing_subpages_of_people_pages#Naming_standards - "/ancestors"

I'm sorry, did you think that I created Joost Duryea (bef1735-?)/Ancestors? All I did was categorize it. I have only created "/tree", "/descendants" and "/sensor" subpages for ages.

Happy New Year to you too. Thurstan 21:18, January 1, 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes, I think I got the impression that you had created that page. Maybe I was misled by the usual confusion of language in a Wikia e-mail. Whenever I do anything to a page with a "?" in its name, I remove the "?" if it's not too much trouble. In the above case, I see that you may have been doing a whole lot of categorising, which is indeed the situation where I might leave the "?" alone too. Robin Patterson 04:45, January 31, 2011 (UTC)

Help
im struggling editing and creating articles

86.139.36.155 16:40, January 4, 2011 (UTC)Historylover86.139.36.155 16:40, January 4, 2011 (UTC)

Your updating of Template:Surname-stub
http://familypedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Template:Surname-stub&diff=567205&oldid=178149 - can we have the new image too, please? — Robin Patterson (Talk) 13:16, January 16, 2011 (UTC)


 * Done: sorry about neglecting that. Thurstan 21:10, January 16, 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks, mate. Robin Patterson 04:45, January 31, 2011 (UTC)

Tree pages
You create tree pages that work. Example noted on my last edit to my talk page. Do you have any idea why older ones (such as the flagship Charlemagne/tree) don't? Maybe the mysterious trickle-down-bot is on holiday?? (On the subject of trickle-down, I hope Lake Burley Griffin is not at a dangerously high level.) — Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:51, January 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * I suspect that when SMW was switched off (which last happened about 13 Jan 2011) it disrupts things, I am not sure why. I have been re-saving existing "/sensor" pages to make the new trees work. Thurstan 02:54, January 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * Ongoing story at Help:Tree page and its talk page. Robin Patterson 04:45, January 31, 2011 (UTC)

February 2011
I thought I was copying what Andrei had told me about the ahnentafel-compact templates. Maybe you've changed them since? Please have a look at http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:Templates_update#One_of_the_above_should_be_the_basis_for_.2Ftree_pages and add a note about where you have now taken us. Robin Patterson (Talk to me) 08:40, February 27, 2011 (UTC)

No, I haven't changed anything: they are exactly as the wikipedia documentation says: there are just numbered parameters that display whatever you tell it to. Thurstan 09:30, February 27, 2011 (UTC)

Query
Sorry, I forgot to log in when I made my recent edits to John William Ewing. Is there anyway to associate those changes to my Login (Lance Ewing)? Regards, Lance Ewing.


 * I don't believe so. The best you could do is leave a note somewhere on the page or perhaps its talk page which says that you used address 86.166.64.240‎ to edit the page on this date. Alternatively, you could log on and edit the page again (do something trivial, like leave an extra blank line in the middle somewhere) and make a note in the "Summary" about having forgotten to log on the time before. That way, when anyone looks at the "history" for the page, they will see you note. This is how I would solve it. Thurstan 06:42, January 21, 2011 (UTC)

Deleting pages that are easy to create
Example:

http://familypedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Template_talk:United_States_topic&s=wl

I think it is easier to blank them and protect them than to delete them.

— Robin Patterson (Talk) 09:23, January 21, 2011 (UTC)

I think the same consideration applies to the deletion of unaccompanied given names (by suppressing the redirect), e.g. http://familypedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Katie&s=wl. If we don't leave a redirect, someone is likely to re-create the page, either ignoring or not understanding the warning, and create good content that then has to be moved to its proper place. Robin Patterson 04:45, January 31, 2011 (UTC)

Year names without commas
There must be a way to show them. See Romania for the latest irritation! — Robin Patterson (Talk) 08:39, January 29, 2011 (UTC)


 * I can't see anything in the SMW documentation. Thurstan 10:17, January 29, 2011 (UTC)


 * OK, I'm getting close to steeling myself for a full read of SF documentation!! Robin Patterson 04:45, January 31, 2011 (UTC)


 * Copied Help:Semantic forms from the MW website, and read most of it while checking links. Year numbers do have property "date" but I gather that there's a way to get them showing without commas: see the bottom of the table at "Allowed input types for data types". Robin Patterson (Talk) 09:51, February 23, 2011 (UTC)

Maybe we need another (computed) property for display: eg birth_year_display, of type "date". Thurstan 20:24, February 23, 2011 (UTC)

Helping the newbies
Brilliant work finding the parents and other spouses of that recent newbie's ancestor. Cooperative genealogy at its best. Robin Patterson 04:45, January 31, 2011 (UTC)

Given names
Another endless job. I added variants to Given rtol 12:33, February 2, 2011 (UTC)

Grandmothers who are now 0 years of age
You understand most of the minibiography template. Now another long-dead person is now reportedly aged 0. Please look at http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Template_talk:Showfacts_biography#Errors_to_be_fixed and see whether you can stop the nonsense. Robin Patterson 04:23, February 9, 2011 (UTC)

Thank you! Robin Patterson 21:46, February 10, 2011 (UTC)

Notes and sources and other facts
See http://familypedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Arabella_Churchill_%281648-1730%29&s=wldiff&diff=0&oldid=577890

No apparent difference. All just bullets, whether you use "new note" (as the guide says) or a normal wiki new line device such as "Enter" plus star. Is there an underlying reason why "new note" is better?

Robin Patterson 21:46, February 10, 2011 (UTC)


 * Well, it is the "standard": as I see it, we store a list of sources in the properties, not a lot of formatting. It doesn't look the same either, because you regularly start with a "*", giving a blank line. I wouldn't have changed it if you hadn't done that, because I wouldn't have noticed. Thurstan 21:49, February 10, 2011 (UTC)

OK. But I no longer regularly start with a star since I saw that the display starts with one. It would be good if I could see these properties. You said the facts display was something to do with skins. Is there a solution? People using the "proper" skin shouldn't be discriminated against. Maybe rtol is in the same boat, because he recently said __SHOWFACTS__ has stopped working. Robin Patterson 22:22, February 10, 2011 (UTC)

Nobility
Thanks for reminding me that some of them have numbers. I'd better open thePeerage. Robin Patterson 00:25, February 11, 2011 (UTC)

Sensors
I put detect tabs back into sensor. rtol 06:35, March 1, 2011 (UTC)

What did Robin say? Thurstan 06:36, March 1, 2011 (UTC)

Descendants breaching the 1000-character limit
I shouldn't be too worried about Elizabeth Stuart. Georg von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1582-1641)/descendants shows FOUR errors related to the 1000-character limit. I've asked rtol to offer a comment on the template's talk page, but I'd be happy to see one from you too. --- Robin Patterson (Talk to me) 05:21, March 3, 2011 (UTC)

Battle dates
Rather than manually categorizing battles, would we not rather use Property:Event date to automate this in info battle? rtol 19:48, March 4, 2011 (UTC)

Worth a look: we will need a "participants" property for the nations involved. Thurstan 21:02, March 4, 2011 (UTC)

On second thought, I don't see the gain: if we are copying the account over from wikipedia, the categories should come too. Thurstan 21:48, March 4, 2011 (UTC)

List of Belgian Monarchs v Monarchs of Belgium
I object to the move. The Wikipedia standard is poor. List is redundant. Few of these monarchs were Belgian. A number of Belgians who were monarchs are not on the list (as they were not monarchs of Belgium).

I deliberately used Monarchs of Belgium which is concise and roughly correct. rtol 06:20, March 9, 2011 (UTC)

I don't follow your logic: the OED defines "Belgian" as "of or pertaining to Belgium", so "Belgian Monarchs" means "Monarchs of or pertaining to Belgium", ie "Monarchs of Belgium". Nationality has nothing to do with it. Thurstan 03:22, March 10, 2011 (UTC)

Now look up "sophistry" in the OED. rtol 08:23, March 10, 2011 (UTC)

Table of Contents
When I used to add tocright to a person-page, it used to fit neatly under the right-hand side on the mini-bio, filling some otherwise useless white space. In my latest article, John Reid Mackintosh (1869-1953), it has decided to sit under the ad, leaving a horrid white desert of more white space before the Children heading.

As you seem to know how to improve the person page (if recent changes involving for are any guide), please see if you can get tocright (which is in there but apparently ineffectual) tucked in so that it displays where it used to, nicely filling some of the white space and not creating any more. It could perhaps be an integral part of the minibio, in a new line.

--- Robin Patterson (Talk to me) 12:33, March 12, 2011 (UTC)

No, I do not approve: I believe our standard (dating back to the "/info" page days) is "NOTOC": you seem to have suddenly decided (without discussion) that we need a TOC. I don't agree, I think it is unneccessary for pages that don't have lots of text paragraphs. Thurstan 20:57, March 12, 2011 (UTC)

All the pages I look at (eg Christina Apel (1876-1928)) is sits under the infobox, pushing everything down. If we need a TOC, it should be a "left" one, like a wikipedia article with an info box. Thurstan 21:06, March 12, 2011 (UTC)