User talk:Thurstan/Archive7


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Constantin Mincu
You are right. Constantin Mincu (1973) is the wrong title. I have deleted it now.Afil (talk) 21:30, March 3, 2014 (UTC)

Isle of Wight
That template seems to work - http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Isle_of_Wight?oldid=1045671 - but is the problem purely the number of links that produce a page that needs a "the" added? Maybe we can produce a tailor-made equivalent? -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 03:03, May 28, 2014 (UTC)


 * The problem is the bogus links: I think they need "on" rather than "in" as well as the "the". We could use a custom template. Thurstan (talk) 03:47, May 28, 2014 (UTC)

Unsigned note on different subject
I will ask my mother helen, please amail me at adrianvangent@hotmail.com

HTML in tables - help?
I've just copied British monarchs' family tree from WP. Too many "  "!! Is there a quick conversion method? -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 05:31, July 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * I will check: the villian is usually unterminated "&lt;small&gt;" constructs: Wikipedia uses "htmltidy" to supply the missing terminators. Thurstan (talk) 06:18, July 27, 2014 (UTC)
 * I was right (plus passing null parameters to chart). I think it is ok now. Thurstan (talk) 06:56, July 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * It looks very good now. I see that you spent at least 20 minutes on it. Good work! Have we considered checking whether we could use htmltidy on a regular basis? -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 06:08, August 9, 2014 (UTC)


 * "regular basis" would be "all the time", since it doesn't change the source pages (see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgUseTidy). We could ask Central Command for it. Thurstan (talk) 22:02, August 9, 2014 (UTC)

Another WP incompatibility?
Please have a look at Kapiti Coast District and hide the opening infobox if it's not easily fixed. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 05:50, August 9, 2014 (UTC)


 * The table needs to start on a new line. Thurstan (talk) 07:07, August 9, 2014 (UTC)

Tea Garden(s)
Sorry about http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Lydia_Piper_%281840-1879%29?s=wldiff&diff=0&oldid=1071153 - I thought it was a red link and I might help.

I take it that you prefer not to be listed as a contributor when you've done only a little to a page.

-- Robin Patterson (Talk) 10:06, August 22, 2014 (UTC)


 * Apology accepted. I decided years ago that there wasn't much point in having my name on every page I touch: I don't want people to think that I know more about the subjects, or have some family connection to them.Thurstan (talk) 00:04, August 23, 2014 (UTC)

Martintown or whatever, Virginia
Martintown, Virginia seems strange: your reference writes it "MartinTown", while FAG write it "Martin Town". Google maps and OpenStreetMap don't seem to know it. Thurstan (talk) 00:04, August 23, 2014 (UTC)


 * My "reference" was a mere afterthought. The locality name was given by a recent contributor, with another Martin, possibly related to the reference people. I can chase it up. Thank you for the other search results to save me work. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 00:45, August 23, 2014 (UTC)

Puzzling "update from Wikipedia"
http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Cities_in_Moffat_County,_Colorado?s=wldiff&diff=0&oldid=1072276 has me puzzled.

The "from Wikipedia" content seems totally unchanged (contrary to the edit summary). The only apparent changes are a space after that content, a smaller linking template (which links to the same WP pages), and an apparently unnecessary parameter.

Please explain and tell me how I should improve my copying so that you do not need to do whatever you actually did there.

Robin Patterson (Talk) 04:32, August 28, 2014 (UTC)


 * I updated all the content of Category:Settlements in Colorado by county and of its 1st-level subcategories, because the location pages on Wikipedia have been moved from the "Settlements in XX County" categories to the "Cities/towns/etc in XX County" categories. I have now done this for several states, with many more still to be done. The update is no reflection on your copying. My procedure for copying from Wikipedia now supplies the parameter for usedwp because the template is often not corrected when pages are renamed. Thurstan (talk) 06:34, August 28, 2014 (UTC)

Thank you. Fairly clear! I guess the lack of actual change was because I had just copied WP's latest version. And it's good that you can do your thing so fast. Example from very recent changes:


 * 2014-08-28T19:55:12 (diff | hist) . . (+34)‎ . . Nm UN/LOCODE:USJBK ‎ (Copy from Wikipedia) (top)
 * 2014-08-28T19:55:06 (diff | hist) . . (+34)‎ . . Nm Stockyards, California ‎ (Copy from Wikipedia) (top)
 * 2014-08-28T19:55:02 (diff | hist) . . (+34)‎ . . Nm Berkley, California ‎ (Copy from Wikipedia) (top)
 * 2014-08-28T19:54:57 (diff | hist) . . (+34)‎ . . Nm Berkley, CA ‎ (Copy from Wikipedia) (top)
 * 2014-08-28T19:54:52 (diff | hist) . . (+34)‎ . . Nm Berkely, California ‎ (Copy from Wikipedia) (top)
 * 2014-08-28T19:54:47 (diff | hist) . . (+34)‎ . . Nm Berkely, CA ‎ (Copy from Wikipedia) (top)
 * 2014-08-28T19:54:42 (diff | hist) . . (+35)‎ . . Nm Berkeley, Calif. ‎ (Copy from Wikipedia) (top)
 * 2014-08-28T19:54:37 (diff | hist) . . (+34)‎ . . Nm Berkeley, Ca ‎ (Copy from Wikipedia) (top)
 * 2014-08-28T19:54:31 (diff | hist) . . (+34)‎ . . Nm Berkeley, CA ‎ (Copy from Wikipedia) (top)
 * 2014-08-28T19:54:27 (diff | hist) . . (+34)‎ . . Nm Berkeley California ‎ (Copy from Wikipedia) (top)
 * 2014-08-28T19:54:22 (diff | hist) . . (+34)‎ . . Nm Berkeley (CA) ‎ (Copy from Wikipedia) (top)

Keep up the great work! Robin Patterson (Talk) 23:59, August 28, 2014 (UTC)


 * Yes, I have an AWB script, so it is semi-automated. The down side is that I don't easily see the history, so I don't know if I am a day behind you. Thurstan (talk) 01:26, August 29, 2014 (UTC)

Template:Surname_links
A few minutes ago I adapted Surname links from WP's version, created in 2008, and did some adaptation to FP. It looked like a good idea, which might help overcome some of the deficiences of Wikia's search function.

I tried to add a link to our surname category, but it doesn't seem to be reflected in the example on the doc page. Most of the links do seem to work, though.

Please run your expert eye over the whole template and fix where desirable. Then we can remove the construction template and find good places to use the template to help searchers.

-- Robin Patterson (Talk) 12:15, September 2, 2014 (UTC)


 * Progress is being made, though I don't know why the "search" link doesn't seem to work! Thurstan (talk) 01:27, September 3, 2014 (UTC)

Dear adminstrator please help me, my wikia is being attacked and vandalizied by hackers Linda Baxter 17:13, September 4, 2014 (UTC)

This user ip 80.218.130.112 is invading and hackering my page..please help...Linda Baxter 17:17, September 4, 2014 (UTC)

Lots of new users
As you may have seen, particularly if you get the daily digest, we've had an almost unprecedented spike in user registrations.

http://familypedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=newusers&user=&page=&year=&month=-1&hide_patrol_log=1

I've looked at the contributions page of all that have contributed. They're all genuine. I've talked to all but the last one (a Sydneysider who's linked to a page of yours). But I wonder whether some of the others might be lurking vandals. So I should be looking harder at newbie contributions over the next few days.

Robin Patterson (Talk) 02:35, October 3, 2014 (UTC)

Thanks again and again
-- Robin Patterson (Talk) 05:51, October 12, 2014 (UTC)
 * 1) Substituting descendants for pictures
 * 2) Finding Ave Ferguson's WC pages - I sometimes look on WC but I wish Google could help more because WC pages are much more useful than most of the Ancestry pages G has referred me to lately
 * 3) Following WP yet again with Waikato - but is it getting less consistent or do we just need more bots to keep up? - http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Waikato_Region shows some of our current inconsistencies, some of which were from WP.

Display of "Places - other"
Did you notice my somewhat recent request for the quotation marks to be replaced by parentheses (for improved logicality)? I can't find where to change them. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 05:51, October 12, 2014 (UTC)


 * Sorry, missed that one: done now.
 * I have been looking at our main page lately, and I think I would like properties for "Wedding1 place" etc analogous to "Birth place" and "Death place", so that we don't see only part of the place information in the tables. What think you? Thurstan (talk) 02:04, October 13, 2014 (UTC)


 * (Thanks for the parentheses.) "Wedding1 place" etc seems fine to me; adding such detail makes for the occasional extra line but it can help those of us who are in the know to spot errors or outdated placenames. As you may have noticed, I want us to get Showfacts residences working; that could add even more to such tables. "Residence1 place", etc, or in some of those tables probably a Residences column like the joinedwith column. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 13:04, November 2, 2014 (UTC)


 * We will have to have a discussion of the data model for the dates: I think too few people will have documentation of when they arrived and left residences, so we will want more of a "address was X when daughter married" sort of model. Thurstan (talk) 19:22, November 2, 2014 (UTC)

Fick in Minnesota - ta
Thanks for a good start with Cathy's Minnesota people. I've had a productive evening. Andrei can fiddle with the German district name. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 12:51, November 2, 2014 (UTC)

The attraction of Minnesota
Thank you for continued MN work. One of our top contributors who also has Minnesota German ancestry should be pleased. Cathy's paternal ancestry may be capable of expansion, but I'll leave MN for now so as to reduce risk of edit conflict. Plenty of my closer relatives need attention, along with descendants of Earls of Cawdor. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 04:53, November 3, 2014 (UTC)


 * Sorry, your additions made me realize that "Category:Settlements in Minnesota by county" need the same treatment as "Category:Settlements in Colorado by county" (see comments above). Thurstan (talk) 05:33, November 3, 2014 (UTC)

Nugent
Thank you very much for your help/intervention! I'am novice not only here, but in wikipedia in general. Even with help from templates (great!) it's sometime hard for me to understand how to make them work properly. My bed.

Also, I was trying desperately some portion of help with explanations what and in which order to put in someones bio - I have lot of material from documents, books, net ecc. but having no clue what is "enough" of references. I don't want to needlessly encumber or to "over-due" my contributions. Nnlabus (talk) 21:59, November 17, 2014 (UTC)


 * I am glad to help. As for the question of what is "enough", that is entirely a matter of taste. Read what other people have done, and read some Wikipedia articles to develop a feel for it. I don't think you can have too many links, but there are two styles I have seen which I think is "too much", but that is entirely "IMHO":
 * page after page of transcripts of original documents, like deeds, property transfers etc with no commentary
 * long essays about particular military compaigns, or the social conditions that forced people to emigrate, or other events which affected many other people.
 * Both of these styles lead to turgid pages which don't tell us much about the person who is the subject. So basically you just want to tell the story. If there are really interesting (but long and complicated) documents involved, they can be transcribed onto "/documents" subpages. Descriptions of particular events can have the own pages (and maybe if it is a significant events, Wikipedia already has a good page on it that we can copy).
 * Don't worry too much about it. Some of us are a little testy about technical matters, or claims about facts, but we are not going to complain about matters of style at all.
 * Just my two-bob's worth. Thurstan (talk) 00:23, November 18, 2014 (UTC)

Headingless children table
Please look at Joan Trelake (1497-1573) and see if you can work out why her children (copied from her husband's page in the normal way) are appearing without a heading (looking as if they are siblings).

(And I'll leave you to talk to the creator of that Xavier page, because you're familiar with the family!).

-- Robin Patterson (Talk) 06:21, November 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * The lack of a heading is an old bug: no heading is displayed because it is her husband's second family, so his first would prompt a heading.


 * Whenever someone creates a page like that, it is usually because they have clicked on a red-link. You have to use "What links here" to find the connections. In this case, it is a Yewenyi page with no further data forthcoming. Thurstan (talk) 06:31, November 27, 2014 (UTC)

SMW "upgrade"?
Have we had a software "upgrade"? I couldn't use Form:Person. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 09:25, December 6, 2014 (UTC)

Current Special:Versions:
 * Semantic Drilldown (Version 1.1)	A drilldown interface for navigating through semantic data 	Yaron Koren and David Loomer
 * Semantic Forms (Version 2.4.2)	Forms for adding and editing semantic data 	Yaron Koren, Stephan Gambke and others
 * Semantic MediaWiki (Version 1.7.1)	Making your wiki more accessible - for machines and humans (online documentation) 	Markus Krötzsch, Denny Vrandecic and Jeroen De Dauw. Maintained by AIFB Karlsruhe.

I don't remember whether they are different. SF 3.0 is published but we clearly haven't got that yet. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 09:30, December 6, 2014 (UTC)


 * We have had a major upgrade: the top of the screen look different (I have a user icon where my name used to be), we have the script extension now (so "invoke" works), we have lost the background colour on the info boxes (even though the CSS is still there!), there is a "mobile" option on the bottom of the screen (at least on tablets) and the "FormEdit" special page seems to be broken. Thurstan (talk) 09:33, December 6, 2014 (UTC)


 * Thank you. One of us should "Contact Wikia" - has anyone done it? Meanwhile, I've slightly updated Forum:Data entry without using Form:Person and added a subpage (/model) for possibly easier copying. (Are the "street" property names correct?) -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 00:17, December 7, 2014 (UTC)


 * I would prefer you to contact them, please: I am such a "grumpy old man" these days I find it hard to be polite about these things. I will check out your changes. Thurstan (talk) 00:21, December 7, 2014 (UTC)


 * I'll contact them. I'm fairly polite with them. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:05, December 7, 2014 (UTC)

Temporary manual method
I've noticed that there's no "Places other". The street comment is "|birth_street= ". I'll leave it in your capable hands. And you can leave my distant cousin Custer with me. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:05, December 7, 2014 (UTC)


 * Will do. Is our latest contributor a spammer? Thurstan (talk) 02:17, December 7, 2014 (UTC)

Wikipedia people
Great work, my friend, your recent creations such as

N 18:35:13 J.K. Rowling‎ (diff | hist). . (+35)‎ . . Thurstan (Talk | contribs | block) (redirect the Wikipedia name)

You may have been disappointed at my lack of use of your relatively recent creation linking pages to WP and a related category. I've not managed to memorise enough of the procedure to make it seem worthwhile for me because I do little work on WP people. Your persistence with that arrangement is therefore all the more valuable.

-- Robin Patterson (Talk) 03:02, December 13, 2014 (UTC)


 * Thank you. Don't worry about your lack of use: there is a huge backlog anyway! Thurstan (talk) 03:10, December 13, 2014 (UTC)

Help for newbie?
Hi Thurston,

You deleted my recent page on Obama. Can you please advise where I should create it?

All I want to do is discuss a possible edit.

I don't quite understand how this site works, sorry.

Thanks.

Gnu.

Gnu Ordure (talk) 02:01, January 7, 2015 (UTC)


 * Sorry, I was about to leave you a note. This site works like Wikipedia (on which we model ourselves): queries and comments go in forums or in talk pages. In this case, if you want a change made to Ancestors of Barack Obama, then you could leave a note at Talk:Ancestors of Barack Obama. Of course, you could make the change yourself. If you don't want it reverted as vandalism, then it should be supported by a link to a reliable source (as on Wikipedia). Thurstan (talk) 02:27, January 7, 2015 (UTC)


 * OK, thanks, Thurstan. It's 3:00am, so I'll check it out tomorrow. As I said, I don't want to make an edit yet, I just want to discuss it. Cheers. Gnu Ordure (talk) 03:01, January 7, 2015 (UTC)

County categories
Disappointing to see http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Template:Bdm2?s=wldiff&diff=0&oldid=913424 - most of the 3,000-odd U.S. counties have categories, I think, and I believe that all counties should have their own categories, even if WP hasn't created them yet.

I presume that you were reacting to someone's dislike of creating "Wanted categories". I wonder whether he can be persuaded that that term means what it says but also that it's an understatement: a "wanted category" actually does nearly everything it will do after creation, listing (under a "Create" invitation) all of the pages that say they want it, and it's therefore much more useful than other sorts of wanted page.

(Congratulations on passing the 300,000 mark, and I hope you continue to enjoy Familypedia's 11th year.)

-- Robin Patterson (Talk) 05:58, January 8, 2015 (UTC)


 * You assume wrong. Somme (department) is in Category:Somme. Thurstan (talk) 06:00, January 8, 2015 (UTC)


 * Sorry, I must be drifting into my dotage here: I had already created a fix for this with the "CatName" parameter, to specify an alternate name for the category. I have reverted my change to the template. This problem is caused by the fact that Wikipedians find it easier to change the page name than to change the category name, so the category name often represents the original page name.
 * And thank you for the congratulations too. I hope I can continue to contribute. Thurstan (talk) 09:36, January 8, 2015 (UTC)