User talk:Thurstan/Archive5


 * 2008 Archive
 * 2009 Archive
 * 2010 Archive
 * 2011 Archive

Infobox Layout
Hi,

I see you're now a bureaucrat. Congratulations, it was well deserved. May I ask you a question. If you see George Thomas Whittle (1902-1992), the infobox isn't at the far top of the page. This is happening on a couple of my articles. Have you any idea why, or how to correct it?

Thank you, Cv-s 09:34, January 3, 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you. That is as high as the infobox goes, because it is hard up against the line under the "tabs" (or at least, that is what I see: is that what you see?), which is the effective "top" of the page. Thurstan 11:13, January 3, 2012 (UTC)
 * But what I see in Internet Explorer (the above was written on my other computer with FireFox) is the infobox pushed down one line by the stray "§" that is caused by the "remains_sources=source": if you get rid of that, it will probably fix it. I would remove the "birth_sources=-", "death_sources=-" and "wedding1_sources= -" as well. Thurstan 11:24, January 3, 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you, yes the problem was the "§" pushing it down a line. Thanks for fixing it up, I'll remember that for articles I copied from this one. Cv-s 02:53, January 4, 2012 (UTC)

Family
Would their be a page on my family or would i have to make it

and why do other people ignore me

GREAT GLOVE SAVE! BY IVJUB! 03:37, January 14, 2012 (UTC)

That would depend on who your family were, but generally there are pages for individual people rather than for families. Thurstan 03:40, January 14, 2012 (UTC)

Ok Brandon Daniel Kurtz

GREAT GLOVE SAVE! BY IVJUB! 03:41, January 14, 2012 (UTC)


 * So we look at Category:Kurtz (surname), and see that we don't seem to have anyone with that surname here yet, so you could create pages for your grandparents, or however far back you know. Alternately you could post a query if you need advice. Thurstan 03:48, January 14, 2012 (UTC)

Navbox template
I have just transfered Template:Continental philosophy from Wikipedia. For some reason it is not rendered in the same form as the original. The template Navbox which it uses is not the same, which might be the reason for the discrepancy. However, as you have made changes in the Navbox template which is indeed quite complex, maybe you are in a better position than me to identify the reasons of the incorrect presentation. If you want me to attempt to correct the issue, I would welcome any suggestions. Thank you in advance for your help. Afil 21:23, February 5, 2012 (UTC)

I have been noticing lately that the Wikipedia version of Navbox has been revised to simplify the parameters for the list. We are still using the version from 2007: I think that we will have to upgrade from Wikipedia. It probably deserves an announcement. Thurstan 21:29, February 5, 2012 (UTC)

Valid names
I have some questions related the Valid name categories and as you have posted many of them you probably know the correct answer.

Basically the Pattern should be : Category:Valid name- {geography unit} of

where geography unit should be locality, county or subdivision, nothing else.

Question 1. The system however also includes categories Valid name- nation (which has been used for nations and countries such as France or Albania.  Is this correct as geography unit should not be nation?  Could this also include according to the pattern category such as Valid name- nation of Europe ?

Question 2. The system includes categories Valid name- nation-subdiv1 which has you have applied to various articles such as Connecticut. Does nation-subdiv1 replace the subdivision as geography unit as the system does not have any articles with the category Valid name- subdivision? Would according to the pattern categories such as Valid name- nation-subdiv1 of Austria be acceptable?

Question 3. While the instructions indicate that geography unit should include only locality, the system includes both the forms locality and localities. For instance, Category: Valid name- locality- New South Wales is a subcategory of Category: Valid name- localities of Australia

3.1 Are both locality and localities acceptable?

3.2 Are categories having the structure Category:Valid name- geography unit- placename (i.e where the placename is not preceded by of but by - acceptable?

Question 4. Would categories such as Category:Valid name- County of Hungary be acceptable? At present none of the existing Valid names for Counties has any entries in which the the structure of is used. Instead there is Category:Valid name- County- Hungary. Are both forms correct?

Question 5. The instructions indicate that the structure is mandatory so as not to impede the Familypedia software. How does the software process this information and where? This would enable me to assess if the information I entered is correctly understood and processed by the system

I apoligize for the inconvenience, but especially if a format is sensitive to the correct entry of the information, I do not want to make errors in the information I am entering.

Thank you, in advance for your help. Afil 02:16, February 13, 2012 (UTC)

I am not sure of the answers, because it was all part of Phlox's vision, and he didn't write down all the details. So far, all we have is "remote autocompletion" on forms, which doesn't seem (to me) to work as advertised.

What we have is:


 * Property XXX_nation uses Category:Valid name- nation
 * Property XXX_nation-subdiv1 uses Category:Valid name- nation-subdiv1
 * Property XXX_county uses Category:Counties by country (!?)
 * Property XXX_locality uses Category:Valid name- locality

I think that the next version of SMW has dependancies, so that you can use the value of "nation" (for example) to only offer the subdivisions of that particular nation. As far as I can see, these are the only categories that we have references to.

The other source of information on the plans is the modifications made to various templates, which is where the categories I created came from. However, these are neither consistent nor used (IMHO). Thurstan 07:20, February 13, 2012 (UTC)

Category corrections
You have made some corrections on the categories which are in correct. In the the Infobox the names of the localities are indicated as under the names in which they were known when the person was born or died. In the category, the present day of the locality is indicated.

The old name has a redirect towards the new name. Thus for instance, the village Hosszúfalva is called at present Satu Lung. Therefore Category:Born in Hosszúfalva is not correct and I have used instead Born in Satu Lung.

The use of the historic names is disputed in Eastern European countries and national sensitivities have to be taken into account. Afil 23:23, February 17, 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you, I didn't see the redirect. However, the Wikipedia name is "Chinteni" rather than "Satu Lung": please use the Wikipedia placenames in the categories. Thurstan 23:30, February 17, 2012 (UTC)


 * English language Wikipedia does not have articles for villages in Romania. Chinteni is not the name of the village, but the name of the commune. Tha article specifically refers to information regarding the village of Satulung. Communes in Romania, are not localities but territorial units (subdivisions of the counties). I have therefore adopted the official names which are adopted in the legislation of Romania, which are also the names which are used by ro:Wikipedia. Afil 23:14, February 20, 2012 (UTC)

Married in County Cork 1850
Dear Thurstan,

I accidentally ran across the article Category:Married in County Cork 1850. According to me it is misplaced and therefore, I have doubts that even people who did have the answers would find it. Also, there seems to be no way of contacting the author of the article.

What should be done in such cases?

Andrei Afil 23:06, February 20, 2012 (UTC)

Request
If it is not too difficult, could you have the kindness to unlock the page: Category:Born in 1869. I expect that the reasons you had for locking the page have subsided. Thank you in advance. Afil 07:03, March 11, 2012 (UTC)


 * Done, sorry about that. Thurstan 07:10, March 11, 2012 (UTC)

Problems with form
Hello, sorry to take up your time but I feel asking someone is the best way to get through these problems.

Whenever I try to create a new person, I copy the form from another page and paste it, then alter the details and save. This used to serve me well and create the articles needing only one "refresh" to show the biography and sources.

However now, when I do that and save it doesn't work. I'll try and post an example in a minute.

Do you have any idea if I'm doing anything wrong? It takes me at least 3 edits to make one page now when I wish it was just 1, it seems like that for others.

Thank you, Cv-s 08:09, March 25, 2012 (UTC)


 * I am not seeing anything different for me, it is still working as always for me (as it used with you). I'm off to bed now. Thurstan 10:02, March 25, 2012 (UTC)


 * My suggestion (after sleeping on it) is that the problem may have been the servers being busy: when the servers get loaded, the SMW stuff gets flaky. Is it okay now? Thurstan 20:28, March 25, 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi, thanks for the suggestion. It's been like this for over a month now I think. I can live with it, but if it doesn't happen to others then there's probably a way to fix it.


 * Here's an example: John Smith (1794-1794) Cv-s 05:17, March 26, 2012 (UTC)


 * Okay, what is wrong with that one is that it has been edited with the "Visual Editor" (or WYSIWG editor, or whatever they call it): it destroys Wiki markup by destroying the line breaks. The fix is: go into your "preferences" and "unselect" the item "Enable visual editor (where available)" under the "editing" tab. This should fix it. Thurstan 05:30, March 26, 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you, that was the problem and now it works perfectly. Cv-s 08:55, March 27, 2012 (UTC)


 * Excellent. Thurstan 19:33, March 27, 2012 (UTC)

Local links
I prefer not to have local geography links in my articles, so it will save us both a lot of work if you do not change them and then I have to change them back. There is no advantage to having a local link to an out of date version of a Wikipedia article that was cut and pasted here. It is just a page full of useless red links without the images. We should concentrate on articles on people and not be duplicating geography. No one is going to update them and no one is going to convert the red links into articles. There is absolutely no advantage to duplicating all of Wikipedia geography just because we can. --Richard Arthur Norton 22:12, April 5, 2012 (UTC)

Okay, sorry for not reading your comments in the "edit summary". Thurstan 11:27, April 6, 2012 (UTC)

Warby family
Thurstan, I hope this reaches you, I am new to Familypedia and find it clumbsy.

I have been researching my wife's side of the family.

Elizabeth Warby is her 3rd Great-Grandmother, first daughter of John & Sarah Warby.

I have a considerable amount of information from Elizabeth onwards.

I would be glad to share this with you via direct email contact.

I am in Adelaide, South Australia - email me at [mailto:barneybu@bigpond.net.au barneybu@bigpond.net.au] or phone (08) 8293 4997, Don Barnett

Blog Edits
Hi, Thurstan. This SouthWriter, but I logged out to test the blog. I am an administrator at another wiki and I was testing to see just who could edit a blog post. I was especially wondering about who can delete an undesired post (remark). I know I can do it as an administrator, but the help page about blogs at wikia community central states this: "Blog posts can only be edited by the original poster and administrators." Does this mean that the blog writer is free to delet the remarks of others, or only the whole blog? Another way of reading that is to say that the writer of the remark can delete his own remark.

I logged off and I found that the remark I made to my registered blog is untouchable. I had tried to remove it while logged on and it was still untouchable. I need to know how these blogs work so as to formulate a working policy as to the use of the blogs on our wiki.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. SouthWriter 20:25 EDT, April 28, 2012

Sorry I didn't reply straight away. I don't know anything about blogs. Which is your wiki, I could go have a look at it (since I am an admin here, I can't check here). Thurstan 04:02, April 29, 2012 (UTC)

Gedcom
Can Familypedia import Gedcom files? I have over 40,000 people in my family tree & don't think it possible to enter them one at a time. Robert Alvarez 18:54, May 29, 2012 (UTC)

No. The last time it was discussed the prevailing view was that it was too easy to rapidly create a large number of problem pages. I use a LifeLines script to do some of the drudge work of creating pages. Thurstan 21:09, May 29, 2012 (UTC)

Stropkov District
Would it be possible to unlock the page Category:Born in Stropkov District? Thank you in advance. Afil 02:47, June 13, 2012 (UTC)


 * Done. Thurstan 03:00, June 13, 2012 (UTC)

Advice?
Hi, Thurstan ...

I've appreciated the help you've given me on Familypedia and on my RAOGK wiki.

I have a "sensitive" question to ask you and don't want it hanging out publicly on the talk page.

Would you be at all willing to contact me by email ... and I'll respond with the "issue" and how I should deal with it or what Wikia's position is on such.

My email is tiny_tex @ yahoo.com

Many thanks Cowantex 20:34, June 13, 2012 (UTC)

George Brown
As an administrator, please have a look at the articles George Brown, Ann Taylor and Robert Brown. They simply indicate that George Brown, son of Robert Brown married Ann Taylor. No dates, no places of birth, no indication about who these persons are. I understand that we include articles on any person, not only "notable". But this does not justify not providing any information. I think that these articles are a joke, a reaction to your previous discussions. I placed a comment on the user's (Vilius2001) talk page. Sorry for bothering you with this problem but I do not have the authority of taking any kind of decisions. Afil 20:44, June 16, 2012 (UTC)

I have been monitoring this: I don't think it is a joke, but a misunderstanding. I think the article on Robert Brown was created by a typical "newbie", who did not know what he had to do. Then User:Vilius2001‎ decided to be "helpful" and fill in the red links to his parents, George Brown and Mary Taylor. Don't assume malice where ingnorance is sufficient explanation. Thurstan 20:52, June 16, 2012 (UTC)

Talk Page Template (?)
The info that you (and others) have at the top of your Talk page ... is there a way to do something similar with my RAOGK Message Wall?

Many thanks for your help.


 * At w:Help:Message_Wall I found the sentence:
 * "Greetings: You can create a welcome message at the top of your wall by adding content to the page Message_Wall_Greeting:"
 * I haven't tried this. Thurstan 21:43, June 22, 2012 (UTC)

Wiki problems?
Good afternoon,

I've been gone for a few days and I just returned to some obvious issues here. I'm not sure if it's just me or how long there have been problems. The articles are not working right - legitimate links are turning unclickable, "showfacts biography" isn't working, details aren't showing up in "showfacts children", etc., etc., if you don't have these problems I must be doing something wrong. Hopefully this will be sorted out. Thank you, Cv-s (talk) 04:00, July 1, 2012 (UTC)

Yes, they have done another "upgrade" a few days ago. The new version of SMW does some things differently, so some changes are going to have to be made. It will not happen quickly, I'm afraid. Thurstan (talk) 06:20, July 1, 2012 (UTC)


 * That makes sense. Thanks for explaining, I'm happy to wait it out or try and be of assistance if needed. Cv-s (talk) 06:34, July 1, 2012 (UTC)