User talk:Nilfanion

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? map of Somerset Levels

Hi, With your mapping expertise I'd like to ask if an area map is possible. I've been doing some work on Somerset Levels and would like to put it up for FAC soon. At the peer review a map was requested. As it's not a county/administrative district I didn't know whether it would be possible to do a shaded map or something showing the area covered, perhaps on a Somerset or SW England map?— Rod ^talk 20:52, 7 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Your quick hack is brilliant. I have no idea how you did it but think it really helps. Labels showing the major rivers (eg River Parrett, Axe & Brue), Bristol Channel, hills (Polden Hills, Mendip Hills & Quantock Hills) & major settlements (eg Bridgwater, Burnham-on-Sea, Cheddar, Glastonbury & Wells ) would be great but it might get a bit cluttered. Someone else did File:Mendip Hills Map.png for me when I put that one up for FA some time ago. I'm always really grateful when people are willing to contribute skills I don't have to make wp articles better.— Rod ^talk 09:26, 8 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It looks great. Are you happy for me to put it on the article where others will see it (& hopefully contribute to any discussion about development)? My only thought is about the brown lines - they look to me as if they are divisions between local authority districts? but this would not be clear to anyone who doesn't know the area & probably aren't that relevant for a geography article.— Rod ^talk 17:02, 16 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your ongoing work on this - could we add markers for a few of the major settlements eg Glastonbury, Bridgwater, Cheddar, Burnham-on-Sea - there are others but any more would probably overload the map.— Rod ^talk 08:19, 21 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Looks great to me - I'm just waiting for some more page numbers (books coming from the library) & then plan to put Somerset Levels up at FAC.— Rod ^talk 11:26, 23 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the insert I will comment on the FAC to see if that is what the reviewer wanted or whether it is a locator map. I can't find a suitable infobox as the Levels are not a protected area in the same way that Exmoor or the Mendip Hills are.— Rod ^talk 08:43, 19 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know if you are watching the FAC but another reviwer, while describing the map as useful, has suggested: "but doesn't show many of the features and places mentioned in the article, nor does it show the area of the levels -one shade of green is clearly the lowest land but it is not stated what the maximum height is of this colour and therefore whether this coincides with the levels." Could you add a key of the heights represented by the colours & I will ask for clarification of what "other features" are needed without cluttering the map.— Rod ^talk 18:06, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. The profile PDF is already in the article (used several times). On this map the built up areas are useful - what is the yellow are? Did you also spot the request on the FAC to include the M5 motorway?— Rod ^talk 12:20, 23 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Would you be willing to add your comment about the significance of the M5 on the FAC?— Rod ^talk 13:11, 23 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Another reviewer at the FAC has pointed out a typo on the map "Polern Hills" should be "Polden Hills" I should have spotted this earlier. Would it be possible to change that? The same reviewer is arguing for the inclusion of a lot more of the settlements - would you be able to add some or respond to the comments on the FAC?— Rod ^talk 09:13, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Maps of French départements

Hi, I#'ve seen the good work that you did for GB counties - have you any knowledge of French départements which could be used to generate a location map? The specific requirement is for a SVG equivalent of File:Pas-de-Calais department location map.jpg in the same style as File:Cotes-dArmor department location map.svg. Please comment at User talk:Mjroots#Re:A request. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:50, 21 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

York again

Hi, and thanks for the useful information. Sorry to bother you again. The previous map showing the York UA within England looked sort of OK because the red blob on the map was so small, but the current one gives the problem that I was complaining about, essentially because the UA looks so big and doesn't pinpoint York itself. I've tried experimenting by inserting (as you suggested) Template:Location map United Kingdom North Yorkshire with and without the brackets into the York infobox - no luck. Then I had a look at Harrogate, and the map looks just what York needs, but I couldn't find the UK N Yorks map file in the HG infobox - have I missed something? Then I noticed that the Harrogate infobox is Infobox UK place whereas the York one is Infobox settlement - what is going on here? Aargh! I've actually had a tiny bit of experience with these maps, having used Infobox church a few times and succeeded in getting the right map and using the coordinates to get the location blob in the right place (e.g. St Luke's Church, Oseney Crescent), but now I'm baffled. BTW, I had a look at a few other articles using Infobox settlements, e.g. Leicester, and the "location within England" map is a .svg and (to my eyes) looks horrific (apologies if you created it!). I'd be very grateful if you could give me an idiot's guide to putting a Harrogate-style map in the York infobox. TIA. --GuillaumeTell 21:46, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Great! Thanks! And I noticed that the magic word "pushpin" (as used in my St Luke's map) has made an appearance, which made my day (er, night). As for Template documentation, there's an awful lot of Wikipedia back-office stuff that seems to have been written by computer people for computer people, which makes my eyes glaze over, so even apparently simple things like WP:DYK are swathed in mystery and easy to get wrong. As a sort of old-fashioned computer person, I'm not afraid of experimenting (and am probably the #1 user of the "Show preview" button), but sometimes I just give up. Feel free to cite me as a witness if you're going to try to tidy up all these subtly different infoboxes and templates and maps (aka lions and tigers and bears). Whew! Best. --GuillaumeTell 23:39, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

PS: I forgot to say that I agree that your idea of a map showing the urban area of York within the UA would indeed be useful as a supplementary image in the article, but it's not a matter of any urgency. It'll look somewhat different from the Manchester one, of course (no bad thing). --GuillaumeTell 23:50, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Fylde map

Hi, Thanks for the great maps and instructions you have provided at User:Nilfanion/Elections. I have created a couple for Blackpool elections (for 2003 and 2007, as you did the 2011 one) which went ok, however when I created this map - File:Fylde UK local election 2003 map.svg - for the Fylde 2003 election it shows the wards won by independents as black, rather than the grey shown on the thumbnail image, as seen at Fylde Council election, 2003. I wondered if you knew why it showed as black rather than grey and what I had done wrong? I set the colour as #dddddd as you did on the Bournemouth map for the independent. Davewild (talk) 20:04, 11 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like the map File:Fylde UK local election 2003 map.svg has fixed itself as you said it might. Thanks for checking it a couple of days ago. Davewild (talk) 17:18, 13 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've created many of these articles on local elections over the last few years and always wanted to create maps for them, but only with your instructions, which made the process easy have I been able to. Reference your points, I will start using the LibDem colour as updated and have added the Election Maps of the United Kingdom category to the maps I have created so far (and will use it on new ones I add).

Reference the boundary changes I am aware about the boundary changes and am keeping strictly to elections which still use the same boundaries as 2010. Luckily the BBC always states in it's report of the election results for each council, whether boundary changes have taken place or not (e.g. here from the BBC for my latest map on Amber Valley in 2000). So for instance Amber Valley is still on the same boundaries for the local council as in 2000, while in Adur the current boundaries only go back as far as 2004 - as per BBC here - so my earliest map I have done for Adur is 2004. Davewild (talk) 17:24, 17 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Talkback

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--Redrose64 (talk) 07:42, 27 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

London maps

That's awesome, thanks for uploading them. Have already started creating maps from them! Davewild (talk) 17:36, 29 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks

Hi, this is miles better than that. Well done! Are all district council maps gettinga similar update? --Redrose64 (talk) 17:35, 2 August 2011

Short version is yes all the districts will get similar updates. SW England and SE England have the full set of maps now, the rest should be done over this month. The slight complication is I'm doing like-for-like swaps, and some articles use maps that don't quite match up with that.--Nilf anion (talk) 21:40, 2 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Bespoke SVG maps

An editor has suggested that the SVG locator maps should have the marker preserved on enlargement of the map. Please see Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#SVG Maps and comment there. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:34, 7 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Re: Maps

Hey, thanks for the reply. If you search for the Preston council election article for 2011, you'll see my handywork. The manual upload worked for me, so hopefully all the citations and copyright is how it should be.

They are very good maps and really useful. I'll just stick to using them for Preston - not too many parties, easier to fill in :)

Speak soon doktorb _words^deeds 11:11, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Additional maps

Thanks for pointing out the county council maps, I hadn't realised you had made those available and hopefully will get round to using those on particular elections soon.

As to larger area maps I would certainly enjoy looking at them personally and maps based on the counties and metropolitan counties would be good if you understand what I mean - e.g. if you scroll down on this link here you will see a series of maps showing the ward results for all seats in West Yorkshire (including Leeds, Bradford, Kirklees etc. in one map for elections between 1986 and 2008. You could do the same thing for all of the districts making up Lancashire, Norfolk etc. That sort of map would be fun, but the problem is at the moment I can't think how to fit them in on any particular articles on wikipedia!

Doing one for the whole of England would be awesome and would fit on the particular years local elections article - e.g United Kingdom local elections, 2011, but I would think it would be a very big task to create (a lot of wards!) and not sure how much detail you would be able to see at that level? Davewild (talk) 19:13, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Talkback

Hello, Nilfanion. You have new messages at Dr Greg's talk page.
Message added 21:29, 31 August 2011 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.[reply]

Dr Greg talk 21:29, 31 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Talkback

Hello, Nilfanion. You have new messages at Dr Greg's talk page.
Message added 19:43, 1 September 2011 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.[reply]

Dr Greg talk 19:43, 1 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Talkback

Hello, Nilfanion. You have new messages at Dr Greg's talk page.
Message added 22:18, 1 October 2011 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.[reply]

Note: if you have my talk page on your watchlist and don't need these talkbacks, let me know and I'll stop sending them. Dr Greg talk 22:18, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Infobox map of Inverness

Hi Nilfanion. A problem is arising with the default map selection on Template:Infobox UK place for locations in the Inverness lieutenancy. The map defaults to File:Inverness UK location map.svg, which shows the Inverness city management area. However, as shown at Alvie, some places are not in that management area. Alvie, for example, is in the area covered by File:Badenoch and Strathspey UK location map.svg.

I understand the reason for going for area maps, rather than a map of the council area (Highland is very large). However, the default needs to link to maps of each lieutenancy, rather than to ward or city management area maps. Alternatively, the default could link to maps of the former districts, though I'm not sure how that could work as the default is now determined by the lieutenancy.

In the case of Highland, the breakdown is as follows:

Caithness covers the former Caithness district
Inverness covers the former Badenoch and Strathspey, Inverness and Lochaber districts
Nairn covers the former Nairn district
Ross and Cromarty covers the former Ross and Cromarty and Skye and Lochalsh districts
Sutherland covers the former Sutherland district

Hope you can help in sorting out. Skinsmoke (talk) 15:57, 8 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The maps were uploaded to a request a while back (Highland is big and should be broken down etc). See this thread: Template talk:Infobox UK place/Archive 12#Caithness map. I did mention at the time it is not the Lieutenancy areas, but the ward management areas.

The biggest problem really is the data is for the current administrative divisions. There were several boundary changes for the wards in 2007. While the older wards did align with the lieutenancy areas, that's no longer the case, and I don't have data that would let me construct the lieutenancy borders. This lack of data makes it extremely difficult to create "correct" maps for the lieutenancies. For instance, Morven is definitely in Caithness, but is outside the current Caithness wards.

Probably the best thing to do would be to disable the auto-selection of the area maps, and default to the Highland map. If this was backed up by adding it to a category for manual addition of an area map, then this would avoid issues of bad map selection. This would avoid errors like the one you reported for Alvie.--Nilf anion (talk) 08:58, 9 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Police areas map

I notice that an anonymous editor (87.114.242.250) has used {{Mapereq}} at Talk:Police area#Map to request a map of UK police areas. I thought I'd leave a message here in case you can assist, by combining your OS OpenData SVG maps of counties, unitary areas, Greater London and the City of London. — Richardguk (talk) 20:34, 9 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks for creating File:United_Kingdom_police_areas_map.svg. I've updated the article accordingly. — Richardguk (talk) 14:03, 13 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

London maps

Will gradually introduce them to the articles, thanks!♦ Dr. Blofeld 22:10, 1 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

MSU Interview

Dear Nilfanion,

My name is Jonathan Obar user:Jaobar, I'm a professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University and a Teaching Fellow with the Wikimedia Foundation's Education Program. This semester I've been running a little experiment at MSU, a class where we teach students about becoming Wikipedia administrators. Not a lot is known about your community, and our students (who are fascinated by wiki-culture by the way!) want to learn how you do what you do, and why you do it. A while back I proposed this idea (the class) to the communityHERE, where it was met mainly with positive feedback. Anyhow, I'd like my students to speak with a few administrators to get a sense of admin experiences, training, motivations, likes, dislikes, etc. We were wondering if you'd be interested in speaking with one of our students.

So a few things about the interviews:

Interviews will last between 15 and 30 minutes.
Interviews can be conducted over skype (preferred), IRC or email. (You choose the form of communication based upon your comfort level, time, etc.)
All interviews will be completely anonymous, meaning that you (real name and/or pseudonym) will never be identified in any of our materials, unless you give the interviewer permission to do so.
All interviews will be completely voluntary. You are under no obligation to say yes to an interview, and can say no and stop or leave the interview at any time.
The entire interview process is being overseen by MSU's institutional review board (ethics review). This means that all questions have been approved by the university and all students have been trained how to conduct interviews ethically and properly.

Bottom line is that we really need your help, and would really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. If interested, please send me an email at obar@msu.edu (to maintain anonymity) and I will add your name to my offline contact list. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can post your nameHERE instead.

If you have questions or concerns at any time, feel free to email me at obar@msu.edu. I will be more than happy to speak with you.

Thanks in advance for your help. We have a lot to learn from you.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Obar --Jaobar (talk)