User:Penubag/Archives/5

Recent graphics stuff

Any graphics stuff regarding the Around the World Competition please see: User:penubag/graphics This would include the gold medallion and the atlas + wikiball trophy. Thanks! -- penubag  (talk) 07:38, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

RE:graphics

I replied on my /graphics page in order to keep the Atlas and Medallion conversation separate and organized. Thanks -- penubag  (talk) 08:28, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Globe-in-globe-stand

There's a couple editors scouring the Internet for a picture with a globe stand in it. Hopefully they'll turn up something we can use.

The Transhumanist 09:07, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Jane Schaffer paragraph

It was a long advertisement for the Jane Schaffer Writing Program. --Orange Mike | Talk 13:05, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

If you really believe it's notable (you made no assertion to that effect, nor did you provide evidence), you have two alternatives. One would be to create a new article in your own userspace (at, say, User:Penubag/Schaffer) and ask other editors to review it before posting it to article space; in this case, I'd suggest you find a more notable name for this. The other would be to go to Wikipedia:Deletion review with what you had before. --Orange Mike | Talk 16:32, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

The sandbox has been created as you requested; good luck! --Orange Mike | Talk 16:55, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks-- penubag  (talk) 16:58, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Greetings Penubag - sorry for not having noticed what was going on at Schaffer paragraph - you could have dropped me a line. It's a pity that with so many hyper-active editors around, they aren't able to do something about the large amount of vandalism that goes on at good articles or AfD the many really awful articles I keep bumping into on my wanderings around Wikipedia :) Regards, --Technopat (talk) 00:17, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

WikiProject Xbox Barnstar

Hey, I'm Blackwatch21 from WikiProject Xbox, I was wondering if you could make me a Xbox barnstar. If you go to our page you can find our logo. Also we have a barnstar up right now but it's not really good. Best wishes. BW21. --BlackWatch21 18:09, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

What is Around the World?

It's a collaboration using advanced wiki-tools. It is sponsored jointly by WikiProject Lists of basic topics and WikiProject Geography.

Using these advanced tools, we are building a profile for every country of the world. These drafts are listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Lists of basic topics.

These profiles summarize essential information on each country. They are "topic outlines", but at the same time they are so much more, because Wikipedia is a hypertextual environment. Most of the topics presented are linkified, which turns these pages into a sort of site map to material about each country on Wikipedia.

The profiles share a standard format. So rather than tediously working on a single country to complete it, each participant works on all 200+ political entities, completing a single data item or detail across all of the pages. For this they use advanced tools like WP:AWB, Linky, etc. It goes fast, and since others are doing this at the same time, it makes "the World" (the set of country profiles) feel like a beehive, and the participants are its bees.  :) The energy is contagious.

And since you are moving from country to country, the tasks make it feel like you are traveling all around the world, and you get to learn a little about every country as you do so. This approach also allows for greater efficiency, because by the time you've done 30 or so of a particular item, you've figured out how to finish it faster and more effectively (such as where to find the data or how to make adjustments), and this specialization speeds up development - but more importantly it reduces errors.

The tasks are varied, which adds even more variety to the project. Some tasks are look-ups-and-fill-ins, some are copy and paste, some are image hunts, some are maintenance adjustments, some are link fixing, some are blue-linking (creating an underlying redirect so a link turns blue), some are fact checking, etc.

Standing by to help are co-coordinators, who can lend a helping hand to participants, provide instruction and tips on how to use the tools, and help them find what they are looking for. Co-coordinators also use advanced tools to inspect the work of participants, and touch it up as needed, or if a task was done wrong throughout, point this out to the participant so he or she can make the necessary corrections.

Co-coordinators are working on the set of pages right now, to familiarize themselves with "the World" so they can help more effectively by the time the main event starts. But there's still lots of preparation left to be done, and we are looking for editors experienced in advanced wikitools who would like to become co-coordinators.

The Transhumanist 23:29, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

pyramids

How about an inverted pyramid balanced on the tip of a base pyramid?

The Transhumanist 00:20, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

replied on /graphics :) -- penubag  (talk) 16:45, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Re:Xbox barnstar

Thanks, I greatly appreciate it. Regarding the specifications, whatever you do is fine with me. BW21.--BlackWatch21 02:25, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

What's up?

Hey.

The Transhumanist 19:56, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Medallion

Just to verify, do you like the map carved or sticking out like v0?-- penubag  (talk) 21:07, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Carved. The Transhumanist 21:54, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Trophy

My computer died. Luckily I have everything on flash drive. I'm currently accessing Wikipedia via a library computer, but there's no support for 3rd-party programs like GIMP, PAINT, etc. So I won't be able to help out on the actual graphics work.

Status report

It looks like the pages in the set will be ready for "Around the World" by the 15th. There are just a couple of confusing sections ("administrative divisions" and the government branches sections have temporary data that was placed there by template because it fits many but not all countries, and this may throw some people off - especially if they aren't in the competition), so we're in the process of completing those before the big event starts.

Meanwhile, there is a bot that is slowly picking away at these pages, undoing some of the work we've done. Some of the coats of arms images are tagged as copyrighted, and copyrighted images aren't supposed to be displayed in the Wikpedia namespace. And there's this bot that constantly searches for these, and every once inawhile finds one of ours. So far it has removed 5 of them. This is annoying because we've manually adjusted the sizes of the flag and coats of arms images on each page so their heights match (they are displayed side-by-side), and the bot is slowing but surely undoing that work. So I'm thinking that we may move all the pages to the article namespace as soon as the sections mentioned above are completed. The bot doesn't remove images in the main namespace. That I know of.

The proposal to change the names doesn't look like it is going to acquire consensus, so we're probably stuck with the current "List of basic x topics" names for the time being. Many of the discussion participants didn't even understand the proposal (some thought "topic outline" meant the same thing as "outline", etc.). It was a fiasco. Oh well.

I no longer have access to graphics programs (as I'm on library computers for the time being). So you're on your own there. Good luck. I look forward to seeing your great works of art.

The Transhumanist 22:14, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the status report. Sorry for being so inactive. -- penubag  (talk) 16:03, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Well medallion and atlas finished! That took me the whole weekend. Check it out on my /graphics page! -- penubag  (talk) 19:35, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

RTFM pointers for Flag templates

Hello, Penubag. You have new messages at 151.200.237.53's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

— 151.200.237.53 (talk · contribs) _{00:05, 10 July 2008 (UTC)}

i need your help!

Hi Penubag. I'm Soccer5525 and I need some help of yours. I would like to add a shoutbox to my userpage, but don't know how to. Could you give me some help? Thanks! --Soccer5525 (Tk • Ctrb) 12:53, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

I already was able to add it to my page, through asking one of my friends, Bignole. But thanks anyway! --Soccer5525 (Tk • Ctrb) 02:31, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Re:Request

Hey Transhumanist, do you think you could do me a favor? If you still have access to AWB, could you please fullfill this concern. Thanks very much if you are able to do so. -- penubag  (talk) 20:13, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

The link I provided might be too much to read, could you just fix everything that links to Special:WhatLinksHere/Ray_tracing to be Ray tracing (graphics) ? Thank you. -- penubag  (talk) 20:16, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't have access to AWB for the foreseeable future (I'm limping along on library computers). However I have set up a page for tasks like this: Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Tasks. Not that many AWB'ers know about it yet, but I'll see what I can do about that.  ;) The Transhumanist 23:20, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

I've posted a notice at WP:CBB to attract the attention of AWB'ers to the above mentioned task page. The Transhumanist 23:26, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

I'll see if I can find someone specific to help on this task. I know just the guy. The Transhumanist 23:27, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Oops. He just left on a 10-day vacation. Penubag, you should sign up for AWB. The only requirement is that you are an editor in good standing with at least 500 edits in the main namespace. See WP:AWB. I'm very familiar with the program, so if you need any help, I can talk you through it. It's pretty intuitive though, and shouldn't pose you any difficulties. Once your request for access has been granted, simply download and install the program. It's got search/replace, listbuilding, page autoloading, prepending/appending, and more. The Transhumanist 23:32, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free media (Image:KumonPe.png)

Thanks for uploading Image:KumonPe.png. The media description page currently specifies that it is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, it is currently orphaned, meaning that it is not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the media was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that media for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

If you have uploaded other unlicensed media, please check whether they're used in any articles or not. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that all non-free media not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. BJBot (talk) 06:20, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

AWB

I noticed you got approved.

Let me know if everything goes smoothly.

The Transhumanist 03:27, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

dfawdgsddrdgwedgwwfgas

^{Superscript text}

Xbox barnstar

Do you have a time frame of when you can get me that barnstar? Thanks. BW21.--BlackWatch21 16:33, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

?

The Transhumanist 01:58, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Speedy deletion of Image:+.svg

A tag has been placed on Image:+.svg requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section I8 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is available as a bit-for-bit identical copy on the Wikimedia Commons under the same name, or all references to the image on Wikipedia have been updated to point to the title used at Commons.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on [[ Talk:Image:+.svg|the talk page]] explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Lastly, please note that if the article does get deleted, you can contact one of these admins to request that a copy be emailed to you. Sdrtirs (talk) 06:51, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Status report on Wikipedia:WikiProject Lists of basic topics#Basic topics lists for countries

There is only one section left (including its subsections) that needs to be completed before the pages are ready for Around the World:

• Branches of the government of x
  • Executive branch of the government of x
  • Legislative branch of the government of x
  • Judicial branch of the government of x

There are a few more things that need to be completed before the lists can be moved into the main namespace:

• Fill in the blanks, and blank [[]]'s
  • Population:
  • Size:
  • "(specific elections)" needs to be replaced by links to specific elections (by year, usually)
  • International organization membership
  • Commander-in-chief: [[]]
  • Economic rank:
  • Currency of x:
• Blue-linking (creating redirects for) standardized items for which the articles' names are not standardized:
  • Army of x
  • Navy of x
  • Air Force ox x
• Fix other temporary links
  • World Heritage sites in x (they all point to the same place, and need to be fixed)
  • "Capital of x" needs to be replaced with the actual capital name
• Material in the lead paragraph(s) that is covered in the body of the list needs to be removed, or moved from the lead to the relevant items in the list.
• Fill in the External Links section

Moving these lists into the main namespace could have a huge impact on their development, because then each list will fall under the scope of the WikiProjects of the respective countries. That's a lot of WikiProjects that may become involved with refining and maintaining these lists.

The move will be accompanied with the placing of new sections on each of the WikiProject pages, their talk pages, placing banners on the talk pages of each list, and including links to these lists in hatnotes on the relevant articles and portals, and placing section links in the see also sections of relevant articles (Geography of x, Military of x, etc.). Lots of AWB work.

The Transhumanist 00:29, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Greetings Penubag

You popped in at the John Dewey page at the beginning of the year and correctly commented that the article was indigestible (my words). I came across the article a few days ago and have since applied my heavy-handed meatball surgery tactics to it and would appreciate some pointers and constructive criticism for ironing out some of the more obviously out-of-place stuff, etc. As everything at Wikipedia, this is obviously long-term, so please don't feel obliged to drop everything, but consensus is the word :) Regards, --Technopat (talk) 11:20, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Greetings Penubag, Thanks for your moral support. I fully agree with your comments, but am slightly worried 'cos I don't think I've actually changed anything yet to the bit you most approve of! But as I don't actually remember now, maybe I did :) Regards, --Technopat (talk) 10:23, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia's founder

Hi! I just saw your edit summary about Jimmy - it's a matter of some dispute. Larry Sanger claims that he and Jimmy Wales are co-founders, Jimmy tends to disagree. It's all rather confusing and probably best not to get involved in - the arguments have a tendency to get a little personal. I wouldn't worry about having removed the "co-", but if someone does revert you, I suggest you just forget about it. Happy editing! --Tango (talk) 07:43, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

hi

if you like games play tribal wars —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.178.169.202 (talk) 15:39, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Shoutbox

Your userpage rocks and I love it!How did you make that shoutbox? I'd like one! ♣PrincessClown♥ 01:28, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Can you make one for me? ♣PrincessClown♥ 15:51, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks sooooo much for making a shoutbox for me! It rocks! But there is a slight problem, I dunno what the blank thing at the side is for and when I put it at the bottom at the page, it's looks a bit awkward. Do you mind helping me fixing it a bit? I'm not the best at this stuff. Thank you soooooooooooooo much! ♣PrincessClown♥ 20:34, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Sorry. I fixed the problem. It's nothing! ♣PrincessClown♥ 21:11, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

		The Excellent Userpage Award
		You deserve a barnstar for your amazing userpage and for helping me with the shoutbox. It probably wasn't easy! Thanks and cheers! ♣PrincessClown♥ 16:29, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with Image:Nintendo Wii motionplus.jpg

Thanks for uploading Image:Nintendo Wii motionplus.jpg. You've indicated that the image is being used under a claim of fair use, but you have not provided an adequate explanation for why it meets Wikipedia's requirements for such images. In particular, for each page the image is used on, the image must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Can you please check

• That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for each article the image is used in.
• That every article it is used on is linked to from its description page.

This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. --FairuseBot (talk) 07:28, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Image:Selfpor.jpg listed for deletion

An image or media file that you uploaded or altered, Image:Selfpor.jpg, has been listed at Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion. Please see the discussion to see why this is (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry), if you are interested in it not being deleted. Thank you. OsamaK^{Reply? on my talk page, please} 12:26, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Wow

I'm tingling with excitement.

It won't be long now...

I've replied on your graphics page.

The Transhumanist 04:44, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

To my reply I added a link to a page with examples of perspective text on it. (I'm letting you know in case you've already read the reply). The Transhumanist 04:52, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

another reply is waiting for you on your graphics page. The Transhumanist 22:38, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

and a couple more for you too.  :) The Transhumanist 22:12, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Status report on the rest of the project

I and a few others have been working steadily on the country lists. They're shaping up nicely. So far, 28 of them have been moved to article space - these aren't complete, but they are complete enough to be made available for readers to benefit from them. The rest of the set still includes temporary data that was generated by template (because it matched most but not all of the countries), and before the lists can be moved to article space, all the temporary data needs to be checked for accuracy, and if incorrect it needs to be replaced with correct information.

The effort on the lists has been on 3 fronts:

1. Working on the lists in article space to complete them so they will be good examples for editors working on the rest of the set.
2. Adding or correcting other data (fixing redlinks, filling in blanks, etc.). The main type of work participants in "the contest" will be doing. The reason we're doing this is to get a feel for it, to develop the fastest methods for each type of task, etc.
3. Improving the overall design and implenting changes on all 247 pages, whether in article space or not.

There has been some opposition to us running a contest based on edit counts or iterations. The concern is that we should reward quality work and not quantity, for fear of crappy edits done quickly without thought. I pointed out that the collection of pages are drafts in the Wikipedia namespace (therefore posing no danger to article space) and that most of the work needs to be done with power tools like AWB and Linky (which are specifically designed for repetitive work), but the reply was that we shouldn't set the precedent of rewarding barnstars for numerically-based tasks, and implied the threat of continuously MfD'ing the contest if we attempted to do so (like they did with the Awards Center - I was very surprised that participants didn't step up to defend it). So we need to be careful in determining what exactly the awards will represent, and how they will be awarded.

Since rewarding iterations (passes with AWB on all of the pages in the set) are out, we really don't need the globe in stand anymore. Two awards should suffice.

Once we get started with the contest, I'd like to kick the whole thing off with a round of medals for those dedicated few who have worked hard on the project so far.

What do you think of all of this?

Your comments and suggestions are most welcome.

The Transhumanist 22:55, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

You've got a reply...

I've responded to your thoughtful comments on my talk page. The Transhumanist 19:14, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Something to keep in mind

I have some concern over how we should proceed with the contest, based on this:

User_talk:The_Transhumanist/Archive_17#Around_the_award-seeking_World

The Transhumanist 19:16, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Main Page redesign

The Main Page Redesign proposal is currently conducting a straw poll to select five new designs, before an RFC in which one will be proposed to replace the Main Page. The poll closes on October 31st. Your input would be hugely appreciated! Many thanks, Pretzels^Talk! 15:12, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Adrenalin shot needed (that's where you come in)

Even though lots of work is going into them, work on the country outlines seems to be going at a snail's pace. We have the equivalent of one person working on them daily (around 2 to 3 hours per day), which is awesome and keeps things moving forward. But I estimate it will take 2 man years (at 8 hours per day) to complete the country outlines, which includes completion of content (and associated redirects and disambiguaton pages) and placement of images. Which means, at the current rate of development, we're more than 4 years out from completion. It's almost daunting.

I've been thinking about it, and it occurred to me that you have the pivotal role in this operation: the awards you have been working on will provide the context we need (excitement, by providing the basis for a contest) to attract attention (and new participants) to this project.

If we can get 20 dedicated editors working on the country outline set 2 or 3 hours per day, such a team could complete the textual content in less than two months, and move all the outlines to article space where they will attract even more attention (along with notices on all corresponding country wikiprojects).

The idea is to get these things integrated into the encyclopedia so they can achieve critical mass. Then even more people will see them and hopefully help develop them to completion (and keep them maintained). What this means is...

We're all counting on you.

No pressure or anything.  :) I just thought you'd like to know that you are very important to me and to this project. I/we wouldn't be able to do this without you. Thank you.

Keep up the excellent work. I look forward to the completed trophy with extreme anticipation.

No hurry, but like Atlas in the trophy, the world rests on your shoulders.  ;)

Have fun.

Sincerely,

The Transhumanist 02:36, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Aww, I'm blushing :). Thank you for your kind words. I didn't realize how much this meant to the whole thing. I am really happy that you acknowledge my work; something I scarcely experience on Wikipedia. Thanks.

As for some more ideas, I think that maybe showing off the awards to uninvolved people will encourage them to contribute. As for spreading the word, little templated notices on a few userpages is all we can do, advertising elsewhere will give this project a bad reputation. Actually, a couple userpage templates will probably do the cut (I know for a fact that just because my signature is such a protruding color, I get so many clicks (don't ask how I know)). I could come up with a mock design we could use and a few of us could host the template.

Also, if my work really makes that much of a difference to the project, I could set aside a few minutes in real life and work for you (ie. more graphic works or page designing(although your userpage proves you really good at that)), although I can't exactly gaurantee it. Just let me know if there's anything else I can do, I'll be glad to help! -- penubag  (talk) 05:31, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

I know you've come under fire from people concerned that this project would promote a bunch of useless editing in order to win the awards. Instead of awarding based on edit count you could award based on the amount of content added/removed or changed (ie word count). Thought-provoakative edits should be also given credit even though only a few words may be changed. Fluff wouldn't count and you (or perhaps a group of people) could judge the edits of the participants and come to a conclusion who gets what award. In fact, every participant can be a judge, each with 2 votes to eliminate choosing of themselves, or maybe the bureaucratic way could be better, with you being the sole judge.

I could make a dozen other small awards which could be given out for just participating which get more people on board or for doing other medial tasks. We can toy with this idea. -- penubag  (talk) 06:17, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

I came up with a little mock up template design here. -- penubag  (talk) 07:15, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

It was strongly implied that any awards page we set up for this would be interpretted as a recreation of the Awards Center and would be speedy deleted. Therefore, I will not be hosting any page where awards are offered. This time around we need to do things totally differently so that there is no similarity to the previous awards project at all. Our previous approach was objected to, so we won't be using that approach. We're ditching "Around the World" and its concept of rewarding for the "most trips around the world" (a variation of edit counting). We need to rethink the collaboration from scratch, and decide on how to best apply the awards you have created.

Keep in mind that offers of awards still take place on Wikipedia, on user talk pages and on the Wikipedia:Reward board (take a close look at that page). I could post reward notices there; then any objections could be dealt with on an edit by edit basis. Care would be taken that awards would be in line with other awards being offered, and that barnstars are not watered down by rewarding trivial or slight effort.

Note that the barnstar page emphasises rewarding "hard work". So we'll focus on that.

I look forward to your further ideas and suggestions.

The Transhumanist 03:51, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

What about the template idea I had above? -- penubag  (talk) 23:24, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

That sounds good. The more places we can announce this at, the better. We can also make announcements at the community portal, on the geography WikiProject page, and on the Outline of Knowledge WikiProject page. The people over at Wikipedia:WikiProject Awards might also be interested. The awards themselves can be displayed at Wikipedia:Personal user awards.

There's no lack of places we can announce this collaboration at.

The Transhumanist 22:24, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Another country outline moved to article space!

Topic outline of Zimbabwe is now in article space. It still needs images and some bluelinking, and is undoubtedly missing some relevant links.

Please take a look at it. You will no doubt spot things you can easily fix that I overlooked.

The Transhumanist 19:46, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

That's great news! I don't see any problems first-hand except for the red links. -- penubag  (talk) 05:32, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm trying to get work done on yet another front

Over the past few weeks, I've been exploring the possibility of getting bots to do some of the work on the country outlines. If we can find a dedicated bot maker/user to help on these, it could really speed up development.

See my latest attempt at User_talk:Rich_Farmbrough#Bot_request_for_the_bot_expert_.28you.29...

I'm telling you this in case you have some helpful insights or suggestions, or some bot expert friends.  :)

We have many tasks that could probably be done by bot.

Also, let me know if you'd like to try your hand at this type of thing. I've read that Python (programming language) can be learned in a few days. And macro scripts are also pretty powerful.

The Transhumanist 23:52, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, I'd be no help at programming. I am going to take a few college classes in the future but you won't see anything for a while. -- penubag  (talk) 05:34, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Well, macro programs are no more difficult to use than graphics programs, and they increase your power immediately by about a magnitude. Some are very easy to learn, because you already know the basics - the simplest macros are just recordings of keystrokes which you can activate with a hotkey that you define. To create macros, you just activate the macro recording feature and start typing away. After you press the stop key combo and save the macro, you can either run it or go look at the macro in script form and edit it - a nice way to ease into writing scripts.

Come on in, the water's fine.

I've read that Python (named after Monty Python's Flying Circus and not the snake) is almost as easy to learn, being a scripting language - so moving on to this won't be so hard once you've been exposed to macro scripts. I'll be trying my hand at Python just as soon as I get a new laptop.

The Transhumanist 19:46, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

Alright, I'll give it a shot when I've got some time on my hands. -- penubag  (talk) 23:26, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

Feedback is coming in

I posted a request for feedback on the trophy image, and people have been leaving their comments about Atlas on my talk page.

The Transhumanist 21:02, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

Want power?

See this: Wikipedia:Linky tutorial.

The Transhumanist 01:51, 9 November 2008 (UTC)

Wrong image license

I see that you made and uploaded Image:Ambox currentevent warfare.png. But you marked it as "public domain", but you may not do that since inside that image you reuse Image:TT 3.jpg which has the license "Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5". To make your image legal you have to mark it with the same license (Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5) and properly attribute the author of Image:TT 3.jpg. If you fail to do so your image has to be deleted. (Note that I can not change the license of your image for you, that would not be legal, even though it is obvious what needs to be done.)

--David Göthberg (talk) 04:47, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, I'm usually pretty good at licenses and attribution, so I missed that one. Thanks for informing me, I'll be more careful in the future. -- penubag  (talk) 06:15, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

I will put your page up for deletion

I am sorry but the page Wikipeda:User access levels simply does not need to exist. There are many, many Wikipedia namespace pages and your not telling me you are going to going to create every single one of them with Wikipeda and redirect. I am sorry. It just doesn't need to exist. Certainly not for user access levels. Maybe the most important Wikipedia namespace page can have all the typos in the world and redirected to it. Thanks, id like your thought 211.30.109.24 (talk) 11:07, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

I am saying i am thinking of putting that page for deletion per WP:CSD#R3, redirect from an implausible typo. 211.30.109.24 (talk) 11:18, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

"Wikipeda"? 211.30.109.24 (talk) 11:23, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

Update

The outlines are turning out to be one hell of a development tool, and regularly turn up problems with Wikipedia's country coverage...

I keep getting sucked in to tangents, fixing related sets (yes, sets) of pages. Of course, I bring the team along with me.  :)

For example, we're currently working on adjectivals for all the countries, creating disambiguation pages for each. And we're fixing the CIA World Factbook data presentation on each Demographics of x article (one for almost every country). And standardizing the article names for country cuisine.

And of course creating redirects for all those redlinks!

There doesn't seem to be any end to it.

Well, we're doing this because it all connects through the outlines, and the outlines (which are basically lists of links) are only as good as the pages they link to.

We're making quite an impact on Wikipedia's Geography coverage (cleaning it up, etc.).

By the way, how is the trophy coming?

The Transhumanist 04:14, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

That sounds really good! I'm excited to watch the encyclopedia grow in real-time, and all the effort put in is astounding! I can hardily wait until eveything's done and deserving people are rewarded. The trophy's coming along slowly, some of the changes are particularly challenging and sometimes the end result looks worse than what was started with. But hopefully I'll pull through. I'll notify you when I have another version complete. -- penubag  (talk) 11:41, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Image:Phase change - en.svg

Hi, Penubag. I don't really like the "dark-bands" that you added on Image:Phase change - en.svg, because these bands aren't parallel with the words near there. I propose to cancel the dark lines or make them parallel to the words below. --Aushulz (talk) 23:14, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

It seems better. Good work. ^^ --Aushulz (talk) 10:30, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Love the ASCII work!

I really like your ASCII work, and was wondering if you'd let me use it on my page! わwaらraうu Smile! 04:38, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! 有難うございます! わwaらraうu Smile! 05:13, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

		The Excellent Userpage Award
		Nice page! わwaらraうu Smile! 06:13, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

今日は、ペヌバグ！お元気ですか？Moocows rule 21:47, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

I used to live there... when I was two. But now I live in the US :D Moocows rule 00:31, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

My first one! (It's a bit hard to tell what it says, but it says "今日は" Konnichiwa) Moocows rule 22:13, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

□□□□□■□□□□□■■■■■■■□■□□□■□□□□
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□□□□□□□■□□□■□□□□□■□■□□■■■□□□
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□□□□□■□□□□□■■■■■■■□■□□■□□■□□

It looks better in a word document, which is what I designed it in, and Wikipedia makes it looks weird. moocows rule 06:59, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for changing it around! It does look better now! moocows rule 01:21, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

WikiProject Xbox: Thanks

On behalf of the WikiProject Xbox and Blackwatch21, I want to thank you for the barnstar image you created for our project. It was exactly what we were looking for. Thanks Again DJS --DJS24 16:22, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks

This is Blackwatch21 from WikiProject Xbox. Sorry I haven't been able to get back to you but I was on vacation since Thursday. Great job on the barnstar. But I have one more favor. If you could, could you make us a logo using the center piece of the barnstar excluding the stars. Recently we have had a copyright issue. Thanks. BW21.--BlackWatch21 04:30, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Races

I came across two geography bee champions, each claiming to know all the capitals of the world by heart.

Highfields and Blackadam2.

So I challenged them to race each other, filling in the capitals on the country outlines.

Can you whip up an award image with a wikiworld (center), a green flag (on the left) leaning to the left with its pole crossing a checkered flag (on the right, leaning to the right)?

checkered flag

The Transhumanist 03:04, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Cool, and thank you for the speedy reply. (Wanna race?) I'm sure we'll need it a lot. Many of the tasks on the country outlines can be set up as races. Either splitting the list in half for each race, or posing two or more slightly different tasks against each other. Individuals or even teams can compete. I think this will be a lot of fun. The Transhumanist 03:26, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Wow, that's almost perfect. Just a couple little details:

1. Please remove the names, as this is an award image. The actual awards it will be used in shall be boxes (bordered areas created via layout wikicode), which will contain the image and text, like barnstar awards do - that way we can reuse the image by customizing awards by including different text in the box. I hope to use the award image for many race awards.
2. Can you lower (rotate) the flag poles (and hence the flags) to the sides, so that more of the world shows between them? So they're sticking up at a 30-degree angle instead of the current 60-degrees?

I'm impressed by how fast you put these elements together. The ribbons and the number 1 are especially nice touches, and make the award even more impressive. The color scheme is awesome too. Thank you. The Transhumanist 21:05, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

That is an improvement. But it appears that I wasn't very clear in my previous explanation. "30-degree angle" was kind of vague. I'm sorry about that.

Imagine that the base end of each flag's pole is at the center of its own clock. The checkered flagpole should be pointing at 2 o'clock on its clock, and the green flag's pole should be pointing at 10 o'clock on its clock. (2 different center points = 2 clocks).

I hope that explanation is clearer.

For an example of a 30-degree angle, see Special right triangles#30-60-90 triangle. The angle could of course be facing any direction. When someone specifies "30-degrees" without mentioning an orientation, they are usually referring to 30-degrees off of the horizontal. (To see that, flip the diagram on its left side - then the hypotenuse (of the triangle with the dotted base line) will be pointing up to the right at 30-degrees - the same angle the checkered flag's pole should be sticking out at. The green flag's pole should be sticking out to the left at 30-degrees off the horizontal.

I hope this helps. Good luck. The Transhumanist 00:27, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

By the way, I love the blue tint you gave to the oceans. Nice touch. The Transhumanist 00:44, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Great Job

Thanks for images, I must say first. We are going to use one of your two logos most likely. I really like the barnstar one but is there a possibility that it could get deleted because it resembles the power button the Xbox 360. Lastly is there a way that you could put WikiProject Xbox going around both of the logos. Thanks again, BW21.--BlackWatch21 20:46, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, one last thing can you make two seperate logos, one with the text and one without. I tried to myself but I think I messed everything up. So if you don't mind fixing it. Thanks again, BW21.--BlackWatch21 20:02, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Nevermind I fixed it. :).--BlackWatch21 19:41, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

One last thing, is there a way you could change the logo in this ad abd put it to this logo. Thanks. BW21.--BlackWatch21 19:52, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Okay, but I have to find my GIF compatible extension. I'll get it to you sometime this week. -- penubag  (talk) 06:23, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

• yepyep, nice work. –xeno (talk) 06:09, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

		The Xbox Barnstar
		For your work great work creating imagery for use in WikiProject XBox, I award you the Xbox Barnstar! –xeno (talk) 06:09, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, this means a lot to me -- penubag  (talk) 09:18, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with Image:Flag pole10-00&2-00.png

Thanks for uploading Image:Flag pole10-00&2-00.png. The image has been identified as not specifying the copyright status of the image, which is required by Wikipedia's policy on images. If you don't indicate the copyright status of the image on the image's description page, using an appropriate copyright tag, it may be deleted some time in the next seven days. If you have uploaded other images, please verify that you have provided copyright information for them as well.

For more information on using images, see the following pages:

• Wikipedia:Image use policy
• Wikipedia:Image copyright tags

This is an automated notice by OrphanBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. 09:31, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Image Help

Hello, Penubag, I know you are really good at graphics and images and all that jazz so I came to you with my question. "How do you make Images that you upload on Wikipedia transparent?" (I'm not for sure what it is called but I mean when the background of the image shows the grey and white boxes). I don't know if it is something you do on a software outside of wikipedia or it does it automaticaly or if there is something that you can click that will do it while you are uploading an image. I thought it did it automatically but when I uploaded an image it only showed a white background. Also, what does the grey and white background do anyway? Please write back on My talk page to answer my questions. I would highly appreciate it if you can get me an answer. Thank You.

Sincerely,

Madadude (talk) 23:42, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

• Thank you that helped me alot here are some questions and comments I have though.

1. when you made the transparent background image (thank you for doing so) the car looks slightly blurred and I am not sure why.
2. I'm not sure how you even found the car, I am just curious on how you found it but I am glad you did.
3. The transparent background image that you uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. Is it easier to upload it on Commons rather than on Wikipedia. I do not yet have a Wikimedia Commons account (weirdly since I have one on Wikipedia English, Wikipedia Spanish, WikiColdplay, Wiktionary, WikiGreenDay, and Wikibooks), so I might make one.
4. Does the background transparent software come on Adobe Photoshop 8. I also use that to so imaging?

Thank You so much for the advice. Oh and I saw the Graphic Image thing you made for the winner of the race for naming the countries capitols hosted by The Transhumanist and it was definitely the best image you have made other than the Apollo Trophy. It makes me wish I hadn't dropped out of that race. You are the definitely the best image/graphic person on Wikipedia.

Sincerely,

Madadude (talk) 05:21, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

• O.K. Thanks, I have to go to bed now for it is 10:47 here in Arizona but I would like to ask you one thing and tell you one thing

1. I downloaded GIMP from its website and thank you for suggesting it.
2. I won't get your answer until tomorrow but on GIMP (if you can give me an answer) where is the transparent tool. If you don't have GIMP and you have Adobe Photoshop, I also have that and could you tell me where the tool is on that. I mainly need it on GIMP, thatnk you and good night and happy holidays,

Madadude (talk) 05:50, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

• I could not figure out transparency on GIMP but I easily figured it out on Photoshop so I created transparency in the back changed it to .PNG and here it is:

Thank You just one thing I am to stupid to figure out. I'm still not sure what Transparency does, but I guess that is one 12 year old's mind when he has been up since 4:00 AM the last morning and it is 11:33 PM.

Madadude (talk) 06:33, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Bot congratulations

Thanks Penubag for your words. Now, it is running again :). Emijrp (talk) 18:25, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome! -- penubag  (talk) 02:50, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Celebration passed on

·Add§hore· ^Talk/_Cont is wishing you a Merry Christmas! This greeting (and season) promotes WikiLove and hopefully this note has made your day a little better. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Don't eat yellow snow!

Spread the holiday cheer by adding {{subst:User:Flaming/MC2008}} to their talk page with a friendly message. ·Add§hore· ^Talk/_Cont 19:36, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Jiyū e no Shōtai?

How would you translate "自由への招待"? Freedom's Invitation? ムーカオズルール^{(Talk to Moo)} 08:11, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

I would say it says Invitation to freedom -- penubag  (talk) 09:17, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with File:Nintendo Wii motionplus.jpg

Thanks for uploading File:Nintendo Wii motionplus.jpg. You've indicated that the image is being used under a claim of fair use, but you have not provided an adequate explanation for why it meets Wikipedia's requirements for such images. In particular, for each page the image is used on, the image must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Can you please check

• That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for each article the image is used in.
• That every article it is used on is linked to from its description page.

This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. --FairuseBot (talk) 18:32, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Xbox Barnstar

		The Xbox Barnstar
		For the creation for the WikiProject Xbox's logos, I award you this barnstar.--BlackWatch21 22:19, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Thankyou blackwatch, I really appreciate this! -- penubag  (talk) 09:04, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Wow! I didnt even notice that xenocide gave you one too. My bad. BW21.--BlackWatch21 21:29, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

no, I really appreciate these things! They show that I my work here isn't a complete waste. -- penubag  (talk) 08:21, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Would you be so kind...

...as to move your comments in the RfC into the discussion block under your !vote? It would really simplify things to hold conversations/opinions somewhere other than the tally area. Thanks. — BQZip01 — ^talk 23:21, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Consensus Building

As a user who responded to the straw poll regarding non-free images in sports, your further input is requested with regards to the Straw poll summary and proposed guidelines on image use — BQZip01 — ^talk 01:03, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I really support what you are doing here, using non free logos should not be an issue in wikipedia especially when they have FUR. Thank you for taking a stand. -- penubag  (talk) 09:03, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Replaceable fair use Image:Nintendo Wii motionplus.jpg

Replaceable fair use

Thanks for uploading Image:Nintendo Wii motionplus.jpg. I noticed the description page specifies that the media is being used under a claim of fair use, but its use in Wikipedia articles fails our first non-free content criterion in that it illustrates a subject for which a freely licensed media could reasonably be found or created that provides substantially the same information. If you believe this media is not replaceable, please:

1. Go to the media description page and edit it to add {{di-replaceable fair use disputed}}, without deleting the original replaceable fair use template.
2. On the image discussion page, write the reason why this image is not replaceable at all.

Alternatively, you can also choose to replace this non-free media by finding freely licensed media of the same subject, requesting that the copyright holder release this (or similar) media under a free license, or by taking a picture of it yourself.

If you have uploaded other non-free media, consider checking that you have specified how these images fully satisfy our non-free content criteria. You can find a list of description pages you have edited by clicking on this link. Note that even if you follow steps 1 and 2 above, non-free media which could be replaced by freely licensed alternatives will be deleted 2 days after this notification (7 days if uploaded before 13 July 2006), per our non-free content policy. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. Do you want to opt out of receiving this notice? Specifically, I don't understand why we need a non-free image for hardware. (ESkog)^(Talk) 03:07, 8 January 2009 (UTC) Becuase just like any other image, it adds to the text and helps explain the article visually. -- penubag  (talk) 08:55, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Flagged Revs

Hi,

I noticed you voted oppose in the flag revs straw pole and would like to ask if you would mind adding User:Promethean/No to your user or talk page to make your position clear to people who visit your page :) - Thanks to Neurolysis for the template   «l| Ψrometheăn ™|l»  (talk) 06:59, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Loves Art

First off, I apologize for the spam. You are receiving this message because you have indicated that you are in Southern California or interested in Southern California topics (either via category or WikiProject).

I would like to invite you to the Los Angeles edition of Wikipedia:Wikipedia Loves Art, a photography scavenger hunt to be held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) on Saturday, February 28, 2009, from 1:00 to 7:00 PM. All photos are intended for use in Wikipedia articles or on Wikimedia Commons. There will be a prize available for the person who gets the most photos on the list.

If you don't like art, why not come just to meet your fellow Wikipedians. Apparently, we haven't had a meetup in this area since June 2006!

If you are interested in attending, please add your name to Wikipedia:Wikipedia Loves Art#Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Please make a note if you are traveling to the area (train or plane) and need transportation, which can probably be arranged via carpool, but we need time to coordinate. Lodging is as of right now out of scope, but we could discuss that if enough people are interested.

Thank you and I hope to see you there! howcheng {chat} 00:17, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

you've got a message on your graphics page (eom)

... and another.

By the way, I've tested the trophy out on my talk page, and the background transparency (the part of the image surrounding the trophy) works great (and shows up as the background color of my talk page). Nicely done. The Transhumanist 03:42, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Racing award graphic

I've used your graphic to reward the winner of the first race! See it at User_talk:Highfields.

Thank you. It looks great!

The Transhumanist 03:25, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for notifying me! I love to see my artwork go live :D !!-- penubag  (talk) 03:35, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

OpenOffice.org Writer

Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia, one or more of the external links you added to the page OpenOffice.org Writer do not comply with our guidelines for external links and have been removed. Wikipedia is not a collection of links; nor should it be used for advertising or promotion. Since Wikipedia uses nofollow tags, external links do not alter search engine rankings. If you feel the link should be added to the article, please discuss it on the article's talk page before reinserting it. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you. [1] [2]

An independent, reliable source for the information would certainly be acceptable instead. Otherwise, it looks too promotional to add links this way. --Ronz (talk) 17:29, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Final version

As a contributor to the discussion regarding sports team logos, I am soliciting feedback as to the latest version of that guideline. Your support/opposition/feedback would be appreciated. — BQZip01 — ^talk 22:01, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Would you object to including provisions that allow for a single non-free image as a last resort if no free images exist? I think this will help bring some of those who object to the support side of the house. At the same time, it also gives a little more ammunition because it indicates it is a last resort; if a free image exists, then those images can't be used. My efforts show that almost all college football teams (which seems to be the general genre of those who oppose), if not all, have a valid free image available. In the interests of not cluttering up the talk page any further, please just respond here. — BQZip01 — ^talk 02:21, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Progress report: Country outlines

Development has been slow but continuous:

Penubag has done a fantastic job on the images for the awards we'll be using for our project's collaborations and contests. We now have 3 awards: a medal, a trophy, and a race ribbon. They all look tight. The trophy needs a small adjustment, but other than that, all 3 awards are complete and ready to use.

Spartaz has warned us of (threatened to take) G4 (speedy delete) action if we run a competition that resembles the previously deleted Awards Center page. So whatever we do, any contests we run must differ substantially from the methods used there.

One type of competition I've been exploring is edit racing. I'm in the process of working the bugs out of this concept - the first race didn't work as expected - you see, because we only had an award for first place, the opponent didn't think it worthwhile to continue once it was clear who the winner would be. And since editors are in different time zones and usually need to start the race at different times, we need to base winning on personal start times - he who completes his assigned edits in the least time (rather than first), wins. And last but not least is quality control. What good is winning if your edits are ripe with errors? So I'll be exploring possibilities such as using a referee (whoever is overseeing a particular race), having participants watching each other for errors to knock them back, etc. I'm not sure yet.

Rich Farmbrough has been applying his bot expertise to filling in blanks in the country outlines (the population and area entries). I'm amazed at the number of edits he pumps out each day on a myriad of projects - ours makes up but a small time slice of his activity, and yet he has saved us many hours of manual work. Perhaps we should look into how he gets so much done.  :)

Zlerman has chosen to work on one outline at a time, and is taking on Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. He also has been keen on noticing and reporting design issues pertaining to the whole set of country outlines. Keep up the good work!

Highfields has been filling in the names of capitals, and is our first race winner. Check out the award on his user pages.

As you probably know, this project has expanded to include working on any and all sets of pages that are linked to from the country outlines. Once the set of country outlines go live (in article space), traffic will likely increase for all the links included on them. The quality and usefulness of those pages will reflect heavily on the country outlines (the outlines, which are essentially lists of links, are only as good as the links they present), and therefore we've branched out to solve the biggest problems with those as well. So far, we've taken on:

• The creation of disambiguation pages for country adjectivals ("German", "French", "Taiwanese", etc. About half done.)
• The clean-up of the CIA World Factbook statistics on the "demographics of" country pages. We've been renaming those sections to provide a key string that AWB can use for targetting (for skipping and filtering). Once that's done, we'll be able to break the clean-up down into simple AWB search/replace tasks, because we'll be able to target just those pages that include the CIA stuff.
• Renaming the "Cuisine of" articles to their adjectival forms ("Chinese cuisine", "Italian cuisine", etc.)

Blackadam2 and Thehelpfulone have been helping out with the "demographics of" pages mentioned above.

And we have a couple speed addicts (addicted to wiki-velocity, not drugs)...

Both Robert Skyhawk and Thehelpfulone prefer (and excel at) simple AWB search/replaces. Robert hasn't actually joined our team yet, but he has been helping out quite a bit from the sidelines (via the WP:AWB/Tasks page. Unfortunately, there has recently been a non-AWB chore that has been holding things up on the AWB front - an edit to all the the headings which had to be reverted before too many new edits were made, because any new edits would make the reversion more difficult. The headings have been restored, so now the way is clear for AWB operations, and there are many search/replace tasks in the queue. AWB assignments have started again!

There's a similar bottleneck on the "Demographics of" pages (the "keying" mentioned above), but that's almost cleared too.  :)

With my internet access somewhat crippled, I've been finding it difficult to keep up with you guys. However, I expect to be accessing a Linky-capable workstation on a faster server (I'm on it right now, as you can probably tell from my contributions list for today), and so I should really pick up speed. Feels goooooood.  :)

Recruiting has been a bit slow (but steady), due in part to my crippled access, and because we've been waiting for the images for the awards to be completed. I expect the team to grow more rapidly as the bottlenecks are removed.

Well that's what's been happenin', and here's what's in the pipeline...

I'm about to begin work on a set of lists that corresponds to all the standard links on the country outlines, and these will be presented on the Topic outline of countries which will be organized exactly like the country outlines. Aside from being an extremely useful navigation aid, it will allow editors to easily see the state of country coverage on Wikipedia. I'll provide you with a link once I get up to speed on this.

In the meantime, keep up the good work!

Cheers,

The Transhumanist 05:21, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the updated info. It was nice to get the full scoop on what was happening and since I've been curious, this satisifes it. There could be an alternative to a race, have you seen how Wikicup does it? I haven't looked into it, but it seems interesting and fun.-- penubag  (talk) 06:04, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

You got a reply

On your graphics page.

The Transhumanist 23:36, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Race images request

I noticed a flaw in the way I ran the test race. Once someone completes their assignment and wins a race, the other participants will probably stop, leaving their assignments incomplete - because they will consider the race over.

In order to keep such races going, all the participants should get a place ribbon once they complete their respective assignments.

Therefore, would you make 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th-place versions of the ribbon?

I believe races with place ribbons will be more fun (and rewarding) for everyone involved.

I think you came up with this idea initially. Sorry it took me so long to catch on.

The Transhumanist 23:36, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

You're on early today! I'll get on those. -- penubag  (talk) 23:59, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

I finished the design I'd have for 2nd place. Can you approve of it before I work on the others? Thank you. -- penubag  (talk) 19:39, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Ha! Nevermind! I worked all day on designs I thought were cool and I finished all 5 awards! I think they turned out nice! Have a look at the first place award and scroll down onto the image summary in the Other Versions section to see all the other awards. As always, tell me if you want something fixed. -- penubag  (talk) 06:31, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Awesome. Simply awesome. No changes needed. These look fantastic! Also, I checked them for transparent backgrounds and shrinkability, and they are perfect as far as I can tell. You've outdone yourself. Thank you. The Transhumanist 20:19, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Great! I'm thrilled you like them! Sometimes I get so enthralled, it's hard to stop. Thank you for your compliments. btw, notify me when the race will start, if I'm available, I'd love to watch. -- penubag  (talk) 05:18, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Penubag/Archives/5, from the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Have a great day!

Versus22 _talk 10:09, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the Happy Birthday template! Even though it may have only took a few seconds, it means a lot. Just when I think no one remembers, Wikipedia--the best place ever does, and I'd like to thank you for making my day, as well as everyone else at the birthday committee. Thank you for helping to make this site an enjoyable one. -- penubag  (talk) 05:14, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

No problem, Penubag! Versus22 _talk 05:17, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

You over the hill yet?  :) The Transhumanist 22:28, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I'll just say that I can see the top but pray I won't be over it for awhile. -- penubag  (talk) 05:38, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Country outlines project update

There has been a flurry of activity on the project as of late - so much so that I felt compelled to write another progress report...

More racing award graphics!

Penubag has completed 4 more award graphics for our upcoming edit races. They look great!

New outline developer

Buaidh has joined the effort to develop country outlines. Like Zlerman, he has chosen specific outlines to work on. Which ones? All the countries of the Americas!

Bots!

User talk:Thehelpfulone now has a bot, and User talk:Robert Skyhawk has requested approval for one. Work on the country outlines using these should start soon. I feel the technological singularity approaching.  :)

Regex

Several of us have been trying to figure out how to use regular expressions (regex), in AWB, and once we have done this, we should be able to insert country names into entries for all the outlines using a single search/replace regex.

User talk:Thehelpfulone has successfully used AWB and regex to complete a 2-line search/replace using the \n command.

Regex repository - please add to it!

As a reference aid, I've set up the page User:The Transhumanist/Regexes for reporting the regexes we use. Please post regexes you've used successfully to that page. That way, everyone on the team can learn from each others' successes and we thereby leverage our experience collectively. Thank you.

The Transhumanist 22:28, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the update-- penubag  (talk) 05:38, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

You maybe interested in the Article Rescue Squadron

Article Rescue Squadron

I notice that you are part of Category:Inclusionist_Wikipedians. I would like you to consider joining the Article Rescue Squadron. Rescue Squadron members are focused on rescuing articles for deletion, that might otherwise be lost forever. I know you will find our project matches your vision of Wikipedia.

Ikip (talk) 20:26, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

New team member

Be sure to welcome our newest member, User talk:NuclearWarfare, to the team!

See his talk page for the task he's taking on.

The Transhumanist 00:03, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

The project may be catching on. Take a look at this!

Someone not on the team has come along and moved one of the country outline drafts to article space. This is a great sign, as it means the set of pages is attracting attention.

It's Topic outline of Romania.

Please help complete it ASAP. Here's why:

It's got some awkward stuff in there, including blank links, redlinks (that need to be bluelinked by creating redirects), and apparently irrelevant entries (kept for comparison purposes, that need to be filled in with "none"), etc.

Many editors tend to remove awkward stuff instead of complete it.

We should finish up Topic outline of Romania before they remove anything.

Thank you.

Good luck.

Have fun.

The Transhumanist 03:47, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Commons:File:John Dewey.jpg

Can you clarify how this image is PD-old? The local version is marked fair use. Stifle (talk) 14:14, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Call to action

Alarm! Alarm!

We've been working on the country outline drafts for a year now.

Therefore, I've moved them to article space.

All of them.

It's time to finish them up!

The only accuracy problem they have are the government branches sections.

Those need to be completed right away.

I've been working on them and will continue to do so...

But, this task needs everybody working on it now.

Please click on some outlines and fix the government branches sections.

The Transhumanist 01:00, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Country outlines project update - 2009/03/08

Things have been slowing down again, so it's time for a big push...

We've gone live

This project needed a shot in the arm. Also, its draft pages have been littering Wikipedia's categories for months. The time seemed right to move all the country outline drafts to article space.

WHAT???

Well, the drafts had been sitting in Wikipedia space for a year.

WHAT???

Development has been moving at a snail's pace and we could use the help of the Wikipedia community at large (who are more likely to find these if they are in article space).

WHAT???

Yes, we've gone live.  :)

This puts pressure on us to get the blatantly incomplete elements of these outlines done. The only glaring problem is the government branches sections. These need to be corrected ASAP.

I've mentioned THE GOVERNMENT BRANCHES SECTIONS many times to many people over the past year, but the problem just doesn't seem to have been taken seriously. So let me put it another way:

HELP!!! I need your help on this now. Almost all the countries have a government with an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch. The links for these branches need to be completed for each country outline:

Here's a convenient list you can use WP:LINKY on to access and edit these quickly. Please copy the list's link to the top of your talk page so that you can access it easily.

If you spot any standardization in links, and ways we can automate parts of this process, or for groups of countries that have links in common, please let me know!

Administrative support for outlines

There has been growing pressure on me to write up the administrative pages for outlines - their instructions, guidelines, etc. Therefore, I'm now in the process of composing these. Fortunately, it is mostly a matter of gathering material from messages I've written to you guys over the past year. Still, this is taking up most of my time, and I will be buried in these for the foreseeable future.

Traffic control

The next big task after the government branches sections are cleaned up is link support for the outlines.

There's quite a list of links and notices that need to be put in place around Wikipedia, providing access to them to readers, and alerting editors to the need to develop and maintain these pages. This will keep our bot people very busy (and happy).

But the most important thing right now is to get the government branches sections completed. So please, put your bots aside, roll up your shirt sleeves, and start typing.

Thank you.

The Transhumanist 02:38, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

P.S.: Penubag, I believe we can attract more participation to the upcoming awards-assisted collaboration with these outlines in article space. The "traffic control" mentioned above includes instruction or notice posts to country wikiproject pages, their talk pages, country article talk pages, country portal talk pages, and the country outline talk pages. And links to the see also sections of country articles, to the see also sections of their main subtopic articles, to portal pages, and hatnotes to the country article indexes. This should generate a lot of interest. What news of the trophy? Is it done yet? - TT

Scripts for renaming pages

See User talk:Sj#Scripts?.

The Transhumanist 22:55, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Outline of knowledge project update - 2009/03/11

Allow me to shift focus for the moment from the country outline project to outlines in general...

Where's the Outline of knowledge project headed?

It's growing fast, so fast that it is catching up to portals.

I just stumbled on to a subset of 50 more outlines (one for the history of each state of the United States), and have added them to the top of the outline. Buaidh has been busy - it's nice to meet another fanatic outliner.  :)

That brings the total number of outlines in article space to about 450.

It won't be long before there are more outlines than portals (which number about 600).

How long before outlines outnumber portals?

Four months, tops.

Then what?

I don't know. Do you have any ideas?

Of course the set will continue to grow. Which branch of knowledge should we tackle next?

And...

Perhaps we should push for Main page coverage?

Need for traffic analysis

We need to begin taking a deeper look at outlines and how they are integrated into (linked to from other pages on) Wikipedia, to optimize their usefulness.

The Traffic counter is useful for monitoring page traffic on Wikipedia.

Though I'm not sure exactly what it measures. Do you know?

What interests me most is the difference between outline traffic and portal traffic. Use the above counter on various portals and the corresponding outlines, to see what I mean.

Is the traffic volume of portals related to the structure of their links?

Where is portal traffic coming from? Can the answer be found in "What links here"?

And what about the portal menu bar at the top of every portal page? Does that account for the huge number of hits the main portal list gets each month?

I also wonder how much of the traffic comes from the Main page. Is there any way to tell?

If you have any ideas on this subject and how we should proceed, please visit my talk page and let me know!

And if you know of any other traffic analysis tools that we could make use of, please let me know!

The Transhumanist 19:15, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Geography outlines project update - 2009/03/12

I needed a rest from countries...

The states of the United States

So I switched over to states. United States.

I've added outlines for all 50 to the Outline of knowledge.

How?

The main activity in creating these was using LINKY to execute advanced Google searches on all 50 states at the same time (do a single search on google, then on a Wikipedia user page create a list of state links, then search replace the front and back bracket pairs with the parts of the google search url that come before and after the state's name, respectively - once you have a list of searches, you can easily modify it with search/replaces. WikEd works great for this. The page I've been using for Linky loads is User:The Transhumanist/Google state searches - but I used it for more than just google searches: check the history to see the various link sets and google search sets I used for linky loads). The search strings "in x" and "of x" reveal a lot about a state. But the magic is in Firefox's tab navigation keys (Ctrl-W) and (Ctrl-tab), which provide a bird's eye view of the coverage of the whole set of subjects. Flipping between the search results for each state using the tab keys, you quickly notice the common titles ("Governor of x", for instance).

As I found common titles, I added them to Template:Outline U.S. State.

Besides Google searching, I used Linky to open all state articles at the same time, to look over their headings (those usually expand into stand-alone articles), and I added the main ones to the outline as well.

Using Linky again, I opened all the lists on the list of lists by state, to look for those with state subheadings. The outlines contain section links to the few of those I found.

When I couldn't stand building the template anymore, I used it to create 50 outlines! That was fun. It's like they appeared out of nowhere.

Further development

The region section contains temporary links - I knew that subset of links would get at least some matches, so I figured that would be better than nothing. I'll swap those out with an accurate list of regions for each state as I find the time. Feel free to jump in and help - I'm not greedy.  :)

The standard links I used for the government branches sections matched almost all the states, except for a few in the legislative section. It won't take me long to finish fixing these - there are only a handful left.

There are fewer fill-in items on these outlines compared to those for countries. So these will be much faster to complete. And there's only 50 pages, which makes passes go by very quickly (less than an hour for most passes).

One nice side-effect of doing passes on these outlines is that you naturally memorize the 50 states (forward and backward, if you reverse your passes to alleviate monotony).  :)

That brings the total number of outlines on Wikipedia to about 500

Which puts us within 100 titles of portals.

Further coverage of geography

Political divisions lend themselves to rapid outline development because of common titles.

Other sets that are begging for creation include:

• the constituent countries of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland)
• the provinces of Canada
• the provinces of France
• other sets of subdivisions that have extensive coverage on Wikipedia
• the major cities of the world (those with lots of articles about them)

That last item on the list above looks especially juicy. My mouth is watering.

Cities are pretty fun. So far I've only completed two of them (because they happened to be city-states and were included in the set of country outlines we've been working on): Outline of Macau and Outline of Vatican City. I especially enjoyed outlining Vatican City, because WP:COMMONS had lots of pictures to choose from.

Though cities in general will probably require the building of a new template.

The Transhumanist 21:01, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Can you tell me if we will be able to create Topic outline of Physics or Medicine or other subjects? -- penubag  (talk) 18:28, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Roux

He seems to be biased towards portals. I've replied to his concerns on my talk page. The Transhumanist 00:47, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

More like close minded. -- penubag  (talk) 07:28, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Geography WikiProject update - 03/15/2009

The award images are complete!

After months of toil and attention to detail, Penubag has completed the set of images for this WikiProject's awards!

There are five race ribbons:

There's an engraved medallion:

And by far the hardest to create, a golden trophy:

If you have any ideas about awards these images can be placed upon, and how to award them (to show appreciation and to attract participants), please let me know.

And be sure to pop by Penubag's talk page to let him know what you think of his graphics artistry.

The Transhumanist 21:30, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Nice job on those images

		The Graphic Designer's Barnstar
		Those "award" medallions are really well designed, quite nice. NuclearWarfare (Talk) 21:26, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

		The Graphic Designer's Barnstar
		is hereby awarded to Penubag for going way beyond the call of duty in producing the Atlas Trophy for the Geography WikiProject. Kudos. And Thank you! The Transhumanist 21:38, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Nice work, they look great!  GARDEN  22:28, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi. Wow, great awards! Great job on everything, the prizes look fantastic. ~AH1^(TCU) 00:02, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Great work on the Awards :), they look awesome! All the Best, Mifter (talk) 01:17, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, they are totally hot. Congrats on the last one in particular - that's the finest modded puzzle globe I've seen. +sj + 05:31, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you everyone for your support!! I'm really happy that you like them, and your thoughtful comments mean a lot to me. That is partially what motivates me here; a welcome and thankful community! -- penubag  (talk) 01:47, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Possibly unfree File:Directory after remaming user.png

A file that you uploaded or altered, File:Directory after remaming user.png, has been listed at Wikipedia:Possibly unfree files because its copyright status is unclear or disputed. If the file's copyright status cannot be verified, it may be deleted. You may find more information on the file description page. You are welcome to add comments to its entry at the discussion if you are interested in it not being deleted. Thank you. — neuro^{(talk)(review)} 22:40, 23 March 2009 (UTC) --— neuro^{(talk)(review)} 22:40, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Reference Desk archiving

Please don't revert the Reference Desk archiving bot without providing a good reason for doing so. Your question is still on the desk under the March 20 heading (and can be edited with the section edit link), and having multiple copies of the question around leads to update conflicts like this. If you feel your question hasn't been adequately answered (or would like to ask follow-up questions), please create a new section at the bottom of the page. Thanks. – 74  04:20, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

User_talk:Werdna

In response to your comments on Werdna's talk page. The AbuseFilter is only of limited use. Not all badfaith edits have a pattern that the filter can find in order to filter it. The majority of such edits still need human assessment. My filter 61 is a good example. It recognizes new users removing reference tags (and thus references) from an article. This is generally disruptive, but there are cases where such an action is acceptable, for example when the link leads to a Wikipedia mirror. It therefore cannot be set to disallow those edits. It merely warns editors and tags their edits. It needs just as much actual editors to check for accuracy as flagged revisions.

Flagged revisions can also handle POV editing which has no discernable pattern and other things that can not be recognized by an automated system. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:23, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I know. But the filter with traditional anti-vandalism methods are an acceptable substitute for FlaggedRevisions. With the filter enabled, we do not have to focus on so many edits to revert^ref and more time to review the edits that do come in. This is essentially just like FlaggedRevisions with the only difference being the delay between the moment the Save button is pushed and the display time (not to mention backlogs). This is much more welcoming to new users who edit in good faith. If I were a new user and my edit "disappeared" because I didn't know it was pending review, I may feel like I just wasted time (this hobby is hard to get into) and never edit again. Brittanica just enabled users to submit user generated content ^[3] but no one does it because of the same reason. What brought me to this project was the openness and trust of this site and everyone here (AGF). I believe we will lose too much in an unnecessary effort to stop the bad. Abuse Filter and current methods of stopping POV pushers et al work for me.-- penubag  (talk) 23:21, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

RE: Editprotect

The edit you are disputing was done several months ago. You will notice that the {{editprotected}} template says not to add it until you reach a consensus, and the person who has already commented hasn't supported your proposal. Once you reach a consensus or a significant amount of time passes with no objection, feel free to readd the tag. - Rjd0060 (talk) 22:14, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, Penubag. You have new messages at Frehley's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Frehley^{Space Ace} 05:00, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Missed message concerning outlines

Can you tell me if we will be able to create Topic outline of Physics or Medicine or other subjects? -- penubag  (talk) 18:28, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay in this reply, I overlooked your message. It's lucky I found it at all, as I only look on my talk page for replies (it has that nifty message alert feature). To ensure I see your replies, please post them on my talk page.

(By the way, topic outlines are now just called "Outline of").

Yes you can create whatever outlines you want. For example, I've created around 75 non-country outline pages so far in the main namespace, and many more in the draft collection (see below).  :) (And I've converted over fifty existing pages to outlines).

We already have the Outline of physics and Outline of medicine, though feel free to expand those. The list of outlines in article space is located at Portal:Contents/Outline of knowledge.

Non-country outlines are created using the {{Outline generator}} template, like this:

{{subst:Outline generator|topic uncapitalized|topic capitalized}}

Important: Please don't create outline stubs in article space. Outlines that are bare skeletons and sparsely populated outlines are likely to get AfD'd, even while you are working on them. It's better to create each new outline as a draft in the draft collection of the Outline of knowledge WikiProject, and move the draft to article space after it has plenty of meat on it. Before creating an outline draft, be sure to check that no outline or draft already exists for that subject. A list of outline drafts can be found at Wikipedia:WikiProject Outline of knowledge.

If you see a gap in the Outline of knowledge, and the gap is also in the draft collection, feel free to create a redlink for the subject in the draft list at Wikipedia:WikiProject Outline of knowledge. I've just created redlinks for some sports subjects I noticed were missing. (By the way, I'm about to create a new outline generator template for sports subjects).

I hope I've answered your question satisfactorily.

So, what outlines are you thinking about creating?

The Transhumanist 03:00, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

I just jotted that note down on my talk page since I thought that comment was more trivial than urgent. You did thoroughly answer my question, however I think we should make the outlines more visible in the article. The current outlines are buried all the way down in the See Also sections. It would be nice if they appeared at the beginning of the article like the hat notes. (I didn't even know we had outlines for those) -- penubag  (talk) 04:49, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

I support the hatnotes approach. Trials have had mixed results though - they tend to disappear from articles over time (some editors are against the approach and remove them). As the OOK grows, this may become a more viable option.

Thank you for the input!

The Transhumanist 04:58, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Hat notes in articles are reasonable for outlines because they are like infoboxes, they summarize the article. We wouldn't put infoboxes at the end of the article because by then the article may already be read and it would be pointless. Also if it's at the top of the page, readers can be directed to a specific topic (if it is there intent) before they reach the end of the article reading something that didn't pertain to their intrest. -- penubag  (talk) 05:08, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

I agree completely. Outlines provide a method to skim or scan the subject quickly. Also, it's the table of contents for the subject. It makes no sense to place it at the end. That's where indexes go.  :) The Transhumanist 03:02, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Outline of knowledge WikiProject update - 04/02/2009

Hi everyone.

Things are going slow again. Where have you been?!

Maybe what you need to get you going is a little competition...

Who are we competing with?

Encyclopedia Britannica. Specifically, with its Outline of knowledge (presented in its volume called the Propaedia). Currently, they're kicking our asses. You've really got to check out their Outline of Knowledge (available only in the encyclopedia's paper edition - not the online version).

Portals. Informally, of course, just for the fun of it. There are around 600 portals. We're about 100 behind them, with about 500 outlines. Let's blow past them and leave 'em in the dust!

Confusion in editors at large

Now that the country outlines have been moved to the encyclopedia proper (article space), recruiting help on these is of high priority -- it will soon be time to alert all relevant editors to the nature and function of these and how they relate to other country coverage on Wikipedia.

However, I've noticed instances in which editors do not understand the nature and function of outline pages, and complain that they are redundant to articles. Well, ya. (That's the point of an outline - to provide the essentials in a structure for greater understanding, for easy viewing and faster reading, and to provide a topical guide).

A few editors over the years have viewed outlines as redundant to portals, not understanding the purpose and scope of outlines, nor the benefits provided by their structure and standardization.

These problems of misunderstanding need to be solved before "going public", to prevent their expansion as the community's awareness of these pages increases. Consider the response we'd get now if we announced these pages on the talk pages of 500 WikiProjects, 500 article talk pages, and placed links in 500 see also sections, etc.

That could be a nightmare.

So...

Encyclopedic and administrative support

I've been working on a couple things that will help alleviate confusion and hopefully reduce the need for editors to ask questions and seek advice. They're drafts, still under construction. Please look these over and jump in and help complete them (directly or by providing feedback):

First is an Outline article draft, intended to replace the current Outline article.

Next is a guideline on the Outline of knowledge and its outline pages.

Let me know what you think. Do they help you understand outlines better and how to develop them on Wikipedia? What is missing? How can they be improved?

The Transhumanist 04:45, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Concerning the contests

Penubag,

I was about to start designing the contests to attract editors to the country outlines work group, when it dawned on me that without good instructions for the whole (Outline of knowledge) department (the theme of the post directly above), we could wind up with chaos, or being overloaded with too much explaining to get editors started, or both.

Of course, in order to develop the department's guidelines, I had to delve back into the non-country outlines, which reminded me that once the department guidelines are completed, all the outlines in the set (and not just the country ones) will be heavily advertised and provided with lots of link support (to de-orphan them, and hook them solidly into the encyclopedia). So why not have contests for the non-country outlines too?

It occurred to me that while you are waiting for the debut of your country awards, we could be thinking about what awards to create for the rest of the outlines, and for the Outline of knowledge as a whole.

Please look over the whole set at Portal:Contents/Outline of knowledge, and see if any ideas pop out at you.

In the meantime, I'll keep a spare window open to jot down ideas as they come to me.

I can't even imagine what you might dream up next.

But it will no doubt be a blast.

Good luck.

Have fun.

The Transhumanist 03:11, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Outline of knowledge WikiProject update - 04/06/2009

As the country outlines have been approaching completion and more attention has been given to the non-country outlines and the Outline of knowledge as a whole, I've run into this...

Topic lists

As you know, we've been cleaning up sets of pages the links of which are displayed on the outlines.

One of the most prominent of the sets presented are the "List of x topics" (including "List of x-related topics) pages, and they are in a sorry state.

There's actually 2 different kinds mixed together in the same set: most of them are alphabetical indexes.

The others are non-alphabetical hierarchical lists. That is...

outlines!

So, I've been renaming the indexes to "Index of x articles" or "Index of x-related articles", and wikifying them (especially their lead sections). So far, all the country-related topics lists that are indexes have been renamed. It appears the new name fits so well that nobody favors the old name over the new. It's been over a week since that was done, with no complaints, so I've started on the rest.

As for the topic lists that are outlines, those can be absorbed or merged into the OOK. Even though this would entail a lot of renaming and reformatting, and cutting and pasting, these pages might still save us some work! I'm not sure how many there are, but that should become clear once the index pages are all renamed.

Feel free to join in an help. It's hog's heaven!

The Transhumanist 04:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Re: Project update

Thanks for the update. I just read a bit of User:The Transhumanist/Outline of knowledge, and it's proven quite useful so far. I'm sure I'll be able to use it to my advantage in the future.

Also, I think it might actually be a good idea to advertise the outlines, so the redlinks turn blue. Thoughts? –Juliancolton | ^Talk 13:44, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Wow, this looks really great. I've come up with two suggestions: One thing that might be really useful is advertising the "Outline of Knowledge" in {{Infobox Country}} (or whatever template is used). Another would be to figure out how to expand the lead without bloating it too much. The simple one-sentence lead is too short, but four paragraphs for an outline would be excessive. NuclearWarfare _(Talk) 18:54, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

In a thread above (on my talk page), Penubag wondered if outlines could be made for medicine and physics. I pointed out that those already existed, and he replied: "I think we should make the outlines more visible in the article. The current outlines are buried all the way down in the See Also sections. It would be nice if they appeared at the beginning of the article like the hat notes. (I didn't even know we had outlines for those)."

Hatnotes would be the perfect place to mention these, because they are topical guides (tables of contents) for their respective subjects.

Anyone want to help with this?

The Transhumanist 03:28, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

New hatnote based on your suggestion (look at it in the edit window)

For a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of whatever

It is the template {{Topical guide}}.

I hope the comment works to protect the hatnote. Suggestions welcome.

The Transhumanist 03:18, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

We don't want to place these until the article draft for "outline" and the outline guideline/instructions are completed. Otherwise, we may get a lot of opposition from editors who don't understand what an outline is. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Topic outline of algebra and Talk:Outline of Oregon for examples of the ludicrousy we wish to avoid.

The list of articles that the hatnotes need to be placed on include the corresponding root articles, and the corresponding portals. Lists of those are easily created using search/replace on the outline list.  :) The Transhumanist 04:54, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for File:Directory after remaming user.png

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hi

Is this your secret page? Erwin Springer [talk] 21:48, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Can't find it

Awhile back, you sent me a link to a watching tool you use that pings you when there are changes to a web site page. You were using it to watch pages on Wikipedia.

Or something along those lines.

Would you please post that to me again?

(And any other corner cutting or power tools/methods you use).

I'd appreciate it.

The Transhumanist 20:23, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Outline of knowledge project summary, and future direction

In response to a friend on Wikipedia who was wondering about how I've been and what I've been up to, I got to spewing about our little endeavor, and well, I got so carried away I pretty much told him everything.  :) The message turned out to be a pretty good summary of what we've accomplished so far and the overall plan.

See User talk:The Rambling Man/Archive 35#What's up?

The Transhumanist 23:04, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Reply

I'm glad you've been able to get a computer! The addon is Update Scanner [4] I've also created an subpage where you can find other nifty addons. User:Penubag/optimum toolsets You might find some other nice addons, so take a look. -- penubag  (talk) 03:16, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Nope, no computer. But Firefox can be enhanced on this workstation on a session-by-session basis.

The reason I asked was because I'm writing the next newsletter, and there's a section on Watching tips.

That's a nice list. By the way, I've added a link to it in a hatnote on WP:OTS.

The Transhumanist 20:12, 12 April 2009 (UTC)