User talk:CapitalR/Archive 2

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U. S. Area Codes[edit]

Per your questions on my user talk page regarding boundaries of area codes such as .SHP files or Tiger/Line data such as released by the Census Bureau, I really don't have it.

There is a provision called "V&H coordinates" which are tables used to designate Central Office Locations and may provide information but I suspect are expensive and might be proprietary. See the description by the Kentucky Public Service Commission on what V&H Coordinates are and how they are used.

The area code maps I've put up are freehand redrawings of ones published by NANPA or Whitepages.com

http://www.whitepages.com/10001/area_zip_codes

Check these links, they sometimes have lists of counties. There are also lists of prefixes floating around some places, and they could be found if you try googling on "Area code map" (which gets about 400,000 hits) or "Area code boundary" (which gets about 980 hits), and 20,700 for "V&H coordinates".

See these examples

Verizon Area code Map Verizon Area code lookup Qwest area code lookup Anywho from AT&T

Hope this helps. Paul Robinson (Rfc1394) 04:03, 17 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the info on the area codes. I was able to use databases from individual state websites to find a mapping from city/town name to area code. I wasn't able to find a shapefile for the area codes or ZIP codes, which was too bad, but I'm considering filing a FOIA request to the Postal Service to try to get my hands on one. Thanks again, --CapitalR 07:24, 18 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

FYI new parameter names[edit]

Please see Template:Infobox_City/Test, you'll have to hit the edit tab to see the field names. It has yet to placed into the live template. —MJCdetroit 02:26, 20 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Cool, sounds good to me. --CapitalR 02:33, 20 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Here's a Table under constuction explaining the fields. The names still need to be tweaked; there's still some mistakes in the code to fix. —MJCdetroit 03:30, 20 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Are you still planning on getting a bot to in put your data from your database? If possible it would be nice to lump the parameter name changes in with your changes. That is, if your bot was going to be visiting existing infobox city pages. What do you think? —MJCdetroit 16:38, 23 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Yup, the bot is being designed right now. It's proving a little hard to get a mapping from census database place names to Wikipedia article names (I've spent the last few days working hard to get as many correctly mapped as possible, though it will still take a while longer). Also, I'm moving from California to the East Coast this weekend and starting a new job, so I'll have some delays. But yeah, I'll definitely be updating all of the parameters with my bot when it happens. Expect action in about 2 weeks time (maybe a little more depending on how long it takes me to finish mapping the article names). Let me know if there's other things you want done by the bot. --CapitalR 17:33, 23 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Actually there is, when Rambot first placed some of the census data into the articles, it was it the following format:
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 146.7 km² (56.6 mi²). 144.5 km² (55.8 mi²) of it is land and 2.2 km² (0.9 mi²) of it (1.55%) is water.
This wording is, is just bad. Can the bot change the sentence to be more MOS friendly and grammatically correct? Something like (with non-breaking spaces):
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 56.6 square miles (146.7 km²), of which, 55.8 square miles (144.5 km²) of it is land and 0.9 square miles (2.2 km²) or 1.55 percent of it is water.
There also a similar sentence in the Demographics section that could use some MOSNUMin' but at least it isn't grammatically incorrect. I don't know much about bots, but if it can do it, then it would be worth doing all at once.—MJCdetroit 20:29, 23 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I'll look into it over the next few days. I'll probably be able to make those changes with a few simple regex find and replace strings, but it won't work on articles where people have edited those lines. However, based on my looking through hundreds of city/town articles over the past few weeks, most of these sections are untouched, so most should convert without any problem. For the articles where it can't automatically make that change, I'll just log them so we can go back later and fix them by hand (or fix them using more complex regex expressions with AWB). --CapitalR 22:02, 23 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, the bot is just a plugin for AWB, so after it's mostly done I'll send it to you if you want so you verify that it works properly and so you can suggest changes/additional features. I'll keep you posted. --CapitalR 04:23, 24 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
OK, I've used AWB before. MJCdetroit 14:10, 24 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Just wondering if you have made any progress on the bot? —MJCdetroit 04:07, 17 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Outline Maps[edit]

Hey CapitalR, I really appreciate all the work you've done on the Mass infoboxes. I was wondering if I should not bother with the outline maps that I did for the Mass towns. I'm honestly surprised that they've lasted a year and a half as it is, actually. I had a flash of motivation/inspiration recently that led me to update all the 351 maps to also include the location within the county, as in my Easthampton test case. But as I see from your user page it looks like my maps are soon to be non-standard and replaced. I'm not even quite sure how I'd upload the new revisions of the files and update all those boxes to say "Location in X County in Massachusetts." I'm an occasional Wikipedian, so I don't have enough edits to use the AWB. It's probably for the best, since I'd probably screw up the page somehow. ;) Anyway, let me know what you think. Thanks.

Feh, forgot to sign it. I think I'm a relic these days. :) Petros63 05:35, 16 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • I just moved across the country and started a new job, and vastly overestimated the amount of free time I would have to work on the maps. I still hope to get them up, but it might take months for me to get there. Right now I'm focussing my wiki-time on getting the city/town infobox bot online. Go ahead and make any changs to the maps that you want as it will be a while before I can do anything. --CapitalR 22:04, 22 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

united States Declaration of Independence[edit]

"The first printing had a lower-case u because of a printer error; the official journal uses the capital U in United." This is a circular footnote, which refers only to itself. I have left an actual source in the talk as to why in actuality is it united, not United. Also, note the section in smaller font, which includes the word "united." This was by design as well. - MSTCrow 21:02, 22 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Hmm, I respectfully disagree and have pointed out my concerns on that page's talk page. --CapitalR 22:02, 22 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

FYI[edit]

Hi CapitalR,

There is a debate that involves infobox design and standardization to replace manually constructed infoboxs. You may have missed this post from 52 pickup at WikiProject Infobox but it bears repeating and as a member of the project, your input would be appreciated.

Instead of repeating all the points, I'll just direct you to the discussion here. In the interests of consistency, and taking on a few new ideas for infobox design, I would like as many people as possible to get involved.—MJCdetroit 00:58, 26 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Maps/infoboxes[edit]

Hello,

Someone pointed me in this direction because apparently a project I've been working on overlaps stuff that you have been working on. Never keen on duplication, I wanted to check in with you and see if this was still a work in progress .. I have posted in better detail on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Cities if you care to take a look and comment. Thanks! Arkyan(talk) 04:09, 1 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Just a quick friendly update. I have updated some information on the Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Cities discussion page regarding what I had done as far as maps and information was concerned. You did mention having a database in the form of a spreadsheet you intended to use, which would be IMMENSELY helpful. I also don't want to create the impression that I am running in here and pulling the rug out from under you - particularly if you have put a large amount of work into getting a script running to do this work already! Please let me know your thoughts on this, and in particular, the subject of raster vs. vector maps. Arkyan • (talk) 22:49, 4 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Don't worry, I feel rather guilty myself that I haven't had more time to work on the maps. I'd be very happy to see you put up updated maps, and I'll try to give you any assistance possible. I'm generally a fan of vector graphics in place of raster ones, as they tend to scale up in size much easier. I'll focus my time on the infobox information instead. The database file that I have is about 20mb, so I'll have to find a good way to transfer it to you. I could send it over AIM if you prefer; just send me an email with your username and I'll get it to you. If you prefer to not to do that, then let me know if you have other ideas on how to transfer the file. --CapitalR 01:31, 5 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The easiest way to send it would probably be via FTP. I can try to either set up an FTP server on my home system or get you access on another server I have access to. Eitehr way I can't handle that till I get home from work, but I will let you know. Also, I'd like to apologize for the sluggish response, I've been out of town this weekend and wound up rather ill so I've not had much time to tend to the 'pedia till now. Cheers, Arkyan • (talk) 18:32, 8 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
FTPing it works for me. Just let me know the server to upload it to and it shouldn't be a problem. By the way, the file is about 20mb if you have Excel 2007, but it's about 40mb if you're using Excel 2003 or earlier. Let me know which one to send. I'll be home from work around 7 (Eastern time) and can send it after then. Talk to you later, --CapitalR 18:41, 8 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

powers of Congress[edit]

What I'm trying to address is the issue of encroachment. Examples, judicial review, separation of powers, executive orders used to create laws, or fund one department with money appropriated for another.

Secondarily infringements on the Power of Congress to declare War by the president declaring a war on poverty, a war on drugs, a war on terror...

Perhaps more importantly the issues of secrets from Congress; emergency powers used to set up secret organizations that Congress is obstructed from oversite on;

Recently claims of national security were exposed as frauds used to cover up the warrantless surveillance, kidnapping, torture, murder, assassination, destabilization of governments, drug dealing used to support Iran Contra, the drug experiments on American troops and other crimes committed covertly by the release of what were called the CIA family jewels

Is there a better way to touch on the powers of Congress being encroached upon that you reverted from the article called the United States Congress? If so could you highlight any parts you think could be better written?

Article 1.1 giving Congress the exclusive right to legislate is right at the beginning so its probably reasonable to consider it the most important power. Article 1.8 is a good summary of Congressional powers as written in the constitution, but after the encroachments of the Executive and Judicial Branches would it be fair to say that while in theory Congress is intended to have all the power and to delegate it, in practice that power has been stolen thus disenfranchising the voters?

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=United_States_Congress&diff=144001189&oldid=143987606

Section 8 of Article I of the Constitution sets forth the powers of Congress vesting them in the Congress which then delegates some of them so that for example, where The President acts he does so "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate".

The most important power of Congress is the exclusive power to legislate.

The President may not use Executive orders to legislate.

Congress also has the exclusive powers to levy and collect taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the states, coin money, establish post offices and post roads, issue patents and copyrights, and fix standards of weights and measures. These are collectively known as the power of the Purse.

The President may not ursurp the Congressional power of the purse by spending money Congress has not appropriated.

Congress has the exclusive power to establish courts inferior to the Supreme Court, and to regulate all courts as their size number, number of justices, jurisdiction, funding, etc;

Congress has the exclusive poweer to raise and maintain the armed forces, make the rules for them,declare war, fund it, defund it, end it, and "To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof." ... Refusal to comply with the power of Congress to investigate and exercise its obligation of oversite through lying to Congress, obstruction of justice or refusing to testify may result in charges of Contempt of Congress and Congress then has all the power that is necessary and proper to compel compliance.

In some cases Congress has found it necessary to resort to impeachment to remove any department or officer that it finds in contempt.

The power of Impeachment is not the exclusive means of removal mentioned in the Constitution. Congress also has the power to establish tribunals

Congress could if necessary courtmartial any military officer of the government up to and including the Commander in Chief when after a declaration of war the President is called to active service in that capacity. Rktect 21:08, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Why the name CapitalR?[edit]

Hello CapitalR! I recently started using the nom de plume "Capital R" in the National Puzzlers' League, and was surprised to see that someone was already using that name in Wikipedia. (I don't want you to give up the name or anything, that would be silly.) I'm curious as to why you chose that name - do you mind sharing your rationale? DenisMoskowitz 13:21, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • I needed a name for Wikipedia and this just popped into my head without much thought. I spend a lot of time in the US capital city, Washington DC, and my last name begins with the letter R, so I just made up "CapitalR". It is interesting that it has another meaning...I wasn't aware of it before. --CapitalR 14:10, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Thanks. (I chose it based on my initials - DMM, reversed is MMD = 2500, re-reversed is 0052 which is the Unicode code for capital R.) I apologize in advance if anyone mistakes you for me. DenisMoskowitz 15:37, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding list of Vice Presidents of the United States[edit]

I am currently checking the translation of the list of Vice President and I found a slight difference in the Norwegian versus the English language list. It's the end of term for John Nance Garner, the english version says 20. January 1941 while the Norwegian says 4. march 1941. I tried to check with the Senate's list of biographies of Vice Presidents, but alas - neither article says anything about when Garner left and Henry Wallace took office.

I find it strange that the change was at 20. January as Garner did not die while in office - most changes of US Vice President seems to be at 4. March execpt when the former died. I would be happy if you could look into it and post a note here. I have the page of my watchlist so I will notice if you have any info about it. Brgds - Ulflarsen 18:46, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

One more date that I am curious about, Millard Fillmore was elected Vice President on March 4, 1849, according to his biography on English Wikipedia. However, his Senate biography states the following:

"In 1849, March 4 fell on a Sunday. In observance of the Christian sabbath, President-elect Taylor chose to defer his public oath-taking to the following day. Thus, on a cloudy and brisk Monday morning, Fillmore met Vice President George Dallas at Willard's Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, the preferred lodging place of both men. At 11 a.m., the two men set out for Capitol Hill in an open carriage."

So it seems the date should be March 5 for Fillmore as becoming Vice President. Ulflarsen 20:01, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • For John Nance Garner, his date of ending being Vice President is January 20, 1941. In 1933, while he was VP, the 20th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, which changed the date of inauguration to be January 20. Thus, the previous VPs had March 4, but since then they have been January 20. --CapitalR 20:18, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • For Fillmore, his date of becoming VP is March 4, 1849, even if the oath of the President wasn't taken until the next day. --CapitalR 20:21, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Good, thanks a lot, the norwegian version of the list should be in order now. Ulflarsen 10:17, 24 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Use of AWB[edit]

A number of your recent AWB edits have come up on my watchlist and I have to query why you are making these edits, which seem quite trivial. An edit like this does not change the displayed version of the article at all, and only making changes of this nature is discouraged by the AWB rules of use. Please try to avoid making edits like this. Christopher Parham (talk) 05:06, 30 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Yup, my bad. Looks like I made about 50-70 or so edits in the last hour that only fixed underscores or unicode. Guess, I was getting a little punchy with that Save button in AWB (should have pressed Ignore for those guys and Save only for the spelling corrections and other fixes). Thanks for pointing that out to me. This was a one time only run to fix problems on my own watchlist (about 525 articles on the US government and law), so you won't be bothered in the future by mass edits. --CapitalR 05:39, 30 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A user has decided to have a revert war with me on this page. He violated 3RR but I decided not to report him. He insists on using a picture of Pelosi twice and putting it right at the front of the page. I put a picture at the top of the Vice President's page and it was removed because no other offices were represented in that way except speaker of the house. I see that you edit these kind of pages, could you please remove this photo if he decides to put it back up.--Southern Texas 18:04, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm, I think I'll refrain from getting involved in an edit war on this issue. I think this should be discussed more on the talk page (including discussion from other users) before any more editing is done by either of you. I'll leave some comments on the talk page in the morning. --CapitalR 23:01, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Also if you are interested your input would be helpful at Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/United States Secretary of Energy‎, Thank you.--Southern Texas 21:52, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, I'll take a look tomorrow morning. --CapitalR 22:59, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you I appreciate your improvements.--Southern Texas 16:38, 1 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Templates[edit]

CapitalR, please see a discussion on my talk page regarding the templates you recently converted to Navbox format. See it here: User_talk:Markles#US election templates. —Markles 12:16, 2 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Template:National elections[edit]

Good work, but -- it's broken. See talk page, would be great if you could rectify that problem ASAP. Thanks! —Nightstallion 12:18, 3 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Hmmm, it's looking fine to me and User:Number 57. Could you please tell us what browser you are using and what template in particular isn't working. After the new master template is applied to the child templates, the underlying code should be exactly the same, which makes it strange that some look different to you. Please continue discussion on that templates talk page. Thanks, --CapitalR 13:05, 3 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Any idea what the problem may be? —Nightstallion 17:37, 3 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
      • Is it still giving you a problem? I removed the extra code from all the templates that I thought was the problem. It's not giving me any trouble on XP or Vista using both IE and Firefox, so it's hard for me to track it down (assuming it still exists). I'll look into it again tonight though to be sure. --CapitalR 18:59, 3 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
        • Whatever you did, it worked for me! Thanks. —Nightstallion 21:58, 3 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Fixing Navbox generic parameters and eliminating whitespace[edit]

Note to interested parties: I just replaced all deprecated parameters in the {{Navbox generic}} template with the correct parameter names. The reason that deprecated parameters are being replaced is to prepare for a re-code of the Navbox generic template to make it smaller (not to make it look different, just to cut the length of the code down and to reduce the server load each time it is updated). It is currently too huge (both in its pre-expand and post-expand sizes) and needs to be cut (see Wikipedia:Template limits). Sorry in advance if I messed something up; I'm looked at each one to make sure they're okay, but I might have missed one by accident. --CapitalR 05:37, 8 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Quick question[edit]

You may or may not have noticed my userid on some of the templates you have edited, but I have noticed you lately with all of the tinkering you are doing. I could not find suitable info on a template question and figured you may be able to help. Plain and simple, what does "white-space:nowrap;" do? Accck, I feel stupid asking, but even stupider not being able to figure it out. I will check back here for the response. Regards.--Old Hoss 02:18, 9 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • I believe it makes it so that the browser will not cause text to wrap to a new line unless a manual line break is inserted. Usually the browser will insert line breaks between words (i.e. in the whitespace) if it feels a line break is needed. Use the nowrap feature to force the browser to keep everything on one line and not add its own line breaks in the whitespace. It's useful for adding to titles and the groupstyle parameter in Navbox generic, which makes sure that the titles and groups do not contain any unwanted wrapping. Hope that helps. --CapitalR 02:32, 9 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I appreciate the response, so let me see if I have this right. Basically, "white-space:nowrap;" acts as if you would have placed {{nowrap|text}} around all of the text in that field, right? However, it is not appropriate to use "white-space:nowrap;" in liststyle, so you would use {{nowrap|text}} around individual phrases. But you can still use {{nowrap|text}} in titles and groupstyle and still have the same outcome. Eureka! It's complexity is in it's simplicity, and that was what so obviously threw me off. Much obliged.--Old Hoss 02:46, 9 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Yup, that sounds about right. Just to let you know, right now I'm working on a major modification to Navbox generic (mostly to cut it's pre-expand size, see Wikipedia:Template limits). One minor change will be to add the nowrap setting to the groupstyle default settings, which should make them look better in general (of course, users can manually disable that in their own groupstyle setting for a given template; but the master Navbox generic will have that default to on). I'm also making it so that the template is smart enough to shrink the group width to be only as big as is needed (some have really large group widths for no good reason as it stands now). --CapitalR 02:53, 9 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

TfD nomination of Template:FEUS[edit]

Template:FEUS has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you. master sonT - C 23:17, 12 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Dynamic navigation box[edit]

Are you sure {{Dynamic navigation box}} is deprecated? I think it's the only collapsible table navbox plug-compatible with {{Navigation}} -- which makes it a good reason to keep it around. See Template talk:Navigation#Always collapsed (was Template:Aviation lists). Is there an easy way to convert {{Navigation}} to {{Navbox generic}}? Can you just use group1 for body? ←BenB4 05:36, 13 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Moreover, and maybe it's just my browser, but something like this looks absolutely terrible, with all the entries vertical on the left, resulting in a giant template. Is this what you intended to do? Biruitorul 06:47, 13 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • I had to convert all of the {{Dynamic navigation box with image}} templates to {{Navbox}} due to a problem with it's Show/Hide feature in some browsers. I fixed that one template (Mayors of Munich) to use groups properly, which should look better for you now (I hope). I'll go through and convert the rest with this problem soon. Cheers, --CapitalR 13:36, 13 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Ok, it looks like there's a problem with Navbox generic in older browsers (at least Safari v. 1 seems to have a problem with it, but v. 3 looks ok. If you're having a problem still, could you let me know what version, browser, and operating system you are using so I can further track down the problem? Thanks, --CapitalR 20:39, 13 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm using Safari 2.0.4 on a Mac OS X 10.4.10, and the Munich Mayors template now works well. However, a ton of other templates, for instance 1, 2 and 3, still have the vertical column in the left problem. Do you know what's happening here, and is there a plan to fix the problem? Thanks for your help. Biruitorul 00:55, 14 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Hey, I'm working on a solution to get this problem fixed up. It seems to be a problem with using the Safari browser v1 and v2 (and also one handheld browser has the same problem). Hopefully it should be resolved in 24 hours or less. Sorry for the inconvenience. --CapitalR 01:00, 14 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Hi, CapitalR, and thank you for working to address the problem. Yes, those all appear correct, including the Presidents one. Biruitorul 12:57, 14 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Speaker of the House of Representatives[edit]

Just thought I'd let you know that I suggested the list be split into its own article and your opinions would help at Talk:Speaker of the United States House of Representatives#Split of section. Thank you.--Southern Texas 17:27, 13 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Navbox generic recent changes[edit]

Hey there, you seem to be a top contributor to Template:Navbox generic and I was hoping that you could add to the discussion at Template talk:LostNav#Width. --thedemonhog talkedits 20:57, 15 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Is there some way to make the text regular size? --thedemonhog talkedits 03:15, 18 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
No problem, you can make the font regular size by adding "|listsize = font-size:100%;". I just adjusted the example I put on the talk page for LostNav to include this change. --CapitalR 03:35, 18 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

{{Province of Catanzaro}} format problems[edit]

Yes, you have fixed them. Thanks! —Ian Spackman 06:34, 16 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What is going on with the navboxes?[edit]

What is going on with the navboxes? People like you are "upgrading" navboxes to other navboxes in circles for no apparent reason. See for instance the Template:Espionage.

  1. Mangojuice originally made it a {{Navbox}}.
  2. Then Zyxw made it a {{Navbox generic}}.
  3. Then Ms2ger made it a {{Navigation}}.
  4. Then you CapitalR made it a {{Navbox}} again.

All of those templates work equally well for the Template:Espionage. I see no reason why it was changed any of those times. Do you mind explaining why people like you do this?

--David Göthberg 01:56, 20 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, thanks for your concern. The reason for converting away from {{Navigation}} is due to problems with that template in certain browsers. All instances of templates that use {{Navigation}} are being converted away from it so that it can be deprecated in the near future. Sorry for the confusion for {{Espionage}}, but the recent changes shouldn't actually have an effect on how it looks to you (unless you're using one of the browsers that has a problem, or if your javascript options are disabled, in which {{Navigation}} doesn't work). {{Navbox}}, which is the same as {{Navbox generic}}, is the new standard, and all other types are being converted to it. As such, this should be the last change for a while. --CapitalR 02:01, 20 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the upgrades - I can finally put in "state=collapsed" as a regular parameter on the bigger ones (this was always a problem with Navigation). Orderinchaos 12:47, 20 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
No problem. --CapitalR 13:17, 20 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Please note, the "upgraded" versions do not print. 163.167.129.124 13:44, 20 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting. These templates have been around for quite a while in {{Navbox generic}} (the {{Navbox}} template is the same thing code-wise, and the two will be merged soon), but I've never heard of this problem before. I just tested it out and you are indeed correct. I think this might be related to the MediaWiki code for the collapsible table, and I will investigate further to get a fix in. Thanks, --CapitalR 13:50, 20 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

(First, thanks for your previous response CapitalR.) That the navboxes become invisible when printing articles is a feature, not a bug. Long ago it was deemed that printing navboxes are just a "waste of paper" since they are just link lists and one can not click the links in them when on paper. --David Göthberg 14:56, 20 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the info, good to know. --CapitalR 14:58, 20 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks[edit]

Thank you for all the hard work on the navboxes that I've been so diligently avoiding. ←BenB4 13:48, 21 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No problem, let me know if there are others you want me to work on. I'm soon planning to go through all the {{Navbox generic}} ones and convert some to use the standard styles of {{Navbox}}. I won't be in the business of overriding existing styles, however, just converting the ones with very similar styles or no styling. After that I plan on going through the 8000 instances of templates that use class="navbox collapsible" or class="NavFrame" to move them to be {{Navbox}} (though I doubt I'll get through them all). --CapitalR 14:18, 21 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Common.js[edit]

This: change:

  var NavigationBarHide = '[' + collapseCaption + ']';
  var NavigationBarShow = '[' + expandCaption + ']';

to:

  var NavigationBarHide = collapseCaption;
  var NavigationBarShow = expandCaption;

would have removed the brackets entirely from NavFrames. ←BenB4 18:26, 21 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well, your change suggested adding brackets directly to the variables collapseCaption and expandCaption; thus, if it went through, the NavFrames would have had double brackets. My change extended yours to fix that problem (it wasn't meant as a stand-alone change, just as an addition to yours). Seeing as the requested changes were withdrawn, we don't need to worry about it anymore. --CapitalR 18:28, 21 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use images[edit]

Please do not add images to the template namespace like you did here. The Non-free content criteria clearly states a restriction on location for images that are non-free as they are to only be used on the article namespace. Any other namespace is prohibited. Thank you! — Moe ε 21:17, 21 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Hmm, seems to have been an accident in my massive template conversion project. My bad. --CapitalR 23:09, 21 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • S'ok. :) — Moe ε 16:52, 22 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for work on the nav box corrections[edit]

Thanks for your work on the navigational boxes you did for the cross country skiing, ski jumping, nordic skiing, bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton sports. I really appreciate it. Chris 12:47, 22 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hello. I noticed you created this template as a sort of bridge, but it is not compatible with many other navbox templates in terms of collapsing. Also, it is inconsistent at 80% width. Since you seem to have an interest in this, I was wondering if you could take a look? You previously converted it to navbox generic format, but another user reverted your changes claiming that they interfered with how the template functions on some pages. Thanks. --Tom (talk - email) 14:39, 25 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Tom, I completely agree with you. If you look at the history, I actually made it use Navbox generic to have the standard formatting, but was reverted to the other style. If you could post your comments on that page saying that you want it to use the standard collapsible nav box style, I'd appreciate it, so that I could have some more support to argue for that. Thanks. --CapitalR 19:57, 26 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Adminship[edit]

Hi CapitalR. Lately I have seen your great work (especially on the Navboxes) and that you communicate well and do proper tests and discuss things with people before you do major changes. So I am thinking of nominating you to become an admin. Is that OK with you? --David Göthberg 19:24, 29 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi David, thank you for thinking of me as a good candidate for adminship. I would be happy to have you nominate me. --CapitalR 12:22, 31 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Navbox Revolution[edit]

The Dual Tireless Template Contributor Barnstar
I, Chochopk, award this Barnstar to CapitalR for all the hard work you put in to unify all navboxes. This is awesome.

Cheers! I'm curious to know, what makes you want to do this? How much manual effort is there? --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 05:31, 3 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I make very heavy use of WP:AWB (tons of regex, and some custom C# code modules) to make the job easier, but I still have to verify each and every template and make appropriate manual edits. I estimate that about 10% require manual edits that my AWB code can't take care of. Even so, I've converted about 7000 templates, and that took quite a long time. As for the reason, it was just that I noticed how many different forms and styles there were and I decided I could make myself useful by standardizing them somewhat. Thanks for the barnstar, much appreciated (and thanks for the initial discussion for this project, which you started to get this whole thing going). --CapitalR 05:34, 3 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I concur with User:Chochopk. Thanks for all of your contributions to this, as they are much appreciated and necessary. --Tom (talk - email) 17:49, 3 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks[edit]

For cleaning up all of my templates. :) Remember 19:44, 3 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

as above...[edit]

Thanks too for cleaning up the law template - it looks nicer the way you've changed it, so cheers! Can I also ask though, do you know how to make the bar on the left side where the main headings are be gold coloured? I tried to figure this out before but didn't - and it could work... Wikidea 20:50, 4 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • You're quite welcome for the edits to the Law template. I'll fix the headings now so you can see how it's done. The Show/Hide button should currently be gold (if it isn't, then do a cache-clear refersh, Shift+F5 or Ctrl+F5, depending on browser). As for changing the color of the VDE buttons, this is currently impossible. But, luckily, I've just rewritten the entire Navbox codebase and will be submitting the changes soon (within a few days I hope). The new changes will automatically fix the coloring problem in this template (it will use the same color in the "titlestyle" parameter for the VDE buttons; i.e. "|titlestyle = color:gold" will fix it). --CapitalR 21:01, 4 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Navbox stuff[edit]

Er, why is this happening, exactly?—Ryūlóng (竜龍) 04:51, 9 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Standardization and bug fixing. {{Navbox generic}} is essentially the same as {{Navbox}}, so all Navbox generics are being converted to the Navbox form. After that is complete, Navbox generic will be deprecated and Navbox will be modified to fix a number of known bugs (those bugs exist in Navbox generic also). The changes to Navbox will not have any effect on its visual appearance (except in browsers where the bugs occur). All of my conversions from Navbox generic to Navbox should have very little visual effect on the templates, except in cases where the colors clash, in which case I'm just deleting the styles to make them the default colors. --CapitalR 04:56, 9 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • I see. I went to edit a page that I worked to get navbox generic to work with, and I saw that the navbox was spread across the page (something that normally does occur, but I find it an eyesore due to my screen's resolution due to all the whitespace). Then I saw this which I have fixed, and then I saw the mass migration.—Ryūlóng (竜龍) 05:07, 9 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
      • Yes, I did purposely make it full width, but the width doesn't matter much to me in the end. Many pages have templates with varying widths, which makes them look quite ugly; thus, I made all of the templates full width if they were already close to being full width (a vast majority are width:100% already). However, if these pages look better with the width smaller, than that works for me. --CapitalR 05:09, 9 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
        • The reason templates such as Template:Tyrone Football Team 1995 were navbox generic, was because they could be collapsed by default. This saves a lot of room on pages were there are several similar templates (for example Peter Canavan). Can navbox be made the same??--Macca7174talk 14:21, 9 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
          • Yup, the Navbox has the exact same parameters as Navbox generic, just with even more options. If you don't specify the collapsing state for all navboxes on a page, then if there are more than 1 navbox, they will all be collapsed; if exactly 1 is present then it will be uncollapsed. --CapitalR 16:00, 9 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Protected Areas of Washington[edit]

Hey, the switch from the generic to the non-generic navbox made the top section of this all muddled up. Is there a way to fix it? Cheers! Murderbike 18:58, 9 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • There we go, it should be all fixed now. Let me know if it still looks funny to you, and then I can examine it again, or revert my edits. Sorry for the problems there. --CapitalR 19:03, 9 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Looks awesome, thanks! Murderbike 19:36, 9 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Are you very good with navboxes? This one breaks at certain widths. (The text goes outside the lines of the box, and I don't know how to fix that.). Bassgoonist T C 20:04, 10 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • I just put all of the list items in nowrap templates, which should hopefully fix the problem. That error is a known problem in certain browsers with all navboxes (not just {{Navbox}}, but also {{Navbox generic}}). It stems from the "nowraplinks" class that they implement by default. Let me know if it still doesn't work, and I will reexamine it. Hope that helped. --CapitalR 20:09, 10 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I'm using the latest version of firefox, and it looks much better now. Thank you for doing that, I'm a bit clueless on formatting things like. Bassgoonist T C 21:36, 10 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

collapsible[edit]

Is there something I can put in my monobook.js to force all the navboxes to stay uncollapsed? —MC 21:46, 10 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Here's some code that disables the ability for the collapsible tables to collapse: Add it to your monobook.js.
 function collapseTable( tableIndex )
 {
     var Button = document.getElementById( "collapseButton" + tableIndex );
     var Table = document.getElementById( "collapsibleTable" + tableIndex );

     if ( !Table || !Button ) {
         return false;
     }

var Rows = Table.rows;

     if ( Button.firstChild.data == collapseCaption ) {
         for ( var i = 1; i < Rows.length; i++ ) {

         }
         Button.firstChild.data = expandCaption;
     } else {
         for ( var i = 1; i < Rows.length; i++ ) {
             Rows[i].style.display = Rows[0].style.display;
         }
         Button.firstChild.data = collapseCaption;
     }
 }

Don't forget to do a cache-clear refresh after updating your monobook. Hope that helps. --CapitalR 23:49, 10 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Works perfectly! —MC 01:27, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Partial unintended blank[edit]

I do not know if you are using a script. If you are, I thought I should let you know that one of your reverts was only partial and not full, so you ended up leaving in a partial blanking. Thought I give you heads up in case of a bug. Take care, Brusegadi 04:34, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Thanks for letting me know. I don't actually have any scripts; I just did that edit by hand, not noticing that there was even more vandalism that what I saw. Glad you caught it. --CapitalR 04:35, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Not a problem. Happy editing, Brusegadi 05:11, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Kennedy family[edit]

I see you changed Template:Kennedy family from a deprecated format. Can you recenter the template?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 14:16, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • I changed it like you requested, but I still think that the formatting is more readable with the right alignment in groups and left alignment in lists. I'll leave that up to those more familiar with the template to decide though, I suppose. --CapitalR 14:21, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Rockefeller family[edit]

I see you changed Template:Rockefeller family. Is it possible to recenter the template?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 14:23, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • I changed it for you. If you would like to change more, all you need to do is add the following to the template code inside the Navbox call:
| groupstyle = text-align:center;
| liststyle = text-align:center;

Let me know if you need any more assistance with the templates, I'm always glad to help. --CapitalR 14:25, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Radio Templates[edit]

Thank you for making whatever changes were needed (which I don't understand) to them while keeping the standard centered setup that is used on most, if not all, radio and TV station templates. Many thanks. Take Care...NeutralHomer T:C 20:55, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, no problem. One of these days I'm going to convert the thousands of US Radio Navboxes to a use a single meta-template, where they can all be set to the same style in one place (the meta-template will in turn pass on to {{Navbox}}, but with specific styles). I'll be sure to keep the exact same formatting that exists now when I do that. --CapitalR 21:18, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Cool:) That was my problem with it before (why I reverted a couple times) was the change lost the formatting and I don't know enough about templates to fix it myself, which is why I appericate your adding the formatting when you made the changes.
I know as most of the radio and TV station/market templates are now, they are pretty much the same, with the except of the "dots" and "dashes" that divide the stations/frequencies/etc on them. Some are in different colors (I personally don't like that much) though most are your standard template white with the standard purple-ish bar at the top...so there won't be much to change around when you do.
Again, thanks for your help. Take Care...NeutralHomer T:C 21:57, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Adding autocollapse?[edit]

Hello. You've reverted the Hamlet template to its grey version, which is great. I wonder if you could explain why the other conversions? I see that there's a concern about Wikipedia:Template limits and browser compatability; but in almost all cases, there has been some significant loss of quality. Why convert the Shakespeare box? Some of the others you've given the reason in the history as 'converting to navbox', but they were already 'navbox'es, so why did they need to be converted? Why the autocollapse added to the Hamlet? I don't see anything in Wikipedia:Navigational templates about it being necessary to collapse them all. Is this given somewhere else? Many thanks, DionysosProteus 01:35, 12 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • I highly disagree with the loss of quality statement. Those theatre templates had show/hide buttons present that didn't even work correctly before I fixed them. The templates were converted for standarization purposes to make all navboxes more or less alike. Lots of pages on Wikipedia have multiple navboxes, and when they all have different styles it makes the pages quite ugly. Also, this is an encyclopedia, so some standarization should be in place to make pages consistent for users to look at. Everyone's opinion of "quality" is different anyways; I considered those theatre templates to be somewhat ugly (since they didn't match other pages at all); I think settling for the standard form is a good way to go. Over 10,000 templates and over a quarter million pages on Wikipedia use the standard form, so I think it's a good idea to keep using it instead of inventing new styles for each page. If you're intersted, suggestions for how to improve {{Navbox}} are welcome on its talk page. --CapitalR 02:08, 12 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Oh, and I didn't revert the Hamlet version to its original form, someone else reverted me. I gave up though and didn't bother re-reverting; the autocollapse feature is unrelated to the style changes. --CapitalR 02:09, 12 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Thanks for your response. I'm still a little confused, though. You mention that autocollapse is unrelated to the style changes, but didn't explain why you've added it. Why has it been added & what's the thinking behind that?
  • The quality issues I'm thinking of are different for each one - the Greek dramatists, for example, were quite elegant little boxes, but now they are odd sizes with the text lost in a large white expanse. The Stanislavski theory was arranged such that the different categories were easily scanned at a glance, whereas now they are a small and long list (thanks to the size change). Symmetrical centered text is now asymmetrical, uneven and left-justified. The dazzling white background makes all of the text far more difficult to read than those with a grey background, and the colour schemes far more jarring. Pictures are odd sizes or in odd places. Also, I find it difficult to see why the navigation between articles on types of BMWs (as a random example) needs to be related to those for plays; that is, under what actual circumstances for a user would any 'collision' from inconsistency occur? There is an equally strong argument to be made about the templates acting in an iconographic manner for the casual browser, easing recognition of categorical membership through clear visual differentiation (which is what had initially impressed me about the Greek ones); that is not to say that I would advocate vast differentiation and aggressively attention-grabbing graphics; but some visual variety within a basic format assists in the process of grasping information effeciently. The vast majority of articles relating to those templates have only one template on them (one or two musicals are the rare exceptions), so the concerns about multiple boxes aren't relevant here. The show/hide links were only there as a redundancy from the use of another template that had been stripped as a groundplan - they did not indicate a desire to be able to collapse them. I appreciate that there are style guidelines about huge boxes, but these weren't large, and often the changes often expanded them.
  • Anyhow, I'm not attempting to draw you into a debate on all these points; I just thought I would explain what I meant by the reduction in quality I perceived. I would appreciate your thoughts on the autocollapse when you have a moment though. Regards, DionysosProteus 03:37, 12 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • The autocollapse feature makes it so that the boxes automatically collapse themselves when the page loads if there are more than one box; if there is exactly one box then it remains uncollapsed. By adding it to the template, I didn't change the style so much as I changed the way the box loads. --CapitalR 03:55, 12 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
      • As for all of the styles, it's really okay with me if you revert my changes (though I personally like the standard styles). My edits didn't change the material or ordering of the material at all, just the size and position. The Stanislavski template, for example, had huge text, and I just put it to the normal size for navboxes (so as to make all navboxes created equally, and not to give bias towards one in particular). The dramatist templates had errors with their show/hide buttons, which I fixed with my edits. Overall, I just made all of the changes at once to standardize the boxes, but if the editors with the theatre project think it's better the old way, then that's okay with me. --CapitalR 04:06, 12 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Many thanks for the clarification. DionysosProteus 04:11, 12 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Tibetan towns and villages[edit]

Hi I want to create a standard infobox Tibetan settlement for all the towns and villages in Tibet under Template:Infobox Tibetan Settlement. Is there anyway we can have something like this: Domartang but with parameters to include the Tibetan/Chinese language section like on Deleg at the top so it all goes neatly in one box for settlements? PLease repsond on this as soon as you can as I feel it very important thanks ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ "Talk"? 13:35, 13 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Something like this: (deleted, as it contained an error and messed up my talk page)


Your version of this navigation box has again been reverted (to a non-collapsible version) by DionysosProteus. Is there a guideline somewhere about making these boxes collapsible, I wonder? -- Kleinzach 05:10, 14 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • No, there's no real guideline for them; it's basically a free for all. I think I'll just let that one go and let others deal with it; usually the collapsible templates win out through consensus given enough time. --CapitalR 07:10, 14 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

navbox change edit summaries[edit]

Thanks for all your hard work changing navbox formats. When you're doing so, though, could you link to the discussion that explains the change (at Wikipedia_talk:Navigational_templates#Style_guideline_for_footer_templates or elsewhere) in the edit summary? You switched over a template I had made, and I had to do a bit of searching before figuring out why the switch was being made or what the difference between the before and after navboxes was. Thanks! Calliopejen1 17:39, 14 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Sure, but the mass conversion is largely complete. There are some lingering ones that I plan on converting, so I'll link to that page in those edit summaries. --CapitalR 19:18, 14 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

could you please help?[edit]

Hi, I am a phD student in socioloy interested in how and why people choose to work on wikipedia. i am planning to write a paper on it, but before that I would like to talk / IM with someone for a bit to understand more about it. I noticed you are very active on two projects (and a lot of articles, you are very involved!) so I was hoping to learn something about how they work from you. Would it be possible that we chat online for about 20-30 minutes this week? please let me know on your userpage or mine. Thanks a lot! Best. Buburuza 13:30, 17 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Hi, I would be happy to chat on the phone or talk with you online. You may email me through Wikipedia (go to my user page, and on the "toolbox" bar at the left there is an option "email this user"). After I receive your email, I will reply with my contact information and name. I am also a Ph.D. student engaged in research (though not related to Wikipedia), so I'd be glad to help you out with yours. Talk to you soon, --CapitalR 13:35, 17 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

substing user warnings[edit]

Thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia. When using certain templates on talk pages, as you did to User talk:Jbwhooker‎, don't forget to substitute with text by adding subst: to the template tag. For example, use {{subst:uw-test1}} instead of {{uw-test1}}. This reduces server load and prevents accidental blanking of the template. Thank you. MKoltnow 03:18, 18 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Oops, my bad there; looks like I just forgot to subst it. --CapitalR 04:46, 18 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The most ancient constitution.[edit]

Dear CapitalR, why do you have withdraw the sentence concerning the fact that San Marino has a more ancient Constitution than the USA. As the previous sentence declare that American believe that they have the oldest one. I think it is a good information and should be held in this category. I didn't understand why you withdraw it ? MMMD —Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.169.131.14 (talk) 14:19, 19 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Please see the talk page for the article, like I said in my edit summary. This has been argued time, and time again, with lots of edit warring between both sides. The current consensus is to not include it in the opening paragraph, and if it is to be included at all, should have reliable sources to back it up. The fact that it is a democratic national constitution is debated by scholars, which is why strong references are needed for the statement. --CapitalR 14:23, 19 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, i've put my comment on the right place. But concerning the strong references, it's not difficult to found it. I've put one on the right place for discussion. Best regards. MMMD —Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.169.131.14 (talk) 14:31, 19 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • That's fine with me, and it really doesn't matter to me whether the sentence is in the article or not. I've just watched too many edit wars on this topic, so I removed the sentence until the consensus on the talk page can be reached. Also note that there are numerous sections on the talk page dedicated to that topic, not just the one you commented in. Regards, --CapitalR 14:33, 19 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

US county navboxes[edit]

I was just curious: where was the discussion for the conversion of the US county navboxes? I've created a few hundred of them, so I was rather surprised to see this change. Nyttend 16:36, 19 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • No discussion on this change, just on WT:NAV for the massive conversion project that is underway to get most boxes to use the {{Navbox}} standard. Personally, for this case, I think the Navbox is much better as it makes the titlebar smaller and the maps much easier to read, which is why I was bold and just did it. About a quarter of a million pages use {{Navbox}} from about 10,000 templates which use it, so I figured making it the standard style wouldn't hurt much. Feel free to revert if you disagree. --CapitalR 16:38, 19 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Navbox subgroup[edit]

Hi CapitalR. As you know I was experimenting with {{Navbox subgroup}} until some week ago and I also finished it, it does what I intended. However, since all that functionality is included in your new navbox there is no need for {{Navbox subgroup}} anymore. I also saw that you used a "subgroup" template in your new solution. So if you want to take over {{Navbox subgroup}} and use it for that, then it is all yours.

Note, just to avoid confusion: I am not talking about {{Navbox generic subgroup}}. Although I guess that one will also be deprecated soon.

Oh, by the way, I just noticed that some navboxes out there have started using {{Navbox subgroup}} in spite that I in its docs state that they should use {{Navbox generic subgroup}} instead. Guess we have to change those navboxes before we use {{Navbox subgroup}} for your navbox. (If you want/need it.)

--David Göthberg 18:42, 20 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Yup, the fact that some pages are already using it is my fault, but it doesn't really matter. When I did the massive template conversion (10,000+ converted so far), one step in my regex code was to replace all instances of the string "{{Navbox generic" with "{{Navbox". This inadvertently replaced all "{{Navbox generic subgroup" instances with "{{Navbox subgroup". I didn't really notice it during the conversion because your {{Navbox subgroup}} template worked perfectly. When we make the conversion to the new navbox design with the "subgroup" parameter, I can quickly go through all the templates that transclude {{Navbox generic subgroup}} and {{Navbox subgroup}} to fix them. Thanks for the heads up. --CapitalR 19:06, 20 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I wanted to let you know that the NTSB is an independant agency that is not under the US DOT. It even clearly states it in the first sentance of the article. Just thought I'd give you a heads up to make you sure you didn't continue to think this. :) --Pilotboi / talk / contribs 00:55, 28 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Just blame the US government for having to be so confusing sometimes. lol --Pilotboi / talk / contribs 01:00, 28 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, i've noticed that you went and made some wholesale changes to a recent infobox which has gained acceptance, and did so without any discussion or attempt at building consensus regarding the changes. This is not withstanding that the additions were totally unnecessary and did nothing to add any value - they were bordering on unnecessary pollution. Standing Wikipedia practice in these issues is to build consensus before taking action which you failed to do. If you would like to have your suggestions reconsidered, open up a discussion on the talk page of the infobox first before taking action. Your talk page seems to indicate that this is a major issue for you, so I would take heed of this message accordingly. Thewinchester (talk) 12:20, 30 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • I'm sorry, but your comments are way out of line. Reverting all of my good faith edits is not very Wikipedia-friendly. I don't believe it is Wikipedia policy to discuss every single change before making it. My edits in no way hurt any existing infoboxes, and only added to the functionality of {{Infobox Government agency}} to make it more versatile. Every existing instance of the infobox was completely unchanged by my edits. All they did was to add additional optional parameters to make the infobox work better for all agencies instead of just Australian ones. You're claiming that I added "pollution" to the template? I hardly consider adding additional optional parameters pollution, especially since they are used by many articles now. If you provide me with specific examples of how my edits hurt the infobox, I will be happy to fix them (though I have looked through every single instance of this infobox and see no errors). Please note that when you reverted all of my changes you broke many articles that use those new features. I notice that you created the infobox originally; please read WP:OWN and note that I can make edits to pages you created without your consent first. Please do not just blindly revert good faith edits! Also, I take offense at you making generalizations about me based on my talk page. I make thousands of edits with (what I consider) very little negative feedback and reverts, and when I do get negative feedback I attempt to address and fix the problems quickly and in a constructive manner. Thanks, and I hope we can both continue to improve the infobox together. --CapitalR 17:52, 30 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Your failure to respond on my talk page tells me that all of the above rubbish you just spouted off was complete and utter bull. If you had a clue, you would see that five different editors from different areas around the globe worked on the infobox, and it was tested in multiple jurisdictions and not just the US which your own obvious systemic bias arises from. This is in addition to a number of senior project members across the globe with edit counts that cause mine to pale in comparison, a number of them being admins and those who have developed some of the most intricate infoboxes on the wiki. Two of these were the ones who alerted me to the changes you made, and also assessed them as adding nothing to a perfectly sutiable template. The additions did absolutely nothing to improve the infobox, added unnecessary pollution, and will be reverted as poor substandard changes until you abide by the principal of consensus building and bring a reasonable rationale for the changes to talk - which if you are such a large contributor as you claim, you would have known full well that you should have done this in the first place. Thewinchester (talk) 15:32, 1 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Unfortunately Capital, the Winchester is right here. You must build concensus on large-scale changes to templates which would affect hundreds, if not thousands of articles. Discussing these sort of edits on the talk page first will stop these sorts of edit wars from happening. Please start thinking about your actions, and dicussing them on the talk page first. Twenty Years 15:40, 1 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
No, I respectfully disagree that he is right. I was just being bold and making improvements. I'm happy to discuss major changes to templates that will have an affect on existing pages. However, this was not the case here and I didn't think getting consensus for relatively minor edits would be a problem. All I did was add additional features to the template so more pages could use it. I'm being accused of pollution and vandalism for making good faith constructive improvements. This template is used by only about 120 articles, and of those 120 instances, I added about 30-40 of them after modifying the template, so only about 80-90 articles used the template before, not "hundreds, if not thousands". Anyways, I think I'm going to step back for a bit now and get some 3rd party opinions elsewhere. --CapitalR 20:02, 1 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think it is fair to let you know that this incident has been brought up at WP:AN, which is why I'm now here. If I understand this right (and please correct me if I'm wrong), you decided to make major changes to a template in good faith and through boldness, and they were objected to. Correct so far? Seems to me that everyone here is overlooking our policy on consensus which says that if your change, even though made boldly in good faith, gets reverted, you are to take it to the talk page and discuss it. I don't see that as really having been done. Did you present what you perceived as a problem with the template, then propose a solution and ask for input? I don't see that. What I see is that when presented with opposition, instead of discussing the situation, you merely went off and created a nearly identical (in purpose, if not form) template the way you wanted it, and then went and converted a large number of articles to your template. That is no longer good-faith behavior, that is insisting on things being your way, regardless of the thoughts and views of your coeditors. That is disruptive editing. I'm formally asking you to take a step back and consider things. Would it not have been better to present what you see as problems with the original template, and tried to get everyone onboard with what you see as the solution? Is it not maybe just a touch arrogant to say "the heck with everyone and their opinions, I'm going to do it my way anyway?" Disruptive editing and deliberately acting out of bad faith can lead to blocks. I'm not going to sanction you that way at this time, but I'm suggesting that if you want to avoid such problems, maybe you should consider working more diplomatically with you fellow editors. AKRadeckiSpeaketh 15:36, 2 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Hi, thanks for your comments and I'll take some to heart in this situation (I just concurred with the deleting notice for the new template). However, the user who complained about me has made numerous personal attacks against me, and engaged in wholesale blocking of any constructive edits to the template, so I feel that I'm being labeled as the sole bad guy when I think that probably is now a shared title. I think you should review what the edits were and how his reversions to my good faith edits broke many instances, and you should read his personal attacks against me. His only reason for reverting me was "pollution" of the template (right, new features are pollution), which I hardly consider a valid reason in this case. I think (and so did the intervening admin) that it is his job to discuss why the good faith edits were not valid (beside that they "polluted" the template, which is bogus), at which point I will defend them; not the other way around. Anyways, the new template was created to handle more than just agencies, such as departments, bureaus, offices, commands, etc., which is what the other user kept blocking from me adding to the agency template. It's all moot now, because another admin intervened and agreed with me, reinstating my edits to the agency template (which is now protected). So in the end it was rather annoying, and I probably could have talked it out instead of just creating a new general template, but the goal I was trying to accomplish got done (which was to generalize the agency template to handle more than just agencies) and all my edits stand. Sorry for the problems there, hope no bad feelings in the end. I think I'll just stop worrying about this users edits to this template, and work somewhere else in Wikipedia for a while. Thanks again for looking into it. --CapitalR 17:32, 2 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • If I understand things right, two admins have looked at the issue with the template, so I'm not going to go there. Yes, the template is protected, but you can certainly still work towards a solution. As I said, state on the talk page what you perceive to be the problem. Cite examples. Make a case for the need for improvement. Then, suggest the changes that will solve the problem and improve things. You'll find that if a genuine problem is presented, along with a valid, workable solution, you'll have editors and admins on your side in no time. I've seen this done many, many times in other disputes on other articles. The folks involved usually break down into two groups, the ones who want to carefully work to a solution (and are willing to compromise), and the ones who just want to rant. I don't think you're a ranter, but you come across that way because you haven't worked within the process. If, after you present the issues and the solutions, there are others who impede progress for the sake of being right, we can deal with them. I know the process is tedious and takes time, but ultimately it works. AKRadeckiSpeaketh 18:07, 2 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
      • I think it's time to wash our hands of this template. I've taken it off my watch list, and I suggest you do the same. Besides, I think infoboxes are more trouble than they're worth.—Markles 19:22, 2 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
        • I think you're about right. I'm going to propose some solutions on the talk page and see if it gets anywhere, but not worry about it much if it doesn't. We both have better things to do I suppose. --CapitalR 20:50, 2 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Ok, so I just posted a compromise solution on the talk page of the template. Hopefully this will be a start to getting everything worked out. --CapitalR 21:01, 2 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]


TfD nomination of Template:Infobox Govt Unit[edit]

Template:Infobox Govt Unit has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you. — Thewinchester (talk) 15:36, 2 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Neither edit warring yesterday nor forum shopping today convinces me that you are genuinely seeking consensus on this issue. I would strongly suggest entering a discussion on the template's talk page, and being prepared for the possibility that a proposal other than your own may be accepted. Further disruptive editing will be met with a formal warning. Orderinchaos 04:17, 3 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I did post a proposal on the talk page, and I'm prepared for it to not be accepted if that's what the consensus is. I simply posted to a number of WikiProjects that might be interested in the infobox updates to get additional opinions. People are welcome to add any comments they choose, and I look forward to hearing yours. Thanks. --CapitalR 04:36, 3 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not at all averse to changing the existing one to accommodate needs, I just took exception to the method. Thank you for your post on my talk page, I really do hope we can sort out what needs to be done and then get it sorted out. Orderinchaos 05:07, 3 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]


Hi. I noticed that you tried to convert of of my University of California-series navboxes to what I presume to be that latest standard, possibly with the aid of a script. I was wondering if there is any way your new code can accommodate the former look of the template. The navbox as it stands now is ... well ... kinda funny lookin'.

I have made two series of "custom" templates for public colleges on the US West Coast (and a couple of schools back East), and they weren't very amenable to script-led conversions the last time someone came around with The New Standard (about three or four months ago) either. I worked with Dispenser then to figure out how to make the templates appear as intended while still being able to have whatever advantages their new innards afforded them. Please let me know if you'd be similarly willing to help me get that template and its cousins upgraded as smoothly as possible. Thanks. --Dynaflow babble 04:27, 2 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, it seems to look okay to me. Regardless, I made some changes so it will look more like it did before. Feel free to revert any/all of my changes if you don't like them. As for the color of the VDE buttons, those will be fixed soon as updates to the {{Navbox}} template go through. If you can get me a list of the templates that need to be converted, I can do it for you and make them all look similar. --CapitalR 04:34, 2 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I have a list of them at User:Dynaflow/Crap_I_Made, along with the original templates as they appeared before the last mass conversion. Is it possible to station the image at the far left, below the header, and have the subheadings appear immediately to its right? It would also be good to have the transparency back for the backgrounds of the subheadings. --Dynaflow babble 04:39, 2 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The image on the left is currently not possible, but will be soon. I switched the colors to be like they were before. If you like, you can revert my edits until the image on the left feature becomes available. --CapitalR 04:43, 2 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It's looking a lot better. Thanks. I think I'll revert it back to Dispenser's version, though, until {{Navbox}} is fully functional. Let me know when it is, so I can see how you will be converting {{University of California}} and use that as a template to change over the rest of the similar templates I made for the UCs, the University of Alaska, Yale, etc., myself. I wouldn't want to put you through more trouble than necessary, after all. Could you take a look at {{University of Hawaii}}? Is there any way to convert that one and its ilk to {{Navbox}} and still retain fidelity to the previous version? --Dynaflow babble 05:07, 2 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]