User talk:Stepheng3

Links:

• my old IP talk page
• Talk archive for November 2007 thru December 2008
• Talk archive for January thru March 2009
• Talk archive for April thru October 2009
• Talk page on the WikiMedia Meta-Wiki
• Talk page on WikiMedia Commons

usernames as sources

I don't want thing leaking into the article refs. The point is to document that the thing came from a GPS measurement by an individual user. It is vital that any source for cordinates can be documented so secondary users can rip out all the ones with potential IP issues (database rights and the like) if they so wish.©Geni 20:49, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Because it doesn't make any sense with regards to wikipedia's normaly referenceing system. We don't ref geocoordinates and I don't think we are going to start doing so.©Geni 21:53, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Please peovide an example.©Geni 22:03, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

However that is uncommon and in most causes there is going to be a lack of any reasonably citatable source. At the moment we appear to be treating geocoords rather like images which since they arew fairly trivial to check makes considerable sense.©Geni 22:38, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

As long as the information is kept and ends up int he template in a standard place I'm not going to object.©Geni 19:13, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

NowCommons: File:StonyPointCattleEdit2674.jpg

File:StonyPointCattleEdit2674.jpg is now available on Wikimedia Commons as Commons:File:StonyPointCattleEdit2674.jpg. This is a repository of free media that can be used on all Wikimedia wikis. The image will be deleted from Wikipedia, but this doesn't mean it can't be used anymore. You can embed an image uploaded to Commons like you would an image uploaded to Wikipedia, in this case: [[File:StonyPointCattleEdit2674.jpg]]. Note that this is an automated message to inform you about the move. This bot did not copy the image itself. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 05:09, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

File:StonyPointQuarryEdit2680.jpg is now available as Commons:File:StonyPointQuarryEdit2680.jpg. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 05:13, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

File:TaylorGraveMarker3372.jpg is now available as Commons:File:TaylorGraveMarker3372.jpg. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 05:29, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

File:TaylorMtnEdit2866.jpg is now available as Commons:File:TaylorMtnEdit2866.jpg. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 05:36, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

File:TrainingCenterPetaluma3171.jpg is now available as Commons:File:TrainingCenterPetaluma3171.jpg. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 22:45, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

File:TuleElk3344.jpg is now available as Commons:File:TuleElk3344.jpg. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 23:06, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

File:US101CotatiGradeEdit2667.jpg is now available as Commons:File:US101CotatiGradeEdit2667.jpg. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 23:41, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

File:WashoeCreek3276.jpg is now available as Commons:File:WashoeCreek3276.jpg. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 00:25, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

File:WashoeCreekEdit2685.jpg is now available as Commons:File:WashoeCreekEdit2685.jpg. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 00:32, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

File:WashoeCreekEdit2685.jpg is now available as Commons:File:WashoeCreekEdit2685.jpg. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 00:32, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

File:WashoeHouseEdit2675.jpg is now available as Commons:File:WashoeHouseEdit2675.jpg. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 00:35, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

File:WashoeHouseEdit2675.jpg is now available as Commons:File:WashoeHouseEdit2675.jpg. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 00:37, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

File:Wilkins Gulch 3438.jpg is now available as Commons:File:Wilkins Gulch 3438.jpg. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 00:56, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

File:SonomaCountyTransitSignEdit2665.jpg is now available as Commons:File:SonomaCountyTransitSign.jpg. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 01:08, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

tags on border list

Hi, thanks for fixing up those coord templates and the glitches BCGNIS tag; I had an edit conflict with you after being out for a while but I looked over the changes and no peaks are missing, which might have taken some time to sort out ;-). Anyway just wanted to comment the tag is superfluous; it turns out the small tag only lasts for the cell, the same way italics does on a bullet line/hatnote; maybe in another browser than mine (Camino/Firefox) it appears different, though.....Source in all cases so far as BCGNIS, though some will get amended from STRIM/Bivouac's data as BCGNIS has rounded minutes in some cases; and I still need to go over, or hope someone will go over, the actual sequence; the border's twisty and north-to-south doesn't render the sequence along the divide...it's interesting to find out, or realize, that there's parts of BC farther east than parts of Alberta...one BCGNIS descrpition, for Mount Beatty, which I"m about to add, says "east of Palliser River" which really, as a BCer, sounds quite odd.....there's at least two-three dozen more peaks to be added, I'll add the type switch from now on....Skookum1 (talk) 21:12, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Coord corrections

Stephen,

Many thanks for tidying up the coordinate information on my translated German articles. I am learning all the time about how the format works, but thanks for being patient in the meantime! --Bermicourt (talk) 13:59, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

Thank you

Good to see you are still with us and thank you for fixing my mistakes. I really appreciate it! :)
What are your thoughts on this California water bill Arnold just signed? IMHO new dams are not the answer, conservation is. I have a neighbor that washes down his driveway almost every morning-so he is using Cobb Mountain drinking water to clean the truck and driveway! What are your thoughts on this? Cheers Marcia Wright (talk) 17:39, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

I'm a big fan of water conservation. However, as long as water is so underpriced, it's perfectly understandable why people use it thoughtlessly. Of course, if ag users had to pay the true (environmental) cost of their water, they'd all fold, so I don't have all the answers yet. Cheers, --Stepheng3 (talk) 23:47, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

RE: Coords — DEC vs. DMS

I am using a 2009 map of Saskatchewan i have and i am also using a couple different books to make sure they are settlements, and sorry about the DEC DMS coords i will do my best to correct the mistakes. Cheers Kyle1278 03:57, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Don't worry i know how to cites books and web sources i was rushing into creating the articles. I will definitely go back and put cites on the previous articles i have created. Thanks for the help. Kyle1278 04:10, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Long List Bing

Over at Category:California ranchos the template:kml only lists the first 200 entries in Bing (Google works). I note that there are only 200 entries on the 1st page. I guess could (should ?) ask the question over at template:kml - but you are Mr. Coords to me (and a lot of other people). Thanks Emargie (talk) 03:35, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I will let you know. Emargie (talk) 06:10, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

coord parameter removal

In this edit you changed the size (dimension) of the Crystal Ballroom from 50 meters to 600. Needless to say, that part is not a valid edit. In this edit and others you've removed the elevation parameter. We had discussed type:mountain(elevation) not being documented. Actually both types of elevation parameter used to be documented, but somehow vanished. Would it satisfy you if entries were re-added to template talk:coord and WP:GEO for elevation:? (The removal of scale is valid wherever dim: is present.) —EncMstr (talk) 07:36, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Mount Saint Helena

I noticed your edit of Mount Saint Helena and you are correct that the summit is still the highest point in Napa County. I removed link to the list from the See also section because I moved the link into the infobox which I believe is valid. If you have no objection I will remove the link in the See also section. If you do object please leave a note on may talk page and we can discuss it. Thanks. –droll [chat] 05:56, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

No objection. Thanks for the explanation. --Stepheng3 (talk) 18:33, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Atascadero Creek (Sonoma Co) question

Hi Stephen,

As you wrote the article on this creek, I need your opinion about what I should do-I am trying to get either a article or a section on all DFG ecological reserves and there is one at the Atascadero Creek Marsh, although even the official state Fish and Game website has minimal information about it. Would it be out of line to add a sentence or two about the reserve to the existing Atascadero Creek (Sonoma County, California) article? I'm not sure it merits its own article at this time.

The 1995 survey would be one source, though not the best. I commute through the county but my route is Mark West/Petrified Rd area. Let me know whether or not to pursue this idea. Cheers, Marcia Wright (talk) 22:18, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Marcia - To me, topographic features and administrative districts are very different things, and I wouldn't like to see them combined in a single article. I suggest creating a separate article on each DFG reserve and cross-referencing the articles to the most relevant landforms. If it turns out that most of the reserves don't have enough source material for an article, I would merge them into one or more lists, reachable via redirects (like Channel Islands of California). --Stepheng3 (talk) 20:08, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Your're right, they are two different items. Thank you for the feedback, suggestion and example article. Marcia Wright (talk) 05:24, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

anonymous editors

Yes. Not sure what your point is though? Especially since:

• If you bothered to checked that users history, that IP has been making changes to that article and other articles on wikipedia for months now, and has also been advised to warned repeatedly so it is certainly not a "newcomer" and is well aware of the dangers of editing an established, featured article with an unlogged IP.

In which case, I did advise the user to create a username and account. So, again, i'm not sure what you are trying to insinuate, and that you should clarify. Or, ironically, the newcomer policy could apply to you as well as being clear, courteous, calm, interested, and respectful. --Eman007 (talk)

Responding to your message: First, I believe that the thing you implied is not true. I don't know of any commonly-accepted policy or guideline that tells people to log in before making wholesale or substantial edits. I think this is a notion of your own that you're using (in good faith) to discourage this editor from contributing.

As I understand, there is for protected and featured articles which the San Francisco article is.

I assume 64.81.57.93 is a newcomer and not an established user. Someone who's made less than 60 edits fits my concept of a newcomer. Someone who has no welcome message on his or her talk page also fits my concept of a newcomer.

I think this is your fault as far as jumping to conclusions. The user has made over a 100 edits since February of last year and many to the San Francisco page. Certainly not a "newcomer" under any objective evaluation, and more of a casual editor probably. Not sure why you added the welcome message either when the user probably had one back in 2008, and deleted it.

Furthermore, if this person is going to editing pages for here on out, then this helps my case as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_create_an_account%3F

You do not need to reveal your offline identity, but having an account gives you a fixed Wikipedia identity that other users will recognize. While we welcome anonymous contributions, logging in under a pseudonym lets you build trust and respect through a history of good edits. It is also easier to communicate and collaborate with an editor if we know who you are (at least, who you are on Wikipedia). It is also easier for veteran users to assume good faith from new users who take the effort to create an account (and you may well become a veteran user yourself some day!). You may well be afforded a great deal less leeway if you do not go to the trouble of making up a username.

This is especially true for a user that edits quite often a featured and/or protected article.

I'm also worried that you're trying to communicate with this user via edit summaries, which are easily missed, even by experienced users with watchlists and all. If the edits he or she is making aren't constructive, you should explain why on the user's talk page, focusing on the nature of edit itself instead of the (to me, unimportant) detail that the person who made it was not logged in.

Because the user is just using an IP, and with no messages on its talk page, I assumed that the user isn't getting any messages, or would bother to read them, or uses multiple IPs which happens quite frequently on wikipedia. All the more reason to create an account.

Secondly, as it was a minor edit, I didn't think it warranted a message on the talk page. Writing messages on talk pages can be unnecessary depending on the scale of the edit, and in my opinion, a picture caption change doesn't necessitate it.

If the user wants to remain anonymous, I suppose that's fine. However, if they want to start making wholesale articles on a regular basis, start good faith with us senior editors, be able to be contacted, and follow wikipedia policy as far as being able to edit featured and protected articles, then the user, should create an account. There really is no excuse given its free with no obligations. Not unless the IP has another agenda, which in my years of editing wikipedia, it always is the case. -Eman007 (talk)

Global analysis of region codes

I just thought I'd let you know I'm working on this at the moment. I've now managed to deal all the odd corner cases and FIPS 10/ISO 3166 incongruities I've found to date, and I'm now trying to filter out the remaining outliers from the source GNS and GNIS data, which are most likely data entry errors. -- The Anome (talk) 02:09, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

Sounds like valuable work. What is it leading up to? Will it result in a more useful Regioncheck? Is this for automatic region selection in GeoHacks? Will it be used to find/correct Coord coding errors? Just curious... --Stepheng3 (talk) 03:01, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

At the moment, just to find coding errors. I've put a very preliminary alpha-quality report at User:The Anome/Possible bad region tags, 1st pass: debugging and refinement to follow. At the moment, this uses 1°×1° bins, and a fuzz factor of 1/8° If, once debgugged, this works OK, I will use it to review all geotags, not just those I have added. -- The Anome (talk) 02:52, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

I've now run the analyzer on all the geolinks from the most recent en: dump, not just those written by my bot. With some improvements based on analyzing the first round of tests, the current results are looking quite promising. (See my recent edits to these pages for some sample reports.)

In particular, User:The Anome/Geotags with uppercase region parameter, region=CS has found lots of interesting candidates for fixing: I'll combine it with my tree analysis, and see whether I can improve its accuracy any further. -- The Anome (talk) 02:26, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Some stats, based on the most recent (and already well out of date) dump:

There are 868536 geolinks in the en: Wikipedia, of which there are:

• ~283732 geolinks without any region: field, and
• ~584810 with a parseable region: field, (these two don't quite add to the total above because of edge cases in parsing) of which there are:

• 1110 with a region: tag, but no region coded
• 2360 with uppercase region codes that are in ISO 3166, but look suspicious
• 527 with uppercase region: codes that are not currently part of ISO 3166 (some of which I've broken down by code -- many of these are simple systematic errors)
• 261 with lowercase region: codes that look accurate
• 3 with lowercase regions codes that don't (all already fixed)

and all the others are most probably right, suggesting a lowerbound on the error rate for the region: tags that existed as of the time of the dump of around 0.7% -- and perhaps 50% of these remaining errors look as if they may be capable of being resolved automatically.

I see that you have fixed a lot of these yourself, already! I've only just begun to grasp the scale of the work you're doing, and I've also only just begun to realize just how valuable it is in terms of generating information about political geography. -- The Anome (talk) 02:49, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you. I have a decent tolerance for repetitive work, and I've been working primarily on Coord parameters for the past year or so, so I'm not surprised I've had an impact. I've always found Regioncheck quite useful, but I've gradually changed my focus from region: to type: and am using Geosearch more these days.

By the way, I find bots to be a double-edged sword, since historically they've copied coords from other wikis without much sanity checking. I hope that one outcome of your work will be bots that are much more selective in their copying. --Stepheng3 (talk) 21:49, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

National War Memorial Southern Command

oh yes i think dey r wrong.....i got this from wikimapia.....mayb i made a mistake in entering dem.....if you want its location....it is where sir maneckji mehta rd and jijamata road meet. its located south of jijamata rd along the prince of wales drive. i guess this will do....thnx a lot.Nirvanareborn(TeenSpirit) 17:27, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

An Garda Siochana

Hi just to let you know you are missing a rank in the Garda Siochana page of Superintendent which is one bar one diamond. Chief Supt is a bar and 2 diamonds. the Sgt has his chevrons below his numbers. just to let ya know —Preceding unsigned comment added by 10silop (talk • contribs) 20:15, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

User page

How do i delete the user pages?--Andrewcrawford (talk - contrib) 19:43, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Wickiup Reservoir

Hello. On my recently created article, Wickiup Reservoir, you fixed the coordinate tags. Thanks for doing so; may I ask how you did it? They are always getting messed up when I try it! Leave me a {{tb}} and reply here. Thanks again! smithers - talk 01:02, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

I think what happened is that you took the latitude and longitude in decimal degrees (i.e. 43.6643° North) and entered them using the degrees-minutes-seconds format (i.e. 43°66′43″). This would work if there were 100′ (100 minutes of arc) in a degree and 100″ (100 seconds of arc) in a minute of arc, but in fact there are only 60′ (60 minutes of arc) in a degree and 60″ (60 seconds of arc) in a minute of arc. This is a very common coordinate entry error, so don't feel bad. --Stepheng3 (talk) 17:50, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

What I did was to look up the degree-minute-second coordinates on GNIS. Another solution, if all you have is decimal degrees, would be to input the coordinates that way, i.e. something like {{coord|43.6643|N|121.8115|W|type:waterbody}}. Converting by hand (or with a calculator) is a pain, but can also be done. --Stepheng3 (talk) 17:54, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

I am 99% sure that your example is correct and I screwed up doing that. Thanks for the advise! smithers - talk 03:58, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Take this too:

Smithers7's special award As someone who creates articles that always have an error on the coordinates, I give this award to Stephen3 for helping me out. Thanks a bunch!

smithers - talk 03:58, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Cute. I'll treasure this. --Stepheng3 (talk) 04:03, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Georgetown Hospital

Thanks for fixing that. I knew there was something wrong but I just couldn't see it. The coordinates may need a bit of tweaking as they are for the helicopter landing pad. something lame from CBW 22:31, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

coord template

Thanks for the reminder about the {{coord}} template using type:isle, not type:island. I should have remembered that since I updated some documentation on those types, but that was quite a while ago. -- Zyxw (talk) 08:39, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Infobox on Montacute House

Hi, Thanks for your edit to the infobox on Montacute House, however if you look at Talk:Montacute House you will see that this compromise solution was hammered out after a long debate between several users. I suspect it will be reverted by those who really dislike the infobox.— Rod ^talk 18:34, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

Infobox bathhouse

Hi, I was wondering if the region problem you highlighted with diff means that template:infobox bathhouse needs a fix in order to generate the right region code? Cheers Ash (talk) 17:15, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

Rough Creek Ranch

Hello. I notice you recently nominated an article for deletion using the {{prod}} template. Please make sure to not include the rationale for deletion outside the template, as you did in that diff. Please also be more specific as to why you want the pages deleted. Thank you. —Duncan^{What I Do} / _{What I Say} 16:34, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

I've apologized on the article's talk page.--Stepheng3 (talk) 17:05, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

There's no need to apologize for good faith attempts to be helpful. Your efforts are appreciated. Cnilep (talk) 17:49, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

GeoTemplate/mercury

Belated thanks for adding a map to {{GeoTemplate/mercury}}. I was hoping someone would do that. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 18:15, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

deleted coordintes during cleanup

It was a mistake.--Fizbin (talk) 23:38, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Edit to Template:Infobox mountains

I looked over your edit to {{Infobox mountain/main}} and reverted it. I'm sure it was well intended but WP:MOUNTAINS is trying to be very selective about edits to the template. Before you edit the active template I think it would be a very good idea to discuss your revision first at Template talk:Infobox mountain. –droll [chat] 06:38, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Discussion opened. --Stepheng3 (talk) 06:31, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Usability of GeoTemplate

Comments on the usability of {{GeoTemplate}} (the page listing mapping services found by clicking on coordinates in articles) are invited, at Template talk:GeoTemplate#Usability redux. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 17:47, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank-you

Thank-you for fixing the coord macros in the translated pages. The german macro seems quite different and I couldn't completely work out the english equivalent! 18:46, 20 March 2010 (UTC) User talk:Ajcoxuk

Population

From memory the template formats the field itself if no commas are present. The density(s) is calculated form the area(s) and pop(s) - but these require the absence of commas. Hence the error was leaving the thousands separator in, not removing the millions. Rich Farmbrough, 14:55, 21 March 2010 (UTC).

Category:Template:Swiss populations data/Failure

Thanks for bringing that to my attention. The problem was that 2 of the articles are no longer municipalities and so no longer have valid SFOS ID numbers. The other 2 were misspelling within the templates. Tobyc75 (talk) 15:21, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Eriz didn't show up in the category, so thanks for that. The format is {{Swiss populations|ISO number|SFOS number}}. These errors are either due to a typing mistake in the template (in the case of Eriz, a missing "|") or that the municipality no longer has a valid SFOS number. I'm pulling the population data from [1] and the SFOS numbers from [2], in case you want to correct any errors you see. Tobyc75 (talk) 00:46, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank-you

Thank you for pointing out my error of CA vs CN. I have been using WMO country codes for 25 years. Apparently, I occasionally use the WMO code in error. Thanks for pointing out my mistake. (talk)