User:Stepheng3/Archive4

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) —Preceding undated comment added 22:09, 28 March 2010 (UTC).

Hong Kong University Graduate Association College latitude

done, but this is another school. :)Yukiseaside (talk)00:32, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Checking for improper use of parameters passed to coord

In case you are interested, see here. Plastikspork _―Œ^(talk) 15:20, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

Parkend, Gloucestershire

Hi Stephen,

Your recent edit to the Parkend, Gloucestershire page causes the coordinates to be written twice (over-written on itself). I'm not too sure which is the best coordinate entry to remove - to stop this happening. Would you mind taking a look please. Thx. Obscurasky (talk) 16:47, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

I've corrected the issue. I greatly appreciate the heads-up. Cheers, --Stepheng3 (talk) 16:50, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Kootenay River

I noticed that in your edit to teh geobox on the Kooteany River article putting the United States before Canada, your edit summary said "due to obscure limits of geobox", but because the river is almost 70% in Canada, I still think it would be more logical to put Canada first. Just like the U.S. ,Canada is also a country, so why would the geobox "discriminate" against Canada? Shannon^talk _contribs 23:10, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

I've replied on your talkpage. Best regards, --Stepheng3 (talk) 00:49, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

Kempraten

From the Infobox Swiss towns talk page:

Ok, took care of it. Kempraten is a village that makes up part of the municipality of Rapperswil-Jona. Since statistics are usually only reported for municipalities, the villages are just listed with a 0 population or what ever population they had when they merged into a municipality. Let me know if you see any more like that. Tobyc75 (talk) 20:20, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Diamond Systems Corporation

You may also wish to consider using a Wizard to help you create articles. See the Article Wizard.

Thank you.

A tag has been placed on Diamond Systems Corporation requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done because the article, which appears to be about a real person, individual animal(s), an organization (band, club, company, etc.), or web content, does not indicate how or why the subject is notable: that is, why an article about that subject should be included in an encyclopedia. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, articles that do not indicate the subject's importance or significance may be deleted at any time. Please see the guidelines for what is generally accepted as notable. If this is the first page that you have created, then you should read the guide to writing your first article.

If you think that you can assert the notability of the subject, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the article (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the article's talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would confirm the subject's notability under Wikipedia guidelines.

For guidelines on specific types of articles, you may want to check out our criteria for biographies, for web sites, for bands, or for companies. Feel free to leave a note on my talk page if you have any questions about this. 71.41.210.146 (talk) 06:14, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

I didn't create the article, and I'm not an expert on notability, but I think it should squeak by. I've added evidence to the article's talk page.--Stepheng3 (talk) 16:25, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Mendocino County rivers and railroads

I see your point about the defunct California railroads listing, but coastal rivers of Mendocino County have a unique linkage with isolated logging railroads. Each of the river drainages contained a lucrative stand of timber with a downhill skid pattern to a sawmill located on flat ground adjacent to an estuary with the potential for loading ships where interior transportation of lumber was unavailable. The ubiquitous combination of river, sawmill, company town, and logging railroad is extensive: Here is a preliminary list:

• Albion River - Albion, California - Albion Lumber Company
• Big River - Mendocino, California - Mendocino Lumber Company
• Caspar Creek - Caspar - Caspar Lumber Company - Caspar, South Fork and Eastern Railroad
• Cottoneva Creek - Rockport, California - Rockport Redwood Company
• Garcia River - Point Arena, California - L.E.White Lumber Company - Garcia and Point Arena Railroad
• Greenwood Creek - Elk, Mendocino County, California - Goodyear Redwood Company
• Gualala River - Gualala, California - Gualala Mill Company
• Indian Creek - Andersonia, California - Bear Harbor Lumber Company - Bear Harbor and Eel River Railroad
• Little River - Little River, California - Little River Mill Company
• Navarro River - Navarro, California - Navarro Lumber Company
• Noyo River - Fort Bragg, California - Union Lumber Company - California Western Railroad
• Usal Creek - Usal, California - Usal Lumber Company
• Wages Creek - Westport, California - DeHaven Lumber Company

Where I found enough information, I created a separate article like the Caspar, South Fork and Eastern Railroad. Many of the railroads carried the name of the parent lumber company, and few of those would meet notability criteria for a separate article, even if reliable information sources could be found. When the subject appears unlikely to meet notability criteria, I have attempted to combine it with an existing article. While description of the lumber company often fits best into the article describing the community (often a company town) originating around its sawmill, railroad geography is a better fit to the rivers where steep canyons typically confined the railroad within a stone's throw of the river. In places where no article exists, I favor creating an article on the river (like Usal Creek) rather than a vanishing community of questionable notability. I prefer redirects to creation of trivial stubs, and suggest leaving information in a single article until we get over 30K.Thewellman (talk) 07:20, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for the suggestions. I created Fort Bragg and Southeastern Railroad article and deleted Category:Defunct California railroads from the Albion River, Big River (California), and Navarro River articles.Thewellman (talk) 19:52, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Please comment...

...here. Thanks, –xeno^talk 15:47, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

• Replied here. –xeno^talk 13:19, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

• FYI, rolling now! [3]. Please keep an eye on Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Xb, this will show whenever the coordinates_region isn't properly supplied. –xeno^talk 14:10, 8 June 2010 (UTC)
  • Task paused, pending response to question at my talk page. –xeno^talk 22:15, 8 June 2010 (UTC)
  • There's a few that I don't know how to handle. –xeno^talk 20:30, 10 June 2010 (UTC)
    • That's fine. I'll look through these by hand and see what I can do. --Stepheng3 (talk) 00:50, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Welcome!

Hello, Stepheng3, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• Tutorial
• How to edit a page and How to develop articles
• How to create your first article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
• Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{helpme}} before the question. Again, welcome!

Ah, Philyboy2010... you make me feel all shiny and new. --Stepheng3 (talk) 18:06, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

CGNDB

I have started a discussion for changing CGNDB into a redirect here. Thanks for your input in this matter. Plastikspork _―Œ^(talk) 16:36, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Riverina

I have no idea what actually happens when you make this edit or what "adm2nd" means or even why you have made this edit. No doubt, there is some policy or consensus behind it, but I admit to my ignorance in this area. What I do know is that, now that you have made that edit, if you use Google Maps through the "coord" link, it opens on an entirely inappropriate scale whereas the use of "state" had Google Maps opening on an adequate scale. The Riverina is a huge area and needs a reasonably small scale map to show the entire region. Your edit forces a much larger scale map. Can you revert or fix, please? -- Mattinbgn\^talk 23:27, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

I'll fix the scale. Thanks for the heads-up. --Stepheng3 (talk) 23:39, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Many, many thanks - works very well now! -- Mattinbgn\^talk 23:52, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Duncans Point

When I originally made my edit, I noticed the coords were both in the text and in the title of the article and I thought perhaps that my removal of the inline coord template would just reduce the overall display of coords by one. I didn't realize that I had removed the coordinates completely. My apologies. Killiondude (talk) 21:07, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

I assumed it was something like that--no worries. By the way, thanks for all your help with California NRHP content. --Stepheng3 (talk) 22:09, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Giving up the tools helped me get back into the content area I loved to work in before. On another note, I found the RFA analysis on your userpage quite humorous; made me smb (smile by myself--I'm trying my hand at adding a new phrase to internet culture). Killiondude (talk) 00:05, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I can only hope that RfA is not actually as brutal as it appears from the outside. --Stepheng3 (talk) 04:48, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

Have you ever thought about taking the plunge? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 20:02, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I have. There are times when I wish I could view the history of deleted pages, times when I want to edit protected pages or rename over redirects. Each time I do, however, I remember the drama I witnessed, and I decide it's not worth the risks. Luckily, there's plenty of challenging work to be done that doesn't require a mop. --Stepheng3 (talk) 04:53, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

Templates on your userpage

If you want a system on your userpage where you don't have to update it monthly, you could do something like {{Unreferenced stub|date={{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}}} (the {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}} part) for each template. I made a test here and it formatted it correctly. Just a suggestion, if you're not comfortable with it it's no big deal to me. :-) Killiondude (talk) 02:44, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Done. Thanks,--Stepheng3 (talk) 02:49, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Bald Mountain (California)

Thanks for catching my oversight at Bald Mountain (California). I looked at the preview before I saved but still missed those brackets. –droll [chat] 05:31, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Hey, no problem. I put all those brackets there, but I wouldn't have thought to look for them if you hadn't found the first few. --Stepheng3 (talk) 16:42, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Scott Joplin

Hi there,

Thanks for your comment on my talk page. I've posted a reply on the Joplin talk page.

Best wishes,

Major Bloodnok (talk) 22:16, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Cali Sports Template--One small thing

Could you change the bottom from light blue to gold? Thanks, Purplebackpack89 02:56, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

Done. --Stepheng3 (talk) 03:01, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

Allow me...

	The Working Wikipedian's Barnstar
	...to present you with this shiny badge for all your work cleaning up the deprecated parameters of {{Infobox Russian inhabited locality}}. Thank you!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); June 7, 2010; 17:52 (UTC)

Sweet! Thank you, Ezhiki! --Stepheng3 (talk) 23:06, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Thank you!

Thank you for fixing the coordinates on the Nintendo World Store article! I was trying to copy the forumula from the page about geocoordinates on Wikipedia, but you understood it better. Thank you. dogman15 (talk) 01:50, 10 June 2010 (UTC)

Reviewer granted

You have been granted the 'reviewer' userright, allowing you to to review other users' edits on certain flagged pages. Pending changes, also known as flagged protection, will be commencing a a two-month trial at approximately 23:00, 2010 June 15 (UTC).

Reviewers can review edits made by users who are not autoconfirmed to articles placed under flagged protection. Flagged protection is applied to only a small number of articles, similarly to how semi-protection is applied but in a more controlled way for the trial.

When reviewing, edits should be accepted if they are not obvious vandalism or BLP violations, and not clearly problematic in light of the reason given for protection (see Wikipedia:Reviewing process). More detailed documentation and guidelines can be found here.

If you do not want this userright, you may ask any administrator to remove it for you at any time. –xeno^talk 13:32, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

WikiProject Geographical coordinates table

Hello, Stepheng3. I became interested in the "searches to find problems" table at Wikipedia:WikiProject Geographical coordinates/coordinates search tool. As I went through it, I found myself scrolling horizontally quite a bit. Would you be willing to put the wide column ("MySQL regular expression query") over to the right? This would put the two status columns closer to the left, and visible without scrolling horizontally. I'm assuming you're building this table with a tool. If you're building this table by hand, I'd be happy to volunteer changing the columns, if you wish. BrainMarble (talk) 22:06, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

I built the table by hand. I encourage you to be WP:BOLD, and I will revert if necessary. --Stepheng3 (talk) 22:15, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Done, and thanks! BrainMarble (talk) 22:44, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for helping a newbie... have a cookie!

Tarastar42 has given you a cookie! Cookies promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a cookie, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy munching!

Spread the goodness of cookies by adding {{subst:Cookie}} to someone's talk page with a friendly message, or eat this cookie on the giver's talk page with {{subst:munch}}!

Yum. Thanks! --Stepheng3 (talk) 14:47, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Template:Infobox kibbutz

Hi Stepheng3! I have reverted your edit to Template:Infobox kibbutz as it broke the templates on hundreds of articles. I appreciate the work that you put into the template, but please don't make major changes without discussing them first. In any case, we have had several discussions on the subject at WT:ISRAEL and came to the agreement that the generic template was unsuitable for the project's needs. In the case of your edit, it also broke any refs present in the template, and certain other fields. Cheers, Ynhockey ^(Talk) 11:12, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads-up and sorry for the inconvenience. I proposed the change at Template talk:Infobox Kibbutz. If WT:ISRAEL maintains the template, that should probably be indicated somewhere. I'd also like to understand more specifically what my change broke, in case the breakage can easily be addressed.--Stepheng3 (talk) 20:46, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

Hi again! The most noticeable problem was that it broke any refs that were in the numeric fields (put part of the ref as raw output for the reader). I believe that in the generic template, the population has to be represented as numeric in order to calculate population density, but villages in Israel are always part of a larger municipality, and don't have individual municipal jurisdiction, therefore trying to calculate density is unnecessary. I believe your change also created problems with the Hebrew font, but I reverted the changes too quickly to test this point. In any case, I have tagged the template with a WikiProject Israel tag.

I apologize for not noticing your comment on the template's talk page, but believe that it's OK to reply here now :) Basically, here are the main reasons why WikiProject Israel was not interested in implementing the generic template:

1. Most importantly: the generic template is not necessary. Most of the improvements it brings are not applicable to Israeli localities, and the few that might be can be easily copied to the Israeli template, which is fairly widely-used, probably in over 2,000 articles (including redirects).
2. The generic template does not address the specific needs of Israeli localities, and the workarounds that some editors implemented there seem to be an attempt to fix what ain't broken. There are also some small problems, for example, it says "Hebrew transcriptions", when in fact these are transliterations.
3. The generic template is extremely heavy and difficult to learn and use. It also puts a much heavier load on the server when one uses it, as far as I can tell. The template has hundreds of fields that are completely useless to Israeli localities.

I believe there were other reasons, but it's difficult to name them off the top of my head.

Cheers, —Ynhockey ^(Talk) 11:03, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your response. I'm happy having our discussion here.

Thanks for tagging {{Infobox Kibbutz}}.

By the way, I think the template ought to be renamed ASAP -- it's been used in many articles about non-kibbutz places in Israel, such as Caesarea and Drijat. And even if it were used only for kibutzim, it ought to have the designator in lower case: {{Infobox kibbutz}}.

One good thing about implementing country-specific infoboxes atop {{Infobox settlement}} is that projects can continue using the interfaces they're accustomed to -- no need for article creators to deal with the complexities of the more general template.

Additional fields that {{Infobox Kibbutz}} might benefit from include: leader_title=, leader_name=, image_flag=, image_shield=, timezone1=, postal_code=, area_code=.

You make a good point about transliteration versus transcription. I actually think that's a flaw in {{Infobox settlement}}, and I will raise the issue at Template talk:Infobox settlement.

I believe that the density calculations in {{Infobox settlement}} can be bypassed easily; I'll look into this after I return from vacation. I'd appreciate it if you'd point me to an article where you saw problems with the density calculations prior to revert, so I can add it to the testcases. I'd also appreciate it if you'd look at the testcases and tell me if there really are problems with the Hebrew font -- I learned to read Hebrew when I was eight but haven't used it since, so my Hebrew is very rusty.

I don't know how one would measure the load on the server due to a single template, nor do I see evidence of performance problems caused by {{Infobox settlement}} -- see Wikipedia:Don't worry about performance.

The ease-of-use issue is very subjective. If you only edit articles about a single country, then the simplest template is also the easiest. However, if you edit articles in 200 different countries, learning a different template for each country seems a far greater burden.

Thanks again. --Stepheng3 (talk) 18:15, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

About referencing problems in numeric fields, I noticed this problem in the article Haspin, but I am sure it exists in any article where a ref is used in the population field.

About the font, one of the most obvious problems is that it uses a generic font in bold, which makes the nikud disproportionately small. Assume that specific nikud would also have problems with the font, but again, this needs to be tested.

I appreciate your interest and there's no problem if you want to set up some test pages to fix this stuff. However, so far the few people who have showed dissatisfaction with an Israel-specific template are those who do not regularly read/edit Israel-related topics, and therefore I believe that the wishes of those editors who do should be considered first, since we're the ones who will feel the changes most. Therefore, I don't think it's necessary to bring this template in line with Infobox settlement. The fields you mentioned would probably be useless because, again, villages don't have their own jurisdictions and therefore don't require fields for leaders and flags. The timezone is the same for all of Israel and seems redundant.

About renaming the template: please don't do anything yet. There has been consensus for a long time ago to rename it to "Infobox Israel village", but every once in a while someone from the project (usually Number 57 or myself) runs through the articles where this template is used to make minor tweaks. The name change is therefore being made slowly, and once most of the articles use the new name, we'll move the actual template. In any case, there are probably no more than 5–10 new articles that can potentially be created with this template (all Israeli villages already have articles), so it's not urgent.

Cheers, Ynhockey ^(Talk) 22:10, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the additional information. I feel those of us who do not regularly read/edit Israel-related topics are just as important as those who do. I think we have different perspectives and priorities, and both views need to be considered. Hopefully we can find a solution that will satisfy most if not all.

It seems strange to have one infobox for kibutzim and villages in Israel and another one for cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Don't those of you who regularly read/edit Israel-related topics find this awkward or confusing?

I certainly won't initiate a rename without seeking consensus first.

Best regards, --Stepheng3 (talk) 20:19, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

Strange you should say that, because I believe it actually makes it less confusing. Municipalities such as cities and local councils are very different from non-municipalities. For instance, they have a defined jurisdiction, a mayor and local government (council), a town emblem and they belong directly to a district. On the other hand, they cannot be affiliated with a certain organization or focus on one industry—something that's true for most villages. Therefore, someone adding a new infobox (again, there aren't many articles that need this) would have more specific things to focus on instead of trying to fill out all the fields and getting confused in the process (especially someone non-Israeli who, for example, might not know that kibbutzim don't have a mayor).

In any case, just to clarify what I said and reiterated in all of the posts above: it's not that there are so many things wrong with the generic template, it's that it's not necessary. I have not seen a single compelling argument on why it's important or desirable to switch to the generic template for Israeli localities. I believe that if such arguments are presented, we can have a more open discussion which presents the ups and downs of each infobox. —Ynhockey ^(Talk) 22:24, 30 June 2010 (UTC)