User talk:RexxS/Archive 11

Latest comment: 12 years ago by RexxS in topic Remember your old buddy?

You are a true expert

 
Go Wiki! Go reptiles! Go USA!

And I know it and intend to interact with you all over the place! HA!

Hey, thanks for the help with our little article. We got the star. And that table has a lot of your hoofprints on it. And I'm sure the moral support means something, given your technical insights.

Thanks again. TCO (talk) 00:06, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

Request help to show FP images for project turtle

Any thoughts on how we should do this? See here for context: [1] TCO (talk) 03:03, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

That may be cryptic. What we want to do is show FPish style content within team turtle. How should we do that graphically (layout). Also what should the inputs be (FP wiki, FP Commons, VP, other)? I assume if we ever get sounds they would go in their own section. I also assume vidoes would go in the FP section if we have or get any.TCO (talk) 03:07, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

Sure, I'll do what I can to help. But I'm worn out right now from two solid days of teaching on a scuba instructors course. I'm sure I have a picture of a sea turtle that I took in Tenerife, somewhere, but as with most underwater pics, it needs large amounts of processing to compensate for the effects of water on the light. Anyway, that's not what you want, you want the highest quality pics, etc. Why don't you make a sandbox either in the project or your user space where you can experiment? - use its talk page to discuss what you want to happen, and leave links to the page where I can find them. I have a bit of a busy week ahead, but if you can do some brainstorming in sandbox-space, I can drop by and throw in ideas when I find some time. --RexxS (talk) 00:35, 21 March 2011 (UTC)
I got something done that I think is good enough. Is on our project page (did a subpage).TCO (talk) 07:19, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

Request

Please comment no more at my talk page, except as required by Wikipedia rules, such as to provide required notifications.Anythingyouwant (talk) 02:01, 22 March 2011 (UTC)

I will grant that request of course. I trust you will extend me the same courtesy. Please beware of WP:3RR - you may find WP:OWNTALK and WP:DRRC helpful. --RexxS (talk) 02:17, 22 March 2011 (UTC)
3RR isn't in effect on talkpages when removing edits that the user has asked not be posted. - NeutralhomerTalkCoor. Online Amb'dor • 02:21, 22 March 2011 (UTC)
Nonsense. Requests have no bearing on it. WP:Edit warring#3RR exemptions is the relevant behavioural guideline, and gives this exception: Reverting edits to pages in your own user space, so long as you are respecting the user page guidelines. The corresponding user page guidelines are at WP:OWNTALK: Users may freely remove comments from their own talk pages and WP:UP#CMT: Policy does not prohibit users, whether registered or unregistered users, from removing comments from their own talk pages. The latter has a {{seealso}} to WP:DRRC: If a user removes a comment from their own talk page it should not be restored, which of course is exactly what Anythingyouwant did. --RexxS (talk) 03:09, 22 March 2011 (UTC)

May I know your insight?

 
An insult

I have encountered a situation. I feel it rises to a level of slander. I am trying to reach a remedy with the user directly, and it will be great if we can resolve it at the lowest level. I am also formulating a next best step towards a resolution I feel compled to have answered. Either I was wrong and nothing is contrary to policy, or I am right and there is a moment when conduct exceeds an acceptable threshold. Of course I would be interested to know if you feel I have a valid need to see the answer, and second if you could outline the chronology of steps, best taken to seek the answer. Here is the comment which aggrieved my comprise. Here is my response. Any insight you care to impart would be greatly appreciated. And significantly considered as well. Thanks for storing significant clue, and for perhaps a willingness to share of its abundance. I remain committed to emulating the good examples I have seen, yours being uppermost. My76Strat (talk) 08:34, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Here's the best advice I can give you: the only opinions that matter are those of people you care about.
Take a step back, and consider. Does what Townlake think matter to you? If so, you must ask yourself why it should matter. You are proud of your contributions to Wikipedia - that is where pride is a constructive emotion. When someone says something derogatory about you in a public forum, you feel aggrieved, but that's just pride being a destructive emotion. The insult feels hurtful, but it really is of less consequence than a pebble dropped into water; the ripples last for a few moments, then all returns to how it was. Aspire to ignoring insults. You probably never will be able to ignore them completely; none of us are perfect. But each time you do, you get better at it. Hope that helps. --RexxS (talk) 15:01, 24 March 2011 (UTC)
Thank you for the gift of your time. In keeping with the intentions, I would like to answer the parts I have already considered. I did consider "Does what Townlake think matter to you?". It does. When pondering "why it should matter", I conclude the shear principle as significant. The insult is the easiest thing to overcome. But the implications of someone aggressively slandering your character without rhyme or reason, bothers me greatly. Because if it can happen to me, others are also vulnerable. If a person has an opinion, they are obligated to identify it as their opinion. If they state it as fact, they should be required, if asked to show the reference. And it should directly support the claim being made. This is not an article, but it is a BLP issue. In this example, I am the living person subject to damage. I should have no less right to consideration; Or you, or the other user who has been discredited by innuendo. Not to mention that the discussion itself is about why so many good contributors are pushed to leaving Wikipedia subsequent their RfA experience. So I have adopted genuine concern that this issue receive a hearing to provide a direct answer as to: does it fit policy, or is it contrary to policy? I think ANI could be a proper venue. perhaps RfC is better. But I must admit to do nothing is not an option for me now. I hope you can appreciate the goal of my intentions. Thanks again. My76Strat (talk) 05:51, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

Turtles of Texas

Hey, I am thinking about doin an FL on turtles of Texas. Appreciate your advice both on table concept and execution issue.TCO (talk) 00:13, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

Take a break from the talkpage diputes and go content. Check out my turtles FP subpage at project turtle (test to see if you can find it). Also, I am going to write some thoughts on what I should do on turtles of Texas (sandbox). I'm a little torn if I want do do multiple tables or what, but I think I need to get moving (can change later). Probably text on top and then a table that looks a lot like state reptiles. Feel free to give ideas though!
Appreciate any help and advice. [2] TCO (talk) 02:36, 23 March 2011 (UTC)
I promise I'll get there eventually, but I'm somewhat too depressed right now to concentrate on serious content work.[3] --RexxS (talk) 19:53, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

DCS to FA?

Did you ever see the paper I sent you a while back?

  • Vann Richard D, Butler Frank K, Mitchell Simon J, Moon Richard E (2011). "Decompression illness". Lancet. 377 (9760): 153–64. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61085-9. PMID 21215883. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

I think we should use this paper to revisit the Frequency table in the DCS article. It still bothers me that the data Mark used has no primary reference (and I did ask him for one).

It also looks like it could be used to expand the epidemiology section as well since they quote numbers for scientific, recreational and commercial diving populations.

I'm going to look for some data/ references to fill in the missing "world" view under economics next… From the title you can see what I am thinking about. ;)

Thoughts? --Gene Hobbs (talk) 01:54, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks Gene, the paper is great, and I apologise for not saying so sooner. I reckon it could be used in several places to good effect. One of us ought to go ahead and do those revisions to Decompression sickness, as a start. Give me a day or two to get back into the right frame of mind, and I'll pitch in – there's really no reason at all why it shouldn't be brought up to FA. --RexxS (talk) 19:59, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

I you can help

I had attempted to contact Jack Merridew via the Gold Hat TP.There was a small bite so I was hoping to follow the breadcrumbs which lead to this location. I think we could have talked but you will see the actions indicated by the history. You may be glad at least to have looked. Cheers My76Strat (talk) 04:31, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Famously bitchy

Ha! Nice! Mild Rex is learning! darwinbish BITE 02:42, 28 March 2011 (UTC).

Bah! That's supposed to be my job. --Famously Sharp (talk) 18:04, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

PMID & PMC

I think it might be appropriate that you refrain from reverting my edits (as here) until we've concluded discussion on this point. I'm extending you the equivalent courtesy by suspending addition of PMIDs to citations with exiting PMCs. Rjwilmsi 23:39, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. I'd be happy to explore the reasons why both parameters should be present (and displayed), as there may well be issues other the ones that are immediately apparent to me. I've opened discussion at Template talk:Cite journal#PMID when there's a PMC. I really don't expect to be doing any further reverts of your edits as the Oxygen toxicity and Nitrogen narcosis articles are on my watchlist simply because I'm the principal contributor and FA/GA nominator for them. --RexxS (talk) 00:13, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

Assessment with WP:USPP is the ultimate!

hi RexxS,
A new assessment round is posted. This round is mostly starts and stubs, so evaluation should be really quick. WP:USPP Assessment 2.1
The Public Policy Initiative is super exciting this term. The topics are really interesting this term and the student's are producing some really good quality content. Recent numbers indicate that our project is actually contributing a significant amount of content to Wikipedia. There is a group of about 20 subject matter experts who are assessing, but the Wikipedians are so consistent, that I really need your scores to measure article quality.
On another note, are you going to Wikimania? I am looking for people to co-present with, so let me know if you are! Best, ARoth (Public Policy Initiative) (talk) 20:49, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

An FLC-related request

Hi there RexxS, I've been pinged in your direction by The Rambling Man at WP:FAC. I've got my List of Mir spacewalks up there at the moment (Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of Mir spacewalks/archive1), and he suggested that it would be a good idea to ask you for advice on making the list comply with WP:ACCESS - I'd very much appreciate it if you could, as this is really the first list I've written, and I've little idea what I'm doing! :-) Many thanks in advance, Colds7ream (talk) 18:10, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

I've made some suggestions at Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of Mir spacewalks/archive1 and some examples at User:RexxS/Mir spacewalks#Minimal markup. Hope that helps, --RexxS (talk) 01:19, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
Thanks very much indeed - working on them now! :-) Colds7ream (talk) 15:26, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

User:RexxS/RfC draft

I note that this draft page has been dormant for over a year. Please blank or delete it until you are ready to post the RFCU.   Will Beback  talk  23:46, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

Oops sorry, Will, good catch! The RfC was actually created and ran. I simply forgot to ask for the usespace page to be deleted. Would you be kind enough to apply the coup de grace, please? --RexxS (talk) 23:55, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
Done. I came across several old drafts and this was one of them.   Will Beback  talk  00:10, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
Thanks! --RexxS (talk) 01:14, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

WikiConference UK 2011: will you be coming?

Hello. Thanks for expressing an interest in attending WikiConference UK 2011 in Bristol this coming Saturday (16 April). If you you will be coming, please could you register (if you haven't already) so that we can ensure we have enough catering, printed material and badges to go around? You can officially register at http://wikiconferenceuk2011.eventbrite.com/ . Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 15:29, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Hi Mike, and thanks for the note. I think I have already registered through the Eventbrite site, and I'm looking at my printed ticket in the name of Rexx Schneider dated "Apr 04, 2011" right now. We really ought to explain to them about WP:STRONGNAT <grin>. --RexxS (talk) 17:23, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Assistance with scope/accessibility for FLC

Hi Rexx, I was wondering if you might be available to assist with addressing a concern relating to scope/accessibility raised here: Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance/archive1. I am not familiar with accessibility formatting. Once the table is formatted properly, I am happy to paste an example of the coding over at the Grammy Awards task force so that other Grammy lists can be formatted in a similar manner. Thanks for any assistance or insight you may be able to provide. --Another Believer (Talk) 22:50, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks so much for your assistance! --Another Believer (Talk) 23:20, 14 April 2011 (UTC)
You're always welcome. --RexxS (talk) 23:32, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

You!

Hey RexxS:

LTNS! Nice to see you around again. You know ... I was just thinking that I may possibly love you, in a "Wikipedia, Platonic, heterosexual, pure" sort of way anyway :-)

With tongue fully in cheek, I remain

Your Wikifriend: Cliff L. Knickerbocker, MS (talk) 13:12, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Hey Cliff, it's good to see that you haven't been put off by our peculiar way of welcoming expert editors. Have you seen this essay before? If you laugh at it every once in a while, it'll help keep you sane while editing here. :) Cheers, --RexxS (talk) 13:27, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Cool Diving Site

Hey RexxS:

If you or any buddies are out here in the "Armpit of the Midwest" (Southern Illinois), we DO have a scuba site that's kinda cool - see http://www.mermetsprings.com/

Would be glad to serve as local tour guide and make sure folks have no wants, needs, or problems while in the area. Just thought I'd shoot you this "heads up"

Best regards: Cliff L. Knickerbocker, MS (talk) 12:15, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Notice Per Policy - Sorry

Hello. This message is being sent to inform you that there is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. Thank you. Hello. This message is being sent to inform you that there is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. Thank you. Hey - I really HATE that it has come to this ... but it has, so in accordance with policy as I understand it, I am required to let you know that I either already have - or soon will - mention your name in the substance of my arguments with regard to the "dispute situation" that has been ongoing for some time vis-a-vis (a) highly inappropriate hyphenation of cancer article titles, text, and links, (b) repeated paqe moves and other actions taken without consensus (at best) or against consensus (at worst), and (c) the various other and sundry issues thereto appertaining. Sorry, and thanks for your tolerance.

Best regards:

That's OK, Cliff. I'm happy for you to mention me or quote me at AN/I in connection with the over-hyphenation problem. Just don't get yourself upset over the issue. It's all fixable - and it will be, given time. Cheers, --RexxS (talk) 21:52, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Flatlist compact

I don't believe that we need {{Flatlist compact}} - I think a better solution would be to add a switch to {{Flatlist}} , or to add conditional CSS to Common.css Accordingly, I'm going to raise the matter on TfD, but please contribute there, to find a solution which is acceptable to us both. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 18:53, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Oh, I agree. I just made that to get going, because I was worried the navboxes wouldn't pick up on the idea. The switch on {{{Flatlist}} would be my preferred solution. --RexxS (talk) 21:30, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Sorted table.png

 

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

If you have uploaded other unlicensed media, please check whether they're used in any articles or not. You can find a list of "file" pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "File" from the dropdown box. Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. Courcelles 04:15, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Yer, well, that's what you get when you upload a screenshot of a Wikipedia page. In future, I'll just lie about it. --RexxS (talk) 13:54, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

New Assessment for article improvements with PPI

hi RexxS,
Another assessment round is posted. This round is the follow-up to the previous assessment, so it should reflect some big improvements to the articles. WP:USPP Post Assessment 2.1
There is a group of about 25 subject matter experts who are assessing, and last week I sent them a tutorial video on how to leave comments on talk pages. So if you see any newcomers on the discussion pages, please help me welcome them.
You are doing a really amazing job, in fact, here at WMF, we are using your ratings as the “gold standard” to test the Article Feedback Tool and see how well it works. I will be presenting lots of research in the coming months. Best, ARoth (Public Policy Initiative) (talk) 21:15, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

One law for the cattle, one for the gods

Thanks for your ANI comment. Oh how predictable the Civility Patrol is. Same witticisms every time, always with an air of discovery. And nobody, but nobody, refers even remotely to my fucking main point — which was Lex Bovis, Non Jovis -->"The law is for the cattle, not for the gods" --> "Civility is for the IPs, not for the admins." Heck, I treasure a recent diff where Sandstein, of all people, uses the Word of Unspeakable Horror, remarking that most people don't give a flying fuck about seeing the word fuck in a history, hehe.[4] If that doesn't show it's suitable diction at polite tea-parties, I don't know what does. (I still think "fucking" as used by the IP is an adverb, btw.)   Bishonen | talk 00:04, 1 May 2011 (UTC).

Well, I suppose if we use the word often enough, it will lose its power to upset the CP. I've made my little contribution now, although I still can't accept that form as an adverb – those verb-derived forms just don't exist in English without the '-ly' suffix, and even then they are hard to find: e.g. to mock (v.) -> mocking (adj.) -> mockingly (adv.). While I actually prefer civil discourse, I'm always going to defend folks' rights to express themselves prosaically – when did 'tolerance' become a dirty word? --RexxS (talk) 02:10, 1 May 2011 (UTC)
saw it; a fuckingly typical wiki-thread. most are, these dayz. fucking, 125.162.150.88 (talk) 08:39, 1 May 2011 (UTC)
Damn to you too. I've just posted in "your" thread on ANI, not that I expect much joy from it. Why is ANI dominated by the likes of Silver Seren, GoodDay, and Mick Macknee nowadays? It drowns out any actual "discussion", what there was of it. Bishonen | talk 23:12, 1 May 2011 (UTC).
After 40 years of addiction, I gave up smoking this year. You know, it felt good every time I smoked, but it left a shitty taste in my mouth afterwards. I think I'm going to give up being addicted to ANI as I reckon posting there is worse than smoking. You get the shitty taste afterwards without even getting any pleasure beforehand. Tolerated. --Famously Sharp (talk) 00:24, 2 May 2011 (UTC)
My time reading AN/I is greatly diminished these days. I have a rule that I will skip an entire section if I see that Baseball Bugs has commented. Since he seems to comment on everything, I don't read hardly anything anymore. Tex (talk) 14:11, 2 May 2011 (UTC)
OMG, Famously, now look what you did. Darwinbish has started smoking fat Havanna cigars! So that's what she uses her brother's lunch money for. Poor little fellow is looking distinctly skinny nowadays. I've noticed. :-( Bishonen | talk 15:45, 2 May 2011 (UTC).
 

Article layout formatting help request

Hi,

I'm working on a draft article and hitting a text-float related layout problem in the section titled Unproven core collapse processes. The "unsolved problems" box is a manual inclusion of {{unsolved}} because the existing template's width and float arguments are causing issues.

Courcelles says that Template:Unsolved is poorly styled, but beyond that neither of us can figure how to make text flow in this part of the article in an appealing manner. Courcelles says you might be the one to ask. Can you help figure out how to improve the layout here, and any fix needed to the template?

Desired end result: - the image is the title image for the "external gravitational gradient" subsection, and the "unsolved questions" box purely related to the subsection on quark stars. Logically, the two subsections need to appear in that order due to the internal consistency of the topic area and article.

Hopefully that gives an idea what I'm after. If you can figure a way to fix this, I'd be grateful! Thanks! FT2 (Talk | email) 22:51, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

This is a tough one, and I don't think that I can craft a perfect solution for you, especially if you're looking for a generally applicable solution. The problem is that {{unsolved}} wants to have a width of 30% of its container - and as soon as you constrain the container to be less than the page width (like part of a floating table), the template becomes far too narrow.
Nevertheless, we have a template {{Fix bunching}} that is designed to keep right-floating objects from bunching up at the top of a section - it's quite close to what we need here. Using Fix bunching|begin, Fix bunching|mid and Fix bunching|end, it's possible to get closer to what you want.
User:RexxS/scc2 and User:RexxS/scc3 are suggestions on how you can do away with the explicit tables if you're prepared to have a little whitespace at some screen widths. I'll have another look tomorrow, and see if I can find some inspiration for a better solution, but please feel free to edit those two pages to see if you can find placements of Fix bunching|begin, Fix bunching|mid and Fix bunching|end that produce a more pleasing appearance to you. --RexxS (talk) 01:15, 4 May 2011 (UTC)

fyi ;)

Barong 04:15, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

Column scopes in List of Watford F.C. players

Hi RexxS. I was wondering if you could take a quick look at the accessibility of List of Watford F.C. players when you get a chance. I believe the following to be correct, but thought it best to check for confirmation with someone more experienced, before confidently asserting it to be the case.

For the positions table: Without scopes, I believe the table will read:

"GK. Goalkeeper. FB. Full back. DF. Defender. HB. Half back. MF. Midfielder. IF. Inside forward. FW. Forward. OF. Outside forward. CF. Centre forward."

As that is what I want to communicate, I don't see any benefit to scoping.

For the other two tables (the key proper and the main table) I have col scopes only. The table structures are simple: no rowspans or colspans, same number of cells in every single row, so I believe that this is accessible without the need for row headers. A sample output of the first line of the main table (as I understand it) would be:

"Name. Chris Adams. Position. OF. Years at Watford. 1954-1956. Apps. 81. Goals. 6. International honours. None. Notes/refs. — ."

Row scopes would result in the column header and player's name being read before each piece of information. In addition to visual tastes of bold vs no bold, it's a matter of taste as to whether "Chris Adams. Position. OF. Chris Adams. Years at Watford. 1954-1956. Chris Adams..." would be useful or annoying. Weighing those factors up, I'd prefer not to use row scopes unless necessary.

I'm getting a bit more confident with using and not using scopes, but thought I'd run that past you in case there's anything I've misunderstood. The awareness of accessibility matters is growing all the time, which is excellent. I'm keen to make sure that my understanding keeps pace, especially given my tendency to build complicated tables. Regards, —WFC— 00:19, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

The positions table and the key table are relatively simple and I don't think that a screen reader would have any difficulty in navigating them.
You are mistaken though about the main table. If screen readers were restricted to reading a table row-by-row, then you'd be right and there would never be any need for row scopes. However, users of readers like JAWS can choose to navigate around a table in any direction as well as the linear, row-by-row method that you're anticipating.
For example, to answer the question "who were Watford's top goal scorers?", the table can be sorted by 'Goals' descending. If we make the names into headers and mark them with scope=row, then a screen reader can navigate down the Goals column and hear "Luther Blissett*, Goals, 186", "Tommy Barnett, Goals, 160", "Ross Jenkins, Goals, 142", and so on. It is when a JAWS user is navigating in that way that the screen reader will be set to announce the row header and column header before each data item, and as you can see, it is essential for an understanding of the data.
The sequence "Goals", "186", "160", "142" is not really useful compared to having the name announced before each data item, so we should mark up the table with row headers. That does not prevent row-by-row navigation, and "Chris Adams, OF, 1954–1956, 81, 6, None" is still possible. But without row headers, the accessibility of the table is diminished, and minor differences in visual appearance do not compensate for denying the table's functionality to the visually impaired – we have "plainrowheaders" to remove the bold centring if desired.
There's a useful tutorial from the makers of JAWS at http://www.freedomscientific.com/Training/Surfs-up/Tables.htm that explains how JAWS is used to navigate tables in different ways that might be worth a look if you want the detail of what's possible with properly marked tables. Hope that helps. --RexxS (talk) 01:25, 9 May 2011 (UTC)
That's brilliant. Thanks for explaining. —WFC— 12:11, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for assessing!!!

hi RexxS, your work assessing articles with WP:USPP is very appreciated. I hope you will join us for the last 2 assessments in the spring. all the best, ARoth (Public Policy Initiative) (talk) 21:49, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

RE: Archimedes' Principle

Of course. I only removed "sv:Arkimedes princip" from Buoyancy because i saw that in wp:en there are separate articles as well. Cheers. EuTugamsg 02:13, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

WP:ACCESS question

Alright, so in an article (List of San Diego Padres team records), I know that per WP:ACCESS, colored items need matching symbols. Along the same lines, would the items with symbols here need colors? Albacore (talk) 00:38, 22 May 2011 (UTC)

No. Colours will never be required because not every viewer can see them. Using an asterisk (*) to indicate tied values is fine by itself, since it is visible to sighted readers and will be read out clearly by any screen reader or text-to-speech converter. You've done an excellent job of making those tables both accessible and functional: headers, scopes, captions and sortability – well done! --RexxS (talk) 00:58, 22 May 2011 (UTC)

ACCESS issues

Hello RexxS, I am wondering if this symbol works ¤ in the List of Kraft Nabisco Championship champions, and tell me if there's anymore problems with Access concerns. Thanks, SaysWhoWhatWhenWhereWhyHow? (talk) 18:34, 22 May 2011 (UTC)

It wouldn't be my first choice as it's not a guaranteed unique symbol when spoken by a screen reader. Do your sources commonly use ¤ to indicate a 54-hole victory? If not, I'd suggest a common symbol, like + or # or a template like ‡ - as we know all of those work well. If you really want to use the ¤, you could ask User:Graham87 - a very helpful editor who uses JAWS all the time - to see if he hears it spoken as something other than a question mark (JAWS speaks that for an unrecognised symbol). In general, you might want to use captions for some of the tables (using |+ Key inside the table instead of ;Key before it) Apart from that, you've done a fine job and I can't see any ACCESS problems: you have alt text on the images; the tables have headers and scopes where useful, and no information is conveyed by colour alone. Looks good to me! --RexxS (talk) 01:03, 23 May 2011 (UTC)
Would the pound sign # be a gaurenteed one to work? If it is I will go with it.SaysWhoWhatWhenWhereWhyHow? (talk) 02:17, 23 May 2011 (UTC)
I'm pretty certain that the developers of screen reading software will have made sure that all standard keyboard characters like '#' are understood and read sensibly. For what it's worth, I would expect '#' to be read as 'hash' probably (since there is a pound sign which is '£' on UK keyboards). The '#' symbol is a good choice, and easy to use. --RexxS (talk) 02:28, 23 May 2011 (UTC)
Thanks for all of the help, I am going through the article and subsequent articles to make the change.SaysWhoWhatWhenWhereWhyHow? (talk) 05:39, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

WP:USPP Spring Assessment 3

hi RexxS,

Thanks for helping with assessment! There is a new assessment posted here. There are 25 articles in both this assessment and the next/final assessment. There was a huge amount of content that got added this term, hopefully the randomly selected articles will show it to be high quality. You should see some results form the assessments in the coming months. ARoth (Public Policy Initiative) (talk) 19:42, 24 May 2011 (UTC)

Table on rhabdomyolysis

Hello RexxS, I was advised that you are the person to talk to when it comes to formatting tables etc in an accessible manner. I am working rhabdomyolysis up for FAC (here), and I am trying to present the numerous causes of this condition in a structured table. I'd be utterly grateful if you could have a peek and advise on how I could present the information as clearly as possible. JFW | T@lk 06:53, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

Hi JFW, the table already had a caption and both row and column headers marked up, so was already quite accessible. I hope you don't mind, but I've made 3 small edits to the table, as it's quicker to do these than explain them. I'm sure you'll be able to follow what I did, so that you can reproduce it in future. The default presentation for cells marked as headers (with '!') is bold and centred, so I was able to simplify the markup you had used for centring/left-aligning. It still has an identical visual presentation, but the 'scope' markup will now provide some users of screen readers additional capabilities when they navigate within the table. Good luck with your FA nom! --RexxS (talk) 14:13, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

That's fantastic! Thanks for the quick response. JFW | T@lk 18:42, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

Last PPI assessment!

hi RexxS,

We finally made it, this is the last assessment request for the Public Policy Initiative! I was really impressed with the content the students developed this term, I hope you enjoyed it too. The last set of articles is at Student Post 2.2. I will keep you updated on results and publications. Thanks ARoth (Public Policy Initiative) (talk) 05:25, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

Thank You! RexxS, your assessments made a big contribution toward quality evaluation. I will keep you posted on the research and results that come out in the coming months. All the best, ARoth (Public Policy Initiative) (talk) 17:04, 14 June 2011 (UTC)
 
ARoth (Public Policy Initiative) has given you a cupcake! Cupcakes promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a cupcake, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend.

Main page appearance

Hello! This is a note to let the main editors of this list know that it will be appearing as the main page featured list on June 13, 2011. You can view the TFL blurb at Wikipedia:Today's featured list/June 13, 2011. If you think it is necessary to change the main date, you can request it with the featured article directors The Rambling Man (talk · contribs), Dabomb87 (talk · contribs) or Giants2008 (talk · contribs), or at Wikipedia talk:Today's featured list/requests. If the previous blurb needs tweaking, you might change it—following the instructions of the suggested formatting. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :D Thanks! ۞ Tbhotch & (ↄ), Problems with my English? 02:09, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Hi Rex, could you please check over what I've written? I've also asked the other guys to do so. Thanks. Tony (talk) 12:05, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Congratulations on having the first (regularly scheduled) Featured List on the main page! Here's to many more. Best wishes, BencherliteTalk 14:34, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
Yep, well done RexxS and thanks for all you did to help get the main page updated! The Rambling Man (talk) 14:40, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
Yes, congrats RexxS. Well done, both on writing this fine list and helping to make TFL a reality. By the way, I think you'll be pleased with the effect Main Page exposure on page views. Dabomb87 (talk) 02:58, 14 June 2011 (UTC)
 This user helped promote List of signs and symptoms of diving disorders to the main page as Today's Featured List on 13 June.

Many thanks for your kind words. Sorry I haven't replied sooner, but I've been on a wiki-holiday recently to give myself a chance to get some perspective again. I'm sure the Signpost was fine, and I'll be back in action again very soon. --RexxS (talk) 02:13, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Access

Hi Rexx,

Congratulations on being the first TFL submitter! I'm one of several editors working to build up a stockpile of featured list blurbs in hopes that we can get TFL to be a daily thing. One of the objections to some of the submissions so far is WP:ACCESS and, in some of the cases, I'm unsure as to how that issue needs to be addressed. WFCforLife tells me that you're an expert on WP:ACCESS, so I was hoping that you would give me some pointers about how to make some of the lists more accessible. The three articles whose accessibility has been criticized so far are as follows: List of Harry Potter cast members, Timeline of Jane Austen, and List of inhabited islands of Croatia. Any help you are willing to provide would be greatly appreciated.

Neelix (talk) 02:32, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Hey Neelix, I noticed your considerable efforts in writing blurbs for so many lists – great work, and it's much appreciated. I'm afraid WFC exaggerates my expertise, but I'd be happy to share with you what I know about accessibility. I'm just catching up after a bit of a break, but I'll do my best to put some effort into at least one of those lists in the next day or so, and try to make clear the changes I make. Cheers, --RexxS (talk) 02:13, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Stone Town

Hi. Don't miss this. Best wishes, 180.241.11.97 (talk) Jack 12:39, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Also don't miss the first edit of that IP. Notice who made the edit before? And now explain to me Jack's motivation for making this edit. Was it improving the encyclopedia? Amalthea 13:01, 26 June 2011 (UTC)
Well, you got me there, Amalthea. The first edit of the IP [5] was to change [[Booker Prize]] (1983, 1999)<br>[[Nobel Prize in Literature]] (2003) to {{ubl | [[Booker Prize]] (1983, 1999) | [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] (2003) }} which creates an unbulleted list (semantically correct) and removes a piece of html (the BR tag) that annoys folks using screen readers. It's actually a real (if small) improvement to the encyclopedia, but very few editors will grasp that because they don't understand how their stylistic decisions impact the disabled. The other bits and pieces (Reflist|2 -> Reflist|colwidth=30em and spaces after the wikilist * markup) are typical Jack gnoming. They just improve things ever so slightly, but surely you're not trying to say that it is disruptive? Favonian (talk · contribs) was the previous editor, but I'm unaware of any previous interactions, so I can't see the point you're trying to make.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that it confirms to me that Jack is not disrupting anything, but doing his usual wiki-gnome work. We don't need to turn him into a pariah for that, surely? --RexxS (talk) 21:54, 26 June 2011 (UTC)
  Like Nice code; stylish; embiggens teh wiki. I am adding this to my template collection. --Diannaa (talk) 23:06, 26 June 2011 (UTC)
May I also recommend {{Flatlist}} which creates nice horizontal lists like this:
without forcing screen readers to say "dot" between each entry. Great for navboxes! --RexxS (talk) 23:38, 26 June 2011 (UTC)
Thanks. I will put that in my {{Rajput Groups of India}}. :) --Diannaa (talk) 23:54, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Remember your old buddy?

Could you take a look at Manhattan Project, under Ore section? I have a gallery of three images showing a process. Think it looks decent for once. But if you think worth your time to do some fancy table thing to improve, please do. The article is of course a very important one and in FAC. Actually if you wanted to fix anything else, always appreciated. And even a suppo...review would be nice. (Note, I am not the nom.)


TCO (talk) 00:43, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Not to put any pressure on you...

...unless it helps. I'm going to put it in for the FP queue. Donno if you remember our collaboration (really your work) on the subspecies top/bottom image for picta? I want to get these FP boyz and Wiki in general thinking more about how to show information conceptualy via pictures. Thus a set of images, really does have a value in a different way then we normally adorn various images of people (left, right, facing in, hup, hup) in a Giano sex-in-the-palace FA. More analysis embedded in our visuals. Anyhow...if you can help it (and of course take credit, blabla) will help. TCO (talk) 03:27, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Disregard for now

I need to get bigger pics for the FP try. Also, want to check the rights status a little better.TCO (talk) 20:17, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Okay, sorry I've been tied up with RL for a couple of days and haven't found time to do more than a couple of mouse clicks on Wikipedia recently. I'll try to catch up again as soon as work emergencies settle down. --RexxS (talk) 15:12, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

Thank You!

  The Featured Sound Main Page Proposal Voter Barnstar
I was truly humbled by the overwhelming community support for the recent proposal to place featured sounds on the main page. The proposal closed on Tuesday with 57 people in support and only 2 in opposition.

It should take a few weeks for everything to get coded and tested, and once that is done the community will be presented with a mock up to assess on aesthetic appeal.

Finally, I invite all of you to participate in the featured sounds process itself. Whether you're a performer, an uploader, or just come across a sound file you find top quality, and that meets the featured sound criteria, you can nominate it at Wikipedia:Featured sound candidates. Featured sounds is also looking for people to help assess candidates (also at Wikipedia:Featured sound candidates.)

Thanks again for such a strong showing of support, and I hope to see you at featured sounds in the future.
Sven Manguard Wha?
Adam Cuerden (talk)
(X! · talk)