User talk:Gdr/Archive 2

Archives 1 — 2004-04/2005-04 2 — 2005-04/2005-08 3 — 2005-08/2006-03 4 — 2006-03/2007-08

Submarine names

A question: is it Wikipedia style to italicise the names of Japanese submarines? The names of German subs aren't italicised, e.g. U-47.Grant65 (Talk) 00:00, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)

They are in some articles, e.g. U-238, HMS Kite etc. Gdr 00:25, 2005 Apr 13 (UTC)

HMS Kite I can understand, but surely U-___, I-___ (et c.) by themselves are more like pennant numbers, as in the case of E-boats? I have just moved AE1 and AE2, which someone had turned into the entirely fictious "HMAS AE1" and "HMAS AE2"! *lol* Grant65 (Talk) 10:44, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)

Second Rzhev-Sychevka Offensive

Please see Talk:Second Rzhev-Sychevka Offensive and comment. Mikkalai 04:51, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Talk:Péter Cardinal Erdõ

Please see Talk:Péter Cardinal Erdõ I have tried to list the diffrent options. Please make sure that my cut and past job reflects your position. Philip Baird Shearer 10:11, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Talk:Second Rzhev-Sychevka Offensive

Hi Gdr, we've opened a discussion about the naming of the above article, i believe you have previously worked on it and it would be great if you could come add some input. --Pluke 23:43, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations!

Congratulations! It's my pleasure to let you know that, consensus being reached, you are now an administrator. You should read the relevant policies and other pages linked to from the administrators' reading list before carrying out tasks like deletion, protection, banning users, and editing protected pages such as the Main Page. Most of what you do is easily reversible by other sysops, apart from page history merges and image deletion, so please be especially careful with those. You might find the new administrators' how-to guide helpful. Cheers! -- Cecropia | explains it all ® 14:23, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Adminship

Congratulations, on your promotion.  ALKIVAR™ 18:39, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thank you. Gdr 22:26, 2005 Apr 16 (UTC)

Thank you for supporting my nomination for administrator. —wwoods 05:14, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

You're welcome. Gdr 22:26, 2005 Apr 16 (UTC)

Timur

Hi Gdr, I have written some things on the Nestorians on nl.wiki and on their websites I came across mention that Timur was the one responsible for a veritable holocaust amongst the church of the east. With your warning about relying on google in mind I wonder if we could clarify this point further. I do not have any non-internet sources for this. Do you ?nl:Jcwf152.1.193.141 13:56, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

(See Talk:Timur)

Delta-number combinations

Did you remember several days ago when you were working with some dis-ambiguation pages of Alpha-number, Bravo-number, and Charlie-number combinations?? Why aren't you thinking about the Delta section?? (See User:Georgia guy/Letter number combinations for the current status of all 26 sections.) Georgia guy 00:37, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I don't have time for everything! Gdr 22:26, 2005 Apr 16 (UTC)

Captain class frigate

Re: your last edit of Captain class frigate and your comment (no need for two columns; add some more ships; not a Royal Navy frigate) - without two columns it looks over long but hey I'm new here so if this is the house style it is the house style but I still think it makes the page over long. As to the add more ships bit... there were only 78 I can not add any more than there were. Finally I do not understand the not a Royal Navy frigate bit - these ships were commissioned into the Royal Navy as Frigates.

Nice work in general in cleaning up this & both the Evarts and Buckley articles, thank you.

charlesesmith 15:43 11 April 2005

Christopher Cradock image

Hi Gdr, I belatedly realised it is policy to inform the uploader when an image is up for deletion. I uploaded my own version of Image:Christopher Cradock.jpg to Commons and got yours deleted here. I didn't expect you to mind but it would have been polite to let you know. Geoff/Gsl 23:02, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Don't worry. I noticed the deletion and the image you found is better quality than the one I found. Gdr 11:57, 2005 Apr 22 (UTC)

DYK archive

I've re-added a piece of text you deleted from the archive section at Did you know talk. You don't need to archive to recent additions. AllyUnion created a bot to do it automatically and this bot uses the line you deleted as an anchor to determine where to start counting the items. Mgm|^(talk) 20:17, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC)

You also seem to have archived some new items to a subarchive which were accidently added to the bottom of the list; not sure who did that. (New items go to the top, archived stuff is taken from the bottom). I've reverted so the bot can fix it. If you like doing suchs edits manually, I'd like to ask you to read the big red sign I posted to the top of Recent additions and make sure no one made any errors, before archiving. Thank you! Mgm|^(talk) 20:44, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC)

I wouldn't mind if you tried again, but why do something that's done automatically anyway? To me it seems like throwing away time you could use for other stuff. I'll make clearer note of the bot on Template talk:Did you know and WP:DYK. Mgm|^(talk) 05:07, Apr 29, 2005 (UTC)

Single digit numbers

Hey, I noticed you've just switched all the redirects on the single digit numbers so (for example) going to 2 will now go to the article 2 (year) instead of the article about the number 2. Was that agreed somewhere or did you just decide to do it? I'm wondering because it seems like a strange non-intuitive decision to make; if most people see a '5' written somewhere, they'll think about the number 5, not the year 5.. Proto 14:27, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

That's how it always used to be; see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers). User:Sj moved these nine articles this morning without getting a consensus. So I moved them back. The right place to discuss this is Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)#Rename articles in first decade of the common era?. Gdr 14:30, 2005 Apr 29 (UTC) P.S. See for example Special:Whatlinkshere/2.

Maybe so, but not for any very good reason. The discussion surrounding AD, BC, and digits/years has been revisited occasionally, but never very thoroughly. And now we have excellent articles on the digits. +sj + 16:19, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Just found the discussion, sorry about that. Proto 14:40, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

5 AD, AD 5, et al

Yes, "proper style" also suggests listing "Marlon Brando" at "Brando, Marlon" ; both are distinctly counter to the norms of casual spoken/written English. This discussion in particular exists in the history of the style guide. While redirs from both might be appropriate, redirs from "5 AD" at al will be by far the more often used. +sj + 16:19, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Gallery on your userpage

I noticed that on your user page you have a section called gallery. That is very interesting, and a concept I had worked on in the William-Adolphe_Bouguereau_gallery. I believe that these 'visual' list articles are very useful and would like to hear what you think about a project or a general push towards making more gallery listings. Thanks for your time, --ShaunMacPherson 11:53, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

James Knight

I took a closer look at this, there is definitely something weird going on - many of the "changes" by me I didn't actually make. I certainly didn't remove the disambigs. It's almost as though I were editing an earlier version (but I wasn't). Could it be some kind of server cache latency bug? I've never seen something like this before. Fawcett5 20:00, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

DYK

Hello, Gdr. I see that you've updated DYK about 45 minutes before midnight UTC yesterday with 4 new items, and then added one more item to balance the columns on MainPage. Unfortunately, I had to hide that fifth item. The left side of the MainPage automatically updates at midnight UTC and DYK became too long. Thought I should let you know what I did. Hope it's okay. TakeCare. -- PFHLai 01:38, 2005 May 10 (UTC)

DYK update

• 23:13, May 9, 2005 Gdr (four new DYKs: medieval hunting, Brooklyn Brewery, Josiah Belden, Project Exile)
• 22:52, May 9, 2005 Vaoverland m (Showmen's Rest is also a new article)
• 21:50, May 9, 2005 MacGyverMagic (UPDATED (3 new items))

My update was up for a mere 1 hour and 23 minutes. That's quite a bit too short. It should be at least 6. Could you please check when the template was last updated before doing it the next time? Mgm|^(talk) 07:00, May 10, 2005 (UTC)

I relied on the time for next update given in Template talk:Did you know. But I was out by a day due to editing in time zone +0100 but the server being in UTC. Sorry. Gdr 08:17, 2005 May 10 (UTC)

Image tags

Hi, you asked me to add image tags to my quiz images, Image:Qu1.jpg to Image:Qu14.jpg. Let me assure you that all the images are Wikipedia images (and thus are tagged elsewhere): I just renamed them and uploaded them a second time. If I added descriptions I'd be likely to give away the solutions to the questions.

If you do not find this answer satisfactory please contact me again.

Best wishes,

<KF> 13:05, May 11, 2005 (UTC)

Okay, I'll do that -- not today, but as soon as possible. <KF> 13:13, May 11, 2005 (UTC)

Done. <KF> 10:20, May 26, 2005 (UTC)

Time zone

The DYK template talk page has the date of the last update and the current time and date in UTC. This should prevent any mistakes in the future. You made a mistake, but I'd still like to see you make updates in the future. See ya! Mgm|^(talk) 18:16, May 12, 2005 (UTC)

Years and Numerals

Hi Gdr!

Please read and comment on my new years and dates proposal, affecting years that are also numerals. +sj + 20:42, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Belated Thanks

I should have thanked you days ago for sorting out that bunch of links on LOFNAP, but I got distracted. It was/is much appreciated. --Mothperson 22:05, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Regarding pywikipedia protect function...

How would you like to work together for an autoprotection bot for stuff that appears on the main page? -- AllyUnion (talk) 01:30, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Gdrbot?

10:14, 13 May 2005 Gdr m (gdrbot - dykbot - updating Template:Did you know - 4 new entries)

• Can you tell me what Gdrbot does? (User talk:MacGyverMagic, not logged in) 131.211.210.12 11:50, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Breadth first recursion

Way back (Aug. 3, 2004) you merged Breadth first recursion with Breadth first search, deleting its contents. Now, I'm no expert, but it seems to me that recursion is precisely what the latter article fails to deal with. It appears to me that the algorithm shown will fail on a recursive tree, whereas the Breadth first recursion article dealt with the problem. Am I missing something? -- Mwanner 15:06, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

I don't know. What is a "recursive tree"? (That's not a standard term in the study of algorithms.) Gdr 15:31, 2005 May 14 (UTC)

I'm sorry, I mean a tree that loops back on itself. I'm interested because that's what WP categories do, and I would love to have the ability to map them. I did something of the sort manually for Category:United States history (see Category talk:United States history/U.S. History map) and it is not something I would want to do again. It seems to me that Breadth first search would go into an infinite loop on such a tree, while Breadth first recursion appears to deal with the problem. I could well be off base here-- I haven't done any programming for many years. -- Mwanner 17:13, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

You mean a search of a general graph? All that needs is a minor modification to the algorithm for searching a tree: just check that you haven't seen a node yet before adding it to the queue. (I made this modification in the article this afternoon.) Gdr 21:04, 2005 May 14 (UTC)

Thanks. Sorry for the terminology muddle. -- Mwanner 00:53, May 15, 2005 (UTC)

Protection of Images on the MainPage

Hello, Gdr. Just wanna let you know that Image:VanGogh-Portait-of-Dr-Gachet.jpg, which you have unprotected earlier today, is scheduled to be on the MainPage soon. Unlike DYK or ITN, the Selected Anniversaries section (SA) is updated at midnight UTC automatically. Images on SA templates are usually protected in advance. I've re-protected this image. I suppose you know about this, and have simply misread the date, eh ? Never mind then. Just checking ..... Happy editing. :-) -- PFHLai 19:09, 2005 May 14 (UTC)

Hey, Gdr, no need to apologise. No harm was done. :-) Take Care. -- PFHLai 19:30, 2005 May 14 (UTC)

Re: Protection/unprotection for pywikipediabot

1. It was a suggestion made at Wikipedia:Bot requests to somehow automate protection
2. My user and talk pages are only protected from being moved. They aren't protected from editing. It's not like I need to move my user page anywhere. -- AllyUnion (talk) 03:38, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

DYK templates

Are you done with Template:Did you know footer & Template:Did you know header? They don't appear to be in use. If you are done, would you delete them? -- Netoholic @ 05:22, 2005 May 16 (UTC)

They are in use every time I update Template:Did you know (using {{subst:...}}). See User:Gdr/DYKbot. Gdr 08:19, 2005 May 16 (UTC)

Since they are only in use for your bot, can you please then move them into your user space. You can still subst: them from there, but this will avoid confusion and questions, like mine. -- Netoholic @ 15:11, 2005 May 16 (UTC)

As you wish. Gdr 15:25, 2005 May 16 (UTC)

Hey, thanks!

I upload an article (history of Swansea), I go out for the evening, and by the time I get back, it has received its first addition. Wow. Thanks :) Telsa 21:29, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

Graham Berry

Thanks, but the "fact" given on the main page is wrong. Berry did not break the power of the Legislative Council, as the article makes clear. Please fix this. Adam 00:12, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

Sorry about that. You did make it quite clear. Gdr 08:36, 2005 May 18 (UTC)

Thanks, but I have a question

Thank you for the useful link. However, I have a question: if you're spell-checking articles using another client, often they'll push a certain style (and don't have the ability to use multiple dictionaries), so you'd have to switch between English (US) or English (Great Britain) etc. In articles that are not clearly "focusing on a topic specific to a particular English-speaking country", is there a good way for gauging what the current style of the article is? Ambush Commander 20:38, May 18, 2005 (UTC)

Cheirogaleus

Cheirogaleus should not be linked to Lesser Dwarf Lemur. The Cheirogaleus article should be about the genus, not one of the species in the genus. I've deleted the redirect. - UtherSRG 00:16, May 19, 2005 (UTC)

My original idea was to make a link from the genus if Wikipedia has a single article on a species in that genus. But you're right, it's wrong to do that unless the genus is monotypic. I will remove the other inappropriate redirects I made. Gdr 09:05, 2005 May 19 (UTC)

Commons admin

You are now an admin on Commons. Congratulations! villy ♦ ✎ 14:32, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Thank you. Gdr 14:34, 2005 May 19 (UTC)

Congratulations ! Rama 21:33, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Image:Helst, Self-portrait.jpg on the Main Page

Oops ! That was very careless of me. Glad that you've fixed that. Thank you. Someone just made a similar mistake at ITN. I'll go fix that now. -- PFHLai 22:58, 2005 May 19 (UTC)

Oh, wait a minute. Protected at the Commons ? I have never done that before. How do I do that ? -- PFHLai 23:07, 2005 May 19 (UTC)

Yes, images on the Commons are an awkward wrinkle when trying to protect the Main Page. To protect images on the Commons, you first get an account on the Commons, then you apply for adminship at Commons:Administrators, then if you succeed you can protect and unprotect as normal. An alternative procedure is to upload a copy of the image to the English wikipedia under the same name and protect that, then delete it when it's not on the Main Page any more. Gdr 23:25, 2005 May 19 (UTC)

How about uploading to, say, Image:DYK-pic.jpg or Image:ITN-pic.jpg, etc. and keep them permanently mprotected ? -- PFHLai 00:24, 2005 May 20 (UTC)

Don't worry about this idea of mine. It won't work smoothly.

Anyway, a much belated thank you for your explanation last week. Thanks, again. -- PFHLai 00:24, 2005 May 26 (UTC)

taxobot

It is normal for species to be listed as in Alligator gar, with abbreviated genuses in the {{taxobox species entry}} template.

What I noted about families (Blaberidae,Blattellidae) treated as if they were species was my mistake: these are incorrect taxoboxes that should not use either {{Taxobox species entry}} or {{Taxobox section binomial}}. Since I am currently converting/fixing taxoboxes for all bird species, a daunting task if I ever performed one, I am less than inclined to work on these, but I am sure there are plenty folks at WP:TOL and its subprojects (which you might want to alert to the problem) to help in this.Circeus 00:43, May 20, 2005 (UTC)

Bot

Hello. Gdrbot now has a bot flag. If you ever need this removed, just ask at meta:Requests for permissions. Angela. 14:43, May 20, 2005 (UTC)

Thank you. Gdr 19:54, 2005 May 20 (UTC)

Didiereaceae

Thanks for digging out the image and putting it on DYK! - MPF 22:26, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

For the Main Page I needed an image I was pretty sure was public domain! Gdr 22:30, 2005 May 23 (UTC)

Taxobox fix

Hi. Thankyou for fixing my mistake in the taxobox on Treble-bar. I knew that was going to happen sooner or later! I'll try to be more careful in future. Richard Barlow 11:31, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

It was discovered by an automated examination of all taxoboxes; see User:Gdr/Nomialbot/Report 2005-05-19 for many more typos. Gdr 11:36, 2005 May 24 (UTC)

That's impressive! It's reassuring to know this will be cleaning up after me! Richard Barlow 11:50, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Uwe Kils

no - and who are you? Oceanographer 19:30, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

• I'm the Queen of Sheba. Gdr 19:32, 2005 May 24 (UTC)

Taxobox bot

Hi Gdr - nice one on getting this set up. Wondering, would it be possible to set it up so that it inserts {{Taxobox_section_binomial_botany | color = lightgreen| binomial_name = | author = }} instead of the simple one (without author) for plant taxoboxes? Or would this be too difficult to separate from animal taxoboxes? I can 'follow on behind' to insert missing authors for at least some, probably most, plants. - MPF 23:36, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

The bot is only running with supervision at the moment; there are still too many unusual cases. I think it will be a few days before I have confidence to let it run unattended. Anyway, I'll do what you say for plant taxoboxes. Gdr 23:40, 2005 May 24 (UTC)

Super, thanks. Another one (I don't know how bots work so have no idea if this is feasible!) is that the species line used to have just the epithet, and in bold (e.g. amamiana), now it has the genus abbreviation as well, and not bold (P. amamiana). Would a bot be able to insert this as well, or is that too complex? - MPF 23:52, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

(1) I programmed the genus abbreviation; see for example [1]. (2) Are you sure that species shouldn't be in bold? At Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life/Taxobox Usage#Bold/italic markup it says, "The final taxon is bold, due to it being the subject of the article". (I'm not an expert on taxoboxes, so I could be misinterpreting the guidelines, or the guidelines could be out of date.) Gdr 00:07, 2005 May 25 (UTC)

Thanks; about the bold final taxon, I'd interpreted this as the final line {{Taxobox_section_binomial_botany | color = lightgreen| binomial_name = | author = }} (which goes bold automatically as part of the template), not the line {{Taxobox_species_entry | taxon = ''G. s''}}. But it's always possible I'm wrong . . . MPF 14:28, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

I'll ask at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Tree of Life. Gdr 14:45, 2005 May 25 (UTC)

Guess I'm a bit late here - but could the auto taxobox image size be upped to 240px or 250px please? The current 200px is a bit small, as it often means that the image is smaller than the longest name in the box; it needs to be larger than the longest name so as to fit snugly in the box. - Thanks, MPF 22:32, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

I'll add it to a list of things to do on a subsequent pass over the taxoboxes. Gdr 22:36, 2005 May 25 (UTC)

Thanks; another error I fear I've found, the bot cut out any supplementary lines like {{Taxobox subfamily entry | taxon = }} and {{Taxobox subgenus entry | taxon = }}. I've put these back for the pines affected (e.g. [2], [3]) and one or two others, but I may well have missed some in plants, and I've not even looked in animal pages - MPF 22:05, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Yes, it looks like I cut out all subgenera. Oops. I'll see what I can do. Gdr 23:00, 2005 May 26 (UTC)

I checked through all of Nomialbot's edits, and subgenera were removed in these cases:

• Bosnian Pine - was [[Pinus classification|Pinus]]
• Chihuahua White Pine - was [[Pinus classification|Strobus]]
• European Black Pine - was [[Pinus classification|Pinus]]
• Gray Pine - was [[Pinus classification|Pinus]]
• Japanese Black Pine - was [[Pinus classification|Pinus]]
• Korean Pine - was [[Pinus classification|Strobus]]
• Maritime Pine - was [[Pinus classification|Pinus]]
• Siberian Pine - was [[Pinus classification|Strobus]]
• Sumatran Pine - was [[Pinus classification|Pinus]]
• Tenasserim Pine - was [[Pinus classification|Pinus]]
• Macedonian Pine - was [[Pinus classification|Strobus]]

You seem to have restored all of these by hand. I'm sorry about the mistake. I'll check for other removed taxa next. Gdr 09:06, 2005 May 31 (UTC)

Bots

I believe your bot checks for bad links, redirects and disambigs. I don't know much about bots, but I was looking for one to automatically do these things for some of my articles. I want to know 1) Is it possible for me to run the bot? 2) if not, how do I do the same automatically (human assisted)? Thanks,  =Nichalp (Talk)= 07:42, May 25, 2005 (UTC)

The program that fixes redirects and links to disambiguation pages is called solve_disambiguation.py, and it's a standard component of "pywikipediabot" (a suite of Python tools for reading and editing wikipedia). There are some notes at the top of m:Interwiki bot/Getting started which will get you going (up to "Running the robot"), then read the comment at the top of solve_disambiguation.py which tells you how to run it. Gdr 11:55, 2005 May 25 (UTC)

Taxobox images

The Gdrbot appears to be removing thumbnail specifications in taxobox "Images". See the Chukar for example. mdf 22:30, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Hi, the last edit by Gdrbot on Eastern Reef Egret stuffed up the taxobox's image; Don't get me wrong - the bot seems very useful as the conversion from old to new style is definitely useful, but there seems to be a small bug in the bit that removed the "fledglings]]" bit of the image link, and probably also the bit that removed the "thumb" attrib from the image, and possibly also in the bit that works out what the caption should be (although all these may be related) - i.e. I think this edit does what you wanted. -- All the best, Nickj (t) 02:03, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Yes, my code made a mess of several taxobox images by (a) removing "thumb" (because thumbnail images look bad in taxoboxes) but not adding a width; and (b) mangling image markup when the image caption included a wiki link. Other articles affected were Babirusa, Painted tongue, Clown Triggerfish, Sidewinder (snake), Marsh Warbler, Tree Swallow, White-winged Tern, Green Sandpiper, Great Tit, Emberizidae, Mahi-mahi, Yam, Hooded Vulture, Black-tailed Godwit, Cyclura, Oriental Small-clawed Otter, Phyllodactylus angustidigitus, Black Eagle, Vampire bat, Sedge Warbler, Phelsuma modesta leiogaster, Rodrigues day gecko, Madagascar day gecko, Sambar Deer. I've fixed all of these.

Please let me know if the bot made other mistakes; I'll fix them. Gdr 07:23, 2005 May 26 (UTC)

Rainbow boa

Gdrbot removed the text from the article while updating the taxbox. I assume that this was not intentional? Guettarda 02:58, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

This was a rather severe bug. It also happened to Snowy Egret. I did a brief check for others and didn't find any. I'll do a more thorough check today. Gdr 07:22, 2005 May 26 (UTC)

Aquificales genera incertae sedis

Yeah, but the article on Aquificae before I got to it ([4]) listed Aquificales genera incertae sedis as separate from unclassified Aquificales, and it called them both "famil[ies]". So that's weird. On the other hand, this source says "The Order Aquificales comprises four genera: Aquifex, Calderobacterium, Hydrogenobacter and Thermocrinis." (The source says it's quoting from "Reysenbach A-L, Phylum BI (2001) Aquificae phy. nov. In: Boone DR, Castenholz RW (eds) Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2nd edn., pp. 359–367".) In contrast, the Wikipedia page lists many more genera in 2-4 families, depending on interpretation. Also, this source says the phylum has 5 genera. I'm not sure what to make of it all. – Quadell ^{(talk) (sleuth)} 19:15, May 27, 2005 (UTC)

rose

Hi

I just noticed a previous editor has renamed one of the images in that collection (see rose) as a rosa. So... given that I am far from good for classification... and that now two editors say it is a rosa; I was probably wrong in my naming scheme :-) Cheers.

Anthere 08:09, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

Battlebox

I was making the code xhtml/css compliant and applying the standard style for template infoboxes (class="toccolours"). See this list for examples. ed g2s • talk 16:38, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

Barnstar

For tireless contributions in taxofixes and other works

Your many improvements to taxoboxes, both with and without bots, is quite impressive. Looking through your other contributions, you've certainly done a lot for Wikipedia, in both your work and your suggestions. You're a valuable member of the Wikipedia community, and I'm grateful for all you've done. – Quadell ^{(talk) (sleuth)} 20:28, May 31, 2005 (UTC)

Thank you. Gdr 21:36, 2005 May 31 (UTC)

Gdrbot edit summaries

Could you please change Gdrbot's current edit summaries so that they don't say "Wikipedia python library" but what the bot is really doing? Thanks! Sam Hocevar 13:33, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Sorry about that. I'll be more careful in future. Gdrbot was replacing instances of {{UpdatedDYK}} on talk pages with {{subst:updatedDYK}} to avoid creating an open-ended burden on the servers should the template need to be changed. Anyway, they are all done now. Gdr 13:38, 2005 Jun 1 (UTC)

Kurando-san ran DYK today

Kurando-san ran the DYK archive today. You might want to look over its edits and correct anything if it did something wrong. -- AllyUnion (talk) 18:15, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Re: DYK archive

I'd be happy to give you the source code if you like and you can see if you can attempt to debug it. -- AllyUnion (talk) 19:45, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I figured you'd say that. I think the problem is that it may be matching incorrectly for the last line. I will look into it. Was there anything else odd that you saw? -- AllyUnion (talk) 06:16, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Grunion

Heck, I just finished uploading those images, and you've already snuck them into the Grunion article (as well as helped neaten the article up a bit and add a little more wikification). Thanx for the help. BlankVerse ∅ 13:40, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Group / Series

Hi Gdr - there seemed to have been some confusion; the article I moved was about Cultivar Groups; a series in Botany is a taxonomic rank between subsection and species (genus - subgenus - section - subsection - series - species), nothing to do with cultivars at all. After moving the page, I re-did the Series (Botany) page to reflect this. As an aside, the trinomial nomenclature article (as I noted on its talk page a while back) needs some heavy editing; trinomial nomenclature is a zoology term, not used in botany, and all the plant stuff in it should really be removed - MPF 19:36, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Just realised there's two pages, Series (Botany) and Series (botany), the latter still a redirect to Group (Botany) - I'll move the wrongly capitalised one across (if it doesn't need admin assistance) - MPF 19:40, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

It does need admin assistance - can you do it? - MPF 19:40, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thanks; I think it would be best all merged at cultivar. I'm not sure if cultivar series is a term officially sanctioned by the ICNCP, I've not come across it before, only Cultivar Group; given that the ICNCP and ICBN people work together, I wouldn't be surprised if they 'disapprove' of it because of the risk of confusion with the taxonomic term. Could it be it is a term only used by the nursery industry (which is notoriously lax over naming principles!)? - MPF 19:59, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Good point; agreed. Want me to do anything or can I leave it in your hands? - MPF 20:13, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

DYK

Is there a particular reason that Template:Did you know has not been updated for more than a day? — 82.139.82.191

No-one's done it. Gdr 14:33, 2005 Jun 6 (UTC)

Image:Regiomontanus.jpg

It appears you're right about that image, which would have been obvious to me if I had bothered to actually read TFA ;-) Unfortunately, I don't know who that picture shows, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have called it "PD by age" if it wasn't so. That leaves deletion with or without prior upload to the commons, for the "Can you identify that thing?" page. --Magnus Manske 20:02, Jun 6, 2005 (UTC)

Nomialbot

When I created those redirects manually, I always added the template Template:R from scientific name. Even though it currently doesn't show when displaying the redirect page (a bug introduced with MediaWiki 1.4), it IMHO still makes sense to add the template. Also, be a bit more careful with creating genus redirects to a species - Eurycea isn't monophyletic, maybe just the taxobox of the only species in that genus which has an article was lacking the link to genus. But no problem, I already replaced your redirect with a stub on that genus. andy 11:31, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

What's the purpose of {{R from scientific name}}? It doesn't appear to be documented anywhere.

Nomialbot creates redirects from a genus name to a species article when the genus is marked as monotypic in the taxobox (i.e. highlighted in bold). But I see that there are many articles with the genus bolded even though it is non-monotypic. Would you like me to delete all the redirects from genera to species I made? (A bit tricky at the moment with article deletion not working, but I can schedule it for when that problem is fixed.) Gdr 11:51, 2005 Jun 8 (UTC)

The documentation for those redirect templates is at Wikipedia:Template messages - but it's a bit difficult to find if one doesn't know there is something like that at all.

I looked at that page but didn't see any documentation, just a list of templates and their text. What are they for?

Actually I meant Wikipedia:Template messages/Redirect pages - they are intended to somewhat categorize the redirects, so it is possible to see for what purpose that redirect was created. So for example if that redirect needs to be replaced with an article the article can mention the alternative meaning. However it seems those messages haven't found much use. andy 12:36, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I don't think it's necessary to delete them directly (they don't create much harm even if they are slightly misleading), a slight crosscheck might be enough. If you can create a list of those redirects the bot created (maybe a bit easier than to check the contributions list of GdrBot) I will put the check of them on my todo list. andy 12:19, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

OK, will do. Gdr 12:30, 2005 Jun 8 (UTC)

Template:Did you know and Valerius Anshelm

Hi there,

thanks for considering Valerius Anshelm to include on DYK, but: (1) I got the notice, but can't find it on DYK, and (2) the rephrased suggestion is utterly wrong. Anshelm did not write a world history, he wrote a history of Berne. I must admit that although it's a fine little article, it maye not be interesting enough for DYK unless one knows something about the history of central Europe (read: utterly dull for the general public). I can't come up with a truly catchy question. Lupo 20:35, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

(1) The user page updates succeeded before the update of DYK itself, due to Wikipedia server problems. (2) The article claims he wrote a world history. Is it wrong? I updated DYK just in case. Gdr 20:39, 2005 Jun 8 (UTC)

No, the article is right, but upon rereading it, I could see how anybody not knowing German might have arrived at that conclusion. Berner Chronik means "Chronicles of Berne". I have clarified the article a bit, and taken a shot at the question appearing on DYK. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether it's interesting enough or to replace it with something more intriguing. Sorry for all the fuss. Lupo 20:48, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Whoa—I see now what "server problems" you were alluding to. My edit to Template:Did you know only now got through, upon the fourth try! Lupo

ISO template

In the old flag template discussion, you supported ISO codes. You may want to see Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Flag_Template#ISO_template (SEWilco 06:35, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC))

WP:DYK Garrison school

I responded to your remark about my DYK suggestion at Template_talk:Did_you_know#June_9. Sorry it could not make it but I really feel it needed a little more info to be factually correct. Regards, Irpen 19:52, Jun 10, 2005 (UTC)

DYK

I updated the template...it had stayed the same a good two or three days. I don't mean to do the thing "you do," but I figured someone needed to. Mike H 16:52, Jun 12, 2005 (UTC)

No, it's not "my thing" at all, I just seem to have updated it a lot recently. So go ahead, update it all you like! Gdr 17:09, 2005 Jun 12 (UTC)

Josef Ressel picture

What is wrong with putting picture into thumbnail? It (1) adds textual label to it and (2) for some who do not have images switched on it makes page layout better and the picture itself better identifiable. Pavel Vozenilek 20:44, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

(1) When the picture is of the subject of a biographical article there's no need for a caption; (2) It would be better to report the page layout bug at http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/ than to try to make all images into thumbnails. Gdr 20:48, 2005 Jun 13 (UTC)

Re: Condescension

• I wasn't aware of an alternate spelling.
• I thought it was simply misspelled.
• Don't be condescending.
• I am aware of the policy. Intimately.
  • --Neutrality^talk 20:59, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)

I apologize if I seemed terse. Warmest regards --Neutrality^talk 21:03, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)

more DYK

I struck out the entry for grunion because the instructions seem to say that's what should be done after a DYK notice was put onto the submitter's Talk page. Since this was my very first DYK, and I was disappointed that I hadn't received that notice, I went ahead and added it to my talk page myself. BlankVerse ∅ 07:28, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I had already been working on the Grunion article offline because I had recently added my second red-linked grunion WikiLink to an article. I hate adding red-links to articles, but I thought that Grunion were important enough to have the WikiLink, even if it was red. Luckily I had recently figured out how to put articles into my Watchlist even when they don't exist, so the new, but very tiny substub Grunion article started by the anon IP showed up on my watchlist. I hurriedly put together the stuff that I had been gathering because I knew about the 72 hr. limit, and I thought that it would be a shame not to have the grunion's mating habits not show up in the Did you know? column. Now that I understand why things happened they way that they did, it does make sense because in most cases the person who originates the article will probably also be the one that does the most work on in it in that first 72 hrs. I had figured, however, since I was the one who had nominated it, that I might also get a DYK notice. BlankVerse ∅ 09:40, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Bot

Your bot redirected Jack of Diamonds to Playing cards, this was incorrect (see [5]). please can you ensure your bot isnt making other mistakes like this. Thanks Bluemoose 12:44, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, i meant it directed then rather than re-directed to the wrong place. Bluemoose 13:00, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Look at [6], jack of diamonds refers to an artist group, not the card, which isn't even mentioned on Playing cards. Its no big mistake, but i just worry when i see bots making errors. thanks Bluemoose 13:04, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

The Jacques Grévin redirect is perfectly sensible, as no one is going to type the é, however, imagine you wanted to find out about the jack of diamonds, and searched for it, then were redirected to an article on playing cards, it would seem a bit odd, as the article doesnt even mention jack of diamonds. What should happen is it goes to the article i have now made, but with a note saying "the jack of diamonds is also a playing card".

The reason i mentioned it in the first place is that i assumed you were going through Wikipedia:2004 Encyclopedia topics/13, in which case you should be checking the britannica articles, but clearly it was just a coincidence that you made that redirect. thnaks Bluemoose 13:57, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

OK i see you did the disambig. thanks Bluemoose 13:58, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Re: DYK

Thanks for letting me know! — Knowledge Seeker দ 20:46, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

RN Ships

Hello! I was gone yesterday, so I just got your note. Thanks for the tips, and the naming conventions policy. I had no idea the official policy, I was just extrapolating from other RN Ships pages. Mostly, all those red links just looked bad, but I guess I should just leave them alone if I have incomplete information, eh? --Scimitar 13:02, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Blue Ant

Thanks for fixing the taxobox - I must admit that entomology is entirely off piste for me and I had no idea what the relevant Wikiproject prescribes - I just copied the taxobox from hornet which has all the other sub- super- and infra- things. -- ALoan (Talk) 11:07, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the signpost - well, I've also had a go at the (previously redlinked) Tiphiidae. Comments welcome. -- ALoan (Talk) 11:49, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Japanese cruiser Oyodo

Thanks for your comments! Thanks too for redirection, was thinking of something similar but it was my 1st article in wikipedia, so am still learning the wiki-ropes~ =P As for the picture, thanks for the note, will be looking for a [permissible] replacement. Meantime will take down the current one. -- Stele 11:03, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Oyoda alongside Zuikaku

By the way, I took the liberty of correcting the description on this photo - it was Ozawa on Zuikaku, who then transferred to Oyodo. Kurita was commanding Centre Force on board Yamato. In the meantime, the title of this photo page was misspelt - Oyoda instead Oyodo... is there any way to correct it? =) -- Stele 13:45, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Yes, well spotted. There's no way to rename a picture, but you can upload it under a new name! Gdr 13:50, 2005 Jun 17 (UTC)

Thanks for the info! That's quite a bit clunky... but oh well it's done! Ported over all the text from the old pic page =) -- Stele 14:19, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

H Class Submarines

I hadn't missed the discussion, I just forgot about it. Things have been dealt with now.

One thing that does need to be done with the letters we've completed is to go through them and weed the non-RN names out. I do find it somewhat irritating that Colledge has RAN, RNZN, RCN only etc ship names. It says it is the Royal Navy names, and those are not RN names. David Newton 19:40, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

STOP!!!

Your bot is running amok! It has changed numerous renderings of [[Latin language|Latin]] to simply Latin, the opposite of its stated intent. There is obviously a bug, so please stop the bot and go back and fix all the articles it has ruined. Here's a small sample:

1. (diff) (hist) . . m Squire; 12:28 . . Gdrbot (Talk) (Robot-assisted disambiguation: Latin language)
2. (diff) (hist) . . m Pontifical; 12:22 . . Gdrbot (Talk) (Robot-assisted disambiguation: Latin language)
3. (diff) (hist) . . m Hesperus; 12:09 . . Gdrbot (Talk) (Robot-assisted disambiguation: Latin language)
4. (diff) (hist) . . m Count; 12:02 . . Gdrbot (Talk) (Robot-assisted disambiguation: Latin language)
5. (diff) (hist) . . m Classical language; 12:01 . . Gdrbot (Talk) (Robot-assisted disambiguation: Latin language)

--Jpbrenna 21:53, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

No, the bot was working as intended. Can you explain in more detail what the problem is? Which articles have been ruined? I checked the articles you listed above and they seem fine to me. Gdr 21:56, 2005 Jun 17 (UTC)

I have already stated the problem clearly: [[Latin language|Latin]] is being changed to simply Latin. Stop this robot assisted vandalism at once! --Jpbrenna 22:02, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

But you haven't explained why it's a problem. I don't understand yet. Gdr 22:05, 2005 Jun 17 (UTC)

Go to the Talk:Latin page. There is still no community consensus (the vote is 11-6 and not closed) on whether the article should be moved to Latin language should be moved with a redirect to Latin (disambiguation), in the manner of Greek and Spanish. What will happen if (more likely when) it does? You will have to change everything back. So why not wait? Who asked you to make these changes? Not I, and I do not like your changing articles that I have created or contributed to without notifying me.

--Jpbrenna 22:57, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

(1) The vote at Talk:Latin was from December 2004; I read it before making any changes and the situation looked settled to me. (2) If Latin is moved I will change the links back. Until then I don't yet understand what the problem is. (3) No one asked me to make these changes. That's not how Wikipedia works. Who would have the authority? (4) If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, do not submit it. See Wikipedia:Ownership of articles. Gdr 23:03, 2005 Jun 17 (UTC)

• You do not understand. You have to give reasons as to why [[Latin language|Latin]] is wrong, to change it, not others as to why [[Latin]] is wrong, so the original [[Latin language|Latin]] is kept. [[Latin]] being wrong might be controversial, [[Latin language|Latin]] is not. It's undeniably right. There is a saying that goes: Don't fix it if it ain't broken, and it applies nicely here. Your bot was correcting no wrong, while at the same time potential disruption was being introduced. Isilanes 16:44, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Pretzels and Graphics

Hi! Congrats on the Admin! I've seen you on a couple of Naval Battle Pages and I'm trying a big upgrade to the naval actions in the Russo-Japanese War. I was just looking at some of your work on JUTLAND so I thought I'd say Hi, great job! Where did the fleet battle maps come from for that project. The Japanese course at Tsushima looks like a pretzel on LSD, so this is something of a challange to replicate electronically. Fortunately, the Russians just sortof curved around in a big bend, so the matter shouldn't be too hard to resolve. Is something like that suitable for paintshop pro? Just happen to have two versions of that hanging around. Thanx [[User:Fabartus| User:fabartus || TalktoMe]] 06:09, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I drew the Jutland maps in OmniGraffle. Gdr 07:22, 2005 Jun 18 (UTC)

DYK

I just updated DYK as I saw it wasn't updated in over 2 days and you last visited almost a week ago. Any chance I could get access to the bot as well? Between the two of us updating should be a breeze. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:03, Jun 22, 2005 (UTC)

Gdrbot

Note my questions at the technical village pump and the help desk. I'm not getting this bot to do my bidding. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:57, Jun 26, 2005 (UTC)

You should e-mail me explaining what you've done and what the problem is. Please let me know (1) Operating system, Python version. (2) Have you managed to get any pywikipedia code to work? (3) What happens when you run dykbot.py? Gdr 10:30, 2005 Jun 26 (UTC)

1) Windows 98. Python seems to be 2.3.4 2) No, but have managed to get several error codes earlier that prompted me to download wikipedia.py, config.py and login.py. Anything else I need. 3) Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in ? NameError: name 'dykbot' is not defined. I think you'd best run me through the motions of running a python file. I also have problems finding out how to run login.py and how to make that work. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:39, Jun 26, 2005 (UTC)

• That CVS application has too many executables. Do I need to click one of them, or do I need to click something on the sourceforge site to download the whole kaboodle at once? - Mgm|^(talk) 14:26, Jun 26, 2005 (UTC)
• It's only got a link for when you don't have CVS and Unix commands. But never mind, I downloaded some files from June 20. Now it says I need to run cmd.exe in the start menu run command. I don't seem to have it. Sorry to keep bothering ya.
• Good news! I got login to work. It asked me for a password and it seemed to connect to Wikipedia. DYKbot however, ran through a number of lines when I executed it without giving me a chance to read suggests or actually do anything. That last is to be expected. (I need to add the --for-real argument, but I was hoping I could preview before acting on the bots suggestions. - Mgm|^(talk) 15:06, Jun 26, 2005 (UTC)
• More good news! I've finally been able to make two bot edits (adding interwiki links) but it still gets stuck on dykbot because it encounters a locked page. Even when I set my bot username to my admin account, it's still stuck (the password is the same). Why does it need to edit a locked page anyway if for-real is shut off? - Mgm|^(talk) 15:46, Jun 26, 2005 (UTC)

Bot

Thanks for telling me. I'll try it first thing tomorrow morning. Has your Gdrbot got admin powers or did you run DYK bot another way? - Mgm|^(talk) June 28, 2005 21:43 (UTC)

Another bot problem

Hi Gdr - 'fraid your bot has added incorrect brackets to a lot of animal taxoboxes, changing {{Taxobox section binomial to {{Taxobox section binomial parens when it shouldn't have done (e.g. Long-billed Curlew). The cases where brackets are not used are taxa where the species' current scientific name is the same as the scientific name it was first given by its describing author; in the above case Numenius americanus was so named by Bechstein in 1812 (I've corrected this instance and also for Slender-billed Curlew). Brackets are only used where the taxon has been reclassified by a later author - thus e.g. Numenius arquarta (Linnaeus, 1758) was first described by Linnaeus as Scolopax arquarta Linnaeus, 1758; later it was transferred to Numenius, and the brackets indicate that a revision has been made. - MPF 29 June 2005 22:54 (UTC)

Nomialbot was only restoring the parentheses that were there before it accidentally and incorrectly removed them. In the case of Long-billed Curlew the parentheses were originally added to the article by User:Big iron — see [7]. When Nomialbot updated the taxobox it also removed the parentheses because of a programming error on my part [8]. So I went through and restored the parentheses again in the edit you referred to.

So it's not my fault! Gdr 2005-06-29 23:04:00 (UTC)

Thanks! Sorry about the false accusation! - MPF 29 June 2005 23:34 (UTC)

That's OK. If you're determined to check some more articles for this error, you can see a list of articles using parentheses in the taxobox authority by looking at Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:Taxobox section binomial parens and Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:Taxobox section trinomial parens. There are more than 1,500 of them and I expect many are making the same mistake. Gdr 2005-06-29 23:44:36 (UTC)

Thanks! That'll be a bit of a nightmare task as it involves checking each one against a major text that gives basionyms . . . MPF 30 June 2005 10:32 (UTC)

Wikifying dates.

No I'm not using a bot (though perhaps I should - I looked at pywikipediabot, and it seemed far to complicated). I use search and replace and then check the diff of each article. I do chunks of about 90 articles in a hit. Typically I will then either rollback or re-edit about 3-7 articles, often cricketing ones, or albums, which both can use dates in a special way, references, quotes or wikilinks. generally this takes about 10-12 mins, in this case it was a bit longer, as I had real-life (tm) concerns to take care of as well (running a 135 ppm laser printer as it happens). See my user page for some details on this miniproject. Funnily enough, although there are many problems with changing dates, that's the first problem of that type I've seen - thanks for telling me about it, and for fixing it. Rich Farmbrough 30 June 2005 20:22 (UTC)

Far too complicated?

#!/usr/bin/python
import sys
import wikipedia
page = wikipedia.Page(wikipedia.Site('en'), sys.argv[1])
text = page.get()
months = 'January|February|...|December'
text = re.sub(r'(\s)(\d+) (' + months + r')(,?\s)([12]\d\d\d)([,.]?\s)', r'\1[[\2 \3]]\4[[\5]]\6', text)
# etc for other date patterns
wikipedia.showDiff(page.get(), text)
if wikipedia.input('OK? [yN]') == 'y':
    page.put(text, 'robot-assisted date formatting')

Gdr 2005-06-30 21:01:59 (UTC)

Criteria used to revise categories?

Hi, I noticed that you have changed the categories applied to the article on Carniolan honeybees. What sets the standards for and authorizes how these articles are recategorized? P0M 30 June 2005 23:35 (UTC)

There's some advice at Wikipedia:Categorization. For the particular case of living things, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life. There's a general principle that articles should not be in both a category its parent; for example since Carniolan honeybee is in Category:Bees it doesn't need to be in Category:Hymenoptera or Category:Insects. Gdr 2005-07-01 10:01:24 (UTC)

Just a word of thanks

Appreciate the work you do, fixing up formatting and such whenever I create a new entry for a WWII ship :) Thanks Sherurcij July 1, 2005 16:02 (UTC)

Redirectbot

Hello, I saw your bot making redirects for animal scientific names. I'd like to run this bot on the Dutch Wikipedia too. Can you help me? Ucucha See Mammal Taxonomy 4 July 2005 13:46 (UTC)

Sorry, my code is not ready for other people to use. And I don't think it would work on the Dutch Wikipedia, because of the different way taxoboxes are constructed. However, I might be able to help if you can explain what you are trying to do. Gdr 4 July 2005 16:16 (UTC)

I thought it might be possible to let the bot make redirects for the text in {{Taxobox section binomial simple}} of {{Taxobox section binomial parens}} nl:Sjabloon:Taxobox section binomial simple, parameter "binomial_name". I thought that was the way your bot worked too, but maybe I'm wrong. Ucucha See Mammal Taxonomy 4 July 2005 17:02 (UTC)

Gdrbot and zoologists

It seems that your bot is adding names to the List of zoologists by author abbreviation haphazardly and in a strange order. Odhner is clearly not the engineer Willgodt Odhner (there was also a zoologist Teodor Odhner), and De Geer already has an entry at D, but was just added at C, just before Cuvier. And these are just names I noticed because they are Swedish. Uppland 5 July 2005 21:43 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know. I was misled by the redirect at Odhner. And De Geer is misspelled under D. The other mistakes were my fault. Gdr 5 July 2005 21:56 (UTC)

I assumed, in the case of De Geer, that the author abbreviation differed from the actual name for some reason, but I have no access to sources for these abbreviations. If you do, could you perhaps double-check Gyllenhaal? The surname is always spelled with two A's, but the abbreviation is given as "Gyllenhal". Uppland 6 July 2005 08:09 (UTC)

Correcting myself: there are actually two (semi-distantly related) zoologists Odhner: Teodor Odhner, who studied trematodes, and Nils Hjalmar Odhner, who studied mollusks. I'll turn the redirect into a dab page. Uppland 6 July 2005 08:47 (UTC)

Dates in taxoboxes

Is there a reason why Gdrbot is not linking in dates in taxoboxes? I can't think of one. For instance, Malacostraca which used to have "Latreille, 1802" now has "Latreille, 1802". I don't think that's an improvement. It must be just as easy to link the dates in, mustn't it? --Stemonitis 6 July 2005 07:33 (UTC)

It's my personal preference. I don't think that linking these dates provides useful context for the taxon. If we had pages like 1802 in zoology then it would be a different matter. Gdr 6 July 2005 10:55 (UTC)

Help desk wikiproject

I have created a new Wikiproject which aims to bring computer veterans and people who need help with software tools they use on Wikipedia together. I'm writing this to you because I saw you on the bot list and wanted to know if you would be willing to help. There is already an open case: WikiProject help desk/20050702 Dmcdevit. The Windows tool that Dmcdevit uses to perform Transwikis has broken since the software upgrade. Triddle July 6, 2005 22:33 (UTC)

Jane Austen

Thanks for your answer at WP:RD about Mrs. Bennet. I am grateful. PedanticallySpeaking July 8, 2005 20:43 (UTC)

Naturalism (art)

I called it unlikely because there's no artistic movement known as "naturalism"; the new article that you've started looks to me rather like a dictionary definition. I haven't tagged it for Wiktionary (I probably would have done if there hadn't been this story behind it, but I don't want you to think that I'm acting out of sour grapes), but is there really any chance that the article will become a genuine article, without repeating the contents of other articles on relevant movements? --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 18:34, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

I added the red link to the naturalism because when I was disambiguating references to naturalism I found several that referred to naturalism in art; see Special:Whatlinkshere/Naturalism (art) for a list. Hence the need for an article on the subject. Yes, it's only a dictionary definition at the moment, but certainly an encyclopedic article could be written on the subject, covering the history of naturalism in art, giving examples of artists and movements that have adopted naturalism, and so on. Gdr 12:50, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

Jynx

Would you please unmove Jynx? It's an obscure reference (most people who look for wrynecks look for "wrynecks," not a genus name) and it's messing up Pokémon articles because they are now linking to a species of bird. Almafeta 20:17, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

• I'd be willing to do it for you, with your approval. Almafeta 20:18, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

I think it's fine the way it is. The genus of birds is real, the Pokémon is fictional. I don't think it's too much to ask for Pokémon articles to link to Jynx (Pokémon). Gdr 20:21, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

• The amount of work that that change caused was mean to inflict. Anyhow, I changed Jynx to a disambiguation page, which I hope will be a fair compromise. Almafeta 21:14, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

I don't want to get into an edit war, so I'll leave it there. Gdr 21:18, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

Tv characters in wheelchairs

Thanks very much for your reply to my query at WP:RD. I am grateful. I should have recalled Dark Angel as I watched it from the beginning. (Its premiere was opposite the first Gore-Bush debate and was far more believeable than what either of those gents said.) PedanticallySpeaking 17:17, July 13, 2005 (UTC)

Nomialbot and image width

I saw this in the nomialbot "bugs":

200px is too narrow for a picture in a taxobox. Change this to 250px.

I think you might want to discuss such a thing with WP:TOL first, as far as I know, the sizes for images are 250px for genera and higher taxa (300px for plants) and 200 px for species (250 for plants). Circeus 17:02, July 15, 2005 (UTC)

Of course I would discuss these changes at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Tree of Life before making any sort of wholesale change, as I did with previous runs. Gdr 15:26, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

Elizabeth II renaming (round XXXIV)

You may have noticed *mega sigh* that yet another user has dragged up the lets rename Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom farce, only 9 days after the last vote ended. (What next? A vote every day on the issue next?) I have proposed instead this vote on Talk:Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom page:

That Wikipedia stop wasting time on endless revoting on this (goddamned) issue and ban votes on this issue from this page for at least six months.

Hopefully this will put this nonsense to bed for at least 6 months. Your (hopefully final) vote would be welcome. FearÉIREANN\^(caint) 21:13, 19 July 2005 (UTC)

Wikilinks on dab pages

Gdr, I removed the wikilinks from the Herod dab page. I did not touch the content, if that was why you were reverting my edits. I have been editing dab pages across Wikipedia to better match the style policy for dab pages. The wikilink issue is minor, but some pages have needed a lot of editing (originally I got into it because I wanted to read about field (mathematics) but got this cluttered Field dab page instead). Sometimes wikilinks are necessary (I've left some of them in Field, for example) because I don't know if removing them in every case is better. I apologize if I offended you by my earlier content edits to the Herod page. I'm just trying to help. - grubber 10:02, 2005 July 28 (UTC)

The policy about no wikilinks on disambiguation pages is foolish. Someone reaching the page Herod may well be looking for the article Massacre of the Innocents or any of the other articles linked there. Gdr 11:08, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

I disagree with it being foolish. If I type "Herod" into the search bar, I am probably looking for an article about some name Herod, not an article about the Massacre of the Innocents or about a temple in Jerusalem. The idea is that we want to get someone to the right page based on what they typed. If someone knows enough to associate Herod with the Massacre of the Innocents, they would have (a) typed "Massacre of the Innocents" or something similar or (b) know enough to click on the right Herod, read what they want and continue to the page on MoI.

I notice you have quoted policy and asked others to live according to it, and I ask the same from you. Even if you disagree with the policy, the correct place to debate it is Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages) not Herod; pending a change in policy, it is proper to leave Herod as I edited it. I will not touch the words and content, but the format should be consistent with the rest of Wikipeida. - grubber 11:21, 2005 July 28 (UTC)

I'm sorry to see that you refuse to follow Wikipedia policy. There are cases when wikilinks are needed (or cannot be removed justifiably) but Herod does not fit that case. Your unilateral policy decision is not compatible with the Wikipedia spirit. As an admin user, I would expect you to follow what you preach. I'm sorry you don't see it that way. - grubber 11:50, 2005 July 28 (UTC)

Another user expressed the same concern you have and started a discussion in Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages). It would be nice for you to join the conversation, even though we disagree. :) - grubber 17:39, 2005 July 28 (UTC)

Template sharks

See Template_talk:Sharks. Stefan 13:31, July 28, 2005 (UTC)

Shark taxonomy: finally my answer

• At last I'm able to reply all your suggestion and questions that you sent to me.

First let me answer your question about "Equinodermata". Of course that Equinodermata is specially used by latin people and being a latin one I considered my 'mistake' mixing latin names with English names. But, if you can spare some time seeing those links bellow you will find some scientific papers in English language with the word Equinodermata. As I'm sure that you well know for publishing any scientific paper in any specialized publication, paper must be submit to a former review in order to assure the institution or publisher scientific credibility. And what we find in these papers is that the word Equinodermata is accepted as English text. Although I consider my mistake I don't think this question is really 'a big one'. If you search the web or scientific publications for Equinodermata I'm sure that you find a great number of examples that both Equinodermata and Echinodermata are used and accept today in any language. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]

Next I' would like to thank you the good work that you have done with Shark taxonomy and with Shark articles in general.I see that you are very busy in this group. During the last 4 months I've been working in this without receiving any information that my work was not in Wikipedia format. I finished the last table for the extant species and two days before I receive your suggestion to convert all this work in a more suitable Wikipedia way. You even invite me to search help in Wiki Tree of Life, which I've done. For my surprise less then 24 hours, all you suggest for me to do was done by you without consulting me, without waiting for the opinion of WTL and without discussion how to do it with me and of course with anyone who could help in this matter. You simply pick Shark taxonomy convert the tables in lists merge those lists according to each group creating such big pages that are somehow difficult to understand for the general readers who seek basic information and at the same time to poor for specialized ones with lots of scientific names that links nowhere (fish description in Wikipedia is still very poor). As for the fossil species (I’ve only describe the fossil Hexanchiformes) the volume of data in some orders is so big that I was thinking to separate from extant species in different tables. You didn’t consider the idea of asking me what to do with the missing fossil orders. Although in generally I accept the idea of centralize all information about each group in a single page, I totally disagree the way you did it. If it was necessary to change the tables to lists or shorter the information, should be me not you to do the work. Suggesting is not the same as impose or 'I’ll do the suggesting for you'. With this kind of behavior I’m not used to work with, neither can I have any guarantee that in future the same thing happens again. So please consider my participation in Wikipedia finish, thanks to you. As for Equinodermata taxonomy, no need for me to put sd tags for wrong Wikipedia format because I'm sure that you will convert the taxa tables to lists and to your English Echinodermata ... whatever you want.--JPPINTO 22:50, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

That's one of the joys of working on Wikipedia: other people may edit your work. As it says at the bottom of the page every time you make an edit, If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly and redistributed at will, do not submit it.

Don't worry about misspelling Echinodermata. It will be easy to correct.

I'm sorry that you feel upset. I hope you don't actually leave Wikipedia. What can I do to make amends? Gdr 23:02:11, 2005-07-28 (UTC)

ENTOMOLOGISTS

Thanks very much for the much-needed and cleverly done edits.Never quite got paragraphs. Would you look at my other contributions Camillo Rondani and Hermann Loew especially. I really appreciate what you do so well. Evidently not everybody does Musca

British monarchy

You've been working hard on those tables, haven't you? Nice job. Deb 08:47, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

Explain what your bots are allowed to do?

I have been doing a lot of looking around in wikipedia recently, to bad I have not used the time to write articles instead of beeing upset about your bots removing templates, anyway I have learned a lot, maybe good after all. Can you please explain what this means:

I copy out of context from Wikipedia:Bots

Current policy on running bots

1. Sysops should block bots, without hesitation, if they are unapproved, doing something the operator didn't say they would do, messing up articles or editing too rapidly

User:Gdrbot, fixing redirects, disambiguating, moving pages between categories, running User:Gdr/Yearbot and User:Gdr/Nomialbot. Gdr 16:21, 2005 May 18 (UTC)

Does this mean that you can:

01:18, July 27, 2005 Gdrbot m (nomialbot - removing Template:Sharks; use :Category:Sharks instead)

Just asking? fixing redirects, disambiguating, moving pages between categories, does not sound like removing templates like that. If it is after discussion and agreement, I would have no objection, but this was not done in the accepted procedure and it was done with a bot, that I do not think is allowed to do mass deletes?? Stefan ??:??, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

You're quite right, I shouldn't have used the bot to make these changes. Would you like me to restore the templates using the bot? Gdr 14:20:19, 2005-08-01 (UTC)

I have already done that by hand, see the vote for deletion that I have set up for that template, I think we should have a real vote, then you can use you bot to remove it, if you win :-) Stefan 14:37, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

Since you clearly care about the template, I won't vote against you. Gdr 14:47:14, 2005-08-01 (UTC)

Thanks, but feel free to do that! I like that template, but if a majority wants it gone I will live with that!

Dutch Ship Designation

Browsing through the Dutch Navy articles, I noticed two things. 1) The use of the prefix HNLMS to indicate a ship of the Royal Netherlands Navy and 2) A rather terse remark in the Royal Netherlands Navy article indicating HNLMS is actually incorrect and anglo-centric. Going back through the history of the De Zeven Provinciën (F802) article, I noticed you made the change from "Hr.Ms." to "HNLMS", so I was wondering what the rationale was for doing this. Jeroen 09:34, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

HNLMS is the usual English translation of Hr.Ms and Zr.Ms., widely used in English-language works on naval history. "Anglo-centric" seems a bit unfair: it's just a translation. However, if there's consensus that the Dutch spelling is preferred then we could certainly make a change (as long as its done consistently). I suggest we continue this discussion at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (ships). Gdr 09:40:03, 2005-08-02 (UTC)

Envelope paradox

Hi Gdr,

You must be busy but please check the talk page. I think the solution to third paradox is wrong. Do you think I should "be bold" and go ahead and remove the section which I think is wrong, without first discussing on the talk page?Tkalayci 16:05, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Yes, be bold. But if argument 2 is meant to be applied before you open either envelope, it needs to say so. (Because the statement of the paradox at the top of the article made it clear that you opened one envelope.) If it is meant to be so applied, then paradox 3 is easy to resolve, because you can only make argument 2 before you open either envelope, and you can only make argument 1 after you open an envelope! Gdr 16:21:58, 2005-08-02 (UTC)

I'm afraid I disagree, but it doesn't matter now, I've added my explanation to the main article without modifying yours (that's as bold as I will get). If mine is nonsense, someone will delete it anyway. (by the way, I forgot to log in and it revealed my secret anon IP lol, good thing that I didn't do much stupid things with the IP). Take care.Tkalayci 17:30, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the cleanup...

Thanks for cleaning up my various Animal entries. I seem to be good at either creating or editing/wikifying, but never on the same article.  :) Wikibofh 00:04, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Wikiproject Year Survey

Hey there. I just noticed you voted, and since you are the first person that I didn't have to ask to do so I was wondering where you heard about it? Maybe its just vanity but I hope this survey will have an impact outside of those who are "very interested" in Years standards. - Trevor macinnis 00:24, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Recent Changes to the Spider article

Hi. Could you please revert your recent changes to the taxonomy chart? I know they were well-intentioned, but you just created a goo-gob of links to articles that do not exist. Thanks. P0M 01:56, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

That was the whole point! That means (a) these red links may tempt people to write the articles; (b) having links for both scientific and common names makes it easy to see when an article has been written at one name without a redirect at the other; (c) when someone does write an article on one of these families, they don't have to remember to edit spider to add a link. Gdr 02:00:12, 2005-08-03 (UTC)

I really don't like this idea. If there is an article for Lycosidae and an article for Wolf Spiders they will be about the same subject, no? Then somebody will insist, reasonably, that since they both say the same thing they should be combined. Before you do things like this you should at least bring the subject up on the discussion page. P0M 02:06, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

The scientific name of a taxon should be a redirect to the name of the article that describes that taxon. So Lycosidae should be a redirect to wolf spider (I just added it). That's how it works throughout Wikipedia. (For example, Chrysomelidae is a redirect to leaf beetle; Spheniscidae is a redirect to penguin, and so on.) Having links for both scientific and common names makes it easy to see when an article has been written at one name without a redirect at the other. Gdr 02:17:05, 2005-08-03 (UTC)

I guess it's o.k. if you don't leave readers feeling like they're in the spin cycle of a washing machine. There are several many-to-one mappings between English common names and proper scientific names. It can definitely be useful to ferret these problems out. Sometimes one person writes an article about tarantulas and another person writes an article about bird (eating) spiders, or something like that, and things can get out of hand. It would be a kindness in the future if you would warn other contributors when you make edits of such far-reaching impact, however. P0M 06:07, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Pearl Kite

Just a query as to the removal of the genus author. My understanding is that we know put the genus authority in the taxobox of monospecific genera. As it is, the genus authority no longer appears in the article, and I don't think it is reasonable to assume it's the same person as the species author.

I'm impressed by the amount of effort you've put into adding authorities, but slightly baffled by this one. jimfbleak 05:32, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

My thinking was as follows: the genus is monotypic (it's bold). The species name is original (no parentheses around authority). Therefore the genus and species were named at the same time by the same author. So naming the author of the genus is duplicating information unnecessarily.

However, now I think about it, I see a flaw in my reasoning. The genus may have been named before the species was named, but all other species have since been moved out of the genus. So it's just possible that the genus and species were named at different times. (Though I don't know an example where this has happened.)

So I won't object if you put the authority back on the genus. Gdr 05:38:14, 2005-08-03 (UTC)