Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 13:49, 25 May 2006

Welcome!

Hello, GrahamBould, and welcome to Misplaced Pages! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

• The five pillars of Misplaced Pages
• How to edit a page
• Help pages
• Tutorial
• How to write a great article
• Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Misplaced Pages:Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome!  --Siva1979 14:58, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Notoclinops

Hello, and welcome to Misplaced Pages! We welcome and appreciate your contributions, such as Notoclinops, but we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from either web sites or printed material. Perhaps you would like to rewrite the article in your own words. For more information, take a look at Misplaced Pages's policies and guidelines. Happy editing! --Esprit15d 14:59, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Military history

Hi Graham, just looking at your contributions here I thought you might be interested in Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Military history. It's a loose collaboration to improve the general standard of articles relating to the subject. Leithp 10:14, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Merging usernames

I don't know how to merge usernames, and I don't think that is possible anymore anyway. The request page is no longer active, unfortunately. Adam Bishop 02:12, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Your contributions

Hi, I have not had a look to see how much you have contributed, but everything is linked to the articles and will not go away. On your own talk page you can create a section refering to your old user name. You can carry on as though you have two accounts but just use one of them. You can also summarise all your edits in a list on your talk page. I will think more about your question in the meantime.. Regards Gregorydavid 06:46, 8 March 2006 (UTC) Hi,

How to read FishBase

FishBase prints the authority for a taxon at the top, next to the taxon. So for the Common Triplefin, the authority is Hardy, 1989 (a paper by G. S. Hardy in the Journal of Natural History which first described and named the species). The Fricke reference is where FishBase get their information about the fish, but it's not the authority for the name. I've corrected Common Triplefin and some other of your contributions.

You can see the current edition of FishBase by looking at the FishBase home page. The edition is under the logo at the top left and in the citation information near the bottom. FishBase switched today from the 11/2005 edition to the 01/2006. So I've put month = November | year = 2005 in your articles, but from now (until they release a new edition) it should be month = January | year = 2006. Gdr 12:47, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

I moved Notoclinus fenestratus to New Zealand Topknot.

I like your triplefin articles, and look forward to seeing more from you. (After all, there are 40,000 species of fish and I doubt if we have 1,000 of them in Misplaced Pages...) Don't worry too much about all the pedantic details; these can always be fixed. Gdr 14:31, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Redfish

You have two choices when you encounter a fish whose common name is shared with other fishes (a very common occurrence):

1. Place the article the scientific name, in this case Centroberyx affinis.
2. Look in FishBase for an alternative common name that's unique (click on "Common Names" in the table of links below the species summary). In this case that's here. So you could try Eastern Nannygai. (But do check that your name really is unique: for example it wouldn't do to choose "Golden Snapper" because there are several fishes with that name: see .)

Gdr 21:41, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Parentheses

The parentheses — or lack of them — around a zoological authority are important. Parentheses around an authority mean that the authority originally placed the species in a different genus. The lack of parentheses means that the original genus is unchanged.

For example, we write Cepola haastii (Hector, 1881) with parentheses because James Hector originally named the species Hypolycodes haastii; the species was moved to Cepola by M. E. Anderson in 1994.

However, we write Aplodactylus arctidens Richardson, 1839 without parentheses because it remains in the original genus to which John Richardson assigned it. Gdr 22:29, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Snubnosed/Parasitic eel

This is a difference in classification systems. In FishBase, the Snubnosed Eel is treated as a member of the subfamily Simenchelyinae, within the family of cutthroat eels, Synaphobranchidae. But in ITIS, this distinction is raised to the level of family and the Snubnosed Eel is treated as a member of the family Simenchelyidae.

This kind of difference in classification is common. We generally follow FishBase for the classification we put in taxoboxes (see Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Fishes) but when there's a difference we should explain it.

I've edited Snubnosed Eel to explain the two systems. Gdr 11:53, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Samoa Sawtooth Eel

FishBase didn't have any alternative common names for Serrivomer samaoensis, but on the web I found the name "Samoa Sawtooth Eel". So I moved the page there, with a page at sawtooth eel on the family. Gdr 13:23, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Smelt

There are many fishes known as smelts: see . I think this is a case like eel: there is a main meaning (i.e. Osmeridae) and a bunch of secondary meanings. So we would be best served with primary topic disambiguation: that is, {{otheruses}} at the top of the smelt page.

In any case there is no need to list a species like Retropinna retropinna when you've already listed its family, Retropinnidae. See eel (disambiguation) for an example: it would be inappropriate for the disambiguation page to list all eels. Gdr 16:03, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Knifefish

You got a bit confused with your various knifefish pages, so I sorted it out. When common names get confusing, it's often best to use scientific names. So in this case we should use the names Gymnotiformes, Notopteridae,Sternopygidae etc. for the various groups commonly called knifefishes. It's best to have a single page to disambiguate all the meanings of "knifefish", rather than splitting it into marine and freshwater pages, which doesn't make much sense taxonomically.

If in doubt, you can always leave a message at Misplaced Pages talk:WikiProject Fishes and someone will help. Gdr 18:52, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Commons

Commons is intended for all Wikipedias to use as a resource, so its best if the category names use the scientific name instead of the English/German/Japanese/etc name. Gdr 18:54, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Black lizardfish

It's a typo. The black lizardfish is Bathysauropsis gracilis. See . Gdr 14:18, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Genera in italics

Hi. I saw you change my newly created article Odacidae. But you made a small mistake. According to convent the genus and species name should be in italics, see Binomial nomenclature. Isfisk 20:54, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Listing species

There is no standard format. I prefer

Common name, Scientific name Authority, date.

The reasons I prefer it like this are (a) it goes from the familiar (common name), to the esoteric (authority) so people can stop reading at an appropriate point for their level of interest; (b) it avoids having double parentheses in the case where the authority requires parentheses. However, other orders are also fine. Gdr 12:55, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

Blind Electric Rays and Blind legged torpedoes

hi -= I think you might have re-directed my Blind Electric Ray article at the Blind Legged torpedo one. I know it's kind of a weird request, but could the main article be called Blind Electric Ray, not Blind legged torpedo, and with the redirect going the other way? They're both legitimate names for the fish, as far as I can see, but I think Blind Electric Ray is the better name (more common in NZ where I come from) - indeed, you'll see I've even named my Wiki-self after it. I don't know anyone else in the world who's especially interested in blind electric rays (or ~ legged torpedoes), so I can't see it'd do any harm could it? ElectricRay 22:29, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Graham - these days I'm in Muswell Hill. I figured you must be a kiwi from the sorts of fish you know about! One of the seminal moments of my life (strange as it may seem) was wandering round the old Museum of New Zealand on Chaytor St in Wellington, and seeing an exhibit of stuffed fish perched on sticks "swimming" in a pretend aquarium (ie a pit painted blue). The one at the front was the Blind Electric Ray, which I thought sounded a lot like a blues musician, and from that point on (for some reason I remember it being St Patrick's day, 1995) I began writing the biography of Blind Electric Ray, the blind blues vacuum player from Mississippi. And one day, I'll finish it. ElectricRay 11:35, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Blue Morwong

Graham, why d'ya blank this fella? Did you make a mistake of some kind and want it deleted? Do you want me to restore the redirect or nominate it for deletion? Let me know on my talkpage. Thanks. - the.crazy.russian τ ç ë 17:42, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

You did nothing wrong. See . On 3/21 you created a redirect, and on 4/3 you blanked the page. Now, what I am trying to understand is, did you blank it by accident (which I assumed and restored it) or did you blank it because the redirect was a mistake, in which case you should apply {{db-author}} instead of blanking. So which is it? - the.crazy.russian τ ç ë 18:23, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Re:Manukau tides

You wrote: In the second paragraph, does the size or shape of the harbour cause a large difference between high & low tide? I think not. It would be the same no matter what the size or shape of the harbour was. GrahamBould 12:32, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

I agree (although the shape of a harbour can affect tides if the current is in a certain direction - the Bay of Fundy is a classic example). I'm not sure why you asked me about this, though - I live at the other end of the country, and the only edit I've done to that article in the last year was adding a map. Grutness...wha? 13:12, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Heh. It was a bit after 1 a.m. - I work as a freelance writer and as an artist - I find it easier to work in the evenings and night, so I get up late and stay up late. Grutness...wha? 01:50, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Morwongs

Please use the Morwong talk page for this discussion so that others could see your opinion on this. :-)

I'm sorry I made it feel like I was out to get Morwongs. As I mentioned there, I didn't realize their importance in Australia. It's just that I've seen many other articles that group all species into the genus page. Thanks, Brazucs (_TALK | ) 16:55, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

Telling other editors to "please leave" without going to the talk page doesn't strike me as terribly polite regardless of the usage of the word "please".

When linking articles, it is customary to link only the first instance, and not any subsequent instances. Therefore, linking both common and scientific names of the same species is redundant and unnecessary. Also: I quote Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style (links) directly --

An article may be considered overlinked if any of the following is true:

• a link is repeated in the same article (although there may be case for duplicating an important link that is distant from the previous occurrence)

Now, I won't get into an edit war over this, because this is honestly worth neither your time nor me, but I think there are a few things you should review about Misplaced Pages:

Misplaced Pages:Civility Misplaced Pages:Ownership of articles Misplaced Pages:Assume good faith

Finally, I think Gdr said it best:

Don't worry too much about all the pedantic details; these can always be fixed.

I hope you'll consider giving your justification for the reverts on the Morwong talk page -- if you can provide some WP policy or WikiProject style point, I'd be more than happy to see it. Cheers! -- Miwa 15:28, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

Texan

Interested in why you moved my picture to the right. If you look at http://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Pictures it states that where there are multiple images they can be staggered. Personally, I don't like to see all pictures lined up as on a parade ground (had enough of that :-) GrahamBould 08:29, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

The formatting looked weird. Left-aligned photos in the middle of the text make the whole page zigzag. But I suppose this is very dependent on monitor resolution and font size. - Emt147 16:58, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

No problem

Lol, no problem. Happens to the best of us. :) --liquidGhoul 08:56, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

RE:Missing Images

Well, first of all, I would like to thank you for approaching me for help. As you can see, I do not have enough experience on Misplaced Pages Commons, thus I am incompetent in this area of Misplaced Pages. However, I would like you to visit this page. If you are still unable to find a solution, I strongly encourage you to talk to one of the administrators about this. Moreover, I have never done any editing on Misplaced Pages Commons as well. Thank You for your kind understanding and please do not hesitate to approach me for help again as I would do my best to help you within my capacity. --Siva1979 05:43, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Vever Steamer???

Hi! I see you reverted my edit which renamed the Vevey/Vever Steamer without comment and marked your edit as a minor edit. I therefore understand you are absolutely sure that the steamer is indeed called the "Vever", and not the "Vevey". Are you really sure this is correct?! Regards, --Powo 06:22, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Dissimilar?

The intro to the Maori Cod article says "The Maori Cod, Black Cod, Blue notothenia, Magellanic rockcod, Maori Chief, or Orange throat notothen (Paranotothenia magellanica) is a cod icefish". The Maori chief article says "The Maori chief is ......not too dissimilar to the Maori cod". Does not compute for this non fisho, but I guess there is a reason, if you'd like to pass it on. Also, why are names capped in some fisho intros but not in the article headings -- Maori Chief here but Maori chief, and Red Snapper here but Red snapper? Cheers Moriori 20:36, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Wood and trees

Hello. Can you tell me why you have placed a number of trees in Category:Wood? See also Category talk:Wood. Alan Liefting 17:30, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

See Category talk:Wood and Category:Wood for what I concider the articles that should be included. I have made a start at sorting out the category. See Special:Contributions/Alan Liefting.Alan Liefting 22:21, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Jafas

Cheers for the support! Tho maybe you should say it on the NZE talk page? I call it silly listitis. Once someone starts a silly list... well you get the picture. Don't let that sort of thing influence your decision about returning. We all create the world we live in - if you're positive, that's the world you get. Kahuroa 10:58, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Hochstetters frog

I noticed you put a "references" section is this new article, but forgot to actually list the references. Circeus 13:49, 25 May 2006 (UTC)