Misplaced Pages

I’m sorry if I offend you. But I don’t swear just for the hell of it. You see, I figure that language is a poor enough means of communication as it is. So we ought to use all the words we’ve got. Besides, there are damned few words that everybody understands.

— From Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee.

1. Stamps, lots of stamps

Recommended reading;

Papillon,

by Henri Charrière

Paradise Lost: Smyrna, 1922:
The Destruction of Islam’s City of Tolerance

by Giles Milton

• amazon.com

reviews;

• nysun.com
• timesonline.co.uk
• brisbanetimes.com.au
• economist.com

Indonesian killings of 1965–66

Catherine Bonkbuster

On Slim virgins and arbcom dragons

Martyred Armenia

by Fâ’iz El-Ghusein

A course in troll sockpuppets

by Durova

Johnny Got His Gun

by Dalton Trumbo

• Archive 1, 2, 3

Blood and Roses was a trading game, along the lines of Monopoly. The Blood side played with human atrocities for the counters, atrocities on a large scale: individual rapes and murders didn't count, there had to have been a large number of people wiped out. Massacres, genocides, that sort of thing. The Roses side played with human achievements. Artworks, scientific breakthroughs, stellar works of architecture, helpful inventions. Monuments to the soul's magnificence, they were called in the game. There were sidebar buttons, so that if you didn't know what Crime and Punishment was, or the Theory of Relativity, or the Trail of Tears, or Madame Bovary, or the Hundred Years' War, or The Flight into Egypt, you could double-click and get an illustrated rundown, in two choices: R for children, PON for Profanity, Obscenity, and Nudity. That was the thing about history, said Crake: it had lots of all three.

The exchange rates — one Mona Lisa equalled Bergen-Belsen, one Armenian genocide equalled the Ninth Symphony plus three Great Pyramids — were suggested, but there was room for haggling. To do this you needed to know the numbers — the total number of corpses for the atrocities, the latest open-market price for the artworks; or, if the artworks had been stolen, the amount paid out by the insurance policy. It was a wicked game.

The sack of Troy, says a voice in his ear. The destruction of Carthage. The Vikings. The Crusades. Ghenghis Kahn. Attila the Hun. The massacre of the Cathars. The witch burnings. The destruction of the Aztec. Ditto the Maya. Ditto the Inca. The Inquisition. Vlad the Impaler. The massacre of the Huguenots. Cromwell in Ireland. The French Revolution. The Napoleonic Wars. The Irish Famine. Slavery in the American South. King Léopold in the Congo. The Russian Revolution. Stalin. Hitler. Hiroshima. Mao. Pol Pot. Idi Amin. Sri Lanka. East Timor. Saddam Hussein.

"Stop it," says Snowman.

Sorry, honey. Only trying to help.

That was the trouble with Blood and Roses: it was easier to remember the Blood stuff. The other trouble was that the Blood player usually won, but winning meant you inherited a wasteland. This was the point of the game, said Crake, when Jimmy complained. Jimmy said that if that was the point, it was pretty pointless. He didn't want to tell Crake that he was having some severe nightmares: the one where the Parthenon was decorated with cut-off heads was, for some reason, the worst.

— From Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood

I Put something on

The WP Indonesia - project talk page not that will do anything - outsiders with no local experience will try to keep to Bill Daltons and the wheelers versions acceding to supposedly proper 70's spelling and try to ignore current usage for sure, sigh and even redirects seem to be ignored as a sop SatuSuro 07:00, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

There's no hurry; the redirect works for now. Jack Merridew 07:08, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

RE: SatuSuro speak - (fit the 34th): When watching other talk pages - 'Dark Side' - depending upon context can mean anything related to : (1) Hotmail, IE, and the whole Windows family of OS (2) 24 inspired conspiracy theories about anything to do with the upper levels of government anywhere and the people involved (3) cabals/groups of persons with ulterior motive with no face or trace - perhaps you have met them already here :) SatuSuro 09:15, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

DYK for Moon of Pejeng

On March 12, 2009, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Moon of Pejeng, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please sutchst it on the Did you know? talk page.

Well done good sutchstion - you should take all the blame/credos :) SatuSuro 11:49, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Festival

Menurut pak Jack - disini belum cocok atau sudah habis? Balispirit Festival - thanks if you are able - whatever SatuSuro 00:58, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I think ive fixed it - if you have heard of it that would be a bonus :) SatuSuro 01:24, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Ya, I've heard of it. It's a huge tourist scam. Lure the yoga crowd to Bali and sell'em accommodation at 10x the usual rates. I'd have let the prod stand. Jack Merridew 06:49, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

That is a pity - I can see the juxtaposition of the scam festivals as you put it versus the traditional festivals as a good example of what is happening to the place :( - and I aint gonna do any more to the stub after your tags so it will be interesting to see if it catches up with the 2 year old tags on various indonesian articles :) - oh and the marvellous dr blofield (?) has been adding more maps to the godforsaken bali stubs with no reliable source i note SatuSuro 11:50, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

There are many such 'Earthy' activities running here; mostly they are less about saving the world and 'finding' yourself (need your soul pulled? Ubud's the place) than about 'clicking here to book your package now'. The tags I pasted on it were not targeting what you did; rather you only had their relentless self-promotion to work from. Cheers, Jack Merridew 13:12, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah well - the problem is if we were purist about this project - half of the Indonesian project wouldnt even be up - so few stubs have WP:RS for WP:V in sight SatuSuro 04:31, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Two technical templatey things

• OK, I would be very grateful if you could add an 'edit' command on my user page which allowed me to directly edit the daughter pages (like the small v-d-e commands on some templates), such as on the template on the lower RHS of this page. Casliber (talk · contribs) 03:05, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

• Now, the other thing is this template - I wish to remove the expiry date and the needs X votes by date, and replace with "X votes remains for 2/1/0 more nominations". thus just "start=", and "rounds left=" - I was going to do it but was not sure with all the scary warnings...

Ping me if I haven't clarified enough. Casliber (talk · contribs) 03:05, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Sure; I'll have to poke about a bit, but such is certainly doable. Cheers, Jack Merridew 07:52, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

AIV

Hi there! I hope you don't think I'm being especially picky with your AIV reports. I'm just being extra careful until i've got the hang of the admin mop, especially with school IPs. Thank you for your report on the Lithium user's vandalising of the AIV page, i've now blocked them for a couple of weeks. Hopefully they'll grow up whilst they're away. --GedUK  13:35, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Nah, I know you're a fresh admin. I took the other account to UAA and have not checked back yet. Lithium I just noticed in the shuffle. That whole AAV page is pretty busy; I had several edit conflicts. Mop-well. Cheers, Jack Merridew 14:05, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Headache

Please leave you know who alone, and leave off allusions to you know what. WP is a big place. Today is really not shaping up to be a good day....Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:11, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Sure. I saw his post to you and in a word, bollocks. He is disruptive as many others have said many times.

I'm otherwise focused today and tomorrow is Nyepi. They burn the trolls in effigy the evening before Nyepi.

Cheers, Jack Merridew 03:35, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Code fix

I have a code fix request of you. See User:Rlevse/Today/Archive#Today's Wikipedians 2009 - Jan-Mar. Why do some of my rows not have an underscore bhneath them? Tks. — Rlevse • Talk • 00:18, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Hmmm… I see borders all around — and the code looks right. I've purged the server cache just in case. Try clearing your local browser cache and looking with another browser. Cheers, Jack Merridew 03:45, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Pixelface's bad faith behaviour

Hi Jack,
I'm thinking of starting an ANI thread on Pixelface's baseless accusation of sockpuppeteering and subsequent churlish behaviour. I am particularly concerned by this insinuation that you currently, or intend to, run a sock drawer.

I won't do anything if that's what you prefer; I can certainly understand if you would rather just let it go, but in my opinion Pixelface's recent run of bad behaviour is escalating and if he's allowed to get away with this incident without sanction he will be encouraged to use the same unsavoury methods to sink the boot into other editors he dislikes.

Regards,
Reyk _YO! 20:58, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh you'll certainly have my support in any effort to sanction Pixelface; as I've said to others, he's ripe. Cheers, Jack Merridew 02:39, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Done. Here is the thread. Reyk _YO! 03:47, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Misuse of rollback

You should not have used rollback on this edit. Rollback should only be used to revert vandalism. This was not vandalism. RFA Review is dead. See WT:RFAR for explanation. Soberknight (talk) 21:12, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

funny thing is, I don't have the rollback bit; that was simply an undo. methinks you should be leaving such issues to the clerks. Jack Merridew 02:20, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

more constructively...

do you remember where/how one does history merges? Does it by necessity involve admin tools? See my note here Casliber (talk · contribs) 08:27, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Ya, history merge requires a mop and a fair bit of care. They get messy if the history is complex. It's something I would be good at as I have a strong sense of the temporal dimension of articles. Many only see the top rev.

• Misplaced Pages:How to fix cut-and-paste moves

Cheers, Jack Merridew 08:58, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Aha, I will go and try and fix. Casliber (talk · contribs) 09:12, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

PS: And surely discussion of mergers on this page - Misplaced Pages:Proposed mergers is more cerebrally satisfying and challenging than the knee-jerk cruft/anti-cruft responses at AfD..go on, challenge yourself to think constructively with some nuanced thought. :) Casliber (talk · contribs) 08:33, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

It's not on my watchlist — as 3500-odd are. I'll add it and have a look-see. Cheers, Jack Merridew 08:58, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

p.s. FWIW, WP:NOT is off my watchlist and has been all year. Cheers, Jack Merridew 08:58, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank goodness. Casliber (talk · contribs) 09:12, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

edits to Jimbo's user page

User:Jimbo Wales is not your sock puppet, and please do not go around like an April Fool. Thank you Griffinofwales (talk) 03:28, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Hi. I'm no fool. Please see WP:NPA. Cheers, Jack Merridew 03:30, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Right up your alley

• See User talk:Gadget850#List of United States Military Academy alumni (Superintendents).

I love Gadget's template for all the service academy alumni lists I'm working on but this Supes list could use a mod of his template set. What's great about his template set is you can create other modules within it for different lists. What do you think can be done with the Superintendent's list? — Rlevse • Talk • 02:18, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

PS Gadget did not make the list that is currently in the Supes list. See all the lists in {{USNALists}} where I used his templates. — Rlevse • Talk • 02:27, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Hi, and welcome back. I was a bit worried, as seemed JoJo.

(ec) I'm looking at it now and am still not quite sure what you're after; it seems a plain wikitable — I'll look further. This needs to be converted to use something else, right?

also; above a bit, I replied to your note from last week; I only saw proper borders and no problem...

Cheers, Jack Merridew 02:31, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

ps; will look at {{USNALists}} next …

I want the Supes list to have as consistent tabling as the others as is possible but since it's supes it seems right to have it in supe order, not alum order, but the subtemplate for alum that Gadget has doesn't have that. I think we need a new subtemplate of Gadget's that has a column for date range served as a supe of the Academy. No need for the birth/death year nor the rank, leave that for the article. That table in supe is not as flexible as Gadget's, he has image lines, lines to avoid dabs, etc. — Rlevse • Talk • 02:40, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

ec, again. Leave it be and I'll look. It's early here and my chai just arrived. Cheers, Jack Merridew 02:46, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Like List of United States Military Academy alumni (astronauts), methinks. I see you said to drop some columns, and assuming what remains matches-up, converting should be no big deal. As another 'Jack' I once worked with once said; It's just text processing.

Cheers, Jack Merridew 02:46, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

I think you got it now. — Rlevse • Talk • 02:56, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

First poke done. I used a ref column, which the others I looked at were doing. I should be easy to add sorting if you like just be extending the start template. It is likely that the column widths and alignments will need tweaking, too. Its all fairly centralized and extensible; that's templates ;)

• List of United States Military Academy alumni (Superintendents)/sandbox

should be deleted once things are all-good.

Cheers, Jack Merridew 05:28, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Great start. Thanks. Can you:

1. delete name and replace with "first" and "last" (template will add them together)
2. create a "link" option, such that if used it overrides first and last
3. make #, start, end, name (by last name), and class sortable?
4. "Class" should be "Class year" to match the others (with lower case y too)
5. the code should link the name, no need to put name

Examples of how to do all this are in Gadget's code. Thanks — Rlevse • Talk • 10:43, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

 Done — methinks; proof for mistakes, please. Cheers, Jack Merridew 12:00, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

SWEET! — Rlevse • Talk • 12:05, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

One small thing, probably not a big deal, but you called your parameter for grad year "class" and the alum one calls it "year". Is this worth worrying about? Maybe not. — Rlevse • Talk • 12:21, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

easily changed; keeping this sort of thing consistent is certainly worth doing. Cheers, Jack Merridew 12:23, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Template barnstar

	The Template Barnstar
	I award you this Template Barnstar for outstanding work in the area of templates, user pages, and ghneral all around useful wiki coding!   — Rlevse • Talk • 12:43, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Terima kasih (thanks) — Did You Know that Barnstars are really for barns. In balloon framing, for example, they are used with a connecting rod to hold the opposite walls of the building a desired distance apart (as opposed, say, to the weight of the roof system forcing them apart!). As a building ages, things shift some anyway, and often the bolts (that's what the hole is about) need tightening; any major tweaks involve the use of a comealong to do the tweak as rashly leaning on a wrench can get you into a world of trouble. I knew barnstars years before this site existed. See also; Anchor plate. Cheers, Jack Merridew 12:53, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Law & Order characters page

The debate has begun. Stop on by the talk page to participate. -Craverguy (talk) 13:14, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

such lulz. Jack Merridew 13:29, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Do not edit war?

Why should his edits be allowed to stand when nothing has been decided? He's the one arguing to make major changes; he should have to argue his case before they become set in stone. -Craverguy 14:16, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Coll is a she. And she's right. You've got 3 editors in agreement that you're off-base. See WP:BRD and WP:OWN; oh, and WP:3RR. I'll give you a tip; revert yourself instead of waging an edit war. Jack Merridew 14:23, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

What three editors? You and Coll are two. And how can consensus be reached in less than two hours? We haven't allowed any of the 50 other people who have been editing the article lately to weigh in, probably because they're not even aware of it. -Craverguy (talk) 14:27, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

see that page and heed User:Bignole; the third editor I mentioned. Jack Merridew 14:30, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

WP:IDONTLIKETHENOMINATOR

Damn. Wish I'd thought that one through a bit better! Thanks for running with it. pablo_hablo. 17:32, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

WP:STALKING

Pixelface has accused you of WP:STALKING before, and please correct me if I am wrong, but stalking was a major issue in your arbitration.

This edit shows that you are stalking me. I would kindly ask that you stop immediately and we can go our separate ways. Thank you in advance. Ikip (talk) 22:47, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Actually that edit proves that he is stalking me. pablo_hablo. 23:18, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Actually, I'm hounding Shannon ;) Trav, the issue is you don't like me, and you're in the same WP:BATTLEGROUND-mode as Pixel. nb: I fixed your spelling.

Pablo, glad you like ;) I've tightened up your sig a bit. G'day, Jack Merridew 02:54, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

What'chu lookin' at my code for, Willis?

Ta for fixes, it was educational - I've got some knowledge of html but bugger-all of wiki-markup. pablo_hablo. 20:47, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

It's a wiki; You can edit this page. Please use the preview button before saving.

There are certainly cases, here, where raw-html is appropriate, but where wiki-markup will suffice, it's best to go with the local norms. I tweaked yo sig, 'gain ;) G'day, Jack Merridew 03:32, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Great - I had never considered that a <sub> tag could contain attributes, although when I think about it, why not? Cheers. pablo_hablo. 09:52, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

No reason at all not to combine bits ;) G'day, Jack Merridew 09:56, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Bambusa lako

Interesting -(took the photo in my own garden, god I love bamboo and this rare beastie from Timor is wonderful, ironically Australian native species are more frost tender and can't grow down here at all. Funny also as this woman Elizabeth A. Widjaja is a professor who appears to be a key figure in bamboo taxonomy in Indonesia - impressive and deserves an article I'd think...Casliber (talk · contribs) 03:03, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Interesting; I've not seen black bamboo before — and not been to Timor. The usual green stuff is quite common here, of course. I gotcled the woman and she has left a footprint out there, so there will be sources. And mebbe she had a role in Battlestar Galactica ;) I'll see what I can do, howerver, today's a busy day. I've not even looked about, here. G'day, Jack Merridew 05:07, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Your inappropriate edits

Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 14:11, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

I'll watch to see if I'm reverted ;) G'day, Jack Merridew 14:13, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

yup ;( G'day, Jack Merridew 12:12, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Hey

Didn't notice you were back. It's been awhile. Khoikhoi 21:48, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Terima kasih (bahasa Indonesia for thanks). G'day, Jack Merridew 05:16, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Heads up

Look what's just turned up at ANI. Reyk _YO! 08:52, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Ya, saw that. No only did he not inform me of the thread, he didn't wish me a Happy Easter ;( G'day, Jack Merridew 09:28, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, I wish you one. Do they celebrate Easter in Bali? If not, happy <insert local equivalent here>. I figured you might have ANI watchlisted, but still it's poor form to press charges and not inform the defendant, so to speak. Reyk _YO! 09:33, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks; mostly it is a non-event. Bali is Hindu. There was a major ceremony Friday night, but it was something to do with Rangda. Lots of drums and chanting; this was a very private thing after midnight, not one of the tourist-show-ceremonies. It went on until dawn. G'Day, Jack Merridew 09:40, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

ANI thread

Hi. Since this thread is soon to be archived, and since you're both an administrator and currently signed in, might I ask you to look over near the end of this thread - especially the part that starts "This comment..."? I think it deserves attention. Thanks a lot. - Biruitorul 15:54, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Hi. Please note that I'm not yet an admin and don't think I can help you there. It's late here and I'm signing off in a moment. Best, Jack Merridew 15:57, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh, OK, thanks. - Biruitorul 16:06, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Mutual topicban proposal on ANI

Since all parties do not agree on the proposal between A Nobody and Jack, I am putting it to a community !vote:

• Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#Mutual topicban proposal

Please take the time to make your voice be heard. Thank you. Ikip (talk) 14:59, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the note, but I already commented on there. ( you should learn to format links properly ;) Sincerely, Jack Merridew 08:34, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

+Misplaced Pages:Polling is not a substitute for discussion

If A Nobody's incessant complaining is evidence enough...

You are Amorrow and I claim my five pounds. Sceptre 23:48, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, I'm not User:Amorrow ;) but I'll sport you a few pints next time you're here. Best wishes, Will. Jack Merridew 08:34, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Fix please

On this page: User:Rlevse/playground my flags display to the left of my userboxes if the resolution is not set too high, but if the res is too high, they display below it. Can this be fixed? — Rlevse • Talk • 01:22, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Sure, will look right after my sandwich. At first glace you may just need a clear in there. Cheers, Jack Merridew 08:34, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Got distracted; how's this? I'm not sure I'm seeing the issue you describe; I'm seeing the flags box drop down when the viewport of the browser is rather small (it works to smaller than the links bar likes to be); things work fine for me up to very large widths. I tidied up the miscellaneous nits and rearranged the flags a bit to produce a neater appearance. Any chance you're using a browser from the Pacific Northwest? Cheers, Jack Merridew 13:29, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I use FF for most 'net stuff. It was happening on both FF and IE FYI. This is better. Can you make the flag box wider? I see wide white gutters on each side (the "Places I have traveled" bar is wider than the flag box. If you have ideas on how to better lay out this page, I'm open. The user box column is really long now. — Rlevse • Talk • 01:58, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

That was easy; I just undid my last edit there. It now looks ok, to me, down to about 1024 pixels. That's about the most common screen res in use these days.

The layout of a page is highly influenced by viewport width and wp does not constrain widths at high resolutions (and maybe it should). See my user page; it constrains the width of the inset light-lavender region and whatever is left over gets the darker shade. This is about keeping the length of lines within a range that's easily readable. If you adjust the window size, you see that the inset page has a min and max width it likes and if you give it a ridiculously narrow window it fight back with a horizontal scroll bar. I do this with my edit notices and other subpages, too. The technique could be applied to articles...

An alternative on your page might be to use left and right columns of boxes — scouting on one side and the rest on the other? — might go back to the narrow flag table so that it still fits on smaller screens. The templates that wrap the right-floating boxes may not support doing things on the left; I'd have to look; if not, they may be able to be tweaked (meaning they may not be protected against me tweaking them); or a one-off bit of raw code to just do it in this case...

Cheers, Jack Merridew 12:12, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

I took another go; it works well down to 1280, but at 1024 the flags drop. It may be best to force the flags to drop below both columns all the time. The 'places' header would move down too. This would leave the center for text, that's you'd have to write. Text will be more agreeable to window size variations; it would just squeeze into a narrow column. Cheers, Jack Merridew 13:03, 16 April 2009 (UTC) (written before your reply below)

I like the 3-column setup, nice work, thanks. — Rlevse • Talk • 12:59, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

and I just tweaked the margin. It still doesn't quite fit for 1024, but seems good for now; off for dinner for now. Cheers, Jack Merridew 13:03, 16 April 2009 (UTC) you're most welcome

Thanks

Thanks for stopping by and supporting me the other day. It was a pleasant surprise to find you had left a message on my talk page. It was very much appreciated by me. :) Josette (talk) 01:30, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

You are most welcome. I see that that situation sorted itself out well; the wiki is getting better at this sort of thing. Cheers, Jack Merridew 08:34, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Honorverse

You're doing some nice things in various places in the Honorverse. Very small things, but they are appreciated. Debresser (talk) 09:58, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

This? I'm editing Misplaced Pages, not the "Honorverse". Jack Merridew 10:03, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

not censored

Following this, letting you know WP:CENSOR only has to do with mainspace (articles). It's understood though, that there's no consensus to make any lasting edits to that page. Gwen Gale (talk) 14:02, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Ya, I know; it's an amusing dust-up. Cheers, Jack Merridew 14:05, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

List of rivers templates

Hi, I've been watching your progress with this chore & wondered when you'd get to Ethiopia. My question about your Ethiopian version is whether it is meant to contain a complete list of articles -- or only the most important rivers. If the latter, then I'll take a moment & pare the list down to the 10 or 20 most important rivers. (I've listed some rivers for proposed article creation only because they define a boundary, flow thru more than one local unit of government, or have either historical or economic importance.) PS -- That's a creepy quotation from Lord of the Flies. -- llywrch (talk) 16:33, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

You'll get different quotes on different visits to this page ;) more at User:Jack Merridew/Quotes.

I'm looking at these lists as intending to be complete — however, I know full-well that even smaller countries have thousands of rivers and expect that the extant pages are heavily the 'important' ones. A lot of the central African countries had no "List of rivers of ..." page and I just worked from the category. With Ethiopia, and probably some more I've not looked at yet, the list had been started already. If you'd like to trim some stuff out, especially the redlink, great. Any river that's part of a border, national, provincial, not between to houses, should get an article — even if it's only a stubby one. My intent is to keep the list, category, and template in sync. You should also note that I'm automatically categorizing pages from within the templates. This seems effective to me; might confuse some, though; it also influences the order that the categories are listed at the foot of articles. Cheers, Jack Merridew 02:45, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, it's going to take a while to figure out which ones to remove, depending on whether to pick the 10 most important -- or the 20 most important. (I can make a case for 12 of them being "most important".) So far I removed only one -- the Abay is another name for the Blue Nile. As for using the templates to automatically categorize -- no, I hadn't noticed, but it makes good sense. If I had more of an interest in making templates, I'd probably do that myself. -- llywrch (talk) 04:44, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

I'll leave Ethiopia to you for a few days and see what you sort-out. It's not like there aren't others to do ;) Lakes, National Parks, South America... Cheers, Jack Merridew 04:48, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks For Revert

Hello Jack, just a quick thanks for reverting that bit of vandalism to my userpage, much appreciated, all the best Spitfire 17:28, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

You're most welcome; I saw him at Pablo's page, looked further, and found more. Cheers, Jack Merridew 02:31, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

TomCat4680 (talk) has given you a kitten! Kittens promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Kittens must be fed three times a day and will be your faithful companion forever! Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a kitten, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend.

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I could tell

A very long story about being stuck in Yogya finding refs and wondering where the ---- I'd ever find the bloody things - there are at least still 15 years later about 10 refs that I could never get my hands upon despite everything - the most intriguing was the publication by the UGM botanist who made the correlation between very rare trees and the sacred sites in the Yogya region as being where no one was prepared to removed the trees from them - interesting as the most elusive (I found him eventually thats another long story) informant i ever had was prepared to remove any tree as long as he meditated enough to counter the bad spirits in the trees he had to move :) - if I ever disappear from wikipedia it will be at least to write up the story around the phd that never got finished :) - a good decade after the work - I have a much better picture of it all - pity about the indonesian regionalisation of admin authority - I can just see the smiling faces and ceaseless of asking for money back in my old research area - if I want to go back and check a few things SatuSuro 13:05, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Every time they do a large cremation here, they cut down all the trees along the procession route. The Cokorda's are quite rich and the towers are ever-taller (and the bases wider). Cheers, Jack Merridew 13:22, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Have you done anything on the cokorda's? - that sounds more substantive than yoga spirit festivals :) SatuSuro 13:26, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

'sfunny i have a few piccies lying aroun from '85 of the goa gajah entrance - at least some things dont change :( SatuSuro 13:28, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

They're a complex subject and I'm not up on the details. Between politics and art, there's certainly going to be lots of material on them; mostly in Bahasa Indonesia, though. That festival starts this week and that means lots of fit young women in town; appreciation of body art and mods, helps. ;) Cheers. Jack Merridew 13:40, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

OK a carry bag for us all - Category:Balinese religion that should be able to carry about anything :) SatuSuro 14:45, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Hmm. You might go with Category:Hinduism in Bali; about 90% of the population here and more for the ethnically Balinese. Most of the others are Javanese Muslims, of course. If you're tying to cover them all; Category:Religion in Bali? Cheers, Jack Merridew

Well i might have caught the durga by the wrong paw :( - (or was it mahakala by the tongue) or some damned half hindu buddihst synthetic priest from 1920 by the wrong headscarf - I know there is H in Bali - I was thinking something it could sit as a sub cat - but hey we're in between - I can see the benefits of your idea for a name - I am open to seeing my idea thrown out - but for me the idea of balinese religion - was the temples and paraphenalia do have the residual 2 % buddhist relic stuff according to some academics but if your on the ground maybe its all vanished - in 85 i remember taking piccies of the supposedly last priest with rites that had the nafas of residual vajrayana buddhist symbols in his practice - but hey dont let me mess with your on the ground experience :| - i thought the logic of balines relig could hold anything - but if you reckon the other way im open to it - no probs SatuSuro 15:09, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages:Article Deletion Squadron

Hey there! You might be interested in this new venture! The fightback starts here! Yeah! Wheelchair Epidemic (talk) 23:04, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

• User:Wheelchair Epidemic/Article Deletion Squadron

Hey ho

Seeing has nobody has seen fit to alert you, and Nobody has failed to, have a look here. pablo_hablo. 10:18, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks; I commented there just a few minutes ago. He needs to chill. This is ridiculous. Cheers, Jack Merridew 10:23, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Agreed. Apart from anything else, if that was an attempt at harassment and disruption, it was a pretty lame one and consequently you should be publicly flogged per the rules of the interweb. pablo_hablo. 10:29, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

re this; 'twas understood ;) see also: my rescued template. Cheers, Jack Merridew 10:14, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

I thought it probably was, but thought I had better remove any ambiguity so that nobody no-one could misunderstand it. pablo_hablo. 10:25, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

I'll have to find the Badger-ring image/award Will made. I think A Nobody linked to it in the ani subpage from the last drama.

• User:Mirv/Sacred Office of the Inquisition — fur teh 'xtra lulz, wez shoed rezurrect diz.
• Misplaced Pages:Votes for deletion/Sacred Office of the Inquisition

Cheers, Jack Merridew 10:36, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Flowcharts

Are you any good with flowcharts. I am having problems with this slightly blurry image, and any improvements or enhancements would be most welcome. --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 15:54, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Not lately. You really need a better tool. I looked for a {{flowchart}} but no-joy. For wiki-use, it would be best if all the text and relationships were still editable text; an image is quite inflexible. All of the Office-type suites have diagraming tools and templates. I used to use Visio a lot. I'd suggest exploring where ever you've got. Cheers, Jack Merridew 09:57, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

I managed to eliminate the blurring; apparently it is an effect called "bleeding" which can occur when text is converted to pictures. I agree that editable text would be better, but to construct a flowchart using wikitables would result in a block of text and graphics that would tend to take up an entire page. --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 11:22, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Any image that gets scaled-down will have its text suffer. I did find {{Cotton processing flowchart}}, but you probably don't want to go there. Cheers, Jack Merridew 11:27, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Noted. Did you vote for picture of the year yet? I voted for the black and white bug.--Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 11:37, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

No, I've not looked at them yet. Another shite-storm kicked-up. Thanks for the reminder; off to look. Cheers, Jack Merridew 11:42, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Drop the deletion template - its a bit over the top in my view. I highly recommend you read the Eric Berne's "Games People Play", paying special attention to the section on NIGYSOB. As with any game, it comes to an end when one player decides (usually unconsciously) to stop playing. However, you can make a conscious decision to stop by employing the antithesis, which can be summed up as "Neither a victim nor a persecutor be". If only I could take my own advice to heart more easily.... --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 21:22, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Not only did he call you a useful idiot, he's called me a troll; even the tag team thought it inappropriate. Cheers, Jack Merridew 05:51, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Tagging someone else would be over the top ;) Thanks for the links, did read'em. Criticism is a function of problematic behaviour; if the problem is sorted, the criticism wanes as a result.

I supported:

• Commons:Commons:Picture of the Year/2008/Finalists/File:Biandintz eta zaldiak - modified2.jpg

but there were a lot of great ones

Cheers, Jack Merridew 08:34, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

I also strongly recommend Games People Play - a simultaneously highly entertaining and educational book - up there with the best books on psychotherapy and counselling. Casliber (talk · contribs) 09:22, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

I'll give the links a detailed reading. My next trip to Kinokuniya is months away. Cheers, Jack Merridew 09:42, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Also recommended: H. L. Mencken and his body of work. Cheers, Jack Merridew 10:00, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Cripes Kinokuniya shops in Singgers and Sydney are worth a trip to the locations just to visit the shops alone SatuSuro 15:31, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

I haven't been to Singapore for 15 years - the Sydney shop is very good. Casliber (talk · contribs) 21:05, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

The shop in Ngee Ann City is awesome; that article says it's the largest bookstore in SE Asia. First time I went there, I thought "nice" — and then walked around a corner and realized it was four times the size I though. They had large commercial racks of 'Honorverse' products and a franchise called 'Forgettable Realms'. Then I wandered over to their excellent literature section. Cheers, Jack Merridew 05:31, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Stub borders and templated categories

Yes the idea of putting a border in the stub template is a basically good one, unfortunately some stubs have multiple stub templates, so they will be spaced inappropriately.

As far as categories in navboxes go it seems a good idea, and is in fact done to some extent. I have no knowledge of whether this has undesirable side effects other than cat order.

Rich Farmbrough, 05:22 30 April 2009 (UTC).

It's a top-bot margin: 1em 0; I've been using and I've noted that this spaces multiple stub template out a bit. Another problem I've noticed with multiple stubs is multiple instances of id="stub" — which produces invalid output code which must cause issues for some user agents and other things parsing the pages; major browsers cope with poor code well enough, but still…

The approach of auto-populating categories per the inclusion of a navigation template is solid. There may be conventions to sort out, but it will help to get things properly categorized. By properly ordering the templates and explicit categories, the order can be controlled as desired. To get a bot to tidy things up en masse would require that the bot parse quite a bit of stuff and have knowledge of just what templates did the auto-category trick (and w/what cats). Which would be tricky and the state of things will constantly change. I'm going to setup a bot framework soon per a suggestion of John's. Pleased to have met you. Cheers, Jack Merridew 05:43, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Facelift

Thank you very much for your kind assistance, good sir.

Iz wut I due; enjoy.

So, how many actors does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Cheers, Jack Merridew 15:40, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Two. One to change the lightbulb and one to sit back, smoke a cigarette, and boast "I could've done that better." Know how many Wikipedians it takes to change a light bulb? Hamlet, Prince of Trollmark (talk) 17:08, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

There are many endings to that joke;

Actors don't screw in lightbulbs, they screw in the green room.

All of them? They don't screw in lightbulbs either; they screw with each other on ANI with torches and pitchforks.

Cheers, (I think; have not looked about yet) Jack Merridew 05:40, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Markup help

Hey Jack. If I remember correctly, you're pretty nifty with markup. It seems the title override on my user and usertalk pages no longer work as they used to. Would you mind looking and seeing if you can figure out the problem? No worries if not. Thanks! seresin ( ¡? )  02:27, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

replied on your talk; Cheers, Jack Merridew 06:57, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Loosing the plot

I see a pattern emerging, in which various editors go from policy to guideline to policy in order to loosen the inclusion criteria for standalone articles just so they can write about their favorite game or TV programme without realising the consequenses of their actions: namely a watering down of Misplaced Pages policy. I could rant and rage even more but I will stop there, lest I loose my temper altogether. --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 07:56, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

It's all a great big violation of the AC's counsel in E&C 2;

• The parties are instructed to cease engaging in editorial conflict and to work collaboratively to develop a generally accepted and applicable approach to the articles in question. They are warned that the Committee will look very unfavorably on anyone attempting to further spread or inflame this dispute.

Ignore the recent comments about there not being user conduct issues. There will not be another E&C case, there will be head-knockings.

Cheers, Jack Merridew 06:05, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Your very own troll

In gratitude for your talented work redecorating my user space, am bestowing upon you your very own serf. He comes from good strong peasant stock, able to lift heavy templates. Has a bit of an attitude problem. But after all that's in his nature. Best, _Hamlet, Prince of Trollmark 23:45, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Terima Kasih. I will put him to work, probably even with his own lulz-account somewhere down the road. If I ever really need to go with attitude, I'll channel Roger;

Cheers, Jack Merridew 06:15, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

NPOV: Reality check

Would you mind making a critic of the discussion at Wikipedia_talk:Neutral_point_of_view#WP:UNDUE? I feel some third party opinion would be useful, as I fear I may be spouting rubbish on this matter? --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 14:30, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks!

Thank you so much for spotting (and fixing) those errors in my userpage codes! :D --SilentAria 08:02, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

And thank you for your good work. Cheers, Jack Merridew

Talkback

• {{talkback}}

(by the way, your userpage is awesome) –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 15:12, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

How bored are you?

You seem to be decent at design and I have a fun project if you're interested. http://www.wikipedia.org is fucking ugly. It hasn't been updated since ... a long time ago. Care to join me at Meta to update it? :-) --MZMcBride (talk) 17:04, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

Not bored, but interested. That’s the real main page and ot really does deserve better. I note that Tidy gives “150 escaping malformed URI reference” warning due to all the Unicode needing proper encoding. So, ya, interested. Will look you up on Meta and offer assistance. Terima kasih, Jack Merridew 03:32, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

Nanjing massacre

On your comment: Yes indeed. Check our Japan-domiciled friend's list of contributions there. Perhaps he's not unrelated to Arimasa Kubo, who Google shows to be a vocal proponent of a variety of fringe beliefs. -- Hoary (talk) 02:00, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

Ya, saw that, and more:

• Commons:Commons:Administrators' noticeboard#w:Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Alleged fabrication of the Nanking Massacre

nb: I've some experience with this issue. Cheers, Jack Merridew 03:18, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

My userpage

Thanks for the edits. I couldn't figure out why your name was showing up in the wrong color. Someguy1221 (talk) 06:16, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

Specificity — CSS rules for link colors win over stuff wrapped around the link; inline code that wants to change link colours needs to be inside the braces. And the font-element is evil. Cheers, Jack Merridew 06:30, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

Greeting

Hi there; have taken a little time to check things, and I recognise that your edit to WP:Mfd and the comment on your userpage are not to be taken seriously. But they were reported to WP:AIV, and possibly a newer admin, or a more hurried one, might have blocked you. An unblock request would probably have worked, but it would have been a waste of time all round, no? Unless you are really and in truth an active, vandalising sockpuppet, which appears not to be the case, is there really a good reason for claiming to be one? --Anthony.bradbury 16:27, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

Hi, Anthony; I am a sockpuppet. If you look a little further you'll find my history. I said nothing about being a vandal; that's so not-me (and never has been). My userspace and my comment in that MfD are entirly serious; that group seems to have little to offer to the complex situations that they want a piece of. Cheers, Jack Merridew this user is a sock puppet 07:01, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Greetings, fellow cabal member

Sorry about the problems you're having with Emmette. I've tried to intervene on everyone's behalf, but things don't seem to be quieting down. Anyway, let me know if I can help. --PMDrive1061 (talk) 16:11, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Please have a word with him. I'll keep an eye on it; hope I don't get too dizzy. Off for the night, now; UTC+8. Cheers, Jack Merridew 16:14, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Giano user page not showing up nicely on my mobile phone

Hello,

The Wikimedia Foundation presented a mobile site optimized for modern high-end phones . I see that Giano's user page does not display nicely on my mobile phone.

Do I need a new phone? Is there anything you can do about this?

I posted this same comment on Giano's new talk page.

It would be nice if you can get this working, because whenever my wife and I go out on dates, she always needs to have the latest Giano information. I do not want my wife to be disappointed.

Thanks Uncle uncle uncle 19:36, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

looks mostly good to me, but I use a laptop here most of the time. Jack Merridew 03:35, 28 May 2009 (UTC)