Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 20:52, 5 January 2010

Hello, J. Johnson! Welcome to Misplaced Pages! Thank you for your contributions to this 💕. If you decide that you need help, check out Getting Help below, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username and the date. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some useful links to facilitate your involvement. Happy editing! SwirlBoy39 21:45, 18 May 2008 (UTC) Getting started A tutorial • Our five pillars • Getting mentored How to: edit a page • upload and use images Getting help Frequently asked questions • Tips Where to ask questions or make comments Request administrator attention Policies and guidelines Neutral point of view • No original research Verifiability • Reliable sources • Citing sources What Misplaced Pages is not • Biographies of living persons Manual of Style • Three-revert rule • Sock puppetry Copyrights • Policy for non-free content • Image use policy External links • Spam • Vandalism Deletion policy • Conflict of interest • Notability The community Build consensus • Resolve disputes Assume good faith • Civility • Etiquette No personal attacks • No legal threats Community Portal • Village pump Signpost • IRC channels • Mailing lists Writing articles Be bold in editing • Develop an article The perfect article • Manual of style Stubs • Categories • Disambiguation Pages needing attention • Peer review Miscellaneous User name • User pages • Talk pages Clean up: General - Spam - Vandalism Join a WikiProject • Translation Useful templates • Tools • User scripts

Citation wars!

Hi, I don't want to sidetrack the discussion at Template talk:Citation, but your point about the CMOS having two styles was an interesting one. I don't really dabble with the humanities, but as their sources tend to be essays and books rather than short articles in journals and collections, I can see why a different format might be appropriate. My question was whether, to your knowledge, the existing templates seem to be suitable for both Style A and Style B (I can't really comment from experience outwith the sciences), and which category the current format better matches?

Cheers

Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 02:15, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

By "suitable" I reckon you mean something like "could be used to produce a format in the manner of" a certain style. I am hardly expert in bibliographic/citation styles generally, or in Misplaced Pages specifically, so I am quite reluctant to make an assessment such as you ask. But more to the point, the "A" and "B" distinctions are not so much particular styles as two families of stylistic preferences, each family having many members that vary in particular ways at particular points. So it is reasonable to ask: by "suitable" do mean that the existing templates can be used to produce output sufficiently "A-like" or "B-like" that an editor would find warm and fuzzy? Or output that is correct for some specific style?

As to what the various templates should do, I think there are several broad possibilities.

1. Misplaced Pages could adopt a particular style (which is to say, a particular set of stylistic preferences), and you can get any color you want as long as it's black. (Consensus would be needed, which seems doubtful.)
2. The templates could be set up for specific styles (APA, etc.) (For which I think a lot could be said, but it would be a lot of work.)
3. The templates could offer options on some of the key points where preferences differ. (E.g., which separator to use.)

I am inclined to the last, which seems to be existing situation. Not that I think there should be total flexibility in all matters (because I think there should some degree of standarization), but until there has been much more experience in what works (and development of consensus) there should be flexibility in various points where there are strong differences of preference. After some years it will be interesting to see if there is a trend towards Style A or Style B. But I think it should a matter of a bottom-up driven result than a top-down driven goal. J. Johnson (talk)

Definition of 'switchback'?

I am wondering if it would be suitable to provide an improved definiton of 'switchback' (a.k.a. "hairpin turns") on Misplaced Pages and/or Wiktionary. Comments? J. Johnson (talk) 22:52, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

About the maritime flags

Read your suggestions, I agree that combining those pages would be a good idea. I don't have much to help at the moment, but thanks for asking. Maybe you could put the Japanese Z-flag use somewhere with an asterisk or something, since it is was an interesting use of the signal in past wars. Wilytilt (talk) 06:28, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

So you won't take it amiss if (and whenever) I make some rearrangements? It is an interesting little fact, but it's the kind of trivia that often isn't significant enough for inclusion. I'll watch for an opportunity to re-use it. (Assuming I can find time to do anything at all!) - J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 21:12, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Not a problem - maybe putting it in a body paragraph or foot-note would be good. This is because there are direct links to the maritime flags page from some of the Japanese naval battle pages that cite the Z-flag. I trust your judgment, thanks for asking. Wilytilt (talk) 01:22, 29 November 2009 (UTC)