User talk:Eubulides/Archive 4

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Archive 1 Archive 2 Archive 3 Archive 4

Response

My apologies about the updates. I was updating sites based on research projects completed by graduate students. I'll check the research projects better before updating any further. Smallfry91100 (talk) 21:40, 30 December 2009 (UTC)


Those who did the research wrote their projects in their own words and cited appropriately using APA format. Smallfry91100 (talk) 05:12, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

Additionally, those students knew about the project and the intentions of the project as indicated by our professor. Smallfry91100 (talk) 05:14, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

Happy New Year, Eubulides; I hope you and yours will find health and happiness in the new decade. I recently donated many of my books to a book sale; are you able to do anything with this? There is a problem with the introduction of "scruples" relative to "scrupulosity"; Ignatius of Loyola, for example, can be sourced to reliable medical sources, but the text needs adjustment, and I don't enjoy collaborating with someone who starts off by accusing me of "butchering" or refers to "baby" in edit summaries. Also, if you have a chance, can you see my post to Tim Vickers' page on cerebellum, which needs review to avoid FAR? Best, SandyGeorgia (Talk) 15:25, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

I love how you post it on your talk page. :p ceranthor 15:26, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Like that? <grrrr ... > The combo of Catholicism and OCD is not my idea of how I wanted to start the new decade: that is so 2009 :/ And only Tim Vickers gets to call me "babe"! I think I shall unwatch for a few days; I see the editor has now introduced the term "scruples" with a sort of source, but I'm not on for the sarcasm, and plenty of people who do have scruples do not have OCD. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:07, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
All that is confusing me now. You'd think that coming from a medical family, I'd understand, but... ceranthor 16:09, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Scruples are a good thing :) Scrupulosity is a trait associated with OCD, and Ignatius of Loyola defined the medical condition historically. Confusing scruples with scrupulosity is not a good thing. But the editor has now adjusted the text so that it's not quite as bad as it was when I first encountered the edits. The topic pushes my 2009 buttons. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:12, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Oh, sorry. I do plan to become a doctor, so it's good to learn now. ;) btw, I'll get a set of reviews in before tonight. ceranthor 16:17, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Now the dude thinks he's cute ... that's cute :) SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:04, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Cute? How is that going to help me at RfA?</joke> ;) ceranthor 17:18, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Nah, cute helps in real life :) And now, I must ignore this silliness and go exercise my (alleged) OCPD on FAC, so my dear Gimme doesn't get mad at me for missing the deadline! SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:19, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Happy New Year! ceranthor 17:22, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

Eubulides, your new citation templates have eclipsed my knowledge of such! I don't know how to make page ranges plural (p. vs. pp.) with those templates ?? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:14, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Scruples

Thanks for cleaning up the Scruples (disambiguation) page. Nicely done. Now how do you suggest fixing the scruples page? Thanks. History2007 (talk) 01:42, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

I don't know yet; I'll take a look at it. Eubulides (talk) 01:43, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
Ok, great. I will just wait for you. History2007 (talk) 01:46, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Neither the old version nor the changes just made are actually reflected in the source given; do you have better sources? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 00:27, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

Could you try to work a bit faster, please ?  :) :) SandyGeorgia (Talk) 00:54, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi Eubulides; I hope you enjoyed your holidays. The above FLC needs alt text guidance as to whether ribbons constitute "purely decorative images". Thanks, Dabomb87 (talk) 15:50, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

If you could...

Send that article my way, I'd appreciate it. I don't think either of those author's are medievalists, so I'm going to need to read the article to see how much it might help. Ealdgyth - Talk 22:23, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi there.

Regarding your many various edit such as this:[1] My understanding in reading both WP:ALT#Purely decorative images and MOS:ICON#Remember accessibility for the visually impaired is that you cannot set both an empty link and alt text unless there is adjacent text giving the same basic information. Otherwise there is absolutely nothing that a screen reader or text-only browser can grab to convey to a visually impaired user what the image is.

In other words, the whole point in setting the link and alt to empty is to prevent the screen readers and text-only browsers from repeating the same information that is already in the adjacent text next to the image. As MOS:ICON#Remember accessibility for the visually impaired says, "Purely decorative icons ... convey no useful information other than what is already communicated by adjacent text".

Cheers. Zzyzx11 (talk) 07:09, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes, you're correct about the intent of purely decorative images. My edit follows that intent, since the image in question adds no useful information to the template that should be read aloud to a visually impaired reader: that is, the image is purely decorative. Eubulides (talk)
{ec} I see that most of your edits are on navigation boxes and other templates, where images are only used for purely decorative purposes. And the appearance of links on the images could confuse new users into thinking they are going to another article when instead they would be going to the respective image description pages. Thanks. Zzyzx11 (talk) 07:24, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Edit war warning

RE: Scrupulosity, after a long discussion you hand your friend editor Sandy have still butchered my edits, removed references etc. I view this as edit war warning and will hereby reinstate those changes in 24 hours unless you do so yourself. Given that you arrived on teh page via Canvassing, your edits are highly inappropriate. History2007 (talk) 12:40, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

A bit confrontational aren't we? Kaldari (talk) 17:00, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
For what it's worth, I already had Scrupulosity watchlisted, and would have edited the page regardless of whether SandyGeorgia had dropped a note here. I suggest using Wikipedia:Dispute resolution techniques, and the first rule given there is to stay cool. Eubulides (talk) 17:17, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Nashville sit-ins

Hello Eubulides! Please see my reply at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Nashville sit-ins/archive1. Thanks! Kaldari (talk) 16:57, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Accessdates on citations

Could you please glance at this thread on my talk page, as you made important contributions to that original discussion? It is unclear to me how or why those changes were implemented. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:36, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Template:Cit web has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. -- Collectonian (talk · contribs) 06:58, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Template:Cit book has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. -- Collectonian (talk · contribs) 06:59, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Template:Cit journal has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. -- Collectonian (talk · contribs) 07:00, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Template:Cit news has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. -- Collectonian (talk · contribs) 07:01, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Template:C news has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. -- Collectonian (talk · contribs) 07:03, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Template:C web has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. -- Collectonian (talk · contribs) 07:05, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Alt text breaks free of the chains of Wikipedia

Saw this and couldn't help thinking of you. Fascinating. Fvasconcellos (t·c) 12:10, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Your barn is starred

... for all the excellent content work and the extra load you've been carrying across so many articles. (I'd give you a barnstar, but I've heard they're best for decorating the sides of barns. Or, I'd e-mail you a note of thanks, but you don't have e-mail activated. :)

I haven't been much help on article content over the last year, and I've sorry you've had to do all the heavy content lifting on so many articles. It's unfortunate that I gave those books away only a week before we needed them, but donating six boxes of books to a charity sale is but one small bit of fallout from the events in my life that have kept me from meaningful content work over the last year. Keeping up with FAC, and doing mindless MOS tweaks, is about all I've had time for. Thanks for all you've done. I do recall that Ciarrochi was a worthy text; if I can get a free moment some time in the next few weeks, I could stop by Barnes & Noble, but no promises. Free time for extra concentration isn't on my horizon for several more months. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:30, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

thanks for alt text edit

Hey, just a quick thanks for alt text edit on Peter Canavan. I've never seen that before, so I wasn't entirely sure how to do it.--Macca7174talk 14:56, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Can you take a look at the alt text for this map? I'm not sure it complies with WP:ALT#Maps. Thanks, Dabomb87 (talk) 15:27, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

I know you're busy, so I decided to comment on it myself. However, I could not find any guidance on clickable maps at WP:ALT, so I started a new thread at Wikipedia talk:Alternative text for images#Clickable maps. Cheers, Dabomb87 (talk) 15:32, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
Sorry I missed your recent comment here; I'll follow up there. Eubulides (talk) 16:05, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
Thanks for following up and clarifying. Dabomb87 (talk) 23:16, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Sorry to ask for even more help, but can you advise on the alt text at Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of UTA TRAX stations/archive1; specifically, the map in the lead? I think the nominator has some idea of what has to be done, but I don't think the alt text is quite there yet. I don't know how to advise him/her any further, so could you chime in? Thanks, Dabomb87 (talk) 04:34, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of DART Light Rail stations/archive1 needs a similar review too, although I think its alt text is better than that of the previous FLC; the only issue for this one is the map. Thanks, Dabomb87 (talk) 00:37, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Alt text in railway maps

You asked about these recently. I did not reply. The meaning of the icons is not well defined, there is the left/right ambiguity (driver's or viewer's) with icons differing only by track-type prefix pointing in different directions though there is a none too active change of name by bot trying to bring some consistency, but what should be the left and right for icons that do not represent what the driver sees? Also as my example showed once you get off a single stem map the driver's left and right can change depending on which side of the main line a junction icon lies. Moreover this alt textery needs to be thought through, carefully checked and presented in a less piecemeal manner. The colours for railway icons are defined and I think that they are not those used for waterways but in, as an example, Template:New North Main Line some metro icons are proclaimed to represent waterways.--SilasW (talk) 18:37, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Ketogenic diet question & help request

Could you apply your logical mind to the query at Talk:Ketogenic diet#Thirds of halves or wholes. Is it ambiguous? If so, can you suggest something? BTW, in case you haven't noticed, the KD is on the main page in a few hours. Your help during this busy day would be appreciated. Cheers, Colin°Talk 21:38, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your help on KD. Be careful not to use up your 3RR on trivia like this. At the end of the day, only us citation and mos pedants care about such things and if it keeps getting changed to pp then I can live with it. Wrt the nbsp in the alt text, you may want to consider this earlier edit and consider whether to change it back to a plain space. I can see the point that for text that only a screen reader uses, the layout aspect of the nbsp is irrelevant and could trip the program up. Colin°Talk 09:29, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
OK, thanks, will keep that in mind. I didn't notice that that stuff was in alt text. I just now undid that mistake. Eubulides (talk) 09:37, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
I see your not sure about the "ketones per XXXX" unit thing. My sources say "ketones per kilocalorie". I fear some pedant might add " (kilojoule)" to that. Let's leave if for now unless you can think of a better phrase. I don't want to revive yesterday's painful discussion today if we can help it. Colin°Talk

Alt Text

Can you please review alt text for 2007 Groundhog Day tornado outbreak? Richard (talk) 00:04, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Thesis formatting

Hey Eubulides, could you weigh in on this if you have a sec? Thanks. Kaldari (talk) 20:02, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Vancouver templates

I've closed the discussion as "keep but rename". I could move the templates myself, but I'd just as soon let you move them to names of your own choosing. Feel free to pick any naming that is not easily confused with another template and is otherwise appropriate. If you could do so within the next 24 hours and let me know, that would be great. Otherwise I'll go ahead and move them based on the naming ideas suggested in the discussion. --RL0919 (talk) 22:16, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll move them to the "vcite" and "vancite" prefixes as suggested in that thread. I can't do it right now but will get to it in the next few hours. Eubulides (talk) 00:49, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
I've moved them all, I think. Eubulides (talk) 08:15, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. I've updated the redirects, so I believe everything is done per the discussion. --RL0919 (talk) 14:57, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Vcite

I saw you are using a new template {{Vcite web}}. What is it being used for? In other words, when should it be used and not {{Cite web}}? Is there any discussion about this template you could refer me to? Debresser (talk) 08:53, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

I believe a recent TFD discussion about that template and several others (under slightly different names) will probably explain what you want to know. --RL0919 (talk) 14:57, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
{{vcite web}} is much faster than {{cite web}}, and it uses Vancouver style which is popular in science and medicine, so the intent is that it be used on scientific and medical articles, particularly those with lots of references. As you can see from the TfD mentioned above, the templates are still under development. Eubulides (talk) 16:46, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Q fro WT:NOR

A couple days ago, you said,

I agree with WhatamIdoing: an original research article is not a secondary source for its own conclusions. It is a primary source for its own conclusions, just as a witness in a court case is a primary source for the witness's own conclusions.

If you have a minute, do you have time to give an analysis of whether a newspaper article (straight-up news reporting, e.g. [2]) would be a primary or secondary source for the facts and/or interpretations it gives? — Carl (CBM · talk) 23:25, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your opinion, I appreciate it. I left an opinion about your question at WT:NOR. Good luck with the autism therapies article; I'm sure that article is very tough in terms of evaluating sources, because of the obviously strong emotions the topic brings out. — Carl (CBM · talk) 00:59, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

The nominator is opposed to adding alt text. I think that it would be more efficient just to add it myself than to argue the merits of adding it. If you could take care of the purely decorative images and add alt text to one portrait as a model, I could take care of the rest. Thanks, Dabomb87 (talk) 05:33, 23 January 2010 (UTC) (STRUCK portion of comment on 05:42, 23 January 2010 (UTC))

OK, so after looking at the medal templates for a minute, I think I have resolved the purely decorative image issues. So, the only thing I need is for you to add alt text to one or two of the linked images so I have something to look at when I write the rest. If you can do that, great; if not, don't worry, I will wing it. Thanks again for all your help, Dabomb87 (talk) 05:42, 23 January 2010 (UTC)
I added one; for another example of a hockey player, please see WP:ALT#Brevity. Eubulides (talk) 06:39, 23 January 2010 (UTC)
Done, thanks for the example. Dabomb87 (talk) 14:49, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

That was a pretty clever idea. user:bahamut0013/ribbon workshop may be a resource for you to use. If you want to modify my cut/paste templates for the alt parameter, go ahead, it'll be a few days before I get around to using them again and do it myself. bahamut0013wordsdeeds 00:18, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Can you revist Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Carucage/archive1 and tell me what, if anything, needs resolving in your mind? As Sandy just passed it over for promotion, it's obvious your concerns need to be resolved. I pinged on the FAC page earlier, but consider this a polite nag. Ealdgyth - Talk 23:46, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Hello, I have had another go at the alt text for the two images in this article, can you take a look and let me know whether you think it's any better now? Angmering (talk) 16:36, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Autism and perseveration

Odd, because that's a word I remember hearing a lot in autism literature in the 90s. I think the page that is at perseveration now is something entirely different than the definition I knew for it, though. Searching Google on "perseverative interests" with no other keywords turns up almost entirely pages about autism, so that seems to indicate that I'm not mis-remembering anything. I don't have any autism books with me now, though, nor do I have access to any medical journals, either via library or online subscription, so Googling is all I can do. I do think that "perseveration" is or has been used to mean what "perseverative interests" also means, whether correctly or not. Do you think it could at least merit a mention at Autism#Repetitive_behavior and/or Asperger_syndrome#Restricted_and_repetitive_interests_and_behavior? To clarify, I mean that a sentence "The term perseveration has been used to denote this type of behavior." could be added to the articles to help clear up confusion. -- Soap Talk/Contributions 17:59, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

My take on it is the word perseveration was more popular back when executive-function theory ruled the roost in autism back in the 1990s, but that the word is now used more by the speech-and-language folks to talk about speech perseveration. I can't find any recent reliable source saying perseveration is a comorbid feature of autism; it's more of an alternative term to describe some of the symptoms of repetition or focused attention, which is not the same thing that the speech-and-language folks are talking about and that Perseveration is about. But maybe I'm looking in the wrong places? Eubulides (talk) 18:07, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

thanks for your help and advice!

thanks for your help with Johann von Klenau, which was promoted to FA yesterday. Auntieruth55 (talk) 19:56, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

A bit of confusion

The articles: Alternative therapies for developmental and learning disabilities and Autism therapies are too vague and complex how they're separated. The only scientifically-proven therapies are ABA, TEACCH, and PECS (as well as Speech and occupational therapy.) Also Son-Rise is also the least scientifically proven therapy. Why isn't there one article called Early childhood intervention for developmental and learning disabilities, explaining both scientifically-proven and non-scientifically proven approaches? ATC . Talk 23:37, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Also this seems confusing too: List of alternative therapies for developmental and learning disabilities. List of Alternative therapies? Some of them have been mentioned in the other articles too. Why don't we just use one article and merge all the therapies together? ATC . Talk 01:00, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
One article for everything sounds like a big project (and a big article). I'm not familiar with the list article and don't know why it's there. Eubulides (talk) 01:58, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
Okay but do you think Son-Rise—very similar to Floortime/DIR—shouldn't be listed in the Autism therapies, as it not scientifically proven, and instead, be listed in the Alternative therapies for developmental and learning disabilities. Additionally, the therapies mentioned in the list article, I will put in my sandbox until I can find ways to include it in the alternative therapies article. And I will put the list article up for proposed deletion, as it is unnecessary. I'm going to add this discussion on the alternative therapies article's talk page. ATC . Talk 02:18, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
The name of the article is Autism therapies, not Scientifically proven autism therapies. Eubulides (talk) 04:54, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Somewhat medicine-related bio

Eubulides, SandyGeorgia recommended that I seek your advice concerning the biography of Harvey Whittemore, founder of the Whittemore Peterson Institute. My post to Sandy Georgia was:

Would you mind taking a quick look at Harvey Whittemore and commenting on potential BLP violations? I have edited the Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus article since mid-October. Observing intense POV editing and recruitment by chronic fatigue syndrome patients and advocates, I created Whittemore Peterson Institute in an attempt to shunt the divisive editing atmosphere away from XMRV and into an article where the dictates of WP:MEDRS would not be paramount. During my research, I discovered that a founder of the institute, Harvey Whittemore, is a rather notable and interesting individual, and I created an article about him, as well. Several of the CFS advocates have labeled this biography with NPOV and BLP tags. In my obviously quite biased opinion, the biography is well-referenced and contains nothing resembling a BLP violation. Given your recent involvement in several BLPN issues, I thought I would ask for your opinion should you have the time and inclination. Thanks in advance.

If you have the time, I'd appreciate your thoughts. (Also posted this to Fvasconcellos). Keepcalmandcarryon (talk) 20:25, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

History of Christianity: Rvt-- again, No copyright issue.

Rvt-- again, No copyright issue. "Gloriole.svg" is under GFDL-self license just like the whole rest of the page. Carlaude:Talk 11:27, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

While I agree with you that there's no copyright issue, other editors disagree, and as far as I know they're in the majority; see WP:ALT #Purely decorative images. Rather than fight their battles, though, I'll try to remember to leave that article alone. Eubulides (talk) 17:09, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
Interesting. I can see why people should disagree. WP:ALT #Purely decorative images does not say clearly if an image can be used without a direct link, when it is covered under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, for the sake of attribution (the attribution is there but cannot be found without looking at the source text).
I also see that in the chart of examples without any link, it uses File:Wittelsbach Arms.svg without any link, and that image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Carlaude:Talk 04:42, 29 January 2010 (UTC)
That Wittelsbach Arms image illustrates a fairly subtle point. Although there may be some copyright in the SVG image itself (due to very minor details in how it does its curves), there is no copyright in the reduced version shown in WP:ALT, as the reduced image shows a shield that is public-domain and any traces of the copyrightable minor details in the SVG version are gone. Rather than explain this fairly subtle point, though, I think I'll just replace that coat of arms with an SVG image that is explicitly marked as being public domain. Isn't copyright law fun? Eubulides (talk) 04:55, 29 January 2010 (UTC)
On second thought, I'd rather just leave it alone, unless there's really a need to explain this there. As I said, I don't agree with the extreme position that one cannot use |link= with a CC-BY-SA image. Eubulides (talk) 05:07, 29 January 2010 (UTC)
Even if that were the case... it is still a work, and hence, at least a derivitive work. All derivitive works under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License can only be under that very same or a very similar Creative Commons License. So it would still require some access to attribution.
You are not a copyright lawer by trade are you? Do you have a court case to back-up your theroy, maybe. How would we even know how much we have to shrink an image before it becomes PD again? Carlaude:Talk 05:17, 29 January 2010 (UTC)
If I am not bugging you too much... you'd rather just leave what alone? Carlaude:Talk 05:19, 29 January 2010 (UTC)
I'd rather leave WP:ALT alone. The reduced PNG image is clearly a derivative work of the original Wittelsbach coat of arms, but it's not a derivative work (in the copyright sense) of the SVG image, because none of the protectible elements of the SVG image (the exact placement of the curves etc.) are retained in the reduced copy. There is no court case about the Wittelsbach coat of arms in particular, but let's put it this way: nobody has ever successfully defended U.S. copyright on a traditional European court of arms, and anybody who brought a copyright suit over my use of the image in this comment would lose. Eubulides (talk) 17:50, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Spaced dashes in date ranges

The more I look at this, the more it makes no sense. There is WP:DATE, WP:DASH, WP:bloodyknowswhat or whatever. I come here to tell you, I don't care if you get it wrong, if you make content and a gnome like me clears that up, that is all good, you both and me, we both made it better. I don!t understand your confusion, after reading it once I thought I did, after reading it twice I knew I didn't and after three times I remain

Your humble ed

Si Trew (talk) 20:54, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Harvey Whittemore

Hi, we haven't talked before but I am one of the contributors working on the Harvey Whittemore article. I have deleted an addition of yours to the section discussing HW's association with Whittemore Peterson Institute -- "sending many patients to doctors for tests and drugs", for WP:V; the cited reference has no mention of this controversial statement. I will of course support your reintroduction of this text on the basis of two criteria:

  • That you provide an RS for this statement
  • This article falls under WP:BLP. I would therefore expect you to include a justification as to why this (now RS supported) statement directly relates to HW, given that:
    1. HW is only a benefactor of WPI and not an executive officer.
    2. HW therefore has no proven executive influence over WPIs decisions
    3. The correct place to discuss WPI policy issues is in the WPI article itself.

But on a lighter note, I welcome your joining our pool of active editors. Regards Terry -- TerryE (talk) 01:51, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Archive 1 Archive 2 Archive 3 Archive 4

Thank you

Like a Box of Chocolates...
... your contributions at Wikipedia:Featured Article Candidates during the month of January 2010 are greatly appreciated. Ealdgyth - Talk 01:32, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

"City of Blinding Lights" FAC

Hello Eubulides, I know that you are very knowledgeable with all aspects of the implementation of Alt text. I have listed the article "City of Blinding Lights" as an FAC, but as I'm not particularly familiar with using alt text for images of people or buildings I was wondering if you'd be able to take a quick look through and see if the Alts I have used are acceptable? Cheers, MelicansMatkin (talk, contributions) 02:09, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

They look good. Thanks for all that work! Eubulides (talk) 07:26, 31 January 2010 (UTC)
Thanks very much for getting back to me so quickly on that. I'm glad that I managed to get them right! Cheers, MelicansMatkin (talk, contributions) 07:38, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Flag alt text

While reviewing alt text on an FAC, I noticed that the flag icons used in lists have the name of the country as alt text (http://toolserver.org/~dispenser/cgi-bin/altviewer.py?page=Magdalena_Neuner). The presence of this alt text does serve a purpose, as it indicates the country of each event in Magdalena Neuner#World Championships, information which otherwise would not be available when the images are not displayed. Do you think this is a legitimate use of alt text? Ucucha 22:20, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Looks like you already fixed much of that—apologies for not noticing your earlier edit. I assume the alt text in the remaining flags is OK with you? Ucucha 00:37, 2 February 2010 (UTC)
Yes, because it's not redundant with the adjacent text. Eubulides (talk) 03:04, 2 February 2010 (UTC)
That makes sense. But another editor has now reverted your edits. Perhaps the solution should be in fixing the templates, but there is quite a complicated mess of nested sub-templates and I haven't yet figured out where the alt text is actually inserted. Ucucha 03:12, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Just checking

Is it correct to have the image in {{Sacramento RT}} marked as purely decorative? Dabomb87 (talk) 04:05, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Navboxes are for navigating to other parts of Wikipedia, and this navbox image is just a nice picture to look at on the way; it has no function and is purely decorative. Eubulides (talk) 04:15, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
Also, have you considered requesting rollbacker rights? It looks like the tool may come in handy now and then. Dabomb87 (talk) 04:06, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
I didn't know about rollbacker rights. Perhaps I'll ask for them someday. Thanks for the heads-up. Eubulides (talk) 04:15, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Since you mentioned that templates will slow things down, can you help me with the citation templates here? I am trying to take some suggestions from a few users and articles, especially Dief. I just want to make sure that, with all of this stuff going around about page loading and templates, I am ahead of the curb when it comes to FAC's. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 08:48, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

If you wish to help with the citations with this article, keep on doing stuff like this so I do not have to do it all by hand. This will eliminate any use of the vancite for books. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 07:31, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

cite template effect on load times

Hi Eubulides. Have you considered, or tried, making a small edit to each of your versions of the Israel article, and comparing preview times? I tried this, and the vcite version won, with a time of about 18.5 s, compared to 31.5 for the cite version. The times were quite variable, however, over the course of my experimenting, and not all were such a clear victory for the new template... possibly because it's a busy time of day for the servers. I do think you folks are onto something here—it is rather painful previewing or (presumably) saving a long article, but I had always thought "that's just the way it is"—and notably, this experience applies equally to IP editors, who may be put off by fixing a typo in Israel and waiting 30 seconds for the page to save. I also did a naive deletion of all cite templates, by replacing "{{cite" with null (the references remained intact but the remainder of the template became plain, unparsed text), and got a preview time of about 7.6 seconds. In all cases I'm referring to the time given in the HTML comment. Feel free to reply here; I'm essentially inactive and have a talk page full of silly stuff. Outrigger (talk) 05:06, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

The various Wikimedia servers are of different speeds, and if you run the slow templates on a fast server it can be more competitive with the fast templates on a slow server. I typically repeat the same experiment several times, and take the median of the results. Or, for some of the off-Wikipedia benchmarks, we can use the same server for all the tests: this yields more-repeatable results. Eubulides (talk) 17:33, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

More alt text help

I'm trying to improve the alt text in Template:Largest Metropolitan Areas of Canada and the infobox of Manitoba. Would you have time to help or offer suggestions? Any insight you could give would be much appreciated. Cheers, Nikkimaria (talk) 17:09, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

My kneejerk reaction is that the images aren't that helpful in the template (regardless of whether the reader is sighted or visually impaired) and should be removed entirely. Another possibility is to switch to purely decorative images, which don't need alt text and shouldn't have captions. Template:Infobox province or territory of Canada needs updating for Manitoba's sake; I'll take a look at that if you don't get to it first. Or perhaps the Canadian provinces should switch to {{Geobox}}? Eubulides (talk) 17:20, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
Okay, I've removed the images from the template. As for the infobox, I'm not quite sure how to go about doing that...would you mind? Thanks very much! Cheers, Nikkimaria (talk) 13:26, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
I've added |FlagAlt=, |MapAlt=, and |CoatOfArmsAlt= parameters to Template:Infobox province or territory of Canada. Eubulides (talk) 18:01, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

DYK nomination of BDTH2

Hello Eubulides. I have reviewed your latest nomination at DYK... and just have a question regarding the wording. Thanks in advance and believe this hook to receive big hits. Kindly Calmer Waters 16:11, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, thanks, it's a great story, no? I followed up there. Eubulides (talk) 20:17, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Timelines and accessibility

You said at the Dragon Quest FAC that the timeline was inaccessible because of some HTML problems and because it lacks alt text. Do timelines at Timeline of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season#Timeline of events and similar hurricane season timeline articles have similar problems, and if so, what should be done to fix them? Dabomb87 (talk) 15:14, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

If you can comment at Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/Timeline of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season/archive1 about this, that would be appreciated, thanks. Dabomb87 (talk) 15:15, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

Looking at that section of the MoS and the MoS talk page, I do not think there is consensus yet on spacing of em dashes. Perhaps we could hold off on those changes until consensus is better established? ---kilbad (talk) 14:33, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

Also, we do categorize some dermatology-related redirects as per WP:DERM:CAT. ---kilbad (talk) 14:40, 15 February 2010 (UTC)
  • Sorry about the categories: I misunderstood the convention. I see now that I put you to some work to clean up: I'd have been happy to do that for you, since it was my fault.
  • The endash spacing issue is something that's bugged me for a long time: I was the one who introduced spaces around endashes in this area, contrary to scholarly-journal practice. It was only after I looked into the matter that I realized that the MoS prescription disagreed with what reliable sources do. In the unlikely event that consensus in the MoS changes back to spaced endashes I'll (gulp) take it upon myself to change this all back; no sense making you do the work.
Eubulides (talk) 19:16, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

Well, I think all the cutaneous condition now use unspaced em dashes. So, since this is consistent, we could just leave it how it is at this point? Also, I have replied to you on the list talk page. Thanks again for your help! ---kilbad (talk) 20:50, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

Template width

Can you work your magic with the pro surfer infobox like you did for the alt med infobox?--Travis Thurston+ 04:45, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

Hmmm, sorry, not easily, since (on the surface at least) they're different technologies. Eubulides (talk) 04:53, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

Screen reader question

I wonder how screen reader will deal with the symbolic character codes like these █ ● ◆. If the screen reader will pronounce these symbal like rectangular, circle, dianmond anyway, how can we make the screen reader to ignore the character code which is plain decorative and meaningless to visually impaired reader? Thx. -- Sameboat - 同舟 (talk) 11:40, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

I think screen readers read such characters aloud, and I don't know any easy and portable way to suppress that. One can of course work around the problem by using purely decorative images, but that would bloat the HTML. Perhaps it's better to avoid the use of "purely-decorative text". Eubulides (talk) 17:08, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

Element category colors

After looking at WP:ACCESSIBLE I noticed wording about access for color blind people. So I ran periodic table at http://www.accesskeys.org/tools/color-contrast.html and saw a lot of errors. Do you have any suggestions on minor color changes that won't look like crap to sighted users? I ask b/c I plan to get screen captures of each little periodic table in each element infobox and create image maps of them. The table code and layout of that part of the template is a bear to maintain and renders badly in older versions of IE. BTW, once that is done, there won't be any more unreadable text in the shell part. --mav (Urgent FACs/FARs/PRs) 01:03, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

That AccessColor tool uses WCAG 1.0; W3C has changed to WCAG 2.0 which uses a different algorithm. I don't know of a convenient way to check a page online for WCAG 2.0, but the Juicy Studio Luminosity Colour Contrast Ratio Analyser says that the black on #ff6666 text is OK. It agrees that the red on #ffff99 doesn't have enough contrast. How about #b00000 on #ffff99 instead?
None of the alkali metals are gases at standard temperature and pressure, so that shouldn't ever be an issue. I was worried that color blind people might not be able to differentiate between different element categories as colored on the periodic table itself. If that is not an issue, then cool. If it is an issue, then it would be great to know what small changes can be made to make the coloring more accessible w/o making the table ugly to people who are not color blind. --mav (Urgent FACs/FARs/PRs) 13:42, 20 February 2010 (UTC)
The problem is not distinguishing one color from that of an adjacent block: the problem is not being able to read the text in the given background color. Yes, it is an issue. I suggested one such small change above. Eubulides (talk) 07:50, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

Italian Orders of Knighthood

You contributed to the first FLC; would you mind saying whether you support or oppose the re-nomination at Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/Italian orders of knighthood/archive2? Chrisieboy (talk) 19:18, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

DYK for BDTH2

Updated DYK query On February 20, 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article BDTH2, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits your article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

Ucucha 18:10, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

You edited the headings in Noronha skink some time ago to fix invalid HTML. It's now come up again at the FAC (Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Noronha skink/archive1, near the bottom); you may want to comment. Ucucha 22:20, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

That's closed now. Those headers are silly and arbitrary, regardless of whether they have "The" in front of them, but I'm a bit low on energy right now so I'll let it pass. Eubulides (talk) 07:50, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

I am wondering if you have the time if you might be willing to take a look at Template:Inappropriate comment, especially with an eye to accessibility issues. The template places an inappropriate comment under a semi-transparent floating divbox. I cannot myself see where it would go wrong, but this seems like the sort of thing that might cause difficulties. Discussion at Template talk:Inappropriate comment. Many thanks, - 2/0 (cont.) 22:47, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps you could ask at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Accessibility? The people there know more about accessibility in general than I do. Eubulides (talk) 07:50, 21 February 2010 (UTC)
Ah, I should have figured we would have such a thing - thank you. - 2/0 (cont.) 18:49, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

alt attribute for text?

Recently I'm dealing with the problem about indicating the livery color of the MTR Hong Kong metro system route. Of course the consensus is highly against coloring the text per wp:using colour. Then there're 2 options I can go for. 1 is creating a set of plain color icon image for each line. But because MTR does not use number to identify each line, making such set of image to be superfluous IMO. Option 2 is {{colorbox}} (Lorem   East Rail Line Ipsum), I personally prefer this solution. My question is if it's possible to give the (textual) color baord an alt attribute so it will output the color name of the metro line. -- Sameboat - 同舟 (talk) 04:08, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

An alt attribute wouldn't suffice for colorblind readers: they don't see the alt text, and wouldn't be able to determine the color simply by seeing the box. How about something like " Blue" instead?
The problem of your suggestion is that the template is being used in the prose and template of station article as well (albeit in the restrained manner). Stating the color name in these situation certainly doesn't feel right:

Kowloon Tong Station is an MTR interchange station of  Light blue East Rail Line and  Green Kwun Tong Line (...)

Of course other railway system templates also suffer from similar problem in which their color indicator isn't helpful to colorblind reader. So I hope to search for a resonable solution to satisfy the visually impaired readers but preventing the viewable material to be too redundant. I find that the title attribute works just fine, but I want to hear your opinion before putting it into practice.

Kowloon Tong Station is an MTR interchange station of   East Rail Line and   Kwun Tong Line (...)

'''[[Kowloon Tong Station]]''' is an [[MTR]] interchange station of <span title="Light blue">{{colorbox|#{{HK-MTR color|East Rail}}}}</span> [[East Rail Line]] and <span title=green>{{colorbox|#{{HK-MTR color|Kwun Tong}}}}</span> [[Kwun Tong Line]] (...)
I also wanna know if the alt attribute works in the span tag. -- Sameboat - 同舟 (talk) 08:42, 21 February 2010 (UTC)
I'm afraid that the span element doesn't have an alt attribute. But if I'm understanding correctly, is any of this needed? If the East Rail Line's color is light blue, just say this:
'''[[Kowloon Tong Station]]''' is an [[MTR]] interchange station of {{colorbox|#{{HK-MTR color|East Rail}}}}[[East Rail Line]] and {{colorbox|#{{HK-MTR color|Kwun Tong}}}}[[Kwun Tong Line]] (...) Kowloon Tong Station is an MTR interchange station of  East Rail Line and  Kwun Tong Line (...)
A screen reader will simply skip over the color blocks, which is fine. Don't use span with a title element, as that will cause some screen readers (but not all) to read the titles aloud, which will simply slow things down with not-that-useful info. The color blocks are purely decorative and should be skipped by screen readers. Eubulides (talk) 08:56, 21 February 2010 (UTC)
Yes, I guess so. -- Sameboat - 同舟 (talk) 09:01, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

NaF

A recent set of edits on sodium fluoride lists a series of older articles on toxicology of fluoride. Some of these articles are quite old, and I worry that they are not representative of the best scholarship. One appear is in what I am guessing is a minor journal, e.g. Complementary Medical Research, but some cite Journal of Dental Research, which might be high-level. In any case it would be helpful if you would look them over and if you can recommend a more modern comprehensive (see WP:secondary) source that could replace these primary older sources.--Smokefoot (talk) 15:40, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

ref=harv

Would adding support for ref=harv add an unacceptable performance hit to {{vcite book}} and the other members of the family? ref=CITEREFSmith2005 is fast (for the server, at least), but it's ugly.

If ref=harv is unacceptable, what about cref=Smith2005 which would yield the same result as ref=CITEREFSmith2005? — John Cardinal (talk) 22:55, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I'm afraid the performance hit for ref=harv would be too much. It wouldn't be a factor of two for the whole article, but I'm pretty sure it'd be noticeable. The problem is not ref=harv itself; it's decoding all those last1=, first1=, last2=, etc. parameters.
I like the idea of |cref=; that would be simple and cheap. The name "cref" might be problematic, though, as {{cref}} means something else. How about |harvid= instead (short for Harvard citation ID)? The idea would be that |harvid=SmithJones2005 is equivalent to |ref={{harvid|Smith|Jones|2005}}. These things are really IDs, not references, so I've always disliked calling them "refs" anyway. Eubulides (talk) 00:19, 24 February 2010 (UTC)
I agree cref is not a good name, and |harvid=SmithJones2005 is OK with me. — John Cardinal (talk) 01:16, 24 February 2010 (UTC)
OK, how about this edit to {{vcite book}}? If it works for you, I'll document it and install it in the other vcite templates. Eubulides (talk) 17:46, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

BDTH2

Hi there

I was wondering about your expansion of the "preparation" section - it seems a little too detailed? At WP:CHEM/CHEMISTRY, we've been trying to move away from cookbook-style instructions. That's why I phrased it the way I did: the use of cysteamine as the hydrochloride, the choice of solvents is probably due to convenience than chemical considerations. The isolation is also routine, and does not deserve such elaboration. My point is, with a little less detail, the gist is still there. --Rifleman 82 (talk) 10:40, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Feel free to simplify the preparation section, but also please bear in mind that the audience for this particular page includes parents of autistic children, who can't be expected to know what would be routine to a chemist. Eubulides (talk) 17:45, 24 February 2010 (UTC)
But we're not expecting them to use our WP article to go prepare their own BDTH2? Unlike the experimental section in a paper, which is written in sufficient detail that experiments are reproducible, we're simply trying to outline what reactants you need to get the desired product here. --Rifleman 82 (talk) 23:45, 24 February 2010 (UTC)
Of course not. Even the longer version of BDTH2#Preparation doesn't give them enough detail to do that. For example, it doesn't advise people to use a separatory funnel. The point is not to give every detail; it's to give even a non-expert enough detail to see what's typically involved. It's helpful, for example, to show to a non-expert that the compound is relatively easy to make, but not something you'd be able to make at home. Eubulides (talk) 23:50, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

PS. I am copying this discussion to Talk:BDTH2 #Preparation section, since it's entirely about BDTH2. Eubulides (talk) 23:56, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Would you review the dash type used with the synonyms for the above syndrome?? I am not sure, but should an em dash be used? ---kilbad (talk) 03:06, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Definitely endash, since they're disjunctions. Also, I tried to improve the citation quality. I used Diberri's tool, which is really handy, along with {{vcite journal}}. Eubulides (talk) 04:02, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Also

Perhaps I could get your thoughts on my first feature picture nomination at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Pyogenic granuloma 1.jpg? ---kilbad (talk) 00:35, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

What do you think should be done with the alt text in this template? The image appears purely decorative, so |link=|alt= should be used, but that erases the necessary attribution for the CC-BY-SA image. Ucucha 21:07, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

The SVG image itself is CC-BY-SA, but the underlying work (the actual UK coat of arms) is not. Any protectible details of the SVG image are lost when rendered into a few pixels, so it's OK to use |link= in that particular case. Other possibilities include using a different image, or omitting the decorative image entirely. Eubulides (talk) 21:23, 27 February 2010 (UTC)
And |alt=? Ironholds (talk) 02:44, 28 February 2010 (UTC)
The way to mark a purely decorative image is with "|link=|alt="; both need to be empty. Please see WP:ALT #Purely decorative images. Eubulides (talk) 06:06, 28 February 2010 (UTC)
Thanks for the fix and sorry for the belated reply. I would probably be less bold than you in assuming that attribution is not needed, though. Ucucha 15:09, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Template needs alt text?

Does Template:DentalFormula, which uses some form of math syntax, need alt text? Dabomb87 (talk) 22:31, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

It's helpful that it generates alt text automatically, yes. Not being an expert in dental formulas, I don't know whether one would want to be able to override the alt text that it generates by default: was that the question? Eubulides (talk) 00:03, 28 February 2010 (UTC)
I had not noticed that the template generated alt text automatically, which means there is no issue. Sorry for bothering you, Dabomb87 (talk) 02:48, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

DQ FAC Timeline-to-table conversion

I posted a reply with the issue i have with the attempted conversion. The current version loses its visual separation from the article that the timeline has. It is also much larger text that can take up a huge chunk of the page displayed because of the long titles.Jinnai 02:34, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

I followed up at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Dragon Quest/archive1. Eubulides (talk) 06:06, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Luongo

Hey there, thanks for all your work with reference formatting on Roberto Luongo's article. I noticed, however, that you've removed all the italics on the news sources like Vancouver Sun and New York Times. Is this just part of vcite? It's my understanding that newspapers and the like should be italicized. Thanks. Orlandkurtenbach (talk) 22:38, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Looking more closely, I realized that something different's happening here. There are no apostrophes around any of the publishers in vcite, but each one comes out italicized. Does vcite automatically italicize publishers? To my understanding, only newspapers, magazines and publishers of that nature should be italicized. Publishers like CBC and TSN shouldn't be. Just looking for some clarification. Thanks, Orlandkurtenbach (talk) 02:10, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
The {{vcite news}} template italicizes works, not publishers. With something like CBC Sports, the work is CBC Sports and the publisher is the CBC. Generally speaking, citations to well-known news sources should simply mention the work (e.g., Boston Globe) and not the publisher (which for the Globe would be The New York Times Company). The Sports Network is more of a work than a publisher (the publisher in that case is CTV Specialty Television). Admittedly the line between work and publisher can be fuzzy, but the division I'm suggesting here is the best I know. Eubulides (talk) 04:49, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
Thanks for clearing that up. I'm still a little fuzzy on it, but hopefully I can pick it up quickly. Another question for you though. I recently cited this article for the Luongo page and am unsure whether I should use vcite web or vcite journal. I initially figured journal, because it's a periodical, but it's not an academic publication. I used vcite web, but was wondering if you could clarify for me. Thanks. Orlandkurtenbach (talk) 03:43, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
It's a judgment call, but it looks more like a journal to me. It has an issue number (328), for example. Eubulides (talk) 05:44, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank you!

File:Alpha Capricorni.jpg Thank You
For your excellent and wonderful contributions at Wikipedia:Featured Article Candidates during the month of February 2010, you're truly a star! Ealdgyth - Talk 15:52, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Template portal

Just an FYI, template portal is on the main-space but not considered part of the main-space. That is it conveys wiki community or project information that is not encyclopaedic such at {{fact}} , {{stub}} ,{{unreferenced}} and as such MOSICON doesn't apply Gnevin (talk) 09:53, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I replied at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (icons) #Icon guideline prohibits the portal template?. Eubulides (talk) 10:05, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

FYI

Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Mattisse, and this and this. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 12:36, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

See update at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Mattisse; the CUs have decided the QuattroBajeena and others were socks of another account. I'm unsure how they determine which accounts are her or her grandchildren, but I'm confident that the CUs have brains on board (and glad the arbs have lawyers on board). SandyGeorgia (Talk) 14:15, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Alt text check

Hey Eubulides. I was wondering if you could possibly peruse over the alt text of Cerro Azul (Chile volcano). I've been working to improve the article to an FA standard, and I want the alt text to be of the highest standard possible. Thanks! ceranthor 22:48, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Big thanks

Thanks of catching that. I guess I got overly confident and saved before had double checked. I should have tested it in the sandbox. Thanks again. –droll [chat] 05:08, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

DSM copyvios

Have at it: I'm "fussed". SandyGeorgia (Talk) 22:20, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Which article(s) are the highest priority for you? I've done three or four, but there are quite a few of them and I can't do them all. Eubulides (talk) 00:29, 12 March 2010 (UTC)
None of them are high priority for me (I *hate* having to clean up after the PSYCH project :) ... but if I can help you, I will. What would you like me to do ? I'm busy today, and have to pr/ar tomorrow ... SandyGeorgia (Talk) 14:16, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

I'd like your opinion

Despite what you may suspect, I am by no means against the idea of alt text, just the way it's presently being driven. Having recently tried to absorb the RNIB guidelines, I thought I'd try to implement what they appear to be recommending in this article. Any thoughts? --Malleus Fatuorum 23:56, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Sure, why not? It's worth a try. Eubulides (talk) 03:18, 13 March 2010 (UTC)
So what do you think of it? --Malleus Fatuorum 15:49, 13 March 2010 (UTC)
It looks good. Thanks for writing it. Eubulides (talk) 18:08, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

On the website my status bar still says 1800-2008, but the site now has 2009 and 2010, should this be updated on the source? CTJF83 chat 05:32, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Since the source still says "1800–2008" in its title, that's the title we have to use, if we cite a title at all. I imagine at some point the Minneapolis Fed will wake up and fix it: please feel free to ping them if you like. Eubulides (talk) 05:57, 13 March 2010 (UTC)
Ping them? It's the gov't who knows when and if they'll ever wake up! :) CTJF83 chat 05:59, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Military history of France FAR

Hey, I've gone through the alt text like you suggested in the FAR. Please take another look and make any corrections you see fit. Like I said in the FAR, I'm not all that good at writing alt text.UBER (talk) 17:52, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

alt text guidelines no good?

Hi, do you have anything to add to the dialogue between a reviewer and the nominator here? Tony (talk) 00:55, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads-up; I responded. The alt text guidelines are no good, the MoS is no good, you get the picture. Eubulides (talk) 05:50, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Are you around this evening (UK time). Would you be interested in helping draft an email for the RNIB? I won't have time much before 19:00. Any thoughts/ideas welcome. Colin°Talk 14:10, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks

The Copyright Cleanup Barnstar
For your swift and very productive response to the DSM copyright cluster. Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:20, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Your help has been very much appreciated. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:20, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Update: Mike Godwin has asked me to convey his thanks as well. :) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:55, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Autism FAQ

Hi Eubulides,

Akin to Talk:Evolution/FAQ that attempts to head creationists off at the pass, I've started Talk:Autism/FAQ. Your attention and experience would be most appreciated - particularly since you know the talk page issues much better than I would. I've also left a note on SandyGeorgia's page for the same reasons. WLU (t) (c) Wikipedia's rules:simple/complex 15:57, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Ah, was just coming here to post this, and see that WLU already notified you. I won't be able to look at this over the next few weeks, but I'm sure you two can hammer it out! SandyGeorgia (Talk) 13:24, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Flag alt

Do you know how to fix Template:Infobox Grand Prix race report so that the little flag at the top doesn't have alt text? I don't know the appropriate template. It's purely decorative and shouldn't have alt text, because the name of the country is on the same line anyway. Ucucha 00:10, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Such a fix wouldn't be trivial. It's simpler and better to get rid of the flag, as it provides no navigational benefit. I did that. Eubulides (talk) 16:30, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
You're probably right. I'm probably too sensitive in not wanting to offend people who are fond of their little flags. :) Ucucha 20:09, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Did you consider the effect it would have on races not named after countries? Take 1949 BRDC International Trophy for example - the changes have removed all trace of the host country from the infobox. A quick message on the Wikiproject talk page to check with those more experienced with the template's usage wouldn't have hurt - as it is, your edits, although in good faith, have taken some fairly important information away from some pages. AlexJ (talk) 21:09, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
I've copied this discussion to Template talk:Infobox Grand Prix race report #Flag alt and suggest doing further discussions there. I don't watch that page, so feel free to let me know if my further comments there would be helpful. Eubulides (talk) 21:21, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

I know that WP:ALT gives advice for animations, but I stared at File:Lisasmall2.gif in the above article and could not for my life figure out how to accurately describe it. Help would be appreciated (see also Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Lisa Simpson/archive2). Thanks, Dabomb87 (talk) 01:19, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Don't beat yourself up about such things; just write something and let a later editor worry about the details. I did that and added something that took about two minutes. Please feel free to improve on it, but really, I'm sure you have much better things to do. Eubulides (talk) 16:30, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank you very much for adding in the "|link=|alt=" to the Portal image on Moon; I wasn't quite sure what to do with that one.

Could you please let me know if the rest of the alt-text on those articles is satisfactory? I haven't tried adding it before, and was hoping to start adding alt-text to the Dwarf planet featured topic articles if I now have the right idea. Was mostly concerned about the descriptions for Internal structure, the level of "emotive" language overall, and also the Apollo 8 image, since that one's iconic. Iridia (talk) 05:42, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

It's long, but other than that it's fine. I wouldn't bother trimming it down; let someone else do it if they want. Eubulides (talk) 16:30, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Ok; thanks. Iridia (talk) 21:33, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Firefox

Darn it, you'll force me to modernize after all! I download Firefox, but I'm hating it because I can't figure out how to get it to display my bookmarks ??? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:33, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Hmm, on my copy (Firefox 3.5.8) there's a big "Bookmarks" button in the top menu bar, or I can type control-B to toggle a bookmarks sidepane. Could be that it's some user-preference thing, but I run pretty vanilla. Eubulides (talk) 23:45, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

vcite for The Beatles and John Lennon

Further to your observation, I've now suggested we go ahead with this change. I was hoping to get John Cardinal's input but he's not around, and anyway he'll have been aware of the similar Presley change and would have commented then if he wanted to. Would you care to work your magic on The Beatles and John Lennon? PL290 (talk) 12:26, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Greetings

I am sorry to see that you haven't edited for a week, and fear this is related to the changes at alt text guidelines etc. I am personally very disappointed by what has transpired myself and how it happened, and blame myself in part. But I am not without hope that there will ultimately be a positive outcome. You put in a tremendous amount of important work there, and obviously have a great deal of knowledge and experience to contribute. I am committed to working on the guideline and restoring its status. But your help is needed from multiple perspectives (e.g. my knowledge of technical aspects is null, unfortunately!!). Please consider ending your break and working on this with me and others. --Slp1 (talk) 15:24, 26 March 2010 (UTC)


I miss you too. A short wikibreak is a good idea and I respect you for having more control in that regard than me. I do hope you soon decide you are refreshed enough to return. I got a number of things wrong in the alt text debate: both conceptual things and dealing-with-other-editors things. If I've said anything that has hurt or disappointed you, I'm sorry. In most things I do or write about on WP, I defer to the experts. I'm rather disappointed that the three experts I emailed haven't replied. Even if you never want to edit a policy or guideline page again [a task that never brought anyone joy], I'd love to see you working on your articles and writing new stuff again.

The other day I listed to a radio program that briefly discussed milk; how cities used to have thousands of cows fed on the waste from the beer industry; how milk was frequently adulterated and quite dangerous; how some of the world's population cannot handle it as adults; and about the introduction of pasteurisation. The latter was described as one of the biggest controversies in history, and appears to still be an issue in places. Made me think of you. Colin°Talk 16:01, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Hi E, I see you've not edited for a couple of weeks. If it's because of the alt text issue, I hope you'll come back to it because we need knowledgeable people to help work out how to proceed. If it's something else, I hope you're doing okay and that you'll be back when your situation allows it. Best, SlimVirgin talk contribs 23:54, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
Yes, it would be a huge loss to Wikipedia if you never came back. I'm not familiar with the alt-text issue and I only know you from the autism-related articles, but I've noticed you've been gone as well and just now got around to checking your contribution history. Soap 00:29, 4 April 2010 (UTC)
I've been meaning to tell you how much I admire you and appreciate all the calm, balanced, rational, constructive work you've done here. Anthony (talk) 03:44, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Hey Eubulides, a month is long enough! There are some people stuck on an extended holiday because of an Icelandic volcano. What's your excuse? Come back and rediscover the challenge of researching and writing the best encyclopaedia article on a medical topic anywhere. Whether you pick chiropractic or one of these, or something else, I'd love to see you reappear on my watchlist. Colin°Talk 22:18, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

WPMED is gearing up for an external vetting, if that will tempt you back. Hope to see you around, but good luck with everything regardless. - 2/0 (cont.) 23:20, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

Proposal to replace current alt-text guidance

I would very much appreciate your comments on the proposal here. Regards, Colin°Talk 13:47, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Hello, a request for help with alt text

Hi Eubulides. I once had a conversation with you at the FAC page for Ancient Egyptian literature. You worked a bit on improving the "alt text" for images in that article, which is now featured. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind helping out with making alt text for images in the article Parthian Empire, my latest project here at Wiki. If you have any time to spare, it would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!--Pericles of AthensTalk 16:49, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Eubulides the younger

A 31st century depiction of the sage and his sister, Paris,receiving instructions from Jimbo.

Eubulides the younger (Eubulides II) was an itinerant sage active in the Neurodevelopmental disorder and Alt text regions of Wikipedia towards the end of the reign of George II and the early years of the Barak-Hilary co-regency. Little is known of his life. Some contend that an historical Eblides never, in fact, existed, but that the traditions surrounding the incarnation are stolen from the myths and cults flourishing throughout the empire at the time. Few scholars accept this view, and most agree that, from fragments that have survived the Great Scorching, it is reasonable to assert with a high degree of confidence Eubulides walked the earth.

Miracles of Eublides

Text recovered from the Wikimirror discovered beneath an Australian mountain range in 4020 seems to describe the sage controlling time, enabling the blind to see, and stabilizing Wikipedia:autisim and surrounding territory (though some contend the first two need not necessarily be thought of as miracles).[citation needed]

Translated titles

Citation bot's code has had a few lines of code commented-out since r43 with a comment attributing the action to a request from you. This prevents the bot from using |trans_title= which could avoid a present issue with bad rendering by {{cite journal}} in cases where |title=[An anglicised title] and |url=http://www.somewhere.org are both used. Do you recall what the problem was that caused you to request that action and whether it still pertains? I'd like to see some code in place that ensured any title enclosed in [] that does not resemble an URL is instead populated to trans_title, without the []. Regards, LeadSongDog come howl 17:17, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Image dispute

At Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Harris Theater (Chicago, Illinois)/archive1, File:Compass rose pale-50x50.png, which is an image you uploaded, is under dispute.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 19:26, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

People haven't called ABA, "Lovaas method" since the late 20th century, and it can be easily confused with the Applied behavior analysis article and is hard to find, the article (Lovaas technique) should be renamed to ABA (Childhood intervention). And the Applied behavior analysis article seems redundant to the Behavior modification article. Shouldn't the behaivor modification and ABA article be merged? The early childhood intervention article could say: Applied behavior analysis (ABA, also known as Intensive behavior intervention, IBI, Early intensive behavioral intervention, or EIBI).... and to also read that this was implemented by Dr. Ivar Lovaas. (And in the history section it could describe the whole process with the aversive and behavior modification program, and B.F. Skinner and Ivar Lovaas.)

Wasn't the Behavior modification method picked up as a researched-based experimental project by Dr. Ivar Lovaas to use as an abusive approach (with the use of aversive developed by B.F. Skinner) for autistic children when it was thought to be a form of Schizophrenia in the '60s-'70s? And then in the '90s I believe it became a non-abusive/non-aversive approach and the name was revised to ABA? ATC . Talk 01:01, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

Note: I've replied on your talk page. Soap 01:49, 28 May 2010 (UTC)
Me too. Anthony (talk) 05:31, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

Vancouver

What is the difference between {{Vcite journal}} and {{Vancite journal}}? ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 19:16, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

{{football kit}} alt text

Hi,

Could you have a look at Template talk:Football kit#Left arm? You said this was intentional at Template talk:Football kit/Archive 4#Alt text update, but I can't work out why. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 11:01, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Old Question from WP:DENT

I saw an old question you had regarding an image of Dental Fluorosis. I've answered it here. Sorry it took so long to get a response. Adamlankford (talk) 18:48, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Ambox

Hey there, Eubulides. I've seen your edits to the {{Ambox/core}} sandbox but you don't seem to have attempted their inclusion to the main version. Diff here. So, what are your plans regarding that? Cheers, Waldir talk 10:56, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

Eubulides hasn't been active here for quite a while

Eubulides has not edited Wikipedia using this account for a considerable amount of time. As a result, any requests made here may not receive a response. If you are seeking the assistance of this user on this page, you may need to approach someone else. Anthony (talk) 23:14, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Request

Since you worked on Template:Extra album cover before, and one of my suggestions involves an addition you recommended, please have a look at Template_talk:Extra_album_cover#Fixes. Thanks, Debresser (talk) 17:11, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

See Anthony's comment in the section directly above. LeadSongDog come howl! 17:31, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. The (quite minor) changes I proposed to the template were made successfuly. Debresser (talk) 08:06, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Adventures in the popular press

User talk:SandyGeorgia#Adventures in the popular press SandyGeorgia (Talk) 18:30, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Cigars

I see you've made a number of entries on the Cigars talk page and was wondering if you'd have any interest in participating in a "Cigar Work Group." The primary purpose of the group would be to try to improve the histories of the various cigar makers, write up pages for key cigar components like filler, binder, wrappers, etc., and to otherwise improve the coverage of cigarmaking on Wikipedia... I understand from your various comments that the cigars & health issue is important to you, so this project may be of no interest, but do drop me a line if you'd like to be a participant in such a project if a formal work group is established. best, —Tim Davenport, Corvallis, OR Carrite (talk) 17:08, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

The article Paediatric Nursing has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

This article is about the same topic as Paediatric Nursing (journal) but contains much less information.

While all contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{dated prod}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing {{dated prod}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. The speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. jsfouche ☽☾ talk 02:40, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Missing you

Eubulides,

Wikipedia is just not the same without you. You are greatly missed. I would love to hear from you. Send me an email if you prefer. -- Colin°Talk 21:41, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Tis the season...

Happy Holidays
Wishing you and yours a Happy Holiday Season, from the horse and bishop person. (The image, while not medieval or equine, is by one of my favorite poets and artists, William Blake.) Ealdgyth - Talk 01:37, 25 December 2010 (UTC)

Dragon Quest FAC

As you reviewed the last Dragon Quest FAC, your input is wanted for the current version if possible. Thanks.Jinnai 16:54, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Health-News-Review-2008-09-01.png

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Paul McCartney FAC

The Paul McCartney article has now been thoroughly copyedited top-to-bottom by numerous editors including User:Lfstevens, a member of the Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors. If you can find the time in your busy schedule, please consider stopping by and taking a look, and hopefully, !voting. ~ GabeMc (talk|contribs) 04:54, 9 July 2012 (UTC)