User talk:Leahtwosaints/Archive 7

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A request if you will

I was editing Take Back the City today. It was the first single released from Snow Patrol's latest album. And it had such a despicable page. I spent a lot of time today editing it, making it symmetrical to the last 3 singles' psges. And nw it quite looks decent. The main problem is the section of "music video." I can't seem to describe it in words. My request is that if you see the video for yourself (here) and edit the section, adding your own description, that'd be really great. I'd be very grateful. Not much, 4-5 sentences would do I think. It just needs to look at par with the other sections on the page, and most importantly should "EAT" the pic fully inside it, if you get what I mean. No problem if you can't do it, though.

Of course I'll look at the Snow Patrol article- by the way, where did you learn to do the album and song pages? You have it down, whereas I've only tried one song page by myself as a stub only for the Dixie Chicks in 2007, a new user to computers feeling smug b/c I found one whole reference for the song!
I didn't "learn anything", just started doing them, taking ideas from other pages. I constantly check the band's website for news, and have multiple times gone through their news archive (which dates back to 2005, every month), I sometimes dug up valuable information. But mostly I do random searches on google, that sometimes brings up something good. What song page, did yu try, btw? Maybe I'll have something for you to expand. Suede67 (talk) 04:52, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

And about this message you left: Should I upload "boots and sand" over the incorrectly titled roadsinger now? Someone will notice this sooner or later? You do say it's not a very good Yusuf song, what do you want? Btw, it was actually you who got the song wrong! You gave me a link here, hehe!

My screw up. "Boots and Sand", which isn't so good can just be removed. However- the clip being "Roadsinger" should go to the song page for it. Can you place it there?
The song "Roadsinger" doesnt have a song page. But on the album page, I see you have put the clip for "boots and sand" (right?) I'll put roadsinger there, ok? Suede67 (talk) 04:52, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

About the clips on songpages not having description like those on Cat's page, I did this deliberatly, as the infobox code for songs/singles have a listing for "audio sample." I thought an audio sample is SUPPOSED to be in the infobox. Further, the sumary I write generally is "Sample of "SONG ABC", appears on "ALBUM XYZ"". This is there in the infobox! Kinda makes it redundant to do it again, doesnt it? Btw, which articles are using the summary format, as you said. I'd like to see a link. And I'll do the "Trouble live" and "Peace train live" clip now. CyaSuede67 (talk) 13:02, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

It may be bad form to put the info around the clip on the song page although not on the album page, which is another consideration. So would you indulge me, for now, OK? Partly so I can copy it and paste some things into the text if needed- (I do hate to ask you to continually do more and more: but hell, I couldn't even type a couple years ago.) "Sad Lisa" featuring a visable Alun Davies in the video only unfortunately, can't be used on his page, but on Cat Stevens's album page, Tea for the Tillerman.

Done. "Sad Lisa" now on Tea for the Tillerman.Suede67 (talk) 04:52, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Can you either show me (or format "Trouble"'s song page) just the basic outline of making a song or album page -- just the basics I really want for "Trouble"- which has so many references to use- I'd like it there, as well as the main Cat Stevens article text.

I think you need an infobox first, then do a short lead for the song. then you can have its history, the circustances Cat was in when he wrote the song. If it was commercially released and it charted, another section. If it had a notable/covered performance live, you can write about that. There's a covers section already. You might dig up on more covers, who knows? If you have a reference about the song's meaning, you can have that. Just some ideas.

Re: clips, have you ever checked out Eric Clapton or Crowded House where they have sections with like, 5 clips in a row, showing the musician's progression over time? It might be helpful to you. I left a note with an Admin. re: legalities with clips. I'd like to know how you upload the covers of album covers for the album pages and fill out the data without being persecuted by the Commons Nazis sometime, cause I'd do it in a flash.

I apologize for my time stretching so thin. People I emailed re: photos all started saying yes, and "When will I see my photo there?" so I've been furiously building infoboxes (which takes the time to find the persons' instruments, labels, occupations, birthdates and birthnames, and all, plus the photo, and then usually the article is so poorly written, I try to copyedit it a bit before responding to them. But the last two were really happy- and want to give more! (he ha haaa! the devil in me is pleased!; although BUSY. But it's OK. I just wanted to explain why I've been so scattered. Well, I'm actually gonna get to work. It's 1:20 PM EST now! I really want to reword a lot of Derek Trucks and The Derek Trucks Band which are deplorable, if people are looking at them! --leahtwosaints (talk) 17:02, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

I see what you mean, you're doing a fabulous job. And I have seen Clapton's and Crowded House's pages. But I found those rows of clips weird. The section looked bloated to me, sorry to say. To me, the Cat Stevens article looks PERFECT with the small amount of clips it now has. Suede67 (talk) 04:52, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Please look into Take Back the City (Music video), if time permits. Thanks. Suede67 (talk) 04:52, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes, you know, I was waiting for it to be YOUR TIME, to give you my feedback on the "Take Back the City".. mostly because you are so far advanced compared to me, that I'm bewildered that you would want my input, although, perhaps my familiarity with Western industrialized cities and issues and wording might possibly help. I was going to ask you how much it costs to fly to Mumbai, and whether I can go to your school! (How much would it cost from Washington, D.C. in $USD?) You want my take on the video on our talk pages or on email? ps-- I like watching the videos, too!--leahtwosaints (talk) 05:07, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
I have no idea what'd it cost. haha, its isnt a question of school, just imagination. i'm not imaginative enough to write a description for the video. Btw, I have no problem if you describe the music video directly by editing the section on the article page. I'll do any copy edits, if required, no problem. Suede67 (talk) 05:20, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
Bro- there's not any room there! You're a genious to put all that stuff there. Cat Stevens is sorely lacking compared to your work. Where's your sandbox?--leahtwosaints (talk) 05:28, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
Haha! I'm no genius, anyway, here is my sandbox. What do you need it for? Suede67 (talk) 05:33, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
Well, I still don't even know how to set up a sandbox of my own, so I need it for space to feel out my reactions to your video instead of turning our talk pages into love fests! Esp. if it still doesn't sound right to you, smart ass! :)--leahtwosaints (talk) 05:42, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
Haha, making a sandbox is easy. Just add something to the name of your user pages. Like yours is User:Leahtwosaints. Put a "/Sandbox", "/Samdbox2", etc after it, like this: User:Leahtwosaints/Sandbox, thats your sandbox! Suede67 (talk) 05:47, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
I have to go now, will see you later. Suede67 (talk) 06:09, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
Wait. I have it. --leahtwosaints (talk) 06:24, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Cropped pictures as requested

File:MT The Lucky Cropped).png

I'm not really sure what you wanted me to do with the Genesis picture. Possibly I could crop some off the top but it would change the aspect ratio which is good for an infobox as it is. SpinningSpark 18:33, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

It's a lovely job, all around and I am very, very grateful. Peter Gabriel used to dress in various costumes for specific songs-- and ad lib narrative-- to give the bandmates time to change instruments. There are many song pages, and so those two were of him in costume, as "Watcher of the Skies"' and "Britannia", for "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", costume "Britannia", which belong on those song pages, of course, although the second is seriously lacking. I'm so glad you're smart!--leahtwosaints (talk) 05:26, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Crowded House

G'day, I'm sorry about the state of the Crowded House articles. I started the wikiproject and was intending on bringing everything up to scratch, in a similar way to how I did with Powderfinger, with its wikiproject (which is now defunct). I then got divorced and lots of other personal junk happened that kind of got in the way of the chance to do it. I've since only been a "light editor", and don't expect I'll ever have the time to dedicate to a whole FA article again. You never know, but I can't say for sure. There's quite a few people out there who're into Crowded House who're willing to help, though, so drop a few lines to people who've made productive edits on any of the applicable pages and you might be able to mustre up a bit of a workgroup. If you need any tips or anything, don't hesitate to ask. I'm still pretty nifty when it comes to some intermediate coding of tables and the like (I started and remain a major contributor to the discography infobox, among other commonly used bits and pieces). Good luck! --rm 'w avu 01:25, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for answering. I, on the other hand know nothing about computers, and formatting other than basic Wiki infoboxes, photos, and such, and don't even know anything about commons which is funny in a way, considering the hundreds of uploads I've had there. But I did meet a kind photographer online out of Sydney, who shared the photos for Neil Finn and Tim Finn in the infoboxes, amongst other things.. I'd like to learn the things you know, do you mind if I ask questions now and then? --leahtwosaints (talk) 03:34, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Take Back the City

Your description is superb, but unfortunately, I think it doesnt quite fit as to what the video actually means. What I'm getting the feeling is that it could (?) be challenged as original research, but i may be wrong. You seem to have hit half the nail on the head. Its really well written, no doubt, btw.

This is what Gary Lightbody has said about the song (he is the lyricist).

"This was inspired by Belfast and Northern Ireland in general but it can be about any city and the relationship everybody has with the place where they're from. It's about the reasons why i grew up confused by my country and the reasons now why i love it so. The place where we are from (and sometimes it is simply by pushing against it) has a great impact on the type of person we become."

Its from their website, I can cite it. I feel that block of text could be invaluable for you to write a description. If you read the music video section, it says part of the video has stop-motion shots, meaning they merged various photographs, so it looks like a running video, with pauses. Nice effect, isnt it? But I cant think of a sentence or anything to describe it without sounding like a fan of the band.

Btw, you can also see the description for Crack the Shutters and If There's a Rocket Tie Me to It, the singles that followed Take Back the City. I wrote a simple,silly description, which I believe does the trick. Everyone can 'get' it, and so far, no one has made changes to it, so i take it as a positive sign. (You could see the videos for the 2 songs, here and here, if you want). Suede67 (talk) 06:42, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

What it reminded me about was a Cat Stevens song, of all things, called, "Ruins" [1] Check it out. But if you had given me the text, yes, I could write a hell of a review I think, with some thought. By the way, the man to the right of Cat Stevens/Yusuf here, is Alun Davies, the article I started, and lost nerve. He's played with him from 1970-77 bringing him to stardom, and then, 30 years later, you find him at Yusuf's side when he returns to playing. Those are real friends, cause Alun is a drinker, and his best friend, Muslim and Heathen! I love it. But you may like the song. Rare glimpse of Davies, too. --leahtwosaints (talk) 06:56, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
Matter of fact, I'll tackle that one for you. Give me a little more time. With something from Lightbody (you didn't tell me you had that-- I could come up with a good description, probably, and no it wasn't good writing. I wrote that in the sandbox in 5 minutes. Real writing takes (giggle) 20 minutes ;) Seriously though, if you wish, since I'm not a POV problem, I can retry it for you tomorrow. --leahtwosaints (talk) 07:00, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
Cool, Are SP inspired by Cat Stevens as well?! Gary does throw a bunch of names of bands/artists he loves in interviews (which is very nice), but I've never heard Yusuf in them, until now. Yes, you had told me about Alun Davies before, great guy, he certainly deserves a proper page. And I forgot about the "text" before. When the album was awaiting release, the website posted a section featuring Gary, and his thoughts on all songs in the album. I just remembered about it today. Now I have an additional job of incorporating these on songpages and the album page as well! Ad you can write the descrip tomorrow, no problem, take your time! And get some sleep! Good night.Suede67 (talk) 07:06, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
Did you get around doing the description. I was hardly online yesterday. Suede67 (talk) 05:27, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
No, I'm so sorry. Planning this trip at last minute just before our July 4th Independance Day weekend holiday when all the banks will be closed, not to mention businesses, travel agencies for plane flights-- it's $400.00 USD (cheap fare just to fly to Austin, Texas at last minute, and I haven't even packed for being there a long time! I apologize. Perhaps you can do a better job than me. I have only had 4 hours sleep in the last 3 days. However, I might be able to get to it in several hours, it'll be Sunday late morning; it's 5 AM right now. ?--leahtwosaints (talk) 08:55, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
No problem, I know you'll do a far better job than me, so please do it, when you can. No worries. The article was in a despicable state before, it wont matter if it doesnt look perfect for some more days. Suede67 (talk) 15:20, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
I don't think I could do a better job than you any more on anything here by now! But I appreciate your faith in me, and with your references to use, and a bit more time perhaps I'll do alright. I've been adding to the very top of Peter Gabriel; the song articles and main article are atrocious; all I wanted to do was put photos of him- he'd wear costumes depending on the songs, which are really outlandish, and there actually is info about the songs as well. I meant to ask you; on album pages, that has info and could be good too, is it ever acceptable (or necessary) to put more than one song clip there? I was wondering about "The First Cut is the Deepest" and the three or four infoboxes becaue people covered Cat Steven's song. Remember how bad Sheryl Crow's version is? She was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2003 for that single! What the hell? I am shocked, thank God she lost. W0W it's 1:45 PM and I've only had 2 hours' sleep!
If you ever want to do a Rolling Stones clip, for the amazing backing vocalist Lisa Fischer, (who also won a Grammy Award for her own work, but still tours with them every time with Mick Jagger's male backing vocalist, Bernard Fowler --I added his photos, and hers doesn't do her justice-- (I love them both) since 1995-7, You probably would LOVE LOVE this video, from their album Stripped (a take off I was told, on the "Unplugged" series that MTV had begun) then PLEASE DO try to catch her singing so high in this, that she's in the whistle range.--leahtwosaints (talk) 17:31, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
Here's that video: [2] Lisa Fischer with Mick Jagger is --there aren't words for this.. but between 2:28 minutes in the video, and 3:12 minutes are the most mindblowing vocals from her. She's also a gorgeous woman ;) Hahaaaa. AND I have NOT forgotten Take Back the City. --leahtwosaints (talk) 17:59, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Majicat

Hmm - I think you should write to the publicist that you have been in touch with and ask him what's going on - perhaps it is just temporary, like a server change. Tell him you've used that site as a source for some of the articles here and it would have a serious effect on Yusuf's Wikipedia profile if Majicat stays down. Don't panic - this may not be a permanent thing. This is why it's nt a good idea to rely too much on any one site. The clips look good to me on Cat Stevens - except I'd still like to see "Father and Son", preferably the original, on there. I haven't looked at the album/song articles. Tvoz/talk 05:26, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Problem is that the guy wasn't his publicist, but Bill DeYoung, whose name you should notice on some pages. He wrote the liner notes for the Stevens' box set, and the notes for um.. a Emmylou Harris excellent biography- beautiful wording, all his work- (that's still sitting in external links, I'll bet- would utterly improve her whole article)- and some other people. But he says he hasn't seen Yusuf or Davies in three years now; and would take making many calls, etc to get to Yusuf (and really, that's a lot to ask of him anyway), I wouldn't ask him. I suppose one of us should check Yusuf's new site and find the info and write. I'll also look to see if I kept my email from his camp or not. Not the fan stuff, but the other guy.

"Father and Son" is made and on the song page. You want it in the text, too? --leahtwosaints (talk) 12:37, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

(1) I'm talking about Yusuf's publicist in London that you emailed me about a few months ago. I had his contact info removed from my talk page because it said it wasn't to be distributed, but you should have it in email. (Let me know if you don't.) I think you should write to him and ask him about the material you're missing from Majicat, as you've been in contact with him. I don't know anything about Bill DeYoung regarding this. (2) About Father and Son - yes: you asked me which clips I think should be on the main Cat Stevens page, and as I said I think F&S would be a good addition to that page as it spans his career from Cat Stevens to his re-recording as Yusuf. Tvoz/talk 02:44, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Re: MJ image

Sorry i dont understand what you're trying sa,y about the big white box? I only reverted you're edit because I thought image was to big and really looked of bad quality, because that image was actually cropped from the original image, and making it too large just ruins the image. DinajGao (talk) 14:54, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Go ahead i wont revert. :) DinajGao (talk) 11:49, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. I apologize if I sounded too pushy or unkindly. As I moved from two years of (mostly) adding text, reference, and copyediting to still doing those things, but more and more, learning rules (ugh!) and how images and sound clips work and exhance biographies of musician's articles, I enjoy what we do more, and like learning new things. I never was computer literate when I came to Wikipedia, and have a very large amount to learn, but if you are serious here, and I can ever help you in some way, feel free to ask me;) --leahtwosaints (talk) 14:52, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Re: Good and bad

That's not a problem, it will be great to have new pics. I said before, take your time. I'll wait. Take care Suede67 (talk) 06:15, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Re: Good and bad

That's not a problem, it will be great to have new pics. I said before, take your time. I'll wait. Take care. PS - I wasnt online for a day and a half (or so) as I just came back home. Suede67 (talk) 06:15, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

That's funny. I did next to nothing but upload photos for the little bit of time that I spent online myself here! Though I admit having discussions with people in email about their Flickr photos- it takes a LOT to get them to understand that they can't just mail me the photos and have me upload them, and let them keep their copyrights. Sigh. So, mostly, it's like at least 4 long emails per person before they finally "get it" and agree to do it. Matter of fact, that guy with the Snow Patrol photos isn't answering me now that I told him he has to remove the little symbols next to his pics that say "no commercial use" and "no derivative use". We'll see. --leahtwosaints (talk) 06:01, 2 July 2009 (UTC)
Oh. Dont push him though. The SP articles atleast have pics, though they can be better. If he wishes to have his photos used here, he'll reply. Dont waste YOUR time on him anymore. Btw, if you can, can you try get permission for this pic? The pic would be used somewhere here.Suede67 (talk) 06:11, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

Ping again

Hello, Leahtwosaints. You have new messages at Tvoz's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

And I'll be emailing you later on today. Tvoz/talk 19:18, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

And another reply on my talk. And email sent to your wiki-enabled address. Tvoz/talk 00:29, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

Just wondering...

...if there's any job of yours I'm "ignoring", apart from Derek's album pages (i have that in my mind). Just checking. I have doubts as I found 2 oggs i made, but havent yet uploaded. One is: Derek Trucks - Down in the flood, and the other: Yusuf: Thinking about you.Suede67 (talk) 20:26, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

..AND...

I came across this site Songfacts it could really be helpful to you in exapnding Cat's single articles, atleast to some extent. I did the same with SP articles, very helpful. And I checked the site's policy of adding info, seems reliable! Suede67 (talk) 16:31, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I've seen the Songfacts site myself. However, I've seen the research I've done for a couple of bands repeated there. Copyvio on their part? I think you and I appear a bit too independant without asking some other editors their opinions of whether it's notable or not. I've found my small additions to the most funny musicians' articles plagiarized (but not really since all we do here is GDFL Share-Alike so it's Creative Commons shared work- with the world). Found my intro to one page on a You Tube video quoted, and the fan sites and blogs do it as well. I guess I should feel flattered. The problem though, is when a site is right on the line-- and having copied an older editor's work years back-- it sometimes makes me wonder which came first, the editor's work or the "blog/website". I accused someone of plagiarism when actually, it was the other way around when I first started editing here. How embarrassing. I hope this site does work out to be cool with the album page workgroup though. Have you sent anyone there a message asking if it's an OK place to use for referencing?--leahtwosaints (talk) 10:04, 14 July 2009 (UTC)
haha, same happens here sometimes. Though I havent asked anyone, I saw the FAQ on the site, they say they get info from musician interviews, news, etc. In my nomination for that awards page for FL, i learnt that a site can be considered valid as a source if it SPECIFIES HOW it gets its information. Also, see this thing that I noticed. In some SP song I was working on, the songfacts site said "in an interview to ABC newspaper"...something like that. I went to that site for the newspaper, and did a search and I did find interviews with the same quotes that are on the songfacts site. That's good enough for me! Suede67 (talk) 12:11, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Upload problems

I have a bunch of photos that need uploading. They are all either BY or BY-CC. I tried using the Flickr upload, which I've done so many times before, and had no problems. Now, it's like, maybe I might get one picture to actually upload, out of fifteen. Yet when I drag the professional photographer who has graciously agreed to drop their copyright to the photos to upload them, all of a sudden, there's no problem. What is this? Nazi Admins or what? And in every case we don't even have a single image for these biographies of musicians. Thus, we can learn a lot about.. somebody.. but can't see them to identify who they are? What is that? I am steaming. If you'll help tell me why things are that way, please do. And it will say, "No category by that name exists on en.wikipedia." HUH? A whole article does. That isn't enough? --leahtwosaints (talk) 23:29, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

If you tried to upload to English wikipedia rather than the Commons, then that might explain this message: "No category by that name exists on en.wikipedia."
What is the link to the upload tool/page that you are you using? --Timeshifter (talk) 00:23, 11 July 2009 (UTC)
The Flickr to Commons upload. --leahtwosaints (talk) 00:25, 11 July 2009 (UTC)
Timeshifter, will you upload them for me? They're in Flickr, I can give you the URL of each, and I fought hard to get these pics, but some Nazi in Commons is feeling mighty today, and meanwhile, I've talked these nice pro photographers into giving up their copyrights and they're looking and seeing nothing and asking what happened. In each case, almost, we have NO image of the person whose biography we are covering! --leahtwosaints (talk) 00:27, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

(unindent) I am overwhelmed myself with stuff I could be doing. Did you use the main Flickr upload page linked below, or one of the special Flickr upload pages?:

I see on your user contributions page on the Commons, that you tried using one of the special Flickr upload tools:

It says:

If broken, try Flickr2Commons instead

See my comments at:

It looks like I also had problems using the Flickr upload bot. The bots can be slow, or non-functional at times. The main upload page may be less convenient to use, but it is fast, and it almost always works:

I also asked for help at a Commons noticeboard:

Sections for references

Greetings, Leahtwosaints. I saw that you undid my reversions of the section names in the John Molo article. I've put them back the way they were. Please read Talk:John Molo#References vs. External links and join in the discussion there. Thanks. — Mudwater (Talk) 09:06, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

I wouldn't know how at this point. My apologies. I hadn't realized anyone was actually busy editing that page- I should have checked history, in retrospect, but generally, I find pieces that others have done very differently, so.. what can I say? I surely am sorry it was you, Mudwater, cause you have always been so kind to me before. We seem to run the same places in the musicians' work groups. I wouldn't mind learning things from you, and not just this kind of lesson, either. I actually hadn't known I'd begun to add to the article, and been reverted! I really apologize. --leahtwosaints (talk) 13:22, 11 July 2009 (UTC)
Thanks for the nice reply, I appreciate it, and thanks for your continued contributions to those articles. :-) — Mudwater (Talk) 20:28, 11 July 2009 (UTC)
Certainly! I'm so used to trying to find images for some pages that have been woefully neglected --half the time without a single reference, so, other than Cat Stevens, Derek Trucks, and now, the horribly botched up The Derek Trucks Band- editing till I get too bored with them, I look to add some visual stuff to the pages of musicians Jaco Pastorious, that I feel are truly notable. Mostly, upon adding a photo I have to do a lot more before I consider the page just a stub, and worthy of showing to the photographer who has donated their photos. Anytime you want to show me something, I am your pupil.--leahtwosaints (talk) 21:06, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

Carter Beauford

The bot seems to be broken at the moment, it did not upload the image for me either. I have now done it manually. You should be able to use it in an article now. SpinningSpark 11:24, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

No its not anything you are doing wrong, the servers are very slow today and the bot that copies pictures from Flickr to Commons is not working. I am getting them there by uploading manually without the help of the bot. SpinningSpark 17:27, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

The Boomtown Rats

Hello, I noticed that fairly recently (well, a couple of months ago, actually) you edited this article. I have been watching more recent edits with some alarm. I have written to User:Mark Boyle to ask for an explanation of his recent efforts - but would appreciate a second opinion, if you can spare the time. Many thanks,

Derek R Bullamore (talk) 20:12, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

Manual uploading

Stefan Lessard is now on Commons. As requested, here are the full instructions for manual uploading from Flickr:

  1. Go to the Flickr page you want to copy
  2. Check that you are allowed to copy it
  3. Download the image to your local computer. On most browsers you do this by:
    1. Right click on the image
    2. Select "Save image as...." This should open the "save" window on your computer.
    3. Change the flickr file name (which is just meaningless numbers) to the name you want use on Commons.
    4. Do not change the file extension (.jpg for instance)
    5. Select where you want to save to (Desktop for instance) and press "Save".
  4. Keep the Flickr window open (you will need to copy some information later)
  5. Open Commons in a new browser window
  6. Click "upload file" in the navbox at the left
  7. Click "It is someone else's work from Flickr"
  8. You should now be presented with the upload form. This is filled in as follows:
    1. Local filename: click "browse", this should open the "file upload" window on your computer
    2. Find the file you downloaded from Flickr, select it and press "open"
    3. Destination filename: This will now be automatically filled in. You can alter it if necessary to the Commons name you want to use (do not change the extension)
    4. If the name you have chosen is already used by another file, you will get a warning at the bottom of the form and a thumbnail of the existing file. If this happens you must change the filename to avoid overwriting someone elses work
    5. Original source: copy and paste the url from the Flickr page (the url is the address in the bar at the top of the page starting http:\\www.flickr......)
    6. Author(s): copy from the Flickr page
    7. Date of the work: if the Flickr page says when the picture was taken, use that date. Otherwise, use the upload date (found just above the authors name, top right)
    8. Description: usually, you can just copy the Flickr description
    9. Other versions: leave blank
    10. Permission: Leave blank
    11. Licencing: This must be the same as the licence specified on Flickr. Be sure to choose "share-alike" if the Flickr licence says share-alike
    12. Categories: add at least one category. "Musicians" is good if yu cannot find anything more specific. Click "OK"
  9. Click "Upload file", it should now all happen.

Good luck. SpinningSpark 09:46, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Apparently, I was too optimisic in my ability to learn this. I easily saved the image I (SUPPOSEDLY ALREADY UPLOADED VIA THE FLICKR TOOL OVER 24 HOURS AGO of Jeff Sipe which I still don't see any probably never will). I don't know what is up in Commons, but the old easier way with the Bryan upload doesn't work anymore. Before, I'd wait about 8 hours. Now, after a couple days still nothing but a green check mark there saying, "You can upload a photo of Jeff Sipe". (D'UH!) I got as far as saving the image to my computer in the photo section. I changed the name to Jeff_Sipe.jpg. I got as far as opening the image and it was there after choosing this is someone else's work from Flickr, and then, there was nothing there. No template. And the more I looked around, it seemed a million places were telling me to "use this upload tool" or "that upload tool", and I couldn't tell it the answers, like "What is the photographer's URL?" (This was AFTER what is the URL of the photo, which was obvious.") Hell, I don't know. I only know he calls himself Five Low Notes. And worse, there are other photos from Flickr that I am expecting to become GDFL licensed.
In other words.. I'm not up to the task. I wonder if there's a way to find out if this situation with Wikimedia Commons (being either so slow, or inoperable) is now permanent. I did see on Flickr that some legal issue was resolved by Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons, and that now as of like, a week or two ago, hundreds of Wikipedias worldwide can now use Creative Commons to upload stuff. Maybe people are flooding the place, and that's why I couldn't even log into Commons (here, it's after midnight in Washington, D.C.) for about 15 minutes just to look for things. I don't know what I'll do about photos. Nobody at Commons seems to want to teach the most basic things (like how to create a Category so they don't have to sort through a billion images saying "Music" later).. and with that Flickr upload, I know exactly what you are saying about categories available. I do try lots of other categories which, if already there, allows me to be very specific with the upload tool, but if not there- like, no category saying "Allman Brothers band", so Gregg Allman is just a "Keyboardists from the United States". Not exactly helpful, if you ask me. Anyway. Can you help to find and upload Jeff Sipe for me? I suppose my photo days are over after this one. --Leahtwosaints (talk) 05:41, 17 July 2009 (UTC)
The problem seems to be that you tried to use the bot and, as you say, the bot ain't working. However, it has got as far as filling in all the information on the page so you don't need to bother with that. Go to the Commons page (which I think you have called File:Jeff Sipe with Phil and Friends.jpg). Where it says "No file by this name exists, but you can upload it" click the link to go to the upload form. Click "Browse" and find the image on your computer. Now just click "Upload file", no need to fill in the rest of the form, the bot has already provided the information on the page.
By the way, it is perfectly possible to also upload images directly to Wikipedia without going through Commons. You might find that this is a simpler thing for you to do in future. Other editors may eventually move your uploads to Commons, but then the Commons problems will be for them to deal with, not you. SpinningSpark 15:33, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
Nope. It is sending me messages in red saying I haven't given a proper license, and I haven't done this or that. AND it says, that if I screw up, it's lost and won't ever be uploaded.

"If you do not provide suitable license and source information, your upload will be deleted without further notice. Thank you for your understanding." --Leahtwosaints (talk) 16:32, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

Ignore it and upload anyway, it'll be cool. SpinningSpark 19:38, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
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