Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 00:55, 16 April 2009

/Archive 1

I've Been to the Mountaintop

Hello, DePiep. I'm trying to be helpful instead of cynical, and I believe that I didn't do anything cynical, assume the good faith and you'll be alright :). MLK works are not free, they're copyrighted by The King Center. Even those which are not copyrighted to King Center, they do unfortunately have "owners" who restrict its use. We are not allowed to link an illegal video on Youtube or any other sharing websites. After 75 years of MLK death, his works will under public domain, then we'll be able to add or link his works, but we got more than 29 years until that day. :) It would be very helpful if you asked a copyright holder to release a video or an audio under CC-BY-SA or GFDL.--OsamaK 02:33, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Bibliographical notations

Hi DePiep, in response to your questions, I am now channeling my former life as a librarian. Now that I am in the zone, here goes. The use of referencing format in Misplaced Pages does not exactly follow standard formats but seems to be an amalgam of many styles. Basically, what I have seen is an effort to provide assistance to Wiki editors who are not familiar with academic referencing through the use of a "house style" guide which has been continually revised (perfectly understandable given that here is no fixed guide in Wickywacky land to begin with). The other means to assist emergent editors and "newbies" is the template system that I personally find completely "buggy" and tend to ignore it in lieu of using "scratch cataloging (or cataloguing, since I am a Canadian with all the adverse traits of leaning on Canadianisms and Canajan spelling variants)". However, I would not necessarily recommend that other Wiki editors attempt this method unless they are prepared to actually understand how a bibliographic notation style actually works. There are a number of style guides in existence and although the Wiki templates are written in the American Psychological Association (APA) style guide, I find that the Modern Language Association (MLA) style guide is more complete and is best suited for social works such as history topics in which I tend to dabble. The easiest way to explain how the MLA bibliographic style should look is in following: Author (last name, first). Title (italicized for main entry, in quotations for secondary entry). Place (of publication): Publisher, date (most recent or current date). The example in MLA style would be: de Seversky, Alexander. Victory Through Air Power. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1942. The APA guide would write the same title as: de Seversky, Alexander (1942). Victory Through Air Power. Simon and Schuster. Due to the egalitarian tenets of WikiWacky World, both, either or any other number of style guides are accepted including the Chicago style guide, ad infinitum... Referencing a quote or verifying the source of a statement for Wiki can then simply provide the entire bibliographic record along with an exact pointer to a page or section within the sources, such as: *de Seversky, Alexander. Victory Through Air Power. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1942, pp. 212–214. or *de Seversky, Alexander (1942). Victory Through Air Power. Simon and Schuster, 1942, pp. 212–214. Because of the cumbersome nature of using a full bibliographic notation for each cited passage, a "shortcut" devise such as the Harvard Citation is often employed. Then the following appears in the text: Alexander de Seversky predicted that air power would be "employed as a method of diplomacy."1

Citations (or Note, in reality, it is a listing of foot or endnotes that is used)

• 1 de Seversky 1942, pp. 212–214.

Bibliography

• de Seversky, Alexander. Victory Through Air Power. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1942. (ISBN is entirely optional)

or

Notes

• 1 de Seversky (1942), pp. 212–214.

Bibliography

• de Seversky, Alexander (1942). Victory Through Air Power. Simon and Schuster.

Sorry, I do run on. Please read this note in edit mode to see where the coding occurs. FWiW Bzuk (talk) 21:28, 6 April 2009 (UTC).

Vandalism

Thanks for posting at WP:EAR. You were quite right; the account was only being used for vandalism and has been blocked. Cheers, --AndrewHowse (talk) 03:12, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Template documentation request

Hi, I see that you've marked your request as resolved, but I still don't understand what exactly you were requesting in the first place. Were you just requesting that an administrator add that snippet of code to those templates in question? Honestly, as the templates were all unprotected at that time, there were only a few, and you made it clear you knew exactly what needed to be done, was there any point to asking at WP:EAR? I don't mean to be rude- I'm just kind of confused as to what you wanted in the first place. —/Mendaliv//_Δ's/ 13:42, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

First: I surely did not receive it as being rude. No problem there. I'll reread my own reply, to learn & prevent any suggestion so in the future. And if so, I am sorry.

RE: Other templates in that category are protected, like {{Lowercase title}} for 'eBay' etc. Editing such a template is tricky, because of the huge effects. Main point: the code should go in the template-page itself, the /doc page is harmless. So I thought, if I edit such a template it is tricky, being out of my league. Even sandboxing requires serious thinking. That's why I WP:EAR'ed, just to get someone involved who knows about stacked templates and noincludes etc.

Then, on the PP-page the request was declined: counting the uses there appeared no big risk involved. From then I took the edit up myself, closing the request at WP:EAR. At the moment I am sandboxing, nice job to do. If you want to take a look: User:DePiep/Sandbox. -DePiep (talk) 14:01, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

- DePiep (talk) 14:04, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Ahh. I understand. You're right, that adding template documentation to those templates would be helpful. I don't exactly agree with the guys at RFPP regarding the low risk, but I suppose the volunteers there are more experienced with such matters. You were right to go to EAR in that case I guess. Thanks for quickly responding! —/Mendaliv//_Δ's/ 14:19, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Meanwhile, I started in {{Bracketed}} copyediting the code. Accidentatly I inserted the PP-image (red padlock) too. Someone had to remove it. ;-) (I think I can do the edits today, I prefer to have some time for the work-in-progress, i.e. please do not edit them today) -DePiep (talk) 14:29, 12 April 2009 (UTC) -

Actually, I believe what you did there may have broken that template. :-)

Check out the second code example on this page for how this is supposed to be done. —/Mendaliv//_Δ's/ 14:52, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Sure, could have broken al lot. Surprises me that Misplaced Pages is still up. Actually, I logged out and fled for some time. Thx for the usefull link, now I'll need two more days. ;-) -DePiep (talk) 14:59, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

• The bug you fixed in Braketed, I suppose it means I should start from the code as it is now? Can do. -DePiep (talk) 15:04, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Misleading comment in 3RR Violation

Your comment about my editing may be understood to imply that I violated WP:3RR. I hope you are not claiming it. Please clarify what you mean.

There is a very clear case here of an editor that violated WP:3RR despite being asked not to (and has done it again after my complaint). He also repeatedly calls my editing "vandalism", even though he was told not to do so. Do you really want to join him? Mashkin (talk) 00:55, 16 April 2009 (UTC)