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Care to donate more expertise?

Hey, John. Remember a while back when you helped me remove a bunch of unwanted images from a bunch of lists of prehistoric life with an automated process? Well, those drafts have finally gone live. They need some more work, though. Specifically I need to caption the images in the articles. Since many of the images are shared across the articles, I was wondering if you might be available to use an automated process to bulk find-and-replace the code for the images once in a while as I update their captions. Thanks for your time. Abyssal (talk) 23:48, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal: Tricky! I'll give it some thought. What should happen if someone has already edited a caption in one of the live articles? -- John of Reading (talk) 06:29, 14 August 2018 (UTC)
So few people have edited these articles that it shouldn't matter. Abyssal (talk) 19:51, 14 August 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal: OK, I've made some progress with this, and have made a test edit at List of the Cenozoic life of California. Using regular expressions and AWB, I can...

  • Find all lines on a "master" page that contain a single-line [[File: ... ]] statement, perhaps with a trailing HTML comment
  • Work through a list of "slave" pages
  • On each of those pages, look for matching image names
  • Replace the line containing the matching image with the corresponding line from the master page

For testing, I used List of the Cenozoic life of Alabama as the master page, and used the images there to update List of the Cenozoic life of California. You'll see that I changed a few captions and some of the image sizing and placement. I didn't check whether these changes were improvements, so undid my edit immediately.

I'm trying to use regular expressions as a programming language, which is not ideal, so my method has some limitations:

  • It won't touch images that span more than one line of wikitext. There weren't many of these.
  • It's not clever enough to update only the caption; it can only sync the whole line. So changes to image sizes, image placement and the trailing HTML comment will be copied from the "master" page to all the "slave" pages even if you only want me to do the caption.

If this is acceptable then you need to identify a "master" page containing the "correct" size, placement, caption and HTML comment for each image. I suggest a new page in your user space. And, of course, I'll need the list of pages that you want me to update.

Also, I'm on holiday next week, so I won't be able to take this forwards until August 28th at the earliest. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:09, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

That looks promising, John. I have some questions. When you say that the program won't touch images whose code spans more than one line, that won't stop it from replacing a one-line image code with one spanning more than one line, will it? The rewritting captions will almost always be significantly longer than the original.
Also I just want to double check if we'd be be able to give a single image different captions depending on the comment following it. Some images are used as stand-ins for either an individual species itself or its genus over all so I need to be able to, say, caption a picture of a rattlesnake with "a living Crotalus horridus" or "a living member of the genus Crotalus" in different articles.
I'll get to work compiling an article list and captions for the master page and you enjoy your vacation. :) Abyssal (talk) 17:20, 16 August 2018 (UTC)
@Abyssal: OK, I'll match by image name and the following comment. Will all these images have a following comment? If so, that solves the multi-line problem as well, as I can match from [[File: to ]] <!-- the comment --> even if they aren't on the same line of wikitext. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:52, 16 August 2018 (UTC)
Yeah, they should all have a comment. Abyssal (talk) 19:09, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

Hey, John. Hope you had a nice vacation. I've compiled a list of articles and a list of corrected image captions. What more do we need before we can take this baby out for a spin? Abyssal (talk) 23:46, 30 August 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal: If I don't get round to this at the weekend, I'll tackle this on Monday. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:44, 31 August 2018 (UTC)
Awesome. Hey, will the irregular spacing in the corrected image caption list mess things up? I admit to getting a bit lazy there, but if it needs to be formatted a specific way I can probably get that done before you activate the script/bot/whatever. Abyssal (talk) 13:10, 31 August 2018 (UTC)
@Abyssal: No, I should be able to ignore the headings and the extra blank lines fairly easily. -- John of Reading (talk) 13:15, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal: OK, I've got the method working, I hope, and have made the first five edits. Everything in those diffs looks reasonable, but I can't easily tell whether I have failed to make some of the requested changes. Since you are familiar with the subject matter, I imagine that you will be able to look through the articles and quickly spot any captions that I have failed to update. Two other queries:

  • User:Abyssal/Articles to caption has two red links
  • Do you want me to update captions in images that have been commented out? My current matching algorithm won't update these. The AWB rules of use won't let me make an edit that only updates commented-out captions, but I could probably catch this case and not make the edit.

-- John of Reading (talk) 08:00, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

One red link page has been brought to live space. The other needs an admin to move it. You can go ahead and skip the commented out pics. Abyssal (talk) 11:26, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
@Abyssal:  Done 127 more edits made. Ping me when you're ready with another batch of updated captions. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:38, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

I've updated the image captions list so you can run it again whenever you get the chance. Abyssal (talk) 04:36, 11 September 2018 (UTC)

 Done Two comments
If you fix those in the master list, the next run will fix the articles. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:01, 11 September 2018 (UTC)
Extended content

Mind running this again? Abyssal (talk) 20:33, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 08:06, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

Once more, Maestro! Abyssal (talk) 15:28, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 16:06, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

I finally finally finished California incl. all the La Brea tar pits taxa. Plz run once more! Abyssal (talk) 03:03, 2 October 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 12:11, 2 October 2018 (UTC)

At long last I made it through Colorado. Once more, maestro! Abyssal (talk) 21:52, 9 October 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 12:35, 10 October 2018 (UTC)

Once more, please. Abyssal (talk) 00:47, 17 October 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal: Be patient. For complicated reasons my wife needs my laptop today. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:05, 17 October 2018 (UTC)
No worries. Abyssal (talk) 11:59, 17 October 2018 (UTC)
@Abyssal:  Done. She decided to struggle into work. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:06, 17 October 2018 (UTC)
Thanks, man. My best wishes to your missus. Abyssal (talk) 14:11, 17 October 2018 (UTC)

Once more, please. Abyssal (talk) 01:54, 25 October 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done - Not so many changes this time. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:11, 25 October 2018 (UTC)

Once more, when you get the chance. I think I'm "over the hump" and captioned most of the images used across the article series, so progress is accelerating and I'll likely be making requests more frequently. Let me know if I'm being a pest. Abyssal (talk) 14:28, 26 October 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal: Not a problem. The smaller diffs are easy to check; that didn't take long. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:47, 26 October 2018 (UTC)

Once more please. Abyssal (talk) 15:08, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 15:26, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

Once more, please. Abyssal (talk) 17:01, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 17:37, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

One again, please. Abyssal (talk) 22:31, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 15:29, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

Once more, please. Abyssal (talk) 19:07, 9 November 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 08:07, 10 November 2018 (UTC)

Once more, please. Abyssal (talk) 18:59, 12 November 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 19:42, 12 November 2018 (UTC)

Once more, please. Abyssal (talk) 02:23, 13 November 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 07:19, 13 November 2018 (UTC)

Once more, please. Abyssal (talk) 17:51, 13 November 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 18:09, 13 November 2018 (UTC)

Once more, please. Abyssal (talk) 02:49, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 07:06, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

Once more, please. Abyssal (talk) 20:36, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 21:02, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

Once more, please. Abyssal (talk) 18:25, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 19:44, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Once more, please. Abyssal (talk) 00:38, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 07:18, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

Once more, please. Abyssal (talk) 01:43, 21 November 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done U/V/W - you must be nearly done now. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:02, 21 November 2018 (UTC)
Yup, just a couple of states remaining. Abyssal (talk) 13:32, 21 November 2018 (UTC)

Once more, please. Abyssal (talk) 03:05, 28 November 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 07:48, 28 November 2018 (UTC)

Phase 2

Hey, John. That last round of image caption corrections was the last I'll need for a while. I have another favor to ask, though. Some of the lists contain multiple entries of the same genus and species but at different levels of confidence. I was wondering if you could scan the lists for these entries with duplicates and remove all but the ones with the highest priority in the given ranking:

  • "type locality for genus/species"
  • normal entry without any comment (ie its entry lacks that long dash character)
  • "broadly construed"
  • "tentative report"
  • "or unidentified comparable form"
  • "or unidentified related form".
  • "report made of unidentified related form or using admittedly obsolete nomenclature"
  • "ex gr."

Thanks for all the help so far. Abyssal (talk) 22:31, 29 November 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal: Yes, I can help with that. Can you point me to an example page and species, so that I can test things? Will the duplicates always be close together in the page? -- John of Reading (talk) 06:59, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
Thanks. The list is alphabetized by taxa so they should all be close to each other, but won't be in "priority order". You can try testing on List of the prehistoric life of West Virginia. Sorex cinereus and S. fumeus both have regular and "or unidentified comparable form" listings. So does Sciuropterus volans and "Thomomys potomacensis" Abyssal (talk) 17:56, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
@Abyssal: I'm nearly ready to make these edits. One query: over at List of the prehistoric life of Michigan there are adjacent entries for Sphenopteris at different levels of indentation. I haven't checked how common this is. What should I do in cases like these? -- John of Reading (talk) 10:38, 1 December 2018 (UTC)
I started this article series with Michigan because it's my home state and I didn't see any similar duplicates in any of the other lists so it looks like they're errors I made during the earliest phases of figuring out how to make them. I guess any line that's indented with two asterisks and has a link with only one word in it can be removed. Abyssal (talk) 03:22, 2 December 2018 (UTC)
@Abyssal: OK, I've done that extra tidying step at List of the Paleozoic life of Michigan and at List of the prehistoric life of Michigan. I found just two other examples of single-word entries with a double indent; List of the Cenozoic life of Washington (state) at Allantodiopsis, and List of the prehistoric life of Washington (state) at Cornus. Those entries have their own references, so I'm not going to touch those. Would you mind checking the Michigan edits and these two extra matches, and then ping me when you are ready for me to do the "phase 2" edits. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:05, 2 December 2018 (UTC)
Good job on the Michigan lists. Don't worry about the Washington ones. You can execute phase 2 whenever you'd like. :) Abyssal (talk) 02:59, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal: Done, I hope. Miscellaneous comments:

  1. Am I really pinging you from the edit summary of every edit that mentions your name? Is this bothering you?
  2. Some entries have a hyphen but no following text. Should those be cleaned up?
  3. Some entries have ex gr. with no hyphen. Should a hyphen be inserted?
  4. Some entries have sensu lato with no hyphen. Should a hyphen be inserted?
  5. A few duplicates involve entries labelled sensu lato. I left them in place, since I don't know what priority it has. It's probably simplest for you to fix these:

-- John of Reading (talk) 13:47, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

  1. Yeah, I got a ping for each edit this time. Doesn't matter though, I'll just mark them all as read.
  2. Yes, please.
  3. Hmm. Maybe try replacing "ex gr." with " – or unidentified loosely related form"
  4. Don't worry about it; I'll get these manually.
  5. Oops. I hadn't notice that abbreviation. I'll handle it manually, but sensu lato is of lower confidence than a regular entry but more than a tentative one. I added it to the original priority list for reference in case it's ever relevant again. Abyssal (talk) 16:50, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Phase 3

Hey, John. Could you rig a process that would scan these lists for non-commented out images then cut-and-paste the image and the little comment tag that shows what article they came from between the bullet and the actual list entry mentioned in the comment tag. If there is no exact equivalent you can put the image and tags in with whatever preceding entry had one. In either one of the preceding cases add another comment tag that says <!-- moved --> Here's an example of what I mean...

Extended content
Shell of an Acanthocardia cockle
Living adult (center) and chick (lower right) Accipiter striatus, or sharp-shinned hawks
Living Acropora coral

becomes

Abyssal (talk) 17:08, 6 December 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal: I think that's do-able. I'll try it tomorrow. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:20, 6 December 2018 (UTC)
@Abyssal: If there is no exact equivalent you can put the image and tags in with whatever preceding entry had one - that's a tough one, probably too hard for regular expressions. But most of the image captions have an italicised wikilink, which I could try to match with the entries in the following list. That would be a better result for the Accipiter striatus image in the test data here, as I could move it into its own list entry. I'm unlikely to be able to re-arrange anything based on what I did with the previous image, so any images that I couldn't match by either the HTML comment or the caption would stay where they were at the head of the list. -- John of Reading (talk) 18:40, 6 December 2018 (UTC)
OK, that should at least put the vast majority in position. Thanks for your hard work. Abyssal (talk) 20:51, 6 December 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal: I copied List of the Cenozoic life of Alabama to User:John of Reading/X3 and made an AWB-assisted edit there. The first defect is that Argyrotheca and a few others are coded as Image: not File:, and I didn't think to check for that, so didn't try to move them. I'll add a preliminary step to switch them all to say File:. Otherwise, it worked fairly well - I managed to move all but eight of the images. I've labelled those eight with an HTML comment <!-- stationary --> so that you can find them easily.

  • Anaxyrus americanus and a few others can't be matched by italicised wikilink or by HTML comment; the match can only be made by understanding the "formerly ..." part of the caption.
  • Daeodon and a couple of others can't be matched because they are not in the list
  • Turritella didn't move because the image is in the wrong section

Is that close enough for you to do the rest of the work by hand? Would you like me to add the "stationary" comments when making the real edits? -- John of Reading (talk) 09:48, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

Yes and yes! Good job, John. Abyssal (talk) 14:07, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
Processing the bigger pages this way is really slow! I'll need to break off soon and finish the job another day. And I'll have to change the processing rules a bit for List of the Mesozoic life of North Dakota, since all the images are in the lead section. -- John of Reading (talk) 18:29, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
Thanks for everything you've done today. Enjoy your break. Would cutting the commented out images under the section headings and pasting them to the article's talk pages reduce their size enough to not be so slow for you in future operations? Abyssal (talk) 18:47, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
No, don't do anything complicated, as this is only a one-off set of edits. I've been reading the news for a few minutes, and so on, while my CPU is stuck at 90%. -- John of Reading (talk) 19:44, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
@Abyssal: Nearly there. I should have mentioned earlier that I chose to use "not moved" instead of "stationary" in the comments. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:45, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
@Abyssal:  Done -- John of Reading (talk) 08:55, 8 December 2018 (UTC)

Quick query

Hey, John. Could the original image captioning operation be modified to work with the multiple image template found at the bottom of this section? Some portions of the lists are crowded now that the images are in position. I don't actually need it done very quickly because manually moving the unmoved images will take a while, but I need to know if it's at least feasible before I start relying on the template to tidy things up. Abyssal (talk) 03:27, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal: It's hard to tell from a sample of one! But something similar could look through User:Abyssal/Multiple images for * {{multiple image <new innards>}} ''[[MatchMe]]'' and use that to update each entry in the list articles that looks like * {{multiple image <old innards>}} ''[[MatchMe]]''. Is that what you have in mind? -- John of Reading (talk) 08:37, 10 December 2018 (UTC)
Hmm. I'm not sure that's viable because almost every instance of the multiple image template would have a completely different combination of images. It would have to operate on the individual listings within the code. I'm not super technically inclined so I'm not 100% sure how to describe what I'm going for especially since I don't know the nuts-and-bolts of our current method. I think it scans the list article for File: or Image:, then notes the file name, searches User:Abyssal/Image captions to use for the same file name, copies the caption in the image code, then pastes it over the caption back in the list article. It would be nice if the process could also recognize "| image[number] =Imagename" from the multiple template in the list articles as a valid prefix to an image name the way File: and Image: already are and could recognize the subsequent "| caption[samenumberasintheprecedingtemplatecode] =[caption]" as a place to paste the caption from the corresponding image code already at User:Abyssal/Image captions to use. Abyssal (talk) 19:52, 10 December 2018 (UTC)
The current method isn't as clever as that. It recognises [[File:MatchThisName.Ext| <old innards> ]] <!-- MatchThisComment [[MatchThisLink]] --> and replaces the whole of the matched line. This has had the benefit of copying over your changes to the image sizes and positioning, as well as the captions. I don't know how to pick up only the caption using regular expressions, the only tool I know how to use. The caption doesn't necessarily come last, and the caption may contain embedded square brackets and sometimes more | characters embedded in piped wikilinks and template calls. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:57, 10 December 2018 (UTC)
What if I go through the old User:Abyssal/Image captions to use and manually paste a comment noting where the caption starts and use the same comment in the multiple images template? Abyssal (talk) 15:43, 11 December 2018 (UTC)
@Abyssal: That seems a lot of work. On reflection, 99% of the images in "Captions to use" have a fairly simple structure that I should be able to decode with regular expressions, and, since I'm checking each edit before saving [honest!] I should be able to fix up the other 1% if I run into them. So, yes, I can do this well enough to save you a lot of the work. And there's no need to add marker comments inside the {{multiple image}}: if you code them consistently, captionX ends at | imageY = or at the standard HTML comment that precedes it, and the last captionX ends at }} †''[[, the list entry that follows the images [yes, the dagger is optional].
One more query. So far, it's been important that I match both the image name and the trailing comment, in case an image is used with different captions in different contexts. When an image turns up in a {{multiple image}}, how do I tell what the context is? Or is it enough for me to match only the image name for this task? -- John of Reading (talk) 18:02, 11 December 2018 (UTC)
Awesome. Thanks, John. I do need you match both the name and the trailing comment. Instances without the comment are those with captions I've customized for context (eg when a pictured fossil was discovered locally). Abyssal (talk) 02:18, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
@Abyssal: If I am to match the HTML comment, then the comment needs to be in the {{multiple image}} template somewhere so that I can search for it. In the one sample at List of the Paleozoic life of West Virginia#B there are no HTML comments. Could you place the HTML comment at the end of the captionN field? Something like...
*{{multiple image
 | width             = <!-- displayed width of each image in pixels (an integer, omit "px" suffix); overrides "width[n]"s below -->
<!--image 1-->
 | image1            = Bluefieldius fig-3-full-b.png
 | width1            = 220
 | alt1              =
 | caption1          = Fossilized skeleton found in Mercer County; the holotype of the Carboniferous bony fish ''[[Bluefieldius]]''. Close-up view of the skull at right.<!-- [[Bluefieldius]]: Speciesbox -->
<!--image 2-->
 | image2            = Bluefieldius fig-3-full-a.png
 | width2            = 165
 | alt2              =
 | caption2          = <!-- [[Bluefieldius]]: lead section -->
}} †''[[Bluefieldius]]''
Then I could match the image name and the comment, and the HTML comment would also mark the end of the existing caption that I should be removing. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:06, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
The Bluefieldius one is one of the customized ones since that fish is found only in WV. I think I have the comments where you need them in the other instances of the template. Abyssal (talk) 13:30, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
@Abyssal: Yes, I see them now. When I'm feeling brave I'll write some regular expressions! Could be Friday. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:18, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
Awesome. Thanks for your continuing efforts to get these articles in shape. Abyssal (talk) 15:29, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

@Abyssal: OK. I have the method working, I think. I've added the HTML comments to the example at User:John of Reading/X3, and used those to copy in the matching new captions from User:John of Reading/X2. I haven't saved the edit, though, as I'm still testing.

But trying this out in the real articles, the only change that the new code wants to make is at Petalodus in List of the Paleozoic life of Alabama, where you've asked me to remove the extra square brackets. Are there other instances where I should have found a caption in a {{multiple image}} that needs updating? -- John of Reading (talk) 09:12, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

No, that sounds about right. It'll be a while before I have all the multiple image templates in place. Abyssal (talk) 22:14, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Merry Merry

Happy Christmas!
Hello John of Reading,
Early in A Child's Christmas in Wales the young Dylan and his friend Jim Prothero witness smoke pouring from Jim's home. After the conflagration has been extinguished Dylan writes that

Nobody could have had a noisier Christmas Eve. And when the firemen turned off the hose and were standing in the wet, smoky room, Jim's Aunt, Miss. Prothero, came downstairs and peered in at them. Jim and I waited, very quietly, to hear what she would say to them. She said the right thing, always. She looked at the three tall firemen in their shining helmets, standing among the smoke and cinders and dissolving snowballs, and she said, "Would you like anything to read?"

My thanks to you for your efforts to keep the 'pedia readable in case the firemen chose one of our articles :-) Best wishes to you and yours and happy editing in 2019. MarnetteD|Talk 01:56, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
@MarnetteD: Thank you, a splendid quote! -- John of Reading (talk) 07:22, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

Help:IPA/Italian

Hello John of Reading. I've seen that you've edited Help:IPA/Italian in the past, so I thought you could help me to understand a thing. Note 5 says: "the n in /nɡ/~/nk/ is a velar [ŋ], and the one in /nf/~/nv/ is the labiodental [ɱ]". I was wondering why in the symbol list does appear ŋ but ɱ doesn't, but I've read in the same note: "but for simplicity, ⟨m⟩ is used here". Why such a distinguo is made here? In Italian a nasal always assimilates to the following consonant, so ŋ can be found just before k and g while ɱ can be found just before f and v. If it's for simplicity, then also ŋ should be transcribed as n (since, unlike in other languages, in Italian this sound can't be found elsewhere). But this makes the transcription less accurate. Then, why doesn't ɱ have its own place in the list? It's weird to me such a different treatment... Could you enlighten me about this issue, please? Foniasin (talk) 09:27, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

@Foniasin: Although I've made a few edits to that page over the years, I've only been putting things straight after someone has damaged the page. In fact, I don't understand either IPA or Italian, so cannot help you. I suggest you post at Help talk:IPA/Italian, where your question will be seen by all the editors maintaining that page. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:30, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

Happy holidays!

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2019!

Hello John of Reading, may you be surrounded by peace, success and happiness on this seasonal occasion. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Sending you a heartfelt and warm greetings for Christmas and New Year 2019.
Happy editing,
Dreamy Jazz 🎷 talk to me | my contributions 21:34, 23 December 2018 (UTC)

Spread the love by adding {{subst:Seasonal Greetings}} to other user talk pages.

@Dreamy Jazz: Thank you! -- John of Reading (talk) 08:34, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

Do you know anything about how to answer people's questions about donating?

Since you helped me link to Jimbo's more welcoming page about donations, I was hoping you could help with something related.

A couple of Help Desk questions were from people who had donated and were still getting the message that they should donate, and of course they were told no one has any way to know who donated and prevent those banners from appearing. The only way is to register for a username and add that to their preferences.

I looked at WP:FAQ and didn't see anyplace to put that type of information.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 23:00, 6 December 2018 (UTC)

@Vchimpanzee: Maybe we need to add Wikipedia:FAQ/Donations? Apparently the nagging banner is supposed to limit itself using cookies - there's a discussion here with input from WMF people. I don't know any low-level details myself. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:34, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
I wonder who we would ask to add that. It's a good idea.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 18:11, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
Several more people have had the same complaint on the Help Desk.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:35, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

Merry Christmas

Redrose64 🌹 (talk) is wishing you a Merry Christmas! This greeting (and season) promotes WikiLove and hopefully this note has made your day a little better. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Happy New Year!

Spread the cheer by adding {{subst:Xmas6}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

--Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 12:32, 25 December 2018 (UTC)

Thank you, Redrose64! -- John of Reading (talk) 08:03, 26 December 2018 (UTC)

Best wishes for a happy 2019

The Hill Country (c.1913) by Walter Elmer Schofield, Woodmere Art Museum.
Thank you for your contributions toward making Wikipedia a better and more accurate place.
BoringHistoryGuy (talk) 16:36, 31 December 2018 (UTC)
@BoringHistoryGuy: Thank you, and a happy new year to you also. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:54, 31 December 2018 (UTC)

Gemma Atkinson

Hi John,

' but you didn't support your changes with a citation to a reliable source, so I removed it.'.....the reliable source is myself watching the repeat today of 'The Chaser: Celebrity Special' episode where all this happened. (shown as Series 5, Episode 8 in my TV guide) The programme originally aired in 2015, I think.

As the entire prize money on this show all went to 4 charities, it should probably also be under Charity Work rather than the existing 'Reality television' heading.

195.147.32.238 (talk) 21:52, 16 January 2019 (UTC) Frank

By all means put the information back with that TV show as the reference. If you've worked with Wikipedia templates at all, you could try formatting the reference with {{Cite episode}}. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:03, 17 January 2019 (UTC)

Formatting issue

Hi, John! Thank you so much for fixing that! Since you seem to know your way around, could you maybe have a look at this issue some time? Unfortunately, I didn't get any comments neither on HD nor at VP. Thanks in advance for any support! Best wishes--Hildeoc (talk) 13:59, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

@Hildeoc: Well, I've had a look, but this is beyond me. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:57, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
Okay, then thank you anyway! Do you know anybody else I could ask?? Greetings--Hildeoc (talk) 22:20, 24 January 2019 (UTC)
@Hildeoc: Have you tried filing a phab: ticket, per WP:BUGS? --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 00:54, 25 January 2019 (UTC)
@Redrose64: Thank you for commenting! No, I haven't, since I'm afraid I'm not at all familiar with "Phabricator" – sorry! But if you (or anybody else) want to, please feel free to take it there! I'd be glad if that bug could be fixed. Best wishes--Hildeoc (talk) 05:35, 25 January 2019 (UTC)

Thank you for being one of Wikipedia's top medical contributors!

The 2018 Cure Award
In 2018 you were one of the top ~250 medical editors across any language of Wikipedia. Thank you from Wiki Project Med Foundation for helping bring free, complete, accurate, up-to-date health information to the public. We really appreciate you and the vital work you do! Wiki Project Med Foundation is a user group whose mission is to improve our health content. Consider joining here, there are no associated costs.

Thanks again :-) -- Doc James along with the rest of the team at Wiki Project Med Foundation 17:41, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

George Goodman replaced: an Henschel Hs 126 → a Henschel Hs 126)

This is incorrect. H is prefaced by an because it is an aspirant. Hence an Henschel, not a Henschel.MarkRS53 (talk) 05:10, 27 January 2019 (UTC)

@MarkRS53: Really? I've changed only two of these, I think, at Edgar Kain and George Goodman (RAF officer), and there are currently over 50 examples of "a Henschel" and only 1 remaining example of "an Henschel". The figures for "Heinkel" are similar, 250+ with a versus 3 with an, and in this case the Heinkel article gives the IPA pronunciation of the word. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:07, 27 January 2019 (UTC)

What can I say, English grammar is going to hell! The question is, do we go with the majority or the authority?MarkRS53 (talk) 05:02, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

@MarkRS53: Since Henschel and Heinkel are both German surnames, I'm assuming that they have the same initial "h" sound. The IPA link in the Heinkel article says the pronunciation is "German pronunciation: [haɪŋkəl]", with a link to Help:IPA/Standard German, which says this is "h" as in "hut". And the search statistics for "a hut"/"an hut" are nearly unanimous: 1000+/one old example from Wikisource. That matches the explanation at Indefinite article, which I am trying to follow when making these edits. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:50, 28 January 2019 (UTC)
Not a native speaker of English nor of German, and not having formally studied any language (though trying my amateur best at as many as I can attack), I feel inclined to opt for "a Henschel" and "a Heinkel". That is basing upon a preference to follow local language, in these cases the "H" being very audible, not to say "blown". But I humbly admit to not having the faintest idea about the meaning of aspirant - I reckon I ought to look it up, one day soon. Jan olieslagers (talk) 18:32, 30 January 2019 (UTC)
@MarkRS53: what or who is the "authority" you are referring to? I always understood it is characteristic of the English language, and even essential to its character, to NOT be governed by any authority - in stark contrast to French and its Academie Francaise? Jan olieslagers (talk) 18:40, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

Dabmaster8

FYI, Dabmaster8 is still adding maps to city articles in many states. This person hasn't responded to your comment or my comment. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 05:36, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

@Sbmeirow: This may be a matter for the admin noticeboard, but I'm very uneasy about getting involved in behavioural issues. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:41, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

WikiLove: Kitten!

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

Spread the goodness of kittens by adding {{subst:Kitten}} to someone's talk page with a friendly message, or kittynap their kitten with {{subst:Kittynap}}

Thanks for being so helpful everywhere! Elfabet (talk) 19:05, 1 February 2019 (UTC)

@Elfabet: Thank you! -- John of Reading (talk) 19:17, 1 February 2019 (UTC)

Indefinite article with "eutherian" and other words

Hi, although I would write "a eutherian", because I now pronounce the "eu" as the word "you", the problem is that those who speak other dialects of English don't. Those that pronounce the "eu" as the "oo" in "boo" (as I did when was younger and still spoke with the local accent) naturally and correctly write "an eutherian". In plant articles we have this problem endlessly with "a/an herb..." It seems to me that the advice at Wikipedia:WikiProject_Plants#"A" or "an" with "herb..." applies here too; rather than changing "an" to "a" (which will inevitably later be reversed), re-word to avoid the indefinite article. Peter coxhead (talk) 14:19, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

@Peter coxhead: I'm aware of (h)erb and have not changed any of those; that's mentioned at Article (grammar)#Indefinite article and at wikt:herb. But I wasn't aware of any controversy over the pronunciation of the eu- prefix. The Eutheria article begins with its IPA pronunciation, and both Oxford Dictionaries (UK) and Merriam-Webster (US) agree.
But if you'd still prefer me to stop changing any occurrences of "an eu", I can adjust my AWB settings. I have a very long list of articles to work through, and there are plenty of other errors. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:39, 4 February 2019 (UTC)
It's tricky. I can't find the interaction right now, but I have previously discussed the pronunciation of initial "eu" with an editor. As I'm originally from East Anglia, where it's "bootiful", I did understand that one of the reasons that editors write text like "an eutherian" is because they pronounce it differently. Of course another is that they blindly follow the a rule "'an' before a word beginning with a vowel", and I suspect this is the most common. I'm not opposed to the correction you made, merely saying that if you had time, judicious re-wording is better. Peter coxhead (talk) 16:21, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Original Barnstar
. Sigh 18:26, 4 February 2019 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
.. Sigh 18:26, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

— Preceding unsigned comment added by SighV3TO (talk • contribs) 18:26, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

@SighV3TO: Thank you! I hope you settle in at Wikipedia and enjoy your time here. -- John of Reading (talk) 18:49, 4 February 2019 (UTC)
   @John_of_Reading. You're welcome. You deserve it.
   
  -SighV3TO

A barnstar for you

The Copyeditor's Barnstar
For continuing to clean up my grammar and spelling mistakes many thanks.--Navops47 (talk) 07:19, 27 February 2019 (UTC)
Thank you, Navops47! -- John of Reading (talk) 07:20, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

Jack Pickford

Hi: Apologies in advance if I'm not submitting this query properly. There is a book currently being used as a source on both the Jack Pickford and Olive Thomas pages: Stardust and Shadows Canadians in Early Hollywood by Charles Foster. This book does not use sources (no footnotes, endnotes, nothing) for its information and has been called out by others for appearing to mix fact with fiction and to repeat many of the rumours that circulated in the tabloids at the time in Hollywood. When mentioning Olive Thomas' death, the entry on Jack's page currently reads: "She was intoxicated and tired, and took a large dose of mercury bichloride, prescribed to topically treat sores caused by Pickford's chronic syphilis." On Olive's page, it currently reads: "An intoxicated and tired Thomas ingested mercury bichloride liquid solution. It had been prescribed to Pickford to topically treat sores caused by his chronic syphilis." Both use Foster's book as a source. There has never been any confirmation of Jack having this disease so at least the entries should include "rumoured to have been prescribe." Could this please be fixed? The last time I tried (a few years ago), I was told I couldn't change it because of the Foster book being used as a source. Thanks for your help! Madcapheiress25 (talk) 21:08, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

@Madcapheiress25: You will need to find published sources that give the contrary view, so that the sentences with the Foster reference could say something like: According to Charles Foster, ... [14] but this has been disputed.[15] Then readers will be aware of the conflicting sources and can look at the reference section to decide on their relative worth. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:45, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Thank you

Thank you for fixing the typo!

Ridebuilder5 (talk) 14:51, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

One the various bots missed

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frank_Stamp&oldid=877446844 – Talk about confusing (talk) 10:38, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Bots are never allowed to fix spellings, as it's too difficult (WP:SPELLBOT). But I've just done a search for "to flea" and corrected nine more articles that were wrong. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:49, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Question about an edit

Hi @John of Reading:, I noticed your edit to Hollywood Presbyterian and was wondering if you could explain to me the change to state's and hospital's? I can't see the difference between what was there before and what you changed it to, and it's driving me nuts. :) Schazjmd (talk) 21:59, 19 March 2019 (UTC)

@Schazjmd: I changed those from a curly apostrophe ’ to a straight apostrophe '. This is recommended by the Wikipedia manual of style at MOS:PUNCT. I wouldn't bother saving an edit where that was the only change, but if I am fixing a "real" spelling mistake in an article, I allow AutoWikiBrowser to make those tiny changes at the same time. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:57, 20 March 2019 (UTC)
Aha! I guess that difference is too subtle for me to see, but now I can stop obsessing over it. Thanks for explaining, @John of Reading:, I appreciate the lesson. :) Schazjmd (talk) 13:08, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Barnstar of Diligence
Thank you for the help with my bot and fixing its edits! DannyS712 (talk) 09:34, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

Jonathan Boardman's alma maters

I have re-looked at my Crockfords. He went to both!

Magdalene College Cambridge BA 1989 Magdalen College Oxford MA 1990Crockford's on-line

BashereyreBashereyre (talk) 18:56, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

@Bashereyre: Ah, hence my confusion! Thanks for checking. -- John of Reading (talk) 19:59, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

Discussion at Wikipedia_talk:Tutorial#Headings

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia_talk:Tutorial#Headings. Mstrojny (talk) 20:09, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

Hans Diekmann

Hi there, its me again. You said i can sent you another call for help. Can you have a look at my new article? Thanks --Tronje07 (talk) 13:01, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

 Done -- John of Reading (talk) 13:18, 27 March 2019 (UTC)
Many thanks :) --Tronje07 (talk) 13:36, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

Abyssal returns

Hello, John. I'm happy to say that I've nearly prepared those lists of prehistoric life by US state for more attention from you. I expect to finish sometime early next week. Will you have time to help me out again with these? Abyssal (talk) 16:52, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

@Abyssal: Welcome back! Yes, I've been watching your edits to your "captions" page and was expecting you to post here eventually. -- John of Reading (talk) 19:55, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
Just finished up! Mind running the original caption fixing operation? Abyssal (talk) 02:18, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
@Abyssal:  Done, but the edits only changed a few sizes. Is that what you were expecting? If not, please give an example of an article and an image name that should have been updated, and I'll try to work out what went wrong. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:40, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
There were definitely fewer changes than I expected. What is the list of articles you were modifying? Did it include the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and general prehistoric articles? Abyssal (talk) 14:50, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
@Abyssal: Yes, everything from User:Abyssal/Articles to caption as usual. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:53, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
Maybe that really was everything. OK. I've got a more important job for you coming up. I'll try to get a list of instructions to you soon. :) Abyssal (talk) 15:08, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
Well, this didn't take as long as I thought it would. here is what I need from you. I'm not one hundred percent settled on the listed "total width" for the templates with two images, so we may need to tweak that in the future, but I think this operation will make the lists look much nicer. :D Abyssal (talk) 16:07, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

Lincrusta edit question

You seem to have been the main contributor for the Lincrusta page. I have two images of a rare example of Lincrusta wall art that was found behind a mirror above the fireplace in my house when I renovated. I have no idea how to upload them in an edit. I tried twice and the system said it couldn't verify that the images were 'mine'. They are. Most of the examples of this type of Lincrusta were destroyed in renovations. My house was built custom in 1920, and there's a good chance that it's been there since then, or shortly thereafter. I will try to attach them here, but have no idea if it will work. They are located in a private home in Bellevue, Pennsylvania. And even though it totally altered my living room plans, I didn't have the heart to destroy it. This may be one of the only examples of Lincrusta as wall art that exists. I tried attaching and the system won't accept. How can I get them to you?

William in Bellevue — Preceding unsigned comment added by Timoria63 (talk • contribs) 00:25, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

Lincrusta (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
@Timoria63: No, I only fixed a grammar error in that article, back in 2011. To upload the pictures, you would use the Upload Wizard at Wikimedia Commons, but I suggest you ask at this help page first. If the artwork dates from the 1920s, a copyright may still be held by the artist/company that created the work. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:19, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

Typo fixing on ship articles

Hi John of Reading, many thanks for your cleaning up of the typos I leave behind. After one of your catches I usually take the opportunity to recheck the articles further. I often find other typos (I am pretty good at making them), or opportunities to update things, introduce templates, etc. Bit by bit the articles and WP get better. Regards, Acad Ronin (talk) 18:53, 11 April 2019 (UTC)

@Acad Ronin: Thankyou! And your ship articles sometimes look so interesting in the AWB window that I jump out to read them properly in my browser. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:27, 12 April 2019 (UTC)

Portal:Freedom of The Press listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Portal:Freedom of The Press. Since you had some involvement with the Portal:Freedom of The Press redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. UnitedStatesian (talk) 02:12, 20 April 2019 (UTC)

Two-column portals

Hi John of Reading -- back in 2015 your bot converted many portals to use a mobile-compatible format. This worked ok on my two portals, but appears to have broken others such that they are permanently single column. I'm trying to understand what happened to Portal:Amusement parks, so that I can set it back to the intended two-column style. I and others have tried various things but to no avail, so I wonder if you could troubleshoot? Espresso Addict (talk) 14:32, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

Replied at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals#Reverting portals to the manual version -- John of Reading (talk) 14:51, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Special Barnstar
The Special Barnstar is awarded to a user as a gesture of appreciation when there is no other barnstar which would be appropriate. XTMontana (talk) 14:07, 8 May 2019 (UTC)
@XTMontana: Thank you! -- John of Reading (talk) 14:09, 8 May 2019 (UTC)
@John of Reading: Thanks for all the editing you do, some of which goes unnoticed, we appreciate what you do! --XTMontana (talk) 14:10, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

Dissapearance of William Morgan in 1826

Hello,

I had edited the 1826 page with the dissapearance of William Morgan. I'm not that skilled at the technical aspect of editing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morgan_(anti-Mason) This is the page of William Morgan (anti-Mason)

http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/uniontodisunion/exhibits/show/freemasons-and-the-murder-of-w/the-disappearance-of-william-m

This is the source of his dissapearance.

Regards.

Repentingjudas — Preceding unsigned comment added by Repentingjudas (talk • contribs) 21:11, 10 May 2019 (UTC)

@Repentingjudas: Thank you for getting back to me. I've undone my edit and fixed the article link. I've also left you some "getting started" links on your talk page. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:19, 10 May 2019 (UTC)

Translation query

if i do not know how to say a certain word or word in english, then is it allowed to help yourself in using google translate? i know that some websites are against rules, is that so? (i'm really right now so if there is no permission then please avoid punishment.Atlantic Channel (talk) 21:25, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

@Atlantic Channel: It should be OK to use Google Translate to help you with a word or phrase, especially if you can find another way to check Google's suggestion. One way to check is to use Google Translate back again, asking it to translate the English back into Hindi and Assamese. Another would be to check the English word by searching in Wiktionary. But try not to rely on Google Translate for whole sentences or longer text, because it is not reliable enough for that. -- John of Reading (talk) 05:16, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
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