User talk:Peterfitzgerald/Archives 2012

This is an archive of discussions on my talk page from 2012. No further edits should be made to this page.

Climate data

Hi, Peter... I noticed you reverted a change to the D.C. climate data... the same IP user changed NYC, WDW, and NOLA as well; should they be reverted as well? (WT-en) LtPowers 22:28, 10 January 2012 (EST)

Yes, unless they can explain where they are getting their figures, and why we should use them over the NOAA figures. --Peter ^Talk 22:01, 11 January 2012 (EST)

I didn't see this discussion and actually reverted the anonymous user's changes earlier after leaving a note on User talk:67.169.134.89. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 22:20, 11 January 2012 (EST)

RE: Maryland articles

Hey Peter, thank you for the compliments! I've been pretty busy lately but it would be awesome to help out getting an article up to Destination of the Month status, so I'll see what I can do. :) (WT-en) travelguy101 19:52, 6 February 2012 (EST)

SQL dump access for Evopedia 2012 edition

Peter, I am working with the Evopedia project http://evopedia.info/ to process the yearly wikipedia dumps. If you could provide us with a recent SQL database dump for each language you choose to share we could include wikivoyage in our available databases useful to travelers relying on their mobile device as an offline Hitchikers Guide to World. This would of course also be good exposure for Internet Brands. thanks David you can reach me at dj hat personaltelco.net

Very unfortunately, there is no SQL dump available, and our hosting company has refused to provide one (or even discuss it). I will contact you if/when one becomes available. --Peter ^Talk 10:46, 12 February 2012 (EST)

Bywater Photo

The art you reference is making fun of the Blue Dog art by George Rodrigue. It's a run over Blue Dog meant to poke fun at this artist who made a lot of money selling his Blue Dog folk art. This particular graffiti artist has posted the run over image of the blue dog in many locations. It has nothing to do with being a cat neighborhood. —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) 98.164.83.118 (talk • contribs)

Cool—I definitely didn't know what it was about. But my caption was fully tongue in cheek! --Peter ^Talk 17:58, 10 March 2012 (EST)

Help with a districts map

Hi Peter. Nice work on cleaning up Project:How to draw a map. I thought I'd have a go at districtifying Dhaka, after you'd updated the instructions. I did manage fairly well to transform the OSM map to our standards. But it's still a little messy, mostly because the OSM mapping of Dhaka was quite disorganised. I'm having some issues applying the coloured district shading over the top of the map; I can't get a good level of precision and it always looks wonky or overlapped. Did you want to have a go if you get a chance? I've got another PNG which is a rough outline of where the district borders should be. Let me know if you've got time, and I can post the SVG-in-progress. If not, no problems at all. Thanks, (WT-en) JamesA ^>talk 08:13, 24 May 2012 (EDT)

Thanks Peter, and no problem about the delay. I'll upload the files somewhere when you're ready. I continually saved the map as I progressed, but will give you the most recent one to work with. (WT-en) JamesA ^>talk 02:31, 3 June 2012 (EDT)

Edit window resizing

[[Image:Editwindowproblem.png|thumb|500px|Short edit window]] Has anyone else had their edit window become tiny lately? --Peter ^Talk 18:41, 21 October 2011 (EDT)

It's the same issue as #Preferences Reseting?. Go to User Preferences → Editing and make sure that your "Rows" and "Columns" are something like "25" and "80", respectively. Has happened to me twice in the past three days. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 18:58, 21 October 2011 (EDT)

But then it will go back to normal without my going into my preferences. Strange. -Peter ^Talk 19:23, 21 October 2011 (EDT)

Only happens sometimes for me, too... I'm trying to detect a pattern. (WT-en) LtPowers 21:39, 21 October 2011 (EDT)

It has happened many times lately with me. When that happens, the changes list at Recent changes also becomes completely empty. Not sure what it is, but seems like a connection problem? --(WT-en) globe-trotter 04:59, 22 October 2011 (EDT)

This was reported to tech last week. All of this is a result of random preferences resetting -- you can work around it by manually selecting Edit Preferences in your profile. It has been affecting me for the last 2 weeks as well.--(WT-en) IBobi 21:00, 24 October 2011 (EDT)

I still have this problem. Also, the preview function does not work. The Dutch Wikivoyage works fine, so I hope this issue could be fixed shortly. --(WT-en) Globe-trotter 00:34, 14 November 2011 (EST)

The above message was swept in from the pub. (WT-en) JamesA ^>talk 04:14, 4 June 2012 (EDT)

Only new tabs load?

Another bizarre problem: often trying to open a link will result in a never-ending page load (no content accessed). I also have this problem when hitting go on special:recentchanges. But if I open the link in a new window/tab, then it loads promptly. Firefox. And no idea what's going on. Anyone else? --Peter ^Talk 18:47, 21 October 2011 (EDT)

Man, this site works way better in Accra then in D.C. ... --Peter ^Talk 02:22, 29 November 2011 (EST)

The above message was swept in from the pub. (WT-en) JamesA ^>talk 04:14, 4 June 2012 (EDT)

Myer Centre

You know that I was gassed there three times, right?

Didn't realize you were on Wikivoyage in those days - thanks for the trip down memory lane :) -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 00:11, 12 June 2012 (EDT)

I wasn't on wikiatravel, i also got gassed. --14:09, 12 June 2012 (EDT)~

Fork discussion

Peter, while I respect the community's right to discuss in good faith anything constructive pertaining to Wikivoyage, I think you can see that the discussion at hand is neither constructive nor in good faith. By discussing a fork -- the results of which, as all concerned know very well, would be highly destructive to the community here -- the discussion itself serves the exact same purpose as allowing its ends to be touted here. Which you and LtPowers have already objected to. It is a backdoor method to attempt to subvert the purpose of this community, and I am removing it again. If you wish to discuss this with me here or offline I am open to it. If you need me to explain further my reasoning, I can. But I think you can see it plain as day.--(WT-en) IBobi 17:27, 2 July 2012 (EDT)

Since you keep edit warring, and violating site policy by removing my objecting comments(!), it will be clear to no one that anyone other than IB thinks that it would be improper to promote the potential Wikimedia fork here, or that there are appropriate venues elsewhere. In any rate, let's keep this discussion in one place. --Peter ^Talk 17:58, 2 July 2012 (EDT)

Jani has continued to post inappropriate links to the competing fork discussion, and has now added one to his personal blog at http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:Travellers%27_pub#Moving_to_Wikimedia. I'd like to remove those 3 links. Will you support?--(WT-en) IBobi talk email 13:37, 12 July 2012 (EDT)

I'm currently at the Wikimania conference along with other people involved with the current proposal, along with members of the WMF, and a representative from IB. We have had some really productive meetings, but I must say that the notion of censorship on Wikivoyage has come up numerous times, and is casting your company in a bad light, provoking a lot more support for this proposal (which is still just a proposal) than I think it would have otherwise received. I understand if you don't trust that I'm trying to give you legitimate advice, but please understand that I care about what goes on here just as much as I do about what goes on with the WMF proposal, and the quality of this site will depend on IB's response to ongoing events.

I'm in agreement with the position of other contributors here who are leery of using Wikivoyage (outside our personal pages) as a platform for extended discussion of other projects, but am not interested in abetting outright censorship. --Peter ^Talk 17:36, 12 July 2012 (EDT)

If jpatokal and other admins were discussing ways to sabotage the servers upon which this site runs, would you also be in favor of simply sitting back and allowing them to formulate a plan? There is no policy against that. It has to do with this site, and other admins would be involved. Where's the line? Hiding behind what is written consensus policy and what is not just becomes ludicrous at some point. We're past that point.--(WT-en) IBobi talk email 17:48, 12 July 2012 (EDT)

They are not doing that. A project fork is something that we have always recognized as an option when people don't think things are going well here. It is absolutely portrayed as a last resort, of course, but trying to hide that it is happening now is not, I think, useful for anyone involved. At Project:How to handle unwanted edits#Project fork, our policy states: If possible, it would be nice to make forks "friendly" -- understanding that people may see things in different ways, or may want to get to our goals by different paths. It's better for our project to have Fellow Travellers than rivals. While the gulf remains pretty huge between IB and the Wikivoyage community, and it may turn out to be unbridgeable, having a mature discussion about it is useful anyway, and I'm happy to say that User:(WT-en) Evan and I have been having very productive discussions with Chuck, IB's CMO, at Wikimania about what went wrong, what people are thinking and planning, and what, if any, common ground we can find to work with.

Multiple people I have never met or spoke with before, and who have not previously been Wikivoyage editors have pointed to your attempted removal of others' posts as the number one thing that signaled that they should get involved in helping a fork get going in my discussions with other Wikimania attendees. I really think it's bad for our community here, it's bad for any potential future for any community of volunteers at this site, and it's bad for you and your company to try and cover this type of thing up. Say things fall out completely, and we all leave, and Wikivoyage the domain goes nowhere. The best thing that IB could salvage out of that would at least be an understanding of what went wrong and how to prevent it in the future. My answers to that would be pro-active involvement in the community project itself—editing articles, taking part in policy discussions, being "one of us", being more open in discussions about governance, and obviously taking tech support seriously. Or you can clamp down, ignore the cultural problems that led to a fork proposal, further alienate people here and people in the future on other projects, and miss an opportunity for growth of the not-directly-related-to-revenue-generation variety. --Peter ^Talk 18:18, 12 July 2012 (EDT)

Thanks Peter. I'm glad you had time to meet with Chuck. I know you're aware that neither I nor anyone at IB has even attempted to censor any editorial content or even discussion, other than this issue, in my time here. I wish you'd make that clear when discussing things with them. This issue is unique and I think you and others have a clear conflict of interest in both supporting the WMF fork and allowing the potentially destructive -- and demonstrably inappropriate/in poor taste -- fork discussion to take place on this site. We'll have to agree to disagree on this one.--(WT-en) IBobi talk email 19:23, 12 July 2012 (EDT)

Keep in mind that in open-software circles, a fork is often considered healthy for both sides. When a fork occurs, it's due to a split in the community; after the fork, both the old and the new have a chance to develop the product in the way they feel best. This frees the contributors from acrimonious discussion and allows them to get back to creating great things. (WT-en) LtPowers 19:32, 12 July 2012 (EDT)

I would also like to assure you that I am not at all going around bashing IB, and do my best to portray things as objectively and accurately as possible—if I want to go negative and bash people, I'll do it to their face ;P. On the contrary, I want to move past discussions of the past when they come up, and to focus on what positive things can come out of a potential future with the WMF, above all establishing community control of data and tech support, attracting contributors alienated by perceived commercialization, and the re-uniting of the fractured pieces (Wikivoyage, Wikia Travel, and Wikivoyage) of a movement with one goal: "to create a free, complete, up-to-date, and reliable worldwide travel guide" that anyone can edit and re-use. --Peter ^Talk 19:41, 12 July 2012 (EDT)

Vandalism on fr:

It looks like you're an admin on French Wikivoyage - would you mind cleaning up after fr:Spécial:Contributions/217.209.82.165? He's hit several language versions with mostly harmless vandalism (and has been blocked on several language versions), but it would be nice to have clean content. Thanks! -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 23:34, 8 July 2012 (EDT)

This should be something I should be able to do in a couple minutes at most, but it's taking forever to load the damn delete pages. I get this often when I send a lot of rapid requests to Wikivoyage (usually opening background tabs from recent changes). Is that a deliberate thing on IB's part? --Peter ^Talk 02:28, 9 July 2012 (EDT)

And another joker added a spam link to every country page on the site. I should be able to undo that with one click, but instead, I have to click all 130 or so rollback links, and w a a a i i i i t t for them to load

Thanks! We've got a handful of language versions that have been greatly neglected - fi is another, and I don't think it has an active admin. As to performance, I think User:(WT-en) IBobi said some new caching thing was being put in place today that may or may not help. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 11:22, 9 July 2012 (EDT)

Yep -- cacheing change is in effect. I put a note in the Shared Pub. Site speed should slowly build back up to and then exceed last week's performance, and most upgrade bugs should already be resolved.--(WT-en) IBobi 18:49, 9 July 2012 (EDT)

Every time I think we should just shut down editing, I see that we have contributions ongoing like this one [1] — huge amounts of original content! --Peter ^Talk 14:25, 9 July 2012 (EDT)

One additional request - can you delete fr:Fichier:Morocco Trips, Marrakech Tours, Fes Trips, Morocco Camel ride, Camel Trekking Morocco, Marrakech Camel Treks, Marrakech to Fes desert tours, Fes to Marrakech desert tours, tailor made Tours Morocco, 3 days, 4days, 5, days Tours a.JPG? It's an ad (ya think?), and the long filename is problematic. Thanks! -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 13:45, 11 July 2012 (EDT)

What a cool photo, though—almost a shame to delete it. But... I don't have time for this, so it's gone ;) --Peter ^Talk 17:31, 11 July 2012 (EDT)

Thanks! -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 18:03, 11 July 2012 (EDT)

Russia stuff

Nice work with the formalising of Russia stuff. My Russian is pretty poor, but I wrote most of the RFE articles originally, plus the Kolyma Highway article. I would be happy to help out with whatever else my expertise can stretch to, though if you're able to tap the domestic traveller info, you're probably already way ahead. (WT-en) Kcharles 18:07, 18 July 2012 (EDT)

Vatican City

Hello,

Please do not just erase useful information in an article. If you want to contribute, please do so without deleting.

Magamma —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) Magamma (talk • contribs)

I don't really understand your comment. The only work of yours that I deleted was "which opperates from The Vatican City," which had syntactical, spelling, and grammatical problems, and is redundant with earlier mentions in the article. Also, you can sign your talk page comments by typing four tildes (~~~~). If you don't have tildes on your keyboard, you can click the link next to "Sign your name" below the edit window --Peter ^Talk 00:47, 20 July 2012 (EDT)

Sanliurfa Page/ Abraham's Path

Hi there You keep undoing my addition of AP to the Sanliurfa page under 'do'. I represent the Path in Turkey. It is a walkway like the Pennine Way or the Lycian Way or the Way of St. James. It is a cultural route and not a trek sold by village home stays. It exists as a separate entity from village home stays, and it will exist long after village home stays has bitten the dust. I happen to be the spokesperson for Village Home Stays (I am its creator, but I don't own it, I just act as an intermediary between foreign visitors and village home owners)and also the representative in Turkey of the cultural trekking route: Abraham's Path. The Path stretches from Sanliurfa to Hebron, and I organize the Turkish bit (way marking, mapping, planning walks for people etc). So, Abraham's Path and Village Home Stays are not a double listing. One is a walk which is open to the public, like the Pennine Way; one is accommodation. I happen to represent both of them. Please see the international site at www.abrahampath.org and also the Turkey Culture Routes site at www.culturetroutesinturkey.com. Many of the routes on that site are represented on Wikivoyage, so why not Abraham's Path? Abraham's Path has NOTHING to do with Village home stays except for the fact that I represent both of them, and Village Home Stays is on the Path, but then so are all of the other accommodations listed on the page. i.e. you can walk along AP in Turkey and stay at village home stays or the Hotel Arte or the Aslan Konuk Evi etc.

New Main Page Layout for Wikivoyage?

Hi Peter, I've just started a discussion concerning a new main page layout. You expressed interest in this in the Travellers' Pub, and I think that it's a wise thing for us to do. Let's talk more over there. Tsandell (talk) 15:41, 14 September 2012 (CEST)

Italian User:Gobbler needs assistance

He seems to be having password problems: http://www.wikivoyage.org/w/general/index.php?title=Interest_in_starting_a_new_language_version&diff=14243&oldid=14241

--W. Frank^e-mail_talk 23:30, 27 September 2012 (CEST)

Quick question

This may sound like a stupid question, but I haven't been able to find the answer anywhere on the site itself, so here goes.

Is there any way, with the new version of MediaWiki we've been using since the migration, to determine the length of any given article? In the History section it shows the amount of text added to or subtracted from the article with each new revision, but nowhere can I find any information about the total number of bytes.

-- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 20:23, 1 October 2012 (CEST)

Hmm, unfortunately it looks to be difficult. You can always check at special:longpages, but you can't filter by name. --Peter ^Talk 20:46, 1 October 2012 (CEST)

Not difficult Peterfitzgerald. Need to edit LocalSettings.php file with some codes and we can see article size in the page history. I guess Hansm can do it. --Saqib (talk) 20:54, 1 October 2012 (CEST)

Delete dormant RfC?

Should you delete your concluded RfC about Wikivoyage_talk:External_links#Taxis from 2011, now consensus has been reached, Peter? --W. Frank^e-mail_talk 16:16, 2 October 2012 (CEST)

Please would you now favour me with a response to my question above Should you now delete your concluded RfC from 2011: Requests_for_comment#Policy ? --W. Frank^e-mail_talk 20:11, 7 October 2012 (CEST)

Wikivoyage:Edit war

Please would you answer the 3 questions I have asked you here, Sir? --W. Frank^e-mail_talk 20:11, 7 October 2012 (CEST)

New Mexico Pueblos

Thank you for the map and the nomination! The map looks splendid, although there's one tiny mistake - US 530 should actually be US 550. Other than that though, looks great! PerryPlanet (talk) 08:08, 1 November 2012 (CET)

Yeah, the map looks great; well done! You might also want to upload the SVG file for future modifications. JamesA ^>talk 09:52, 1 November 2012 (CET)

I'd love to, but see wts:Travellers'_pub#Filesize_issue. --Peter ^Talk 15:08, 1 November 2012 (CET)

Oh, that's a bummer. Knew there had to be a reason. JamesA ^>talk 00:41, 3 November 2012 (CET)

Districting Buffalo

I've been trying to put together a sort of mental game plan regarding districting the Buffalo article. I'd really prefer to avoid putting off its DotM month yet again, but at the same time I'd hate for May 1st to roll around and the process is not yet complete. This is uncharted territory for me as concerns my past contributions to Wikitravel/Wikivoyage, so I have no real way of knowing how long the process will take.

What I'd like to do is to create the district articles first, leaving them as orphans until the process is complete. I'll copy information as needed from the current incarnation of the Buffalo article, but I will NOT delete that information from the main article until all 7 district articles are ready to go live - at which point I'll delete the information from the main article in one fell swoop, and de-orphan the district articles with links to the main one. That way, if the work of districting Buffalo is not complete by May, at least our site's visitors can click on the DotM link and see the article more or less as it is today, rather than as a half-complete mess where some of the content is moved over to the district articles and some isn't.

I wanted to make sure and run this by you first, being that you're more likely than I am to know whether any of the foregoing violates Wikivoyage protocol. Better to bother you on your talk page and redraw plans as necessary, IMO, than run afoul of Wikivoyage's admins.

-- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 00:16, 2 November 2012 (CET)

I might recommend instead doing the work in your userspace. Just make a copy at User:AndreCarrotflower/Buffalo and then start making districts at User:AndreCarrotflower/Buffalo/Downtown, for example. --Peter ^Talk 00:23, 2 November 2012 (CET)

By the way, are the districts boundaries at File:Buffalo_Districts.jpg good to go? If so, I'll hop to and make a map by the end of next week. --Peter ^Talk 00:24, 2 November 2012 (CET)

Thanks, that's an even better idea. And to answer your question, yes - and if you need clarification on where exactly the boundaries lie (I'm thinking specifically of the ones between the West Side and North Buffalo and between the East Side and South Buffalo, but there are probably others as well), feel free to ask. Thank you so much for your help on the map issue. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 00:33, 2 November 2012 (CET)

Updated File:Buffalo districts map.png with district boundaries.

I've seen UB's Buffalo neighborhood map many times before; it's by far the easiest such map to find on Google, but personally I find this map [2] more accurate. That's the basis for the boundaries I drew up for Wikivoyage, with a few simplifications and modifications.

When I drew up File:Buffalo_Districts.jpg, I left the question of which district Delaware Park and Forest Lawn Cemetery (the giant green blob at top center) is located in intentionally ambiguous, but now that I know a little bit more about the whole process I realize that won't work. I intend to put those attractions in Buffalo/Allentown and the Delaware District due to what I project will be a lack of other material in that article, relative to some of the other districts. An exception will be the Buffalo Zoo, located within Delaware Park but which no one would dispute is a part of North Buffalo.

-- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 22:45, 2 November 2012 (CET)

Fantastic! That will make this job quite easy. --Peter ^Talk 23:38, 2 November 2012 (CET)

Related question: I went to OpenStreetMap to try and get started on the map I'll be making for the Clarence article, and I noticed there's a lot of clutter on the map - altitude markers, boundaries for the Clarence Center and Harris Hill CDP's, some stuff that I can't even identify - that wasn't on the version of File:Buffalo districts map.png that you sent me. Did you remove that stuff manually, or is there some option on OpenStreetMap that lets you control what is and isn't displayed?

Stupid question, I know, but I can't seem to find an answer for it on OpenStreetMap.

-- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 23:37, 4 November 2012 (CET)

I did it manually, and there's a step-by-step guide at Wikivoyage:How to draw a map#SVG imports from OSM. Let me know if there's anything you don't understand, and I'll be happy to help advise—it's always great to have a new mapmaker! --Peter ^Talk 18:40, 5 November 2012 (CET)

For smaller communities like Clarence, I sometimes find that cleaning up the OSM export is more work than just tracing all of the streets by hand. But I like tracing. =) LtPowers (talk) 18:57, 5 November 2012 (CET)

File:AssenDrentheMuseum.jpg

Can you move this file to some other name without a redirect? It's currently unused but presumably in scope on Commons, so please don't just delete it. The file is blocking another file on Wikimedia Commons and this is preventing me from updating a file link. --Stefan2 (talk) 23:40, 2 November 2012 (CET)

Done. --Peter ^Talk 23:50, 2 November 2012 (CET)

Some file names

You're a sysop on French Wikivoyage, right? Can you take a look at User:Stefan2/file links to update and replace files with Commons file names on some fully protected pages? --Stefan2 (talk) 19:01, 5 November 2012 (CET)

Will do very shortly. --Peter ^Talk 19:09, 5 November 2012 (CET)

Merge accounts

Peter, could you merge my account on ru? Thanks! --Alexander (talk) 22:33, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Done. It automatically deleted your old userpage and usertalk page, but you're an admin, so you can restore, move, merge, or whatever yourself ;) --Peter ^Talk 22:58, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Districting Buffalo

Hi Peter -

As you may or may not already know, I have begun the work of districting the Buffalo article. In fact, I have come close to completing the first district article: User:AndreCarrotflower/Downtown.

I'm in somewhat unfamiliar territory here, so I could use a little bit of advice from someone who's been around WT/WV longer than I have. I hope that you can help me nip in the bud anything I'm doing that is unnecessary or might be done differently. As you can see, there are some sections that remain to be filled out, but all the important stuff is complete - the See/Do/Eat/Drink/Sleep listings ("Buy" is empty as yet, but that will change), Get In/Get Around, and so forth.

Specific concerns I have:

• Is the "History" section too long? I'm a bit of a local history buff, so my first instinct is to drone on and on about it. I'm aware that such detail may be boring or not strictly necessary from a traveler's perspective, so I would like to know if I've "reeled it in" enough.

• Is there too much focus on public transportation?

• Anything else that might have gone completely over my head?

Thank you in advance for your help. I have high aspirations for my work on Buffalo—dare I say it, for it to eventually be mentioned in the same breath as the Chicago material—so I'm trying to hold my work to an equally high standard.

-- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 23:27, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Eagerly awaiting your image transfer instructions

Hi Peter, I was very pleased to see in the Pub that you are working on instructions that may clarify what the plan is for moving images into Commons, and where our Wikivoyage:Non-free_content#Exemption_Doctrine_Policy allows an image but Commons does not, for moving images into the en.Wikivoyage.org instance at WMF. The scattered instructions currently at Wikivoyage:Cleanup and at WTS are incomplete and therefore leave someone like myself a wee short of understanding quite how to help. I think there are many of us who want to help but who don't understand enough of the overall image transfer plan, assuming there is one, to do anything. The lack of transparent and clear information about the plan is also a credibility problem. The situation is complex enough that all of us will benefit from having one place to outline and detail it till we reach clarity and transparency on the various image transfer issues. I hope the instructions you are working on may serve as the one place where we can all get clue about the many issues involved and thus understand what we might usefully do to help. This image transfer topic needs focus--perhaps a single image transfer dedicated page on en.Wikivoyage with a talk page for questions. I think ordinary users like myself will be instrumental in getting the image transfer done, once someone like you takes on a leadership role and spells out for us clearly and transparently, with appropriate links to policies and details, what the plan is and how we can help. You knew all this; I'm with you, an eager reader, hoping to be helpful. Thanks! --Rogerhc (talk) 02:05, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

I've almost nailed down what I need to give the instructions... As soon as I do, I'll shout it from the mountaintops. --Peter ^Talk 03:13, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

I have not seen your flames on the mountaintop yet. But I did discover our Wikivoyage:Cleanup looks like a likely place to put your instructions. It has been the second link in the page top Wikivoyage site notice for some time now and should be the place to sort this stuff. The current text there sadly leaves one wondering if this whole project isn't quite hopeless. Just cut and paste the whole current content into its talk page and start over with your version, if you like. Plunge ahead in your own way. I will be right behind you. It is a wiki so what you write need not be perfect, just plunge. You don't need to know everything. We just need to get the community on ONE PAGE on this cleanup, to pool our view of the "plan", with talk on its talk page and clear writing in the article. Cheers! :-) --Rogerhc (talk) 06:31, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

I've updated it now. Please let me know if you have questions. Otherwise, time to get crackin'! --Peter ^Talk 23:09, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! In section Wikivoyage:Cleanup#How_to_tag I don't understand this bullet point:

• Once you are done with a category, tag it with {{done}} and proceed to t he next category!

Perhaps best to delete that point or clarify what cats it refers to and link to those cats. My guess is this bullet point is out of date and should be deleted. Yes? --Rogerhc (talk) 01:07, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, probably best to leave that one out for now. --Peter ^Talk 01:11, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Hi Peter, thanks for putting those instructions together on Wikivoyage:Cleanup. My free time has disappeared so I lost track of things and wasn't sure what the next step was. -Shaundd (talk) 05:50, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Hi Peter, now that we have your excellent instructions at Wikivoyage:Cleanup would you update the link in WTS site notice to link to it instead of to "WTS temporary refuge"? I plunged ahead and put a note on "WTS temporary refuge" (which please modify if I overstepped) but I cannot edit the site notice. I think folks really would prefer to use, and maintain, one set of instructions rather than two. Thanks! --Rogerhc (talk) 18:54, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Peter, could you please advise? Now that Wikivoyage:Cleanup is written and in excellent shape (yeah Collaboration of the Month!) I have been putting links to it on the various other places we were previously discussing this matter and asking folks to discuss it at Wikivayage:Cleanup now instead of the former scattered places so that we can have it in one comprehensible place for folks who would help us with this. Stephan2 is questioning this on my talk page. Could you have a look at this and let us know what you think: should the Wikivoyage:Cleanup page perhaps be moved to WTS or Meta? Should this matter be discussed in a more public place than my talk page? --Rogerhc (talk) 20:17, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Me again!

Hello, I'm This, that and the other, aka Another WTS gnome on WTS. (I initially didn't want to link my two identities, but I may as well do so now...) Since I have gained significant experience working on WTS (and other wikis under this name), I was wondering if you might reconsider my request for adminship on WTS so I can help delete transferred images (using Magog's tool) as well as cleaning out the obvious rubbish/copyvios/etc in the ignore category. This, that and the other (talk) 23:59, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

It helps to know who you are ;) And done. All hands on deck! --Peter ^Talk 00:16, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! This, that and the other (talk) 00:17, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

The Anomebot2

Hi! Thanks for your kind support. I've just made an edit at User talk:The Anomebot2, using the bot's own account. I hope this will have "created" the bot's presence in the Wikivoyage user table.. -- The Anome (talk) 00:08, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Switch flipped. --Peter ^Talk 00:34, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Thank you! It'll be a few days to a week before I start to make edits, and since I want to be sure I get the bot set up right before I let it loose in full-auto mode on 6000+ articles, I will at first start with only small semi-supervised test runs. -- The Anome (talk) 03:04, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Update: I've done a couple of test runs, and after tightening up the heuristics a bit, gone for a big run of roughly 1000 articles. I'll stop there for a few days, and see if there are any negative reactions. If not, I'll go on to complete the whole run. -- The Anome (talk) 22:37, 2 December 2012 (UTC)

Meta

Добрый день, Питер! Я сейчас обживаюсь в русском Wikivoyage, пожалуйста, подтвердите идентичность здесь и в Wikitravel (meta:Wikivoyage/Migration/New policies/Cross-identification of accounts/Verify#User:Sergey kudryavtsev). -- Sergey kudryavtsev (talk) 03:15, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

С возвращением! Рад, что вы вернулись. Я дал вам правы права администратора в русском разделе. Если вы хотите, я могу соединить ваш старые учётные записи с новыми. --Peter ^Talk 03:28, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Да, объедините, пожалуйста, в русском и английском разделах. А также с переместите личную страницу и страницу обсуждения, со всеми подсраницами на новое место. -- Sergey kudryavtsev (talk) 06:39, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Сделано.

Как поживаете? А у меня сыну уже четыре годика исполнилось, в среду был день рожденья. А ещё мы в прошлым летом Пежо 207 купили. Сейчас в Питере начались обильные снегопады, снег как всегда не убран. Вот только вчера вечером активно махал лопатой, чтобы разгрести место для парковки у дома. А лопатка маленькая, жена шутит — я тебе большую куплю, для похудения. ;-) -- Sergey kudryavtsev (talk) 06:39, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Жизнь моя идет своим чередом — никогда не скучна. Я недавно оставил свою работу, и с тех пор путешествую, учусь, а вообще трачу свои сбережения! Я собираюсь перейти и работать за границу на следующий год, может быть в Алматы или Бишкек. Хотел бы видеть Среднюю Азию, а тем временем восстанавливать мое постоянно ухудшающее владение вашего языка. --Peter ^Talk 07:36, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Питер, я сейчас обнаружил, что User:Sergey kudryavtsev защищена от редактирования, вы, вероятно, забыли снять блокировку. -- Sergey kudryavtsev (talk) 12:27, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

Да, забыл ;) Я сейчас снял защиту. --Peter ^Talk 12:45, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

User:IBdick

Hey Peter, I just want to call you attention to this edit. I've got no position on whether or not the block should remain, but did want to share those results. Philippe Beaudette, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 20:14, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, that's mostly reassuring, and I've responded there. --Peter ^Talk 20:24, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

• Though I am almost completely disconnected from the community, I believe that this user (IBdick) is a sockpuppet of IBobi, perhaps editing in a personal capacity now. I'm thinking another CheckUser should be done on this user, this time trying to find connections to IBobi. I don't see the point in letting him have talk page access, but I don't know Wikivoyage policy on that.--Jasper Deng (talk) 04:00, 11 December 2012 (UTC)
  • Doesn't the check that Philippe conducted exclude that possibility? LtPowers (talk) 15:01, 11 December 2012 (UTC)
    • Not quite. He acquitted IBdick of editing from an IB IP address, but the two might still be the same person.--Jasper Deng (talk) 18:07, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

I think another CheckUser might be useful in this case, to see if the editor in question is editing from the 166.137.208.* range that we've had to block several times in the past week. I figured that was some oddball troll, but this bit seems like classic Paul O'Brien [3]. Jasper, could you advise on how to proceed.

Also, we generally don't block access to one's talk page unless it's a truly extreme and unusual case (real world threats, offering illegal services, etc.). Trolls generally just move on if they're restricted to their talk page and are being ignored. Now, why users have been continuing to interact with blocked users like this one who aren't here to work on travel guides is completely beyond me. --Peter ^Talk 21:13, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

If you think that your policy justifies it, file a request here, although you probably will not get a connection to a particular range (Wikimedia considers that info private, to be only exposed publicly in the case of extreme abuse). I suggested removal of talk page access because that's usually what I see on other Wikimedia wikis, though I realize only recently did this project join Wikimedia. The usual reason for that is that if nothing is to be gained by allowing trolling on talk pages, the community doesn't need to waste time by watching it; it would also encourage the troll to leave.--Jasper Deng (talk) 23:53, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

In the case of IBdick, he also registered at Wikitravel, which to me at least implies a desire to edit travel guides, even if it doesn't confirm it. If he's willing to change his username, I'm willing to see if he's serious about editing travel guides. LtPowers (talk) 02:55, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

*sigh* --Peter ^Talk 03:10, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Saint Petersburg trams and trolleybuses route maps

Питер, я тут увидел в Saint Petersburg#By bus or trolleybus фразу: "There is no map for the trolleybuses". Как же нет, есть на сайте Горэлектротранса (это компания-оператор трамвайных и троллейбуснных маршрутов): [4] там же есть карта трамвайных маршрутов: [5]. Вставте, пожалуйста, эти ссылки в статью. А лучше бы перерисовать эти карты в svg и перевести на английский. -- Sergey kudryavtsev (talk) 07:54, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

Я добавил ссылки в статью (кстати, я не помню разницу между трамваем и троллейбусом!). Мне тоже кажется, что было бы хорошо сделать карту с английским текстом, но нам придётся подождать — самая необходимая задача у меня сейчас является переношением всех изображений к Commons. --Peter ^Talk 12:45, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

Троллейбус

Ну, вы даёте! Троллейбус, грубо говоря, - это такой автобус, работающий электричестве. Нечто среднее между автобусом и трамваем. Все мои фото уже перезалили ботом на Commons, описание я у них уже поправил. -- Sergey kudryavtsev (talk) 14:06, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

Talkback

--Katarighe (Talk) 08:05, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

Hi, there and thanks for the reply. I would like to rename my account from "Katarighe" to "Cyfraw". Can it be impossible to do so?, but I just want myself to rename it, Thanks.

Here are the Confirmation diffs for evidence. --Katarighe (Talk) 05:49, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

I tried to rename your account, but got a warning flag because it is linked to a global account. We're still working out how to handle this type of thing, but for now we're going to redirect people with global accounts who want a username change to do a global rename at this page. --Peter ^Talk 07:23, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

The account should be merged, not renamed. User:Cyfraw was Automatically created recently, so a rename cannot be performed. –sumone10154^(talk) 07:49, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Admin

Hi Peter, my admin nomination has been on the page for over 14 days and has been successful; could you flip the switch for me? Thanks! –sumone10154^(talk) 00:45, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Merge Pages

Hi Peter, Could you please move my old page User:(WT-en) Redbear onto my current (new) pages User:SBryan

Thanks SBryan (talk) 03:49, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Done. If you want the contribs subpage and/or user talk page moved, let me know. --Peter ^Talk 03:58, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks!

Hey just a note to let you know that I was in your favourite city this past week and used Along the Magnificent Mile and the Chicago district articles to see some sights. It was very very helpful! The guides are near perfect. Plus, you've introduced me to Greek cuisine. — Ravikiran (Unsigned)

Great, glad to hear our work was of help especially in helping you get around one of my favorite cities! I'm curious, did you get to my beloved South Side at all? My recent trip to Memphis and the birthplace of the blues in Clarksdale took me to some juke joints that really reminded me of some of my favorite neighborhood blues bars in Chicago. Most of them, sadly, seem to have closed during the most recent economic down times both in Chicago and the Delta region. But there are still some amazing places standing! --Peter ^Talk 04:58, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

Nope. I wasn't able to as I had limited time. But I'd love to some other day. What was interesting about the magnificent mile is that it is actually pretty tough to get to the waterfront. I got lost once because I turned right at Randolph street (I did South to North) after I passed Millenium park assuming that it would take me to the water, and I found myself in an area full of condos with no access to the river, and I had to retrace my steps. — Ravikiran (talk) 00:28, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

That whole area is really brand new. I'm honestly not sure what's there now, aside from looking at some satellite pics while working on updating the Chicago skyline guide! I need to go back. Maybe next summer for some swimming in Hyde Park, if I'm in the U.S. --Peter ^Talk 00:31, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Deletion request

Hi! Can you delete http://en.wikivoyage-old.org/wiki/File:Gjogv.jpg ? There is a file name conflict with Commons and I need the file deleted so that I can safely update a link for another file. --Stefan2 (talk) 00:19, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

Done. --Peter ^Talk 03:12, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! --Stefan2 (talk) 14:43, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

File deletions

Hi Peter, just as an FYI, I've left a response to the discussion about the deletion of the old File: pages on the Travellers' pub. Best, Thehelpfulone 20:57, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, also left some more detail at the script policy page. Thehelpfulone 21:14, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

How to get a reference to Europe in the headlines?

Dear Peter Fitzgerald, I notice that you are working on E11 at the same time. I have just now added E11 to the list of hiking trails, under Europe, Netherlands, Germany and Poland, but how do we get Europe (and maybe the individual countries as well) in the headings of the article about E11? DrMennoWolters (talk) 21:04, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

By the way, see the long article in Wikipedia about E11 for the future content of the one in WikiVoyage - and take part in the discussion about what should come/remain where. DrMennoWolters (talk) 21:11, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Hello Dr! My involvement will have to be administrative, since I don't know anything about the trail. I added a related tag at the bottom, which is our preferred way of linking between destination guides and itineraries or travel topics (it generates a link in the sidebar). You could add the same tag for the individual countries on the route too. We don't put breadcrumbs (the navigation links you have seen in destination articles) in itinerary or travel topic articles, but I put a prominent link to Europe in the lede for the article.

Keep up the good work! --Peter ^Talk 21:16, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

varieties of English usage

There is at least one use where "can not" works better than "cannot".

One of emphasis. Say that you’re having an argument with Mr John McEnroe:
“You can NOT be serious!”

“You cannot be serious!” is weaker. Lacks emphasis on the not. And canNOT doesn’t take into account the pause between can and NOT. (or, indeed, look right).

More discussion here: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/cannot-vs-can-not.aspx -- Alice^✉ 10:45, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

Looks as though you are correct (score 0 for my old English teacher). I think the usage on the page is weird though, if the point is emphasis, and there is ambiguity with the term with "may not." Not a big deal anyway. --Peter ^Talk 17:28, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

Timbuktu destruction

Saw this really disturbing/sad news today:

• France24: Mali Islamists destroying more Timbuktu mausoleums
• BBC: Timbuktu mausoleums 'destroyed'

Looks like the Islamists are determined that nothing they view as blasphemous will be given the chance to remain. Disclaimerboxes on the Mali & Timbuktu pages have been updated. At some point, all the Mali pages are going to have to be rewritten to reflect the fact that all this has been destroyed, but that can wait a few months until there is some clarity as to what exactly has been destroyed (or maybe it's better said "if anything is left") and there aren't going to be any tourists to Timbuktu anyways. AHeneen (talk) 18:13, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

I have to wonder why the UN military mission can't begin until next September. I also can't believe I missed my chance to go there some years back... --Peter ^Talk 18:39, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

A typo in Southern Russia map

Hi Peter, I appreciate great job you have been doing on maps in VT/WV. Unfortunately, there is a typo in the Russian title of this map. Instead of "Юг России", it says "Юг Росии" (second "S" is missing...). Could you correct this? Best regards, Leonid Dzhepko. --Л.П. Джепко (talk) 09:28, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

Oof, that was an ugly error! I'm surprised no one noticed since 2008... It's fixed now, although you may need to refresh your browser window to see the current revision. --Peter ^Talk 10:49, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Peter!

I've answered one of this "brand new editor's" Frivolously Arranged Queries, but I saw you have been active on the site tonight and thought you might like to bite your tongue and sweetly answer [this one]... -- Alice^✉ 11:01, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

Merry Christmas, Peter and Alice! I simply deleted the user's question from the FAQ and in my deletion note, suggested he read relevant discussion in the pub. The FAQ is not a place for people to post questions. All the best, Ikan Kekek (talk) 14:07, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

It's actually just the end of Festivus over here, but I got to the party too late to air my grievances. --Peter ^Talk 14:12, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

But did you do any feats of strength? (P.S. It's Christmas Eve morning here.) Ikan Kekek (talk) 14:22, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

That almost occurred with the asshat bouncer. --Peter ^Talk 14:28, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

Oh, but yes, Merry Christmas ;) --Peter ^Talk 14:28, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

Thehelpfulbot's adminship

As requested, I've left a response at Wikivoyage talk:Script policy#Ad hoc admin rights and Wikivoyage:Travellers' pub#Old File: pages - Thehelpfulbot's short time as an admin is ready to come to an end. :-) Thehelpfulone 15:35, 28 December 2012 (UTC)

Deletion of Truck Stops

What was the reason for this? I added templates and by the time I hit Save page, it was deleted. Reason given was:

content was: "Truck stops are very interesting places. It is a good place to take a break and watch trucks come and go. Some people enjoy photographing the diesel..." (and the only contributor was "71.64.104.219")

This certainly seems like a valid topic. Why the speedy delete? AHeneen (talk) 06:07, 30 December 2012 (UTC)

Same with Bus Travel. Both need formatting, but they had a good start. AHeneen (talk) 06:10, 30 December 2012 (UTC)

I've undeleted (temporarily) Truck Stops. Please re-read it carefully and re-assess whether this was a good start ;) --Peter ^Talk 06:39, 30 December 2012 (UTC)

It was ok. Looking at the IP contributions, it may have been a public connection and this was a new user adding some helpful comment...hopefully a potential contributor wasn't chased away. There was no good reason listed for a speedy deletion and this is (at least, IMHO) a valid travel topic. I've added a couple headers to give the page a start. It's obviously U.S.-centric, but that's not a reason to delete...someone can change or work on it later. I also removed the references to Good Guy Greg & Scumbag Steve and moved to Truck stops (proper WV capitalization for article names). Not really a topic I care to work on & improve, but certainly a useful topic to anyone who travels long distances by road in the U.S. I didn't get to take a good look at Bus Travel...was something wrong with it? Bus travel can fit into our Travel topics>Travel transportation. AHeneen (talk) 07:10, 30 December 2012 (UTC)

Are you being serious? I'll quote the article, then:

"Truck stops are very interesting places. It is a good place to take a break and watch trucks come and go. Some people enjoy photographing the diesel pumps."

"If you park your RV overnight at a truck stop you should be considerate. This means not taking up 2 extra parking spaces when your rooms pop out. That is something Scumbag Steve would do. He would also leave his truck at the diesel pump and go inside for a meal and a shower."

"Sadly all it takes is one Scumbag Steve to take a dump on the ground, cuss out a single mom working as a cashier, and toss his pee bottle in the yard of the local Methodist church to undo any good the Good Guy Gregs do."

I'm troubled by the idea that a silly vandal's idea of a lazy joke appears to you as a potential contributor making their first steps towards penning star guides to diesel pump photography and parking space navigation. --Peter ^Talk 07:20, 30 December 2012 (UTC)

Infobox at top of Buffalo article

Peter -

Would it be okay per Wikivoyage protocol to delete the infobox at the top of the Buffalo article that says "Discussion on defining district borders for Buffalo is in progress"? One district article is already complete with significant work accomplished on two more, and it seems to me that to imply that discussion is still ongoing as to where to place the borders would be to potentially nullify much of the work I've already done on the district articles.

Given the rush of newbies that will be coming in soon with our WMF debut, I can foresee a sharply increased potential for nitpicking about what exactly qualifies as Allentown, the West Side, etc. Frankly, I'd like to do as much as possible to discourage that, especially if the object is to have the district articles visible on the site by May. Is there another infobox available to us that says the discussion period is over and that districtification is already in progress? Alternately, could it just be deleted outright?

-- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 22:18, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

Definitely, I'd say the districts are set. Once they are live, we should switch to template:printdistricts, but for now just take the notice down. --Peter ^Talk 22:22, 31 December 2012 (UTC)