User talk:Sertmann/2010

hello!

hi,

my name is Ashley, i found your page on denmark useful, and was looking for some more information.

I will be visiting Denmark in july as part of a team of 4 scouts( from England) we will be travelling throughout the country for 10 days, and aim to research viking history within your country. we will be flying to Copenhagen, and then travelling through the country to Ribe.

we will be living on a strict budget of 100dk per day, which is needed to cover accomodation, food and transport.

I would greatly appreciate any information which you may have on any aspects of visiting denmark. particuarly, i am looking for information on the 'nature camps' available at some locations. If you know anything about these within copenhagen and the surrounding regions then that would be of great use.

Also, i am looking for any useful information you may have on public transport, and attractions of viking heritage.

If you can help me at all, then you can email me at ash-mellor@hotmail.co.uk

Thankyou, Ashley Mellor :)

Thanks!

Thanks for your help fixing the syntax errors listed on User:(WT-en) Nicolas1981/Syntax_checks!

I wanted to fix the probable typo "the journey can more just" on your user page but unfortunately it is protected.

Happy New Year! (WT-en) Nicolas1981 03:06, 5 January 2010 (EST)

nice pic

--(WT-en) Bostonian 04:48, 8 January 2010 (EST)

Maps and things

Stefan, I have finally gotten around to re-writing How to draw a map and would be grateful for any input you might have. I have explained the thinking on Peter's talk page so will not clog up your page with the same words. And completely unrelated - your input on my London/Hampstead starnom would be appreciated :) Cheers. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 04:55, 8 January 2010 (EST)

Khabarovsk

Nice to see such an OtBP Russian destination getting so much love! --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 14:07, 11 January 2010 (EST)

Yeah, It's absolutely my favourite Russian city after Saint Petersburg of the ones I've visited (Moscow, Suzdal, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Ulan Ude and the ones on Sakhalin). I really think it deserves more attention. But it's mainly an effort to get last Russian city apart from Komsomolsk which I didn't visit, in the Russia to Japan via Sakhalin itinerary up to something usable. Next stop Wakkanai, though it looks like it may take a while to get this to where I want it. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 16:38, 11 January 2010 (EST)

Really? That's actually the first time I've ever heard anything nice about it—my info was from Turkish & African exchange students who told horror stories... Usually people rave about Kazan as the "third best place to be." Agreed about St Petersburg, though, of course. It's the most beautiful and romantic city in the world, even in a state of disrepair. (It might be in better restored shape now than when I was there.)

Russians hardly ever use accent marks in prose (and never any other type of diacritics beyond ё, and even that they use sparingly), but they will show it occasionally in parentheses or at the top of a wiki article for words Russian speakers won't know how to pronounce. Russian pronunciation is nearly 100% regular, provided only that you know where on what syllable the stress falls. Since users of English Wikivoyage presumably won't be familiar with much any Russian place names, it would be good for us to always include it in the article title. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 16:58, 13 January 2010 (EST)

Hmmmm, don't know where that is coming from, judging from my travel blog post from Khabarovsk, I was just as enthusiastic when I visited :). And the disrepair of Saint Pete is not at all bad these days, as long as you stay in the centre that is. Anyway cheers for the pseudo write up. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 17:12, 13 January 2010 (EST)

Tenerife

why did you erase my contribution to the Tenerife article? The link is to a really good map, that is hard to find. It provides Information where you can camp for free on beautiful public campgrounds with really nice scenery. There is no commercial interest. I stayed on a lot of these Zonas Recretivas during my holiday. --(WT-en) MoN24 14:12, 11 January 2010 (EST)

We have a pretty strict external links policy, it doesn't always work to our advantage, but we have to stick to it, as long as it there (and the alternative is much worse). If the link is from a official source like the government or spanish camping board it would be OK, and if so, I apologize for being to quick. Otherwise I'm afraid we have to make due without it. In any case, we never have an external links section, if the link is good, we need to incorporate it in the main article. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 16:38, 11 January 2010 (EST)

The link is to an official website from the government and provides really good information. But even if it wasn't, what's the difference? I think it depends on the quality of information and the fact that it is no promotion. It's not important who is hosting the website. I think the visitors of wikivoyage have some common interests and expectations during their holiday. So it should be possible to identify the best websites to link to for the average wikivoyage user. Most other people that were camping on Tenerife would say hey this map is really useful. But the people who are deleting or approving stuff need to know what they are talking about and they need to know the place. I agree I should have red the help for new users and then I should have wrote a short passage about camping on Tenerife. But I think a lot of people are frustrated and don't want to write anymore because of the deleting insanity. I am from Germany and there it is even worse. So a lot of people are writing for the english version because the rules are not so strict. --(WT-en) MoN24 17:39, 11 January 2010 (EST)

I don't agree much, but it doesn't really matter, we have a rule only allowing official links, so If you want that changed, it's a discussion you should take here rather than with me. To summarize it as short as possible, the main argument is we want to the information to be on Wikivoyage, rather than Wikivoyages guides being a collection of links to other websites, and so far is the policy seems to have served us pretty well.

Anyway, if it's a government source, I'd encourage you to write a short section on camping on Tenerife using the knowledge you seem like you have to the good of all, and then link from there. Hope that helps - greets from up north in Denmark :) --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 17:51, 11 January 2010 (EST)

Banda Islands

Hi Stefan. I took the view to leave the Bandas article alone and let the fella keep on adding! I can certainly sort it out when he has finished. We have so little content for this insanely OtbP region. Cheers. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 10:45, 12 January 2010 (EST)

Russian Federal Districts

I don't think the bureaucracy involved in these have any relevance for travelers, and I'm pretty sure that their "capitals" are just the places where the plenipotentiary envoys have their offices. It's not nearly as important as the distinction between any old city and a capital of a federal subject (like Chukotka AO or Primorsky Oblast), since I don't think they are employing many people. The envoys are there basically to just to be a watchdog on the far flung provincial governments, to prevent them acting like they are their own little countries, with mini-dictators. It takes a really large country to have that sort of problem, but Russia has it indeed. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 15:18, 12 January 2010 (EST)

Kerala

Ok, I will wait with the regions of Kerala, if you have a suggestion I will be happy to do the details, (WT-en) ClausHansen 08:02, 15 January 2010 (EST)

You might want to comment on this, (WT-en) ClausHansen 18:51, 15 January 2010 (EST)

Bali and Google

Thanks for that heads-up Stefan. I think (only think) you get a truer, raw Google ranking if you eliminate regional bias by going to google.com/ncr, and also make sure you are logged out of your Google account. On that basis, Bali is still 6th so I think it is a genuine result. Very pleasing. I did do a bit of back-link work, which will have helped a touch. Understanding the power of Google and its relation to WT does explain a few things. For example, we get loads of Nusa Lembongan business owners making edits here. This clearly explains why. We rank 2nd, higher even than Wikipedia. Cheers. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 20:32, 18 January 2010 (EST)

Seoul

In the seoul page, the last part says: "Deokso — One of the towns outside of Seoul proper but connected on the subway. Home to the world's first commercially flown 747 which has been converted into a church." Actually I live in Korea and this plane is not a church but a restaurant. I had put a link for it as well..

Do clarify so as to why you had changed it back to the wrong information. —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) 210.94.41.89‎ (talk • contribs)

I was reverting the link as it doesn't belong there, but I had missed that you had also changed "church" into "restaurant". I've removed the link, but let your change from church to restaurant, sorry about that mistake. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 08:07, 19 January 2010 (EST)

Copenhagen

Congratulations on the star for Copenhagen. Thoroughly deserved.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 09:23, 19 January 2010 (EST)

From me too, plus one of those most rare and therefore precious Wikivoyage barnstars ;) Getting a huge city up to star status is a huge feat, and the guide is a huge boost to our European coverage. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 10:37, 19 January 2010 (EST)

Thanks! :) --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 13:05, 25 January 2010 (EST)

Dublin

Why have you locked me out from editing my listing? If you explained your reasons it might help. I edited on numerous occasions and can't see any difference between my listing and the others that are currently there?

Who gives you the right to do this anyway, your are a volunteer!

I've given some very clear hints as to why I reverted your addition on your talk page, so why not start by reading that? You may be chocked to learn the voulenteers are the ones running this place, furthermore I am an administrator who has the option of temporary blocking users and inititate page protections for brief periods, to keep everything in good order subject to policy guidelines, although we very much prefer not to use that option when possible, this has been going on for days now --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 05:39, 22 January 2010 (EST)

Hints? If you are an administrator you should be giving more than hints! I added pricing to my listing, hinted by another administrator, removed the "perfect" part form my listing that you hinted and only left basic information about the hotel. If you worked for Dublin County Council or the Irish Government I could see your point on trying to keep the Dublin page as correct as possible but your not even from Ireland!

That is just about the oddest response I've ever gotten, points for that! But you clearly have no grap on the Wiki model, so I guess you're excused. I am a voulenteer Wikivoyager and I patrol new edits to every city in the world, from Dublin to Pitcairn, to make sure they are in line with our policies and guidelines. I have no particular interrest in Dublin, but I have an interrest in keeping all pages on wikivoyage as useful and clean as possible, although it can sometimes seems like an endless loosing battle, like right now.

What wrong with the listing? there is not one word about the hotel, so it's basically useless! To stop this edit war I'd propose you replace it with something like this.

* <sleep name="Mount Herbert Hotel" alt="" address="Herbert Road, Dublin 4" directions="" phone="+353 (0) 1 614 2000" email="" fax="" url="http://www.mountherberthotel.ie" checkin="" checkout="" price="From €59">3 Star Hotel located in the Sandymount/Ballsbridge area. Nice classic building and good size rooms equipped with usually large bathrooms makes it good value. The bar is great and there is a nice patio area overlooking the hotels garden. Staff is friendly and approchable, but the hotel is starting to show small signs of wear and tear here and there, and you can sometimes hear noice through the walls </sleep>

Was that so hard? I know this is out of line, but fuck you for wasting my time doing that. If you would have looked at the guidelines and policies provided for you in a number of links, instead of insititing on merely copying the text from your front page, this could have been resolved on the first reversion. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 06:10, 22 January 2010 (EST)

Good man Sertmann resolving to verbal abuse, do all WikiTravel volunteers use this to uphold the good name of WikiTravel? Thanks a million for taking time out of your hectic schedule to do this, I would say you don't have a minute to spare. I would consider using your suggestion but it's like me commenting on a hotel in Denmark that I've never stayed in, I wouldn't like to write something about a hotel I have no knowledge about hence showing ignorance. Have a nice day.

Hi Stefan - Thanks for your feedback on our Wikivoyage listing. A third party agency were dealing with this for us but the hotel are now managing this directly. If you could enable access so that we can put up information on our hotel that would be much appreciated. Following your policy guidelines and feedback I have amended our first posting to the following and would welcome any further feedback you might have. MHH

"Good value boutique hotel between Ballsbridge and Sandymount, next to the AVIVA Stadium. The hotel has 168 bedrooms, a Business Centre, 9 conference rooms, and the bar serves food all day. WiFi access and free secure parking are available. Staff are friendly and helpful. Rooms start from €59."

Thanks a bunch for that one, good call! The lock has expired a while ago, so the page is now editable again. I've inserted the listing on the page, and incorporated parts of your version - there is an explanation on your talk page. Please consider not using 3rd party agencies for this purpose again, they are more often than not a horrible solution. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 07:49, 22 January 2010 (EST)

Hi again Stefan. Thanks for putting our listing up. It seems to be in two sections at the momement however, splurge and mid range. If you could just include us in mid-range that would be great. While I take your comments on board, if there is any chance you could remove the negative comments that would be much appreciated. MHH

Thanks Stefan - Have edited details that were for your info. Is it possible to delete the above info relating to the listing now that the issue is resolved? MHH

Kyoto Map

There is no rush, but I was wondering if you had finished the Kyoto map? I was just going to put the one that is currently on the talk page on the main page, but I noticed you said it is still being worked on. (I know you and others are working on the map expedition, so if it's not ready, please don't feel pressured to hurry up and finish it. I was just curious.) (WT-en) ChubbyWimbus 01:56, 25 January 2010 (EST)

Hey, I want to finish that and the Tokyo map too, but unfortunately some guests decided to pour water over my laptop, rendering it useless until I can afford the rather expensive repair. Until then I'm on a 8 year old Thinkpad, which really can't run anything but the most basic of SVG's in Inkscape. As soon as I get my old (new) PC back, I have a bunch of map I'll finish and upload. I don't remember if i uploaded the SVG originals for those maps, but if I did, you (or others) are more than welcome to finish them up. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 10:18, 25 January 2010 (EST)

User talk:87.199.35.42

This enduring interwiki worker makes life harder for a couple of our janitors that patrol. Would it be too hard to implement an one day block to get his/her attention? (WT-en) jan 13:23, 28 January 2010 (EST)

Hey!!

You should know why you deleted my article!? I struggled all day with him and what I choose? V Please retrieve it, have all the information in it. What a shame!(WT-en) Mister^talk 13:25, 2 February 2010 (EST)

Sorry about that one, we have a bug that sometimes prevents the newest version from being displayed, so I only saw a nearly empty page without a template. I've restored your information now. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 13:31, 2 February 2010 (EST)

Thank you very much! (WT-en) Mister^talk 13:34, 2 February 2010 (EST)

OK. (WT-en) Mister^talk 13:47, 2 February 2010 (EST)

But why not use the categories in this project?(WT-en) Mister^talk 13:51, 2 February 2010 (EST)

See: Project:Categories --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 13:56, 2 February 2010 (EST)

Thanks.(WT-en) Mister^talk 13:57, 2 February 2010 (EST)

Komsomolsk na Amure

Oh my, that over-stylized font with that blurry shadow over that ugly graphic hurts my eyes ;) Anyway, it translates:

Departs F-Su 10AM from Metalurgov Square (ploschad' Metalurgov), stopping at the grade school (which is at пр. Ленина, 11)
Returns from the Kholdomi ski complex at 5PM
One way ticket: 50 r

Additional bus for night skiing:
Departs F-Su 6PM from Metalurgov Square, stopping at the grade school
Returns from the Kholdomi ski complex at 11PM

My hat's off to you for all this great, difficult work! --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 11:28, 5 February 2010 (EST)

Хлеб

Re: two isPartOfs for Russia—that's not breaking the breadcrumb trail for me. Breadcrumbs disappear now and then because of caching issues. Try refreshing your browser window and possibly purge the cache for both Russian and Europe? --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 14:42, 5 February 2010 (EST)

Russian Far East maps

Firstly, great work! Secondly, since you are creating city maps throughout the area, I thought it wise to let you know that I have a half-completed map for Vladivostok, so that we don't duplicate work. I'll make a point of finishing that one sometime soon, and integrating content from the Russian version. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 21:12, 8 February 2010 (EST)

And nice work on the TransSib map—it's about time the internet had a decent one ;) --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 14:30, 9 February 2010 (EST)

Mr. Man

Hello there! I've noticed the messages you've left to his talk page. Actually, this user (also known as Ervin. C) has a long history of trolling and sockpuppetting on Romanian wikipedia, where he was banned. He just makes a couple of "contributions" like he has just made, then blatantly asks for adminship. He approached as Mr. Man on Romanian Wikivoyage but I preferred not to have him lurk around. Then he came back as Ervin C. but after checking what he does (creating articles on minor cities at the same time on the Romanian and English wikivoyage) I've decided to stop him from messing around further. Hope this helps! --(WT-en) Vlad 09:08, 11 February 2010 (EST)

Guerrero Negro

Why did you delete the last entry I put about this restaurant in Guerrero Negro? Isn't this a free and open Wiki? Or is this a site dedicated to advertise only some of its business? I'm just trying to improve the entry for that place!

French Guiana

Stefan please have a quick look at a point raised here. Would be good to close that one off. Thanks. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 04:37, 15 February 2010 (EST)

Huron-Kinloss

'ow do! Just doing an old Random Page trawl, and came across Huron-Kinloss, which you renamed from Ripley (Ontario). However, the text still refers to the place as Ripley. Is there a reason for this, or does the article require some work to reflect the new name? (WT-en) Nrms 10:05, 15 February 2010 (EST)

Yeah well, it's a tricky one. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 10:37, 15 February 2010 (EST)

More on Khabarovsk Krai

The see/do/eat sections will probably best be filled with overviews of where to find what, in terms of main destinations and highlighting lesser known OtBP sights or activities, with links (this is pretty similar to what is needed in the main article of a huge city). The various subregions of Bali (e.g., Central Bali) or Capital Region (Maryland) give pretty good ideas of what a basic region article should look like, especially when the region isn't that distinct from surrounding regions, as is the case here.

For specifics, I can't help as much, as I really don't know much about the krai. The Nanai stuff looked interesting, if obscure. I'm guessing that most sections will likely say "go to Khabarovsk for X. But also check out..." Information about which заповедники (nature reserves) are possible to visit would be really cool, but I don't know how easy that information is to come by. In any rate, as the Bali and Maryland articles show, these sections don't need to be long at all to be effective. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 12:30, 19 February 2010 (EST)

In Canada, unlike the United Kingdom, metrification is practically complete in all spheres, if not by the older generations. Quebec has been already metrified for a very long time.

In Canada, unlike the United Kingdom, metrification is practically complete in all spheres, if not by the older generations. Quebec has been already metrified for a very long time. Virtually everything is given in the metric system, 100% of products ,distance, speed limit on the roads and temparatures.

Quit wasting our time. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 17:03, 21 February 2010 (EST)

In Canada in metrification is complete, your "information" that it is only half-way through is false. That is only the case in the United Kingdom.

An answer will be appreciated.

I know Canada very well, and you are clearly trolling around. If you poked around a bit, you'll see our patrollers follow a strict no-nonse approach, so you are highly unlikely to spark endless Wikipedia like debates around here for your amusement. So I suggest you spend you time on something else - personally I find this game a good waste of time. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 17:17, 21 February 2010 (EST)

German and Scandinavian

Then these Germans must be IDIOTS!!! They couldn't have been Austrians, and most certainly not Viennese, because both me, my entire family (except my grandfather, who can't speak German) and all my friends (and I've got many) would all agree that Scandinavian languages are a piece of cake to understand, especially spoken Swedish and spoken Norwegian (Bokmål is what I've heard), while the written languages are just slightly more diffiult, because there seems to be many words that are spelled differently in German but pronounced the same. And besides it is not true that Danish is easier than Swedish, at least not in spoken form, your pronunciation is very different. While this does not pose a major problem to me, Swedish is significantly easier. Basically, this is the "easiness order", with the easiest language first: Spoken Swedish, Spoken Norwegian Bokmål, Written Swedish, written Norwegian Bokmål, Written Danish, Spoken Danish. But I can still understand about 75 % of spoken Danish —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) AndreasAndreas (talk • contribs)

Freistadt

Hi Stefan! I just saw that you reverted my changes in Freistadt. There is a coparight issue because the anon user copied the See text from a page that is not cc by sa conformative. I tried to start a rewrite but couldn't finish due to real life work constraints... LtPowers confirmed that we either have to delete the whole text or rewrite it. I don't have so much time today. So eithter delete it completely or rewrite. Regards, (WT-en) jan 03:06, 10 June 2010 (EDT)