User talk:Downspec

Hello, Downspec! Welcome to Wikivoyage.

You're doing good work on the Columbus (Wisconsin) article. However, I do want to explain to you why the pagebanners you've added keep getting removed. First off, pagebanners are the among the most prominently visible pictures on our site, so it's important that they be high-resolution and high-quality images. Accordingly, the source images used for pagebanners must be at least 1800 pixels wide, and preferably 2100 pixels wide or more. Secondly, it's also important that all banners across all our articles display in the same dimensions, so our standard is a 7:1 width to height ratio. For example, if the pagebanner you've added is 2100 pixels wide, it should be 300 pixels tall. This usually entails taking source images on Commons or wherever and cropping them to fit the prescribed dimensions. Please see Banners for help or further information.

Again, though, keep up the good work on Columbus (Wisconsin). We're glad to have you contributing.

-- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 21:15, 27 August 2016 (UTC)


 * Also, please see Image policy. Three pictures is an awful lot for an article that's only 2KB in length. It's probably fine as it is now, but if you plan on adding any more pictures, I'd advise you to add more listings or other textual content first. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 21:19, 27 August 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the tips

I will get more business information

"Don't tout" policy
Hello and thanks for your edits! However, I did have to make these two edits, because in the first instance, you either composed or copied and pasted a promotional description, and in the second, you posted a promotional photo of a business.

After you've read the links I've given you, if you have any questions, please ask.

All the best,

Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:21, 2 September 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the links. I do have one question what kind of business images is wikivoyage looking for then. If it's a restaurant food makes more sense or in every case just an image of the building? If wikivoyage is a travel brochure then it should have some travel excitement. —The preceding comment was added by Downspec (talk • contribs)


 * Thanks for your question, and of course I agree with your last sentence.


 * Listings and two captions for thumbnails within that section have some guidance on what types of business photos to post thumbnails of:


 * Images of businesses, including hotels and their bedrooms, should generally not be posted as illustrations inside the section. The only exceptions are if the business is a well-known attraction in its own right, or if the image is of a type of accommodation that is unusual and unique to the region. In the second case, identifying the lodgings where the picture was taken by name is not necessary.


 * The Raffles is an icon of Singapore — the Holiday Inn is not.


 * Japanese ryokan inns are not your average hotel, but they all look pretty much like this


 * These remarks are specific to hotels, though.


 * The general guideline I would give you, which I think would be accepted by a consensus, is if a photo is beautiful or striking on its own or if what it shows is a landmark building or a good picture of typical or particularly interesting local food, drink or clothing that might not be widely known about by outsiders, it's probably fine to include. But in the case of food and drink, it might not be particularly relevant to identify the restaurant or bar where it was photographed. Similarly, a view taken from the property of a particular hotel might or might not bear identification as being from that hotel, depending on whether it's a common view that can be seen from other parts of town or a unique and notable view.


 * Does this make sense? I'd be happy to discuss this further if you have more thoughts about this. Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:29, 3 September 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the tips


 * You're welcome, but please continue to watch out for touting, and don't copy directly from business sites, as I suspect you did here. Also, please don't include default address info (Columbus, WI 53925). The point of addresses on this site is for a visitor to be able to find an establishment or point of interest, not to snail-mail them. Ikan Kekek (talk) 02:50, 24 October 2016 (UTC)


 * You have quite a history here, which I reminded myself of by looking through this page, and yet you still appear to be copying and pasting promotional narratives and descriptions from company websites. I mean, welcome back, I guess, but do you need to reread don't tout, Wv:Copyleft and this entire page every time you come back, in order not to violate basic site guidelines every time? If you do anything similar, you will be blocked. Ikan Kekek (talk) 01:59, 18 September 2019 (UTC)

Pagebanners, yet again
I don't know how many times our pagebanner policy needs to be explained to you, but this is the last time I intend to do it. Banners need to have a 7:1 aspect ratio. That means they need to be seven times as wide as they are tall. PLEASE stop adding pagebanners to Columbus (Wisconsin) that have the wrong dimensions. It's getting tedious reverting them. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 03:12, 24 October 2016 (UTC)


 * OK let me try again this was darn close I think this last edit will work 2100X300 7:1 —The preceding comment was added by Downspec (talk • contribs)


 * Thank you. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 03:39, 24 October 2016 (UTC)

Adding new region articles, and other issues
Columbia County, Wisconsin is not part of Wikivoyage's region breakdown hierarchy for Southwest Wisconsin. If you have content to add, please add it to Greater Madison Area, but please don't continue to create new region articles for places that are already covered in other region articles.

Also, the "Cities" section of region articles should contain no more than the nine largest or most touristically important cities in a given region. As a town of 5,000 inhabitants and no major tourist destinations, it's doubtful that Columbus (Wisconsin) belongs in Southwest Wisconsin (please note that it is listed within Greater Madison Area). If you feel strongly otherwise, please take the issue up at Talk:Southwest Wisconsin, but please don't continue to add Columbus to the list without first establishing a consensus that it belongs there.

Finally, edit warring is not allowed here. If you have a problem with your edits being reverted, please bring it up on the talk page of whichever user is responsible and try to hash out a compromise, but please don't simply undo their edits repeatedly without comment.

-- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 00:55, 11 December 2016 (UTC)

I saw other counties in the sw region, so I added Columbia in which I know much of the tourism assets. I guess those are not wanted.

As it relates to warring not sure what u mean?

I guess my content is nit wanted? —The preceding comment was added by Downspec (talk • contribs)


 * Do you truly not understand Andre's points? Content is always wanted. Which part of his posts - or the other posts on this page - do you not understand? Is it the policy against touting? The policy against adding new region articles without discussion that reaches a consensus on the talk page of the larger region you want to subdivide? The policy against edit warring? I should mention that though all of us absolutely want you to continue to add content, at least some of us are wondering whether your professed lack of understanding, especially on policies you've already been informed about and previously said you understood, like the one on copy-pasting restaurant publicity in the first person, might not be in good faith. No-one wants to nominate you for a user ban, but if you prefer to stop editing if you can't unilaterally make policy, I will be the first to say thank you and happy trails. We are nearing a crossroads here, and if you continue edit warring and violating other policies you know about and understand, don't be surprised if someone does nominate you for a user ban. The choice, really, is up to you. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:33, 11 December 2016 (UTC)

Sorry I will review the the policies again. I'm not trying to do warring. The copying from the website was a mistake, I should know that from Wikipedia. I work the tourism industry in 17 states so I do know tourism assets. Gave a presentation at 7 cities about why content on wikivoyage is a good thing to do. I will stick with the template and not veer off the path. Green county is not that strong a tourism mecca in WI. I'm still learning

I would like to become a docent but not sure how to add this. I'm searching any help appreciated —The preceding comment was added by Downspec (talk • contribs)


 * You might find welcome, tourism professionals useful to look at. It's nice that you'd like to be a docent. Docents lays out the role of a docent and what you should do in order to be one. Ikan Kekek (talk) 02:55, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

I wish I would have found this in the beginning. I wouldn;t ave been such a problem. Thank you Ikan Kekek —The preceding comment was added by Downspec (talk • contribs)


 * You're welcome. Please sign your posts on talk pages by typing 4 tildes (~) in a row at the end of each post. Ikan Kekek (talk) 05:26, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

Downspec (talk) 04:16, 16 December 2016 (UTC) Thank You

Again with the copyright violations
This edit, which you copied verbatim from the Travel Wisconsin website despite numerous previous warnings, just earned you a three-day user block.

-- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 03:43, 22 September 2017 (UTC)


 * I'm the editor and administrator for Columbus Travel Wisconsin


 * Anderson, Linda M - TOURISM 
 * 10/12/16


 * to me, Lorraine, Heather, Brittany, Edie, Tommy
 * Hi JD,
 * You now have access to the Columbus Chamber of Commerce record to update and provide photos.


 * Thank you,
 * Linda


 * Linda Anderson-Drogsvold | Service & Industry Support | Wisconsin Department of Tourism | 608.261.8212
 * 201 West Washington Avenue PO Box 8690  Madison, WI 53708-8690  TravelWisconsin.com


 * OK, well, if you want to establish that anyone can copy and paste material from the Travel Wisconsin website freely, you need to use the procedure specified at Copyleft (see the content in the textbox). However, that really doesn't solve the problem, because in this case (and in others), not only did you post copyrighted material without having established that it has been given a "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported" and GNU Free Documentation License, but you're also in violation of this site's Manual of style, and specifically, rules on capitalization, touting and default address content that you already know about. No-one is going to edit out all the Unnecessary CAPITALIZATION from edits like this unless you do so before posting.


 * So how would you like to go forward? Ikan Kekek (talk) 07:31, 22 September 2017 (UTC)


 * I will provide original content to wikivoyage, and watch items, a state of Wisconsin sanctioned and edited website for quality and content would do wonders for Wikivoyage using citations and provide credibility, your thoughts? —The preceding comment was added by Downspec (talk • contribs)


 * Wikivoyage is not Wikipedia, in that we don't require citations (in fact we prohibit them outright in most cases, cf. Goals and non-goals: "if you find yourself needing references and footnotes on Wikivoyage, whatever you're writing should probably go to Wikipedia instead"). The basis of our credibility is the firsthand observations and experience of our contributors. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 15:17, 28 September 2017 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the clarification. —The preceding comment was added by Downspec (talk • contribs)


 * To further clarify, instead of citations, we state in edit summaries or on talk pages that we summarized information from x or y website, so that constitutes giving credit to the source, but we don't put footnotes in the article. Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:47, 28 September 2017 (UTC)


 * Great stuff to know —The preceding comment was added by Downspec (talk • contribs)

Even more copyright violations
This edit contained information copied verbatim from the Town of Ledgeview's Park & Recreation Plan 2015-2020. Your last block was for three days; the one I just gave you is for two weeks, per How to handle unwanted edits. Next time it's a three month block. I realize at this point I'm probably wasting my time warning you yet again about copying stuff published elsewhere, but just for the record, please don't. It's against our policy, and believe me: we know your M.O. and are watching you, so if you think you can slip it by and we're not going to notice, you're mistaken. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 07:09, 8 December 2017 (UTC)


 * We wrote the park plan Downspec (talk) 12:16, 8 December 2017 (UTC)


 * It doesn't matter if you wrote the park plan or not. Unless you published the park plan under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license with a GNU Free Documentation License, or released it into the public domain, copying that text to Wikivoyage verbatim is still a violation of copyright. And that was already explained to you last time you were blocked.


 * For what I hope is the last time: please please please, regardless of who originally wrote what, regardless of who gave you permission to do what, just use your own words when contributing to Wikivoyage (ones you haven't used before). I don't know how much clearer I can be about it.


 * -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 14:30, 8 December 2017 (UTC)


 * OK but the park plan is part of the public domain, as are public planning reports. —The preceding comment was added by Downspec (talk • contribs)


 * Not for copyright purposes it isn't. Copyright applies to all publications EXCEPT those published before 1923 (the park plan obviously wasn't), those created by an employee of the U.S. federal government in the course of their work (the park plan was created by a town government), or those that have been specifically released into the public domain by their author or authors (this means EVERYONE who was involved in writing the park plan, not just you), in which case there would need to be a statement on the document itself, written in very specific legal language, that states that its authors release it into the public domain (I didn't see any such statement on the park plan).


 * Look. I really don't want to get into the weeds with you about copyright law and how it applies to our site. What we're asking you to do - what we've been asking you to do all along - is really very simple. Don't add anything to Wikivoyage that's been copied from somewhere else. Regardless of who wrote it, regardless of anything else, okay? I don't know why that's been so hard for you to wrap your head around, but please just stick to that if you don't want to get banned again.


 * -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 22:22, 8 December 2017 (UTC)


 * Got it —The preceding comment was added by Downspec (talk • contribs)


 * I certainly hope so. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 22:49, 8 December 2017 (UTC)

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Reason for reverting your edits
"Columbus is in the Greater Madison Area of Southwest Wisconsin" is a completely unambiguous sentence, and Columbus, Wisconsin is a red link. Whatever lack of clarity you thought was in the article does not exist and is not improved by repeating the state name unnecessarily all over the article. Thanks. Ikan Kekek (talk) 16:12, 23 April 2022 (UTC).


 * The content and people keep ending up in Ohio and Nebraska. I take the calls for tourism.  So this clarity is needed. —The preceding comment was added by Downspec (talk • contribs)


 * Whatever content is not about Wisconsin needs to be excised, if indeed there is any. As for people actually ending up in the wrong state, that's on them; we can't fix stupid. Ikan Kekek (talk) 16:36, 23 April 2022 (UTC)

Using postal abbreviations and naming conventions
Hi Downspec, I'd like to point you to Naming conventions and Abbreviations in regard to a recent article you created, Beaver Dam, WI. I've now moved it to Beaver Dam, but note the following:
 * 1) Unless a postal abbreviations is an initialism like NSW, BC, NT or NY, we do not use postal abbreviations, even in casual use because not everyone outside the US will understand what "WI" means.
 * 2) Articles are not usually disambiguated unless there's another article with the same name.
 * 3) Even if an article is disambiguated, postal abbreviations are not used as a disambiguator. For the US, Naming conventions calls to use the relevant state as the disambiguator. In this specific case, Beaver Dam would be named "Beaver Dam (Wisconsin)".

-- SHB2000  (talk &#124; contribs &#124; meta) 01:44, 10 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Thank You Downspec (talk) 01:46, 10 October 2022 (UTC)

You're edit warring now?
If you revert my edit without comment, I expect you to at least pay attention to my edit summary by eliminating touting language, promotional capitalization and default address info and using actual numbers in the "price" tab. Otherwise, if you continue this kind of behavior, you'll have to be blocked. Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:02, 21 January 2023 (UTC)


 * I'm going to fix the tout language even though using the word Gourmet Popcorn doesn't seem like touting. I don't see alot of actual $1 lisings in many other Wikivoyage pages but now that you metion it I see it in the highly rated Chicago pages. So I will work on the edits. Downspec (talk) 20:16, 21 January 2023 (UTC)


 * How about "and much more"? Typical advertising phrase. Anyway, unless "Gourmet Popcorn Shop" is the name of the store, it's promotional capitalization. We don't use naked dollars signs like Yelp. If you meant $1, please use the number 1. Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:24, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
 * please read wycsi and WV:Goals and non-goals and don't start another edit war. PLEASE. Ibaman (talk) 18:23, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank You. I did fix it we are the travel tourism resource for the area Downspec (talk) 18:26, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * If what I put is to much can you make a suggestion Downspec (talk) 18:29, 10 May 2023 (UTC)