User talk:EvanProdromou/Jun 2007

See also User talk:(WT-en) Evan/Archives

Please direct the following questions to the right spots:


 * Technical requests like feature requests or bug reports should be posted using the tool at wts:Technical requests.

User:Peterfitzgerald
Time for his new buttons... – (WT-en) cacahuate  talk 00:43, 1 June 2007 (EDT)

Mediawiki pages
Can only admins edit Mediawiki pages? I'm trying to edit one on Hindi and it's saying that it's locked. I want to start an edit tools box – (WT-en) cacahuate  talk 01:08, 1 June 2007 (EDT)


 * PING! And edit "other sites", etc... Upamanyu asked me a while back to become an admin to help him, which I didn't think was necessary, I likely won't be patrolling edits, etc... but if there's a way that I can edit Mediawiki pages that would be really helpful – (WT-en) cacahuate  talk 22:56, 6 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Sapphire came over to the rescue, so I guess I can just go through him for MediaWiki needs :) – (WT-en) cacahuate   talk 12:48, 7 June 2007 (EDT)

encoding
Hi Evan: Received this message from contributor (WT-en) Celticevergreen. If you have any ideas, could you answer him directly. Thanks. (WT-en) WindHorse 02:53, 1 June 2007 (EDT)


 * How do I get the Tibetan font to appear on the Wikivoyage page? All I see are boxes in a row after you added the Tibetan translation? Thanks!! (WT-en) Celticevergreen 01:17, 31 May 2007 (EDT)


 * I've changed the font type. See if that helps. Actually, the Tibetan is not essential. I just added it for a few remote places where Chinese is not so common. (WT-en) WindHorse 12:46, 31 May 2007 (EDT)


 * Went back to those pages you added Tibetan to and all I see are those boxes in a row. Same thing happens when I look at hotel or activity listings written the wikivoyage way. The word 'tel" and 'fax' no longer show up when I view a page. I just get a box in that space. Any ideas? I have my IE set for utf-8 language. (WT-en) Celticevergreen 01:29, 1 June 2007 (EDT)

(WT-en) cacahuate also is experiencing  the same difficulties (see comments below), though I use Firefox and have never had these problems. (WT-en) WindHorse 03:11, 1 June 2007 (EDT)


 * I get the same thing in both cases when I'm using Firefox, but everything works fine for me in Safari (I'm on a Mac). I read somewhere that Firefox can't handle certain alphabets, perhaps IE is the same way? In the listings, we've got new listing templates that are in use on some pages, and the box your seeing is supposed to be a telephone icon. I don't know why those don't render properly in all browsers. Curious about it myself. WindHorse, enlighten us? – (WT-en) cacahuate   talk 02:58, 1 June 2007 (EDT)


 * My guess is that if there's some weird characters on the page, the browser makes some guesses about the character set(s) that are wrong. The telephone and the email icon are in the Unicode encoding, so if the browser is guessing some other encoding, they won't show up. Could someone point me to a page where this is happening? Also, could someone make a tech request on shared for this problem? --(WT-en) Evan 11:47, 1 June 2007 (EDT)


 * The Tibetan script that Celticevergreen was referring to was on these pages: Shannan (prefecture) and Samye. Sorry, I don't know where the telephone/e-mail icon encoding problems occurred, though I presume it was all articles that they are used. (WT-en) WindHorse 12:11, 1 June 2007 (EDT)

Yes, not specific to certain articles... started Tech request: wts:WtTech:Encoding issues – (WT-en) cacahuate  talk 14:56, 1 June 2007 (EDT)

CotW unscheduled nominations are getting a bit thin!
We could do with a few more suggestions for articles that could be future CotWs, so if you know of any please be sure to add them to the list! Thanks -- (WT-en) Tim (writeme!) 07:53, 4 June 2007 (EDT)

The Grey Dog
Hey - I couldn't find a comment section on your blog, so just wanted to say that I love that place! (WT-en) Padraic 23:34, 5 June 2007 (EDT)

Tatata & Shoestring on ja
The 14-day period has passed and ja:User:(WT-ja) Tatata has been unanimously voted to be an admin, and ja:User:(WT-ja) Shoestring has accepted your offer to become a bureaucrat. (WT-en) Jpatokal 02:29, 6 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Evan-san and Jpatokal-san, thank you very much. But... I think it was a chance for Shoestring-san to experience a bureaucrat work.   I can wait for my sysop status, so you can put me back for him.  And one more thing, I need sysop status on shared too if I work as an admin on there. -- (WT-en) Tatata 12:33, 7 June 2007 (EDT)

(WT-ja) User:Tatata's status on shared
Can you change ja:User:(WT-ja) Tatata's status on shared? I recognize that all the admins of all languages can get the admins status on shared automatically and I think he can contribute a lot as an admin on shared, as well.--(WT-en) Shoestring 01:40, 10 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Done! --(WT-en) Evan 20:33, 10 June 2007 (EDT)

Ping
I'm not sure my mails are getting through to you, you're not answering the phone and your voice mailbox is full...? I'd appreciate your feedback on the design issue, I'd very much like to get this sorted out this week. (WT-en) Jpatokal 13:32, 11 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Sure, I'll try to get some feedback to you tonight my time. --(WT-en) Evan 13:34, 11 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Re-ping. Off to bed now... (WT-en) Jpatokal 13:17, 12 June 2007 (EDT)

information inquiry
Dear Evan\Maj,

My name is Natasha. Live in Moscow, Russia. Nice to meet you!

First of all I would like to thank you for your exciting, interesting and very useful site! Our company wants to use the materials from Wikivoyage translating them into Russian. May be you have already been made such offers. Please advise. I'd also like to know if you have recommendations, demands or requests. So waiting impatiently for your reply. Unfortunately I couldn't reach you by e-mail.

Natasha oznob05@mail.tu


 * Natasha: we'd love to start a project for a Wikivoyage in Russian. It's taking its first steps; see wts:Russian Wikivoyage Expedition. --(WT-en) Evan 14:05, 12 June 2007 (EDT)


 * We have several demands which you can read about here. -- (WT-en) Sapphire • (Talk) • 14:48, 12 June 2007 (EDT)

By the way...
the site's working again. Disregard my email, though I'd still like to know the emergency email contact. -- (WT-en) Sapphire • (Talk) • 14:43, 12 June 2007 (EDT)

stateguide
I see that you came through applying this new function on states. When you did it to Massachusetts you changed usableregion to usable. This leaves a message at the bottom of the page that implies that full listings for restaurants and hotels should be included before the article can promote to usable or guide. (WT-en) OldPine 14:44, 12 June 2007 (EDT)
 * No comment? Should I change this back then? (WT-en) OldPine 13:11, 13 June 2007 (EDT)

Seattle
Hi Evan. Seattle is apparently currently protected. However, I could edit it fine earlier on today. When I attempt to un-protect it by clicking on the un-protect tab at the top of the page, it takes me to a confirm protection screen. I have tried to unprotect it by setting the protection to default (I assumed this would be that would mean that it would be unprotected)... Still nothing happens. Usually I realise that this should be reported on shared, but seeing as Seattle is currently CotW, then it kinda needs to be sorted asap! -- (WT-en) Tim (writeme!) 19:52, 12 June 2007 (EDT)


 * I believe the issue is that Todd protected Seattle, Washington D.C. and a few others a while back against anonymous edits to protect from recurring spam . However, due to caching the edit tab is often hidden.  I'm not sure if it's possible to have the edit tab display properly based on a user's logged-in status and the page protection status or not, but if it is then that would likely resolve this issue. -- (WT-en) Ryan &bull; (talk) &bull; 19:58, 12 June 2007 (EDT)


 * That would be the problem. It seems to be unlocked. --(WT-en) Evan 20:16, 12 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Yeah it's fine now. Thanks. -- (WT-en) Tim (writeme!) 20:30, 12 June 2007 (EDT)

Ohio Lodges and State Parks
Hello Evan. Great site you folks have here. I was working on this rather long page when it vanished. Within two hours of starting it, it was marked for deletion. The votes seem to be to keep or redirect it as I continue to finish it. The information seems appropriate for anyone wanting to visit Ohio. As you know Ohio is larger than many countries. Please advise. If this is inappropriate information, there seems to be no reason to try to improve the Ohio page. I just finished Ohio Prehistoric Sites and that did not seem to be any problem. If it is not appropriate, please revise the Travel Topic guideines so one knows what the &^%* to include or leave out. (WT-en) 2old 13:29, 13 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Hi. So, it seems to me that the article is still around; I've commented on Project:Votes for deletion. --(WT-en) Evan 14:11, 13 June 2007 (EDT)

MoSing phone numbers is coded listings
Ping? Do you remember the conversation we had a while back with another admin about creating some black magic to MoS the phone numbers in the coded listings? If so, didn't you create a tech request for that and would you provide me with the link? I want to write bump on the page because I'm somewhat annoyed by the listings in the Cincinnati guide. The international dialing directions should be written as +1 513, but because the listings don't format phone numbers to meet the area code no matter how hard I work the guide will never be 100% agreeable with MoS until that's fixed. -- (WT-en) Sapphire • (Talk) • 12:46, 14 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Ping, bump, ring, hoot, moo, bark, meow (stupid cats), honk! I'm running out of sounds to make... any movement on this? -- (WT-en) Sapphire • (Talk) • 05:13, 23 June 2007 (EDT)


 * &rarr; Wikivoyage_talk:Phone_numbers – (WT-en) cacahuate  talk 05:39, 23 June 2007 (EDT)

Span filter... ouch... PLEASE HELP
Someone has put something into the spam filter regex in LocalSettings.php (I think) without first removing all instances from that something from all pages and namespaces of Wikivoyage.org. This is bad because it causes the next person who tries to edit a page containing that something to be unable to save his edit, even if his edit has nothing to do with something. The person putting this something into the spam filter regex is in a much better position to remove instances of something from the site because he knows what something is and no one else knows this something. I hate it when this happens. I figure everyone hates it when this happens. Hope this helps. Project:Travellers' pub is currently blocked to further edits by something. I put note onto Wikivoyage_talk:Travellers'_pub because the Pub is blocked by the spam filter at the moment. User:(WT-en) Wrh2 removed my note there without any comment to me (yet). Maybe a policy of removing instances of something from all Wikivoyage pages before putting it into the spam regex would be in order. Hope this helps. :-) (WT-en) Rogerhc 19:08, 17 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Project:Travellers' pub. -- (WT-en) Ryan &bull; (talk) &bull; 19:31, 17 June 2007 (EDT)
 * Thanks Ryan! :-) (WT-en) Rogerhc 19:31, 17 June 2007 (EDT)


 * The "problem" was that Project:Travellers' pub included a list of spammed 'phone numbers and an associated URL; I've removed them. ~ 58.8.1.171 23:23, 17 June 2007 (EDT)

about redirection
Hi according to some talk on the finnish wikivoyage you came up with the idea of automatic redirects to the native language wikivoyage.

It's allways nice with information in your own language, BUT I get redirected to the Finnish-speaking wikivoyage which really is not even nearly as thorough as the english-speaking one. And the Finnish-speaking wikivoyage mostly covers places were most finns go, but i guess wikivoyage is where a person looks first if he can't get information at the local toruist offices etc. meaning people go looking for more unusual places on wikivoyage.

Also i haven't looked thoroughly into how the redirect is done, locale's or ip-addresses(?) Which mean the match isn't perfect, i for one speak swedish as my native tongue although i live in Finland (Finland has a 6% swedish-speaking official second languge). Also at some point wikivoyage offered me the German language wikivoyage.

Of course i figured out how to get to the english-speaking wikivoyage, but i doubt the average joe surfer who first stumbles his way to wikivoyage does. As wikivoyage does not need the gramatical standards of wikipedia i guess more people could contribute here even though their english skills are not that of native level. Even though some big non-english-speaking countries such as Italy have considerable amounts of people who don't speak ebglish at all the amount of eg. Finns that do not have that kind of english skills are a clear minority.

These are my thoughts

//Gillis

82.181.9.189 15:08, 18 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Hi, Gillis. Thanks for the thoughts. So, the only place that we do language detection is at http://wikivoyage.org/ . We have to make some kind of guess about which language version to redirect people to. The guess is not based on IP address but uses HTTP content negotiation.


 * The code takes the languages that a user has configured in their browser preferences, compares them to the available languages, and determines the best language to redirect them to. It takes into account the preferences configured in the browser, so if you put Swedish first, then Finnish, it will redirect you to Swedish.


 * We could actually give each language version a "quality rating" (possibly its ratio of article count to the maximum article count, per wts:Multilingual statistics), and factor that into the equation. But, to be honest, I really want to redirect non-English speakers to the non-English language versions, to stimulate growth there.


 * If you don't want to read Wikivoyage in Finnish, you can either a) bookmark the English-language Main Page, b) follow the "English" link on the left-hand side panel, or c) configure your browser to prefer English to Finnish. --(WT-en) Evan 16:17, 18 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Okay, i understand your point of view. But wouldn't it be helpfull to add in a bar on ever mainpage that clearly would make it clear to people visiting the site that they havebeen redirected to their native language wikivoyage and that there indeed are wikivoyages in other languages (not just english!).Also improving searches by telling people in what other languages an article you can't find could be found would also be nice, but i guess that's much technically a lot to do with the wikimedia software. 82.181.9.189 04:03, 19 June 2007 (EDT)


 * I'm pretty sure every Wikivoyage language version has the list of "other languages" on the left-hand side, and most of them have a list in the Main Page, too. --(WT-en) Evan 11:26, 19 June 2007 (EDT)

furthering the site / getting involved
Hey there! I love what you are doing here, and think you are creating something outstanding. I certainly plan on helping further your resources as I travel around the world. Speaking of traveling around the world... I'm working on a really cool project and I think it would be awesome to try to incorporate it into the wiki-travel thing. I think it could have a lot of potential to help brand you guys and draw you some new users.

Do you think we could talk about it over email? My address is wowjeremydavid at gmail dot com. I look forward to hearing from you! Cheers

xtravelguide and stock description on ja:
Hi Evan.

I made a ja:MediaWiki:Xtravelguide and translated ja:MediaWiki:Travelguidedescription to use xtravelguide and stock description on ja:. Do I need any other setups ?

BTW, can I (tatata7 is me) get the list moderator's approval to subscribe for Admin-list ? -- (WT-en) Tatata 11:18, 20 June 2007 (EDT)

A couple of bugs in the Hebrew site
Hi, sorry to bother you again, we have a couple of bugs in the Hebrew site we hope you can solve: Thanks for your help! (WT-en) Zvika 11:33, 20 June 2007 (EDT)
 * There is a problem displaying pages with infoboxes and bullets. The problem only appears on Firefox (IE works OK). You can see an example of it (again, the problem only occurs in Firefox). Pages with only infoboxes, or only bullets, appear OK. Any idea what the problem is? (Note that in the Hebrew wikipedia this doesn't happen, see for example this page)
 * The yellow "you have new messages" box, which is supposed to appear when someone places a message on your user talk page, doesn't appear. I placed a message on your talkpage in the Hebrew Wikivoyage, to demonstrate this.

Work it, work it
I just wanted to point out that I think the woman in this photo is admiring your rear. -- (WT-en) Sapphire • (Talk) • 18:09, 22 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Hey! That boy been standing up at the keyboard?? No fair! (WT-en) OldPine 07:52, 29 June 2007 (EDT)

Listings
Hey there kind sir. Is it worth continuing to template listings with our new templates, considering you're working on the form-based listings generator? Will it be able to convert the current tags, or am I wasting my time in continuing to reformat listings? Gracias! – (WT-en) cacahuate  talk 02:55, 24 June 2007 (EDT)


 * I believe this query was generated due to a discussion on Project:Listings - see all of the comments from June 2007 in the thread at Project:Listings. -- (WT-en) Ryan &bull; (talk) &bull; 03:14, 24 June 2007 (EDT)

Evan asap
Hey Evan owner of wikivoyage how is maj and i would like if you could edit my towns? --64.222.199.130 16:21, 26 June 2007 (EDT)

Upgrade issue
The Project:Local spam blacklist can't be edited because the edit is being blocked by the blacklist. -- (WT-en) Ryan &bull; (talk) &bull; 02:52, 28 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Well, that's a good one. I think it's fixed; again, a MediaWiki: deletion problem. --(WT-en) Evan 03:11, 28 June 2007 (EDT)
 * Evan, I might have found a problem. Don't know how serious it is, but check out wts:WtTech:Session got mixed up. If it is replicable, I think it is important to fix it quickly. &mdash; (WT-en) Ravikiran 08:23, 28 June 2007 (EDT)

Quebec copyvios
Our friend gave his consent (and says he has the authority to do so), started a (WT-en) user account, and has begun restoring his edits. Is that verification enough? (WT-en) Gorilla Jones 09:56, 28 June 2007 (EDT)
 * It sounds like he/she has rights to the content, but it doesn't match our Project:Manual of style (specifically Project:Don't tout. S/he also seems unclear on the wiki concept (ie that the contributions will be edited by other people). I'm trying to get contact info to discuss this on the phone as they would be a fantastic resource to cooperate with if at all possible. (WT-en) Maj 10:11, 28 June 2007 (EDT)

New admins
There are a couple of new admins at Project:Administrator nominations who need you to sprinkle some pixie dust and give them the special buttons. -- (WT-en) Ryan &bull; (talk) &bull; 14:55, 28 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Done. --(WT-en) Evan 08:47, 29 June 2007 (EDT)

username.js
Hello Evan,

I think the username.js does not work intendedly.

Please see this : wts:WtTech:Special page namespace with accented characters.

Thanks, -- (WT-en) Tatata 00:44, 29 June 2007 (EDT)


 * I was aware of this problem; I'll see what I can do. --(WT-en) Evan 08:48, 29 June 2007 (EDT)

Strange redirects
Here's a strange one...

The last couple pages I've gone to have said that I was redirected from a page I never navigated to or searched for... I typed in India and when I got to the page it said "redirected from Indian". I typed in "Discount airlines in Asia" and it said "redirected from Discount carriers in Asia". – (WT-en) cacahuate  talk 03:02, 29 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Yep. That's a caching problem. Top priority, I'm fixing it right now. --(WT-en) Evan 08:55, 29 June 2007 (EDT)


 * OK, looks fixed. In the interest of keeping the site running smoothly, I'm just going to clear the server cache of articles with "redirected from" in them. Hopefully that works. --(WT-en) Evan 11:42, 29 June 2007 (EDT)

A problem with Washington (D.C.)
Hi Evan, for some reason, Template:hasDocent is not working for only Washington (D.C.). Do you have any idea what the problem is here? Thanks! --(WT-en) Peter Talk 04:34, 29 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Nope. Didn't you already file a bug report for this? --(WT-en) Evan 08:42, 29 June 2007 (EDT)


 * Whoops--so I did! --(WT-en) Peter Talk 04:25, 30 June 2007 (EDT)

Suspicious edits
Edits by User:68.62.89.204 maybe needs to be checked. (WT-en) Handrian 14:44, 29 June 2007 (EDT)