User talk:J. Noel Chiappa: Difference between revisions

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Thanks!  [[User:George Swan|George Swan]] 18:49, 22 April 2008 (CDT)
Thanks!  [[User:George Swan|George Swan]] 18:49, 22 April 2008 (CDT)


==Two things==
== Strings ==


First, Noel: can you make a case for requiring the "strings" package to the citizendium tools list?  And second, I'd like to send you some interview questions for the next issue of the Citizen; would you be intetrested? --[[User:Robert W King|Robert W King]] 10:00, 25 April 2008 (CDT)
Stephen says:
:"Email tools@citizendium.org [[User:Stephen Ewen|Stephen Ewen]] 14:01, 4 May 2008 (CDT)"


== Hi Noel! ==
FYI---[[User:David Yamakuchi|David Yamakuchi]] 00:33, 5 May 2008 (CDT)
I was pleasantly surprised to find we have more common interests than networking alone. Yes, my first decision to be a Wiki-refugee was in the Computer Networking Project. It wasn't so much that I kept having to explain that OSI compliance, let alone conformance, was not a requirement for IETF protocols, or that BGP is not an application layer protocol. It was, I think, being told that something was incorrect, in an IETF document of which I was a coauthor, because the editor's unnamed textbook said so. It was also the mantra of everything having seven layers, even after I cited the ISO documents on the internal organization of the network layer, management framework, routeing (ha!) framework, etc.


Not yet knowing the culture here, is it appropriate to try to develop an outline of networking topics and then start filling it in?  By and large, I wouldn't want to take any of the Wikipedia material, which was just too hacked. The articles on control and forwarding planes may be worth salvaging, once they are sprinkled with holy water to exorcise some of the persistently wrong "corrections".
==More on definitions==


Where I do think I have some Wiki material, which has value as a starting point, is in (military/strategic) intelligence and special operations. There are, for example, relatively few discussions anywhere of MASINT.  The process of intelligence analysis is another area where some politics need to be extracted.
I thought about this, and I think someone else thought about it also, but what is your opinion on using [[Template:H:title]]? --[[User:Robert W King|Robert W King]] 13:47, 25 May 2008 (CDT)


In these and other areas, I have to sort out the rules here about using material that I may not be able to find in secondary published sources, but have been doing for a frighteningly long time. There have been a few cases of "I don't know if it's documented anywhere, but that's not what my code did."
== I just had to tell you I laughed out loud ==


It's surprising how much organic chemistry comes back now that I'm writing proposals for sustainable biodiesel, in a semi-closed cycle between fishing boats and seafood restaurant waste.
... at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jnc/AstronomerAmateur AstronomerAmateur]. Although it's completely tongue-in-cheek, it frames the problems with Wikipedia with razor-sharp precision. I'm glad you jumped ship and came here! -[[User:Eric M Gearhart|Eric M Gearhart]] 17:47, 25 May 2008 (CDT)


[[User:Howard C. Berkowitz|Howard C. Berkowitz]] 09:36, 1 May 2008 (CDT)
==Template documentation==


== Can you... ==
Are you going to incorporate Robert Kings template into the preload of Doc? I have to admit I have not used his template for any of the documentation pages I have written. Mine usually evolve with time as I write notes to myself. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 11:08, 2 June 2008 (CDT)


...take a gander at this [[CZ:Proposals/Should_we_allow_article_specific_subpages%3F]]?  make any changes that you think will make it easier to understand. Thanks [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 00:26, 2 May 2008 (CDT)
== TlDoc ==


== How did we want to handle this? ==
Hopefully you have a short answer for [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Template:Subpages&oldid=100346547 this problem].  note the </noinclude> tag at the bottom and the fact that the first title does not format correctly (the header you see in that example, that looks like an intro between = marks, i added as a way to force the TOC look correct). I assume I have to have each title in the /doc without the header markup (<nowiki>==Title==</nowiki> ''etc''.), but can i still use a TOC after removing the headers? [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 13:42, 3 June 2008 (CDT)


[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Replace_this_text_with_article_name], --[[User:D. Matt Innis|D. Matt Innis]] 19:33, 3 May 2008 (CDT)
== Needles in a haystack ==


== Template:Lead/Compounds ==
After seeing [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Special%3AAllpages&from=&namespace=10 this disaster] it reminded me that having that template is a horrible but unavoidable idea.  But at the time I did not really think about using the format Template:Metadata/Basename.  Possibly there was a reason for not doing that, but it's not obvious to me right now.  Should we consider such a move, I know, what a job, but if we don't do it now finding templates will be like looking for a needle in a haystack. With a Template:Metadata prefix at least the others will not be interspersed within the metadata ones. Any thoughts? I assume you have already experienced this problem when looking for templates to add to the template page. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 22:27, 3 June 2008 (CDT)


Yes, I seem to have done something to make the pages that include both the physical properties, and the compounds listings to have a huge pre-expand size.  I'm not sure how to avoid this tho, the way I'm currently displaying them, I have to load the whole template to access any one single data member.  When I display the entire template, with perhaps dozens of different variables, the "size" is huge...perhaps there is a better way to display?  Is there a better way to store maybe?
:Any thoughts on this Noel? I think you may have overlooked it (possibly on purpose :P ) [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 12:42, 6 June 2008 (CDT)


Perhaps if we keep the number of "member variables" (aka properties) low, we won't get hit too badly on the size?  But that might mean more types of templates: Electrical Properties Templates, or quantum properties (see {{tl|Template:Lead/Isotopes}}, or other, as yet unknown types of "properties" data templates...IDK...I'm just making it up as I go...:-)--[[User:David Yamakuchi|David Yamakuchi]] 00:19, 5 May 2008 (CDT)
:: No, I hadn't forgotten it - just too busy recently to do anything with it! [[User:J. Noel Chiappa|J. Noel Chiappa]] 14:01, 6 June 2008 (CDT)


You just gave me another idea too...but it might be a few days before I can tool around with it.--[[User:David Yamakuchi|David Yamakuchi]] 00:21, 5 May 2008 (CDT)
== Godel and stuff ==


:This problem was exactly what i was thinking when I wrote the [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=User_talk:David_Yamakuchi&diff=100316246&oldid=100314988 first paragraph here]. I'll be interested to see what solution you come up with. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 09:49, 5 May 2008 (CDT)
Hiya Noel,


== Strings ==
Is anyone going to tackle Godel's IT in the future ?  I came across (what seems to me) a powerful pedagogy for rendering GIT.  This was proposed by a 'crackpot' on WP who was shot down in a hail of flames (and banned, i think.)    But I think it's legit, very powerful, and does occur (tho rather obscurely) in the literature.


Stephen says:
The idea is to sketch a proof of GIT from the modern perspective of computation.  This does great violence to the historical development of GIT, and it also takes for granted some ideas that originated with Godel ... but it is a powerful way to first see GIT from a modern perspective.   Let me try to sketch :  
"<blockquote>
---
:Email tools@citizendium.org [[User:Stephen Ewen|Stephen Ewen]] 14:01, 4 May 2008 (CDT)
We proof Halting first.  Start with a computer language, say Lisp.   
</blockquote>"
FYI---[[User:David Yamakuchi|David Yamakuchi]] 00:33, 5 May 2008 (CDT)


== Fast tracking subpages ==
* Quining : A computer program P exists which 'prints out its own source code' (or evaluates to a string which is its own source code.)  This is a common brain-teaser among beginning programmers, and within the reach of many students to figure out.


I just replyed to a couple of your questions on my talk page then remembered you like have the replies here. I'll leave them there for context but there is one other point you made that I will reply to here. That is the issue of backlogged suggestions for subpages.  
* Introspection : From above, a program can access its own source code and place it in a variable.  For example, if we have a program CountCharacters(P) which reads a program P and outputs the number of characters in its source code, we can always trivially modify CountCharacters to make CountMyCharacters() which processes its own source code. In other words, a program can always say "myself".


I am wondering if the way to go to reduce the backlog for new subpages is to just promote the tab option in metadata page as much as possible. Get people creating as many subpage types as they wish. In the process of setting up tabbed subpages the users will eventually create their own CZ:subpage description and Category:Subpage, and thus, those subpages will no longer be listed in the experimental subpage category. With time we'll see which ones work and which ones bomb. Those that work can graduate to "standard subpages".  Those that don't work will just quietly disappear. This seems a little more organic and will promote the experimentation with new types of subpage without the need for a formal backing from CZ.  If nothing else a really bad idea for a subpage will get people discussing the issue, expecially if it starts to propogate. The current problem is that the activation energy to get new subpages started not only stops tha bad ones but also the potentially great ones. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 10:12, 5 May 2008 (CDT)
* Halting : Suppose a Halting-Detector exists, H(P).   Use the Introspection property to turn H against itself :
:Crafting a unused subpages list based on the workgroups and a yet to be defined subpage hierarchy (hierarchy based on ''more general'' to ''very specific'' subpage usage) was the way i was thinking too. I have no solution in mind but this is a problem worth solving. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 11:20, 5 May 2008 (CDT)
Create Spite such that : If H(Spite) = "halt", hang in a loop.   Else, terminate.


== Locators and identifiers ==
We have a contradiction, thus H cannot exist.


Do you have something on hand that would address this function decomposition in addresses, which I originally learned from you? It would help articles on addressing and routing, and it seemed reasonable, rather than hunt for cites, just to go to the source. [[User:Howard C. Berkowitz|Howard C. Berkowitz]] 13:08, 6 May 2008 (CDT)
Finally we go from Halting to GIT : Statements about computation map to theorems in number theory, etc.


== subpage or metadata ==
The formalist justifiably screams bloody murder; but the ability to convince the reader of an otherwise obscure and baroque subject is, perhaps, compelling.  [[User:Christopher J. Reiss|Christopher J. Reiss]] 12:56, 4 June 2008 (CDT)


The more I think about this, the more I think it might be better on the metadata page.  Initially, I was thinking the metadata page might not be so great since it can be a scary place to edit.  This is probably groundless though since all authors here have to be familiar with it and it's not going away anytime soon. Certainly it makes the coding a lot easier and simpler. This an important point since it is already hard enough to navigate through the subpages template hierarchy. Also, I hate that <nowiki><noinclude>{{Subpages}}</noinclude></nowiki> code at the top of the definition subpage. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 00:51, 8 May 2008 (CDT)


: I think you've already reversed yourself on this (?), Chris, but I wouldn't like that--even the regulars who are reasonably comfortable with metadata pages wouldn't like to see it there.  Is there really any substantive advantage to having it there as opposed to on a subpage? --[[User:Larry Sanger|Larry Sanger]] 15:20, 9 May 2008 (CDT)
== why not subpage ==


:: Filling out the metadata page isn't that bad, although I am still playing with the indexing sequences. The real challenge: is there a way to open an existing page and edit it directly, rather than having something tell me I need to change something and open it for me? Is there a magic word? <small>...said</small> [[User:Howard C. Berkowitz |Howard C. Berkowitz ]] ([[User_talk:Howard C. Berkowitz |talk]]) {{#if:15:29, 9 May 2008|15:29, 9 May 2008|}}
Just out of curiosity is there any reason why the disambiguation page is not a subpage of the basename? If it were we would have the advantage of just adding the subpages template at the top like every other page (KISS principle). Likewise, we can then use the BASEPAGENAME magic words to identify the disambiguated term, for example,<nowiki> {{dabhdr|Poseidon}}</nowiki> would not be required, the subpages template would place the <nowiki>{{dabhdr}}</nowiki> template and use the magic word to specify the header.  [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 12:15, 5 June 2008 (CDT)


::: Yes, just go ahead as you do in wikipedia with no subpages template. If you do use the subpages template it ''will'' make you dot the i's and cross the t's. That's the way computers like it. :) Or is there something else you are referring to? Part of the reason for the many preloaded links is to ensure that the page titles are accurate.  One typo and the subpages temaplte cannot function correctly. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 15:36, 9 May 2008 (CDT)
:Sounds fine to me too, and more elegant. -- [[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 02:42, 6 June 2008 (CDT)


:::: Example: I've been rethinking the collating sequence for the titles of related articles, such as the intelligence series. To change the sorting order, I assume I need to get into the metadata page and change it there. So far, I haven't found any obvious manual  way to get back to the raw metadata page. Another possibility would be adding or changing a category (e.g., I've been putting intelligence into military, but politics, electronics, economics, and other categories may make sense). For that matter, is 3 categories a hard limit? [[User:Howard C. Berkowitz|Howard C. Berkowitz]] 15:47, 9 May 2008 (CDT)
Now I'm wondering if the Template:Dambigbox is even required? I can see how such a template would be useful in wikipedia where they have the dominant usage as an article, but wouldn't your proposal for having all disambiguated terms redirect to the disambiguation page mean this is not required? [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 10:23, 6 June 2008 (CDT)


== anchorencode: problem ==
I've lost track of this ideaWhere are we at? Looking at the disambiguation pages there seem to be many different formats. I think I am still leaning to the subpage with only the subpages template. Just so much simpler and intuitive with the rest of clusters. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 10:30, 17 June 2008 (CDT)
So close, but so far.  I want to have "Cell (biology)" in a url but the anchor trick gives me "Cell_.28biology.29". Click on the ''add definition'' to see the problem (also see [[Template:R#Example_of_use]]).
{{r|Cell (biology)}}
{{r|Cat's whisker}}
{{r|New York, New York}}
What I need is something more similar to <nowiki>{{BASEPAGENAMEE}}</nowiki> but that trick is not available to me in this caseSo is there something else, similar to anchor, but changes "Cell (biology)" to "Cell_(biology)"? [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 22:24, 8 May 2008 (CDT)


By the way I can do this fine when I'm within the cluster, see the red link in the to do list at [[Talk:Cell_%28biology%29]].  The problem is if i want to do it from outside the cluster using the parameter from the {{tl|r}} template. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 22:49, 8 May 2008 (CDT)
== Disambiguation of "Anaximander" ==


Is there any reason not to use <nowiki>{{urlencode:{{{1}}}}}}</nowiki>? It seems to solve the problem. Is there an advantage to using<nowiki> {{anchorencode:</nowiki> as opposed to <nowiki>{{urlencode:</nowiki>? [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 22:56, 8 May 2008 (CDT)
I just started a page on ''Anaximander'', the ancient Greek philosopher. Then I discover that it needs to be disambiguated. With what, I don't know except maybe a Lunar crater. Anyway, the article title shows up in a funny tan/gold color in the Related Articles page of ''Pythagoras''.


== Can you make a template out this, please? ==
How do I find out about these disambiguations before I create the article? Should I first define the word, then, when creating the page, click to it from some Related Article page? And if I find out it needs disambiguation, what then? Also, without knowing what it needs to be disambiguated from, is it always the case that the primary name should go to a disambig page?


Noel, [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/User:Milton_Beychok/Sandbox this] is a table of the equivalence of various units of pressure, which I have in my sandbox. Can you make it into a template so that it can be inserted into various articles at the point where an author places this tag: <nowiki>{{pressure}}</nowiki> ?
[[User:James F. Perry|James F. Perry]] 18:22, 5 June 2008 (CDT)


The table came from Wikipedia and I was a significant contributor in formatting and revising it on Wikipedia. I have re-formatted it and simplified it a bit for porting here to CZ.
== Applying templates on special pages ==


If you cannot make it into a template, do you think that Chris Day might be able to do it? Thanks in advance, - [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] 20:24, 11 May 2008 (CDT)
Hi Noel, looking at [[Special:Wantedpages]], I was wondering whether templates like {{tl|r}} could be applied there somehow, too - this would probably lower the hesitation threshold for starting such a wanted article. Besides, I have always wished to put such special pages on my watchlist - is there a way to achieve that? Thanks. -- [[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 03:53, 6 June 2008 (CDT)


Hey, Noel, have you had a chance to think about this yet? Can you make the template? [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] 01:59, 12 May 2008 (CDT)
== Dealing with duplicates ==


: {{tl|pressure}}--[[User:David Yamakuchi|David Yamakuchi]] 10:40, 12 May 2008 (CDT)
Noel, I noticed that you've been clearing up a lot of dupicate-article situations recently.  What is the protocol (and the technical how-to) for doing this?  For example, there's been an article titled "Copyrighting" for some time, and today there's a new article titled "Copyright" (which seems to me to be the better title).  Each article, so far, has only one author, as far as I can tell.  Should the person noticing this situation just point it out to the two authors and let them discuss it, or will the Law Workgroup deal with it, or what? Thanks. [[User:Bruce M.Tindall|Bruce M.Tindall]] 10:19, 6 June 2008 (CDT)


==Need help==
== Bible books ==
Can you make head or tail of this, it's a strange thing I discovered when transcluding the definition subpage. In the current form the definition starts on a new line after the noinclude tags. To cut to the chase, the line break is transcluded in some cases but not others. For example:


'''<nowiki>* Biology: {{:Biology/Definition}}</nowiki>''' gives:
Fine with me (to call them "Genesis (Bible book)" by way of disambiguation).  But I just did a minor edit; it's Tom Morris who created the Genesis article (and therefore presumably will be creating more of 'em).  I'll pass the suggestion on to him.  Also -- I am ignorant of the mechanics of deleting or renaming articles.  Could you please point me to a primer on that?  [[User:Bruce M.Tindall|Bruce M.Tindall]] 11:20, 6 June 2008 (CDT)
* Biology: {{:Biology/Definition}}


'''<nowiki>* Biology: {{#ifexist: Biology/Definition|{{:Biology/Definition}} }}</nowiki>''' gives:
== disambigbox ==
* Biology: {{#ifexist: Biology/Definition|{{:Biology/Definition}} }}


Note that there is no line break when I transclude the definition subpage within an expression (Please correct my lingo here, I'm not sure how to express this in english). Why the difference? I also note that I can get rid of the line break by putting the whole of the first example in code tags. So:
I found a solution but don't ask me to explain it.  The problem is that the magic word does not kick in with the following format:<nowiki> {{disambigbox||Foo}}.</nowiki>  I then tried the magic word for the second term (<nowiki>{{{2|{{PAGENAME}}}}}</nowiki>) and I see the same problem with respect to<nowiki> {{disambigbox|Foo, Bar|}}</nowiki>. But in the form of <nowiki> {{disambigbox|Foo, Bar}}</nowiki> the second term '''does''' become the<nowiki> {{PAGENAME}}</nowiki>. Consequently, i think your best bet is to switch the order of the first and second parameters in the template. Thus,<nowiki> {{disambiguation|Foo|Foo, Bar}} and {{disambiguation|Foo}}</nowiki> will work the way you want. Is this not better anyway, rather than having <nowiki>{{disambiguation||Foo}}</nowiki>? [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 12:34, 6 June 2008 (CDT)


'''<nowiki><code>* Biology: {{:Biology/Definition}}</code></nowiki>''' appears as:
== Taxobox ==
I'm having issues with taxobox (well one issue: as written, it only allows for one subdivision, and often there are multiple subdivisions)... do you where I should go to fix it/ suggest getting it fixed?  I know nothing about the meta-wiki world.  Thanks! [[User:Marielle Fields Newsome|Marielle Fields Newsome]] 18:36, 6 June 2008 (CDT)
:Thanks!  Yeah, it was one of those copy-code-and-rename-variables deals, pretty simple.  Despite my issues with }}. [[User:Marielle Fields Newsome|Marielle Fields Newsome]] 22:35, 6 June 2008 (CDT)


<code>* Biology: {{:Biology/Definition}}</code>
== Nominating [[United States Environmental Protection Agency]] for approval ==


Can you explain what is going on here? This might be a problem in the future for using the definition subpage unless the definition starts immediately after the noinclude tags or it is always between tags or within an expression when we transclude it. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 11:49, 14 May 2008 (CDT)
Noel, I would like to get the subject article nominated for approval. Since Richard Jensen and I are the only two who worked on it, it is my understanding that we cannot nominate it.


:Same thing happens in wikipedia. So here is the thing, if we're going with the definition subpages rather than the metadata route should we code it as follows:
Would you read it and see if you might nominate it for approval? If so, do you know of anyone else who could also nominate it? I think that the only other active editor with an interest in environmental articles is Anthony Argyriou, and I just don't know him well enough ... do you know him?


<code><nowiki><noinc1ude>{{Subpages}}</noinc1ude><!--</nowiki></code><br><code><nowiki>-->Definition here.</nowiki></code>
Thanks in advance. - [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] 05:01, 7 June 2008 (CDT)
:I may be able to help. See my comments on article talk page -- it may simply be that we should plan on additional sub-articles. [[User:Howard C. Berkowitz|Howard C. Berkowitz]] 07:48, 7 June 2008 (CDT)


:Or go with the following:
== Yes, we would like to rename [[United States Environmental Protection Agency]] ==


<code><nowiki><noinc1ude>{{Subpages}}</noinc1ude>Definition here.</nowiki></code>
Noel, you left a message on the Talk page of the the subject article asking if we wanted to rename the article. Richard Jensen and I have agreed that it should be renamed [[U.S. Environmental Protection Agency]]. Would you be so kind as to move the article and the entire cluster (subpages, Metadate page and Approval page) to that new name?
Thanks in advance. - [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] 22:11, 8 June 2008 (CDT)


:Rather than:
== Properties Storage ==


<code><nowiki><noinc1ude>{{Subpages}}</noinc1ude></nowiki></code><br><code><nowiki>Definition here.</nowiki></code>
Hi Noel,
 
:In this way we can transclude the definition in anywhere. Any thoughts, apart from stick it in the metadata page ;) [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 12:53, 14 May 2008 (CDT)


== CZ:Unchecklisted Articles ==
The properties in the scheme I'm proposing _would_ all be on one page (or at least would appear to the reader to be so)...why not let's call it the Properties page here just so we have a name to "speak" of.  The properties page would of course in reality include data that are stored in various other sub-sub-pages as reported by the list page...like the model at [[Unobtanium/Properties]]


Hi Noel. I noticed in the recent changes that you had edited the CZ article, and I was curious as to what it was about. I'm still unfamiliar with <s>some</s> many of the processes and policies involved in CZ, so I wonder if you could take a look at the two articles I've created so far: [[Belfast]] and [[Belleek Pottery Ltd]] to check if I've done everything correctly. The thing I noticed was that the article on Belleek china has no template displayed at the top of it (though it's displayed on the talk page) whereas the article on Belfast has the template on both the main article page and the talk page.
The advantage of this over just putting all the data directly on the properties page itself is seen when you only need one property's info or a very small subset of the total data.


My suspicion is that it has something to do with the 'copied from Wikipedia' flag: I copied my own text from the article I had created in WP, whereas I wrote the start of the Belfast article from scratch.
I'd started (as Chris reminded me yesterday) trying to make a periodic table that would let us resize and change the type of info displayed.


Let me know if I've done anything wrong, or omitted something I could have done. Cheers, --[[User:Mal McKee|Mal McKee]] 12:18, 15 May 2008 (CDT)
see [[User:David Yamakuchi/Sandbox2]]


== sub-subpages ==
It seemed that when we want to talk about periodic tables, there are many and diverse views on which data are important to include, and I'm definitely of the opinion that there is likely a more accessable way than what we currently have at [[Periodic table of elements]].  So I branched off of the stuff we did on the elements infobox and made a template for a periodic table that could be resized and started to futz around with populating the table with data.


Noel, is there a simple way to call up a list of all "sub"-''files''?  For instance, if there is an article: [[Iron]] and I would like a list of every page that is "Iron/*.*", can that be simply specified? (please forgive my having to lean on DOS commands to communicate here, but what I'm looking for here is basically "'''dir'''" :-)--[[User:David Yamakuchi|David Yamakuchi]] 14:44, 15 May 2008 (CDT)
As Chris pointed out, a simple approach would be to just hand cobble the data into the table, but it occurred to me that if I was going to be entering the Atomic Mass for say Lithium, I probably ought to put it somewhere under the Lithium page first as that would be where folks would look for it.  But then what we would have is NOT one location for the info...it's in the article (or at least on the properties subpage), and then again it would be in the table.  I suspect that this kind of thing  happens quite a lot already, and I'm afraid it will cause consistency problems for CZ.


: Click on 'Special pages' in the menu on the left, and then click on 'Prefix index' and type in "Iron" in the box. Then select your article namespace option. --[[User:Mal McKee|Mal McKee]] 15:21, 15 May 2008 (CDT)
Specifically, when the data someday becomes obsolete for whatever reason, there needs to be more than one edit to fix it...but the real question is how is an author to know that?  The Lithium article would likely be the place the author updates and then we would have an article about the element that is "out of sync" with the periodic table.


== Changed R template to accommodate disambiguation ==
This is the reason that the property data ought to be retrieved from the material's article's (subpage) on the fly anytime we use the data outside of the material's article.  The only practical way that I've found so far to do this is with the seperate subpage approach.


I just made a modification to the {{tl|r}} template to show how this could work.
That said, there are still a lot of things about wikis I just don't know, so perhaps I'm simply ignorant of a better solution.  I'm now of course curious to know a little more about this "selector" you mentioned in your comment...is it different from the #switch/case approach?--[[User:David Yamakuchi|David Yamakuchi]] 03:25, 9 June 2008 (CDT)


Consider [[Reel]], it is a redirect to [[Reel (disambiguation)]] where three meanings are described one each for dance, music and textiles. None of these three currently have articles but all have a definition page. In this case [[Reel/Definition]] also exists as well as the [[Reel]] redirect. However, i have changed the R tempalte code such that it will ignore the Reel/Definnition page IF a disambiguation page exists. Instead it will point to the disambiguation page. Thus:
== Couldn't move pages ==


<nowiki>{{r|reel}}</nowiki> will look as follows: {{r|reel}}
Hi Noel, I've run into a slight problem I wasn't able to fix myself. The content of the pages [[NGC 6694]] and [[NGC 6994]] should be reversed. NGC 6994 is actually Messier 73 while NGC 6694 is Messier 26. I stumbled across the M73 error while editting Aquarius and couldn't do a move page because M73 was occupying 6694 which is when I noticed the double error. If you could look into this one I'd appreciate it (or point me in the right direction of course). Thanks, --[[User:Michael Geldorp|Michael Geldorp]] 09:43, 12 June 2008 (CDT)


Note that the link to [[Reel]] is purple indicating that it is a redirect. An author should notice this ambiguity and choose the correct link. Depending on the context this would be one of:
== Approval nomination for [[U.S. Environmental Protection Agency]] ==


<nowiki>{{r|Reel (dance)}}
Noel, Howard Berkowitz has agreed to nominate the article. However, he is not sure as to how to do so. I told him to read [[CZ:Approval process]]. Would you be so kind as to contact him and help to make the Approval nomination? Thanks in advance, [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] 10:34, 13 June 2008 (CDT)
{{r|Reel (music)}}
{{r|Reel (textiles)}}</nowiki> that would show as:
{{r|Reel (dance)}}
{{r|Reel (music)}}
{{r|Reel (textiles)}}


Depending on the context the bracketed diambiguation might not have to be used.  For example, if the link is on the related articles subpage for sewing the author might prefer to use the following format:
== Prefixindex and the like ==


<nowiki>{{r|Reel (textiles)}|Reel}}</nowiki>
Hi, and thanks for the Prefixindex search link, it ''is'' really helpful. BTW, is there such a thing as a "Suffixindex" search, where I could see (for instance) all the pages whose names '''end''' in /Fooness ?...maybe a wildcard character?...*/Fooness does not seem to work.--[[User:David Yamakuchi|David Yamakuchi]] 15:50, 15 June 2008 (CDT)
{{r|reel (textiles)|Reel}}


It is possible to have the R template manage another complex example. Consider the scenario where the [[Tux]] article exists as one of our approved articles AND has a [[Tux (disambiguation)|disambiguation page]] as well as a useful [[Tux/Definition]] subpage. In such a scenario the Tux definition might be expected to be overlooked and point to the disambiguation page similar to the coded example below:
== Speedy Speedup ==


* [[Tux|Tux]] <span style="font-size:0.8em;">[<nowiki></nowiki>[[Tux/Related Articles|r]]<nowiki></nowiki>]</span>: ''<font color=#666666>Can have several meanings, summarized at</font> [[Tux (disambiguation)]]''
Done..  If you have trouble getting a response, leave a message on my talk and it will email me, too. --[[User:D. Matt Innis|D. Matt Innis]] 07:56, 16 June 2008 (CDT)
:Thanks Noel (and Matt!) for fixing the ngc numbers mix-up. --[[User:Michael Geldorp|Michael Geldorp]] 09:14, 16 June 2008 (CDT)


I have avoided this by coding such that the Foo/Definition subpage is only avoided when there is no metadata template for the basepagename Foo. Thus, in this Tux example:
==Still alive==
Update on user page.  I'm currently being distracted by other things so I haven't updated much.  Thank you very much for inquiring though! --[[User:Robert W King|Robert W King]] 08:45, 22 June 2008 (CDT)


<nowiki>{{r|Tux}}</nowiki> would look as follows:
== Noel, please help me ==
{{r|Tux}}


Let me know what you think, don't understand and would like to tweek to suit your desired model. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 15:19, 15 May 2008 (CDT)
Noel:


:If your goal is to deal with the problem like Tux then I'd say the best bet is to undo the last change I made to {{tl|R}} where it assays for the existance of a cluster and still acknowledges defs like Tux/Definition.  If nothing else it will be easier for authors to notice the article names that have a disambiguation pages. Do you want a category for all article names with a disambiguation page? I can get the subpages template to add it to the talk page of such articles. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 22:40, 15 May 2008 (CDT)
Sometime ago, I used the <nowiki>{{Archive box|auto=long}}</nowiki> template tag to archive the earliest part of my Talk page.


::I just changed the R template such that Tux and like articles will point to the disambiguation page. So now the last example with Tux above will not be as it used to look!, and will now make no sense.
Today, I created [[User talk:Milton Beychok \ Archive 2]] and also included the <nowiki>{{Archive box|auto=long}}</nowiki>template tag on that page. But I cannot get it to show up in the Archive box on my Talk page. That Archive box just shows Archive 1.
::With regard to categories, another useful one might be to locate the pages that have an R template pointing to a disambiguation page.  The advantage of this category is that one can catch some disambiguation pages that do not have a corresponding article in citizendium (if they exist). It will also let us find the R templates that need to be adjusted to locate their more accurate home. So examples like <nowiki>{{R|Tux}}</nowiki> can then be pipelinked to<nowiki> {{R|Tux (Linux)|Tux}}</nowiki>. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 22:47, 15 May 2008 (CDT)


==!!!!==
How do I get the Archive box to list the Archive 2 that I created today? Are there some other parameters needed in the <nowiki>{{Archive box|auto=long}}</nowiki> template box when adding another archive?
Hilarious, i am editing the Template:Def right now! And I'm going to rewrite the text in the CZ:Definition so there is no temptation to do what it suggests. :) [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 12:12, 16 May 2008 (CDT)
:The trigger for me was reading the CZ:Definition page and realising that a specific template was actually quicker than writing the whole <nowiki>{{:Biology/Definition}}</nowiki> term.  So clearly there was no reason ever to do it that way. The side effect occurred to me when I was writing {{tl|Def}}. Nice to see all the def writing on the recent changes, certainly this has got people thinking and the Related Articles pages are starting to be used more too. The community heard a penny drop somewhere. Maybe the "figure head titles" will be next? [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 12:41, 16 May 2008 (CDT)


==R again==
I have tried everything I could think of with no luck. Please help me get it done. [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] 21:18, 1 July 2008 (CDT)
I had always assumed that was standard when a template started with a *, ! or ;.  I have come across that a few times and it just became another one of those mines you have to navigate. I was never surprised by it as a result of my trial and error approach to writing the templates. As they say, ignorance is bliss. :) [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 13:54, 16 May 2008 (CDT)


==move bot==
:Never mind. I finally figured it out myself. Thanks anyway. [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] 22:06, 1 July 2008 (CDT)
Since it might be some time before the move function is automated for clusters possibly someone could write a script that a bot can use?  Not ideal, but at least it would make things faster and easier. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 14:10, 19 May 2008 (CDT)


== [[Eduzendium Testimonials]] ==
==wimbledon==
Cheers --[[User:John J. Dennehy|John J. Dennehy]] 16:30, 19 May 2008 (CDT)
hi, noel, have sliced off part of my ring finger & the ER ppl hve put it together but it's hard to type. i saw a little of the third set at 5-5, just before the rain, then turned it back on at 7-7 in th fifth. i was too nervous to watch. if i'd *known* nadal was gonna win, though, i woulda watched the whole match.... cheers! [[User:Hayford Peirce|Hayford Peirce]] 15:37, 12 July 2008 (CDT)


== Lists, catalogues, related articles, and how to format them ==
== added proof sketch to Halting Problem ==


Hi Noel,
Hi Noel!


Hayford and I are having a problem over at [[Science fiction]].  Specifically, when is an organised list a catalog as opposed to Related Articles list, and more importantly, how on earth do we format 'em?
I added a (rather unconventional) proof sketch for Halting, curious what you think about it  [[User:Christopher J. Reiss|Christopher J. Reiss]] 02:00, 14 July 2008 (CDT)


Here's what were going for:  [[Science fiction/Related Articles]].  Is there a good way to organise this? indent this?  Note what happened when Hayford added 'Frankenstein' under Mary Shelley, and also what I mess I made trying to place 'A Wrinkle in Time' under Madeleine L'Engle.
== Could you do this? ==


[[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 17:36, 19 May 2008 (CDT)
Noel:


:Hi, Noel, I think I've got things straightened out -- BUT, I don't know how to put the red link and definition baloney back on the three Chulz Voine books I just added. Could you be a pal and do that? I'm sure Aleta and I will prove to be quick learners and will be able to mimic your decisive edits.... Thanks! [[User:Hayford Peirce|Hayford Peirce]] 18:24, 19 May 2008 (CDT)
When one goes to his/her "View and edit watchlist" at [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Special:Watchlist&action=edit here], there is a list of all the articles being watched. That list is not alphabetized on Citizendium. It is alphabetized on Wikipedia, which means that it can be done.


Noel, see my reply on Aleta's talk page. I think I have made R more generally useful with out breaking its current role on all the RA pages. Its a bit of an ugly fix but it might work OK if indenting and numbering are not its primary function. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 02:04, 20 May 2008 (CDT)
When one has 70 or more articles being watched (as I do), it is extremely helpful to have the "View and edit watchlist" page alphabetized. Is this something you could do? If not, who can you refer me to someone that can do it? I have already asked Robert King, with no reply as yet. Thanks in advance, [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] 17:18, 16 July 2008 (CDT)


==indent==
:Hi, Noel. Have you decided whether or not this is something you could do? Please let me know. Thanks, [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] 21:50, 26 July 2008 (CDT)
Good idea for having the "indent=" as a nbsp by defualt. Not sure why it currently comes out as if in a box. I was thinking indent was too long as well. Lets see if aleta can come up with something more user friendly. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 07:36, 20 May 2008 (CDT)


:Well i biked to work and realised the simple fix was to move the space.  It used to be<nowiki> {{{indent|*}}} [[link]]</nowiki> and is now  <nowiki>{{{indent|* }}}[[link]]</nowiki>.  Now I have been playing with your version <nowiki>{{{3|* }}}[[link]]</nowiki> which i like a lot since there is no field name to worry about. But the problem here is that the second variable might be rarer than the indent. What do you think of having the second variable as the indent and when the name variation is used we need to define the indent, i.e. <nowiki>{{r|Foo (bar)|*|Foo}}</nowiki> instead of  <nowiki>{{r|Foo (bar)|Foo}}</nowiki>. The alternative is that we have to use the second variable when we want to indent which seems counter intuitive, i.e. <nowiki>{{r|Foo|Foo|*}}</nowiki>. Any thoughts? byt he way, I have no idea what the formatting issues are with the double indent (**) at the front. I usually don't try and figure those things out (as in I can't) and just try and work around them. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 09:53, 20 May 2008 (CDT)
::Noel, never mind. Greg Sabino fixed it. - [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] 12:13, 31 July 2008 (CDT)


::Cool that <nowiki>{{r|Name||**}}</nowiki>  work fine, i didn't think to try it. Do you think that <nowiki>{{r|Foo (bar)||Foo}}</nowiki> will work too? I think indent will be used a lot more than the second name so it would be nice to be able to write something as simple as <nowiki>{{r|Name|**}}</nowiki>.  I wonder if the double line will cause confusion? My four hours sleep is not what it seems. I normally get at least six hours but broken into to two. I normally crash out while reading stories to the kids and sleep for about three hours.  Then I have my nocturnal activity followed by another three- four hours.  [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 10:19, 20 May 2008 (CDT)
== R60-2 is incorrect ==


:::Good point about having to track down all the <nowiki>{{r|Foo (bar)|Foo}}</nowiki>'sI'm definitely going to let those sleeping dogs lieI'm going to change R to your streamlined version and let Aleta know.  I'm sure she'll be happy with no field name. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 10:35, 20 May 2008 (CDT)
R60-2 is not correct terminologyBMW's official designation is [[BMW R60-2|R60/2]] or "R 60/2." Please reverse your change. [[User:Jeffrey M. Dean|Jeff Dean]] 09:13, 1 August 2008 (CDT)


::::Great additions to the R/Doc.  I had not thought of that, too focused on the indenting problem. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 11:17, 20 May 2008 (CDT)
== Moving (renaming) an article ==


== Templates are easy ==
Noel, when an article is moved, the Talk page goes with it. Should the other subpages (Definition, Bibliography, External Links, Related Links, Metadata) be moved first? Or should the main article be moved first? Or what? - [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] 11:25, 1 August 2008 (CDT)


... as easy as anything you are used to...
:Milton, move the Metadata page first. Then the article, then the others, if necessary. [[User:D. Matt Innis|D. Matt Innis]] 15:08, 1 August 2008 (CDT)
Anyway, I have created {{tl|Gla}} and described what I am aiming at. If you could help with that, this would be very cool! In the meantime, I will try to draft a basis for {{tl|Dabdef}}. -- [[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 11:16, 21 May 2008 (CDT)


:Thanks for your help with dabdef. -- [[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 19:24, 22 May 2008 (CDT)
== Resurrecting "Separating page-names..." ==


==Preload==
Hey Noel--


Can you preload the contents of a template to a page that already exists, i.e. using Template:DeleteRedir for the cleanup?  That has never been possible using my computer (mac). [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 15:54, 21 May 2008 (CDT)
Some of the stuff Howard is working on has some really thorny Naming Conventions-type issues-- and this in addition to the Osama bin Laden debate (and all and sundry Romanized title issues), and the debate over Anthony's Naming Convention proposal, etc., etc... All this is to say that I strongly feel that we should work towards implementing your idea for separating page-names and article titles. I was tempted to start it as a new proposal (though I'm probably too bogged down with grad school to be the driver) but I wanted to check with you and make sure that there wasn't some compelling reason you hadn't done so already.  


:I suspect the time it worked was for one that had already been deleted? [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 16:05, 21 May 2008 (CDT)
Thanks,
[[User:Brian P. Long|Brian P. Long]] 10:30, 5 August 2008 (CDT)


==Defs with a slash==
== TFTP ==
Shouldn't GNU/Linux/Definition live at Linux as GNU/Linux redirects there? Certain the Subpages template pukes it out as Linux is not a recognised subpage. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 22:31, 21 May 2008 (CDT)


Another thing. Anything you move on that list at ''Category:Move def'', it is fine '''not''' to add the speedy template to the ''Template:Def Article name''. Note the white garden example that gives me a delete link after the move; <nowiki>{{move def|white garden}}</nowiki> gives:  
FYI, I started a TFTP article, which is pretty stubby at the moment. Do you want to have any involvement with this, anywhere from contributor to editor to Great Server God? :-)
:{{move def|white garden}}
[[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 00:24, 22 May 2008 (CDT)


: Took me a while to sort out that that meant! (That you saw a delete link once the def had been moved.) [[User:J. Noel Chiappa|J. Noel Chiappa]] 08:50, 22 May 2008 (CDT)
[[User:Howard C. Berkowitz|Howard C. Berkowitz]] 13:01, 23 August 2008 (CDT)


::Oops, sorry, i deleted it by mistake when i went through to get rid of the red links in Category:Move def and thus destroyed my example. Do you get what i meant though?  No need to add the speedy delete as I can see which ones are ready to delete at the category page. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 09:58, 22 May 2008 (CDT)
== New draft of Gender article ==


==Disambiguation==
Hi, Noel -- I don't know if you saw this -- maybe not -- on the [[Gender]] talk page, but I've started a whole new article on gender at [[User:Timothy Perper/Sandbox]]. Please come over and look at it if you're interested. It's of course not done yet, but it will get there. Thanks. [[User:Timothy Perper|Timothy Perper]] 18:31, 27 September 2008 (CDT)
So what's up with [[Half-life]] example, is that the way we're doing it?  Is will that be a redirect? Also should the template go below the subpages otherwise the subpages header will jump up and down as you navigate from the article to the subpages and back. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 10:14, 22 May 2008 (CDT)


== Faraday's law ==
== Sure it's okay... ==


What did you to the definition of [[Faraday's law]]? Earlier today Daniel did the same to energy. I told him that it looks ''blöd'' (german for daft) on my user page and that is where the business with redirecting and moving energy started.--[[User:Paul Wormer|Paul Wormer]] 10:20, 22 May 2008 (CDT)
...to fix my userpage. Thanks, Noel!  [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 09:41, 24 October 2008 (UTC)
==Malevolent opposition==
"Cryptography is also a branch of engineering, but an unusual one as it deals with active, intelligent, and malevolent opposition" I thought that was an invariant property of software in development. A colleague stated it as "if computers had feet, you could never bend over near one."


==Anchorcode==
:-) [[User:Howard C. Berkowitz|Howard C. Berkowitz]] 17:16, 24 October 2008 (UTC)
Yes, it is anchor code problem but the urlencode is even worse.  We'll have to edit those type manullly. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 16:05, 22 May 2008 (CDT)


==Redirects==
==SR-71==
Thanks for the answer. I understand that if someone uses alternate spellings, he/she will get the results for that. However, I am afraid that if they only use one spelling that is different enough from others, they won't even be aware of other articles.--[[User:Gary Giamboi|Gary Giamboi]] 20:20, 22 May 2008 (CDT)
I do have Ben Rich's book, ''Skunk Works'', and think I can get some more direct material from there. I haven't spent time on newsgroups in a while, but Mary Shafer, who retired as chief NASA aerodynamic engineer for the SR-71, was quite active. I wonder if we can find her? [[User:Howard C. Berkowitz|Howard C. Berkowitz]] 17:16, 24 October 2008 (UTC)


== This is part of it ==
== Computers articles near approval, and twisty and turny things ==


[http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Talk:Augustin-Louis_Cauchy#Approval No responses from anyone interested in the article]. [[User:D. Matt Innis|D. Matt Innis]] 07:39, 23 May 2008 (CDT)
If you have the inclination, [[anycast]], [[Internet Protocol]] (as distinct from IPv4 and IPv6), and [[Domain Name System]] are pretty far along.


==Talk page fate during a move==
When I speak of twisty and turny, I'm trying to get a map that interrelates all the newer things with IPv6, DNS-DNSSEC-DNS as PKI, DHCPv6/SLAAC, IPSec, etc. The [[Domain Name System]] article proper is meant to be a high-level introduction, and, in discussion with Pat, parts may still be at too detailed a level and should move into subordinate articles. [[User:Howard C. Berkowitz|Howard C. Berkowitz]] 01:20, 25 October 2008 (UTC)
Could you summarize this based on your experiences moving articles?  I'm seeing that talk from a disambiguation {basename} get redirected. Do we mormally delete talk pages for a pagename move not involving a disambiguation?  Or is it best to keep them as redirects, especially if they are linked from other pages? Any other scenarios you can think of? [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 15:20, 23 May 2008 (CDT)
:That makes total sense.  In that case I should add a what links here link so it is possible to make a decision on the talk page.  Alternatively just have all talk page redirected regardless? The latter will make it more user friendly. I'll think this over and see what is possible with the move template.[[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 15:37, 23 May 2008 (CDT)


==planets==
:Laughing about burnout...every time I work on [[homeopathy]], I feel the need either for penance or decontamination and write another health article, or, alternatively, feeling like blowing up things so I go work on military. Computers are done when I'm feeling reasonably neutral.
Are all eight going to xxx (planet)? Saturn and Earth probably should. That leaves Jupiter. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 17:10, 23 May 2008 (CDT)
:I guessed there would be something but I'm not up on all my Roman Gods. I like the plan for the move template i.e. it only function on the metadata page. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 07:51, 24 May 2008 (CDT)


== help needed in [[French words in English]] ==
:Started doing some cooking related things, since I've started breadmaking and am very pleased with it, but not sure what workgroup, if any, is appropriate. Thinking of [[canning]] led me to write [[autoclave]]. [[User:Howard C. Berkowitz|Howard C. Berkowitz]] 01:29, 25 October 2008 (UTC)
Hi, Chris and Noel (alphabetical order!), could one or both of you take a look a the [[French words in English]] article and see if you could figure out a scheme to index the list of words with a TOC so that we can go directly to the '''A's''', for instance, or the '''T's'''. We're now at the point where there are so many words that it's beginning to become quite tedious to scroll up and down a gazillion times a day. Many thanks! (PS, you don't have to index '''all''' the letters -- just the first couple, so that I can see how you did it: I'll then take care of all the rest....) [[User:Hayford Peirce|Hayford Peirce]] 11:59, 24 May 2008 (CDT)
:Many thanks! I saw all the different edits you made in order to get it to work. Wow!  Eventually I'll try playing around with the formatting somewhat -- in a sense, it's gonna look strange to have 26 (or somewhat fewer) letters just descending the top of the page all by themselves. Maybe something will suggest itself one of these days.... Thanks again! [[User:Hayford Peirce|Hayford Peirce]] 16:09, 24 May 2008 (CDT)
::I wuz just mulling those possibilities over -- but now you've told me how to '''do''' it! Thanks -- I'll play around with it for a while.... [[User:Hayford Peirce|Hayford Peirce]] 16:42, 24 May 2008 (CDT)


== linking to redirects ==
== Could you look at ..==
[[Talk:Cipher#Asymmetric_stream_ciphers.3F]] [[User:Sandy Harris|Sandy Harris]] 01:40, 25 October 2008 (UTC)


Oh, I see now. I had just assumed that the page had been moved/renamed, and that like got missed. Ah well. By the way, I seem to have run down my big TODO list. Any other jobs for me? [[User:John Dvorak|John Dvorak]] 19:14, 24 May 2008 (CDT)
I've just added to that discussion. Another opinion now would be helpful. [[User:Sandy Harris|Sandy Harris]] 03:52, 31 December 2008 (UTC)


==disambig box==
== Quantum mechanics ==
However you think it should work--make it work like that.  --[[User:Robert W King|Robert W King]] 20:01, 24 May 2008 (CDT)


==More on definitions==
Hi Noel, I'm glad that you're back in the land of the living, i.e., CZ ;-) I hope that you're all right, socially, physically, psychologically, and monetarily.
I thought about this, and I think someone else thought about it also, but what is your opinion on using [[Template:H:title]]? --[[User:Robert W King|Robert W King]] 13:47, 25 May 2008 (CDT)


== I just had to tell you I laughed out loud ==
Yes, I can look at [[Introduction to quantum mechanics]], but first I will have to read the Mermin article. As far as I remember you had lots on the post-John-Bell philosophy of QM and very little about QM from the working physicist (and chemist) point of view. I think there should be a little bit more about the latter. But it will be a challenge to keep it readable, because, as I remember, that was the whole purpose of the exercise.--[[User:Paul Wormer|Paul Wormer]] 14:38, 29 October 2008 (UTC)


... at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jnc/AstronomerAmateur AstronomerAmateur]. Although it's completely tongue-in-cheek, it frames the problems with Wikipedia with razor-sharp precision. I'm glad you jumped ship and came here! -[[User:Eric M Gearhart|Eric M Gearhart]] 17:47, 25 May 2008 (CDT)
:If you do, perhaps you could satisfy a lifelong question, and describe a quantum torque wrench. [[User:Howard C. Berkowitz|Howard C. Berkowitz]] 17:38, 29 October 2008 (UTC)


== Disambig formatting ==
== Definition Only ==


Hi Noel, something seems to have gone wrong on [[CZ:List of words with multiple uses]] - independent of whether I use r or rpl. Please take a look and comment. Thanks! -- [[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]]
[[Image:Definition only.jpg|right|thumb|588px|{{#ifexist:Template:Definition only.jpg/credit|{{Definition only.jpg/credit}}<br/>|}}Flow diagram describing how to use the ''[[:Category:Definition_Only|Definition Only]]'' and ''[[:Category:Related_Articles_Only|Related Articles Only]]'' type subpages in the absence of a specific article.]]
:What I meant here was the colour coding of the links to the few existing disambiguation pages. But I am also wondering whether we should disallow definitions for disambiguation pages or change the "Add brief definition" text to something like "Please do not add a definition here; use the definitions of the sub-meanings instead". Besides, I am wondering whether the disambig page itself would profit from consistent use of the r template (just tried it with [[Energy (disambiguation)|Energy]]). -- [[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 08:14, 26 May 2008 (CDT)
Hi Joel <:wicked grin:>, I made this diagram that you may find useful. It explains why it is important to have both the Related Articles and Definition subpages as stand alone entities in the absence of an article or metadata. I have defined these types of page as [[:Category:Definition_Only|Definition Only]] and [[:Category:Related_Articles_Only|Related Articles Only]].  My main goal for doing this was to encourage the proliferation of defintions and related article subpages.  This is desirable for two reasons:
:1) it is possible to use the related articles as a plan for article hierarchy in any given topic,
:2) they are essential for quick navigation through a topic of interest.  
I should expand these two ideas into a diagramatic cartoon they might catch on faster that way. I think people glaze over with the mention of templates and then miss the big picture. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 16:33, 2 November 2008 (UTC)


::Chris has already adapted the colours. As for using the r template, I am much in favour of it and will ask Larry to comment. Or should we include this into the implementation issues of your proposal? I'd rather not, as this might slow things down there. Also, please take a look [[User talk:John Dvorak#More_TODO|here]] and comment if necessary. -- [[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 11:10, 27 May 2008 (CDT)
:Glad you like it. Howard is starting to like this very much too. I'm interested to see how he utlizes it for his articles on military intelligence and hardware. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 16:54, 2 November 2008 (UTC)


== Complex disambiguation and redirect pages...stop me before I alias again ==
== Sub-disambiguation? ==


Trying to follow your suggestions, I got very energetic with redirects to [[U.S. foreign military assistance organizations]]. Note that a number of redirects are to subheads in the article.
Hi Noel, please take a look at the mechanics of [[Order (disambiguation)]] and [[Aether (disambiguation)]] and comment. Thanks. --[[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 11:16, 19 November 2008 (UTC)


Further, when I redirected MAC, the abbreviation for Military Assistance Command (a subhead), I realized MAC was ambiguous, and tried my hand at disambiguation.
== Yes, but I've forgotten, she wails ==


Have I totally confused things, or am I within the scope of licit conduct for the Wikideities?
Hi Noel--are you about?


[[User:Howard C. Berkowitz|Howard C. Berkowitz]] 14:38, 27 May 2008 (CDT)
Remember way back when you were helping me with list formatting, and wrote:


== dabdef ==
<pre>
{{r|dog}}
{{r|Terrier||**}}
{{r|Fox Terrier||*::}}
{{r|Fox Terrier, Smooth|Smooth Fox Terrier aka ''Modern Fox Terrier''|*:::}}
{{r|Miniature Fox Terrier|Fox Terrier, Miniature ("Mini Foxie")|*:::}}
{{r|Poodle||**}}
</pre>
does produce:
{{r|dog}}
{{r|Terrier||**}}
{{r|Fox Terrier||*::}}
{{r|Fox Terrier, Smooth|Smooth Fox Terrier aka ''Modern Fox Terrier''|*:::}}
{{r|Miniature Fox Terrier|Fox Terrier, Miniature ("Mini Foxie")|*:::}}
{{r|Poodle||**}}


I think that the only source of the disambiguation message is at {{tl|dabdef}}.  I rewrote it a bit to accommodate a situation where the disambiguation page does not currently exist. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 14:44, 27 May 2008 (CDT)
which was way cool, then you said:


:More thoughts on this.  Is there any point in keeping definition pages that have an equivalent disambiguation page? For example, ''Foo/Definition'' and ''Foo (disambiguation)''.  There are two options. To add the dabdef to all Foo/Definition pages with a disambiguation page or just delete them.  I favor the latter since they appear to serve no real purpose.  To stop them polluting the definition category i have adjusted the subpages template to put them in the [[:Category:Dabdef Subpages]]. For an example see [[Jupiter/Definition]]. Any thoughts on this? [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 13:37, 28 May 2008 (CDT)
The lines with the "*::" etc keep the nested group 'going' without producing bullets (cool, I had never seen that trick before) so when you later have another 2nd level bulleted entrty (the poodle) it comes out looking right. [[User:J. Noel Chiappa|J. Noel Chiappa]] 18:44, 20 May 2008 (CDT)


::I would go for the latter option, too. -- [[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 13:46, 28 May 2008 (CDT)
Now my question is, if I *did* want bullets at Modern Fox Terrier and Miniature Fox Terrier, so it was clearer visually, could I do it ''while still keep the indentation levels''?


:::If we go that route, we can use the Dabdef Subpages category as a guide to find the ones that need to be deleted/dealt with.  Assuming we can get these categories to update properly.  It appears that the pages never update unless there is an edit to the page.  I suspect someone has turned off the function that search for changes in the categories and reassigns the page.  I can see that might need a lot of computing time, especially as the number fo pages increases. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 13:48, 28 May 2008 (CDT)
[[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 22:29, 23 January 2009 (UTC)


::::Bear in mind that [[Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:Dabdef]] will only get the ones that have the dabdef template.  There will be others that do not.  That category will catch any /Definition that exists with a disambiguation page, as long as there is a subpages template. Possibly it does not matter if they exist as they will never be called, I've already made sure that the subpages template does not categorize them as useful definitions and that is all that really matters. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 21:31, 28 May 2008 (CDT)
Shall I butt in? The answer is yes:
<pre>
{{r|dog}}
{{r|Terrier||**}}
{{r|Fox Terrier||***}}
{{r|Fox Terrier, Smooth|Smooth Fox Terrier aka ''Modern Fox Terrier''|****}}
{{r|Miniature Fox Terrier|Fox Terrier, Miniature ("Mini Foxie")|****}}
{{r|Poodle||**}}
</pre>
does produce:
{{r|dog}}
{{r|Terrier||**}}
{{r|Fox Terrier||***}}
{{r|Fox Terrier, Smooth|Smooth Fox Terrier aka ''Modern Fox Terrier''|****}}
{{r|Miniature Fox Terrier|Fox Terrier, Miniature ("Mini Foxie")|****}}
{{r|Poodle||**}}


== [[JavaScript]] ==
Make sense? [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 22:41, 23 January 2009 (UTC)


Deleted along with its metadata template. [[User:D. Matt Innis|D. Matt Innis]] 19:26, 27 May 2008 (CDT)
::Oh, yes, thank-you Chris, do butt in anytime, but I'm despairing that I'm ever going to get all this straight! [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 23:07, 23 January 2009 (UTC)


==Ju-on (呪怨)==
Is it easier like this?
Well, thanks. Actually this film series's titling's a nightmare because of all the alternative titles (and that's before we get into [[CZ:Romanization/Japanese|romanization]] - Ju-on, Juon, Ju On, Ju on... [[User:John Stephenson|John Stephenson]] 04:22, 28 May 2008 (CDT)
<pre>
{{r|dog}}
**{{r|Terrier||}}
***{{r|Fox Terrier||}}
****{{r|Fox Terrier, Smooth|Smooth Fox Terrier aka ''Modern Fox Terrier''|}}
****{{r|Miniature Fox Terrier|Fox Terrier, Miniature ("Mini Foxie")|}}
**{{r|Poodle||}}
</pre>
does produce:
{{r|dog}}
**{{r|Terrier||}}
***{{r|Fox Terrier||}}
****{{r|Fox Terrier, Smooth|Smooth Fox Terrier aka ''Modern Fox Terrier''|}}
****{{r|Miniature Fox Terrier|Fox Terrier, Miniature ("Mini Foxie")|}}
**{{r|Poodle||}}


== Disambigs and page naming ==
But note that you still need the pipes as in <nowiki>***{{r|Fox Terrier||}}</nowiki> instead of <nowiki>***{{r|Fox Terrier}}</nowiki>.  I think you'll get the hang of it. The problem might be there are too many options?  Just figure out what works best for you and go with that. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 23:51, 23 January 2009 (UTC)
:Is it easier?  Um, 'yes', and then again 'no'.
:I think having the asterisks at the beginning makes more sense for people like me, i.e. you can see the number of stars and more stars=more indentation.
:However, keeping the piping there at the end makes for more mistakes.  If you type |]] instead of ||]] it's gonna be harder to find.
:[[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 00:54, 27 January 2009 (UTC)


Hi Noel, I seem to have created some irritation (and resulting feedback) with my disambig testing (a kind of reaction that I largely prefer to no reaction, but dunno whether that's good or bad for the proposal right now), and so please take a(nother) look [[Talk:Energy (science)#Name?|here]], [[Talk:Language (linguistics)#Language articles|here]] and [[User talk:Chris Day#Disambigs and writing levels|here]]. Thanks, and sorry for causing trouble. -- [[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 05:11, 29 May 2008 (CDT)
== Disappearance ==


== I'm dizzy from all this activity ==
Hi, Noel. What happened to you at the beginning of November? [[User:Ro Thorpe|Ro Thorpe]] 23:58, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
:Good - welcome back! - [[User:Ro Thorpe|Ro Thorpe]] 17:27, 20 March 2009 (UTC)


Don't you think that [[Vertigo]] is gonna need a disambig page etc one of these days? Surely the Hitchcock flick will turn up.... (Maybe I'll do it for the Write-a-Thon.) [[User:Hayford Peirce|Hayford Peirce]] 14:02, 29 May 2008 (CDT)
== Restart of proposal system ==


== Moving clusters ==
Hello. Due to a lack of activity and attention on my part, the Proposal System has ground to a halt and discussion on all proposals has stopped. I decided to clean out the system by marking all proposals as inactive and removing their drivers. This also happened to your proposal [[CZ:Proposals/Disambiguation mechanics|"Disambiguation mechanics"]]. I would be delighted if you decide that you want to take the proposal up again. You can do this by updating the proposal record, which can now be found at [[CZ:Proposals/Driverless]]. Please do not hesitate to ask if anything is unclear. Yours, [[User:Jitse Niesen|Jitse Niesen]] 22:36, 23 February 2009 (UTC) (Proposals Manager)


Hi Noel,
== Approvals in cryptography ==
I try to move all pages associated with the article I move but I have found no simple way to ensure that. Is anybody working on the cluster move code? Ideally, that would automatically indicate what subpages there are, and move them all by default (perhaps optionally excluding some, e.g. the talk page in disambig cases). I would volunteer as a tester (using just pages I created myself, with no further contributors, to avoid confusion). -- [[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 02:29, 30 May 2008 (CDT)
Do you have enough free cycles to chime in on some of these: [[User_talk:Howard_C._Berkowitz#Approvals.3F]]? [[User:Sandy Harris|Sandy Harris]] 00:48, 24 March 2009 (UTC)
:Since you mention it, I have made a start on making a template that gives ALL the right links for doing a move more efficiently.  It's still in the works though. It is far from ready but can be seen at {{tl|move}}. See some discussion at [[User_talk:Chris_Day#Template:_Def]] and [[User_talk:Chris_Day#Move_template.2C_etc]]. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 02:43, 30 May 2008 (CDT)


==HELP!==
== computers approval ==
Noel--Can you please move [[Victoria of the United Kingdom]] to Queen Victoria
and [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom]] to Elizabeth II
We had a newbie come in who ignored all our long discussions and moved  things around. GRRR. [[User:Richard Jensen|Richard Jensen]] 14:03, 31 May 2008 (CDT)


== Biggest page ==
Hi, Noel.  Do you have a few minutes to look at the article on [[brute force attack]]s?  Howard has nominated it for approval but he did make some minor contributions to that article so it would be best if we had other editors involved.  If you want, you could even do a single editor approval and we could avoid even minor complaints about his involvement.  Thanks much.  --[[User:Joe Quick|Joe Quick]] 03:32, 25 March 2009 (UTC)


Ah, that would be [[Nepal/Catalogs/Tourist attractions]] via [[Special:Longpages]]. I don't know how many of those can be split up, but I find it interesting what gets the most attention here. :) [[User:John Dvorak|John Dvorak]] 12:42, 1 June 2008 (CDT)
== Charter drafting nomination ==


== Alphatbet ==
Hi Noel,<br />You were nominated by a fellow Citizendium member to be a candidate for a position on the Citizendium charter drafting committee, but you haven't indicated whether you want to accept or decline.  To learn more about what the committee is all about, you can go to [[CZ:Charter_drafting_committee|the page that describes the process]].  To indicate that you either accept or decline the nomination to participate in the process as a committee member, you should visit the [[CZ:Charter_drafting_committee/Nominations|subpage for nominations]]; there are instructions on what to do on that page.<br />Thanks much!<br />--[[User:Joe Quick|Joe Quick]] 03:47, 30 September 2009 (UTC)


As you requested, m'lord, I have broached the topic of moving the letters to a more disambiguated page. I'm not at all sure of what is required for this. I assume this is to trivial for a proposal, but it seems like there should be another obstacle. Let me know. [[User:John Dvorak|John Dvorak]] 16:31, 1 June 2008 (CDT)
== Self Citation or Referencing own Publications ==


:Hrm... I just noticed something. Even when you move the old metadata page to the new one, there still exists a redirect from the original spot. I ''could'' go through and speedydelete those, but I'm wondering if it's worth it? Will it do any harm to leave them? This is sure making me want that move bot :). Hey, could it be set in the bot so that if you move a metadata or approval page, it speedydeletes the old one? Just some food for thought. [[User:John Dvorak|John Dvorak]] 17:46, 1 June 2008 (CDT)
Hi Noel,


::Yeah, not a big deal. It'll just be nice when it ''does'' get here. By the way, where's all that work you promised me with all the astronomy articles? :) [[User:John Dvorak|John Dvorak]] 21:55, 1 June 2008 (CDT)
You were my first contact in CZ. I've been quiet till now, due to work projects. I'm planning to become more active now.
My question is if it is allowed to use own academic publications as references in articles? An example is a phrase used under [[Theology]] "paradigms for theological development" is almost identical to my MTh "Paradigm Development in Systematic Theology", linked under my Profile. Regards [[User:Lando Leonhardt Lehmann|Lando Leonhardt Lehmann]] 20:13, 13 June 2010 (UTC)


==re:WP Info==
:Hi, Lando, I'm afraid that Noel hasn't been active here for a *long* while now.  Very sad. But hopefully someone else, like [[User:Peter Schmitt]]or [[User:Howard C. Berkowitz]] will answer you. [[User:Hayford Peirce|Hayford Peirce]] 20:30, 13 June 2010 (UTC)
Nope! Pure coincidence.  Those were the only articles that had pretty much stayed pretty much as I wrote them. Although I ''was'' clicking the wp box for them (I might have accidentally forgotten to on a few though). [[User:Marielle Fields Newsome|Marielle Fields Newsome]] 08:09, 2 June 2008 (CDT)


==documentation==
:: Thanks Hayford. [[User:Aleta_Curry]] has already responded on my Discussion.
Are you going to incorporate Robert Kings template into the preload of Doc? I have to admit I have not used his template for any of the documentation pages I have written.  Mine usually evolve with time as I write notes to myself. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 11:08, 2 June 2008 (CDT)


== [[Elizabeth II]] ==
== Returning to Citizendium: an update on the project and how to get involved ==


Hi Noel, I'm going to need editor approval to delete [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II this one]. --[[User:D. Matt Innis|D. Matt Innis]] 19:56, 2 June 2008 (CDT)
Hello - some time ago you became part of the Citizendium project, but we haven't seen you around for a while. Perhaps you'd like to update your [[User:J. Noel Chiappa|public biography]] or check on the progress of [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/J._Noel_Chiappa any pages you've edited so far].


:Got it and did it. It's all yours! --[[User:D. Matt Innis|D. Matt Innis]] 07:00, 3 June 2008 (CDT)
Citizendium now has over [[:Category:CZ Live|16,000 articles]], with more than [[:Category:Approved Articles|150 approved]] by specialist [[CZ:The Editor Role|Editors]] such as yourself, but our contributor numbers require a boost. We have an initiative called '[[CZ:Eduzendium|Eduzendium]]' that brings in students enrolled on university courses to write articles for credit, but we still need more Editors across the community to write, discuss and approve material. There are some developed [[:Category:Computers_Developed_Articles|Computers]] and [[:Category:Visual_Arts_Developed_Articles|Visual Arts]] articles that could be improved and approved, and some [[CZ:Core Articles/Applied Arts and Sciences|high-priority Applied Sciences articles]] that we don't have yet. You can also create new articles via [[CZ:Start_Article|this guide]], and contribute to some Computers or Visual Arts pages that have been recently edited [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Special:RecentChangesLinked&target=Category%3AComputers_tag here] and [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Special:RecentChangesLinked&target=Category%3AVisual_Arts_tag here] - or to [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Special:RecentChanges any others] on Citizendium, since you're a general [[CZ:The Author Role|Author]] as well as a specialist Editor. You may like to contribute to discussions in the [http://forum.citizendium.org forums], and might consider running for an elected position on the [[CZ:Management Council|Management]] and [http://ec.citizendium.org Editorial] Councils that oversee the project.


== TlDoc ==
If you have any questions, let me know via my [[User talk:John Stephenson|Talk page]] or by leaving a message below this one. Thank you for signing up and reading this update; I hope that you will [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Special:UserLogin&returnto=Special:MyTalk look in] on our community soon. [[User:John Stephenson|John Stephenson]] 14:10, 22 January 2012 (UTC)
 
Hopefully you have a short answer for [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Template:Subpages&oldid=100346547 this problem].  note the </noinclude> tag at the bottom and the fact that the first title does not format correctly (the header you see in that example, that looks like an intro between = marks, i added as a way to force the TOC look correct). I assume I have to have each title in the /doc without the header markup (<nowiki>==Title==</nowiki> ''etc''.), but can i still use a TOC after removing the headers? [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 13:42, 3 June 2008 (CDT)
 
== Needles in a haystack ==
 
After seeing [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Special%3AAllpages&from=&namespace=10 this disaster] it reminded me that having that template is a horrible but unavoidable idea.  But at the time I did not really think about using the format Template:Metadata/Basename.  Possibly there was a reason for not doing that, but it's not obvious to me right now.  Should we consider such a move, I know, what a job, but if we don't do it now finding templates will be like looking for a needle in a haystack. With a Template:Metadata prefix at least the others will not be interspersed within the metadata ones. Any thoughts? I assume you have already experienced this problem when looking for templates to add to the template page. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 22:27, 3 June 2008 (CDT)

Latest revision as of 04:43, 6 March 2024


So, Noel, as long as you're checking out dawgs and stuff...

...could you have a read through of Miniature Fox Terrier? Thanks! Aleta Curry 03:07, 13 April 2008 (CDT)

checklist term; keep or reinvent?

OK, I'm in two minds about this. Since we are talking about a subset of the metadata functionality (the other being management of approval status) maybe we should keep this term? One change that would make sense would be to have the pagename and variant included in the checklist. The only reason they were kept separate is that they were not part of the original checklist. I added those two later and did not want to confuse people who were already familiar with the old checklist. I also want to have the pagename as a distinct entity since it was critical it got filled in. Now we have the automatic error checks and better instructions (not to mention preloaded text for a new metadata page) I think they can all be lumped together.

Back to the name. Possibly we could call it Checklist metadata vs Approval metadata rather than Metadata content? Chris Day 21:48, 17 April 2008 (CDT)

I'll check the forum re: by field. I agree lets mull over the metdata format and nomenclature. If we're going to make changes we might as well make a lot all at once. We can use out recent experience to tighten it up and possibly make it more user friendly. While you're at it, let's think about any major improvements we can make. Your perspective is very different to mine since you are seeing it with fresh eyes. Any other things you can think of while you are at it, besides the by field? Chris Day 22:04, 17 April 2008 (CDT)

your advice please...

I have some notes stored on Guantanamo medical care. You and I discussed it a bit within the last week or so. I have come across some new developments. And I would like your advice.

I am still trying to adapt to the different standards here. Articles here may require a higher level of scholarship. That is a good thing. But it may also require a greater level of interpretation. I am having a bit of trouble with this aspect. In my online comments prior to working on that other big wiki I didn't shy away from intellectually honest interpretation. But, on the other big wiki, I got out of the habit of doing so, trying to let the facts speak for themselves, to avoid challenges over POV.

Some of the feedback I am getting here seems to be telling me I should include a measure of interpretation, to provide context, and improve readability.

I think this recent article erodes the assertions that Guantanamo captives have received good health care.

  • Joby Warrick. Detainees Allege Being Drugged, Questioned: U.S. Denies Using Injections for Coercion, Washington Post, Tuesday, April 22, 2008, p. A01. Retrieved on 2008-03-01. “Nusairi, now free in Saudi Arabia, was unable to learn what drugs were injected before his interrogations. He is not alone in wondering: At least two dozen other former and current detainees at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere say they were given drugs against their will or witnessed other inmates being drugged, based on interviews and court documents.”


So, do you think I have that right? Should I try to allow a limited measure of interpretation into an article about medical care at Guantanamo?

Thanks! George Swan 18:49, 22 April 2008 (CDT)

Strings

Stephen says:

"Email [email protected] Stephen Ewen 14:01, 4 May 2008 (CDT)"

FYI---David Yamakuchi 00:33, 5 May 2008 (CDT)

More on definitions

I thought about this, and I think someone else thought about it also, but what is your opinion on using Template:H:title? --Robert W King 13:47, 25 May 2008 (CDT)

I just had to tell you I laughed out loud

... at AstronomerAmateur. Although it's completely tongue-in-cheek, it frames the problems with Wikipedia with razor-sharp precision. I'm glad you jumped ship and came here! -Eric M Gearhart 17:47, 25 May 2008 (CDT)

Template documentation

Are you going to incorporate Robert Kings template into the preload of Doc? I have to admit I have not used his template for any of the documentation pages I have written. Mine usually evolve with time as I write notes to myself. Chris Day 11:08, 2 June 2008 (CDT)

TlDoc

Hopefully you have a short answer for this problem. note the tag at the bottom and the fact that the first title does not format correctly (the header you see in that example, that looks like an intro between = marks, i added as a way to force the TOC look correct). I assume I have to have each title in the /doc without the header markup (==Title== etc.), but can i still use a TOC after removing the headers? Chris Day 13:42, 3 June 2008 (CDT)

Needles in a haystack

After seeing this disaster it reminded me that having that template is a horrible but unavoidable idea. But at the time I did not really think about using the format Template:Metadata/Basename. Possibly there was a reason for not doing that, but it's not obvious to me right now. Should we consider such a move, I know, what a job, but if we don't do it now finding templates will be like looking for a needle in a haystack. With a Template:Metadata prefix at least the others will not be interspersed within the metadata ones. Any thoughts? I assume you have already experienced this problem when looking for templates to add to the template page. Chris Day 22:27, 3 June 2008 (CDT)

Any thoughts on this Noel? I think you may have overlooked it (possibly on purpose :P ) Chris Day 12:42, 6 June 2008 (CDT)
No, I hadn't forgotten it - just too busy recently to do anything with it! J. Noel Chiappa 14:01, 6 June 2008 (CDT)

Godel and stuff

Hiya Noel,

Is anyone going to tackle Godel's IT in the future ? I came across (what seems to me) a powerful pedagogy for rendering GIT. This was proposed by a 'crackpot' on WP who was shot down in a hail of flames (and banned, i think.) But I think it's legit, very powerful, and does occur (tho rather obscurely) in the literature.

The idea is to sketch a proof of GIT from the modern perspective of computation. This does great violence to the historical development of GIT, and it also takes for granted some ideas that originated with Godel ... but it is a powerful way to first see GIT from a modern perspective. Let me try to sketch : --- We proof Halting first. Start with a computer language, say Lisp.

  • Quining : A computer program P exists which 'prints out its own source code' (or evaluates to a string which is its own source code.) This is a common brain-teaser among beginning programmers, and within the reach of many students to figure out.
  • Introspection : From above, a program can access its own source code and place it in a variable. For example, if we have a program CountCharacters(P) which reads a program P and outputs the number of characters in its source code, we can always trivially modify CountCharacters to make CountMyCharacters() which processes its own source code. In other words, a program can always say "myself".
  • Halting : Suppose a Halting-Detector exists, H(P). Use the Introspection property to turn H against itself :

Create Spite such that : If H(Spite) = "halt", hang in a loop. Else, terminate.

We have a contradiction, thus H cannot exist.

Finally we go from Halting to GIT : Statements about computation map to theorems in number theory, etc.

The formalist justifiably screams bloody murder; but the ability to convince the reader of an otherwise obscure and baroque subject is, perhaps, compelling. Christopher J. Reiss 12:56, 4 June 2008 (CDT)


why not subpage

Just out of curiosity is there any reason why the disambiguation page is not a subpage of the basename? If it were we would have the advantage of just adding the subpages template at the top like every other page (KISS principle). Likewise, we can then use the BASEPAGENAME magic words to identify the disambiguated term, for example, {{dabhdr|Poseidon}} would not be required, the subpages template would place the {{dabhdr}} template and use the magic word to specify the header. Chris Day 12:15, 5 June 2008 (CDT)

Sounds fine to me too, and more elegant. -- Daniel Mietchen 02:42, 6 June 2008 (CDT)

Now I'm wondering if the Template:Dambigbox is even required? I can see how such a template would be useful in wikipedia where they have the dominant usage as an article, but wouldn't your proposal for having all disambiguated terms redirect to the disambiguation page mean this is not required? Chris Day 10:23, 6 June 2008 (CDT)

I've lost track of this idea. Where are we at? Looking at the disambiguation pages there seem to be many different formats. I think I am still leaning to the subpage with only the subpages template. Just so much simpler and intuitive with the rest of clusters. Chris Day 10:30, 17 June 2008 (CDT)

Disambiguation of "Anaximander"

I just started a page on Anaximander, the ancient Greek philosopher. Then I discover that it needs to be disambiguated. With what, I don't know except maybe a Lunar crater. Anyway, the article title shows up in a funny tan/gold color in the Related Articles page of Pythagoras.

How do I find out about these disambiguations before I create the article? Should I first define the word, then, when creating the page, click to it from some Related Article page? And if I find out it needs disambiguation, what then? Also, without knowing what it needs to be disambiguated from, is it always the case that the primary name should go to a disambig page?

James F. Perry 18:22, 5 June 2008 (CDT)

Applying templates on special pages

Hi Noel, looking at Special:Wantedpages, I was wondering whether templates like {{r}} could be applied there somehow, too - this would probably lower the hesitation threshold for starting such a wanted article. Besides, I have always wished to put such special pages on my watchlist - is there a way to achieve that? Thanks. -- Daniel Mietchen 03:53, 6 June 2008 (CDT)

Dealing with duplicates

Noel, I noticed that you've been clearing up a lot of dupicate-article situations recently. What is the protocol (and the technical how-to) for doing this? For example, there's been an article titled "Copyrighting" for some time, and today there's a new article titled "Copyright" (which seems to me to be the better title). Each article, so far, has only one author, as far as I can tell. Should the person noticing this situation just point it out to the two authors and let them discuss it, or will the Law Workgroup deal with it, or what? Thanks. Bruce M.Tindall 10:19, 6 June 2008 (CDT)

Bible books

Fine with me (to call them "Genesis (Bible book)" by way of disambiguation). But I just did a minor edit; it's Tom Morris who created the Genesis article (and therefore presumably will be creating more of 'em). I'll pass the suggestion on to him. Also -- I am ignorant of the mechanics of deleting or renaming articles. Could you please point me to a primer on that? Bruce M.Tindall 11:20, 6 June 2008 (CDT)

disambigbox

I found a solution but don't ask me to explain it. The problem is that the magic word does not kick in with the following format: {{disambigbox||Foo}}. I then tried the magic word for the second term ({{{2|{{PAGENAME}}}}}) and I see the same problem with respect to {{disambigbox|Foo, Bar|}}. But in the form of {{disambigbox|Foo, Bar}} the second term does become the {{PAGENAME}}. Consequently, i think your best bet is to switch the order of the first and second parameters in the template. Thus, {{disambiguation|Foo|Foo, Bar}} and {{disambiguation|Foo}} will work the way you want. Is this not better anyway, rather than having {{disambiguation||Foo}}? Chris Day 12:34, 6 June 2008 (CDT)

Taxobox

I'm having issues with taxobox (well one issue: as written, it only allows for one subdivision, and often there are multiple subdivisions)... do you where I should go to fix it/ suggest getting it fixed? I know nothing about the meta-wiki world. Thanks! Marielle Fields Newsome 18:36, 6 June 2008 (CDT)

Thanks! Yeah, it was one of those copy-code-and-rename-variables deals, pretty simple. Despite my issues with }}. Marielle Fields Newsome 22:35, 6 June 2008 (CDT)

Nominating United States Environmental Protection Agency for approval

Noel, I would like to get the subject article nominated for approval. Since Richard Jensen and I are the only two who worked on it, it is my understanding that we cannot nominate it.

Would you read it and see if you might nominate it for approval? If so, do you know of anyone else who could also nominate it? I think that the only other active editor with an interest in environmental articles is Anthony Argyriou, and I just don't know him well enough ... do you know him?

Thanks in advance. - Milton Beychok 05:01, 7 June 2008 (CDT)

I may be able to help. See my comments on article talk page -- it may simply be that we should plan on additional sub-articles. Howard C. Berkowitz 07:48, 7 June 2008 (CDT)

Yes, we would like to rename United States Environmental Protection Agency

Noel, you left a message on the Talk page of the the subject article asking if we wanted to rename the article. Richard Jensen and I have agreed that it should be renamed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Would you be so kind as to move the article and the entire cluster (subpages, Metadate page and Approval page) to that new name? Thanks in advance. - Milton Beychok 22:11, 8 June 2008 (CDT)

Properties Storage

Hi Noel,

The properties in the scheme I'm proposing _would_ all be on one page (or at least would appear to the reader to be so)...why not let's call it the Properties page here just so we have a name to "speak" of. The properties page would of course in reality include data that are stored in various other sub-sub-pages as reported by the list page...like the model at Unobtanium/Properties

The advantage of this over just putting all the data directly on the properties page itself is seen when you only need one property's info or a very small subset of the total data.

I'd started (as Chris reminded me yesterday) trying to make a periodic table that would let us resize and change the type of info displayed.

see User:David Yamakuchi/Sandbox2

It seemed that when we want to talk about periodic tables, there are many and diverse views on which data are important to include, and I'm definitely of the opinion that there is likely a more accessable way than what we currently have at Periodic table of elements. So I branched off of the stuff we did on the elements infobox and made a template for a periodic table that could be resized and started to futz around with populating the table with data.

As Chris pointed out, a simple approach would be to just hand cobble the data into the table, but it occurred to me that if I was going to be entering the Atomic Mass for say Lithium, I probably ought to put it somewhere under the Lithium page first as that would be where folks would look for it. But then what we would have is NOT one location for the info...it's in the article (or at least on the properties subpage), and then again it would be in the table. I suspect that this kind of thing happens quite a lot already, and I'm afraid it will cause consistency problems for CZ.

Specifically, when the data someday becomes obsolete for whatever reason, there needs to be more than one edit to fix it...but the real question is how is an author to know that? The Lithium article would likely be the place the author updates and then we would have an article about the element that is "out of sync" with the periodic table.

This is the reason that the property data ought to be retrieved from the material's article's (subpage) on the fly anytime we use the data outside of the material's article. The only practical way that I've found so far to do this is with the seperate subpage approach.

That said, there are still a lot of things about wikis I just don't know, so perhaps I'm simply ignorant of a better solution. I'm now of course curious to know a little more about this "selector" you mentioned in your comment...is it different from the #switch/case approach?--David Yamakuchi 03:25, 9 June 2008 (CDT)

Couldn't move pages

Hi Noel, I've run into a slight problem I wasn't able to fix myself. The content of the pages NGC 6694 and NGC 6994 should be reversed. NGC 6994 is actually Messier 73 while NGC 6694 is Messier 26. I stumbled across the M73 error while editting Aquarius and couldn't do a move page because M73 was occupying 6694 which is when I noticed the double error. If you could look into this one I'd appreciate it (or point me in the right direction of course). Thanks, --Michael Geldorp 09:43, 12 June 2008 (CDT)

Approval nomination for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Noel, Howard Berkowitz has agreed to nominate the article. However, he is not sure as to how to do so. I told him to read CZ:Approval process. Would you be so kind as to contact him and help to make the Approval nomination? Thanks in advance, Milton Beychok 10:34, 13 June 2008 (CDT)

Prefixindex and the like

Hi, and thanks for the Prefixindex search link, it is really helpful. BTW, is there such a thing as a "Suffixindex" search, where I could see (for instance) all the pages whose names end in /Fooness ?...maybe a wildcard character?...*/Fooness does not seem to work.--David Yamakuchi 15:50, 15 June 2008 (CDT)

Speedy Speedup

Done.. If you have trouble getting a response, leave a message on my talk and it will email me, too. --D. Matt Innis 07:56, 16 June 2008 (CDT)

Thanks Noel (and Matt!) for fixing the ngc numbers mix-up. --Michael Geldorp 09:14, 16 June 2008 (CDT)

Still alive

Update on user page. I'm currently being distracted by other things so I haven't updated much. Thank you very much for inquiring though! --Robert W King 08:45, 22 June 2008 (CDT)

Noel, please help me

Noel:

Sometime ago, I used the {{Archive box|auto=long}} template tag to archive the earliest part of my Talk page.

Today, I created User talk:Milton Beychok \ Archive 2 and also included the {{Archive box|auto=long}}template tag on that page. But I cannot get it to show up in the Archive box on my Talk page. That Archive box just shows Archive 1.

How do I get the Archive box to list the Archive 2 that I created today? Are there some other parameters needed in the {{Archive box|auto=long}} template box when adding another archive?

I have tried everything I could think of with no luck. Please help me get it done. Milton Beychok 21:18, 1 July 2008 (CDT)

Never mind. I finally figured it out myself. Thanks anyway. Milton Beychok 22:06, 1 July 2008 (CDT)

wimbledon

hi, noel, have sliced off part of my ring finger & the ER ppl hve put it together but it's hard to type. i saw a little of the third set at 5-5, just before the rain, then turned it back on at 7-7 in th fifth. i was too nervous to watch. if i'd *known* nadal was gonna win, though, i woulda watched the whole match.... cheers! Hayford Peirce 15:37, 12 July 2008 (CDT)

added proof sketch to Halting Problem

Hi Noel!

I added a (rather unconventional) proof sketch for Halting, curious what you think about it Christopher J. Reiss 02:00, 14 July 2008 (CDT)

Could you do this?

Noel:

When one goes to his/her "View and edit watchlist" at here, there is a list of all the articles being watched. That list is not alphabetized on Citizendium. It is alphabetized on Wikipedia, which means that it can be done.

When one has 70 or more articles being watched (as I do), it is extremely helpful to have the "View and edit watchlist" page alphabetized. Is this something you could do? If not, who can you refer me to someone that can do it? I have already asked Robert King, with no reply as yet. Thanks in advance, Milton Beychok 17:18, 16 July 2008 (CDT)

Hi, Noel. Have you decided whether or not this is something you could do? Please let me know. Thanks, Milton Beychok 21:50, 26 July 2008 (CDT)
Noel, never mind. Greg Sabino fixed it. - Milton Beychok 12:13, 31 July 2008 (CDT)

R60-2 is incorrect

R60-2 is not correct terminology. BMW's official designation is R60/2 or "R 60/2." Please reverse your change. Jeff Dean 09:13, 1 August 2008 (CDT)

Moving (renaming) an article

Noel, when an article is moved, the Talk page goes with it. Should the other subpages (Definition, Bibliography, External Links, Related Links, Metadata) be moved first? Or should the main article be moved first? Or what? - Milton Beychok 11:25, 1 August 2008 (CDT)

Milton, move the Metadata page first. Then the article, then the others, if necessary. D. Matt Innis 15:08, 1 August 2008 (CDT)

Resurrecting "Separating page-names..."

Hey Noel--

Some of the stuff Howard is working on has some really thorny Naming Conventions-type issues-- and this in addition to the Osama bin Laden debate (and all and sundry Romanized title issues), and the debate over Anthony's Naming Convention proposal, etc., etc... All this is to say that I strongly feel that we should work towards implementing your idea for separating page-names and article titles. I was tempted to start it as a new proposal (though I'm probably too bogged down with grad school to be the driver) but I wanted to check with you and make sure that there wasn't some compelling reason you hadn't done so already.

Thanks, Brian P. Long 10:30, 5 August 2008 (CDT)

TFTP

FYI, I started a TFTP article, which is pretty stubby at the moment. Do you want to have any involvement with this, anywhere from contributor to editor to Great Server God? :-)

Howard C. Berkowitz 13:01, 23 August 2008 (CDT)

New draft of Gender article

Hi, Noel -- I don't know if you saw this -- maybe not -- on the Gender talk page, but I've started a whole new article on gender at User:Timothy Perper/Sandbox. Please come over and look at it if you're interested. It's of course not done yet, but it will get there. Thanks. Timothy Perper 18:31, 27 September 2008 (CDT)

Sure it's okay...

...to fix my userpage. Thanks, Noel! Aleta Curry 09:41, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Malevolent opposition

"Cryptography is also a branch of engineering, but an unusual one as it deals with active, intelligent, and malevolent opposition" I thought that was an invariant property of software in development. A colleague stated it as "if computers had feet, you could never bend over near one."

-) Howard C. Berkowitz 17:16, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

SR-71

I do have Ben Rich's book, Skunk Works, and think I can get some more direct material from there. I haven't spent time on newsgroups in a while, but Mary Shafer, who retired as chief NASA aerodynamic engineer for the SR-71, was quite active. I wonder if we can find her? Howard C. Berkowitz 17:16, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Computers articles near approval, and twisty and turny things

If you have the inclination, anycast, Internet Protocol (as distinct from IPv4 and IPv6), and Domain Name System are pretty far along.

When I speak of twisty and turny, I'm trying to get a map that interrelates all the newer things with IPv6, DNS-DNSSEC-DNS as PKI, DHCPv6/SLAAC, IPSec, etc. The Domain Name System article proper is meant to be a high-level introduction, and, in discussion with Pat, parts may still be at too detailed a level and should move into subordinate articles. Howard C. Berkowitz 01:20, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

Laughing about burnout...every time I work on homeopathy, I feel the need either for penance or decontamination and write another health article, or, alternatively, feeling like blowing up things so I go work on military. Computers are done when I'm feeling reasonably neutral.
Started doing some cooking related things, since I've started breadmaking and am very pleased with it, but not sure what workgroup, if any, is appropriate. Thinking of canning led me to write autoclave. Howard C. Berkowitz 01:29, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

Could you look at ..

Talk:Cipher#Asymmetric_stream_ciphers.3F Sandy Harris 01:40, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

I've just added to that discussion. Another opinion now would be helpful. Sandy Harris 03:52, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Quantum mechanics

Hi Noel, I'm glad that you're back in the land of the living, i.e., CZ ;-) I hope that you're all right, socially, physically, psychologically, and monetarily.

Yes, I can look at Introduction to quantum mechanics, but first I will have to read the Mermin article. As far as I remember you had lots on the post-John-Bell philosophy of QM and very little about QM from the working physicist (and chemist) point of view. I think there should be a little bit more about the latter. But it will be a challenge to keep it readable, because, as I remember, that was the whole purpose of the exercise.--Paul Wormer 14:38, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

If you do, perhaps you could satisfy a lifelong question, and describe a quantum torque wrench. Howard C. Berkowitz 17:38, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Definition Only

CC Image
Flow diagram describing how to use the Definition Only and Related Articles Only type subpages in the absence of a specific article.

Hi Joel <:wicked grin:>, I made this diagram that you may find useful. It explains why it is important to have both the Related Articles and Definition subpages as stand alone entities in the absence of an article or metadata. I have defined these types of page as Definition Only and Related Articles Only. My main goal for doing this was to encourage the proliferation of defintions and related article subpages. This is desirable for two reasons:

1) it is possible to use the related articles as a plan for article hierarchy in any given topic,
2) they are essential for quick navigation through a topic of interest.

I should expand these two ideas into a diagramatic cartoon they might catch on faster that way. I think people glaze over with the mention of templates and then miss the big picture. Chris Day 16:33, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Glad you like it. Howard is starting to like this very much too. I'm interested to see how he utlizes it for his articles on military intelligence and hardware. Chris Day 16:54, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Sub-disambiguation?

Hi Noel, please take a look at the mechanics of Order (disambiguation) and Aether (disambiguation) and comment. Thanks. --Daniel Mietchen 11:16, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but I've forgotten, she wails

Hi Noel--are you about?

Remember way back when you were helping me with list formatting, and wrote:

{{r|dog}}
{{r|Terrier||**}}
{{r|Fox Terrier||*::}}
{{r|Fox Terrier, Smooth|Smooth Fox Terrier aka ''Modern Fox Terrier''|*:::}}
{{r|Miniature Fox Terrier|Fox Terrier, Miniature ("Mini Foxie")|*:::}}
{{r|Poodle||**}}

does produce:

which was way cool, then you said:

The lines with the "*::" etc keep the nested group 'going' without producing bullets (cool, I had never seen that trick before) so when you later have another 2nd level bulleted entrty (the poodle) it comes out looking right. J. Noel Chiappa 18:44, 20 May 2008 (CDT)

Now my question is, if I *did* want bullets at Modern Fox Terrier and Miniature Fox Terrier, so it was clearer visually, could I do it while still keep the indentation levels?

Aleta Curry 22:29, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Shall I butt in? The answer is yes:

{{r|dog}}
{{r|Terrier||**}}
{{r|Fox Terrier||***}}
{{r|Fox Terrier, Smooth|Smooth Fox Terrier aka ''Modern Fox Terrier''|****}}
{{r|Miniature Fox Terrier|Fox Terrier, Miniature ("Mini Foxie")|****}}
{{r|Poodle||**}}

does produce:

Make sense? Chris Day 22:41, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh, yes, thank-you Chris, do butt in anytime, but I'm despairing that I'm ever going to get all this straight! Aleta Curry 23:07, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Is it easier like this?

{{r|dog}}
**{{r|Terrier||}}
***{{r|Fox Terrier||}}
****{{r|Fox Terrier, Smooth|Smooth Fox Terrier aka ''Modern Fox Terrier''|}}
****{{r|Miniature Fox Terrier|Fox Terrier, Miniature ("Mini Foxie")|}}
**{{r|Poodle||}}

does produce:

But note that you still need the pipes as in ***{{r|Fox Terrier||}} instead of ***{{r|Fox Terrier}}. I think you'll get the hang of it. The problem might be there are too many options? Just figure out what works best for you and go with that. Chris Day 23:51, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Is it easier? Um, 'yes', and then again 'no'.
I think having the asterisks at the beginning makes more sense for people like me, i.e. you can see the number of stars and more stars=more indentation.
However, keeping the piping there at the end makes for more mistakes. If you type |]] instead of ||]] it's gonna be harder to find.
Aleta Curry 00:54, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Disappearance

Hi, Noel. What happened to you at the beginning of November? Ro Thorpe 23:58, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Good - welcome back! - Ro Thorpe 17:27, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Restart of proposal system

Hello. Due to a lack of activity and attention on my part, the Proposal System has ground to a halt and discussion on all proposals has stopped. I decided to clean out the system by marking all proposals as inactive and removing their drivers. This also happened to your proposal "Disambiguation mechanics". I would be delighted if you decide that you want to take the proposal up again. You can do this by updating the proposal record, which can now be found at CZ:Proposals/Driverless. Please do not hesitate to ask if anything is unclear. Yours, Jitse Niesen 22:36, 23 February 2009 (UTC) (Proposals Manager)

Approvals in cryptography

Do you have enough free cycles to chime in on some of these: User_talk:Howard_C._Berkowitz#Approvals.3F? Sandy Harris 00:48, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

computers approval

Hi, Noel. Do you have a few minutes to look at the article on brute force attacks? Howard has nominated it for approval but he did make some minor contributions to that article so it would be best if we had other editors involved. If you want, you could even do a single editor approval and we could avoid even minor complaints about his involvement. Thanks much. --Joe Quick 03:32, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Charter drafting nomination

Hi Noel,
You were nominated by a fellow Citizendium member to be a candidate for a position on the Citizendium charter drafting committee, but you haven't indicated whether you want to accept or decline. To learn more about what the committee is all about, you can go to the page that describes the process. To indicate that you either accept or decline the nomination to participate in the process as a committee member, you should visit the subpage for nominations; there are instructions on what to do on that page.
Thanks much!
--Joe Quick 03:47, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

Self Citation or Referencing own Publications

Hi Noel,

You were my first contact in CZ. I've been quiet till now, due to work projects. I'm planning to become more active now. My question is if it is allowed to use own academic publications as references in articles? An example is a phrase used under Theology "paradigms for theological development" is almost identical to my MTh "Paradigm Development in Systematic Theology", linked under my Profile. Regards Lando Leonhardt Lehmann 20:13, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Hi, Lando, I'm afraid that Noel hasn't been active here for a *long* while now. Very sad. But hopefully someone else, like User:Peter Schmittor User:Howard C. Berkowitz will answer you. Hayford Peirce 20:30, 13 June 2010 (UTC)
Thanks Hayford. User:Aleta_Curry has already responded on my Discussion.

Returning to Citizendium: an update on the project and how to get involved

Hello - some time ago you became part of the Citizendium project, but we haven't seen you around for a while. Perhaps you'd like to update your public biography or check on the progress of any pages you've edited so far.

Citizendium now has over 16,000 articles, with more than 150 approved by specialist Editors such as yourself, but our contributor numbers require a boost. We have an initiative called 'Eduzendium' that brings in students enrolled on university courses to write articles for credit, but we still need more Editors across the community to write, discuss and approve material. There are some developed Computers and Visual Arts articles that could be improved and approved, and some high-priority Applied Sciences articles that we don't have yet. You can also create new articles via this guide, and contribute to some Computers or Visual Arts pages that have been recently edited here and here - or to any others on Citizendium, since you're a general Author as well as a specialist Editor. You may like to contribute to discussions in the forums, and might consider running for an elected position on the Management and Editorial Councils that oversee the project.

If you have any questions, let me know via my Talk page or by leaving a message below this one. Thank you for signing up and reading this update; I hope that you will look in on our community soon. John Stephenson 14:10, 22 January 2012 (UTC)