User talk:RifeIdeas/Archive 1

For the year 2010

Hints or Helpful Formatting Page Links

USE THIS AREA TO EDUCATE ME

I want to understand exactly how this posting works. You posted on my site and that is good if I put this edit below your post (on my site) will you know? To be safe I plan to post both on my talk page and yours. (duplication I know) RifeIdeasTalk 21:32, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

Your talk page is on my watchlist, so I'll see any posts you make. There are no useable images of Deborah on Flickr. CTJF83 chat 21:55, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, you can click the "watch" tab at the top of the page or check the "watch this page" box when editing to add a page to your watchlist - it's a convenient way of keeping track of pages you're interested in. Generally people prefer to keep the conversations all on one page for readability, though that's up to you. If you want to keep track of all - or almost all - of the pages you edit, you can change your preferences to always add pages you edit to your watchlist. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 20:45, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Probably just a star at the top, blue means it is on your watchlist. CTJF83 chat 20:59, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Right - I forgot they changed the default skin, I'm still working in Monobook. :P --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 21:19, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks guys for the info. I moved your comments about formatting that was in the Kraig Paulsen area to this Helpful Hints area of my talk page. Now for continuation of a question I asked Ctj on his page - I tried to upload my personal signature into the change signature choice in my preferences like you instructed Ctj but I keep getting a HTML coding error. I have tried several versions of code that I have experimented with and they functioned on the talk:Kraig Paulsen discussion page. Could you look and see what i am doing as it would be so much easier just using 4 tildes instead of using a copy and paste method and 5 tildes to insert the time/day stamp. RifeIdeas Talk 03:43, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

Not that I am in need of a private conversation as of yet but how do you get someone's email address (or is it just a Wiki email address?) and then send that email? RifeIdeas Talk 04:10, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

You should see an "e-mail this user" link in the "toolbox" on the left side of the screen. To protect the users' privacy, it will send the e-mail through the Wikipedia servers without revealing the recipient's e-mail address. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 16:17, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

Duh I guess I just needed to look, I had not even looked at that entire toolbox, thanks RifeIdeas Talk 18:13, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

Is there a way to use the same reference(same website for example) for multiple fact citings in the Article? RifeIdeas Talk 05:57, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes, instead of using <ref> to start the reference, use <ref name="some name"> for the first use of that reference and <ref name="some name"/> for the subsequent uses. Note that the "subsequent uses" one does NOT need to be closed with a </ref> like the other reference tags do. See WP:REFNAME for more. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 16:17, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

I had tried to find some kind of reference instruction page, but I guess I just did not know where to look, Thanks now I have it bookmarked. I had only made 3 edits (unreferenced) on the Deborah Berry site as I have spent the last few days learning a lot and then I actually took off those unreferenced edits I had posted. I put one back on with the reference link and now I can go back and really get going as my reference source is the same for much of the information. I am using Deb Berry's constituency site (her personal political site) as a source to expand Wiki's site. Is this okay? I will not do a copy and paste but will reword and restructure the information I will be using other websites including the Iowa Legislators official site also. RifeIdeas Talk 18:13, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes, it is okay to use self-published information (which is what the article's subject's website would be classified as), subject to the restrictions at WP:SELFPUB. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 02:31, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Again I am trying to learn this finding pictures for Wiki procedure. I did a backtrack on what Ctj did (lower heading this page) on the Kraig Paulsen picture to learn and I seen that that picture was tagged as "some rights reserved" on flicker. I also looked at the "File:Kraig Paulsen.jpg" and seen the documentation about the "some rights reserved". I tried the "Free Image Search Tool" using Kraig Paulsen's name and it came back with a "1 articles found" but then could not go any further in the process. I had logged into Wiki Commons a few days ago so I tried using my "RifeIdeas" username in the commons user name box and my Wiki password in the TUSC password box, again no progress. What am I doing wrong?

Can you provide a link to your search results? It's been a while since I used the Free Image Search Tool... Images that are "some rights reserved" should be okay if they are released under CC-BY-SA - in such a case, the "rights reserved" are those of attribution and that future works must be shared under no more restrictions than the current work. You should be able to use the same username and password on any of the Wikimedia projects, including Commons - even if you've never logged in there before. If you aren't able to log in there, I don't know what is wrong - but perhaps the people over at meta (the "wiki" that coordinates Wikimedia Foundation wikis) would - you can leave a question at meta:Wikimedia Forum. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 02:31, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

I have no problem logging on to any of the Wiki sites as I went to all 10 sites and logged on. It was at the bottom of the "Free Image Search Tool" @ http://toolserver.org/~magnus/fist.php that I have a problem it asks for commons username and a TUSC password. The link for the "Free Image Search Tool" is provided on the discussion page of articles with a "No free image" template like talk:Deborah Berry Maybe this tool is not worth the effort.
Here is the template that I am talking about (I am learning).

{{reqphoto|politicians and government-people|in=Black-hawk County, Iowa}}RifeIdeas Talk 15:27, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Never heard of TUSC before - but I found a hint about it at m:Talk:FIST. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 18:46, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Then in a search for Swati Dandekar (my Iowa House Senator) I used the "Free Image Search Tool" again which includes flickr.com (if I understand the box checking correctly) to no avail (no images found!). I also went directly to flicker.com and did a search and found a perfect profile picture but if I understand correctly it was copyrighted. Swati Dandekar site is fairly developed and if I understand the class system correctly a good picture of her would raise that article from stub to start class. Am I correct? RifeIdeas Talk 18:13, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

I don't usually use a picture when judging class, but it's subjective, so sure. "Stub," "Start," and "C-Class" are subjective classes - you don't get into formal requirements until "B-Class," "GA-Class," and "FA-Class." --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 02:31, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

As a final note, don't worry about not knowing these things - while the learning curve for actual writing shouldn't be too steep, it does take a little bit to get the hang of it. If you are generally searching for a policy, here's a hint: try doing a search for WP:word. As an example, the page describing how to cite sources can be found at Wikipedia:Citing sources, which can be abbreviated as WP:Citing sources or WP:CITE. Since people looking for that sometimes think of "references" instead of "citing sources," Wikipedia:References, which can be abbreviated as WP:References or WP:REF, also point to that page. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 02:31, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks Philosopher for all your help. That "WP:xxxxxxx" explanation should help me ask less questions. Catching on I just went to the search box and typed in the "WP:a" and seen the dropdown list, after a couple of tries I stumbled upon "WP:List of Policies" an index answering more of my questions which I bookmarked. I also experimented with "help:xxxx" and found that works also! What a learning curve haha (my only excuse is that I am a semi retired carpenter who has never done anything like this before) RifeIdeas Talk 15:27, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

signature Do you have "Treat the above as wiki markup." checked on the signature page? I have no way of viewing what you have inserted, copy and paste everything in the signature box here, between 2 <nowiki></nowiki> tags. CTJF83 chat 03:59, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes I checked the " Treat the above as wiki markup". Previously I had left (and I will leave them there for a couple of days for you to look at - if you want) my examples on the talk:Kraig Paulsen page as I did not know about the <nowiki></nowiki> tags. BUT today I went back and looked more and found my problem. I had to put another </font> after Rife to cancel the first color command (I think) even with the new color change command just before Ideas, anyway it works now and was successfully saved in my preferences and from now on 4 tildes it is!! THANKS Cjt (do you mind me abbreviating your user name ?) On another note I have copied the pertinent information from your usertalk page under the RifeIdeas heading so when it is achieved I will not lose it, and plan on asking any more newbie questions here. Between you and Philosopher I now feel I have a good grasp of Wiki editing and hope there will be less to ask. Again Thanks RifeIdeas Talk 15:27, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Ya, you can abbreviate my name...I'd probably answer to whatever you call me, lol CTJF83 chat 17:04, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

I am from Hiawatha, Iowa and want to find any articles within Wikipedia pertaining to Hiawatha. Specifically people who have a connection to Hiawatha, but all connections are acceptable. Is there some way to internally search Wikipedia for this information?
RifeIdeas Talk 02:14, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

If you click on What links here, you can find all the pages that link to a specific article. Bovlb (talk) 07:17, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Deborah Berry page

Current Iowa House Representative District 35
My Wiki edit #1 on 10/22/2010 on the Deborah Berry page.
Put my 1st referenced link edit and it works!! RifeIdeas Talk 06:02, 26 October 2010 (UTC)
Added Electoral History and Committee Membership History this week.

To Philosopher I started out my edit without all of those wiki links but looking at other sites for examples and I seen a lot of links so I added them and probably went overboard but thanks for looking over my shoulder and doing cleanup as I am still learning smooth flowing editing. By the way some of that cleanup you did was to something put on before I started.RifeIdeas Talk 00:37, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

I found the Iowa legislation achieves and filled in all Deb's committee assignment history - Look it over and give me your feedback please - as I have been compiling similar information to put on Kraig Paulsen's and Swati Danketar's sites as well.RifeIdeas Talk 01:56, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

You got it mostly correct - the idea is that you only want one of each link in the body of the article (excluding the infobox and succession boxes), so you link to Democratic Party (United States) the first time you say "Democrat," but not the subsequent times. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.}

What do you think about the area description of District 22 with a pdf map link at the top of the page? RifeIdeas Talk 02:32, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

Since we don't have articles on the districts, it's probably a good idea. Ideally, we'd have an article about Iowa legislative districts (but probably just a general article for each house) and we'd just link to that, but creating such a list doesn't seem to be high on people's priority lists atm, especially with redistricting coming up again in two years. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 20:01, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

Kraig Paulsen page

Current Iowa House Representative District 35
I plan to work on this page

This image would be ok for you to upload. Preferably on Commons. If you want, I can also upload it for you. CTJF83 chat 18:22, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

I just went ahead and uploaded it File:Kraig Paulsen.jpg, it an ok picture, but better than nothing. CTJF83 chat 18:28, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the Kraig Paulsen picture I had not done any work on his site yet (learning curve) but I did move your post on my site to the Kraig Paulsen heading I had already made and eliminated the header you had put there (duplication). Did you do a search for Deborah Berry? You may be better at it than me. I do want to learn how this picture finding works (legally)

My first contribution to this site today. I added Electoral History Heading and complete voting information. RifeIdeas Talk 02:41, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

Added Committee Membership heading and info RifeIdeas Talk 13:11, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

Swati Dandekar

Current Iowa Senate District 18
I plan to work on this page

Waterloo, Iowa page

I was born and raised in this town.
I plan to watch and possibly work on this page.

Hiawatha, Iowa page

My current place of residence.
I plan to watch and possibly work on this page
I created My first page linked to this one today! [[Category:People from Hiawatha, Iowa]] RifeIdeas Talk 00:50, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

END OF MY HEADINGS

Welcome!

Hello RifeIdeas, welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Our intro page contains a lot of helpful material for new users—please check it out! If you need help, visit Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on this page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Gigs (talk) 02:07, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

Some Tips

Keep in mind that information in Wikipedia must be verifiable. It's OK to edit the articles of people you know, but you must do so carefully, including only information that is published elsewhere. It may be helpful to check out the page on conflicts of interest as well. Gigs (talk) 02:10, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

Welcome to WikiProject Iowa!

Welcome to WikiProject Iowa! We're glad to have you - if you ever want advice/assistance from any of us, just let us know - I'm working a lot with Iowa legislators, so can help on most politician-related things, Ctjf83 is working with Davenport, Iowa articles, so can probably help with city-related articles, etc. Welcome aboard! --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 18:39, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

Lists in articles

Since you are using lists quite a bit in your article revisions, you may want to look at Wikipedia:Manual of Style (embedded lists) for a guidance on when lists are appropriate and when it's better to use prose. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 15:48, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Vote count formats

Hey, could you head over to WT:IOWA/G for a discussion of the formats we record vote counts in articles in? --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 14:38, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

November 2010 backlog elimination drive update

Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors Backlog Elimination Drive! GOCE November 2010 backlog elimination drive progress graphs We have reached the midway point in our backlog elimination drive, so here is an update. Participation report — The November drive has 53 participants at this point. We had 77 participants in the September drive. In July, 95 people signed up for the drive, and in May we had 36. If you are not participating, it is not too late to join! Progress report — The drive is quite successful so far, as we have already almost reached our target of a 10% reduction in the number of articles in the backlog. We are doing very well at keeping our Requests page clear, as those articles count double for word count for this drive. Please keep in mind the possibility of removing other tags when you are finished with an article. If the article no longer needs {{cleanup}}, {{wikify}}, or other similar maintenance tags, please remove them, as this will make the tasks of other WikiProjects easier to complete. Thanks very much for participating in the Drive, and see you at the finish line! Your drive coordinators –The UtahraptorTalk to me/Contributions, S Masters (talk), and Diannaa (Talk)

Delivered by MessageDeliveryBot on behalf of The Utahraptor (talk) at 16:34, 14 November 2010 (UTC).

Linkrot

First off, I didn't see you as stepping on my toes; I'm not trying to be bitey, so I'm sorry that I have been. In general, if a website fits our standards for a reliable source, there's no good reason to remove it if the site goes down, unless a functional citation to a reliable online source or to a reliable print source can be found. I really don't know where to find information about this bit of Linn County history; the sources that you plan to add will definitely be useful. Now that I understand better what you were doing, I've restored the expand template; sorry for misunderstanding you and removing it improperly. Nyttend (talk) 20:07, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

BS

		The Original Barnstar
		Too often great editors like you are overlooked and not given the credit deserved for all their great contributions. So I am awarding you this barnstar to let you know I greatly appreciate all you do for Wikipedia, and please keep up the outstanding work!! Also a special thank you for getting me out of my slump, and making my break last only four days by showing you do appreciate me/care! Thanks! CTJF83 chat 03:03, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the sig!

Thanks for signing the autograph book and for your kind words! Good luck with your wikicareer! Please don't hesitate to reach out to me with help on anything. And keep in mind there is a learning curve with all this, so don't get frustrated if you have some difficulties in the beginning. — Hunter Kahn 04:32, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Ringgold County

The way in which I formatted the link is much more in line with common practice here at Wikipedia; the external links section of featured articles such as Minneapolis are good examples of this. Moreover, I really don't see how this link passes WP:ELNO; it's not really presenting a unique resource beyond what the article would contain if it became a featured article, and I don't see it as being closely enough related to the subject of the article to pass the spirit of the thirteenth point of WP:ELNO. Announcing in the text of the article that the link goes to a site such as GenWeb hurts the appearance of the page, since GenWeb definitely isn't a reliable source; the wording I used bolsters the appearance of the link and reduces its negative impact. You see, I'm trying to improve your addition, even though I'm uncomfortable with its presence in the article at all. Nyttend (talk) 20:47, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

Waterloo, Iowa

Please don't remove a request for sources without actually providing sources. Corvus cornix_talk 23:21, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

There needs to be a link for every entry in the list to prove that they are or were residents of Waterloo. Wikipedia doesn't require readers to skip around from page to page to find sources. Corvus cornix_talk 01:11, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

November 2010 Backlog Elimination Drive Conclusion

Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors Backlog Elimination Drive! We have reached the end of our fourth backlog elimination drive. Thanks to all who participated. Stats GOCE November 2010 backlog elimination drive graphs 58 people signed up for this drive. Of these, 48 people participated in the drive. Although we did not eliminate the months we planned to (January, February, and March 2009; and August, September, and October 2010), we did reduce the backlog by 627 articles (11.2%), which was over our goal of 10%. 49 awards will go out to 33 of 48 participants. Check out the complete list of barnstar winners here. Barnstars If you copy edited at least 4,000 words, you qualify for a barnstar. If you participated in the September 2010 backlog elimination drive, you may have earned roll-over words (more details can be found here). These roll-over words count as credit towards earning barnstars, except for leaderboard awards. We will be delivering these barnstars within the next couple of weeks. Our next drive is scheduled for January 2011. In the meantime, please consider helping out at the Wikification drive or any of the other places where help with backlogs is needed. Thank you for participating in the last 2010 backlog elimination drive! We look forward to seeing you in January! Your drive coordinators –The UtahraptorTalk to me/Contributions, S Masters (talk), and Diannaa (Talk)

Delivered by MessageDeliveryBot on behalf of WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors at 23:58, 2 December 2010 (UTC).

Related Changes

Special:RecentChangesLinked/User:RifeIdeas/List_of_Cities_in_Iowa Feel free to rename or whatever. Also responded to your questions for Ansel CTJF83 chat 20:09, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Hello, RifeIdeas. You have new messages at Philosopher's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Hey, just home from Chicago, I responded to your inquiry. :) CTJF83 chat 01:04, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

Multiple Topics

Is it common practice to add the {{Commons}} and the {{Portal box}} to all articles? It is with me, and I've added it to hundreds of city articles in Kansas. Is it official, heck I have no idea? I believe in the wiki statement 'Be Bold', so I look for things that look good or work good, then start using those idea, and I keep using it until someone says 'why the heck are you doing that?' or 'that isn't the correct way to do it', then I'll change to the correct way. Just like tonight, I learned from your edit about the center text in the census table, so now I will start using it. Most of what I've learned editing wikipedia is learning from other peoples edits. Sbmeirow (talk) 08:36, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Concerning {{Portal box}}, I've seen it on a few city pages, but kind of ignored it in the past, but just a couple of days ago after reading the Kansas portal, I decided to start adding it to all the city pages that I edit. If a 'See Also' section exists, then I drop it at the top of that section, otherwise I drop it in the 'External links' section after the 'Commons'. Sbmeirow (talk) 08:36, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Concerning {{Commons}}, I have been adding this to city pages for months, at least since I came across it. I've seen different wiki pages use it in different ways, and I'm not sure what is the prefered or best way to do it. I currently use the expanded version, such as 'commons category|Peabody, Kansas' in the parens, so it's more obvious to another editor. It appears that commons is case-sensitive stupid, so I copy the EXACT article title and drop it on the right side. Sbmeirow (talk) 08:36, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

If so what are the steps, do you do a search at Commons before you insert the template? I never do a pre-search, I just drop it in, and fix it later if it's wrong, so far none have been wrong on cities. Usually the biggest problem is that people haven't added categories to their photos, which takes more to describe how to do. When I upload photos, I always add the COUNTY and CITY categories for each photo, so they can be found by either commons search. I never worry that a commons link will turn up an empty search...if it's empty so be it...until someone uploads a photo or someone adds a category to an existing photo. My thought is that by having the link makes people be aware of it, thus might get them motivated to upload a photo. Few popular cities have a bunch of photos, some have a small number, all cities have a few maps but they don't show up because the categories were added to them, but most have none. I've added the categories to all the maps of my favorite cities. Check out the commons link on Camden, Maine, which I added the commons link last night to their wiki and couldn't believe how many photos they uploaded. Sbmeirow (talk) 08:36, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

I'm currently watching all cities in my favorite county, and all the cities in the counties that surround it. Why? Because I have knowledge of those areas, so I watch over them. I'm watching a lot of other small city articles all over Kansas too, because most rarely have edits. I currently have watches set for over 1100 wiki articles. Sbmeirow (talk) 08:46, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

User Boxes. I copied most of them from other users, because I didn't know where else to find them at the time, but I later did. I especially like the first two on my user page, because one says how long that I've been a user, and the other I have to update...which says how many edits that I've made. I moved most of my stuff off to new user pages because my user pages was too overly busy and looked like a big mess. Sbmeirow (talk) 08:46, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Where did you get that text for 'Notable people' section? When I delete people, I say 'Deleted because no wikipedia article or reference link', which usually stops most people from adding it again. Sbmeirow (talk) 10:40, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

A senior wikipedia author thinks the portal should stay down in the "External links" section, which I will start correcting. As I get to articles, I will move the portal, and order them commons 1st, then portal 2nd, since it looks a little better in that order.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensburg,_Kansas#External_links

Sbmeirow (talk) 23:51, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Notable people sources

Contentious material should certainly be sourced. I'm not sure how this is contentious information.   Will Beback  talk  04:21, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

I'd also note that if we get too picky then we'll really have to shorten these lists. For example, this source simply says that Kaynor attended school in Clear Lake, not that he lived there.[1]   Will Beback  talk  04:42, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

I added {Citation needed} tags to entries where I searched but couldn't find any sources. This is a very easy type of query to conduct: "name" + "place". I'd be happy to help with other settlement articles should you need it - my library has access to the Proquest newspaper archive. It's a great database because almost everything in it is reliable and it's easy to search: at best it takes only a few moments. I have hundreds of places on my watchlists and I've mostly given up on caring about the "Notable residents/people" sections because they're almost always unsourced. Names get added and removed with no regard for verfifiability. But I do support the ideal of full sourcing, and Iowa is a good place to make that happen as an example of how it can be done.   Will Beback  talk  13:35, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

BTW, I didn't take this picture: File:Fairfield iowa.jpg. That'd be user:Billwhittaker.   Will Beback  talk  20:32, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Tracie Spencer

Hi there, RifeIdeas. I've reverted you on Tracie Spencer, as you can see, because there have been disputes about her birthdate previously, and general agreement has been to leave it out unless it can be reliably sourced. I believe you can look here to see some discussion on it. I don't want to discourage you, however, so if i can help in any way, let me know. Cheers, Lindsay^Hi 10:38, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

How To Upload Photos To Wikipedia

Hi. I'm just started working on a personal project to help friends upload photos to Wikipedia (and remind myself in case I forget later). Basically, I'm wanting to document things that work for me, and things that I've learned, and provide some useful tips. Like I said...I just started it...so please don't throw rock at me in its early draft. You might want to set a WATCH of my user page to see it evolve. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sbmeirow/HowToUploadPhotosToWikipedia Sbmeirow (talk) 08:39, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Re: Zud Schammel

I'll try to work on it. Go Packers.Packerfansam (talk) 18:01, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Iowa Communities

If you'd like, I can add a "communities" tag to {{WikiProject Iowa}} for the communities workgroup, similar to the one we have for the government workgroup. Also, if you let me know what the scope of the workgroup is (is it just cities or does it include other things such as churches and libraries?), I can add that "communities" parameter to the existing iterations of the template on the talk pages of the Iowa community articles. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 11:52, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

I've added the "communities" parameter to {{WikiProject Iowa}}. To use it, simply add 'communities=yes' to a banner, you can see it at work at WT:IA/C. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 18:30, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks!

		The Iowa Barnstar
		Have a barnstar! In recognition of your hard work and dedication to Iowa's articles (and occasional lack thereof). Philosopher Let us reason together. 17:16, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Nice job. Pat on the back.

Just wanted to let you know I appreciated the reorganizing and cleanup you did today on the Ottumwa, Iowa page. I've piddled with it a few times, but being a Missourian I didn't want to be meddling in someone elses sandbox so to speak. Anyhoo, it looks much better now. Keep up the fine work! Sector001 (talk) 01:23, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Merry Christmas 2010

Happy Holidays. Thanks for all the help in 2010. I can't give out physical gifts, so here are some ebooks :-)

• A Christmas Carol; Charles Dickens; Chapman & Hall; 1843. (Online HTML eBook)
• Wikipedia : The Missing Manual; John Broughton; O'Reilly Media; 312 pages; 2008; ISBN 9780596515164. (Download 30MB PDF eBook) (Online HTML eBook)

• Sbmeirow • Talk • 19:10, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

US

Yes, I know, it's a tricky call. The movement in Wikipedia and wider is towards "US" instead of "U.S.". I beleive that most articles with "U.S." in the title will move to "US" within about 3-5 years (which is irritating since a few years ago I spent considerable effort persuading people to move in the opposite direction - but that is irrelevant). Given that, using the redirect now makes sense. What do you think? Rich Farmbrough, 02:45, 25 December 2010 (UTC).

The authoritative Chicago MoS has now reversed its previous insistence on U dot S dot (16th ed., 2010) and has now banned them. Some titles retain the dots and will take years to catch up, no doubt. Please see this thread. Tony (talk) 02:52, 25 December 2010 (UTC)

Re: If you would, please help me make less work

I want to help. I looked at Wikipedia:WikiProject Iowa/Communities but couldn't figure out where to add guidelines about coordinates, so I'll just give you some tips.

• The documentation for the {{Coord}} template is at Template:Coord/doc.
• The region code for Iowa is US-IA.
• Townships use type:adm3rd; cities and towns use type:city.
• The Geographic Names Information System is a fairly reliable source for coordinates of U.S. cities and town.
• If an article uses {{Infobox settlement}} or {{Geobox}}, I prefer to code the latitude and longitude in the box, instead of invoking {{Coord}} explicitly.

Merry Christmas! —Stepheng3 (talk) 05:09, 25 December 2010 (UTC)

I've revamped the section to clarify some points and to match my understanding of how {{Coord}} and {{Infobox settlement}} should be used in the context of Iowa communities. I hope my changes prove helpful. --Stepheng3 (talk) 12:25, 28 December 2010 (UTC)

Marshalltown Edits

RifeIdeas,

Pardon my rookie edits. But I'm trying to learn. I took the Education section idea from the Owatonna, Minnesota article. I liked the way it looked, so I used it. I did not remove the sister cities. They are still there. They are now displayed like the cities in Europe are displayed. For example Kyiv, Ukraine. I'm still looking for references that prove these are official sister cities. But we from Marshalltown, Iowa simply know from reading articles in the local paper that these cities are known as sister cities. We are also working on another sister city relationship with a city in Hungary. As for Notable natives; I also noticed this usage in articles featuring Minnesota cities. I am a Marshalltown native and would like to get our article up to better standards. I have made other changes to it in the past. I actually agree with you. Lets throw out those natives that you have seperated. They do not deserve to be there. They are natives. But not notable enough.

Let me know ways to improve. Kepper66 (talk) 12:06, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Undoing a recent edit of mine

Hello. I'm curious why you undid this edit of mine. It was sourced to an article in Sports Illustrated.--Rockfang (talk) 21:54, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

Per your request to keep discussions unfragmented:
First let me say George Nissen was a very good choice for a notable person and I am glad you added him. That is why I hunted down a internet source and re-added him to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. After working on an explanation of what you were doing wrong I realize I--RifeIdeas Talk 14:12, 30 December 2010 (UTC) owe you an apology now as I made a mistake of thinking the author link Terry McDonell of Sports Illustrated was a clever way to look like there was a credible source. However now I see that you had a valid source and I apologize. My only questions are: Did the source (Sports Illustrated article) state that George Nissen was from Cedar Rapids? Was the fact that Nissen was from Cedar rapids distinctively cited in his article with a reference? In my defense although I was aware of the author link, I had not seen one in use (until now). I will try to be more careful about this possibility in the future. I have however seen various ruses made to look like a credible source, but when checking the link found them to be mirror cites of Wikipedia or just an out right false reference. As long as I am writing to you I want to make sure you understand (I now think you do but do not want to assume) that the references in the Notable people section of cities articles are to expressly reference the relationship of the person to the city, not the notability of the person. Many editors think just saying so in the person's article is enough. I have found 100's of articles about people, that state a relationship to a town, either in the article or infobox but without a source.
Keep up the good work. --RifeIdeas Talk 02:33, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

Terry McDonell was actually the editor of that issue of Sports Illustrated. The For the Record section doesn't state authors, so I didn't put one in the cite template. The section says: "A gymnast and diver at Washington High in Cedar Rapids, Iowa..." about Nissen. The article does not state a source. Would it be okay with you if I added my reference back in right after yours? Or would you rather I did not? Either way, it isn't a big deal.--Rockfang (talk) 05:51, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

I would welcome your hard printed source as an addition as you never know when a website will become a "dead link" although I try hard to avoid those websites prone to deleting pages. In some of the Notable people entries I have doubled up on references especially a printed and web source. Also in the case of Salvatore Guinta also a Cedar Rapids notable, I sourced an English and Italian languages article.
--RifeIdeas Talk 14:12, 30 December 2010 (UTC)