User talk:Dark Mage/Archive/September 2008

Re: Articles
Thanks for creating the articles and also thanks for every other contribution. That helps bringing forgotten topics back to the surface from the depths of WV. Have fun, Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 19:31, 2 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks for responding, since I now know that the articles are fine I'll carry on doing stub articles, and also finding forgotten topics and articles. DarkMage  19:35, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Now I had time to look at the learning resources (I speak of that, not of articles - because articles awake some thoughts to Wikipedia articles) and changed some things there. Are you going now to create learning resources en masse ? Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 19:51, 2 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Well I use the term Article because that's basically what it is, though certain people will call it something else like what you said a Learning resource - I will continue to create the stub learning resource if that's the term which user's use on this site, though I prefer the term article. DarkMage  19:55, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
 * What makes you prefer the term article ? E.g. my preference to learning resource over article is it shows what it is about here: learning (e.g. by creating learning resources). Articles are just too static though they surely help in the learning. Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 20:10, 2 September 2008 (UTC)


 * hmm, I can see the reason for the term Learning resource, you are right it is a site for learning so in away I should change the term article to learning resource and use the term article on other wiki-sites. DarkMage  20:29, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Template:Inactive
I am wondering what criteria you use for using this template ? Here the last edit was not a week ago. btw: the template speaks of articles (see above). And why is that template better than the Template:Welcome and expand (which offers already many starting/search points) ? Being "inactive" is in my view signaling the new learner a more negative signal than the W+E template. Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 21:11, 2 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I think you're right the ((we)) template is better used, the Inactive template idea was taken from Wikibooks which can be seen at b:Template:Inactive though it could stay in the template maintenance category or be removed if need be. DarkMage  21:17, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Fast feedback and also reaction Dark Mage. Thank you very much.
 * btw: the learning resources you created deal with physics/nature - you like these kind of topics ? Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 21:25, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, and also Politics as stated in the userpage. DarkMage
 * Nice - and I must admit I don't look much on user pages - more on their contributions. There I see probably more than on the user page. /me wonders if now people will thrown in words like "stalker" ? ;-) Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 21:35, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Requests for Deletion
Thanks for being bold, Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 21:22, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

New tool for category maintenance
Template:spy experiments with new features on the category tree system. Place it on category pages with no parameter, or place it on any other page and specify a category using the "cat" parameter. It will display a reverse category tree allowing you to see all the way up the categorisation scheme. Great for category maintenance. --McCormack 07:47, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Nice idea, I might try it at some point - when I undergo a standard check in the Categories. DarkMage  17:30, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Email - correction
You were right - using the email function does reveal your email address. Sorry. --McCormack 07:49, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * No harm done, but at least I now know that I was correct due to reading the Foundations policy on the enable e-mail feature. DarkMage  17:28, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Student Union name
I'd suggest you use the name Portal:Learners. This will probably be supported by all sides. --McCormack 07:49, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I'll happily help you with templates - but in the "course of time", I'm afraid. I've been spending too much of my time on WV recently and the real world has a lot of claims on me. One approach you could take would be to focus on content for now and leave the technical stuff to later. Think a lot about who the page is for, what their needs are and how these will be met by your portal. Gather links and write paragraphs. --McCormack 21:12, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I've found the problem, it was in the Tabs (Tab1 and Tab2) subpage which wasn't updated - the link inside the coding still had reference with the Portal link, I've changed both of them and it seems to be perfectly fine now - and it doesn't have the redirect link message which means that all of the Portal pages which was originally created could now be removed including those which I've requested to be erased due to it accidently being created - the new Student Union page should be fine now. DarkMage  12:19, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Inline links to categories
Just FYI, if you want to link to a category without adding the page to the category, you just add a colon: That can make it a bit easier when you want to point to one without activating it :-). --SB_Johnny talk 12:01, 12 September 2008 (UTC)
 * adds the page to the category
 * Category:Science makes a link: Category:Science
 * Thanks for the tip, I didn't actualy knew it was possible to do that - but at least I now know. DarkMage  12:03, 12 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Same trick works with images. I found out yesterday. Cormaggio found out yesterday too ;-) --McCormack 13:41, 12 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Sheesh! I need to start working on some basic editing stuff, I guess maybe pages on how special characters are used? One other use for the colon is interwiki linking:

--SB_Johnny talk 13:52, 12 September 2008 (UTC)
 * cs:Projekt:_Kvetení_rostlin would add a link to the Czech version of the page under "in other languages" on the left hand under the toolbox, while
 * cs:Projekt:_Kvetení_rostlin makes a link: cs:Projekt:_Kvetení_rostlin (that's their Bloom Clock)

bad move
Please explain this move. Where is the old edit history of Student Union?  the previous unsigned comment was added by User:JWSchmidt  I see, we now have both Student union and Student Union --JWSchmidt 05:29, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Move OK. History still intact. I checked. No problem here other than a missing signature. --McCormack 05:03, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
 * The history is not there. --JWSchmidt 05:23, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes - exactly. I see no problem with that. We have several long-term precedents for the same thing elsewhere on Wikiversity. --McCormack 06:09, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Support staff
Hello Dark Mage, I was wondering if you are still interested in becoming a custodian ? You are active the recent weeks also and got more insight into Wikiversity (see also: User_talk:Dark_Mage/Archive/August_2008, User talk:Dark Mage/Archive/September 2008). And since we have now 2 new probationary custodians I feel this would be a good opportunity since you also could interact and learn with them. You remember that I offered to mentor you (see also: Candidates for Custodianship/Terra (full custodian)) when you would use IRC. But you declined unfortunately :-( I don't find the old post in your archive where I asked you about this. Can you point me there please ?

I feel we as Wikiversity community still owe you since your last custodianship didn't go so well. What do you say ? Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 14:32, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Very well, I'll undergo this Probationary period again so long as the community are fine with it, previously I wasn't sure - as with IRC I'll still not access it due to security concern, not everyone uses IRC Erkan - and I'm semi-active here as with other wiki-sites so I won't be always active. DarkMage  14:36, 14 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Here's the revision link from my old username which you previously posted your comment. DarkMage  14:38, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the link. It must not be IRC - do you have access to any other means for chat (e.g. Skype or just browserbased works also for me) ? It should not be that hard Dark Mage. That would really help for the time being a probationary custodian Dark Mage. As you see at List of custodian mentors I tell this in general to all new candidates. Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 14:47, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Erkan, I'll only use my talkpage - I'll not use the e-mail feature since it's private use only and not for public use the feature will stay deactivated, a lot of users on wikipedia feel the same way and are cautious about using IRC or other features, I'm not the only one - please respect my decision about this, It's my choice whether or not to access it. DarkMage  14:53, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I respect that, I will ask around if someone else is willing to mentor you. See you, Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 14:55, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Just out of interest is it really necessary to undergo another probationary period it states on the Nominations for full custodianship page that if I chose to I could automatically place a request for full custodianship - I don't think another trial period is necessary as I already know how to use the Custodian tools and I remember them well - the reason why I'm asking is because in the past I went under possibly two or three month probationary period. DarkMage  18:28, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Template:E-Mail disabled
Could you explain exactly what the "security concerns" are? Adambro 15:56, 14 September 2008 (UTC)


 * It's been changed to Privacy concerns - I've must have altered it due to updating the template, The e-mail feature is disabled because I'm concerned about the privacy, and not to mention the e-mail is for private use only and it's not available for public use so the e-mail feature stays disabled, if anyone sends an e-mail through the feature then that person will intercept the e-mail message and receive a copy of it, this is what the foundations policy states. DarkMage  16:03, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I mean Main Page
I've added links to detail details. Please read the details. Please ask additional questions if you still do not understand. --JWSchmidt 13:14, 16 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I've took the liberty of mentioning it on the main page's talkpage - I think the student union page should be added since it went through a major update, it shouldn't be any problem adding it, unfortunately though Custodian's can edit the page, but I can't since I don't have the ability - if I did then I would have placed it on the main page. DarkMage  13:17, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Custodianship
Hi Dark Mage, Yes, I did see your request and am more than happy to dialogue around it and support however I best can. I suspect custodian discussions are a little less focused at the moment, with deletion proposals, blocking, and policy discussions being most active. Clearly you are getting involved proactively and contributing positively and doing useful, needed work, and following and helping to facilitate WV's evolution. So, it seems to me you deserve another tilt of custodianship and that you are ready to do so. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 08:50, 22 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks Jtneill, I'm trying really hard to fix a lot of problems which I caused back when I used to be known as Terra and have fixed half of them - If possible could I try and go through another probationary period, if I do then I could do like Gbaor did and create a subpage which Custodians gave him tasks to do and what to read on the site - the reason why I placed the request was what Erkan said and asked whether or not if I still wanted to be a Custodian, previously I wasn't actually thinking of going through the Custodianship period again due to what happened previously with the voting discussion but recently I changed my mind and placed the request. DarkMage  09:01, 22 September 2008 (UTC)