Bhamwiki talk:Messageboard/Archive 2012

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This is an archive of discussions from 2012. For other archived discussions, see Bhamwiki talk:Messageboard archives. Current discussion is at Bhamwiki talk:Messageboard. If you wish to expand on a topic here, it's best to open a new topic there and link to the prior discussion.

Statistics 2012

Red links

As of January 25, 2012, there are currently 34,412 wanted articles with 67,920 links to them (red links). (The majority only have one link to them.) The front page says we have about 8,559 articles, meaning we're 19.92% complete. The last time I did this (June 15, 2011), we were at 8,228 articles with 33,320 wanted ones (19.80% done), so we made some progress even though we added 1,965 red links. --Lkseitz 15:13, 25 January 2012 (PST)

  • Good to hear. If I haven't said so before, my approach to red links is to put them around any topic which "could" have an article, not just those that "should" or "probably will" have articles. --Dystopos 06:56, 26 January 2012 (PST)
    • Update: As of January 24, 2013, we have 36,583 wanted articles (with 70,837 red links) and 9,107 posted ones. By that [eccentric] measure, we're now 19.93% complete. Some progress made despite the addition of 2,171 red-links. --Dystopos 12:13, 24 January 2013 (PST) [and corrected by Lkseitz 14:07, 24 January 2013 (PST)]
      • And ignore my calculations in the previous page comment. I meant you did BLUE/RED instead of BLUE/(RED + BLUE). --Lkseitz 14:09, 24 January 2013 (PST)

wikiFactor

"WikiFactor" is a measure of a site's popularity, derived by finding which is the last page (on Special:Popularpages) to have 1000x the number of page views as the number of its ranking.

And our wikiFactor is now 20, up from 16 in mid-September 2011. --Lkseitz 11:44, 3 February 2012 (PST)

  • I think we're up to 22 now. --Dystopos 09:51, 17 March 2012 (PDT)
    • And as we close in on a year since I discovered wikiFactor, it's now up to 26. We went up ten in just under a year. --Lkseitz 10:05, 6 September 2012 (PDT)
    • As of January 22, 2013, our "WikiFactor" seems to be 29. --Dystopos 10:10, 22 January 2013 (PST)
    • The 7th anniversary dinner has reminded me to check; our WikiFactor is now 31. --Lkseitz 10:40, 15 April 2013 (PDT)

Anniversary dinner 2012

6th anniversary dinner
  • There will be a dinner, on or about March 15. Details to come soon. Comments welcomed already. --Dystopos 04:36, 23 February 2012 (PST)
    • As always, weekends work better for me, but the celebration isn't about me. The Saturday after the 15th is St. Patrick's Day, if that makes a difference. DST begins March 11. Both weekends appear equally open for me at the moment. As far as food goes, we've done Jim & Nick's BBQ, pizza, brunch, J&N BBQ, and pizza. Does that mean we have to do brunch again? :-) Coincidentally, I might be bringing an under 1-year-old again, just like when we did brunch last time. --Lkseitz 07:02, 23 February 2012 (PST)
      • OK. We don't have to do brunch again. What do you guys think about starting fairly early (5:00 or so) on Saturday at ROJO? --Dystopos 07:50, 2 March 2012 (PST)
        • Since that's walking distance from my parents, I'm always agreeable with Rojo. But which Saturday? --Lkseitz 09:51, 2 March 2012 (PST)
          • Saturday the 17th. --Dystopos 14:41, 2 March 2012 (PST)
            • Looks like we'll miss it this year. Our baby is due the next week. --Wheresdib 21:04, 2 March 2012 (PST)
              • How is that supposed to excuse you? Oh well. Maybe we can do lunch again soon. I need to talk some geocaching stuff with you. --Dystopos 13:02, 4 March 2012 (PST)
                • Oh, and congrats! --Dystopos 13:03, 4 March 2012 (PST)
  • Thanks for another great anniversary dinner, Dystopos! --Lkseitz 07:36, 20 March 2012 (PDT)

Shades Valley vs. Oxmoor Valley

Does anyone know the difference between Shades Valley and Oxmoor Valley? My sense of Oxmoor Valley is rather vague, but looking at the 1907 15 minute quadrangle of Bessemer, Shades Valley extends well southwest of what I think of as Oxmoor Valley. Is Oxmoor Valley just the small valley between Little Shades Mountain and Shades Mountain? If so, what about the valley between Bald Ridge and Shades Mountain? Both of those valleys are where Shades Creek is found, yet neither is labeled with a name on this map. We need to recruit a pro or serious hobbyist geologist/geographer/cartographer. --Lkseitz 09:52, 27 February 2012 (PST)

Testing a new template

Year process

I documented my process for creating needed year pages for the reasons stated at the top of that page. I thought it might be helpful to provide a pointer here. --Lkseitz 11:10, 1 June 2012 (PDT)

  • On behalf of posterity, I thank you. --Dystopos 11:35, 1 June 2012 (PDT)

Cities vs. Towns

I thought I'd mentioned this somewhere, but I can't find it, so I'll do so here (possibly again). According to the Code of Alabama Section 11-40-6, municipalities with less than 2,000 people are towns while those with 2,000 or more are cities. The latest U.S. Census (not estimate) determines the population. A few towns became cities after the 2010 Census, like Kimberly. --Lkseitz 10:19, 6 September 2012 (PDT)

  • Oops. --Wheresdib 10:46, 6 September 2012 (PDT)
    • No biggie. I was going to fix it, but I got distracted by historical populations. Then I saw what Dystopos did with Shelby County and decided I'd get back to it later. --Lkseitz 12:36, 6 September 2012 (PDT)

Orphaned pages

Want to help Bhamwiki, but don't have the time or inclination to write an entire article? Why not adopt one of our over 500 orphaned pages? These are articles that exist, but are not linked to by any other articles. The only way to reach them is by searching or browsing the categories. You could pick one and see if there are existing articles that should link to it. For example, I added a link to the Woodlawn Board of Aldermen from the Woodlawn article. Some pages in the list need to remain orphans, like disambiguation pages. And some really are too esoteric to link to from any existing articles . . . so far. But some probably have some natural links that just haven't been made yet. --Lkseitz 11:54, 7 September 2012 (PDT)

Official Birmingham city song?

I have been pondering this for a while now- the state has an official song, albeit most think it's "My Home's in Alabama" due to the effort to make that the state song a while back, but that's another argument. What we need is an official song that basically equates to us. I've been tinkering now and then in my secret lab with my guitar, but nothing substantial yet. In the mean time, I'd like to open the floor to anyone with a good song suggestion, and I'll start- Whether he was intending to be satirical or not (like his usual work- don't get me started on "Short People"), Randy Newman's "Birmingham" seems to describe the way things were in the past, and in my eyes, where we want the city to get back to in some form while still moving forward. I'd love to have a dog named Dan who was "the meanest dog in Alabam' ". Feel free to post your thoughts. --Jared Johnson 12:11, 15 September 2012 (PDT)

  • The chamber of commerce endorses "Sweet Birmingham" by Robert Moore, as recorded by Taj Mahal. --Dystopos 17:06, 15 September 2012 (PDT)
  • A very nice song, first time I've ever heard it. I like it, kinda catchy, sounds like something that would have been came up with somewhere near the Carver Theater by someone with a saxophone and some spare time. --Jared Johnson 15:25, 16 September 2012 (PDT)

Unhacked?

  • Matthew Sheets tells me that he not only fixed the problem that had Bhamwiki down today, but also fixed the hack that had us advertising for unwholesome products. --Dystopos 18:14, 25 September 2012 (PDT)
    • Huzzah! Give him an award of some kind! --Lkseitz 06:37, 26 September 2012 (PDT)

Year pages status

BTW, with the completion of 1949, users can now seamlessly visit each decade from today to the 1790s (or vice versa) using the decade boxes at the bottom of each year. There's still several years missing in the 20th century, but we're getting there. --Lkseitz 07:00, 1 November 2012 (PDT)

iPad editing

Can I just go ahead and say that editing the wiki with Safari and the default keyboard on an iPad really, really, really sucks. I miss my real keyboard with {, [, and other non-alpha characters that are readily accessible! I apologize in advance for any articles I post on weekends that don't have the proper format, categories, etc. If any of you have any suggestions, or know of any aps that will make my life easier, please feel free to let me know. --Wheresdib 08:19, 26 November 2012 (PST)

  • Yeah, it's not much fun with my phone, either. I sometimes find it easier to copy and paste an existing link and change the word inside than to go to the virtual keyboard and find the correct bracket. --Lkseitz 10:06, 26 November 2012 (PST)
    • I never would have thought to try. Is the current version of Wikipedia easier to interact with on a mobile device? There is a plan to upgrade to the latest stable version of Mediawiki sometime soon. --Dystopos 11:45, 26 November 2012 (PST)
      • I haven't tried to edit Wikipedia on the iPad yet. I am currently without a computer at home, Vista crashed on my lastest laptop a couple of weeks ago. --Wheresdib 11:49, 26 November 2012 (PST)
        • The answer for me at least is, get a wireless qwerty keyboard. --Wheresdib 21:50, 5 December 2012 (PST)

$150

The main page "In the news" section refers to a $150 bond issue, I belive you left out the word "million". --Wheresdib 12:00, 26 November 2012 (PST)