Interwiki collaboration[edit source]

Thanks for suggesting the Interwiki collaboration month - I left a comment there.

Are you in/near London? One of Appropedia's directors is there (Andrew Lamb) and of course we have some other contacts. We've casually discussed some kind of event in London - unfortunately I'm not likely to be there for that one, but I'd love to see it happen. --Chriswaterguy 09:56, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Would love to work with you[edit source]

Hi Phil,

Re putting Sustainable Community Action pages here. In short: absolutely!

I think everything you're doing would be very welcome here. The only problem I could imagine is if you were covering political matters in a biased way, but as far as I can see you're not covering political activism as such (i.e. not focusing on particular parties).

We're also in the process of merging with Ekopedia, so things should be getting bigger and more active in the new year!

Is there anything that needs clarifying, or where you need help? Be sure to let me know.

For converting Wiser.org pages to wiki markup, see Appropedia:WikEd, which explains how to use our conversion tool. Cheers! --Chriswaterguy (talk) 03:55, 4 December 2013 (PST)

PS looks like you didn't get the official welcome. Here it is...

Hi Philralph[edit source]

Thanks for the invite. Of course I'm on board. I don't know my way around yet, but I'm here. Tried to put the box on my user page, to no avail. Flowergirl

Great! To get the box to show, you just need to replace the space between 'User sca' & 'Flowergirl' with a '|' Philralph (talk) 23:56, 26 June 2015 (PDT)

Aussome. Will do. Can we talk? I'm flowergirl.donna "at" gmail.com I can see you're a busy man. My feelings won't be hurt if it takes you a while to get around to it.

OK, but best keep it to these wiki talk pages. (I've taken the liberty of altering your address above. Straightforward adresses run the risk of being automatically 'harvested' resulting in spam coming your way) Philralph (talk) 23:50, 28 June 2015 (PDT)

Welcome![edit source]

Hi Philralph,

Welcome to the Appropedia wiki! If you need a general wiki-tutorial, see the main help page (or the more in-depth one on WikiEducator).

Check your preferences. It's a good idea to verify your email address and turn on email notification - then you'll be notified when you get a message on your talk page, or when any page on your watchlist, is modified. You may want to upload a photo or information about yourself to your userpage (which is at User:Philralph).

If you have a particular interest or project in mind, go ahead and start it! If you have questions or suggestions, the best place to leave them is at our community discussion page, which we call the Village pump - you should get a fast response. Or, feel free to leave me a note on my talk page if you have further questions, need help finding your way around, have a cool idea for a project, or just want to chat. If you just want to know how things work here, check out Appropedia:Policies and Appropedia:FAQ. We're a relaxed and friendly bunch though, and you can also just pick things up as you go.

Glad to have you here!

--Chriswaterguy (talk)

Great stuff[edit source]

Really great to see these place and event pages - these are important resources, and very complementary. I'll work on getting attention for these efforts - let us know if you need anything. --Chriswaterguy (talk) 04:29, 20 December 2013 (PST)

SCA template; blog post[edit source]

FYI we still have {{SCA}} pointing to the old wiki (used on these pages). What do you think we should do with those?

One of my goals is to communicate much more about what Appropedia is doing, starting with our blog - I just wrote a post about your work with SCA. http://blogs.appropedia.org/2014/01/10/sustainable-community-action/

Thanks again for all your contributions. --Chriswaterguy (talk) 05:40, 10 January 2014 (PST)

Thanks Chris, replied at User_talk:Chriswaterguy#Could_Sustainable_Community_Action_contribute_to_Appropedia.3F

'Facts about' links on location pages[edit source]

Hi Phil,

Re "I noticed the 'Facts about...' box which doesn't seem to appear in the edit box, and seems to disappear if the redirect is replaced. "

Don't worry about the boxes. I don't understand their purpose, but they're something to do with Semantic Mediawiki (which we are using). I hope to understand that better in coming months as we work on this.

"Unless I hear otherwise I'll name the affected pages as eg 'Costa Rica, sustainable community action'" - seems reasonable. One important thing is consistency, and I think you're being consistent. I wasn't sure about the comma, but if it's consistent, it's okay.

Thanks --Chriswaterguy (talk) 07:25, 17 January 2014 (PST)

Replied here - thanks --Chriswaterguy (talk) 21:11, 17 January 2014 (PST)

Green vision link[edit source]

Looks good. Replied here. --Chriswaterguy (talk) 13:08, 24 February 2014 (PST)

Hi and Open CO2 project[edit source]

Hi Phil, I just came across your page via the Appropedia active users list - great to learn about these projects you're working on.

The "Open CO2" definitely piques my interest in more open data, and deliberately using visualisations of complex issues to aid in public debate/engagement. Perhaps there is some parallel to work I'm doing to better visualise how transport systems work, especially in terms of weaknesses of public transport networks and how to effectively improve them - see Transport Informatics, e.g. Travel time maps as one example. Feel free to contact me via links on my userpage. --PatSunter (talk) 23:50, 14 March 2014 (PDT)

• BTW: if any of your Sustainable Community Action pages you're porting here are transport-focused, please let me know. I'm working on improving the several pages in the transport section of Appropedia at the moment.

Mini libraries[edit source]

Hi Phil (nice to internet-meet you),

I just created the article mini library. It seems like it would fit in well with the SCA material. If you could take a moment to categorize it, I'd appreciate it. Great job on all the work you've done on green wikis over the years! --Ethan (talk) 09:24, 15 May 2015 (PDT)

replied on your talk page, Philralph (talk) 09:39, 15 May 2015 (PDT)

Sure, I'd be glad to join the SCA side of things. I went ahead and created and populated the sharing category. Thanks! --Ethan (talk) 11:29, 15 May 2015 (PDT)

Congrats[edit source]

Congratulations on porting over all of the articles! --Ethan (talk) 14:38, 2 September 2015 (PDT)

Thanks, Ethan. Just the resources section, plus maybe a few more 'meta' type pages to go. Maybe finished overall by Xmas. Philralph (talk) 23:50, 2 September 2015 (PDT)

I see, well it's a milestone at least. By the way, would you like me to delete the old categories left over from the SCA to CAS renaming? --Ethan (talk) 00:37, 28 September 2015 (PDT)

Hi Ethan, yes, that'd be good. Bit more renaming of categories to come, but not a prority at present, Cheers, Philralph (talk) 00:45, 28 September 2015 (PDT)

African vernacular architecture[edit source]

I ran across an interesting website that hosts images of natural material buildings across Africa: http://www.africavernaculararchitecture.com/ I'd like to post links to the various country pages on CAS. What would be the best place to put them? Maybe as a subheading under "Resources"? --Ethan (talk) 18:44, 9 October 2015 (PDT)

Yes, subheading under "Resources" sounds good, "Images" as a sub-heading? Philralph (talk) 01:19, 10 October 2015 (PDT)

New Zealand ecovillage[edit source]

Hi Phil, I posted some articles about the failed ecovillage at Dylan Evans' talk page. It sounds like a really bad situation. We might want to alter some of the language used there, but I can't blame someone in Dylan's position for blowing off some steam (assuming he was someone who bought into the village). --Ethan (talk) 05:30, 29 October 2015 (PDT)

Great, thanks, Ethan Philralph (talk) 09:39, 29 October 2015 (PDT)

CASwiki invitation[edit source]

Hi Phil, Thanks for the invitation, it sounds great and yes, I'd like to take part. Can I just confirm how this works, is this a wiki within a wiki? And I just add topics here and mark them to CASwiki through categories? Just needing some guidance on that. Thanks! Felicity (talk) 23:48, 12 November 2015 (PST)

Thanks for the explanation Phil, that has really helped me to better understand the approach being taken. I think it's wonderful to include all the community action here too. I'll add my name. And wow, you've brought across an enormous amount of information, that will be a fantastic guidance. I'll let you know if I have questions, I am bound to. Kind regards, 12:35, 13 November 2015 (PST)

Front page news?[edit source]

A few years ago someone pitched the idea of having a news feed on the main page. At that time it didn't really make sense, but now that you've been updating CAS news, I think it's an idea worth pursuing. I can see a couple of benefits here: 1) shows that Appropedia has an active community of editors, 2) balances the more static material that typifies the main page, 4) potentially invites more user participation, 4) can drive more traffic to CASwiki. I've made an example of what it could look like. Is this something you'd be interested in? You'd probably be the one updating it the most. --Ethan (talk) 03:41, 23 November 2015 (PST)

NZ News item[edit source]

Hi Phil, Could you please check that I've added the news item properly here: https://www.appropedia.org/Template:New_Zealandnews#News_and_comment. Cheers, Felicity

Cool, thanks. :)

Young and beginning farmers[edit source]

I created the page young and beginning farmers which I think fits within the purview of CAS, and its format is based on it. --Ethan (talk) 21:09, 29 November 2015 (PST)

Resource Index for Bioregions[edit source]

If you have access to a copy of the Permaculture Designers' Manual, you may want to read pgs. 511-513. Mollison & co. drew up an outline for a regional directory for all kinds of resources. It's a similar concept to CAS ("the system is best suited to computer retrieval" -- indeed!). --Ethan (talk) 03:36, 2 April 2016 (PDT)

Segapedia[edit source]

Philralph, could you help me with my wiki called Segapedia? It is at Segapedia. My user name is "Tiger Mum". Saftzie (Message me!) 00:47, 23 April 2019 (PDT)

Display on East Midlands page broken[edit source]

The above page is not displaying very well, just below the "Food Activism" subheading. I've tried to fix it, but can't see how to do this, as far as I can see some wiki markup is being transcluded when it shouldn't be ... possibly related to the widget you are using?

Also, request that you add the following link to the page,[1] if you feel it is appropriate. I'm thinking of writing a short article about the forest garden they have there.

Kind regards, Moribund (talk) 14:30, 10 June 2019 (CDT)

Fixed now! Sorry for jumping in here uninvited... I was checking Recent Changes for bugs caused by the server move and came across this thread. This was caused by an older, unrelated bug (my fault, I left out a noinclude tag when I was upgrading Extension:Widgets a few months ago). It should be fixed now. -Roger (talk) 22:19, 10 June 2019 (CDT)

Hi, Moribund, thanks for the Ecoworks link, now included. Please feel free to add in any further internal links to your short article if appropriate.

Thanks Roger for the other fix(es). Very much appreciated! Philralph (talk) 04:06, 11 June 2019 (CDT)

Great, thanks. I've starting drafting an article, but still gathering info. Regards, M. Moribund (talk) 12:32, 12 June 2019 (CDT)

I'd love to learn more about CAS[edit source]

I'm always reading all your content, and I'd like to learn more about your interests and plans. I'd love to include them into some of the plans that we're making for Appropedia. Do you have some time to talk? I also left you a tweet, so you can recognize my contact.

"Inspiring quotes 2"[edit source]

Hello, Philralph. I have found way too many grammar mistakes on this article. Not just the grammar, but also spelling mistakes and non-captial letters. But now, the article is now sorted, thanks to my part of the job! And remember... Express yourself, be heard! --Auri (talk) 01:52, 18 January 2020 (UTC)

News templates[edit source]

Hi, hope you're well! I noticed that most of the unused templates are "news" templates, such as Template:Vietnamnews, Template:Zambianews‏, etc. I was about to delete them but I found you're the main author and that you're still very much active, so I'd like to ask if those templates were an experiment, or will soon be used, or what. Maybe I can help! Kind regards, Sophivorus (talk) 03:34, 12 September 2020 (UTC)

Re: user infobox image size[edit source]

Hi, yes! I added an image-size parameter to the infoboxes and used it in your infobox. Let me know of any other issue or request! Sophivorus (talk) 19:58, 10 October 2020 (UTC)

Organization infobox[edit source]

Hi,

We're starting to use infoboxes more and more as we develop the site. I was wondering, would you be interested in testing Template:Infobox organization for some of the initiatives you think are interesting? I'm even curious about the possibility of using that information later to collaborate with [2], as we've had some conversations with them. I'm sure that this would be super useful to get people interested in exploring sustainable initiatives in their regions. We'll start thinking about finding interns to help out with this in the future. —Emilio (talk) 04:28, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi Emilio, yes ok, I'll give it some thought Philralph (talk) 12:39, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks a lot! Here are a couple of examples of how we're using them: Footsteps Ecolodge, Architecture for Humanity, Village Earth. Emilio (talk) 15:47, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi Emilio, just had a go at using on Transition Network, which raised a couple of questions, which I've put on the template talk page Philralph (talk) 11:29, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

We'd like to chat![edit source]

@Philralph, Sophivorus Hi! User:Sophivorus and I have been talking about chatting with you if you have the time. We have a few ideas to improve the impact of CASwiki on Appropedia. Would you like to chat soon? —Emilio (talk) 16:10, 6 May 2021 (UTC)

Hi @Emilio, @Sophivorus, thanks. @Emilio, I'll email you about this. Philralph (talk) 15:53, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

Your 2021 impact stats are right here![edit source]

note on items[edit source]

hi there Philralph. so nice to meet you and to be in touch. thanks for your note to me at my page, and at Village Pump. just wanted to let you know, I added a little bit more data to my user page. it's not a huge amount, but it enables people to find my user page on wikipedia, where i have much more content. by the way, just curious, do you have an account at Wikipedia?? I imagine that you do. obviously, the resources there can be beneficial to us periodically in a few ways. I am also thinking of gradually encouraging a few experienced editors at Wikipedia to get active occasionally at Appropedia, depending on where their interests are.

Wikipedia is obviously the big fish in the ocean of wikis. However, in my opinion, Appropedia is firmly in the number 2 slot, for important wikis worldwide. the work that we do here that is fully outside the scope of Wikipedia, is one major part of our usefulness. Wikipedia is purely as an encyclopedia that relies mainly on existing data published elsewhere. however, the need to promote sustainable technology on a worldwide basis, using a wiki to do so, is a major reason that Appropedia fulfils a great function. Considering the amazing usefulness of wikis, it would be a huge waste of potential if we didn't have a wiki where activists, designers, and thinkers could not exchange original ideas and information on how to get things done. so that is why I really see the usefulness of Appropedia.

I guess that's my little miniature essay for today. :-) By the way, I was thinking that since Wikipedia does have dozens of user essays on wikipedia itself, detailing various ways to improve Wikipedia continuously, and also some of the ways that wikipedia can play more of a useful role, perhaps we might occasionally provide essays of that type here, on an infrequent basis if we want. Just a thought on that. anyway, it's great to hear your ideas. thanks so much for all your work. see you! --Sm-neutron (talk) 18:24, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

Hi User:Sm-neutron, thanks for this. Yes, I did have an account at Wikipedia but probably not used for 15 yrs or so, and probably nothing much of note anyway! Sounds good encouraging some experienced editors from there. Thanks for your essay, and good to meet someone who shares my feeling on the "the amazing usefulness of wikis". I also like the idea in your last para. Philralph (talk) 17:29, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

@Philralph Hi! I had a nice chat with User:Sm-neutron and he mentioned that his main interest is accomodating Appropedia for community organizers and grassroots organizations, especially in the NYC area. Super exciting! I'm sure he can learn a lot from you. — Emilio (talk) 00:24, 25 January 2022 (UTC)

New tools[edit source]

Hi Phil, hope you're doing good! I wanted to let you know that I just enabled a new tool for you. If you edit any page (with the source editor) you'll notice a little magic wand among the icons. If you click it, the wikitext of the page will be automatically standardized. This is useful for easily scanning pages and noticing errors. Also, since you've found Template:Wikipedia excerpt useful, I wanted to let you know that Template:Wikipedia definition also exists. It may be more appropriate in some cases, since our goal here is more towards action than encyclopedic information. Cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 14:23, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Hi @Sophivorus, fantastic! thanks! hope all goes well with you! Cheers Philralph (talk) 16:18, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Widget:Civics replaced by Template:Civics_map[edit source]

Hi! I replaced the Widget:Civics I made for you for Template:Civics map. It works exactly the same, but being a template, you may find it a bit more familiar. I already replaced all the calls to the widget for calls to the template, but let me know if you notice any issues. Cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 17:48, 11 January 2023 (UTC)

Automatic wikitext standardization[edit source]

Hi! Just wanted to let you know that I just replaced the normalization tool (the little magic wand) with a more robust tool that fixes wikitext automatically every time you (or anyone) saves a page. More details at Appropedia:Village pump#Automatic wikitext standardization, cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 14:47, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

Academic citation[edit source]

@Philralph Hi! I don't know if you follow these, but I just noticed that Community involvement was cited on this Indian academic paper. I figured you'd like to see it. —Emilio (talk) 20:20, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

@Emilio Hi! Thanks for this! Hope all goes well with you, best, Philralph (talk) 10:51, 20 June 2023 (UTC)

Branding for CASwiki[edit source]

Hi, good news! We're experimenting with a system to let projects within Appropedia have some branding, see for example Fashion Revolution and SELF. I'd like to offer you the possibility of some branding for your project too! If you're interested, I prepared some documentation of the requirements at Appropedia:Project branding. Hopefully they are clear enough, but do let me know if not. Regarding the logo, I know you've been using this one, but I notice it has a white background, which would look ugly over the slightly grey background of the Appropedia header, so you might want to look at tools like https://www.remove.bg, or perhaps even take this opportunity to redesign the logo completely. Also, you may want to include the words "CASwiki" (or "Community Action" or whatever you like) in the logo. Perhaps https://boxy-svg.com/app may come handy. Hope you like this new development, cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 16:27, 29 June 2023 (UTC)