User talk:Philralph

Archive: 2008-2015, 2016-2022

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)Reply

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)Reply

@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)Reply

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

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)Reply

Hi, hope you're doing well! These days I've been reorganizing several pages in Appropedia as subpages. See for example Category:Aerosol pandemic or Category:Leucaena, among others. Subpages have several advantages, but perhaps the most obvious one is that every subpage links directly to its parent page from the title itself in a breadcrumb style (see for example Aerosol pandemic/Adjusters) so every visitor of a subpage is likely to become aware of the parent page.

I was wandering if you'd like me to (automatically) rename some of your pages, for example the community action ones, to the subpage format. For example, Argentina community action to Community action/Argentina. Needless to say, the old titles would remain as redirects, so no links would be broken.

Looking forward to your reply! Kind regards, Sophivorus (talk) 12:20, 8 December 2023 (UTC)Reply

Hi @Sophivorus, thanks for this. Yes, doing ok thanks, if a little overwhelmed at times! Hope all goes well with you.

Just to let you know I've seen this. Initial thoughts are sounds quite promising, but also feel the need to spend a bit of time thinking it all through. Lots of potential uses. Wondering if there are any downsides?

A couple of questions, may be more later!

• any limit to number of subpages? eg Climate action/(place name), potentially quite a big number!

• any complications with categories? eg Climate action/NYC into NYC category perhaps via location?

• still able to map (see as quite important) eg Climate_action#Near_you, eg via category?

I'll be back in touch soon. Cheers, Philralph (talk) 12:15, 9 December 2023 (UTC)Reply

Hi, just another quick thought / question: I tend to think we shouldn't get into considering subpages of subpages, just getting too messy? eg Climate action and eg perhaps more so Food activism can split into many different types of activism, eg climate justice activism, community gardens, etc. So eg climate justice activism by location wouldn't be done by sub of sub. Similarly although the focus of the wiki is community action we shouldn't get into using subpages for locations, 'cause potentially fractures into smaller and smaller areas and subs of subs (?) Philralph (talk) 12:43, 9 December 2023 (UTC)Reply

@Philralph Hi!

• There's no limit to the number of subpages
• No complications with categories
• No complications with maps
• Regarding subs of subs, I'm not sure I understand your examples, but of course there's a limit as to the practicality of subpages. I think one level is generally enough, but in some cases two levels may be warranted, for example Australia news/2014-2015 to News/Australia/2014-2015?

What do you think? Kind regards, Sophivorus (talk) 14:13, 9 December 2023 (UTC)Reply

Hi @Sophivorus, so far I think just one outstanding concern or question: if a change needed to a page name, eg to make it more accurate, would there be any less flexibility over this if multiple subpages?

No specific examples in the list of possibilities below but many of the page names in CAN wiki / Citizens Action Network handbook probably likely to evolve over time so might be best not to have subpages here, at least until page names become more settled (?)

The names of the map pages on CANwiki (Near you & CAN support), are specifically designed to reflect the identity and central ideas and concepts of the Alternative's work, and that of their many co-creators, so wouldn't want any changes there.

On (the rest of) CASwiki, the following possibilities:

As you suggest:

Community action/

News/

plus:

Community resources/

Climate action/

Ecological restoration/

Food activism/

Towards sustainable economies/

Fairer, Kinder/ (though no 'global' topic page as yet, would probably expand from A fairer, kinder society)

Community involvement/

Community energy/

Sustainable transport activism/

Rewilding/ (so far just a few pages for these last four, the top 6 likely to proliferate faster)

Most of the CASwiki topic (and resource topic) pages have a UK equivalent (sometimes a UK page without a corresponding global page), but in theory any topic page could be created, if enough content, for any location, so any topic could eventually have location subpages, eg Cycling activism/New York City

News/Australia/2014-2015 type looks fine, but not sure there's a way of doing similar for topic (and local topic) news pages, 'cause news topics often deliberately wider than corresponding topics, eg Sustainable transport UK news, Sustainable transport activism UK & UK Climate news, Climate action UK, so might be best to just use one level here eg Sustainable transport UK news/2021-2022, unless in News UK/Sustainable transport/2021-2022, Sustainable transport links back to Sustainable transport activism via a redirect (?)

Hope this is helpful, best Philralph (talk) 08:49, 12 December 2023 (UTC)Reply

Just realised that last example wouldn't work as there's already a Sustainable transport page. Philralph (talk) 08:57, 12 December 2023 (UTC)Reply

A couple of further thoughts:

• Perhaps only the top level gets a link back, so no probs with topic news pages (?)
• I think an as yet unvoiced concern was that beyond a few simple structures it shouldn't look like we're being too directive about page names to anyone wanting to start a new page, especially anything that better suits a local context (?) and / or could lead to loss of meaning via translations (?)

What do you think? Philralph (talk) 11:59, 15 December 2023 (UTC)Reply

@Philralph Hmm, your last concerns may hold some water. In any case, my usual tool for doing mass replacements is currently broken. I'm hoping for a fix soon, so until then we can give this more thought. Cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 15:40, 11 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Philralph Hi again! I've been doing some more work on subpages recently, and would like to revive this talk we were having regarding your pages. Do you still agree with the general idea of using subpages? Assuming you do, and since you have several different types of pages, I think it would be easier to start with the simplest cases and then move to the trickier ones? For example, I just renamed Argentina community action to Community action/Argentina. What do you think? Notice the link to Community action near the top of the pages. Also, notice that the "visible" title of the page is now just "Argentina". Do you think this is better, equal or worse than a longer title? Kind regards, Sophivorus (talk) 14:11, 26 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

@Sophivorus, Hi, yes looks better! It'd certainly make any internal navigation menus I set up easier. I'm quite happy with this, Cheers Philralph (talk) 14:33, 26 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Great! I just ran the page-rename script for the whole batch (245 pages). Let me know if you notice any issues. What do you think is the next low-hanging fruit? Sophivorus (talk) 14:56, 26 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Only had time for a quick look so far. No issues, but I think your batch (245 pages) may be missing quite a few location / place pages. Noticed for example no difference to Wiltshire community action. From a quick look at my previous notes the biggest challenge might be news. Don't know if this relevant but need / want to design some sort of much better portal type page for news, but not found the time to do this yet. All the rest, identified so far, should be reasonably easy and not involve many pages. Can the page heading differ from the format of the address? eg as in Argentina differs from Community action/Argentina? So for example for Community resources/Scotland could the actual page title be either Scotland community resources or Community resources Scotland or any other alternative? Philralph (talk) 09:11, 27 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Just noticed an issue. On Malling, the discussion page Talk:Malling community action not carried over (link looking empty). Don't think they'll be many active talk pages, but maybe a few. Philralph (talk) 09:25, 27 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Hi! I just renamed the missing pages (100+ pages) and also the talk pages. Yes, the page heading can differ from the format of the address. By setting the "title" parameter on the Template:Page data near the bottom of every page, you can control what is called the "display" title (or "visible" title) of the page. Regarding news, I also think they could benefit a lot from re-structuring taking into account all the recent functionality. Lets give it a bit of time and thought. Cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 12:23, 27 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Hi! You'll probably notice that I did some changes to Template:Excerpt, Template:Wikipedia excerpt and Template:Place so that they all use Template:Card as a metatemplate. This is part of an effort to improve and unify the UI/UX of Appropedia. It may take a few minutes or days to get used to the new look, but I hope you'll agree they're improvements!

On that note, I'm also thinking on applying Template:Card to Template:Event. I did a small demo for you at UK community action events. I think this one is less obviously valuable, since the "text" parameter is rarely used and the cards seem empty. Also, it would require me to do some mass replacements on all existing places to remove the asterisk * preceding them, since cards will actually break if used in list items. But what do you think? Cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 15:37, 11 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

Hi @Sophivorus, yes, agree your first para changes are improvements.

I'll give the event template some more thought, but one of my main concerns would be that event listings on location or topic pages don't take up too much space, or perhaps listings not affected (?), and the cards do look a bit odd seeming mostly empty. I do quite like the date display though, and wonder if all could be just on one line? I do quite like event displays when a very small image can be included. I know there's the page preview when there's an internal link, but over time listings with just an external link, at least to start with, may become more common. More ideas / questions to follow perhaps but that's probably enough for now, Cheers, Philralph (talk) 17:04, 11 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Philralph Hi! Glad you liked the first set of changes. I tried adding the calendar icon to the existing Template:Event and it think it looks great! So I went ahead and added an icon to Template:News too (and to Template:Excerpt). Check out Localism for an example of all three, and let me know what you think! Also, I created Category:Pages with no events and Category:Pages with no news to help you track and fix pages with empty lists of events or news. Cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 15:22, 12 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Sophivorus Hi! Fantastic! Yes, template changes looking good, and thanks for the new categories to help be track and fix, Cheers Philralph (talk) 16:40, 12 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

Hi, I hope you're doing well! I just wanted to let you know that I'm doing some changes to the semantic properties of news and events (basically I'm adding "News" and "Event" prefixes to them to distinguish them from other properties). As a consequence, the output of Template:Newslist and Template:Eventlist will be unstable for some hours. I hope this doesn't disrupt your work too much. Cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 12:08, 5 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Hi @Sophivorus, thanks for the warning. I hope you're doing well too! Let me now when things should be displaying ok again. Cheers, Philralph (talk) 08:48, 6 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Hi @Sophivorus, any further news on this? I'm asking as you said a few hours. News card displays not showing any results on several pages still. I'll email you some screen shots. Thanks 07:53, 8 November 2025 (UTC) Philralph (talk) 07:53, 8 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Hi! My apologies, I had updated Template:Newslist and Template:Eventlist but I completely forgot about Template:News card and Template:Events card which also needed updating. I did that now and your pages look fixed, but it will take some minutes for all of them to update. Let me know otherwise! Sophivorus (talk) 11:37, 8 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Hi! All looking good now thanks! 14:29, 8 November 2025 (UTC) Philralph (talk) 14:29, 8 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Hi @Sophivorus, I'm noticing that links are not appearing on events cards. Sending some screen shots. Hopefully this is something that can be easily fixed. Thanks, cheers, Philralph (talk) 08:38, 10 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

@Philralph Good catch! Should be fixed now, but again it may take some minutes to fully propagate. Cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 13:28, 10 November 2025 (UTC)Reply