User talk:Sophivorus/2022

Note re items[edit source]

Latest comment: 2 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

hi. thanks so much for your helpful note on my talk page! no problem, i had a very helpful talk with Emilio today about some different ideas, processes at items here at Appropedia. I have a few ideas on ways I can hekp out. I'm looking forward to helping with things here. thanks for your help.

by the way, one note re categories. emilio very helpfully explained how categroies work with the functions of keywords. I wanted to respond to the note that you left for me. I totally agree with you there is no basis for approaching categories here the same way as one would at wikipedia. At wikipedia, one major historical article, such as the one on World War 2, might be part of dozens of categories, in order to reflect each and every country that was involved.

I totally agree that categories at Appropedia shoudl not work the same way as above, at all. However, I will also note that Appropedia does in fact use categories; in other words, editors at Appropedia have not dispensed with or discarded categories, but they use them for some basic purposes; i.e. categories are simply and practically a way to keep articles visible and to enable new readers and users to view them easily, pure and simple.

My own approach is consistent with that idea. I simply feel that categories that reflect distinct types of articles should be closer to the top level. so, for example, the category for do-it-yourself items like a solar cooker shoud not be buried deep within a category sucvh category: knowledge; instead, they should all be grouped somewehre within a practical specific category like Category: Manufacturing, and that should hopefully be in or near the top-level category of category: content by topic.

Emilio did explain to me how the keyword function works in tandem with categories. so I will be aware of that now.

also, one last note, I have several activist groups here in NYC that I hope to slowly encourage to become active here on Appropedia. I hope to set up some resources for them, and then hopefully encourage them to explore this resource.

Also, I will probably post some ideas on the Village Pump page, just in order to provide some sort of introduction to the community. however, I wanted to write back here, just to be in contact. I appreciate your help. thanks!!! --Sm-neutron (talk) 23:37, 20 January 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Sm-neutron Hi, thanks for reaching out! Indeed categories are still much used on Appropedia (it's been too large of a job to transition to keywords) and I do agree that we shouldn't dispense completely of categories and we should preserve and populate the most general and useful ones. I understand Emilio told you but just in case: by setting the keyword "knowledge" on Template:Page data the page will be automatically categorized in Category:Knowledge, so that's actually the preferred way to categorize, rather than adding [[Category:Knowledge]] to the bottom of the page. If you're interested in this kind of categorization work, you may find Appropedia:Keywords and Property:Keywords useful for merging related keywords like "pump" and "pumps" or single-use keywords into more general ones. After all, the goal of keywords and categories should be to help users find related content (right?) so having single-use keywords and categories makes little sense. Another note: with User:PedroK we've been working on improving categories but due to the size of the job, we focused mostly on top-level categories and even that we left unfinished. Any help would be welcome! As to Solar cooker specifically, I notice it's not currently in Category:Knowledge but in any case it's not in any category near the top of the category tree. Feel free to improve categorization but I do recommend you start small just to get to know the huge scope and diversity of content before attempting larger and more general reclassifications. Finally, as to the activist groups in NYC, that'd be awesome, let me know if I can help! Sophivorus (talk) 13:59, 21 January 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Hi there[edit source]

Latest comment: 2 years ago3 comments2 people in discussion

Hi Sophivorus! It has been really great to get all your advice and input lately, on various items, as I learn more about Appropedia. I was wondering just a few things. firstly, I notice that you are on Facebook. would it be ok if I could please send you a message there, and also friend you there?

Also would it be possible for us to please speak by phone, if that is ok with you? If not, no problem, but if we can, I would make sure to keep it brief.

I can send you all of my contact data using Facebook Messenger. I don't mind sharing all of my contact data with others; I am simply not used to doing so publicly on my user page, at wiki sites such as Wikipedia, etc. I may eventually start posting all of my contact data, in a manner similarly to what you folks do here.

Please feel free to reply any time. if you reply here, could you please ping me? Thanks again for all your help recently. I'm looking forward to workign together as time goes on. thanks! --Sm-neutron (talk) 22:56, 25 January 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Sm-neutron Hi! Yes sure, feel free to contact me via Facebook and we can set up a call through there, I was actually thinking on suggesting the same ! Sophivorus (talk) 23:13, 25 January 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Hi. Ok, I messaged you there. you may need to look under "message requests." thanks. --Sm-neutron (talk) 05:00, 26 January 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Slight problem with display from news templates[edit source]

Latest comment: 2 years ago6 comments2 people in discussion

Hi! Sophivorus, really excited to be trying out these new templates! slight display problem maybe: in order to get the item to display date correctly on Biodiversity UK news, have to have it displaying incorrectly on News UK. Same thing with Nov 04, 2009 item on Argentina community action & News, though other 4 items for me display consistently (?) Thanks Philralph (talk) 10:49, 7 February 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Hi, don't know whether you saw my post on the sub page talk (?), but just reposting here in case not. No real urgency but just keen to get going on this, lots of news items stacking up, but thought best to try and resolve before I do too much, thanks Philralph (talk) 08:44, 9 February 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Philralph Hi, sorry I missed your message. I'm glad you're liking the new templates! I think I just fixed the issue, else let me know, cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 14:09, 9 February 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Yes, all looking good now, cheers! Philralph (talk) 14:13, 11 February 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Just one more slight problem: text not coming through to newslist, see News UK Feb 3 item, & Food UK news & Land activism UK#News and comment. Otherwise wonderful to use these new templates, going to make a fabulous difference! Cheers, Philralph (talk) 15:02, 16 February 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Philralph Fixed! I'm so happy you're finding them useful, let me know of any more bugs or feature requests ! Sophivorus (talk) 15:08, 16 February 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

News templates update[edit source]

Latest comment: 2 years ago6 comments2 people in discussion

Hi @Sophivorus,

the new news templates are working well. However on reflection, I'm concerned about an omission and would like us also to consider an extra parameter.

The current omission is that apart from the external link we don't explicitly name and so credit the news source. Although this perhaps helps with readability I feel we should be explicitly naming and so crediting the news source.

The extra parameter I'd like us to consider is for an optional internal link to the most relevant internal article, which would of course help a little in improving the impact of some articles.

illustration of preferred output:

• Wellbeing: how living well together works for the common good, The Conversation (Feb 16, 2022)
• Amazon deforestation: Record high destruction of trees in January, BBC News (Feb 12, 2022) ...Brazil news
• What makes a community turn against climate adaptation? Grist (Feb 08, 2022) — To build a sea wall, you first have to build community trust. ...New York City news

Philralph (talk) 13:51, 19 February 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Alternatively would it be a better option to put internal links into the title? for example:

• Wellbeing: how living well together works for the common good, The Conversation (Feb 16, 2022)
• Amazon deforestation: Record high destruction of trees in January, BBC News (Feb 12, 2022)
• Lessons from New York: What makes a community turn against climate adaptation? Grist (Feb 08, 2022) — To build a sea wall, you first have to build community trust.

Philralph (talk) 13:57, 19 February 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

As an interim I've included news sources in with titles. Over time as hopefully we move toward more use of local, alternative, community based and copyleft type news sources, it seems good to be explicitly crediting and acknowledging these. So to summarise, and hopefully clarify, it looks as if all that is needed is an extra parameter for 'source' which then gets overlayed with the external link. If an internal link seems good, this can be included in either text or title. Thanks Philralph (talk) 13:47, 22 February 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Sophivorus, just wondering if you saw the above request? Philralph (talk) 18:47, 24 February 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Philralph Hi, sorry for the delay, done! If "source" is not specified, the domain of the URL will be used instead. I'm really happy to see you're finding the templates useful, let me know of any other requests or bugs, cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 17:29, 25 February 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Sophivorus, Excellent! cheers! Philralph (talk) 21:06, 25 February 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

incomplete news display[edit source]

Latest comment: 2 years ago4 comments2 people in discussion

I noticed on Community action & Welcome to Appropedia, the usual 5 news items are not being displayed? Hopefully this is something temporary? I can't see any obvious changes to the news pages: News and News by location, or Template:Newslist. (Looks like items from News by location not being displayed). Think something similar with Climate news. Not checked any further than this yet. Thanks. Philralph (talk) 16:29, 21 March 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Philralph Hi! Yes I'm afraid during the weekend I run a script hoping to fix something and instead the entire Semantic MediaWiki database started updating. It may still take some days to finish, sorry! Sophivorus (talk) 17:55, 21 March 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Philralph Does it look fixed now? Sophivorus (talk) 14:31, 23 March 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Sophivorus, yes thanks. From the sample that I've looked at I'm not seeing anything missing. Cheers, Philralph (talk) 16:29, 23 March 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Any language? That's great![edit source]

Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion

What a wonderful resource these pages can be. One more step toward everyone being able to have their needs met! Will loves stories (talk) 16:42, 15 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

note[edit source]

Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Hi Sophivorous! hope all's well. sorry that I've only been here occasionally. very glad to see all of these great efforts here. thanks!--Sm-neutron (talk) 21:44, 23 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

news display, event template request[edit source]

Latest comment: 1 year ago2 comments2 people in discussion

Hi @Sophivorus, just wanting to check a couple of things. I've noticed for the past couple of hours or so, the newslist templates are not displaying with regard to keywords eg see Community involvement UK news. I imagine this is something you're working on and will be sorted soon?

Also just wanted to check if you saw Appropedia:Village pump#. No hurry with that though! Cheers Philralph (talk) 15:42, 26 July 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Philralph Hi Phil! Yes, it's because of something I did yesterday. I just did some more changes that should fix it, but it may take some hours for the entire wiki to update. Thanks for the heads up! Regarding the village pump, I'll reply there, cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 12:08, 27 July 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Normalization button[edit source]

Latest comment: 1 year ago3 comments2 people in discussion

Hi @Sophivorus, I've noticed for the past two days that I do not have the normalize button, would you mind taking a look? I've asked Emilio and he said it may be a bug and it was best to consult with you, since he is able to see it and use it on his end. Thank you! --Irene92 (talk) 12:18, 7 September 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Irene92 Fixed! By the way, I'd like to mention, just in case Emilio didn't, that the normalization tool is not perfect and does cause broken wikitext in some cases, especially when there's broken wikitext in the page to begin with, or when the page has unfrequent or non-standard elements, such as <pre> tags with computer code. For this reason, I always quickly visually scan the pages before and after running the normalization tool to double-check that I wont break or didn't break anything, especially when normalizing long, complex and/or important pages. Also, if you notice a pattern that causes trouble, please let me know and it may help me to improve the tool, cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 13:46, 7 September 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Thank you. I've been taking more time to review the before and after normalizing and making sure there are no broken things. It was helpful information and I'm now being more careful in general when it comes to this! --Irene92 (talk) 08:27, 28 September 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Question re sub pages and categories[edit source]

Latest comment: 1 year ago3 comments2 people in discussion

Hi @Sophivorus, I'm wondering about making more use of sub pages for CASwiki place and topic pages. The big advantage of course would be much better impact stats. Would there be any downsides? For example can subpages be in different categories to pages eg Barcelona community action/resources and Barcelona community action/news from Barcelona community action ? Thanks, Philralph (talk) 09:20, 25 October 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Philralph Hi! There wouldn't be any downsides I can think of. Yes you can categorize subpages in different categories than the parent page! However if by impact you mean the stats in Template:Page data, you should be aware that subpages don't inherit the impact from parent pages, or viceversa. Do you think they should? Sophivorus (talk) 11:39, 25 October 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Sophivorus, No. If that doesn't happen that's OK. My initial thought is that there isn't strong enough reason to suggest this. So, I'll stick to naming new pages as I do now, i.e. separate pages, eg Barcelona community action resources, etc Thanks. Philralph (talk) 14:17, 25 October 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]