User talk:Tim Trent

From TrainSpottingWorld, for Rail fans everywhere

Image:Not got one yet.jpg

Tim Trent is taking a short break and will be back here soon.

When you begin a new message section here, I will respond to it here. When I leave message on your Talk page, I will watch your page for your response. This maintains discussion threads and continuity. Place {{talktome}} at the top of your own user talk page to produce this box

Contents 1 Coding issues 2 Sister project logo 3 Spotting World Blog... 4 Stop using Tim's page for all and sundry!!! 5 Our content 6 An interesting statistic 7 Allowing anonymous edits... 8 RS Reviews 9 Loading time 10 Workforce:European rail and Workforce:UK Railways 11 Bot 12 Admin tools 13 The Transport Journal Issue 1 14 Thanks! 15 The TJ 16 The Transport Journal Issue 2 17 TJ 18 Dollar Strings 19 SpottingWorld development 19.1 Leaching bot 20 Wikibreak 21 The Transport Journal Issue 3 22 {{Archive box}} has arrived 23 E-Mail 24 The Transport Journal Issue 4 25 The Transport Journal Issue 5 26 The Transport Journal Issue 6 27 Various... 28 The Transport Journal Issue 7 29 The Transport Journal 30 Transport Journal Issue 8 31 Welcome back 32 The Transport Journal Issue 9 33 Hi 34 Fan Art - policy from Commons 35 Admin 36 Other SWs... 37 Re:What just happened on Wikipedia? 38 New users... 38.1 The actual process 38.1.1 Stage 1 38.1.2 Stage 2 38.1.3 Stage 3 39 Great minds think alike...? 40 New users - 2

Archives
Current Archive 15 Feb 07 to 6 July 07

[edit] Coding issues

Hi Tim. Are you aware of any coding issues here as the main page doesn't seem to appear as it should despite the correct coding. If you aren't aware of any then I could ask some experienced coders I know back on the english wikipedia. Thanks. Tbo 157 18:41, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

If you mean the boxes round things, I have one idea which I am about to try. If you mean "other stuff" I have no idea and would appreciate a short6 term, (or long term) influx of skilled folk to solve it. Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 20:04, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

I mean the text for the relevant sections don't seem to appear in the relevant boxes. Tbo 157 20:22, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Have a look here where I propose a solution for discussion. Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 20:37, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing me to the discussion and for the admin tools which were some how given to me only a few hours after Bluegoblin7 mentioned it. I indeed do know that adminship is hard work as I am myself an admin on the english wikipedia. The tools probably will be useful for me here as I help with setting up the wiki. Whether I want to keep the tools after the wiki is up and running, I will contact you when the time comes. Thanks very much. Tbo 157 21:29, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't think I could stand being a WP Admin! Too many people with axes to grind. Someone kindly flattered me by suggesting I apply, once. I chose to decline with gratitude! I noticed you and BG7 had talked about adminship. I have no issue with "whim appointment" where it solves a problem. I do want to get to consensus based appointments as soon as we can, though. Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 21:36, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't think 'whim appointment' is an issue in this case. As far as I am concerned, already being an admin at WP is more than enough qualification to become an admin here!

EdJogg 00:11, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't disagree, but I want to get away from "whim" in order to ensure the community develops the way it wishes. Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 07:16, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I do agree that community consensus is important. Tbo 157 17:06, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sister project logo

Can you provide a logo of planespottingworld so that I can put a link to it on the sister projects section on the main page. Thanks. Tbo 157 17:32, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

here it is:[1] --Bluegoblin7 17:37, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

I was asking for copyright permission frim Tim but thanks for your help. Tbo 157 18:07, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Ah ok - dnt think hell mind, ive used the TSW 1 on m site (with his permission...). Oh and when your ready, the main page here needs oing there 2!!! --Bluegoblin7 18:11, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Sorry can you type that out again as I find that quite difficult to understand. Tbo 157 18:27, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Sorry no problems. It reads: Ah ok - don't think tim'll mind - i used the TSW one on my website, with permission. And when you're ready, the main page over here needs putting on planes aswell... --Bluegoblin7 18:30, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Sure. Ill do a slightly different main page on planespottingworld. Ive already registered an account there with the same username. Tbo 157 19:05, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Ok no probz - ive left u a message over there about if u wnt adminship - if its a yeh ill ask Tim. --Bluegoblin7 19:15, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spotting World Blog...

Hi Tim i've set up a blog, but can't use it @ planes - and can't create a new one either...HELP!!! BG7 20:12, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

on Planes look at swplane:User:Tim Trent (in edit mode) and emulate that there in your user id. It proved "interesting" to integrate one blogging system with multiple wikis, so we achieved what we could achieve. Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 21:10, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Stop using Tim's page for all and sundry!!!

Now we have the station cafe up-and-running, do you all think you could try and start discussions there please? I suspect that there are very few conversation topics that are for Tim's eyes alone!

This will have the added advantage of keeping site-wide discussions in one place where they can be more easily archived and searched for!!

Um, Please?

EdJogg 21:46, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

That works well for me. Involve me directly in things you need me to be involved in, of course. And just try and stop me barging in where I want to interest myself! But let's get back to the one guiding principle: This is your embryo community. I am responsible for legality and provision. I'll solve what I can solve. But I truly want you guys and those who join you to make this what you want it to be.

Please will a really nice person migrate the more general stuff to the cafe?

Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 22:06, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

I would use the station cafe if more people used it and added it to their watchlist but that doesn't seem to be the case at the moment. Tbo 157 22:23, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

I guess that's a case of training people appropriately. At present I am still using 'Recent Changes' and scanning all that goes on. (Although in the last couple of days I have stopped looking at 'every' edit!!) Using a user's talk page simply alerts him every time anyone comments, and anyone following a conversation will have had to be watching this page anyway.

And yes, Tim, I am well aware of the irony in me replying on your talk page... :-p

EdJogg 00:32, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

(Part2)

Just had a brainwave about this. We need to setup an Admin's Watchlist page (eg), and setup links to the 'Related changes' for that page. The watchlist would contain all the cafe, help, faq, etc, pages, and could be used for monitoring locations where general discussions should be taking place. Thus, when article turnover is greater than can be reasonably handled using Recent Changes, the Admin's Watchlist would ensure discussions were not missed.

...and now, this should probably go to the Cafe too!

EdJogg 00:38, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Our content

Hi. Apparently the majority of our articles were copied from Wikipedia using a bot and have no attribution to their original authors. This may cause problems for you more than anyone else. Thanks. Tbo 157 13:02, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

The talk page should have {{From Wikipedia}} on it in each case, which meets the guidelines they give. I'd appreciate examples that do not have it, though. Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 13:35, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Hi Tim, tell me to shove of to the cafe in this isnt relevant, but if an article has been expanded a lot here, and shows very little resemblance to it's WP counterpart, does it still require the tag? Also, if i was the main writer of an article, does it still have to be tagged? Cheers, BG7 13:43, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

That is quite an interesting set of thoughts. My feeling is that, for total clarity, the original source shoudl still be cited. As an example, of we one day bring wp:Ballast tractor over "here" I think it still requires the citation, though I started it off. Perhaps directly relevant is wp:Maley & Taunton, since it is tram oriented.

The GFDL original licence is valid and then, when the article diverges, or if the WP article vanished, the entire history is present. So I think it needs to have the attribution.

Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 13:49, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Ok. I think this might need an FAQ page somewhere. BG7 13:51, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

I'll be a good boy and create one Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 14:01, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Your really becoming the model good boy: creating a wiki using the pain MW, creating FAQ pages, whatever next? add a tram spotting world to the collection if wikis?BG7 14:07, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] An interesting statistic

The most viewd pages here are the thomas the tank engine articles. Other than that we don't seem to have many articles which aren't copied from Wikipedia. We must be doing something wrong. I thinkw e need to all start work on articles and ideally open anonymous editing. We really should find a practical way of doing this. On Wikipedia alot of the edits come from anons. In some cases, anons contriute more to articles than registered users. And you may be surprised to know that there are significantly more constructive anon edits than vandalism. Tbo 157 17:46, 19 December 2007 (UTC) Tbo 157 17:36, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Allowing anonymous edits...

Hi Tim,

I know your'e kinda against this, but please just look!!!

We just wondered what your input was on the above topic. The only place we seem to succeed here is on the Thomas articles. Please contribute to the discussion on on my talk page, with your thoughts, and then whether you support or oppose the gesture.

Thanks,

BG7 18:23, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Hi Tim. Sorry for confusing you earlier. That was one discussion that just HAD to take place at the Buffet - a request to change policy. Can I make a small request, please? Could you write up a help/FAQ/policy page about the reasons for registering and the benefits it provides (I'm sure you can nick copy from WP!). When it's done we can move the related discussion from the Buffet to the new page's talk page (I'm sure that makes a helluva mess of the History, but it does retain the discussion with the 'policy'.)

PS - there are rumblings that the cafe is too complicated and hard to use (!)... dunno what the complaints are yet....

EdJogg 00:43, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

Remind me if I haven't done it by the end of today. Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 09:18, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

Look instead at MediaWiki:Whitelistedittitle and MediaWiki:Whitelistedittext. Feel free to edit to improve them Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 10:00, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] RS Reviews

Tim, I was just looking over the list of Railway Series books a little while ago, and I had a question. Would it be all right if I were to make a page for the books and give each story a synopsis? Thanks! --DalekX 16:28, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

I know i'm not Tim, but he won't mind me jumping in here: GO FOR IT!!! We need more content that's not duplicated at WP, and also we can link it up from the WP articles to get us more well known.

BG7 17:00, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, BG. I'll get to work on that right now. However, as I do not as of yet have all 41 books, I won't be writing synopsis for all of them. --DalekX 17:45, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Loading time

Hi Tim. Something Ive noticed about this site which applies when viewing from any pc Ive tired is the amount of time it takes for a page to load which may cause people to give up trying. At times it can take up to 5 minutes for a page to load and we hardly have any pages being viewed. Just think of what could happen when we get more hits. Ive also responded to the google hits message back on the station cafe. Thanks. Tbo 157 13:25, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

We seem to have a network bottleneck in the data centre, which is a bummer and outside our control. It happens at times and is more than aggravating.

The server is sunbathing, drinking pina coladas and having a full body massage, but the appearance is "Lord I am busy!"

Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 13:44, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. Regarding the Google thing, Google don't mind if websites try to get higher up on their search results, In fact, apparently thats the whole point. Google deliberately encourage sites to fill with relevant things people would search for so that they will become higher ranked on teh google search results. Tbo 157 14:11, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Do you read Matt Cutts (of Google) and his blog? Well worth studying the SEO parts. They are more than happy for legitimate methods, but never, ever, anything tricksy. They kick sites off the index for tricks. Even BMW was kicked off at one point. I'd rather have a slow burn steady build than a damp squib. Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 14:41, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Whats the non tricky way of doing it if that even exists in this day and age? How did Wikipedia get so high up for everything? Tbo 157 16:41, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

The non tricky way is simply to provide content on a regular basis, and to generate links, genuine links, in to the content, by no means to the home page, but deep within the content. Wikipedia is high up because it has a huge volume of content, and because it is linked to by many, many sites.

To the mantra of content, one adds good quality HTML (we filter our HTML to be the best it can be - we strive for W3C compliance, but we use software to create that as autmagtically as we can), and then one prays a lot. SEO is a matter of a black art against a welded shut box. I am a professional webmaster amiong several other activities, and I've watched SEO "!fashions" come and go. The only stalwart of SEO is content, unique content.

The great thing is that is what we do every tmioe we use a talk page, although content here is of less "interest" than page content. But this page and all talk pages are picked up by search engines and indexed and cached.

Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 21:48, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Workforce:European rail and Workforce:UK Railways

Since you live in the UK, you might want to join and help us with articles in the workforces mentioned above. I can't do it alone and theres already 3 userw working on US related articles. Lets work on our UK ones together. Tbo 157 14:25, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

I will when I can. I've just started to pick up the occasional year, such as 2007 based on Slambo's work at 1981 Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 14:43, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bot

Before I go on my 2 week break , just thought you might be interested to know that Wikipedia anti vandal bot WP:User:VoABot II does not use IRC but patrols the recent changes. The bot is operated by Wikimedia developer WP:User:Voice of All. I won't be back until after the New Year so Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks. Tbo 157 01:32, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

I've followed up your conversation there and am hoping for a positive respionse. Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 09:59, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Thats great. Btw Ive had a look at your template problem over at Psw:B-18 Bolo. The problem seems to be a MediaWiki problem regarding ParserFunctions. Due to the different general layout of pages from WP, the same MediaWiki ParserFunction coding doesn't work on any of the spottingWorld projects. However some other templates using ParserFuncton do work so its something that template uses in the MediaWiki. Tbo 157 19:24, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Admin tools

Hi. Can you remove my sysop tools. I really am sorry but I will be really busy over the next few years and Ill have little, if any wiki editing time. Thanks you for all the help you've given me here and I hope you understand. I may be back one day under another username. Because the wikibreak enforcer doesn't work here, Ive decided to screw up my passsword. Also please understand that I have nothing against this wiki - It is just due to personal reasons that I am leaving. I do wish you the best of luck in setting up all your wikis. If you would like to contact me in the future, the best way would be by email, which can be found by clicking email this user on WP. Thanks. Tbo 157 17:58, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

I'm sure you'll pop back and look. :) Thanks for all you've done here. I'll remove the sysop directly. I hope the busy time of the next few years is out of choice and will be fun and profitable in whatever waty you choose. Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 21:00, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Transport Journal Issue 1

Here it is Tim. A tad late, but it'll be alright!

BG7 11:35, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks!

Thanks, I'll do my best to help keep things going. These past few days I've been steady hacking to get a wiki going on my Linux server at home. I wanted something offline to use for developing templates as a sort of proving grounds before I upload them. So far, not going so well. I can't seem to get the thing to parse and templates properly. So I've been hacking at the config to sort that out I must have something wrong somewhere. Oh well..

--DP67 (^talk/_contribs) 22:32, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Well we run this thing on a linux server with apache and stuff. I don;t think it was as easy to install as we hoped! Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 22:42, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

It's not! LOL I've installed entire CMS sites like Nuke in minutes without any problems. This thing is being a real pain in the arse. I'm running into problems everywhere I turn. I'm about ready to pack it in and forget the whole idea. lol Was fun while it lasted but now it's getting old.

--DP67 (^talk/_contribs) 00:01, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Look at Special:Version. It may help. It's still a mug's game Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 00:40, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The TJ

hows part 1 of the fix?

BG7 23:40, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

ps the centralisation problem is fised in firefox etc, it's an IE thing! BG7 23:42, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Done everything sorted! BG7 23:47, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Way to go. That was hard work! Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 00:11, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Transport Journal Issue 2

[edit] TJ

Hi Tim,

Hows the TJ now?

Please leve comments on the comments page!

BG7 15:03, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Dollar Strings

No, it was no misunderstanding. When I tried it yesterday it didn't do anything. It does now though. Class91 15:30, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

Then it has to have been either in your client or a misunderstanding of "reading" vs "invoking" since I reverted to the version prior to any mis-edits. There can't be any other logical explanation Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 22:14, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

Might have been my browser. Sorry. Class91 23:46, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] SpottingWorld development

Hi Tim,

This is probably for the cafe but i thought i should check first!

a)How did Trains and Planes do for revenue in 07? How mcuch more do we need for Trucks to come online?

In order to get sufficient server power for a new wiki to come online we need the revenue to be $100 per month repeatably from the existing two wikis. We are less than a third of the way there. Really, though I've referred to it, it is better to keep specifics away from the public gaze because we may not, absolutely may not, encourage folks to click adverts in any way. That is againts Google's terms of service and will get the advertising revenue removed.

Relying on organic growth make seem painful, but it is the only safe and effective way of doing this. It creates a repeatable business model and allows us to have a direct correlation between real visits and serever requirements. If we encouraged peopkle to click, not only would that be click fraud, but, when they stopped, the revenue woudl dry up.

Id really rather keep that well away form newsletetrs etc, please.

b)Me and Tbo were discussing about the TJ, and we wondered if it's possible to have a unified login for all the wikis, meaning you only need one account and have only 1 UP (at SpotWorld)

Technically impossible. Wikipedia has the same issue.

There are authentication extensions for cross-Wiki.. At least I've seen some making such claims. But no guarantees. I have not yet looked any further than that. One thing to remember though. MediaWiki will not run any extensions unless they are absolutely stone cold rock solid. It doesn't mean it cannot be done, I'm sure it can, It's as simple as sharing the same SQL user table but just how simple, I'm not sure yet. I once figured out how to do it on a PHP-Nuke site for cross-Nuke authentication but Wiki is still new to me.

DP67 (^talk/_contribs)

We try very hard only to run rock solid extensions. We run extra extensions over WP, but we like them to have a track record. Sharing user tables is "ok" until you start splitting across multiple servers. We always design future proof systems. Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 00:11, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

c)Bots: Have you tried Google's open source code thing?

Needs more info. I have no idea what you are talking about

Tim, http://code.google.com/p/perlwikipedia/ is what they claim to be the 'Framework" for a Wikipedia bot. Very vague description so far. I have not had the chance to dissect it on my Linux box as I only just found it. I will take a look at it later tonight. I'm assuming (again remember the true meaning of assume, 'make an ass out of you and out of me' lol) it's the basic framework for just about any functioning bot which would include a vandal bot, archive bot, etc.. But I'm not sure yet. It's been quite some time since I've fooled with Perl or Python but I'll give it a look see and see if I can figure it out. Once learned I sometimes pick up things fast even though I haven't used it in a while, but no promises.

DP67 (^talk/_contribs) 23:51, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

The answer is to go ahead and try. On a limited dataset! Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 00:11, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

d)Content: Can Bernd start up his copying bot to grab images?

If you mean "can it?" the answer is that it can. But it always needs a lot of work before it will run reliably. Wikipedia changes.

Thanks,

BG7 15:10, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Answers interleaved above. Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 23:09, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Leaching bot

We do really want to diverge from Wikipedia. We can't simply be a copy of that site. I am against it unless there is a "rescue mission" such as we ran for TtTE Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 23:13, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wikibreak

My real life is suffering. I will look in but not take an active part for a few days unless in emergency. {{wikibreak}} could do with an edit or two! Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 00:54, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Transport Journal Issue 3

[edit] {{Archive box}} has arrived

Hi Tim. Finally got round to archiving my talk page, so {{Archive box}} has now migrated from WP. Enjoy!

EdJogg 13:27, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] E-Mail

You have mail. Class91 20:28, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Actually you don't. For some reason it stayed in my outbox and when I tried to send it, I got an error message. Anyway, I basically asked you where the policy page, currently in DP67s user space should go and if all the policies should be on one page to keep things simple. Thanks. Class91 21:31, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

A decision needs to be made. "Is this TSW only, or will ot relate to all the SW wikis?" Once we answer that then we know where to put it. Make sense? Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 22:55, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Transport Journal Issue 4

Please enjoy - sorry about being nearly a week late! It has been ready since Monday, but i've been really busy! Thanks, BG7 18:27, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Transport Journal Issue 5

Enjoy the latest issue of the Journal, Tim! --DalekX 17:23, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Transport Journal Issue 6

Right, here's the newest issue of the Tranport Journal, Tim. --DalekX 21:33, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Various...

Hi Tim,

Several things! Most are outlined here, but a main one relevant here too is is it possible to have different skins, such as those at WP/Wikia? Or just monobook?

Cheers,

BG7 15:18, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I've been reassembling my life! The income tax and VAT deadlines loomed :)

Skins. You may not believe this but the skins are not css based. If they were it might be easy, but they are a shedload of work. Loads of php files and a heap of standard MW mal-designed trash.

Can you bulletise the other items? I am still really tight for time

Tim Trent ^{Talk to me} 22:32, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Transport Journal Issue 7