User talk:Dscosson

Contents

Re: Other site

Welcome! To answer your questions, yes, I changed to the GNU license when the implications of (and general ill-will associated with) Creative Commons were brought to my attention. I had already uploaded a boatload of pictures with a CC 2.5 tag, which I'm not sure I'll bother to change, but the articles will all be GFDL. The Flash headline thing is called sIFR, and unlike most things with Flash, it's fully accessible, search-engine friendly, and degrades gracefully on browsers without the Flash plugin (though I need to tweak my CSS a bit more to disable the feature on "Printable Versions" of articles). But yes, its purpose is really just to use that neat font. :) --Admin 01:36, 14 March 2007 (CDT)

Re: Also

The installed version of MediaWiki is 1.9.3, plus various extensions. (You can check all that stuff here: http://www.pensapedia.com/wiki/Special:Version)

To answer your other questions, my "day job" (well, "day and night job," really) is graphic/web design, so both the hosting and logo design are my own.

Re: Thirdly

Sure thing — welcome aboard! The more the merrier. There will definitely need to be more admins as the project (hopefully) grows, so if you make regular contributions, I'll gladly upgrade you to sysop in short order. --Admin 16:45, 16 March 2007 (CDT)

I tried the full logo as a favicon, but too much detail was lost — it just looked like a gray blur — so I stuck with the "P" (like Wikipedia has the "W"). Also, I uploaded a bunch of photos a few days ago, including a shot of End of the Line (Image:EndOfTheLine.jpg). There may be other photos you'd like to use; you can browse them at Special:Newimages. The map function is a little tricky, but works well when you get the hang of it:

1. On the "edit" page, click "make a map"
2. A good width for infoboxes is 288x288px, but 300x300px is close enough.
3. If you don't like the default "Hybrid" setting, you can toggle the Map/Satellite selector on, then toggle back off when you got it the way you want.
4. Zoom and position the map until it's where you want. Click to make points; you can put whatever you want in the bubble, including wiki code. If you want to make a path (like for a Road page), click "start a path" and add points till you're done, then click the "save" button (over the map).
5. Copy the <googlemap> code that's been generated dynamically underneath the map, and paste into the edit box. (If you're using an Infobox template, paste in the "mapcode" field.)

--Admin 17:56, 16 March 2007 (CDT)

End of the Line

I took the liberty of putting the GoogleMap and photo from the End of the Line article into an infobox template. I can revert if you don't like it. Also, instead of making external links for Wikipedia entries, you can also use the interwiki markup (e.g. "[[Wikipedia:Veganism|Vegan]] café" becomes "Vegan café"). This is preferred because it omits the external link icon that can make things harder to read. Finally, I didn't change it in the article, but I was surprised by your link to 610 East Wright Street; I have ambitious goals for this project, but an entry for every address in town (or even just downtown) may be untenable. If a building has a long, significant history, but was never officially named, I would lean towards "naming" it for its most famous tenant, like the Trader Jon's building. Let me know what you think. Cheers! --Admin 09:06, 20 March 2007 (CDT)

• Yeah, I could never get interwiki to Wikipedia working for some reason. Thanks. I don't intend to add an entry for every address, just those with a history. If you don't like it, it's your show, so I'll go with what you say, but it'd be nice, I think, to have a place to see what used to be in a particular building. See 610 East Wright Street now, tell me what you think. Wikipens 12:10, 24 March 2007 (CDT)

I think the way you've got it is fine. I didn't expect a building like End of the Line's to have such a long and well-documented history. :) As for an official policy, let's say: if a building has a given name (like Seville Tower), a well-known colloquial name (like the Trader Jon's building), or a single-tenant history (like the Crystal Ice Company building), we should name them as such; otherwise, let's go with the address, like 610 East Wright Street. Sound good? --Admin 13:24, 24 March 2007 (CDT)

Sysop

I just made you a sysop. Congrats! --Admin 13:42, 24 March 2007 (CDT)

Moving username

D'oh! I've never moved a user before, and I thought the username had to be created before the move. Now that I've tried with the username you mentioned, MediaWIki is telling me "the user already exists." Sorry! Do you want to try with another username (that you would just tell me, not actually create)? --Admin 10:46, 25 March 2007 (CDT)

Okay, it's done. Sorry again for the mixup! --Admin 10:57, 25 March 2007 (CDT)

Yay!! No prob, thanks. Dcosson 11:03, 25 March 2007 (CDT)

Vague categories/dates

Hey, I saw your thread with other user about vague categories. Are you against a Category:People then? J/W. Also, I noticed you are creating date pages. Do you think we'll really be able to use them? dcosson ··· talk 15:07, 25 March 2007 (CDT)

Eventually I'd like to get more specific biographical categories — things like "Restaurant owners", "Pensacola City Council members", "Citizens of Spanish Pensacola", etc. — but that kind of thing can always be changed later. I'm adding the date pages so that somewhere down the line we can have a "This day in history" (or even just a "This week in history (March 25 - 31)") section on the main page. But also because it's an easy way to get rid of a lot of red links quickly. :) --Admin 15:15, 25 March 2007 (CDT)

Main Page stats

I probably made that div invisible because the number of articles was embarrassingly low. I've changed it now. --Admin 19:43, 25 March 2007 (CDT)

Heads up re: possible server errors

I've been trying to fix the problem with using ampersands in page titles, but am having more trouble than I anticipated. If you happen to revise an article during a time when I'm testing a new configuration, you may encounter a server error. Therefore, I would recommend you do a quick "select-all-copy" maneuver before clicking the submit button. Sorry for the hassle. --Admin 10:26, 26 March 2007 (CDT)

Also (unrelated question), is there a particular reason you're using the "Day-Month" order for dates? It seems like it adds more work to date sorting, and I can't think of any major benefits. --Admin 10:30, 26 March 2007 (CDT)

• I dunno lolz, I like it better? It feels more encyclopaedic. It would be preferable I guess if we just had 365 redirects but that is a PITA. If it bugs you I can begrudgingly adopt the month-day order. dcosson ··· talk 10:35, 26 March 2007 (CDT)

I understand the preference. (Personally I like writing dates as YYYY.MM.DD, as they sort nicely in alphabetical order.) However, unlike Wikipedia or other projects with an international "flavour", I'd wager most people who will be using Pensapedia like their dates nice 'n' Americanized. Also, I think it will read better for the year pages, e.g.:

• March 3 - Event
• March 27 - Event
• April 2 - Event

...is easier to follow than...

• 3 March - Event
• 27 March - Event
• 2 April - Event

--Admin 10:43, 26 March 2007 (CDT)

Re: Cuba, etc.

I left a message with some suggestions. If you have the time, feel free to play around with those pages, truncating, moving or deleting as you think is appropriate. Otherwise I'll do it later tonight. Thanks! --Admin 10:48, 29 March 2007 (CDT)

Re: Blount

Thanks. I went ahead and scanned in a couple pics from one of my sources. A lot of quality is lost between book and scan, but it's better than nothing until we can get a higher-quality version. --Admin 14:31, 31 March 2007 (CDT)

Brent is all yours if you want him. I'll add anything I can later. These long articles are killing my non-Pensapedia-related productivity. :) --Admin 15:13, 31 March 2007 (CDT)

Wikified Infoboxes

Nah, I got nothing against 'em. I didn't want to wikify the date for the expansion without knowing the year for sure, and since most everything was covered in the article itself, it seemed a more elegant solution at the time. I wasn't consistent, though, so I went ahead and re-wikified. --Admin 09:22, 1 April 2007 (CDT)

Re: Server load

Thanks for the concern, but I'd rather have the high-res files online for posterity. Space isn't really the issue; I've got 4+ gigabytes available, with only... (checks) 170 MB used so far. I've noticed the slowness as well and have complained to my hosting provider, but I don't think it's on our end. I use a shared server, which could have a hundred or a thousand other sites running at the same time, and with Pensapedia, it's mainly just been the two of us contributing so far — not enough to bog down the server. The only reason I mentioned it on the old aerial rendering is because it's so big — 4MB — that if it got on a featured article with many people viewing it at once, the resizing toolkit would have a lot of work to do. But with images of only a few hundred kilobytes or smaller, this isn't an issue. --Admin 00:20, 5 April 2007 (CDT)

Re: Notability

I'm cool with articles on "lesser" relations of more well-known individuals. Not only is it just being thorough, but historians with better access to primary sources may know more about them. --Admin 21:56, 16 April 2007 (CDT)

Mundane stuff

I know it's not as fun as I know it's not as fun as writing articles (which is precisely why I haven't done it yet), but if you have any time, could you help me populate the various Portal and Help pages? I feel like that's a bottleneck that could be limiting wider involvement -- i.e., visitors get to the homepage and don't know where/how to browse/contribute.

FYI, I think I'm going to replace the Reference portal (which I originally envisioned as our version of WikiSource) with a generic "People" portal. I also intend to create various sub-portals like Education, Navy, Health care, Architecture, etc.

In addition to our talk pages (which have sadly become some of two of the most popular pages), you can email me with any questions. Thanks! --Admin 09:41, 18 April 2007 (CDT)

Progressive Pensacola

I've been enjoying your Progressive Pensacola blog posts. Do you intend to transfer the sheriff candidate profiles into Pensapedia articles? — admin • talk  11:59, 23 July 2008 (CDT)

Much obliged. I hadn't thought about it, to be honest (busy as hell lately, as you I'm sure can tell by my diminished activity here), but it would be a good idea, with some significant editing. I left a lot of biodata out of my profiles for length reasons that would be better suited for Pensapedia. dscosson ··· talk 14:31, 23 July 2008 (CDT)

Understood. I've been pretty busy meself. I'll just leave it to you when you have some time. — admin • talk  15:42, 23 July 2008 (CDT)

Transparent signatures

There, I think I got 'em all. The JPGs will have to be replaced manually with their PNG counterparts. (JPGs don't support alpha channel transparency, s'why.) Let me know if you find any more that need the treatment. — admin • talk  20:40, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Google Street View

FYI... I have installed the widget extension that enables Google Maps Street View. You can see a sample working on my talk page. — admin • talk  17:51, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Rising Stars

Nice writeup in the IN, btw. (Was that a Superman pose or what?) Congrats! — admin • talk  18:03, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Hahaha. It's my standby pose when I don't know what else to do. I can't believe they used that one. Their photographer went through a few standard poses and then just told me to do whatever. Thanks! — dscosson • talk  18:07, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Gotcha. Not only did they use that shot, you got the "Alice spot" on the cover. (I notice they hid the Obamas in there, while covering up two other dudes in the top corner. Heh.) — admin • talk  18:30, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Haha. — dscosson • talk  18:42, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Radio station template

When you get a minute, could you port Wikipedia:Template:Infobox radio station? I'm not really so hot at that sort of thing. — dscosson • talk  09:28, 8 January 2010 (CST)

TourBusStop

Wanting to connect as many 'CivicWiki' as I can, would you be interested in hosting a bus stop for the tour?