User talk:WikiMaster

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Latest comment: 24 May 2011 by WikiMaster in topic InterWiki
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Welcome to the Portland civic wiki. This is the unofficial wiki of the people in the People's Republic of Portland. This wiki is by the people and for the people so the fruits of their labor may be shared as the natural laws of the universe hath intended. Welcome. Poke around, edit, try some stuff out, and have fun. Welcome. Thanks.

Association of City Wikis

Hi, I run another city wiki (in a similarly developing stage as yours), I've been thinking that we should form an association/union of sorts between various city wikis. Key aims would be:

  • mutual promotion
  • development of city wiki specific wiki technology (template, plug-ins etc.)
  • knowledge sharing (technical, community building etc.)

The main part of this would be a public mailing list, but I would hope that it could form regional groups too.

Obviously membership would be open to individuals and entry requirements would be low for wikis (but they would have to be freely licensed). No one pays a cent, all web stuff provided at my cost. I am in the UK, so there's absolutely no competition with your wiki here.

As I'm sure you have experienced, making a wiki like this successful is a large task so I figure we could do with all of the help we can get.

If you're interested, and I really hope you are, please drop me an e-mail (as an administrator, I'm sure you can get it), if you can't, write on my user page, but I'd much rather you e-mailed me. I'd rather discuss this by e-mail and have a more defined idea before discussing it much in a public forum.

P.S. You're running a good looking wiki here :) -- M123 (talk) 12:44, 11 September 2010 (PDT)

RE: Association of City Wikis
Hey M123! Thanks for reaching out to PortlandWiki, and for your kind words.
We certainly welcome your ideas here! Believe it or not, they align with some of the possibilities / initiatives discussed amongst PortlandWiki's core maintainers (basically the folks you see identified as PortlandWiki's bureaucrats/admins).
You're absolutely right that volunteer-run projects like city wikis would benefit by some kind of solidarity and resource sharing. Should we start a discussion group, or set up a dedicated wiki? If a dedicated wiki is the consensus, perhaps we can use one of the domains PortlandWiki has on standby (CITYWIKIS.ORG).
By the way, I'm responding to you here because PortlandWiki chooses not to organize any hierarchy of "decision makers" beyond a sort of evolving consensus of participants plus "whoever shows up to work" model. We also try and align our efforts towards a kind of guiding vision that's still mainly a work in progress.
But if you think participation by a core planning group might be more appropriate first step, with a public unveiling later on, perhaps you have some ideas on how to proceed that you can share with us.
In the meantime, I'll bring all this up at tomorrow's weekly PortlandWiki Monday Meeting. Look forward to a continuing conversation! Kind regards, - WikiMaster (talk) 18:13, 12 September 2010 (PDT)Reply[reply]
PS: Where can we see your City Wiki?
RE: RE: Association of City Wikis
Thanks for your response. Now I think about it, closed discussions really aren't in the spirit of wiki projects. I'm glad that you're interested.
I think the best format for now would be to use an e-mail discussion list. I imagine that we will eventually want to have a web presence, but in these initial, formative stages I don't that will be necessary. The domain that you have reserved would be very appropriate though. I have created a list, that I hope that you and anyone else who is interested will join: http://groups.google.co.uk/group/association-of-city-wikis You can post online or by using the group e-mail address association-of-city-wikis [at] googlegroups.com Please do sign up.
I run Bournemouth Wiki and at the moment, I am the main contributor (95%+ of the content is by me). It is very much in its early stages currently. Bournemouth Wiki will cover an area that is home to upwards of 300,000 people, including a small city, a large town and many nearby communities. We haven't broken the 100 page mark, but we're getting close with 77 content pages and 62 media files at the time of writing -- not bad for less than a month's work.
I know how useful it would have been (and in fact, would still be) if there were more knowledge resources available to me when I began. This, as well as continued co-operation and solidarity, is what I would love to foster with this association.
Once you and any other interested parties have joined the discussion group, I think the next step will be to consider what we want to do with this association and begin general discussions about city wikis. Once we are a bit more established, I will then go out and canvas other city wikis, and seek their co-operation and membership. I also think there could be potential for co-operation with groups like Open Street Map. My point is there are many avenues for us to explore and I think that it makes sense to explore them together.
--M123 (talk) 09:40, 13 September 2010 (PDT)

Weekly Meet-ups

Hi, Wikimaster! I've been distracted by other ventures for a while (getting married being one of those things), but as autumn has arrived, I'll probably be focusing my interest in this endeavor more. I'll try to make it to next week's weekly meet-up! Khris.soden (talk) 22:41, 27 September 2010 (PDT)

Littlest GNU Bot (in) Transition

Let's make WikiMaster join the "L.G.B.T community" [Littlest GNU Bot (in) Transition] by changing user name from WikiMaster to WikiBot.
- WikiMaster (talk) 07:21, 28 September 2010 (PDT)Reply[reply]

25 October 2010 Monday Meets: Dave's To Do List

Kotra and I are thinking of "next tasks" to complete on PortlandWiki. Here a are a couple I'll try to accomplish sometime in the next decade or so:

  • Ask someone from one of the local business networks if they want a template to put up their membership list.
  • This same idea is relevant for other lists: bands, galleries, etc.
  • Look for meta plug-ins for mediawiki ware.
  • That's all for this evening...

Talk Page on front page

bizarre - don't know where it went! ~~ MarkDilley

We're missing some recent changes logs too. At least the edit you just made showed up... :-) I'm gonna get some sleep then go back to hacking and see what gets unearthed. -WikiMaster (talk) 17:12, 19 November 2010 (PST)Reply[reply]

Today's news item

Great blurb today. I laughed. You're doing an awesome job at these, I hope you keep it up! -kotra (talk) 13:24, 10 December 2010 (PST)

Thanks Kotra. But don't you think that what PortlandWiki really needs is a genuine joker to write the front page news blurbs? This would free up the time necessary for the PortlandWiki Drone to make the City Wiki Manifesto page even more incomprehensible. -WikiMaster (talk) 19:04, 10 December 2010 (PST)Reply[reply]

Children on bikes bill

Oh hey I just noticed you already had covered the children on bikes bill last week! Sorry about that, I should pay more attention! -kotra (talk) 12:20, 20 January 2011 (PST)

Actually, I'm glad you wrote the informative blurb you did; all I put up was a string of snide remarks. Greenlick's bill is so idiotic I'll probably succumb to making even more belittling comments in the upcoming days. Should we change his name to "Brownlips"? Just a thought; after all, it's all about "change"... -WikiMaster (talk) 12:54, 20 January 2011 (PST)Reply[reply]

Weather banner

To fix this, the sysadmin would need to enable HTML (so you can use external content like that). See Manual:$wgRawHtml. Or there are variant extensions to limit who can use raw HTML or on what pages, etc. 76.14.177.248 14:33, 2 March 2011 (PST)

Thanks 76.14.177.248. I ran across that fix while researching this issue. My impression is we'll have to lock down any page on which we allow raw html to function. Still not clear why the adjustments made to the localsettings.php file (which once worked, and which continue to work elsewhere) are no longer working for the weather underground link. -WikiMaster (talk) 14:50, 2 March 2011 (PST)Reply[reply]
Hopefully I don't insult your intelligence, but did you try using <html> and its closing tag? So for what you want, it'd be something like this:
<html><a href='http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=Portland, OR'><img src='http://weathersticker.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/banner/ban/wxBanner?bannertype=wu_bluestripes&airportcode=KPDX&ForcedCity=Portland&ForcedState=OR' /></a></html>
That's if you'd like to make the link clickable to go to wunderground. If you don't want it clickable, just take out the <a href...> part. Unfortunately, I can't view your LocalSettings.php, and can't see which extensions are enabled, etc. Nice wiki, btw. :-) 76.14.177.248 23:14, 2 March 2011 (PST)

today's news

Hi Dave, I forgot what we decided on last night. Will you be doing today's (Thursday's) news blurb, and I do Friday's, or is it the normal schedule? -kotra (talk) 20:15, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

Hey Kotra, Thanks for checking in. I still planned on putting up a blurb for today (Thursday), if that's ok with you. Was about to do it earlier, then got tied up on some work stuff. If you would rather do it instead, don't let me stop you. Gonna eat some lunch and probably put up a blurb right afterward, but if there's one already there, I'll put up Friday's. Thanks! -WikiMaster (talk) 21:35, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
ok sounds good! I will do Friday's tomorrow then. -kotra (talk) 23:02, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
Look forward to talking with you both about the idea of using the calendar extension for news stuff! Best, MarkDilley

today's news redux

hi Dave, something has come up and I probably won't have time today to come up with a news blurb. Sorry! If there isn't one by tomorrow I'll try to do it then. Hope your week is going well and I'll see you on Monday! -kotra (talk) 01:41, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Hey Kotra, It worked out well anyway because I was able to make Thursday's story an April Fools gag. Do you want to put up the real April Fool's story? -WikiMaster (talk) 16:38, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Re: New Page Feed

Hey Dave, I responded to your post at User_talk:Kotra#New_Page_Feed. -kotra (talk) 02:52, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

Test

This is a test, you crap! -kotra (talk) 02:59, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

<section begin=table-help-request />

Help with table

Hi Dave, can you please help me figure out how to add info to the table you created at Coffee_and_Tea_Shops? When I add a coffee shop and address, the info doesn't correctly break into separate cells. Thanks, --Camior (talk) 19:34, 4 May 2011 (PDT)

Hey Sylvia! I forgot about that table extension. :-) Let me see if I can reformat that table into one that's easier to use. Hopefully will get to that tomorrow morning. Missed you guys this evening! Take care. - WikiMaster (talk) 23:28, 4 May 2011 (PDT)Reply[reply]
Hey Sylvia! Got that new table on the Coffee and Tea Shops page. Please let me know if it's any easier to edit. Thanks! - Dave Myers 20:11, 7 May 2011 (PDT)
Thanks, Dave. It's not quite wiki friendly (i.e., requires several extra key strokes) but I guess it could work.

<section end=table-help-request />

<section begin=photo-contest-help-request />

Photo Contest

Hi Dave and Kotra. I just did some editing to the Photo Contest page...check it out and see what you think. (Nice work guys!) Also, I noted that the text says the day goes from 9am-5pm but the flyer/image reads from "dawn to dusk." That seems more like 6am-9pmish. Thoughts? Also, I have a couple of possible leads on prizes that I was too late to get for the event at the library. Should I try and give those another go? Thanks, Sylvia

Hey again. Matthew edited the page shortly after I did (good edits) but I think we need clarity on what it means to "register" for this day. I suggested we have folks email the PortlandWiki account. You got an online registration plan? Thanks, Sylvia
So sorry, Sylvia!! Just realized I forgot to respond when you left this message the other day. Must apologize that I haven't kept too close a watch on what's going on with the Photo Contest. Matthew is the one whose mostly in charge of that. Do you want me to leave a message on his talk page? -- Dave Myers 13:15, 24 May 2011 (PDT)
Hi Dave, no worries. I'll copy Matthew here. Or maybe I'll see you both at tonight's Wiki meet up. Thanks! --Camior (talk) 16:32, 25 May 2011 (PDT)

<section end=photo-contest-help-request />

<section begin=interwiki-dialog-may-24-2011 />

InterWiki

sorry about that Dave, I did a brief check and it seemed not to be in use. Best, MarkDilley

No sweat, Mark! If this discovery resolves some of the anomalies kotra and I spotted yesterday evening, I'm overjoyed. :-) -- Dave Myers 13:25, 24 May 2011 (PDT)
PS - I'm going to copy kotra on this response to alert him that we may have discovered at least part of the database issues we were struggling with... WikiMaster (talk) 13:25, 24 May 2011 (PDT)Reply[reply]

<section end=interwiki-dialog-may-24-2011 />

Help me fix my page

Hi Dave, when you get a chance, see if you can fix my page. Thanks, MarkDilley

The Award That Wouldn't Die

Check out my rambling help request on the mediawiki extension talk page. If you want some reading material other than books about financial black magic, that is. -kotra (talk) 05:27, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

<section begin=interwiki-dialog-august-6-2011 />

Misspelled on purpose to invite new people to change it :-)

Hi David, I did it on purpose and left an edit summary letting folks know. Hopefully the people I am inviting to this space will see it and correct it. So I reverted your edit :-) Let me know what you think of that. Best, MarkDilley

Thanks Mark! I finally gathered that after you reverted the edit. :-) See you soon! --WikiMaster (talk) 19:51, 6 August 2011 (UTC)

<section end=interwiki-dialog-august-6-2011 />

Most viewed pages

Hey Dave, is there are way to see a list of the most viewed pages on the wiki? I checked special pages but there wasn't that option. Thanks, --Camior (talk) 01:07, 10 August 2011 (UTC)