User talk:ScottMainwaring

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Please note: I'll reply on this page to messages put on this page, unless you ask otherwise. Thanks, -- Scott

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[edit] Welcome!

Hi, ScottMainwaring, Welcome to Wikipedia!
[edit]

Here are some tasks you can do:


I hope you like this place--I sure do--and want to stay. If you need help on how to title new articles check out Wikipedia:Naming conventions, and for help on formatting the pages visit the manual of style. If you need help look at Wikipedia:Help and The FAQ , plus if you can't find your answer there, check The Village pump (for Wikipedia related questions) or The Reference Desk (for general questions)! There's still more help at the Tutorial and Policy Library. Plus, don't forget to visit the Community Portal. And if you have any more questions after that, feel free to post them on My User talk Page.

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Matani200505:52, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] PBS Kids Sprout

Have you checked for any PBS Kids Sprout ident?? If so, please add a picture to PBS idents. Georgia guy 00:58, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] tv-logo template

I think that's possible. It has something to do with setting the default parameter in the template. I'll try to figure something out. — J3ff 05:32, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Damariscotta-Newcastle

I disagree with the Damariscotta-Newcastle article being deleted. While Damariscotta Maine and Newcastle Maine are towns, Damaroscotta Newcastle Maine is a CDP which does not cover the towns, but rather areas without a municipal government. The possibility is that Damariscotta-Newcastle Maine is an area between the two towns? Or perhaps it is just geographically located near both, and the name was decided upon becasue of this. Onthost 04:49, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

I'll research the CDP problem tomorow and get back to you, however I dont think it was a database error since there is data from the census for this.

[edit] Oregon Zoo

Thanks for delinking the years and otherwise simplifying the links on the Oregon Zoo page. Just a few days ago I read in the wikipedia manual of style (or maybe one of the related articles) that all dates need not be linked—only those relevant to the article at hand. So it was one of those to do things vaguely haunting me to go back and look at. Thanks for eliminating some of it. :-) —EncMstr 19:18, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

You're welcome! And thanks for the considerably greater efforts you've been making to improve that page. ScottMainwaring 18:13, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] UNESCO controversy

Hi ScottMainwaring

Thank you for the contributions to the UNESCO page. About the controversy: your edit suggests that the controversy was not limited to the three mentioned countries - I wonder if you could substantiate that, as to my knowledge the controversy emanated from the US. regards, Jens Nielsen 17:55, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Jens, thanks; and you bring up a good point. I can't substantiate the breadth of the controversy. My inference was that it was unlikely that the controversy was strictly limited to those countries that ended up taking the extreme step of actually withdrawing from UNESCO. I certainly wouldn't object to this inference being taken out, until it can be documented. ScottMainwaring 18:13, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] National Parks and Creationism

OK - take out that stuff about Bush and Death Valley if you like. I had some links in there but can't really vouch for them. In general, as a scientist, I have refused to sign petitions/statements against astrology, flying saucers or whatever, as I felt it just gave them more attention. But now with the ID people coming in everywhere, it might be best to confront this "Answers in Genesis" and similar claims. It is hard to frame the correct site (outside of elections and courts). My wife's aunt had a tour of the Grand Tetons last summer and was told by the tourguide that these mountains were created in the Great Flood! I feel it is worthwhile for scientists to know of these things and have their replies at ready (though I did not try to get the name of the tour agency or the guide - no sense nitpicking - or I was lazy). Anyway, I made a stab at it and perhaps I will give up on that methodology for now. Thanks Carrionluggage 20:09, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Source for Paraguay flag information

You know what, I completely forgot about that edit, but I remember pasting that paragraph in after having written it up for a Spanish project in high school. I remember basically paraphrasing a website, but I can't find the website I used anymore, since I created that project on a computer back home – I have no access to it, since I'm clear across the country at college. If I ever find that website again, I'll link to it on the page, but as I paraphrased the website for that article, it's possibly a copyright violation anyways, right? So I'll move it to the talk page for now. – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 07:11, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

Oh, and please respond on my talk page. Thanks for bringing this to my attention; in retrospect, some of my earlier contributions were less than stellar. :^) – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 07:12, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm going to post updates at Talk:Flag of Paraguay. – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 07:29, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mojave Desert

Thanks for all of your work on the Mojave Desert and related topics. -Will Beback 19:03, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

You're welcome. My pleasure. ScottMainwaring 21:05, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hey...

Hey, Scott I happen to not agree with you on the flag issue.

That is were I made my point.

Thanks, Kseferovic 18:52, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Putting "Valleys of the Mojave Desert" in its place

All of the valleys are listed by the state they are in and in the Mojave category. So Valley foo is listed in state foo1 and Valleys of the Mohave Desert. This is the proper way of doing this, at least that is my understanding. By including all of the state entries in the Mojave one you list things in the wrong places. The Sonora desert has a similar problem but it is a bit more involved since it apparently includes sub deserts and crosses more geographical boundaries. Vegaswikian 23:08, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree that each valley page should be in both the "Valleys of [state]" and "Valleys of the Mojave Desert" (VotMD) categories. My issue is that the category VotMD should itself be part of the set of overlapping trees rooted at Category:Valleys, so that that top-level category includes all appropriate subcategories (not just, as it does at the present, all appropriate pages). As I understand it, your issue with putting VotMD under multiple "Valleys of [state]" categories is that, for example, Category:Valleys of Nevada would then have a subcategory that included items that weren't themselves valleys of Nevada. But I think this is OK, as Categories do not form a tree. But perhaps we could compromise and include VotMD not under any "Valleys of [state]" category, but under the category one level up: Category:Valleys of the United States? --ScottMainwaring 23:39, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
As a general rule, there should only be one path to the parent or grandparent. Maybe your suggestion could be OK given these wide area groupings are going to be different in some way. Kind of like rivers. Vegaswikian 04:42, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Are images from portlandconnected.com in the Creative Commons?

You've marked several images uploaded from http://portlandconnected.com with the cc-by-sa-2.5 tag, but I can't find a note on that website indicating that they are publishing those images under that license. Do you have evidence that this is the case? --ScottMainwaring 05:47, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Maybe I'm using the wrong tag. I took the photos myself and they're also posted on my web site http://portlandconnected.com. Do I need to put a note on my web site, or should I change the tag? Thanks for your help!--Dbc12
Oh, I didn't know you were associated with that website. Thanks for all your work helping to document Portland! In terms of wikipedia, I would just suggest for future uploads that you identify yourself as the creator of the image, in addition to tagging it however you like. And on portlandconnected, I'd suggest putting some kind of notice indicating that the images on the site are available for re-use under according to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ Hope this helps, and thanks for the clarification. --ScottMainwaring 16:53, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Communities in Oregon

Hi there~ Thanks for making all those other categories into subcategories of this one. I had wanted to see all those cross-refed in some way. Yay for organization! Katr67 21:33, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Hi Katr67! Thanks for your kind comments. There's certainly much more to do (e.g., aren't Indian Reservations a kind of community? Haven't looked into how this is handled elsewhere in wikipedia). And we'll never win the fight against Entropy, will we? :-) --ScottMainwaring 23:43, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

You are right about the reservations--that's an excellent idea. I'll take a look around and see how (or if) it has been handled elsewhere. Must...fight...entropy... Katr67 06:39, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Framingham, Massachusetts

Don't know if you knew, but when you copyedited Framingham, Massachusetts on the 19th, you deleted a large chunk of it at the end. I reverted it back to the version before it. 209.150.61.247 19:09, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! I had no idea -- sorry for that carelessness. --ScottMainwaring 20:28, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Flag of the Falkland Islands

Thanks a lot for restoring and sourcing the information! As you probably noticed, I'm having quite a problem with two users there. Thanks again for your help! =) --Nkcs 08:35, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Herr

The Mennonite church has changed over the centuries.

For instance, a fellow was looking for the house where Hans Herr lived finds it, and talked with the Mennonite man who lives there. "He asked us as though he could hardly believe it, "Is it true the Mennonites in America don't use alcohol?"

So while I feel comfortable in showing cites that the house is old, and I don't mind calling him a bishop, calling him a Mennonite bishop is somewhat misleading. What he thought of as Mennonite, and what we think of as Mennonite, is different. ClairSamoht - Help make Wikipedia the most authoritative source of information in the world 20:44, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Galleries

Good work with the turning of Gallery of city flags into a proper gallery. If you have time, you could to do the same to Flags of subnational entities]! :) --Himasaram 00:23, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ridgecrest, California

Re: Ridgecrest, California. I use a tabbed browser and often open up a number of windows with diffs to check, though I sometimes take a while to get to each. I think in this case you fixed the same edit I was looking at, only quicker. By the time I got around to actually investigating it the text had changed so my repair (reverting to an older version) was at cross purposes. I've reverted my fix, as your solution was better. Thanks for following up and for fixing the vandalism in the first place. Cheers, -Will Beback 06:26, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tourist trap

Thanks for your review of the article Tourist trap, I took your comments and ran with them, I struck through stuff that I believe has been accomplished as I did it. Please take another look at the page and provide what ever comments you have. There are still a number of short sections that I hope will have more detail added to. Please feel free clean up the text in the clean up section of the talk page as well. Jeepday 19:22, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gas price trivia

Hello. Saw your clean-up of Panamint Springs. What was the problem with the trivia on gas prices? The photo I just added with the information even shows that, only last week, the price was over $4.00 a gallon, which is something people passing through might want to know (especially if they can plan away from it). --Bobak 03:42, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

I guess I just saw that kind of "travellers take note" information as something appropriate for Wikitravel, but not notable/encyclopedic enough for wikipedia. A judgement call; I won't object if you feel strongly it belongs in the article. --ScottMainwaring 08:22, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pearl District

Second time I've had to remove commercial realtor links to their own website! thanks for putting in that link to the neighborhood association. for some reason, i couldn't find it...they've moved it recently or something. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 63.105.28.169 (talk) 14:02, 21 January 2007 (UTC).

[edit] You too? No way!

You're a NAVA member? Really? Me too! Have you been to the NAVA 40 meeting in Reno? If so, how was it? Do you think there should be an article on the NAVA meetings, or should it just be mentioned in the NAVA article?

NA
VA		 This user is a member of NAVA.

ANNAfoxlover 22:11, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Hi ANNAfoxlover, thanks for your note. Yep, I'm a fellow NAVAn (?), though I've yet to make it to an annual meeting, actually. I do try to make it to quarterly meetings of my local affiliate, the Portland (Oregon) Flag Association -- nice people. In terms of expanding the NAVA page with more info about the annual meetings, I'd say, go for it! I think the fact that each meeting has it's own flag and name (NAVA 40 = NAVADA in Nevada) is kind of interesting (in a geeky way, for sure); perhaps that aspect could be covered/illustrated? --ScottMainwaring 01:20, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
Okay, I'll try. I'm workin' on it right now. I need to find some images of the flags for each meeting from NAVA 11 to NAVA 40. Got any large images? Where can I find some? ANNAfoxlover 15:49, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Redirects

I reverted your edit to Green Line "D" Branch for the reasons given in Wikipedia:Redirect#Don't fix links to redirects that aren't broken. --NE2 06:40, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] People from Foo (American State)

I thought that having persons from a particular US state (Foo) in the 'People from Foo' might be sufficient for history and all other purposes, but maybe not. So similar to the 'People of Foo in the American Civil War' categories that I created, I am thinking of creating the following: 'People of F00 in the American Revolution' and 'People of colonial F00', both of which would be subcategories of both 'People from F00' and 'History of F00'. Any given person could be in both categories if they were prominent in both periods. Persons would be removed from the 'People from Foo' category itself unless they were also prominent after the Revolution (this is how it seems to be with the persons in 'People of Foo in the American Civil War' category. What do you think? Thanks Hmains 03:42, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like a good plan! Thanks for helping improve Wikipedia's categories. --ScottMainwaring 04:47, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, I will do my best. Hmains 00:09, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] You should have more userboxes.

You should have more userboxes. A•N•N•Afoxlover SIGN HERE, ANYONE!

[edit] You need a flag.

You need your own personal flag. I know I have one. NAVA would like it. A•N•N•Afoxlover PLEASE SIGN HERE, ANYONE!

[edit] North America (Americas)

You may not know this, I'll try to explain it as simple as I can. User Corticopia has been pushing the POV that Mexico is part of Central America. We had an edit warring in the article Mexico and a debate Talk:Mexico, in which we provided enough evidence that a portion of southeastern Mexico is physiographically in Central America, but that geopolitically Mexico is in the North American region. He agreed and he proceeded to edit the article in that way.

Now he's denying that and is editing all the articles that mention Mexico is in North America (namely Americas (terminology), Middle America (Americas), an article he defends a lot; and used to edit the article Central America).

He nominated the article North America (Americas) for deletion, saying that it was created following a POV pushing. I created the article in order to avoid confusion and in order to have the different models used in the Americas (North, Central, South or the model Corticopia likes, Northern, Middle and South). Also because the Template:Regions of the world lacked an article about the NA region, it used to have a link to North America (continent).

Can you please vote in this? I think it is unacceptable to try to delete a perfectly valid article, just because he wants to. Thanks for your help. AlexCovarrubias ( Let's talk! ) 14:05, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Other than being a veiled ad hominem argument, I think YOU have gone too far AC. As I've stated there, there is a key difference -- the content regarding the sub/regions of Northern America (which is not merely a UN construct; see article) and Middle America (numerous definitions provided) are well sourced, while that of the 'region' of North America isn't. This doesn't deny other continental models, but no sources have been provided that clearly delineate what the model upon which the nominated article is based. The sources in North America (Americas) do not support the content in that article, and a read of those sources will reveal that. Regardless, if necessary, applicable content can be added to the North America article instead of forking and conflating. Corticopia 14:05, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
I don't have a strong opinion or expertise in this area, and so abstain. I must say I'm saddened by the animosity in this debate, and wish there was more evidence of WP:AGF. --ScottMainwaring 06:04, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re:Canadian pale

Hi Scott - you wrote: the definition on the Flags of the World website states: "The central stripe (or pale) in a 1:2 vertical triband/tricolour whose internal proportions are 1-2-1, and which is therefore square - as in the Canadian flag." Do you have a reference for the broader definition of any pale that is half the length of the flag?

Then it's inadvertently my fault, since I wrote that definition at FOTW! However, I did so in the context of the flag of Canada, which is itself 1:2. The term Canadian pale is also used for flags which aren't 1:2, however, and the important feature orf the definition is the ratio of the stripes being 1;2:1. I shall have a word with the DoV page editor at FOTW to fix the definition there! Grutness...wha? 04:09, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Flags

You seem to be a flag maven. One editor posted some weird-looking U.S. Flag knockoff and said something about it being a hoax flag. Applying my sense of logic, I deleted it. So, had you ever heard of that "hoax" flag, which is referenced a couple or three entries back in the editing history? Does it belong in the article, as a legitimate "alternate" flag? Wahkeenah 02:08, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi Wahkeenah. Not sure if I'm a "maven", but I'll own up to being an interested amateur vexillo-person. Anyay, if I recall, what was posted was the so-called United States Civil Flag. It's the subject of some conspiracy theories about the U.S. being under de facto military rule, etc., not seriously believed by anyone in the mainstream. I think he properly identified it as a hoax and "proposed alternate" or something like that; nevertheless, I agree it doesn't merit being highlighted on Flag of the United States as it's already listed under "See Also" there, and also included in Flags of the United States. --ScottMainwaring 03:40, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
Thank you for the explanation. People who think we are living under military rule have no clue about what military rule is. First off, the mere fact that someone can say something like that, and live to tell about it afterwards, suggests that they are, at the very least, exaggerating. Anyway, as you note, that flag can be found from a link if anyone is interested. Wahkeenah 03:48, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The flag of South Dakota

I uploaded the 1909 version of the South Dakota flag, like you requested on the talk page. But I cannot find the flag template to put on the image's page. Do you know where it is? Thanks! A•N•N•Afoxlover hello! 14:22, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi ANNAfoxlover. And thanks! I'm not sure what the right template is. I found Commons:Template:PD-US-flag, which might be appropriate (but is it really true? I thought one could copyright particular depictions of U.S. state flags); on the other hand, Commons:Image:Oklahoma1911flag.png uses Commons:Template:PD-self instead. --ScottMainwaring 15:16, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
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