User talk:Bmpowell

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[edit] Stonewall Jackson Lake photo

Nice picture of the dam at Stonewall Jackson Lake.

By any chance do you have any nice photos of the state park? If so, would you mind posting one at Stonewall Resort State Park? Thanks. WVhybrid 00:50, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

Nice pix. Thanks. I went up to Hawks Nest State Park and will be uploading one or more of the snaps I took today. WVhybrid 23:35, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Stonewall Resort

Brian: I don't think your redirect is correct. The name on the DNR web site and the park web site has dropped the name Jackson from the title. It seems to me we should respect the naming convention of the operating agency and use the name that they have used. (Of course, it is appropriate to mention Stonewall Jackson in the article.) Would you please revert the redirect? Thanks. WVhybrid 00:25, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

I'd like to be precise on the name as well. The more I look at things the more confusing it gets. From what I can tell, Stonewall Resort is just a marketing name. The real name appears to be either Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park (used in state law at http://www.legis.state.wv.us/WVCODE/20/WVC%2020%20%20-%20%205%20%20-%20%2016%20%20.htm) or Stonewall Jackson Resort State Park. I've sent an e-mail to the WVDNR asking them to clarify what the official name is and will update Wikipedia as appropriate. Brian Powell 03:28, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Droop Mountain

Nice photo. That shot is very distinctive, anyone that has been there should recognize it.

With only 6 photos missing now, what do you think of trying to push for featured list status? WVhybrid (talk) 03:23, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

I think Featured List status would be nice. I have some photos of Moncove Lake and Pipestem that I'll upload when I have a chance. I don't have any really good photos of the main Bluestone State Park itself, but I have some photos of the middle of the lake taken from near the state park marina. Brian Powell (talk) 04:35, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
Glad you are interested. Beyond the 6 photos, some more work on the article will be needed. Please take at Wikipedia:Featured list criteria. I may have a contact that can get a pix from Watters Smith fairly quickly, and I may be driving near Prickett's Fort in the next month or so, but Cacapon is far, far away. WVhybrid (talk) 11:57, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Featured list

Thanks for the Pipestem photo, Brian. I've started to beef up the lead paragraph, played around with improving the layout at the bottom of the article, added a couple more references, and fixed a very small layout issue with the Greenbrier River Trail thumbnail. If you have a Bluestone pix, even if it is not appropriate for the state park article, please consider using the thumbnail for the list. WVhybrid (talk) 18:44, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

I just added a photo of Bluestone Lake near the state park marina at the WV 20 bridge. I might be able to grab some of the other parks, especially Prickett's Fort or Watters Smith, in the next couple weeks. I've also been meaning to visit North Bend, but I don't think I'll get to Cacapon for a while. Brian Powell (talk) 04:49, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
Very nice photo, Brian. Next week is spring break for the kids. If I can, I'll try to get Prickett's Fort. I will keep working on Cacapon. Maybe something will break through there. Thanks. WVhybrid (talk) 05:11, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
I uploaded a photo of Prickett's Fort that I grabbed this evening.Brian Powell (talk) 02:57, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
Thanks.. I've been adding more references for the acreage data and adding more alt texts. We are almost there!WVhybrid (talk) 12:13, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] West Virginia route length

Hello, I noticed that you've been adding route lengths to various West Virginia route articles. I've been looking for a length source for West Virginia for a while, so I'm curious as to what your source is for the lengths. TIA. --TMF Let's Go Mets - Stats 07:20, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

I put together a listing a couple months ago for myself of each route's length by plotting the route using Google Maps and/or Microsoft MapPoint. WVDOH doesn't have its route logs available online; I asked them about this last spring and they said they didn't have a good way of making all of the data available in its current format.Brian Powell (talk) 03:51, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Geoboxes

Brian, I like the Geoboxes! It gives the state parks a good look and feel. I was wondering how you got the elevation figures for the parks. WVhybrid (talk) 02:09, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

I found a plugin for Google Maps called the Altitude Resolving Tool (from topocoding.com). I'm running it against the coordinates we've got listed for the parks and grabbing the elevation from there.Brian Powell (talk) 02:13, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
Pretty neat tool. Should we provide a reference for the elevation? WVhybrid (talk) 02:21, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
I guess we could include a reference. The underlying data appears to be from the USGS GTOPO30 set. I'm not sure what we'd want to link to for the reference, though. As it is, the topocoding data is exposed through an API so there isn't really just a direct page we can point at for getting the elevation. Brian Powell (talk) 02:29, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park

You've done some nice digging here. I think we should go with Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park, as you suggest. I also think we should 1) document the decision, and 2) provide a firm reference for the change so there is no wiki-lawyering. If you want I'll help support the change, and help with the change itself it you want. If some issue comes up, I'll be glad to help. WVhybrid (talk) 02:33, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
I think everything should be changed over now to Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park. I made notes in the talk pages discussing the changes and citing the legal name.Brian Powell (talk) 03:14, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] SP list notes

A couple notes on the WV SP list article.

Yesterday I found the table was corrupted at each row park entry that used multiple rows (because the park was located in two or counties). (You can see the corruption by looking at the history copies from some time ago.) The corruption occurred at the click template insert point. I played around for quite a while before I found out I could fix the corruption by inserting a line feed/return after the template bracket. Very strange. I assume there was some change made to the template or to the parsing engine.

Second, I wanted to mention that I think WV SP list is close, but not quite there, on meeting the requirements for becoming a feature list. There are still 3 missing photos (and thank you very much for the latest pix!) and not all of the acerage data items have references. That is my fault. Back in 06 when I was working on the list, I didn't record all of the references I found for acreage. And now I have not been able to find an on-line reference for all of the park acreages. I have sent off for a copy of the WV Blue Book, in hope that the data is in it. If the values aren't in the book, I'll keep looking.

Keep up the good work on the WV articles. From South Charleston. WVhybrid (talk) 02:56, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

The state highway maps (at least 2002 and newer editions) have a table on the back that lists all of the state parks, forests, and state park-managed WMAs. The acreages are listed here along with room counts and some other info.
I also wonder if we want to include some information on the state forests and WMAs that are managed as parks. West Virginia unfortunately tends to have a lot of crossover with its various public lands.Brian Powell (talk) 03:05, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
Thanks, I didn't even think of the map. I guess the WV Blue Book will make a good doorstop when it arrives. B-) The newest map I can find tonight is 2000, and the the table you mentioned is on it. But I noticed that at least one value (Cathedral SP) is different than the value shown on the official web site. Even so, I will use the map for any missing references. Then we will only need the 3 photos! I'm tempted to make a road trip to get NB and Watters Smith, but probably not this week-end, because the weather looks poor for photos.
I saw an unreferenced note on the KSF page that the legislature passed a law about management. What do you think of keeping them separate for now? If we added all of the forests and WMAs, the article would be pretty long. I'm hoping we can take this list to featured status, and then we can go after improving the lists of forests and WMAs. (We could add a note to the forest and WMA lists to show which areas are managed as state parks)

WVhybrid (talk) 04:19, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

That sounds OK to keep the forests and WMAs off for now. I do have photos of some (Berwind, Panther, Seneca, Coopers Rock) I can contribute. I might put together some pages on those at some point.
The 2006-2007 WVDOH map does show 132 acres at Cathedral while the website has 133. Regarding the photos, I'm in Morgantown and have been toying with heading to North Bend or Watters Smith as well some afternoon or evening.Brian Powell (talk) 04:36, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
Brian, have a safe road trip!
And thanks for the compromise on the forests and WMAs. What do you think of building the same type of table for separate lists?
If you have the latest map, please check the North Bend area. I had to add the values from two different references to get the total area. Also, if any of the six parks I referenced (Cass, Fairfax Stone, Lost River, Pipestem, Prickett's Fort, Tygart Lake) to the 2000 highway map have different area values in the 2006 map, please change those values.
I'm going to go ahead and add the graphic from Cacapon as a thumbnail, so when you get the last 2 photos, the list will be complete. We can always replace it later with a real photo.
If you would, after you have checked the 6 parks that reference the state map, would you please change the date on the reference from 2000 to 2006? The citation is in the Cass entry row.
(BTW, if you want to put in the nomination for featured page, I'd be okay with that. I think we have shared fairly with this article, but at my age, I'm don't need my account name on the featured list nomination page.)WVhybrid (talk) 18:39, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
I think tables for the WMAs and forests would work out nicely. The acreage for the state parks you mentioned was the same in the 2006 map.


Here is another example of my detailed nature (though others have used a different word B-) ) Regarding the land area of Beech Fork Lake SP, the park web site shows the area to be 3144 acres, and the 2000 state highway map I have shows the area to be 3981 acres. I have used the web site as a reference for the list and you have used the highway map for the geobox. The other reference I have (WVU GAP Analysis) shows 3001 acres, so I don't trust that value. We probably should use the same number, but I don't have a lot of confidence in either number. What do you think? WVhybrid (talk) 16:56, 29 March 2008 (UTC)
The 2006 state map says 3981 acres as well. I sent an e-mail to the e-mail address on the park website explaining what we were doing and asking if they can provide the correct size. If we hear from them, I'd say we go with that. If not, maybe we use the size from your Blue Book when it arrives?Brian Powell (talk) 17:21, 29 March 2008 (UTC)
West Virginia State Parks has a facilities grid at [1] that seems to be the basis for the listing in the state highway map. It shows North Bend at 2459 acres. I think we should use the figures from it.Brian Powell (talk) 17:42, 29 March 2008 (UTC)
Nice work, Brian! I never found that page in my hunting around that site. WVhybrid (talk) 20:03, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Greenbrier River Trail

The station shown in the photo I put in the GRT article burned down last week-end. It was a total loss. B-( WVhybrid (talk) 01:33, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, I saw about the Marlinton depot burning down. I was actually down in Pocahontas County last week and thought about stopping at the depot to take some photos since I was just a couple miles away. I unfortunately didn't due to time constraints and I kicked myself for it afterward.Brian Powell (talk) 04:38, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
I have a few at American Byways under Recreation > Greenbrier River Trail. I posted a few articles at Skyscraper City if you want me to pull them up for expansion here. Damn shame it burned... seicer | talk | contribs 04:53, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Huttonsville SF WMA

I had actually changed it to include "state farm," but then checked the DNR site and they just had it as "Huttonsville WMA," so I changed it back. That being said, I would trust the sign over the webmaster in Charleston, though. y'am'can (wtf?) 22:56, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] North Bend

YEAH! WVhybrid (talk) 23:32, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Resort" in park names

Seems to me that the names have changed over the years. I am ambiguous today (just finished my taxes and am bummed out.. I owe tax and penalty to WV), but probably we should be consistent with what the state wants to call the them. What do you prefer?

On another note, would you please take a look at the geobox template in Mountain Lake Wilderness? (This is an article I started last week, and I'm not sure I handled the geobox correctly.) I wonder if an infobox would do a better job. You suggestions would be very welcome. Thanks. WVhybrid (talk) 20:51, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

I'll just tack on "Resort" to everything to be consistent.
With Mountain Lake Wilderness, I think everything should be in good shape now. While they're a bit harder to work with at first, the Geoboxes end up being a lot more flexible than the infoboxes and, I think, a better choice overall because of the niceties they provide. Brian Powell (talk) 00:10, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WV SP list

I just noticed the final pix. Congratulations! Do you think the list is ready to nominate? WVhybrid (talk) 20:58, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

I think we could nominate now. I'm going to be heading over towards Frederick, MD towards the end of next month so I hope to be able to grab a real photo of Cacapon then. Brian Powell (talk) 21:03, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] A well deserved Barnstar

A little recognition for a job well done. Keep it up! WVhybrid (talk) 21:27, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! Brian Powell (talk) 00:09, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Geobox error

My view of Mountain Lake Wilderness as an error below the county map of Virginia. It reads something like:

Expression error: Unrecognised punctuation character "["

in large red letters. I checked both Explorer and Firefox, and the error shows up in both browsers. WVhybrid (talk) 21:50, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm working on it. I discovered the Virginia map didn't have the coordinates defined yet.Brian Powell (talk) 21:52, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] geobox locator

The issue with the red letter error is that there is no "Template:Geobox locator Virginia". I'll dig in a little more and try to create one! WVhybrid (talk) 22:26, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Yep, that is the problem. I'm trying to find out what the correct coords are for the map top-left and bottom-right corners. Brian Powell (talk) 22:26, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
what are the coordinates based on? Is it latitude and longitude? WVhybrid (talk) 22:32, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
Yes, lat/long. You also have to specify a ratio of height to width. Brian Powell (talk) 22:49, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
Got it. Used Google Earth to approx. the edges of the map. Good within a min of lat/long. Made the ratio from the pixel count. From the looks of the ball, I'd say it is off slightly, say 20 pixels. Looks like the dot is in Craig County instead of Giles. WVhybrid (talk) 23:03, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
I noticed the calibration seems off - I plugged in Bristol and it shows it on the TN/NC border. I'm going to try tweaking things a bit. Brian Powell (talk) 23:04, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
Let me know what you find. I'm curious as to which edge I missed. WVhybrid (talk) 23:08, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
I think I found the problem. I was trying to calibrate the left edge by a bend in the Ohio River, and I counted over one county too far west. I put the new left edge longitude at -83.83, and the ball is Giles County where it belongs! WVhybrid (talk) 23:27, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
I tweaked the values a bit further. I picked apart the map in Photoshop and figured out how many pixels were bordering the line on each side. I measured the location of the western, eastern, northern, and southern-most coords in Virginia using Google Maps and then figured out how much lat/long each pixel was. I back-computed the corners from there. I'm going to add my notes to the talk pages for the image. Brian Powell (talk) 23:48, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
I'd say you got a few digits there, Brian. B-). Counting pixels goes beyond the call of duty.WVhybrid (talk) 00:41, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Slightly OT: Dayton, OH Roads Meet

Hey Brian - Dan from Ohio Hwy Ends here. I hope all has been going well for you. Things are busy, but going very well for me otherwise right now. Just wanted to give you a heads up that the next roads gathering to take place in the state of Ohio will be happening in Dayton on Saturday, 5/10. The event is actually being organized by Dayton-area roads enthusiast Richard Ruffner. He hasn't set up a place yet, but I would presume it would take place sometime around 12:00 Noon. I know for a fact the tour will include some of the re-building of I-75 taking place through downtown, as well as progress on the I-70/75 interchange reconstruction...a long, long time in the making. As details become available, I can pass those along to you. I figured I'd give you a heads up, if your schedule permits & you would be interested. Contact me either here or via the Ohio Hwy Ends site if you have any questions. Thanks, and have a great week! DanTheMan474 (talk) 04:27, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the reminder. I saw the post on MTR back in January and noted the date on my calendar but hadn't heard anything since. Brian Powell (talk) 04:34, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
No problem, Brian. I've e-mailed Richard, so we should hear something in the coming days. Either way, there will definitely be something roadworthy taking place in Dayton on that day. By the way, a quick aside, I'm working on a new Ohio project (in addition to recently doing some work on Ohio pages on here). The project highlights "photo tours", if you will, of state routes in the Buckeye State. It's in its early stages now, but will be developing as time goes on. It is located at http://www.canhighways.com/OH/. Check it out. Have a good one. DanTheMan474 (talk) 02:30, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
No sooner than the last message, Richard has posted the details. They are on MTR, but for immediate reference, here is the meeting location, at 12:00 Noon on Saturday, 5/10 at Logan's Road House, 2819 Centre Dr., Fairborn, OH 45324. Hope to see you then! DanTheMan474 (talk) 18:18, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
Thanks. I've tentatively RSVPed to Richard. Brian Powell (talk) 23:00, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Barnstar

See your userpage. Congrats. y'am'can (wtf?) 01:10, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! Brian Powell (talk) 14:02, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
Well deserved! Keep up the good work, Brian.WVhybrid (talk) 16:35, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Otter Creek

I was just looking up the conversion template... Ya beat me to it. B-) WVhybrid (talk) 21:25, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Brian, a couple of questions. Do you know why the reference you inserted in the geobox data item "highest_elevation_note" isn't showing up on the article page. Also, the elevation of 3901 ft that you probably got from the GNIS web site at this address does not agree with several topo maps I was able to access, such as here? The elevation on the topo maps was shown as 3912 ft. Admittedly, it isn't a big difference, but I think the lower number is wrong. WVhybrid (talk) 03:58, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
The elevation notes should be working now. There was a spelling error in Template:Geobox that I fixed. For Otter Creek, I did take the elevation from GNIS. I see the 3912 on the USGS Bowden quad, so I changed the page to use that instead. Brian Powell (talk) 04:30, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
So is there a tutorial or book that I can read to understand how this Geobox programming works. Back in the dark ages, I took one Fortran course, and for decades I said I could "write Fortran in any language", and I did learn JCL, CP1, Pascal, Basic, and Visible Basic for Applications, then a smattering of HTML, and enough Wiki to make a pretty complicated table. But I look at Geoboxes and am completely in the dark. What the h*ll does a triple curly bracket mean?
It looks like you added a variable for topo maps, but I don't see where it was added to the Otter Creek. Can you show me how to add that variable to the Geobox?
I noticed that on the WV SP list, you used a small 100 x 100 pixel photo, rather than a larger photo that has to be reduced by the wiki server every time it is called up. Should I (or we) go back and change each of the "square" photos into 100 x 100 pixel photo to reduce the load on the server? Thanks.WVhybrid (talk) 15:43, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
There's some info on template programming at Help:Template. The Template:Geobox is pretty complicated - it took me a while to figure out what was going on. The triple curly braces surround a spot where it should substitute in a variable.
I need to reorganize things a bit so that the topos are in a better place in the Geobox listing as we enter the data, but if you just want to see it in use take a look at Spruce Knob or Mount Rogers. There's actually a lot of variables already there in the Geobox for different things. I'm looking at how I can adapt it to include dam information so that I get the nice Geobox formatting rather than the current Template:Infobox Dam and Template:Infobox Lake options.
I wouldn't worry too much about the image sizing. Pretty much every image on Wikipedia is being resized as it is displayed, so our images would be pretty miniscule in the overall scheme of things. I think Wikipedia is caching the images on the server as they're resized, too. Brian Powell (talk) 15:49, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
You are right about Geobox complexity. I think I will leave any programming to pros. Meanwhile I was able to figure out how to use the "_note" variables, thanks to your example. Looks like between us all the Wilderness Red Links are filled.
I'm thinking of adding some trailhead coordinates to the wilderness articles. Any preference for formatting? Will the table at the Greenbrier River Trail be appropriate? WVhybrid (talk) 18:39, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Laurel Fork North Wilderness

Brian, I think the coordinates for the lower elevation in this article were wrong. I think you inserted the lower elevation coordinates for the ..South.. article. The elevations for both articles are right. I switched the coordinates to the point where Laurel Fork crosses a gas pipeline, which looks the northern edge (lowest edge) of the area. If you think that I am wrong, please just revert the change. WVhybrid (talk) 19:49, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

The change looks fine. I basically created the South article first and then copied it as a basis for the North article. I must have forgotten to update that coord. Anyhow, the point where Laurel Fork crossed the pipeline at the northern end of North should be the lowest spot. Brian Powell (talk) 21:02, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Elevation lookups

The tool seems to be fine. The sites I looked up seem to be better than 270 ft accuracy. The caution I have about using a template is that any errors, either on data entry or the underlying database, may go undetected. We don't know what people will use this facts we record in the future. Will someone use a GPS and an a Wikipedia article to try to find their way out of a wilderness area? If I had a choice in what you were doing, I'd suggest working to try to improve the articles some more. But if you want to write a template, go for it.
On another question, I'm looking at the Wildlife Management areas. They could benefit from an information box. Should I look at a Geobox? Would I use the "Protected Area" option?
One more thing. Looks like the 1800 ft number is a little high for the Otter Creek low point. I will go ahead and patch that tonight. WVhybrid (talk) 22:46, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Whoa, wait a minute. The EarthTools elevation return is wrong at the mouth of Otter Creek. Google Earth and the Topozone map both show the elevation at just below 1800 ft. (Google says 1795 at the trailhead parking lot, the topo map shows the 1800 ft iso line following the edge of the creek.) EarthTools could be suffering from roundoff error. It could be reporting a point up the side of a hill.WVhybrid (talk) 23:04, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
Judging by the MNF map I have, I don't think the wilderness boundary goes all the way to the mouth of Otter Creek. On my map, it looks like it stops a little bit short - that's what I used when figuring out the coords and elevation earlier. I presume this is to provide drive-in access to the trailhead? Brian Powell (talk) 23:06, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
Yeah, I do see the inaccurate elevation data. I guess maybe it is a rounding issue like you said, but I'm not sure. I plugged the numbers into another site run by University of Colorado at Denver and it came back with 1811 feet. That's a lot closer to what I was expecting and pretty well jives with the coordinates (rounded to whole arc-seconds) on the topo map.
The EarthTools was nice because it is the only site I've found where you can just pass the coordinates in the URL to get the results. Topocoding.com and USGS itself have web services (Topocoding has a prebuilt API, making it a bit faster to setup) but I'll have to host a page somewhere to interact with the lookup. Brian Powell (talk) 23:16, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
I did some more digging and testing. I plugged in 10 different points from land in West Virginia parks plus Mount Rogers in Virginia. I tested the two USGS products, SRTM and NED. I got different elevations for all points, some just ~5 feet different to some almost 100 feet different.
The FAQ page at ned.usgs.gov says that their data is within +/- 7 to 15 meters. When you think about it, they're basically saying they data is within 50 feet, give or take. That's a pretty big range. I think this is probably an issue we're going to see with all of the digital mapping products, especially in the mountains - the resolution, while pretty fine grained, still leaves a lot of room to shift both horizontally and vertically.
My thought is that for defined high points and low points, we try to go off of USGS topo maps when possible. (Even these aren't necessarily accurate since the vertical datums have changed over time.) For just general elevation points within an area, we use the EarthTools data. Does this sound OK? Brian Powell (talk) 23:56, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
Sounds fine. Good way to divide the work. WVhybrid (talk) 00:49, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
Brian, I like the way you investigate the situation and found a good solution. WVhybrid (talk) 22:10, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
What about the other elevations I set using topozone.com? Should we go back and change those to your newly discovered USGS tool?
Brian, please take a look at Allegheny Wildlife Management Area. I didn't add any elevations to the geobox I used there. Do you think elevations are needed? (Keep in mind there is an almost infinite number of WMAs!)WVhybrid (talk) 00:58, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
Let's keep the existing elevations we have. They should be pretty close. If we update an article maybe we check the elevations, but I don't see it being worthwhile to check all of the existing ones.
The Allegheny WMA article looks pretty good. There are some things that I'll cleanup when I get a chance. With the other WMAs, I'd like to et the elevations listed just to be consistent. Also, I think the data is useful since the elevation (especially in the mountain counties) will make a big difference on weather conditions, foliage, etc. Someplace at 1000ft is going to be a lot different this time of year than somewhere at 2500ft or 4000ft. Brian Powell (talk) 01:20, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] A question

[2] WVhybrid (talk) 02:17, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the comments. I will work on it eventually.
Now for a challenge. Have you noticed that when you hover your cursor over a photo in the Geobox that the text that comes up is not the Image_caption text, but is the image file name. That is not how other boxes work. For instance, the Taxobox hover text is the caption. The coding for the two boxes is different, but similar. The Taxobox uses a "#if" function, while the Geobox doesn't, but both have a image_caption variable in the list of variables in the image routine. I simply don't understand the programming language.WVhybrid (talk) 02:54, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
It looks like the Template:Geobox image is specifying the caption parameter in the wrong order. The page is protected so I can't edit it myself, but I did leave a request identifying the problem and asking that it be fixed. Brian Powell (talk) 15:55, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
Excellent. I knew you could figure it out! I'd ask you more questions, but then I might learn too much. B-) WVhybrid (talk) 01:08, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for fixing my flubs.WVhybrid (talk) 02:39, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] BwSP

Brian: Someone (Mr. A~) posted a photo of an old postcard (of the falls) on the Blackwater SP article. The image file claims that the copyright has expired. While it is true that the copyright of the postcard has expired, the copyright of the photo of the postcard will be in force for another 90+ years. Anyway, I deleted the photo. I'm thinking of proposing deletion of the image from Wikipedia Commons as well. Any words of wisdom would be appropriate. Is this too much wikilawyering?

Also, another question. There is a section (History) in this article (unreferenced, of course) describing the events concerning land outside of the park. I'm not sure how accurate and how neutral the POV of the section is.

WVhybrid (talk) 22:00, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I agree about removing the postcard. With the history section, the timeline seems about right but some citations would definitely be nice. I do seem to also recall Manchin proposing a further purchase of Blackwater Canyon (expansion of BFSP?) this year. Brian Powell (talk) 03:46, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Cacapon

Nice job on the new photos, Brian. Great week-end for photography.

I took some photos at Blennerhassett Island this week-end. I will try to get them posted soon.
I think the list is ready for nomination, but I'll leave it up to you to decide for now. I won't be able to help defend a nomination for a few days (I'll be out of town 6 of the next 8 days.) WVhybrid (talk) 03:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
OK. Let's hold off on the nomination until you return. Brian Powell (talk) 13:44, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
I'm back in Wild, Wonderful WV. Have you ever looked at List of Pennsylvania State Parks? Based on that article, we may have more work to do on the WV list. What do you think of the "Template:State parks of Pennsylvania map"?
One thing in the Manual of Style (main page) is the statement: "Using color alone to convey information (color coding) should not be done". I wonder if that means the color coding for the should have some sort of backup code for folks that can't see the color? An ideas?
I will keep trying to finish the red links in the protected area template. But I'm pretty sure it will take me a while.
One final point, Brian, then I'm finished. Have you noticed someone adding a bunch of acronyms to the state parks? Do you have an opinion? WVhybrid (talk) 04:03, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Protected areas infobox

Take a look at it now - I've pared it down even more, as much as I can without sacrificing the cemeteries. I don't think it's that terrible, to be honest - right now it's about the same size as the Pennsylvania infobox, which was its model. --User:AlbertHerring Io son l'orecchio e tu la bocca: parla! 17:54, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Oh, joy. Apparently there are more natural area preserves, and a couple of state forests that didn't make the cut before. Here's a thought - perhaps split it into two infoboxes, one federal and one state? --User:AlbertHerring Io son l'orecchio e tu la bocca: parla! 13:15, 31 May 2008 (UTC)
That might be for the best. Although again, there's the thought that no other state is doing it.
Although how many of them have wildlife refuges listed, for instance? Pennsylvania doesn't, I know, and they have a few. --User:AlbertHerring Io son l'orecchio e tu la bocca: parla! 17:32, 31 May 2008 (UTC)
Oregon has its NRHP listings there, too. I think they're worth keeping, personally. Although I don't like the way in which they've been split up for Virginia; I find it awkward and a bit troublesome, and no other state is split up in such fashion. I know nobody else has the cemeteries, but I figure they're worth adding...although I [i]think[/i] Virginia has more than many other states.
Thanks for your help in this, by the way - any other state-protected entities I should add? I decided to dispense with listings for the two state wildflower nurseries :) Although I might add stub articles for those at another date... --User:AlbertHerring Io son l'orecchio e tu la bocca: parla! 18:20, 31 May 2008 (UTC)
Why thank you - I've tried :)
I'm going to stay away from messing with the NRHP lists for right now; the WikiProject is hugely active, and I want to check into seeing who decided on the division before suggesting something else. Besides which, last time I mucked about with one of the lists it wasn't looked upon too kindly.
Personally, I'd like to keep the cemeteries as part of the list. Still, I suppose that if anything should go, it should be those; they fall under a different sort of "protection" than the other entries.
Think there's enough material to justify a "Virginia protected areas stub"? --User:AlbertHerring Io son l'orecchio e tu la bocca: parla! 18:36, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Thing is, unless I missed something in the translation, there aren't any county-specific stub tags for Virginia. So there isn't that option, unless somebody wants to make it, and I don't see it being viable, honestly. --User:AlbertHerring Io son l'orecchio e tu la bocca: parla! 19:19, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

I suspect I'll put it up for suggestion this evening, then. Lord knows I've done enough NAPs alone to get it above the requisite number. --User:AlbertHerring Io son l'orecchio e tu la bocca: parla! 21:17, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Brightened up your photo...

Hope you don't mind [3]. Revert if you don't like the new version... ATren (talk) 01:10, 2 June 2008 (UTC)