Template talk:Infobox WoT detainees

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[edit] More info please

You added some new infoboxes to some GWOT captives' articles. Can you let me know where interested wikipedians could learn about these inforboxes, and participate in the discussion of what fields they should contain?

I am a bit concerned about the "aliases" field.

  • When a captive, like Guantanamo captive 1095, who the US calls "Jumma Jan" tells his Tribunal he has never heard of "Jumma Jan" and that he is really "Zain Al Abedin" does that make one of those names an "alias"? And, if so, which one?
  • There are other strange anomalies among the naming of the GWOT captives, and I would really like to have some input on them, prior to more inforboxes being placed.

Cheers! Geo Swan 16:43, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

I actually didn't make the infobox but I see your point about the alias field. However how many people having naming discrepancies like "Jumma Jan"? I don't imagine to many. If a note is just put in his name field I'm sure that would be fine. -- Esemono 01:22, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Actually, there is confusion over the identity of a very large fraction of the Guantanamo captives. My estimate is that there is some kind of confusion over the identity of well over twenty percent of the Guantanamo captives -- mainly due to an unwillingness or inability to competently maintain the captives' records. See Abdullah Khan.
Cheers! Geo Swan 23:33, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
So what do you propose? Another field? like confirmed name? -- Esemono 08:07, 18 August 2007 (UTC)
No, because who would be the authority we trust to confirm them? Certainly not the DoD whose mismanagement of the roster of prisoners is apallingly unreliable.
I guess what I thought was that there should have been a discussion about this infobox, before it was put into use -- where potential weaknesses could have been discussed, prior to implementation. I understand you didn't create this infobox. But I don't understand who did. If I knew I would address my concerns to them.
Cheers! Geo Swan 22:52, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
Just following the Wikipedia policy of being WP:BOLD . If we want to make changes later regarding the template all we have to do is change this page and the changes will be reflected on every page the template is used. -- Esemono 03:42, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
Ah, WP:BOLD. My reading of this document is that it is intended to encourage newbies to think that, yes, they are capable of making a meaningful contribution -- and it is not intended to be interpreted as encouragement to avoid consensus-building. I have been a big contributor to the wikipedia's coverage of war on terror captives. I don't own those articles. But I think I have meaningful input to make on these infoboxes. I still don't know where to do that. You didn't design these infoboxes, right? So, who did, and why aren't they reading this talk page? Geo Swan 05:22, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
Ummm why don't you check the history page? Oh and still waiting on the meaningful input. -- Esemono 07:48, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Microformat style

I don't know how to write, or modify infobox templates. I have a couple of questions about that.

The microformat for ages is a great idea. How difficult would it be to create a similar machine readable format for ID numbers?

I am not sure what the intent was for the "CSRT Summary" and "CSRT Transcript" fields. If it was intended to provide a place for links to the document within the .pdf files I think that would be a good idea. The way I do this, is I append the starting page number, after an octothorp. The .pdf files usually contain multiple documents -- sometimes dozens of documents. Inconvenient for readers. They have to not only open the right external link to read the document, they have to remember the page number to go to. Abobe reader won't take them to the right page number. But I find it useful to have the page number in the URL. So, when I want to refer to a document within one of these files I put something like this: [http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_2_0098-0204.pdf#65 65-82] -- which expands to 65-82

As of September 2007 there are now nine different classes of .pdf files:

Further information: Guantanamo captives documents

It would be great if the template had a field for all these documents, and if they too were of the machine readable microformat style.

Cheers! Geo Swan (talk) 22:31, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The charge/conviction(s) field...

The field says "charge", but it expands to "conviction(s)".

Twenty captives have been charged. Only one has been convicted.

It is confusing that the charge field expands to conviction. And, I suggest, it is not useful, when only David Hicks has been convicted.

Is it safe for me to go ahead and change the source so the charge field actually expands to say "charge"?

Cheers! Geo Swan (talk) 03:42, 3 May 2008 (UTC)