User:Will Pittenger

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My Pages
Current Time

(CST)

 Time: 16:24
Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2008

My User Page
My Talk Page

My talk page
My Contributions

My Contributions
User boxes created by me

User boxes created by me
Templates I created for my use

Templates I created for my use
Send me an e-mail

Send me an e-mail

 My Homepage
Most of my User Boxes
For user boxes I created, see the list.
Wikipedia:Babel
ipa-0
ə		 This user does not understand the International Phonetic Alphabet.
C++ This user can program in C++.
C# This user can program in C#.
<html> This user can write HTML.
sql This user can program in SQL.
{{Wiki}} This user can write in the MediaWiki language
prog-4 This user is an expert programmer.
Search user languages
My Wiki beliefs and policies
I fight vandals
CUV This user is dedicated to
cleaning up vandalism.
This user is a newpage patroller.
This user has a zero tolerance policy on vandalism.
Image:Face-angel.svg This user reports vandals to administrators so they can be blocked.
ZT This user supports a strict zero tolerance policy on vandalism.
No ads or spam allowed
linkspam This user despises linkspam, and will terminate it on sight, as well as any other spam by the contributor.
no ads This user is against commercials in Wikipedia.
no
ads		 This user is against advertisements on Wikipedia.
Be civil
This user removes personal attacks because it's the right thing to do.
This user strives to maintain a policy of neutrality on controversial issues.
This user maintains a strict policy advising against all personal attacks.
This user does not understand mean people. Please be nice.
Tools I Use
Image:WikEd logo39x40 animated.gif
 This user uses the editing tool wikEd
This user uses Lupin's navigation popups.
User Boxes
This user supports the
Userbox Migration.
Creation is good This user creates his or her own userboxes.
18 ubxs This user has created or adopted 18 userboxes.
Other
<ref> This user would like to see everyone using inline citations. Please...
<ref> This user recognizes the importance of citing sources.
This user respects copyright and other intellectual property rights.
This user is proud
to be a Wikipedian.
This user assumes good faith.
This user reserves the right to completely screw up his or her edits.
aBc This user prefers that all categories and stubs be placed in alphabetical order.
Info
Box		 This user believes that all articles should have an infobox.
Quality, not quantity. This user believes that a user's edit count does not necessarily reflect on the value of their contributions to Wikipedia.
This user removes fair use images from user pages. Such images can only be used in the main namespace.
This Wikipedian welcomes new users with {{subst:welcome}}. Welcome
Summary=YES This user believes that every Wiki edit should have a summary.
This user helps out newcomers.
This user tries to do the right thing. If they make a mistake, please let him or her know.
CTB This user has contributed to the following pages.
Religous Beliefs
This user is a Christian. float
Petra This user knows you should dance with the one who brung ya.
If the Cross is still occupied, Christ has yet to rise from the dead! This Cross is empty. †
This user not only knows that This Song is Alive, but that all Christian music is alive because it contains the living Word of God! ♫
' This person is a United Methodist
Sports
STL This user is a St. Louis Cardinals fan.
NYY This user despises the New York Yankees.
BOS This user despises the Boston Red Sox.
Cubs This user has concerns about hell freezing over. That would happen if the Chicago Cubs win the World Series.
TV Shows
Non-Fiction
This Old House
TOH This user watches This Old House every week
Ask
TOH		 If this user has a question about homes, he will take it to Ask This Old House
New Yankee Workshop This user thinks that Norm Abram builds terrific furniture in the New Yankee Workshop
Star Trek
fan
trekkie
trekker		 This user is a Star Trek fan, but refuses to be labeled as a Trekkie/Trekker.
 STAR
   TREK		 This user enjoys Star Trek.
Other Fiction
STAR WARS This user is a true Star Wars fan, and as one, considers the films to be a single work.
My Grammar Preferences
man-
kind		 Regarding gender, this user will use the vernacular, not what is "politically correct".
.  The This user puts two spaces after a full stop.
A, B, and C This user prefers the serial comma.
Me & the Environment
This user supports sustainable living.
This user supports Renewable Energy.
Health
ADHD This user has ADHD.
A.S. This user has
Asperger syndrome.
Use the Left Hand!
This user is left-handed.
LH ← This user is a southpaw.
right-minded This user believes that only left-handed users are in their right minds.
My Music & Related Items
Wiki This user runs the Christian Music Wiki.
WCIC The only radio station this user listens to is WCIC. All others are ignored.
How I contribute
Firefox This user prefers Mozilla Firefox.
This user contributes using Microsoft Windows XP.
This user contributes using a PC.
56k This user has a 56k modem connection.
Favorite Comics
D This user reads Dilbert.
G This user does not like Mondays.
About Me
US This user uses American English.
This user does not smoke.
BS This user has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.
This user has visited 16 of the 50 States.
 16
This user was born in Illinois.
This user lives in Illinois.
This user is nocturnal.
This user observes Daylight Saving Time.
CST This user's time zone is CST.
This user is male.
This user has a website, which can be found here.
G This user uses Google as a primary search engine.
This user is a software engineer.
M This person is a native Mortonite, Pumpkin Capital of the World
This user wants to own one or more cats.
This user is a cat lover.
This user was born on February 19, 1968.
@ This user can be reached by email.
This user has been a Proud Wikipedian since March 8, 2006.
Wikia is Great This user works on another wiki:
Wikia.com
I am a Wookie This user works on another wiki:
the Star Wars Wiki: Wookiepedia
This user works on another wiki:
The Christian Music Wiki at Wikia
Image:Space.com_GFDL_Logo.PNG This user has an account at Space.com's Community forums: willpittenger.  This user has enabled other logged in users to send PMs to him or her.
The Rest
This user uses Wikipedia as a primary point of reference.
Editing Wikipedia is something this user does as a hobby.
This user is really fascinated by the weather.
●
__
 This user plays various breakout-style games
In Memoriam: 9/11
Lest we forget…
This user remembers using
a rotary dial telephone.
This is a Wikipedia user page.

This is not an encyclopedia article. If you find this page on any site other than Wikipedia, you are viewing a mirror site. Be aware that the page may be outdated and that the user to whom this page belongs may have no personal affiliation with any site other than Wikipedia itself. The original page is located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Will_Pittenger.

Contents
Image:User-Will Pittenger.jpg

[edit] About My Vandalism Patrols

I do my best to fight vandalism. Unfortunately, many users don't like providing edit summaries. This is most unfortunate. Such edits slow me down. If a summary is available, I typically move on. (The exception is when the Automatic Edit Summary feature of MediaWiki is activated. 90% of the time it is needed, the edit was done by a vandal. You can tell it was active when you see a summary that looks like "←Blanked page".)

If you don't provide an edit summary, I usually end up assuming the worst. That forces me to load the diff for the edit. While I do use User:Lupin's popup tool, it still takes quite a while to load the diff.

[edit] Steps You Can Take to Avoid Being Thought of as a Vandal

  1. Provide an edit summary for every edit. (See above section.)
  2. Create your user page and the associated talk page (which you could leave blank). Your user page is at Special:Mypage. You can also get there by clicking your user name at the top of any page. To get to your talk page, either click "My Talk" at the top of any page or go to your user page and click the "Discussion" tab at the top. You could use your user page as a resume of sorts. Just no ads and no fair use images.
  3. Join the fight against vandalism and spam for yourself.
  4. Log in so we have a chance of recognizing your user name. Remember to pick a name that doesn't imply you are a vandal or another type of problem user.

[edit] Barn stars

The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
For gracing me with some of your time in an attempt (that because of you was accomplished) to save my userpage Daniel()Folsom T|C|U 07:22, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
This user has been awarded a userbox barnstar for their contributions to WikiProject Userboxes.


[edit] Tools I Use When Working With Wikis

By Lupin
By George Money
By Cacycle
  • wikEd -- Wiki editing with syntax highlighting and many features left out of the standard wiki editor.
Other
  • User:Where/easy db -- Mark pages for speedy deletion with just a couple of clicks.
  • Duplicate tabs at the bottom of pages -- Ever been at the bottom of a very long talk page and want to start a new conversation? The best way to do that is to use the + tab. But that is only at the top of the page -- or is it? This script duplicates all the standard tabs (and some custom tabs) at the bottom of the page.
  • Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts/Scripts/Edit Top -- Allows you to edit the header of a page — without loading the source for the entire page.

[edit] Places I have been

[edit] Legend

‡: Marks places that I have lived in, not just visited.
†: Marks places that I traveled through, but never found reasons to stop.
§: Marks the place I was born in
ɸ: Marks places that I traveled through, and did stop in, but not overnight.

[edit] Countries other than the United States of America

I was born in the US, but I have been to these nations:

  • ‡§United States of America — United States of America (I visited other nations, but have yet to live in any)
  • Canada — Canada (Year unknown as I was too young to remember)
  • ɸMexico — Mexico (Twice: 1977, 1982)

[edit] Provinces and States

[edit] Canadian Provinces

  • Ontario — Ontario (At least I think it was this province. It was either during a trip to Michigan or Minnesota that I went to Canada. Unfortunately, I have to rely on my parents tell me that I went at all. Since both trips in question where when I was too young to remember, I have to believe it was Ontario.)

[edit] US States

Each state is part of the US.

  • ‡§Illinois — Illinois (The state where I was born and grew up.)


  • Arkansas — Arkansas (When through there on the way to Texas in 1983)
  • Georgia — Georgia (twice: on the way to from Florida and on the way back -- 1987, 1988)
  • Colorado — Colorado (stopped there on a flight to L.A. in 1977)
  • Idaho — Idaho (2000, while moving to Oregon)
  • Indiana — Indiana (been here too many times to count)
  • Iowa — Iowa (been here too many times to count)
  • Kentucky — Kentucky (five times: On the way home from Texas in 1982; On the way to and from Florida in 1987 and 1988. When to Kentucky for a church youth mission trip in 1984 and 1987.)
  • Michigan — Michigan (been here too many times to count)
  • Minnesota — Minnesota (year unknown as I was too young to know that)
  • Missouri — Missouri (been here too many times to count)
  • Nebraska — Nebraska (On the way to Oregon in 2000)
  • Ohio — Ohio (Went to there in 1984; Went through there on the way to and from Kentucky in 1984; Went through there on the way to and from New York and Vermont in 1999.)
  • ‡Oregon — Oregon (Flew there in 2000 to interview for a job; Drove out there later that year to begin working there; Stayed until early 2005)
  • †Pennsylvania — Pennsylvania (went through there on the way to and from New York and Vermont)
  • Tennessee — Tennessee (Went through there on the way back from Texas in 1983; Went through there on the way to and from Florida in 1987 and 1988)
  • ɸUtah — Utah (On the way to Oregon in 2000)
  • Washington — Washington (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005; All trips from Oregon)

[edit] Some of My Favorite Foods

Please don't assume this is it. I am only listing the stuff I really want to promote

[edit] Sweets

[edit] "M & M Munch"

This is so ridiculously easy to make, you will wonder why you never tried it before. Note that some items required are not M&M branded. The name stands for "Mix and Match Munch".

  1. Obtain 1 lb or larger bags of each of the following:
    • Regular M&M's -- Or any of the following:
      • Dark Regular M&M's
      • Hershey’s Kissables
      • Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Kissables
      • Your favorite store brand alternative to regular or dark M&M's
    • Peanut M&M's or your favorite store brand alternative
    • Peanut Butter M&M's (not the mini size).
    • Almond M&M's
    • Reese's Pieces
    • Reese's Pieces with Peanuts
    • Mint M&M (Christmas mix only, unless desired)
  2. Pour each into a large bowl. Be sure to use a really big bowl or it will overflow.
  3. Carefully mix the contents together. Even if you are careful, you will break some pieces. You may wish to make those disappear for appearance purposes.

Now grab a handful and munch away. Don't bother attempting to pick out individual items. Just grab a bunch and munch.

[edit] Chinese Chews

This is a recipe that my Mom picked up somewhere. Nothing Chinese about them that I know of. I am unable to find the recipe at the moment, but you only need the ingredients below. Just mix and bake in a cake pan. What I don't know are the baking time or temperature or the amount of graham crakers. Note that Mom doesn't measure the chocolate chips. She just dumps the chips in until it is almost impossible to stir.

Ingredients
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips -- no specific amount
Graham Crackers -- amount unknown as of 1-17-2007
Sweetened Condensed Milk -- 3 14 fl oz cans

[edit] My sig

I am providing this section to demonstrate how to create your own signature.

[edit] The Raw Code

<!--[[User:Where/sigContract]];Will-->[[User:Will Pittenger|Will]] <small>([[User talk:Will Pittenger|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Will Pittenger|contribs]])</small><!--ESC:Will Pittenger-->

This code only works with raw signatures turned on. That prevents the server from adding code to your sig. The Comments are present so a script I use, User:Where/sigcontract.js, can make the sig code more compact when I edit.

[edit] What it looks like in posts

Will (Talk - contribs) 08:06, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tips on working with templates

[edit] Transcluding existing templates

  • Most templates are in the template namespace. When you expand a template, the {{}} add "template:" to the name for you. There are exceptions to this process. If you provide a namespace, it, rather than "template:", will be used as requested. Because of this problem, even some advanced users confuse {{WP:UTM}} with {{:WP:UTM}}. Note the second version starts the name with a colon. This tells the server to use the page from the main namespace.
  • Parameter names are case sensitive. I commonly forget that I need to capitalize (or not) the first character. Test the template with the preview feature before saving.
  • Some templates are grouped into subpages. While the parent page's name is case-sensitive except for the first character, the entire subpage name is case sensitive. {{parent/child}} and {{Parent/child}} are the same template, but {{parent/Child}} is completely unrelated.

[edit] Creating your own templates

Please note that this is an advanced topic. Writing a template is close to 5 times as hard as simply using a template that is out there. The difficulty of the template you are wanting will vary depending how complex it turns out to be. Normally, I will not respond to template requests on my talk page. However, there might be exceptions. I have created user boxes by request. I might also be willing to help with a template causing you problems. However, it would be better for you to visit the technical portion of the village pump. You can request your custom user box at Wikipedia talk:Userboxes/Ideas.

  • Use <includeonly> and <noinclude> religiously.
    • One of them should be used around all categories. Otherwise, both your template and every page that transcludes it will be part of the category.
    • Use <noinclude> around your instructions and other documentation. Some templates put the documentation into only the source (meaning you have to edit the template to see the documentation) or in the talk page. Both are mistakes. Users of your template won't see them.
    • If your template provides only part of the syntax of a table, like {{User:Will Pittenger/templates/Template List Row}}, don't put anything outside the <includeonly>/<noinclude> tags. You will just confuse those that visit the template's page.
  • If your template takes parameters, provide a list of those. I have tools for that (themselves templates) at {{User:Will Pittenger/templates/Param List Start}}, {{User:Will Pittenger/templates/Param List Row}}, and {{User:Will Pittenger/templates/Param List End}}. I created them for my use, but they are for yours as well.
  • Provide samples of what your template can do in the documentation. This is really important if it takes parameters or the results look nothing like what you see.
  • Documentation always goes under the template definition. Use sections for the documentation. That will let you edit the template itself without editing the entire page.
  • Try to keep your parameter names consistent.
  • When you want to test if a parameter was passed, use #if: rather than #ifeq:. #ifeq: will cause your parameter to ignore all non-matching values. For instance, {{WPBiography}} takes a parameter called {{{living}}}. However, {{{living}}} will only be recognized if you set it to "yes". Passing "Yes" or "True" will cause the parameter to be ignored.
  • If your page adds one or more categories to the page including the template, accept a parameter called {{{No Categories}}} and use that to disable the categories. This allows you to list (and sample) the template on pages that you don't want to appear in the categories. Furthermore, I have templates for listing other templates that will pass "No Categories=True" to every template they list. If you use my templates to list yours, that parameter will be handy.
  • Unless the template is older or very common, I generally just use the template's own page as the sandbox. However, there are times in which you need a real sandbox. In some cases, I could not tell what was happening unless I subst'ed the template for real. So I went to WP:SAND and used that sandbox. I figured it out and fixed the problem.

[edit] Some reference pages I use a lot

  • Meta:Help:Magic words -- Magic words can tell your template everything from the name of the page that is including them to the date. Given an internal page name, you can create external links -- with the actions for History or Edit.
  • Meta:ParserFunctions -- Parser functions let you use conditions. You can test parameters -- or magic words.

[edit] Map of My User Space

User:Will Pittenger [T] [H] [HT] -- This page -- Warning: Any changes made to this page without my authorization will be treated as vandalism.
  • User:Will Pittenger/templates [T] [H] [HT] -- A list of templates that I created for my own use that will work for other users. Please note that some templates in my namespace assume that I am the user. Those templates will not work for you without changes. You would need to copy them and change my user name to yours. You might also prefer to restyle such templates.

[edit] Legend for the Above Map

  • [T] -- Talk page for the page listed to the left
  • [H] -- History for the page listed to the left
  • [HT] -- History for the talk page to the left
  • (Short) -- Page is a shortcut. To discuss it, please use the talk page for the destination. Hence, these pages provide no talk links or history links for those talk pages.
  • {{Link}} -- Page identified by Link is meant to be used as a template.
  • (JS) -- Page is a JavaScript page. Feel free use use the page a sample. However, I suggest you get any code from the page that each section links to. To get the section links to work, you may need to manually purge the page. Warning: Any changes made to this page without my authorization will be treated as vandalism.
  • (CSS) -- I use this page to override the CSS that the wiki comes with. Feel free use use the page a sample. However, I suggest you get any code from the page that each section links to. To get the section links to work, you may need to manually purge the page. Warning: Any changes made to this page without my authorization will be treated as vandalism.

[edit] See Also

[edit] How to Contact Me

You can send money to help keep my forums and blogs going. You can do so by sending a check to the address listed on my homepage or by PayPaling either of the e-mail addresses below.

Because someone decided to insult me by signing my real e-mail address up for spam, I had to remove my e-mail addresses. To contact me, use my talk page or click Special:emailuser/Will Pittenger.