User talk:Todd Coles

Tasks: start a new article • add basic, wanted or requested articles • add definitions • add metadata • edit new pages

Welcome to the Citizendium! We hope you will contribute boldly and well. Here are pointers for a quick start, and see Getting Started for other helpful "startup" links, our help system and CZ:Home for the top menu of community pages. You can test out editing in the sandbox if you'd like. If you need help to get going, the forum is one option. That's also where we discuss policy and proposals. You can ask any user or the editors for help, too. Just put a note on their "talk" page. Again, welcome and have fun! --Larry Sanger 00:57, 22 July 2007 (CDT)

Good edit

Hi Todd That was an improvement to the Stonewall riots article introduction. It is nice to see another eye spot what one can miss from one's own close perspective.--Ian Johnson 18:14, 25 July 2007 (CDT)

Thanks for the kind words

Todd, thanks for the kind words. I'm just a bit demoralized because I'm running into the same editor and I'm running into the same problems. It's hard to say anything productive because I don't want it to be construed as a personal attack on anyone. I don't have a problem with anyone's politics or viewpoints. I just don't think some people fully appreciate the difference between a fact and an opinion. At this time, Citizendium doesn't have a way to handle that problem. Will Nesbitt 12:39, 26 July 2007 (CDT)

I realize this. What I think you need to realize is that this project is very young, and now that some controversial topics have been created, it will put the current system to the test. My request to you is that you continue to stand up for what you believe in, and hopefully CZ can grow from this. Nothing ever worth achieving comes easy. :) --Todd Coles 13:32, 26 July 2007 (CDT)

Roolz

...is made to be broken! come run your mouth Aleta Curry 23:38, 31 July 2007 (CDT)

Beer

Thanks Todd, I had cut and pasted from an earlier article and, whilst I have it on reasonable authority that at least one of the ABBA members was a regular beer drinker, external links to the ABBA websites were most thankfully removed by you from Beer.

Now. Where are my glasses (spectacles type glasses I mean). Cheers! --Ian Johnson 12:29, 1 August 2007 (CDT)

External articles

Hi Todd, thanks for performing a much-needed service--putting checklists on all those unchecklisted articles. I just wanted to point out, however, that if an article came from Wikipedia, we've only removed templates, and we changed just a few piddling details otherwise, it is then External (status=4), regardless of how well developed the WP version might be. --Larry Sanger 09:55, 3 August 2007 (CDT)

Ok, thanks, I was unaware of that. I will revisit the checklists I have already put on and correct that. --Todd Coles 09:57, 3 August 2007 (CDT)

Images

Please see Image:Joe_louis1.jpg for how I corrected the data there, the copyright data and the image location, and kindly follow the model when such is the case with an image in the future. All images on CZ must be held to a very high standard of precise documentation, for obvious reasons.

Moreover, regarding Image:Louis_medal.jpeg, it is a false but common assumption that just because an image is hosted on a U.S. Government website that the image is public domain (the data you uploaded to Image:William_cannon.jpg even states that not all info on U.S. Gov sites are PD). Only works authored by the U.S. Government and hosted on their sites are automatically PD. In the case of this coin image, it is unlikely it is public domain and likely that the coin design was created by a private citizen from whom the Mint has obtained usage rights--and the info at the Mint site states a generic copyright claim. To use the image of the coin you will need to find exact data on the site about that coin's design being authored by the U.S. government and link to it, or make a fair use claim. I'd try the former, first; failing that, use {{Fairuse-author}}.

Concerning Image:William_cannon.jpg, would you kindly link not to the image location on the server but to the context in which you found it? This is instructed in the text at Special:Upload, where it requires "*exact* data about where you got the image, usually a webpage such as http://www.acmemuseum.org/collections/history/sahara.html. People *must* be able to verify the data as found at the image's source."

Regarding Image:Discgolf_shot1.jpg, see Help:Images#Documenting_free_content_releases_and_images_by_permission for how to fix it.

Thanks!

 —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 01:23, 5 August 2007 (CDT)

Treaty of Union (1707)

It is my opinion that the article is properly titled Treaty of Union (1707). The Acts of Union were separate acts of the then separate Parliaments of Scotland and England ratifying the Treaty of Union. It is the Treaty which is paramount, for that was the subject of the separate Acts.

Basically, Scotland and England were separate countries at the time. Separate countries enter into Treaties when they wish to act jointly. Perhpas a page Acts of Union redirecting to Treaty of Union is appropriate.

When the Treaty article is completed, there should be a section discussing the debates within the Scottish Parliament as well as the question of Scottish public opinion regarding the Union. There seems to have been far less contentiousness surrounding the ratification of the Treaty in England.

Again, such is my opinion. I put the date in parentheses because I thought there might be more than one Treaty of Union (involving different countries), but maybe not. I don't know.

James F. Perry 12:18, 7 August 2007 (CDT)

Table on sandbox

I'd recommend changing the "Decision" column to something that requires less sentence syntax, example: I'd put [TKO][KO] etc and then just use a 1, or an X. It should help reduce the whitespace on the table and tighten it up. --Robert W King 09:03, 9 August 2007 (CDT)

Thanks for the advice. I've never made a table before so I'm just trying to get the hang of it. I will probably end up changing the date format, and shortening the locations some too. I was thinking of changing the decision and round field to something more simplified such as - Win / KO / Round 3, or Loss / Decision / Round 10. I think that is similar to what you are suggesting, but I don't follow what you mean about using 1 or X. If it's easier for you to edit a row to demonstrate, feel free to do that. --Todd Coles 09:13, 9 August 2007 (CDT)

Easter Rising

I'd appreciate it if you took another look at the Easter Rising intro. I took on board what you said :-) Denis Cavanagh 11:23, 13 August 2007 (CDT)

Final Fantasy X

Thanks for categorizing the article - i forgot to do so. Oliver Smith 14:45, 17 August 2007 (CDT)

updating of the front page Article of the Week etc

Could you please remember to update the link at the bottom? I have already corrected two of these in the past; the current link points to Butler still! Many thanks, --Martin Baldwin-Edwards 13:25, 28 August 2007 (CDT)

Thanks for pointing that out, I didn't even think about that. --Todd Coles 13:27, 28 August 2007 (CDT)

:-)--Martin Baldwin-Edwards 15:24, 28 August 2007 (CDT)

Quakers

I'll try my hand on Quakers -- I've been interested in them for some decades now. Help and advice will be appreciated Richard Jensen 23:19, 28 August 2007 (CDT)

Excellent! I should be able to make it to the library today and contribute where I can. --Todd Coles 08:16, 29 August 2007 (CDT)

Write-a-thon

Thanks, Todd.

It's about 7:40 a.m. Eastern Time in Australia ATM, if that helps! Aleta Curry 16:51, 4 September 2007 (CDT)

I agree

Hi Todd, if you put the {{speedydelete}} template on the talk page, I'll delete it ;-) --Matt Innis (Talk) 20:25, 4 September 2007 (CDT)

Sorry to overrule you both, but we should talk to that editor, Robert Badgett, first. I'm sure he'll expand the article if we ask him. --Larry Sanger 20:42, 4 September 2007 (CDT)

Well, we'll give him a chance, but rules is rules ;-) --Matt Innis (Talk) 21:02, 4 September 2007 (CDT)

Tina Turner

Todd thanks for the discography - good stuff. --Ian Johnson 08:42, 5 September 2007 (CDT)

Still a work in progress.. I'm at work ya see.. and it's busy, I'll clean up the mess. :) --Todd Coles 09:03, 5 September 2007 (CDT)

Nathanael Greene

.. is approved! Good work. --Matt Innis (Talk) 13:22, 5 September 2007 (CDT)

Awesome, thanks! --Todd Coles 13:32, 5 September 2007 (CDT)

Write-a-thon, again!

[wailing] There's no notice on the Main page! Aleta Curry 17:41, 1 October 2007 (CDT)

Looks like Larry beat me to it. I've been a major slacker of late.. :( --Todd Coles 08:45, 2 October 2007 (CDT)

Don't forget the December party!

Hi Todd! Good to see you, I notice you've edited false start. You *are* coming to the party, aren't you??? Aleta Curry 02:05, 5 December 2007 (CST)

I will do my best to try and stop by for a few minutes. :) --Todd Coles 07:10, 5 December 2007 (CST)

Party! You're invited!

Hi Todd, long time no hear! Your neighbourhood Mistress of Ceremonies here. Don’t forget to come on over to the party and sign in at one of the categories! Aleta Curry 16:24, 9 January 2008 (CST) say ‘hi’ to me here.

Blank subpages

Hi Todd, I noticed that you created Félix d'Hérelle/Related Articles‎ with just {{subpages}} on it. Are others doing that as well? You shouldn't--why create a blank subpage? --Larry Sanger 12:18, 15 January 2008 (CST)

I don't know if others are doing that or not. The reason I did so is because I thought the red subpage link on an approved article looked bad. I also think it looks better to have the 3 standard subpage tabs (External, Related, Bib) filled in even if there has been no information added. I find it to be more visually pleasing, however I'll gladly remove them if you'd like. --Todd Coles 12:23, 15 January 2008 (CST)

Joe Louis

Congratulations! You can make Joe Louis bold now, too! --D. Matt Innis 20:54, 15 January 2008 (CST)

Excellent, thanks. :) --Todd Coles 08:12, 16 January 2008 (CST)

yes, well done! (I was the one who put it on the 'ready for approval page) Thinking of writing an article on J.J Braddock at some stage, are you into your boxers or is Louis just a one off thing? Denis Cavanagh 08:23, 16 January 2008 (CST)

I was wondering how it got there, I'm glad you nominated it. I'm not really a huge boxing fan anymore. I would watch the fights when I was younger and enjoyed them, but everything post Tyson failed to captivate me. I took interest in Louis after doing some reading on Arlington National Cemetary and seeing that he was buried there, which intrigued me, so I decided to dig a little deeper and found his life to be pretty interesting. However, if you decide to start an article on Braddock I'll gladly put a little time into researching it and help you out. --Todd Coles 08:48, 16 January 2008 (CST)

Write-a-thon Feb 2008

Hi Todd--see you online.

When you have a mo, could you archive the January Write-a-Thon page for me and set up a blank slate for Feb? Thanks! Aleta Curry 21:27, 29 January 2008 (CST)

Montreal Expos

The Expos were a unique cultural phenomon in the history of MLB -- the first team outside the US; the first and only team in a French-speaking society. I believe they merit their own article, eventually. It is the "same" franchise as the Nationals in only the flimsiest sense of the word. Not the same owners; not the same name; nor city. The Nationals evolved out of the Expos, to be sure, but that's where any connection ends. Shawn Goldwater 22:00, 6 February 2008 (CST)

While I agree with you about the Expos having their own article, and their historical significance within MLB, I cannot agree that it is a "defunct" franchise. The team's records and history have transfered from Montreal to Washington. The official Washington Nationals website provides a continous history since the franchise was founded in 1968.[1] This is common in most other sports as well - with the notable exception being the Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens exchange in the NFL, in which legal battles ensued so that the Browns' records would remain in Cleveland. --Todd Coles 08:35, 7 February 2008 (CST)

Userplan

That worked! Thanks a bunch! Joshua Knapp 14:39, 8 February 2008 (CST)

WP articles

I'm sorry, I do plan on editing most of those articles, except for certain articles such as Papaya and Hyderabad. I can't explain it, but i felt really irritated as those articles (which I copied) didn't exist. I'm not copying whole articles from WP anymore, I made up my mind to start new articles when I have the free time. Minhaj Ahmed Khan Lodi 05:24, 1 March 2008 (CST)

Led Zeppelin

Todd, I just want to thank you for voting for Led Zeppelin in the Draft of the Week. I never expected anyone to vote for it but I do appreciate it :) Thanks! Meg Ireland 17:05, 4 March 2008 (CST)

Very, very grateful ...

Dear Todd Coles:

Very, very grateful ... Your kind words are a great encouragement to continue with my contributions as author, in this great project, Cicitzendium, which undoubtedly will make real history.. Thank you for giving your help. I also offer my help for any issue related with the disciplines and specialties I know best.

Regard to article Calcidius, can you investigate and verify as there is no more complete article nor more extended in any other encyclopedia known nor even the most famous - and for pay - like Encarta, nor in the Catholic nor in the encyclopedias known of Philosophy. I led many months of investigation in order to make this article, and yet he had to leave to present a lot of data very interests that are the result of my own discoveries, because it gave my honor word to Mr Sargen, that was not going to use to expose any assumptions Citizendium or discovery that I have made but only to talk of others, and only on the findings of other authors...

I think the biggest help I need is in the spelling and syntax, as I am Spanish, and I do not have enough experience in the English language. Kind Regards, --Georgeos Díaz-Montexano 19:59, 6 March 2008 (CST)

Calcidius

Hmm, thanks for your kind words. I don't know whether I am up to the task, but I've edited it a bit & contacted the author, so we shall see... Ro Thorpe 11:24, 7 March 2008 (CST)

I can't find the link, but yes, the beginning at least is a translation from WP, so I can continue comparing them. Ro Thorpe 13:33, 7 March 2008 (CST)

That link is to 'Was Calcidius Spanish?' But don't worry, I can use the WP Spanish version. I'll do a bit more later tonight (2151 here) - Ro Thorpe 14:51, 7 March 2008 (CST)

Indeed that link is a source, so I can do some more. Sorry! - Ro Thorpe 17:23, 7 March 2008 (CST)

An important message in Calcidius discussion page...

Please, I made an important message in the discussion page from article of Calcidius, I believe that it would be interesting if you read, because it is aimed at all those who are assisting in the editing of the article. Kind regards, --Georgeos Díaz-Montexano 22:16, 7 March 2008 (CST)

Greetings!

Hi Todd,

Thanks for your welcome; it was a nice surprise to be greeted so soon by a member of the community, and I hope to be a good contributor to CZ.

I do have one question about the subpage/metadata template. Is it okay for me to decide the language and status of an article I have started myself, or should I discuss it with a number of people first? I have read many of the getting started and general information documents, but I am still a little confused on what the CZ stance on consensus actually is.

Regards,

Wesley Chua 13:29, 8 March 2008 (CST)

Metadata cleanup

Hey, just a quick 'thanks' for doing all that boring work cleaning up the metadata on all those articles. Not as sexy as writing articles, I know, but just as useful. J. Noel Chiappa 08:58, 9 March 2008 (CDT)

Yeah, it's a dirty job but someone has to do it. I think the checklist, although being fairly simple, intimidates a lot of people. Fortunately we have a handful of people that are keeping an eye on this, but it does make me wonder how we'll ever keep up with it as our user base grows. --Todd Coles 10:50, 9 March 2008 (CDT)

Bread gallery

Hi Todd! Thanks for helping -- yes, I have really screwed up things! I want to make a gallery called, I guess Bread baking/Gallery. It would then be a subpage, or whatever in Bread, just the way there is a Tagliatelle/Gallery in Tagliatelle. But when I started to make the Gallery, I forgot to put "/Gallery" in the title. After that, things spiraled out of control as I tried to play catch-up. I DO NOT WANT to make an article called Bread baking! I was going to ask for a speedy delete on all the crap I made by mistake -- mille pardons! Hayford Peirce 12:00, 9 March 2008 (CDT)

Thanks for the help in clearing things up! I'll study carefully what you did and what you have suggested for the future. I know that at least once I *did* successfully create a gallery, but it was a while ago and I had forgotten how I did it. I'll try to do it correctly the next time.... Hayford Peirce 12:15, 9 March 2008 (CDT)

As long as I can take some of the gallery items along with me! Hayford Peirce 12:24, 9 March 2008 (CDT)

Mr. Sanger has forbidden me the moral right to be recognized as the intellectual author

Mr. Sanger has forbidden me the moral right to be recognized as the intellectual author, and I have been denied the simple right to a link to my original article (see discussion page). I'm sorry, but abandoned the project. I am very disappointed. I wish the best for everyone, and having great success. My most sincere greetings and respect for all. Kind Regards, --Georgeos Díaz-Montexano 16:44, 9 March 2008 (CDT)

Accents

Hi, Todd. Was it you I saw asking about how to do accents, as on José? Ro Thorpe 13:13, 10 March 2008 (CDT)

No, but I can tell you how. Just type in the name like normal, and when you come to a letter where you need an accent or something, scroll down below the edit window and you will see "Special Characters". Just click on the symbol you want and it will add it where your cursor is. --Todd Coles 13:18, 10 March 2008 (CDT)

You describe it excellently. Now who could it have been...? Ro Thorpe 13:21, 10 March 2008 (CDT)

• GIRL FROM OZ

apple and potato

Hi, I think you've made the correct decisions here. Apple right now is just a food, with no recipes for apples. Potato, however, has recipes, and should therefore be listed. Thanks. I've been wondering what to do about this. Hayford Peirce 16:44, 16 March 2008 (CDT)

No problem, I've been having fun with it. When you get a sec, check out my comment on the recipe talk page and see what you think.--Todd Coles 17:03, 16 March 2008 (CDT)

Thanks so much...

...for clearing and putting up the new month's page for the March Party Aleta Curry 18:23, 31 March 2008 (CDT)

Thanks for the nomination!Steven Clark Bennett 00:24, 2 April 2008 (CDT)

Subpagination

Thanks for doing a lot of the 'donkey work' subpaginating those Japan pages. I would've done it myself but that would have meant me spending hours creating about 200 pages. John Stephenson 04:48, 22 April 2008 (CDT)

English variants

Hmmm, good question. There's some stuff I know of about the variant field in the metadata, but I don't (offhand) recall a page which talks about the issue directly. If I come across one, I'll check back with you. I suppose we might want to put something in CZ:How To, or some other likely spot? J. Noel Chiappa 19:20, 29 April 2008 (CDT)

Energy Conversion Analysis

Todd: I have no intention of working on Energy Conversion Analysis. The page and/or article is of no use to anyone at Citizendium. Therefore, when you get a chance, would you please drop the page! Thanks, Gordan Feric

The URL is as follows: http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Energy_conversion

Welcome back!

Hi Todd,

Where ya been?

Hope you'll be as productive and all-round useful as you used to be! Hayford Peirce 02:21, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Hayford! The combination of a new job and a slight lack of motivation kept me at bay for awhile, but I've had a little bit more time lately so I thought I'd pop back in and see what's going on. I'll try to live up to the high standards which you hold me to..:) --Todd Coles 02:32, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

THAT I hold ya to, illiterate! Hayford Peirce 03:29, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Hey, I'm just a small town Okie barely able to read and write. So sometimes I just have to make stuff up. --Todd Coles 03:44, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Makin' stuff up? Welcome to the club! Hayford Peirce 04:15, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Comments welcome on Cooking Utensils

I've just started cooking utensils...and don't know if I have the courage to take on knives, much less some of my stranger gadgets. Howard C. Berkowitz 02:55, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I'm sure I can add some insightful information such as "knives are sharp." Let me have a read and I'll comment over there.. Todd Coles 03:09, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Greetings. There's a nascent Food science workgroup which might be the best primary home for Anise?Gareth Leng 17:31, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Yes, we could cover it under Healing Arts if the herbal side is developed; PMID 18957177; PMID 18852037; PMID 18266149 and othersGareth Leng 19:42, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Phytotherapy, and a more general issue for thought about article titles

Paraphrasing one of the all-time best funny science fiction stories, Arthur C. Clarke's The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch, Arthur C. Clarke observed that defenestration is not quite one's everyday word. We have a persistent and non-trivial issue with words and titles here, and this is a good example. One key misconception is that the title will determine whether things will be found in search engines only if they have the "most likely" title — but redirects, and even strings in the body of an article, still will be found.

There are lots and lots of forms of herbal medicine, some "[adjective] herbal therapy", some less obvious such as Bach flower therapy, and blurring into nutritional medicine. The choice I took, as I think many do in health sciences, is to name the primary article after the indexing term used by the authoritative Medical Subject Headings of the National Library of Medicine, and then have lots of redirects (and links from related articles). Use all the redirects to it you can imagine, and, when a redirect could be ambiguous, consider creative use of Related Articles pages.

As I understand, there's a long-running and somewhat bitter argument in Biology, where the biologists tend to want to use scientific names for organisms of all types with redirects for the common names, while others want "most likely". I understand some biologist have left the Project over the issue.

It keeps coming up. I'm having some bitter disputes in things generally Military, in which people have variously created articles based on how some politician or talking head referred to a topic, often only one aspect of a topic, and resisting renaming (with redirects) to the formal name, or, in some cases, accepting the popular-named topic really belongs as a subtopic of a more general article. Some particularly extensive patterns have me thinking of writing no more content if the popular view will override the editor (even if there's only one active editor, but there are wise people to do "plausibility checks"). If Editors can't make these calls, or at least if qualified authors can't thoroughly support the title choice, how are we different, in accuracy, than Wikipedi? Howard C. Berkowitz 16:05, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Howard, I understand your pain. Before I went on hiatus for awhile there was large debate over how to title history articles (History of vs. , history). I personally find it tiresome and counterproductive, because I believe with the redirect system, once people come to CZ they will be able to find whatever it is they are looking for. And once CZ can build an article base with numerous approved articles (I of course understand that we need more qualified editors here, which is another issue) people will come to CZ in search of accurate articles instead of relying on WP as much, regardless of where things line up on the Google search.

It also seems to me like very few issues are ever resolved here. This article naming thing has been going on for more than a year. --Todd Coles 17:12, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

cumin, cumin (in French), anis, anise, carvi, caraway, anisette, etc. etc.

This is a plate of spaghetti, at least in French -- there are 3 or 4 overlapping names and mis-names. I've just been looking at the French WP, which has extensive articles (and pictures) of most of the above, with warnings not to confuse one with the other(s) but I'm afraid that I'll probably never get it clear. In Alsace, for instance, they call the caraway seeds they put on bread "cumin", but sometimes "anise". And in Southern France, those are different things. Is a puzzlement! that I'll let you scratch your head over....

I used to drink a lot of Pernod -- now I put a 1/4 teaspoon of it into some of my "Polynesian" rum drinks for subtle flavoring... Cheers! Hayford Peirce 17:10, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Black caraway (nigella, I think) is South Asian, looks quite different from European caraway, and is immensely better in rye bread than European caraway. (For that matter, mixing dill seeds and caraway seeds, and maybe dill weed [leaf]) in rye bread is even better).

Star anise (Chinese) and anise (Mediterranean) look completely different, I'm sure are biologically different, and have different but sometimes overlapping culinary uses.

I think of European cumin, caraway and anise as three completely different seeds (dark small disks, larger brownish comma-shaped, often greenish ovals). Black cumin (South asian) is quite different, as is black caraway. Fresh chervil arguably gives what I'll call an anise flavor. Howard C. Berkowitz 17:23, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Hmmm, looks as if you've mastered the intricacies, Howard! Good for you! I *do* have star anise in my cupboard (dingle, as we old New Englanders call it) and use it in Chinese cooking. Used to put in a couple of drops of Pernod if I didn't have the stars. A number of old Bearnaise recipes call for fresh chervil but I was never able to find it when I *wanted* to try it, and now that I can find it in specialty markets I don't bother. I'm sure that the late, sainted Waverley Root in his magisterial Food, probably has straightened out the cumin problem also. I suppose that I ought to go take a look.... Hayford Peirce 17:53, 1 March 2009 (UTC)