Some Wikipedians have formed a project to better the quality of life at the Wikipedia through Kindness and Recognition of Users. It is hoped that this project will help to focus the efforts of other Wikipedians. All too often we get too wrapped up in our own tasks to recognize the hard work and determination of others. This WikiProject aims to correct that injustice, even if only a little bit, by making a conscious effort to acknowledge exceptional effort, skill, and commitment. It is motivated by the belief that a little kindness goes a long way, and in the end results in a better Wikipedia experience for everybody.
Remembering Brian Boulton
[Message text copied here from User talk:Brianboulton#Remembering Brian:]
Dear colleagues,
I wanted to create something by which those of us who have had the pleasure of working with him could commemorate our friend Brian Boulton, who died peacefully on 9 December 2019. Although userboxes are often used for frivolous purposes, it occurred to me that it would be meaningful simply to display the following userbox on our user pages:
To add this userbox to your page, just apply: {{User:Pdebee/UBX/Remembers}}
With kind regards;
Patrick. Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)
Remembering Sarah (SlimVirgin)
[Message text copied here from User talk:SlimVirgin#Remembering Sarah:]
Dear colleagues,
I created a generic userbox to commemorate our absent Wikifriends, and I keep a copy for Sarah at my user page:
To add this userbox to your user page, just copy/paste: {{User:Pdebee/UBX/RemembersAbsentFriend|SlimVirgin}}
With kind regards;
Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)
Dear Gerda, As before, thank you for my yearly reminder and for being so dedicated to this generous task of acknowledging your colleagues, and for your kindness towards us all! I hope you are keeping well, and wish you a Happy Spring in two weeks' time! Please keep well, safe, musical and joyful. With kindest regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)15:52, 6 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
PS: Again some more daffodils for you, all the way from the West Coast of Wales!
Thank you, beautiful! - I changed the link to the rose of missing that he designed, - it's hard to be joyful with that background, but let's try. Looking at the flowers helps! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:05, 6 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Unfortunately no, as I don't consult the Signpost. I have looked at his/her user page, and admire the editorial approach and high standards. Another sad loss... Thank you once again, and please keep well and joyful. With kindest regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)15:10, 6 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict:) I also don't clog my talk page with the Signpost, but can't miss it on my watchlist, and then typically read it on some other editor's page. Perhaps watch WP:Deceased Wikipedians. It hit me on his talk, - one who wrote a condolence described sensations of feeling ill when seeing the edit summary only, better than I could. See why: I had no idea that he archived so selectively. Since he left us, there were two featured articles coming in. I shouldn't compare but he was probably the most prolific contributor of WP:QAI, so much precious promise. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:28, 6 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Dear Gerda, I have now also added Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians to my watchlist per your advice, for which my grateful thanks. I wholeheartedly apologise for adding 'joyful' above, which was very clumsy of me, in the circumstances; I am so very sorry. Thank you for your lovely flowers, and hoping for your forgiveness. With kindest regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)15:51, 6 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Nothing to forgive. I guess not even Vami would want our joy to end. - Another little piece of advice: blank lines confuse the editor program. - Let's not forget joy, but still rehearse Tristis est anima mea with expression. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:57, 6 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Dear Phoenix7119, Nice to meet you, too! And thank you once more for your edit in the article on Emily Stipes Watts, here. Are you particularly interested in the life and career of Prof. Stipes Watts? If so, and if you have the time and inclination, perhaps you might be able to help, by looking for source(s) that could resolve the two {{citation needed|date=August 2016}} templates currently still in the article? When I created the initial version of the article, I cited those biographical details from Prabook, but that citation was subsequently removed, here, and quite correctly, as it turned out, since the content on Prabook is user-generated. If I were located closer to Urbana, Illinois, I would try to find a local, printed source for these details but, from where I live (here, on the west coast of Wales), this is a little bit too far... . In any case, thank you for your time and consideration, and there is obviously no obligation on your part to do any more than you can. Keep well. With kindest regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)13:56, 11 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not very familiar with Prof. Stipes Watts. However, since she appears to have been such an accomplished woman as well as a member of Phi Kappa Phi, I decided to add her name to the new Phi Kappa Phi category that I created. If I stumble across any information that might help resolve that templates issue, I'll let you know. Again, its nice to make your acquaintance. Kind regards, Phoenix Phoenix7119 (talk) 11:17, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Dear Phoenix7119, Thank you for your reply and kind words. I know next to nothing about sororities, but it's a good idea of yours to have created a category for at least one of them, as you did. Also, it's most kind of you to bear Prof. Stipes Watts in mind; as you are making progress with your Wikipedia project on sororities, you might well come across her name in a reliable, secondary source. If/when you do, feel free to make contact again, so that we could work together on adding it to her article. For example, if you had a photocopy of a printed page, you could send its photo as a file to my email address (via the "email" userbox in "About", at my user page), and I would create the citation template for it, thus fixing the {{citation needed|date=August 2016}} templates. I am pleased our paths have crossed here, and please feel free to keep in touch if you ever think I might be able to assist in any way. I wish you well in your editorial endeavours, and thank you for all your contributions to our encyclopaedia. With kindest regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)14:40, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Pdebee, I work for Canadian music executive Sam Feldman, and I'm trying to create a Wikipedia article for him. I see that you are part of WP:BLP, and that you've succesfully created many articles. I'm hoping that you will take a look at the draft I have posted here. Would you consider moving it to main space?
Dear Sarah, Thank you for making contact, and for your vote of confidence. I am currently quite busy and will be for some time. Much as I’d love to help, I am going to have to pass on your offer, rather than overcommit. What I will do, however, is have a quick sweep over your current draft and apply a few changes tomorrow morning, then leave it to you to contact the WP:COPYEDITORS, where you can place a general request for someone to assist you further. Sorry to disappoint you, but I hope you will understand. I will contact you again tomorrow, when I’ve completed the basic editorial sweep. With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)22:08, 10 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Aszx5000: Dear Colleague; Thank you for reviewing both my newly moved articles on Felice Lascelles and its associated List of performances by Felice Lascelles; your assistance is very much appreciated. Thank you also for your kind words. I did apply for the Autopatrolled right, which was denied on September 1, 2020, without explanation. Therefore, it doesn’t seem worthwhile applying again, since I had already published my article on John R. Buckmaster at the time, which seemed to be of the required standard, especially since it was also my 27th article, which clearly exceeds the minimal requirement of 25 published articles. In any case, thank you once again for your helpful assistance and kind words. With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)16:43, 15 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Aszx5000: Dear Colleague; I have just double-checked: the right I had applied for on 1 September 2020 was Page mover, not Autopatrolled. I apologise for the confusion. Thank you once again. With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)17:11, 15 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Pdebee, I just wanted to let you know that I have added the autopatrolled user right to your account. This means that pages you create will automatically be marked as 'reviewed', and no longer appear in the new pages feed. Autopatrolled is assigned to prolific creators of articles, where those articles do not require further review, and may have been requested on your behalf by someone else. It doesn't affect how you edit; it is used only to manage the workload of new page patrollers.
Since the articles you create will no longer be systematically reviewed by other editors, it is important that you maintain the high standard you have achieved so far in all your future creations. Please also try to remember to add relevant WikiProject templates, stub tags, categories, and incoming links to them, if you aren't already in the habit; user scripts such as Rater and StubSorter can help with this. As you have already shown that you have a strong grasp of Wikipedia's core content policies, you might also consider volunteering to become a new page patroller yourself, helping to uphold the project's standards and encourage other good faith article writers.
Dear Colleague; Thank you once again for your vote of confidence, as well as for all the advice mentioned above. I certainly intend to keep to my existing approach, and to improve it as I develop further. With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)21:52, 15 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for your steady helpfulness popping up on my watchlist! - On 13 August, Bach's cantata was 300 years old, and the image one. The cantata is an extraordinary piece, using the chorale's text and famous melody more than others in the cycle. It's nice to have not only a recent death, but also this "birthday" on the Main page. And a rainbow in my places. -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:30, 13 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Dear Gerda, Thank you very much for the music and, of course, for your kind words! I think you must have a gigantic watchlist, if my edits appear on it regularly... I wonder which articles attracted your attention more particularly... In any case, please keep well and joyful! With kindest regards for now; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)16:53, 13 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! - My watchlist is too large, a began reducing a year ago, and still have a 5-digit number, because for a while I took all reviewed articles on, and all for which I thanked people by precious. Today's story is about education, 10 years OTD after lecturing our founder). Music for today's feast is Monteverdi's, the best concert we ever did (so pictured again on my talk). --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:38, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Today is Schoenberg's 150th birthday! On display, portrayed by Egon Schiele, with music from Moses und Aron, and with two DYK hooks, one from 2010 and another from 2014; the latter, about his 40th birthday, appeared on his 140th birthday, which made me happy then and now again. - See places for a stunning sunrise, on the day Bruckner's 200th birthday was celebrated (just a few days late). --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:21, 13 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Help needed with adjusting widths of column headers in a Navbox template
Dear helpful fellow editors, I am in the process of creating this template, and can't seem to make the two column headers fit proportionally to the width of the columns. As you can see, the two column headers, labelled "Hundred" and "Parishes", are currently of equal widths, although I'd like their widths to match the widths of their respective columns. I have attempted to use the various parameters which seem to enable us to control such widths, but I must be doing something wrong and can't figure out what it might be. Very many thanks for your helpful assistance! By the way, this is not urgent, and can wait a few days if necessary. With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)15:58, 26 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Dear Tony, Not in the least! Please don't worry at all; I was very pleased to have a go, since we had agreed on this yesterday. I have already posted a reply to you at the article's talk page, and will be happy to abort this small task if you and other colleagues agree this is the best course of action. Similarly, I am happy to adjust the draft template as necessary, if this ends up being the agreed course of action. (At the very least, I will have learnt about how to do the above, from our helpful colleagues! ) More later, then. With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)16:19, 26 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Rich; Thank you for looking at this, but it hasn't been fixed yet. If you look into the top of my draft template, you will see that the width of the column headers, labelled "Hundred" and "Parishes", are still of equal widths, although I'd like their widths to match the widths of their respective columns. Thank you very much for having another look if and when you can. With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)17:31, 29 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think the navbox template supports what you're trying to do. The columns (which you're trying to use for the headers alone) and the groups (for the hundred name and the list of parishes) are inherently different parts of the navbox that I don't think are intended to be used together. The columns don't respect the specified size because there's no content in the columns (the size is only applied to the column content, not the header). The best I've managed to do is to hardcode the width of the first column and the group headers, and specify some content for the columns such that the headers respect the specified widths. The relevant parameters are these, but it still leaves an ugly white space in the middle of the template where the column content is:
This will cause issues on smaller screens, or if the content in the left column was ever to grow because the left column will always have a fixed size.The other issue with this approach is one of accessibility - because the semantic structure of the navbox is wrong (because columns and groups are completely separate), accessibility tools like screen readers are unlikely to be able to interpret the column headers properly as this approach is a bodge at best. It's abusing visual layout tools to make something look correct, when under the hood it's not.My recommendation would be to scrap the usage of columns as headers entirely and just keep the explanatory statement in the |above= parameter. stwalkerster (talk) 17:46, 1 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Dear Stwalkerster, Thank you so much for your cogent explanation and also for all your efforts in devising a workaround the limitations in the design of the navbox template. I will therefore follow your advice fully and abandon the idea of column headers. I had looked at quite a few other templates and had wondered why none had used column headers; you have been most helpful in providing a clear explanation for this state of affairs and I am most grateful to you for taking the time! With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)19:12, 1 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Man in the Iron Mask book published August 2024
I am trying to place information on my book on the Man in the Iron Mask, published in August 2024 (see reference below) on the Wikipedia page Man in the Iron Mask. Second Son, the Man in the Iron Mask, contains a solution and new data on the 300-year-old mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask based on archival and library sources, fieldwork by the author in France, and personal consultation with geneticists and craniofacial specialists in the U.S., France, and Belgium, a dramatically different approach from the entire previous body of writing on the mystery. Historians have been searching for the identity and significance of the prisoner of Louis XIV, named Eustache Dauger, held for 34 years in 4 French prisons until his death on November 19, 1703. This book solves most of the problems associated with that mystery and leaves only the problem of analyzing DNA of Louis XIV, which is being attempted. The results of the research will start a conversation about the legitimacy of Louis XIV. I am the first writer to theorize Dauger had cleft lip/palate. I found this diagnosis by following leads in French official state military documents that no writer ever noticed, let alone explored. Through recent genetic studies on craniofacial malformations published in scientific journals, I made a circumstantial link between King Louis XIII's dental problems to Dauger. No writer before me has ever linked the two men.
Second Son is the first book to see the cultural traditions of seventeenth-century France as guides to understanding the events and persons in the story.
Hello Avemalakoff, and welcome to Wikipedia; I have just posted a welcome message on your talk page, to help you familiarise yourself with the editorial standards of our encyclopaedia. Since you are the author of a book on the subject of the Man in the Iron Mask, I would point you specifically to the Wikipedia guidelines in the section on No original research, which provides guidance on Primary, secondary and tertiary sources. Please familiarise yourself with these important aspects of editing Wikipedia. The edit you made, here, on 3 October, was reverted by another editor because, as the author, you are considered a primary source, and I would also point out that Wikipedia is not a platform for promotion. Any updates to Wikipedia must be corroborated by a secondary (an independent review of your book, for example), or a tertiary source. I hope this helped. With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)20:19, 4 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Pdebee: Oof, you've done a number there... I'm asking NaomiAmethyst (the developer of CB3) off-wiki on how to nicely sort this out for you. You might want to turn off the archiving for now. I'm going to disable the Help Me tag, but please ping me in the same way I have to you to get my attention - RichT|C|E-Mail22:59, 13 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Pdebee: Alright, I've moved the Indices around so it should work. It looks like you changed the config to start with Archive 2, so that's fine. I've requested the Archive 3 redirect be deleted. Just don't touch Archive 1 now - RichT|C|E-Mail23:11, 13 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Dear Rich; I have just this minute seen your replies above. Very many thanks to you and NaomiAmethyst for taking the time to look into this and for applying the required changes to fix it. As you requested immediately above, I won’t make any changes at the talk page. Once again, I apologise for imposing on your time and expertise, but remain grateful for your kind help. With kind regards for now; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)23:20, 13 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hello again, Rich; Ah yes; I can see what you’ve done, here. I now understand the fix, which is easy enough when one knows what to do! I am so glad it was a lot easier to fix than I had expected, and you have been most helpful in getting this sorted for me! Thank you very much once again for all your marvellous help! With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)23:33, 13 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
As far as I understand, this page, despite being in the User talk namespace, is not a user talk page because it has never been used as a user talk page. It is the talk page of the draft page that was earlier deleted, so I have no problem with deleting it under G8 — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 20:56, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Dear Martin; Thank you very much for allowing that “user” talk page of a putative draft article to qualify under G8. I always draft my articles as user pages before moving them when they’re ready for publication. However, I abandoned a few of these draft projects last month and got them deleted under {{db-u1}}, then noticed today that this orphaned talk page was still around, and therefore wanted to tidy up. Thank you once again for understanding my intent, and for your helpful assistance. With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!)21:56, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My story today is about a composer and choir conductor, listen to his Lamento. - My story on 13 October was about a Bach cantata. As this place works, it's on the Main page now because of the date (but Bach wrote it for the 20th Sunday, not the Tuesday after the 21st Sunday after Trinity). I sort of like it because today is the birth date of my grandfather who loved and grew dahlias like those pictured. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:24, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Merry Christmas, Pdebee! Or Season's Greetings or Happy Winter Solstice! As the year winds to a close, I would like to take a moment to recognize your hard work and offer heartfelt gratitude for all you do for Wikipedia. May this Holiday Season bring you nothing but joy, health and prosperity.Onel5969TT me03:34, 25 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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