User talk:Gaius Cornelius

This user is one of the 400 most active English Wikipedians of all time.

Start

		The WikiChevrons
		For your hard work on British anti-invasion preparations of World War II. Skinny87 (talk) 10:28, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

On January 28, 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Cultivator No. 6, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits your article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

Wikiproject: Did you know? 06:01, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

DYK for Operation Banquet

The DYK project (nominate) 12:03, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

DYK for Operation Lucid

— Rlevse • Talk • 12:04, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

DYK for Norcon pillbox

— Rlevse • Talk • 12:02, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Air well

Hi there. Karanacs closed the FAC as unsuccessful, presumably because she felt that the issues would be best dealt with outside of FAC due to their severity. However, if you'd like my continued input on the matter, what we can do is simply copy the relevant contents of the FAC onto the article's talk page or a peer review page and then work from there. Sound good? --Cryptic C62 · Talk 23:00, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

OK. Let's do it. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 23:04, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Ruck machine gun post

Hi, I see ref to use of Stanton sections has been removed in British hardened field defences of World War II and not included in the new article, do you think then that Stanton sections were not used to construct the Ruck? Regards --palmiped |  Talk  18:17, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

Hi and thanks for your interest. As you can see I have been researching the Ruck pillbox in as much detail as I can - though that is not particularly easy. However, the file at the National Archives is quite clear that Ruck designed for Hydroprest Concrete prefabricated sections - these are similar to Stanton sections but have a slightly different shape to the arch and are much narrower. In Ruck's drawings the sections are clearly of the narrower sort. I have visited the only complete example at Lawyer's Creek and it is exactly like Ruck's drawings. I have also seen some remains elsewhere, and again they the sections were too narrow to be Stanton parts.

I cannot see why something very similar could not have been made from Stanton parts and perhaps they were, but I don't know of any direct evidence for them. I suspect that the confusion has arrisen from the similarity between the parts or, possibly, the Stanton parts gave their name to all similar prefabricated parts in the same way that the word "Hoover" is today used for any vacuum cleaner.

Of course all this leaves the mysterious structure at Sandiacre. It is listed in the Defence of Britain database as an example of a Ruck. I visited it (a long time ago) and now I am sure that it cannot have been a Ruck pillbox. It might be WWII, but I doubt it was any kind of pillbox. The windows in that structure are cut through the concrete sections - those in the endmost prefabricated sections have been blocked up so perhaps the windows were cast in. In a Ruck, the embrasures are placed in gaps between the prefabricated parts. Also, there are no tell-tale witness marks of where concrete slabs were mortared to the outside of the pillbox to thicken the protection.

So, after all this, yes I am really sure that Stanton sections were not in fact used to make Ruck pillboxes. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 20:50, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

Must say I was never 100% convinced about the Sandiacre structure, always thought the windows were too large, maybe it was converted after the war to some sort of farm building. Keep up the good work. --palmiped |  Talk  22:09, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

Palmiped: will you mind if I move this discussion to Talk:Ruck machine gun post? Gaius Cornelius (talk) 16:05, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

• Its been destroyed see [1] Regards --palmiped |  Talk  17:08, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

DYK for Admiralty scaffolding

The DYK project (nominate) 00:04, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Flame fougasse

Hello! Your submission of Flame fougasse at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! rʨanaɢ (talk) 14:43, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

DYK for Ruck machine gun post

The DYK project (nominate) 00:05, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

DYK nomination for Canadian pipe mine

Hello, your nomination of Canadian pipe mine at DYK was reviewed and comments provided. --NortyNort (Holla) 11:32, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

DYK for Flame fougasse

— Rlevse • Talk • 06:02, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

DYK for Canadian pipe mine

— Rlevse • Talk • 18:02, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

DYK for Tett turret

— Rlevse • Talk • 12:04, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

DYK for Armadillo armoured fighting vehicle

Materialscientist (talk) 00:03, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Your work on pillboxes

It seems you are by far the biggest contributor to British hardened field defences of World War II and I have to say that is some fine work. I admit I'm interested in the topic but to me this article is what Wikipedia should be - comprehensive without boring detail, well illustrated, mostly factual with a just a bit of historical commentary. I briefly looked at some of your other efforts and they look good also. I hope you will spend many more years on Wikipedia, your work is appreciated.

Leidseplein (talk) 19:25, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Your kind words are much appreciated; we all need a little encouragement every now and then! I hope that you too will continue to contribute and that you will enjoy your work at Wikipedia. I have made a point of confining my more detailed WWII studies to the invasion crisis period and I have a number of new articles on the back burner. If we can help one another in the future that will be all to the good. Do please let me know if I can be of assistance. Happy editing. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 09:30, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

PWD article

Hey, I see you're onto the flame-thrower vehicles section of the PWD article. I don't know if you're interested, but when trying to get stuff together for the Universal Carrier article, I brought all the Osprey books on the Carrier, the Churchill and amphibious tanks; they have a lot of info on the Wasp and the Churchill Crocodile. Could I maybe give you a hand with that info by adding it into the article? I can always work in a sub-article if need be.Skinny87 (talk) 18:16, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

Hi! The PWD article is in my "personal space" where I prefer to quietly gestate new articles. However, you are not just anybody and if you have good info on the Crocodile and Wasp then you are very welcome to chip in. One day - in the not too distant future I will move the article to the main space, but I am not sure when that will be; it is still a bit of a mess. I will list the article as a Did You Know candidate when I do move it.

There is already an article on the Crocodile, but none on the Wasp so you might care to add to or create those articles. If you feel there is enough information on the Wasp for a new article I will be happy to help with it. Happy editing. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 07:12, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I know what you mean about personal space and sandbox articles. Perhaps if I put together a section on the Wasp and Crocodile (and anything else I can find flame-related for the vehicle section) in my own sandbox, and then you can pick and choose whatever you think fits. I want to get working on the Carrier article anyway, and this will be one section done. How does that sound?Skinny87 (talk) 07:34, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

That sounds great! All the best with that. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 12:06, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Will do. As for your articles, the Fougasse one is a sure-thing for GA. You might get questioned on the use of primary sources, but given the obscure nature of the weapon I can't see that being a difficult question to answer. The other two are rather short; they could do with an infobox each and a little structuring to create a small lede and maybe a subsection or two, merge some sentence fragments, but otherwise wouldn't be too difficult to pass. I managed to get sticky bomb to GA despite a lack of info, for example. Skinny87 (talk) 07:16, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. By the way, I have a boatload of research on the sticky bomb which could significantly add to that article. Would you like to co-operate on that article - perhaps we could get it to FA! Gaius Cornelius (talk) 07:21, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Hmmm, that is quite tempting. I have to admit that my time on-wiki isn't a lot these days, as I seem to have lost the will to do big articles. But if you have the info, it might be a good idea to work it up. Maybe add it to a sandbox first to see how it all goes together? I'll try and finish the PWD stuff first. Skinny87 (talk) 07:25, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Hey, looking at the PWD draft, you have the Churchill Crocodile Osprey book by Fletcher and Bryan. I didn't notice because they aren't in the reflist yet. Do you have their book on the Universal Carrier at hand as well? They're the only two that I have that bear on the Wasp/Valentine/Churchill Crocodile, so if you have the latter my help might be redundant lol. Skinny87 (talk) 10:58, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

OK. I will get the sticky bomb material into a sandbox sometime. Not sure when though.

I may have the Churchill Crocodile book somewhere - I have a lot of books and I sometimes loose track, it is possible that it is just one that I have borrowed. However, I am pretty sure I don't have anything specific on the Universal Carrier/Wasp. Be assured that your input will be appreciated in any case. Gaius Cornelius (talk)

12:15, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Flame fougasse

The article Flame fougasse you nominated as a good article has been placed on hold . The article is close to meeting the good article criteria, but there are some minor changes or clarifications needed to be addressed. If these are fixed within seven days, the article will pass, otherwise it will fail. See Talk:Flame fougasse for things which need to be addressed. Pyrotec (talk) 21:50, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

Hi Gaius Cornelius. Thanks for your note on my talkpage. I have added some clarification to Talk:Flame fougasse/GA1. I'm not convinced that my comments over the use of Original sources has been adequately considered, particularly when MUN5 is cited as an in-line reference. Its 419 pieces in total (see [2]), and could not be requested in that format, individual files would have to be ordered; and the limit is (from memory) three requests at a time and a limit of 21 items per day. I'll consider then on an individual case basis, but this is clearly not a valid citation. Pyrotec (talk) 20:06, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Hi Gaius Cornelius. Thanks for your note on my talkpage. I'll will be going to Kew sometime fairly soon, but not this month. If I can find anything in the Official Histories (of WW I), assuming I have time (I usually go on Thursday's as its a "long day"), I'll add it to the article. I like the article, but not the potential conflicts of OR. Pyrotec (talk) 15:48, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Pyrotec: Lucky you! A day at Kew is one of my favourite things but a rare treat (my wife doesn’t understand me). Do let me know what you find. I understand your points regarding the article; although such weapons are frequently mentioned in passing in descriptions of the period, details are usually wanting. I suspect that never having been used in the UK and not much elsewhere, writers felt they had better things to do than grub up such minutiae. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 16:23, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Northover Projector

Hello Gaius Cornelius,

I have just translated the english article in French and discovered this picture.

My problem is to read the legend. As you are the author of this picture, could you please help me (I hope that you have better eyes than me).

Reading the previous paragraph, I discovered that we seems to have the same interest. Thanks for the good job done on British anti-invasion preparations of World War II, and thank you for the job you have given to me (about 45 red links in the french articles (26 remaining) to create)! Have a nice evening (and summer). Regards, Skiff (talk) 20:18, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Flame fougasse

Hello Gaius Cornelius, I am still translating some of your articles (as I am fond of history and WWII). "The work was dangerous, Livens and Banks were experimenting with five-gallon drums in the shingle at Hythe when a short circuit triggered several weapons." This sentence has been written by you. I would like to have a precision about the city/village of Hythe, because it seems that there are three cities/villages named Hythe in England. Unfortunately, I do not have Banks book. Could you please help me? Have a nice evening and Best regards, Skiff (talk) 19:09, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

Skiff: Banks does not explicitly say which Hythe he means, but from the context it is clear that it must be Hythe, Kent. This is further backed up by Banks' description of a shingle beach which be right for that location. Keep up the good work; I hardly speak a word of French, but I do sometimes look at you pages. Kind regards Gaius Cornelius (talk) 08:30, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for your quick answer, Gaius Cornelius. I have added the precision on both articles. Thanks for the "good work", but I am only translating some of your good articles. My goal at the moment, is to make the french version of British anti-invasion preparations of World War II recognized as a featured article. Unfortunately, I still have 9 big articles about canals, parks and others subjects (not so interesting for me) to translate to remove all the red links, it will take time but I am optimistic. Next step will be removing the red links in the french version of British hardened field defences of World War II. Please continue to write article as you are used to, it a real pleasure to read them and to share it with French reader. Kind regards, Skiff (talk) 20:40, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

Thanks...

...for the copyediting on some of the castle articles. Much appreciated! Hchc2009 (talk) 15:46, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

You are welcome! Gaius Cornelius (talk) 15:48, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

Petroleum Warfare Department

Hello Gaius Cornelius, First, I would like to wish you a happy new year. Second, I have discovered that you have started to write User:Gaius Cornelius/Petroleum Warfare Department, have you planned to finished it? I will translate it in French but I would prefer to do it after you would have finished it and published it in the main, in order to credit your work in the french wiki. There is no emergency, but I would like to know if you will finished it (this article seems to be in stand by currently). Best regards, Skiff (talk) 09:05, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Skiff: A happy new year to you too. It is always good to hear from you! The PWD article is a long way from being finished, It is something of an opus magnum for me and some of my smaller articles such as Operation Lucid and Flame fougasse have been just steps on the way. In my life women and children must come first and now I have building work at home to contend with and I am not making much progress with articles. Woe to Wikipedia! Things should start to lighten up in a few weeks. Kind regards, Gaius Cornelius (talk) 10:21, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your answer, you are right there are priorities in life and family is for sure the first one. Moreover, as it will be your masterpiece, I will be patient and wait for the required time, there is no problem. King regards, Skiff (talk) 04:25, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Flame fougasse

Hello Gaius Cornelius, At the end of the article, you have written "Although the flame fougasse was never used in Britain, the idea was exported to Greece by a couple of PWD officers when, in 1941, German invasion threatened. They were reported to have a powerful effect on enemy units.[5]", I would like to know if PWD means Psychological Warfare Division or Petroleum Warfare Department, we have some doubts and without Banks' book, we can not be 100% sure which one is the good one (even though at the beginning of the article, PWD is defined at the Petroleum Warfare Department). Could you please confirm? Best regards, Skiff (talk) 11:41, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Banks was referring to the Petroleum Warfare Department. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 09:35, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. Skiff (talk) 20:07, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Hello Gaius Cornelius, I hope you are well. I have an additional question for you. I have been asked for the ISBN of "Chamber's encyclopaedia" mentioned in the article. I have had a look into Amazon site, but without any success. By chance, do you have it? Kind regards, Skiff (talk) 05:22, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

ISBN numbers did not really come in until about 1970, so I would not expect this book to have one. From memory, the entry is just a brief summary flame warfare developments at the time. Useful, but the article could manage without this reference. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 09:42, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. Skiff (talk) 05:52, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

Hello Gaius Cornelius,

Your article is now a good article in the french wiki. Skiff (talk) 05:00, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

Excellent. A team effort! Gaius Cornelius (talk) 16:57, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

British hardened field defences of World War II

Hello Gaius Cornelius, A french contributor has warned me that in my translation and therefore in the original text, the référence called « dob_review » is defined twice with different contents. Could you please have a quick look? I have noted with pleasure that you are going to develop "Petroleum Warfare Department". Thanks. Have a nice week end. Skiff (talk) 05:56, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Skiff: thanks for pointing this out. I have changed the name of a reference in the section on the the Ruck Machine Gun Post which I think resolves the issue. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 10:01, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your quick answer. Skiff (talk) 14:19, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

DYK for Operation Josephine B

Yngvadottir (talk) 08:02, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Operation Josephine B

Hello Gaius Cornelius, No problem, I will have a look this weekend when I will have more time. Regards, Skiff (talk) 03:23, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

Sorry to answer very late. I have read carefully the both articles. They are no discrepancy. The english one is more detailed (participation of the Poles, consequences...), the only difference is about "Twelve German soldiers were shot for failing to protect the station against the saboteurs", this is presented in the French article as a rumor. Regards, Skiff (talk) 08:03, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Cecil Vandepeer Clarke

Hello! Your submission of Cecil Vandepeer Clarke at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! LauraHale (talk) 21:28, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

Issues still exist; I've just noted there what still needs to be done. I hope you can take care of them soon. Many thanks. BlueMoonset (talk) 03:22, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

Question

Hello Gaius Cornelius, It has been a long time I have not written to you, I hope you are well. I have a question about a translation I am going to do. I know that you have not written it but the contributor seems to be away for a long time, so I am asking you. In the article on the Norway Debate, it is written "On behalf of the Admiralty, he had also advised that a major landing in Norway was not realistically within Germany's powers." What does it means? Who can not realize a major landing in Norway Germany or England according to the Admiralty? Unfortunately, my level in English is not so good enough to choose the good translation. Could you please help me?

PS: I have notice that you are still working on the article about the Petroleum Warfare Department, I hope you will have finished soon (you seem to be not to far from the end). Have a nice week end. Skiff (talk) 06:04, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

Skiff: what the phrase means is that Churchill while speaking on behalf of the Admiralty [that is, the Navy] said that it was not possible for Germany to invade Norway. Which just goes to show that Churchill was not right about everything. That article with its quotes from political speeches is likely to have quite a bit of difficult English. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to help although I expect to be away from Wikipedia for several days.

Yes, I am still working on the PWD article. There is a substantial section that needs re-righting before I feel I can move it to the main space and there is still quite a bit of expansion to do too.

Gaius Cornelius (talk) 18:29, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

Thanks you for your reply, it has greatly help me. Thanks for your proposal, I will ask you if I need clarification. Have a nice day. Skiff (talk) 06:00, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Edit error discovered

Hi Gaius,
I've just picked up an error in your edit of South African Class 16 4-6-2 as of 19:55, 23 June 2012.
In Line 118
"built to run on 4 feet 8½ inches (1,435 millimetres) Standard gauge" was changed to
"built to run on .{{convert|4|ft|8 1/2|in|m}}. Standard gauge"
with unnecessary fullstops ahead of and following the {{convert}} template.
If this was done by a BOT you may want to run it again to fix possible similar errors elsewhere.
I fixed this one by using {{RailGauge|4ft8.5in}} instead of {{convert}}.
André Kritzinger 23:19, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know. I will investigate. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 15:55, 20 October 2012 (UTC)

DYK for Cecil Vandepeer Clarke

Yngvadottir (talk) 00:02, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

User:Gaius Cornelius/Petroleum Warfare Department

This page looks wonderful compared to our existing stub (which was created by a banned user) - is it ready to be moved into article space? --Versageek 22:13, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

I have held it back because there are large parts missing and a substantial - and important - section that need to be rewritten. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 15:18, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Be patient, I am waiting for [User_talk:Gaius_Cornelius#Petroleum_Warfare_Department one year]. Gaius Cornelius, I hope you will have enought time to do all the work you want to do this year. Best regards. Skiff (talk) 10:07, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

DYK nomination of George Pirie Thomson

Hello! Your submission of George Pirie Thomson at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and some issues with it may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Andrew Gray (talk) 18:11, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

It has been over a week since you replied on the nomination template, and you were going to start work or return in a few days. Will you be back soon? Please let us know there. Many thanks. BlueMoonset (talk) 05:50, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

• New issues have been identified with the latest review. Please stop by. Thanks. BlueMoonset (talk) 05:14, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

• Final ping. If this doesn't get attention soon, the nomination will be closed. BlueMoonset (talk) 15:51, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Sorry, I have been unavailable recently and I will not be able to get to this for another week or so. I did not realise this would take so long. Please close the nomination. Thanks for all your trouble. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 22:27, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

"T" is for typo and also for thanks!

It seems that you are one of those guys which are patiently removing all the mess I left on the entries I (eternally and ineffectively) cure... Well done, and thank you very much!!! :-D Daniele.tampieri (talk) 17:14, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the positive feedback - always welcome. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 17:31, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for June 6

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Petroleum Warfare Department

Hello Gaius Cornelius,

What a good news! Your opus magnum is finished. It had taken time, but I think it was worth it. I think you are right a new article need to be stabilized. So I will wait for corrections/improvements from other contributors before starting anything. Moreover, I think that you will propose it to be a FA, so new questions, implementations will certainly happen. Now, as it is almost finished, what will be the next one? ;-) Skiff (talk) 07:48, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Petroleum Warfare Department

The DYK project (nominate) 16:02, 25 June 2013 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	For writing Petroleum Warfare Department :). What a fantastically comprehensive article! Ironholds (talk) 23:54, 25 June 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for your advice

As you have noticed already, I am pretty new at using Wikipedia, so I am sure that I've made so many mistakes. Thank you for pointing out and correcting those, also your kind advice. Your talk was a great opportunity for me to realize why Wikipedia has developed so well. I will try to be more prudent from now on. Take care. --Db9023 (talk) 08:00, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

Db9023: You are very welcome - others helped me when I was new! If I can be of any further assistance then do please let me know and I will do my best. Happy editing. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 08:39, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Tett turret

The German article de:Tett-Geschützturm, which is a translation of your article on the Tett turret is currently listed in the WP:Did you know? section of the German Wikipedia and has been viewed 62918 times so far. Finally, the Germans did get to see it. --NearEMPTiness (talk) 05:27, 22 March 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know! Gaius Cornelius (talk) 08:35, 22 March 2014 (UTC)

Aachen

I am posting here as a courtesy as the article Aachen was reverted by myself and re-reverted by User talk:Pichpich and I left him a comment that you may be interested in. Cheers speednat (talk) 22:39, 22 March 2014 (UTC)

Army Medical Services Museum branding equipment

Army Medical Services Museum branding equipment

Dear Gaius, My name is Simon Barnard. I'm an author and illustrator residing in Melbourne, Australia. Currently I'm producing a book on British convicts transported to Australia with Text Publishing. Amongst the convicts sentenced to Australia are over 1,000 army deserters, many of whom were branded with a 'd'. Your photo of the branding equipment and human skin located in the Army Medical Museum is of great interest to me. I've contacted the Museum in an attempt obtain more information and, in particularly, a photo of the skin, but they're unable to assist. I'm rather desperate to obtain a decent photo of the skin and am hoping you might be able to help me in this bizarre quest. Yours, Simon Barnard Loveandliberty (talk) 23:43, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

I will see what I can do. I may have some photos other that the one that I uploaded. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 23:50, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

Thanks Gauis. Fingers crossed!

I have taken a look at my files. I only have two images of this subject and the better one is the one already on wikimedia. Can I contact you privately, by email for example, to see what might be done? Gaius Cornelius (talk) 07:27, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

Yes, please do, thanks so much for persisting.

Date formats

AFAICT, formats for access dates in citation and ref templates follow ISO. (Vd. Oriya language.) — kwami (talk) 23:01, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

That used to be the case. Some time ago, ISO dates were preferred with the system formatting dates into a users individually preferred format - selected in the user preferences. This system was abandoned and now the preference is for dates in either DD-MMM-YYYY or MMM-DD-YYYY format with just a few special exceptions for ISO. See MOS:DATEUNIFY. The articles in which I format dates have a preference indicated by a template like this one: {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2010}} Gaius Cornelius (talk) 06:48, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

According to your link, YYYY-MM-DD is still perfectly acceptable; changing them would be a trivial edit, since it has no effect on display, and so would be inappropriate to do with a bot. — kwami (talk) 20:18, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

Merry Merry

To you and yours

FWiW Bzuk (talk) 14:06, 22 December 2014 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:04, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Nominations for the Military history WikiProject historian and newcomer of the year awards now open!

On behalf of the Military history WikiProject's Coordinators, we would like to extend an invitation to nominate deserving editors for the 2015 Military historian of the year and Military history newcomer of the year awards. The nomination period will run from 7 December to 23:59 13 December, with the election phase running from 14 December to 23:59 21 December. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:06, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

photo of Red Cross Parcel

Hi, I would like to know if you have taken the photo of the red cross parcel: parcel If you have, would you give me the permission to use it in a book about a Lancaster Bomber which crashed here in Germany? I would mention you / your wiki website as the source. Thanks. Kind regards. Marcel — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chamana (talk • contribs) 14:21, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

Yes, I took the picture and you are welcome to use it. I released the picture into the public domain when I uploaded it to Wikimedia Commons, but a credit would be welcome. If you give me your email address I will be happy to send you the original file and a more presentable permission message. I wish you well with your project. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 16:47, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

I do not know how to send a private message with my email address. Can you give me a hint? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chamana (talk • contribs) 17:02, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

There is a system for sending private messages - provided they are enabled in a user's preferences. See Wikipedia:Emailing users. You can send me an email by clicking on "Email this user" under the Tools section at the top left of my user page or by clicking here.

By the way, it is conventional to sign post on user pages by ending them with ~~~~. When you save your edit the system will replace this with your username and a timestamp.

Gaius Cornelius (talk) 20:28, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

Hi, I have sent you my email address by private message. Chamana (talk) 11:47, 9 February 2016 (UTC)

Wikiproject United States Coast Guard Auxiliary

As a current or past contributor to a USCG Auxiliary article, I thought I'd let you know about WikiProject United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks and related articles. Thanks!

COASTIE I am (talk) 00:51, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Petroleum Warfare Department

Hello Gaius Cornelius,

I have (finally) translated your article in French but there is still a part of a citation which is not clear for me (and for a Canadian I have asked). It is a part of a citation of Donald Banks, hereater in bold characters.

"Early in August the specification was settled and put in hand by Logondas and in November it was careening about the Moody Downs, ridden cowboy fashion by Canadians with the governors off the engines. The élan of the 'Ronson Cavalry,' as they called themselves, was tremendously inspiring. Later they carried it across the Channel, emulating their fathers of the Canadian Light Cavalry in 1918 in many a hard fought action in the Low Countries" — Donald Banks.

Could you please explain this sentence to me? Thanks in advance for your help, Skiff (talk) 07:24, 28 March 2016 (UTC)

Hi Skiff, good to hear from you.

From the top of my head, the word careening in the quote does not sound right (I think it is something to do with cleaning the hull of a ship); careering is much more likely (meaning moving quickly but in an uncontrolled way). It seems likely that that is a misprint in the original or a misquote from that. I will see if I can check.

Having the governors off means disabling a speed-limiting device so Banks is asking us to imagine the Canadian soldiers dashing about in their Universal Carriers, going as fast as possible in the manner of cowboys (from movies rather than reality).

I hope that helps. Do ask again if you have any questions.

By the way, I have recently written an article about a hero of the French resistance: Joël Letac. I would appreciate it if you were to give it a look. There is a French Wikipedia article that I cannot read myself and I feel sure that there must be many French sources that I have neglected for the same reason.

Gaius Cornelius (talk) 07:43, 28 March 2016 (UTC)

Thanks a lot for the explanation, it is clear now. I will be able to finish the translation of your article. I will have a lot of both article (French and English) of Joël Letac, but not tonight because it is late and I am tired. Thanks again for your help, Skiff (talk) 20:35, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

Can you help with a pillbox image

I'm having trouble to link to a 54 meter high pillbox this, allegedly one of the highest in the region. Could you please help ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 37.19.120.73 (talk) 15:02, 19 June 2016 (UTC)

I will help if I can. Do you want to include this image in a wikipedia article or do you want to link to it from elsewhere? Where is this file? Do you want to upload it to Commons? Gaius Cornelius (talk) 20:56, 19 June 2016 (UTC)

I would like to put that image on the pilbox gallery, the image is taken from another wikipedia page about pillbox https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/קובץ:פילבוקס.jpg , Sorry but I don't know what is the "Commons" you mentnion here37.19.116.135 (talk) 05:00, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

Wikimedia Commons (see: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) is where files are stored that can be used on any wiki project - or indeed elsewhere.

The image to which you linked appears to be in a Hebrew language wikipedia. The most straightforward thing to do will be to move the image from the Hebrew language wikipedia to Wikimedia Commons. I don't read Hebrew; perhaps an editor on that wikipedia will be able to help you.

There are already a number of images of pillboxes in Israel (see box to the right). Perhapts you may find an alternative image already there.

Gaius Cornelius (talk) 19:38, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

UNESCO Region

Greetings.

As confusing as it may be, Turkey does belong to the UNESCO Region of Europe and North America. Israel belongs to that Region as well, despite being geographically neither European nor North American. In the case of Hierapolis, referring to it as belonging to "Europe and Asia" is both inaccurate with regards to geography and outright incorrect according to UNESCO.

I do however concur that not stating "Region" means "UNESCO Region" - even though it's under a WHS box - can cause a good deal of confusion, resulting in editors frequently changing that parameter according to their own interpretation. You are free to bring forth the proposal that we purge the parameter from the designation box altogether, much like how they did to the similarly problematic "State Party". Until then it should probably remain consistent to the UNESCO definition of regions. Thank you. Morningstar1814 (talk) 15:43, 19 October 2016 (UTC)

Two-Factor Authentication now available for admins

Hello,

Please note that TOTP based two-factor authentication is now available for all administrators. In light of the recent compromised accounts, you are encouraged to add this additional layer of security to your account. It may be enabled on your preferences page in the "User profile" tab under the "Basic information" section. For basic instructions on how to enable two-factor authentication, please see the developing help page for additional information. Important: Be sure to record the two-factor authentication key and the single use keys. If you lose your two factor authentication and do not have the keys, it's possible that your account will not be recoverable. Furthermore, you are encouraged to utilize a unique password and two-factor authentication for the email account associated with your Wikimedia account. This measure will assist in safeguarding your account from malicious password resets. Comments, questions, and concerns may be directed to the thread on the administrators' noticeboard. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:33, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

A new user right for New Page Patrollers

Hi Gaius Cornelius.

A new user group, New Page Reviewer, has been created in a move to greatly improve the standard of new page patrolling. The user right can be granted by any admin at PERM. It is highly recommended that admins look beyond the simple numerical threshold and satisfy themselves that the candidates have the required skills of communication and an advanced knowledge of notability and deletion. Admins are automatically included in this user right.

It is anticipated that this user right will significantly reduce the work load of admins who patrol the performance of the patrollers. However,due to the complexity of the rollout, some rights may have been accorded that may later need to be withdrawn, so some help will still be needed to some extent when discovering wrongly applied deletion tags or inappropriate pages that escape the attention of less experienced reviewers, and above all, hasty and bitey tagging for maintenance. User warnings are available here but very often a friendly custom message works best.

If you have any questions about this user right, don't hesitate to join us at WT:NPR. (Sent to all admins).MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:47, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

Pop-up Turret

Hello! Your submission of Pickett-Hamilton fort at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and some issues with it may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know!

I like your article. Could you give me some information on WP:QPQ, please? --NearEMPTiness (talk) 14:34, 11 April 2017 (UTC)

WT:DYK#Queue 5

Please see discussion going on about your hook for Pickett-Hamilton fort. Yoninah (talk) 09:01, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

DYK for Pickett-Hamilton fort

On 7 May 2017, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Pickett-Hamilton fort, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that a Pickett-Hamilton fort (example pictured) could be lowered into the ground when not in use and raised for combat? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Pickett-Hamilton fort. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Pickett-Hamilton fort), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 04:48, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

I just wanted to congratulate you on the Pickett-Hamilton article. What a sensational gif, and a great article in general. A Train^talk 07:26, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

Pickett-Hamilton Fort

The German translation of your article about the de:Pickett-Hamilton Fort is linked on the German main page today. Let's see, how many people will read it. --NearEMPTiness (talk) 23:45, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

Dark side of the moon

Hi, because you have previously written about this subject in the past, could you please offer your views on the dispute on the article Moon, that is being discussed at Talk:Moon#Dark side of the moon, regarding the terminology of "dark side of the moon"? Thank you. —Lowellian (reply) 16:49, 23 September 2017 (UTC)

10 years of adminship, today.

Wishing Gaius Cornelius a very happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Chris Troutman (talk) 03:00, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

Chacing

I applaud your deletion of the chacing staff text. I did a BEFORE and found plenty of citations of use of such a device, but no descriptions of it. If you think it's not worthy of inclusion in the encyclopedia, then AfD the referring RREDIRECT, too. Rhadow (talk) 14:39, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. I googled for this thing and could not find any meaningful reference. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 19:46, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Belated best wishes for a happy 2018

^{The Fox Hunt (1893) by Winslow Homer, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.}

Thank you for your contributions toward making Wikipedia a better and more accurate place.

BoringHistoryGuy (talk) 13:41, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

September 2018

Please do not edit the name of files in articles as you did to Mission San Juan Capistrano, it breaks the link to the file. I have corrected the mistake. In the future, please use the preview button before you save your edit; this helps you find any errors you have made and prevents clogging up recent changes and the page history. Below the edit box is a Show preview button. Pressing this will show you what the article will look like without actually saving it.

The "Show preview" button is right next to the "Publish changes" button and below the edit summary field.

It is strongly recommended that you use this before saving. If you have any questions, you are welcome to ask on my talk page, or to post at the help desk for assistance. Thank you. Careful, you accidentally added "ndash" in two different filenames while doing cleanup :) Katniss May the odds be ever in your favor ♥ 21:41, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

Pictures on the stair at Dunrobin

Thanks for taking these pictures. The frame inscription on the "Unknown Lady" is "Lady Margaret Stewart ... died 1639" indicating Margaret Howard, Countess of Nottingham. This was accepted and published by Alexander J. Finberg, 'A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PORTRAITS BY CORNELIUS JOHNSON, OR JONSON', The Volume of the Walpole Society Vol. 10 (1921-1922), p. 17.Unoquha (talk) 15:52, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

Best wishes for a happy 2019

^{The Hill Country (1913) by Walter Elmer Schofield, Woodmere Art Museum.}

Thank you for your contributions toward making Wikipedia a better and more accurate place.

== BoringHistoryGuy (talk) 00:23, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

Happy Edit Day

Hey, Gaius Cornelius. I'd like to wish you a wonderful First Edit Day on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Have a great day! Mjs1991 (talk) 08:13, 10 June 2019 (UTC)

Backlog Banzai

In the month of September, Wikiproject Military history is running a project-wide edit-a-thon, Backlog Banzai. There are heaps of different areas you can work on, for which you claim points, and at the end of the month all sorts of whiz-bang awards will be handed out. Every player wins a prize! There is even a bit of friendly competition built in for those that like that sort of thing. Sign up now at Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/September 2019 Backlog Banzai to take part. For the coordinators, Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 08:18, 22 August 2019 (UTC)

March Madness 2020

G'day all, March Madness 2020 is about to get underway, and there is bling aplenty for those who want to get stuck into the backlog by way of tagging, assessing, updating, adding or improving resources and creating articles. If you haven't already signed up to participate, why not? The more the merrier! Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 08:19, 29 February 2020 (UTC) for the coord team

Happy

Wishing Gaius Cornelius a very Cornelius happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! CommanderWaterford (talk) 06:47, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

Theobald Dillon, 7th Viscount Dillon

Dear Gaius Cornelius. Thank you very much for your efforts to improve the four articles "Theobald Dillon, 7th Viscount Dillon", "Guy Aldonce de Durfort de Lorges", "Charles Dillon, 10th Viscount Dillon", and "Randal MacDonnell, 1st Marquess of Antrim (1645 creation)", which I recently touched. You implemented many valuable improvements by correcting spelling mistakes (e.g. "cannon ball" to "cannonball"), my frequent mistypings of the nbsp element, and removing extra spaces. However, please, you must not edit text inside quotations. Your AWB does not seem to realise that quoted text in the ps parameter of the sfn template must be exempted. For example in "Theobald Dillon, 7th Viscount Dillon" you corrected |ps=: "William and Mary . [Accession] 13 February, 1689"}} to |ps=: "William and Mary. [Accession] 13 February 1689"}}. There are other similar edits in the mentioned articles. Please revert them! Besides is there some rule that prescribes an empty line between the infobox and the lead? Is "... " instead of "... " really useful at the beginning of a quotation? --- With many thanks, Johannes

Thank you for bring this to my attention. I was only really going after the non-breaking spaces etc but AWB is set up to make lots of minor fixes including spaces before full stops and removing commas from dates which I think must be what got "corrected" here. You are quite right of course that quotes should not be altered. I will look into that too. I did put the nbsp's after the inverted commas and ellipsis because sometimes these get left hanging at the end of a line - I don't think that there is a rule as-such but avoiding a hanging quote does look better. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 12:34, 28 July 2020 (UTC)

Dear Gaius Cornelius. Thank you for your quick reaction and especially for reverting the edits. Friendly greetings, Johannes Johannes Schade (talk) 13:48, 28 July 2020 (UTC)

Nominations for the 2020 Military history WikiProject Newcomer and Historian of the Year awards now open

G'day all, the nominations for the 2020 Military history WikiProject newcomer and Historian of the Year are open, all editors are encouraged to nominate candidates for the awards before until 23:59 (GMT) on 15 December 2020, after which voting will occur for 14 days. There is not much time left to nominate worthy recipients, so get to it! Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 06:45, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Voting for "Military Historian of the Year" and "Military history newcomer of the year" closing

G'day all, voting for the WikiProject Military history "Military Historian of the Year" and "Military history newcomer of the year" is about to close, so if you haven't already, click on the links and have your say before 23:59 (GMT) on 30 December! Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 23:34, 28 December 2020 (UTC) for the coord team

Charles Dillon, 10th Viscount Dillon

Ave Gaius Cornelius! Thanks for repairing an   in the article "Charles Dillon, 10th Viscount Dillon". However, your genfixes also removed commas out of dates in quotations that should not be touched. This is due to a bug in AWB, that you perhaps did not know about. User Tom.Reding submitted it as Phabricator task T236729 “Genfixes removes comma from quoted date” on 28 October 2019. The first occasion is "James, Kt. of Malta, Col. of the Dillon Regt., fell at its head at Fontenoy, 30 April, 1745.", which you changed to "James, Kt. of Malta, Col. of the Dillon Regt., fell at its head at Fontenoy, 30 April 1745." removing the comma between April and 1745. There are others. Please repair them all. With best greetings and thanks, Johannes Schade (talk) 08:31, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know. It is done. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 13:56, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

FAR of British anti-invasion preparations of the Second World War

I have nominated British anti-invasion preparations of the Second World War for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Z1720 (talk) 21:44, 24 March 2021 (UTC)

Convert template AWB regexes

Hi. I saw your edit using AWB. Would you be able to share your regexes for the Convert template? I prepared three for now, but didn't have any time to further work upon. Thanks :) — DaxServer (talk to me) 08:58, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

I have left a reply on your user talk page in the convert template section. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 05:13, 28 August 2021 (UTC)

Survey about History on Wikipedia

I am Petros Apostolopoulos, a Ph.D. candidate in Public History at North Carolina State University. My Ph.D. project examines how historical knowledge is produced on Wikipedia. You must be 18 years of age or older, reside in the United States to participate in this study. If you are interested in participating in my research study by offering your own experience of writing about history on Wikipedia, you can click on this link https://ncsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9z4wmR1cIp0qBH8. There are minimal risks involved in this research.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Petros Apostolopoulos, [email protected] Apolo1991 (talk) 17:31, 14 December 2021 (UTC)

George Hamilton, 4th Baron Hamilton of Strabane

Ave Gaius Cornelius. Thank you very much for your recent corrections (on 19 Dec 2021) "redundant words and tidy" on the article George Hamilton, 4th Baron Hamilton of Strabane. They are all my mistakes. Thank you very much, You are right and I should be more careful: my bad. Please accept my apologies. Besides, many of your edits are precisely what User:Twofingered Typist from the GOCE used to do. In addition you are an administrator with 150,000 edits and I am just approachng 8000. However, there is one of your edits I wonder about. This is the one (the only one) you did in the "Family tree". You deleted the final "pipe" character in the line {{Tree chart| | | | | | | | |,|-|-|^|.| | | |,|-|-|-|'|}}. This makes the rightmost block in the line beneath lose part of its width. Please have a look. Is this the effect you want? I feel the pipe should be allowed in this place to sustain the full width of the line below. This seems to be needed just above (or just below) the widest line in the tree. I bother you about this because there are many such occurrences in the family trees of that type and I silently undid similar corrections you did in other places, hoping it might be a once-off but it turns out to be systematic. With many thanks and best regards, Johannes Schade (talk) 16:12, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I did not do this deliberately - it must be a side effect of some other semiautomatic edit. I will try to track down the problem. If this has been happening for a while then I am very sorry for the trouble and thank you for sorting them out. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 16:41, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

Merchandise giveaway nomination

A token of thanks Hi Gaius Cornelius! I've nominated you (along with all other active admins) to receive a solstice season gift from the WMF. Talk page stalkers are invited to comment at the nomination. Enjoy! Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}} talk ~~~~~

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:50, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

How we will see unregistered users

Hi!

You get this message because you are an admin on a Wikimedia wiki.

When someone edits a Wikimedia wiki without being logged in today, we show their IP address. As you may already know, we will not be able to do this in the future. This is a decision by the Wikimedia Foundation Legal department, because norms and regulations for privacy online have changed.

Instead of the IP we will show a masked identity. You as an admin will still be able to access the IP. There will also be a new user right for those who need to see the full IPs of unregistered users to fight vandalism, harassment and spam without being admins. Patrollers will also see part of the IP even without this user right. We are also working on better tools to help.

If you have not seen it before, you can read more on Meta. If you want to make sure you don’t miss technical changes on the Wikimedia wikis, you can subscribe to the weekly technical newsletter.

We have two suggested ways this identity could work. We would appreciate your feedback on which way you think would work best for you and your wiki, now and in the future. You can let us know on the talk page. You can write in your language. The suggestions were posted in October and we will decide after 17 January.

Thank you. /Johan (WMF)

18:13, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

Photo requests in Buckinghamshire and West Sussex

Hi again! I'm checking to see if some editors are interested in photographing entrances to Japanese boarding schools in England. Do you still do photo requests, and in Buckinghamshire and/or West Sussex?

Thanks WhisperToMe (talk) 05:20, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

New administrator activity requirement

The administrator policy has been updated with new activity requirements following a successful Request for Comment.

Beginning January 1, 2023, administrators who meet one or both of the following criteria may be desysopped for inactivity if they have:

1. Made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least a 12-month period OR
2. Made fewer than 100 edits over a 60-month period

Administrators at risk for being desysopped under these criteria will continue to be notified ahead of time. Thank you for your continued work.

22:52, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

Please don't reindent infoboxes unless they are a mess

Please don't reindent infoboxes unless they really they are a mess. Adding various amounts of spaces on the left side infoboxes isn't a mandatory thing. The infobox of most Kansas community articles have already been realigned, such as city & unincorporated community articles. The infobox in some other states are far worse, so please concentrate infobox changes in those states. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 21:45, 4 March 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for the feedback. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 22:43, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

Tidying infoboxes

Hi, I see you've added spaces to the parameters in various infoboxes. You do know that another editor (possibly more than one) goes round taking them all out again? Murgatroyd49 (talk) 16:45, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

Ha! Don't they just! Years ago, when Wikipedia was young I would have been one of them but I came round to favouring clarity and structure over brevity. Aligning template parameters is not in WP:MOS (perhaps it should be) but it is in the guidance on templates to be found here. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 06:58, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

That's a useful ref, I've made a note. Cheers Murgatroyd49 (talk) 07:22, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

COI User in Mormonism and Polygamy page

Hi, reaching out because I'm not even sure how to process what's being done on the Mormonism and Polygamy page. NatalieEmma.BYU has done ~45 edits in the last ~5 weeks while getting paid by a Mormon institution and appears to be misusing minor edits among other things. I'm unsure where to even go about doing anything about it so I thought I'd reach out to a recently active administrator. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Maerlon0 (talk • contribs) 06:34, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

I have had a very quick look. I don't think that there is any objections to somebody being paid to update Wikipedia provided they act in good faith and keep to Wikipedia's rules. Can you cite some particular instances you think egregious? Gaius Cornelius (talk) 06:44, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

AWB request

Hi, Thank you so much for your edits cleaning-up infoboxes across Wikipedia. If it isn't took much hassle for you, could you do a go-through of the counties of North Carolina and South Carolina (About 146 in total, not counting the ones you've already done)? I totally understand if you can't but thank you for your help with the ones you've done already.

P.S. The whitespace removal and hidden comments being messed up is caused by edits done with Visual Editor. I've reached out many times about the problem, but I recently learned that it's been a known issue since 2019. Just wanted to let you know since you seem to edit a lot of pages which use Template:Infobox settlement and U.S. county, the ones most affected by this issue. Thanks again and have a great day! DiscoA340 (talk) 15:18, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

All done. As you must have guessed, I use a whole bunch of AWB scripts working together that make to job very much easier. Some of those articles gave me the chance to hone my scripts. All-in-all those infoboxes were not half so bad as some I have seen! Gaius Cornelius (talk) 20:19, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
	Thank you for your help with cleaning up the NC/SC county articles, have a great day! DiscoA340 (talk) 11:12, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

CS1 error on Woodbury County, Iowa

Hello, I'm Qwerfjkl (bot). I have automatically detected that this edit performed by you, on the page Woodbury County, Iowa, may have introduced referencing errors. They are as follows:

• A "bare URL and missing title" error. References show this error when they do not have a title. Please edit the article to add the appropriate title parameter to the reference. (Fix | Ask for help)

Please check this page and fix the errors highlighted. If you think this is a false positive, you can report it to my operator. Thanks, Qwerfjkl (bot) (talk) 14:04, 16 May 2023 (UTC)

Sentence spacing

Hi -- I undid this edit because you removed the double spaces at the end of each sentence, which were intentional. Usually when you see those spaces, it's because they were put there deliberately. Is it possible in AWB to do whatever clean up you were doing without removing those spaces? I think as a general rule it would be better not to change sentence spacing as editors vary in what they prefer. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 20:56, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

Undefined sfn reference in Operation Outward

Hi, in this edit to Operation Outward you introduced {{sfn|ADM 1/16843}} but did not define the source. This means that nobody can look it up, and the article is added to Category:Harv and Sfn no-target errors. If you could supply the missing source that would be appreciated. DuncanHill (talk) 16:35, 2 November 2023 (UTC)

Adding spaces to Infobox templates

Hi there, I'm curious about the edit you did to Gniezno. The only change is to add multiple spaces to the Infobox template. I noticed that the edit is tagged with WP:AWB. I have been using AWB myself to remove all these extra spaces. My reason for this is that editing and/or adding extra parameters to the Infobox is a lot simpler when there is just a single space either side of the = sign. Do you have any thoughts? Regards, Kiwipete (talk) 07:07, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

I am following this guideline:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Template_namespace#Readability

I think this guideline (it is not mandatory) is for the best because it makes things clearer. This is especially true if one is and inexperienced editor and/or one is eyeballing to find something that needs to be changed. My personal inclination for this particular sort of tidiness is probably influenced by decades of writing computer programs and years of teaching kids maths :)

Addendum: if all I did was to add spaces this was not my intention. I use AWB to look for any number of specific faults or improvements and the regularising of infobox templates is just a "side effect". Will eyeball check but I am usually just looking for accidently inserted errors and if I don't see any I will click on SAVE. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 11:32, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

I find myself disagreeing with that guideline. If an editor is looking at the wikicode, then presumably it is for the purpose of editing the article, not reading it. I have been using AWB to add missing coordinates and pushpin_map parameters to article on Polish towns and cities. I have found doing this with one single space on either side of the = sign to be completely straight-forward. I can't imagine how you would calculate the number of spaces to add to make all the = signs align. Kiwipete (talk) 19:06, 24 May 2024 (UTC)

If you are using AWB to add parameters in that way I think that is fine. That is one of the type of things AWB is for and I would not want to impose upon the efficient implementation of valuable contributions. If a little untidiness results, that is a small price to pay.

However, the guideline is there for editors who are not using automatic or semi-automatic tools. Editors need to read and understand the wikicode before they make a change: emphasising the structure of code and data greatly helps when humans are trying to work out what is going on - it is quicker and less error prone. It is not a question of aesthetics but of ergonomics. This, surely, is the purpose of the guideline and it is also why so many templates are modelled in this way with editors invited to cut and paste this pattern.

See here for an example: Template:Infobox_settlement

I'd be happy to hear your further thoughts. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 05:03, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

I came here to start a new thread about this issue and see it was already started :) On St Neots, you added spaces to the infobox template that had no effect on the rendered text. There's some guidance on this at WP:COSMETICBOT. I would encourage you to not make edits where the only change is adding/removing spaces. Even if it's supported by AWB, or even not strictly not allowed by policy, you should consider this a bad idea. It has happened in the past that editors have faced sanctions for misbehavior including these sorts of edits. This is in no way meant to be threatening, but a friendly caution. --Hammersoft (talk) 21:27, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

The Signpost: 8 June 2024

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to those listed as recently active admins

Could I request a look at the interventions of User:Maurnxiao in Talk:2024 United Kingdom general election, sections Infobox, Muslim Vote, and Workers Party.

A member of less than a week (although his very first post was challenging the status of sources as reliable, making me suspect he has been active under a different identity), entirely unaccepting of the principle of consensus, determined to see a level of coverage of one political party that is disproportionate to that given by mainstream news sources. Highly disruptive, unwilling to accept that his preference is not grounds to change the approach taken by the article. Time sensitive issue (election is in 10 days), so a quicker intervention would be desirable. Is seeking a topic ban suitable, or is some other solution more suitable.

With thanks. Kevin McE (talk) 08:29, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Obviously I feel an intense urge to defend myself after the way in which you have defaced my honor as an editor on here, but I should also really say that I had already acknowledged the lack of consensus and had stopped pushing for an inclusion of the Workers Party in the infobox with pictures should it be reintroduced. My question had been at what point does a regional party become significant enough in Westminster to be included. You had also promised to push for a "topic ban", whatever that is, if I should continue talking about Galloway in the talk page. I didn't make a single edit anywhere after that warning, and yet you chose to smear my name on so many different user talk pages? Maurnxiao (talk) 10:41, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Thank you @Gaius Cornelius: matter now seems closed. Kevin McE (talk) 11:29, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

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No need for a reminder - I have already done this. Gaius Cornelius (talk) 05:13, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

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==Happy Adminship Anniversary!

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