User talk:Brucep

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Current revision as of 14:59, 18 January 2009

Welcome

Hello, Bruce, and let me pipe you aboard WikiPOBia! I may as well be formal although a bit late! I hope you like the place and decide to stay and contribute to some more articles. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

• Explanation of WikiPOBia
• Rules and guidelines
• Help pages
• Style Manual

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a member of our WikiPOBia community! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); or by clicking on the http://wiki.hmssurprise.org/skins/common/images/button_sig.png icon above the editing window,this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out WikiPOBia:FAQ or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome aboard! Hi, Bruce, I'm trying to get a project started up to add the nautical terms as part of the LexiconAquinas 17:12, 5 January 2009 (GMT)

Nautical terms

Ha, well, I still have a bunch of scripts to write to support it, and waiting for the actual server setup ... but, yes, hopefully soon.

Give you Joy of the impending work on the project. Bruce 14:59, 18 January 2009 (GMT)

Bruce, we've gotten the green light from our server admins for what we need for the Lexicon nautical 
terms project. This will take a bit of setup to get going (I have to set up a database and write the 
scripts to support it), but, hopefully, not too long. I noticed that you've been adding definitions 
of some nautical terms to the Main: article namespace, and wanted to ask if you could hold off on 
adding too many of these for now, but continue collecting the information so that we can add them to 
the Lexicon project as soon as we are ready. We'd like to have all these terms collected together 
in the Lexicon: namespace in a relatively standardized format with book and page references, cross 
references with each other (easy to do if the terms are all stored in a database, not so much if we 
have to hunt them down in the wiki), etc. So, if we add them now in the Main: namespace we'll end up 
with some duplication of entries that might be difficult to merge. Of course, longer, more expository
articles with titles that might also end up in the Lexicon: are fine, we already have some instances
of that: the Lexicon: is intended to provide concise definitiions, so longer articles in the Main:
namespace on some topics complement each other well.

Of course, if you do want to keep adding them now, I'd suggest adding them to the Lexicon: namespace 
(you can do this by simply prefixing the article title with "Lexicon:"), but also keeping a copy of 
the information you enter so that we can easily add it to the Lexicon database, once that is ready. 
Then, when we load the Lexicon entries from the database, we'll just overwrite the current Lexicon 
article. If you know what Lexicon:'ish articles you've added, you could send me a list and I could 
move them there for you. -- Jblumel 14:56, 7 January 2009 (GMT)

We currently have, thanks to their respective creators, terms from Guide for the Perplexed and Maturin's Medicine, but nautical terms would be an extremely valuable addition, particularly because I think coming to terms with those (no pun intended) is one of the biggest obstacles new readers of the Aubrey/Maturin novels face.

Rather than just adding terms directly to the Lexicon, I'd like to collect the information in a more controlled fashion, so that we can make sure we have page references (like the other Lexicon entries), can properly categorize the entries by book chapter, possibly language and perhaps other criteria, and cross reference them as much as possible. So, I've broached the subject with our server administrators and want to set up a database and a web interface to facilitate this collection and make it relatively simple to export the nautical terms to the WikiPOBia once they are assembled (or at least a good start is made).

The idea is to recruit a large number of "readers" who would be willing to do close readings of chapters, or even entire books, to collect terms and enter them along with page references. A smaller number of "researchers" (hopefully, people who start out with a fair amount of knowledge in the area) could then provide definitions for the terms. One or two editors would be required to ensure consistency, check page references, make sure the definitions aren't violating copyrights of other sources, and that sort of thing. The generation of the Lexicon entries (and cross referencing) would then be done automatically, and terms uploaded to the Lexicon.

So, that's the plan, but, right now I'm waiting to hear from our server administrators to see if they'll give me access to the server (to install the web interface, which I have to create) and database. If you're interested in working on this once thing are ready to go, let me know and I'll contact you then. Jblumel 21:51, 3 January 2009 (GMT)

Just watch the Lexicon project page. I'll post a notice there when the nautical terms project is ready to start up. Jblumel 03:25, 4 January 2009 (GMT)

Adding Category labels

The syntax is quite simple, you just add [[Category: Name of the Category]] at the end of the page. The real problem is finding what the "Name of the Category" should be. The easiest way is to go to a page with a similar article and see what is already in place and copy that. Your article title will appear on the same category page. If it is a red link, this just means that no introduction to the Category has been written, not that the category is nonexistent. If you can't find a suitable article, then you can review the Category page under "Special Pages" in the toolbox menu in the left hand column. However, there are a very large number of Categories in that so finding the correct one may be difficult. Welcome aboard and I see John is planning to put you to work! Aquinas 17:07, 5 January 2009 (GMT)

If you can't figure out where an article should go for a category, don't worry about it. I go through and sort any uncategorized articles and set categories. --LadyShelley 05:34, 6 January 2009 (GMT)

Navel experience?

I read in the introduction on your user page that you have some 'navel experience'. I think you might mean 'naval experience', but I could be wrong. Lar 02:03, 14 January 2009 (GMT)

Lar I believe you are correct. I have Naval experience not Navel experience. Or at least I am not willing to admit to any navel experience in such a public space as this.
Bruce 03:16, 14 January 2009 (GMT)