User talk:Shawn Goldwater

Welcome!

Welcome to the Citizendium! We hope you will contribute boldly and well. You'll probably want to know how to get started as an author. Just look at CZ:Getting Started for other helpful "startup" links, and CZ:Home for the top menu of community pages. Be sure to stay abreast of events via the Citizendium-L (broadcast) mailing list (do join!) and the blog. Please also join the workgroup mailing list(s) that concern your particular interests. You can test out editing in the sandbox if you'd like. If you need help to get going, the forums is one option. That's also where we discuss policy and proposals. You can ask any constable for help, too. Me, for instance! Just put a note on their "talk" page. Again, welcome and have fun! Sarah Tuttle 07:44, 18 January 2008 (CST)

Canada

keep those Canada geography articles coming! I can help out with bibliographies esp re history. Richard Jensen 10:41, 31 January 2008 (CST)

London Calling

Since when did The Clash have a monopoly on the term London Calling? Its a term used by the BBC and others since 1922. Meg Ireland 19:02, 3 February 2008 (CST)

Definition templates

I have just "activated" the subpages for the Canada article (actually, all that is necessary to do this is to put the subpages tag at the top). I have also built out a small starter set of related articles for Canada. If you click on the red "Template:Def" beside those articles in the list which do not already have definitions (most of them at this point) you will be taken to an edit page where you can enter a definition (briefly, in 30 words or less, tell what, or who, ___________ is?

These definitions will be used wherever the "r" template is used to enter article titles in the listings on the "Related Articles" subpages.

• Subpages description
• Related Articles with description of "r" template and definition template

Sometimes when I write my definitions, I am "composing at the keyboard", so some of them might need to be re-touched.

I would urge you to experiment with the subpages. The best way to find out how they are supposed to work is to learn by doing.

James F. Perry 19:29, 5 February 2008 (CST)

To begin with, Wikipedia uses categories (you can see them at the bottom of any WP page) to organize articles into groupings of related topics. I am not alone in feeling that the system of categories on WP has gotten out of control and is thus less useful than it could otherwise be. (My favorite is the category of Olympic bronze medalists from Lithuania - substitute any country.)

Citizendium, based on an original proposal of Larry Sanger's, will use subpages instead of categories (the wiki software allows either). An article together with its subpages, is called a cluster. Among the cluster is the related articles subpage, as an example. Eventually, every CZ article will have a related articles subpage. Now, British Columbia and Alberta are subtopics of Canada and are listed thusly on the related articles subpage for the Canada article. On the British Columbia article page, there will likewise be a related articles subpage. Apart from Parent topics (Canada) and Subtopics (Victoria), there are other related topics. That latter will include Alberta just as British Columbia will be listed in the same manner on the Alberta related articles page.

Here is where the definition templates will eventually come in handy. The same article - say, British Columbia, will be listed in many, many places. If the "r" template is used wherever it is listed, then the definition does not have to be separately entered each time. Instead, it will be automatically retrieved from the template.

Note that Sanger does not want Catalogs to list just the information contained in the "r" template. Eventually, they should contain additional information. However, I need the "r" templates for the moment in order to tell at a glance where the definition templates are already built, and where they are needed.

This is all housekeeping. It is probably more important to build articles. Or both!

James F. Perry 20:31, 10 February 2008 (CST)

I spy with my little eye....

..someone who was working away on Party Day. Hi Shawn--don't be shy--please add yourself to the list of revellers Aleta Curry 22:18, 6 February 2008 (CST)

Sectioning

Shawn -

I noticed your edit to tide, where you separated off the Bay of Fundy discussion into its own section. Please take a look at CZ:Article mechanics - we have a preference for fewer section headings, rather than more. In particular, I don't think it's useful to separate an example of a phenomenon which isn't that important a feature of tides into its own separate section. Anthony Argyriou 12:09, 13 February 2008 (CST)