Talk:Main Page

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• Use Template:Graticule to generate a map of the graticule for graticule pages.
• Use Template:Meetup graticule to generate a map of a day's location for meetup/expedition pages.
• All scripts and implementations written for the Geohashing algorithm should be posted at Implementations. Any discussion on an implementation's bugs should be directed to Talk:Implementations.

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Complete list of historical locations

Surely someone has by now generated a complete list of the decimal parts of the coordinates produced by the historical data? It can't just be me wanting to see it, can it? Does anyone have a link to one if so? Even better if it was available as a map overlay...

I put up a set of Historical Location Data that I generated a couple days ago. It seemed slightly too ginormous to put on the wiki in it's raw form, but if anywone wants to, be my guest. Unfortunately there are some bad dates in there due to Dow data that was missing, but I'll get them updated. My hope was to use the data to generate a map overlay or allow you to click a location on the map and have it show you all the dates that a geohash landed in the vicinity, but my web programming skills are nonexistent. I could write a Windows app, but that's not so great for anyone. Someone else tackle it. :) --ZorMonkey 11:57, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

I also have a set of location data 1970 to present for W30 and non-W30. No bad dates that I know of, generated using the Perl implementation today. I lack the google-fu to plot it on google maps, but am happy to provide it to anyone. Data is comma separated. And since I've got a domain name sitting around doing nothing, Ill put it to use: here 'tis free for any use --Psud 12:29, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

I've updated my non-W30 data, and added W30 data. Our numbers are pretty close, so that's good! 14,000 units tests passed! :) It looks like you're missing a few dates though - for example 2008-03-28. BTW - Mine is also in CSV format, and includes the DJIA so it can be used to calculate the numbers if anyone else is playing with the algorithm. --ZorMonkey 03:19, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

My data is now hole-less (Pls let me know if you find otherwise), and complete back to 1928-10-01 in both W30 and non-W30! download here! <-- Note also now in format date,DJIA,lat,long

Also now the data is available bzipped or text. My intention is to keep it up to date - updating at 03:00 my local time (GMT+10). Let's see if my scripting is up to it. NOTE: New web page

Wow, nice! With that I regenerated my Google Earth KML file for Milwaukee. It now includes different color markers for different days of the week, and each marker has it's date associated with it so you can use Google Earth's (frustratingly tiny) timeline to constrain the dates you want to show. I wish I had to good way to create a webpage that would generate a KML file for any region you wanted... Maybe I can attempt that this weekend - but probably not. :) --ZorMonkey 04:28, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Once you have one of the data files, it's pretty easy to generate a KML file for Google Earth. Google Earth freaks out a little bit, but it works! Here is a sample KML file (zipped) that I generated for the 4 graticules near the Milwaukee area, and the Python code I used follows. I've just started learning Python, so forgive any hackityness. In this state it needs to be manually tweaked to generate other graticule information, but it's pretty easy. Anyone know if it's possible to specify the marker color? --ZorMonkey 04:27, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Instead of putting it here, I've put my increasingly terrible Python KML generating code up on the web. I'll update that file as I make changes and make it more (or less) awesome. --ZorMonkey 04:28, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

I have generated KMZs for the Cincinnati, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan graticules. Each are linked to off of the respective graticule pages. Scottkuma 19:35, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Hmm. So, if I generate this historical data, and one (or more!) points in the past land on my property, do I qualify for the Time Traveller Couch Potato GeoHash Achievement ?? --Briand 18:29, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Organization / automation questions

So, we now have date pages (2008-06-07), date-bound templates for the day's expedition images ({{Expedition Images/2008-06-07}}), categories for the day's meetups (Category:Meetup on 2008-06-07 -- not all of which have been 'created', even though most if not all are in use). We also have the "Recent and Upcoming Coordinates" and "Gallery of Recent Expeditions" sections on the front page. There are likely other daily-maintenance-type things I'm not aware of (archiving? Creation of the supercategories like Category:Meetup in 2008-06?).

I'd be more than willing to work on automating some/all of the above, if people are interested -- I know tjtrumpet2323 mentioned that he doesn't mind doing the manual update of the front-page coordinates, and that it would likely be handled by a template eventually (once the mediawiki daily coords implementation was done) anyway. I've been playing with api.php a bit recently, and most of the automation is reasonably simple. But I don't want to step on any toes (explicitly including rpm's, since I'm not sure how kindly he'll take to people running bots against the wiki).

Additionally: It would be trivial, once images are categorized by meetup date (very few are currently) to randomly swap out the pictures that have been picked for the day's Expedition Images. But this introduces the question of whether a second (editorial, not automatic) category should be created for "best of the day" to use as the pool (assuming the consensus is "automation is good", rather than "keep it editorial, like it already is"), instead of pictures like Image:2008-06-01_37_-121-Tapin-2.JPG.

Thoughts?

--Tapin 20:59, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to see a lot more automation done, and was considering writing my own bots to do some of it. But considering my other workload, I'm not sure when that will happen. One thing I'd be worried about is creating pages just to fill in the dates, without actually having content for them. Your comment about editorial content also stands - any bots should be willing to accept imposed content. Zigdon 21:57, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

The main reason pages such as Template:Expeditions/2008-06-12 exist is to allow inclusion on pages such as 2008-06. Now that the date pages pretty much only contained templated-in content, they're practically unnecessary. However, from a template-coding standpoint, Template:Date nav is easier to code when the page titles are simple, like 2008-06-12. Does anyone know if there's a way of transcluding (templating) pages in the Main namespace? (I have more thoughts on this section's topic as a whole, but have to leave for now.) --Tim P 15:40, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

You can transclude anything, not just templates. Use {{:Main Page}} to transclude the main page, for example. Mike.lifeguard 00:26, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, Mike.lifeguard. I didn't realise the colon notation extended to transclusion. I think when I create the date pages for the weekend in a few hours' time, I'll just create YYYY-MM-DD pages and not bother with Template:Expeditions/YYYY-MM-DD. I'd be willing to go back through the three weeks of pages and move data around... as well as to clean up the includes... seeing how I did 90% of them to begin with. Any thoughts? --Tim P 06:00, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

Automated Transclusion Implemented

I did some automating/optimising stuff over the weekend. The Template:Expeditions/YYYY-MM-DD pages are to be completely discontinued from 17 June, as meetups are now included on the date pages themselves (YYYY-MM-DD, e.g., 2008-06-16). I even went back and copied stuff over for continuity's sake. As far as the image gallery templates go, I automated a template/script to show the current (UTC) day and the three prior for use on Main Page. It uses the new syntax {{Expedition Images|YYYY-MM-DD}} which includes Template:Expedition Images/YYYY-MM-DD (note the slash), along with the appropriate header (based on page context) if the template exists, or a "start this gallery"-type message if it doesn't. It also provides a "direct edit" link to the template from the date pages. --Tim P 05:53, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Thoughts? You may note that I opted not to provide a "direct edit" link in instances where {{Expedition Images|YYYY-MM-DD}} are transcluded on Main Page, more so out of fear of the page's visibility than anything. I suppose that most potential spambots would give up on the write-protected page and not follow any "direct edit" link we'd put right on that page, but you never know. I would be perfectly willing to put such a link back into the template if consensus deems wise (i.e., people agree here) or if convention deems necessary (i.e., people get fed up with hunting for an edit link). My initial fears could be totally ridiculous, and I'm totally willing to admit that. --Tim P 05:53, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

I like it very much, awesome effort sir. The 'add your own photo' is pretty clearly findable on the YYYY-MM-DD pages. If that is not enough, then a comment in the source on the Main_Page directing people appropriately should be the next step IMHO. See how it fares? :) --Nemo 11:12, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Only current thought now... the automatic 'start the gallery' link means the previous days gallery (with the heklpful comments) don't get copied over... I wonder if people are just more likely to blindly start a gallery now rather than copy the comment hints too? I don't think think content can be automated into there though can it? May not be a problem anyway, wait and see? --Nemo 11:17, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

This isn't a show stopper, but I just discovered a timing point. We here in the east side of the 30W rule have pics for today already uploaded (8:20am local time, 17th June), but it's still 40minutes before UTC rolls over to the 17th and the frontpage gets the 'create a gallery for the 17th' type link. No biggie, it just limits our bragging rights! ;P --Nemo 22:30, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Because of the limited number of morning-time meetups, I figured that 00:00 UTC was still a reasonable time to switch over because, as Template:Recent Images says, it's "reasonably mid-day for the easternmost time zones," i.e., 12:00 or 13:00 in New Zealand depending on DST. Not to mention, it's immensely easier to program a switch at 00:00 UTC than at any other time on this wiki. Photos uploaded to the designated gallery before 00:00 UTC still get to be at the top of the images section for a full 24 hours, so yeah, it really isn't a big deal. --Tim P 18:33, 21 June 2008 (UTC)

yup. I was just being needlessly pedantic. ;) However, I do have a thought - thuogh don't know if it's possible. At the moment it displays the last 4 days, but in fact it seems more often than not, when I see it the currentday gallery is still waiting for the first image - so we only see three days. Can you check for the existance of the CURRENTDAY gallery - and if it doesn't exist, then also include CURRENTDAY -4 days. That way we get 4 days of actual pictures at all times (which I think works best, imho 3 is a little too small a showcase through the week). The -4days gallery automatically rolls off then not at 00:00UTC, but when the currentday gallery is created... :) --Nemo 00:15, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

DONE and IMPLEMENTED. See Template:Recent Images for specifics. Great idea, Nemo. --Tim P 03:54, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

NTP

The wiki's clock is a few minutes fast, I believe. Maybe someone could install NTP. Thanks. Stephen Turner 07:16, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Agreed. Some template scripts (such as Template:Next Saturday) rely on the server time to present information in a timely fashion. If the time is unreliable, so become the templates, and thus parts of the wiki. --Tim P 14:07, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Listing elements of a category

Probably it is not the right place to ask, but i didn't find out where to ask. Is there a possibility to list the elemnts of a category on a page? I know i can link it, but is there a way to show it right there? Like... showing automatically the geohashers in my area on the graticule page based on the user category Geohashers_in_LAT_LON? --Tom 08:26, 2008-06-20 (UTC) (eh, one more question, is it possible to insert actual date and time here automatically?)

Just type ~~~~ (four tildes) to automatically sign your name and the current server time. I generally sign with two hyphens in front as well, e.g., --~~~~. You can also click the signature button (second from the right) above any edit window. --Tim P 13:29, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

As far as including the elements of a category, I know you can transclude the text of category directly onto the page by using {{Category:CATEGORYNAME}}, but I don't know how to include the elements, or even if it's possible. --Tim P 13:29, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Tim, but however i try, this {{Category:CATEGORYNAME}} stuff does not seem to do anything. Are these brackets okay? --Tomtom 21:50, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Er, my name's Tim, but you're welcome anyway. :) Did you actually include the <code> and <nowiki> tags? Does the category actually have "text" in it, i.e., is it a blue link when linked to? That's the only way you can transclude the text; as I said earlier, I don't think that transcluding the elements is possible. Could you paste a specific example below, along with an explanation of what you're trying to do? Thanks. --Tim P 22:43, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm really sorry. Your name's corrected.

I did not include code+nowiki, i thought i shouldn't if i wanted it to work. (Should I?)

Anyway. What i'm trying to do is this: A user can put the a/s/l template on his page. By doing so he's automatically gets a category, like "Geohashers in X, Y". I wanted to automate maintaining the local geohashers section of my X, Y graticule page by inserting a link to the category "Geohashers in X, Y" somehow to that place. I thought i could somehow make the wiki page show a list of the users in the category "Geohashers in X, Y" there, just like it does on the main page of the category. --Tom 23:07, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry; I must have misunderstood you. As far as I know, there's no way to transclude the elements of a category directly onto a page; i.e., you can't automatically list geohashers who have added the template on any page other than the category page itself. The only thing you can do is transclude the "description text" of the category, which wouldn't be very useful at all. Sorry! --Tim P 18:26, 21 June 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, i'm not a native english speaker, so the word transclude was not at all in my mind. I was just thinking that there's surely a way to collect the titles of the pages that contain the category template (? i don't know if template is the right word here, i mean [[Category:SOMETHING]]), just the way the category page itself collects them. (I mean, for example me and other users put [[Category:Geohashers]] to our userpage, and we are automatically being listed on the page of the category) I thought this listing can be programmed somehow similarly on an other page too. --Tom 12:34, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

(Of course i can believe that it can be impossible.) --Tom 12:36, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not possible, at least as this wiki is currently configured. Sorry. --Tim P 15:39, 23 June 2008 (UTC)