User talk:Benjw

Ninjas

I dub thee Ninja Slayer! Keep up the good work, and don't worry - I periodically go back and dig through the Expeditions categories to make sure my Most active graticules list is up to date. --Thomcat 06:28, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Didn't realise it had its own name! Glad to be of service, though - I'll keep on doing that sort of stuff when I can. -- Benjw 20:58, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Being tired and getting things wrong

I hope you don't mind me pouncing on the weird category name you suggested. As I edited the photos I saw that you hadn't used it, so it might have just been a mispaste, and you knew what you were doing all along. Fixed now, in any event. -Robyn 20:46, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

No, I don't mind at all -- I didn't suggest the category name, just tidied up the link to a category page which was already suggested. I think it's probably better using the meetup category as you've done, though. I guess I was just looking for things to fiddle around with -- I've got a university assignment due on Tuesday which I haven't even started the reading for yet, and the wiki is good for procrastination! -- Benjw 20:52, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

That's what I'm doing! Hitting Random page and fixing things! -Robyn 21:01, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Giggle: I didn't mind where it went. If you felt strongly about it to move it, I wasn't going to move it back. I'm guesing you didn't realize I was creating the page, and were just trying to keep things neat.

Yes, that was the case. And now I shall stop trying to keep things neat and will get out of your way. :-)

Don't let me edit things in Saskatchewnannanwhan late at night. -Robyn 18:51, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I noticed you were having to correct one or two graticule names today. Aren't you glad that you don't have a province called Sḵwxwú7mesh, though? -- Benjw 19:15, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

You laugh! In an alternate universe that would be the name of my own graticule. The town signs are bilingual English/Halkomelem (using that orthography) as I drive north on the Squamish highway. I'll have to get to a geohash up there sometime and send you a picture. We'll also have to start calling it "Squa-seven-mesh".-Robyn 19:37, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

I'd like to see it. It's fun to imagine how things might have been if one small thing was changed. Somewhere I have a novel that's set in an alternative universe where the Roman empire lasted until the present day. (I bought it but never quite got around to reading it.) That sort of thing. As for the language itself, it just looks like an unpronouceable mass of letters to me. Polish -- which is becoming an increasingly common migrant language in this country -- seems similar. Someone I know has a Polish boyfriend whose name is Przemysław, pronounced Zhemek. I suppose it makes sense if you're used to it. -- Benjw 20:08, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Over-greedy use of photo templates

Would it be okay if we replaced one of your three photos for Monday with one of ours? We're in the last time zone, so by the time we got back from our expedition, all four spots were taken. -Robyn 15:27, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, no problem. Sorry -- I meant to write a note on the template page to say that, but forgot. Take off more than one if there are others in the queue! -- Benjw 16:04, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh thanks. We need some kind of system now that there are enough expeditions that the early birds can fill up a gallery. I suppose some rules like one per person as well as one per graticule, and you have to wait n days between posting images to the gallery would work for now. I'm going to put up a snowmeghan and wait to see if thepiguy has a better picture. -Robyn 16:08, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Some rules might be good. I've had a photo for each of my expeditions so far, so perhaps I should give it a rest for a bit if there are other expeditions that day. It does seem a lot more busy on this wiki than it did only two months ago, when I started reading it. -- Benjw 16:18, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Triple hash!

Great job on the triple-hash! Bear was most impressed -- NCBears 16:09, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! I had oh-so-grand plans for doing more, but had an attack of being sensible as I sat in my car after the third one. Now struggling to make the expedition reports actually sound interesting.  :-( -- Benjw 16:18, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Old expedition plans

... of mice and men ... are usually left as-is on the wiki. -- Jevanyn

Hello

Hi there, thanks for the welcome. Yes, I am in the north of the London East graticule and just south of Cambridge graticule (so I'll be divided between the two depending where the hashes fall). Just starting out at the moment and trying them when I have the time. -- Dave_Dubya 13:35, 26 April 2009

Ok, I'll drop you a line when I plan to make an expedition in the south of my graticule or the north of yours, and it would be great to meet you if you're able to make it that day. -- Benjw 14:36, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Category:Geohashers

Let me know when you've decided and documented what the category tree should look like and I'll make an announcement encouraging people to fix up their own branches. -Robyn 18:36, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks for the note on my talk page. It's nice to know that I wasn't just writing the report for myself. You seem to be much more committed to geohashing than I am, and I'm impressed with your success so far! ---tjm1983 01:00, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Categorizing Images

Hi Benjw. You just asked me to categorize my images. I'll do so, but I don't want all the pictures to be marked as meetup-pictures (i.e. there is nobody on the picture or it's not even near the hash). What Category do you recommend for photos I made while on track?

The usual thing to do is simply to use the meetup categories anyway! ("Meetup" is a bad name; "expedition" would probably be better.) -- Benjw 17:53, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

APBot tries to be clever about categories and pictures. If a picture is only linked to by a single expedition, it assumes it is a picture of that expedition. I'd expect it to put those categories back in that you're pulling out. Jiml 17:31, 7 August 2010 (UTC)

I thought it might, but it hasn't so far; even the few I did a day or two ago. Perhaps it detects the undo -- or perhaps it just hasn't found the changes again yet. If it does I'll rethink and talk to Apr about it. -- Benjw 17:35, 7 August 2010 (UTC)

Tagged for deletion

Why is User:Alaistar tagged for deletion? --joannac 06:52, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

He misspelled his own name, then made a new page at User:Alastair. Compare the initial text in the pages, and see that the user blanked the page himself. -Robyn 07:02, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Ah, thanks Robyn. Didn't think to check misspellings. Also benjw, that last edit was #2000 for me. Don't you feel special? :) --joannac 07:04, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

I feel mightily honoured. Does that include deletions? You must be on about 2500 by now! -- Benjw 21:54, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

No. Not sure if it includes uploading or protecting either. --joannac 23:29, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

Probably not. Well, there's nothing for it. You'll just have to look back through the last year's logs and manually count how many pages you've protected. Shouldn't take you too long. I missed my 2000th edit but was quite pleased to note a week or two ago that my number of edits was exactly the same as my wiki user number. Isn't that sad?  :-) -- Benjw 08:15, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

I've added comments on the talk page Category talk:Tagged for deletion. Comments would be appreciated --joannac 07:23, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

• 2008-05-24 -- Ditcheat, Shepton Mallet (the "expedition" in the Bristol, United Kingdom grat you just deleted), is one of the "this doesn't deserve a page but we should at least leave a note that someone at least looked at the location" pages I've been having so much trouble bringing myself to delete. So... is it too brief to bother keeping? What to do? >.< --joannac 10:46, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

POKE! Ben! Opinions? --joannac 23:15, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Sorry. Ok, if you want to leave a note to say someone was thinking about being active (and Robyn seems to be of that opinion too), then how about adding a section to the graticule page - something like "Geohashes considered", with a list of the details of who and when. I'll maybe get onto that this afternoon. Need to go to work now. -- Benjw 05:17, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

And by the way, if you're deleting place name redirects now, could you plase leave Cambridge as I still use it. Ta. -- Benjw 05:17, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Why should Cambridge get special treatment? ;) --joannac 05:23, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Because we're special people here. -- Benjw 05:28, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Graticule page section: something like "Geohashes considered", with a list of the details of who and when. Yes, yes! And then when the graticule becomes active they can decide whether or not to do something about it. I think the earliest activity in a graticule is worth knowing about. -Robyn 05:48, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Australia

Do we want to rename grats (like in the US, where grats are named City, State). Or leave grat names as they are, and just recategorise? --joannac 04:13, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

Eek, I saw this just after you wrote it, was too rushed to reply at the time, and then forgot. Sorry! Ummm... it is a lot of hassle to rename a whole load of graticules (and there are a LOT of them), but on the other hand, most of them aren't active and I guess ReletBot would find it easier if the categories matched the page name. But then again, the new page names would mostly be longer than the old ones, and maybe a bit unwieldy. Of course, we don't actually have to categorise them into territories -- I was only listing it as a Thing To Do because of what the Category:Australia page said... On balance, though, I think it's best to keep them as "Town, Australia", but categorise them into the territories. Does that sound sensible? -- Benjw 12:40, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

we shall miss you

this much *stretches hands out* --joannac 14:26, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

and

Yeah, sorry about the 'and' in the picture tags, sometimes I forget to delete them as I copy and paste the tags from the Note below and insert the info. I cant (or havent as yet) see a way to get back and edit the tags once I've uploaded the picture, without re-uploading the picture.... Greenslime 19:45, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

Ohhhh, I wondered why so many people put "and" in their categories. That explains it. Anyway, it's not a problem; it just puts the word "and" at the end of your photo caption, so periodically I find a bunch on one of my wiki-cleaning sessions and delete them. Oh, and to edit the photo tags, just click on the "edit" tab at the top of the page. You can't alter the picture itself without reuploading it, but you can alter the text. You got your hash today then (well, yesterday now, I guess)? I'm very jealous! -- Benjw 19:50, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

Multihash

My my, arent we obvioulsy trying to avoid working. Nice run of recent, bet you are wishing there was an accessible hash on the 12th to make it an even bigger multihash! Well done! Greenslime 00:21, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Avoid working? Always! Anyway, thanks. It was a shame about the 12th. I probably could have made it if I'd wanted to drive for 90 minutes each way, but you never know these things at the time. Oh well. There will be more hashes. I'm thinking about todays but I have a really large list of pressing tasks to do so I might have to give hashing a break again for a few weeks. Why does life always get in the way of fun? — Benjw  _[talk] 04:38, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Category Map

Hey Benjw, to make your life easier <grin> should I add the map category to any future satellite images that I add to my expeditions? Greenslime 20:45, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

That would be lovely, but please don't put yourself to any trouble.  ;-) Besides, the more time I spend on the wiki the longer I can put off the exam revision... — Benjw  _[talk] 20:53, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

German

You got me all excited that you were actually going to help me with my German. Technically wasn't that correcting my html? -Robyn 15:06, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

I suppose it was. But I didn't think you needed any help with the German. You seem to be getting along quite all right without it. A train is "ein Zug", by the way. We have portable traffic lights for roadworks, and highway telephones with arrows pointing to them in this country, too. Must be a European thing. Here are some helpful phrases to get people laughing at you: "Wie komme ich am besten nach zum Bahnhof, bitte?" (we were made to learn this exact phrase at school), "Ich heiße Robyn; wie heißen Sie?", and "Ich bin nicht eine verrückte Frau; ich komme vom Internet." Glad you're enjoying yourself! — Benjw  _[talk] 15:38, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Is that literally "What's the best way to get to the nearest railway station, please?" That's awesome, you should be glad you learned something so useful in school. I understand, "My name is Robyn, what's yours," and is the last one, "I'm not a real woman, I'm from the Internet"? Is zum "to". I have figured out lots of prepositions, but I seem to be missing to. Also I could use an expression of enthusiastic appreciation better than "ser gut."

Believe me, I need all the help I can get. I have never taken a single German class. I have a dictionary, but it's a big dictionary, too big to carry about on the bike, and of course it's great for looking up single words, but I don't know how to decline the nouns or conjugate the verbs, and if it's anything like English, which it seems to be, the wrong form of a common word may sound like a different form of a completely different word. And I don't really know how to pronounce everything. But I'm having a glorious time. -Robyn 17:18, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Well done, you nearly got them. "Verrückte" is "crazy" -- I'm not a crazy woman, I'm from the Internet. It might be useful when all those people start giving you funny looks again on your next expedition. German's one of the standard foreign languages to learn in schools in the UK, but I suppose it's not such a useful language in Canada. In my school French was compulsory from age 10 to 14, and German from 12 to 14 (except I was the youngest in the school, so I was the only person who got to say "Ich bin elf Jähre alt" for a bit before my twelfth birthday). After age 14 you can, of course, continue to study languages but they're not compulsory any more. This is, of course, pitiful when you consider how well a good proportion of Europeans speak English.

Anyway, yes, "zum" is pretty much "to the", although it turns into "zur" when it's a feminine thing you're going to (feminine words are the ones that take "die" (the) and "eine" (a) in front of them, like "Schule"). German pronunciation is dead easy. It's not like English, which changes randomly (ought, bough, cough, tough, through, hiccough, etc). Pretty much every time you see a particular letter or combination of letters, it's going to be pronounced the same. There might be a pronunciation guide in your dictionary, even. There aren't any silent word endings, so pronounce every syllable. The single-letter vowels are short, "ie" is an "ee" sound, "ei" is an "eye" sound, and "eu" is an "oi" sound. Take a deep breath before attempting any really long words.  :-) I'm enjoying your expedition reports, by the way, and I'm sorry I couldn't come and join one of them, but 900 km is perhaps a little far for a day-trip. Consider yourself welcome in the UK, though -- we have a spare room.  :-) — Benjw  _[talk] 21:14, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Achievements

In Category:Achievements it explicitly says "The individual achievements should all be subcategories, while the pages in the category should relate to achievements in general.", and since this was adhered on the wiki except for a few exemptions I changed these to go along with the rest... --HiroProtagonist 13:22, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

So it does. Sorry, I'd missed that. And thinking about it, that makes more sense anyway as they'll all be in the "achievements" category anyway by virtue of their being in their subcategories. I shall leave well alone now! Thanks.  :-) — Benjw  _[talk] 13:29, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

Still appreciated.

Sorry, I think I viciously overwrite your kind correction when I replaced my doubly-rushed initial version (from parents' computer) with the final treatment (after I'd got back home home). So I'd feel horrible if I didn't mention that I appreciated what you did. Hence this. :) --Monty 20:14, 19 February 2011 (EST)

On your edit of 2008-06-21 42 -76

You summarized it as: "tagging as Category: reached, although no evidence actually exists"

Oh, it existed, I was just too lazy to upload it to the Internet. So now it's there, even as we speak. ;)

<3 Paul

2012-08-19

Hiya, I'm planning to head to Cambridge tomorrow, ostensibly to visit relatives but actually because of the prospective of consecutive double bicycle hashes. Can we meet at like 5pm then go to the hashes? Ali0sha 17:33, 18 August 2012 (EDT)

Splendid! That would be great. I'm in north-east Cambridge, up the Milton Road. Is that sort of area good for you? If so, how about meeting at 5pm at the Milton Road end of the guided busway? I'll send you an email. — Benjw  _{talk} 19:12, 18 August 2012 (EDT)

Redundant Category Information

Hi and thanks. I just spotted a correction you made to one of my pages. I was adding unnecessary category information created automatically by the "meetup graticule" template. This error is duplicated in many/most of my expedition reports now numbering 100 so it'll be a while before I fix them all. It's nice to see you're still active. Sourcerer 10:30, 22 August 2012 (EDT)

Hi Neil. Sorry I haven't been around much recently. It's probably a bit late now, but the redundant "meetup in/on" categories weren't doing any harm by being duplicated. I think I was trying to make sure that the expeditions all had the "expeditions" category and a reached/not-reached one, as that's what the various automatic lists take as their input. While we're on the subject of editing, though, may I commend to you the "edit summary" field and the "minor edit" tickbox?  ;-) — Benjw  _{talk} 13:49, 25 August 2012 (EDT)

More useful tips. Having learned Mediawiki techniques through geohashing, I now run three of my own Mediawiki sites, two small ones and one larger one. I'm keen to get things right and learn new techniques. I can write templates but bots are still a bit of a mystery to me. I have altered my preferences to prompt me for an edit summary and to make my edits minor by default. Now I'll have to remember to uncheck this if I do something more significant. Thanks. Sourcerer 15:35, 27 August 2012 (EDT)

OpenStreetMap

Hey benjw! Nice to see you again! With the OpenStreetMap achievements/categories, a weird thing is happening. http://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashing/Category:OpenStreetMap_Achievement is showing pages in it, but none of those pages are actually showing the capitalised category. I think what is happening is the capitalised template is redirecting to the uncapitalised template, so it's the uncapitalised category that's showing up, but internally mediawiki still remembers it's the capitalised template originally, and applies the capitalised category?

Hey Joanna! Sorry I haven't been around much. You're right -- a weird things is happening and I haven't the faintest clue why it would be doing that. I'll go through a few of the problem pages and see if I can fix things. — Benjw  _{talk} 13:44, 25 August 2012 (EDT)

You were right. Fixed by manually un-capitalising all instances of the old template. At least there were only 15 or so... — Benjw  _{talk} 06:33, 26 August 2012 (EDT)

Most Active Graticule Report page

Your report has been fixed this morning. Thanks for point out the errors of my ways. --NWoodruff 13:06, 25 August 2012 (EDT)

Great! Thanks very much for doing that. Looks a little less confusing now! — Benjw  _{talk} 13:38, 25 August 2012 (EDT)

Geohashing tomorrow today?

The geohash tomorrow looks quite reachable, I'm debating whether I should go for just one hash (52,-0) which would be 30miles cycling from Barnwell and back, or just go full force and try to get to (52,0) as well, making 80miles.. Seems doable. Will you be able to go to either? --Dr-spangle 20:20, 11 September 2012 (EDT)

Greetings. Wow, an 80-mile cycle would be quite an expedition. Do you do that sort of distance a lot? I did 50 miles quite recently but haven't done more than that for a very long time. Anyway, if my timing works for you then I'm certainly up for a double-cycle. It will be about 60 miles for me. Unfortunately, though, I have to go to work this morning (bah). I should finish about 1-ish, so I don't see myself leaving the house before about 2, and therefore I would be at the 52,-0 hashpoint at 3:30pm or so. Then I'd plan for the 52,0 hashpoint at 5:30pm, which leaves you with about 40 miles of cycling still to do back to Oundle, and only two hours of daylight. An alternative might be to go to 52,0 first -- then if I leave the house at 2, I can be at the 52,0 hashpoint at roughly 3pm, we'd get to the 52,-0 hashpoint at about 5pm and you'd only have 20 miles of cycling left. But that means you have a hefty 40-mile cycle to start your outing.  :-/ I'd be happy either way. What do you think? I don't have internet access while I'm at work so if you need to get hold of me, call/text my mobile. Otherwise just leave a note here and I'll see it when I get home. — Benjw  _{talk} 00:51, 12 September 2012 (EDT)

2012-09-23

Any interest in Sunday's geohash in your graticule? It looks like it's open, not too far from the road, and not a horribly long expedition for either of us (as long as I successfully navigate the bus system). I'm free that day, and I'd be up for attempting a meet-up if you are. -Haberdasher 12:46, 21 September 2012 (EDT)

Greetings. Yes, it looks nice and accessible, and I'd already thought I might go. I'd love to arrange a meetup, but I'm just trying to work out whether I will be in Hereford this weekend, which might make things difficult. More later when that's sorted out... — Benjw  _{talk} 13:35, 21 September 2012 (EDT)