Editing User:Lcarsos

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The username is lcarsos. pronounced el-cars-oh-ess. The only other acceptable capitalizations are LCARSOS or LCARS OS. The second of those is frowned upon because that should be used for any project attempting to create an LCARS operating system, or overlay/window manager. And lastly, '''never''' Lcarsos, despicable.

I'm your local admin/'crat, you can come to me with problems and questions. Some may call me a {{w|BOFH}} (And I have been known to jokingly self-deprecate as well), but I promise, honest questions will get an honest response.

I'm just a big xkcd and Star Trek fan (props if you got the reference).

Some days I feel like the English that comes out of my mouth is as coherent as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz04IBZqfFE this video]. <small>(For those who need backstory: He is an Italian artist who made a song to let English speakers know what Rock 'n Roll sounds like to non-English-native people.)</small>

Sorry about taking a summer off to recharge. There must be a curse with becoming a bureaucrat that causes them to suddenly drop off the face of the universe. In any case, I'm coming back to the great township of explainxkcd, I'll be taking it pretty lax while I'm coming back up to speed as I'm fairly certain SOP can change over 4 months.

==Personal Achievements==
Some of the things I've managed to do here, I'm very proud of. And by golly, I'm going to display them out in public so everyone else can see how vain I am.

===Named Characters===
*[[Ponytail]] - Brought back the name from a dimly remembered past.
*[[Danish]] - stumbled across [[377]] and suggested it to [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] to be used as her official name
*[[Miss Lenhart]] - doesn't really count, I just created all the pages for her. But I'm very proud that I managed to do it all correctly on my own.

===Huge Pages I Made===
*[[980: Money]] - not finished but a good start. Please other people work on it.
*[[977: Map Projections]] - Created an explanation of each projection with explanation of each of the things happening in the discussion. Phew!

==Things I Need to Remember==
'''SERIOUSLY NEED TO WORK ON SOME KIND RUDIMENTARY SPAM BOT.''' I'm too busy right now trying to get assignments done for uni, but HONESTLY, this needs to stop.

; Categories I forget:
*[[:Category:Charts]]

; Necessary Pages:
* [[:Category:Pages to delete]] - baleeted.
* [[Special:Log/newusers|newusers]] - ban hammer if spammer, welcome the genuine humans.

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Talk_page_guidelines#Editing_comments Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines#Editing comments]

; Research
* http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Administrators
* http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Block_and_unblock
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:New_admin_school

; Cool pages:
* [[List of all comics]]
* [[Special:Categories]]
* [[Special:ActiveUsers]]
* [[Special:RecentChanges]]
* [[Special:SpecialPages]]
* [[Special:DoubleRedirects]]

; For when we get the okay to delete {{tl|explain}}
* [[Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:explain]]

; Waiting for scaled images fix
* [[954: Chin-Up Bar]]
* [[1093: Forget]]

;Admin-y gnome-ish matters
<code><nowiki>{{subst:uw-blockindef|reason=creating a username suspiciously similar to spam bots|sig=yes}}</nowiki></code>

==Ruby Importer script==
===Bugs, Questions, Comments, Heaping Adulation, Scathing Remarks===
[[User Talk:Lcarsos#Ruby Importer]] Please post there.

I'm trying to keep everything organized so nothing gets lost in the shuffle (lost cause, I know, but I can do my small part to battle entropy).

===Introduction===
Work on my import-assistant script is progressing. I'm using it to help create pages as I work my way backwards. Currently it is just using information from xkcd's json api and leaving explanation open for you to get.

I'm working on getting the explanation to pull in. But, managing to guess the right url alone was a difficult task, and it still doesn't get it right for some of the more odd ones, but it would be faster to just find the page manually than code for each exception to the rule. I'm going to do a bit more work on that, but I might just give it up and keep manually copying explanations in. Or at least write out a best-guess of what the url should be to get you close, if you aren't walking backward through the blog entries.

I want to be able to pull in the explanation so I can scan through it to get a rough idea of what characters appear to automatically generate Comics featuring ___ categories. But that's a bit of work, including lots of regular expressions ([[Regular Expressions|regex!]]) but it's good practice for basic data mining and pattern recognition.

I've found that already I'm much more productive simply by not having to type in the comic template info. And the page feels much more finished when it has the transcript.

Now, I'm going to give you a link, but I am requiring you to manually go through and look at what it generates and keep yourself engaged. As I explain in the README, there are things the human brain can do innately that computers need lots of work to get the logic hooked up.

You '''must''' go through and make links to appropriate wikipedia and external web pages. I can make links to the links that exist in the html, but ''you have to be a human'' and realize that if something has a wikipedia page it probably needs to be linked to.

Please tell me on my [[User Talk: Lcarsos#Ruby Importer]] page if you are using it, what features you want, and bugs you find.

===Link===

https://github.com/lcarsos/explainxkcd-importer/

===Change log===

* 20120917 - changed transcript parsing to use new indentation style, changing quotes into their pre-html version, as mediawiki correctly escapes them.

===Usage===
Generic:
:<tt>./importer.rb <number> ...</tt>
:<tt>ruby importer.rb <number> ...</tt> - for those that don't want to make the file executable.
Specific examples:
:<tt>./importer.rb 1000</tt>
:<tt>./importer.rb 1000 1001 1002 1003 1004</tt>
:<tt>./importer.rb `seq 1 600`</tt> ''Don't actually do that''

It accepts any number of comic numbers as arguments (space delimited, duh) and will iterate through all of them and spit out a text file <tt><number>.txt</tt> with Unix line-endings (if you open it up on Windows use Notepad++ or some other ''real'' text editor).

'''If I see you using this tool to blindly create pages without going through and cleaning things up I will kill you.'''

===Known Issues===
* '''Active Development Work'''
** Explanations are not being culled from the blog page.
* '''Noted As Feature'''
** Some transcripts come from the json api with extra newlines. Will not be fixed to encourage humans to look everything through. Good for fingerprinting brain-dead copy/paste usage.

==Formatting==
This section is being made into its own page, so that it will be easier to move it out into its own entity when it is complete. See [[User:Lcarsos/Style Guide|here]]

===Paragraphs===
Traditional paragraphs need to have an extra return between them

{| class="wikitable" |
! Typing this
!Produces this
|-
| width="50%" |
 If this is a paragraph, and there is typing.
  
 Then the next one is down here.
|
If this is a paragraph, and there is typing.

Then the next one is down here.
|-
| width="50%" |
 If this is a paragraph, and there is typing.
 Don't put the next paragraph on the next line.
|
If this is a paragraph, and there is typing.
Don't put the next paragraph on the next line.
|-
|}

The difference is that the wiki software will wrap the first example in paragraph tags, which means that it gets a margin between them. Where the behavior for the second seems a bit undefined. Sometimes you will end up with a line break, and sometimes it completely ignores it.

In only one instance can this be useful, and it is discussed in the Talk Pages section.

===Editorial Voice===
As you are going through, if you are using Jeff's explanations from the blog, please go through and edit the sentences to not include personal pronouns, e.g., "I". Since anyone can edit (nearly) every article here, there is no 'I'.

Next point, there is no 'we'. If you are referring to anyone who's edited the article, that could be anyone, there's hardly any consensus there. If you are referring to 'We' the editors of ExplainXKCD wiki, again, we don't agree on anything, don't believe it? Read the Community Portal pages.

'''For the purposes of this wiki''', saying 'we' is referring to ''human beings in general'', and it would have to be a very special case to mean any set/group of people smaller than that.

This is based off of the discussion that occurred in [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals#Editorial Voice]].

===Talk Pages===
Wikis have a well established tradition for how to use talk pages.

You begin your conversation, and someone else replies to you by commenting under the post and indenting by using the colon (":"). This mimics how threaded conversations work in blog comments.

Talk pages should not be dynamic like article pages are. Old and outdated information should not disappear. People use that as a reference for themselves. If suddenly a link they knew was there yesterday is not there today, it's hard to believe that you might actually be going insane. If information becomes outdated, post a reply saying the information is outdated or strike through it using the <nowiki><s>tag</s></nowiki> and it will magically <s>look like this</s>.

'''All comments on talk pages should be signed''' by using <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>. It is easy to forget this, but it is equally easy to get into the habit.

There are 2 canonical ways to handle multi-paragraph comments.
# Single returns between paragraphs and signature on the last line.
# Double returns between paragraphs and signature on its own separate line.

This makes it easy to scan through to see who's comments are whom's.

{| class="wikitable" |
! width="50%" | Typing this
! width="50%" | Produces this
|-
| width="50%" |
 I think that there should be more lions.
 <nowiki />
 Of course, then we need more wildebeests.
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>~~~~User1</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>:That is a good idea.</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>:And yes, then we would need more prey.</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>:~~~~User2</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>::I'm replying to User2.</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>::Because he's funny.</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>::~~~~User3</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>:I'm replying to User1, saying that we don't need lions.
Predators should be kept in cages ~~~~User4</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>:I'm replying to User1 also, telling him he's a genius.
~~~~User5</nowiki>
| width="50%" |
I think that there should be more lions.

Of course, then we need more wildebeests.

User1

:That is a good idea.

:And yes, then we would need more prey.

:User2

::I'm replying to User2.

::Because he's funny.

::User3

:I'm replying to User1, saying that we don't need lions. Predators should be kept in cages User4

:I'm replying to User1 also, telling him he's a genius. User5
|-
| width="50%" |
 I think that there should be more lions.
 Of course, then we need more wildebeests. <nowiki>~~~~User1</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>:That is a good idea.</nowiki>
 <nowiki>:And yes, then we would need more prey. ~~~~User2</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>::I'm replying to User2.</nowiki>
 <nowiki>::Because he's funny. ~~~~User3</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>:I'm replying to User1, saying that we don't need lions.
Predators should be kept in cages ~~~~User4</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>:I'm replying to User1 also, telling him he's a genius.
~~~~User5</nowiki>
| width="50%" |
I think that there should be more lions.
Of course, then we need more wildebeests. User1

:That is a good idea.
:And yes, then we would need more prey. User2

::I'm replying to User2.
::Because he's funny. User3

:I'm replying to User1, saying that we don't need lions. Predators should be kept in cages User4

:I'm replying to User1 also, telling him he's a genius. User5
|}

See how easy this is to read? And now we don't even have to start introducing bullet points into the discussion. Bullet lists can now be used for what they were intended: Making lists, even inside of a single post in a talk page.

But if you meet someone who doesn't know what they are doing everything breaks down quickly.

{| class="wikitable" |
! width="50%" | Typing this
! width="50%" | Produces this
|-
| width="50%" |
 I think that there should be more lions.
 Of course, then we need more wildebeests. <nowiki>~~~~User1</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>:That is a good idea.</nowiki>
 <nowiki>:And yes, then we would need more prey. ~~~~User2</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>::I'm replying to User2.</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>::Because he's funny. ~~~~User3</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>:I'm replying to User1, saying that we don't need lions.
Predators should be kept in cages ~~~~User4</nowiki>
 <nowiki />
 <nowiki>:I'm replying to User1 also, telling him he's a genius.
~~~~User5</nowiki>
| width="50%" |
I think that there should be more lions.
Of course, then we need more wildebeests. User1

:That is a good idea.
:And yes, then we would need more prey. User2

::I'm replying to User2.

::Because he's funny. User3

:I'm replying to User1, saying that we don't need lions. Predators should be kept in cages User4

:I'm replying to User1 also, telling him he's a genius. User5
|}
For those of you that are now confused, don't worry I had to look back to my perfect example to see where I was coming.

Do you see that User3 has now managed to make the conversation very hard to read? By ending the line with a username it looks like that user posted a reply to themselves, and then by using 2 returns, made it look his own comment was also a reply. In reality these two should be part of the same comment. It can be frustrating to have different standards. But, it is extremely taboo to edit someone else's comment on a talk page. ''Don't do it.'' If the standard is single-returns within comments, double-returns between, do that. If the standard is double-returns throughout, do that. '''Do not''' go through the entire talk page and edit it to make it conform to your own personal feelings. If you start a talk page, then you may impose your will upon the unfortunate souls after you.

This is the only time in a wiki when paragraphs should not be double returned.