From Wikitravel

Thanks for all the good stuff you've added on Albuquerque. That's rapidly turning into a really high-class article, and you've filled in some gaps in my own knowledge of the city. One thing: you might think about down-selecting to one or two museum photos, as our Wikitravel:Image policy generally calls for minimal use of images -- remember that many readers and potential travelers don't have high-speed access to Wikitravel, and images really eat up bandwidth. Anyway, keep up the good work! -- Bill-on-the-Hill 23:28, 12 November 2006 (EST)

Thanks Bill! I'm still getting the hang of the Wiki, so thanks for letting me know about the images. I took down one of the museum images. Ironically, I uploaded a couple more pictures to the page before I read your post, but I think the new images add a lot to the Albuquerque article, so I think they're okay. If they're not, I'll take them down. Either way, I'll slow down on the image uploading in the future. PerryPlanet 20:50, 11 December 2006 (EST)

Hi Perry. I like the Albuquerque site too. You are a talented 16 year old!FrankEM 17:15, 29 December 2006 (EST) I was only there once and would be no help, but I was just read the comment by Bill about using few images. I read, I think on the main page, that the images make or break a page. Now I am confused. I was adding images like a man man! I guess I should be asking Bill since he made the comment.

My e-ears are tingling. :-) Again, I refer you (and User:FrankEM, who's also been doing some fantastic stuff) to the Wikitravel:Image policy. The goal is to have "enough" images to illustrate the text, without "too many" that cause problems for people downloading the page over dial-up or other low-speed lines. Images require a lot of bandwidth to download, and many of the people we'd like to reach via Wikitravel don't have that bandwidth. Hence the minimal-use-of-images policy. How many is "enough"? Dunno, and the community has carefully avoided naming an explicit number/limit. For a page like Albuquerque, I'd think there should be no problem with half a dozen photos plus a couple of maps (which I'm working on, BTW), but getting too deep into double digits might be a bit much. Just MHO ... -- Bill-on-the-Hill 17:24, 29 December 2006 (EST)

Thanks, Bill. I'm glad you let me know, or I probably would have added a picture of the BioPark and another one of Old Town by now. ;) You're working on maps? Great! I was just thinking about that the other day.

We're having a lovely snowfall in ABQ right now... PerryPlanet 18:21, 29 December 2006 (EST)

[edit] Puuhonua O Honaunau National Historic Park

Just FYI, I've reverted (and expanded upon) your edit of the Big Island (Hawaii) pertaining to this place. The reason is that it's not really a "destination" since you can't sleep there, spend more than a few hours without seeing it all, and so on. It's sorta in the same class as Petroglyphs National Monument in Albuquerque -- one of those things you do while you're close by as a result of going to the actual "destination" (Kailua-Kona in this case). The Wikitravel posture toward "just-passing-through" national monuments is inconsistent, to put it mildly; we have articles on some, but not all. In this particular case I think it is very unlikely that a useful article could result for it, but maybe I'm mistaken. Anyway, it's good that you're looking beyond New Mexico for things to help on. (P.S. A good foot of snow on the ground up here, and more coming tonight -- went XC skiing directly out of our house today, for the first time in several years.) -- Bill-on-the-Hill 20:36, 29 December 2006 (EST)

Ah, I'm sorry. I was about to make the article, but I forgot the general "if you can't sleep there it's not an article" thing. Thanks for reminding me. I'm planning to go into the Big Island section and add more stuff, since all that's on Wikitravel now is the page on the whole island, Hilo, and Kona. We definetely need an article for the Volcanoes National Park, there is so much to see there. PerryPlanet 20:58, 29 December 2006 (EST)

[edit] Main streets in Albuquerque?

Hey John, need your advice. As I mentioned earlier, I've started working on a map for the Albuquerque article, and have some time today (day off) to work on it. You might check out Wikitravel:How to draw a map for what this entails. Note that the first part is to sketch in "main streets," and here is where I could use some help. From my point of view these are probably the Interstates; north-south, Coors, Rio Grande, Carlisle, Louisiana, Wyoming, Eubank, Juan Tabo, Tramway; and east-west, Montgomery, Menaul, Lomas, Central, Cesar Chavez (maybe not that "main," but I want to bound the university district, and there are attractions there), Gibson. However, I see Albuquerque from the standpoint of a frequent visitor, not a resident, and one who doesn't visit the entire city at that, just places that I need or want to travel to. Are there any other streets that qualify as "main" that I'm missing and are far enough from the others to show up on a map? (I can make a case for Lead and Coal, but that would make the map fairly "dense" in the university area.)

If you have any experience with Inkscape, maybe you can help here. I'm not fluent with it, to put it mildly, and could always use the help. Even without that, however, a reality check on content would be appreciated. Thanks! -- Bill-on-the-Hill 11:46, 9 February 2007 (EST)

Well, I did create a map for Belen the other day using Inkscape, so I can totally help out with this map (course, my skills are a little rusty...). Anyway the main streets, let's see...Google Maps is always a nice place to start checking...

Okay, north-south you're okay, but you definetely want to put in San Mateo as well (Jefferson should be in there as well, which isn't too hard since it connects with San Mateo). You should also probably put in 2nd/4th Street as well. You might want to also throw in University and/or Yale, because they are big connections from the airport to the downtown/UNM area.

East-west...I agree that putting Lead/Coal in there would probably make it too dense, those streets should be treated more like "local" roads. Now, you might want to put in Rio Bravo, Osuna, Paseo del Norte, Alameda, and Tramway east/west (you gotta get up north since that's where the Balloon Fiesta is).

Other than that I can't think of anything else...If something comes to mind, I'll let you know. PerryPlanet 02:19, 10 February 2007 (EST)

That's excellent, and yes, a look at Belen suggests that you're probably farther along the learning curve already than I am. If you can send me your e-address (use the "E-mail this user" function on the side of the page), I'll forward you the map file as it exists today; we can bounce it back and forth editing until it's in shape to put into the article. I think that star status is not far away for this article, and it's largely your doing; thanks! -- Bill-on-the-Hill 16:19, 10 February 2007 (EST)

[edit] CotW

Just FYI, there's a "queue" system for Wikitravel:Collaboration of the week. San Diego would be a great one to have in the queue, as it's a popular destination with an article that needs work, but it should be added to the "Unscheduled" section, then worked in. I've taken the liberty of making the change. (BTW, I wish others would follow your example of suggesting concrete things to work on. It's in the "Nominating" section, but most people don't do it.) -- Bill-on-the-Hill 22:24, 13 February 2007 (EST)

Ah, thank you. I was confused because it says "If an article meets the criteria above, add it to the "Upcoming" queue. There is no need for a discussion to select an article just for a week." But I should have realized it went into the "Unscheduled" section, since that was there. Thanks for clearing that up. :) PerryPlanet 00:26, 14 February 2007 (EST)

[edit] Zion, etc

Thanks for your efforts to push Zion National Park to star status, and all the work you're doing on other articles like Albuquerque, it's good to have you around! - Cacahuate 19:56, 22 February 2007 (EST)

Thank you! :)

Sorry, I really can't think of anything else to say. :P Thanks! PerryPlanet 18:56, 23 February 2007 (EST)

[edit] Happy birthday!

You were already at University at 16? Good for you  :) I'm 30 and still haven't made it – cacahuate ^talk 01:16, 14 June 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Albuquerque skyline photo

What happened to the dynamite image that used to be at the top of the ABQ article? That was a great photo. Was there a copyvio issue or such?

My wife and I were in Albuquerque for last night's baseball game, and got routed from same by a thunderstorm. That was a REALLY impressive storm ... -- Bill-on-the-Hill 21:09, 5 August 2007 (EDT)

The old image of the skyline was a photo taken directly from the city's website, and the city seems to have a copyright on their images. The same photo was posted on the Wikipedia page for Albuquerque and was quickly removed, and there are problems with other city images on the Wikipedia.

I admit, my photo sucks, but it's just a placeholder until we can get a better image.

Say, how far did you get on that map of ABQ you were doing? I was just about to start my own. PerryPlanet 21:23, 5 August 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Albuquerque maps

Hey, nice job on the maps! Just one thing... unless you use the PD template (which contains all PD icons, etc) and leave off the Wikitravel logo then the whole map has to be licensed as cc-by-sa 1.0, since that is what the WT logo and some of those icons are licensed as. – cacahuate ^talk 00:21, 21 August 2007 (EDT)

Whoops! Thanks for clearing that up for me. I'll be sure to keep that in mind. PerryPlanet 01:18, 21 August 2007 (EDT)

[edit] New star

Congratulations on the star for Albuquerque! (Now pick somewhere else and turn your talents there...) Gorilla Jones 18:22, 5 September 2007 (EDT)

Eh, now that I've fulfilled my ultimate goal for Wikitravel, I think I'll retire for a bit. Although I do have my eye on the San Diego articles... ;) PerryPlanet 21:54, 5 September 2007 (EDT)

Hey, if you haven't quite retired yet... I notice that you have traveled around Utah. I'd like to fix up the regions for that state, would you care to take a look at my proposal? I'd really appreciate any insight on how best to group the counties. --Peter ^Talk 22:46, 5 September 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Utah

Any chance I can get you to reduce that list of cities on the Utah page to 9? I'm personally not sure which to cut. Maybe Orem and Ogden? --Peter ^Talk 01:31, 7 September 2007 (EDT)

How about Orem and Kanab? Kanab is a pretty small town. PerryPlanet 01:55, 7 September 2007 (EDT)

I'm tempted to either keep Kanab only because I'd like to keep a nice geographical spread of our sample cities, and its the largest and most important town in southern Utah east of Zion. But I'm not wedded to it. --Peter ^Talk 02:09, 7 September 2007 (EDT)

Well, for a geographical spread, I think you'll be fine with St George and Cedar City, they're in the same area of the state. Kanab is a great stopover, but it really is just a town. It's not a city, even though it's being listed as such. But that's just my humble opinion. PerryPlanet 13:24, 7 September 2007 (EDT)

My feeling is that Kanab is worth keeping simply because it is the only travel-relevant dot on the map in that rather interesting part of the state—St George and Moab are both really far away. Also, we tend to list just about any human-occupied area under the heading "cities" just to keep the heading simple. I was thinking Orem & Ogden because they are the smallest of the "suburbs" listed on the main page, and my hunch is that suburbs are never particularly travel-relevant. But I just don't know that section of the state; the numerous suburbs listed might actually have a big pull for travelers in the area? I also notice that we don't list anything in Western Utah, maybe it might make sense to pull out another suburb in favor of Brigham City? I'll do a little research and revamp the city descriptions to try and get a better handle on this. --Peter ^Talk 13:46, 7 September 2007 (EDT)

Whoops, Ogden is actually a city isn't it ;) You know what, perhaps we should take out Kanab, seeing as that area is already well represented in the "Other destinations" section. h --Peter ^Talk 13:51, 7 September 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Long Beach Hyatt

Perry, I'm not sure why you reverted the addition of the Long Beach Hyatt to the Long Beach page. The language is pretty promotional, but I think that can be fixed, and the listing is probably a good one. Am I missing something? --Evan 16:49, 14 September 2007 (EDT)

I'm sorry, you're right. I got just a bit carried away with reverting all those edits, I must have missed a couple that I should have just edited. In many of the articles this guy edited, he simply highlighted the Hyatt listing that was already there, rather than add a new listing.

Again, I'm sorry. I'll be more careful in the future. PerryPlanet 17:15, 14 September 2007 (EDT)

Oh, I didn't realize that. I've gone back and added back in the Hyatt listings where they were lost, so I think we're OK. --Evan 17:21, 14 September 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Shiny Buttons

Hi John - you've done tons of good stuff around here for a long time now, so any interest in joining the shiny button club? The job basically entails doing exactly what you're already doing, with the cavaet that you need to be careful not to accidentally hit "block" or "protect" instead of "edit" :) Let me know if you'd be interested and I'd be happy to start a nomination. -- Ryan • (talk) • 17:07, 13 October 2007 (EDT)

I was just about to make this suggestion myself. You'd make a great admin. -- Bill-on-the-Hill 18:50, 13 October 2007 (EDT)

Sure! Wow, this is really an honor! No one has ever asked me to be an admin of anything before. :) PerryPlanet 12:08, 14 October 2007 (EDT)

Done! You've got two weeks to get your "I'd like to thank the academy..." speech ready! -- Ryan • (talk) • 12:20, 14 October 2007 (EDT)

The switch has been flipped — welcome to the shiny button club! Jpatokal 02:31, 30 October 2007 (EDT)

Hooray! Wow, I got a few extra buttons on the top now. My first act as administrator will be to update my user page. PerryPlanet 14:36, 30 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Vandalism policy?

I don't know about you folks (I'm sending the same message to several), but I for one am getting sick and tired of the intentional vandalism that's going on here. I am trying to start a discussion on Wikitravel talk:Community policies as to whether something more forceful needs to be in place to deal with it. Historically, we have bent far over backwards to avoid punitive action against vandals and have simply gone in and cleaned up the messes they create. However, the frequency of vandalism is growing, and I am not convinced that we are doing Wikitravel a service by tolerating it. This said, I'm not at all sure what the "right" response is.

I'd appreciate your participation in the discussion on that talk page. Let's see if we can come up with something appropriate. -- Bill-on-the-Hill 11:44, 19 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Downtown Charlotte map

Great job as always, I love what you did with the multiple listings-on-one-block blowups! --Peter ^Talk 03:58, 4 November 2007 (EST)

Thanks! I couldn't figure out any other way to fit all those listings into one little block. :-) PerryPlanet 18:57, 4 November 2007 (EST)

[edit] Lynx

Hi, I just popped in to say something about Lynx and found that you beat me to it. Do you know where the listing of the Home Economist in South End is? It was on the 12 line and I haven't yet found the closest Lynx stop, and the last time I went there was Wednesday. phma 23:34, 25 November 2007 (EST)

Home Economist? Do you mean the market? Looking at their website, it looks like their South End location is just south of the intersection of South and Remount (which unfortunately is outside the range of the map of SouthEnd I did!), which would put it just a few blocks north of the "New Bern" LYNX station. :) PerryPlanet 00:11, 26 November 2007 (EST)

[edit] Thanks

I appreciate those detailed critiques on the Star nominations page! Your pointers have been very helpful in improving the articles. And, as I think you know, the best reward you can get after working hard on an article is when someone else gives it a close, thoughtful reading. So thanks! Gorilla Jones 15:29, 15 December 2007 (EST)

You're welcome. Thank you for your hard work on the Chicago articles! You and Peter are really setting a standard for us Wikitravelers to look up to. PerryPlanet 20:00, 15 December 2007 (EST)

[edit] Buggy Santa Fe article?

Hey John, are you able to read the Santa Fe (New Mexico) article in its current revision without any problems? I made a few changes to reflect this weekend's trip there, and with the browser I'm presently using, the page breaks somewhere in the "Museums" section. Don't know whether it's a buggy browser or a problem with the text that I introduced with the afternoon's edits. Could you check it and get back to me? Thanks. -- Bill-on-the-Hill 19:10, 19 February 2008 (EST)

Yea, looks like it's an antiquated browser at work. The page looks fine from my home machine. Thanks for checking. -- Bill-on-the-Hill 00:07, 20 February 2008 (EST)

[edit] San Diego overview map

That's a beauty! --Peter ^Talk 20:02, 23 February 2008 (EST)

Yep, and all my stumbling around with that Chicago overview map means I can appreciate the effort that goes into a nice map like that! --Peter ^Talk 21:00, 23 February 2008 (EST)

[edit] Thanks for your Denver contributions.

Just want to give my gratitude to the Denver page. That map in particular really makes the article shine. Thanks, Vertigo700 20:44, 29 February 2008 (EST)

[edit] Style tag on Albuquerque

I put that because there is little precedence for dividing the restaurant listings into local cuisine and non-local cuisine. If that were MoS-kosher, I'm sure every city in Japan would have to have Japanese and Non-Japanese sections. The same would be true for many thousands of other locations too. Why should Albuquerque get special treatment? Texugo 20:15, 30 March 2008 (EDT)

Albuquerque is a good example of a type of article not handled well by the MoS, or our conventions in general: the "large-but-not-huge" city, and at that, one with a number of interesting features for the traveler for its size. Districtifying the article doesn't make sense, but neither does reducing the number of restaurants to fit our empirically supported position against long lists. So how does one handle the large number of restaurants worth the traveler's attention (and I speak from experience with many of them)? A division by cuisine seems as sensible as anything else, particularly given that New Mexican cuisine is a clearly identifiable thing and that many travelers to Albuquerque will specifically want to know where to get it. If there is a clash here between article content and MoS, tweaking the MoS seems more likely to meet the TTCF goal than messing around with content that really does help the traveler as it currently exists. -- Bill-on-the-Hill 22:35, 30 March 2008 (EDT)

FYI, I've tried to re-kindle some debate on this subject at Wikitravel talk:Big city article template. Go and discuss... -- Bill-on-the-Hill 12:14, 31 March 2008 (EDT)

[edit] San Francisco

Good News...I got a promotion at work last month (yay!) Bad News...I start my new role tomorrow and my hours are going to be crazy - I will almost certianly have to give up my new Wiki hobby for a while. So, I am just going to have to leave SF in your capable hands. I am going to try to get the Civic Center article up to 'guide' standards today (perhaps tomorrow). Other than that, I'll leave it up you to polish the guide articles we worked on into shining STARS. Good Luck... Asterix 14:39, 30 April 2008 (EDT)

Hey there, good to see FWharf made it into a star! I'll have a bit of time on my hands for a little while, and I was wondering whether it would be a great deal more work to convert Chinatown-NB article into a star as well. I just did a bit of copyediting on it today. What do you think...is there much missing??? Asterix 16:42, 8 July 2008 (EDT)

[edit] My God... it's full of content

Whoa! Nice job on SF especially the Wharf! -- Colin 03:25, 9 June 2008 (EDT)

[edit] advice

Thank you for your advice on Walking Tour of Belmont Park. I wasn't sure where to cram all that article into your Mission Beach-Pacific Beach.

I like your changes. Thank you.Michelle Burton 21:24, 14 July 2008 (EDT)