User:Macdonald-ross

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It is important not to import excessive detail from the main English Wikipedia. This is the key issue: if a reader wants more detail, they can find it on enWP. But if a reader wants to find a simpler version of something on enWP this is the only place they can go to get it. It is why we were created. The more we look like a mirror site for enWP, the less we are doing our job.

Approximations in science

Approximations in science are estimates. They may not be based on actual measurements. They may be based on very few measurements. For example, measurements of incomplete fossils, or weight estimates that can never be actually measured. In palaeontology, weight estimates have always given difficulty, and there are no end of authors who have said this. Also, of course, measurements from one or a few individuals do not give the full range of adult sizes in a population. We add to the problem when we use a template to translate it, from one scale to another. In general, it is the height of bad science to present estimates or small samples as exact figures.

Idiomatic language

This means words which have changed their meaning in common use. The use of 'flop' as in "She flopped onto the bed" is correct usage. "The film flopped at the box-office" is very common nowadays, and is an extension or second meaning of the term. In this sense it means "to fail". 'Box-office' is also idiomatic. It is short for the complete financial earning of a film as compared to its originally planned earnings. "Takings" is another idiom for earnings. Show business, advertising and politics are the main users of idiomatic language. It cannot be entirely avoided, but writers should stay with standard dictionary meanings as far as they can. Be warned that here for once English wiki fails, for it redirects "idiomatic language" to "first language" which is not the same concept. The page to look for on this wiki and En wiki is idiom.

Awards

                                

DYKs

                                                                                                                   

My pets

  • I don't add to this any longer: too much like hard work. But I still do new pages... Macdonald-ross (talk) 08:12, 1 May 2018 (UTC)

2350 new pages to date.

New articles

Science, history, culture

1961 new or heavily edited to date

Biogs

389 to date

216 categories to date:

Categories created

Categories

224 to date

  • Category:76 births
  • Category:70s births
  • Category:138 deaths
  • Category:130s deaths
  • Category:1510s books
  • Category:1540s books
  • Category:1543 books
  • Category:1661 books
  • Category:1686 deaths
  • Category:1863 books
  • Category:1871 books
  • Category:1973 books
  • Category:Achaemenid Empire
  • Category:Agnatha
  • Category:Airports in Scotland
  • Category:Algae
  • Category:Alveolata
  • Category:Amino acids
  • Category:Animal phyla
  • Category:Apterygota
  • Category:Aquifers
  • Category:Archaean
  • Category:Archaeans
  • Category:Archimedes
  • Category:Archosaurs
  • Category:Arthrodires
  • Category:Astronomical catalogues
  • Category:Australopithecines
  • Category:Australasia
  • Category:Austrian painters
  • Category:Badlands
  • Category:Ballroom dances
  • Category:Battles of the Ancient World
  • Category:Bees
  • Category:Bibles
  • Category:Biology books
  • Category:Biomes
  • Category:Birds of Asia
  • Category:Black holes
  • Category:Blood
  • Category:Blood cells
  • Category:Body art
  • Category:Bones of the skull
  • Category:Books by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
  • Category:Borgia family
  • Category:Brachiopods
  • Category:Brachiosaurs
  • Category:Bridges and tunnels in London
  • Category:British Nobel Prize Winners
  • Category:Bryophytes
  • Category:Bryozoa
  • Category:Cainozoic
  • Category:Cambrian
  • Category:Carbonate rocks
  • Category:Carboniferous
  • Category:Carnivora
  • Category:Carnivorous plants
  • Category:Catalysts
  • Category:Categories named after people
  • Category:Charles Darwin
  • Category:Chess lists
  • Category:Chess variants
  • Category:Chromosomes
  • Category:Ciliates
  • Category:Cladistics
  • Category:Classical genetics
  • Category:Clostridium
  • Category:Co-evolution
  • Category:Colleges and universities in London
  • Category:Conservation
  • Category:Creodonts
  • Category:Cretaceous
  • Category:Cretaceous birds
  • Category:Cults
  • Category:Dance types
  • Category:Darwin family
  • Category:Darwin/Wedgwood families
  • Category:Dating methods
  • Category:Developmental biology
  • Category:DNA
  • Category:Drugs
  • Category:Dwarf galaxies
  • Category:Ecozones
  • Category:Ediacaran
  • Category:Elliptical galaxies
  • Category:Enzymes
  • Category:Eons
  • Category:Eras
  • Category:Experiments
  • Category:Extinct elephants
  • Category:Extinction events
  • Category:Extremophiles
  • Category:Female scientists
  • Category:Feathered dinosaurs
  • Category:Finches
  • Category:Flamenco dancers
  • Category:Flightless birds
  • Category:Flood basalts
  • Category:Foreign Members of the Royal Society
  • Category:Forests in Great Britain
  • Category:French fashion houses
  • Category:French foods
  • Category:Genetic engineering
  • Category:Geography of Scotland
  • Category:Geological periods
  • Category:German chess players
  • Category:Giant viruses
  • Category:Gondwana
  • Category:Gram-negative bacteria
  • Category:Grasslands
  • Category:Groups of phyla
  • Category:Gurus
  • Category:Gymnosperms
  • Category:Hemichordates
  • Category:Hadean
  • Category:Henges
  • Category:History of Persia
  • Category:History of Printing
  • Category:Huxley family
  • Category:Hyaenas
  • Category:Hymenoptera
  • Category:Ichnology
  • Category:Ichthyosaurs
  • Category:Igneous rocks
  • Category:Illusions
  • Category:Immunization
  • Category:Islands of Scotland
  • Category:Jurassic
  • Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Indian Empire
  • Category:Latin dances
  • Category:Latvian people
  • Category:Leakey family
  • Category:Lenticular galaxies
  • Category:Liberal arts
  • Category:Lobe-finned fish
  • Category:Lochs
  • Category:Lorikeets
  • Category:Machairodonts
  • Category:Marine reptiles

Category:Mammals of South America

  • Category:Marsupials of Australia
  • Category:Members of the Lunar Society
  • Category:Memory
  • Category:Mesopotamia
  • Category:Mesozoic
  • Category:Metamorphic rocks
  • Category:Metaphors referring to nature
  • Category:Microbiology
  • Category:Military ranks
  • Category:Molecular biology
  • Category:Mosasaurs
  • Category:Mimicry
  • Category:Minor phyla
  • Category:Model organisms
  • Category:Monitor lizards
  • Category:Myomimus
  • Category:National Parks in the U.S.A.
  • Category:Naturalists
  • Category:Neoproterozoic
  • Category:Neuroptera
  • Category:Neurosecretion
  • Category:New World monkeys
  • Category:New Zealand parrots
  • Category:Odonata
  • Category:Old World monkeys
  • Category:Orkney
  • Category:Category:Ores
  • Category:Odonata
  • Category:Orthoptera
  • Category:Paints
  • Category:Palaeozoic
  • Category:Parasitoids
  • Category:Performing arts
  • Category:Phanerozoic
  • Category:Phasmids
  • Category:Placoderms
  • Category:Plate tectonics
  • Category:Potters
  • Category:Prokaryotes
  • Category:Psychiatrists
  • Category:Radiometric dating
  • Category:Rapid plant movement
  • Category:Rays
  • Category:Ring galaxies
  • Category:RNA
  • Category:Roads in California
  • Category:Roads in New York City
  • Category:Roads in the United Kingdom
  • Category:Rotifers
  • Category:Sandstones
  • Category:Science writers
  • Category:Scolopacidae
  • Category:Sedimentary rocks
  • Category:Sedimentology
  • Category:Sentences
  • Category:Sowerby family
  • Category:Starburst galaxies
  • Category:Stegosaurs
  • Category:Super star clusters
  • Category:Steroid hormones
  • Category:Structure of the Earth
  • Category:Teeth
  • Category:Teleosts
  • Category:Theatrical forms
  • Category:Theriodonts
  • Category:Think tanks
  • Category:Titanosaurs
  • Category:Treasure troves
  • Category:Trees of Australia
  • Category:Triassic
  • Category:Triassic dinosaurs
  • Category:Trojan asteroids
  • Category:Unexplained deaths
  • Category:United Kingdom general elections
  • Category:Variable stars
  • Category:Viverrids
  • Category:Wasps
  • Category:Western United States
  • Category:Wetlands
  • Category:World Heritage Sites in Great Britain
  • Category:World Heritage Sites in Spain
  • Category:World Heritages Sites in the U.S.A.
  • Category:Written communication

Stuff

Agreed colour for animalia taxoboxes

  • rgb(220,220,183)

Syntax for autocollapse

  • | collapse_state = <includeonly>{{{1|autocollapse}}}</includeonly><noinclude>collapsed</noinclude> = syntax for collapsing ugly large templates
    • {{[title of template footer|collapsed}} forces collapse on individual pages

Various

  • Attrib template: {{enwp based|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Philosophical_skepticism&oldid=346768538}} gives specific version.
  • All caps or all lowercase: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/BA
  • [1] Article stats tool
  • Readability [2]
  • Useful kit for disambig pages: Special:search/intitle:whatever
  • WP:copyPatrol


  • Tony's tips: [5]

Dots & dashes

How to create dots:

bullet
bold bullet
ndash
minus sign

There are several other templates with similar functionality:

  • {{·}} – Bold middot "·" is mostly used for dotted lists.
  • {{•}} – Bullet "•" is mostly used for dotted lists that use small font sizes.

User:Macdonald-ross/S1

  • <gallery widths="200px" heights="170px" perrow="2">

Other

  • <gallery widths="200px" heights="170px" perrow="2"> </gallery>
  • New gallery settings :
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