User talk:AHeneen/WT archive

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This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Welcome

Hello AHeneen! Welcome to Wikivoyage.

To help get you started contributing, we've created a tips for new contributors page, full of helpful links about policies and guidelines and style, as well as some important information on copyleft and basic stuff like how to edit a page. If you need help, check out Project:Help, or post a message in the travellers' pub.

Thanks for your contribution to Miami. I pared it back quite a bit, but please don't let that stop you from contributing. I cut out some of the paragraph because it was rather encyclopedic and we leave that to Wikipedia in general. I don't really feel that there's a misunderstanding of Miami vis a vis its metropolitan area. As I explained on the Miami talk page, I think there are other forces at work
As regards "filling out" the Gold Coast and South Florida articles, go for it. The process can be slow here as we are sometimes spread thin. It wasn't too long ago that there was no structure for the state of Florida at all. If I can help you with anything feel free to leave a message on my talk page. (WT-en) OldPine 19:32, 2 September 2008 (EDT)

Grafton

I just thought I would point out that Grafton (on your travel itinerary) is a link to the disambig page, and not the Grafton (New South Wales) page. I'm sorry that you have to have a "red" travel destination. But perhaps you have to do something about that?  :-) --(WT-en) Inas 03:19, 28 October 2008 (EDT)

Welcoming

  • Thank you for welcoming new users. -- (WT-en) Sapphire • (Talk) • 19:05, 12 November 2008 (EST)
  • I second that; the welcome is much appreciated. -- (WT-en) Willfuqua • (Talk) • 1:30, 15 November 2008 (EST)

Thanks for the welcome and the recommendation to Yakutsk! --(WT-en) Cargirl 23:03, 22 November 2008 (EST)

Thanks for updating the Dalton Highway article - it's quite a ways away from Florida, so you've either done a heck of a long drive or spent some time researching. In any case, thanks for the updates to an article about a really neat corner of the world. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 20:44, 26 November 2008 (EST)

Haven't been there, but want to and have done my research (about 6-8 websites). Still not done, though. I'm hoping to bring it to "Off the Beaten Path" status. (WT-en) AHeneen 21:34, 26 November 2008 (EST)

Images

Uh-oh, just checking out some that you got from Flickr, and unfortunately they aren't compatible... anything that's noted as NC (non-commercial) won't fly here. The best way to search for usable images on Flickr is with the advanced search tool, and then you must check both boxes at the bottom: "find content to use commercially", and "find content to modify, adapt, or build upon". Sorry! – (WT-en) cacahuate talk 04:10, 28 November 2008 (EST)

I didn't notice that, sorry. I have undone the bad image templates. Using those criteria there are only 4 photos available, but all are worthless. There are 8 photos for Coldfoot and a few for Deadhorse which I'll have to search. (WT-en) AHeneen 04:20, 28 November 2008 (EST)
Check on Commons too, there are a few nice shots that could work too, and even a map that could be nice until we make a WT one, just doublecheck licensing on them first :) – (WT-en) cacahuate talk 16:02, 28 November 2008 (EST)

Dalton Highway map

Hi there. I originally messed with the image because I thought it was a broken link-- it was not showing up in the article. Then after I couldn't fix it, I checked and saw that it wasn't showing up on the actual image page either, so I deleted it. Now it seems to be showing up just fine. Don't know what the problem was. I wouldn't have deleted it solely on the basis of it being a .gif, though I do hope you can get it changed to png. (WT-en) Texugo 22:39, 30 November 2008 (EST)

nom

I nomed you for Admin nom because you deserve it! (WT-en) edmontonenthusiast [ee] .T.A.L.K. 13:05, 3 December 2008 (EST).

Spambots

Regarding your comment on User talk:(WT-en) CnadoMroc4#Contributions, that user is a spambot. In general, if you see an edit that garbles non-English characters there's a good chance it's a script and not a browser. The tip-off in this case is the random eight letter edit summary and article contribution, which is a trademark of a bot that occasionally hits the site. No one seems to know what the purpose of the bot is - most bots add links to increase Google ranking, so this one may be malfunctioning or simply testing sites to find editable pages - but it's a pretty common occurrence around here. Also, I look forward to seeing your name on the admin nomination list again in the future - as others have pointed out, you've made some great contributions in your short time here. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 22:53, 3 December 2008 (EST)

Hi there. I would highly prefer it if we left this page blank as Peter did. In particular, I believe the goals as stated are quite far from consensus and should be left out. If you want to rewrite the page stating that we are seeking a way to cover certain kinds of information, that's fair enough. Otherwise to me, having nothing is better. (WT-en) Texugo 02:45, 7 December 2008 (EST)

You're on top of it. Please disregard! (WT-en) Texugo 02:47, 7 December 2008 (EST)

I might suggest that you hold off on creating new highway-related pages like the List of US Interstates until we have a better consensus for it. Traditionally, this community has frowned on list pages, as a general rule. (WT-en) Texugo 03:47, 7 December 2008 (EST)

No problem. I just don't like to see that whole list of red links inviting people to start pages for them, when we have yet to agree whether we want them. (WT-en) Texugo 03:57, 7 December 2008 (EST)

Comments

Hi. I saw you commented about me. That is fine but I just hope you realize there is a reason why I am irritated. Also, if you were being picked on like this, you would feel the same. (WT-en) edmontonenthusiast [ee] .T.A.L.K. 12:59, 7 December 2008 (EST).

Yes, of course, but I was trying to use something they could relate to. (WT-en) AHeneen 13:53, 7 December 2008 (EST)
That is fine - just hope you know. (WT-en) edmontonenthusiast [ee] .T.A.L.K. 13:57, 7 December 2008 (EST).

Re

Thanks, I know, there is an italian version. But here, in Palermo, there is some mistakes about safety. "Women should not walk alone at night in the historical centre": that's not thrue (please, forgive my bad english!) --(WT-en) Dedda71 09:38, 11 December 2008 (EST)

Inkscape maps

Hey, if you're trying to figure out how to make maps in Inkscape, and running into problems, let me know and I can probably help. Maps are pretty hugely useful to the site, so it's always great to have another mapmaker. --(WT-en) Peter Talk 16:08, 11 December 2008 (EST)

Routebox placement

Any particular reason you are placing the routeboxes before the Get out text? I personally think any unique content written there should come first, with the more generic routebox being the last thing on the page. Also helps navigation-- you can click quickly through a number of consecutive towns by hitting PageDown, and the box is always in the same place. If it comes before the text, this is not always the same. Thoughts? (WT-en) Texugo 12:19, 14 December 2008 (EST)

I thought it didn't stand out when it is beside the rating box, but I'll place them at the bottom. (WT-en) AHeneen 12:30, 14 December 2008 (EST)
Now that it's center-aligned instead of right-aligned, it doesn't cram in beside the ratings box anymore. (WT-en) Texugo 12:43, 14 December 2008 (EST)

Nice work implenting this. (WT-en) edmontonenthusiast [ee] .T.A.L.K. 13:37, 14 December 2008 (EST).

I believe (WT-en) Haruka is part of Ted's project with his students in Japan - they're only working on their talk pages right now, which is why she didn't edit the main Sagamihara article. (WT-en) Gorilla Jones 09:39, 15 December 2008 (EST)

Ok, I've been putting a lot of welcome messages on user talk pages, and when I saw that edit, I thought I would help/correct them. (WT-en) AHeneen 10:37, 15 December 2008 (EST)

Welcome messages

Hey Andrew, would you mind marking your welcome messages as minor edits. That would make it easier to filter through user talk pages on recent changes. Thanks! --(WT-en) Peter Talk 01:27, 28 December 2008 (EST)

Wine Regions Axed

Hi Andrew, I took your advice on the wine regions at Colorado's Wine Country to heart and removed them, as they are too small and incomplete to include. Please take a second look at the article and discussion and tell me what you think. Thanks! (WT-en) WineCountryInn 17:21, 11 January 2009 (EST)

Spectacular

Hi Andrew. Here you say "Spectacular is subjective". While true, I don't see the relevance. Nowhere are we exhorted to avoid subjectivity; policy only requires us to be fair, and I think it's fair to say the Grand Canyon is the canyon with the most spectacular views. (WT-en) LtPowers 22:54, 23 January 2009 (EST)

I should have said that "world's most spectacular" is subjective. Maybe it's just because I've spent a lot of time detouting hotel & restaurant listings, I'm sure lots of canyons in the world could be described as the "world's most spectacular" so I put a (in my opinion) better description: "the world's longest & most visited canyon". Do you understand where I'm coming from?
Except I don't think that it is the longest, and it's definitely not the deepest. But even Wikipedia with its NPOV comes right out and says "The Grand Canyon is unmatched throughout the world for the vistas it offers to visitors on the rim." (WT-en) LtPowers 16:22, 24 January 2009 (EST)

Interstate 4

I guess I need to throw my 2 cents into Interstate 4. I will rough out something for Seminole and Volusia Counties in my (WT-en) Sandbox, and you can extract whatever you like later. (WT-en) gamweb 10:04, 25 January 2009 (EST)

Oh and here are some maps I found, that could be useful:

While I fully support it (didn't even know the peninsula was split up into two oblasts/krais or whatever it is up there), I think you should at least notify Peter before messing around with the Russian Hierachy - as I understand it, he spend quite a bit of time organising the damn stuff. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) Talk 20:23, 24 February 2009 (EST)

As you probably know, not long ago Koryak Okrug & Kamchatka Krai were separate federal subjects, but Koryak Okrug has since merged into Kamchatka Krai. There are a ton of meaningful destinations in Kamchatka; far less so in Koryakia. My general feeling is that it does make sense to keep the regions separate, if only because nearly no one who visits Kamchatka actually makes it so far north into the wild as Palana. Therefore it might be wise to not burden visitors to Kamchatka with information about Koryakia, since it's irrelevant for the vast majority of them, and there is a clear dividing line to separate content (the old federal subject border). The two regions, while united by geography, are distinct in terms of culture, and more importantly travel infrastructure!
All that said, we're currently making major revisions to the Russian hierarchy on the Russian version, and our Russian colleagues know a lot more about these regions than we do. I intend to readjust the Russian regions hierarchy here once we've settled on a scheme over there, so we might as well leave the articles as you have combined them until then. --(WT-en) Peter Talk 00:08, 25 February 2009 (EST)
I'll add that if we do keep the articles separate (and that is my inclination), it would probably be best to treat Koryakia as a subregion of Kamchatka, covered in that separate article. --(WT-en) Peter Talk 00:11, 25 February 2009 (EST)
I hope you don't mind—I've merged the discussions from our respective talk pages and moved it to Talk:Kamchatka#Koryakia, where it will be more accessible for future contributors. --(WT-en) Peter Talk 00:35, 4 March 2009 (EST)

Discussion continued at Talk:Kamchatka#Koryakia

Info boxes

The info box on your user page, with the photo, # of countries, and Florida flag looks great. Where can I find out how to make these? Are other banners/boxes available? Thanks. (WT-en) Jtesla16 21:02, 25 February 2009 (EST)

I saw how others had used html for routeboxes and so I figured out how to create a table in html and add a picture and some other stuff. Click edit to see the code.

[[Image:AHeneen Paris.JPG|center|238px]]
6 This user has traveled to 6 countries.
This user is a Floridian.
CCCP This user is interested in the former Soviet Bloc.
{{User en}}
{{User fr-3}}
The first line defines the whole box: Where it says "background"...you can put any color from here you like, the same goes for border. You can also change the width of the whole thing ("width") and the width of the border (the "2.5px at the end").
The second line is the image, make sure the width of the image is smaller than the width of the whole box.
The third-seventh lines are for the "travelled to" box. I stole that code after seeing it on (WT-en) Cacahuate's user page and liking it. The only thing I'd mess with on the 3rd line is "border" followed by the color and width. On the forth line, if you change the width make sure it's just smaller than the width of the whole box and should be the same as the picture; the background is for the right side. The fifth line is for the left side of the small box. You can put an image or text (very short) in there (like I have 6 and also a Florida flag). The sixth line is for the right side of the small box (note that the background color for the right side is specified on the 4th line). Leave the seventh line alone.
Use the code from the 3rd-7th lines again and again to create more personal small boxes.
The second & third to last lines come from Project:Babel, use templates from that to insert in place of {{User en}} & {{User fr-3}}. And, of course, you can expand that to several line with all languages you speak.
Be sure you don't leave off the last line. (WT-en) AHeneen 22:30, 25 February 2009 (EST)

Bangladesh visas

Hey there! Where did you hear about voa for us citizens? Just double confirming that this has changed – (WT-en) cacahuate talk 15:14, 17 March 2009 (EDT)

The "visa" info on their Washington embassy website comes up as html when I click on it, but going to the NY consulate website and looking at the visa info, , there is a section at the bottom entitled "Visa on Arrival" which states:
"Visa on Arrival: This facility is available for US citizens when they travel to Bangladesh for some specific purposes such as a) official business b) business/trade c) potential investors, d) tourists and e) members of defense and security forces with prior clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs of the government of Bangladesh.
Duration: visa on arrival for eligible travelers will be given for a period of not more than 30 days, single entry. The immigration officer at the port of entry (i.e. airports, land ports etc.) will approve this after examining all relevant documents and after his/her full satisfaction.
The travelers who wish to take visa on arrival at a Bangladeshi port of entry must do the following: 1) fees has to be submitted cash in US $/Euro/ Pound sterling 2) travelers other than those on govt. duty must have a minimum of US $ 500 in cash or in credit card with them 3) must possess a return ticket if they come for a short time." (WT-en) AHeneen 15:35, 17 March 2009 (EDT)

French pronunciation

Um, I find your new pseudophonetics weird. To my ear, the emphasis on "SAH-lu" and "MEHR-see" is precisely the wrong way around -- the native English speaker will by default already stress the first syllable in each, and the previous versions attempted to guide them away from this. (WT-en) Jpatokal 08:55, 27 March 2009 (EDT)

As someone whose knowledge of French is limited to dimly-remembered children's television from southern Ontario stations, I always thought the accents on those two words were on the second syllables. Am I correct in inferring that the actual pronunciation places almost equivalent stress on each syllable? (WT-en) LtPowers 09:45, 27 March 2009 (EDT)
Yes. The point is that in "Merci" both e and i are pronounced, whereas English "Mercy" has a strong emphasis on the "MER" and kinda swallows the "y". (WT-en) Jpatokal 11:23, 27 March 2009 (EDT)

Hmmm...must have been tired. Yes, salut should be the other way around, I thought merci was accented at the beginning...but maybe that's just my English tendency as you point out. The main thing I was trying to root out was all the "G"s in the pronunciations...those just didn't belong. Feel free to fix what you think is wrong. It doesn't seem to me that there is a lot of stressed syllables in French...so many phrases I was struggling to figure out what should be accented. Or maybe, in my way of pronouncing things, I was thinking of a rise in my voice as being stress. I do think, however, that many changes were made better:

  • The double u ("uu") in pronunciations seemed very bizarre, so that got replaced with oo
  • Nuef: "neuf" (which I think someone might pronounce as "noof") to "nuhf"
  • Cent: "sahng" (which, depending on how one interprets that, is the pronunciation of sange [blood] or singe [monkey])
  • I thought "je vous prie" is more for requests (lit. "I demand of you"), whereas "s'il vous plaît" is more polite...so I swapped the "je vous prie".
  • I learned "dîner" as dinner, and that's the only thing my Fr-En dictionary lists...so I inserted that (plus the only time I've heard the term "supper" is at my grandparents house...isn't more of a early 1900s term?).
  • "vous pouvez débarrasser la table?" was not grammatically a question, nor did it include "please"..."Pouvez-vous débarrasser la table, s'il vous plaît?".
  • As far as I understand or have heard, there is no pause in "suis"...so "swee" not "s'wee".

Again, feel free to fix what you think is wrong. (WT-en) AHeneen 11:30, 27 March 2009 (EDT)

Foreign consulates in Florida

Hi, AHeneen. =) I saw the new section you added to Florida listing various foreign consulates throughout the state. I'm not sure I see the usefulness of such a list. Any individual traveler is only going to have a use for the consulates for his own home nation, and maybe one or two others. The rest of the list is useless to him, and it takes up a lot of space in the article. Would you consider alternative ways of presenting this information? (WT-en) LtPowers 09:22, 5 April 2009 (EDT)

The "any individual traveler" you refer to could come from any of the countries whose consulates are listed. I think it would be beneficial to many people, as the state is one of the most visited places in the US. I have come across many cities which list consulates (although not all in a given city) and thought that FL could use such a list. The goal of the Florida Expedition is to turn FL into a guide article and I think this information falls into the scope of a guide article. As for taking up space, the FL article needs more content and once it's lengthened a bit, this section won't seem so large. I don't know how to make the text smaller or make the space between listings smaller; otherwise, I'd make the listings smaller to save space. It took quite a while to complete the list and get a website for each consul. If you disagree or are still unsure, feel free to get another opinion. (WT-en) AHeneen 20:31, 5 April 2009 (EDT)
As a second opinion, I also don't think this information is useful enough to be included on a state page. I think most travelers would have the resources to find the consulate for their country if its important to them. With that said, one way to minimize the size this information takes up on the Florida page would be to create a Florida/Foreign Consulates page and make a note: "There are many Consulates in the State of Florida which can be useful to foreign travelers, see this page for a complete listing."--(WT-en) Jtesla16 20:46, 5 April 2009 (EDT)
Care to comment here? --(WT-en) Peter Talk 21:58, 5 April 2009 (EDT)
(edit conflict) What I meant by "any individual traveler" is this: Imagine a visitor to Florida from, say, Canada. Our Canadian visitor is in Pensacola and need of the services of a consulate. Which is more useful to her: a list of all the consulates in Florida, which indicates that there is a Canadian consulate in Miami, along with dozens of others she doesn't care about; or a list of all Canadian consulates in the U.S., which tells her she could go to Atlanta instead, which is much closer? I don't in any way mean to dismiss the time and effort you put into this list, but I just think this information is better presented elsewhere and elseways. It's nothing personal, I swear. (WT-en) LtPowers 22:05, 5 April 2009 (EDT)
I see your point. To further complicate things, I should note that some countries' consulates have explicit jurisdictions which may not correspond to the closest consulate. Brazil's Miami consulate has jurisdiction over all of Florida, so you can't apply for a Brazilian visa in Atlanta. I think maybe we could create a page listing all embassies & consulates in the US by country then city. That way a Canadian in trouble could go to that page, click "Canada" in the navigation box, then see a list of consulates for Canada and determine the closest one. (WT-en) AHeneen 22:14, 5 April 2009 (EDT)

Circling the Black Sea

Hello. Seeing the trip around Black Sea in your wishlist, I thought this may be of interest to you.--(WT-en) Vidimian 14:24, 6 April 2009 (EDT)

Thank you! (WT-en) AHeneen 00:35, 7 April 2009 (EDT)

Danger, Will Robinson..

Great to see those warning boxes biting the dust.. --(WT-en) Inas 03:05, 21 May 2009 (EDT)

Editing of PD Photo

Swept in from the pub

Is it OK to crop a photo which has been added from WP and is in the public domain? (WT-en) AHeneen 21:25, 13 May 2009 (EDT)

You can legally do absolutely anything you want with a PD file. --(WT-en) Peter Talk 21:36, 13 May 2009 (EDT)

Heya, saw this post over on the Thorn Tree, and was wondering if you could suggest any improvements (i.e. what is lacking), as I think it's an awesome itinerary, and would really like the guide to be useful as possible. But keep in mind that per our hierarchy we need to keep listings etc. in the cities. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) Talk 14:49, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

Nice work!

Brilliant job on Africa—a huge improvement! --(WT-en) Peter Talk 15:44, 26 December 2009 (EST)

Thanks, but it's a long way from being finished. (WT-en) AHeneen 19:55, 26 December 2009 (EST)
Yeah, awesome work! --(WT-en) globe-trotter 11:39, 15 January 2010 (EST)

Africa country maps

Hello there. You might or might not be aware of our regions map expedition. In a nutshell, a small group of us are working through all countries, with the ultimate goal of creating a Wikivoyage style regionalised map for each of them. Progress has been great, and Asia for example is now completely done, bar a few bits of fine tuning. A large dent has also been made in Europe and South America is just lacking Paraguay and Uruguay. Africa, sadly, sits there with 30 odd countries not having a map. Critical is the actual regionalisation of a country, as well as drawing the map. I thought you might be interested in helping with the African nations in this respect? The vast majority of those 30-odd countries have yet to be regionalised. Drawing a map takes long enough, but when you have to figure out the regional split as well, it becomes a large undertaking. If you feel you could regionalise any of those, that would be great and very helpful in advance of the map-making team turning their efforts towards Africa. I drew the Ivory Coast map today, but that was relatively straightforward, as somebody who clearly knew a bit about the country had already done the regionalisation. Please give it some thought. Cheers. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 04:11, 20 January 2010 (EST)

I'll try to help. About a year ago, I downloaded Inkscape (?) and tried to create some city maps, but had a lot of difficulty trying to draw with it and gave up. I spilled a drink on my nice, new laptop this past summer and the logic board was damaged, so until I can afford a new computer I'm using my 8 year old desktop...definitely not something that can handle creating maps easily. Despite what I've contributed to African articles, I'm not at all certain of regions...it's hard enough finding good info on destinations. I'll start researching and see what I can do, probably just go ahead and divide up countries in the regions section and let you all create maps. (WT-en) AHeneen 21:49, 20 January 2010 (EST)
Excellent. My plea was for help with the actual regionalisation, so that would be great! I do realise it will be tricky for many of these countries. If you think it appropriate, some of the smallest countries may not require regionalisation at all (eg Togo, Guinea-Bissau, Burundi)? --(WT-en) Burmesedays 22:04, 20 January 2010 (EST)

Benin regions map

Hey, I saw you re-added Benin to the Expedition page. I'm pretty sure that we've decided not to create regions for it, at least not at this juncture, as with other small countries for which we have little content, like Talk:Burundi. See Talk:Benin. --(WT-en) Peter Talk 20:37, 27 January 2010 (EST)

It's not a "small" country like Burundi or Gambia...it's roughly the size of Pennsylvania and slightly larger than Bulgaria. It ranges from coastal plains to savanna similar to neighboring Togo, which I've divided into 3 regions. I'll get around to it soon.(WT-en) AHeneen 03:21, 28 January 2010 (EST)

African history

Re: , you're right, second millenium AD actually starts in the year 1000 (or 1001, I'm not sure) — my misunderstanding, sorry. --(WT-en) Vidimian 11:31, 28 January 2010 (EST)

African ODs

Well done for going through some of the African articles and adding Other Destinations. You might want to think again about Fouta Djalon in Guinea. I think this is an alternative name for the existing region Moyenne Guinee? Spelt as Fouja Djallon, it is already a re-direct to that region article. There are a lot of OD type attractions in that region for sure, and I think those would make good content for the region aticle? We alreay have an article for Dalaba, which from reading, I suspect is the most visted of the hill areas there. More generally, I really hope that the large effort we have put in to produce so many excellent maps, regionalise and better organise the articles etc., will encourage more content for the whole of Africa. Cheers and thanks again. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 00:28, 12 February 2010 (EST)

I found a copy of "The Rough Guide:First-Time Africa" at my library which lists "main attractions" and "also recommended" for most countries in Africa. I knew getting decent content for each country would be difficult and was overjoyed when I found this book. Cities are already listed, which is why most of what I'm adding are ODs. I'll have to go back later to find more info and create articles for all I'm reading. I had read about Fouta Djallon (WP spells it with 2 "l"s) and it seemed like a small region; I didn't think about it coinciding with an entire region...maybe I'll remove it as an OD and praise it elsewhere in the article. I am very optimistic that more content will be added to Africa articles...it's such a wonderful, diverse continent, I want people to know more about it! (WT-en) AHeneen 02:25, 12 February 2010 (EST)

Uganda

You might know already, but when drawing the map I was surprised by how much content we already have for Uganda. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 02:57, 15 March 2010 (EDT)

Timbuktu

Truly, one of my greatest regrets as a traveler is not having gone to Mali before the ongoing tragedy. I'd had my eye on a trip there for a long time, wanting to see Timbuktu, Dogon Country, Bamako nightlife, and ideally the Tuareg Festival in the Desert (which had already become unsafe), but only once I got to West Africa did it fall apart. I talked to a lot of other backpackers in Ghana about their trips there—all agreed that it was the highlight of their West Africa circuit (aside from the nervous quick escape post-kidnappings and twitchy border guards), and that it was no longer a place for any tourists. They also mentioned how devastated everyone looked in the small hospitality industry, knowing full well that their guesthouses, restaurants, bars, and cafes were doomed. I have no idea when one could expect it to calm down again—maybe it will be fine in five years, or maybe a generation or two... --(WT-en) Peter Talk 00:45, 6 July 2012 (EDT)

Definitely one of the (if not the) destinations I most want to visit in West Africa. It's really saddening to see all this in the news lately. Looks like nearly all the shrines have been destroyed completely and there's fear the rebels will now start going through all the ancient manuscripts to find and destroy any blasphemous ones. Seems like Timbuktu is now a ghost town since most residents have fled after strict sharia law was imposed. The issue of ECOWAS sending 3,000 troops to regain control of the region was raised before the UN Security Council this week and they want a thorough post-occupation plan before approval. So hopefully these rebels will be driven out soon!! If there's a (very) small positive side, they only control Timbuktu & Gao regions...I'd hate to think of what they'd do to the Dogons and all their villages and cultural relics!! (WT-en) AHeneen 21:12, 6 July 2012 (EDT)

Spam page

You're shown as the author of User:(WT-en) Chen47vk7, which is a spambot page. Any idea what's going on? Is this another upgrade bug? -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 16:09, 14 July 2012 (EDT)

When I tried logging in earlier, I got a message that (I think) said something about being prevented from logging in to prevent account being compromised or something like that. The time of those edits is about the time I logged in (or tried to). I'm on a public wi-fi network...maybe that has something to do with that? (WT-en) AHeneen 16:15, 14 July 2012 (EDT)
You're the second "normal" account I've seen today that had a spambot page created. It may be an upgrade bug, but if you see that message again can you copy it and add it to this thread? -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 17:01, 14 July 2012 (EDT)

[[Image:Login_error.JPG|thumb|right|600px]] Today after clicking the "log in" in the upper right, then entering my username & password and hitting enter, I got the screen at right. I think what I did on the 14th was re-enter my password at this screen, after which I got the message I mentioned about being compromised or something like that. This time I clicked the WT image in the top right to return to the homepage, where I was still "logged in" as this spambot (?). I just closed the window (my Firefox setting is to clear cookies when exiting) and came back to WT to log in...without incident. These two instances are the only two times I've ever seen this message...my browser should accept cookies. Using my home internet this time. Maybe this is a bug. (BTW:Message is in a grey box because I highlighted it to copy/paste, but then decided to capture a screenshot with the message still highlighted). (WT-en) AHeneen 05:49, 16 July 2012 (EDT)

[[Image:Login_error2.JPG|thumb|right|600px]]

I got the log in error message in the second screenshot when I tried to log in today...the same one I got the first time. Happened in the same way as the last two times: clicked on "log in" from WT homepage, entered by username & password on the following page and hit enter. Again, notice that I appear to be logged in as a spambot. This time I entered my password on this page and clicked "log in", but checking my "user contributions" it doesn't look like any spam edits have been made by my account. (WT-en) AHeneen 22:39, 16 July 2012 (EDT)
There was a bug fixed in Mediawiki 1.17.2 that apparently would allow a script running on your machine to "steal" session information - if you're on Windows, do you run a virus scanner? Otherwise you might want to try clearing cookies and see if the problem goes away. Alternately, it's possible that a malicious Google ad or something similar could be stealing session info via the aforementioned bug. For what it's worth I reported the problem to IB and requested that they upgrade to the latest bugfix release. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 22:58, 16 July 2012 (EDT)

[[Image:LoginError3.JPG|thumb|right|600px]]

I was adding another comment when you added yours. I do run a virus scanner and like I said in the first post, my browser setting are set to delete cookies when the browser is closed (just double-checked this). Should this be moved to the pub for others to comment on? So after making the last comment, I went to my watchlist to patrol recent edits and got the message shown in the third screenshot while making a couple edits. After logging back in, I checked my contributions, but no spam edits made by my account. Since the upgrade, I seem to get logged out of my account anywhere from 15-45 minutes after logging in (a rough guess) and this happened 20 minutes after logging in (based on difference between timestamps on the images' metadata). (WT-en) AHeneen 23:04, 16 July 2012 (EDT)
It probably wouldn't hurt to give this issue wider exposure in the Pub since it hasn't just been your account - I just deleted a spambot page credited to User:(WT-en) (WT-en) AndreCarrotflower. I've also raised this issue at Project:How to handle unwanted edits#Important - blocking spambots. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 00:15, 17 July 2012 (EDT)

Quick question - with one exception I haven't seen any evidence that the "spambot impersonating real users" issue is still a problem since the 1.17.4 upgrade. That one exception is from your account today, where the user creation log has an entry saying:

14:17, 28 July 2012 AHeneen created new account User:Marionw ‎ (asdf123456)

Did you by any chance actually create a new account? If not there may still be a security hole somewhere. And if you did, how did you do it? Was it just a test of some sort? -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 01:16, 29 July 2012 (EDT)

No. I didn't create any new accounts. When the problem first arose, I got one of those three messages every time I tried to log in. I've seen it only a handful of times the last few days. When I have gotten a message in the last few days, its the second screenshot ("Login error. There seems to be a problem..."). I can't remember if I got the message 7/28 or not. I didn't get the message when I recently logged in. Must still be a security hole then. (WT-en) AHeneen 01:44, 29 July 2012 (EDT)
Thanks for the quick response. The number of questionable edits since the upgrade definitely seem to be reduced, and it's possible that it may take a while for old sessions to expire completely before the problem is fully resolved (I think cookies expire after 30 days...), but I guess the issue isn't completely resolved yet. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 02:03, 29 July 2012 (EDT)
My browser deletes cookies when I close it. When I logged in tonight, I got the message in the second screenshot yet again. It showed I was logged in as User:(WT-en) GUrLaLiEn, who seems to be a legitimate account (not spambot). When I entered my password the second time, I was logged in as my account. Definitely seems to be either a security hole or some database error. (WT-en) AHeneen 01:09, 30 July 2012 (EDT)
Happened yet again. Got message in first screenshot (re:cookies) after logging in. On that page, in the top right it was shown that I was logged in as User:(WT-en) Ravikiran r. After entering my password again on this second screen, I was logged into my account. (WT-en) AHeneen 01:23, 31 July 2012 (EDT)

Yesterday the cache was cleared to allow the patch changes to propagate through the site. As it rebuilds, the site will slowly return to normal speed and the hope is that the spambot spooling issue will be resolved. Please let me know if this doesn't appear to be the case.--(WT-en) IBobi talk email 18:28, 31 July 2012 (EDT)

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