User talk:Wrh2/Archive 2009

Celebration Suites at Old Town

Now I know our post has violated the Wikivoyage:Don't Tout and didn't notice the warning. We are a new starter here and didn't know the details. So can you remove our hotel and website from the blacklist? We will obey the rules when we post again in the future. Thanks.

Thanks

Thanks for the welcome message Wrh2. I didn't know that, I just joined. (WT-en) Clarkcj 11:00, 23 November 2009 (EST)

Walking Tour

Hello, Just got your message about my external link being deleted from the Vienna page and had a question about it. the site i linked to provides a really good walking free tour for the city, is on a non-profit site, and is a great resource to people searching Vienna on wiki travel. If i am not able to link to the walking tour directly how may i share the walking tour with readers on wiki? I understand wiki doesn't want link to other travel sites, so how else might i share the great info with them? the link was to: http://sites.google.com/a/bigboytravel.com/www/europe/austria/vienna/walkingtour, and i own all the content shown on it. Thanks Jon 19:24, 27 July 2009 (EDT)

Have a look at the "Tours Policy?" section of Project:Activity listings which contains a discussion of this issue and some of the reasoning for disallowing links to walking tours. You might consider creating a travel topic such as Walking tour of Sydney if you're interested in contributing subject matter for this topic. Hope that helps - if you have any further comments I'd suggest leaving them on Project:Activity listings so that others can comment. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 20:48, 27 July 2009 (EDT)

Ryan, I have found other walking tours listed in other cities such as Rome because in the talk boards the people overlooking certain countries have decided that some walking tours add value to wiki. I can understand why paid tour links are denied because they are spam, however, what i had posted was from a non-profit, ad-free site, offering free walking tour details with good printable maps. I am just confused on the choice that my site violated the policy instead of adding value.

(WT-en) Jonathanleighmiller 22:36, 27 July 2009 (EDT)

Image Captions

The difference between this site and most other wiki sites is that this site is designed for the creation of print-ready pages. Without a photo credit in the article, someone who prints an article or incorporates an article onto a web site or guide book will be infringing the copyright which subsists in the photographs which are licensed with a creative commons attribution license.(WT-en) Arpitt 18:50, 4 January 2009 (EST)

I've left links to the relevant policies on your talk page, and you can discuss your concerns there. Until there is a consensus to change current practice, however, this site (along with Wikipedia and most open source wikis) does not provide license and photographer name in the image caption, despite the fact that guides can be printed (as can Wikipedia articles). If you browse the site you will see that the thousands and thousands of images used here do not provide photographer credits in the captions, and that is by intention. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 18:55, 4 January 2009 (EST)

I've added a comment to http://shared.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Talk:Image_policy (WT-en) Arpitt 19:14, 4 January 2009 (EST)

...and I've responded. Until/If there is a consensus for change please do not add credits in captions as it goes against Wikivoyage standards. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 19:23, 4 January 2009 (EST)

Personal abuse on user pages..

see Project:How to handle_unwanted edits#Attacks directed at individuals

Thanks for the Feedback

Hi Ryan, thanks for the feedback. Check out the Agritourism page I am building, as well. Regards, (WT-en) WineCountryInn 17:41, 16 January 2009 (EST)

Violation

Hi Ryan, I have noticed you have been pulling Geogad listings under Walks, Do's, and Tours. The listings have been in other locations for awhile and there never was a problem. I am curious to what violation of the external link policy it violates so it can be corrected. These are professional created tours of specific locations that have been well researched and documented. Thanks and I look forward to your response.

- If it is because of the additional links to the mobile site and the android application, then I will delete those links.......

See Wikivoyage_talk:Local_spam_blacklist#geogad_dot_com which has some pointers to the relevant policy pages and discussions. Your edits seemed well-intentioned, but audio tours are discouraged by policy. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 15:01, 3 February 2009 (EST)

Apartment listings

Ryan,,,

Our apartment listings in Australia has been all removed, just was wondering what is wrong with this listings. We met all the 4 points indicated in the apartment listings guidelines.

Quest Apartments is the biggest apartment network in Australia.. please visit our site (www.questaustralia.com.au) , we are not advertising privately owned apartments, we do have online booking within 1 week.. a real phone number... a comercial address... etc..

If is a question of formatting please let me know..

Looking forward to your comments

Matias

There is somewhat of a higher standard for Project:External links on this site, so editors here tend to quickly revert links that look like touting and/or advertising that are not in line with policy. One major issue with your listings was that none of the listings included an address - per the Project:Accommodation listings#Apartment listings policy (cited in the reverts) apartment listings that do not list the address of the local office are inappropriate. Two, the listings were included on the articles for Australia and its states - see Project:Don't tout and Project:Where you can stick it. Listings should be included only for the city in which the apartment could be rented, otherwise the regional articles would simply become a mass of links to every business in that region. See also Project:Welcome, business owners which has additional advice, particularly about creating a user account - it is difficult to communicate with users who login solely via IP address. Thanks for taking the time to discuss the issues! -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 16:18, 11 February 2009 (EST)

Ok, following up your tips created a user and will try following up strictly guidelines. Thanks for your reply

Dividing Line Between Northeast and Southeast.

I was wondering where the regions developed. I have always seen Wisconsin split into four or eight regions. I could not tell where Northeast stopped and Southeast begins. I typically put Ozaukee and Washington counties into Southeastern Wisconsin. Where is the dividing line? --(WT-en) Mistert2 12:12, 28 February 2009 (EST)

I've replied on your talk page, but reading Talk:Wisconsin it looks like the regional breakdown was based on http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/images/photoarc/maps/statemap-regions-288.gif. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 12:15, 28 February 2009 (EST)

Thanks for the tips, I will do that in the future. --(WT-en) Mistert2 12:16, 28 February 2009 (EST)

One more quick question, what is the wikipedia link in West Bend and where does that show up on the page?

See Project:Links to Wikipedia for more details - basically it's a shortcut for creating links to Wikipedia articles for a page, and it shows up in the left nav in the "other sites" box. It's also possible to create links for Dmoz, other language versions of a page, etc. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 12:42, 28 February 2009 (EST)

ewdm dot not

(copied in from userspace) Please remove your post referring to us and listing us as spam we are a legitimate service and have had problems with competitors adding links to our site with inappropriate information including the trip adviser link you provided which clearly exposes the culprits staff at marina garden resort who after being declined space on our site took under hand measures, involving slander and self promotion.

Yours Kim admin ewdm dot net

Un-archive

moved to Project:Votes for deletion.

Thanks, and housekeeping

Thanks for the kind words. Now could you take over some of the housekeeping, specifically associated with the PF/EE silliness? I don't want to touch that one with a ten-foot pole, and I'm frankly disgusted that people who should know better are wasting so much time on it. -- (WT-en) Bill-on-the-Hill 21:46, 10 March 2009 (EDT)

Agreed :) I've tried twice to archive it based on what I assumed were clear and obvious reasons, so at this point I'm resigned to the fact that it's going to get its fourteen days no matter what I do... that said, after fourteen days there should be no question on the matter, so hopefully we can finally close the book on it once and for all. I should have read more of the recent changes before responding - looks like one of the three "delete" voters agreed to archive it, which hopefully puts the matter to rest (*phew*). -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 22:12, 10 March 2009 (EDT)

Jerusalem/Old City touts

An unusually persistent tout is at work on this article, putting up a series of unacceptable photo-ads for a restaurant despite pleas to at least read our anti-tout policy. Suggestions on what to do? -- (WT-en) Bill-on-the-Hill 20:53, 15 March 2009 (EDT)

Chiricahua National Monument lodging

moved to Talk:Chiricahua National Monument

Thanks

for the warm welcome! (WT-en) Army of me 03:08, 30 March 2009 (EDT)

Range blocks

Hey Ryan, I'd appreciate hearing your views on this discussion. Care to comment? --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 04:49, 30 April 2009 (EDT)

Suriname

Sorry for almost deleting a large part of the suriname article. don't know what went wrong. fixed it with history and undo. regards, user:mirrormundo

link violation

Hello Ryan, I apologize for the violation but I was wondering if it would be appropriate to link our main page to the pages of the various places we offer volunteer opportunities. I have noticed other organizations have done this such as Ikando volunteers under the work section on the Ghana page and various organizations, such as CARE and PID, under the work section on the Guatemala page. We would love for the Wikivoyage users to be able to explore our volunteer opportunities. Thank you for your time. username: crossculturalsolutions

Please see User talk:96.57.242.18 and User talk:(WT-en) Crossculturalsolutions. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 11:21, 17 June 2009 (EDT)

abetterstay dot com

Hello Ryan,

I am sorry about the violation, the links that I was posting from abetterstay were specific to the location, but not specific to the hotel.

If the posts were to be changed to specific hotels instead of broader destinations, would it alleviate this problem?

Hi Chad - have a look at your talk page which has some pointers to the relevant Wikivoyage guidelines, in particular Project:External links. In the future, if you see a red dot on the top right side of your screen next to your user name it means someone has left a new comment on your user page. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 20:59, 1 July 2009 (EDT)

Hey

A hi from your long lost protege. Miss ya. -(WT-en) OldPine 17:34, 29 July 2009 (EDT)

Spam specialists

Hi - removed cialis from the blacklist. Just the plain word, left the other patterns.. --(WT-en) inas 22:00, 1 September 2009 (EDT)

I've reverted the levitra pattern as well... I can't think of any words that contain that pattern, but who knows... stopping spam is an annoying business. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 22:02, 1 September 2009 (EDT)

Barcelona

Hi Ryan, i noticed that you have delete my contribution about Barcelona. I have read the guidelines for adding a tour company, but in that way i don´t understand why a company like Barcelona Bus Turistic have an a contribution. I don´t see differences between Barcelona Guide Bureau who is a partner of Barcelona Turisme and other companies who appears in the Barcelona contribution. Barcelona Guide Bureau is the only company, for example, going inside the Camp Nou, so for the readers of WikiTravel it´s interesting to know about that option.(WT-en) MathildeMadi 06:57, 6 October 2009 (EDT)

The policy for tours is the following:

Tours can be listed on Wikivoyage as long as they constitute a value-added activity. If a traveler could fulfill the substance of the tour on their own, the tour should not be listed.

Similarly, bullet #2 is:

Tours should offer something as a supplement, rather than a replacement for Wikivoyage guides. They should count as an activity available at a destination (e.g., a helicopter tour of a city, or a camel expedition into the Sahara).

Guided city tours generally do not meet these criteria unless they are taking visitors somewhere that they could not otherwise visit on their own. I can't comment on the other companies you mention as I don't know Barcelona - I noticed your edit while patrolling Special:Recentchanges but did not review the entire Barcelona article. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 11:07, 6 October 2009 (EDT)

Coimbatore

Hi Ryan, I have seen that you got involved in the Coimbatore issue. The main edit warring changes for the by-call taxis are done by two anonymous users 122.164.187.240 & 59.92.146.65. Could you block this maybe for a week or so and add a text that they need to follow the rules. This should raise their attention. Other users then can start to repair the article. Thanks, (WT-en) jan 14:12, 18 October 2009 (EDT)

Per Project:How to handle unwanted edits#User ban, any ban of longer than a day requires a nomination. In the case of this user, he seems to log in with different accounts and IPs and has flouted additions to the spam blacklist, so I suspect that the best option is to just continue reverting and protecting the articles in question as needed. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 14:21, 18 October 2009 (EDT)

Ryan, it seems that Ravikiran and others have identified the problem as well Project:User_ban_nominations#User:Gopinathangns and so we will keep reverting... (WT-en) jan 05:34, 19 October 2009 (EDT)

List of Chinese provinces and regions

Moved to Talk:List of Chinese provinces and regions

Chain hotels

Point taken. Just a bit nervous in getting other hoteliers to follow suit with their own chain listings. I'm guessing if there aren't any hotels listed on Wikivoyage, a user might think to go to Orbitz.com or even just Google "hotels in _____". But I can see your point...I also tend to delete B&Bs if it looks like there are just a bunch of them listed without any personal comments, so I'm not channeling too much hate towards the chains. :) Zepppep 22 Oct, 2009 20:32 (EDT)(WT-en) Zepppep 20:33, 22 October 2009 (EDT)

Yeah, I can see your point, but don't see chain hotels specifically mentioned in your reference. I guess I just apply what was applied to restaurants and grocery stores: if someone can pick up a phone book and get the same sort of info., the content may not prove too helpful; or if the location isn't a major part of the city's identity (or a restaurant inside, for example), then it may not be adding much value. But I can appreciate the fact you're saying leaving them on there and just getting rid of the mktg lang....I'll take a look at your references again but may need to point smth out! Thx! (WT-en) Zepppep 20:43, 22 October 2009 (EDT)

The talk page of Project:Accommodation listings probably has more discussion relevant to chain hotels (we've had problems with touting), and the "pruning" section contains some references, but Project:Welcome, business owners, Project:Where you can stick it, etc all state that hotels go in the sleep section without limiting what sort of hotels are OK. The Project:Goals and non-goals state that the site should not be a yellow page listing, so you're right that in places where there are a LOT of options we tend to weed out chains. That said, in smaller towns that only have a handful of options it's OK to list everything, and with hotels there are advantages to listing chains since many chain hotels are destinations of themselves - I lived in San Francisco for some time, and would definitely want to see listings for some of the bigger hotels in downtown, even if they are national brands, since they're worth visiting. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 20:51, 22 October 2009 (EDT)

Again, thanks for the references. I want to make sure I'm doing stuff right; has been a few yrs since I was active. For small towns, I can understand how even by listing the chains it won't get out of control merely b/c there aren't that many chains that could take up space. For bigger cities, I don't have a problem for chain references, but like to see them listed if a) the locals would agree it's a landmark has something worth seeing (attractions, restaurant, architecture, etc.) as I previously stated or b) in a district/borough section. And 5-9 is considered the "max" for listings, so I guess I'd let a discussion begin on perhaps which places are "the best" and let those winners continue to be listed.

What's your opinion on casinos? I'm looking at Kansas City and see the Isle of Capri...KC isn't a hotspot for casinos unlike Las Vegas but perhaps there are some who think it's a really good idea to have it listed in the Do section. What's your verdict, or is there anything official which discusses this? (WT-en) Zepppep 21:12, 22 October 2009 (EDT) (talk)

When in doubt the golden rule here is Project:The traveller comes first. Visitors to Kansas City go to the casinos (was there once, I thought they were an oddity) so my thought is that it can't hurt to leave them as long as they don't get too spammy. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 21:45, 22 October 2009 (EDT)

Shiny Buttons

I would indeed be honoured to accept that nomination, especially if the result is to make patroling work a little easier and faster. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 23:27, 29 November 2009 (EST)

Cologne

Hi Ryan, for the last ten days a spambot everyday deletes a portion of the Cologne article. You can see in the history of the article that the ip is the same with the exception of the last two digits. Is there a way to block these ip's 91.214.45.xx (42/43/46/47/45/49/52/133/134)? I assume it is a spambot because it is so regular. I'm a bit unsure what to do. (WT-en) jan 10:29, 7 December 2009 (EST)

I believe that there is an open request on shared: to support blocking IP ranges, but for now it seems that our only option is to revert changes as they occur and block the offending IP addresses. I've been watching Cologne (as have others) so hopefully editors will stay on top of this one, but sadly until IB takes a more active role in the site there may not be a technical way to prevent these sorts of attacks. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 10:41, 7 December 2009 (EST)