User talk:Dgbrt

2013-08-25T12:47:39Z

Rombobjörn: /* Explained too much */ new section

== [[1190: Time]] ==

It's fine that you're helping with updating [[1190: Time]]. I'm trying to write a script that automatically updates the hashes and uploads the images. In order to test the script, could you, at least for the next image, refrain from doing that? I can then test the script and if it works, you can continue if you want to, but least I know that my script does work.

Updating the transcript and anything else from the page is still absolutely fine, I cannot do this. --[[User:SlashMe|SlashMe]] ([[User talk:SlashMe|talk]]) 15:56, 2 May 2013 (UTC)
: Ok, seems to work. If you want, you can continue updating, but my script should do this automatically within ~1 minute while I'm online. And if I'm not, it should catch up later. --[[User:SlashMe|SlashMe]] ([[User talk:SlashMe|talk]]) 16:09, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

:: GREAT, it's really working. My computer is online 24/7 (but not me). Since updates should be done in time maybe my computer is the better machine for your script. I am on Linux and a cron job is downloading at 00,05,20,35,50 each hour, just in case the update frequency will change again. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:31, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

::: Might be, but I have a folder full of scripting stuff, and I would have to tidy up all that to get the important lines. And I'm not really in the mood for that. ;-) Maybe I will come back to this later. --[[User:SlashMe|SlashMe]] ([[User talk:SlashMe|talk]]) 16:52, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for your comment. The reason I said "another" river is because "another" is referencing Megan's quote that "yes. there are other rivers" - implying they have arrived at "another" river, not the one they already knew about. I put quotes because as you point out, we haven't exactly seen them come across the first river. As to the water bottle, if you want to change it to "drinking bottle", I'm fine with that. The contents being water is an assumption based on what you might expect someone to do going on a long journey. [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 20:18, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

: I am not a native English speaker - so thanks for help - but I just want to be correct. And I did edit your edit...

I think a special page (i.e. "1190: Time: Pictures") with a table (description | thumb with link) or other form of separator might work. I seem to remember seeing something on using a different thumb file on a picture link. This is my first time editing wiki pages, but the thumbs and smaller images on the upload pages don't appear to be working. As a work around, I just used blind links without thumbs (e.g. :file:fname...). I can create and upload smaller pictures, but will need some help putting it all together. If this sounds good to you, give me a nod on my talk page and I'll start adding content and let the regulars help straighten it out. Also, am I doing something wrong on the uploads or is it just not working? [[User:Galois|Galois]] ([[User talk:Galois|talk]]) 23:52, 5 June 2013 (UTC)
: I'm also relatively new to wiki edits, but I'm a programmer, Linux expert (and more OS's) and also the admin for the wiki at my company. Thumbnails do not work because of a bug in the configuration or missing capabilities at the hoster. I will try to talk to the admins here, maybe I can help. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:33, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

== Redirections, and incomplete explanations ==

Hello there, and thank you for your work! :-)

One technical thing that you should note, when you create pages that should <u>redirect</u> directly to a newly created explanation page (for example [[332]] to redirect to [[332: Gyroscopes]]), use the redirection syntax which goes like this: <code><nowiki>#REDIRECT [[332: Gyroscopes]]</nowiki></code>

You've done it right for [[447]] / [[Too Old For This Shit]] or [[531]] / [[Friends]] for instance, so try to do it all the time, instead of leaving pages with only a link in it, like {{diff|39258|332}} / {{diff|39259|Gyroscopes}} or {{diff|39251|311}} / {{diff|39252|Action Movies}}. Thanks :-)

Another thing, not from me, and about content this time: [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] left you a couple of message in the changes he made to the pages you created, but it's fairly possible that you didn't get them, so here they are:
* (in response to your comment ''"I am still trying to give every comic a page here. Help me to complete it!"''): {{diff|39262|''"I'd really rather leave those links red for someone to write a proper explanation. With explanations that read like second transcripts, all we really do is take traffic away from xkcd.com without adding value."''}}
* {{diff|39263|''"Also, incomplete articles are harder to track than nonexistent articles, so I'd rather we just focus on making explanations well instead of making an unsatisfactory shell for every comic. Incomplete explanations make us look kinda bad too."''}}
* {{diff|39265|''"People on other sites often comment on how our explanations are a wildly mixed bag of quality. I'd rather you put your effort into making a few good substantial explanations instead of loads of summaries and rehashes of the transcript."''}}

Try to take that into account also...

Cheers, [[User:Cos|Cos]] ([[User talk:Cos|talk]]) 10:45, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

:Hello [[User:Cos|Cos]], here some comments by me:
::Redirections - I'm sorry for the missing #REDIRECT tag. I'm using often a text editor for my own copy and paste templates. I am sure I would have figured out that error today by myself. Thanks for your help!
::Incomplete explanations - I will stop on this even when I think it's good idea to have a page for each comic here and work afterwards on all those incomplete ones. The pages [[Help:How_to_add_a_new_comic_explanation]] and [[List_of_unexplained_comics]] should clarify this issue. Furthermore there are many more incomplete comics not marked as incomplete so you can't find them here: [[:Category:Incomplete articles|Incomplete explanations]]. I will also send a message to [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] about this.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:35, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

Speaking of incomplete explanations, do you think you could help add some text to [[266: Choices: Part 3]] and [[267: Choices: Part 4]]? To my knowledge, they are the only articles on the wiki without even a stub for an explanation. In addition, the other three choice articles could use some better explanations. --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 04:02, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

== Ach nee,... ==

...schau mal einer an, noch ein Deutscher! Wollte nur mal 'nen Gruß hinterlassen... ;-) --[[User:SlashMe|SlashMe]] ([[User talk:SlashMe|talk]]) 21:37, 8 June 2013 (UTC)
:Ich grüße zurück! I am greeting you too.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:20, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

== Congratulations! ==

You worked on the last unexplained comic of ''xkcd'' at very much the same time that the article was created! [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 23:41, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
:I was working at the same time to create that explanation. After trying to save I got a warning that it's already there. So I just did add my work there.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 10:40, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
::In that case, you also created the last explanation. You two worked on the comic at essentially the same time. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 18:13, 28 June 2013 (UTC)

== 1190:Time frame renumbering ==

Apologies if I created confusion, I was under the impression that davidy22 had already made the final decision to renumber the frames. I didn't know there was someone else who made the decision. [[User:Patzer|Patzer]] ([[User talk:Patzer|talk]]) 01:11, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

== DgbrtBOT ==

It took a while for me to notice your request. I think you've been quite the active figure around the wiki, so I've added the bot to the bots group.

Keep up the work and don't burn out! [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]<span title="I'm an admin. I can help.">_a</span> ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 16:37, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

:Many thanks, my request was mainly for picture uploads to 1190 Time, but maybe I will use this feature in the future. I will be careful, first tests will be done at my local TestWiki.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:29, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

== The right place to add 'discussion' ==

I don't disagree with your comment to [[User:Anon]] (although I'd say "additions" instead of "adds"), or to a number of your edits to their additions, but some of what has been added is not worthy of Trivia sections being added. They should probably have been put into the talk page, or in some cases, left where they were. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 05:39, 15 August 2013 (UTC)
:You are right, I just did not want to delete the additions by this new user. Because I can't move a single line to the talk page by one edit I thought the Trivia section would be the best solution. I don't like links to other comics here when it doesn't explain anything to the actual one. But a sidestep to a similar joke could be worthy to the Trivia section.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 13:36, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

== Explained too much ==

Hello Dgbrt, I'm sorry I explained too much about comic 1255. I was under the impression that the purpose of this wiki was to explain XKCD comics for those who don't get the references, so I thought it would be helpful to explain the part about sailing in a line tangent to the surface, which wasn't previously touched on in the description. I understand now that what you guys actually do here is to describe and transcribe XKCD comics. That's not something I'm interested in so I'll leave now. Thank you for correcting my misunderstanding. [[User:Rombobjörn|Rombobjörn]] ([[User talk:Rombobjörn|talk]]) 12:47, 25 August 2013 (UTC)

1255: Columbus

2013-08-24T15:13:24Z

Rombobjörn: /* Explanation */ reference to Akallabêth

{{comic
| number = 1255
| date = August 23, 2013
| title = Columbus
| image = columbus.png
| titletext = And thus was smallpox introduced into the previously Undying Lands.
}}

==Explanation==
[[White Hat]] tells two children that Christopher Columbus knew the world was round, but that others believed it to be flat. However, this is a false narrative known as the {{w|Myth of the Flat Earth}}. Educated people in Columbus's time knew the world was round, and knew the approximate radius of the Earth. Columbus claimed that the distance to sail west from Europe to Asia was drastically lower than others believed, but {{w|Christopher Columbus#Geographical_considerations|he was wrong about this}}. If another continent and the "{{w|West Indies}}" had not been fortuitously in the right place, Columbus and his crew probably would have died at sea.

As White Hat begins his explanation, Megan objects, though not explaining why. White Hat continues, so Megan interrupts, saying that Columbus went in a straight line as the world curved away, ending up in {{w|Valinor}} and the {{w|Undying Lands}}. Megan's story is an allusion to the {{w|Silmarillion}}, by {{w|J. R. R. Tolkien}}, set in the same world as {{w|The Lord of the Rings}} trilogy and {{w|The Hobbit}}. Specifically, she references {{w|Eärendil|Eärendil the Mariner}}, the only mortal sailor to reach the Undying Lands, home of the Valar, and later gifted with one of the eponymous {{w|Silmaril}}s. With this silmaril on his brow he might look like an Indian man wearing a [[:File:Maharaja_Sir_Sri_Krishnaraja_Wodiyar_1906_by_1906_K_Keshavayya.jpg|turban]]. In Megan's telling, Columbus ends up as a mythological {{w|constellation}}.

Megan also references the {{w|Akallabêth}}, where (some 3300 years after Eärendil) Ilúvatar remakes the previously flat world, breaking away Valinor and transforming the rest to a globe. Ever since then, human sailors can only sail around the spherical world. Only the elves can still sail in a straight line and reach Valinor, like Columbus does in Megan's story.

The joke is that when White Hat tells her to stop making up the story, Megan pointedly replies "You first", indicating that she originally complained about White Hat's retelling of the Columbus story because his account didn't really happen, and so he was also "making things up". Megan's fantasy tale was then delivered to make a point.

The title text refers to the {{w|Smallpox#Human_history|transfer of small pox}} to North America by Europeans.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat talks to children.]
:White Hat: Everyone said the world was flat, but Columbus knew it was round.
:Megan: *Sigh* No, no, no.

:White Hat: So he took his ships and sailed west -
:Megan: - in a line tangent to the surface. The sea fell away, and he landed in ''Valinor''.

:Megan: A silmaril on his brow, he wanders the heavens as the morning star, still believing he reached India.
:White Hat: Stop making stuff up.
:Megan: You first.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:LOTR]]

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

User talk:Dgbrt

1255: Columbus