User talk:ColinFine/Archive 22

Hi there. Thanks again for your help with the handball infobox entries. If you don't mind, I have one more question about a formatting issue I am unable to resolve. If you have any input to offer, that would be much appreciated.

Mediterranean_Games#Competitions - the last column has fewer entries (10) than the first two (12). What is the formatting trick to have the third column appear leveled at the top with the other two (currently it's shown lower, centered compared to the other two)?

Cheers! — Preceding unsigned comment added by NoWikiNoLife (talk • contribs) 06:51, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Hi, NoWikiNoLife. I've fixed it.

The explanation for what I've done is that there is an outer table with nothing except three cells next to each other, with each of the inner tables in one cell. By default the contents of a cell are vertically centred in that cell.

I've added a property to each cell of the outer table to align its contents to the top.

(In this case it would have been enough to do this for the third cell only, but this way, if the numbers of items in the columns change, it will always keep all three columns aligned to the top).

By the way: if you sign your contribution on a talk page (by ~~~~ or the signature icon) it is easier to reply, as it would give me the "Reply" option. --ColinFine (talk) 10:52, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

That's great. Thanks again! Ah, yes, I always forget about the signature! 😁 — Preceding unsigned comment added by NoWikiNoLife (talk • contribs) 12:25, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Oh my gosh you have no idea how much I appreciate your response. That cleared a lot of things up. Y'all are great, Belbury, too. It is hard for me to approach things online, I have been traumatized regarding the online space, many times. Thank you for being clarifying. More people should take the time to explain things, how you do. peeeeeee-yew! (talk) 13:24, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

Hey, mate. Happy New Year. I have another question - if you could respond whenever you have the time that would be great. This is about External links.

• Page #1: Samuel Kolega#External_links
• Page #2: Istok Rodeš#External_links
• Question #1: On Kolega's page how come two external links appear, but when you go to 'edit source' all it says there is 'sports links' in parenthesis? Is that automatically generated by the system? And if so, how can it be edited? Probably through Wikidata? Can you please advise how that is done?
• Question #2: On Rodeš's page the first link says 'at the International Ski and Snowboard Federation', but on Kolega's page the link to the same website says 'at FIS (alpine)'? How can one edit the first one, so that it also says 'at FIS (alpine)' [as that one seems to be the standard on most skier's pages]?

Thanks! NoWikiNoLife (talk) 04:30, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @NoWikiNoLife, and Happy New Year.

Whenever you see double curly brackets ({{...}}) that's a template, and you can usually find more about it by looking for it in template space.

So Template:sports links explains what is generating the specific links that you see. However, in this case there is a further complication that that template gets its data from Wikidata. So if you go to Samuel Kolega, and pick "Wikidata item" from the Tools menu, it takes you to d:Q49171090, which is the Wikidata item for Kolega. In the section "Identifiers", you can see that two listed are his "FIS alpine skier ID" and his "Olympedia ID" - I presume that that is where the links come from. Each of those has an "Edit" pencil, if they need changing.

On Istok Rodeš, the links are not generated by {{sports links}}, but are placed individually, using simpler templates. Template:FIS alpine skier displays specific text, whereas {{sports links}} presumably generates the text from the ID name (I'm guessing). I also notice that {{FIS alpine skier}} can be given an ID - as it is here - or if one is not given, will pick it up from Wikidata; ColinFine (talk) 14:04, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

As for whether there is a standard presentation: I have no idea. Since {{sports links}} is general, it's probably easier to standardise if that is used wherever possible. But if you're concerned, I suggest you look at WP:WikiProject Olympics or WP:WikiProject Skiing and Snowboarding. They may have their own Manual of Style, or you can ask at the talk page of one of them. ColinFine (talk) 14:07, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Wow. So complicated... when it really shouldn't be. But one gets used to that on Wikipedia... Thanks for having taken the time for the detailed explanation, much appreciated! NoWikiNoLife (talk) 00:12, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

21:54, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi ColinFine, hope you don't mind me contacting you. I've come across an editor, The purpose driven wife, who wants to find paid help with what looks like an article about a family member. I've warned against this, but the editor is not convinced. Would you be able to reiterate that this is unwise to them? I have already requested that Oversight have a look at the changes they've made directly to R. C. Sproul Jr. Thanks - I didn't want to post this at the Teahouse as I thought they might then get contacted directly by scammers, and I saw that you had recently warned another user there. Best wishes, Tacyarg (talk) 12:44, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Because IP user making section "This is racism" one is editor War on Wikipedia namespace. 2001:44C8:455C:91:C1B3:EC6C:4318:1D05 (talk) 04:22, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

I have no idea what you are talking about, or why you are posting on my User talk page. ColinFine (talk) 15:20, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

About edit warring in Teahouse 2001:44C8:455C:91:C1B3:EC6C:4318:1D05 (talk) 00:34, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Who is edit warring? Where in the Teahouse? Are you involved? And why are you posting on my User talk page? You should discuss it with the parties, and if they won't stop, WP:EWN is the place to report it. ColinFine (talk) 22:33, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

@ColinFine, protected because sockspuppet will be posted to section "This is racism" multiple times and delete rev instantly. 2001:44C8:455C:91:C1B3:EC6C:4318:1D05 (talk) 03:15, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

I still have no idea why you keep posting to my Talk page. Is there something you are wanting me to do? What? ColinFine (talk) 10:16, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

END! 2001:44C8:455C:91:C1B3:EC6C:4318:1D05 (talk) 01:20, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

11:46, 1 February 2025 (UTC)

I would like the Isaac Shalom page to be translated into Hebrew. Where do I request this and can you put my request in the right place? ויקיגד (talk) 23:05, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

I would like the Isaac Shalom page to be translated into Hebrew. Where do I request this and can you put my request in the right place? ויקיגד (talk) 23:08, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @ויקיגד. As far as I can tell, sixteen of your eighteen edits have been to plaster the same request on about fifteen different pages (two of them on my user talk page). I'm not sure quite why you think that bombing different users with your request, is appropriate behaviour. Please don't ever do that again. Whatever your "urgency" might be is not of any interest to Wikipedia - see WP:there is no deadline. Ask in one or two places, and try elsewhere only if you don't get an answer there.

You have been correctly directed to the Hebrew Wikipedia. You may find translate us helpful as well. ColinFine (talk) 13:39, 12 February 2025 (UTC)

I would like to challenge the ban imposed by ColinFine imposed on me Tdkelley1 on the aquatic ape page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tdkelley1 (talk • contribs) 14:10, 18 February 2025 (UTC)

(@Tdkelley1, I promoted your subject line to a proper section header)

I have no idea why you think I imposed a ban. I have never in my life proposed a ban, and I am not an admin.

I don't believe I've ever posted on Talk:Aquatic ape hypothesis, and as far as I can remember my only contribution to your voluminous discussions was to point out that there were ten pages of archives for that talk page. ColinFine (talk) 15:31, 18 February 2025 (UTC)

Odd. I apologize. I am still learning wikipedia. I suspect the ban was from MrOllie. My interactions with him were not pleasant.

If you would like to head over to reddit and discuss the topic further.

r/AquaticApeHypothesis

We can discuss as long as we like and no one will be banned. Troy Kelley Tdkelley1 18:46, 18 February 2025 (UTC)

For context, Troy posted this Teahouse thread asking for advice with conflict at that talk page. They've been page blocked by Cullen and assumed it was you I guess. Tarlby ^{(t) (c)} 02:50, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, @Tarlby. I was aware of that, and wasn't surprised they were pageblocked. I could have gone to see what had happened and explained it to him, but I'd already had enough of his screeds, so I didn't bother. ColinFine (talk) 11:01, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

17:51, 1 March 2025 (UTC)

Hi! 23r2 here. Just to clarify, languages that use the Arabic script and/or have a similar/related lexicon/structure can only descend from the Arabic language family, meaning it is part of the Afroasiatic language. This is because the script/root language comes from Afro-Asian countries, such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia etc.

I have a degree in Linguistics and Asian History, as well as (unrelated) English Literacy and Computer Science. I come from the Kuril Islands and speak Balochi Ainu and Hokkaido Ainu, as well as having a job as a court translator, specialising in Afroasiatic languages such as Balochi and Arabic.

I hope this clears things up.

Thanks, 23r2 (talk) 20:11, 18 March 2025 (UTC)

• Afroasiatic Family

23r2 (talk) 22:56, 18 March 2025 (UTC)

It clears up that you are using words in a way that I have never heard any linguist use them. I have never before heard any linguist refer to a language as "Arabic" because it uses Arabic script. If you went to any linguistics department and claimed that Balochi is an Afroasiatic language, you would get laughed at.

There is no necessary connection between the descent of a language and the script it might happen to use. Kurdish and Farsi are Indo-Iranian languages (with some borrowings from Arabic) which use the Arabic script - as, formerly, did several Turkic languages, including Osmanli Turkish, and Austronesian languages such as Malay. Conversely, Maltese is an Arabic language (with a lot of borrowings from Italian and other Indo-European languages) that uses Roman script.

Ossetian is an Indo-Iranian language which uses a Cyrillic script. Yiddish is an Indo-European language (specifically, Germanic) which uses Hebrew script.

And Hindi and Urdu were formerly referred to as a single language (Hindustani) but one of them uses Devanagari and the other a form of Arabic script. ColinFine (talk) 14:07, 19 March 2025 (UTC)

21:10, 1 April 2025 (UTC)