User talk:MattyB

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Gileno and Jack did you make it dudes? Click on the edit tab and you can add to this page which will notify me via email sort of like the IPS does PM's. MattyB 15:39, 4 May 2007 (PDT)

Matty B and Dypsisdean engage in an ancient game of chess, City of Refuge, Kona HI
  • Yeah, hope you guys found your way. Click around the site. Don't be afraid. Jack, we would love some of your Mad photos. Especially that one of you standing next to that giant D. decipiens that's on the PACSOA site. And Gileno, you could do a great article/pictorial of one of your excursions. And the pics could serve the dual purpose of being used in the "encyclopedia" as well. I hope you both notice, we are trying to use nice high quality pics, so larger file sizes are not only OK, they are encouraged. dypsisdean 15:32, 4 May 2007 (PDT)

Phoenix question

Matt, How come one of your Phoenix theophrasti pics says P.pusila on the pic page? Are they the same. Just checking? dypsisdean 14:17, 7 May 2007 (PDT)

Dean, I originally uploaded the pick as P. pusilla and when I was speaking w/ Ron McCullough (the sheriff dude) yesterday he said he thought the Phoenix at Bob's was P. theophrasti not pusilla. I checked some pictures and he's right so I just used the same link and moved it from the Pusilla page to the theophrasti page. Sorry for being so long winded. MattyB 14:35, 7 May 2007 (PDT)

You are now a Sysop

Congatulations, You have been bestowed the title of Sysop, or Administrator. It allows you to do a lot of other stuff, that you probably won't be doing anyway. However, you may find some of it useful. You can let me know if you notice much difference. Here is a link to what Wikipedia says about Sysops. It doesn't apply 100%, but you can get a good idea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators dypsisdean 13:14, 9 May 2007 (PDT)

Wow, I feel like a Syborg...or is that Cyborg. Anyway, thanks. I'll use my title with unmerciful might, weilding my crushing oppressive hand upon the little people......or I'll just help out around here as needed.MattyB 13:20, 9 May 2007 (PDT)

  • As you know you don't have to be a Sysop to mess with a User's page if left unprotected. I just pulled a "Matty" on Daryl. dypsisdean 13:49, 9 May 2007 (PDT)

Palmpedia SZS (Species Zone Scale)

Check it out. Real rough of course. It may be impossibe to ever get it "done." But it may create some interest with some of the California crew that seemed to have a lot of interest in the Freeze Damage Data thread. I think I'll let Steve in So Cal know about it. Maybe it could get some traffic here, and get people unafraid to do an edit or two. Feel free to improve on the layout if you can think of anything, Mr Sysop. Dypsisdean 15:27, 9 May 2007 (PDT)

Check my talk page

Matt, Check my talk page. I answered a question for Christian there that included you. Dypsisdean 23:00, 9 May 2007 (PDT)

Ho'omaluhia Thread

Matt, If you think it's a good idea, you could take all of those pics that I uploaded from Dave's trip and put them on the Ho'o thread as a 'gallery.' It would show you how to do that, and putting too many pics all spread out with just a short caption will make the thread really long with a lot of 'dead air.' (Just a thought) Check out the markup, and how it ends up looking on the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden I did. It's real easy to do that kind of gallery, and I think it's a good was to just display a bunch of pics. Dave's pics all start with Ho'o so would be easy to find them all. Plus I got IDs on all of them, as I think you saw. Pogobob responded to me that he thought that Syagrus looks identical to his Abreojos, and was asking for history. I told him to click on the discussion tab and get with it. No action yet though. Dypsisdean 11:59, 10 May 2007 (PDT)

Sorry, cranked back Main Page

I know you spent a lot of time trying to figure out those main page edits, but I had to send it back to the future. Something I need to try and explain when we talk is that everybody's monitor is viewing these pages in different resolutions. And that plays chaos with how the text and pics are displayed. For example on my computer, the pics on the revised mainpage were in three lines. The first line had 13 pics in it, the second had one, and the third had eight. It would look different and not symetrical on most. The way I had it set up would display evenly on all resolutions, or so I hoped and planned. It took me forever to understand, but I think I got it now. I'll explain it to you more when we talk. Good luck with the escrow and move. Dypsisdean 21:25, 10 May 2007 (PDT)

  • Ooohhhh...Interesting. For me it comes up as 7-1-7-1 pictures on four lines, so I thought "Hey, let's fill this out so it looks a little better". I even photoshoped the images and cranked up the saturation so they looked as vivid as yours. No worries. One thing though; when I first started visiting this site I couldn't easily find the Encyclopedia area because it was sort of camoflagued by all the oddly spaced images. What if you just set it up with the header of the Encyclopedia link with only one image box but that image box could scroll or slideshow through the different images. Is a slideshow link in a thumb something you can do?

MattyB 09:05, 11 May 2007 (PDT)?

  • Yeah, I agree with you, I had that comment before about not realizing where the link was to the encclopedia. That's why I put those little wavy palm trees there to attract attention. Do you think that helps any? I even designed a little "Click Here logo that moved across the page, stopped, and pointed at the link. but you're right, It should be very prominent. Anyway, I put all those colorful images there when I was getting started just to add some color and hoped it would entice people to click and see the quality. I've been trying to get ideas from other wikis on the web for main page layout, but it's so new, there's not much out there. Bottom line, the main page cold be vastly improved, just not sure how. When you say slideshow, am I right in assuming you mean like Spectre's site does theirs?
  • One more thing. You said, "camoflagued by all the oddly spaced images." How are the images (pics) spaced on your monitor now. For me it's 8 per line, perfectly spaced. And I clicked through different resolutions and they seemed to stay that way. If the are not, then my plan isn't working either. Or did you mean something else? Dypsisdean 11:15, 11 May 2007 (PDT)
  • For me there are 7 images on the first line, 1 on the second, 7 on the third, and 1 on the forth. If I remember correctly your monitor is a wide format isn't it? And yeah, I was thinking of something like Spectre does but just a thumbnail size next to the link so the link itself would be more prominent. Can you make the slide show box link to the encyclopedia no matter what image is showing at the time?MattyB 11:20, 11 May 2007 (PDT)
  • Oh, I'm bummed. I cranked my monitor down in resolution and shrunk the screen so it wasn't wide screen, just for that very reason. I think I know what it might be. Have you checked your preferences? If your thumbnail preference is set differently, then the thumbnails will come out a different size, and 8 in a row won't fit. Anyway I'll work on it. This differnet res/monitot thing is complicated. I'll try switching to that 'gallery' thing I told you about. I think it's designed to get around this prob. New topic: do you have any need or desire for a Palmpedia email address? Dypsisdean 11:28, 11 May 2007 (PDT)
  • My thumbnail size is @ 180px. I didn't set it to that, that's just what it was. Right now I don't see any need for a Palmpedia email. What would it be for?MattyB 11:32, 11 May 2007 (PDT)
  • Absolutely no reason at all. I just have ten email accounts with '@palmpedia.net' I can use. Came with the website. :) One more question and I'll leave you alone. What resolution is your monitor set to? Hope you have a trouble free weekend. Dypsisdean 11:38, 11 May 2007 (PDT)
  • I lied. Thought you might like the start of another article I'm working on. Always open for suggestions.
  • TOP TEN LIST - Best ways to kill a palm.

Top Ten Comments Overheard from a Novice Grower. 10) Everyone, including the Great Dane, will be careful not to step on this dainty little thing with the beautiful red petioles. 9) That one leaf seedling is still looking sick after that 16-16-16, I better sprinkle on a little more. 8) What are the odds that one gopher will find that one palm? 7) They said this palm takes full sun. 6) They said this palm takes full shade. 5)Palms love water, right? With these sprinklers, they'll think it's always raining. 4)I'm sure the label said 2 tablespoons for tender plants. 3)This spacing looks good. How big could one of these J. chilensis get anyway? 2) I don't see any bugs. And the #1 comment from a new grower: What's all this fuss about zones?

  • hahah I like it. :) My monitor is set to 1024 x 768

Not bad at all

Hey, that was a great addition to B. gracilis. Thanks. I'm thinking for the Curiosities, we could move the bit about leaf shape changing per altitude down there. I find that curious anyway. FYI --- tomorrow is my last day here, so I'll be real busy. And Wed I'll be in the air. So if you notice anything, please email. I will be checking email when I get the chance. But i'm going through Maui, and I don't think I can get on line there. Dypsisdean 23:13, 11 June 2007 (PDT)

  • It was a pain because I did it from home and my dial up keeps disconnecting and I finally couldn't reconnect. Arrrrrgggg! I don't really have the time to add descriptions at work but at home my modem sucks. I wanna add more though. Oh, I meant to ask. I started to put links in there for glossary terms. Did I do it right? All we need to do is click on them, hit edit, and add a definition? Is that right? Do I have to put the brackets around every link or can I just set up a glossary term to link to a word everytime it's typed no matter who types it and where?MattyB 09:46, 12 June 2007 (PDT)
  • I thought I already added this comment, but it's gone.......oh well. I just suggested that if you get the bug at home to do a description, you could always write it, put it on a flash drive, and plug it back in at work and copy and paste. I did that on the plane ride for an article, worked great. Those flash drives are almost free these days for the small ones.I'm always willing to offer suggestions for the sake of more descriptions. :-) Dypsisdean 11:04, 12 June 2007 (PDT)

Glossary

Check it out. That's kinda what I had in mind. It's a few more clicks than I would like to get to a term, but if we do it that way the list wouldn't get horrendously long. I think most people will be getting to the definition page directly anyway by a link within an article. And, if we did it this way, on the definition page we could add a pic or two to help with the definition. Like for crownshaft or adventitious roots, etc. a pic would really help IMO. I did that quickly without a ton of thought, so if you have a better idea, speak up. Dypsisdean 10:57, 12 June 2007 (PDT)

  • Very nice work, MattyB! I saw your P. elegans entry with the highlighted terms that click through to the glossary, very smooth. What a pro! Kim 09:58, 13 June 2007 (PDT)

Butterface Song

Hey Enjula!!!! How'd you get the song to play? You converted it to mp3? Awesome! This is way better than MySpace. It feels more like home. Thanks, MattyB 15:06, 12 October 2007 (PDT)

BF

Hi Matt! I'm glad I was being nosey and looking at your discussion page or else I wouldn't have seen your "thank you!" Glad I could help!! --Anjali 01:13, 16 October 2007 (PDT)

  • I know. I wonder about that sometimes. That's why I often click on "recent changes" just so I don't miss something. But if this site ever gets really crowded (which I hope it does) then that won't be as easy. I wonder if there's an easier way to communicate without missing something. Like you said, if the correspondence is occuring on someone elses page then you won't be notified that there was a response. I wonder if there's a "watch this page" button so you can get an email notification.MattyB
  • Ok I just saw the "watch" button up top. But say you're corresponding with a whole bunch of people; you don't wanna be notified everytime their userpage gets changed, only when you're having a discussion going on. I guess I should try it and see how it plays out before I judge it. Peace, love and hair grease.MattyB 14:38, 17 October 2007 (PDT)

Palmpedia

Hello Mmcknight4. Welcome. I noticed that you made a Phoenix reclinata page. It was just sort of floating in nowhere because a P. reclinata page hadn't been made on the table of contents for you to click on. So, I made a P. reclinata page on the table of contents and copy/pasted your contribution to it. Just FYI. I think that only SYSOPS can add new genus or species to the table of content pages to prevent vandalism. If there's any other new species you can think of that you want us to add, just click on the discussion page of any of the SYSOPS and we can add it for you. MattyB 11:43, 29 October 2007 (PDT)

Hi Matty, thanks for the note. I am a somewhat-regular editor over at Wikipedia where I have been editing plant articles, and lately, mostly palm articles. I made a P. reclinata page there (among others) and I just copied and pasted my text to this wiki. Have you guys discussed your policies or inclinations regarding Wikipedia content? While largely incomplete, they have many palm articles, the content of which could be shown here, if properly attributed. A bot could be probably be developed for that task if the admins here decided that information would be an improvement to the project. ANyway, I will probably add information here as time allows and many thanks to you guys for promoting collective collaboration.Mmcknight4 17:07, 29 October 2007 (PDT)
And the only other immediate thing I would offer is that maybe all these articles shouldn't be listed as P. reclinata rather than Phoenix reclinata. Excluding the genus name from the article title doesn't seem to improve its quality. I dont know if this discussion was hashed out somewhere else but I recommend that the full scientific name be used in article titles. Also, the table of contents you mention should probably be amended so that there is an article at the genus level i.e. Phoenix as well as articles for the species within it. In the case of monotypic genera, the species would be described on the genus page. So those are my own meager thoughts and I look forward to improving the wiki. Thanks.Mmcknight4 17:24, 29 October 2007 (PDT)