Alansohn

Welcome!

Hello, Alansohn, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! V. Molotov 22:16, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

New Jersey Pages

Hey AlanSohn, thanks for all your doing on the New Jersey pages. As you can see I created most of the New Jersey Senate pages on Wikipedia but there are a few more that need to be done. Please help!

Email?

Do you have an email address so we can communicate?

Just click on "E-mail this user" on the left side of the screen. Alansohn 12:59, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

Nice job

Nice job on the City (New Jersey) page.

Roodog2k (Hello there!) 19:03, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Welcome

Hi Alan: I am adding my official welcome, and hope you will enjoy Wikipedia. You may want to join Wikipedia:WikiProject Judaism and perhaps also take a look at Portal:Israel. Best wishes, IZAK 05:42, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

Wikiproject New Jersey

Chris, welcome aboard on to WP:NJ. We've (or at least I've) made much progress in a very short period of time and there's much more that can be done, particularly with the assistance and guidance of an experienced Wikipedian such as yourself. I'd love to learn about creating maps, and I would really want to create some maps for NJ legislative districts. Alansohn 21:52, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Alan, thanks for the kind welcome. I agree, you've made tremendous progress in the NJ government articles. The maps I created were based on the Bergen County map at the state's website, [1], with some basic image editing software (The Gimp in my case). As for maps for NJ legislative districts, see New Jersey Congressional District, which incorporates public domain maps from the National Atlas. I'm not sure if there are corresponding maps for the state legislature's districts. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 22:41, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Lieutenant Governor

Good clarifications to my edits on the New Jersey main page, regarding the constitutional amendment passed yesterday. One thing I am never quite sure of on Wikipedia is how to word descriptions of events that have been set in motion but have not officially taken effect yet. (Like the decision to create a position that will first be elected in November 2009 and whose first occupent will be sworn in in January 2010.) You have improved my description.

On another note, I am interested in helping with the Wikiproject:NJ when I have some time to do so. I have done a considerable amount of work on the page for Bridgewater, where I live, though I have found it irritating to have to deal with edits by certain other residents who wish to use the article as a soapbox to complain that taxes are too high, there's too much traffic, or about a part of town they don't like, or whatever. I also have not had time to do really substantive additions and improvements on that page, as I see you have done in the Teaneck article. I also never knew, before today, how many articles there were on the different forms of government etc. in NJ and may have a few contributions to make there. I already left a question in the talk page on the Walsh Act article. Neutron 23:04, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

Hi, here is my logic on what I put on Codey should be the last acting gov/senate pres. I hope this would not happen, but what if he were to die or resign from the senate prior to Jan 06 would the new pres of Senate become both acting gov/pres of Senate. Smith03 23:03, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

Here is a portion of the Interpretive Statement that appeared on the ballot question that was approved on Election Day regarding the implementation of the office of Lieutenant Governor" "In the event of a permanent vacancy in the office of the Governor occurring before the inauguration date of the first Lieutenant Governor, the President of the Senate, followed by the Speaker of the General Assembly, would become Governor, rather than acting Governor. A vacancy would be created in the Legislature if the Senate President or Assembly Speaker becomes Governor, to be filled in the manner currently provided by the Constitution." So even if something were to happen to Acting Governor / Senate President Codey (perhaps as mundane as his resigning to take another post), his succesor would be the Governor, but wouldn't retain the Senate seat. That's what I based my statement on. Alansohn 03:50, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

So that part would take effect immendiently following the Nov election  ? Smith03 12:31, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

It's already in effect, now that the ballot item has passed. Alansohn 12:59, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

There is probably a better place than your Talk page to discuss this, but since this is here already... I have been trying to find the actual constitutional amendment, not just the ballot question or interpretive statement, and have been unable to do so. Maybe what I am looking for is in the "enabling legislation" that I have seen referred to. The question is this: If Acting Gov. Codey vacates his office (regardless of how) before Corzine takes office, there would be some period of time before the Senate elected a new president. (I do not think there is an automatic succession to that position.) In the interim, wouldn't the Speaker of the Assembly be Acting Governor? But with the new amendment, wouldn't the Speaker immediately become Governor, and lose his seat in the Assembly? Then what happens when a new Senate President is elected? I suspect the answer is somewhere (and I suspect the answer is that the Speaker of the Assembly would only be acting Governor and keep his Assembly seat) but I do not know where to find the answer. Neutron 17:04, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

I more than appreciate your question. It is entirely unclear to me what the exact sequence of steps (and their timing) that would take place in the event that Acting Governor Codey vacates the office of Governor, particularly in a circumstance where his Senate seat were also vacated. I agree that there could be a point in time where there is no Senate President and a bizarre chain of vacancies could occur. What if Codey stays in teh Senate but steps down as Senate President? Again, does it go over to the Assembly, or does the Senate get a chance to appoint Codey's successor (who would then become Governor) thus creating another vacancy. I will research this issue and invite you (and our other New Jersey Government junkies) to research this. Alansohn 17:13, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

Found it: [2] This is the text of the amendment itself. (Maybe that should be "amendmentS" because several different sections of the Constitution are amended.) The answer to the question that we are discussing is that the Legislature avoided any such event as we are contemplating, and that the amendment has NOT yet gone into effect. It becomes effective at noon on January 17, 2006, which I have to assume is the moment that the current gubernatorial term (the one James McGreevey was elected to) ends and Jon Corzine is sworn in as the new governor. Therefore, Codey is still "Acting Governor," Senator and President of the Senate (alhough there is a bill in the Legislature to declare him and Donald DiFrancesco to have been Governors retroactively, but that is a different story.) If "something happened" to Codey between now and Jan. 17, then the Speaker of the Assembly would step in as Acting Governor (while retaining his Assembly posts), then the new Senate President would become Acting Governor. After Jan. 17, if Corzine were to vacate the office of Governor, THEN the Senate President would become Governor, but lose his seat in the Senate. Neutron 01:08, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

thanks for finding that info. I am from Minnesota, but this NJ acting governor/ president of senate was interesting to me, but I thought the new gov was inagurated on Jan 10, but that probably would not matter. So it is possible (hopefully for many reason it would not happen but) someone else could still be acting gov/pres senate or speaker house Smith03 03:46, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

Jon Corzine Senate Seat

Alan, I'll call my county board of elections and the state board of elections on Monday. In this situation I could be wrong but in the past I seem to recall that there always was a special election when a State or Federal seat is vacated then a caretaker is put in place until a special election or a general election is called. Misterrick 01:01, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

It does... Therefore I will revert my edits. Thanks for the input. Misterrick 02:13, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

State Routes

There shouldn't be any problem with most of the articles, as they mostly link to what are now redirects. I've gone through and fixed up the major index pages. If all goes according to plan I'll be gradually expanding the other articles and will change the links at that time. --SPUI (talk) 21:10, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

New Jersey National Guard

I just started a New Jersey National Guard page. I included alot of good stuff, but I have to get the history of the guard in NJ. Take a look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey_National_Guard

- MAS117

Delaware, New Jersey

This edit was incorrect; the Delaware I was referring to is further north, at the Delaware Bridge. --SPUI (talk) 23:53, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

Categories on New Brunswick article

Hi Alansohn, I see you reverted the removal of the categories on the New Brunswick article. The problem is that now, when you go to Category:Cities in New Jersey, and the other categories reinserted, you have New Brunswick both on the categories list and on the articles list, which is silly. Ze miguel 15:21, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Zip code tabulation areas

Hi Alansohn. If you end up making articles for individual ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, let me know: I'll contribute locator maps. Cheers, dbenbenn | talk 18:52, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the offer! If you're ready to create maps for ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, please let me know. Why don't we pick a ZCTA for a ZIP Code and see if we can come up with a page. Alansohn 02:40, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Here's a couple samples. I chose Virginia since that's where I am right now. (Looking at your user page, I wouldn't mind switching to New Jersey to begin ...)

Locator map for area 226 in Virginia

The 5-digit ZCTAs in Virginia

Suggestions welcome! dbenbenn | talk 01:29, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Tops Diner

I was suprised to see someone finding the article so quickly, as I had only created it about 10-20 minutes previous! =)

I am intending to beautify and what not - any help you could offer (as you already have) would be great.

Thanks! hellenica 03:31, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Ringwood, New Jersey

Thanks for the FYI concerning the mortar in that picture. I'd been fixing the mortar disambiguation links, and I didn't see anything to classify that image so I left the comment... I don't know how I missed the GIANT MORTAR in the picture, but after taking a look at it again, I can't believe that I missed it in the first place. Thank you for the comment, that classification had been bothering me, and I appreciate you taking the time to point that out. Have a nice day. :) CMD Beaker 06:07, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

US Collaboration of the month

You have voted for [[{{{1}}}]] on the USCOTM. It was selected to be this months's collaboration. You are invited to help to contribute in order to improve [[{{{1}}}]] in any way possible.

Cmadler 14:15, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Cemeteries in New Jersey

I am working on cemeteries in NJ. If you have any information that can help, let me know. Good to see another New Jersey person here. --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) 03:08, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Richard, The main stuf that I'm working on -- municipal government and schools -- are huge, but they have a graet deal of public information available. I'm not sure where you can find any public list of cemetaries in NJ?!? Is there any regulating agency or industry organization that would have the info? Do you have a format that you want to use or a model page to use as a template? I'm not sure how much I can help, but I can try to point you in the right direction... Alansohn 03:19, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Allendale History

I had read the history that had been added to the Allendale, New Jersey page, and I was too busy rolling on the floor laughing to revert the copyvio. I was shocked to see some of the curious "facts" about the community that are actually on its website, including:

• It was part of a "wilderness known only to the egyptians until the early 1700's."
• That John Fell "was taken prisoner at his home by a band of 25 one-armed Loyalists."
• That the area "was known as 'The Turdpike'."
• That in 1848, "the first train ran through the town, killing many."
• That in 1880, "Hopper Yeomans ran a traveling party shop, carrying beer and pizza by wagon to customers on his route."
• And what about the plethora of brothels, including one that "became known as Winter Brothers' Whoopie Parlor, later changing from ladies to strictly mannequins."

This is great stuff! If I didn't know better, I would have assumed that this was from a Wikipedia page that had been altered by a clever vandal. Why not let the WikiWorld share a bit of this inspired nonsense just because it was copied word-for-word from an official governmental website. Alansohn 14:48, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Holy crap, that stuff is in the original page too! I thought it was the clever additions of an anonymous teen and didn't check for the oddities. I wonder if the allendale.org page has been hacked? :) I'll add a note about this on the talk page. The wiki-world can laugh there. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 14:59, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Union City, New Jersey

Alan, what source documents that UC has the highest percentage of Hispanics in the entire state? The link you re-inserted only lists five cities, not the entire state. (When I mentioned North Bergen, that was merely an example.) Also, what was the "minor change" you mentioned in your Edit Summary? Thanks, and Happy New Year. :-) Nightscream 02:12, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. Sorry I misunderstood that page. Happy wikiwishes to you as well. :-) Nightscream 04:50, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

FRHSD

Hi, I noticed that you have been working on the Freehold Regional HS district page. I would just like to let you know that I am a student at CNHS and live in CN, and the number of students that you have listed are way off. This is because CNHS and Freehold High School are the two largest in the district, each with over 2,000 students. Unfortunatley I do not have an exact number for you. But good work otherwise, its nice to see someone around here that knows something about NJ. Mac Domhnaill 03:57, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Also if you ever need information about the MonmouthCounty area, I am very knowlageable and would be happy to help. Mac Domhnaill 04:00, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Hi again. Thats all good, I actually assumed that the source where you got ur info was incorrect. It was no fault of yours I was just trying to point it out. The work you have done is really impressive. I'm afraid that I dont have the time to join the project now. But I will try to help where I can. Keep up the good work. Mac Domhnaill 04:22, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

New Jersey Hospitals

How did you make the changes to the List of hospitals in New Jersey? Did you do some sort of mass edit or was it done by hand? I'd love to figure out a better way to turn [[Municipality]] into [[Municipality, New Jersey|Municipality]], especially when there are bunches of them in an article. (P.S. I loved your additions re Allendale. You think they'll ever notice?) Alansohn 17:58, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

I did it via regular expressions. This can be done with tools like sed or perl, but I used vim. For that particular transform, this regular expression worked:

s/\[\[\([^]]\+\)\]\]/[[\1, New Jersey|\1]]/g

If you use unix tools like sed, you can use it like this:

$ echo '[[Municipality]]'
[[Municipality]]

$ echo '[[Municipality]]' | sed -e 's/\[\[([^]]+)\]\]/[[\1, New Jersey|\1]]/g'
[[Municipality, New Jersey|Municipality]]

If the article source data is saved into a file, the transform can be run over the whole file like this (but beware, this will change ALL wikilinks to this format, and any existing [[Foo, New Jersey]] wikilinks will be transformed to [[Foo, New Jersey, New Jersey]]):

$ sed -e 's/\[\[([^]]+)\]\]/[[\1, New Jersey|\1]]/g' < input.txt > output.txt

I don't know if this will be useful to you, regular expressions are not a very accessible topic, and are mostly unknown outside of computer science's study of finite state machines, parsers and unix system tools. If there are large sets of changes like that I'd be happy to help out, just let me know.

BTW, I did email the webmasters of the Allendale page, but I don't know if any action will be taken. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 19:31, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

New Jersey Legislature

Wow, really great work on the NJ state legislature man. It really is incredible the amount of information you got. I just had to commend you on that.-Jersey Devil 18:52, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for noticing! I've been devoting a great deal of time to ensure that each and every State Senator and Assembly member page has been created and updated and that each municipality reflects its elected representatives at the federal, state and county level (plus local, where availability and patience allow). That's what Wikiproject New Jersey is all about! Alansohn 19:14, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Help with James E. Buttersworth

Alan, can you help me out? I apparently mispelled James E. Buttersworth's name in the title of his article, (I omitted one of the "t"'s) but I don't know how to change article titles. How do you do that? Thanks. Nightscream 05:09, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I made the new article. How do you make the prior one into a redirect? Nightscream 21:30, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Nightscream 21:36, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

BTW, moving a page does not require a request unless the target already exists and its history contains non-redirect pages. See the "move" tab at the top of every page. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 22:16, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Blair Hornstine

Thank you for your wikification/cleanups to the Blair Hornstine article. I have one question about the last edit; I used "The Plain Dealer (newspaper)" in the news article template because that properly links to the article about the newspaper. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) does not, and I'm not sure from reading the Plain Dealer article if the (Cleveland) disambig is even necessary -- are there other newspapers named "The Plain Dealer"?

The news article template doesn't seem to give me the flexibility to do a [[The Plain Dealer (newspaper)|The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)]] style link.

Do you have ideas on how we can keep using the template but get the Plain Dealer link to work properly?

Random Task 19:21, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Richard S. Dennison, Jr.

Are you done wikifying this page? My primary concern was about the WP:NPOV and WP:CITE violations. -Jcbarr 17:54, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

New Jersey Governors Template

You clearly have been doing this a lot longer than I have. Put it up for discussion. The numberings of governors isn't as important as the time of term service. The only real problems of listing every term would inevitably lead to the quesion whether or not acting governors should be included. My other concern about your template would be the size of it. (Perhaps you could even split the template into three smaller templates.) -User:Rogsheng

Reply: Cabinet Members

Right now I have included Ohio and New York officials into the list as well. I like the state by state idea, but don't know if there is enough.

Quick favor....on the Union County Freeholder Board template, could you update chair and vice chair. Mirabella is now chair and Kowalski is vice chair. Thanks.

Reply: Cabinet and Freeholders

Thanks.....if you could help with moving the NJ cabinet members over, that would be great. I was going to create a Cabinet list for Corzine as well. Prez2016

Useless single-year links?

Why are wikilinks that are just to a single-year considered useless? -Jaysbro 23:17, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Transportation in NYC

Hello Alansohn - Thanks a lot for nominating Transportation in New York City to be a US Collaboration of the Week. I've spent a lot of time editing it and had no idea about the US COW. This is great. I'm leaving messages on contributor's talk pages to try and round up some votes. Thanks again. Wv235 03:57, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

History of New Jersey FAC

Thanks for your great work on the History of New Jersey article! I have placed the article up for FAC after a peer review. Please vote and include any other comments. Thanks a lot, AndyZ 21:54, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

US Collaboration of the week

You have voted for Transportation in New York City on WP:USCOTW. It was selected to be this week's winner. You are invited to contribute to improve Transportation in New York City in any way you can. Cmadler 13:27, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Hey!

did u go to GL???

Possible New Article for West New York'o philes

A prominent newspaper editor who worked for papers like the New York Daily Mirror named Philip A. Payne lived in West New York, according to an article in the Jan. 29, 2006 Union City Reporter (which I assume was also printed in the Hudson Reporter's other area papers.) There is no article on him as of now, and I have other article I wish to work on, so as a suggestion, if anyone wants to make a one on him, and you want the article as reference, you can see it in full at: http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/9012/philippaynearticle7hw.jpg. I'm sending this message to more than one Wikipedian that I saw on the History page for the West New York article, so you don't have to respond to me about this. You can also begin a section on Noteworthy Residents for that city's page (as I did for Union City), and place him in there. Nightscream 00:06, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Image Tagging Image:GordonMJohnson.jpg

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If you have uploaded other media, please check that you have specified their source and copyright tagged them, too. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that any unsourced and untagged images will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. Stan 13:06, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Reversion of demographic data

I saw the reordering of the demographic data, and while I had some issues with it, I let it stand. I myself had gotten into a battle regarding taking out the word "located" from the heading of an article (Municipality is located in XYZ County), demanding that it stay for standardization reasons. What criteria should we use to decide on what can be changed in the standard text we've been given? In terms of overall guidance, do you have any thoughts on what can change and what can't? Alansohn 17:49, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

I think that what it comes down to is that anything can be edited that you can get a consensus on. IMO changing the Rambot (t c) text without clear need is counter-productive. I value consistency in this text since it is used on so many pages. A far more effective way to do it is to get Ram-Man (t c) to change the text accross the board by updating his bot. These are just my opinions, so take it with a grain of salt. If you feel strongly about the "located" copyedits, you should revert them. Just follow the guidelines at WP:3RR if you get into an edit war. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 18:06, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

"Township" and other address confusion

It seems you've been doing a lot with municipalities, so I figured I'd ask you about my recent source of much confusion: Why are many of the "XXX Township" municipal buildings (their addresses via their official websites) located in places other than what appears to be the township itself? For example, Cape May County's "Dennis Township" has an address of "Dennisville, NJ" (I did not find a WP article for it. USPS.com yields a result for Dennisville but none for Dennis/Dennis Township. Many other places have "XXX Township" but then the address of everthing in it are located in one or more other places, which is weird when, for example, XXX Community Center is located in YYY, NJ. This all started because I was trying to figure out if people actually use the word "Township" in place names, because up until recently, the only time I ever heard township/borough/village/city used in NJ regarded the Washington townships, Ocean City, Sea Isle City, and possibly 1-2 more, but many pages seem to use Township in their names.

I think I might have lost you in explaining what I'm thinking, but that's just because I'm lost. Could it just be that most places in NJ (I only listed one example, but I've found many in many counties while trying to find out how to "cure" my confusion) are like this and simply that Bergen (where I am from, too) is not? On second thought, despite your living in a "Township," you're probably not the best person to ask because Bergen does not really have any of these "conflicts." Basically, if you or anyone else could explain somehow why many places in NJ have addresses in other places (or places located inside of the first place), I would be very greatful. At least we dont have incorporated places inside incorporated places--I was reading about NY municipalities and was completely lost at how Rockland County only has a few "townships" but that there are many places inside them.

Thanks, and hopefully I did not confuse you, either. And thanks for the WP:NJ invite. //MrD9 05:36, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

AlanSohn's response / converation continued at my talk page. //MrD9 23:48, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

I went ahead, due to the overwhelming number of reasons to move them, and put in a request to move Wayne, West Milford, and Little falls. More information on my talk page or (don't forget to vote at) Talk:Little Falls Township, New Jersey. //MrD9 03:11, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Consensus

• AfD is not a vote.
• When votecounters try to impose their rigid definition of consensus on AfD, the minimum standard is 2/3rds or 66%.
• Delete, merge, and redirect are three different outcomes; if there is no consensus, the solution is for the AfD participants to hash out a consensus (whether to merge or redirect or resubmit to AfD) on the talk. Johnleemk | Talk 16:14, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

NBIL

North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League Alan, I see you've added links to NBIL to some (or all, haven't checked) of the 12 schools' pages. Thanks, and just to let you know, I intend to do more research on all 12 schools to more completely fill in the "Athletics" (or similiar) sections, hopefully within the next week. Feel free (obviously) to contribute to them if you wish, but if it's not something you have a strong desire to complete, don't worry, since I intend fill them in soon. I also will probably move on, once done with NBIL, to other Bergen athletic leagues or possibly the NJ overall league. Just wanted to give you a heads up so you don't do extra work on something you might not have a burning interest in/don't waste your time that you could spend doing things that interest you more. Thanks. //MrD9 23:42, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

I was looking at the NBIL page as I worked on some of the member schools. Very often there are disconnects where you have a page that lists articles in some category, but the individual articles don't refer back to the category to close the loop (or vice versa). I started doing some of these pages, but I won't obsess about it, based on your comments.

By the way, congrats on the moves of the Township Three (four, if you include North Bergen). We've been debating the subject for months, but you finally made it happen. Alansohn 06:19, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

First, thanks on the congratulations. I'm going to try to get people (who I know in person and who do not use WP) I know in areas in Western NJ to help with the Twp stuff there--but I dont know if I'll be able to, but that's irrelavent.

Second, I now see what you mean by the loops--eventually, I plan to get to your "closed loop" state, but I think the lack of the current closed loops (other than what you have done to correct them) is just a minor difference in philosophy: you prefer to put something temporary up while waiting for the "real thing" to be put there, whereas I (although your way is logically and informationally better) don't want to waste the limited time I have at the moment on going to 12 pages to put something temporary up before I write the actual things. If you'd like me/you to put in the temp NBIL (or anything else) links, I will, but otherwise, I assure you I will get to the other articles/"open" things soon (and obviously feel free to "close" them for now if you wish). Thanks again. //MrD9 07:05, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Third, as an afterthought, I'm not sure if it's your personal preference to always reply to comments on the other person's talk page, but you can reply to anything I leave you on your comment page (I have it on my watchlist, along with any of the other WP:NJ people I've conversed with and many articles of personal interest) to keep things from being fragmented--unless, of course, you'd rather continue to reply on my page. In the meantime, though, I am going to copy/paste move this to your comment page (feel free to move it back; since it's not an article I don't think history preservation strictly applies) for organization/to prevent fragments. Thanks. //MrD9 07:05, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

We have to come to some conclusion as to how to deal with a thread of conversation. For now I'll reply here and assume that you'll see it on your Watchlist. My preference for putting in links to non-existent or stub pages is to provide a constant reminder to create or complete the target article. I've probably craeted hundreds of articles solely because a link existed to an article that didn't exists (but should have, as I saw it). You've been making positive contributions to many articles in New Jersey (in general) and our joint Bergen County ares (in particular). If all we disagree on is philosophical issues, once we've filled in the holes, it'll all be moot. Damn the philosophy, full speed ahead! Thanks for all of your work; New Jersey is a better place for it (at least on Wikipedia). Alansohn 07:36, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

School Report Card Links

As we (well, you, mostly) have been updating the NJ Department of Edu school report card links at a fast (and tiring?) rate, I'm still surpised to find schools that haven't been updated--and worse, a year from now, unless NJ changes how it does this, they will ALL have to be updated AGAIN.

Therefore, I was thinking we could potentially create (or have someone help us create if none of us are familiar with how to use the arguments in them) a template for it. The URL is very easy to manipulate--there is nothing that stands in the way that obscures the url.

For example, Fair Lawn, New Jersey

Main District Page

                                              v district's [some form of] ID
http://education.state.nj.us/rc/rc05/menu/03-1450.html
                                  ^year   ^county (apparently they are every odd number based on the alpha listing of them)

Fair Lawn High School

http://education.state.nj.us/rc/rc05/rcoptions.php?c=03;d=1450;s=050;lt=CD;st=CD
                   again, the year ^                 ^co  ^dist  ^school     (lt/st seem to remain CD, at least for the table of contents list main page things)

School seems to be arbitrary, from what I have found, but each school of each district has a unique number within the district.

I also checked this with a few other districts and a few schools within each district, and it appears to be the uniform format across the board. Therefore, again, im not sure exactly how this works, but we could easily feed some sort of

county code|district code
for example: [template]|03|1450

string to a template to make it create the district page (instead of pasting the link directly on the page, you could paste this template string)

and either an extension of the same template or a new template that also has "school" at the end for the specific school pages

This way, when each new year's report comes out, you could simply modify the template once to (change the 04 to 05, for example) show the new year, or you could choose to show the current and past year, or... I think you get my point. Instead of (I'm guessing) a few hundred edits every year, 1 (or a few) edit a year after the template's been put in place.

I/we/someone would have to research how exactly to do this syntax-wise, but other than the initial large amount of work required to insert the template into the pages, it'd be much easier and automated after that.

And then there's the other side that what if they change their URL scheme in the future or somethign so it doesnt work--well, you'd have to replace the links anyway, so it's essentially the same if not much less work to correct.

Again, just an idea, but I'd appreciate your comments. Thanks. //MrD9 02:40, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

As I've been going through the search process and changing dozens of pages, I was coming to exactly the same conclusion. It might be a pain in the behind to make the changes to every single page all over again, but at least once its done we shouldn't have to deal with it again next year. Of course, the NJ Department of Education could change the format next year, but at least we'd have tried. Furthermore, even if the link format changes in a future year, the odds are that the codes for individual districts and schools wouldn't change and we could probably just change the template. Do you want to take a stab at it? Alansohn 02:49, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Definately. I don't know how much you know about templates, but I do know that I don't exactly get how the ones with the argument variable things work. I attempted to figure it out based on userbox stuff I had tried to do, but since there were only two "choices" for the "variable," I ended up just hardcoding a version for each. The other thing is if we have something like (this order seems to be most logical, most to least inclusive) county|district|[school], we'd have to find out (or maybe you already know) if leaving school blank could produce the district page and filling it in could create the school page OR if we need a separate template for each (either way, not a big deal).

And regardless of what we do or how we get it to work, we should "test" it on a few districts and potentially see if anyone can think of any reasons why it might not work before we go ahead and "roll it out" to do the whole state--at least that way if we can't get it to work right (which sould not be the case), we only have to change 10 to 20 or whatever number you want pages, and we wont have to revert them 29 hundred times. //MrD9 03:29, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

This is from a template for states--apparently you can write this on the page {{US state | Name = New York | Fullname = State of New York | Flag = New York state flag.png | Flaglink = [[Flag of New York]] | ... }}

or, in our case {{[template name]|county = 03|district = 1111}} or someting like that, but I think it's also possible (although I'm not easily finding a "template variables for starters" article or anything remotely like it) you can also do it so you dont have to type in the parameters...

but then on the template you would literally just typ , for example, {{{county}}} where you want the county to go and I think that's it, other than formatting it into a URL

Originally, I thought the |03|1111 way would be better, the "expanded" version above has the benefits of allowing others to more easily identify what's going on, but at the same time, it has the drawbacks of having to type a lot when adding single entries (when not copy/pasting it in), in which case |##|#### is much easier to type wtihout all of the added words...

I don't know--just some ideas--I dont know how you'd want to go about this task, and I don't want to jump into it without your feedback, obviously

and the name--I was thinking something simple, like NJ DEP url or NJdepURL or nj dep url or... something--something that doesnt require one to type out a lot, but I dont know if that might be a problem for other people who "woudlnt know what it is" and who could potentially feel it's unimportant or something, again, feedback //MrD9 03:48, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Agreed that this is the way to go. Let's pick a few model schools and districts and start playing with it. Thanks for pushing the idea forward. Alansohn 03:54, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm playing around on sandbox template x8 Template:X8 and if you scroll to the bottom (the stuff is all repeated twice--the top is the page original, the bottom (second repeat) is the template calling itself with the data filled into it. And the link it produces works. THe gibbrish (about games) is something I saw on a userbox page for some video game thing that I am going to try to modify into having it make school/district links with teh same template--otherwise we'll just make two templates

What do you want to name it? Since you edit way more than I do, pick a name, and I can create the page with what I have so far so it works better, and then we can just play around with it util it does what we want/start adding it to pages. //MrD9 04:11, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Something like NJReportCard might work. Alansohn 04:13, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

GOT IT TO WORK! Template:NJReportCard, but that won't show you anything. go to Template:X9 to see it print out the stuff (we have to change the text and everything, what is there was just expiermental, my main goal was to get the URL's to work.

The only question now is if we want the text to say something about the School--like right now, an example of what is currently (not related to template at all) on the high school page of INdian Hills is "# 2004-05 School Report Card for Indian Hills High School from the New Jersey Department of Education", with the 2004-School as a link to the data and NJ-DEP a link to the NJ DEP

do we wnat it to say "Indian Hills High School" in the template link? if yes, there are two ways--one, hardcoding it in; or two, i think you can use "{{{PAGENAME}}}," but then if the link appears on another page, the latter way wont work because it will say the wrong name. In a section I'll explain the syntax (as it exists now) on the template page after I try something with the link text //MrD9 04:27, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

For further discussion, see Template talk:NJReportCard

• I think the fourth parameter works now- I listed it under the templates on WP:NJ. AndyZ 01:31, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

New providence speed traps

Would it be okay for the speed traps to be put into a wikibook? IM not that familiar with wikibook policy. --Larsinio 14:20, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

If I read the Wikibook info correctly, it wouldn't. I think that there should be a place for information like this about speedtraps, but it would seem to fall outside the scope of the main Wikipedia encyclopedic mission. Alansohn 15:51, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Unincorportated townships in NJ

Have you come across a list of unincorporated areas of New Jersey. I am always confused when a town has enclaves within it. I dont know if they were areas incorporated into the town and still have their historic names (like Greenwich Village in Manhattan) or are unincoporated areas not paying any taxes to anyone. --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) 03:35, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

So what is the relationship of the two towns, what does "unincoportated" mean here? Or is one an "enclave" of the other. I live in a township with several enclaves. Taxes are paid to the main township and it houses the school system.

Thanks for all your help understanding unincorporated areas in New Jersey. I have been creating County templates and have added the category "neighborhoods" to cover the unicorporate areas: Take a peak at the bottom of Somerset, New Jersey. --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) 22:50, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

I am still trying to think of the best category for unincorporated areas of New Jersey as the category in the Templates. I was thinking of "communities" rather than neighborhoods. I used neighborhoods for the New York City ones and just carried it over. I don't want to use unincorporated area since it has such a big difference between NJ and other states as to who collects the taxes. Maybe we need an article called Unincorporated area (New Jersey) to explain the difference between Census designations, Zip Code designations, and historical areas incorporated into larger townships. What do you think of "communities" as a temporary change? --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) 19:01, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

WP:NJ

Thanks for the welcome, Alan. Let me ask you a question, how do you go about creating a wikiproject? I would like to get one going for the US federal court system and as many of the judges as this thing can handle... Crzrussian 20:56, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Hi there

Hey Alansohn, I've noticed that you've edited some of the articles I've been working on (peddie, MAPL). Awesome. Just wondering, did you go to a MAPL school? Keep up the good work, Chris. Wangster 04:19, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

No MAPL website

Alan, I don't know of a MAPL website. Wangster 17:16, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

NJ Collaboration of the Week

Thanks for participating in Wikiproject New Jersey. In an attempt to create articles for some of the non-existing pages related to New Jersey, NJCOTW was recently created to bring members of WP:NJ together to work collaboratively on a certain selected topic, which this week is List of Governors of New Jersey. Please help by nominating/voting/commenting on articles on WP:NJCOTW, or by helping to improve articles in the scope of the topic for the NJCOTW.AndyZ 23:34, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Hey -- thanks for your cleaning up/editing of NJ Gov George F. Fort. BTW, I notice I can't find Imlaystown, New Jersey anywhere in Wiki, not even in Monmouth County, New Jersey. What am I missing? Thanks -- Sholom 16:54, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Templates

Can you peak at Template:Manhattan. Someone made changes, and when I told him we had standardized already on a template for all 5 boroughs, and for NJ and NY counties, he wants to change them all. --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) 02:19, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Acting Governor / Governor

The legislation that the New Jersey Legislature pass before Codey left office in 2006 was retroactive and gave all previous Acting Governors, the title of Governor. Misterrick 21:40, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

MetroStars/Red Bull New York

Hi there. Just letting you know that I reverted your redirect on this, because a bunch of strongly willed people came to the compromise not to merge the two articles. Please see Talk:MetroStars for info. Thanks!--Mike Selinker 05:46, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Popups

There are several navigation aids at: [[3]], one of which including semi-automatic reversions.

Millburn, New Jersey

Sorry I incorrectly reverted an edit to this article. I was trying to deal with IP vandal 4.43.102.66 who had changed lots of pages. The vandalism to this page had already been dealt with, so I'm not sure why I didn't notice! JRawle 18:50, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

RINO

I saw the change you made on RINO. I am actually proposing pulling the list of names on the talk page. I would appreciate it if you check out the discussion and weigh in. Montco 01:58, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Ultra-Orthodox

I am not sure what to feel about this. UO is a term used by media when they're trying to marginalize the event/person/phenomenon they're describing. "Ultra" implies it's more Orthodox than necessary or desirable, "BEYOND" Orthodox. Also, it reinforces an unnecessary distinction between UO, O, and MO. The truth is, we're all part of the same religion, we all (by and large) eat each other's food and daven in each other's minyanim. Right? So what's the nafka mina that he's Ultra-Orthodox? I realize that WP has an article on Haredi Judaism and a separate article on Orthodox Judaism, and I understand the need to describe Haredism as a distinct phenomenon. But do we really need to label him in such a counterproductive fashion? Happy Nissan. - the.crazy.russian (T) (C) (E) 15:08, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Ok. I am not arguing for parve'ness. Perhaps you'll honor my request and take the UO off. Parve'ness aside, my position is there's no such thing as Ultra-Orthodox. He's an Orthodox Jew. Whether or not he keeps chumra X or wears levush Y is not relevant to his article, his mayoralty, or his notability as a frum mayor of a non-jewish town. Ultimately, not much is lost through it, and the term is much too offensive to be retained. Ultimately, I leave it up to you, since you're the Master of the NJ section on WP. See you around. - the.crazy.russian (T) (C) (E) 15:29, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

If I could, I would change UO to O in every bio. - the.crazy.russian (T) (C) (E) 15:31, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia survey

Hi. I'm doing a survey of Wikipedia editors as part of a class research project. It's quick, anonymous, and the data will be made available to the Wikipedia community later this month. Would you like to take part? More info here. Thanks! Nonplus 01:00, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

New Jersey Schools

I've been using the information I have from the school districts for the changes. In school districts where there's one school (for example, Watchung Hills Regional High Shcool), and the name of the school is also the name of the district, I merged the two articles. -- SNIyer12^(talk), 21:23, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

I think the district and school pages should be combined because the school is the only school in the district, but the school name is also the district's name. Plus the information on both pages is the same. -- SNIyer12 ^(talk), 21:46, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

I used the individual school districts for enrollments in regional districts, as well as the their county offices of education. -- SNIyer12 ^(talk), 19:10, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

I would work on mostly the school districts in Morris and Sussex counties, since those are the two counties I'm most familiar with. I live in Morris County. -- SNIyer12 ^(talk), 19:36, 4 April 2006 (UTC)