HRWiki talk:FAQ

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Contents 1 PNG??? 2 image problems 3 Not Of Tense Verbs 4 Voting Question 5 [SIC[???

PNG???

I really wish I could contribute images, but I can't save in PNG! where can I get a PNG saver???-- Benol, aka Coach B 13:11, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

Most programs allow you to save in PNG format. Do you have microsoft paint? It's a simple program, but that's the one I find myself usually using. Once you have the image you want in the paint program, press file, save, then when you get to the box where you type in the file name you want it saved as, you'll notice right below that you have a box labled "Save as type", with the default option usually being 24-bit bitmap. Open that drop down box, and one of the options, (probably the very last one) will be "PNG". Save as that, and it all comes out looking PNGful. Let me know if that doesn't work for you. ⇔Thunderbird⇔ 13:55, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

On mine it only has BMP, JPG, and GIF.-- Benol, aka Coach B 12:53, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

You get PNG only if you're using Windows XP. --Stux 12:58, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

Benol, I use a free program called Irfanview to save my pics as PNGs. You can also add cool effects on pictures. —FireBird|Talk 13:21, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

Heh. Sorry 'bout that. I figured it was a more common format. Yea, irfanview looks okie dokie. I gotta update my program anyways, MS paint isn't known for being a master program of photo editing and the like. ⇔Thunderbird⇔ 19:22, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

For the record, Irfanview rocks my world. —AbdiViklas 05:40, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

image problems

Whenever I try to upload an image, it always says "The file is corrupt or has an incorrect extension. Please check the file and upload again." I'm doing everything correct; the file always ends in .png or .PNG, but for some reason it never works! I seem to be having the same problem that Benol has. — _talk Bubsty _edits 05:11, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

Could it be a Mac (pre OS X) incompatibility thing? Seems strange. I dunno. --Stux 05:17, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

Seeing as I have Mac OS X, I don't think so. — _talk Bubsty _edits 00:17, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Hmmm. Well, there goes that idea. That's what I get for assuming that you're running OS 9 or something. Might have something to do with the problems you've been having staying connected on IRC. --Stux 05:35, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Are there any programs on Mac that will save something as a PNG? (Like Microsoft paint, except thats for windows). — _talk Bubsty _edits 17:45, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Image Magick i'm pretty sure should have PNG support. And it has Mac OS X binaries! --Stux 17:51, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Great, thanks! — _talk Bubsty _edits 17:56, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Not Of Tense Verbs

I'm curious, how much do you think we should use the second person in the articles? I have always been taught that professional writing should avoid using the 2nd person (or at least i think i did somewhere). But I also know this wiki is slightly more personal than that. Being Impersonal in MI,--Stux 15:35, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

I think we should avoid second-person where possible. (P.S. For those forgetting their persons, second person is when the writer addresses the reader.) — InterruptorJones 17:41, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

And while we're on the subject, we might as well drop the first-person as well. ([1], for example) -- Tom 18:10, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Oh wow. Sounds like a job for grape-nuts, should he ever get back in business. We see ---> There is shown, or something. ⇔Thunderbird⇔ 22:06, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

It may not be that easy, as changing everything around may leave some non-sensical results. This will require raw manpower. (And of course ladypower too!) --Stux 22:36, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, either/or I guess. I think "there is shown" would technically work, but I think better results would be acquired if it was done by hand, yeah. Just follow the google list Tom provided, updating it after every couple of changes, until they're all done. I'm not up for that now though, I'm busy watching a movie. ⇔Thunderbird⇔ 00:59, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Before we go on with this, I want to suggest that we find something besides "There is shown" to replace "We see". It's not very good style to use the passive voice without excellent reason. Personally, I'm not sure what's so bad about "we see", and given the choice between it and the passive voice, I would consider "we see" to be the lesser of two evils. But maybe we can think of something else that's better than either one. Heimstern Läufer 01:34, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

I often replace the "we see" with "one sees" when i gotta do technical writing. Would something like that work? --Stux 02:35, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Or perhaps another option (following mein Führer's suggestion); since we're not using a bot anyways, perhaps change it on a case to case basis - often flipping it around. For one instance of this, perhaps change (from modeling):

...we see a closeup of Strong Bad in the same outfit, now holding a tennis racket.

to...

...a closeup of Strong Bad in the same outfit is shown, now holding a tennis racket.

I'll check back later; my movie's over, and I've moved on to another show. ⇔Thunderbird⇔ 02:51, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

ABDIVIKLAS: {vomits} Augh! Bleh! Ewww! Grugh! {suddenly sotto voce} No. (Sorry; I don't want that to be insulting; I simply wanted a chance to use that quote!) The vast majority of these problems can be resolved with active verbs and camera-direction conventions, e.g.: "Cut to a closeup of...". Also "pan to reveal," etc. I can't think off the top of my head of any needs this couldn't be manipulated to cover. —AbdiViklas 03:21, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

That sounds like a great way to do it. Oh, and Stux, concerning the "one sees" method: that works very well in German. It sometimes works well in English, sometimes not. But I think Abdi's suggestion will cover it here. Heimstern Läufer 03:27, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

I think that we should just change it to whatever is in 3rd person, but still makes sense. It would be repetative to have every time "one sees". Or, we could just leave that part out all together. A-like so:

• Before: We see Creepy Comb-Over Strong Bad slowly rise up from behind it.
• After: Creepy Comb-Over Strong Bad slowly rises up from behind it.

--Salty^Talk! 05:41, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

All this technical english language nuance discussion is getting beyond me. I'm sure what you guys come up with will work just fine. Although I don't think Lappy 48- I mean Salty's solution will work in all cases. Even in my earlier blockquoted example, I think just getting rid of "we see" without replacing it with any text would look a bit out of place. ⇔Thunderbird⇔ 07:07, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Not in all cases but it might work in some. Perhaps if we had a list of different kinds of examples (where each would be treated differently) along with their appropriate rephrasings? --Stux 12:21, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

There is nothing necessarily wrong with using second person. It's a style choice, pure and simple. That is to say, if when you are writing you find second person to be the most natural, then there is no reason to resort to awkward constructions just to avoid it. I'm not saying that the sentences in question couldn't be recast to avoid the issue altogether, but we certainly don't need to blindly go through the wiki replacing things, let alone have a bot do it. — It's dot com 22:28, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

It would be nice if the bot was smart enough to do it so that it sounds natural. Then it would fix all our other issues while it's at it. Maybe. Anyway, it's still nice to have some "air of pompousness" I mean, level of formality that most encyclopedias bear. Then again this isn't just an encyclopedia. It is a fansite. However, there are at least some places in this site where third person and formal sense would definitely be better. --Stux 02:09, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Voting Question

I have posted a (rather lengthy) discussion on our current STUFF voting procedures. I ask that those who are interested would take a look and comment if you have the time. (Yes, it is lengthy.) I am posting this here so that the post has greater visibility. Thanks! --Stux 16:34, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

[SIC[???

what does [sic] mean??? I want to know.-- Benol, aka Coach B 08:29, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

"Sic" is an abbreviation for the Latin "sicut", which means "thus". You write it when you are quoting someone who made a mistake: you can't correct the mistake, or you'd be misquoting, so the "sic" lets your readers know it's not your mistake. For example, if you were quoting the Email writer in local news, you might write, "Does Strong Badia have its' [sic] own local news?" to let people know that it was the original writer who spelled "its" wrong. Heimstern Läufer 08:33, 4 December 2005 (UTC)