There is a proposal to delete all the categories for service awards. It has been under discussion since October 2 but the proposer did not notify any of the people who have the service awards. RockMagnetist (talk) 21:00, 10 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

• I've closed the discussion in favor of retaining the categories, but adding "Wikipedia" to the front to make it clear these are userspace titles (so, Category:Wikipedia Burbas). However, there is a metric ton of templates that feed into these categories. Can somebody here help change all categories on these templates from, say, Category:Grognard Extraordinaires to Category:Wikipedia Grognard Extraordinaires?--Mike Selinker (talk) 13:59, 14 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

• Do you want to change Category:Grognard Extraordinaires into a redirect? RockMagnetist (talk) 14:26, 14 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Checklist:

• Category:Signators Y
• Category:Burbas Y
• Category:Novatos Y
• Category:Grognards Y
• Category:Grognard Extraordinaires Y
• Category:Grognard Mirabilaires Y
• Category:Tutnums Y
• Category:Grand Tutnums Y
• Category:Most Perfect Tutnums Y
• Category:Tutnum of the Encyclopedias Y
• Category:Labutnums Y
• Category:Most Pluperfect Labutnums Y
• Category:Labutnum of the Encyclopedias Y
• Category:Illustrious Looshpahs Y
• Category:Auspicious Looshpahs Y
• Category:Redoubtable Tognemes

For consistency, I also changed the other categories in Category:Service award templates that were not listed for deletion. RockMagnetist (talk) 16:26, 14 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Anyway, they were all deleted here. We've been through this before, and creating categories based on the awards is just not going to fly, for good or ill, so I would recommend not doing this anymore as it's just going to irritate people. Herostratus (talk) 08:38, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the heads up. I was not aware of the CfD and did not participate, but I agree with the deletion per nom. HereToHelp ^{(talk to me)} 18:41, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's a nice bit of Americana to offer useless awards to people with good intentions. I've worked for American companies who awarded people for any feat accomplished except maybe farting without burping. Dutch companies tend not to give awards and diploma's that are useless on a CV for special achievements but things people can actually use, like CD or book vouchers or monetary renumerations. ^^ S_peakF_ree ^(talk)_(contribs) 17:53, 1 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

In Canada, you get to go out for sushi and submit an expense at the end of the month. No blowfish.
Varlaam (talk) 17:07, 23 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Per Wikipedia talk:Service awards/Archive 6#Moving forward: complete, copy to meta, protect, I

• Reduced the top service time to 16 years. This, and no higher, is the longest term that people were willing to consider.

Rather than removing any levels, I just dropped down some levels giving 6-7-8-10-12... years instead of 6-8-10-12... years so that now level 15 is 7 years (was 8), level 16 is 8 years (was 10), level 17 is 10 years (was 12), level 18 is 12 years (was 15), level 19 is 14 years (was 17.5) and level 20 is 16 years (was 20). This affects existing editors at those levels, but there are only a very few at those levels that are displaying the awards.

• Regularized the edits-per-year requirement to be a constant 9,000/year after level 11.
• Changed some of the "informal" names to remove meaningless/unpronounceable terms such as "Inziklopediock" and "Vinziklopediom". I just made some others up off the top of my head, but at least they are real words.
• Edited the template text to match and renamed the templates to match.

If anyone has suggestions for better names than "Most Imposing Togneme" and so forth, this is fine, suggest away, but please speak now or forever hold your peace, as I want to rename the graphics to match whatever terms are used.

Also, where I made changes, the links from the table (near the top of the page) and from within the userpage templates back to the appropriate places on the Service Awards page don't work now... there seems to be something with a ".28" code needed... do not understand this at all.

Still to be done:

• Rename graphics -- they are on Commons so I have to figure out how to do this, I think I have to put in a request.
• Update {{service awards}}, the self-updating template. Possibly not worth doing.
• Ideally, some image upgrades such as getting the "ship's wheel" off the graphics for the top three levels -- this is beyond my skill, isn't critical, and will probably not be done.
• Make an editnotice template warning against ill-considered changes.
• Some technical listed in the archived thread re making the image filenames match the template names. Not pressing. Pain in the ass.

What else? Am I missing anything? Herostratus (talk) 07:01, 17 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've edited Wikipedia:Service awards/Table so that the links from the table at the top and from user page templates now work. All that was needed was to rename the section headings. The ".28" and ".29" stuff you see in the templates is to do with how MediaWiki internally represents parenthesis in section headings. It isn't necessary to use this internal representation in wikicode - you can safely replace ".28" with "(" and ".29" with ")"; both ways should work. – PartTimeGnome (talk | contribs) 16:59, 17 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've also updated the {{service awards}} template to use the new 6-7-8-10-12 years. The template currently does not support the top two awards (14 and 16 years). I haven't bothered to add support for these, as no editor has been with the project that long yet. – PartTimeGnome (talk | contribs) 17:20, 17 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, thanks much! The {{service awards}} looks kind of codey and I wasn't looking forward to fixing it. Thanks! Herostratus (talk) 04:49, 18 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I put an older Grandmaster Editor image back in the table. It has stars on the ribbon and the simple superstar in the middle. A version without the superstar is also available. Older images for the higher levels should also still be around. Opinions? VMS Mosaic (talk) 23:08, 22 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I dislike the "ship's wheels", so I also restored images for the top two levels. No versions exist which have stars on the ribbons or which don't have the superstar. VMS Mosaic (talk) 13:18, 23 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That is great! These are improvements. I didn't like the ship's wheels either and I don't think they were ever much liked. Thanks. Herostratus (talk) 15:21, 23 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Although I (as La-138) helped Mootros develop his scheme, I do not oppose any changes away from his version. I don't really have an opinion on this, so you can make any changes you want and I won't mind. Double sharp (talk) 04:16, 8 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Was browsing through the service awards and I noticed this image for the Vanguard Editor (or Lord High Togneme):

Looks very similar in appearance to a QR code - maybe this should be changed to seem more authentic? :P -download ׀ talk 19:51, 17 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ha. Well, something like this would be good:

It uses some text from the Voynich manuscript instead. I also made it smaller. It need to have the text background be a blend and not just one color, which possibly I can figure out how to do. Even without that it's better I think, so I'll put it in and later I or someone can do the blend. Herostratus (talk) 04:37, 18 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's also now a little too small. Will fix presently. Herostratus (talk) 04:44, 18 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

OK, it's about the right size now, but the text area is only marginally adequate. That's about the limit of my skill though. The script source file is File:Voynich manuscript excerpt.svg. Herostratus (talk) 06:23, 20 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wait, I thought the idea was for it to be a QR Code (and not just look like one). As though the ancients had complete world knowledge that we had lost and not yet recovered. I oppose a change to the Voynich text, the least significant reason of which is that the photoshopping wasn't done very well. -Achowat (talk) 13:36, 22 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, OK, maybe, but that interpretation of the QR code was lost on me. Also, I think that that the script just looks better than the QR code which is kind of blocky and ugly IMO. (Granted the bad photoshopping, but that can be fixed.) Herostratus (talk) 13:50, 22 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

PartTimeGnome added these back in. I'm of two minds about this: in past, I was not too crazy about these. On the other hand, the Foundation has its hair on fire about bringing in new editors. And this could help, a tiny bit. I used to worry about attracting the kind of new editor who is concerned about updating his status every week or so, but we really need to encourage new editors.

So anyway, if they are to be used, maybe they should be featured more prominently, and if an effort is made to use {{Welcome award}} I guess it could help a little. Should they be moved up and the page and perhaps integrated into the main table, I wonder. Herostratus (talk) 05:00, 18 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think editors who update their status regularly would be a problem, so long as they are also improving the encyclopedia. I added the link from Wikipedia:Service awards to Wikipedia:Incremental service awards (Ribbons), along with a brief description, as I figured since we do have them, it is sensible for them to be mentioned here (the incremental service awards page was previously an orphan). I didn't realise that the incremental service awards had previously been removed; I assumed they were something newish (the page history shows that the page was created by Iamiyouareyou in July this year).

I see your point about making the incremental service awards more prominent if we are to keep them. Perhaps the incremental service awards page should be merged into this one, rather than keeping them on a separate page? I've added a link to this discussion on the incremental service awards talk page. – PartTimeGnome (talk | contribs) 20:07, 18 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I'm not complaining; I have mixed feelings but no real objection. I think it's OK to have it on a separate page. Then maybe like, something in the main table, for the first four levels saying something like "there are also ribbons for incremental slices of this award, see HERE" or something. Would require some fancy table editing though. Herostratus (talk) 22:03, 18 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I've made some changes to the table. Is that the kind of thing you were thinking of? I've also merged the Incremental Service Awards section that was near the end into the Levels section, so that readers have an explanation of the incremental awards before they see the links in the table. – PartTimeGnome (talk | contribs) 22:18, 19 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, all the improvements you made are outstanding. Yes, this is what I was thinking of. It's great, thanks. The main table is much better now also, it all fits on the page without scrolling. This is fine work. Herostratus (talk) 06:27, 20 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not a huge fan of edit notices, but I created one for this page, {{ServiceAwardsNotice}} which looks like this:

This comes up when a person opens the page for editing. I'm thinking of adding it to this page and all the supporting pages such as the templates. Any objection? Perhaps it could be stated better. Herostratus (talk) 16:04, 20 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Not seeing any objection, I put in the request to have this added. The text of the editnotice can be edited (whether it will remain at {{ServiceAwardsNotice}} or be put into some other place I'm not sure.) If for some reason it's objectionable it can be blanked I guess. Herostratus (talk) 14:34, 22 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There was some discussion (more a passing mention) in, I don't know, one of Archived page about having a third 'tract' if you will. There'd be the Signator-Lord High Togneme tract and the Registered-Vanguard tract. The third proposed (again, briefly mentioned) tract would be similiar to European Orders of Chivalry. Something like Member of the Order of Editors to Knight Grand Cross, Order of Saint Jimbo (or, y'know, something like that), with post-nominals (and the current Ribbons always make me think 'orders of chivalry' anyway). The offhand comment asked if anyone familiar with Orders of Chivalry could mock up a third 'tract', and I offer my services to the community, if this is something that we'd like to pursue. Achowat (talk) 20:18, 5 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]