:Although the HABS photo currently in use is pretty nice, I always try to add pics of things for which only black-and-white (or poor quality) pics are available. I had put the law office on my "if I ever get to Marshfield" list (part of a quest to get good recent pics of all the Massachusetts NHLs), but if you have a decent pic of it, sure, upload it. ''[[User:Magicpiano|<span style="background-color:khaki;color:firebrick;">Magic</span>]]''[[User_talk:Magicpiano|♪piano]] 19:34, 1 January 2013 (UTC)
:Although the HABS photo currently in use is pretty nice, I always try to add pics of things for which only black-and-white (or poor quality) pics are available. I had put the law office on my "if I ever get to Marshfield" list (part of a quest to get good recent pics of all the Massachusetts NHLs), but if you have a decent pic of it, sure, upload it. ''[[User:Magicpiano|<span style="background-color:khaki;color:firebrick;">Magic</span>]]''[[User_talk:Magicpiano|♪piano]] 19:34, 1 January 2013 (UTC)
== permission to use photo ==
Hi John,
Love the photo you took of the John Curtis Library in Hanover, MA.
I am working on a the team redesigning the town's municipal website, and I am looking to use your photo as a masthead image. You retain all rights, and I can watermark the photo with a photo credit. Let me know if you are interested.
Hello, Faolin42! Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions to this free encyclopedia. If you decide that you need help, check out Getting Help below, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username and the date. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some useful links to facilitate your involvement. Happy editing! Fullobeans (talk) 20:20, 6 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I echo that. I like it how you got the Russian inscription on the stone post at the entrance to the Russian Cemetery — nice touch! Nyttend (talk) 03:49, 12 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the compliments!
I've been bicycling all over Massachusetts for the past 3 years, and decided to do something useful with the photographs and start posting them to Wikipedia. I've biked thru every town and city in MA at this point, and am on my second pass. I bicycle closer to home in the winter, and found the requested photo lists for NRHPs, so I've been tailoring my rides to take the requested photos. Luckily I'm in Lexington MA so there are a lot of them readily available.
I'm new to Wikipedia so let me know if I make mistakes or violate guidelines.
I had a few questions...
1) Is it OK if I remove the reqphoto tag from the talk page after posting a photo?
2) Is it OK to take pictures of NRHPs that are also private residences? I don't want to violate people's privacy so I try to avoid getting anything personal about the owner in the picture.
3) Is it OK to tweak the latitude and longitude of the NRHPs? Some of them are off by a block. And if so, is it enough that the new coordinates show up in the correct spot on Google maps? I.e. does Google maps represent lat/long accurately?
4) Should I bother posting photos on CDP's that are seemingly conterminous with the town? I.e. if Ayer has a photo, does Ayer CDP need one too? I could post a photo to each of the CDPs. My rule of thumb so far is to only post it if the CDP center is more than a mile away from the town center. A good example of that is Shirley MA and Shirley CDP. (I try to bike through the center of each town, so I've wrestled mightly with what the center is!)
5) Are photos required/nice for numbered routes in Massachusetts? I checked a few routes, and didn't see any photos. I stick on the highways for the most part,so I have pictures illustrating a good number of them. Except for the limited access highways, of course! I like the highways since they're often the most direct route between town centers.
6) Finally, is this the right place to ask questions like this?
The answer to the questions 1-3 is definitely "yes" as to what you're doing. I'm not sure about policies regarding the other 3, but I believe that nothing is wrong with doing 4-6 in my opinion. Your questions might be better answered though at the National Register of Historic Places project. Swampyank (talk) 00:25, 14 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The whole point of a reqphoto tag is to let people know that the article needs a photo; once it has a photo, the reqphoto isn't helpful, so it should definitely be removed. Google Maps generally reflects coordinates quite well, so when you correct the bad coordinates, they should show up fine. And as far as 4 and 5 — by all means, do this! My personal philosophy is basically that if a subject is eligible for an article, it's eligible for a photograph. Finally, as Swampyank says, National Register-related questions are best asked at WT:NRHP; if you have any questions about using Wikipedia in general, you can ask a question at WP:HD, or you could leave a note at my talk page; I'll do what I can to help you. Nyttend (talk) 05:37, 14 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, about question 2 — for this reason I'll often spend less time photographing a house than I will other buildings. I was somewhat embarrassed when taking this picture — the owner came out and was curious about the fact that I was photographing his house (I was eating dinner with his neighbor, so it wasn't a problem that I was in the driveway next door), so I told him that I was interested in it because it was nationally recognized as historic. Perhaps you could say something like that if someone asks you what you're doing; after all, it can't hurt to say that you're impressed that it would be federally recognized as important. Nyttend (talk) 05:45, 14 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Question 2 -- I agree with Nyttend that it takes a certain amount of chutzpah to take half a dozen photos of a residence. Be assured that you're on perfectly fine legal grounds as long as you're on public property -- as a general rule in the USA (but not in many foreign countries) you can legally photograph anything at all as long as you're standing on public property when you do it. As a practical matter I often wander into driveways to get better angles, but don't go farther. And, in taking thousands of photos over the years, I have never had more than mild curiosity from homeowners or neighbors. The fact that the house is on the NRHP gives it a certain public status that owners understand, and, of course, Google has the goal of photographing every street in the world.....
Question 3 -- The US Coast Guard Light Lists give the coords of lights to the nearest 1,000th of a second of lat/lon -- about an inch. My experience is that these come out perfectly on Google and Bing, so, yes, Google and Bing are appropriate ways to fix coords using geolocator or a similar tool.. . . . Jim . . . . Jameslwoodward (talk • contribs) 13:12, 3 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Hi! I just noticed you have added a lot of photos of the Massachusetts area. Looks like your style of blue skies and sunshine is similar to mine. Pretty simple concept, but buildings and sites look so much better than on cloudy days. I have also added many of my photos, particularly those of historical value. I used to do A LOT of cycling, but have been off the past few years - I hope to get back into it this year. Cheers! --Marcbela (talk) 13:51, 7 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Bicycling is just getting better and better. Google Maps now has a bicycling option, and every time I turn around they're paving a new bike path. Hope you can get back into it! I am getting way more selective on the pictures I upload. Definitely more blue skies. Is a bad picture on a page better than no picture at all? What's the philosophy? Faolin42 (talk) 21:05, 7 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I have posted some photos that aren't that great. If they explain what's going on, part of the story, you are right- better than no pic at all.--Marcbela (talk) 15:00, 9 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Your's is an interesting conversation for an antipodean! (However, I did lived in Cambridge MA in the late 1970s ... ) Adelaide is also a good town for bicycling (and taking pictures), and there is plenty of sunshine and blue skies, but not every day. Hence, I, too, am a member of the "better a cloudy sky than no photo at all" club. (Plenty of examples at J150W and North Terrace, Adelaide.) Cheers, Pdfpdf (talk) 11:51, 10 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Don't know for sure, but judging from a brief web search, it doesn't look like it's still in use by the Odd Fellows. Malden's pretty close. Do you want me to try and find out for sure? Are you interested in Odd Fellows buildings in general? I posted an image for Irving Square Historic District the other day. And I took a picture of the IOOF building in Stoughton, Massachusetts a few weeks ago. At the time I didn't even know what IOOF stood for! Just looked like an interesting building. Faolin42 (talk) 13:19, 10 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
"Do you want me to try and find out for sure?" - Thanks, but there's no urgency. However, if you happen to find out, I'd be interested to know; I've been looking for attractive pictures to put on the Independent Order of Odd Fellows page.
You're welcome. I did get the 42 from Life the universe and everything. I thought about chosing 17, as the least random number, but went with 42 instead.
Thanks for your paying attention to detail, in your correction of a street address for Martin House (Seekonk, Massachusetts) in the corresponding NRHP county list-article. When you find an error that is in the NRHP tables and/or in NRHP infoboxes, it is often originally from a typo in the National Register's NRIS database. This one was apparently noticed and corrected in just the Martin House article, and not in the table, by another editor. I and others accumulate correction requests to the National Register, at Wikipedia:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places/NRIS information issues/Massachusetts, where i just added mention of the correction you made. If you find more errors, please consider making notes about them in this centralized system. Thanks! --doncram (talk) 12:50, 26 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
And, you're invited to join WikiProject NRHP if you like, by adding your name at wp:NRHP. Whether you join or not, you're welcome to post questions or comments at the WikiProject's talk page, wt:NRHP, and to announce new photos or new articles that you create in corresponding announcement sections on the projects main page (shortcut wp:NRHP). Almost all the Massachusetts NRHP articles were created as stubs a while back, but if you make an expansion to one of those articles you can announce that in the new articles section. That sometimes brings attention from other editors who might further improve the article.
If you're interested in finding out more about any of the NRHP places you've photographed, you can obtain the detailed NRHP nomination document by request to the National Register, by email to nr_reference (at) nps.com. In some other states including Connecticut, these are on-line. In Massachusetts, they are usually only available in hard copy form, and will be sent by postal mail within a week or two, at no charge. Perhaps you could try asking for one or two, just to see how that works. Anyhow, keep up the good work! --doncram (talk) 14:40, 26 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the invite! I do a little research before each ride to make sure I have the addresses and coordinates right. I don't want these rides to be more of a wild-goose chase than they already are! I love that Wikipedia lets you hyperlink stuff like that. Faolin42 (talk) 15:01, 26 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Just came across your pictures
Lovely images, and what a great idea. Wikipedia is a better place for contributions from people like yourself. The images make the text come alive. Nice work. MarmadukePercy (talk) 02:32, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I wondered about that. It's a borderline call :-) After looking at my maps, and researching on the web, I tend to think you're right, that the actual summit is in Hadley.
But here's my reasons for inclusion for South Hadley...
The picture was taken from South Hadley, so it's part of the view in South Hadley
It's the namesake of Mount Holyoke College
1000 Places to Visit lists the Summit House as being in South Hadley, but I actually think they're wrong on this
Mount_Holyoke lists the location as Hadley and South Hadley
Agreed, it's no big deal. Why they named the college "Mount Holyoke", I have no idea. hm.... nope, nothing about the name in the article. - Denimadept (talk) 20:03, 18 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed, that would make sense. One thing I've learned over the last three years of activity here is that life is too short to argue about this kind of thing. I've learned to ask, and leave it alone unless there's a Real Problem with the edit. It might be a good idea to find out if there was a reason Mary Lyon named the school as she did, to go with the image. - Denimadept (talk) 21:44, 18 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Middle-earth cleanup
Hello Faolin42, and thanks a lot for your recent work on all the Middle-earth articles, that's a great job. Maybe you'd be interested in WikiProject Middle-earth (unless you already know about it)? We've got some critical articles listed on the project talk page that could need more work than just typo-fixing, so any help is welcome. Cheers, De728631 (talk) 18:50, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I'll take a look. I'm a big LoTR fan from way back. But unfortunately I'm not a writer. 90% of my contributions to Wikipedia have been adding photographs to pages, but there's probably not much call for that in project Middle-earth. However, I did add an image for Buckland that was vaguely hobbitish - Buckland Library. Faolin42 (talk) 19:13, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Many thanks! I had finished my quest of Massachusetts, and thought I'd contribute to Middle-earth. I just need to dig out my books. I'm working from half a set now. Faolin42 (talk) 22:15, 10 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Finwë until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on good quality evidence, and our policies and guidelines.
Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion template from the top of the article. Crisco 1492 (talk) 10:49, 1 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Sure. I expect to visit Worcester again sometime this summer and could take some photos of the buildings you can't find pictures for. If you use geolocator, and paste the coordinates into the article, it'll make them very easy to find. Faolin42 (talk) 22:16, 1 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
That would be great!. Feel free to recategorize. I just didn't know enough whether I should split it out when I started adding all the images. Also feel free to change/recategorize commons:Category talk:Villages in Massachusetts. I created that category as a catch-all for cdp's, neighborhoods, villages, ghost towns, etc... Faolin42 (talk) 20:35, 11 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I just discovered
your marvelous picture
and just wanted to mention that I live on the other side of the hill and can see the back of those crosses if I scoot my chair over just a bit. Feels good. Einar aka Carptrash (talk) 15:27, 13 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! We had stopped at the Vivac winery across the road, so I snapped a few pictures. Hopefully I got the name right, I had to do some research to figure out what they were called. Faolin42 (talk) 23:37, 13 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
XHTML
Hi -- I've noticed (e.g., here) that you've converted <br> to </br> -- but the slash should come at the end of the tag, not the beginning, so: <br />. In any event, such edits are not necessary, since the mediawiki engine takes care of converting HTML tags to XHTML -- and fortunately even handles malformed XHTML with the slash at the beginning of the tag. Cheers, -- Elphion (talk) 05:24, 15 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you very much!
Thanks for your time in putting the photo of the Cape Cod Tech main entrance! I think that will be appreciated by many!
-Railfan2103 July 15, 2011
sw.wikipedia
I just put a welcome note on your sw-page since you registered there. As you have that much material on places in Mass why don`t you put your photos into the short entries listed under ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.54.217.123 (talk) 12:30, 17 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! I'm working my way around the world one day at a time. For instance today I'm posting the pictures I took on Aug 17th in years past. Faolin42 (talk) 23:22, 17 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. When you recently edited Auntie Anne's, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Cottonwood Mall (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.
The New England Wikimedia General Meeting will be a large-scale meetup of all Wikimedians (and friends) from the New England area in order to discuss regional coordination and possible formalization of our community (i.e., a chapter). Come hang out with other Wikimedians, learn more about ongoing activities, and help plan for the future!
It's not really a good idea to override the size of images. Some users have their default thumbnail sizes set higher than the 240px default, but when you specify a size, that preference is overridden. Sometimes it is appropriate (maps that aren't clear unless display at large sizes, panoramas, highway markers used as an illustration that don't need to be bigger than 100px, etc). Other than those types of cases, you should let the photo display as the default. Also, you don't need to force the caption to be centered, making the article inconsistent with the rest of the encyclopedia. Imzadi 1979→23:11, 17 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Nice!! That looks like the new bridge, though. From this page, it looks like they're just about done with the old span. Can you make an image with them both and post that? - Denimadept (talk) 04:46, 11 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Wow, they really redid it! Is it really refurbished, or did they replace the superstructure of the southbound span completely? Here's what I'm thinking for a picture like this. Stand facing the bridges from the front of the whip factory. Can do? Or maybe, from the other side of the river, on the river side of the new rail bridge? I'd like to see what that looks like now, too, if you don't mind. Granted the rail bridge update is separate. The pictures I have are, at the latest, from just before they opened the north-bound span:
Now I'm taking a look at your category images. is amazing! I really like what they've done! ...okay, I just noticed that they did not replace the lace girders on the old bridge. Oh well. Still, at least they fixed the bad steel and such. I was thinking the new fountain was where the old park was, on the south side. Nope. - Denimadept (talk) 01:26, 12 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for adding a bunch of pics today! Kicking off the Wikipedia Loves Monuments drive nicely. And your pics are great. The Union Baptist Church one is worth, well, a thousand words, in terms of explaining what Shingle Style architecture there might mean.... I mentioned that pic at wt:NRHP just now, by the way. cheers, --doncram18:15, 1 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
You're invited: Ada Lovelace, STEM women edit-a-thon at Harvard
U.S. Ada Lovelace Day 2012 edit-a-thon, Harvard University - You are invited!
Now in its fourth year, Ada Lovelace Day is an international celebration of women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), and related fields. Participants from around New England are invited to gather together at Harvard Law School to edit and create Wikipedia entries on women who have made significant contributions to the STEM fields. Register to attend or sign up to participate remotely - visit this page to do either. 00:19, 5 October 2012 (UTC)
Thanks! Yep, I got a picture of the the DW Law Office too. I noticed it by accident, just wandering around the property. .. Should I upload it to Commons? Faolin42 (talk) 22:21, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Although the HABS photo currently in use is pretty nice, I always try to add pics of things for which only black-and-white (or poor quality) pics are available. I had put the law office on my "if I ever get to Marshfield" list (part of a quest to get good recent pics of all the Massachusetts NHLs), but if you have a decent pic of it, sure, upload it. Magic♪piano19:34, 1 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
permission to use photo
Hi John,
Love the photo you took of the John Curtis Library in Hanover, MA.
I am working on a the team redesigning the town's municipal website, and I am looking to use your photo as a masthead image. You retain all rights, and I can watermark the photo with a photo credit. Let me know if you are interested.
