User talk:Sammalin

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Welcome!

Hello, Sammalin, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

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:Questions, 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! Inge 18:03, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Units enhancement"

Sammalin: regarding your addition of Imperial or U.S. units to articles. First off, thank you for doing the work, as I'm sure it will be appreciated by people who use the older measurements. A few suggestions, however, to smooth the process:

  • You should use a clearer edit summary, as "units enhancement" doesn't explain what you are doing (and can be interpreted as hiding something). Perhaps "adding Imperial units" (or "U.S.", depending on which one you're using.)
  • Please try to use more precise conversions, where possible. One example that comes to mind is with kilometres to miles... use "0.6 miles" instead of "about 1/2 mile". The reason for this is that at some point, another editor may come along and notice the inaccuracy. They then have to interpret which of the two figures is more correct before recalculating. (i.e. should it be 1 km/0.6 miles, or 0.8 km/0.5 miles)
  • Please remember that if you are *adding* measurements where they did not exist, you should add *both* rather than just the non-metric units. (As well, given that you are editing articles with metric units, the metric units should go first for consistency.)

Please don't take this as a criticism, just as a few tips. Thanks again for the great work! --Ckatzchatspy 18:38, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] us units in Toronto

Please be sure to keep metric as the primary (non-parenthetic) unit. As well, per MOS:NUM units not within parentheses are to be spelled out in full. Eg 30 centimetres (1 ft). Cheers! Flyguy649talkcontribs 14:20, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Hi. Thank you for your comment. I will endeavour to follow NUM guidelines, though I will remind you that it states clearly "If editors cannot agree about the sequence of units, put the source value first and the converted value second." Only in an arbitrary choice situation are SI units automatically first "If for some reason the choice of units is arbitrary, choose SI units as the main unit, with other units in parentheses" (...perhaps I need to review some of my earlier changes!). On the matter of abbreviations, I personally think that the first time a unit is used, whether it is inside or outside a bracket, it should be spelled in full, thereafter it should be abbreviated. I have put a comment in the MOS discussion to this effect in the hope that the idea might be adopted - best - Sam 15:13, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

I should be clear that I think you're doing good stuff; I've added US/Imperial (or metric as the case may be) to various articles over time. MOS:NUM says that the article should be consistent, and that in general SI units are preferred; certainly for articles with non-US subjects, such as Toronto, I think this should be the case. And as you probably noticed, many users have spent a lot of time discussing number style guidelines--I'm sure there are lots of opinions on this! Regards, Flyguy649talkcontribs 18:40, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Conversion Templates

Hi Sammalin,
Great job on adding imperial and/or U.S. customary to articles such as Saanich, British Columbia and Toronto (even though some units should have been spelled out). My suggestion is to use conversion templates because they will do the calculations for you and most by default will format them in accordance with WP:MOSNUM. You can find them at Category:Conversion templates. I like {{Km2 to sq mi}}, {{Km to mi}}, etc. Regards, MJCdetroit 01:28, 2 July 2007 (UTC)