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Billy Catringer

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3,301 Edits since joining this wiki
August 1, 2010
Welcome to the Girl Genius Wiki, Billy Catringer! Thanks for your edit to The Unstoppable Higgs/Mad.Some general editing tips:
  • You can create a profile for yourself by editing this page.
  • When making edits, remember to write a short description of each edit you make in the “Summary” box.
  • On talk pages and forums, you can sign your posts by typing four tildes (~~~~), which the software will automatically expand into a signature.

Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

Please leave a message on my talk page if I can help with anything. -- Argadi (Talk) 23:57, 1 August 2010

Contents

Please test in your own sandbox Edit

If you want to make test edits, please make them in your own user space, using a sandbox is typical. Files like Help:Editing‎ should be left for official wiki use. Argadi 13:47, August 4, 2010 (UTC)

A good way to get a sandbox in you space is just to append /sandbox to User:Billy Catringer that gives User:Billy Catringer/sandbox which will be a red link until you actually create it. This will work for any other names of subpages you may want to have in your namespace. Its a good way to play with ideas and experimental edits until they are ready to be shared. It's good to see an adventurous explorer on the site. Welcome. --Rej¿¤¤? 03:09, August 6, 2010 (UTC)

Possibly Relevant Outside Information Edit

Read your post in the forum for Oct 1st. Nice information. It seemed more in the format for a main page than a forum. You may wish to think of starting one for the flower, once we know a little more about the authors intentions. I'm waiting to find out if we get a canonical name for it. But its possible to move pages or just their content so if you need to start in, Please do. --Rej¿¤¤? 03:44, October 3, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, Rej. This is going to sound crazy to you, I know, but I cannot do a full article on my own. If you want to use the information I posted in an article you write, please be my guest. The process of posting a stand alone article is still quite beyond me. Thanks, Billy Catringer 14:32, October 3, 2010 (UTC)

This is a wiki. Wiki's are designed to make things EASY. If you are having difficulty then you have missed something easy. To start a new forum page start at Forum:Fan Theories Put the title of the forum where it says Add new topic. Then start editing. Preview what you edit to see what you've got. When satisfied save page. If you need editing help toggle the "hide editing tips" and follow the links. -Rej 21:20, October 4, 2010 (UTC)

Also when adding to the forum page its good to sign you post. --Rej 03:44, October 3, 2010 (UTC)

I usually do sign my posts, but if I failed to do so, then I apologize for the failure. Billy Catringer 14:32, October 3, 2010 (UTC)

Ah you did in this case but you did it on a main page article. What I was trying to convey was that it is appropriate to sign your articles in the context of a forum but in the context of a main page it is not. Basically the main pages are edited by all of us in the persona of an anonymous "Editor". Then when we have discussions ✣ about what just happened on the discussion side of the article we sign the discussion page. -Rej 21:20, October 4, 2010 (UTC)

Source of the DyneEdit

The Foglio's work is copyrighted. We are on an open source wiki. This means some problems.

  1. Anything uploaded here must have a licence, or permission, or be noted as being used in fair use. Using significant portions of a copyrighted work is hard to justify as fair use. Your current upload of the source of the dyne is the whole finely crafted link at full resolution. I.E. the full page. This is about the borderline of fair use. Better would be to use a shrunken version of the picture. (i.e. not full resolution) The file could then point to the page or link it was taken from.
  2. You should also add the fair use template to the file page. You can do that after the fact by editing the Licensing section of the File upload. During the initial upload you can set the license via a drop down menu presented just before the upload button.

The other main thing to remember about a wiki is you don't have to get it right the first time. Things can always be fixed. --Rej¿¤¤? 21:20, October 4, 2010 (UTC)


I will fix the linkages if you will delete the big picture. I haven't figured out how to delete the pictures yet. Billy Catringer 12:03, October 5, 2010 (UTC)

October 25, 2010 (Monday)'s forum Edit

I liked the picture you added. My curiosity is such that I had to go find the source to see if it was photo-shopped or not. You did a good and clever job. I also found the ancient map of the region so beautiful and large that my computer died when I mistakenly tried to down load the whole thing. (It was 3Gigs plus). After rebooting I believed them when they said (in romainian) that it would be hard to maneuver without the right tool. here is the page with the tool for navigation. I figure some monk or group of monks must have done the original map. I wonder what the other 300 odd pages must be like.

Anyway thanks for chiming in. Keep up the good work. --Rej¿¤¤? 22:39, October 25, 2010 (UTC)

Woah, now that's a map with painstaking detail. --Undomelin 01:00, October 26, 2010 (UTC)

Your praise is greatly appreciated. The picture, obviously modified from the original, is GIMPed, not Photoshopped. This is basically the same thing it's just that I used different software that I did not have to pay for. I'm so poor I have turned into an incorrigible freetard. Billy Catringer 00:06, October 26, 2010 (UTC)

Cool pictures Edit

You found a good way to crop the tiger-dog riders. --Rej

Thanks, Rej.Billy Catringer 18:04, November 17, 2010 (UTC)

Henn Salute? Edit

"Carrie Henn style salute."? I googled, but I couldn't seem to find a picture of the actress saluting that way. Is it a reference to a specific movie? It looks a lot like the Scout sign/salute to me, actually. --Undomelin 08:25, November 22, 2010 (UTC)

Carrie Henn played "Newt" in Aliens. She saluted at the end of a scene in which everyone in the movie was shot at or snapped at or something. One of her more memorable lines in the movie came when Sigourney Weaver said, "These people are soldiers. They're here to help." Henn, looking sincerely unimpressed said, "It won't make any difference." Billy Catringer 19:30, November 22, 2010 (UTC)

Ah, I see. I saw Aliens a couple of times a long time ago, but not recently, so I didn't remember the salute. --Undomelin 19:37, November 23, 2010 (UTC)

Add license for pictures Edit

When you upload a file, please set the license correctly. Take a look at other pictures to see what other editors have set. (You will find other pictures with out a license, you aren't the only person who omits it.) There is some sort of standard "fair use" license used by several pictures.

It's also useful to add a reference to where the picture came from. It's not necessary, but some people wanted to know (I wanted to know so I could a reference from the Chronology page to the Broken Construct page.) I added the source location for your sandwich image. Argadi 20:52, November 24, 2010 (UTC)

Okay, Argadi. I'll do it. Sorry I made a mess of things. Billy Catringer 22:35, November 24, 2010 (UTC)

Argadi, I am having trouble with posting a license to the pictures I have uploaded in the past. Is there a way I can choose among the available liceneses this Wiki uses? Right now, I am assigning "fair use" to each picture I have uploaded. ALSO, I uploaded a picture entitled "CanopicJars.png" as part of an unsuccessful test. Would you or someone else please remove it for me. Billy Catringer 23:45, November 24, 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, I don't know what license should be used, only that we should specify something. CanopicJars was removed. Argadi 02:21, November 25, 2010 (UTC)
I did not want a specific license, but I do want to know how to access the list of available licenses. When I upload a picture to the board, those licenses are NOT listed so I do NOT have a list from which to make a choice. I am running Firefox on Ubuntu and I am wondering if this Wiki is doing something to throw my system out of wack. Thank you for removing that problematic picture. Billy Catringer 02:34, November 25, 2010 (UTC)
When you upload a picture there is a drop down menu listing licenses. You can pick one at that time. I usually stick with fair use when using stuff from Girl Genius. Since we are educating people about the comic and hopefully adding value to the comic itself that usage generally qualifies and claiming it protects us up to the point we get their lawyers warning.
If I forget the license at upload time the file page can be edited and a license template added. Most of the licensing templates are listed here: Category:Licensing_Templates. We are probably lacking more than a few templates. Also IMO we could use a simpler fair-use template. Plus a specific fair use Foglio template. So far no ones been moved to come up with those. With you an User:Undomelin now lending a significant hand that might change. --Rej 08:23, November 25, 2010 (UTC)
Thanks, Rej. Billy Catringer 05:12, November 26, 2010 (UTC)

Have you tried putting images before your text? Edit

That way your text will flow around the picture. --Rej¿¤¤? 04:58, January 5, 2011 (UTC)

I'm not certain what you are talking about, Rej. I always use the built in features for uploading pictures and it gives you a choice of putting the picture on the left hand side of the page or the right hand side. I just do whatever strikes my fancy at the time. Should I be doing something different? Mind you, I cannot remember much HTML since the stroke I had back in 2009. I'm still struggling to catch my head up to just plain English and I still sometimes fail at that. Anyway, I am wondering what you mean by putting the picture in before the text. Billy Catringer 08:28, January 5, 2011 (UTC)

Ah. I always edit in source mode. If you look a what happens after you have put a picture on a page the notation: 

 [[File:Placeholder.png|thumb|left|an example of picture]]

appears. The way you are doing it now it appears after the text you write. What I meant was to do it in a way that the picture markup gets put in before you text. Then the text will flow around the picture. When the markup gets placed after you text the flow happens to whoever goes next. This will put your picture out of context sometimes.

PairOfGomJabbars
an example of picture
Billy CatringerAdded by Billy Catringer

Note how this text put after the picture flows around it and gets associated with the picture while the text in the previous paragraph was put before the picture and therefore seems to have nothing to do with it.

I added the picture with the editing button, which is I think how you are doing in. So the trick is to write AFTER you upload rather than upload after you write. --Rej¿¤¤? 06:18, January 20, 2011 (UTC)


Signing the post you made while not logged inEdit

Ummm. This is a wiki rather than a blog or forum. Errors can be corrected by re-editing them. The editor provides a button for signatures but all that does is insert the four tilda's. --~~~~ then when you save the page the wiki substitutes you signature. 
 --[[User:Billy Catringer|Billy Catringer]] or
 --[[Special:Contributions/208.54.166.44|208.54.166.44]] before you login
followed by the timestamp. Just replace the second with the first. The Source button at the top left of the edit box gives access to the markup.

What you did was fine also and now that I know you are using the wysiwig editor it kind of makes sense. I am hoping you also wanted to know the alternatives.

Another trick that might help is to just sign your name followed by a space and five tilda's e.g. 

 --Rej ~~~~~
the tilda's put the timestamp in w/o adding the signature. The signature alone if three tilda's.

Hth, I enjoy you contributions and cheer when I see you livening things up with the pictures. Keep up the good work. --Rej 06:18, January 20, 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for all that work, Rej. I will do my best to follow it. I am reading Agatha H and the Airship City when I am not online and dealing with this stuff. I'll be done with it today, 20-Jan-11. I'll leave it sit for a week and then re-read it. I think after all that I'll be ready to carry on a correspondence about the book. There are many differences between the prose version and the comic version of the story, both subtle and gross. But, there are enough differences that I wonder if the Professors Foglio did not decide to show us an alternative time line. -- Billy Catringer 20:42, January 20, 2011 (UTC)

ofbdg's Edit

One never has to admit to more than watching reruns. --Rej 06:29, February 9, 2011 (UTC)

Oh? And just where exactly have you found Kung Fu reruns? <sigh> Never mind. I don't wanna know. -- Billy Catringer 11:37, February 9, 2011 (UTC)

Well what I did and what I will admit to are different, I will admit. As for finding the show I've seen the dvd's for the series at my library.

Mechanics of editing 101: "The preview button is your friend."Edit

I noticed how you edited the Delta Prose article. Lots of commits at short intervals. What you may wish to know is that the preview key allows you to see how the page will look before you commit it to the wiki.

Basically just edit as you would. When you want to see the page press preview. It will show the page and allow you to keep editing w/o having to repress the edit button. When everything is as you want it or when you've written a substantial amount then press the publish button. One of the advantages for the wiki is that it will only story history during the publish step. The preview steps are for testing your work without someone later looking over your shoulder. My general policy is to always preview before I publish. You can also set your personal preferences so the wiki always shows you the preview when you edit the page. Hth, --Rej¿¤¤? 04:04, February 23, 2011 (UTC)

Okay, Rej. I will make better use of the preview tools in future. Thanks. -- Billy Catringer 09:06, February 23, 2011 (UTC)

The curious case of the growing line feeds. Edit

Hi Billy,

I need some sparky help to solve a mystery.

It probably has to do with which browser is reading a page. It definitely has to do with a change I made to the Page-by-Page preload. I put the Top comix vote request in a boxy table. Now when most people edit the current discussion page a line or two or three get added. So sometimes when I edit I go back and remove all the extra lines. I did that once and you were the next one to edit. So you may possess valuable information for solving this conundrum. Here is the diff between my edit any yours.

My browser showed me (after my edit and before yours) the

  • forum header
  • one blank line
  • The Vote box/table centered on the next line
  • another blank line (because of the br thingy)
  • Picture link for lj with the Discussion for (link to gg comic page) with the full horizontal line under that (but not under the picture)

So

  • What browser/version are you using? Firefox 3.6.16
  • What did you see? I cannot remember for certain.
  • Why did you change it? Well, that happens quite often to tell you the truth. I think I changed this one maybe three times. The first time was to upload and insert the picture. Then I made a comment and preveiwed it and the told Wikia to publish the comment. Later I had occasion to re-read my comment and decided to re-word it. The version you linked to is NOT the final version.
  • What might the browser/editor changed behind your back? I don't have a clue, but now I am curious and will try to help you document any odd behavior. BTW, I am running Firefox on Ubuntu 10.04 with the standard Gnome interface.

Other people have done this too. In particular the space between the Vote box and the picture seems to increase once per edit (with exceptions) regardless of how many lines are already there. I am beginning to wonder if some browser editors are doing something automatically. This sounds logical to me, but we will need to test it first.

I could use a quick response. That would allow me to correct the preload this weekend. Why don't you create a new page and post me a link so that we can play around with it while coordinating our efforts on this page?

Thanks for your help. --Rej¿¤¤? 21:20, April 7, 2011 (UTC)

You are welcome, Rej. I am glad to help out in any way I can. -- Billy Catringer 04:43, April 8, 2011 (UTC)

The Curious Case of the Growing Line Feeds Part DeuxEdit

I added a picture and comment to tonight's update of the comic. Nothing odd happened when I added the picture. Nothing odd happened when I entered the comment I wanted to add. I went back and modified the comment, added a GG link, and then it added a line between the date and the go vote box. Curious, I made no change and published the unmodified page and it added yet another line below the go vote box. I figured out how to fix this, almost, there is still something wrong with it, but when I try to think about what it is I come up with a blank. A problem with my aphasia, I suppose. -- Billy Catringer 05:33, April 8, 2011 (UTC)


Okay. I seemed to have removed the extra lines from Wednesday's page. Check it out. -- Billy Catringer 06:43, April 8, 2011 (UTC)

Billy, you have been most helpful. I've been running firefox as well, usually on ubuntu8.04 but I have some systems running 10.04 so I can check it out. I think what I will do for now is just punt the vote box. It won't make a lot of difference until the Foglios decide they want to rise in those standings. Their are easy ways for them to encourage it. Hard to get much traction from here.

I have made Forum:2011-04-08_(Friday)_Test_page so we can play. Thanks for taking the time. You helped eliminate a lot of speculation. --Rej 06:53, April 8, 2011 (UTC)

You are quite welcome, Rej. -- Billy Catringer 06:59, April 8, 2011 (UTC)

Working with Friday Test PageEdit

I just discovered that I cannot delete the lines inserted by someone esle on the regular Friday page. At least I think that the lines were inserted by someone else's browser. The blank lines my browser can be removed by me with MY browser. I am going to go add a picture to the page you just put up and see what happens to the lines. Two sets of eyes are better than one with a job like this. -- Billy Catringer 20:47, April 8, 2011 (UTC)

Okay, Rej. I have added a picture to the TEST page. Go look at it and tell me what you want me to do next. BTW, you should get someone else with Windows/Explorer to look at it and probably someone with an iPad and Safari. Windows/Explorer is still the single most commonly used OS/Browser combo out there and iOS/Safari is fast becoming the combo of choice. Ubuntu/Firefox is still in the future. -- Billy Catringer 20:56, April 8, 2011 (UTC)

Hi Billy,

Look at the [difference]. I assume you did not manually put the -div- or -br- on separate lines at the top? That was something done behind your back as it were? --Rej¿¤¤? 22:57, April 8, 2011 (UTC)

Rej,

I did NOT do anything other than insert the picture. If the -div- or -br- are on separate lines and should not be, then it was done "behind my back". Let me know when and what you want me to do next.-- Billy Catringer 00:00, April 9, 2011 (UTC)


Billy,

Okay. Das interestink.

Now I need to do some controlled experiments. If you will leave the test page for me to play with.

Ah, I just thought of another difference. I edit in source mode. You are editing the other way. Wysiwtf? Bet that accounts for it. Okay leave the test page be. Let me see if I can recreate the phenomena.

FYI I have just gone and changed the preload to avoid the problem by removing the vote reminder box. That should solve things for now. The rest is just curiosity. Cheers --Rej¿¤¤? 00:22, April 10, 2011 (UTC)

Two things, Rej. One, I do use "source mode" at times and WISYWIG at others. "Source mode" lets me do things I otherwise could not do, but it is "dangerous" and mistakes waste a lot of time. Still, I do use it almost everytime I post. I suppose I should have given you a heads up on this issue when we first started working together on the problem. I apologize. I do remember telling youi that I could not use "source mode" and that was true at the time. I am improving over time. Let me know if you want me to try anything else. -- Billy Catringer 06:27, April 10, 2011 (UTC)

The mystery deepensEdit

Glad to hear you are flexible in editing. Of course if I can't explain the way the difference with the two modes then the mystery deepens. I've always heard that worthy problems fight back. Ha. Thanks for the heads up. --Rej¿¤¤? 15:09, April 10, 2011 (UTC)

Stupid Bloody Johnson's Edit

S.B. Johnson is a discworld builder and architect. Everything he built works well but so strangely that his customers chose to rename the meaning of his initials.

Our mad pages and the conventions concerning them are created like his creations. I've run up against one of the sb conventions on the main page. The no speculation no matter how reasonable rule. You've run up against the conventions concerning Mad pages.

Most people at first expect Mad pages to be open to wild thoughts and discussions. Some s.b. johnson called the fan theory page Mad then then made s.b. johnson rules about how to use it which you can read in the fine print side bar. (Hit ctrl-+ to enlarge the type if needed.) Which means fans have to find another place for back and forth discussion.

Basically, on the Mad page, one person puts forth a formal theory which should be subject to eventual confirmation or refutation (when the Foglios pronounce Irrefutable History). People who agree with the theory can sign up in agreement. Those who don't can post refutations. But free flowing discussion is "not allowed." This makes sense but only to s.b. johnson. Everyone else is either unaware, confused, or dismissive of the Mad rules.

For my part I will follow rules that predate me on this sight until others choose agree to their change. So my solution is to have three pages associated with each main page topic.

  • The main page itself -- canonical facts only.
  • A forum page -- free discussion about the same topic as the main page
  • the main/mad page -- the formally stated fan theories about the main page topic.

Mostly it is worth using the main page and the associated forum for most needs and leave the mad page alone.

So this is a wiki krezy accidents happen all the time. Hoo boy yez! ✣

Keep up the good work. Cheers --Rej¿¤¤? 03:31, April 17, 2011 (UTC)

Okay, between reading the rules and what you wrote in this message I am beginning to understand--I think. I'll try to add something to the Assistant Mad Page later. Oh, while looking for the striker of the Doom Bell, I spotted what i believe to be another picture of her ✣ (upper left panel). -- Billy Catringer 06:06, April 18, 2011 (UTC)

Where did the pin pictures come from? Edit

Please list the source pages when you make excerpts of pages. Thanks, Argadi 07:59, May 18, 2011 (UTC) Okay, I will. Sorry. -- Billy Catringer 20:45, May 18, 2011 (UTC)

You've been busy this morning. Thanks! Argadi 12:14, May 20, 2011 (UTC)
You are welcome, Argadi. -- Billy Catringer 12:46, May 20, 2011 (UTC)

Pages under usernames are not public pages Edit

You edited User:Rej Maddog/Rej's Weekly, which is a private page not a public page.

(I would have sent this privately, but I can't find the e-mail link. Am I overlooking it, or was it removed in the recent Wikia changes?) Argadi 12:28, May 25, 2011 (UTC)

Oh, well, shuckins! How did I do that? My e-mail addy is bcatringer@gmail.com, if youi would like to send messages privately. Wasn't I supposed to have permission to edit someone elses page? -- Billy Catringer 14:59, May 25, 2011 (UTC)

You obviously can do it, but it's not polite to change the wording on a User: page unless you have permission (with the User_Talk pages like this page being a different case). Argadi 23:56, May 25, 2011 (UTC)
I cannot now remember what I changed or why, but I will not do it ever again. -- Billy Catringer 00:46, May 26, 2011 (UTC)
I am late in seeing this. I just want to note that though Rej's weekly is in my private space it is also transcluded week by week onto the front page. Editing the current events will cause the edits to be put into this page. For this reason it actually serves as a semi-private page. I.E. anyone should be able to edit the current events of the week. Once the week passes I still get the last word and anything no longer "public" should be considered private once again. Thank you Argadi for defending my space. Thank you Billy Catringer for working to improve what people see on the front page. 
 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 04:47, February 3, 2012 (UTC)

New Characters we don't know names for yet and pages for same. Edit

Hi Billy,

We are too fast for the 3 page a week Foglios. We want pages for characters they will name for us ...

...sometime in the future. Rather than starting a lot of temporary pages why not start one page to hold all of them. Title it "New Characters we don't know names for yet" or "Castle Wulfenbach employees" or "Cast - Volume XI" Hmmm I think almost have that one. Use Castle Heterodyne inmates as a model for how to do it or Cast - Volume X. Hmmm I think you will want the inmates style.

Cheers 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 01:02, May 27, 2011 (UTC)

Okay, I will take a look. Thanks, Rej. -- Billy Catringer 02:29, May 27, 2011 (UTC)

Your deep thinker is actually a bubble brain. Edit

He is obviously a big bubble brained battle boss but is he a deep thinker as well? Knowing the Foglio's deep thinkers are probably something with tentacles like out of the Cthulhu_Mythos. In any event please be aware when you are speculating in advance of canonical facts. Alright on forums but not on main pages.

I haven't been commenting on your work right along. So you may not realize how many times I see your clippings and realize how exactly right on they are. I feel silly now when having to bring up the small and picayune stuff when all along much of what you do is such a good addition to the fun of the site.

Be aware of the distinction between our fan speculation and true author revealed canon. Watch the connections that seem to want to be made. Wait for the Foglio reveal. But overall keep up the good work. Cheers 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 00:37, May 30, 2011 (UTC)

Okay, Rej, thanks! Concerning our differences over deep thinkers, perhaps the bubble brain is just a prototype of the deep thinkers. It stands to reason that sparks would do constructs much the same way we design ships or aircraft. BTW and FWIW, I have never read any of Lovecraft's work. -- Billy Catringer 00:56, May 30, 2011 (UTC)

I like the inverted effect here. Edit

That sharpened up the line drawing in File:InActionInverted.jpg 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? So do I, but I can't really take credit for it. It was done by a new filter that is built into the latest version of The GIMP. -- Billy Catringer 02:16, September 29, 2011 (UTC)

You sneaky bugger...Edit

I'm kind of impressed. At first glance, your Photoshop edits are hardly noticable. However, certain inconsistencies make the changes clear upon closer inspection. Try taking a piece of an area similar in texture to what's "underneath" those troublesome text bubbles, then use it to cover said text and adjust color balances, etc. a little to make it fit the shading pattern, and soften the edges of it to blend it in with the surrounding areas. I'm not sure if you've ever tried this or not, but I've done this before on other pictures and I can tell you it is worth the effort. If you take the time to do it right it is much more difficult to spot than with other methods, such as the ones I've seen you use so far. Also, do you know how to select a color from the image to use when you draw on it? In one of your pictures, I noticed a black line where there should have been a colored one. But overall, keep up the good work. I like seeing other people as resourceful and creative as me. ~Mysteria Femina~ 04:13, October 11, 2011 (UTC)

Why, thank you, Mysteria Femina! I will do as you suggest.

No problem! Glad to help. If you have any other questions on anything you can think of, there's a good chance I can give you some kind of guidance, so feel free to ask me. My talk page is unreliable, though, because my URL changes periodically, so I guess you'll have to post something here if you wish to contact me. ~Mysteria Femina~

Nevermind, I now have an account with a talk page. ~ Mysteria Femina 15:52, October 12, 2011 (UTC) ~ 15:52, October 12, 2011 (UTC)
What do you think of my latest effort? Granted, I did not retouch it so much as I recomposed it. -- Billy Catringer 16:09, October 12, 2011 (UTC)
The elipse shape helps draw attention to the center and the glorious hat by getting rid of "white space"--not literal white in this case, just relatively unused space. This is actually why many pictures look nice when cropped to a circle/elipse; however, it does not work for pictures that don't have "white space" in all four corners. Did you do anything besides cropping it in an elipse? I don't see anything else right off the bat. ~ Mysteria Femina 16:58, October 12, 2011 (UTC) 16:58, October 12,2011 (UTC)
Other than enlarging it? No.-- Billy Catringer 17:49, October 12, 2011 (UTC)

I see you took my advice. Nicely done, Billy! [sticks gold star on picture] The edit is quite difficult to spot this time, even with my sharp eye for detail. Much cleaner than your work on the picture of Gil holding the oversized death-ray while wearing a slasher smile. Tsk, tsk. What do you have to say for yourself on that one? ~Mysteria Femina~ 22:45, October 28, 2011 (UTC)

Thank you, but this one was a snap to do. The creatiors practically handed it to me on a platter. The Gil shot was done the way I did it because I only have a recalcitrant mouse to work with and I am still learning to use The Gimp. Were i using Photoshop with a graphics pad, I would have a red face right now, but I don't and I won't. I will simply ask you to catch up with me using The Gimp and a mouse instead of a graphics pad. The GIMP is readily available for download and it runs on nearly every available operating system. -- Billy Catringer 03:02, October 29, 2011 (UTC)

I wasn't trying to be that serious when I asked what you had to say for yourself. I was trying to be playful and funny. It sounds like you took some offense at my statement, but please know that I did not say it as an insult. I respect what you are doing in creating speech-bubble-free pictures.
What do you mean "catch up with" you? Sorry, but I'm not familiar with Gimp; I haven't even heard of it until now. And I understand completely about using a mouse because I don't have a graphics pad. Most of my work is done with a mouse. I have a regular mouse on the nice computer with the good screen and newest Photoshop, but I have a basic tablet on my dinosaur laptop with an outdated and very limited version of Photoshop Elements. (I really do need to hook my tablet up with the better comupter one of these days. Oh, the wondrous things I could achieve ...)
For future reference, I never mean to insult people or be rude or otherwise put someone down, especially if that person does not deserve it. Imagine me saying everything with a smile. Friends? ~Mysteria Femina~ 19:49, October 29, 2011 (UTC)
Please forgive me for being unnecessarily gruff, Mysteria Femina. I was feeling harassed when I posted that reply and should have waited until after I had cooled off a little. I was a near professional grade user of Photoshop, but that was back when I had the money to afford a legal copy of Photoshop. I had to start over from scratch for reasons that I will not talk about here, but let us just say that lacking the money I found The Gimp to be a servicable substitute for Photoshop. Learning The GIMP is every bit as difficult as learning Photoshop becaue it does almost everything Photoshop does, but it does it differently. The two are just enough alike to be infuriating. I start working on a project with The GIMP and slip back into Photoshop mode and simple things I once did in Photoshop just will not work in The GIMP. For insstance, I still have a lot of stuff to learn about the selection process in The GIMP. That and being pressed for time is what resulted int he bobbles you saw in the Gil with Gund picture. -- Billy Catringer 21:13, October 29, 2011 (UTC)

Apology accepted. [offers Pumpkin Cookies] ~Mysteria Femina~ 22:24, October 29, 2011 (UTC)

By the way, nice re-do of the Gil picture I commented on before. It looks cleaner now. ~Mysteria Femina~ (talk • [Avatar talk]) 06:13, November 13, 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, Mysteria Femina. I finally figured out how to use The GIMP's quick mask mode and was then able to do a better job with that picture. There were some others, mostly don in PNG with a transparent background, but that particular one was the one I wanted to fix the worst. -- Billy Catringer 07:00, November 13, 2011 (UTC)

If you wanted to try for an even better edit, November's wallpapers are text-free... I don't know why I didn't point this out sooner. ~Mysteria~ (talk) 06:33, November 15, 2011 (UTC)

Volume 11 cast of characters Edit

Hi Billy, It would be nice to have a cast of characters for Volume 11. A lot of new folk were introduced. I am hoping to enlist your graphic help. If you can produce a collage of all the characters you find interesting I can create a image map like I did for the castle inmates.

The most important IMO would be the newly introduced and almost introduced characters. Especially the new townies and the newly introduced staff on Castle Wulfenbach. I tried starting in on a cast list but prose doesn't quite help when all we have is visuals of some characters.

Up to you but I thought it might be something you could be interested in. 

20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 05:19, October 30, 2011 (UTC)

Sure, I'd like to pitch in. Do you want me to upload them, e-mail them to you or what? -- Billy Catringer 06:13, October 30, 2011 (UTC)

Just upload them I can take it from there. 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 03:42, October 31, 2011 (UTC)

I checked and I have already uploaded most of them as they came up. Do you have a list of who or what you want? If so, I think I can give you a set of file names for the pictures that are already on this site. There are some that I would very much like to take another shot at though. -- Billy Catringer 03:58, October 31, 2011 (UTC)

Try to link new pages Edit

When you add a new page, try to create links to it. For most pages, the Chronology is an easy place to start—that's where I added a link to Bakers of Mechanicsburg—but additional links are also useful. For example, if the Doom Bell page was just created, we would search for all current references and make them links.

Pages are only useful if people see them, and without links few people will see a new page. Links outside the chronology are useful as I'm not sure how many people regularly use the chronology. (I use the chronology regularly for research, but my actions are often distinctly different from a "normal" human.)

Oh, categories are also useful, that's another way to find pages.

(I'm not saying this to prevent page creation. There have been various arguments before about when to create pages (for example, Castle Heterodyne inmate pages) and I've generally come down on the side of creating more pages earlier side. What really convinced me was the Mount Horeb incident. There were some complaints that the reference wasn't significant enough to create a page, but then someone discovered the Mustard Museum and the page is a gem highlighting the details in the background of the Girl Genius series.)

If you want to kill some time, you can always take a look at Special:LonelyPages and make links for those pages. Argadi 19:19, November 20, 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the pointers, Argadi. I will worlk on this problem when and as I can. -- Billy Catringer 22:48, November 20, 2011 (UTC)

Oops --- Science has failed me. Edit

Nice effect on Gil's wand in todays discussion. Keep up the great work. 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 20:45, December 7, 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, Rej. I am slowly but sure improving my GIMP using skills. Also, my eye-hand coordination has much improved over the time that I have been here on the Wikia. -- Billy Catringer 21:22, December 7, 2011 (UTC)

Good work on Snoz Edit

I was hoping someone would create a page for the guy. Cool.

How to create pages with preloads Edit

Since you are part of the weekly editing crew we should get you trained in the easy way to get the right info box on the right page. Plus we should get me trained in how to make it easy for you.

There are infoboxes Characters, Monsters, Devices, Template:Character, Template:Device, Template:Monster. Also for Houses, Template:house, which comes up less frequently. I can never remember the parameters for which is which and I am lazy so I made a way to preload each type of page. Template:Character/Preload, Template:Device/Preload, Template:Monster/Preload, Template:House/Preload.

Unfortunately the preload boxes only work when the page is created with a create box. So I made those too. 

{{Create Infobox|Character}}
{{Create Infobox|Monster}}
{{Create Infobox|Device}}
{{Create Infobox|House}}



Apparently I left it there not knowing what to do next. I added the appropriate boxes to their respective categories. Category:Characters, Category:Monsters, Category:Devices,. But that is it. Of course no one thinks to look in the categories when they want to create pages. So I am hoping you will have some suggestions about what is still needed? If you can see a clear and necessary action, feel free to take it before discussing it with me. This is a wiki. Bold editing saves time and trouble. 

Cheers, 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 22:28, December 10, 2011 (UTC)
Thanks, Rej. I will give this a try. Billy Catringer

Battle of Mechanicsburg Edit

By the way, I think we should eventually write an article about the Battle of Mechanicsburg. What do you think? -- Billy Catringer 22:56, December 10, 2011 (UTC)

I have generally found your judgement sound. Go for it. 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 03:46, December 11, 2011 (UTC)
Will do, Rej. -- Billy Catringer 05:46, December 11, 2011 (UTC)
It might be good to give some thought to the title, adding some specificity as the current battle isn't the only battle in Mechanicsburg's history. (Unfortunately I have no good suggestions this morning.) Also, figure out places to link to the battle page so people wandering through the wiki will find it. Argadi 13:55, December 11, 2011 (UTC)
How about The Wulfenbach's War: The Battle of Mechanicsburg, Argadi? -- Billy Catringer 18:46, December 11, 2011 (UTC)
How about "The Great Battle of Mechanicsburg"? Worth a shot. By the way, what would be your opinion if Gil ever caught Tarvek at the airship? Me-Gil would probably admonish him for it.Master 3x3lcior 01:45, January 19, 2012 (UTC)

:::::I think that Argadi's objection would still hold with that title, Master. Any battle involving Mechanicsburg and that was large enough to be noteworthy would necessarily be a great battle. The smaller ones would amount to little more than unsuccessful raids, memorable only to the losers. I am sorry, but I do not have a definite answer for you on Gil's potential reaction to Tarvek's presence aboard Castle Wulfenbach, but I would agree that he quite likely will react in a hostile manner at first. At least Gil is inclined to give even the likes of Tarvek the time to explain himself, and Boris is very likely to intercede on Tarvek's behalf. -- Billy Catringer 07:33, January 19, 2012 (UTC)
I suppose, but considering it was Othar who brought him along, Gil would probably cut him some slack.Master 3x3lcior 07:51, January 19, 2012 (UTC)

Changes to Gil's Article Edit

I made an interesting edit to Gil's article, hope you don't mind. But to me, it is nothing but appropriate as of the moment given the circumstances.Master 3x3lcior 07:54, January 19, 2012 (UTC)

Why would I mind? This is a Wikia and I did not write that article. Welcome to the party, Master. You should probably visit the latest comment I made on the Monday commentary board. -- Billy Catringer 07:58, January 19, 2012 (UTC)

I would prefer it if you did not mock my username, I've been a wikia editor for almost 5 years now so I have plenty of experience. But I just wanted to use the name in this site because I couldn't resist. Gives a slight sparky feel to it. Still, it is kind of over the top isn't it. I just read GG for almost 4 weeks now and I am totally hooked. I'll be making more and more contributions to this site in the future.Master 3x3lcior 08:04, January 19, 2012 (UTC)

::I was not mocking it. I was admiring it for your ingenuity. -- Billy Catringer 08:32, January 19, 2012 (UTC)

Still, what's your opinion on my edit for Gil?Master 3x3lcior 08:07, January 19, 2012 (UTC)

Ah, I finally figured out how to put links between this site and directly to relevant pages of the comic.Master 3x3lcior 08:24, January 19, 2012 (UTC)

Nice edit on Gil, the grammar is so much better than mine.Master 3x3lcior 08:27, January 19, 2012 (UTC) Thank you. -- Billy Catringer 08:32, January 19, 2012 (UTC)

By the way, Master. If you will do your editing in source mode, you will find that not only is it more reliable, you will also learn how to do things faster. As others have told me. Don't be afraid of messing something up. This is a Wikia and someone will come along and fix it. -- Billy Catringer 08:40, January 19, 2012 (UTC)


No problem, I've had my fair share of mistakes in Ben 10, Bulbapedia, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Generator Rex and even One Piece.Master 3x3lcior 08:43, January 19, 2012 (UTC)

By the way, concerning the matter about editing in "Source Mode"...tell me something I already don't know XD.Master 3x3lcior 08:48, January 19, 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, it is all in good humor, I meant no offense whatsoever.Master 3x3lcior 08:49, January 19, 2012 (UTC)

I'm curious...Edit

Why haven't you been the one posting images? ~Mysteria Femina~ (talk • Avatar wall) 06:43, February 3, 2012 (UTC) Mostly because Master has simply taken over and I lack the energy to contest him. Besides, I have other things to do with my time. I am writing a novel and do not want to waste my time on graphics right now. -- Billy Catringer 07:53, February 3, 2012 (UTC)

I'll be the one to post today's image so just relax Billy, I wasn't able to on Monday because of the earthquake here, good luck. Master 3x3lcior 02:58, February 8, 2012 (UTC) Unfortunately, I do have a bone or two to pick with you, Master. It has nothing to do with you uploading pictures to the daily discussion forum. You are more than welcome to take that on. However, you are not doing it properly. There is a definite policy on how those pictures should be uploaded. You have not followed that procedure so far. Each picture has a page of its own. You need to go have a look at one of the pictures that I have uploaded and look at that page's source code. Then you will discover all the things that I have done for every picture I have ever uploaded. You will need to do the same. -- Billy Catringer 06:49, February 8, 2012 (UTC)

I already have 20 minutes ago, thanks for reminding me. Master 3x3lcior 06:52, February 8, 2012 (UTC)

By the way, it would seem you are incensed about something concerning me. If you are then I apologize, I didn't mean to offend you in any way; back then and now. Master 3x3lcior 07:21, February 8, 2012 (UTC)

I am simply trying to get you to do the job right. BTW, if you scrubbed a picture you removed something from it, such as the dialogue balloons. I deleted and scrubbed from most of your entries. If you enlarged the picture, you should make note of it. Same thing if you reduced it. Get it? You should note any and all changes you made to it. -- Billy Catringer 00:59, February 9, 2012 (UTC)

Good job. Edit

Thanks for doing the picture of Agatha and her doom gun. I had to go back to the page to realize how much work was done to eliminate the word balloons. Could not tell from your picture. Looked very natural. Anyway thanks, I wanted a good pic of that for the death ray article. Perhaps you could find a place to insert it? 

Cheers, 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 21:15, February 6, 2012 (UTC)

Actually, this is Agatha's third or fourth deathray and it is the mildest by far. This one seems to work by forcing her targets to commit suicide, but only is she sets it to ennui. I need to go through the entire comic and see if I cannot find her first and second death rays. I think the one already pictured is her second. You are welcome on the picture for Monday. I did it in stages and it took up a lot of time, but then it was worth it. -- Billy Catringer 01:09, February 7, 2012 (UTC)

Death RaysEdit

Agatha'sEdit

  • I think the electric swords count as the first.
  • The one buried with Olga is the second.
  • Then the one that killed the Horsie.
  • The one in ZumZum that Jenka crushed.
  • The one at Passholdt bridge is the one in the article.
  • The mountain eater
  • The doom gun

I think that is the complete list. Except after Olga's death she claimed she had made two more and we only saw one. Presumably the first was used on the horsie and in Zumzum and the backup at Passholdt.

Gil'sEdit

  • The Zappy stick w/ and w/o the atmosphic ionizers.
  • The Tesla cannon made out of spare castle parts.

Tarvek'sEdit

Tarvek is too subtle for flashy death rays. 

20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 04:55, February 9, 2012 (UTC)

Nah! He just has yet to figure out how to make one that will fit into his pocket. Agatha's Mountain Eater was fairly small, but its power supply was too bulky to fit into a person's pocket. -- Billy Catringer 00:42, February 9, 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, I think your right. 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 04:55, February 9, 2012 (UTC)

InterestingEdit

Good work on that image. Clever to remove the background entirely to get rid of the text, and a fantastic cover-up job of what was left after that. May I suggest finding a texture to add to that gradient if possible? The smooth wash looks a bit out of place. ~Mysteria Femina~ (talk • Avatar wall) 00:54, February 11, 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I do realize that a smooth gradient is out of place when working on a picture colored by the great Cheyenne. I am desperately working on my texturing techniques as this is being written. One of the things I am working on is a replacement for the rather drastic edit of the Dropwall Engine. I am trying to make a complete picture of it to replace the one Master has already uploaded. If I am successful with the job, I will upload it. -- Billy Catringer 03:24, February 11, 2012 (UTC)

Awesome. Good luck with that. ~Mysteria~ (talk) 07:37, February 11, 2012 (UTC)

Great pix Edit

Great job on the dropwall and a wonderful cameo of a grumpy Klaus. 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 07:59, February 15, 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, Rej. --Billy Catringer 14:12, February 15, 2012 (UTC)


WHAT THE...?!? Edit

You jacked my post you little EXPLITIVE DELETED!--Bosda Di'Chi 19:14, March 26, 2012 (UTC)

{C In future, kep your damned paws off my posts!--Bosda Di'Chi 19:18, March 26, 2012 (UTC) {C What on Earth are you on about, Bosda? What post? -- Billy Catringer 20:34, March 26, 2012 (UTC)


Obscure Wulfenbach Minions ring any bells? The Doctor? -Bosda Di'Chi 23:34, March 26, 2012 (UTC)

Bosda, I had no intention of jacking one of your posts. I made the mistake of thinking that you were trying to agree with something that I had already posted and then was foolish enough to make an attempt to correct your botched attempt at an agreeable post. For that mistake, I sincerely apologise. While I do distinctly remember commenting on how The Doctor resembled Doctor Challenger in character, I cannot now remember whether it was something I said to someone, or if it was a post I had made to that part of the Girl Genius Wiki. What it all boils down to is that I made a mistake thinking that you had made a mistake. I will not make that sort of mistake again. And, by the way, there are many adjectives that can be used to describe me, but the word little is not among them. Regards--Billy Catringer 15:58, March 27, 2012 (UTC)
From the looks of it Billy tried to separate paragraphs and added four tilda's to repeat a sig. Of course he was logged in and his sig got in there instead. Billy is this what happened?

In any event this site has a policy that any signed post should be left formated as the posted. Also discussions containing content should be on forum pages. What should appear on talk pages is discussion of what should be on the main article.

It is alright for others to add sigs (where known) to unsigned articles.

It is also usually a good idea to preview all posts before publishing.

Finally its a wiki. Errors can be fixed.

I find I have a bit more to say but I want to find out the facts of what happened first. 

Cheers 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 01:41, March 27, 2012 (UTC)
From your apology I see my first assumption was wrong. Seems you made an honest mistake and did mis-edit someone elses post. Thanks for apologizing to him. No permanent harm done to the site. (Ego's might be another matter.) 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 20:51, March 27, 2012 (UTC)

That's quite all right, Rej. I have a very large ego and is not easily damaged. :) -- Billy Catringer 21:29, March 27, 2012 (UTC)

Editing Frustrations and Snafu'sEdit

Rej, this forum's new-fangled double check your posts thingy is driving me nuts. It is confusing, annoying and sometimes erases what I just wrote without me having told it to do so. I posted a reply to you prior to making a reply to Bosda. The silly gorrammed thing erased what I said. I like it better the way it was. If there is a place to complain about such stuff, I'd like to know where it is. -- Billy Catringer 15:15, March 27, 2012 (UTC)

When you open a page a pop up window will often open, saying Welcom back! We restored... and then it offers two distinct choices. One reads, Delete my changes with the latest text or View a comparison of changes with the latest page.

Choosing one or the other will result in a disaster of one kind or another. Sometimes when I click on the first choice it will come back with an entirely blank page. Other times, it simply erases the last thing I posted. Clicking on the second will result in a pop-up window that gives no further choices--or at least it often results in such a window. I think it has at least one time given me a third choice.

Given that it behaves the way it does, I would very much prefer that it simply did not try to be so helpful. It very often gets in the way. At the very least there should be a Do nothing option. -- Billy Catringer 15:58, March 27, 2012 (UTC)

Editing Woes Edit

I have logged off and rebooted my machine trying to clear up the problem I have been having with editing this wiki. It has not cleared up. Is there a place on here where I can make suggestions? -- Billy Catringer 16:02, March 27, 2012 (UTC)

community.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Contact is the place to start. I will appreciate you contacting them about this. I had similar problems and made a report a while back. It is a hard problem to describe though if you tell them what you said above it should help. The more people they hear it from the more chances to make a fix a priority. Thanks for your efforts keep up the good work. 

20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 20:47, March 27, 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, Rej. I will go and attempt to describe the nature of this nasty little beast. Wish me luck. It seems to be intermittent and this is yet another pain in the neck behaviour it exhibits. -- Billy Catringer 21:35, March 27, 2012 (UTC)

Okay, I posted a message with a screenshot. BTW, I have requested to be an administrator over on the Steampun Wiki. I could use some help over there if you are game. There is a lot of work to do. -- Billy Catringer 22:00, March 27, 2012 (UTC)

Yo, rej! Have you stopped seeing this alleged feature that we were having so much trouble with? Dopp dropped me a line and said that they were going to disable it. I have not seen it since. -- Billy Catringer 01:47, April 13, 2012 (UTC)

It hasn't bit me in a while now. They do listen sometimes. Keep up the good work. 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 05:27, April 13, 2012 (UTC)

Ignore Category:Page-by-Page Edit

I noticed you moved the Category:Page-by-Page to the end when you edited today's forum. The next time just remove it—the category is added automatically from the forumheader template used on those pages so there's no need for a separate category tag.

At some point it will annoy be enough to change the page generation template so it doesn't show up, but that point hasn't happened yet. Argadi (talk) 23:17, August 14, 2012 (UTC)

(When I preview this message I see a "null" at the end, but it isn't in the edit window. Maybe a new Wikia bug. Let's see if it shows up when I post.)

Roger and WILCO, Argadi. -- Billy Catringer (talk) 09:12, August 15, 2012 (UTC)

Your new pages are going to be hard to find Edit

I'm glad to see you adding new character pages. When you add them, consider adding links from existing page to the new pages to make the new pages easier to find (and more people will see them).

One easy way is to add links from the Chronology entries for the pages they appear in. Many characters can also be added to lists (but I don't know of any useful lists for your last two characters). Argadi (talk) 12:09, September 1, 2012 (UTC)

Added a variant to Șoarece so it can be written w/o the special character. Also it would be good to preload the info-box information just start your page creation here: User_talk:Billy_Catringer#How to create pages with preloads 

20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 17:28, September 1, 2012 (UTC)
Thanks, guys. -- Billy Catringer (talk) 01:43, September 2, 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the welcome. I have now registered as Lady Blanc, and I will probably be popping up from time to time. I've been reading the Wiki for some months now and am looking forward to being part of the community. Lady Blanc (talk) 15:35, November 14, 2012 (UTC)

minion lists Edit

Minion PagesEdit

I got a little free time coupled with internet access during spring break. I aimed myself at making a showcase page for all the new Wulfenbach characters Wulfenbach minions and staff. Seemed a shame not to make more use of your wonderful images. Anyway the templates are Template:Minion table header,Template:Minion row,Template:Minion table end. The useful one is the one in the middle. Used repeatedly between the header and end template we can add a row for each character. Ideally there could be characters listed here who eventually get their own page but whom we right now don't know enough.

Also the templates can be used generally for any list of characters we want to present in a table with pictures. What we do for Wulfenback we can do for Mechanicsburg, Paris, England or Skifander.

I am mentioning this to you in case it might catch your interest. You continue to make the site interesting. So if these help, feel free to adapt them. Cheers 20px-1298786.png Rej¿¤¤? 04:01, March 27, 2013 (UTC)

Okay, Rej. I'll take a look at it. I was wondering where you had got off to. -- Billy Catringer (talk) 06:37, March 27, 2013 (UTC)
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