User talk:TogetherSy

- contributions already, and seemingly non-spam! I see Arabic added... you might be able to do translations? TogetherSy, thanks for showing up! I hope to see you around. --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:37, 18 May 2016 (UTC)


 * I guess my question would be ...( I know it is difficult or impossible to answer)... of the sort, is there really any non jihadi opposition which can be seen from Damascus, and, apart from power, what is that they want, if anything. If such question is asked about Russia I'd say, yes, because 75 % or so of creative people are at least somewhat opposition, but they are not united and there is no single agreed thing that they want apart from copying the West and (if they are into politics) getting power--but they do not really agree or anything else...Yet they really exist and not just created by the West...--Resup (talk) 15:04, 19 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Before 2011 there was a hippie culture developing in clusters of cafes & bars here in Damascus. This embryonic group of teenagers did look towards the west and wanted to imitate it. You can't say that they are political in any sense. Just a few young adolescents wanting some luxuries and loving western culture & trends. These are not in anyway the opposition that we see here. I have a friend who was always voicing that she opposes the regime. for years on end she tried to show that she is from that cluster, but lately she told me that she belongs to a muslim bortherhood family. That her uncle is a fugitive from the Hama events in 1980s. It was so shocking for me, that for more than 10 years I knew her & she never mentioned belonging to an Islamist organization & always showed that she is part of that western leaning group of people I was talking about.
 * In my personal opinion, I doubt that there is a single secular element in the Syrian opposition.
 * --TogetherSy (talk) 16:18, 19 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Hi, thanks. Before Soviet Union collapse, opposition was of hippy sort too (Western music/clothes based, from Lennon to disco). Than there was something quite similar to Syria in Chechnya, started by 'moderate' nationalists but eventually becoming militant Wahhabi. They had de-facto state and independence for about 2 years, with Sharia courts and Shura field commanders council. That ended after they invaded neighboring territory; and mufti/warlord Akhmad Kadyrov than emerged and allied with Russia. The end result, hard to know from outside exactly good or bad, need to be a Chechen and speak the language to really know. Not a Western democracy; traditional and largely secular society (formally at least);  quickly rebuilt everything, and mostly run their affairs all by themselves. Seem to keep their feelings mostly to themselves, too. Picture seen from outside is that everything is great, for the most part. True or not, not sure. --Resup (talk) 20:58, 19 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Mostly they follow the same pattern or cook book. At the start many here were circulating pamphlets by sth called otpor! even wearing shirts with their fist symbol. Regime change seems to be orchestrated by the same mindset & follow similar patterns, though in Syria I feel the situation is much closer to Yugoslavia than Chechnya, but heck we have many Chechens fighting us too!
 * --TogetherSy (talk) 21:58, 19 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Yes, we came across clams of similarities of the problem (just added an example which circulated regarding Maidan in Ukraine; Otpor was mentioned in Ukraine too). I was thinking about possible similarities of solution, though. There are so far few examples where Islamists, or color revolutionaries, were defeated. Kadyrov's Chechnya is (possibly) one known solution; possibly seen as unacceptable in the West, and may be not really suitable for reproduction elsewhere, yet this is something known already. The West, I guess, has Iraq and Afghanistan on its track record (as well as Libya). And so they and the Russians are now trying to sort something out in Syria. Well, with their joint past record, I am not so sure that they can, actually. And little in common between those co-sponsors, too. Happy to get it wrong here...--Resup (talk) 15:25, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

Thanks
New to wiki like platforms, but sure can do translations. I am from Damascus and can speak Arabic.


 * Excellent! We have had translators, but they come and go, and lately have all gone and not come. Some recent requests are at the top of Translation Requests Wiki format is easy once you know it - easy codes you can copy. To sign and date your comments (preferred), use these 6 characters: --~ or the signature button (3rd from right). That's for talk pages, not main pages - but the translation requests page is special - the main page is the talk page. --Caustic Logic (talk) 06:06, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Also, you're in Damascus? We hope for your continued safety. 2 translators we've had were in Syria - one had to flee, and then stopped helping (but was safe last I heard, another lost family in an attack recently, gets bad moods and takes long breaks... Of course the big plan here is to stress Syrians out and weaken their resolve. Try to keep not letting that work. --Caustic Logic (talk) 06:16, 19 May 2016 (UTC)


 * (best place for response - delete this)
 * (ok, nevermind - you're getting the hang of it above thanks to Resup) --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:00, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

Info boxes
Is there a way to add info boxes here?


 * What's an info box? Info on you, we would like but not necessary. "user page" is the space for that. An actual box for text ... I think that's doable, but I'm not sure how. Can find out. CE knows more. She'll be around soon, I hope. --Caustic Logic (talk) 06:06, 19 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Here I am! Was traveling this week. :o) --CE (talk) 18:40, 20 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Info-boxes are those boxes that you see at the top of Wikipedia article that holds some summary figures & descriptions.
 * --TogetherSy (talk) 16:18, 19 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Okay... will check soon (busy days) --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:30, 19 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Hi TogetherSy, welcome to ACLOS! If we want Infoboxes, we can create them via the Template function of Wikimedia. We have made some minor templates already, for quotation etc. If you know how to do it, I think you have the rights to start a page like Template:Infobox for some purpose yourself. I'm not sure we have enough articles to really make use of that, though, we usually are fine with categories. What exactly do you have in mind? --CE (talk) 18:40, 20 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Thanks CE, I will see how they do it on wikipedia & try to replicate it here. My idea is to put an info-box on each massacre page that includes date, location, victims count and other descriptive data.
 * --TogetherSy (talk) 19:46, 20 May 2016 (UTC)


 * according to MediaWiki & wikipedia, we can import their template along with its css & js, but it requires the following extensions:
 * Extension:ParserFunctions
 * Extension:Scribunto
 * check this wikipedia page and this mediawiki page
 * --TogetherSy (talk) 20:00, 20 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Ah, the massacres were actually the only category that came to mind for me for that purpose. I have no time right now to look into it deeper, but on first glance I can't see why we should need any extensions (we can't install them ourselves) for copying and adjusting something like this template to over here. If you want to try, take it here. You can try to use it here or in the Sandbox. I'll come back to you. --CE (talk) 20:28, 20 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Thanks CE, the process is pretty easy: we export the template from the wikipedia site and import it here. I don't have permission to do that here, the link in the mediawiki page in my previous reply has a step by step tutorial and it explains the extension requirement, I mentioned the extension because I wanted to know if we have it here or not.
 * --TogetherSy (talk) 21:19, 20 May 2016 (UTC)


 * ShoutWiki has the ParserFunctions, but not the Scribunto extension. It also has a help page for creating infoboxes, making use of ParserFunctions, see here. The mentioned Template:! is apparently no longer necessary, so this should work on its own, and without importing whole blocks of modules and template hierarchies n stuff from wikipedia. --CE (talk) 08:27, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

I know tables - maybe a one column table would do it? Seems so. Width can be adjusted (here is 40%). I'm not sure how to make it inset in a corner with text ... but to copy this, just copy the code I used. And let me know if you want to make a table with columns. I love those things. :) --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:00, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

--Caustic Logic (talk) 13:00, 20 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Thanks Causatic Logic, If i can't replicate the wiki like info-boxes, I will use your table.
 * --TogetherSy (talk) 19:46, 20 May 2016 (UTC)