User talk:Gary Lee Todd

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Welcome to Wikimedia Commons, Gary Lee Todd!

-- Wikimedia Commons Welcome (talk) 06:47, 8 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Just curious[edit]

Are you by any chance the Professor Gary Lee Todd from Flickr? If so, then I really admire your work and dedication to free access to educational materials. Otherwise if you're not him I'm still greatly appreciative of your uploads. Happy new (Georgian) year. --Donald Trung 『徵國單』 (No Fake News 💬) (WikiProject Numismatics 💴) (Articles 📚) 21:23, 31 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I am he. Thank you for the compliment, and enjoy the photos. I have lots more I hope to upload soon, as I am still stuck at my wife's home in the Philippines with little else to do until the borders open up again.

A barnstar for you![edit]

The Photographer's Barnstar
I have learned a lot about different cultures and history through your photography and have often used it in Wikipedia articles. You're one of the most valuable museum photographers in the Orient. Donald Trung 『徵國單』 (No Fake News 💬) (WikiProject Numismatics 💴) (Articles 📚) 20:12, 2 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I'm happy to be of service. I had a professor in graduate school (my dissertation advisor) who said to me that if you learn something, you have an obligation to NOT take it with you to the grave. I've been privileged to see quite a bit of the world and record at least some of it with my cameras. So I believe it is my obligation to share it with the world. And I do appreciate it when I learn that I have been of service to others.

Please sign your postings[edit]

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Chinese Numismatic Charms Museum in Haikuo, Hainan[edit]

Hello Professor Gary Lee Todd,

I've been a massive fan of your photographs for many years now and have found a lot of use for them on Wikipedia. I've been busy with an enormous project where I attempt to document the entire monetary history of China and Chinese culture countries (Japan, Korea, the Ryukyu Islands, and Vietnam) on Wikimedia websites and I include amulets, talismans, and charms in this. David Hartill told me that there are 5000+ (five-thousand plus) different variants of Chinese numismatic charms and currently I've been only to document maybe 10% (ten percent) of them on Wikimedia Commons.

I'm not sure if you take requests or if you're into this stuff or not, as I've uploaded images of burial coins from your Flickr albums to here, but there is a Hainanese museum called the Chinese Numismatic Charms Museum (Traditional Chinese: 中國古代民俗錢幣博物館; Simplified Chinese: 中国古代民俗钱币博物馆; Pinyin: zhōng guó gǔ dài mín sú qián bì bó wù guǎn) which has over 2000 (two-thousand) different specimens of Chinese numismatic charms. After the Corona-crisis ends, do you think that you may be able to go there in an unspecified time in the future? --Donald Trung 『徵國單』 (No Fake News 💬) (WikiProject Numismatics 💴) (Articles 📚) 14:43, 8 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Um, well, maybe. I've been to Sanya, but not Haikou, and the provincial museum there was on my list of things to do in the future. But that depends on actually returning to China (where my cameras have been sitting for exactly one year now), and I don't see any signs of the borders opening any time soon. In the meantime, I have been publishing photos on Wikimedia Commons from Chinese museums and historic sites, mostly Henan Province (at the request of my university), but I'm doing others on occasion. I have some coin photos from several Chinese museums, plus my own personal collection, in Flickr albums, and I have some old Vietnamese copper cash which I have not yet photographed, but I think they are all back in China. This pandemic panic has seriously crippled my photography of historic artifacts.Gary Lee Todd (talk) 02:48, 9 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, that is quite interesting. I have been able to use some of your images you took in Vietnamese museums of coins, I will add some handy links with context.
There is a category for photographs you took, I've imported a couple of thousand over the years, but due to too much work I actually haven't been able to dedicate too much time to it, your works have been imported by many people here, you have a lot of fans here.
In this article I've used quite a bit of your photographs of early Vietnamese cash coins, Rome wasn't built in a day, so completing the list is expected to take decades, like how there are 5000+ different types of Chinese Amulets, Charms, and Talismans there are are 5000+ different variants of the Korean Sangpyeong Tongbo (常平通寶) cash coins as well, I don't expect to be able to complete these any time soon or even in my lifetime, but it's a project I like working on.
All the images in this article are yours.
It's quite nice that your university asked this, as universities are a place to share knowledge. Do your students edit Wikimedia websites like Wikipedia in edit-a-thons? --Donald Trung 『徵國單』 (No Fake News 💬) (WikiProject Numismatics 💴) (Articles 📚) 11:54, 9 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

No. All the Wiki sites are blocked by the "Great Firewall of China." Many of the more educated Chinese have VPNs, as do all of us foreigners, but China is increasingly cracking down on their use and we frequently lose all Internet connection if we are on a VPN for too long. This pandemic panic has left me in the Philippines, which, fortunately is my wife's home, and where we have unlimited access to the Internet. This is why I have been able to upload a few thousand of my photos since I started this about 2 or 3 months ago. I don't know how things will work out if and when we can return to our university in China. It's all ironic, as the photos I'm uploading all help to teach people about Chinese history and culture, but the Great Firewall does not discriminate between positive (or neutral) portrayals of China, and criticisms of the government, so everything gets blocked. No edit-a-thons, and most of my students will never see my website or any Wiki sites. But one thing that history has taught me is that nothing remains constant. I grew up in the Cold War and fully expected a World War III against Russia, China, and their allies. I volunteered to fight in Vietnam. Then I learned a few things, and became an outspoken critic of the war, and resolved to try to do my best to help people understand one another, rather than kill them. While I grew up believing I was part of the greatest nation on earth, all my travels, studies, and experiences have taught me that people are basically the same everywhere. Both good and bad. By the way, I can't believe how much Vietnam has changed since the war. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gary Lee Todd (talk • contribs)

I'm not sure if you are familiar with this or not, but there is a tool called Flickr2Commons which lets you import entire Flickr albums really easily. Maybe it's faster. --Donald Trung 『徵國單』 (No Fake News 💬) (WikiProject Numismatics 💴) (Articles 📚) 15:18, 8 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

No, I have not heard of this. It could be very useful, so I'll check it out. Gary Lee Todd (talk) 02:29, 9 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, and Vietnam is still changing a lot, all countries are. I've been to the United States a bit and usually a decade or so in between and every time it was like going to a different country. The same for Vietnam, Germany, the Netherlands, everywhere really.
Flickr2Commmons allows you to import entire Flickr albums at once, if you have a thousand images in an album it could automatically do that with the click of a button, you can let it run in the background and add more specific categories after upload, but add general categories in the form.
I also work to preserve Chinese history and educate the world on the monetary history of China, it's actually the most unique one as China independently invented coinage rather than adopt the Lydian (Asian) model as the rest of the world did until the 1890's. I am actually writing about the Guangxu machine-struck coins on Wikipedia now, but publishing will have to wait. I'm so glad that Việt Nam doesn't have a firewall, we did have it sometimes (which failed), but I'm glad that Vietnamese museums can share their knowledge with the world.
You do a lot for showing the world the history and culture of China through your photography, that is why I hope to one day see all of your photographs on Wikimedia Commons.
I used to live in the Philippines myself (Dasmariñas, Cavite), lovely place... Less than lovely weather (when it rains at least), not too different from Vietnam, but you are right, humans are the same across the world. --Donald Trung 『徵國單』 (No Fake News 💬) (WikiProject Numismatics 💴) (Articles 📚) 13:20, 9 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Forbidden City in Shenyang[edit]

I have a question, could you please upload photos from Shenyang?

I am writing about the Forbidden City in Shenyang and that would be a good illustration.

Thanks :) --Dmk121 jako Ciut Szalony Artur¿¡ (talk) 03:02, 22 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I'll start on Shenyang this week. I'll do the Forbidden City first, then the tombs, then the provincial museum, and the 9-18 Museum.

I have now uploaded about 300 photos from the Mukden Palace, which is 3/4 of all my photos from the Manchu Forbidden City. Hopefully this will help. I'll also try to do the tombs in the next few days, but I have other responsibilities at the present time.Gary Lee Todd (talk) 14:28, 25 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Chinese cash coins[edit]

Thank you for uploading such a large number of images of historical Chinese currencies, they are most useful. I have been attempting to document all of the historical currencies and exocurrencies of East Asia and Việt Nam for years on Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia now and your contributions help a lot. --Donald Trung 『徵國單』 (No Fake News 💬) (WikiProject Numismatics 💴) (Articles 📚) 22:05, 15 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I have also been putting into categories many of my photos which you uploaded in the past. For example, I added the dynasty to most of the coins in the Handan Museum coin collection, and I just created categories and am putting the photos into more specific categories in the Baoji Bronze Museum album. Being stuck in the Philippines due to Covid-related border closings has given me a lot more free time to try to make my photos more useful and user-friendly.Gary Lee Todd (talk) 01:28, 16 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I left a request.Springnuts (talk) 06:29, 4 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Some baklava for you![edit]

Thank you for your clean-up on the category of Collections of the Yunnan Provincial Museum. 瑞丽江的河水 (talk) 20:50, 24 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I have confirmed that all the antiques in the images of Category:Antique of Spring and Autumn Period in Yunnan Provincial Museum was found in Wanjiaba archeological site in Chuxiong city. So I have moved them to the Category:Antique of Wanjiaba in Yunnan Provincial Museum. As far as I have seen, all the collections with the time tag "Spring and Autumn Period" in Yunnan Provincial Museum are found in Wanjiaba. And the time tag "Shang and Zhou" should be in the Category:Antique of Neolithic in Yunnan Provincial Museum. The reason why I didn't call them Shang and Zhou but Neolithic is that the dynasty of Shang and Zhou never control Yunnan. I have checked the images in the category "Shang and Zhou", most of the antiques were found in Haimenkou, only this one [1] I don't know. And the "Warring States" has the same reason, these images should be in Category:Antique of Bronze Age in Yunnan Provincial Museum‎. I think most of the images in "Category:Antique of Western Han dynasty in Yunnan Provincial Museum" is belonging the antiques of Dian kingdom (I need to check). Anyway, thank you for helping to classify the images!--瑞丽江的河水 (talk) 21:10, 24 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

You are correct in attributing those artifacts to Wanjiaba. My only question would be that only an specialist would be aware of those archaeological sites, while the more common user would be more familiar with more traditional categories like Shang, Zhou, and Spring & Autumn, even though those dynasties did not rule in Yunnan. I just listed it according to the label that the museum was using when I took the photos. It's possible they may have changed the labels by now. One other minor criticism: The term "Antique" as in "Antique of the Bronze Age" is not standard English, and gave me a bit of trouble at first. The proper term would be "Antiquities," although as language is constantly changing and regional variations like Chinglish are becoming more common, that could very well some day become standard usage. However, I have never heard that term used that way before. Gary Lee Todd (talk) 02:26, 25 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The reason why I categorized them into accurate archaeological sites, is because my friend and I took all the collections photos in the ancient topic of the museum in 2018 and 2019. I think it's best to use these photos in Wikipedia entries. If the image in the category Shang, Zhou, Spring & Autumn, we don't know what's that is. So I think it's better to categorize into archaeological site's category. When we write archaeological site entries we can find images easily. The introduction card in front also displayed the archaeological site. I know it's hard for the common users to classify, I'll try to clean up sometimes. It is the common problem in categorizing, not only in the museum collection but also all the images about any place. When I clean up Yunnan images, I can always found some images that lost all information, what is that, where the photo was taken... The time label is still Shang, Zhou, Spring & Autumn now. The Antiquities has accurate time, but it's very hard to say when the archeological sites are, most of them lasted a long time.
I apologize that I'm not a native English speaker. Should the correct one be "Antiquities of the Bronze Age..."? I will move the category name. Thank you for your suggestion.--瑞丽江的河水 (talk) 13:08, 25 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I think I agree with your arrangement of categories for the Yunnan Museum. I just borrowed the categories I found for several other museums (National Museum and Henan Provincial Museum) when I started to work on my photos about a year ago. I decided to follow their examples in all the other ones I did. Regarding the use of "Antique" which is singular, it would be correct to say Antiques or Antiquities, but not Antique. However, the general rule is that antiquities refers to anything that is very old or ancient, and most people seem to say the cutoff would be the Ming Dynasty. Antiques are old, but not ancient, which means things from Ming, Qing, and early 20th century would be considered antiques, but not antiquities. However, not everyone follows those guidelines. English is sometimes a confusing and difficult language, and even native English speakers don't always get it right. Gary Lee Todd (talk) 12:28, 27 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Understand. I will move the category name to "Antiquities".--瑞丽江的河水 (talk) 11:19, 28 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Pinoy museums[edit]

Are you planning on visiting any museums in the Philippines? Or are most museums closed now? Perhaps you could directly upload photographs from there to Wikimedia Commons. --Donald Trung 『徵國單』 (No Fake News 💬) (WikiProject Numismatics 💴) (Articles 📚) 21:46, 30 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I believe the museums in Manila are all locked down under quarantine. However, I have already photographed the national museum in Manila, and have a couple of albums on Flickr. One album has 420 photos and is called "San Diego & Sta. Cruz Shipwrecks," while the other has 291 photos and is simply called "Museum of the Filipino People." Feel free to upload them, or I could do it perhaps next week. I have an ongoing project I need to finish first.Gary Lee Todd (talk) 08:08, 31 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

  • @Gary Lee Todd: (just chimed in) Flickr images can be imported here via COM:Flickr2Commons tool (which I am using, and helped me import several freely-licensed images, including some from yours like File:Jose Rizal Monument (Gary Todd) - Flickr.jpg).
  • Gary and @Donald Trung: with regards to museums in relation to COVID-19 restrictions, most of major provinces (e.g. our province) and the National Capital Region or Metro Manila are now under Alert Level 1 (the lightest of the five-tier alert system). A few others, mostly in distant areas, are under Alert Level 2. The cases in our country are decreasing, fortunately. For the current guidelines of the alert level system, see here. For the alert level statuses of Philippine provinces and Metro Manila capital region: Philippine Daily Inquirer online article. I think as of today, all museums are now open (see, for example, the updated visitor guidelines for the National Museum since February 28), but visitors may need to be fully vaccinated to avoid needless problems when going to museums. All must also wear face masks still and follow physical distancing protocols. In the case of the National Museum, advanced booking is required when in groups. The other museums may implement similar or slightly restrictive visitor entry rules. JWilz12345 (Talk|Contrib's.) 07:23, 22 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    And by the way, there might be some problems for more recent artworks hosted by museums: see COM:FOP Philippines (we don't have FOP as of now, and it is unsure if the pending bills to update our copyright law will be passed before the 18th Congress ends, as many of our legislators are too focused on the upcoming elections). JWilz12345 (Talk|Contrib's.) 07:49, 22 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    I have a WHO vaccine passport even though I am well aware of the problems reported to the VAERS database and am strongly opposed to forced vaccinations. But this is a moot point, as my cameras are still stuck in China which has that Covid-Zero policy keeping me from returning to my university and recovering them. So I must wait in the hope that a modicum of sanity will return to the world.Gary Lee Todd (talk) 07:51, 26 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Mongol cash coins[edit]

Hello Professor Gary Lee Todd, the Chinese Museum God, I just wanted to thank you for taking those photographs of the Mongol Zhizheng Zhibao (至正之寶) cash coins of the Toghon Temür reign period. I wrote about those cash coins but at the time there were no photographs of authentic Mongol Zhizheng Zhibao (至正之寶) cash coins on the Wikimedia Commons, thanks to you (through Flickr) we now have all denominations. You went to the China National Museum and decided not to just take a photograph of one (1) variant and call it a day but photographed all variants, now I managed to actually complete its coverage on Wikipedia. I can't express my gratitude for all your wonderful photographs enough. You are making Chinese history freely accessible to people from all over the world and do so much for the preservation of Chinese culture through your photographs alone. --Donald Trung 『徵國單』 (No Fake News 💬) (WikiProject Numismatics 💴) (Articles 📚) 11:47, 3 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your encouraging comments. I am happy to know that people appreciate and make use of my work. I just now read your note to my wife who was also happy to hear it, especially since she is not nearly so passionate about history as I am. On a more negative note, we are still waiting for China to open up its borders so we can return to our university, and I can hopefully continue with my photography. But with the massive flooding in Henan last month along with other natural disasters and the continuing flu epidemic, it could be a few more months before we can get back.Gary Lee Todd (talk) 13:01, 3 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

File:EDMUND FITZGERALD Model of Wreck, displayed at Duluth Marine Museum.jpg has been listed at Commons:Deletion requests so that the community can discuss whether it should be kept or not. We would appreciate it if you could go to voice your opinion about this at its entry.

If you created this file, please note that the fact that it has been proposed for deletion does not necessarily mean that we do not value your kind contribution. It simply means that one person believes that there is some specific problem with it, such as a copyright issue. Please see Commons:But it's my own work! for a guide on how to address these issues.

Please remember to respond to and – if appropriate – contradict the arguments supporting deletion. Arguments which focus on the nominator will not affect the result of the nomination. Thank you!

Imzadi 1979  05:05, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Rename requests[edit]

Hi/hello, Gary Lee Todd, I rename a lot of your requests and a lot of names are double. Can you add (1), (2), etc. (or something else), so it gives no error? Also, not every request is Criterion 2. I don't really care, but some file movers do decline it for that reason. Here is a good example (here). So I requested it again for Criterion 3 and added a reason. Because I saw new requests from you, I renamed it myself, although it looks like overruling the decliner, but because I changed the request, I don't see it that way. Greetings from The Netherlands, - Richardkiwi (talk) (talk) 13:57, 21 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

In many or most cases I had a good title on my original photo, but it was changed to a more general one when uploaded to Wiki. I'm told this was done automatically when the uploader uploaded an entire album, and it was neither malicious nor stupidity on their part. But every change I have made was either to correct a mistake, make the title more specific instead of the general and useless "Ancient Greek pottery," or sometimes add a bit of additional information. In many cases the original title was general and common to many photos because I was in a hurry to get the photos safely online before my camera was stolen or my plane crashed. I planned to upgrade the titles myself, but with 162,000+ photos on my Flickr site, and with people uploading my photos by the thousands to Wikimedia, I'm afraid far too many will be stuck with a poor title because I am very unlikely to live long enough to fix more than a fraction of the pictures. Yeah, I realize a couple of my photos did not quite meet Criterion 2, but I was getting pretty exhausted. I'll be more careful in the future. However, I do not understand what you mean in either your first or second sentence. Could you please clarify? I am only renaming my photos because the Covid Nazis have kept the borders closed for two years now, but as soon as they re-open I intend to go back to work, which means the end to my work on Wiki, as that site is blocked by the Great Firewall which keeps people from learning about forbidden things. And I do appreciate the quickness with which you have met my requests.Gary Lee Todd (talk) 14:46, 21 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Hi, I think you mean the (1), (2), etc. I mean that you sometimes give the same name to two or more files. The first one is ok, the second one gives an error. 'Name already excists, maybe you need a administrator if the file is an exact duplicate' etc.. I rename for 5 years now and am on Commons and Wikipedia for 14+ years, so I figure a way out to rename them, but not everbody does. You have the chance it can be declined. Of course I try to rename a lot of them, but renaming a declined file is not really accepted. I figured a way out to do it, but normally I don't do that, because it gives troubles :-) Ok, good luck and I'm mostly here because I feel very mistreated on my homewiki, but that's a long story. I still do somes things there, but not a lot. - Richardkiwi (talk) (talk) 19:00, 21 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Question[edit]

Hello, I wanted to know about an image you uploaded to Flickr and then someone transferred to commons.

I wanted to know since you took this photo is this Chongzhen Emperor because I’m in a dispute with another editor who thinks it’s his brother Tianqi Emperor. But since you were actually there I think you would be the best person to answer this question. I look forward to hearing back from you, Have a nice day! Robert102506 (talk) 16:31, 22 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That photo is one of 12 Ming Emperor portraits I took at the Shisanling (13 Ming Tombs near Beijing). Here is a link to the complete collection (or you can find it at my Ming Tombs album on Flickr). https://www.flickr.com/photos/101561334@N08/albums/72157635739888556/page2
I merely copied the label of the original painting that I photographed, so if it is the wrong emperor, you can blame the Chinese staff at the Ming Tombs. Interestingly, the picture next to it was officially identified as belonging to Tianqi or Taichang, so even the experts are not in agreement regarding the identity of all the Ming Emperor portraits.Gary Lee Todd (talk) 02:45, 23 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Ok, thank you very much! Robert102506 (talk) 13:35, 23 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
File:Ankylosaurus Model.jpg has been listed at Commons:Deletion requests so that the community can discuss whether it should be kept or not. We would appreciate it if you could go to voice your opinion about this at its entry.

If you created this file, please note that the fact that it has been proposed for deletion does not necessarily mean that we do not value your kind contribution. It simply means that one person believes that there is some specific problem with it, such as a copyright issue. Please see Commons:But it's my own work! for a guide on how to address these issues.

Please remember to respond to and – if appropriate – contradict the arguments supporting deletion. Arguments which focus on the nominator will not affect the result of the nomination. Thank you!

Goji1895 (talk) 14:59, 9 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Notification about possible deletion[edit]

Some contents have been listed at Commons:Deletion requests so that the community can discuss whether they should be kept or not. We would appreciate it if you could go to voice your opinion about this at their entry.

If you created these pages, please note that the fact that they have been proposed for deletion does not necessarily mean that we do not value your kind contribution. It simply means that one person believes that there is some specific problem with them, such as a copyright issue. Please see Commons:But it's my own work! for a guide on how to address these issues.

Please remember to respond to and – if appropriate – contradict the arguments supporting deletion. Arguments which focus on the nominator will not affect the result of the nomination. Thank you!

Affected:


Yours sincerely, A1Cafel (talk) 04:27, 1 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]