Xenharmonic Wiki:Things to do

Hello there! This page is a place for various projects and minute things to do on this wiki. Please be welcome to help with any of them you like!

If you have a proposal to improve the basic fundamentals of the wiki, post it on this page.

If you have an experimental proposal for changing or adding to the wiki in a new way, post it at: Wikifuture.

For bugs, please report them at: Bugs.

See also: Conventions, Projects#WikiProjects, Help:Migration FAQ, as well as Category:Todo and its subcategories.

This page has associated archive pages: 1

If you think something essential was forgotten and should be here, don’t be shy to add a new section here! If you don’t know if a project would be interesting to others, write at the talk page and let’s decide it together.

When the technical help is needed, please aid volunteers with a tool or two for being sure the details are easy to make right. For example, a template, a converter etc.

Individual tasks

These are tasks that one or more individual editors can chip away at, without requiring much oversight from others.

Transfer from riters.com

There are still a couple of pages at http://riters.com/microtonal that could be copied over if we want this to be the one true wiki. zenjacob (talk 21:12, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Warning: That site is very old! PiotrGrochowski (talk) 07:44, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

Fill out the scale catalogue

Sources for this: all the Yahoo! lists, the Scala archive, original reflection on new and old scales, pages of X.J. Scott, David Finnamore, Tonalsoft...? Have at least one sound example (midi, mp3, ogg...) for each scale, and keep in mind that this wiki allows you to upload files up to 5 MB each.

Ever since learning about the MOS scales I have desired but not seen a good, thorough introduction to them, or to the two-dimensional method of creating scales. zenjacob (talk 21:12, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

An FAQ: everyone posts questions, answers

This could be sufficiently primed by mining the lists. But more importantly it would need to be linked to by a high-search-engine-ranking page. zenjacob (talk 21:12, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Update! This has now existed for some time, it is at: FAQ.

There are many unanswered questions there though, so please post your answers.

And if you have questions, please ask them there because I bet others have the same question too but are shy and hoping someone will ask.

--Budjarn Lambeth 05:46, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Add more languages

This wiki could benefit from wiki translators to add new languages to this wiki. PiotrGrochowski (talk) 18:05, 4 October 2018 (UTC)

Create table of interval pages for large edos you’re familiar with

If you are familiar with a large edo (100edo or higher), please create a “Table of #edo intervals” page for it, along the lines of Table of 99edo intervals or Table of 198edo intervals.

Please only do this if you are familiar with the edo, though: i.e. you have made music with the edo, or the edo falls within your sphere of expertise as a theorist.

FloraC and Budjarn Lambeth, 21 January 2024.

More sound examples

We should really add some sound examples - it makes regular wikipedia and other xen websites much more comprehensible/easily digestable.

RobFast on XA Discord, 23 January 2024.

Comma pump examples

Add audio comma pump examples for commas.

A lot of comma pages have no examples demonstrating how commas can be used to build chord progressions, scales, etc., so please add comma pump examples! A good example is frameshift comma.

Akselai, 2024.

Add no-twos consistency to Infobox ET

The no-twos consistency limit should be added to Template:Infobox ET for EDTs.

Lériendil on XA Discord, 2024.

After 30 hours, this received 7 positive reacts and no negative reacts, so we should make it a priority.

BudjarnLambeth (talk) 06:22, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

Create a "comma names explained" page

Create a page explaining how to interpet the following types of comma names:

• "31-comma", "63-comma", "241-comma", etc.
• "11-3/5-comma", "300-3/5-comma", "45-7/5-comma" etc.
• "87-15-comma", "21-23-comma", "59-5 comma", etc.
• "35-cycle", "21-cycle", "19-cycle", etc.
• "5/7-kleisma", "35/11 kleisma", etc.
• "19th partial chroma", "29th partial chroma", etc.
• "34-jubilismic", "23 semitone", "19-minor mediant", etc.
• "87-fold starling comma" (what does 87-fold mean?)
• "prima", "secunda", any other related words
• "trientone", "trienstonic", any other related words
• "hexadecatone", "hendecatonic", any other related words

BudjarnLambeth (talk) 24 October 2024 (Sydney time)

Update: Work on this has begun, but is still ongoing. Contribute at: Systematic comma names explained

Write full-detail "scales" sections for each of the temperament pages

The temperament page "slendric" has a high-quality section under the subheading "scales". Please write some "scales" sections in this same style for other similar temperament pages.

Lériendil (talk) 03:27, 13 January 2025 (Sydney time) (on Discord)

Reposted here by BudjarnLambeth (talk) 10:30, 13 January 2024 (Sydney time)

Team tasks

These are tasks that will require active cooperation by an organized team of editors in order to complete.

Work on forming a team, or see if one already exists, at: this page's talk page. You may also try making a thread in the #wiki channel of the XA Discord, or you may try making a post on the Xenwiki Work Group on Facebook.

Some of these may become, or have already become WikiProjects. Check that WikiProjects page to see if the task you’re interested in already has a project - and if it does, get involved in it!

Get rid of "alternative pages"

There are some pages that were mostly started out of frustration of on particular user not any more active in this wiki. The problem with diverging pages about the same topic is that linking to it tends to break or at least dissipate the consistency of the entire wiki. As normally would be the case with pages targeting the same topic but created by chance, the content should be merged into the (mostly obvious) main page. If there is noting valuable on it, the pages should be deleted. The pages are currently in the Category:Alternative pages. For discussing deletion etc, we should refrain from doing that on the respective discussion pages, because deletion will remove these as well. We'd better open an own page for discussion deletion. Xenwolf (talk) 14:55, 22 November 2020 (UTC)

I took a look at these. The edo pages are a relic of a discussion on facebook about the proper format for edo pages. Sort of useful. I suggest deleting all but the 15edo-a page and Gareth's page. The 94-edo page might have some good stuff, but since it's 94edo and 15edo jumbled together, it's also really confusing. This is what I suggest, but I don't feel I have the authority to actually delete someone's page. --TallKite (talk) 03:05, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

Mostly done, only User:Lhearne/15edo left, and since it's in the user namespace, it's not as problematic. Still waiting for a reply from Lillian, I might give a poke on Discord. Fredg999 (talk) 07:51, 26 July 2023 (UTC)

Place to discuss deletion requests

Sometimes it's not easy to decide if a page should be deleted or not, it has to be discussed first. The problem with discussing deletion requests on the discussion page of the page being questioned is that they both have the same future. If the deletion happens, normal users have no access to the reasoning any more. Most wikis use an extra page for this purpose.

The so-called project namespace (in this wiki it's indicated by the prefix Xenharmonic Wiki:) is dedicated to that purpose, see pages currently in the project namespace. Xenwolf (talk) 15:08, 22 November 2020 (UTC)

Wikipedia needs to handle a lot of page deletions, and in particular a lot of page deletion discussions. For more modest needs like ours, maybe we could create the talk page of Category:Pages nominated for deletion (therefore Category talk:Pages nominated for deletion) and create a topic per request on that page. If the page has a long backlog over time, we can create archive pages to avoid cluttering the active page too much. Fredg999 (talk) 07:51, 26 July 2023 (UTC)

Disambiguation project

There is a project Xenharmonic Wiki:Disambiguation that aims to build the tools we need. Please join the work and discuss related issues. Xenwolf (talk) 11:38, 26 November 2020 (UTC)

I created Template:About a while ago for disambiguation hatnotes. I'll try to work on a simple help page soon. Fredg999 (talk) 07:51, 26 July 2023 (UTC)

13-Limit, 17-Limit and 19-Limit Comma Pages

todo

A project to reorganize 11-limit and 13-limit temperaments. That is still discussed.

Join the discussion Xenharmonic Wiki talk:Things to do#13-Limit, 17-Limit and 19-Limit Comma Pages!

Comma tables in EDO pages

We found (on User talk:FloraC #Fractions vs. names in interval lemmas) that the comma tables on EDO pages are overloaded with information already given elsewhere. This self-evolving "convention" makes it hard to provide consistent and correct information about, (alternative) names, corrections etc. The original information should eventually find place in a dedicated page for each comma; the overview pages about commas (Large comma, Medium comma, Small comma, Unnoticeable comma) should be seen as secondary source then. Currently we tend to reduce the comma tables on EDO pages to at most three columns:

• p-Limit
• linked name or fraction (depending) on the lemma of the link target
• Comments ← only if there really are useful comments

This can be discussed in Xenharmonic Wiki talk:Things to do#Comma tables in EDO pages

Improve accessibility of wiki and present info in a non-technical way

(shortcut(s): Xenwiki:Accessibility, XenWiki:Accessibility)

Many newcomers to xen are daunted by the math-heavy presentation of tunings and basic MOS/temperament ideas on this wiki. Therefore we propose the following:

• Unfamiliar terms should be linked when they are first used in an article.
• Section off or subpage all the math-heavy parts of articles (for example to move Fokker block#Mathematical description to Fokker block/Math).
• Introductory articles and sections should assume at most high school algebra and should focus on practical knowledge for musicians and composers, such as musical examples, how to build a scale in Scala, or what intervals and chords 17edo has.
• EDO pages should follow the above rule too. They should present general information in a standardized format, like an encyclopedia article (Not making any particular suggestion on the format now).
  • Subpage more theoretical data such as RTT data (such as the comma table) and Zheanist data (such as nejis and higher harmonic series chords approximated)?
• Explanations of abstract concepts should use visualizations and examples where possible (They help even in more mathy contexts).
• Scales of size 5 to 10 should be given extra attention on the wiki.
• Collaborative work on the Practical RTT series for teaching regular temperament theory (RTT) while using linear algebra terms as little as possible. While Mike's lectures were no doubt valuable to some people, they would have effectively involved teaching a whole course on theoretical linear algebra.
  • Maybe there's no need to even teach people to use x31eq or read mapping matrices; see newer proposals above.

Further proposals coming.

Please join the discussion in Xenharmonic Wiki talk:Things to do#Improve accessibility of wiki and present info in a non-technical way!

Template:Inaccessible can now be used to warn readers of pages that may be difficult to understand, while also reminding wiki editors that these pages need work by placing these pages in Category:Inaccessible pages. Fredg999 (talk) 07:51, 26 July 2023 (UTC)

Reorganize temperament pages

How should temperament pages be reorganized?

Inthar's take: IMO there are too many rank-2 temperaments on this wiki that are just variants of each other (have similar optimal tunings) and only differ in some high complexity interpretation for an extra harmonic. Ideally the most important (low-complexity) approximations and subgroups should be given first, and one way we can pin those down is look at what intervals are approximated in small EDO tunings (<=36edo) for the rank 2 temperament.

This suggests a scale-tree based format for temperament pages; each page would focus on a fixed MOS structure and possible temperaments for the generator chain that generates that MOS. The temperaments are ordered in increasing generator size, and more complex temperaments (i.e. approximating additional JI intervals with intervals further out in the generator chain) would be children of simpler temperaments. The new scale tree temperament pages need not replace current temperament pages (they could even be integrated into current MOS structure pages like 5L 2s), but I believe that this is the most intuitive format and should be what newcomers to RTT-based tunings should be directed to. See example of this format.

Proposal: This organization for temperament pages should be integrated into current MOS structure pages.

Please join the discussion in Xenharmonic Wiki talk:Things to do#Reorganize temperament pages!

New format for temperament entries

Present regular temperament tunings on temperament pages in a new concrete, easy-to-read format.

We are canceling it because it turns out suboptimal.

Please join the discussion in Xenharmonic Wiki talk:Things to do#New format for temperament entries!

Moderator tasks

Only Xenharmonic Wiki staff have the permissions to complete these tasks.

Please do not harass staff about these tasks, they have a lot to do and will get to this once more urgent day to day maintenance is done. Remember that all Xen Wiki editors, including staff, are unpaid volunteers maintaining this site for free.

You can reduce the workload on staff by ensuring your edits and conduct follow Xenharmonic Wiki:Conventions, Xenharmonic Wiki:Article guidelines and Xenharmonic Wiki:Five pillars.

Add image annotations

Could you install this https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Gadget-ImageAnnotator/Installation so we can add annotations to diagrams, like labeling chords in File:Consonance map, triads, sawtooth waves.png ? ResonantFrequencies (talk) 17:51, 26 January 2019 (UTC)

Process for importing templates and all their dependencies: https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/117429/how-to-use-wikipedia-templates-on-an-outside-mediawiki/117436#117436 ResonantFrequencies (talk) 02:38, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

Interwiki for xen-calc

Requesting interwiki for https://www.yacavone.net/xen-calc/?q=$1. These links are used by Template:Infobox Interval and captchas are annoying.

Plumtree (talk) 15:02, 10 October 2022 (UTC)