This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
Maralia, Id just like to thank you once again for your comments and help with the Tel Aviv FAC. The article is now going through another peer review and is a copyedit nominee. Any further comments would be really appreciated and sorry for the earlier hotheadedness. I'll keep you updated. Flymeoutofhere (talk) 17:10, 10 April 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for your help in getting the good ship SS Christopher Columbus to Featured Article status. The nomination went swimmingly, it was clear sailing all the way, no one turned up to torpedo it, and she passed easily.
that's the ticket!
Well co nominator, here's your formal thanks... thanks again for all your hard work. Much appreciated! ++Lar: t/c22:30, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
Tedium pays off sometimes.
I wish this were a barnstar, but it serves the same purpose. One hundred and twenty one references! Thank you for going over all of the citations in To Kill a Mockingbird. I would not have been able to nominate it for feature without your help. This is the 2nd article you have jumped in to rescue. I wish I could take you out to dinner. --Moni3 (talk) 22:18, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
You mustn't wish it were a barnstar. I love this picture! As to 'jumping in to rescue': I find that you tend to pick articles that are eminently worthy of rescuing; I merely have the common sense to recognize your talent, and the mechanical ability to plug data into parameters at lightning speeds :) I'm off to really read the article now - thank you for this little present, and the bigger one I'm about to enjoy. Maralia (talk) 03:41, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
Help needed
Hi Maralia. Lar suggested I ask you so you can blame him if this request is unwelcome. Nevertheless, I hope it will not be. Lar says you are good on ship articles. There is an article on a fairly obscure ship which sank on its maiden voyage which I have thought for a long time needed improving. I wondered if you would be able to have a look at it. Best wishes and thanks in advance for any help you can give. --John (talk) 02:23, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
It's most certainly welcome, although I reserve the right to blame Lar anyway :) I wholeheartedly agree that poor article needs some serious attention; it's certainly the mother of all shipwreck stories. I'm used to having to scrounge for obscure sources, but it must be the most written-about ship ever. I wonder what it will take to sift through all the literature out there to find the most scholarly, least sensational books. Do you have a plan of attack? Feel free to drop me an email if it's easier for discussion about planning. Maralia (talk) 05:44, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
My high value add was to get the two of you talking about this, so my work is done. As for blame? I'm blameless. My next FA candidate isn't even going to be about a ship! Wasn't there some movie or another about this topic? I forget. ++Lar: t/c19:10, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
On that article, you may also want to search thru its history. There were a series of edits on March 23rd by Daniel Chiswick where once completed, the article had more in common with when it was listed as a featured article on June 29, 2005 than it had in common with the version prior to his edit (the wording of several section were reverted to its 2.5+ year old version). Many, including myself, questioned him on the changes; but little was done to undo the changes because, to be honest, both versions are in bad shape and the article still needed work either way.
Still, you might want to look at the version prior to that series of edits, to see if there's anything that may be worth salvaging. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 19:37, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
Lar: I actually haven't seen it :) Barek: Thanks for the heads up. Really baffled why someone would remove that much detail and referencing - I would have thought it meant he was moving it into the article on the sinking but it doesn't appear so. Strange! In any event, thanks for giving me a point in time link for a fuller version. Maralia (talk) 03:05, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
Congrats!
The Copyeditor's Barnstar
Be it known to all members of Wikipedia that Maralia has corrected my god-awful spelling on the page Montana-class battleship, and in doing so has made an important and very significant contribution to the Wikipedia community, thereby earning this Copyeditor's Barnstar and my deepest thanks. Keep up the good work! TomStar81 (Talk) 07:35, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXV (March 2008)
The March 2008 issue of the Military history WikiProject newsletter has been published. You may read the newsletter, change the format in which future issues will be delivered to you, or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Thank you. This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 01:57, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
I'm open to changes in naming of the template, format, punctuation, format of the 'short' version, additions, linking, or anything else you can suggest. — Bellhalla (talk) 22:24, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Weather front
There are currently 3,868 Good Articles listed at WP:GA.
The backlog at Good Article Nominations is 195 unreviewed articles. Out of 267 total nominations, 57 are on hold, 13 are under review, and 2 are seeking a second opinion. Please go to WP:GAN and review an article or three as soon as you have a chance!
The categories with the largest backlogs are: Theatre, film and drama (27 articles), Sports and recreation (25 articles), Transport (24 articles), Music (19 articles), War and military (19 articles), Politics and government (18 articles), Religion, mysticism and mythology (16 articles), Literature (14 articles), World history (14 articles), and Video and computer games (14 articles).
The GA Sweeps process is progressing nicely! During the month of March, a total of 92 articles were reviewed. Of that total, 74 were found to continue to meet the GA criteria, and 18 were delisted. There are currently 14 articles that are still on hold in this process, awaiting revisions. Congratulations to Nehrams2020 (talk·contribs), who sweeped a whopping 51 articles during the month! Jackyd101 (talk·contribs) also deserves congrats for sweeping a total of 26 articles!
This WikiProject, and the Good Article program as a whole, would not be where it is today without each and every one of its members! Thank you to all!
To delist or not to delist, that is the question
So you’ve found an article that, on the face of it, does not merit its good article status. What next? Especially where there are many glaring issues that need addressing, it’s tempting to just revoke its GA status and remove it from the list, but although we are encouraged as editors to be bold, this approach (known to some as "bold delisting") is not recommended good practice. There are many reasons why a listed article might not meet the assessment criteria—it’s always possible that it never did, and was passed in error, but more likely the criteria have changed or the article quality has degraded since its original assessment. Either way, we should treat its reassessment with no less tact and patience than we would a fresh nomination.
This, in fact, provides a good starting point for the delisting process. Approach the article as though it has been nominated for GA review. Read it and the GA criteria carefully, and provide a full reassessment on the article talk page. Explain where and why the article no longer meets the criteria, and suggest remedies.
Having explained why the article no longer meets current GA criteria, allow its editors time to fix it! In keeping with the above approach, it may help to treat the article as on hold. There is no need to tag it as such, but give editors a reasonable deadline, and consider helping out with the repair work. Bear in mind that more flexibility may be required than for a normal hold—the editors did not request or expect your reassessment and will probably have other projects taking up their time. They may not have worked on the article for months or even years, and at worst the article may have been abandoned and its authors no longer active. As always, communication is the key. It sometimes helps to post messages to relevant WikiProjects (found at the top of the article talk page), or to contact editors directly (this tool is useful for identifying active editors for any given article).
Only once the above process has run its course, and sufficient improvement has not been forthcoming, is it time to think about delisting the article. Communicate your final decision on the article talk page, even if there was no response to your reassessment and hold, and take the time to fill in the various edit summaries on the article talk and GA list pages to ensure the delisting is transparent and trackable. If you have any doubts about your final decision, you can list the article at Good article reassessment or contact one of the GA mentors, who will be happy to advise.
Article reassessment is perhaps the single most controversial function of our WikiProject, and the one with the most potential to upset and alienate editors. Yet it is one of the most necessary too, since without the ability to revoke an article’s status we would be unable to maintain quality within the project. However, if we approach reassessment sensitively and with the goal of improving articles to the point where sanctions are unnecessary, we will ensure that delisting is the last resort, not the first.
As we near the 4,000 Good Articles milestone, the project continues to grow and to gain respect in the Wikipedia community. Nevertheless, we continue to have a large backlog. If every member of WikiProject Good Articles would review just one article each day during the month of April, the backlog would be eliminated!
Please leave any comments or feedback regarding this issue here.
You know, I'm a big believer in self-determination. Case in point, I rewrote the article for Mulholland Drive within the past week, bringing it from 9 to 69 citations. I want you to know I was more than conscious to make sure Maralia would approve of my efforts. However, another well-meaning user has changed my inline article citations you can see here and I don't know what's right. I was using citation templates, hoping to bring the article to FA quality before nominating for GA even. Can you take a look? I'd appreciate it. --Moni3 (talk) 21:49, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
Copyedit from the article talk page: "Hello Bzuk, haven't come across you in a while :) Per WP:CITE#HOW nearly any reference style is acceptable even at FAC as long as the article is internally consistent. Moni usually uses the WP:CITET templates, which are perfectly acceptable; admittedly, she hates the damned things and it takes some work to clean up her stray formatting, but the style itself is acceptable. I'm not sure why you would convert citations to a different format. Are you under the impression that MLA is preferred? Or perhaps you couldn't tell that she was in fact following an established form? Maralia (talk) 03:26, 10 April 2008 (UTC)"
Hi Maralia, thanks for your response. Another editor, User:Erik, asked me to look at the article in regard to referencing. There is nothing really blatantly wrong with the citations or references other than minor typos and a some lack of consistency. The style guide that appears to be adopted was the Modern Language Association (MLA) style guide which I am using as a guide to correct errors. As mentioned earlier, nothing major was wrong in the citation style but inconsistencies should be addressed. One thing I found unusual was the linking of article date to the author rather than the publication and a mix of ISO and "familiar-style" dating. My recommendation is to make the entire reference section consistent. If MLA is already established, follow that standard throughout which is what I showed in some test edits. The "my style passed FA before" statement is a canard as I have seen some FA articles and reviewers that wouldn't know a referencing style guide if it knocked on their door. I have previously been a reference librarian and I have a past background of 33 years in library work previous to my retirement and becoming an author and editor, so my comments are framed in relation to this experience. FWIW Bzuk (talk) 13:20, 10 April 2008 (UTC).
There does not seem to be any interest in collaboration, so I will leave the article's referencing alone. Too bad, because it's an interesting article, mais c'est la vie. Bzuk (talk) 16:07, 10 April 2008 (UTC).
I, for your comments at the Tel Aviv FAC's Flymeoutofhere (talk) 11:54, 13 April 2008 (UTC), award you this Bagel of Zion for improving the coverage of ציון. Remember not to edit on empty stomach.
Wikiproject ships
hello Maralia, thank you very much for extending an invite to me on joining the Wikiproject:ships. I'll very much consider it. Thanks much. Koplimek (talk) 14:57, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
CfD nomination of Category:Korean People's Navy ships
Saw you working there, and have a suggestion regarding the italics. You may want to start using ((Sclass)), and the associated templates for each of the prefixes. I've found that they make the wiki-markup look much cleaner when working with tables like this. -MBK00404:17, 16 April 2008 (UTC)
Peer review request
Could I ask you, if you can find time, to put some review comments on Aeneas Mackintosh, on peer review at the moment? This is an early article, abandoned by me in panic months ago, which I've recently decided to bring to a decent state if possible. I'd really appreciate some feedback. Brianboulton (talk) 18:44, 16 April 2008 (UTC)
HMS Cardiff
Hi, I've recently been working on HMS Cardiff (D108), trying to bring the article up to FA standard. In the "A" class review (here) it was decided that there is need for a copyedit, I had posted a request at LOCE, but then it was recommended to me (by Roger Davies) that I speak to you about it. I was wondering if you spare a few moments just to take a look at the article please, I'd muchly appreciate it, cheers. Ryan4314 (talk) 10:59, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
Thankyou so much for taking a look at her, I've been eagerly awaiting it. I'll of course try and sort those italics as soon as possible, there is two minor things though; you put the words "Sea Dartss" in the article, was this intentional? Also you spelt "dagger" without a capital "D", is this ok as it's the name of a plane? Ryan4314 (talk) 22:47, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
Both unintentional. Thanks for pointing them out; I have fixed both. Let me know when you think I should take another look. Maralia (talk) 23:05, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
I'll be AFK a bit till my son is in bed for the night, then I'll take another look at it for italics. I didn't review sourcing while I was copyediting, but if you're taking it to FAC soon, I'll want to look that over tonight too. Maralia (talk) 23:22, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
Thankyou so much much again, this will be the culmination of nearly 3 months work! I'm off to bed too, it' late here, cheers Ryan4314 (talk) 23:32, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
(outdent) I've given her another, more thorough workup today, and looked over the references. You should be prepared for some of them to be challenged per WP:RS at FAC. It shouldn't be terribly difficult to find alternate sourcing for most of them, and I would suggest doing so before FAC, to help that experience go more smoothly. Following are some examples of references that I feel do not meet the definition of WP:RS:
^Airplanes. www.choiquehobbies.com.ar. - A model plane hobby site is a really inferior source for citing the downing of a real plane in wartime.
^ abcdThe Royal Navy and the Gulf. www.btinternet.com. - This does not sound reliable: "This in an unofficial site created and maintained by a Royal Navy enthusiast as a hobby."
^Trafalgar 200 Portsmouth. homepage.ntlworld.com - I could not find any information concerning who publishes and/or contributes to this site.
Hope this helps to get you started on improving the references. It will be an even better article as a result. Maralia (talk) 16:47, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
Thanks very much for taking the time to check the refs, I think I can actually find more suitable ones. Although we'll have to lose the "bell" bit. Ryan4314 (talk) 16:37, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
Hello again, I hope you don't mind me striking through your message (it's so I can mark my progress), what do you think of my efforts so far? In regards to the bell, I don't know what to think, look at what I found when I was looking for alternate refs:
Seems we have 3 different stories! I'll have to look into this, also would you mind converting the "Bluff Cove Disaster" ref to it's original source PDF for me plz, I don't know how to do it :( Ryan4314 (talk) 18:48, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
It's fine that you struck out items here, but just be advised that when you get to FAC, striking others' comments is a big no-no there:) I've replaced the findarticles ref with a cite journal template. I also did a full pass through the article for reference formatting; it was largely good already, but I cleaned up some inconsistency in author name formatting (I chose lastname, firstname as I prefer it, but anything would have been fine as long as it was consistent). I also added publication dates for many of the books and some of the web sources, as well as a few missing author names. The formatting should be 'done' now. There is a lingering btinternet.com cite (#2) that should be re-sourced, and you should probably also look for alternate sourcing for the statements cited to britains-smallwars.com, as it doesn't appear to meet WP:RS. Good luck figuring out what happened to the bell; I wonder if it's worth asking someone from WP:WALES to check St. John's. If you do, make sure to ask them to take a camera! Maralia (talk) 20:35, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the heads up about the striking, anything else I should know? That's a good idea about Wales lol. Once again thanks for all ur help, it must've been very tedious to do. When she gets to FA, I'll make sure I get Ken to send you a thankyou message and you should add her to your "significant contributions" list, cheers Ryan4314 (talk) 20:55, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
LOL sorry to be back bugging you again, but in regards to replacing the "small wars" refs, I found a good Google Book here, but it doesn't have a preview function, what would you recommend I do with it? Ryan4314 (talk) 22:27, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
I can see a preview of that book - and no, I have no idea why googlebooks is so weird. Try this link: [1]. I can confirm that pg 637 does support that one remaining smallwars-cited fact regarding no. 335 sinking the two minesweepers, and it's fine to cite the book for that, whether the online link will work for most people or not. Maralia (talk) 23:11, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
LOL Hello again, what type of ref should this be [www.cardiff.gov.uk/ObjView.asp?Object_ID=4079&Language=] be (I have no idea why it wont link!) i.e. citebook? Also do you have any idea how I read this article? cheers, Ryan4314 (talk) 18:27, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
(undent) Yup, that's done it, my you certainly are clever. I'll start making the appropriate changes to the article soon, cheers.
Hi, this is the website for St John's Parish Church in Cardiff, if I can get the priest to mention the bell on the website, would it then be ok to be used as a reference? Ryan4314 (talk) 12:14, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
Teach a Wikipedian to fish, and s/he'll just stay out there all day in the boat
Hey there. I guess I've missed you on IM, but I keep looking. At any rate, I'd like to clean up my references in Mulholland Dr., but I clearly need to do it myself rather than ask you to clean up after me. I need to learn how to get my references sparkly and pretty. So instead of having you do it, could you look at them, tell me which ones are incorrect and point me in the direction of how to clean them up? I appreciate it again. Hope to chat with you soon (Yahoo). --Moni3 (talk) 16:53, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
News! Tag & Assess 2008 is coming ...
Milhist's new drive – Tag & Assess 2008 – goes live on April 25 and you are cordially invited to participate. This time, the task is housekeeping. As ever, there are awards galore, plus there's a bit of friendly competition built-in, with a race for bronze, silver and gold wikis! You can sign up, in advance, here. I look forward to seeing you on the drive page! All the best, --ROGER DAVIEStalk12:59, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the copyedits. I had two points/questions. First, the overcapitalized references were capitalized that way in the original documents - that's why I had not changed them already. I don't know the Wikipedia policy (if any) on this - do you preserve original formatting, or make it more readable? Next, the bibliography was in the same order as the life of the Hubble - precursors, construction, discovery of flaw, mission to fix, current operations. This was implied and not stated, but might be easier for a user to find what they want among these documents.
It's common at FAC to reduce capitalization in reference titles, so that shouldn't be a problem for anyone. As to the bibliography, it should be ordered alphabetically because it exists not as a recommended reading list (in which case your previous order would definitely make sense), but rather to support the Notes: a reader who sees the footnote "Spitzer, History of the Space Telescope, p. 32." should be able to easily locate the Spitzer source in the bibliography. Hope that clarifies both issues. Thanks for your work on the article over the years, and thanks especially for still being around to see it through this review :) Maralia (talk) 22:12, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
What is 'nm' in this sentence? "its mirror needed to be polished to an accuracy of 1/65 of the wavelength of red light (632 nm), or about 10 nanometres."
'nm' is the usual abbreviation for nanometers. Later in the same sentence this is spelled out, an inconsistency I never noticed before. I'll fix it. LouScheffer (talk) 23:03, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
This sentence seems to be missing a word or two: "The field of view over which high-quality adaptive optics corrections is limited however, especially in optical colors."
Thanks for all the time you've put into editing and reviewing this article. When you get a chance please see if I've addressed your comments to your satisfaction. Savidan23:44, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
There are currently 4,050 Good Articles listed at WP:GA.
The backlog at Good Article Nominations is 195 unreviewed articles. Out of 227 total nominations, 16 are on hold, 14 are under review, and two are seeking a second opinion. Please go to WP:GAN and review an article or three as soon as you have a chance!
The categories with the largest backlogs are: Theatre, film and drama (45), Sports and recreation (34), Music (18), Transport (15), World history (14), Politics and government (13), and Places (12).
Noble Story (talk·contribs) is the GAN Reviewer of the Month for April, based on the assessments made by Dr. Cash on the number and thoroughness of the reviews made by individual reviewers each week. Noble Story joined Wikipedia on May 16, 2007. He is a big fan of the Houston Rockets, and edits many related articles, as well as articles on basketball in general. Congratulations to Noble Story (talk·contribs) on being April's GAN Reviewer of the Month!
Other outstanding reviewers during the month of April include:
This WikiProject, and the Good Article program as a whole, would not be where it is today without each and every one of its members! Thank you to all!
GA Topic
Do you know what a GA topic is? If you are not nodding your head, or don't know what I'm talking about, then you should pay attention to this article.
There are ten GA top-level topics (but you will spot the eleventh as this article goes along). These topics are: Arts, Language and literature, Philosophy and religion, Everyday life, Social sciences and society, Geography and places, History, Engineering and technology, Mathematics, and Natural sciences. Each of these topics are further narrowed down to more specific topics. For example, Arts can be narrowed down to Art and architecture, Music, and Theatre, film and drama. But let's not get into sub-topics in this article because of its depth.
Now you will probably ask, "I already knew this, so what is your point?" What I want to illustrate is that some people often forget a step when they promote an article to GA. After they have posted their review in the article talk page, added the article name to the corresponding topic in the good article page, increased the GA count by 1, and added the ((GA)) to article talk page, many reviewers tend to forget to add the topic parameter in ((GA)) or ((ArticleHistory)). You can browse the topic parameter abbreviations at on this page as well as what each top-level GA topic means, because sometimes it can be chaotic and confusing to pick a topic. For example, should On the Origin of Species be placed under the Natural Science topic (because it's related to evolution), or under the Language and Literature topic (because it is a book)? The correct answer is to place it under Language and literature topic, because its categorization as a proper title supercedes other categories.
Let's go back to the page that shows GA topics; does anyone spot the eleventh topic? Yes, Category:Good articles without topic parameter is the 11th topic, only it shouldn't be there. Articles that do not have a topic parameter in either ((GA)) or ((ArticleHistory)) will be placed in this category. The topic "Uncategorized" is not very informative, is it? So if you have time, you can consider cleaning up the articles that are left in this category and move them to the appropriate category by adding a topic parameter.
That's it for this month, I hope you learned a little from it.
GA Sweeps Update
The GA Sweeps process is progressing nicely! During the month of April, a total of 26 articles were reviewed. Of that total, 15 were found to continue to meet the GA criteria, and two were delisted. There are currently six articles that are still on hold in this process, awaiting revisions. One article was exempted from review because it was promoted to FA. Two articles were exempted from review because they were already delisted by another member in the community.
We are once again recruiting new sweeps participants. Candidates should be very strong and comfortable in reviewing GA and familiar with the GA processes and criteria. If you are interested, please contact OhanaUnited for details.
...that different languages have different symbols representing GA? (Alemannic uses , Bavarian uses , Czech and French use , Estonian, Icelandic, and Swedish use , Esperanto and German use , Polish, Spanish, and Turkish use , Portuguese uses , Russian uses , Ukrainian uses )
Note: Lithuanian and Serbian have their own symbol but only uploaded locally. Other languages not listed above either have the same symbol as english or they don't have GA process.
From the Editors
There is currently a debate on adding a small green dot to the top right corner of all Good Articles that pass the criteria, similar to the small bronze star that is added to the top right corner of Featured Articles. Members of WikiProject Good Articles are encouraged to participate in the debate on this page.
Please leave any comments or feedback regarding this issue here.
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXVI (April 2008)
The April 2008 issue of the Military history WikiProject newsletter has been published. You may read the newsletter, change the format in which future issues will be delivered to you, or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Thank you. This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 01:32, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
Hi there. I recently noticed your copy-editing skills, which seem pretty good to me. Would you mind copy-editing a few articles for me when (and if) you have the time? I've been through them several times, but I always miss simple things. Here's the list, in order of priority:
NeXT (at FAC, has been copy-edited at least three times, but people are still finding grammar problems)
I've taken out the grammar fixes you wanted, and I removed the spurious link (looked like linkspam snuck in while I wasn't looking.) Thanks for the review, could you take another look? Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs (talk)21:01, 8 May 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for checking out the quote; I've reworked it, since players commented on 'religious experience', not the morality. The electronic copy of the MacWorld quote was formatted that, but I chalked it up to a typing error and formatted it with brackets. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs (talk)14:27, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
I'm delighted that the Mackintosh article has been promoted to FA, after a fairly quiet time at FAC, and would like to thank you for your unstinting support, on this and other articles. You may be interested to know, incidentally, that my final article in the series of major British Antarctic expeditions, Nimrod Expedition, has just gone to peer review. Grateful thanks, again. Brianboulton (talk) 10:11, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
Malformed noms
Hey, Maralia, what's up with Talk:The Diarrhea Song? Because it's halfway done, GimmeBot can't be used now to finish it, and it has to be finished by hand. Was that what you intended? Maybe you got called away from the computer? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:53, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
An unexpected knock at the door, followed by trying to figure out what the hell my kid did to the keyboard while I had stepped away (I still don't know the answer, but it's working now). I'm manually finishing that one; will be done in a minute after I doublecheck my preview first. Maralia (talk) 17:03, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
Whew, you had me worried :-) But also, since I'm currently working on the October and November 2006 FAC files, that one gets us crossways with my checklist on the work page, so I have to remember to remove it. Template:ArticleHistory/work Would it make sense for you to work on some from that list, rather than from What Links here, so we can stay in sync? For example, I could put up the month of September, and you could work on those. You'd be doing the same thing, but pulling your choice of articles to work on from FAC archives rather than What Links here, and we could stay together that way. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:09, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
I didn't pick that one from facfailed, but rather from the bottom of the November 2006 list on the Work page - figured by working from the bottom I'd be less likely to cross signals with you. Sure, put up September for me if you like. Maralia (talk) 17:49, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
Great; we're on the same page. I may take the day off; how about if you work on October, and I'll finish up November ? I'll put up September later if I decide it's worth it to give so much of time to be criticized at every turn (ref to elsewhere). If you find something completely messed up, move it to the messed up section and I'll look later. You might come around to seeing that it may just be easier to focus on sorting the list: Messed up ones that we should work on ourselves, versus easy ones that we can pass to GimmeBot. There are a lot of articlehistories built without the FAC file having been archived, and we have to fix those manually. I'm going to my garden for a while; October is yours. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:54, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
Good gosh, now you're on a roll :-) Is this method working OK for you? If so, I'll put up the next month (basically, I move the archive to a spreadsheet, pull out the already archived FACs, edit it to the correct format, and copy it in to the worksheet). SandyGeorgia (Talk) 21:47, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
It's working fine for me. I'm cheating a lot by looking at the code of your 'ready for Gimme' listings whenever I'm not sure how to handle something. I have to run out for a few hours now, so you can keep poking through my list & leaving me notes without any more edit conflicts :) Maralia (talk) 22:07, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
Do you know how to handle the old style DYKs? See here. Also, there's a list on the talk page of the workpage of old templates or templates that aren't supported by the bot, we have to do those manually, like oldafdfull. If this system is working for you, we'll really be able to start humming now, because GimmeBot can do the rest. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 22:25, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
Substituted DYKs are generally caught OK.[2] The DYK template changed some over time but I think it catches most of the variants. It can also do oldafdfull, and can do oldafdmulti if it is split [3] and the result codes match something programmed into ArticleHistory. ("Moot" isn't one of those ;) Gimmetrow22:53, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
Wow, you're really getting the hang of it !! I'm thrilled to have someone else to help out with this, and someone else who understands Gimmetrow/GimmeBot's work. I'll sit down later today to review all your contribs just to doublecheck on your "training" <smile> and then maybe we need to let GimmeBot catch up with us before we move on. I'll add the new months one at a time as we move through them; as we get into the older files, we'll find trickier situations, which is another reason I wanted you to "train" from the more recent. I hope you see now why I wanted to work through the archives rather than from What Links here on the facfailed template; because other editors (like GA) built some of these articlehistories, there are many unarchived or incorrect histories, which will come back and bite us with the same malformed noms at FAC problem if we don't get them set up correctly. I'll check over and catch up later today: I suspect a surprise brunch is in the works, and I'd best go prettify. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 14:17, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
OK, I've finally tracked down all the nyt titles and fixed the formatting problems you were so kind as to bring up. I hope you'll find that these have been remedied to your satisfaction and see fit offer some more comments once you're had a chance to read the article proper. Savidan19:47, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
Tinucherian has smiled at you! Smiles promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling at someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend or a possibly new friend. Cheers, and happy editing! Smile at others by adding ((subst:Smile)) to their talk page with a friendly message.
Would you be able to do a quick level 4 copyedit of Battle of Verrières Ridge for me? I'd prefer to have a copyedit of the article before I go for A-Class Nomination. If you've got the time, that'd be great. Cheers! Cam (Chat) 19:27, 16 May 2008 (UTC)
Hey, no probs. Roger's done some copyediting on it already (mainly on ref formatting). Advance thanks for your help. Cheers! Cam (Chat) 05:06, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
New page for MILHIST copy-editors
The coordinators have decided to make it easier for copy-editors to watch the new requests by creating an own page for this purpose. On Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Logistics/Copy-editing/Requests all new and old requests are listed. Please add this page to your watchlist. Wandalstouring (talk) 11:51, 17 May 2008 (UTC)
RfA thanks!
RfA: Many thanks
Many thanks for your participation in my recent request for adminship. I am impressed by the amount of thought that goes into people's contribution to the RfA process, and humbled that so many have chosen to trust me with this new responsibility. I step into this new role cautiously, but will do my very best to live up to your kind words and expectations, and to further the project of the encyclopedia. Again, thank you. --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 05:37, 18 May 2008 (UTC)
Moni3, who passed White Mountain art as a Good Article, has suggested your opinion for proper formatting of the article's Notes and Bibliography. I'm not asking for you to edit these items, but I'm asking if you believe I have formatted them correctly. Thanks in advance for your help. JJ (talk) 13:25, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
Maralia, you have gone way beyond the call of duty! I would have made the changes you suggested, but thanks. The references without authors are really art exhibition catalogs. I guess I can rename the heading? Thanks again. JJ (talk) 20:44, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
I didn't mind in the least - it's always a pleasure to put work into an article that someone is seriously about developing. It only becomes drudgery when someone expects me to work for hours on end to correct poor prose or slapdash formatting. Let me know if you have a timeframe for FAC and I'll try to get in a thorough copyedit. As to the art catalogs: how about 'Periodicals' for a heading? Maralia (talk) 20:55, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
Moni3 has suggested a Peer Review, which I'm going to request. Then, I'm going for FA. So, I would very much appreciate a copy edit.
They are not all periodicals, but thanks. I will leave them as "Journals" as a good compromise. JJ (talk) 22:13, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
Disturbingly appropriate Barnstar
The Paranormal Barnstar
For finding no typos while reviewing the article USS Missouri (BB-63) I hereby present you with The Paranormal Barnstar. Hopefully, your discovery of no spelling errors in an article will not be a sign of the apocalypse :) TomStar81 (Talk) 07:32, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
Operation Passage to Freedom
Thanks again for the review Maralia. I've done the necessary tweaks I think. Blnguyen (bananabucket) 07:34, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
I've tried shuffling of the acronym explanation to the footnote to make it less unwiedly. Blnguyen (bananabucket) 02:02, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
This is to thank you for your copyedits and other review comments. Your help during the assembly of this series of expedition histories has been much appreciated. This is the last of the "big four" British Antarctic efforts, though I shall continue to write about minor expeditions, and about individual explorers. I'm glad that you found the articles interesting. Brianboulton (talk) 10:07, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
Soundgarden
see [4] this is the Soundgarden page before i came. This is the Soundgarden page when i startet to work on it [5]. I've done all the work on the page, i'm not saying the other users didn't edit but i made it to what it is now. --Freedom (song) (talk) 18:05, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
Hi, this is Limetolime. A short while ago, you opposed the article at its featured article nomination. Well, this article has been worked on a bit more and has become a GA without a problem. Do you think that the article is ready for FA class again? Limetolimetalk to me•look what I did!22:39, 26 May 2008 (UTC)
No, I'm afraid I don't think the article is ready for FA. The prose needs considerable work to clean up imprecise terminology ("Roughly two-thirds of the entire world's cocoa is produced in Western Africa"), and multiple paragraphs consist of only one or two sentences. The sources used for medical facts appear fairly solid, but the sources for much of the rest of the article are lightweight: numerous books exist, yet there is only one book citation while many facts are cited to blogs and other self-published websites that would not meet WP:RS. From a content standpoint, I don't feel the article is comprehensive: statistics on global consumption and industry size and value are absent, and there is no mention of the many museums dedicated to the subject. The article does not explicitly name the largest manufacturers worldwide, yet lends apparently disproportionate attention to US manufacturers, leaving me wondering why such large but non-US companies as Lindt, Nestle, and Cadbury are merely named. Likewise, the significant chocolate industries in Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands receive short shrift, and the US cocoa butter percentage legislation is explicitly detailed while the equivalent European legislation is absent.
I really feel this article needs significant work. As I suggested back at FA, contacting the article's principal editors to enlist their help would be wise. Once you have resolved the referencing and content issues, the FA-Team might be a good place to request some final polishing. Sorry I don't have better news to offer you, but I'm sure the article will benefit in the end. Good luck! Maralia (talk) 03:48, 31 May 2008 (UTC)
I'm sorry to ask for your help, when you’ve given so generously of your time to my work in the past. However, Nimrod Expedition is at FAC, and has been given a somewhat rapid oppose by a reviewer who suggests a "thorough copyedit" by an "involved editor", whatever that may mean. I’m not asking you to do this, nor do I accept that this is necessary. Whatever faults lie within the article, I don't think they will emerge from that process. Any article is capable of improvement, and I am prepared for any amount of positive criticism. So I need this reviewer to open out, and give me a basis for resolving his issues when I know what they are specifically. Would it be possible for you to pay a brief visit to the FAC review and perhaps reinforce this point? I apologise for bothering you - there is, incidentally, some support on the review page as well. Many thanks for your time. Brianboulton (talk) 11:56, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
First, my apologies for not responding about Nimrod - I saw that others beat me to it. I'll give it another readthrough today.
I noticed the comment you added to your userpage today, where you're wondering about [7]. I'm not sure how you came up with that link, but I can explain what the result looks like: the files aren't intermingled, but rather, that url is simply comparing a version of ES with a version of that image file. I can create the same type of link intentionally - see [8] for a 'diff' comparing ES with your userpage. Just wanted to let you know that the link itself isn't indicative of a problem with the article. Curious how you came across such a link, though. Maralia (talk) 14:58, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
Thank you for replying and I do apologise for taking up your time. The problem with Nimrod has abated somewhat, and the oppose has been struck, but I always welcome your comments at FAC - you know this article series pretty well by now.
As to the link I put on my userpage, let me explain. For months I have been working, on and off, to deal with numerous errors which I have found in the Ernest Shackleton article since its promotion to FA on 31 January. As a working convenience I have given myself a link to the promoted version of the article. There is no other significance, it’s purely a note to myself.
...And, a little to my surprise, I find the Nimrod article promoted! (perhaps you have secret influence in these matters.) Anyway, your help in reviewing and supporting these expedition articles during the past few months is very much appreciated; you must know the stories well enough now to write your own versions. Nimrod's promotion completes my main project (all four major Brit Antarctic expeditions, and their leaders, to FA). In the next months I shall be working on the minor expeditions and the supporting casts, not particulary with FA ambitions in mind, but generally to extend and improve the quality of these articles. Warm thanks, once again - I feel I owe you some favours. Brianboulton (talk) 11:16, 7 June 2008 (UTC)
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXVII (May 2008)
The May 2008 issue of the Military history WikiProject newsletter has been published. You may read the newsletter, change the format in which future issues will be delivered to you, or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Thank you. This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 01:21, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
May FAC and FAR reviewer award
The Order of the Superior Scribe of Wikipedia
To Maralia, For your superior reviews of at least 15 Featured article candidates during May, thank you for being one of the top reviewers this month and for your careful work and thorough reviews to help promote Wiki's finest work. Not only have you helped maintain standards in featured articles, you've joined the ranks of those who selflessly help restore standards in your work at Wayne Gretzky. And a special thanks for running the May stats, a tiresome job :-)) Always, SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:21, 8 June 2008 (UTC)
Special thanks to Ling.Nut—a retired editor who had a strong commitment to excellence in content review—for designing this award.
Thanks, guys. I offered to do May because I figured it had to be a pain in the neck, and Sandy has enough to do, plus she was traveling. It was, frankly, awful drudge work, made worse by my essentially having to start over 5 times because I hadn't taken into account some aspect of the statistics. I have an idea for making the worst part of it far less terrible, though, so hopefully I can help out with it again without feeling the urge to leap off precipices :) Maralia (talk) 23:56, 8 June 2008 (UTC)
I have two ideas. The chore could be rotated, so others could see FACs as I see them (who gave the info I needed to determine whether to promote or archive?). And we could ask Gimmetrow if it's possible to have a bot run through the archive and generate counts, so we know the top 20 to look at. Not sure a bot would get it right, though? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 00:06, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
My plan is to have a bot generate the '# statements' and '# unique editors' counts, as well as a rough '# FACs per editor' count. That last one won't be perfect - it won't be able to tell a reviewer from a nominator, for example - but even if it lets me narrow the detail work down to the top 25 or 30 then it would still save a lot of time. Not having to manually compile the '# statements' and '# unique editors' figures will cut the work by more than half. Maralia (talk) 00:16, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
Right; not sure how you did the work, but I was cutting, pasting and sorting into Excel for days. Examining only 20 or so editors would still be a lot of work, but about half. And, in case any one has never made the connection, this is why I opposed the other restart method (moving to archive); a bot now has to go to another file to examine the history. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 00:19, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
There are currently 4,266 Good Articles listed at WP:GA.
The backlog at Good Article Nominations is 157 unreviewed articles. Out of 215 total nominations, 44 are on hold, 13 are under review, and one is seeking a second opinion. Please go to WP:GAN and review an article or three as soon as you have a chance!
The categories with the largest backlogs are: Theatre, film and drama (31), Sports and recreation (31), Transport (24), Music (13), and Art and architecture (11)
The GA Sweeps process is progressing nicely! During the month of May, a total of 82 articles were reviewed. Of that total, 71 were found to continue to meet the GA criteria, and 11 were delisted. There are currently 15 articles that are still on hold in this process, awaiting revisions.
We are once again recruiting new sweeps participants. Candidates should be very strong and comfortable in reviewing GA and familiar with the GA processes and criteria. If you are interested, please contact OhanaUnited for details.
GAN Reviewer of the Month
Giggy (talk·contribs) (a.k.a. Dihydrogen Monoxide (talk·contribs)) is the GAN Reviewer of the Month for May, based on the assessments made by Dr. Cash on the number and thoroughness of the reviews made by individual reviewers each week. Giggy had a whopping 45 reviews during the month of May! Congratulations to Giggy (talk·contribs) on being May's GAN Reviewer of the Month!
Other outstanding reviewers during the month of May include:
This WikiProject, and the Good Article program as a whole, would not be where it is today without each and every one of its members! Thank you to all!
New GA Review Process - Review Subpages
In case you haven't noticed, we initiated a new process for GA Reviews at the end of last month. The ((GA nominee)) template was modified to direct new reviews initiated on an article to begin on a subpage of article talkspace (e.g. [[Talk:Article/GA#]], where '#' is the current number of GA reviews conducted for the article, incremented automatically, starting with 1). The primary reason for this change is to address some concerns made by several Wikipedians that previous GA reviews are not easily accessible in archives, the way that featured article reviews and peer reviews are, since the review is conducted on the article's talkspace, instead of in a subpage of the featured article space or peer review space. The reason we opted to move GA reviews to article talkspace (instead of GA space) is to better maintain the personal relationship between editor(s) and reviewer(s) by keeping reviews done in an area where editors can easily access it. Nonetheless, we still desired to have better archiving and maintenance of past reviews, so that GA ultimately becomes more accountable.
When an article is nominated, the nominator adds the template using a substitution, by adding ((subst:GAN|subtopic=<name of subtopic for article at GAN>)), as well as lists the article (as usual) at WP:GAN in the appropriate category.
When a reviewer initiates a review of an article, all that needs to be done is to read the template on the article's ((GA nominee)) template on its talk page, and click on the link to start the review. When the reviewer clicks on that link, they will also see some instructions on how to start a review of a GAN. For new reviewers, there's also a link to the Good Article criteria, as well as to the Wikipedia:Reviewing good articles page and the mentors list. Once an article is reviewed, the GA review page should be transcluded onto the main article talk page, by adding ((Talk:Article/GA#)) to the bottom of the talk page. This is to ensure maintain the transparency of the GA process, as well as to make editors of the article in question aware that the review is taking place. When an article is either passed or failed, there's really nothing different to do in the process, although reviewers are encouraged to utilize the ((ArticleHistory)) template, linking to the GA review subpage with the 'action#link' parameter.
After a review I decided to remove the exernal link you asked about. In this case, I do not think that it helps as much as it does in the Iowa article. Thought you might like to know. TomStar81 (Talk) 21:16, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
I thought you'd like to know this article just passed FA review. Thank you for your contributions to this article during the review, Maralia. Dekkappai (talk) 04:27, 13 June 2008 (UTC)
I've read through it before; I'm sure I can help. I'm away from home now and will be again at the end of the week; I'm not too busy, but my schedule is a little off. How time-critical is it? Did you already do all of Sunday night's pr/ar? Maralia (talk) 06:44, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
Yes, we're up to date now. Next is to watch the FAR archives to see if Marskell or Joel close any. I'll coordinate with you when I'm going to close, so you can watch me do a few manually, and we can coordinate. What do you prefer, middle of the day, evening, late night? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 06:48, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
By the way, if it's too much work for us, the other option is to leave the old templates on the talk pages, along with a note on the talk page asking editors to wait for GimmeBot. (For example, add the old ((facfailed)).) If you and I can't keep up, we can go to that. SandyGeorgia (Talk)
I'm not too worried about the process - I've been doing most of the steps already (my strange insistence on manually adding articlehistories instead of waiting for Gimme, when I was learning, should serve me well). I'll kind of have to play it by ear tomorrow: I promised my kid we'd go to the pool, but then he inexplicably slept half the day today, so I suspect I may be dealing with a cranky sick toddler tomorrow. In any case, I have ample experience in stalking your contribs to figure out how to do things, so I'm sure we can work it out. Maralia (talk) 07:03, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
Oops, take it back; we're not up to date. There's a FAR remove (AK-47) at Wikipedia:Featured article review/archive that Gimme didn't get. FAR remove is the single most complicated botification, so I'll do it tomorrow, and you can check my contribs. Unless you're feeling brave and want to do it yourself. Add "Standing in for GimmeBot" to your edit summaries. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 07:12, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
I'd rather not mess with FARs till I've done a few full-process FACs, so I'll just practice my stalking skills. Incidentally, my son slept in until 11am, and then fell asleep ON THE FLOOR in the afternoon and slept for over an hour. Now, don't get me wrong, *I* would totally do both those things EVERY DAY if I had half a chance...but coming from him, I suspect it means a snotty-nosed zombie kid tomorrow. Maralia (talk) 07:25, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
I forgot the other possibility: that he would be fine today, yet the rest of us would start coming down with his illness for him. In a fine turn of events, today *I* am the zombie. Ah well, it's about to storm, so no pool in any case. Sandy, I see removed FARs just went up - I'm watching. Maralia (talk) 17:18, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
I started my day fighting fires on my talk page (and dealing with big kids, big problems and insurance adjusters, glad no one was hospitalized), so I won't get to those until tonight. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:20, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
Okay, tonight then. Maybe I can get a nap before then so I'll be less of a zombie. So glad to hear you got good news! Maralia (talk) 17:37, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
I'm going to botify the removed FARs now. Botifying a FARC is the the worst, in terms of the number of steps. My contribs won't be complete, since I already removed the stars and downgraded the assessments on the talk page from FA to B yesterday. Also, on something like Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Brian Horrocks ... this provides an example for how to do reviewer stats. This had 3 (or 4 or 5?) supports before three different editors had to dig in to copyedit it. The supports in this case would get a negative score even if the article passes, and the ce reviewers would get positive points if the article is brought to standard ... they rolled up their sleeves and got it there over premature supports ... just checking to make sure that's how you did the stats. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 14:19, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
I fell asleep when I put the kid to bed last night, so I'm considerably less zombielike now; commencing stalking. As to stats - yes, that's how I did them last month, we're on the same page. Maralia (talk) 14:34, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
Will do. How about if you process the promotes (they're much easier) as a first pass, and I'll watch. Also, add the star (that's not in the instructions, but GimmeBot does it now). On my way ... SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:25, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
Thanks, Maralia ! The FAC promotes are the easiest; I'll let you know when I'm going to archive some, so you can have some real fun :-) Then you'll be ready for FARCs, the nightmare. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 18:24, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
Good stuff. Only one change. Even though the last oldid is yesterday, the time of archiving the FAC should go in AH. [11] Thanks, Maralia ! I'm off to bed soon. I'm always so glad when someone else is trained, in case of the proverbial "hit by a truck" scenario. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 03:11, 18 June 2008 (UTC)
I get that in principle, but I'm not seeing that timestamp anywhere. Exactly where did you get it from? Maralia (talk) 03:22, 18 June 2008 (UTC)
Good question, d'oh. Who knows where I got it, LOL !! Should be 2:17, per this. Sorry ! Now do you love gimmebot like I love gimmebot? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 03:24, 18 June 2008 (UTC)
Going to pr/ar some in case you're around to help; then I'll be back on later and will start on anything you can't do. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:29, 19 June 2008 (UTC)
Thanks, Maralia; I have some things to do around the house, so anything you don't get to, I'll catch later. Saw your contrib :/ SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:48, 19 June 2008 (UTC)
He's baaaaaaack :-))
The Working Woman's Barnstar
To Marlia, Thank you so much for your invaluable assitance in cleaning up old ((facfailed)) templates for ((articlehistory)), and for helping process FAC closes during GimmeBot's vacation! The work is so much easier when shared, and it's gratifying that someone else knows how to keep up with these tedious and time-consuming chores! All the best, SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:45, 22 June 2008 (UTC)
Thanks. Sorry I missed Friday/Saturday nights; packing an entire house sucks, and doing it while a 3-year-old is running around is brutal. Tomorrow I head home, to pack for the beach - closing is on Thursday, and we leave for the beach on Friday :) Maralia (talk) 03:13, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
Thanks
Thanks for the touchups on Georgette Heyer - it is hard to notice some of those little things when you've been staring at an article for months. I appreciate the help! Karanacs (talk) 17:21, 19 June 2008 (UTC)
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