User talk:Dana boomer/Archive 13

Archive 10Archive 11Archive 12Archive 13

Welcome to the 2013 WikiCup

Hello, Dana boomer, and welcome to the 2013 WikiCup! Your submissions' page is here. The first round will last until the end of February, at which point the top 64 scorers will advance to the second round. We will be in touch at the end of every month, and signups are going to remain open until the end of January; if you know of anyone else who may like to take part, please let them know! A few reminders:

  • The rules can be found here. There have been a few changes from last year, which are listed on that page.
  • Anything you submit must have been nominated and promoted in 2013, and you need to have completed significant work upon it in 2013. (The articles you review at good article reviews does not need to have been nominated in 2013, but you do need to have started and completed the review in 2013.) We will be checking.
  • If you feel that another competitor is breaking the rules or abusing the competition in some way, please let a judge know. Please do not remove entries from the submissions' pages of others yourself.
  • Don't worry about calculating precisely how many points everything is worth. The bot will do that. The bot may occasionally get something wrong- let a judge know, or post on the WikiCup talk page if that happens.
  • Please try to be prompt in updating submissions' pages so that they can be double-checked.

Overall, however, don't worry, and have fun. It doesn't matter if you make the odd mistake; these things happen. Questions can be asked on the WikiCup talk page. Good luck! J Milburn and The ed17 12:57, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

Arthur Schultz

Arthur Schultz, an article that you or your project may be interested in, has been nominated for a community good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status will be removed from the article. AIRcorn (talk) 13:14, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

The WikiProject: Good Articles Newsletter (January 2013)

The WikiProject Good articles Newsletter
Volume IV, No. 1 – January 2013

For past newsletters click here

In This Issue


This newsletter was delivered by EdwardsBot (talk) 14:28, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

Happy New Year!

Best wishes for the New Year!
Here's wishing you and yours a joyous, healthful, and productive 2013!

Please accept a belated thank you for the well wishes upon my retirement as FAC delegate this year, and apologies for the false alarm of my first—and hopefully last—retirement; the well wishes extended me were most kind, but I decided to return, re-committed, when another blocked sock was revealed as one of the factors aggravating the FA pages this year.

Maintaining standards in featured content requires vigilance, dedication and knowledge of people like you, who are needed; thank you for all your work at FAR. Somehow, somehow we never ever seem to do nothin' completely nice and easy, but here's hoping that 2013 will see a peaceful road ahead and a return to the quality and comaraderie that defines the FA process, thanks to many dedicated Wikipedians!

SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:34, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

Michigan guvs

Hey Dana, I left a few comments on the list talk page. I think I may have misled you a little on the colour scheme now I've had a closer look. Let me know if you need some more advice. In any case, good luck with it! The Rambling Man (talk) 18:38, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Great, thanks! I'll work on those later today. Dana boomer (talk) 19:13, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

For an example of how to handle colors in the table, check List of Governors of Alabama. I'd be helping much more bring this up to FL standards if I had a computer I could edit articles at, but I'll check in this weekend. :) --Golbez (talk) 14:30, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Cabbage

Hi Dana, thanks for visiting my fungus FAC! I haven't forgotten about cabbage, but I get the feeling it may be a bit thin on 1b. My university library has an excellent agriculture section (I'm in Saskatchewan, after all), and I plan to go there by the end of the week, so I'll take a look through the stacks and see if I can find anything that might be useful to flesh out the article. Sasata (talk) 07:16, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

That would be awesome! Thanks so much, Dana boomer (talk) 12:50, 9 January 2013 (UTC)
Hi Dana, I just got back from the library, and found two books that should be helpful:
  • Dixon, G.R. (2007). "Vegetable Brassicas and Related Crucifers" (see here)
  • Nagata, T.; Lorz, H.; Widholm, J.M. (eds.). (2004). "Biotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry" Volume 54: Brassica
Although the majority of the material in these books is too advanced for general consumption, I can add useful bits from both that I think would be appropriate for this general overview article. I will do that over the next week, and you can keep an eye on the additions and let me know if you think I'm straying too far off course! Sasata (talk) 23:37, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
That sounds fantastic! Thank you so much for your help, and let me know if there is anything I can do (any further articles that I can integrate or such). Dana boomer (talk) 23:49, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
Sorry, I'm being slow as molasses (and have the attention span of a gnat), but still have more to add ... hope you're not in a rush! Sasata (talk) 15:42, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
No problem - no rush. What you've been adding/changing so far looks really good! Would you accept a conom on this? If so, I want to make sure it won't mess up your FAC nomination schedule for other articles. Dana boomer (talk) 16:51, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
Sure, a co-nom sounds like a good deal! I won't be too worried about FAC scheduling until the last round of Wikicup, and I imagine we'll get this one in there long before that. Sasata (talk) 18:27, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

You are the greatest

Pony!
Congratulations! For longtime dedication to horse articles and generally being a good human being, you have received a pony! Ponies are cute, intelligent, cuddly, friendly (most of the time, though with notable exceptions), promote good will, encourage patience, and enjoy carrots. Treat your pony with respect and he will be your faithful friend! Montanabw(talk) 20:59, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Yay, I love ponies! (Well, most of the time...when they are not "encouraging patience".) Dana boomer (talk) 21:13, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

CCI update

At long last, arguably the most tiresome copyright case I've worked on is done! A much better feeling when those big ones get taken down, I must say. --Wizardman 00:39, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

Wizardman 23:34, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

October to December 2012 Milhist Peer, A-class and FAC reviews

 Military history reviewers' award 
By order of the Military history WikiProject coordinators, for your good work helping with the WikiProject's Peer, A-Class and Featured Article reviews for the period Oct–Dec 2012, I hereby award you this Military history WikiProject Reviewers' award. AustralianRupert (talk) 10:14, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

Keep track of upcoming reviews. Just copy and paste {{WPMILHIST Review alerts}} to your user space

Wikipedia Ambassadors update

Hi! You're getting this message because you are or have been a Wikipedia Ambassador. A new term is beginning for the United States and Canada Education Programs, and I wanted to give you an update on some important new information if you're interested in continuing your work this term as a Wikipedia Ambassador.

You may have heard a reference to a transition the education program is going through. This is the last term that the Wikimedia Foundation will directly run the U.S. and Canada programs; beginning in June, a proposed thematic organization is likely to take over organizing the program. You can read more about the proposal here.

Another major change in the program will take effect immediately. Beginning this term, a new MediaWiki education extension will replace all course pages and Ambassador lists. (See Wikipedia:Course pages and Help:Education Program extension for more details.) Included in the extension are online volunteer and campus volunteer user rights, which let you create and edit course pages and sign up as an ambassador for a particular course.

If you would like to continue serving as a Wikipedia Ambassador — even if you do not support a class this term — you must create an ambassador profile. If you're no longer interested in being a Wikipedia Ambassador, you don't need to do anything.

Please do these steps as soon as possible

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Going forward, the lists of Ambassadors at Special:CampusAmbassadors and Special:OnlineAmbassadors will be the official roster of who is an active Ambassador. If you would like to be an Ambassador but not ready to serve this term, you can un-check the option in your profile to publicly list it (which will remove your profile from the list).

After that, you can sign on to support courses. The list of courses will be at Special:Courses. (By default, this lists "Current" courses, but you can change the Status filter to "Planned" to see courses for this term that haven't reached their listed start date yet.)

As this is the first term we have used the extension, we know there will be some bugs, and we know the feature set is not as rich as it could be. (A big wave of improvements is already in the pipeline. And if you know MediaWiki and could help with code review, we'd love to have your help!) Please reach out to me (Sage Ross) with any complaints, bug reports, and feature suggestions. The basic features of the extension are documented at Wikipedia:Course pages, and you can see a tutorial for setting up and using them here.

Communication and keeping up to date

In the past, the Education Program has had a pretty fragmented set of communication channels. We're trying to fix that. These are the recommended places to discuss and stay up-to-date on the education program:

  1. The education noticeboard has become the main on-wiki location for discussion of the Education Program. You can post there about broad education program issues as well as issues with individual courses.
  2. The Ambassadors Announce email list is a very low-traffic announcements list of important information all Ambassadors need to be aware of. We encourage all Ambassadors (and other interested Wikipedians) to subscribe to the list; follow the instructions on the link to add your email address.
  3. If you use IRC regularly, or need to try to reach someone immediately, the #wikipedia-en-ambassadors connect IRC channel is the place to find me and fellow Ambassadors.
Ambassador training and resources

We now have an online training for Ambassadors, which is intended to be both an orientation about the Wikipedia Ambassador role for newcomers and the manual for how to do the role. (There are parallel trainings for students and for educators as well.)

Please go through the training if you feel like you need a refresher on how a typical class is supposed to go and where the Ambassadors fit in, or if you want to review and help improve it. If there's something you'd like to see added, or other suggestions you have for it, feel free to edit the training and/or leave feedback. A primer on setting up and using course pages is included in the educators' training.

The Resources page of the training is the main place for Ambassador-related resources. If there's something you think is important as a resource that's not on there, please add it.

Finally, whether or not you work with any classes this term, I encourage you to post entries to the Trophy Case whenever you see excellent work from students or if you have great examples from past semesters. And, as always, let students (and other editors!) know when they do things well; a little WikiLove goes a long way!

--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 20:46, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

Marwari Horse

Dear Dana,

While we appreciate your efforts in editing and maintaining the Marwari Horse page. I would like to bring to your notice that the edits put in place by us are official version let out on behalf of the ALL INDIA MARWARI HORSE SOCIETY. Hence stand validated and authentic. Your re edits only amount to glorification of some irrelevant net savvy individuals which are against the very grain and action of the official association. Hence kindly state reasons for edit and discuss before summarily removing edits done by office bearers.

Also the superstitions quoted by you are nothing but westerner myths and have nothing to do with Indian realities of which the sources quoted by you have nothing in common.

Regards

Virendra Kankariya Vice President All India Marwari Horse Society — Preceding unsigned comment added by Virendrak (talk • contribs) 07:33, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue LXXXII, January 2013

Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 13:47, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Original Barnstar
Thanks for your contributions towards Marwari horse ‎. Naveed (talk) 05:39, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
Thank you! Please let me know if there are any further issues you see on the article! Dana boomer (talk) 12:49, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

SB

Saw you took a good whack at improving the Saddlebred article. I went in there and took another whack at it and fixed some errors, adding new sources. (Hendricks and Dutson are really starting to annoy me for superficial research, but they still have some good points...) anyway, tossed in more material and rearranged some stuff. Feel free to tweak anything that wasn't an improvement. Had to restore the bit about Star Trek, that was just tooooo good to not add! I presume you want to take this to GA for the wikicup, glad to help in that direction. (The original was one of my pre-2008 article improvements, before we had to source so rigorously, so I feel a responsibility to help with the current improvement too) That and I used to do Saddle Seat eq on my Arabs and in doing so worked with a Saddlebred guy here in Montana, great human being. Montanabw(talk) 00:45, 31 January 2013 (UTC)

WikiCup 2013 January newsletter

Signups are now closed; we have our final 127 contestants for this year's competition. 64 contestants will make it to the next round at the end of February, but we're already seeing strong scoring compared to previous years. Colorado Sturmvogel_66 (submissions) currently leads, with 358 points. At this stage in 2012, the leader (Irish Citizen Army Grapple X (submissions)) had 342 points, while in 2011, the leader had 228 points. We also have a large number of scorers when compared with this stage in previous years. Florida 12george1 (submissions) was the first competitor to score this year, as he was last year, with a detailed good article review. Some other firsts:

Featured articles, portals and topics, as well as good topics, are yet to feature in the competition.

This year, the bonus points system has been reworked, with bonus points on offer for old articles prepared for did you know, and "multiplier" points reworked to become more linear. For details, please see Wikipedia:WikiCup/Scoring. There have been some teething problems as the bot has worked its way around the new system, but issues should mostly be ironed out- please report any problems to the WikiCup talk page. Here are some participants worthy of note with regards to the bonus points:

  • United States Ed! (submissions) was the first to score bonus points, with Portland-class cruiser, a good article.
  • Australia Hawkeye7 (submissions) has the highest overall bonus points, as well as the highest scoring article, thanks to his work on Enrico Fermi, now a good article. The biography of such a significant figure to the history of science warrants nearly five times the normal score.
  • Chicago HueSatLum (submissions) claimed bonus points for René Vautier and Nicolas de Fer, articles that did not exist on the English Wikipedia at the start of the year; a first for the WikiCup. The articles were eligible for bonus points because of fact they were both covered on a number of other Wikipedias.

Also, a quick mention of British Empire The C of E (submissions), who may well have already written the oddest article of the WikiCup this year: did you know that the Fucking mayor objected to Fucking Hell on the grounds that there was no Fucking brewery? The gauntlet has been thrown down; can anyone beat it?

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 00:36, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

Brown

William Robinson Brown is officially up for FA. Just an FYI. Montanabw(talk) 00:42, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

Peer review/Timeline of Algiers history

Thank you! Very helpful. M2545 (talk) 21:19, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

You're quite welcome. Dana boomer (talk) 21:20, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

Poitevin Horse

I'll take a look (don't know if it is the good english for^^). Thank you, Poitevin is the most endangered french horse breed --Tsaag Valren (talk) 08:13, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Incomplete DYK nomination

Hello! Your submission of Template:Did you know nominations/Poitevin horse at the Did You Know nominations page is not complete; see step 3 of the nomination procedure. If you do not want to continue with the nomination, tag the nomination page with {{db-g7}}, or ask a DYK admin. Thank you. DYKHousekeepingBot (talk) 16:07, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

Hurricane Andrew

Hi Dana boomer, thank you for your review of Hurricane Andrew. I have fixed/addressed all of the comments you left, including the picture. I would like you to take another look and see if it is worthy of a GA upgrade. Regards,--12george1 (talk) 00:11, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

I'm still working on the review. Just got back from the gym, so I'll be finishing it up shortly. Dana boomer (talk) 00:20, 13 February 2013 (UTC)
Got anything else?--12george1 (talk) 02:33, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

WikiProject Good Articles Newsletter - February 2013

The WikiProject Good articles Newsletter
Volume IV, No. 2 – February 2013

For past newsletters click here

In This Issue


CCI update

--Wizardman 17:30, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Heh, thanks for finishing it off! I just step away for lunch and look what happens :) Dana boomer (talk) 17:34, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Akhal-Teke, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Pedigree (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 11:00, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Norman Cob

Carabinieri (talk) 00:04, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

General query

Hi Dana, can you explain to me what is happening with Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Stephen2nd‎? I thought the case was closed, am I under investigation again? Stephen2nd (talk) 21:54, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

The case was never closed - it wasn't finished. There are, unfortunately, too few volunteers at WP:CCI to go through the current backlog of investigations, resulting in over 100 open cases. Your case has been, essentially, on hold for a while, due to a lack of volunteer time to do the remaining checks. All of the contributions listed on that page will eventually be checked for copyvio, it just takes a while in a lot of cases. Dana boomer (talk) 22:04, 19 February 2013 (UTC)
OK. didn't know that, thanks for the info. Stephen2nd (talk) 22:11, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Poitevin horse

Nyttend (talk · contribs) 00:02, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

Interested in helping on SEO page

Hi Donna,

I came across your request for help as I was reading through the SEO wiki page - Talk:Search_engine_optimization#Work_needed. I wanted to reach out to see if you are still working on this page and/or still need help.

-RebeccaChurt (talk) 18:57, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

Hi Rebecca! As there was no reaction to my note, the article was later taken through a featured article review and delisted from featured article status. If you are interested in taking the article back to featured status, I would suggest first looking at the review page (located at Wikipedia:Featured article review/Search engine optimization/archive2), where several users offer suggestions with regard to improving the article. This is not a topic in which I have experience or interest, and so I'm afraid I cannot offer much in the way of help on this article. However, if you are working on the article and wish to take it back to featured article status, please feel free to ping me for a look before the featured article candidacy. Dana boomer (talk) 23:48, 22 February 2013 (UTC)
Ok, thank you for your consideration. -RebeccaChurt (talk) 20:48, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

CCI update

--Wizardman 03:01, 23 February 2013 (UTC)

MER-C 08:08, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

Banker horse

A fellow Wikipedian suggested your Banker horse for TFA some day, and you can prepare the blurb here anytime, - you will find it, look at the samples! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:02, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

And American Cream Draft, actually (I think we all helped that high school girl on Banker horse), but I suck at blurbing, so asked Gerda to ping you about this. Montanabw(talk) 20:47, 25 February 2013 (UTC)
I have zero interest in having "my" articles as TFAs - it's a pain in the rear. If the delegates choose them, that's fine, but I'm not going to deliberately put them in the line of fire. Dana boomer (talk) 20:52, 25 February 2013 (UTC)
Hugs, then. I do understand. The nice thing is that the folks at QAI help babysit when one in their queue hits. Montanabw(talk) 21:01, 25 February 2013 (UTC)
Thanks. I didn't mean to sound witchy. It's just that I already usually have 2-3 articles chosen each year, without being "nominated", which is more than enough for me! While there are times that I would like to be as prolific as Ealdgyth, Sasata, Cas and others, most of the time I'm just glad I don't have to go through as many TFAs as they do :) Dana boomer (talk) 21:07, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

Re: Easter DYKs

I'd completly forgotten about that - yes, we're good for the timescales now as Easter is only just over a month away. I hadn't given it much more thought than chocolate and rabbits, so it might be good to improve some other articles with more of a real Easter connection. I think your idea of posting it on the cup page is a good idea, as its a good place to generate some collaboration on articles. Miyagawa (talk) 16:20, 26 February 2013 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue LXXXIII, February 2013

Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 08:04, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

WikiCup 2013 February newsletter

Round 1 is now over. The top 64 scorers have progressed to round 2, where they have been randomly split into eight pools of eight. At the end of April, the top two from each pool, as well as the 16 highest scorers from those remaining, will progress to round 3. Commiserations to those eliminated; if you're interested in still being involved in the WikiCup, able and willing reviewers will always be needed, and if you're interested in getting involved with other collaborative projects, take a look at the WikiWomen's Month discussed below.

Round 1 saw 21 competitors with over 100 points, which is fantastic; that suggests that this year's competition is going to be highly competative. Our lower scores indicate this, too: A score of 19 was required to reach round 2, which was significantly higher than the 11 points required in 2012 and 8 points required in 2011. The score needed to reach round 3 will be higher, and may depend on pool groupings. In 2011, 41 points secured a round 3 place, while in 2012, 65 was needed. Our top three scorers in round 1 were:

  1. Colorado Sturmvogel_66 (submissions), primarily for an array of warship GAs.
  2. London Miyagawa (submissions), primarily for an array of did you knows and good articles, some of which were awarded bonus points.
  3. New South Wales Casliber (submissions), due in no small part to Canis Minor, a featured article awarded a total of 340 points. A joint submission with Alaska Keilana (submissions), this is the highest scoring single article yet submitted in this year's competition.

Other contributors of note include:

Featured topics have still played no part in this year's competition, but once again, a curious contribution has been offered by British Empire The C of E (submissions): did you know that there is a Shit Brook in Shropshire? With April Fools' Day during the next round, there will probably be a good chance of more unusual articles...

March sees the WikiWomen's History Month, a series of collaborative efforts to aid the women's history WikiProject to coincide with Women's History Month and International Women's Day. A number of WikiCup participants have already started to take part. The project has a to-do list of articles needing work on the topic of women's history. Those interested in helping out with the project can find articles in need of attention there, or, alternatively, add articles to the list. Those interested in collaborating on articles on women's history are also welcome to use the WikiCup talk page to find others willing to lend a helping hand. Another collaboration currently running is an an effort from WikiCup participants to coordinate a number of Easter-themed did you know articles. Contributions are welcome!

A few final administrative issues. From now on, submission pages will need only a link to the article and a link to the nomination page, or, in the case of good article reviews, a link to the review only. See your submissions' page for details. This will hopefully make updating submission pages a little less tedious. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) J Milburn (talk) 11:37, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Article Feedback deployment

Hey Dana boomer; I'm dropping you this note because you've used the article feedback tool in the last month or so. On Thursday and Friday the tool will be down for a major deployment; it should be up by Saturday, failing anything going wrong, and by Monday if something does :). Thanks, Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 22:25, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

Barbara McClintock FAR

Hi Dana! I think I've responded to everything you pointed out over at Wikipedia:Featured article review/Barbara McClintock/archive1; if you have some time there are a couple things I wanted to discuss/hash out. Thank you so much for your review and your patience. All the best, Keilana|Parlez ici 15:17, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

A cupcake for you!

Thanks for the helpful review of Ginetta Sagan. -- Khazar2 (talk) 00:36, 17 March 2013 (UTC)

Horse Protection Act of 1970

I had just gone onto the DYK template to reply to you but it has already been promoted it to a prep area - must be working really fast this morning! I found the article really interesting as I had no idea that sort of thing went on. I'm in the UK so imagine it probably also happens here. SagaciousPhil - Chat 12:31, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks again for the review - I too was surprised at how fast it was promoted! This is the first law article I have worked on, so it has been quite interesting to write. It's a fairly big deal in some parts of the US horse industry, although really only seen in large numbers with one breed, and smaller numbers with 2-3 other breeds. I don't know how much of a gaited horse industry there is in the UK, but would suspect that abuse of some sort happens pretty much everywhere - abusive horse trainers (and traders) are unfortunately an all-too-common phenomenon no matter where you are. Dana boomer (talk) 13:17, 18 March 2013 (UTC)
Good work, Dana. I will try to do a more thorough review tonite, but on a fast glance, looks pretty good. Montanabw(talk) 19:14, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Wikicup?

If you need wikicup points, I think you get credit for article creation, right? If so, I have three quick ones: there are eight native Japanese horse breeds; the Hokkaido Pony, Kiso, Misaki horse, Miyako Pony, Noma pony, Tokara pony, Tsushima, and Yonaguni. As you see, two have no article. Some have source material linked at the to do list for WPEQ breeds, and the FAO stuff used on the other Japanese pony/horse articles should have some basics on all of them. Just a thought. Montanabw(talk) 03:45, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

Nope, no points for article creation. Points are given for the various reviewed processes - DYK, GA, FA, FL, etc. Those do look interesting to work on, though. However, I'm trying to focus on the TWH/soring stuff right now - RL is a bit busy right now, so I don't have a ton of time. My goal overall this year is to improve all of the US and French breeds up to at least C class - I'm making some progress :) Dana boomer (talk) 11:16, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

Good Article Nominations Request For Comment

A 'Request For Comment' for Good Article Nominations is currently being held. We are asking that you please take five to ten minutes to review all seven proposals that will affect Good Article Nominations if approved. Full details of each proposal can be found here. Please comment on each proposal (or as many as you can) here.

At this time, Proposal 1, 3, and 5 have received full (or close to) support.

If you have questions of anything general (not related to one specif proposal), please leave a message under the General discussion thread.

Please note that Proposal 2 has been withdrawn and no further comments are needed. Also, please disregard Proposal 9 as it was never an actual proposal.

DYK for Horse Protection Act of 1970

Casliber (talk · contribs) 16:03, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

Featured article review for Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident

Hi Dana boomer! I wonder if Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident can be formally raised in FAR since it has been disscussed in talk page.--InstantNull (talk) 22:35, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

No. The idea is that, if possible, the article should be improved with discussion on the talk page, so that there is no need for a FAR. There are multiple editors willing to discuss changes with you on the article's talk page - some actions have already been taken with regard to your comments. The talk page step is not meant to be a rubber-stamped "there, I did it" - if there are responses and editors willing to work with you, you are expected to engage in talk page discussion, rather than continuing to push for a FAR. FAR is something to only use as a last resort if there has been little or no response to talk page posts. Dana boomer (talk) 22:59, 22 March 2013 (UTC)
Ok, I will try.InstantNull (talk) 07:08, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

Horse Protection Act

Salve! I offer you the legal eagle official handshake, of 30 percent costs and absolutely no discounts ;). The article looks good at first glance, but I'll review it in a more in-depth fashion now. Ironholds (talk) 07:24, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

So, only one point of confusion thus far; the "Circuit court" link. Is that meant to refer to the Federal Courts of Appeal? Ironholds (talk) 07:56, 24 March 2013 (UTC)
Yes, that link should have been to United States courts of appeals. I didn't realize the link was to the wrong article - thanks for pointing that out! Dana boomer (talk) 15:23, 24 March 2013 (UTC)
No problem! I was faairly confident, but not confident enough to jump in directly :). Everything else looks good, although I'd probably store the external links to individual citations as notes or references to make it easier to parse. Ironholds (talk) 23:01, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue LXXXIV, March 2013

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FAR-bot down?

Hello Dana, seems like [1] was not updated after your "keep". Not sure, what exactly has to be done for a "manual" close, so i notify the expert for help :). Thank you (for doing that time-consuming and often thankless job). GermanJoe (talk) 12:04, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

GermanJoe - my apologies for taking a few days to get back to this. I've contacted the operator of the new bot that is doing FAC closures to ask if his bot can also close FARs. Hopefully he can, and it won't take too long. If not, I'll ask User:Maralia, who is the goddess when it comes to manually archiving these things. Thanks for leaving me a note about this - I can be oblivious and it probably would have been a while before I noticed it hadn't been closed. :) Dana boomer (talk) 14:08, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Action devices

Just an FYI that "action devices" are not just chains, they are also weighted beads or "rollers" and sometimes weighted boots. See these examples I found in an ASB catlogue... [2], [3], [4]. Back at the farm, they also use stuff like this to train: [5] , [6] And that's what's manufactured commercially... =:- O Montanabw(talk) 21:56, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

Ugh, yeah, I know. I was apparently typing faster than I was thinking when I wrote that sentence. Thanks for tweaking. Dana boomer (talk) 14:08, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

I've commented on your GAN, I don't know whether you have come across this useful script 

importScript('User:Ucucha/duplinks.js'); // [[User:Ucucha/duplinks]]

Add the script to Special:MyPage/common.js and clear the cache after saving. There will be a link "Highlight duplicate links" in the toolbox on the left on every mainspace article. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 08:47, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Hi Jim! Thanks for the review. I'm insanely busy in RL right now, but will try to get to your comments this weekend - early next week at the latest. I have this script installed, I just always seem to forget to run it... Dana boomer (talk) 14:08, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Lilac rabbit

 — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:03, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

Template:Did you know nominations/Eduard von Capelle

Could you please stop by this DYK nomination you reviewed earlier? The QPQ has been done finally—Esemono has donated a review to Parsecboy—so if that was all that was holding this nomination from being approved, you could approve it. (If there are other issues, by all means identify them, so they can be rectified.) Many thanks. BlueMoonset (talk) 02:20, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Rhinelander rabbit

PanydThe muffin is not subtle 16:03, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

WikiCup 2013 March newsletter

We are halfway through round two. Pool A sees the strongest competition, with five out of eight of its competitors scoring over 100, and Pool H is lagging, with half of its competitors yet to score. WikiCup veterans lead overall; Pool A's Colorado Sturmvogel_66 (submissions) (2010's winner) leads overall, with poolmate London Miyagawa (submissions) (a finalist in 2011 and 2012) not far behind. Pool F's New South Wales Casliber (submissions) (a finalist in 2010, 2011 and 2012) is in third. The top two scorers in each pool, as well as the next highest 16 scorers overall, will progress to round three at the end of April.

Today has seen a number of Easter-themed did you knows from WikiCup participants, and March has seen collaboration from contestants with WikiWomen's History Month. It's great to see the WikiCup being used as a locus of collaboration; if you know of any collaborative efforts going on, or want to start anything up, please feel free to use the WikiCup talk page to help find interested editors. As well as fostering collaboration, we're also seeing the Cup encouraging the improvement of high-importance articles through the bonus point system. Highlights from the last month include GAs on physicist Niels Bohr (Australia Hawkeye7 (submissions)), on the European hare (Wales Cwmhiraeth (submissions)), on the constellation Circinus (Alaska Keilana (submissions) and New South Wales Casliber (submissions)) and on the Third Epistle of John (Indiana Cerebellum (submissions)). All of these subjects were covered on at least 50 Wikipedias at the beginning of the year and, subsequently, each contribution was awarded at least three times as many points as normal.

Wikipedians who enjoy friendly competition may be interested in participating in April's wikification drive. While wikifying an article is typically not considered "significant work" such that it can be claimed for WikiCup points, such gnomish work is often invaluable in keeping articles in shape, and is typically very helpful for new writers who may not be familiar with formatting norms.

A quick reminder: now, submission pages will need only a link to the article and a link to the nomination page, or, in the case of good article reviews, a link to the review only. See your submissions' page for details. This will hopefully make updating submission pages a little less tedious. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) J Milburn (talk) 22:30, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

Lists at FLC

If you have time or interest, feel free to take a look at my two lists at FLC: List of awards and nominations received by Fiona Apple and List of songs recorded by Pink Martini. Thanks so much! --Another Believer (Talk) 15:52, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Book about Comtois horse

Yes, it's about Comtois horse, it will be published this year by one of my friends. There's other french breed you can translate : Ardennes horse and Breton horse from good to quality. I must update Auvergne horse (just recognized as a breed by ministry of Agriculture so new books are published and I don't have). I recommand to translate if you can Mérens horse and Camargue horse, I've made a review for these article (quality label in 2009 and review in 2012). Thanke again ! --Tsaag Valren (talk) 16:34, 10 April 2013 (UTC)

I'd love to see more on the Carmargue, too; the semi-feral management stuff particularly interests me, especially after helping out with New Forest Pony. Montanabw(talk) 20:05, 11 April 2013 (UTC)
Yeah, but it's a 135kb article to translate... I'm going to need a bunch of time and motivation to sit down and translate that one. I already have something like 6 hours into the translation of Auxois, and that doesn't count any work I'll have to do with any comments that Amelie has or any GA/PR/FA comments. And that article's 1/4 the size! Oh well, I'll get to it eventually - my goal for this year is to get all of the US and French breed articles up to at least C-class, and as many as possible up to GA/FA! Dana boomer (talk) 22:57, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

Piulaski Skyway

I wonder if you have time to have a look at Pulaski Skyway as there's been some changes since new sources became available regarding it's history and it currently undergoing a major rehabilitation. Thanks for your help.Djflem (talk) 03:59, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

Hi Djflem - I'm not sure exactly what you would like me to look at? It looks like you have several experienced editors commenting on the talk page already. Many of the names I saw there have extensive experience with taking road articles to featured status (and keeping them there), so I would suggest listening to what they have to say. If there is a specific issue/source/section you would like me to look at, please let me know. Dana boomer (talk) 12:44, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Blanc de Hotot

PanydThe muffin is not subtle 08:03, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Invitation to join the Darius Dhlomo Drive

Hello. You are invited to join Darius Dhlomo Drive, a project which aims to cleanup and resolve one of the oldest copyright investigations on the sire. We hope that you will join and help to clean what's left of the copyright violations. You are getting this invitation because you have helped out previously, and I am inviting you back to hopefully wrap this up. Wizardman 01:44, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Milan

Hi Dana, in the last months I tried to do my best to improve the article according to your advice. Give me some feedbacks when possible please.--Conte di Cavour (talk) 23:50, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Genevieve Lhermitte Review

Hey, I am one of the primary editors for the Genevieve Lhermitte page that you reviewed. We are close to being ready to renominate it, but we're having a really hard time coming up with a picture. I've contacted Getty images and a few other companies about possibly using a picture, but none of them have gotten back to me. Would not having a picture cause problems in getting our page to be a "good article" when we renominate it? Kslinker5493 (talk) 15:30, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Mérens horse

The DYK project (nominate) 08:02, 21 April 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Auxois

Casliber (talk · contribs) 00:02, 23 April 2013 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue LXXXV, April 2013

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Review of Driverless tractor

Hi!

This is going to frustrate you, but my computer has just broken down and so I cannot continue the review.

Many thanks, Thomas85753 12:37, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

Hello! I'm one of the students working on the driverless tractor page. Thank you SO much for looking at our page! We will make all of the advised changes and recommendations tomorrow! Again, thank you! --Eems.p (talk) 03:49, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

You are quite welcome! I look forward to seeing your changes. Dana boomer (talk) 11:03, 6 May 2013 (UTC)
Hey, I'm also one of the students working on the driverless tractor page. I believe we've made all the changes that we're going to have time to make. Most notably, I added to the history section like you requested. Can you please review our page again before tomorrow morning at 8am? That is when our professor is grading the assignment as it is at that point.--Mdcoope3 (talk) 02:23, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
Are you allowed to add contributions yourself? We could really use the help and there is nothing in our assignment that says that isn't allowed. I can't access any of the Google Scholar sources you listed. They are $30+ each. --Mdcoope3 (talk) 03:24, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
As the GA reviewer, I'm not supposed to make major changes to the article. (Not to mention I'm working on another article right at the moment, then headed to bed.) Does your college have access to any journal databases? Many do, and they are often great sources for stuff like this. Or perhaps your professor would have other ideas? Even if you can't get the exact sources I listed, the general idea is what is important - if you have other reliable sources that cover this information, use them, rather than what I provided. As a note, I'm headed offline quite soon, so probably won't respond to further queries until the morning. Dana boomer (talk) 03:57, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
Okay thank you for all your help. Please check again before 8am EST if at all possible! We're going to try to do what we can so that the next time you look, we pass.--Mdcoope3 (talk) 04:31, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

WikiCup 2013 April newsletter

We are a week into Round 3, but it is off to a flying start, with Republic of Rose Island Sven Manguard (submissions) claiming for the high-importance Portal:Sports and Portal:Geography (which are the first portals ever awarded bonus points in the WikiCup) and Wales Cwmhiraeth (submissions) claiming for a did you know of sea, the highest scoring individual did you know article ever submitted for the WikiCup. Round 2 saw very impressive scores at close; first place New South Wales Casliber (submissions) and second place Colorado Sturmvogel_66 (submissions) both scored over 1000 points; a feat not seen in Round 2 since 2010. This, in part, has been made possible by the change in the bonus points rules, but is also testament to the quality of the competition this year. Pool C and Pool G were most competitive, with three quarters of participants making it to Round 3, while Pool D was the least, with only the top two scorers making it through. The lowest qualifying score was 123, significantly higher than last year's 65, 2011's 41 or even 2010's 100.

The next issue of The Signpost is due to include a brief update on the current WikiCup, comparing it to previous years' competitions. This may be of interest to current WikiCup followers, and may help bring some more new faces into the community. We would also like to note that this round includes an extra competitor to the 32 advertised, who has been added to a random pool. This extra inclusion seems to have been the fairest way to deal with a small mistake made before the beginning of this round, but should not affect the competition in a large way. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please feel free to contact one of the judges.

A rules clarification: content promoted between rounds can be claimed in the round after the break, but not the round before. The case in point is content promoted on 29/30 April, which may be claimed in this round. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 15:54, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured article review/M62 motorway/archive2

Hi! This review has been inactive for a month - is it ready to be demoted? --Rschen7754 02:42, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

Yes. It's on my to-do list, just been super busy in RL and with other things on WP. Thanks for reminding me - I'll try to get to it today. Dana boomer (talk) 10:42, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

For Tsaag and Dana

You two may want to team up on another project here, the long-neglected AQPS. Montanabw(talk) 22:31, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, it's on my list of things to do. RL has been kicking my butt lately (it's spring!!!!), so I've been working through said to-do list at a much slower pace than originally intended :) Dana boomer (talk) 01:18, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue LXXXVI, May 2013

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CCI update

--Wizardman 18:13, 24 May 2013 (UTC)

FAC review of James Moore

Dana, thanks for your helpful comments over at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/James Moore (Continental Army officer)/archive1. I just wanted to let you know I believe I've addressed your comments, and would sincerely appreciate it if you could take another look. Best wishes! Cdtew (talk) 15:53, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

Horse Protection Act of 1970 GA Review

Hello, Dana boomer. Just wanted to let you know I've reviewed Horse Protection Act of 1970, and I've placed the article on hold for the time being. Check out Talk:Horse Protection Act of 1970/GA1 for the full review, and to see the reasons I've placed the article on hold. Thanks, Red Phoenix build the future...remember the past... 22:08, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

Review completed and passed - See the full review for more information. After seeing the changes, I've passed the article. Well done! Red Phoenix build the future...remember the past... 03:37, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Wonderful; thank you very much! Dana boomer (talk) 11:35, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Norman Cob

You may have spotted from your watchlist that Norman Cob is due to appear as Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 9, 2013; if you can improve the blurb in the next few days, please do. Thanks, BencherliteTalk 23:27, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

WikiProject Good Articles Recruitment Centre

Hello! Now, some of you might be wondering why there is a Good article icon with a bunch of stars around (to the right). The answer? WikiProject Good articles will be launching a Recruitment Centre very soon! The centre will allow all users to be taught how to review Good article nominations by experts just like you! However, in order for the Recruitment Centre to open in the first place, we need some volunteers:
  • Recruiters: The main task of a recruiter is to teach users that have never reviewed a Good article nomination how to review one. To become a recruiter, all you have to do is meet this criteria. If we don't get at least 5-10 recruiters to start off with, the Recruitment Centre will not open. If interested, make sure you meet the criteria, read the process and add your name to the list of recruiters. (One of the great things about being a recruiter is that there is no set requirement of what must be taught and when. Instead, all the content found in the process section is a guideline of the main points that should be addressed during a recruitment session...you can also take an entire different approach if you wish!) If you think you will not have the time to recruit any users at this time but are still interested in becoming a recruiter, you can still add your name to the list of recruiters but just fill in the "Status" parameter with "Not Available".
  • Co-Director: The current Director for the centre is me (Dom497). Another user that would be willing to help with some of the tasks would be helpful. Tasks include making sure recruiters are doing what they should be (teaching!), making sure all recruitments are archived correctly, updating pages as needed, answering any questions, and distributing the feedback form. If interested, please contact me (Dom497).
  • Nominators, please read this: If you are not interested in becoming a recruiter, you can still help. In some cases a nominator may have an issue with an "inexperienced" editor (the recruitee) reviewing one of their nominations. To minimize the chances of this happening, if you are fine with a recruitee reviewing one of your nominations under the supervision of the recruiter, please add your name to the list at the bottom of this page. By adding your name to this list, chances are that your nomination will be reviewed more quickly as the recruitee will be asked to choose a nomination from the list of nominators that are OK with them reviewing the article.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to seeing this program bring new reviewers to the Good article community and all the positive things it will bring along.

A message will be sent out to all recruiters regarding the date when the Recruitment Centre will open when it is determined. The message will also contain some further details to clarify things that may be a bit confusing.--Dom497 (talk)

This message was sent out by --EdwardsBot (talk) 01:08, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Steffen Peters

Gatoclass 16:04, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

GA guidance

The Guidance Barnstar
For your advice and feedback as the students in the NCSU Wikipedia course and I pushed through the GAN process.

Thanks!

Rhododendrites (talk) 17:32, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

FAR concern

So I've been thinking that FAR has made no movement lately. More so on Abyssinia, Henry which looks like a mistake to have it on here in the first place. Is it possible to withdraw it or something? GamerPro64 03:33, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

FAR does tend to move fairly slowly, unfortunately. I don't see why you couldn't withdraw it, as there haven't been any comments from editors other than the two of us. I would suggest putting a note to that effect on the talk page, and then dropping a note to User:Nikkimaria, the other FAR delegate, as she should be the one to close this. Dana boomer (talk) 11:40, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

Tennessee Walking Horse

Passed GA. Excellent work there MTBW and Dana! PumpkinSky talk 23:38, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Beatriz Ferrer-Salat

 — Crisco 1492 (talk) 01:48, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

GA vs straight to FA

Dana, want to pick your brain. I've been working on Oxbow (horse) (Seems I find myself working on Preakness Stakes winners for some weird reason; took Shackleford (horse) to GA a couple years ago. ) Anyway, the team (me, Froggerlaura, Craiglduncan, others) sort of took the bit in our collective teeth and we now have a damn good article. Eric Corbett (aka Malleus) looked it over and he, along with a couple other people, think we should skip GA and take it straight to FAC. I've never done that before (kind of thought you needed one before the other but apparently not). Their reasoning was mostly the GA backlog and risk of attracting troll reviewers. What do you think? (Also, you've not touched the article, so any interest in doing a GA review if I DO put it up there? I'll reciprocate with any GAs you have languishing that I haven't worked on...) Montanabw(talk) 16:24, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

As you can probably see, I've barely been on WP in the past week. Haven't had time for more than a quick glance at the article, but if Eric says it's ready for FAC, I don't have reason to doubt him. There's not a lot of troll reviewers at either venue, although there are a few misguided ones. Dana boomer (talk) 23:20, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
Ah done did it. You've not edited there at all, should you feel like doing a review. Montanabw(talk) 18:13, 25 June 2013 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue LXXXVII, June 2013

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HPA

We've got reviewers at HPA. I'm addressing the technical stuff raised by Cwmhiraeth OK, but Nikki has some techie formatting things I think are more up your alley. Montanabw(talk) 16:42, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

Yup, should be able to get to those tonight. Thought I could last night, but didn't quite get there. Dana boomer (talk) 10:50, 25 June 2013 (UTC)
Ping Ping, Ealdgyth is doing a review of HPA and has some questions/concerns. I fixed all the little stuff, but one is more philisophical and she wants your views on the matter before proceeding... can you swing by?? Montanabw(talk) 22:50, 28 June 2013 (UTC)
Sorry it took me so long - things have been crazy. Thank you SO, SO, SO much for taking the lead on this. In retrospect, this was probably a poor time for me to nominate an article for FAC. Dana boomer (talk) 11:47, 1 July 2013 (UTC)
NO prob. BTW, I also have Oxbow (horse) at FAC if you have any interest in doing what I hope would be a pretty easy review (Ealdgyth and Eric Corbett (aka Malleus) both did a peer review prior to the FAC nom). If you are too busy, perhaps you have a wiki-colleague who does thoughtful reviews you could point that way... Montanabw(talk) 18:46, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

WikiCup 2013 June newsletter

We are down to our final 16: the 2013 semi-finals are upon us. A score of 321 was required to survive round 3, further cementing this as the most competitive WikiCup yet; round 3 was survived in 2012 with 243 points, in 2011 with 76 points and in 2010 with 250 points. The change may in part be to do with the fact that more articles are now awarded bonus points, in addition to more competitive play. Reaching the final has, in the past, required 573 points (2012, a 135% increase on the score needed to reach round 4), 150 points (2011, a 97% increase) and 417 points (2010, a 72% increase). This round has seen over a third of participants claiming points for featured articles (with seven users claiming for multiple featured articles) and most users have also gained bonus points. However, the majority of points continue to come from good articles, followed by did you know articles. In this round, every content type was utilised by at least one user, proving that the WikiCup brings together content contributors from all corners of the project.

Round 3 saw a number of contributions of note. Idaho Figureskatingfan (submissions) claimed the first featured topic points in this year's competition for her excellent work on topics related to Maya Angelou, the noted American author and poet. We have also continued to see high-importance articles improved as part of the competition: Wyoming Ealdgyth (submissions) was awarded a thoroughly well-earned 560 points for her featured article Middle Ages and 102 points for her good article Battle of Hastings. Good articles James Chadwick and Stanislaw Ulam netted Australia Hawkeye7 (submissions) 102 and 72 points respectively, while 72 points were awarded to Poland Piotrus (submissions) for each of Władysław Sikorski and Emilia Plater, both recently promoted to good article status. Collaborative efforts between WikiCup participants have continued, with, for example, New South Wales Casliber (submissions) and Canada Sasata (submissions) being awarded 180 points each for their featured article on Boletus luridus.

A rules reminder: content promoted between rounds can be claimed in the round after the break, but not the round before. The case in point is content promoted on the 29/30 June, which may be claimed in this round. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. We are currently seeing concern about the amount of time people have to wait for reviews, especially at GAC- if you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to reduce the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 10:02, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Babysitter with cluebat

Just a heads up to watchlist Lipizzan if you don't already. We have another eastern European nationalist popping up over there who may eventually need a cluebat. Minor stuff so far, here's hoping. Montanabw(talk) 16:46, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Steffen Peters

The article Steffen Peters you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Steffen Peters for comments about the article. Well done! The Rambling Man (talk) 12:16, 5 July 2013 (UTC)

Thank you very much! Dana boomer (talk) 13:39, 5 July 2013 (UTC)

Courtesy note

Dana, I've started an RFC on proposed adjustments to the governance of the featured-article forums. Tony (talk) 11:19, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

Rockin'!

Horse Protection Act just passed FA! Oh yeah, we rock, oh yeah! Montanabw(talk) 20:51, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

YAY!!!! Thank you SO much for all of your work on this FAC - I have been so insanely busy that I've barely had a chance to read the reviewers' comments, much less reply to them. I think most of the rest of the summer is going to be like this - hopefully late summer/early fall I can get back to editing regularly. Dana boomer (talk) 13:44, 8 July 2013 (UTC)
It was fun, and not too much trouble at all. Here's hoping I get the star for Oxbow (horse) before his next race (when we will need to add more stuff to the article) Montanabw(talk) 17:30, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Next year's wikicup...

We do Horse as a dual workup to FAC. Dual nom. 780 points if we get it to FA status. Ealdgyth - Talk 22:05, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

I'm in so long as my participation doesn't detract from the wikicup points for you two. I'm too involved to be an FA reviewer, so can't help there. (Note to all, taxonomy section will need work, and probably the help of Kim vd Linde too...) Montanabw(talk) 00:37, 14 July 2013 (UTC)
Sounds like a good idea! This summer my participation has tanked - no idea if I'll make it through to the final round. Kim hasn't edited since March, and she had her account vanished, so I doubt she's planning to come back. Dana boomer (talk) 22:22, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue LXXXVIII, July 2013

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Bupropion

Replied. Ten Pound Hammer • (What did I screw up now?) 21:52, 30 July 2013 (UTC)

Tekes...

May need you and your TPSers to keep watching Akhal-Teke. The POV pusher still isn't getting it. I about fell out of my chair when they suggested that we leave the article to the big breeders - who are the parties who usually try the hardest to hide their little genetic disease secrets? Have we yet seen ANY animal breeder not try to put head in sand? Sheesh. Montanabw(talk) 17:14, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Trade ya?

GAR of your David O'Connor (equestrian) for GAR of my Paynter (horse)?? Montanabw(talk) 17:41, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Looks like I've got a reviewer for O'Connor (that was fast!), but I'll try to get to Paynter anyway. I think my schedule has slowed down as much as it's going to for the summer, so I have a bit of time here and there for WP. I'll also continue keeping an eye on Akhal-Teke. I have a few sources pulled to try to make some improvements to the article in general, which may help ward off POV-pushers. You have access to a better set of equine databases than I do, I think - do you have anything more scientific/in-depth on the genetic diseases? Dana boomer (talk) 20:41, 31 July 2013 (UTC)
It's one of those "small breeds with a dirty little secret" situation, hard to find peer-reviewed stuff because no one wants to admit there's a problem. But just wait until I get the scuttlebutt on the Friesians... had an enlightening talk with a veterinarian a couple months ago and he mentioned their stuff in passing... whooo! Dramah! Montanabw(talk) 00:02, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of David O'Connor (equestrian)

Hello, I just wanted to introduce myself and let you know I am glad to be reviewing the article David O'Connor (equestrian) you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by GA bot, on behalf of The Rambling Man -- The Rambling Man (talk) 18:28, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

WikiCup 2013 July newsletter

We're halfway through this year's penultimate round, and the competition is moving along well. Pool A's Canada Sasata (submissions) currently leads overall, while Pool B's Colorado Sturmvogel_66 (submissions) is second. Both leaders are WikiCup veterans, and both have already scored over 600 points this month. If the round were to end today, London Miyagawa (submissions), with 274 points, would be the lowest-scoring participant to make it through. This indicates that participants will need a score comparable to last year's (573, the highest ever) to qualify for the final. The high scores this year are a testament both to the quality of participants and to the increased focus on significant content (eligible for bonus points) in this year's competition. So far this round, both Sasata and Wales Cwmhiraeth (submissions) have made up over half of their score through bonus points, with, for example, high importance FA koala earning Sasata a total of 440 points (from a multiplier of 4.4) and high-importance GA sea earning Cwmhiraeth a total of 216 points (from a multiplier of 7.2). Other articles on important topics submitted this round include a featured article on the Norman conquest of England by Wyoming Ealdgyth (submissions), and good articles on Nobel laureate in literature Henryk Sienkiewicz, Nobel laureate in physics Hans Bethe, and the noted Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryū. These articles are by Poland Piotrus (submissions), Australia Hawkeye7 (submissions) and Sturmvogel_66 respectively.

Other than that, there is not much to report! If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to reduce the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 23:27, 31 July 2013 (UTC)