Once again it is festive season, a time where festive decorations are displayed and gifts are swapped; but what about the true meaning of christmas? The true meaning of christmas is about the fight for freedom and how in times of hardship and misery, one person leads their people to freedom as a great warrior; for those who fight for a cause are warriors and those who fight for a worthy cause are great warriors. Such an act earns respect and honour; but most importantly, brings happiness to their people. So to achieve this as happiness lies in other people's happiness and greatness lies in how you deal with little people, we selflessly think of others in the hope that they will be happy this christmas.
Hi, apologies for my silence on that call, I'm away for Xmas and my hostesses PC has great speakers but no mike. So I could hear you all whilst I used some of the sources you were using for the wikinews article to write Michael Francis Tompsett. ϢereSpielChequers19:02, 26 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Hello! I hope you had a Merry Christmas! Anyway, I would like to bring two articles concerning notable female warriors from fiction to DYK status and am curious, given your interest in women as warriors, if you would like to help out? Here are the articles and my rationale concerning them:
Jennifer Mui gets nearly two thousand page views a month and several times that in Google Hits. She has been listed as one of the "10 Video Game Women Who Don’t Use Sex to Sell". She is a playable main character who appears in two multi-platform games (and in an upcoming one) as well as in a Graphic Novel and in at least two published strategy guides. She is the ONLY playable female main character in the series. Another editor has merged information from her article to another as noted at Talk:Mercenaries_2:_World_in_Flames, but I still think we have room for additional expansion.
Manon Batiste is based on Hélène Deschamps Adams from the French Resistance (I actually managed to get a DYK on Adams's article after I merged content from Batiste's article some months ago). Batiste appears on the cover of the game for which she is a playable character, on the cover of its soundtrack, and on the cover of its strategy guide. She is voiced by a notable actress named Olivia d'Abo in at least one of the games (she appears in several and is the star and main playable character in one that was re-released on a compilation disc and more recently appears on the PlayStation Network as well, i.e. she appears on globally released multi-platform games and is familiar to literally millions of people worldwide, as evidence by the thousands of Google Hits and nearly 2,000 monthly page views. There are few women who appear as playable characters in First-person shooter games, especially World War II based simulations. Critics have accordingly called it "a refreshing change of pace because you played Manon Batiste," a woman. See William Abner, Gamer's Tome of Ultimate Wisdom: An Almanac of Pimps, Orcs, and Lightsabers (Que, 2005), 105.
Without any doubt, the above are among the most significant characters in video games for the above listed reasons, certainly not as significant as say Lara Croft, but definitely up there, whether it be in the case of Manon as her basis from a real figure of note who served as a consultant on the game and being one of the few playable females in a first-person shooter or Mui's significance going beyond her game onto the pages of a graphic novel. Anyway, if you would like to and are able to help bring in the New Year by bringing these up to DYK status, that would be a nice way to end the year on a proactive colloboration that benefits our site and readership alike! Thank you for your time and consideration! Sincerely, --A NobodyMy talk21:07, 26 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Those are wonderful ideas. Thank you very much for thinking of me. Unfortunately existing commitments make it impossible to take that on anytime in the near future. Durova38622:02, 26 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I acted upon your request for unprotection - but according to these comments and those on Ottava's talkpage it is his block conditions that disallow him from editing the page - and that it appears some undertakings by OR need to be given before those conditions can be agreed to be changed. Since this appears to be ArbCom decision related limitations I think they rather than WP:RPP is the appropriate venue to pursue this matter further.LessHeard vanU (talk) 12:23, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I see CoM does not understand why you posted this (or asked what you asked?) on her talk.
But I knew instantly that I needed to add a theatre image to my user page. Nice rough sketch of The Globe worked nicely. :-) So, thank you ... accidentally. lol Proofreader77(interact)10:41, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Durova. That photo looks great. Thank you very much for fixing it up. I don't have much experience with GA and FA type activities, but I'm happy to muck about in an attempt to be helpful on anything that you think might be of interest to me. Vaya con Dios. ChildofMidnight (talk) 19:19, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Note: I am interested in learning the GA/FA process ... Have been tied up in other matters, but looks like mind-space is freeing up a bit. If there is some essay that someone has written about this that strikes you as worth reading for someone who's getting ready to wade in, please post below. Proofreader77(interact)22:08, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
(smile) You have to understand, I had to (fairly recently) look up what FA even stands for. lol And I have only the foggiest notion that it must mean "good" — in some way. ;-) Perhaps what I need to have clear ... is what "good" means from the perspective of Wikipedia. I know that sounds relatively stupid from someone who's been around a bit. But I've been dealing with "controversial" articles mostly ("current events wrangling") and quality is not something that comes up much in discussions there. :-)
Now, as for your question ... to write I'd want to have a good grasp of the subject beforehand ... but to review seems that being ignorant of the subject is a good thing.
Bad scanner streaks. Someone made a crude attempt at erasing: notice the smudge marks at the lower part of the girl's garment. Very difficult to fix those properly during editing. It's a heavily compressed file anyway. Although you're right that the underlying image has merit. If it's possible to acquire a clean scan of 10MB or larger in uncompressed TIFF format, it could have the makings of an FP. Durova39000:01, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Something else from the same era (different war) that could make a good FP, though.[1] Public domain due to a gift by US News & World Report. I don't know what the Marines were doing in Beirut in 1958, though. Durova39000:06, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Could be peacekeepers; the United Nations Emergency Force was deployed to the region to babysit the suez during the mid 1950s. Marines in Beirut could have a been a part of that. I'll see about digging up a better image of the kids and tank, but its going to have to wait until I get back. TomStar81 (Talk) 01:09, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Not sure why, but LoC searches for Korean War material turn up dry. I check every few months; must be a part of their collection they haven't scanned at high resolution yet. Durova39001:13, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You are one of the twelve editors advancing into the second round of the Henry Allingham World War I Contest. The second round started at 00:00, 29 December and ends 23:59, 31 January. The top six ranked players at the end of this stage will advance into the final round of the contest so keep up the good work! --Eurocopter (talk) 00:43, 30 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Since you're famous for your image restoring talents I thought you'd be a good person to ask. I recently restored my first image, File:Giles Corey restored.jpg, and found it to be an entertaining challenge. I'm sure my work isn't as good as yours, but I wanted to know, should I want to try my hand at this some more, if there's a list somewhere of candidate images awaiting restoration...? Or do you just browse around historical topics hoping to find them?
I also wanted to know if it's acceptable to just copy the copyright status from the original (which is what I did), and if not what should I be doing? Thanks in advance for your help. Equazcion(talk) 00:53, 30 Dec 2009 (UTC)
Thank you for your interest in digital restoration. :) That's an excellent first effort. If this is PD-1923 not renewed then it ought to be hosted at Commons. As a default, going with the original copyright status is always safe. In some situations it's possible to argue a new copyright for a restoration depending on your location and depending on whether significant creative effort went into the work. I never assert a new copyright, but have been advised that it would be possible in quite a few instances.
Would be glad to give you a hand with other projects. There's a page at Commons, and the Tropenmuseum is due to release a new set of high resolution images soon, or I could scout for a good novice project within your areas of interest. It's your choice. Durova39001:25, 30 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks -- a couple follow-up questions: I've never moved a picture from here to commons; Do I upload it there and request deletion here somehow? Also, when you say "there's a page at commons," do you mean a page for restorations? If so could you link me to it? Thanks, sorry for all the questions. And thanks for your offer regarding future projects, I may take you up on it. Equazcion(talk) 01:57, 30 Dec 2009 (UTC)
Okay, that may be enough for the LoC research librarians. Will write it up. Interrupted other things today in order to work on an exceptional featured picture candidate at Commons: one of the Commons FP contributors was present at the Berlin Wall 20 years ago when it came down, and copylefted several photographs of the event. I've done a restoration on one of them. :) Also threw in a quick restoration on a political cartoon from the end of the Great White Fleet voyage. Best regards, Durova39020:13, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
US historical archives
Hi Durova, This might be a silly question, but do any of the US Government's historical archives have large, online and searchable collections of World War II-era photos? I've looked at the LoC and NARA websites, but not much of their collections appears to be online. To provide context, I'm hoping to find something which is an equivalent to the Australian War Memorial's outstanding online database - does anything approximating an American equivalent of this exist? Thanks, Nick-D (talk) 00:48, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
OK, thanks for that. Another advantage of living in a small country! (though I visited both the LoC and National Archives when I was in Washington recently, and was very impressed by both). Nick-D (talk) 04:57, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps you could help with something. Several months ago I attempted to do a restoration from Gallipoli. The only image I could find of it was dreadful. It wasn't very important to the States because we weren't in the war yet. Would there be a chance of getting something better from an Australian source? If it helps to have a related example, here's a restoration of an Australian military encampment near Jerusalem during World War I. Durova39020:19, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Australian camps on slopes of Olivet & Mount Scopus, 1918
Thanks very much for the invite, but I'm retired. Shifting focus to chapter and museum relations. In the long run it's better for WMF. Warmest regards, Durova39003:01, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
A noiseless patient spider, I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand, Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them, Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul."
Thank you very much for your interest. One of them is William Allen Rogers, who was a political cartoonist for the New York Herald a century ago.
Vojtěch Preissig was an artist who supported the Czech resistance during both World Wars. He designed this US recruitment poster in 1918. Unfortunately by World War II he was back in Europe; he died in Dachau in 1944.
Another is Vojtěch Preissig, a Czech typographer and graphic artist. There's already a good start on a biography at User:Durova/Vojtěch Preissig: a lot of it has been written about him. Very little of it is available online in English, but it's been possible to patch together a basic biography from reliable sources. Needs a little more rounding out; I was using Google Translate to fill in the gaps from the Czech Wikipedia. If you'd like to finish it and share credit I'd be very grateful. (NuclearWarfare deserves shared credit too; he formatted the citations).
Japanese woodblock print, circa 1818-1830.
For this Japanese print it appears the Library of Congress misspelled the artist's name, or perhaps used a nonstandard transliteration. It should be Yashima Gogaku according to the editors at WikiProject Japan. There's a long discussion about this image at WikiProject Japan talk. He worked within the surimono subgenre of Ukiyo-e. There might be two DYKs for this image; the article on surimono is barely one paragraph.
Thank you; it looks wonderful. Good enough to move into article space; all it needs is categories. Would you mind, or do you want to keep in user space a little longer? Durova39019:56, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I've been looking at some of your images (and those of others as well) and find that -- to the eyes of a historian -- their descriptions seem lacking in detail. Standard academic practice is to cite the full provenance (the source and date, the current location and descriptors for images of unique objects (e.g. library shelf marks), and the original creator) of the physical image; electronic practice suggests citing the agency that produced the scan and the editor who modified the image. Here are three samples that show (imperfectly) what I have in mind:
I know you've been active in creating some remarkable Wikimedia images. What do you think of my suggestions? Do you have any ideas of where I could post them to have some influence on Wikimedia description practice?
Interesting difference of perspective. The thing I most want to see become standard practice is to upload the raw scans for historic media and cross link between restored and unrestored versions under separate filenames. Your edit notes are brief, but probably sufficient for simple edits. That kind of documentation has made a difference with institutional negotiations; curators are justifiably concerned to avoid misrepresentation of the material in their care. For an example of the problem, look at the file history of this image from February through November 2008. As far as your request, I think I already do most of that. Is it unclear? Are there areas where we need improvement? The Library of Congress uses a digital ID number in place of a shelf number for its digital collection, which I haven't usually added because it's seemed redundant with a link to the file hosting page. But I could add that in future if you think it's a good idea. Durova39017:17, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I really like the Painting Information box used in the Botticelli image; I didn't even know it existed. It has all the details commonly used in academic citations and seems like the kind of thing that could easily be extended to handle manuscript illuminations; printed figures, and other kinds of images. Wikipedia can be confusing to people who only upload images occasionally; my concern is with providing some user-friendly guidance in a place where it's likely to be read. SteveMcCluskey (talk) 17:33, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Our eyes go to different things. This is a serious problem. Someone did a radical edit to Botticelli's self-portrait and uploaded the alteration over the original filename. Durova39018:00, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Haven't heard back from either institution, probably because of the holidays. Sent a followup email to the Detroit Public Library shortly before Christmas, and reminded the Tropenmuseum contact. They both seemed willing to help but haven't responded since mid-December. Planning to follow up with both places when the weekend ends. Durova39107:22, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : XLVI (December 2009)
The December 2009 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) 03:04, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
As you've been more than a bit oblique with your messages on my talkpage, I've sent you an email. If you'd prefer to keep the discussions on-wiki, that's fine with me, I just thought you might be able to be more candid about what other account you think I've used that I'm not disclosing on my userpage. UnitAnode18:14, 4 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Very interesting. Have you considered contacting the staff of the historic site? Have been thinking we ought to get in touch with them. Thanks for your hard work! : Durova39119:17, 5 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
My next act, in the next week or so, is to visit the Massachusetts Historical Society, which has the Amherst journal, copies of the Bulletin of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum (which contains the Brehm journal), and some other publications of potential interest. I'm anticipating that these should fill, to the extent the record allows, the remaining gaps. If that fails, questions to the research folks at the fort may well be in order. Magic♪piano14:25, 6 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, Durova. You have new messages at WP:ANI. Message added 00:04, 8 January 2010 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.
Hello: I saw your request on the DCMeetup talk page; I work at LC; I would be happy to be a liasion for you. Is there an email address I can contact you at?--FeanorStar7 (talk) 12:51, 8 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You'd need to go one by one and check. The first of them is public domain under the PD-1923 rule.[3] It was published in 1900. Nearly everything that was published before 1923 is public domain in the United States. Durova39721:36, 12 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The initial screening is easy enough to do yourself. Just go to each hosting page and check the publication date. If it's prior to 1923 and they were all first published in the United States then upload to Commons. Get back to me about anything you think you'll really use that doesn't meet that initial screening. Durova40105:58, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, Durova, I accidentally closed this nomination before I realised that I voted. I posted about it at the fpc talk page. I didn't want to make this messy by undoing the promotion edits I'd already made, so I carried on. Hopefully there are no complaints, :-/ My apologies. Maedin\talk11:28, 9 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Normally simple edits such as watermark removal would get done by request to Wikipedia's graphics lab. Since that one is up with a nonfree use rationale it's unlikely that editors would touch it. Durova39721:23, 12 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Hi there. Do you still maintain the triple crowns? I was going to put up my hand at some point, but i had a query. What do you mean by "at least ten line citations to an article" when it comes to assessing whether someone's contribution warrants inclusion? I wasn't sure if this referred to the edit history, or something about the article (at least 10 references?). By way of example, I wondered whether this kind of revision of an article would be in or out? Cheers. hamiltonstone (talk) 01:51, 11 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Doesn't need to be ten different sources, just ten citations. That's a benchmark for measuring the difference between major and minor contributions. Mainly it's to prevent people from collecting awards for hanging out at FAC and GAN doing minor copyedits. Durova39721:25, 12 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Dominican Republic government images
Do you know anything about the copyright on DR government images? I ask because the Yankees recently sent a contingent of players and the 09 WS trophy to meet with the DR president ([4], [5]), and as you can see that official government story comes with a couple images. I'd love to include one of them to make an interesting pairing with an eventual image like this, but I don't know if the DR freely releases gov't images as the US does. Staxringoldtalkcontribs16:55, 11 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Commons maintains a list of copyright information by country, which really needs the attention of good translators to fill in the gaps. There's a big shortage of information on Latin America. On occasion I've delved into the untranslated portions. The net result was confirmation that my Spanish is good enough to translate the lyrics of a tango, but not up to the task of determining whether a photograph of the Panama Canal during construction by a photographer who lived in Panama City falls under Panamanian or United States copyright jurisdiction. It'd be best to seek out a native speaker. Durova39721:31, 12 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Help with a user who maintains a user page attacking me?
It refers directly to me and I would like it taken down. Tom Butler does not like me, and so I'd like to get an outside, uninvolved user to advocate for its removal. Would you be willing?
This part looks problematic. "Be very clear that we are not able to ignore misinformation in Wikipedia just because some editor like ScienceApologist said it was going to be that way here." Your objection is reasonable. How would you like to approach this. Durova39720:34, 12 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I would like to be as non-confrontational as possible, but as long as the writing is removed from Wikipedia I'm not upset how it gets done. Perhaps you could message him? ScienceApologist (talk) 21:29, 12 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Does it bother you enough to take the risk that others who dislike you would come to the thread, bait you, and the whole thing would be chalked up by half the community as "ScienceApologist drama"? That's your call. Durova40105:34, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
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