When you get a chance, could you please have the bot send out:
The [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Coordinators|Military history WikiProject coordinator]] election has begun. We will be selecting seven coordinators to serve for the next six months from a pool of sixteen candidates. Please [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Coordinators/February 2007|'''vote here''']] by February 25!
The Military history WikiProject coordinator election has begun. We will be selecting seven coordinators to serve for the next six months from a pool of sixteen candidates. Please vote here by February 25!
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter: Issue XII - February 2007
The February 2007 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.
The new consolidated review department—combining the existing project peer review and A-Class review with a listing of project articles undergoing various external featured content candidacies and reviews—is now operational.
Two new templates have been introduced:
{{Infobox Firearm Cartridge}}, a primary infobox for use with firearm cartridges and artillery shells.
An effort is being made to have task forces maintain annotated bibliographies for their topic areas; several task forces have already begun to construct them.
The project reached two important milestones this month: 500 active members and 30,000 articles in the assessment system.
A military version of Wikipe-tan has been created; a new userbox featuring one of the images is available for interested project members.
Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to all of the candidates who put themselves forward for this responsibility, and to the retiring coordinators for all of their efforts to improve the project!
{{Infobox National Military}} is being developed to replace the old {{Military}} template; comments on the draft version are welcome.
A proposal to introduce a category tree for military campaigns, as well as a number of associated classification guidelines, is being discussed; comments would be very appreciated.
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.
The new consolidated review department—combining the existing project peer review and A-Class review with a listing of project articles undergoing various external featured content candidacies and reviews—is now operational.
Two new templates have been introduced:
{{Infobox Firearm Cartridge}}, a primary infobox for use with firearm cartridges and artillery shells.
An effort is being made to have task forces maintain annotated bibliographies for their topic areas; several task forces have already begun to construct them.
The project reached two important milestones this month: 500 active members and 30,000 articles in the assessment system.
A military version of Wikipe-tan has been created; a new userbox featuring one of the images is available for interested project members.
Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to all of the candidates who put themselves forward for this responsibility, and to the retiring coordinators for all of their efforts to improve the project!
{{Infobox National Military}} is being developed to replace the old {{Military}} template; comments on the draft version are welcome.
A proposal to introduce a category tree for military campaigns, as well as a number of associated classification guidelines, is being discussed; comments would be very appreciated.
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.
Assistant Cooridinator of the Military History Wikiproject, August 2006 — February 2007
In recognition of the six monthes spent as an Assistant Coordinator of the Military History Wikiproject, I herby award you these stars. Thank you for contributing your time and effort to the project. TomStar81 (Talk) 00:12, 2 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
We are on the cusp of having 9000 novel and other narrative prose articles tagged as part of the project. With this volume of articles, we need all the editorial help we can get.
Now there are three Task Forces ("Short story", "Science Fiction" & "Crime") - see below
Member news
The project has currently 214 members, 8 joined & 1 leavers since the last newsletter at the start of February 2007
Other news
The Assessment department has managed to assess (in some form) nearly all the main articles. The emphasis will now change to identifying needed article improvement, however keeping a watch on newly tagged articles with a view to properly assess those.
A new Peer review department has kicked off with one of my early articles as a starting point. Please do give it a look, start reviewing and suggest other articles that you believe could benefit from another pair of eyes.
Currently stalled - if anyone has the means to help out here with re-generation of these list - please do!
Current debates
The End of Fair Use? is notification of a serious debate going on across WikiPedia.
Another possible problem hasn't really got going as a debate but maybe should have. It highlights a need to put in content to articles that asserts "notability" and gives proper referencing to articles.
Volunteers needed - if any members feel able to take on project tasks such as leading Task Forces, editing this Newsletter, monitoring and maintaining the Announcements template, heading up Outreach activity, managing Collaboration or Assessment activity or anything else you believe needs special attention, please let us know.
Welcome to the tenth issue of the Novels WikiProject's newsletter! Use this newsletter as a mechanism to inform yourselves about progress at the project and please be inspired to take more active roles in what we do.
We would encourage all members to get more involved and if you are wondering what with, please ask.
This arbitration case has closed and the final decision is available at the link above. The parties identified in the decision as having acted poorly in the dispute regarding Occupation of Latvia 1940-1945 are admonished to avoid such behavior in the future. That article is placed on probation, and any editor may be banned from it, or from other reasonably related pages, by an uninvolved administrator for disruptive edits, including, but not limited to, edit warring, inciviilty, and original research. The Arbitration Committee reserves the right to appoint one or more mentors at any time, and the right to review the situation in one year, if appropriate. The parties are strongly encouraged to enter into a mediation arrangement regarding any article-content issues that may still be outstanding. If the article is not substantially improved by continued editing, the Arbitration Committee may impose editing restrictions on users whose editing is counterproductive or disruptive. This notice is given by a Clerk on behalf of the Arbitration Committee. Newyorkbrad23:34, 9 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Re: AlexPU's block
Hi, just so you're informed, if a blocked user uses his talk page for further attacks during the block duration, it can be locked until the block expires, which is a fairly standard practice. -- Grafikm(AutoGRAF)13:57, 9 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for letting me know. I wasn't completely sure about the blocking policy. As for his personal attacks, I don't think he should be making them, either. Hopefully he'll learn soon. — Alex(T|C|E)01:14, 10 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Hello Wikipedian!I wish you a great editing time at Wikipedia, I too love userboxes.I am half-nocturnal also,drop me a message sometime if you want.Trampton11:43, 13 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]
Soviet invasion POVed?
Dear Grafikm, if you agree with Irpen that this article is POVed, perhaps you can explain in detail what is POVed? Irpen, unfortunatly, although arguing for months about POV in this article, still failed to present any sources or details about the POV (other than the general 'Polish propaganda' line). Since in the past you've helped us resolve such issues, perhaps you could do so here?-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk 15:56, 17 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
this user has received a number of warnings about vandalism and being blocked, but has not been blocked to date, yet continues to vandalize articles. what is the procedure for blocking that user? Whateley2321:02, 24 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter: Issue XIII - March 2007
The March 2007 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.
I've removed the speedy deletion tag from the above article. While it is similar to the previously deleted article, it is substantially expanded and is not an exact repost. Additionally, the previous AfD was a pretty close call. You may want to list it at AfD again, to see if a clearer consensus can be found. Thanks for your time and your hard work reporting these articles - even though I'm not deleting this particular one, your efforts are very much appreciated. KafzielTalk17:25, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Special note to spamlist users: Apologies for the formatting issues in previous issues. This only recently became a problem due to a change in HTML Tidy; however, I am to blame on this issue. Sorry, and all messages from this one forward should be fine (I hope!) -Ral315
In the hope of convincing you that Britannica 1911 edition might not be the best source for Wikipedia, let me cite a few sentences from its article about Ivan the Terrible. ([1])
... His father died when he was three, his mother when he was only seven, and he grew up in a brutal and degrading environment where he learnt to hold human life and human dignity in contempt ... Hitherto, by his own showing, the private life of the young tsar had been unspeakably abominable ... By this time, Ivan had entered upon the second and evil portion of his reign ... But admiration of his talents must not blind us to his moral worthlessness, nor is it right to cast the blame for his excesses on the brutal and vicious society in which he lived .
You are receiving this message because you have signed up for the Signpost spamlist. If you wish to stop receiving these messages, simply remove your name from the list. Ralbot06:23, 1 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter: Issue XIV (April 2007)
The April 2007 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.
The new contest department has now run through its first month of competition; Carom and Kevin Myers were tied for first place, with ten points each. All project members are encouraged to submit the articles they're working on as entries.
A new level of the project award, the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves, has been introduced to recognize contributions of truly incredible quality or importance in the area of military history; it is awarded by the project coordinators in the name of the project as a whole.
Cla68 has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his many valuable contributions to military history articles, and, in particular, his leading role in the creation of numerous featured articles on the topic of the Pacific Theater of World War II.
RM Gillespie has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his massive efforts to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the Vietnam War, and, in particular, his development of a substantial portion of the project's A-Class articles.
Wilsbadkarma has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his work on lists (included two featured lists) and portals (including one featured portal). Lists especially are an undermanned area of work, and his excellent efforts deserve commendation.
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.
Our article count has leapt again rising to over 11500. Do get stuck in and assist in improving this rising tide of narrative prose related material. A statistical count of articles can be found here.
We have a new project page for Article Style Guidelines which has had a few editors work on it. Currently based on our existing article template it needs some extra eyes to hone any rough edges.
(n.b. also see debates below!)
Also to accommodate this page the main navigation template has been slightly reorganised.
Member news
The project has currently 229 members, 12 joined & 0 leavers since the last newsletter at the start of April 2007
Our Auto Generated lists appear to have lost the editor who created and supported them. If any other editors have the ability and are willing to have a stab at producing replacement updates, please let us know.
Current debates
Of crucial importance to our progress and the way we edit is a debate on the Main Article Template which is strongly recommended for every editor who can, getting involved with. We have worked with the existing template for well over a year now and this debate proposes making radical changes.
(n.b. also see the "Article Style Guidelines" mentioned in "Project News" above)
Welcome to the twelfth issue of the Novels WikiProject's newsletter! Use this newsletter as a mechanism to inform yourselves about progress at the project and please be inspired to take more active roles in what we do.
We would encourage all members to get more involved and if you are wondering what with, please ask.
Newsletter tip line has been created for members to link, doodle, shortly write news ideas, discussions they think are possibly interesting/important for the Newsletter.
You are receiving this message because you have signed up for the Signpost spamlist. If you wish to stop receiving these messages, simply remove your name from the list. Ralbot06:12, 8 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, Grafikm fr. An automated process has found and removed an image or media file tagged as nonfree media, and thus is being used under fair use that was in your userspace. The image (Image:Kandinsky white.jpg) was found at the following location: User:Grafikm fr. This image or media was attempted to be removed per criterion number 9 of our non-free content policy. The image or media was replaced with Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg , so your formatting of your userpage should be fine. Please find a free image or media to replace it with, and or remove the image from your userspace. User:Gnome (Bot)-talk15:58, 16 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Yes I'm sure. Whether you like it or not, it is a historical term, to be used as such. And repainting a nation's history to suit the rulers is one of elements of nationalism. -- Grafikm(AutoGRAF)17:36, 18 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Let's put historical term aside. I mean present-day usage. A you sure that every modern-day Ukranian (not a nationalist) would be happy to be called "Little Russian"? Did you try? ;) --AndriyK17:47, 18 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It is not about happiness or something. Unless such a term is explicitely recognized as derogatory by an official body (in which case I would like to see some sources), your arguments are nothing but allegations. -- Grafikm(AutoGRAF)19:45, 18 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Did some official body recognize the historical term "Moskal" as derogatory?
If not, would not you object if I make a small correction to the article Anti-Russian sentiment: I replace the phrase "The usage of therm Moskal in Ukraine in the modern context is an ethnic slur" by "The usage of therm Moskal in Ukraine in the modern context is considered by Russian nationalists as an ethnic slur"? It seems you should not object, unless you are going to established different rules for using ethnic slurs in Wikipedia with respect to Russians and Ukrainians. ;) --AndriyK19:57, 18 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Hello Grafikm fr, an automated process has found an image or media file tagged as nonfree media, such as fair use. The image (Image:Kandinsky white.jpg) was found at the following location: User:Grafikm fr/Babel. This image or media will be removed per statement number 9 of our non-free content policy. The image or media will be replaced with Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg , so your formatting of your userpage should be fine. The image that was replaced will not be automatically deleted, but it could be deleted at a later date. Articles using the same image should not be affected by my edits. I ask you to please not re-add the image to your userpage and could consider finding a replacement image licensed under either the Creative Commons or GFDL license or released to the public domain. Please note that it is possible that the image on your page is included vie a template or usebox. In that case, please find a free image for the template or userbox. Thanks for your attention and cooperation. User:Gnome (Bot)-talk12:51, 19 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Hello Grafikm fr, an automated process has found an image or media file tagged as nonfree media, such as fair use. The image (Image:Kandinsky white.jpg) was found at the following location: User:Grafikm fr. This image or media will be removed per statement number 9 of our non-free content policy. The image or media will be replaced with Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg , so your formatting of your userpage should be fine. The image that was replaced will not be automatically deleted, but it could be deleted at a later date. Articles using the same image should not be affected by my edits. I ask you to please not re-add the image to your userpage and could consider finding a replacement image licensed under either the Creative Commons or GFDL license or released to the public domain. Please note that it is possible that the image on your page is included vie a template or usebox. In that case, please find a free image for the template or userbox. Thanks for your attention and cooperation. User:Gnome (Bot)-talk12:51, 19 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I noticed that you reverted my NPOV tag without any reasoning on the discussion page. If you have any explanations and reasoning for your move, please note them at the discussion page. The tag should stay until the discussion is continuing ang all other means to settle the issue are not exhausted. I hope you are not using your admin privileges by taking sides in the argument. --Hillock6513:29, 1 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I noticed that you removed the tag again and failed to leave any explanation on the discussion page yet again. Please if you have any reasons for your move leave them on the discussion page. Reverting pages without discussion is not very helpful and will not amount to much. --Hillock6513:22, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I don't doubt that you have a well-organized team [3][4][5][6][7], however, instead of trying to scare me you might want to try to explain your actions. I don't enjoy writing here, my only hope was that whoever reverted the article might have a new and original idea about why that was done. I seems that I was wrong, you don't seem to have any ideas apart from trying to scare me. Ever tried explaining your actions or talking before starting the revert war? Try, after all, you might find it rewarding.--Hillock6514:48, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not trying to scare you. However, you may find out that Wikipedia is built on a NPOV principle and that aggressive POV-pushers and revert warriors are eventually banned from it. It may not sound like "fair" but it is the case. -- Grafikm(AutoGRAF)14:53, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Because your are new to the discussion, let me give you a quick recap.
We have Meltyukhov's book: Soviet-Polish Wars. It received 2 crushing reviews. Review one states[8]:
Russian historians were unable to take a united stand against those who claim that "nothing wrong happened at Katyn". Some historical publications have appeared in this context, such as a book by Mikhail Meltyukov called Soviet-Polish Wars: Military and Political Confrontation in 1918-1939. This historian believes that the Soviet-Polish military confrontation between the two World Wars was a natural sequel to the struggle the Russian and the Polish states have waged for ages - "the fight for political influence over the region". Meltyukhov sees this situation in its historical context, the post-Versailles world, where he believes that Soviet Russia was acting correctly by standing up for its geopolitical interests in the region. This point of view can be used to justify the execution of the Polish officers in 1940.
Of course, such new publications may be explained by the pluralism of a democratic society. But can this point of view be correct if it is so close to Stalinist and neoimperial concepts?
"It would be possible to indicate various examples of more subtle apologias for the Empire, linked with the rejection of all arguments for its victims or critics. Examples which dress themselves in the trappings of the most academic monograph. [...] A more brutal example of the same tendency is expressed in the book by the professional historian from Moscow, Mikhail Meltyukhov, dedicated to the Polish-Soviet conflicts of the twentieth century. These conflicts are, for him, fragments of eternal Western aggression against Russia. When Russia (in this case, Soviet Russia) comes into conflict it is only to take what is rightfully hers. Stalin appears as a genial successor to Catherine II. The Ribbentrop-Molotov pact and the involvement of the USSR in the attack on Poland in September 1939 are presented as purely defensive postures, underlining the primacy of Russian raison d’etat. This posture represented not only Stalin’s profound realism but also historical justice and even – argues Meltyukhov – humanitarianism. In this context the mass deportations of more than half a million people from the territory occupied by the Red Army in September 1939 to camps in the depths of the Soviet Union is presented as a “peacekeeping mission” which prevented the murder of those Poles deported to Siberia by protecting them from the Ukrainians panting with thirst for revenge...".
Now surely you agree that these two reviews are a cause for concern, and requests for positive reviews which verify the reliability of that book are quite reasonable. If, despite repeated requests, such reviews are not presented, what should be the next step? If the above reviews are correct, do you really believe that a book as problematic as this should be used as a reference in Wikipedia? Balcer16:39, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
for its geopolitical interests in the region. This point of view can be used to justify the execution of the Polish officers in 1940.[reply]
Of course, such new publications may be explained by the pluralism of a democratic society. But can this point of view be correct if it is so close to Stalinist and neoimperial concepts?
"It would be possible to indicate various examples of more subtle apologias for the Empire, linked with the rejection of all arguments for its victims or critics. Examples which dress themselves in the trappings of the most academic monograph. [...] A more brutal example of the same tendency is expressed in the book by the professional historian from Moscow, Mikhail Meltyukhov, dedicated to the Polish-Soviet conflicts of the twentieth century. These conflicts are, for him, fragments of eternal Western aggression against Russia. When Russia (in this case, Soviet Russia) comes into conflict it is only to take what is rightfully hers. Stalin appears as a genial successor to Catherine II. The Ribbentrop-Molotov pact and the involvement of the USSR in the attack on Poland in September 1939 are presented as purely defensive postures, underlining the primacy of Russian raison d’etat. This posture represented not only Stalin’s profound realism but also historical justice and even – argues Meltyukhov – humanitarianism. In this context the mass deportations of more than half a million people from the territory occupied by the Red Army in September 1939 to camps in the depths of the Soviet Union is presented as a “peacekeeping mission” which prevented the murder of those Poles deported to Siberia by protecting them from the Ukrainians panting with thirst for revenge...".
Now surely you agree that these two reviews are a cause for concern, and requests for positive reviews which verify the reliability of that book are quite reasonable. If, despite repeated requests, such reviews are not presented, what should be the next step? If the above reviews are correct, do you really believe that a book as problematic as this should be used as a reference in Wikipedia? Balcer16:39, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I see nothing "crushing" in those reviews. They're quite biaised actually. I mean come on, what do you think about sentence like "where he believes that Soviet Russia was acting correctly by standing up for its geopolitical interests in the region". Since when is it incorrect for a country to defend its own interests? We're swimming in BS up our necks here.
On top of that, we have once more a double standard. We have refs to Viktor Suvorov all over the place, yet we have a dozen crushing reviews and most "classical" historians opposed his research. Why don't we have everybody whining on Talk:Viktor Suvorov. Oh right, he's got the correct POV, telling that Stalin was an idiot... I see.
Either we remove him too (and I wouldn't mind) but in this case please quiet down your Polish troll friends beforehand because I can see the revert wars coming from ten miles, or we can use both authors regardless of the few reviews. In the present case, what you suggest is (once more) a double standard, depending on whether the author suits (Rezun) or not (Meltyukhov) your POV. -- Grafikm(AutoGRAF)22:19, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I am all for removing references to Viktor Suvorov, if he is used as a source anywhere. Please point me to articles where that occurs and I will get right on it (excepting articles about him or about his books, of course).
As for the reviews being biased or not, this is not for you or me to decide. These are serious academics writing those words, and their views count for much more than the opinion of any Wikipedian. If you want to counter their arguments, present positive reviews of the book. Balcer22:46, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Grafik obviously isnt willing to conform to western civilized standards and is digging his own grave on the English Wikipedia, all barnstars from his "Russian troll friends" aside. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.5.235.100 (talk • contribs)
A nasty post, indeed. The IP address is for Neostrada Plus in Poland, so this is indeed a troll from Poland. The address to report incorrect behavior is given as: abuse@tpnet.pl. Feel free to report this idiot. Balcer15:17, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter: Issue XV (May 2007)
The May 2007 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.
Kevin Myers has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his outstanding work on early modern warfare in North America, and, in particular, the creation of four featured articles on the topic.
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.
You commented that the action at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2007 June 17 was done in bad faith. I tend to agree with you. (In fact, I said it first.) If so many of us agree, that the user is acting in bad faith, does not it mean that some admistrative action should be taken or proposed. If so, what do you propose. Should the issue go to WP:ARBCOM, or is these some simpler way of solving the problem. -- Petri Krohn14:52, 17 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
You seem to be otherwise engaged, but since you have been involved in discussions concerning edits by both Digwuren and Petri, and Digwuren seems to have notified mainly Baltic contributors, can I draw your attention to Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Petri Krohn where you could probably voice an opinion, relevant to the problem at hand. The RFC was put up rather irregularly, so please do not be angry with me if it is already deleted by the time you get there. --Pan Gerwazy09:34, 21 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
If the event described in the paragraph you restored did take place, than it had to be reported by other agencies. Can you find other references than KM.RU? If not, please explain how come that a notable event was not mentioned by anybody but KM.RU. Something is wrong. Eather the event is not notable or KM.RU lies. Or you don't care, do you?--AndriyK09:13, 6 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter: Issue XVI (June 2007)
The June 2007 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.
The contest department has completed another month of competition. The leader for this month, with 16 points, is Kevin Myers; Carom and Cla68 tied for second place with 10 points each. Kevin is also the overall leader, with 36 points in total. All project members are encouraged to submit the articles they're working on as entries.
Noclador has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his outstanding work on structural graphics for land-based forces worldwide, his contributions to the Alpini and other regiments, and all his other military graphics.
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.
The demand for fair use rationales for book covers has generated a discussion among wikipedians and also WP:NOVELS members. See the discussion here it has some potentially very important ideas to consider and possibly contribute to.
Member news
The project has currently 247 members, 11 joined & 0 leavers since the last newsletter at the start of June 2007
What is a novel? What are the elements that must be found in any piece of writing for it to be considered a novel? I think it fair to say that traditional definitions of the word “novel” work along these lines: A novel is a fictitious prose story of book length. In my view, a novel has six basic elements: 1) It must have a society of characters; 2) They must be undergoing transformations; 3) And those must be in the course of a sustained prose narrative; 4) The sustained prose narrative must be impelled by a plot; 5) And it must be unified by clearly discernible central themes; 6) And to the extent possible, it must be universalised by a complex architecture of allegorical and symbolical sub-strata. If I write those six basic elements into a single definition, I come up with this: A novel is a society of characters, undergoing transformations, in the course of a sustained prose narrative, which is impelled by a plot, unified by clearly discernible central themes, and universalised by a complex architecture of allegorical and symbolical sub-strata.
Welcome to the fourteenth issue of the Novels WikiProject's newsletter! Use this newsletter as a mechanism to inform yourselves about progress at the project and please be inspired to take more active roles in what we do.
We would encourage all members to get more involved and if you are wondering what with, please ask.
It seems that the Non-members didn't receive a notice of July's Newsletter. Could You look into the matter before the next newsletter comes out. Thanks. feydey08:33, 15 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, but this article seems to belong in a dictionary, not an encyclopaedia
Emplacement
A {{prod}} template has been added to the article Emplacement, suggesting that it be deleted according to the proposed deletion process. All contributions are appreciated, but this article may not satisfy Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, and the deletion notice explains why (see also "What Wikipedia is not" and Wikipedia's deletion policy). You may contest the proposed deletion by removing the {{dated prod}} notice, but please explain why you disagree with the proposed deletion in your edit summary or on its talk page. Also, please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Even though removing the deletion notice will prevent deletion through the proposed deletion process, the article may still be deleted if it matches any of the speedy deletion criteria or it can be sent to Articles for Deletion, where it may be deleted if consensus to delete is reached. If you endorse deletion of the article, and you are the only person who has made substantial edits to the page, please tag it with {{db-author}}. Nick boyd16:25, 21 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
When you get the chance, could you please send out the following:
The Military history WikiProject coordinator selection process is starting. We are looking to elect nine coordinators to serve for the next six months; if you are interested in running, please sign up here by August 14!
Just to let you know, since it seems that you're not really editing these days, we've gone ahead with an alternative distribution method this time around so as not to bother you with this. Kirill02:26, 7 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, no problem! It's good to hear that you were on vacation; I was afraid that you had burned out and weren't coming back at all! :-)
We're going to be sending a second election message when the voting starts on August 15; are you going to be available for that, or should we do it via other means? Kirill13:45, 9 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Signpost updated for July 30th, 2007.
Apologies for the late delivery this week; my plans to handle this while on vacation went awry. Ral315
I saw that your bot delivers the newsletter for the Military History WikiProject Newsletter and I was wondering if it is not too much of a problem you could have it deliver the salem witch trials newsletter(which is currently underdevelopment) and help me set up the page so members get it. But if it is any trouble please do not worry about it. Thank You Yamaka122...:)14:43, 4 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XVIII (August 2007)
The August 2007 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.
The contest department has completed another month of competition. The leader for this month, with 23 points, is Blnguyen; JKBrooks85 is in second place, with 17 points, and Carom is in third place, with 13 points. Carom is also the overall leader, with 45 points in total. All project members are encouraged to submit the articles they're working on as entries.
Wandalstouring was awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his long and dedicated service as a project coordinator and his many contributions to the structure and operations of the project.
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XIX (September 2007)
The September 2007 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.
The contest department has completed its sixth month of competition. The leader for this month, with 57 points, is JKBrooks85; Kyriakos is in second place, with 16 points, and Blnguyen and Woodym555 are tied for third place, with 10 points each. The overall results for the past six months show JKBrooks85 in first place, with 92 points, followed by Carom, with 45 points, and Blnguyen, with 38 points. All project members are encouraged to submit the articles they're working on as entries.
A stress hotline is now available for project members' use.
The bulk of the project's guidelines have been moved to a separate subpage.
A proposal to formalize the project's style guide as part of Wikipedia's Manual of Style has been made and is being discussed; comments and suggestions would be very appreciated!
Awards and honors
SandyGeorgia was awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of the instrumental role she plays in the featured article process, both by checking the project's featured article candidates to ensure that citations are formatted correctly, and by helping clear out the backlog of featured articles that no longer meet the criteria. Sandy is the first non-member of the project to receive this award.
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I never got a response, could you possibly deliver our newsletter? It will be ready in the next couple days, please let me know either way, thanks! —NoeticSage20:41, 26 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XX (October 2007)
The October 2007 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.
The contest department has completed its seventh month of competition. The leader for this month, with 22 points, is JKBrooks85; Kyriakos is in second place, with 21 points, and Blnguyen is in third place, with 10 points. Overall, JKBrooks85 remains in first place, with 114 points. All project members are encouraged to submit the articles they're working on as entries.
The B-Class checklist in the {{WPMILHIST}} project banner now generates categories corresponding to the areas in which an article needs attention; similar sets of categories exist for each task force as well. The available categories are:
JKBrooks85 has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his diligent efforts to improve our coverage of fortifications in the American Civil War, and, in particular, his creation of a substantial number of A-Class articles.
Tony the Marine has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his considerable efforts in raising Puerto Rican- and Hispanic-related military history articles to featured status.
What isTag & Assess MMVII? We'd better explain. A month or so back, we ran a script to list all the articles in categories related to military history. This gave us about 165,000 articles. Some of these are already tagged and assessed as military history; some are military history but not yet tagged and assessed; some are not military history articles at all. This huge project — working thorough 165,000 articles — is called Tag & Assess 2007. To make it manageable, the list has been broken down into 330 ranges each of 500 articles. This is where you can help.
Just...adopt-a-range from the available worklists then keep track of your tally on participants' list. The tagging is easy, just follow the simple instructions. Afterwards, as our way of thanking you, you'll be presented with service awards and barnstars based on the number of articles you process. Remember... the ranges are broken down into sub-sections of ten articles, so you work through them at twenty or thirty articles a day if you wish. To make Tag & Assess 2007 a success, we need your help. Please sign up now. Thanks.
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Ok, no problem; we'll figure out some way to handle it. Thank you very much for all of your efforts in the past year! Kirill16:16, 4 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Ditto the comment by Kirill above, thanks very much for the assistance in previous months and even years. Thanks. Could I ask one last thing, could you put together a brief summary of how to go about the process of using AWB (which I know some thing of) for newsletter delivery. This might enable the delivery to be picked up by someone else. Maybe even manage it myself with your help. :: Kevinalewis : (Talk Page)/(Desk)08:48, 5 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]
As part of the WikiProject Good Articles, we're doing sweeps to go over all of the current GAs and see if they still meet the requirements of the GA criteria. I'm specifically going over all of the "Conflicts, battles and military exercises" articles and just reviewed Second Battle of Kharkov. I believe the article currently meets the majority of the criteria and should remain listed as a Good article. However, the article has two images that need fair use rationales to justify their inclusion in the article. The two images are: Image:Paulus photo.jpg & Image:Moskalenko.jpg. Once they have been added, I will pass the article (just leave a message on the article's talk page saying it has been addressed). I'll leave messages on a couple talk pages of editors of this article (found by using WikiDashboard and the uploader of the images. Please add the FURs within seven days, so the article can continue to maintain its GA status. If you have any questions, let me know on my talk page and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Happy editing! --Nehrams202007:51, 8 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXI (November 2007)
The November 2007 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 BrownBot01:36, 2 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXI (November 2007)
The contest department has completed its eight month of competition. The leader for this month, with a massive 92 points, is Blnguyen; Woodym555 is in second place, with 32 points, and Cla68 and TomStar81 are tied for third place, with 15 points each. Overall, Blnguyen is now in first place, with 140 points, followed by JKBrooks85, with 120 points, and by Woodym555, with 63 points. All project members are encouraged to submit the articles they're working on as entries.
Tag & Assess 2007—the project's first major article tagging and assessment drive—is continuing; all project members—and anyone else who's interested—are invited to assist with this effort.
Mike Christie was awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his outstanding work on Anglo-Saxon military history, including the production of numerous featured articles.
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Hi,
This is just an invitation to get together at the Operation Barbarossa discussion page and see if the article can't be improved to the FA level. I am going to try and firstly restructure and later rewrite the article in my sandbox (firstly at home on my PC), but I have already discussed some ideas with one other contributor and would appreciate more input from members of the task force.--Mrg3105 (talk) 23:43, 21 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Battle of Smolensk (2nd)
Hi, I have made some changes to this article and would appreciate if you would contact me regarding them. Best wishes on year-end--Mrg3105 (talk) 07:34, 26 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The contest department has completed its ninth month of competition. The top scorer this month is Blnguyen, with 22 points, followed by Dreamafter, with 8 points, and Redmarkviolinist, with 6 points. Blnguyen also remains the overall leader, with 162 points in total. All project members are encouraged to submit the articles they're working on as entries.
Blnguyen has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his efforts in improving the quality of articles related to Vietnamese military history, including the creation of numerous A-Class articles.
Woodym555 has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his outstanding work on topics related to the Victoria Cross, notably including the creation of featured articles, featured lists, and a featured topic.
Although the drive is officially closed, existing participants can continue tagging until January 31 if they wish, with the extra tags counting towards their tally for barnstar purposes.
We'd like to see what lessons can be learned from this drive, so we've set up a feedback workshop. Comments and feedback from participants and non-particpants
alike are very welcome and appreciated.
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The Military history WikiProject coordinator selection process is starting. We are aiming to elect nine coordinators to serve for the next six months; if you are interested in running, please sign up here by February 14! TomStar81 (Talk) 04:40, 1 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXIII (January 2008)
The project coordinator selection process is starting. We are aiming to elect nine coordinators to serve for the next six months; if you are interested in running, please sign up here by February 14!
The contest department has completed its tenth month of competition, which saw an unprecedented 44 entries. The top scorer this month is Dreamafter, with 95 points, followed by Cla68, with 42 points, and Ed! and Woody, with 21 points each. Blnguyen remains the overall leader, with 182 points in total. All project members are encouraged to submit the articles they're working on as entries.
A new auxiliary infobox, {{operational plan}}, is now available.
A new page for military history essays has been created; project members are encouraged to post their own advice and opinions on matters within the project's purview.
New guidelines concerning precision and ship pronouns have been added to the style guide.
A category restructuring workshop is now open; brainstorming regarding the arrangement of the top-level military history categories is currently ongoing.
Awards and honors
Bwmoll3 has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his superior contributions to a variety of articles about the United States Air Force, including a great number of those dealing with wings and installations.
Bedford has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of the outstanding contribution he has made to the project's organization by going above and beyond the call of duty in tagging, assessing, and classifying a massive number of articles during the 2007 assessment drive.
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The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXIII (January 2008)
The January 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) 23:57, 3 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Grafikm: I was wondering if we could get your bot to distribute our first-ever project newsletter on the first of March. The newsletter copy is at Wikipedia:WikiProject Birds/Outreach/Newsletter March 2008, and the list of participants who should receive it is Wikipedia:Wikiproject Birds#Participants. Let me know if we need to format the participant list differently in order for your bot to work. For this first run, we'll send out the actual newsletter, but in the future, we'll just send a link (unless editors choose to receive the full newsletter or nothing at all). Please let me know if you'll be able to do this for us! Thanks, MeegsC | Talk13:27, 24 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Never mind! Since I haven't heard from you, I'm assuming you're away or retired, and have approached another bot user about doing this... MeegsC | Talk10:29, 28 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Signpost updated for February 18th and 25th, 2008.
In the simultaneous referendum on project organization, you voted almost unanimously for a primus inter pares structure. As a tangible reflection of this, Assistant Coordinators are now known as Coordinators.
The contest department has completed its eleventh month of competition, which saw 10 entries. The top scorer this month is Dreamafter, with 28 points, followed by Smsarmad, with 13 points, with Blnguyen, Ed! and jwillbur also fielding entries. Blnguyen remains the overall leader, with 188 points in total. You are encouraged to submit articles you're working on as entries.
A new B-Class Assessment Drive ("BCAD") will go operational no later than 11 March. Of great interest to experienced wiki-gnomes, it is small in scope, about 4,500 articles, and will be supported by the usual awards, including a golden wiki. To keep up to date with developments, and to get off to a flying start when it opens, add WP:MHA-BCAD now to your watchlist.
Awards and honors
Kirill Lokshin has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his outstanding organizational work, his painstaking maintenance work, and his unstinting advice, throughout his two years of project leadership.
MBK004 has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his outstanding effort to improve our compliment of naval ships by updating infoboxes, replacing deprecated infoboxes, and locating sources for ships in the employment of their respective countries' navies.
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The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXIV (February 2008)
The February 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) 04:36, 5 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
A Beautiful Cherry Tree in Spring BloomTheres nothing like seeing a field full of spring flowers.
Just wishing you a wonderful First Day of Spring {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}! ~~~~
If you live in the Southern Hemisphere and are entering the season of Autumn not Spring then I wish you a happy First Day of Autumn {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}! To spread this message to others, add {{subst:First Day Of Spring}} to their talk page with a friendly message.
Hi there. You are receiveing this message because your name appears on the WikiProject Councilparticipants list. The WikiProject Council is currently having a roll-call; if you are still interested in participating in the inter-project discussion forum that WT:COUNCIL has become, or you are interested in continuing to develop and maintain the WikiProject Guide or Directory, please visit Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Participants and remove the asterisk (*) from your name on the list of participants. If you are no longer interested in the Council, you need take no action: your name will be removed from the participants list on April 302008.
Thanks for uploading Image:B52.plan.clear.png. I noticed that the file's description page currently doesn't specify who created the content, so the copyright status is unclear. If you did not create this file yourself, then you will need to specify the owner of the copyright. If you obtained it from a website, then a link to the website from which it was taken, together with a restatement of that website's terms of use of its content, is usually sufficient information. However, if the copyright holder is different from the website's publisher, then their copyright should also be acknowledged.
As well as adding the source, please add a proper copyright licensing tag if the file doesn't have one already. If you created/took the picture, audio, or video then the {{GFDL-self}} tag can be used to release it under the GFDL. If you believe the media meets the criteria at Wikipedia:Fair use, use a tag such as {{non-free fair use in|article name}} or one of the other tags listed at Wikipedia:Image copyright tags#Fair use. See Wikipedia:Image copyright tags for the full list of copyright tags that you can use.
If you have uploaded other files, consider checking that you have specified their source and tagged them, too. You can find a list of files you have uploaded by following this link. Unsourced and untagged images may be deleted one week after they have been tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If the image is copyrighted under a non-free license (per Wikipedia:Fair use) then the image will be deleted 48 hours after 18:03, 1 April 2008 (UTC). If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. MECU≈talk18:03, 1 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The main project talk page is now automatically archived; MiszaBot II will archive any sections that have had no comments for 21 days.
The contest department has completed its twelth month of competition, which saw 13 entries. The top scorer this month is Woody, with 22 points, followed by Dreamafter with 13 points, with Ed!, jwillbur, Redmarkviolinist and Borg Sphere also fielding entries. Blnguyen remains the overall leader, with 188 points in total. You are encouraged to submit articles you're working on as entries.
A Linguistics section has been added to the Logistics department, for help with non-English language sources and translation of snippets. It supports 19 languages so far.
Kirill Lokshin has been appointed coordinator emeritus to reflect his on-going involvement in the project. The appointment ends concurrently with the other coordinators' terms in September 2008.
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) 01:20, 3 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Tag & Assess 2008 launched on 24 April and will run until 4 July. We have around 60,000 articles to check, so all assistance is very welcome. As usual, there are barnstars galore and service awards for contributing editors.
The project scope has been amended to include specific reference to historically accurate video games. Songs and music with long military associations are also now included.
The Contest department has completed its thirteenth month of competition, which saw 27 entries. The top scorer this month is Ed! with 37 points, followed by Cam with 22 points. Woody, Howard C. Berkowitz, Redmarkviolinist, Nousernamesleft and Outdawg also fielded entries. Blnguyen remains the overall leader, with 188 points in total. You are encouraged to submit articles you're working on as entries.
The coordinators have "adopted" task forces to act as prime point of contact. A list of which coordinators have adopted which task forces is here.
An interesting proposal to set up teams to deal with specific tasks, like taking the Top Ten most frequently read military history articles to featured articles status is here.
The coordinators are exploring ways of developing and improving our fifty or so task forces. More information is here.
All editors are invited to contribute to a discussion about the naming of military operations in an endeavor to reach consensus.
Awards and honors
Congratulations and kudos to the four top-performing editors in BCAD: CAM (1st); Legotech (2nd); Harland1 (3rd) and Smsarmad (4th). They helped assess 4303 B-class Milhist articles. Well done!
Editors needed for Tag & Assess 2008. To coincide with the summer holidays, it will be gearing up from 15 June. As usual, barnstars galore!
Partner peer reviews: for a thirty-day trial period, we'll be running joint peer reviews with Wikiproject Video Games. The idea is simple: we help with their reviews; they help with ours. This way both wikiprojects benefit from new reviewers and new ideas!
We're notable: A new book, Simon Fowler's 2007 Guide to Military History on the Internet (UK:Pen & Sword, ISBN9781844156061) rates Wikipedia as "the best general resource" for military research (p. 7). Of the military pages, he says: "The results are largely accurate and generally free of bias" (he also suggests people join the wikiproject). When rating WP as the No. 1 military site (p. 201) he says "Wikipedia is often criticised for its inaccuracy and bias, but in my experience the military history articles are spot on."
A-Class reviews: the usual four-day review period may now be extended by up to three days (ie seven days in total) in the following circumstances:
the article has no opposes but has insufficient support for promotion or
the article's nominator requests more time to resolve matters arising during the review.
The special projects department has opened. It will focus on specific ad-hoc high-priority tasks and implement them with informal, short-term groups of editors.
The Contest department has completed its fourteenth month of competition, which saw 16 entries. The top scorer this month is Cam with 21 points, followed by Redmarkviolinist with 11 points. Woody, Dreamafter, Kyriakos, Nousernamesleft and Outdawg also fielded entries. Blnguyen remains the overall leader, with 188 points in total. You are encouraged to submit articles you're working on as entries.
A discussion has been opened into the structuring of top level operational categories, starting with Category:World War II. All interested editors are invited to help establish a consensus.
Hi! I'm Ral315, editor-in-chief of the Wikipedia Signpost. It appears that you have not edited in at least a few months. To avoid spamming your talk page any further, should you be on leave, your name has been removed from the Signpost spamlist. If you wish to continue receiving the Signpost on your talk page, please leave a note on my talk page to that effect, and I will restore your name, and keep you on the list indefinitely. Ral315 (talk) 07:00, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXVIII (June 2008)
With the holiday season upon us, we're very short of reviewers at A-Class Reviews and are likely to remain so for the next month or so. If just five new reviewers each reviewed one article a week, the problem would be solved! To keep track of Milhist articles for peer and A-Class reviews, simply paste the code – {{WPMILHIST Review alerts}} – onto your talk page.
Similarly, copy-editors are currently in short supply. If you can help out at the Copy-editing section of the Logistics Dept, it would be much appreciated. If you can help with A-Class Reviews and Featured Article Candidates so much the better! To keep up to date with Milhist articles needing copy input, just paste – {{WPMILHIST Copy-editing alerts}} onto your talk page.
The debate on whether Milhist should adopt the new C-Class has been closed, with a strong and clear consensus against adopting. The archived discussion is here.
The Milhist review structure is itself being reviewed. The idea is to see how it can be improved, or whether it needs changing or updating.
The month-long trial of partner peer reviews with Video games is being discussed. All feedback welcome!
Awards and honors
Congratulations to Buckshot06, who has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his consistently excellent edits and his continued commitment and tireless efforts towards improving the quality of articles pertaining to military history.
Congratulations to Piotrus, who has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his outstanding contributions to Polish military history, including the creation of numerous Featured Articles, A-Class articles, and Good Articles on the subject.
The Contest department has completed its fifteenth month of competition, which saw 15 entries. The top scorer this month is JonCatalan with 32 points, followed by Cam with 20 points. Ed!, David Underdown, CyclonicWhirlwind, and Blnguyen also fielded entries. Blnguyen remains the overall leader, with 193 points in total. The Chevrons go to JonCatalan and Cam gets the Writer's Barnstar. The May 2008 winners, Cam and Redmarkviolinist have been belatedly awarded the Chevrons and Writer's Barnstar for coming first and second respectively. You are encouraged to submit any articles you are working on as entries.
Tag & Assess '08 has now closed, with approximately 10,000 articles successfully tagged. Many thanks to all those who participated. The top three scorers were Jim Sweeney (Gold Wiki), Dashiellx (Silver Wiki) and Ejosse1 (Bronze Wiki).
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The criteria for Military history A-Class reviews have been overhauled. The new standard is deliberately set higher than before, and is much closer to featured article quality. The new criteria are:
A2. The article is comprehensive, factually accurate, neutral and focused on the main topic; it neglects no major facts or details, presents views fairly and without bias, and does not go into unnecessary detail.
A3. The article has an appropriate structure of hierarchical headings, including a concise lead section that summarizes the topic and prepares the reader for the detail in the subsequent sections, and a substantial but not overwhelming table of contents.
A4. The article is written in concise and articulate English; its prose is clear, is in line with style guidelines, and does not require substantial copy-editing to be fully MoS-compliant.
A5. The article contains supporting visual materials, such as images or diagrams with succinct captions, and other media, where appropriate.
The timescale for A-Class articles has also been changed to give more editors an opportunity to participate.
The six-monthly Coordinators' election has been moved back a month to avoid clashes with the holiday period. The sign-up period will run from 1–15 September and the elections themselves from 16–30 September.
The Contest department has completed its sixteenth month of competition, which saw 22 entries. The top scorer this month is new entrant Bellhalla with 41 points, followed by Blnguyen with 33 points. Cam, Ed!, David Underdown, and Ferbess also fielded entries. Blnguyen remains the overall leader, with 226 points in total. The Chevrons go to Bellhalla and Blnguyen gets the Writer's Barnstar. You are encouraged to submit any articles you are working on as entries.
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.
The Military history WikiProject coordinator selection process is underway, to elect nine coordinators to serve for the next six months. If you are interested in running, please sign up here by 23:59 (UTC) on 14 September! Voting starts at 00:01 (UTC) on 15 September and runs until 23:59 (UTC) on 30 September.
A new barnstar specifically encouraging and recognizing excellence in Milhist article creation and development has been introduced. Any editor who has made a significant contribution to three or more Milhist A-Class articles promoted since 1 August 2008 under the new A-Class criteria is eligible. Nominations for the medal should be made here; should list the three A-Class articles for which the medal is sought; and must be subsequently supported by three or more project coordinators, who will be responsible for making the award. Editors may nominate themselves or any other qualifying editor.
A new discussion about whether Milhist should adopt C-Class is underway. All comments are welcome.
The 2008 Tag & Assess Workshop is still open, seeking input on ways to improve the efficiency, user-friendliness and organization of future Milhist drives. All comment is welcome, especially from people who didn't participate in the drive!
Awards and honors
Durova has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of her exemplary work on military history featured pictures, sounds, and articles.
The W1.0 Editorial Team have selected 1133 Military history articles for inclusion in the W0.7 test release. For convenience, these are broken by task force and you'll find a list on each task force headed "Wikipedia 0.7 articles have been selected for [task force name]" on the task force talk page. You may nominate extra articles for inclusion or existing ones for removal. If you can improve any of the articles on the list, by adding references, or copy-editing, or cleaning up generally, please do so.
A new discussion has started about naming articles on Soviet WWII operations. All contributions are welcome as we hope to resolve this longstanding issue once and for all.
The debate over whether Milhist should adopt C-Class is continuing. All comments and suggestions are welcome.
Following a lengthy discussion, three new coordinators – EyeSerene, Maralia and the_ed17 - have been coopted. The purpose of the appointments is partly to fill the place left by the retirement of TomStar81 and partly to provide increased/improved coordinator capacity to cover existing coordinator absences and to help with upcoming major projects. As a reminder, coordinators are merely editors who have committed to go the extra mile for the project and that there are very few processes that require coordinator input. Specifically these are closing A-Class reviews, and endorsing two project award nominations. Any editors who wish to help with the nitty-gritty of this busy project (cross-posting A-Class review, peer review and featured article candidate alerts; responding to member questions and queries, helping with drives) are positively encouraged to do so.
A workshop has been set up to redesign and improve the newsletter. In our recent competition, a new name was chosen – The Bugle. All editors are welcome to participate, especially those with graphic and design skills!
Administrator and Milhist coordinator, Nick Dowling, has changed his user name to Nick-D.
Adoption of C-class remains firmly on the Milhist agenda with discussions approaching their fourth month of debate. More views are sought on this.
Awards and honors
Kyriakos has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his long and distingushed service as a Coordinator of the Military history WikiProject from February 2007 to September 2008.
LordAmeth has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his long and distingushed service as a Coordinator of the Military history WikiProject from August 2006 to September 2008.
EyeSerene has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his diligent and excellent copyediting of vast quantities of Military History articles—notably his work on multiple Featured Article Candidates.
TomStar81 has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of both his long and distinguished service as a coordinator of this project from August 2007 to October 2008, and of his exemplary contributions to articles on the vessels of the U.S. Navy.
Following a lengthy discussion, a new section - Personal libraries - has been added to the Logistics Department. The aim is to make sourcing and citation checking easier by sharing information about editors' personal book holdings. If you have half an hour to spare, why add a list of your Milhist reference books?
This month saw 14 military history-related articles promoted to featured status, the highest number for a single month since the project's establishment in October 2002. Congratulations all round!
Design competition Editors with design skills urgently needed to design an eyecatching logo for this newsletter. The logo needs to incorporate a bugle motif as well as the newsletter's title, "The Bugle". Fame and honour (a barnstar) guaranteed for the successful design. Submit entries here please.
Who will be the three "2008 Military historians of the Year"? There are 13 candidates so far and the number is rising rapidly. The winning editors will receive the Gold, Silver and Bronze Wikis; and all other nominees the WikiProject barnstar. To nominate editors you admire, or to cast your votes, please visit here!
A new drive has been started to identify the core topics of World War I with the aim of improving their quality before the centenary of the start of World War I in 2014.
Don't forget the six-monthly Coordinator elections will take place in March for the April-September term. If you want to become more involved in the project, now's the time to start thinking about it!
Following extensive discussion, the structure of the A-Class Medal System has been changed to include three new medals: The A-Class Medal with Oak Leaves, the A-Class Medal with Oakleaves and Swords, and the A-Class Medal with Oakleaves, Swords, and Diamonds, each of which is respectfully awarded after 5, 10, and 20 groups of three A-Class Articles.
The number of our A-Class articles grew by more than 25% during this month, compared to the total number of A-Class articles existent at the end of December.
A drive is underway to identify the core topics of World War I with the aim of improving their quality before the centenary of the start of World War I in 2014.
A Survey is currently underway to determine how MilHist's processes, logistics, and management can be improved.
Abraham, B.S. has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his many valuable contributions to the project as an active reviewer, a thoughtful contributor to military history discussions, a fine content contributor, and a gentleman.
The Contest department has completed its twenty second month of competition, which saw 62 entries. The top scorer this month is Bellhalla with 93 points followed by Abraham, B.S. with 52 points. Cam, Georgejdorner and 11 other editors also fielded entries. Bellhalla remains the overall leader with 687 points in total. The Chevrons go to Bellhalla and Abraham, B.S. gets the Writer's Barnstar. You are encouraged to submit any articles you are working on as entries.
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Thank you for uploading File:Vasilevsky.png. However, it currently is missing information on its copyright status. Wikipedia takes copyright very seriously. It may be deleted soon, unless we can determine the license and the source of the file. If you know this information, then you can add a copyright tag to the image description page.
If you have uploaded other files, consider checking that you have specified their license and tagged them, too. You can find a list of files you have uploaded by following this link.
This month has been interesting for MILHIST, as we reorganized a few departments. The Outreach Department has been replaced by the tabs at the top of our totally redesigned project page; thanks to Kirill for the design and Bellhalla for the logo. We also created the Academy, a hub for practical advice about creating, editing, and reviewing quality content. All project members are cordially invited to fill in some of the red links, and new ideas are always welcome.
As you can see on the right, our A-class and featured content is growing quite rapidly; these numbers have now gone up by 45 for the second straight month! Great work! In addition, thanks go out to those who recently helped in reducing the A-class nominations backlog. Reviewers are still needed; if you feel up to it, please stop by and leave comments on an article—every review helps!
Article alerts are now available both for the entire project (on the status page) and for each task force (on the task force page).
The Military history coordinator elections, to appoint coordinators for the period April–October 2009, take place this month. If you are thinking of standing as a candidate, the schedule is as follows:
Nomination period: 00:01 Sat 7 March - 23:59 Fri 13 March
Voting period: 00:01 Sat 14 March - 23:59 Sat 29 March
Awards and honors
Ian Rose has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his outstanding contributions to Australian military history articles (including four Featured Articles, an A-Class article, and four Good Articles), his highly civil and collaborative editing, and his willingness to provide advice and assistance to other editors.
MisterBee1966 has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his contributions to seven featured lists on German military awards during the Second World War, and for contributing to four good articles and being instrumental in promoting three of them to A-Class status.
Raul654 has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his contributions to six current Military History Featured Articles, his flexibility in managing the "Today's featured article" list to accommodate relevant main-page appearances, and his generosity in providing many images for our visual library.
The Land has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his significant contributions to the area of maritime warfare, as he has authored six of the seven articles in the "history of the battleship" series, with four of them now being featured.
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The big news of course was the seventh project coordinator election covering the period ending 30 September. The quality of the candidates was extremely high, with some of the project's top content builders running alongside highly experienced backroom people. Of the eighteen candidates, sixteen were finally appointed, giving us probably the most rounded coordination team so far.
The C-class referendum, held at the same time, produced a slight majority of votes for introduction, but was insufficient to demonstrate a clear consensus. So, for the time being at least, therefore, the project will continue without C-class. Otherwise, focus is likely be on the Academy and the development of courses to develop reviewing, copy-editing and article-building skills. Some review of our task forces is also probable, perhaps consolidating some of the smaller, quieter, ones. As ever, input from everyone is not only welcomed but positively encouraged.
The coordinators' gratitude goes not only to those who participated in the election and referenda but also to everyone who works quietly and conscientiously away to make participation in this project rewarding, successful and productive. Milhist is very fortunate in its membership! Thank you all, Roger Daviestalk16:15, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Hello. The Teresa Wong article you contributed to is now up for deletion - unfairly I feel. Please check out its talk page and see what you think about it. Much appreciated. Cyclotron (talk) 08:37, 14 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXXVIII (April 2009)
Once again, this month, we have a bumper crop of featured and A-class content, and our heartfelt thanks go to editors who have worked so hard to write these. But with our growth in quality content comes increased demand for reviewers. Which is where you can help.
Reviewing is easy and rewarding. You don't need any prior experience and you don't need to write a full review. Any input is helpful so you initially can just comment on what you're comfortable with. Most reviewers start off by focusing one or two things – say, the historical context, or the text, or the references, or the layout, or the images – and as they gain experience, they broaden the scope of the review. You can easily keep up to date with which articles need review, by copying this text – {{WPMILHIST Review alerts}} – to your userpage or talkpage. Thanks in anticipation, Roger Davies
JonCatalán has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his distinguished service as a coordinator of this project, his thorough article reviews, and his exemplary contributions to 14 featured articles, one featured topic, and many A-Class and good articles.
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With end of year exams beckoning for many members, this has been a quiet month on the talk pages for Milhist. (If you are facing exams yourself, we all wish you the very best of luck!) During this quieter period, some of our most active reviewers are busy revising so it would be really appreciated if you can help with peer reviews or A-Class reviews. You can easily track articles needing review, by copying {{WPMILHIST Review alerts}} to your userpage.
This month sees our first newsletter editorial. The idea is to provide regular tips and hints to help editors get up to speed with our large (and sometimes complicated) project. This month's piece, by EyeSerene, explains the workings of the project's main template, which is at the core of the project's tagging and assessing activities. Roger Daviestalk20:26, 3 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
In a welcome addition to a long under-represented area, this month saw the creation of the Pakistani military history task force, which hits the ground running with 11 participants.
Welcome to a new occasional feature of The Bugle, where over coming issues we'll be exploring some of the roles, tasks, and technical functions that go into creating what archivist and researcher Simon Fowler has described as the best general resource for military history on the internet.† As a project we can rightly be proud of that accolade, and we gratefully acknowledge the debt we owe to those dedicated editors from across Wikipedia that have helped to make the Military history WikiProject what it is today.
Many editors' first inkling of milhist's existence is when they spot our project banner on an article talk page. The banner can be easily added to appropriate articles by any editor, by typing {{WPMILHIST}} at (or near) the top of the talk page on a new line, and saving the page with an appropriate edit summary. This short form of the template will add the article to our project, and also flag the article as needing assessment and assignment to a task force by automatically adding it to the unassessed articles and articles with no associated task force categories.
As with many templates in use on Wikipedia, additional parameters can be specified. Possibly the most useful to include is the class parameter, because this will help out any editors who come along later to assess the article. To add the class parameter, edit the template markup to look like {{WPMILHIST|class=}}... and if you wish, have a read through the assessment guidance on milhists's quality scale and assign a rating from Stub- to B-Class yourself. A banner template with, for example, a Stub-Class article rating will look like {{WPMILHIST|class=stub}}. Because B-Class is assessed against a checklist it has some additional parameters, so when adding the project banner to an article talk-page, even if you don't intend to assess the article yourself it can be a real help to subsequent editors to include these too. This version of the template can be entered as {{WPMILHIST|class=|B1=|B2=|B3=|B4=|B5=}}. For detailed guidance on exactly what the five B-Class criteria are, see the B-class checklist.
Finally, when adding the milhist banner it's useful to assign the article to one (or more) of our task forces. This will help to bring it to the attention of those editors most likely to be interested in, and knowledgeable about, the subject. As with assessment, task force assignment is accomplished by adding a parameter to the template—in this case, simply the name of the task force followed by =yes (or =y). For example, to assign a Start-Class article to the Second World War and Canadian task forces, the template should read {{WPMILHIST|class=start|B1=|B2=|B3=|B4=|B5=|WWII=yes|Canadian=yes}}.
For a full list of all the banner template parameters and more detailed usage instructions, see Template:WPMILHIST; if you are unsure as to whether or not an article belongs with milhist or what task force(s) might be appropriate, or if you have any other questions, you are welcome to ask at our main project talk page. Happy templating! EyeSerenetalk
†Simon Fowler, Guide to Military History on the Internet, UK:Pen & Sword 2007, ISBN9781844156061, p. 7
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The big news this month is the launch of the Academy content drive (see below if you want to help). But otherwise it has been a very busy month for both reviewing and contest department entries, surprisingly so considering the wind down of the academic year.
Introduced in February, The Academy is an online school for new members. This month, we're launching a drive to increase the breadth and depth of its content. If you can help, by writing four to six paragraph articles, please do so! Barnstars galore to be won!
Perhaps the most important—and, indeed, most respected—aspect of the Military History project is our rigorous A-Class Review (ACR) system, which puts articles through the most robust review outside of WP:FAC. Although reviewing might seem daunting to newcomers, this article will give you an outline of three popular reviewing methods so you can actually start contributing yourself.
General nit-pick - this is one of the easiest - and one of the most common - reviewing styles seen throughout Wikipedia. It is a similar approach to that you would see in proofreading and classroom marking. Basically, it is a general overview of the article, not getting too specific on aspects of the prose. The most common statements include This article could benefit from a light copyedit before going to FAC or You might want to check the endash and emdash placement in the article. It's a style that is incredibly easy to manage, and one that requires little-to-no experience in previous reviewing.
Specialization - it often is the case that those who have been reviewing articles for a long time will move away from the general review towards more specific areas of articles. As an example, Tony usually stays within the realm of prose and copyediting while reviewing Featured Article Candidates, Tom used to focus almost entirely on external links and disambiguations, while others specialize their focus exclusively on copyediting, reference formatting, dashes, punctuation and flow, image licensing, and a host of other areas. This is a review method that is not nearly as time-consuming as other methods, as it allows you to quickly scan an article, spot the things that you work on, and how they need to be fixed.
Sectional - My preferred style of reviewing, this is one of the most informative styles. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most time-consuming and exhaustive styles. Essentially, it involves going through the entire article, section by section, and pointing out every major (and often many of the minor) flaws present within each section. Everything from prose to reference formatting to content. It is a reviewing style that is exhausting, and often takes two or three goes through the article to get everything (sometimes even more), but it gives the article's main contributors two benefits. First, everything is well organized, mostly under section headers like this one, and it often makes finding individual sentences or refs much easier, as they are within that section. Secondly, it points out a lot of the problems from a lot of the areas.
We current have an astonishing fifty articles within our scope up for promotion to Good Article and it's a bit backlogged. Can you help with reviewing to speed up the process?
The Military history Academy content drive is underway with nearly twenty new essays so far. More contributions are welcome. Just click on the one of the redlinks here and start writing!
Are you missing out on an A-Class medal? These are for editors who have significantly contributed to three or more military history A-Class articles promoted since 1 August 2008. Alternatively, perhaps you can help with reviewing? For more information, see here.
More eyes would be welcome on the ten articles currently being peer reviewed. It doesn't take long to peer review an article and your perspective is appreciated!
Contest department
The Contest department has completed its twenty-eighth month of competition, with 77 articles entered by 9 editors. Sturmvogel 66 was placed first again this month with an amazing 94 points, closely followed by Ed! at 91 points. They receive the Chevrons and the Writer's Barnstar respectively. Parsecboy commendably came third with 76 points, with honorable mentions going to Woody (29), Wild Wolf (25), Ian Rose (21), and AustralianRupert (16). Thanks go to Starstriker7 and Piotrus, who also fielded entries.
Awards and honours
Congratulations go to Parsecboy, who has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves for bringing almost all of the WWI-era German battleships up to GA, A, or FA class. His single-minded determination in this field has helped immeasurably with the project's WWI Centennial Drive.
File:Mont puget.jpg is now available on Wikimedia Commons as Commons:File:Mont puget.jpg. This is a repository of free media that can be used on all Wikimedia wikis. The image will be deleted from Wikipedia, but this doesn't mean it can't be used anymore. You can embed an image uploaded to Commons like you would an image uploaded to Wikipedia, in this case: [[File:Mont puget.jpg]]. Note that this is an automated message to inform you about the move. This bot did not copy the image itself. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 05:28, 18 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
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![Governor Davey's [sic] Proclamation to the Aborigines](File:Gov_Davey%27s_proclamation-edit2.jpg){kind=link}
