No, you weren't too harsh. I accepted your comments, because at least they were true and relevant. Thank you for taking the time to congratulate me. Best, Rudget.08:45, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The Novels WikiProject Newsletter - Issue XX - January 2008
During 2007 we have seen membership grow from just below 200 to just below 300. Also our tagged article count now runs at about 16,000 considerably up on this time last year. It highlights the message given from last year that there is much work to do improving and caring for this corner of our "wikiworld". Sadly our Auto-list editor moved on and we sorely need an able replacement. On a more positive note we have seen the establishment of task forces, style guidelines and peer review. Our latest outreach initiative is the Novels Job Centre.
Member news
The project has currently 299 members, 9 joined & 0 leavers since the start of November 2007
n.b. this graph copy has been included as a "one off" example just for this newsletter to let you see the addition to our membership page.
The Australian task force (i.e. WikiProject Australian literature) is always welcoming new participants interested in Australian fiction.
Novel related news
The 2007 Costa Books Awards were announced on the 3rd January by Joanna Trollope. The two novel awards were the "2007 Costa Novel Award" A. L. Kennedy - Day and "2007 Costa First Novel Award" Catherine O'Flynn - What Was Lost
Welcome to the Twentieth 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.
The design of this almost completely impersonal (yet hopefully uplifting) message was ripped from Riana (talk·contribs)
Rudget!
Dear Twooars, my sincere thanks for your participation in my second request for adminship (and later on, on my talk page after the closure), which ended with 113 supports, 11 opposes, and 4 neutral. I would especially like to thank my admin coach and nominator, Rlevse and Ryan Postlethwaite who in addition to Ioeth all inspired me to run for a second candidacy. I would also like to make a special mention to Phoenix-wiki, Dihyrdogen Monoxide and OhanaUnited who all offered to do co-nominations, but I unfortunately had to decline. I had all these funny ideas that it would fail again, and I was prepared for the worst, but at least it showed that the community really does have something other places don't. Who would have though Gmail would have been so effective? 32 emails in one week! (Even if it does classify some as junk :P) I'm glad that I've been appointed after a nail biting and some might call, decision changing RFA, but if you ever need anything, just get in touch. The very best of luck for 2008 and beyond, Rudget.17:03, 15 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The orange flower is either a Hibiscus or a member of a related genus (it reminds me a little of Kosteletzkya); I'd guess a member of Hibiscus section Bombicella, but with 300 species of Hibiscus identifying a particular plant is a non-trivial task. If it was photographed in the wild the locality would help identification. Lavateraguy (talk) 11:13, 3 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
If it's from India I would go for Hibiscus hirtus. It's obviously malvaceous (stamens fused into a narrow tube). The capitate stigmas mean that it's not a member of Gossypieae, and the presence of an epicalyx that it's not a member of Abutilinae. Most Malvinae have three bracteoles (your plant has a least half-a-dozen), and the exceptions have more than five, and filiform, stigmas. That leaves Hibisceae, and not Pavonia and allies (ten stigmas), nor Decaschistia, nor Senra. Most of the other related genera are absent from India. A spreading corolla is right for Hibiscus hirtus, and flowers less than 2 inches in diameter is if anything too large - Hooker's Flora of British India says 1/2", but Drury's Handbook of the Indian Flora says middle sized. The flowers are variously described as white, pink and scarlet. Hibiscus micranthus is similar, and may not be specifically distinct. Lavateraguy (talk) 15:47, 3 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
That's the problem with having 300 species of Hibiscus - one can get an idea of the bounds of the genus that is narrower than reality. I can't be sure of species identities, especially when I've only seen at best a score of species, and haven't been able to track down/compile a complete list of species, never mind descriptions. Hibiscus talbotti was segregated from Hibiscus hirtus a few decades back - but I wouldn't know how to distinguish them. Lavateraguy (talk) 23:10, 3 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
If you have one near you, see if you can take photos at a botanical garden (see List of botanical gardens) or somewhere else where someone who (presumably) knows what they are doing has made the identification already. I'm a little scared of almost-right identifications (who can really tell all the different species of Nicotiana from each other just based on a photo, for example?). But nice pictures (I especially liked the red berry one, for the lighting and composition). Kingdon (talk) 21:28, 3 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think that the blue flower is fabaceous, but I doubt that I could place it with any confidence even if more details were visible. My guess would be Solanaceae or some other Lamiid family. If it is fabaceous I'd suspect something basal in the family, rather than a member of Papilionaceae. Lavateraguy (talk) 23:23, 3 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi, just dropping by to say thanks for supporting my RfA, I totally wasn't expecting to get so much support, it was a really pleasant surprise. Also, someone pointed out the force edit summary option to me, so I've turned that on now. Melesse (talk) 04:17, 4 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Melesse (talk) has smiled at you! Smiles promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling at someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy editing! Smile at others by adding {{subst:Smile}} to their talk page with a friendly message.
You're probably right, but it's an interesting discussion that I think should be had somewhere. Maybe WT:VAN? I think it's easy to develop that sense of urgency when you're fighting vandals, especially when you're watching the edits scroll past in an IRC channel with bots reporting suspicious edits. On the other hand, I think we do miss a lot of vandalism. I find it hours old in my watchlist all the time, especially with pages like date articles. But I think we can probably come up with technical fixes for that kind of thing. Anyway, see you around. Peace, delldottalk17:05, 5 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
We have had a solid month with an increase of project tagging work. We now have a bit of a backlog of assessments needed.
Member news
The project has currently 305 members, 6 joined & 0 leavers since the start of January 2008.
The member page has been reorganized with it being noted that many member are largely inactive. However this is not unusual for WikiProjects and we have a very loyal core of editors who work diligently away often without recognition.
Other news
Many book cover images were tagged for deletion because of missing or incorrect fair use rationales in January. Several notes on this subject were placed on the General Forum.
Task force news
There is a new 19th century task force. if this is an area of interest for you join in and help out.
Novel related news
23 January, 2008 - The Nestlé Smarties Book Prize is discontinued as of 2008 Guardian
The Jaipur Literature Festival, was held on the 23 - 27 January 2008, and is India's biggest festival of literature. British Council news site
The short story taskforce talk page has a discussion relating to the (non)inclusion of articles on stories by well known authors. Find the debate here.
Welcome to the Twenty First 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.
I spotted Image:Gram-negative_cellwall-schematic.png
and Image:Centriole3D.png, and just wanted to say how much I like them. The transparency in your centriole image works very nicely. You seem to be very skillful in using Inkscape. Do you still have the SVG versions of the images because if you wouldn't mind I would like to see the SVG components and how they are composited? Might you consider uploading the SVG versions as replacements for the PNG? The PNG images versions aren't scaling down very nicely, at least not on my low-res. display, whereas SVG usually does. Perhaps you could reply here to keep the thread of conversation in one place? Thanks, - Neparis (talk) 00:54, 14 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Neparis, sorry I didn't reply earlier... and thanks for the kind words. :) But I haven't used Inkscape that often; in fact the cell wall images are the first two I made in Inkscape. And that's why I couldn't figure out how to make the svg images show up well on Firefox. The problem with Inkscape SVGs is that the image part shows up ok but the areas with text and textboxes show up as plain black boxes. (And of course, another problem is size... the Inkscape SVGs are ~4 to 8 times larger than the PNGs.) So I had to convert the SVGs to PNGs. :-/ So if you think this problem can be solved I will upload the svg images or if you want the svgs to modify them yourself, I can send the files by email. Image:Centriole3D.png on the other hand, was made in Google SketchUp.- TwoOars06:42, 17 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
No, I did not upload the SVG versions of the cell wall images because I found that they too have the same problem when opened in Firefox. I used Inkscape 0.45. And yes, the centriole SVG image is smaller than the PNG but it's the other way round for the cell wall images... I guess the SVG size increases much more with increase in image complexity; the Gram negative-cell wall image has 6294 elements and the Inkscape SVG file size is ~6.5 MB whereas the PNG is only 815 KB.- TwoOars03:00, 22 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
It is hard to know why that SVG image would be so large. I know I have created smaller SVG images with more elements. I think it should be possible to find a way to reduce the size of yours. Could you upload it on WP temporarily? I will have a look at it and try to find out what's causing the problem. - Neparis (talk) 17:31, 22 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Unfortunately, I cannot look at it because inkscape seems to run out of memory while attempting to load it. However, from studying the SVG file by hand, I notice you have used lots of paths. Maybe that is the problem? Could you re-do it with fewer paths? - Neparis (talk) 19:38, 22 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I just noticed your request for photo IDS at the plant project page. The red fruit belongs to something in the genus Capsicum, which includes bell peppers and hot peppers. That one appears to be one of the newer ornamental varieties that's gaining in popularity. The orange flower is in the family Malvaceae and is almost definitely in the genus Hibiscus, but as these are very popular ornamentals, IDing it any further than that would be impossible from a photo (and with my limited knowledge). Hope that helps! DJLayton4 (talk)02:39, 26 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
An election has been proposed to elect a council that will govern the whole project for a month or more, if you would like to debate this, go to the general discussion forum here
Member news
The project has currently 312 members, 7 joined & 0 leavers since the start of February 2008.
Other news
Last months collaboration brought few improvements it would be nice if more got involved with the one for this month.
Welcome to the Twenty Second 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.
Last month's challenge (The Field of Vision) was completed by member User:Elizabennet as a fairly basic "stub" if anyone knows more to enhance it, please do.
The first person to start the article is mentioned in the next newsletter. This month's article is Norman Douglas' perhaps most famous work South Wind (LE).
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.
An election has been proposed and has been set up for this project. Description of the roles etc., can be found at Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Coordinators. If you wish to stand, enter your candidacy before the end of March and ask your questions of anyone already standing at Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Coordinators/May 2008. Voting will start on the 1st April and close at the end of April. The intention is for the appointments to last from May - November 2008. For other details check out the pages or ask. KevinalewisBot (talk) 14:15, 12 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Elections are now taking place for coordinators of the project for the next three months. Any editors interested in seeking a coordinator position, or who want a say in who is selected, should indicate as much here.
Member news
The project has currently 381 members, 69 joined & 0 leavers since the start of March 2008.
Other news
The project's long-time lead coordinator, Kevinalewis, has announced he is not standing as a candidate for another term in that capacity. We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to him for the extraordinary work he has done for this project.
Welcome to the Twenty Third 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.
Last month's challenge (South Wind) was completed by member User:Blathnaid with a nice starting stub.
The first person to start the article is mentioned in the next newsletter. This month's article is Kate Christensen's 2008 PEN/Faulkner award winner The Great Man.
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.
I would just like to thank you for your vote on Wisdom89's RfA, I thought I was the only one who used that line of reasoning. It's refreshing to see someone else who realizes that RfA votes are an excellent means of determining the worth of canidates before the process. RyanGerbil10(Kick 'em in the Dishpan!)21:44, 21 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Lady Aleena's RfA
Twooars...Thank you for supporting my nomination for adminship. Through it I have become aware of a great many people who can help me in my future editing endeavors. Even though I was not promoted, your support shows that I still have something to contribute to Wikipedia, even if it is minor edits to fix spelling and grammar to working in WikiProjects to help others make great articles. If you wish to further discuss the nomination, please use its talk page. Stop by my talk page anytime, even if it is just to say hello. Have a wonderful day! - LA @ 04:28, 30 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Want to see what wikipedians are reading or want the Wikipedia community to know what you are currently reading? Then check out Wikipedia:What I am reading at the moment.
Welcome to the Twenty Fourth 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.
Want to see what wikipedians are reading or want the Wikipedia community to know what you are currently reading? Then check out Wikipedia:What I am reading at the moment.
Welcome to the Twenty Fourth 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.
A friendly reminder from the Adopt-a-User project =)
Hey there Twooars! This is a friendly reminder to update your status at Wikipedia:Adopt-a-User/Adoptee's Area/Adopters whenever it is appropriate in order to provide new users with the most up-to-date information on available adopters. Also please note that we will be removing adopters who have not edited in 60 days. If you become active again (and we hope you do!) please feel free to re-add yourself. Cheers!
And now, for Fvasconcellos' traditional nonsectarian holiday greeting!
Wherever you are, and whether you're celebrating something or not, there is always a reason to spread the holiday spirit! So, may you have a great day, and may all your wishes be fulfilled in 2009! Fvasconcellos (t·c) 14:49, 24 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Is this a combination of my Christmas greeting from 2006 and my New Year's greeting from last year? Why, it most certainly is! Hey, if it ain't broke...
Increase awareness of readers of the existence of the outlines on Wikipedia
Complete the existing outlines
Create an outline for every subject that is exensive enough to benefit from having an outline (core subjects and major or extensive fields). There are thousands of these.
Recruit as many editors to work on these as possible (we need thousands of editors working on these)
Surpass portals in number by the end of the summer, and leave them in the dust by the end of the year
Get the major outline subject areas displayed on the Main Page (in place of or in addition to the portal links at the top of the page)
Increase the OOK to higher quality than Britannica's Outline of Knowledge (published in its Propaedia volume).
I was hoping you could comment on how to achieve the goals above.
Also I'm interested in every possible way of reaching readers and editors of Wikipedia. How can I get the most eyes and typing fingers on Wikipedia's outlines? Contacting editors directly without a reason relevant to them is spam, which I'd like to avoid. There are 75,000 regular editors on Wikipedia, and I want to contact all of them. So how do I do it? Directly or indirectly, I don't care which, piecemeal or all-at-once, all methods are fine with me. But I've got to find ways. I need your help.
I would also like to know how to find or attract editors to create new outlines. And I need advice on finding editors to help write the new outline article mentioned above (it needs to be fleshed out, completely referenced, and brought to featured article status).
Can you recommend anyone in particular who might be interested in sinking their teeth into a project like this? Or ways to reach groups of editors? Or ways to reach all editors? I welcome any and all advice you might have.
The July 2009 issue of the Novels 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. Alan16(talk)
17 positions remain unfilled at the Job Centre. Members who are active project contributors are encouraged to apply even if they can only do a position for a short time.
Project news
ON July 26, a fact about F. Springer's novel Bougainville appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the DYK section.
On July 27, a fact about Arnon Grunberg's award-winning 2003 novel The Asylum Seeker appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? section.
On July 28, a fact about Austrian writer Felix Salten appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the DYK section.
On August 1, a fact about Scottish novelist Walter Scott appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? section.
On August 12, a fact about American author Jeffrey McClanahan appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? section.
- Contributors were Alan16 and Sabiona (who searched the archives).
Task force and related news
The members of the Chronicles of Narnia task force have created a new ad encouraging people to join. You can display it on your user page or talk page using the following code: {{Wikipedia ads|ad=190}}.
Hello, I am a school librarian in my ‘real life’ and so I use Wikipedia a lot with students ageing from twelve to eighteen. While helping students research various topics I’ve run across many holes in Wikipedia that need to be filled so I created an account and began editing pieces. I’m taking a break from teaching for a few years while I raise two boys of my own, so I created a personal account a couple months ago and am focusing on editing articles on literature as well as the upper Midwest area of the United States and theatre. I enjoy all forms of literature but most often read fantasy and mystery. I am an occasional editor with no intent to run for any post; instead, I look at one or two articles a month that need help and do what I can. My public library system allows home access to a number of academic and professional databases, which is where I find most of my sources. Finally, I am currently working on filling in some of the red links on the Newbery Medal page and then hope to turn the stubs into full articles. Anyone want to help? I'd be interested in starting a Award Winners workgroup. I am also active in the WikiProject Biography and in the Children and Young Adult Literature WikiProject. They all have areas of focus that compliment each other and my interests.
I was approached after the last newsletter by somebody who wanted to reach out to some of the readers, so here we are – Alan16(talk).
Hi all, the Sword of Truth Task Force is restarting to clean up the articles related to Terry Goodkind's books and there adaptations. With the new TV series, The Legend of the Seeker, the books and the TV show are getting more critical attention, which means more real world material to document this great series of book. I would love to have other's help, as I have only just recently joined to find no other active members. The other members, as listed, have mostly left Wikipedia or removed themselves from the task force. If you are interested I would love to talk at the forum: Wikipedia:WikiProject Sword of Truth/General Forum, or send me a message. Hope to talk to some of you soon, SADADS (talk).
All members are asked to assist where they can.
The next months collaboration will be selected on 21 September 2009.
Newsletter challenge
Last months newsletter challenge, The Cater Street Hangman was completed by Sabiona. Members are encouraged to help improve this article.
The first person to start the article is mentioned in the next newsletter. This months newsletter challenge is Oberon Past and Present by Anthony Burgess.
Announcements and open tasks
WikiProject Novels • (inc. novellas, novelettes & short stories) Announcements and open tasks
Recently a new worklist had been created and quietly arrived, the Cleanup listing which gives a fairly comprehensive hit list of "novels" related articles that have been tagged for something or other.
Since then a new Article alerts listing has also been added of more topic and "urgent" items worthy of our attention.
17 positions remain unfilled at the Job Centre. Members who are active project contributors are encouraged to apply even if they can only do a position for a short time.
Project news
On November 1, a fact about the novel Madol Doova appeared in the DYK? section on Wikipedia's main page.
On November 22, a fact about the book Acquainted with the Night appeared on Wikipedia's main page in the Did You Know? section.
On December 1, a fact about the book Blown for Good appeared on Wikipedia's main page in the DYK? section.
On December 11, a fact about the novel Kajsa Kavat by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren appeared on Wikipedia's main page in the Did You Know? section.
- Contributor was Alan16 (who searched the archives).
Task force and related news
A new Military fiction task force has been recently created by SADADS. The group focuses on military fiction that is not primarily associated with fantasy and science-fiction, and is calling for users to help support the integration of the Military fiction task force, including template development, tagging, and assesment. Anyone interested in joining can sign up here.
Hello all. As you're probably aware this is the first newsletter since August. I had hoped that although I was unable to write one for the ensuing months, somebody would have picked it up, but that was sadly not to be. However I am back, and that should hopefully mean a new newsletter every month, like it used to be. There has been a lot of work done on novel related articles in my absence, however the project does not appeared to have progressed very much, which I'm sure you would all agree, is a shame as it holds such promise for Wikipedia. But with the new year approaching I am hoping that things will turn around, so I urge you all to get involved with the project in whatever way you can, and help it achieve its full potential. All that's left for me now is to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Début novelist 29 year old Evie Wyld won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her novel After The Fire, A Small Still Voice.
Collaboration of the Month
There have been no novels nominated at the Collaboration department for the past few months, so this months collaboration will remain: The Sound and the Fury.
All members are asked to assist where they can.
If you think there is an article which requires the projects collaboration, you can nominate it here.
The next months collaboration will be selected on 17 January 2010.
This months newsletter challenge is to create an article for The Spoilt City by Olivia Manning. The first person to start the article will be mentioned in the next newsletter.
Announcements and open tasks
WikiProject Novels • (inc. novellas, novelettes & short stories) Announcements and open tasks
Recently a new worklist had been created and quietly arrived, the Cleanup listing which gives a fairly comprehensive hit list of "novels" related articles that have been tagged for something or other.
Since then a new Article alerts listing has also been added of more topic and "urgent" items worthy of our attention.
Notification of automated file description generation
Your upload of File:Blue flower - profile.jpg or contribution to its description is noted, and thanks (even if belatedly) for your contribution. In order to help make better use of the media, an attempt has been made by an automated process to identify and add certain information to the media's description page.
This notification is placed on your talk page because a bot has identified you either as the uploader of the file, or as a contributor to its metadata. It would be appreciated if you could carefully review the information the bot added. To opt out of these notifications, please follow the instructions here. Thanks! Message delivered by Theo's Little Bot (opt-out)13:47, 13 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, Twooars. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.
The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.
Hello, Twooars. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.
The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.
You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated files}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the file's talk page.
