User talk:Btphelps/Archive/archive7

Thanks for your help

I know you're busy, so thanks for taking the time to give advice and feedback about Home birth, it's really helpful for me since I'm a pretty inexperienced editor and I'm not always sure how to go about improving the articles I want to work on.--Aronoel (talk) 15:06, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

Glad to assist. This topic is of interest to me as 4 or my 5 sons were born at home. (Not all on purpose, either.) Your edit of the section was very well done. I think you gave a balanced perspective. -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 17:24, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

Cuban Missile Crisis

Hi. I stumbled onto an issue while servicing a semiprotected edit request at this page. The request was to remove a line of text which was speculative and not supported by the source. When I checked the source I found two things: the source is a web site published by some post grad student and the source didn't mention the information I had been asked to remove. I've removed the content and references to both of the pages at that site. I wanted to mention this to be sure you understand that self published sources are not reliable sources and that care needs to be taken to avoid giving the impression entire paragraphs are supported by sources that are added after the fact when that is not the case. You've made a lot improvements to that article recently. Can you double check that this is the only case where either the source is less than reliable or the source appears to provide verifiability for more content than it should? Thanks, Celestra (talk) 03:12, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the note. You appear to be referring to the site Cuban Missile Crisis as "self-published by some post grad student." In this instance, I'm not sure if that characterization applies. I'm usually pretty careful about the sources I cite. Self-published seems to be primarily qualified by the lack of editorial oversight, meaning that the "views...are widely acknowledged as extremist, or promotional in nature, or which rely heavily on rumors and personal opinions," or the author "claim[s] to be an expert in a certain field." The author has studied "International Relations and European History at the University of Amsterdam," "Strategic Studies at Command and General Staff Officer's College," and "Army Force Management at Army Force Management School." He is a member of several professional historical associations. In addition, each page on the web site is well-referenced, and the site includes an extensive bibliography. So it's not like he's making this stuff up. He appears to have a degree of credibility and expertise that certainly exceeds what I typically see as a self-published source like a personal blog.

Can you please clarify which of the several citations you removed was associated with content that the citation did not support? If a reference does not support the fact stated, I need to know which one so that I can correct it. Unless you strongly disagree, I think the web site is a reliable source and will revert your changes. Would you also mind clarifying why a request for semi-protection might exist when the page has not been vandalized since March 19? -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 07:59, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your polite response. I still feel that website is not a reliable source in general. If you disagree, we should engage WP:RSN to get more opinions. The site contains an "about" page which informs us "I am a Master of Arts student in American History at George Mason University and a full-time member of the Army National Guard working at the National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Virginia." That is why I characterize the author as "some post grad student." He is clearly knowledgable about the subject, but the degree to which his conclusions agree with the mainstream historical view is unknown. That is the problem with self published sources, they lack any peer or editorial review and no publisher's reputation stands behind the accuracy. Had the author been widely published in the field already, his own reputation for accuracy might be enough and I think WP:SPS talks about making exceptions for acknowledged experts, but that is clearly not the case here.

You can see which statement I removed by doing a diff, it had to do with how the letter provided by Fomin was treated as accurate and authentic at the time, but later it was thought to have been made it up by Fomin. You added the citation to the end of that paragraph, which implied to me that the source supports all the content, but the site says nothing about Fomin, much less these details about how the letter was received. At the same time that you added this site as a source, you removed the tag which has been there since last July warning that the facts in that section were unsupported by references. If you only meant for this to support some tiny details, I would have left the tag or removed the other details which are still unsupported.

As to pointing out the individual unsupported claims, I'm not really that interested. No offense, but that is similar to a passerby pointing out one holiday on a house that is being painted and having the painter ask him to point out all of the holidays. I'm pointing out a general concern. I assume that you are trying to be careful as you find sources for the older text. I just think that you might want to be even more careful going forward and you might want to double check your recent work. Perhaps the facts on that website, in the context of some other knowledge you have, would seem to support the content, even though they don't support the content by themselves. Perhaps they support the gist of the paragraph, but not some of the details. You would know better than I would.

Finally, just to clear up a little misunderstanding, the article is already semiprotected. I was taking care of an edit request from a non-autoconfirmed user. I couldn't be servicing a protection request as I am not an admin. Thanks, Celestra (talk) 19:37, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

File:Pál Teleki 4th World Scout Jamboree Gödöllő.jpg

They're gonna delete this from commons, can you help? --Chris (クリス • フィッチュ) (talk) 17:18, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Found source and updated the page, thanks. -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 05:44, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

There's another image of Pal Teleki at the 4th World Jamboree that I'd like to move to Commons. How do I go about it? -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 05:47, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

I've been trying to figure that out myself, how to move to Commons from other language Wikis, specifically Russian and Farsi. No dice yet. --Chris (クリス • フィッチュ) (talk) 15:49, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Lyle Bouck

Dear Btphelps, in march 2009, you expanded the article Lyle Bouck. In the version before your edit it is said that the whole platoon survived the POW-camps, but now it says that one member died in the camps. I would like to know who and what your source is, since it isn't stated in Alex Kershaw's book about the platoon... Greetings, Sustructu (My Talk) 10:54, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

The article actually says, "Only one soldier in the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon died in the war or in POW camps." (Emphasis added.) There's a reference in the article to the source, which says, "Every platoon member became a prisoner, except one who was killed in action." No ID of the individual was given. So all those that were captured survived. I modified the article slightly to make this more clear. This story could be expanded into an article of its own if you are up to it. Here's a good accounting of the action. -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 03:35, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Hi Btphelps, thanks for your answer. Now I think I know who was killed in action, altough this was not a real member of the platoon. Pvt. Billy Queens, from the tank destroyer section (if I'm right it's the 516th division) of the 14th Cavalry Group, mentioned in the article, was shot in the belly and died soon after because of blood loss.

The idea of the article is nice, unfortunately, I'm not a native (which probably was already clear after my comments here :P). As you can see on my UP, I'm from the Netherlands and I don't think my English is already good enough to write a whole article. Sustructu (My Talk) 16:21, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

It'd be helpful to know whether a member of the platoon died or not. What's your source on Billy? -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 21:46, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

It's the book of Alex Kershaw about the platoon, The Longest Winter (ISBN 0306813041). I'm just not sure if it's correct. A lot of people I know say that the book doesn't tell the true story, altough I haven't seen any comments from real specialists about it. Sustructu (My Talk) 12:14, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

EDIT: The chapter in which Billy Queen (without the 's') can be found here: "Suddenly, artillery observer Billy Queen, standing beside Joseph McConnell in a dugout, cried out in pain and slumped to the ground. He began to groan, blood seeping from a serious stomach wound. There was nothing McConnell could do for him-he had no medical supplies. Queen began to lose consciousness. Within an hour he would be dead, his body starting to freeze.*"

Just search for "Queen", the second hit is it. Sustructu (My Talk) 12:18, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

DYK nomination for Portfolio: An Intercontinental Quarterly 1st

Hello! Your submission of Portfolio: An Intercontinental Quarterly at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Mikenorton (talk) 10:34, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Portfolio: An Intercontinental Quarterly

Hello! Your submission of Portfolio: An Intercontinental Quarterly at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! — Rlevse • Talk • 01:51, 23 June 2010 (UTC)

DYK for Portfolio: An Intercontinental Quarterly

— Rlevse • Talk • 12:02, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

Caresse Crosby

Hello. In March you added a citation to a book from the "Webster's Quotations, Facts and Phrases" series published by Icon Group International to this article to reference her birth date and place. Unfortunately, Icon Group International is not a reliable source - their books are computer-generated, with most of the text copied from Wikipedia (most entries have [WP] by them to indicate this, see e.g. [1]). I've only removed the reference, not the text it was referencing, though I'm in the process of correcting the details using this source. I'm removing a lot of similar references as they are circular references; many other editors have also been duped by these sources. Despite giving an appearance of reliability, the name "Webster's" has been public domain since the late 19th century. Another publisher to be wary of as they reuse Wikipedia articles is Alphascript Publishing. Fences&Windows 00:16, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

Sounds good, thanks for the eagle eye on those reliable sources. -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 01:14, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

Wood badge cats

Why did you add these:Monterey County, California and Naval Postgraduate School faculty? Monterey is a very slim connection and the PG school one I don't get at all. — Rlevse • Talk • 23:22, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

Monterey was the location where the program changes were initiated. Perhaps slim. I was thinking of the Defense Language Institute where Banathy et. al. worked. Another slim connection. Removed the 2nd one. -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 00:12, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

Woodbadge started at Gilwell in England. In America it started in New Jersey in the 1930s. — Rlevse • Talk • 00:14, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

PS, I attended DLI, it's at the top of the hill. The PG school is about 1 to 1.5 miles away at the bottom of the hill. — Rlevse • Talk • 00:15, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

Hey, thanks for serving our country! What language did you study? (I am familiar with the locations. I grew up there. Just a momentary memory lapse.) The "updated" Wood Badge originated with Banathy in Monterey while he served at DLI. That was the momentary inspiration for the cats. -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 19:44, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

The Milhist election has started!

The Military history WikiProject coordinator election has started. You are cordially invited to help pick fourteen new coordinators from a pool of twenty candidates. This time round, the term has increased from six to twelve months so it is doubly important that you have your say! Please cast your vote here no later than 23:59 (UTC) on Tuesday, 28 September 2010.

With many thanks in advance for your participation from the coordinator team,  Roger Davies ^talk 21:23, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

Medal of Honor, Daniel Burke

The information I placed on the site concerning Daniel Burke is correct. The additions you posted are from an Addendum. If you took the time to read it you would have seen it was a letter written by his commanding officer and not part of his CMH citation. If you go to the CMH site for Medal of Honor recipients and look up his name you will see the wording is very brief, just the way I posted it. Also his date of commission and when he accepted the commission is correct. --GUNNERGRZ (talk) 06:03, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

That's fine, but you did not provide a source, which I added. Please add sources or your edits may be removed. Additionally, comments are tacked onto the end of talk pages. Thanks. -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 17:03, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Relative?

I thought you might be interested to know I have been adding bits of detail to the history section of Simsbury, Connecticut, partly because I've been trying to add some pictures, and that draws me into writing some of the history. One of the pictures I recently added is the Capt. Elisha Phelps House, which I assume is a relative.--SPhilbrickT 20:57, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Do you know about this? Sounds like you qualify.--SPhilbrickT 20:50, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

Hi SphilBrick, thanks for the update and work on the history of Simsbury. No, I hadn't heard of this society. Given William Phelps' early arrival in the colonies, there seem to be a few such organizations that he qualifies me for. -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 14:53, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

File:Teleki cserk.JPG

I had this restored here. Commons or not, it's useful.--Kintetsubuffalo (talk) 02:36, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Great, thanks. I'll re-add it to the 1933 Jamboree article. -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 03:09, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Please consider the following

re: Holt Manufacturing Company. Contrary to your assertion, I have done careful research that has revealed an error that your revision has re-introduced to the text. (The link you are concerned with is not dead, but another one definitely was.) The Overland Journal citation is incorrect, giving the wrong year and month and the wrong publication name. In 1902 the publication was called simply "Overland Journal" despite the incorrect header given by Google books see [2] . For whatever reason, the Google books scan omits the contents page for the August, 1902 issue, which is the correct issue for this article. If you'd checked the contents page for the September, 1902 issue, you would have seen that this article and page number can not appear in that issue, nor in the July issue.

Additionally your feedback regarding "well formatted links" is incorrect and specifically mentioned as not appropriate for the External Links section. See [[3]] . Ch Th Jo (talk) 02:22, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I stand corrected. -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 19:36, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Just noticed...

that you're Mormon! Can you help with my question at the Scouting page? I have been scouring Google, but I don't know enough about LDS to properly name that image for keywords. You have a cool family history!--Kintetsubuffalo (talk) 02:53, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the kind words! The family history bit is fun. William Phelps was a Puritan who helped form the very first democratic local government in the Windsor, Connecticut. Another of our ancestors, Samuel Clagett, was a surgeon with George Washington at Valley Forge. His son, Thomas John Claggett, was very good friends with Francis Scott Key, who wrote his epitaph. Noah Phelps was instrumental in learning that Fort Ticonderoga was lightly defended during the Revolutionary War. And yes, I'm a convert to the LDS Church of about 18 years.

I found the image you are referring to, but have no knowledge or information about a better quality image. -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 06:13, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

I mean the central figure, the rest is geometrics and easy to fix. The older fellow with his hand on the heads of the two praying, that's what I meant-who are they, what does it represent, so I can google for a better pic for the graphicist. Sorry for the late reply.--Kintetsubuffalo (talk) 02:33, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

The event depicts the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood. I can't find a drawing, but you can see images of a statue illustrating the event here, here, and here. Hope this helps. -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 16:07, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

That is huge help, thank you!--Kintetsubuffalo (talk) 16:18, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Invitation to join WikiProject United States

Hello, Btphelps/Archive/archive7! WikiProject United States, an outreach effort supporting development of United States related articles in Wikipedia, has recently been restarted after a long period of inactivity. As a user who has shown an interest in United States related topics we wanted to invite you to join us in developing content relating to the United States. If you are interested please add your Username and area of interest to the members page here. Thank you!!!

--Kumioko (talk) 03:06, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

Golden Lion

Re 106th Cavalry Regiment (United States), the page states the nickname of the unit is Golden Lion. That is incorrect, the "Golden Lion Division" was the 106th Infantry Division (see this page). I can change it, but wanted to give you a heads-up as you are the creator of the 106th Cavalry article. Cheers, W. B. Wilson (talk) 04:46, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, and go for it. -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 07:06, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Online Ambassadors

I saw the quality of your contributions at DYK and clicked on over to your user page and was pretty impressed. Would you be interested in helping with the WP:Online_Ambassadors program? It's really a great opportunity to help university students become Wikipedia contributers. I hope you apply to become an ambassador, Sadads (talk) 00:27, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, I appreciate the compliments, it looks like a great program. But I've been cutting back on my comittments to focus on key family priorities and am not ready to take on new ones at this time. -- btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 02:01, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

DYK for I Married Wyatt Earp

The DYK project (nominate) 08:02, 4 July 2011 (UTC)

Suggestion for WikiProject United States to support WikiProject American Old West

It was recently suggested that WikiProject American Old West might be inactive or semiactive and it might be beneficial to include it in the list of projects supported by WikiProject United States. I have started a discussion on the projects talk page soliciting the opinions of the members of the project if this project would be interested in being supported by WikiProject United States. Please feel free to comment on your opinions about this suggestion. --Kumioko (talk) 19:51, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

Boy Scout Articles

Hi Thanx for your message.

It took me a minute because I had never seen Leadership training (Boy Scouts of America) before. But I see that you replaced Youth Leadership Training Continuum with Leadership training (Boy Scouts of America). When I started the Youth Leadership Training Continuum was in three articles so I was trying to remove redundancy. To add to my confusion it seems that Boy Scouts of America and Boy Scouting (Boy Scouts of America) repeat much information and some of the information in Leadership training (Boy Scouts of America). I would love to have a discussion about what goes where but whats the process and who decides? Reviewing Leadership training (Boy Scouts of America), it contains 90+% youth leadership information since the history from National Youth Leadership Training is now there. If Leadership training (Boy Scouts of America) was changed to Youth leadership training (Boy Scouts of America) and the adult information was removed, it would be clearer. The adults probably need their own page to talk about adult programs and Wood Badge. Now to the suggestion to merge National Youth Leadership Training and NYLT program, since the history has been moved, that is an option. The section Merged with Venturing training should be moved to Leadership training (Boy Scouts of America). And I'm not sure about the purpose of the Program controversy section. The Leadership Skills section could be replaced by NYLT program. Easier said than done. BTW Venturing Leadership Skills Course has been replaced by Introduction to Leadership Skills for Crews. Skipper Tryon2 (talk) 03:47, 2 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. You've touched on a number of issues. It'd be better if we could continue this conversation to the talk page of the main article so others can take part in the conversation. I'll try to carry the conversation forward on that talk page. — btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 04:22, 2 November 2011 (UTC)

Status

How do you display status on your userpage? SuperSuperSmarty (talk) 02:46, 20 November 2011 (UTC)

Berlin Central Station

Hi Bt. Thank you for your helpful contributions to Berlin Central Station. However, you may not realise that, as per WP:DATE, Wikipedia accept several date formats and we should not change them without good reason. This is English Wikipedia, not US Wikipedia. We are international and support all variants of English spelling and formatting, of which there are several. In the EU, Britain sets the language standard (most of which is international anyway). Hope this helps and do keep up the good work. Cheers. --Bermicourt (talk) 20:43, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I wasn't sure. Both 9 Jan and Jan 9 date formats were used, I just picked one. I figure someone would correct the article if I got it wrong. — btphelps ^{(talk) (contribs)} 20:52, 11 January 2012 (UTC)