BurkesPass

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Welcome to Wikipedia, BurkesPass! Thank you for your contributions. I am Schwede66 and I have been editing Wikipedia for some time, so if you have any questions, feel free to leave me a message on my talk page. You can also check out Wikipedia:Questions or type {{help me}} at the bottom of this page. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

• Introduction
• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page
• Help pages
• How to write a great article
• The Teahouse, our help forum for new users
• Discover what's going on in the Wikimedia community

Also, when you post on talk pages you should sign your name using four tildes (~~~~); that will automatically produce your username and the date. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Schwede66 01:48, 12 September 2020 (UTC)

West Coast Meetup

Just reminding you that our follow-up to the first Greymouth Wikipedia meeting is happening this coming Sunday:

• Sunday 27th September
• 12:30–4:00 pm
• Grey District Library

There will once again be a light lunch, and a fancy coffee machine to keep us fuelled. So take a look at the editing you did last time, and figure out what you would like to work on with the library's resources. Hope to see you there (though if you can't, I understand, and we can catch up some other time when I'm on the Coast). —Giantflightlessbirds (talk) 01:55, 23 September 2020 (UTC)

Upcoming on the West Coast

Here are some events coming up on the West Coast you might be interested in.

Greymouth Wikipedia Meetup

• Grey District Library, 18 Albert St, Greymouth
• Saturday 30 January 2021
• 1:00–4:00 pm
• Tea and (good) coffee supplied, bring something to share for afternoon tea

Hokitika Wikipedia Meetup

• History Room, Westland District Library, 20 Sewell St, Hokitika
• Saturday 13 February 2021
• 1:00–4:00 pm

• Tea, coffee, and biscuits supplied. Feel free to drop for any part of the time.

These are part of a series of monthly meetups we’ll be running in Greymouth and Hokitika. See the West Coast Task Force project for more ways to get involved.

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Introducing Wikisource • a seminar by Andrew Wooding

• Digital Learning Centre, Westland District Library, 20 Sewell Street, Hokitika
• Wednesday 10 February 2021, 3:00–4:30
• Afternoon tea provided

Please RSVP to mike.dickison@westlib.co.nz

An introduction to Wikisource, a free repository of digitised out-of-copyright books uploaded and proofread by volunteers, and what this means for New Zealand libraries and museums.

Wikisource, a sister project to Wikipedia, is an online repository of free, out-of-copyright books anyone can read or download. The books have been scanned, transcribed, and proofread by multiple volunteers to create a computer-readable and searchable document. Wikisource can also import books already scanned by the Internet Archive, which includes numerous New Zealand works. Volunteers can help with basic proofreading, verification, and formatting of each others’ work. There’s significant potential for Wikisource as a place to host New Zealand works for free, and enlist the help of an international team of volunteers to transcribe them. Andrew Wooding is a Wikisource admin and has been volunteering with the project for over ten years; he most recently assisted the National Library of Scotland with a COVID lockdown project where staff transcribed nearly 3000 pamphlets from the collection. Andrew is visiting the West Coast and has kindly agreed to give this free seminar for anyone interested.

See this blog post for an example of WikiSource being used to digitise an out-of-copyright book of West Coast history.

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West Coast WikiCon

• Hokitika (venues at Como House, 51 Tancred Street and the Digital Learning Centre, Westland District Library)
• Sat–Sun 20–21 March 2021
• Registration will be just $20, with a mixture of presentations, skill sharing, and editing events for Wikipedians.

West Coast Task Force 2

News from the West Coast Task Force Summer 2021–22

Kia ora koutou. Here's what's happening. I gave a presentation and workshop about Wikisource at the LIANZA librarians conference in November, and there was quite a bit of interest. We finished proofreading Old Westland (1939), released it into the library catalogue as a e-book, and it was almost immediately borrowed by 15 people (the physical book had only gone out three times in the last few years). Newly-uploaded books needing work are George Marriner's The Kea: a New Zealand Problem, the 1886 edition of Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand, and Horatio Robley's Pounamu: notes on New Zealand greenstone. Wikisource ☞ With the help of the Left Bank Art Gallery we've been focussing on pounamu (greenstone) carving and hei tiki over the last month, with the goal of negotiating with copyright holders to get decent photos of different types of stone and some carving styles. There is lots to do! Let me know if you're keen to help with pounamu. Arts ☞ User:Paora has made some great improvements to Lake Wahapo, which made me wonder if there was interest in a small project in the New Year to improve articles on the West Coast's lakes and rivers. Meetups: we had a small Wikiblitz at Byte Digital Hub in Greymouth on Sat 4 Dec, which improved the Greymouth article and led to the creation of Floods in Greymouth • There'll be an online meetup of the West Coast Task Force, Sat 15 Jan 1pm (link to join). • In February we're planning a Wikiblitz on the Westland Petrel and the Barrytown Flats, to take place somewhere around Punakaiki – watch this space. Keep editing and mā te wā, — Giantflightlessbirds, 7 Dec 2021

View of Adams Range over Lake Wahapo

Page numbers

When you quote page numbers in references, what is needed is the page, or the page range, from where the info comes. Sometimes, editors give the number of pages that are in a printed book etc; that's not what is needed. I'm saying this because you specified pages=17, where the parameter should be singular (page=17). Just in case the Greymouth District Diamond Jubilee 1868–1928 happens to have 17 pages, then what we want is the specific page. Makes sense? Schwede66 04:11, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

An invitation to help the West Coast Wikipedian at Large

News from the West Coast

Development West Coast have kindly agreed to support another short Wikipedian at Large contract on the West Coast, to cover areas that were missed the first time around: Lake Brunner, Te Wahipounamu, Ōpārara Arches, and Punakaiki. From June 20th to August 26th I'll be improving articles, Wikidata, and photo collections on these areas, and would love some help. I'm inviting you to sign up on the project page; there'll be a fortnightly "postcards from the Coast" of to-dos and updates, and prizes for the most and best contributions by volunteers. Hope to see you there! —Giantflightlessbirds (talk) 23:04, 4 June 2022 (UTC))

Postcard #1 (2022)

Postcard from the West Coast Monday 20 June, 2022

Kia ora koutou and thanks for joining the West Coast Wikipedian at Large project! I hope you enjoy helping improve coverage of the beautiful country of Te Tai Poutini over the next ten weeks • First, bookmark the 2022 project page to keep up with which topics we're working on • For questions and suggestions, use the project Talk page (and watchlist it) • There's a Useful tools section on the project page that's worth checking out • We're doing something different this year: instead of the daily reporting of 2020, we're compiling a weekly report: just edit the Weekly Progress page with what you did when you did it, no pressure to do something every day! • There are prizes for both quantity and quality • Online training for newbie editors (Mon 27 Jun) and Commons contributors (Mon 4 Jul)—see the About page and feel free to recruit friends • The focus for the next couple of weeks is Punakaiki: the pancake rocks (which need their own article?), Paparoa Track (a stub with no photos!), Cave Creek (much work needed, and photos of the track, creek, and memorial), and Barrytown, subject of a Wikiblitz but still with plenty to do • I'll be visiting the Punakaiki area and hopefully presenting on Wikipedia to the DOC team around the 29–30 June (depending on weather), and will take photos of tracks, river, points, islands, and caves–requests taken • Note: there's a West Coast Reptiles Wikiblitz on Sunday 3 July if you want to help improve articles about native lizards • Right, that's plenty! Maybe people would be interested in an online team chat? I could post a Doodle poll… • So looking forward to working with you all on this! • Mānawatia a Matariki, — Giantflightlessbirds

Selliera radicans is a coastal turf plant that lives on the exposed clifftops near the Pancake Rocks.

Postcard #2 (2022)

Postcard from the West Coast Tuesday 5 July, 2022

Kia ora koutou and thank you all for your hard work over the last couple of weeks! We've had a cold snap here on the Coast, but at least the rain's slackened off and I've been able to get out on the blue sunny days and take snapshots • Schwede66 has been sorting out the Paparoa Range, cleaning up mountain wikidata, and expanding the Pororari River • We have a new article about the Truman Track, and a great photo selection for Cave Creek • Our hardest worker has been Marshalc, creating new articles on the Pancake Rocks, Bullock Creek, and the Inland Pack Track amongst others • I took a field trip to Punakaiki and sorted out the Wikidata and photos for every scenic spot between the Strongman Mine Memorial (Q112859334) and Hatters Bay (Q32217346) • If you're still thinking about helping, we could do with expanding the Punakaiki article, and sorting the best Pancake Rocks photos into a Commons gallery • Greymouth photographer Jase Blair donated some beautiful photos of Paparoa National Park which need using • The Avatar moth from Denniston Plateau (with its newly-improved article) will be RNZ's Critter of the Week on Friday • New resource: Mark Pickering's book The Coastal Journey (2010) (Q112841717) is free to download and a great reference • This coming weekend I'm off to Moana on Lake Brunner (to photograph the bays, walks, and especially the Kotuku Model Bungalow (those are all Start-quality icons, hint hint) • Check out the Project page to see jobs there are to do, and how you can help out! Ka kite ano. — Giantflightlessbirds

Memorial to the Strongman Mine disaster of 1967. The stones are in memory of Pike River.

Postcard #3 (2022)

Postcard from the West Coast Tuesday 19 July, 2022

Kia ora koutou and once again thank you for all your mahi over the last fortnight • We've been working on articles on the Lake Brunner area; the lake's article is looking heaps better, and it's in the queue for DYK • Marshelec, Swede66, and Turnagra have been the putting in lots of effort, with new articles on the Croesus Track, Mount Te Kinga, and the Pike19 Memorial Track amongst others • We've rescued lots of great photos from Flickr and other public collections • But these weren't enough: I did two field trips to photograph up and down the Punakaiki coast, and halfway around the Arnold Valley and Lake Brunner; numerous new Commons categories and Wikidata images resulted • Progress at the lake was derailed by having to be filmed for the evening news, editing Wikipedia in the open air while being attacked by sandflies (our project mascot is well chosen) • Over the next two weeks the focus shifts to Karamea, all the caves and walks of the Ōpārara Basin, and the Heaphy Track • There is plenty to do: the Wangapeka Track, Honeycomb Hill Cave, and Kahurangi National Park need massive work, so I'm stoked that Marshall and Lyn are joining me for a few days this weekend at Karamea to help • This is an area that critically relies on tourism, and it's embarassing the coverage is so bad in Wikipedia • Check out the Project page to see jobs there are to do, and how you can help out! Ka kite ano. — Giantflightlessbirds

The Kotuku Model Bungalow at Jack's Mill School; designed, built, and completely furnished at 3/4 scale by primary school children in 1938—the project of a visionary headmaster, now Heritage NZ listed.

Postcard #4 (2022)

Postcard from the West Coast Monday 1 Aug, 2022

Kia ora koutou and thanks for helping with this project • It's been a busy fortnight: I visited Karamea with Marshall and Lyn, and we spent the day on the Fenian Track, which now has its own article and over 100 photos of the valley, the local flora and fauna, and the three caves we explored • Yes, there were cave wētā and spiders • I also got to meet with local historians, photographers, and nature buffs who are keen to share photos and deluged me with print materials • The double hook featuring the Paparoa Track and the Pororari River articles appeared in DYK on 25 July and they got 3000 readers between them, but the accompanying DOC video clip got over 400,000 views! • The newly-created Copland Track article was in DYK the next day, and Lake Brunner will feature soon • Great work, everyone • Coming up: Te Wahipounamu and the Haast Pass—I'll be spending three days exploring and photographing the area, and could definitely do with help fleshing out the skeletal coverage of the lakes, localities, rivers, and wetlands of that beautiful part of the world • Check out the Project page to see the north-to-south list for South Westland, and pick something to work on; ask me for a job if you don't have one! Ka kite ano. — Giantflightlessbirds

Marshall took this photo of a very curious South Island robin (Petroica australis australis) on the Fenian Track.

Giantflightlessbirds (talk) 10:56, 1 August 2022 (UTC)

Postcard #5 (2022)

Postcard from the West Coast Monday 15 Aug, 2022

Kia ora koutou; we're coming up to the home stretch! • I got back from South Westland with about 400 photos to upload and categorise into Commons • The DOC team down there are very excited about our project; they're busy reopening the Haast-Paringa Cattle Track with a new swingbridge, and I promised we would create an article with photos of all the huts • Archives New Zealand have a wonderful collection of tourist publicity photos on DigitalNZ; you could search them for pics of West Coast places for articles (see the ones I used in Pleasant Flat) • There's still plenty to do over the last fortnight of the project—if you could find some time to pick one of the biggest gaps and have a go at filling it, that would be great • in Haast, we need articles on Okuru (currently a redirect), Hannahs Clearing, the Roaring Billy and Thunder Creek Falls, and Ship Creek; I have photos of all of them • You could also check back through the Punakaiki, Lake Brunner, and North Westland lists for anything that needs expanding • In other news, I'm running an online workshop 7 pm August 23rd on Adding Photos to Commons; enrolment's free, share with any keen photographers you know • We're also having a Wikiblitz this coming Sunday to try to improve the articles about West Coast reptiles, and could use help • Thank you for all your hard work; I'd like to organise an online meetup on Zoom at the end of the project to look back at what we've done and have a think about next steps; will send some possible times • Ka kite ano. — Giantflightlessbirds

A couple having a lovely picnic at Pleasant Flat in 1965, from the National Publicity Studios collection

Postcard #6 (2022)

Postcard from the West Coast Monday 29 Aug, 2022

Kia ora koutou; well, it's time to wrap up this project • What a wonderful and short ten weeks it's been; I've really appreciated all the mahi people have put into improving articles about the West Coast • There's a summary of what we've managed to achieve in the final report • Briefly: 24 new articles, 5 of them in DYK, 974 edits to 193 articles, adding 73,800 words and 653 citations • We uploaded 1126 photos into numerous new Commons categories • Standouts for me were Schwede66's sorting out all the Paparoa mountains named after famous scientists, Marshelec's work on Karamea and Bullock Creek, and Turnagra creating the Copland Track article • There are small prizes going out to those three, but I also want to acknowledge all the effort of Paora, Chocmilk03, and Gertrude206—great stuff • I'm about to head off to Europe for a month, to attend the Wikimedia Summit and learn what European Wikipedians are up to, but despite time zones would like to have an online catchup with participants soon • Thank you again for all your hard work; ka kite ano and I hope we'll have another bash at the West Coast again soon. Don't be strangers. — Giantflightlessbirds

John Pascoe's photo of a Home Guard solder at the Pancake Rocks