HOA Monitor

As 2013 nears its end, the Horn of Africa seems to be entering a new period of turbulence: events in South Sudan this week bring the country to the brink of civil war -- a tragedy that can hopefully be avoided. Events in Sudan suggest subtle shifts and power struggles behind the scenes. Ethiopia enters its first full year in the absence of it former PM, Meles Zenawi, and Eritrea continues to haemorrhage, as thousands of its people flee the country each month. In Somalia, a political reshuffle brings a political unknown into the spotlight as PM, at a time when Al-Shabaab is flexing its muscles and reorganizing itself. All the more important that Wikipedia pages on the region be up-to-date and accurate.

Welcome back/PMPF

Hey HOA Monitor, welcome back. I'm a bit of a military specialist, and it would be good to have somebody also doing international security affairs as well as we start to rebuild WP's coverage of Somali areas... Buckshot06 (talk) 10:55, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

Hey Buckshot06, I hope I can be of use. My day job keeps me busy, but I've been working on Somalia and neighbouring countries for quite a while now, and would like to see WP become a genuine reference on the Horn of Africa rather than a proxy theatre of war for partisans and propagandists - of which there has been (in my opinion) too much of late HOA Monitor (talk) 15:01, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

What's the highest priority? I can certainly spend some time on the PMPF if you think that would benefit from some joint work. Buckshot06 (talk) 23:28, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

Buckshot06 Hard to say where to start, but the PMPF article seems as good as any: it's currently crafted as a largely promotional piece designed to defend the force, rather than to assess all points of view. Controversies over the force's establishment and the role of a foreign PSC in its formation and training seem to have been glossed over. And much of the text is unsourced or poorly sourced. Perhaos we'll make better progress if we work on it together.HOA Monitor (talk) 14:16, 2 June 2015 (UTC)

Great. Please feel free to lay down a work programme for the PMPF and I can do some bits while you do others. Khatumo/SSC may be a next possibility after that. Buckshot06 (talk) 18:26, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

Sounds good. I propose to begin by revisiting the Overview and Support sections, introducing the controversies that emerged relating to the UN sanctions regime and related questions of international law.

I also think there's a need to review sourcing: in several places, the Puntland government's assertions appear to be taken at face value, without qualification or corroboration, raising possible POV issues. I am also concerned by the heavy reliance on Somalia Report as a reference, since its editor in chief has acknowledged that he was on the payroll of Erik Prince, who was also the architect of the PMPF. 12:19, 4 June 2015 (UTC)HOA Monitor (talk)

I'll follow your lead initially, because my knowledge of the PMPF is currently once-over-lightly; basically I get the impression that it was a private force of the President, or some such. Buckshot06 (talk) 21:51, 4 June 2015 (UTC)

That's essentially correct: as far as I know, it has no status in Somali or Puntland law and reports directly to the P/L presidency -- not via the Ministry of Interior or Police chain of command.HOA Monitor (talk) 12:52, 5 June 2015 (UTC) I notice that the articles doesn't make reference to Saracen, but only to SCS, which superseded Saracen much later. Is Saracen's involvement something you'd feel comfortable working on? HOA Monitor (talk) 14:05, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

Happy to go after Saracen re PMPF for you. My starting point would be with the Group of Experts' reports, but would you direct me to any other particular sources? Buckshot06 (talk) 00:01, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

The Monitoring Group reports are certainly a good place to start, and can usually be corroborated through reference to other respected open source content (NYT, South Africa's Independent, etc.). A 2013 documentary film, The Project, is intended to promote the PMPF but also includes footage of PSC personnel taking part in kinetic operations, and other behaviour alleged by the force's critics. Unfortunately, I can't find any footage but the trailer via open source. If you can find it, it's worth watching.HOA Monitor (talk) 10:07, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

I'm not sure how you'd like me to proceed in regard to this article. Should we wish to introduce a less positive view that the PMPF's official site (for crying out loud, it's a clear mirror of an early version of this page!!), we're going to have to make extensive revisions directly against 26oo's wishes. The denigration of the SEMG reports is laughable, given the circumstances, but we will have to continue making such revisions directly against his wishes. Now I can do that, as I demonstrated, but it's only going to work if you and to a lesser extent Cordless Larry are willing to make such revisions as well. How can I best assist you? Cheers and best Buckshot06 (talk) 05:53, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

Buckshot06 Based on experience to date in revising this article, I propose that we (1) Continue to insert material from reliable sources on the PMPF, whether from the UN or elsewhere (there is plenty of objective reporting on open source); (2) Continue to review current content and sourcing for inadequate references (as per the reference to Puntland's piracy law) or undue reliance on interested parties, such as the Puntland authorities or Somalia Report. While such references need not be deleted (unless unsourced or inaccurately sourced), they should be balanced by less prejudicial POVs. How does that sound for a start?HOA Monitor (talk) 14:10, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

Hi, HOA Monitor, your recent edit says that the UAE officially denied it until 2013 but I can't find it in the source given how large the document is. Please include the page number. 26oo (talk) 15:38, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

Hello, HOA Monitor. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Buckshot06 (talk) 08:03, 13 June 2015 (UTC)

Contests

User:Dr. Blofeld has created Wikipedia:WikiProject Africa/Contests. The idea is to run a series of contests/editathons focusing on each region of Africa. He has spoken to Wikimedia about it and $1000-1500 is possible for prize money. As someone who has previously expressed interest in African topics, would you be interested in contributing to one or assisting draw up core article/missing article lists? He says he's thinking of North Africa for an inaugural one in October. If interested please sign up in the participants section of the Contest page, thanks.♦ --Ser Amantio di Nicolao^{Che dicono a Signa?}_{Lo dicono a Signa.} 01:22, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

Invite to the African Destubathon

Hi. You may be interested in participating in the African Destubathon which starts on October 15. Africa currently has over 37,000 stubs and badly needs a quality improvement editathon/contest to flesh out basic stubs. There are proposed substantial prizes to give to editors who do the most geography, wildlife and women articles, and planned smaller prizes for doing to most destubs for each of the 53 African countries, so should be enjoyable! Even if contests aren't your thing we would be grateful if you could consider destubbing a few African articles during the drive to help the cause and help reduce the massive 37,000 + stub count, of which many are rated high importance (think Regions of countries etc). If you're interested in competing or just loosely contributing, whether it's a river in Malawi, a Nigerian footballer, or a South African civil rights activist, please add your name to the Contestants/participants section. Diversity of work from a lot of people will make this that bit more special. For those of you who signed up to the North African contest, that will hopefully be held in the new year. Thanks. --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:11, 6 October 2016 (UTC)

Women in Red World Contest

Hi. We're into the last five days of the Women in Red World Contest. There's a new bonus prize of $200 worth of books of your choice to win for creating the most new women biographies between 0:00 on the 26th and 23:59 on 30th November. If you've been contributing to the contest, thank you for your support, we've produced over 2000 articles. If you haven't contributed yet, we would appreciate you taking the time to add entries to our articles achievements list by the end of the month. Thank you, and if participating, good luck with the finale!

AfroCine: Join us for the Months of African Cinema in October!

Greetings!

You are receiving this message because your username or portal was listed as a participant of a WikiProject that is related to Africa, the Carribean, Cinema or theatre.

This is to introduce you to a new Wikiproject called AfroCine. This new project is dedicated to improving the Wikipedia coverage of the history, works, people, places, events, etc, that are associated with the cinema, theatre and arts of Africa, African countries, the carribbean, and the diaspora. If you would love to be part of this or you're already contributing in this area, kindly list your name as a participant on the project page here.

Furthermore, In the months of October and November, the WikiProject is organizing a global on-wiki contest and edit-a-thon tagged: The Months of African Cinema. If you would love to join us for this exciting event, also list your username as a participant for this event here. In preparation for the contest, please do suggest relevant articles that need to be created or expanded in different countries, during this event!

If you have any questions, complaints, suggestions, etc., please reach out to me personally on my talkpage! Cheers!--Jamie Tubers (talk) 20:50, 5 September 2018 (UTC)

Welcome to the Months of African Cinema!

Greetings!

The AfroCine Project welcomes you to October, the first out of the two months which has been dedicated to improving contents that centre around the cinema of Africa, the Caribbean, and the diaspora.

This is a global online edit-a-thon, which is happening in at least 5 language editions of Wikipedia, including the English Wikipedia! Join us in this exciting venture, by helping to create or expand articles which are connected to this scope. Also remember to list your name under the participants section, if you haven't done so already.

On English Wikipedia, we would be recognizing Users who are able to achieve the following:

• Overall winner (1st, 2nd, 3rd places)
• Country Winners
• Diversity winner
• High quality contributors
• Gender-gap fillers
• Page improvers
• Wikidata Translators

For further information about the contest, the recognition categories and how to participate, please visit the contest page here. For further inquiries, please leave comments on the contest talkpage or on the main project talkpage. See you around :).--Jamie Tubers (talk) 22:50, 03 October 2018 (UTC)

AfroCine: Join the Months of African Cinema this October!

Greetings!

After a successful first iteration of the “Months of African Cinema” last year, we are happy to announce that it will be happening again this year, starting from October 1! In the 2018 edition of the contest, about 600 Wikipedia articles were created in at least 8 languages. There were also contributions to Wikidata and Wikimedia commons, which brought the total number of wikimedia pages created during the contest to over 1,000.

The AfroCine Project welcomes you to October, the first out of the two months which have been dedicated to creating and improving content that centre around the cinema of Africa, the Caribbean, and the diaspora. Join us in this global edit-a-thon, by helping to create or expand articles which are connected to this scope. Also remember to list your name under the participants section.

On English Wikipedia, we would be recognizing participants in the following manner:

• Overall winner (1st, 2nd, 3rd places)
• Diversity winner
• Gender-gap fillers

For further information about the contest, the recognition categories and how to participate, please visit the contest page here. For further inquiries, please leave comments on the contest talkpage or on the main project talkpage. See you around :).--Jamie Tubers (talk) 00:50, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Join the Months of African Cinema Global Contest!

Greetings!

The AfroCine Project invites you to join us again this October and November, the two months which are dedicated to improving content about the cinema of Africa, the Caribbean, and the diaspora.

Join us in this exciting venture, by helping to create or expand contents in Wikimedia projects which are connected to this scope. Kindly list your username under the participants section to indicate your interest in participating in this contest.

We would be awarding prizes to different categories of winners:

• Overall winner
  • 1st - $500
  • 2nd - $200
  • 3rd - $100
• Diversity winner - $100
• Gender-gap fillers - $100
• Language Winners - up to $100*

We would be adding additional categories as the contest progresses, along with local prizes from affiliates in your countries. For further information about the contest, the prizes and how to participate, please visit the contest page here. For further inquiries, please leave comments on the contest talkpage or on the main project talkpage. Looking forward to your participation.--Jamie Tubers (talk) 19:22, 22nd September 2020 (UTC)

Ýou can opt-out of this annual reminder from The Afrocine Project by removing your username from this list

The Months of African Cinema Contest Continues in November!

Greetings,

Thank you very much for participating in the Months of African Cinema global contest/edit-a-thon, and thank you for your contributions so far.

It is already the middle of the contest and a lot have been achieved already! We have been able to get over 1,500 articles created in over fifteen (15) languages! This would not have been possible without your support and we want to thank you. If you have not yet listed your name as a participant in the contest page please do so.

Please make sure to list the articles you have created or improved in the article achievements' section of the contest page, so that they can be easily tracked. To be able to claim prizes, please also ensure to list your articles on the users by articles page. We would be awarding prizes to different categories of winners:

• Overall winner
  • 1st - $500
  • 2nd - $200
  • 3rd - $100
• Diversity winner - $100
• Gender-gap filler - $100
• Language Winners - up to $100*

We are very excited about what has been achieved so far, but your contributions are still needed to further exceed all expectations! Let’s create more articles before the end of this contest, which is this November!!!

Thank you once again for being part of this global event! --Jamie Tubers (talk) 10:30, 06 November 2020 (UTC)

You can opt-out of this annual reminder from The Afrocine Project by removing your username from this list

Welcome to the Months of African Cinema Global Contest!

Greetings!

The AfroCine Project core team is happy to inform you that the Months of African Cinema Contest is happening again this year in October and November. We invite Wikipedians all over the world to join in improving content related to African cinema on Wikipedia!

Please list your username under the participants’ section of the contest page to indicate your interest in participating in this contest. The term "African" in the context of this contest, includes people of African descent from all over the world, which includes the diaspora and the Caribbean.

The following prizes would be recognized at the end of the contest:

• Overall winner
  • 1st - $500
  • 2nd - $200
  • 3rd - $100
• Diversity winner - $100
• Gender-gap fillers - $100
• Language Winners - up to $100*

Also look out for local prizes from affiliates in your countries or communities! For further information about the contest, the prizes and how to participate, please visit the contest page here. For further inquiries, please leave comments on the contest talkpage or on the main project talkpage. We look forward to your participation.--Jamie Tubers (talk) 23:20, 30th September 2021 (UTC)

Ýou can opt-out of this annual reminder from The Afrocine Project by removing your username from this list

The Months of African Cinema Contest Continues in November!

Greetings,

It is already past the middle of the contest and we are really excited about the Months of African Contest 2021 achievements so far! We want to extend our sincere gratitude for the time and energy you have invested. If you have not yet participated in the contest, it is not too late to do it. Please list your username as a participant on the contest’s main page.

Please remember to list the articles you have improved or created on the article achievements' section of the contest page so they can be tracked. In order to win prizes, be sure to also list your article in the users by articles. Please note that your articles must be present in both the article achievement section on the main contest page, as well as on the Users By Articles page for you to qualify for a prize.

We would be awarding prizes to different categories of winners:

• Overall winner
  • 1st - $500
  • 2nd - $200
  • 3rd - $100
• Diversity winner - $100
• Gender-gap filler - $100
• Language Winners - up to $100*

Thank you once again for your valued participation! --Jamie Tubers (talk) 18:50, 11 November 2021 (UTC)

You can opt-out of this annual reminder from The Afrocine Project by removing your username from this list