User talk:Leithp/Archive 8

This archive page is for messages from 8 March 2009 to 29 July 2012.

Nominations for the Military history WikiProject coordinator election

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The Military history WikiProject coordinator selection process has started; to elect the coordinators to serve for the next six months. If you are interested in running, please sign up here by 23:59 (UTC) on 13 March!
This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 19:30, 8 March 2009 (UTC)Reply

Military history WikiProject coordinator election

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The Military history WikiProject coordinator election has started. We will be selecting coordinators from a pool of eighteen to serve for the next six months. Please vote here by 23:59 (UTC) on Saturday, 28 March! Thank you.
This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 01:30, 21 March 2009 (UTC)Reply

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXXVII (March 2009)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue XXXVII (March 2009)
From the coordinators

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.

Those elected were: Abraham, B.S., Bellhalla, Cam, Eurocopter, EyeSerene, Ian Rose, Jackyd101, Joe N, Lordoliver, Maralia, MBK004, Nick-D, Roger Davies (lead), Skinny87, The ed17 and TomStar81. Kirill Lokshin continues in his role as coordinator emeritus. Thanks must go to the departing coordinators – Bedford, JonCatalán and Woody – for helping make the project what it is today

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 Davies talk 16:15, 2 April 2009 (UTC)Reply

Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. Byzantine navy
  2. Falaise Pocket
  3. Frank Hubert McNamara
  4. Heinrich Bär
  5. Juan Davis Bradburn
  6. Operation Cobra
  7. Port Chicago disaster
  8. SM U-66
  9. SMS Moltke (1910)
  10. Surrender of Japan
  11. Tom Derrick
  12. William Henry Harrison

New featured lists:

  1. List of United States Naval Academy alumni
  2. List of United States Naval Academy alumni (astronauts)
  3. List of United States Naval Academy alumni (Chiefs of Naval Operations)
  4. List of United States Naval Academy alumni (legislators)

New featured pictures:

  1. USS Texas (1892)

New A-Class articles:

  1. 1964 Brinks Hotel bombing
  2. Ba Cut
  3. Battle of Artemisium
  4. Battle of Fort Washington
  5. Battle of Morotai
  6. Battle of Tippecanoe
  7. Battle of Vimy Ridge
  8. Battle of Wau
  9. Design 1047 battlecruiser
  10. Fountain of Time
  11. Frank Horton Berryman
  12. Gia Long
  13. Henry Wells (general)
  14. Hill 262
  15. Hue chemical attacks
  16. Japanese battleship Haruna
  17. Jon Burge
  18. Nassau class battleship
  19. Operation Freshman
  20. SM UB-43
  21. SM UB-45
  22. Stanley Savige
  23. Xa Loi Pagoda raids
Project news
Awards and honors

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This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 01:56, 3 April 2009 (UTC)Reply

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXXVIII (April 2009)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue XXXVIII (April 2009)
From the coordinators

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

Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. 1964 Brinks Hotel bombing
  2. Battle of Tippecanoe
  3. Capture of Fort Ticonderoga
  4. Design 1047 battlecruiser
  5. Hue chemical attacks
  6. M249 squad automatic weapon
  7. Nassau class battleship
  8. Raymond Brownell
  9. Take Ichi convoy
  10. Zanzibar Revolution

New featured lists:

  1. List of United States Air Force Academy alumni
  2. List of United States Military Academy alumni (astronauts)
  3. List of United States Military Academy alumni (non-graduates)
  4. List of United States Naval Academy alumni (Medal of Honor)

New featured topics:

  1. Lists of United States Naval Academy alumni

New featured pictures:

  1. Richmond after the American Civil War
  2. Charles P. Stone
  3. Idi Amin caricature
  4. Joan of Arc WWI lithograph
  5. M777 Light Towed Howitzer
  6. Robert McGee, scalped as a child by Sioux Chief Little Turtle

New A-Class articles:

  1. Adrian Cole (RAAF officer)
  2. Amagi class battlecruiser
  3. Arthur Henry Cobby
  4. Battle of Barnet
  5. Battle of Ticonderoga (1759)
  6. Brazilian battleship Minas Geraes
  7. First Battle of Târgu Frumos
  8. Fort Ticonderoga
  9. Hastings Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay
  10. John Northcott
  11. Keith Johnson (cricket administrator)
  12. Landing at Nadzab
  13. Landing on Emirau
  14. Moltke class battlecruiser
  15. Moro River Campaign
  16. Operation Charnwood
  17. Operation Deny Flight
  18. Otto Becher
  19. Polish culture during World War II
  20. Roman–Parthian War of 58–63
  21. Samuel Burston
  22. SMS Seydlitz
  23. SM UB-10
  24. Ton That Dinh
  25. Wolfgang Lüth
Project news
Awards and honors

To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.

This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 22:29, 5 May 2009 (UTC)Reply

My recent edits

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Thanks for letting me know. I looked through the ones you pointed out and I think I fixed the problems. I was reviewing a list of articles of personnel who received american awards and I didn't realize some had been given to other service members so I will watch that. I also fixed the Bronze Star link. I also noticed that I changed some units because I misread them as dates but I think that is an exception and shouldn't be typical. Let me know if you see anything else. --Kumioko (talk) 18:12, 20 May 2009 (UTC)Reply

Just like to say thanks for catching, so quickly, the typo i made on the XXX Corps article. I can usually type pretty fast and accurate using the keys on the numpad but god knows what happened there.--EnigmaMcmxc (talk) 16:44, 30 May 2009 (UTC)Reply
No problem! Leithp 22:01, 30 May 2009 (UTC)Reply

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : XXXIX (May 2009)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue XXXIX (May 2009)
From the coordinators
  • 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 Davies talk 20:26, 3 June 2009 (UTC)Reply
Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash
  2. Arthur Henry Cobby
  3. Battle of Barnet
  4. Fort Ticonderoga
  5. Fountain of Time
  6. Neil Hamilton Fairley
  7. Operation Perch
  8. SMS Seydlitz
  9. SS Pennsylvanian

New featured lists:

  1. List of United States Military Academy alumni (Medal of Honor)
  2. List of United States Military Academy alumni (Superintendents)

New featured topics:

New featured pictures:

  1. The Battle of Schevening
  2. USS West Virginia (BB-48)

New A-Class articles:

  1. Albert Kesselring
  2. Frank Bladin
  3. Henry Burrell (RAN officer)
  4. List of Knight's Cross recipients of the Kriegsmarine
  5. List of Knight's Cross recipients of the Schnellboot service
  6. List of Knight's Cross recipients of the U-boat service
  7. Midshipman
  8. SM UB-14
  9. SM UB-16
  10. SS American (1900)
  11. Teddy Sheean
  12. Tucker class destroyer
  13. Yorktown-class gunboat
Project news
Awards and honours
Editorial: "How to use the Milhist template"

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, ISBN 9781844156061, p. 7

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This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 22:06, 4 June 2009 (UTC)Reply

Glad You're Still Here!

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Just popped by to say HI. And express regret for not doing so much sooner:)--R.D.H. (Ghost In The Machine) (talk) 23:01, 8 July 2009 (UTC)Reply

Glad to hear you're still here too! And apparently now taking on the thankless task of attempting to push through reform, too! Leithp 08:22, 21 July 2009 (UTC)Reply
I'm not sure if that is due to my mental masochism, a desire for justice, insanity or some combo thereof...but I do know that this rock is pretty fucking heavy! Cheers M8;-)--R.D.H. (Ghost In The Machine) (talk) 13:45, 21 July 2009 (UTC)Reply

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : XL (June 2009)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue XL (June 2009)
From the coordinators
Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. Battle of the Coral Sea
  2. Battle of Vimy Ridge
  3. Brazilian battleship Minas Geraes
  4. Hastings Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay
  5. Military history of Australia during World War II
  6. Otto Becher
  7. Moltke-class battlecruiser
  8. Yamato-class battleship

New featured lists:

  1. List of Medal of Honor recipients (Veracruz)
  2. List of Philippine–American War Medal of Honor recipients
  3. List of United States Military Academy alumni (athletic figures)
  4. List of United States Military Academy alumni (engineers)

New featured pictures:

  1. Governor Davey's [sic] Proclamation to the Aborigines
  2. Test Baker, Operation Crossroads
  3. Tuskegee airmen

New A-Class articles:

  1. Army of the Tennessee
  2. Battle of Bosworth Field
  3. Battle of Corydon
  4. Battle of the Coral Sea
  5. Battle of Ticonderoga (1777)
  6. Helgoland class battleship
  7. Operation Sky Monitor
  8. Rupert Downes
  9. Sd.Kfz. 10
  10. Werner Mölders
Project news
The Academy content drive
  • 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!
Awards and honours
Editorial: How to prepare an A-Class Review

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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

Best of luck, and happy Reviewing! Cam (Chat)

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This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 21:15, 12 July 2009 (UTC)Reply

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : XLI (July 2009)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue XLI (July 2009)
From the coordinators

Don't forget that the next Military history coordinator elections take place in September. You might like to start thinking about whether you are interested in standing. More information to follow in the next edition of The Bugle. In the meantime, enjoy the remainder of the holiday season and come back refreshed and raring to go!  Roger Davies talk 02:00, 8 August 2009 (UTC)Reply

Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. Albert Kesselring
  2. Adrian Cole (RAAF officer)
  3. Ba Cut
  4. Battle of Bosworth Field
  5. Battle of Corydon
  6. Edgar Towner
  7. Helgoland class battleship
  8. Maiden Castle, Dorset

New featured lists:

  1. Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps
  2. Commandant of the Marine Corps
  3. List of First World War Victoria Cross recipients
  4. List of Jewish Medal of Honor recipients
  5. List of African American Medal of Honor recipients
  6. Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps

New featured pictures:

  1. Burning of the United States Capitol
  2. Charge of the Light Brigade
  3. Vice Admiral John Duncan Bulkeley, USN

New A-Class articles:

  1. 7th Infantry Division (United States)
  2. British Army during World War I
  3. Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347
  4. Convoy GP55
  5. HMS Endeavour
  6. John Lerew
  7. Kaiser class battleship
  8. List of foreign recipients of the Knight's Cross
  9. SMS Blücher
Project news
  • 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
Awards and honours

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This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 18:43, 9 August 2009 (UTC)Reply

Iz Ah Goin Senile?

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Before you answer, please check out the hullabaloo goin down here and here. Until now I thought I knew what a dreadnought is. Your thoughts on the matter would be most appreciated.--R.D.H. (Ghost In The Machine) (talk) 13:05, 19 August 2009 (UTC)Reply

Nominations open for the Military history WikiProject coordinator election

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The Military history WikiProject coordinator selection process has started; to elect the coordinators to serve for the next six months. If you are interested in running, please sign up here by 23:59 (UTC) on 12 September!
Many thanks,  Roger Davies talk 04:24, 7 September 2009 (UTC)Reply

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : XLII (August 2009)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue XLII (August 2009)
From the coordinators
  • The voting phase of the eighth coordinator elections, for the October–March term, started on 13 September and will run until 23:59 Sat 26 September.

    Each candidate garnering twenty or more endorsements will be appointed, to a maximum of fifteen. This election has a strong field of sixteen candidates running, offering many skills and representing all aspects of the project.

  • The Contest Department is going from strength to strength and drew a massive number of entries in August (see the results below). If you haven't fielded any entries yet, please think about doing so. It's great fun!  Roger Davies talk 14:02, 11 September 2009 (UTC)Reply
Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. Convoy GP55
  2. George Koval
  3. HMS Endeavour
  4. James Newland
  5. John Lerew
  6. Kaiser class battleship
  7. Keith Johnson (cricket administrator)
  8. König class battleship
  9. Siward, Earl of Northumbria
  10. Unification of Germany
  11. Victoria Cross for Australia

New featured lists:

  1. List of Second World War Victoria Cross recipients
  2. List of Victoria Cross recipients by campaign
  3. Marine Corps Brevet Medal
  4. Order of battle at the Battle of San Domingo

New featured pictures:

  1. "Students Going to Man the Fortifications"
  2. "Our New 'First Lord' at Sea"

New A-Class articles:

  1. 24th Infantry Division (United States)
  2. Bayern class battleship
  3. Derfflinger class battlecruiser
  4. Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld
  5. Ellis Wackett
  6. No. 3 Commando
  7. Operation Pleshet
  8. SMS König
  9. SMS Hindenburg
Project news
  • People with an interest in clearly presenting battle information, and First World War buffs, will find the discussion about a new campaign box for the Battle of the Somme interesting.
  • With the recent increase in enthusiasm, Wikipedia-wide, for creating "outline" articles, there's an ongoing discussion here. The idea is to produce guidelines for overview articles for Milhist editors and reviewers.
  • Proposals have been made to introduce a new self-scoring "honour" system for Contest Department entries. Contributions, especially from regular nominees, are welcome.
Contest Department
Awards and honours
Editorial: Getting to FAC via A-Class - some interesting new facts
 
Well, it’s official. Milhist articles have a much better than average chance of success as featured article candidates. MBK004 has done some useful number-crunching following the fortunes of the 97 Milhist featured article candidates submitted between January and July this year. The research shows that 70% of Milhist articles were promoted against an overall average of 51%.

Looking behind the figures, some other interesting facts emerge. First, 84% of our promoted articles had successfully passed a Milhist A-Class Review before going on to FAC. Second, of the 29 Milhist articles that failed, less than half (41%) had had an A-Class Review. Third, the 97 Milhist articles accounted for 16% of all FACs submitted between January and July of this year.

The clear lesson is that if you want a string of featured articles to your credit, you may find Milhist's A-class Review process to be of benefit to you!  Roger Davies talk


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This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 19:00, 13 September 2009 (UTC)Reply

Military history coordinator elections: voting has started!

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Voting in the Military history WikiProject coordinator election has now started. The aim is to elect the coordinators to serve for the next six months from a pool of sixteen candidates. Please vote here by 23:59 (UTC) on 26 September!
For the coordinators,  Roger Davies talk 22:09, 16 September 2009 (UTC)Reply

MILHIST admins

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Hi. Since you're an admin and a member of the Military History WikiProject, feel free to list yourself here. Cheers, –Juliancolton | Talk 19:35, 27 September 2009 (UTC)Reply

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : XLIII (September 2009)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue XLIII (September 2009)
From the coordinators

Greetings to all members of the Military history WikiProject, and to those outside the project who receive this news letter as well! My name is TomStar81, and it with a great sense of pride that I assume the position of lead coordinator for the project. On behalf of all the coordinators, both new and returning, we wish to thank those of you who participated in the September elections, and we look forward to working to advance the goals of the project for the next six months.

With the elections concluded, there are two changes. First, Roger Davies has been appointed a coordinator emeritus, joining our first coordinator emeritus Kirill Lokshin. Secondly, for the first time ever, the lead coordinator for the Military history WikiProject will be taking a lengthy wikibreak. For those who were unaware of this, I am an undergraduate student, and will be taking a leave of absence, effective end September, to focus on graduating in December. However, with fourteen coordinators, and two coordinators emeritus, I am confident the needs of the project will be well taken care of. For the VIII coordinator tranche, TomStar81 (Talk)

Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. Battle of Grand Port
  2. Derfflinger class battlecruiser
  3. Fredonian Rebellion
  4. Hermann Detzner
  5. Henry Wells (general)
  6. Joe Hewitt (RAAF officer)
  7. Simon Bolivar Buckner
  8. SMS Hindenburg
  9. Werner Mölders

New featured lists:

  1. List of Medal of Honor recipients for World War I

New featured topics:

  1. Derfflinger class battlecruisers
  2. Lists of Victoria Cross recipients by campaign

New featured pictures:

  1. Beijing Castle in the Boxer Rebellion
  2. Fort Baker at San Francisco Bay
  3. RAN Squirrel helicopter

New A-Class articles:

  1. 1982 British Army Gazelle friendly fire incident
  2. Brazilian cruiser Bahia
  3. I Corps (United States)
  4. North Carolina class battleship
  5. Siege of Kimberley
  6. SMS Derfflinger
  7. SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm
  8. SMS Lützow‎
Project news
Contest Department
  • This month witnessed an all new and improved scoring system and process established in the Contest Department, which has run both smoothly and successfully. A total of 54 articles were entered this month by 11 editors. Parsecboy placed first with an astonishing 143 points, followed by Sturmvogel 66 on 105 points. They receive the Chevrons and the Writer's Barnstar respectively. Honorable mentions go to the_ed17 (41), Auntieruth55 (38), AustralianRupert (17), Radeksz (12) and Ian Rose (11), with our thanks going to Piotrus, Abraham, B.S., Skinny87 and David Underdown, who also fielded entries. All interested editors are encouraged to submit entries for next month's contest; it can be a rather exciting experience!
Awards and honours

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This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 23:53, 2 October 2009 (UTC)Reply

Test your World War I knowledge with the Henry Allingham International Contest!

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As a member of the Military history WikiProject or World War I task force, you may be interested in competing in the Henry Allingham International Contest! The contest aims to improve article quality and member participation within the World War I task force. It will also be a step in preparing for Operation Great War Centennial, the project's commemorative effort for the World War I centenary.

If you would like to participate, please sign up by 11 November 2009, 00:00, when the first round is scheduled to begin! You can sign up here, read up on the rules here, and discuss the contest here!
This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 17:43, 8 November 2009 (UTC)Reply

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : XLIV (October 2009)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue XLIV (October 2009)
From the coordinators
Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. 1982 British Army Gazelle friendly fire incident
  2. Amagi class battlecruiser
  3. Battle of the Alamo
  4. Brazilian cruiser Bahia
  5. Ellis Wackett
  6. Inner German border

New featured lists:

  1. List of Knight's Cross recipients of the Waffen-SS
  2. Order of battle in the Atlantic campaign of 1806

New featured portals:

  1. United States Air Force

New featured pictures:

  1. A synagogue in New York City remained on D-Day
  2. Battle of Kennesaw Mountain
  3. Journée du Poilu. 25 et 26 décembre 1915
  4. Siege of Sevastopol, 1855
  5. The burning of Columbia, South Carolina, February 17, 1865

New A-Class articles:

  1. AH-56 Cheyenne
  2. John Lloyd Waddy
  3. Lewis McGee
  4. M22 Locust
  5. Operation Coburg
  6. Operation Teardrop
  7. SMS Nassau
  8. Tosa class battleship
  9. USS Congress (1799)
  10. USS President (1800)
  11. Winter War
Project news
Contest department
  • The contest department has completed its thirty-first month of competition; its second month under the new and improved scoring system. A total of 53 articles were entered by nine editors. Sturmvogel 66 came in first with 96 points, followed by Auntieruth55 on 80 points. They are presented the Chevrons and Writer's Barnstar respectively. Honorable mentions go to Ian Rose (38), Abraham, B.S. (33) and Parsecboy (10). Our thanks go to Cuprum17, Ed!, The ed17 and Piotrus, who also fielded entries. All editors are encouraged to submit any articles that are working on for next month's contest.
Awards and honours

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The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : XLV (November 2009)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue XLV (November 2009)
Project news
  • The Academy Content Drive concluded on 31 October. The first place Golden Wiki went to TomStar81 for 13 entries; the Silver Wiki was awarded to YellowMonkey for 11 entries, and Patar knight was presented with the Bronze Wiki for 3 entries. All other entrants were awarded the WikiChevrons or a barnstar for their contributions. Thank you to everyone who fielded an entry! All editors are encouraged to check out the newly expanded Academy.
  • A discussion about the notability of military people has resulted in an update to our in-house style guide. Prompted by some recent "articles for deletion" discussions, members felt that we should provide clearer guidance on the types of person that are most likely to meet Wikipedia's biographical notability criteria. The resulting advice, which you can see here, should be very helpful in both future deletion discussions and in deciding where best to focus article-writing efforts.
  • Our Task Force housekeeping discussion is now coming to a close. In October a number of proposals were made for rationalising our extensive list of Task forces. Although a few areas remain to be decided, project members have approved the changes summarised here. These will be enacted shortly, so if you haven't yet had your say, now's the time!
Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. Cologne War
  2. Nikita Khrushchev
  3. Operation Teardrop
  4. SMS Derfflinger
  5. SMS Lützow
  6. John Lloyd Waddy
  7. Ton That Dinh

New featured pictures:

  1. Turkish heliograph at Huj

New A-Class articles:

  1. Arrow (missile)
  2. Battle of Bardia
  3. Canadian National Vimy Memorial
  4. Collins class submarine
  5. Frederick Scherger
  6. Iven Giffard Mackay
  7. List of Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords or Diamonds recipients of the Waffen-SS
  8. USS Chesapeake (1799)
  9. Walter Peeler
Contest Department
  • The contest department has completed its thirty-second month of competition; its third month under the new scoring system. A total of 52 articles were entered by seven editors. Sturmvogel 66 came first with 168 points, followed by Ian Rose on 51 points. They are presented the Chevrons and Writer's Barnstar respectively. Honorable mentions go to Auntieruth55 (31), Ed! (26), Abraham, B.S. (26), The ed17 (17) and Piotrus (7). All editors are encouraged to submit any articles that are working on for next month's contest.
Awards and honours

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The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : XLVI (December 2009)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue XLVI (December 2009)
From the coordinators
Happy New Year to all! I shall take this opportunity to reflect upon the past year. In 2009 our project grew impressively, adding nearly 100 new featured articles and doubling the total number of featured lists. Overall the total number of articles within our scope surpassed 95,000 in 2009, and if these numbers hold steady we will surpass 100,000 articles in 2010. Thank you all for your outstanding efforts.

We are currently working on several proposals to improve the project for 2010. These include bringing the Milhist Academy up to full operational status, as well as spicing up and streamlining the task force structure. Also, any help you can offer to clear the current backlog of Military History good article nominations would be appreciated.

For the Coordinators, TomStar81 (Talk) 11:10, 26 December 2009 (UTC)Reply

Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. Battle of Morotai
  2. Castle
  3. North Carolina class battleship
  4. Xa Loi Pagoda raids

New featured lists:

  1. List of Brigade of Gurkhas recipients of the Victoria Cross
  2. List of World War I aces credited with more than 20 victories

New featured pictures:

  1. After the War a Medal and Maybe a Job
  2. Lincoln assassination conspirators execution
  3. National Fund for the Welsh Troops
  4. USS Annapolis in the Arctic
  5. Yiddish World War I poster

New A-Class articles:

  1. Battle of Bita Paka
  2. Battle of Ostrach
  3. Charles Eaton (RAAF officer)
  4. Design A-150 battleship
  5. Dutch 1913 battleship proposal
  6. Helmut Lent
  7. Henry Wrigley
  8. James Harold Cannan
  9. James Whiteside McCay
  10. Lebaudy Patrie
  11. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3
  12. Thomas Baker (aviator)
Project news
Awards and honours

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This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 02:32, 3 January 2010 (UTC)Reply

Unreferenced BLPs

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  Hello Leithp! Thank you for your contributions. I am a bot alerting you that 1 of the articles that you created is tagged as an Unreferenced Biography of a Living Person. The biographies of living persons policy requires that all personal or potentially controversial information be sourced. In addition, to insure verifiability, all biographies should be based on reliable sources. if you were to bring this article up to standards, it would greatly help us with the current 414 article backlog. Once the article is adequately referenced, please remove the {{unreferencedBLP}} tag. Here is the article:

  1. Sean Cassidy - Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs· FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Thanks!--DASHBot (talk) 20:53, 8 January 2010 (UTC)Reply

And this is the problem with bots.... Leithp 10:24, 5 February 2010 (UTC)Reply

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : XLVII (January 2010)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue XLVII (January 2010)
From the coordinators
  • It's only a month into the New Year, and we've already made changes to the project's infrastructure, merging and improving several task forces (see below). Much content within the project's scope has also been improved: eleven new featured articles, two featured lists, two featured pictures, a featured sound, and seventeen A-class articles. Thanks and congratulations to all editors who contributed and/or nominated these items.
  • In other news, the elections for new project coordinators are coming up in March. Think about whether you would like to run or not, and self-nominations will be coming up at the beginning of next month.
  • Lastly, our project's A-class review process is desperately in need of new reviewers. Please consider looking at least one and leaving comments, no matter how small or trivial. It will be greatly appreciated by the article's nominator(s).
  • For the coordinators, —Ed (talkmajestic titan) 03:32, 3 February 2010 (UTC)Reply
Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. Battle of the Nile
  2. Bodiam Castle
  3. Charles Eaton (RAAF officer)
  4. Frederick Scherger
  5. Helmut Lent
  6. James Whiteside McCay
  7. Johann von Klenau
  8. Peter Heywood
  9. The Battle of Alexander at Issus
  10. Thomas Baker (aviator)
  11. Walter Peeler

New featured lists:

  1. List of Asian American Medal of Honor recipients
  2. Order of battle at the Battle of the Nile

New featured pictures:

  1. Return of the Great White Fleet
  2. SMS Moltke (1910)

New featured sounds:

  1. It's a Long Way to Tipperary

New A-Class articles:

  1. Alexander Pentland
  2. Battle of Osan
  3. Battle of Winterthur (1799)
  4. Cedric Howell
  5. CFM International CFM56
  6. Florida class battleship
  7. Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze
  8. HMS Lion (1910)
  9. List of battlecruisers of Germany‎
  10. List of Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves recipients: 1940–1941
  11. Max-Hellmuth Ostermann
  12. Operation Windsor
  13. Petlyakov Pe-8
  14. Robert Peverell Hichens
  15. Smedley Butler
  16. USS Hawaii (CB-3)
  17. Vernon Sturdee
Project news
Contest department
Awards and honours

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This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 02:58, 5 February 2010 (UTC)Reply

GA reassessment of Indonesian National Revolution

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I have conducted a reassessment of the above article as part of the GA Sweeps process. I have found some concerns which you can see at Talk:Indonesian National Revolution/GA1. I have placed the article on hold whilst these are fixed. Thanks. Jezhotwells (talk) 18:39, 19 February 2010 (UTC)Reply

Nominations for the March 2010 Military history Project Coordinator elections now open!

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The Military history WikiProject coordinator selection process has started; to elect the coordinators to serve for the next six months. If you are interested in running, please sign up here by 23:59 (UTC) on 8 March 2010! More information on coordinatorship may be found on the coordinator academy course and in the responsibilities section on the coordinator page.
This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 21:55, 1 March 2010 (UTC)Reply

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : XLVIII (February 2010)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue XLVIII (February 2010)
From the coordinators

March, as you know, is an election month for our project, when we pick the coordinators for the next six months. We are seeking motivated individuals willing to devote some of their time and energy to the project so it continues to grow and prosper.

Also, I am making a personal appeal to each of you, the members of this project, to come out and vote for the candidates that run. These users will be responsible for managing the assessment process, answering questions, and making sure that the project's other needs are met. We have approximately 1,000 users who identify as being a part of our project, yet on average only about one-tenth of that number participate in elections. Moreover, as we typically hold referendums on major issues affecting the project along with these election, those who do not vote miss the opportunity to give their opinion on matters affecting the project as a whole. Remember, one vote always makes a difference. For the coordinators, TomStar81 (Talk) 23:47, 6 February 2010 (UTC)Reply

Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. Admiralty Islands campaign
  2. Alexander Pentland
  3. Anthony Roll
  4. Battle of Winterthur (1799)
  5. Cedric Howell
  6. HMS Calliope (1884)
  7. The Disasters of War

New featured lists:

  1. List of battlecruisers of Germany
  2. List of National Treasures of Japan (castles)

New featured pictures:

  1. Australian military encampment, 1918
  2. Injured Arriving by Boat at Balaklava
  3. USS New Jersey, 1918

New A-Class articles:

  1. Battle of Taejon
  2. Bombardment of Papeete
  3. First Battle of Maryang San
  4. Henry George Chauvel
  5. List of Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves recipients: 1942
  6. Michael J. Daly
  7. Nguyen Van Nhung
  8. No. 1 Wing RAAF
  9. Oswald Watt
  10. Red Tail Project
  11. Siege of Godesberg (1583)
  12. SMS Goeben
  13. Yermolayev Yer-2
Project news
  • A discussion has begun concerning our military history manual of style's guideline recommending preemptive disambiguation on the naming of military units. As the outcome of the discussion will likely effect a number of pages within our scope we are seeking input from the community on whether the guideline should be changed.
  • Late last year, several largely inactive task forces were merged. However, the mergers of the Australia and New Zealand task forces did not take place as there was no consensus for a new name. To resolve this, a discussion has begun and all editors are encouraged to participate.
Contest department
Awards and honours
Editorial: Reliable sources in military history

Across Wikipedia, guidelines have been set up so that editors can vet sources for themselves. Links to some of these and a guide for checking if a source is reliable can be found in an excellent Signpost dispatch written by Ealdgyth (talk · contribs). However, for the majority of military history-related topics, we strive for more than just a basic reliable source. Specifically, we aim for peer-reviewed articles and books over, for example, most websites.[N 1] Contemporary news articles or accounts can and should be mixed in (if possible) to give a picture of the general view point of the time—were they calm, afraid, unsure of what was going on?

Another major tenet is neutrality. If an editor rewrote the article Dieppe Raid using only the official Canadian history,[N 2] we would have a problem; while it does contain a thorough and in-depth overview, a point-of-view can still be read. For one, it gives an undue amount of focus to Canada's input in the planning of the landing, and it would probably give an undue focus to their troops if a majority of the landing forces hadn't been Canadian. Granted, this is a book written to document that country's role in the Second World War, so you would hope it focuses on them, but this same reason makes it unusable as the primary basis for an article.

In this case, you would like to utilize a few recent, peer-reviewed books and journals, the official British, Canadian and German histories, possibly a few books written by historians from the aforementioned countries, and newspapers from that time period.[N 3] Obviously this is ideal, but you need to represent all three sides in this (the United States would be a fourth, but they played only a minor role in the planning and invading). This neutrality aspect applies especially for battles and to a lesser degree biographies, but it can be utilized in virtually every article in our scope. For example, it could be beneficial to obtain Japanese accounts of B-29 Superfortress bombing raids or non-Puerto Rican peer-reviewed sources for that insular area's role in the Second World War. —Ed (talkmajestic titan)

Notes
  1. ^ It should be noted that certain sites like Combined Fleet or Navweaps, which are authored by recognized or published experts in the field, are not "most websites."
  2. ^ Stacey, Colonel C.P. Six Years of War: The Army in Canada, Britain and the Pacific. 1, Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War. Ottawa: Queen's Printer, 1955.
  3. ^ For example, some of the Canadian newspaper articles written about the raid are listed on their War Museum's website here, while a London Gazette supplement written after the war can be seen on their website. Anyone with access to the archives of The New York Times can view the stories printed by that paper on the raid by searching their archives, and the Google News archive lists many newspapers, some of which were scanned by Google and are available at no charge; most of the non-free material requires a subscription to ProQuest.

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Coordinator elections have opened!

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Voting for the Military history WikiProject coordinator elections has opened; all users are encouraged to participate in the elections. Voting will conclude 23:59 (UTC) on 28 March 2010.
This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 22:03, 18 March 2010 (UTC)Reply

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : XLIX (March 2010)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue XLIX (March 2010)
From the coordinators

I am pleased to report that the March coordinator elections have concluded, and that 15 members have been selected to serve as coordinators from April to September. Special congratulations go to AustralianRupert, Dank, MisterBee1966, NativeForeigner, Patar knight, and Ranger Steve, all of whom are newly elected coordinators. As we start this new tranche we welcome all returning coordinators, and wish those who decided not to stand for reelection luck as they move on to new things.

In other election news, a motion made to extend the coordinator tranche from its current six-month term to one full year gained consensus from the election participants. This will take effect in September, during the next election cycle. For the IX Coordinator Tranche, TomStar81 (Talk) 05:02, 27 March 2010 (UTC)Reply

Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. 21st Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
  2. Battle of Osan
  3. Bayern class battleship
  4. Dutch 1913 battleship proposal
  5. Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg
  6. Mary Rose
  7. No. 1 Wing RAAF
  8. USS Congress (1799)

New featured lists:

  1. List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Boxer Rebellion
  2. List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Vietnam War
  3. List of United States Military Academy alumni (Confederate States Army)

New featured topics:

  1. Battlecruisers of Germany

New featured pictures:

  1. Cavalry At Balaklava

New A-Class articles:

  1. Allan Walters
  2. Army of the Danube
  3. Battle of Dürenstein
  4. Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602–628
  5. HMAS Sydney (R17)
  6. Horses in World War I
  7. Lê Văn Duyệt
  8. Michael P. Murphy
  9. Roderic Dallas
  10. USS Triton (SSRN-586)
Project news
  • Operation Normandy

    In May 2008 a small group of editors, operating from a page in Cam's userspace, began work on improving Wikipedia's articles relating to the pivotal Second World War Battle of Normandy that took place in northern France between 6 June and the end of August 1944. Milhist has now adopted this collaboration as our third special project. The aim of Operation Normandy is to bring all core topics—official operations, battles, and the invasion beaches—to featured status by the 70th anniversary of D-Day on 6 June 2014. More information can be found on the project page; any interested editors are most welcome to sign up and help us meet this challenging goal!

  • Henry Allingham World War I Contest

    Our Henry Allingham World War I Contest ended on 11 March with the following results: in first place was Sturmvogel 66; in second place was Ian Rose; in third place was Dana boomer; and the finalists were Abraham, B.S., Carcharoth, and XavierGreen. The contest produced an incredible 238 recognised article improvements, of which 6 were Featured articles, 13 were A-Class articles and 22 were Good articles. In addition 43 newly created or expanded articles were successfully submitted for the 'Did you know' section on Wikipedia's main page. Our warmest congratulations go to the medallists and finalists, and our grateful thanks go to all participants and particularly to Eurocopter for organizing the contest.

  • Would you like to get more involved in the project? There are many open tasks that could use your help. The project's review department is always in need of input at peer reviews, A-class reviews, FACs and FARs; these can be found here. Also, the project maintains a list of deletion debates for military-related articles that have been nominated for deletion; project members are encouraged to provide their opinions in this forum so that consensus can be established. Finally, if content creation is more what you are looking for, each of the project's 48 task forces maintains a list of requested articles.
  • Your comments are invited in the following ongoing project discussions:
Contest department
Awards and honours
Editorial: Translating article writing to real life

I (Ed) am a college student in the United States, and as part of attaining my desired degree, I chose to take a course in Arab-Islamic history. We began in the early 600s and spent some time on the origins of the Islamic conquering of the Sassanid Empire and partial takeover of the Byzantine Empire (c. 634–750). From there, we have moved through the various ages of history, and the class recently began discussing the Ottoman Empire and other Islamic regions of more recent times.

As we began discussing the Ottoman Empire's role in the First World War, our professor mentioned that they were blockading the Bosphorus, using it as a chokepoint to cut off needed supplies traveling to Russia's only warm-water port, Sevastopol. An astute classmate, realizing this meant the use of warships, wondered what naval technology was like during this time. The professor turned and asked me to answer the question, as he knew I had been studying naval history and believed that I knew more about the subject.

The point of this anecdote is not to boast, but to provoke some thought. By virtue of the research Wikipedia writers must do to write complete, referenced articles, many of us are acquiring knowledge in specialized topics that can surpass even learned scholars. Wikipedia might even provoke some of us into becoming learned scholars through the subjects we find here. To profile one such case, take a look at Parsecboy.

Beginning in May 2007, he came across a few essentially empty stubs on German battleship classes. Nearly 3 years later, he's written or collaborated on more than forty articles rated as good or higher, including over a dozen featured articles and a featured list; the majority relate to German warships. The work Parsecboy has done for Wikipedia has had a tremendous impact on his academic career: to complete his undergraduate degree, Parsecboy is currently writing an Honors Thesis that will analyze the British and German battlecruiser squadrons during the First World War. Parsecboy plans to attend graduate school and continue his research in the area, culminating in a dissertation. He comments that "without a doubt, I would not have had nearly as much knowledge and interest in the topic, nor would I have known where to begin researching if I had not become so involved with the topic here on Wikipedia."

The knowledge you acquire through writing Wikipedia articles will remain with you for the rest of your life. Try to find a way to use it to your advantage.

Ed (talkmajestic titan) and Parsecboy (talk)

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The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : L (April 2010)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue L (April 2010)
From the coordinators

It's been a month since the end of the coordinator elections, and I am proud to inform the project that the IX coordinator tranche is doing well. Our new coordinators are rapidly learning the ropes, and the last of the task forces under consideration for merging have been consolidated into a new task force which should increase productivity and improve quality article output.

At the moment the coordinators are discussing preliminary plans for an improved version of The Bugle, and are working with editors from the American Civil War task force who are in the process of organizing a new special project relating to that conflict. It is our hope to see these changes implemented in the upcoming month. Lastly, as many of our members are also in school, we extend our best wishes to all who will be taking final exams both this month and next. For the IX coordinator tranche, TomStar81 (Talk) 22:36, 30 April 2010 (UTC)Reply

Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. Battle of Dürenstein
  2. Battle of Pulo Aura
  3. Battle of Taejon
  4. Battle of The Cedars
  5. Brougham Castle
  6. Cleomenean War
  7. Harry Chauvel
  8. Japanese battleship Yamato
  9. Lester Brain
  10. Myles Standish
  11. Roderic Dallas
  12. USS President (1800)
  13. War of the Bavarian Succession

New featured lists:

  1. Order of battle at the Battle of Camperdown

New featured topics:

  1. Yamato class battleships

New featured portals:

  1. Biological warfare

New A-Class articles:

  1. 22nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
  2. Battle of Chochiwon
  3. Battle of Chonan
  4. Battle of Naktong Bulge
  5. Battle of Pyongtaek
  6. Battle of Slater's Knoll
  7. Battle of The Cedars
  8. Battle of Valcour Island
  9. Brian Eaton
  10. Douglas MacArthur
  11. Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein
  12. HMAS Australia (1911)
  13. Kongō class battlecruiser‎
  14. List of battleships of Germany
  15. Massachusetts in the American Civil War
  16. Operation Sandblast
  17. Order of Saint Hubert (Bavarian)
  18. Ordnance QF 25-pounder Short
  19. Petlyakov Pe-3
  20. SMS Helgoland
  21. Sovetsky Soyuz class battleship
Project news
Contest department
Awards and honours
Editorial: Milhist's special projects

This month we're taking a look at the Military history WikiProject's special projects. At present we have three—Operation Great War Centennial, Operation Majestic Titan, and Operation Normandy—with, as Tom mentions in his introduction, a fourth coming on line as this newsletter goes out.

  • Operation Great War Centennial

    Officially the longest running of our special projects, this started in December 2008 with the ambitious goal of improving our core articles relating to the First World War by June 2014. As it states on the project's page, "the centenary of the start of World War I ... will doubtless be a mammoth commemoration of one of the most significant wars in history, attracting vast interest from schools, universities, veterans groups and the media. It offers us the chance to showcase what a brilliant resource Wikipedia is". With World War I receiving well over 20,000 page views per day on most days, the truth of these words is evident and the opportunity too good to miss. Operation Great War Centennial has compiled a list of over 300 articles covering topics such as battles, geographical areas, people, armaments, and technology; while some have achieved featured or good status, the majority are at B-Class or below, so there is plenty there for willing editors to get their teeth into.

  • Operation Majestic Titan

    The home of our much-respected and admired "Battleship Cabal", Operation Majestic Titan started in June 2009 with the aim of creating the "single largest featured topic on Wikipedia, centered around the battleships considered, planned, built, operated, canceled, or otherwise recorded." At time of writing the prolific Majestic Titan team has produced an impressive 33 featured articles, 19 A-Class, 60 good articles, three featured topics and six good topics. According to the project's working list, there are only 427 more articles to go...

  • Operation Normandy

    Although it first appeared in Milhist's pages in March 2010, this project had been formerly operating out of Cam's userspace as the "Normandy Team" since May 2008, making it a contender for our longest-running unofficial special project. Operation Normandy is aiming to create a Featured Topic on the Second World War Battle of Normandy by the 70th Anniversary of D-Day on 6 June 2014. With nine featured articles so far and 29 more to go, progress has been steady. More help, however, is always welcome.

  • Our fourth special project, American Civil War Sesquicentennial, is in the process of organising and at present lacks a name (see this discussion if you have any suggestions). The project will be looking to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the American Civil War by its sesquicentennial anniversary in 2011. The beginning of a drive is always an exciting time to get involved, so interested editors are strongly encouraged to drop by and sign up.

Special projects are a great way of organising a long-term collaboration with a specific end-point in mind, and tend to be more goal-oriented and focused than the general task forces or informal working groups. Joining a special project is also a fantastic way to work alongside like-minded editors with whom you'll undoubtedly develop close working relationships; by your third or fourth FA submission you'll hopefully be operating as part of a well-oiled team. Editor roles are many and varied: content writers, source material providers, image- and map-makers, copy editors, reviewers, MoS gurus, wikignomes, specialists and generalists... you're sure to find a job that suits you and benefits the team. If you have an idea for a special project or are already undertaking a collaboration that you think fits in with the ethos of those above, and you'd like to benefit from Milhist's support and infrastructure, consider dropping the coordinators a note. Personally I've found the synergy and teamwork of contributing to a special project (Operation Normandy in my case) to be one of the most rewarding and enjoyable aspects of my time here. I hope you will too. EyeSerenetalk 14:16, 4 May 2010 (UTC)Reply

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The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : LI (May 2010)

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  The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue LI (May 2010)
From the coordinators

With Eurocopter's resignation (see editorial below), this month marks the end of his tenure as a project coordinator. Eurocopter has been with the team for almost three years now and will be sorely missed, but he has taken the tough decision that his real life commitments have unfortunately made it too hard for him to focus on his coordinator duties. We wish him good luck in the future, both in real life and on-wiki.

Efforts to redesign The Bugle are moving forward and it is our intention to roll out a new format, based on the Signpost, for next month's issue. We hope that this will allow us to provide better coverage of the project's news by allowing more room to expand on the stories we bring to you. If you have any comments or suggestions on what we can do to improve coverage, please let us know.

—your IX Coordinator Tranche, May 2010

Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. Action of 1 August 1801
  2. Battle of Villers-Bocage
  3. Brian Eaton
  4. HMAS Australia (1911)
  5. HMS Lion (1910)
  6. Japanese battleship Tosa

New featured lists:

  1. List of battleships of Germany

New A-Class articles:

  1. 102nd Intelligence Wing
  2. Battle of Quebec (1775)
  3. Bombing of Yawata (June 1944)
  4. Deutschland class battleship
  5. Indiana class battleship
  6. Russian battleship Slava
  7. SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand
  8. SMS Hannover
  9. William Ellis Newton
Project news
  • With consensus reached on a name the American Civil War task force has officially opened our newest special project. Codenamed Brothers at War, its goal will be "...to improve [US Civil War] related Wikipedia articles to featured status, and to see as many of these as possible appear on the main page on their respective 150th anniversaries."
  • The straw poll concerning preemptive disambiguation of military units as outlined by our Manual of Style has been closed, with near unanimous consensus that the current practice of preemptive disambiguation be retained. Thanks to everyone who participated in either the discussion or the straw poll.
  • Members of Operation Majestic Titan have adopted a three-tiered award system to show appreciation to those who have done work on battleship or battlecruiser articles. Formally known as the Titan's Cross, the award has been issued to Parsecboy, Climie.ca, The ed17, and MBK004.
  • The project's official IRC channel (#wikipedia-en-milhist) has been restarted. Project members and anyone interested in military history are encouraged to join us for substantive discussions, social discourse and a few laughs. Instructions on how to get on IRC are available here.
Contest department
Awards and honours
Editorial: Project coordination and constructive editing

For those of you who might not know me, I'm Eurocopter. I served as a coordinator of the Military history WikiProject from August 2007 until few days ago, when I decided to resign due to real life issues making it impossible for me to continue to perform project duties on a regular basis. Reflecting on my experience and activities within the project, I decided to write this editorial to set out a few thoughts and offer some advice to interested members.

First of all, what does project coordination mean and how does it help the Military history WikiProject? Although the coordinators do not have any real executive powers, they play an important role in project management. To make editing contributions easier for our members we establish guidelines, manage Peer and A-Class reviews, and consult and assist when needed. The primary goal of the coordination team has always been to stimulate the development of quality articles and, once they have been developed, to facilitate maintaining them at a high standard for as long as possible. This has been carried out through the organization of a considerable number of assessment drives, contests and special projects. However, there is still much to be done to make the project one of the best and most active wiki-communities. Coordinator involvement in trying to achieve this, as the central promoters of any activity undertaken within the project, is more than important; the coordination team should stand as an example of civilised and constructive cooperation. Perhaps the most annoying issue—unfortunately quite widespread through the pages of Wikipedia—is POV-dominated conflict. While such a phenomenon might seem inevitable in a community within which hundreds of members of different nationalities with different historical and political views interact, it doesn’t mean we should accept it. The ability to neutrally mediate such conflicts is an important and desirable coordinator function.

Secondly, but most importantly in my opinion, is the question of how the project enables editors to contribute effectively. Perhaps you already know how difficult it is to take an article to the highest quality levels such as A-Class or featured status. It is even harder to do this working alone. I believe the best thing the Military history WikiProject has done is to bring together groups of editors with similar interests. As there are very few editors skilled in all the diverse article development areas, you might feel the need for help from editors more experienced in, for example, advanced copy editing, image editing etc. To this end the project provides task forces and special projects where members should always feel encouraged to ask questions, discuss, debate and give advice. Such cooperation is the best way to create properly balanced articles and to establish a neutral point of view. Our Style guide and Academy are also useful in guiding you along the path of writing an article. A final, but vital, part of the collaborative article writing process is editor behaviour when interacting with other editors who are contributing to the same article. Even on those occasions where an editor upsets you or allows their personal opinions to influence their editing, always remain calm, civil and try to reach an agreement. Contributing to Wikipedia is something most of us do as a hobby; time spent in useless conflicts is precious editing time wasted.

All in all, the Military history WikiProject is a good meeting point for milhist-interested editors, both beginners and advanced, with someone always there to give help and advice when needed. I wish to thank all my fellow coordinators and project members who keep this beautiful community running. I will certainly miss it!

Best regards and happy wiki-editing! Eurocopter (talk) 20:24, 2 June 2010 (UTC)Reply

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The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : LII (June 2010)

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The Military history WikiProject Newsletter: Issue LII (June 2010)
Front page
Project news
Articles
Members
Editorial
Project news

Catch up with our project's activities over the last month, including the new Recruitment working group and Strategy think tank

Articles

Milhist's newest featured and A-Class content

Members

June's contest results plus the latest awards to our members

Editorial

LeonidasSpartan shares his thoughts on how, as individual editors, we can deal with frustration and disappointment in our group endeavour

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The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : LIII (July 2010)

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The Military history WikiProject Newsletter: Issue LIII (July 2010)
Front page
Project news
Articles
Members
Editorial
Project news

New parameter for military conflict infobox introduced;
Preliminary information on the September coordinator elections

Articles

Milhist's newest featured and A-Class content

Members

July's contest results, the latest awards to our members, plus an interview with Parsecboy

Editorial

Opportunities for new military history articles

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The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : LIV (August 2010)

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The Military history WikiProject Newsletter: Issue LIV (August 2010)
Front page
Project news
Articles
Members
Editorial
Project news

The return of reviewer awards, task force discussions, and more information on the upcoming coordinator election

Articles

A recap of the month's new Featured and A-Class articles, including a new featured sound

Members

Our newest A-class medal recipients and this August's top contestants

Editorial

In the first of a two-part series, Moonriddengirl discusses the problems caused by copyright violations

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The Milhist election has started!

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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 19:18, 17 September 2010 (UTC)Reply

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : LV (September 2010)

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The Military history WikiProject Newsletter: Issue LV (September 2010)
Front page
Project news
Articles
Members
Editorial
Project news

The results of September's coordinator elections, plus ongoing project discussions and proposals

Articles

A recap of the month's new Featured and A-Class articles

Members

Our newest A-class medal recipients, this September's top contestants, plus the reviewers' Roll of Honour (Apr-Sep 2010)

Editorial

In the final part of our series on copyright, Moonriddengirl describes how to deal with copyright infringements on Wikipedia

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The Bugle: Issue LVI, October 2010

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The Bugle: Issue LVII, November 2010

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The Bugle: Issue LVIII, December 2010

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The Bugle: Volume LVIX, January 2011

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The Bugle: Issue LX, February 2011

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The Bugle: Issue LXI, March 2011

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The Bugle: Issue LXII, April 2011

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The Bugle: Issue LXIII, May 2011

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The Bugle: Issue LXIV, June 2011

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The Bugle: Issue LXV, July 2011

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The Bugle: Issue LXVI, August 2011

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Draft Beer Party

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Back in 2005, you contributed to the deletion discussion of this article at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Draft Beer Party. I believe consensus has changed since then and this article is no longer notable by our guidelines. I have renominated the article for deletion, and your comments are welcome at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Draft Beer Party (2nd nomination). Robofish (talk) 23:46, 25 September 2011 (UTC)Reply

The Bugle: Issue LXVII, September 2011

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The Bugle: Issue LXVIII, October 2011

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The Bugle: Issue LXIX, November 2011

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Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Ian Rose (talk) and Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 20:46, 27 December 2011 (UTC)Reply

Military Historian of the Year

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Nominations for the "Military Historian of the Year" for 2011 are now open. If you would like to nominate an editor for this award, please do so here. Voting will open on 22 January and run for seven days. Thanks! On behalf of the coordinators, Nick-D (talk) and Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 23:38, 15 January 2012 (UTC) You were sent this message because you are a listed as a member of the Military history WikiProject.Reply

The Bugle: Issue LXX, January 2012

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Your Military History Newsletter

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MSU Interview

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Dear Leithp,

My name is Jonathan Obar user:Jaobar, I'm a professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University and a Teaching Fellow with the Wikimedia Foundation's Education Program. This semester I've been running a little experiment at MSU, a class where we teach students about becoming Wikipedia administrators. Not a lot is known about your community, and our students (who are fascinated by wiki-culture by the way!) want to learn how you do what you do, and why you do it. A while back I proposed this idea (the class) to the communityHERE, where it was met mainly with positive feedback. Anyhow, I'd like my students to speak with a few administrators to get a sense of admin experiences, training, motivations, likes, dislikes, etc. We were wondering if you'd be interested in speaking with one of our students.


So a few things about the interviews:

  • Interviews will last between 15 and 30 minutes.
  • Interviews can be conducted over skype (preferred), IRC or email. (You choose the form of communication based upon your comfort level, time, etc.)
  • All interviews will be completely anonymous, meaning that you (real name and/or pseudonym) will never be identified in any of our materials, unless you give the interviewer permission to do so.
  • All interviews will be completely voluntary. You are under no obligation to say yes to an interview, and can say no and stop or leave the interview at any time.
  • The entire interview process is being overseen by MSU's institutional review board (ethics review). This means that all questions have been approved by the university and all students have been trained how to conduct interviews ethically and properly.


Bottom line is that we really need your help, and would really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. If interested, please send me an email at obar@msu.edu (to maintain anonymity) and I will add your name to my offline contact list. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can post your nameHERE instead.

If you have questions or concerns at any time, feel free to email me at obar@msu.edu. I will be more than happy to speak with you.

Thanks in advance for your help. We have a lot to learn from you.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Obar --Jaobar (talk) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chlopeck (talkcontribs) 03:54, 20 February 2012 (UTC)Reply

The Bugle: Issue LXXI, February 2012

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The Bugle: Issue LXXII, March 2012

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Your Military History Newsletter

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The Bugle: Issue LXXIII, April 2012

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Your Military History Newsletter

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The Bugle: Issue LXXIV, May 2012

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GOCE July 2012 Copy Edit Drive

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The Bugle: Issue LXXVI, July 2012

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Your Military History Newsletter

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If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 09:32, 29 July 2012 (UTC)Reply