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Welcome

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Kia ora. Thanks for joining. If you run into problems, just ask for advice. Here is good. Schwede66 04:53, 23 September 2020 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for the welcome! I'll be sure to ask. --PDXMaria (talk) 05:03, 23 September 2020 (UTC)Reply

Postcard #4

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Postcard from the West Coast

Sunday 27 September: Hokitika

 
Greetings from sunny Hokitika! The fine weather I've had for the last few weeks finally broke and it's been driving hail and wind today. • Last week in Westport was fun, talking to many local historians and photographers, and the Westport News (rewritten article) • Saturday I ran a workshop in Hokitika, yesterday a second one in Greymouth. One newbie improved the Dave McKenzie (runner) article and squealed when her changes showed up instantly in Google. Another ran out to take photos of the Pioneers' Memorial (right), and Schwede66 created an article that very night • This week I'd love help with Hokitika-area articles: sculptures of Hokitika, buildings of Hokitika, Guy Menzies, Hokitika Guardian (am meeting them tomorrow to get better sources), whitebait (the NZ aspect), Kaniere, Lake Kaniere, pounamu, Lake Mahinapua, Hokitika Gorge, The Luminaries, and the Hokitika River. This is a list brainstormed with the locals at the workshop, heartily recommend doing this. • There are more photos by Stewart Nimmo of Lake Brunner and Reefton (including the artist Alison Hale (Q99304897), who's on our list. • It would be super helpful of somebody to look at the Hokitika area on WikiShootMe and check the locations of rivers, hills, etc against NZ Topo Map or the NZGB Gazetteer. • Dr Thneed wanted a photo through the altar window of St James Church, Franz Josef, and that same day Paora supplied one. Great teamwork, folks – it's been so nice to watch you collaborate. • Housekeeping: keep noting your contributions on the daily Progress Report. Thank you all for your hard work. • Stay warm and dry! — Giantflightlessbirds
 
Westland Pioneers' Memorial. Continually has its finger stolen. Lost an entire arm once, was redubbed Venus de Hokitika.

Postcard #5

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Postcard from the West Coast

Sunday 4 October: Hokitika

 
Kia ora from Hokitika! Tomorrow I pack up the car and head to Greymouth to present to Development West Coast our previous month's work, before heading south • Yes, Glacier Country are supplying accommodation in south WestlandŌkārito, Franz Josef, and Fox – for the next two weeks. Possibly because I mouthed off to the media that Fox Glacier's entry is so short who would want to stay there? • So this week it's Ōkārito (splitting the article into settlement and lagoon), kōtuku, spoonbills, the West Coast Wildlife Centre (Q99767675), rowi, Franz Josef glacier (and NZ glacier photos in general glacier articles), historic buildings thereabouts, etc • I uploaded lots of Stewart Nimmo photos of the Haast area, and have some Paparoa ones by Jase Blair coming soon. • Pakoire noticed that Fayne Robinson (Q99836010) needs an article – can we collaborate on one? He's def notable and we need more coverage of Māori from the Coast. • Also women: see the Westland women in the WikiProject Hokitika Museum Google doc and Hokitika Museum Google drive. • Last week I wrote or improved articles about Hokitika Museum, Lake Kaniere, History House Museum, Lake Mahinapua, and Westland District Library. Error check, cleanup etc welcome. It's great to be able to work from folders and scrapbooks stuffed full of newspaper clippings! • Housekeeping: Thank you all for collaborating and filling in gaps, especially with historic buildings. Paora has been doing some great work. Please keep letting me know of any photos you need taking on the spot. • Take care — Giantflightlessbirds
 
Gorgeous Lake Kaniere. Yes, it really does look like this.

Postcard #6

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Postcard from the West Coast

Sunday 11 October: Franz Josef

 
Gidday from Franz Josef/Waiau! Deserted tourist town, everything's a bit pricey, but there are kea circling over the main street which makes up for a lot • I just spent three days in Ōkārito, wrote articles about pakihi and Ōkārito lagoon, and took/was given a lot of photos of Kōtuku and hiking trails. A dearth of printed sources on Ōkārito but there are enough photos and info to make at least sections/galleries for buildings like Donovan's Store (Q79300924), Ōkārito School (Q79303038), and Ōkārito Obelisk (Q79309599) on its article • There are too many photos of Franz Josef glacier! It would be great to make a curated gallery of the most useful ones on its Commons page. Also finding and uploading good photos from DigitalNZ and the Macmillan Brown A. C. Graham Collection would help heaps • Local heritage sites that need articles: the Hendes Gallery, Defiance Hut, Chancellor Hut • I'll be spending Tuesday in the West Coast Wildlife Centre, looking at baby kiwi and improving Haast Tokoeka and Rowi articles • Great to see a new Fayne Robinson article from Pakoire, and Maida Bryant from MurielMary; Paora's been beavering away on lists of mayors • Housekeeping: do reach out to any of the team for a hand if some random editor knocks you back or makes trouble. Don't let them rattle you! We're here to help each other. • Take care and be kind — Giantflightlessbirds
 
In a few decades the Waiho River bed will be higher than Franz Josef. Won't that be fun!

Postcard #7

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Final Postcard from the West Coast

Friday 23 October:Reefton

 
Kia ora koutou from Reefton! • We're in the last few days of the project, so time to wrap up loose ends. • Most of the last week I was based in in Fox Glacier, organising photo uploads from Fox Glacier Guiding of the glacier itself and Chancellor Hut, check them out • I've also photographed hiking trails and worked on articles about the West Coast Wildlife Centre, Lake Gault and Lake Matheson • Here in Reefton I'm improving the article about the town, have found info on the Inangahua County Library for DrThneed, and am writing about the Reefton Distillery • There are photos of all of Reeftons's historic buildings (and I've added a few), but no articles about the Reefton Courthouse or the Reefton School of Mines, and the Reefton Power Station article could do with work • Since I last wrote DrThneed has been hard at work on libraries, there's a nice Donovan's Store article from Gertrude206, much-needed improvements to pounamu by Pakoire, and Paora's been super-industrious with historic buildings but most importantly managed to produce a photo of the giant sandfly of PukekuraHousekeeping: I'm sending out prizes kindly donated by Development West Coast and Friends of Waiuta to those of you who've worked hardest on the project, so if I ask for a postal address that's why. But even if you just signed up to get these postcards, that's fine too! • Thank you all for making a wonderful project work; I've never coordinated a team effort like this, and I think it's potentially a model for other edit-a-thons. Its been great fun. And I hope this has inspired you to keep chipping away, improving the coverage of New Zealand's beautiful West Coast. Ka kite ano, — Giantflightlessbirds
 
This horse trough outside the mansion of local mining capitalist wins the "Silliest Heritage" award in the category West Coast.

Survey on proposed 2021 Wikimedia Aotearoa conference

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Kia ora, as an editor in New Zealand I wanted to let you know about a survey gathering information for planning a Wikimedia conference in early 2021. Here's the link - it's open til 18 November. Feel free to share it with other editors you know too. Cheers! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/K37CY2B MurielMary (talk) 10:00, 31 October 2020 (UTC)Reply

Upcoming on the West Coast

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

Greymouth Wikipedia Meetup

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

Hokitika Wikipedia Meetup

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

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

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Introducing Wikisource • a seminar by Andrew Wooding

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

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

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

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

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

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West Coast WikiCon

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

An invitation to help the West Coast Wikipedian at Large

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  News from the West Coast

Development West Coast have kindly agreed to support another short Wikipedian at Large contract on the West Coast, to cover areas that were missed the first time around: Lake Brunner, Te Wahipounamu, Ōpārara Arches, and Punakaiki. From June 20th to August 26th I'll be improving articles, Wikidata, and photo collections on these areas, and would love some help. I'm inviting you to sign up on the project page; there'll be a fortnightly "postcards from the Coast" of to-dos and updates, and prizes for the most and best contributions by volunteers. Hope to see you there! —Giantflightlessbirds (talk) 22:59, 4 June 2022 (UTC))Reply