Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Syria/Archive 1

Archive 1

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Archive 5

Work in progress

I have started working on the WikiProject after six members have joined. Please offer any opinions or comments here. If you would like to join, temporarily leave your name here, before I start the participants sub page. Thank you! - Anas ^talk? 11:44, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Participants section started. Current members are encouraged to provide information on their areas of expertise. Comments and help are still welcome. - Anas ^talk? 16:29, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

I have to say, I'm impressed. Quite a bit of work done in short time, It's gonna be hard for me to keep up ;) As for advice, right now, and after going through most of the categories, I think we need to add new categories, and (if necessary) create new articles for these needed categories. I will look into that. Asabbagh 10:44, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Well I'll say. Yesterday my eyes gave in, and if that wasn't enough my already lousy dial-up connection was giving me a heck of a hard time. I was literally disconnected at least 200 times. Concerning the categories, that's an issue and problem I'm willing to tackle, but not before I finish the main elements of the WikiProject. Let me say also, that it is recommended that all members consult in this talk page before making any important edits or modifications to the project. Please discuss any new categories or templates you would like to create here before creating them too. Thank you. :-) - Anas ^talk? 12:10, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Tasks

I'd appreciate if the project members can tackle these tasks as soon as possible:

• Resort Syria stubs: change all Syrian biographical article stubs from stubs to bio-stubs. To do so change the stub category in such articles (found in Category:Syria stubs) from {{Syria-stub}} to {{Syria-bio-stub}}. Done. - Anas ^talk? 23:03, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
• Important: Tag and assess articles within the scope of WP:SY (see scope section in main page). User {{WP Syria}} to do so; here is the syntax to be used: {{WP Syria |class= |importance= }}. For the instructions on usage, please read the template's talk page. Please try to be reasonable and neutral when rating articles and assessing them.

I've tagged a bunch of articles, and I've done a quick importance rating on them. I tried to add more importance to articles which are more likely to be searched for/viewed. As for quality rating, I haven't done that yet, but I will soon. Asabbagh 01:01, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Thank you! - Anas ^talk? 17:51, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Unassessed-Class Syria articles

Notice the two categories Category:Unassessed-Class Syria articles, and Category:Unassessed Syria articles. The {WP Syria} template adds the unassessed articles to the first category, which isn't actually created. Instead, there exists that second category. Asabbagh 03:46, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Taken care of. - Anas ^talk? 08:24, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

One more thing though, when I go to that category, I only see 5 articles listed, even though I'm sure I tagged about 200 articles, most of which I left their class blank. For example, Talk:Jaramana should be there, no? Maybe I'm just crazy... Asabbagh 08:33, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

No, you're not crazy. I've done some research, and here is what I found. The articles should be retagged to be listed in the category. Jaramana is in the category now. Let's not do that, we'll rate the quality of these articles, found temporarily in the non-existing Category:Unassessed-Class Syria articles, which should fix the problem. - Anas ^talk? 09:05, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

I've rated all articles in the category. *sigh* - Anas ^talk? 11:31, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

sports stubs

I tried to create a new stub template for Syria sports-related articles, {Syria-sports-stub}, then I found out that I should have proposed it first... So I did, Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Proposals/2007/March. Asabbagh 03:50, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Assessment

The assessment statistics are up and running. Great, now we'll have to get to the assessment of the articles. Please help tag ({{WP Syria |class= |importance= }}) every Syria-related article and assess its quality and importance. Let's get to work people! - Anas ^talk? 12:30, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Asabbagh, do you have a reliable broadband connection (and some patience)? I have a suggestion which will make this a much, much easier process. I can't help much because of my connection. Interested? - Anas ^talk? 12:59, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

I have a connection more reliable than dial-up, so yes I guess I can do that. I probably won't do them all in one go, (real life eats my time too...), but I'll work as much as I can. Asabbagh 21:18, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Alright, begin by adding a request for WP:AWB (here). AWB is a very useful program for performing repetitive tasks. After you have been approved, you'll need to download the program. Then, I'll give you exact and precise instructions on what to do, and I'll prepare a list of the articles, which will make this quite easier for you. Basically, what I'm doing is adding the banner to every Syria-related article's talk page, which will add the articles to the category of unassessed articles. This ensures that we got all the in-scope articles, and makes the rating process an easier task to do. Check my contributions to see what I'm talking about. - Anas ^talk? 21:27, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I saw how you were using AWB, and I was considering it, I don't know why I never tried it. But, I just added a request. Thanks. Asabbagh 21:34, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Great. If you would like to help, you can go through Category:Unassessed Syria articles and rate the quality and importance of the articles. Thank you — I appreciate your efforts. :-) I really hope the other members can lend a hand. :/ - Anas ^talk? 21:45, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

After looking at more articles, and looking back at some of the ones I had rated earlier, I believe I gave some articles an importance rating a bit lower than what I should have. This is because I see we are adding the WP tag to many articles which are (in my opinion) of much less relevance compared to the above mentioned articles. Just thought I'd mention it here, we can re-rate any article at a later time, as I think we will be going over every single one of these later on when attempting improvements. Asabbagh 04:51, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Oh definitely, don't worry much about that. - Anas ^talk? 09:25, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

glad to see this!

Brother Anas, I am glad this is here! Chris 15:45, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Thank you — I'm glad you like it. It's good to see you again, Chris. :-) - Anas ^talk? 19:14, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Wrong country

Can somebody please tell me why Ankawa, Araden, Tel Keppe, Tel Skuf and Armash was added to this project? Chaldean 02:28, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

I only added obvious Syria-related categories and although I set aside some others to be done manually, I might've not noticed Category:Assyrian settlements, which includes the articles. Please accept my apologies and do revert any other similar edits if you can find any. - Anas ^talk? 02:50, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

I think Dead Sea and Azzam Azzam also don't belong in this project, mind if I remove the template?--Doron 09:08, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

I think you can go ahead. Sorry about that.. Asabbagh 09:12, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Manual tagging

Alright, now that we've finished placing the banner on, hopefully, every obvious Syria-related article, we'll need to search through the following categories and tag only articles which are related to Syria:

• Category:Ayyubid dynasty - on it. - Anas ^talk? Done
• Category:Mitanni - on it. - Anas ^talk? Done
• Category:Nabataeans - on it. - Anas ^talk? Done
• Category:Rulers of Ugarit - on it. - Anas ^talk? Done
• Category:Umayyad Caliphate - on it. - Anas ^talk? Done
• Category:Wars involving Syria - on it. - Anas ^talk? Done
• Category:Kurdistan- on it. - Anas ^talk? Done
• Category:Seleucid Empire - on it. - Anas ^talk? Done
• Category:Assyria
  • I went through it and I made a list of what I think is relevant (some of these would be of very low importance to the project). I haven't tagged them yet, tell me if you want to check them first. Asabbagh 04:46, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
    • Sure, we'll only tag what is, in such categories, very relevant to Syria. For example, in the category Kurdistan, I think I tagged less than 15 articles (from such a wide category) and in the category Seleucid Empire, I only tagged battles in Syria and rulers who were significant particularly in Syria. In these categories we should be lenient on what is not in the scope of our Project. I'll go through the list now. - Anas ^talk? 09:48, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
    • I've removed the list. I'll tag the selected articles and rate them. - Anas ^talk? 10:43, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
    • Done

Nota Bene: the search includes every article in the subcategories too.

Once completed, a category should be striked. All the best. - Anas ^talk? 11:22, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

I feel kind of stupid striking my own work. :/ - Anas ^talk? 21:46, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Category:Phoenicia

The only remaining category. Let's take it down people. :-) I'll try to split it to subcategories to make this easier, since it's kind of messed up in the parent category. - Anas ^talk? 11:18, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Browsed through cat, tagged related articles. Done with tagging, now we have to assess the articles. - Anas ^talk? 11:31, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Progress

OK, so, we've done quite a lot of work in a short period. I'm done with the design and structure of the project, and we've tagged (hopefully) every Syria-related article out there — approximately 900 articles. Of the 900 articles, we have assessed about 400 articles; this means that we have a backlog of about 500 articles. I would really appreciate if our members can help clear this backlog. I and Asabbagh have done all the hard work, and I'm pretty sure we both agree that we're tired. With the help of our members, we can clear the backlog in less than two or three hours. It is recommended that members go through WP:SY/RATE and have a fair understanding of the standards of assessment before assessing the articles' quality and importance. Try to be as frank as possible in the assessment, as the aim here is to appropriately identify articles needing later improvement and there's nothing to be gained by over-rating them. The unassessed articles can be found here or in the category Unassessed Syria articles. Thank you. Cheers, Anas ^talk? 12:17, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

We are down to 318 unassessed articles as of this message. - Anas ^talk? 13:31, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Currently, 275 are left. I think I might be busy in the few coming days. - Anas ^talk? 21:07, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

200. Looks like I'm going to do them alone, ehm. - Anas ^talk? 17:43, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Hey, I'm sorry I've been away for the past 2 days, and I haven't helped as much as I should have with this. Asabbagh 07:13, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

No worries. - Anas ^talk? 10:22, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm done. What a relief! - Anas ^talk? 20:35, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Logo

I added a logo I created this afternoon. Figured it would be a nice touch to the main page. :-) —Anas ^talk? 15:35, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Good to see Syrian Stub

Hello Every Buddy ,i just add Syrian Stub on it Shouting_Hill,Mount_Hermon.If in future come corss such topic i will add syrian tag or stub on it.Khalidkhoso 02:47, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for helping out. Just make sure that you only add a stub template to the articles that are actually stubs, and note that there are right now 3 kinds of Syrian stub templates, a {{Syria-bio-stub}} for biographies, {{Syria-geo-stub}} for geographical articles, and a general template, {{Syria-stub}} for all other Syria-related stubs. Asabbagh 06:40, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

..And a {{Syria-sport-stub}} for Syrian sport-related articles. —Anas ^talk? 09:59, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Next?

Any proposals for what to do now as a project? I suggest creating quick stubs for missing articles, most importantly cities, towns, lakes, mountains, historic landmarks, etc. Agreed? We have a list of cities, towns and villages in Syria which is missing a lot of cities and towns but has some red links to get started with. We will also need to complete the list. —Anas ^talk? 16:58, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm currently working on updating and completing the list. I'm searching with difficulty on the names of the cities (70, other than capitals) in Syria. As for the towns and villages, there are over 6000 villages in Syria, damn! —Anas ^talk? 00:52, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Is there anything I can do Anas Bazel 03:23, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, see that list above. You can help by creating proper stubs for the cities with no articles. Thank you. :-) —Anas ^talk? 10:49, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

I think we really should do something about the Syria article, it is of good quality but definitely needs improvement; the major thing I'm talking about is those sections that need to be synced with their main articles. I will try to allocate some of my time for that this week(end). Asabbagh 09:06, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Definitely, but now is really not the time for it. First of all, let's face it, we don't have the man power right now. I'm having Internet connection difficulties and have no published sources in hand. If you will try to work on it, you will burn out. As I suggested, it will be better to fill in the missing articles, to complete the coverage of Syria-related articles in Wikipedia and to make room for further expansions. Concerning the city list, I have found, using a few tricks and a combination of statistics pages, the names of 56 of the cities, and 14 more remain. I have contacted teh Syrian Bureau of Statistics for the needed information, let's hope they reply to me. All the best, Anas ^talk? 10:49, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

POV & maps

This article (Kurds in Syria) might have some POV issues. I am guessing that the WPSY participants might have higher priorities, but might want to keep an eye on it all the same. Cheers! Baristarim 11:10, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

It does. It uses a biased tone and exaggerated language, not something to be found in an encyclopedia. It can use some euphemism. I am flooded with work and real life is absorbing my time. Plus, I want to enjoy my Easter. :-) —Anas ^talk? 17:30, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

It is ok, no rush :) By the way, I went ahead and created two categories at Category:Wikipedia requested maps in Syria and Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in Syria. Just use {{reqmapin|Syria}} and {{reqphotoin|Syria}} to list articles which WP Syria might provide photos/maps and it also helps the project keep track of which articles need those. (Take a look at Khabur River for example to see how multiple projects and countries can be listed for photos and maps) Cheers! Baristarim 01:09, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

By the way, how is the map situation for WPSyria? Do you think that the articles in general have enough maps? Baristarim 01:09, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Much appreciated, thanks a lot Baristarim. I'm afraid the map situation is way far from what it should be. Very, very few articles have maps. Do you know of anyway to get free maps? —Anas ^talk? 01:35, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

No problems. I was just going to suggest that (no, I am not a good mapmaker :)) you contact User:Rarelibra. He is a professional mapmaker and he helped us create real good and free maps for all Turkish administrative units and islands. He also helped us organize them in regions/provinces/districts format which comes in pretty handy. I don't know how the Syrian provinces/regions are organized, but some other WPTR users also designed a very complicated template at Template:Districts of Turkey after looong disputes over coding but it is very handy. I didn't participate in its design but if you left a note there, other users might be able to figure out a way to adopt it to Syria. It is good because it also includes maps. I am sorry, I am making it a bit complicated - just a leave a note at Rarelibra and see what he thinks (he might be busy with something else, I don't know). After the map issues are settled I can contact other WPTR users to help with transposing the template for Syria.. Baristarim 02:03, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Wow! Rarelibra looks just like the man we are looking for. Thank you for the reference. I will definitely seek to contact him soon. The template seems rather too complicated for me, but I will have to look in to the matter soon. Syria has a different administrative system; to get a quick idea, see list of cities in Syria. Unfortunately, April and May are going to be the busiest months for me — I have my finals and my SAT admission test coming up early May. Life's a bitch, eh? —Anas ^talk? 02:20, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Yep, it can be. lol. I hope that he will be of help. As for the template, whenever you want just leave a note at its talk page and I will ask WPTR users to help with adopting it to Syria. Cheers and good luck with your studies! Baristarim 02:27, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Just to let everybody know, the Kurds in Syria article has been rewritten by me today. God, it was a mess in there. —Anas ^talk? 15:20, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Bilateral relations discussion

I would like to invite you all to participate in a discussion at this thread regarding bilateral relations between two countries. All articles related to foreign relations between countries are now under the scope of WikiProject Foreign relations, a newly created project. We hope that the discussion will result in a more clean and organized way of explaining such relationships. Thank you. Ed ^{¿Cómo estás?} 18:27, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Invitation

I had created an invitation template for WPTR a while back at {{WPTR-Invitation}} and I thought a similar one could be used here. The code is {{WPSY-Invitation}}. Feel free to modify it to suit WPSY better if needed. Baristarim 21:23, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi, you have been invited to join the WikiProject Syria. There you can also find and contact users who are trying to improve Syria-related articles. If you would like to get involved, just visit the participants page and/or inquire at the project's talk page. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Great, thanks. This might come in handy. —Anas ^talk? 01:24, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Syrian city stub generator

My latest invention, a city stub generator. This should make writing stubs the quickest ever and will hopefully help us get rid of those annoying red links. It's very simple to use. To create a quick stub, follow these steps:

1. Go to list of cities in Syria and click on a red link in the Other cities subsection.
2. Paste "{{subst:User:Anas Salloum/Syria-city | city= | Arabic= | governorate= | altitude= | population= }}" in the article.
3. Fill in the missing information. See the instructions here. Help? In city place the city's name; in the Arabic field add the original Arabic script (found here); in governorate add the name of the governorate the city belongs to (it is indicated in the previous external link and should be in the form "Aleppo Governorate"); for the 2007 population number, see that same external link; for the altitude, see this directory (you must indicate the unit of measurement).
4. Save the article and head to the talk page. In the talk page, place "{{WP Syria|class=Stub|importance=Mid}}" and save the page.

This should help you create a proper stub in less than 2-3 minutes. Brilliant, I know. :-) All the best, Anas ^talk? 02:24, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, this is rather useful. Also, I went ahead and made it place the stub template under the category, so at the bottom of the article, the stub category doesn't show up first. Asabbagh 08:51, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, thanks for the change. —Anas ^talk? 11:48, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

History stub

New stub: Template:Syria-hist-stub.. Baristarim 05:37, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Asabbagh 08:51, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. We will have to tag the related articles. I hope you proposed this before creating it. The people working on stub organizing will come after you if you haven't. :-) It is recommended that the stub template be used in 60 articles to secure a keep of this template. —Anas ^talk? 11:55, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

I hope I will tagg 60 articles in two days.Must.^{T C} 20:13, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Maps of governorates

• all 14 maps organized in Category: Maps of the subdivisions of Syria.Happy editing.Must.^{T C} 20:13, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Perfect, thank you so much. :-) —Anas ^talk? 20:32, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Governorates

• All have infobox, but needs to develop;
  • Coord. info needed.
  • Why area of a governorate is different in different sources. Is it not possible to have official/govermental data?
• A standart layout is required for governorate pages.Any commend?
• Governorate articles(my oppinion) has urgent importance to develop, since; a small nr of article, major places in country, it is easy to make practice for layout, templates, cats on these article. Lets see, how is going.
• Şukran to all contributors.Must.^{T C} 21:36, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

True, the articles are in the poorest conditions, but right now I think we have higher priorities. It will get confusing when we have many tasks to do at once. As soon as we are done creating the missing articles, we will get back to discussing this very important issue.

The coordinates aren't a problem, the area can be obtained from official governorate websites and a standard layout is to be planned soon. Right now, we need to focus on filling in the gaps and completing Wikipedia's coverage of Syria-related topics. There are still many important subjects yet to have articles. It is kind of frustrating; Wikipedia has very few Syrian users and sadly there aren't many online sources for information on Syria. —Anas ^talk? 22:13, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Official cities

I just got my hand on an official map of Syria, depicting the official cities, which I will use to complete the list of cities in Syria. Some might be wrongly listed as cities. I will update the list with missing cities and remove the wrong places tomorrow. Regards, Anas ^talk? 22:22, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Man, this is so frustrating! The map shows the manatiq only. I hate that there is no official information online. There are 84 cities according to official statistics but other probably incorrect/outdated sources (which aren't reliable anyways) contradict this. They are 84 but I can't find all of them. I have confirmed 61 of them, those that are the capitals of the manatiq. You see in Syria every governorate has several manatiq (districts) and every one has a capital city. Most manatiq have one city (the capital city), but some manatiq have more than one city.

I got frustrated when I tried to contact the Syrian CBS (Central Bureau of Statistics); their online feedback system is down; two contact e-mails were posted, one has not replied in five days, the other has a full inbox — a full inbox, can you believe that? I will give it a couple more days; if I get no response I will only list the governorate and manatiq capital cities, which are 61 (13 gov. and 48 man.) The way the articles are written will need to be discussed. For example, do we create articles for the manatiq? Do we keep them with their capital cities? Or do we use a single article for both? It's such a sad mess. My brain hurts. —Anas ^talk? 14:05, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

I understand exactly what you are talking about. Yea, I tried something like that a while back, I emailed the University of Damascus to ask for a logo - no reply. I emailed SANA for some information - full inbox. My guess is they are full of spam, and whoever the admin is can't/won't attempt to get rid of it. As for the articles I really doubt it would be a good idea to write about the manatiq, since we wouldn't have much to say about them except that it is a subdivision and has a capital city. I might be wrong, of course. If we don't get access to official data, I guess we should do what you said, just the 61 cities, and in the future when we find the right info we could update as necessary. It is a mess... Asabbagh 18:47, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Meh, anyway, I agree that it's not a good idea to start an article for the manatiq (despite being notable enough), but maybe we can use the same article for the subdivision too, at most include what other towns are in the district and general information like area and the like, if available. I really doubt that population and area information can be verified, so let's just forget it. As for the districts, I think that is the way it's going to be; we will work with manatiq capitals, everywhere, in the maps, lists and articles themselves. We will be lenient with the other cities, which should be 23, in terms of categorization, etc. as it is very likely that a couple are missing and another couple are not official cities. I will rearrange the list for now, and this should be our base for for the map template and possibly other navigation templates, to be discussed and worked on in a later period. I think I'll be busy next week, I got an exam-loaded week. —Anas ^talk? 21:29, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

OK, I've finished overhauling the list, we still have 9 missing cities. I think we should create a list for the towns as soon as we have over a 100 of them. Maybe even make room for a table of the cities by population. There are a few red links out there for us to turn blue. :-) —Anas ^talk? 00:06, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

There were some mistakes I fixed. Now we can work on templates and maps for the districts. —Anas ^talk? 00:41, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Maps

OK. This is just me writing my thoughts down. Concerning Syria maps, we got:

• Maps of Syria - all there
• Maps of the governorates - all there
• Maps of the districts are needed.

This means we need 13 (since Damascus has a map) maps of the districts of every governorate. Basically, the map should show the governorate and point out the districts in each governorate, much like how the folks at Turkey have done it (see Image:Adana districts.png). I will also attempt to make something like {{Turkey Labelled Map}} for the Syrian governorates. This will need some time, probably not any time soon. —Anas ^talk? 00:48, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

I just finished creating {{Syria Labelled Map}}, which should be a great substitute for the numbered map. I didn't think I could do it. It looks good, no? :-) —Anas ^talk? 09:24, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Great work.Congratulations.Unfortunately I couldnt share so much time for Syria project due to a constant-hars attacks to Turkey related pages.I will try my best.RegardsMust.^{T C} 09:44, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

No worries man. :-) —Anas ^talk? 09:46, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Categorization

OK, so here's the deal. I created the article districts of Syria, which contains 100% correct list of the 60 districts (which are also cities) of Syria. I also created categories for the districts. See Category:Districts of Syria, which contains subcategories for every governorate. We need to categorize the articles for the districts; the districts of Syria article should be used as a reference for every district's parent governorate. Regards, Anas ^talk? 15:12, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Never mind, I've completed the categorization. —Anas ^talk? 13:37, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Articles

I'm thinking, let's do some real article work for a change. Of course, we're not going to go directly to Syria and the core articles, we'll take it slowly and choose easy topics. Here are my suggestions:

• Crac des Chevaliers
• Dura-Europos
• Nizar Qabbani
• Zakaria Tamer
• Zenobia

Pretty interesting, stable, and easily referenced. I myself favor Nizar Qabbani; I've always had interest in this important figure of Syrian literature and politics but never actually did the research. Since I, and probably everyone, are busy with real life, we'll do it at a leisurely pace. I think we will work on the core articles in summer. Food for thought, what do you think guys? —Anas ^talk? 14:12, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

On second thought, I think Crac des Chevaliers is a good deal. I think I can get it to GA status. —Anas ^talk? 14:06, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Syria

I'd be grateful if editors could review and comment on the removal of well-sourced content on the legal status of the Golan Heights by Isarig (talk · contribs): [1][2][3]. --Ian Pitchford 23:10, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Pictures

Does this project need any pictures?

I can provide any pictures from here without the watermark:

http://www.syriapath.com/cgallery/index.php?cat=12

most(not all) of these pictures are unique.... let me know

Haxxor23 14:54, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

That's very nice. The pictures are free, right? I mean you own the copyright on those images and can release them under a free license, eh? If that is so, then this might be very helpful. There is nothing certain in my mind right now, but I will make sure to contact you whenever I need any photographs. If you want, you can check the Syrian articles and add/replace images with better, or free images, because some articles have unfree (fairuse) images and it would be nice to replace them with free substitutes. You can check the categories, or for the cities, you can check list of cities in Syria. Thank you! —Anas ^talk? 15:16, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Yup, the pictures are free and can be used under free licence. I will got through the Syrian articles and replace any pictures I can with free ones. let me know if there are any pictures you want, and I'll be more than happy to provide them. You can also check out our member contributed pictures here and feel free to use any that you want.

http://www.syriapath.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=217

Thanks Anas Haxxor23 17:40, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Excellent. I suggest these images be released under a free license. The best free license to choose, in my opinion, is the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License v. 2.5. To use this license, just tag your article with {{Cc-by-sa-2.5|Attribution}} and replace Attribution with the website you wish to be attributed to when reused elsewhere. This license allows others to use the image for free anywhere as long as they attribute it to you or your website. Thank you so much! :-) Regards, Anas ^talk? 09:17, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Requested articles

I can't find a section for this on the front page, but one notably absent (where others exist for almost all other Asian countries) is Syrian American. My hometown mayor Robert M. Isaac and my Kindergarten teacher are two. Chris 06:46, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

OK, I might start a stub for it soon. Unfortunately many of our members are busy in real life, including me. As for the main page, I am planning on adding two more columns, one for the Project's award and the other for a tasklist. To request an article, you can either add it in the tasklist or leave a message here. —Anas ^talk? 09:24, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't really see the point unless they're well known. You could just as well add British Syrian, or French Syrian, Brazilian Syrian etc etc....Perhaps there should be something about famous Syrian ex pats worldwide, I'm inspired to do that by this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E319sRGOzXs

which lists these people (I was really surprised by Steve Jobs and Tiffany!):

Shannon Elizabeth, Steve Jobs, Armande Altaï, Kurtis Mantronik, Hala Ghorani, Mitchell Daniels, Ikram Antaki, Gilberto Kassab, Mona Simpson, Ricardo Mamood, Asmahan, Yasser Seirawan, Jerry Seinfeld, Arlindo Chinaglia, Nadia Behette, Wentworth Miller, Suad Husni, Paul Anka, Adib Jatene, Tiffany, Carlos Menem, Paula Abdul, Tige Andrews, Jack Kachkar, Moustapha Akkad, Nizar Qabbani, Mary Rose Oakar, Murray Abraham, Victor G. Atiyeh, Adunis, Michael Ansara, Kinda Hibrawi, René Angélil, Farid Alattrach, Ghada Shoua'a, Osama Esber, Boris Said, Mohja Kahf, Sarkis Assadourian, Vic Tayback, Vicente Saadi, Phillip Stamma, Ernest Hamwi .......

Maybe we can make a photo gallery of them which links to their wiki page....just a thought... Haxxor23 11:46, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

There's no harm in creating an article for every notable group of Syrian expatriates. I think that a parent Syrian diaspora article should be created, followed by articles for Canadian, American, French, British, Brazilian and Argentinian Syrians, etc. Of course, this needs some time. I will find some time for the diaspora article and the American Syrians for now. —Anas ^talk? 13:37, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Alright, I created stubs for Syrian diaspora and Syrian people. The former will serve as the parent article for the several Syrian expatriates articles. I've created a navigational template, {{Syrian diaspora}}, to be placed on every related article. It's probably missing many other countries with a notable Syrian population, so feel free to add any country you feel needs an article. I will be working on a good article for Syrian Americans as soon as I finish my SAT and have some free time. —Anas ^talk? 15:49, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

hello guys, I have just stumbled across this project through my video about the syrian celebrities on youtube, it's a good idea and i would like to help you, I have all pictures for the syrian celebrities names mentioned above.--Bashs 11:14, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Hey Bashs. Welcome to the 'pedia! :-) I appreciate your offer to help, but my assumption is that these images are copyrighted. Using them here will not be very helpful, and they most probably will end up being deleted. However, if you do have free photos (you or a friend took them), it would be really great if you can upload these under a free license. All the best, Anas ^talk? 11:31, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

I think there shouldn't be an article called Syrian people since being a Syrian does not mean ethnically Syrian, some Syrian are of Arab descendant others are of Kurdish, Armenian or any other ethnic group.--Aziz1005 16:23, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm new to Wikipedia. I have lived in Syria for more than 30 years and am interested in helping to develop this site. What type of articles do you need? I'm interested in archaeological sites, have visited many of the lesser known Dead Cities and have photos. Lynjane 06:19, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Free time

Well, I'm back from a couple of weeks of lack of sleep. I hope I didn't miss much, and I plan to be back to my regular contributing rate tomorrow. Sorry about my absence! Asabbagh 09:45, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Good to have you back, Asabbagh. :-) Contact me on my talk page so I can update you on our current work, if you like. —Anas ^talk? 11:34, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Aleppo Citadel

I've overhauled the entire Citadel_of_Aleppo page. It was poorly written and full of errors. I've also added some pictures and a gallery. Hopefully now the article is a lot better, and it's a very important one, so check up on it and see if there is further need of editing or additional information. I've also rated it as a B class.

Haxxor23 14:53, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks a lot man. I'm extremely low on free time right now, but I'll check it out later. In the mean time, any of the Project's members can give it a look. —Anas ^talk? 19:23, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Impressive work. There are a few concerns: The "Modern day" section has some repeated information, and most of it is not even modern day information. For the info you added, is it possible to add a source? Eventually, someone will ask for it... And also, is there any reason why you removed the external link that was there? Otherwise, great job! Asabbagh 09:22, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Yes I agree the "modern day" section does have repeated information in it. I'll update it soon as there are major renovations going on around the citadel. I'm not quite sure what but it seems the road around the citadel has been blocked to traffic, I think there's a new tourism drive in the old quarter of Aleppo, and the citadel seems to be an important part of that. Anyway I'll add the information as soon as I'm sure of it. As for sources, will add them soon; and the external link points to a website that hasn't been updated for over 3 years, and it doesn't really provide any additional important information about the citadel.

Haxxor23 16:25, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Sounds excellent Haxxor. Keep up the good job! —Anas ^talk? 12:46, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Golan Heights

I would welcome comments on this edit by Isarig (talk · contribs):

This quotation and reference:

[4]: In May 1967 before the Six-Day War of 1967, Hafez Assad, then Syria's Defense Minister declared: "Our forces are now entirely ready not only to repulse the aggression, but to initiate the act of liberation itself, and to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland. The Syrian Army, with its finger on the trigger, is united... I, as a military man, believe that the time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation."(Bard, 2002, p. 196.)

Has been changed to this:

[5]: In May 1967 before the Six-Day War of 1967, Hafez Assad, then Syria's Defense Minister declared: "Our forces are now entirely ready...to initiate the act of liberation itself, and to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland....The time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation."(Louis Rene Beres, Professor Department of Political Science, Purdue University)

I don't think either of these sources is reliable, but the second quotation from a web page carrying no references looks like a significant distortion of the longer quotation from Bard, which itself appears to originate with AIPAC. . --Ian Pitchford 18:34, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

The second quote, which had been in the article for a while until Ian removed it, is sourced to a paper by an academic, Prof. Louis Rene Beres. It is a reliable source (as is Bard's book). Ian removed the former, inserted the latter, and used a false edit summary claiming the latter is the "only source known me". It's hard to WP:AGF given this kind of tendentious editing. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Isarig (talk • contribs) 18:48, 13 May 2007 (UTC).

The paper is published in issue 4.1 of the Brown Journal of World Affairs [6], a publication of Brown University. Ian has by now added a comment to my Talk page falsely claiming this is a "self-published" source. I think it's easy to see what kind of POV-pushing is going on here. Isarig 18:57, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Having Googled the quote, I could not identify which one seems to be the correct version. It's likely that the quote was translated from Arabic into two different versions. I have to honestly say, though, that the second quote had much more results, which seemed sort of reliable. Please try to settle this conflict peacefully; maybe you can explain this confusion in a footnote? —Anas ^talk? 19:42, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

At the moment I can't verify if either one is a true quote, but it is obvious that if one is true, they are both true, with the second one being only a part of the first one. They are highly unlikely to be two differently translated versions, because of words like "act of liberation itself", "annihilation". (Two separately translated versions would, by probability, differ more than that). The parts that are missing from the second quote, but present in the first, should be there if this quote is to be used at all, because there is added meaning, and to quote without them is taking it out of context, to imply a POV interpretation of the quote. The quote should, however, be verified with reliable sources if it is to remain in the article. Asabbagh 05:25, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Tasks

A new tasks list has been added to the Project's main page. Please add new tasks there. —Anas ^talk? 09:25, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Requested articles, round 2

Brother Anas, I tried to make that tasks section do what I need, but it goes to the generic Wikipedia tasks page. I can't find a section for this on the very-nice-looking-but-cumbersome WikiProject Syria front page, so I am just putting my requests here.

• bios on two Syrian Scouting personalities-Ali al-Dandachi and Ibrahim Zakaria
• and expansion of Boy Scouts de Syrie by anyone knowledgeable on the topic.

Thanks (how to say thanks in Syro-Arabic?) Chris 07:17, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Weird. Just click on the little "edit" link near the section name. It will take you to the task list page, where you can place your requests. Thank you in Arabic is the same in Syrian Arabic; it is shukran. I'll see what I can do. —Anas ^talk? 10:49, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! I was pretty sure it was shukran, I just know three of Syria's historic neighbors to the north (Armenian, Farsi and Turkish) all seem to trade off and borrow each other's words for thanks, (Farsi even uses merci like in French), so I didn't know if the tradition had crossed the border. Shukran! Chris 17:13, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

No sweat, man. Some Syrians, under the strong influence of Western cultures, use English or French for "thanks", "good morning", etc. too. —Anas ^talk? 17:17, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

A reference blank map of Syria

Damascus

class=notpageimage|

Damascus

I noticed that a blank reference map of Syria is needed. The reference map can be used to locate cities or villages on the map by their geographical coordinates. A few examples are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Croatia_map_blank.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Greece_map_blank.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Austria_map_blank.png

Ahmadac 22:12, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

This can be made pretty easily. I'm on it. Also, we really need to sort out the infobox issue and generate some consistency in articles. Hopefully, after my wikibreak. —Anas ^talk? 22:38, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Image:Syria map blank.png, not exactly the best map possible, but good for now. —Anas ^talk? 23:29, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Forget that one. With the help of Chris, we now have a locator map and template (see it in action, right). We'll need to implement it into an infobox now, maybe after my wikibreak. —Anas ^talk? 13:11, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh that's amazing! Ahmadac 01:01, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

مدينة طرطوس City of Tartus
Hamrat Street
General Information
Country:	Syria
Governorate:	Tartus
Area code:	43
Website:	http://www.tartous.gov.sy
Map: Tartus in Syria
Tartus Tartus (Syria)
Governor	Wahib Hasan Zein Eddin
Population
Population:	160,000
Geography
Location:	34° 52' N, 35° 52'E
Elevation:	0 m

So I tried using the map with Tartus article and I used a different infobox. Maybe we can use this example for other Syrian cities. Check the infobox on the right! Ahmadac 22:41, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

If you all agree to this, I'll go ahead and change other cities on my free time. Ahmadac 22:49, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

You might wanna wait, just a couple of days, till I have some free time. Maybe we can then implement this feature in an infobox. Cheers, Anas ^talk? 13:45, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Quneitra

Thought I'd mention that I've completely rewritten Quneitra, seeing as it's the 40th anniversary of the city's fall in 1967. -- ChrisO 22:58, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Illustration

Hello guys I was just wondering if there is any Syria-related article that needs to be illustrated? since I'm going Syria in few days. I'll focus mainly on Damascus but I think I will go to other cities as well. In fact I will upload my collection of images on wikimedia commons when I come back any way.

If there are any required images please tell me during these 2 days, and I'll try to offer it when I come back!--Aziz1005 13:26, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, I don't know Damascus that well. The Damascus article is probably a good place to start. Give it a scan and see what needs images. Generally, pictures of tourist attractions, historical places, and special landmarks of whatever type will do well with images. As for other cities, see List of cities in Syria; most of them have no images. Bon voyage, Anas ^talk? 16:08, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

I'll do my best. I know Damascus very well and I know many attractive places there since I lived there most of my life :) --Aziz1005 19:48, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

'Aight, mate. Good luck! —Anas ^talk? 00:23, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

If you could find an image of Ali al-Dandachi, I would name children after you! Chris 05:25, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Do you have any link to unfree image for him. I'll try although it is less likely to find an image for Al-Dandachi :(--Aziz1005 12:00, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

It's pretty much impossible. I couldn't even find an unfree image of him! Then again, perhaps looking for the dude and snapping a picture of him would be easier, if he is alive. Meh. —Anas ^talk? 14:09, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Lebanese or Syrian?

Hi, I'm just wondering why Syrian and Lebanese films are exactly the same! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lebanese_films). Are we considering it's the same country? Makinebey 05:25, 21 July 2007 (UTC)makinebey

Obviously, the list is incorrect, and was created rather heedlessly. So be bold and fix it, even though I think it is pretty hard to do so. —Anas ^talk? 14:22, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

RfC

Your comments are welcome at Talk:Israeli settlement#RfC: Inclusion of Golan Heights settlements.--Doron 20:11, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Elagabalus

Elagabalus has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. DrKiernan 07:23, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Images

I am uploading my collection of images about Syria and this is the link. I haven't uploaded everything yet but I have uploaded some. Please try to use them wherever you can--Aziz1005 00:19, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Awesome! Thanks, Aziz. I'll make sure I check them out once I have a little stability in my life (I'm moving, so my life is hectic somehow). Hope you enjoyed your vacation. —Anas ^talk? 20:52, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Yea of course I enjoyed it :). I also need some time to upload my collection of images so make sure you check them every few days or once a week until I finish, and your life settles down! --Aziz1005 01:09, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Quneitra featured article candidate

I have nominated Quneitra for featured article status, following its designation last month as a good article. Please leave any comments on Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Quneitra. -- ChrisO 01:56, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Golan Heights

Please see Golan Heights. An IP editor appears to be POV pushing. Pocopocopocopoco (talk) 18:24, 29 December 2007 (UTC)