Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Minnesota

FAR

I have nominated Music of Minnesota for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here.YellowMonkey (bananabucket) (help the Invincibles Featured topic drive) 02:37, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

This article has recently been improved; more eyes on Wikipedia:Featured article review/Music of Minnesota/archive1 would be helpful at this stage. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 03:49, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi all. This article has been copyedited and improved. Anybody home who can express their opinion would be welcome at featured article review. I can't canvas for votes but I can ask if anybody is here to vote? -SusanLesch (talk) 19:15, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Highway 24 Bridge

The highway 24 bridge article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_24_Bridge contains an error in the data box on the right. The current coordinates: 45°25′04″N 93°02′37″W are in a farmer's field in Isanti County, at least 10 miles from the Mississippi River, which the bridge supposedly crosses, and is nowhere near Highway 24. I don't know what the correct coordinates are. AustinMN (talk) 03:04, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Fixed. Thank you. Kablammo (talk) 03:37, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Minnesota county navigational box template categorization.

The Minnesota county navigational box templates place themselves in their respective county categories. This is the kind of self-reference we try to avoid and it is not helpful for Wikipedia users to see our infrastructure in the article space categories. I have started the cleanup by removing Category:Minnesota county navigational boxes from Category:Minnesota counties. Each of the county templates needs a similar change. For example, tl:Template:Aitkin County, Minnesota appears in Category:Aitkin County, Minnesota. I propose we clean up all of these templates. As an example, I fixed Cottonwood County.[1].

I'm willing to go through and make these changes, but before starting I want confirmation this is the correct way to go. ✤ JonHarder ^talk 22:55, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

WP 1.0 bot announcement

This message is being sent to each WikiProject that participates in the WP 1.0 assessment system. On Saturday, January 23, 2010, the WP 1.0 bot will be upgraded. Your project does not need to take any action, but the appearance of your project's summary table will change. The upgrade will make many new, optional features available to all WikiProjects. Additional information is available at the WP 1.0 project homepage. — Carl (CBM · talk) 03:37, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Ash River in South Africa, or in Minnesota?

The Ash River article says that it is in South Africa, and gives details. Maybe so, but the references are all for Minnesota. Big time confusion! Could someone interested in Minnesota please clear up the confusion? --DThomsen8 (talk) 16:25, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

I reverted the SA info back to the MN original. ✤ JonHarder ^talk 04:30, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Music of Minnesota

Hello. I am amazed at this project's list of participants. We have a featured article review of Music of Minnesota going on for four months. That is the longest running FAR in Sandy's memory and I think it is the world's longest! So you have all had plenty of time. I don't believe you if you say you are a participant in WikiProject Minnesota but haven't taken the time to consider this article. Where are your votes? -SusanLesch (talk) 17:44, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Let me try to adjust my attitude. Bobak, Jonathunder and Bobamnertiopsis, I know you guys are still active, as are a lot of others (sorry to mention you by name but you came to mind). Could you kindly weigh in on Wikipedia:Featured article review/Music of Minnesota/archive1? Doncram took the time, so can you please? -SusanLesch (talk) 18:48, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Minnesota Inventors Congress

Perhaps someone should consider creating a page for the Minnesota Inventors Congress. It celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008 and is the first inventors convention of its kind world wide. A few other states have created similar conventions based off of Minnesota's. It is a real asset to Minnesota and deserves its own page. Wkaardal (talk) 00:52, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

I have created an Minnesota Inventors Congress Draft Page here. Please I could use some help editing it. Thank you. Wkaardal (talk) 12:31, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Unreferenced living people articles bot

User:DASHBot/Wikiprojects provides a list, updated daily, of unreferenced living people articles (BLPs) related to your project. There has been a lot of discussion recently about deleting these unreferenced articles, so it is important that these articles are referenced.

The unreferenced articles related to your project can be found at >>>Wikipedia:WikiProject Minnesota/Unreferenced BLPs<<<

If you do not want this wikiproject to participate, please add your project name to this list.

Thank you.

Update: Wikipedia:WikiProject Minnesota/Unreferenced BLPs has been created. This list, which is updated by User:DASHBot/Wikiprojects daily, will allow your wikiproject to quickly identify unreferenced living person articles.

There maybe no or few articles on this new Unreferenced BLPs page. To increase the overall number of articles in your project with another bot, you can sign up for User:Xenobot_Mk_V#Instructions.

If you have any questions or concerns, visit User talk:DASHBot/Wikiprojects. Okip 00:31, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Request for help: GAN

If anybody is so inclined ...

Territorial era of Minnesota has been stuck in the GA nomination backlog for a couple of months. Anybody with a particular interest is welcome to jump in and review ...

Thanks.

--Mcorazao (talk) 21:18, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

FYI: this passed GA. I believe that, writing quality aside, it is meets most FA criteria. However, from my last attempt to push an article into FA I know that my writing ability falls short of FA standards. If any particularly talented writers are looking to put another FA on their list of accomplishments please feel free to edit away on this one. For my part I think I am essentially done with it. --Mcorazao (talk) 17:24, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Schools

Please see Template talk:Mounds View Public Schools. What isthe recommended action here? --Kudpung (talk) 01:33, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Minnesota Historical and Cultural Grants

I just created a draft article for the Minnesota Historical and Cultural Grants. I could use a little help editing it before I launch it. It can be found at User:Wkaardal/draftarticleonlegacygrants Thanks Wkaardal (talk) 18:25, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

This page is launched now but could still use a couple pairs of eyes to look it over. You can find the recently launched article here. Minnesota Historical and Cultural Grants Thanks in advance Wkaardal (talk) 16:39, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

Saint Thomas, MN?

The artist Mike Ploog talks about a possibly unincorporated town called Saint Thomas, Minnesota, located near Mankato. I can find out very little about it -- pretty much just this single map entry at Mapquest. Perhaps someone in this project who knows the area better can create a page for it, if it still (presumably) exists. With regards, -- Tenebrae (talk) 04:04, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

Yes. St. Thomas (est. pop. 40) exists. See Mn-DOT map of Le Sueur County. CJLippert (talk) 20:43, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Also, Minnesota Place Names by Warren Upham says "ST. THOMAS, a community in sections 18 and 19 of Derrynane Township, which had a post office, 1872-1902, and a station on the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railroad." In addition, the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) have the following:

Feature Name	ID	Class	County	State	Latitude	Longitude	Ele(ft)*	Map**	BGN Date	Entry Date
Saint Thomas	651065	Populated Place	Le Sueur	MN	442952N	0934527W	1004	Saint Thomas	-	11-JAN-1980
Saint Thomas Cemetery	2063571	Cemetery	Le Sueur	MN	442950N	0934528W	1007	Saint Thomas	-	25-MAR-2005
Saint Thomas Post Office (historical)	2063519	Post Office	Le Sueur	MN	442952N	0934526W	1004	Saint Thomas	-	25-MAR-2005
Saint Thomas State Wildlife Management Area	651076	Park	Le Sueur	MN	442938N	0934539W	997	Saint Thomas	-	11-JAN-1980

Otherwise, unless you go to Le Sueur County Historical Society, this may be all the information online you may find. CJLippert (talk) 20:48, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

I was able to find it on google maps, and see it on street view. There is a large brick church, a cemetery, a few buildings which appear to be commercial, and several houses. Not a very big settlement, to be sure, but a real one. Jonathunder (talk) 22:27, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Mill City Museum

I need help editing a draft of the Mill City Museum article. Also please consider contributing to the discussion on the Washburn A Mill article Talk:Washburn A Mill, Washburn A Mill constitutes part, but not all of the Mill City Museum, so I need to know if it would be better to place the article under Mill City Museum or place a redirect on the Washburn A Mill article. Thank you. Wkaardal (talk) 20:35, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

I think the article would work better as a standalone, with it referenced as the main article under the "Mill City Museum" heading on the Washburn page. Minnecologies (talk) 13:54, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

May 11

Happy Statehood Day! Jonathunder (talk) 05:00, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Minnewegian

This is a new article; I have started a discussion about nomenclature on its talk page. Kablammo (talk) 17:22, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

New article in project's scope

The article Mid-June 2010 tornado outbreak has been placed under WikiProject Minnesota as a result of the high impact to the state. Any editors from this wikiproject interested in helping with the article are welcome to do so. Thanks, Ks0stm ^(T•C•G) 16:11, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Adding Hmong translations to Commons uploads

For those of you uploading things to Commons, such as images (especially regarding the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, with its Hmong population), if you wish to attach Hmong translations, use the template {{hmn|}} And put the Hmong text inside. WhisperToMe (talk) 04:39, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

List of United States federal courthouses in Minnesota

This page has been initiated - any help in filling in missing federal courthouses, or providing missing information on listed courthouses (especially pictures) would be appreciated. Cheers! bd2412 T 14:49, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Gibbs Farm Museum

I've labeled the article titled Heman Gibbs Farmstead (also called the Gibbs Farm Museum) an "orphan". The only things that link to it besides redirect pages are two lists, a disambiguation page, and the article on Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Please add appropriate links from other articles to that one. Michael Hardy (talk) 19:00, 5 July 2010 (UTC)

Hennepin County languages stuff

For people working on articles about Hennepin County, it may help to find speakers of the following languages to gain supporting material for articles about immigrant communities or to add descriptions to categories or files on the Commons: http://www.hclib.org/pub/info/WelcomeLanguages.cfm

• Hmong
• Khmer/Cambodian
• Lao
• Russian
• Somali
• Spanish
• Vietnamese

WhisperToMe (talk) 21:17, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

Lake Abita

I was wondering if anyone with any in-depth sources on Minnesotan geography could help me with a problem I'm running into. I recently started an article on Lake Abita, which appears according to several surveys of the region to be the Minnesotan lake with the highest surface elevation. However, the measurements I'm seeing aren't adding up. Lake Superior has a surface elevation of 600 feet. Lake Abita is supposed to be 1349 feet higher, with an elevation of 2048 feet, but 600+1349=1949. Furthermore, it's supposed to sit only thirty feet below the summit of Brule Mountain, which is at 2226 feet, but 2048 + 30 != 2226.

Unfortunately, Lake Abita has a very poor internet presence, and none of the public domain books I can find on Google can explain this discrepancy. Does anyone know of a better source that might explain this? Norstrem (talk) 18:45, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

The contours on the topo maps appear to put it between 2040 and 2060.

You might want to look at the DNR's lakefinder tool for some other information, and the GNIS entry which gives 2051' as the elevation. Kablammo (talk) 13:13, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

WP:MNSH needs your assistance

I've been trying to put together a guide detailing the various counties' usage of county road markers. Wikipedia:WikiProject Minnesota State Highways/County shield usage is it, but I don't have first-hand knowledge of most of them. Could members of this project help in filling in ones I don't have, or letting me know if anything I do have is in error?

Thanks! --Sable232 (talk) 19:47, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Hmong Wikipedia proposal

I'm trying to see if a Hmong Wikipedia could be started. Many Hmong settled in the twin cities area, so this topic may be of interest to this Wikiproject.

The proposal is at:

• meta:Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Hmong
  • A list of possible starter articles is at meta:User:WhisperToMe/ArticlestostartHmongWikipediawith

WhisperToMe (talk) 07:35, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

2010 Meetup

Discussion of another Minnesota Wikipedia meetup has begun. See the talk page here. --BenFranske (talk) 16:27, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Minnesota articles have been selected for the Wikipedia 0.8 release

Version 0.8 is a collection of Wikipedia articles selected by the Wikipedia 1.0 team for offline release on USB key, DVD and mobile phone. Articles were selected based on their assessed importance and quality, then article versions (revisionIDs) were chosen for trustworthiness (freedom from vandalism) using an adaptation of the WikiTrust algorithm.

We would like to ask you to review the Minnesota articles and revisionIDs we have chosen. Selected articles are marked with a diamond symbol (♦) to the right of each article, and this symbol links to the selected version of each article. If you believe we have included or excluded articles inappropriately, please contact us at Wikipedia talk:Version 0.8 with the details. You may wish to look at your WikiProject's articles with cleanup tags and try to improve any that need work; if you do, please give us the new revisionID at Wikipedia talk:Version 0.8. We would like to complete this consultation period by midnight UTC on Monday, October 11th.

We have greatly streamlined the process since the Version 0.7 release, so we aim to have the collection ready for distribution by the end of October, 2010. As a result, we are planning to distribute the collection much more widely, while continuing to work with groups such as One Laptop per Child and Wikipedia for Schools to extend the reach of Wikipedia worldwide. Please help us, with your WikiProject's feedback!

For the Wikipedia 1.0 editorial team, SelectionBot 23:20, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

WikiProject cleanup listing

I have created together with Smallman12q a toolserver tool that shows a weekly-updated list of cleanup categories for WikiProjects, that can be used as a replacement for WolterBot and this WikiProject is among those that are already included (because it is a member of Category:WolterBot cleanup listing subscriptions). See the tool's wiki page, this project's listing in one big table or by categories and the index of WikiProjects. Svick (talk) 20:11, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Invitation to help with WikiProject United States

Hello, WikiProject Minnesota! We are looking for editors to join WikiProject United States, an outreach effort which aims to support development of United States related articles in Wikipedia. We thought you might be interested, and hope that you will join us. Thanks!!!

--Kumioko (talk) 02:47, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

A consideration for cross project consolidation of talk page templates

I have started a conversation here about the possibility of combining some of the United States related WikiProject Banners into {{WikiProject United States}}. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please take a moment and let me know. --Kumioko (talk) 19:57, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

OK, but you shouldn't have added this so hastily: this project isn't part of Military History. —innotata 21:57, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

I messed up the comment. Am fixing it now. --Kumioko (talk) 22:06, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

An issue over sources: WP:RS and/or WP:OR

The recent article on the Salvation Army Headquarters (Saint Paul, Minnesota) was constructed using the files at the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) in the Minnesota History Center. Those of you who attended the recent Meet-up at the MHS probably remember the office. SHPO has files on many historic structures, including but limited to those on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). These files include the Minnesota Historic Properties Inventory Form (filled out by people at the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) in tracking down historic buildings), some of the applications to the NRHP (where applicable), old news clippings (if available), slides of photos taken by employees of MHS, letters from the National Park Service (as the gov't agency in charge of the NRHP), letters from the MHS, etc. For the article on the Salvation Army HQ, there is a dispute over three of the seven cited sources. These are:

1. A letter from the National Park Service to let parties know their official decision on a matter. The source is used to cite what the NPS did based on what it said it did.
2. A letter of the Minnesota Historical Society to HealthEast stating an offer to help analyze reuse of a building. The source was used to cite what the MHS offered to do at the time.
3. Photos, by a member of the MHS, of the demolition of the structure in the article. These photos were dated "Jan 98", and in tandem with a Pioneer Press article available in the file which was dated January 16, 1998 and stated the building was not demolished yet, made it possible to determine without any controversy that the building was demolished "later that month" (i.e. after the 16th).

Concerns have been voiced that these three sources violate WP:OR and possibly WP:RS. They are primary sources, however, under WP:Primary, "A primary source may only be used on Wikipedia to make straightforward, descriptive statements that any educated person, with access to the source but without specialist knowledge, will be able to verify are supported by the source." I feel that these sources, and how they are being used, fall into this exception. Additionally, these sources are reliable in that they are primary sources. The other editor feels that these are not reliable published sources, or that this content belongs on Wikipedia without citations to other sources. We have both agreed that we should get others to share their opinion and help sort out the solution. I thought this would be the best place to start. Please share your opinions. --Bobak (talk) 20:09, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

It's been suggested by an editor from WP:NRHP that we keep the discussion centralized to that talk page, so please refer to Talk:Salvation Army Headquarters (Saint Paul, Minnesota). --Bobak (talk) 07:47, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Meadowlands Park

The article Meadowlands Park has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

A search for references found only wiki mirrors, fails WP:N and WP:V

While all contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. The speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Jeepday (talk) 19:43, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

Collaboration with the Wine Project on Minnesota wine articles?

Hello! For 2011 the Wine Project is doing a new Wine Improvement Drive where each month we focus on an area of articles that relate to a particular theme. In January, we are are ringing in the New Year with New World wine, with a focus on the wines of the Northern Hemisphere-Canadian wine, American wine and Mexican wine. I am going by related projects to see if there is any interest in collaboration between this project and the wine project on the subject of
Some ideas could be help expanding important stubs such as the main Minnesota wine article, Alexandria Lakes AVA, Edelweiss (grape), Minnesota 78 as well creation of articles on some of Elmer Swenson's hybrid grapes produced for the Minnesota climate and often in conjunction with the University of Minnesota.Another idea would be creating articles on notable wineries such as Alexis Bailly Vineyard and Winery and Carlos Creek Winery. On a smaller scale, there are Minnesota wine related articles that could use some help with clean up or expanding beyond a stub such as the articles on Morgan Creek Vineyards (Minnesota) and Minnesota Grape Growers Association. And, of course, of HUGE help would be the upload of free use photos of Minnesota wineries, wines and wine regions to Commons that could be used to better illustrate Minnesota wine articles. If you're interested in helping, please drop a note at the Wine Project's talk page with the article you're interested in helping with. Thanks and have a great New Year! Agne^Cheese/^Wine 02:16, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Possibly unfree File:MNStateFairButterHead2005.jpg

Begin Short Rant-- I see the copyright trolls are out again. I'm significantly more aware of copyright issues than your average person, even probably more so than the average Wikipedia contributor. Copyright is a valuable tool when used correctly and with good intent. It drives me more than a little nuts that some people (and this seems to be especially true on Wikipedia) see copyright as a binary issue, things are either free and clear or they are not. The truth is (and this is something incredibly difficult for some people to understand) that the law is a very fuzzy thing, subject to lots of interpretations by lots of different people. This is especially true in copyright/IP law which is significantly derived from messy caselaw and varies regionally, even within the US. One of the most frustrating aspects from a contributor's standpoint is that we are held to such high and lofty standards here by these "copyright defenders" while commercial entities, whether World Book Encyclopedia in the 1960s or a commercial website today, would just take a post the information or photo without thinking twice about the copyright issue. A very real problem for us is trying to get permission for many of these things because it's very unclear who owns the copyright to so much stuff anyway! Take this specific example... The copyright might be held by the person being sculpted, the sculptor, the state fair, the state ag society or the state itself depending on how contracts are written. In my experience many of these ongoing traditions are very loose and based on a "handshake contract" if event that and don't deal with the copyright issues at all. Further complicating the issue for fair use are whether it is considered public display, permanent public display (as it is disposable) or private display. At the end of the day it is most likely that no one cares at all except these copyright defenders/trolls (which is why the commercial entities get away with just ignoring the copyright issue). How annoying! --End Rant

So can someone deal with this? File:MNStateFairButterHead2005.jpg, has been listed at Wikipedia:Possibly unfree files because its copyright status is unclear or disputed. If the file's copyright status cannot be verified, it may be deleted. You may find more information on the file description page. You are welcome to add comments to its entry at the discussion if you are interested in it not being deleted. --BenFranske (talk) 20:53, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Articles that need geocoding

If anyone is looking for something to do, there are over 1000 articles in Category:Minnesota articles missing geocoordinate data that could use some geocoding. I ran across one when I found that Sauk River (Minnesota) didn't have any coordinates. Actually, in the case of rivers, {{Geobox/type/river}} is probably more informative, since you can put in the source and the mouth of the river, as well as a bunch of other parameters.

Another cool thing about geocoding is that articles with coordinates show up in Google Maps and Google Earth, so people will get to find Wikipedia articles. --Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 17:38, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

US Collaboration reactivated & Portal:United States starting next

Casliber recently posted a suggestion on the talk page for WikiProject United States about getting the US Wikipedians Collaboration page going again in an effort to build up articles for GA through FA class. See Wikipedia:U.S. Wikipedians' notice board/USCOTM. After several days of work from him the page is up and ready for action. A few candidates have already been added for you to vote on or you can submit one using the directions provided. If you are looking for inspiration here is a link to the most commonly viewed articles currently under the scope of Wikiproject United States. There are tons of good articles in the various US related projects as well so feel free to submit any article relating to US topics (not just those under the scope of WPUS). This noticeboard is intended for ‘’’All’’’ editors working on US subjects, not just those under WPUS.

The next item I intend to start updating is Portal:United States if anyone is interested in helping. Again this is not specific to WPUS and any help would be greatly appreciated to maximize visibility of US topics. The foundation has already been established its just a matter of updating the content with some new images, biographies and articles. Please let leave a comment on the Portals talk page or let me know if you have any questions or ideas. --Kumioko (talk) 19:15, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Relationship with WikiProject United States

People from a variety of WikiProjects have had concerns about the scope of WikiProject United States and its relationship with other WikiProjects. We have created an RFC and invite all interested editors to discuss it at: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject United States#Mission statement for WikiProject United States. Thanks, Racepacket (talk) 15:33, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Adding "Popular pages" to U.S.-related projects

A very interesting tool of the Wikimedia Toolserver is called WikiProject Popular pages lists. These lists are similar to project-related article lists like U. S. article lists used for generating assessment statistics. The Popular pages lists include the rank, total views, average daily views, quality and importance ratings for the listed articles. Here is the full list of projects using popular pages lists. An FAQ also is available at User:Mr.Z-man/Popular pages FAQ.

I recently added links to lists of popular pages as shown below to the U.S. Portal - WikiProjects box and the nominations sections for each of the selected articles boxes.

---

Portal:United States/Projects/Popular pages

---

Because this project was not included, I am bringing up the popular pages tool here. This tool makes it very easy to track three of four balancing dimensions when selecting articles for showcasing at a portal - quality, importance and popularity. When tracking the fourth dimension, topic, the related article lists tool (such as for U.S. article lists tool) also might be useful by filtering on categories of interest.

If you do decide to use this tool, feel free to update Portal:United States/Projects/Popular pages as well.

Regards, RichardF (talk) 02:14, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

I think this would be a very useful tool, and anyways, why not? Minnecologies^t,c 15:12, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

Cool. Requests for inclusion are processed around the 25th of each month, so now would be a good time toput one in.  :-) RichardF (talk) 18:30, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

Just put the request in. I will wait with bated breath. Minnecologies^t,c 23:31, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

Featured portal candidate: United States

Portal:United States is a current featured portal candidate. Please feel free to leave comments. -- RichardF (talk) 02:14, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

Pageview stats

After a recent request, I added WikiProject Minnesota to the list of projects to compile monthly pageview stats for. The data is the same used by http://stats.grok.se/en/ but the program is different, and includes the aggregate views from all redirects to each page. The stats are at Wikipedia:WikiProject Minnesota/Popular pages.

The page will be updated monthly with new data. The edits aren't marked as bot edits, so they will show up in watchlists. You can view more results, request a new project be added to the list, or request a configuration change for this project using the toolserver tool. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know. Thanks! Mr.Z-man 00:57, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper

I've been trying to improve the page of Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, former astronaut. Maybe someone else can help. Gamweb (talk) 18:05, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

1916 Wabasha jail

1916 Wabasha jail

Please consider this a high-priority photo request. The 1916 Wabasha jail will be demolished before the end of this month. The Rochester Post-Bulletin had a front page article about it yesterday: "Old county jail has nearly a century of stories"

The only photo I have of the place is old and not very good. I am very busy this month and it will be difficult for me to get more before it's gone. Can anyone help? Jonathunder (talk) 16:36, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

Is that this: [2] I'll do my best to get down there if no one else can... RxS (talk) 21:54, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

Yes, that's the location. If you go, there's a lot of other stuff in Wabasha worth seeing. There's a lovely old Episcopal church around the corner from the jail. The National Eagle Center, downtown on the River, is worth a trip. And there are good restaurants, including Slippery's Tavern (of Grumpy Old Men fame) and a great bakery. Jonathunder (talk) 23:09, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

I'm not too far from there and off today, I could head up there this afternoon and grab some shots. Mazzmn (talk) 18:21, 7 July 2011 (UTC) Ok, I'm not sure what you had in mind for updated photos, but it was a nice day so I went out to grab a few shots...The blue sign on the front was laying on the porch. I have another wide shot of the front, but the trees were so big I had to shoot from a strong angle. I'm new to this so suggestions welcome (hmm forgot to take a geo coordinate, but I think my friend took a pic with his iphone so some shots were taken from 44.37966667,-92.02950000) Mazzmn (talk) 04:26, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

Help with scanning & uploading donated slide collection

A Minnesota college professor wants to donate a large professional quality image collection as part of his retirement. I suggested the [Wikimedia Commons and promised I'd deal with the logistics. The thing is the pictures are all on slides and neither he nor I have any experience converting slides to a digital format. He's still sorting the slides but there's about 2,500 to 3,000 images.

If anybody could give a hand with any stage of this project I'd be grateful. The pictures aren't about Minnesota, but since the physical slides are in Minnesota, I'd hoped somebody here could help. I'd hate to see these pictures lost when he retires. Cloveapple (talk) 20:52, 31 July 2011 (UTC)

Good article review of Tim Pawlenty

I have done a good article review of Governor Tim Pawlenty and am informing wikiprojects associated with the article so that improvements can be made to the article. Ryan Vesey Review me! 23:29, 3 August 2011 (UTC)

Help editing Wyoming, Stacy, Chisago City and Wyoming Township pages

Pardon my ignorance if this is not the correct place to post this. Wyoming Township, MN, was dissolved on 8/21/2008; it's territory became part of Stacy, Wyoming city and Chisago City MN. You can verify this on the 2010 census changes page at http://www.census.gov/geo/www/bndrychanges/changenotedisplay.php or on the City of Wyoming web site at http://www.wyomingmn.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={2E6E45DB-EB04-442A-878A-523C5FF32BCF} — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.72.1.183 (talk) 01:19, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Unassessed Minnesota articles

Hi. What am i supposed to do to improve the unassesed Minnesota articles? Legolover26 (talk) 17:22, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

List of colleges and universities in Minnesota

Hi there. If anyone is interested, I recently overhauled the List of colleges and universities in Minnesota, and have nominated it for a WP:FL. It would be great to receive feedback on it from Minnesotans especially. You can find the nomination page here. Thanks, Ruby comment! 22:02, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

Photos of New Ulm at Commons!

Lots more photos available, need categories. (BTW, checking "Cat-a-Lot" in your preferences makes categorization faster.)

• http://http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:National_Archives_and_Records_Administration/Categorize/US_National_Archives_series:_DOCUMERICA:_The_Environmental_Protection_Agency%27s_Program_to_Photographically_Document_Subjects_of_Environmental_Concern,_compiled_1972_-_1977 Djembayz (talk) 15:37, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

Minneapolis - St Paul Beltway

I recently discovered Talk:Minneapolis - St Paul Beltway, an orphaned talk page. It normally would qualify for speedy deletion, but it has enough content that it should be looked over by someone who (unlike me) is familiar enough with Minnesota highways to know what content would be useful. Please tag it with {{db-g8}} once you're done mining it for information or once you conclude that nothing of its content is needed. Nyttend (talk) 22:34, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

It's an effort at duplicating Interstate 494 and Interstate 694, which already have more information collectively. Imzadi 1979 → 22:40, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

Survey reading aid

I would very much appreciate it if anyone who has experience reading old surveys could tell me what arcane system for demarcating geographic regions this source is using when it gives the source and principle tributaries for the Poplar River on page 523. Thus far this is the only source I can find to actually name a lake as the river's source, and I'd very much like to be able to put a real name down instead of the coordinates, but I can't very well do that presently, as I have no idea what they mean.

Anybody seen them before? Norstrem (talk) 01:47, 8 November 2011 (UTC)

Winton, MN

Have a "Good for 25 cents in Trade" coin from The Face Bank Saloon in Winton, MN. Looking for any information on this history. Thank you. 99.149.118.131 (talk) 20:15, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

Photo request

Hi! For those of you in the Minneapolis area, near Fort Snelling/MSP Airport, I have a photo request:

• Delta Air Lines Bldg. C* 7500 Airline Drive Minneapolis, MN

If you take a photo of the building or the main entrance, please let me know Thank you, WhisperToMe (talk) 23:58, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

WikiWomen's History Month

Hi everyone. March is Women's History Month and I'm hoping a few folks here at WP:Minnesota will have interest in putting on events (on and off wiki) related to women's roles in Minnesota's history, society and culture. We've created an event page on English Wikipedia (please translate!) and I hope you'll find the inspiration to participate. These events can take place off wiki, like edit-a-thons, or on wiki, such as themes and translations. Please visit the page here: WikiWomen's History Month. Thanks for your consideration and I look forward to seeing events take place! SarahStierch (talk) 00:27, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

25 Feb event at Minneapolis Central Library

In November, a librarian from Hennepin County Library announced an event scheduled for 25 February at Minneapolis Central Library, see WT:Meetup/Minnesota. There haven't been any discussions and very few users appear to have noticed (I only just did). Can anybody get the word out, perhaps on talk pages and through a geolocated banner? (I'm wondering if this ought to be rescheduled so we can be sure of getting people aware on-wiki and of a number of regular editors being able to attend.) —innotata 19:02, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen and to everyone who attended. There was a writeup on the event at startribune.com. I was especially appreciative of the effort that went into creating the list of articles that could be created/improved using the library's resources. The topic list is reproduced below. Gobōnobo ^{+ c} 22:53, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Library's topic list

People Category:Minnesota politician stubs Category:People from Minneapolis, Minnesota Stanley R. Avery (stub) Carol Ryrie Brink (short) Gratia Countryman (short) Betty Crocker (and creator Marjorie Husted) W. Harry Davis (detailed) Donald M. Fraser (detailed) Joan Growe (Secretary of the State of MN) Dick Guindon (detailed) James J. Hill (detailed) Hubert Humphrey (detailed) Harry Wild Jones (detailed) Frank Kellogg (detailed) George E. Leach (short) Dimitri Mitropoulos (detailed) Walter Mondale (detailed) Arthur Naftalin (short) Bronko Nagurski (detailed) Cecil Newman (African American; founder, editor, publisher of Minneapolis Spokesman) Emil Oberhoffer (short) Anna Dickie Olesen Floyd B. Olson (detailed) Eiji Oue (short) Edwin Rawlings (detailed) Martha Ripley (physician) Maria Sanford (educator) John H. Stevens Henrik Shipstead (short) Brenda Ueland (detailed) Newton Horace Winchell (short) Theodore Wirth (short) Luther Youngdahl (short) Places Gateway District (Minneapolis) Lake of the Isles, Cedar Lake (Minnesota), Lake Calhoun Loring Park Nicollet Island Seward, Minneapolis (all neighborhoods and communities could be added to) Wonderland Amusement Park (Minneapolis) Events 1892 Republican National Convention Minneapolis Aquatennial Buildings Amazon Bookstore Cooperative Hennepin Center for the Arts (formerly Masonic Temple Building) Hospitals and medical centers (Abbott Northwestern Hospital and others) Lumber Exchange Building Minneapolis Auditorium Schools Edison High School (Minnesota) Roosevelt High School (Minneapolis) Topics without entries Ruth Boynton Myrtle Cain (elected to MN Legislature 1922) Emily Goodrich Grey Sue Dickey Hough (elected to MN Legislature 1922) Nellie Stone Johnson Hannah Kempfer (elected to MN Legislature 1922) Laura Naplin (first MN State Senator) Mabeth Hurd Paige (elected to MN Legislature 1922) Elizabeth Quinlan Clara Ueland Young-Quinlan Department Store

I've bolded the pages I know we worked on in this list. All the articles on the list can be well researched in the Minneapolis Collection, and I probably will work on some others on the list later. Otherwise, we also split Minneapolis Central Library from Minneapolis Public Library. This article could use a free photo of Central Library building standing from 1961–2000 (currently a fair use image provided by a librarian is used). Does anybody have any? (Amazon Bookstore Cooperative could also use a photo; the store was expected to close Monday, but a photo of the building from the next weeks might be suitable.) —innotata 18:15, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

I found a picture of Amazon, but I'm still working on getting pictures of the older locations or interior shots. Cloveapple (talk) 22:27, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Good. Here's another bit of coverage of the event, by the TC Daily Planet writer who dropped by —innotata 22:35, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Longville

I was wondering if I need to talk to anyone first before I do some editing on the Longville Minnesota page? It says at the top of the page that it has issues. My family has been going up there for years (as we have a cabin nearby on Town Line Lake) and I think that using my copy of the book that was published a couple of years ago on Longville, I can correct those issues. I would love to help out.

Sincerely-

Steve — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sdsigmund (talk • contribs) 20:25, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

I replied on your talk page. Mojoworker (talk) 19:00, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Greetings from GLAM-Wiki US

Invitation to join GLAM-Wiki US

tight Hello! This WikiProject aligns closely with the work of the GLAM-Wiki initiative (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums), a global community of volunteers who assist cultural institutions with sharing resources with Wikimedia. GLAM-Wiki US is a new community initiative focused on organizing cultural collaborations within the United States. GLAM organizations are diverse and span numerous topics, from libraries and art museums to science centers and historic sites. We currently have a backlog of interested institutions- and we need your help! Are you interested in helping with current or future GLAM projects? Join→ Online Volunteers We hope you'll join the growing GLAM-Wiki community in the US. Thank you! -Lori Phillips (Talk), US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator For more information visit→ The GLAM:US portal or GLAM-Wiki on Outreach

Park Rapids

Hello, for an English assignment a group I am in chose to try and make the Park Rapids articlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Rapids,_Minnesota closer to featured status. There is obviously a lot that needs to be done if the article were to gain featured status. I was looking for some feedback, how can the article be improved? where can reliable information be found? Any and all suggestions are welcome, thank you. Jcbfehr3 (talk) 06:06, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Hi Jcbfehr. I've provided some suggestions on the talk page. Cheers, Gobōnobo ^{+ c} 18:36, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

MNopedia

MNopedia, an online encyclopedia on Minnesota run by MNHS which was discussed at the meetup in 2010, has been up for a few months now. Most of the articles so far appear to be from books like Minnesota 150. It will probably make a good source for some articles already, and some of the content is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license, which can be reused in Wikipedia articles with a certain form of attribution. I suggest editors take a look, and tell the people who run it what you think—that's what they asked for at the meetup and in the announcements of the site. —innotata 00:26, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm glad to see this. Reusing the content over here with attribution is a great idea and will likely increase their web traffic. I might create an attribution template if they have lots of articles. I noticed that the pages that have a cc-by-sa license also have a "© Minnesota Historical Society" right next to it. Should we clarify the license before porting anything over? Gobōnobo ^{+ c} 21:43, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

Works that are under CC licenses (apart from public domain ones) have to be copyright, otherwise their copyright could not be released. (All rights reserved is what's contradictory.) Yes, a attribution template would be a good idea. —innotata 17:33, 21 April 2012 (UTC)

Importing an entire article and using only an attribution template to reflect provenance raises issues when later edits are made. It becomes difficult to see what came from where without a careful examination of the article history. We should instead use specific attribution to the source(s) used for each proposition for which a cite is appropriate. Kablammo (talk) 19:49, 21 April 2012 (UTC)

Park Rapids, Minnesota - Quality Scale Rating?

During the past few weeks, I made some edits to the Park Rapids, Minnesota page, and a couple of other people also made edits. I noticed that this page has not been given a quality scale rating yet. Could it possibly be reviewed and assigned one? (If there is some other place I should post this, please let me know.) Thanks. Elizmk7 (talk) 14:14, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

Hi Elizmk7. This is exactly the right place to post. I've reviewed the article and provided some suggestions. Thanks for your contributions! Gobōnobo ^{+ c} 18:23, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

Twin Cities Wiki

Hello all,

My name is Brian and despite my Wikipedia username, I live in the Twin Cities metro area. I am recruiting a group of co-founders to get a Localwiki started for the Twin Cities. A localwiki is essentially a hyperlocal wiki for a community or group of communities. Some great examples of what we envision are TriangeWiki, DentonWiki, and DavisWiki. The first two are built on the same free software platform we will be using.

We are in the very initial stages and would love to have you help us build the wiki from the start. We will be located at twincitieswiki.org. The software is not up yet, but we have started a blog. Please let me know if you are interested by either posting on here, posting on my talk page, or contacting us via the website.

I believe there are some great cross sharing opportunities between Wikipedia and Twin Cities Wiki (where all content licensing will be very similar to here). In addition to the group forming around Twin Cities Wiki, there is also a group of people discussing localwikis in general, let me know if you are interested in the group.

We very much look forward to any involvement and we are seeking out people to help us plan the wiki, write articles, advertise, fact check, etc. Please let us know your thoughts. Thanks for your time! --NDState 04:49, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

P.S. Sorry if this was not the most appropriate place to post this. I just see this as a great resource that we can build together and I wanted everyone here to be aware of it... so we can build this wiki together.