User talk:Coemgenus/archive2014-2

Notification

Since you commented at Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations#The State of GAC, I thought you might want to comment at Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations#Formal decision on nomination limit. Most people who commented on the initial discussion do not seem to be following this page, because the formal decision has gotten very few responses.--TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 21:48, 1 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject Good articles Future GAN Backlog Drive

Hello everyone! Hope you've all been having a great summer!

TheQ Editor recently proposed the idea of having another Backlog Drive in either September/October or November/December of this year. For those of you who have participated in the past two drives you know I was the one who organized them, however, come September, this will be my most important year in school so I will not be able to coordinate this drive (if it happens). TheQ Editor has volunteered to be a coordinator for the drive. If any of you would like to co-coordinator, please notify TheQ Editor on his talk page.

If you would be interested in participating in a Backlog Drive sometime before the end of this year, please notify TheQ Editor. Also, make sure to specify what month(s) work best for you.

At the time this message was sent out, the backlog was at 520 nominations. Since May, the backlog has been steadily increasing and we are currently near an all time high. Even though the backlog will not disappear over one drive, this drive can lead to several others which will (hopefully) lead to the day where there is no longer a backlog.

As always, the more participants, the better, and everyone is encouraged to participate!

Sent by Dom497--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:52, 16 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Grant

Just so you know, I am not ignoring your talk page question. All I wish to express, is if someone thinks it is worthwhile to do, go for it and good luck. I will hopefully be able to lend some support around the edges. Alanscottwalker (talk) 15:35, 21 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I'm a little sick of that talk page, myself. --Coemgenus (talk) 16:29, 21 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hayes Cabinet image

Fair enough, understood. Would there be any place in the article for this image?-Godot13 (talk) 04:43, 28 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In terms of space, yes, maybe in "Post-war finances". I'm not sure it really adds anything, though. We already have his signature in the infobox. --Coemgenus (talk) 12:23, 28 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

GA Cup

Hello everyone! We hope you have all been having a great summer!

As we all know, the recent GAN Backlog Drives have not had any big impact on the backlog. Because of that, me (Dom497), Figureskatingfan, and TheQ Editor have worked on an idea that could possibly finally put a dent into the massive backlog. Now, I will admit, the idea isn't entirely ours as we have took the general idea of the WikiCup and brought it over to WikiProject Good Articles. But anyways, here's what we have in mind:

For all of you that do not know what the WikiCup is, it is an annual competition between several editors to see who can get the most Good Articles, Featured Article's, Did You Know's, etc. Based of this, we propose to you the GA Cup. This competition will only focus on reviewing Good articles.

For more info on the proposal, click here. As a FYI, the proposal page is not what the final product will look like (if you do go ahead with this idea). It will look very similar to WikiCup's page(s).

The discussion for the proposal will take place here. Please let us know if you are interested, have any concerns, things to consider, etc.

--Dom497, Figureskatingfan, and TheQ Editor

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:28, 31 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2014 August newsletter

The final of the 2014 WikiCup begins in a few short minutes! Our eight finalists are listed below, along with their placement in Round 4:

Godot13 (submissions), a WikiCup newcomer, finished top of Pool A and was the round's highest scorer. Godot is a featured picture specialist, claiming large numbers of points due to high-quality scans of historical documents, especially banknotes.
Casliber (submissions) is a WikiCup veteran, having been a finalist every year since 2010. In the semi-final, he was Pool B's highest scorer. Cas's points primarily come from articles on the natural sciences.
Czar (submissions) was Pool A's runner-up. Czar's points come mostly from content related to independent video games, including both articles and topics.
Adam Cuerden (submissions) was Pool B's runner-up. Another featured picture specialist, many of Adam's points come from the restoration of historical media. He has been a WikiCup finalist twice before.
Cwmhiraeth (submissions) won the WikiCup in 2012 and 2013, and enters this final as the first wildcard. She focuses on biology-related articles, and has worked on several high-importance articles.
12george1 (submissions) is the second wildcard. George's points come primarily from meteorology-related articles. This year and last year, George was the first person in the competition to score.
Sturmvogel 66 (submissions), the third wildcard, was the 2010 champion and a finalist last year. His writes mostly on military history, especially naval history.
Bloom6132 (submissions), the fourth and final wildcard, has participated in previous WikiCups, but not reached any finals. Bloom's points are mostly thanks to did you knows, featured lists and good articles related to sport and national symbols.

We say goodbye to this year's semi-finalists. Matty.007 (submissions), ThaddeusB (submissions), WikiRedactor (submissions), Figureskatingfan (submissions), Yellow Evan (submissions), Prism (submissions) and Cloudz679 (submissions) have all performed well to reach this stage of the competition, and we hope they will all be joining us again next year.

There are two upcoming competitions unrelated to the WikiCup which may be of interest to those who receive this newsletter. The Stub Contest will run through September, and revolves around expanding stub articles, especially high-importance or old stubs. In addition, a proposal has been made for a new competition, the GA Cup, which the organisers plan to run next year. This competition is based on the WikiCup and aims to reduce the good article review backlog.

There is now a thread for brainstorming on how next year's WikiCup competition should work. Please come along and share your thoughts- What works? What doesn't work? What needs changing? Signups for next year's competition will be open soon; we will be in touch. If, at this stage of the competition, you are keen to help the with the WikiCup, please do what you can to participate in review processes. Our finalists will find things much easier if the backlogs at good article candidates, featured article candidates, featured picture candidates and the rest are kept at a minimum. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk · contribs) The ed17 (talk · contribs) and Miyagawa (talk · contribs) 22:09, 31 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Precious again

US presidents
Thank you for quality articles on US presidents, such as William McKinley, and on history, such as 68th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and for fighting "useless verbiage", - you are an awesome Wikipedian!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:39, 14 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Two years ago, you were the 244th recipient of my Pumpkin Sky Prize, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 18:33, 14 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject Good Articles - GA Cup

WikiProject Good Articles's 2014-15 GA Cup

WikiProject Good articles is holding a new competition, the GA Cup, from October 1, 2014 - March 28, 2015. The Cup will be based on reviewing Good article nominations; for each review, points will be awarded with bonuses for older nominations, longer articles and comprehensive reviews. All participants will start off in one group and the highest scoring participants will go through to the second round. At the moment six rounds are planned, but this may change based on participant numbers.

Some of you may ask: what is the purpose for a competition of this type? Currently, there is a backlog of about 500 unreviewed Good article nominations, almost an all time high. It is our hope that we can decrease the backlog in a fun way, through friendly competition.

Everyone is welcome to join; new and old editors! Sign-ups will be open until October 15, 2014 so sign-up now!

If you have any questions, take a look at the FAQ page and/or contact one of the four judges.

Cheers from NickGibson3900, Dom497, TheQ Editor and Figureskatingfan.

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:04, 15 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

To receive future GA Cup newsletter, please add your name to our mailing list.

Andrew Jackson

Hello Coemgenus. I was wondering if you could help improve or review the Andrew Jackson article. I have been working on and expanding the Presidency section. There may be some repetitive information. I have tried to arrange the events as chronological as possible. Improvement in narration may be required. Any help would be welcome. Thanks. Cmguy777 (talk) 15:55, 27 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It's not really my area of expertise, but I wish you the best of luck. There's plenty of room for improvement there. --Coemgenus (talk) 16:18, 27 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2014 September newsletter

In one month's time, we will know our WikiCup 2014 champion. Newcomer Godot13 (submissions) has taken a strong lead with a featured list (historical coats of arms of the U.S. states from 1876) and a raft of featured pictures. Reigning champion Cwmhiraeth (submissions) is in second place with a number of high-importance biology articles, including new FA Isopoda and new GA least weasel. Casliber (submissions), who is in his fifth WikiCup final, is in third, with featured articles Pictor and Epacris impressa.

Signups for the 2015 WikiCup are open. All Wikipedians, new and experienced, are warmly invited to sign up for the competition. Wikipedians interested in friendly competition may also like to sign up for the GA Cup, a new WikiCup-inspired competition which revolves around completing good article reviews. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk · contribs) The ed17 (talk · contribs) and Miyagawa (talk · contribs) 22:11, 30 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Ulysses S. Grant

Just wanted to thank you for all your work towards the A-level image review. Adam Cuerden ^(talk) 21:11, 2 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

And thank you for the image review. Images are a weak spot for me, so I'm glad for the guidance. Should finish up the rest of your recommendations soon. --Coemgenus (talk) 21:58, 2 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

What do you think of File:Brady-Handy_-_Ulysses_S._Grant.jpg? It's an 80%-done restoration I stopped because Cmguy777 kept removing it from the article, and I didn't want to spend more time on a restoration if it wasn't going to be used anywhere. The current lead image is appallingly damaged at full resolution, as in, would literally take months, and... it's not a particularly great of an image of Grant, so I can't see the extra time spent on it as being well-spent. Adam Cuerden ^(talk) 00:23, 3 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It's fine, and in better condition than what's there now. It's too bad the current image is damaged, though. It captures something of the man, I think. --Coemgenus (talk) 11:01, 3 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I've never seen a picture of Grant without a fair bit of sadness, at least in his eyes. Adam Cuerden ^(talk) 23:49, 3 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, exactly. --Coemgenus (talk) 01:01, 4 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

By the way... One good way to keep attention on an article is featured pictures - another go on the main page never hurts anything, right? I've set a goal of 25 new ACW featured by the end of the 150th anniversary (currently at five). So... of the Grant images the possibles are:

Probably about half-way there already, but it's printed on vellum, and has issues at the edges that'll be slow to work through. Also, probably would focus on, well, Shiloh when it's on the main page. By the way, ever hear of - what was it called - Angel glow or something of the like? Bioluminescent microorganism that couldn't really infect human tissue - hypothermia'd let it infect, but it'd go away the moment you warmed up - but COULD kill all other microbes. Soldiers at Shiloh infected with it had a far better survival rate. It's neat!
Though this'd be a nightmare in some ways. For fairly good reasons, I've always said you shouldn't cut text out of lithographs and the like. They're part of the intent, after all. However The image on this looks great, the text... is incredibly damaged. It is so damn annoying to spend more time on borders than the image itself, and this image is so likely to come in that category.
Though there's actually a lot of possibly-better options. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ds.00298/ is my favourite - though probably a little too tangental - there's similar contemporary photos as well. Kurz & Allison are always artistically pretty good, but have a lot of artistic license - but then, so does ours. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.21091/ is the most immediate, by Alfred Waud; perhaps http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.21091/ Or, if you want a strong Grant connection in place (though not time), http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/det.4a09499/ is good. A crack, but that's fixable.
Probably fully doable.

There are two FPs already, of course. And there's a few other possibles. We can probably ignore any artistic work that isn't in some way "special" so, for example, we can ignore http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/pga.00723/ as redundant to photographs.

That still leaves us a few:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.35236/ is a fairly good image of him in full uniform. It's also the happiest I've ever seen him look in a photo.
If you wanted a photo of his staff, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.34085/ or http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.34086/ would be good ( http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.34084/ has a crack, and is zoomed out more - probably not as good). Problem: The two suggestions are a year apart and show changes to staff. Also, no labels. If you prefer him and his staff looking like Zombies (but labelled), try http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/96514371/resource/ [I'd suggest not]

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/cwp2003005507/PP/resource/ is Grant and John Aaron Rawlins. It's a good pic at small size; I could see terrors when I got it full-size though. Something is really weird about that framing. Maybe it'll be alright...

I've focused on the pictures about Grant himself, pretty much - Hamilton Fish or Ward Hunt - or most of his cabinet are certainly doable, but I've presumed those are a little too off-topic for this. Also, Frederick Dent Grant seems particularly easy to get photos of. I like http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c23565/ Adam Cuerden ^(talk) 01:09, 4 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The one of him at City Point leaning against a tree is my favorite. I'd like to work that into the article, if we can do it without forcing it. --Coemgenus (talk) 01:16, 4 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I could see it replacing the one of him and his son Jesse, in fact. --Coemgenus (talk) 01:17, 4 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup award

WikiCup 2014: The results

The 2014 WikiCup champion is Godot13 (submissions), who flew the flag of the Smithsonian Institution. This was Godot13's first WikiCup competition and, over the 10 months of the competition, he has produced (among other contributions) two featured lists and an incredible 292 featured pictures, including architectural photographs and scans of historical documents. Cwmhiraeth (submissions), 2012 and 2013 WikiCup champion, came in second, having written a large number of biology-related articles. Casliber (submissions), WikiCup finalist every year since 2010, finished in third.

A full list of our prize-winners follows:

Godot13 (submissions) wins the prize for first place and the FP prize for 181 featured pictures in the final round.
Cwmhiraeth (submissions) wins the prize for second place and the DYK prize for 65 did you knows in the final round.
Casliber (submissions) wins the prize for third place and the FA prize for four featured articles in the final round.
Czar (submissions) wins the prize for fourth place
Sturmvogel 66 (submissions) wins a final 8 prize.
Bloom6132 (submissions) wins a final 8 prize.
12george1 (submissions) wins a final 8 prize.
ChrisGualtieri (submissions) wins the GA prize for 27 good articles in round 2 and the review prize for 28 good article reviews in round 1.
Caponer (submissions) wins the FL prize for three featured lists in round 2.
Sven Manguard (submissions) wins the FPo prize his work on featured portals.
Figureskatingfan (submissions) wins the topic prize for a nine-article featured topic in round 3.
ThaddeusB (submissions) wins the news prize for 28 in the news articles in round 3.

Congratulations to everyone who has been successful in this year's WikiCup, whether you made it to the final rounds or not, and a particular congratulations to the newcomers to the WikiCup who have participated this year. We warmly invite all of you to sign up for next year's competition. Discussions and polls concerning potential rules changes are also open, and all are welcome to participate. The WikiCup judges will be back in touch over the coming months, and we hope to see you all in the 2014 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk · contribs) The ed17 (talk · contribs) and Miyagawa (talk · contribs) 22:51, 4 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Your GA nomination of James B. Weaver

Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article James B. Weaver you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Sarnold17 -- Sarnold17 (talk) 02:40, 18 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I've finished with the GA review for this article, which can be found at Talk:James B. Weaver/GA1. Sarnold17 (talk) 16:22, 20 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Your GA nomination of James B. Weaver

The article James B. Weaver you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:James B. Weaver for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Sarnold17 -- Sarnold17 (talk) 17:42, 22 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

DYK for James B. Weaver

On 2 December 2014, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article James B. Weaver, which you recently created or substantially expanded. The fact was ... that James B. Weaver ran for President of the United States as a Greenbacker in 1880 and as a Populist in 1892? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/James B. Weaver. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, live views, daily totals), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

— Crisco 1492 (talk) 18:29, 2 December 2014 (UTC) [reply]

WikiCup 2015 is just around the corner...

Hello everyone, and may we wish you all a happy holiday season. As you will probably already know, the 2015 WikiCup begins in the new year; there is still time to sign up. We have a few important announcements concerning the future of the WikiCup.

We would like to announce that Josh (J Milburn) and Ed (The ed17), who have been WikiCup judges since 2009 and 2010 respectively, are stepping down. This decision has been made for a number of reasons, but the main one is time. Both Josh and Ed have found that, over the previous year, they have been unable to devote the time necessary to the WikiCup, and it is not likely that they will be able to do this in the near future. Furthermore, new people at the helm can only help to invigorate the WikiCup and keep it dynamic. Josh and Ed will still be around, and will likely be participating in the Cup this following year as competitors, which is where both started out.
In a similar vein, we hope you will all join us in welcoming Jason (Sturmvogel 66) and Christine (Figureskatingfan), who are joining Brian (Miyagawa) to form the 2015 WikiCup judging team. Jason is a WikiCup veteran, having won in 2010 and finishing in fifth this year. Christine has participated in two WikiCups, reaching the semi-finals in both, and is responsible for the GA Cup, which she now co-runs.
The discussions/polls concerning the next competition's rules will be closed soon, and rules changes will be made clear on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Scoring and talk pages. While it may be impossible to please everyone, the judges will make every effort to ensure that the new rules are both fair and in the best interests of the competition, which is, first and foremost, about improving Wikipedia.

If you have any questions or concerns, the judges can be reached on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, on their talk pages, or by email. We hope you will all join us in trying to make the 2015 WikiCup the most productive and enjoyable yet. You are receiving this message because you are listed on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk), The ed17 (talk), Miyagawa (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk) and Figureskatingfan (talk) 18:53, 7 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the review!

Thanks for the review of David Hudson - much appreciated. Pretty excited to get my first GA promotion. Cheers, ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 21:06, 13 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

James B. Weaver

Well, the simplest thing would be to rescan the ones taken from books. That'll likely be easier for an American to do. I can probably improve File:James_Weaver_-_Brady-Handy.jpg and File:1892PopulistPoster.png to FP.

File:Lt. James B. Weaver.png, File:Weaver_1878.png, and File:James and Clara Weaver 1908.png are misattributed. Frederick Emory Haynes is the book's author, and wrote the book over forty years after the later of the two photographs. So you probably need Haynes' book in order to fix that issue anyway. Since all three of the worst photos come from that single book, and the rest aren't that bad, fixing that issue is probably the quickest way to improve things.

A 1919 copy of this book is available for $9 + shipping. Get this copy, as the others on that site are print on demand or ebooks, which could be really, really crappy (and usually are). If you need someone to handle scanning it, I will do it if you don't have someone trustworthy, and I suppose I could fit that book into my Wikipedia budget for next month. Adam Cuerden ^(talk) 16:43, 19 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]