User talk:Parrot of Doom/Archives/2013/December

MBB

I just wondered if you knew there was a detailed section on the MBB in Bradshaw's guide here Richerman (talk) 17:27, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

I think I probably looked at that when expanding the article, but there are more modern, better sources available now. There have been a few working parties lately but I haven't been able to get down to any of them, they're always on the weekends and I'm almost always working on the weekends... Parrot of Doom 19:27, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Request for input

"There is a content dispute at Pink Floyd; your input there would be appreciated." GabeMc ^{(talk|contribs)} 21:46, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Library Survey

As a subscriber to one of The Wikipedia Library's programs, we'd like to hear your thoughts about future donations and project activities in this brief survey. Thanks and cheers, Ocaasi ^{t | c} 15:26, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

Merry Christmas

		Happy Holidays
		Wishing you and yours a Happy Holiday Season, from the horse and bishop person. May the year ahead be productive and troll-free. Ealdgyth - Talk 23:53, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Reverts on London-Manchester air race

I infer from your user page that your interest in this page is due to its Manchester connection, rather than a particular interest in aviation. The edits I made to the article were because the information is clearly wrong. Paulhan's first aircraft is fairly notable because it was probably the first flight use of the Gnome engine, and it was indisputably a Voisin. He flew it until the autumn of 1909, most notably at the Reims Grande Semaine d'Aviation.[1]. L'Aérophile [2] (Au Camp du Chalons) reports him taking delivery of a Farman & making taxying trials to familiarise himelf with the controls, which would be surprising if he had already flown one. I can't find any reference to his winning the Voisin airframe & do not have access at the moment to the book that I think I read it in, Taking Flight by Richard P. Hallion, but I really would not take anything I read in the cited book very seriously. It is essentially a picture book whose author is described on the back cover as an 'aviation enthusiast' and contains some other rather dubious statements.

As fot the other edits, OK. Grahame-White did (briefly) have a flight school at Pau as the DNB says: it's still (given its marginality to his career: as I said, there seem to be no contemporary mentions) not really appropriate in a potted biog. On the subject of which, I trimmed these because, as mentioned in the edit summary, they simply seemed too long. Is it, for instance, necessary to give all Paulhans Christian names?. There are full biogs of both men and imo the excessive length just slows the narrative .TheLongTone (talk) 20:21, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

Whether the information is correct or not I can't say, but you simply cannot make changes while not also updating the citations. That just leads to confusion and unreliability. Parrot of Doom 20:37, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

Leaving in unreliable information also contributes to confusion & unreliability, and moreover leads to misinformation being swiped from wikiedia, put up elsewhere & then being cited on wikipedia. And as an example of the above mentioned cited source's unreliability, there is something in it about both Farman and Voisin abandoning the use of wing warping in 1910, which is a huge howler because Voisin was notorious for his failure to incorporate any form of lateral control in his aircraft. I could go on, but won't, but anybody with any sort of knowledge of early aviation would not take this book seriously as a source.TheLongTone (talk) 21:03, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

I care not what people who don't understand Wikipedia's sourcing policies do with the articles we create. But I cannot allow you to make changes that add information not reflected by the sources that remain. If you have a problem with what the article says then by all means change it, but do so by providing new sources. Parrot of Doom 00:16, 24 December 2013 (UTC)

There are times I despair

[3] Is it humanly possible to keep any WP article up to spec without standing guard over it? Without being accused of ownership? Eric Corbett 19:06, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

I think the second claim might warrant a bit of investigation (local newspapers aren't known for being completely reliable) but I tend to take the view that it's important to revert to the status quo and then investigate. I know that upsets some people but to me, it's important to keep track of what is and isn't cited - and we can't really do that when changes like those I just reverted are left alone. Parrot of Doom 19:16, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

By the way, the crusties are out in force complaining about fracking tests around the back of Irlam, so there might be some traffic on its way to Chat Moss. Parrot of Doom 19:17, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

It's a pretty feeble claim though, and poorly sourced. I hadn't heard about fracking tests around Irlam, so that'll be interesting to watch. I was looking at the Chat Moss article earlier as part of my contribution to a discussion taking place at Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests. That was my first FA, and it was promoted exactly six years ago today. So Happy Anniversary to me. Eric Corbett 19:26, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

Protests. IIRC they're at the end of the road that goes past Barton Aerodrome, just over the other side of the motorway. I haven't been editing much of late, a combination of lots of work and a bit of brain fudge on how to proceed with that women burning article. Parrot of Doom 21:59, 31 December 2013 (UTC)