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Archive 1Archive 2Archive 3Archive 4

WP Signpost on FAC and FAR/C reviewing - REVIEWERS NEEDED

The Featured Article and Reatured Article Review processes have put out a call for reviewers. Any editor can review an article and contribute to consensus on whether that article is of FA status. WikiProject Texas has almost 30 FAs right now, and if we'd like to continue adding to that number it might be wise to give back and help review at FAC. This week's Signpost Dispatch, located at Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2008-04-07/Dispatches, explains the advantages of being a reviewer and details the aspects of reviewing that are critical to maintaining WP's high standards. Hope to see some new faces at FAC or FAR soon! Karanacs (talk) 14:45, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Wikimedia Chapter proposal: Wikimedia Texas

I wonder if anyone is interested in creating a Wikimedia chapter serving the state of Texas. See: meta:Talk:Wikimedia_chapters#Chapter_proposal_-_Wikimedia_Texas WhisperToMe (talk) 23:14, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Mont Belvieu, Texas - Is it really partially in Liberty Co.?

The article for Mont Belvieu, Texas says it is partially in Liberty County but the maps I see stop at the county line. Is it really partially in Liberty County? WhisperToMe (talk) 06:44, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

I believe Mont Belvieu, TX is fully within Liberty County. None of that city crosses the official county line into Harris County. Paulsuckow (talk) 17:23, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Include FL in assessments

I noticed that the table at the top of the Texas Assessment categories includes a redlinked category for Featured list status. I have no idea how to modify the templates. Could someone with more experience modify the template and the assessment dashboard so that we can start categorizing our Featured lists? I know there are several, and it would be nice to see those broken out. Karanacs (talk) 13:56, 8 May 2008 (UTC) I figured out the steps for doing this. FL is now a valid category in the assessments. Karanacs (talk) 15:11, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Texas Barnstar

In an effort to recognize those who have contributed much to WikiProject Texas, and in an effort spur on further work, I have created the WikiProject Texas Award, or Texas Barnstar:

and have awarded the first one to the remaining editor who helped create the project, Cyrius. Paxsimius (talk) 03:36, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

The Politics

Can anyone in Texas comment on the notability of this band, currently nominated for deletion? Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 06:33, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

DFW Meetup

If anyone in the Dallas area is interested in meeting up with others, please visit Wikipedia:Meetup/Dallas-Fort Worth. Basketball110 My story/Tell me yours 00:01, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Election result templates

Is there any reason why the contents of Category:Texas election result templates are templates? As far as I can tell, they are each transcluded into only a single article, so there's no need for them to be templates - the tables could just be embedded in the relevant articles. DH85868993 (talk) 02:38, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Articles flagged for cleanup

Currently, 2339 articles assigned to this project, or 16.1%, are flagged for cleanup of some sort. (Data as of 18 June 2008.) Are you interested in finding out more? I am offering to generate cleanup to-do lists on a project or work group level. See User:B. Wolterding/Cleanup listings for details. If you want to respond to this canned message, please do so at my user talk page. --B. Wolterding (talk) 12:05, 25 June 2008 (UTC)

Changes to the WP:1.0 assessment scheme

As you may have heard, we at the Wikipedia 1.0 Editorial Team recently made some changes to the assessment scale, including the addition of a new level. The new description is available at WP:ASSESS.

  • The new C-Class represents articles that are beyond the basic Start-Class, but which need additional references or cleanup to meet the standards for B-Class.
  • The criteria for B-Class have been tightened up with the addition of a rubric, and are now more in line with the stricter standards already used at some projects.
  • A-Class article reviews will now need more than one person, as described here.

Each WikiProject should already have a new C-Class category at Category:C-Class_articles. If your project elects not to use the new level, you can simply delete your WikiProject's C-Class category and clarify any amendments on your project's assessment/discussion pages. The bot is already finding and listing C-Class articles.

Please leave a message with us if you have any queries regarding the introduction of the revised scheme. This scheme should allow the team to start producing offline selections for your project and the wider community within the next year. Thanks for using the Wikipedia 1.0 scheme! For the 1.0 Editorial Team, §hepBot (Disable) 21:25, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

What does everyone think about adding in the C class assessment? If there is consensus, we can implement it here and begin assessing new articles toward that criteria; otherwise we can continue using the B/start assessments on their own. Karanacs (talk) 14:10, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Wimberley

Hey! I was thinking about making a recreation in Wimberley, Tx article.anyone from around there or have any objections? ☃Wyatt915✍ 19:59, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Greetings from Oregon

Howdy y'all (did I get that right?) I just created a new category, Category:U.S. state legislative sessions. Trying to get a sense of where various states are in documenting specific sessions. Looks like you guys are pretty on top of it (which makes sense, I've been told everything's big in Texas.)

In order to make the national category work better, I created another new one: Category:Texas legislative sessions. I started by moving the first two sessions into the new category, but thought I'd check in here before doing anything more. Any feedback welcome, and I look forward to taking a closer look at the work you've done, as I work on the Oregon stuff... -Pete (talk) 00:46, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Texas 24th map wrong

The map on the page for the Texas 24th Congressional District labels Denton County as Collin County. I don't know how to correct and I'm hoping someone will. Dunaja (talk) 23:47, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia 0.7 articles have been selected for Texas

Wikipedia 0.7 is a collection of English Wikipedia articles due to be released on DVD, and available for free download, later this year. The Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team has made an automated selection of articles for Version 0.7.

We would like to ask you to review the articles selected from this project. These were chosen from the articles with this project's talk page tag, based on the rated importance and quality. If there are any specific articles that should be removed, please let us know at Wikipedia talk:Version 0.7. You can also nominate additional articles for release, following the procedure at Wikipedia:Release Version Nominations.

A list of selected articles with cleanup tags, sorted by project, is available. The list is automatically updated each hour when it is loaded. Please try to fix any urgent problems in the selected articles. A team of copyeditors has agreed to help with copyediting requests, although you should try to fix simple issues on your own if possible.

We would also appreciate your help in identifying the version of each article that you think we should use, to help avoid vandalism or POV issues. These versions can be recorded at this project's subpage of User:SelectionBot/0.7. We are planning to release the selection for the holiday season, so we ask you to select the revisions before October 20. At that time, we will use an automatic process to identify which version of each article to release, if no version has been manually selected. Thanks! For the Wikipedia 1.0 Editorial team, SelectionBot 22:43, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

GA Reassessment for Geography of Texas

Just a note to let the project know that Geography of Texas has been placed on hold following its GA Sweeps Review, which can be found here. --Malleus Fatuorum (talk) 15:56, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Peer review for Battle of the Alamo

I've initiated a peer review for Battle of the Alamo. I am especially interested in making sure that the current structure makes sense, that it flows well, and that the article is neutral. I welcome any comments. Karanacs (talk) 14:43, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

Peer review Texas

Texas just got promoted to GA, is now on a FA run, and it would be nice to have all the input we can get in our peer review. Thanks for the help. Oldag07 (talk) 15:31, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Barnstar

I have no talent in creating barnstars. Would anyone be willing to create one specifically for this WikiProject? Thanks! Karanacs (talk) 16:50, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

If I were doing it I would start with the official seal or State Seal of Texas then change the letters, maybe "WikiProject Texas" instead of "The State of Texas" and an "Original Barnstar" in the middle instead of the simple Texas star. I would use the black-and-white version of the seal but color for Wikipedia-specific elements. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 21:57, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

Texas articles needing geographic coordinates

220 articles in Category:Texas articles missing geocoordinate data do not have geographic coordinates. Coords are useful for making the article appear on Google Maps & many other mapping services; and they allow our users to click through to see the article subject location on a map. There's a short guide to on how to add geocodes to articles ... it really is very easy to do. I hope you'll take some time to ensure that Texas is as well represented as it can be on wikipedia by fixing up the listed articles. thanks --Tagishsimon (talk) 00:48, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Colorado Texas Tomato War

I can't find where you put requests for new articles, but there needs to be one on the Colorado Texas Tomato War. Chris (クリス • フィッチ) (talk) 00:09, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

The what? Draft one as User:Kintetsubuffalo/Colorado Texas Tomato War and solicit help here. When it's up to at least start-class, move it over to Colorado Texas Tomato War. If it's notable, it should make an interesting Did you know?. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 01:54, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Regions of Texas?

Howdy'all! (Nice job on the waving flag background, btw.) I'm a member of the stub sorting project, which is coordinating the creation of stub templates for the geography of Texas. We're going to create a template for each and every county BUT we have run into some confusion as to how to group the counties (this is necessary to break the huge category down into less-than-Texas-sized subcats). I've checked the websites for the Texas Association of Counties, the Texas Association of Regional Councils, for individual county governments, and the Handbook of Texas online. (As well as the Wikipedia articles on various regions and counties.) Can anyone tell me whether there is indeed some kind of consensus as to how the counties are grouped? If not, we'll just have to punt... Thanks in advance! Her Pegship (tis herself) 19:06, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

I've never seen Texas counties separated into groups other than alphabetical. The List of counties in Texas does not have any grouping. Though if this is for geography the "7 geographical regions of Texas" would probably be a good start. TPWD, last map on the page. More details 67.11.71.176 (talk) 08:18, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Nominated Gulfton, Houston for featured article status

I nominated Gulfton, Houston for featured article status - I want to see if I can make a Houston neighborhood make FA. If anyone is interested, please help it make FA :) WhisperToMe (talk) 19:10, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Interesting, but consider withdrawing the nomination until we've got it up to a point where we ourselves think it's already at the FA level. That way, it's sure to pass. If you think it's already a slam dunk, they ignore my advice :). I've got a lot on my Wiki-plate at the moment or I'd jump in and review this myself. After all, when a doctorial student defends his dissertation, he doesn't do it until he knows he'll pass. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 06:04, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Copyediting Texas page

I have divided the Texas page into 6 parts. Hopefully with more manageable chunks, people will be more willing to copy edit the page. would you be willing to copy edit one section of the Texas page?

Talk:Texas#Copyedit_plan Oldag07 (talk) 18:29, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

A-Class review for USS Texas (BB-35) now open

The A-Class review for USS Texas (BB-35) is now open; all editors are invited to participate, and any input there would be appreciated! Thanks! -MBK004 06:03, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Coordinators' working group

Hi! I'd like to draw your attention to the new WikiProject coordinators' working group, an effort to bring both official and unofficial WikiProject coordinators together so that the projects can more easily develop consensus and collaborate. This group has been created after discussion regarding possible changes to the A-Class review system, and that may be one of the first things discussed by interested coordinators.

All designated project coordinators are invited to join this working group. If your project hasn't formally designated any editors as coordinators, but you are someone who regularly deals with coordination tasks in the project, please feel free to join as well. §hepTalk 00:25, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Article alerts

This is a notice to let you know about Article alerts, a fully-automated subscription-based news delivery system designed to notify WikiProjects and Taskforces when articles are entering Articles for deletion, Requests for comment, Peer review and other workflows (full list). The reports are updated on a daily basis, and provide brief summaries of what happened, with relevant links to discussion or results when possible. A certain degree of customization is available; WikiProjects and Taskforces can choose which workflows to include, have individual reports generated for each workflow, have deletion discussion transcluded on the reports, and so on. An example of a customized report can be found here.

If you are already subscribed to Article Alerts, it is now easier to report bugs and request new features. We are also in the process of implementing a "news system", which would let projects know about ongoing discussions on a wikipedia-wide level, and other things of interest. The developers also note that some subscribing WikiProjects and Taskforces use the display=none parameter, but forget to give a link to their alert page. Your alert page should be located at "Wikipedia:PROJECT-OR-TASKFORCE-HOMEPAGE/Article alerts". Questions and feedback should be left at Wikipedia talk:Article alerts.

Message sent by User:Addbot to all active wiki projects per request, Comments on the message and bot are welcome here.

Thanks. — Headbomb {ταλκκοντριβς – WP Physics} 09:45, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Area code maps

They are out of date, New Mexico is no longer just 505. Zurqoxn (talk) 14:14, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Should neighborhoods have their own articles?

I've started a discussion at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Houston#List_of_Houston_neighborhoods that may be of interest to WP:Texas members too. I'd like to know when a neighborhood should have its own article, and when those individual articles should be merged into a list. All comments are welcome. Karanacs (talk) 14:40, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Area code maps

Why was was my previous comment moved to the archive? The issue has still not been fixed, the maps are still out of date. Zurqoxn (talk) 13:28, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Picture request: San Antonio Mexican consulate

I would love for someone to photograph the Mexican Consulate in San Antonio, located at 127 Navarro http://portal.sre.gob.mx/sanantonio/ WhisperToMe (talk) 05:24, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Does your WikiProject care about talk pages of redirects?

Does your project care about what happens to the talk pages of articles that have been replaced with redirects? If so, please provide your input at User:Mikaey/Request for Input/ListasBot 3. Thanks, Matt (talk) 02:25, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

A. J. Foyt

User:Erika39 has controversially moved the article to Anthony Joseph Foyt. I have decided to dispute the move per WP:COMMONNAME. Please comment with your opinion about the name for his article at Talk:Anthony Joseph Foyt. Royalbroil 12:06, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

GA Sweeps invitation

This message is being sent to WikiProjects with GAs under their scope. Since August 2007, WikiProject Good Articles has been participating in GA sweeps. The process helps to ensure that articles that have passed a nomination before that date meet the GA criteria. After nearly two years, the running total has just passed the 50% mark. In order to expediate the reviewing, several changes have been made to the process. A new worklist has been created, detailing which articles are left to review. Instead of reviewing by topic, editors can consider picking and choosing whichever articles they are interested in.

We are always looking for new members to assist with reviewing the remaining articles, and since this project has GAs under its scope, it would be beneficial if any of its members could review a few articles (perhaps your project's articles). Your project's members are likely to be more knowledgeable about your topic GAs then an outside reviewer. As a result, reviewing your project's articles would improve the quality of the review in ensuring that the article meets your project's concerns on sourcing, content, and guidelines. However, members can also review any other article in the worklist to ensure it meets the GA criteria.

If any members are interested, please visit the GA sweeps page for further details and instructions in initiating a review. If you'd like to join the process, please add your name to the running total page. In addition, for every member that reviews 100 articles from the worklist or has a significant impact on the process, s/he will get an award when they reach that threshold. With ~1,300 articles left to review, we would appreciate any editors that could contribute in helping to uphold the quality of GAs. If you have any questions about the process, reviewing, or need help with a particular article, please contact me or OhanaUnited and we'll be happy to help. --Happy editing! Nehrams2020 (talk • contrib) 06:55, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Age of Bobby Hill

There's a conversation going on here about Bobby Hill's age. One line of thinking says that he ages on the same timeline as the "read world" which would say that he's 23 even though he's still in middle school. The other line of thinking says that time moves more slowly in the King of the Hill world and he's ~14 (because he had his 14th birthday in a recent episode). OlYellerTalktome 01:03, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

I posted this here as the article is part of the Texas Wikiproject. I imagine this would be of very low importance to the project's members but I didn't think it would hurt to ask. OlYellerTalktome 01:11, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Waxahachie photos?

Hey all. I've worked on the Tender Mercies article and, after I finish the Themes section, I'm going to nominate it for FA. One thing the article could really use is a photo of Waxahachie, Texas, where most of the movie was filmed. However, most of the photos available of Waxahachie emphasize its really beautiful Victorian architecture and gingerbread houses, whereas the filmmakers (as it says in the article) deliberately avoided that part of the area while filming to give Tender Mercies a more barren, West Texas feel. Do any of you have any photos, or know of anywhere we can get useable photos, of Waxahachie that would place less emphasis on that part of the town? (I live in PA, so I can't exactly snap a few shots myself.) Let me know! — Hunter Kahn (contribs) 22:14, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Lubbock High School

Lubbock High School has been nominated for a good article reassessment. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to good article quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status will be removed from the article. Reviewers' concerns are here. Nikki♥311 21:12, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

George W. Bush GA Sweeps: On Hold

I have reviewed George W. Bush for GA Sweeps to determine if it still qualifies as a Good Article. In reviewing the article I have found several issues, which I have detailed here. Since the article falls under the scope of this project, I figured you would be interested in contributing to further improve the article. Please comment there to help the article maintain its GA status. If you have any questions, let me know on my talk page and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. --Happy editing! Nehrams2020 (talk • contrib) 22:09, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

2005 Oklahoma vs. Texas football game GA Sweeps: On Hold

I have reviewed 2005 Oklahoma vs. Texas football game for GA Sweeps to determine if it still qualifies as a Good Article. In reviewing the article I have found several issues, which I have detailed here. Since the article falls under the scope of this project, I figured you would be interested in contributing to further improve the article. Please comment there to help the article maintain its GA status. If you have any questions, let me know on my talk page and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. --Happy editing! Nehrams2020 (talk • contrib) 06:20, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

District 21 Map

US House of Representatives District 21's article seems to have an erroneous image. The map indicates that it goes west far less than it actually does. From a recent map it appears to go all the way out past I-10 and Kerrville. It may be short by as much as a hundred miles, a tens of thousands of square miles. This could be rather important since the district is up next election. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.162.1.41 (talk) 14:21, 7 July 2009 (UTC)

Robin Hood plan

This plan discussed in Flirting With Disaster (Marc Gerstein 2008, Union Square Press) as an example of "how complexity influences catastrophe in policy decisions". He claims it resulted in a loss of $27,000 per pupil due to property value depression caused by the plan. Many news articles agree [1]. The WP article does not reflect this, and one reference is titled "Robin Hood Plan is Working". If, as Gerstein claims, it is "one of the largest financial disasters in history", the WP article needs serious editing and possible an elevation of its importance. Thanks! Sanphaka (talk) 09:37, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

GA reassessment of David Heymann

I have reassessed the above article as part of the GA Sweeps process. There are some concerns which you can see at Talk:David Heymann/GA1. If these are not addressed, the article will be de-listed. Jezhotwells (talk) 19:04, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

University of Texas at San Antonio Catagories

University_of_Texas_Health_Science_Center_at_San_Antonio_Dental_School does not belong under the Category:University_of_Texas_at_San_Antonio listing, as it is part of the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio (UTHSCSA) which are separate institutions. (Note: I don't seem to be able to edit the listing and am not sure if it's auto generated.) User_talk:Whyfor —Preceding undated comment added 19:20, 16 July 2009 (UTC).

ETA 17 July 09. I have fixed this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Whyfor (talk • contribs) 15:30, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

GA reassessment of Butthole Surfers

I have conducted a reassessment of the above article as part of the GA Sweeps process. I have found some concerns which you can see at Talk:Butthole Surfers/GA1. I have placed the article on hold whilst these are fixed. Thanks. Jezhotwells (talk) 18:05, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

GA reassessment of Kelly Clarkson

I have conducted a reassessment of the above article as part of the GA Sweeps process. I have found a large number of concerns with the article which you can see at Talk:Kelly Clarkson/GA1. I have delisted the article as it will need a lot of work to bring it to GA status. Thanks. Jezhotwells (talk) 20:30, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

Blueberry Hill

Blue Berry Hill, Texas should not have an entire article dedicated to it. It is not an organized community like Tuleta, Texas or Pawnee, Texas. It's just a subdivision just outside of Beeville. Vandersontx (talk) 15:24, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Norman Borlaug

I have nominated Norman Borlaug 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. Dabomb87 (talk) 03:25, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Post Oak Mall Photos needed

Anyone live near this mall? I came across the article and I find the GA review to be in error as the article wasn't properly illustrated. I figured if someone from the project lives nearby they might be able to go out and get a couple of decent photos for us. If anyone can help us out, leave us a note on the article talk.--Crossmr (talk) 14:53, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

As an update Photos have since been added :) -- AnmaFinotera (talk · contribs) 19:51, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Texas School Survey

A discussion has started to merge to the new Texas School Survey article to Texas Department of State Health Services, which coordinates the survey. Views at Talk:Texas Department of State Health Services#Merge of Texas School Survey appreciated. -- AnmaFinotera (talk · contribs) 19:51, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Link Error on Charles R. Floyd Page

Minor error - in the external links section (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_R._Floyd#External_links), it says he was succeeded by Texas Senator James G. Strong (my grandfather) in 1925, but the link points to a James G. Strong in Kansas. Don't know who maintains this, and it's a low importance page, but ... just FYI. :o) Thanks. Michaelstr (talk) 14:53, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Fixed...thanks for the heads up. -- AnmaFinotera (talk · contribs) 14:56, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Request Review for Tiger Stadium (Corsicana)

I need someone to review this page and classify it so that myself and others can look to see how far along this page is and how much more work can be done to it to make it a better article. Click here to go to the page.Scca8704 (talk) 04:46, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Wrong name on college page

The community college in Victoria Texas is actually named The Victoria College, not Victoria College.

San Antonio task force

Would anyone be interested in starting a San Antonio task force? It would relate to everything in the San Antonio metropolitan area. The counties include Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina, and Wilson. WhisperToMe (talk) 00:27, 4 October 2009 (UTC)

Valley Junction, TX

Could some have a look at new article Valley Junction, TX? thanks, Rd232 talk 11:17, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Article for your list

The article Regulator–Moderator War does not appear to be on your radar, based on its talk page. ~ MD Otley (talk) 20:21, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Merger Beeville, Texas

I have proposed that Beeville, Texas and Blue Berry Hill, Texas be merged as they are both the same community the incorporated city being Beeville. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vandersontx (talk • contribs) 11:31, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

  • All census-designated places are notable.
  • If the land is not within the Beeville city limits, it is not a part of Beeville.
  • I removed the merge proposal tag because it is incorrect.
  • If you are saying that the area is culturally a part of Beeville, that needs a reference, and that does not warrant a merger.
  • WhisperToMe (talk) 22:55, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Suggestion: History navbar

I was peeking at the History of California and noticed that they have a side bar for history like Texas does but they also have a navbox at the bottom. The advantage, of course, is that they can have a terse side bar but then a more complete footer at the bottom which covers all of the topics. I took a stab and have attached a navbox version that I think can work.

Opinions?

--Mcorazao (talk) 18:23, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

I like having links to the histories of the largest cities. I don't think that "by topic" is going to be very useful - there are lots and lots of topics we could include, and I'm not sure that we can just pick out certain events. There might be some History of <topic> in Texas articles that could instead be there, but I'm not sure. Karanacs (talk) 18:30, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
It's debatable. Obviously the less the navbox includes the less sense it makes to have it (as opposed to just extending the side bar a little bit). I agree that a "by topic" section can be contentious since it is very subjective what gets included and what doesn't. Certainly I am not suggesting that every single Texas topic be included. I was really thinking that this might be 1 to 2 dozen of the most notable events and sub-periods (arrived at by some sort of consensus). The California history navbox has only a half-dozen topics but this is because they have some major high-level articles that group topics other than historical periods.
Anyway, this is just a suggestion. --Mcorazao (talk) 18:50, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
So would the following be preferable? i.e. Is there consensus to create the template? --Mcorazao (talk) 19:51, 28 October 2009 (UTC)
I think it's a useful template. The topics row is ok too but I would just include the major statewide topics: Texas Oil Boom, Texas Annexation, Texas Revolution, History of slavery in Texas. That would eliminate some of the subjective entries. MahangaTalk 20:30, 28 October 2009 (UTC)
OK, yet another version below.
If there are no objections, since it seems that there is some general support for having the template although the content is a little bit debated, I'll go ahead and create the template and the content can be argued over there instead of here.
Agreed? --Mcorazao (talk) 16:08, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
In the spirit of WP:BOLD (and to move the discussion off this page) I have created Template:Texas History Navbox. Please feel free to tear it to shreds. ;-) --Mcorazao (talk) 16:24, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

San Antonio task force proposal

As I stated earlier, I would like to form a San Antonio task force, covering all of the San Antonio metropolitan area. WhisperToMe (talk) 23:22, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Adding a History Section

So I have done some research and found Nash, Texas has a relevant past surrounding how it came to be city and how it got its name. A lot of little known information about Nash's background is absent from its the page. I contacted the Texas Historical Commission for information to update the page with historical information and little known facts. I decided it would better to break it out into two separate sections, the early years and the growth period based on the documents I received. Tabitha 02:11, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Universities COTM Nomination

Hello WikiProject Texas. I just wanted to let you all know that a university handled by your WikiProject, University of Texas at Austin, has been nominated for next month's WikiProject Universities Collaboration of the Month. If you'd like to take advantage of this opportunity, be sure to vote for the university. While you're there, consider helping improve one of our current Collaborations of the Month.

Happy editing! -Mabeenot (talk) 18:58, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Climate

Since the information was available I added the yearly climate information.Tabitha 02:10, 26 November 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brackens (talk • contribs)

Queso flameado/fundido

Related to Chili con queso, I have started a spin-off article about queso flameado aka queso fundido, here. The new article would be much improved by a photo. Does anyone have one? Please post it to Wikimedia Commons and drop a note on my talk page. Thanks! --Una Smith (talk) 04:21, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

African Americans in Texas

This is an idea for a possible article.

See the sources:

WhisperToMe (talk) 02:17, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

List of United States federal courthouses in Texas

Texas has been home to a huge number of federal courthouses - there are probably about a three dozen missing from this page. Many of them are at the FJC cite in the external links. Help is needed and would be appreciated - this list will be the jumping off point for writing articles about each courthouse. Cheers! bd2412 T 03:34, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

Task force ideas

If anyone wants to start Wikipedia:Task forces on smaller metropolitan areas, I suggest:

  • San Antonio (San Antonio MSA)
  • Rio Grande Valley (McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX MSA + Brownsville-Harlingen-Raymondville, TX CSA -- Maybe others)
  • El Paso (El Paso MSA)

WhisperToMe (talk) 19:37, 17 January 2010 (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) 04:00, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

MSA naming

Not to make too big a deal out of this but there is a lot of inconsistency how Texas articles are referring to the metropolitan areas. I don't know about the Wikiproject Texas level but apparently there was an agreement in Wikiproject Houston to give preference to the OMB designated name (i.e. preferably just mention the OMB name but, if desired, mention the OMB name first and then discuss the commonly used name as an alternative). Even in Houston-related articles, though, this is not uniformly being followed.

IMHO it is valuable to go ahead and make more effort to standardize the naming across Texas articles (preferably across Wikipedia but that's beyond this scope). Is there a consensus on what naming to use? I would at least argue that whatever we decide is the policy for referring to the topic should be the same policy for naming the articles (e.g. either we should use the article name Greater Austin and primarily refer to the metro area as "Greater Austin", or we should use the article name Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos and primarily refer to the metro area as "Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos").

Some thoughts:

Arguments in favor of using OMB names:
  • By using a name designated by a federal agency, we have a single authoritative source for these names rather than having to debate what sources to use to determine the names to use.
  • Typically "common names" have no precise definition whereas the OMB definitions do have explicit definitions. So by using the OMB names we are being clear about the scope whereas by using common names the scope is more ill-defined.
Arguments in favor of using common names:
  • Wikipedia:COMMONNAME says the common name should be used as the name of the article (e.g. "Bill Clinton" instead of "William Jefferson Clinton"). By extension one could argue that using if we prefer common names for the article titles, we should prefer to use common names when referring to the topic.
  • The OMB names and definitions are subject to change every year. Do we change article names, merge articles, change article scopes, etc. everytime the OMB changes its definitions?
  • Remember that the OMB names are not "official" names for the metro areas. These are simply designations that the OMB chooses for its purposes. One could argue that trying to stick too closely to the OMB names is, in fact, misleading.

--Mcorazao (talk) 17:54, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Placement of talkheader

I've notice on about 20 pages that the talkheader is underneath all the wikiproject lists and things. Since it is the header, it goes at the top above the rest of them. Also, be sure that towns that are outside the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro stat area are not included as part of the DFW wikiproject. So please go double check these things, thank you. Moonraker0022 (talk) 07:27, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Unsourced BLPs - need help ASAP

In case you haven't noticed, the unsourced BLP issue has suddenly taken on a life of its own (see WP:Requests for comment/Biographies of living people). It is becoming clear that unsourced BLPs will be deleted at some point in the future - probably pretty quickly. User:Rettetast put together a list of articles under our wikiproject that have been tagged as BLPs with no references. I could use help with fixing them! Karanacs (talk) 16:56, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

  1. Abel Talamantez
  2. Adrian Ward (American football)
  3. Al Cowlings Done. --Mcorazao (talk) 15:34, 29 January 2010 (UTC)
  4. Albert Bustamante
  5. Alex Smith (American soccer player)
  6. Alicia Webb
  7. Alvin O. Austin
  8. Amber Rose (singer)
  9. Andrea Lloyd-Curry
  10. Angela Via
  11. Antoine Carr
  12. Antoine Rigaudeau
  13. Antonio Martínez
  14. Armando Xavier Ochoa
  15. Ashton Youboty
  16. Baine Kerr
  17. Barry Orton
  18. Barry Tubb
  19. Basil Mitchell
  20. Beck Weathers
  21. Benny Anders
  22. Bernard A. Harris, Jr.
  23. Betty Sue Flowers
  24. Big Pokey
  25. Big Tuck
  26. Bill Dees
  27. Bill Frank
  28. Bill Ham
  29. Bill Michael
  30. Bill Payne
  31. Bill Yeoman
  32. Billie Jo Spears
  33. Billy G. Mills
  34. Billy Hunter (baseball)
  35. Billy Joe Dupree
  36. Bo Orlando
  37. Bob Davie (American football)
  38. Bob Marlin
  39. Bob Watson
  40. Bobby Hoff
  41. Bobby Keys
  42. Brandon Rogers (singer)
  43. Brendan Townsend
  44. Brian Floca
  45. Brian Hunter (outfielder)
  46. Brian Waters
  47. Bruce Coslet
  48. Bucky Dent
  49. Buddy Bell
  50. Buddy Groom
  51. Burton C. Bell
  52. Burton Gilliam
  53. Butch Edge
  54. Candy Maldonado
  55. Cara Lockwood
  56. Carlos Bringuier
  57. Cedric James
  58. Chad Curtis
  59. Chad Harville
  60. Chad Qualls
  61. Charles Robin Britt
  62. Charles Rogers (murder suspect)
  63. Chip Ambres
  64. Chris Pérez
  65. Chris Sampson
  66. Christopher Cross Changed template to BLP sources --Mcorazao (talk) 17:30, 3 February 2010 (UTC)
  67. Christy Fichtner
  68. Chuck Person
  69. Cindy Cruse-Ratcliff
  70. Clarence Bradford
  71. Clay Sell
  72. Cliff Hagan
  73. Cody Hodges
  74. Colin Clarke
  75. Colleen Marie
  76. Conor Jackson
  77. Courtney Gibbs
  78. Craig Button
  79. Craig McMurtry
  80. Cynthia Dobrinski
  81. Dale Steele
  82. Dan Pastorini
  83. Darrell Shepard
  84. Darryl Hamilton
  85. Dave Davies (TV host)
  86. Dave Duncan (baseball)
  87. Dave Maggard
  88. Dave Manders
  89. David Purdham
  90. David W. Harper
  91. David Weathers
  92. Dayna Curry
  93. Delwin Jones
  94. Demorrio Williams
  95. Don Carter (businessman) Done. --Mcorazao (talk) 05:08, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
  96. Don Slaught
  97. Doug Drabek
  98. Douglas Clark (sculptor)
  99. Drew Hill
  100. Dylan Patton
  101. Ed Farmer
  102. Ed Mills
  103. Edd Hendee
  104. Edward Jay Epstein
  105. Ellis Amburn
  106. Elton L. Daniel
  107. Erasmo Ramirez
  108. Eric Munson
  109. Erica Mer
  110. Erik Hokkanen
  111. Erin Wasson
  112. Ernie Zampese
  113. Ezra Hendrickson
  114. F. A. Dry
  115. Garry Mauro
  116. Gary Heavin
  117. George Teague
  118. Gina Haley
  119. Greg Swindell
  120. Gretchen Polhemus
  121. Hal M. Hornburg
  122. Harley Sewell
  123. Harold MacDowell
  124. Harriet Sansom Harris
  125. Harvey Armstrong
  126. Henry Stollenwerck
  127. Hillary Tuck
  128. J. D. Souther
  129. Jack E. Jett
  130. James Forbes (basketball)
  131. James Twellman
  132. Jane Hall (journalist) --Mcorazao (talk) 19:37, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
  133. Jay McGraw
  134. Jeff Fassero
  135. Jeff Frye
  136. Jenna Boyd
  137. Jerry Abbott
  138. Jimmy James (performance artist)
  139. Joe Vide
  140. John Allen Nelson
  141. John Irwin (academic)
  142. John Lewis Gaddis
  143. John P. Mabry
  144. John Randle
  145. John Teltschik
  146. Jon Miller
  147. Jonathan Caouette
  148. Jose Lothario
  149. Joseph Fiorenza
  150. Julius Jones
  151. Karen Elliott House
  152. Kelly Asbury
  153. Kelly Shoppach
  154. Kendall Windham
  155. Kendrick Starling
  156. Kevin Curren
  157. Kevin Von Erich
  158. Kyle Searles
  159. Larry Andersen
  160. Larry Centers
  161. Leland Chapman
  162. Leon Hale
  163. Leroy Matthiesen
  164. Lezlie Deane
  165. Lil' Keke
  166. List of people raised in Houston
  167. Malcolm Frank
  168. Manny Fernandez (wrestler)
  169. Marc Singer
  170. Marcos Witt
  171. Mario Ramos
  172. Mark McLemore
  173. Mark Youngblood
  174. Martin Wagner (artist)
  175. Michael David Pfeifer
  176. Michael R. Levy
  177. Michelle Royer
  178. Mike Brumbelow
  179. Mike Cuellar
  180. Mike Dunleavy, Sr.
  181. Mike Fedorko
  182. Morgan Wade
  183. Mr. Pookie
  184. Nate Colbert
  185. Nate Newton
  186. Nelson Wolff
  187. Nia Abdallah
  188. Omar Kent Dykes
  189. Otis Williams
  190. Owen Daniels
  191. Patrick Califia
  192. Patrick Kearney
  193. Paula Prentiss
  194. Paula Trickey
  195. Paulie Ayala
  196. Pete Geren
  197. Phillip Doyce Hester
  198. Phyllis George
  199. Plácido Rodriguez
  200. Quail Dobbs
  201. Rafael A. Lecuona
  202. Randy Jackson (baseball)
  203. Rasaq
  204. Rawson Stovall
  205. Raymond Caballero
  206. Rebecca Holden
  207. Reggie Phillips
  208. Richard Mastracchio
  209. Richard Smith (American football coach)
  210. Rick White (baseball)
  211. Ricky Gutiérrez
  212. Rio Grande Valley
  213. Robert Samei
  214. Rory Phillips
  215. Ruben Garcia, Jr.
  216. Russ Johnson
  217. Ryan Donowho
  218. Ryan Suarez
  219. Sam Giammalva
  220. Sam Horn
  221. Sandra Glover
  222. Sean Rouse
  223. Shamari Buchanan
  224. Shannon McGauley
  225. Sherri DuPree
  226. Shirley Cothran
  227. Skip Hicks
  228. Sonya Emery
  229. Spencer Rochfort
  230. Stacy DuPree
  231. Stacy Sanches
  232. Stephanie Trong
  233. Stephen F. Austin State University
  234. Steve McMichael
  235. Steven Wayne Smith
  236. Tanisha Lynn
  237. Terrance Shaw
  238. Terry Ellis
  239. Tim Carter (basketball coach)
  240. Tina Benkiser
  241. Todd English
  242. Tom Tall
  243. Tommy Allsup
  244. Tommy Pallotta
  245. Tony Earley
  246. Tony Stubblefield
  247. Tracy Conover
  248. Tracy Rowlett
  249. Travis Driskill
  250. Twila Paris
  251. Uzooma Okeke
  252. Vinnie Paul
  253. Vontrell Jamison
  254. W. Francis McBeth
  255. Wade Townsend
  256. William Frederick Fisher
  257. Winston Hill

San Antonio task force?

Would anyone be interested in starting a San Antonio task force? WhisperToMe (talk) 11:20, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

Two Quick Questions.

1) Why is Stephan F. Austin State University in the BLP section?

2) Anything I can do? --EDGAR SiNCLAiR 02:40, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

I have no idea about SFA State but my guess is that it got mislabeled at some point. Regarding what you can do ...
  1. Pick one of the BLP articles.
  2. Scan what the major content in the article is.
  3. Do a Google search for that person and what is the most important fact about them. If the person is older or they are famous for something that gets a lot of annual coverage in books and magazines (sports in particular), try looking at Google Books first.
  4. Scan the search results to find a reliable source that actually backs up the key facts (usually the person's person web site is not acceptable except when backing up quotes from them).
  5. If you can find a solid source,
    1. Add a References section at the end and put in the details of that source.
    2. Add a <ref> at the end of any statements/paragraphs this source backs up.
    3. Remove the {{BLP unsourced}} banner at the top of the article.

That doesn't mean the article is in good shape but it at least will prevent it from getting deleted.

--Mcorazao (talk) 03:40, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

GA reassessment of Natalie Maines

I have conducted a reassessment of the above article as part of the GA Sweeps process. You are being notified as this project's banner is on the talk page. I have found some concerns which you can see at Talk:Natalie Maines/GA1. I have placed the article on hold whilst these are fixed. Thanks. Jezhotwells (talk) 05:39, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

San Antonio task force started

I thought I would go ahead and start the Wikipedia:WikiProject Texas/San Antonio task force. WhisperToMe (talk) 02:43, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Spanish Wikipedia version of WikiProject Texas

For those of you who edit in Spanish, please stop by the es:Wikiproyecto:Texas on the Spanish Wikipedia. This will be the Spanish-language sister project to the English WikiProject Texas. WhisperToMe (talk) 08:31, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

School accountability ratings categories

I would like to add categories for schools based on their TEA ratings. Specifically, I want to modify {{TEA district rating}} to put articles in the following new categories:

  • Texas school districts with a TEA rating of Exemplary
  • Texas school districts with a TEA rating of Recognized
  • Texas school districts with a TEA rating of Academically Acceptable
  • Texas school districts with a TEA rating of Academically Unacceptable
  • Texas school districts without a TEA rating

All categories would be subcategories of Category:School districts in Texas.

Thoughts?

This was a very old proposal I just noticed. In case it is still of interest to anybody IMHO this is not really a good idea. For similar reasons I am not even sure I like use of Template:TEA_district_rating. The problem is that these things can change from year to year, sometimes drastically. Thought it is worth mentioning these things in the article based on specific years, codifying this into categories implies a sense of permanence and requires much more active maintenance. --Mcorazao (talk) 17:12, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

FAC: Free State of Galveston

FYI: I have nominated Free State of Galveston for FA. Please feel free to critique and provide feedback at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Free State of Galveston/archive1.

--Mcorazao (talk) 18:46, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Help on John Ricord?

I just created an article on Jean Baptiste Ricord, better known as "John" Ricord, quite an interesting character. He served with both David G. Burnet and Sam Houston in Texas, before working for other movers and shakers of the time in an unusual career of frontier law in the 19th century, before moving in with uncle the doctor of Napoleon III (who had a symptom of syphilis named for him). If anyone can help expand the Texas part of the article that would be appreciated. Thanks. W Nowicki (talk) 22:34, 14 March 2010 (UTC)


FAR

I have nominated Texas Ranger Division 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 (vote in the Southern Stars and White Ferns supermodel photo poll) 02:07, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Help on Joseph Bonnell?

I am a contributor to the Joseph Bonnell article. He was a West Point graduate who assisted the Texas Army in 1836 and has been declared a Hero of the Texas Revolution by resolution of the Texas House of Representatives. I added the category People of the Texas Revolution to his article, and it has been misfiled on that page under letter "J" rather than letter "B". Can someone correct this error? Thanks. User Frebo3 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Frebo3 (talk • contribs) 00:05, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Fixed. MahangaTalk 00:39, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Article requests

Though there are lots of articles on Texas history IMHO it would be nice to have more overview articles that cover major themes in the history. Some exist but there are some that would be nice to have. I thought I'd share my thoughts here in case anybody is itching for a project. Here is a list of major historical themes, some of which have articles already and some of which do not.

--Mcorazao (talk) 20:37, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

P.S. Anticipating a possible question, I am not advocating having an article on the history of every major industry in Texas history. But cattle, cotton, and oil were 3 of the key industries that really shaped the state. Additionally the high-tech industry in Texas, despite the fact that it is not well known, has also had a major national impact in the latter 20th century that is worth discussing. --Mcorazao (talk) 20:37, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Barbecue in Texas

Regarding Barbecue_in_the_United_States#Texas - I would like to try to make a new article Barbecue in Texas, which describes in detail the various barbecue traditions in Texas. We need page numbers from Walsh's book, btw. WhisperToMe (talk) 02:32, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

TEA district rating template

Observation regarding the TEA district rating template: Personally I feel that templates like this are very problematic. Because of the way this is designed, not only does the template itself have to be updated every year but every single article that uses the template has to be manually updated every year. In other words, whereas one can put in an article "In 2006, this school district was rated ..." and not have anybody update it for a few years, this template requires that the article be checked every single year (which I doubt actually happens for every district).

Am I alone in thinking that it is preferable not to have constructs like this that inherently force an article to become invalid (i.e. not just dated but actually invalid) after some period of time?

--Mcorazao (talk) 22:34, 3 April 2010 (UTC)

Texas County histories

Need guidance before putting out more effort. My goal is to help elevate Wikipedia to the global encyclopedia it wants to be. My particular field, Texas history and how Wikipedia conveys that on a global basis. I am inputting Timeline History for Texas counties, one by one. Before I started this, almost all the 254 Texas counties had no history at all on their Wiki pages.

Therein, I intertwine the county's history with basic Texas history. i.e., the basic Six Flags info and relevant history, plus the Civil War.

I am of the opinion that the major events that shaped Texas also affected the shaping of the counties. No county was formed, or exists, in a vacuum.

From a scholarly point of view, this gives a researcher a more efficient and clearer concept of all the pieces that came together to create the individual county.

In some counties, Texas was born and evolved..

In other counties, Texas major events are more basic info as a foundation for the county.

Today: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_County,_Texas Loadmaster deleted all Texas history - within 10 minutes of my having posted it - without discussing it first. I reverted to my original edit of the county.

With Guadalupe County, Loadmaster reformatted the Timeline with the note: "most of these items should be removed as irrelevant". His reformatting is not an issue with me. I disagree with his point of view of what is relevant to formation of a county.

My question: Is my concept of intertwining Texas history into county history an appropriate format? It takes considerable time to do the research via various sources, and input the information. To have another editor delete a major portion of it within minutes of my posting it, and without discussing it, is frustrating.

I need to know if what I'm doing is within the guidelines of Wikipedia. Maile66 (talk) 20:19, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Opinion: First, thank you very much for investing the time to improve the articles. Much appreciated. For what it is worth I think Loadmaster was a bit overzealous in the original deletions but I think there is some merit in debating the added content a bit. Here are my general thoughts:
  • First, there is nothing explicitly inappropriate about having a timeline contain events outside the specific topic for the purpose of providing context.
  • A lot of the statements that you added do not have references. As a general rule not adding references makes any them subject to deletion.
  • As a general rule timelines and other lists are discouraged in ordinary articles. There is such a thing as a list article that is supposed to be a list with little or no prose. But for ordinary articles you are supposed to discuss the events, not just list them.
  • I believe that adding historical context is a very good thing to do (provided that background context does not overwhelm the main topic). I hate reading a history that is so narrowly focused on the topic that you really cannot understand what actually happened or why it happened.
  • Usually it is more proper to make lists stick closer to the topic than a prose discussion might. So you are much more likely to be ding'ed for being off-topic in a list than if you give background info in a prose discussion.
Perhaps a better way to approach what you are trying to do is to create your timelines in a sandbox under your personal user space and then uses these as references to write the prose.
--Mcorazao (talk) 21:42, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
I'm with Mcorazao here. The information you added is entirely encyclopedic, but the timeline format is generally not used in article pages. Sometimes, however, it is acceptable to construct a small table with 3 or 4 important dates and their significance. Like mentioned above, thank you for your time spent researching and contributing to these Texas-related articles. MahangaTalk 23:24, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
Yes, I deleted most of the historic items added by Maile66. My response to his revert was:
Wikipedia geographical articles are not generally written that way. See for example Galveston County, Orange County, Albany County, Colfax County, and in general any county article with a "History" section. In general, only historical items directly pertaining to the article subject are included, anything else being considered irrelevant or outside the scope of the article (which is narrow and specific to one subject). According to WikiProject U.S. counties, the "History" section should contain "Major historical events that occurred in the county". State-wide and nation-wide events outside the county obviously would not meet this criteria.
I'm of the opinion that there is too much Texas and U.S. history being listed that was not specifically related to the counties being discussed in the articles. Otherwise, most of the events listed would logically belong in the "History" sections of every county in Texas. — Loadmaster (talk) 00:14, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Barton Creek

I worked just a bit on expanding the Barton Creek article; anybody else have ideas? — e. ripley\talk 19:09, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

McNair, Texas

I added some spelling corrections to the McNair, Texas stub. I'd arrived there looking for historic origin of the African-American community McNair as background to an environmental assessment that I am writing for the Harris County project that will award HUD grant funds to allow expansion of the Lee College McNair Center. After cleaning up spelling and capitalization, I went on to add some details about firm expansion plans for the McNair Center facilities. This is the first article to which I've contributed anything as a Harris County Senior Planner, I hope I'm on the right track.

I'd love to learn more about when and how small African-American communities in Texas came to be after the Civil War ended. I'm also interested from an Environmental Justice perspective, as all of the McNair land lies in the Goose Creek 500-year floodplain and much of it is affected by the 100-year floodplain. I'm also trying to understand how the Lee College McNair Center at I-10 campus chose to build next to the floodway of Goose Creek, along which no comparable development has located. —Preceding Paulsuckow (talk) 21:53, 14 April 2010 (UTC) comment added by Paulsuckow (talk • contribs) 21:52, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Lynn County, Texas

While writing up a brief history for Lynn County, Texas, I came across an oddity I'd like to resolve, if possible. A state historical marker from 1970 [2] very specifically states the county namesake was a G.W. Lynn who was "One of those who baptized the altar of Texas with life blood at the Alamo". The Handbook of Texas gives the namesake as "Alamo defender George Washington Lynn (or Linn)" This individual does not appear on any lists of Alamo defenders, including the official one at the Alamo itself. I also don't find that name in any variation anywhere online. I'm finished with the county history, but this issue is a stickler. Texas family histories often contain counterfeit Alamo heroes. You'd think the State of Texas would have verified their information before naming the county. Is there any online data available that dates back to the 1876 state legislature to document the county's namesake? It's an interesting puzzle. Maile66 (talk) 18:28, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

Interesting question. I wouldn't know the answer. If I had to guess, the following seems to be one plausible explanation. I think following the revolutionary war there lots of cases, like with Sept 11, of people and families claiming somebody was killed at the Alamo. I expect it took a while for historians to sort fact from fiction. By the time it was sorted out probably a lot of "heroes" had already been immortalized in ways like this. It may be that the state has refused to discredit the claims in cases like this even though historians have. At the same time I don't know that historians can actually say definitively that they know who was at the Alamo.
In the absence of more info you might want to simply say that the county claims the namesake was an Alamo defender and not delve into the question further. --Mcorazao (talk) 19:43, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
I may go back and delete reference to a namesake altogether. Better to have nothing than the error. The county itself does not seem to be claiming the namesake. Except for the historical marker, this claim seems to be made where the Handbook of Texas is the source. I have notified the Handbook of Texas as to the possible error, and will make an attempt to contact the Texas Historical Marker folks. Maile66 (talk) 20:06, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

Template:Texas History

I have proposed a significant change to Template:Texas History on the discussion page. I don't want to do anything, though, without feedback. Please offer your thoughts there. --Mcorazao (talk) 15:43, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Join/Help

The article says to say on the discussion/talk page if you want to help. I do.
Signed, Dffgd (talk) 01:27, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Category rename

What's this doing here? The category is gone. Dffgd (talk) 17:01, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

That's a long dead discussion. --Mcorazao (talk) 17:50, 28 April 2010 (UTC)
What do you mean? Dffgd (talk) 19:00, 28 April 2010 (UTC)
I mean that the discussion was closed on 1 January 2009. See here. --Mcorazao (talk) 16:22, 29 April 2010 (UTC)
That's the same link that's in the box. I was saying, why is the box/template still there? The category was renamed as a result of that discussion, right? Dffgd (talk) 23:49, 29 April 2010 (UTC)
We don't normally remove discussions immediately after they are concluded. If discussions disappeared the moment they were concluded (or somebody thought they were concluded) it would make these talk pages hard to follow. Keeping these things around let's people who haven't checked in for a while know what discussions have gone on.
This section will eventually be archived. --19:23, 3 May 2010 (UTC)

Peer Review, University of Texas at Dallas

Since the article alerts bot is down, I would like to say that The University of Texas at Dallas, has made many strides recently in terms of professionalism. We are uncertain the direction the page should take, and any comments from experienced editors would be appreciated. Wikipedia:Peer review/University of Texas at Dallas/archive1 Thanks. Oldag07 (talk) 05:49, 3 May 2010 (UTC)

How to help?

I took a look and I am really not sure where or how to start here? While studying at University of Texas I took a few classes in Texas history - still have all the books, etc. I am totally down for helping. Anneaholaward (talk) 16:01, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

Depends on what types of things you want to do and how much effort you want to put in.
  • You could look at this list, look at some of the articles marked as "Start" or "C" class, and start looking for paragraphs or critical statements that are missing inline citations. Look at Google Books and search for pages that are relevant. See if you can find something that backs up the info in the paragraph and add the reference inline. If you cannot find a good source you can add {{citation needed}}, or {{dubious}} if the statement seems bogus.
  • If you are looking for a more significant contribution, the History of Texas article itself is in bad shape. The late 19th century section is severely lacking. Much of the 20th century is bad too. Make sure whatever you add has good references cited inline (again Google Books makes finding sources much easier).
  • Other than that if you are interested in creating your own article, some things that merit articles:
--Mcorazao (talk) 16:35, 7 May 2010 (UTC)
I'd also personally love any help at Light Crust Doughboys, which I've started to expand but that could use more work. — e. ripley\talk 17:01, 7 May 2010 (UTC)
  • 1) If you look at Template_talk:Texastasks, that message about a radio station seems to have been there since Feb 2008. Is it supposed to be there at all?
  • 2) If we work on one of the listed Open Tasks, assuming it's taken to the required completion level, does someone on an administrator level know and take it off the list? Just wondering how that works.
-- Maile66 (talk) 14:28, 10 May 2010 (UTC)
Maile66, I think the short answer to your question is that these project lists get started with good intentions and then become stale. In my own experience it is hard to get a bunch of volunteers to decide to work together on a coherent list of goals. In Wikipedia it is particularly difficult.
--mcorazao (talk) 20:26, 10 May 2010 (UTC)
You don't have to get a group to work on an article; you can start on it yourself. There's no administrator that removes entries from the open tasks. You (or anyone) are free to do so (at Wikipedia:WikiProject Texas/to do) if you think it's "complete". MahangaTalk 05:52, 11 May 2010 (UTC)
FYI - I removed Odessa Meteor Crater from the Task list, as it's been on there 4 years, and has been improved considerably since that time. It's a case in point in why I asked about how these items gets removed from the Task list. Somewhat confusing if an editor picks a task and sees nothing that needs to be taken care of.
--Maile66 (talk) 17:59, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Maybe that can be your first project: updating the task list. :) — e. ripley\talk 18:10, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Oh, gosh, thanks, but I have projects. Some thoughts that perhaps others have also had:
  • Wiki structure itself could be improved, not the least of which would be requiring editors to be signed in to an account.
  • A lot seems to be falling through the cracks.
  • Wonder how there is such a preponderance of articles that made it past the New Unreviewed Article process but have no sources, are obvious copies from elsewhere, and not even tagged. Some have no more than one or two sentences in the article, and have been there for years.
  • I find it more the rule than the exception to come across articles that need more than a gentle tweak. Maile66 (talk) 18:52, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Unreferenced Biographies of Living Persons

The WikiProject Unreferenced Biographies of Living Persons (UBLPs) aims to reduce the number of unreferenced biographical articles to under 30,000 by June 1, primarily by enabling WikiProjects to easily identify UBLP articles in their project's scope. There were over 52,000 unreferenced BLPs in January 2010 and this has been reduced to 35,715 as of May 1. A bot is now running daily to compile a list of all articles that are in both Category:All unreferenced BLPs and have been tagged by a WikiProject. Note that the bot does NOT place unreferenced tags or assign articles to projects - this has been done by others previously - it just compiles a list.

Your Project's list can be found at Wikipedia:WikiProject Texas/Unreferenced BLPs. Currently you have approximately 153 articles to be referenced. Other project lists can be found at User:DASHBot/Wikiprojects/Templates and User:DASHBot/Wikiprojects.

Your assistance in reviewing and referencing these articles is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions, please don't hestitate to ask either at WT:URBLP or at my talk page. Thanks, The-Pope (talk) 17:17, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Photo request: TDCJ headquarters

Hi! Is anybody going to be in Huntsville anytime soon? This map http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/manufacturing-logistics/transport/maps/central.jpg indicates where the TDCJ administration building is located. Would anyone mind getting a photo of the building? Thanks WhisperToMe (talk) 23:25, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Procedural question

Under the category of "People from Texas". Within the past 24 hours, one historical bio (deceased person) has been 100% rewritten. Single source. New text and writing style appears to have been taken from a political pamphlet - possibly violates the NPV - but without the pamphlet, it's hard to say for sure. The overall article may, or may not, be biographically factual. Writing style has sense of drama to it. It does somewhat read like a political struggle to accomplish a life's political goal.

Also, on the talk page for this particular article, the user listed their personal email address, soliciting info about the bio subject.

Other than to put the "single source" tag on it, I'm wondering if anything else should be noted. Seems to me that tags often serve no purpose other than to clutter the page. I'm thinking maybe someone more experienced than I am should have a look, but don't know if that in itself violates Wikipedia policy. Maile66 (talk) 11:06, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Well, first, there is no violation of policy for anybody to have a look, certainly. And unless the person is directly involved in the topic, there is no violation for anybody to edit the article.
In any event there is nothing wrong with adding tags at the top of an article, though it is good that you are trying to avoid simply adding tags without thinking about the impact on Wikipedia (in some cases it is better to discuss than add a tag). In this case I would recommend
  • Add the tag.
  • Add a short summary of your concerns on the talk page.
  • Perhaps leave a message for the editor that made the changes.
  • If you don't get any response in a few days, you could consider reverting part or all of the changes if you think the previous version was less biased. Mind you, do this with caution; but if you have good-faith reasons to be dubious then that's ok.
--Mcorazao (talk) 13:43, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
What's the article in question? — e. ripley\talk 14:11, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
I have left a tag, and a message on the talk page. If anyone is interested in looking at this page, it's Adolph Douai. The previous version was two short paragraphs - the new version definitely presents a point of view. Reversing this would be complicated, I think, in that the editor renamed the page. We shall see. Maile66 (talk) 14:19, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

I think this will take input from more than just me on Talk:Adolph Douai, if anyone is interested. I think the entire re-write might have been lifted word for word from an obit in a political publication. The editor seems willing to address whatever is necessary, but also seems to require an item by item - sentence by sentence - list of what they need to do. They removed the original single-source tag and added one additional reference. I'm not sure this editor can see the whole of this, but rather, just focuses on single items addressed. Anyone else care to contribute on that talk page? Perhaps I'm not clear enough? Maile66 (talk) 15:33, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

I looked at the article very very briefly but added it to my watchlist, I'll run over and make some more substantive comments probably later today. — e. ripley\talk 15:46, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
Here is his entry in the Handbook of Texas, in case it's helpful to you in the meantime. [3] — e. ripley\talk 15:50, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. I'm pretty familiar with the Handbook of Texas page on Douai. In April, I created Sisterdale, Texas, which for me opened up a research into all related topics, which included Douai and the whole relationship to the Freethinker-Socialist environment, both in Europe and as it transplanted to Texas. It might just be me being picky. I believe the editor acts in good faith. But I also think sourcing and style is an issue.Maile66 (talk) 17:32, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
Immature articles are not expected to have stellar sourcing. At a glance the current state of the article doesn't look terrible. I know nothing about the topic but the tone, in and of itself, doesn't seem to me outrageously judgemental, though there are some things that should be rephrased going forward. --Mcorazao (talk) 18:19, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Clara Driscoll

Asking for anyone's thoughts on this.

There is a page Clara Driscoll Sevier which refers to the Texas heiress and philantropist, which I would like to add some content and references. This article was put on Wikipedia July 2009. Clara Driscoll was married twice, the second husband named Sevier. They divorced, and she reverted to her maiden name. Everything I find in Texas has her name as Driscoll, including the Clara Driscoll Middle School in San Antonio.

I think it would be more appropriate for the page to bear her maiden name, as she chose to have it the remainder of her life. There is, however, a couple of kinks in that, as below.

A pre-existing re-direct page Clara Driscoll (Texas) had been set up January 2009 to re-direct to the Alamo Mission. I have changed that one to redirect to Clara Driscoll Sevier.

There is also a pre-existing January 2007 article Clara Driscoll, regarding an Ohio employee of Tiffany glass.

Any suggestions?

--Maile66 (talk) 18:23, 11 June 2010 (UTC)
LI'm so glad you're working on this! I agree that Clara Driscoll Sevier is likely not the right title. On a Google Books search, "Clara Driscoll" Alamo gets 247 hits, and "Clara Driscoll" Tiffany gets 40. For Google scholar it's Alamo = 140 and Tiffany = 12. A straight web search shows the opposite. 44,000 for Tiffany; 13,400 for Alamo. Perhaps it would be best to move the article on the artist to Clara Driscoll (artist) and the one on the Texan to Clara Driscoll (philanthropist) and make Clara Driscoll a disambiguation page. Karanacs (talk) 19:19, 11 June 2010 (UTC)
I share your viewpoint. Did you read the one about the Tiffany employee? "Artist" might not be precisely correct. And I think for clarification the name Tiffany should be there. How about Clara Driscoll (Tiffany glass designer). She had no other accomplishments, and I don't want to confuse anybody that she might be with Tiffany Jewelers.
As for our own Texas Clara Driscoll, I just this morning finished a page on Adina Emilia De Zavala and naturally went looking for what exists on Texas Clara. We would have no Alamo to visit without these two. Daughters of the Republic of Texas page needs mucho work, also.
--Maile66 (talk) 19:37, 11 June 2010 (UTC)
I think you are probably right on the other Driscoll. Do we need Adina's middle name in the title of her article? I've most seen her referred to as Adina De Zavala. There is some good information about these two women in Alamo Mission in San Antonio, and if you want I can check my notes for the books I used and see if there is any more info on them. I'm pretty sure there was for Clara, but it's been a few months since I've looked at that. Karanacs (talk) 20:21, 11 June 2010 (UTC)
I, too, had reservations about using Adina's middle name in the title. But the majority of what I was running across used it in the way people say "Billy Bob Thornton". I went with the flow of what I was coming across. I will check out your notes on the Alamo page - thanks for the heads up.Maile66 (talk) 20:27, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

FYI - The renaming of the two pages, and the disambiguation page have been taken care of. Maile66 (talk) 23:57, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

Texas Portal

FYI, on the Portal:Texas, the Selected Articles Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and the Spotlight City of Grand Prairie, Texas are both tagged for sourcing and citation needs. The Grand Prairie one has been tagged since Dec 2008. Also, the "Things You Can Do" box is not coordinated with the same box on the WikiProject Texas page-must be a way to automate that. Looking at the history of the Portal page, nobody has done anything with it for a year. Maile66 (talk) 02:21, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

I've requested that User:Mr. Z-bot generate monthly lists of which articles are most popular within our WikiProject. Hopefully that can let us see whether we're focusing our efforts on the right articles - if all of the most popular articles are stub/start class, then readers aren't necessarily getting the information they should get. The list will be located at Wikipedia:WikiProject Texas/Popular pages, so watchlist that page to see how article popularity changes over time. Karanacs (talk) 16:30, 1 July 2010 (UTC)

FAR

I have nominated Ike Altgens 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 (vote in the Southern Stars and White Ferns supermodel photo poll) 03:34, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Polunsky Unit prison near Livingston

I would like to submit a photo request of the Allan B. Polunsky Unit (a prison) near Livingston, Texas. Its address is 3872 FM 350 South, Livingston, Texas 77351

Instructions: This Bing map shows where the "Polunsky" sign is located. To take a photo of the prison, stand on the other side of the road, outside of the institution grounds. Use a telephoto lens to get your photo. Do not enter the institution. Make sure the sign is readable and included in the shot.

BTW if you take the shot, please also swing by the Livingston Municipal Airport and photograph that too. WhisperToMe (talk) 05:15, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Death penalty in Texas

The French wrote an article about fr:Application de la peine de mort au Texas - the Death penalty in Texas. At some point we should try writing an article about this as well. WhisperToMe (talk) 06:40, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Governor and Lieutenant governor

When one enters "Governor of Texas" he or she is redirected to List of Governors of Texas

But we have Lieutenant Governor of Texas and List_of_Lieutenant_Governors_of_Texas

Should they be merged? WhisperToMe (talk) 17:21, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

Not to be super picky, but lieutenant governor isn't capitalized. Anneaholaward (talk) 00:13, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

Task force ideas

Who wants to start more task forces. We already have Wikipedia:WikiProject Texas/San Antonio now has several members (Houston, DFW, and Austin have WikiProjects)

Here are some possibilities:

  • El Paso County (El Paso area)
  • Killeen/Fort Hood area
  • Beaumont/Port Arthur area
  • McLennan County (Waco area)
  • Webb County (Laredo area)
  • Rio Grande Valley (not exactly sure which counties are in and which are out)

WhisperToMe (talk) 17:07, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Selena FAR

I have nominated Selena 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. --BelovedFreak 20:47, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

The Boy with the Leaking Boot - unsourced info in San Jacinto Plaza

I'm trying to get The Boy with the Leaking Boot to GA status, and it includes a couple of sentences of information found in San Jacinto Plaza. Does anyone have a source for the info about the statue here? Thanks in advance, PamD (talk) 22:48, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

OK, I've found a source (found an updated URL for the link given as EL in the Plaza article), but it's 1995 and says that the statue is in El Paso City Hall. Any up to date information available, pelase? PamD (talk) 23:30, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Pageview stats

After a recent request, I added WikiProject Texas 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 Texas/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 04:14, 31 August 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for doing this! WhisperToMe (talk) 03:08, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Galveston

I just added Commons:Category:Stereo cards of Galveston, Texas, which has some intriguing content taken from a big upload from the archives of the New York Public Library. All but a few images there are from before the 1900 hurricane (two pairs of photos are of the aftermath of the hurricane). I suspect that someone who knows the topic could add more categories to these photos (doubtless many belong in Commons:Category:Destroyed in the United States in 1900) and possibly some further useful description. Some of these also may be useful to illustrate articles. - Jmabel | Talk 03:48, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Texas 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 Texas 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 23:42, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

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