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Thank you

The WikiProject Barnstar
In gratitude of your service as a coordinator for the Military history Project from September 2009 to March 2010, I hereby award you this WikiProject Barnstar. TomStar81 (Talk) 00:18, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Hello. I noticed that you are reviewing this article for a GNA. Yet I have'nt seen you create a review page for it yet. Can you explan this? I'm a bit confused. Thanks :)--White Shadows you're breaking up 02:05, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Oh no problems here :) I'm just glad that someone is willing to review it! As for me, I don;t get off for spring break until next week (due to the 2010 snowstorm here in Virginia) That along with the fact that my PC is acting up means that it may take a while for me to get back to your review. Thanks for the clarification though :)--White Shadows you're breaking up 02:09, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

DYK for Kongō class battlecruiser

Updated DYK query On March 29, 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Kongō class battlecruiser, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits your article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

-- Cirt (talk) 10:28, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Coordinator election

Thank you for your support MisterBee1966 (talk) 14:48, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Likewise. Just a quick note to thank you for your support at the election, very much appreciated. See you around the Milhist pages! Ranger Steve (talk) 20:38, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Problem

Hey Cam, I understand wanting to remove extraneous refs ([1]), but for a lot of those double-cited combinedfleet/G&D sentences, I used information from both sources. :-/ —Ed (talkmajestic titan) 05:00, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Heh, now I check my new messages. :-) Give me about five min... —Ed (talkmajestic titan) 05:01, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
now you tell me. By all means. Cam (Chat) 05:02, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
Sorry Cam; I didn't know you were going to remove them.
The only source I have which covers Yamato's more than just trivially is G&D (Breyer has something, I'm sure, but it would be on the order of three to five sentences; I'll check him Wednesday anyway). I can't get ahold of Skulski, as it's marked "lib use only" in Melcat [2]. However, I will get Requiem for battleship Yamato; the downside is that it can take up to two weeks to receive these books. This might hold some nuggets if you can view it (I can't). Otherwise, there isn't much I can do. Like normal, my university library and electronic holdings fail at helping me in the least (even JSTOR). :-/ —Ed (talkmajestic titan) 05:42, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
It sucks doesn't it? The two university libraries I have access to have lots of general stuff, but very little on specifics of ships. Now, granted, I could not have written the Normandy articles without the two academic libraries in Calgary, but they're not of much help when it comes to IJN ships. It means working off of what we can, which can be exasperating when at FAC. Cam (Chat) 05:48, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
Yes, it does. At least you have *two* *large* libraries to choose from; I have one small one. :-) Hopefully Cla will have something on hand to help. —Ed (talkmajestic titan) 06:00, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank you

Thank you very much for your support on the coordinator elections.– Joe N 14:04, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

WikiCup 2010 March newsletter

We're half way through round two, and everything is running smoothly. Pennsylvania Hunter Kahn (submissions) leads overall with 650 points this round, and heads pool B. New Orleans TonyTheTiger (submissions) currently leads pool C, dubbed the "Group of Death", which has a only a single contestant yet to score this round (the fewest of any group), as well five contestants over 100 points (the most). With a month still to go, as well as 16 wildcard places, everything is still to play for. Anything you worry may not receive the necessary attention before the end of the round (such as outstanding GA or FA nominations) is welcome at Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews, and please remember to continue offering reviews yourself where possible. As always, the judges are available to contact via email, IRC or their talk pages, and general discussion about the Cup is welcome on the WikiCup talk page.

Although unrelated to the WikiCup, April sees a Good Article Nominations backlog elimination drive, formulated as a friendly competition with small awards, as the Cup is. Several WikiCup contestants and judges have already signed up, but regular reviewers and those who hope to do more reviewing are more than welcome to join at the drive page. If you wish to start receiving or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn, Fox, iMatthew and The ed17 Delivered by JCbot (talk) 22:11, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

Adoption

Hey, I found your name on the adopters list page and wanna know if you are still looking for adoptees? I am a new user and interested in military history and especially the Operation Majestic Titan is something I would like to help out on, but I am afraid to get lost in the amount of policies that exist on wikipedia. Somebody with a similar interest to help get started would be really helpfull. So I want to ask if you would be willing to adopt me or, if you are no longer adopting (since I can't find any references on your personal page about it) would be able to point me to somebody who does. Yoenit (talk) 15:00, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Hello, Climie.ca. You have new messages at Yoenit's talk page.
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The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : XLIX (March 2010)

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue XLIX (March 2010)
From the coordinators

I am pleased to report that the March coordinator elections have concluded, and that 15 members have been selected to serve as coordinators from April to September. Special congratulations go to AustralianRupert, Dank, MisterBee1966, NativeForeigner, Patar knight, and Ranger Steve, all of whom are newly elected coordinators. As we start this new tranche we welcome all returning coordinators, and wish those who decided not to stand for reelection luck as they move on to new things.

In other election news, a motion made to extend the coordinator tranche from its current six-month term to one full year gained consensus from the election participants. This will take effect in September, during the next election cycle. For the IX Coordinator Tranche, TomStar81 (Talk) 05:02, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. 21st Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
  2. Battle of Osan
  3. Bayern class battleship
  4. Dutch 1913 battleship proposal
  5. Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg
  6. Mary Rose
  7. No. 1 Wing RAAF
  8. USS Congress (1799)

New featured lists:

  1. List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Boxer Rebellion
  2. List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Vietnam War
  3. List of United States Military Academy alumni (Confederate States Army)

New featured topics:

  1. Battlecruisers of Germany

New featured pictures:

  1. Cavalry At Balaklava

New A-Class articles:

  1. Allan Walters
  2. Army of the Danube
  3. Battle of Dürenstein
  4. Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602–628
  5. HMAS Sydney (R17)
  6. Horses in World War I
  7. Lê Văn Duyệt
  8. Michael P. Murphy
  9. Roderic Dallas
  10. USS Triton (SSRN-586)
Project news
  • Operation Normandy

    In May 2008 a small group of editors, operating from a page in Cam's userspace, began work on improving Wikipedia's articles relating to the pivotal Second World War Battle of Normandy that took place in northern France between 6 June and the end of August 1944. Milhist has now adopted this collaboration as our third special project. The aim of Operation Normandy is to bring all core topics—official operations, battles, and the invasion beaches—to featured status by the 70th anniversary of D-Day on 6 June 2014. More information can be found on the project page; any interested editors are most welcome to sign up and help us meet this challenging goal!

  • Henry Allingham World War I Contest

    Our Henry Allingham World War I Contest ended on 11 March with the following results: in first place was Sturmvogel 66; in second place was Ian Rose; in third place was Dana boomer; and the finalists were Abraham, B.S., Carcharoth, and XavierGreen. The contest produced an incredible 238 recognised article improvements, of which 6 were Featured articles, 13 were A-Class articles and 22 were Good articles. In addition 43 newly created or expanded articles were successfully submitted for the 'Did you know' section on Wikipedia's main page. Our warmest congratulations go to the medallists and finalists, and our grateful thanks go to all participants and particularly to Eurocopter for organizing the contest.

  • Would you like to get more involved in the project? There are many open tasks that could use your help. The project's review department is always in need of input at peer reviews, A-class reviews, FACs and FARs; these can be found here. Also, the project maintains a list of deletion debates for military-related articles that have been nominated for deletion; project members are encouraged to provide their opinions in this forum so that consensus can be established. Finally, if content creation is more what you are looking for, each of the project's 48 task forces maintains a list of requested articles.
  • Your comments are invited in the following ongoing project discussions:
Contest department
Awards and honours
Editorial: Translating article writing to real life

I (Ed) am a college student in the United States, and as part of attaining my desired degree, I chose to take a course in Arab-Islamic history. We began in the early 600s and spent some time on the origins of the Islamic conquering of the Sassanid Empire and partial takeover of the Byzantine Empire (c. 634–750). From there, we have moved through the various ages of history, and the class recently began discussing the Ottoman Empire and other Islamic regions of more recent times.

As we began discussing the Ottoman Empire's role in the First World War, our professor mentioned that they were blockading the Bosphorus, using it as a chokepoint to cut off needed supplies traveling to Russia's only warm-water port, Sevastopol. An astute classmate, realizing this meant the use of warships, wondered what naval technology was like during this time. The professor turned and asked me to answer the question, as he knew I had been studying naval history and believed that I knew more about the subject.

The point of this anecdote is not to boast, but to provoke some thought. By virtue of the research Wikipedia writers must do to write complete, referenced articles, many of us are acquiring knowledge in specialized topics that can surpass even learned scholars. Wikipedia might even provoke some of us into becoming learned scholars through the subjects we find here. To profile one such case, take a look at Parsecboy.

Beginning in May 2007, he came across a few essentially empty stubs on German battleship classes. Nearly 3 years later, he's written or collaborated on more than forty articles rated as good or higher, including over a dozen featured articles and a featured list; the majority relate to German warships. The work Parsecboy has done for Wikipedia has had a tremendous impact on his academic career: to complete his undergraduate degree, Parsecboy is currently writing an Honors Thesis that will analyze the British and German battlecruiser squadrons during the First World War. Parsecboy plans to attend graduate school and continue his research in the area, culminating in a dissertation. He comments that "without a doubt, I would not have had nearly as much knowledge and interest in the topic, nor would I have known where to begin researching if I had not become so involved with the topic here on Wikipedia."

The knowledge you acquire through writing Wikipedia articles will remain with you for the rest of your life. Try to find a way to use it to your advantage.

Ed (talkmajestic titan) and Parsecboy (talk)

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This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 21:14, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Technical question

Hey Climie,

I wanna watchlist the B-class assesment section. There is the following notice on that section

And since I have an article up for B review over there I kinda wanna do just that, but the question is how? I know how to watch entire pages, but I do I watch just this "transcluded sub-page"?

Also, about the watchlist. Is there any way to have it show up all recent edits done to a page, instead of only the last one?

Thanks for leaving the A & GA criteria on my user page, now I know what to strife for. Yoenit (talk) 12:39, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

If it's headed to FAC after ACR, or if you want me to, I'll do a copyedit (if it needs it, I haven't looked). (Watching) - Dank (push to talk) 20:10, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Major-General Vokes, 4th Armoured Division

Hi Cam

Do you own or have access to the following book (or variant of): Chris Vokes, Vokes, My Story. By Major General Chris Vokes with John P. Maclean. Memorial Edition. Ottawa, ON: Gallery Books, 1985.

If you dont mind, the implication raised in the Friesoythe article (then badly worded and claimed it was random in the Allied war crimes during World War II article) is that Vokes lands himself in it; admitting that he willy nilly ordered the burning down of the town. Surely he doesnt just admit that he ordered the burning of a town? Apparently the highlanders CO was shot and killed and it was done in retripution but surely he defends this decission etc There was a military reason etc?--EnigmaMcmxc (talk) 07:58, 14 April 2010 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
To Cam, for excellent work on Japanese battleship Yamato. The article was a true pleasure to read. Karanacs (talk) 01:52, 14 April 2010 (UTC)
Congratulations on this passing its FAC Cam (and the other editors involved in the article's development). It's great that this article on what is one of the best known battleships worldwide is also one of Wikipedia's best articles. Nick-D (talk) 10:22, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

Question: possible to position pictures in a paragraph without breaking it?

Hi Cam,

I am messing around with images in Indiana class battleship and I wonder if there is some way to place a picture in the middle of a paragraph without breaking the paragraph at that point and starting a new one? (look at the position of the first picture in the article I linked if my description is a bit vague, that should clarify the problem).Yoenit (talk) 20:18, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Hello, Climie.ca. You have new messages at Yoenit's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

GAN backlog elimination drive - 1 week to go

First off, on behalf of myself and my co-coordinator Wizardman, I would like to thank you for the efforts that you have made so far in this GAN backlog elimination drive. It has been nothing short of a success, and that is thanks to you. See this Signpost article about what this drive has achieved so far.

We're currently heading into the final week of the drive. At this time, if you have any GANs on review or on hold, you should be finishing off those reviews. Right now, we have more GANs on review or on hold than we do unreviewed. If you're going to start a GA review, please do so now so you can complete it by the end of the month and so that the nominator has a full 7-day window to address any concerns.

See you at the finish!

MuZemike delivered by MuZebot 16:12, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Happy Birthday!

YUM!

[3] Happy 18, man! Have a triple-chocolate cake to celebrate. :) —Ed (talkmajestic titan) 05:20, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks man! Looks good! Unlike in the States, I can vote AND drink tomorrow :) Cam (Chat) 05:36, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
Oh boy. Look out world, and STAY OFF THE ROADS. ;) By the way, I didn't know that I had made your "exceptional Wikipedians" list; thanks, and I'm honored. —Ed (talkmajestic titan) 06:04, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
Congratulations Cam! 18 is always a special birthday, because the world seems to think you are suddenly wise enough to decide things on your own. Have a good time and try the things you weren't allowed before, just not all at the same time. Yoenit (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 06:39, 23 April 2010 (UTC).

WikiCup 2010 April newsletter

Round two is over, and we are down to our final 32. For anyone interested in the final standings (though not arranged by group) this page has been compiled. Congratulations to Pennsylvania Hunter Kahn (submissions), our clear overall round winner, and to Colombia ThinkBlue (submissions) and Norway Arsenikk (submissions), who were solidly second and third respectively. There were a good number of high scorers this round- competition was certainly tough! Round three begins tomorrow, but anything promoted after the end of round two is eligible for points. 16 contestants (eight pool leaders and eight wildcards) will progress to round four in two months- things are really starting to get competitive. Anything you worry may not receive the necessary attention before the end of the round (such as outstanding GA or FA nominations) is welcome at Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews, and please remember to continue offering reviews yourself where possible. As always, the judges are available to contact via email, IRC or their talk pages, and general discussion about the Cup is welcome on the WikiCup talk page.

Judge iMatthew has retired from Wikipedia, and we wish him the best. The competition has been ticking over well with minimal need for judge intervention, so thank you to everyone making that possible. A special thank you goes to participants Bavaria Stone (submissions) and White Shadows (submissions) for their help in preparing for round three. Good luck everyone! If you wish to start receiving or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn, Fox and The ed17 17:32, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for your participation in the April 2010 GAN backlog elimination drive

GAN backlog elimination drives chart up to 1 May

On behalf of my co-coordinator Wizardman, I'd like to especially thank you for your efforts over this past month's GAN backlog elimination drive. It has been nothing short of a complete success, which hopefully results in more expedient good article reviews, increasing users' confidence in the good article nomination processes. Even if you made just a small contribution, it still helped contribute to the success of this drive. Here is what we have accomplished this last month in this drive.

  • 661 total nominations were reviewed. 541 of them passed (~81.8%), 97 (~14.7%) failed, and 23 (~3.5%) ended on hold.
  • The WP:GAN page started at 110,126 bytes length on 1 April and ended at 43,387 bytes length at the end of 30 April (a 66,739 byte reduction in the page, about 60.6% less).
  • Excluding extremes, the longest wait for someone's GAN to be review was about 11.5 weeks at the beginning. (I mistook the figure when I reported to the Signpost that it was 13.) At the end, with the exception of one that was relisted, the longest wait is now at 10 days.
  • 63 different users participated, each having completed at least one GAN, with others also having helped out behind-the-scenes in making the drive a success.
  • The drive started with 463 GA nominations remaining and 388 unreviewed. At the end of the month, we ended with 89 remaining (374 or about 80.8% less) and 47 unreviewed (341 or about 87.9% less).

For those who have accomplished certain objectives in the drive, awards will be coming shortly. Again, thank you for your help in the drive, and I hope you continue to help review GA nominations and overall improve the quality of articles here on Wikipedia.

MuZemike delivered by MuZebot 17:42, 1 May 2010 (UTC)

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : L (April 2010)

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue L (April 2010)
From the coordinators

It's been a month since the end of the coordinator elections, and I am proud to inform the project that the IX coordinator tranche is doing well. Our new coordinators are rapidly learning the ropes, and the last of the task forces under consideration for merging have been consolidated into a new task force which should increase productivity and improve quality article output.

At the moment the coordinators are discussing preliminary plans for an improved version of The Bugle, and are working with editors from the American Civil War task force who are in the process of organizing a new special project relating to that conflict. It is our hope to see these changes implemented in the upcoming month. Lastly, as many of our members are also in school, we extend our best wishes to all who will be taking final exams both this month and next. For the IX coordinator tranche, TomStar81 (Talk) 22:36, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. Battle of Dürenstein
  2. Battle of Pulo Aura
  3. Battle of Taejon
  4. Battle of The Cedars
  5. Brougham Castle
  6. Cleomenean War
  7. Harry Chauvel
  8. Japanese battleship Yamato
  9. Lester Brain
  10. Myles Standish
  11. Roderic Dallas
  12. USS President (1800)
  13. War of the Bavarian Succession

New featured lists:

  1. Order of battle at the Battle of Camperdown

New featured topics:

  1. Yamato class battleships

New featured portals:

  1. Biological warfare

New A-Class articles:

  1. 22nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
  2. Battle of Chochiwon
  3. Battle of Chonan
  4. Battle of Naktong Bulge
  5. Battle of Pyongtaek
  6. Battle of Slater's Knoll
  7. Battle of The Cedars
  8. Battle of Valcour Island
  9. Brian Eaton
  10. Douglas MacArthur
  11. Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein
  12. HMAS Australia (1911)
  13. Kongō class battlecruiser‎
  14. List of battleships of Germany
  15. Massachusetts in the American Civil War
  16. Operation Sandblast
  17. Order of Saint Hubert (Bavarian)
  18. Ordnance QF 25-pounder Short
  19. Petlyakov Pe-3
  20. SMS Helgoland
  21. Sovetsky Soyuz class battleship
Project news
Contest department
Awards and honours
Editorial: Milhist's special projects

This month we're taking a look at the Military history WikiProject's special projects. At present we have three—Operation Great War Centennial, Operation Majestic Titan, and Operation Normandy—with, as Tom mentions in his introduction, a fourth coming on line as this newsletter goes out.

  • Operation Great War Centennial

    Officially the longest running of our special projects, this started in December 2008 with the ambitious goal of improving our core articles relating to the First World War by June 2014. As it states on the project's page, "the centenary of the start of World War I ... will doubtless be a mammoth commemoration of one of the most significant wars in history, attracting vast interest from schools, universities, veterans groups and the media. It offers us the chance to showcase what a brilliant resource Wikipedia is". With World War I receiving well over 20,000 page views per day on most days, the truth of these words is evident and the opportunity too good to miss. Operation Great War Centennial has compiled a list of over 300 articles covering topics such as battles, geographical areas, people, armaments, and technology; while some have achieved featured or good status, the majority are at B-Class or below, so there is plenty there for willing editors to get their teeth into.

  • Operation Majestic Titan

    The home of our much-respected and admired "Battleship Cabal", Operation Majestic Titan started in June 2009 with the aim of creating the "single largest featured topic on Wikipedia, centered around the battleships considered, planned, built, operated, canceled, or otherwise recorded." At time of writing the prolific Majestic Titan team has produced an impressive 33 featured articles, 19 A-Class, 60 good articles, three featured topics and six good topics. According to the project's working list, there are only 427 more articles to go...

  • Operation Normandy

    Although it first appeared in Milhist's pages in March 2010, this project had been formerly operating out of Cam's userspace as the "Normandy Team" since May 2008, making it a contender for our longest-running unofficial special project. Operation Normandy is aiming to create a Featured Topic on the Second World War Battle of Normandy by the 70th Anniversary of D-Day on 6 June 2014. With nine featured articles so far and 29 more to go, progress has been steady. More help, however, is always welcome.

  • Our fourth special project, American Civil War Sesquicentennial, is in the process of organising and at present lacks a name (see this discussion if you have any suggestions). The project will be looking to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the American Civil War by its sesquicentennial anniversary in 2011. The beginning of a drive is always an exciting time to get involved, so interested editors are strongly encouraged to drop by and sign up.

Special projects are a great way of organising a long-term collaboration with a specific end-point in mind, and tend to be more goal-oriented and focused than the general task forces or informal working groups. Joining a special project is also a fantastic way to work alongside like-minded editors with whom you'll undoubtedly develop close working relationships; by your third or fourth FA submission you'll hopefully be operating as part of a well-oiled team. Editor roles are many and varied: content writers, source material providers, image- and map-makers, copy editors, reviewers, MoS gurus, wikignomes, specialists and generalists... you're sure to find a job that suits you and benefits the team. If you have an idea for a special project or are already undertaking a collaboration that you think fits in with the ethos of those above, and you'd like to benefit from Milhist's support and infrastructure, consider dropping the coordinators a note. Personally I've found the synergy and teamwork of contributing to a special project (Operation Normandy in my case) to be one of the most rewarding and enjoyable aspects of my time here. I hope you will too. EyeSerenetalk 14:16, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

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Triple crown

G'day, it gives me great pleasure to bestow the Triple Crown upon Climie.ca for your military contributions in the areas of WP:DYK, WP:GA, and WP:FA. cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 11:44, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Looking to be adopted.

My interests are: History with a focus on Military History and Aviation History and some side interests like Rock N Roll, 4x4s, and Movies. BGinOC (talk) 08:52, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Musashi

I've found a lot of refs on japanese ships. Feel like a FAC in late July? Buggie111 (talk) 04:28, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

WT:OMT discussion

Hello, Climie.ca! I am informing you that there is a discussion at WT:OMT#Moving forward on whether or not to implement a reward called the Titan's Cross. As you list yourself as a member of the project, I suggest you vote in it. Have fun! Buggie111 (talk) 20:06, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Graduation


CONGRATS!

It's a new phase of your life; good luck! College is the most fun you will probably ever have in your life, so enjoy it to the fullest. —Ed (talkmajestic titan) 06:13, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

WikiCup 2010 May newsletter

We are half way through round 3, with a little under a month to go. The current overall leader is Hungary Sasata (submissions), who has 570 points. He leads pool C. Pools A, B and D are led by Pennsylvania Hunter Kahn (submissions), Colorado Sturmvogel_66 (submissions) and White Shadows (submissions) respectively. Anything you worry may not receive the necessary attention before the end of the round (such as outstanding GA or FA nominations) is welcome at Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews, and please remember to continue offering reviews yourself where possible. As always, the judges are available to contact via email, IRC or their talk pages, and general discussion about the Cup is welcome on the WikiCup talk page.

Two of last year's final 8, Sweden Theleftorium (submissions) and Iceland Scorpion0422 (submissions), have dropped out of the competition, saying they would rather their place went to someone who will have more time on their hands than them next round. On a related note, a special thank you goes to White Shadows (submissions) for his help behind the scenes once again. There is currently a problem with the poster, perhaps caused by the new skin- take a look at this discussion and see if you can help. The competition has continued to tick over well with minimal need for judge intervention, so thank you to everyone making that possible. Good luck to all! If you wish to start receiving or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn, Fox and The ed17 20:47, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Titan's Cross

The Titan's Cross in Bronze
For your effort to improve our battleship articles for some time now, and for being the driving force behind the improvement of the Yamato-class battleships to their current FT stats, I hereby award you the Bronze Titan's Cross. Congratulations! For the member of Operation Majestic Titan, TomStar81 (Talk) 21:19, 31 May 2010 (UTC)
Your welcome. Congrats on your graduation, BTW; I understand that should be happening for you about now. TomStar81 (Talk) 04:02, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : LI (May 2010)

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter Issue LI (May 2010)
From the coordinators

With Eurocopter's resignation (see editorial below), this month marks the end of his tenure as a project coordinator. Eurocopter has been with the team for almost three years now and will be sorely missed, but he has taken the tough decision that his real life commitments have unfortunately made it too hard for him to focus on his coordinator duties. We wish him good luck in the future, both in real life and on-wiki.

Efforts to redesign The Bugle are moving forward and it is our intention to roll out a new format, based on the Signpost, for next month's issue. We hope that this will allow us to provide better coverage of the project's news by allowing more room to expand on the stories we bring to you. If you have any comments or suggestions on what we can do to improve coverage, please let us know.

—your IX Coordinator Tranche, May 2010

Articles of note

New featured articles:

  1. Action of 1 August 1801
  2. Battle of Villers-Bocage
  3. Brian Eaton
  4. HMAS Australia (1911)
  5. HMS Lion (1910)
  6. Japanese battleship Tosa

New featured lists:

  1. List of battleships of Germany

New A-Class articles:

  1. 102nd Intelligence Wing
  2. Battle of Quebec (1775)
  3. Bombing of Yawata (June 1944)
  4. Deutschland class battleship
  5. Indiana class battleship
  6. Russian battleship Slava
  7. SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand
  8. SMS Hannover
  9. William Ellis Newton
Project news
  • With consensus reached on a name the American Civil War task force has officially opened our newest special project. Codenamed Brothers at War, its goal will be "...to improve [US Civil War] related Wikipedia articles to featured status, and to see as many of these as possible appear on the main page on their respective 150th anniversaries."
  • The straw poll concerning preemptive disambiguation of military units as outlined by our Manual of Style has been closed, with near unanimous consensus that the current practice of preemptive disambiguation be retained. Thanks to everyone who participated in either the discussion or the straw poll.
  • Members of Operation Majestic Titan have adopted a three-tiered award system to show appreciation to those who have done work on battleship or battlecruiser articles. Formally known as the Titan's Cross, the award has been issued to Parsecboy, Climie.ca, The ed17, and MBK004.
  • The project's official IRC channel (#wikipedia-en-milhist) has been restarted. Project members and anyone interested in military history are encouraged to join us for substantive discussions, social discourse and a few laughs. Instructions on how to get on IRC are available here.
Contest department
Awards and honours
Editorial: Project coordination and constructive editing

For those of you who might not know me, I'm Eurocopter. I served as a coordinator of the Military history WikiProject from August 2007 until few days ago, when I decided to resign due to real life issues making it impossible for me to continue to perform project duties on a regular basis. Reflecting on my experience and activities within the project, I decided to write this editorial to set out a few thoughts and offer some advice to interested members.

First of all, what does project coordination mean and how does it help the Military history WikiProject? Although the coordinators do not have any real executive powers, they play an important role in project management. To make editing contributions easier for our members we establish guidelines, manage Peer and A-Class reviews, and consult and assist when needed. The primary goal of the coordination team has always been to stimulate the development of quality articles and, once they have been developed, to facilitate maintaining them at a high standard for as long as possible. This has been carried out through the organization of a considerable number of assessment drives, contests and special projects. However, there is still much to be done to make the project one of the best and most active wiki-communities. Coordinator involvement in trying to achieve this, as the central promoters of any activity undertaken within the project, is more than important; the coordination team should stand as an example of civilised and constructive cooperation. Perhaps the most annoying issue—unfortunately quite widespread through the pages of Wikipedia—is POV-dominated conflict. While such a phenomenon might seem inevitable in a community within which hundreds of members of different nationalities with different historical and political views interact, it doesn’t mean we should accept it. The ability to neutrally mediate such conflicts is an important and desirable coordinator function.

Secondly, but most importantly in my opinion, is the question of how the project enables editors to contribute effectively. Perhaps you already know how difficult it is to take an article to the highest quality levels such as A-Class or featured status. It is even harder to do this working alone. I believe the best thing the Military history WikiProject has done is to bring together groups of editors with similar interests. As there are very few editors skilled in all the diverse article development areas, you might feel the need for help from editors more experienced in, for example, advanced copy editing, image editing etc. To this end the project provides task forces and special projects where members should always feel encouraged to ask questions, discuss, debate and give advice. Such cooperation is the best way to create properly balanced articles and to establish a neutral point of view. Our Style guide and Academy are also useful in guiding you along the path of writing an article. A final, but vital, part of the collaborative article writing process is editor behaviour when interacting with other editors who are contributing to the same article. Even on those occasions where an editor upsets you or allows their personal opinions to influence their editing, always remain calm, civil and try to reach an agreement. Contributing to Wikipedia is something most of us do as a hobby; time spent in useless conflicts is precious editing time wasted.

All in all, the Military history WikiProject is a good meeting point for milhist-interested editors, both beginners and advanced, with someone always there to give help and advice when needed. I wish to thank all my fellow coordinators and project members who keep this beautiful community running. I will certainly miss it!

Best regards and happy wiki-editing! Eurocopter (talk) 20:24, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

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This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 17:18, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Re:Exams

Not sure yet. The plan is to take this sometime in June so I can submit the exam results to the UTEP people and then move on to the letters of recommendation I need to get to complete the process. In the case of my application, I hold a C-ish average; since math is going to be a major part of the test, I need to do well enough in the subject to place in the top 10% or so to offset the low gpa I have so that the application I make for enrollment for a masters looks like a win from the University's perspective. TomStar81 (Talk) 01:07, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Mercifully, just the one; however they make up for the singularity of the test with time, generous estimates place the length of the test at 4-5 hours, including brief breaks. Can't say I'm looking forward to that, but then glory only goes to those who have the endurance to chase after a goal :) TomStar81 (Talk) 01:30, 8 June 2010 (UTC)
Well, you have to maintain a positive perspective on thee things. In my case, for example, I do not think of this as a 4-5 exam - I think of it as a game, and I'm going for the high score :) TomStar81 (Talk) 01:45, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

can you help?

--SwarmTalk 06:08, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

WikiCup 2010 June newsletter

We're half way through 2010, and the end of the WikiCup is in sight! Round 3 is over, and we're down to our final 16. Our pool winners were Ian Rose (submissions) (A), Colorado Sturmvogel_66 (submissions) (B, and the round's overall leader), Colombia ThinkBlue (submissions) (C) New South Wales Casliber (submissions) and New Orleans TonyTheTiger (submissions) (D, joint), but, with the scores reset, everything is to play for in our last pooled round. The pools will be up before midnight tonight, and have been selected randomly by J Milburn. This will be the toughest round yet, and so, as ever, anything you worry may not receive the necessary attention before the end of the round (such as outstanding GA or FA nominations) is welcome at Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews, and please remember to continue offering reviews yourself where possible. As always, the judges are available to contact via email, IRC or their talk pages, and general discussion about the Cup is welcome on the WikiCup talk page.

Though unaffiliated with the WikiCup, July sees the third Great Wikipedia Dramaout- a project with not dissimilar goals to the WikiCup. Everyone is welcome to take part and do their bit to contribute to the encyclopedia itself.

If you're interested in the scores for the last round of the Cup, please take a look at Wikipedia:WikiCup/History/2010/Round 3 and Wikipedia:WikiCup/History/2010/Full/Round 3. Our thanks go to Bavaria Stone (submissions) for compiling these. As was predicted, Group C ended up the "Group of Death", with 670 points required for second place, and, therefore, automatic promotion. This round will probably be even tougher- again, the top two from each of the two groups will make it through, while the twelve remaining participants will compete for four wildcard places- good luck everyone! If you wish to start receiving or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn, Fox and The ed17