Member interview - The Obento Musubi interviews Jonny-mt (talk·contribs), a newcomer to WikiProject Hawaiʻi. Jonny-mt expanded and improved Papakolea Beach resulting in an entry on the Main Page in the Did you know? column on January 24, 2008. Jonny also created Myoporum sandwicense which appeared in the DYK column on March 12, 2008.
The Laysan Duck, an endangered bird endemic to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
SeanMD80 reassessed 23 NWHI-related articles, leaving detailed comments for improvement. Please pick a Start-Class article and bring it up to B-class, or help improve a B-Class article and nominate it for GA-Class or above. At least 18 NWHI articles—nine stubs and nine start-class articles—are candidates for Did you know; if you are expanding these articles, please submit a DYK to link the article on the main page and help increase visitor traffic.
The recent assessment of NWHI articles revealed missing sections: Island articles need sections on geology, history, and ecology, while wildlife articles require sections on description, range, behavior, and conservation. An award will be given to users that make a significant effort to expand these articles and/or submit DYKs. View the full list, and contact Sean for questions and collaboration.
A new task force has been created to improve articles about the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Please consider joining if you have an interest in this topic. While there are only around 40 articles within the scope of this task force at present, it is conceivable that the number could grow to twice that size as the articles expand and branch off into new topics. A Hawaiian history task force has also been proposed. Please voice your opinion on the project talk page.
Collaboration
WikiProject Hawaiʻi continues to collaborate with other WikiProjects. BorgQueen and WikiProject Food and Drink are attempting to bring Cuisine of Hawaii to FA-Class, but many sections are still stubs. If you want to help out, join the discussion or begin your research with the references in the bibliography section. The Food and Drink project recommends using List of Hawaiian dishes to link to related topics. See the talk page for more information.
The Obento Musubi interviewed jonny-mt for April's issue. They discussed how the project should handle dispute resolution and Jonny's plans for improving the Hawaii Portal.
So, as you know, WikiProject Hawaiʻi has a section on its talk page regarding disputes. How do you think we should solve the current eight topics regarding some of our highest priority articles?
Given that the section of the WP Hawaiʻi talk page dedicated to disputes was last updated in August 2007, I think the first thing to do it take a look at the issues with fresh eyes. We have a number of new editors to the project and a number of old editors who have gained more experience in the past six or so months, and I think that if we take it one issue at a time we have a good chance of settling at least half or so of the eight outstanding issues with minimum fuss just by going back and reexamining the issues.
Naturally, some of the more tricky ones may require dispute resolution or discussions on the new NPOV noticeboard, but I think that a bit of patience can go a long way.
WikiProject Hawaiʻi also has its own portal, The Hawaiʻi Portal. What plans do you have currently to improve the Hawaiʻi Portal?
When I first started working on the portal, my goal was to tie up all the loose ends and make it easy for others to contribute content. I think we're at that point now, and so the current focus should be on adding new featured biographies, anniversaries, quotes, and ʻŌlelo. There's also been discussion of revamping the portal to give it a bit of a nicer look--I certainly wouldn't mind, but it definitely takes a back seat to adding new content.
What do you believe are the steps necessary to make our portal gain featured portal status?
I honestly think that if we can get enough content on the portal, it should be no problem to breeze through the rest of the criteria and get the portal up to featured status. The only other really major factor holding back P:HI is the fact that it is largely self-referential in that it encourages user contributions--naturally, once we get enough contributions that problem should pretty much take care of itself :)
Did you know that a muʻumuʻu is a traditional Hawaiian dress? And no, it isn't pronounced "moo-moo", like the sound of a cow. See the List of English words of Hawaiian origin for the proper pronunciation. This list of Hawaiian words is the focus of May's issue, brought to you by The Obento Musubi and the newsletter crew.
