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Handbook

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Please see the Academy course for coordinators for general information and advice.

Coordinator tasks

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These tasks should be done as often as needed—ideally, on a daily basis.
Assessment
  • Monitor the daily assessment log. The main things to look for:
    • Articles being removed. This is usually legitimate (due to merges or non-military articles getting untagged), but is sometimes due to vandalism or broken template code.
    • Articles being moved to "GA-Class" and higher quality. These ratings need to correspond to the article's status in the GA and FA lists or the A-Class project review.
  • Deal with any new assessment requests and the backlog of unassessed articles.
A-Class review
  • For each ongoing A-Class review:
    1. Determine whether the review needs to be closed and archived, per the criteria here.
    2. If a review has been open for a month without at least three editors commenting, leave a reminder note on the main project talk page, using the following boilerplate: {{subst:Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Coordinators/Toolbox/A-Class review alert|Name of article}} ~~~~
  • If an article has been put up for A-Class review in the past and you receive a request for assistance per WP:MHR for a fresh review, follow the procedure below for creating an A-Class review or reappraisal. This will make way for the normal A-Class review initiation process, so advise the nominator to initiate per the instructions.
Quarterly Reviewing Awards
Quarterly Reviewing Awards - manual process
  • At the end of each quarter, all editors that complete at least one A-Class review receive a Milhist reviewing award. Create a new thread on the Coordinators' talk page and paste the following boilerplate into the body, leaving the subject line empty:{{subst:MILHIST Quarterly Reviewing Table}}. Save the thread, reopen it and change the months and year in the subject line and table, add a comment under the table, sign and save the thread again. Then tally the qualifying reviews:
    1. Tally A-Class Reviews. As only those editors who complete at least one Milhist A-Class review receive an award, start by tallying them. Go to [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/201X]] (inserting the correct year) and click on the links to check all the A-Class articles that were promoted, failed, kept or demoted in the relevant quarter. Tally the number of articles reviewed by each editor. One suggested method is to use a simple pen-and-paper tally of usernames as you scroll through the relevant archive; another is to save the relevant reviews into a word processor and delete all content except the usernames of the reviewers, then tally from there. Regardless of which method is chosen, it can be time consuming so you may need to do it over several sessions. Once done, add each editor who completed an A-Class review to the User column of the Quarterly Reviewing Table, and add one point to the ACR column for each article that editor reviewed.
    2. Tally Good Article Reviews. Methods are to go to Wikipedia:Good articles/Warfare revision history for the quarter and tally the articles added by each editor listed in the Quarterly Reviewing Table or to use the Pages Created tool to isolate GA nomination pages created by a specific user. Add one point to the GA column for each MilHist article that those editors reviewed. Note that the accuracy of this method relies upon reviewers listing GAs per instructions.
    3. Tally Peer Reviews. Go to Wikipedia:Peer review/Archive and click on the links to open the archive pages for the relevant quarter. Check the talk page of each article to determine whether it falls under MilHist. For each article that does, check whether it was reviewed by an editor listed in the Quarterly Reviewing Table. If so, add one point to the PR column for each MilHist article that editor reviewed.
    4. Tally Featured Article Reviews. Go to Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates/Featured_log and Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates/Archived_nominations, and click on the links to open the archive of review pages for the relevant quarter. Check the talk page of each article to determine whether it falls under MilHist. For each article that does, check whether it was reviewed by an editor listed in the Quarterly Reviewing Table. If so, add one point to the FAC column for each MilHist article that editor reviewed.
  • Tally the total number of points for each editor and add them to the Total column of the Quarterly Reviewing Table.
  • Award all reviewers in accordance with the following schedule (the award templates are all available under "Military history awards" below):
    1. 15+ points – the WikiChevrons
    2. 8–14 points – the Content Review Medal of Merit (Military history)
    3. 4–7 points – the Milhist reviewing award (2 stripes)
    4. 1-3 points – the Milhist reviewing award (1 stripe)
  • Sign the Awarded column of the Quarterly Reviewing Table for each editor to signify that the award has been presented.

Quarterly reviewing awards are posted on the Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Military history/Awards page by the MilHistBot. As with other awards, change the status from "nominated" to "approved" to approve the award.

Member affairs
Miscellaneous

How to...

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Boilerplate and templates

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Open tasks

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Topics for future discussion

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  • Collaboration with galleries, libraries, archives, museums, universities, and various other institutions (e.g. Wikipedia:GLAM/NMM)
  • Article improvement drives
  • Notability guideline for battles
  • Naming convention guideline for foreign military ranks
  • Using the "Results" field in infoboxes
  • How far milhist's scope should include 'military fiction' (possible solution, see scope of Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Military fiction task force)
  • Encouraging member participation in the various review processes (peer, GAN, ACR etc)
  • Recruiting new members (see User:The ed17/MILHIST, etc.)
  • Improving/maintaining popular pages
  • Motivating improvement from Stub to B-Class
  • Enabling editors to improve articles beyond B-Class (possibly utilising logistics dept, also see WP:FAT for related ideas)
  • Helping new members (possibly involving improving/deprecating welcome template; writing Academy course)
  • Recruiting copy-editors to help during ACR
  • Recruiting editors from external forums/groups/etc.
  • Simplifying ACR instructions (old discussion)

Missing academy articles

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Open award nominations

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Nominations for awards are made and voted on by coordinators at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Military_history/Awards. An A-Class Medal nomination needs at least two coordinators' votes to succeed, and the Chevrons with Oak Leaves a majority of coordinators' votes. All coordinators are requested to review the following:

ACRs for closure

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All A-Class reviews are eligible for closure 28 days after they were opened, or 5 days if there is a clear consensus for either promotion or non-promotion, by any uninvolved coordinator. The closing coordinator should check the review page carefully to ensure that there are three general supports and supports (or passes) for both the image and the source reviews, and that there are no outstanding points to be addressed. A guide to manually closing A-Class reviews is available, but normally the closing coordinator just needs to change A-Class=current in the {{WPMILHIST}} banner to A-Class=pass or A-Class=fail.

@Matarisvan:. I agree that this is unlikely to get the needed supports. Two other coordinators looked at it, commented and ultimately did not support. I think the problem is the one raised by Hog Farm, that the person who is the subject of the article is not notable for his military service, per note 3 to area of focus number 2: "Military service does not in and of itself place an individual within the scope of the project—particularly in the case of service in modern militaries. To qualify them, an individual's military service must have been somehow noteworthy or have contributed—directly or indirectly—to their notability." Donner60 (talk) 01:32, 9 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Donner60, archiving this one since we have a quorum of 4 coords out of 7. Matarisvan (talk) 17:33, 11 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Miyoshi Nagayoshi has no supports and has been open for 4 months now. Seeking consensus to fail this nom. Matarisvan (talk) 18:07, 8 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    I think this is unlikely to get reviewed because almost all of the sources are in Japanese. The only English source that can be viewed as an online excerpt has only a few pages of information about Nagayoshi. The other two English language sources are books that few people are likely to own. The books may not provide a comprehensive look at the subject even if some potential reviewers own them. One seems to be a general type of Japanese military history overview; the other seems to deal mostly with religion. It is also a long article which could discourage reviewers, especially if unfamiliar with the subject. I don't know if there is any guideline about how long a request should go unnoticed before it ought to be failed. Maybe others would have some knowledge or experience with this. Otherwise, if no one else responds, I suggest that you wait until the request is at least six months old. After that much time with no activity, I think there is less likelihood that a fail, even with good reason, would be questioned as premature. Donner60 (talk) 01:55, 9 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    The article looks fine though. Put out a request for help at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Japan. (Oddly, the nom does not claim to be able to read Japanese.) Hawkeye7 (discuss) 02:38, 9 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    @Hawkeye7 and @Donner60, I think we should wait a week for further reviews, that is till the 16th, and then archive this ACR. It has already been open for 5 months now and if any reviews were going to come, they would have. Matarisvan (talk) 18:08, 11 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    I think we mainly just need somebody who can read Japanese to check over the sourcing etc. to make sure there aren't non-starter issues and then it can proceed better. I haven't reviewed this one because I have no way of knowing if there are major issues hidden below the surface level or not, and I imagine others are in the same boat. Hog Farm Talk 18:19, 11 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    A plea to Wikipedia:WikiProject Japan, perhaps? Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 18:34, 11 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    @Hawkeye7 has already posted a request for review there. No affirmative responses so far. Matarisvan (talk) 18:44, 11 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Should this assessment be archived now? There have been no reviews forthcoming from our project and from WikiProject Japan too. Also, the article needs much work on grammar and sourcing, and I'm willing to work on a peer review with the nominator to improve it. Matarisvan (talk) 12:28, 18 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    @Donner60, @Pickersgill-Cunliffe, @Hawkeye7 and @Hog Farm, this ACR has been archived today, 17 November 2024, since there had been no reviews for 6 months now; editors from WikiProject Japan haven't shown any interest; and anyways, I don't think all sources being Japanese is good, at least the Cambridge or Oxford Histories of Japan should have been referenced. Please let me know if this was in error. Matarisvan (talk) 17:35, 17 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

MILHIST CCI cases

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The following open CCI cases contain MILHIST articles (some usernames are omitted from the case titles because they are real names):

  1. Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/20130819
  2. Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Degen Earthfast
  3. Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/America789
  4. Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Buster40004
  5. Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/$1LENCE D00600D
  6. Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Kprtqrf06
  7. Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Mztourist
  8. Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/20190125
  9. Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/20210418
  10. Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Bluecountrymutt
  11. Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/DaWulf2013
  12. Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/DeltaSquad833
  13. Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/20230508

Discussion

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Suggestions

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@WP:MILHIST coordinators: Welcome to another year of coordinating! While I'm not looking to start anything immediately I want to raise the idea of some kind of drive or event during this term. Of our five major milestones only one remains; it might be nice to have a drive with the goal of furthering that? Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 20:27, 2 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I had been thinking along those lines. I am not sure how the 83.5% figure was arrived at. There are 227,416 articles in the project rated FA, A, GA, B, C, Start and Stub (ie excluding 5,708 lists and 90,811 templates, redirects, categories etc.) To get from 83.5 to 100.0 we need to lift the number of B class articles by about 20% ie 4,000 articles. Unlike the other goals, this one is a moving target.
So how would we go about doing that?
  • One reservoir is the 64,240 C class articles. Some of them may already qualify as B-class, due to the MilHistBot being uncertain about the referencing. For example: 1st Dorsetshire Artillery Volunteers. Others (more common), like 1st Gloucestershire Engineer Volunteer Corps only need a couple of extra references. Most though, need a lot of work. Some are completely unreferenced. We could go through selecting articles that only need a bit of work.
  • We could also look at the stubs with a view to deleting or merging some. For example, Talk:1st Military District (Australia) contains a 2016 discussion of merging the Australian military districts into one article which was never performed.
Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:20, 2 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Good ideas. Many years ago the rogue and banned editor Wild Wolf rated articles start and perhaps occasionally C at random without ever looking at them. He did several in a minute so coordinators and administrators warned him more than once before he was banned. He was also using sockpuppets. I stopped asking for reviews at that time although I am quite sure some of my articles then and later were B class. If I could find a little extra time, I think it would take little work for me to bring them up to B from later deterioration. Those are just a small number of the many that could be improved. I would hope that many editors would respond because many of these articles are on obscure topics with hard to find references. I doubt that I, for one, have or can easily find references for them if the problem is citation deficiency. Donner60 (talk) 22:08, 2 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Exactly. Editors would have trouble finding references in subject areas in which they are unfamiliar, but more easily in subject areas within their field of expertise. So the approach I would suggest one of triage, where we work though the C class articles, discarding those requiring a lot of work, and categorising the rest according to topic area, so participating editors could take them on and correct them. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 00:03, 3 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Create a pre-arranged list of not-too-terrible C-class articles, and put them up in a drive for improvement? Coords could then be in charge of re-rating/checking for B-class once an editor has signified that the article has been actioned. Barnstars and leader boards as appropriate? Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 19:17, 3 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
This sounds like a good idea to me. Hog Farm Talk 19:22, 3 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I think the clearest way to organise the list would be with the task force topics. The question would be whether sections be created for all the task forces (there are a lot!) or only for one type of them? Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 15:46, 4 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
How many of the task forces are still functionally used? I imagine it's only a fraction of the total ones. Hog Farm Talk 19:49, 4 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hi coordinators, congrats to all elected in this tranche. I have not been that active recently (and am not currently a coord) but thought I'd chime in on this. I did do a bit of work monitoring our progress against this target in 2018-2019 (User:Dumelow/MILHIST B-class assessment stats); when we held a number of drives to try to clear the unassessed article backlog. This helped to slowly chip away at the target, improving it from 72.1% in February 2018 to 76.9% by October 2019. The November 2019 introduction of Milhistbot to automatically assess against the B-class criteria helped greatly (adding 1,500 new B-class articles) and led to a jump to 82.8% (we are currently at 83.4%). I agree that it would be absolutely great to achieve this target and help to demonstrate the project is committed to bringing a good chunk of articles to a basic decent standard as well as the perhaps more visible successes achieved at GA and FA. More than happy to help out assessing articles and chipping in with improvements if we can get a drive going. One area I was monitoring at the time of the last push was Category:Military history articles needing attention only to supporting materials which currently holds around 1,300 articles. A good portion of these, in theory, need only an image or infobox to achieve the B-class standard - Dumelow (talk) 15:59, 4 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
That would, in my opinion, be a fantastic place to start. Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 16:20, 4 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hi, chiming in late here. The ideas advanced above, namely the listing of C-class articles for improvement to B-class, and working on the articles requiring supporting materials, sound great to me. Also, working on articles which need work on article structure and grammar could be done concurrently; those requiring more citations or coverage could be done later if needed. Matarisvan (talk) 16:44, 4 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I had the MilHistBot provide me a list of some of the low hanging fruit. It suggested articles like:
Hawkeye7 (discuss) 19:42, 4 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
What kind of parameter are you using for that? Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 19:59, 4 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I asked it to locate C-class articles that are fully or nearly fully referenced. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 10:09, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I ran off another short list here. The number in parentheses is the number of references that the Bot thinks are lacking. Plenty more where these came from, but most could be uplifted to B-class with a little effort. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 00:36, 8 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In addition to, if you are looking for specific focal areas, you could have a look at the various Task Forces and their respective WikiWork parameters: Cumulative WikiWork (ω) and Relative WikiWork (Ω). For example, the United States military history task force indicated values of ω=302,399 and Ω=4.541. This task force alone accounts for approx. 28% of all military history articles while only 11.2% are B-class or higher. It would require improving approx. 2,500 articles within the United States military history task force to push this task force north of the 15% threshold. Food for thought. Cheers MisterBee1966 (talk) 06:58, 9 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

ACR to-do list for October 2024

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@WP:MILHIST coordinators: I am a newly elected coord for WPMH. I'm taking the initiative to add this topic since the ACR to-do list for July 2024 above has been exhausted, it has only one task remaining, which I will cover below. Would be great to hear from other coords. Please feel to delete this introductory text once all other coords have read it.

Matarisvan (talk) 16:59, 4 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

 You are invited to join the discussion at WP:HD § Problems moving an article due to a redirect. -- Marchjuly (talk) 00:38, 8 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps a MILHIST coordinator could take a look at this question posted at the Help Desk and provide some advice to the OP. In addition to the naming issue, there might also be a CONTENTFORK issue since most of the content in User:Mr.Lovecraft/Construction site beta has the feel of stuff that might already be covered in existing Wikipedia articles about either the US Army itself or World War II. If that's the case, maybe it would be better to explain this to the OP sooner than later and spare them the surprise of having this moved to the mainspace only to see it subsequently merged, redirected, etc. by someone else. -- Marchjuly (talk) 00:45, 8 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I see that the author has moved this to the article title United States Army in World War II. I think the title is misleading. While much of the material is covered and I have other criticisms, a problem that I see initially is that this article is really only about the organization of the United States Army in World War II. It would be more accurate to add the words "Organization of the" to the title if it is to be retained in its current form and not distract readers from the comprehensive article on Military history of the United States during World War II. Ping other coordinators for specific notice if they wish to comment here or on discussion page. I will add my comment there. @WP:MILHIST coordinators: Donner60 (talk) 00:37, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Donner60: Thanks for taking a look at this. The HD discussion was archived and can now be found at Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2024 October 7#Problems moving an article due to a redirect. The OP responded to your post, but I'm not sure they understood what you were trying to say. The article they created can now be found at United States Army during World War II. Perhaps Talk:United States Army during World War II is now the best place for you or any other members of MILHIST to comment on it or assess it. -- Marchjuly (talk) 21:58, 11 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The name is like those of other countries, eg Australian Army during World War II, British Army during the Second World War. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 22:26, 11 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Marchjuly and Hawkeye7: I have added a see also section to this article with Military history of the United States during World War II, and included in the edit summary "other articles about nation's armies in World War II are more comprehensive, this see also should direct interested readers to additional information." I think that should satisfy my concern and not leave readers without a link and article providing information other than just the organization. Donner60 (talk) 01:55, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

November Bugle

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I'm going to be travelling without Wikipedia access for the next month or so. Could one or two people please volunteer to help Ian with the next edition of the Bugle? I usually handle the book reviews, ACR blurbs and featured pictures. Thanks, Nick-D (talk) 00:55, 12 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Happy to help if given a nudge closer to publishing. Am I right in saying Adam Cuerden has assisted with the pictures before? Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 10:38, 12 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
In the apparent absence of a reply, I have looked at the featured pictures published in September and October. The following are two pictures added to the list of featured pictures in October but not published on the main page in October; these seem to be the types of pictures included in the Bugle's new featured pictures section:
<gallery mode=packed heights=200px>
File:British Columbia Regiment 1940.jpg|Wait for Me, Daddy, by Claude P. Dettloff (restored by Yann)
File:Daddy, what did You do in the Great War?.jpg|"Daddy, What Did You Do in the Great War?", by Savile Lumley/Johnson, Riddle & Co. Ltd. (restored by Adam Cuerden)
These are pictures that were published on the main page in October, but not included in those designated in October as well. So I think they were probably designated as new featured pictures in the Bugle in an earlier month:
USS Johnston
Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso
I am reasonably sure that the first two would be the ones included in the November Bugle as new featured pictures for October, but not the second two. I am pinging @Adam Cuerden:. Perhaps he can confirm that I have researched and analyzed this completely and correctly or whether I have missed something or otherwise come to an incorrect or incomplete conclusion. Donner60 (talk) 07:54, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
This is the October issue we are talking about? Hawkeye7 (discuss) 02:11, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
In the absence of a reply, it appears to me that this would be October news, features, etc. in the November issue. The November issue template is not yet up as of a short time ago. Donner60 (talk) 07:56, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My apologies: I'm dealing with my father's estate, which is taking a lot of my mental facilities. Adam Cuerden (talk)Has about 8.8% of all FPs. 04:59, 19 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Quite understandable. Sorry to hear of the loss of your father. Best wishes. Donner60 (talk) 05:42, 27 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Quality content drive?

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Question: Would there be any interest here is running a project backlog drive with the expressed goal of working through our quality content? We've had that "prior to 2016 it needs to be looked" at disclaimer, but not a lot of action on it, and I get the sense other project are having the same issue(s). If we could find enough support in our project for a drive that'd be great, but I'm thinking with so many articles in need of work we'll need to do some outreach to cover our bases. At a minimum, WP:GOCE should be contacted, but if there's interest here then perhaps we can count on some interest across the spectrum. If it should really blow up, I'd be prepared to give it a proper code name and split up the work into task forces for more manageable bytes. What do you think? TomStar81 (Talk) 11:28, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

An initial question: Would this be along the lines suggested by Pickersgill-Cunliffe in the "Suggestions" topic above or a separate drive? If two different types of drives are contemplated, I think they would need to be spaced some months apart to generate enough enthusiasm to make some real progress. Donner60 (talk) 03:32, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
No, this'd be an independent drive with the objective of addressing articles listed at Wikipedia:Unreviewed featured articles/2020. This list has appeared for a few years in our news section with the byline "Editors are advised that Featured Articles promoted before 2016 are in need of review, if you had an article promoted to Featured status on or before 2016 please check and update your article before they are listed at FAR/C.". Ostensibly, the goal would be to coordinate efforts just within the existing batch there to clear our articles out of the list - although if the rest of the community (biography project, history project, women project, etc) were interested we could consider initiating a Wikipedia wide drive. Right now, I'm just trying to suss out if there is any interest in this particular avenue of work, or if the community wants to rally around a different group of articles to work on at the moment. TomStar81 (Talk) 06:58, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I do not see the byline under the News & Open Tasks tab or in the Bugle. I looked more closely and see it under the Discussion tab and in the template {{WPMILHIST Announcements}}. Some members of the project know about this drive because I note contributions to/reviews by several current and former coordinators and experienced users in recent years but perhaps the byline about it could be inserted on the News & Open Tasks page or in the Bugle News section or both for greater exposure. Donner60 (talk) 07:06, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hi guys, this month's Bugle is late going out but that did allow me to catch this discussion, so I chucked a reminder about unreviewed FAs into the News section. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 12:17, 27 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Military historian and newcomer of the year election voting

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@WP:MILHIST coordinators: When I documented the procedure for this last year, I said that voting was between 1 and 30 December but forgot to specify the nomination period. Would two weeks be sufficient? Hawkeye7 (discuss) 01:36, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, that's enough time. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 03:14, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I agree. Donner60 (talk) 03:50, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Okay. I have updated the instructions accordingly. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 05:10, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

AutoCheck report for October

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The following articles were rated as B class by automatic assessment:

MilHistBot (talk) 00:10, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Something seems wrong here. I will re-check the logs. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 05:05, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Donner60 (talk) 06:23, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

AutoCheck report for October

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The following articles were rated as B class by automatic assessment:

MilHistBot (talk) 06:22, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That's better Hawkeye7 (discuss) 06:30, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Awards

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@Hawkeye7: Dates for nominations differ between talk page and MMS. I'm assuming it's the MMS that's correct? Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 19:52, 16 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. I have corrected the talk page. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 23:34, 16 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

My rewrite on Talk:Bombardment of Greytown

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Around mid-October, I left a message at this URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Military_history/Requests_for_project_input.

I did not receive a reply. Here is what I said:

I have done an expansive rewrite edit of Wikipedia’s Bombardment of Greytown page on that page’s talk page.

There, I had learned that: “This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: Military history: Maritime / British / European C‑class.”

I invite anyone associated with WikiProject: Military history to read my attempt to improve upon this Start-class article and to comment.

I realize you may be very busy with other projects. But if you could just acknowledge an awareness of my effort and that it's "in the cue" to be looked at (with perhaps a rough estimate as to when), I would be much appreciative.

Will-DubDub Will-DubDub (talk) 06:05, 18 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

On your talk page, you have a conversation in which an editor with a few years of experience replied that your proposal to follow this procedure was appropriate: "I found this advice online: "If you plan to make substantial edits to a Wikipedia article, it is generally considered good practice to first draft your changes on the article's talk page, especially if the edits are significant or potentially controversial, allowing for discussion and feedback from other editors before implementing them directly on the article itself." To do this, it said to "Start a new section [add topic?] on the talk page."
Although the advice about starting a discussion on potentially controversial changes has some merit, in more than 14 years on Wikipedia, I have never seen an entire article rewritten on a talk page and have no knowledge about where it is suggested in Wikipedia guidelines as a procedure for getting comment or help on a substantial or an entire rewrite of an article - which in turn is not likely to be controversial. (I see you got this advice "online", perhaps not on Wikipedia itself?, but maybe it exists somewhere here.). Your pinging of others who have been involved in editing the article was appropiate and a good way to get input. For prominent articles (perhaps Battle of Gettysburg, as an example), just posting on the talk page might attract comment from a few persons who have the article watchlisted. Posting on the requests for project input on the project talk page here also was a potentially good way to get input. As I note below my suggested way to progress this, however, requests for project input here may or may not get one or more responses.
The substantial amount of work that you have done seems to be work usually done in draft space and submitted first to articles for creation by newer editors. Because you are obviously good at research and writing, and have gained some experience through articles for creation in particular already, I suggest a more usual approach for assessment of a presumably non-controversial improvement or revision of an existing article. Post the changed article on the article page itself and then ask for an assessment of the article grade at Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Requests. A coordinator or experienced user will respond as soon as a day later and almost certainly within a week. They will not do research or comment on the substance of the article unless something does not seem correct and probably if the article is in a topic area with which they are familiar. They may have questions or suggest that you expand or clarify some point. The main purpose of the review, other than that, is to tell the writer whether the article meets B class criteria or whether there are some deficiencies that need to be addressed in order to bring the article to B class. Reviewers will almost always make minor changes for misspellings or grammar. They will not do research or help you rewrite or improve an article - with perhaps a few exceptions in areas of their knowledge and interests. There is a different procedure for higher level reviews. Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment. The main roles of coordinators are shown at Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Coordinators.
I have only skimmed the article. It appears to be B class in form, except for the end of a few paragraphs where citations are needed; I tagged them in the draft. I would need to read the article more carefully to assess it after citations are added but it looks good at first glance. I personally use a references section as well as citations or notes because in some cases there are additions that are not references and for concise reading. As far as I know, that is not required but just how some editors approach this.
Requests for project input is a new separate topic area put at the top of the project talk page. These type of requests were scattered through the talk page in the past. Usually, they are about disagreements already started about something in the article, occasionally about a substantive point, or even more likely, about actions such as changing the title of the article and other non-substantive matters. Coordinators (and we are four short of the desired number of coordinators) may or may not respond if it appears that it is something they can or really need to address. As you knew or surmised, coordinatiors are usually busy on tasks noted in the page cited above or even on their own articles.
This request for input section is on the general project talk page rather than on this page in the event other members of the project, usually experienced users, can, or wish to, provide comment or even additional help. Sometimes experienced users who watch that page do reply. I assume some of these requests may never get a reply. After some period of time requests are removed from the page with the presumption that anyone who was interested in replying would have done so on the article talk page or any other type of page on which the question is raised. I do reply to some requests and will note that I did so in reply to the request on the project talk page as well, although this not an established procedure. So some input may or may not have been given to archived requests. As I noted above, I think your request was a good approach and not unique. Perhaps we need to add to the topic introduction a note saying that a request may or may not receive input from project members (including coordinators) who see the request for various stated (or unstated) reasons in order to prevent future misunderstandings.
If you have further questions, you are welcome to ask them here or on my talk page. Otherwise, I again suggest that you post the changed article in article space and ask for assessment. Since all the past versions of the article are posted, they will still be available if needed for some reason. Donner60 (talk) 02:55, 19 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for this extensive and extremely helpful reply.
I have added the three citations you suggested (and thanked you after putting in the first two).
I will transfer my draft to the article page if the new citations meet with your approval. When it is on the article page, I will bring it to the attention of the Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Requests and ask for an assessment of the article grade.
I only have two remaining questions for the moment. When should I think about adding images? And should I add a Bibliography or Further Reading section when, in fact, three of the entries would be to publications of mine, including a book in print? Would this not raise the specter of conflict of interest or would I be regarded as an SME, or “Subject-Matter Expert”? Will-DubDub (talk) 20:00, 19 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Please add the infobox (amended if necessary) and accompanying picture when you post the article to the article page. You can add pictures then or later. I have read the article and with the infobox and picture I can rate the article as B class regardless whether additional pictures are added now or later.
Some reviewers and other users object to the posting of rows of pictures (galleries), especially in shorter articles. There is a guideline to that effect somewhere but it has not precluded galleries, especially near the end of long articles. So add pictures to the right or left of the text to avoid any criticism. They don't all need to be on the same side. This fine line about picture posting seems a bit odd to me since pictures are otherwise encouraged. It may go back to the time when limiting the number of bytes in an article was more necessary for loading the page on slower computers or phones.
You are not trying to promote your books or gain some advantage by citing them. I don't see a conflict of interest. Some users mention books that they have written without trying to promote them. You would indeed be a subject matter expert. Indeed, I don't think the books would even be recognized as yours.
I have thought a little more about the requests for project input. The separate section at the top of the page was introduced recently upon the suggestion to keep them together and concurrence by a couple of other people. I saw the request and thought there would be no problem with that approach and did not comment. In fact, it turns out that there is a misunderstanding because the types of requests we may have thought about were more routine ones, mostly change of titles and minor questions.
I think that it would be better for someone who would like input about possible additional sources or comments on a few statements or a paragraph or specific questions and the like to post those in a new section (titled with the article title, and possibly even something like "help with" in the section. These would be posted after the existing sections on a page. That is how they have been done. I think this type of request for some limited help or comment that would more likely draw responses and would not be contrary to the grouping of the types of requests that the list of current requests of a certain type at the top was meant to highlight. Those requests often are looking for input for additional responses or are often procedural. More substantive requests in order of posting still might not draw responses but I think there would be a better chance that a coordinator or experienced user would see that it is a question or request about which they could easily and quickly provide a comment, source or suggestion. Donner60 (talk) 23:49, 19 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks again for another long, helpful note.
I will be making slight changes to the info box while retaining the picture.
I won't be putting in any other pictures right away, but later.
I appreciated this: “I have read the article and with the info box and picture I can rate the article as B class.” But should I still bring it to “the attention of the Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Requests and ask for an assessment of the article grade”?
And I also appreciated this paragraph:
You are not trying to promote your books or gain some advantage by citing them. I don't see a conflict of interest. Some users mention books that they have written without trying to promote them. You would indeed be a subject matter expert. Indeed, I don't think the books would even be recognized as yours.
But I found a page on Wikipedia describing how to set up a “Further reading" entry which “a reader may consult for additional and more detailed coverage of the subject.” And it said:
Please do not add a work to the Further reading section if you are an author or publisher of the work. All editors are expected to comply with the Conflicts of interest guideline.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Further_reading#:~:text=The%20Further%20reading%20section%20of,detailed%20coverage%20of%20the%20subject
Any additional advice on this subject would be most welcome. Will-DubDub (talk) 06:29, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Please put the assessment request on the article assessment request page. I look at that page frequently, and in some weeks, daily. That helps keep the request upfront and records that it has been handled in the page history. Someone else could assess it earlier but I am sure the assessment would be the same. In recent times, I often get to handling the requests first for the majority of the requests.
My opinion on the conflict of interest is the same. You will be citing a work that can (presumably) be checked for relevance and accuracy, not promoting it. Apparently someone or a few people thought that adding one's own work to further reading would be promotional. At least I can't think of any other reason for that part which covers own works in the COI section. Notably, the essay contains this sentence: "Bookspam (the addition of content for the purpose of advertising a work) and other promotional activities are prohibited." Note also that the essay is not a guideline itself but an explanatory essay. That is indicated by this sentence: "This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community." The main purpose of this page seems to be to keep users/editors from adding numerous additional works that are not cited in the article or not within other guidelines, including the prohibition on COIs.
I have seen opinions of users who think there shouldn't be further reading sections at all. Perhaps they serve a purpose in long articles about broad topics, but then again, if they are useful, I don't see why they would not be cited. I don't use further reading sections and think that even in the distant past I have never added or added to one. I am sure that I have edited articles that already have such sections but I am reasonably sure that I have never added to or otherwise edited such a section. Donner60 (talk) 22:56, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Is this the article assessment request page: Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikipedia/Assessment?
And is this how I make the request? “Just add {{WikiProject Wikipedia}} to the talk page.” If so, after I transfer the draft to the article page, should I click on “Add topic” in the Bombardment of Greytown talk page, and put ?what? in the Subject and Description boxes?
Sorry for my ignorance!
I am ready to transfer my draft from the talk page to the article page of “Bombardment of Greytown".
I will leave the info box and the picture in place, changing the info box only slightly, to reflect the fact that Greytown was an independent city state at the time of the razing.
I also added a 200 word section to the draft that you haven't seen before. This is not about anything new. It is an expansion of the argument that the case law Durand v. Hollins should not be used to justify presidential acts of war against sovereign states. It begins with the words: "Justice Nelson went on to say …” and ends with the words "Pierce and Secretary Marcy on that express ground”.)"
Thanks again for all your help. Will-DubDub (talk) 20:00, 21 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
You will see on the project's article assessment page Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Requests (not the talk page for that link) the following caption: ADD NEW REQUESTS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS SECTION AND BEFORE THE LINE FOR THE BACKLOG CHECK REQUEST. Start with an asterisk, then a link to the article that you wish to have assessed. Most requests are accompanied by a brief comment, occasionally a question, but often just something like "Please assess" or "Please assess for B class." As long as the new text is covered by the existing footnote, or a new or repeated one is placed at the end of it if it is added to the end of a paragraph, it will be fine. I am glad you mentioned it so that I will note it in particular Instead of skimming it since I had read it earlier. Thank you for following through with this. Donner60 (talk) 00:18, 22 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

AutoCheck report for November

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The following articles were rated as B class by automatic assessment:

MilHistBot (talk) 00:10, 1 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Cewbot removing "class=redirect" causing problems

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Hi co-ords. Just to let you know that User:Cewbot is removing class=redirect from the project banner (example) and causing a whole heap of redirects to appear in Category:Unassessed military history articles. Is this a problem with the bot or the banner? - Dumelow (talk) 18:02, 7 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This is still happening, eg. here on 10 December. Milhistbot is then dutifully reassessing them as redirects eg here, but does this risk causing an endless cycle of bot edits? Pinging User:Kanashimi and User:Hawkeye7 as the bot operators - Dumelow (talk) 07:14, 11 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Gonnym, @Tom.Reding Maybe we should remove the class=redirect part in remove_unnecessary_parameters? Kanashimi (talk) 07:34, 11 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Ii is alright. The article shows correctly as a redirect. The MilHist template requires class=redirect but the banner shell handles it automagically. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 08:47, 11 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
{{WP Military history}} is in Category:Custom class masks of WikiProject banners, so Cewbot should be avoiding it when it comes to redundant class values.   ~ Tom.Reding (talkdgaf)  09:51, 11 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Agree with Tom. The bot should avoid any template changes to templates in that category, but it should continue with removing it from everywhere else. If some templates want to work harder, that's their choice. Gonnym (talk) 08:08, 12 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]