User talk:HMSSolent/Archive 7

The Signpost: 18 February 2013

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 * EdwardsBot (talk) 18:03, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

Speedy deletion declined: Steve Berklin
Hello HMSSolent, and thanks for patrolling new pages! I am just letting you know that I declined the speedy deletion of Steve Berklin, a page you tagged for speedy deletion, because of the following concern: encountered a great success and notable exhibitions are assertions of importance. You may wish to review the Criteria for Speedy Deletion before tagging further pages. Thank you.  Ϣere Spiel  Chequers  23:01, 20 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the heads up! While I can certainly agree that it is an assertion of importance, I cannot find any reliable sources to back these claims. hmssolent \Let's convene My patrols 00:25, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

Blantyre and East Africa Ltd
Dear HMSSolent

Firstly, thank you for reviewing the article I posted on Blantyre and East Africa Ltd.

However, I have to query the grading of Start class. The criteria for this are, "An article that is developing, but which is quite incomplete and, most notably, lacks adequate reliable sources." Taking the sources first, the article cites around 30 separate sources, of which at least 20 are academic writers well-know in their field of Malawian history. On the incompleteness, it is difficult to think either what could be added to what there is in the article or what other sources there might be.

I lived and worked in Malawi for some years and also studied it academically. The article is one of a series on three of the four colonial-era trading companies (as article in the fourth already existed, but I greatly expanded it). the first on A L Bruce Estates is slightly shorter than this, with less references, but was awarded a B-grade and the other is awaiting review.

I realise that grading is rather subjective, but when I look at a Wikipedia article, I generally check the grading and would not be very trustful of a Start class article. On the assumption that others also check gradings, I think it should be re-graded. It is probably too short for Good Article status, and lacks illustrations (although I would argue that its content meets the GA criteria), but to me a B-grade is the least it deserves.

Regards

Shscoulsdon (talk) 08:49, 21 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Hello, Shshcouldson. Yes, I did give the article a wrong grade, but seeing that there are no lead sections on this article, I doubt that it would actually qualify for a B-grade. I suggest that you move it directly above the section title where the lead section is contained. Other than that though, it was a serious error on my part - frankly, I'm relatively new to AFC. - hmssolent \Let's convene My patrols 08:58, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

Hello HMSSolent

My apologies; the lead section was always meant to be the passage below. However, "somehow" this managed to get formatted below the contents box, with the duplicated heading Blantyre and East Africa Ltd wrongly inserted: probably an error on my part, as I'm fairly new too!. I have now fixed this by deleting the duplicated heading, so the lead section moved automatically to where it should have been. I would be grateful if you could now consider the re-grade requested.

Many Thanks

"Blantyre and East Africa Ltd is a company that was incorporated in Scotland in 1898 and is still in existence. Its main activity was the ownership of estates in the south of what is now Malawi. The main estate crops it grew were tobacco until the 1950s and tea, which it continued to grow until the company’s tea estates were sold. Blantyre and East Africa Ltd was one of four large estate-owning companies in colonial Nyasaland which together owned over 3.4 million acres of land, including the majority of the fertile land in the Shire Highlands. [1] The company acquired most of its landholdings between 1898 and 1901 from several early European settlers, whose title to this land had been recognised by Certificates of Claim issued by the administration of the British Central Africa Protectorate. [2] After the boom for Europeans growing tobacco ended in about 1927, the company retained one large estate in Zomba District where its tenants were encouraged to grow tobacco and others where it grew tea. It was also left with a scattering of small estates that it neither operated nor effectively managed but obtained cash rents from African tenants on crowded and unsupervised estates. [3] Many of its estates, excluding the tea estates which it continued to manage directly, were sold to the colonial administration of Nyasaland between 1950 and 1955. [4]" Shscoulsdon (talk) 16:54, 21 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi, Shscoulsdon. Yeah, it does happen quite often with new editors; we've had hundreds of newbies having this exact problem while trying to create a broad article such as this one. BTW, I forgot to mention that there's a bot that would look at the WikiProject assessments on the talk page, and, based on a specified parameter, will automatically re-assess the article. If you have the assessment display activated on your Preferences menu, you will be able to see the article's assessement right under the page title. Click on the link that says "start-class" and you'll find more information on how this works. hmssolent \Let's convene My patrols 00:20, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

Umbrella stand
Are there enough refs?--Mcapdevila (talk) 00:51, 26 February 2013 (UTC)
 * You're cleared to remove that tag; the sources are adequate enough to verify. hmssolent \Let's convene My patrols 00:55, 26 February 2013 (UTC)

Your review in progress for Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Abigail MacBride Allen
I'd like to review and accept this article if you aren't going to be able to review it. Is that OK? StarryGrandma (talk) 18:49, 26 February 2013 (UTC)
 * It does qualify for a Stub or Start-class article as far as I'm concerned. Go ahead then.  hmssolent \Let's convene My patrols 00:47, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

The Signpost: 25 February 2013

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 * EdwardsBot (talk) 04:38, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

WikiCup 2013 February newsletter
Round 1 is now over. The top 64 scorers have progressed to round 2, where they have been randomly split into eight pools of eight. At the end of April, the top two from each pool, as well as the 16 highest scorers from those remaining, will progress to round 3. Commiserations to those eliminated; if you're interested in still being involved in the WikiCup, able and willing reviewers will always be needed, and if you're interested in getting involved with other collaborative projects, take a look at the WikiWomen's Month discussed below.

Round 1 saw 21 competitors with over 100 points, which is fantastic; that suggests that this year's competition is going to be highly competative. Our lower scores indicate this, too: A score of 19 was required to reach round 2, which was significantly higher than the 11 points required in 2012 and 8 points required in 2011. The score needed to reach round 3 will be higher, and may depend on pool groupings. In 2011, 41 points secured a round 3 place, while in 2012, 65 was needed. Our top three scorers in round 1 were:
 * , primarily for an array of warship GAs.
 * , primarily for an array of did you knows and good articles, some of which were awarded bonus points.
 * , due in no small part to Canis Minor, a featured article awarded a total of 340 points. A joint submission with, this is the highest scoring single article yet submitted in this year's competition.

Other contributors of note include:
 * , whose Portal:Massachusetts is the first featured portal this year. The featured portal process is one of the less well-known featured processes, and featured portals have traditionally had little impact on WikiCup scores.
 * , whose Mycena aurantiomarginata was the first featured article this year.
 * and, who both claimed points for articles in the Major League Baseball tie-breakers topic, the first topic points in the competition.
 * , who claimed for the first full good topic with the Casting Crowns studio albums topic.

Featured topics have still played no part in this year's competition, but once again, a curious contribution has been offered by : did you know that there is a Shit Brook in Shropshire? With April Fools' Day during the next round, there will probably be a good chance of more unusual articles...

March sees the WikiWomen's History Month, a series of collaborative efforts to aid the women's history WikiProject to coincide with Women's History Month and International Women's Day. A number of WikiCup participants have already started to take part. The project has a to-do list of articles needing work on the topic of women's history. Those interested in helping out with the project can find articles in need of attention there, or, alternatively, add articles to the list. Those interested in collaborating on articles on women's history are also welcome to use the WikiCup talk page to find others willing to lend a helping hand. Another collaboration currently running is an an effort from WikiCup participants to coordinate a number of Easter-themed did you know articles. Contributions are welcome!

A few final administrative issues. From now on, submission pages will need only a link to the article and a link to the nomination page, or, in the case of good article reviews, a link to the review only. See your submissions' page for details. This will hopefully make updating submission pages a little less tedious. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) J Milburn (talk) 01:10, 1 March 2013 (UTC)