Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/January 2017/Project news

Welcome to the first Bugle edition of 2017!

As always, our articles section highlights content promoted to featured or A-class status last month. This issue's bumper book review section features three reviews by and Hawkeye7. TomStar81 continues his contributions covering World War I with an op-ed on an unusual diplomatic overture by Germany, as well as his regular timeline listing the major actions this month one hundred years ago.

The MilHist FA, A-class, GA and Peer Reviews for October–December 2016 have been tallied. headed the list, followed by, and. You can find the names of everyone who contributed reviews here, and we thank them all for their efforts.

The 2016 Military Historian and Newcomer of the Year vote has also just concluded. In the 2016 Military Historian of the Year (MHOTY) contest, congratulations go to: AustralianRupert and Peacemaker67, joint winners of the Golden Wiki;, who took the Silver Wiki; and , who took the Bronze Wiki. Congratulations also to, who took the Golden Wiki in the 2016 Military History Newcomer of the Year (MHNOTY). We should point out that Peacemaker67's Golden Wiki makes him the first editor to have been earned both the MHOTY and MHNOTY awards -- he was the inaugural winner of the latter in 2012! On behalf of the entire project, we congratulate everyone nominated for the 2016 awards, and thank all who voted.

As a final note and reminder, the Bugle continues to welcome contributions from all Wikipedia editors. If you'd like to provide an article of any length, please do so via our newsroom or contact either of the editors.

Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk)


 * The project's A-class review process remained a hive of activity throughout 2016 and remains a key part of its content improvement strategy. In the corresponding Bugle from this time last year, a comparison of the project's throughput over the past few years was undertaken in the hope of encouraging further involvement in the process, following the identification of a trend of slow decline in this aspect of the project. Due to the spectacular efforts of the project's members, instead of a further decline we have actually experienced a slight increase in the number of successful A-class reviews. The numbers are as follows: like last year, there were 95 reviews submitted. Of these, 82 articles and lists passed muster, nine were unsuccessful, three were demoted during member-initiated re-appraisals and one A-class article was successfully brought back up to the required standard.
 * What is very heartening to see is the varied topics of the articles and lists that were successfully improved through this process, and the new editors that are getting involved. The successful articles and lists span a broad range of topics across a breadth of periods including warships, battles/events, military units, biographies, memorials, weapon systems, aircraft, and military or warfare-related facilities. There are currently 17 articles and lists awaiting reviews at WP:MHACR, so we are already off to a great start for 2017.
 * Thank you to everyone who worked throughout 2016 to help keep this part of the project ticking, either through reviewing or nominating. If you are interested in getting involved, but are unsure where to start please know that every little effort counts, whether it is a full review, or limited to images, sources, copy editing etc. The coordinators are always happy to help with any questions about the process and there are also many experienced editors out there to approach for advice.


 * The A-Class medal with Diamonds has been awarded to:
 * for SMS Seeadler, SMS Geier, and SMS Kaiser Friedrich III
 * for No. 1 Aircraft Depot RAAF, Dick Cresswell, and Alan Rawlinson


 * The contest department has completed its 114th round of competition in what proved to be a very hotly contested month with a phenomenal number of submissions. A total of 82 articles were submitted by 14 editors. First place went to, with 82 points from 15 entries to receive the Chevrons, followed by , who earned the Writer's Barnstar with 73 points from 11 entries. An honorable mention goes to who notched up a very creditable 58 points from 10 articles. Acfrue, AustralianRupert, Catlemur, Djmaschek, Ian Rose, Iazyges, Krishna Chaitanya Velaga, Miyagawa, Parsecboy, TeriEmbrey and Zawed also fielded entries. Please submit any articles you are working on for this month's round of competition now.


 * 2016 saw the second edition of the Military History Writers' Contest Cup, which seeks to award consistency across all 12 months of the year. There was a strong field with 21 editors submitting a total of 777 articles. At the conclusion of the December 2016 contest, the co-ordinators take great pleasure in announcing as the winner for 2016 with an incredible 1,401 points from 266  articles. Congratulations! An honorable mention also goes to  with 731 pts from 83 articles. The contest scoreboard from this year, and past years, can be found here.


 * We look forward to another hotly contested race for the 2017 Cup. Remember, you don't have to write GAs, or FAs, to get involved. You can claim points even for improving stubs to start or C-class, etc. It all adds up over the course of a year. Good luck!