Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Massachusetts/Task forces/Person/Archive 5

Request for input in discussion forum
Given the closely linked subjects of the various religion, mythology, and philosophy groups, it seems to me that we might benefit from having some sort of regular topical discussion forum to discuss the relevant content. I have put together the beginnings of an outline for such discussion at WikiProject Religion/2011 meeting, and would very much appreciate the input of any interested editors. I am thinking that it might run over two months, the first of which would be to bring forward and discuss the current state of the content, and the second for perhaps some more focused discussion on what, if any, specific efforts might be taken in the near future. Any and all input is more than welcome. John Carter (talk)

Automated message by Project Messenger Bot from John Carter at 15:44, 5 April 2011

Wiki Loves Pride
 You are invited to participate in Wiki Loves Pride!


 * What? Wiki Loves Pride, a campaign to document and photograph LGBT culture and history, including pride events
 * When? June 2015
 * How can you help?
 * 1.) Create or improve LGBT-related articles and showcase the results of your work here
 * 2.) Upload photographs or other media related to LGBT culture and history, including pride events, and add images to relevant Wikipedia articles; feel free to create a subpage with a gallery of your images (see examples from last year)
 * 3.) Contribute to an LGBT-related task force at another Wikimedia project (Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, Wikivoyage, etc.)

Or, view or update the current list of Tasks. This campaign is supported by the Wikimedia LGBT+ User Group, an officially recognized affiliate of the Wikimedia Foundation. Visit the group's page at Meta-Wiki for more information, or follow Wikimedia LGBT+ on Facebook. Remember, Wiki Loves Pride is about creating and improving LGBT-related content at Wikimedia projects, and content should have a neutral point of view. One does not need to identify as LGBT or any other gender or sexual minority to participate. This campaign is about adding accurate, reliable information to Wikipedia, plain and simple, and all are welcome!

If you have any questions, please leave a message on the campaign's main talk page.

Thanks, and happy editing!

User:Another Believer and User:OR drohowa

Featured list removal candidates/List of birds of Massachusetts/archive1
I have nominated List of birds of Massachusetts for featured list removal here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets the featured list criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks; editors may declare to "Keep" or "Delist" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here.

WikiProject Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Hullo all! I've submitted a proposal for creating Wikiproject Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority - comments are highly appreciated! Whoop whoop pull up Bitching Betty &#124; Averted crashes 21:09, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

Several proposed names/scopes
Note your input is also sought on the several proposed names and scopes, made as this proposal has been reviewed.

Your input is still sought on the proposed WikiProject WikiProject Council/Proposals/Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Thank You — Lentower (talk) 20:40, 22 May 2015 (UTC)

Suggestion
Hello all! I was curious if anyone else thought it might be a good idea to make a (nonbinding) guideline on how all the individual US state WikiProjects should organize themselves, to help standardize them. I originally put this suggestion in the WikiProject United States talk page, so feel free to look there if you're interested. It's pretty empty though; basically all they said was to see what each of the individual projects thought about it. Please tell me if you have any concerns with this idea; hopefully we can find a way for everyone to love it! Also, I'm new at making proposals, so please forgive me if I do anything silly. :) Hope that you like this idea! JonathanHopeThisIsUnique (talk) 04:56, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

Massachusetts Senate infobox
Hello everybody! Inspired by the work of Alansohn over at WikiProject New Jersey on the New Jersey State Legislature info box in use on pages about New Jersey legislative districtions (good example here I created a comparable infobox for Massachusetts Senate districts. So far I've only installed it on the currently existing article for the Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden Massachusetts Senate district but plan to create articles for the other thirty nine senate districts. Unfortunately, I'm doing this all by hand (I'm not skilled enough to think up some way to automate this) so it will be slow work, and I would be thrilled if anybody else would join me in this process. I think it would be a great way to expand the scope of articles about Massachusetts and hopefully encourage people to contribute to spreading information about the various districts.

As stated, I would love any help on this endeavor. Particularly with constituency maps, which I think would be a great addition to the articles and infoboxes.

If anybody has any feedback, please let me know! I'm always trying to find new ways to improve my Wikipedia skills and presence. Williw (talk) 03:55, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

Pageview stats
After a recent request, I added WikiProject Massachusetts to the list of projects to compile monthly pageview stats for. The data is the same used by http://stats.grok.se/en/ but the program is different, and includes the aggregate views from all redirects to each page. The stats are at WikiProject Massachusetts/Popular pages.

The page will be updated monthly with new data. The edits aren't marked as bot edits, so they will show up in watchlists. You can view more results, request a new project be added to the list, or request a configuration change for this project using the Tool Labs tool. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know. Thanks! Mr.Z-man 03:45, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Lombardo's Function Facility in Randolph
Lombardo's Function Facility is in Randolph, and it could use some work. I've done what I can, but it's still up for deletion. Any help is appreciated. ··· 日本穣 ? · 投稿  · Talk to Nihonjoe ·  Join WP Japan ! 05:41, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

Portrait of Henry Hoʻolulu Pitman
Hello. Are there any editors in the area of the Peabody Essex Museum who would like to help me get a higher quality picture of the portrait of Henry Pitman from the Peabody Essex Museum and possibly help me find any information on the portrait itself like date of creation and artist? I don't know if the portrait is on display or in storage in the museum. Names to look for might be Henry Pitman, Timothy Henry Pitman, Timothy H. Pitman or even Henry Hoolulu Pitman.--KAVEBEAR (talk) 19:50, 12 September 2015 (UTC)

Archived old addressed threads
Archived some old addressed threads.

Metric used was threads older than one year, zero new activity in thread, referring to old closed discussions like closed deletion discussion from years ago, etc.

Cheers,

&mdash; Cirt (talk) 08:15, 24 October 2015 (UTC)

Editors in the area of the Mount Auburn Cemetery
Hello. Are there any editors in the area of the Mount Auburn Cemetery who would like to help me get a picture of a gravesite for Timothy Henry Hoolulu Pitman. There is also apparently a family memorial possibly in the center of the Pitman plot. There is one of the family marker on the Wiki commons but it is from a different angle and I need a better picture of this with the inscription of Henry's side visible. The images I've linked are non-free so I can't use them and need someone in the area to upload a non-free image to Wikimedia Commons. I've also read that his brother Benjamin Franklin Pitman (1845–1918) is buried around there in a family vault but I have seen no image of this and the marker I linked actually doesn't include him? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.--KAVEBEAR (talk) 04:22, 6 August 2015 (UTC)
 * I'll be headed out over to that area in a day or two, I'll have a look around and release the photos under a compatible CC license. Winner 42 Talk to me!  23:36, 7 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks. The grave marker of Timothy Henry Pitman and a good view of the side of the family marker with his inscription would be awesome. Let me know if find anything about his brother Benjamin Franklin Pitman (1845–1918) and his brother's wife Almira Hollander Pitman (1854–1939). --KAVEBEAR (talk) 23:54, 7 August 2015 (UTC)
 * I went and took some pictures yesterday which you can find in my commons contributions, some are better than others. I couldn't find any evidence of ben f. pitman nearby on the pitman plot. Hope this helps! Winner 42 Talk to me!  01:25, 10 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much.--KAVEBEAR (talk) 01:29, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

Did you seem this tomb/mausoleum complex when you visited the site of the Pitman family marker and Henry Pitman's gravestone? It seems to say that it is located on the west side of Auburn Lake.--KAVEBEAR (talk) 22:21, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

Missing Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justices
Drafts have been created for dozens of missing Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justices at WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles/United States judges and justices. Please feel free to complete these drafts and move them to mainspace. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. Cheers! bd2412 T 19:00, 27 March 2016 (UTC)

FAC source review
Featured article candidates/Henry Hoʻolulu Pitman/archive2 needs a source review for formatting and reliability and a spotcheck of sources for accuracy and avoidance of plagiarism or close paraphrasing. Image review already done. Thanks.--KAVEBEAR (talk) 21:19, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

Request for Endurance International Group article
Hi, my name is Melanie and I'm here on behalf of my employer, Endurance International Group (which is based in Massachusetts), to propose updates to the company's Wikipedia article. I am hoping to find a volunteer editor to review a proposed draft and make sure that it complies with guidelines. I described my goals in more detail here, and will not the article directly because of my conflict of interest. Is there some who can help implement changes appropriately? I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thanks for your consideration. Melanie from Endurance (talk) 15:48, 17 October 2016 (UTC)

Incorrect image for Westville Lake/Dam (Sturbridge/Southbridge, MA) Wikipage
Good afternoon - the wiki page for Westville Lake (Sturbridge/Southbridge, MA) is incorrect. The image is that of the East Brimfield Dam, located 5 miles to the W/NW of Westville. The Route 20 causeway is clearly visible in the image; the road splits the East Brimfield lake area.
 * Anyone know what this was referring to? I don't see anything like this on either the Sturbridge, Massachusetts or Southbridge, Massachusetts pages. Is it a reference to the Westville Dam? 0x0077BE  ( talk ·  contrib ) 18:19, 20 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Just checking on Google Maps Westfield Dam, Eastfield Brim Dam, the image in question. Looks like the identification as Westfield Dam is accurate, based on the presence of the roundabout. 0x0077BE  ( talk ·  contrib ) 18:24, 20 October 2016 (UTC)

Edits on Marty Meehan's bio
Hi - I am not sure who is paying attention here, but I have been in contact with the communications office at the main UMass offices. They want to help editors find sources and clean up the pages. The person working with me is just learning how to manage the COI policy and navigating the Marty Meehan bio. I have given him some background on why this entry may have more eyes on it than normal. He has put some text and sources on the talk page and is looking for someone to make edits. I would, but I too have a conflict of interest as a system employee. I am putting this on a few projects with hope that it will be caught by those still editing. The language on the entry needs clean up to be more neutral and the sources need to be integrated. I appreciate any help we can give him. --LibraryGurl (talk) 00:41, 26 October 2016 (UTC)

US 50,000 Challenge invite
Hi. The WikiProject United States/The 50,000 Challenge has recently started, based on the UK/Ireland The 10,000 Challenge. The idea is not to record every minor edit, but to create a momentum to motivate editors to produce good content improvements and creations and inspire people to work on more states than they might otherwise work on. If there's the interest I will start 1000 State Challenges like The 1000 Challenge (Nordic). For this to really work we need diversity and exciting content and editors from a broad range of states regularly contributing. If you would like to see masses of articles being improved for the US and your specialist/home state like WikiProject Africa/The Africa Destubathon, sign up today and once the challenge starts a contest can be organized. This is a way we can target every state, and steadily vastly improve the encyclopedia. We need numbers to make this work so consider signing up as a participant and also sign under any state sub challenge on the page that you might contribute to! Thankyou.♦ Dr. Blofeld  15:17, 1 November 2016 (UTC)

2016 Community Wishlist Survey Proposal to Revive Popular Pages
Greetings Members!

This is a one-time-only message to inform you about a technical proposal to revive your Popular Pages list in the 2016 Community Wishlist Survey that I think you may be interested in reviewing and perhaps even voting for:


 * Fix and improve Mr.Z-bot's popular pages report

If the above proposal gets in the Top 10 based on the votes, there is a high likelihood of this bot being restored so your project will again see monthly updates of popular pages.

Further, there are over 260 proposals in all to review and vote for, across many aspects of wikis.

Thank you for your consideration. Please note that voting for proposals continues through December 12, 2016.

Best regards, — Delivered: 18:03, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

Notice to participants at this page about adminship
Many participants here create a lot of content, may have to evaluate whether or not a subject is notable, decide if content complies with BLP policy, and much more. Well, these are just some of the skills considered at Requests for adminship.

So, please consider taking a look at and watchlisting this page:


 * Requests for adminship/Optional RfA candidate poll

You could be very helpful in evaluating potential candidates, and even finding out if you would be a suitable RfA candidate.

Many thanks and best wishes,

Anna Frodesiak (talk) 01:07, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

Popular pages report
We – Community Tech – are happy to announce that the Popular pages bot is back up-and-running (after a one year hiatus)! You're receiving this message because your WikiProject or task force is signed up to receive the popular pages report. Every month, will post at /Popular pages with a list of the most-viewed pages over the previous month that are within the scope of. We've made some enhancements to the original report. Here's what's new:
 * The pageview data includes both desktop and mobile data.
 * The report will include a link to the pageviews tool for each article, to dig deeper into any surprises or anomalies.
 * The report will include the total pageviews for the entire project (including redirects).

We're grateful to for his original, and we wish his bot a happy robot retirement. Just as before, we hope the popular pages reports will aid you in understanding the reach of, and what articles may be deserving of more attention. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at m:User talk:Community Tech bot.

Warm regards, the Community Tech Team 17:15, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Greater Springfield Wikiproject
Hi all- I am currently in the process of proposing a Greater Springfield Wikiproject to organize articles and content standards related to our state's second metropolitan area, its main city and neighboring communities. I know 4 in 5 people live in Greater Boston, but whether you're the 5th person or just have an interest in the area's long and colorful history, your support is sincerely welcome. --Simtropolitan (talk) 17:45, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

GA nomination of Arlington's Great Meadows
The article Arlington's Great Meadows nominated as a good article has been placed on hold. The article is close to meeting the good article criteria, but there are some minor changes or clarifications needing to be addressed. If these are fixed within 7 days, the article will pass; otherwise it may fail. See Talk:Arlington's Great Meadows for things which need to be addressed.

I'm posting this notice here because this article is covered under WikiProject Massachusetts, but the nominator has not been active on Wikipedia for two months. epicgenius (talk) 22:54, 25 February 2018 (UTC)

Improving article on Dundee Park in Andover
Hi, everyone! I'm a relatively new Wikipedia editor, and recently created the Dundee Park (Massachusetts) page. I would greatly appreciate any help in improving it, specifically by adding more references, adding photographs and graphics, and more thorough research. Thanks! -Visvajit (talk) 21:25, 11 March 2018 (UTC)

New Massachusetts userbox templates
New Massachusetts userbox templates are now available at Template:User WP Massachusetts and Template:User WP United States. Yours aye, Buaidh  talk contribs 22:47, 25 April 2018 (UTC)

WikiProject collaboration notice from the Portals WikiProject
The reason I am contacting you is because there are one or more portals that fall under this subject, and the Portals WikiProject is currently undertaking a major drive to automate portals that may affect them.

Portals are being redesigned.

The new design features are being applied to existing portals.

At present, we are gearing up for a maintenance pass of portals in which the introduction section will be upgraded to no longer need a subpage. In place of static copied and pasted excerpts will be self-updating excerpts displayed through selective transclusion, using the template Transclude lead excerpt.

The discussion about this can be found here.

Maintainers of specific portals are encouraged to sign up as project members here, noting the portals they maintain, so that those portals are skipped by the maintenance pass. Currently, we are interested in upgrading neglected and abandoned portals. There will be opportunity for maintained portals to opt-in later, or the portal maintainers can handle upgrading (the portals they maintain) personally at any time.

Background
On April 8th, 2018, an RfC ("Request for comment") proposal was made to eliminate all portals and the portal namespace. On April 17th, the Portals WikiProject was rebooted to handle the revitalization of the portal system. On May 12th, the RfC was closed with the result to keep portals, by a margin of about 2 to 1 in favor of keeping portals.

There's an article in the current edition of the Signpost interviewing project members about the RfC and the Portals WikiProject.

Since the reboot, the Portals WikiProject has been busy building tools and components to upgrade portals.

So far, 84 editors have joined.

If you would like to keep abreast of what is happening with portals, see the newsletter archive.

If you have any questions about what is happening with portals or the Portals WikiProject, please post them on the WikiProject's talk page.

Thank you. &mdash; The Transhumanist  07:47, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

RfC at Richard B. Spencer
There is an RfC at the Richard B. Spencer talk page found here that members of this project might be interested in taking part in. -- ψλ  ● ✉ ✓ 02:42, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

Plymouth page renaming discussion
There is a discussion at which editors may wish to comment on Lyndaship (talk) 06:17, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

RfC on election/referendum naming format
An RfC on moving the year from the end to the start of article titles (e.g. South African general election, 2019 to 2019 South African general election) has been reopened for further comment, including on whether a bot could be used move the articles if it closed in favour of the change: Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (government and legislation). Cheers, Number   5  7  15:45, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

Nobody Is Above the Law
Currently, the Nobody Is Above the Law has a paragraph about the recent demonstrations in Massachusetts. Are any project members able to confirm if protests were held in other cities, or help flesh out the existing content? --- Another Believer ( Talk ) 17:06, 10 November 2018 (UTC)

MathWorks COI edit requests
Hi! I work for a communications firm that represents Massachusetts-based MathWorks. I've shared a COI edit request on the article's talk page—just cleaning up a poorly sourced paragraph in the History section with updated references. If anyone here is up for taking a look and sharing feedback, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for your time! Mary Gaulke (talk) 16:51, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

WP 1.0 Bot Beta
Hello! Your WikiProject has been selected to participate in the WP 1.0 Bot rewrite beta. This means that, starting in the next few days or weeks, your assessment tables will be updated using code in the new bot, codenamed Lucky. You can read more about this change on the Wikipedia 1.0 Editorial team page. Thanks! audiodude (talk) 06:47, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

Nomination of Portal:Fall River, Massachusetts for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether Portal:Fall River, Massachusetts is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The page will be discussed at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Fall River, Massachusetts until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the page during the discussion, including to improve the page to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the deletion notice from the top of the page. North America1000 00:33, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

A new newsletter directory is out!
A new Newsletter directory has been created to replace the old, out-of-date one. If your WikiProject and its taskforces have newsletters (even inactive ones), or if you know of a missing newsletter (including from sister projects like WikiSpecies), please include it in the directory! The template can be a bit tricky, so if you need help, just post the newsletter on the template's talk page and someone will add it for you.
 * – Sent on behalf of Headbomb. 03:11, 11 April 2019 (UTC)

Nomination of Portal:Boston for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether Portal:Boston is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The page will be discussed at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Boston until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the page during the discussion, including to improve the page to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the deletion notice from the top of the page. North America1000 05:47, 6 June 2019 (UTC)

Request for information on WP1.0 web tool
Hello and greetings from the maintainers of the WP 1.0 Bot! As you may or may not know, we are currently involved in an overhaul of the bot, in order to make it more modern and maintainable. As part of this process, we will be rewriting the web tool that is part of the project. You might have noticed this tool if you click through the links on the project assessment summary tables.

We'd like to collect information on how the current tool is used by....you! How do you yourself and the other maintainers of your project use the web tool? Which of its features do you need? How frequently do you use these features? And what features is the tool missing that would be useful to you? We have collected all of these questions at this Google form where you can leave your response. Walkerma (talk) 04:24, 27 October 2019 (UTC)

Public art in Boston
Hello! Ahead of the upcoming WikiConference North America, which will be held in Boston in November, I'm creating a project page listing public artworks in the city at WikiProject Sculpture/Boston.

Surprisingly, there were only 6 Wikipedia articles about public art in Boston, before this month. So far I've created Boston Massacre Monument, Equestrian statue of Joseph Hooker, Statue of Charles Sumner (Boston), Statue of Charles Sumner (Cambridge, Massachusetts), and Statue of Wendell Phillips, as well as List of public art in Boston and Template:Public art in Boston. I'll be continuing work on Boston's public art in the next couple months and invite any project members to help out! Could be a fun little collaboration. :)

Thanks, and happy editing! --- Another Believer ( Talk ) 18:53, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

Draft:Billy Starr
Hi all! I've created a draft article about Billy Starr – founder of the Pan-Mass Challenge – that's been in the AfC queue for nearly three months. I have a COI – I work with the Pan-Mass Challenge – so I'd like a second set of eyes on the article before it's published. If anyone here is up for taking a look, I'd appreciate it so much. Thank you! Mary Gaulke (talk) 02:49, 15 May 2019 (UTC)

First of all, I personally think that article is way to praising. Maybe make it less sound pitchy? Readnews1 (talk) 03:06, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

Carl Barron Plaza
Could someone add coordinates to Carl Barron Plaza, so I can add a map to the infobox? --- Another Believer ( Talk ) 19:48, 17 April 2020 (UTC)

Drafts for missing Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Drafts have been seeded for the following missing Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (many of whom also held other state offices, or played other parts in the history of the state):

• #Draft:Charles Decourcy - Charles Decourcy

• #Draft:Charles E. Forbes - Charles E. Forbes

• #Draft:Edward Counihan - Edward Counihan

• #Draft:Francis Quirico - Francis Quirico

• #Draft:George A. Sanderson - George A. Sanderson

• #Draft:George Tyler Bigelow - George Tyler Bigelow

• #Draft:Henry Braley - Henry Braley

• #Draft:Henry Lummus - Henry Lummus

• #Draft:Henry Sheldon (Massachusetts judge) - Henry Sheldon (Massachusetts judge)

• #Draft:James Ronan - James Ronan

• #Draft:John Cushing (judge) - John Cushing (judge)

• #Draft:John Cushing Jr. - John Cushing Jr.

• #Draft:John Hammond (Massachusetts judge) - John Hammond (Massachusetts judge)

• #Draft:John Lathrop (Massachusetts judge) - John Lathrop (Massachusetts judge)

• #Draft:John Spalding (Massachusetts judge) - John Spalding (Massachusetts judge)

• #Draft:John Walley (Massachusetts judge) - John Walley (Massachusetts judge)

• #Draft:John Wells (Massachusetts judge) - John Wells (Massachusetts judge)

• #Draft:Nathaniel Ropes - Nathaniel Ropes

• #Draft:Paul Reardon - Paul Reardon

• #Draft:R. Ammi Cutter - R. Ammi Cutter

• #Draft:Raymond Sanger Wilkins - Raymond Sanger Wilkins

• #Draft:Richard Saltonstall (Massachusetts judge) - Richard Saltonstall (Massachusetts judge)

• #Draft:Samuel Hubbard (Massachusetts judge) - Samuel Hubbard (Massachusetts judge)

• #Draft:Samuel Putnam (Massachusetts judge) - Samuel Putnam (Massachusetts judge)

• #Draft:Seth Ames - Seth Ames

• #Draft:William Allen (Massachusetts judge) - William Allen (Massachusetts judge)

• #Draft:William Wait - William Wait

Any improvements to these would be appreciated. Cheers! bd2412 T 11:14, 30 October 2019 (UTC)


 * There is already an article on Foster Hutchinson (judge). Given his son was also a judge (in Nova Scotia), there is a bit a disambiguation problem.  Magic ♪piano 01:46, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

Massachusetts General Court session article names
Continuing a discussion on the talk page of User:M2545, who deserves to be recognized for great work creating articles for Massachusetts Senate districts and Massachusetts House of Representatives districts ...

I'd like to set a consensus on the correct naming for articles related to the Massachusetts legislature, particularly articles on each two-year legislative session and on each individual legislative district. Because they are two separate groups of articles, and to minimize confusion in this discussion, I'll deal with the legislative session articles here and the legislative district articles in the next section.

I've also pinged the talk pages of those who made comments last week, as well as WikiProject Politics, as suggested by M2545.

Here are the comments from User talk:M2545:

M2545's two responses:

Additional responses:

M2545 then suggested potential other naming conventions, to which Slugger O'Toole and Number 57 responded (and I will add my response below):


 * I agree with, and have a strong preference for style #1. If we disambiguate by dates instead of ordinals, I would prefer "Massachusetts General Court (1995-1996)" over style #3, as the dates are not part of the official name of the session; I would parse this proposed style as analogous to History of Spain (1810–73). To answer User:Number 57's question, the ordinal numbered names are the "official" names of these legislative sessions, and the date range is merely descriptive. The numbering is not a Wikipedia invention; it's used by the legislators themselves. The sheets of paper on which actual legislative bills are printed contain the heading: "The Commonwealth of Massachusetts / In the One Hundred and Ninety-First General Court / (2019-2020)". ``` t b w i l l i e ` $1.25 ` 02:23, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
 * There was a site wide discussion not long ago the concluded that dates come before any text. But WP:Naming conventions (government and legislation) is clear: "National Assembly of Bulgaria (not Narodno sabranie) but 2003 loya jirga (not 2003 Grand Assembly) and Bundestag (not Parliament of Germany)." Similarly, WP:Naming conventions (numbers and dates) states that "the preferred format for elections is '  election.'" Unless there is a preference for style 1, style 3 would not follow established consensus. --Enos733 (talk) 04:51, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
 * , That discussion was about elections, not bodies. I think the better precedent for a legislative body would be 100th United States Congress or 42nd Canadian Parliament. There the ordinal comes first, with no mention of the years at all. This would lead us to style #1. I suppose we should also figure out whether we want to say the Massachusetts General Court or the General Court of Massachusetts. My preference is for the former. -- — Preceding unsigned comment added by Slugger O&#39;Toole (talk • contribs) 10:07, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
 * I don't disagree if the ordinal number is used. As I mentioned, I can accept style 1 per WP:CommonName. However, if we use dates, the naming convention says that dates come first. --Enos733 (talk) 15:52, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Adding to the upthread comment by, and to clarify for others: The "legislative session" articles we're talking about are intended to be articles about the work of the legislature in that two-year period (i.e., laws passed; leadership; maybe scandals and resignations as well), and NOT primarily about the November elections, which are/should be treated in separate articles. ``` t b w i l l i e ` $1.25 ` 16:08, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

As to the question raised above by, I think "Massachusetts General Court" is the best name for the bicameral body. That's what our article on this topic uses. ``` t b w i l l i e ` $1.25 ` 16:08, 8 June 2020 (UTC) I encourage you to poke around in the sources for the General Court articles already created. You'll find very little mention of numbered terms, and lots of mention of terms by year. Having recently compiled several dozen articles about past General Courts, I strongly recommend including the year in each article title, per WP:RECOGNIZABILITY. Here is an example of an article with just the year in the title: Massachusetts General Court of 1840. -- M2545 (talk) 23:27, 8 June 2020 (UTC) No other proper name than Massachusetts General Court should be used to refer to the legislature. I support continuing to use ordinal numbers in the names (191st Massachusetts General Court) because that is the official name of that meeting of the legislature. I have mixed feelings about having the years included as a parenthetical — in my mind this significantly increases usability when the articles appear in lists but is not necessary when they are wikilinked within the body of other articles (since context can be written into the text). Has thought also been given to the years included in these parentheticals? For example, technically the duration of the 191st Massachusetts General Court (2019–2020) is from January 2019 to January 2021, not only until 2020. Justin Haas (talk) 15:03, 15 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Hi Justin. The ordinals and years came from lists of senate and house composition via Mass.gov. -- M2545 (talk) 15:22, 15 June 2020 (UTC)

Legislative district article names
Our 200 articles on state legislative districts carry titles that are neither the official names nor any kind of WP:COMMONNAME.

The naming system currently in use -- Massachusetts Senate's 3rd Middlesex district, Massachusetts House of Representatives' 3rd Middlesex district, etc. -- is needlessly wordy and awkward.
 * For the record, as the creator of most of those 200 district articles, I simply followed the district names already created here by in 2017. -- M2545 (talk) 23:34, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Congressional districts of Massachusetts and Massachusetts special elections have similar names. -- M2545 (talk) 16:09, 17 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Also in Wikidata there are multiple access points eg "3rd Middlesex", "Third Middlesex", "Massachusetts State Senate 3rd Middlesex District". -- M2545 (talk) 23:36, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

The official names of these districts are both Third Middlesex District, or possibly Third Middlesex district. The legislation that draws the district lines every 10 years has consistently, for over a century, referred to Senate districts using the following language: "... [T]he commonwealth shall be divided, conformably with the constitution, into the following 40 senatorial districts: ... First Essex - Consisting of the cities of Haverhill and Newburyport and the towns of ..." etc. (example from ). In the 19th century, the names given to Senate districts in legislation were Third Middlesex District, etc..

For representative districts, the legislation uses the same wording as Senate districts back to 1973 (e.g., "into the one hundred and sixty following representative districts: ... First Barnstable. Consisting of the town of Brewster, ..." See, e.g., . Prior to 1973, house district lines were drawn by county commissioners or followed town lines exactly, so there's no (state) legislative description of districts.

The naming system in use now on Wikipedia makes sense for most legislative maps, where the districts are numbered sequentially, to avoid having to have a ton of articles named "3rd District" distinguished only by parenthetical disambiguation. But Massachusetts' district names are more akin to the electoral districts in Canada, which carry community names. Note that in Canada, the article about the district ("riding") is simply the name of the district (e.g., Halifax West), unless disambiguation is needed, in which case it is provided parenthetically, like usual: Halifax (electoral district).

A change along those lines would be particularly welcome for the several senate districts that cross county lines and are named for their counties only, such as the Middlesex and Suffolk District and the Cape and Islands District. To name one particularly awkward example, there's Massachusetts Senate's Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden district. I don't think anyone uses those words in precisely that order when describing that district.

There is only one 25th Middlesex District likely to attain Wikipedia notability, the Massachusetts House district of that name. There are only two 3rd Middlesex Districts likely to require articles, the House and Senate districts of those names. Per WP:CONCISE, we don't need unnecessary information in the article title (certainly it should be in the lede, and in a redirect).

I've come up with several options that I think would be an improvement. Option A is the least radical change; at least it eliminates the awkward possessive and moves the disambiguation words to the end, but it's not much of a change for conciseness. In each of these options, I can see good arguments on both sides of whether to capitalize "district".

A note on WP:COMMONNAME: the legislature's own website, in listing senators, gives a column labeled "District" and spells out just the ordinal and county name: "Third Middlesex", "Second Suffolk and Middlesex", etc.. The House directory does the same, but with figures, e.g. "25th Middlesex", "2nd Hampden", etc. It's been my (WP:OR) experience that newsmedia are inconsistent with how they identify districts, mostly because, I would assume, most people don't know the name of their legislative district, although they might know who their legislators are. You can find examples for "25th Middlesex District" (especially the higher numbers, where there's no chance of confusing it with a Senate district), "25th Middlesex House District", "25th Middlesex state House district", and more. But it's just as common to see formulations such as "Representative Smith's district", or "Smith represents Woburn and parts of two neighboring towns."

I originally posted a version of this comment on User talk:M2545, and was invited to bring it here. What do you think? ``` t b w i l l i e ` $1.25 ` 03:31, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
 * I don't think there is consistency yet across the project. See 32nd Legislative District (New Jersey) compared with Washington's 32nd legislative district. My sense is that more people (project-wide) would be in favor of the former style than the latter. For this case, it would be A. --Enos733 (talk) 04:37, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
 * , My preference is for B, with a slight modification. I would include "Massachusetts" in the parentheses, so that it would read "1st Middlesex District (Massachusetts Senate)." If there is no other body/district with that name, there is no need for the disambiguation. -- Slugger O&#39;Toole (talk) 14:16, 8 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Hello, I'm here from the WikiProject US State Legislatures. Here's my input: I can see the desire to change the name to something shorter because they aren't simply sequentially named, but at the same time, Massachusetts often uses words which are more commonly associated with locations in Britain, making the reference to Massachusetts in the name useful. I think that naming convention "A - always disambig parenthetically" makes the most sense for cutting down on unnecessary words while also making the subject of the article clear from the title. RoundSquare (talk) 04:07, 9 June 2020 (UTC)

I agree that the possessive is awkward and lacks conciseness. Style A — e.g. Hampden district (Massachusetts Senate) — eliminates the possessive but still lacks conciseness. Style C — e.g. Hampden Senate district — offers clarity as to the chamber in which that district's member is seated but deviates from the actual name of the district, which may cause confusion. Style B — e.g. Hampden district (Massachusetts), the parenthetical to disambiguate from Electoral district of Hampden — seems most concise and clear to me. Justin Haas (talk) 15:35, 15 June 2020 (UTC)


 * On a minor note, whenever these articles are renamed, Massachusetts Senate's Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden district should be renamed without that last serial comma before the "and".
 * Thanks for catching that. Now fixed. -- M2545 (talk) 18:08, 15 June 2020 (UTC)

I can also see good arguments on both sides of whether to capitalize "district," and usage seems to be split. But I think I favor keeping it in lowercase because my impression is that district is not part of the proper names of these districts and so operates as more of a descriptor. Justin Haas (talk) 15:40, 15 June 2020 (UTC)

Wikidata model for legislative terms
Hello all. Here is the start of a Massachusetts legislative term modelled in Wikidata: Q96361127 (2019–2020). Thoughts? Thanks. -- M2545 (talk) 16:48, 2 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Posted also at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Politics. -- M2545 (talk) 10:07, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

Article request: Housing in Massachusetts
Some sources of information:
 * Category:Housing in Massachusetts
 * (assorted materials)
 * (assorted materials)
 * (assorted materials) -- M2545 (talk) 11:29, 25 October 2020 (UTC)
 * (assorted materials)
 * (assorted materials)
 * (assorted materials) -- M2545 (talk) 11:29, 25 October 2020 (UTC)
 * (assorted materials) -- M2545 (talk) 11:29, 25 October 2020 (UTC)


 * I started a draft article at Draft:Housing in Massachusetts. Basically nothing there right now, but will be working on it. dominiktesla talk  22:43, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

Kim Janey page
Could someone help with adding a photo to Kim Janey's page? She is going to become the acting mayor of Boston shortly - would be good to get the page in better shape. --PMCH2 (talk) 04:39, 26 February 2021 (UTC)

Category:Massachusetts articles needing expert attention has been nominated for discussion
Category:Massachusetts articles needing expert attention has been nominated for possible deletion, merging, or renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. Peaceray (talk) 02:01, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

Help with Request Edit New Bedford, Massachusetts
There is a proposed update at Talk:New Bedford, Massachusetts about New Bedford, Massachusetts that may be of interest to members of this group. I work for the city of New Bedford, so I have a conflict of interest. Assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Hudson2276 (talk) 17:29, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

Image request: Black Lives Matter street mural (Springfield, Massachusetts)
Image requested for Black Lives Matter street mural (Springfield, Massachusetts). Thanks! --- Another Believer ( Talk ) 16:55, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

Mass and Cass
I have created an article for Mass and Cass. There is much more that could be said, and I would appreciate the help in expanding it. --Slugger O&#39;Toole (talk) 02:47, 13 October 2021 (UTC)

Dingles
If you have resources regarding "dingles", please join the discussion at Talk:Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Magnolia677 (talk) 11:50, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

Good Article reassessment
Sacred Cod has been nominated for a community good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. ɱ (talk) 04:57, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

User script to detect unreliable sources
I have (with the help of others) made a small user script to detect and highlight various links to unreliable sources and predatory journals. Some of you may already be familiar with it, given it is currently the 39th most imported script on Wikipedia. The idea is that it takes something like and turns it into something like
 * John Smith "Article of things" Deprecated.com. Accessed 2020-02-14.
 * John Smith "Article of things" Deprecated.com. Accessed 2020-02-14.

It will work on a variety of links, including those from cite web, cite journal and doi.

The script is mostly based on WP:RSPSOURCES, WP:NPPSG and WP:CITEWATCH and a good dose of common sense. I'm always expanding coverage and tweaking the script's logic, so general feedback and suggestions to expand coverage to other unreliable sources are always welcomed.

Do note that this is not a script to be mindlessly used, and several caveats apply. Details and instructions are available at User:Headbomb/unreliable. Questions, comments and requests can be made at User talk:Headbomb/unreliable.

- &#32; Headbomb {t · c · p · b}

This is a one time notice and can't be unsubscribed from. Delivered by: MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:01, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

Stephanie Cutter request
Hi editors, my name is Christian and I work for Precision Strategies. I was hoping to make some updates to the Stephanie Cutter article and was wondering if anyone here was interested in taking a look! I made a similar request at WikiProject American Politics but I hadn't heard anything there so I thought I'd try here. I won't make any edits myself due to my conflict of interest. Thanks in advance for your help! PrecisionChristian (talk) 17:12, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

Indigenous history deleted
Greetings. I have my hands full with Minneapolis but perhaps someone here at WikiProject Massachusetts can help.

I noticed that User:Magnolia677 made recent edits to Greater Massachusetts. Indigenous history added by User:Betsycanread was removed for the following locations: Gloucester, Hernando, Petersham, Brockton, Bridgewater, Barnstable, Attleboro, Amesbury, Taunton, Braintree, Quincy, Holden, Princeton, Brookfield, West Boylston, Phillipston, Auburn, Ashburnham, Gardner, Clinton, Sturbridge, Hopedale, Berlin, Sutton, Sterling, Westborough, Harvard, Boylston, Bolton, Southborough, Millbury, Oakham, Templeton, Dudley, Spencer, Westminster, Massachusetts ‎ and Dover, New Hampshire. His rationale is given in his edit summaries: "No mention at source cited that Indigenous people ever inhabited this specific location" (example) and "No mention at source cited that Indigenous people ever specifically inhabited this location; just a big map of the world." (example) and "No mention at source cited that Indigenous people ever specifically inhabited "Westminster"." (example) and on Betsycanread's talk page.

First, it's absurd to expect modern names for settlements that didn't exist. Second, there are better ways to fix this. May I please request per WP:GFG that User:Magnolia677 restore your edits and add Template:Better source needed? Third, Betsycanread's work will help future editors name and locate tribes who lived before Europeans came. Having the indigenous names in place is a valuable clue, and beginning with European settlers gives our readers an impoverished history. -SusanLesch (talk) 16:26, 2 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Please note that I left the following message on the editors talk page yesterday:
 * "I have reverted many of your recent edits where you have added the following to many community articles: "Before colonization, the area was inhabited by Nipmuc and Agawam people." To support your edit, you added this source.  When I visited that source, I was unable to locate any of the places you had listed; just a map showing the huge area these indigenous people were known to inhabit.  The likelihood that these people actually lived in all of the places you added this to is very slim. It would be like going to all of the city and town articles in Ohio and adding "the area was inhabited by people from New France". In the future, please provide a source which explicitly supports your edit, along with a direct link, per WP:CITEWEB: "Please link to URL of specific web page where the referenced content can be found". Thanks for your understanding."
 * User:SusanLesch, thank you very much for your interested in this mass of unsourced edits. If you have expertise or resources in this topic, it would be of benefit to these articles if you could research the Indigenous history or these places and include that in these articles.  Very often, city webpages and local history sites will include a history section with information about archeological remnants or confirmed Indigenous sites that once existed within city limits.  Hopefully other editors may have sources to support the existence of Indigenous settlements at these specific locations. Thank you. Magnolia677 (talk) 20:18, 2 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Betsycanread's additions were all sourced, however Wikipedia requires better sources. Please restore your 37 deletions adding better source needed. -SusanLesch (talk) 23:01, 2 October 2022 (UTC)
 * These edits all stated that various settlements in Massachusetts were "inhabited by" various Indigenous groups. The source cited is this map of the world which shows the range of several Indigenous people around the world, but does not state that Indigenous people ever "inhabited" any specific locations. Because the source cited in no way supports the edit, I challenged the edits, per WP:BURDEN, because "cited source must clearly support the material as presented in the article."
 * Clinton, Massachusetts, for example, is four miles wide and has a total area of just 7.3 square miles, yet this editor added that "the area that is now Clinton was inhabited by the Nipmuc and Agawam people". I'm not saying this isn't true; I'm just insisting that a reliable source be provided to support that these Indigenous people once inhabited the tiny area that is now Clinton, Massachusetts. In other words, it's not that a generally unreliable source like Ancestry.com was used to support these edits, and tagging it with "better source needed" might encourage some other editor will find a more reliable source; it's that the source cited in no way supported the edit.
 * There are many reliable sources available that list specific locations where Indigenous settlements were known to exist (and which state the current name of the settlement), and these would certainly be of benefit, however, adding speculative and unsourced content undermines Wikipedia's reliability as a source of information, and makes the project less useful to Wikipedia's readers. Magnolia677 (talk) 11:50, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Good, now we agree that their additions have a source. Pausing for other editors. -SusanLesch (talk) 15:47, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure how you arrived at that awkward conclusion. The input of others would be welcome. Magnolia677 (talk) 16:16, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Overnight, in one day, your analysis changed from a "mass of unsourced edits" to "the source cited." That's when I agreed the additions were sourced. -SusanLesch (talk) 15:49, 4 October 2022 (UTC)

The source in question has a blog with the post "Our Wonderful, Wily API." Our map is NOT a legal resource, and is not meant to be an academic-level representation of Indigenous lands. Our goal is, most of all, to represent Indigenous territories according to Indigenous nations they represent. We are not primarily after extremely precise geographic fidelity, textbook accuracy, or sources that correspond with government data. This expands on the front page disclaimer that says in part: We strive to represent nations and Indigenous people on their own terms. By design then because they don't try for fidelity or accuracy, this source is unsuitable for Wikipedia per WP:RS. It might be valuable to find sources per WP:ADVANCED. I apologize to anybody who had to read my complaints. I ought to have done my research first. -SusanLesch (talk) 15:49, 4 October 2022 (UTC)
 * NPR ran a feature story today about Native Land Digital. -SusanLesch (talk) 17:46, 10 October 2022 (UTC)

Some photos for the project
Hey guys I'm new to Wikipedia and I came across this project. And since I live in Massachusetts I'd like to contribute! I'm going to upload some photos later today that I took in Haverhill, MA of some landmarks/important places in the city. It's not that much but if you see any that could make any articles any better you can use them.

Once I learn more about editing/making pages I'll start helping out with that myself.

Thanks, SeñorBrett

Link: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/SeñorBrett SeñorBrett (talk) 22:20, 20 March 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi


 * Do you happen to live anywhere near Busta Rhymes Island? That could use a photo, also I wonder if there is a way to display all the articles in Massachusetts without a photo? John Cummings (talk) 11:56, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

Pan-Mass Challenge COI edit requests
Hi! I've posted some brief COI edit requests at Talk:Pan-Mass Challenge – mostly updating annual figures. Sharing in case anyone here is interested in taking a look. Thank you for any help or feedback! Mary Gaulke (talk) 22:31, 3 January 2023 (UTC)

MACRIS links
FYI: MACRIS, the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System, has changed its link format for the third time in as many years, breaking a number of citation links from Wikipedia. I've created MACRIS to use in citations (so that one edit can fix every link should the link format change again), and I'll be contacting them to ask that they use permalinks. Cheers, Pi.1415926535 (talk) 04:05, 13 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I had been corrrecting a bunch of my links, but would like to use MACRIS. Would it work on Wikimedia as well? File:Elizabeth_Boit_House,_Wakefield_MA.jpgfor instance. Faolin42 (talk) 17:14, 9 March 2023 (UTC)
 * @Faolin42 I've created the same template on Wikimedia Commons, and added it to that file as an example. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 20:43, 9 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I'll update all the MACRIS links I added with the new template.  Faolin42 (talk) 21:02, 9 March 2023 (UTC)

Good article reassessment for Brian Halligan
Brian Halligan has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. CMD (talk) 12:18, 17 May 2023 (UTC)

FAR for David Lovering
User:Buidhe has nominated David Lovering for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets the featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" in regards to the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:19, 20 May 2023 (UTC)

Discussion at Content assessment
You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Content assessment, which is within the scope of this WikiProject. &#x0020;This WikiProject received this message because it currently uses "Current" and/or "Future" class(es). There is a proposal to split these two article "classes" into a new parameter "time", in order to standardise article-rating across Wikipedia (per RfC), while also allowing simultaneous usage of quality criteria and time for interest projects. Thanks! &#8212;CX Zoom[he/him] (let's talk • {C•X}) 06:32, 2 July 2023 (UTC)

Help from Credibility Bot?
I've been working with this bot for vaccine articles, is there interest in trying it for MA topics? Source checking and reliability is something that comes up in local editathons, and it could be nice to have that sort of dashboard on a subpage. – SJ + 03:02, 20 July 2023 (UTC)

Statue of AfD

 * Statue of Josiah Quincy III

--- Another Believer ( Talk ) 03:52, 28 July 2023 (UTC)