User talk:E.w.bullock/2010

Guild of Copy Editors

Don't forget to mark your entries from the Requests page

On behalf of the coordinator of the WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors Backlog elimination drive for May 2010, ɳorɑfʈTalk!, I would like to thank you for your active participation in the Drive. I am writing to inform you that we have introduced additional Guild of Copy Editors' Gold Star Awards for the drive. To qualify, you will need to add an asterisk to all the full copyedits you have completed from the Requests page. More information can be found in the awards section of the Drive. If you have any questions, please post them to the Drive's talk page. Once again, thank you for participating, and we look forward to a meaningful drop in the numbers due to your hard work and efforts. - S Masters (talk) 03:38, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

70Px

Copyedit Backlog Elimination Drive

Hi, as a member of the Guild of Copy Editors you're hereby notified of and invited to participate in the WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Backlog elimination drives/May 2010. Please help us eliminate the 8,000+ copyedit backlog! Participating editors will receive barnstars and other awards, according to their level of participation. ɳorɑfʈ^Talk! 00:20, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Backlog Elimination Drive Wrap-up

Thanks very much to all who helped with the Guild of Copy Editors Backlog Elimination Drive. We were very close to meeting our target of 7,500 articles remaining in the backlog. Our most shining success is the incredible reduction in the backlog of Special Requests. That part of the project saw a drop from 62 articles in the queue, some dating back to February of 2009, down to a stunning THREE, all of which were being edited at the close of the drive. The Special Requests page will now be a great resource for people looking to tidy up their article in advance of a GA or FA nomination, instead of a place where articles go to die. Moving forward GOCE backlog elimination drive chart up to 31 May The drive has not only forced a great leap forward in reducing the backlog. It has helped promote the Guild, and led to a greater awareness of the level of vigilance required to keep the backlog manageable. Ideas such as charts, graphs, and barnstars helped motivate editors, and meeting other users helped quell any feelings gnomish editors may have had in the past that they were toiling all alone. Keep up the good work people!! Stats Almost everyone who participated will receive a barnstar. We will be handing these out over the next week or so. Five people will receive the highest award for word count (80,000 or more), the Most Excellent Order of the Caretaker's Star: Bullock, Diannaa, NielsenGW, S Masters, and Torchiest. The Order of the Superior Scribe (40,000+) goes to Auntieruth55, Bobnorwal, Kojozone, Lfstevens, and Mlpearc. fds wins the Modern Guild of Copy Editors Barnstar (30,000+). The Old School League of Copyeditors Barnstar for 20,000+ is awarded to A. Parrot, mono, Truthkeeper88, and The Utahraptor. the Tireless Conributor Barnstar (12,000+) goes to dtgriffith, Laurinavicius, and Quinxorin. Buggie111, Brickie, cymru lass, liquidluck, noraft, and Yellow Monkey get the Cleanup Barnstar for 8,000+ words. The Working Man's Barnstar for 4,000+ words goes to Annalise and fetchcomms. The Modest Barnstar is awarded to Theo10011 and The Tito. Gold Star Award The Gold Star Award goes to the top editor in three challenges: Number of special requests fulfilled, number of articles edited, and number of words. Here are the final results. Final results: Gold Star Award: Requests Articles Words 1. SMasters (17) Torchiest (250) NielsenGW (150,360) 2. Bobnorwal (13) Diannaa (212) Diannaa (136,200) 3. Bullock (9) kojozone (76) Torchiest (125,000) Coordinator: ɳorɑfʈ Talk! Co-coordinators: Diannaa TALK and S Masters (talk)

GOCE Backlog Elimination Drive Wrap-up

Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors July 2010 Backlog Elimination Drive. Thanks to all who participated in the drive! Over 100 editors—including Jimbo Wales—signed up this time (nearly triple the participants of the May drive). This benefited the Guild as well as the articles in need of copy editing. You can see from the comparison graphs that we increased the number of completed copyedits substantially. Unfortunately, we were not able to meet our goal of completely wiping out 2008 from the queue. We also were not able to reduce the backlog to less than 6,000 articles. We suspect people were busy with real life summertime things, at least in the northern hemisphere! We were able to remove the months of January, February, March, April, and May from the backlog, and we almost wiped out the month of June. We reduced the backlog by 1,289 articles (17%), so all in all it was a very successful drive, and we will be holding another event soon. We'll come up with some new ideas to try to keep things fresh and interesting. Keep up the good work, everybody! Stats If you copy edited at least 4,000 words, you qualify for a barnstar. If you edited in the May 2010 GOCE Backlog Elimination Drive, your word totals are cumulative for barnstars (not the leaderboard). Over the course of the next week or two, we will be handing out the barnstars. GOCE backlog elimination drive chart up to 31 July Eight people will receive The Most Excellent Order of the Caretaker's Barnstar (100,000+ words): Chaosdruid, Diannaa, Ericleb01, Lfstevens, Shimeru, S Masters, The Utahraptor, and Torchiest. Bullock and Slon02 will receive The Order of the Superior Scribe (80,000+). The Barnstar of Diligence (60,000+) goes to Derild4921, GaryColemanFan, kojozone, and Mlpearc. The Modern Guild of Copy Editors Barnstar (40,000+) goes to A. Parrot, AirplanePro, Auntieruth55, Bejinhan, David Rush, and mono. Nobody will receive The Old School League of Copy Editors award (30,000+). The Tireless Contributor Barnstar (20,000+) goes to Backtable, Cindamuse, dtgriffith, Duff, e. ripley, Laurinavicius, NerdyScienceDude, and TEK. The Cleanup Barnstar (12,000+) goes to Brickie, Casliber, cymru lass, December21st2012Freak, Nolelover, TheTito, Whoosit, and YellowMonkey. The Working Man's Barnstar (8,000+) goes to Bsherr, Duchess of Bathwick, HELLKNOWZ, Mabeenot, noraft, Pyfan, and Richard asr. The Modest Barnstar (4,000+) goes to Adrian J. Hunter, Airplaneman, Annalise, Camerafiend, Cricket02, Fetchcomms, Gosox5555, LeonidasSpartan, Paulmnguyen, Piotrus, SuperHamster, Taelus, and TPW. Gold Star Award Gold Star Award Leaderboard Articles Words 5k+ Articles 1. Diannaa (248) Shimeru (200,392) Shimeru/Ericleb01 (13) 2. Slon02 (157) Diannaa (164,960) Chaosdruid (8) 3. GaryColemanFan (101) Chaosdruid (130,630) Derild4921 (7) 4. Torchiest (100) The Utahraptor (117,347) GaryColemanFan/Slon02 (6) 5. Shimeru (80) Ericleb01 (114,893) Bejinhan/The Utahraptor (5) Coordinator: ɳorɑfʈ Talk! Co-coordinators: Diannaa TALK and S Masters (talk) | Newsletter by: The Raptor You rang?/My mistakes; I mean, er, contributions

Delivered by MessageDeliveryBot on behalf of The Utahraptor at 18:07, 1 August 2010 (UTC).

Thanks

Thank you very much for signing up for the July Backlog Elimination Drive! The copyedit backlog stretches back two and a half years, all the way back to the beginning of 2008! We're really going to need all the help we can muster to get it down to a manageable number. We've ambitiously set a goal of clearing all of 2008 from the backlog this month. So once again, thanks for your support!--Diannaa ^TALK 03:55, 5 July 2010 (UTC)

Military history WikiProject

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : L (April 2010)

The April 2010 issue of the Military history WikiProject newsletter has been published. You may read the newsletter, change the format in which future issues will be delivered to you, or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Thank you.
This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 19:18, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

GOCE Newsletter

GOCE backlog elimination drive chart Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors Backlog Elimination Drive! We have now reached the halfway point, and here's what has happened so far. Requests Report - Good news! The number of special requests waiting to be edited has been reduced drastically, with almost all of the remaining items having editors committed to getting them done. Good work, people! Target Report - ɳorɑfʈ's initial target of reducing the backlog of articles for copy edit turned out to be unrealistic insane, so a new target was set: we hope to reduce the to backlog to less than 7,500 items in the queue by the end of the month. The number in the queue was 7,950 as of close of business yesterday. If we "concentrate our firepower" we can wipe out Jan, Feb, and March 2008, meaning the drive will have cleared four months off the backlog queue. Please consider copyediting from one of these months. Rewards Report - We now have some clear leaders on the board in all three Gold Star categories, and many people have qualified for the various barnstars. It is not too late to participate, as it takes just 2,000 words (pre-edit) to qualify for a barnstar! Don't wait! Start participating today. Remember, the ultimate winner is Wikipedia. Notice to Participants - For those who have indicated that you will be working on certain articles on the drive page in your respective tally box, please ensure that you complete these copyedits as soon as possible. Thank you very much for your participation so far! - Coordinator: ɳorɑfʈ Talk! Co-coordinators: Diannaa TALK and S Masters (talk) This newsletter by Diannaa (writer) and SMasters (writer and typesetter). Thrown onto your doorstep by ɳorɑfʈ on a red Huffy bike.

Admin relpys

Speedy deletion declined: Judge Advocate General's Corps (United States Army)

Hello E.w.bullock. I am just letting you know that I declined the speedy deletion of Judge Advocate General's Corps (United States Army), a page you tagged for speedy deletion, because of the following concern: if this move were to be done, other similar articles would follow different conventions. Please use WP:RM instead. Thank you. SoWhy 19:22, 9 May 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by E.w.bullock (talk • contribs)

CE comments

Gulfton

Hi! I took a look at your message. The article in question passed the "Good Article" process in 2008 with the general narrative and with the "illegal immigrants" sentence. I want you to point out specific paragraphs and sentences that you think are POV. Or you could suggest how to alter the narrative if other users agree that the presentation of the narrative as a whole is against POV. I am notifying the NPOV noticeboard and the Houston WikiProject so that the community can come together and agree what needs to be done about this. WhisperToMe (talk) 13:54, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

• Thank you for responding to my comments
• My intent was also to discuss the community, how it developed, and what it is like now. A lot of the reliable sources (particularly Houston Chronicle articles) discussing Gulfton discussed how it rapidly changed in the 1980s.
• "I was struck by the sense that "illegal aliens" destroyed my community, was the article message." - I was not trying to convey that "sense" at all - So far no other users on Wikipedia who have examined the article for good article or featured article nomination got that sense...
• In regards to ", after DRG fell behind on their mortgage." we prefer "it" in US English when referring to a company, so it would be ", after DRG fell behind on its mortgage."
• "Generally, when I read an article about a location it is just about the location, this one seems to me, leans towards the community is destroyed by and outside invasion and greedy builder. That may be true but it is not objective in tone." - We use reliable sources when shaping the narrative of the article, and there are countless newspaper articles that discuss the deterioration of Gulfton in the 1980s, so a large portion of the article will be dedicated to that. Also, though, it was more like "immigrants replaced" and not "invaded" because the previous tenants mostly were already gone.
• WhisperToMe (talk) 00:27, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your help - I'll continue to look at your changes and see how I can improve things. Currently I'm going through and checking your internal comments and see if there's anything else I need to clarify. WhisperToMe (talk) 00:47, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Stephen Ambrose

Thanks for your work on this article!! 75.2.209.226 (talk) 16:51, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

Apparently the "owner" of the article didn't like your edits. I asked for help because of long and often awkward wording that he kept inserting, and now he's reverted your excellent edits. What to do?? 75.2.209.226 (talk) 20:02, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

Apparently 75.2.209.226 is still dissatisfied with the tone, length, detail, and quality of writing of my three sentence paragraph documenting issues of poor research and inadequate editing in Ambrose's 2000 book on the Pacific Railroad. I have tightened it as much as I felt that I could without removing it altogether, although I'm not sure what is left is very useful as readers must now consult the cited sources to find out what the issues were with the book, and what the publisher did about them. You should feel free, however, to restore the paragraph to its former form if you care to as it is now a little thin. Centpacrr (talk) 00:09, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

To say that "75.2.209.226 is still dissatisfied with the tone, length, detail, and quality of writing of my three sentence paragraph" is not only misleading, it's a blatant lie. Please pay attention to the timing of comments. I said that E.w.bullock's edits were fine, but then you undid them, reverting the paragraph to an awkward, wordy, and petty whine. Ambrose didn't give you or your buddies credit for pointing out dozens of inaccuracies. Get over it. 75.2.209.226 (talk) 04:14, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

I defer this to Noraft as these are the ways that Edit wars start. I believe that both of you are correct but the question is why are you unable to achieve a consensus? There seems to be some underlying differences in the way that you are approaching the subject. Sincerely Bullock ✉ 00:36, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your comment and suggestion. It is a puzzlement to me as well as I have tried my best. (See here and here) Beyond that I am at a loss. Centpacrr (talk) 01:11, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

You two certainly have a bit of history, I don't think I will be able to affect change in either party and am saddened to see that two obviously intelligent, well intentioned editors are unable to achieve consensus. I hope the edits that I did move the article forward and wish both of you happy editing. I wish there was more I could offer but as in any personality conflict those involved must find the equilibrium. Very Respectfully -- Bullock ✉ 02:43, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your understanding. I had never run across this anonymous IP editor (whose contributions page indicates less than two months experience) before four days ago, and his/her only means of communication with other editors with whom he/she disagrees on anything no matter how small is to post multiple "warnings" on talk pages and "trouble" tags on articles, making blanket accusations of vandalism in edit summaries, etc, when he/she finds anyone is in anyway at odds with his/her personal views on grammar, word choice, level of detail, context, reliability of sources, etc. When I called him/her on this on the one paragraph I added to the Ambrose article, he/she decided to "parachute in" to the LZ129 Hindenburg article (on which I have been working with a few other editors for two years) and make wholesale changes presumably to "teach me a lesson." Some of his/her edits are fine, but there seems to be no middle ground here for him/her. As you can see I've attempted to establish a reasonable dialogue by posting a long comment on his/her talk page which he/she deleted less than two minutes later. All I have gotten in return are gratuitous and ad hominem attacks and more "warnings" dispensed from a shell of complete anonymity. Centpacrr (talk) 03:39, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

Warnings occur when you repeatedly revert perfectly good edits (WP:OWN), when you willfully flaunt WP:MOS after repeated requests not to do so, and when you intentionally insert inflammatory and inaccurate history into articles. I have never made an ad hominem attack on you. My comments have all been about the writing in the articles. You are the one who has been wikistalking me, looking up my IP address and scrutinizing my history of edits. Well, two can play that game. It appears you have a four-year history of warnings, even blocks, for edit warring and owership issues, which is exactly the behavior you've exhibited on the Stephen Ambrose article. E.w.bullock stepped into a tricky situation with the article, made some excellent edits, and what did you do? Revert them. The evidence speaks for itself.

Thanks, E.w.bullock, for your edits and your bravery. I, for one, will now stop bothering you. 75.2.209.226 (talk) 04:14, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

Alright, here I am. Give me a little while to gather what's happened. What I'll leave all parties with in the meantime is my mantra, in haiku form:

A haiku by Spectrix	Join us, when you're ready.
You care way too much You ought to be more like me I don't give a fuck	DGAFThis user does not give a fuck.

ɳorɑfʈ ^Talk! 04:49, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

• Thanks Noraft. I read your long, well thought out, and insightful comment on this matter (which I see, as with a similar comment of mine, that 75.2.209.226 promptly deleted) as well as his/her interesting response. I think you understand the situation perfectly and see what I have been dealing with for the last five days. Thanks for taking the time to make your cogent and spot on evaluation and posting which well documents this kerfuffle! Centpacrr (talk) 17:03, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

Fritz the Cat

Looks good so far. I recently added something about the drawing style, and I wanted to get your feedback on it. Does this sentence need any changes? (Sugar Bear (talk) 22:49, 27 May 2010 (UTC))

a simple drawing style, which Crumb employed to make it easier to tell stories

Suggestion, a simple drawing style, Crumb used to facilitate his story telling. You may or may not need the comma depending on where in the sentence this break occurs. Facilitate is a big word, but probably the most accurate for this use. Sincerely Bullock ✉ 23:14, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

All done, hope you like the changes. We had a bit of a edit conflict (editing at the same time) but I worked around it. Best of luck Bullock ✉ 23:49, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Timeline of Tanzanian history

Thanks very much for the copyedit of Timeline of Tanzanian history, and for the hidden comments you've added, I'll take some time to act on those. Regards, --BelovedFreak 10:34, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

You are very welcome. Bullock ✉ 15:43, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

European windstorms

Hi,

I have seen you have added an orphan phrase to the European windstorms article. Although Foehn can be very strong, they are very localized. I don't see how it could be considered in that article which only deal with synoptic extratropical cyclone affecting Europe ? Pierre cb (talk) 03:08, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Then please delete. I have no ownership of the line. Just trying to save information and it did not fit in the article I'm CE. V/R Bullock ✉ 03:20, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

OK. I thought you might have a particular reason for that edit. I will transferred the info to the See also section in that case. Pierre cb (talk) 03:23, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Severe weather

Hi E.W., I've noticed you making significant chances to the severe weather article. This article has been of significantly lower quality than I would like to see, since it is the main article for WikiProject Severe Weather, so I greatly appreciate you putting in work on it. I'd like to help you out, so I'll be making some edits of my own, now that I finally have the time. Did you have any goals in mind for the article? Thanks again! -RunningOnBrains^(talk) 03:59, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

I actually just now noticed your GOCE notice on the top of the page...could you please let me know on my talk page when you are finished with your major edits? Thank you. -RunningOnBrains^(talk) 04:00, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't really understand the question. It is the article with the name of our project, so I guess that makes it our key article. The article needs a lot of help in format, facts, and grammar, so you fix whatever you feel necessary. Ideally we'd want it to eventually be a Featured Article, so it will likely undergo one or more future overhauls anyway. -RunningOnBrains^(talk) 04:21, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

Copy Edit complete. V/R Bullock ✉ 04:08, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Joseph Merrick

Hello, thanks so much for copyediting Joseph Merrick, I really appreciate it and the article is much improved. Just a couple of things to watch for future reference: Firstly, you changed spellings from British English to American English. This is unnecessary per WP:ENGVAR, but also undesirable in this case since the subject is very much a British one. (WP:TIES) Secondly, you've moved some citations inside punctuation (eg. father. → father. According to the manual of style (specifically WP:PAIC), the citation should go outside the punctuation. I had one query, regarding a hidden note you left, do you really think it would be necessary to specify whether his uncle was maternal or paternal? Isn't that obvious from his name? Anyway, other than that, thanks for the good job. Regards, --BelovedFreak 14:49, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Your welcome and thank your for the great feed back, it is nice to be able to improve each time.

• Regarding the British English, I do understand the intent. I left all the "...our" words intact. I will add travelled, fulfil, realised to my "British" repertoire, I had been unsure of those spellings. When you hear a language very infrequently, it is difficult to understand the nuances. There was one specific usage of "lodged with" that I wrestled with, before changing to "live with", I felt that it simplified and flowed a little better.... thank you for having tolerated my missteps.
• Thank you for pointing out the placement of the punctuation. I have been doing this wrong in my own writing for a year! And no one had corrected me, I looked it up in "A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations" by Kate L. Turabian, which we refer to as the "Turabian Guide" and wow, I've been doing it wrong on my term papers too. So thank you very much for that redirect.
• Ok, that was a DUMB question, at the time I guess I was hoping that it had been his maternal side. But hello a flash of the blindingly obvious.
• I reviewed the article and I'm sorry for the half dozen typos. I hope that the overall effect was what you were looking for though. —Sincerely Bullock ✉ 16:23, 7 June 2010 (UTC) (PS 58,000+ edits...wow, again thank you for the mentoring) Bullock ✉ 16:46, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Glad you found the feedback useful. Don't worry about typos, they're so easy to introduce, I think if an article's being worked on a lot, it needs proof reading several times anyway. As far as the English goes, I don't know if you use a spellchecker or anything, but I use Firefox, and I use a spellcheck addon for British, American, Canadian and Australian English that's easy to switch between each one. So, I just click on which ever one's appropriate for the article in question. It's not infallible, and some spellings have different degrees of acceptability, but it helps a lot. Looking through, I may change a few minor things back that have a slightly different meaning now, I hadn't noticed the "lodged with"—I'll think about that because it means something specific. But, don't think that I'm not pleased, because I am very grateful for your work. I'll take it to peer review next and then, hopefully GA. (And don't worry about the uncle thing - I wasn't sure if I was missing something obvious!) Thanks again, --BelovedFreak 16:50, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Just read your last comment - you're welcome, but that's 58,000 edits probably including thousands of typos! Happy to give any advice that'll help you, copyediting is a really important service/job on Wikipedia, and one I'm always appreciative of. I recently joined the guild of copyeditors to try and improve my own writing, but I still find it difficult!--BelovedFreak 16:53, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Ok just added the British, Canadian, Ausie, and Spanish dictionaries and figured out the right click, language, change language. I'm ready for my next Copy edit challenge. Thank you again Bullock ✉ 18:55, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Hehe, cool... good luck! --BelovedFreak 19:10, 7 June 2010 (UTC)