Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-10-05/WikiProject report

WikiProject report

New developments at the Military history WikiProject

The Military history Academy

Created earlier this year, the Academy is MilHist's online training school, which gathers instructional essays and "how-to"s in a single, comprehensive structure. The Academy has already collected more than 50 courses on various topics, ranging from "Writing a good stub" to "How to prepare an A-class Review" to "Filing a Freedom of Information Request". The courses are not all related solely to military history, and all editors are invited to contribute on any subject that may interest them.

As part of an effort to fill the gaps in the Academy's coverage, MilHist launched an Academy content drive in July, offering awards to any editors who contribute to the Academy's courses. The drive is scheduled to run through the end of this month.

Operation Majestic Titan

To date, the most successful of the new special projects is Operation Majestic Titan. This initiative aims to create the largest single featured topic on Wikipedia, centered around battleships and extending to battlecruisers and related armament and ship classes.

Majestic Titan was originally conceived in mid-summer as a personal project by TomStar81, who saw it as a natural extension of the work he was already doing on American battleship articles. Reflecting on his choice of name for the project, TomStar81 wrote:

In Greek mythology, the elder gods were the Titans. Twelve of these beings ruled over the golden age before they were overthrown by the Olympian gods at the end of a ten-year war. After the titans were defeated they met a variety of ends; most were cast out and imprisoned. A lucky few had the fortune to survive this fate, and would serve in limited capacities for the Olympian gods during their rein as the supreme beings. For all this though, the titans - although defeated - remained a force of contention, having left their mark on ancient Greek society and earning for themselves a place in the modern study of ancient history.

In much the same way these battleships also shared a similar story. Battleships were the undeniable gods of seaborne warfare in the late 19th and early to mid 20th century until their reign was savagely cut short by the rise of the aircraft carrier during the Second World War. Having established themselves as the new gods of seaborne warfare, these carriers banished the battleships first into reserve, then to the scrapyards, but a precious few managed to escape. Four were overhauled and served in the 1980s and 90s; only nine still exist today, as floating museums. Although they no longer exist as a powerful force, battleships have certainly left their mark on the world, and today still inspire awe among the public.

Over the next months, a number of other editors—including Climie.ca, MBK004, Parsecboy and The_ed17—joined the effort, and the target list grew to several hundred articles. With the organizational overhead of the project growing, it was decided to formally inaugurate it as a MilHist special project, a task that was completed last month.

Majestic Titan currently has 25 featured articles, 14 A-class articles, 24 good articles, 2 featured topics, and one good topic under its scope—more than most entire WikiProjects! Any editor who wishes to help in this endeavor is invited to join; any sort of help whatsoever would be greatly appreciated. In particular, copyeditors are needed to polish the text as the articles are improved.

Operation Great War Centennial and the Henry Allingham contest

A longer-term special project is Operation Great War Centennial. The objective of this project is to bring all core topics related to World War I to featured status in preparation for the centenary of the war (2014–18).

Introducing the initiative, MilHist member The Land wrote:

In June 2014 we will see the centenary of the start of World War I. This will doubtless be a mammoth commemoration of one of the most significant wars in history, attracting vast interest from schools, universities, veterans groups and the media. It offers us the chance to showcase what a brilliant resource Wikipedia is by producing a string of FA-quality articles covering all the most significant topics in World War I.

The project is currently in its early stages, but dozens of target topics have already been identified—many of them covered only by poor-quality articles, or not covered at all. The effort to improve them is expected to continue through the end of the centenary in 2018.

As an introduction to the effort, MilHist is planning to launch the Henry Allingham World War I contest, which will be a three-round competition to improve articles related to World War I. The contest, named to honor the late British supercentenarian and Great War veteran Henry Allingham, is scheduled to begin on 11 November—Armistice Day—and to run through February 2010.

Coordinator elections

Last month, MilHist's semi-annual coordinator elections were held, resulting in the promotion of TomStar81 to lead coordinator, the reelection of eleven coordinators, the addition of three new coordinators, and the granting of emeritus status to former lead coordinator Roger Davies. TomStar81 becomes MilHist's third lead coordinator since the system was instituted in February 2006.

The coordinators are primarily responsible for the maintenance and housekeeping work involved in keeping the WikiProject and its internal processes running smoothly; this includes a variety of tasks, such as keeping the announcement and open task lists updated, overseeing the assessment and review processes, managing the proposal and creation of task forces, and so forth. The coordinators also serve as designated points of contact, and have informal roles in leading the drafting of military history guidelines, overseeing the implementation of decisions on issues like category schemes and template use, and helping to resolve disputes and keep discussions from becoming heated and unproductive.

Editors interested in running for this position in the future are encouraged to join MilHist and assist with internal processes in some way, such as by performing assessments, responding to queries raised on the talk page, or reviewing articles nominated for an A-class rating.

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Great, just what we need, more warship articles to be featured on the main page — sigh. Rusty Cashman (talk) 03:44, 6 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, that's an interesting thought. I wonder how many warship-related articles have appeared on the main page in the last year? From WP:SHIPS, there are only five: Ironclad warship (12 April 2009), SMS Von der Tann (31 May 2009; anniversary of the Battle of Jutland), USS Connecticut (BB-18) (22 February 2009; centennial of the Great White Fleet's return), USS Nevada (BB-36) (7 December 2008; anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor) and USS New Jersey (BB-62) (15 October 2008). —Ed (talk • contribs) 04:14, 6 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, there's no obligation to read said articles, ya know. :) –Juliancolton | ^Talk 15:36, 6 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Actually as I go back and rewiew the main page articles for 2009 I see that the frequency of warship related articles has gone down in the 2nd half of the year, so perhaps my comment was unfair. However, from Jan-May (when I happened to be heavily involved in WP:TFAR) there was such an article on the main page nearly every month: SMS Von der Tann May 31, Ironclad April 12, USS Connecticut Feb 22, and SS Ohioan (a cargo ship most notable for its war time service) Jan 24. It was my memory of that stretch (when there was basically always a warship article up at TFAR) that provoked my off the cuff attempt at a humorous comment. The heavy representation (in my opinion somewhat over representation) of warship articles and military history articles in general on the main page is of course in no way adverse reflection on the wikipedia projects in those areas, which are obviously doing a good job. Rather I think it reflects poorly on our efforts in other areas of history, particularly that articles like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, César Chávez, Martin Luther King, Jr., etc. have never been raised to featured status and thus never have been eligible for the main page. Rusty Cashman (talk) 18:17, 7 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You have a point with Ohioan, though it's certainly not a warship. ;-) My apologies if my comment came off as sarcastic—it was meant seriously, as I really had no idea how many had appeared as TFA. —Ed (talk • contribs) 20:26, 7 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Permission granted to help articles outside the penumbra of MILHIST reach featured status. Protonk (talk) 18:59, 8 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry to see the this initiative upsets you, but in all fairness I hardly think that this was a constructive edit nor do I believe that you have assumed good faith in posting your comments here, Cashman. Simply because we are working on battleships for an FT nom does not mean that they will all appear on the main page. TomStar81 (Talk) 16:50, 6 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
A fantastic project to be a part of. I would like to see more work on the Great Centenniary beginning, but I guess there is still plenty of time! MasterOfHisOwnDomain (talk) 16:36, 7 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I share similar views at User:Rusty Cashman. Shouldn't the report features other not-so prominent projects to attract participants? MILHIST can attract people easily without the assist of this report. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 03:04, 11 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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