Talk:Homs

message: There is no way to properly document the incident of beatings. I stated the beatings as reports which is true. I personally know people who were present that day and were beaten up. I personaly got beaten up while inline waiting for my goverment issued ID. It was typical even in normal times. That incident is a fact., the Military intellgence forces rounded up the industrial zone and gave everyone a beating as a show of power. I say its proper to be mentioned as it bruzed the memory of the people of Homs. I am hoping that you are not asking for judicial statement from the syrian goverent to admit it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Syrianhomsi (talk • contribs) 08:49, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I remain highly skeptical of this. Like I said earlier, the source provided is comparable to a blog, and it does not form a reliable source for information. I will not remove your edits, but I would appreciate a better source, with credibility being a main requirement. Asabbagh 09:06, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Siege of the Industrial Zone

message: homs is very old city it was named Emissa in a very old history.
here we have somethings very butiful but it's so boring too we do'nt have any thing to have fun
i wish to live in Damascuse
:Lol! I got friends there that tell me it isn't boring though.. I will visit to verify this! Asabbagh 00:20, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Homs 

message: We need an image, preferably a skyline image like one of the images shown here. And also a map as stated above. Thanks. Asabbagh 03:33, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Image 

message: Assad led a massacre in Homs around 1982 and killed 25,000 people. It's not mentioned in a single word.  132.69.228.88 21:14, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  massacre in Homs 

message: All pictures in this article have now been checked to insure that they are free license and do not have any copyright restrictions. Please ensure that any pictures you add or edit in the future, conform to some form of free license agreement, thanks.
Haxxor23 15:21, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Good job, but there's a small issue; the map is actually for the governorate, not the city, and it would be better if we had an image for the city, a skyline view for example. Asabbagh 06:35, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pictures are all free license now 

message: I think we should rename the article to "Hims". All the sources I've used in my recent expansion have used that name as well as this one on mosques of Hims. What's the argument to keep it as "Homs", is it local dialect or something (which doesn't justify it by the way)? --Al Ameer son (talk) 07:29, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I actually agree. I don't think it's the local accent, it has more to do with the french pronunciation (Something like Lattakia vs. Latakia). But a quick search reveals that Hims is more common, and it is what the Britannica Online uses.Yazan (talk) 11:32, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Ok then I'll move it now. --Al Ameer son (talk) 17:33, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I challenge the designation of Homs as Hims, because, as it happens, wherever I take a look into English-language literature it is Homs all the way. We need to do a real search following more closely WP guidelines. Gun Powder Ma (talk) 16:32, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Homs or ''Hims'' 

message: Numbers of population and sea level are different between the infobox and the text, can we find any citation? --Ciphers (talk) 13:07, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I can't find a citation, but I updated the elevation from Google Earth. Yazan (talk) 13:32, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

text: I found this site  but it only lists recent figures for the governorate, the most recent figures for the city go back to 1994. I will update with that until we get a better source, because the sources in the article obviously refer to the whole governorate. Yazan (talk) 14:02, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I think we should use the 2005 estimate provided in the Cities of the Middle East book we've been using. It states a population of 750,000. 1994 is just too long ago (14 years). --Al Ameer son (talk) 23:33, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Updated. Yazan (talk) 02:15, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for both of you --Ciphers (talk) 02:32, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Back to the current population. So far, I've found that the Syria and Lebanon book says Hims has a population of 823,000 (p.156). It was published in 2008. Another book, The Middle East and North Africa 2004 lists a population of about 811,000 (p.1041). Which should we use! There's a big gap between 750,000 and 823,000. --Al Ameer son (talk) 05:31, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I would say use lonely planet, as the most recent publication. Yazan (talk) 05:44, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Population Data 

message: I added a paragraph on Education statistics, it may need some copyediting. I've been skimming through some other GA articles, and I think we have enough to nominate (if Ashdod can pass?), what do you think? Yazan (talk) 19:01, 24 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Hm, refs may need to be completely filled out, and I'll try to copyedit some. SpencerT♦C 22:54, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

text: Okay, I've done pretty much all I can with the web cites. Can we use a better word than "boasts" to describe things in Hims? It's used three times. SpencerT♦C 23:27, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: That's done. For ref 77, can we find a source other than the Arabic Wikipedia? SpencerT♦C 01:12, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

text: Same with the ref for Kayseri as the sister city. SpencerT♦C 01:19, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: (edit conflict) The article looks great, and better everyday. There are some minor issues remaining, however, they shouldn't hinder a GA nomination. First, do we have any info on the hospitals of Hims (how many, which one is the major one), the fire department, utilities (water and electricity)? We don't need to have subsections on the above-mentioned subjects since I know it's been rather difficult to gather sources for the modern city, but if we have any info on them, we should add it just beneath the main "Local infrastructure" section. Second, the article might need to be looked over from top to bottom for copyedditing, although I've noticed Spencer has been taking care of this. This only leaves the "citation needed" tag for Al-Karamah being the "one of the oldest sports clubs in Asia". You should go ahead and get the GA nomination started because it might take a few days or even weeks for an article to get checked. By the way, Ashdod is not an ideal GA, this article is much better ;) --Al Ameer son (talk) 01:31, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I put the citation needed tag; I'm having difficulty finding a ref for this, and I'm going to hide that mention. In addition, except for the wikipedia ref for the Kayseri sister city, I can't find a ref for that either. Perhaps refs for these can be found in paper sources. SpencerT♦C 01:53, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I couldn't find a ref for Kayseri either. What do you mean paper source? Like an offline one? --Al Ameer son (talk) 03:00, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Nominated! Yazan (talk) 09:37, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

text: Yes, an online one. Internet searches weren't revealing anything, so I thought a book might have something. SpencerT♦C 22:00, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

text: Oops, I must have missed it. It was Dumper, 2007, p.173 and I went ahead and added it. --Al Ameer son (talk) 23:55, 28 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Is there a ref for Hims' nickname, "The city of Ibn al-Walid"? An internet search netted no results. SpencerT♦C 20:33, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: It is a translation from arabic, مدينة ابن الوليد. Yazan (talk) 21:25, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Gotcha. A search of that in quotes gives a couple thousand results. SpencerT♦C 22:56, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Does anyone know the nearest airports to Hims? This should be mentioned before its reviewed. --Al Ameer son (talk) 07:24, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Sorry for taking a long time to respond, off-Wiki. Damascus International Airport is the closes major airport to Hims. Bassel Al-Assad International Airport is closer but it offers limited flights to a few destinations only. Yazan (talk) 08:07, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: GA nomination?

message: It seems that the after this article was first moved (from Homs to Hims) many related articles were moved in the same way (example) and most instances in their text were similarly changed. It is very unfortunate considering the effort that was put into it, especially since such "blanket" moves are usually unnecessary. And of course it should've been discussed first.
Now, should we look for these articles and do a "blanket revert"? And if we do so, is there a bot or any fast method to do such a thing? Any ideas would be helpful. -- Orionist ★ talk 10:23, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: In my view, any move which was based on the move of this very article should be undone the same way, that is without further discussion. Gun Powder Ma (talk) 16:06, 31 August 2010 (UTC)

text: This was the name of one of the districts in the age of the Caliphate, and it is transliterated (rather than translated) from "Classic" Arabic. If you look at the articles of the other "Junds", they are all transliterated. Hence "Dimashq" for Damascus and "al-Urdunn" for Jordan. So in this case, I think it should stay as "Hims". -- Orionist ★ talk 22:54, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

text: I agree Jund Hims seems to be the preferred usage. --Bejnar (talk) 15:42, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  After the move 

message: Please direct your attention to the third paragraph in the "Demographics" section. There's a sentence there that reads, "Most of its residents are originally from the Acre and Haifa areas in northern Palestine.[55]" The ref is to "Homs Refugee Camp". 1. Clicking on the link redirects to unrwa.org. This is a recurring problem with UNRWA webpages, but someone should try to determine the current URL. 2. Why are Acre and Haifa described as areas in "northern Palestine" and not "northern Israel"? There must a valid reason for this, seeing as the article made GA with that sentence, but I'd still appreciate an explanation.—Biosketch (talk) 10:39, 8 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Because the refugees are from "northern Palestine"; the state of Israel did bot exist when they lived there. RolandR (talk) 21:53, 19 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Acre and Haifa areas" 

message: Do anynone know where the population numbers in the infobox come from? The population number for metro is the same as the population number for the whole governate, so it's obviously wrong. The number quoted in the text (823,000) appears more reasonable, but it seems like we're lacking really good sources here? – Danmichaelo (talk) 11:51, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Population numbers in infobox 

message: An image used in this article, , has been nominated for deletion at Wikimedia Commons in the following category: Deletion requests December 2011 
;What should I do?
Don't panic; a discussion will now take place over on Commons about whether to remove the file. This gives you an opportunity to contest the deletion, although please review Commons guidelines before doing so.
* If the image is non-free then you may need to upload it to Wikipedia (Commons does not allow fair use)
* If the image isn't freely licensed and there is no fair use rationale then it cannot be uploaded or used.
This notification is provided by a Bot --CommonsNotificationBot (talk) 08:19, 10 December 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: File:Homs Syria Protests 2011 - 03.jpg Nominated for Deletion

message: in Ottoman Turkish (& in Modern Turkish!) Böri (talk) 14:48, 15 February 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Humus 

message: Al Ameer son shortened the portion of the lead section about the current uprising, siege, and bombardment from a 3-sentence paragraph to one sentence at the end of the previous paragraph. His revision comment: "Reduce per WP:UNDUE. The lead is supposed to summarize Homs and having an entire passage about its role in the current uprising is undue weight. The current bit could be revised, but please keep it as short or shorter"
I believe that the 3-sentence paragraph was not WP:UNDUE. 20, 50, or 100 years from now, whatever happens in the meantime, the uprising, siege, and bombardment will still play a huge role in the history of Homs. Just look at the video footage that has come out; major parts of the city are completely destroyed. To compare, the lead section on Hama has 3 sentences on anti-Baath uprisings and the fallout from those. Dresden's lead section has 3 sentences on its bombing during WWII and that was 70 years ago. --Nstrauss (talk) 22:23, 21 February 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Whatever the case in Homs we shouldn't have more than one sentence in the lead describing its current uprising. Homs has rebelled against the rulers of Syria for centuries and this current rebellion will likely change Homs' future (negatively or positively depending on the outcome) but no single event or phenomenon in the city's history should warrant more than a sentence in the lead section. I'm personally a supporter of the ongoing revolution, but we need to stick to NPOV and particularly WP:Undue. This article is rated GA while your examples Dresden and Hama are of lesser quality. If you want to compare articles, look at London or Hong Kong for example. The former was nearly destroyed in WWII, but its article lead doesn't even mention it. --Al Ameer son (talk) 23:53, 21 February 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: There is no rule that a single event only gets one sentence in a lead. In my opinion, it should depend on the historic significance of the event compared to the significance of other events and aspects of the subject. London is not comparable because it is much bigger with with a broader history and other aspects that eclipse the significance of the WWII bombings. Also, I could be wrong, but based on footage I've seen of both bombardments (Homs and London), Homs has been more significant in proportion to the size of the city. (I don't understand your reference to Hong Kong, by the way.) Point taken about Hama and Dresden not being rated GA, but are you seriously saying that their leads put undue weight on their respective bombings? Both of those cities will long be known for their bombings, as will Homs - am I wrong? Other comparable examples are Benghazi (3 sentences) and Hiroshima. Although Hiroshima has only one sentence on the nuclear bomb, it's the second sentence and it's one of only four. Also, in my opinion the Hiroshima lead could be expanded generally as it is too short. Finally, evidence of the relative significance of the Homs siege and bombardment can be found in Google Trends, which shows a huge spike since the uprising began - and the background can probably attributed to Hospital Metropolitano de Santiago (HOMS). --Nstrauss (talk) 17:46, 23 February 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Hiroshima and Benghazi are also not GAs, not sure that the damage in Homs is greater than 1940s London and I mentioned Hong Kong because it took a huge blow as a result of the Japanese invasion in WWII and its article is GA status. As for the level of damage in Homs, we don't know how vast and, specifically, widespread the destruction is. We know the people there are suffering dearly, we know that neighborhoods like Baba Amr and Khalidiyeh have been heavily damaged, especially the former, and over 1,000 people have been killed. But the city has not been destroyed (not even close to Hama in 1982). From being the center of the Emesani dynasty, capital of Jund Hims, a strategically/politically important city in the Middle Ages, an industrial center in Syria during Ottoman and modern times, Homs has had an extensive history. I really don't think there could be a good argument about giving the current unrest more than a good summary sentence like the other important facts mentioned in the lead, let alone a separate paragraph. Keep in mind, we're also talking about recent events. As of now, we have a good amount of info in the body which could be expanded and we have several articles dedicated to the events in Homs: Siege of Homs, February 2012 bombardment of Homs and of course 2011–2012 Syrian uprising. --Al Ameer son (talk) 01:42, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Siege in lead section 

message: Before anyone changes the current population figure again, could they provide an RS to back it? I'm considering requesting a semi-protect lock since the pop has been changed a dozen or more times. I doubt the population is 1.2 million although ~1,000,000 is possible. 1.2 could include nearby towns and villages which presents an inaccurate picture of the actual population. 1.2 could be a metropolitan figure if anything. The 2004 census put Homs' population officially at 652,609. The latest figure we have in the article is 823,000 in 2008 but it comes from a non-governmental source. Does anyone know the latest estimate—backed by a reliable source of course? --Al Ameer son (talk) 00:05, 25 February 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, we should make a note of that. Go ahead and add the info to the lead and the Demographics section. --Al Ameer (talk) 19:09, 27 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Population figure 

message: An image used in this article, , has been nominated for speedy deletion at Wikimedia Commons for the following reason: Copyright violations 
;What should I do?
Don't panic; deletions can take a little longer at Commons than they do on Wikipedia. This gives you an opportunity to contest the deletion (although please review Commons guidelines before doing so). The best way to contest this form of deletion is by posting on the image talk page.
* If the image is non-free then you may need to upload it to Wikipedia (Commons does not allow fair use)
* If the image isn't freely licensed and there is no fair use rationale then it cannot be uploaded or used.
* If the image has already been deleted you may want to try Commons Undeletion Request
To take part in any discussion, or to review a more detailed deletion rationale please visit the relevant 
This is Bot placed notification, another user has nominated/tagged the image --CommonsNotificationBot (talk) 18:41, 26 February 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: File:Khaled bin waleed stadium.jpg Nominated for speedy Deletion

message: How is it the most notable thing?? Pass a Method talk 00:35, 8 July 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Its the the most notable thing, it a major thing, and the first that comes up in news media. Sopher99 (talk) 00:44, 8 July 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  did you actually compare the sourcces? Pass a Method talk 07:18, 8 July 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes - the last paragraph is unsourced, while my edition is properly sourced. Sopher99 (talk) 12:35, 8 July 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  What i meant by comparing sources is a very straightforward application of WP:WEIGHT; quoting that policy, viewpoints are featured "in proportion to the prominence of each viewpoint in the published, reliable sources." A quick Google News search between them shows the keywords in the previous version brings more returns. Pass a Method talk 12:58, 8 July 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sense 

message: The lead section is very much focussed on what Homs was like before the Syrian war. The images and most of the lead give the impression that the city is still roughly the same, despite the fact that much of it has been decimated. I am sure there are some press photos that are copyright free. KingHiggins (talk) 20:08, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Needs Updating 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Homs. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080615175021/http://www.cortasco.com:80/templates/en/profile.htm to http://www.cortasco.com/templates/en/profile.htm
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20100922063523/http://e.sy/govmember.php?pid=NTEz&mid=2 to http://e.sy/govmember.php?pid=NTEz&mid=2
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090307020739/http://www.ischoms-sabis.net:80/AboutIscHoms.aspx to http://www.ischoms-sabis.net/AboutIscHoms.aspx
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers. —cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 01:27, 29 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Where are the figures for the area of the city, it's urban area, and it's metro area coming from?  For a country I've had a very hard time finding area figures for - and even just wondering what exactly is being measured as far as local governments are concerned - these seem awfully specific. --Criticalthinker (talk) 10:03, 7 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Area 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 3 external links on Homs. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20111217230844/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2011/1076/re4.htm to http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2011/1076/re4.htm
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090602185627/http://www.homschamber.org.sy/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=2&page=1 to http://www.homschamber.org.sy/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=2&page=1
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20081118193706/http://www.emesanet.com/ to http://www.emesanet.com/
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 08:45, 6 November 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Homs. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20161227045257/http://www.kayseri.bel.tr/web2/index.php?page=humus-suriye to http://www.kayseri.bel.tr/web2/index.php?page=humus-suriye
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 00:09, 6 December 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified