Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Biography/Archive 8

message: Event proposal
I was recently talking to Thereen, and Thereen remarked to me about the immense backlog of unassessed articles.  We both have been working over at the Musicians WikiProject and have noticed a similar increase in the musician-related backlog.
So, we thought it might be a good idea, if we could set a week of time where all (or as many as are available) of the users can get together and try to tackle some of the backlog.  Thus the creation of an "Assessment Week."  This event could even happen multiple times every year (if enough support was available).
If we could get a few users to leave notes on some of the members' talk pages, it would hopefully attract enough people to help make a dent in the backlog.  Thoughts...?  – Heaven's Wrath   Talk  04:01, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Clearly I am in support of this idea. Assessing an article isn't hard, but it can be time consuming with the amount your project has accumulated, especially without adequate support. Our project has just over 2,000 articles of backlog. Your project, on the other hand, has more than 100,000 at the moment. Some of those unassessed articles must have been sitting there for quite some time. I see this as a chance to pitch in with those articles. We'd love some thoughts or feedback on this idea. Thanks for your time and Happy New Years, Thereen 00:28, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  I like the idea, but personally, I'd prefer an "Assessment Day", where one day every week, we assess articles. I think we would get through the backlog faster that way, and I'd be less likely to get tired of assessing articles that way. Either way, I'd be joining in. - kollision 22:37, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I understand the reasoning, but I think that trying to get people to assess articles every week would be hard.  We thought that having a "special" week would inspire more involvement and might attract more people.  – Heaven's Wrath   Talk  20:46, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Shamelessly plugging my own proposal, I was hoping with the "Wikipedia Week" proposed to begin on Wikipedia Day, the 15th, to get as many projects as possible to engage in some sort of special action to "celebrate" the time. This would clearly be one idea which would fit into that proposal. Badbilltucker 20:58, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Assessment Week" 

message: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of people by name (2nd nomination) may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. —Mets501 (talk) 17:01, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  AFD 

message: During the last two months, namely during the time the heart and soul of this project, Plange, is inactive (for reasons I do not know), there are serious problems in the co-ordination and regular function of this project. Take into consideration the following examples:
*No newsletter has been issued during the last two months.
*In the peer-review section I am almost alone, since nobody ese reviews articles in a regular basis.
*The side-bar of the project is not regularly informed and often includs inaccuracies.
So, I think that my question is logical? Where is this project going? During the last months it managed to collect an amazing noumber of users, but this had not helped it to remain vigorous. Something is obviously wrong, and something must be done, so that it starts again working properly. I'm willing to contribute to this effort, but is there any further interest? Does anybody else agrees that something here is not working properly? Is there a plan and an existing continuity of the project's function (despite Plange's inactivity) that I ignore?--Yannismarou 11:45, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Speaking as one of those users, I apologise, Yannis, for not being much help. I do in fact create and edit biographical articles (mostly ancient and medieval people). That's the way I contribute. I seem to leave it to others to set up projects, write newsletters, stick banners on talk pages, and do assessments and peer-reviews; in the limited time I have, I can't really join in. I admire those like you who are willing to do it. Andrew Dalby 13:24, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I am guilty as well. Odd as it might sound, I think we might want to consider creating a new group or project for the express purpose of updating newsletters, portals, and the like. Any opinions? Badbilltucker 22:48, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with the group idea. The Military Project has a team of co-ordinators. I do not know if we need to re-produce exactly the same model. But, certainly, there should be some people dedicated to the maintenance of the basic aspects of this project (updates, newsletters, peer-reviews, portals, welcoming new members). Until now I have been self-"confined" to the peer-review section (whose I have undertaken the maintenance [because nobody else did! - not that I do not like it; I do!] after Plange's milder involvement and current inactivity). Being "confined" to this section, i do not know that well the other aspects of the project (neasletters, automation, outreach, portal etc.), but I'm willing to learn, to help and to participate to a collective effort, led by a group of people like the one Badbilltucker proposes. I do not know if this group is going to be unofficial or elected, if it is going to be called "co-ordinators" or not, but, definitely, something is needed to be done here, and this particular proposal seems to be towards the right direction.--Yannismarou 16:53, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is the project fading? An alert signal 

message: As someone who writes some bio articles (although I haven't too date been active in this particular Wikiproject, which at some point I should change), my attention was caught by this MfD on what apparently is supposed to be an index to all the biographies on Wikipedia. The question has been raised in the MfD discussion as to whether this list continues to serve a purpose, and if so, whether its existence needs to be better publicized and/or how its functioning could be improved. It occurred to me that participants in the Biography Wikiproject might be in the best position to comment on these questions. Newyorkbrad 17:06, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Relevant MfD 

message: Hello. It appears to me that your template switched case. "class=stub" results in "???" on Peter Samson and (where I saw the problem just now, because I copied Samson's there) on Steve Russell. I am almost sure that a participant in this project observed this. For now I changed the ratings on those two talk pages to "class=Stub". -Susanlesch 02:10, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I tried it, and it seemed to work fine.  I cannot seem to recreate the problem.  Also, discussion related to  would best be placed on its talk page.  – Heaven's Wrath   Talk  03:13, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: *Then I suppose someone fixed it on the fly, because last night these articles were rated "???". I mention it here because it affects the project. Thanks a lot for your reply. -Susanlesch 11:49, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Case sensitivity

message: A great new feature's been added to Wikipedia's software. As mentioned at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-01-02/Technology report, we can now change the default sort key for a page like so: . If this were in George Washington then all categories that didn't explicitly override it with their own sort key would put this article under "W". I've proposed adding it to  and , but I figured I'd mention it here as well since I'm sure there are plenty of other biography-related templates that could perhaps use this. Bryan 04:09, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for mentioning that, Bryan. I wouldn't have seen it otherwise. Andrew Dalby 14:04, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've now implemented that magic word in both of those templates, if anyone wants to add it somewhere else you can look there to see an example of how it can work. Or let me know of a good target and I'll take a crack at it myself. Bryan 08:27, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: DEFAULTSORT magic word

message: Hi. :Category:Uncategorised people is getting quite large (about 2000 articles I think). People involved in the biography project might want to take a few whacks at it. Thanks, Pascal.Tesson 07:10, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Uncategorized people 

message: Currently, this project lacks for some people to fulfill some of the directly project-related duties, with the absence of the project's creator Plange. There are several other projects which lack people to perform directly project-related activities as well, including such things as assessment, peer review, portal maintainance, etc. On that basis, I have proposed a new separate project at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#Project Support Services which, should it have sufficient interest, could help in such activities when the people who would ordinarily perform certain activities are absent, or to assist new projects which are just being set up. Any individuals interested should feel free to add their names there. Thank you. Badbilltucker 15:13, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: *Hi, Badbilltucker. In my short time on Wikipedia I have found the WikiProject Biography to be the best run. How would your proposal affect its operations? I wonder about inserting another layer of process. Thanks in advance. -Susanlesch 15:54, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Basically, I tend to agree about Biography having been run well while Plange was active. Right now, it is less so. In circumstances like this, when the backbone of the project is away for a while, a member or members of the project could make a request to the proposed project (if it were active) requesting that it maybe help update the portal, do requested assessments, or whatever until such time as the people who regularly do that return, or until the project chooses or has members come forward to take on the duties more regularly. I'm basically thinking of it as kind of a temp agency to do some of the things that a project generally does on its own but for whatever reason can't do at that specific time. Once the regular people do step forward/get appointed/whatever, then the members of the proposed project would basically leave the work to them, until and unless they're contacted again. Badbilltucker 16:20, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The project is badly ran right now. Or to be more accurate some parts of the project are badly ran because of Plange's absence. I'm not sure your proposal, Badbilltucker, will work. Let's say that the project is created, and that 10 inactive projects demand at the same time assistance. The members of the "support group" will have first to support their own project (which is alone a tough task), and then the projects with problems! And if one of the projects filing application is a big one like WP:BIOGRAPHY the problem of the "support group" will get bigger! One person cannot do the job. He will need the assistance of more members (Not even Kirill cannot do the job in WP:MILHIST; he has a team of elected assistant-coordinators to assit him). And then who's left to assist the other problematic projects? And the "support group" itself? I think that this project, in particular, should find the solution internally. It should have already found a solution already! This project has more than 200, and we cannot co-ordinate ourselves creating an internal support group! I cannot believe that! If Plange is watching us she must be bitterly disappointed by the current situation. I'm sure that individual users are doing their best right now to keep their project alive. But we need co-ordination and organization. IMO this is the best problem right now. If we had co-ordination and organization (and 2-3 more people) we would be able to fill the missing parts of the puzzle.--Yannismarou 16:55, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: No real disagreement with the above. With the number of members we have, we should be able to do better. I only posted the proposal here because this is one of the largest projects and it currently is experiencing some of the problems the proposed project would address, not that it would necessarily be the perfect candidate itself. Also, I have noted that a number of new projects need a lot of help in setup, and they also could benefit from such a group helping out when they do start. Regarding the second issue, I think maybe the time has come to try to appoint/elect a board to help oversee this project. Basically, I think three people (the number Military history) has, should be enough. On that basis, I am adding a section below for candidates. Badbilltucker 17:17, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

text: *Dear Plange, whatever you were doing continued to work. When I needed them most, assessments by Ceoil (one example) and Yannismarou (one example) were so well done and so prompt. Really stellar work. But I understand from comments above that you need more people. I would support Badbilltucker's idea if it is at the bottom of the organizational chart, a service provided to WikiProjects, and not an umbrella at the top i.e. over WikiProjects. Does that sound about right? -Susanlesch 01:40, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

text: *SHE'S BACK!!!!! (for a note on my punctuation metehods, see [here]). You have no idea how many people were worried about you, lady. Anyway, that is rather less important now, unless the work just gets a bit too excessive, which it easily could. I hope everything's a bit better over there now, for your sake and ours. And, actually, the project proposal would be more like a "temp agency" available on call (if it ever gets off the ground), than as a bereaucratic entity. Sorry if I hadn't made that clear earlier. Badbilltucker 01:51, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: *Thank God! I go back to the peer-review and assessment departments that I know best! But my initial statement stays: if Plange needs further support in other parts of the project or if she decides to form a supporting group, I'm here to help. Cheers!--Yannismarou 08:41, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  New proposed project 

message: Here is a place where individual members of the project can volunteer to take on some of the project management duties, as well as a place where members can suggest other editors who might be able to assist in these matters. Please note that the individuals here are not being considered to be "managers," "directors", "supervisors," "little tin gods," or anything of the type, simply people who are considering becoming possibly a bit more actively involved in helping to manage a certain activity or function of the project. Any nominees or volunteers should be added below. Thank you.
Current activities requiring help:
*Assessment/Peer review
*Portal management
*Project management (response on talk page, collaboration, newsletter).
*Ideally, I think we would want at least two people for each duty, in the event a person becomes temporarily prevented from performing a task. Any volunteers or suggestions should be added below. Badbilltucker 17:17, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: *I'm already active in Peer-review (but further assistance would be nice), and during the last days I've started working also in the Assessment section. My free time is not endless, but I can also - at least partially - help with the 3d bullet (response on talk page, collaboration, newsletter). My bigger problem there is automation; I'm not the best in automation, bots etc, but I'm a quick learner! I don't think I have time right now for the portal as well.--Yannismarou 17:32, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Project Activity Board

message: Could someone please link me to a recommended format for the Awards section of a biography? If there isn't a general standard then please recommend one or more quality biographies of highly decorated and/or multi-award-winning French people so I can get some ideas for best practice. Thank you. Random Passer-by 21:47, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Is there a standard format for the Awards section of a bio?

message: The template page hasn't been update in weeks, so I'm leaving messages here now.
Gerald Ford has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here.
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thread_title: Gerald Ford FAR

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SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:13, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Father Damien FAR

message: Please visit the talk page and review the recent edit-warring history for Joyce Kilmer and please comment on whether certain genealogical information (which I think is irrelevant and anti-policy) should be inserted into the article. —ExplorerCDT 00:17, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Joyce Kilmer]]

message: Henry VIII of England has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here.
SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:54, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Henry VIII of England FAR

message: I will be nominating the article on the band Slayer for FA soon. I would appreciate it, if some of you could take a look and leave some comments on the peer-review if anything would stop it from obtaining FA status. Thanks. M3tal H3ad 09:49, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Slayer]]

message: Hey everyone - I'd like to make a general call for help at WP:BLPN.  Many issues posted are going for days or weeks without being looked at.  Please consider taking an open incident or two and examining them.  If the problem is severe and ongoing, make a comment to that effect.  If it was a one-time report of vandalism, unsourced information that has been reverted, or a content dispute that is not a BLP issue, close the request.  Any help would be appreciated.  Anyone can help - relatively new users or long-time admins. Thanks. --BigDT 06:09, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  A general call for help at [[WP:BLPN]] 

message: There's a CFD for :Category:Animal rights activists; the members of an animal rights project don't want the subcat for "activists"; a couple of us who have been categorizing and diffusing various people categories (:Category:People by occupation" and :Category:Activists) think it's important to be consistent. Thoughts from other people-categorizers welcome, since this could set precedent for other movement pages. The discussion has gotten really bogged down b/w Wikiproject:Animal rights movement folks (generally opposed) and categorizers (generally in favor).  Perhaps some biography-lovers could raise new points, make helpful discussions & generally shed some light on this unhappily irresolved discussion. --lquilter 16:04, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  categorization / activists etc. 

message: Is there a policy or guideline or whatever about whether information that goes into an bio infobox should or should not be repeated in the article's text?  For example, the opening para. of a bio is supposed to include birthdate, place of birth, etc.; those items are also listed in the infobox.  What about other information, like spouse or children or awards?  Thanks.  --Vbd 15:12, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Infoboxes and redundancy? 

message: Please vote for Muhammad Ali at Wikipedia:U.S. Wikipedians' notice board/USCOTW. Stevie is the man! Talk • Work 16:33, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Muhammad Ali nominated for U.S. Collaboration of the Week

message: Sly & the Family Stone has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here.
SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:52, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Sly & the Family Stone FAR

message: Hi - another biographical categorization issue -- people by political belief.  Please see CFD on American liberals and Categorization of people.  --lquilter 16:09, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  categorization of people by political belief 

message: Marilyn Manson (band) has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here.
Jeffpw 21:46, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Marilyn Manson (band)]]

message: Anne of Great Britain has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here.Jeffpw 09:23, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Anne of Great Britain]]

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thread_title: [[Carl Sagan]]

message: I added a header for this page (it seemed a little empty).  I also think that because of the high number of posts, it might be useful to use Werdnabot to archive the older sections.  Everything is set up already to use it, I just wanted to ask about the archiving.  – Heaven's Wrath   Talk  21:43, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Archiving and new design of this page

message: Why does Talk:Big Five (orchestras) have Biography project tags? The article is not a biography. Finell (Talk) 04:44, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It was added by a bot (Kingbotk), apparently in error, so I've removed it. Random Passer-by 18:45, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks. I didn't want to barge in and remove them myself, in case I was missing something. Perhaps I was not BOLD enough this one time. Finell (Talk) 03:54, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not especially bold and sometimes find it helpful to seek a second opinion from other editors. :-) Random Passer-by 14:03, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Big Five (orchestras) 

message: Considering that individuals who found one religious movement generally arise from another one, and that their articles will be edited primarily by adherents of the faith s/he founded, not the one s/he arose from, I have proposed a new subproject to deal with these possibly difficult articles at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#Religious leaders in the hope that we might be able to better ensure they be NPOV and have a global perspective. Any and all interested parties should indicate their support there, so we can see if there is enough interest to start the group in earnest. Badbilltucker 15:08, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Proposed subproject 

message: The above named article was deleted as a copyright violation. If anyone could recreate the article without violating copyright, it would greatly be appreciated. Badbilltucker 18:42, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[David Sereda]] deleted 

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SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:54, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Igor Stravinsky FAR

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SandyGeorgia (Talk) 21:17, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: The Temptations FAR

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SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:15, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Fanny Blankers-Koen FAR

message: I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but a brief glance through :Category:American film directors shows a wide variety of disambiguation conventions with seemingly none predominating.  There is "filmmaker", "film director", "director", "film-maker" and "film".  The first three variants are represented fairly equally, while I only found one case each of the last two.  I propose deciding on one out of the three and sticking with it.  Is this the right talk page to do this? Esn 23:58, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Disambiguation conventions for film directors