User talk:RifeIdeas/Archive 2

For the year 2011

Unicorporated Communities

Hello. I've created some drafts of articles from list of unincorporated communities in Iowa that are currently redlinked. I was wondering if you could take a look at them and add some suggestions? (I'll add more later on your talk page under this section if you don't mind)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:CReep-cReep/Turkey_River,_Iowa

cReep (talk) 08:40, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Your timing could not have been better! You are pushing me (a good thing) into the next phase of the Communities division. I am close to being finished (for now) with incorporated cities. and had in fact just downloaded the {{infobox settlement}} into a Microsoft Word document 2 days ago, but not done anything with it. MS Word is where I start my code reworks because it is easier to use the clipboard, spell check and other features. I hope to have the infobox template with instructions on {{WP:IA/C/P]] (which still needs a lot of work) today or soon. It will be located below * * TOPICS IN ADDITION TO THE STRUCTURE * *. I am interested in how you came up with choosing your parameters for the infobox you have for Turkey River. I started with the basic non-metric template found on the {{infobox settlement}} page, which does have more parameters than the one you are using , but does not have these parameters you included: | official_name |imagesize |mapsize (|image_map1 |mapsize1 |map_caption1 we will discuss changing) |government_type |area_magnitude |area_total_km2 |elevation_m |blank_name |blank_info |blank1_name |blank1_info. I am adding all the parameters you have to the basic non-metric except possibly the ones in parentheses which allows for a second map type because the basic template has a pushpin map template setup. What do you think?

I was going to start on the township tables now that the incorporated cities are basically finished but can start on unincorporated cities/towns tables if that is where you are going to concentrate your efforts. The tables are to record progress and caliber of the communities. Please tell me which you would prefer me to make first townships or unincorporated. The {{infobox settlement}} is used for all three so that is next. Also could you tell me if the WP:IA/C and WP:IA/C/P have helped you. I am fairly new at editing on Wikipedia so I can learn from you as well. I respect constructive criticism (or praise) and hope you do too.

Now as to what you have done with Turkey River, I think it is a very good beginning Stub article and definitely passes for a good start (not to be confused with a Start-Class article). The lede sentence:

Turkey River is an unicorporated community located in Clayton County, Iowa. The city was platted in 1880 by Peter Keinie.

is sometimes all that used to start an article, although I think that is not near enough as I will try to explain in the near future on the WP:IA/C page under assessments. The only thing I would try to add to what you have for Turkey River at this time is how it got the name. Also I noticed that Turkey River is not listed in the {{Clayton County, Iowa}} template. Check that out and get back with me.

One suggestion You may not want to make a new practice page for each town. you can always just copy the code from an existing article to work on it in your workspace and then once it is ready paste it back into the mainspace article. Also instead of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:CReep-cReep/Turkey_River,_Iowa you can just use [[User:CReep-cReep/Turkey River, Iowa]] for the link or as some do [[User:CReep-cReep/Turkey River, Iowa|THIS PAGE]] which produces THIS PAGE. Feel free to click on the edit button above to see how the code works just don't change anything.

Classification of articles Stub to and through C-Class is subjective. I am thinking (and would welcome your feedback) of using the following classifications (for communities division only) for unincorporated cities/towns and townships in the soon to be made tables.

• Stub would be any article started.
• Quality Stub for unincorporated would have infobox, county template, history(brief) , transportation(main roads), references
• Quality Sub for townships would have all for unincorporated and a description of any cities/towns located within it's borders
• Start-Class would expand history some, geography(water ways, land formations ), demographics, expand transportation(railroads, airports trails), parks and recreation.
• Quality Start to be determined.

Enough for now real life calls, get back to me with your thoughts. Also you can help me a lot (now and in the future) if you could tell me what sources you are finding and using for getting information.
--RifeIdeas Talk 19:08, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Absolutely, thank you so much for the feedback! I'll be working on unincorporated communities, if you don't mind. Turkey River, Iowa is located within Clayton County, Millville Township, and it's just a few miles from where I grew up. It has been difficult getting much information on it, but I definitely know it is in Clayton County... as are many of the unicorporated townships. As I find more information I will add it, as it is simply a draft at this point. The classification ideas are all wonderful, and will be a very good start for all the new and existing articles!

cReep (talk) 05:06, 6 January 2011 (UTC)

First a little Wikipedia education, the normal etiquette for userpages is to indent the conversation for each new post by using the : for however many indent spaces you need. I changed your last post to show this.

I have since found a source and have determined that the county templates are incomplete. I am not sure of why although Wikipedia is all volunteer based so maybe that editor just included those communities that had an article started. When I find time I will see about updating those templates to include all communities even if they are red-linked. For finding information I added (on 1/5/2011) a section WP:IA/C#Sources for information that has Iowa GenWeb. If you find any websites that have quality information please let me know about them or input them into that section yourself. If you navigate the GenWeb links you can find information on Turkey River (or any other place). By the way I was curious why you blanked out your Turkey river page without actually creating the article? I thought it was good to go (I only advised additional improvements). The information can be recovered if you want as long as you do not request a userpage deletion on that page.

I see you found my addition of the unincorporated communities table. (also new) I also seen you added many counties to the towns and that is great. I am curious as to what you used as a source? There is no right or wrong way but I just wanted let you know my thinking on why I just added co. behind the county names I entered in. I used a table set up I had already used for the incorporated cities and just changed the column headings leaving me one spare that I called Future but had thought about making it into Townships and there are many cities, counties and townships with the same name therefore the "co.". To save space I just used co. instead of County and made the space just wide enough for Pottawattamie co. the county with the longest name, although some towns are in two counties. If that happens the two counties will have a <br> code (for break) put between them. It was somewhat easy for me to change those entries you put into the table by pasting into a MS Word program and using the find and replace feature. I found a couple of my own entries that needed "refinement" while doing this.

I also noticed you removed the {{coord}} template from 3 towns, which is technically correct although when I have been removing that template I redo the Geography section to retain the decimal coordinates. Take a look at the Hiawatha example at WP:IA/C/P#Geography. I appreciate the editing you did and am just communicating things I think can improve the Iowa communities.
--RifeIdeas Talk 18:04, 6 January 2011 (UTC)

Okay, I wasn't sure on how you used indents... When I was on Wiki before it would be the poster then the second poster would use one indent and indents were only added as new posters added so the third poster would use two indents and so on and so forth.

I had also noticed the county templates were pretty much all incomplete as well, and I was going to ask you if you were going to fix the templates or not (great minds think alike- eh?). But I will continue adding the template box to the end of the article, for when the template is corrected.

For information I also have been using 1) IAGenWeb, I actually cited it in one of my articles before. I also find a lot of information on 2) Google "Books" because a lot of the counties have volumes upon volumes of documented history. Clayton County, for instance, has quite a few books written on their history, autobiographies, netural lands, original settlers, civil war heros, graveyards... All sorts of helpful information. 3) I also use the website http://iowa.hometownlocator.com/ to determine what cities belong in which county. They use the census class code system. So if an area is considered unincorporated it is usually defined as "Class Code U6" which means, "A populated place that is not a census designated or incorporated place having an official federally recognized name." 4) I also double check on GNIS to make sure homtownlocator is correct.

I actually moved my Turkey River article to User:CReep-cReep/sandbox so I can also put other articles on it. I was going to go ahead and create the article tonight.

I was thinking about doing unincorporated communities a-z but I decided I should stick with what I know best, which is Clayton County. I've been making quite a few infoboxes for each community in Microsoft Word. After I finish Clayton County I will probably continue to choose communities county by county. Also, the reason why I used County instead of "co." is because I'm used to using full names instead of abbreviations (hehe) but I'll start adding "co." instead.

cReep (talk) 05:35, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

I'll just piggy back on this post. Time zones done CTJF83 chat 19:46, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Invitation to join WikiProject United States

Hello, RifeIdeas/Archive 2! WikiProject United States, an outreach effort supporting development of United States related articles in Wikipedia, has recently been restarted after a long period of inactivity. As a user who has shown an interest in United States related topics we wanted to invite you to join us in developing content relating to the United States. If you are interested please add your Username and area of interest to the members page here. Thank you!!!

--Kumioko (talk) 03:00, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

Welcome to the project. --Kumioko (talk) 16:11, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

GOCE drive news

Guild of Copy Editors January 2011 backlog elimination drive Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors January 2011 Backlog elimination drive! The drive is halfway over, so here are some mid-drive stats. Participation GOCE January 2011 backlog elimination drive progress graphs So far, 43 people have signed up for this drive. Of these, 25 have participated. If you signed up for the drive but haven't participated yet, it's not too late! Try to copy edit at least a few articles. Remember, if you have rollover words from the last drive, you will lose them if you do not participate in this drive. If you haven't signed up for the drive yet, you can sign up now. Progress report We have eliminated two months from the backlog – January and February 2009. One of our goals is to eliminate as many months as possible from the 2009 backlog. Please help us reduce the size of this part of the backlog if you haven't already. Another goal is to reduce the entire backlog by 10%, or by 515 articles. Currently, we have eliminated 375 articles from the queue, so if each participant copy edits four more articles, we will reach that goal. Thank you for participating in the January 2011 drive. We anticipate it will be another big success! Your drive coordinators –S Masters (talk), Diannaa (Talk), The UtahraptorTalk to me, and Tea with toast (Talk)

Delivered by MessageDeliveryBot on behalf of WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors at 20:49, 16 January 2011 (UTC).

Changes to oskaloosa

How can I stop these? My neighbor uses my WiFi. How do I stop him? He's been editing wikis and just told Me about it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.199.230.86 (talk) 07:01, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

What are you trying to stop? Specifically (posting a talkback on IPs page) CTJF83 chat 20:11, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Oh, is your neighbor editing on your account? Add a password to the Wifi, or create an account is a good idea. CTJF83 chat 20:13, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Categorizing files on Commons

Hi there RifeIdeas, just a note, if a file is being hosted at Commons, it should be categorized there, not here on Wikipedia. Categorizing images here makes the page eligible for speedy deletion under F2. Thank you. — ξ^xplicit 20:45, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for the notification, although I have a need for more explanation.
I obviously made some kind of unknowing mistake as I now have my first ever deleted edits as evidenced in my profile on X!'s Edit Counter. I also do not seem to have the ability to go back and find my mistake at either the Edit Counter (as the file category is gone) or in my contributions under the same file search. I also did a visual look at my edits and could not find a record of changing the category on a picture. If there is a way of locating this information please tell me.
As some explanation I am fairly new at editing Wikipedia (October 22, 2010) and I recall of getting to the file on the picture by clicking on the picture. Thinking I was at Commons I made the category changes. (Maybe a warning message should be instituted for this situation.) I only realized later that I had not been at Commons when I looked at the X!'s counter and seen the new file listing. I then investigated the new file listing and thought I had just learned something new. If I had know that my actions were incorrect at that time, I would of removed the category changes I had made.
Please educate me on how I can now find the files (and/or my edits) that were deleted (or at least their name) and a more detailed reason as your link (F2) only states Files that are corrupt, empty, or that contain superfluous and blatant non-metadata information and as a beginning editor I just do not understand how putting in a category falls under that statement.
--RifeIdeas Talk 02:34, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

The file in question is File:GeorgeFranklinBarber.jpg. As a regular user, you are met with limited access to certain things, and that includes deleted edits—only administrators have access to that. The specific line in F2 in regards to this matter is: This also includes image description pages for Commons images. You added two categories to the file, but this specific file is being hosted at Commons and categorization should take place there. Otherwise, there's just double the work with little benefit. Because you used HotCat to add the categories to the file, I think that explains why didn't see the notice; HotCat skips the edit window and there is no view of the notice or the deletion history of the file which can be seen by making a regular edit. — ξ^xplicit 04:32, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

New WikiProject United States Newsletter: February 2011 edition

Starting with the February 2011 issue WikiProject United States has established a newsletter to inform anyone interested in United States related topics of the latest changes. This newsletter will not only discuss issues relating to WikiProject United States but also:

1. Portal:United States
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GOCE January Backlog elimination drive conclusion

Guild of Copy Editors January 2011 Backlog elimination drive Greetings from the January 2011 Backlog elimination drive! We have reached the end of the month and the end of another successful drive; thanks to all who participated. Statistics 54 people signed up for the year's first Backlog elimination drive. Of these, 40 participated. One of our goals was to reduce the size of the backlog by at least 10%. We managed to reduce the backlog by 633 articles, or about 12%. Another goal was to eliminate as many 2009 months as possible from the queue. We eliminated January, February, March, and April—4 out of 12 months is not bad! In addition, we eliminated 37% of all remaining 2009 articles from the queue. Chaosdruid copy edited Kutch Gurjar Kashtriya for 32,711 words, which is the largest single article completed in one of our drives so far. This article counts as six 5000-K articles, and Chaosdruid wins the "most 5000-K articles" leaderboard category. Way to go! A complete list of individual results is here. Barnstars If you copy edited at least 4,000 words, you qualify for a barnstar. If you participated in the November 2010 Backlog elimination drive, you may have earned roll-over words (more details can be found here). These roll-over words count as credit towards earning barnstars, except for leaderboard awards. We will be delivering the barnstars within the next couple of weeks. Thank you for participating in this year's first Backlog elimination drive! We hope to see you in March. Your drive coordinators –S Masters (talk), Diannaa (talk), The Utahraptor (talk), and Tea with toast (talk)

Delivered by MessageDeliveryBot on behalf of WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors at 15:44, 5 February 2011 (UTC).

Iowaville

Thanks for the post office info. But what ruins are you referring to when you say "Iowaville is now considered a ghost town with a few ruins to show its location" ? I didn't think there was anything the casual observer would notice. — Preceding unsigned comment added by BillHart93 (talk • contribs) 14:48, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

First – Bill remember to sign your posts.
Second – My main reason for being at Iowaville was to correct the many mistakes made by several editors (at this article, the Van Buren County, Iowa article, the the Van Buren County template, and the List of unincorporated communities in Iowa ) who had classified it as an unincorporated community and not a ghost town. I had only reworded the Little remains to a description with a few ruins and if this is incorrect by all means correct the wording to more accurately describe the area. Just a few thoughts a picture taken at the site or even a nearby road marker would improve the article. The reference information I used has more facts that you could use like the Lat + Long for GPS systems. also there is cemetery information for Iowaville at GNIS.
Thirdly – consider joining Wikipedia:WikiProject Iowa and maybe even take a look at the subdivision of communities at Wikipedia:WikiProject Iowa/Communities.
Happy editing--RifeIdeas Talk 16:20, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Bot edits

I've finished tagging everything except townships for the Communities taskforce. If there's a section of articles I've missed, let me know - otherwise the tagging should be done before too much longer. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 23:27, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Help me 1

I have only been editing Wikipedia for a little over three months. I am frustrated trying to find a "discussion page" or whatever Wikipedia calls it for help with the subject of United States Communities. For example states, cities, counties, unincorporated communities, CDP, ghost towns, etc. Can you tell me where I can post questions for these type of questions? Where can I find sources for ???? Where I can find census data for an exact location? Why a subsection header I used is considered isn't a standard designation and got deleted (Look Here).
I have seen some reference to using an IRC channel, but I have no knowledge of these so if that is the solution please please give me simple step by step instructions.
Thanks--RifeIdeas Talk 15:26, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Hello RifeIdeas. The closest thing I could suggest is perhaps the discussion pages of Wikipedia:WikiProject United States or in your own wikiproject Wikipedia:WikiProject Iowa. Wikiprojects usually have guidelines to their members on article layouts and whatnot and they also usually have a list of resources that can be used for references. However, I am not sure for your wikiprojects/region as I am not from the US. You can also try to contact the editor who reverted your edits in his talk page and see if he he has more info on where he got them.

Also I am from the IRC channel, it's how we find editors who need help. To join it and perhaps find assistance from other editors, you can simply click the link on the {{help me}} box above for #wikipedia-en-help and you will open up a new window connecting you directly to IRC chat through your browser. I will leave the {{help me}} template for now and see if other editors know more about this.--Obsidi♠n^Soul 16:14, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

The IRC link: #wikipedia-en-help So, what is your question? What did you want to ask about on the discussion page you were looking for? I do not know where you can find sources for "????" but Google is a good starting point. The official census site is a good starting point for census data. Using raw census data, though, is probably going to require you to learn about how census data is stored -- or you can wait for the CIA World Factbook to be updated, or for any other site to update from recent census data then reference that site. I do not know why your subsection header was deleted -- what name did you give it, what page was it on? Banaticus (talk) 21:11, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Re. this - please, see WP:PILLAR and especially WP:V. "Zero information is preferable to misleading or false information" - so says the consensus.  Chzz  ►  02:53, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

2010 Census

See my census edit instructions for cities in Kansas at User:Sbmeirow/RecommendedChangesToArticlesFor2010Census. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 14:52, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Ety Habitation Site

Again, the answer is simple: I didn't think of correcting the rating at first. Nyttend (talk) 18:13, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

request for feedback at wt:nrhp

I've requested some feedback from you at WT:NRHP.

I noticed you're close to Johnson County - there are lots of photos to take there of NRHP sites, including an octagonal barn! Iowa, BTW, is a very NRHP-friendly state. See Scott County for an example. All the best! Smallbones (talk) 17:47, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Yes I live just north of Cedar Rapids in Linn County which is the County just north of Johnson. If you would leave me a priority list (can be just the numbering) of those NHRP's from National Register of Historic Places listings in Johnson County, Iowa here on my talk page, I will make a trip south for a day of picture taking. My travels are usually north to Black Hawk and Floyd Counties as that is where my family lives. I just started editing in Wikipedia last October so it is all a learning (and stumbling upon) process. I first stumbled upon Scott County NHRP List and thought it was great. Then I went looking and was appalled that there was almost no NHRP pictures for the Counties in my area. I hope by the end of this Spring to have pictures for all the places in Linn and Black Hawk Counties, at least those I can find and/or get access to.
I prefer not having fractured conversations. Please respond here.
--RifeIdeas Talk 00:38, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

See Talk:National Register of Historic Places listings in Johnson County, Iowa and click "Map all in Bing" I actually don't discriminate against sites - you never can tell which will be amazing and which will be (somewhat) disappointing. If I lived nearby, I would go to Iowa city on a sunny Saturday, park my car near the City Park and try to follow the map to try to get everything there in one day. Challenging. I know, but ... If you're not used to the maps zoom in, hit print, then "map only", and write out or type the appropriate names and addresses separately.

I started out somewhat similarly to what you described above. I stumbled into my home county list and was actually offended that all the pictures were left blank. "Even I could do that," I thought. eventually the logic led to an addiction for snapping these sites. BTW, cities are easier than in the country-side. All the best. Smallbones (talk) 01:10, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

Stubs

Hi Rifeldeas,

Thanks for your work on the Iowa articles. May I ask why you have marked this article and this article as stubs? They are well-referenced articles with multiple sections which do not appear to be stubs: "A stub is an article containing only a few sentences of text which — though providing some useful information — is too short to provide encyclopedic coverage of a subject, and which is capable of expansion." Firsfron of Ronchester 03:31, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

Hi back Firs
I am somewhat a Wikipedia newbie (less than 6 months) so I am still learning. I did give some thought about giving those two communities at least a Start classification, and with you being an editor since 2004 and an administrator you are more qualified to grade the class level, feel free to do so (maybe they are a C-class). I did notice that in the Donnan, Iowa article that WP:WikiProject Ghost towns had given it a Stub classification and I just followed suit. I have been trying to develop the WP:WikiProject Iowa/Communities (nonexistent before I started working on it) and since all the articles have now been tagged there were well over 900 articles completely unclassified (???) in both class and importance. Both of these two articles you asked about had fallen into this unfortunate category. If you have other articles that you have developed in Iowa please go and classify them. I welcome input from you about my choices on classification and importance. I have not incorporated the table into WP Iowa/Communities yet but the table link is User:WP 1.0 bot/Tables/Project/Iowa (communities). Here is what I think so far on importance, I have not rated any city as Top importance although someone before me has rated 3 as Top. The top 10 cities by population (50,000 or more – the 3 rated as Top happen to be the 3 with the highest population in the state and therefore fall into this range) I have decided to rated as High. All counties and county seats (with no regard to population) and those with populations of 20,000-50,000 I am rating as Mid importance. All other communities (cities 20,000 or less, unincorporated communities, ghost towns, townships) I am rating as low importance. As far as Class rating I am still learning. I have read various Wikipedia projects and the class descriptions for Stub to C-class vary. Any suggested guidelines from you would be appreciated, also any suggestions on the Communities division will be helpful.
I prefer not having fractured conversations so please respond here.
THANKS--RifeIdeas Talk 02:37, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Hey Rife,

I generally don't use ratings classes below Good and Featured. As you've noted, there are too many articles to rate consistently. The stub rating for Donnan, Iowa, was added by someone in February 2007, when the article looked like this (it had only seven sentences, and just two references). The article has been expanded to ten times that size since then, but nobody ever updates old ratings classes, which is why I don't spend much time with those ratings classes. However, an article which is 10 or 12k long, with multiple sections, many references, several photos, etc, has definitely graduated past the "stub" stage, since a "stub" category is supposed to be reserved for an article which is only a few sentences long. As an administrator, I'm not any more qualified than you to grade class levels, but as an editor and researcher who has been around for a while, and as someone who lived near both of these communities for a long time, I can tell you that not much more can be said about either community without venturing into original research. Donnan's been dead for decades, and Monti went into decline after WWII, and I've already exhausted most of the resources which mention these two communities, so stub-type notes encouraging people to expand the articles aren't particularly useful, because they won't be referenced additions. That said, I applaud your efforts to categorize and organize articles on communities in Iowa. Best wishes and happy editing, Firsfron of Ronchester 04:28, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

help needed on Cedar Rapids building

Hi, could you please help develop Grand Lodge of Iowa building, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I started the article to try to head off a different problem (useless potential debate at List of Masonic buildings about whether the building could be listed there without it having an article already), but it was immediately nominated for deletion just now. Could you possibly please find any newspaper or other mentions of the building and/or the Grand Lodge of Iowa, for mention as sources in the AFD, now at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Grand Lodge of Iowa building. A photo or two would be great, too! I would be grateful for anything, thanks. --doncram 20:05, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

I dunno if u r in this area or not, but if pic-taking also a pic or two of the Masonic Lodge at 210 E. 6th Street, formerly the Scottish Rite Temple, would be appreciated....--doncram 21:52, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Yes I live in the area and will take the pictures within the next few weeks. You have bad timing as I have just returned from a trip to downtown Cedar Rapids today and was within a block or 2 of your requests. I also travel to Black Hawk County, Iowa main city is Waterloo, Iowa so if you have requests for pictures in that area please give me the address and the Wikipedia article link so I can upload the pictures. I am not much of an article writer, I mainly add facts and information to community articles, so you are on your own as far as developing the Grand Lodge article. You may look at my picture contributions to Wiki Commons at my pictures. I try to take different angles of the same building and label them ... pic1 ... pic2 etc. My time is valuable, but if you are doing an extensive article on a building in my area, and you provide me with the hours of opportunity I will try to get pictures of the insides of buildings. Otherwise Sundays are the best time for me to take pictures of the outside of buildings (less cars for obstruction).
I did comment on the deletion of the Grand Lodge
Keep up the good editing--RifeIdeas Talk 22:46, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Rife, thanks very much for uploading those pictures of the Grand Lodge building. I retouched the first one a bit and changed the image in the article to the retouched version -- if you disagree, feel free to revert. (The picture of the Library wing might be more-appropriate, anyway.) --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 15:47, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

To attempt an answer to your confusion as to the names of the Scottish Rite building... It seems to be one building with multiple names... it says "Scottish Rite Temple" in big letters on the front of the building... the building's webpage calls it the "Scottish Rite Masonic Center"... while it appears that the NRHP lists it as "Consistory Building" (Consistory being a name for the final group of Scottish Rite degrees). Blueboar (talk) 02:59, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

April 2011 Newsletter for WikiProject United States

The April 2011 issue of the WikiProject United States 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.

 
--Kumioko (talk) 01:10, 7 April 2011 (UTC)

Thank you

Many thanks for editing the various articles in WikiProject Iowa. I have family who live in Bettendorf so I am familiar with your state. A note of caution: I notice you are editing the coord templates involving coordination of the various localties. They were put there by a bot and they do provide informarion as to where the community is located. I do advise caution about editing them out and that you might want to put them back in and if necessary start some sort of discussion. Many thanks-RFD (talk) 15:27, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the note you left. To clarify I have only been removing the duplicate coord template in the Geography section only after it had been incorporated into the {{Infobox settlement}} per the instructions provided in the last paragraph at Wikipedia:WikiProject Cities/US Guideline#Geography. I have been leaving the decimal equivalent for information purposes in the Geography section in the article. If you are aware of an article I edited that this is not the situation, please let me know. Thanks
Happy editing--RifeIdeas Talk 16:17, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Many thanks-that makes sense. Thank you for clarifying this.RFD (talk) 16:24, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

GOCE drive newsletter

The Guild of Copy Editors – May 2011 Backlog Elimination Drive The Guild of Copy Editors invite you to participate in the May 2011 Backlog Elimination Drive, a month-long effort to reduce the backlog of articles that require copy-editing. The drive began on May 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and will end on May 31 at 23:59 (UTC). The goals of this backlog elimination drive are to eliminate as many articles as possible from the 2009 backlog and to reduce the overall backlog by 15%. ! NEW ! In an effort to encourage the final elimination of all 2009 articles, we will be tracking them on the leaderboard for this drive. Awards and barnstars A range of barnstars will be awarded to active participants. Some are exclusive to GOCE drives. More information on awards can be found on the main drive page. We look forward to meeting you on the drive! Your GOCE coordinators: SMasters, Diannaa, Tea with toast, Chaosdruid, and Torchiest

You are receiving a copy of this newsletter as you are a member of the Guild of Copy Editors, or have participated in one of our drives. If you do not wish to receive future newsletters, please add you name here. Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 08:00, 4 May 2011 (UTC)

May 2011 Newsletter for WikiProject United States

The May 2011 issue of the WikiProject United States 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.

 
. --Kumioko (talk) 17:03, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

New Iowa articles

Hi Rife,

Thanks for your note on my talk page. I thank you for your improvements to Alpha (although the population section in the infobox that you added will never be filled out, as the community is unincorporated). The zip code, area code, and map that you added are particularly useful for readers. Please continue your efforts.

I lived in Iowa for many years, and grew up in or around several flyspeck Iowa communities, including Monti and Donnan, two of my favorites because of their single-digit populations. My uncle lived near Big Rock, so it was nice to be able to create a short article for the town. As far as Paris, Iowa goes, I was aware there was a second "town" named Paris in Iowa when I created the article on Linn County's Paris, but this site states of the Paris in Hamilton County that "No lots were ever sold and no buildings were ever constructed... It was purely a paper town built for speculation." So, no article for something that didn't actually exist.

I'm not at all interested in "rating" articles according to the stub/start/C/B/A class system. It seems somewhat pointless, and I'd prefer to do work on articles. The only ratings that aren't purely subjective are WP:GA and WP:FA. Firsfron of Ronchester 05:10, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

Hello, RifeIdeas. You have new messages at Philosopher's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

New info for Oskaloosa. A good DYK?

Hiyya Rife, your favorite Missouri pest here. Longtime no chat. Say, I ran across an interesting little factoid today on my local newspaper website and thought you might be interested in including it on the Oskaloosa Wiki. IMHO it would even make a good DYK candidate for WIkipedias main page. Wasn't sure how to really incorporate it into an already well-written history (or else I've just got the "lazies" today) so thought I'd pass it along to you.

"This Day in History". May 21, 1934: Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.

Source: Kirksville Daily Express website: http://www.kirksvilledailyexpress.com/newsnow/x837707313/Morning-Minutes-May-21

Have a great Wiki kinda day! Sector001 (talk) 19:47, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

Courthouse links

My apologies for forgetting to reply to you until now. The REPEATLINK bit that you quote is irrelevant to our disagreement, since it's unrelated to the reason that I removed the links. It's simply that standard practice is that we don't link anything in See also that's linked elsewhere: the whole point of the section is to provide links to pages that aren't linked elsewhere. Common sense tells us that we don't need to tell the reader "By the way, you might want to go here" when we already linked it. The bit that you quote refers to the fact that certain links by themselves are more suitable than others: in other words, is it suitable to have a city article's See also section link to Township, Iowa, Municipality, Earth, Agriculture, etc.? Nyttend (talk) 04:31, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

June 2011 Newsletter for WikiProject United States

The June 2011 issue of the WikiProject United States 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.

 
--Kumioko (talk) 22:39, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

GOCE elections

Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors Elections are currently underway for our Guild coordinators. The voting period will run for 14 days and ends on June 30, 23:59 UTC. All GOCE members in good standing, as well as past participants of any of the Guild's Backlog elimination drives, are eligible to vote. The candidate with the highest number of votes will become the Lead Coordinator, therefore, your vote really matters! There is also a referendum to appoint a Coordinator Emeritus. Cast your vote today.

Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 08:06, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Davenport collage

Not sure how much you know about Davenport, but feel free to weigh in at User_talk:Farragutful#Davenport_collage. CTJF83 22:54, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

US National Archives collaboration

United States National Archives WikiProject

Would you like to help improve Wikipedia's coverage of topics related to the National Archives and its incredible collection? This summer, the National Archives—which houses some of America's most important historical documents—is hosting me as its Wikipedian in Residence, and I have created WP:NARA to launch these efforts. There are all sorts of tasks available for any type of editor, whether you're a writer, organizer, gnome, coder, or image guru. The National Archives is making its resources available to Wikipedia, so help us forge this important relationship! Please sign up and introduce yourself. Dominic·t 15:22, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

GOCE drive invitation

Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors The latest GOCE backlog elimination drive is under way! It began on 1 July and so far 18 people have signed up to help us reduce the number of articles in need of copyediting. This drive will give a 50% bonus for articles edited from the GOCE requests page. Although we have cleared the backlog of 2009 articles there are still 3,935 articles needing copyediting and any help, no matter how small, would be appreciated. We are appealing to all GOCE members, and any other editors who wish to participate, to come and help us reduce the number of articles needing copyediting, as well as the backlog of requests. If you have not signed up yet, why not take a look at the current signatories and help us by adding your name and copyediting a few articles. Barnstars will be given to anyone who edits more than 4,000 words, with special awards for the top 5 in the categories: "Number of articles", "Number of words", and "Number of articles of over 5,000 words". >>> Sign-up now <<<

Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 09:24, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

July 2011 Newsletter for WikiProject United States

The July 2011 issue of the WikiProject United States 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.

 
--Kumioko (talk) 13:26, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

GOCE drive newsletter

Invitation from the Guild of Copy Editors The Guild of Copy Editors invites you to participate in their September 2011 Backlog elimination drive, a month-long effort to reduce the size of the copy editing backlog. The drive will begin on September 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and will end on September 30 at 23:59 (UTC). We will be tracking the number of 2010 articles in the backlog, as we want to copy edit as many of those as possible. Please consider copy editing an article that was tagged in 2010. Barnstars will be given to anyone who edits more than 4,000 words, with special awards for the top 5 in the categories "Number of articles", "Number of words", and "Number of articles of over 5,000 words". See you at the drive! – Your drive coordinators: Diannaa, Chaosdruid, The Utahraptor, Slon02, and SMasters. >>> Sign up now <<<

Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 16:59, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Articles on Iowa cities and notable natives- A question

There's a notice in the articles about notability and that for a person to be listed they have to have an article. I agree with this, but can you possibly tell me if this is some wikipedia policy? Please write back and thanks- William 01:58, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

Hi William, I appreciate your question about the notice in the Wiki-code in the Notable people section. The short answer is that it is not a policy, however the Notable people section has been discussed multiple times and a general consensus has been reached at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Cities/US Guideline. I suggest you read the many comments and come to your own conclusion. The notice in the code came about as way to cut down on the frivolous entries that were becoming numerous, however it is not a basis for an edit war (in my opinion). In my edit work I have found some cases where a very notable person (internet search showed sources for information) that did not have a Wikipedia article. In these cases I leave in the person's name in the section (with a red-link) and add the references I have found in hopes someone will create an article for them. This strategy has worked well as a few times other editors have wrote very good in depth articles (not just a stub) that I would not of been able to do. I am interested in what you think, so if you will, please comment back. Thanks
I prefer not having fractured conversations so please respond here. —RifeIdeas Talk 13:23, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

September 2011 Newsletter for WikiProject United States

The September 2011 issue of the WikiProject United States 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.

 
--Kumioko (talk) 03:40, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

Many thanks

Many thanks for fixing the citation in the Garner, Iowa article about Alvin Baldus. RFD (talk) 19:19, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Interesting Election article

I don't know if you've seen this, but an election article (United States Senate Democratic primary election in Pennsylvania, 2010) has recently become a Featured article. Very cool, though I doubt Iowa Senate elections, 2008 will be joining it any time soon.  ;) --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 14:43, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

GOCE newsletter

Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors Elections are currently underway for our third tranche of Guild coordinators. The voting period will run for 14 days: 00:01 UTC, 16 December – 23:59 UTC, 31 December. All GOCE members, as well as past participants of any of the Guild's Backlog elimination drives, are eligible to vote. There are five candidates vying for four positions. Your vote really matters! Cast your vote today.

Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 11:18, 21 December 2011 (UTC)