User talk:Sp33dyphil

WikiCup 2015 May newsletter

C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) is a long-period comet discovered on 17 August 2014 by Terry Lovejoy; and is one of several Featured Pictures worked up by The Herald (submissions) during the second round.

The second round one has all wrapped up, and round three has now begun! Congratulations to the 34 contestants who have made it through, but well done and thank you to all contestants who took part in our second round. Leading the way overall was Cas Liber (submissions) in Group B with a total of 777 points for a variety of contributions including Good Articles on Corona Borealis and Microscopium - both of which received the maximum bonus.

Special credit must be given to a number of high importance articles improved during the second round.

• Coemgenus (submissions) was one of several users who worked on improving Ulysses S. Grant. Remember, you do not need to work on an article on your own - as long as each person has completed significant work on the article during 2015, multiple competitors can claim the same article.
• Cwmhiraeth (submissions) took Dragonfly to Good Article for a 3x bonus - and if that wasn't enough, they also took Damselfly there as well for a 2x bonus.
• LeftAire (submissions) worked up Alexander Hamilton to Good Article for the maximum bonus. Hamilton was one of the founding fathers of the United States and is a level 4 vital article.

The points varied across groups, with the lowest score required to gain automatic qualification was 68 in Group A - meanwhile the second place score in Group H was 404, which would have been high enough to win all but one of the other Groups! As well as the top two of each group automatically going through to the third round, a minimum score of 55 was required for a wildcard competitor to go through. We had a three-way tie at 55 points and all three have qualified for the next round, in the spirit of fairness. The third round ends on June 28, with the top two in each group progressing automatically while the remaining 16 highest scorers across all four groups go through as wildcards. Good luck to all competitors for the third round! Figureskatingfan (talk · contribs · email), Miyagawa (talk · contribs · email) and Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email) 16:44, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

New Article: Harold Hermes -- helicopter pioneer

Hello,

I have drafted an article about my Father, Harold H. Hermes and his involvement at a Wright Field test pilot during WW2, especially his early work in the very first days of military and commercial helicopters. The article now is in Word 2010. It consists of about 4000 words, and 22 photographs & scans. I have a number of citations and links to other Wikipedia articles, but I know I should add more.

I am not a writer and I really do not wish to learn the entire Wiki markup language, but will do so if there is no other way.

Here is first section of my draft.

Harold H. Hermes

Harold “Hal” or “Red” Hermes (February 11, 1920 to July 31, 1989) was a noted test pilot for the Army Air Forces and later for the CAA and FAA, where he had a central role in the early days of developing, testing, and commercializing the helicopter.

Hermes was the 17th person to solo in a helicopter (June 16, 1943 in a Sikorsky XR-4A) and was part of the team that first demonstrated the helicopter’s ability to operate from a ship in the open seas. He is also known for giving helicopter lessons to 66-year-old Frank T. Coffyn, the last surviving member of Orville Wright’s flying team. In 1944, Hermes served as co-pilot on the C-69 Constellation flight that is now recognized as Orville Wright’s last airplane flight. Later in his career, Hermes had a lead role in the development and adoption of the FAA Instrument Flight Rules for helicopters.

Throughout his 45-year career as a test pilot, Hermes had the honor to fly with aviation legends such as Orville Wright, Frank Coffyn, Chuck Yeager and Edwin E. Aldrin, Sr. His passion, however, was helicopters and he was proud to have worked alongside rotary-wing pioneers such as Igor Sikorsky, Les Morris, Frank Gregory, Dimittry “Jimmy” Viner, Charles Kaman, Floyd Carlson, Al Bayer, Frank Peterson, Joe Mashman, Stanley Hiller, Frank Piasecki and Charles Siebel during what many consider to be the most fascinating and fertile period of helicopter history.

Any help you can give me, would be greatly appreciated. Richard Hermes, Edmonton Canada --Rhhermes (talk) 16:16, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

Hi @Richard, welcome to Wikipedia. I hope you enjoy making valuable contributions to this great site.

Regarding your article, I see that your pioneering father was active for 45 years until the 1980s, and so there may be problems for me and others in finding sources about your father online. It'd be great if you could provide some print (or any other) references about your father and his work so the article could pass Wikipedia's guideline for notability regarding individuals. Most of the other issues you mentioned can be resolved quite quickly.

Thank you for approaching me about the issue, and I hope this can be resolved. If you have any other questions, please ask me or other dedicated editors at Wikipedia:Help desk and WT:AVIATION. Cheers, --Sp33dyphil ©^hat_ontributions 06:25, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

Hello, and thank you for your reply. Yesterday, I did review the Notability guidelines with respect to my article and believe that this question can be addressed sufficiently, although only time will tell. One of the key references that I would rely upon to prove notability is a quote from a book by Brig General Frank Gregory, who headed the entire Army Air Force helicopter program in WW2 and thereafter, saying that Hermes and the other pilots for the June 16, 1943 open seas test "had helped make aeronautical history" -- in fact he devoted one whole chapter to these tests in his book, "The Helicopter -- a pictorial history." Two other books in my possession describe these tests in the same manner. All 3 of these books are in my possession and are signed by the author with a personal notes to my father.

I can provide my draft of my research -- but please tell me how to do that. It is about 19 pages (less that 4000 words) with 23 images & photographs. Yesterday I sent requests to the copyright holders on these photographs in order to be able to upload them and use them in the article.

I also made progress yesterday learning a bit of the Wiki markup language, so that is going well. I have started drafting the article in my sandbox....can you access that? Rhhermes (talk) 11:49, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

I can see the work that you're doing in your sandbox, which I think is fine. I believe that, with the references, notability has been established in this case. Regarding the draft, perhaps you could just copy and paste it onto your sandbox for others to see.

Also, unless you have he patience to wait for my responses, please consider approaching other helpful editors over at WT:AVIATION and WT:MILHIST since I am busy at this time of the year and may not reply to your queries and requests quickly. However, I will do my best to answer any of your questions. Cheers --Sp33dyphil ©^hat_ontributions 06:14, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for your helpful comments. I will be looking to the other editors as you mentioned. Thanks for getting me started.

205.185.223.110 (talk) 13:02, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

Reference errors on 12 June

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Signpost paid editing

Do you have any interest in writing two paragraphs about paid editing for the SignPost?

I offered to help put something together that's a collection of short viewpoints that answer two questions: What is the overall effect of paid editing on the project and what can be done to handle it better.

The idea is that a lot of the Signpost stories on paid editing are written by editors with strong opinions, extreme views, or financial interests, and I wanted something a little more balanced and reasonable. Editors with strong views are never ideal in article-space either!

What I've started on is located here if you have the time/interest. CorporateM (Talk) 19:15, 26 July 2015 (UTC)

WikiCup 2015 September newsletter

The finals for the 2015 Wikicup has now begun! Congrats to the 8 contestants who have survived to the finals, and well done and thanks to everyone who took part in rounds 3 and 4.

In round 3, we had a three-way tie for qualification among the wildcard contestants, so we had 34 competitors. The leader was by far Casliber (submissions) in Group B, who earned 1496 points. Although 913 of these points were bonus points, he submitted 15 articles in the DYK category. Second place overall was Coemgenus (submissions) at 864 points, who although submitted just 2 FAs for 400 points, earned double that amount for those articles in bonus points. Everyone who moved forward to Round 4 earned at least 100 points.

The scores required to move onto the semifinals were impressive; the lowest scorer to move onto the finals was 407, making this year's Wikicup as competitive as it's always been. Our finalists, ordered by round 4 score, are:

1. Cas Liber (submissions), who is competing in his sixth consecutive Wikicup final, again finished the round in first place, with an impressive 1666 points in Pool B. Casliber writes about the natural sciences, including ornithology, botany and astronomy. A large bulk of his points this round were bonus points.
2. Godot13 (submissions) (FP bonus points), second place both in Pool B and overall, earned the bulk of his points with FPs, mostly depicting currency.
3. Cwmhiraeth (submissions), first in Pool A, came in third. His specialty is natural science articles; in Round 4, he mostly submitted articles about insects and botany. Five out of the six of the GAs he submitted were level-4 vital articles.
4. Harrias (submissions), second in Pool A, took fourth overall. He tends to focus on articles about cricket and military history, specifically the 1640s First English Civil War.
5. West Virginian (submissions), from Pool A, was our highest-scoring wildcard. West Virginia tends to focus on articles about the history of (what for it!) the U.S. state of West Virginia.
6. Rodw (submissions), from Pool A, likes to work on articles about British geography and places. Most of his points this round were earned from two impressive accomplishments: a GT about Scheduled monuments in Somerset and a FT about English Heritage properties in Somerset.
7. Rationalobserver (submissions), from Pool B, came in seventh overall. RO earned the majority of her points from GARs and PRs, many of which were earned in the final hours of the round.
8. Calvin999 (submissions), also from Pool B, who was competing with RO for the final two spots in the final hours, takes the race for most GARs and PRs—48.

The intense competition between RO and Calvin999 will continue into the finals. They're both eligible for the Newcomers Trophy, given for the first time in the Wikicup; whoever makes the most points will win it.

Good luck to the finalists; the judges are sure that the competition will be fierce!

Figureskatingfan (talk · contribs), Miyagawa (talk · contribs) and Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs) 11:48, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Logo of Polygon.png

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Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 02:35, 19 September 2015 (UTC)

WikiProject Military history coordinator election

Greetings from WikiProject Military history! As a member of the project, you are invited to take part in our annual project coordinator election. If you wish to cast a vote, please do so on the election page by 23:59 (UTC) on 29 September. Yours, Ed ^{[talk] [majestic titan]} 05:21, 25 September 2015 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Boeing 737 MAX computer-generated image.jpg

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Thanks for uploading File:Boeing 737 MAX computer-generated image.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. Sfan00 IMG (talk) 11:32, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Today's featured article/November 9, 2015

Hi Phil. A summary of a Featured Article you nominated at WP:FAC will appear on the Main Page soon. It mostly follows the lead section; how does it look? - Dank (push to talk) 01:39, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

Please Adopt Me

Please help me become a good Wikipedian by adopting me. I'm easy to teach, and good at asking questions. I'm most interested in editing things of a social, political, legal, psychological and technolgical nature, especially where relevant to me in my world, country, and local community.
Thanks,
Layman, Esq. (talk) 04:14, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

@Layman, Esq.: hi there! Sorry for the late reply, and thank you for your willingness to have me as your adopter. I'm afraid that I've been away from Wikipedia for quite a while, so my skills and knowledge about the site's inner workings have become a bit rusty. I'm in the process of acquainting myself with Wikipedia again, so unless you have time, perhaps there are others more qualified than I am whom you could ask? Regards, --Sp33dyphil ©^hat_ontributions 11:44, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

WikiCup 2015: The results

WikiCup 2015 is now in the books! Congrats to our finalists and winners, and to everyone who took part in this year's competition.

This year's results were an exact replica of last year's competition. For the second year in a row, the 2015 WikiCup champion is Godot13 (submissions) (FP bonus points). All of his points were earned for an impressive 253 featured pictures and their associated bonus points (5060 and 1695, respectively). His entries constituted scans of currency from all over the world and scans of medallions awarded to participants of the U.S. Space program. Cwmhiraeth (submissions) came in second place; she earned by far the most bonus points (4082), for 4 featured articles, 15 good articles, and 147 DYKs, mostly about in her field of expertise, natural science. Cas Liber (submissions), a finalist every year since 2010, came in third, with 2379 points.

Our newcomer award, presented to the best-performing new competitor in the WikiCup, goes to Rationalobserver (submissions). Everyone should be very proud of the work they accomplished. We will announce our other award winners soon.

A full list of our award winners are:

• Godot13 (submissions) (FP bonus points) wins the prize for first place and the FP prize for 330 featured pictures in the final round.
• Cwmhiraeth (submissions) wins the prize for second place and the DYK prize for 160 did you knows in the final round (310 in all rounds).
• Cas Liber (submissions) wins the prize for third place and the FA prize for 26 featured articles in all rounds.
• West Virginian (submissions) wins the prize for fourth place
• Calvin999 (submissions) wins a final 8 prize.
• Rationalobserver (submissions) wins a final 8 prize.
• Harrias (submissions) wins a final 8 prize and the FL prize for 11 featured lists.
• Rodw (submissions) wins the most prizes: a final 8 prize, the GA prize for 41 good articles, and the topic prize for a 13-article good topic and an 8-article featured topic, both in round 3.
• ThaddeusB (submissions) wins the news prize for the most news articles in round 3.

We warmly invite all of you to sign up for next year's competition. Discussions and polls concerning potential rules changes are also open, and all are welcome to participate. The WikiCup judges will be back in touch over the coming months, and we hope to see you all in the 2016 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send.

Figureskatingfan (talk · contribs · logs), Miyagawa (talk · contribs · logs) and Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · logs) 18:39, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

Precious

aircrafts and strategy

Thank you for quality articles such as McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II, List of Ohio-class submarines and STRAT-X, for updates, diligently naming the source in the edit summary, for copy-editing and reviewing on a grand scale, - you are an awesome Wikipedian!

Thank you @Gerda Arendt: for the kind words, as well as you numerous contributions to Wikipedia! I hope you find as much pleasure reading those articles as I had in writing them. Cheers! --Sp33dyphil ©^hat_ontributions 07:43, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

JSTOR cleanup drive

Hello TWL users! We hope JSTOR has been a useful resource for your work. We're organizing a cleanup drive to correct dead links to JSTOR articles – these require JSTOR access and cannot easily be corrected by bot. We'd love for you to jump in and help out!

See the list

Sent of behalf of Nikkimaria for The Wikipedia Library's JSTOR using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:18, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:13, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

Strategic Barnstar

		Strategic Barnstar
		For your hard work and due diligence creating or editing strategic deterrent related articles or Ballistic missile submarine related pages, you have been awarded the Strategic Barnstar. You outstanding performance provides significant and long lasting benefits to Wikipedia, Congratulations! Signed: Legohead1my_talk 17:00, 24 November 2015 (UTC)	This editor has been awarded the Strategic Barnstar for creating or editing strategic deterrent related articles.