User talk:Hydkat

• The Performing Community: Thanks to many contributors like you, we're proud to share that our community is the third most performing community. It has more than 50 FAs related to India, to its credit, lagging only behing Wikiproject Biography and WikiProject Military History.
  (Courtesy: Ganeshk at Discussion Board).

• The Wikipedia 1.0 Assessment statistics for India related articles show there are 51 Featured Articles, 5 Class-A articles, 16 Good Articles, 101 Class-B articles, 167 Start-Class articles and more than 4000 Stubs. There were more than 10000 unassessed articles related to India.

• Indian Administrators: There are 21 Indian Administrators in Wikipedia at the last count. The recent Wikipedians to be successful at RFA were Lostintherush and Shyam Bihari.
• Featured Articles: West Bengal (nom) and Syed Ahmed Khan (nom) were the last two articles from our WikiProject that were granted FA status.

• Welcome. It has been weeks and months since the idea of newsletter was mooted among the WikiProject India Community. This would be our first full-fledged edition of our Newsletter, and we'd like to start by saying we are very happy to have you among us.

• This is your newsletter, and we want you to be part of it as well. Provide us with news tips here. It can be anything related to the project, from discussions to calls for help, and other interesting stuff within our community. If you have received or given any barnstars recently, do let us know.

• Advertisements for recruitments within your WikiProject sub-groups are also welcome. We'll run special sections, and recurring columns in the coming issues.

• Cartography Department (Shortcut:WP:INMAP): The Department of Cartography within the WikiProject India is a group of wikipedians who work on providing quality maps related to India. Their contributions gain more significance as we try to provide more information on places, districts and states of India. As a thumb rule, maps serve better if they are in SVG format. The location maps by the cartography department has helped us include location information based on latitudes and longitudes for a give place within India. The Indian Roadways map is a featured image, one amongst the few best road maps in the world. Still, there is more work to be done. There are 604 districts in India (see List of districts of India), and each district page needs a map of that district. You can help too. Contact the Cartography Department to learn how you can help in making the best maps in Wikipedia to be India-related!

Provide us with ur news tips here.

• Name change of cities in Karnataka: A straw poll was conducted on the proposal to change the name of cities in Karnataka, per the Nov 1, 2006 decision by the Karnataka government to rename them from the current anglicised forms. The result of the poll was to change the names. As controversial as the decision may be in the real world, the article Bangalore in Wikipedia still reflects the old name. You may be interested in knowing why. Dig the archives.

• New Project Noticeboard (Shortcut:WP:INB): WikiProject India now sports a new colourful centralised noticeboard. An effort to make the noticeboard current and dynamic was mooted a few days back, and Ganeshk came up with the new format. The new noticeboard will strive to be the one-stop shop for all project related information. The shortcut is WP:INB.

• Members List: The old members list is being phased out to give way for the new members list. New members are requested to add their names to the new members list. As the newsletter grows, further issues of the Project Newsletter will be delivered to those enlisted in the new list. So dash down now, to check if ur name is in there.

• 
  Featured Content: Three articles (Chalukya Dynasty (nom), History of Tamil Nadu (nom) and Bengali language (nom)), one list (List of Indian ODI cricketers) and one picture (Prayer flag in the Kurgiakh valley in Zanskar contributed by Moumine (pictured)) were featured from our WikiProject recently.

Are you stuck at a point where admin help is needed? There are 22 Indian Administrators in Wikipedia at the last count. If you need some help with anything related to WikiProject India, they are just a couple of clicks away!

• Welcome to the December 2006 edition of our newsletter. Time flies past like matter into the black hole. It is interesting to notice that we are already into the last month for the year of 2006. 2006 saw discussions and development beyond realisation. In the world of Wikipedia where quality counts than quantity, we have come a long way. We've made better than 'nothing', to say the least, and even that is an achievement. I take this opportunity to thank everyone including those who have dotted the i's and crossed the t's.

• As before, we'd like to stress, this is your newsletter, and we want you to be part of it as well. Provide us with news tips. It can be anything related to the project, from discussions to calls for help, and other interesting stuff within our community. If you have received or given any barnstars recently, do let us know. Sponsored content for recruitments within your WikiProject sub-groups are also welcome. We'll be very happy to include them here.

• Before we sign off, Advance New Year Wishes, everyone.

• Assessment Department (Shortcut: WP:IN1): Are you one of those gnomes?? Or do you want to take some time off some brain-frying active editing on Wikipedia?? Then Department of Assessment within the WikiProject India will be your forte. The department consists of a group of wikipedians who work on rating the India related articles to check if they are worthy enough to be included in the CD (or print) version of Wikipedia.

• The rating process gains more significance as we try to sort out which articles and which topics need more attention to balance the India related systemic bias within wikipedia. As a thumb rule, anyone can rate any article based on the related criteria, within the Stub/Start/B/A levels. However, ratings for Good Article Status and Featured Article status go through the nomination processes.

• How to?: The "how to" part of assessment is very simple. Just head on to the talk page of any India related page and you'll find the {{WP India}} template. Simply classify the article based on the content and the criteria mentioned here. You can find the detailed instructions here. If you think it may qualify for GA/FA status, first consider submitting the article for peer review.

If you run a covert newsroom operation, provide us with ur news tips here. Letters to the Editor are welcome as well.