User talk:Bhs itrt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
My name is Keith David Reeves, and I am the Instructional Technologist at Battlefield High School. I have created this account to assist in assuring that the information available through this vehicle is accurate by including quantifiable and verifiable data, not opinion.
I have been advised of the COI and NPOV policies, and will adhere to them strictly.
Contact the Office of Instructional Technology at 571-261-4518 to verify or discuss information pertaining to the Battlefield family.
Contents |
[edit] Correct Website URL
A recent anonymous edit changed the website back to BattlefieldBobcats.org. Without getting into the dirty underbelly of this issue, the official school website has been BattlefieldHighSchool since September of 2006, and is likely to remain so. Yes, there are some resources (printed and electronic) that continue to cite BattlefieldBobcats.org, but these are largely being phased out. There was a disagreement with the previous web designer, and it is only recently that BattlefieldBobcats.org redirects to the correct website. The BHS website, as of the time of this writing, is designed and maintained by students in the IT specialty program.
While there are those that continue to refer to BattlefieldBobcats.org, as it was historically the school website, BattlefieldHighSchool.org is currently the official URL.
Bhs itrt 00:58, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Changes to "My talk"
The reason that I reverted was because it is important to preserve old discussions. But if you want to remove old discussions, at least archive your talk page so that the main talk page is not cluttered, but so that people can look back on old discussions. Cheers! V60 VTalk - VDemolitions 01:08, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
Excellent. I believe that a far better solution than "nope, sorry, you can't do that." I support transparency, but also like a clean desk! Bhs itrt 01:13, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] The Rivalries of Battlefield High School
Originally when the citation of Brentsville District High School was added to the Battlefield High School page, my impetus was to edit it as unsubstantiated following conversations with members of Bobcat Athletics. While Brentsville is certainly a powerhouse athletic school by any measure, it is nonetheless Class AA in Cedar Run by school population, and therefore infrequently directly competitive with Battlefield. Furthermore, adding Brentsville to Battlefield's Wikipedia page listed as a rival insinuates that Battlefield feels Brentsville is a rival, which is unsubstantiated from an athletic point of view. (A school survey on the subject may be in order! Not really, more important things to do, but nice thought! At least we're being clinical about the edits we support!)
However, I realized after I had made the changes that I had not spoken to other departments for other points of view. After speaking with teachers who helped open the school, they agreed that Brentsville should, indeed, be listed as a rival school because we "took" many students and staff from that institution when our school opened due to the redistricting lines. Therefore, I have amended my original edit to replace the removed citation with my apologies to the anonymous editor.
In the end, additional points of view revealed that it does, indeed, seem objective and correct to list Brentsville as a rival on this page.
Additionally, the citation of Osbourne Park has been corrected to reflect the local rival in the City of Manassas, which is simply Osbourne High School, not Osbourne Park.
[edit] Vandalism of the BHS Article
For the record, I take time to help keep articles like the BHS page current, accurate, and free of vandalism because I have pride in my community and in the people that work there, and NOT as an official duty. I'm a private citizen acting as a private citizen who happens to think that Wikipedia articles should be robust, accurate, and free of disinformation. The ONLY reason I disclose that I'm an employee is in the interests of transparency, and to provide contact information for the independent confirmation of the data that I contribute to articles.
After all, in research, confirming sources is essential, and too often VERY difficult to do in the Wiki medium.
Recently, the Battlefield High School article has been severely vandalized by those seeking to be hateful, racist, bigoted, and/or belittling. I will endeavor to remain diligent in the removal of such vandalism wherever I see it, regardless of what the article may be, but for the record:
1. The IP address from inside the school is already blocked by Wikipedia, and I support this as I have stated on the user page.
2. I have suggested to school officials, specifically in the Department of Information Technology, that it experiment with a smart filter to prevent editing from school facilities. While it will not reduce the amount of vandalism from outside the school, it is taking a step that says "we value Wikipedia for what it is, and want to keep it safe from vandalism." That's just my opinion.
3. I encourage anyone who sees an anonymous IP address vandalizing any article, including the BHS page, to use the warning templates.
I recognize that neither I nor any other school official can or should "control" Wikipedia content. However, individuals and institutions can continue to exert appropriate, participatory influence upon Wikipedia content by maintaining statistical, data-supported documentation, evidence, and information in ways that meet the standards of good research and dissemination, and by flagging, reporting, and removing information that is clearly vandalism.
I cannot help but marvel that there are people who literally have nothing better to do than make childish comments on a Wikipedia page.
In any event, thank you to the account-bearing users who have been so helpful in removing and undoing vandalism and who, like me, believe in transparency in the public sector, provision of information to the community, and maintaining rigorous standards of data and research.
Bhs itrt 13:36, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] BHS article assessment
Bhs itrt, I saw your request on WikiProject Schools and took a look at the BHS article. It looks like you have a good start: the information looks good and the pictures are a plus. The content is informative and well-written. Suggestions after a first look center around changes that will bring it closer to Manual of Style guidelines, adding references to verifiable sources, and its current quality and importance assessments.
Regarding suggestions about WP Style (section headings, dates, infobox, image link parameters, etc.), I've left some ideas on the BHS article Talk page. I hope these are helpful, but please let me know if you have any questions or comments.
The biggest issue is lack of references, especially for a school article, which frequently contains a lot of stats. Content usually includes NCLB and testing info, population statistics, dates and events that require something other than the school/district website for back-up. Given your position with the school, you should have no problem locating web sources for everything. Usually, a combination of VDOE sites and newspaper stories will do the job. Not only does this address the issues of verifiability, WP:COI and WP:NPOV, but facilitates updating information that changes regularly (like SOL stats) — i.e. other editors know where you found the original data and can recheck it for quick updating. There are citation templates you can use with the <ref></ref> tags and all you'll need to do is add a References and Notes section at the bottom with the {{reflist|2}} tag (this template collates and formats all the references in the article).
You were right to ask for a review from someone else. This provides a fresh set of eyes and enhances objectivity. You rated the article "A" in quality and "Mid-level" in importance. After reviewing the article, I think you should consider pulling the quality rating back to a "B". If you look at the Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Assessment guidelines, you'll see the criteria for Start, B, GA, A and FA grades. Generally, articles are promoted through the grades (sounds especially appropriate for schools, huh?), and each grade includes all the criteria of all subordinate grades. "A" grade articles are considered "complete", with little work left to do. Grades of FA and GA require a nomination process (and review) and it would be a good idea to prepare this article for a GA review before even considering it for "A". After carefully reviewing the article it seems to fit best in the "B" grade if a fairly complete set of sources is added.
Take a look at the list of A-Category schools at WikiProject Schools. BHS is the only one. Now, to put things in perspective, look at the GA-Class school articles (of which there are only six) and check some of them out. Then look at some of the B-Class articles, such as Horace Mann School. These will give you some ideas for expanding the article.
Once the article is sourced then you may want to look at some of the great suggestions on the WikiProject Schools page. The Structure section provides good information on layout and more ideas on content. It's not a format set in stone, but it is useful. Once you feel you have a solid B-Class article, add content that shows what makes BHS interesting to the outside world (this will help you raise it to "Mid-level" importance) and develop a good Lead. Then nominate it for GA status.
Good luck, have fun and happy editing. Let me know if you have any questions.
— Jim Dunning talk : 04:41, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Reply
The current level of vandalism doesn't really warrant protection. You seem to be keeping a good watch on the article. If you just keep up the good work, you should be able to keep it in good shape. If it starts getting vandalized several times a day, semi-protection can be reconsidered. John Reaves (talk) 22:28, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] License tagging for Image:Exterior bhs x1.JPG
Thanks for uploading Image:Exterior bhs x1.JPG. Wikipedia gets thousands of images uploaded every day, and in order to verify that the images can be legally used on Wikipedia, the source and copyright status must be indicated. Images need to have an image tag applied to the image description page indicating the copyright status of the image. This uniform and easy-to-understand method of indicating the license status allows potential re-users of the images to know what they are allowed to do with the images.
For more information on using images, see the following pages:
This is an automated notice by OrphanBot. If you need help on selecting a tag to use, or in adding the tag to the image description, feel free to post a message at Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. 18:08, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Re: Sewickley Edit Inappropriate
Sorry about that, I saw some vandalism by Special:Contributions/24.3.191.248/User:24.3.191.248 rolled back what looke like vandalism, but didn't realize there was a previous vandal edit by a different user that didn't get reverted. Remeber to assume good faith. Good wiking, --Mariano(t/c) 16:27, 29 March 2007 (UTC)
