Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Texas

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 This article is part of WikiProject Texas, a WikiProject related to the U.S. state of Texas.

This WikiProject was created in response to the folowing posts on User_talk:Cyrius and User_talk:JCarriker.

Contents

[edit] WikiProject: Texas proposal

There has been alot of talk on the Texas talk page about a History of Texas article. I think this is an ideal time to propose an idea I've had for a while now: a WikiProject: Texas. Texas is one of the most diverese, some might say divergent states in the U.S.. Historically Texans have assumed that their part of the state is entitled to speak for all of Texas, which of course has led to bad feelings in the past for various reasons. I think it would be great if some of the Wikipedians interested in Texas formed a WikiProject dedicated not only to ensuring that Texas is presented holistically but also dedicatd to making wikipedia have the best resources on Texas on the web. I would like your opinons on the proposal and also see if you are interested in participating if the project is formed. -JCarriker 03:47, Aug 15, 2004 (UTC)

The non-existence of History of Texas is very disturbing. If any state deserves its own article about its history, it's Texas. I'm going to have a bit of a full plate with other projects (Wikipedia and otherwise), but I'd be interested in keeping an eye on it. I have access to the library at Lamar University, so I can at least do some fact checking on request.
We're going to have a tough time beating out the Handbook of Texas for the title of "Best online Texas resource". If only that thing was public domain, a zillion Rambot stubs could go to full articles in an instant. -- Cyrius|✎ 04:20, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)
That there thing is mighty awesome, but not without its mistakes. --H2O 23:05, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC)

End moved discussion.

I've been doing a series of Texas biography articles and I shamelessly use the Handbook articles as a jumping-off point (...since I worked on a number of them myself) -- but I rewrite and add a lot of material from other sources, too. And bibliographies. If that doesn't satisfy the wikirules on copyright, I guess I'll have to go back and do some more extensive rewriting. I've added myself to the participants list, by the way. --Michael K. Smith 17:00, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)
You're not the only one to have done that. I was just saying that it'd be a lot faster if we could legally set up a "Handbook of Texas-bot" to import their text verbatim. -- Cyrius|✎ 18:20, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I too, shamelessly use the hand book for bios. I wouldn't worry about it. :) -JCarriker 04:53, Aug 17, 2004 (UTC)
One advantage Wikipedia has is that the Handbook of Texas does not contain images. -Nv8200p talk 14:49, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sign me up!

Where do I sign up? Do I need permission or do I just add my name to the list? I have never participated in a "project" before - so I don't know the procedure. "To present a holistic view of Texas rather than the view of one region of Texas." That is an excellent goal, although not as easy as it sounds. For what it's worth, I am a native West Texan, but did live in East Texas (Lindale) for a while. I have also spent time in the Valley. I am an avid reader of Texas Monthly, and I am amazed by the diversity of my home state. If anything, someone will have to help me tone down my enthusiasm. --H2O 23:15, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] To do

Given the apparent pent-up demand for a to-do list over at the newly-created Wikipedia:U.S. Southern Wikipedians' notice board, I started one here. I'm also growing convinced that the standard WikiProject template isn't terribly appropriate for us. -- Cyrius|✎ 23:03, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] History of Texas.

Given that the non-existence of History of Texas was largely responsible for this Project's creation, I started work on a temporary at Wikipedia:WikiProject Texas/History of Texas. I'd have put it in the main namespace, but it'd be silly to do so until we've got minimal coverage of everything from Spanish exploration to the present. -- Cyrius|✎ 04:47, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] I'm In

Hello, I would like to help in this Project. I am a newbie but I have posted a few articles on Texas already, including Anahuac Disturbances, San Bernard River, and Attwater's prairie-chicken. Johntex 02:54, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Texas Universities on Texas

There's a little dispute going on about Texas#Education, specifically which universities should be featured in images. A poll was started at Talk:Texas#Vote for Colleges of choice on which schools deserve to be shown, but it has been postponed due to negotiations between the two parties. I just thought more than two people might be interested in this issue.

One problem may be that the section is currently just a cumbersome list, which makes the image selection question significant as it's the only way to highlight an institution. Compare Texas#Education to California#Education, which contains a text writeup on the university systems and most prestigious private institutions, while the full list is at its own article. --Laura Scudder | Talk 03:19, 10 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Sign Up?

Hi, I'm a native Texan with alot of little nothings that maybe I can put to use. I've just now started contributing, and would like something structured to work on cause my mind rambles. Anyways, add me to the list, point me towards central texas or historic or sports topics, and I'm ready to roll. Joe I 01:01, August 20, 2005 (UTC)

Well, Texas always needs some cleaning up work, and the History of Texas cycle could be a productive area of expansion. The pending tasks list on the project page says we should expand Spindletop. Other than that, the candidates for the Wikipedia:Texan Collaboration of the Month are articles others think need work. If none of those float your boat, work on whatever strikes you. — Laura Scudder | Talk 20:07, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikiportal

Continuing Texas' quest for world domination, I set up a Wikiportal for Texas. Please feel free to help out over there. I'd appreciate it! RADICALBENDER★ 05:57, August 23, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] New imdb-like template for Handbook of Texas citations

66.167.139.208 04:59, 11 September 2005 (UTC): I just manually wikified a few of the references to the Handbook of Texas. As project members have already noted, it is a critical source for Texas-related entries. Google estimates over 750 entries using the phrase "Handbook of Texas" within the English-language version of Wikipedia, and I'm about to add one or two more.

To help with future references, I've added an imdb-like template called {{Handbook of Texas}}. It takes two arguments, an id and a name, and produces results like the following:

Stephen Fuller Austin from the Handbook of Texas Online

Comparing the template entry

  • {{Handbook of Texas|id=AA/fau14|name=Stephen Fuller Austin}}

with

makes it self-evident what the id needs to be.

66.167.139.208 06:29, 11 September 2005 (UTC):I just finished using the template about a dozen times, as can be seen here. There's another ninety minutes of my life I won't get back. :-)

By the way, Category:Handbook of Texas citations is up for deletion. I'm not a big fan of the category on the template, but I can see its uses and don't see any reason the category needs to be to be deleted. — Laura Scudder | Talk 19:58, 26 September 2005 (UTC)


The template shown above is now redirected to this one. The arguments, however, are the same as before. --JFreeman 19:05, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

I've systematically eradicated {{handbookoftexas}}, in favor of {{Handbook of Texas}}. This is the last; no more redirects, not that most people care... --studerby 03:18, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Suggestions

Hi, I grew up in Austin, but I can't really joing this WikiProject as I have a lot on my plate already and besides I don't live in the U.S. anymore, let alone Texas, making it difficult to verify a lot of stuff. But I would like to make some requests:

  • Serbin, Texas is possibly the only Wendish immigrant community in America and is definitely worth writing about. Wends and Pastor John Kilian already link there.
  • Tonkawa should be de-stubbified
  • Karankawa language redirects to Karankawa, which is just about the people, not the language. It would be nice if at least a stub could be written about the language

Thanks! -Angr

  • Per your request, I have created a stub on Serbin, but infortunately I am too busy to work on your other requests at this time. Sorry. -JCarriker 21:17, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
The stub on Serbin looks great! Thank you! --Angr/tɔk tə mi 22:45, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Review request (looking for someone in the know)

I don't know who added it, but an addition was made to Lincoln (state), saying that there was once a proposal to lop off the part of Texas in 1869 "west and south" of the Colorado River, and to call it the state of Lincoln. The problem is, I don't see that that leaves much left of 1869 Texas... I've commented that section out pending a reliable source, and explained my twofold rationale at Talk:Lincoln (state). I'd appreciate it if someone who knows more about Texas history could review this, and delete it from the article if it's nonsense. Tomer TALK 02:43, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Reptiles of Texas

Greetings, I'm from Austin. I just joined the project. I've been working on some articles on the reptiles of Texas, and if anyone else happens to have an interest in that area, I could certainly use some help, especially with copyediting, it is a big list. :) Thanks. -Dawson 05:38, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team cooperation

Hello. I'm a member of the Version 1.0 Editorial Team, which is looking to identify quality articles in Wikipedia for future publication on CD or paper. We recently began assessing articles using these criteria, and we are are asking for your help. As you are most aware of the issues surrounding your focus area, we are wondering if you could provide us with a list of the articles that fall within the scope of your WikiProject, and that are either featured, A-class, B-class, or Good articles, with no POV or copyright problems. Do you have any recommendations? If you do, please post your suggestions at the listing of all active Places WikiProjects, and if you have any questions, ask me in the Work Via WikiProjects talk page or directly in my talk page. Thanks a lot! Titoxd(?!? - help us) 18:48, 23 March 2006 (UTC)


[edit] USS Texas (BB-35)

Would the Battleship Texas count as an appropriate topic under the purview of Wikiproject:Texas? Also, can anyone suggest where/how/who I could check with for suggestions on what to do to get the article just a little closer to Featured Article status? To my eye, it looks pretty close. But I'm still new-ish to Wiki so I didn't want to stick my neck out juuuust yet by nominating it ;) - thanks in advance for any suggestions! Longshot14 23:54, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

The article needs some work. There are major issues with the article that is going to have a lot of objections such as the intro needs to have a lot of more text and there are no references/inline citations which are pretty much required these days for FA-status. Just read past pass/failed FA nominations because the objection voters repeat those arguments ad-nauseum. --Don Vito Corleone 01:19, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
I'll look into what I can do about that over time, though doubtless there are those better equipped to make such changes/additions. Thanks very much! Longshot14 18:15, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
USS Texas (BB-35) would definitely count as part of this project. Feel free to nominate it to become the collaboration of the month. I think you'll get some help improving the article just by listing it here. Johntex\talk 19:14, 27 March 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in Texas

Some articles covered by this WikiProject lack photographs. As part of a subcategorization of the requested photos category, there is now a category for Texas articles needing photos - to use it, just add {{reqphotoin|Texas}} to the article's talk page. I have only added a few articles to the category so far, but it would be an easy way to make an extensive list California-related articles lacking photos. I hope you find it useful! TheGrappler 05:29, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

Nice idea - thanks for the start. I've been looking through a lot of the south texas articles and have noticed the lack of pictures for seemingly important and easy to access places. Kuru talk 13:28, 23 April 2006 (UTC)
I am going to create a subcat of this for Texas State Highways. I would like every article in our project (WP:TXSH) to have a photo and at present, very few do. I don't want to deluge your cat with a lot of highway articles. Will make it easier on us as well if we don't have to sift through articles not related to our project. --Holderca1 14:57, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I've Joined

Hey guys, I'm here to help and have signed myself up. I'll help where I can and feel free to ask for anything. Thanks. Minfo 20:52, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Child" WikiProjects

No one mentioned them. And would anyone be intrested in the TexasWiki?--GangstaEB & friends 07:12, 25 June 2006 (UTC) 01:55, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Texan Collaboration of the month

Texas needs your help!!

The good news is the most recent Texan Collaboration of the Month - Juneteenth has recently been featured on the Main Page! The bad news is that we chose this article six months ago and we haven't kept up to date with choosing and improving a new article.
This page is traditionally administered by Katefan0 and JCarriker, but since they are both semi-retired, Johntex is filling in. (Yet another reason to hope Katefan0 and JCarriker come back soon!!)
We are going to pick up right where we left off. Please visit Texan Collaboration of the Month and help select the new collaboration - we'll begin working on the selected article 1 July 2006.

[edit] History buff needed

Please check out List of current and former capital cities in the United States and make sure that Alaska's capital cities are listed accurately. A word of warning: the page does contain quite a bit of complicated wiki formatting, so if you're not comfortable editing it, just post your changes on the talk page and someone more experienced will apply them to the article.   JEK   19:56, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

  • Alaska? What's that big iceberg have to do with us?  :-) I assume it is a copy paste error. Johntex\talk 19:59, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm always getting Washington-On-The-Brazos and Washington-On-The-Yukon mixed up. Kuru talk 20:43, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nominate articles for Portal:United States

I've worked for the past month to update Portal:United States and keep it better maintained. Though, I think the Portal:United States would be even better with broader participation. One way to do that is instead of choosing the "selected article" myself each week, if others would nominate articles and help make decisions. (same goes for pictures, though these are stocked up through July 29) If there is anything related to Texas (or anything else related to the U.S. - culture, music, literature, geography, history, politics, ...), please nominate. I'd also like people to weigh in on the nominations and help select what should be featured. Thanks. -Aude (talk contribs) 23:23, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New "People from [city]" Categories

Hello, everybody. I am the bozo who just recently created the new subcategories in the "People from Texas" category. I thought that some of you might want to know why they were created, and why they often have so few pages in them.

The majority of the states have "People from [state]" categories which have at least 200 entries, sometimes over 1,000. This is clearly an unworkably large number for anyone wishing to use the category for research purposes. In 8th grade in Rapid City, South Dakota, the social studies class asked us to write, over the course of the year, reports on two or three people who were or had been residents of the city. Because of that, I have reason to believe that they could be used and probably are used for research purposes. To make such research easier, I looked at the list of metropolitan statistical areas and basically entered in one new category for each metropolitan statistical area.

I know that many of these categories might well be, in the eyes of you who know more about the cities in question much better than I do, misnamed or otherwise faulty. I apologize for any mistakes I may have made along those lines, and I would welcome any corrections, including deletion, that any of the rest of you might choose to make. With that in mind, I have also generally populated the categories with only one or two names, to ease in the process of deletion or renaming.

I thought you all should know why these categories were created, and felt some degree of responsibility for letting your know. I wish you all the greatest good fortune in making the coverage of your state in Wikipedia of the greatest scope and quality possible, and I hope that I haven't annoyed too many of you by my recent actions. Badbilltucker 13:37, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] tagging articles

User:WatchlistBot has started tagging Category:Texas articles with {{Wikiproject Texas}}. There will soon be a recent changes where all texas articles can be veiwed. If any errors occur, please see me, User:WatchlistBot or User:Mom2jandk(who currently runs it). THNX :) Joe I 07:19, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Y'all have a lot of articles! I've started the tagging, but it's a long way from done. I went ahead and created the article list at Wikipedia:WikiProject Texas/Articles and you can see the project watchlist at Special:Recentchangeslinked/Wikipedia:WikiProject Texas/Articles. I have a question for you. Should Category:BNSF Railway be part of the project. I started tagging it, and then realized it maybe shouldn't be. What do you think. Ingrid 01:27, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
It's part of Wikiproject Missouri and the headquarters are in Fort Worth, so I see why not. Joe I 01:42, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
Is there anyway to make the images not show in Wikipedia:WikiProject Texas/Articles? Joe I 02:38, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
I'm going to need to reorganize my code a bit to handle the size of the project, so I can set it up to run with less supervision. I won't have time until next week. I can fix the image thing, no problem. Ingrid 03:17, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

The categories are done. Please review the list. Please especially check Category:68k emulators and Category:68k microprocessors -- someone removed the tag from processors but not emulators. Both or neither should probably be tagged. Also please check the railway categories, and Amtrak categories. Once someone checks them, I'll get started tagging all articles in these categories. If there is a category that should be tagged, but not all articles in the category, I can do that too.

Category:68k emulators and Category:68k microprocessors tags were both removed. Joe I 23:06, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Someone might also want to look at the sports team names, and try to make them more consistent. This is not relevant to my bot, but I noticed that sometimes it's "<school> <mascot> ladies basketball", sometimes "<school> Lady <mascot> basketball", and other inconsistencies. There are also some categories like "Fort Worthians" that should probably be "People from Fort Worth" I think. There's a standard somewhere. Ingrid 23:55, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

I almost forgot, I wasn't sure how to tag some of the geography ones. Check Category:Geography of Texas and its subcategories. This might be something where some articles need to be tagged and others not. Ingrid 23:59, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

I don't see any problem tagging all in Category:Geography of Texas. Everything I saw was either completly or partialy located in Texas. Joe I 23:11, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. The problem I ran into was Category:Mississippi River which is in Category:Gulf of Mexico which is in Category:Texas which doesn't seem to need a Texas project tag. Gulf of Mexico (the article) should probably have a tag, but the category, I don't know, and the contents of the category, I don't know. I'm not sure if there were other examples, but that's the one I remember. Ingrid 20:42, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

The way I've got my code working right now, it will tag all articles in all categories that already have the tag. I've taken out categories that I wasn't sure should have this done. Someone might want to consider these categories individually, and tag by hand if needed. I'm going back over the numismatics project right now, and will resume tagging texas when that's done. Here are the categories to check:

Ingrid 23:09, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Can you please stop the overzealous bot and tagging of articles that have very little mention of Texas itself? An example is Talk:Bell Helicopter Textron. This is just the Texas-based unit of a huge congolomerate that has very little to do with Texas itself. The article barely mentions the state. This unit even has most of its employee base outside of Texas. —Joseph/N328KF (Talk) 18:26, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Further to the above, I note that a tag has appeared on Talk:Arban Severin. Whilst the subject was indeed born in Texas, and spent much of her childhood there, she is now resident in the UK (and married to a Brit). You may need to refine your bot so as not to make your Project unwieldy.LessHeard vanU 18:45, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
I'll take a break from tagging until someone from the project replies. Bell Helicopter Textron was tagged because it is in Category:Companies based in Texas and Category:Fort Worth, Texas. Arban Severin was tagged because it is in Category:People from Beaumont, Texas. This project will be huge if all articles in all Texas categories are included. The bot needs to either tag all or no articles in a given category. There were some complaints about other articles which weren't related to Texas even though they were in categories which have some relation to Texas. I didn't keep a list though. Let me know how to proceed. Ingrid 19:07, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
Another example, Brent Krahn was just pointed out on the bot's talk page. He played for the San Antonio Rampage for 14 games. Ingrid 19:32, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
I think in general it is OK to have a few over-tagging events. The point of the tag is to encourage people to participate in this wikiproject, and for people from this wikiproject to participate in improving the tagged articles - both of which are admirable aims. Johntex\talk 20:09, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

The bot has reached the G's, and the Wikipedia:WikiProject Texas/Articles page won't save (but I don't get an error message. Someone else told me that there was a limit to the number of links per page though. I'll have to split it, which means you'll have to have multiple watchlist pages. For now, I'll just split it alphabetically (although I'll have to update my bot to do that, so it might take a couple of days). In the future, if you categorize your articles by importance or anything, I can split them that way. Ingrid 22:30, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

What about splitting all the images off on to their own page? Joe I 08:39, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
I would definitely do that, but it's not going to be enough. There are thousands of regular articles, and they will not fit on one page. Ingrid 22:34, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

First of all, some questions have been raised at User talk:WatchlistBot about whether certain articles (especially people) should be included in the project. I've removed any article that anyone has a problem with. If someone wants to check those, or the categories that I've untagged, feel free. And then there's the issue of hand-tagging the categories that are mixed. I've also updated the output to split it onto multiple pages. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Texas/Articles. We're up to "S", so it should get done soon. Ingrid 02:47, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Texas Collaboration of the month - August 2006

Hello fellow Texan Collaboration of the Month editors,
We have made some good progress with Texas over the past month. However, I am not sure if we have improved the article enough yet to contemplate nominating it for FA (or at least GA). I propose that we spend one more month on it before choosing a new topic.
I further propose that we archive the existing list of future candidate articles. Some of the nominations are quite old. I think we should take fresh suggestions during August for a new article to collaborate on in September.
I look forward to your thoughts. Please put comments at Wikipedia_talk:Texan_Collaboration_of_the_Month#August_2006. Thanks! Johntex\talk 01:01, 4 August 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Famous Texans entry in Category:People from Texas

Currently Famous Texans is listed as a page in the Category:People from Texas. When one hits the link to the page, one finds that it is only a redirect to the Category:People from Texas, in effect making the category itself appear as one of the pages in the category. A suggestion has been made as to how to resolve this, but, not noting myself the history of the Famous Texans page, I thought that I might do best by contacting you and informing you of the situation. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 15:30, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Centralized discussion on UT Tower shooting link

An editor wishes to add the following link to multiple pages:

"VOICES From The Tower"

I have asked them if we can have a centralized discussion about this link, rather than have the discussion across mutliple pages, and they have agreed to have the discussion here. Johntex\talk 17:44, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I would consider what the user wants to add to be spam. Of course there are other commercial sites linked on Wikipedia. That's not the issue. The issue is whether it's appropriate for these articles. I don't think it is. 2 major problems with that site. #1 is that it's main purpose seems to be to sell a CD. #2 it has a definite agenda. Neither of those things are generally good for external links. Links should not be to sites that push something to sell on all or nearly all of their pages (which is why sites like amazon are generally not allowed) and generally, shouldn't be opinionated as much as the site you link to is. My main concern is #1 though. It mentions this CD on almost every page of the site. I just don't see how we can get around that. --Woohookitty(meow) 17:53, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
The site is exclusively about Charles Whitman and the University of Texas Tower Tragedy. All pages refer to events, documents and photos from the event. The tragedy happened at the Austin Campus of the University of Texas, within the City of Austin, the State of Texas. The Cd is interviews with people directly related to the event. Victims who are noted in the article, Officers who were there that day, Professors of Whitman, observers who are linked to the article, documents from the investigation, friends of Whitman, issues with the City of Austin, Texas. The site notes that it is under construction, however, there is enough information there now for adequate references. Other links on the Wikipedia article go directly to commercial sites that are either commercially based, or have information that is totally biased from unresearched sources such as news accounts and magazines who wrote limited or false information about the tragedy from the start. Since Woohookitty claims the site has an "agenda" without clarifying what the agenda is (in his opinion), the site should be allowed to be linked to all applicable pages.71.121.103.147 18:23, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
One thing I'm concerned about is your desire to add this to "all applicable pages". In addition to all the pages you list above, the website is also talking about something that happened in the United States on planet Earth, in the Solar System during the 20th Century and involving rifles and stairways. Do you think the link belongs on all those articles as well? Johntex\talk 20:40, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

No. Here is my hopes. Charles Whitman and sub articles, City of Austin, University of Texas, Mass Murderers, Austin Police Department, and only a few others where it would be appropriate. The expansion you gave would be well beyond the scope. Also, a tumor (Glio-Blastoma) site may be appropriate also.71.121.103.147 21:22, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

The general topic of your site has little to do with any of those pages and would not significantly expand them in any way. Wikilink those articles back to the Whitman page if there is a corelation, but spamming the same external link across every single tangentally related page would not be acceptable. I would also echo Woohookitty's concern that you're pushing that CD pretty heavy, but there is probably enough content there to mitigate that; I didn't look over the entire site. Kuru talk 23:21, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
  • According to The Daily Texan [1], the website is run by Houston McCoy and his associates.John Moore with some profits shared to Houston McCoy. I recommend we work it into Houston McCoy, but not the other articles. Johntex\talk 23:30, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
I very strongly believe it doesn't belong on pages like APD or UT, I strongly believe it doesn't belong in articles about Whitman, Martinez or others. If we put it on the Houston McCoy article, I would personally 'suggest' that it be labelled as "Site run by Houston McCoy about the shootings", not "Voices from the tower". As a stand-alone link, as WHK said, it doesn't qualify for inclusion, its only reason for inclusion is because it is authored by the subject of the article. Sherurcij (Speaker for the Dead) 23:33, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

It has a page on martinez. A several pages dealing with Whitman. Interviewees all dealing with Whitman. A few pages dealing with McCoy. Images of the tower with explanations of what took place and where. The title is Voices From The Tower. Martinez has a link to his book written by him. The City of Austin page mentions the incident under history.71.121.103.147 00:15, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

That's great. Unfortunately, adding your promotional link to many semi-related articles is the very definition of external link spamming. I don't see any reason why this would be an exception. Sherurcij's point above about the wording of the link itself is also important to note - point-of-view external links can sometimes be added, but they must be labeled appropriately. There seems to be quite a bit of history at those articles (Whitman, McCoy); so I will defer to the editors that are more familiar with the content there. Kuru talk 00:41, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

All right, All right!!! First, Johntex, nice article, but Houston Mccoy is not running the site or contributing other than helping with the facts on his pages with the facts. If you note your own source, it does not say McCoy is running the website and McCoy has no associates in that regard. The website states it is under construction, perhaps it has been posted to soon. Due to the incompleteness of the site, I respectfully withdraw the inclusion of the site for future consideration. I will remove the link since it is copyrighted. Thanks everyone!71.121.103.147 01:11, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removing With Explanation

I am again removing the discussion pursuant to Sherurcij's misinterpretation of the GFDL license. The reasons are in the license itself:

1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License. Such a notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein. The "Document", below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as "you". You accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright law.

According to the license, Mr. Moore holds the Copyright to the website under discussion. Mr. Moore was not contacted for permission to use the link or any pages within the website. That there are public documents used within the website, that can be gotten by legal means for anyone so inclined to do so. That Mr. Moore expressly wishes to not have his Copyrighted work on Wikipedia in any form for any purpose.71.121.103.147 17:34, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but you cannot just 'remove' discussion because you don't want to. Now, to start with, every single one of us involved in the Whitman article know that you are John Moore, you've been given the benefit of the doubt for months now, you've evaded multiple bans, and we still are polite and explanatory with you, please respect that. Your discussions on the talk page are not "copyrighted", and you therefore have no ability to remove them. Before you ever hit the Save Page button, you have to see the words You agree to license your contributions under the GFDL. - if you consider the discussion over, we can probably all agree to html-strikethrough it, so it's clear that it's resolved, sound good? Sherurcij (Speaker for the Dead) 20:49, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
Now you speak for the living too!!! Amazing! Why would John Moore post a link to his website, and then try to get rid of it?! Rather counter-productive and a waste of time in MHO! You obviously do not understand my error nor your mis-application of the GFDL. And furthermore, why is this discussion even taking place since the link can not be used without the copyright holders permission? If you can explain the last sentence, then let's proceed, if not, let's move on to something more productive, in an individual capacity of course. The GFDL is not the issue here!71.121.103.147 22:07, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
I thought you sounded like a person looking to be an authority Sherurcij. Could your motivation be to try and re-nominate yourself again for an Administrator position? Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Sherurcij From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia < Wikipedia:Requests for adminship Jump to: avigation, search The following discussion is preserved as an archive of a request for adminship that did not succeed. Please do not modify it. Sherurcij Final (12/8/6) ended 15:13 27 November 2005 (UTC)
You...don't even make sense. First of all, let me introduce you to an IP address, and what it is. Why the same IP address is posting a link to a website, and then "trying to get rid of it" is beyond me, but there is absolutely no doubt that you are John Moore. I agree with you though, you are largely wasting your time with this issue - you have 2 wikipedia admins, 3 editors and a lawyer, none of whom appear to give you any credence, and have banned you multiple times. Find a new hobby. I'm unclear on what an RFA has to do with your continued trolling and vandalising of Whitman-related articles, perhaps you could clarify? Or are you just showing off that you've discovered how to use google, and thus posted the second link that turns up for "Sherurcij" ? Sherurcij (Speaker for the Dead) 00:15, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm not here to fence with you, just to remove the website link, that's all! Is the attorney supposed to scare me or something? That aside, the website link is not going to be allowed on Wikipedia by Mr. Moore, period! So again, what is the purpose of discussing a non-issue? Close down the discussion for brevities sake!71.121.103.147 01:08, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Invite

Wanted to let you know that WP:BIOGRAPHY has added a "work group" called Politics and government, and so wanted to invite you to participate on any biography-type articles. The section for TX is here and if there's interest, we can beef it up to look like the newly-created Virginia one plange 05:37, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] /signup

I'd like to help out too!

ChangeOfFate 02:45, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Featured?

Wikipedia:Featured portal candidates/Portal:Texas Joe I 08:57, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] La Plaza Mall

Your project may be interested in the AfD on La Plaza Mall, McAllen, Texas. --AlexWCovington (talk) 06:19, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Just joined

I just signed up for the project. I have begun working on Category:Ghost towns in Texas. I will probably work on some of the dead internal links stemming from those articles.

[edit] UIL

Should Social Studies (UIL test) and Spelling and Vocabulary be added to the project, since they are UIL tests? -- VGF11 19:33, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

I've added the template to these pages, since I never received a response. -- VGF11 01:36, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Great Job!

Fantastic job on spreading the knowledge and greatness that is the great state of Texas. WE know what outsiders don't, but we will help them get a little taste of the sweetness that is the Lone Star/Friendly state. Keep up the good work. --ProdigySportsman 23:50, 25 September 2006 (UTC) Allen, Texas

[edit] Westminster Theological Seminary

An anon added Westminster Theological Seminary to this project. There is a small satellite campus of WTS in Dallas, but do you think it belongs? --Flex 01:29, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

It's still tagged as a part of the project but the article itself contains no mention of the satellite campus in Dallas. UNless someone can give a good explanation in the next week or so I'm going to untag it since it seems to only be remotely associated with Texas (and this remote association isn't even in the article). Harlock jds 13:18, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Magic Time Machine

Anyone know of Magic Time Machine? There's one in dallas and one in sanantonio, and one was in austin. If anyone knows of some media source articles on them, please let me know. Joe I 02:10, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AfD Nomination

2005 Texas Longhorn football team has been nominated for deletion. Please join in the discussion if you wish. Johntex\talk 01:08, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] John Denver?

I noticed that his article has been tagged at part of the Texas Project. Other than attending a university in TX for a while, does he have a particularly strong connection with the state? Joyous! | Talk 18:25, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Invitation to new WikiProject

A new WikiProject has been started, and may be of interest to members here. It is WikiProject National Register of Historic Places. It covers all listings on the Register, in all states and territories. Should you be so inclined, please feel free to join. And spread the word to any other interested parties. -Ebyabe 19:56, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Articel in need of Texan help

Namely the recently rescued from bias and copyright violation Deregulation of the Texas Electricity Market. It needs some people who are familiar with it to help fix it up from its current state. Thanx. 68.39.174.238 03:49, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Project directory

Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 19:19, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] San Augustine

The San Augustine page has no history of the town whatsoever. I think it needs more than geography and demographics. I've got an 1850 plan of the town of San Augustine for starters [Map] There needs to be more information about the people who made the city prosper such as: Elisha Roberts who who was one of the founders of San Augustine, and the Reverend George Crocket who documented the architectural history of San Augustine and the people and places of local and distant origins. He was Rector at the Episcopal churches of San Augustine and Nacogdoches and his sermons open a window on the religious teachings in rural East Texas of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Crocket was involved in the formation of the Boy Scouts of America in San Augustine and helped shape many of the institutions that make up modern life in eastern Texas. These are additional sources on the Texas Tides page: a sketch of the downtown courthouse: [courthouse]. Texas Tides 15:18, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Houston peer review

The Houston, Texas article is currently being peer reviewed. Your advice on how to improve the article is appreciated. Thank you for your assistance. Postoak 05:19, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia Day Awards

Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 22:23, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Please Review

Hello, I am getting ready to propose 2005 Texas Longhorn football team for consideration as a featured article. The article has had one reveiw already and I believe all issues raised there have been addressed. I have also used the semi-automated review script to look for small things that need to be changed. The article is meticulously referenced with 121 in-line sources. It contains both free-use images and appropriate fair-use images. It attempts to follow the standards set out by the relevant wiki projects.

In watching the nomintaion of the OU football program, I see that the OU article has received some objections on the grounds of supposedly being overly positive and for listing too-many awards. I have reviewed the 2006 UT article in light of those objections and I am prepared to argue that every positive thing said is relevant and attributed to a specific source. As for the awards and accomplishments, I think all the ones listed in the UT article are notable and justifiable, but I'd like to get more feedback from other editors so I invite you to review the article if you please. Johntex\talk 09:54, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nomination

After a long delay, I finally nominated the Amarillo, Texas article in the Featured Articles candidates section. It is mostly a pessimistic nomination. Just don't think it will pass in its first nomination. Although, it is better than most failed FA city candidates. It just not well written. Please express your opinions. If you hate it, I will not like you. It is better to have a failed nomination than a faux Texas-related "Featured article." --J. Nguyen 03:44, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Houston FA nomination

The Houston, Texas article has been nominated as a feature article candidate. Please stop by and provide your input. Thanks! Postoak 03:54, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Dalby Springs, TX

Dalby Springs, Texas looks like a verbatim copy from the Handbook of Texas Online. Just a heads up, I tried to get rid of what looked like was copied, but someone didn't agree.A mcmurray 04:30, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Austin districts

Someone please address the request below. Im not qualified enough for the job, so Im pasting the request here:

Hi Zereshk. I have detected a temporal inconsistency in the Austin, TX article, politics section. The inconsistent phrase reads "Of Austin's six state legislative districts, three are strongly Democratic, and three are swing districts, all of which will be held by Democrats when Valinda Bolton assumes control of District 47 this January.". I am tempted to change it to something like "Of Austin's six state legislative districts, three are strongly Democratic, and three are swing districts. Currently all six are held by Democrats", but since I do not have political knowledge about the region I judged it wiser to ask someone living there. ¿Could you please take a look at it? Charles Dexter Ward 22:01, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks.--Zereshk 06:50, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

I think his phrasing is both accurate and clearer. Paxsimius 05:15, 13 March 2007 (UTC)


[edit] South Padre Island... Can I put up Links?


Somebody -I'm guessing and administrator- has put up a sign to prohibit the formation of more external links emanating from the South Padre Island, Texas article.

I suggest that several links be formed in order to further complete this article. Most of them are official representatives of the city (commerce, tourism, etc.)


Complying to the notice set in the article, I first mention the links in this discussion page, so a Wikipedia administrator reviews them and may agree to let them be formed on the article itself.

They are:
Padre Island Conventions & Visitors Bureau
Padre Island Chamber of Commerce
Town of South Padre Island
Padre Island webcams and live info!
Padre Island Spring Break
Padre

As you can see, I already have the links, I just need the "permission" to put them up. Who can I talk to?

Thank you.

--Valdezlopez 16:38, 15 March 2007 (UTC), Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico

  • You have come to the right place. We can discuss this here. Personally, I think the first 3 links above have some value, but the others are too much, I think. I look forward to hearing other opinions. Johntex\talk 06:01, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
My response at Talk:South Padre Island, Texas is very similar to yours. Top 3, OK. The rest are not. Postoak 06:09, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "TX" abbreviations

I don't know if it'd be easy to do in an automated fashion, but there's some cities and counties that don't have a redirect from the TX abbreviation. For example, if I search for "Wink, TX" or "Winkler County, TX" then neither of them goes to the correct article (Wink, Texas and Winkler County, Texas). I was used to doing this in the search, because it works for most things that I've searched for. But there are at least some that don't work. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.182.97.121 (talk) 05:03, 20 March 2007 (UTC).

I don't know an automatic way to do this. Maybe someone else can help. Johntex\talk 05:59, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Also, searching for "texas counties" or "counties of texas" leads to a dead end. These should obviously redirect to Category:Texas_counties (evidently I don't know how to format a link to a category) or List_of_Texas_counties. 24.182.97.121 05:06, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

I fixed this so that Texas counties, Texas Counties and Counties of Texas all point to List of Texas counties. From there, people can also get to the category.
Thanks for your feedback on both these issues. Are you finding Wikipedia to be helpful resource, in general? Johntex\talk 05:59, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Category Handbook of Texas citations

This was deleted today. Was anyone aware of this? I would have voted against it if I knew about it. Postoak 02:39, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

It seemed a little stupid. If anything, inline citations should've had their own template.. and the template should've carried <includeonly>[[Category:Handbook of Texas citations]]</includeonly>.. instead of just adding the category at whatever page it happened to be noticed at. -- drumguy8800 C T 19:58, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
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