Talk:Bolo (tank)

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[edit] Das Afrika Korps

I don't have my books handy either but this list is missing DAK "Das Afrika Korps". I *think* he was a Mk XXIV. There were at least three other Bolos in that story as well. The clearest memory I have from the story is towards the begining. They'd found him buried in ruble or something and someone had said something that had set him off and he was speeding down some road heading no place in particular, and this general from this one nation he happened to be in had been called to do something about him and was speeding alongside in a jeep and saw the nameplate welded to his side and read it aloud as he drove alongside, which caused the Bolo to stop and decide that this guy was his new boss, and then he went on to win the upcoming war for this guys side by calling in his brothers who were all in hibernation aboard ancient satellites above the planet. Surely someone besides me remembers this Bolo?

Indeed, but I don't have the book handy, so I can't check it. --Falcorian (talk) 17:22, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

I just recently read Honor of the Regiment Bolos book 1. It is made up of short stories and one of them ploughshare by Todd Johnson. There are 4 mark XVI Bolos in the story: Das Afrika Korps, US Seventh Corps, Zhukov, and Indefatigable. In the process of typing this I noticed that they are already listed in the list. Is there a need for this then? Feffrey 03:25, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bolo by Bolo Data

I'm working on taking the data from Book 3 and wikifying it. You can find it at User:Falcorian/bolo, feel free to fuss with it. I'd like to add information under the major headinds, so if you've got something, toss it in. -Falcorian 06:04, August 13, 2005 (UTC)

It might be a good idea to create a separate article ("Bolo Marks," for example) for that information. This would keep the present article at a reasonable length.
That was the plan. -Falcorian 17:47, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
I think you have more than enough material to put it up now -- though I'd cut the Technology section at the start, which duplicates the info in the main Bolo article.


It's live at Bolo Marks Technical Data, take a look. -Falcorian 21:17, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Little Red Hen

Don't have my books handy, but the list is missing LRH "Little Red Hen". I don't remember which Mark it was, but it was an odd, "light" Bolo for recon to transport and support a human crew to observe the enemy. LRH was severely damaged in action while attempting to save its crew. The data records were recovered and its AI core destroyed. I believe it was a Mark XXI something. Maybe (I)?

A little late, but yes, LRH was a Mark XXI/I. -Falcorian 20:53, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Copyright Text

I do not think the text removed by Chairboy is copyrited. It was written up by 66.36.155.48, and while it is obviously using Bolo III as a reference, it is not a direct copy (although close at points, but a rewrite seems like a better solution than removal). I don't know the exact rules for wikipedia on the subject, but I do not think this violates any as otherwise no articles could be written that are also covered in copyrighted material. Can anyone confirm or deny? -Falcorian 22:29, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

The text was indeed rewritten to avoid copyright issues, though perhaps not enough. User Falcorian seems well on the way of formatting the full history of the Bolo, so I will not re-add these texts. - 66.36.155.48
Howdy! Maybe I jumped the gun, I just read BoloIII a few days ago, and when I read the test in question, I could have SWORN it was an exact match, because it was so very very very similar. If it's not, then I apologize. I'd suggest that the list of in-depth descriptions be increased to include more models. Viva la Dinochrome Brigade! - CHAIRBOY (☎) 03:08, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
No problem, I thought the same the first time I looked at it. As for the In-depth page... I'm working on it slowly. College came along again and knocked me out of it. -Falcorian 04:45, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
Get on your bicycle, spaceman, and get that content done! College is just something that gets in the way of a healthy Wikipedia interest, as evidenced here.  :) Regards, CHAIRBOY (☎) 05:04, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Talk of Bolo Personality

I was wondering if this rticle could discuss the Bolo personality. It has always been a king of king in shining armour but I need some help in making it more clear --Thisuser 03:20, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Couple changes

I changed references to the Bolo being 'like a tank only bigger [etc]' to 'super-heavy tank.' There's no real difference between a Bolo and a tank other than scale, so it's fairly ridiculous to claim it's anything but a super-heavy tank. Hrimfaxi 11:13, 17 April 2006 (UTC) The difference between a tank and a bolo is like that between a pussycat and a tiger; both feline, but a cat is not a tiger.

[edit] Bolo WV

In the short story Cultural Exchange, an oddly numbered Bolo model is mentioned: "That's the model WV," she said. "It's what is known as a Continental Siege Unit. It carries four men, with a half-megaton/second firepower—"

"There must be an error somewhere," Retief said. "The Bolo model I want is a tractor, model WV M-1—"

"Oh, the modification was the addition of a blade for demolition work. That must be what confused you." —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Sennard (talk • contribs) 01:43, 8 December 2006 (UTC).

[edit] About the Stories

Personally, I'd be interested in some analysis of the stories themselves and the varying perspectives their authors have brought to them:

  • According to the Keith Laumer page, the "Boloverse" is one of the universes Laumer explored least, yet the one that colleagues have been most willing to pick up and run with. Why is this?
    • The fact that the Boloverse is so little explored compared to the others, especially as iit covers a great period of time?
    • The lack of an anchoring character like Retief?
    • The opportunity for SF authors interested in war to speculate on the evolution of the tank?
  • It's my observation that David Weber brings more pathos and character drama to the stories (contrast Old Soldeirs and Bolo! to William H. Keith, Jr.'s Bolo Strike), with possibly John Ringo and Linda Evans being his superiors (The Road to Damascus).

And I'm sure there's more to say about the function of the Bolo characters in the stories than their mark numbers and other statistics.

--IMAGinES 06:54, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Feel free to add in what you feel is appropriate, but do be careful with respects to WP:OR. --Falcorian (talk) 16:00, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why "Bolo"

I've been reading and collecting the stories for a few months now, but I haven't found any explanation as to how the name "Bolo" was chosen as a replacement for "tank" or "main battle tank/MBT." Did Laumer ever provide an explanation, and if so, could someone add that to the article? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Glas McBain (talk • contribs) 20:28, 30 January 2007 (UTC).

Maybe it was taken from Bolo (computer game), which was named after the Hindi word for "communication".[1] I'll keep digging, however. Blast 06,02,07 1847 (UTC -5)
I don't remember a reason ever given in the books... --Falcorian (talk) 01:35, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Etymology (conjecture)

I'm not going to argue for or against the meaning of Bolo in the military, nor whether this is the reason for Bolos being called Bolos. I will however point out that WP:OS would forbid us from making this sort of (by its own admission) conjecture. --Falcorian (talk) 13:27, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Problems differentiating fiction from reality

In a nutshell: If this article had good sources and citations in an out-of-universe writing style, it would be a prime example to others wanting to write about fiction on the Wikipedia.

Understanding that the bolo article text is a partial work of fiction about a work of fiction, problems arise when that in-universe fiction is blended with real world fact. A prime example is the link to an American automobile manufacturer which in the bolo article text is credited with a fictional manufacturing division; no such verifiable information can be found on the article of the American automobile manufacturer. There is a need to cite specific published works of fiction to support any challengable statement in the bolo article, or those parts of the bolo article without encyclopedic-suitable sources can be deleted by any Wikipedian(s) at any time as unsupported original research or unverified facts, and Jimbo would back them up for doing this. Publication of the source is not absolutely required, but it would make it most difficult for anyone else to argue against the encyclopedic suitability of the source if used. If the editors of this article wish to continue risking deletion of text from in-universe writing style without citations, then it may be a good idea to avoid a flame war by moving the article to a non-Wikipedia site such as wikia.com (example: 24 television series) or other sites listed at the bottom of the Wikipedia:Manual of Style (writing about fiction) guideline. There is nothing stopping anyone who is reading this talk post from starting a non-Wikipedia in-universe site for the bolo information, and it's actually kind of cool to be the administrator of one's own wiki and setting the rules there at wikia.com. Hotfeba 16:06, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

I have to agree. The article absolutely needs rewriting from an out-of-universe perspective, I hit "random article", got the disambiguation for "Hellbore", and wound up looking at this wondering if someone'd actually made one (until I hit the bit about it being a space weapon and all). I mean really, I don't have time but it really does need massive rewrite. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Maha Pizza (talk • contribs) 00:09, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
I fail to see the problem. The very first line of this article says, "A Bolo is a fictional type of artificially intelligent super-heavy tank." Note the word "fictional". As for the "American automobile manufacturer", the books themselves say that the Bolos were first built by the Bolo Division of General Motors. Since these are FICTIONAL tanks, I would hope people would understand that GM can't build fictional tanks and therefore, GM really doesn't make Bolo artificially intelligent super-heavy tanks, and since Bolos are fictional, GM really doesn't have a Bolo division, since why would they have a real division to make a FICTIONAL product? What do you want, me to add the word "fictional" to every line in this article?
As for the lack of inline citations, yes, it would be nice to have them. But really, are there a bunch of people who are claiming this article is wrong and starting a flame war over it so we need to get everything perfectly cited? This is a good starting article on a subject that is just as notable as a great many articles in this wiki. Sure, it could use some more sprucing up, but you guys really need to relax. No one is going to die if they read this and it isn't perfect. It's an article about a FICTIONAL tank in a series of novels and short stories. It is quite a useful article for someone who has read (or heard about) one or more of the stories and wishes to know about the Bolos and the FICTIONAL history of them. Fanra (talk) 11:06, 6 June 2008 (UTC)