Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Texas A&M

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[edit] possible Future articles

(taken from texas A&M talk page Oldag07 05:58, 18 June 2007 (UTC)) Hi came back for another read its always interesting to visit and FA I've commented on a couple weeks after being promoted, you'd be suprise how much some change. BTW I notice these three

  1. Lloyd H. Hughes, class of 1943
  2. George D. Keathley, class of 1937
  3. Eli L. Whiteley, class of 1941

are yet to have an article, with the Australian equivalent the Victoria Cross all Australian recipients have articles some only have basic bio plus the unit they were with and the citation. The Medal of Honor is sufficiently notability to warrant an article, maybe its something to think about. Gnangarra 13:55, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

I'll get to work on that. BlueAg09 (Talk) 22:55, 14 June 2007 (UTC)


[edit] More stuff from older Texas A&M talk pages

(these take me back to about when i joined. only 2 months. crazy Oldag07 06:04, 18 June 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Sbisa

btw, i have been trying to write an article on sbisa dining hall. I remember in the past reading a good website on the history of sbisa. however, now i cna't find it anymore. been looking though libraries.tamu.edu, and i can't find anything there either. there used to be a great website with info on the history of that building. oh wellOldag07 15:21, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

need a stub for them Aggie Wranglers, the singing cadets, SCONA, first yell (oldag07)

[edit] Expanded Residential life section

i wrote a real rough draft version. could you guys edit this.

For non ROTC aggies, dorms are called "halls". http://reslife.tamu.edu To encourage involvement, each hall has a democratically elected governing committee called "hall council". Every on campus resident is considered a member of the residence hall association, the largest recognized student organization on campus. http://www.rha.tamu.edu-a.googlepages.com/ Two delegates from every dorm meet biweekly in an RHA meeting to vote on affairs pertaining to on campus residents. http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2003/02/18/Opinion/Students.Misrepresented-514735.shtml In 2004 Texas A&M's residence hall association, the largest in the state, won school of the year at the Texas Residence Hall Association Annual Conference. http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2004/04/13/News/Am.Honored.As.School.Of.The.Year.At.Rha.Conference-658466.shtml Another organization that represents each hall is the National Residence Hall Honorary. http://nrhh.tamu.edu/

The university also owns apartment style living area's, mostly inhabited by graduate students. http://reslife.tamu.edu/ua/ Popular, off campus dormitories include: the cambridge, with also houses the woman's soccer team and the baseball team, and the Tradition on Northgate in with the football team is housed http://www.livethetradition.com/. http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2003/10/24/News/Athletic.Teams.Score.New.Housing-538497.shtml Oldag07 22:00, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

First revision?Oldag07 01:05, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
Let's not make any big changes right now while we are under consideration for GA status. Information about the residence halls is also kinda generic -- most US universities have on-campus housing with the same type of governing structure. If we decide to create a separate article about residential life, or the campus in general, we can definitely include this info, though. Karanacs 01:16, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
yea, just been trying to finish that checklist on the top. but yes, i think we are are making progress on the good article status. i just read the Texas one. it definitely needs some work.Oldag07 01:27, 8 May 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Aggie Bonfire

Does anyone know where we can find a good citation for some of the leadership information on the Aggie Bonfire page? I have cited what I could, but can find nothing for the greenpots, greypots, and the way the roles are handed down. I know it's all true, but we have to be able to verify it. I'd ideally like to get this article improved and try for FA at the end of the summer so that we can try to wheedle our way into a front page article on the anniversary of the collapse. Any help would be appreciated :) Karanacs 19:00, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Article for collaboration

We had a really successful collaboration getting Texas A&M University to featured article status. I think we need to choose another article and try again. I nominate Aggie Bonfire, but I'm open to other ideas too. Karanacs 20:08, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

I think that would be a fine choice. I'll help if I can. Another one I would love to help work on would be Lone Star Showdown. Johntex\talk 23:13, 19 June 2007 (UTC)
see to do list. I say we should should shoot for featured topic status Oldag07 02:37, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Maintenance questions

Should we merge: George Bush School of Government and Public Service & George Bush Presidential Library (main page should be named the latter) and Midnight Yell Practice & Yell Leaders into an Aggie Yells section like on the main page Oldag07 02:39, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't think we should merge the two George Bush articles. They should cover two very different topics, and they are considered separate entities by the university (the library is run by NARA and the school is run by Texas A&M). I don't know whether the Yell articles should be merged or not.
On a sort-of-related note, I don't think we need the Academics and Student Life articles, unless we can think of a large amount of information that is not already in the main Texas A&M article. Karanacs 13:14, 20 June 2007 (UTC)


The main page is missing a ton of stuff: I dare say i am not familiar with the a&m at all on the main page. a&m obviously is different things to different people. but the student organizations that i was involved with, is more important to me then what is mentioned on the main site. I respect the corps and the band. i respect the football team. I wouldn't place them in the category that many aggies put them as "just other organization". but many new ags do. and i find that concept tempting.

Student life

  • Solar Decathlon (we have aggiesat, with is a minor organization in my mind, but not this)
  • Shackathon- (15 organizations participate in this, this Aggie Habitat fund raiser is important)

Class Councils/ Class Gift Dining areas

    • sbisa
    • 12th man (now with sushi)
    • The tomato bar (brand new)
    • common denominator
    • pie are square
    • Ag cafe
    • northgate food- freebirds, chipotle, subway, potato shack (opened last year) potbelly, starbucks (opened last year) antonios, jins
    • laynes vs raising cain
  • leadershape
  • the fact that student activities is inside koldus
  • fish camp - over half the freshmen go to that
  • Aggie nights
  • breakaway (4000 person bible study come on)
  • the fact that a&m sends more Christian missionaries then any other school in the nation
  • Athletes study in the new bright building
  • OPAS
  • wiley lecture series
  • YCT
  • expanded greek life articles
  • flos (freshmen leadership organizations) - very distinctively a&mish
  • the fact that a&m is a conservative campus
  • TEXAGS

Oldag07 03:41, 21 June 2007 (UTC)more stuff

  • aggie mom's clubs
  • upstream
  • christian subculture
  • student organization meetings koldus, rudder tower, msc.
  • Visa-go-go (part of visualization program)
  • Art scene on campus, limited but there
  • concert band, orchestra, hullabaloo
  • Aggie Revelers, century singers
  • The aggie wranglers- they travel just as much as the singing cadets. and are just as entertaining
  • percussion studio
  • fruedian slip
  • Aggie mariachi
  • club sports teams (we have very good ones)
  • MSC OPEN HOUSE
  • Cain hall housing student services, including disability services
  • Relay For Life. they started that program my junior year because we were the only school in the big 12 without a relay for life. in our relay for life's first year, we had the biggest program nationwide, and we raised the most money nationwide.
  • complaints of campus
    • Transportation/ Parking
    • Lack of housing
    • hostility to gays/ minorities
    • Bike stealing, throwing them in trees
    • heat
    • lack of arts programs
    • too spread out.
    • hazing in the corps
    • Meal plans
    • Raising tuition
    • on going construction
    • Ross Street (finally being fixed after 10 years)
    • perceived lack of diversity (though i am not white)

academics

  • The fact that the biology department's is one of the top institutions for circadian rhythms.
  • cyclotron is mentioned, not elaborated on
  • a&m's work on ethanol
  • all the stuff mentioned on our college pages
  • Department of architecture visualization masters program

(not as knowledgeable about this) NewOldag07 05:04, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

  • not being able to get a fine arts program despite multiple tries
  • Office of Professional School Advising (OPSA)they are really good at what they do

(I was very involved on campus. well until the last month of my senior year. wait, i started wikipedia then) on the top of my head, i know there is more. none of those would be proper on the main article, but in a student life article they would be perfect. I am not talking about minor organizations because i can name a bunch. most of the things i mentioned were far more important than Cepheid variable, and Aggiecon. I do have an above average understanding of A&M. But i can't get everything. we got to tap into texags to see what we are missing. first i need to clean out those random cut and pastes that i have done)

Then again, we might not want to shoot for featured topic status. featured topics favor topics that are small. it is easy to close the gaps on those articles. Oldag07 00:33, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

The main page isn't meant to be all-inclusive, but to highlight some of the more well-known or noteworthy activities. I don't think we can, or even should, try to make an all-inclusive list. I'm also still not sold on the need for a Student Life article, but no one else has weighed in either. Of the things you mentioned, I think we do need to incorporate the following:

  • Cclass councils could be represented on the page [Student Government Association at Texas A&M University]]
  • I agree that we need to include Fish Camp somewhere. Possibly in Traditions of Texas A&M University, or possibly on the main page.
  • The Academics things you mention are important should be included on each college page.
  • The Aggie Wranglers could also be included on the main page, because you're right; they do travel a lot.
  • If you can find citations on the Relay for Life being the largest and raising most money, that should definitely go on the main article in the paragraph about volunteering.
  • Also, if you can find other information about the Christian culture at A&M - besides Breakaway and the missionaries, that might be a good paragraph to add to the main article too.
  • I don't think the other dining areas are noteworthy; we only included Sbisa, the Commons, and Duncan because they are associated more with the different areas of campus. Unless there is something special about the other dining areas, I don't think they need to be listed individually anywhere.
  • I also disagree that where things are located is important (that student gov't is in Koldus, etc)
  • I'm conflicted on the complaints section -- not sure if that is important or not.Karanacs 13:49, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

found citations for most of the quotes up there. Student Life of Texas A&M UniversityOldag07 when brainstorming, some of the ideas are going to be absolute crap. most mediocre, some, like the relay for life thing (I have heard the speech over and over). some are important enough to be on the main page. and yes, shackathon is a big deal . .. . . 15 organizations camping out in "shacks" on rudder plaza for a week to raise awareness for poverty housing. habitat raised over 15 thousand dollars during that event. i am biased being a former officer, but no, it has got to be mentioned somewhere. As for your argument that these ideas should go on the main page, some should. but the recommended size of wikipedia pages is 35K. we are at 87k. Most if this i find worth mentioning we shouldn't put on the main page for space reasons. thus a student life page would be appropriate. most of the references will be from texas a&m webpages. with will exclude it from being an FA. with we don't want to lose on our main site. you don't have to help me write the article, but i am going to work on during my free time. Oldag07 21:59, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Featured topic requirements

Michigan State is the only university with a featured topic status. featured topics favor topics that are smaller. There are a lot of video game featured topics, and there even is a Simpson's Season 8 topic. They don't have to all be FA's. I say if we bring top level articles to at least GA status and should get one more top article to FA standards, and we have a chance of getting featured topic status. Michigan State only has 5 articles for their "featured topic", and one of them isn't even a GA. (moved from to do list)Oldag07 12:49, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topic_criteria

  • A featured topic is a collection of articles that represents Wikipedia's best work in covering a subject comprehensively and with items of consistently good quality. In addition to the meeting of the requirements for all Wikipedia articles by all of the constituents, a featured topic has the following attributes.
  • The articles have a clear similarity with each other under a well-defined topical scope that does not arbitrarily exclude items.
    • That is the problem with going into too much detail.
  • The topic has an introductory and summary lead article.
  • There are at least three distinct articles.
  • All articles in a series are linked together, preferably using a template, and share a common category or super-category.
  • There is no obvious gap (missing or stub article) in the topic.
    • That is the problem with trying to get a featured topic with some of our mid importance articles. if we add one, we have to add all.

Google* Each article is of high quality, including references. Several articles are of featured class, and the remainder all Good Articles or A class. Items that cannot achieve a high rating due to their limited subject matter have passed an individual audit for quality. That is the problem with trying to get a featured topic with some of our mid importance articles. if we add one, we have to add all.

Oldag07 00:26, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

oldag07's thoughts- Why an academics page? Because it is easier to get a ga from academics than it is for all the colleges. Why a SL page- if you have seen the beta version of sl, you can see that we are missing a lot of stuff. some stuff like endowment are more important on a the texas A&M main page than breakaway, but i think sl is a perfect place Corps of Cadets- I think we can get FT status without a ga corps of cadets page. that being said, it could help our chances. Oldag07 12:58, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

— BQZip01 — talk's thoughts
I can work on the Corps page, BUT it won't be done for a while since I am in Pilot training right now. If someone can QC the page for the basics, I can go in and take care of all of the references (most will be pulled from The Standard and Keepers of the Spirit). — BQZip01 — talk 14:56, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
I've been working on improving the traditions page, but it is nowhere near ready for GA yet. I think that rather than be focused on featured topic right now, we should narrow our focus and pick one or two articles at a time that can be improved to GA or FA. If we can get all the members focused on a few articles at a time, we should be able to improve them more quickly. Once we've done several iterations of this, the Featured Topic status will be much easier to get, because we will have already gotten the articles up to snuff. P.S. BQ - have fun/good luck? with training. Karanacs 16:48, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
Thanks. I need it. I've been grounded from flying duty for the last 8 months for a non-existent medical problem ("we have to be sure of this...") and I'm finally back into the jet, but I only have 5 rides to bring my limited flying skills back up to snuff and then I have a chekc ride with the squadron commander. If all goes well. I will solo by next week. WOOHOO! — BQZip01 — talk 16:58, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
i envision this to be more of a long term goal for the project. I am in no rush. Goals however will help us focus our efforts on something. rather then randomly picking articles to try to get FA status, we got somewhere to go. Oldag07 05:22, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
I think we are definitely making good progress. I have been working on Traditions of Texas A&M University, too, and it should be ready to begin the process of becoming a GA or FA soon (probably after History of Texas A&M University reaches FA). After that, my next priority is Aggie Bonfire. I think it is pretty close to being GA status, and I'd like to bump it up before I move on to other A&M-related pages. Karanacs 14:44, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why?

((movied from TAMU talk page))

Why are we cutting stuff in the first place? I see no reason to do so. — BQZip01 — talk 21:59, 30 June 2007 (UTC)
The article is a bit too long. However, it did receive FA status so I don't see a compelling reason to change much at this point. --Wordbuilder 00:20, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
We?? I am cutting stuff. and adding stuff. trying to add more stuff without increasing the size of the article.
  • i added the maroon weekly. larger
  • I corrected some stuff on reslife and added comments to justify it. larger
  • made the bear bryant sentence actually flow with the article (a sentence i wrote myself). larger
  • sbisa is for everyone, not just northsiders only. the commons dining hall closed, and honestly I ate at sbisa a lot while living on southside. changed the sentence to say to something like sbisa is located on northside. larger
  • I clarified the animal cloning sentence larger
  • I cut, redundent parts. most notably removing the idea that corps dorms are co educational twice. partly mitigating growth from the first 5.
  • corps members are not necessarly involved in organizations outside of the corps. actually my experience, the corps keeps members so busy that must members don't have much time for outside organizations. Cadets are called the keepers of the spirit because they live the traditions, not because of their involvement outside the corps
  • and removed the elaboration on what bush's nuclear proliferation something . .. . we already mentioned making safer uranium earlier in the paragraph
actually the article is larger than before I started cutting. before 87,660 bytes, after 87,702 bytes And changing the campus paragraph as mentioned above will make it grow even more. (the current campus paragraph is completely inadequate. I know this article is hitting a point of diminishing returns in trimming, and trims now will seem more like cuts. but, i am surprised yall didn't complain when we were actually going of FA status. I was just as sloppy with my edits are now. of course, these last couple of days have been hectic. wikipedia was intended to be a stress reliever. didn't work. oh well. Oldag07 02:57, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
My point is that the article is fine, even if we add another 10K to it (and by "we" I mean any/all wikipedians). The quantity of text is just fine. It isn't so big that it doesn't fit any parameters. The text size is well within the designed range. Why not put efforts into improving other articles in the Texas A&M realm. I upgraded the Aggie Band from little more than a stub to featured article status. Why not pick an article and try the same. It's a decent challenge and relives stress at the same time. — BQZip01 — talk 03:33, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
just removed usage of several uses of the phrase "more than", with over. of course, over doesn't work with all uses of the phrase Oldag07 03:59, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
Fair enough. I understand BQ's desire to add to the other articles. But, I also understand your desire to further polish this one. Both are good for Wikipedia and both— I imagine— will happen sooner or later. I'll help out as I can. --Wordbuilder 04:14, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
My point exactly. You are saving five bytes with each edit (very little) when you could be improving other articles dramatically. "more than" is simply a variation of "over" and does not need to be replaced for "wordiness" when variety is required within the text for aesthetics. Please just leave the article alone unless the is something wrong or out of compliance with Wikipedia. I have no problem with "polishing", but IMHO, you're polishing WAY too hard. — BQZip01 — talk 04:21, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
BQZip's argument would carry more weight if he were to comment on my proposed changes to the campus paragraph instead of complaining about me saving a few bites. complaining also takes up time. . . i am cutting stuff out of principle. if i want to add stuff, i need to cut stuff. for a normal wikipedian, the campus paragraph is well written. for an aggie, i feel it is travity, reasons mentioned above. . . . . btw, my little cuts helped drop our article from a peak of 97000 bites to 87000, and we have added more content too. Oldag07 06:31, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
they say aggies are a family. it is moments like these that prove that principle to me with absolute clarity. this reminds me so much of how i will argue with my other family it is the tech guy who seems the most reasonable right now. :-) Oldag07 06:43, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
Oh Lordy, OldAg07. I'm simply trying to understand why you think it is necessary to cut stuff so you can add stuff. It doesn't seem to make any sense. It doesn't follow any wikipedia rules/suggestions and it isn't a consensus amongst the editors of this page. So why exactly do you feel a need to delete stuff? — BQZip01 — talk 14:41, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
showing abnormal (for me) amounts or restraint. i completely understand if you are pissed at the fact that i edit sloppy. I am sorry. as for my edits, if you don't like them revert them. at the moment it seems that consensus does not want to change the majority of the edits i made. there is nothing grammatically or technically wrong with what you haven't changed yet. and if you really want to follow the rules/ guidelines literally, isn't the recommended size of wikipedia entries, 35000 kb's. by the rules/guidelines i am not cutting enough. we say it is justified to add more just because this article is an fa. well the size of this article was the biggest concern that editors had when we were getting an FA. you ask why i have all these changes. I am trying to write a massive student life article, and when brainstorming, some ideas that have popped up seem more approprate on the main page compared to what my new page will look like. therefore, i feel like i should put those ideas on the main page before i forget them. happy? the cuts that yall haven't reverted this article better. i feel saying that A&M students read not just the battalion but also the maroon weekly is more important that mentioning the fact that the corps of cadets live in coed dorms twice in th same section. blame it on tech writing, it is compulsion. not trying to get into an editing war or anything. just trying to make this article the best it can be. after i add the the new campus paragraph, a will stop with these "crazy edits" ok? at least for now. as young as i might be, i am old enough to let things go. are you? Oldag07 19:32, 1 July 2007 (UTC) (that was my edit, i forgot to log in .. . Oldag07 22:01, 1 July 2007 (UTC))
My two cents -- I don't think we need to cut anything unless we are talking about adding another section to the article (and even then, maybe not). The problem the FA reviewers had was not the size of the text, it was the size of the citation templates. The text was well under the range. If you are really serious about reducing the loading size, we would need to manually format all of the citations and get rid of the citation templates. We would not need to cut the text. However, cuts are fine if they don't
a) change the meaning of a sentence (adjectives can be good!)
b) remove info that is used to put something into context or explain a point
c) make a section or paragraph too short
d) make the prose too simple or repetitive (one of the FA criteria is to have compelling prose)
e) remove citations that are necessary for verification of facts in the article. BQ and I already pared the citations down as far as I think was humanly possible (at least on the info that was present when we went to FA).
I have reverted edits (by several people) that I thought violated one of these principles, and I'll continue to do so. I expect you guys to keep me honest if I violate one of these principles too. Karanacs 02:05, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
Dude, I'll let things go when you read this and realize that size is not determined by the number of bytes, but the amount of prose text!!!...and we are WELL within our boundaries (currently at ~42.2KB). — BQZip01 — talk 03:44, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
If we finish the academics and student life articles, we can probably cut it down even more. btw, as for the cuts i have made, most of them were before you complained? the only cut i see you angry at is the junction boy cut, with honestly wasn't made to save space, but because it just didn't flow with the rest of the paragraph. so if you want to "win" the debate, you have. Happy? btw, i added the phi beta kappa to the history section. I have friends who got that it is cool stuff. I am going to add that to the history section too. Oldag07 13:47, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] t.u. rivalry

[edit] Lonestar Showdown

Howdy Ags/t-sippers. . . This is a joint WP:TAMU page and wikipedia:Wikiproject University of Texas question? How are we going to define our rivalry? Will the Lonestar Showdown be the official University of Texas / Texas A&M University rivalry page. Our is the lonestar showdown only a part of the larger rivalry, Thus the need for a new page for the rivalry? what do you think? Thanks and Gig em. Oldag07 05:35, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

t.u. wikiproject page.

[edit] Bonfire victims

Hi Everyone. Can you please take a look at the Aggie Bonfire talk page? Another editor has added a list of the names and class years/majors of the victims of the 1999 collapse. I think that does not belong in the article, and I'd like to know what everyone else thinks. Thanks Karanacs 16:31, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image of 12th Man

Does anyone have a picture of Kyle Field prominently showing the "Home of the 12th Man" sign? I'd like to include on in the Traditions of Texas A&M University article but I don't have one and couldn't find a freebie online. Karanacs 18:45, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 2020 construction

I had an idea to include progress of the new life science building construction and the Mitchell physics building construction, but I'm a wikinoob so I didn't want to go and wreck the campus wiki!—Preceding unsigned comment added by Gabriel Oak (talk • contribs) 20:15 5 August 2007

[edit] Campus

Ok, pursing through the campus page briefly, the first thing I noticed was that the "History" section has some aspect of regurgitation from the History of Texas A&M article, and should at least contain a Main Article: Reference Gabriel Oak 20:34, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

I think it might need a See Also, but not a Main Article. The plan is for the campus history section to be fleshed out more and to contain a great deal of information that is not in History of Texas A&M University. I think right now it might be about half and half. The article needs a LOT of work; we've barely started on it. Karanacs 21:22, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Association of Former Students

A employee of the Association of Former Students has been making large contributions to their page. I believe this person is getting paid to do so. This persons editions have not followed standard Wikipedia guidelines. I am trying to right a tacitful email to that person on how to tell him about our standards. here is a draft. please edit, comment and critique.

Howdy, My name is (I will put my real name here). I am class of 2007. I am a recent graduate from the class of 2007 as of May. We are very happy to see that the association has taken an interest in wikipedia, and helping improve one of wikiproject texas a&m's articles. The information is wonderful, and we appreciate your hard work on the article so far.

In my opinion the information on the article is paramount over any stylistic considerations. However, one of the fundamental tenants of of wikipedia is that: "All Wikipedia articles and other encyclopedic content must be written from a neutral point of view (NPOV), representing fairly and without bias all significant views (that have been published by reliable sources). This bias includes: "Commercial: advertising, coverage of political campaigns favoring corporate interests, or reporting favoring media owner interests" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:NPOV Wikipedia also a standard format thoughout its articles. a full list of these guidelines can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:MoS .

Some highlights from the manual of style that this article could improve on are: "Do not use bullets if the passage reads easily using plain paragraphs or indented paragraphs. If every paragraph in a section is bulleted, it is likely that none should be bulleted."

Some suggestions I have can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:The_Association_of_Former_Students#Advertisement

Thanks (I will put my real name here) Class of 2007

I don't advise sending an email. Instead, post on the talk page of the article, and then revert or clean up the article. Besides NPOV and MoS, I'd also point Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. The dispute should be handled within the bounds of wikipedia though, so we have a log of what is happening and don't embarrass anyone.Karanacs 13:58, 10 August 2007 (UTC)
I believe the person editing it, according to blueag, is probably a student worker at the association. it seems as if they are paying him to do it. i am not sure if there is another way of dealing with it unless we can give him a letter to show his boss. this is real messy. Oldag07 16:18, 10 August 2007 (UTC)
He emailed me and said this is the only stuff they want on the page:

"

The Association of Former Students is the official alumni association of Texas A&M University. The Association was established on June 26, 1879, when eleven former cadets hosted a reception in Houston initiating the first formal organization of A&M former students. In 1888, The Ex-Cadets Association was reorganized to form the Alumni Association. A coalition was formed between the A&M Alumni Association and Alpha Phi Fraternity in 1919 to form “The Association of Former Students.” The mission of The Association of Former Students is:

   * Strengthen The Association of Former Students;
   * Promote the interests and welfare of Texas A&M University;
   * Perpetuate ties of affection and esteem formed in university or college days; and
   * Serve the Student Body.


The Association of Former Students is charged with raising the Annual Fund for Texas A&M University. Comprised of unrestricted donations from former students, faculty and friends of Texas A&M, the Annual Fund supports student activities, provides scholarships and financial aid, funds faculty enrichment programs, former student programs and services and many other critical projects for Texas A&M. Through the generosity of over 44,000 donors, The Association raised $6,670,694 in the Annual Fund in 2006. The Association provided more than $3.5 million in direct cash support to Texas A&M and provided additional critical support for The Association’s programs and services last year. The average gift to the Annual Fund in 2006 was $150.

In addition, The Association facilitates numerous programs aimed at connecting the worldwide Aggie Network through as Class reunions, Newsletters, A&M Clubs, and the Aggie Ring program and the Texas Aggie magazine. AggieNetwork.com is the official website of The Association of Former Students." BlueAg09 (Talk) 17:53, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

what is all that other stuff. the credit card. . . . .?? what is posted isn't all that bad. we need sources, but it isn't all that bad.. Oldag07 05:22, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately for the Association, as long as we are sourcing the information that is on the page (which we have made great progress in doing), not including potentially libelous or controversial material, and because this isn't a biography of a living person, they don't have any real say in what is on the page. I think a lot of the material they had previously added was good, it just needed to be reworked to fit wikipedia guidelines and get rid of all the POV. It's on its way to becoming a nice article now. Karanacs 01:13, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Breakaway ministries

Howdy Ags! I have a year of wiki experience elsewhere (not Wikipedia) and a knowledge/love of Breakaway Ministries. I am currently writing an article for the topic (Keeping in mind NPOV and Attribution principles) and I would like to post it somewhere for you to critique and adjust to more properly fit your MoS which I readily admit that I am not very familiar with. Is there a place for me to do so? Thanks and gig 'em! —Some guy.

For things like this, I usually use a sandbox created in my own userspace. →Wordbuilder 15:06, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
  • Hm, that might be sort of difficult for an anon such as myself. The project does not have its own sandbox? —Some guy. 15:26, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
  • If you really don't want to register, then you can always just create the page and we can do any formatting necessary once it is up. Karanacs 16:03, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
    • Creating the page appears to be a bit difficult at the moment- clicking on the redlink for the article does not lead to an editable article page, unless there's something different in Wikipedia's arrangement for creating articles than what I'm used to. So, I guess that means I'll need to register or something. 158.81.13.147
      • As far as I know, you do not need to register (though I encourage registering!) to create an article. Type the title of the article into the search bar and then click the "Go" button. Then click the red "create this page" link. →Wordbuilder 16:47, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
        • When I try that, I am redirected to Special:Article not found instead of having a create article link. The Wikipedia:Why create an account link details that anons cannot create new articles. 16:57, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
          • I would just register then. They don't spam you and it takes all of about a minute (tops). BTW, WELCOME!!! — BQZip01 — talk 16:59, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
          • I did not know that. Thanks for the info. →Wordbuilder 17:56, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Anyone know what happened to the History of Texas A&M article? It was a featured article candidate, but now it's gone and there is nothing in the history that says why. — BQZip01 — talk 17:00, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

You just scared the crap out of me, BQ! The article is still there History of Texas A&M University, and so is the FA review Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/History of Texas A&M University. Maybe you misspelled it? Karanacs 17:07, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
Ok, I'd make a lot more sense if I read my talk page before responding to messages, wouldn't I? LOL. Anyway, I finally see that BQ meant the FA nom is no longer in the nominations list. I checked the log -- and WE GOT PROMOTED!!!!! Three FAs for A&M now :) Thanks for everyone's help and support. Karanacs
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!!!
Sorry about the heart attack... — BQZip01 — talk 17:19, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
Great! Oldag07 02:17, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Major changes to project front page

I have made the announcements page and to do list, one column at the top. These are easily revertible. I want to remove even more clutter if you all approve. I have created a newcomers page in a new wikiproject texas a&m sandbox. I also want to move the "our goals" section to the top box. Wikipedia:WikiProject_Texas_A&M/Sandbox. I am also thinking about dividing the page from 50/50 to a 75-25 ratio. it would be more visually pleasing.

  • New wikiproject page design. i think we should have a front page good for newbees. and then a main operations page for us. thoughts?Oldag07 05:49, 15 August 2007 (UTC) Wikipedia:WikiProject_Texas_A&M/Sandbox
  • Thoughts, Vote:
    • Go for it. An OPS page would certainly harken to the military history of A&M... :-) — BQZip01 — talk 06:05, 15 August 2007 (UTC)
  • I made my final edits to wikipedia for quite some time. i moved some of the clutter of the main wikiproject page to a New to Wikipedia Page. it could use some cleaning. be sure to empty the announcement page after putting down a few to make sure the thing isn't too cluttered. Oldag07 05:58, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Traditions of Texas A&M University

I've been working on expanding and citing the article Traditions of Texas A&M University for what feels like years, but probably was only a few weeks. I've finally gotten it into what I feel is a relatively cohesive, well-cited article that does a decent job of explaining what we're all about. Now I need a host of other eyes to pick through it and figure out what I got wrong, what I left out, and what ought to be excluded. I also need help with the lead. It's really short but I have a mental block about that, apparently, and can't think of any good way to expand it. I'm also nominating this for a Peer Review so that non-Aggies can tell us what isn't clear. My goal is to nominate this for Featured Article status after we get Aggie Bonfire through the process. All help is greatly appreciated!! Karanacs 20:20, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox for traditions

I've been thinking that it might be a good idea to create an infobox for Texas A&M Traditions. All I can think of to include is:

a) name
b) date tradition began
c) date tradition ended
d) Date observed
e) Participants

What do you guys think? Is this necessary? If so, what should we include? Thanks! Karanacs 19:25, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Thoughts: I have already formed a category for all the traditions on Wikipedia. as for a 6th category: Current Organizer.

top of my head:

  • SGA: Replant, Big event
  • Class Councils- maroon out, elephant walk, ring dance, boot dance,
  • Muster committee- muster
  • association of former students- muster
  • Traditions council- Silver Taps
  • Student Activities- Fish camp, t camp, howdy camp
  • etc

Oldag07 01:50, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] AFD Notice

[edit] Another AFD Notice

[edit] Texas A&M Portal

Does Texas A&M have a portal page? We should consider starting one if we don't already. The university of Texas has one here that is listed in the directory here. Just a thought... --dave 14:08, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

I think a portal would be nice to have, but we'd need someone (or several people) to volunteer to maintain the content regularly. Right now, I don't know if we have enough active people to be able to do that. Karanacs 15:45, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
I went ahead and created one here, and based it on the UT version: Portal:Texas_A&M_University. I figure it needs to exist, despite how empty it is right now. I am getting a group of people to help me get this going, and I'll be able to maintain at least a few parts of it. The news section seems pretty difficult to maintain. If there were a dynamic alternative, that would be really nice. Anyways, feel free to add stuff to it as you see fit. --dave 03:03, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New article needs expansion

Glossary of Texas Aggie terms - ya'all go nuts! (with references, please) Johntex\talk 04:05, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

I have made lots of editions from the Aggie dictionary on aggiesports.com. I also did a huge brainstorm section that needs to be added to this page. Talk:Glossary of Texas Aggie terms. I am not exactly sure how to define something like farmers fight or aggie spirit. Oldag07 19:00, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Singing Cadets

  • I am currently drafting an article on the topic. Supersonic Dude 14:04, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
    • Good stuff. Thanks for all the hard work. Oldag07 03:39, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
      • The basic frame of the article is up in a draft form on my userpage. I have contacted the public relations dept. of SC and received no response from them as of yet, but I hope to obtain a good image and finish the rest of those sources. Feel free to make suggestions on my talk page or edits to the actual text. Just follow the link --> Supersonic Dude 04:30, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
It's starting to look good. Can you find any sources that aren't the Singing Cadets though? Maybe Battalion articles or articles in other newspapers? Otherwise we might get flak for not having independent sources (BQZip01 and I have been dealing with that on some other A&M articles). Karanacs 01:18, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Working on it, one source at a time. The Cadets had their own sizable history section, so that's what I have primarily been working on. Supersonic Dude 21:47, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Soccer players?

  • Hey, just checking out some A&M athletics-related topics, it seems that we have articles on notable current TAMU basketball players (Joseph Jones), so should we have articles on notable women's soccer players? Ashlee Pistorius, among others, comes to mind as having enough accolades and national attention to deserve an article, but what does the rest of the project think? Supersonic Dude 03:31, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
If you can find enough information about her (or any other Aggie athletes) from newspaper sources to craft an article, then go for it! Karanacs 01:16, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Featured topics

Looking at Michigan State's featured topic pages, i don't think we have much more to do before we go for a featured topic. we might just need to bring up the Campus of Texas A&M University page to a GA, and maybe get a new Academics of Texas A&M University page to at least a GA. I think we could go for a featured topic after that. Wish i had more time to help. keep up the good work. Oldag07 (talk) 16:37, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Aggie Bonfire needs emergency referencing

The article currently has a bunch of {{citation needed}} tags in the last section. It would be a shame for it to go on main page like this. Circeus (talk) 06:01, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Shelby Metcalf cite...

I've just been randomly browsing through random A&M articles making minor edits here and there, and I noticed there is a bad cite on the Shelby page. Don't remember which one now, but its in glaring red text at the bottom of the page Robhakari (talk) 22:19, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

The ref name is "cessna" and occurs 6 times on the page, but the information is missing. Does anyone know if this was copied from another article? →Wordbuilder (talk) 00:15, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Texas A&M Aggies men's basketball cite issues

There are two bad cites in the article, one that has a ref name of "NonActiveFB" and another that has "MissingFB". so... yeah? Robhakari (talk) 17:07, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Both of those are bad. Plus, the refs that are valid are a bit of a mess. I'll work on it when/if I have a chance. →Wordbuilder (talk) 03:16, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Texas

I know this isn't directly A&M related, but I made some massive changes to the Texas page. Y'all should know how sloppy i am with editing. Could someone take a look at my changes. Oldag07 (talk) 00:59, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] regarding Image:Texas AMU logo.png

I have recently removed the above image from multiple pages. The image's page only has a rationale for one article. If you want to use it in other articles, feel free to add additional rationales.--Rockfang (talk) 12:21, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] School User Boxes

Folks in the project might be interested in this MfD Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/School related user templates which would delete all individual school user templates in place of a generic one created by the nominating user, including the two for A&M: Template:user aggie and User:Z4ns4tsu/Userboxes/NCAA-Texas A&M. Collectonian (talk) 23:03, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

This was closed as a Speedy Keep, so the individual userboxes will still be available. Thanks for the heads up, Collectonian. Karanacs (talk) 18:44, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Corps of Cadets GA/FA status

I'd like to work on getting the Corps article to GA or FA (which is apparently one of the main tasks according to the WikiProject page and also one of the goals to get FT), but honestly have no where to start and am unsure of what to add, remove, change, etc. If anyone wants to help get the ball rolling let me know. Robhakari (talk) 16:59, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

You might contact BQZip01. He's done a lot of work on the page, and he had told me a while ago that he was going to try a push to FA. I don't think he's had time to do anything else with it, but he may have ideas on what needs to be done. If he doesn't have time, ping my on my talk page; I'm a regular FA reviewer and I'll take a look. Thanks for taking the initiative! Karanacs (talk) 18:43, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Campus of Texas A&M University

User:ComputerGuy890100 is participating in a contest to bring a "Random Article" to GA or FA status. He's chosen Campus of Texas A&M University. From his userpage, ComputerGuy890100 doesn't appear familiar with Texas A&M, so he's likely to need help. I also don't know if the article is comprehensive or ready at all. I'd encourage others to keep an eye on the article and see if help is needed. It would be nice to have another article in our project reach GA or FA. Karanacs (talk) 17:12, 31 March 2008 (UTC)


[edit] WP Signpost on FAC and FAR/C reviewing - REVIEWERS NEEDED

The Featured Article and Reatured Article Review processes have put out a call for reviewers. Any editor can review an article and contribute to consensus on whether that article is of FA status. WikiProject Texas A&M has 5 FAs right now, and if we'd like to continue adding to that number it might be wise to give back and help review at FAC. This week's Signpost Dispatch, located at Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2008-04-07/Dispatches, explains the advantages of being a reviewer and details the aspects of reviewing that are critical to maintaining WP's high standards. Hope to see some new faces at FAC or FAR soon! Karanacs (talk) 14:46, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wikimedia Chapter proposal: Wikimedia Texas

I wonder if anyone is interested in creating a Wikimedia chapter serving the state of Texas. See: meta:Talk:Wikimedia_chapters#Chapter_proposal_-_Wikimedia_Texas WhisperToMe (talk) 23:14, 20 April 2008 (UTC)