User talk:Ammodramus: Difference between revisions

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:Thanks for all your continued efforts for the Encyclopedia. ```[[User: Buster7|'''<em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black">Buster Seven</em>''']]<small>[[User talk:Buster7|'''<em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black"> Talk</em>''']]</small> 01:31, 30 July 2013 (UTC)
:Thanks for all your continued efforts for the Encyclopedia. ```[[User: Buster7|'''<em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black">Buster Seven</em>''']]<small>[[User talk:Buster7|'''<em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black"> Talk</em>''']]</small> 01:31, 30 July 2013 (UTC)
:Thanks for all the donated images and Good Articles! '''[[User:Jenova20|ツ <span style="background:pink"><span style="color:crimson; font-family:comic sans ms">Jenova</span>]][[User_talk:Jenova20|<span style="color:red">20</span>]]</span> <sup>([[Special:EmailUser/Jenova20|email]])</sup>''' 12:34, 30 July 2013 (UTC)
:Thanks for all the donated images and Good Articles! '''[[User:Jenova20|ツ <span style="background:pink"><span style="color:crimson; font-family:comic sans ms">Jenova</span>]][[User_talk:Jenova20|<span style="color:red">20</span>]]</span> <sup>([[Special:EmailUser/Jenova20|email]])</sup>''' 12:34, 30 July 2013 (UTC)
:Congratulations on an obviously well-deserved award. Editors like yourself are the lifeblood of our project. '''[[User:Go Phightins!|<font color="blue">Go</font>]] [[User talk:Go Phightins!|<font color="#E90004">''Phightins''</font>]][[Special:Contributions/Go Phightins!|<font color="#008504">!</font>]]''' 02:44, 2 August 2013 (UTC)
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{{<includeonly>safesubst:</includeonly>Wikipedia:WikiProject Editor Retention/Editor of the Week/infobox
{{<includeonly>safesubst:</includeonly>Wikipedia:WikiProject Editor Retention/Editor of the Week/infobox

Revision as of 02:44, 2 August 2013

Earlier material:

  • /Archive 1 (discussions re. 19th-century English lit)
  • /Archive 2 (discussions re. William Steele, Frank Lloyd Wright)
  • /Archive 3 (discussions inactive since about July 2010)
  • /Archive 4 (discussions from about Sept-Dec 2010)

Time zones

Just wanting to check — is the Kearney article right in saying that it's Central Time? My job has me on the phone a lot; I called a place today in Kearney (Ramada Inn, if I remember rightly), and my computer's database said that it was Mountain Time. Nyttend (talk) 18:35, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Central Time is correct. In southern Nebraska, the dividing line cuts off the westernmost counties; so Dundy, Chase, and Perkins counties are on Mountain Time, and everything to the east is on Central Time.
--Ammodramus (talk) 19:45, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! The map I have must be wrong, because it shows the dividing line going through the central part of the state (if I remember rightly, significantly farther east than it shows the dividing line through Kansas), and never having been to Nebraska, I couldn't know from experience. Nyttend (talk) 21:33, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Built in Nebraska in (year)

I see that you're going through the Commons categories for Nebraska buildings and replacing "Category:Built in the United States in (year)" with "Category:Built in Nebraska in (year)".

Is this something you'd like help with? If so, and if there's a useful way to split the work, let me know.

--Ammodramus (talk) 03:28, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sure thing, if you want! It's not just Nebraska — I've gradually been putting all images from "Category:Built in the United States in (year)" into state-level categories: when I'm done with it, each year's "Built in the United States" category will have only four types of subcategories: bridges built in that year, churches built in that year, houses built in that year, and state-level categories. I'd give you an example, but for some reason I can't access Commons tonight. If you want to create one or more year categories, please note that they are created with a template: most of them are {{StatenameArc|###|#}}, where the # characters are the year — e.g. Nebraska in 1987 would be {{NebraskaArc|198|7}}. A few states have less capable templates (Alabama and New York come to mind), so if you create any categories and find that they don't look complete, you'll do well to check other years' categories for that state. Nyttend (talk) 04:08, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Will work on that. Unfortunately, in the last hour or so I've found a new problem to deal with. Back in December and January, Commons:User:AnRo0002 decided to start recategorizing Commons:Category:Bridges in Nebraska; then he apparently got bored with that, and is now recategorizing German paintings. I am, frankly, somewhat miffed—and I apologize for venting at you, but my German is much too weak to unload on the real culprit. Anyhow: will be working on straightening out that mess, and in the course of so doing will include Category:Built in Nebraska in (year). If you run into any Nebraska bridges in the course of your efforts, you might leave them for me, since I'll have to go through the entire category bridge by bridge anyhow. Once I'm done with the bridges, I'll try to help out with the Nebraska buildings.
--Ammodramus (talk) 04:45, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Have worked through all of the "(decade) architecture in Nebraska" categories, and think I've taken care of them all. That's 2% less work for you... --Ammodramus (talk) 23:54, 1 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Re: Hola

Delighted to see you at WikiProject Nebraska. The project's been awfully inactive lately; it'd be nice to see it re-activated.
I see that one of your interests is family-history research. Is this on your family specifically, or genealogies generally? If the latter, I wonder if I could ask you for advice.
I've just written an article on A. T. Hill, a Nebraska archaeologist. In the course of it, I've run into a couple of minor problems. The first is that I've got two sources that conflict on the number of Hill's siblings: one says that he was one of four children, the other that he was one of six. The second is that I've got the name of Hill's wife, but I can't find the date of their marriage.
Could you by chance direct me to an online genealogy site that doesn't require registration, payment, etc., and that might help me answer these? They're not critical for the article, but I'd like to include them, and to include them accurately. Thanks—
--Ammodramus (talk) 03:33, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the friendly greeting! (I've received a few less-than-friendly ones so far, but that's water under the bridge.) It's true, I live in Omaha and have plenty to write about Nebraska. Specifically, I've been, and still am, involved in the Mid-America Council of Boy Scouts. The scout camp articles could do with some improvement, though finding sources to match the campfire stories will be fun... But it's worth it.

It's true, genealogy is a passion. I've been researching my own ancestors with some moderate success using a combination of http://records.ancestry.com and http://familysearch.org . The first has some nice information if you can provide a name for what you're looking for, cobbled, I presume, from the trees on the site. I love the site just for the ease it provides me when organizing all that data. Familysearch, if you haven't heard of it, is run by the LDS family history center. I've never found a more generally helpful site for free.

Last, I recommend the almighty google search. searching: +"A T Hill" +Nebraska +birth, or something of that variety might yield some names and numbers. I found a few surprising tidbits, presuming that I wanted info on noteworthy relatives. Come to think of it, there are a few ancestors who could stand their own article. A fine idea! Thank you, sir Mr. Kent (talk) 23:58, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the reply. Familysearch has yielded some useful results, which I've incorporated into the Hill article.
I spent a little time on websites for the Mid-America Council not too long ago, while writing the article on Pahuk. Eventually, I decided that the Pahuk Pride event was named after "pahuk", the general Pawnee word for "bluff", and not for Pahuk, the specific bluff near Cedar Bluffs, Nebraska.
If you're working on articles about Nebraska, I've got a camera and have taken and uploaded a lot of photos to illustrate Nebraska articles. (I'm not a great photographer, but I can generally get something acceptable to illustrate a town or a building or the like.) If there's something in particular that you'd like photographed, drop me a note and I'll try to get it. I can't promise quick results; but I do a lot of travelling, so I hit most parts of the state at least once a year.
--Ammodramus (talk) 01:51, 9 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
This is the part where most of my knowledge comes from stories that need some digging to sort out. From what I've been told, Pahuk (alternately spelled "pohawk") is a sacred Indian area, located near the platte river. Pahuk Pride, the leadership camp of which i am a staff member, is indeed named for the legend of Pahuk. The legend is incorporated in several ways. It consists of a comingofage warrior who meets spirits in a cave in the shapes of a bear and snake. These symbols are incorporated into the Logo for Pahuk Pride. Also, the legend of Pahuk is central to Kit-Ke-Hak-O-Kut, lodge 97 of the BSA national honor society, Order of the Arrow. Lodge 97 was originally named the Pahuk Lodge, for these very same legends. As such, there is a place named Pohawk Point at Camp Cedars near Cedar Bluffs, NE. The OA buildings for the Camp are located here. This is all off the top of my head, I may do a little research on the subject. Mr. Kent (talk) 04:30, 9 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Willa Cather

(To EnglishTea4me) Have been following with interest your edits to Willa Cather. It looks as though you've improved the article considerably. Before you started on it, it wasn't especially well-organized, and had a number of significant holes. You've already done a great deal to remedy those.

Unfortunately, I know too little about Cather to make useful contributions to the article. However, should you find yourself wanting to illustrate it or other Cather-related articles, I might be able to help. I am based in Nebraska and own a camera, and took most of the pictures at Commons:Category:National Register of Historic Places in Webster County, Nebraska. If there are specific photos you'd like taken in the Red Cloud area, please feel free to leave a note at my talk page and I'll try to oblige.

--Ammodramus (talk) 20:27, 16 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Ammodramus, and thank you for your remarks and offer to provide photographs. I've seen some beautiful photos of the Cather Memorial Prairie, but unfortunately they're copyright protected; in any case, I do not know how to upload them. I can edit text, but I'm lost when it comes to uploading photos. Setting is such an integral part of Cather's writing that photos of the Nebraska prairie near Red Cloud would be a wonderful addition. I've also started editing the article on Cather's story "Neighbour Rosicky" -- it needs a lot of work, too -- and a photo of the Nebraska prairie would go nicely with that as well. I look forward to seeing your work, at your convenience, of course -- and thank you again. (This is the first message I've answered on Wikipedia, so I hope I'm doing it correctly). EnglishTea4me 01:20, 17 March 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by EnglishTea4me (talkcontribs) [reply]
I've only been editing for about a year and a half, so I have no business acting like an old WP hand, but...
Your response came through nicely. If you won't take it amiss, though, I'll make a couple of suggestions. First, if you place a colon at the beginning of a paragraph, it indents the paragraph. Each additional colon indents it a bit more. This makes it easier to see who's writing what on a talk page, especially in situations where a number of people are chiming in. Second, it looks as if you typed out your username and the date and time by hand. You don't have to do this: just type a string of four tildes, and it will produce your signature automatically. (If you forget to sign, Wikipedia will automatically add your signature, but with a snippy little remark to the effect that your comment was unsigned—which is why I think you didn't use the four-tildes trick.)
Rolling hills covered with tall grass
Cather Memorial Prairie, south of Red Cloud
Photos. Pictures at Wikimedia Commons are available for use on all the Wikipedias. Commons is arranged in categories and subcategories. If you'll follow the link in my original message, it'll take you to a category of NRHP sites in Webster County, Nebraska, many of which are Cather-related. Click on any subcategory that interests you; click on pictures or on the filenames under them to see them in a larger size. If you want to leave a category, its parent categories are listed below; click on any one of them to return to that parent.
Once you've found a photo that you think you want to use, you can insert it into the article. The method's described at WP:IMAGES. I've inserted a photo into this comment, so you could see how it's done:; the code was inserted right before the previous paragraph. If you click "Edit" for this page or subsection, you should be able to see it. Two square brackets, followed by the name of the Commons file (including the initial "File:" and the final extension, e.g. ".jpg". Follow that with a pipe ("|") and "thumb" (very important, since otherwise the picture will appear full-sized), then another pipe. After that, I like to put "alt=" and then a short description for those who can't see the photo; this isn't required, but it's a good idea. One more pipe, followed by the caption; and then a pair of close-square-brackets.
It usually takes me a bit of trial and error to place the photo. I think you've got to put the code between two paragraphs.
If you're interested, by the way, the Nebraska State Historical Society's "Nebraska National Register Sites in Webster County" site has a short account for each site; if a site's Cather-connected, it generally explains what the connection is. (I see that the Pavelka farmstead, which I haven't photographed yet, is connected to "Neighbor Rosicky"; I'll try to shoot that and upload it in the near future.)
Hope that this is useful to you; please feel free to drop me a line if you've got a question that you think I might be able to answer. I apologize for the length of this comment, and hope that the content is worth it—
String of four tildes, which turns into: Ammodramus (talk) 02:36, 17 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
As a newbie, I appreciate all suggestions, advice, etc. I did sign my message with four tildes, but for some reason my signature came out as if I had typed it instead of as a blue link. I must have done something wrong, but what that is I don't know. We'll see what happens this time.
I have two questions that you can probably answer: 1)When you respond to a message, do you write it on the other user's page? That's what I'm doing? 2)Do you respond in Edit mode? I can see no other way of responding. I'm assuming that if I clicked on the New Section tab at the top (between Edit and View History) it would be to introduce a new topic.
Photos of the Pavelka farmstead will work beautifully with "Neighbour Rosicky" and for the My Antonia article since Cather based Antonia, at least in part, on Annie Pavelka.
Thanks so much for your help and advice.EnglishTea4me 15:25, 17 March 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by EnglishTea4me (talkcontribs)
Happy to be of assistance. My own career as an editor was greatly helped along by a more experienced Wikipedian, who displayed immense quantities of patience and forbearance in answering my questions and correcting my errors.
I'm perplexed by your signature problem. The four-tildes trick has never failed for me. I assume that you're getting your tildes straight off the keyboard and not using some kind of insert-symbol thing. For what it's worth, what would happen if you copy-and-pasted this string of tildes? ~~~~ (I kept them from turning into a signature here by bracketing them with the "nowiki" command; but when I copy-and-pasted them and then looked at the preview, they turned into my signature.) If that doesn't work for you, then I'm stumped—something weird with your browser?)
Regarding user talk pages, you're going about things in the usual fashion. Editing the talk page is the correct way to leave a message. (It's a Wikisolecism to remove or alter content from another person's talk page, even if you originally put it there. You can do what you like on your own, including deleting or archiving material.) Talk-page dialogue usually proceeds in the way that we're conducting it: I leave a message on your talk page; you respond on mine; I reply on yours; &c. If I'm writing someone else, I'll often put a copy of my message on my own talk page, so that I can see the whole conversation in one place; but that's a matter of choice.
I'll be in south-central Nebraska before too long, and will try to get the Pavelka place. Will leave you a note when I do. For now, please let me know if there's anything in particular that you'd like photographed (or re-photographed). This isn't the best time of year for landscapes, since the snow's mostly melted and the new green hasn't come in yet; but it's good for buildings, since they aren't hidden by foliage.
--Ammodramus (talk) 19:33, 17 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I tried copying-and-pasting the four tildes you provided, but that didn't work. Thank you, though, for the trouble you went to. And, yes, I am using the tildes straight off the keyboard. Now I bet you're wondering how I corrected the problem. I entered my signature in wiki code. That gives me the sig. and a link to my talk page. I followed that with five tildes, and that gives me the time stamp. Nice to have that problem out of the way. Now I can concentrate on more interesting things. If I ever find out what the problem is, I'll let you know.
Re: photos. It occurred to me, too, that it might be too early in the year to photograph landscapes. Photos of the Pavelka farmstead will work well with several articles. Also, have you photographed the Red Cloud Opera House? It's featured in several Cather novels and is currently home to the Willa Cather Foundation (another article I plan to work on eventually). Photos of the Opera House could come in handy.
--EnglishTea4me (talk)18:16, 18 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I think I've got photos of the opera house, in a folder full of downtown-Red-Cloud photos waiting to be edited and described and uploaded. I'll try to expedite the process and get them up soon. Ammodramus (talk) 00:52, 20 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I looked at the editing history of the Willa Cather Foundation article, and there was a photo of the opera house at one time, but it was taken down, no doubt due to copyright issues. I think a photo of the opera house would work well on that page, too, especially since that's where the Cather Foundation is housed. EnglishTea4me (talk)17:30, 22 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I've got a photo of the opera house edited and ready to go; but for some reason, I'm not able to get photos to upload on this computer at this time. I'll try to get it up tomorrow, and will drop you a line when it's available. Ammodramus (talk) 01:15, 23 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Photo of the opera house is uploaded and in Commons:Category:Opera House (Red Cloud, Nebraska). It's not considered proper to construct a category for a single photo; but I might try for some interior photos on my next trek to Red Cloud. I'd also like to see if I can catch it without the cars parked in front. Ammodramus (talk) 04:30, 24 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Belatedly, ever so belatedly, I've got over to Webster County and photographed the Pavelka farmstead. Photos are in Commons:Category:Pavelka farmstead (Webster County, Nebraska); I hope you'll find some of them useful. --Ammodramus (talk) 02:28, 1 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Fairfield, Nebraska photo

Hello, I wanted to make sure you got my message. I replied to your question in "Talk:Fairfield,_Nebraska#Photo", and wanted to make sure you were aware of this. Thank you. Silverojo (talk) 14:02, 24 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Got your message. Thanks for the note; as it happens, I have the Fairfield article on my watchlist, so I'd have seen your comments and edits anyhow. (If you're not familiar with the watchlist, it's a good way to monitor pages for changes; you can add and remove pages from it manually, or you can set "My preferences" so that every page you edit is automatically added to it.)
And, while I'm dispensing advice: Notice how this comment is indented from the one above it. That's done by putting a colon at the beginning of each paragraph (you can see it in this case if you switch into edit mode). Additional colons produce additional indentation, and that makes it easier to keep track of who's saying what in a talk-page discussion. (I've edited the talk page for Fairfield to indent your response from my original comment; if I add something further, I'll put two colons in front of it to indent it even further.)
Now, to your remarks re. the Fairfield photos. I'm afraid I have to chide you a bit on your assumption that I was vandalizing the article. One of the core tenets of Wikipedia is "Assume good faith". Of course, there are situations that're clearly vandalism, but if there's any room for doubt, WP:FAITH. That goes double if the editor in question has a record of non-vandalism. If you'd checked my user contributions (click on "Ammodramus", then find "User contributions" under "Toolbox" at left), you'd have seen that I've contributed a great deal of non-vandalizing content to articles on Nebraska, including adding photos to the articles on several hundred Nebraska towns. Moreover, from my first reversion of your edit, I added an edit summary, which isn't the usual practice among vandals. When I saw your removal of the photo without an edit summary, I was inclined to suspect vandalism on your part; however, when I checked your user contributions, I saw that you'd made useful contributions in the past, so were probably not engaging in deliberate vandalism this time.
I have to disagree with "it is not good etiquette to remove someone else's photo and replace it with your own. ADDING a photo to the page is one thing, but removing my photo was inappropriate. In the future, please refrain from removing other people's images from Wikipedia entries." From the standpoint of Wikietiquette, changing or removing a photo is no different than changing or removing text. As with text edits, one should add an edit summary, and the change is of course subject to discussion, reversion, further changes, etc.; but there's no presumption that the original photo is necessarily the best one.
I'll justify my photo change at the article's talk page. Thanks again for the note letting me know about your comment there. I hope you don't mind my offering you advice; my hope was to help and encourage you, since we need more editors working on Nebraska, especially outstate Nebraska, subjects.
--Ammodramus (talk) 17:21, 24 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Nebraska rivers

(To User:Ken Gallager) I see that you've recently been adding lengths to rivers in Nebraska. If it wouldn't be too much trouble, could I ask you for a few river lengths?

  • I've tried in vain to find a source for the length of the Keya Paha River, which is a tributary of the Niobrara.
  • The current article on the Loup River only treats of a short length, below the junction of the North and Middle Loup; it has redlinks for the three branches, North Loup River, Middle Loup River, and South Loup River. I think this is a mistake: that the whole system should be treated in a single article. That expansion of the article is on my to-do-one-day list; it would help very much if I knew the lengths of the three branches, as well as having a source for the length below the junction.
  • There's presently no article on the Cedar River (Nebraska), which flows into the Loup in Nance County, Nebraska; or on the Calamus River, which flows into the North Loup in Garfield County, Nebraska. Writing those articles is also on my one-of-these-days list.

I'd very much appreciate your calculating these lengths and, in the case of the unwritten articles, leaving them in a note at my talk page. If this'd be a lot of work, please feel free to decline my request. I've tried to figure out how to use the Nat'l Hydrography Dataset for myself, after reading the discussion earlier on this page; but it apparently calls for more GIS skills than I've got (which are approximately none). Thanks--

Ammodramus (talk) 18:54, 29 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Loup River and branches

Hi - Here are the lengths I've gotten for the Loup River and its branches. The National Hydrography Dataset (I source it as "U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed March 30, 2011") gives 111.4 kilometres (69.2 mi) for the main stem of the Loup River, close enough to the figure in the article that it's not worth changing. The North Loup is 435.8 kilometres (270.8 mi) long, the Middle Loup is 351.8 kilometres (218.6 mi) long, and the South Loup is 356.2 kilometres (221.3 mi). You would think the South Loup would be quite a bit shorter, but it appears to do the most winding of the three rivers. Also, here are the three branches of the Middle Loup River: North Branch Middle Loup = 91.1 kilometres (56.6 mi), Middle Branch Middle Loup = 86.4 kilometres (53.7 mi), and South Branch Middle Loup = 77.3 kilometres (48.0 mi). I'll send another message (maybe tomorrow) with the lengths of the other rivers. --Ken Gallager (talk) 19:59, 30 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Here are a couple more for you. The Cedar River (Nebraska) is 145.1 kilometres (90.2 mi) long, and the Calamus River is 188.5 kilometres (117.1 mi) long. The Keya Paha will be coming soon. --Ken Gallager (talk) 12:51, 31 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Doing another Denver trip

If you remember last summer I took a trip from Philly to Denver and got a few NRHP photos in Nebraska. This year I'm doing the same trip again, but will basically be following US 30 the whole way (maybe as far as Cheyenne, WY if I have the time). I'll be in Nebraska either the 2nd and 3rd, or the 3rd and 4th. If there are sights along the way that you would especially like me to snap, please let me know. It's a long shot, but if you wanted to meet somewhere along the way ... In any case, I'll do my best to make sure that all the NE nrhp lists are not completely Ammodramus photographed. Smallbones (talk) 00:51, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the nice comments. I really enjoyed Nebraska, both west-bound and east-bound. Timing of course was more up to making progress down the road than to getting the sun in the right place. I guess you've probably realized that I'm really more into playing the game of a scavenger hunter, rather than being a real photographer, so I have no objection whatsoever to you taking good photos and replacing mine :-) It's the thrill of hunting down the wild Buffalo County that keeps me going! I think I'm done with my Nebraska uploads, but only 40% done with all the uploads from the trip. You never know, I might find another Nebraska city or town hidden in the files! I haven't gotten close to cleaning out and organizing all the literature (brochures, etc.) from the trip. I know that I should write up or at least start a few articles, but that's a lot harder than just taking a few snaps.
A couple of potential articles that do have my interest however are Deadwood Draw (near Sidney) which actually does have an article on it started - something like "Sidney to Deadwood pack trail." I hadn't really run into wagon ruts before and couldn't figure out if I really wanted to photograph them (or how to ...) Another involves Harmon Park in Kearney. Just by accident I ran into the lady who wrote up the NRHP application who is now chairperson of Kearney Area Preservation Society. I may have even promised that I'd write up the Park article. If you e-mail me I can provide contact details. It seems to me that the entire county list should be fixed up, de-red linked, etc. and made into a featured list. I'm sure that we (I'm being optimistic) would have her full cooperation.
Any help or more compliments are always appreciated. All the best. 19:20, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Sandhills Photos

Regarding photos: I'm based in Kearney and do a lot of photography to illustrate articles on Nebraska, particularly outstate, and to get pictures of NRHP sites for Commons. If there are sites you'd like photographed, please let me know at my talk page and I'll keep them in mind for my next trip to Sheridan County. I don't get up there as often as I'd like, but hope to be up that way sometime this spring. Ammodramus (talk) 17:09, 28 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I apologize for taking so long to reply. If you are ever in the Ellsworth area make sure to let me know and it can be easily arranged to photograph the historic sites in the surrounding counties. - Westhistmatt —Preceding unsigned comment added by Westhistmatt (talkcontribs) 12:03, 8 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I went through southern Sheridan County a few weeks ago, and got photos of the Antioch potash plants and Lakeside, among other things. I wanted a photo of the District #119 North School in Ellsworth, which is a fairly recent addition to the National Register of Historic Places; but I didn't know what it looked like, and nothing had a "District 119" sign on it. I'm pretty sure I drove right past it but didn't recognize it.
Is the Loosveldt Bridge on private property? I got the impression somewhere that it was. If so, and if you can get me permission to photograph it, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Do you know if the Colclesser Bridge is still there? I looked at Google satellite photos, and didn't see a bridge at what I think is the right location.
I'll be in touch before I return to Sheridan County; unfortunately, that probably won't be before July at the very earliest.
--Ammodramus (talk) 14:26, 8 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I am attempting to contact Ammodramus. How may I do so? Equinedistraction Equinedistraction (talk) 05:40, 23 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Fellow history, architecture, grammar, and serial comma geek attempting to contact Ammodramus

I am very new at Wiki. I would like to email or contact Ammodramus. How may I do so? I have information pertinent to his/her photographs and areas of interest.

Greetings, o Equinedistraction--
Got your two messages at my talk page. That's an excellent way to contact me; just leave further messages in the section that you began at the end of the page.
Since you're new at WP, I'll offer you some suggestions re. talk pages. First, if you prefix a paragraph with a colon (:), it'll indent that paragraph slightly. More colons indent it more. That makes it easier to see who's saying what in a lengthy discussion. Second, at the end of your comment on a talk page, type four tildes (~~~~). That will automatically fill in your username and some date-and-time information.
Look forward to hearing from you--
--Ammodramus (talk) 15:33, 23 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Ammodramus, thank you for the guidance. Your grammar peeves left me rolling on the floor. My list is almost identical, with the addition of the following: "When a person approaches you, THEY should always greet you with kindness." They. Everything is they. Who is they, anyway? Anyhoo, that drives me nuts, which is a pretty short drive.
I and my merry band of artisans are moving to parts north of Kearney. We are somewhat trepidatious about a dearth of wit and wisdom out on the prairie. Because we are language and photography-o-philes, and because I have been heavily involved with historic preservation and restorations of NHR and NHR candidate properties, we would love to get to know you and learn about your projects, past and present. I have not gone through the talk page guidelines yet, so I hope I am not offending any rule. I will study and become aware of the guidelines.
Best,
Eileen AKA Equinedistraction and merry band Equinedistraction (talk) 19:07, 23 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Goodness. Doubt very much that I can provide a great deal of wit and wisdom; my WP style is more about chasing down sources and inserting fussy footnotes. Also not sure about the "merry band" business: will my making personal contact lead to a score of Ken Kesey-channelers showing up at my doorstep and demanding that I host a revel?
Will chance it, though. To avoid putting personal information out in public, could you e-mail me? If you'll go to my user page or talk page, you'll find "Toolbox" in the left margin. Click on that to expand it, and you'll find "E-mail this user" about halfway down the list. I've got e-mail enabled, so you should be able to use that to send me contact information.
Since you're new to WP, I hope you won't mind my calling your attention to WP:OUTING. While it probably wouldn't take a great deal of work to discover my meatspace identity, I prefer to maintain at least a soupçon of anonymity. Please don't mention my real-world name, e-mail address, or personal details on talk pages or in other situations that might tend to identify--
Ammodramus (talk) 20:17, 23 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Milly Bernard Article

I just wanted to give you a great big thanks for helping on the Milly Bernard article, I am one of her great grand children (by marriage) and I have been meaning to add all that information but just could never find the time. It was difficult sometimes due to her marriages/divorces and the change in her last name to find information. You have done a great job and I appreciate it tremendously. She was a pioneer in women being elected to the Utah legislature and her achievements should be noted.

[email protected] 16:29, 2 August 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jlechem (talkcontribs)

Template: Native Americans in Nebraska

(to User:Freechild)

Noted with interest your addition of Template:Native Americans in Nebraska to several articles I've worked on. It's a nice template, and I think it'll be useful for navigating among such sites.

A couple of suggestions, however; and I'll make them to you rather than changing the template, since it appears that you've done most of the work on it, and may very well have considered these already. First, should it include Kitzawitzuk, which is in Kansas and not in Nebraska? Second, would it be useful to add Pike-Pawnee Village Site, which is in Webster County (and was the site of an event whose location was the subject of some dispute between the historical societies of KS and NE in the 1920s)?

I'm not doing any research in that direction right now, but it's possible that in the future I'll be writing more articles on Native American archaeological sites in Nebraska. If so, should they be added to the template?

--Ammodramus (talk) 16:15, 14 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Pulaski Tunnel

Nuts. I was up in Wallace just this summer; but I didn't have time to make it up to the Pulaski tunnel with my camera. Next time... --Ammodramus (talk) 23:20, 11 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, and I just looked at the article more carefully. In the major reference cited, should it be "Escapte" or is that your typo? (Since the source isn't online, I can't check it and correct it or [Sic] it myself.) --Ammodramus (talk) 23:24, 11 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]
It's my typo. If you go back to Wallace, take a picture of the fire memorial. It's also part of the TR and on the NRHP Einbierbitte (talk) 17:33, 15 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Also, the Carnegie Library and the Main Post Office in Wallace don't have pictures :) Einbierbitte (talk) 17:42, 15 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Unlikely that I'll be back in Wallace in the near (or even not-so-near) future. This summer, I had to drive to Spokane, and Wallace was the spot I randomly chose for a birding break. --Ammodramus (talk) 17:45, 15 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Linoma Beach

(to User:Freechild)

Pleased to report that I got to Linoma Lighthouse yesterday with my camera; with luck, will have photos uploaded in a day or two.

I'm thinking of doing an expansion of the article. The National Register nom form for Linoma Beach is now available online via the Nebraska State Historical Society, and it's got a lot of information that probably wasn't available when the article was originally written.

In the course of expanding the article, I'd like to move it from "Linoma Lighthouse" to "Linoma Beach", with a redirect from "Linoma Lighthouse". The NRHP lists the entire property, not just the lighthouse; and even the article as it now stands discusses the whole resort and not just the one structure. As the original author and the principal contributor to date, would you object to my doing that?

--Ammodramus (talk) 20:02, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for asking Ammodramus, I appreciate that. Please, have at it and let me know if I can be of use. I originally created the article because I wanted to learn about an artifact on the Platte I drove by all the time when I was in college. Sounds like it's better situated at Linoma Beach. Have fun! • Freechildtalk 21:39, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
You may be interested in the Grand Lake St. Marys Lighthouse, an inland lighthouse in Ohio. Nyttend (talk) 15:33, 7 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
We've actually got another in Nebraska: Lake Minatare Lighthouse in Scotts Bluff County. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and gloomy the day I was there, so no photos. Ammodramus (talk) 15:56, 7 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Congratulations on The Vicar of Bullhampton's promotion to GA

... and I hope you didn't find your first encounter with the GA process to be too stressful. Malleus Fatuorum 21:11, 3 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Again, many thanks for doing the GA review. I'm still following up one of your points (the one about the post-Barsetshire works), and will try to clarify that a bit. I assumed too much familiarity with Trollope on the part of the general reader. Ammodramus (talk) 00:13, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Nice ruts!

I saw your recent pix in Lincoln County. Nice work!

I hope you've noticed Wikipedia:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places/Fall 2011 Photo Contest and will contribute there, either in some of the organization that still needs to be done, including simple comments for improvement, or by submitting pix. I'm sure you'll do especially well at Wikipedia:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places/Fall 2011 Photo Contest Best Photo. Are you going back to SC before December? If so there is a special challenge just for you.

All the best.

Smallbones (talk) 23:15, 15 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Might try for the greatest-distance-between-photos thing. I won't be going back to SC, but will be spending T'giving in eastern Penna., and am also contemplating a run out to the Nebraska Panhandle. With any luck, that'll give me photos across three time zones... Ammodramus (talk) 23:32, 15 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
You know of course I'm in eastern Penna. So I'll try to get all the sites there before Thanksgiving :-) Just slightly more seriously (I know T'giving is not a good time for it), drop me an e-mail if I can buy you a beer while you're here. Smallbones (talk) 23:55, 15 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
We'll get that beer drunk sooner or later, whether in Nebraska or Pennsylvania or somewhere more exotic. I'll be staying in Pike County, near Dingman's Ferry; will have my car, so I should be able to travel to wherever you want to meet. No idea about schedule yet—it'll depend on the plans made by various relatives, but I should be around long enough to have a certain amount of free time. Will e-mail you when I get there. Ammodramus (talk) 01:54, 16 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Looks like you're going to have a far longer trip that I've had lately; since the spring, the farthest I've gotten from southwestern Indiana is the Pittsburgh metro area. Enjoy! Nyttend (talk) 02:00, 13 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Whoops! I have to fly out to Denver for the holiday. Maybe we can get that beer in DC next August? Smallbones (talk) 03:46, 13 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
In response to something I said to Smallbones, he suggested asking you to get a photo of the Minisink Archeological Site, an NHL in Pike County; it's the state's only unillustrated NHL outside of the southeastern corner. The rest of this comment is essentially the same as what I copied to his talk page. The coords that I got for the Pike County list have part of the site in the woods just off U.S. Route 209; I dropped the Street View icon onto a random spot near the coords and found a pulloff spot. You might not get a wonderful picture, but it wouldn't be worse than the one I took at Swan's Landing. As well, the NHL nomination form speaks of farmers ploughing artifacts out of fields; very close to the pulloff spot is an area of open countryside overlooking the river. Nyttend (talk) 22:17, 13 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like I did volunteer you for something. As I read the map, it's 8 miles north of Dingman's Ferry, or 2 miles south of Milford on the main drag. The main drag being as lonely a piece of road as there is on the East Coast. When I drove through with my wife, I thought I'd need waders and a portable shower to get the photo, by Nyttend doesn't think so. Sorry! Smallbones (talk) 22:28, 13 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm a birder, so wet socks and mild hypothermia are business-as-usual for me. The place isn't far from where I'll be staying, so I'll do what I can to get it. Unless there's a historical marker, I doubt that I'll get a very impressive photo. The article speaks of "remains of fish and fruit"; maybe I can find a banana peel or a Long John Silver's box in the ditch by the road to illustrate it... Ammodramus (talk) 01:01, 14 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Street View suggests to me that the a photo will likely be somewhat similar to your shots of Dobytown without the marker; I suspect that you'll get a far better shot than many of my pictures, such as the above-linked Swan's Landing Site, the Newlove Works, or the Old Chillicothe Site. If you really feel like walking around in the woods rather than getting a photo of fields from the highway, a leading part of the site appears to be at 41°17′12″N 74°49′55″W / 41.28667°N 74.83194°W / 41.28667; -74.83194. Nyttend (talk) 03:49, 14 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
A preliminary Google hunt indicates that the district includes Minisink Island. If I can establish that it includes the whole island, or the whole up- or downstream end, then I can try for a shot of the island with the river dividing around it. That'd be at least a little more interesting than the Dobytown photos, especially if I can get a shot from a high bank looking obliquely downward.
Ammodramus on a holiday outing on the Delaware River
The NPS's Delaware Water Gap website discusses the district, and says that visitors "can hike the Minisink Historic District while on the Joseph M. McDade Recreational Trail". Unfortunately, the trail map at their link doesn't say anything in particular about the MHD. I'll see what I can learn at the visitor center once I get there. (The website also suggests canoeing or kayaking to the island, but that sounds like a good way to wind up in [[Category:Drowned Wikipedians]].) Ammodramus (talk) 15:21, 14 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks

Thank you for your image of the Old Kaskaskia Village! As the Illinois River is very close but outside the image, can you revise your caption to indicate an estimated distance from the river, in order to orient people who see the image. (I know the river is very close). Thanks again, Bigturtle (talk) 19:43, 19 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Have revised the caption, and also the description at Commons. It's possible (though far from certain) that I'll pass through the area again in a few weeks; if you're particularly interested in the site or the article, is there anything that you think especially ought to be photographed? I know very little about the site: mostly, I was trying to hit some of the unillustrated National Historic Landmarks in Illinois while travelling cross-country. I'd happily try to act on suggestions for better photos, if you'd care to make some and if my path takes me that way again. Ammodramus (talk) 22:41, 19 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for your interest in the site. Unfortunately as you have noticed the State does not mark the site, presumably because they lack the means to guard and interpret it, and nobody wants free-lancers digging for artifacts. So your relatively anonymous-looking scene is perfect. Would it be possible for you to find and image the Farm Creek Section in nearby East Peoria, Illinois? Bigturtle (talk) 22:28, 21 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Ouch. Before I went to Old Kaskaskia Village, I spent the morning tramping along Farm Creek through Farmdale Recreation Area, looking for F.C. Section. Found what I thought was it and shot a bunch of photos. That night, miles and miles down the road, I studied the photos and description in the nom form, and realized that the place I'd shot definitely wasn't it. Re-checked the Google map; I suspect that if I'd gone another quarter-mile upstream, I'd have found the right place. I will definitely try for it on my way back west, weather permitting. "Weather permitting" is a big if: the recreation area is closed during rains and for 24 hours after. Ammodramus (talk) 01:06, 22 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I should have guessed that you had your eye on that site! Bigturtle (talk) 15:36, 22 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Caught the Farm Creek Section with the last of the daylight, obtaining some sub-excellent photos which are at Commons:Category:Farm Creek Section (Tazewell County, Illinois). Since I don't know geology or Illinois especially well, I've done a fairly minimal categorization. If you're so inclined, you might want to improve the descriptions and/or categorization. Ammodramus (talk) 23:56, 11 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you, I'll take a look at it. Bigturtle (talk) 00:10, 12 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Libbey House

Thanks for the Libbey House photos! I've accumulated a big backlog of photos, due to spending a disproportionately large amount of free time on photo trips (i.e. not enough time for uploading), and one of the locations is Ohio's last unillustrated NHL. Nyttend (talk) 04:53, 21 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

We lucked out. After I'd shot the Marie Webster House in Marion, IN, I had to decide whether to go northeast to Toledo or southeast to Kettering. The coin came up heads, so to Toledo I went. If you've got Kettering, I won't try to hit it on my way back westward. Ammodramus (talk) 11:00, 21 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
How nice :-) I'd not checked the Indiana list, so I wasn't aware that you'd finished it. As soon as I finish typing this message, I'll complete my packing to leave Pennsylvania for the west; if I have time, I may try to go back to Kettering, because the current photo is absolutely horrible. The house is only slightly visible from the road when the leaves are on the trees, and I was there in early September; what's more, it's on the western side, and I was there in the late afternoon of a sunny day. Hope you enjoy the rest of your time in Pennsylvania! Nyttend (talk) 12:59, 21 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Didn't get time to go to Kettering, but I finished up two other Ohio county lists, including one site that's of national significance. I'll upload the old photo and let you decide if it's horrible enough that you want to replace it soon. It will definitely need to be replaced eventually. Nyttend (talk) 03:20, 22 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I recognize the Kettering photo; I've taken it in a few places myself. If my route back to Nebraska takes me through southern Ohio, I'll see if I can get something better. Ammodramus (talk) 16:14, 22 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Drove I-70 across Ohio today. It rained all the way, and was coming down fairly hard when I passed Dayton, so I didn't try for the Kettering house. Next time... Ammodramus (talk) 01:14, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, no problem. I spent much of my day getting sites of more local interest, and although I've been inside for several hours straight, the hood of my sweatshirt is still drenched. If you go to the "Not visited" section of User:Nyttend/Ohio NRHP/Montgomery, you'll see that I have about seventy different reasons to go back to the area, and since I typically have an easier time getting to Ohio than you do, I expect that I'll be able to get over there at some point. Finally, I hope your visit to Ohio didn't leave you with too sour of a taste — remember that days like this also occur in the Buckeye State :-) Nyttend (talk) 02:32, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'm OK with Ohio: had an enjoyable hike in Cuyahoga Valley NP on the way out, and would've liked to spend more time in Toledo, which I suspect has lots of great buildings to photograph. Had high hopes for Kettering, since it was overcast but not raining in Wheeling, and from your description of the site, an overcast winter day would be the best time to shoot it. But it wasn't to be...
As far as weather events go, I had to delete a bunch of photos from Monroe County, NY, because the falling snow left conspicuous streaks across them. Ammodramus (talk) 02:57, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Winter would definitely be the best time of year for the Kettering House, but even better than an overcast day might be a sunny morning. However, I can't imagine why I'd be in the area in the morning, so I'll likely have to settle for the overcast day...There's definitely room to go in the Toledo area. I've never visited that part of the state very much, and except for a single trip (which got all of the northwestern counties fully illustrated, except for one pesky site), which yielded only the Fallen Timbers battlefield image, I've not been to Lucas County since I started doing NR photographs. Thanks for the Ohio County work; the Panhandle is the only part of the state I've been to in recent years (thanks to trips to my metro-Pittsburgh alma mater), and I've concentrated most of my photo time from my trips either on eastern Ohio or on Brooke County, next north of Ohio County — essentially all that I have for Ohio County is the NHLs, and other people already got better images of them anyway. Nyttend (talk) 05:39, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I saw that there were no entries for the West Virginia contest, so concluded that the state must be under-photographed and hit a couple of quick sites in Wheeling on my way westward from Pittsburgh. I'd have done more there, but hoped to make it to Kettering while there was still lots of daylight; had I known that the weather in Ohio state would be so inclement, I'd have spent some time on Ohio County. I suspect, although I haven't actually looked at the county lists, that the counties that really need to be worked are the ones that don't lie along Interstates. Ammodramus (talk) 13:19, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sure your final comment is right. Ohio isn't that way, since the two most active photographers (Roseohioresident and I) have both been active with travelling to more isolated counties, but I'm sure it's that way in many other states. Once we start talking about counties west of Illinois' eastern edge, I've not gotten any photos in counties without interstates, except for one in Ford County, Kansas: the Dodge City Downtown HD. West Virginia hasn't gotten a ton of attention; Bitmapped, formerly Bmpowell, has done his best, but he hasn't travelled a ton or gotten as dense a concentration as you, Smallbones, or I have tried to do. Nyttend (talk) 13:32, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Nom forms for Penna. NRHP sites?

In Pike County. Got what I think are some acceptable pictures for Minisink Archeological Site; it turns out that the Manna site, referred to in the article, is easily located, and that the bank erosion can be photographed reasonably well from across Raymondskill Creek. Will upload shortly.

While I was in that area, ran up to Milford and got some photos in the Jervis Gordon Grist Mill Historic District. I'm sure that one of the buildings I photographed is in the district (the mill building itself). However, the nom form for Milford Historic District Boundary Increase tells me that there are three contributing buildings and a contributing structure in the JGGMHD. Unfortunately, it doesn't tell me what they are; and I can't find a nom form for the JGGMHD itself. Since you've presumably got some experience tracking down this sort of thing in Penna., do you know of a place where I might be able to find the nom form or something else that'd tell me what buildings are and aren't in the HD? Thanks. Ammodramus (talk) 01:31, 27 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

try: https://www.dot7.state.pa.us/ce_imagery/phmc_scans/H077381_01H.pdf
and https://www.dot7.state.pa.us/ce_imagery/phmc_scans/H077381_01B.jpg
This works the majority of the time.
Smallbones
Your question

I've just done some editing of your article Jeevana Mukthi: mostly adding Wikilinks and touching up the English idiom. However, there were two things that I was unable to do.

In the article, the king's mother is going to perform a cheppula nomu. I'm afraid that I don't know what this is, and a Google search for the phrase gained me nothing. We ought to have a Wikilink or a brief parenthetical note telling readers what this is.

Does the title have an English translation? The "Jeevana" is similar enough to the name "Jeevudu" that I suspect it's a form of it. If the title can be translated into English, that translation should be included.

My answer

Jeevan/Jeevan or Jeevudu or Jeevi are all related to the Life in biological term. Jeevi or Jeevudu means all living beings. Jeevan or Jeevana means the life itself.

Mukti or Moksha is a sanskrit word explained in its wikipage.

Combining the two words it means Mukti for Jeevi, that is according to Ancient Hindu scripts many Mukti while living is the ultimate goal for the priests and yogis. As a cobbler Jeevudu got this by wholehearted faithfulness towards Vishnu in this film.

Am I clear and got some clarity about the film title and names.Dr. Rajasekhar A. 06:25, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the correction. I may be peculiar, but have not (to my knowledge) been characterized as "odd". Just an attempt at humor there. The proper name of this historic organization was unknown to me, and its good to get it right. 7&6=thirteen () 16:32, 30 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'd probably count as "odd", but only because I haven't yet got even... Easy to get the adjective wrong; I only know it from the number of times I've tried to Wikilink the name, and come up with a redlink for "International...". Happily, no one's created a redirect from the wrong I-word. Ammodramus (talk) 23:56, 30 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

PA and NHLs

Thanks for the Minisink pix - I really like the one from the bluff (from NJ?)

I got the last 2 NHLs in PA today (nice weather, bad traffic)

and, we're tied at 8 in the NHL contest, but I think I'm all out of potential sites. Smallbones (talk) 03:20, 3 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like it's going to be a tie, unless somebody's sitting on a bunch of NHL photos elsewhere. I'll be in western New York and Pittsburgh through the weekend, and there'll be no NHLs within easy reach. I'm hoping to hit at least one on the way back to Nebraska, but by then the contest will be over.
The shots of Minisink Island from above were taken from a trail on the Penna. side. Took them somewhat early in the morning, and had to wait an hour or so for the fog over the river to burn off so that the island would be visible. According to Google Earth, the island itself is in NJ; as I recall, I used photos of it to illustrate the NJ lists, and photos of the Manna site (OK, but late-morning light would've been better) for the Penna. lists. --Ammodramus (talk) 11:52, 3 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Per your question to Smallbones — go to the CRGIS and follow the directions. If you have Adobe's SVG viewer (admittedly, out of date, but you can still download it from the Adobe website), you can find non-archaeologicla sites on a map (note that the vast majority of features on the map aren't NR-listed), or you can do a text-based search that doesn't require the SVG viewer. Nyttend (talk) 17:56, 3 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the comment on my courthouse image in the best-photo contest. I didn't crop it — as far as I know, Windows Paint is the only software on this computer that's capable of editing images at all. By the way, where were the broken bridges on which you're complimented farther down this page? Nyttend (talk) 06:23, 9 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Fallen Elkhorn River bridge on Cowboy Trail near Norfolk, Nebraska
I use Microsoft Office Picture Manager to rotate and crop my photos before I upload them, but that's all the image manipulation I can do. However, it's useful, because for some reason I list slightly to port when I take pictures, even when I'm trying to compensate for that tendency to tilt. Also, since I can crop, I can take main-street shots from a considerable distance to reduce the perspective difference between the near and the far buildings, then cut out the big patch of sky that I get by doing that.
As far as I know, my downed-bridge photos aren't on any WP pages. User:Visitor7 must've gone through Commons:Category:Pictures by Ammodramus (a category that I created at your suggestion, by the way, for which thanks) to find them. If you want to see them yourself, your best bet is to go through the subcategories of Commons:Category:June 2010 Nebraska floods. Ammodramus (talk) 14:13, 9 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, okay: I figured that these were some NR-listed bridges that you'd visited over Thanksgiving, but I was confused because I couldn't find them in your recent edits to NR lists. I have to say that I'm amused by one image: in File:Cowboy Trail Norfolk Elkhorn River xing damaged 1.JPG, the "Cowboy Trail CLOSED Until Further Notice" sign seems to be slightly unneeded :-) I didn't know that Picture Manager was able to rotate or crop things; I'll see what I can do with it. Thanks! Nyttend (talk) 14:25, 9 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

NSHS

Not a big deal at all. I'm not particularly interested in the NSHS right now. Because of Hill's intricate connection to the org I thought See also-ing NSHS would be a good connect for readers, but I don't really care. Thanks for the heads-up though- I appreciate the courtesy. • Freechildtalk 23:53, 3 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Barnstar

The Photographer's Barnstar
Awarded for tying the Wikipedia:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places/Fall 2011 Photo Contest for traveling the farthest within one state. I know that you traveled an incredible distance to the corner of the state just to get one of the photos. Royalbroil 01:20, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Too bad that google maps was too inaccurate to give a definitive winner. Both of you had traveled about the same distance so you earned your award! Royalbroil 01:20, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Award

Sharing an award with a great photographer is an honor. Your photos of the broken bridges are especially tranquil, with nary a sign of the storm but that the bridges are ruined. I also loved the Midwestern Theater. I am going to use your categorizing as an inspiration to do a better job categorizing my own pictures (someone has recently been scolding me about it on Wikimedia Commons). See you at the next contest. Visitor7 (talk) 04:26, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

A barnstar for you!

The Photographer's Barnstar
Awarded for tying with User:Smallbones in the Wikipedia:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places/Fall 2011 Photo Contest for adding the most photographs to National Historic Landmarks. Congrats! Ebyabe talk - Border Town ‖ 15:33, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the Yule marble editing

I am pretty much lost after I wrote the article as to formatting sources, references, footnotes etc. Glad that you and 7&6=13 are taking care of this. Broken Bow, Nebraska (not Broken Arrow) is correct. I found the error over the summer when I make a display for the museum in Marble showing where the marble is used but I did not update my list. The building was an IOOF building and I had a telephone talk with one of the two surviving members. The building today is a movie theater own by the president of a bank in Broken Bow and he said the marble is on the interior. I know my telephone conversations are not Wiki verify. Can something be added to correct the location? OneHistoryGuy (talk) 06:51, 8 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ammodramus, Use this <ref group=upper-alpha> at the beginning of each citation. That should work. Hope that helps. 7&6=thirteen () 01:42, 9 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Curtiss Robin C1 Photos

The photos are in the categories "Curtiss Robin" and "Museum of Flight, Seattle." The storyboards are included as background info if it would be useful. We happened to be outside looking at the prototype Boeing 747 (built in 1969) when one of the brand new 747-8 jets took off from Boeing Field. Those pics will go up in a day or so. Visitor7 (talk) 07:35, 14 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the excellent photos. I've placed one of them in the McCook Daily Gazette article.
The storyboards are interesting—I hadn't known about the car-giveaway promotion—but I'd be cautious about uploading photos of things like that, because I'm not sure if the text or images on them is covered by copyright.
I greatly appreciate your getting the photos. One thing that I haven't found on WP is a way to contact local photographers with requests for specific pictures. I've put a note up at WP:WikiProject Nebraska indicating that I'd be willing to try and photograph specific sites in the state; but it'd be a good thing if WP had a more organized way for editors seeking photos to get in touch with photographers who might be willing and able to take them. Ammodramus (talk) 14:28, 14 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Photo Inquiries

Would you happen to, by any small chance, be planning a trip to Wyoming any time soon? I've been trying to develop some of the Natrona County NRHP articles, most of which remain photo-less. Also, thank you for doing so much photography of landmarks in rural Nebraska. It was quite a nice surprise to learn that the NRHP structures in my community have nice photos on Wikimedia of them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chevsapher (talkcontribs) 04:42, 17 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Don't worry, I only have a very crude idea of what a neo-Renaissance corbelled balustrade would look like too. My high school has no Architecture classes; it's just a little thing I do some reading on since I've always been fascinated with historic structures. Anyway, the majority of these places need photographed. I might be able to get some relatives to get a few photos there this week, but that's it. I'm smacking myself for not getting photos of all these places when I lived in Casper, but it's too late now. Chevsapher (talk) 16:09, 18 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
All right them; thanks! And no, from my experience historical societies don't know much about architecture (especially mine!). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chevsapher (talkcontribs) 00:11, 19 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

X-Mas

Merry Christmas! INeverCry 00:25, 24 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

A barnstar for you!

The Barnstar of Diligence
Thanks for helping me with all of the Nebraska City pages, You have been diligent in all of your work especially with that of my area. For that and your work on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Nebraska, &c. I award you this Barnstar of Diligence. WhitmanNE (talk) 05:47, 27 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Request for help with AfD problem

It's been a while since I've bugged you with a newbie problem, so I hope that you'll let me abuse your kindness again—

I've just started going through the AfD process with ESS Drum & Bugle Corps, which I strongly suspect of being a high-school prank or the like. Everything went swimmingly until I reached the step where I edited Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Log/2012 January 4. The subclusion process seems to have done everything it should, and my suggestion appears to be in the same format as everyone else's in the edit window; but the article's title, history-link, etc., don't show up.

I experimented by moving my proposal below the top one in the list, but that didn't help at all. The only thing I can think of is that the ampersand in the title interacts strangely with the template. However, I see that an ampersand isn't on the list of forbidden characters in article titles.

Any thoughts? Guidance would be appreciated; if nothing else, could you suggest an appropriate venue at which to ask this question? Thanks (and thanks again for all the questions you've answered in the past). --Ammodramus (talk) 16:49, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure what happened here. Did you use the template that appears at the bottom of the AFD tag? When you subst the afd1 template onto an article, it gives you some instructions, including a preloaded template for creating the deletion discussion page; you can see these lines at the bottom of {{Article for deletion/dated}}. I'm not quite sure how to fix an already-created nomination, so I simply deleted your original nomination, created a new one with your text, and restored your original nomination. Everything looks good now. Nyttend (talk) 17:04, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Many thanks. I think you've hit on what I did wrong. Instead of clicking on the "Preloaded debate", I clicked the redlink for "this article's entry". Will try to remember that next time; maybe I should try to find some deletion-worthy articles for practice... Ammodramus (talk) 17:28, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Why don't you nominate Strayboots or EDEX Careers? Nyttend (talk) 18:11, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm... Strayboots looks like it might have verifiable notability from the Times story (which badly wants formatting). EDEX Careers looks like it got its may-not-meet-notability-guidelines template this month; would it be appropriate to propose it for deletion before giving the editor a chance to respond? I'm thinking about StealTheDeal, which looks promotional and which only cites a couple of press releases from the company itself. A Google search doesn't turn up any evidence that they've been covered by reputable media. Beside, they use "everyday" as an adverb; thus their deletion will make the world a slightly better place. Ammodramus (talk) 00:49, 5 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Tried it with StealTheDeal. It worked much better when I actually followed the directions... To boot, when I notified the editor who'd created the article that it'd was up at AfD, I found that it'd been deleted before and that the editor had apparently re-created it. Ammodramus (talk) 01:17, 5 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Looks like you did everything right; glad to be of aid. Sorry that I've taken a long time to respond; I spent much of today finishing the uploads for a photo trip from a week ago that yielded more than 125 hitherto-unphotographed sites. Nyttend (talk) 02:33, 5 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Nice article. I've made some minor tweaks to it, and uprated it from stub to start: it's near the border, but I think it's more toward the start side, since you've got multiple references and have clearly put some effort into it—in sharp contrast with all too many NRHP stubs, which are more like this.

In the article, you mention a ghost sign for a hardware store. Is that currently visible, and, if so, does it want to be photographed? I don't expect to get to Crawford in the next month or two, but if you think a photo would help, I'll put it on my to-do list.

Hope that we can expect more Dawes County articles soon — Ammodramus (talk) 01:22, 6 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the nice comment on my talk page! The ghost sign is indeed visible; it was painted over years ago and is now showing up again. Although I must thank you for volunteering to take a photo, I feel that would be pure laziness on my part, as I live a whopping four blocks from the structure. :*
And yes, I'm already working on another article. I'm very surprised that more Dawes County building are NRHP-listed; I can think of more than a few that should be shoe-ins. Chevsapher (talk) 16:50, 6 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
If you can get a good photo of the ghost sign, it might not be a bad idea to include it as a citation. You can link to a Commons file without making it show up as a picture by putting a colon in front of the word "File", so you can produce a footnote that looks like: "See photo". As I understand, taking a photo doesn't count as original research, so you won't be scolded for WP:NOR.
Have you seen the Nebraska Historic Buildings Survey for Dawes County? You might find it useful if you're looking for information on county history, and specifically on historic buildings that aren't on the NRHP. The Nebraska State Historical Society has one for most (though not all) counties in the state; I usually find them by Googling (countyname historic building survey nebraska), but you can probably find them through the NSHS website as well. There might be a hard copy of it in the Crawford library, but it's nice to have an online version that you can link to in footnotes.
Look forward to the forthcoming articles—and maybe they'll pressure me into working on some of the ones that have been sitting on my to-do list for a long time. Ammodramus (talk) 18:12, 6 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I've used that document several times! I'm glad they put it together; it's very useful. The NSHS also has put all the NRHP Nebraska nomination forms on their website, most of which aren't on FOCUS. If I remember correctly, there are also some Nebraska History articles on their website that could come in handy as sources.
I can't remember if the Crawford Library has the aforementioned document on file; they have a rather paltry local history section. However, I have access to the Crawford Historical Museum's collection of books, photos, and documents, which is a huge source for local information. Again, thanks for all the helpful suggestions! Chevsapher (talk) 19:00, 6 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, and question

(To User:Location) Thanks for the compliment re. Chris Cole (politician). Would you say that the article's moved beyond stubhood and merits a "Start" rating? I'm not sure just where the boundary is, and in any case I'm not sure if it's quite proper to rate one's own work. Ammodramus (talk) 22:35, 12 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

January 2012 Newsletter for WikiProject United States and supported projects

The January 2012 issue of the WikiProject United States newsletter has been published. You may read the newsletter, change the format in which future issues will be delivered to you, or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Thank you.

 
--Kumi-Taskbot (talk) 18:41, 16 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Ammodramus. I'm stopping by to let you know that this line is in the source. It's on Page 2. It's easy to overlook that an article has more than one page, so I can understand how you missed it. I never miss them anymore because I'm very aware that they might exist, but I know that others may not be as aware. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I restored the line, and toned down the duplicate referencing. Feel free to tweak this line or anything else in the article of course. It could probably use a good copyedit, especially since it was written at a time when my Wikipedia-article-writing skills weren't as improved as they are now. That goes for grammar aspects too. Flyer22 (talk) 15:01, 17 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the comment. I replied there on my talk page (as the note at the top says I will, LOL). Flyer22 (talk) 15:22, 17 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Just found and read with great interest this article. I'll have to look for it the next time I get out to the northern Panhandle.

A couple of things that I didn't find in the article, and that should perhaps be in it. First, what kind of material does the tunnel run through? Is it cut through rock, or is it primarily dug through earth? Since it's described as a major engineering feat for its time, I assume that there's something peculiar about the local geology to make the construction difficult. Second, why was the Nat'l Guard there to prevent sabotage? Was there some kind of controversy involving the railroad or the tunnel? Think readers would like to know more about both of these—I certainly would. Ammodramus (talk) 05:17, 19 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I would like to know more about these issues too, unfortunately. My sources were rather vague, but they were the only ones I could find. First, I'm not sure whether the tunnel is cut through rock or dirt; in fact, different sources say differently. Second, I have no idea. Third, I have no idea either, although I've been wondering how reliable the source I stated on this statement is, judging from what I know about the gal who wrote it.
I would love to add more info to the article, but until I find more sources, it just isn't happening. Even the article as it is cites a rural kid's 4H paper! Chevsapher (talk) 15:17, 19 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Too bad you can't find out more; it sounds like a great subject. Would it help to ask at Wikipedia:WikiProject Trains? A railroad enthusiast might have sources on the CB&Q that might shed some light on these, especially if the concern about sabotage was due to some kind of labor unrest that affected the whole company. Also, should I put this on my list of things to photograph the next time I'm in Dawes Co.? Ammodramus (talk) 16:57, 19 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the ideas! There has to be more information out there.
And sure! I live so close to the tunnel that it isn't funny, but I don't have a driver's license. Hopefully I can get out there this summer, but who knows. If I can get a picture, then I'll tell you. Again, thanks for the help. Chevsapher (talk) 00:19, 21 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
No trouble for me to try to get pictures: I'll certainly be in Dawes County in the next few months, and I want to check the tunnel out anyhow—until I saw the article, I had no inkling that it existed. Good luck with the further research— Ammodramus (talk) 00:30, 21 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
It's on a dirt road, so don't go after it's rained. Also, ticks love the tunnel, so be careful. It really is worth seeing, though. Chevsapher (talk) 00:45, 21 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Just passing through re:ruts, but I got some very small refs searching Google books - a source many folks ignore. I put the refs on the talk page. BTW, please get pix of the graffiti I just found out that Commons has a special dispensation for graffiti (even though it is theoretically copyrighted). Wikipedia needs more graffiti! (As always) Smallbones (talk) 01:23, 21 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ruts redux

(To User:Smallbones). Back in October, you complimented me on some pictures of ruts at O'Fallon's Bluff in Lincoln County, Nebraska. I recently hit California Hill in Keith County, and couldn't have asked for better rut-photography conditions: unmelted snow in the ruts, bare ground around them. The photos are at Commons:Category:California Hill (Keith County, Nebraska), if you'd like to admire them. Hoping to hit two more rut sites (in Butler and Lancaster counties) this week; hope that I'll find conditions half as good there. Ammodramus (talk) 18:24, 19 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Very, very nice ruts. I'm just mad that I pulled off the interstate there, looked at the sign and thought "I'll never make it to .... if I go looking for those ruts!" If I ever find a "Ruts Barnstar" you'll be the first to get it. Smallbones (talk) 01:23, 21 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

NRHP in Gage County, Nebraska

I see no reason not to add the J. Schmuck Block listing to the Gage County list. I went ahead and added it, but it's really pretty easy to add new entries. I just cut and paste the NRHP row template info from another listing and replace the data for each parameter with the info for the listing you're adding. Renumbering the rows of a large table is a bit of a hassle, but I've got a method that involves copying the raw table text out to a spreadsheet, manipulating the data there and then pasting it back into the edit window in Wikipedia. It only takes about 20 or 30 seconds no matter how large the table is. For future reference, if you work on a long table that you'd like me to renumber, just post a message on my talk page.

It seems to me that I've come across other sites that were listed around that same time that are missing from the tables. I think I'll go back and look at the announcements from that period to see if we're missing others. I hope this isn't a can of worms! --sanfranman59 (talk) 17:13, 13 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sure enough, I found another listing that's missing from the Burt County list from that same NPS new listings announcement. Oddly, there were also 4 listings announced in Douglas County (Omaha) and 1 in Hall County at that time, but they're all included in the current tables. So it's not like we just failed to record the listings in that NPS announcement. --sanfranman59 (talk) 17:32, 13 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Crawford photos

(To User:Chevsapher) Just saw File:Crawford, Nebraska 2nd St from Main.JPG pop up on my Commons watchlist, for your addition of image notes. Wow! I had no idea that such a trick was possible. I'm going to have to read up on it—it'd be a lot easier than descriptions like "The third building from the left, partly obscured by the billboard, is the..."

Also saw the new photos you added for the Crawford post office. I agree that the article is better for an illustration of the mural, since that was the reason for the building's addition to the NRHP. However, I think we'd have copyright problems with photos showing the entire mural at a fairly high resolution: see this USPS page. While the use of the photos in a WP article would probably be OK, photos on Commons are supposed to be free-use, without, for example, the USPS's restrictions on commercial use. For that reason, when I photograph interiors of post offices with New Deal murals, I try to make the mural a fairly small (and low-resolution) part of the total scene, and to make sure that a non-trivial portion of the mural is obscured by foreground objects. Ammodramus (talk) 22:07, 10 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Re: Crawford Photos

Just saw File:Crawford, Nebraska 2nd St from Main.JPG pop up on my Commons watchlist, for your addition of image notes. Wow! I had no idea that such a trick was possible. I'm going to have to read up on it—it'd be a lot easier than descriptions like "The third building from the left, partly obscured by the billboard, is the..."

Also saw the new photos you added for the Crawford post office. I agree that the article is better for an illustration of the mural, since that was the reason for the building's addition to the NRHP. However, I think we'd have copyright problems with photos showing the entire mural at a fairly high resolution: see this USPS page. While the use of the photos in a WP article would probably be OK, photos on Commons are supposed to be free-use, without, for example, the USPS's restrictions on commercial use. For that reason, when I photograph interiors of post offices with New Deal murals, I try to make the mural a fairly small (and low-resolution) part of the total scene, and to make sure that a non-trivial portion of the mural is obscured by foreground objects. Ammodramus (talk) 22:07, 10 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't know that the trick was possible either until last Sunday. And, better yet, the notes don't need sourced!
Anyway, thanks for the notice about the photos. I never would have guessed, especially since the murals were commissioned by the Section of Fine Arts and not the USPS. I'll get around to making the image(s) smaller when I can; but please feel free to do that yourself if you want to. Chevsapher (talk) 01:11, 11 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Notable natives

"What a great new section..." You'll feel otherwise when you've got a few hundred towns on your watchlist. The notable-residents section is a major magnet for vandalism: "John Smith internatoinally known STUD!!", and that kind of thing. The only place it's worse is at articles about high schools... Ammodramus (talk) 21:33, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That really must be a pain! But that's why I don't have a ton of pages on my watchlist. I think it's a nice addition to the Crawford article specifically because I didn't know that anyone from Crawford ever reached "notability" status.
I'm glad you care about Nebraska as much as you do, though. It's nice to know that someone else appreciates what's commonly known as a really boring stretch of land between Iowa and Wyoming. Chevsapher (talk) 02:39, 14 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Borders

After adding black borders manually to atleast 50 title pages, I found out that adding the |border parameter does just about the same thing, as in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Feel free to have a laugh at my expense... ;) INeverCry 18:25, 2 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That's how it usually goes, learning after repeated mistakes... On an unrelated subject, I've nominated my article George Crabbe for GA. I hope it does as well as The Vicar. Someone I asked for advice raised an issue with the older public domain refs I used, but, as that's all I've got and can't afford the newest bio, I'll have to wait and see if they hold up. Wish me luck! INeverCry 22:59, 2 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the fixes. Crabbe's father's name was also George, so to avoid confusion I didn't use it. The poet's oldest son was a George as well. ;) Anyway, I hope I draw a good reviewer, as my other GA promotion (The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs) took the reviewer over a month with several reminders. We'll see... INeverCry 00:01, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I had to pull in another source, but I was able to add all the needed family details, to the lead and the early life section. INeverCry 00:48, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Old Nebraska pics etc

Have a look at Commons:National Archives and Records Administration/Categorize/US National Archives series: District of Nebraska: Omaha: Equity Cases, compiled 1913 - 1955 and Commons:National Archives and Records Administration/Categorize/US National Archives series: District of Nebraska: Grand Island: Civil Cases, compiled 1938 - 1974 if you haven't already.

Commons:National Archives and Records Administration/Categorize might have some other things you would be interested in.

Also, in the case of George Crabbe I found a chronological mistake from one of my old sources, and there's a new 2004 bio of Crabbe, so I've un-GANed it until I can get a hold of the newer source. INeverCry 00:03, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Edit summaries

(To User:WilliamJE.) I notice that you've recently made a number of edits to articles about Nebraska municipalities, most of which appear to be insertions of notable residents.

Could I ask you to add edit summaries when you make such edits? I have a great many Nebraska articles on my watchlist, and when I find an edit without a summary, I have to check up on it and make sure it's not vandalism, spam, editorializing, etc. This is particularly true in the notable-residents section, which is a magnet for vandalism—"John Smith world famuos STUD!!!" and the like. If you'll add edit summaries, that'll save me and other page-watchers the necessity of following your edits to make sure they're legit. Thanks. Ammodramus (talk) 19:38, 1 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

First of all not 'most of which appear to be insertions of notable residents', but 'all of which appear to be insertions of notable residents'. You won't find one person I added to a Nebraska, or another state article, that isn't a notable person aka has their own independent wikipedia article.
In fact if you did even a cursory check of my 15,000+ edit history, you'll frequently see this edit summary 'Needs either a wikipedia article or some references to back up their notability'. I edit non notable people out of articles on a regular basis. Among my last 100 edits is this one[1] I did yesterday. 13 of my last 500 contain that edit summary. My last 500 edits go back to May 20th 2012.
Edit summaries take time, especially if I have to write a brand new explanation every time I add a person. I don't use automation for my edits. The persons I add mostly are athletes and politicians but I'll do anyone I stumble across while surfing WP and I like adding notable people sections to small town articles. Steve Glimp played 18 games for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1923 and he was born in Cornwell Nebraska population of 48. Glimp wasn't famous but he has an article and an article is all that is needed to establish notability. BTW the Glimp explanation is fictional.
I see a link to a article(not a redlink), I WP:AGF unless something is fishy and makes me check further. Like I did with Curt Kaufman a baseball player who was mentioned in not one but two Iowa town articles all based on WP:OR aka a personal interview[2] by a fly by editor[3] who hasn't contributed to WP in 6.5 years.
Try AGF when a experienced editor adds a notable person with a dedicated wikipedia article. We're not IP editors or fly bys....William 22:41, 1 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your reply. I'm glad that someone else is excising non-notable notables from articles. I personally think that the "Notable residents" section is a curse and an affliction, but that's one man's opinion: I recognize that it's entrenched in WP, and that I have to live with it as best I can.

I don't think that WP:AGF is a valid argument in this situation. AGF has to do with the motives of an editor, not with the appropriateness of an edit. I'm sure you've encountered situations aplenty in which a registered editor has made changes that've had to be reverted, not because of deliberate vandalism, but because they're pushing a POV, inserting irrelevancies—or adding the high-school quarterback to the notables section, on the strength of a write-up in the local paper.

You describe yourself as "an experienced editor". Unfortunately, there are too many Wikipedians out there for me to know who's experienced and who's not. Because of WP:FIES, most experienced editors add edit summaries; so the absence of one is a warning that an edit may have been made by an inexperienced editor, or at least one who doesn't have a terribly firm grasp of WP principles and etiquette. When I'm checking my watchlist, the lack of an edit summary is a red flag, indicating that this is an edit that needs to be checked up on.

"Edit summaries take time" strikes me as a rather bad argument. The time that you save yourself by omitting the summary is probably much less than the time that it costs your brother editors to check up on those suspicious no-summary edits. Considered in that light, the argument boils down to: "My time is more valuable than yours." This, I think is why we have WP:FIES; and why we have Template:Uw-editsummary for those who disregard it. Ammodramus (talk) 15:19, 2 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I do not like your threatening attitude. Put up one instance of me putting one non notable into an article or get off my back...William 15:28, 2 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Where, exactly, am I threatening you, and with what? The strongest "threat" I can see is the implication that I can put an embarrassing template on your talk page, a template that you can promptly remove. Moreover, I'm not actually threatening to put the template there; I'm pointing out its existence as supporting my contention that WP etiquette calls for you to leave an edit summary.

I haven't suggested that any of your edits have been inappropriate (and, as best I can remember, I haven't reverted any of them). My point is that however unexceptionable the edits may be, if they show up on my watchlist with no edit summary, then I have to check up on them and make sure they're OK. This wastes time that I could be spending on more productive uses (like the article I'm developing at a rate of about two paragraphs a day); and this waste of time could be avoided if you'd leave edit summaries. Your response to this seems to be "Yes, but leaving an edit summary wastes my time, and I'd rather waste your time than mine." To this I reply, "However, Wikiquette, as embodied in WP:FIES and supported by Template:Uw-editsummary, supports my position rather than yours."

I see no element of threat in any of this. I'm trying to point out, with supporting arguments, that you're committing a Wikisolecism by not leaving edit summaries, and to ask that you change this behavior out of consideration for your fellow editors. Ammodramus (talk) 16:27, 2 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Warning

One more post to my talk page and I will report you to the proper wikipedia authorities for WP:Harassment. If you're so worried about wasting your time, you wouldn't be bothering me who has repeatedly asked you to prove one time I put something wrong into one of your watchlist articles. Instead I get threatened with to quote you a 'embarrassing template'. Why don't you look into the arbcom and try seeing if you can join it. They're on a witch hunt right now for Rich Farmbrough and you'd fit in perfectly. In the meantime Get off my back and page....William 16:51, 2 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

(Illustration inserted by User:WilliamJE.)
I've just read through WP:HA, and am confident that I'm not committing it. Indeed, I'd ask that you read WP:HA#NOT, which states in part, "[I]t must be emphasized that one editor warning another for disruption or incivility is not harassment if the claims are presented civilly, made in good faith and in an attempt to resolve a dispute instead of escalating one." I think that describes the situation here. I'm asking you to abide by the WP guideline in WP:FIES, and explaining why your failure to do so causes inconvenience to your fellow editors; you're declining to do so, and responding with accusations of threats and harassment.
How would you suggest that I handle this matter in a non-harassing way, short of resigning myself to continuing to put up with your breaches of the edit-summary policy? I reiterate that this isn't just Wikifussiness on my part: these un-summaried edits cost me and other editors time and inconvenience. Ammodramus (talk) 20:05, 2 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Not in Good faith at all. Threats, Failure to WP:AGF, Failure to comply with multiple requests to both put up or not posting to my talk page, failure to read the notice at the top of my talk page that says to reply at your talk page. That's harassment because its certainly clear you know how to read. See you at the etiquette boards....William 20:22, 2 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I'd rather not pester the overworked dispute-resolution people with this, the more so since it seems like an issue that we could resolve so easily by discussion. Again, let me ask: if you were being subjected to inconvenience and loss of time because of what you had excellent reason to believe was another editor's failure to observe WP policy, what would you do? If that editor refused to acknowledge the validity of your complaint or to change his behavior, failed to make arguments supporting his own position, and then demanded that you cease all contact, how would you respond? Throughout this discussion, I've been trying to conduct myself as I'd want someone to act toward me if the roles were reversed. I'd willingly hear your argument that I'm misapplying WP:FIES, but as far as I can see you've made no such argument. Ammodramus (talk) 20:52, 2 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Request renewed

Hoping that Saturday was an especially rough day for you, and that your life's now a considerably more pleasant place, I'll renew my recent request, in hopes of a more favorable reception.

Could you please add edit summaries when you add notable residents to articles on communities? As I said recently, the lack of a summary on an edit complicates my task of going through my watchlist and checking for inappropriate edits. Since most experienced editors use them, the absence of one is a red flag on my watchlist.

An additional use of edit summaries that didn't occur to me when I was writing you Saturday, but that's struck me since then, is that they make it easier to go through an article's history. If an editor's trying to find when and by whom a questionable edit was made, the edit summaries in the history page help greatly.

Please note that I'm in no way questioning the legitimacy of any of your edits. The problems created by the lack of an edit summary arise when I'm going through my watchlist and deciding which of the recent edits need to be followed up; or when I'm going through an article history trying to find a particular edit, and have to check edits individually because there's no summary to tell me whether it might be the one I'm looking for or not.

To your point that writing edit summaries takes time, I'll repeat: the time that it saves you now is offset by the time that it costs other editors later. This seems to come down to a question of whose time and convenience come first. To me, WP:FIES resolves that question; and the existence of a reminder template for editors who don't include summaries strongly suggests that Wikiquette calls for including them.

Thanks for your attention to this, and I hope that your pursuits, Wikipedic and otherwise, are going well. Ammodramus (talk) 17:29, 5 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You're on notice

Go here[4]

And once again don't ever reply to my talk page again till you can produce one edit where I put a non notable person into a town article....William 18:15, 5 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]


Not sure if this helps, but every time I edit a section, say "Notable residents", the software automatically adds a an edit summary of the section name. I looked through "My preferences" (between "My sandbox" and "My watchlist" at the top of the page) to see if I set it up this way, but I'm not sure I found anything. It might be following the tabs "My preferences" "editing" then mark the 3rd box under Advanced options:

"Advanced options

Edit area font style:
  • Show preview before edit box
  • Show preview on first edit
  • Enable section editing via [edit] links"
If that's not it I'm sure I can find out somewhere.
In summary Reset My preferences ==> automatic edit comment ==> no argument
All the best,
Smallbones (talk) 18:20, 5 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Charles Mix County courthouse

(To User:Frankie Rae.) There's a good chance that within the next two or three weeks, I'll be up in the vicinity of Lake Andes, South Dakota. If so, I'll try to hit the Chas. Mix County courthouse in the early morning or late evening, when there's some sunlight on the north side. If I should make it there, are there any photos that you'd particularly like me to try to get? (If I can, I'll go on a weekday and try for some interior shots as well.) Ammodramus (talk) 00:42, 6 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Perfect timing for north facade shots! You've taken superb photos, but consider these four ideas:
  • The terra cotta panels to either side of the main entrance (you already have views of the windows with matching trim just below them)
  • The stone coping and fancy brickwork immediately below roofline, either straight on or at a corner other than the southwest (you have a great photo of the chimney corner already)
  • The interior lobby and dome are thought to be quite something. As you may know by now, Steele really liked domes.
  • Two observers talk about an interior water fountain covered with a mosaic, perhaps in the same lobby.
If you get truly ambitious, Armour, South Dakota is nearby. If you end up there:
Armour Carnegie Library (part of the Armour Historic District)
Year: 1915 Address: 915 Main Street, Armour, South Dakota
As you know by now, this is one of Steele’s early Prairie School buildings. Here’s a photo: [[5]] The hip roof and overhanging eaves are classic Prairie Style. The brickwork is likely important, and might still show the original red mortar between tan bricks. It appears to have a water table just over the basement foundation level, which originally was of limestone ashlar and might still be. It should match the panel over the entrance with the name engraved. The main windows in front were once larger, and photos showing their partially filled reduced size could be important. Interior trim is quarter sawn oak, if you can get inside.
The library appears to be at one edge (Third and Main) of an extensive historic district (30 buildings or so) from the brief span of years when Armour was the second biggest town in South Dakota. You might photograph some of them for completeness, if you like, but it could be an overwhelming quantity of work. If you decide to pursue them, six of the more interesting structures might include:
  • Perry’s Studio, 901 Main, Built 1895, mixed commercial and residence, one-story, flat-topped, stamped metal facing
  • L.H. Boylon House, 920 Main, Built 1918, American Craftsman Bungalow
  • William Moore House, 921 Main, Built 1904, designed by Glenn L. Saxton in Colonial Revival style
  • EP Wanzer House, 1203 Main, Built 1895, Queen Anne with a 2-story Victorian tower
  • Scholes-Chesley House, 1209 Main, Built circa 1900, Colonial Revival style
  • Dr. Sam Carney House, 1301 Main, Built circa 1894, Queen Anne style with cross-gable roof, probably the oldest of the district
Steele designed a concrete dairy barn for the Yankton State Hospital, but that's quite a ways east.
I'm compiling a list of additional Steele buildings in Nebraska, South Dakota, and Iowa. Enjoy the trip! --Frankie Rae (talk) 20:41, 6 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Back from Lake Andes, and I've started processing my photos. I've edited and uploaded the new exterior shots, which are in Commons:Category:Charles Mix County Courthouse.
Beautiful interior—and I've got 100 photos of it to go through (not all distinct: I took a lot of repeats, to ensure that at least one of my low-light shots wouldn't be blurred). It'll probably be a while before I get them uploaded. Will let you know when I do.
Didn't make it to Armour: it was another 22 miles. Moreover, I was having a bit of trouble with the light: at about the time that the sun moved far enough north of west to light the courthouse's north face well, a bank of clouds slid over it and put the building in shade again. Eventually got my north-face shots, but spent a lot of time waiting and hoping for little gaps in the cloud. Ammodramus (talk) 12:25, 2 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Three months later, the interior photos are finally up. I apologize for the delay; it's been a somewhat busy three months, and the number of photos made this project somewhat intimidating, which brought out my natural tendency to procrastinate.
The interior, particularly on the first floor, wasn't easy to shoot. The lighting was somewhat dim, which made hand-held shots difficult; and if an exterior window is in the frame, it tends to glare. Unfortunately, using flash wasn't a good option either: the only one I have is the flash that's part of my camera, and that tended to wash out the detail of the terra-cotta.
Note that on the interior of the building, the mortar in the horizontal joints in the brickwork is recessed, as it was on the exterior of the Woodbury County courthouse and the Sioux City First Cong'l Church. The depth of the raking is similar: about half the diameter of a quarter, or about half an inch. When I found this, I took another look at the mortar on the exterior of the building. Although I've got no eye for it, the exterior mortar looked somewhat new. I wonder whether the exterior mortar has been replaced or re-pointed, and whether the people who did it didn't realize that the deep raking was intentional.
At your request, got several shots of the drinking fountain. It doesn't have a mosaic behind it, as your sources suggested, but terra-cotta ornamentation. Ammodramus (talk) 02:56, 12 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry it's been so busy, but I recognize the feeling. I have some sense of the difficulty of photographing in dim indoor spaces, but these images are lovely! I'm particularly impressed (and pleased) with the images of the dome, which must have been quite difficult to capture against the glare.
Your observations on the mortar are tantalizing. I had previously noticed that the water table and foundation appeared to have been recently painted. I wonder if they did some general work on the exterior without the knowledge or perhaps the funding to restore the original raking?
--Frankie Rae (talk) 21:39, 18 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

McCook Nebraska

  • Dennis Utter is a former town resident. In fact he's a past Mayor and City Council member. A google search[6] produces this[7] at the very top of the page. Your mistake. In the future, if I add someone and you're not sure why I did, drop me a note on my talk page. I'm here almost every day(But next Jun 15-17 I will be around very little. My wife is having a outpatient medical procedure done on the 15th) and will get back to you promptly without blowing your head off.
  • Ralph Brooks. His listing at Political Graveyard, an excellent source for background on state legislators and one of my first choices for info, made no mention of McCook. I didn't know about this.[8]. My mistake so we're even.
  • The prose. First I felt listing the governors one by one was better, baseball player or athlete entries usually just say what sport they played. Norris was influential but where do you draw what to say or not to say? Nelson is a past Governor, I'm sure he has some worthy accomplishments. If you allow summaries, people are also going to edit in bad things about these people and if they're true, it would be hard to justify taking them down. The bit about the Norris home might be better off in the cultural part of the article.
  • Some state legislator articles. I had to remove copyrighted material from DiAnna Schimek and ‎[[David I. Maurstad].
  • What would you think if I added politicians(or other notable people. Former Miss Nebraskas for example) who don't have a article to town articles but with a reference from a reliable source(Political graveyard, Miss Nebraska website, etc) to backup their notability?
  • With a few articles I changed the way they're ordered. See Also comes before References, which comes before External Links. Cultural mentions(Smithville was a filming location for the movie 'The Monster that ate Kansas'. That kind of stuff.) and notable people come on top of those. Misordering doesn't arise too often but what do you think?
  • Per WP:EL there really shouldn't be external links in the text of a article. I try changing these into IC. Sometimes I eliminate See Also stuff. Especially if they're two links in the article already to the SA topic.
  • Why does there have to be a 'People from Bassett Nebraska' category? Population is 619 and the category has one entry and more entries are likely to be long in coming.(County categories even if there is only 1 person, are fine with me. I recently created People from category pages for Garfield, Pierce, Fillmore, Dixon, Hamilton, Morrill, and Kimball Counties) There are towns in Nebraska more worthy of its own category, McCook for one. I created a People from Hastings Nebraska category recently.
  • Write back here when you have time. I'll be keeping an eye out....William 17:19, 8 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the note. You've raised a number of points, and I'll have to think about some of them before I respond. For now, though, let me wish your wife the best on her medical procedure. Ammodramus (talk) 17:53, 8 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I haven't had the chance to think through all the points you brought up; but will mention a few things.
Re. "People from..." categories: My opinion's probably not very useful on that. I've had little to do with the category system in WP (as opposed to Commons, where I find myself creating a lot of categories and not infrequently getting involved in recategorization efforts). I'd be inclined to say that "People from..." categories should be fairly large, running to states and to large cities. On a smaller scale, I'd say that the "Notable people" sections in articles would be a better way of presenting that information than the category system.
One problem with "People from..." categories is that people move; sometimes, move a lot. For example, a few months back I was involved in a discussion regarding the author Willa Cather, who was born in Virginia, moved to Nebraska in her childhood and grew up there, lived in Pittsburgh for some years, then moved to New York, but also (if I remember correctly) had a summer home in the Canadian Maritimes. For that matter, Dennis Utter, according to the Omaha World-Herald obituary cited in the article, grew up in Wyoming and held political office while living in both McCook, Nebraska and Hastings, Nebraska. If someone's moved fairly often, then their article could wind up in a long stack of "People from" categories.
Re. external links: I agree 100%. I try to do that myself; or, not infrequently, I eliminate the link altogether, since a great many of them tend to be promotional. I agree with you on the overuse of "See also", as well. If the article's Wikilinked in the appropriate section, there's no need for a see-also; and I've run into cases where people have added see-alsos that lead to very minimal stubs, with no additional information to speak of.
Re. ordering of sections: I generally try to follow the order laid out at WP:WikiProject Cities/US Guideline, although I think there've been cases where it seemed more logical to place "Infrastructure" immediately after "Geography" or "Economy". Ordering is a perennial problem—we get lots of good-faith edits, especially by IP editors, who seem to toss their information onto the page and leave it wherever it may happen to land. They also tend not to use the preview button... but I feel a rant coming on, and I'd better choke it off.
Re. copyvio: That's another thing I spend a lot of time tracking down on my watchlist. It's common enough that if an IP editor introduces a long passage with reasonably good writing and no footnotes, I routinely Google a distinctive-looking phrase to see if it's cut-and-pasted from a copyrighted source. Glad that you caught it in the Schimek and Maurstad articles.
I need to do some further thinking about some of the other points in your post, and will try to respond to them later. Again, thanks for bringing them up; and again, good luck to your wife on the forthcoming procedure. Ammodramus (talk) 23:58, 8 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the well wishes. I'll reply when you're totally done commenting....William 00:16, 9 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
It's taken me forever to get back to this, for which I apologize. I've been trying to organize my thoughts on some of your points, and my thoughts have resisted organization.
First, an easy point: I'm sorry about the deletion of Dennis Utter from the McCook article. I looked at the DU article, and at least at that time it didn't mention McCook; moreover, he was elected in a legislative district that wasn't particularly close to McCook. After your note above, I checked the World-Herald obituary cited in the article, and found that he'd actually been mayor in McCook before moving to Hastings.
Re. addition of notable-people with citations, even if no WP article: I have no problem whatsoever with this. Indeed, I'd rather that all such additions had citations, whether or not there was a WP article. For one thing, someone might add a person to the list based on an error in the person's article (for example, the Loup County/Loup City problem you ran down in the Edward L. Thrasher article—and, by the way, when I next get to Loup City, I'll see if I can find an old yearbook or something in the library to help resolve that). To me, this comes perilously close to using WP as a source.
Re. prose, I strongly prefer it to bullet lists, although the problem you mentioned certainly exists: that the brief descriptions will get expanded into mini-articles on the people. One thing I like about prose is that it gives us a way to organize the people by their areas of notability, with a new paragraph for each area. "Notable political figures from Jonesville include..." (new paragraph) "Several Jonesville residents have achieved some prominence in the sphere of arts and literature, including..." (new paragraph) "Professional athletes who have lived in Jonesville include..."
Another thing I like about prose accounts of notables, or rather that I dislike about bullet lists, is that the lists offer an easy template for inappropriate edits: both for the high-school wag who decides to add one of his friends as a billionaire industrialist, and for the good-faith editor who thinks that the wrestling coach should be on the list because he's taken the team to the state tournament twice. A great many people seem to be intimidated by the thought of writing an English sentence; and they tend to be the sort of people whose contributions take a lot of reverting or fixing. I suspect that they're much more likely to cut, paste, and modify an entry in a list than to generate actual English prose.
Think that these cover all the points you raised. Again, I apologize for taking so long to respond (and for responding at such inordinate length when I did). Look forward to your reply, when you're able to make one; and again, if it's not too much repetition, I hope that all goes well for your wife tomorrow. Ammodramus (talk) 18:53, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

House of Representatives chamber

Since you've been all over the state, it's my guess that you've been to the capitol in Lincoln. I just noticed that the building was built before the House got abolished, and I'm curious — do you know what they do with the old House chambers? The article on the capitol building doesn't even discuss the House. Nyttend (talk) 23:28, 8 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hurried response: here's a page from the capitol website with a bit about it. Googling "warner legislative chamber" would probably turn up more information about current uses. Ammodramus (talk) 00:02, 9 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for fixing the Wlink

Hello, Ammodramus. Thanks for fixing the Wikilink in Incident at Hawk's Hill. I should have been more careful, since I'm the daughter of a birder and from NE CO, I am aware that there's more than one type of Prairie Chicken. I don't know how you noticed the mistake, but I appreciate your getting it right. Tlqk56 (talk) 19:09, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks—I happened to be editing to correct an adverbial "everyday", and my eye fell on the "Tympanuchus" in the edit window. As a birder myself, I had to check up on that, and then to see if I couldn't refine it. Ammodramus (talk) 19:17, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

autopatrolled

Hello, this is just to let you know that I have granted you the "autopatrolled" permission. This won't affect your editing, it just automatically marks any page you create as patrolled, benefiting new page patrollers. You seem to have a solid grasp of our notability, verifiability, copyright, and (although you've dealt with these less, so far as I noticed) biography of living persons policies. I came to this conclusion based on a review of several of your article creations, a review of your user talk page, a few of the very small number of deleted contributions you have and some examples of your participation at AfD. I noticed your account because of a recent comment you made at AfD, it impressed me enough to look farther. If for any reason you'd prefer not to be flagged this way, please let me know and I'll gladly hit "undo". Anyway, cheers! --j⚛e deckertalk 03:03, 26 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your flattering vote of confidence in giving me "autopatrolled" status. You mentioned that your attention was drawn by a comment I'd made at AfD; if it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you let me know which one? I'm relatively new to the AfD process, and it'd help me to know when I've done it right, in the view of more experienced editors. (I'll also try to respond appropriately to criticism, but I much prefer compliments.) Thanks. Ammodramus (talk) 03:21, 26 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Sure, it was your "embarrassed comment" at Clint Coley, which I felt a proactive and responsible response to a minor (and apparently rare) mistake. In looking through others where your !vote ended up different than consensus, I saw things like this one, and again, clue seemed evidenced. (I didn't focus on AfD, so this shouldn't be considered a strong review of all that work, but the few examples I looked at confirmed the general impression I got from the rest of the edits I observed.)--j⚛e deckertalk 03:28, 26 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the reply. I'm glad some good came out of my Coley screw-up. (Since I've created an average of less than ten articles a year, I don't suppose that the autopatrolled status is saving the new-page patrollers a lot of work; but every little bit helps.) Ammodramus (talk) 03:35, 26 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
If that's what you call a screw-up, you're doing a lot better than most of us. And yeah, it doesn't make much of a difference individually, but over a couple thousand people it definitely adds up. --j⚛e deckertalk 03:40, 26 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

George Crabbe

Some copy-edits would probably help quite a bit. Anything you can do would be very much appreciated. I figured I'd roll the old dice, especially seeing that the worst that can happen is a fail. I've taken care of the refs, switching the primary ones over to sfn temps and making sure everything is properly cited. As TTT said, the review might get picked up quick because of the drive. INeverCry 17:09, 1 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your cleanup work. I've re-named the critical section "poetry", taking Emily Dickenson for the example. As for breaking it up, this is the kind of thing I'm not at all good with; I don't read much criticism myself, and I really had to push myself to put together what's there now... INeverCry 04:50, 2 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I've withdrawn the GAN. The idea of having to deal with that critical mess is just too distasteful for me. Thanks for your help, though. Atleast it's a "pretty good" article. INeverCry 06:14, 2 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
A comprehensive critical section for Trollope sounds like a horribly complex and difficult undertaking to me. Speaking of Trollope, my friend Antiquary recently did an article on The Three Clerks. INeverCry 17:39, 2 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Lincoln, Nebraska (Amtrak station)

Hi there. I've come to bother you because you seem to be active on Nebraska topics, including Lincoln, Nebraska, and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Nebraska doesn't get much traffic. There's a completely new Amtrak station in Lincoln (see Lincoln, Nebraska (Amtrak station) and Amtrak's press release) and I was hoping you might be in a position to take a photograph of it, or to point me in the direction of someone who could. Thanks, Mackensen (talk) 23:03, 3 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Photographer's Barnstar
For going out and doing something in the real world just because some guy on the other side of the country asked you to. Mackensen (talk) 21:48, 16 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Demographics of Nebraska communities

(To User:Nyttend.) I notice that you've reverted a number of recent changes in which User:Jamo2008 added a percent sign to the demographics section of articles on Nebraska communites (for example, this diff). Any reason for this? The percent sign seemed quite appropriate to me; and your reversion has removed a space, producing "0.1Pacific Islander".

On some other reversions of Jamo2008's edits, you've restored the old phrasing for the third paragraph of the "Demographics" section, including the rather awful "In the village the population was spread out..." phrasing. For what it's worth, Jamo2008 and I mooted a change to this phrasing at WikiProject Cities; we got disappointingly little response, but the single not-us person who responded to us favored the change. Is there a good Wikireason for keeping the old phrasing, or another reason why you reverted Jamo2008's edits?

Finally, I note that you added a "minor edit" tag to these reversions, even when they involved striking >200 characters and reverting to the old boilerplate. Is this appropriate? I ask not to score a point, but in ignorance: I'd always thought that the minor-edit tag was reserved for uncontroversial edits, e.g. corrections of indisputable spelling and grammar errors. —Ammodramus (talk) 00:42, 16 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This user was running an unauthorised bot to delete large amounts of sourced content against consensus (we had a discussion about this some time back, and consensus was to keep 2000 data and just add 2010), as well as removing the sourcing for the chunk of 2000 that was kept, and also randomly changing area figures away from what was stated in the provided source. Many of the edits that added percentage signs were immediately preceded by other edits by him that were the ones I was trying to revert; I'm sorry that I reverted some that only added the percentages, but we're talking a few thousand bad edits, and I only began to use rollback on all of these after checking several and finding that rollback wouldn't revert just the percent signs. As for the minor-edit marker: this is automatic when you use rollback — it's not something that I could add or remove. Nyttend (talk) 02:19, 16 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the reply; I hadn't known that there'd been discussion on this. Do you happen to recall where it took place? If possible, I'd still like to push for a change in the boilerplate—that "spread out" really sticks in my craw. Ammodramus (talk) 02:26, 16 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Don't remember; sorry. It would have been substantially better if years ago we'd just made a template with a bunch of parsers so that a single edit would change the wording for everything. Nyttend (talk) 02:35, 16 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Question

Why is the Municipalities and communities template in Nebraska Populated Places in (name the county) category pages? Here[9] is Adams County for one example. The category page should be sufficient for navigation. Please reply back here....William 14:05, 27 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm afraid I don't know. I've had very little to do with either templates or categories in WP. I see that in the case of Adams County, the template was added by User:Jllm06, whose talk page suggests a history of working on templates and categories; you might want to direct the question there. Ammodramus (talk) 14:22, 27 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I've separated the critical stuff into "poetry" and "criticism" sections. Can you take a quick look and tell me what you think of it? INeverCry 17:55, 30 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Could you comment at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject National_Register of Historic Places#use of upload-assisting pic in NRHP lists?

This is regarding a key part of the upcoming WLM-US photo contest. Smallbones (talk) 12:24, 7 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

New Britain Dry Cleaning Corp.

Ammodramus.

8/22/12.

Regarding your NOTABILITY COMMENTS. Have I satisfied all your issues? CAN I DELETE YOUR NOTABILITY CODING at the beginning of the article?

Jim (Grandson-Jim (talk) 18:08, 22 August 2012 (UTC))[reply]


You were correct in your assumption. When I typed in the name of the article in WP, it came up on my MacBook screen (using Safari) with the word Edit on the right side of each section of the article. Signing in was NOT necessary to make changes to the article.

I then use used Google Search to find the above article on my MacBook, my Dell PC (using Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers), and my iPad (using iPad Safari browser). Each time, the article came up #1 on the search list and, when I clicked on the name, each time the article appeared on the screen with the ability to edit each section without me having to sign in.

Who can I go to to ask how to stop the article from appearing in the Edit mode even when not signing in to edit the document?

Must I delete the entire article and start a "new" article to correct the problem?

Could there be a cause and effect relationship between the Notability Flag you added to the article and the article staying in the Edit mode?

Regarding your NOTABILITY COMMENTS. Have I satisfied all your issues? CAN I DELETE YOUR NOTABILITY CODING at the beginning of the article?

Jim (74.196.62.5 (talk) 00:17, 22 August 2012 (UTC))[reply]

BigSkyBill

Ammo,

You've done some NRHP photos in SC, if I remember correctly. You should certainly meet Bigskybill, who has uploaded over 600 SC pix as part of WLM-US.

All the best,

Smallbones(smalltalk) 03:54, 7 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Unknown saint

Regarding your post on WT:CATHOLIC, I replied there: The parish website's Church Tour says: "The saint in armor is unknown. He could easily be St. Wenceslaus, St. Alexander, St. Stanislaus of Cracow or several others." Elizium23 (talk) 17:53, 14 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Lancaster County, Nebraska

Hi and thanks for the note ... actually, I did intentionally put the boundary increase information in the Location column. It seems to me that makes better sense to put it there than in the Summary column since it's related to the location. I've been doing this the last month or so as I've updated the lists. If you feel that it doesn't belong there, why don't we kick it around a bit at WT:NRHP? I'm happy to go with the consensus. --sanfranman59 (talk) 02:50, 16 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thought you might like this one

from WLM File:Reconstructed Blacksmith shop made of sod.jpg

Smallbones(smalltalk) 01:30, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Photos of pending listings

Do you upload photos of pending listings, and/or do you know of others who do? I'm considering creating a Commons category as a holding pen for such images, and I'd like your opinion on whether it would be useful. Please reply at my talk page, since I've also asked for input from Ebyabe and Smallbones. Nyttend (talk) 13:18, 11 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Might I ask you to take a look at this article? The old Post Office building is NRHP (which isn't noted in the article), the museum deserves lots of space too. Have you ever thought of doing a GLAM project? Any help appreciated. Smallbones(smalltalk) 20:11, 12 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Would definitely be appreciated. Smallbones(smalltalk) 04:17, 4 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Merry Christmas

Smallbones(smalltalk) 01:11, 20 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Peter David and free rein

Oh, I didn't know that. Thanks for pointing that out to me. Merry Christmas. :-) Nightscream (talk) 15:26, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Central City

Thanks for the edits on Central City! Thanks for the pictures of historical places too! I'll continue to add to its history. Over the next year or so, I might just fill history of towns, historical locations, and history of Merrick county as a whole. It might serve as a model of how others might build on the great work you have already done.--I am One of Many (talk) 19:30, 25 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Charles H Mohr

There is two pages to Mr Mohr's New York Times Obituary. Please click "Page 2" for reference to birthplace in Loup City by the New York Times, which is the foundation of the article at this time so I can keep the Loup City post going before you continuously delete it. Octave192 (talk) 22:12, 27 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Trollope's boyhood home

Take a look at this illustration I just uploaded: File:Orley Farm frontispiece illustration.jpg. Unfortunately the source is pretty foxed, but I removed quite a bit of it. According to Oxford, this is Trollope's own boyhood home. INeverCry 21:49, 9 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Mormon Trail Marker, Central City

Do you think the image of the marker is ok or should that be removed too? I could just keep the paragraph with a link to Lone Tree. Whatever you think is best, since I'm new at this.--I am One of Many (talk) 22:34, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see a problem with the photo of the Mormon Trail marker. The thing I fixed with my edit was the Wikilink to a page that didn't exist and was unlikely ever to be created (since we've got a Mormon Trail article already, and since the historical marker near Central City doesn't itself meet notability standards). There's a policy concerning that at WP:REDLINK that states, in effect: it's OK to insert a redlink if the article's likely to be created (thus all the redlinks, for instance, on the NRHP lists); but if the article's not likely to be created, it shouldn't be Wikilinked. Ammodramus (talk) 02:48, 22 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Lewis Marnell section

I understand the removal of the peripheral content on the Nike page, but I am going to reinstate the Nike-specific content. let me know what you think.--Soulparadox (talk) 00:14, 23 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm afraid that I know almost nothing about skateboarding, so I don't know how notable Lewis Marnell is, although I see that his name is redlinked. At the Nike Skateboarding article, he appears as one of a list of 22 professional members of the team, only three of whom are bluelinked. This leads me to question his notability. That being the case, it doesn't seem appropriate to devote so much emphasis to him in the Nike article.
The tone of the subsection on Marnell also seems entirely wrong, like a violation of WP:NOTMEMORIAL. Phrasing like "passed away" and "global skateboard community was shocked by the news", the rather extraneous detail about his recent marriage, and the blockquote from Nike's tribute site all make the subsection read more like a eulogy for Marnell than an encyclopedia entry.
If Marnell played a particularly significant role on the team (as opposed to being 1/22nd of it), it'd be appropriate to include a bit about his part on the team. If his death had a serious impact beyond the emotional on Nike—for instance, if it forced the cancellation of a major promotional tour, or occurred just when a Lewis Marnell shoe was about to hit the market—then it'd be appropriate to include a well-sourced passage on that.
I'll let you consider this and edit the page accordingly, since I assume that you're far more familiar with the skateboarding world than I. I'll watch the page, and will only stick my oar in again if it looks like it still fails WP:NOTMEMORIAL, or if there's something obvious that needs fixing. Ammodramus (talk) 02:28, 23 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for the help with this, as I sincerely appreciate it. I am still relatively new to Wikipedia and needed to become aware of this information.--Soulparadox (talk) 02:36, 23 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the reply. At your talk page, I see that it looks like you and another editor are working up a Lewis Marnell article. Hope that turns out well for you. Ammodramus (talk) 02:41, 23 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
WikiThanks
WikiThanks
Thank you for the way you've managed this.--Soulparadox (talk) 02:45, 23 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]


Nebraska Ghost Towns

Hi Ammodramus,

I was looking at Towns No Longer in Existence in Merrick County and I was surprised to see three. There are two others that are or are near ghost towns (Worms and Havens). That suggests to me that there may be many ghost towns (locations) in Nebraska. Do you think an interesting long-long-term project would be to document these ghost towns and their locations? Even if there were only one per county on average, that would be a lot of ghost towns. Some I'll bet with interesting histories.--I am One of Many (talk) 08:32, 24 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting idea, but it might be difficult to come up with adequate documentation for an article. The Historic Building Surveys (like the one you cite for Merrick Co) would be one place to start. You might also check the county entries at Andreas's History of the State of Nebraska: it was written in 1882, when many of the now-ghost towns were still going concerns. However, I suspect that for many, you'd have little more than a name and a location.
You mention near-ghost towns like Worms and Havens. It might be better to try to work on some articles on unincorporated communities like that, where there's still have some population, rather than pure ghost towns whose sites are now cornfields. I've done a few of those—Berea, Lindy, and Tamora—but there are plenty left. There might well be census data for some of them, they're more likely to show up in the historic-building surveys, and if nothing else you might be able to find an explanation of the name in something like Perkey's Nebraska Place Names or Lilian Linder Fitzpatrick's 1925 "Nebraska Place-Names".
If you launch an article and don't have a photo for it, add the template {{reqphoto|in=Nebraska}} on the talk page, and it'll show up in Category:Wikipedia_requested_photographs_in_Nebraska. You might also leave a note at my talk page; I'll try to get photos when I'm next in the right part of the state.
Also, if you start a new article on an unincorporated community, you might want to add it to the county template (the "Municipalities and communities of X County, Nebraska" business that appears near the bottom of articles on towns).
Let me know if you launch any articles like this; I'd be interested in reading them, and will put them on my watchlist. 03:36, 25 January 2013 (UTC)
I'm sorry about not getting back to you sooner, but family issues intervened in the meantime. Anyway, I basically agree your suggestions. I have traveled from California to Nebraska these last two weekends and I had a chance to drive around and look at some unincorporated towns. The first thing that struck me is that some are or are rapidly becoming ghost towns. I found Havens, but it is now a ghost town. There is one almost fallen old brick buildings left. There are two close-by houses, but it is only the remaining trees that provide a layout of what this town may have once looked like. That led me to wonder whether there may still be trees left for some ghost towns, which, at least, provide some indication of the layout of the town. No doubt many old ghost towns are just corn fields now, but are still remnants of some old ghost towns worth photographing?
I probably won't get started on this project till summer, but I'll take advantage of your willingness to take photographs!
I think it is important to photograph these small unincorporated towns now, because they are disappearing so fast not so much because of hard times, but the opposite. I saw so much new construction, which I think is due to good grain prices. Ironically, agricultural prices may hastening the end of these small communities.--I am One of Many (talk) 21:03, 4 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Original research in Rowland Brown

I've just encountered the Rowland Brown article, to which you've made major additions. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that many of those additions appear to contravene one of Wikipedia's core policies: no original research.

Your userpage declares that you've done extensive research on Brown. From my reading of the article, it appears that you've incorporated a great deal of this research into it, including your own conclusions about the truth or falsehood of various rumors about Brown. Unfortunately, this is just what the NOR policy is intended to prevent. It's appropriate to quote rumors and the conclusions of others about them, but not to include your own conclusions, however well-founded they might be.

There is an out, however. If you've published your work in a reliable source (e.g. a refereed, or at least a reputable, journal), it's perfectly all right to cite it, using yourself in third person.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with Wikipolicy; if you're not acquainted with NOR, I'd strongly encourage you to read it and modify the Brown article to bring it into conformity therewith. Please feel free to leave a note at my talk page if you've got any questions about this, or if there's any help I can give you. Ammodramus (talk) 21:05, 28 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The whole notion of avoiding "original research" is ambiguous in itself, when one is necessarily bound to secondary sources. I have done an enormous amount of research for this article and have thought I should actually have published it in a journal instead of on Wikipedia. That would involve reducing the entire thing, to the stub that it was. (I am as interested as you are in making Wikipedia a reliable source, something that few academics consider it to be.) BrownPearl (talk) 00:27, 29 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Hi again and thank you. I think you know some of what is below and I do understand the need to verify. I just think it is too bad that relying on the printed word is the only standard, It all makes me very sad. I was hoping when Wikipedia started its brave and wonderful venture that it would be more reliable than the Bible, that its founders were aware that "truth" is soon buried by assumption.
I've been stewing all night about this. It is enormously important to me. I am working on a book with the Working Title: The Loss of History, I am the illegitimate daughter of Rowland Brown. Everyone in the family knew about me and I existed, but I am not included on the family tree. All i knew of him was the rumors, some of which matched, and some that didn't. For the last several years I have been working on a family history . . . my mother's. I use original sources, letters, journals and old News papers. The discrepancies are enormous. What gets into print and is therefore taken as the truth has often been written in order to sell either a Newspaper or a book. Most often, whatever is meant for a general public is written pretty much without thinking about its impact. The big thing I am writing is about that impact. I had not intended to write about my father at all until I saw the stub. As i wrote it, I realized that trying to tell something that was more accurate on Wikipedia would make whatever I wrote subsequently appear to have been plagiarized. I am more than happy to remove the whole thing, or to alter it sufficiently to both meet your standards and my own.
Thank you. I need to get finished with this thing in one way or another. At eighty-five, the deadline is real.BrownPearl (talk) 11:17, 29 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I can't handle this. I just took out everything that I wanted to say about what happened to Rowland Brown. When I went ti save it. I got the message that someone else had made changes (for the third time this week) and had to wipe out all of my work. (also "free reign" was exactly what i wanted to say, as (being the boss). Just wipe it out if you like. Whatever. I really don't have time, but do leave the birthday correction even though I suppose is that is "original research." I determined it by looking at the US Census Sheets for 1900 and 1910 and at the registration for the Navy, because I got tired of seeing it given as 1897 in virtually every source. All the sources I have used and those that I haven't put in yet are reliable.
Thanks again. It's been a nightmare, but I've learned a lot.BrownPearl (talk) 17:40, 29 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The more I think about this whole thing, the more upset ai get. THE ENTIRE REASON I AM DOING THIS IS TO CLARIFY AND CORRECT MISINFORMATION AND ITS SOURCES THAT WERE CONTAINED IN TE ORIGINAL STUB. MY method may seem awkward and my familiarity with Wikipedia's markup language lacking, but I believe that I have the right if not the responsibility to present evidence for consideration.I thought that was the concept behind Wikipedia's existence. The original stub was well documented and "verifiable" by your standards but it was wrong. The primary sourcee was Stemple

It has the wrong dates and the comment by the much revered Philip Dunne (founder of the screenwriters' guild) concerning drinking. My father was a tea-totaler, as confirmed by Gene Fowler in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette article that I site a number of times. Why Fowler? Because Fowler was a lifelong friend of my father's and a contemporary of Dunne. You say in your comments concerning my article that my sources are used to justify my opinions. The opinions I present, ro at least mean to present are topic sentences meant to help the reader understand some of the conflicting, but "verifiable" evidence upon which Brown's reputation was built. To me, it seems important because his story is emblematic of the average experience, not just of screenwriters but of artists in general, and therein lies its truth.

Again, I have trouble with the markup language and the examples proffered for techies.

I would really like it if the people who monitor my work were less like police and more like good editors, whose only purpose was to help me say what I think needs saying, rather than denying me the right on the grounds that I cannot provide sources. There is not anything that I assert in the article that is not based on a reliable source. Please help me.

Megan McClard BrownPearl (talk) 18:51, 15 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Vandalism

Thanks for the note. I see some guy from India really got upset about something I did. I found that my user page had to be protected. I decided to put a vandalism count on my page. I think it tells future vandals that their work is in vain.--I am One of Many (talk) 21:10, 4 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

NRHP and private ownership

You are correct, it is already in National Register of Historic Places. When I went back to Central City two weeks ago, I decided to go see the inside of the Martha Ellen Auditorium and the owner had completely remodeled the inside. The balcony was converted into a second small theater. There is no published record of this modification that I could find and I just cannot report what I saw, so I thought the note was a good idea, but since it is stated in the main article, I could remove the notes and link private to the relevant section in the National Register of Historic Places: National_Register_of_Historic_Places#Properties_listed:private?--I am One of Many (talk) 06:21, 8 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

National Register Information System at AFD

Because the nominator of Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/National Register Information System and the page's creator have just been interaction-banned, I've closed this discussion. Because it's not fair to participants like you to force you to start all over again, I've reopened it at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/National Register Information System (2nd nomination), and I've copied your comments over there. Feel free to participate further over there. Nyttend (talk) 13:24, 12 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Jain postage stamp

No problems. I had to leave desk halfway through edit, fixed it now. In ictu oculi (talk) 07:48, 15 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Food for thought

I noticed that you were about the only contributor to the A R Maharaj AfD discussion, who knows something about the rigid rules postal authorities, in democratic countries, apply when issuing commemorative stamps to honour notable national or international figures. If some of the other dissenters only knew something about the status of experts consulted, who usually have to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, they might have refrained from dismissing the stamp. It is a laborious and time-consuming process. Newspaper atuff written by hacks to earn their living is actually quite insignificant compared to such commemorative stamps, because of the expertise of the consultants involved in the process. The stamp's notability is, for those in the know, worth more than a thousand such newspaper items, which are supposed to be independent third-party sources for many AfDs. As an aside, anything emanating from the Vatican about papal affairs seems to be acceptable, but one had to ignore all those Jain sites on this occasion, as they are not considered independent. I think, when it comes to religion, religious bodies and their sites themselves are, indeed, the best sources. Thanks for your message on the AfD page. I would have added this note there, but thought I had already said enough, and someone, cpnversant with Indian newspapers and Marathi, would respond to your query with a translation from a Marathi newspaper, but we are back to square one: how does that beat the commemorative stamp issued by noted and notable invisible experts on such subjects, many of whom actually have WP articles about them. The mind boggles!--Zananiri (talk) 15:19, 16 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Silence

You made some good points here. I'm not commenting on the matter because of the recently concluded Arbcom case. However, I will tell you that I don't believe it is accurate to say the database is in the public domain. That is because there is no affirmative indication of its licensing status. It can be presumed PD-US, but no source confirms that. --Orlady (talk) 04:11, 25 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Talk pages

Hello Johncheverly—

I see that you're fairly new at this editing business, and you're probably still struggling to absorb all kinds of details of Wikipolicy and Wikiquette. If you don't mind, I'll point out one more.

Your most recent commentat Talk:Roman Catholic Diocese of Lincoln wasn't in keeping with WP's talk page guidelines. Talk pages should be used to discuss the article, not the article's subject. In other words, we shouldn't be using the talk pages to air our personal opinions about Margaret Thatcher or Hugo Chavez or the Affordable Care Act—or Bruskewitz's excommunications.

This is all discussed at considerable length at WP:TPG. I hope you don't mind my calling it to your attention. I realize that there are lots of things to learn when you start editing, and the learning curve can be a bit formidable at times. Keep at it, though, and you'll be surprised at how quickly you learn it. Ammodramus (talk) 03:57, 14 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

So, in Talk pages you can't address another editor's concern about his/her article and make a comment about some other issue that has been jogged in your mind by the editor's comment??? Why don't we just have robots edit this thing??? If you think that I am going over this whole encyclopedia and learn every rule in it, Ammodramus, you got another thing coming. I just wanted to spend two, maybe, three hours a week helping out. I have a life and it isn't totally consumed by Wikipedia.

Why do we live in a sin/blame society? It didn't work before Immanuel was offered up by God as the Anointed Savior and it doesn't work now. This particular issue is with Wikipedia itself. And we have discussed this: It does not have a universally accepted, systemic editor training program in place. Instead of picking each other apart, competency tests should be developed by the Wikimedia Foundation and, after those tests are administered, both the individual and the Foundation can determine where the individual's strengths are and assign him accordingly. For instance, one person may be skilled at layout and design, another at fact checking, and so forth. Don't keep cursing the darkness, light a candle, For Jesus Christ's sake.johncheverly 12:49, 14 April 20

Solomon Butcher

Solomon D. Butcher
Lillie Butcher

That's a great draft you're working on. I've uploaded a high-res portrait that might be decent for the lead. Plenty of images for the article though: commons:Category:Solomon D. Butcher. Looks like you'll have another GA with that at some point. INeverCry 03:26, 16 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm glad you like the portrait. I found one of his wife Lillie, if it comes in handy. INeverCry 03:49, 16 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Got his signature too. Hope you don't mind my adding it to the infobox. INeverCry 04:01, 16 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Solomon Butcher just passed its GA review. The photos you provided did a great deal for it, and I probably wouldn't have thought to nominate it had it not been for your suggestion. Thanks on both accounts! Ammodramus (talk) 22:44, 10 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Re: house

Thanks for the fix; I was using USGS topos and apparently misinterpreted what I saw. Thinking that I had the correct quarter-section, I looked everywhere and observed that there weren't any other buildings there, so I assumed that it was the correct spot. And yes, I'll be happy to let you know when I find something; the problem is that my university library doesn't subscribe to anything Nebraska-specific as it does for several states closer. I'll see what I can find through consulting the archives of the Plains Anthropologist via JSTOR. If you've not already, look for anything by Waldo Wedel; I see his name appear more often on Kansas topics than Nebraska, but both states appear often in his publications. Nyttend (talk) 02:18, 19 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Found something related to the Walker Gilmore Site, so I've added it to the county list. I don't have time to check the map, but you may be able to find more with page 281 of the Federal Writers Project's Guide to Nebraska. Nyttend (talk) 22:04, 22 April 2013 (UTC) Never mind; I did one more quick Google search and found something from a PD-US (and thus freely accessible without subscription) journal article on JSTOR, so I've now added the precise location. Nyttend (talk) 22:14, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Uhh...oops. Thanks for calling my attention to it; you were correct in saying that it was the absence of a negative sign. Definitely they go in the article, but I didn't have time yet to put them there. Nyttend (talk) 23:10, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Look at the index for the Nebraska Magazine of History and see if you can find Volume 17 Issue 1 and Volume 18 Issue 2; they're all or almost-all relevant. Nyttend (talk) 04:18, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry to keep piling on the comments...I left this message after checking my university library, of which the oldest holding of the title is volume 19. However, after I left the message I discovered that they have older issues under a different title, so next time I have a chance I'll try to consult these volumes myself. Nyttend (talk) 05:04, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
When I was in the Missouri Bootheel a couple of weeks ago, it was really really weird to think I was just one state away from the Nebraska Panhandle; I've never visited Nebraska, and (other than passing through Cheyenne, Wyoming) have never even been close to the state. Pike-Pawnee's location isn't obscure; I found it in five minutes of Google searching in an online M.A. thesis (the one that's already cited in the article, but I noticed that it was cited after I found it through Google), and when I checked the location with online USGS topo maps (mapper.acme.com), I found that the USGS labels the site even more precisely than the thesis does. Nyttend (talk) 12:47, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, I use Acme frequently; it's one of the options from {{GeoTemplate}}, which is what you get when you click coords on an article. The first Google hits were the Kansas site, but I'm definitely talking about the one in Nebraska: I used the TRS location (I *just* figured out what you meant by "TRS"!) mentioned on the map shown in Asher, together with the comment on page 15 (PDF page 23) regarding its direction from Red Cloud. Using the topo map feature of Acme, I found a label "Pawnee Village" before I found the section number; it's just south of what satellite view shows to be a winding dirt road. Meanwhile, see this GNIS entry. Nyttend (talk) 13:27, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Go get your photos; you can't get those after sunset, but Acme is available 24-7 :-) Nyttend (talk) 13:39, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Found less information than I expected; somehow we're missing the issue that discusses Pike-Pawnee and Leary, and all of the sites in the other issues were in Douglas County and points southward along the Missouri River. I noted a couple of blufftop sites on the Douglas/Sarpy border (bizarrely, they're a single NR listing, not two separate ones), plus the Ashland site in Cass County, which should be easy to get — it's within a state park, and Google satellite makes me think that there are roads to the edge of and/or into the site. To my surprise, I found the Leary nomination by searching Google. Enjoy the Sandhills! Nyttend (talk) 18:49, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

My apologies

I'm sorry that I edited a Wikipedia draft without asking permission from the author--I'd never seen one of those before, and didn't realize it was a work in progress.

This is the third time I've tried to draft a response to you--my ancient computer keeps freezing on me and destroying my text. So let me just explain that I'm involved in an enormous election-returns project and I'm currently working on Nebraska. Rontrigger (talk) 08:32, 24 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Dry Valley Church pics

Dry Valley Church setting pic by Ammodramus

Hi, as you know i've been proceeding developing articles for Cherry County NE nrhps. I've just drafted Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Dry Valley Church and Cemetery and found a bunch of commons pics by you. I think i have found and added all of the pics to a gallery in the article, but may have missed some. Not sure whether all should be included or not, but they should be linked somehow, perhaps by their being in a commons category created specially for the place, and then have that commons category linked from the article. Perhaps with fewer pics included directly in the article. I wonder how many other Nebraska places you've obtained a bunch of pics for. Sure seems that creating the article is worthwhile to enable inclusion or linking in the pics. I'd welcome your views on how to proceed with this and others though.... will watch here or discuss at talk page of the list article. Either way, thanks for visiting the place and taking a great series of pics. Cheers, --doncram 17:27, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Instead of a gallery, I'd suggest that we just link to Commons:Category:Dry Valley Church (Cherry County, Nebraska) in an "External links" section. I don't much care for Template:Commons, since I suspect that the phrase "media related to X" doesn't convey all that much meaning to the average WP reader. Instead of using that template, I'd use something like:
I'm not always sure what the truly important features of a site are, so try to get lots of photos in hopes of hitting the critical thing by chance. This doesn't mean that all of the pictures should be used; I just wanted to make sure that editors working on articles had as many illustration options as possible, especially if they were going for a longer article and had room for lots of images, or if they were going to focus heavily on the architecture and wanted to illustrate specific points of it.
I expect to return to Cherry County before the year's end; if there's a particular aspect of a site that wants illustrating and that I haven't yet photographed, let me know and I'll try to catch it the next time I'm up there. Ammodramus (talk) 21:10, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Oh good, i didn't see that there was a commons category defined, i mistakenly thot they were just all disconnected pics there. I'm trying the link as you suggest, have yet to prune back any photos out of the 20. I don't have strong opinions about commons link approaches, happy for any such approach.
About what to focus upon when visiting a site, do you have a smartphone? (And would you get coverage way out in a place like Dry Valley?) I would think what is best is to have the NRHP nom docs conveniently available, by being linked from a starter article, so you can read on the spot about what was of particular interest in the NRHP nom anyhow. I've only recently had an iphone and found it helpful to know what to look for at a few pic-less NRHP places i've visited recently. In fact hugely helpful... i was really glad to find out there were 3 buildings to get pics of, not just one, say. Or to focus on some kind of detail to get, like concrete blocks formed in rustic-stone fashion, that i wouldn't have known to look for otherwise.
Interesting detail photo of Hartington City Hall and Auditorium, Hartington, Nebraska
Also, i meant to say i really like your getting big-scale pics showing the church and cemetery's setting...too often NRHP articles have just one plan view of a building and no context. Even if the context is that the building is now almost hidden by encroaching modern buildings, we should show that, by a secondary pic in an article, IMO. Many of us do know to get some interesting detail pics, also important. Cheers, --doncram 01:24, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I almost always take multiple photos of a site when I can, so there'll generally be a Commons category for the site. If nothing else, I'm afraid that a single photo might wind up blurred, or with some important detail hidden by something in the foreground. Also, if I think of it, I try to take at least one photo to put the place in its context. Unfortunately, sometimes I forget that when I'm editing the photos before uploading them, and crop out the background... Ammodramus (talk) 17:15, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, i am kinda shocked to find huge amounts of pics by you available at commons, where only one photo appears in the wikipedia page, with no indication of commons pics being available. For example, commons category for Lewis Bridge (Keya Paha River) corresponding to the one-pic Lewis Bridge (Keya Paha River) stub wikipedia article. (That's a stub article that i had started to stabilize Lewis Bridge as a disambiguation topic, which served its purpose in that the Lewis Bridge (Keya Paha River) topic is properly labelled and you used that in your commons category). The stub article is not much developed since i started it as a stub, and could obviously now benefit from addition of the NRHP nomination document that should now be available, plus should get some development from that document. I observe that for me to find the commons category i need to click through on the pic a couple times, going all the way back to the Commons version (the category doesn't show at the Wikipedia copy of the pic). It's great that there are these collections of pics, and that you have set up commons categories to handle them. It seems of great importance to (a) get wikipedia articles started for all these NE NRHPs where pics are available and where there is not yet an article (more so than for picless NE NRHPs), and (b) to include the commons category linkage, and (c) include the NRHP nom doc that oughta be available). b and c oughta be done for all existing NE nrhp articles. Your work oughta be made available. IMO your work is not findable, is not really available, from just being in commons; it needs to be linked from a wikipedia article.
Anyhow, i'll plug along in those northwestern NE counties doing all that for awhile, but all this oughta be done everywhere throughout NE, IMO, and to do it everywhere in NE goes beyond what i am willing to take on right now. (I will see any reply you make here, no need to ping talkback to me). --doncram 18:04, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I'm surprised that you found the pictures difficult to find. Perhaps I shouldn't be—very early in my WP career, I was recruited to take photos and upload them to Commons, so I tend to think of WP and Commons together. It may be that an editor who hasn't done much on the photography end of things would be less likely to think of checking out Commons:Category:National Register of Historic Places and its subcategories. If that's the case, then perhaps we need to give the Commons category, and Commons in general, a more prominent place at WP:NRHPHELP. We've got a short paragraph on Commons under the "Images" head, but it may be that it's not conspicuous enough.
I didn't know to look for them at all. There's no indication in wikipedia, except the fact of one pic being chosen by you to be in the county list-articles, and it takes multiple clicks to get back to a commons version to see that there is a category defined. For your pics, I now will anticipate there may be multiple others in a category, but my experience otherwise is that there is usually nothing more than one pic. For example, one of the main pic contributors in Utah seems to contribute just one pic. And I recall my own initial experiences with Commons categories as negative, and I pretty much didn't/don't support the parallel construction in Commons of category structures. I was then using in a Wikipedia article every pic that i uploaded, and saw no merit in getting involved in commons category structures. (I pretty much dislike/disregard categories in Wikipedia, too; they seem to involve far more trouble in terms of number of edits, silly contention than they're worth...I doubt many readers navigate much by categories, though I believe readers do browse in lists). I do, however, see the clear value of grouping any set of commons pics of one place into a place-specific category, if that allows them to be linked from a Wikipedia article. In the 2012 WLM drive, I came to see the importance of setting up categories for sets of historic district pics, which wasn't always done, so many contributed pics were immediately "lost", IMO. And, if the categories aren't linked from a Wikipedia article, they may as well not exist, has been my impression. And if someone crazily deletes usage of a pic in Wikipedia, without ensuring the pic is put into a commons category and linked somehow, then it seems to me they're completely destructive. That is indeed where I am coming from -- I pretty much don't think of commons and WP together, quite different than you; i am acknowledging your point there can be different types of editors.
So, then, since you're demonstrating there exist untapped categories of pics in Commons created by you, at least, and maybe others, now, then yes I agree the wp:NRHPHELP system oughta cover this topic a lot more. I wouldn't have imagined that browsing Commons:Category:National Register of Historic Places and its subcategories, as you suggest, would be worthwhile at all. --doncram 21:52, 9 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I've added Nebraska-specific Commons category info to Wikipedia:WikiProject_National_Register_of_Historic_Places/Resources#Nebraska, to advise future editors of the Nebraska pics you've uploaded. In general, I don't yet see it beneficial to direct editors to Commons. For example, I browsed in corresponding Utah and Nevada categories of Commons photos and think there's NOT much additional to find, beyond the one pic per NRHP site already included in the NRHP county list-articles. But, are there other states where you've added a lot of pics in Commons categories not yet linked from NRHP articles? If so, please feel free to edit wp:NRHPhelp.... --doncram 20:10, 10 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think it's a good idea to launch stubs just because we've got photos; and more photos doesn't necessarily make for a better article. (Indeed, it might make it worse: well-meaning editors might be inclined to add galleries containing all the photos of a particular site, regardless of the quality of the photos and whether they actually illustrate separate aspects of the site.) As you've observed in the case of the Lewis Bridge article, many NRHP stubs tend to be developed at a fairly glacial pace; and during their prolonged period of stubhood, they're of little use to the non-editing WP reader. I see no problem with letting the photos wait in Commons until an editor comes along who's genuinely interested in the subject. Indeed, I can think of a number of Nebraska NRHP sites that should probably not be articled at all: HDs that encompass an entire downtown; separate stretches of the Lincoln or other historic highways; houses that're notable only because of their association with a historic figure, and that'd be better handled as sections in that person's article; etc. Ammodramus (talk) 20:59, 9 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for sharing your view, at least partly different than where i am coming from on these points, too. I'll comment later. --doncram 21:52, 9 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I agree about being selective in adding photos when many photos are available. I think the way to model that is to create the article, include one pic in the infobox, and optionally perhaps some other thumb pic in the text, and optionally perhaps a small gallery, but leaving the remainder in Commons unused but linked by an External Link. That does leave the development of the article to a future editor "who's genuinely interested in the subject", and gives xhe what xhe needs...knowledge of the availability of pics to draw from.
About articling or not in Nebraska, in northwest NE I haven't yet seen any specific example where any one is best "not articled".
About the special case of houses notable for association with a historic figure, I cannot think of a single case where I would agree the house is best treated as a section in the bio article. Any amount of descriptive info about the house is too much for the bio article, which should simply include brief mention like, in the poet Ezra Pound article, the sentence "The Homer Pound House, Ezra's birthplace in Hailey, Idaho, survives and is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places." I'd be interested if you could point to any example in Nebraska or elsewhere.
Sure, I'll agree that if a historic district encompasses an entire village or town, if the bounds are pretty much the same, then one article makes sense. Are there any specific cases in northwest NE where you actually know there is a case of this? I would be glad to set up a redirect from the NRHP article name and put an NRHP infobox and some development into the village/town article. But, where it is not yet known what is the extent of overlap, there is no harm in creating a separate HD article. It would advance the state of wikipedia-public knowledge, including by making the NRHP nom doc readily available. Then if someone can interpret the HD info and has local knowledge of the village/town and can see they should be merged, then that future editor can/should indeed merge, leaving a redirect. In another state, I had a pretty horrible long experience with an editor bent on forcing mergers, without knowledge of extent of overlap, without developing public knowledge. It turned out later that many, perhaps most, of the assumed-valid mergers were nonsensical, and it was pointy and contentious all along to try to force the mergers. From my experience, it really seems best to go ahead and develop the HD articles, and then later consider mergers from a position of greater understanding and following due process of merger proposals wherever there is disagreement possible. --doncram 20:10, 10 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry that it's taking me so long to reply to your latest. I'm enjoying a cold right now, and my brain is definitely not in top form. I'm not ignoring your latest, and will respond to it once my sinuses stop pushing quite so hard on my cerebrum. Ammodramus (talk) 20:27, 14 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
No problem! There's no urgency here. I do hope that you consider/intend this, as I do, as a friendly exchange. I did see your comment at my Talk page about the commons category-inline template. Thanks. --doncram 21:53, 17 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

NE battlefield sites

Maybe we can agree to disagree on something to do with coverage of NRHP-listed battlefield sites? In National Register of Historic Places listings in Morrill County, Nebraska, there were two bluelinks for battlefield sites, that redirected to Battle of Rush Creek and to Battle of Mud Springs, which i changed to show redlinks instead, in these edits. At the battle articles there was/is no coverage of the current historic site or NRHP listing. The way i would proceed is to start articles on the current, NRHP-listed historic sites at Rush Creek Battlefield and at Mud Springs Station Archeological District (both currently are redlinks), and to build up info there. I tend to think anything beyond brief mention/link, in the battle article, is too much; I am guessing you might be more inclined than me to merge the site coverage into the battle articles. Anyhow, i'd like to proceed by trying on separate articles, and will be open to the topics being merged. Do let's see how much material there is, first, but please do feel free to discuss, here or maybe best at the Talk pages of the site articles after they're created. Maybe there are more battlefield site items in Nebraska, too. The separate articles for battlefield sites vs. the battles was discussed at wt:NRHP last year i think, focussing on the National Historic Landmark ones, by the way. There's clearly room for disagreement, and i am alert to possibilities here. :) Cheers, --doncram 21:53, 17 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, I'd recommend two different approaches for Mud Springs and Rush Creek (and to compound the confusion, the eponymous watercourse for the latter is now known as Cedar Creek). There was a Pony Express and stage station at Mud Springs, so it's got significant history apart from the battle, and eventually might merit a separate article on the site. However, the Rush Creek site doesn't appear to have any such separate history: the significance of the archaeological site arises from its connection to the battle and nothing else. As with Massacre Canyon, I think that the site and the battle should be kept in the same article.
Although I think we ultimately need separate articles for the Mud Springs site and battle, I think we'd be better off with a single article for now. In that way, all the information on the site is being gathered in one place. When enough material has accumulated to make a single article unwieldy, and to allow for two fairly solid separate articles, the original article can be split.
Getting back to our earlier discussion, this is how I feel about many HDs and Category B sites like the Pound house or the Susan LaFlesche Picotte house: rather than launching a one- or two-paragraph article on the site, we should start it as a section within the article on the HD's city or village, or on the cat-B site's notable person, with a mention of the site's NRHP status and a citation to the nom form. As material gradually accumulates on the site, or when an editor takes a particular interest in it and decides to expand the section, a new article can be created. Meanwhile, a couple of paragraphs won't unduly prolong the parent article or represent a serious digression; it'll keep all the material on the subject in one place, rather than distributing it somewhat haphazardly over two articles; and we won't be setting readers up for disappointment with a Wikilink that leads to a short and not-particularly-informative article. Ammodramus (talk) 02:07, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I followed up at Talk:Battle of Rush Creek‎ and agree with your proposal there to merge. On all these things above, i think we do have to agree that a) we have different tendencies and b) the decisions merge vs. split have to be made on a case by case basis. Thanks. p.s. Also I did start the Valentine post office article, the last remaining article in National Register of Historic Places listings in Cherry County, Nebraska. You might want to add/develop more; i didn't do too much especially knowing your intentions to develop that and related post-offices-with-New-Deal-artwork articles. By keeping it short, you should still be able to achieve a 5X expansion without going much beyond regular DYK article size, for example, at any later time, if you don't care to go for a DYK within the new article clock window. Actually i don't know if you are much interested in DYKs; i am myself very much less interested in such than i once was. Thanks, --doncram 17:34, 1 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I'm afraid that my work on the Nebraska post offices has been pushed to the back burner. Blame Dudemanfellabra—since he came out with the progress page, I've been pushing hard to get Nebraska up to 90% illustrated. Did an expedition through southeastern Nebraska that'll get it quite close, though not quite over the line; but only after I've processed several hundred photos. Lots of the unillustrated sites are HDs, which generally take several score photos, each of which requires a certain amount of individual work (looking up dates and architectural styles in the nom forms for categorization at Commons, for instance).
The good news is that in passing through Lincoln, I bought myself a copy of the Puschendorf book on the post offices, so I'm not relying on the library's copy any more. This means that once I get to work on the POs, I should be able to proceed somewhat efficiently. Ammodramus (talk) 02:08, 2 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Steele school in Crofton, Nebraska

(To User:Frankie Rae) Just returned from a swing through northeast and north-central Nebraska, in the course of which I photographed the NRHP-listed St. Rose of Lima complex in Crofton, Nebraska. When I got back home and started editing and uploading the photos, I discovered that, according to the NRHP nominating form, the 1911 school building was designed by William L. Steele. I don't recall your mentioning it, so I'll call it to your attention on the chance that it's a new Steele building for you.

Since I didn't know it was by Steele when I was there, I only took a few photos, which are in Commons:Category:St. Rose of Lima School (Crofton, Nebraska). When I'm in Crofton again, I'll try to shoot more, including a patch-of-plain-brickwork photo. Let me know if there are any particular details that you'd like me to try to get.

Hope that your endeavors, Wiki- and otherwise, are going well. Ammodramus (talk) 16:44, 29 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent! I discovered this one only in February, and hadn't yet let you know. What a treat to have images without even requesting them! Notice how strikingly similar it is to his Saints Peter and Paul Catholic School (Butte, 1909).
My life has been quite chaotic the past nine months, but I am hopeful that it might settle down at least somewhat. In the meantime, I have been slowly working on a list of all of Steele's completed works that I can find enough information on to include. Take a look at where I am so far. Thanks! --Frankie Rae (talk) 22:32, 9 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I'm impressed by your list of Steele buildings; and I've made a note to myself to shoot the Elgin school the next time I'm there.
Unfortunately, it might be a while before I get to Sioux City again: I'm concentrating on NRHP sites in Nebraska right now. User:Dudemanfellabra has developed a nifty WikiProject NRHP progress page, and looking at the percent-illustrated map has spurred me to try to get photos for 90% of the Nebraska sites. My other projects are languishing while I focus on that; and in addition, I have to do things like working. Ammodramus (talk) 00:52, 10 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
That's a nice compilation. Good luck with your goal! Well, this is a marathon rather than a sprint. When you're ready, there's more to do here. In the meantime, notice that there are a number of Nebraska buildings as you zip around the state, and I'll be adding several more that I've found in the past few months, all in Nebraska. And yes, working has a tendency to get in the way of soooo many things! --Frankie Rae (talk) 02:20, 10 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Just returned from an afternoon's photography jaunt that took in Elgin, Nebraska; so I should have photos of St. Boniface School up soon.
Looking through your list again, I see SS. Peter and Paul School in Bow Valley, Nebraska on it. I've got a few photos of the school at Commons:Category:Saints Peter and Paul school (Bow Valley, Nebraska). The next time circumstances take me to Bow Valley, I'll try to get more detaiil. Ammodramus (talk) 03:34, 18 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Photos of St. Boniface School are at Commons:Category:St. Boniface School (Elgin, Nebraska). Unfortunately, I couldn't stay in Elgin long enough for the sun to move north of west and light the north wall. I'll try to get a few shots of the east side of the building the next time I can get to Elgin in the morning. Ammodramus (talk) 23:20, 21 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

RFA

Ever thought of trying for administrator? We could always use more admins, and I'd be happy to nominate you. Nyttend (talk) 23:00, 6 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That's a very flattering suggestion, for which many thanks. However, I don't think I'm ready yet: there are a number of areas of Wikipolicy with which I'm too little familiar.
Moreover, as an administrator I'd feel obligated to set a good example for others. I'm not often sarcastic in my edit summaries, but there are times when entering a summary like "Translated into English" gives me great spiritual relief after hacking my way through a dense thicket of semiliteracy. Administrators presumably have to forgo yielding to these impulses... Ammodramus (talk) 12:09, 7 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, understood. You appear to have a higher view than I do of the importance of neutral edit summaries; I don't have any objection to sarcasm in sarcasm-deserving situations or with other things that don't violate WP:CIVIL or WP:NPA, and I don't see other admins objecting to it or forcing themselves to forgo yielding. Nyttend (talk) 13:36, 7 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

GA review for Solomon Butcher

I've begun the GA review for Solomon Butcher, and it looks great. It's more or less set as a GA, save for a few images that need their copyright notices tweaked to cover the US instead of/in addition to the EU. Once those are updated, I'll be glad to pass the article. Thanks for all your work on it. -- Khazar2 (talk) 22:59, 8 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your willingness to do GA review for the Solomon Butcher article. I've gone through the photos in the article. Some of them already had PD-USA status. I was able to find pre-1923 publication information for another of them, and have added that to the file at Commons. For two others, I wasn't able to find evidence of pre-1923 publication; so I replaced them with two other photos for which I had such evidence. This actually improved the article: for the final photo, I found one of someone demolishing a sod house, which went well with the vanishing-era theme.
Just looked at your userpage, and saw your goal of doing 365 GA reviews in 2013. Very impressive, and it shows considerable dedication to working for the good of WP. Your efforts are greatly appreciated. Ammodramus (talk) 21:41, 10 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the GA and the barnstar; it's only my second GA. I realize that the one-GA-per-day schedule doesn't give you a lot of time; but if you have any suggestions on how I could improve my article-writing, I'd welcome them. Ammodramus (talk) 22:39, 10 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
You're very welcome. You know, I thought this would be a bit of chore when I set it as a goal, but it's really been quite fun; I've been learning a lot about a number of off-beat topics, like this one.
As for your article-writing, this was an absolute slam-dunk of a GA--thoroughly copy-edited, well-sourced, and with next to no significant MOS issues. If it hadn't been for trivial issues with the image tags, this would have passed without any further work, which is something I've only done in 5 or 6 of my 200+ reviews.
So I'm being honest when I say that my only advice is to nominate more articles for GA! If this is a typical example of your work, it should continue to breeze through. Clicking randomly on several articles where you were a/the main contributor--Rachel Ray (novel), Hastings Tribune, Tamora, Nebraska--all look like they could reach GA with minimal work. (The leads of the latter two might be slightly expanded to better summarize the articles, and try to replace "presently" or current statistics with "as of" per WP:REALTIME, which falls under criterion 1b. But these are minor points.) The short lengths aren't an issue as long as it can be demonstrated that the article covers the "main aspects" of the subject--real comprehensiveness isn't required, nor is there a minimum length.
As a side note, we're always on the lookout for more GA reviewers as well, so if you're ever interested in that, feel free to ping me if you'd like somebody to look over your shoulder.
Anyway, glad to have met you, and congrats again on the GA! -- Khazar2 (talk) 23:02, 10 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I'll look through my articles and think about GANs for them.
If I start nominating articles, then I should also start doing GARs for other people's articles. I'm thinking about watching two or three more articles of mine go through the process, then trying to review some. In that case, I'll probably take you up on your offer to provide some supervision. Thanks for that, as well. Ammodramus (talk) 01:22, 12 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
No problem. A good place to start if you do a review is this essay, which helps sort out what to look for and what to let slide; for example, a surprising amount of the MOS isn't covered by the GA criteria, dead links are ok, and the sourcing requirements are more generous than most reviewers would expect. Anyway, just ping me if I can ever lend a hand, I'll be very glad to. Cheers, -- Khazar2 (talk) 01:41, 12 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

A barnstar for you!

The Good Article Barnstar
For your contributions to bring Solomon Butcher to Good Article status. Thanks, and keep up the good work! -- Khazar2 (talk) 22:36, 10 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Nice article! You are following in Solomon Butcher's footsteps, documenting Nebraska....for fame and fortune... he failed in other ways then sold out editions of books of local history!?  :) I added mention of Butcher to the Sod house article, perhaps you could check/modify that. Cheers, --doncram 21:38, 11 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

GA reviewing

Hi Ammodramus, hope all's going well. Since you mentioned in the past that you might be interested in GA reviewing, I thought I'd drop a note to link you to the Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles/Recruitment Centre. It's a new project designed to ease users into GA reviewing by matching them with a mentor. It's not mandatory, of course--you're still welcome to just dive right in, too--but if you're interested in having a helping hand for your first reviews, that's a good place to go to find one. Enjoy the weekend! -- Khazar2 (talk) 13:14, 21 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the heads-up on that. I'll definitely bear it in mind, since I'll want someone looking over my shoulder when I try reviewing.
Before I start, I'd like to watch a few more of my own articles go through the process. I've only been through it twice so far, and would like to get a bit more of a feel for how different reviewers handle it. Ammodramus (talk) 01:05, 23 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Cool--good luck! -- Khazar2 (talk) 01:08, 23 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

commons category name fix for East Plum Bush Creek Bridge (Washintgon County, Colorado)

A pic

Hi Ammodramus, your pics are serving well for articles ranging outside of NE, too, I notice. Happen to be working on User:Doncram/Plum Bush Creek Bridge, in CO right now. Could you possibly please fix, or arrange for fixing of "Category:East Plum Bush Creek Bridge (Washintgon County, Colorado)", to fix the typo "Washintgon" vs. "Washington", for all 8 pics? I don't edit much over at Commons, not sure how to arrange to fix. Not sure why/if it matters really, but i sorta think you/we'd want to fix it before linking from wikipedia mainspace. --doncram 13:50, 23 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Embarrassment is mine. I've fixed things: files are now in Commons:Category:East Plum Bush Creek Bridge (Washington County, Colorado). I've marked the "Washintgon" category for deletion. (Commons doesn't have a "Move" function for categories like the one for WP articles, so the misspelled category will be around until an administrator deletes it, which usually happens pretty quickly.) Thanks for catching and letting me know about the error—good eye! Ammodramus (talk) 16:25, 23 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
In case you didn't already know this — you can make category rename requests at Commons:User talk:CommonsDelinker/commands. This is basically like WP:CFDS, since things get moved automatically as long as an admin thinks they qualify. Nyttend (talk) 23:01, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Kearney question

Idly curious, are you familiar with the Hub? I'd never heard of it until recently, when I learned from a longtime friend that he's starting a job there next week as a sports reporter. Nyttend (talk) 22:58, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Dowse Sod House

I've passed this at GA, with a few caveats. Review follows.

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Dowse Sod House/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Adam Cuerden (talk · contribs) 15:41, 17 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm going to be using WP:IAR on one aspect of the rules here: Technically, there might be a little original research here, but it's of the "describe how sources were evaluated in footnotes" sort, which I think is fully justified in a case where there's a lot of ambiguity in the sources. If there's any sources that back your arguments, mentioning them would strengthen this aspect, and really help you out if you intend to go for featured article.

So, I'm giving this a pass on well-referenced. In fact, it uses extra references and checks to make sure that it's as accurate as possible. Other than those couple footnotes, everything is fine on that point.

So.

It's comprehensive, seems to us all relevant sources, and provides loads of extremely interesting background.

I think this is an excellent article, and think it deserves to be GA.

The only real issue that could be improved is that the historical significance of the house isn't fully described. I mean, a homestead sod house is almost certainly significant, but it'd be good to summarise the arguments that got it onto the National Register of Historic Places, because, you know, why not?

 Pass. Adam Cuerden (talk) 15:41, 17 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for doing the GA review. I appreciate your efforts. For what it's worth, I'm plannning to try to do some GA reviews myself once I've been through the process a time or two more with articles of my own—I want to get a feel for how various reviewers handle it before I try it.
I was a little worried about the OR thing myself, especially the date on the tornado. Note that I used "early 1940s" in the article, which is consistent with sources. I thought it important to put a footnote in, lest someone notice the (possible incorrect) 1941 date in some sources and insert that, thinking that they're being more precise: the footnote is there to warn editors about that.
I'll take your suggestion and move some of the statements regarding the historic significance of the house to the lead. I've got them in the very last paragraph, but it'd probably be good to put them in a more conspicuous position as well.
Thanks again for your time and effort on this. -- Ammodramus (talk) 15:58, 17 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
No worries. If in doubt, what you could do is just put the facts forwards without drawing conclusions, which is ample for what the text cites. You can, for example, cite the tree being destroyed by tornado, and just leave the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:14, 17 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Editor of the Week

Editor of the Week
Your ongoing efforts to improve the encyclopedia have not gone unnoticed: You have been selected as Editor of the Week, for tireless contributions to tedious tasks. Thank you for the great contributions! (courtesy of the Wikipedia Editor Retention Project)

User Khazar2 submitted the following nomination to Editor of the Week:

"I nominate Editor Ammodramus for their remarkable work on Nebraska-related topics. Ammodramus' primary work is as a photographer, donating over 11,000 pictures of Nebraska landmarks to WikiCommons, including many of National Register of Historic Places sites. They've even gone to photograph sites on behalf of other users. Ammodramus is active in content generation—contributing several Good Articles as well as quality content on Anthony Trollope novels and Nebraska topics—and in "The War of Error", patrolling Wikipedia for common mistakes. Their exceptional, generous contributions are a model of what a Wikipedian should be."

You can copy the following text to your user page to display a user box proclaiming your selection as Editor of the Week:

{{subst:Wikipedia:WikiProject Editor Retention/Editor of the Week/Recipient user box}}

Thanks again for your work! The Interior (Talk) 17:12, 29 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Congrats! -- Khazar2 (talk) 17:32, 29 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for all your continued efforts for the Encyclopedia. ```Buster Seven Talk 01:31, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for all the donated images and Good Articles! Jenova20 (email) 12:34, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Congratulations on an obviously well-deserved award. Editors like yourself are the lifeblood of our project. Go Phightins! 02:44, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Ammodramus
 
Editor of the Week
for the week beginning July 28, 2013
Ammodramus has significantly and substantially improved Wikipedia's coverage of the U.S. state of Nebraska. Contributing not only Good Article-level text, but also their own high-quality images, Ammodramus brings our readers articles that are both visually and textually informative. With over 14,300 edits to en-wiki (65% in article-space), and an amazing 11,000 image uploads to Commons, this editor gives both quantity and quality to their subject area of choice.
Recognized for
Photographs and article work
Notable work(s)
works on all kinds of Nebraska and National Register of Historic Places content
Submit a nomination

commons help to rotate a pic

Could you possibly fix the rotation for this commons pic for use the Wentworth-Grinnan House article. The article now at Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Wentworth-Grinnan House is written by a new editor, who I am trying to help, and these are his first commons pic uploads too. Any direct help or advice (reply here or my Talk page or at User talk:Bobgrow) would be most welcome. --doncram 16:32, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've submitted a rotation request for the file. This is the first time I've done it, so we'll both be learning something new...
Unfortunately, I don't know any other way of editing a file that's already uploaded to Commons. I'd like to know—I once uploaded a batch of photos, and then realized that I'd forgotten to crop them. I think it's possible, but I'm afraid I don't know how. Ammodramus (talk) 16:55, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Seems to have worked. That was straightforward: I just used the "Request rotation" button under the photo and above the summary. Ammodramus (talk) 11:57, 31 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]