Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Scottish Islands

User script to detect unreliable sources

Main page: User:Headbomb/unreliable

I have (with the help of others) made a small user script to detect and highlight various links to unreliable sources and predatory journals. Some of you may already be familiar with it, given it is currently the 39th most imported script on Wikipedia. The idea is that it takes something like

• John Smith "Article of things" Deprecated.com. Accessed 2020-02-14. (John Smith "[https://www.deprecated.com/article Article of things]" ''Deprecated.com''. Accessed 2020-02-14.)

and turns it into something like

• John Smith "Article of things" Deprecated.com. Accessed 2020-02-14.

It will work on a variety of links, including those from {{cite web}}, {{cite journal}} and {{doi}}.

The script is mostly based on WP:RSPSOURCES, WP:NPPSG and WP:CITEWATCH and a good dose of common sense. I'm always expanding coverage and tweaking the script's logic, so general feedback and suggestions to expand coverage to other unreliable sources are always welcomed.

Do note that this is not a script to be mindlessly used, and several caveats apply. Details and instructions are available at User:Headbomb/unreliable. Questions, comments and requests can be made at User talk:Headbomb/unreliable.

- Headbomb {t · c · p · b}

This is a one time notice and can't be unsubscribed from. Delivered by: MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:02, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

Project-independent quality assessments

Quality assessments by Wikipedia editors rate articles in terms of completeness, organization, prose quality, sourcing, etc. Most wikiprojects follow the general guidelines at Wikipedia:Content assessment, but some have specialized assessment guidelines. A recent Village pump proposal was approved and has been implemented to add a |class= parameter to {{WikiProject banner shell}}, which can display a general quality assessment for an article, and to let project banner templates "inherit" this assessment.

No action is required if your wikiproject follows the standard assessment approach. Over time, quality assessments will be migrated up to {{WikiProject banner shell}}, and your project banner will automatically "inherit" any changes to the general assessments for the purpose of assigning categories.

However, if your project has decided to "opt out" and follow a non-standard quality assessment approach, all you have to do is modify your wikiproject banner template to pass {{WPBannerMeta}} a new |QUALITY_CRITERIA=custom parameter. If this is done, changes to the general quality assessment will be ignored, and your project-level assessment will be displayed and used to create categories, as at present. Aymatth2 (talk) 13:55, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

FAR for Shapinsay

I have nominated Shapinsay for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets the featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" in regards to the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Z1720 (talk) 17:04, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

Eilean Tioram - an inhabited island

Another inhabited island although this time it is a case of mistaken identity. The census lists an island of that name, but the page was a redirect to Castle Tioram - which has not been inhabited for centuries and there are no other potentially habitable structures on the island. As Google Earth confirms the islet of the same name just offshore from Badachro has a couple of houses. Eilean Tioram now a stub rather than a redirect. Luckily there are not too many links to fix. Ben MacDui 19:35, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

@Ben MacDui: Isn't it the same as Dry Island? Crouch, Swale (talk) 19:47, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Quite right - thanks for this and now fixed. Eilean Tioram is now a redirect to Dry Island. (Looking at the links the latter was pretty much orphaned from other Scottish island articles prior to this switch.) Ben MacDui 17:56, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

Thinking aloud about forthcoming census data

The census data for inhabited island should be produced in coming months. Including this information in an organised way will be a complex task.

1. Tables. I think the easiest way is to use the Islands by population density table, and add the new data there. This will create a single page for the relevant data. This could then replace the main table at Populated Islands with that data being archived in some easily accessible way at e.g. "Wikipedia:WikiProject Scottish Islands/Populated Islands early 21st Century Census Data" or similar.

The explanatory wording at "Islands by population density" and "Populated Islands" would then need to be carefully merged and the pages at Wikipedia:WikiProject Scottish Islands/Navigation tweaked.

2. Main List articles. List of islands of Scotland and its subsidiary lists at Wikipedia:Featured topics/Islands of Scotland will then need updating.

3. Template:Infobox Scottish island will also need to be updated.

4. The nearly 100 individual articles and their infoboxes will then need to be updated. Unless someone knows of some clever automated system for infoboxes this will need to be done manually.

5. In order to make this task less onerous a new template for the census, similar to Template:NRS1C will be required. Ben MacDui 13:13, 25 February 2024 (UTC)

Foula population density

Ban MacDui, your post caused me to revisit the 'Islands by Population Density' table, and I happened to notice that Foula and Muck, adjacent in the list and with almost identical populations, were shown with the same population density, even though Foula is more than twice the area of Muck. So I corrected it (hope I got it right!) Dhmellor (talk) 10:29, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

Quite right and thanks. Ben MacDui 18:20, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

Shapinsay at FAR

Shapinsay was nominated for a featured article review in November of last year. I had dealt with the bulk of the queries by March this year. After some additional input there has been no further comment for well over a month. However, so far only one editor has been kind enough to support FA status being retained. The discussion page is at Wikipedia:Featured article review/Shapinsay/archive1 and any input is welcome. Ben MacDui 08:15, 14 July 2024 (UTC)

Slate Islands requested move

Requested move to Slate Islands (Scotland). See Talk:Slate Islands. Ben MacDui 08:46, 14 July 2024 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:Slate Islands#Requested move 14 July 2024

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Slate Islands#Requested move 14 July 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. 98𝚃𝙸𝙶𝙴𝚁𝙸𝚄𝚂 • [𝚃𝙰𝙻𝙺] 22:42, 14 July 2024 (UTC)

Coll

Could we have a few eyes on the Coll article please? There is a minor edit war and discussion about an obituary, which I think is WP:UNDUE, and which another editor does not. See also Talk:Coll. Ben MacDui 11:29, 29 September 2024 (UTC)

Good article reassessment for Mingulay

Mingulay has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. Z1720 (talk) 00:07, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Good article reassessment for Orkney

Orkney has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. Z1720 (talk) 21:17, 11 May 2025 (UTC)

Census 2022

Good news - the data for inhabited islands is available here. Terrible news - it is difficult to extract. It is in something called shapefile format. I spent several hours this weekend going to and fro from the census website and the NRS and looking up ways to convert shapefile data to no avail. All I can extract is a very helpful 'release note' of some of the changes they have made (e.g. they think Fraoch-eilean is called Seana Bhaile) and a 'lookup' csv that is just a list of islands with no data. Disappointing to the say the least given that previous data releases were very user friendly. Also, don't be misled by anything that says 'Island Groups' - this contains a lot of demographic detail, most of which is not relevant for our purposes and for which data for smaller islands is grouped together with larger ones. Ben MacDui 13:52, 1 June 2025 (UTC)

Better news. After further searching about, RESAS have the data here, on page 6. The data is not downloadable as far as I can see and the 'source' they provide is nonsense (it's the 2011 census report) but at least the information is consistent with what little I could get from NRS and the census. It is clearly a huge project to collate and enter this data but at least the former is now an option. Ben MacDui 16:08, 1 June 2025 (UTC)

Overview of new data

The Census states that "A total of 121 islands are classified as ‘inhabited islands’ for NRS statistical geography purposes; 19 of these islands had no usual residents at the time of the 2022 Census." The RESAS list squares with this statement as there are 102 inhabited islands on it. However, Rubha nan Gall is not an island - as the name implies, this is a peninsula on the island of Mull, although the only vehicular access is by sea. There are therefore 101 inhabited islands as of 2022.

In 2011 there were 93 inabited islands. Three, (Scalpay, Tanera Mor and Inner Holm), are no longer recorded as inhabited. 11 'new' islands have been added (excluding Rubha nan Gall) of which 2 were previously inhabited (Papa Stronsay and Lunga), one was on the 'occasionally inhabited list' in 2011 (Eilean Loain) and a further two were clearly of that status at that point but were not on the NRS list (Froach-eilean and Eriska).

The six completely new entries since 2001 are:

• Eilean Buidhe - a bridged islet by Craobh Haven.
• Eilean Leathann and Eilean a' Ghiorr - bridged islets on the North Ford between North Uist and Benbecula.
• Boreray, North Uist
• Killegray in the Sound of Harris
• Buchan Ness by Peterhead - see Buchan Ness lighthouse.

New population data is at Wikipedia:WikiProject Scottish Islands/Populated Islands. Further edits are likely as if time permits I'd like to merge the data Wikipedia:WikiProject Scottish Islands/Islands by population density with the former to avoid a lot of data having to be entered twice.

To do list

• Create islands with red links (inc Buchan Ness, which is a redirect).
• Amend the lists of islands - the newcomers are all there but for consistency they need to be move to 'Inhabited' from 'Also ran'. Some text may need tweaking.
• Update List of islands of Scotland with new info.
• Address the mysterious Seana Bhaile issue. The retrievable Census info states that "We have been made aware of an incorrect name of an island on our Island map". See note against island #66 on the Populated Islands list and the woffle at the end of the page.
• Add new population information including density and ranks to 101 islands.

In due course I can probably manage to get to most of the above except this last, which may be beyond me in my semi-retired condition. All assistance greatly appreciated. Ben MacDui 14:30, 4 June 2025 (UTC)