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Tommy James

I happened across this on Wikipedia on the entry for Tommy James and the Shondells:

The group continued until 1970. At a concert in Birmingham, Alabama in March of that year, an exhausted James collapsed after coming off stage from a reaction to drugs and was actually pronounced dead. He recovered and decided to move to the country to rest and recuperate, and left the band.

Unfortunately, the source cited for the first sentence is a book. The other source cited in that section doesn't actually mention anything about it happening in Birmingham. Tommy James' own Wikipedia entry actually has less detail on the incident other than mentioning it happened in March 1970. I don't have time to dig further right now, but wanted to note it in case someone else wants to chase it. --Lkseitz (talk) 09:16, 30 May 2019 (PDT)

• • This collection of WVOK "Shower of Stars" advertisements indicates that they were billed as part of the show in 1966, 1967, 1969 and 1971. They weren't billed as part of any of the three 1970 shows, though. And I haven't found much by trying to limit Google's searches to before 2010, when that tidbit was added to the Wikipedia page by User:147.31.159.125. --Dystopos (talk) 11:13, 5 July 2019 (PDT)

Statistics July 5, 2019

Articles/files

• We have 13,806 articles and 6,270 uploaded files on Bhamwiki right now.
• That's 0.45 illustrations per article, or 1 image for every 2.20 articles.

Page edits

Over 12 years, we're still averaging right around 32 page edits per day and 3.96 edits per page.

Red links

• As of July 5, 2019, there are 67,487 wanted articles with who knows how many links to them (red links). We have 13,806 articles, so we're now 16.98% complete. Three years ago (May 2016), we were about 18.86% done. Our "percent done" continues to track backwards as we've added more red links than articles. (Note that wanted pages represent any topic which "could" have an article, not just those that "should" or "probably will" have articles.) This phenomenon is (still) probably best explained by my use of City Directories to populate street articles with abundant red links.

Users

We have a total of 519 registered users, of whom 243 have made at least one edit, and 5 have made edits in the 30 days (between June 5 and July 5, 2019).

WikiFactor

"WikiFactor" is a measure of a site's popularity, derived by finding which is the last page (on Special:Popularpages) to have 1000x the number of page views as the number of its ranking.

• Our WikiFactor is now 54, as of 07/05/19.
• Our WikiFactor is now 60, as of 07/22/20.
• Our WikiFactor is now 61, as of 12/9/20.

Social media

• On Facebook, 2,028 people "like" Bhamwiki, and 2,084 "follow" our posts.
• On Twitter, 8,282 accounts "follow" Bhamwiki.
• On Instagram, 980 accounts "follow" Bhamwiki.

https

• I do wish you'd stop removing the "s" from "https" links. It's much safer to browse using https and there's no guarantee that a server will respond to an http call to the same page as an https one. If you don't like the lock icons it produces, there's probably a way to disable that in the MediaWiki settings. --Lkseitz (talk) 06:42, 3 August 2019 (PDT)
  • Okay. --Dystopos (talk) 08:07, 5 August 2019 (PDT)

COVID-19 closures

Does a subcategory need to be created for businesses that closed permanently as a result of the current pandemic? I'm not sure what to call it. "2020 Coronavirus pandemic permanent closures" is a mouthful. Maybe some subset of those words. --Lkseitz (talk) 07:48, 16 May 2020 (PDT)

• I think maybe a list might be less 'junky' than a category, but I'm not opposed. --Dystopos (talk) 13:21, 22 July 2020 (PDT)

In The News

• On the front page in the "In the News" section, there is an errant </small > which is showing on the page. --Wheresdib (talk) 14:05, 24 November 2020 (PST)
  • Thanks for the small tip. --Dystopos (talk) 14:54, 24 November 2020 (PST)
  • And welcome back! --Lkseitz (talk) 07:13, 25 November 2020 (PST)
    • We'll see how long my return lasts. My new employer doesn't allow cell phones in the building so it feels like 2006 all over again. --Wheresdib (talk) 07:22, 27 November 2020 (PST)
      • 😮 --Lkseitz (talk) 06:53, 28 November 2020 (PST)
        • Terrified of the 5G, eh? --Dystopos (talk) 07:21, 30 November 2020 (PST)

Images from Wikipedia

Pardon my ignorance, or lack of memory. I am trying to fill in some of the missing images we have. I found an image of Mary McLeod on Wikipedia but I'm unsure if we can use it and if so, which template to use. See Talk:Mary McLeod for more info. --Wheresdib (talk) 10:33, 3 December 2020 (PST)

• Any help on this one? User:Dystopos? User:Lkseitz? --Wheresdib (talk) 06:38, 9 December 2020 (PST)
  • Anything that's on Wikipedia is okay to use. Generally, the (CC BY-SA 3.0) license notification produced by using the "{{CC Image}}" template is compatible with photographs published under Wikipedia's standard GFDL license. In this case the creator has released it into the public domain, so the "{{PD}}" template applies. --Dystopos (talk) 07:12, 9 December 2020 (PST)
    • Perfect! I had looked but couldn't find what I was looking for. I knew there was something along these lines. --Wheresdib (talk) 08:55, 9 December 2020 (PST)

Creature

See the Discussion page for Creature. Is it still in business, if not, who is currently using their signage? --Wheresdib (talk) 06:38, 9 December 2020 (PST)

Please delete

• Delete category Category:Greek owned businesses, I forgot the dash. --Wheresdib (talk) 11:17, 9 December 2020 (PST)
  • Done. --Dystopos (talk) 12:36, 9 December 2020 (PST)

2007-2008 recession

• Do we have a page which showcases the businesses closed or otherwise impacted by the recession of 2007-2008? There's a Wikipedia article Financial crisis of 2007-2008 ... Is it needed? I know we lost several car dealerships and related industries such as Southern Comfort Conversions, as well as Colonial Bank, Superior Bank, Nexity Bank, and others. Thoughts? Concerns? Issues? --Wheresdib (talk) 07:40, 18 December 2020 (PST)
  • Sounds reasonable to try. --Dystopos (talk) 10:21, 18 December 2020 (PST)
    • I found a comprehensive al.com article as the base. I'm going to name it Great Recession for now. It seems to be the consensus at least with Wikis and internet pundits. There's a Wikipedia page by the same name as well. --Wheresdib (talk) 10:34, 18 December 2020 (PST)
      • Did you notice there were already nine articles linking to Great Recession? Frankly, I thought I'd seen John create more of those links over the years, but I guess not. Oh, wait, here's a couple that link to "Great recession". I'll update those. Ah, and more for "2007", "2008", and "2009 recession"! --Lkseitz (talk) 15:30, 19 December 2020 (PST)

Articles

• I have been adding articles from local news sources as I find them to redlinked entries here. My current bandwidth isn't allowing me much play time, so anyone is welcome to create the pages. I've merely added the links as a future reference. --Wheresdib (talk) 07:47, 17 February 2021 (PST)

Fifteen Years!

• Can you believe we are coming up on the 15th Anniversary of Bhamwiki? Nether can I! Dystopos, do you want to host a Zoom meeting on March 15, or something similar? I assume an in-person meet-up is still discouraged at this point. --Wheresdib (talk) 12:25, 23 February 2021 (PST)
  • I'm not a huge fan of zoom meetings, but I'm up for participating in whatever is safe and appropriate. Maybe I can get Chivon to make a little video presentation to share. I was also thinking of having t-shirts made for all of us, but then I forgot to follow-up. --Dystopos (talk) 14:20, 23 February 2021 (PST)
    • T-shirts would be cool. And since we're not going anywhere much, no one would know if they're late. :-) I'd say I'm up for anything, but looking at my calendar, I'm booked the weekend of 3/14-15 and pretty much all Sundays. :-( --Lkseitz (talk) 06:29, 24 February 2021 (PST)
      • Just for the record, you should all let me know how many t-shirts you would want, and what size(s). Admin at Bhamwiki dot com would be a good way to let me know. --Dystopos (talk) 09:07, 24 February 2021 (PST)
  • I think a Zoom meeting would be fine. I'm used to those for work, so I could probably join whenever you decide to meet. Robert Matthews (talk) 14:29, 24 February 2021 (PST)
    • If anyone has proposals for items to put on an agenda for a zoom meeting, add them here. --Dystopos (talk) 15:10, 24 February 2021 (PST)
      • I think I mainly need the annual(ish) Reading of the Statistics. --Lkseitz (talk) 05:17, 10 March 2021 (PST)
• I'm thinking I'll write up a 15-year stat[u]s update and distribute it to all interested parties, along with a mock-up of a 15th Anniversary t-shirt. --Dystopos (talk) 07:50, 12 March 2021 (PST)