Bhamwiki talk:Messageboard/Archive 2023

This is an archive of discussions from 2021–2023. For other archived discussions, see Bhamwiki talk:Messageboard archives. Current discussion is at Bhamwiki talk:Messageboard. If you wish to expand on a topic here, it's best to open a new topic there and link to the prior discussion.

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)

• I added AL.com page (FINALLY), can someone redirect Al.com to AL.com? --BootstrapsRiley (talk) 17:47, 15 February 2022 (CST)
  • Disregard the above, I figured it out. --BootstrapsRiley (talk) 17:26, 15 February 2022 (PST)

• Working on creating one of the most cited non-date or war red pages... the Ku Klux Klan page. Hopefully can finish draft tomorrow. This is legit a beast, could use help with formatting and review once it's up. BootstrapsRiley (talk) 19:27, 15 February 2022 (PST)
  • Thanks for taking that on. I'm sure it will get reviewed once you put it up. --Lkseitz (talk) 20:20, 15 February 2022 (PST)
    • Agreed. I've always said having a good start is better than a blank page. A complicated subject and one that requires a certain amount of trained historianship to cut through all the bluster, shiftiness and discontinuity. To that end, I'd advise trying to use and cite the work of historians rather than just primary/contemporary sources. --Dystopos (talk) 06:30, 16 February 2022 (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)

Last chance

• If anyone missed their chance to get a 15th anniversary Bhamwiki t-shirt, I'll soon be placing another order. These are free to anyone who has made more than 20 edits to pages that aren't about themselves. If anyone else in the world wants one or more at cost, let me know. You can contact me here, or email me at admin at bhamwiki dot com. Tell me your preferred size and color(s) (Note: orange is discontinued) and either give me a mailing address or talk to me about a pick-up location. --Dystopos (talk) 15:44, 30 July 2021 (PDT)
  • This offer is now closed, but if anyone would like to order a t-shirt at cost, contact me. --Dystopos (talk) 07:48, 15 October 2021 (PDT)

Reporting Awards

• I've been pondering the idea of giving an annual award or awards for reporting in the media, as a way of recognizing the irreplaceable importance of first-hand reporting to Bhamwiki, as well as to the public. I'd probably come up with some kind of token to give out, and possibly invite honorees to attend our annual (?!) anniversary get-together. Thoughts? --Dystopos (talk) 07:41, 15 October 2021 (PDT)
  • Sounds like a cool idea to me. --Lkseitz (talk) 06:42, 16 October 2021 (PDT)
  • I like the idea!--BootstrapsRiley (talk) 17:27, 15 February 2022 (PST)
    • I still like this idea, but it's going to have to wait until I have time to think about it. --Dystopos (talk) 07:33, 14 March 2022 (PDT)

Sweet Sixteen

Happy 16th birthday Bhamwiki! --Wheresdib (talk) 17:20, 15 March 2022 (PDT)

• Thanks. It was so low-key I almost didn't think about it except once or twice. --Dystopos (talk) 11:52, 16 March 2022 (PDT)

2022 World Games

I discovered today that Wikipedia not only has a page on the 2022 World Games, but also individual pages on each event! Should we consider using all that content? The World Games might also be a good opportunity to spread the word about Bhamwiki. Or at least create a landing page for World Games visitors to help them learn about the area. --Lkseitz (talk) 18:39, 11 April 2022 (PDT)

• I'm not going to say that we shouldn't, but I wasn't planning on it. If you can help me come up with a box for the front page at least, I'll put it up. --Dystopos (talk) 05:58, 12 April 2022 (PDT)
  • Hopefully I can manage that. Considering how long it's taken me to respond to this, actually undertaking grabbing all that from Wikipedia seems like something I don't have time for. --Lkseitz (talk) 19:23, 27 April 2022 (PDT)
    • User:Patriarca12 has jumped onto this and provided a great record of the event on Bhamwiki. I'm trying to grab the pictograms for each event to include, and I'll want to rewrite the middle section of the main article to get all this organized. Like I've always told people about contributing, "a good start is better than a blank page." --Dystopos (talk) 09:15, 18 July 2022 (PDT)

CRT Audit

In light of recently proposed legislation, we should probably go ahead and tag any "divisive concepts" which may have been published on Bhamwiki. These may include:

1. That one race, sex, or religion is inherently superior to another race, sex, or religion.
2. That this state or the United States is inherently racist or sexist.
3. That an individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.
4. That an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely on the basis of his or her race.
5. That members of one race should attempt to treat others differently solely on the basis of race.
6. That an individual's moral character is determined solely on the basis of his or her race, sex, or religion.
7. That an individual, solely by virtue of his or her race, sex, or religion, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, sex, or religion.
8. That fault, blame, or bias should be assigned to a race, sex, or religion, or to members of a race, sex, or religion, solely on the basis of their race, sex, or religion.

If anyone finds any and isn't sure how to proceed, just add a note here and/or on the article's talk page and we'll come to a decision without engaging in any discussion of prohibited concepts. --Dystopos (talk) 12:16, 12 April 2022 (PDT)

• ^ That's more or less snark. --Dystopos (talk) 12:09, 4 August 2023 (PDT)

Category proposals

Influencers

• The death of Steven Raley, described as a, "a TikTok influencer" with more than 200,000 followers, made me start to wonder about the practicality of making a "Category:Social media influencers" as a subcategory of "Category:Entertainers". I'm going to give it a go, but I'll listen out for suggestions for whom to include and for tweaks to the categorization. --Dystopos (talk) 09:18, 18 July 2022 (PDT)
  • Seems reasonable to me, but I'm old and can't help with suggestions on whom to include. --Lkseitz (talk) 21:22, 19 July 2022 (PDT)

Black-owned businesses

• Can't see how we can omit this since Greek-owned restaurants is already established. --Dystopos (talk) 12:09, 4 August 2023 (PDT)

Harvard alumni

• It would be interesting to me to be able to call up a list, but perhaps not something that would be of general benefit? --Dystopos (talk) 12:09, 4 August 2023 (PDT)
  • I see the appeal, but where do you draw the line? But, of course, anyone who complains is unlikely to put in the work to start a list for their preferred university. --Lkseitz (talk) 12:22, 6 August 2023 (PDT)
    • It's definitely subjective, unless we just give everyone with a degree an alma mater category. I think my second "out of area" suggestion would be Sewanee, 3rd would be Morehouse. --Dystopos (talk) 06:14, 7 August 2023 (PDT)
      • Getting into it, I'm seeing that some care need be taken not to lump in everybody who went and got some kind of certificate for completing a short-term program hosted at Harvard. --Dystopos (talk) 06:23, 7 August 2023 (PDT)

Internal server errors

• You may notice some internal server errors when attempting to edit pages. This appears to be inconsistent, but persistent. I am inclined to assume that it is related to a recent upgrade of our virtual private server at Dreamhost to a newer version of Ubuntu, which also involved a change in hostnames and IP addresses. I have contacted Dreamhost about engaging their Pro Services team to help me upgrade MediaWiki to a newer version (which looks to be a multi-step process) so that they can also update the PHP and hopefully things will start working smoothly again. Feel free to reply with observation, questions, comments or suggestions. --Dystopos (talk) 06:56, 2 September 2023 (PDT)

Upgrade

• As of this morning, Bhamwiki has been upgraded from MediaWiki version 1.22.6 (with PHP 7.4.30 and MySQL 8.0.28) to the "current long-term support release", version 1.39.5 (with PHP 8.1.23 and MySQL 8.0.34). This is the site's first update since October 2014 (!), and I am very appreciative of the help of Daniel and Adam at Knownhost's Birmingham office for providing the skill and time to accomplish the update. Our server has moved, as part of the process, from Dreamhost to Knownhost, and with that move comes the prospect that when technical issues arise, we will have access to support from people who care about Bhamwiki, which makes me feel very good. To that point, let me know if you run into technical issues (or any other observations, questions, comments or suggestions.) --Dystopos (talk) 11:08, 12 October 2023 (CDT)
  • 👍. I would suggest creating a mobile stylesheet similar to Wikipedia's. I miss not having categories when I'm using it, but otherwise it really is better for phone viewing. [Pause.] Hmmm, okay, and an issue; I'm not seeing the buttons so I can one-click sign my message. --Lkseitz (talk) 13:07, 12 October 2023 (CDT)
    • Is this the mobile front end and this the toolbar as you would wish to have them? --Dystopos (talk) 13:51, 12 October 2023 (CDT)
      • Whoops, sorry. So much for making a mental note to come back to this. From what I can tell, that is the mobile extension I'm used to. I'm not sure if that's the same toolbar we had before, but I believe it will do. --Lkseitz (talk) 20:19, 4 November 2023 (CDT)