Bhamwiki talk:Messageboard/Archive 2006: Difference between revisions

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:''This is an archive of previous discussions. For current discussion, see [[Bhamwiki talk:Messageboard]]. If you wish to expand on a topic here, its best to open a new topic and link to prior discussion here.''
{{Template:Messageboard archives|2006}}


==Technical difficulties==
==Technical difficulties==
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I expect that it will be a positive review, but she did get me speculating on the nature of truth and the trustworthiness of wikis, on which I can wax philosophic without grounding. I hope I have not misrepresented any of your work.<br><br>
I expect that it will be a positive review, but she did get me speculating on the nature of truth and the trustworthiness of wikis, on which I can wax philosophic without grounding. I hope I have not misrepresented any of your work.<br><br>
It is possible that, as a result of this publicity, we will see a lot of new editors. This has me both excited and nervous. I will greatly appreciate the help of our experienced contributers with welcoming newcomers and gently correcting any abuses that might manifest themselves. Please let me know if you observe any problems that need my attention. I expect to have a high tolerance for rookie mistakes, but a low tolerance for troublemaking. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 19:06, 16 November 2006 (PST)
It is possible that, as a result of this publicity, we will see a lot of new editors. This has me both excited and nervous. I will greatly appreciate the help of our experienced contributers with welcoming newcomers and gently correcting any abuses that might manifest themselves. Please let me know if you observe any problems that need my attention. I expect to have a high tolerance for rookie mistakes, but a low tolerance for troublemaking. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 19:06, 16 November 2006 (PST)
==Happy New Year!==
*I hope all my fellow BhamWiki editors have a great 2007!  I would like to get together with ya'll, though I understand that many of the contributors don't actually live in Birmingham any longer.  [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 10:46, 31 December 2006 (PST)
**Been fun in 2006, and '07 will be even better! Happy new year to all involved in this great project! - [[User:Patriarca12|Patriarca12]] 15:19, 31 December 2006 (PST)
::* Happy New Year everyone. I was out of pocket over the holiday and will be busy at work the next week or two, so I might be scarce. I am planning to host an anniversary party on or around March 15 for all registered editors. I'm open to meeting up before then, but I wanted to go ahead and let ya'll know. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 18:49, 2 January 2007 (PST)
:::* Can I suggest it be on a weekend?  Weekdays will generally not be good for me and, I suspect, others.  But don't do it soley on my account.  Belated happy new year, everyone! --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 10:08, 9 January 2007 (PST)
==Messageboard location==
P.S. perhaps this messageboard should be on the Discussion tab so we have the handy "+" tab to add new topics with?
* Done --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 11:59, 9 January 2007 (PST)
==Thursday March 15==
* Anyone who is free for dinner on Thursday, March 15 is welcome to join me in celebrating the 1st anniversary of BhamWiki. Location to be determined (I'm leaning toward [[Chez Fon Fon]]). Note: we can move it to the weekend (16th, 17th or 18th) if more folks will be able to come.--[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 13:31, 9 January 2007 (PST)
:* I want to make plans to be there, even if it's on Thursday.  Right now, I'm thinking of using Friday to go around taking pictures for some of the articles I've written.  I'm not picky about the where, I just need to know a definite when so I can schedule time off.  Who else is coming? --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 06:57, 18 January 2007 (PST)
::* So far it's just us. If you want to go ahead and schedule the time off, we can cast the date in stone. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 07:45, 18 January 2007 (PST)
:::* I should be able to show up on just about any night.  The only other meetings I have during the week is a monthly meeting and I normally organize it, so I have control of it.  I didn't see this earlier but I should be able to make it.  I have never been to Chez Fon Fon so I hope Dystopos is buying! :-P  [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 10:30, 18 January 2007 (PST)
::::* That depends on the turnout. I'll at least spring for wine. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 11:56, 18 January 2007 (PST)
:::* I will be there.  I have scheduled time off on March 16th and plan to leave work a little early on the 15th.  I probably won't be able to make it before 6:00 p.m., though. --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 08:43, 20 February 2007 (PST)
::::* I will send out an email this week to all registered editors who have contributed to more than one article, and maybe some cool ones that haven't. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 10:01, 20 February 2007 (PST)
===Location===
* I just found out that [[Chez Fon Fon]] is closed for dinner on Thursdays and Fridays. So... that means the location of our 1st anniversary dinner is up in the air. I'd like to stay in the southside/lakeview area. Here are my suggestions:
# [[Cantina]] (pepper place, casual latin-american, best in good weather)
# [[Surin West]] (good mild thai, casual)
# [[Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q]] (large menu, casual)
# [[Cobb Lane Restaurant]] (business casual, classic)
# [[Sol y Luna]] (business casual, latin-american)
Discuss here, and I'll send out a new e-mail with the location and directions as soon as we make up our minds. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 10:55, 7 March 2007 (PST)
* I vote '''Jim 'N Nicks''' though I am not sure where the one is now since they closed the one in Lakeview. [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 11:09, 7 March 2007 (PST)
:* It's next door to Surin, in the space formerly occupied by [[Jim N' Nick's 11th Avenue Grill]], which used to just be [[11th Avenue Grill]], which was [[Breckinridge Brewery]] before that. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 11:16, 7 March 2007 (PST)
::*Oh, OK, I know exactly where that is.  I didn't realize there was one there.  Jim 'N Nick's will be the only one I'll be able to talk my wife into.  :) [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 11:57, 7 March 2007 (PST)
* I just ate lunch, but looking at all those menus made me hungry again.  I prefer something casual, so my preferences are '''Cantina''', '''Surin West''', or '''Jim 'N Nicks'''.  Of those, Jim 'N Nick's is the only one I've been to before. --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 11:26, 7 March 2007 (PST)
:* OK, we'll do it at Jim 'N Nick's on 11th Avenue South at 5 Points. I'll call ahead to see about getting a large table. Based on what I've heard, we might have 8 to 12 folks. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 14:08, 7 March 2007 (PST)
==2000==
If anyone was sheepish about adding the 2000th article, that's out of the way now and you can get back to work ;) --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 10:30, 10 March 2007 (PST)
*I started to do [[Highland Avenue]] as the 2000th but got distracted by looking at all the pics of Highland Ave on Flickr.  :-P [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 12:29, 10 March 2007 (PST)
== 365 days! ==
*Congratulations, Dystopos, on a great first year of BhamWiki.  The site ends the year with over 2,000 articles and (as far as I can tell) close to 10 regular contributors, without any advertising.  This is the Internet at its best.  I am proud to be a part of this project and hope to meet you and others tomorrow night at Jim 'N Nicks! [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 08:09, 14 March 2007 (PDT)
:* Thanks. I'm pretty happy with it. At this point, the site is even useful to me as a resource, and we have dozens of articles I don't even remember seeing before. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 10:19, 14 March 2007 (PDT)
:** Here's to another great year! Missing the 'Ham from the NC... [[User:Patriarca12|Chris]] 12:11, 14 March 2007 (PDT)
:* I look forward to seeing you tomorrow night.  I'll be the one in the [[Alabama Theatre]] t-shirt. --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 18:40, 14 March 2007 (PDT)
::* I'll call them during the day to reserve a table for 8-10 and when I get there I'll ask for a few red balloons. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 19:57, 14 March 2007 (PDT)
:::*I'll probably be wearing a bright red [[Superior Bank]] golf shirt.  :) [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 20:08, 14 March 2007 (PDT)
::::*What time is this shindig tonight?  Happy birthday Bhamwiki! [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 05:53, 15 March 2007 (PDT)
:::::* 7:30 PM CDT --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 06:15, 15 March 2007 (PDT)
== BhamWiki Birthday Party ==
[[Image:1st Anniversary Dinner.jpg|right|thumb|185px|Photo from anniversary dinner]]
[[Image:BhamWiki_1st_anniversary_dinner.jpg|right|thumb|185px|Another photo from dinner]]
*I had a great time tonight!  It was nice to meet Dystopos and Lee, finally.  And what a bonus to get to meet and talk to Jim Bennett and his wife, Andrea!  We probably could have spent the entire night talking.  I can't wait until Mr. Bennett's new book is out, it sounds like it is going to be a great resource for us here.  I hope we do this again sooner than next year.  [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 20:18, 15 March 2007 (PDT)
===Next meeting===
:* That was fun. I think what we need to do is pick a weekend for Jim to give us a tour of the Tannehill Museum at the earliest feasible date. I'm free on March 31... --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 21:09, 15 March 2007 (PDT)
::*I will be in east Tennessee that weekend.  And in Michigan the two weekends after that.  I don't think we'll be free until the end of April :-( [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 07:11, 16 March 2007 (PDT)
:::* I'll try to arrange something for the weekend of April 28, if that's ok. I'd also like to invite the [[Magic City Flickr Group]]. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 10:05, 16 March 2007 (PDT)
::::*I'll check with my wife and will probably list it as a Geocaching event as well, since there are a number of caches at Tannehill (all of which I haven't found).  Plus it will be interesting.  That date sounds good for now though.  [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 11:18, 16 March 2007 (PDT)
::::*OK, I went ahead and listed an [http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=5907d900-b277-4afa-8600-13604f52406f event for April 28 at Tannehill on Geocaching.com].  I didn't list a time, but I would like to do it around noon if that's ok with ya'll. And of course anyone is welcome.  GC.com doesn't like to "piggyback" events, so in order for me to list it I had to take out any mention of BhamWiki or MCF, but that doesn't mean it isn't still "our" event.  [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 15:53, 25 March 2007 (PDT)
==New server==
* We're moving today to a different server at Dreamhost. One with "lower load and higher uptime." Please let me know if you detect an improvement in performance. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 06:41, 20 March 2007 (PDT)
== BhamWiki mentioned in the [[Birmingham Weekly]] ==
*I just picked up last Thursday's ([[March 22]]) [[Birmingham Weekly]] and we are mentioned in the "Eight Days Weekly Picks/Calendars" under (ironically) today's section.  I don't think the [http://www.bhamweekly.com/weekly_picks.php link] will work after they publish the next edition, so here is the blurb verbatim:
:: GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY:
::Without even venturing outside (though, please, please, get outside in this 75-degree weather and see what you read about later) you can learn a ton about our tortured, beloved, conflicted, potential-rich and angst-ridden Birmingham. How, you ask? By consulting Bhamwiki – the Wikipedia-inspired site about all things Birmingham. Part of the Project to Document the Birmingham District (that also includes the snap-happy, camera-totin’ fiends at the “Magic City Flickr Group”), www.bhamwiki.com includes entries on everything from city history to the latest news on downtown landmarks – info all submitted by locals. Chronicling history as it happens, essentially. The site just passed the 2,000-entries mark (a posting about the Adamsville community of Docena) and is growing by the minute. Of course, democracy is not always perfect (SEE: “United States, current president”), so double-check the facts you find on Bhamwiki – you can always send in corrections. And let us know what you find!
[[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 13:18, 26 March 2007 (PDT)
:* No warning about that one. Cool. For what it's worth we saw a mild bump in traffic on March 22, serving 9,498 pages compared to a daily average of about 6,000-7,000. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 17:34, 26 March 2007 (PDT)
==April 28 at Tannehill==
* As noted above, we're planning to invite everyone from here and the Magic City Flickr Group, as well as the local geocaching community to meet up at Tannehill Historical State Park on Saturday April 28 to learn more about ironmaking in Roupes' Valley, to have a chance to meet each other, to share interests (history, photography, geocaching, etc) and to take photos of the site. No specific time yet, but most likely between the 12:00 and 4:00 window-of-opportunity. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 17:39, 26 March 2007 (PDT)
:*The Geocachers will be meeting at 1:00 at a picnic area near the Iron and Steel Museum.  Check out the [http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=5907d900-b277-4afa-8600-13604f52406f geocache description] for directions and other info.  The park does charge admission and there is another charge to tour the museum.  I will be hosting a "Geocaching 101" class if anyone is interested in learning more about this GPS-based scavenger hunt style hobby.  We will be cooking hot dogs (courtesy of [[Clay Rickles]], the assistant Scoutmaster of [[Troop 321]] in [[Hueytown]] and co-owner of [[Rainbow Paint and Decorating]] in [[Bessemer]]).  Clay will also provide us with some tables and chairs, but if you have a camp chair, please bring it.  Anyway, hope to see you all there! [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 10:12, 12 April 2007 (PDT)
::* (as posted to MCFG) The Magic City Flickr Group and BhamWiki are joining the Alabama Geocachers Association for a fun filled afternoon at the Tannehill Historical State Park on Saturday, April 28. We'll meet and greet with the geocachers and [not] steal all their hot dogs at 1:00 PM outside the Iron and Steel Museum. Then those who are interested can tour the museum and visit the restored furnace site. Be sure to bring your cameras to document the park for the MCFG.
For those interested in geocaching, there are six or more unclaimed caches in the park and the association will have everything they need to introduce you to the hobby. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 06:18, 24 April 2007 (PDT)
:*For the record, when you find the cache, the idea is to leave it there for the next person to find, you just sign your name to the logsheet, and there are sometimes trinkets inside the cache container you can trade for... but yes, we will have a "Geocaching 101" class that will teach you the basics, then we'll have tour guides who can help you find your first cache.  Now we'll just pray for good weather! [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 06:45, 24 April 2007 (PDT)
::*Can I get a headcount of how many people are going to come?  We need to figure out how many hotdogs to bring.  Right now I am counting about 30-40 Geocachers (including kids and spouses).  We're being conservative (hah!) and bringing 100 hotdogs, so if the count from BW and MCFG is more than 10 we might need to rethink that.  [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 18:13, 24 April 2007 (PDT)
:::* Flickr-ites are notorious for not RSVPing. You needn't plan on feeding them. If I had to guess, I'd say between 5 and 10 might show, but I haven't heard from anybody. Personally, I'm planning to get some Bob Sykes before I come. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 20:21, 24 April 2007 (PDT)
:::* I'm afraid I won't be able to make this trip, which is a shame because I'd really like to try my hand at geocaching.  (Like I need another hobby.)  --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 23:13, 24 April 2007 (PDT)


=="Signs" category?==
=="Signs" category?==
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* Here's what I would do... For truly significant signs (such as the [[Barber's clock]] or the "Welcome to the Magic City" sign that was outside the terminal station) which might merit a separate article, we can make a [[:Category:Signs]]. Otherwise, maybe a category, such as [[:Category:Buildings with signage]] would make it too hard to distinguish noteworthy signs, like the ones you list, from your run-of-the-mill Walgreen's. With that being the case, I propose a [[List of notable signs]] as a separate article to which the other articles can be linked: e. g. "<nowiki>The current building is known best for the monumental 176 by 26 foot electronic [[List of notable signs|marquee]] mounted on top which displays advertising messages using an array of 1,440 incandescent bulb</nowiki>" (for [[Two North Twentieth]]). Also, if we collect a group of photographs of the signs, those can be collected in their own category, and/or a gallery article would be nice. Sound okay? --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 05:57, 27 November 2006 (PST)
* Here's what I would do... For truly significant signs (such as the [[Barber's clock]] or the "Welcome to the Magic City" sign that was outside the terminal station) which might merit a separate article, we can make a [[:Category:Signs]]. Otherwise, maybe a category, such as [[:Category:Buildings with signage]] would make it too hard to distinguish noteworthy signs, like the ones you list, from your run-of-the-mill Walgreen's. With that being the case, I propose a [[List of notable signs]] as a separate article to which the other articles can be linked: e. g. "<nowiki>The current building is known best for the monumental 176 by 26 foot electronic [[List of notable signs|marquee]] mounted on top which displays advertising messages using an array of 1,440 incandescent bulb</nowiki>" (for [[Two North Twentieth]]). Also, if we collect a group of photographs of the signs, those can be collected in their own category, and/or a gallery article would be nice. Sound okay? --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 05:57, 27 November 2006 (PST)


:*I like the list idea right now instead of the category.  I would hate to see a bunch of national chain restaurants, drug stores and the likes show up in a category that was meant for the truly local and unusual signs.  At least with the list we can put the [[Two North Twentieth]], [[City Federal]], [[WBRC]], [[Barber's clock]] and the like without necessarily creating a separate article just for the sign if it is attached to a significant building.  [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 07:22, 27 November 2006 (PST)   
:*I like the list idea right now instead of the category.  I would hate to see a bunch of national chain restaurants, drug stores and the likes show up in a category that was meant for the truly local and unusual signs.  At least with the list we can put the [[Two North Twentieth]], [[City Federal]], [[WBRC 6]], [[Barber's clock]] and the like without necessarily creating a separate article just for the sign if it is attached to a significant building.  [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 07:22, 27 November 2006 (PST)   
:*sounds good:) --[[user:sagefats|sagefats]]
:*sounds good:) --[[user:sagefats|sagefats]]


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* As you have discovered, I am of two minds on the subject. As long as the organization of the article is apparent, I still don't have a strong preference. Ultimately, I think the best thing is for an overall article to discuss major developments over time. So subject headings like "First years", "Peak years", with individual occurrences incorporated into the text, would probably be the sign of a mature article. In that case, the order would probably follow a historical chronology and individual years might merit their own articles to document more trivial aspects. (Like the City Stages articles). --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 09:09, 14 December 2006 (PST)
* As you have discovered, I am of two minds on the subject. As long as the organization of the article is apparent, I still don't have a strong preference. Ultimately, I think the best thing is for an overall article to discuss major developments over time. So subject headings like "First years", "Peak years", with individual occurrences incorporated into the text, would probably be the sign of a mature article. In that case, the order would probably follow a historical chronology and individual years might merit their own articles to document more trivial aspects. (Like the City Stages articles). --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 09:09, 14 December 2006 (PST)


== Parentheses for disambiguation ==
==Continued==
Well, this is embarrassing.  I've changed an article name from "Parkway Drive Trussville" to "[[Parkway Drive (Trussville)]]".  I thought it was more encyclopedia-ish and helps distinguish that "Trussville" is not part of the street's name but its location.  Looking at the [[Talk:Parkway Drive (Trussville)|talk page]], I see I proposed the non-parenthesized version in the first place.  IIRC, I was merely following [[User:Dystopos|Dystopos']] lead from a couple other places.  What do others think about this change?  Is it a good thing?  Unneccessary?
* See [[Bhamwiki talk:Messageboard/Archive 2007]] for continuation of discussion.
 
Incidentally, this came from my expanding the [[U.S. Highway 78]] article a bit.  I decided if the individual road names of [[U.S. Highway 31]] were going to get their own articles, [[Parkway Drive (Leeds)]] should too.  Previously the [[Parkway Drive]] disambiguation page just pointed to Highway 78 for the portion in Leeds. --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 10:01, 9 January 2007 (PST)
* My lead will typically take you down a circular path. I don't have any direction on this issue at the moment. Let's keep thinking about individual cases. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 11:59, 9 January 2007 (PST)
 
== Succession boxes and interims ==
Okay, help me out with this.  I've recently discovered [[Edna Snow]] acted as interim superintendent of Homewood City Schools before [[Michael Gross]] (1978&ndash;1985), after [[Robert F. Bumpus]] (1985&ndash;1991), and probably between the two.  (But see [[Talk:Edna Snow]] for more on that.).  Because I don't know who was superintendent immediately before or after these two men, I've added her name, marked as "interim," in the succession boxes on these two men's pages for now.  I also have succession boxes for these two stints on Ms. Snow's page.  That's a short term solution.
 
In the long term, what do we do about people who filled a position while a search for a permanent replacement was conducted?  Does it depend on the length of the interim?  For example, [[Andy Craig]] will likely have been interim superintendent for over a year by the time a permanent [[List of Hoover superintendents|Hoover Superintendent]] is found.  Or do such people merely get a succession box during the active period they hold the position and we remove it and take them out of the link chain once a permanent replacement is found?
 
The scenarios for Snow are this.  Let's presume she was interim superintendent between Gross and Bumpus.
 
# She gets succession boxes as interim superintendent each time.
## Gross' and Bumpus' succession boxes both show her as interim both before and after them, meaning the user has to keep track of which row of succession boxes to use on her page to continue through the chain.
## Gross' and Bumpus' succession boxes only list the non-interim holders (each other), meaning Snow's are not part of the chain but are still handy for quick reference at the bottom of her article.
# Snow doesn't get succession boxes as interim superintendent, but of course that information is noted in her entry.  She doesn't appear in the boxes on Gross' or Bumpus' entries.
 
I know there will be special cases, but I wanted others thoughts on this. --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 15:09, 1 February 2007 (PST)
* You might want to see how Wikipedia has handled it. I suspect that even people who serve for a day would show up in the succession box. In the cases where someone has served in between so many, though, I might be tempted to leave the succession box off that particular page and let it be explained in the text. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 15:11, 1 February 2007 (PST)
 
:* I can't find a Wikipedia policy on it and my attempts to find some examples have not panned out.  Any suggestions for examples?  I tried CEOs of Time Warner, Toys R Us, and Wal-Mart.  The U.S. Presidents have nice succession box examples, but I can't think of any "interim" candidates. --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 10:33, 2 February 2007 (PST)
::* Looking around, I see that Mike Price is fully accounted for in the Alabama Head Football Coach succession boxes. So are Scarborough, Ontario Mayor Ken Morrish and Omaha interim Mayor Richard Cunningham (even though he's a red link). I think it's best to generally include interims in the succession box, but where, as in Snow's case, that would just stack up a bunch of boxes, we could make the editorial decision to streamline somehow. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 11:53, 2 February 2007 (PST)
 
== Iron Bowl stubs ==
* I will continue the Iron Bowl stubs next week.  I don't want a mere stub to be the 1800th article and I probably should do actual work for once ;-).  Of course, if anyone feels compelled to write one or some, here's a great resource:  [http://www.al.com/ironbowl/index.ssf?history/index.html].  The information is very similar to the webpage I was using yesterday but was published in the Mobile Press-Register. [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 13:29, 2 February 2007 (PST)
:* Make sure that 1,800th is a good one :) --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 14:14, 2 February 2007 (PST)
*Please be sure to look at the articles I've written (or stolen) on these football games, teams, and coaches.  I am not a football fan so I could be completely messing things up.  [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 14:15, 20 February 2007 (PST)
 
== The Beatles? ==
As I was reading the wikipedia entry on the Beatles, I found this little tidbit: "...In an interview with British reporter Maureen Cleave, [John] Lennon had offered his opinion that Christianity was dying and that the Beatles were "more popular than Christ now." Afterwards, a radio station in Birmingham, Alabama, ran a story on burning Beatles records, in what was considered to be a joke. However, many people affiliated with rural churches in the American South started taking the suggestion seriously. Towns across the United States and South Africa started to burn Beatles records in protest."  Does anyone know what radio station made that announcement? [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 11:16, 26 February 2007 (PST)
:I'm not sure, but it appears it might have been [http://www.geocities.com/fireace_00/artists.html Tommy Charles] of [http://www.birminghamrewound.com/radio-tv2.htm WAQY] (scroll down to Birmingham Radio: 1966). --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 11:38, 26 February 2007 (PST)
::* [[WAQY-AM]], there's a small paragraph on it in the article on [[Tommy Charles]] --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 11:40, 26 February 2007 (PST)
:::* Wow, you learn something new every day.  I remember vaguely the "bigger than Jesus" quote but didn't realize that it was Birmingham that led the "ban the Beatles" drive.  How silly. [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 12:00, 26 February 2007 (PST)
 
==Articles on tangential topics==
*This conversation makes me wonder about someday creating articles for BhamWiki about mostly-unrelated subjects which basically boil down to lists of all connections between the city and that topic. (Not too unlike our articles about years). So in this case, we'd have an article at [[The Beatles]] and then it would have a brief introduction and then go into the WAQY stuff and Timothy Leary's "Come Together" campaign, etc. .. Any thoughts? --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 12:19, 26 February 2007 (PST)
:*I really like that idea.  Somehow tying it all together would make sense.  I personally didn't care for the Timothy Leary article since it didn't really focus on Birmingham, but if we could tie it all (and a Beatles article) together, in a way that it makes sense to the unintiated reader, that would be awesome.  And it would be a great way of showing off BhamWiki, because that info isn't readily available, all in one place, right now.  And that's what this site is all about, at least IMHO. [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 12:31, 26 February 2007 (PST)
::* Re: Timothy Leary: Those are hard articles to work on. I think it's important to have them so we can "show off" a bit and highlight our connections to bigger figures and events, but it's always an issue of proportion. I like to keep the basic summary and the important facts intact (Leary's publications, [[Terrell Owens]]' receiving numbers, etc) but try also to winnow down the amount of detail about completely unrelated parts of their lives. I think the [[Michael Jordan]] article is a better example, but that's only because I had a source with plenty of detail. So the process of improving those articles can cut both ways. As we add local info we keep stripping out the stuff that Wikipedia covers better. Also, you'll notice I have some things like [[Civil War]] and [[Works Progress Administration]] redlinked in numerous articles in anticipation of some kind of article about the impact of those events in the Birmingham District. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 12:47, 26 February 2007 (PST)
===Examples===
* Skewed too much away from Birmingham: [[Carl Lewis]], [[Timothy Leary]]
* Well-balanced: [[Michael Jordan]], [[Walker Percy]]
 
===direct linking to Wikipedia?===
*OK, this whole conversation leads me to a different question.  On another wiki I frequent, they have it set up to where you can direct link wikipedia articles by typing wikipedia:Article Name inside double brackets.  On the page it looks like you are going to a page inside that wiki but instead it leads you to WP.  Is this something you would be interested in doing?  I know you like to keep BW separate from WP, but in cases like [[Civil War]], until we can pare that down into a Birmingham-area article, you could at least reduce the redlinks.  [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 13:00, 26 February 2007 (PST)
:* I'm not as horrified by red links as you are, Wheresdib. They light the way to the future!. All kidding aside, I think it's better to create a page here, even just a stub, with a link to the Wikipedia article so that we have a chance to put it into some kind of context as well as invite improvements here. A direct link might make us feel like no article was needed. (And I don't want to start linking to every <nowiki>[[trivia:minor concept]] that [[being (philosophy)|exists]] on [[Wikipedia:About|Wikipedia]]</nowiki> just because we can. (So in instances where an inline link is appropriate, we can just use the <nowiki>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Link#External_links external link format]</nowiki> --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 13:20, 26 February 2007 (PST)
::* I have to agree with Dystopos on redlinks.  While they can be annoying (Hey, I wanted to know more about that!), they are also useful in seeing what [[Special:Wantedpages|needs to be done]].  I'm working on a site with a glossary where I define certain terms.  At the end of most, I include a link to a Wikipedia article.  I'd say we probably need to do something similar in the "External links" section.  Easily linking within Bhamwiki to Wikipedia leads to abuse and confusion by users when they leave Bhamwiki without noticing it. --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 13:33, 26 February 2007 (PST)
:::* One caveat regarding linking to Wikipedia in the external links section. For articles about truly-Birmingham topics, I hope we'll exercise our GFDL rights and update our own version as appropriate and use the link in the references section. The idea is that we'll have the superior article anyway. For articles about things where Wikipedia will always be more complete (Jordan, for example) the external link is justified. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 13:52, 26 February 2007 (PST)
::::*I just suggested it because sometimes the need to know about something further is needed in an article.  For example, we don't want to create an article about Montgomery here, that is outside our scope, but what if someone is reading the article about the governor or other lawmakers?  A link to the Wikipedia article on Montgomery would be helpful without us having to create it here.  It felt strange unlinking references to the city of Auburn when Bhamwikifying the [[Auburn University]] page.  I agree that every single menial word shouldn't be linked here, but I was thinking more about articles that aren't within our scope but would help with related articles.  Take [[Timothy Leary]] for example.  Linking some of the cities and universities mentioned would be helpful to me without actually having to read the BW article on him, then flip over to the WP article to find more.  That's just my $0.02.  [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 14:30, 26 February 2007 (PST)
:::::*I encourage you to add inline links to Wikipedia where you think they would be helpful, but I think we should stick with the normal [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Link#External_links external link format] to avoid confusion. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 14:40, 26 February 2007 (PST)
::::::*Duly noted. [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 14:50, 26 February 2007 (PST)
 
== Improving search ranking ==
 
As an experiment, I entered some search terms in Google to see where BhamWiki shows up:
{| width="50%"
! Term !! Results page
|-
| [http://www.google.com/search?q=birmingham birmingham] || Not top 10
|-
| [http://www.google.com/search?q=birmingham+alabama birmingham alabama] || Not top 10
|-
| [http://www.google.com/search?q=birmingham+wiki birmingham wiki] || 3
|-
| [http://www.google.com/search?q=birmingham+alabama+wiki birmingham alabama wiki] || 4 (not main page)
|-
| [http://www.google.com/search?q=wiki+birmingham wiki birmingham] || 5
|-
| [http://www.google.com/search?q=wiki+birmingham+alabama wiki birmingham alabama] || 5  (not main page)
|}
For all of these, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham,_Alabama Wikipedia's Birmingham page] is in the top five results.  Surely we can do better.  A link from the Wikipedia page would help, but as a non-neutral party, ''I'm'' not going to add it.  I might request it on the Talk page, though.  We might also add the word "Alabama" a bit more (or at least higher) on the main page.  This not only helps search results, but might help those unfamiliar with both the Birminghams of Alabama and England figure out which one we're talking about a bit faster.  Then there's a couple things only [[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] can do, like add a meta description tag and/or tweak the title on the main page (e.g. "BhamWiki - The Project to Document the Birmingham, Alabama District").  Of course, I don't know that anyone else cares about this, so I thought I'd toss this out and see what y'all think. --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 09:53, 27 February 2007 (PST)
:* These are worth consideration to the extent we want to drive people to the site who merely have an interest in Birmingham as such (and we do). However, for those with specific interests in the things we cover well, we're doing pretty good (homicides birmingham - top result; mary anderson inventor - 3rd hit, wallace rayfield - top hit; wbrc 6 - 6th hit, wspz - 4th hit, rickwood field - 10th; birmingham black barons - 16th; 16th street baptist church - 17th). Since the main purpose of the site is to be useful, I'm pleased that google is directing people to us when we're in a position to be useful. As Lee has observed, adding links from the main page helps google find things, so I'll probably rework the featured article section more often. (and mention Alabama) --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 10:06, 27 February 2007 (PST)
::* I'll add it to the Wikipedia page, I don't really care.  This isn't like we are advertising a business or anything.  I just don't know exactly where to put it.  [[User:Wheresdib|--Wheresdib]] 10:22, 27 February 2007 (PST)
:::* The relevant Wikipedia policy is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:COI Wikipedia:Conflict of interest]. Full compliance would necessitate discussion on the article's talk page. The best location would seem to be the "External links" section. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 12:24, 27 February 2007 (PST)
* In related news, our [http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php PageRank] recently climbed from 3 to 4. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 12:27, 27 February 2007 (PST)
 
==Traffic==
* The site has been seeing an increase in traffic recently and is currently ranked 704,970 by Alexa -- ahead of birminghamweekly.com (1,961,589), bwcitypaper.com (1,118,536), bcvb.org (982,094) and informationbirmingham.com (708,991). AL.com is ranked 9,990. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 08:24, 28 March 2007 (PDT)
:* Update: Our Alexa ranking is now 526,009. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 07:17, 25 April 2007 (PDT)
 
==Dates==
* I would like to help out setting date pages up, but would like to know if we are going to have any sort of standard with regards to what to include and exclude from date pages. For example, should we include homicides for each date page? ‎[[User:Patriarca12|Patriarca12]] 11:09, 4 April 2007 (PDT)
:* So far, homicides have fallen below my own inconsistent threshold. I would imagine that ultimately only notable sporting events would be reported, but right now they're helping fill out some thin dates. Among the things I've considered adding to the dates and years pages are relevant illustrations, a template for each month similar to the one for each decade, and a category for "year articles" to ease navigation. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 12:47, 4 April 2007 (PDT)
::* Oh, and also I'd love to see a template on the main page that read the date articles and generated a "today in Birmingham history" feature. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 13:24, 4 April 2007 (PDT)
:::* For Wikipedia's date entries (e.g. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_15 March 15]), they use [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Months this template], listing the entire year's dates.  I can see arguments both for and against using it here.  I'm guessing you want something more like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:MarchCalendar this], but without the year and days of the week.  And I'm afraid the template for a "today in Birmingham history" feature is quite beyond my abilities right now. --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 10:11, 5 April 2007 (PDT)
::::* I think it's feasible, but we might need to reformat the dates pages, or create parallel pages like [[March 15/todayinhistory]] or something that could then be referenced into a portal frame. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 11:29, 5 April 2007 (PDT)
:* I’m thinking I will make a run at the years pages. Chronolgies are one of my big things.--[[User:MacroAlan|MacroAlan]] 08:34, 15 October 2007 (PDT)
::* [[1940]] has been added. I am playing with 1941. My history in Bham ends in 1987, when I moved to Arkansas.--[[User:MacroAlan|MacroAlan]] 13:07, 17 October 2007 (PDT)
 
== Maps ==
 
This is primarily addressed to [[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]], but others might be interested.  [http://maps.google.com/maps Google Maps] has a new feature called [http://maps.google.com/help/maps/userguide/index.html My Maps], which lets one "create personalized, annotated, customized maps using Google Maps."  This is exactly the kind of thing Dystopos wanted for pages like [[List of Birmingham homicides in 2006]], as it will allow many placemarks on a single map.  The downsides are 1) the map will be a separate link rather than appearing in the article, 2) it would make BhamWiki ''very'' dependent on the Google Maps service (Some might argue the "locate" templates I've already created do that anyway.), and 3) each map would be owned by an individual unless we set up a group "BhamWiki" account (which would still have a different set of issues).  I haven't played with My Maps yet, but it looked so cool I had to bring it to y'all's attention. --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 11:15, 5 April 2007 (PDT)
* I saw the announcement. I already have a Google Earth folder for 2006 homicides. I'll look into whether I can directly export that .kmz file into something that people can load in a browser on Google Maps (instead of needing the Google Earth application). --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 11:26, 5 April 2007 (PDT)
 
==Status==
You all have probably noticed that the site has been spotty again. I don't know a lot, but I know our overall number of connections and queries to the database is within acceptable levels; that our overall traffic bandwidth is within acceptable levels, and that the actual physical server on which bhamwiki.com is hosted is reported to be running fine. The friendly Dreamhost support team suggested today that it is possible that the MySQL database is "corrupted" and have I tried restoring from a "known good" backup.
*Well, here's the deal. I don't know what's good. Dreamhost takes snapshots of the database daily and stores them for a couple of weeks. I suspect if there is something wrong in the database, that its much older than a couple of weeks. I've made my own off-site backups in January and last Sunday (Easter). I don't want to lose data just to see if that solves the problem. Losing data is a bigger problem than a slow site, in my opinion.
:*So... the only way I know for sure that I don't lose the most important data (the articles), is to save them all to my own computer as text files. Which I've been doing. I've got 255 so far and I'll keep doing it until I have all of them. I've focused on the most recent ones. I am backing up ALL new contributions in the same manner, starting now, and for the foreseeable future. Whatever becomes of this database, all articles will be preserved and will see the light of day. Please don't be discouraged from about contributing. (Also, I have backed up the images folder from the mediawiki install, so no actual image files are threatened)
::* Note: My failsafe method is intended as an absolute last-resort for the most critical content, to be used ONLY in the case that the database itself becomes irrecoverable. The method does not preserve the article history and it doesn't follow through with categories. This would technically be a violation of the site license, but if it's the only thing I can do, you'll just have to forgive me.
:::* Second note: If you are so inclined, it wouldn't hurt to keep backups of your own contributions, especially things that will mean more to you than to the public, like your user pages. If needed, I have kept a private list of all user's login names and email addresses which I can use to re-create accounts if that ever becomes necessary.
::::* Third note: If anyone wants to sit down with me and propose a better means of hosting BhamWiki, let me know.
:::::* And last: I appreciate your patience with me. I don't know much about these technical issues and I'm a slow learner. What faith I have is in the fact that the site is still, if intermittently, performing as expected with no apparent gaps in the database; in the fact that MySQL and MediaWiki have broad user and developer bases and that our content is not in some endangered proprietary format. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 18:59, 10 April 2007 (PDT)
:* It's a daunting task, but you can use the [[Special:Export]] page to download pages with their entire histories.  You can then use [[Special:Import]], which only Sysops (you) have access to to restore them.  I knew there was a good reason to [[User:Lkseitz/Contributions|track my contributions]]. --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 20:35, 10 April 2007 (PDT)
::* Tell you what, if you can figure out how to get a list of every page, I'll try the export function on a full list and see what comes out. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 21:59, 10 April 2007 (PDT)
:::* Is that all?  [[Special:Allpages]]. :-)  I exported all the articles I've started (but not their talk pages) last night since I had a [[User:Lkseitz/Contributions|handy list]].  Doing the whole thing, however, is a bit much for my dial-up connection at home.  --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 06:50, 11 April 2007 (PDT)
===update===
* I haven't learned anything more from Dreamhost today. The condition of the site seems the same - plagued with "internal server errors" and general sluggishness. I was, however, thanks to Lee, able to backup all of the articles in the main namespace using the [[Special:Export]] function. So I now have a nice collection of 82 .XML files with a few dozen articles each which, if need be, can be imported into a fresh wiki install. Most of these were exported with their page histories. I found it more convenient to export dense pages like the main page and the homicide lists without their histories, and then sometimes found that checkbox checked several pages later. But oh, well. I'm planning to continue saving articles as text files because that's the only thing I actually trust. Hopefully it won't come down to that. More later on any plans for attempting a fix. I'll continue backing up contributions as they are made. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 16:31, 11 April 2007 (PDT)
:* Dreamhost is reporting that a database admin checked our database and that it appears to be fine (not corrupted).  We haven't identified what was causing all the logjams earlier this week, but at least today things seemed to have improved. I'm still keeping copies of everything as a precaution. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 20:20, 12 April 2007 (PDT)
::* Next task is to try to corrall the googlebot so that it doesn't index anything but article space. Initial research indicates that I'll need to "beautify" the URLs in order to make that easier. So whenever I do that there may be a little bit of downtime, but it should knock some of the peaks off of the loads that cause our server to return an internal error. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 11:50, 26 April 2007 (PDT)
:::* Looks like was more hotlinking going on than I knew about. Disabling the hotlinking of images has apparently returned over 200 "failed referrals" over the last 24 hours. Preventing this practice probably saves us some bandwidth, but I'm not sure if it will affect CPU usage, which has been our bugaboo. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 14:38, 1 May 2007 (PDT)
::::* Are you referring to the ability of people to link to BhamWiki images from outside the site?  [http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&z=13&om=0&msid=111913588472637219454.00000111c33c439b9a79b&msa=0 Guilty].  (Photos are supposed to appear in those bubbles when you select a location.)  Sorry, it was just an experiment (and an attempt to guide more people to the site).  Guess I'll upload copies of those photos to my web site for Google Map purposes. --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 15:05, 1 May 2007 (PDT)
:::::* Yes, that's what I'm referring to. And I'm not convinced it was problematic since our "bandwidth" usage is well below the threshold that should cause any problems or trigger any additional expenses from our host. Depending on how hard the server's CPU has to work to deliver an image file with a link that locates the file through our database, hotlinking could have been contributing to our "internal server error" problem. In any case, hotlinking has been disabled on the server by modifying .htaccess. (Don't I sound all knowledgeable now?). Yet to be tackled is the issue of googlebot's indexing of non-article pages, which I suspect is the main culprit in overusing our CPU. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 15:26, 1 May 2007 (PDT)
 
== Techmixer 3.0 ==
 
I presented BhamWiki alongside the [[Magic City Flickr Group]] at [[TechBirmingham]]'s "TechMixer 3.0" at the [[McWane Science Center]] this evening. Most people I talked to were very pleased to learn about the sites which make up the "Project to Document the Birmingham District". Just as many people, it seems, were interested in the 20" iMac G5 I brought to show them off on. I expect we'll have more people exploring the site, and hopefully some fresh contributors. Thanks in advance for everybody's help in welcoming people and encouraging them to participate. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 18:54, 1 May 2007 (PDT)
 
== Month templates ==
 
For the individual date articles, I've started creating month templates.  ([[Template:April]], [[Template:May]], and [[Template:June]] so far.)  I'd like some feedback before I put them on all the date pages.  In general, do they look okay?  For the first cut, I had the month name and arrows at the top link to "Category: X dates", but this proved to be clunky when doing between months.  (You can see this with the [[April 30|April]] template still.)  The new version (May & June) instead goes to the last day of the previous month and the first of the next.  Does anyone disagree with this approach or have a better idea?  Second, I'm questioning whether the month name should link to the category or not.  It seems redundant.  Opinions? --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 08:49, 6 June 2007 (PDT)
* They look great and work fantastically. I agree with having the arrows link to the next specific date (I can foresee that "February 28 >> February 29 >> March 1" might be confusing, but probably ok). I also agree that linking the month name to the category is redundant. Let's just leave that black. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 09:55, 6 June 2007 (PDT)
 
==slowness==
* I know that the site has been slow the last couple of days. I've taken action to block [http://www.cuill.com/twiceler/robot.html twiceler], a robot/crawler that was hitting us almost as hard as googlebot. Hopefully that will take some pressure off the server CPU until we figure out a way to channel googlebot more productively. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 13:54, 21 June 2007 (PDT)
 
==Error on October 22==
* Most of the site (with the exception of some of the "Special pages" was inaccessible for most of the day on October 22 (Black Monday). User:gt9606a did something mysterious to get it working again. If you see him, buy him a drink. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 15:13, 22 October 2007 (PDT)
:* Somehow one of our MySQL tables got re-named "Bhamsite_stats_" instead of "Bhamsite_stats" (see the extra underscore), which triggered the error every time a page load tried to write to that table. GT fixed it by renaming the table again. I don't know why it happened in the first place. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 15:18, 23 October 2007 (PDT)
 
== Halloween ==
Aren't we past due to use the [[Main Page]] to draw attention to [[:Category:Haunted attractions]] and [[:Category:Ghosts]] again for Halloween? --[[User:Lkseitz|Lkseitz]] 13:20, 23 October 2007 (PDT)
:* OK. I added the links and found an Octobery banner. --[[User:Dystopos|Dystopos]] 15:16, 23 October 2007 (PDT)

Latest revision as of 09:23, 29 March 2014

This is an archive of discussions from 2006. 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.

Technical difficulties

BhamWiki is hosted by Dreamhost.com, which came highly recommended when I signed up, but has had a difficult summer and is apparently still having issues keeping our site humming. I am willing to consider alternatives to Dreamhost if other users have strong recommendations. My own technical knowledge is paltry. --Dystopos 07:38, 20 November 2006 (PST)

I talked to a friend who runs another site I frequent and he uses GoDaddy for hosting services and doesn't have any problems. I can't vouch for anyone though. Another wiki that I foray into (Lostpedia) uses Jupiter Hosting and I have never had a problem accessing that site. --Wheresdib 14:24, 22 November 2006 (PST)
I don't know what standards to set. At least Dreamhost is responsive, communicative to the point of even being friendly. I just wish I didn't have to communicate with them so often. I guess I'll come to a decision by March when my 1 year contract is up. --Dystopos 15:31, 22 November 2006 (PST)
ed. note - my hosting account has been renewed at Dreamhost for 2007. --Dystopos 07:04, 16 March 2007 (PDT)

BhamWiki Meet-up?

To all interested...

What does everyone think about maybe trying to have a get together on the day after Thanksgiving? If any of y'all are in town and available, it would be nice to meet some of y'all in person and explore our fair city. I leave this open for discussion... --Patriarca12 07:42, 31 October 2006 (PST)

  • I'll be in Lower Alabama that day... probably driving back Sunday after church. --Dystopos 07:48, 31 October 2006 (PST)
  • I will be around that day, I have to work. My office is downtown in the John A. Hand Building, we could meet for lunch somewhere nearby, maybe Scott's Koneys. I am also off the next Monday 11/27. --Wheresdib 08:06, 31 October 2006 (PST)
  • I'd love to meet you guys, but I have other commitments that day. My forays to B'ham these days are sadly infrequent. --Lkseitz 09:41, 31 October 2006 (PST)
Lol, I'd also like to meet everyone, but, unfortunately, I don't know where I'll be spending Thanksgiving, either Gadsden or Geneva, but, either way, I won't be able to make the trip from Decatur. :~( AlabamaGuy2007 20:19, 1 November 2006 (PST)

Is anyone still interested in meeting this Friday? I will be around the office all day, and it shouldn't be busy. Let me know if interested either here or on my talk page. --Wheresdib 14:21, 22 November 2006 (PST)

Birmingham News article

It is likely that the Birmingham News will profile BhamWiki over Thanksgiving weekend. User:Lkseitz and I have been interviewed by staff writer Erin Stock who found us while Googling Legion Field and thereby got the scoop. She would like to hear from anyone else involved in the project that is interested in helping her with the story. You can contact her through the newspaper or ask me for contact info.

I expect that it will be a positive review, but she did get me speculating on the nature of truth and the trustworthiness of wikis, on which I can wax philosophic without grounding. I hope I have not misrepresented any of your work.

It is possible that, as a result of this publicity, we will see a lot of new editors. This has me both excited and nervous. I will greatly appreciate the help of our experienced contributers with welcoming newcomers and gently correcting any abuses that might manifest themselves. Please let me know if you observe any problems that need my attention. I expect to have a high tolerance for rookie mistakes, but a low tolerance for troublemaking. --Dystopos 19:06, 16 November 2006 (PST)

"Signs" category?

would this be a possible category for articles? perhaps relating to the proposed bhamwiki:architecture portal or something? i just think of all the interesting signage around town, City Federal, Redmont Hotel, that huge electric messageboard downtown, WBRC, Dixie Neon, the big C on the Cabana Building, Carraway's rotating star, the Alabama Theatre, the old Vulcan green/red torch, the old neon signs that used to adorn every church like 16th St. Baptist., etc...

good idea or no? -- User:Sagefats.

  • Here's what I would do... For truly significant signs (such as the Barber's clock or the "Welcome to the Magic City" sign that was outside the terminal station) which might merit a separate article, we can make a Category:Signs. Otherwise, maybe a category, such as Category:Buildings with signage would make it too hard to distinguish noteworthy signs, like the ones you list, from your run-of-the-mill Walgreen's. With that being the case, I propose a List of notable signs as a separate article to which the other articles can be linked: e. g. "The current building is known best for the monumental 176 by 26 foot electronic [[List of notable signs|marquee]] mounted on top which displays advertising messages using an array of 1,440 incandescent bulb" (for Two North Twentieth). Also, if we collect a group of photographs of the signs, those can be collected in their own category, and/or a gallery article would be nice. Sound okay? --Dystopos 05:57, 27 November 2006 (PST)
  • I like the list idea right now instead of the category. I would hate to see a bunch of national chain restaurants, drug stores and the likes show up in a category that was meant for the truly local and unusual signs. At least with the list we can put the Two North Twentieth, City Federal, WBRC 6, Barber's clock and the like without necessarily creating a separate article just for the sign if it is attached to a significant building. --Wheresdib 07:22, 27 November 2006 (PST)
  • sounds good:) --sagefats
  • I've found enough information to write an article about the sign at Terminal Station, but what should it be called? --Lkseitz 15:22, 30 November 2006 (PST)
  • Good question. My first thought is "Terminal Station welcome sign", --Dystopos 16:17, 30 November 2006 (PST)
  • How about "Magic City sign"? --Lkseitz 08:37, 14 December 2006 (PST)
  • Works for me. Who's writing the article? --Dystopos 09:15, 14 December 2006 (PST)
  • If Lee has the info to write it, he should :P --Wheresdib 09:58, 14 December 2006 (PST)
  • Looks great, thanks! When I get a chance I'll check HABS for a photo. Hard to verify that any non-governmental post-1923 published source is out of copyright. --Dystopos 10:05, 15 December 2006 (PST)

Going back to the original question posed by Sagefats, do we want to create a category or list of these signs? --Wheresdib 10:58, 15 December 2006 (PST)

  • Yes, both I think. --Dystopos 07:02, 16 December 2006 (PST)

Chronological order

I've noticed an inconsistency in articles dealing with annual events. Most, I believe, list events in reverse chronological order. (That is, newest first.) Examples are Vestavia Hills Dogwood Festival and Magic City Art Connection. Others are in chronological order, such as Crawfish Boil and Rickwood Classic. I was thinking a consistent policy might be good for this issue.

Personally, I prefer to read things in chronological order (oldest first). It would also require less changes over time in regards to bolding the first instance of a term in the article. It also makes it easier to scan for the first year a sub-event was held, assuming it's in bold text. I can see the point of saying that over time some people will only want to read the most recent information each time they visit, but it seems to me that would primarily apply to us hard-core editors, not the average web surfer. Other opinions? --Lkseitz 08:37, 14 December 2006 (PST)

  • As you have discovered, I am of two minds on the subject. As long as the organization of the article is apparent, I still don't have a strong preference. Ultimately, I think the best thing is for an overall article to discuss major developments over time. So subject headings like "First years", "Peak years", with individual occurrences incorporated into the text, would probably be the sign of a mature article. In that case, the order would probably follow a historical chronology and individual years might merit their own articles to document more trivial aspects. (Like the City Stages articles). --Dystopos 09:09, 14 December 2006 (PST)

Continued