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Hi, welcome to my user talk page. Old sections might be archived every month (see right). Normally I will reply on your talk page.

Tut tut tut

You've been here for a long time and you still don't sign you comments. Shame on you! Simply south (talk) 16:38, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

My ISP? Why would i need to capitalise that or even give it away? (:)) And yes i did in the decisions area (unsigned, not random capitalisation). Simply south (talk) 16:50, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

ruddymuddyferderedergermedder Simply south (talk) 17:00, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

i know. I was delIberately IgnorIng the code so that It would read lIke that. SImply south (talk) 17:02, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Sowwy. :) Simply south (talk) 17:16, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

download's special barnstar

		download's special barnstar
		Thanks for signing my guestbook! Reading details carefully is a quality more people should have. -download | sign! 19:30, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Tropical cyclones WikiProject Newsletter #24

Number 24, March 7

The Hurricane Herald

This is the bi-monthly newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The Hurricane Herald aims to give a summary, both of the activities of the WikiProject and global tropical cyclone activity. If you wish to change how you receive this newsletter, or no longer wish to receive it, please add your username to the appropriate section on the mailing list. This newsletter covers all of January 2009 and February 2009.

Please visit this page and bookmark any suggestions of interest to you. This will help improve monitoring of the WikiProject's articles.

Storm of the month
Cyclone Fanele was the first cyclone of tropical cyclone status to strike western Madagascar since Cyclone Fame one year prior. It formed on January 18 in the Mozambique Channel, and rapidly organized, reaching peak winds of 185 km/h (115 mph). It weakened before moving ashore in Menabe Region southwest of Morondava, and rapidly deteriorated over land. Fanele briefly re-intensified after reaching open waters, only to become an extratropical cyclone by January 23. The cyclone caused heavy damage near where it moved ashore and along its path, resulting in at least eight deaths. Fanele struck Madagascar just two days after Tropical Storm Eric brushed the northeastern portion of the country. The two storms affected over 50,000 people, of which at least 4,000 were left homeless. Fanele struck the country during a series of government protests, and consequentially relief efforts were hindered.

Other tropical cyclone activity

• Western Pacific Ocean– The first tropical cyclone of the season was Tropical Depression Auring, as designated by PAGASA. It formed on January 3 to the east of the Philippines, producing heavy rainfall and flooding on Mindanao island. Never organizing much, the depression dissipated a few days after forming, causing one death and destroying 305 houses. The next month, Tropical Depression Bising formed near Palau and, moving westward, later passed through the Philippines as a remnant low; rainfall from the system produced mudslides, though no major damage was reported.
• South-West Indian– Tropical Storm Dongo was the first storm of January in the basin, and it remained over open waters without affecting landmasses throughout its duration. In the middle of the month along with Cyclone Fanele, Tropical Storm Eric developed and moved near Madagascar, killing one and producing heavy rainfall in the northeastern portion of the country. Later, Cyclone Gael killed two people on Réunion while tracking for ten days east of Madagascar; at the time it was the 2nd strongest cyclone of the season. Lastly, Tropical Storm Hina persisted for about five days, nearly reaching tropical cyclone status before weakening.
• Australia- During the previous two months their have been nine Tropical Lows with four of them becoming a Tropical Cyclone whilst the remants of Cyclone Innis briefly moved into the Australian Region from the South Pacific. Cyclones Charlotte, Dominic, Ellie, and Freddy all caused damage to Australia and or the Indonesia Islands.
• South Pacific- During the last two months the south Pacific has come alive with six depressions forming in January and February. The most significant depression was Tropical Depression 04F which brought heavy rainfall to Fiji and caused widespread flooding and killing at least 11 people. The first two named storms, Hettie and Innis also developed, each having minor effects on land.

Member of the month

The member of the month is... HurricaneSpin HurricaneSpin is a relativly new member of the project who has helped the project out by finding photos of Tropical Cyclones and uploading them to Commons. He is still getting to grips with the project but is coming on in leaps and bounds thus we have decided to make him the Member of the Month, for January and February 2009.

New members

• Chukonu xbow
• La Pianista
• Leolisa1997
• X!

New and improved articles

• There were 12 new pieces of Featured content: Typhoon Tip, Hurricane Linda (1997), Tropical Storm Keith (1988), Tropical Storm Kiko (2007), Hurricane Daniel (2006), Timeline of the 1972 Atlantic hurricane season, Timeline of the 1992 Atlantic hurricane season, Timeline of the 1994 Atlantic hurricane season, Timeline of the 1997 Pacific hurricane season, Timeline of the 2005 Pacific hurricane season, Timeline of the 2006 Pacific hurricane season, Timeline of the 2007 Pacific hurricane season
• New Good articles include: Tropical cyclone scales, Rainband, Cyclone Agni, Hurricane Barry (1983), Hurricane Ileana (2006), Hurricane Beta (2005), 1952 Groundhog Day tropical storm
• New storm articles include: Hurricane Bonnie (1986), Hurricane Henriette (1995), Hurricane Howard (2004), Typhoon Conson (2004), Typhoon Prapiroon (2006), Typhoon Yagi (2006), and Cyclone Cliff
• New non-storm articles include: 1854 Atlantic hurricane season

Main Page content

• Entries from several articles, including Tropical Storm Kay (2004), Typhoon Wayne (1986), Effects of Hurricane Ivan in Jamaica, Tropical Depression Ten (2005), 1941 Florida hurricane, Hurricane Darby (2004), Typhoon Olive (1952), and Cyclone Arthur (2007) appeared in the Did You Know? section of the Main Page during January and February.
• Hurricane Dog (1950) appeared as Today's Featured Article on January 27.
• 2009 Fiji floods appeared on the Main Page in the In the News section.

Storm article statistics

Grade	Oct	Nov	Dec	Feb
FA	49	50	50	56
A	19	19	19	17
GA	190	198	202	239
B	13	21	22	14
C	119	118	122	122
Start	204	210	210	198
Stub	19	16	17	28
Total	613	631	642	669
ω	2.88	2.87	2.87	2.80
percentage ≥Less than C	36.4	35.8	35.4	33.0
percentage ≥GA or better	42.1	42.2	42.2	46.6

Project News
The project reached a milestone in the last two months in terms of article quality for all articles within the project. For the first time, the percentage of Good articles or better reached more than 1/3, and at the same time, the percentage of Start or Stub articles totaled less than 50%. In the previous twelve months, the overall project grew by 262 articles, of which 204, or 78%, were GA or better. Additionally, in terms of only storm articles, the project now has 46.6% of its articles as GA or better, and only 1/3 are Start or Stub. Unfortunately, much of that is due to newly-created articles easily attaining GA status. For storm articles, the total number of Start or Stub articles, currently 226, is about the same as it was a year ago. The lack of work on older articles is especially noticeable on season articles, where more than 75% of articles are still Stub or Start.

In an attempt to improve articles, there is talk of forming a collaboration between a few Wikipedians. The current project is to improve Hurricane Camille to FA status in time for its 40th anniversary this August. There is still plenty of work to be done, so if you're interested, any help would be appreciated.

Additionally, there is a recent discussion on the WPTC talk page about establishing a notability criteria. There was talk in the past of instating one, although this time the proposal is backed up by interpretations of existing Misplaced Pages policy. The proposal would limit articles to tropical cyclones that have at least one independent, reliable source other than any warning centers. Excluding cross-basin, off-season, or 64+ knot cyclones, the proposal would affect 26 articles, none of which affected land or lasted for an appreciable amount of time.

Jason Rees (talk) 01:12, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Country outlines project update - 2009/03/08

Things have been slowing down again, so it's time for a big push...

We've gone live

This project needed a shot in the arm. Also, its draft pages have been littering Misplaced Pages's categories for months. The time seemed right to move all the country outline drafts to article space.

WHAT???

Well, the drafts had been sitting in Misplaced Pages space for a year.

WHAT???

Development has been moving at a snail's pace and we could use the help of the Misplaced Pages community at large (who are more likely to find these if they are in article space).

WHAT???

Yes, we've gone live.  :)

This puts pressure on us to get the blatantly incomplete elements of these outlines done. The only glaring problem is the government branches sections. These need to be corrected ASAP.

I've mentioned THE GOVERNMENT BRANCHES SECTIONS many times to many people over the past year, but the problem just doesn't seem to have been taken seriously. So let me put it another way:

HELP!!! I need your help on this now. Almost all the countries have a government with an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch. The links for these branches need to be completed for each country outline:

Here's a convenient list you can use WP:LINKY on to access and edit these quickly. Please copy the list's link to the top of your talk page so that you can access it easily.

If you spot any standardization in links, and ways we can automate parts of this process, or for groups of countries that have links in common, please let me know!

Administrative support for outlines

There has been growing pressure on me to write up the administrative pages for outlines - their instructions, guidelines, etc. Therefore, I'm now in the process of composing these. Fortunately, it is mostly a matter of gathering material from messages I've written to you guys over the past year. Still, this is taking up most of my time, and I will be buried in these for the foreseeable future.

Traffic control

The next big task after the government branches sections are cleaned up is link support for the outlines.

There's quite a list of links and notices that need to be put in place around Misplaced Pages, providing access to them to readers, and alerting editors to the need to develop and maintain these pages. This will keep our bot people very busy (and happy).

But the most important thing right now is to get the government branches sections completed. So please, put your bots aside, roll up your shirt sleeves, and start typing.

Thank you.

The Transhumanist    03:02, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Frequently used idea and approved areas

The Frequently used idea are needs updating seriously and now the future of the approved area is questioned. Please see the discussions at Misplaced Pages talk:Motto of the day/Nominations#Help with FUI and Approved area discussion. Simply south (talk) 20:26, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Geography WikiProject update - 03/15/2009

You commented on the awards effort when it was just getting started a long while back - I thought you might like to see the end results...

The award images are complete!

After months of toil and attention to detail, Penubag has completed the set of images for this WikiProject's awards!

There are five race ribbons:

There's an engraved medallion:

And by far the hardest to create, a golden trophy:

If you are interested in the contests and collaborations that will feature these awards, drop me a note.

And be sure to pop by Penubag's talk page to let him know what you think of his graphics artistry.

The Transhumanist    22:25, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Re:GA reviews?

Somehow a comment of mine posted to User:IMatthew's talk page ended up several other user's talk pages, including yours, along with the comment "Geography WikiProject update - 03/15/2009" posted by User:The Transhumanist. I have nothing to do with the WP Meteorlogy assessment system. Dough4872 (talk) 00:42, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Oops.  :) I better track those down and revert them. The Transhumanist    01:31, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Re: Awards and outlines

Hi. First of all, I think the awards look excellent. Are there copyright issues with integrating the characters from the Misplaced Pages logo onto the trophy, however, or did we decide it looks better that way? I'd like some information on the activities available, as I have time over the next week or so. Also, as for the topic outlines, I did some more editing, especially in the governmental area of Canada (as you requested) and the lists of earthquakes in some countries. I found Special:Allpages to be especially useful for some of this. One thing I noticed, however, is how many topic outlines are still missing their time zones. This shouldn't be too difficult to integrate, so I'll take some time to add those if they are still not completed. Do we use numbers (ie. UTC -5) or names (ie. Eastern Standard Time)? Thanks. ~AH1 00:17, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

As far as I know, all the images belong to Misplaced Pages.

The globe in the trophy looks better without the letters: the letters look cheesy unless they're engraved into the globe like the edges of the puzzle pieces, which is something we couldn't figure out how to do.

Someone started filling the time zone entries with numbers, but the problem with that is that the numbers differ based on what season it is (standard vs daylight savings). And the articles on them include the time zone names, not their numbers. I think we should use the names, with the standard time-zone numbers following them in parentheses.

Other activities...

Pictures

Finding and placing images (maps and pictures). Pictures make these outlines look gooooood. The outlines that have the best image support so far are: Outline of Thailand, Outline of Iceland, Outline of Vatican City, Outline of Taiwan, Outline of France, and Outline of Japan.

The standard size we use for pics on the right of the page is 300px. Though that doesn't always work well - whatever size you use, make it look good. And remember, give each image a caption (description).

The best place to start is by picking a country you've always wanted to go to, and then go to Wikimedia Commons and see what they have on the country there. You'll find that they usually have a bigger selection of pictures to choose from than the pictures used in Misplaced Pages articles.

It's boring to use the same pictures from the Misplaced Pages article on the country. Try to make the outline look different, and better.  :)

Remember, each picture should match the subject of the section they are in. Generally.

By the way, you can get pictures of any person, place, or thing in the country. There are lots of terms other than the country's name that you can type in to the Wikimedia Commons search bar. If you get stuck, you can use the outline itself to "travel" around the country and look around to see what's on Misplaced Pages.

Maps

As for maps, each outline generally gets a location map at the top. Those were the easiest to place, because they had standard names that could usually be inserted automatically by the country outline creation template. I'm pretty sure all the country outlines have location maps.

Then there's a general map (showing borders, roads, major cities, etc.). The geography section gets either a satellite photo of the country or a topographic map, or both. The administrative division sections get maps showing the subdivisions of the country. Most of the countries haven't had these maps placed yet.

The country outlines that have at least some map support (in addition to the location map), include: India • Indonesia • Iran • Iraq • Israel • Japan • Macau • Russia • Taiwan • Thailand • Albania • Austria • France • Germany • Iceland • Ireland • Italy • Isle of Man • Romania • Russia • United Kingdom • Vatican City • Bahamas • Bermuda • British Virgin Islands • Canada • United States • Belize • Honduras • Mexico • Australia • Argentina • Bolivia • Chile • Ecuador • Falkland Islands

The atlas link on each outline will take you to the commons map collection. Once there, you can refine or broaden your search as needed.

Fill-ins

There are other entries besides time zones that need to be filled in. Such as:

• Pronunciation
• Population
• Size
• Form of government
• Head of state
• Head of government
• Commander in chief
• Economic rank

Blue-linking via redirect

Most links have been standardized. When they are red, rather than change the link, we either rename the destination page to correspond with the link, or if the information is in a section on a page, we click on the link and create a redirect leading to the information.

This helps reduce chaos in country coverage by standardizing article names. These outlines have become the de facto guide for country article naming.

But, we only change article names to a standard if the standard is the most common name. Like "Geography of x". In cases of links sets for which there is no standard (because the common names differ), like "adjectival cuisine" (country adjectivals include German, Italian, Taiwanese, etc.), we standardize by providing redirects, and include the standard links in the alphabetical lists within the outlines (such as in the culture section - adjectivals wreak havoc with comparability, as Algerian cuisine would be at the beginning of the list and Zimbabwean cuisine would be at the end). To keep cuisine in the same place we use Cuisine of x, which leads to the corresponding "adjectival cuisine" article.

In the government branches sections we use the common names. Parliaments have various names, but it could be misleading to refer to a country's government bodies by non-official names.

User:The Transhumanist/Lists by country is a set of lists that show the status of (almost all of) the standard links on the country outlines. These lists are very useful as task lists, for creating redirects, and for checking redlink status.

Or pick a country...

Or you could pick a country, and finish its outline all the way.

Zlerman prefers this approach, and I posted instructions on how to go about this on his talk page at User talk:Zlerman#Country outline development.

How's that?

There should be enough activities to choose from above to get you started.

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask.

The Transhumanist    01:27, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Do you mind if a new version of this inage is uploaded? Paint isn't the greatest image editor in the world, and images pixelate annoyingly if changed from a SVG, say to a JPG. Do you mind if somebody uploads a cleaner version, using, say, Photoshop? The image would look so much better then. Queenie 19:00, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Redlinks in country outlines

To browse the links of the country outlines by topic (to see which ones are red), take a look at the lists listed at User:The Transhumanist/Lists by country.

The Transhumanist    01:12, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

thanks

Thanks for signing my autograph book!!!--God'sGirl94 (talk) 14:20, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

April Fools

I'll revert it tomorrow when it's April 2 in my time zone: no harm in doing that. :) As for the signatures, take a look at this and every section under it. :) Acalamari 01:50, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Tropical cyclones WikiProject Newsletter #25

Number 25, April 4 The Hurricane Herald This is the monthly newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The Hurricane Herald aims to provide a summary of both the activities of the WikiProject and global tropical cyclones. If you wish to change how you receive this newsletter, or no longer wish to receive it, please add your username to the appropriate section on the mailing list. This newsletter covers March 2009. Please visit this page and bookmark any suggestions of interest to you. This will help improve monitoring of the WikiProject's articles. Storm of the month Cyclone Hamish formed as a Tropical Low to the south of Papua New Guinea on March 4. The low quickly organized and became Tropical cyclone Hamish the following day. Hamish then started to rapidly intensify, becoming the second severe tropical cyclone of the season the next day. Throughout much of its duration, it moved southeastward, parallel to the coast of Queensland. It underwent rapid deepening over a period of 48 hours, Hamish reached peak winds of 215 km/h (130 mph) according to the Australia Bureau of Meteorology, making the cyclone a Category 5 on the Australian intensity scale. It quickly weakened due to wind shear, and without moving ashore it stalled and turned to a northwest drift. The low dissipated on March 5. Hamish indirectly caused a major environmental disaster along the Queensland coastline, when strong waves from the cyclone damaged the hull of a cargo ship, spilling 260 tonnes of fuel and oil into the ocean. The oil washed onto the coastline, endangering the environment prompting a costly cleanup. Offshore, the fishermen went missing after the boat was lost; one person was found, although the other two remained missing and were presumed dead. As the storm remained offshore, overall damage directly from the storm was minor, primarily from strong waves. Other tropical cyclone activity Australia – In addition to Cyclone Hamish, three other cyclones formed and were named as Gabrielle, Ilsa and Jasper. However, there was no impact reported from these three storms whilst in the Australian region. South Pacific – This month Cyclones Joni and Ken formed near to the Cook Islands, whilst Cyclone Jasper moved into the area at its peak and brought heavy rain and coastal erosion to New Caledonia. On the last day of the month Tropical Depression 14F formed to the northeast Fiji. South-West Indian – Severe Tropical Storm Izilda was the only storm to form in the South-West Indian Ocean this month; however the extratropical remnants of Ilsa moved into the region from the Australian basin. Member of the month The member of the month is... Ramisses, has been a member of the Project since January 2008. He is a usefull editor who helps to make the trackmaps for the current season articles, as well as numerous other storms, from previous seasons. We just hope he is able to keep on top of the trackmaps when the busy part of the year comes! New members User:X! User:Shearwater912 User:Cyclonica New and improved articles There were no new pieces of Featured content New Good articles include: 1925 Atlantic hurricane season, 1991 Pacific hurricane season, Subtropical cyclone, Typhoon Tingting New articles include: 1924 Cuba hurricane, Hurricane Howard (2004), Tropical Storm Odile (2008), Typhoon Tingting, Cyclone Tam (2006) New non-storm articles include: 1780 Atlantic hurricane season Main Page content Entries from four articles, including Typhoon Conson (2004), Hurricane Howard (2004), Tropical Storm Faxai (2007), and Cyclone Joni (2009), appeared in the Did You Know? section of the Main Page during March. Hurricane Linda (1997) appeared as Today's Featured Article on March 4. Storm article statistics Grade Nov Dec Feb Mar FA 50 50 56 56 A 19 19 17 17 GA 198 202 239 244 B 21 22 14 15 C 118 122 122 120 Start 210 210 198 192 Stub 16 17 28 34 Total 631 642 669 678 ω 2.87 2.87 2.80 2.81 percentage ≥Less than C 35.8 35.4 33.0 33.3 percentage ≥GA or better 42.2 42.2 46.6 46.8 Project News There is a discussion on the state of the project, discussing whether it still works like it used to, and what can be done about it. One extreme position is labeling the project inactive, while another position is eliminating some of the bureaucracy. Input would be very beneficial. As part of the above discussion, there is a request for all active members to sign a list to affirm they are still active members in the project. If you don't sign the list, or if you don't consider yourself active anymore, your name will be placed on the inactive members list on May 1st. Hurricanehink has organised a challenge to try and improve some of the Tropical cyclone articles. The rules are that you must take either an seasonal or a storm article from one of the eight basins we have, that is either a Stub, Start class or a brand new article and improve it to at least GA status. However to avoid several articles on cyclones that did not affect land, Hurricanehink has limited the challenge to storms/seasonal articles of Mid-importance or higher. Their is an exception to this rule for the Central Pacific as Cyclones rarely form in this basin. - For full details of the challenge see the Project's Talkpage Project member list

Jason Rees (talk) 01:34, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Outline of knowledge WikiProject update - 04/06/2009

As the country outlines have been approaching completion and more attention has been given to the non-country outlines and the Outline of knowledge as a whole, I've run into this...

Topic lists

As you know, we've been cleaning up sets of pages the links of which are displayed on the outlines.

One of the most prominent of the sets presented are the "List of x topics" (including "List of x-related topics) pages, and they are in a sorry state.

There's actually 2 different kinds mixed together in the same set: most of them are alphabetical indexes.

The others are non-alphabetical hierarchical lists. That is...

outlines!

So, I've been renaming the indexes to "Index of x articles" or "Index of x-related articles", and wikifying them (especially their lead sections). So far, all the country-related topics lists that are indexes have been renamed. It appears the new name fits so well that nobody favors the old name over the new. It's been over a week since that was done, with no complaints, so I've started on the rest.

As for the topic lists that are outlines, those can be absorbed or merged into the OOK. Even though this would entail a lot of renaming and reformatting, and cutting and pasting, these pages might still save us some work! I'm not sure how many there are, but that should become clear once the index pages are all renamed.

Feel free to join in an help. It's hog's heaven!

The Transhumanist    04:44, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Talkback

Replies have been made at the help desk. If the problem is solved, please place {{resolved}} ~~~~ at the top of the section. Thank you, ZooFari 20:58, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Outline of knowledge project summary, and future direction

In response to a friend on Misplaced Pages who was wondering about how I've been and what I've been up to, I got to spewing about our little endeavor, and well, I got so carried away I pretty much told him everything.  :) The message turned out to be a pretty good summary of what we've accomplished so far and the overall plan.

See User talk:The Rambling Man#What's up?

The Transhumanist    22:58, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Update on the Outline of knowledge WikiProject & Geography WikiProject (Country outlines workgroup) - 04/16/2009

Momentum in the development of the outlines is continuing to build, even though we haven't added any new outlines lately. Plenty of work is being done on the outlines we already have.

Keep up the good work everyone!

Inspiration!

Kudos go to Buaidh, who has dived head first into outline development, continuing improvement of the country outlines, and doing so vigorously. Take a look at his contribs. He has taken the initiative and has been expanding those outlines' design and coverage. Be sure to let him know what you think of his work!

Coming soon: the Super Huge Expansion (it will be really really big)

Excitement (mine at least) is building as we approach the Super Huge Expansion, during which notices will be placed on thousands of subject talk pages and their corresponding WikiProjects (see below concerning which ones). Though not all on the same day! - this will take place over a period of weeks or months, because it's best not to open the flood gates all at once.

The existing outlines should serve as strong examples for editors who wish to develop new outlines, and so we need to complete them as much as we can before we start to take this to the next level (in about 3 months). The rewrite of the outline article (the draft, which explains outlines in detail), and the guideline on outlines and outline development, also need to be completed before the transcendence begins. These will help guide the decisions and actions of editors, and reduce confusion.

Projected outline, at the OOK WikiProject page

What's next? Where is the Outline of knowledge headed?

Well, it will grow, to encompass all of human knowledge.

But, is there a plan?

YES!!!

Currently under construction on the Outline of knowledge WikiProject page is a version of the outline that will display links to all the outline pages currently in the encyclopedia proper, links to all outline drafts, and redlinks to all planned outline drafts.

You can help. Please place links to the remaining drafts in there (with complete pagenames so we can easily tell they are drafts). Once all the draft pages are placed, please look over the overall outline for gaps in coverage, and add missing subjects. I expect there are thousands of missing subjects extensive enough to benefit from being outlined. New subjects should be included as red draft links. Thank you.

But it's not just an editing task list...

During the upcoming "Super Huge Expansion" (mentioned above), the article talk page and WikiProject for each of the subjects listed on the projected outline will receive a notice requesting the creation and development of the outline page for that subject. Each notice will also explain how a subject's outline will integrate into the Outline of knowledge and into Misplaced Pages's navigation system as a whole.

See Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Outline of knowledge#Projected outline.

Topic lists

The nice thing about a reverse outline is that it turns up problems that exist in the publication being outlined, which provides opportunities to fix them. Since we get very little or no opposition to fixing problems even on sets of hundreds of pages, we've been plowing through them.

One of the biggest problems in Misplaced Pages that our work on the Outline of knowledge has uncovered so far is with the set of topics lists. Their titles, in the forms "List of x topics" and "List of x-related topics" are ambiguous, and they are not the most common terms for describing their content. See WP:COMMONNAME. To make matters worse, the set is divided between 2 competing types/sets of pages: alphabetical indexes, and outlines.

In an effort to sort out this mess, the indexes are being renamed, and the outlines are being reformatted and moved, or merged, into the Outline of knowledge.

So far, almost 300 topic lists have been renamed to indexes. Nobody has objected to the names chosen, but one editor has expressed reservation on the approach - he was concerned it would cause confusion by having 2 title standards in place at the same time for these. Though he himself was not confused, nor did he object to the titles. And nobody else has expressed confusion or dissatisfaction with the new titles either. It has been over 2 weeks since the renaming has begun, and since no confusion seems to have been caused, and since there is no opposition to the new names, I plan to continue with the renaming.

Also, one topic list has been merged into its corresponding outline so far: List of transport topics was merged into Outline of transport. It turned out very good. List of cell biology topics is currently being merged into Outline of cell biology (see the link dump in hidden comments at the end of the outline).

I'm not sure how many lists have "topics" in their titles, but Google turned up 788, and these appear to include the ones that have already been renamed to indexes. Subtracting those renamed so far, there are about 500 more to go.

Watching tips

I thought you might want to compare notes on the methods we use to watch over the outlines. Here's how I keep an eye on things...

My watchlist had so many thousands of articles in it that I finally just deleted them all. Now I have it set so that I have to manually add pages to be watched, and I use it only to watch trouble spots and collaborations I'm participating in.

Because I like to watch specific sets of pages at a time, I use "Related changes" on list pages. That way the results are not watered down with edits from pages I'm not immediately concerned with.

I always use WP:POP and Related changes together. With POP installed, you go to a link list, like User:Buaidh/Country outlines of the Americas, then click on "Related changes" in the toolbox menu, and then hover the mouse cursor over the diff and hist links so you can look at those without clicking on them.

It's pretty fast.

The technique turns Misplaced Pages's list system into a crystal ball.

Update Scanner

Penubag recommends Update Scanner, which is a Firefox add-on that periodically scans pages and pings you when a change is detected. You can even set its level of sensitivity for each scanned page (e.g., "ignore changes of 100 words or less").

I'd use it, but I don't have a computer.  :(

See also WP:OTS for more power tools and techniques, and User:Penubag/optimum toolsets for some more nice addons, that do a variety of things.

I'm always looking for new power tools and power skills, so if you know of any, please share (let me know)!

The Transhumanist    04:57, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Do not read this one - The Hunt - Outline of knowledge WikiProject - 04/17/2009

While surveying libraries, their outline-related resources, and our coverage of them, I came across something funny...

What subclass is the Bible in the Library of Congress Classification?

Do you think they'd like this one at WP:DYK?

(Nope. They didn't.)     :)

Libraries

For months, I've been sitting at a terminal in one of the largest libraries in the country, and I haven't even looked around at the available resources.

Until a few days ago.

I'm overwhelmed.

When compared to libraries, Misplaced Pages is small. (See Digest of Education Statistics 2008, Chapter 7:Libraries and Educational Technology Libraries, and turn to page 617).

But is that a fair comparison?

Yes.

Why?

Because we have growth potential.  :)

And we cover everything, including libraries!

Guess what else I found?

Hunting for outlines

I began to study libraries and librarians, since they are experts in organizing knowledge. And of course I turned to Misplaced Pages to see what we had on the things I came across...

And while doing so I kept running into outlines on Misplaced Pages that are not (yet) part of the Outline of knowledge.

When I come across non-OOK outlines, generally I rename them, and reformat them to our standard outline format. But there is the occasional exception.

Here are some outlines I just added:

1. List of energy topics --> Outline of energy (it converted great)
2. List of Dewey Decimal classes --> Outline of Dewey Decimal classes (no conversion)
3. Library of Congress Classification --> ??? (no rename, no conversion)

The last 2 are outlines by their very nature, and so our standard outline subheadings didn't seem to fit. So I left them as is.

I renamed the first 2, but the last one is the name of the outline, that is, the topic itself is an outline, and that outline is presented as the article's content, so I left the name as is. For now. This needs more thought.

Of course, that's not all. Concerning those last 2 outlines above...

Alternate outlines of knowledge

...not only are they outlines, but they are outlines of knowledge! Well, the top few levels, at least.

Uh, so?

What happens if we linkify them?  :)

That is, what happens if we linkify their classifications to Misplaced Pages's outlines?  :)   :)   :)

They become alternate top ends to the OOK

Yep.

What can you find?

I challenge you to find some "hidden" outlines.

I dare you to take a look around Misplaced Pages for hidden outlines (that is, outlines not yet hooked into the OOK), and add your kills to WP:WPOOK#The hunt for hidden outlines.

My trophies are already there.

May the hunt begin!

The Transhumanist    20:02, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Pine Island Bay

Hi. I know you've done the work putting in the information on the volcano and glacier speed up so I think you are the person to suggest this to. After having a think about the Pine Island Bay article I think the best thing is to incorporate it as a section in the Amundsen Sea article along with a redirect. I have mentioned this at Talk:Pine Island Bay along with my reasoning if you'd like to comment. Polargeo (talk) 08:54, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the comment. I appologise in advance for this because I know that you have a good understanding of the issues but I think it is important to make some of the science clear from my perspective before continuing with the edits. According to the Steig paper in Nature (22 Jan 09) West Antarctica warmed less than 1 degree over the last 50 years. The tendancy is to think of Antarctica like Greenland or mountain glaciers which may be massively affected by surface melt. But take Pine Island Glacier (PIG) for example. It is 2 km thick, if the average annual surface temperature warmed by half a degree say from -24.0 C to -23.5 C it has no influence on the motion of the glacier. Just 100 km inland (mid way up the glacier) most years there is no surface melting at all and the odd year where there is melt the surface is only slightly glazed (say the top 5 mm). However, PIG has accelerated massively and nearly doubled its speed since the 1970s. Due to the fact that other glaciers in the area are doing a similar thing most scientists think that this is due to the one thing that connects them which is the Amundsen Sea that they all flow into. There is evidence of deep warm ocean water being pushed up onto the continental shelf. This water originates in the mid Atlantic and is there anyway, global warming or no global warming. It may be just normal cycles in weather systems driving this ocean circulation; it may be el nino type effects or changes in the ozone layer affecting the Antarctic Oscillation or may even be global warming but we don't know yet. One worry is whether PIG can sustain this extra speed up or is there a tipping point where we will observe major retreat. This is a worry as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is a marine ice sheet. The bedrock under PIG is below sea level (even though the top of the glacier is well above sea level) the bed also slopes downward inland. So you can see there is nothing to stop a major retreat which could affect the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. This is what Terry Hughes (Who I've spoken to) meant when he coined the phrase "Weak underbelly of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet" when refering to the Amundsen Sea sector in the 1980s. I also know that David Vaughan, who discovered the volcano, thinks that the most likely cause of PIG's acceleration is ocean based and has noted this in published papers.Polargeo (talk) 08:37, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

AnnaSophia Robb

Hi, thanks for taking care of this. After this I wonder if it's all true though. From being cousins to dating. Garion96 (talk) 16:54, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Outline of knowledge WikiProject update 05/10/2009

Development is moving steadily forward. We haven't created any new outlines lately, but a lot of editing of our existing outlines is taking place. Take a look at Buaidh's contributions.  :)

I'm impressed.

I can safely say we now have another fanatic working on the project.

Importance of watching

A big danger to new pages or pages that have low traffic are prods. These are deletion proposals that don't have to go through AfD. If a prod sits on a page, any page, 5 days without opposition, the page can be deleted without discussion.

Such pages can be undeleted without discussion too, but there's usually a delay, especially if you don't notice the page missing right away. Prods create undesirable gaps in the subject coverage of list sets.

I just caught one the other day, so keep an eye on the outline pages!

Tangent: Indexes

One of the benefits of reverse outlining is the discovery of problems (gaps in coverage, etc.) with the publication being outlined. We've come across several and have been fixing those as we go. Because hypertext tables of contents are only as good as the pages they link to, we've been cleaning up large sections of Misplaced Pages. This was something I did not foresee when I started this project.

One of the sets of pages we link to on the outlines is the set of indexes, formerly called "List of x topics". Unfortunately, the lists of topics were divided between 2 different sets competing for the same article names, and this impeded development of both sets. One of those sets were indexes, and the rest are outlines (more about these below).

So I set about splitting up the 2 sets, by renaming the indexes to "Index of x articles" or "Index of x-related articles".

All 450 or so of them.

Nobody has complained about the new names, but 2 or 3 people thought I was way too bold to attempt this without a proposal or discussion first. Just 2 or 3 people. That's about as much opposition as you could expect for moving a single page.

Not bad for a move of this volume.

There are many more indexes out there, but our main concern are those which are provided links on the outlines. Many of those are redlinks (gaps in coverage as mentioned above), and so we need a way to track these and direct editor attention to them so that somebody creates them...

So, I've created a page for the set, that parallels the OOK list:

See Portal:Contents/Index.

The complete list of "Index of" articles can be found at User:The Transhumanist/Index, and this list needs to be gone over to make sure each article index listed is included on the portal page above. If you help with this, please put - placed after each entry that you check and place.

Thank you.

To further support the development of index pages, and provide a central place for people to go to find out more about indexes and what needs to be done, I've created the Index WikiProject.

Hidden outlines

There are outline pages hiding all over Misplaced Pages. They aren't in OOK's formats, but we can fix that.  :)

Converting existing outlines and absorbing them into the OOK is a lot easier than creating outlines from scratch, and it avoids unnecessary duplication of effort. But before we can convert them, we have to find them...

A hunt is underway for non-OOK outlines. So far, User:Gimme danger is in the lead and has found the most. See Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Outline of knowledge#The hunt for hidden outlines for more information.

Please don't rename any non-standard outlines you come across to OOK's standard naming until after you reformat them. Renaming them only after they are reformatted helps us keep track of which outlines have and have not been converted.

Thank you.

Converting outlines

The way I usually do this is by substituting the relevant outline generator template at the beginning of the outline, which forces the existing outline to the bottom of the page. Then I add an "under construction" tag, and then move all the links from the original outline to the relevant sections in the standard structure. It is important to finish the conversion quickly, so as not to create confusion. Then I scour Misplaced Pages for missing links (using Google to do a site-specific search of Misplaced Pages), to make the upgraded outline more comprehensive than the converted outline. Be sure to check all related categories too. Add a lead paragraph, add external links, and voila!

Better than before.

Where we're heading

The next phase in the evolution of this project is to increase participation by expanding the Misplaced Pages community's awareness of the Outline of knowledge, its purpose, and what needs to be done for any given subject.

This will entail placing banners on the outlines' talk pages, the talk page for the WikiProject associated with the subject of each outline and of each planned outline, and on the talk page of each article corresponding to each outline and to each planned outline.

Then instructions on improving subject access, including the creation and development of an outline for each subject, will be posted on every related WikiProject page. (There's a WikiProject for the subject of most outlines).

We will also be sending notices to every member of every WikiProject associated with the subject of each and every outline and planned outline.

But before this happens, the outline guidelines and the article draft for the topic "Outline" must be completed. Without these, many editors will not know what an outline is, or what to do to build and improve them.

And that's our current bottleneck.

Once those are ready (the guideline and article), we can take this project to the next level.

Keep up the good work

Well, that's all for now.

Until next time,

The Transhumanist    00:19, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

P.S. (AstroHurricane)

Hi Astro,

You don't have anything to do with the hurricane WikiProject do you? Just curious.

If you do, then it might interest you that we don't yet have an Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Outline of knowledge/Drafts/Outline of hurricanes.

Or an Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Outline of knowledge/Drafts/Outline of storms.

Keep in mind that we need outlines on every major subject. Like Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Outline of knowledge/Drafts/Outline of earthquakes.

Feel free to create an outline on any major subject you are interested in.

("Major subject" is being used loosely here. I mean any subject extensive enough to support an outline).

The Transhumanist    00:19, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Your edit

Not to object, but your comment seems to be in error. The order of province was by first published case. The change is fine, though.LeadSongDog come howl 20:02, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

Contest proposal

A proposal has been posted for a contest between all 200 country WikiProjects. We need to know how this contest should be run, and what problems to look out for. And we're looking for judges, coordinators, ideas, and feedback.

(And we have some really cool awards for the contest).

The Transhumanist    17:49, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Has the shit hit the fan? - WPOOK update, 05/25/2009

Maybe...

We've started the next phase

I was experiencing mental block on the article draft for "outline" and on the outline guideline draft. And this was holding the whole project back. Without these (which are intended to explain the type of lists known as outlines in detail), the danger is higher that a controversy could go the wrong way.

I requested help on them, but there was none forthcoming.

So I went ahead and started us on the next phase of operations without those 2 pages...

Our AWB'ers and I have placed about 1600 notices all over Misplaced Pages. And the plan is to place several thousand more.

This generated only one complaint, but it was a very vocal one, and attracted a few other detractors who seemed unfamiliar with the concept of hierarchical outlines and their benefits. However, just as many or more editors came to the defense of the OOK, and there was no consensus formed. But, dab is still trying to rally opposition to outlines at the Village Pump. See below...

Administrator noticeboard incident and Village Pump policy discussion

It appears that the banner placed on the talk page of the Outline of Switzerland caught the attention of an editor named Dbachmann who posted a rather forceful message on my talk page, another on WT:WPOOK, another at WP:VPP, and still another at WP:AN!

He went well out of his way to use negative hype to cause a stir.

It appears that Mr. Bachmann doesn't understand the nature of hierarchical outlines and their applications. And though he implied that he has never seen an OOK outline before, he was involved with a discussion on these when they were called "lists of basic topics".

His primary argument is that outlines are content forks of articles, and violate WP:CFORK.

But "topic lists", of which outlines are a type, have been around for almost as long as Misplaced Pages, and fall under the WP:LISTS and WP:STAND guidelines. They aren't intended as forks, as they are lists, bringing the benefits of lists to the corresponding subjects, such as grouping and navigation.

Someone suggested an MfD, but lists are articles, and are within the jurisdiction of AfD. Only the portal page, which merely lists the outline articles, falls within the scope of the MfD department.

The administrator's noticeboard was considered the wrong venue for the discussion, and the discussion was closed.

But Dab's discussion at the Village Pump is still active. Hopefully level heads will prevail there too.

Now what?

Am I disheartened or deterred? Hell no. I say "full steam ahead!"

But we really need to finish the article draft and the guideline. Otherwise there will continue to be confusion.

Over the next week or two, we'll be posting another 1600 or so notices. It's a good thing we didn't send out 10,000 of them all at once.  :)

The Transhumanist    23:51, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

P.S.: Another related thread has popped up at WP:VPR#OoK's expediency. --TT   04:34, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

MOTD

Would be gatreful if you have any ideas for mottos. Please help at WP:MOTD/N. Also see Misplaced Pages talk:Motto of the day#Archival Simply south (talk) 21:28, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

WPOOK update - 05/27/2009

Input on the OOK threads at the Village Pump has died down (at both WP:VPP and WP:VPR), and there is currently no consensus on either.

Negative feedback

For the number of notices we posted (over a thousand) the number of complaints we received (the two VP threads mentioned above) was quite low.

Silent majority

Considering most of the outlines are orphans, they get pretty good use.

Note that people who are happy with articles on Misplaced Pages generally don't say anything, so I simply interpret it as positive feedback.

Traffic, traffic comparison, and increasing traffic

Using Traffic, I compare the traffic of articles, their corresponding outlines, and their corresponding portals from time to time.

Outlines are starting to catch up to portals. Though the main portals, which are included in a navbar menu at the top of most portals are still way ahead of their outline counterparts.

Both outlines and portals are way behind the articles on the same subjects. Articles usually have 20 to 30 times the traffic.

Keep in mind that most outlines are orphans, with the primary link to them being Portal:Contents/Outline of knowledge.

Traffic should improve once we include links on the corresponding subject pages, including the main subject as well as subjects that correspond to subheadings (e.g., History of x, and in the case of countries: Geography of x, Demographics of x, Culture of x, etc.)

I'm convinced the traffic of outlines will overtake portals once we've link-integrated them into the encyclopedia. And since outlines serve as tables of contents for each subject, it seems most fitting to place links to them in the form of hatnotes at the top of each subject's main articles (and the sub-subjects mentioned in the paragraph directly above).

By the way, there's another traffic counter called Wikirank, but I haven't tested it out much yet, but will do so in the coming weeks.

Going for the Main Page

Once the traffic of outlines has overtaken portals, it will be time to replace portals on the Main Page, even if we need to spearhead a new main page redesign! This isn't a far-fetched idea. I was the one who jumpstarted and led the project responsible for the current main page design (until it hit critical mass and attracted other leaders), and I was also the most active editor on that project. I even created the WP:CBB on the Community Portal to promote the main page election. The second time around should be easier.

Back to the here and now

Targetting the Main Page is a few months off.

Right now, we need to continue posting notices and start link-integrating the OOK into the encyclopedia.

I have a whole slew of AWB tasks to assign. I hope you are ready.  :)

Spread the word

WP:WPOOK needs members. Tell all your friends about the OOK, and get them to join.

The Transhumanist    02:42, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

A study on how to cover scientific uncertainties/controversies

Hi. I have emailed you to ask whether you would agree to participate in a short survey on how to cover scientific uncertainties/controversies in articles pertaining to global warming and climate change. If interested, please email me Encyclopaedia21 (talk) 15:03, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

Tropical cyclone WikiProject newsletter #26

Number 23, June 7

The Hurricane Herald

This is the monthly newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The Hurricane Herald aims to give a summary, both of the activities of the WikiProject and global tropical cyclone activity. If you wish to change how you receive this newsletter, or no longer wish to receive it, please add your username to the appropriate section on the mailing list. This newsletter covers all of April and May 2009.

Please visit this page and bookmark any suggestions of interest to you. This will help improve monitoring of the WikiProject's articles.

Storm of the month

Cyclone Aila was the second tropical cyclone to form within the Northern Indian Ocean during 2009. The disturbance that was to become Cyclone Aila formed on 21 May 2009 about 950 kilometres (590 mi) to the south of Kolkata, in India. Over the next couple of days the disturbance slowly developed before a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert was issued by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center early on 23 May 2009 and being designated as a depression by RSMC New Delhi. As of 27 May 2009, 330 people have been killed by Aila and at least 8,208 more are missing, while about 1 million are homeless. Health officials in Bangladesh confirmed a deadly outbreak on diarrhea on 29 May, with more than 7,000 people being infected and four dying. In Bangladesh, an estimated 20 million people were at risk of post-disaster diseases due to Aila. Damage totaled $40.7 million (USD).

Other tropical cyclone activity

• North Atlantic

Tropical Depression One was the first tropical cyclone to develop during the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season. The depression formed on May 28, out of a disorganized area of low pressure off the coast of North Carolina. However after attaining its peak strength the depression began to weaken due to increasing wind shear and cooling sea surface temperatures with the final advisory being issued on May 29.

• 2009 Pacific typhoon season - In the two month period, there were four tropical cyclones, all within a short time period and small area. Tropical Depression Crising moved through the Philippines but didn't develop. Typhoon Kujira formed over the Philippines, causing 29 deaths and almost $30 million in damage, before becoming the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane. While Kujira was active, a tropical depression formed and dissipated over the open ocean, while Typhoon Chan-hom developed and organized in the South China Sea, eventually crossing Luzon and causing 60 deaths and heavy damage.
• North Indian - Aside from Aila, Cyclone Bijli formed in April, making landfall on Bangladesh and killing 7 people.
• South Indian– Cyclone Jade was the final Cyclone to form. Jade formed on April 5th from a tropical disturbance it quickly intensifed and bcame a category one tropical cyclone on the SSHS before making its first of three landfalls on Madagascar. Jade then dissipated on April 11 after causing fifteen deaths.
• Australian Region - Cyclone Kirrly formed on April 25 in the Arafura Sea to the north of Australia within 5 degrees of the equator which is an unusual area of formation. It quickly reached its peak before making landfall on eastern Indonesia.
• South Pacific - As the last newsletter was published Tropical Cyclone Lin was just devloping as Tropical depression 14F. Lin eventually went on to affect Fiji and Tonga causing at least $1000 worth of damage. Tropical Disturbance 15F also formed this month within the Solomon Islands. It moved eventually moved into the Australian Region but was not monitored by TCWC Brisbane as anything higher than an area of low pressure.

Member of the month

The member of the month is Jason Rees, who joined Misplaced Pages in 2007, and has written nine tropical cyclone GA's. Jason primarily focuses on Southern Hemisphere storms, as well as the Western Pacific. He has plans for featured topics for several seasons, but for now, he is a regular member of the project who adds his input in discussions on the talk page. We thank Jason for his work, and we look forward to more articles!

New members

• User:Kyle1278
• User:Bbabybear02
• User:Darren23

New and improved articles

• There were no new pieces of Featured content
• New Good articles include: 1973 Pacific hurricane season, Hurricane Kiko (1989), Tropical Storm Carlos (2003)
• New storm articles include: Hurricane Dalilia (1989), Typhoon Wipha (2007)
• New non-storm articles include: 1972 Hurricane Agnes tornado outbreak, Meteorological history of Hurricane Luis, Effects of Hurricane Georges in Louisiana, Timeline of the 2002 Pacific hurricane season

Main Page content

• Hurricane Ismael was Today's Featured Article on April 25
• Facts from the 1924 Cuba hurricane, Hurricane Lily (1971), Hurricane Tara (1961), and Hurricane Cora (1978) appeared in the Did You Know? section of the Main Page during April and May.
• Typhoon Chan-hom (2009) and Cyclone Aila appeared on the Main Page in the In the News section.

Storm article statistics

Grade	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
FA	47	49	49	50
A	19	19	19	19
GA	161	187	198	202
B	17	13	21	22
C	107	119	118	122
Start	201	204	210	210
Stub	19	19	16	17
Total	571	613	631	642
ω	2.92	2.88	2.87	2.87
percentage ≥Less than C	38.5	36.4	35.8	35.4
percentage ≥GA or better	39.8	42.1	42.2	42.2

Project News
There is debate as usual with regards to notability, as well as the status of the project in general, but nothing new is going on.

During the last week, some editors have organized a page — Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Tropical cyclones/Viewed stats — that has a listing of monthly page views within the project. It is under construction, although it is complete for all Eastern Pacific tropical cyclones, as well as all Atlantic tropical cyclones from 1979 to the present. Interestingly, the top 6 viewed EPAC articles are all featured, and all of the top 16 in the basin are GA's. Unfortunately, the Atlantic, at least from 1979 to the present, is much worse, despite being viewed much, much more. The top eight-viewed Atlantic articles all are viewed more than 10,000 times per month, for a total of 363889 views per month, but only two of them are featured, and none of the others are GA. As always, any help in the retired storms would be greatly appreciated.

Somewhat tying into the bettering of project articles, the basin article challenge is still ongoing. Hurricanehink is currently in the lead with a GA in 2 basins. Cyclonebiskit is in 2nd, with one GA in the EPAC. The challenge is still open to anyone, and it is not so much a race, rather a challenge just to get a fairly important GA in each basin.

Outline update - Good news and bad news - 06/08/2009

The big push continues.

And it seems to be working!

The good news is that there's growing support for outlines, and there are more editors than ever editing them!

The bad news is that the complainers are disproportionately represented on the project's various talk pages. While many editors work diligently on the front end, a handful of complainers are trying to tear down the project behind the scenes. Fortunately, barely enough supporters have been watching those pages that no consensus for moving or merging the outlines has succeeded. So far...

Big problem: ignorance of what outlines are for and their benefits

Most of the opposition seems to be unaware of the complete range of what outlines are used for. They just don't get it.

This is why it is important to complete the outline article draft. An article with a comprehensive treatment of outlines would be the perfect place to refer anybody unfamiliar with outlines to.

Opposers also don't seem to understand how outlines differ from some other page type that they prefer. Some think articles are good enough as an overview, others think portals are more in-depth, still others think categories or navigation boxes are the most efficient and useful way to organize and present topical information. Some have simply never seen an "Outline of" page before and think they are a new type of page (they've been around under other names since 2001).

If you run across anyone who doesn't understand the role of outlines on Misplaced Pages, Misplaced Pages:Why do we have outlines in addition to...? might help reduce their misconceptions or uncertainties about outlines.

On the bright side, you've got to see this...

To add the outlines and related support pages to your watchlist (takes less than 30 seconds), cut and paste them from Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Outline of knowledge/Watchlist into your raw watchlist. For a way to improve the display of your watchlist - by namespace (very useful) - see Watchlist sorter, or use the "super fast upgrade" at WP:OTS.

Or go to Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Outline of knowledge/Watchlist using Related changes (currently without the talk pages) and click on "Related changes" in the toolbox menu on the sidebar on the left side of your screen.

The big push

The big push started with about a thousand banners and notices being placed on article talk pages all over Misplaced Pages.

But it didn't stop there...

Welcome our new members...

The following Wikipedians have joined the OOK team.

Be sure to stop by their talk pages and introduce yourselves.

• Tarheel95 - going after the Main Page.
• Vivio Testarossa / Feinoha - here to help.
• Burningview - made a splash at MfD with Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Outline of knowledge/Drafts/Outline of British Columbia (see the talk page for the MfD link - lots of support there).

Enter the mentors!

I asked a bunch of mentors at WP:ADOPT for advice. Several of them answered on my talk page. Most of those who replied were happy to help, and posted some very good ideas. A couple even joined the project.

Here are their ideas, and what is being done about them. A few of the tasks still need volunteers:

• Strdst grl: Create and place project banners - already  Done
• Strdst grl & The Earwig: put an animated ad for the project in WP:BANNER - Our graphics specialist Penubag is looking into it.
• Strdst grl: Create a userbox for the project - assigned to Penubag.
• Garden: Ask to have outlines added to next year's WikiCup competition -  Done (proposal posted)
• Tarheel95: Add a link to Portal:Contents/Outline of knowledge to the Main Page - Tarheel95 is taking on the creation of the proposal
• SriMesh: Create an outreach subpage to WPOOK -  Done (invitation coming soon, see below)
• SriMesh: (Create a newsletter archive subpage) -  Done
• SriMesh: Add a feed to AlexNewArtBot to gather links to new outlines and post them on a page. Then personally invite new creators to the project. - who wants to tackle the feed?
• SriMesh: Assign someone to monitor the outlines via watchlist, and invite new outline editors to the project - any volunteers?
• Related: Create an invitation - Penubag is working on it.
• SriMesh: Create Template:Expand outline similar to Template:Expand list, which adds each outline it is posted on to Category:Incomplete outlines, where editors (who are browsing the categories) can find them and work on them - to be assigned
• SriMesh: Add the above template to incomplete outlines - upcoming AWB task
• The Earwig: "Tell your wikifriends about it" - I've told mine, have you told yours?
• The Earwig: "Collaborate with other WikiProjects" - we've been doing this from the start (each outline is associated with at least one other WikiProject).
• : move the projected outline to a subpage of WP:WPOOK -  Done

Linking to outlines has begun

To the tops of about 30 subject articles, I placed a test batch of hatnotes leading to the corresponding outlines. The hatnotes look like this:

For a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of X.(Hidden: <!- PLEASE LEAVE THIS LINE IN PLACE because it leads to the page that serves as the table of contents for Misplaced Pages's overall coverage of this subject. Thank you.-->

The rationale for the hatnotes is that each outline is a topical guide for its subject, and since tables of contents go at the front of a book, a link to each outline should be placed at the front of its subject.

Unfortunately, not all editors agree. Some of the hatnotes have already disappeared.  :(

Some past discussions pertaining to the existence or location of outlines

Note that the "Lists of topics" are of two types, including outlines and indexes, so discussions to remove, move, or merge those are usually relevant to the OOK. Also, outlines are a type of list, so discussions that affect lists in general also pertain to outlines. We've got to be on our toes!

• Misplaced Pages:Move navigational lists to portal namespace
• Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Outline of Islamic and Muslim related topics
• Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Outline of South Africa
• Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/List of basic visual arts and design topics
• Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/List of basic mining topics
• Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/List of basic management topics
• Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/List of basic industrial topics
• Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/List of basic computer science topics
• Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/List of basic Canada topics
• User talk:The Transhumanist/Archive 21#Question copied from Juliancolton's page
• Misplaced Pages:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Outline of knowledge/Drafts/Outline of British Columbia
• Talk:Switzerland#Orphaned article: Outline of Switzerland
• Outline of science converted to redirect by Dbachmann
• Misplaced Pages:Village pump (policy)/Archive 64#"Outlines"
• Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive193#Shadow Misplaced Pages
• Misplaced Pages:Village pump (proposals)/Archive 47#OoK's expediency

I've excluded links to live discussions, out of respect for WP:CANVASS.

Table of contents to OOK-related stuff

Here's a directory of outline support pages:

• Portal:Contents/Outline of knowledge
• Misplaced Pages:Lists
  • WP:CLN
  • Misplaced Pages:Stand-alone lists
    • Misplaced Pages:Outlines
      • Why do we have outlines in addition to...?
      • Comparison of Misplaced Pages's and Britannica's outlines of knowledge
• WP:WPOOK
  • Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Outline of knowledge/Projected outline

Keep up the great work!

The Transhumanist    04:28, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

WPOOK advert banner under development, here's the beta...

Thank you to those who suggested WPOOK have an animated advert banner. Penubag got working on it right away. Here's what he's come up with so far:

Penubag needs feedback.

I've posted a few changes for him to make to it.

Please post additional comments and suggestions for him at User talk:Penubag#Chocolate banner.

Thank you.

The Transhumanist    02:46, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Outline collaboration!

As you know, Penubag is working on a banner to advertise the Outline WikiProject. And he's almost done.

The banner prominently presents the "Outline of chocolate", which of course will become the most widely advertised outline as soon as the banner goes live. The first thing many editors will do after seeing the banner is look for that outline.

The problem is, we don't have one.

So that's our first outline collaboration!

I started a draft this morning.

It needs to be finished and moved to the article namespace before we can start using Penubag's banner ad!

Come join in on the fun. It's chocolate!

The Transhumanist    22:06, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Articles for deletion nomination of Karen Johnson

I have nominated Karen Johnson, an article that you created, for deletion. I do not think that this article satisfies Misplaced Pages's criteria for inclusion, and have explained why at Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Karen Johnson. Your opinions on the matter are welcome at that same discussion page; also, you are welcome to edit the article to address these concerns. Thank you for your time.

Please contact me if you're unsure why you received this message. ThemFromSpace 06:21, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

ITN for Michael Jackson

On 25 June, 2009, In the news was updated with a news item that involved the article Michael Jackson, which you recently nominated. If you know of another interesting news item involving a recently created or updated article, then please suggest it on the In the news candidates page.

--candle•wicke 02:37, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Tropical cyclones WikiProject Newsletter #27

The Hurricane Herald This is the monthly newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The Hurricane Herald aims to give a summary of the WikiProject's progress and global tropical cyclone activity. If you wish to change how you receive this newsletter, or no longer wish to receive it, please add your username to the appropriate section on the mailing list. This newsletter covers June 2009. Please visit this page and bookmark any suggestions of interest to you. This will help improve monitoring of the WikiProject's articles.

From the editors In recent months, the project has become increasingly inactive; with only a few active participants, we need your help for the upcoming hurricane season! Feel free to contact Hurricanehink (talk · contribs), Juliancolton (talk · contribs), Jason Rees (talk · contribs), or Cyclonebiskit (talk · contribs) for more information. Thanks! Storm of the month Tropical Storm Linfa formed out of an area of low pressure on June 14, the storm briefly attained tropical depression status before degenerating. By June 17 the system regenerated in the South China Sea. Slowly tracking northward, the storm intensified, attaining severe tropical storm status on June 19 and peaking in intensity the following day. On June 21, Linfa made landfall in Fujian Province, China as a tropical storm before weakening to a tropical depression. In Taiwan, outer bands of the storm produced significant amounts of rain over southeastern areas of the island. Along the western coast, rip currents resulted in the drowning of one person. Six hikers also were reported to be missing. In China, torrential rains triggered flooding that destroyed 100 homes, killed one person and left six others missing. In all, seven people were killed by Linfa, with another 12 missing, damages in mainland China were estimated at ¥655 million (US$95.8 million) and agricultural losses in Taiwan reached NT$400 million (US$12.1 million). Other tropical cyclone activity Tropical Depression One-E, East Pacific Hurricane Andres, East Pacific Tropical Storm Nangka, West Pacific Depression ARB 01, North Indian Member of the month The member of the month is Cool3 (talk · contribs). Though only a new member, Cool3 has contributed hundreds of sources and hours of research to several articles, two of which are now featured. The project thanks him for his high-quality work. New members Cool3 (talk · contribs) Darkspace72 (talk · contribs) In addition, three users re-joined the project after being listed as inactive: Hurricane Angel Saki (talk · contribs) Cyclonebiskit (talk · contribs) Hurricanehink (talk · contribs) New and improved articles There were 5 new pieces of Featured content: 1941 Florida hurricane, Subtropical Storm Andrea (2007), Tropical Storm Marco (2008), Hurricane Kiko (1989), and Wind New Good articles include: Hurricane Charley (1986), 1943 Mazatlán hurricane, 1982 Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Earl (1998), Effects of Hurricane Georges in Cuba, Effects of Hurricane Georges in Louisiana, and Hurricane Hazel New storm articles include: Tropical Storm Isidore (1984), Cyclone Nancy, Tropical Storm Hazel (1965), and Tropical Storm Cristina (1996) New non-storm articles include: Timeline of the 1974 Atlantic hurricane season Main Page content Tropical cyclone was Today's Featured Article on June 1 Facts from Tropical Storm Isidore (1984), Hurricane Gustav (1990), Hurricane Irene–Olivia‎, Tropical Storm Hazel (1965), and Cyclone Nancy appeared in the Did You Know? section of the Main Page during June. Tropical Depression One-E (2009) appeared on the Main Page in the In the News section. Article statistics Tropical cyclone articles by quality and importance Quality Importance Top High Mid Low NA Other ??? Total FA 3 14 85 60 162 FL 1 4 31 44 80 FM 22 22 A 2 1 3 GA 10 66 399 647 1,122 B 12 32 65 65 174 C 10 103 265 291 3 672 Start 1 60 323 402 3 789 Stub 50 79 129 List 6 33 95 597 413 1,144 Category 901 2 903 Disambig 68 68 File 8 8 Portal 204 204 Project 97 97 Redirect 3 22 80 111 216 Template 468 468 Other 8 8 Assessed 37 290 1,274 1,763 2,484 2 419 6,269 Unassessed 2 2 Total 37 290 1,274 1,763 2,484 2 421 6,271 WikiWork factors (?) ω = 10,176 Ω = 3.34 Project News The project as a whole is still rather inactive, though more articles are being created and expanded than in previous months. 18 good articles and four featured articles were promoted during June, including Wind. Additionally, about 28 new articles were created and assessed. As of 01:42, 4 July 2009 (UTC), there are three featured article candidates; see the noticeboard for more info. A discussion is ongoing at the project talk page (link) regarding the naming of unnamed tropical cyclones, such as 1978 January subtropical storm and 1975 Pacific Northwest hurricane. While more descriptive titles often constitute original research, official designations are sometimes ambiguous. Comments are welcome. There is also a discussion on how the project rates its articles on the importance scale. Tropical cyclones at associated Wikimedia projects Two articles were created and featured on Wikinews' main page: Tropical Storm Andres is designated and Tropical depression dissipated, impacts Mexico.

–Juliancolton |  02:06, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

ITN for Solar eclipse of July 22, 2009

On 21 July, 2009, In the news was updated with a news item that involved the article Solar eclipse of July 22, 2009, which you recently nominated. If you know of another interesting news item involving a recently created or updated article, then please suggest it on the In the news candidates page.

--BorgQueen (talk) 16:40, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Emily Vukovic

A tag has been placed on Emily Vukovic requesting that it be speedily deleted from Misplaced Pages. This has been done under section A7 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article appears to be about a person or group of people, but it does not indicate how or why the subject is important or significant: that is, why an article about that subject should be included in an encyclopedia. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, such articles may be deleted at any time. Please see the guidelines for what is generally accepted as notable, as well as our subject-specific notability guideline for biographies.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the page that would render it more in conformance with Misplaced Pages's policies and guidelines. Lastly, please note that if the page does get deleted, you can contact one of these admins to request that they userfy the page or have a copy emailed to you. Sophitessa (talk) 02:47, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Tom Reynolds (Canadian broadcaster)

A tag has been placed on Tom Reynolds (Canadian broadcaster) requesting that it be speedily deleted from Misplaced Pages. This has been done under section A7 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article appears to be about a person or group of people, but it does not indicate how or why the subject is important or significant: that is, why an article about that subject should be included in an encyclopedia. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, such articles may be deleted at any time. Please see the guidelines for what is generally accepted as notable, as well as our subject-specific notability guideline for biographies.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the page that would render it more in conformance with Misplaced Pages's policies and guidelines. Lastly, please note that if the page does get deleted, you can contact one of these admins to request that they userfy the page or have a copy emailed to you. Sophitessa (talk) 03:15, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

Tropical cyclones WikiProject Newsletter #28

The Hurricane Herald This is the monthly newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The Hurricane Herald aims to give a summary of the WikiProject's progress and global tropical cyclone activity. If you wish to change how you receive this newsletter, or no longer wish to receive it, please add your username to the appropriate section on the mailing list. This newsletter covers July 2009. Please visit this page and bookmark any suggestions of interest to you. This will help improve monitoring of the WikiProject's articles.

From the editors In recent months, the project has become increasingly inactive; with only a few active participants, we need your help for the upcoming hurricane season! Feel free to contact Juliancolton (talk · contribs), Jason Rees (talk · contribs), or Cyclonebiskit (talk · contribs) for more information. Thanks! Storm of the month Hurricane Carlos was the third named storm of the 2009 Pacific hurricane season. Tropical Depression Four-E formed on July 10, and was quickly upgraded to Tropical Storm Carlos. On July 11, the storm strengthened into a minimal Category 1 hurricane. Following a series of intensity fluctuations, Carlos peaked as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 105 mph (165 km/h). The storm subsequently began to weaken, and on July 16, Carlos degenerated into a remnant low. The cyclone had no known effects on land. Other tropical cyclone activity Tropical Storm Blanca, East Pacific Tropical Storm Dolores, East Pacific Tropical Storm Soudelor, West Pacific JMA Tropical Depression 08, West Pacific Typhoon Molave, West Pacific Deep Depression BOB 03, North Indian Tropical Storm Lana, Central Pacific JMA Tropical Depression 10, West Pacific Member of the month The member of the month is Plasticup (talk · contribs). Plasticup was inactive for most of the winter; however, upon returning this month, he quickly resumed work. Among his recent works are Meteorological history of Hurricane Gustav, a Good Article, and Tropical Storm Gamma (2005), a Good Article nominee. Plasticup was also designated member of the month in July 2008. New members There were no new members in July. However, four users re-joined the project after being listed as inactive: Hurricanekiller1994 (talk · contribs) Plasticup (talk · contribs) Patrickrox11 (talk · contribs) Southern Illinois SKYWARN (talk · contribs) New and improved articles There were three new pieces of Featured content: Tropical Depression Ten (2005), Tropical Storm Hermine (1998), and Hurricane Kiko (1989) New Good articles include: Meteorological history of Hurricane Gustav, Tropical Storm Linfa (2009), Hurricane Emily (1987), Tropical Depression Fourteen (1987), New storm articles include: Tropical Storm Dottie (1976), Hurricane Arlene (1987), Tropical Storm Soudelor (2009), Tropical Storm Hallie (1975) New non-storm articles include: Timeline of the 1996 Atlantic hurricane season, Effects of Hurricane Hazel in Canada, Meteorological history of Hurricane Georges, Hurricane Georges tornado outbreak Main Page content Hurricane Ioke appeared on the main page in the Today's Featured Article section on July 22. Tropical Storm Dottie (1976) and Tropical Storm Hallie (1975) appeared on the main page in the Did You Know? section on July 13 and July 24, respectively. Article statistics Tropical cyclone articles by quality and importance Quality Importance Top High Mid Low NA Other ??? Total FA 3 14 85 60 162 FL 1 4 31 44 80 FM 22 22 A 2 1 3 GA 10 66 399 647 1,122 B 12 32 65 65 174 C 10 103 265 291 3 672 Start 1 60 323 402 3 789 Stub 50 79 129 List 6 33 95 597 413 1,144 Category 901 2 903 Disambig 68 68 File 8 8 Portal 204 204 Project 97 97 Redirect 3 22 80 111 216 Template 468 468 Other 8 8 Assessed 37 290 1,274 1,763 2,484 2 419 6,269 Unassessed 2 2 Total 37 290 1,274 1,763 2,484 2 421 6,271 WikiWork factors (?) ω = 10,176 Ω = 3.34 Project News July was a relatively quiet month for the project; low levels of tropical activity allowed editors to maintain and build content regarding older storms. There are currently three Featured Article candidates and three Featured List candidates pertaining to tropical cyclones. SchuminWeb (talk · contribs) pointed out towards the end of the month that hurricane disambiguation pages are often over-categorized. Efforts are currently underway to address this. A discussion is underway at Misplaced Pages:Featured list candidates/Timeline of the 1987 Atlantic hurricane season/archive1 regarding the use of HURDAT as a reference. Input is appreciated. Tropical cyclones at associated Wikimedia projects Wikinews published articles related to: Tropical Storm Blanca, Tropical Storm Carlos, and Tropical Storm Dolores.

–Juliancolton |  02:54, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Earthquakes Project Newsletter

The WikiProject Earthquakes newsletter for September 2009 has been released. Be sure to check on our status. ceranthor 11:44, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Articles for deletion nomination of Michelle Leslie (Canadian broadcaster)

I have nominated Michelle Leslie (Canadian broadcaster), an article that you created, for deletion. I do not think that this article satisfies Misplaced Pages's criteria for inclusion, and have explained why at Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Michelle Leslie (Canadian broadcaster). Your opinions on the matter are welcome at that same discussion page; also, you are welcome to edit the article to address these concerns. Thank you for your time.

Please contact me if you're unsure why you received this message. ƒ(Δ)² 17:48, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

Motto of the Day contributions

This is a general message to get people to contribute as we are running out again so if you could please do. Please also see Misplaced Pages talk:Motto of the day#The Future. Note to anyone who reads this, WP:MOTD/N. Simply south (talk) 22:12, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Editing an infobox?

Hi, saw you helped with the infobox here.

Was wondering if you could assist the North_Center,_Chicago infobox. I'm completely lost as to why this article looks like that, just stumbled across it... Thanks!

38.109.88.194 (talk) 21:09, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Nevermind, it's done. 38.109.88.194 (talk) 21:29, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Self-reference

Humboldt current

The Humboldt Current and the South Equatorial Current are both part of a gyre. More specifically, they form part of the boundary current of the South Pacific Gyre. It seems to me, although I am not going to post this on the ref desk as I am not certain it is correct, that the Humboldt Current is warmed in the tropics and becomes the South Equatorial Current. At least, that seems to be suggested by maps of the gyre. Hope that helps. SpinningSpark 14:33, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Good to know that part

Thanks for the reference on artificial trees. That probably means absolutely no separation cost at the equator with the amount of excess heat or with even further improvements in that technology.Julzes (talk) 02:19, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Articles in the topic area of climate change are under general sanctions due to continued disruptive editing

Thank you for your contributions to the encyclopedia! In case you are not already aware, an article to which you have recently contributed, Abrupt climate change, is on article probation. A detailed description of the terms of article probation may be found at Misplaced Pages:General sanctions/Climate change probation. Also note that the terms of some article probations extend to related articles and their associated talk pages.

The above is a templated message. Please accept it as a routine friendly notice, not as a claim that there is any problem with your edits. Thank you. - 2/0 (cont.) 15:47, 12 January 2010 (UTC)