:Go raibh maith agat. It could be expanded far more if I pull out all the books and delve in. But I wanted to at least do a bit while I had a chance. I'll take a look at the others and see what I can do :-) Slán, - <font face="comic sans ms"><b>[[User:Kathryn NicDhàna|<span style="color:#009">Kathryn NicDhàna</span>]]</b> [[User_talk:Kathryn NicDhàna|♫]]<font color="navy">♦</font>[[Special:Contributions/Kathryn_NicDhàna|♫]]</font> 23:05, 13 August 2009 (UTC)
:Go raibh maith agat. It could be expanded far more if I pull out all the books and delve in. But I wanted to at least do a bit while I had a chance. I'll take a look at the others and see what I can do :-) Slán, - <font face="comic sans ms"><b>[[User:Kathryn NicDhàna|<span style="color:#009">Kathryn NicDhàna</span>]]</b> [[User_talk:Kathryn NicDhàna|♫]]<font color="navy">♦</font>[[Special:Contributions/Kathryn_NicDhàna|♫]]</font> 23:05, 13 August 2009 (UTC)
==Drumanagh==
Sincerely, I am shocked....I used to have an high esteem of Celtic & Irish people.--[[User:Romandrumanagh|Romandrumanagh]] ([[User talk:Romandrumanagh|talk]]) 02:22, 15 August 2009 (UTC)
I like to keep conversations in the same place, when possible.
If you leave a message for me here, I will usually respond here.
If I leave a message on your talk page, I will do my best to watchlist your talk page and read your response there.
However, as my watchlist is rather voluminous now, if you want to make certain I see your response you might need to post it here. If the matter is time-sensitive, I will reply on your talk page so you will be notified promptly, and please feel free to post important replies to me here, for the same reason. The orange bar is your friend.
You have won the Irish Wikipedians surprise draw!! Just leave a message on my talk page to receive the prize of USD 1,000,000 or EUR 638,442.37 or GBP 505,871.414 Markreidyhp 07:05, 1 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Go raibh maith agat! Damn, I knew this lucrative business of writing articles on obscure Irish subjects would pay off, if I just hung in there. (heeeeeeee) - Kathryn NicDhàna♫♦♫ 01:07, 3 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Russian Irish Towns project
Hey Kathryn: The following message was left for me and I think it's a little more in your bailiwick. I'll see about posting it to appropriate WikiProjects. Cheers, Pigman☿ 19:10, 4 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Pigman! We've created Project Ireland in the russian section of Wikipedia. We plan to create (supported by a bot) articles about all irish towns and villages on the base of the english Wikipedia. Now we are thinking about the names of the articles. It would be political correctly to transliterate the irish (gaelic) names. On the other hand, english language is common used in Ireland and it's much more easier for us to take the english pronouncation. Most of us understand english, but only some linguists can read irish words. What would you propose us to do? --Obersachse (talk) 18:36, 4 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Archaeoastronomy problems
Kathryn,
I was as pleased by your recent edit and comments on Archaeoastronomy and its Talk Page as I was displeased by Breadh2o's instant revert. AlunSalt and I have been trying to resolve the problems with Breadh2o for some time, having gone through an informal RfC initiated by AlunSalt, a formal "subject matter" RfC initiated by Breadh2o, and an Original Research claim on the No Original Research Noticeboard initiated by AlunSalt
I feel it's time to raise the issue of Breadh2o's Disruptive Editing, Original Research, etc., but really don't know where to go at this phase. We have gone through two RfCs, but neither focused on the issue of disruptive editing. I don't want to get you involved on the merits of the case but given your knowledge of the dispute resolution process, would you consider the formally appropriate next step to be an RfC on Disruptive Editing, etc., or a move directly to the AN/I?
After looking at his contribs and user page, I've decided to put something on AN/I. - Kathryn NicDhàna♫♦♫ 04:10, 13 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for looking over the Archaeoastronomy page. Alun Salt (talk) 08:58, 13 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
No prob. I've got it on my watchlist now, but if something else odd happens, or if Breadh2o gets pushy again, feel free to let me know and/or post a followup on AN/I. - Kathryn NicDhàna♫♦♫ 21:44, 13 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
We seem to be back to the same sources again, this time with added Orwell. Apparently adding an Orwell quote to the head of his user page where he discusses his fringe theory is 'open to interpretation'. Can I ask you what your interpretation is? I don't want to cause a fuss if it's just me being over-sensitive. On the other hand I've no real desire to go round this topic yet again if it's going to end up in another conspiracy theory. Thanks. Alun Salt (talk) 20:43, 18 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I'm afraid I must respectfully disagree with Alun. I have refrained from any edits since my undo of your reversion and that was done while I was ignorant of your commentary on my user page. I complied with your suggestions to remove the article segments, though I have retained ref links to help me keep the history logs handy. I have neither added any new material to the article nor interfered in the additions by others since the unfortunate event Saturday. However, I cannot in good conscience simply stand by idly as my motives are maligned. I believe almost all of my cited references comply with WP policies and guidelines for reliable sources, verifiable and that the twin issues in history and balancing the fringe section qualify as notable. The last inline edits I attempted before Saturday's Politics of Archaeoastronomy debacle: my April 10 new lead paragraph to History and my March 30 balance append to Fringe met standards for relevancy and proper sourcing. The fact is, Alun and Steve have prevailed in their intended and absolute reversions. Anticipating this, I contacted editor assistant AGK on April 4 citing perceived WP:OWN issues. Then, I took it to request for mediation rather than edit war some more. As Alun and Steve have had issues with me, I have had issues with them, as well, particularly WP:IDHT but I don't know what's being done about these transgressions. It just seems a pretty selective and arbitrary system to ignore my points. It's not POV pushing by me, it's trying to neutralize an imbalance in the POV, as I have tried to so carefully explain in the the past 24 hours -- Breadh2o (talk) 21:14, 18 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Breadh2o, It is very common on WP for POV-pushers to claim they are just trying to NPOV an article. So experienced editors look at the history. Admittedly I am only looking this situation over recently, so I haven't seen every edit and exchange that has taken place. However, as I said on your talk page, you seem to me to be the one who is being disruptive and having WP:OWN issues. While there is more latitude in what is discussed on the talk pages of an article than in the article itself, the talk page should not be used as a soapbox; nor a place to post whatever has been rejected from the article; nor should it be an endurance contest. Posting long screeds at other editors is not helpful to the development of articles, and will tend to alienate the very people you need to learn how to work with.
If you keep up the tone you've been using towards some editors, you may be penalized for violating WP:CIVIL. If you cannot let go of your strong feelings about the topic, I would suggest that you back off and work on something else. I have suggested before that your style of writing and desired subject matter is more apropos to a blog or personal website than WP. I reiterate that suggestion. BTW, Barry Fell is not a reliable source for anything on Ogham. Though he may be worth mentioning if fringe theories of "Ogham in America" are mentioned, his work in the field is not credible, as per the opinion of Ogham scholars as well as Fell's lack of academic background in the relevant fields. - Kathryn NicDhàna♫♦♫ 04:06, 19 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Kathryn, could I request a clarification about procedures. Breadh2o says that he contacted an admin (whom I presume is User:AGK) and asked for mediation on the dispute. He had also mentioned to me by e-mail on 8 April that he was turning the problem over to an unnamed admin. As one of the involved parties I have not been contacted by any mediator and as far as I can tell, this dispute is not listed at the formal Requests for mediation or at the less formal mediation cabal. Do you have any insights as to where we are regarding potential mediation? --SteveMcCluskey (talk) 03:55, 19 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
(ACK! Downed server ate my response!) Anyway... Since it's not in his contribs, anyone he contacted he must have done so privately. Neither a formal nor informal mediation can proceed without your consent. So if there is one proposed, you will be notified. I welcome other admin eyes on this. I think any experienced editor can see pretty quickly what's going on here. - Kathryn NicDhàna♫♦♫ 05:01, 19 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for supporting my recent request for adminship which was successful with 89 supports, 0 opposes, and 2 neutrals. Unfortunately all I can offer is this lame text thanks rather than some fancy-smancy thank-you spam template thingy. I was very pleased to receive such strong support and to hear so many nice comments from editors whom I respect. I’ll do my best with the tools, and if you ever see me going astray don’t hesitate to drop a note on my talk page. Thanks again for your support!--Bigtimepeace | talk | contribs 03:50, 26 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Kathryn NicDhàna, I just wanted to say that you've been an administrator for just over six months now. I hope you've had a good time. :) Best wishes. Acalamari 19:15, 23 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Esther Hicks article
Hi Kathryn,
I came across your name in the discussion regarding the Esther Hicks article. I share your concern that as currently written the EH article is not neutral, as it does not mention the controversial nature of many of the Abraham-Hicks teachings. As you say, it does read like an advertising handout.
I tried to reflect this by adding a section "Controversy", which was moved by Carptrash within a couple of hours. We have discussed the move here:
As I wrote in the discussion, the EH article is in sharp contrast to the Wikipedia "Scientology" article.
If this topic remains on your radar, I'm interested in your views as to how to best take this forward. Panchali101 (talk) 07:29, 25 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
A further thought: the Abraham-Hicks teachings discussed in the article seem to enjoy the protection of the device that the ideas are presented as a biography of a living person, which I understand have higher thresholds of sourcing pedigree than other categories. In fact, the content of the article would be better represented as the "Abraham-Hicks teachings" or similar. I was initially surprised that Wikipedia had no specific entry for "Abraham-Hicks", but only "Esther Hicks".Panchali101 (talk) 09:35, 25 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Kathryn, you're clearly exceptionally busy - can you point me in the direction of another Administrator in this field, please? Panchali101 (talk) 07:22, 7 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, members and friends of WP:LGBT! I'm not one to be writing newsletters, but I miss our cruise director, Miss Julie, and our project is drifting along with a few leaking plugs in the bottom of the boat. Hey, it happens. Every group we join goes through changes. If Wikipedia weren't so interesting it wouldn't also be so frustrating sometimes. And vice versa. More than one Wikiproject has tumbleweeds blowing through it, but this is one that can't afford to let that happen. Even if you pop in to the talk page of the project, you can let us know you're still around.
WP:LGBT's Role in HIV / AIDS articles
It wouldn't be a proper gay community without a li'l bit o' drama! That's right. If we aren't arguing about something, then we should be asking if we're still queer. Maybe that's for the best, since we know we're still kicking. Our most recent topic is how far the role of our project should go in dipping our toes into HIV/AIDS articles. The main AIDS article was delisted as a Featured Article last month, sadly. (Sending a swift kick to WP:Medicine.) A spirited discussion is available for your entertainment on the WP:LGBT talk page about just how much of HIV and AIDS should we take on. As ever, we'll take your opinions under advisement. We're going to have to, because it doesn't seem to have been settled.
Is Pride POV?
We have a pretty cool sidebar that identifies core LGBT articles. Its symbol is the iconic gay pride flag, much like other Wikiprojects have iconic symbols denoting the topic is a core subject in a series of articles. However, a question recently arose asking if the symbol itself is not neutral. Should a pride flag show up at the top of the article on Conversion therapy? How else would anyone know the article is about queer issues? Is there another symbol that is as widely recognized and that includes all our many splintered facets? At what point do we stop asking ourselves all these questions and just go have a mint julep on the verandah and stop caring?
For the love of all that is holy, no Kool Aid jokes. However, an editor involved in pioneering San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk's article has included a section about the late supervisor's support of Jim Jones and the People's Temple. While it may be accurate, there is a Request for Comment regarding how much emphasis the section places on Milk's support in light of his overall political influence on the city, and indeed the rest of the United States. Milk's article is a sad one in more ways than one. It lacks the detail and heart that honors its subject. Anyone want to do a barter with me? I'll bring Harvey Milk to featured status (give me a month or two so I can read stuff), if you do something of equal value to WP:LGBT?? Make me an offer...
Queer Studies is offensive!
The established branch of study known as Queer studies was brought up as an category for deletion because an editor was offended by the use of "queer" in the title. It was overwhelmingly rejected mostly by the usernames I see here on our Wikiproject page. (A clue that I know you are out there, hiding...biding your time...) So, I wish I could congratulate you, but now I'm all confused by my sympathy for the editor who was offended. So, if you're reading this, Moni has a short memory and can't remember your username. Don't be put off by our demonstrative pushiness. Join us. We can always use involved editors.
What can you do to help the project out? Be a wiki-fairy, on many levels. There are all kinds of articles that need help. Why, just this morning I removed those ugly wikify and cleanup tags from four articles at random. If you can put [[ ]] around stuff, you can clean up articles. There's a list of articles that need attention at the top of the WP:LGBT talk page. Or you can start with the Lambda Literary Awards, where the goddess of my altar received a pioneering award, and was "reduced to rubble" by Katherine V. Forrest's wonderful speech. The 20th ceremony of the Lambda Literary Awards, which celebrates LGBT literature, took place in West Hollywood on May 29th [1]. The page needs to be updated with the new winners, to be found on the official website [2].
Why on earth would someone want to delete material about homosexuality? 'Tis truly a mystery. But these embattled articles have some random evil gnomes removing information that places these folks under our queer umbrella. Help us keep an eye out for the deletions. Take a peek at the articles, familiarize yourselves with the info, and be handy with the undo function in the article history. If tempers flare, take it to the Hall monitors and let them sort it out. Best solution is to make sure your sources are immaculate.
This month's Wiki stars
This is what I get for opening my big fat mouth and suggesting the newsletter should be revived. Here I am writing it. So, to pat self on back (*cough*) Mulholland Dr. became a featured article in May. This is A Good Thing since it is my personal declaration that there is no such thing as lesbian porn. I don't care what Benjiboi says about the video collection at goodvibes. Instead, we have hot women who connect on a deep, personal, soul-touching level, so this film should qualify as some of the skankiest porn available for lesbians. Plus, it's completely confusing and surreal! D'you think Laura Harring would care that the article is featured? I don't think so either... (Call me, Laura!)
Compulsive hoarding of templates
Once I saw a harrowing episode of Animal Planet's Animal Cops where this guy had, like, 250 cats in his house and it freaked me right out. I'm drawing a parallel between 250 cats and, well...three, really, templates in articles involving LGBT issues. Can we stick to one, maybe? In the aforementioned Harvey Milk's article there's a core LGBT template, a link to the LGBT portal, and a sidebar for LGBT rights. Jiminy! You'd think we weren't the folk to set industrial grey carpeting and track lighting in vogue. An LGBT footer was designed to link to articles of interest that aren't the aforementioned core articles. What do you think, can we have either an LGBT template for core articles, a footer for LGBT articles that are high profile but not core, or an LGBT rights template? As ever, anything's up for discussion on the WP:LGBT talk page.
It's June, Pride month. Wear sunscreen, stay hydrated, get a designated driver, then go half-dressed in the streets find a girlfriend or boyfriend, or some homo who's standing there looking lonely and kiss 'em up real good. Remember, it all started 39 years ago when a bunch of drag queens just got fed the f*ck up by the cops raiding the bar and dragging them all out to the pokey again. Rock on, queens! Enjoy your celebrations. My town's is in October, and 200 people attend. I miss Denver.
It looks like we've picked up a lot of talent lately. We have no doubt you'll be making your indelible mark on LGBT knowledge as we know it, here at Wikipedia.
In the immortal words of Miss Julie, "May all your Wiki days be bright, and may your Love Boat never turn into a Poseidon."
We miss you, Miss Julie, as well as all the others who have graced our project and are on wiki-breaks or just got fed up with all the nuttiness and went to live their lives. Get your stupid houses built and hurry up and come back. --Moni3 (talk) 16:52, 9 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please let us know here. If you have any news or any announcements to be broadcast, do let Moni3 know.
This newsletter was delivered by §hepBot around 16:02, 11 June 2008 (UTC). ShepBot (talk) 16:17, 11 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Copy edits and the massive backlog
Hey there!
I'm sending you this because I noticed you were active in the former league of copy-editors. I joined the LOCE something like a few days before it became historical, and have been making a somewhat lonely effort to reduce the copy-edit backlog, so I've been curious - why did the LOCE close, are there any efforts going on out there to reduce the copy-edit backlog, and do you think there's a point in establishing (and would you join) a wikiproject purely to maintain the category of articles needing copy edits?
I've been having a hard time getting people on related projects (WP:PR, WP:GAN, etc) to help with the backlog, so I'm trying to gather suggestions or help regarding starting a project simply to maintain the category of articles needing copy edit.
Please respond to an RFC I have filed about my conduct. Please evaluate my responses to false statements about me during my recent RFA. Yechiel (Shalom) 20:55, 17 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
An unfortunate effect of a group less active than in the past is that our articles lose integrity. This one is at Good Article Review for that reason. The talk page is quite active as a result. You have the opportunity to help. This is the corest of our core articles, and it needs some attention because it gets a lot of controversial input from many sides. If you can spare any time to edit the article, please do what you can.
Soon after we were informed that Homosexuality is being scrutinized, we heard the same for one of our few Featured Articles. As a participant of the Featured Article process, I think this is actually a good thing. The standards for Featured Articles are getting higher with time. But as a member of this project, that means that a few of ours may be de-listed unless someone can swoop in and save them. This one has to do with the designation of homosexuality as a crime in Germany. Most of this article's sources are in German. If anyone has any particular skill in this area, please lend a hand!
I know you folks think I have much experience in a gay bathhouse, and I hate to disappoint you, but I actually do not. I seem like the sort of person who likes to stroll about in a towel. Shocking, no? It appears that Ashleyvh is single-handedly addressing all the problems with this article at its GA Review. While that's pretty impressive, it's also no doubt exhausting. Can anyone help out there?
In what I hope will counter the jolt of re-evaluating three Good or Featured Articles, José Sarria and Janet Jackson as gay icon passed as Good Articles, and Black Cat Bar (famous San Francisco oft-raided gay bar) is nominated, all by Otto4711. Rock on, man. You're a machine. Good luck with your nominations. What is it about women that make them gay icons? And are there lesbian icons that aren't lesbians? How about bisexual icons? Am I the only lesbian who reacts with soul-trembling fear at the sight of Angelina Jolie?
New WP:LGBT studies member Pinkkeith has done this cool thing. If you click on that link, you'll see all the articles, categories, templates, and miscellany up for deletion. They're usually there because they're not considered to be not notable. That can be a relative concept, and sometimes it has to be argued that topics pertaining to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues are notable.
It seems a recurring issue which articles to tag, and what to say about a topic that's tagged. Certainly, because an article falls under our scope doesn't necessarily make the person gay. Florida Governor Charlie Crist has been rumored to be gay in some newspaper accounts. Although we all know Fred Phelps is supergay, he won't admit it so instead he does the absolutely awfulest anti-gay things on the planet to deflect suspicion. NAMBLA, the red headed stepchild of the LGBT world, is tagged with an explanation we have yet to decide if we'll keep.
In the lurking I do around and about on Wiki, I've long been astounded at the forbearance Benjiboi has for the utterly insane. Perhaps not so much, since the message on Benji's talk page notes frequent absences due to homophobia and transphobia. But it takes some kind of ... something that I don't have to face the constant anti-gay POV Benji does.
Benjiboi is a a bit of a WikiFaerie, a WikiGnome and also a member of the Article Rescue Squadron in addition to being a LGBT project member. A few of Benjiboi's favorite links for making the wikiverse more fab are:
Becksguy didn’t start actively editing until May 2007. His most frequent tasks on Wiki include reverting vandalism to LGBT articles and creating new project-related articles. He comes from New York state, and to prove not all of us are teenagers (ha! I am so totally 15!) he's in his 60s and retired.
Becksguy considers his biggest triumph on Wikipedia so far was a DYK in December 2007 for the first-ever newspaper report on what became AIDS, in the New York Native. He's also helped save several project-related articles from deletion. His lowest moment here was getting involved in the discussion on a particular terrorism related article, thinking he could help calm the roiled waters on an extremely contentious subject with multiple edit wars and passionate editors.
Here at WP:LGBT, he creates and improves articles that present notable LGBT related subjects in a fair and balanced way, and tries to include more of the significant alternative sexuality related subjects without being an activist, and works to better source project-related articles.
On Wikipedia as a whole, he says, "I think we need to learn better what processes work for a massive collaborative project. Some of what worked well for a more informal small project doesn’t scale up well. Process is not as important when the participants know each other. We need to get more of the current members to be more active. If more members were energized, the project would be able to accomplish more. We should be, in effect, the smaller and included Wikipedia for LGBT related subjects. Overall, I wish we could focus more on content creation and improvement, and less on vandal fighting."
"A Supreme Court decision in 1958 reversed a 1956 ruling by a federal district court that U.S. postal authorities were correct in prohibiting the mailing of the Mattachine Society's ONE magazine. The lower court had ruled that ONE was not protected by the First Amendment because the magazine's contents 'may be vulgar, offensive, and indecent even though not regarded as such by a particular group ... because their own social or moral standards are far below those of the general community ... Social standards are fixed by and for the great majority and not by and for a hardened or weakened minority.'" - Michael Bronski in Pulp Friction, 2003
Thanks for being weak and having lowered standards with me. --Moni3 (talk) 00:10, 24 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please let us know here. If you have any news or any announcements to be broadcast, do let Moni3 know.
Newsletter delivery by xenobot 13:05, 30 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Still Alive, Still Busy
So much so that I cannot decide if I am busy, on wiki-break, or both. I check in now and then when I can, but am in a liminal state as far as WP is concerned right now. Now and then I'll have a day where I feel like helping out a lot, then a long stretch where it really seems rather unimportant in the grand scheme of things. C'est la vie. - Kathryn NicDhàna♫♦♫ 19:21, 8 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Main Page redesign
The Main Page Redesign proposal is currently conducting a straw poll to select five new designs, before an RFC in which one will be proposed to replace the Main Page. The poll closes on October 31st. Your input would be hugely appreciated! Many thanks, PretzelsTalk! 10:13, 28 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Wake up WP:LGBT! It's time to kick in gear and get some things done!
Project News
Wake up!
I say this to myself as much as I say it to all of us. I work a lot by myself or with individual editors who spend time at Featured Article Candidates. It seems on November 5 a fog was lifted off my brain that helped me realize that we have massive potential in this project to get things done. Take this allegory, for instance: On Wednesday, Nov. 5, 1980, my 10th-grade American history teacher started class by unfurling The New York Times. She pointed to its triple banner headline: “Reagan Easily Beats Carter; Republicans Gain in Congress; D’Amato and Dodd are Victors.” “Save this paper,” she told us. “This is the start of a whole new era.”Judith Warner from The New York Times
It definitely seems a start to a whole new era now. If planets align correctly to remind us that whatever advances we may have made in electing what appears to be an extraordinary president in the US, the moons that revolve around those planets also serve to illustrate it's not that simple. Florida, Arizona, and California all appear to have banned same sex marriage. As someone who was married in California and lives in Florida, this is particularly poignant. We seem to be at the juncture of two converging paths. If we maximize our efforts and take the right ones, we might just be able to affect some change for ourselves.
Though what we do is an interesting hobby for some, we have the power to make a difference. California's ballot initiative to ban gay marriage was a fierce fight. It's being challenged right now, but just look at how Wikipedia played a role in that: in October 2008, 360,238 people read its article. On November 5, an astounding 467,000 people read it. I commend the editors who work on that article—both those who support and oppose it. A look at the talk page shows a concerted effort to keep it civil and accurate.
What can we do?
How do you fight ignorance? With information. That's what Wikipedia is for. This project is overwhelming with 8,576 articles in its scope. We can continue to work piecemeal as we have in the past, or we can focus on goals. These are examples of areas we can concentrate on.
Current political events
LGBT Media and Literature
LGBT History
Sex and sexuality
Articles about political issues in the US and around the world that have been especially relevant within the past 5 years
Depictions of LGBT people and issues on television, film, newspapers, magazines
Topics about gay rights activism and the opposition to it
There are more than 8,000 articles to work on. Can we build a list of priorities? Can we build enough enthusiasm to work on these? What if we had editors who oversaw progress in these areas and reported to the talk page or in the newsletter? Surely someone here wants to report on the progress of sex articles.
Tony Perkins (irony) from the conservative Family Research Councilwas heartened by the recent passages of gay marriage bans. The Republican Party is without direction. What's going to take the place of a moderate voice will not be pleasant to our ears. Watching and improving articles of subjects that have opposed gay rights in the past will be of vital importance very soon, I predict.
But WP:LGBT is not a very active project
All we can do is start somewhere. The first step is answering this newsletter on the project talk page. Join in the discussion.
More things we can do
Give out more barnstars, and let each other know that what they're doing is valued.
Create a guide to stave off burnout, because editors in this project get burned out faster than others. There are many hills to climb.
Bring back the monthly collaboration project.
Participate in LGBT Peer reviews.
Get familiar with the characteristics of Good Articles and get our top priority articles to WP:GA.
Use the Newsletter, Moni3! You can suggest what to send out in the newsletter, too!
Offer research materials, copy editing, ideas, and support to your fellow editors.
Keep the project talk page informed of problems and discussions we should know about.
Proposal: Put Importance Levels on articles
If this was decided long before I was a member, maybe it's time to revisit it. Other WikiProjects, such as WP:Novels determine that some subjects have an importance category: Top, High, Mid, Low, or None (undetermined). If we decide that our most core articles, it might help to organize which articles to address first. Top importance, for example, would be Gay, Homosexual, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Sappho, Oscar Wilde, Stonewall riots, for example. High importance would be Homosexuality and psychology, Harvey Milk, Mattachine Society, Harry Hay, or Daughters of Bilitis, and so on. This can be a matter of discussion, or perhaps we could have someone in charge of determining these levels for all the articles we have tagged.
These are the editors I've seen working (and I know I'm forgetting a few). There's more of you out there I haven't seen. Some of you are new. We need all of you. Please help.
Miami, January 18, 1977 after the gay rights ordinance was passed: While Bryant and the others were creating the beginnings of the repeal effort, (gay activists) Basker, Campbell, Kunst, and the other (gay rights) ordinance supporters congratulated themselves on their success and then quickly disbanded... There was no organized recognition or celebration of the victory. As one activist remembered, "We just went home." They had little idea of the battle that was before them. - Fred Fejes in Gay Rights and Moral Panic, 2008
Don't go home yet, please. --Moni3 (talk) 00:10, 24 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
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This newsletter was sent by §hepBot (Disable) at 21:15, 12 November 2008 (UTC) by the request of Moni3 (talk)[reply]
A year
Hello Kathryn NicDhàna, just wanted to leave a note to say that you've now been an administrator for an entire year! I think you've been a fine admin, and I hope you've had and will continue to have fun. Best wishes. Acalamari 00:37, 23 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. It's been fun when it's been fun. When it's not fun I remember we're all volunteers here and Wiki-breaks are fine, too. Life has not allowed me much time to work on the project since the spring, but when I have a chance I try to keep a hand in. And things may well shift so I have the time for more active participation in the future. Not dead ;-) - Kathryn NicDhàna♫♦♫ 04:00, 28 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Kathryn. Apologies for the intrusion, but I've been trying to stir the Clans project into hitting some milestones before the main Homecoming events at the end of July. It looks like we should be able to clear all the stubs by then bar the chiefs. To that end, would you mind giving some Wiki-love to Derbfine, Fosterage and the Statutes of Iona? In fact they're not too stubby, but I thought you were probably the best person to just tidy them up a bit - no need to go mad. It would also be nice to get the "Big 3" to GA status - I'd hope to get Scottish clanWP:GANed by the end of this month, Tartan by mid-June and Kilt by the end of June if I can keep my enthusiasm up. Hopefully I have a bit of a crack at the clan article over the next week, after that it would be nice to have extra pairs of eyeballs to look at it.... Best wishes. Le Deluge (talk) 16:55, 16 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Wikimedians in Ireland email list
Hi Kathryn:
I'm delighted to announce that we've started a new Ireland Wikimedian email list, that you can join, at mail:WikimediaIE. For Wikimedians in Ireland and Wikimedians interested in events in Ireland and efforts in Ireland. It's there to to discuss meetups, partnerships with Museums and National Archives, and anything else where Wikipedia and real life intersect. Bastiquedemandez 23:50, 19 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
How do you change the world? You can start by writing an incredible article for the world's encyclopedia. Moni3 kicks it old school again with Stonewall riots - a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn. [...] [T]hey have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world. It's a featured article hitting the mainpage this Sunday to mark the 40th anniversary of the events. So first off, wow! Clever and cool. Moni3 has been recently named hottest delegate to Obama's bookclub but that may not be official yet. (Shhh!)
Otto4711 mentioned that gee we really should swamp the DYK section with LGBT-related articles for use on the 28th as well. We have eight or so in the holding area and if you push yourself to get an article together you might be able to get in on the fun. Do this now!
The official rules for DYKs can be found here. Once you have expanded an article 5-fold or created an article with at least 1,500 characters of prose, place your DYK thread here. Use this handy tool to count your 1,500 characters. As a suggestion, when you add your potential hook, include the character count and a link to the source(s) that confirm the hook. These will be confirmed anyway but may help.
The layout for the individual quotes is here (just copy/paste into one of the red links on Portal:Transgender/Random quote). Then this counter has to be upped to match the new # of total quotes (not counting quote zero).
Obama proclamation
On June 1, President Barack Obama declared June 2009 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, citing the riots as a reason to "commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans". Excerpts at the bottom.
F*ck me I'm famous
I was interviewed by Wikipedia Signpost, the weekly in-house newsletter, for the WikiProject report. The Signpost has nearly 1,000 Wikipedian subscribers and arguably many of those folks actually read it. It came about rather quickly and my worst fears - that it was an elaborate hoax by a troll - were apparently unfounded. I hope y'all feel I did fine by the project, I did my best to avoid the phrase "man-humping, cock-sucking, doggy-style loving queer" but otherwise did ok.
Free image appeal
A friendly reminder to consider taking photos while you're out and about at various Dyke marches and Pride parades. Consider donating them to the world at Wikicommons. I'm sooo totally over having to deal with lovely images being deleted and argued about. If they are just free they are then also freely usable worldwide. And no, they don't need photos of your cha-cha or hoo-hoo-dilly.
Sonny and Cher's daughter was a famous lesbian and now he's a famous transman, possibly the most famous in the world. This also serves as a friendly reminder that we recently updated Wikipedia:WikiProject LGBT studies/Guidelines - it's not perfect but should help inform on those gnip-gnop battles that do seem to drag on, and not in the good way.
As part of the redecorating at our talkpage, the article alerts and keyword search alerts are handily located at the top of the page. Always fascinating to see what's up. All help appreciated on those.
Glambert
Adam Lambert is soooo gay - surprised? Neither is anyone else. Nuff said. David Ogden Stiers was outed but apparently he wasn't terribly in either.
The LGBT studies project does have its own free Internet Relay Chat channel, #wikipedia-en-lgbtconnect, for coordination, collaboration and socializing. This channel is hosted on Freenode and can be accessed in one of two ways: If you already have an IRC client, click the link to the left. If you do not have an IRC client, you'll need to get one installed on your computer first. Once you've done this, then click on the link to the left.
For more general information on IRC and a listing of other useful Wikipedia-related channels, see Wikipedia:IRC channels.
The project had at one point another channel at #LGBTprojectconnect but as the original people associated with the setting up and administration of that channel have seemed to have disappeared, this new channel has been set up. Plus the new channel is inline with required naming conventions for Wikipedia related IRC channels. So, feel free to use this channel. Such a channel gives opportunity to discuss the latest happening on articles, the LGBT project itself, latest happening in your life with "wiki-friends" here, etc.. You can say things on there you normally wouldn't here on Wikipedia (keeping it civil of course) like talk about the latest hot guy/girl or tell a joke.. you get the point. Anyway, see you there - eventually!
LGBT to-do list (held over from last edition)
Give out more barnstars, and let each other know that what they're doing is valued.
Create a guide to stave off burnout, because editors in this project get burned out faster than others. There are many hills to climb.
Bring back the monthly collaboration project.
Participate in LGBT Peer reviews.
Get familiar with the characteristics of Good Articles and get our top priority articles to WP:GA.
Use the Newsletter, Moni3! You can suggest what to send out in the newsletter, too!
Offer research materials, copy editing, ideas, and support to your fellow editors.
Keep the project talk page informed of problems and discussions we should know about.
“
There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities. [I]n both the White House and the Federal agencies -- openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism. [...] LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security. [...] As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. [...] I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists. - Barack Obama, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, 2009, The White House (June 1, 2009).
To receive this newsletter in a different format, please let us know here. If you have any news or any announcements to be broadcast, do let Moni3 know.
Newsletter delivery by xenobot 17:29, 24 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
User block for 67.173.114.161
A Chaitriona choir,
I think this user needs blocking, but I've forgotten the proper procedure and can't find the necessary pages. All of their edits are vandalism, and they havce been warned a number of times.
Hello there. Great work on Áine. Would you look at Clídna too? I've added some things here and there but the main text is still a mess, and I can't find the source (MS?) for the wonderful John O'Donovan quote someone added. Anann needs work too, and Aimend needs her story added. Mongfind I have what I need for and am still adding to. DinDraithou (talk) 19:00, 13 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Go raibh maith agat. It could be expanded far more if I pull out all the books and delve in. But I wanted to at least do a bit while I had a chance. I'll take a look at the others and see what I can do :-) Slán, - Kathryn NicDhàna♫♦♫ 23:05, 13 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Drumanagh
Sincerely, I am shocked....I used to have an high esteem of Celtic & Irish people.--Romandrumanagh (talk) 02:22, 15 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
