User talk:Gwinva/Archive 3

This is an archive of past discussions about User:Gwinva. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Archive 4

Yowza re Nuni

		The Reference Desk Barnstar
		Better late than never! This barnstar is awarded for your contribution to the amazing collaborative effort that eventually turned up the answer to a very obscure question, Who were the Nuni? Your quotation from Scattered Shadows, resulting from persistent library research, helped the process along and added to the collective cleverness that eventually (after weeks of effort) came up with the correct answer. The real joy lies in that success, of course, but this barnstar is awarded to remind you of your part in the triumph.BrainyBabe (talk) 23:04, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

HEELLPPP!

Overeager reviewer wants to delist Horses in warfare from GA. Calling for backup! We DO need to fix a few things in there, but this person is just skewering things. HEELLLPPP!!! I know you are on vacation, but if you can just drop by and leave a note telling them to cool their jets, that will help. Montanabw^(talk) 03:35, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Follow up: Can you take a look at the current version, at the footnotes where "needs page number" has been noted, I think the remaining ones are cites I swiped from your HiMA article, but didn't have full details on. We need just a couple page numbers from various books, if you have them, that would be great! Thanks! Montanabw^(talk) 07:29, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

See this: [1]. Self-explanatory. Montanabw^(talk) 23:45, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Erskine

Good catch on William Erskine being the second baronet! Thanks for fixing my mistake. I've noticed one or two other places where Glover is wrong. Djmaschek (talk) 01:38, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Howdy

Hi, Gwinva. Hope your holiday is enjoyable. I'm sure you're checking out bookshops etc wherever you are for Mary Faulkner, and I can't wait to hear what, if anything, you;ve discovered. Cheers. -- JackofOz (talk) 01:42, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Broad arrow

Thanks for the image and welcome back, you have been missed! Mhicaoidh (talk) 09:03, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

Yett

On 11 August, 2008, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Yett, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--BorgQueen (talk) 06:55, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Mary, Mary

Hi Gwinva. Hope your trip was enjoyable. I can't wait to hear all about Mary's wonderful literary credentials. But all in good time. Happy reading. :) JackofOz (talk) 07:04, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Re GA Reform

Hi Gwinva. I've only just got back from a couple of weeks away myself; I noticed the thread had been archived (automatically I presume), but haven't done anything about that yet. Maybe in retrospect we picked a bad time, but I think after all the work so many put in on it, we shouldn't roll over just yet ;)

The thought does occur that anyone interested enough to participate had already done so on the working party, and perhaps we do have a loose consensus. However, the proposal did generate some discussion, and it might be beneficial to briefly revisit the points raised on the reform talk page. I'd like to get a clear decision one way or the other though, rather than just letting this fizzle out, so as a final stage my personal preference would be to open a new thread on WT:GAN and ask for a simple support/oppose/neutral tally. I know this is less than ideal, but I believe it will get more of a response!

Having said that, maybe we should wait a few weeks for everyone to get back from their Summer breaks; we could put something in the September GA newsletter and advertise a bit more widely. What do you think? EyeSerene^talk 07:45, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, summer in South Wales... that's to say torrential rain, wind, and the odd glimpse of a something shining behind the cloud cover. EyeSerene^talk 08:13, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Lol, that could have come from today's BBC UK Weather page. In the two weeks I took off, there was just one day when it didn't rain :P Re the GA reform, I was thinking of waiting until September, then spamming everyone who had contributed to the working party to see if there were any last-minute alterations or suggestions before opening things up to a vote. I definitely don't think we should let it drop just yet though; re-reading the 'green dot' debate the other day, we as a project have done little to address any of the issues raised (other than the sub-page introduction), and there seemed to be a clear consensus at the time that we needed to... EyeSerene^talk 07:41, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Not rubbing it in

He he. That must be your genetically-determined national inferiority complex showing through. I actually meant it as a compliment, because a country that can go from nothing for 7 days to its greatest single day ever is obviously doing something right when it really matters. :) -- JackofOz (talk) 01:21, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Thank you!

Thank you for the thorough review of Eglinton Tournament of 1839. You identified some very good things that need work; sometimes when you spend some time working on an article (or group of related articles), you can lose sight of the bigger picture and how the article looks to someone unfamiliar with the topic. Hopefully we can get those issues fixed soon! Thanks, Cmadler (talk) 13:14, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Hello!

How do you like the new minimalist and rather tentative Noetica?

–_⊥^{¡ɐɔıʇǝo}Noetica!^T– 11:55, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Early thermal weapons - FAC?

I got halfway through nominating this for FAC earlier tonight before it was pointed out to me that it's recommended to leave that to the author these days... I plead advancing age, or it being two years since I listed anything at FAC, or something like that. All carefully undone, now.

Anyhow, I think it's an excellent and interesting article - would you be interested in pushing it to FA? It's remarkably stable, and seems comprehensive - it should be reasonably smooth. Shimgray | talk | 20:23, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your vote of confidence! I am certainly not averse to an FAC for Early thermal weapons: it was always my intention to take it that far, but one of the side effects of having too many pots on the stove is that some of them go off the boil. I left it simmering while I found a few more sources (I had a few things I wanted to expand) but I got distracted, and well... nothing's been done about it. User:Wandalstouring has also highlighted some things which need doing, so I suppose I really should get on to it, sometime... (By the way, thanks for "citifying" my ref list.) Gwinva (talk) 22:55, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Sorry I have been more busy on excavation than I expected, but I will until mid-October. Wandalstouring (talk) 14:38, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

OK, I'm back in Germany. The problems of the article are that it doesn't present a worldwide view(a lot about China and the Mongols and India is missing, however, it has been 9 years since I worked on the topic, so it will take me some time to organize the sources) and that there a lot of single sentence paragraphs. I'm still struggling with how to restructure it. Wandalstouring (talk) 08:15, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Whinnies in Warfare

I like some of the Nap war and related age of gunpowder stuff in your sandbox. What say you incorporate it (with extensive footnoting) into appropriate spots in Horses in Warfare,(HIW) particularly to replace that suck-egg Keegan material? (Which I think got placed in HiMA too). It should be kept brief, with a "Main" tag to cavalry perhaps. You toss it in, I'll wordsmith, Ealdgyth and Dana will nail any bad cites. I'm all for getting the HIW article more accurate. Montanabw^(talk) 08:16, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

GA holds and fails

I apologize if it seemed excessively forward of me, I worried about that myself when I started on them. However, my perspective is that the current backlog is wholly unacceptable and that, since clearing of week-old holds is one of (if not the only) way of quickly reducing the backlog that doesn't sacrifice quality for speed, it should be prioritized if we're going to try making any real progress on the workload. Also note that I'm not doing it blindly: when there are remarks about extending the hold time, I leave it on hold, and in a couple cases where I saw that it was the reviewer who was absent rather than the editors, I've passed the article myself.

Whether this is standard practice or not I do not know, as I just got back from a three month break, but "standard practice" for the last month has entailed 3-4 week standard review delays and 200+ GAN backlogs, so I'm not sure the current standard practice is a good idea. It's certainly unfair to the people who rely on GAN for article assessment.

So, again, sorry if I've stepped on any toes, and I'm certainly open to suggestions and guidance from the GAN regulars, but I'm attempting to boldly fix a problem, so I consider a bit of accidental toe-stomping justified as long as nobody gets theirs broken. (I've also gotten far more "thank you"s from happy article nominators than complaints so far.) --erachima talk 00:23, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

No, your tone was just fine. In the future I'll notify the original nominator rather than removing the listing myself. (Which should be easy enough, since the seriously overdue holds have already been taken care of.) --erachima talk 02:55, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you!

Thank you so much for your comments on the wikiquette issue. It was much appreciated and barnstar worthy. You also deserve barnstars for all your history of warfare work, so here is a multiple-purpose barnstar! Montanabw^(talk) 04:07, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

		The Special Barnstar
		For all sorts of nice and helpful things! Montanabw^(talk) 04:07, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

DYK!

On 3 September, 2008, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Marguerite de La Rocque, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

Good job! --I'm an Editor of the wiki^{[citation needed]} 01:03, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

GA Review of 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot

Hi there Gwinva. This is just a courtesy message to tell you that I have reviewed 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot and placed it on a seven day hold. In my opinion you have done really well to bring the article up to such a high level in such a short amount of time, and it just requires a few changes before it can be accepted as a good article. Good luck and keep up the very good work.

Chrisfow (talk) 00:28, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Leeke

No problem - his original ensigncy should be in the Gazette as well, but I haven't been able to trace it. I wasn't sure he'd be in the Clegry Database as his ordination was right at the end of the period which it covers. David Underdown (talk) 11:03, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

The reason the Clergy database doesn't go any later is that then lists such as Crockford's Clerical Directory started to be published (I think the record on Leeke does include some info on his sons anyway). I do have access to some early Crockford's so I could try to look them up if you want. David Underdown (talk) 09:09, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Looking at the Gazette for his ensigncy it's from May 1815, yet we currently say that he joined up in May 1814 and was gazetted almost immediately. Either it wasn't exactly immediate, or it was May 1815 when he joined up... It explains why I didn't track it down, I was searching in May and June 1814! David Underdown (talk) 09:37, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

I trawl throught the DYK submissions from time to time to see if there's anything I can add some value too. David Underdown (talk) 09:39, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

William Leeke

On 13 September, 2008, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article William Leeke, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 14:33, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Re: Welllington College GA

Many thanks for the review, Gwinva. While I doubt that the article will be up to standard within 7 days, your comprehensive recommendations will certainly make it a lot easier to improve the article. It is certainly an article with GA potential in terms of subject matter, but the issues raised do indeed need to be addressed. All the very best. haz (talk) 07:36, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Quote question

hey, thanks for your help! You're not interfering at all; you're helping! Sorry so slow to respond. I teach many classes on M-T-W and none on Th-F, so my mind is a bit distracted during the early weekdays. Ling.Nut ^{(talk—WP:3IAR)} 00:10, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Help

Hi Gwinva

I'm still reading the main sources of early thermal weapons, but will finish it within a few days. Can you help the MILHIST on First Crusade it's a well written FA but lacking references. It's listed for 0.7 inclusion into the CD/DVD version of wikipedia for all the people with no or slow internet. Deadline is 20 October. So I have doubts that anybody but you with your profound knowledge of the Middle Ages is able to provide them within this limited time. Thanks a lot. Greetings Wandalstouring (talk) 11:30, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Hi Gwina (and Wandalstouring), this has been on my to-do list for awhile; it should be easy enough to fix, so I'll try to find some time for it. Adam Bishop (talk) 11:53, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. Wandalstouring (talk) 19:28, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Good haircut

Dumb questions get smart alec responses. Made me laugh. Plasticup ^T/C 03:09, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

New Zealand Climate Science Coalition

Nice work on that article, I didn't expect it to get whipped into shape so quickly. Gamaliel (talk) 16:25, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Medieval art

Hi, Gwinva, Just stopped by to see what nation had grammar schools after elementary (I think I've figured it out:) and wanted to say what a nice picture you have on your user page. It's witty, colorful, clear, and altogether charming. - Nunh-huh 00:33, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Sadly, my guess was more specifically wrong: Wales. Ah, well. My nephew just entered middle school: should we fail to recognize this milestone on the journey to maturity by terming it a grammar school, he would be horribly offended. Now I can just point out that if this were New Zealand, college would be on the horizon. Though, of course, college also seems to mean different things in different places :). As for the picture, I've always liked medieval things, though my interest in their weapons of destruction is clearly less than your own! - Nunh-huh 03:50, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

As long as you're not experimenting with Greek fire in your kitchen, I think we're fine :) - Nunh-huh 04:51, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Graham fix up

I missed both your VP message and your changes to Graham due to other distractions. Just wanted to say thanks. Delicious carbuncle (talk) 12:56, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Notice

Doctor Who Prom

Thanks for reviewing Doctor Who Prom for GA. I've tried to address all your concerns. For a few of them, I wasn't able to find any sources that addressed the issues, and for a few others the sources I found aren't quite the best, but they're better than nothing. Please let me know how you think the article looks now, and whether any of your concerns need further attention. Thanks! —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 07:18, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

I've addressed the niggles. :) —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 23:54, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Gwinva. It was a pleasure working with you too. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 05:08, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

HIW redux

Hello there G! We are running HIW through one more round and with some of the peer review questions, it occurred to me that we may want to think about adding a wee bit on Mounted infantry and/or dragoons to the "Tactics" section...the mounted infantry article says that getting off the horse or out of the chariot to fight has been around a long, long time, but that article has no sources to swipe. I don't think we want to bog down the whole article with a complete history, but a paragraph or so sufficient to warrant its own subheading and a "main" link to the two relevant articles may be useful. Wanna trot over there (pun intended) and take a peek? Montanabw^(talk) 21:54, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

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For your collection

Medieval cuisine. Maybe not warfare, exactly, but took brave people to survive those times! LOL! That said, it's a miracle that ANYONE survived early medicine too! Montanabw^(talk) 21:53, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

Check out this sandboxing

Talk:Horses_in_warfare#Dang.21__Big_gaping_hole_in_article. Need a non-American set of eyes to figure out what's understandable and what's jargon, plus your MilHist background to pick up on what's significant and what just trivia. Especially need verbiage chopping. Any help appreciated. Montanabw^(talk) 01:31, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Added the sandbox at Horses_in_warfare#The_Americas. Tweak away. Based on what I think you were saying, the big deal about the Civil War is that cavalry was used a lot in a time when Europeans were using other types of units more. But the big thing was that I tried to keep it short, seeing as how there is a whole separate (largely unsourced) article on US Cavalry. Montanabw^(talk) 06:51, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Great, I'll have a look when I get more than a moment. I've got a US Cavalry book, so I'll see what I can do with those unhappy cites as well. Gwinva (talk) 09:08, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Just spotted

this. Thank you! --Dweller (talk) 21:35, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

GA Reform

Hi Gwinva - just giving you a heads-up that I'll be picking up the GA reform proposals again in the next week or two, if you're still interested. I've been tied up with copyediting for what seems like forever, but I believe (as we discussed in the Summer) this is worth one more try ;) EyeSerene^talk 10:33, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Unwatched

John Reaves 19:02, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks!

		The Reference Desk Barnstar
		Thank you for contributing to my "greatest" poll on the Reference Desk! --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 05:02, 13 November 2008 (UTC))

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXXII (October 2008)

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This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 00:00, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

GA reform redux

OK, I've spammed the reform page contributors, and left a note at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Good articles/Reform#GA reform redux. We'll see what everyone thinks. EyeSerene^talk 13:30, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

52nd of Foot and Leeke

Hi there Gwinva! I'm sorry that I have been inactive for a couple of months, I am really pleased to see that 52nd of Foot is now a Good Article, you did really well with that. I am also pleased to see that it led you to write an article for Ensign Leeke, he deserves one! Chrisfow (talk) 23:07, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

MC

Thanks for your help and clarification. 05:20, 23 November 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Trekman53 (talk • contribs)

Peter's stuff

Gwinva, A spillover discussion from a different spat with a different user is at User:Montanabw/Peter's Sandbox. Weigh in if you want to, or not. But FYI. Montanabw^(talk) 23:20, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXXIII (November 2008)

The November 2008 issue of the Military history WikiProject newsletter has been published. You may read the newsletter, change the format in which future issues will be delivered to you, or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Thank you.
This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 16:31, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Hello, Gwinva. You have new messages at Rambo's Revenge's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

In The News!

On 9 December, 2008, In the news was updated with a news item that involved the article IWF block of Wikipedia, which you substantially updated. 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.

--Master of Puppets _{Call me MoP! :D} 04:21, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you

"Thanks for expanding those details at New Zealand Climate Science Coalition."

Unfortunately a William Connolley has reverted the lot. That seems somewhat unreasonable to me as Gerrit van der Lingen is a geologist long employed as such by the New Zealand Geological Survey and, as everyone knows, David Bellamy was a Professor of Botany at, I think, Durham University.

Roger Dewhurst (talk) 22:35, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

We need ya!

Gwinva, Need your input at Talk:Horses_in_warfare#Sub-Saharan_Africa You know the 19th century better than any of us. Will you kindly weigh in? We are also threatening to dismantle your "end of the knight" section on transition to modern warfare. Montanabw^(talk) 07:18, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Open reviews update

I've now posted the working group proposal to WT:GAN - your eyes (and input) on its progress would be most welcome. Best regards, EyeSerene^talk 13:09, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Happy New Year

Hi Gwinva. I was hoping to have read the complete works of Mary Faulkner by now, but I guess I'll just have to wait for the right time. I have more than enough to keep me going in the meantime, thankfully. May 2009 be even more magnificent than you dare hope. Cheers. -- JackofOz (talk) 23:25, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

At the risk of sounding derivative, I second that from Jack's and my side of the ditch. All the best Gwinva. May your way be ever illumined in 2009.–_⊥^{¡ɐɔıʇǝo}Noetica!^T– 04:41, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you! Gwinva (talk) 22:56, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Without trawling through my archives (I hardly ever do that, which sometimes makes me wonder why I bother keeping them at all), I seem to recall you saying that you'd got your hands on one book and you were going to be giving me a critique, or something, once you'd finished it. Maybe you did and I've forgotten. In any case, my life thus far has been totally Kathleen-free. I don't lie awake at night wondering what it might be like to have actually read one (or more) of her books. It's more just idle curiosity. So, if you're willing to send me one, I'd appreciate that muchly. I promise to look after it with as much care as she put into her writing of peerless purple prose. I can send you my address via email if you like. Cheers. -- JackofOz (talk) 22:59, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

A wee widdle wiki job

Hey Gwinva, Dana is trying to take her article Suffolk Punch to FA. Do you want to do a quick look over for UK versus US English? My understanding is that they want to use UK English (other than "color" in the Marguerite Henry quote, as she is an American writer) and I know you did a great job of doing that run at HIW. Any other suggestions to help the article would probably be welcomed. I have a lot of work coming up and won't have time to help there as much as I might. Montanabw^(talk) 06:48, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

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This is an archive of past discussions about User:Gwinva. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.