Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Scotland/Archive 4

This is an archive of past discussions about Wikipedia:WikiProject Scotland. 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

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Scottish monarchs upheaval?

For quite sometime, the articles relating to the Scottish monarchy (mediveal era, Pictish monarchs etc) were somewhat stable & quiet. But within the last week, editorial struggles have flaired up, including long discussions, Afds, bickering. Who started all this uproar (too lazy to check up all the articles edit histories). Just commenting. GoodDay (talk) 17:14, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Edinburgh Zoo good article nomination

I've nominated the Edinburgh Zoo article for Good Article status. Please feel free to review and comment on the article as it stands, or if you feel you can improve it, please do! 82.18.44.72 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 23:57, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Scottish Heraldry

I wonder if I might canvass editors opinions here on my predicament. I have a website that lists a number of armorials that displays all the Arms officially registered in Scotland for certain surnames. A number of these armorials have been put together with the active support of the relevant clan chief. I did add links to the appropriate page of my site in the various clan's EL section. Unfortunately, I appear to have fallen foul of a "personal website" rule and they were all deleted by one particular admin. Therefore, may I ask editors here if they would consider looking at my site (heraldry-online.org.uk) to see if the information is appropriate for a link. I must stress that there is no commercial aspect to the site. --Heraldic 13:37, 7 January 2008 (UTC)—Preceding unsigned comment added by Heraldic (talk • contribs) 13:37, 7 January 2008

Please do not add links to sites with which you are affiliated, it is considered a conflict of interest. Suggesting such a link on this talkpage is perfectly fine, however it doesn't confer a license to WP:CANVASS multiple articles or editors on their respective talk pages. Some links can be a service to the reader, but they cannot improve the encyclopedia or article itself. Neutrality is an important objective at Wikipedia, Unfortunately the External links policy on Advertising and conflicts of interest states You should avoid linking to a website that you own, maintain or represent, which is in line with the conflict of interest guidelines.--Hu12 (talk) 14:20, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Okay. I will leave it to others to judge whether or not it is of any relevance or interest. --Heraldic 14:44, 7 January 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Heraldic (talk • contribs)

I'm sure others will see that the site can have a place on Wikipedia as a reference. Cheers --Hu12 (talk) 15:06, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

British traditional counties

List of British Traditional Counties is up for deletion if anybody wishes to comment. -- Jza84 · (talk) 00:02, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

I would also welcome input on a number of shuffles of content on the Association of British Counties article, including the addition of list of several external links, some of which being forks of ABC itself (see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Historic Counties Trust). The aformentioned list was found because of changes to this article. -- Jza84 · (talk) 00:20, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (settlements)

Scottish settlements have become an issue at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (settlements) and Talk:Perth, Scotland (attempted moves to Perth, Perth and Kinross). Wide participation is sought. Regards. Deacon of Pndapetzim (Talk) 11:11, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Betacommand bot

This bot is populating Category:Scotland with absurd articles. There have been various complaints left at User talk:Betacommand/20081201#Over-categorization. Its owner seems reluctant to cease for some reason. Ben MacDui ^Talk/Walk 18:55, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Please dont insult me, I am not a bot, and I have not done anything since this issue was brought up. β^_command 18:56, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Well first of all - my apologies. When I saw your user page, I assumed it was the bot that was undertaking these repetitive and apparently pointless tasks. I trust that is the end of the matter. Ben MacDui ^Talk/Walk 19:19, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

If I may, I agree that Betacommand should not restart this activity, but Ben McDui, please do take a bit of time to look into the matter next time. It should have been clear that this was the bot owner (Betacommand) making manual or script-assisted edits on his own account - absolutely nothing to do with the bot. And as Betacommand said, he stopped when someone asked him to. Carcharoth (talk) 00:59, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Fair enough, although I notice no attempt was made by said non-bot to fix the problem. I worked on it for about 45 mins last nite and there is still more to do. Calling someone a 'bot' in error is hardly the height of incivility in the circumstances. Ben MacDui ^Talk/Walk 08:31, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Nairn

I have proposed to split this. See Talk:Nairn#Split. Simply south (talk) 20:54, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Seeing as nobody seemed to object i was bold and went ahead. Can someone correct all the links? New articles are at Nairn (council area) and Nairn, Scotland. Simply south (talk) 02:08, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Duplicate noticeboard?

I confess that I have never really understood the difference between this page and Wikipedia talk:Scottish Wikipedians' notice board and I notice that quite often announcements are posted in both places. Is there any reason why this page could not simply be a re-direct to the latter (or vice versa)? Please comment here. Ben MacDui ^Talk/Walk 08:50, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia talk:Scottish Wikipedians' notice board now redirects here. A minor unexpected glitch is that the archive for that page is only visible in edit mode. I will add a note to Archive 1 for this page. Ben MacDui ^Talk/Walk 21:15, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Historical documents question

This question regards official acts and legal proceedings pertinent to Scotland (but often relevant elsewhere). If anyone can provide information that makes the question irrelevant, that would be ideal.

The reason for the question: I found texts of Acts of Parliament (both Scots and British) on non-commercial websites. I was a little surprised that they weren't on government or other such websites. The texts (not photos or images) should be perpetually available to everyone, for a number of reasons. One way is to upload them to Wikisource for reference in Wikipedia articles. They are significant in Scottish history, and the texts themselves clearly meet the Wikisource inclusion policy.

The ethical and legal problem is in copying them in toto (which is a fair description of such an upload). Can anyone help here? Information and advice is welcome.

Referencing historically important documents (such as official acts and recorded legal proceedings) in an article as part of an editor's synthesis, but without providing the reader with a practical means to check the facts, is not a reference at all, and amounts to a POV (however accurate it may be). Other solutions for this circumstance, such as citing the url, are inferior and do not work for a variety of reasons.

Also, asking source sites for permission one-at-a-time is an exercise in masochism (obviously so) and sadism (receptive website owners must muck through the GFDL before giving permission). This procedure is ineffectual in accomplishing the objective. 24.178.228.14 (talk) 18:20, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

New 'essay' - "Nationality of people from the United Kingdom"

Since the author has decided to keep everyone in the dark, perhaps members of this WikiProject may like to be aware of the existence of this new 'essay':

Wikipedia:Nationality of people from the United Kingdom

I have remarked on the Talk page that I consider it to be borderline bad faith that none of the relevant WikiProjects were notified. --Mais oui! (talk) 07:09, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

WP:UKNATIONALS

Following from an extended discussion at "Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (biographies)" on how people from the United Kingdom should be described ("British", or "English", "[Northern] Irish", "Scottish" or "Welsh"), which did not result in consensus, an essay entitled "Wikipedia:Nationality of people from the United Kingdom" (WP:UKNATIONALS) has been prepared. You're welcome to provide your comments on how it can be improved at the essay's talk page. — Cheers, JackLee ^–talk– 16:50, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Scotland

There's a squabble (again) on that article, concerning wheather nation should be used in the 'lead' or not. GoodDay (talk) 21:03, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Articles on "Acts of the Scottish Parliament"

I'm seeking comments and consensus here ... This list is our list of them. I suggest that any such articles be written in an "atomic" manner: factually and as free of context and discussion as possible. This directly goes to improving the quality of articles that refer to specific acts.

I offer an immediate example of several education acts (of 1496, 1633, 1646, and 1696) where this approach was attempted. These acts can now be referenced by articles with very different perspectives (Education, the Reformation, Presbyterianism, Catholicism, History, etc) and each article can explain these acts within its own context, without having to explain away any conflicting commentary embedded within the referenced acts (because there is no such commentary). Larger articles are simply referencing documented facts, and readers can follow the Wikilinks to see the particulars of each fact and decide for themselves.

These referenced articles are often short, but they are not "stubs". Nor are they ever going to be "featured", nor merit serious mention for their "quality". They are simply basic historical facts that are required by other articles, and without them the referencing articles cannot meet reasonable standards of quality. Any usable categorisation of Parliamentary Acts will have to be done by the people who are interested in specific contexts (Education, the Reformation, etc): attempting to adapt Wikipedia-wide features will ultimately fail, which is useful information in its own right.

By the way, I've been using {{British legislation lists, Acts}} in these mini-articles, rather than {{British legislation lists}}, solely because the longer template drowns out the mini-articles in a fashion worse than the shorter one. Something editor-collapsible would be nice, perhaps as an "overbar", whereas most navigation templates are used as "underbars". Regards, Notuncurious (talk) 22:53, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Everyone's favourite topic returns

See Wikipedia:Village_pump (proposals)#British, collective for English-Welsh-Scottish-Northern Irish for the unwelcome return of a perennial topic. Leith p 15:43, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Scotland article now fully protected - why?

Just so that everyone knows, late last night the Scotland article was fully protected. For zero reason, as far as I can see. An awful lot of wildly uninformed "discussion" is taking place at Talk, so I think it wise if some editors who actually do know their constitutional arse from their history elbow got involved. We will never get this article up to Featured status unless the editors who really care about the topics get involved. --Mais oui! (talk) 06:56, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Dearie, dearie me. So, this is the User whose repeated edits against consensus & discussion were reverted, thus causing the full protection of the Scotland article:

Special:Contributions/Malarious

That speaks absolute volumes about the disgraceful state of Wikipedia. --Mais oui! (talk) 08:41, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Scots finds home on gey muckle website

Since the Scottish Wikipedians' Noticeboard seems to now be a redirect, I must post this trivia here instead (this is note really what WikiProjects are for, is it?)

The Scots language version of Wikipedia gets a (rather bizarelly written) write up in SoS:

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/Scots-finds-home-on-gey.3809981.jp

--Mais oui! (talk) 08:46, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Date of formation of the United Kingdom?

After much debate, the editors of the United Kingdom article seem to have settled on 1707 as being the foundation of the state (I note with concern though that this date lacks any external referencing, per official Wikipedia policy WP:VERIFY).

But this article - List of countries by formation dates - claims that the UK was actually founded in 1603 (again, completely unreferenced). Both articles cannot be correct, so which is it? Please come to the party armed with some proper external refs, because I am not sure if we can stomach yet another verbally diarrhetic Talk page splurge with largely consists of ad hominem attacks and statements of totally unsourced opinion. --Mais oui! (talk) 23:34, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

I suppose the UK parliament site might be authoritative enough. See:

Act of Union 1707 --Heraldic (talk) 12:19, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

The situation is far worse on the List of countries by formation dates now than when Mais Oui first brought this to attention. ATM a preposterous version which has the United Kingdom founded by Athelstan of England in 927 is being enforced by User:TharkunColl (who also thinks that Carausius, a 3rd century Roman is apparently another reasonable choice) and User:UKPhoenix79 on the basis that he called himself "King of all Britain". I thought id seen it all when it came to shameless nonsense on wikipedia but this is a new low. siarach (talk) 17:36, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

I think it is a pretty controversial list. For example, Japan didn't come into existence when the democratic constitution was written, or the UK when it lost most of Ireland. --MacRusgail (talk) 18:59, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

AfD nom

Forensic Network (AfD discussion)

FYI, there's opportunity for discussion of an AfD nom article regarding a Scottish NHS forensic mental health organization. Coffee4me (talk) 09:14, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Merge proposal perhaps of interest

It has been proposed that List of English monarchs and List of British monarchs be merged and then renamed, or something. See Talk:List of British monarchs. Angus McLellan (Talk) 18:36, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Neilston

Recent nomination by Jza84. Some of you probably have good knowledge of stuff in that article, so I thought I'd bring this FA nomination to your attention. Deacon of Pndapetzim (Talk) 15:12, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Now that it's an FA (yippie!), anybody willing to do a Scots and Gaelic translation on interwiki? -- Jza84 · (talk) 20:58, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

An excellent upgrade to the page. The FA is well deserved and hopefully it'll provide a guideline for the renovation of similar pages.--Breadandcheese (talk) 14:36, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

I made quite a big update [1] to the Coatbridge article, in June 2008, based on the excellent Neilston FA. I also explained myself on the talk page. I was trying to stir up some interest in my home town. I was convinced there'd be people out there who could write about Coatbridge's extensive industrial past. But, alas! I didn't even receive any complaints! Is there any way of finding out how many people have an article on their watchlist? I'm not asking for their names, just the number.--ML5 (talk) 14:08, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

WP:DYK nomination - Trinity College Kirk

I have self-nominated the new Trinity College Kirk article at Template talk:Did you know - see 7 March. I would greatly appreciate it if editors with some WP:DYK experience (I have none!) would review the article and/or the nomination. Cheers. --Mais oui! (talk) 11:01, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

The lamentable List of Scots

The article needs to have non-Scots removed. Neither Robert Montgomery nor Viscount Montgomery even claimed Scottish ancestry, and never set foot in Scotland, as far as I can tell; they could easily be considered Irish, and the viscount considered himself such. Douglas MacArthur was not "from Scotland", nor was his father. There are many more ridiculous entries on that list. As it stands now, it is rubbish. Chris the speller (talk) 16:35, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Douglas MacArthur should appear on the List_of_Scottish_Americans. His family obviously felt Scottish enough to give him "Douglas" as a first name though. --MacRusgail (talk) 18:56, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Byron and Scotland

The article on Byron is typically anglocentric. There is relatively about his Scottish background, and the musical settings section doesn't even mention Lochnagar - a famous folk song sung by the Corries, and many many others. --MacRusgail (talk) 18:54, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Talk:Alexandria, Virginia

Another one of the Scotland versus England flags things. Debate is whether Dundee, as a twin town, should have a saltire or union jack next to it in the sister city section, or Scotland versus UK. Same ole same ole, just bringing it to attention as its protection expires tomorrow and it looks still like it will need more input. Regards, Deacon of Pndapetzim (Talk) 16:53, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Centralized discussion/Country of birth

Similar discussion, probably would benefit with input by members of this wikiproject. Deacon of Pndapetzim (Talk) 18:22, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Maps for the constituent countries in the UK

I have created the above maps. I hope you all don't mind that I was WP:BOLD and added them to the relative articles myself. I really don't want to create any edit wars I just want to see what others think and hopefully bring this to a nice consensus on what to use. I hate the idea that other countries seam to be more organized then us with these things, so I hope you think the new one looks professional... I'm actually kinda pleased :-) Please voice your opinion over at Talk:Scotland#Straw_Poll I know I'd personally love to hear your opinions! Thanks -- UKPhoenix79 (talk) 05:14, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Anyone fancy doing a copyedit?

Walter de Coventre is on editorial review and apparently needs a copyedit (from someone other than me). Any help would be gree-ate! Regards, Deacon of Pndapetzim (Talk) 11:52, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to help but I have been too busy putting our banner on important encyclopedic articles with a genuine relevance to modern life, such as Deep-fried Mars Bar : ) Ben MacDui ^Talk/Walk 17:50, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

First Minister of Scotland

Part of the Her Majesty's Government apparently [2] --Barryob (Contribs) (Talk) 13:29, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

NOTE! This is a fairly urgent item, not one to dither over. On this page I have initiated an article to become an interview with the First Minister. Yes, I had a call from the Scottish Parliament saying they'd help arrange it. What I need is help on questions to put to Alex Salmond. --Brian McNeil /^talk 16:22, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Museums in Scotland

Could I ask for some help accessing local knowledge, from members of this wikiproject, on the behalf of the new WikiProject Museums? We are currently trying to identify articles within the Museum projects scope (& develop guidelines to help improve them etc). There is a List of museums in Scotland. Could you take a look at the list for your local area and see if any are missing or create articles for any red links. Could you also add the new project banner "{{WikiProject Museums}}" to the Talk pages of the articles, so that we can identify those in need of work etc. Any help appreciated &, if anyone is interested you are welcome to join the project or discuss Museum related articles on the Project Talk Page.— Rod ^talk 13:39, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Map of Edinburgh

I had not read the Edinburgh article in a while, so surfed in there yesterday. I was mightily dismayed to see a map in the infobox of the city council area! Do people not realise that Wikipedia is a global resource? Readers need to be informed as to where Edinburgh is located, not be shown an in-close map of a tiny part of Scotland!

I asked on the Talk page where on earth the map showing Edinburgh's location in Scotland (the country of which it is the capital) had gone, but instead of a response, the now typical British nationalist WP:POINT was made, and hej presto, a map of the flippin UK magically appears, yet again.

We used to have Template:Infobox Scotland place. In my opinion it is high time this WikiProject restored it. None of our then-active WikiProject Scotland members supported its deletion (see Wikipedia:Templates for deletion/Log/2007 March 18/Template:Infobox England place).

I have done a quick survey of the use of the Infoboxes in cities in the Yookay. Here are my findings (to get a reasonable sample I used the links in City status in the United Kingdom):

Template:Infobox UK place - all 6 cities in Scotland - all 5 cities in N Ireland - Wales: Bangor and St David's - England: Bath, Chichester, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Lichfield,

Template:Infobox Settlement - Wales: Cardiff and Newport - England: London, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Coventry, Derby, Hull, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester

Infobox UK district - Bradford, Carlisle, Chester, Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Lincoln,

No Infobox template whatsoever (coded straight on to the article) - Wales: Swansea - England: Brighton & Hove, Canterbury,

I got bored after "M" in the England list so please feel free to complete the survey...

It was blatantly apparent at the time of the UK place railroading that English &/or British nationalist Wikipedians were determined to gain control of the key Infobox under WikiProject Scotland. Just look at the changes they have made: they were desperately keen to cut out the Saltire they moment they "won" the deletion of our template. Now that they have full control over the Infobox on Scottish articles, they don't even bother using their creation on more than half the English articles! You could not make it up.

The Northern Ireland articles were the very last to have the UK place template imposed on them, replacing Ireland place - yet another victory for the currently ultra-active British nationalist contingent.

So, Edinburgh has UK place infobox, but not London or Cardiff. Go figure! And just have a wee look at the maps too.

Let's scrap this UK place template farce and either recreate Scotland place or use Infobox Settlement. Either way, we must not allow this WikiProject to be bullied like this again. It was one of the most disgraceful bits of behaviour I have witnessed here at Wikipedia. --Mais oui! (talk) 20:04, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

A Scottish infobox would be best - what do other countries with constituent nations do? MRM (talk) 20:17, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Selkirk & Tibby Timpson

Somebody want to lend a hand to a new editor re the Tibby Timpson article? I'm currently assuming good faith that the article is genuine! It certainly needs to address WP:V and WP:CITE. Thanks/wangi (talk) 00:17, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

For whoever picks it up, a quick-search at google found nothing related to "Tibby Timpson" and Selkirk, but several references to "Tibby Tamson" and Selkirk, mostly saying she committed suicide after being accused of theft. I don't know anything about her notability. Regards, Notuncurious (talk) 02:20, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Its now at Tibbie Tamson. I'm keeping an eye on it as an anon IP is adding lots of potentially unverifiable information. I've asked them for more references, as there's not much out there. Jonathan Oldenbuck (talk) 08:42, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Counties move

Is this an acceptable move: List of pre-1975 counties of Scotland > List of counties of Scotland? Seems to me this is just another attempt to reinstate the "historic counties" and refer to them in the present tense. Enaidmawr (talk) 21:51, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Edinburgh Rugby Peer Review

Hello all, I was wondering if someone could take a gander over Edinburgh Rugby for peer review? I'm trying to improve the article between Uni exam revision, I've added some more info and improved the referencing but, given I've been a registered user for little more than 2 weeks, I could use the input of more experienced editors. Cheers! PeemJim86 (talk · contribs)

PeemJim86 (talk) 23:07, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

George Thomas Beilby

I called him british ,but born in Edinburgh makes him a subject of your project I think! So please have a look!--Stone (talk) 08:26, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Villages in Blah

I've started looking through Category:Villages in Aberdeenshire (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs). Oh dearie me! We have places like Arthrath Geograph and Ardallie Geograph and so on. Can anyone come up with a reason not to mercilessly prod these non-villages? Angus McLellan (Talk) 20:14, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Yep, same in Moray and got nowhere when I tried to get deletion. Going back soon to get them eradicated (I hope).r Suspect that the phantom villages are everywhere. -Bill Reid | Talk 20:25, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, they may come up from time to time. Maybe some footballer was born in one, so there'll be a red link. Fill that link and then it's "why Balnacripple but not Balnablane" or whatnot. A redirect to an article Villages in Aberdeenshire might work, though no such article appears to exist. Deacon of Pndapetzim (Talk) 20:28, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

They're usually by a small number of editors and not the result of the overenthusiastic filling in of red links in that they are often poor little orphans. Neither were the previous ones deleted via prod and/or afd. If I had to guess, I'd think that they come from a gazetteer and/or poring over a map. A map seems more likely in some cases, e.g. Add, Argyll and Bute (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) only made sense to me as a map-reading error. I've been plodding through Yorkshire villages as well, and very few of those are non-places. Some are half a dozen houses, but I've taken that to be above the lower bounds of village-ness or hamlet-itude. Where there's a sizable place nearby a redirect is no problem, but for isolated places this is not viable. Angus McLellan (Talk) 21:13, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Hilton, Argyll and Bute was deleted successfully, although Hilton, Orkney is still there. (In the latter case I changed 'village' to 'farm' and left an invisible note saying "Note to editors: Hilton on Shapinsay is not a village by any reasonable definition. The OS Gazetteer is extremely unreliable as a reference for Scottish settlements in this regard" as I couldn't be bothered prodding it.) An Clachan was deleted and Biruaslum was successfully converted to an island (if a rather less-than-highly-notable one), so progress is possible. I fear there are no few in Shetland. In short, no I can't think of a reason not to prod non-villages, although changing 'village' to 'farm' is easier as a first step. Maybe we should have a weekly 'prod'. Ben MacDui ^Talk/Walk 21:44, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Achnacloich, Isle of Skye is one a of a number of new ones. I've prodded it. Altvaid, Achnahanaid etc. etc. are other candidates. Ben Mac Dui 07:25, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Another selection has recently been added, including both Achnaluachrach, and Achnaluacharch. Either or both of which may be "crap", by the creator's own admission. See User_talk:Scope_creep#Achnaluachrach.2C_and_Achnaluacharch and User_talk:Jonathan_Oldenbuck#Achnaluacharch for discussion. Jonathan Oldenbuck (talk) 15:47, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

I've prodded them both. I re-directed Achnahanaid but it just re-appeared, so I prodded that too. It's possible some are cleared villages per A' Chill. Ben Mac Dui 16:42, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

The prod's already been removed from Achnaluachrach - which amounts to six houses and a hotel so far as I can see. Ideally it would be a redirect to Roybridge, which paradoxically is notable enough to be created but does not yet exist. Ben Mac Dui 17:00, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Achnaluachrach, Sutherland now created. Ben Mac Dui 18:49, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Flower of Scotland

No, not yet another politically motivated edit war. I had been annoyed for some time that Fauna of Scotland was a lonely sight without its cousin, Flora of Scotland. Realising that I lack the basic knowledge to make a really decent attempt at the latter I produced a start using some info from 'Fauna' a few days ago. MacRusgail has added some further material, but it could do with a lot more input on both structure and content, be it from botanists, or simply those with local knowledge. As you can see from the 'Europe' template the are very few articles of this nature - I fear the scope is large and it may be difficult to avoid it becoming a series of anecdotes. Ben MacDui ^Talk/Walk 08:01, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

If mere annoyance results in a well-started article with 46 in-line citations, one shudders to think of the consequences of righteous outrage :-) ... its a nice start for someone. Regards, Notuncurious (talk) 21:28, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

Most of them were borrowed, but thank-you. Ben MacDui ^Talk/Walk 21:45, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Anglo-Saxon takeover of Scotland

Did you know that the Anglo-Saxons took over Scotland? I wasn't aware of the fact either until I saw the title of this article. I'm suggesting it be renamed. Comments/suggestions welcome on its talk page. Enaidmawr (talk) 23:17, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Frivolous Award

We Scots generally eschew unnecessary outbursts of public exuberance and often refrain from the practice of handing out 'Barnstars' (whatever they are) to one another. However, some sections of the international community of Wikipedians clearly enjoy what others might see as effusiveness. With this in mind I recently thanked a number of helpful editors with the following message, invented for the purpose. Please excuse my boldness in this regard. It is designed to thank not ourselves, but rather others who offer us assistance. Please feel free to borrow or amend it. I can't help thinking there must be one we could use for ourselves with a dour comment and a photo of a notorious figure of gloom from Scottish history - perhaps commiserating with one another on occasions of misfortune. Ben MacDui ^Talk/Walk 11:59, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

File:Neanderthal 2D.jpg		The WikiProject Scotland Award of Excellence
		This award is given with many thanks to X for assistance in helping Timeline of prehistoric Scotland to become a Featured List from Ben MacDui, 4 May 2008.

Traditional British counties

Hello team,

Just thought I'd bring to the attention of the project the work by User:Yorkshirian - a traditional British counties advocate. Various shuffles on Yorkshire, WP:PLACE and WP:UKCOUNTIES. Input welcome. --Jza84 | Talk 23:39, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Arran High School

Arran High School has just appeared - it's a poorly written uncategorised article by a new User. I am aware that there is a fairly high tolerance for school articles, but in its current state it is a Speedy or PROD candidate. Could someone with some previous in secondary education take a look at it please? It is salvageable if someone has the inclination. Ben MacDui ^Talk/Walk 09:57, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

There you go. Schools are, as far as I can see, inherently non-notable, but they almost never get deleted.... Jonathan Oldenbuck (talk)

Motto

An interesting point has been raised at Talk:Scotland#Motto regarding the "Motto of Scotland". It's from an IP, but he/shaw appears rather informed on the matter. Input welcome. --Jza84 | Talk 11:50, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

An Invitation from the Philippine Wikipedia Community

Hello folks,

The Philippine Wikipedia Community will be holding its 1st Meet-up in Cebu City (the fourth one in the Philippines) on June 23-24, 2008. This coincides with the first Philippine Open Source Summit, also to be held in Cebu. The Philippine Wikipedia Community is an Implementing Partner of the Open Source Summit. We invite you to join us in this event. If you are in the IT or IT-enabled services industry, this would be a great opportunity to meet people from the 4th best outsourcing city in the world. This is also a good excuse to visit our beautiful beaches :)

If you're interested in joining the Wikipedia meet-up, please join our discussion. You can register for the Open Source Summit here. If you would like some assistance with local accomodations, you may email User:Bentong Isles.

The Philippine Wikipedia Community
WP:PINOY

Urgent: Upcoming interview with Alex Salmond

Please refer to the stories in development over on Wikinews for an upcoming interview with Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond. You only have a few days to get questions in. --Brian McNeil /^talk 16:27, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Govan

Just a quick question: prior to amalgamation with Glasgow, was Govan part of Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire or both? I'm struggling working it out myself. Answers welcome at Talk:Govan or my talk. Thanks, --Jza84 | Talk 23:32, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Highland dress

I have posted a comment that Scottish apparel should be changed back to Highland dress. I suspect members of this project might be interested in weighing in on that conversation. - PKM (talk) 19:37, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Question on criteria for an article being part of this project

I am working on a article Death of a Gossip, which is a novel by Scottish author Marion Chesney, set in the fictional town of Lochdubh, Scotland. Should an article like this be part of this project? Thanks in advance. --Captain-tucker (talk) 11:41, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

It certainly falls under the scope. I'll add the project banner to the talk page. Thanks for letting us know. Ben MacDui ^Talk/Walk 11:49, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Adam Smith featured article drive

As a means of focusing WikiProject Economics, we chose Adam Smith as the target of our recent featured article drive. Adam Smith is also important to WikiProject Scotland, and the article is included in Wikipedia:Version 0.7, so I imagine some people here might want to join in. Myself and a group of editors have been working hard to add content and references, and any help would be wonderful. Check out WT:ECON or Talk:Adam Smith for more details. Thanks! -FrankTobia (talk) 17:16, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Draft Guidelines for Lists of companies by country - Feedback Requested

Within WikiProject Companies I am trying to establish guidelines for all Lists of companies by country, the implementation of which would hopefully ensure a minimum quality standard and level of consistency across all of these related but currently disparate articles. The ultimate goal is the improvement of these articles to Featured List status. As a WikiProject that currently has one of these lists within your scope, I would really appreciate your feedback! You can find the draft guidelines here. Thanks for your help as we look to build consensus and improve Wikipedia! - Richc80 (talk) 14:02, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

BMK

The entry on this company is being considered for deletion as 'non notable'. I think anyone with any knowledge of Scottish industry will know that BMK were a major company, some help in bringing this article up to a decent standard might help. The article originator tended to concentrate on speculation and what is in the site today, I've started some cleanup. Maybe try and establish the original link with the Blackwood Brothers factory that still exists in Kilmarnock, and the overall original ownership by Stoddards. Douglasnicol (talk) 18:07, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Paisley Witch Trials

Just wondered if anybody is willing and able to put something together for a Paisley witch trials article. There is a nice "English" equivalent article in the form of the Pendle witch trials. I think Scotland's most famous witch trial deserves a mention in the encyclopedia somewhere. --Jza84 | Talk 13:10, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Apart from whatever can be dug up in local histories, there's something in History Scotland, vol. 7, no. 5, which would do for a start. There's also an article in Brown & Ferguson (eds), Twisted Sisters (East Linton: Tuckwell, 2002) and another in Lavack (ed) 'New Perspectives on Witchcraft ..., volume III (New York: Routledge, 2001). The RHS Bibliography is handy for finding stuff. Angus McLellan (Talk) 18:20, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Legends of Scotland

I have created Legends of Scotland, a page requested on the Project page. I am still working on adding more contents. In the meanwhile, it has been tagged as a speedy delete. Please review the position, and kindly give your opinion/ remove the speedy delete tag, if possible. Regards. --Bhadani (talk) 06:00, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

Since deleted. Fine. Please do not worry now. --Bhadani (talk) 06:31, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

Perth

That old chestnut about whether Perth should be a disambiguation page or a redirect to Perth, Western Australia has reared its ugly head again; see Talk:Perth. Hesperian 13:52, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

Forewick Holm

Current press coverage is drawing attention to risible goings-on at Forewick Holm, a tiny islet in Shetland. Mr. Stuart Hall, sole resident, has claimed independence from the UK. A new web site has now appeared claiming to represent the real owners who hail from Cape Verde. Worth a watch. Ben MacDui ^Talk/Walk 07:50, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Sure enough, Crown Dependency of Forvik has popped up. I feel a merge coming on? Jonathan Oldenbuck (talk) 10:24, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

I think so too. :-) --Jza84 | Talk 11:24, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Agreed. Ben MacDui ^Talk/Walk 21:04, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia: Mediation Cabal/Cases/2008-06-22 United Kingdom

Hope ya'll can give us some input. GoodDay (talk) 21:03, 29 June 2008 (UTC)