User talk:Dirtlawyer1/Talk Archive: University of Florida

WikiProject University of Florida

• Glad to see you are helping out with Florida Gators and the University of Florida articles. Your work has been a welcome addition and I hope you keep up the good work. Just one thing though: make sure to comply with Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines, and I say this because they can be quite strict. The best rule of thumb is to look at other universities and athletic teams and see how they formatted their articles. Cheers NorwalkJames (talk) 11:27, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, James. As suggested, I will review the Wiki policies applicable to universities and their sports teams. My priorities are doing a complete clean-up of the "Florida Gators" article, followed by re-writes for Florida Gators soccer, Florida Gators softball and their coaches. Can you suggest several of the better examples of college athletic team articles per Wiki standards?

There are sections of the main University of Florida article that need wholesale re-writes, too; I've already done clean-up on the history section, but it still requires authoritative footnotes. I've also done re-writes and expansions for Florida Gators lacrosse, Amanda O'Leary, and Ben Hill Griffin, Jr. I would be grateful if you would review these shorter articles, and tell me what you think.

BTW, my motivation for doing this was my embarrassment at the poor quality of several of these articles, and how they reflected on the university. Is there a more organized UF/Wiki effort behind the scenes, or is it all random volunteers like me? If there is an organized effort, I'd like to sign up for it.

Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 12:02, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

Improving UF Articles

• Here are some good examples for best university articles: University of Pittsburgh, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Virginia, Berkeley, United States Military Academy, and Georgia Institute of Technology

• Here are some good examples for best athletic program articles: USC Trojans, UCLA Bruins

• In terms of a UF/Wiki effort there is the WikiProject University of Florida but sadly it is not very active. New members will get very interested at first and then seem to fade away after alittle while (However we do have a couple who stick around to edit but it is mostly to fix vandalism). Unfortunately we do not have a semi-annual newsletter, no leadership, no officer positions, not enough pictures, and no real overall direction for the project. An overwhelming majority of the articles are still stuck in the stub and start classes. I would be open to any suggestion that you may to building up a broader coalition. NorwalkJames (talk) 23:37, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, James. I will review the suggested articles. For the time being, I guess my part will be to cherry-pick a few neglected articles like the women's sports and coaches I mentioned (it's possible to improve a stub to something semi-respectable within a couple hours), and keep circling back to rewrite the University of Florida and Florida Gators articles section by section. Please check my handiwork from time to time and let me know what you think. BTW, did you see my new SEC Championships table in the Florida Gators article? Now, that's good trivia, with proper footnotes, that crazy Gator fans can use. = ) Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 05:16, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Steve Spurrier

You're doing a yeoman's job on this article! Are you planning on adding an image of Coach Spurrier on the sidelines at Florida? I think the article could really use a photo of him in the place that catapulted him into the ranks of coaching elite. At any rate, keep up the great work! ViperNerd (talk) 20:00, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, ViperNerd. Unfortunately, I have no spectacular digital images of the Evil Genius on the sidelines in the Swamp, but I am in contact with several folks at the University of Florida, and I will add it to my wish list of images that I will ask them to release for Wiki use. I actually have some paid writing work to do this afternoon, so I may take a break from the Spurrier article for a day or so. It still needs footnoted sources for a lot of the Redskins and USC material, and that takes time on the internet to find quality source materials (I try to stay away from fanblogs, etc., even for Wiki sports articles). Please feel free to flyspeck in my absence----it looks like you take some pride of authorship in this article, too. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 20:08, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

I was able to find one single image of Spurrier on Flickr with the appropriate license for use on Wikipedia, so I added it to Commons and then put it in the article. It is a photo of him during his playing days at UF, but I'm not sure who the opponent is. Feel free to add to the caption should you figure it out. Also, you'll notice that I couldn't figure out how to position the image in the "Playing career" section (due to the infoboxes, I guess), but I figured it was more important just to get it in the article. Have a good one! ViperNerd (talk) 20:53, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

External links and ownership

Please see the WP:EL guidelines for the addition of external links, WP:OWN with regard to imposing your own (or WP:UFL's) style and content values on articles (given the notice you left here), and WP:BRD with regard to best practice when all or part your contribution have been reverted.
The links that you are adding to various articles on UFL alumni do not meet WP:EL in that they are not directly related to the subject – see WP:ELNO #13 – and I would ask that you reconsider the value of them in the context of an isolated article. Regards. _wjemather^bigissue 16:45, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

My initial reaction is that external weblinks to (1) the Florida Gators sports teams' official website, (2) the best mainstream press source for Gators sports, (3) the Southeastern Conference official website, (4) the university's athletic department's official website, and (5) the university's official website are directly related to the subject and are useful links to any reader who has more than a passing interest in the subject matter. These are not links to random or disreputable fan sites. In any event, I will discuss it with my colleagues and get back to you. Cheers. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 16:57, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

(keeping discussion where it started) To be clear, a link to a profile or biography of the person or any site would be directly related to the article subject, but a link to somewhere they studied or worked would be indirectly related. As such, the UFL's official site, or any other site related to the UFL, would only indirectly related to the article's subject as it does not specifically concern the person in question, and therefore should not be included. _wjemather^bigissue 17:19, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

I notice most of your references in the Buddy Alexander article are not displaying correctly. In case you are not aware, there are a number of excellent templates available, such as {{cite web}}, to aid with correct formatting of inline citations. Regards. _wjemather^bigissue 21:51, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

Florida Gators golf: code bugs

This help request has been moved from Talk:Florida Gators golf to the user talk page.  Chzz  ►  04:38, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

{{help}}

1. This page has a major malfunction within the drop-down outline menu. It has ceased to work. Help!

2. This page has several malfunctions within the information box, including the failure of the "NCAA Championships" header to appear. Help!

Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 04:25, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Hi. Could you please explain in more detail what is wrong - perhaps link to an old version which 'works'? I have looked at the article, and I don't know what you mean. If you mean the four drop-downs at the end of the article, they seem to be working fine to me. And the information box is displaying the years of the NCAA champ years - is it supposed to do something more?

I have looked at a version from a few days ago, and cannot see anything much different.

Please give more information.

Also, please start to use edit comments. Because you have not done so, it is impossible to tell (in the article history) what type of changed you have made, without analysing each one. Edit comments make these things much easier, that's one of the reasons why they are so important.  Chzz  ►  04:38, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Chzz. Another helpful editor already appeared to fix the info box problem. The other problem is with the Show/Hide function in the "Contents" box. It is permanently stuck in the show/open/drop-down function, and will not hide/condense. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 04:44, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

I've fixed the first problem also. It too was due to Template:Infobox college golf team being incorrectly written, but I won't bore you with the details, unless you really want to know. ∙ AJCham talk 04:59, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Thank you, sir. No details necessary----I'm a scribbler and a wordsmith, not a code writer. I have, however, encountered the same problem on the Florida Gators soccer page. Would you mind taking a look at it, too? I did not create either of these pages, but the malfunctions have been driving me nuts! Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 05:02, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Sorted - exact same problem. ∙ AJCham talk 05:32, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Thank you----Happy to see the surgery was a success, doc. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 11:38, 8 August 2009 (UTC)