User talk:Ben MacDui/Archive 2

Dancing Ladies

I'm not sure that your edit of the Gigha article does what you intended. I agree that Gigha does not have a grid network. I believe the reference to the central grid was intended to refer to the mainland grid. It was possibly badly phrased, but I certainly read it that way. I presume the objective of the "dancing ladies" is to remove or reduce that dependence. I further presume that Gigha presently has supply from grid on the mainland, and the opportunity to sell power back to the grid? I've not been to Gigha or Raasay, but have visited all the other Hebrides reachable by car ferry and all have had access to mains supply from the grid.--Shoka 20:52, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I do not have a proper reference to hand, but my understanding is that the turbines are wholly dependent on the 'external' grid, and that if there was a failure of the supply they are fitted with equipment that would switch them off. Nor is there any meaningful island owned grid. The turbines produce power and sell this to a third party. None of the power produced is sold on the island as such, which the current edit still suggests. The turbines may reduce the island's economic dependence on mainland suppliers, but I very much doubt that it in any way removes the island's dependence on a functional national grid. It's not so much that they have 'the opportunity to sell power back to the grid' as that this is what happens willy-nilly. I will see if I can find some reasonable evidence of this and look at the article again. Ben MacDui (Talk) 22:54, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

That section of the article is now much clearer, and the original did indeed mislead. Thanks --Shoka 23:29, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Re:Blood Red Sandman

Hi, yes I must admit that it is pretty frustrating. However, before I have even had a proper chance, Inkpaduta has managed to establish notability for the songs, so they will most likely be kept, and at this rate I may not have to weigh in at AfD at all. Thanks for making contact, Blood Red Sandman Open Up Your Heart - Receive My EviLove 19:07, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Good news. Whilst I don't think I am yet ready to receive your (or indeed anyone else's) 'evil love' I will amend my listening in support. More on WP:SCOTLAND on the morrow. Ben MacDui (Talk) 20:51, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Hehe, to be honest I'd rather it ws received here anyway ;-) - Will check WP:SCOTLAND tomorrow, though. Blood Red Sandman Open Up Your Heart - Receive My EviLove 22:12, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Ah - my (current) favourite chanteuse is here. Now, on a more serious matters, I notice that some folk have taken to leaving duplicate messages on both WP:SCOTLAND and WP:SCOWNB talk pages. There also seems to be other duplication e.g. listing Good Articles on both. Is there any written protocol which would attempt to create a clear distinction that you are aware of? Ben MacDui (Talk) 10:19, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

I was on the verge of saying that I wasn't aware of much going on over at WP:SCOWNB, until I realised that I had somehow managed to remove it from my watchlist... Other than a bit of common sense, I don't think (to the best of my knowledge) any such project/noticeboard combination has such written rules regarding posting, but it's probably about time something got done about that. Blood Red Sandman Open Up Your Heart - Receive My EviLove 10:32, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks for your message. Unfortuantely the article has been drowning in vandalism for most of the day, with every wee troll and POV-pusher coming out of the woodwork - never mind ;-) Globaltraveller 19:16, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Indeed, all things must pass. They will move on in a little while. Ben MacDui (Talk) 20:46, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Peer Review

Hi Ben, Congrats on the two GAs! I read Fauna of Scotland back when it was in DYK and think it is a fine article and could be a WP:FA with a little work. I ran the Peer Review script on it twice, the first time I just did the corrections and the second time I pasted it into your sandbox. Do you want me to also read it and make suggestions? Hope this helps, Ruhrfisch 02:34, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

• I read all three articles again just now (Fauna of Scotland, Mingulay, and Flannan Isles) and think all three have the potential to be Featured Articles. They are all well written, fairly well referenced, have many free images, and are interesting. Since I am not an expert on any of the topics, someone who is may have issues with them that I am unaware of, but I think they are fine and near FA already. (By the way, there is a problem sentence in the Wildlife section in Flannan: "From the late Middle Ages on that Lewismen regularly raided these nests for eggs, birds and feathers." - it makes sense if you remove the "that" but I am not sure that is what you want it to say.)

  Anyway, the obvious things I can see for them are fairly minor. The lead paragraphs need to be an accurate summary of the whole article (so all headers and subheaders need to at least be mentioned in the lead). Also headers are not supposed to repeat the name of the article, so "Visiting Mingulay" could be just "Visiting" or perhaps "Visiting the island" (though I think italicizing Mingulay Boat Song to show it is a title would likely be OK). There are whole paragraphs without a reference - my guess is that one ref applies to several paragraphs in these cases, but that could be an issue.

  So if you want to try for FA I would pick one (Mingulay would be my choice) and get it peer reviewed first. I would also look at WP:FAC to see what criteria are being looked at there, as well as looking at recently featured articles here. I would also try to find articles that are featured as models for yours. Once you have had a peer review and addressed all the issues raised in it, plus a good idea of what is expected and some time to devote to it, I would go for FA. What you learn from one can be applied to the next one. Let me know and I will look more closely at whatever you want. Hope this helps, Ruhrfisch 03:18, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Congrats

		The Original Barnstar
		For the great new article Renewable energy in Scotland, respect to you Mr Munro :) sbandrews 17:16, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to second that, and suggest that you propose it as a future 'selected article' on Scotland portal too. Or, since Scotland is leading the way on renewables in the UK, perhaps on the UK portal? Gralo 01:25, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Thank-you both for your kind comments. Pardon my lack of knowledge here, but I am not sure either what this entails, or how to go about it. Can you direct me to a recent example or two? I had a quick look at the UK portal and I wasn't sure where to go from there. Ben MacDui (Talk) 19:46, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

• I have to say that this is one of the best DYKs I have seen in the recent times. Have you considered passing it through WP:FAC/WP:GA anytime soon? :) - Cheers, Mailer Diablo 16:10, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
  • Thank-you! I hope to get it through GA sometime in the reasonably near future. Not sure about WP:FAC, which seems to result in high levels of vandalism, but your encouragement is appreciated. Ben MacDui (Talk) 08:46, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

David I questions

Annat(s) is right enough, same as annates. I have no idea what the Anglo-English for infeftment is. The Dictionary of the Scots Language doesn't give one. All the best, Angus McLellan (Talk) 13:40, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

A good Sabbath morn to you Calgacus.

Good evening to you too.

Firstly, I accept your claims about Image:SCOTLANG1100.PNG but I couldn't help wondering about its provenance. Is it from an old text book? Are there rules about using images from old books? If so I might have a few (non-historical) ones that could be useful. Secondly, I think it would be helpful to have some kind of 'family tree' to refer to. However, as I don't know how to create an image of one, I didn't want to burden you with it.

It has been a long time since that map was produced, be assured though that it was not a scan. You can use maps from old books as long as they are old enough to have had their copyright expired under US and Florida law. You can see WP:Copyright for details.

Forgive my almost total lack of historical knowledge. "Saint Margaret, a myth" You seem to be making an unequivocal statement that the idea of Lallans culture having its origins from this marriage is a 'myth'. It is not clear if the source in footnote 95 promotes or denies the 'myth'. I was mildly curious.

It's a reference to growth of myths about St. Margaret and Máel Coluim in the later middle ages. The Boardman article has details, such many prominent Lowland families tracing their origin to Saxon or Normans who came to Scotland as followers of either St Margeret or Máel Coluim. Wikipedia doesn't have much info on this kind of thing atm, but like - though not real - examples are Sholto Douglas and Fleance. As that article shows, these myths follow a trend, and since Máel Coluim didn't come from England and most of these families can be shown to have later origins, I find it difficult to see why "myth" could be controversial. It is typical of medieval and "pre-modern" people everywhere to explain historical change or origins by assigning roles to "Great Figures" ... e.g. the Normans and Welsh explained the different countries of Britain with the myth of "the sons of Brutus" - e.g. Brutus (the Briton) had three sons, Locrinus ("England", from Loegr, Welsh for England), Kamber ("Wales", from word for Wales) and Albanactus ("Scotland", from Albanach, "Scotsman"). Similarly, in the later middle ages, Andrew Wyntoun explains the descent of the Scottish kings as "kings "from Adam through the Irishry" and adds that before the marriage of Máel Coluim to Margaret, "Saxonys and the Scottys blude, [were] in natyownys twa before than". Of course both are "myths" ... myths in the sense of being explanatory tales and well as being scientifically unsatisfactory.

I note that you do not mention which languages David himself may have spoken. "his kingship became more Celtic" hints at interesting complexities here, but let us discuss this on another and more leisurely occasion.

No I don't, because it would be pointless. He must have spoken Gaelic and French, he almost certainly knew English and most probably was decently literate in Latin. Maybe he knew Cumbric too, who knows; maybe he knew Norse.

I made a tactless comment about "native Scottish language", which on reflection I amended. I think you are perhaps being unkind to the purveyors of 'Scottish English'?

Do you think so? I have to admit that I find it awkward to find correct terminology when writing about this period. "Scotland" almost never means what we think of it as, it refers rather to Scotland north of the Firth of Forth - hence I often adopt "Scotland-proper". A concept like "Scottish English" would have been entirely incomprehensible in David's day (and for centuries to come)... it would either be "Scottish" or "English", which is what these sources mean when they say that the Forth "separates the Scots from the English", even though the dominion of the Scottish king stretched across that boundary. You get used to it if you do a lot of reading of contemporary sources, but that doesn't make it easy to write in a forum like wikipedia.

Shouldn't David: The King Who Made Scotland be a primary source?

No, why? It is a work by a modern historian, see Secondary source.

The "Hagiography of Exoticism" - where can I buy a copy!?

Hah. I just printed it off the relevant article from a copy in my university library. You'd have to shell out here or here. Best regards, Calgacus (ΚΑΛΓΑΚΟΣ) 21:59, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Many thanks for your patient replies. At $90 a shy I shall just have to seek the exotic elsewhere. Ben MacDui (Talk) 19:36, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Portal:Scotland

I think this is what you want:

• Portal:Scotland/Featured article --Mais oui! 20:28, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Gotcha. I wondered what this was but the appearance of Bud pre-dates my own. So how would a new one be selected to appear? What would happen next? Is it an encouragement to improve the selected article or more of an honorific? Where can I find out instead of asking more silly questions? Ben MacDui (Talk) 20:48, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

WP:BE BOLD - just archive the current one and bung up the new one. Ta. --Mais oui! 20:56, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

I took a look at the history of Portal:Scotland/Featured article, it has been up at least since September last year, probably longer, so there's no issue with you replacing it - go for it :) Gralo maintains the Energy portal very well, a good place to see how a portal works. More comprehensive portal info is found at Wikipedia:Portal, enjoy sbandrews 21:28, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

DYK

On 21 February, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Renewable energy in Scotland, 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.

--Yomangani^talk 13:14, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Good Article

I noticed your excellent article on renewable energy. If you have the time could you review World energy resources and consumption? It is on the GA list in the same section as your article and you would make a very competent reviewer. The Skeptical Optimist 00:47, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

It is kind of you to say so. I will certainly take a look at it. Ben MacDui (Talk) 18:23, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

MITGeek passed the World Energy article as a good article last week. I hope the article will be featured, do you think it is ready for that at this point? The Skeptical Optimist 15:43, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

I certainly think it is a credible idea. I will try and make time to put some suggestions together soon. I am a bit stretched at present. Ben MacDui (Talk) 19:13, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your help, I look forward to your input. The Skeptical Optimist 19:38, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Bealach a Choin Ghlais

I would definately say refers to more than one dog. siarach 00:29, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Re: 66.14.16.160

66.14.16.160 could be a static IP, used by only one person, or a shared IP, used by many people. Without any evidence of one or the other it is difficult to tell if the current user is even aware of previous warnings. I might have blocked the IP anyway if vandalism was ongoing, but by the time you posted to AIV it had been over two hours since that IP's last edit. Blocking is mainly a preventative measure, so it's pretty useless to temporarily (24-48 hrs) block an IP when it appears to edit only every couple of weeks. ˉˉ^anetode╦╩ 20:07, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Spring cleaning

Mmmm.... yeah.... sorry about that!!

I have a bad (sometimes good) habit of starting things, but then losing interest! It was me that initiated the noticeboard, the portal, and the WikiProject. WP:SCOWNB took a while to find its feet, but once it had, I personally stopped acting as its informal "manager". This meant that I stopped archiving and cleaning it up. Of course I should have asked for helpers, but I have the attention span of a flea, so just forgot about it. It needs a serious cleanout/tidy/archiving!

The WikiProject is in its infancy, but it is really the more powerful tool for driving up the quality of key articles and sets of articles. But it too needs a "Manager" or a small management team.

Finally, the Portal. It is a great tool for visitors to help them navigate. Cactusman and me did a lot in the beginning, but it too needs some keen folk to drive it forward, hopefully up to Featured portal status.

I am quite a good entrepreneur, but like many of that ilk I find actually growing/managing an enterprise once it is established a bit tedious!

A good idea might be to put round a circular, letting everyone on those two lists of participants know that their country needs them. I am sure we would get several volunteers, it is just making people aware of the wonderful possibilities of these tools and others.

Please note that Regional noticeboards and WikiProjects actually have different remits, but because the nb started long before the wp, it actually has several duplicate features (it was acting a bit like a wp). Those features should just be removed - eg lists of FAs, GAs etc. It should simply be a pin up board for temporary notes and informal chats at the Talk page. The wp is the forum for serious coordination.

If you are interested in this, then please benchmark our nb, wp and portal against other good ones.

Finally, my lovelife is going wonderfully thank you v much indeed. I think and hope that this may be "the one" :) That also means I have less time for this malarky, but I will still be very much "around". Wikipedia is great, but just watch out for the trolls! --Mais oui! 07:58, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

I have moved our chat to a more public forum. Let's see if anyone else is interested:

• Wikipedia_talk:Scottish_Wikipedians'_notice_board#WP:SCOWNB__WP:SCO_etc._-_Spring_cleaning

--Mais oui! 08:06, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Oh well, obviously not! ;) --Mais oui! 17:39, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

Hamilton

Welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. As a member of the Wikipedia community, I would like to remind you of Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy for editors, which you appear to have violated at Hamilton. In the meantime, please be bold and continue contributing to Wikipedia.

Sorry, you are going to have to help me out here. I wrote "If there was a well-sourced and authoritative article on the derivation of the name verifying that most uses had the claimed provenance I would certainly think it credible for there to be a request for it to take the name 'Hamilton' and have the existing page become a disambiguation page identified as such. However, in the absence of the same I can't see that there is much to discuss." Can you explain why you think this is a violation? Thanks. Ben MacDui (Talk) 10:12, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

OK. I now see you are talking about my adding 'the original place name'. I think that you are quite correct to remove this. I had rather lazily assumed that the Hamilton, South Lanarkshire and indeed Duke of Hamilton articles made this explicit but they only imply it. Given that all the other Hamiltons appear after 1643 I believe it to be 'true', but it is certainly not suitably verified anywhere on Wikipedia that I can see. I suppose we are waiting on Brendandh's research. So, in short I plead guilty to a minor breach of WP:V, but not guilty to WP:NPOV. My sincere apologies. (I knew it was a mistake to get in volved with the Lowlands.) Ben MacDui (Talk) 10:28, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

• In fairness, I am a little hyper-sensitive to members of WP:SCOTLAND as a very non-productive, unprofessional argument ensued after a member posting to the noticeboard of the project. Thank you for your understanding and I appreciate your civility. Alan.ca 09:43, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

MacKenzie

I think that page was incorrect and have amended it. See Talk:Mackenzie. It is a navigation aid, purely. Tyrenius 00:37, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Lunga, Firth of Lorn on DYK

On 5 March, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Lunga, Firth of Lorn , 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.

Thank you for your contribution! — ERcheck (talk) 05:01, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

St Kilda

Hi Ben. You've been busy with the St Kilda page recently, and to good effect, if I may say so. It's a pity about that huge section on Neil Mackenzie which was added anonymously on 5 March. It's too long and detailed, in my view, and as you have pointed out, it lacks references. If I can summon up the time and energy I might have a go at editing it some time, and I'll try and add something on John Mackay, a later missionary who also had a profound effect on St Kilda (but a less positive one). Dhmellor 16:52, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Thank-you and yes, please do some tidying up - the history section certainly needs some attention. The addition about on Mackenzie is really a mini-article about him, and I wondered if it might be a verbatim quote from somewhere or other. If not, I was of half a mind to find a few suitable references, remove most of it and create a new page with a 'see also' on the St Kilda page. I think the conservation issues could also perhaps be added to and become a section separate from history too. Have you been there by the way? Ben MacDui (Talk) 18:56, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I was wondering abouut copyright on the material on Mackenzie. But the literature on St Kilda is so huge that it would be a needle in a haystack job! Yes, I've been to St Kilda, have you? If so, you know what an awesome experience it is. Dhmellor 11:08, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Sadly not - I am somewhat jealous of your journeys, but hope to make amends. Ben MacDui (Talk) 11:29, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for all your good work on the St Kilda page in the past few days - it's greatly improved it. Dhmellor 11:36, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Re your request for help with old photographs of St Kilda, I think I might have one or two postcards with old photographs on. I'll have a look this weekend. Let me know if you want me to send one to you. Dhmellor 12:26, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for tweaking the typos out of the last edit - I was a bit rushed. Hopefully it's well on its way to GA now (arguably its a bit too long!) I was hoping to be able to frighten the more squeamish readers with a photo of Rev MacKay, but I don't want to push the copyright issue too far if it can't be proved the photographer died 100 yrs plus ago. If you have access to a digi camera you could email me an image or two of the postcards, or I'd be happy to explain how to upload the same to Commons. Cheers Ben MacDui (Talk) 19:42, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't do photography - I prefer my binoculars! However, I have a nice postcard copy of the famous sepia shot of the St Kilda 'parliament' - date 1886. If you think it's PD and you want to load it onto the site, email your name and address to Dhmellor@aol.com and I'll post it to you. Dhmellor 18:02, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Ah, I've just noticed, on the back of the postcard it says 'copyright 2000, Aberdeen University'. So I guess that's that? Dhmellor 18:05, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

I fear so for the time being. I suspect that the University cannot claim copyright on anything so old, especially if it is effectively published in Florida, but I am not about to start an argument with them. I don't know if you have seen the discussion at Talk:List of islands of Scotland about South Walls/Hoy btw - I am search of a reference which would identify the area of either or both and wonder if your library might boast such information. Ben MacDui (Talk) 19:58, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Fauna of Scotland GA on hold

 GA on hold — Notes left on talk page. Nehrams2020 08:37, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Good job on fixing those so quickly. I would have got back to you sooner but I didn't see your message until today (it must have been hidden in several other messages I got at the same time). Anyway, good work, and please continue to improve articles and nominate them for GA. If you have the time, please consider reviewing an article or two at GAC, since we have a large backlog. --Nehrams2020 19:56, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Wikibirds Peer Review of Fauna of Scotland

You're welcome, I'm glad to help. --Hey jude, don't let me down 13:55, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Re:Photo

The following is my understanding, and I do not assert it as fact (;)). As I understand it, if you also come across the picture in a work published (in the USA) before 1923, then any later assertion of copyright isn't relevant (this mught be controversial, see Copyright Term Extension Act). Wiki works under US and Florida copyright law, so you can ignore assertions of copyright from British institutions that are legally non-applicable in the US. If the guy who took the picture is dead more than 100 years, I think you can upload it (this is often hard to find out). If the picture is of someone who died in the 19th century, then chances are you probably can upload it. Just stick {{PD-old}} (I think) as the tag. Wikipedia guidelines tend to err on the side of caution, but I doubt half the things they discourage would actually be punished by a court. If you are challenged for some obscure reason, you are free to argue WP:Fair Use. I don't trust my own understanding, as I'm not a lawyer. Best thing to do if in doubt is to ask on Wikipedia talk:Public domain or Wikipedia:Image use policy. Regards, Deacon of Pndapetzim (Talk) 21:16, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Template:Infobox England place TfD

Hi, could I just ask how you got the figure of 98% for use of Infobox Scotland place. Cheers. Adambro 19:38, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

I counted three transclusions linking to the UK infobox, and the talk page of the same suggest there are 170 using the Scottish infobox. I had a look at the links to the latter and at first sight there seemed to be more than 170. I'm happy to be corrected if this isn't the case of course. Ben MacDui (Talk) 19:51, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Okay, thanks for explaining that for me. Adambro 20:08, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

(Hijacking this section for a moment): can I thamk you for the comments you made in response to my last message on this TfD discussion, since it gave me a good opportunity to express my desire to change my opinion aqnd to state what I think should happen. If you care to look at Template talk:Infobox UK place#Wales you will see I had already begun to be unhappy with the way the changes are being deployed, and felt that there had been at least one step that had been missed out. So, in my (further developed) new view, the correct way to have proceeded would have been:

• (1) Call for all interested people to potentially join in developing a new infobox,
• (2) Done some of the development at the same time as getting some help from people interetsde in particular parts of what is the current UK,
• (3) gave some examples of the new template in use and made another call for suggestions for improvement,
• (4) when a decision is made that the new template can be "released", go on a "sellling" drive (an ugly word, but it means setting out its good points, how it is better than the old ones, etc) to the interested parties (relevant projects, etc).
• (5) After discussion seems to have reached a natural end-stage, think about gauging the consensus,
• (6) If there is a consensus and it is that the new template should be deployed, then deploy it.
• (7) When the number of uses of the old template have effectively reached zero, only 'then, put in a TfD for that template.

Now, woukd that have been a sequence of stages that you and others would have been happy with? Of course, it can potentially fail at many points, in which case, the template just doesn't get written or deployed. I think it would address the issues of involvement, etc, even though it might take longer to complete (if it did complete at all). However, it seems to me that it deserves to take longer. I'd welcome any comments.  DDStretch  (talk) 20:22, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Well I can't speak for anyone else course, but I certainly think this would have had a much better chance of proceeding with a degree of co-operation and grace - and thank you for taking the trouble to respond so civilly. We're all volunteers trying to create a decent encyclopedia and it's a pity to be expending so much effort on contention. Ben MacDui (Talk) 20:36, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

I would agree with Ben that the process that DDStretch has set out would have been a good one to follow, I have run into difficulties myself when I've been a little too bold in making changes and now realise that it is important to consult with other editors as much as possible to gain feedback. When I haven't done this, I have found, as in this case, that other editors take a hostile stance to whatever idea is being proposed, simply because of the method, even when it may actually be a very good idea.

When you do come up with a good idea, I appreciate it can be frustrating to see how long it takes to get it adopted, but my own experiences suggest that this cost in time ultimately is worth it.

My personal opinion would be that it would be useful to do a reasonable amount of work (in your own user space) prior to asking other users for their opinions, as this will give them a better impression of your proposal.

I also agree with Ben that recent comments will have gone a long way to addressing some editors concerns regarding the implementation and hope further progress can be made. Adambro 21:13, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

bmi regional- Scotland

Hi Ben, I wondered why you took bmi regional out of the airlines list in the Scotland article? bmi regional article is based in Aberdeen Airport, and is quite a large airline with 16 jets and a large range of destinations. It is much larger than say Air Scotland or City Star Airlines. As for capitalisation, the Wikipedia article does have it at BMI Regional, but the airline's website and logo have it all lowercase (see [1]). Thoughts? Thunderwing 13:14, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

There were two reasons. The capitalisation was one. I looked at the Wikipedia article and another web page - flightmapping.com I think - and concluded capitals were appropriate. You are correct, I now see that bmi themselves do use lowercase and that would be the proper usage. The second was that no reference was given, and whilst the rest of the section hardly uses any that's not a reason to avoid doing so - we are trying to improve the article and this a major shortcoming at present. You may be correct that bmi regional are based in Aberdeen Airport, but the reference you provide above says "bmi regional...is part of the wider award winning bmi group and operates an all jet fleet from regional airports including Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford...". If you replace it in lower case with a reference confirming the base is Aberdeen I will have no complaints. Cheers Ben MacDui (Talk) 19:19, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

No problem- I found a good reference [2] and added back. I was hoping to find a good reference to cover all the airlines that are based in Scotland but not much luck so far! Thanks. Thunderwing 12:14, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Lamlash

Thanks for your help although it may have been a little more positive to enter the correct details. --MJB 20:38, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

You are welcome, but if I were to attempt to fix every unreferenced item in the islands I would be doing nothing else all day. I notice the template has a fatuous ambulance field. Can it not be switched off? Ben MacDui (Talk) 21:39, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

A short "hello" :-)

Beinn a' Chaolais

Hiho,

I'm just dropping by to leave you a short and spontaneous, but very warm and hopefully motivating "thank you"! It's always giving pleasure to me to see that formerly "new users" find their own way through the "Wikipedia jungle" and turn out to be such good users, committed to Wikipedia's origins (valuable, encyclopaedic content).

I assume you already got to know some of the bothering conflicts and other somehow annoying stuff of this complicated community. Please always remember how you started here – I wish you never lose the basic trust, self-assuredness and joy (with)in this project. Personally, I'm glad to have been helpful for you regarding some smaller issues in the past. And I really enjoy noting that you're still active :-)

All the best --Ü 23:56, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Many thanks for your timely thoughts. I don't know if you are aware of any of the administrative debates I have allowed myself to be dragged into of late, but it is certainly something of a (very occasionally welcome) distraction from the main task of creating content. Great picture of Jura's quartzite slopes btw - I have already added it to the relevant island page. You have remind me of something - I am no longer a 'new user' and must change my badge (above). All the best and please let me know if I can ever return any of your favours. Ben MacDui (Talk) 21:54, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Ayr/South Ayrshire images

Hello there, many thanks for your message on my talk page.

Unfortunately, as circumstances always seem to conspire, this weekend my PC is going to be undergoing a rebuild that is long overdue. In light of this, what I have done for you to have a look at is create a little gallery residing at photographs that includes several of the images I would like to contribute if it is decided they may be useful.

I would very much appreciate your comments on these and whether you think they may go nicely on perhaps the South Ayrshire or Ayr articles. I am unpracticed in the addition of images to articles, so I may need a few pointers on how to do this if you think some of the images can be included... I'd be most grateful!

I also have a few photos that give examples of Georgian architecture in Scotland and could upload these if there is interest; there are some fine old buildings as you get closer to Ayr's beach.

Many thanks for your time, and I endeavour to get back to you as soon as is possible - the pending rebuild shouldn't be majorly problematic, fingers crossed. Yours, The Geography Elite 08:55, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

TfD

Hi BM, don't know if you've noticed but the Infobox UK place enforcers [[3]] have started a discussion for deletion of your Scottish island info box and at the very least chucking out the flag! No doubt they'll get concensus by the usual method of 11:1 ratio of English to Scots. Excellent job you've done over at St Kilda, BTW. Regards, Bill Reid | Talk 11:00, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know. Let's hope it is simply one user thinking aloud. There is no overlap between them except the name and they perform quite different purposes. There are about 23 of them in use now - only another 180 odd to go! They are exclusively Hebridean at present but I will have to take the plunge and brave the waters of the Pentland Firth soon. Yes, St Kilda is coming together well I think - hopefully another GA candidate in the near future. Best wishes. Ben MacDui PS I see Burghead is still at sea. Any progress on that front?

Wikipedia:Peer review/Renewable energy in Scotland

Glad the Peer Review script is finally working for you. I will take a look at article and weigh in on the Peer Review (already found a very minor typo, but it will take me a bit). Ruhrfisch 14:46, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

• I weighed in with some suggestions for improvement, more to come. Hope it helps, Ruhrfisch 19:04, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Many thanks. I will respond in detail asap. Ben MacDui (Talk) 19:56, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

You are very welcome. Since it took me 9 days to review it, please take your time. Ruhrfisch 19:58, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi Ben, thanks very much for the barnstar. I think it is basically ready for FAC. I looked over the article one last time, made a few minor copyedits (revert at will), and found the following minor points. 0) Some reviewers prefer footnotes at the end of sentences (several in the article are in the middle, often after a comma, with no ref at the end, and could be moved). There are also two red links in the article, which some do not care for. I would not change these unless you are asked to in FAC. 1) "Realisation of the potential" section has a missing word or phrase at ???: "By the end of the year ??? is expected to contribute 19% of total electrical production,[9] about 4% of all energy usage.[10]" 2) In "Wave power" section, Pelamis wave energy converter is wikilinked twice (probably should only be linked once, usually first appearance). FAC comments often are against over-linking. 3) In "Tidal power", the project pictured is not otherwise referred to in the text (that I could see). 4) In "Biodiesel" the sentence "Serious concerns regarding the ethics of growing biodiesel in developing countries and importing the fuel to Europe have been raised on the grounds that they may replace much needed food crops." may need its own ref (my guess is that the ref for both sentences is at the end of the next sentence). I love the photo caption here, by the way. 5) In "local vs. national concerns", the last paragraph needs a reference. 6) "Promotion of renewables" is currently seven paragraphs, six of which are one sentence long - could these be combined to make two or three larger paragraphs?

My only other advice is to look at some current WP:FAC articles and perhaps some recently featured articles FAC pages and see what the current issues are. Also be aware the FAC process can take a lot of time - try to respond to any actionable comments as soon as possible. Every FAC I have been involved with has had unexpected requests, so be ready! Please let me know when the article is in FAC and I will weigh in (with full disclosure that I have reviewed the article). Hope this helps, Ruhrfisch 12:34, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

EF

Was it really necessary to revert for a spelling variant in an article with no apparent favored dialect? --Belg4mit 12:31, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Not I suppose any more necessary than the original edit. Somehow I get the feeling that there is a statement lurking behind the question somewhere. I am not sure what it is - if you are worried that I may be wasting my time on trivial edits, I thank you for your concern. Ben MacDui (Talk) 16:32, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Dubh Artach

Hi there, yes the e-mail dialog with owner of the photo went like this(with some privacy edits):

Morning Fluffball70,

Yes this is my picture and yes you may use it in the Wikipedia article.

Regards,

Jim Axxxxxxx

On 4/8/07, Wired Girl <xxx@yahoo.com> wrote: Hi there,

I was recently sufing the web for good photo's of the Dubh Artach lighthouse and spotted the one on your Sub Aqua site. The Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubh_Artach desperately needs a recent picture and I was hoping you(or whoever took the picture) might be willing to release it for use in this manner.

Thanks in advance,

Fluball70 (xxxx@yahoo.com) Fluffball70 13:45, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Fluffball70 (talk • contribs) 13:43, 12 April 2007 (UTC).

OK. I think the only way the image can be saved is if you ask the good Jim A if he would mind if the image had a "Creative Commons" license or similar. See [4]. This would mean that someone else could use it elsewhere. The only thing that can be offered in return is acknowledgement of his contribution. If he is not a professional photographer, he may well say 'yes'. The worst that could happen is that various other people use it and he doesn't get paid anything. Them's the rules I'm afraid. Ben MacDui (Talk) 16:43, 12 April 2007 (UTC) PS At the risk of pushing our luck, you could mention that the same issue exists for Skerryvore.

Eugenio Espejo

Sorry for the delay in my answer, but I was busy working on the suggestions made by other reviewers. I would be very happy if you fix those grammatical issues that you found in the article. Hopefully, your job will be much easier, as it has been copy edited by several users. Thank you for your help. Dalobuca 16:52, 12 April 2007 (UTC) Dalobuca 15:48, 15 April 2007 (UTC)===About your comments===

• The Royal Audience of Quito was a court of the Spanish Crown with jurisdiction over certain territories of the Viceroyalty of Peru and the Viceroyalty of New Granada. It is some sort of "ancestor" of modern Ecuador, such as Gaul was the ancestor of modern France and Hispania the ancestor of modern Spain. Sadly, there is no article for the Royal Audience in English wikipedia, while there is an article in Spanish wikipedia (which is incomplete and unsourced). When you search for the RAQ you will be redirected to History of Ecuador. I don't see how to explain all of this in the article about Eugenio Espejo, so I just left the link referring to the Royal Audience (which links to Ecuador) as I found it.

I think it would be easy to add a footnote so that ignorant northern Europeans could flatter themselves that they understood what was going on in 18th century South America. I'll look at this asap and suggest something.

I think it could be as simple as creating a piped [[Audiencia|Audience]] link in the second paragraph of the lead section. Done.

• He died of dysentery, which he adquired in prison. I wouldn't know how to include that fact in the article, because of the way it is written.

Assuming it is a verifiable, all you have to do is: 'only to treat his patients as a doctor, and on 23 December, to die at his home from the dysentry he acquired during his imprisonment.'

• It is true that it is a strong statement, but you must recall that "his desire to read everything indiscriminately sometimes led him to precipitate judgments, which appear in his manuscripts"

OK I have undertaken a re-wording which I think maintains the sense but improves the English.

• Regarding his Defense of the clergy of Riobamba, he actually was more interested in attacking his enemies; he had to settle account's with Barreto and Vallejo, and he also thought that the clergy (not only in Riobamba but in the whole Audience) was exploiting the Indians (This last part is a bit explained on his "Views on Education".

Understood. I think it needs some slight re-wording which I will also try to undertake a little later.

Done

• I must recognize that the English Note (l) was quite poor, so I made some changes, as you suggested. Please check it out. The last clause, which is in Spanish "justificarse y explicarse", somewhat means that he had to justify his actions, perhaps attacked by the Dominicans, and to let them know why he did that (explain)

It's much better but not 100%. I'll suggest something later.

Done - hope that still fits the correct sense

• Taking into account the rest of your comments, I corrected my mistakes.

I am quite flattered that you consider him an amazing man, as I do. I don't think we can include him in the 'Enlightenment' template, for two reasons: 1) He would have to be included in Spain, along with Jovellanos and Moratín, and I think more than one person would be unhappy with that 2) It seems the template has been proposed for deletion

Au contraire. Firstly, the template may survive deletion if its supporters rally round. Secondly, I can't imagine that it is a good reason to exclude him on the grounds that supporters of the Spanish establishment wouldn't like it. This is surely what he spent his life fighting against. Perhaps he could be included not under 'Spain' but as part of this 'Royal Audience' business. I will look into this too.

Other Comments

• Although there is no article about the Royal Audience of Quito, there is an article for Audiences in general: Audiencia

• Regarding the inclusion of Espejo in the template, the Royal Audience could technically be considered part of Spain (as a colony). Therefore, I am not worried about the supporters of the Spanish establishment, but of us Ecuadorians, because Espejo is deemed in Ecuador as a patriot.

Well it's up to you, but personally I would not object to an entry either under Ecuador, or indeed 'Royal Audience of Quito'.

Let me know what do you think about all of this. Best wishes, Dalobuca 15:53, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Good luck, and let me know if you need any further assistance. Ben MacDui (Talk) 08:29, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Alright. Thank you very much Ben. Regards, Dalobuca 15:48, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Canna

I am presuming that the reference is just a bit out of date, I spent a number of months working on Canna last summer, and there are definitely now 9 residents on Sanday, I'll see if I can find a reference, I've quite a few newspaper cuttings covering recent proceedings Canna. Emoscopes ^Talk 10:35, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Gaelic Spellings

Hi. I refer to the comment I left on the St Kilda discussion page. The wonderful thing about Scottish placenames is that the Gaelic names of the Highlands and Islands have almost all escaped the rampages of anglicisation which has, in many cases, hidden forever from us the true meaning of many of our own placenames in Ireland. I have a book on my desk beside me called 'Road Atlas of Great Britain - 3 miles to 1 inch' printed in 1962. I often open it and pore over the Gaelic placenames which are, apart from a few exceptions, correctly spelled. Just looking at Ben Macdhui (obviously an anglicisation), I see other hills and physical features nearby: Càrn a' Mhàim 'cairn of the pass', Beinn Bhreac 'speckled peak', Càrn nan Gabhar 'cairn of the goats, Lochan Uaine 'little green lake', Beinn a'Chaorruinn 'peak of the rowan tree', Coire nan Clach 'corry or coom of the stones'. I also have some ordinance survey maps of the Outer Hebrides at home and I have discovered one or two 'Bàgh an Èireannaich's 'Bay of the Irishman' along the rugged coast of North Uist. My point is this: Stac an Armin looks to me as an native Irish speaker with a reasonable knowledge of Scottish Gaelic not as an anglicisation but merely a spelling error. It may be the most common spelling used but that does not change the fact that it is incorrect. Both Irish and Scottish Gaelic share the very efficient rule of broad with broad and slender with slender that makes Gaelic spelling so much more simpler and regular than that of English. The rule is this: broad consonants must be preceded and followed by broad vowels in most contexts. Slender consonants are followed and preceded by slender vowels. The broad vowels are a, o, u. The slender vowels being i, e. In Stac an Armin, the 'm' is more likely than not to be broad, therefore, it must be followed by an 'a'or possibly an 'o'. Certainly 'Armin' could not exist as a normal word in either Irish or Scottish Gaelic. It would appear to be the genitive of 'arman' 'someone who bears arms'. A soldier or warrior, perhaps. My point being that some research from reliable Gaelic texts or scholars would add to the article as well as any notes on the type of Gaelic spoken there. I remember reading about the islanders habit of substituting 'l' for 'r', rather as the Japanese. Therefore, 'ruith', running, was 'luith' in St Kilda: 'Luith mi bho'n taigh' 'I ran from the house' etc. An Muimhneach Machnamhach 14:48, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

As per Talk:St Kilda, Scotland, if a source can be provided then by all means let us include the alternate Gaelic spelling of Stac an Armin. However I know of no English-speaking source that uses 'Armain'. Even Martin calls it 'Stack-Narmin'. Incidentally I am in agreement with Steel that the name 'St Kilda' is probably derived from an anglicisation of the local pronunciation of 'Hirta' = 'Kilta', but its amazing how many different theories there are. Ben MacDui (Talk) 08:21, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

St Kildan House name

Are you sure the spelling should be 'taigh'. Quine uses 'tigh' as does the 'Revised Nomination for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List' [5]. Ben MacDui (Talk) 19:40, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Taigh is the spelling used in modern Scottish Gaelic - tigh hasn't been used for years - [6]. --MacRusgail 10:24, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

OK - thanks. Ben MacDui (Talk) 14:01, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

User:AlexNewArtBot

Hi Ben MacDui/Archive 2, as a WikiProject Scotland participant, please check out this this thread and consider adding the bot results page to your watchlist so we can manually update the New Articles page. There are some false results for the first batch, but I'm sure we can collectively tune the rules to improve the output.

If we get enough people watching the results page, we'll be cooking with gas as they say :)   This looks like a great helper in finding new Scotland related material. Cheers. --Cactus.man ✍ 22:24, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

Scotland FAC

You didn't miss much. Article was nowhere near ready. See here. Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 21:31, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of SNP MPs and current Scottish MPs cats

Could you have a look at this CFD nomination. It has been up for a week, and only 2 people have commented on it (amazingly). Could you please consider the discussion and contribute, because it would be a bit pathetic if this CFD were closed with almost zero comment. --Mais oui! 17:18, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Sanday, Orkney

Your edits have messed up the arrangement of images in the article. Can you please try and sort it out. Thanks, 81.129.246.105 23:47, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Done. The 'Tartan' section will have to go if a reference can' be found for it. Ben MacDui

ScottishWikiActivity Template

Thanks so much, for your interest. It is in the very beginning of its developing so you can make all the suggestions for changing it and participate in its developing. a bot for it would be nice; however, it would take some time, also there is a bot: EditCounter, I think, it is helpful but, not for this job. Therefore: We need to see the contributions. Whereas, there are many ways to understand user activity: for instance and by simple inspection we can proceed in this way: (the long way, manually, for now)

1. Check the user talk page activity by accessing the page and see if this page has any summaries dated, in the last three months
2. Count those activities and collect that information, it is a number lets say == "a"
3. Check the user contributions you can find one them one his edit and the go to his contributions summaries and check in for the last three months home many summaries the user has, collect the information, basically a number. Let say == "z".
4. See how many, if any, belong to the WikiProject Scotland or any related discussion, like the maps force task, now you have another number == b then substract these from the total number of contributions "z" such as z − b == c. You now have three numbers now, a, b and c.
5. Input these numbers to the parameters as explained at the Wikiproject Scotland page to the template, then you are the judge to determine inactivity, which is the fourth parameter of any vector "A" or "strike A". How often? How recent? that kind of questions. I was doing a table of criteria but I have to do something in real life now.

• An Example of usage:(The values are not reflecting the real numbers of contributions, there are used to illustrate the use of the template)

• Values for Ben MacDui:

{{ScottishWikiProjectActivity | UserTalk=17 | WikiProject=0 | Mainspace=1 | Activity=<strike>A</strike>}}

• Values for JohnManuel:

{{ScottishWikiProjectActivity | UserTalk=1 | WikiProject=0 | Mainspace=0 | Activity=<strike>A</strike>}}

tabe showig two results:

Ben MacDui (talk · contribs)	JohnManuel (talk · contribs)
{{ScottishWikiProjectActivity | UserTalk=17 | WikiProject=0 | Mainspace=1 | Activity=<strike>A</strike>}}	{{ScottishWikiProjectActivity | UserTalk=1 | WikiProject=0 | Mainspace=0 | Activity=<strike>A</strike>}}

You can use these in the newsletter to represent the number of contributions of a particular user, but you need to pre-establish the criteria that you are going to use to measure inactivity or activity/contributions; even so you can quantify, the quality of the contributions and perhaps reward this with a barnstar, so the users will be motivated to make more contributions and with more quality, something like: "The barnstar of WP:SCO is going to User SUCHandSUCH because he has contributed with "100" contributions With an average of "ABC" quality for the month of May '07". But there are other possibilities of usage. Thank you again for your questions, hope I have clarified the use of the template a little better,i.e., you need to change its values manually after an inspection of the user's contributions. Please, I am welcoming any suggestions to improve and modify it. Greetings. John Manuel -00:35, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Banner

Since you wanted something that do more than just seat in there I start looking, in commons, for a WP:SCO banner to put it in my user page , I didn't find any, so I made one and create a category, "Banners of Scotland". here is how the banner looks Like, any commnents?

John Manuel -01:10, 26 June 2007 (UTC)