User talk:Slambo/Archives/2010/September

This page is an archive of past discussions. 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.

A file that you uploaded or altered, File:Pioneer Zephyr Dawn to Dusk Club.jpg, has been listed at Wikipedia:Files for deletion. Please see the discussion to see why this is (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry), if you are interested in it not being deleted. Thank you. howcheng {chat} 18:04, 1 September 2010 (UTC) howcheng {chat} 18:04, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

"WikiProject Report" would like to focus on WikiProject Trains for a Signpost article to be published this month. This is an excellent opportunity to draw attention to your efforts and attract new members to the project. Would you be willing to participate in an interview? If so, here are the questions for the interview. Just add your response below each question and feel free to skip any questions that you don't feel comfortable answering. Also, if you know anyone else who would like to participate in the interview, please share this with them. Have a great day. -Mabeenot (talk) 19:11, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Hello Slambo. I am the editor who posted the original comment (along with a followup) supporting the retention of the delightful Pioneer Zephyr "Dawn to Dusk Club" image that you originally posted in 2007. I see from your user page that you have a particular interest in American railroads and thought you might find my family's massive (10,000+ webpages) railroad history site and my two books (with two more to be published in the next year) on the subject of interest. You can find more information (with hyperlinks) about these on my WP userpage. I hope you find them interesting. Centpacrr (talk) 17:21, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

PS re Pioneer Zephyr "Dawn to Dusk Club" image: Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of myself and four other editors, this wonderful image was deleted against the clear consensus of the thread (5 to 1 for keep) to retain it. Very frustrating. (See also here.) Centpacrr (talk) 22:24, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Hi, Slambo; re this DYK - how are the entries nominated and vetted? Far from being "revolutionary" in the mid-1930s, remote-control of steam locomotives had been commonplace in Britain for some thirty years: the Great Western Railway, for example, began using a remote-control system (the "auto-train") circa 1905. --Redrose64 (talk) 16:53, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

Nominations for DYK inclusion are added to the candidates page, which also states the rules for inclusion on the portal. Once a day, usually the first thing I do in the morning when I log in, I look at the nominations that have been left there. I review the entries to ensure that the stated fact is included in the article, that the image is available under a free license, that the fact and article has not already been featured in the DYK section, that the country the feature refers to has not been included in the DYK section in the last few days, and that the text is readable and grammatically correct. I tend to trust the nominator and the article for the accuracy of the facts mentioned mainly because following up on article references and further researching each item would be time prohibitive. If there are no entries on the candidates page, I look at the unassessed articles to find the day's new entry. Slambo (Speak) 13:39, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

So when I detect a serious error, such as on today's concerning Alexander Allan (see Talk:Alexander Allan (locomotive engineer)#Chief Mechanical Engineer), what is the best thing to do? --Redrose64 (talk) 17:40, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

My first impulse is to say that it should be fixed. Any changes made to the current entries should also be copied to the corresponding entry in the archive, and the correction should be carried through to the linked article as well. I'll make the change to the most recent entry based on the correction you've noted. There have only been a few editors who have made regular suggestions on the candidates page for DYK inclusion in the past; I would welcome another pair of eyes looking for new items and helping to ensure the accuracy of them. Slambo (Speak) 11:02, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

		The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
		For all your hard work in maintaining Portal:Trains, it is a honour to present you with this token of recognition. BencherliteTalk 12:50, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

I'm conducting a mini-sweep of the oldest Featured Portals to see which have been left to rot by their creators/WikiProjects and which are still going strong. The Trains Portal is looking in fantastic shape and when I check the edit history, I see that you've been updating the selected articles etc on a weekly basis and the DYK entries practically every day. That requires an amazing amount of hard work and dedication, so well done indeed! Some other FPOs would do well to follow your example! Regards, Bencherlite^Talk 12:50, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Grin. Thank you. This is a pleasant surprise as I was logging in to make today's updates. Slambo (Speak) 10:47, 30 September 2010 (UTC)