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current talk page.
Diolch!
Thank you so much for the Civility Barnstar! It was very kind of yours and very encouraging. :-) Kindest regards, Húsönd00:17, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
Galicia
It is not fair what you have done with Galicia, you dont know anything about this country. Search in google about celtic nations and you will see. --
193.144.48.1517:11, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
I'm not much in favour of google searches as evidence - they don't really tell us much reliable (it's more of a who-can-shout-loudest contest). I sympathise, but my big problem with your edit is that Galicia is already mentioned in the next paragraph. A distinction (I think a reasonable one) is being made in this section between those Celtic areas where Celtic languages are still spoken (or were spoken recently enough to have been revived) and those Celtic areas where no Celtic language has survived at all. But now I look at the article, I see that the dictinction was not made explicit enough. I've edited it now to remedy this. There seems no good reason to me not to include the Galician flag next to the appropriate paragraph btw - those of Asturias and Cumbria (if there is one) should probably be included on the same basis.
garik17:26, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
Sorry to contact you here, but...
os dach chi'r Garik sy wedi anelu defnyddio ngeiriadur Firefox i, dw i wedi postio hyfforddiannau nawr ar y dudalen
[1] 'ma. hwyl,
Marnanel19:07, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
Hi. My problem is that the reference doesn't say that most Inuit find "Eskimo" highly offensive—just that it's considered derogatory in many other places, which is not the same thing. The most your two other sources say is that it's widely thought to be "rather insulting". None of the sources are very clear at all on whether they're talking about the preference of Inuit people specifically, or Canadians generally. It may be that Inuit people do dislike the word Eskimo intensely, but I have a suspicion that this might be more an assumption based on false etymology. (As in: "Well, I wouldn't like to be called an eater of raw meat!") As a Welshman, I have nothing particularly against
possibly derogatory exonyms as such! This makes me wonder whether the Inuit really do.
garik11:34, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
I see your point. I think one of the problems here is that, in Canada at least, it's one of those obvious things that no longer needs defining, like "fire is hot and water is wet". A few other links,
Random House, the dictionary maker, says to avoid the term but not really why.
Native Languages mentions that it is "...is considered rude by many Inuit."
MSN Encarta says some find it offensive as does the
Information Centre on Aboriginal Health.
Most of the rest of this is original research. Basically everybody east of here will find the word Eskimo offensive to varing degrees. From here west the word can sometimes be used but genereally it's safer to use Inuit. Part of this has to do with a disagreement over the meaning of "Inuit" and "Inuk". They are used mostly to mean "The People" or "The Real People" and "Person" and this can only be used to refer to people that used to be called Eskimo. However, the people of the area where I live (Copper Eskimo/Inuit) call themselves "Inuinnait" (plural) or "Inuinnaq" (singular). This is defined by my dictionary as "a real Inuk; an Eskimo person". The dictionary further defines "inuit" and "inuk" (note they are not capitalised) as "person; human being", in other words everybody in the world qualifies. So in Iqaluit I would never be an Inuit but in Cambridge Bay I am an inuit.
We've got to be very careful of the "everyone knows" argument for inclusion. When I was growing up, I thought everyone knew that native Americans hated being called Indians and preferred Native Americans. I then learnt that some dislike Native American because they find it patronising (or that it imposes the name American on a culture that is older than the name) and that quite a lot prefer Indian. In any case, Wikipedia is strict about original research. I don't think we can keep the claim that most Inuit find the term Eskimo highly offensive until we get a source that says just that.
I agree with the "everybody knows" and have rewritten the section based on what is available. It's odd but even the local library has nothing on it. As to the KHS I was wondering if you thought that it would make a good WIkipedia article or it was too non-notable.
CambridgeBayWeather(Talk)23:34, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
We are a growing community of Wikipedia editors dedicated to identifying, categorizing, and improving articles of interest to the LGBT community. Some points that may be helpful:
Our main aim is to help improve LGBT-related articles, so if someone asks for help with an article, please try your hardest to help them if you are able.
Monthly Challenge: Find 5 editors to LGBT articles and invite them to the
project! Check out our
recruitment tips if you need them. Good luck!
Project News
With such rapid development of the project, it was decided that a Coordinator was needed to ensure all the fiddly maintenence was kept up. Elections were held and
Dev920 (
talk·contribs) has been elected
Coordinator for the next three months. She said "I am honoured and proud to be at the helm of such a fantastic WikiProject and look forward to our future". Congratulations Dev!
The
assessment system continues to be a great success, we have tagged over 5200 articles! Please tag any LGBT related articles you come across by adding {{LGBTProject | class=}} to the talkpage. Please see the
Assessment Department for how to assess an article according to the grading system.
Jumpaclass is proving to be quite successful! The winner at the end of the year gets to pick the January collaboration, so sign up and get going! Or challenge another user to see how far you can jump a stub!
A new
Community department has been set up to foster community amongst our members. It mostly acts as other WikiProjects' Outreach department, but also has a
Quilt to which every member is entitled to add a square containing anything of their choice.
The
peer review is not getting much custom - please notice you can cross-list other peer reviews from different projects that also fall within our scope.
Many people still seem to be unaware that the
Deletion sorting subpage exists for XfDs to be listed: please use and watch that page instead of issuing "alerts" for ordinary AfDs on the project talkpage.
WP:FILM has a current drive to give every film article an infobox.
WP:LGBT successfully gave all 105 LGBT infoboxless films infoboxes, so a big thank you to everyone who participated.
A new template,
LGBT, has been created for articles which are becoming to cluttered with infoboxes. Thanks to
WJBscribe and
SatyrTN for creating it.
A very basic
resources page has been started. Please add to it as you come across useful sites.
A promotional poster for the project has been created:
http://wplgbt.tripod.com/Wikipedianeedsyou.doc (you have to directly cut and paste the url, or it won't let you download it). Please distribute anywhere and everywhere you desire, such as gay libraries, cybercafes, community centres and so on. Also, please let
Dev920 know where you have put it up, so she can keep track of our coverage.
An LGBT Publications Taskforce has been proposed. Please sign up
here if you are interested in being involved.
An LGBT WikiProject has been set up on the
Spanish Wikipedia! Set up by
Raystorm, it has already gained six members and is developing an assessment system. If you speak any Spanish, please consider going up and lending a hand if you can!
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please drop me a line. If you have any news or any announcements to be broadcast, do let
Dev920 know.
Drop by the
WT:LGBT talk page if you've got any questions, or pick out one of the more active editors there and bug them on their user talk page; most don't bite. =) —
coelacantalk —
03:56, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
DavidShankBone deserves kudos for his current drive to provide quality LGBT photos from the
NYC area. One of the more recent photos is posted on
Michael Musto, and you can check out the gallery on
David's user page.
Project News
There is now the beginning of a
list of core topics to possibly be included in the
Wikipedia 1.0 release. Your suggestions are welcome; there may be many core LGBT topics still missing.
SatyrTN identified all the articles that were in subcategories of
Category:LGBT but not yet tagged with
the project's banner, about 1,400 articles. These have been completed, though
SatyrBot will make periodic runs through the cats to find any new entries. Thanks Satyr!
The number of articles within our project's spectrum (6,667 currently) should now be relatively stable and only grow with article creation. However, if you find a category that should be included, please let
SatyrTN know so it can be included in the bots runs.
Work is underway to improve the
LGBT Portal. Please add any good quality (free) photos you come across on LGBT articles to the gallery
here. Also if anyone would like to volunteer to help in maintaining the portal, please make yourselves known on the Portal's
talkpage.
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format,
please drop me a line. If you have any news or any announcements to be broadcast, do let
Dev920 know.
A taskforce dealing with LGBT publications has been proposed. If you are interested in getting involved, consider signing up at the projects' page.
Our
core topics list is looking good. It's still a bit slim on LGBT history articles, non-American LGBT media, and important LGBT biographies. Do you have suggestions?
David Shankbone has done an amazing job taking photographs of LGBT celebrities. Thanks David! People interested in collaborating with him and setting up a photography taskforce should contact him or drop a note at the project's
talkpage.
The
LGBT Portal still needs a bit of love and attention :-). Again, any good quality (free) photos you come across on LGBT articles can be added to the gallery
here. Volunteers to help out with the Portal are extremely welcome- make yourselves known on the Portal's
talkpage. Updates to the current news items are helpful.
Deputy coordinator elections
WikiProject LGBT studies is looking for new Deputy Coordinators to help out with various essential tasks in organising the project. To nominate yourself or contribute to the discussion, please go to:
Wikipedia:WikiProject LGBT studies/Coordinator/May 2007. The deadline for nominations is May 5 and the elections will last a week after that.
The elections will be pretty simple- everyone just endorses their favourite candidate(s). The three with the most votes at the end of the week are the new deputy coordinators, who will assist
Dev920 in keeping the project running.
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, just ask
Dev920. If you have any news or any announcements to be broadcast, do let
her know.
"Why remove my response?"
There's a bug in the Wikimedia software where, on talk pages, it occasionally fails to catch "edit conflicts" and instead, just silently wipes out the earlier edits. That's apparently what happened on
Talk:Wales; I certainly had no intention of removing your response -- please accept my apology.
Hey, i am sorry. My sister found my password on a iece of paper and thus thought it would be 'funny' to vandleise wiipedia. Sorry, i have changed it. Thankyou for enlighteneing me. Kind regards,
Zesty Prospect15:09, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
trlkly: RE hate autosigner
My bad, I should have been more specific with my terminology. What I hate is the bot that goes around signing previously unsigned posts. "The previously unsigned comment was written by <X>" just sounds elitist to me. And useless. Why can't it just sign it normally so that nobody has to use the tildes? Is it really necessary to point out who is a newb or just plain forgetful?
Oh, and I intentionally didn't sign this comment, hoping it would give you an example.
St.York
Sorry, I hadn't thought off that. The last time I was active the page was a flurry of constant vandalism, bickering, and protection requests. Also, I hope this is the proper way to send a message?
Monthly Challenge: June Stub Review! Take a moment and sift through the
roughly 3,600 Stub-class LGBT articles. Are they still stubs? If not, make an assessment change. Even better, do you see anything you can add/edit to increase the rating? Let's see if the project can lower the number of stubs down below 3,000!
Project News
WP:LGBT Exceeds 200 Members!!
Two editors have been
selected by project members as
co-coordinators. Their duties are still a bit unclear, but having a few more janitors around the project will help keep us running smoothly. Please feel free to message
Fireplace or
SatyrTN if you have any project questions or concerns.
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, just ask
Dev920. If you have any news or any announcements to be broadcast, do let
her know.
Monthly Challenge: Submit an article to
our Jumpaclass competition! Languishing unloved, it is a great way to improving that article you always meant to improve but never got round to. Challenge someone else to go head to head and see who can improve their article most!
Our Deputy Coordinators have been doing a fabulous job so far. Well done!
The portal is now looking very snazzy, well done to
Fireplace for all his hard work.
The list of LGBT people
to be sorted has now beed reduced by 20%. Please help us with it, all of us adding just one person a day would have a dramatic effect!
The
Core Topics is now largely complete. The original aim of getting some kind of publication out of it is extremely long term - any short term uses we can make of it are welcome on the
project talkpage.
A suggestion was made this month that we start our own wiki. Although the conclusion was that we felt we were a part of Wikipedia rather than a stand alone organisation, it seems there is an LGBT wiki already, at
http://lgbt.wikia.com/wiki/Main_page . Members may be interested in getting involved there.
The
Collaboration is now getting rather short on suggestions. Article nominations for August through December would be welcome on the
talkpage.
There is now a list of
Missing LGBT Topics. Help is needed to work out which topics can be made redirects or need to be created. Please contribute is you can.
An LGBT banner that was created for Wikipedia's internal ads system has now been adapted so it can be placed on blogs and websites. The html is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:LGBT"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Qxz-ad48.gif" height="53" width="445"></a> Please credit
Miranda and link to her userpage: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Miranda">Miranda</a>. The banner can be seen in action
here. If you have a blog or a website, please consider adding the banner, either in a post or as part of your profile.
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Delivered on 16:00, 6 July 2007 (UTC).
Re. Question regarding the acquisition of animal "language"
The two components would be cognitive/non-cognitive or mental/sensory if defined in that way. Your earlier reply suggests that the cognitive aspect of acquiring a language poses as much a barrier to learning animal communication as would the physical part. Since the two cannot be separated (ie. L1 acquisition is not a 100% mental task), analyzing the cognitive barrier on its own would not be useful.
Sorry. It's been a remarkably busy couple of weeks, and I completely forgot about your message. Now things are quieter and I can reply.
It's not clear to me that something can "function" as a spandrel. The term refers to the origins of something, not its function. Language – or, more likely, certain components of human language – may well be spandrelic (probably not a real word, but should be) in origin. But of course such components would also be innate. My distinction is between innate and cultural. On one extreme, the shape of the vocal tract is very clearly innate; on the other, the fact that the Welsh word for dog is ci is clearly cultural. It is rather less certain to what extent a good deal of the components of human language are cultural or innate(Principles and Parameters theory really muddies the water here). I agree that analysing the cognitive barrier to the acquisition of non-human communication systems alone would be to exclude something important. But I suppose I do believe that the cognitive barrier is more important. Imagine if you had a computer like Stephen Hawking's that could produce all the sounds a dolphin can just by pressing the right button. You would still be an enormous distance away from acquiring dolphin "language".
garik16:26, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
Hello :) Yes, I forgot about it too and assumed it was too far-fetched to be worth replying to *blush*
I should have wrote "function as if it were a spandrel". For example, can feral children learn animal communication? Or can hunter-gatherer groups learn it by virtue of necessity? Unfortunately these situations are rare in the modern world.
If a function is a by-product it is called a spandrel. Only solutions to specific problems (affecting the fitness of the individual) are considered adaptations. Is written language an invention or a spandrel? It does appear to be a by-product of spoken language despite illiteracy.
I think my problem with the word 'innate' is that I keep thinking it implies exclusivity. Obviously language is innate to many species. Dolphins can learn dolphin communication, and (we assume) that non-dolphins cannot.
Message from Coordinator: It's been almost two months since the last newsletter came out, so there are a fair few people who haven't really been kept up with our project. I'd like to welcome all those who have joined and those who have returned, and strongly reccommend that you use
the talkpage for any queries or problems you have. Happy editing!
Article News
The ongoing effort to create a
comprehensive list of LGB people has begun to bear fruit -
/A AND the
/W-Z lists have been featured! Congratulations to Dev920 and SatyrTN who nominated them respectively. Please consider pitching in the the remaining lists to help us get them finished before the end of the year.
Project News
WP:LGBT now has an IRC channel! It is #LGBTProject on Freenode. Users without IRC or Xchat can use the java app at java.freenode.net to access the channel from their web browser. Hope to see you in there sometime!
David Shankbone has taken a LOT of
photos. An idea has been mooted to create a page for listing people who are willing to take images in their area on request, please give your thoughts
here.
Considerable discussion has recently been held on our coverage of same sex marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships. You may be interested to
read it.
The list of LGBT people
to be sorted has now been reduced by over 30%. Please help us with it, all of us adding just one person a day would have a dramatic effect!
A gay cabal conspiracy ghost has been created to do with what you will. :)
Wooh, massive gay conspiracy...
Member News
Since the last newsletter was released, we have had more members been labelled inactive than who have signed up - please consider recruiting a few more people if you can, a WikiProject is only as good as its members. :)
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please let us know
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Delivered on 16:00, 6 July 2007 (UTC).
Invitation to vote
You as someone who participated in the editing of English people article might be interested in taking part in
this discussion. Feel free to state your opinion.
M.V.E.i.16:40, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
The LGBT studies project has been rather quiet of late. Though we've added over 180 new members in the last year, only a small percentage are active participants. If you haven't visited our project or talk page in a while, please stop by for a look. Also, if you happen to bump into another editor who you feel might enjoy working with us, please extend an invitation. There's lot's do do, and the active members would sincerely appreciate some help.
Our Peer review project is struggling at the present, with only a few people reviewing the articles. While it is certainly possible to submit articles for a general peer review, a review by members of the LGBT community can be of additional value for LGBT specific writing. There are several articles currently up for review on a wide range of topics. At the very least, reading the articles will undoubtedly broaden your intellectual horizons :-)
At the moment,
David Le Brocq,
Malmö Devilants and
Trajectory Hermeneutics are up for deletion review. Please take a look at them and make your voice heard at the deletion review. Articles nominated for deletion also present a challenge for improvement. See what you can do, and watchlist our deletion review page.
The
Pederasty articles continue to be a point of controversy both within and outside of our community. Various editors have suggested that to include them as LGBT Project related somehow taints the project and brings Wikipedia into disrepute. Other editors have stated that the articles, and especially the Pederasty article, are part of the core of LGBT studies. Well meaning editors continue to remove our tags from the articles themselves as well as the talk pages. If you have time, please read the articles and watchlist them to protect them from vandalism and well meaning but counterproductive edits.
The list of LGBT people has survived its 4th nomination for deletion. Please watchlist this list to protect it from vandalism and unsourced additions. There are many in Wikipedia who would like to see this Featured status list removed from the project. It is up to us to keep it to such a high caliber that it never is removed.
Our project member David Shankbone is now working as a journalist for
Wikinews, as well as continuing to improve our project and Wikipedia as a whole with his photographs. A sincere thank you goes out to him for all of his hard work. Wikipedia would not shine nearly as brightly without your contributions, David.
Happy Halloween, everybody! Be happy and celebrate!
The surviving life partner of prominent LGBT rights activist Barbara Gittings recently called one of our editors and, among other things, complimented us on what a great job our project is doing on Wikipedia. Thanks to everyone who contributes to this project, either through their article edits or support for other project members. We really are making an difference here!
Member assistance
Some of our project members have been having difficulties related to editing on the encyclopedia. If you are feeling frustrated or distressed by your editing experience, please don't keep it to yourself. Wikipedia is a collaborative effort, and we are all here to help one another. Drop a line on our talkpage or on another editor's page, and other members of the LGBT project will happily give you the support you want and need.
Lastly,
Halloween is just around the corner. More than most holidays, Halloween is a holiday embraced by and tailor made to our community (though God only knows why we are invisible in the Halloween article here. Perhaps somebody would like to rectify that editing oversight). Have fun, everybody, and remember to both trick and treat!
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Hey,
Peeps, it's that time of the month again (no not that time — get your mind out of the gutter): time for another monthly edition of the
LGBT Project'sLove Boat newsletter from your
cruise directorMiss Julie. So much has been happening this month and I just can't wait to tell you all about it!!!
Alice and her harasser
Let's start with some good news:
Alice and the project lost the bothersome sock puppet who had been disrupting many articles we monitor, and now most of us can edit in relative peace. Congratulations, Alice, for being able to come out of semi-retirement.
Benjiboi, on the other hand, has gained an anonymous IP stalker who seems to be more Catholic than the Pope and who has a hard-on for the
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. We seem to have a sort of
Yin and Yang thing going on here, which helps both to keep us in balance and on our toes <bright smiles all around>.
Harry Potter and his homosexual teacher
Albus Dumbledore got
outed this month, and was immediately adopted by our project. The international brouhaha surrounding this disclosure reached all the way to Wikiland, and his article was briefly locked due to homophobic vandalism (as well as well meaning editors who just couldn't believe that that nice man could possibly be gay). This is a wonderful article to add to your watchlist, and will surely give you hours of reverting fun on cold winter days.
"My Fellow Americans"
On a more serious note,
Fireplace has suggested a new article series about LGBT rights in the United States, state by state. This ambitious topic will surely require many editors and a lot of research, but has the potential to add further prestige to our already prestigious project.
Same name, same sexuality: a riddle for the ages
Francis Bacon (not the
new gay one, but the old gay one ... though they're actually both dead, now that I think about it) has also aroused passions here on Wikipedia, with editors opposing his sexuality being disclosed in his biography. The always helpful
Haiduc has thoughtfully provided any number of sources, but it is slow going getting his point across. Anyone want to lend a hand?
Beat writer arouses Irish guy
And speaking of passions,
Jack Kerouac has inflamed the senses once again with editors, including administrator
Irishguy, mounting a spirited defense to keep him as heterosexual as possible for Wikipedia purposes. Why? I don't know. Perhaps some of you can drop by the
talk page and ask your questions there. I feel certain a stimulating debate will ensue that will be enjoyed by all.
Love those Texas Longhorns
Did you know that one of our
Featured articles,
Lawrence v. Texas, lost its shiny gold star? That was a shocker. It has been suggested that we turn our attention to it in an effort to restore it to its former glory. I took a peek, and it does need our help badly. For our American editors, it would seem almost a
civic duty to edit it (not that I'm hinting....).
Point and Counterpoint
Though it was far too intellectual a debate for a mere cruise director like myself to take part in,
Intersexuality was certainly a hot topic a week or two ago. The thrust of the debate was over inclusion in our project. Lots of good editors had lots of good opinions. For those too lazy to check out the discussion, we decided to leave it out for now.
Drudgery on offer
Peer review is, as always, short staffed and seemingly unloved. Wouldn't you feel better about yourself and the world in general if you took a few minutes to read one of the listed articles and offer some helpful advice? I know I'd feel better if you did.
"My Fellow Americans" redux
The article
LGBT movements in the United States certainly raised eyebrows last week, especially when it was discovered that copyrighted content had been added to our article. Tragedy was averted at the last minute, though, when the original hosts of the article where the material had been pilfered agreed to make it
free to everyone. Our thanks to them, whoever they are. Busy Bee that I am, I haven't had time to read it, but I'm sure it's sensational.
Not content to run for
Best Actress, plucky Bannon won a
Best supporting actress Oscar... whoops, I meant to say Ann is also getting more than her share of womanly attention on the Good Article list. Joining her on this exalted plane are
Freddy Mercury,
Waylon Smithers and
Lance Bass. Good articles indeed, and the last one mentioned just goes to show that one needn't admire the subject of an article to appreciate the effort put into making him worthwhile reading. What on earth
Britney ever saw in him I'll never know. Truly a riddle cloaked in an enigma and wrapped around a puzzle.
On a personal note, your already overworked cruise director is being cyberly whipped almost daily by
Nemissimo, who desperately wants to get the
German BDSM translation copy edited and used as a replacement for the current one. It's such a ... err, stimulating topic that I am sure many of you will want to join the copy editing fun. Jump right in, folks! It's so lonely copy editing it all by my lonesome!
Late breaking news
A little birdie just whispered in my ear that our noble
collaboration project was delisted from the
Community Portal due to inactivity. When asked how this scandalous turn of events could have occurred, the answer I received was "we suck at stuff like that". Well. In the first place, I disagree that
sucking should be considered a negative, but to each his or her own. In the second place, I have full confidence that we can and will collaborate with other projects in the future. So let's not view this as a setback (even though it is), but rather a challenge to improve (and good Lord, I sound almost
Wikipedian!).
Champagne dreams and caviar kisses
Lastly, the holidays are rapidly approaching. Our
American cousins are currently getting ready to slaughter masses of
poultry in an effort to show their gratitude and generally peaceful demeanor, and those of the
Canadian persuasion, trendsetters that they are, celebrated a bit early this year. I'm sure all us foreigners will join together in wishing them all a very happy
Thanksgiving on their respective holidays, both already celebrated and forthcoming... though I would hope somebody would enlighten me as to why they don't celebrate it on the same day. I was awake all last night trying to figure that one out.
In the spirit of this peculiarly North American holiday, let me take a moment to thank all of our editors for their contributions to this project. It's people like you who make people like me...well, a
"people person"! May all your Wiki days be bright, and may your
Love Boat never turn into a
Poseidon.
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please let us know
here. If you have any news or any announcements to be broadcast, do let
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Quelle Suprise!
King James is a Queen!
Our dear
Haiduc, never a stranger to controversy, recently decided to delve into the
wardrobe of the
British Monarchy, and what did he discover? King James had more than appreciative eyes for
strapping young men! Naturally, Haiduc felt the need to share this news with the community, but instead of being praised for his scholarship, he was reviled. In fact, one rabid heterocentrist even rummaged around in his own wardrobe until he found an old pair of
socks to play with. All seemed lost until astute editor
Jeffpw noticed some odd postings and did some sleuthing of his own. The socks were uncovered, the
Wicked Witch was
melted and readers the world over were able to learn that Good King James regularly ordered tube steak from the menu of the day. Thank you, Haiduc! Thank you, Jeff! And let Miss Julie add (for readers who
might not know) that
tube steak tastes just like
chicken!
It's Britney, Bitch!
Well, maybe it's not Miss Thang, herself, but it's the next best thing:
Chris Crocker! he stirs up just about as much controversy as his idol does, even here on Wikipedia. Though it's all a bit of a muddle, one of our editors hopes you can drop by the talk page and leave a message of hope for those battling the forces of obstructionism in that little corner of the Wiki World. It is so hard to spread enlightenment. As
Miss Parker herself said, "You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think".
Game show for nerds
Wallowing in cash from the latest
beg-a-thon, the powers-that-be have decided to sponser a little contest here to improve the articles, with a Grand prize of $100. Yeah. Just enough for a
Burger King dinner for the family. Still, the thought is nice and the goal is noble, so we should support it. Our little Queer beehive has taken a look at what's on offer, and both the
Greek Traditionalists and
Daughters of Bilitis are well represented. The ever useful
SatyrTN has made a little list, which can be found
here (if that malignant bot hasn't archived it already, that is). So find a pal, roll up your sleeves and dive right in. Let's show this Encyclopedia just what Queers with firecrackers up their....err, I mean, let's show the others what we can do.
Jón Þór Birgisson
I can't pronounce his name, but he's awfully cute, he's deliciously foreign, and best of all...he's GAY! But he won't be for long, if
certain users have their way. A concerted effort has been under way for a while now, designed to neuter poor Jon (pretend I put a little accent thingy over that O) and make him into a sort of rockin'
Ken doll. So please watchlist this hunka man, and keep him queer! If anybody questions you, tell them "Miss Julie sent me".
TranSanta
Everybody loves a sequel
Readers not afflicted with
Alzheimer's will remember that last month we had a little story about
Alice and her harasser. That proved so popular that we bring you the sequel:
Benjiboi and his stalker. After a chance meeting at the
Michael Lucas article, this anonymous user took a shine to our Benjiboi, and has been showering him with attention on virtually every board on Wikipedia. Flattered though he is, Benjiboi finds the attention a bit distracting, and administrators have been seeking various remedies for this. It has proven difficult, as the stalker has an IP address that changes quicker than
Superman in a telephone booth. So perhaps some of you would like to watchlist Benjiboi's page, and lend a hand if you see some love letters from an 11 digit friend. I was actually thinking we should get Alice's harasser and Benjiboi's stalker together. Then we could have another sequel, sort of like
Freddy vs. Jason. Any bets as to who would win??
Not quite the second coming, but special just the same
Let me be the first to give a warm, wet, Love Boat kiss (though not with tongue) to our newest Project members:
Jacksinterweb,
Cleduc,
Pigman,
Becksguy and
Iamandrewrice. Even in the month of our Saviour's birth, your popping into our Wikipedian lives is a blessed event indeed. As Jesus Himself said,
"Live long and prosper". He did say that, didn't he? I think he said it. In any event, if he was standing next to me now, I'm sure he'd say it, and add, "Happy homo editing!"
Battle of the Wikipedia Stars!
Indomitable
Ann Bannon is holding her own in Wikipedia's answer to
American Idol:
The Featured Article candidate list! For four feverish weeks, she has mastered the challenges and not been eliminated from the competition. Drop by the FAC page and show Ann you love her....or give her the hook (I'm not supposed to tell you how to vote). Giving our plucky Ann reason to hope is the recent promotion of
List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people: Sa-Sc. If Miss Julie has her way, we will have the entire alphabet of Queerdom Featured here on Wikipedia soon! And I would be remiss if I did not give a warm, Lesbian salute to our own
Belovedfreak, who showed Wikipedia with
But I'm a Cheerleader that even
pom poms are no protection from the Love that dare not speak its name, and got a
gold star for her efforts.
Climbing the Wikipedia career ladder is
User: Tim1965, who has not only written, but is now promoting
Reel Affirmations to
Good article status. Best of luck, Tim, and remember: there are no small parts, only small actors. We're sure you'll be trading that green circle for a gold star soon (assuming you get the green in the first place!).
Santa's on his gay way!
Santa needs elves
Yes, I know: packages need buying, trees need trimming, egg nog needs drinking. The holidays make many demands on our time. It's ...well, it's a bitch, is what it is. So I wouldn't blame you for skipping this little section and putting off my request until next year. But...think of the children. Our future. They need quality information about the homosexual "lifestyle" if we are to
indoctrinate them properly. That's why I am asking you to drop by
our Peer review area and give your meaning as to the efforts of your fellow gay Wikipedians. And think: in this season of kindness and good will to all, isn't it nice that I am pointing you to someplace where you can (in a Wikiloving way, of course) rip someone a new asshole? Think about it...and those children with their shiny, bright eyes, thanking you for contributing to their future.
Even more festively, consider joining in on the
deletion discussions of our favorite articles. Here you can bandy about such words as "homophobia", "Right-wing Christian agenda" and my personal favorite, "just who do you think you're pushing around?!?!?". If you play your cards right, there might even be an
extra present under the tree for you. :-D
Urgent Christmas appeal Tovojolo asked me to ask you to edit
Elizabeth Bishop as part of the Collaboration Project. She's an old dead poet (Miss Bishop, not Tovojolo. I've never actually met Tovojolo. She's probably very young and attractive. Maybe somebody should ask if she's single), but she was a flaming homosexual long before most of us had even been conceived, so we owe her some respect. Tovojolo actually asked me for the last newsletter, but Miss Julie forgot. Bad Miss Julie. She was so busy boosting morale it just slipped right by her.
Nemissimo, maybe you need to
crack that whip again to get Julie back in line.
Surrender, Dorothy!!!!!!! Friend of Dorothy has attracted the attention of a group of....the more senior elements of our gay society. They disagree with our thesis that
Saint Judy was the possible source of the term, and demand we change the article to reflect their contention that
Dorothy Parker was the origin. The problem is, their source didn't check out. So we agreed to disagree. Well, we at the project did. They got kinda mad at us, said unkind things, and started edit warring. Though they are old, they are certainly quick, and could revert the article faster than my nimble fingers could press the undo button. To quote the divine Miss Parker, every time I saw the article on my watchlist, I thought to myself, "What fresh hell is this?". The page was protected by sympathetic administrators, but keeping an eye on it will keep Dorothy safe from
future Wicked Witches of the West or East.
Ambrosia
Our dear
Benjiboi has been busy indeed, lately. He recently made fruit salad out of
Fruit, turning a once nasty word into a damn good article, and saving it from deletion! Congratulations, Benjiboi! I hear he has turned his attention from fruit to
poultry now. Before he is through, he will have turned every major food group gay on Wikipedia!
Christmas came early
Yes, indeed! Valued administrator
WJBscribe was raised out of the mire of mid-level management and placed squarely into the
Pantheon of Bureaucracy! And Miss Julie is just too proud of him not to mention that he got the most support votes in the history of Wikipedia! Congratulations, WJB! We know you will not prove
the Peter Principle correct!
You!
Yes, you! It's you who make this project shine! It's you who make Wikipedia such a valuable resource for all humanity! And it's you who make Miss Julie's dull life just a little bit better. So I want to take this moment to thank each and every one of you for all you do here.
Merry Christmas, everybody!
Happy Hanukkah!
Festive Kwanzaa!Delirious Dong Zhi!Delicious Diwali! And for our
oppressed Iranian brothers and sisters, I wish you a
safe and joyous Yalda. And if I didn't mention your favorite December holiday, well, it's because I feel it's so special I should just keep it between you and me. Always remember:
You light up my life!
May we all have a joyous holiday season, and a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous 2008.
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Your Cruise Director know.
Ms Julie is .. unavailable .. this month, so Isaac and Gopher have stepped in to put this newsletter thing together. We may not be as funny as you're used to, but if you'd like a free drink, come see me at the bar. That might help. Maybe. And no, there aren't any flashing lights or fancy pictures this month - I'm still recovering from a whopping hangover. Julie's recovering too, but that's a story I'll let her tell.
Two New Featured Articles (and...)
Emma Goldman was promoted to Featured status on
2007December 27. If you don't know Ms. Goldman, she was a Lithuanian anarchist. Aren't many of those around, really, so having one of our very own is special. She'll be dancing the Cha-Cha on the Promenade deck later tonight.
Ann Bannon was promoted to Featured status on
2007December 3. Faithful readers may remember
Moni moaning that we didn't mention this promotion in the last newsletter. Happy now?
The marathon efforts of Dev920 against her astonishing abilities of procrastination continued this month, and she managed to update the
Portal's main articles. Whether she will finally beat her procrastination pixies in submission and update the biographies remains to be seen, but Jeffpw has leapt to the rescue and taken it upon himself to do all our lovely news.
Friends, lend us your goodwill and your eyeballs, and mosey on over to see all Jeff's hard work.
Also, back in October 2007,
Allstarecho and
Benjiboi worked diligently on the "WP:LGBT Random Quote" and "WP:LGBT Random Picture" sections of the portal. They added many new quotes and pictures but, and yes here's the cat's meow friends... you can now use these on your own user pages! To add the "WP:LGBT Random Quote" to your own userpage, use: {{Portal:LGBT/Quotes}} And to add the "WP:LGBT Random Picture" to your own userpage, use: {{Portal:LGBT/Pics}} If you'd like to see it in action, check out Allstarecho's userpage for both in action and Benjiboi's
talk page for the Quotes in action!
The long, slow race toward FP status continues...
Bisexual Awareness Month
Folks in
Utah are celebrating Bisexual Awareness Month. For our own wikicelebration,
Alison suggests we try to bring
Bisexuality at least up to
good article status. Working on the
Utah article would be encouraged, but do it stealthily - they don't like us to be *too* open.
A cunning plan
In a move sure to bring her fame and fortune at last,
Dev920 (
talk·contribs) has proposed that an FA buddying system be set up, to help nudge frightened tikes who also happen to write killer ass articles over that initial first
FAC hurdle. Anyone interested in shepherding duties, or anyone interested in being
made to lie beside still waters (handcuffs are optional), do drop Dev an RSVP so she can start battering those darned pixies...
Zigzig20s has mentioned a desire to work on .. desire. Specifically literature by and about LGBT desire. To facilitate "LGBT Literature" taskforce, there will be
shuffleboard and
lesbian fiction on the foredeck later in the afternoon.
Signup if you're interested.
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current talk page.