User talk:VishalB

• Name change of cities in Karnataka: A straw poll was conducted on the proposal to change the name of cities in Karnataka, per the Nov 1, 2006 decision by the Karnataka government to rename them from the current anglicised forms. The result of the poll was to change the names. As controversial as the decision may be in the real world, the article Bangalore in Wikipedia still reflects the old name. You may be interested in knowing why. Dig the archives.

• New Project Noticeboard (Shortcut:WP:INB): WikiProject India now sports a new colourful centralised noticeboard. An effort to make the noticeboard current and dynamic was mooted a few days back, and Ganeshk came up with the new format. The new noticeboard will strive to be the one-stop shop for all project related information. The shortcut is WP:INB.

• Members List: The old members list is being phased out to give way for the new members list. New members are requested to add their names to the new members list. As the newsletter grows, further issues of the Project Newsletter will be delivered to those enlisted in the new list. So dash down now, to check if ur name is in there.

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  Featured Content: Three articles (Chalukya Dynasty (nom), History of Tamil Nadu (nom) and Bengali language (nom)), one list (List of Indian ODI cricketers) and one picture (Prayer flag in the Kurgiakh valley in Zanskar contributed by Moumine (pictured)) were featured from our WikiProject recently.

Are you stuck at a point where admin help is needed? There are 22 Indian Administrators in Wikipedia at the last count. If you need some help with anything related to WikiProject India, they are just a couple of clicks away!

• Welcome to the December 2006 edition of our newsletter. Time flies past like matter into the black hole. It is interesting to notice that we are already into the last month for the year of 2006. 2006 saw discussions and development beyond realisation. In the world of Wikipedia where quality counts than quantity, we have come a long way. We've made better than 'nothing', to say the least, and even that is an achievement. I take this opportunity to thank everyone including those who have dotted the i's and crossed the t's.

• As before, we'd like to stress, this is your newsletter, and we want you to be part of it as well. Provide us with news tips. It can be anything related to the project, from discussions to calls for help, and other interesting stuff within our community. If you have received or given any barnstars recently, do let us know. Sponsored content for recruitments within your WikiProject sub-groups are also welcome. We'll be very happy to include them here.

• Before we sign off, Advance New Year Wishes, everyone.

• Assessment Department (Shortcut: WP:IN1): Are you one of those gnomes?? Or do you want to take some time off some brain-frying active editing on Wikipedia?? Then Department of Assessment within the WikiProject India will be your forte. The department consists of a group of wikipedians who work on rating the India related articles to check if they are worthy enough to be included in the CD (or print) version of Wikipedia.

• The rating process gains more significance as we try to sort out which articles and which topics need more attention to balance the India related systemic bias within wikipedia. As a thumb rule, anyone can rate any article based on the related criteria, within the Stub/Start/B/A levels. However, ratings for Good Article Status and Featured Article status go through the nomination processes.

• How to?: The "how to" part of assessment is very simple. Just head on to the talk page of any India related page and you'll find the {{WP India}} template. Simply classify the article based on the content and the criteria mentioned here. You can find the detailed instructions here. If you think it may qualify for GA/FA status, first consider submitting the article for peer review.

If you run a covert newsroom operation, provide us with ur news tips here. Letters to the Editor are welcome as well.

• Usage of Vernacular scripts: Following extensive description at Wikipedia:Village pump (policy) archived here regarding inclusion criteria for vernacular scripts in Indian biographies, Wikipedia:Vernacular scripts was set up to formulate usage guidelines. However, discussion appears to have dissipated without a conclusive result.

• Project tagging:After a brief edit war over the addition of {{WP India}} to ancient archaeological sites now located in Pakistan, a "pre" parameter was introduced to remove the ROI flag from the template for pre-1947 articles, following discussion. After another large discussion on ANI alleging that the automated tagging by Ganeshbot and LostBot was "nationalistic", Ganeshbot was briefly blocked. Currently, the bots are again in action.

• What is India?:Recently, there have been ongoing discussions here which discuss the stated issue of "India" the historical region is different from the Republic of India. It consisted also of modern Pakistan and Bangladesh, but a search for "India" automatically redirects to the Republic of India. Should there not be a clarification? . This comes in light of clashes on articles such as Panini, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Muhammad Iqbal and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, regarding the status of the individuals.

• Swastika on Hinduism templates:Recently, an extremely large and at times emotional debate broke out regarding the use of the swastika on Hinduism templates, given its association with Nazism. As a result, {{Hindu Links}} now contains an educational message about the use of the swastika, as discussion on a more permanent resolution continues.

• Arbitration: Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Hkelkar regarding the activities of various editors on pages related to Indian religion topics closed recently, with Hkelkar, BhaiSaab and TerryJ-Ho all banned for one year. Currently, Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Sathya Sai Baba 2 regarding a dispute over the article of the religious teacher is in the voting phase.

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  Featured and Good Content: Two articles (Indian Standard Time (nom)) and (Hoysala Empire (nom)), were featured from our WikiProject recently, since our last edition. Irfan Pathan, Hinduism, Dinesh Karthik, Lage Raho Munna Bhai were promoted to Good article status.

Are you stuck at a point where admin help is needed? There are 21 Indian Administrators in Wikipedia at the last count. If you need some help with anything related to WikiProject India, they are just a couple of clicks away!

• Welcome to the January 2007 edition of our newsletter. Time flies past like matter into the black hole. A Happy New Year to all.
• Congratulations to one of our administrators, Shanel, who was appointed with 98% approval to the office of Steward across the Wikimedia Project.

• Weekly Collaboration (Shortcut:WP:INCOTW): Collaboration of the Week has fallen from its once high feats. Please drop by and help rejuvenate it.
• As before, we'd like to stress, this is your newsletter, and we want you to be part of it as well. Provide us with news tips. It can be anything related to the project, from discussions to calls for help, and other interesting stuff within our community. Sponsored content for recruitments within your WikiProject sub-groups are also welcome, including requests for copyediting, photographic work, peer review, etc. We'll be very happy to include them here.

• Before we sign off, Happy New Year, everyone.

• Translation Department: Can you read and write any languages of India? Do you know multiple languages and are looking to keep your skills at a high level or improve them? If so, the Translation Depeartment may be for you!

The translation department of the India WikiProject aims to utilize high-quality non-English material related to India for the goals of the project. This includes both translating articles from and to other-language Wikipedias as well as assisting contributors with non-English sources. The department aims to provide services in transliteration, formulating scripts for various languages, as well as translating articles from one language to another and validating sources in other languages to that of the encyclopedia article. If you are looking for a friendly translator here is your go-to point. Currently, we are still seeking representation for Kashmiri, Nepali, Oriya, Sindhi and Tulu, as well as reinforcements in all other languages.

If you run a covert newsroom operation, provide us with ur news tips here.

• Plagiarism by the Times of India: Recently it was noticed that the Times of India, the world's largest distribution daily had systematically plagiarised many of Wikipedia's biographies on members of the Indian cricket team among other cricketers on its website, sometimes with errors propagated (details). After discussion and discovery of further plagiarisms in other fields, the issue reached the admin noticeboard archived here.

• Jimbo's visit to India and the WikiCamp in Chennai: Jimbo recently visited India in late February and early March on wiki work. This included a trip to a WikiCamp in Chennai. The one day conference attracted 300 participants from across India and beyond dealt with issues facing wikis ([1]). It was widely covered by the press, eg The Hindu( [2]), which cited the efforts of Bhadani (edit count), Sundar (leadership on Tamil Wikipedia) and Ganeshk (Creation of Ganeshbot to create articles on Indian towns from census figures). Ganeshk himself travelled from California to attend the conference.

• Wikipedia Weekly 15: Wikipedia Weekly, a informal Wikipedians' program that purports to give "A weekly audio roundup of Wikipedia happenings with news, interviews and roundtable discussions" recently interviewed two prominent editors Rama's Arrow and Ragib(listen). The entire 34 minute interview was entirely about the world of Indian subcontinent wiki-happenings, and was the first episode which was not entirely dominated by discussion of wiki-politics and wiki-bureaucracy, with the host Witty lama praising the efficiency of the project and its proliferation of featured content. Rama's Arrow cited the team spirit, friendship and respect among project members in discussing its success and FA productivity, as well as discussing subcontinental wiki-conflict. Ragib talked also of his public campaign to raise awareness of the Bengali Wikipedia in his native Bangladesh, which has seen a 30-fold increase in article count over the past year.

• Arbitration: Three cases are either in progress or have recently ended.
  • Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/India-Pakistan regarding the activities of various Indian and Pakistani editors on pages related to Indian subcontinent history topics, the national status of various pre-Partition figures, and edit-warring over Indic scripts and WikiProject tags was held and concluded in late February- early March. As a result of this, four Pakistani users, Siddiqui, Szhaider, Nadirali and Unre4L were all banned for one year for disruption via edit-warring and confrontationalism.
  • Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Sathya Sai Baba 2 regarding a dispute over the article of the religious teacher closed in early March with four users indefinitely banned from the article.
  • Currently, Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Freedom_skies is in the evidence phase. It is concerned with the editing of Freedom_skies, who edits articles on ancient Indian history, primarily civilisation articles such as Indian mathematics and related articles, as well as Buddhism articles such as Pusyamitra Sunga, as well as those pertaining to the propagation of Mahayana Buddhism to China such as Bodhidharma and Zen.

• 
  Featured and Good Content: Eight articles: Vijayanagara Empire (nom), Delhi (nom), Pashtun people (nom), Nathu La (nom), Harbhajan Singh (nom), Hoysala architecture (nom), Harbhajan Singh (nom), Technopark, Kerala (nom) and Western Chalukya Empire (nom) were featured from our WikiProject recently, since our last edition. 'Dineshkannambadi has been a phenomenal force in the production of FAs recently, being responsible for three of these eight articles. He has totalled five FAs, all relating to Kannada history.

• Three portals: Portal:Hinduism (nom), Portal:West Bengal (nom) and Portal:Kerala (nom) were also featured.
• There were two additional GAs, Murali Kartik and Bhagat Singh.

Are you stuck at a point where admin help is needed? There are 21 Indian Administrators in Wikipedia at the last count. If you need some help with anything related to WikiProject India, they are just a couple of clicks away!

• Welcome to the March 2007 edition of our newsletter.
• Congratulations to one of our most respected writers, bureaucrats and administrators, Nichalp, who is now entrusted with the oversight permission. In addition Riana has joined the administrative ranks after a successful RfA.
• On a sad note, Nobleeagle, who was responsible for the creation of the Punjab WikiProject, and was largely responsible for Indian cricket team, Bhagat Singh and Lage Raho Munna Bhai becoming GAs, as well as working heavily in Indian religious and cricket work, has left the project after having his identity revealed.
• More generally, certain Indian users have recently been subject to real life harassment by banned users, etc. If this is affecting you in real life, please do not hesitate to contact Wikimedia board members for assistance, or ask a senior Wikipedian to solicit help on your behalf if required.
• Nishkid64, a prolific contributor and administrator, is currently undergoing surgery to fix a congenital heart defect. You can wish him well here.
• Weekly Collaboration (Shortcut:WP:INCOTW): Collaboration of the Week has fallen from its once high feats. Please drop by and help rejuvenate it.
• As before, we'd like to stress, this is your newsletter, and we want you to be part of it as well. Provide us with news tips. It can be anything related to the project, from discussions to calls for help, and other interesting stuff within our community. Sponsored content for recruitments within your WikiProject sub-groups are also welcome, including requests for copyediting, photographic work, peer review, etc. We'll be very happy to include them here.

• Translation Department: Can you read and write any languages of India? Do you know multiple languages and are looking to keep your skills at a high level or improve them? If so, the Translation Depeartment may be for you!

The translation department of the India WikiProject aims to utilize high-quality non-English material related to India for the goals of the project. This includes both translating articles from and to other-language Wikipedias as well as assisting contributors with non-English sources. The department aims to provide services in transliteration, formulating scripts for various languages, as well as translating articles from one language to another and validating sources in other languages to that of the encyclopedia article. If you are looking for a friendly translator here is your go-to point. Currently, we are still seeking representation for Kashmiri, Nepali, Oriya, Sindhi and Tulu, as well as reinforcements in all other languages.

If you run a covert newsroom operation, provide us with ur news tips here.