Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Singapore/2007 archive

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Infobox for names?

WikiProject Singapore/2007 archive
Hangul
인천국제공항철도
Hanja
仁川國際空港鐵道
Revised RomanizationIncheon Gukje Gonghang Cheoldo
McCune–ReischauerInch'ŏn Kukche Konghang Ch'ŏlto

Lots of articles on subjects in Singapore start with a huge slew of names in English, Malay, Tamil, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Proto-Quechua, etc. While this information is useful for some, it adds a lot of clutter to articles and often makes the first sentence nearly impossible to read:

The Mass Rapid Transit or MRT (Traditional Chinese: 大眾快速交通 or more commonly known as 地鐵; Simplified Chinese: 大众快速交通 or more commonly known as 地铁; Malay: Sistem Pengangkutan Gerak Cepat; Tamil: சிங்கை துரிதக் கடவு ரயில்) is a rapid transit system...

I think an infobox along the lines of the koreanname template to the left would be a good way of storing and displaying this info. Opinions? Jpatokal 04:50, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

  • Agree --ZhongHan (Email) 14:29, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
  • Disagree. There are plenty of templates on specific subject matter which does the same thing, so how useful will another box be?--Huaiwei 14:53, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
Of course it's a generic box, if there's a more specific one then obviously use that one instead. Jpatokal 15:04, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Bumpity-bump. I am so not wading into that Changi Airport mess again, but let's see if we can get some more opinions on this. Huaiwei, please also understand that this is intended as a "default" infobox for cases when there is no appropriate specific template, so I'd like to hear if you have other objections. Jpatokal 09:02, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

  • Weak agree − I would like to see how it looks like on the page itself, however. I think many users are used to seeing the language information in the topic sentence. -ryand 14:17, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
  • Agree – Don't know if this topic is still under active discussion, but I think an infobox for names would tidy up articles and would be an improvement. Cheers, Jacklee 15:43, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Do take a look at Talk:Singapore Changi Airport. Several editors have taken exception to the use of the four languages on this article (which is consistently applied throughout most of Singapore-related articles). I believe instead of making any change on Singapore Changi Airport based on any consensus on that particular talkpage, the issue of languages should be discussed here first, then applied across all our articles.

Some issues at hand (both for and against):

  • English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil are the official languages of Singapore and for the sake of equity, it is all or nothing for the latter three.
  • All these languages are used in the signboards most (if not all) government-owned buildings.
  • Having a string of languages makes the article lead rather cluttered.
  • Some (if not the vast majority) of users worldwide cannot understand the other languages, and just skip them over.

Let's come to an agreement whether the names should stay, go, or be changed somehow. Once done, we can proceed from here. I do prefer that this issue is settled here rather than in Changi Airport's article, where the interested parties are not necessarily from here and so may not understand the issue as well.

For starters, here are my opinions:

  • Drop the pinyin - if you know Chinese you probably can read the words as-is; if you don't, it's not going to help.
  • Use <small> </small> tags to shrink the other names to take up less space. However, the Chinese characters are already quite hard to read at this font size so it might not be practical.
  • Infoboxes with the other languages will just lead to even more clutter, so I object to a dedicated infobox for the names.

--Rifleman 82 22:37, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

Rifleman, you yourself posted this on the talk page only moments ago:
"I think that the presence/absence/line drawn should be dictated by a consensus of the people in those wikiprojects tending to the articles."
While this notice board is useful (which I do not debate) and may "claim" jurisdiction over the article, WP:AIRPORTS would be the only actual WikiProject associated with the article, as apparent by the lack of other project banners on the article talk page. That is a more appropriate place to discuss this, as you have stated yourself. If there a WP:SINGAPORE (WP:SG?) existed, which would likely be extremely useful, I concede that would also have a say in it. But remember, Singapore Changi Airport is, by definition, an airport and its location is somewhat less important. However, I do agree that pinyin should be dropped entirely, as its not even one of the official languages to begin with that we've all been debating over for well past a month now.
You're right in that the vast majority of the world does not understand these languages. While they may be useful to some, they're most likely only particularly useful to those who only speak that language, as those who have enough understanding of the English language to comprehend the 85kb article itself should be able to understand the name in English. What percentage of the English Wikipedia's readers only speak Chinese, Tamil or Malay? Hopefully none—why browse this Wikipedia if you can't understand what's being written?—though there are probably a few lurking around. These readers are far more likely to be reading in whichever language suits their needs best anyway if they're actually interested in the subject at hand.
As for the <small> element wrapping you're proposing for the names, the template (used in every article under WikiProject Airports) has been written with a nativename, nativename-a and nativename-r parameter for longer than I can remember. I'll be making the changes to the template shortly after I post this, as its been long established on the airport infobox's usage page that these should be used. I hadn't noticed that they were hard-coded with HTML tags instead of following accepted format until you mentioned it.
Like I keep reminding every on the article's talk page, the proposal is to keep all of the names in the existing airport infobox, which it was designed to accomodate, and to remove the other names from the lead paragraph only. A section on the names in other languages may be useful, but so far none of the supporters for keeping them have stepped up to the plate and actually written it. thadius856talk 23:05, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
Pray tell, why should Singapore Changi Airport be an aberration compared with all the other Singapore-related articles then? --Rifleman 82 23:28, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
I find it nonsensical that jurisdiction over articles is now being fought over based on nothing but banners. I remember there was a time disagreements were so heated over the content of the article that the Singapore Changi page was even removed from the Airport project. Would you like us to go down this path once again? We very well might if this kind of provincial thinking persists. Wikipedia is a SHARED project. Try arguing against that.--Huaiwei 23:10, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
If you read closely, I did not claim that since that project has the only banner on the page that it is the only one with jurisdiction. However, I can only assume such, as nobody has mentioned any other project that has even the slightest interest in the article. Even you have to understand that notice boards are not WikiProjects by definition. thadius856talk 23:21, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
Are you in the business of playing with words for the sole purposes of trying to exclude segments of the wikicommunity from participating in concensus building? Worse, are you claiming wikiprojects take greater ownership of wikiarticles, and have the final word over them? If this is what you are simply getting at, then no wonder you are part of that project. Its staffed by plenty of like-minded individuals like yourself.--Huaiwei 23:27, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
Can we not at least be civil and observe ettiquite? We're discussing a couple hundred bytes on a remote server somewhere. thadius856talk 06:03, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
Oh sure we all wish everyone could be civil since we are talking about civil aviation (and bless User:Strom for dropping me a kind note just when I am getting really hot under the collar [1]), but I am particularly insinuated by aggreesive comments such as those above which clearly attempt to elevate the status of some wikipedians and exclude others, for no reason other than over disagreements on a couple hundred bytes. That suggestion is a full scale insult on my very existance in this wiki, where I filmly believe everyone has a fair say in its growth and development. In a site where even anons are threated with respect and their contributions valued, may I see some justifications for sidelining non-project members and dismissing their views?
May I repeat, that for all our existance in this wiki, and for all the work the sg community have done for any kind of topic, the only wikiproject which has continously run into problems with the this community is none other then Wikipedia:WikiProject Airports and Wikipedia:WikiProject Airlines, both led by more or less the same individuals. Is this pure coincidence, or does it tell you something else? Let is all try to assume good faith, shall we?--Huaiwei 08:33, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
I'll try to actually answer the original question(s). In my opinion, the official languages are worthwhile but low-priority information and should hence be kept, but in an infobox to the side, not in the lead. If possible, the names should ideally be integrated with other existing infoboxes, not presented in a standalone box. In the odd case that the names differ radically or have interesting histories (eg. Tekka Market), a full explanatory section is of course warranted.
Incidentally, I believe that the most government buildings in Singapore consistently display only the English name. This is certainly true for Changi, which I pass through about twice per week: there's one prominent quadrilingual sign on the expressway coming in, and a whole lot of "Welcome!" type signs in all four (plus Japanese, Arabic, etc), but the overwhelmingly most common name is just the English "Changi Airport". Cf. the official home page, which consistently uses this name and doesn't even have Malay or Tamil versions. Jpatokal 09:14, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Question - is it possible to make it collapsible? --ZhongHan (Email) 07:01, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Can, but why? There's some template you have to use though. Terence Ong 07:59, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
Because, my dear friend, I feel it's <insert list of expletives here /> long and because many other navigational templates are. The closest is {{Navigation with image}}, but makes the text align centre instead of align left, and can get a little messy, to put it nicely. --ZhongHan (Email) 14:49, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Four potential Singaporean GAs!

The following four Singapore-related articles are close to meeting the Good Article criteria.

  • Singapore general election, 2006: This article is rated A-Class, and therefore should meet the GA criteria. However, Terence Ong mentioned that the article needs copyediting.
  • Singapore 2006: This article is rated B-Class. It currently has 47 references. I do not see any reason why it does not meet the GA criteria.
  • I Not Stupid: I have been working on this article for several months. It is currently B-Class. Once the "Production" section is complete, it should meet the GA criteria.
  • Fann Wong: Ryan-D and Voda voda have been working on this article for several a few months. It is currently B-Class. Once the "Personal life" section is complete, it should meet the GA criteria.

On 16 December 2006, I will nominate all four articles, together with Daniel Brandt, for GA status. It usually takes about a week for an article to be reviewed. If minor changes or clarifications are needed, a reviewer may place the article on hold, giving you another 7 days to address their concerns.

I encourage all Singaporean Wikipedians to collaborate on these articles. We should address any issues that are raised, and improve the articles to ensure they meet the GA criteria. Having more Singapore-related articles achieving GA status means Wikipedia's coverage of Singapore has improved, and this helps to counter systemic bias.

Besides working on the production section of I Not Stupid, I will help copy-edit Singapore general election, 2006, and ensure NPOV and compelling prose in Fann Wong.

--J.L.W.S. The Special One 13:48, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

I have submitted my nominations of all five articles (including Daniel Brandt). You may wish to comment in I Not Stupid's ongoing peer review. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 14:51, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
Unfortunately, I Not Stupid's GA nomination failed, and Fann Wong was placed on hold. Money No Enough's DYK nomination was successful. I will do my best to address the concerns raised by the GA reviewer. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 15:40, 27 December 2006 (UTC)
Fann Wong passed. Congratulations, Ryan-D! --J.L.W.S. The Special One 08:59, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Daniel Brandt failed (none of our business). Singapore general election, 2006 has been placed on hold. Please collaborate to address the issues raised, most notably several unreferenced paragraphs and information that may be out-of-date. Singapore 2006 has not been reviewed yet. Based on the ongoing discussion on I Not Stupid's talk page, I doubt it will be able to achieve GA status in the future. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 14:01, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
Singapore 2006 has been reviewed, but the outcome of the review is unclear. On the talk page, the template indicates that the nomination failed, but the heading indicates that the article has been placed on hold. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 14:51, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

anyone want to help out?--D-Boy 10:25, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Sorry this is the wrong place. We are supposed to discuss things related to Singapore or chat about anything fun. But this is the wrong place if you are asking for people to help out. Terence Ong 13:08, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Can you add Einstein Kristiansen to the "Expand/Improve" category?

If this is in the wrong place, apologies in advance; I don't really "do" Wikiproject & I know next to nothing about Singapore, but I was doing grammar/style cleanup & came across the Einstein Kristiansen page. He's a Norwegian cartoonist, but, according to the limited amount of info on the bio, he mostly produces children's television broadcast in SE Asia, especially Singapore.

There's very little info on any of the shows, so I created null links on them. Anyone who's got a head full of Singaporean-children's-TV knowledge, head over there? I didn't know where else to put this.

Again, sorry if I'm in the wrong place. Back to my comma-placement corner! --Parcequilfaut 05:09, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Floods in Malaysia, Singapore and Sumatra

Dear SGpedians,

In the coming weeks, several editors from WikiProject Meteorology and possibly some from Malaysia and Indonsia will be collaborating on a major article pertaining to the current December 2006 floods on the Malay Peninsula, including Singapore, and Sumatra. There are several issues which we must clear up before the creation of this article, including fixing the appropriate nomenclature and scope for the article. Please consider helping out in this collaboration. A sandbox and talkpage have been created. On a separate note, here's wishing all of you a merry Christmas. - SpLoT (*C*+u+g) 05:47, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

Afd for mrbrown

mrbrown is being AFD'ed. Do take a look at the discussion. --Rifleman 82 21:39, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

I found the Bonny Hicks article on the Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Bonny_Hicks, did a little research on it, and greatly expanded the article from a stub. One prominent journal source called her first book "a significant milestone in Singapore’s literary and cultural history". So much for the dismissive "not notable" votes on the AfD page!

At any rate, Talk:Bonny_Hicks still has a template saying that the article is Stub-Class and of Low-importance. Obviously, neither of these are the case at all. Does anyone know how to go about changing this? Would anyone be willing to please initiate a re-evaluation?

CyberAnth 09:09, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

Also, the article needs Categories, and I am just not knowledgeable enough about them all to know what to add. CyberAnth 09:43, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia Day Awards

Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 20:44, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

When do we start nominating for the awards? I like the idea, an interesting one. Terence Ong 16:05, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Singapore's National Poet

Someone hacked into my wikipedia user account in October, and put up Chandran Nair as Singapore's National Poet in List of national poets using my user account, ivygohnair. I only discovered that this list existed a few days ago on google! Chandran Nair is not Singapore's National Poet and I have rectified this.Ivygohnair 18:23, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

I've cleaned up the copyvio in this article. All but the Process section. Maybe someone can help with that? --Rifleman 82 16:59, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

An article you created or improved has been selected for Featured Article Review. Please see the talk page and the nomination page for ways you can improve it. Jeffpw 09:50, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

It has really serious problems, I can't improve with that. I guess we have to let the article be de-featured. Terence Ong 10:01, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
An article with so many "neutrality disputed", etc. tags doesn't deserve Featured Article status. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 13:48, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Amount of users!!!

It reached 100! Gratz SGpedians! btw is this nice?

-- {{User SGpedian}}


--GravityTalk 02:42, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Work on ASEAN

As we should all know, the ASEAN summit has ended not too long ago. This gives us plenty of material to work on to expand the ASEAN article, especially given the fact that they are planning an ASEAN reform in time for the next summit. Ariedartin JECJY Talk 03:25, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Feature for Digital Life!

Hi, everyone. I'm Daryl, a journalist from Digital Life, The Straits Times. We're looking to run a feature on online vigilantes and superheroes, the people who volunteer their precious time to keep the internet running. One of the sections will be on the folks who contribute to and maintain Wikipedia. As such, we're looking for someone (or many people) to interview and do a photoshoot with. Email and phone interviews are also possible. If you're interested please email me at darylcatlim@sph.com.sg (remove the cat) or leave a note here with instructions on how to contact you. The article is scheduled to run in a week, so replies before that time would be appreciated. Thanks. Gaieios 02:03, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Its possible to contact me via email. Email me the details thanks. Terence Ong 10:00, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
  • It is possible to email me too. I just emailed you. Just need the details. Thanks.--Tdxiang 10:46, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
I'm interested in doing an email interview. Special:Emailuser/Chacor on-wiki. BTW, it's best not to post full emails, lest spam bots pick them up ;) – Chacor 10:50, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
Oh wait, I just saw "remove the cat". Heh. – Chacor 10:51, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
Contacted you. Or you could email me if you haven't received the email yet. =) Ariedartin JECJY Talk 12:42, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
Would rather not do a photoshoot, but as Chacor said, an email interview would be fine. Special:Emailuser/SpLoT. - SpLoT (*C*+u+g) 13:01, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
I've been interviewed by two magazines, and once appeared in a CNA programme. Therefore, while I prefer an interview by e-mail, I would not mind a face-to-face interview, on one condition: please don't ask for my real name, as I keep my online and offline identities seperate (if the interview was about my chess-playing, I wouldn't mind revealing my real name). To conduct an e-mail interview, or make arrangements for a face-to-face interview, please e-mail me at hildanknight(AT)gmail(DOT)com.
Some background information on me: I'm a 15-year-old boy who loves computers, writing and chess. In addition, I'm a huge fan of Jack Neo movies and Chelsea F.C. I joined Wikipedia in February 2006, and enjoy writing articles and participating in discussions. I am the primary contributor to the following articles: Google Groups, AdventureQuest, Money No Enough, Homerun (film), and my best work - I Not Stupid. While contributing to Wikipedia can be fun, it can also be very stressful, and should you interview me, I will be happy to discuss both the positive and negative aspects of Wikipedia. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 13:38, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Latest update - Hi, everyone, Daryl again. Thanks for the overwhelming response! I haven't been able to reply to all of you who've emailed me yet - the sheer number means we can't interview everyone for this article, but thanks go to those who offered anyway. I met four of you yesterday for a face-to-face interview. As such I'd like to close this request for interviewees. Thanks again for all your time, and look out for the article in next week's Digital Life. Of course, if we do another article or feature on Wikipedia again in the future, I'll be sure to get back to you guys. Many thanks! Gaieios 01:24, 25 January 2007 (UTC)


Please help to verify these articles

Could someone help to verify these related articles: Seow Poh Leng, Seow Sieu Jin, Tan Kim Ching, Ho Hong Bank? These came into my radar screen, but I'm unable to verify the content from online resource. --Vsion 05:59, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Most were written by User:Jefferyyseow. The lack of verifiable references and the note at the bottom "researched by Jeffery Seow" suggests it's WP:OR at the very least, and dangerously close to WP:Vanity. The people involved do seem notable but I feel strongly that they should all be attributed properly, and written in a more NPOV. --Rifleman 82 08:59, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
These are indeed valid issues. We also need to determine if this is a hoax, or copyright violation. Does anyone has access to any of these two sources?
  • ONE HUNDRED YEARS' HISTORY OF THE CHINESE IN SINGAPORE' by Song Ong Siang
  • "SEOW SIEU JIN - A SECOND GENERATION BANKER" by Chen Wei Long, "Sin Chew Jit Poh" 26th July 1971
Maybe those folks wanting to be interviewed by ST can ask the journalist to access news archive to check it out. Also ask him why (the hell) SPH is still holding on to the copyrights of all the historic photographs of Singapore, and when they are going to release them to public domain. --Vsion 06:03, 24 January 2007 (UTC)


SG project assessment

A list of sg-articles that have not been assessed can be found in User:Vsion/temp3. If interested please help to add the sg-template (Template:SG) to the talk pages and rate the importance and status of these article. Information on how to apply the template is given in Template:SG. Thanks. --Vsion 04:25, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Wow, what a huge backlog. Didn't know there was so many SG articles not assessed. I think there's even more but not classified under Singapore-related categories. Will do it asap. Terence Ong 04:41, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
Thanks! Hope more people could help out, my fingers cramped after clearing a few dozens. There are certainly more articles out there, although I don't think there're many; maybe around 50 or so. This is because as we update the "it's new" section at the noticeboard, I notice that most articles are found within 2 months of creation. Great categorization effort going on at Category:Category needed.
Btw, while we are approaching the 3,000 sg-articles milestone soon, the articles' ratings are quite dismal. We should identify more articles to push for promotion to GA. --Vsion 07:24, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
Instead of like, say, creating 3,000 articles where 2,500 are stubs, we should be improving the 'Class A'-assessed 500 articles. The 2,500 stubs, many on roads, buildings etc, could hardly go GA. The remaining 500 has no references, no sources quoted, not copyedited generally etc. The more we stretch the materials, the thinner sg-articles appear. All quantity, no quality. Mandel 12:47, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
I'm glad to help out. - SpLoT // 08:05, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to be part of this project. May I have some guidelines? Being a member of SGpedians can I help by assessing some of your huge backlog straightaway to help lighten your load and also to help get more people to come to the SGpedians Noticeboard and become members. Thanks. Would appreciate your prompt replyIvygohnair 12:41, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

May I still know whether as a member of SGpedians, I can put any article I find in WP which is related to Singapore under SGpedian Wiki project and and rate it, using the template provided?Ivygohnair 15:41, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Backlog has been cleared. Please see Wikipedia:SGpedians' notice board/Article Assessment. - SpLoT // 14:07, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
Sadly, we can't get a bot to help us )= - SpLoT // 08:06, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
Hi, Ivygohnair, what about having a look at the table at the top of the "SGpedians' notice board" and seeing which new articles you can help to create, or existing articles you can expand or improve on? Since you're a writer, "Literature of Singapore" might interest you. Many of the articles on Singapore writers and poets are also stubs. Cheers, Jacklee 15:39, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Jack Lee. I would like a reply to my last query. Like to know more about the actual rating process that is practised here before I start.Ivygohnair 15:43, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

SG Infopedia

There is a lot of overlap in terms of articles at SG Infopedia as well as detail of coverage. How does one go about using or citing it?

For example, a wiki article on Howe Yoon Chong(former MP of Potong Pasir) has yet to be created. But SGInfopedia has possibly the most accurate and certainly the most comprehensive writeup done. Any wiki article would effectively be a a re-write of the same information.

http://infopedia.nlb.gov.sg/articles/SIP_652_2005-01-11.html

Koxinga CDF 03:24, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Interesting. Those articles are quite well sourced. Not sure how to use them, have to be careful not to violate copyright. As a start, I will generate a list of missing articles. --Vsion 04:18, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
See Wikipedia:SGpedians' notice board/Infopedia articles for the list of infopedia articles. -Vsion 04:52, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
I noticed that many of the articles on the list exist, but are under different names (some by NLB are pretty weird IMO, like the Woodlands MRT line). - Mailer Diablo 05:12, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Improving articles

I'd like to say that there should be an improvement drive going on. Instead of creating 3 or 4 stubs a day, we should likely improve, edit or read up on the relevant subjects. Reading some of these articles reminds one of watching One Leg Kicking. A lot of links are there because its Singapore-related, not because the article writer has anything encyclopedic to say. mandel 23:13, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

moved to talk page.Vsion 02:10, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
I'd like to second what Mandel has said. My impression is that many editors are creating Singapore-related articles – which is a great thing – but leaving most of them as stubs rather than making the effort to try and expand them into full encyclopedic articles. I'd like to encourage all editors interested in Singapore-related topics to do so. Cheers, Jacklee 20:14, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

New template: {{Singapore Statute}}

Share with all a new template: {{Singapore Statute}}. This is an automatic external link to the statute at the Attorney-General's website. It's modeled after {{US patent}}. I'll do the documentation when I have a bit of time.

There is probably a list of Singapore-templates. If someone knows where that is, please let me know here, and/or add this template to that list. --Rifleman 82 07:49, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Added it to the "Templates to use" section in the article. Cheers, Jacklee 19:32, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Copyvio at this page. Perhaps someone can help rewrite and reference properly? --Rifleman 82 05:51, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Meetup/Singapore 1 does not redirect properly

I notice that when loading Wikipedia:Meetup/Singapore 1, I generally get an error message, instead of being redirected to Wikipedia:SGpedians' notice board/Meetup. Does anyone else have the same problem? --ZhongHan (Email) 02:59, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

It seems to be working fine now. --ZhongHan (Email) 04:59, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

I was wondering what you guys think if I nominated Asian Communication Resource Centre for deletion merge. It's basically just one library out of the several Nanyang Technological University Libraries . I'm not sure how notable it is as a source of Asian material, though I use it everyday. :) If there is no objection..... Aarontay 08:13, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

Nominate it by all means. - SpLoT // 08:20, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
Okay done. I have proposed merging it into Nanyang Technological University Libraries would be better since it is already part of the article. Aarontay 08:36, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

Common Indian Surnames in Singapore?

I don't think this deserves an article. {Slash-|-Talk} 04:24, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Article listed for deletion

List of common Chinese surnames in Singapore has been listed for deletion. If you're interested, please comment on its AfD - Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of common Chinese surnames in Singapore. Hong Qi Gong (Talk - Contribs) 07:24, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Meetup on 10 March

There will be a meetup on 10 March 2007 at Chaerani's house. It will be a full day event, though you can join and leave in the afternoon or evening. Do confirm your attendance by 3 March 2007 as we need to estimate how many participants will there be. Terence Ong 恭喜发财 11:29, 21 February 2007 (UTC)



Singapore Meetup

Meetup 14

  • Status: Upcoming
  • Date: Friday, 7 July 2023
  • Time: 7:00pm
  • Place: Aperia Mall Level 1

Please indicate your interest on the meetup page.

v  d   e

Survey respondents for a very short survey

Hi,

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=885123332326

Im Junde and i seek survey respondents amongst the SGpedians community. I am a final year student from NUS working on a thesis about incentive mechanisms for online knowledge sharing communities in Singapore. This is a very short single-page survey and i hope you can pass the message around.

You can contact me at junde2 [AT] gmail [DOT] com (preferred) or junde [AT] nus [DOT] edu [DOT] sg (if you dont trust gmail)

Thanks very much for your help. Junde

Jurong Point speedied

For info, Jurong Point was speedy deleted about a month ago, I just realized it. I have sent a note to the Admin who did it, requesting explanation. --Vsion 04:39, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Wasent there an AFD on this topic before, which resulted in its deletion? Think it is speedied now coz it was recreated.--Huaiwei 15:16, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Please comment at my editor review.

Greetings, fellow SGpedians. After a month-long hiatus, I am gradually returning to regular editing. However, I believe I still need to learn how to handle conflicts better and not let the verifiability policy hinder my ability to write. Please help me in that aspect by commenting at my editor review. Thanks. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 09:31, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Remarkably well written especially for one so young! But do remember that while encyclopedias bring you knowledge, books bring you the wisdom that should go with knowledge. Shut down your computer young man, and get thee to a library.Ivygohnair 13:41, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Narration?

There is a heading in the article for "Narration requests". What is narration? Cheers, Jacklee 19:42, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Narration means reading out loud, recording that, and uploading it for everyone to hear it in orthodox Singrish. -- 我♥中國 18:53, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
EDIT: :) -- 我♥中國 18:55, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Ah, so! Cheers, Jacklee 03:25, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Save the "Singapore law stub"!

Hi, fellow SGpedians. I created a new Singapore-related stub yesterday, called {{Singapore-law-stub}}, not realizing that there was actually a procedure for nominating the creation of new stub categories. (Oops, mea culpa.) Anyway, someone has nominated this new stub for deletion. I have entered a "keep" request with justifications. If you would like to support this stub, please enter your comments at "Stub types for deletion". Cheers, Jacklee 12:28, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

The number of articles seems rather limited now, hence their primary contention to remove it other than it not following "procedures" (darn the red tape! :D). Do you have intentions to greatly expand on this topic anytime soon?--Huaiwei 04:51, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
I did the same thing once and the stub-category I created got deleted. I think it is alright, there are good reasons not to have too many stub-categories, which primarily purpose is for monitoring. More people will monitor cat:singapore-stub than cat:singapore-law-stub. I believe you can still keep the template, but it will be recategorize to Cat:Singapore stubs and Cat:Law stubs instead. Thus, you can still get a listing of articles by using the "What links here" function [2]. --Vsion 13:37, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
Agreed. Since there are not much law articles regarding Singapore here, there's no need for a particular stub type. Having two stub types will have more articles linked since people will watch these pages more. Its okay to let it be deleted. Terence 13:45, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Hello

I have just signed up to the SGpedian community. I am sixty years old and live in France but I return to Singapore at least twice a year for at least a month each time. I would like to get to know fellow SGpedians in WP, so I have made a proposal for the next Meetup to be at my place. Please see the Meetup section. Looking forward to seeing you on 1st July. Ivygohnair 07:49, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

May I have an answer please?

Refering to Vsion's post on SG project assessment above:

A list of sg-articles that have not been assessed can be found in User:Vsion/temp3. If interested please help to add the sg-template (Template:SG) to the talk pages and rate the importance and status of these article. Information on how to apply the template is given in Template:SG. Thanks. --Vsion 04:25, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I would gather that up to now any single person can rate any article on WP that they decide to bring under the Sg Wiki project any way they like as long as they use the SG template given above. A single SGpedian, like user SPlot, can in half an hour rate all the numerous remaining unassessed articles that were there a couple hours ago, all by himself and the onus was on him alone to decide the quality of each article.

Please confirm that this is correct.Ivygohnair 22:06, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I believe that's the case, since anyone is entitled to edit Wikipedia. It's also open to people to reassess and re-rate articles that have already been rated – and in fact, this should probably be done regularly. Cheers, Jacklee 00:57, 24 March 2007

(UTC)

Thanks for your prompt reply, Jack Lee. I propose that we should review this practice. As it stands, it leaves the door open to hastily rated articles by individuals (who might not even bother to comment on the reasons for their ratings even though this is asked for in the SG template itself). An editor who has spent considerable effort creating an article should surely have the right to know why his or her article is rated poorly. We also have to be extra sensitive about biographies of living persons for real people's reputations are at stake here. The fact that any other individual can use the same template and re-rate articles seems a little bit crazy, like the law of the jungle, and would lead to edit wars and possible 3R violations. Also what happens if an article is also international in scope? Does the creator have the right to ask it not to be under the umbrella of the SG Wiki Project?

Singapore is a small country which has distinguished itself internationally by its many outstanding achievements. SGpedians should be careful not to tarnish her reputation by continuing this unfair and unreasonable practice in an open and international forum such as WP.Ivygohnair 02:55, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Let's try first to resolve this matter among ourselves, without anyone having to appeal for outside arbitration.Ivygohnair 03:09, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

I can tell you this much, the ArbCom would not accept a request because there is no dispute to arbitrate (yet). They'd probably end up admonishing whoever brought the case for wasting their time. See WP:DR for full steps if you truly believe there is a dispute. Cheers. – Chacor 03:19, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
As for "Also what happens if an article is also international in scope? Does the creator have the right to ask it not to be under the umbrella of the SG Wiki Project?", the answer is a resounding NO. See WP:OWN. No-one owns any article. "Creators" don't get extra input. If it is international in scope it will then fall under more than one project, but the Singapore project is more than free to tag it if it's related to Singapore. Cheers. – Chacor 03:22, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
Ivygohnair, I'm not sure what you're proposing is feasible. Even if your preferred policy were implemented, people who elected not to comply with it would be quite free to re-rate an article (and, indeed, to amend it) if they disagreed with the "official" rating. It seems to me that this is the essence of Wikipedia: an article evolves through the inputs of a number of editors and, perhaps after a while, stabilizes when consensus is more or less is reached as to its content. Order is not imposed from top down, and creators of articles are not specially privileged in any way. In fact, at the bottom of every editing page is the following statement: "If you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly or redistributed by others, do not submit it." Cheers, Jacklee 03:49, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Thank you Jack Lee again for your prompt reply. It is a good that we can all air our views calmly even if we do not always agree.Ivygohnair 04:44, 24 March 2007 (UTC)


I left a note on her user talk page. --Coredesat 04:00, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Great thanks to SpLoT and Terence for helping to clear the backlog! And kudos to Mailer and others who started the process. Now we have a fairly good picture of where we are, in terms of article scope and quality: Wikipedia:SGpedians' notice board/Article Assessment. --Vsion 13:48, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Raising some Points

I was just raising some points I was concerned about here in this forum. Is it necessary to set an admin on me for that? What happen to the spirit of free debate and discussion that WP is supposed to incarnate?Ivygohnair 04:59, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

No one "set an admin" on you. Please don't make unsubstantiated accusations, which is in violation of WP:CIV and a failure to assume good faith. – Chacor 05:01, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Coredesat left a note here that he had left a note in my USER:talk page. The last time he admolished me on "mass postings" it was on the request of SGpedians. My apologies if this is not the case. CheersIvygohnair 05:14, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Just a thought, but if he's talked to you before about this "on the request of SGpedians", it's possible he has this page watched and saw the discussion, and hence decided to remind you. – Chacor 05:17, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
Beware of baseless claims. - SpLoT // 08:50, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Sorry to hear what has happened, perhaps this is just some misunderstanding. Several pages, including this one, are watched by several non-SGpedian editors, including admins. If you need any help, drop a note on my talkpage. - Best regards, Mailer Diablo 11:54, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Fellow SGpedians, I have written an article on The Best Bet and nominated it for DYK. Please help me improve the article, and respond to the request for feedback I filed on the article. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 03:18, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

The DYK nomination was successful! My next goal: I Not Stupid for GA status, and another DYK. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 15:11, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

I have filed a peer review for I Not Stupid.

Please leave comments at the peer review to help me improve the article to GA status. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 16:14, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Military History task force

A Southeast Asian task force within the Military History WikiProject has finally been created. If there is anyone here who is interested in the subject - stretching from the origins of civilisation up through today - I invite you to please come and lend your support, questions or comments, here. No serious responsibilities or obligations connected to signing up, only another way to meet one another, to work together to expand and improve Wikipedia's coverage of these subjects. Thank you. LordAmeth 06:15, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Bilateral relations discussion

I would like to invite you all to participate in a discussion at this thread regarding bilateral relations between two countries. All articles related to foreign relations between countries are now under the scope of WikiProject Foreign relations, a newly created project. We hope that the discussion will result in a more clean and organized way of explaining such relationships. Thank you. Ed ¿Cómo estás? 18:12, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

USP

Please see Wikipedia:NUS Scholars Programme and its talk page. Someone please take them in hand! -- RHaworth 16:57, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

The topics were very poorly selected. How did you get this list? Could you provide some background and the point of contact? Thanks. --Vsion 05:16, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

The list was included in several of their articles - eg. this. The caption to the first, deleted image in this gave their supervisor's name and I have linked to his web page in Wikipedia:NUS Scholars Programme. Ask Quek Ser Hwee for the background! I have already emailed him requesting hime to read the Wikipedia: project page. -- RHaworth 06:59, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Should we add a disambiguation link at WP:SG?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:SG!

If you click on the above link, which was intended to point to the SGpedians' noticeboard, you will go to the Manual of Style, because the parser does not consider the exclamation mark to be part of the URL. During MSN Messenger conversations with Wikifriends, I have encountered this problem several times. URL parsers aside, even experienced Wikipedians are likely to confuse WP:SG! with WP:SG, or forget the exclamation mark when typing in the URL.

Hence, I propose that WP:SG should have a disambiguation link to WP:SG!, and vice versa. Besides pointing confused Wikipedians in the right direction, a disambiguation link from such a popular project page would give our noticeboard more exposure.

--J.L.W.S. The Special One 13:43, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Good idea, but we do have two new shortcuts at WP:SGN and WP:SGNB. Nonetheless, go ahead. - SpLoT // 14:01, 25 April 2007 (UTC)
You might also simply change WP:SG to point over here instead. (That’s allowed, isn’t it?) There are only a dozen legitimate references to WP:SG for the Manual of Style, mostly users’ talk pages, and most of them were added by the same user. Why clutter things up to disambiguate a link that’s hardly ever used? --Rob Kennedy 06:10, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Categories and NA

Hi I have dabbled a bit in the Indonesian and Australian projects with the tagging of articles - and got into WP xxx class=NA tags on the talk pages of Categories - as a means of pulling in rogue categories, unpopulated ones, and generally creating Non-article XXXX page categories - it seems to help to get a sense of order. Is there anyone in the Singapore project who might see benefit of this for the singapore project? Just an idea - interested if anyone has any ideas on this for your project - cheers SatuSuro 13:07, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Not quite sure what you're talking about here. Are you referring to the non-existence of a category for pages which are tagged NA class by {{SG}}? - SpLoT // 13:15, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
It can mean two - things. 1. All categories in most projects are not tagged - but in the ones I have mentioned above - Category talk:Australian sports articles by importance a recent edit - the category page is clearly identified as a non article page and is tied to the major project, and a sub project. 2. The NA class category can self ref (I havent been told otherwise so far) - I hope that explains clearly enough SatuSuro 14:51, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
Ugh, I'm really sorry, but I don't understand what you're referring to. I know you're talking about NA-class articles and their categories. Would you like to see a category of NA-class SG articles? - SpLoT // 05:12, 28 April 2007 (UTC)
No need to apologise - it can be of a small benefit for a project to have all its categories effectively listed on a Non-article category page (from being tagged) - it is a tidy record of what categories have been caught by the process - I am more interested in the either approval or understanding of s SG project person who might either see some benefit by doing such a level of tagging - if there is no interest - no bother - I still have heaps to for the Indonesian and Australian projects - but if you were interested - its worth a start! SatuSuro 05:16, 28 April 2007 (UTC)
Oh, go ahead then! =) I'm pretty clueless about how to add such a category, but if you can, please do! - SpLoT // 05:24, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Consensus?

For Singapore Changi Airport, a user keeps removing "Taiwan" from one of the names of it's international airports. And he said "the majority of singaporeans editors have agreed upon this and if you are unhappy about it...it is just too bad". I want to clarify, is there a consensus at all in the first place? - 218.186.9.4 14:40, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

That article has experienced more than its fair share of heated debate. I would suggest that you raise that on the article talkpage, or contact the individual in question. However, in my knowledge, there has been no such agreement. But do check with other frequent editors of that article. Thanks for your concern. - SpLoT // 05:10, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

The reason why I sought clarification is because of that user's attitude. That user thinks that what he does is always right, and everyone else is wrong. And because of that he can do whatever he wants. That is just so wrong and rude of him. He acts like he owns the place and any views contrary to his is not allowed. If he just stopped his incessant barking and discuss with me about it I would be more than happy to listen to him. - 218.186.9.4 05:22, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Whatever the situation is, the best thing to do is to keep your cool and be polite. Assume good faith and remain civil, never ever make personal attacks against any user. Just discuss with that person on the talk page. Terence 06:14, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
Perhaps, but it will be far more constructive to gain some kind of concensus in the talkpage of the Taiwanese airport (and not in the Changi article's talkpage) first, for in every content dispute, both users could very well think the other user as having a "Bad attitude". Meanwhile, you may wish to consider registering an account with us. :D--Huaiwei 06:16, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't see why people can't discuss it on the talk page of Singapore Changi Airport. The issue in question concerns the airport, in particular a destination airport that an airline flies to from Changi. Another matter is, saying to someone that it's just too bad when someone disagrees with him and telling that someone to distance himself from the article isn't very friendly behaviour either. I have never considered registering an account in the first place. - 218.186.9.4 12:37, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

The naming of the airport affects all airport pages which has a connecting air service with it. Any changes in one page will obviously need to reflect changes in the other pages as well. There is already an on-going discussion on this matter at the talkpage of the Taiwanese airport, and should you insist on having a dictinct discussion at the Singapore airport's talkpage, you are simply fragmenting the discussion and will be counter-productive because whatever comes out of it is unlikely to overule decisions made in the Taiwanese airport's talkpage.--Huaiwei 13:25, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

The reasons why things like this happen is because the discussion is too centralised in one location. - 218.186.9.4 13:58, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

That is a rather odd presumption, and is also at odds with Wikipedia's concensus policy. Could you provide the diffs to explain your reasoning?--Huaiwei 14:17, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

New users would not know that a discussion has taken place somewhere else on the issue at hand. Having a link to the issue being discussed at the "others" talk page will minimise confusions from arising. - 218.186.9.4 14:31, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Then all you need to do, is to remove the said edit by the new user and provide a link to the discussion page in the edit summary in the bare minimum. This is not a good reason to fragment the discussion, for how in the world do you expect to come up with a single concensus if people are talking independently from each other in multiple places?--Huaiwei 14:44, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

That would be easy if everyone cooperates. Sadly it doesn't happen in reality. Some people's views will always come first. - 218.186.9.4 16:15, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

We make do with whatever is available to us, but this dosent mean proposing a counter-productive means of doing things. We arent multiplying negatives here in the hope of getting something positive. ;)--Huaiwei 15:22, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, Wikipedia isn't perfect. - 218.186.9.4 07:21, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Eliyathamby - Just Curious

The article Eliyathamby makes many boastful claims without any reference or verification.

Was he really ever in the Forbes List? Was his net worth about $9B (Singapore or US dollar)?. The rest of the articles also seem very poor quality. Can someone clarify and if the facts are true reference it to make it more professional. Without references or links it is useless. Another thing is there are no dates or names properly. The whole article seems like a school boy boast.

Busterbenbusterben

I tagged Eliyathamby as suspected hoax. Let's see what happen. If we still can't verify the information within the next few days, the article should be listed at Afd. --Vsion 17:19, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
For a person who is supposed to be a pioneer of Singapore, there certainly seems to be dearth of verifiable information on him. I ran all the books listed in the "References" section through the on-line catalogues of the National University of Singapore Libraries and the National Library of Singapore. The only one which popped up was the first one. I also did a "Find" on the web page containing the Genealogy of the Royal Family of Jaffna listed in the "External links" section, and "Eliyathamby" did not appear anywhere on it. Hmmm... (I've put a copy of this message at "Talk:Eliyathamby".) Cheers, Jacklee 23:34, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Please also take a look at Angsoontong. Despite the murder case, how much is known about this gang? Is the article, in its current state, worth keeping?--Vsion 03:49, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Not really, imo. It's cluttered with original research. The one source only references that Tan Chor Jin incident. - SpLoT // 07:26, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

References for Eliyathamby and Other issues

Its been a few weeks/months since the issue of verification/references cropped up for the page Eliyathamby. In the absence of any references or proofs, it is not wikipedia material. What is equally disturbing is in the page of two other billionaires, Ng Teng Fong and T. Ananda Krishan, Elyathamby's name comes up with no reason. Factual accuracy and relevance are issues in those pages. Is he the real brother of TAK? If not is it relevant to have his name in that page? I believe the families come from different villages in Jaffna so it is unlikely they are brothers.

Did NTF become a billionaire because of Eliyatamby? If so please quote with reference for the relevance.

I have been unable to locate the Forbes edition which valued ET's wealth at $9.6B yet.

Either references or the relevance of it must be shown. Otherwise it is safe to assume, people are acting together with the intention of "creating" a profile. I hope Admins look into this seriously and the SGPedians pay attention to ensure that all articles related to Singapore maintain the necessary standards. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Busterben (talkcontribs) 19:47, 4 May 2007 (UTC).

The article is now nominated for deletion: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Eliyathamby. Thanks for alerting us on this matter. --Vsion 05:31, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Merge

The Singapore Grand Prix and Singapore Street Circuit articles are very similar to each other. They should be merged. - 218.186.9.1 13:14, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Please confine the discussion to Talk:Singapore Grand Prix. Thanks!--Huaiwei 13:28, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

New look for the SGpedians' notice board?

This is not high priority, but perhaps some thought could be given to improving the look of the SGpedians' notice board? I notice that some other WikiProjects have adopted a rather fetching, professional-looking layout – see, for instance, Wikipedia:WikiProject Iceland (which itself was "blatantly 'borrowed' from the Molecular and Cellular Biology WP page").

Also, perhaps we should look at archiving some of the new articles and honourable mentions. Cheers, Jacklee 12:37, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Nice, but they are primarily WikiProjects, while ours is kinda becoming a mixture of sorts. :D I agree we can do something about the formatting thou, unless we are really gonna migrate completely to a wikiproject?--Huaiwei 13:19, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps we're not ready to become a full-scale WikiProject yet, in the sense of editors collaborating on articles, but there's no harm in jazzing up the layout of the notice board. Cheers, Jacklee 13:27, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

yups...think I can help out...but not at the moment. Will look into this in the next few days, but ideas and help are most welcome!--Huaiwei 14:21, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
We desperately need a logo for the community/project :D. We can't just use the flag all the time. --Vsion 16:44, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

I've got no idea how to create a logo, but WikiProject Iceland has just adopted a rather nice one. Is there any SGpedian out there who can help create one? If not, I wonder if we can ask the chap who did the WikiProject Iceland logo to lend a hand? Cheers, Jacklee 20:38, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

As a start, I trimmed some sections to make some room. Let's make a list of desirable improvement:
  • 1. Design new layout
  • 2. Design logo
  • 3. Expand "resource" section
  • 4. Organise "Featured" section
Any other suggestions? To move this discussion to a higher level, I think we should convert this "noticeboard" to a wikiproject. We hadn't been successful in our past collaboration initiatives, perhaps an extreme makeover will help. Wikiprojects seem to generate a greater sense of teamwork and collaboration among members. Comment? --Vsion 06:12, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

I have filed peer reviews for 3 articles on Singaporean films.

I have filed peer reviews for 3 articles on Singaporean films - I Not Stupid, I Not Stupid Too and Singapore Dreaming.

Please help fight systemic bias by commenting at the peer reviews! I am aiming to get I Not Stupid and Singapore Dreaming to GA status, while for I Not Stupid Too, I would like to find out whether such a goal would be feasible.

--J.L.W.S. The Special One 01:42, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Peer review

John Martin Scripps has been listed for peer review. Feel free to comment and give suggestions to improve the article on the review page. Resurgent insurgent 14:31, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

You forgot to add the {{peerreview}} tag to the talk page. That aside, I think the article has GA potential, and you should consider a GA nomination after you have addressed all the concerns raised at the peer review. The article could do with a dedicated group of 3-5 editors working on it and pushing for GA status. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 14:37, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
For the record, I used the WikiProject Biography template's peer-review option to link to the PR. A bot pulls all WikiProject-internal PR's onto wikipedia:peer review at regular intervals so they get equal exposure. Resurgent insurgent 16:06, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

And now it's a featured article candidate. You can leave comments here. Resurgent insurgent 10:17, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Simplified MRT rail maps

I've created a simplified rail map of the North South MRT Line using resources from Wikipedia:Railway_line_template. Seeing that each of the pages for each MRT line lacked a simple rail map with the names of each station on them, I went to create one. The map features stations, tunnels, interchanges, and crossovers with only main roads. I hope that those interested could take a look at it, possibly use it, and perhaps create versions for the other lines as well.

If there are any comments about it, go ahead and use my talk page. 리지강.wa.au 15:56, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

Hey the map is damn cute! So it is meant to go into the North South MRT Line article?--Huaiwei 15:07, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
Yeh, that was my original intention, unless you have other plans for it? I posted here first just to see if you guys won't mind it. It's rather messy where the interchanges are concerned though. Can't seem to find a way to make interchange stations one entire blob rather than individual circles. I have also created one for the NE Line, which was much easier, considering that it's all underground. 리지강.wa.au 16:59, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
It should be a good substitute for the "stations" sections we have now, although I agree the representation for interchange stations seem to look rather odd, as thou they are not directly connected? Hope this may be overcome somehow?--Huaiwei 13:49, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
I think that it can be solved by the "Branches and junctions" on the template page.--Joshua Say "hi" to me!What have I done? 14:10, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
Hmm...I just noticed there is a software called Spoorstrip.exe. Did any of you obtain it already? I may get it and try my own hand in drawing routes too!--Huaiwei 16:25, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
Yes, there is a program that can be downloaded to make things easier, but there were some problems cited about the ease of using it. Especially for long lines. 리지강.wa.au 07:15, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
I see. It is strange that the station icons lack one for interchange stations with branch lines, or did we not experiment with that yet? The codes are quite mind-boggling to deal with as it is!--Huaiwei 03:32, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

GA drive

Before my mid-year exams, I drafted a propopsal for a "GA drive" - a plan aiming to double the number of Singaporean GAs from 5 to 10. With Glenn Knight achieving GA status on 22 May, and John Martin Scripps now on FAC, I think it is time to present my proposal.

We should maintain a list of articles which have "GA potential" (generally B-class articles which would meet the GA criteria if several non-major concerns are addressed). The articles should then be "adopted" by a group of three to five SGpedians, who will collaborate to address the concerns, submit the article for peer review and eventually file a successful GA nomination.

Since some will object based on WP:OWN concerns, I must emphasise that anyone should be welcome to improve articles undergoing a "GA drive", and those adopting the article should not attempt to own it. Although most articles are gradually improved through the "wiki process", high-quality articles (such as GAs and FAs) are usually the work of a dedicated group of core editors. Unlike a backlog of articles to improve, or a collaboration of the week, a "GA drive" encourages Wikipedians to focus on improving one or two articles, now.

Below is a draft "GA drive" list. Feel free to nominate or adopt articles. The list should eventually be moved to a section on WP:SG! or (less preferred) a subpage. If the "GA drive" is successful, I will post it on the Village Pump and suggest other WikiProjects adopt this method of collaboration.

GA drive list:

--J.L.W.S. The Special One 08:51, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Not a bad proposal. As I've some experience with GAs and FAs, anyone working on the above who needs a 2nd op etc. can drop me a msg on my talkpage. Chensiyuan 09:38, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
Most of the articles in Category:Top-importance Singapore articles are GA and FAC potentials because of the significance of the topics, interests in them, and the availability of sources. Do consider them as well. --Vsion 17:30, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
Vsion, GA potential depends on several factors, primarily the quality of the article and the topic. The "GA drive" list should contain articles which have strong GA potential due to their quality - if an article listed also has strong GA potential due to its topic, consider that a bonus. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 09:02, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
To follow your point, there is also a list of Category:B-Class Singapore articles based on quality. The table indicates that there are 13 Top-importance B-Class articles. In addition, there are two Top-importance A-Class articles waiting for a push to FAC. Consider these as the ones with "bonus" ;). Of course, some of them needs significant work, but that's what the drive is for. --Vsion 15:16, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
I suggest you nominate the 13 Top-importance B-class articles for the "GA drive", so that others will adopt them and collaborate to improve them to GA status. (We will eventually move the "GA drive" list to the noticeboard or a subpage.) --J.L.W.S. The Special One 06:52, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
My congrats on our second FAC. ;) Anyway I wish I have the time to "adopt" the Singapore 2006 article, since I was very much involved in it. Hope others may assist in it while I try to find time later...if I can! :D--Huaiwei 03:26, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
S2006 needs a lot of improvement in content. Logistics stuff should be added and hotels, retail as well as daily events. CNA has a huge repository of articles to cite sources from. =) It may get to GA but I doubt it will pass FAC. Terence 12:15, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
Huaiwei, I hope you find the time to adopt (and work on) the article. Terence, having identified broad coverage as the main issue, would you like to adopt Singapore 2006? Although I won't adopt the article (I've already adopted I Not Stupid), I'll try to make minor improvements whenever I can. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 06:52, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
Hmmm I will probably come to it later...not this week definitely until I meet my major deadlines at work! :D--Huaiwei 16:11, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Geographical category overload

Many Sg-related articles have way too many geographical categories. Consider Merlion, which is currently in all of the following:

Categories: National symbols of Singapore | Singaporean navigational boxes | Downtown Core | Marina Bay | Southern Islands | Sentosa | Visitor attractions in Singapore | Fictional lions

Marina Bay is in the Downtown Core, so the Downtown Core category is redundant. Likewise, Sentosa is in the Southern Islands, so the Southern Islands category is redundant.

And yes, I've read WP:SUBCAT, but AFAIK none of the exceptions in there apply. Both the Southern Islands and the Downcore Core have complete sets of subcategories, and nobody looking for the Sentosa or Marina Bay Merlions is ever going to go look for them under "Southern Islands" or "Downtown Core". Jpatokal 09:49, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

That depends on context and familiarity with Singaporean geography. I dont find it ridiculous to look for the Merlion in the Downtown Core, nor the Sentosa one in the Southern Islands.--Huaiwei 03:28, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
Please tell me which rule in WP:SUBCAT applies. Jpatokal 05:01, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
Just about all reasons in "Reasons for duplication" apply here. Classification of the Merlion under the Downtown Core is based on planning area boundaries. Classification under Marina Bay is suited for the layman who may find that term more familiar, and also because the URA has designated that name in reference not just to the physical bay, but the entire developmental zone which includes the new Downtown[3]. Are you familiar with local geography and urban planning to begin with?--Huaiwei 05:23, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
I was referring to the specific rules under "When to duplicate".
My view is that, as the planning areas are huge and broken down into complete subcategories, things that have more specific location (eg. Marina Bay) should not be placed on the higher level (eg. Downtown Core). But please, explain to me why placing Imbiah Monorail Station in Category:Southern Islands makes sense, and why it should not be in Category:Central Region in Singapore, Category:Singapore and Category:Asia. Jpatokal 08:55, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
For your kind information, planning areas are not neccesarily huge, and are not neccesarily "broken down into complete subcategories", whatever that means. Marina Bay actually includes three planning areas and parts of a fourth, so since when did the Downtown Core become a subdivision of Marina Bay? As I have already explained, categories like Marina Bay and Sentosa are not planning areas, nor are they neccesarily formal subdivisions of planing areas. It makes perfect sence to include an entity in the categories of two different geographic claffication systems. As for why Imbiah Monorail Station is in one category but not another, perhaps you would like to offer an explaination yourself? I dont think I need to waste time explaining the obvious.--Huaiwei 17:05, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
Let me see if I understand your position correctly. You are saying that every single structure within (eg.) the Downtown Core planning area should be listed in the Downtown Core category. Is that correct? Jpatokal 03:31, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
If you may just look at Category:Downtown Core, what do you think? This is not an issue of my opinion. Its the issue of the community, for clearly I did not fill up that category myself, nor for every other item in Category:Planning areas in Singapore.--Huaiwei 12:18, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
I'm asking you for your opinion, and I'd like a "yes" or "no" answer, please. Jpatokal 05:36, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
And I believe I am not obliged to share my opinion if I do not feel there is a need to. A fellow Sgpedian has given a response below. Do you still find my opinion neccesary?--Huaiwei 14:01, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
I'm asking whether I have understood you correctly, and you're refusing to tell me. Not much point in continuing this then, now is there? The next time I attempt to have a conversation with you, please tell me to go masturbate with a cheesegrater instead — it's more productive and rather more pleasant. Jpatokal 15:28, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
LOL be my guest! But perhaps you might wish to be a little more proactive at that, instead of waiting around for others to instruct you. Maybe then, you wont have a habit of making pertetic attempts to corner people with dumb questions. Come to think of it, have you ever wondered why not many bother to talk to you here in the first place?--Huaiwei 15:56, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
I was one of the initiators for the planning area categorisation process to group all geographical locations (including structures) in Singapore towards an exhaustive whole. And "Yes" to Jpatokal's question as long as the entity lies within URA's planning area boundary. Thanks. —Sengkang 06:00, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Ho Yeow Sun and City Harvest Church

The Ho Yeow Sun and City Harvest Church are being zealously guarded by fans (or possibly one person with many sockpuppets, compare [4], [5], [6]) who are deleting any additions that are not sufficiently complimentary to their favorite artist/church. Assistance in sorting this out would be appreciated. Jpatokal 07:52, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

While contributions in adherence to WP:NPOV will always be needed in this website, I am pretty sure requests for such contributions can do just fine without provocative, discriminatory, and condescending undertones. Perhaps, than, people will be far more accomodative, and other uninvolved parties more forthcoming in offering help.--Huaiwei 16:52, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Despite a section having a reference to an article on Channel NewsAsia a person keeps removing it. - 222.164.84.146 09:21, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

The edit war at the article is in full swing again. I've had it up to here with it, but Sgpedians with time to spare (and there are lots!) might want to pop in. Jpatokal 19:09, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Pioneers of Singapore needed

I notice that over at Citizendium, there is no article on Singapore yet. Anyone game enough to join me to set things up? With a little effort we could easily make Singapore an approved article (approximately equal to our "featured article") there.

(However, a search for "Singapore" reveals there are three Singapore-related articles already - Singapore English, Vanessa Mae, and Bonny Hicks.)

There are disadvantages to using Citizendium: You will need to tell the constables (their equivalent of administrators) your real name when you apply for an account so you can edit. (My application is still waiting for approval; no idea how long it will take.) Second, according to this section of their image use policy, they disallow uploads of images from Wikipedia or Commons unless they can verify the real identity of the image's creator. But I think in the end the benefits will outweigh the disadvantages - regardless of whether Citizendium becomes a large-scale competitor to Wikipedia. No encyclopedia worth its salt would lack coverage on Singapore and because we are used to editing in a wiki environment, I think we are well-suited to go in there and write some good stuff. Resurgent insurgent 14:39, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

Singapore is undergoing a Good Article Review.

Coloane has filed a Good Article Review for Singapore. Please participate in the discussion and address concerns raised by Coloane so that Singapore will not lose its GA status. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 15:32, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

Xiaxue needs attention

On 8 June 2007, Can't sleep, clown will eat me speedy deleted Xiaxue. Six days later, Vague Rant undeleted the article per my request on IRC. The article was subsequently nominated for deletion - please participate in the deletion discussion.

Could an SGpedian with Newslink access please e-mail me newspaper articles pertaining to Xiaxue, so that I can write a neutral article based on information in said newspaper articles? I have e-mailed her regarding the deletion of the article, and she has responded requesting I help her re-write the article.

--J.L.W.S. The Special One 16:03, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

You haven't set an email address so Special:Emailuser/Hildanknight doesn't work. Resurgent insurgent 16:11, 16 June 2007 (UTC)
When I joined Wikipedia, I did set an e-mail address in my preferences, but did not enable e-mails from other users due to concerns over spam. Are such concerns unfounded? Anyway, my e-mail address is hildanknight(AT)gmail(DOT)com. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 03:55, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
A person must be logged in and their account must have an email address defined before they can use Special:Emailuser. You will not reveal your email address until and unless you reply to their email. Resurgent insurgent 08:48, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
I will definitely go for strong keep with more sources. Keep us posted, please. Sorry I can't help you out with this one, Hildanknight. - SpLoT // 16:25, 16 June 2007 (UTC)
If you can't help by searching Newslink for newspaper articles on Xiaxue, you can help by participating in the AFD, voting Strong Keep with your reasoning (or simply per Hildanknight). An SGpedian who has Newslink will have to provide the sources. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 03:55, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Singaporean medals

I am about to expand the coverage of Singaporean orders and decorations, however could I please get confirmation on what should be the primary language to describe each medal/award? At the moment, there exist both English-primary pages (The Star of Temasek) and Bahasa-primary pages (Pingat Gagah Perkasa). Is there any chance of getting consensus on what should be the primary page? Many thanks... PalawanOz 14:28, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Are the English names official as well as the Malay names? - SpLoT // 14:36, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
The Prime Minister's page here has the Malay name listed first, then the English name in brackets. Is that some kind of convention in Singapore? PalawanOz 14:41, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
If I'm not wrong, Malay is our national language, and English, Chinese, Tamil as well as Malay are our official languages. That's why the accolades are in Malay - tradition and historical links to Malaysia. Since the Prime Minister's Office website lists it in Malay, it seems to me that the Malay names are official, while the English names are merely translations. So I'd say change all the article names to Malay. Thanks, SpLoT // 15:05, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
SpLoT is right. Article 153A of the Constitution states that Malay is the national language of Singapore, while Malay, Mandarin (not "Chinese"), Tamil and English are official languages. By the way, it may interest you to know that some orders and decorations are authorized by specific pieces of legislation. For instance, the Singapore Armed Forces National Service Medal is authorized by the Singapore Armed Forces National Service Medal Rules 1997 (S 335/1997), and the Pingat Jasa Perwira (Tentera) (Singapore Armed Forces Medal for Distinguished Act) by the Pingat Jasa Perwira (Tentera) (Singapore Armed Forces Medal for Distinguished Act) Rules 1997 (S 336/1997). Both pieces of subsidiary legislation were made under the authority of the Constitution. It would be good if some reference could be made in the article to this fact. I would imagine that there is legislation out there governing the conferment of all orders and decorations, but haven't found it yet. Cheers, Jacklee 16:38, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
Almost all state medals and decorations are official known by their Malay names. The English name equivalant is there for the benefit of non-Malay speakers only.--Huaiwei 17:14, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Xiaxue needs attention II

Thanks to Rifleman 82 and me, Xiaxue's AFD closed with "keep" as the result. During the AFD, I promised to rewrite the article. Since LexisNexis only searches The Straits Times and The Sunday Times, I contacted Xiaxue herself, who promised to e-mail me all the TODAY/The New Paper/Lianhe Zaobao/magazine articles listed in her Media Centre. Once she does so, I will have plenty of material to work with.

How should I structure the article? I think that besides the lead section, the article should have 4 sections:

  • A section about her blog.
  • A section about the awards her blog has won, her sponsorship deals, Girls Out Loud, etc.
  • A section about the controversies she has been involved in.
  • A section about her personal life - her family, her nose job, etc.

What do you think of my proposed structure?

--J.L.W.S. The Special One 15:15, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Agree with structure. Be careful not to go afoul of WP:BLP when describing personal life, though. I will forward you some pix of herself she emailed me; she "gives permission to all the conditions" under which Wikipedia is copyrighted. You can choose one or more to go with the article. Resurgent insurgent 14:39, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, Resurgent insurgent - I have received the photos of Xiaxue which you e-mailed me several days ago. In my opinion, wiki1.jpg is the "chio"-est and most suitable for the article. What do you think?
I'll obviously have to be careful not to violate BLP in the Personal life section. Per the guidelines on self-published material, is it OK to use her blog as a source for non-controversial information about her family?
I'm still waiting for Xiaxue to e-mail me the newspaper articles. Hopefully she hasn't forgotten! During my wait, I will Google for reliable online references, both in English and in Chinese. Once she e-mails me the newspaper articles, I will organise all the references I have, extract relevant information and prepare for my rewrite.
Given that I should have at least 20-30 references, do you think Xiaxue would have DYK potential - even GA potential - after my rewrite is complete (assuming I take under 3 days to do it, of course)?
--J.L.W.S. The Special One 15:39, 25 June 2007 (UTC)
Well, we'll just have to see it when it's done to know. Good luck! - SpLoT // 15:41, 25 June 2007 (UTC)
It's been over a week and she still hasn't gotten back to me. Knowing that celebrities can be forgetful, I think it's time to poke her by e-mail. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 06:07, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

On 15 June 2007, Terence added Tropical Storm Vamei (a GA) to the "Featured articles and honourable mentions" section. Is that article really within our jurisdiction? If so, to what extent did SGpedians contribute to this GA? --J.L.W.S. The Special One 13:35, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Articles under our scope (I much prefer not to use the term "jurisdiction" in a free encyclopedia) include all topics regarding Singapore. Hence it does not matter who contributed to the article - Vamei is a storm which impacted Singapore, and is thus within our scope. - SpLoT // 13:38, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
As what SpLoT said, anything that is under our scope will be listed there. It doesn't matter who wrote the article actually whether its a SGpedian or not. Terence 16:05, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for the prompt responses. Since this article is within our scope, we now have 7 GAs. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, I Not Stupid will be GA no. 8.
Due to my upcoming O Levels, I will take a two-month wikibreak starting 9 September. Could we aim to increase the GA count to 10 by then? Singapore Dreaming is nearly there, while Singapore 2006 could reach GA status with some work. Should you spot an article with GA potential, please nominate it for the GA drive.
I don't think articles which are only tangentially related to Singapore should not be within our scope. Although this probably is not the case for Tropical Storm Vamei, which is within our scope regardless of who contributed to it, I would still like to know the major contributors. I'm compiling a table of Singaporean FAs and GAs and their major contributors; perhaps the "Featured articles and honourable mentions" list could be structured in this manner.
After all, as I said when suggesting the GA drive, " Although most articles are gradually improved through the "wiki process", high-quality articles (such as GAs and FAs) are usually the work of a dedicated group of core editors." By giving them credit, we will encourage them to keep up the good work. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 00:10, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Date of Meetup 4

Is the meetup November or May? Conflicting information, text on page states May, template states November. --ZhongHan (Email) 11:03, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

I think the proposed meeting in May did not take place, so we postponed it to November, but forgot to update the template. Please hold the meetup after my O Levels - if I Not Stupid passes GA and I have become a valued member of the SGpedian community by then, I'd turn up. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 10:08, 5 July 2007 (UTC)
I have editedthe page to reflect this. --ZhongHan (Email) 04:19, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
Per WP:BOLD, I have suggested 17 November as the date of the meetup. It is the first Saturday after the last paper for GCE O-level exams. --ZhongHan (Email) 10:54, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Singapore tourist attractions

I'm not good at the coding and all that, but perhaps some form of infobox for places like our zoo, botanical gardens, bird park, sentosa etc. would give the articles a better look. Chensiyuan 04:06, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Please comment at I Not Stupid's fourth peer review.

A thorough expansion and copy-edit (with Haemo's help) of I Not Stupid has hopefully addressed the concerns about prose and coverage that led to the failure of the article's previous two GA nominations. As suggested by Haemo, I filed a fourth peer review as part of my final push towards GA status. I invite all SGpedians to comment at the peer review. Should the third GA nomination (which will take place on 15 July) succeed, I Not Stupid will be our 8th GA (unless Singapore loses its GA status before the nomination is passed). --J.L.W.S. The Special One 13:52, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Verification needed for article Oh family

I recently noticed an article Oh family, which claims the subject of the article is a long-running, famous Singaporean cartoon series about a family of anthropomorphic dim sums. The article goes into some detail regarding the characters and several episodes, however I am unable to verify the existence or any details at all of this series. I have tagged it as a possible hoax, but I would appreciate it if some Singaporean editors could confirm the existence of the cartoon. If it does exist, please remove the hoax tag and add any references that you know of. Regards, --Canley 11:54, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Huh?? I never heard of this before, suspected hoax. Terence 12:50, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
I have never heard of it either. The article does not go into specifics, such as when the cartoon series was aired or who the actors were, suggesting it's a hoax. A cartoon series featuring "living timsums" sounds ridiculous. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 13:40, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
Highly suspicious. Chensiyuan 13:44, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Bot

I've got a new bot: User:Chem-awb. I created it for mass tagging/untagging of Chemistry articles at Wikipedia:WikiProject Chemistry, but if someone needs it here, I'll be happy to help as far as I can. --Rifleman 82 16:55, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I've had to mark the above article as a copyvio. Could someone who has time do up the article? Here's the Qiaonan Primary School website for reference. --ZhongHan (Email) 05:36, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Done. —Sengkang 06:38, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

WARNING: Singapore about to lose GA status

On 15 June 2007, Coloane filed a GA/R for Singapore. I posted a notification here the day after, but no attempts to address the concerns. Here's another reminder that if no effort is made to improve the article, it will lose its GA status. Could several SGpedians participate in the GA/R discussion and try to deal with the issues Coloane has raised? Should the article be delisted, I will nominate it for the GA drive. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 15:00, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

The Singapore article is in need of a massive rewrite in several sections and topics. In fact, I didnt notice quite a number of defects in the article until a friend pointed them out to me when I introduced this site to him. Far too many microscoping views are being highlighted in the article in an attempt to say everything summary-style, which while sourcable, can be dangerously misleading and myopic. If it has to loost its GA status to encourage an article improvement drive, I will support that, and this time, I hope to be more actively involved in improving on it.--Huaiwei 17:27, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
Today, while I Not Stupid's GA nomination passed, Singapore was delisted. Those wishing to improve the article may wish to refer to the version which passed GA (although referencing standards have risen since then). If the article had a couple of SGpedians committed to improving it, I wouldn't be surprised if it regains GA status within a month. Huaiwei, have you "met [your] major deadlines at work"? If so, could you adopt Singapore (or Singapore 2006)? --J.L.W.S. The Special One 14:06, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Deletion of Felix Soh

I have deleted the yet to be created article, Felix Soh as it would most likely fail the notability test. Any comments on this would be greatly welcomed. --Siva1979Talk to me 06:25, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

I have deleted the yet to be created article, Jill Quek as it would most likely fail the notability test. A google search shows up no reliable sources for this subject. --Siva1979Talk to me 05:05, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
I have deleted the yet to be created article, Lim Peifen as it would most likely fail notability guidelines. --Siva1979Talk to me 09:11, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Who has access to Newslink?

Could an SGpedian who has access to Newslink search its archive for "Megan Zheng", e-mailing me the full text (and citation information) of all newspaper articles which appear in the results (and do the same for "Homerun")? Once I have plenty of newspaper articles to use as references, I will expand Megan Zheng (currently a stub), with the aim of making it my third DYK (Xiaxue is currently 4 kB, and hence does not qualify for DYK).

Throughout August, I will also significantly expand and rewrite Homerun (film), after which I will see whether it's worth a shot at GA. I use a 15/30 guideline to assess an article's GA potential - if an article is over 15 kB long and has over 30 references, it should be able to meet GA criterion 2 and 3.

--J.L.W.S. The Special One 07:16, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

If you care that much, do it yourself -- one-shot access to Newslink costs S$15 for the first 30 min, S$8 afterward. Jpatokal 12:34, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
Money No Enough - I may not mind spending $15, but my parents do. That being said, I'd like to know how to get and use Newslink. If my parents strike 4D or I ace my O Levels, I may be able to convince my parents that I need. Alternatively, I could save $23, compile a list of Singapore-related articles I intend to write over the next 12 months and take a trip to Tampines Regional Library to use Newslink (telling my parents that I have A Maths remedial in school). However, I hope to start writing Megan Zheng by next week - so could someone quickly help me do a search? --J.L.W.S. The Special One 13:33, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
Correction: Tampines Regional Library does not offer Newslink access. According to the Newslink website, I have to subscribe, paying $900 yearly, or call them for an appointment to access Newslink. If I did not have to study, I would not mind trying it.
Fortunately, on IRC, I met a Wikipedian who had access to LexisNexis and was willing to help me. I think the newspaper articles he e-mailed me provide enough material for me to write a DYK-worthy article. Although LexisNexis searches newspapers from all over the world, The Straits Times is the only Singaporean newspaper it searches. Newslink searches all major Singaporean newspapers, including The New Paper and TODAY. Hence, searching Newslink would probably reveal even more useful references, and any attempts to search Newslink for (and e-mail to me) newspaper articles about Megan Zheng would be most appreciated.
--J.L.W.S. The Special One 11:47, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
anyone who's in NUS et al will have access to Factiva. but somehow i doubt Factiva goes beyond ST. Chensiyuan 14:01, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

There is an article in the Straits Times today mentioning their collaboration with NLB to offer a fully-digitised version of their entire publication by the second half of next year. Its not free, but I would think paying 3 cents per minute is still within the means of most researchers. So perhaps we will have to wait a while yet!--Huaiwei 06:48, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

3 cents a minute is definitely within my means. I certainly hope this proposal is implemented. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 13:09, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
The ST report sounds pretty conclusive, so I do believe the service is definitely on the way. Just hope they keep to their pricing! :D--Huaiwei 17:14, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

AfD alert

Hi folks, many of our local hotel articles have been marked for AfD. Please take a look at Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Singapore. Thanks! —Sengkang 01:37, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Note that he has also nominated List of hotels in Singapore for deletion.--Huaiwei 12:46, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
Just realised that the real "instigator" behind the entire AFD exercise is actually User:Russavia (just check out Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Golden Landmark Hotel), a user who has shown an element of hostility towards the Little Red Dot, most notably in Singapore Airlines and its related articles. How very unprofessional of him.--Huaiwei 13:05, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
Indeed, the nominator hasn't demonstrated much logic behind his nominations. Chensiyuan 13:26, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
One cause of systemic bias is Wikipedians nominating articles on non-American topics for deletion, when they don't know anything about the topic, or whether it's notable. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 14:03, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
Left a note at User_talk:Russavia#Hotels. Almost choked when I saw some of the nominations made, in particular Shangri-La Hotel Singapore!--Huaiwei 14:05, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
Demonstrated hostility against Singaporean topics? I think not Huaiwei, but rather a dislike of cruft, non-notable topics, and PR type related material. Unfortunately, as they stand, those hotel articles are unsourced and do not assert any degree of notability (in at least one instance, the article has been tagged as such since October 2006, and still there has been no assertion of notability made). As you will have noticed, I have not nominated the Raffles, the old Westin Stamford, the Goodwood Park, and others, as they are clearly notable due to heritage/historical reasons, or other reasons, such as the Westin Stamford once being the tallest hotel in the world. Please don't assert that I have a grudge against anything to do with Singapore - it always has been (still is) one of my fave places in the world, and I know that Singaporeans are proud and protective of the Singapore name, but clearly some of the articles covered by this project do not belong in an encyclopaedia. And as you have noticed I have nominated many other hotels (not just in Singapore), and if you look at some of those deleted, they have previously been deleted on the same grounds, and recreated, again without providing any degree of assertion of notability. --Russavia 15:57, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
People wont notice the articles you dont nominate. They look at those you do, and from the range which you actually did, care to comment on the obvious irritation you are causing to users here due to the complete waste of time in having to justify obvious cases of notability? If the article is unsourced, made a request in the talkpage, or insert a citation tag. The AFD procedure is not for abuse by immature sore losers who are out to proof a point. And you can dry your crocodile tears and cut your act. Your own statements are an obvious hint on your true intentions in Singapore-related articles. Singaporeans being proud and protective of the Singapore name indeed!--Huaiwei 16:30, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
Immature sore losers? As usual, Huaiwei resorts to insults instead of discussion. End of discussion. --Russavia 17:34, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
Its a discussion on you, not with you, so I doubt it has ever "started" as far as you are concerned. For the record, Russavia has proceeded to nominate List of hotels in Singapore and List of insurance companies in Singapore for deletion just to throw his ego around. Also check out how he refers to Singaporean contributors in general over here.--Huaiwei 06:50, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
"Its a discussion on you" - so you're making a comment on the contributor, not the content? Resurgent insurgent 05:20, 1 August 2007 (UTC)
The posts above only says that much. You are free to make your own conclusions.--Huaiwei 06:46, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Singaporean Awards and Decorations

I have spent a bit of time updating the Singaporean orders and decorations and Awards and decorations of the Singapore Armed Forces pages, as well as the link pages for each individual medal. However - it has proven a very difficult thing to verify accurately, and I suspect that I may have some errors of fact in the order of precedence for the medals, and I may possibly be missing some as well. If possible, could someone please run their eye over the list, and let me know if it looks accurate?

I should point out that one reason I have had some difficulty is that the Government of Singapore seems very reluctant to give a full list of what awards and decorations they issue! For example, the PM's Office lists the civilian awards, but does not go into a huge amount of detail for them, nor does it mention how they relate to the military list. The Singapore Army medal info page only lists the medals for service, with no mention of the medals for gallantry. If anyone can cite an authoritative list, that would be great... failing that, is there an defence manual/publication that could be used as a reference?

Thanks! PalawanOz 06:18, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

G'day mate! i attended the Singapore Honours, an exhibition honouring S'pore distinguised citizens upon my return from Sydney last year. It was held From Jun 22 - Aug 2006 at our National Library. The event also showcased the process of making the above medals & its criteria for award officially. Do check out & direct your enquiries here -- Aldwinteo 07:04, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Chia Thye Poh

Hi folks, can those on 'guard's duty', kindly cast their patrol wider to cover the abv article and other similar articles on past SG political detainees to thwart any potential vandalism & POV. Cos some human rights 'crusaders' have made substantial edits of late & making disparaging remarks on Chia, S'pore govt & Singaporeans on the article's talkpage. u may want to take a good look on the pix he use to depict Chia's detention on Sentosa. Thks & rgds, -- Aldwinteo 14:59, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

The protection policy states that "indefinite semi-protection may be used for...biographies subject to vandalism and/or POV-pushing that are not widely watchlisted". I believe that Chia Thye Poh falls under this criterion, and suggest you file a request for semi-protection. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 13:02, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

I Not Stupid and Singapore Dreaming passed GA - let's keep up the good work!

WikiProject Singapore appears to be flourishing; in the past three weeks, we have written 14 DYKs and 2 GAs (of these, I Not Stupid and Megan Zheng were written by me)! When listing Megan Zheng as a DYK, Blnguyen commented: "Very hard wroking [sic] these Singaporeans".

Let's keep up the good work! I believe we can increase our GA count from 8 to 10 by 9 September (when I will take a two-month wikibreak to focus on my O Levels). I have identified Singapore (a former GA), Singapore 2006 (which failed GA on 18 January 2007) and The Singapore Stone (which passed DYK on 22 July 2007) as articles with GA potential. When can we launch the GA drive and collaborate to improve these articles to GA status?

--J.L.W.S. The Special One 16:09, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I'll also be adopting an article for the GA drive, but I haven't decided which. That'll be in late October. - SpLoT // 16:14, 3 August 2007 (UTC)
I recently expanded "The Singapore Stone" from a stub. I'll be back in Singapore for a month from 12 August 2007. If I have time, I might pop down to the National Library and look up some books for information to tidy up the article. Cheers, Jacklee 17:00, 3 August 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for your interest in the GA drive, SpLoT. During the rest of August, I will improve an article (probably I Not Stupid Too and, if she ever sends me the newspaper/magazine articles she promised, Xiaxue) and nominate it for the GA drive. Hopefully you (and I, after the O Levels are over and I return to Wikipedia on 12 November 2007) will have more articles to choose from then. (I can spot some potential in Bonny Hicks, and Huaiwei may wish to check what could prevent Law in Singapore from attaining GA status.)
Jacklee, do you think The Singapore Stone is "broad in its coverage" (GA criterion 3)? If so, it's time to check for prose, reference and stylistic issues. If not, which aspects of the stone lack coverage?
I have filed peer reviews for all three articles. Your comments are welcome at Peer review/Singapore, Peer review/Singapore 2006 and Peer review/The Singapore Stone. If others mention any problems, we should do our best to address them.
--J.L.W.S. The Special One 14:59, 9 August 2007 (UTC)
Jacklee, it's been a week since you returned to the Lion City. How is your research going? As I previously said, if you believe the article is already "broad in its coverage", it's time to check the prose, references and style. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 03:12, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
Hi, yes, I'm back in Singapore but haven't had a chance to go to the National Library yet to look up material for "The Singapore Stone". I'm not sure how "broad in its coverage" should be interpreted in respect of this article: the article is about an artefact that is particular to Singapore archaeology, so its ambit is bound to be fairly narrow. However, when I'm down at the Library I will see if there are any sources situating the Singapore Stone in the context of Southeast Asian archaeology. As for "Law of Singapore", which I also rewrote extensively, I don't think it's ready for a GA nomination. It's too heavily skewed towards the history of the legal system at the moment, and probably needs more information on contemporary law. See the discussion on the talk page of that article. Cheers, Jacklee 06:22, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
Actually, one article that might be worth trying to get to GA status is "Sources of Singapore law". I wrote it as part of "Law of Singapore" but I later converted it into a separate article because the "Law of Singapore" was getting too long. However, before it is nominated I think the introductory paragraph needs to be expanded and the links removed from the bold text. Cheers, Jacklee 09:27, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
Welcome back to our sunny island. As a suggestion here, do make a visit to Lee Kong Chian Reference Library's "Singapore and Southeast Asian Collections" (Level 11) at Victoria St. This reference library is where I always go for my research for my writeups & mtg up with fellow history buffs & Research Fellows. It has an extensive collection (over 200,000) of out-of-print bks, resource materials & latest bks too. Kindly note that there's a security check b4 entry & u r required to deposit yr bag (except yr notes & stationery) at the lockers (FOC). Also, bring along a cashcard as it will be needed to pay for photocopying & other transactions. Do approach the Reference Librarians shld u required assistance there. Lastly, a site-visit (helpful in my previous writings too) to view the Stone may inspire u or provide useful leads during its guided tours too -- Aldwinteo 10:19, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

History of...

Hi, all! WP:LGBT just found History of homosexuality in Singapore (2000s) and tagged it with {{newsrelease}}. We don't really have much experience or knowledge around the content of the article, though, so if anyone from this group can give us a hand, it would be much appreciated! Thanks :) -- SatyrTN (talk | contribs) 06:30, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

who are the veterans and best article writers here?

Deletion review for List of hotels in Singapore

I have started a deletion review for List of hotels in Singapore at the administrator's talkpage. His deletion rationale, particularly "Just because the article is about Singapore does not make it article-worthy"[7] (he has since removed that rationale thou) dosent appear particularly professionale given the discussions which took place make hardly any mention on keeping the article based on nothing but its association with Singapore.--Huaiwei 02:40, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Update: the above article's has been temporarily "stored" at User:Huaiwei/Cold Storage/List of hotels in Singapore‎ while I consider ways to resurrect the list in a way which ensures it fits within the criteria in Wikipedia:Lists. All are welcome to contribute ideas for the new list. Thanks!--Huaiwei 03:46, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Category cleanup of Secondary schools in Singapore

I have just embarked on a cleanup of articles in the category Secondary_schools_in_Singapore. I notices the common problem is that many have huge long lists of courses or CCA's offered, which I do not believe are very necessary nor encyclopaedic. I have deleted these lists withou touching any prose which is related to CCA.

There has also been the tendency of editors to include items such as school's philosophy, mission statements, vision statements and strategic goals. I believe these to be highly promotional texts. In most cases, they have also been removed. Ohconfucius 10:43, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

For articles on Singaporean schools to improve, we need:
  • Guidelines on how such articles should be structured, what information should and should not be included, etc.
  • SGpedians willing to contribute to such articles.
--J.L.W.S. The Special One 14:50, 9 August 2007 (UTC)
  • There are a number of school articles which have made it to GA or FA status, and these can be used as models. Ohconfucius 03:28, 10 August 2007 (UTC)
Point me to some of them. Don't include universities in your examples - they're a different animal altogether. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 05:14, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

It's National Day!

Yes, the Lion City turns 42 today. Did you watch the National Day Parade? I did. I couldn't stop singing, because I'm from Singapore. (Get it?) Next year, we should try to get a DYK (or even an FA) on the main page on 9 August. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 14:17, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

w00t, The Majestic, Singapore is on DYK now, complete with a photo too. Sengkang 15:05, 9 August 2007 (UTC)
Cool! Anyone willing to try for a Singapore-related FA on the main page on 9 August 2008? May all Wikipedians hear the lion roar! --J.L.W.S. The Special One 05:11, 10 August 2007 (UTC)
Er....how about Singapore itself? ;) Anyway happy belated birthday, Singapore. I couldnt post a greeting earlier as I was there to protect you. :D--Huaiwei 05:43, 10 August 2007 (UTC)
Singapore lost its GA status last month, and is one of three articles I nominated for the most recent proposed GA drive. Once the article passes GA, we can aim for FA status! --J.L.W.S. The Special One 15:16, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Project SuperStar, Campus SuperStar

Project SuperStar and Campus SuperStar are too long. Too much information are thrown into the articles, making them sound much like a news release. The scores of every stages are unnecessary and should be taken out. Remember, Wikipedia is not a manual, guidebook, or textbook. See also Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. Cocoma 22:42, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

  • American Idol looks pretty long too, so just what exactly is the trend here when dealing with television shows of similar genre? Split them into multiple articles per season?--Huaiwei 02:21, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
  • Probably organizing the information in a more tidy way would makes the articles better as shown on American Idol. Current score keeping makes the articles fairly long and cluttered. Cocoma 15:43, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Suspected copyright violation

The article The Fullerton Singapore has been listed as copyright violation. See Talk:The Fullerton Singapore. Can anyone by any chance confirm this? Garion96 (talk) 21:13, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

As I was at LKC Reference Lib doing my research & compiling for my upcoming series of WWII writeups recently, I decided to help in checking out the copyvio mentioned by Reaperducer on July 27, 2007. My cross-checking shows that under "The Fullerton Building" section, from para 1 to para 7 (till "In the 1970s to 1995...), the text is a direct lifting of word for word from "S'pore 100 Historic Places" (2002) by NHB, Archipelago Press. As the Fullerton is both a heritage site and a national monument in S'pore, I hope fellow SGpedians wld chip in to rewrite the affected para so as to resolve on this issue quickly. FYI & rgds -- Aldwinteo 04:19, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
I deleted the article and created a stub. I hope it can be a good article again soon. Garion96 (talk) 18:00, 2 September 2007 (UTC)
Issue resolved. —Sengkang 02:22, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Majulah Singapura

I was wondering if I can see if any of yall could try and take photographs for this article. BTW, if the article feels short, check the history of the article before trying to smash my head open. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 07:06, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

New template: Malay name

While expanding "Zubir Said", I created a new template, "{{Malay name}}" to explain that Malay names do not have have any surname. Feel free to use or improve it. A separate variation might be needed to explain the significance of bin (b.) and binte (bte.). And while we're at it, perhaps a template is needed for Indian names too! Cheers, Jacklee 06:03, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

I've also created "{{Malay name2}}" which explains the meaning of bin (b.) and binte (bte.). Cheers, Jacklee 18:11, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Starting the GA drive

Nobody has objected to my idea of a GA drive, which I previously raised two times. In fact, this suggestion has received considerable support - for example, Chensiyuan commented: "Not a bad proposal". Several SGpedians have expressed interest in adopting articles: Huaiwei commented: "I wish I have the time to "adopt" the Singapore 2006 article", while SpLoT commented: "I'll also be adopting an article for the GA drive".

Therefore, I think it is time to get the ball rolling. If nobody objects within the next 72 hours, I will be bold and add a "GA drive" section to the SGpedians' notice board project page. Feel free to ask any questions about the GA drive, or suggest how the section should be formatted. For now, I'll use a simple format (two examples are shown below):

  1. I Not Stupid Too: The Plot section needs to be summarised and the Reception section expanded, after which the article should be copy-edited and checked for MoS violations.
    adopted by Hildanknight
  2. Singapore 2006: The article's coverage of several areas, particularly logistics, is weak. Several sections lack references, and a copy-edit is needed.
    adopted by Huaiwei

Once I add the section, the GA drive will start - albeit in an experimental stage. We will obviously need a critical mass of skilled SGpedian article writers to participate in the GA drive, if the experiment is to succeed.

--J.L.W.S. The Special One 16:20, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

No objections? I've added the section. It will take me a couple of hours to flesh it out, though. Feel free to improve the wording. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 01:21, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
Wah I dio arrow liao ah! :D Erm will try to look into this soon, but please dont rush it into a GA yet shall we? I would rather we submit a polished piece then a rushed one. Thanks!--Huaiwei 07:47, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
Relax, Huaiwei. Only after at least three SGpedians adopt Singapore 2006 will the collaboration start. If you have "met [your] major deadlines at work", do adopt the article, and encourage others to. I agree that we should only submit a GA nomination when the article is the best it can be. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 13:44, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Cleanup & references needed. I've tried to salvage as much as I can out of this piece of drivel. Anyone care to help? Or should we just send it to AfD?--Rifleman 82 03:34, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

After reading the article once, I reckon there is nothing in it that can't be mentioned in Singapore or a sub-article thereof. Should be worth a redirect. Resurgent insurgent 14:37, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
As far as I can see, it is an orphan. Why not speedy it and forget about it? --Rifleman 82 14:55, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
It doesn't meet the speedy criteria. And plausibly anyone who's been given this phrase as an essay title might type it into the search box, where they would be redirected to a good starting point. (If you look at the first version of the page, it was created as a school essay too.) Resurgent insurgent 00:38, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Arthur Ernest Percival - an FA - not listed in "Featured articles and honourable mentions"

Under "SGpedians' Resources", I noticed an FA - Arthur Ernest Percival - that was not listed in "Featured articles and other honourable mentions". Per the precedent set by Tropical Storm Vamei, all articles pertaining to Singapore are within our scope, and all FAs, GAs or DYKs within our scope should be listed in "Featured articles or other honourable mentions". Could an SGpedian add Arthur Ernest Percival to "Featured articles and other honourable mentions"? The article passed FAC on 22 February 2006 and appeared on the Main Page on 2 January 2007. If there is a reason for not listing Arthur Ernest Percival under "Featured articles and other honourable mentions", I would like to hear/read it. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 02:42, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Durian, an FA, is listed as being under our scope. How is the article within our scope? Although the fruit can be found in the Lion City, it is hardly part of Singaporean cuisine, unlike Hainanese chicken rice or roti prata. If the article really is within our scope, it should be listed in "Featured articles and honourable mentions". --J.L.W.S. The Special One 07:20, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Reliable sources about football in Singapore?

During my 18+ months as a Wikipedian, I have primarily focused on contributing to articles about Jack Neo movies. Having written a GA (I Not Stupid) and 3 DYKs (Money No Enough, The Best Bet and Megan Zheng), I believe I have succeeded in improving Wikipedia's coverage of Jack Neo movies. However, in the long run, I will need to expand my horizons, and write about other Singapore-related topics.

I have an interest in local football (Tampines Rovers rocks!) and desire to know more about Singaporean football clubs and football players. Researching to write (or contribute to existing) Wikipedia articles pertaining to football in Singapore would be a great way to do so.

For any article pertaining to local football - be it about the national team, a professional football competition, football club or football player - to attain GA status (or even DYK), it must be well-referenced. Unfortunately, reliable sources about football are few and far between. In this section, could we compile a list of reliable sources about football in Singapore? Anyone - not just me - who wishes to contribute to articles about football in Singapore would find such a list very useful.

--J.L.W.S. The Special One 12:31, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

S.League clubs

I read 5 articles on English Premier League football clubs - Arsenal F.C., Aston Villa F.C., Chelsea F.C., Everton F.C. and Manchester City F.C. - and reviewed the sources used to reference them. After doing so, I have a general idea of how to structure articles on S.League clubs. My analysis is outlined below. I believe that for an article on an S.League club to meet the "broad coverage" section of the GA criteria, it must have the first three sections and at least two* of the remaining four sections:

  1. History sections of EPL club articles are usually sourced to the club's official website and books about the club's history. Newspaper articles are also occasionally used as references. Has anybody published a book about the history of any S.League club? (In my opinion, 3-6 paragraphs is the optimal length for History sections on articles on S.League clubs.)
  2. Sections listing the players (and management staff) are, almost without exception, sourced to the club's official website.
  3. Similarly, S.League record sections (which should also list continential competition and Singapore Cup wins, if applicable) can safely be sourced to the club's and competition's official website (although newspaper articles may sometimes be useful).
  4. In EPL club articles, the Reserve/youth/ladies teams sections are usually written in summary style, with links to...unreferenced main articles. I'm not sure what sources should be used for such articles.
  5. For Crest and colours sections of EPL club articles, a wide variety of sources are used, including official sites, newspaper articles, reputable fansites and sites dedicated to football kits.
  6. References for Stadium sections tend to be sparse but varied. Official websites, newspaper articles and reputable fansites featire prominently, though.
  7. Finally, Supporters sections primarily rely links on polls, records and statistics, as well as newspaper and magazine articles, as sources. Official sites and other sites are used to a lesser extent.

*Sections should have at least one coherently-written paragraph of no less than three sentences.

Based on my analysis, the most important sources are official sites and newspaper articles. Furthermore, whether an S.League club article has a reasonable chance of achieving GA status largely depends on whether somebody has published a book about the club and its history. The first S.League club article I want to push to GA status would be Tampines Rovers, which I have supported since I was 12 (their stadium is a stone's throw away from my school). Tampines are among the oldest and most successful clubs in the S.League; I believe there would be more information about them than, for example, Woodlands Wellington or Balestier Khalsa.

--J.L.W.S. The Special One 04:56, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Kudos for the research you've done so far. If any books on S-League clubs have been written, copies should have been deposited with the National Library – check the NLB's online catalogue. As for the rest of the information, you'll probably have to rely on the on-line (or, more likely, the print) versions of local newspapers – possibly more trips to the library for you. Don't The New Paper and Today tend to publish more news on S-League clubs? Also, is there a magazine dedicated to local football? All the best for your endeavours. Cheers, Jacklee 11:53, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
I searched the online catalogue for "S.League" and the names of several clubs. All searches returned between 1 and 6 results, suggesting that there are several books available, all of which are worth their weight in gold (for someone researching about the S.League). Perhaps we could go to the LKC Reference Library during our next meetup?
As for newspaper articles, I hope somebody with access to a searchable newspaper archive - such as Newslink, Factiva or LexisNexis - could help me by searching the archive for "S.League", "Tampines Rovers", etc. and e-mailing me all newspaper articles that show up in the results.
My search for magazines (and reliable websites) dedicated to local football continues. If you find any, please post them here.
--J.L.W.S. The Special One 08:40, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
Just a few minor updates:
  • Two Wikipedians, one with access to LexisNexis and one with access to Factiva, helped me search the archives for "Tampines Rovers". There were over 200 results in LexisNexis, and over 500 in Factiva, suggesting that there is plenty of newspaper coverage on local football - far exceeding my expectations. Once my O Levels are over, I will ask them to e-mail me the full text of all the newspaper articles.
  • In Tampines Regional Library, I found a book entitled "S.League: the kick-off", which has some useful information about the S.League. How do I format citations where the source/reference is a book?
  • I have joined several online communities dedicated to local football, such as kallangroar.com and sgfootball.com, under the username "whitekings". They may be able to help me find reliable sources about local football.
  • --J.L.W.S. The Special One 06:44, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
On my birthday, 7 October, Mark e-mailed me several hundred newspaper articles about Tampines Rovers, which he found through Factiva, while I borrowed "S.League: the kick-off" from the library. In addition to information about the formation of the S.League, the book provides information on the S.League's eight founder clubs, five (Tampines Rovers, Geylang United, Woodlands Wellington and the two "armed forces" clubs) of which still play in the S.League. During my (limited, due to the upcoming O Levels) spare time, I will comb the book and newspaper articles for relevant information.
I believe I now have enough information to write a five-paragraph History section of Tampines Rovers F.C. Page 50 of "S.League: the kick-off" and the History section of the Stags' official website should provide enough information about the club's pre-S.League history, while I believe I can write two paragraphs about Tampines Rovers' S.League history based on their official website, the S.League's official website and newspaper articles.
Are any of you interested in local football? If you are, please consider collaborating with me on articles pertaining to football in Singapore. As the saying goes, many hands make light work. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 09:23, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

For citing books, see {{Cite book}}.--Rifleman 82 06:48, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

If you need help with the {{Cite book}} or {{Citation}} templates, get in touch with me. Cheers, Jacklee 16:53, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for providing a link to that template. Do I simply enclose it in <ref>...</ref> tags and fill the fields with whatever information I have? Would you consider the title, author, publisher, year and page number to be the most essential citation information? --J.L.W.S. The Special One 09:23, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
Yes. You should also include any co-authors, the place of publication, and the ISBN of the book if it is known. (If ISBNs are not available from the National Library Board's online catalogue, try those of the NUS Libraries or British Library.) If the author has a first and last name, you should state them separately using the "last" and "first" parameters. Here are some examples:
Wikitext Result
{{cite book|author=Palakrishnan|coauthors=Malathi Das|title=S. League : The Kick-Off|location=Singapore|publisher=[[S. League|Singapore Professional Football League]]|year=1996|pages=10–12}} Palakrishnan (1996). S. League : The Kick-Off. Singapore: Singapore Professional Football League. pp. 10–12. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
{{cite book|last=Koh|first=Tommy (ed.-in-chief)|title=Singapore : The Encyclopedia|location=Singapore|publisher=Editions Didier Millet|year=2006|isbn=9814155632 (hbk.)}} Koh, Tommy (ed.-in-chief) (2006). Singapore : The Encyclopedia. Singapore: Editions Didier Millet. ISBN 9814155632 (hbk.). {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
If you're putting the citation in a footnote, then enclose it in <ref> and </ref> tags as you mentioned. If you're going to cite the same book several times, then the first time you can assign it a name using, for instance, "<ref name="S. League">". Subsequently, you can just refer to the same citation with "<ref name="S. League"/>" (note the forward slash after the reference name). Note that magazine articles should be cited using {{Citation}}, newspaper articles using {{Cite news}}, and websites using {{Cite web}}:
Wikitext Result
{{citation|last=Ekstrand|first=J. [''et al.'']|title=Incidence of soccer injuries and their relation to training and team success|journal=American Journal of Sports Medicine|year=1983|volume=11|issue=1|pages=63–67|issn=0363-5465}} Ekstrand, J. [et al.] (1983), "Incidence of soccer injuries and their relation to training and team success", American Journal of Sports Medicine, 11 (1): 63–67, ISSN 0363-5465
{{cite news|last=Winter|first=Henry|title=Michael Owen pushes pain barrier|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/10/11/sfnowe111.xml|publisher=''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''|date=[[2007-10-11]]}} Winter, Henry (2007-10-11). "Michael Owen pushes pain barrier". The Daily Telegraph. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
{{cite web|title=Interview : Peter Crouch|url=http://www.fourfourtwo.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Interviews/0,,11442~1082853,00.html|publisher=''[[Four Four Two]]''|accessdate=2007-10-11}}

(If the date of the article is available, use the "date" parameter too, like this: "date=[[2007-10-10]]".)

"Interview : Peter Crouch". Four Four Two. Retrieved 2007-10-11. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
Cheers, Jacklee 12:15, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

GA review: "Sources of Singapore law"

I've Wikified and rewritten the introductory paragraphs of "Sources of Singapore law", and have nominated it for Good Article status. Cheers, Jacklee 22:21, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your efforts to improve Sources of Singapore law. I hope the article becomes our 10th GA! Perhaps you should have filed a peer review before nominating the article for GA status; if the nomination fails, do file one, and nominate the article for the GA drive.
You are also the primary contributor to The Singapore Stone, which you adopted when I nominated it for the GA drive. Once you expand the lead section and fix the MoS violations outlined in the article's archived peer review, the article should be ready for a GA nomination.
Keep up the good work! Due to my upcoming O Levels, I will be editing sporadically, but I hope to write another GA during the December holidays. Unfortunately, Xiaxue has not e-mailed me the newspaper/magazine articles she promised, so I will have to look for another article to work on (that's why I asked for reliable sources about football in Singapore).
--J.L.W.S. The Special One 07:24, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

The information required for "The Singapore Stone" is all there, but the article still needs tidying up and the introductory paragraphs need rewriting. Am a little busy at the moment; will get round to it soon. Sorry, can't help you regarding reliable sources about football. All the best for your O-levels! Cheers, Jacklee 08:24, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

I am pleased to announce that our GA tally has reached double figures after Fort Pasir Panjang and Sources of Singapore law recently passed GA. Congratulations, SGpedians, and keep up the good work! 6 articles (including Jacklee's The Singapore Stone) with GA potential have been nominated for the GA drive; could somebody adopt and contribute to them? As previously mentioned, I intend to write another GA - or two - during the December holidays. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 10:25, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I have tidied up "Singapore Stone" (note the change of article title) and have nominated it for Good Article status. Cheers, Jacklee 01:45, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Singapore Statute template updated

I've updated the {{Singapore Statute}} template so that it is now possible to enter the short title ("name"), chapter number and year of the revised edition of a statute. This means that articles which make use of this template will need to be updated. Do help! Cheers, Jacklee 22:24, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

New template: Indian name

I've created a new template, "{{Indian name}}", which can be used at the top of biographical articles to explain that the subject does not have a surname, but that part of his or her name is a patronymic (that is, his or her father's name). Feel free to use and improve it.

As Indian names differ greatly, it may be necessary to create variations of this template – please leave a message on the template talk page if you have any suggestions. For instance, I've noticed that some people use "a/l" instead of "s/o" (son of). I assume that "a/l" means "son of" in Tamil, but don't know what it stands for or the equivalent of "daughter of". Also, someone will need to explain to me how Sikh names work. (Is "Kaur" or "Singh" regarded as a surname?) Cheers, Jacklee 09:13, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

I have another question: when an Indian name consists of a given name and a patronymic, is it always the case that the patronymic is put in front of the given name? In other words, if an Indian person's name is, say, "Shunmugam Jayakumar", would it be safe to assume that the person's given name is "Jayakumar" and that his father's name is "Shunmugam"? I'm wondering whether the order of the parameters in the template should be reversed. At the moment, it is necessary to type "{{Indian name|Jayakumar|Shunmugam}}". If the patronymic is always in front of the given name, perhaps it would be better to change the template so that it can be used like this: "{{Indian name|Shunmugam|Jayakumar}}", as this may be more natural for editors. Do discuss this matter further at "Template talk:Indian name#Order of parameters". Cheers, Jacklee 23:22, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Based on the discussion that has been taking place at "Template talk:Indian name#Order of parameters", it seems there is variation among Indians as to whether the patronymic is placed in front of or behind the given name (i.e., "Shanmugam Jayakumar" or "Jayakumar Shanmugam"). In that case, for the time being I'm going to leave the order of the parameters in {{Indian name}} unchanged. Editors using the template will need to be aware that they must state the person's given name as the first parameter and the patronymic as the second one, regardless of how they actually appear in the person's name. Cheers, Jacklee 13:58, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Please help the editing CHC article in chinese wiki

There are a lot of misleadings of CHC in chinese edition.

CHC in zh.wikipedia.org

Jyyihch 14:45, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Please note that the above template has been nominated by User:Circeus for deletion. See Wikipedia:Templates_for_deletion#Template:Singapore_building_infobox. —Sengkang 17:28, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

It's not so much a deletion as a merger (which would keep the extra names parameters) into an existing template. Circeus 17:45, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Zubir Said: Translation of Malay book titles

Can anyone help provide English translations of the following book and film titles which are referred to in the article "Zubir Said"?

Do you think this is an article that might achieve Good Article status?

Cheers, Jacklee 16:51, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Use of coat of arms of Singapore in templates

Hi, Mailer diablo recently applied Image:Singapore coa.png, an image of the Singapore coat of arms, to {{Politics of Singapore}} and {{Infobox Court Case}}. While I think that the coat of arms is attractive and suitable for these infoboxes, rule 3(1) of the Singapore Arms and Flag and National Anthem Rules (Cap. 296, R1, 2004 Rev. Ed.) states: "[N]o person shall, without the prior written permission of the Minister or any authorised officer — (a) print, publish, manufacture, sell, offer for sale or exhibit for sale; (b) cause to be printed, published, manufactured, sold, offered for sale or exhibited for sale; (c) send, distribute or deliver to, or serve on, any other person; or (d) cause to be sent, distributed or delivered to, or served on, any other person, any writing, material or object in or on which appears the Arms or any token, insignia, emblem or other thing that so nearly resembles the Arms as to be capable of being mistaken for the Arms." Rule 3(2) states: "[N]o person shall, without the prior written permission of the Minister or any authorised officer, use or apply the Arms on any writing, material or object." That was why the coat of arms was replaced with Image:Singov top 02.gif in {{Politics of Singapore}}, as these regulations do not apply to use of that logo.

I'm not sure whether it is worth writing to the relevant Minister to ask for permission for use of the state crest in Wikipedia articles. The main question is whether Wikipedia articles need to comply with Singapore law, or whether Wikipedia policy is that compliance with US law is sufficient (this seems to be the case for fair use of images, for instance). Can anyone shed light on this matter? If not, is there an administrator we can ask about this?

I've notified Mailer diablo of this matter on his talk page. Cheers, Jacklee 18:36, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

  • I based it off the guidelines of the official site. Didn't know their terms is more complicated than what the site offered. I note that the Supreme Court is also using the COA as their logo. At least there is a point of contact to actually ask. - Best regards, Mailer Diablo 18:41, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
    • I would also note that traditionally and from past experience it is almost impossible to get permission from local agencies, so don't have high expectations if you go ahead. - Mailer Diablo 18:49, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi, Mailer diablo. Well, the website that you refer to states: "The use of the state crest for advertisements or any other commercial purpose is prohibited by law. Only government bodies can display the state crest within their premises. Approval must be sought for any other use of the state crest." There's no problem with the Supreme Court making use of the crest on its website, because the Court is an organ of state. I note that the website also states:

For enquiries on use of the state crest, please contact:

Ms Joyce Lee
Assistant Manager (Heritage Programmes)
National Heritage Board
Singapore
Email: joyce_lee@nhb.gov.sg
Tel: 63324494
Fax: 63323525

Ms Elizabeth Njo
Assistant Manager (Psychological Defence)
National Heritage Board
Singapore
Email: elizabeth_njo@nhb.gov.sg
Tel: 63324495
Fax: 63323525

Perhaps it might be worth contacting one of these persons to ask for permission for use of the national coat of arms in Wikipedia articles. An argument might be made out that this promotes Singapore's heritage and supports psychological defence. Anyway, if we don't try we will never know. But I agree that it's often difficult to get a response from government agencies on matters like this. Perhaps they are deemed to be too inconsequential to merit a response. For instance, I wrote to the National Museum of Singapore for permission to use a photograph of the Singapore Stone published in one of their books, but never received a reply. (The photograph is currently being used in the article under a detailed fair-use rationale, which I hope is sufficient.) What do other SGpedians think? Cheers, Jacklee 18:56, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

  • No reply, that's...odd? Because in the past government agencies actually *came* to us to strongly object the use of their logos and stuff. - Mailer Diablo 19:05, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh, really, what happened then? And if that happened, why do you think it's a good idea to use the national coat of arms now? Cheers, Jacklee 19:10, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

  • Almost every other country's infoboxes adopt it. Forgot that our country is 'Unique'. - Mailer Diablo 19:13, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

That could be because the rules concerning the use of coats of arms of other countries are less restrictive. Or that the rules are being ignored. Perhaps we should go back to using a photograph of Parliament House. I remember that that was used at one stage. Cheers, Jacklee 22:34, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I rather liked the photograph – better than the current logo, anyway. By the way, I put a photograph of the Supreme Court Building in the infobox in the "Lock v. Goh" article. Cheers, Jacklee 02:37, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Okay, I've restored the Parliament House image. - Mailer Diablo 14:25, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

New template: {{Singapore Constitution}}

After much difficulty, I've created a new template, {{Singapore Constitution}}, that inserts a citation to the latest reprint of the Singapore Constitution. Do make use of it where appropriate, and if you are knowledgable about templates please feel free to improve the template as well. Cheers, Jacklee 19:17, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Use of s-line for MRT stations

Currently, there is a template for station line succession boxes: Template:S-line. Pages for a large number of train and subway systems all over the world have adapted this system. I was wondering if anyone is interested in adapting this for the Singapore MRT as well. If no one is willing to give it a go, then I'll be glad to convert them some time in the future. I understand that the current pages already use a localised template, but maybe for the sake of conserving bandwidth, a common template can be used with the rest of Wikipedia. 리지강.wa.au (의논하다|기여) 16:49, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

  • You mean, standardization? I would appreciate a sample so I can try and convert some, the syntax looks quite a bit to me. =P - Mailer Diablo 15:09, 27 October 2007 (UTC)
    • Yes standardization, couldn't think of the actual word. Anyway, I've created some examples to cover all the MRT lines here. If all goes well, I think we can implement this throughout all the stations.리지강.wa.au (의논하다|기여) 15:19, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
  • Yes, I was reading up on the s-line templates and was thinking of implementing this throughout all the stations. however my exams are here and will help to standardise it after that, about december. cheers! Oahiyeel 21:36, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
  • i've started converting some mrt and lrt station succession boxes. those who want to help here's the remaining list of MRT and LRT stations that needs to be converted! :) I've also drafted out a list of old succession templates at my sandbox that can be deleted once all these conversions are done. let me know if i missed out any! :) - oahiyeel talk 07:54, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Between Silat and Pencak Silat

Silat article, which is under this project, is in the subject of ongoing heavy writing between two views. One insists to separate the two articles while others are trying to combine the two. A consensus is needed whether to merge or to separate these two articles and to avoid any unilateral acts in the future. Your comments are welcomed here: Talk:Silat#Merge_between_Silat_and_Pencak_Silat. — Indon (reply) — 08:13, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Flag of Singapore, again

Would anyone be so kind to try and find me a construction sheet for the flag? Examples of what I am looking for are [8] or [9]. I do not need the colors, since I have found a source already for them (Pantone 032 for Red, Pantone Safe for White). User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 06:37, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Does this help? http://flagspot.net/flags/sg.html. — Cheers, JackLee talk 23:24, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Singapore Manual of Style?

I think we are in a kinda interesting position in that our "notice board" is also working as a "wikiproject". What has been missing, and often sorely needed, is some kind of a "manual of style" or "naming convention" for Singapore-related articles. Any thoughts if this is neccesary, and how we may proceed with this?--Huaiwei 01:56, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Do we really need one? WikiProject Iceland has a (proposed) Manual of Style for Iceland-related articles because of unusual letters in their alphabet and the fact that it is conventional to sort people according to their given names rather than their surnames: see "Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Iceland-related articles)". Are there aspects of Singapore-related articles that require special treatment that are not covered by the general Wikipedia:Manual of Style? Could you give some examples? — Cheers, JackLee talk contribs count 15:11, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, one thing that comes up often is the issue of handling Singapore's official languages -- there's been a bunch of ridiculous edit wars over this topic and one is about to restart over at Changi Airport. So I'll make the following proposal:

  • Singapore-related topics should have the name listed in all four official languages listed, in the following order: English, Malay, Chinese (zh-cp|c=simplified|p=pinyin), Tamil.
  • The names should be listed once. If the article has an infobox, the name should be listed there. If not, the names go in the first sentence of the lead.
  • If the names have a complex history or vary considerably from language to language (eg. Tekka Centre), this should be discussed in a separate section, not the lead.

Fire away! Jpatokal 02:45, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

That sounds sensible. Perhaps you'd like to do a first draft of "Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Singapore-related articles)". Any other matters that need to be dealt with? Perhaps we should provide some guidance on how to give names to biographical articles as there may be some confusion over the use of Chinese, Malay and Indian names in Singapore. — Cheers, JackLee talk 02:58, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
I finally plunged forward and created Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Singapore-related articles). Comments welcome. Jpatokal (talk) 20:03, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Sections 377 and 377A of the Penal Code (Singapore): Renaming of article

The Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2007 has been passed by Parliament. The current title of the article "Sections 377 and 377A of the Penal Code (Singapore)" is therefore out of date, and there is now a more urgent need to decide what should be done about the article. There is currently a discussion at its talk page on whether the article should be expanded in scope to cover all sexual offences in Singapore and renamed as "Sexual offences in Singapore", or merged with "LGBT rights in Singapore". Do add any comments that you have on the issue. If there are no further comments on the matter in a fortnight or so, I may go ahead and be bold (depending on how busy I am). — Cheers, JackLee talk contribs count 15:48, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

I've been nominated for RfA. Most of my edits have been in the Chemistry articles, but I have made some edits to those Singapore-related articles. If anyone has opinions about my suitability for adminship, you can participate in the discussion here. --Rifleman 82 10:41, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Looks like the RFA's going to pass. Have you written any GAs - especially Singapore-related GAs? If so, I'll definitely support you. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 05:37, 13 November 2007 (UTC)
I'm not so involved in pushing articles to GA, and I rarely write about Singapore-related articles. I did write/expand SAFTI Military Institute, Foreign relations of Singapore, Singapore Armed Forces ranks, Military history of Singapore. --Rifleman 82 17:22, 13 November 2007 (UTC)
Congratulations, Rifleman 82, you are now an administrator! Now please write a Singapore-related GA (or two, or hopefully even more). Since my O Levels are over, I have plenty of time to write articles, and may need you to help me find newspaper articles on LexisNexis. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 03:18, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for your thoughts. However, I must decline making promises with regard to the GAs. Like I have said, Singapore-related articles are not my core contributions. I will continue to edit, but as you can see there are only a few articles I get involved in. If they become GAs with or without my help, great. If there are peer reviews, which point out the problem areas, I'll fix them where I can too. But I'm not really gunning for peer reviews, nor will I push and lobby for them to be promoted as GAs. I'll help you where I can with lexisnexis, but once again my time is limited and I can't dig out all 200 or so fulltexts. Afterall, I do need to earn a living. As you know, all editors here, even admins, are volunteers and they are entitled to pick and choose, how they wish to contribute. Hope you understand my point of view. --Rifleman 82 04:58, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

"People from the Straits Settlements"?

Yōsuke Yamahata was born in 1917 and moved to Tokyo in 1925. Had he been born in, say, Nagasaki he'd be within Category:People from Nagasaki Prefecture. But he was born in Singapore, which I believe was at the time one of the (British) Straits Settlements. He was hardly "Singaporean". While I'm less than fanatical about categorizing people, I'm idly wondering if there's a category for people such as him. -- Hoary 02:23, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

Laksa and Pharis Aboobacker

Just a heads-up: both Laksa and Pharis Aboobacker (of NKF fame) are being edited by users with, um, rather firm beliefs about the subject. Please chip in to help clean them up. Jpatokal 01:14, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

Stubbed and referenced. --Rifleman 82 12:55, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Each article listed in "Featured articles and honourable mentions" should have its primary contributor's username next to it.

When was the last time someone praised you? If we thanked and praised SGpedians for their contributions, they would be motivated to contribute more. Hence I propose that every entry in "Featured articles and honourable mentions" should include the username of the article's primary contributor.

Let's use the entry for I Not Stupid as an example. Currently, it looks like this:

After adding my username to the entry, it should look like this:

Note that I used "thanks" instead of "written by", as the latter implies that I own the article. We want to thank them for contributing to Wikipedia, not to suggest that they own articles they contribute to.

Letting others know who writes Singapore-related FAs, GAs and DYKs has other benefits. For example, new SGpedians who wish to write a Singapore-related GA would know who to ask for help. Should a Singapore-related FA be taken to featured article review, it would be easy to find and contact its primary contributor.

If nobody opposes this suggestion within the next 5 days, I will edit all the GA entries to include their primary contributor's username.

--J.L.W.S. The Special One 14:05, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Just add your own username if your want, but probably not others' without asking them first. --Vsion 14:18, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
Sorry but I am kinda apprehensive over this proposal. I am afraid many will interpret it as a sign of WP:Own. If you wish to pat yourself on the back, a better way may be to list the article in your userpage as examples of your best contributions. Give others barnstars if they make significant contributions. I am sure users with a clear sense of their purpose in wikipedia will not find this inadequate, if it is necessary at all.--Huaiwei 16:01, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
As I noted above, I am also concerned about implications of article ownership. Hence my choice of "thanks" over "written by". In my opinion, "thanks" does not imply article ownership, only that the Wikipedian's contributions are appreciated. Feel free to suggest a better phrasing. If you feel that including the primary contributor's username in each entry will imply article ownership regardless of phrasing, state so.
I do not wish to "pat myself on the back", as Huaiwei suggests; I was merely using the entry for I Not Stupid as an example. This suggestion aims to encourage others to pat me on the back and allow me to pat others on the back. (Of course, I do not have to do the patting or be patted.) Is this clarification adequate?
--J.L.W.S. The Special One 03:24, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
I think this idea has the right intentions but for me I write GAs and FAs mostly out of interest rather than anything else. There are already barnstars to show appreciation. Chensiyuan 03:30, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
There are barnstars, but they are underused. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 03:42, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
I think this problem can be easily solved. Let's use them more! :D--Huaiwei 03:47, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
Yeah! Let's use them more! Thanks for leading by example, Huaiwei! By the way, how many Singapore-related GAs have you written? I want to return you the favour by awarding you a barnstar for improving Wikipedia's coverage of Singapore. My suggestion would also encourage Wikipedians to award more barnstars, as those who read I Not Stupid (again, just an example) would know who to thank and award barnstars to. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 04:28, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
We may fret long and hard over wordings, but I doubt casual users are going to interpret it the way we intend. Thanking someone can also be seen as acknowledging someone's ownership of a specific article. Also, please do not take offence over the "pat on the back" comment. It was just an illustration and is not a reflection of what I think your intentions are. ;)--Huaiwei 03:47, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
No offence taken. I just thought that you had mis-interpreted my suggestion as an attempt to "pat myself on the back". Since you think that regardless of wording, including the primary contributor's username implies article ownership, I'm not sure if I should pursue my suggestion further. Frankly, I think that over-application of WP:OWN may lead to article writers not getting the credit they deserve. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 04:28, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

4th SGpedians' meetup

Could someone update me on the status of the 4th SGpedians' meetup? I intend to attend it if it is held on a weekday. Perhaps we could go to Lee Kong Chian Reference Library and find references for GAs we intend to write. By the way, the box at the top states that the meetup will take place on 27 Nov, while the "Proposals" section indicates that it will take place on 17 Nov. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 14:27, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

The 17th has come and gone, and I guess there wasn't a meet up. If there is to be one on the 27th, I question the choice of the date — it effectively excludes all editors aged 19 and above. So, when is it going to be? --Rifleman 82 (talk) 13:03, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
No meeting took place on the 27th either? Can we agree on a date? More importantly, now that Terence has left, who will organise the meetup? --J.L.W.S. The Special One 14:44, 1 December 2007 (UTC)
Please see section below. Thanks. Terence (talk) 05:41, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Prepping Singapore for Veropedia

Singapore is one of the core articles for Veropedia, which intends to collect stable, high-quality versions of articles suitable for students and teachers. Would you guys be interested in spending some time working on this article? I'm new to this project, and I'm still feeling my way around. But I'll try to identify the areas which need to be worked on. --Rifleman 82 17:03, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

I don't mind helping, although the extent to which I do so depends very much on how busy I am. (Final year of my Ph.D. Eeep.) I can probably assist with copyediting. I encourage other SGpedians to lend a hand – this is a wonderful opportunity to get the article back to Good Article status again, following its recent delisting. — Cheers, JackLee talk 19:57, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
Jack, that sounds great. While being GA/FA/A class etc is not a prereq for veropedia, getting it cleaned up is still a step in that direction for the article which will remain here. --Rifleman 82 04:59, 15 November 2007 (UTC)


I've cleaned it up and "passed" it to veropedia. You can see it here. References need improving. I'm trying to fix all references by the end of the week, using {{citation}} style templates. Also, some less-WP:RS sources should be changed to proper sources. Blogs should be excluded. Material from Singapore Department of Statistics, United States Department of State, the United States Library of Congress & CIA World Factbook, though public domain, should be properly cited as well. The list of references should be turned inline. Help will be good! --Rifleman 82 (talk) 18:29, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Featured article review suggested

Another editor has suggested that the Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore) article might not be featured article quality and stated his objections in the review proposal. It was removed from the main review page because the nominator put up three other articles at the same time for review. However, this gives us a chance to be a little proactive with this nom so we can clear up some of the problems before the review request is added again. If you have time, please view the objection list and work on the items that you can to help keep this article at FA status. Thanks. Slambo (Speak) 15:53, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

I've looked at the objections and whilst most of them are valid, most of them can also be rectified easily. Perhaps the principal editors would remedy most expeditiously. Chensiyuan 16:10, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
I'm surprised I wasn't notified. Looks like a list of fixable MoS issues. I'll do up the article tomorrow morning. - Mailer Diablo 17:29, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
I am also surprised that some of the issues raised were actually discussed prior and decided upon long ago. For example, on why "Safety" and "Security" ended up as two sections. Maybe we can discuss this in detail over in the article's talkpage.--Huaiwei 01:44, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
Since Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore) was promoted almost two years ago, and standards have risen, I am not surprised that the article no longer meets the FA criteria. We should address the issues as quickly as possible, so the article will not need to undergo the endless nitpicking and incivility that is FAC (and FAR) again. For starters, I moved the misplaced references behind punctuation marks. Mailer diablo (and others who have contributed significantly to the article) should try to find references for the under-referenced sections, while I will try to rope in a native speaker of English to copy-edit the lead section (and the rest of the article). --J.L.W.S. The Special One 10:42, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

(reset indent)What makes you so sure that an ang moh's English is better than one of ours'? --Rifleman 82 12:42, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, whosoever is good at copyediting should be good enough lol. Chensiyuan 12:46, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
In this context, "native speaker of English" refers to one's command of the language; a "native speaker of English" need not be an ang moh. If you are proficient in English - proficient enough to give ang mohs a run for their money - feel free to help copy-edit the article. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 15:30, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
Even the reviwer himself is claiming that. Seriously, can someone look into this one while I work on the Odex one? - Mailer Diablo (talk) 18:00, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
I have filed a request with the League of Copyeditors and found a native speaker (Haemo, who copy-edited I Not Stupid) who is willing to help copy-edit the article. Nevertheless, I don't see why you can't work on both articles. --J.L.W.S. The Special One (talk) 02:13, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
I'm sure he's entitled to choose lol. Chensiyuan (talk) 02:21, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Expressway map

Our expressway map, such as the one at Expressways of Singapore, has the MCE added in but the ECP truncated in the Marina Bay area. This is jumping the gun, no? We know the ECP will be truncated, but this is going to be quite a few years down the road. Thanks. --unkx80 20:15, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Agreed, perhaps a 'current' map and a 'future planned' map? - SpLoT // 04:00, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
Either two maps (like the MRT one), or make the U/C or planned sections explicit in the map.--Huaiwei 04:07, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
Agreed. i prefer one current one with the MCE "dotted lined" :) oahiyeeltalk 07:10, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
Dotted for U/C or planned sections sounds good, but either way is perfectly fine. To the people who drew the maps, thanks for the work! =) --unkx80 (talk) 05:47, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Nobody actually seemed to fix the ECP truncation, so I edited Aran's map and uploaded a new version. As I cannot overwrite Aran's version, I uploaded a copy at [10]. Can somebody please change all the articles that use Aran's map to use my map instead? Or better still, have my version replace his version instead (but I am not too sure how this works). Thanks! --unkx80 (talk) 18:54, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

#sgpedians channel on Freenode?

Perhaps the SGpedian community could have its own channel on freenode, allowing us to socially interact and thus strengthening the SGpedian community. We could also use the channel to plan meetups, GA drives and recruitment drives. Furthermore, if one urgently needs to contact an SGpedian (especially an SGpedian admin), they could use the channel to do so.

I propose that we all speak in Singlish during discussions in that channel, so kaypoh ang mohs catch no ball. (Of course, if they join the channel to seek our help, we should use our best English when responding to their queries.) The main drawbacks to this proposal are that not everybody can access IRC and that starting and running a channel requires time, effort and resources.

--J.L.W.S. The Special One 16:04, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Actually... we already have a channel, and it's been around for over a year now, at #wikipedia-singapore. :P Yes all, feel free to chit chat or whatever. Singlish or not, no need to care lah, unless really got ang moh lor. - SpLoT // 08:28, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for telling me about that channel, SpLoT! I lurk in that channel everyday, but unfortunately, I always seem to be the only one there. Could you, and other SGpedians, lurk in that channel more often? --J.L.W.S. The Special One (talk) 09:11, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
No need to impose... if people aren't interested that's fine. - SpLoT // 08:40, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Request for help

Hi, Im a user in England who has had an interest in schools but is now helping with "Did you know" nominations. I picked on Henderson Secondary School as a recent article and added some 3rd party references to add to its notability. I would like to nominate it for the front page (I know about this bit) but I could do with some local help. The original author is helpful - but is new to wikipedia. Are there some exoperienced SGpedians who could help? I think we need

  • some free use images - anyone local with a camera?
  • some more 3rd party refs
  • a bit about how SG schools are different from other countries... we have to remember that some readers may not be in Asia.

Any chance?

PS. See you are rearranging your schools in clusters... are you aware of the debate about notability on the schools project? Victuallers (talk) 16:49, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Few Singaporeans own digital cameras or support the free software/media movement; we are more concerned with bread-and-butter issues. On a more serious note - could you tell me more about the notability debate? As a Singaporean student, I am considering writing a GA on a Singaporean school, and knowing the notability criteria would be very useful. Although the education system has become a part of Singaporean culture, Wikipedia's coverage of education in Singapore is horrendous. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 15:31, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

I'm surprised that SGpedians lack cameras - they are pretty much standard issue in the mobile phones here. We don't need a full quality image - a "snap" will do. Anyway... thanks for making a reply ... its appreciated. The notabity debate is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:School ... enjoy. I I was hoping to get HSS to Did you know ... but I think I overestimated the help that might arrive. Victuallers 16:40, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't imagine it's the case that "few Singaporeans own digital cameras". You probably haven't had a response because the number of active SGpedians is not large, and perhaps there isn't anyone interested enough in Henderson Secondary School to schlep over to it and photograph it. (Sorry, can't help you myself – I'm not living in Singapore at the moment.) Have you tried contacting the school – perhaps they have a photographic society or some other student organization there which might be able to help? — Cheers, JackLee talk 03:22, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
Had a look at HSS's website. There isn't any photographic society, but you might try e-mailing the school at henderson_ss@moe.edu.sg. There are also a number of blogs belonging to student organizations within the school. You could try leaving a messages on one or more of them. — Cheers, JackLee talk 03:38, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
Sorry, I own a digital camera, but don't live near there. Also, photographers might get stopped by school security guards as "trespassing". - SpLoT // 03:55, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
Come to think of it, that happened to me before. I was asked by a cousin of mine to take photographs of the Anglo-Chinese Junior School at Barker Road, as he emigrated from Singapore many years ago and wondered what it looked like now. I took a few photographs inside the school grounds, but was subsequently approached by a security guard and told that photography was not permitted. Perhaps there's a fear of terrorist or (*ulp*) paedophile activity. But there may be less of a problem taking photographs of a school from outside the school compound. — Cheers, JackLee talk 04:34, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
The anti-fair use brigade will not tolerate such "excuses". If I were you, I would not risk being arrested as a trespasser, paedophile or terrorist. Articles do not need images to qualify for DYK; in fact, articles without images can achieve GA status. By the way, what interesting fact are you going to use as the article's DYK hook? --J.L.W.S. The Special One 13:38, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for all the advice. The DYK opportunity has timed out now. The hook was going to be the dengue fever work which is a part I had added to make a DYK possible. I know there may be few SGpedians - but you do a very good job of looking after Singapore. I have had other Singapore based articles that habve been excelent. However without pictures the article would be poor. Cheers Victuallers 14:43, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Majulah Singapura needs a section about use of anthem and its place in Singaporean culture

I encouraged an ang moh, Zscout370 to write a Singapore-related GA. The article he chose, Majulah Singapura, achieved GA status on 12 November 2007. However, I am concerned that the article is not "broad in its coverage".

What it lacks is a section about the use of our national anthem and its place in Singaporean culture. (Zscout370 is not to blame; as an ang moh, he does not have this knowledge.) For example, all Singaporean students have to sing the anthem during flag-raising ceremonies in school. Flag of Singapore (a current GA nominee, which I think should pass) has a similar section which could provide some useful pointers.

Could an SGpedian do the necessary research and write the section? Even a short section (a couple of paragraphs) should be enough to make the article "broad in its coverage". If no effort is made to address this issue, somebody may file a GA reassessment request, which may lead to the article losing its GA status.

--J.L.W.S. The Special One (talk) 15:34, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

It's worth doing a Google search to see if there are any news articles regarding the National Anthem that could be incorporated into a "Use of the National Anthem" section. That's how I found the New Paper articles about the use of the National Flag which I added to "Flag of Singapore". There should probably be some mention as well of the laws regulating the performance of the National Anthem. Will help out if I have the time. — Cheers, JackLee talk 14:15, 8 December 2007 (UTC)
What we need is someone who has access to Newslink, Factiva or another newspaper article archival service. Relevant information from Zubir Said can be copied over. Majulah Singapura should be complete as a standalone article; do not assume that someone who has read it has also read Zubir Said. --J.L.W.S. The Special One (talk) 14:54, 8 December 2007 (UTC)
On a connected note, is it still the case that TCS marks the end of the broadcasting day by playing the National Anthem? This was certainly the case in the past, but now that some channels broadcast 24 hours a day perhaps the National Anthem has been dispensed with. Does this practice till apply to the non-24-hour channels such as Central? Perhaps someone could check which channels still broadcast the National Anthem, and we could mention this in the article. And was it ever the case that the National Anthem was played before news broadcasts, and in cinemas? I'm afraid this was quite before my time. — Cheers, JackLee talk 14:22, 8 December 2007 (UTC)
TCS? That was over 5 years ago. --J.L.W.S. The Special One (talk) 14:54, 8 December 2007 (UTC)
Oops, I think I meant MediaCorp. Anyway, I've added more information to the article, but could do with help with the following:
  • A Straits Times news article entitled "Majulah Singapura has been sung patriotically for/b>]] // 03:55, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
Come to think of it, that happened to me before. I was asked by a cousin of mine to take photographs of the Anglo-Chinese Junior School at Barker Road, as he emigrated from Singapore many years ago and wondered what it looked like now. I took a few photographs inside the school grounds, but was subsequently approached by a security guard and told that photography was not permitted. Perhaps there's a fear of terrorist or ( 32 years" which is reproduced at http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/independence/ref/zanthem.html is supposedly dated 9 March 1990, but this seems to be wrong as the article refers to another article dated 22 July. I suspect that the articles were published some time in 1991. Would someone with access to Factiva try to locate these articles?
  • The web page http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/independence/ref/zanthem2.html includes an intriguing link at the bottom to an article entitled "5 or 6 anthems in the old days". Unfortunately, the link is dead. Again, would someone try to locate this article and any other information about national anthems prior to "Majulah Singapura"?
  • A source states that the national anthem was named after the motto that was part of the coat of arms of the City of Singapore that was displayed in the Victoria Theatre. I seem to recall the coat of arms on a wall of the second floor landing just outside the entrance to the stall seats of the theatre. Would someone please photograph it for inclusion in the article?
  • Should the official Mandarin and Tamil translations of the national anthem be included in the "Lyrics" section?
  • Please try and find a reference for this sentence in the "Salutes" section: "Persons in military or paramilitary uniforms generally to don their head dress and salute on the first note of the anthem, holding the salute till the last note."
  • I remember that Singaporeans were encouraged by the Government to hold clenched fists to their hearts when singing the national anthem or taking the national pledge some time in the 1990s or 2000s. Can anyone provide an accurate date and reference for this?
  • Can anyone think of any other uses of the national anthem? Was the anthem ever played in cinemas before films were screened? I know it was (and in some cases still is) played at the end of broadcasting hours on TV and radio; is or was it also played at the start?
The introductory paragraph also needs expansion. Please discuss the matter further on the article's talk page. — Cheers, JackLee talk 04:06, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

How did a 5.8 kB article suddenly quintuple in size to 30 kB? The optimal length for GAs is 15-20 kB. Nevertheless, you have done a great job, Jacklee! With regards to your requests for assistance (and several points I have to make):

  • Not everyone is as interested in legal details as you (a lawyer) are. Trim the "Guidelines for use" section, please.
  • I don't think we should mention the parody lyrics that are sometimes sung in Singaporean schools. Here they are, for your amusement: "Mari kita ya So-and-so跳楼自杀变成roti prata! Hallelujah!他的妈妈是个gorilla!"
  • The Wayback Machine does not have an archived copy of "5 or 6 anthems in the old days".
  • Any SGpedian who is willing to take a photo of the Coat of Arms at the Victoria Theatre (which entails dealing with the security guards there) deserves an award for boldness (an euphism for recklessness) and support of the anti-fair use brigade.
  • Are the Mandarin and Tamil translations well known? Can you find a highly reliable source for them? As this is the English Wikipedia, others may oppose the inclusion of the Mandarin and Tamil translations, but I am all for having them in the article.

--J.L.W.S. The Special One (talk) 12:48, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Hi, J.L.W.S. My responses:
  • OK, will see how I can trim the "Guidelines for use" section, though I think it is interesting and pertinent for readers to note that the national anthem is actually protected by law! Not many people know this.
  • Never heard the parody before! :-)
  • I don't see why it should be difficult to take a photograph of the City of Singapore coat of arms in Victoria Theatre. It is a public place, after all.
  • There are official Mandarin and Tamil translations, so I thought there shouldn't be any objection to including them in the article. However, looking at the article's history I realize that these translations were in fact originally in the article but were later taken out by Rifleman 82 on 27 November, so perhaps there needs to be a discussion as to whether they should be in the article in the first place.
— Cheers, JackLee talk 13:34, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
No, don't think non-English language text should be here unless it is necessary to expound on a point. I think it's already on wikisource. --Rifleman 82 (talk) 13:38, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
I wanted to have links to Wikisource, so we don't get a cluttered article that is full of lyrics. The format of the lyrics style is what I have done with other national anthem featured articles I wrote. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 20:40, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
Instead of including the official Mandarin and Tamil translations of the lyrics in the article, add a link to said translations in the "External links" section. You could also add a sentence about the translations in the "Lyrics" section, using a link to the official translations as a reference. If the translated lyrics meet Wikisource's criteria for inclusion, transwiking them, as Zscout370 suggested, might be a good idea.
Keep the "Guidelines for use" section concise and stick to the most important details. That the national anthem is protected by law may be "interesting and pertinent", but the same cannot be said for some of the other information in the section. Similarly, information about the "should we change the language of the anthem" debate does not belong in the History section.
--J.L.W.S. The Special One (talk) 13:30, 11 December 2007 (UTC)
I think we should continue this discussion on the talk page of the article as it is useful to other editors working on the article whom may not be aware of the discussion here, so I've copied some of the above comments and replied to them there. — Cheers, JackLee talk 19:15, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, I am back from the dead and I would like to inform you that there will be a meetup (CONFIRMED) on 29 December 2007, which is a Saturday. I hope this time it would be successful and it won't be cancelled again. Please indicate your interest here. Thanks. Terence (talk) 05:40, 10 December 2007 (UTC)



Singapore Meetup

Meetup 14

  • Status: Upcoming
  • Date: Friday, 7 July 2023
  • Time: 7:00pm
  • Place: Aperia Mall Level 1

Please indicate your interest on the meetup page.

v  d   e

MediaCorp TV Drama Page Vandalism Alert

Deat all SGwikipedians,

Although I am not a member of SGwikipedians, I would like to alert you all of recent vandalism attacks on various MediaCorp TV drama pages. Since September, User:ColourWolf, along with his sockpuppets and Zombie IPs, have been vandalizing various MediaCorp TV Drama pages by inserting blatantly fake contents. The fake contents generally deals with superpowers and cartoon figures. I suspect the vandal is from Uncyclopedia.

So far, the pages affected are Holland V, Honour and Passion, Metamorphosis, and the separate pages of The Unbeatables series. I believe there are other pages that are affected.

I am not Singaporean. I just happened to catch one of these vandalism attacks after watching Honour and Passion on the internet. I hope the members of this WikiProject will kindly check all MediaCorp TV Drama pages, and erase any vandalism where it happened. Thank you. Arbiteroftruth (talk) 02:32, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for bringing this vandalism to our attention. I have added the articles to my watchlist and will revert any vandalism I spot. Hopefully the SGpedian admins (Rifleman 82 and Mailer diablo) will not only watch the articles, but semi-protect them and block the vandals when necessary. --J.L.W.S. The Special One (talk) 15:52, 12 December 2007 (UTC)
Pardon me, but despite everything, I was actually somewhat entertained while reading those stories! :D--Huaiwei (talk) 16:43, 12 December 2007 (UTC)
Although funny, the vandalism must still be reverted. If you watch the articles, when they are vandalised, you can enjoy the stories and then revert them. --J.L.W.S. The Special One (talk) 09:42, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
ColourWolf is back. His sock: YangLiang, just attacked my userpage, and vows to further vandalize the pages. He apparently has many accounts that appears to be good-faith editors on the surface, but they will turn at some point to become vandals. Be careful! Arbiteroftruth (talk) 18:52, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Progress report

Since September, we have made remarkable progress; our GA tally has skyrocketed from 8 to 18! Of the 10 articles that achieved GA status during this period, 5 were primarily written by Aldwinteo and 4 were primarily written by Jacklee (the remaining one, Majulah Singapura, was primarily written by Zscout370 and has since been brought up to standards by Jacklee). Therefore, could we give a round of applause and barnstars to our prolific GA writers?

Kent Ridge Park and Selarang Barracks Incident (both primarily written by Aldwinteo) are currently GA nominees, while the GA nomination for Jacklee's Flag of Singapore is currently on hold. In addition, I recently nominated Odex's actions against file-sharing (primarily written by Mailer diablo) for GA; the nomination was placed on hold and subsequently failed due to the hold expiring. With 4 articles "nearly there", I am confident that we will reach 20 GAs very soon.

Once the 20-GA target is achieved, our next aim could be to double our GA tally from 20 to 40 in 12 months. If our prolific GA writers keep up the good work, that is not an unrealistic goal. I am currently working on Tampines Rovers FC and Homerun (film), and hope to become our next prolific GA writer. Some SGpedians, such as Chensiyuan, have written GAs; if we could convince them to contribute to Singapore-related articles, we would have more prolific GA writers.

Another cause for optimism is that there are several high-quality Singapore-related articles (such as Singapore, Singapore 2006 and Bonny Hicks) which have GA potential. We should endeavour to identify and improve such articles. Former SGpedian Sengkang has written over 60 DYKs; some of them might have GA potential. Perhaps an SGpedian could look through our 175 B-class articles to identify the needles in the haystack?

However, an analysis of our GAs suggests that Wikipedia's coverage of Singaporean topics is very uneven. Although we have many GAs pertaining to the history (thanks to Aldwinteo) and media (Fann Wong, I Not Stupid and Singapore Dreaming) of Singapore, some areas are poorly covered:

  • Considering how well Singaporean students do in international competitions and the controversies surrounding our education system, there really should be a Singapore-related GA under Education: Besides Education in Singapore, articles about educational policies that are unique to Singapore and top Singapoorean schools should be considered. As a Singaporean student myself, I will consider working on an education-related article in future.
  • There are no Singapore-related Sports GAs at the moment, but this is likely to change soon. Hopefully, Tampines Rovers FC will be the first GA on a football club located outside Europe or South America. Another article I intend to start working on next February is Fandi Ahmad. Since I know almost nothing about other sports, I invite other SGpedians to make Joscelin Yeo, Li Jiawei or Ronald Susilo GAs.
  • No articles about our Culture, which reflects our ethnic diversity and unique characteristics as a nation, have achieved GA status. What a shame. Readers will probably find GAs on our "national language" (Singlish), unique aspects of Singaporean culture (karung guni) or Singaporean cuisine (chilli crab) fascinating. Unfortunately, I doubt I can make such articles GAs.

--J.L.W.S. The Special One (talk) 16:28, 27 December 2007 (UTC)