Wikipedia:WikiProject The Beatles/Outreach/Newsletter/Issue 010

WikiProject The Beatles Newsletter
Issue 010 – February 2007

Beatles News

• George Harrison's handwritten lyrics to the song While My Guitar Gently Weeps have fetched $300,000 (£152,552) in a Scottsdale (Arizona, United States) memorabilia auction (15 January). It contained lines omitted from the final version of the song. Specifically :

I look from the wings at the play you are staging
While my guitar gently weeps
As I'm sitting here doing nothing but aging
Still my guitar gently weeps

On the reverse of the page appears the lyrics to Hey Jude in the hand of Mal Evans.

Project News

• The Project lead article (The Beatles, for those not paying attention) has had its Good Article status reviewed, and the consensus was 'keep'. The efforts of User:Andreasegde in supplying the requested citations, and other editors in helping with general editing, and the strength of arguments for retaining the grade sufficiently impressed the reviewers.

• After a great deal of work Paul McCartney was promoted as a Featured Article candidate. Unfortunately it failed to succeed. Among other comments, including the correct length of dash (or hyphen), from reviewers was that the article was too long and also that it needed further information included in some of the sections(!?) The promotor, and driving force behind the insertion of a great many references, citations and facts (and the remover of unwanted text, and splitter of information into daughter articles), Andreasegde vigorously argued the case for promotion but was unsuccessful.

• Mimi Smith was successfully nominated for WP:Good article status. The major editor to whom accolades should be directed is... Andreasegde.

• Two new articles have been listed in the Project Log since 1 January:

The Beatles' Influence on Recording Music by Apepper and Wings 1973 UK Tour by Danthemankhan.

• Eruption257 has adopted the A Spaniard in the Works article.

• The hottest Project page this month was possibly, despite the Article Status related issues regarding both The Beatles and Paul McCartney mentioned above, the third attempt to delete The Beatles trivia in less than a year. As was the case for the second attempt at AfD the result, after an energetic discourse, was keep but with a suggestion that the article be retitled to reduce the incidence of deletion requests. Editors are invited to discuss possible new titles, and/or the need for same, at Talk:The Beatles trivia.

• Other Project news - Lar did a bit of a purge of the subscription list during last month's newsletter delivery. Some folks were kept (and are at the active list), some who clearly are not active on wikipedia at all were removed with a "you've been removed" message left (and are at the inactive list), and some folks who were less active but not as clearly completely inactive were given a "this may be your last newsletter" message (and are at the possibly inactive list). A more nuanced subscription list is now here (in several subpages as outlined above), and anyone who wants to tweak their status (moving one's self back is a clear cut sign that we should deliver the newsletter to you!) should feel free. Please respect the rather spartan formatting though, this list is used by WP:AWB currently, and may be used by other automation in future.

Issue of the Month

Hottest issue or concern for this month is the perennial matter of Project articles losing their Good or Featured Article status. The main Project page now includes a status board that gives the current ratings of some of the more important articles. Let's make sure the core articles (The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr) reach or retain Good Article status, if not Featured Article. If you are aware of another major article whose status is at risk, add it to the board.

Issue of last Month

Since there has been no response in the matter of the use of lowercase for the initial letter of the when applied with Beatles from the opponents, it is likely that the case for using lowercase only will be adopted as Project policy by default. User:LessHeard vanU will draw up a recommendation and submit it to the Policy talkpage in a few days.

From the Editors

We are pleased to welcome the contributions of Alexcalamaro to this newsletter. Any editor can include an item of interest or news; this medium can be an excellent tool for getting a comment seen by a great number of project members. As it says below, this is your newsletter.

If you've just joined, add your name to the Participants section of Wikipedia:WikiProject The Beatles. You'll get a mention in the next issue of the Newsletter and get it delivered as desired. Also, please include your own promotions and awards in future issues. Don't be shy!

Member News

• New members to the project since the last issue include Sturgeonman, McTavidge, Discordant, SUIT, apepper, Darrenhusted, Cbing01 and Eruption257.

• The Silly Name (Beatles) Cabal have been awarding each other sundry awards, with one rather obvious exception, recently. This practice is contrary to WP:YouDoNotNeedToBeMadToEditHere(ButItHelps) and reflects badly on the serious work being done on The Greatest Band In The World and should cease immediately. Any further transgressions will likely incur the wrath of The Really Scary One.

Lastly, this is your newsletter and you can be involved in the creation of the next issue (Issue 011 – March 2007). Any and all contributions are welcome. Simply let yourself be known to any of the undersigned, or just start editing!

Contributors to this Issue

• Alexcalamaro (Editor)
• LessHeard vanU (Editor)
• Albert Goldman (Editor)
• Lar (Editor, Distributor)