Member news

The project now has 31 members. 3 new participants enrolled last month, they can be viewed here. Andrew has also created another template for your talk page (even though this links to your userpage) which displays for all to see that you are a member of the project. You can add it to your page by including {{WPGM Talk}} to the page. It may be difficult to see the true effects of these welcoming messages, but I'm estimating that since the introduction of these that 12 new users have joined, all 100% have accepted their invitations, and therefore they are 100% successful in their aim.

Greater Manchester Article News

Once again, the project has been subject to much praise from three newly promoted featured articles, and one more good article. Oldham (nom), Manchester (nom), M62 motorway (nom) and Chat Moss (review) have all passed with flying colours. Featured articles now make up 0.03% more of the overall articles that there are relating to the project, than last month. Of all 791 pages which are tagged with this template, 100% have been assessed with the new scale which was introduced last month. It may also be worth noting two others pages that are undergoing transformations are: List of companies based in Greater Manchester and Belle Vue Zoo.

Current Debates

There was a lengthy debate over Manchester Airport this month, which lead to three article for deletions, second nominations viewable here and deletion review viewable here. Basically, what happened was there was quite a great misunderstanding of what the purpose of the lists actually were. They were to compile a list of the destinations served by each terminal and linked along into a sub-page, where it would seem the overview page (i.e. Manchester Airport) would look less cluttered, as was the suggestion at the peer review. Some participants at the first AFD, stated that reviews shouldn't be carried out upon unless there is consensus, and as they are not authorative should only be used as a guide. It was soon sorted though and all three daughter-lists were deleted. There has also been a change to the projects aims, which took a dramatic overhaul this week following the FA pass of Manchester. The change was performed by Jza84. It is now recognised that we should bring not only top importance articles to FA standard but also ones that have been long-since reviewed, like Altrincham and Stretford. And if you're wondering why Salford is there it's due to the fact that there is a consensus among the project members that as Salford is in such close vicinity to the City of Manchester, that it's our "duty" to help promote it. The change came about about after this discussion.

Monthly Challenges

New this month, we have to get Greater Manchester upto  Featured Article Standard. However, with Manchester now rated as FA-Class and the proposed "skipping" of the GA process, it may not be too long before we see this under the success section on the project mainpage. It would be ideal if all 791 articles were at least GA standard, but that will never happen in the next month! But please if you can, assess your ability to understand an article and if you're acquauinted with the task in hand and potentially long wait for a writing and for a review, go ahead! Be bold. The progress monitor can be seen here.

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Once again, Portal:North West England has been subject to much exposure on behalf of it's editors. The current status of the portal is looking good and it has so far gained unanimous support at it's FPOC. Hopefully, it'll be promoted and we'll have yet another success on our hands. Also, most major articles that are relevant have been tagged with a shortcut to the Portal mainpage, by Jza.

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And finally, have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Created by Rudget | Single-Page View

Member news

Greater Manchester Article News

Current Debates

Monthly Challenges

As was stated in last months newsletter, the Greater Manchester remains a key article for the project, and one which has been identified as urgent in our quest for  Featured Article status. Sadly, for all our other successes, Greater Manchester has changed little since this time last year] (!) and is still an article requiring expansion and development. The new WP:UKCOUNTIES guide may provide new ways in which to channel our efforts. Although we endevour to have good article status even for our suburbs and hamlets, other articles specifically identified as needing development towards FA include Salford, Stretford and Altrincham.

Many of our most crucial articles about our largest towns are still in poor condition: Rochdale, Bury, Prestwich, Bolton, and Wigan are of "start class" standard - much lower than we should have. If you feel you can help, please be bold and try to improve these.

One final challenge for this month is for all those with new digial cameras for Christmas, or even digial images stored away on a disc!... many of our place articles are still without a single photograph, and www.geograph.org.uk is running low on quality images. Even those with photographs often have a low quality photograph of the local church. MORE ARE NEEDED! Especially townscapes! If you think you can help, a barnstar is up for grabs for best picture added in the next month or so!

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We're always looking for potential new project members and ways for greater communication, collaboration and participation. WP:GM has a strong core of users, but would like to have more input from a wider user-base. If you can think of ways to improve our ways of working, please feel free to mention them at WT:GM. Simillarly, if you notice a new or unapproached user who is producing sound work related to Greater Manchester and its consituent parts, please don't forget to ask them if they'd like to join us, either in your own hand, or by adding {{Welcome WPGM}} to their talk page.

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Would you like to write the next newsletter for WP:GM?? Please nominate yourself at WT:GM! New editors are always welcome!

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Created by Jza84 based on a template by Rudget | Single-Page View

 

The WikiProject Greater Manchester Newsletter
Issue V - March 2008

Project News

• Since the January newsletter there has been an increase of 5 featured articles/lists, taking our total number of featured entries upto 16 17 (Trafford passed today!).

• Grade I listed buildings in Greater Manchester, reported on in the last newsletter, is now a featured list, and was one of the project's finest team efforts towards one of the finest such lists. The Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester has since been started. Can you help?

• Trafford and List of tallest buildings and structures in Salford remain featured candidates, although both look likely to be promoted. UPDATE: Trafford was promoted today!

• Although WP:GM leads the way in terms of featured content by a local British project, the Kent and Yorkshire WikiProjects are close to this total, with 11 and 14 featured entries respectively.

• Following a somewhat frenzied collaboration at the start of March, and a nomination by User:Joshii, Greater Manchester was promoted to GA status. It's the first metropolitan county to obtain this recognition.

• There has otherwise been a reduction in WP:GM nominations for GA status, something which the project has begun to discuss on the talk page.

• Having completed all but one of our short term aims set last December, the project would like to look at developing new short term aims. Suggestions have been made here, but there is scope for flexibility. Do you have a entry you would like to see developed?

• Other articles to have undergone a major upgrading include Salford, Stalybridge, Middleton and List of railway stations in Greater Manchester.

Member News

There are now 39 members of WikiProject Greater Manchester! Welcome to the 8 new members that joined since our last newsletter:

• Polishname (talk · contribs)
• Jimet (talk · contribs)
• Phon123 (talk · contribs)
• Abfab27 (talk · contribs)
• Sharadjalota456 (talk · contribs)
• Mike Peel (talk · contribs)
• Unsy770 (talk · contribs)
• Hassocks5489 (talk · contribs)

Two members have left the project however, each for rather different reasons:

• Archtransit (talk · contribs) was an administrator, and project member, who was found to have been abusing his editting and sysop privliges. Following investigation, Archtransit was banned indefinately. A report in The Signpost is found here.

• Rudget (talk · contribs), also an administrator, decided to leave the project. Reasons mentioned included the demands of admin duties taking over too much time. Rudget helped towards Didsbury's GA promotion, and Portal:North West England's FP promotion.

Thanks

This WikiProject, would not be where it is today without each and every one of its members! Thank you to all!

Roll Call!!!

• Are YOU still around?

WP:GM is a great project, and is leading the way for local WikiProjects of the UK. However, though the project talk page is a hub of activity, it is regularly used by only a core of 5-6 editors, which isn't making the most of its potential. Indeed, a study, by the University of Minnesota found that "One-tenth of 1 percent of editors account for nearly half of Wikipedia's content value". We at WP:GM do not want to follow suit!

There are several editors who have, sadly, not editted since the turn of 2008, and others, which concentrate in areas other than Greater Manchester material (which is quite fine!).

The WikiProject Greater Manchester would like to know if YOU are still around, and if so, if you've like to be more involved, and, if not, why not and what can we do to get you involved and be a bigger part of the team?

Feel free to come by the project talk page and leave us a message on what you're working on and/or what you'd like to see improved. The project is only as strong as its members and we'd like to know if you're still active or if we can help you with your editting.

Images

• A picture's worth a thousand words

In our last issue, a plea was made for more images to be submitted to Wikipedia/WikiCommons to improve the quality and context of our articles. Many of our Top priority articles are still lacking in quality images, if any!

www.geograph.org.uk is an online resource of photographs of places in the UK, which we can use. Www.flickr.com also has some images we are permitted to use. Do you have a digital camera however? Can you take photographs of townscapes and landmarks in your local area that can be used here? Middleton, Hulme and Rochdale all have examples of images in their lead that help give a sense of place and improve the context to our readers.

Simillarly, many of our most crucial articles about our largest towns are still in poor condition: Stockport, Bury, Prestwich, Bolton, and Wigan are of "start class" standard with short lead sections and unreferenced sections - a much lower standard than we should allow! If you feel you can help, please be bold and try to improve these. There is a list of resources that can help.

Created by Jza84 | Single-Page View

Would you like to write the next newsletter for WP:GM?? Please nominate yourself at WT:GM! New editors are always welcome!

 

The WikiProject Greater Manchester Newsletter
Issue VI - April 2008

Project News

• Since the last newsletter in March, our number of featured articles/lists has increased by 3, giving us a total of 21! List of tallest buildings and structures in Salford and Manchester City F.C. seasons were promoted to featured list status on 22 March along with Castles in Greater Manchester which passed FLC on 1 April. Well done to all those who contributed!

• Peterloo Massacre was nominated for FAC on 6 April. So far it has received support for FAS but feel free join the discussion here.

• The reduction of WP:GM GAs, mentioned in the last issue, has been tackled with Buckton Castle and Oasis (band) being passed on 9 March and Upper Brook Street Chapel, Manchester on 7 April. We now have 13 GAs due to hard work of our contributors. Well done!

• Hulme Arch Bridge was nominated for GAS on March 30.

• WP:GM still is still the leading local British WikiProject. As far as featured content goes, we have a lead of 6 on London and Yorkshire who have 15 FAs each. Although taking the lead in FAs, WP:GM is still lacking GAs and falls behind London by 6. This topic was at the front of the new aims discussion (here) and is an important issue for WP:GM.

• As mentioned above, new aims have been decided. See the right hand column for more details.

Member News

There are now 44 members of WikiProject Greater Manchester! A warm welcome to the 5 new members that have joined us since March:

• Attenboroughp (talk · contribs)
• Paypwip (talk · contribs)
• Liquidswords (talk · contribs)
• Azallen (talk · contribs)
• Man2 (talk · contribs)

No users left the WikiProject this month. Hooray!

Thanks

A big "thank you" to all the editors who help make this WikiProject what it is; no edit goes unnoticed.

Written by Polishname • Template by Jza84 | Single-Page View

Would you like to write the next newsletter for WP:GM?? Please nominate yourself at WT:GM! New editors are always welcome!

New Aims

The completion of all but one of the short term aims set last December resulted in a discussion on WT:GM to set new aims for the WikiProject. They are:

• Obtain FA status for Greater Manchester.
• Obtain GA status for Salford.
• Obtain GA status for Kersal Moor.
• Get a lead/static image in every infobox of every town in the county.
• Obtain FL status for List of railway stations in Greater Manchester.
• Obtain GA -> FA status for Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine.
• Obtain FL status for List of people from Bolton.
• Obtain GA status for a third of Greater Manchester's Metropolitan Boroughs.

It took us four months to get our last aims completed, why not try and see if these can be done in less time than before! All input is welcome but if anyone has any books or photos etc specifically related to these topics, they would be extra-specially welcome.

But before rushing ahead with these new aims, let's not forget the one that got away last time: to obtain B -> GA status for Rochdale, Wigan, Bury, Bolton and Stockport. Most of these articles are in poor condition and in need of repair. Good quality images are urgently needed also. Let's make sure that this aim doesn't stay off our radar much longer.

Don't Forget...

• Images!
  The shortage of good images was mentioned in the last issue and still hasn't been resolved! A good place to start would be the requested photographs category but please remember that there are many articles not within this category that have the same need in common.

• Assessment
  "Assess and review all relevant articles for quality, importance and progress" is one of our mid-term aims. At the present moment, there are only 43 unassessed articles. This task could be completed well before the next newsletter is out.

• Last but not Least...
  Please remember that the list of stubs needing expansion and the list of articles needing cleanup are in permanent need of attention. Please take a look and see what you can do.

 

The WikiProject Greater Manchester Newsletter
Issue VII - May 2008

Project News

• The Peterloo Massacre article was promoted to FA on 12 April. One of our top priority articles, it had previously been only start class. The process began on 25th March and since then underwent over 700 edits before the end of April, with Jza84, Malleus Fatuarum, and Richerman making significant contributions to the rapid development of the article. Ddstretch and Mr Stephen also contributed to discussions on the article talk page.

• Hulme Arch Bridge was promoted to GA. This was mainly the effort of Mike Peel who was also largely responsible for the promotion of Upper Brook Street Chapel, Manchester last month.

• Perhaps the most unusual event of April 2008 for the project has surrounded the Denshaw article. Denshaw is a village of about 500 people in Saddleworth, Oldham, which attracted media attention due to vandalism of the stub class article. Once this was brought to the project's attention, efforts were made to improve the article which led to a successful DYK? nomination and might even advance it to GA status with a bit more effort. In April there were over 19,000 visitors who saw the project in action. Contributors included Jza84, Ddstretch, Malleus Fatuarum, Hassocks5489, Nev1 and Mike Peel.

• Also this month 5 articles featured on the DYK? section of the front page: Hulme Arch Bridge, Peterloo Massacre, Bolton and Leigh Railway, Barnes Hospital, Denshaw, and Platt Fields Park. This certainly puts into perspective one of the project's previous mid-term aims "feature on the Did you know? section with at least three articles related to Greater Manchester". If you've expanded an article 5 fold or started one with at least 1.5kb of prose in the past 5 days and it has an interesting and referenced fact don't hesitate to read the conditions of DYK? and nominate it here. It gets the project noticed!

• WikiProject Greater Manchester is still leading local British WikiProjects. As far as featured content goes, we have a lead of 7 on London and Yorkshire who have 15 Featured Articles each. Although taking the lead in FAs, WP:GM is still lacking GAs and falls behind London by 6 (we have 14, London 20). If you see an article that you think deserves to be a GA, don't hesitate to nominate it at WP:GAC!

Member News

There are 45 members of WikiProject Greater Manchester. One new member has joined the project this month:

• Kieran5676 on 30th April and is interested in south Manchester.

The project is always looking for new members, and if you spot an editor who makes good changes to Greater Machester related articles why not invite them to join up by adding this template to their talk page {{SUBST:Welcome WPGM}}.

Thanks

A rather large "thank you" goes out to all the editors who edited article related to Greater Manchester, or who edit the project itself.

Written by Basketball110 and Nev1 • Template by Jza84 | Single-Page View

Would you like to write the next newsletter for WP:GM?? Please nominate yourself at WT:GM! New editors are always welcome!

New Aims

Last month the project set new and ambitious aims for itself:

• Obtain FA status for Greater Manchester.
• Obtain GA status for Salford.
• Obtain GA status for Kersal Moor.
• Get a lead/static image in every infobox of every town in the county.
• Obtain FL status for List of railway stations in Greater Manchester.
• Obtain GA and/or FA status for Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine.
• Obtain FL status for List of people from Bolton.
• Obtain GA status for one third (1/3) of Greater Manchester's Metropolitan Boroughs.

It took us four months to get our last aims completed, why not try and see if these can be done in less time than before! All input is welcome but if anyone has any books or photos etc specifically related to these topics, they would be extra-specially welcome.

Most of the articles covered by our new aims haven't experienced much activity in the past month, if you thing you can help improve an article be bold and get editing. Articles such as List of people from Bolton and List of railway stations in Greater Manchester already appear very close to FL status and may just require an editor to guide them through the FLC process.

Our highest priority article is of course Greater Manchester, there is a peer review from March with issues still to be addressed before it can be put forward as a featured article candidate. Salford is another top priority article because it's the county's second city; it's under gone a lot of editing but still has a way to go before it reaches GA. Also active this month has been the City of Salford article – part of our aim to get 1/3 of Greater Manchester's Metropolitan Boroughs to GA &ndash.

Although these are the project's explicit short term aims, we endeavour to "improving all wikipedia articles that are concerned with Greater Manchester", so every edit is valuable.

Reminders...

• Images!
  The rate of good images has gone up since it was mentioned in the last issue, but more images are needed! The requested photographs category lists some of the articles needing images.

• Assessment
  When this section was written, there was only 1 unassessed article! This task has probably already been finished, but it might now have. To check click here.

• Last but not Least...
  Please remember that the list of stubs needing expansion and the list of articles needing cleanup are in permanent need of attention. Please take a look and see what you can do.

 

The WikiProject Greater Manchester Newsletter
Issue VIII - June 2008

Project News

• No FA news this month... but lots of GA!

• Old Trafford, Murrays' Mills and 1990 Strangeways Prison riot all passed GAC last month! In previous newsletters, the issue of WP:GM's lack of GAs has been raised numerously, so a large 'well done' to all those who contributed, be it little or large!

• Also, Milnrow and City of Salford have been nominated at WP:GAC. Feel free to join in with their discussions here and here respectively. To 'obtain GA status for a third of Greater Manchester's Metropolitan Boroughs' is one of WP:GM's short-term aims, let's hope the City of Salford won't be the last borough with this status.

• In other news, the Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester list has been coming along nicely and may even soon reach FLC! Please help out where you can.

• Well done to Mike Peel for getting Platt Fields Park onto the DYK!

• WikiProject Greater Manchester is still the leading local British WikiProject! As far as featured content goes, we have a lead of 8 on London! Although taking the lead in FAs, WP:GM is still flagging a little in GAs and falls behind London by 3. This is the closest we have ever got to taking the lead in local British GAs, if you see an article that you think deserves to be a GA, don't hesitate to nominate it at WP:GAC!

• And don't forget that the Manchester congestion charge article will need all input possible to keep it up to date with the government's new legislation (grumble grumble)...

Member News

There are 46 members of WikiProject Greater Manchester. Our newest member is:

• James50567 - a warm welcome from us all!

Let's not forget that Jza84 became an administrator this month! Congratulations on your new role.

The project is always looking for new members, and if you spot an editor who makes good changes to Greater Machester related articles why not invite them to join up by adding this template to their talk page: {{SUBST:Welcome WPGM}}.

Thanks

A rather large "thank you" goes to all the editors who help make this WikiProject what it is; no edit goes unnoticed..

Written by Polishname • Template by Jza84 | Single-Page View

Would you like to write the next newsletter for WP:GM?? Please nominate yourself at WT:GM! New editors are always welcome!

Aims

The short-terms aims for the WikiProject are:

• Obtain FA status for Greater Manchester.
• Obtain GA status for Salford.
• Obtain GA status for Kersal Moor.
• Get a lead/static image in every infobox of every town in the county.
• Obtain FL status for List of railway stations in Greater Manchester.
• Obtain GA and/or FA status for Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine.
• Obtain FL status for List of people from Bolton.
• Obtain GA status for one third of Greater Manchester's Metropolitan Boroughs.

Most of the articles covered by our new aims haven't experienced much activity in the past month, except for City of Salford being nominated at WP:GAC. If you think you can help improve an article, be bold and get editing! Articles such as List of people from Bolton and List of railway stations in Greater Manchester already appear very close to FL status and may just require an editor to guide them through the FLC process.

Greater Manchester is, of course, our highest priority article. Mr Stephen posted some milestones to getting this article up to FA status a while back. Please check them out and see what you can do.

Although these are the project's explicit short term aims, we endeavour to "improving all Wikipedia articles that are concerned with Greater Manchester", so every edit is valuable.

Reminders...

• Images!
  The rate of good images has gone up since it was mentioned in the last issue, but we'll need more if we're going to get a "lead/static image in every infobox of every town in the county"! The requested photographs category lists some of the articles needing images.

• Assessment
  As of 12th April, we have had 100% of our articles assessed for quality! Even so, we still 151 of our 1551 article unassessed for importance. Please take a look and see what you can do.

• Last but not Least...
  Please remember that the list of stubs needing expansion and the list of articles needing cleanup are in permanent need of attention.

 

The WikiProject Greater Manchester Newsletter
Issue IX - September 2008

Project News

It's been three months since the last newsletter, but there's been a lot going on...

• Promoted articles:

 Greater Manchester is one of our project's top priority articles, the Greater Manchester article comprehensively covers everything to do with the county, from culture and history, to transport and demography.

 Manchester United F.C. records and statistics is about the records of one of Greater Manchester's best know clubs, which feats like "the club currently holds the record for the most FA Cup triumphs with 11".

 City of Salford is about the local government area and Greater Manchester's second city. Getting Salford to GA is one our the aim's of our project, so hopefully this may help.

 Castleshaw Roman fort and  Mamucium are about Greater Manchester's two Roman forts and are part of the county's lesser known ancient history.

 Hyde Road in Ardwick was the home of Manchester City F.C. from 1887 until it was demolished in 1923.

 Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal is about the history and modern restoration of the disused canal running through the county. (It's now at FAC, so please improve the article if you can!)

 Manchester Mummy is about Hannah Beswick, whose macabre fear of being buried alive lead to her demanding that her body was kept above ground and checked periodically for signs of life.

 Milnrow is a small town in Rochdale with a long history. The wool trade was important to the town and was the basis of much of its industry. (It's also the first GA for Rochdale!)

 Ordsall Hall is an important Tudor hall in Salford with a reputation for being haunted!

 Royton is a town in Oldham that was strongly influenced by the Industrial Revolution.

 Trafford Park was the first industrial estate in the world!

• Added to the project:

Some articles out there are already good quality and have been added to the project as we continue to expand:

 Joy Division, the rock band from Salford that would later become New Order and perhaps best known for their song 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'.

 Bert Trautmann is the German goalkeeper who broke his neck playing for Manchester City... and carried on playing!

• The Peterloo Massacre appeared on the front page on 16 August! Well done to everyone who contributed to the article about a key moment of Greater Manchester's history and managed to get it showcased.

• A new portal has been set up! The Greater Manchester portal showcases some of the best articles to do with the county. Thanks to Polishname for single-handedly getting it up and running.

• Castleshaw Roman fort, Cine City, Withington, The Towers (Manchester), Daily Express Building, Withington Community Hospital, Mamucium, Port of Manchester, and Mark Addy (Albert Medal) have all appeared on the DYK? section of the main page! For details of the DYKs by the project that have appeared on the main page, see Did you know?

• There is a proposal to move members who haven't edited for a while to an inactive members list, so if you've not been edited recently but still want to be a member let us know!

• WikiProject Greater Manchester is still the leading local British WikiProject! As far as featured content goes, we have a lead of 5 on Yorkshire and 11 on London! WP:GM now is the leading project in terms of GAs too with 5 more than London and 7 more than Yorkshire! If you see an article that you think deserves to be a GA, don't hesitate to nominate it at WP:GAC!

• WT:GM: The project's talk page is a forum for discussion and to keep up to date with the latest project developments and initiatives put it on your watchlist! Recently there have been discussions on articles to be deleted, the congestion charge, how to get members involved and working together, and plenty of other stuff.

Written by Nev1 • Template by Jza84 | Single-Page View

Would you like to write the next newsletter for WP:GM?? Please nominate yourself at WT:GM! New editors are always welcome!

Aims

The short-terms aims for the WikiProject are:

• Obtain GA status for Salford.
• Obtain GA status for Kersal Moor.
• Get a lead/static image in every infobox of every town in the county.
• Obtain FL status for List of railway stations in Greater Manchester.
• Obtain GA and/or FA status for Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine.
• Obtain FL status for List of people from Bolton.
• Obtain GA status for one third of Greater Manchester's Metropolitan Boroughs.
• Obtain B -> GA status for Rochdale, Wigan, Bury, Bolton and Stockport.

Although the project has had a lot of GAs and FAs recently, most of the articles covered by our short term aims haven't experienced much activity recently. Baby has undergone some change, but has a long way to go, and List of railway stations in Greater Manchester is very close to FL quality. If you think you can help improve an article, be bold and get editing! Articles such as List of railway stations in Greater Manchester already appear very close to FL status and may just require an editor to guide them through the FLC process.

Although these are the project's explicit short term aims, we endeavour to "improving all Wikipedia articles that are concerned with Greater Manchester", so every edit is valuable.

Member News

There are 53 members of WikiProject Greater Manchester. Since 12 June, the project has gained 7 new members:

Welcome to everyone, and let's remember to make these new members feel included in the project! If you need help, you can go to the project talk page, or perhaps look at the list of members to see if anyone can help.

The project is always looking for new members, and if you spot an editor who makes good changes to Greater Machester related articles why not invite them to join up by adding this template to their talk page: {{SUBST:Welcome WPGM}}.

Thanks

A big "thank you" goes to all the editors who help make this WikiProject what it is; no edit goes unnoticed.

Reminders...

• Images!
  There are some good images around, but more are still needed if we're going to get a "lead/static image in every infobox of every town in the county"! The requested photographs category lists some of the articles needing images.

• Assessment
  As of 1st September, we have had 99.5% of our articles assessed for quality! Even so, we still 157 of our 1662 article unassessed for importance. Please take a look and see what you can do.

• Articles needing attention
  Please remember that the list of stubs needing expansion and the list of articles needing cleanup are in permanent need of attention.

• Last but not Least...
  If you've got a story to go in next month's news letter, leave a note here.

 

The WikiProject Greater Manchester Newsletter
Issue X - October 2008

Project News

Usually this is where this month's promoted articles are listed, however there is something more important this month. In September, the project was notified which of its articles were selected for a DVD version of wikipedia. The 49 are listed here, although the quality ratings are a bit out of date. Twenty-two of the articles were GA-class or higher, and only five were below B-class. These are articles that have been selected by wikipedia, not simply as the best but the most important, so they require our attention, most importantly those that fall below GA standards. We still have until the 20th October to make changes to the articles, so please if you think you can improve any of them in any way please do so!

In other news, it's been a busy month with plenty going on...

• Promoted articles:

  The Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal is a disused canal undergoing restoration. The canal, which travels between Bolton and Manchester with a branch heading north east to Bury, was abandoned in 1961.

 Old Trafford is the iconic home ground of Manchester United F.C.; it has staged international matches and is the only ground in the country to have been given a five-star rating by UEFA.

 List of railway stations in Greater Manchester details the 100 stations along Greater Manchester's 142 miles of track, with figures such as number of users.

  Having previously been described as "bare, wet, and almost worthless", Ashton-under-Lyne rose to prominence in the Industrial Revolution as one of the most famous mill towns in the north west.

 Tameside is a metropolitan borough east of Manchester, encompassing the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Denton, Droylsden, Dukinfield, Hyde, Longdendale, Mossley and Stalybridge.

 Henry Taylor is Oldham's forgotten Olympic hero. He won 3 swimming golds at the 1908 Olympics, a record for most golds in a single games by a Briton until Chris Hoy equalled it this year.

 Ronnie Wallwork was born in Newton Heath and has represented the England U20 football team; after playing for Manchester United, he spent most of his career playing for West Bromwich Albion F.C.

• Henry Taylor, Peel Park, Salford, and the Manchester and Bolton Railway appeared on the DYK? section of the main page! For details of the DYKs by the project that have appeared on the main page, see Did you know?

• WikiProject Greater Manchester is still the leading local British WikiProject! As far as featured content goes, we have a lead of 8 on Yorkshire and 15 on London! WP:GM now is the leading project in terms of GAs too with 5 more than London and 7 more than Yorkshire! If you see an article that you think deserves to be a GA, don't hesitate to nominate it at WP:GAC!

• WT:GM: The project's talk page is a forum for discussion and to keep up to date with the latest project developments and initiatives put it on your watchlist! Recently there have been discussions on articles to be deleted, the congestion charge, how to get members involved and working together, and plenty of other stuff.

• There wasn't space in the last newsletter, but as of 24 July 2008 the project has a list of articles that have tags on them. As of 14 July 2008, 351 (21.8%) of our articles need a clean-up, although this should have gone down as some have already received attention (the bot does not seem to update the listing often).

• In other news, the Merseyside Wikiproject has been set up. If you have an interest in the area or want to help out in any way, head over to the project page and pitch in.

Written by Nev1 Template by Jza84 | Single-Page View

Would you like to write the next newsletter for WP:GM?? Please nominate yourself at WT:GM! New editors are always welcome!

Aims

The short-terms aims for the WikiProject are:

• Obtain GA status for Salford.
• Obtain GA status for Kersal Moor.
• Get a lead/static image in every infobox of every town in the county.
• Obtain GA and/or FA status for Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine.
• Obtain FL status for List of people from Bolton.
• Obtain B -> GA status for Rochdale, Wigan, Bury, Bolton and Stockport.

In the past month we've achieved two of our short-term aims! The List of railway stations in Greater Manchester was expertly guided through the featured list process with hardly a problem, and now that Tameside is a GA a third of the county's boroughs are GA status or better. There's still plenty to do, some our our top-priority articles need referencing or tidying up, so don't hesitate to dive in! If you think you can help improve an article, be bold and get editing! And please keep an eye on the 49 articles selected for the wikipedia DVD.

Although these are the project's explicit short term aims, we endeavour to "improving all Wikipedia articles that are concerned with Greater Manchester", so every edit is valuable.

Member News

No new members joined the project in September and there are 49 active members of WikiProject Greater Manchester. A new list of inactive members has been started. Anyone who hasn't made an edit to wikipedia since 1 March 2008 automatically goes onto the list.

If you need help, you can go to the project talk page, or perhaps look at the list of members to see if anyone can help. The project is always looking for new members, and if you spot an editor who makes good changes to Greater Machester related articles why not invite them to join up by adding this template to their talk page: {{SUBST:Welcome WPGM}}.

Thanks

A big "thank you" goes to all the editors who help make this WikiProject what it is; no edit goes unnoticed.

Reminders...

• Images!
  There are some good images around, but more are still needed if we're going to get a "lead/static image in every infobox of every town in the county"! The requested photographs category lists some of the articles needing images.

• Assessment
  As of 4th October, we have had 100% of our articles assessed for quality! Even so, 151 of our 1684 articles remain unassessed for importance. Please take a look and see what you can do.

• Articles needing attention
  Please remember that the list of stubs needing expansion and the list of articles needing cleanup are in permanent need of attention.

• Last but not Least...
  If you've got a story to go in next month's news letter, leave a note here.

 

The WikiProject Greater Manchester Newsletter
Issue XI - November 2008

Project News

It's been a quieter month than September, but plenty has been going on...

• Promoted articles:

  Born in Stalybridge and raised in Ashton-under-Lyne, Hugh Mason was a mill owner and politician. He was popular among his workers for shortening the working week at his factories without cutting their pay.

  Bank Street was the home ground of Manchester United F.C. from 1893 until 1910. The site was abandoned because it was not big enough in the opinion of club owner John Henry Davies.

• No articles were DYKs this month. For details of the DYKs by the project that have appeared on the main page, see Did you know?

• WikiProject Greater Manchester is still the leading local British WikiProject! As far as featured content goes, we have a lead of 8 on Yorkshire and 14 on London! WP:GM now is the leading project in terms of GAs too with 7 more than both Yorkshire and London! If you see an article that you think deserves to be a GA, don't hesitate to nominate it at WP:GAC!

• Trafford was featured on the main page on the 12th October and was viewed 13,800 on the day (27,100 times over 4 days).

• The project's cleanup listing has been updated with stats from 8 October. As of 14 July, 351 (21.8%) of our articles need a clean-up, this has risen to 447 out of 1689 (26.5%). Although this is disappointing, it reflects a more widespread use of tags on articles to indicate what needs attention rather than a decline in the standard of this project's articles.

• WT:GM: The project's talk page is a forum for discussion and to keep up to date with the latest project developments and initiatives put it on your watchlist! Recently there have been discussions on articles to be deleted, the congestion charge, how to get members involved and working together, and plenty of other stuff.

Member News

There are now 53 active members of WikiProject Greater Manchester as 4 new members joined the project in October:

• TheFamousPeter
• Felix Folio SecundusTheFamousPeter
• RuthAS
• Anthony of the Desert

Welcome to everyone, and let's remember to make these new members feel included in the project! If you need help, you can go to the project talk page, or perhaps look at the list of members to see if anyone can help. The project is always looking for new members, and if you spot an editor who makes good changes to Greater Machester related articles why not invite them to join up by adding this template to their talk page: {{SUBST:Welcome WPGM}}.

Written by Nev1 Template by Jza84 | Single-Page View

Would you like to write the next newsletter for WP:GM?? Please nominate yourself at WT:GM! New editors are always welcome!

Aims

The short-terms aims for the WikiProject are:

• Obtain GA status for Salford.
• Obtain GA status for Kersal Moor.
• Get a lead/static image in every infobox of every town in the county.
• Obtain GA and/or FA status for Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine.
• Obtain FL status for List of people from Bolton.
• Obtain B -> GA status for Rochdale, Wigan, Bury, Bolton and Stockport.

On top of these aims, some our our top-priority articles need referencing or tidying up, so don't hesitate to dive in! If you think you can help improve an article, be bold and get editing! Although these are the project's explicit short term aims, we endeavour to "improving all Wikipedia articles that are concerned with Greater Manchester", so every edit is valuable.

Thanks

A big "thank you" goes to all the editors who help make this WikiProject what it is; no edit goes unnoticed.

Reminders...

• Images!
  There are some good images around, but more are still needed if we're going to get a "lead/static image in every infobox of every town in the county"! The requested photographs category lists some of the articles needing images.

• Assessment
  As of 1st November, we have had 100% of our articles assessed for quality! Even so, 75 of our 1708 articles remain unassessed for importance. Please take a look and see what you can do.

• Articles needing attention
  Please remember that the list of stubs needing expansion and the list of articles needing cleanup are in permanent need of attention.

• Last but not Least...
  If you've got a story to go in next month's news letter, leave a note here.