Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Florida/History task force

Welcome

I welcome you to our Viva Florida 500 page. Please leave a note here, sign it and say what you would like to see come from this project and what you would like to contribute. --Ourhistory153 (talk) 19:29, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

Viva Florida 500 logo

Here are the permissions, "You may use the logo for your on-line story as this is promoting the Viva Florida 500 project. Thank you very much for asking. The jpeg is attached here. Once the story is published, it would be great to connect through facebook- please forward the link. Best,Rachel Florida500info@dos.myflorida.com"--Ourhistory153 (talk) 19:51, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

I need some advice. I have permission to use the Viva Florida 500 image. What sort of license should I respond to in Wikipedia commons? --Ourhistory153 (talk) 19:31, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

It seems that the logo is Public Domain, as the work of a government unit of the state of Florida. However, it is trademarked. See my posting at the Commons Village pump for more information, and hopefully, an answer. – Wdchk (talk) 02:59, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

Ourhistory153, can you use your contact at the Department of State to confirm whether the work is in the public domain? Please see the discussion at Commons. The question of whether the logo can be uploaded to Commons hinges on this point. It is important to note that copyright and trademark are two separate things. We know it is trademarked, what we need to know is whether it is copyrighted. Thanks. – Wdchk (talk) 12:10, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

All works of the government of Florida are public domain by default. (See Microdecisions, Inc. v. Skinner.) I'll add the proper licensing template to the logo's page. Zeng8r (talk) 12:57, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

addendum: Wait, where is this logo? Now I understand your concern, Wdchk. If it's on the Commons, it should probably be moved here. Zeng8r (talk) 13:06, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

The logo I'm looking at is on the Viva Florida 500 web site (two versions, tiff and jpeg). I'm not aware that anyone has yet uploaded it either to Wikipedia or Commons. The hesitation about whether the logo is in the public domain came about because another editor responded to my posting at the Commons Village pump with a remark that Department of State works may be subject to copyright. I think that may be old information. It's worthwhile trying to be clear about this, because if the work is public domain, then it could be uploaded to Commons, with the tags {{PD-FLGov}} and {{trademarked}}; relatively easy. The alternative, if it's not public domain, would be to upload to English Wikipedia and establish a fair use rationale; but that opens up a whole other can of worms due to restrictions on use of non-free content, so I was hoping not to have to go there. – Wdchk (talk) 14:52, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

Compliments and concerns

Hello, Ourhistory153. My compliments to you on your effort to improve coverage of Florida history in Wikipedia. I do, however, have a couple of concerns about the Viva Florida 500 project:

• This page currently appears in the main namespace, where Wikipedia articles reside. The naming convention for WikiProjects is to place them in the Wikipedia: namespace.
• It may not be your intention, but the tone at present seems rather promotional, and might fail WP:NOTADVERTISING: "Those promoting causes or events, or issuing public service announcements, even if noncommercial, should use a forum other than Wikipedia to do so."

Viva Florida 500, while stating goals to improve awareness of culture and heritage, is also a marketing tool for Florida tourism. We should be cautious about how we use it in Wikipedia. Best regards, – Wdchk (talk) 18:03, 2 October 2011 (UTC)

I went ahead and moved this group into the proper namespace. Though I'm always in favor of improving coverage of Florida history, I'm not clear on why this project is needed when there's already a Florida wikiproject. Zeng8r (talk) 18:14, 2 October 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for your posts fellow Wikipedians,

My purpose of starting Viva Florida 500 here at Wikipedia was more about introducing Wikipedia to the members of Viva Florida 500 rather than promoting Viva Florida 500 to Wikipedia. And the focus of this promotion is not cultural tourism but rather using Wiki as a tool of collaboration for research and writing more content to what is already here. Case in point is my article Alvaro_Mexia, we want to connect with writers and researchers (especially with the archivists in Spain) to gather more information on not only this topic but other wiki articles about our native cultures and other Spanish explorers.

In other words, we want to inject a fresh breeze of rediscovery of Florida's history using our state's anniversary to accomplish that. My involvment with the Viva Florida 500 group is introducing me to not only historians and historical writers from all over our state but in other countries too and I'd like to invite them to Wikipedia using our Viva Florida 500 here at Wiki as a Landing page for them.--Ourhistory153 (talk) 14:51, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

That sounds reasonable to me. If this project will be the first place that prospective new editors see, let me suggest adding some links to wikipedia policies and styles on the front page. I'd been a writer of non-fiction for a long time before discovering wikipedia a few years ago, and it was rather jarring and disappointing when I discovered that many editors insist that bland and lifeless prose is the only acceptable form on here. Zeng8r (talk) 00:25, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

Agreed, yes that is going to be the tricky part. I know it took me awhile to get used to Wiki but I think learned scholars should pick it up. One think I haven't figured out is measuring visits on a page. Is there a wiki counter of sorts?--Ourhistory153 (talk) 03:13, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

I think the external links page should be moved to the bottom of the article. I am looking for suggestions on how to order the sections.--Ourhistory153 (talk) 16:40, 8 October 2011 (UTC)

Since the project is about Florida history, I'd suggest finding and linking all articles having to do with Florida history on the front page. Maybe sort them by time periods? Zeng8r (talk) 21:03, 8 October 2011 (UTC)

I'd really like to get some more members listed here. Any suggestions to do that would be appreciated. I can't promote it if I am the only member.--Ourhistory153 (talk) 03:46, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

MfD nomination of Wikipedia:Viva Florida 500 WP

Wikipedia:Viva Florida 500 WP, a page you substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; please participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:Viva Florida 500 WP and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of Wikipedia:Viva Florida 500 WP during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you.

I made my rebuttals at the main page of this deletion effort. I've put a lot of work into this project, not just the page but promoting Wikipedia to close to a hundred historians and archivists around Florida through the Viva Florida 500 initiative. We are just beginning and we are on the verge of discovering new information about Florida history from ancient documents. A research trip is planned to Seville Spain to review their archives and get information. I ask you for your support to keep this project.--Ourhistory153 (talk) 15:18, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Sounds really exciting. Seriously. But can't you just merge with the original Florida Wikiproject? Dougweller (talk) 19:04, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

I'd like to implement this idea with this project, " Yes, I agree. I didn't see this as a big thing. What I'd like to suggest has been suggested by someone else - keep this as a project but make it a subproject of Wikiproject Florida. Keep the current page but make it a redirect to the subproject. That way any links will still work, and the name is kept. I really think that is the best solution and shouldn't make any of the five months work lost in any way. I wish that this had been proposed earlier, particularly before any attempt to delete anything." from Dougweller --Ourhistory153 (talk) 17:27, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Also please note, I sent out an invitation last year to the Florida History page at History_of_Florida#Invite to Viva Florida 500 I did what I was suppose to do. Let's keep the discussions here rather than on my talk page, thanks--Ourhistory153 (talk) 18:00, 29 January 2012 (UTC)