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Tommy James

I happened across this on Wikipedia on the entry for Tommy James and the Shondells:

The group continued until 1970. At a concert in Birmingham, Alabama in March of that year, an exhausted James collapsed after coming off stage from a reaction to drugs and was actually pronounced dead. He recovered and decided to move to the country to rest and recuperate, and left the band.

Unfortunately, the source cited for the first sentence is a book. The other source cited in that section doesn't actually mention anything about it happening in Birmingham. Tommy James' own Wikipedia entry actually has less detail on the incident other than mentioning it happened in March 1970. I don't have time to dig further right now, but wanted to note it in case someone else wants to chase it. --Lkseitz (talk) 09:16, 30 May 2019 (PDT)

    • This collection of WVOK "Shower of Stars" advertisements indicates that they were billed as part of the show in 1966, 1967, 1969 and 1971. They weren't billed as part of any of the three 1970 shows, though. And I haven't found much by trying to limit Google's searches to before 2010, when that tidbit was added to the Wikipedia page by User:147.31.159.125. --Dystopos (talk) 11:13, 5 July 2019 (PDT)

Statistics July 5, 2019

Articles/files

  • We have 13,806 articles and 6,270 uploaded files on Bhamwiki right now.
  • That's 0.45 illustrations per article, or 1 image for every 2.20 articles.

Page edits

Over 12 years, we're still averaging right around 32 page edits per day and 3.96 edits per page.

Red links

  • As of July 5, 2019, there are 67,487 wanted articles with who knows how many links to them (red links). We have 13,806 articles, so we're now 16.98% complete. Three years ago (May 2016), we were about 18.86% done. Our "percent done" continues to track backwards as we've added more red links than articles. (Note that wanted pages represent any topic which "could" have an article, not just those that "should" or "probably will" have articles.) This phenomenon is (still) probably best explained by my use of City Directories to populate street articles with abundant red links.

Users

We have a total of 519 registered users, of whom 243 have made at least one edit, and 5 have made edits in the 30 days (between June 5 and July 5, 2019).

WikiFactor

"WikiFactor" is a measure of a site's popularity, derived by finding which is the last page (on Special:Popularpages) to have 1000x the number of page views as the number of its ranking.
  • Our WikiFactor is now 54, as of 07/05/19.
  • Our WikiFactor is now 60, as of 07/22/20.
  • Our WikiFactor is now 61, as of 12/9/20.

Social media

  • On Facebook, 2,028 people "like" Bhamwiki, and 2,084 "follow" our posts.
  • On Twitter, 8,282 accounts "follow" Bhamwiki.
  • On Instagram, 980 accounts "follow" Bhamwiki.

https

  • I do wish you'd stop removing the "s" from "https" links. It's much safer to browse using https and there's no guarantee that a server will respond to an http call to the same page as an https one. If you don't like the lock icons it produces, there's probably a way to disable that in the MediaWiki settings. --Lkseitz (talk) 06:42, 3 August 2019 (PDT)

COVID-19 closures

Does a subcategory need to be created for businesses that closed permanently as a result of the current pandemic? I'm not sure what to call it. "2020 Coronavirus pandemic permanent closures" is a mouthful. Maybe some subset of those words. --Lkseitz (talk) 07:48, 16 May 2020 (PDT)

  • I think maybe a list might be less 'junky' than a category, but I'm not opposed. --Dystopos (talk) 13:21, 22 July 2020 (PDT)

In The News

  • On the front page in the "In the News" section, there is an errant which is showing on the page. --Wheresdib (talk) 14:05, 24 November 2020 (PST)
    • Thanks for the small tip. --Dystopos (talk) 14:54, 24 November 2020 (PST)
    • And welcome back! --Lkseitz (talk) 07:13, 25 November 2020 (PST)
      • We'll see how long my return lasts. My new employer doesn't allow cell phones in the building so it feels like 2006 all over again. --Wheresdib (talk) 07:22, 27 November 2020 (PST)

Images from Wikipedia

Pardon my ignorance, or lack of memory. I am trying to fill in some of the missing images we have. I found an image of Mary McLeod on Wikipedia but I'm unsure if we can use it and if so, which template to use. See Talk:Mary McLeod for more info. --Wheresdib (talk) 10:33, 3 December 2020 (PST)

  • Any help on this one? User:Dystopos? User:Lkseitz? --Wheresdib (talk) 06:38, 9 December 2020 (PST)
    • Anything that's on Wikipedia is okay to use. Generally, the (CC BY-SA 3.0) license notification produced by using the "{{CC Image}}" template is compatible with photographs published under Wikipedia's standard GFDL license. In this case the creator has released it into the public domain, so the "{{PD}}" template applies. --Dystopos (talk) 07:12, 9 December 2020 (PST)
      • Perfect! I had looked but couldn't find what I was looking for. I knew there was something along these lines. --Wheresdib (talk) 08:55, 9 December 2020 (PST)

Creature

See the Discussion page for Creature. Is it still in business, if not, who is currently using their signage? --Wheresdib (talk) 06:38, 9 December 2020 (PST)

Please delete

2007-2008 recession

  • Do we have a page which showcases the businesses closed or otherwise impacted by the recession of 2007-2008? There's a Wikipedia article Financial crisis of 2007-2008 ... Is it needed? I know we lost several car dealerships and related industries such as Southern Comfort Conversions, as well as Colonial Bank, Superior Bank, Nexity Bank, and others. Thoughts? Concerns? Issues? --Wheresdib (talk) 07:40, 18 December 2020 (PST)
    • Sounds reasonable to try. --Dystopos (talk) 10:21, 18 December 2020 (PST)
      • I found a comprehensive al.com article as the base. I'm going to name it Great Recession for now. It seems to be the consensus at least with Wikis and internet pundits. There's a Wikipedia page by the same name as well. --Wheresdib (talk) 10:34, 18 December 2020 (PST)
        • Did you notice there were already nine articles linking to Great Recession? Frankly, I thought I'd seen John create more of those links over the years, but I guess not. Oh, wait, here's a couple that link to "Great recession". I'll update those. Ah, and more for "2007", "2008", and "2009 recession"! --Lkseitz (talk) 15:30, 19 December 2020 (PST)

Articles

  • I have been adding articles from local news sources as I find them to redlinked entries here. My current bandwidth isn't allowing me much play time, so anyone is welcome to create the pages. I've merely added the links as a future reference. --Wheresdib (talk) 07:47, 17 February 2021 (PST)

Fifteen Years!

  • Can you believe we are coming up on the 15th Anniversary of Bhamwiki? Nether can I! Dystopos, do you want to host a Zoom meeting on March 15, or something similar? I assume an in-person meet-up is still discouraged at this point. --Wheresdib (talk) 12:25, 23 February 2021 (PST)
    • I'm not a huge fan of zoom meetings, but I'm up for participating in whatever is safe and appropriate. Maybe I can get Chivon to make a little video presentation to share. I was also thinking of having t-shirts made for all of us, but then I forgot to follow-up. --Dystopos (talk) 14:20, 23 February 2021 (PST)
      • T-shirts would be cool. And since we're not going anywhere much, no one would know if they're late. :-) I'd say I'm up for anything, but looking at my calendar, I'm booked the weekend of 3/14-15 and pretty much all Sundays. :-( --Lkseitz (talk) 06:29, 24 February 2021 (PST)
        • Just for the record, you should all let me know how many t-shirts you would want, and what size(s). Admin at Bhamwiki dot com would be a good way to let me know. --Dystopos (talk) 09:07, 24 February 2021 (PST)
    • I think a Zoom meeting would be fine. I'm used to those for work, so I could probably join whenever you decide to meet. Robert Matthews (talk) 14:29, 24 February 2021 (PST)
      • If anyone has proposals for items to put on an agenda for a zoom meeting, add them here. --Dystopos (talk) 15:10, 24 February 2021 (PST)
        • I think I mainly need the annual(ish) Reading of the Statistics. --Lkseitz (talk) 05:17, 10 March 2021 (PST)
  • I'm thinking I'll write up a 15-year stat[u]s update and distribute it to all interested parties, along with a mock-up of a 15th Anniversary t-shirt. --Dystopos (talk) 07:50, 12 March 2021 (PST)

15th Anniversary notes

There has been, I am sure you have heard, a global pandemic. It is for that reason that I am addressing you from behind my desk at home. I must confess, though, that I am more comfortable doing this here, rather than racing back and forth between Cosmo’s Pizza and Jim N’ Nick’s trying to secure us a table, or shouting over a band at Good People Brewing Co..

Good People was the 10th anniversary. That was five years ago. Hard to believe– in part because the grocery bag of books and stuff from that event is still sitting on the floor next to me. (See below for book sale information.)

At the 10th anniversary, I recounted (or at least intended to recount) some of the origin story of Bhamwiki, which I shortened to “I started thinking that Birmingham could have its own Wikipedia.” But really, what I should have said, is that Birmingham could have it’s own “Hitchhikers Guide”. Because before I was involved in editing Wikipedia, I had already been involved in editing the H2G2 project founded by Douglas Adams in 1999. I added some things about the Vulcan statue, along with a few other trivial bits from whatever I was reading at the time. Since Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger didn’t launch their online encyclopedia until 2001, it is possible that, in a certain sense, part of Bhamwiki originated before Wikipedia did.

But really, the Bhamwiki.com domain (which at the time sounded the least silly of all the ones I considered) was registered on March 14, 2006 and Bhamwiki, freshly installed on Mediawiki 1.6.6, went public for the first time as soon as the registration spread through the DNS system over the course of the next day. My partner in getting things set up posted a list of “interstate holes” as a test article, and I started writing up policies and disclaimers before he went any further (and, as I recall, he hasn’t).

After the first year, Bhamwiki had more than 2,000 articles, with not a few of them more or less filched from Wikipedia. The 2000th, by coincidence (as far as I recall anyway) was an entry I wrote about the “model” mining village of Docena, which happened to be a topic I had researched for my college thesis in 1995. That research was sort of the first time I got the idea that Birmingham history could be interesting in an absolute sense, and not just within a local context. Therefore, it is possible that, in a certain sense, part of Bhamwiki originated in the late 20th century.

After five years, Bhamwiki was nearing 8,000 articles. Darren added the 8,000th, on “Demetrius C. Newton Gardens” in March, and Lee added the 8,100th in April, an entry about the year 1795. I did not expect, in 2006, that we would have needed an entry for the year 1795 (or Demetrius C. Newton Gardens for that matter.)

At ten years, Bhamwiki had more than 11,500 articles. I noted that the figure represented a rate of 1,157 new articles per year, which is more than three new articles, and 33 page edits, on average, per day, over ten years. At the time, that gave us 46% as many entries as the Stadtwiki Karlsruhe in Baden-Württemberg, Germany; 68% as many as DavisWiki in Davis, California; and 76% as many as RocWiki in Rochester, New York.

Currently, Bhamwiki has 15,026 entries. We have gained on Stadtwiki Karlsruhe (58% of their 25,722 entries); on Davis Wiki (87% of their 17,173 entries); and on RocWiki (92% of their 16,315 entries). We have climbed ahead of some of our peers, including the ArborWiki from Ann Arbor, Michigan (13,260 entries), but we remain far behind others, such as the Salzburg Wiki from Salzburg, Austria (41,649 entries)

Our 15,000+ articles are the work of 536 registered users, of which 255 have made an edit. Six of those (myself, Lee Seitz, Darren Griffin, Robert Matthews, Mark Taylor and Rob Burton) have made edits in the last 30 days. Again, As is usual, I made 87% of the edits myself, and I kind of like it that way. I know what’s going on, but I still get glimmers of surprise and satisfaction that others are participating, with very few instances of having to clear up trouble, and no reasons so far to call the whole “wiki” thing into question.

In 2016 I shared a silly “statistic” that judging by the 49,521 redlinked articles, that at that point, our project to document the Birmingham District was only 20% complete. We now have 81,585 “Special:WantedPages wanted” articles, meaning we have fallen back to 18% completion, and are, again, as ever, less complete than ever. Still Bhamwiki is clearly better than ever, and more useful than ever.

According to Dreamhost, Bhamwiki.com has rendered 264,085,666 pages and transferred 9.37 terabytes of data over the past 15 years. Since March 1, 2021 we’ve delivered an average of 90,935 requests for pages each day, serving 3,582 distinct hosts and with 39 gigabytes of data transferred. Most of those requests come from internal links, with search engines coming next. Outside of those categories, we see referrals from Bham Now more than any other source (1,413 requests from bhamnow.com in March, vs. 172 from Reddit.com, 59 from wikipedia.org and 47 from UAB.edu)

Our “WkiFactor” for those who keep track, has increased to 62 (“Birmingham Bowl” is our 62nd most popular page, with 62,302 views)

Our own social media use peaked last Spring with Chivon’s flurry of Instagram posts, including several great video presentations. Though mostly inactive, Bhamwiki’s Twitter follower account has grown to 8,072, and we have 1,090 Instagram followers. 2,116 people follow Bhamwiki on Facebook, though we have only ‘reached’ 392 people in the past month (and how we did that without posting anything is a mystery to me). If anyone has a real interest in gaining access to those social media accounts, get in touch.

More satisfying to me than these statistics is the times that I know that Bhamwiki has been really useful. To give one example, recently our article on the history of Birmingham’s Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument has helped a number of historians documenting its removal as part of a regional trend.

Thanks for reading, and now, a couple of offers for you:

First, I will be sending Bhamwiki t-shirts out sometime this year to those who have made more than, say, 20 edits since Bhamwiki was founded. I’ve posted mock-ups to User:Dystopos/Bhamwiki_t-shirts. Let me know what color(s) and size(s) you need, or if you need something not shown, by email. I’ll also need a mailing address.

Second, any of the following books is available for anyone interested in exchange for a donation to Greater Birmingham Ministries. Contact me by email for more information if any of them interest you:

1. Barbara Baker Roberts (1961) Early History of Calera, Alabama (paperback library discard), $5 2. Kirkman O’Neal (n.d.) O’Neal Steel: Memoirs of Kirkman O’Neal (hardcover, signed by author), $5 3. Charles Gaines (1972) Stay Hungry (1st edition hardcover w/ jacket), $15 4. Edward S. LaMonte (1974) George B. Ward: Birmingham’s Urban Statesman (hardcover, numbered 308 of 500), $5 5. Marjorie Longenecker White (1977) Downtown Birmingham: Architectural and Historical Walking Tour Guide (paperback), $5 6. Carl Martin Hames (1978) Hill Ferguson: His Life and Works (hardcover, library discard) $5 7. Carl V. Harris (1977) Political Power in Birmingham 1871-1921 (1st edition hardcover w/ jacket), $10 8. Jimmie Lewis Franklin (1989) Back to Birmingham: Richard Arrington, Jr, and His Times (hardcover w/ jacket) $5 9. Virginia O. Foscue (1989) Place Names in Alabama (paperback, like new), $5 10. Frank Joseph Fede (1994) Italians in the Deep South (hardcover w/ jacket, former gift), $5 11. Virginia Van der Verr Hamilton & Jacqueline A. Matte (1996) Seeing Historic Alabama (paperback library discard), $5 12. Lynne B. Feldman (1999) A Sense of Place: Birmingham’s Black Middle-Class Community 1890-1930 (paperback, like new), $5 13. T. K. Thorne (2013) Last Chance for Justice: How Relentless Investigators Uncovered New Evidence Convicting the Birmingham Church Bombers (hardcover w/ jacket, signed by author), $10

--Dystopos (talk) 05:47, 15 March 2021 (PDT)

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