User talk:Symorsebrown

Redirects

Sy, I've worked out why those redirects weren't working. It's because there was a category above the redirect code. The #REDIRECT [[article]] needs to be the first thing on the page. Sarahb 12:18, 22 March 2009 (PDT)

Indian Army

Yes, that was a good idea to put (British), as 'from 1895' didn't then rule out the post-Indp army. I saw that wikipedia page too, it is helpful (and I might copy their table). As I didn't know that much about the Indian Army I used it to decide that things should only be categorised as Indian Army after 1895 and before that still as the Company Armies. As it said that before 1895 Indian Army was only an unofficial term I have decided to stick to that rule. If someone who knows much more about the Indian Army than us thinks it should be otherwise, then we can change it again. Sarahb 01:51, 25 March 2009 (PDT)

Its getting there! Sarahb 05:43, 25 March 2009 (PDT)

Skinner's Horse

I saw you put in that biographical information from the roots list. Do you know if it is a direct quote from the Dictionary of Indian Biography? If so, and that is not an out of copyright book, we cannot use it on the page. A rewrite in your own words (and then a reference) would probably be fine. Sarahb 01:51, 25 March 2009 (PDT)

Re:copyright As I understand the situation, anything on the site must adhere to UK/EU copyright law, regardless of who has added the information and where they are located. In cases where one is unsure, err on the side of caution so as not to cause problems for Fibis. In this case I don't think we can use the text, but it is perfectly acceptable to write a piece based on the text (and probably helpful just to acknowledge that in a references section). It's a nice background piece for Skinner's Horse so a rewrite and reference is probably the answer. Sarahb 05:43, 25 March 2009 (PDT)

Page names

I think it's probably proper (so to speak) to have the page titles be the full regiment name, which I assume then is 2nd Regiment of Foot (and maybe something in brackets where it is appropriate). If in the first sentence/paragraph of the article it states 'May be referred to as 2nd Foot or the Queen's Own' (or whatever is correct in this instance) then I think that should still work fine for google searches. You've already been doing that for some of the native regiments. I think it only need be done for the most common names or shorthands because all those other name changes come up in the chronologies. I don't think there can be a perfect solution to this as regiment names are a bit of a minefield, but that is my suggestion. What do you think? An alternative/additional solution would be redirects for those other common names. Sarahb 11:57, 25 March 2009 (PDT)

re various matters

• 19th Regiment of Foot

Sorry, didn't have time to reply yesterday but did fix the issue you mentioned - I just made the first sentence not a heading but bold instead. I'm sure you knew how to do that already but just couldn't see the wood for the trees for a minute. I think making the Cathy Day website article into a subarticle was fine, but I am just checking with Valmay about this in case there is a solution she would prefer. I think your chronology should probably go above the old article though, just to keep it is the same place on all articles.

• Skinner's Horse

Did you have a think about rewriting the copyright section? I can do it if you like as I don't think we should leave it up there too long in its present state.

• Church article

Thats got good information. Obviously we can't copy the text, but can include the info somewhere. For now I just made the Thalassery location article and put the link in there. Can be linked up with churches category somehow later, but for now its there for anyone looking up Thalassery.

Sarahb 13:39, 27 March 2009 (PDT)

29/3/09

• 19th Regiment of Foot

I checked this out with Valmay. The way you incorporated the old article was fine. I am going to make a little template to use for those with those articles transferred from Cathy Day's site and elsewhere, but don't worry about that - it'll make sense once you see it.

• Belwar & Belwar (Fort)

Truth is, I have no idea if a town of Belwar exists away from the fort, which is why I left as is for now. A quick google search shone no light on the issue. Belwar seems to be a tribe also? Let's leave two seperate articles for now (as it doesn't hurt) and just link them together. Hopefully, someone will know and be able to sort the issue out at a later date.

• Madras infantry matters

Hmm, I'm not totally sure as I don't know much about the Presidency infantry regiments. All the regiments I've come across for my own research have been cavalry or artillery (not that I know a great deal about those either!) so I haven't had much cause to investigate the infantry ones. I don't fully understand about the Native/European regiment issue. Looking at Madras infantry regiment category I see we have the following example -

• 24th Regiment of Madras Infantry
• 24th Regiment of Madras Native Infantry

I take it the first is the European regiment? My instinct is to keep them all in one category so as not to confuse someone browsing. I wonder if the European ones should be named as such (ie 24th Regiment of Madras European Infantry). Depends what their official name is I suppose. Do you have Peter Bailey's HEIC armies book? I don't, but wonder if it makes these issues any clearer. I don't think we need that extra category Madras Infantry inside the Madras Infantry Regiments category. Unless I have misunderstood, the two new articles you have created, Madras European Infantry and Madras Native Infantry are general articles covering all the regiments that fall under those titles. I am going to move the two articles up into the main category. They will be the perfect place to explain the differences etc between the two when you understand that.

• Wars/battles dates in categories

As far as I know, you cannot change the way the name displays in the list of categories/articles. Example - if the article on one of the Afghan wars does not have a date, we cannot make the wiki show one. The only way around this I can think of is to have an article that is a chronological list of wars/battles etc. I quite like the idea of that as it would provide a nice linked up history (also a good way to browse what is happening in India whilst your soldier ancestor is out there), although I appreciate it might be a bit of a task. Perhaps even just a list of wars/campaigns and major battles might work. What do you think?

Let me know if I've forgotten anything! Sarahb 10:48, 29 March 2009 (PDT)

Re Madras Infantry

I'm not sure if I have misunderstood all that about the European/Native infantry. If I'm reading your articles right, there were 3 Euro regiments and about 50 Natv ones? Then how does that affect the example I gave above about the 24th regiments? Are they in fact the same regiment and the articles should be merged? Sarahb 11:39, 29 March 2009 (PDT)