User talk:Middayexpress

Archives 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23 · 24 · 25 · 26 · 27 · 28 · 29 · 30 · 31 · 32 · 33 · 34 · 35 · 36 · 37 · 38 · 39 · 40 · 41 · 42 · 43 · 44 · 45 · coord missing templates Hi. I'm delighted with the work you've been doing to create and flesh out articles about Somali towns. I just dropped in to alert/remind you that when you add coordinates to the infobox (much appreciated!) you should also remove any {{Coord missing}} template from the article. This will save other editors time and effort. Best regards, —Stepheng3 (talk) 22:02, 27 October 2011 (UTC) Left a response here. Middayexpress (talk) 22:09, 27 October 2011 (UTC) Dubats Hi - I have just made a small change (with cited reference) to an amendment that you made to the "Dubats" article. According to Italian sources there were no native officers in this force, although some of the NCOs were locally recruited - as in the photo that you have identified as being Invasion of Ethiopia vintage. Accordingly I have clarified this point - without reverting to my admittedly rather pompous original wording of "indigenous personnel". Regards Buistr (talk) 01:29, 31 October 2011 (UTC) The term dubats or "white turbans" was a reference to local military officers from Italian Somaliland. Their uniform also featured khaki tunics and sarongs, like this fellow. Regards, Middayexpress (talk) 18:18, 31 October 2011 (UTC) You are right about the khaki uniform but this was introduced for service on the eve of the 1936 war with Ethiopia. Prior to that date the white native clothing shown in the photograph was worn for all purposes and that is the popular image (at least in Italy) of the Dubats. Photographs of dubats on parade in Rome in 1938 show that the white traditional dress was retained for at least ceremonial wear until WWII. I propose to restore that section accordingly. We seem to be talking at cross purposes over the word "officers". These were not the rank and file Somali personnel but Italian commissioned officers mostly seconded from the regular Arab-Somali battalions of the Royal Corps of Colonial Troops. Remember that the dubats were a para-military colonial force and not civilian police officers in a modern sense. When I wrote the original "Dubat" article five years ago I thought the above details worth including and I will restore them now unless you have some specific reasons justifying exclusion. Regards Buistr (talk) 18:58, 31 October 2011 (UTC) As I wrote, the term dubats or "white turbans" was a reference to local military officers from Italian Somaliland; their uniform also featured khaki tunics and sarongs (c.f. [1]). If you have English language reliable sources that indicate that Dubats were actually mainly Italian officers as the page used to state, please quote and link to them. Kindly also do the same for the white traditional dress reference, then we can proceed. Regards, Middayexpress (talk) 19:10, 31 October 2011 (UTC) I can give references to the white traditional dress being worn prior to 1935 from detailed histories of the uniforms of Somali units in the RCTC - these are from authoritative Italian books published in the 1980s and 90s but available in English speaking countries. I believe that citing them is acceptable under current Wiki practice where no English language equivalents exist. One of these is the Piero Crociani reference which already appears in the existing text. There are many photographs available (including the one in the article) which show dubats in the white toga-like fute and turban. The photograph to which you provided a link is that of a Somali NCO during the final period of their existence (1935-40). When I wrote the original article I tried to cover the entire history of the Dubats from their formation in the 1920s and this included the secondary but well documented fact that they wore white indigenous based clothing until about 1935 and then (for obvious reasons) moved to a form of khaki service dress when facing a major war in Ethiopia. I am trying to find my original source for detailing the secondment of Italian commissioned officers to dubat units from the regular Arab-Somali battalions but it was five years ago when I wrote it. If I cannot track it then I am willing to leave this out - though I do not think the article will be improved by doing so. I am afraid that I still cannot understand your position on describing dubats as "officers" - they comprised Somali soldiers and NCOs, with Italian officers. The dubat ranks Capi Commandanti, Capo and Sottocapi equated to sergeant, corporal and lance corporal. Outside Libya, the Italian colonial army of the 1920s and 30s did not promote indigenous troops to commissioned officer rank. Since I imagine that neither of us wish to slide into a 3RR situation, I will not make any further edits to the article for a day or so. Regards Buistr (talk) 22:29, 31 October 2011 (UTC) Understood. However, the pic as it turns out isn't actually of a Somali dubat, but rather of an Eritrean cavalryman [2]. At any rate, you may be right about the martial ranks, but the passage was phrased awkwardly since dubats are normally only associated with local soldiers. Regards, Middayexpress (talk) 00:26, 1 November 2011 (UTC) Disambiguation link notification Hi, this message is to let you know about disambiguation links you've recently created. A link to a disambiguation page is almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. For more information, see the FAQ or drop a line at the DPL WikiProject. K'naan (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver) was linked to Crazy Legs Any suggestions for improving this automated tool are welcome. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 13:15, 16 November 2011 (UTC) Gaining permission for a photo Hi I've got an image of an individual I would like to upload onto their Wikipedia page and I have the email of the person who took the photograph. What would I need to ask the photographer specifically? Because the last time I asked for permission to upload a photo on Wikipedia, I was granted permission by the photographer but someone on Wikipedia emailed me and told me that wasn't the right kind of permission.