![]() | A fact from Polski Fiat 125p appeared on Wikipedia's
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Did you know column on 24 July 2006. The text of the entry was as follows:
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Give an F, give me and S... Welcome to the newly-created Polski Fiat 125p task force talk page :D The article now is almost entirely a copy/paste from the section of the Fiat 125 article. What I believe we should is simply re-create it, as the current version is pretty lousy in all accounts. Let me propose the following tasks to be completed:
I just realized the following tasks are mostly "check for info, find good sources, add to the article":
Feel free to add to the list! :D I somehow can't help thinking I am expected to do most of that (*sigh*), as I guess I am the only Polish-speaking person in this team... :( Bravada, talk - 19:33, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
OK, so I am basically now going through the Polish site and trying to put down whatever information I find out in English. I am afraid I am doing more of a translation/essay writing than real encyclopedic work - I am counting on you (other, native English speaking editors) to edit that, taking out whatever minor tidbits we can live without. I believe dumping 100% of the Polish site's content, even if that's not a direct translation, might not be too fair towards the author of that site.
Sidenote: I know this sounds stupid, but dabbling into this evoked much more memories and emotions than I thought it would, both good and bad (and I guess I am not really serious about the former). I think I would like to take some breaks in between doing that to shake them off, so please excuse me fro slowing the pace. Bravada, talk - 21:31, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
Ok, I see nothing much is happening here, so I guess it's all up to me. I will try to add a few more paragraphs in the coming days, but for obvious reasons this is one of the least interesting topics for me. As of now, I thought it would be a good reason to create an article on the 1300/1500, which I am currently battling with. Seems like this was some covert vehicle - there is unbelievably little info on it!
But what I wanted to tell you is that today I had a chance to talk to my parents, proud owners of red 125p's in the past. We haven't talked much about the cars themselves, as there is little they could tell me that I didn't know, but I have learned something interesting about the other Fiat models assembled at FSO - as you might know, models like 127, 128, 131 and 132 were assembled in short series there. I was wondering how were they available in Poland. Well, contrary to the regular Polski Fiats (125p and 126p), which were bought for Polish Zloty in the official Polmozbyt network, provided you had a "car allotment" granted by the authorities and waited your few years for your turn (and I mean it, YEARS!), the other models could be bought outright, but provided you paid in USD (or, I guess, any other "hard currency"). The thing is that any currency operations involving private citizens were strictly prohibited and penalized, so the only way you could do that is go to an FSO representative office in e.g. Vienna (which itself was not that easy given the restrictions on travelling to Western countries), pay in a specified amount in USD (a fortune for Polish conditions, given the lunatic exchange rate), and come back to Poland to take delivery of your newly assembled Fiat in the Polmozbyt point of your choice :D :D :D
Socialism, anybody? Bravada, talk - 23:25, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
Whoah! I'm slightly horrified by that. Looking at the "Did you know?" page, it mentions that the car was known for it's "accelerated rate of rusting" – hardly a very well-referenced clearly-factual point from the article, and one that probably doesn't shed the best or most encyclopædic light on the article! Oh well, too late now. – Kieran T ( talk | contribs) 18:44, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
OK now I have a moment to try to catch up with yesterday's happenings. First and foremost, thanks Piotr for suggesting this article to DYK and mentioning me as author. Actually, I don't think I should have been credited with creating this article, as what I did was merely carve out the section of the Fiat 125 article and put it an article in its own right - though, AFAIK, I actually DID write the sentence that eventually landed in the front page, as the section had no lead section.
Cordial thanks Kieran for keeping an eye on the goings-on and helping remedy the situation on the spot!
What has happened is, I think, pretty unfortunate. The article is certainly still Work-in-Progress and not anything we'd like casual viewers to see as an example of Wikipedia. A totally unsourced and rather unfounded statement (actually, most Italian Fiats, Lancias and Alfas, and also many other cars of that era rusted badly) was placed on the front page - fortunately for a short time only - distorting the view of the subject and perhaps also undermining the image of Wikipedia as a reliable information source.
By hastily replacing the questionable statement, a rather strange and stiff "DYK" was created, which did not showcase any unique quality of the subject which would really draw the attention of readers, which could create the impression that there is really nothing more interesting about it and not much more interesting in Wikipedia itself, perhaps. I guess this could make for a much more interesting DYK:
Moreover, probably a rather large number of viewers were attracted to this incomplete article, viewing it in rather miserable form, which can also either distort their view of the subject or compromise WP's reputation. A number of editors contributed to the article in the current form, and their work might be lost during impending refurbishments, which will be a pity. Moreover, a chance for the article to be showcased on the front page, which would certainly be great for when it is be completed, was lost.
On the other hand, a recently finished and polished article on another automobile, the Talbot Tagora, went unnoticed, while I guess it would be a much better example of Wikipedia work to showcase. I think this all is an example for some systematic failures in the DYK process, and I hope this will serve to further enhance it. Regards, Bravada, talk - 12:38, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
Is Polski Fiat 126p worthy of mentioning in this article? Circeus 21:21, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
I added some more polish nicnames for 125, which are more funnier way of calling it by young people. feel free to edit but IMO the "Duzy Fiat" is not THE only one worth mentioning because 125 has much social history in Poland and has many nicknames related to it.
![]() | A fact from Polski Fiat 125p appeared on Wikipedia's
Main Page in the
Did you know column on 24 July 2006. The text of the entry was as follows:
| ![]() |
![]() | This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Give an F, give me and S... Welcome to the newly-created Polski Fiat 125p task force talk page :D The article now is almost entirely a copy/paste from the section of the Fiat 125 article. What I believe we should is simply re-create it, as the current version is pretty lousy in all accounts. Let me propose the following tasks to be completed:
I just realized the following tasks are mostly "check for info, find good sources, add to the article":
Feel free to add to the list! :D I somehow can't help thinking I am expected to do most of that (*sigh*), as I guess I am the only Polish-speaking person in this team... :( Bravada, talk - 19:33, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
OK, so I am basically now going through the Polish site and trying to put down whatever information I find out in English. I am afraid I am doing more of a translation/essay writing than real encyclopedic work - I am counting on you (other, native English speaking editors) to edit that, taking out whatever minor tidbits we can live without. I believe dumping 100% of the Polish site's content, even if that's not a direct translation, might not be too fair towards the author of that site.
Sidenote: I know this sounds stupid, but dabbling into this evoked much more memories and emotions than I thought it would, both good and bad (and I guess I am not really serious about the former). I think I would like to take some breaks in between doing that to shake them off, so please excuse me fro slowing the pace. Bravada, talk - 21:31, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
Ok, I see nothing much is happening here, so I guess it's all up to me. I will try to add a few more paragraphs in the coming days, but for obvious reasons this is one of the least interesting topics for me. As of now, I thought it would be a good reason to create an article on the 1300/1500, which I am currently battling with. Seems like this was some covert vehicle - there is unbelievably little info on it!
But what I wanted to tell you is that today I had a chance to talk to my parents, proud owners of red 125p's in the past. We haven't talked much about the cars themselves, as there is little they could tell me that I didn't know, but I have learned something interesting about the other Fiat models assembled at FSO - as you might know, models like 127, 128, 131 and 132 were assembled in short series there. I was wondering how were they available in Poland. Well, contrary to the regular Polski Fiats (125p and 126p), which were bought for Polish Zloty in the official Polmozbyt network, provided you had a "car allotment" granted by the authorities and waited your few years for your turn (and I mean it, YEARS!), the other models could be bought outright, but provided you paid in USD (or, I guess, any other "hard currency"). The thing is that any currency operations involving private citizens were strictly prohibited and penalized, so the only way you could do that is go to an FSO representative office in e.g. Vienna (which itself was not that easy given the restrictions on travelling to Western countries), pay in a specified amount in USD (a fortune for Polish conditions, given the lunatic exchange rate), and come back to Poland to take delivery of your newly assembled Fiat in the Polmozbyt point of your choice :D :D :D
Socialism, anybody? Bravada, talk - 23:25, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
Whoah! I'm slightly horrified by that. Looking at the "Did you know?" page, it mentions that the car was known for it's "accelerated rate of rusting" – hardly a very well-referenced clearly-factual point from the article, and one that probably doesn't shed the best or most encyclopædic light on the article! Oh well, too late now. – Kieran T ( talk | contribs) 18:44, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
OK now I have a moment to try to catch up with yesterday's happenings. First and foremost, thanks Piotr for suggesting this article to DYK and mentioning me as author. Actually, I don't think I should have been credited with creating this article, as what I did was merely carve out the section of the Fiat 125 article and put it an article in its own right - though, AFAIK, I actually DID write the sentence that eventually landed in the front page, as the section had no lead section.
Cordial thanks Kieran for keeping an eye on the goings-on and helping remedy the situation on the spot!
What has happened is, I think, pretty unfortunate. The article is certainly still Work-in-Progress and not anything we'd like casual viewers to see as an example of Wikipedia. A totally unsourced and rather unfounded statement (actually, most Italian Fiats, Lancias and Alfas, and also many other cars of that era rusted badly) was placed on the front page - fortunately for a short time only - distorting the view of the subject and perhaps also undermining the image of Wikipedia as a reliable information source.
By hastily replacing the questionable statement, a rather strange and stiff "DYK" was created, which did not showcase any unique quality of the subject which would really draw the attention of readers, which could create the impression that there is really nothing more interesting about it and not much more interesting in Wikipedia itself, perhaps. I guess this could make for a much more interesting DYK:
Moreover, probably a rather large number of viewers were attracted to this incomplete article, viewing it in rather miserable form, which can also either distort their view of the subject or compromise WP's reputation. A number of editors contributed to the article in the current form, and their work might be lost during impending refurbishments, which will be a pity. Moreover, a chance for the article to be showcased on the front page, which would certainly be great for when it is be completed, was lost.
On the other hand, a recently finished and polished article on another automobile, the Talbot Tagora, went unnoticed, while I guess it would be a much better example of Wikipedia work to showcase. I think this all is an example for some systematic failures in the DYK process, and I hope this will serve to further enhance it. Regards, Bravada, talk - 12:38, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
Is Polski Fiat 126p worthy of mentioning in this article? Circeus 21:21, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
I added some more polish nicnames for 125, which are more funnier way of calling it by young people. feel free to edit but IMO the "Duzy Fiat" is not THE only one worth mentioning because 125 has much social history in Poland and has many nicknames related to it.