Ritchie Boys Wiki

Site changelog

Revision as of 15:56, 26 August 2026 by Admin (talk | contribs) (Changelog: Facebook-ported bios final cleanup)

This page records site-level changes: new features, layout and tooling, directory structure, and major content systems. It is not a log of edits to individual soldier biographies (use Special:RecentChanges for those).

Newest entries first. When we change how the wiki works, add a dated bullet here.

How to update this page

  • Add a new dated heading (or bullets under today’s date) at the top of the changelog list below.
  • Describe the feature or site change in plain language — not a file-by-file diff.
  • Skip one-off soldier page corrections and routine data fixes unless they introduce a new site capability.
  • Agents and maintainers: after a site feature ships to the live wiki, append it here in the same edit session when practical.

Changelog

26 August 2026

  • Facebook-ported bios (final cleanup) — One pass across all Facebook-enriched soldier pages: restore biographies that earlier voice-scrubbing had emptied, scrub remaining Facebook voice safely (never wipe a bio when source facts exist), and dedupe identical gallery images. Fixed Biography-section editing so an empty bio can no longer swallow Research notes / Gallery. Re-run: `python scripts/fix_facebook_ported_bios.py`. Report: `import/facebook_posts/enrichments/BIO_FIX_FINAL_REPORT.md`.
  • Facebook biography voice scrub — Swept ported Facebook soldier biographies to plain third-person summaries: removed “I’m saddened…”, holiday/family-forward framing, “Thanks to…”, “Attached is…”, “Wiki profile records list…”, and similar page voice. Gallery captions with Facebook update language were neutralized. Review: `import/facebook_posts/enrichments/BIO_VOICE_SWEEP_REPORT.md`.
  • Draft opening summary — The editor draft tool now reads the Biography section (not only a heading named Life) and builds a fuller multi-sentence lead from personal details plus bio prose when no AI key is configured.
  • Opening summaries (full dates) — Soldier opening blurbs use full birth/death dates when known (e.g. `(21 June 1924 – 15 April 1945)`), falling back to years only when that is all the roster has — same idea as Wikipedia.

25 August 2026

  • Facebook profile enrichments — Published Facebook-post writeups onto matching soldier profiles (opening summary, biography, infobox fields when known, soldier portrait when suitable, extra images in Gallery, and dated Facebook sources). Skipped posts that were not primarily about the matched soldier. Other Ritchie Boys named in those bios/photo captions are wiki-linked when a clear roster match exists. Biographies framed as family inquiries, holiday posts, or first-person/opinion Facebook voice (“I believe…”, “have you ever heard…”, “more to follow”, “attached is a photo”, “family passed along…”) were rewritten as factual third-person bios. Where a biography named a birth/death city or full date but the infobox only had a country or year, those Born/Died fields were filled from the prose; document images used as profile photos (e.g. Hauboldt) were moved into Gallery. Certificate value NG (non-graduate marker) is hidden/cleared. Negative research notes (illness, excess absence, failure, etc.) are filtered from display and removed from pages. Review lists: `import/facebook_posts/enrichments/PUBLISHED_REVIEW.md`, `LINKED_MENTIONS_REPORT.md`, `BIO_REWRITE_REPORT.md`, `INFOBOX_FROM_BIO_REPORT.md`, and `BIO_NOTES_SCRUB_REPORT.md`.
  • Navigation and discovery — Sidebar Reading is a shorter start-here list with Camp Ritchie added; secondary topic pages stay on Contents / Site pages. About is labeled “About this project” next to About the data. Special:Search reorders hits so title matches and site pages rise above research-notes noise. Main Page Featured Ritchie Boys links three fuller soldier profiles (Guy Stern, Ralph Baer, Eric Waldman) with equal-sized portrait thumbs.
  • About (tone) — Rewrote About in a calmer wiki voice (dropped the ALL-CAPS work-in-progress banner); clarified how it differs from About the data.
  • Main Page polish — Find-a-soldier moved under the lead (TOC hidden); Secret Heroes tagline links to Introduction; quick links live inside the Find box (no separate Explore/Gold Medal blocks); Reading shortened to a start-here list.
  • Camp Ritchie overview — Expanded Camp Ritchie with who trained there (including WACs and language selection), Camp Sharpe, Europe and Pacific/Nisei notes (with a link to Kazuo E. Yamane), Fort Ritchie closure and museum, plus light cross-links from FAQ, Secret Heroes/Battle of the Bulge, and The Stories/Camp Ritchie Background.
  • Page consolidation — Merged duplicate Camp Ritchie Background into The Stories/Camp Ritchie Background (both photos kept); folded Disclaimer into About the data; moved FAQ Camp Ritchie / military-records detail onto Camp Ritchie and Contact Us so FAQ points there without dropping wording.
  • About — Added About (project background, Dan Gross legacy, ownership note, and copyright / museum disclaimer from theritchieboys.com).
  • FAQ — Added FAQ (who the Ritchie Boys were, what Camp Ritchie was, and how to seek military records, with National Archives and Wikipedia links).
  • Dan Gross Memorial — Added Dan Gross Memorial (tribute page for Daniel Gross, with portrait and biography from theritchieboys.com).
  • Contact Us — Added Contact Us with the military-records note (National Archives link) and the embedded Google contact form from theritchieboys.com.
  • Contributors — Added Contributors (Dan Gross’s project team bios and portraits, with soldier links for Guy Stern, Walter Lubran, and Kurt Kugelmann).
  • Attribution notes — Removed redundant “adapted from theritchieboys.com” style wording from topic-page leads; kept real source cites (spreadsheets, Google Slides, authors).
  • Photos — Added Photos with the National Archives / Signal Corps disclaimer, an embedded Google Drive grid album (Stephen Goodell collection), and the featured four-photo gallery with captions.
  • Documentaries/Movies and Books — Added Documentaries/Movies (Bauer and Karras films with free-watch links) and Books (notable titles with Amazon links and covers).

24 August 2026

  • Ritchie Boy Programs — Added Ritchie Boy Programs (talks and museum programs, with soldier links where matched).
  • Ritchie Boy Interviews/Testimonies — Added Ritchie Boy Interviews (video interview list, with soldier links where matched).
  • Symposium Presentation — Added Symposium Presentation from Dan Gross’s 2012 Camp Ritchie Symposium deck (documentary stars, select notables, WAC note, closing slides; 2012 class-count slide kept as historical presentation figures only).
  • Reading order — Main Page Reading list and sidebar Reading links follow a consistent reading order (existing wiki pages plus coming-soon / external links for pages not imported yet). Notable Ritchie Boys sits under Directory with the roster.
  • By The Numbers — Hub (By The Numbers) with By The Numbers/Student Numbers - All Classes, By The Numbers/Eight Week Classes - Dates & Graduation Numbers, By The Numbers/Eight Week Class Content, By The Numbers/Eight Week Courses by Specialties, and By The Numbers/Awards (Eddy tables/notes with copyright notices). Class 1–31 pages and soldier Camp Ritchie rows show eight-week class date ranges; matched award recipients get ribbon + awards-grid sections.
  • Sidebar sections — Split the left nav into Navigation, Reading, Directory, and Participate portals (was one long list). Sidebar slightly widened so Congressional Gold Medal shows its full title.
  • Notable Ritchie Boys gallery — Added Notable Ritchie Boys, a single page of portrait+blurb cards from both Notable Ritchie Boys Google Slides decks (linked to soldier pages when matched).
  • Site changelog — Added this page so feature work on the wiki has a chronological home (Site changelog); linked from the sidebar and related help pages.
  • Awards and honors (Wikipedia-style) — Soldier pages can show a ribbon rack plus a labeled awards grid (multi-line cells, content-sized columns, short rows spanning full width, tiny gaps between ribbons), with extra award notes as bullets.
  • Wikipedia notables import — Pipeline to enrich existing soldier profiles from English Wikipedia (infobox fields, biography sections, Commons portraits, ribbon uploads) without inventing new soldier pages.
  • Contents directory layout — Classes, Teams, and Site pages lists on Contents use a compact three-column layout (same idea as category pages). Any page that embeds a category tree gets that layout from site CSS.
  • Soldier page chrome — Awards block sits in the main column after Biography (not crushed in the infobox); table of contents stays near the top after the lead.

21 August 2026

20 August 2026

  • Introduction — Introduction (Dan Gross).
  • Secret Heroes / First Class — Secret Heroes/First Class page with photo and roster links.
  • Find a soldier — Main Page search by name or ASN.
  • Patrol — Patrol guide for watching Special:RecentChanges.
  • Contribute / Patrol links — Sidebar links for editors.
  • Draft opening summary — Optional tool to draft a short lead from personal details and the Life biography for review before saving.

19 August 2026

  • Edit soldier facts — Form on soldier pages to edit structured infobox fields (including specialty) without raw wikitext.

18 August 2026

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