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Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark

Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark (Καικιλία; 22 June 1911 – 16 November 1937) was by birth a Greek and Danish princess who became titular Hereditary Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine through her marriage to Prince Georg Donatus, pretender to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. She was also the third-eldest sister to Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark (later Duke of Edinburgh).

The third of five children of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, Cecilie had a happy childhood. In her early years, however, she witnessed the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), followed by the First World War (1914–1918) and the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). For the young princess and her relatives, these conflicts had dramatic consequences and led to their exile in Switzerland (between 1917 and 1920), and then in France (from 1922 to 1936). During their exile, Cecilie and her family depended on the generosity of their foreign relatives, in particular Marie Bonaparte (who offered them accommodation in Saint-Cloud) and Lady Louis Mountbatten (who supported them financially).

The year 1929 was a turning point in Cecilie's life. She formed a relationship with her maternal cousin, Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse. Around the same time, her mother was struck by a mental health crisis which led to her confinement in a Swiss psychiatric hospital until 1933. After marrying Georg Donatus in 1931, Cecilie moved to Darmstadt. There she gave birth to their three children, Ludwig (1931–1937), Alexander (1933–1937) and Johanna (1936–1939), before becoming pregnant with her fourth child in 1937. Initially distant from the Nazi movement, she joined the Nazi Party at the same time as her husband in May 1937.

Soon after, the princess and her family embarked on a trip to the United Kingdom, where they were to attend the wedding of her brother-in-law Louis, Prince of Hesse and by Rhine to Margaret Campbell Geddes. However, the aircraft in which they were travelling crashed in flames near Ostend, instantly killing all the passengers. Repatriated to Darmstadt, their remains were buried in the Grand Ducal mausoleum of Rosenhöhe on 23 November 1937.

The Balkan Wars and the First World War
The third daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, Cecilie was born at Tatoi Palace, near Athens, on 22 June 1911. Baptized on 10 July, her godparents were King George V of the United Kingdom, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark and Grand Duchess Vera Konstantinovna of Russia.

Cecilie spent a happy childhood within a united household that was already made up of two daughters, Margarita (1905–1981) and Theodora (1906–1969), and was further expanded with the arrival of Sophie (1914–2001). The favorite child of her father, she grew up in Athens, Tatoi and Corfu, where her father inherited Mon Repos after King George I's assassination in 1913. Coming from a cosmopolitan dynasty, Cecilie and her sisters communicated in English with their mother, but they also used French, German, and Greek with their relatives and their governesses. The girls also traveled abroad with their family at a very young age. In 1911 and 1913, Cecilie thus went to the United Kingdom and Germany, where she was introduced to her mother's relatives.

Cecilie's early years were marked by the instability that the Kingdom of Greece experienced at the start of the twentieth century. Between 1912 and 1913, Greece engaged in the Balkan Wars, during which Prince Andrew served under Crown Prince Constantine while Princess Alice worked as a nurse for wounded soldiers. They were, however, especially affected by the First World War, which created division between different branches of their family as Greece set aside its neutrality due to the Triple Entente. Cecilie and her sisters were in the royal palace of Athens when it was bombarded by the French Navy during the battle in the capital on 1 December 1916.

Exile in Switzerland
In June 1917, King Constantine I was finally deposed and driven out of Greece by the Allies, who replaced him on the throne by his second son, the young Alexander. Fifteen days later, Cecilie's family was in turn forced into exile in order to remove the possibility of the new monarch being influenced by those close to him. Forced to reside in German-speaking Switzerland, the small group first stayed in a hotel in St. Moritz, before settling in Lucerne, where they lived with uncertainty about their future.

Exile was not the only source of concern for the family, however. Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, some of Cecilie's Romanov relatives were murdered in Russia. Shortly after these events, the Grand Ducal family of Hesse, to which Cecilie was closely related through her mother, was overthrown along with all the other German dynasties during the winter of 1918–1919. Finally, the family went through some health problems, with Cecilie contracting the flu and scarlet fever in 1920.

At the beginning of 1919, Cecilie reunited with her paternal grandmother, the Dowager Queen Olga, spared by the Bolsheviks thanks to the diplomatic intervention of the Danes. In the months that followed, Cecilie attended a family reunion with her maternal grandparents, and met her aunt Louise and uncle Louis Mountbatten. For Cecilie, who now formed a duo with her younger sister Sophie, exile was not only synonymous with sadness; it was also an opportunity for long family reunions and walks in the mountains.

Brief return to Greece
On 2 October 1920, King Alexander, cousin of Cecilie, was bitten by a domestic monkey during a walk in Tatoi. Poorly cared for, he contracted sepsis, which prevailed on 25 October, without any member of his family being allowed to come to his bedside. The death of the sovereign caused a violent institutional crisis in Greece. Already stuck, since 1919, in a new war against Turkey, Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos lost the 1920 Greek legislative election. Humiliated, he retired abroad while a referendum reinstalled Constantine I on the throne.

Prince Andrew was received triumphantly in Athens on 23 November 1920, and his wife and four daughters joined him a few days later. Cecilie then returned to live in Corfu with her family. At the same time, Princess Alice found out that she was pregnant again. On 10 June 1921, the family welcomed Philip (1921–2021), later the Duke of Edinburgh. The joy that surrounded this birth, however, was obscured by the absence of Prince Andrew, who joined the Greek forces in Asia Minor during the Occupation of Smyrna. Despite worries about the war, Cecilie and her siblings enjoyed life at Mon Repos, where they received a visit from their maternal grandmother and their aunt Louise in the spring of 1922. In the park near the palace, built on an ancient cemetery, the princesses devoted themselves to archeology and discovered some pottery, bronze pieces and bones.

During this period, Cecilie and her sisters also participated, for the first time, in a number of great social events. In March 1921, the princesses attended in Athens the wedding of their cousin Helen to Crown Prince Carol of Romania. In July 1922, they went to the United Kingdom to be bridesmaids at the wedding of their uncle Louis Mountbatten to the wealthy heiress Edwina Ashley, whose beauty fascinated Cecilie.

However, the military defeat of Greece against Turkey and the political unrest that it caused disrupted the life of Cecilie and her family. In September 1922, Constantine I abdicated in favor of his eldest son, George II. A month later, Prince Andrew was arrested before being tried by a military tribunal, which declared him responsible for the defeat of the Sakarya. Saved from execution by the intervention of foreign chancelleries, the prince was condemned to banishment and cashiering. The prince and his relatives hurriedly left Greece aboard HMS Calypso (D61) in early December 1922.

In the UK and France
After a journey of several weeks, which led them successively to Italy, France and the United Kingdom, Cecilie, her parents and her siblings settled in Saint-Cloud in 1923. Settled in a house adjoining that of Princess Marie Bonaparte, the family depended for seven years on her generosity, and two other aunts of Cecilie: first Princess Anastasia and then Lady Louis Mountbatten. Marie Bonaparte financed the studies of her nieces and nephew, while Lady Mountbatten got into the habit of offering her nieces her "used" clothes. In fact, Cecilie's parents had little income and the children were the regular witnesses to their money problems and their difficulty in maintaining a household.

Deprived of their Greek nationality after the proclamation of the Second Hellenic Republic in March 1924, Cecilie and her family received Danish passports from their cousin King Christian X. In Saint-Cloud, the small group spent a relatively simple life. Cecilie and her siblings continued their studies in private institutions, and, during their free time, their father took them regularly to Paris or to the Bois de Boulogne. He also spent long hours playing tennis with them. Every Sunday, the family was received for lunch by Princess Marie Bonaparte and Prince George of Greece and Denmark. Cecilie and her family also regularly met Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark and his wife Elena Vladimirovna of Russia, who had also chosen France to spend their time in exile with their daughters. Finally, they often saw their cousin Princess Margaret of Denmark, who settled in the Paris region after her marriage to Prince René of Bourbon-Parma.

Cecilie and her relatives made frequent stays abroad, and in particular in the United Kingdom. In 1923, the princess was invited to London to be a bridesmaid at the wedding of her aunt Louise Mountbatten to the future Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden. She returned to England in 1925 for the funeral of her great-aunt, Queen Alexandra. In 1926, she went to Italy for the funeral of her paternal grandmother, Queen Olga. A few weeks later, she returned to spend the summer in Great Britain, with her maternal grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven.

Engagement and family difficulties
Considered by her maternal grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven, as the prettiest of the four daughters of Andrew and Alice, Cecilie made her debut in the United Kingdom, during the summer of 1928. Aged 17, she took part in her first ball at the Earl and Countess of Ellesmere's Bridgewater House, before attending the Cowes Week and then being invited by King George V to stay a few days in Balmoral, Scotland.

Although her two elder sisters were still single, and the relative poverty of her parents was not unrelated to this situation, Cecilie's family did not give up on finding a good match for her. Now Princess of Sweden, her aunt Louise was planning to betroth her to Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, but the plan did not succeed. It was finally from Germany that a suitor for the young girl arrived. Since her childhood, Cecilie had in fact been in contact with her cousins, Princes Georg Donatus and Louis of Hesse, whom she first met in 1919, while she was living in exile in Switzerland. The relationship between the princess and Georg Donatus turned into a romance during the year 1929 and the two were unofficially engaged in early 1930. At that time, Cecilie was just 18 years old and Georg Donatus, the pretender to the throne of Hesse, was 23.

The happiness of the princess was however clouded by the situation of her mother, whose mental health deteriorated sharply after the celebration of her silver wedding anniversary with Prince Andrew, in 1928. Struck by a mental health crisis, the princess convinced herself that she possessed healing powers and that she was receiving divine messages about potential husbands for her daughters. She then took herself for a saint and soon declared herself the bride of Jesus. Distraught by the situation, Prince Andrew finally made the decision to place his wife in a sanatorium. He took advantage of his family's stay in Darmstadt, on the occasion of the celebration for Cecilie's official engagement in April 1930, to send Alice to a psychiatric hospital located in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.

Wedding
With her sister Sophie having become engaged almost at the same time as her to another member of the House of Hesse, Prince Christoph of Hesse, Cecilie made the preparations for her wedding in the company of her younger sister, aged 16. The two princesses thus went to London, in the spring of 1930, in order to obtain new clothes. Shortly after, they returned to Paris to put together their trousseau and buy their wedding dresses.

The nuptials of Sophie and Christoph were celebrated at Schlosshotel Kronberg in Kronberg im Taunus on 15 December 1930. The wedding of Cecilie and Georg Donatus took place at the Neue Palais in Darmstadt on 2 February 1931. To the surprise of the foreign guests, who expected a much colder welcome from a population that had dethroned Grand Duke Ernest Louis in 1918, the wedding aroused the enthusiasm of the people, who gathered in droves to attend the event and cheer their former princely family.

The couple were married in a double religious ceremony, both Orthodox and Lutheran. The ceremony brought together some fifty guests from all over Europe, but took place in the absence of the bride's mother Princess Alice, who was still hospitalized in Switzerland.

Motherhood and reconnecting with Alice
After their marriage, Cecilie and Georg Donatus moved to Schloß Wolfsgarten, the main residence of Grand Duke Ernest Louis and his wife Grand Duchess Eleonore, since their deposition. In Hesse, the young couple led a relatively simple life, punctuated by frequent stays abroad. Cecilie was involved in several charitable organizations and became the head of Alice Frauen Verein, an association dedicated to women. She also quickly gave birth to three children: Prince Ludwig (born 25 October 1931), Prince Alexander (born 14 April 1933) and Princess Johanna of Hesse (born 20 September 1936).

Very close to her family, Cecilie was concerned about the situation of her mother, who remained institutionalized until the beginning of 1933. During this period, the relationship between Alice and her children became complicated. Cecilie maintained correspondence with her mother, and visited her once in Kreuzlingen. However, Alice was angry with those close to her for having her institutionalized and her anger manifested itself in fits of rage, which pushed her, for example, to tear up the photograph that Cecilie sent her after the birth of her first child.

Once released from the hospital, Alice made known her desire to stay away from her family and four years passed before she put an end to her voluntary exile. During this period, Cecilie continued, despite everything, to write to her and to send her photos of the family. In December 1936, Alice finally made the decision to reconnect with her family, and it was Cecilie that she got closer to first. The mother and daughter reunited in Bonn in the spring of 1937. From this date, their relationship became normal and the two met again in Salem, in July 1937.

Association with the Nazi Party and restoration of the monarchy in Greece
Prince Christoph of Hesse, Cecilie's brother-in-law, joined the Nazi Party in 1931 and the SS in 1932.

For their part, the princes of Hesse kept their distance from the far-right party for a long time because the Grand Duke Ernest Louis had no sympathy for the Führer's ideas. However, things changed in May 1937. On that date, Georg Donatus and Louis, the two sons of the former sovereign, joined the Nazi Party. Following the example of her husband and her brother-in-law, Cecilie joined the party at the same time.

While in Germany the establishment of the Nazi regime prevented any plans to restore the monarchy, in Greece the republic collapsed after the putsch of General Georgios Kondylis in November 1935. Reinstalled on the throne by a referendum, George II then lifted the banishment sentence issued against Cecilie's father in 1922. In November 1936, the King of the Hellenes also organized the return of the remains and ashes of members of the Greek royal family who died in exile. This event was the opportunity for Cecilie and her family to return, for the first time, to Greece after fourteen years of banishment.

Titular Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine
In 1937, Cecilie became pregnant again. At the same time, the health of her father-in-law, Grand Duke Ernest Louis, deteriorated sharply. Suffering from lung cancer, the former ruler hoped to live long enough to attend the wedding of his second son, Louis, to Hon. Margaret Campbell Geddes, scheduled to take place in London on 23 October 1937.

However, the Grand Duke died a few days before the ceremony, on 9 October, making Georg Donatus the new head of House of Hesse-Darmstadt. Under these circumstances, the marriage of Prince Louis was postponed to 20 November, in order to give his family time to organize the funeral of Ernest Louis, which took place on 12 October.

Death
With Prince Louis' wedding approaching, Cecilie and her family went to Frankfurt on 16 November 1937 to get on board a plane of the Belgian company Sabena which was to take them to London, via a stopover in Ostend where it was planned to pick up two other passengers. The small group, which consisted of Cecilie (eight months pregnant), Georg Donatus, their two sons Ludwig (aged 6) and Alexander (aged 4) and the Dowager Grand Duchess Eleonore, was accompanied by Baron Joachim von Riedesel, chosen by Louis to be his witness, and Alice Hahn. According to Philip Eade, Cecilie hated taking the plane and she always dressed in black when she made a trip like this.

The journey started under normal weather conditions, but a thick fog developed as the plane approached the North Sea. Despite the poor visibility, the pilot followed the flight plan and attempted to land at Ostend-Steene airport. However, during the maneuver, the aircraft struck the chimney of a factory, causing the destruction of a wing and an engine of the aircraft. It then crashed against the roof of a building, before being thrown several metres away and catching fire. The accident caused the immediate death of all passengers including a newborn baby whom Cecilie seemed to have given birth to in the middle of the flight.

Funeral
Despite the death of his family, Prince Louis married Margaret Campbell Geddes, in London, the day after the plane crash. After the wedding, which took place in a climate of extreme gloom, the couple went to Belgium to collect the remains of Cecilie and her family, kept until then at the civil hospital in Ostend. Once back in Darmstadt, Louis and his wife adopted their niece Johanna, the only child of Cecilie and Georg Donatus not to have taken part in the plane trip due to her very young age. Johanna, however, died of meningitis two years later, on 14 June 1939.

The funeral of Cecilie and her relatives took place in Darmstadt on 23 November 1937. The event gave rise to a mass gathering but also served as a pretext for a large deployment of soldiers in Nazi uniform. It was also an opportunity for Cecilie's parents to meet for the first time since 1931. Reconciled by tragedy, Andrew and Alice nevertheless continued separate lives after the funeral. The trauma of her daughter's death healed Alice, whose mental state returned to a completely normal level once the funeral was over.

After the ceremony, the remains of Cecilie and her family were buried in a family vault at the Grand Ducal mausoleum of Rosenhöhe, not far from the graves of Grand Duke Ernest Louis and his daughter Elisabeth.

Commemoration
On 16 November 2017 in Darmstadt, the Hessian State Archives, in collaboration with the Foundation of the House of Hesse (Hessische Hausstiftung), held a commemorative ceremony in honor of the victims of the accident in Ostend. On this occasion, wreaths were placed on the vault of Cecilie and her family, in Rosenhöhe.

Documentaries
The plane crash that caused the death of Princess Cecilie and her family was recounted in the sixth episode of the documentary series Mémoires d'exil (1999) by Frédéric Mitterrand.

TV series
The death of Cecilie and her family is also mentioned by the character of Prince Philip, in the third episode ("Windsor") of the first season of the series The Crown (2016), and by a journalist, in the second episode ("A Company of Men") of the second season (2017). It is also depicted in the ninth episode of season 2 ("Paterfamilias"), during a flashback to Philip's early years. In this episode, Princess Cecilie is portrayed by German actress Leonie Benesch. However, this fictionalised version wrongly implied that Philip was to blame for Cecilie taking the flight, whereas in reality "her decision to travel to London had nothing to do with Philip".

Novels
The death of Cecilie and her family is also recounted in the novel A Matter of Honor by Jeffrey Archer (1986). In this fictionalized version, the accident in Ostend is caused by the KGB, which wants to recover the jewels of Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna, bequeathed to the House of Hesse-Darmstadt after the Russian Revolution.

Other works on royal families

title: Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark


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Forest Hills–71st Avenue station

The Forest Hills–71st Avenue station (previously known as 71st–Continental Avenues station) is an express station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway, located on Queens Boulevard at 71st (Continental) Avenue in Forest Hills, Queens. It is served by the and  trains at all times,  the <F> train during rush hours in the reverse peak direction, the  train on weekdays during the day, and the  train at all times except late nights. It serves as the terminus for the M and R services.

History
The Queens Boulevard Line was one of the first lines built by the city-owned Independent Subway System (IND),  and stretches between the IND Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan and 179th Street and Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. One of the proposed stations would have been located at 71st Avenue. During the late 1920s, in anticipation of the arrival of the subway, land was bought by developers and was built up. Zoning laws were changed to allow fifteen-story apartment buildings to be built, and made the neighborhood of Forest Hills a more desirable place to live, especially as it was an express stop. Queens Borough President George Harvey predicted that the introduction of the subway to Forest Hills would turn Queens Boulevard into the "Park Avenue of Queens."

The first section of the line opened on August 19, 1933 from the connection to the Eighth Avenue Line at 50th Street to Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights. Later that year, a $23 million loan was approved to finance the remainder of the line, along with other IND lines. The remainder of the line was built by the Public Works Administration. In 1934 and 1935, construction of the extension to Jamaica was suspended for 15 months and was halted by strikes. Construction was further delayed due to a strike in 1935, instigated by electricians opposing wages paid by the General Railway Signal Company. By August 1935, work had resumed on the 71st Avenue station and three other stations on the Queens Boulevard Line. In August 1936, tracks were installed all the way to 178th Street, and the stations to Union Turnpike were completed.

On December 31, 1936, the IND Queens Boulevard Line was extended by eight stops, and 3.5 mi, from its previous terminus at Roosevelt Avenue to Union Turnpike, and the 71st Avenue station opened as part of this extension. As a result of the extension, areas in Elmhurst were accessible by subway. The E train, which initially served all stops on the new extension, began making express stops in April 1937, and local GG trains began serving the extension at the time.

The station was proposed as a transfer station between the never-built Queens Super-Express Bypass as part of the 1968 Program for Action, which would have significantly expanded railway and subway service in the five boroughs. Under a 1984 plan, the new express station would have been one of three stops on the 63rd Street Line extension east of 21st Street–Queensbridge, the other two stops being at Northern Boulevard and Woodside. The bypass station would have had a mezzanine, two platform levels (an upper platform for Jamaica and Southeast Queens-bound trains; a lower platform for Manhattan-bound trains), a new elevator entrance, and an expanded mezzanine, with escalators and stairs connecting the new platform levels to the existing platforms. The new station would have been built on the south side of Queens Boulevard, south of the existing station.

In 2014, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority built a new signal tower for the Manhattan-bound platform. The agency also upgraded the station to compliance with the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act; the upgrade included passenger elevators to serve the street level, mezzanine and platforms. This project was completed by March 2014 after a three-month delay. However, a ribbon-cutting for the new elevators was not held until May 15, 2014. The MTA announced in 2024 that it would replace the station's existing waist-high turnstiles with taller, wide-aisle turnstiles.

Station layout
The station has four tracks and two island platforms. The E and F both stop here at all times, running on the express tracks during the day and on the local tracks at night. The R stops here except at night and the M stops here only on weekdays during the day. The M and R both run on the local tracks and the station serves as their northern terminus. The next stop to the west (railroad south) is 67th Avenue for local trains and Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue for express trains. The next stop to the east (railroad north) is 75th Avenue for local E and F trains and Kew Gardens–Union Turnpike for express E trains.

To the east, the line widens to six tracks, with two tracks starting between the local and express tracks in each direction, then ramping down to a lower level, where they widen to four tracks and run under the 75th Avenue station to Jamaica Yard. M and R trains discharge their passengers on the northbound platform and proceed to one of the innermost two tracks to relay and return back southbound to recruit their passengers. F trains during the day and E trains on weekdays during the evening and on weekends during the day switch from the express track to the local track east of the station. This station has four punch boxes: two each at the eastern end and western end.

Both outer track walls have a light Fern green tile band with a black border and small "71st AVE" tile captions below them in white lettering on a black background. The tile band is part of a color-coded tile system used throughout the IND. The tile colors were designed to facilitate navigation for travelers going away from Lower Manhattan. As such, a different tile color is used at Kew Gardens–Union Turnpike, the next express station to the east. The green tiles used at the 71st Avenue station were also used at 75th Avenue, the only local station between 71st Avenue and Union Turnpike.

The station's I-beam columns are painted emerald green with signs reading "71 - Forest Hills", while older signs on the black columns between the express tracks read "CONTINENTAL AVENUE - Forest Hills" in black lettering on a white background.

Exits
There are two fare control areas on the full width mezzanine above the platforms and tracks. The western section of the mezzanine is bounded on the west by the exit to the western side of 70th Road and the northern side of Queens Boulevard. There used to be a part-time booth at this location. On the east end, the fare control area is sided by a passageway out of fare control connecting the exits between 70th Road and 71st Avenue. There used to be a part-time booth at the northern section of the passageway. An elevator is located at the southern exit between 70th Road and 71st Avenue and makes the station ADA-accessible. The second fare control area is in between the aforementioned fare free passageway and the passageways connecting to the exits at 71st Avenue. At the eastern end of the mezzanine there is a staircase leading to Queens Boulevard between 71st Avenue and 71st Road on the northern side, and a staircase leading to the intersection of 71st Avenue and Queens Boulevard on the south side. There are seven staircases to each platform.

Signage
On the current MTA map and published timetables, the station name is "Forest Hills–71st Avenue." In the past, "Continental Avenue" (the alternative name of 71st Avenue used in nearby Forest Hills Gardens) has been included in the name and is used on the rollsigns of older rolling stock such as the R32. , the platform signage reads 71–Continental Av–Forest Hills.

Points of interest
Nearby points of interest include:
 * Austin Street, a major business thoroughfare in Forest Hills, located south of the station.
 * Forest Hills LIRR station, located in Station Square in Forest Hills Gardens at Burns Street.
 * Ridgewood Savings Bank, Forest Hills Branch, designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission since 2000.
 * West Side Tennis Club, containing Forest Hills Stadium, which hosted the US Open tennis tournament until 1977.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Forest Hills–71st Avenue station


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Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-07-18/Folksonomy and GNAA

Two of Wikipedia's rather well-known articles survived Votes for deletion this week. One article added to its record for most appearances there; the other, which is frequently cited by outside sources, had its VfD noted in several blogs.

The latter article is Folksonomy, which was nominated for deletion by an anonymous user who said, "Just because some self-proclaimed, vain 'online journalists' repeat a meme on their web-site in every post doesn't mean it is fit for inclusion in an encyclopedia." The term, a neologism for collaborative categorization that has gained considerable usage, is often defined even in other sources by reference to the Wikipedia article.

Blogger Steve Rubel noticed the debate and mentioned it in one of his posts. The article was, of course, overwhelmingly kept; the only person voting "delete" other than the nominator apparently did so in jest. Prompted by the incident, BusinessWeek blogger Rob Hof made some observations about the deletion process in general: "Dig down into why there's a debate, and you see the care with which Wikipedia and its community have set up policies to ensure entries are useful and accurate."

Setting a record
The Gay Nigger Association of America (GNAA) article was submitted to votes for deletion a record sixth time this week. It was placed on VfD by Ta bu shi da yu (author of this article), in order to get a definitive decision on the issue. Critics of the ongoing debates suggested that the issue should not be revisited for at least a year.

The GNAA has been highly controversial, because many Wikipedians believe that the group does not warrant an article, either because the article is promotional or the group is simply not notable. Dislike of their activities also plays a role, as trolling is widely frowned upon and on Wikipedia may lead to a temporary block. The GNAA, however, has been restrained in its editing of Wikipedia, generally staying within the guidelines of Wikipedia policy. Various GNAA members have made many useful edits, although some have also been accused of being disruptive.

The group, originally organized on Slashdot, is marginalized by the comment moderation system there. Its article was first nominated for deletion in April 2004, kept, and nominated again three times that year. In some cases the nominators were unaware of the previous debates, and complaints about renominations rose with each incident. Finally, after waiting six months, a fifth attempt was made on 30 June by an account that was apparently created for the purpose of making the nomination. Because this nomination was interrupted and also prematurely removed from the VfD page, Ta bu shi da yu elected to resubmit it for proper consideration.

How the vote was held
As the previous VfD nominations were known for having issues with irregular votes, Ta bu shi da yu set up the process in a manner slightly different from a normal VfD. The page was divided into separate sections for voters to choose Delete, Keep, or Redirect, and a "Comments" section was also added. Anonymous editors, and those that had fewer than 100 edits at the time of voting, were subject to having their votes discounted, and a separate section was created to which these votes could be moved. In addition, personal attacks were barred and any comments deemed a personal attack were immediately removed without comment from the vote. Fortunately, most of those participating were civil and well-behaved.

The procedure for the vote drew both praise and criticism. Who complimented Ta bu shi da yu on his work in laying out the vote. Gmaxwell, however, said that "by putting the article up again and unilaterally creating a whole new family of voting rules just for this VFD, you are in effect disrupting Wikipedia." In particular he disagreed with the ongoing process of discounting votes, arguing that this would be better left to the administrator who would close the vote.

The final result, using the rules outlined, had 55 users voting to delete against 78 who preferred to keep the article. Only three people suggested redirecting to Slashdot trolling phenomena. As with most things about this article, even the vote closure was controversial and prompted a brief edit war, but given Wikipedia practice the outcome clearly did not indicate a consensus to delete.

Dealing with future nominations
Concerns about this article being repeatedly submitted to VfD also prompted a proposed policy page called Kick the ass of anyone who renominates GNAA for deletion before 2007 (since redirected to Deletion policy). The proposal stated that "the renomination of the article Gay Nigger Association of America for deletion causes unnecessary disruption every time it repeats." Accordingly, it recommended that any renominations be immediately delisted, the VfD tag removed from the GNAA article, and that the nominator be informed of the policy. If the editor "persist[s] in their attempt at renomination: kick their ass. Suggested alternate consequences include public flogging, tarring and feathering, or crushing by elephant."

The proposal also indicated that it was not a referendum on the value of having the article: "It merely means you're sick of the amount of time being wasted on the whole thing and want a reprieve." Responses suggested that the general idea has widespread support, although a few people indicated they were uncomfortable with the language being used.


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Crozer Theological Seminary

The Crozer Theological Seminary was a Baptist seminary located in Upland, Pennsylvania, and founded in 1868. It was named after the wealthy industrialist, John Price Crozer.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a student at Crozer Theological Seminary from 1948 to 1951, being elected student body president and graduating with a Bachelor of Divinity degree.

In 1970, the seminary merged with the Rochester Theological Seminary, forming the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, New York and the seminary's Old Main building was subsequently used as office space by Crozer Hospital (now part of the Crozer-Chester Medical Center.) The Old Main building is a three-story, F-shaped, stucco-coated stone building with three pavilions connected by a corridor with flanking rooms. Each of the pavilions is topped by a gable roof and cupola, the largest cupola being on the central pavilion. The seminary's grounds are now the Crozer Arboretum.

The Old Main building in Upland was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

History

The Seminary began as the Normal School of Upland, established and built by the president of the board of directors of the American Baptist Publication Society, John Price Crozer. After the outbreak of the American Civil War, the school was closed.

Crozer allowed the Union army to use the building as a hospital during the Civil War. The hospital contained a thousand beds and accommodated 300 nurses, attendants and guards. The patients were almost exclusively Union soldiers except for after the battle of Gettysburg, in July 1863, when the number of wounded and sick Confederate army soldiers left on the battlefield required their acceptance at the hospital. During the war, more than 6,000 patients were treated. Many of the dead from the hospital were some of the first burials at nearby Chester Rural Cemetery.

After the war, the building was repossessed by Crozer and subsequently sold to Colonel Theodore Hyatt for use as the Pennsylvania Military Academy until 1868.

Crozer died in 1866. When Old Main was vacated by the Pennsylvania Military Academy his family converted the school to the Crozer Theological Seminary in his honor. His son recruited faculty for the new mission, It served as an American Baptist Church school, training seminarians for entry into the Baptist ministry from 1868 to 1970. Henry G. Watson was named its first President in 1869.

In 1970 the school moved to Rochester, New York, in a merger that formed the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. The old seminary building was used as the former Crozer Hospital (now the Crozer-Chester Medical Center). The building is currently used as administrative offices for the Crozer-Chester Medical Center.

Campus
The multi-acre campus contains the Crozer Arboretum and the following buildings:
 * Humpstone
 * President's House
 * Pollard House
 * CHEC
 * Evans House
 * Crozer Hall
 * Neisser House
 * Lewis House
 * Vedder House
 * Davis House
 * Sunnyside House
 * Westin House
 * Franklin House

Pearl Hall
Pearl Hall is a serpentine stone library on the campus which opened on June 4, 1871. The building was sponsored by William Bucknell, the benefactor of Bucknell University, in memory of his late wife Margaret Crozer, the daughter of John Price Crozer. In addition to the $30,000 cost of the building, Bucknell also gave $25,000 for the cost of books and $10,000 for an endowment fund.

Notable alumni

 * George Barbier, actor
 * J. Pius Barbour, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Chester, Pennsylvania, executive director of the National Baptist Association, editor of the National Baptist Voice, mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., first African-American graduate of Crozer Theological Seminary
 * John Warren Davis, New Jersey politician and federal judge, taught Greek and Hebrew at Crozer Theological Seminary for three years
 * William Augustus Jones Jr., minister and civil rights leader
 * Martin Luther King Jr., Baptist minister and civil rights leader
 * Samuel D. Proctor, minister, educator and humanitarian

Notable faculty

 * John Warren Davis, taught Hebrew and Greek for three years
 * Lemuel Moss, professor of New Testament
 * James B. Pritchard, taught in the chair of Old Testament History and Exegesis
 * Henry Clay Vedder, professor of Church history

title: Crozer Theological Seminary


text:
User talk:Zespris

Welcome,, to Wikipedia, the greatest encyclopedia on Earth! You seem to be off to a good start. Hopefully you will soon join the vast army of Wikipediholics! You may wish to review the welcome page, tutorial, and stylebook, as well as the avoiding common mistakes and Wikipedia is not pages. The Wikipedia directory is also quite useful.

By the way, an important tip: To sign comments on talk pages, simply type four tildes, like this: ~~~~. This will automagically add your name and the time after your comments.

To basically understand the principles and rules governing Wikipedia, you should take a look the Five Pillars that underlie all rules here.

Finally, here are some jobs that you can work on in your spare time:

Hope to see you around the Wiki! And if you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to contact me on my talk page! Bratsche talk 5 pillars 00:48, July 16, 2005 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with Image:Martinez-campos-331.jpg
Thanks for uploading Image:Martinez-campos-331.jpg. However, the image may soon be deleted unless we can determine the copyright holder and copyright status. The Wikimedia Foundation is very careful about the images included in Wikipedia because of copyright law (see Wikipedia's Copyright policy).

The copyright holder is usually the creator, the creator's employer, or the last person who was transferred ownership rights. Copyright information on images is signified using copyright templates. The three basic license types on Wikipedia are open content, public domain, and fair use. Find the appropriate template in Image copyright tags and place it on the image page like this:.

Please signify the copyright information on any other images you have uploaded or will upload. Remember that images without this important information can be deleted by an administrator. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Thank you. BRossow 19:40, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:Zespris


text:
1948–49 in Scottish football

The 1948–49 season was the 76th season of competitive football in Scotland and the 52nd season of the Scottish Football League. Rangers became the first team to win the Scottish domestic treble. At the end of the season, Scottish Division C was split into two regional sections. It would be 26 years before a set-up with three national divisions would be in place again.

Scottish League Division A
Champions: Rangers

Relegated: Greenock Morton, Albion Rovers

Scottish League Division B
Champions: Raith Rovers, Stirling Albion

Relegated: East Stirlingshire

Scottish League Division C
Source: RSSSF

County

 * * - aggregate over two legs
 * † - replay

Scotland national team
Scotland were winners of the 1949 British Home Championship.

Key:
 * (H) = Home match
 * (A) = Away match
 * BHC = British Home Championship

title: 1948–49 in Scottish football


text:
Sati

Sati or SATI may refer to:

Entertainment

 * Sati (film), a 1989 Bengali film by Aparna Sen and starring Shabana Azmi
 * Sati (novel), a 1990 novel by Christopher Pike
 * Sati (singer) (born 1976), Lithuanian singer
 * Sati, a character in The Matrix Revolutions

Institutes

 * Samrat Ashok Technological Institute, a college in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, India
 * South African Translators' Institute, an association in South Africa representing translators and other language practitioners

Places

 * Sati (castle), a medieval fortified town near Shkodër, Albania
 * Hesar-e Sati, a village in Shahriar County, Tehran Province, Iran
 * Sati-ye Olya, a village in Ardabil Province, Iran
 * Sati-ye Sofla, a village in Ardabil Province, Iran
 * Sati-ye Vosta, a village in Ardabil Province, Iran

Religion

 * Sati (Hindu goddess), Shiva's first wife, and after her death, reincarnated as Shiva's next wife, Parvati
 * Sati (Buddhism), awareness or skillful attentiveness in Buddhism
 * Sati (practice), historical Hindu practice of a widow immolating herself after her husband's death, usually on her husband's funeral pyre
 * Satis (goddess) or Sati, an Egyptian goddess

title: Sati


text:
The Beach Boys in Concert

The Beach Boys in Concert is the third live album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released in November 1973. It was their first live album since Live in London (1970), as well as the only live album and the final album on which Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar appeared as official members.

Reception
The Beach Boys in Concert gave the band their best chart peak since 1967's Wild Honey by reaching number 25, and earning them their first gold record since 1966's Best of The Beach Boys.

Personnel
The Beach Boys
 * Carl Wilson – lead guitar, electric piano, vocals
 * Dennis Wilson – electric piano, vocals
 * Al Jardine – rhythm guitar, vocals
 * Mike Love – vocals
 * Blondie Chaplin – guitar, vocals
 * Ricky Fataar – drums, vocals

Additional personnel
 * Ed Carter – bass
 * Billy Hinsche – guitar, keyboards
 * Robert Kenyatta – percussion
 * Mike Kowalski – drums, percussion
 * Carli Muñoz – keyboards

title: The Beach Boys in Concert


text:
Isaac Ferris

Isaac Ferris (1798–1873) was the third President of New York University.

Ferris graduated from Columbia College in 1816. In 1820, he was appointed by the Board of Domestic Missions to labor in the Classis of Montgomery. He served in the Second Church of Albany from 1824 to 1836 and was active in the Market Street Dutch Reform Church in New York City from 1836 to 1853. He served as Chancellor of New York University from 1853 to 1870. During his tenure he brought financial stability to the university.

Ferris was also a founder of the Rutgers Female College, a member of the American Bible Society, founder of the YMCA of Greater New York.

title: Isaac Ferris


text: User talk:71.97.149.87

title: User talk:71.97.149.87


text:
Template talk:LTM collection

Justification
I'm not all together convinced that this template is justified. When adding images, one will still have to browse and, thus, find the exact image URL. Templates are not to maintain external links (similar ones have been deleted after going through WP:TFD). Would it not be better to create a project for this topic and include a link to the gallery and information on how to include the material.

If there is set up a project, pages relevant to that article could be placed in a category to have a centralised overview of them. --Swift 21:23, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

 * The justification for this template is that a direct link to an image page on the London's Transport Museum Photographic Collection site creates a URL of more than 700 characters thus:

 * http://photos.ltmcollection.org/ixbin/hixclient.exe?IXsort=sort+select%28lcase%28production_role%29%3d%3d%22photographer%22%2cproduction_date_from%29&IXsubject=&_IXsubject=&_IXDB_=ltm&_IXSS_=_IXFPFX_%3dfull%252ft%26_IXMAXHITS_%3d15%26%252asform%3dsearch_form%26IXsearch%3dRayners%2bLane%26_IXDB_%3dltm%26IXsort%3dsort%2bselect%2528lcase%2528production_role%2529%253d%253d%2522photographer%2522%252cproduction_date_from%2529%26_IXSESSION_%3dmRNLTzMxj_i%26IXsubject%3d%26_IXx_%252ex%3d19%26IXfromdate%3d1934%26IXtodate%3d%26IXlocation%3d%26_IXx_%252ey%3d9&_IXSR_=wt1&_IXSESSION_=mRNLTzMxj_i&_IXSPFX_=full/t&_IXMAXHITS_=1&_IXFIRST_=1&submit-button=summary&_IXSECTION=&IXsearch=Rayners%20Lane&IXfromdate=1934&IXtodate=&IXlocation=

 * This is impossibly complex to type and also unneccessarily long in terms of memory usage. The alternative short URL which can be obtained from the image properties of the enlarged version of the image has the much more compact format thus:

 * http://photos.ltmcollection.org/images/max/9n/i0000k9n.jpg

 * This template combines this short form and an image tag in one easy package. I don't see that there is any reason not to use a template to maintain an external link to this information. It works in much the same way as more than 200 similar templates listed at Category:External link templates which do the same thing.

 * This template qualifies under the first of the three reasons given in the introduction to Category:External link templates - the London's Transport Museum Photographic Collection site contains primary source material. The information on that site is a unique historical record which is copyright of Transport for London. It cannot be added to Wikipedia, and there is simply no public domain collection of this sort of material.

 * With regards to having to browse the site for the information needed to complete the template, the instructions are included above on this page [in the documentation sub-page] using much the same methodology given for the Imdb template at Template talk:Imdb name. - DavidCane 00:42, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

 * Thanks! This is a justification, indeed. --Swift 05:59, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

Updated Photograph URLs
I have visited the LTM Photographic Collection website, and I have noticed that the site has been redesigned recently. As part of this modification, the URL format for the photographs has changed slightly. For example, the original URL for the Looking down station platform, 1921 photo (linked from the Covent Garden tube station article) is http://photos.ltmcollection.org/images/max/i9/i00009i9.jpg, but with the new format, the URL for this photo is http://www.ltmcollection.org/images/webmax/i9/i00009i9.jpg (the 'photos' subdomain is now simply 'www', and the 'max' subfolder has been renamed 'webmax'). The images still exist at the original URLs, however, so is it worth updating this template to reflect the new URL format? Andrew (My talk) 23:45, 2 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I noticed this myself the other day and, although the old format still works, I was planning to revise the template to use the new format URL in case LTM stops supporting the old style - this is now done. --DavidCane 00:32, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Okay, no probs [[Image:Smiley.svg|16px|:-)]] Andrew (My talk) 15:44, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Direct linking versus linking to image page
This template appears to be linking directly to the images. More correct would be to link to the page describing the image. This can be done if you know the image number. Currently, the template is producing a link like this, when it should be producing a link like this. The former takes you to the photo alone (which is often not very helpful), but the latter takes you to the photograph documentation page, which will tell you things like when the photograph was taken and what it is a photograph of and other details that the reader will want to know. It is also likely that those who maintain the website would prefer to see traffic going through the documentation page, rather than direct to the image itself. Once you've found a picture by searching, the correct way to link it is through the "bookmark this page" link at left, which gives the URL needed. The difference in this case appears to be: '9861981' versus '1998/61981'. You may need a bot to fix the 251 transclusions of this template to modify the parameter, and at the same time tweak this template to use a slightly different URL. Carcharoth (talk) 23:38, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Template now broken
This template now appears to be completely broken. All the pages that use it display a 403 forbidden page when clicked. It appears that the path to the image files has been changed by LTM, but also that the names of the images have also been changed, so I have had great difficulty finding any of the images for Pimlico tube station, for instance. The same issue seems to affect Template:LTM photo. It doesn't look like there will be an easy fix unless there is a way to turn the old image names into new image names. Bob1960evens (talk) 08:07, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

title: Template talk:LTM collection


text:
Talk:I Marine Expeditionary Force

Should this article be moved to a better name? Right now it's I_Marine_Expeditionary_Force. Shouldn't it either be I_MEF or 1st_Marine_Expeditionary_Force? Also, I just added the intro line to show its affiliation with USMC. I got the term "Headquarters Element" from a Marine friend of mine. I'm not sure of it's validity. Also, *if* it's accurate, someone should make a stub for it, so us non marines can see exactly how the I-MEF fits into the bigger picture of the corps. --Pseudorandom 00:50, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I wouldn't use the term "Headquarters Element" to describe the I MEF, that would be inaccurate. I would say it's "a division-sized MAGTF unit of the USMC" (see United States Marine Corps).  I think "1st Marine Expeditionary Force" is the best title.  That's what is on the I MEF official web site.  It is common to pronounce I MEF as "eye mef", "first mef", or "one mef".  I will make some edits now. --Kenyon 03:16, July 18, 2005 (UTC)

Pardon?
Here's a different twist/possible complaint. As someone who has no knowledge of the US Marines, other than passing media exposure, it doesn't tell me what it is, other than a redlink to MAGTF. I can infer from the name, and the "Recent Service" section, but it never says in the article what 1Mef is. A decription of role or purpose might be nice. - Vedexent 15:31, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

FORECON
The two FORECON companies are subordinate to 4th Marine Division: link to the official page of 4th Marine Division, where both FORECON companies are listed as subordinate units. noclador (talk) 01:58, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

 * OK, thanks - I stand corrected. Semper Fi! CobraDragoon (talk) 02:37, 19 January 2016 (UTC)
 * you're welcome. And thanks for the many good edits to the Marine Corps pages! noclador (talk) 16:51, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

Why isn't UNITAF I an engagement?
The 1st MEF was deployed to Somalia as a part of UNITAF I or operation Restore Hope. Why is this not marked as an engagement? This should be, as it was a combat environment. Cuboidsiren (talk) 14:21, 1 December 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:I Marine Expeditionary Force


text:
User talk:Kerub

Welcome,, to Wikipedia, the greatest encyclopedia on Earth! You seem to be off to a good start. Hopefully you will soon join the vast army of Wikipediholics! You may wish to review the welcome page, tutorial, and stylebook, as well as the avoiding common mistakes and Wikipedia is not pages. The Wikipedia directory is also quite useful.

By the way, an important tip: To sign comments on talk pages, simply type four tildes, like this: ~~~~. This will automagically add your name and the time after your comments.

To basically understand the principles and rules governing Wikipedia, you should take a look the Five Pillars that underlie all rules here.

Finally, here are some jobs that you can work on in your spare time:

Hope to see you around the Wiki! And if you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to contact me on my talk page! Bratsche talk 5 pillars 00:56, July 16, 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Kerub


text:
User talk:Weedeman

Welcome,, to Wikipedia, the greatest encyclopedia on Earth! You seem to be off to a good start. Hopefully you will soon join the vast army of Wikipediholics! You may wish to review the welcome page, tutorial, and stylebook, as well as the avoiding common mistakes and Wikipedia is not pages. The Wikipedia directory is also quite useful.

By the way, an important tip: To sign comments on talk pages, simply type four tildes, like this: ~~~~. This will automagically add your name and the time after your comments.

To basically understand the principles and rules governing Wikipedia, you should take a look the Five Pillars that underlie all rules here.

Finally, here are some jobs that you can work on in your spare time:

Hope to see you around the Wiki! And if you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to contact me on my talk page! Bratsche talk 5 pillars 00:53, July 16, 2005 (UTC)

Image Tagging Image:Japanese Spitz.jpg
Thanks for uploading Image:Japanese Spitz.jpg. I notice the 'image' page currently doesn't specify who created the content, so the copyright status is unclear. If you have not created this media yourself then there needs to be an arguement why we have the right to use the media on Wikipedia (see copyright tagging below). If you have not created the media yourself then it needs to be specified where it was found, i.e., in most cases link to the website where it was taken from, and the terms of use for content from that page.

If the media also doesn't have a copyright tag then one should be added. If you created/took the picture, audio, or video then the GFDL-self tag can be used to release it under the GFDL. If you believe the media qualifies as fair use, consider reading fair use, and then use a tag such as or one of the other tags listed at Image copyright tags. See Image copyright tags for the full list of copyright tags that you can use.

If you have uploaded other media, consider checking that you have specified their source and copyright tagged them, too. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that any unsourced and untagged images will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. Shyam ( T / C ) 17:43, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:Weedeman


text:
User talk:Kaelri

Welcome,, to Wikipedia, the greatest encyclopedia on Earth! You seem to be off to a good start. Hopefully you will soon join the vast army of Wikipediholics! You may wish to review the welcome page, tutorial, and stylebook, as well as the avoiding common mistakes and Wikipedia is not pages. The Wikipedia directory is also quite useful.

By the way, an important tip: To sign comments on talk pages, simply type four tildes, like this: ~~~~. This will automagically add your name and the time after your comments.

To basically understand the principles and rules governing Wikipedia, you should take a look the Five Pillars that underlie all rules here.

Finally, here are some jobs that you can work on in your spare time:

Hope to see you around the Wiki! And if you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to contact me on my talk page! Bratsche talk 5 pillars 00:53, July 16, 2005 (UTC)

December 2010
Welcome to Wikipedia. A page you recently created, The Darcys, may not conform to some of Wikipedia's guidelines for new pages, so it will shortly be removed (if it hasn't been already). Please use the sandbox for any tests, and consider using the Article Wizard. For more information about creating articles, you may want to read Your first article. You may also want to read our introduction page to learn more about contributing. Thank you. Marasmusine (talk) 17:36, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Rama (spacecraft)

The article Rama (spacecraft) has been proposed for deletion  because of the following concern:
 * This is currently a completely unsourced essay, on a topic which has doubtful value as a standalone article. What information exists can be easily covered in the main article, which is Rendezvous with Rama (and its sequels).

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on |the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Vanamonde93 (talk) 13:02, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Kaelri


text:
Letov Kbely

Letov is an aircraft company located in Letňany, Prague, Czech Republic. It is the oldest aircraft company in the region.

History
Letov was founded in 1918 by the Czechoslovak Ministry of Defense to repair World War I trophy planes. The first indigenous aircraft, the Letov Š-1, was designed and built in 1920, and some 50 aircraft types were built by 1939. During World War II the factory served as repair shop for the German Luftwaffe. Production lines were also set up during World War II for combat versions of the Ju 290 aircraft, commencing with the Ju 290 A-2, which carried a search radar for its patrol role. Since the 1950s, the plant has manufactured parts for the MiG-15, MiG-19 and MiG-21.

Over 4,000 wings and empennages for L-29 Delfín, a jet trainer aircraft that became the standard jet trainer for the air forces Warsaw Pact nations in the 1960s, were built by Letov. The company has also built wings and empennages for 2500 L-39 Albatros trainer aircraft since the 1970s.

Following the fall of socialism in Czechoslovakia in 1989, Letov failed to assert itself on the international market and in 2000 it was bought by French Groupe Latécoère. The company now manufactures parts for large passenger aircraft.

title: Letov Kbely


text:
Hot Coffee (minigame)

"Hot Coffee" is the unofficial name for a minigame in the 2004 action-adventure video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas by Rockstar Games. While it was not playable in the official game release, the modding community discovered hidden code that, when enabled, allows protagonist Carl "CJ" Johnson to have animated sexual intercourse with his in-game girlfriend.

Rockstar Games president Sam Houser wanted to include more role-playing elements in San Andreas while also pushing the Grand Theft Auto series' controversial reputation. The development team was forced to curtail the nudity and sexual content of Houser's original vision, however, to obtain a "Mature" rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). Rather than removing the content, the developers made it inaccessible to players. Modders discovered the code on the game's PlayStation 2 release, and when San Andreas was released for Windows, modder Patrick Wildenborg disabled the controls around the code. He released this modified code online under the name "Hot Coffee".

The discovery of the "Hot Coffee" minigame resulted in intense legal backlash for Rockstar Games and their parent company, Take-Two Interactive. While both companies remained mostly silent on the matter, Rockstar Games released a statement claiming that modders were responsible for the minigame. The ESRB re-rated the game "Adults Only" after an investigation, while the game was banned entirely in Australia until the explicit content was removed. Rockstar Games and Take-Two received a warning from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for failing to disclose the extent of graphic content present in the game, while a class action lawsuit alleged that the company had misled customers who believed the game's content fell along the lines of a "Mature" rating.

"Hot Coffee" had a major impact on the video game industry. Rockstar Games's refusal to publicly comment on the matter was poorly received by the industry and modding community, while the ESRB announced fines of up to US$1 million for game developers who failed to disclose the extent of their graphic content. "Hot Coffee" reappeared in future Rockstar Games releases: A similar mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 was posted on Nexus Mods in 2020 and subsequently taken down by Rockstar Games, while 2021's Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, which includes a remaster of San Andreas, was briefly removed from sale after data miners discovered the code associated with "Hot Coffee".

Gameplay
Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, released the action-adventure video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the PlayStation 2 on 26 October 2004. The game was subsequently released for Windows and the Xbox on 7 June 2005. The fifth instalment in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise and a sequel to 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, San Andreas expanded upon its predecessor with a virtual world four times larger than Vice City, as well as the introduction of more role-playing elements. By exercising and feeding the player character, Carl "CJ" Johnson, altering his hairstyle and outfits, and practising shooting and driving, the player maintains CJ's health and street cred. Prior to the release of San Andreas, the Grand Theft Auto series was popular among the modding community, with players known as "modders" hacking into a game's source code and creating modifications, or "mods". By introducing in-game character customisation options, San Andreas made game mods more accessible to those outside of the hacking community. Rockstar Games's president Sam Houser told reporters before the game's release that he "wanted to blur the lines more between what was in-mission and part of the story and your 'leisure time' in the game ... all of your actions feel like they have consequences, and you are always in the world".

San Andreas begins with CJ returning to his home state, the fictional San Andreas, to attend his mother's funeral. Upon his return, he engages in an overarching quest to become a kingpin in the area's criminal underworld. Although there is an overarching plot, San Andreas is primarily an open world game, where narrative missions are supplemented by other activities and interactions that have little bearing on the primary mission. One open world task in which CJ may participate is romantic. San Andreas contains six unlockable girlfriends that can be discovered either through completing missions or by exploring the virtual world. Each girlfriend has preferences for CJ's appearance and date activities; if CJ impresses the girlfriend by catering to these preferences, the player unlocks certain rewards. When CJ has sufficiently impressed one of these girlfriends, she will invite him home "for some coffee", a euphemism for sexual intercourse. In the unmodified version of the game, the player hears muffled sexual sounds from inside the house, while the camera remains outside the front door and no explicit content is visible.

The modified version of San Andreas replaces this censored cutscene with the unused minigame found in the code. After receiving fellatio from his girlfriend, CJ assumes the missionary position. Both characters remain clothed as the player is instructed to "push the left analog stick up and down in rhythm", which increases CJ's progress on a bar graph labelled "Excitement". Button controls allow the player to change the camera angle or the sex position. If the excitement bar reaches completion, CJ's girlfriend and the game congratulate the player; if the meter empties, the player is criticised for "[f]ailure to satisfy a woman". There is also an erotic spanking mini-game in which the player must press buttons in rhythm, which results in CJ spanking his girlfriend and her excitement bar increasing.

Rockstar Games development
The first commercially successful game in the Grand Theft Auto series was Grand Theft Auto III. Upon its 2001 release, the graphic violence and sexual content in the game were met with controversy from politicians and other public figures such as Joe Lieberman and Jack Thompson. Both Grand Theft Auto III and its sequel Vice City received commercial success but faced scrutiny, particularly among those concerned about the impact of violent video games on children. Both games received an "M" ("Mature 17+") rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) in the United States, and Houser responded to the criticism by stating that the Grand Theft Auto series, and video games as a medium, were not designed for children.

In an interview with 1Up.com prior to the release of San Andreas, Houser told reporters that the game was the "official conclusion to a trilogy" preceded by Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City. Houser and the creative team at Rockstar North faced two major challenges in the development of San Andreas: First, they wanted to implement more role-playing elements without turning the series "uber-nerdy". Furthermore, they were determined to "do everything possible to exceed people's expectations" beyond previous games in the series. By this point, games in the Grand Theft Auto series were expected to contain graphic violence, depictions of crime, and coarse language, and Houser believed that the way to "include new functionality and interaction in line with the 'vibe' of the game" was to branch into more explicit sexual content. The inclusion of sexual content in video games proved challenging for developers, as the medium was still seen primarily as entertainment for children. The inclusion of in-game nudity, for instance, was likely to earn San Andreas an "AO" ("Adults Only") rating from the ESRB, and such a rating would curtail the markets in which the game could be sold, putting a great financial burden on Rockstar Games in the process.

On 14 July 2004, Houser emailed Jennifer Kolbe, Rockstar Games's director of operations, with a list of the sexual content he planned to include in the game. This included oral sex, sexual intercourse, masturbation, erotic whipping, and dildos, both in-game and during cutscenes. Kolbe responded with concern that the graphic content would result in an AO rating, and the creative team began to research the content limits for video games in the United States. On 16 August, Rockstar Games co-founder Terry Donovan emailed Houser a list of alterations that developers would need to make to ensure that the game fell in line with video game content rating systems in all markets. While certain countries like Spain and Italy had more relaxed guidelines towards nudity and sexuality, the ESRB's strict limits on these situations drastically limited the content that Houser and Rockstar Games could include without receiving an AO rating. Because Houser received this list of alterations so close to the game's intended release date, there was insufficient time to remove any graphic content from the game without compromising the source code. Instead, developers rewrote the code so that the content was still present on the game disc, but controls made this content inaccessible to the player.

Houser emailed San Andreas producer Leslie Benzies on 25 November, after the PlayStation release of the game, to see "how hard we can push the sex stuff" on the impending Windows release. Houser's original plan was to release two versions of the game, one with an M and the other with an AO rating, but the sales department was concerned about the financial impact of releasing an explicit game. Instead, Rockstar Games decided to release the game in its M-rated form, with a later patch including more graphic content for players who desired. On 7 January 2005, Rockstar Games submitted the Windows and Xbox versions of San Andreas to the ESRB. Because the game was identical to the already-reviewed PlayStation 2 version, the company did not need to send the Board a content disc, and it was automatically given an M rating.

Modifications and discovery
Rockstar Games's decision to release San Andreas on the PlayStation 2 before Windows impacted the modding community, as console games were more difficult to hack into and alter than their PC counterparts. Unable to enact any major edits to the console's source code, modders instead accessed the file formats, planning the mods they would create for the Windows version upon its release. In December 2004, a group of modders, including Patrick Wildenborg, uncovered several character animations with file names including "SEX", "KISSING", "SNM", and "BLOWJOBZ". One modder, operating under the screen name Barton Waterduck, was able to preview the animations using character model sheets, and these previews confirmed their sexual nature. To overrule the control toggles around this hidden code, however, Wildenborg, Waterduck, and others had to wait until the game's Windows release.

Wildenborg was based in the Netherlands, where San Andreas would be released on Windows and the Xbox three days later than in North America, so he collaborated with a modder in the United States to gain early access to the game files. The American modder sent Wildenborg a copy of the game script, which Wildenborg altered with a hex editor to unlock the minigame and returned. At 11:37 p.m. (CEST) on 8 June 2005, Wildenborg received a video of the minigame that his modifications had unlocked. Wildenborg released the game patch on 9 June to GTAGarage.com, a Grand Theft Auto modding website. He named the patch "Hot Coffee" after the euphemism used in the game, and it was downloaded over 1 million times in a span of four weeks.

On the day it was released, Houser discovered the "Hot Coffee" minigame by browsing Grand Theft Auto message boards where it was being discussed. On the same day, Doug Lowenstein, then the president of the Entertainment Software Association, discovered the minigame by viewing a viral video of its content. Over the next month, Rockstar Games's public relations team were instructed not to respond to any requests for comment on the controversy. The only communication they offered was to Lowenstein and Patricia Vance, the president of the ESRB. Rockstar Games informed both parties that "Hot Coffee" was the result of a third-party modification and that they would comply with any forthcoming investigation.

Product rating and reissue
On 7 July 2005, Leland Yee, the speaker pro tempore of the California State Senate, issued a press release condemning the ESRB for not providing San Andreas with an AO rating for its violence and the explicit sexual activity in the "Hot Coffee" minigame. At the time, Yee had been promoting the AB450 bill, which would require the state of California to place warning labels on violent video games and require retailers to check for identification before selling these games to customers. On the following day, while Vance criticised Yee for his "crusade ... to undermine the integrity of the ESRB", she also announced that the Board had opened an investigation into "the circumstances surrounding the 'Hot Coffee' modification". On 12 July, meanwhile, the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) announced that it was opening its own investigation into the game at the request of Philip Ruddock, the Attorney-General of Australia. The OFLC had originally rated San Andreas MA15+, which limited purchase to individuals aged 15 or older.

While "Hot Coffee" had been popular among the Grand Theft Auto modding community upon its release, Yee's comments drew the public's attention to the minigame. In a statement on his personal website, Wildenborg clarified that although he was not responsible for the creation of any explicit sexual material present in the game, such material was impossible to access without modifying the source code, and thus "Hot Coffee" could "therefore not be considered a cheat, Easter egg or hidden feature but is most probably just leftover material from a gameplay idea that didn't make the final release". On 14 July, Rockstar Games released a statement denouncing any responsibility for "Hot Coffee", stating that the minigame was "the work of a determined group of hackers who have gone to significant trouble to alter scenes in the official version of the game".

On 20 July 2005, the ESRB announced that all editions of San Andreas would be re-rated from M to AO. While acknowledging that Rockstar Games had not intended to make any graphic material accessible to customers, they issued the re-rating on the basis that the material was present "in a fully rendered, unmodified form on the final discs" of the game, which, "compounded by the broad distribution of the third party modification", undermined "the credibility and utility of the initial ESRB rating". As a result, major retailers such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Circuit City announced that they would immediately cease all sales of San Andreas for as long as it was rated AO. On 29 July, the OFLC stripped San Andreas of its classification. Because Australia did not have an R18+ rating for games and it was used only for movies and TV shows at the time, the inclusion of explicit content instead resulted in a complete ban on sales of the game.

In response to the re-ratings, Take-Two suspended all production of San Andreas until they could release a version of the game that prohibited access to "Hot Coffee". On 11 August, Rockstar Games released a game patch disabling access to "Hot Coffee" for Windows customers. By September, San Andreas had been edited and released as an M-rated game for Windows and the Xbox. In November, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – Special Edition was released for PlayStation 2 without "Hot Coffee". Outside of the US, Rockstar Games released an edited version of the game in September 2015, which received an MA15+ rating in Australia.

Federal and legal action
Following the ESRB's announcement that they were investigating San Andreas, U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton petitioned the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to uncover the source of the game's "graphic pornographic and violent content", determine whether the game should receive an AO rating, and "examine the adequacy of the retailers' rating enforcement policies". Clinton further declared that she would begin work on a bill that would make it a federal crime, accompanied by a mandatory US$5,000 fine, to sell violent or sexually explicit video games to individuals under the age of 18. She filed the Family Entertainment Protection Act on 17 December 2005, with backing from fellow senators Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh. In addition to preventing the sale of M- and AO-rated video games to minors, the bill recommended that the FTC check annually for hidden content in existing games, such as the code that led to the "Hot Coffee" mod. The bill was referred to the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, where it expired without action at the end of the 109th Congress.

Meanwhile, on 28 July 2005, the United States House of Representatives voted 355–21 to launch an FTC investigation against Take-Two and Rockstar Games with the intent of determining whether the developers had intentionally misled the ESRB on the content of San Andreas to avoid an AO rating. The parties reached a settlement on 8 June 2006, with the FTC ruling that Take-Two and Rockstar Games had violated the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 by failing to disclose the inclusion of "unused, but potentially viewable" nude imagery and sexual content in the game, regardless of whether the content was enabled by a third party. The settlement required that Take-Two and Rockstar Games "clearly and prominently disclose on product packaging and in any promotion or advertisement for electronic games, content relevant to the rating, unless that content had been disclosed sufficiently in prior submissions to the rating authority", with violations punishable by a fine of up to US$11,000 2006. The FTC opted not to fine either company for the "Hot Coffee" incident, but at the time of the decision, Take-Two had already incurred losses of US$24.5 million (equivalent to US$million in ) from the earlier recall.

Class action lawsuits
On 27 July 2005, an 85-year-old woman from New York filed a lawsuit against Rockstar Games and Take-Two in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The woman had purchased the game for her 14-year-old grandson before it received its AO re-rating, and she alleged that Rockstar Games had engaged in false advertising, consumer deception, and unfair business practices by marketing the game under its initial M rating. A similar lawsuit was filed in January 2006 by the city of Los Angeles, headed by City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. Several similar claims were ultimately consolidated into one case.

In October 2006, a federal judge ruled that the initial plaintiff could pursue class action status for her lawsuit. Settlement talks between the associated parties began in February 2007, and the case was settled on 28 January 2008. All customers who purchased the game before its ESRB re-rating were eligible for a claim up to US$35 2008. While San Andreas had sold over 21.5 million copies, fewer than 3,000 customers filed claims in response to this settlement. While attorneys had settled the case for US$1.3 million, it would take less than US$30,000 to resolve the submitted claims, and most of the settlement cost would be in legal fees. Rockstar Games also agreed to make a charitable donation worth US$860,000 as part of the settlement. Because so few affected individuals pursued settlement claims, a judge decertified the settlement class on 31 July.

At the time of the "Hot Coffee" controversy, Take-Two was already under investigation by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on charges of insider trading involving company founder and chairman Ryan Brant. This investigation culminated in a US$7.5 million settlement on 9 June 2005. On 17 February 2006, Take-Two shareholders filed a class action lawsuit alleging that the company's mishandling of various financial aspects had caused a direct, negative impact on their earnings. One example of this financial mismanagement was the company's response to the "Hot Coffee" scandal. Plaintiffs alleged that Take-Two had engaged in a securities violation, as by "merely 'wrapping' rather than removing the Adult Content, Defendants knew that the Adult Content would inevitably be made widely available". This suit was settled on 2 September 2009, with Take-Two agreeing to pay over US$20 million and enact changes to corporate governance policies and practices that would protect investors from future such issues. By this point, shareholders had voted to oust most of the executive leadership at Take-Two, with Strauss Zelnick named the new chief executive officer.

Impact on the gaming industry
The "Hot Coffee" controversy and subsequent legal and financial action soured the relationships among Rockstar Games, the video game industry, and the modding community. By refusing to publicly comment on the ongoing scandal, Rockstar Games was accused of cowardice by Lowenstein, who said, "If you want to be controversial, that's great ... but then don't duck and cover when the shit hits the fan. Stand up and defend what you make." In a 2012 interview, Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser responded to the backlash surrounding Grand Theft Auto's controversial content, stating, "We never felt that we were being attacked for the content, we were being attacked for the medium, which felt a little unfair. If all of this stuff had been put into a book or a movie, people wouldn't have blinked an eye." The modding community, meanwhile, felt alienated by Rockstar Games's response to the controversy: in addition to taking the blame for the cultural fallout around "Hot Coffee", they were informed that future versions of the game would be "much more mod-resistant". GTAGarage.com voluntarily removed "Hot Coffee" amidst the controversy, but the negative response that the minigame generated resulted in a chilling effect. Some modders feared that all game alterations would be taken as intentionally hidden content, which could in turn lead to more legal restrictions on video games.

The "Hot Coffee" scandal also had a major impact on the ESRB and video game content rating in the United States, as the Board was forced to refine its submission and rating process to avoid additional scandal. In the year after San Andreas was reissued, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was re-rated from "T" ("Teen 13+") to M after the ESRB discovered "more detailed descriptions of blood or gore than were considered in the original rating", as well as a locked skin which, if modded, allowed female characters to appear topless. Responding to both the Grand Theft Auto and Elder Scrolls incidents, the ESRB testified before the United States House Energy Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce that after that point, manufacturers who failed to disclose mature or explicit content would be punished with fines up to $1 million. In September 2006, Senator Sam Brownback introduced the Truth in Video Game Rating Act, which would require the ESRB to access the full content of games before issuing a rating, as opposed to relying on video demonstrations from game companies. Brownback introduced the bill to both the 109th and 110th Congress, and it expired without action at the end of both sessions.

Take-Two, Rockstar Games, and the Grand Theft Auto series
In June 2006, Take-Two cancelled Snow, a real-time strategy game about illegal drug trade that had been in production at its Frog City Software studio. While the publisher provided no reason for this decision, it was believed that it stemmed from the "increased political pressure" Take-Two was under, partially brought about by the "Hot Coffee" scandal.

Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto IV, the next game in the Grand Theft Auto series, on 29 April 2008, to critical and commercial acclaim. Some fans believed that the game included an Easter egg referencing Hillary Clinton's involvement in the "Hot Coffee" controversy. In the game, the Statue of Happiness, a Statue of Liberty-type figure, bears a physical resemblance to Clinton holding a steaming cup of coffee in place of a torch, and the game file for the statue is named "stat_hilberty01.wdr". Grand Theft Auto IV has an obtainable in-game achievement called "Warm Coffee", the criteria being to get protagonist Niko Bellic successfully invited inside a girlfriend's home for sex. The "Hot Coffee" scandal was mentioned again upon the 2014 release of Grand Theft Auto V, in which players could engage in sexual activity with prostitutes from a first-person perspective. Despite this mechanism, Grand Theft Auto V received an M rating from the ESRB.

In February 2020, a modification to Red Dead Redemption 2 was released on Nexus Mods that drew comparisons to "Hot Coffee". In the mod, protagonist Arthur Morgan meets a prostitute in a saloon and takes her upstairs to engage in sexual intercourse. Rockstar Games, who developed the Red Dead series as well as Grand Theft Auto, issued the modders a cease and desist letter stating that their creation had violated the game's end-user license agreement. The creators insisted that they had not violated service terms; despite their protest, the mod was taken down from Nexus Mods shortly after its release.

On 11 November 2021, Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition. Designed for Windows, the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, The Trilogy is a remastered compilation of Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas. Two days after its wide release, Rockstar Games announced that they were removing the Windows version from online purchase to "remove files unintentionally included"; this primarily referred to the game soundtrack, which included unlicensed songs, but some data miners claimed to have found "Hot Coffee" within the game's code. Three days after its removal, Rockstar Games made The Trilogy available for online purchase again.

title: Hot Coffee (minigame)


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title: User:Njm


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