User talk:Sbb

Battle off Samar

Letting you know that you screwed up all the links to other Wikipedia articles in the battle off Samar page. Make sure to proofread before or after your edit. Also, Lundgren credits the photo as Heermann and Samuel B Roberts on page 85 Micheal Harrens (talk) 16:05, 26 May 2025 (UTC)

Way to be hyperbolic. Please assume WP:GOODFAITH. I made a lot more ship link changes than just the captions, so no, I didn't screw up "all" the links; I did a LOT of proofreading of my edits. However, I absolutely apologize, I did not catch the errors in the image captions (partly because red links don't stand out too well for me with the slightly reduced contrast image caption background. That is on me.

Regarding the image caption for Heermann and John C. Butler: it you are correct, please don't just make a silent change in one article's caption, leaving an error for every other article that uses that Wikimedia image. Instead, take up the issue at a discussion in either WP:SHIPS or WP:MILHIST, laying out the evidence. If consensus agrees, the Wikimedia filename and caption will be changed, and all articles using the image can be updated.

And even if you did only make the change just in Battle off Samar, again, it's not cited or noted, so any future good-faith editor will probably make the change again.  — sbb (talk) 19:04, 26 May 2025 (UTC)

The source the photo comes from does not identify the destroyer escort, so its identity being John C Butler is something the original uploader came up with. Using an actual source - arguably the best source for the battle off Samar - seems like a much better bet in my eyes Micheal Harrens (talk) 19:20, 26 May 2025 (UTC)

Great! I agree, if the facts can be determined and are misstated, they should be corrected, absolutely. Going to the [file's source at Commons, it comes from NHHC collection. If you follow the NHHC collection ID, their caption says "USS HERMAN (DD-532) and a destroyer-escort lay a smoke screen to protect their escort carrier group from attacking Japanese surface ships. During The Battle Off Samar, 25 October 1944. Photographed from WHITE PLAINS (CVE-66)."

So, the proper course is to correct and update the Wikimedia Commons filename and description, at least making it be closer to NHHC's caption (saying the 2nd boat is DD-339 by name and not by class, is obviously wrong), and preferably get consensus over at WP:SHIPS talk page first.

My personal preference is to only change the Commons filename once (just because that's effectively an article move, and of course updating all WP articles that use it), but the caption/description should be changed very soon.  — sbb (talk) 19:49, 26 May 2025 (UTC)