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@Plumber: The test of length for the short description is: start typing "William Howard Taft" in the Wikipedia search box. A list of article names appears, each followed by the article's short description. After you have typed enough characters (in my case I have to type "William Ho"), the name and short description of this article appear. If the short description is too long, it will get truncated, and won't be serving its intended purpose.
I don't know, the results may depend on what computer you are using, etc. Anyway, on my computer, right now, the short description is truncated after the dash after 1909. So it's still too long. It may be desirable to mention both Taft's presidency and his chief justiceship in the short description, but I wouldn't guarantee that it is possible. Bruce leverett (talk) 14:23, 30 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
For me it says "President and Chief Justice of the United States (1909-...", which is enough to give an idea of the subject. You could abbreviate it "US President and Chief Justice (1909-1913, 1921-1930)" and it would just cut off the last parenthesis, if anything. Or just say what everyone actually thinks of him and summarize it as "Heaviest US President". ~Anachronist (talk) 16:27, 30 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
You can try that; if it fits (in spite of the additional pair of parens) it might be a little clearer. I don't know an easy way to preview whether it fits without checking it in. Bruce leverett (talk) 19:19, 30 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I am new to this and have a question. I have attempted to do a few edits for William Howard Taft's page and it is apparently "protected" or "semi protected", I can't remember the exact vernacular that was used when attempting to edit and promote the edits. Whatever the case, the edits were never promoted despite imformation that can be quantified and verified. How does one go about editing a page that would be under these protections? GovernorJason (talk) 14:44, 12 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I reverted you in both cases. With respect to these edits, it was my judgment that the reader did not need to know about Alphonso Taft's relatively minor offices as U.S. minister in the second paragraph of his son's article. Since readers generally only read a small part of the article, space at the top of the article is valuable and should not be expended lightly. That Alphonso Taft was minister to Austria etc is not very important in giving the reader a synopsis of William Howard Taft's life that is the lead section. Saying he held the cabinet positions he did gives the reader a sense of what sort of family William Howard came from in a way that saying he held the other positions does not. It's a judgement call and I'm happy to discuss it.
With respect to this edit, I felt it was oddly placed (since we have not finished telling the story of how Taft was appointed), oddly linked, and probably unnecessary since the reader likely doesn't need to be told that Taft's court was the Taft Court.
Hey, Wehwalt, thank you so much for your time getting back to me. Everything that you said makes perfect since. Admittedly, I am totally new to the Wikipedia editing venue. I work for the local courts in Hamilton County, Ohio (Cincinnati) so respectively, both Alphonso Taft as well as William Howard Taft served on our local benches, as you are likely aware, so I have not first-hand knowledge in that sense, but closer-intimate knowledge than most and in that regard, feel that I have something to offer. Additionally, I also serve Secretary of the Board for the "Friends of the Taft Legacy" which is a group connected to supporting and bringing attention to the William Howard Taft Historic Birthplace, here in Cincinnati, Ohio. If you don't know, it was built by Alphonso Taft and is the house that William Howard was of course born and lived in, it is Cincinnati's only National Park site. Just a little bit more of my background, in our court records, I have not only uncovered various signatures of Alphonso Taft, signed when he was practicing as an attorney, but during the summer, I uncovered a very rare signature in our court documents that we had recently received back from the University of Cincinnati archives, it was a signature of William Howard Taft filing a civil petition regarding some type of estate action. So, I have an interest in the Taft legacy and importance. I am guessing you are fan of WHT, if so, NPR actually did a story about the found Taft signature that you may want to checkout.
As far as my Wikipedia name, my first name is Jason, many moons ago, I had a dream of running for Governor of Ohio. I'm not familiar with Allen Drury, could you fill me in? Again, thank you for taking the time to get back to me. GovernorJason (talk) 18:05, 12 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for that. Edward Jason, the governor of California, is a character in several of Allen Drury's political novels, most prominently in Come Nineveh, Come Tyre, in which he becomes president and does rather badly.
I probably visited the Taft house back in the days I had a National Parks passport and was trying to go to as many as possible.
Please don't be discouraged by my reverting you. We are always short of knowledgeable people and since this is a Featured Article, we try to maintain high standards. Wehwalt (talk) 18:38, 12 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
level-5 vital article is rated FA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
