Archive:Monthly Write-a-Thon

What's a Write-a-Thon?

It's a bunch of people getting together on a wiki at a particular time to do a bunch of writing. It's like an online party! Heck no, it is an online party! It's also an excuse for infrequent wikiers to show up and party hardy; to exchange ideas with people we might not "meet" otherwise.

But hey, why not show up in between the write-ins, too!

When?

Write-a-Thons happen the first Wednesday of every month. The next Write-a-Thon is Wednesday, October 1, 2008. Starts on September 30th, 1200 UTC, when it starts being Wednesday in New Zealand, and ends on October 2nd, 1200 UTC, when it finishes being Wednesday in Hawaii. Save The Date! Put it on your calendar! Set yourself a reminder!

Any new article you create, and any edit you make to somebody else's Write-a-Thon article during that time period will count, though to be a bona fide partier, you have to write your new articles when it's that day in your part of the world.

Our first Write-a-Thon took place Wednesday, August 1, 2007 and was considered a roaring good time--we had about 30 partiers creating something like 50 articles, and editing lots.

What are the rules?

Rules? This is a party! There are no rules!

Well, OK, maybe there are a couple rules:

• We'll have a Write-a-Thon the first Wednesday of every month.
• To participate, you only have to do two things: (1) start a new article (even just a stub will qualify, if not too short - and please remember to include the subpages template!), and (2) make a substantive edit (not just a copyedit) to somebody else's new article. Then you can list your name here as a partier. Until then, sign in as a porch-sitter, party-crasher, or total party poop.

This month's Party Theme

Wednesday, October 1, 2008 --

Spring Cleaning!

Or “housekeeping”, for those of you for whom it’s not Spring.

Let’s mass-attack some of our outstanding chores, particularly “lists”, such as:

• Common words with multiple uses (in need of disambiguation), e.g. as in CZ:List of words with multiple uses

Done with Primary till Spring. Daniel Mietchen 10:43, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

• Further suggestion: Wanted pages
• computer science biographies needed
• Redirects
• Write a subpage
• Definitions
• Some form of metadata needs to be added; see Category:Metadata_to_finish. For those sorting alphabetically might need a workgroup. Those after Z might need an abc field. Beware these categories take time to update and many may have already been fixed but not removed from the list due to slow update. The talk page will have the To Do list if some spring cleaning is still required.
• Articles without status. A status needs to be added to the metadata but has the same caveat as a bove, categories are slow to update.
• abc field required for those pages not listed under a letter. i.e. those that come after Z in the link, but, again, same caveat as a bove, categories are slow to update.
• Category:Needs_Workgroup with the usual caveats for a category.
• (feel free to add in your own pet peeves)

(You can also be inspired by some of the theme suggestions, below. Or propose one yourself--just scroll down. Or write about something that takes your fancy--or the first thing that comes into your head--JUST DO IT!)

The Partiers

• Aleta could not believe the length of the cleanup lists, above. Started with fantasy on the requested articles page and edited liver, which she hopes will help make up for missing the Biology Workgroup week (I was travelling). Aleta Curry 18:09, 30 September 2008 (CDT) Decided that even relatively poor starts to food and Tanzania were better than nothing at all. Need medicine. Will be back to tackle poodle and other stuff on the list. Aleta Curry 18:55, 30 September 2008 (CDT) Okay, I got carried away with this cleanup bizzo and now I'm achy and regretting it. Did some definitions and a few requested articles, which led to a few more, so ended up with coat, animal coat, dog grooming (thanks to a nudge from Howard) and of course infection, given my present level of misery and discomfort. That's all folks, need antibiotics and a lie down. Party hearty, see you all tomorrow, I hope! Aleta Curry 02:17, 1 October 2008 (CDT)
• Supten was busy with Biology Week for the preceding week and did write in quite a few definitions. Then he found that the page Definitions was not up-to-date. Nevertheless, he decided to continue his defining spell. Finally, to earn the mantle of a true partier, he started Calcium and edited liver.

  That bug is a pain. The categories are very slow to updated. Sometimes I wonder if they ever update. But note once you create one it will disappear very quickly from the list. Chris Day 00:48, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

• Chris Day wrote a "Move Cluster" template to help everyone move their favourite article with a not so favourite name to a better home. I guess some homes just cannot be cleaned up. Find link on talk page top left, called, wait for it......, Move Cluster. :) And i added some subpages to liver; but its related articles page still needs some help.

A 'move cluster' function? Cool!

• Jitse made a start on recurrence relation because he taught this yesterday. And he also uploaded a map for Tanzania, courtesy of some country which likes its soldiers to go places. … And to get the house in order, Jitse decided to do a spring clean of the Proposals system. He's already written to some people to take care of their proposals, and more spam will follow! Jitse says: "There is no better way to clean up than telling other people to clean up."
• Daniel started a few disambiguation pages (including one for Spring) to help structure the list of words with multiple uses in Core Articles. I also started {{Years}} to help getting rid of the years on the most wanted list and edited Tanzania as well as the Food cluster.
• Gareth added a few definitions and contributed a whimsical list (Black week).
• Bruce Tindall, who did some work related to East Africa for Amnesty International ... uh ... many years ago, did a little bit of editing on Aleta's Tanzania article and hopes to do some more tomorrow. But it's not Wednesday in California yet? It is by Coordinated Universal Time, one of the "wanted" articles that he hopes to begin when it really is Wednesday in his home town (which is infested by invasive Aussie eucalyptus trees, who probably also think it's Wednesday already). By the way, I hope the capitalization on Coordinated Universal Time is OK; if not, somebody tell me! Bruce M.Tindall 20:16, 30 September 2008 (CDT)

Yeah, sure that's okay; creativity counts at CZ! But to be a bona fide partier, you have to start an article when it's Wednesday your time--or get amnesty from ye olde M.C. Aleta Curry 23:13, 30 September 2008 (CDT)

OK, been there, did that, on Pacific Daylight Time! Bruce M.Tindall 13:17, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

• Hayford decided not to drink his can of Drano after all, or at least not before dinner, and, after a little searching, found an old WP article he had originated and wrote the first couple of edits for about a fabulous British spy-thriller author of the 1960s named Desmond Skirrow—his tough-guy hero, who narrates his three novels in a witty, Raymond Chandler-like tone, is probably the most unlike protagonist in the field: a London advertising executive-secret agent for The Fat Man. After expanding and rewriting the original article, he then did the same for Aleta's article about Fantasy, thereby fulfilling his Partier's citeria. Now for that can of Drano -- or how about a nice cold Sam Adams instead? Hayford Peirce 18:25, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

Keen-as-mustard and jumped the gun

While we might not be speaking of the same sort of gun to jump, some of the conditions described in Safety and survivability of naval vessels call for a great deal of cleaning-up. (See also the existing Safety of Life at Sea) Howard C. Berkowitz 00:02, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

Porch sitters--article creators who didn't edit a new article

• Porch-sittin' until someone joins her for the party, Louise starts off the party by fulfilling a criteria of Wanted Pages--the Liver--which ironically, also fulfils the criteria of spring cleaning, in a way ;) Good morning and happy Write-A-Thon, everyone! Let's make this a big one for our Mistress of Ceremonies, Aleta! Louise Valmoria 16:00, 30 September 2008 (CDT)

Still porch-sitting as she's as work, Louise chips away at another wanted page by (re)starting Potassium. Looking up the biochemical functions is distracting her--she ought to have been around more (or at all) during Biology Week ...Louise Valmoria

• Saddened to realize he missed band month last time around, Ian stopped by and created Crowded House. Spring cleaning would likely make it less crowded he surmised...

Party crashers--article contributors who didn't create a new article

• Aleta's here, sort of. Contributed to liver and started metadata page cleanup while thinking of something to start. Aleta Curry 17:37, 30 September 2008 (CDT)

• I'm a little Chinese room, short and stout... Yuval went through a bit of Citizendium's metadata in a blind and mechanistic way for the Southern hemisphere's spring cleaning, but it's Rosh Hashana (judaism) so he wants to rest. Maybe if MWaT isn't over when he wakes up he'll continue with the cleanup.

Special Requests

I've been testing a new semi automated "Cluster Move" template. In theory it should walk you through the process. You can test it out on that cluster you always wanted to move but were to afraid to try. The link (called Move Cluster) is top left of the talk subpage navigation bar. It hyperlinks you to a page to move the metadata page. Replace the old article name with the new article name in the entry box and create the new metadata page. Then follow the instructions at the top of the page. There may be some surprises, if so let me know :) Chris Day 00:31, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

I had some surprises with Snake but will test more and report then. Daniel Mietchen 06:03, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

I note you moved the snake talk page before the snake approval page. That is a surprise to me given the order those moves should have been offered to you. Chris Day 09:20, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

Well, somewhere you said "move the approval page last", and so I did. I was mainly confused about the permanent mentioning of "green links" which were not there. I just gave it another try and moved Set to Set (mathematics), starting with the article page, as is probably intuitive. It was confusing, then, to see the option "Move Article and Talk Page" not disappear even after the two pages had been moved. Daniel Mietchen 10:09, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

Thanks for the feedback. I see how snake would have no green links. One problem is I am trying to write a catch all for every scenario and unfortunately I can't have a separate template for each case. Actually, I might be able to have a separate tempalte, but I have not thought about it right now. I'll think about trying to have it less ambiguous. I can see how moving the article and then not seeing the link disappear might be a problem. I'll work on customising it for each scenario. Chris Day 10:15, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

Re: Starting with the article move. While I agree it is intuitive, and I tried to accomodate that action, it is impossible to know where that page cam from and so any automation requires the user moves the template too. This explains the "whats link". Can you think of a better way to determine the location of old article name, it would certainly help. This is the reason why the "Move Cluster" link starts with the metadata template. In that scenario, from the moved metadata template, the new location (BASEPAGENAME) and the old location (pagename field) are both available. Any move should be less complicated doing it that way. Chris Day 14:14, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

• Another surprise: I thought Rosh Hashanah should stand alone and didn't need to be qualified Rosh Hashanah (Judaism) -- because I couldn't think what else Rosh Hashanah would related to. Well, I redirected Yuval's link--and look! Cluster move--why??? Aleta Curry 17:20, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

Joe went to the library to start an article on Little Golden Books only to learn that his library privileges have been disabled for no apparent reason. This was the third major frustration of the day and he gave up and fumed for a while.

Oh, gosh! Do you want me to beat someone up? I will, I will, I'm just in the mood.

Little Golden Books is that the children's set, like, The Pokey Little Puppy? Oh, yes, we *should* have an entry on those!

Aleta Curry 18:05, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

Questions

You ask, we answer. Ask anything.

Hmmm...cleaning isn't a bad topic in some of the technology groups. For Computers, defragmentation (separate for disk and memory), garbage collection (computers). For Health Sciences, Hemodialysis, Peritoneal lavage. For Engineering, Clean room, Laminar flow, Electrostatic precipitator, High Efficiency Particulate Air filter.

I've been meaning to write about biosafety containment labs (should this be under Biosafety Level or something else?) Is this biology or health sciences? Howard C. Berkowitz 11:41, 30 September 2008 (CDT)

Any things come to mind? Aleta, when she recovers, might take on Dog grooming or the subset Dog bathing, to say nothing of Cat grooming. The dog of my boyhood, when told he was to receive a bath, would look up (most intelligent dog I ever met), and Terry would clearly communicate "It is a good day to die." Howard C. Berkowitz 11:43, 30 September 2008 (CDT)

A great deal of Wanted Pages appear to be chemical elements. I know there must be a template somewhere for this, but could someone who regularly writes for the chemistry section please point me in that direction so any willing Write-A-Thon participants can help out? Or is this to be saved for a future Chemistry Week? Louise Valmoria 17:12, 30 September 2008 (CDT)

Well, that's a good question that I don't know the answer to....Aleta Curry 18:47, 30 September 2008 (CDT)

There is a good reason for there being many elements on the wanted articles list. There is one template that exists on every element pages that depicts the periodic table. Each cell in the table links to the element at that location, consequently every element page we have links to every element in the periodic table. Does that make sense? Chris Day 20:25, 30 September 2008 (CDT)

Yes, makes sense. I think part of Louise's question though is whether or not she should go ahead and start filling these in, or will it be part of another initiative? Aleta Curry 00:56, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

Louise, don't let a hypothetical chemistry week stop you writing some element pages. In fact, you should write as should write as many of those articles as she can! <evil grin> Are we having a chemistry week soon? I have not heard. And David Volk broke his hand so he will be out of action for a while. Chris Day 01:03, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

Excellent. Thanks, Chris (and Aleta for knowing what I was trying to ask!). I feel like getting a lot of element pages out of the way but I need to build a reference list--cheers for the link to the periodic table! Louise Valmoria 17:39, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

• Could Hayford please make me a martini? Please? I'm so miserable! Would that interfere with the antibiotics? Supten? Robert? Anybody? HELP!!! Aleta Curry 02:23, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

• Is there a way to display the Wanted pages by workgroup? If so, it could be incorporated into {{Workgroup}}, which I think would be pretty handy. Daniel Mietchen 06:02, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

It's a wrap!

empty form

• March 14, 2021 Power
• January 31, 2021 Stems and branches
• January 24, 2021 Round things
• January 17, 2021 Messaging and Missives
• January 10, 2021 Heavenly bodies!
• July 6, 2011 Standards!
• July 7, 2010 Celebrations!
• June 2, 2010 (no Write-a-Thon)
• May 5, 2010 Humour!
• April 7, 2010 Context or Spring Clean!
• March 3, 2010 Something you absolutely *love*!
• February 3, 2010 The Play's the Thing
• January 6, 2010 Stubs
• December 2, 2009 School
• November 4, 2009 Myths and Mythology
• October 7, 2009 Continents
• September 2, 2009 Design and Designers
• August 5, 2009 Heads of Government/Heads of State
• July 1, 2009 Sudden death
• June 3, 2009 unthemed?
• May 6, 2009 It's a Wide World or: It's a Small World After All!
• April 1, 2009 Events
• March 4, 2009 Spring Cleaning
• February 8, 2009 Thoughts and Books
• January 7, 2009 Controverises
• December 3, 2008 Retro, the 80's
• November 5, 2008 National parks
• October 1, 2008 Spring Cleaning
• September 3, 2008 My favourite bands
• August 6, 2008 Attractions
• July 2, 2008 Olympics
• June 4, 2008 Biographies
• May 7, 2008 Holidays, festivals and fetes
• April 2, 2008 Core articles
• March 5, 2008 Something you absolutely love.
• February 6, 2008
• January 9,2008
• December 5, 2007
• November 7, 2007
• October 3, 2007
• September 5, 2007
• August 1, 2007

Official libations

2007

• Inaugural - beer!
• September - champagne
• October - we were refurbishing the bar and only had coffee!
• November - made up for last month with more vodka than was good for us and plenty of rum.
• December - eggnog and wine

2008

• January - Whisky and the Cocktail of the Month, a pharisee
• February - schnapps and the Cocktail of the Month, the caipirinha (considered the national drink of Brazil)
• March - port wine (which should probably live at port (wine), no? (Someone put that on their list, please....Oh, *someone* did--thanks, Ro) and the Cocktail of the Month, a Dead Aunt
• April - Akpeteshie hot and fresh from Ghana. And cool shandies and spritzers if that took your fancy. Lotsa staggering around the bar after this party!
• May - Was it champagne? No, we were dry, I think.
• June - Were we abstaining yet again?
• July - Sherry
• August - pineapple juice Well, that's all right, I guess!
• September - Given the music theme, i assume it was pop?
• October - Drano? How about red wine, which is the subject of about 50% of all questions submitted to newspapers' house-cleaning columns? Cranberry juice would do nicely, too.

Drano?? What did I miss???

Bonus point winners

• Louise for a) getting the party started (10 pts) b) combining housekeeping with Biology. (100 pts) (Current total; 110)

  I'll throw in another 20 pts for noticing that we need a lot of elements ;) Chris Day 00:39, 1 October 2008 (CDT) (Now 130)

Write-a-Thon Theme Suggestions

New Suggestions and Discussion

Go ahead and propose one!

• National Parks - most countries have them but Citizendium doesn't...yet.

• I had a thought the other day - why don't we have a Subpages day - either separate or as a Write-A-Thon theme? There's tons of them Bibliographies, Related Articles and Definitions that need writing. --Tom Morris 11:48, 4 July 2008 (CDT)

It's a good thought, Tom, and I can see where the subpages need doing. Trouble is, whenever the Write-a-Thon has been too narrowly restricted, particularly when the suggested 'theme' is really a codename for 'work', it doesn't go over well. The WaT's great success is the fun, write-what-you-want atmosphere.

Maybe a separate subpages initiative?

Aleta Curry 18:25, 4 July 2008 (CDT)

Edited to add: Actually, why don't I add this in to October's spring clean? The more options, the more likely people will find something they like doing. Aleta Curry 18:33, 4 July 2008 (CDT)

• Could fall under the category of 'Attractions', and 'National Parks' also covers some of these too. Most countries also have at least one UNESCO Heritage Listed location--could well be worth a shot, as these locations would have a rich history as well as artistic/cultural significance. Louise Valmoria 20:16, 6 August 2008 (CDT)

Future Theme Schedule

• November - National Parks - most countries have them but Citizendium doesn't...yet.

May I suggest a separate theme for each workgroup, and a campaign to obtain a commitment from each member of each workgroup to start a new article, however stubby, but thoughtfully and excellently stubby. A rhetorical question. Incidentally, CZ has no article on Rhetoric, a fascinating subject with roots in antiquity and above-ground branches and fruit in the 21st century. --Anthony.Sebastian 19:31, 19 August 2008 (CDT)

See also

• Larry Sanger, Why the Write-a-Thon worked, Citizendium Blog, August 9, 2007
• Weekly Wiki
• Article of the Week
• New Article of the Week

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