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 7th, 2009. Starts on October 6th, 1200 UTC, when it starts being Wednesday in New Zealand, and ends on October 8th, 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.

Read all about it!! Let's try this again

By popular request, we'll be trialling Write-a-Thon II, a Sunday session of the Write-a-Thon to accommodate those who work all week and have trouble making it in to the party room on Wednesdays.

Soooo--if you worked Wednesday, if you had a bad day Wednesday and didn't get to come to the party or didn't get to do as much as you would have liked, or if you would just like another opportunity to join in the fun, come on along. Starts on October 11th, 1200 UTC, when it starts being Sunday in New Zealand, and ends on October 12th, 1200 UTC, when it finishes being Sunday in Hawaii.

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

Continents

Do one at a time. Anything or anyone associated with the continent.

Shouldn't it be only one (specific) continent (leaving the other for later events)? Peter Schmitt 21:18, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

For example:

• Continents of the past
• Mythological continents (Mu, Atlantis, Lemuria, etc.)
• Explorers
• Geographical and physiographical features
• Geologic features and processes
• People

OK, a pet peeve: continental breakfast should be specific to a continent. I'm especially interested in the appropriate one for Antarctica, which either may be what penguins eat, or penguin. Howard C. Berkowitz 21:13, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

The employee cafeteria at my previous workplace once printed an April Fool's Day menu featuring Antarctic cuisine, including "grilled krill." Bruce M. Tindall 17:24, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

Would exclude 'incontinent'. Anthony.Sebastian 03:06, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

Groaaaan!! Knew someone would have to go there! Aleta Curry 01:39, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Consider the Front for the Reunification of Pangea. Howard C. Berkowitz 03:12, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

The Partiers

• Aleta of course had to rise to Howard's challenge and started where all sensible people should start, by having BREAKFAST! Shall go visit various continents now. Is no one awake in North America? Aleta Curry 01:02, 7 October 2009 (UTC). Just returned from a quick trip to Africa; will now go in search of Supten on the Indian subcontinent. Aleta Curry 01:34, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

• And breakfast on the continent of Australia? Marmite on the barbie? The national soup, Foster's? (well, I'm writing a number of things on intercontinental policy fora) such as the International Crisis Group, Global Leadership Foundation, etc., and the interconnections of their members. Howard C. Berkowitz 01:10, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Some people! Marmite on the barbie indeed! Aleta Curry 01:34, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Supten has received Aleta's invite but is yet to get oriented to the Continents. Then he had a look at Category:Need def and tried to bring the number of items on that list down.

Ahh... what to do, what to do...Given that there are more potential partiers than continents, Derek is tempted to go with a fairly loose definition of continent. What about the official band of Write-a-Thon, 80's supergroup, Asia or the relatively obscure Canadian band Joe Hall and the Continental Drift. Someone could write about the Lincoln Continental or that old Fred and Ginger song, The Continental. Meanwhile I'll just add a bit to North America. -Derek Hodges 07:44, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Special Requests

Charter and constitution

Please take a look at charter and constitution and help to get them into shape for the drafting period.

Definitions

Please take a look at Category:Need def and help to bring the number of items on that list down.

You can also go for this by Workgroups:

Natural Sciences

Category:Astronomy need def · Category:Biology need def · Category:Chemistry need def · Category:Earth Sciences need def · Category:Mathematics need def · Category:Physics need def

Social Sciences

Category:Anthropology need def · Category:Archaeology need def · Category:Economics need def · Category:Education need def · Category:Geography need def · Category:Law need def · Category:Linguistics need def · Category:Politics need def · Category:Psychology need def · Category:Sociology need def

Humanities

Category:Classics need def · Category:History need def · Category:Literature need def · Category:Philosophy need def · Category:Religion need def

Arts

Category:Architecture need def · Category:Music need def · Category:Theater need def · Category:Visual Arts need def

Applied Arts and Sciences

Category:Agriculture need def · Category:Business need def · Category:Computers need def · Category:Engineering need def · Category:Food Science need def · Category:Healing Arts need def · Category:Health Sciences need def · Category:Journalism need def · Category:Library and Information Science need def · Category:Media need def · Category:Military need def · Category:Robotics need def

Recreation

Category:Games need def · Category:Hobbies need def · Category:Sports need def

Other

Category:Eduzendium need def · Category:Topic Informant need def · Category:Technical Team need def

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 - Cranberry juice. Some nut who shall remain nameless but whose initials are HP suggested Drano, (i.e. what cleans better than Drano?) but.... November - Spring water (Now Bruce just has to write it! Aleta Curry 04:00, 3 December 2008 (UTC)) December - Piña colada - get some light rum, mix it with pineapple and coconut cream. Instantly warp back to the eighties. 2009 January - Bloody Mary - because, as Nietzsche said, we should only love that which is written with blood. Controversial enough? February - Absinthe - updates last month, but doesn't it make one forget? (No. Urban legend, except that 50-percent-plus alcohol does do its mite) March - Energy Drink - pump that caffeine into your system so you can burn through all those pesky definition subpages!

Write-a-Thon Theme Suggestions

New Suggestions and Discussion

• What about red links in Random pages? --Daniel Mietchen 10:15, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

• I suggest "Numbers". Richard Pinch 07:21, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

• "Hometown Heroes" - write about someone famous from your part of the world (either where you're from, or where you are now).
• "Poles Apart" - find the spot directly on the other side of Earth from you, and write about someone or something in the vicinity. (Contributors on other planets, follow a similar procedure for whatever planet you're on. Contributors not on planetary bodies permitted to write about whatever they feel like.)
• Fill in an item from this interesting list of natural objects. Or this interesting list of people.
• All articles must start with the same letter of the alphabet, allowing for diacritics and transliteration (so Å, Á, and あ would all count if A were the letter, for instance).
• Photo stubs - no minimum word length, no theme requirement, but must contain an image.
• Choose a random number from 1 to 500, then go to Special:WantedPages and start an article on the topic currently at that rank.
• How about an alternate weekend date, say the Sunday after the official Write-a-Thon, for those of us who spend our Wednesdays working at places that frown on extensive personal use of company computers? --Petréa Mitchell 19:15, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

There's a current forum thread on this-the proposal was to move the WaT to the weekend. Your suggestion might pose a good compromise. Aleta Curry 21:33, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

I would be a lot more able to participate on weekends. My weekday workdays are 11+ hours.Pat Palmer 02:51, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

• What will people most enjoy writing that could lead many different contributors to a short, but complete and interesting article that links to larger articles? Maybe "Events" could be a theme - pen-portraits of memorable sporting moments (see try, or notable historical events - including tsunamis, eruption of Krakatoa, comet collision with Jupiter, the birth of Dolly the sheep, freeing of Nelson Mandela, the sinking of the Titanic, assassination of Martin Luther King, the Mutiny on the Bounty, the discovery of the Americas? Can I suggest asking that every new article should have at least one external link and links to other articles here?Gareth Leng 12:31, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

• I like this idea. Further, definitions and other subpages are preferable, even for stubs. Chris Day 17:01, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Dare I suggest that even stubs can and should be non-orphans? Basic criteria: Howard C. Berkowitz 18:00, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

• Reachable from the front page or a core article/workgroup page
• Link to at least three other articles, even if they are redlinks in a Related Articles subpages
• Have at least three other articles link to them

• I propose "childish things" as a topic. --Larry Sanger 15:51, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Er...you talkin' 'bout me again??? You can always tell who's got a toddler at home, huh, Larry? Aleta Curry 02:57, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

• Myths and mythology. Every culture and every field of study has them! --Joe Quick 15:36, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Future Theme Schedule

• August - Heads of Government/Heads of State: biographical items for one's national legislators/parliamentarians; perhaps provincial/state governors:princes, premiers and presidents - you get the idea
• September - Design and Designers: Of course clothing is designed, but so are buildings...airplanes...toys...instruments--musical and scientific--and so's porcelain...glass...write about an architect, a fashion designer, an engineer, a pottery firm--or their work--how about Barbie or her manufacturer--is that Mattel...?

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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