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, August 6th, 2008. August 6th starts on August 5th, 1200 UTC, in New Zealand, and ends on August 6th, 1200 UTC, 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, August 6, 2008 --

Attractions

Someplace you always wanted to go/something you always wanted to see. And/or a local attraction--go ahead and plug something wonderful about your city, county or village. AND...you guessed it...The Olympics!!!

(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 Big Collaboration topic: Sports

All--I want to do a little experiment and I ask your help. Write-a-Thon participants (and all Citizens) are asked, please, to make at least one edit to the Sports article. Let's see how much the article improves when everybody knows that a lot of other people will be converging on that one page. Thanks in advance! --Larry Sanger

lent my 2 cents! Supten Sarbadhikari 05:30, 6 August 2008 (CDT)

The Partiers

• Aleta had pressing business first thing in the morning, and stumbled into the party room at 10:15 Aussie time to find it empty! Aaaarrrgh! Began an article on the Bronx Zoo, one of my favourite attractions, although I have not visited it in many years. Aleta Curry 19:35, 5 August 2008 (CDT)
• Daniel started Gosu cave and added an external link to the Bronx Zoo's entry. -- Daniel Mietchen 20:38, 5 August 2008 (CDT)
• Charles enters the room and begins by putting on some cool jazz fusion music. He also makes a small edit to the Bronx Zoo. --Charles Sandberg 22:30, 5 August 2008 (CDT)
• Hayford, first drinking a 5/1 martini made with Plymouth gin and Noilly Prat, and then a Samuel Adams Boston Lager, began an article about the great Richard Condon, who is primarily known as being the author of The Manchurian Candidate, about which I will eventually write an article. But, on the side, wouldn't you say that this phrase has entered the English language? I see it all the time: "So-and-so is the Manchurian Candidate of the Democratic/Republican Party".... Will do at least one major edit of a new article tomorrow to ensure my status as a partier.... Hayford Peirce 23:31, 5 August 2008 (CDT)

Supten Sarbadhikari thought of writing on Digha - a sea beach he had visited many times, and also thought of showing fondness for Sports.

Previous shindigs

• July 2, 2008
• June 4, 2008
• May 7, 2008
• April 2, 2008
• March 5, 2008
• February 6, 2008
• January 9,2008
• December 5, 2007
• November 7, 2007
• October 3, 2007
• September 5, 2007
• August 1, 2007

Official libations

• 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
• 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

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)

Future Theme Schedule

• July - Biographies! The Good, the bad, and the altogether ugly. Also: The Olympics, because I will well and truly have Olympic fever by then!
  • Computer authors please note the list of people needing biographies
• August - Attractions - Someplace you always wanted to go/something you always wanted to see. And/or a local attraction--go ahead and plug something wonderful about your city, county or village. AND...you guessed it...The Olympics!!!
• September - My Favorite Band! - Or your favourite Music Genre...your favourite orchestra...recording artist--their best song (I may shudder, but hey, it's up to you!) If it's musical, and it's your fave, write about it!
• October – 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. * Further suggestion: Wanted pages * computer science biographies needed * Redirects * Write a subpage

(feel free to add in your own pet peeves)

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

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