Archive:Monthly Write-a-Thon/May 7, 2008

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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, January 9th, 2008. This month's Write-a-Thon was delayed to better accomodate vacationers and partiers! . Save The Date! Put it on your calendar! Set yourself a reminder!

On another note, this is the first Write-A-Thon of 2008! Let's make it a good one!

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.
• Larry Sanger recommends (but does not require!) attention to:

CORE ARTICLES.

Create an article, already!

Check it out: Start an article!

Now (this time anyway) easier than ever! Stubs are not only permitted they are encouraged!

The Partiers

• Aleta took the lift with Louise, who called it an elevator for some reason. Sat out on the top floor and wrote about the long-suffering monarch Mary I of England, and another Mary and her friends. Life calls, but the day is young and I'll be back!!! Bwah, ha, ha....
• Nereo "bad boy" Preto did nothing so far, but is keeping his place in this list warm for the next few hours... Against the rules? Well, come and find me if you can!

Hey, look at that! Oceanography now has a Bibliography subpage! This guy is not that "bad" after all...

...and, oho! Here comes the Burgess shale! THIS is a jump in the past!! (By the way, why don't we have "bibliography" and "past"?)

just for completeness, I did some work on Fossilization. I also introduced a minor correction in the Wikipedia article "Solnhofen", hope you don't mind...

• Louise is now a partier because she has added her bit about glasses, although at this stage she can think better in pictures than in words.Louise Valmoria 02:40, 9 January 2008 (CST)
• Derek Harkness heard that them down under had some Brandy but it turned out to be an empty bottle. So yet again it fell to him to bring the drinks. Since Derek's Scottish, and it's new year, he felt a tott of Whisky was in order. The day before, Derek had visited (real life) Shenyang Imperial Palace, a UNESCO heritage site, and noticed that wikipedia's article on the same was rather poor, so started work on something better. He also read up on some early history of Beijing.
• Russ sitting in the corner, felt the need to contemplate the meaning of it all and sketched designs for his own Mausoleum on the back of an envelope. --Russ McGinn 11:36, 9 January 2008 (CST) Although, a quick article about the subject of the greatest true love story of all time, Mumtaz Mahal, soon saw him reintroduced to the party.

• David E. Volk was feeling ethereal today, and then got high on the elevator.
• Regina was visiting one of her favourite towns, Cape Coast in Ghana, then had a pharisee or two or three.

• Warren voted to work on a core article, after rigging an election. Jitse tried to electrocute him as punishment, but Pierre-Alain Gouanvic showed him how to escape by the skin of his teeth. He also polished Louise's glasses a bit.

Thanks for that, Warren. That'll teach me not to have cheesy tele-ads in the background while writing CZ articles! Louise Valmoria 16:50, 9 January 2008 (CST)

Keen-as-mustard and jumped the gun

• Thomas started things off with a bang.
• Simon suspects that many of us need glasses.
• Michael doesn't think we should be antisocial.
• Tom is off to the races.
• Louis just wants to be free.
• Ro started visiting places, and convinced Dave G. to check out Malta and Cyprus.
• Deepsea Dawn finally took the plunge, and offered minor edits to Geography and Oceanography as well.
• Roger was so pleased to have some extra time today that he got started on three new articles - Nonprofit management,Social enterprise, and Nonprofit boards - and edited three other recent starts: Social capital, and two Larry was asking for recently: Membership organizations and Anonymity. Four of those were actually drafted by students and posted with their consent; sort of an informal CZ:Eduzendium. That last one could really use some input from those who have strong thoughts or contributed recently to debates on the subject of anonymous wikis.

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

• Louise is party pooper no more, as she has written a brief start on one of her favourite games, SimCity. Soon to come will be an article on her favourite spinoff, SimTower. This month she hopes to chip away at some core articles (SimCity was one of them) but will need to remain a porch sitter until some other new article creators come and join the party.

Also, because Derek said last time that Australians never seem to shout the group, Louise has gone to find some really nice brandy. She does have some 'Waldbeeren'--forest fruit liqueur--and she got it from Austria. Write-a-Thon participants are welcome to share :) Louise Valmoria 15:39, 8 January 2008 (CST)

Thanks to Chris for updating the Write-A-Thon page; Louise is making a mental note to ask him how to do that. She has written a brief stub on elevators, but now has to toddle off to the doctor, and will possibly bring home some hydraulic engineering reference texts when she gets back. Happy writing, everyone.Louise Valmoria 16:41, 8 January 2008 (CST)

Still a porch-sitter. Hi James, hi User:Aleta Curry. Has written a short intro to the Constitution but is not too happy with her writing style, so is going to review the CZ:Article Mechanics again as well as work on some other core articles. Back soon. Also--major painkillers, so expect weird questions ;) Louise Valmoria 21:49, 8 January 2008 (CST)

[raises hand} Weirder than usual? Sounds like somebody had a trip to the dentist! Aleta Curry 23:45, 8 January 2008 (CST)

Not dentist, fortunately. If I couldn't speak physically I would be writing effusively (with several chat programs running in the background) :D

Also, intended to be bold and kick off a core article we need on art, and ... wrote a tiny stub instead because this one is hard. I can come back and edit this with more details about art, but am finding the initial introduction quite difficult. But at least it's started. Please feel free to pitch in here, partiers! Louise Valmoria 02:13, 9 January 2008 (CST)

• James F. Perry created article Encyclical and then followed up with an article on Humanae Vitae, only slightly fearing 1) that it is pretty roughly hewn for such a controversial topic, and 2) it may be a bit too serious for the general party atmosphere hereabouts.

• Jitse missed the previous parties, but is trying to electrify this one.

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

• Ian -- Crashing parties is a favourite pastime of mine. So I took the lift up here.
• Anton didn't make it to the party on time, but still managed to sneak a whisky. Anton Sweeney 14:32, 9 January 2008 (CST)

The total party poops

Go ahead, admit it!

• Louise doesn't know how to update the monthly write-a-thon page, but is here and is going to be a party poop until she actually writes something (hopefully, soon). She is, however, contending with an inconvenient illness (migraine just to start, but it's a bit more than that and may either contribute stubs or wait until later this evening. She is here, though. Also, she wants to put up a great art history photo she took in Germany about a pretzel but has no idea if we have an appropriate usage for it :) Louise Valmoria 15:11, 8 January 2008 (CST)
• Robert - Possibly not this time, we'll see. I have a lot on my plate.

Poor kid. Is that why you jumped the gun? Aleta Curry 00:35, 9 January 2008 (CST)

I started garbage. Enjoy! --Robert W King 13:41, 9 January 2008 (CST)

• Um...you're asking us to enjoy the garbage??!! Aleta Curry 15:15, 9 January 2008 (CST)

• Larry Sanger, yeah, so, so far I've been doing stuff in e-mail, not the wiki. I'll be here later, doing core articles...just you wait!

Promises, promises! Aleta Curry 15:15, 9 January 2008 (CST)

• Matt had high hopes that this would be the month that he could party with the big dogs, but is running out of steam!!!
• Todd has been lost in his own little world, editing stuff he left hanging a few months ago. But since Aleta asked so nicely, he stopped in to say hi! That should count for something, right?

Questions

You ask--we answer. Ask anything. Keep it clean, now.

• What time is it in Antarctica? For that matter what time would it be at the North Pole? Louise Valmoria 21:57, 8 January 2008 (CST)

Things that make you go "hmmm..."

Well, as far as I know, time do not passes at the poles. That's why people wanted to reach the poles despite the difficulties of expeditions: to life forever. They then discovered that poles migrate, so that it is technically impossible to stay at the pole - someone tried to follow it, but without a roof upon his head, he died frozen. The project was then abandoned. Besides, a maximum of two guys globally could possibly live forever. And they are too far apart to fight and decide who'll be the "highlander". This shows how misleading movies can be. --Nereo Preto 01:59, 9 January 2008 (CST)

The same time as everywhere else. Derek Harkness 09:52, 9 January 2008 (CST)

Live forever in a frozen waste? Well, okay then...! Aleta Curry 15:12, 9 January 2008 (CST)

• Why do commuters in peak time still like reading over other people's shoulders when they have their own reading material at hand? Louise Valmoria 21:57, 8 January 2008 (CST)

Because you might have something better, of course, whereas they can read their own stuff any old time. Besides, curiosity never killed nothin' 'cep maybe a few hours.... Aleta Curry 23:43, 8 January 2008 (CST)

• How is it that kids can come up with the most stunningly discerning questions? Is it just that they haven't been overloaded with information yet, so they can see things from their unique perspective? Louise Valmoria 21:57, 8 January 2008 (CST)

No, they just ask directly whatever seems logical at the time. As opposed to the rest of us, shackled by propriety into ignorance. Aleta Curry 23:43, 8 January 2008 (CST)

• I want to know why it is that so many people who don't volunteer to do any of the needed work themselves, nevertheless have such an easy time of it telling the people who are working exactly what they *should* be doing? Aleta Curry 23:47, 8 January 2008 (CST)

• Where is the middle of nowhere? Louise Valmoria 02:21, 9 January 2008 (CST)

Rovigo, northern Italy. --Nereo Preto 06:43, 9 January 2008 (CST)

• If a tree falls in the middle of the forest and there is nobody there to hear it, and assuming that there are air particles to create the resultant impact waves so there is a sound ... what does it sound like? Louise Valmoria 02:21, 9 January 2008 (CST)
  • "WHOOPH!" -or- there is no diaphragm around able to interpret the result of the air vibrations. --Robert W King 09:16, 9 January 2008 (CST)

• How many times can you reuse the same word in once sentence back to back while still being grammatically correct. e.g. "The 'the' in the students sentence was incorrect." Here I have use the word 'the' twice back to back. Can anyone do more than twice? Derek Harkness 09:52, 9 January 2008 (CST)

The bored bare bear bared his teeth. ;) ...said Brown Bear (talk) (Please sign your talk page posts by simply adding four tildes, ~~~~.)

• What exactly is a Shy Boy? --Ian Johnson 13:42, 9 January 2008 (CST)

• Fellows who work away on Work-a-thon Wednesday without signing up. We haven't had any *shy girls*, for some reason--wonder why that is? (Yeah, I know--leaving myself wide open with that one) Aleta Curry 15:10, 9 January 2008 (CST)

Previous shindigs

• 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 - pharisee

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