Archive:Monthly Write-a-Thon/October 3, 2007

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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 actually pitch in party hardy.

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 3. October 3 starts on October 2, 1200 UTC, in New Zealand, and ends on October 4, 1000 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, when it's that day in your part of the world, will count.

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 CZ:The Article Checklist!), 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, you're just a porch-sitter, party-crasher, or total party poop.

Create an article, already!

Check it out: Start an article!

Acer vs. Maple reminds me: How about an article called "Why, when, and where did the noble old Brontosaurus turn into today's pedestrian apatosaurus, or whatever it is that I refuse to learn?" That would be a very interesting one. Hayford Peirce 21:13, 2 October 2007 (CDT)

The Partiers

• Aleta, after discussions with the biology department, got things kicked off in the Land Down Under with Maple (or should that be Acer? Better redirect!). I've saved all my Acer Palmatum var. Painus in the Buttus from the drought, but now there are Gall wasps in my lemon! Husband wanted to know why dinner was late, so I may have a few choice words to say about marriage later!!! Party is lonely, so stopped to plant a specimen tree. Wonder if things are any better over at Hayford's Bar and Grill? Passed a church christening on my way over to Robert's to play with his toys. Maybe things will liven up if we start to dance? Alas, it's getting late and an owl outside is telling me to go to bed. Party on, everyone! Aleta Curry 18:31, 2 October 2007 (CDT)

The Bar & Grill is going to kick into action tomorrow -- stay tuned! In the meantime, let me say that as I guy who grew up in Maine using locally produced maple syrup on my pancakes every Sunday morning for umpteen years, I am *far* to old to learn to say "Acer syrup, please, there's not enough on my pancakes." Hayford Peirce 21:06, 2 October 2007 (CDT)

Ha! I don't wonder! Well, you need to explain that to the bio folks over on their workgroup. I'm sure they think I'm just picking on them and they hate me now....Aleta Curry 21:27, 2 October 2007 (CDT)

Well, they're gonna stir up a hornet's nest -- there'a already a long article called Maple syrup -- I doubt if the folks who wrote it will want to see it retitled Acer syrup hehe. Also, none of the companies in Canada (particularly) or New England will even understand what they're talking about.... Hayford Peirce 23:40, 2 October 2007 (CDT)

• Robert is on a running head start(and a day early in the United States of America), with a goal of creating stubs out of a planned 20 core subjects! (Won't make 36, boohiss) So far Socks, Toy, writing, sculpture, wristwatch, necktie, hat, ship, belt, bowling, symbolism, collage, murder, tools and painting.
• John surveyed volcanically active worlds, then went to a bar. Staggered over to applied linguistics to try sorting out a bit of a mess.
• Supten was strolling through the Special:Wantedpages and found that there is no entry for Biochemistry yet, while it is already linked from 60 articles! Then he visited the CZ:Biology_Workgroup#Core_article and found that at last it has been listed there too! So, he tried his hand at it. Out of nowhere an Approval Template cropped up, leading to a drought of ideas on how to proceed, so he deserted the Party!.He would love if the partiers (or others) can help in enriching the other pages he had started long time back - viz., Clinical decision support system, Evidence-based medicine, Hemispheric lateralization, and, John Snow (physician).
• Ian came to the party but started out (sadly) sitting on the porch. Happily though he lifted his socks up and moved onto the dancefloor. --Ian Johnson 03:16, 3 October 2007 (CDT)
• What is the Soviet legacy? Trotskyite or Thatcherite, you are welcome to contribute. --Bo Shmorhay 07:40, 3 October 2007 (San Diego) Also, added a section on Computerized text analysis to the Applied linguistics article being worked on by John Stephenson. (Python remains my personal favorite scripting and programming tool -- give a kid a hammer, and everything becomes a nail...) --Bo Shmorhay 08:40, 3 October 2007 (San Diego)
• Roger is still giddy from the approval this week of the Theodore Lohmann (no relation) article! This is a real beat for Citizendium; well known social reformer virtually unknown to English-speakers who aren't historians of Germany! He created a new article - or at least a stub - on Social Work. It isn't much yet, but the real prize is on the related articles page where a listing of about 100 topics suggest where this is heading. Also added two additional catalogs to the Civil Society Related Articles page listing organizations associated with Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts Movements - which haven't been created yet. If no one from the Arts workgroup creates these, I'll do it myself! (Meanwhile, I love those subpages!)

• User: David E. Volk started Ideal gas law, which includes Boyle's law, Charles's law and Avogadro's law, with two example problems and edited ship, stopped by the bar and got the blues. Then he laid down the law of cosines and the law of sines.

• User:Hayford Peirce created Blockheads and made some edits to Maple and Blues. And then, for good measure, he wrote a footnoted article about Tom T. Hall.Hayford Peirce 20:28, 3 October 2007 (CDT)
• Anton brought some music to party in the form of U2 (and wondered how to claim his CZ:Core Articles points!) and marvelled at the fact that our bar didn't actually have any beer till he got there! (The pub with no beer? Sounds like a tune Larry might know!) Anton Sweeney 17:23, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

There's a country song by the well-known Tom T. Hall called "A Bar with No Beer". Hayford Peirce 17:59, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

Hmmm, there apparently isn't a Tom T. Hall article, so I will just have to find a bar with some beer in it, refresh my brain buds with some, and then, like Tom T. himself ("The Story Teller") sit down and compose an ode to Tom.... Hayford Peirce 18:53, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

• New rule! It is Thursday already here in Italy, but still Wednesday in the US! I have started a new article and I hereby state it counts! So I am partying with you! Don't believe me? Check out Italo Calvino! And don't forget I edited Writing. And, following my new rules, also edits on Solar power and CZ:Core Articles count. Oh yes, this is fun, but where is fun anyways? --Nereo Preto 18:24, 3 October 2007 (CDT) Ok, sorry, but I must go now. Enjoy the rest of the evening folks, but here it's almost 2:00 in the morning and later today I am supposed to work... good night. --Nereo Preto 18:34, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

• Michael wrote about eigenvalues and tidied up the laws of cosines and sines. Michael Underwood 18:42, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

• User:Anthony.Sebastian, straying a bit from his usual biology-related work, wrote an article by way of reviewing a book by the Nobel Laureate economist, Robert William Fogel: The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism (book by Robert William Fogel). A scholarly work (the book), with many biology-related issues, somewhat controversial, but generally regarded as fruitfully thought-provoking. Hoping User:Richard Jensen will give it a look-see (the article) 3and correct any aberrancy in my thinking. --Anthony.Sebastian (Talk) 19:50, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

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

• Larry Sanger invited online collaboration on his new article, online collaboration (after begging forgiveness for arriving so late to the party!)

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

Matt was getting antsy while waiting for the party to heat up and kept Aleta from killing those Gall darn wasps. AH, Bummer, Matt just realized it is only Tuesday over here!

Nereo could not figure out how to start, so he did a great deal of study on how to write. He was able to learn something eventually, but he will never become like Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Italo Calvino. Too bad, he's now planning to go somewhere, the Dolomites probably, or the Alps. Ah, and did a tiny little change in Drought.

Whoa! This guy (I mean, Nereo Preto) now wants to make up his own rules! He modified an article from the prevoius Write-a-Thon, Solar power, and wants it to have some value here! Or, maybe, he did right? Well, anyways...

Ah! I did another rule of mine! Only for this October, editing CZ:Core Articles counts! And I did it, terrific! --Nereo Preto 09:12, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

Fully into it now! Thanks to my new rules! Eh eh... --Nereo Preto 18:27, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

Joe took a stroll through the maples on his way to class this afternoon. He spent the week digging around for clues about Kennewick Man but he thinks he might have one more article in him for this evening. How about a lengthy stub, is that a Fair trade?

The total party poops

Go ahead, admit it!

Chris Day (talk)

Aleksander Stos, created pretty many [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] CZ Live articles, though ;-)

Questions

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

• I have a sinking feeling Gall wasp should be Gall Wasp, so a) am I right and b) if I move it, does it mess up that whole metadata page thingy? Aleta Curry 19:59, 2 October 2007 (CDT)

1. Try it and we'll all find out.

No, I'm scared! The computer might blow up or something! Aleta Curry 21:02, 2 October 2007 (CDT)

If you move the main article page, I am pretty sure you have to move all the other pages by hand.  :-( --Larry Sanger 14:03, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

• Why is it that the average heterosexual male will lift something heavy for you without complaint, and generously fish an earring out of the toilet with his bare hand without flinching, but cannot put his dirty clothes in the laundry basket?Aleta Curry 19:59, 2 October 2007 (CDT)

1. Can't you read, Larry said keep it clean. :D --Matt Innis (Talk) 20:11, 2 October 2007 (CDT)
2. the answer is, convenience. Why should I go and put it in a container when 1. it's already dirty, and 2. I'm going to wash it eventually! --Robert W King 20:19, 2 October 2007 (CDT)

• Me, again. Why can't the partiers' input count when it's Wednesday anywhere in the world? Honestly, it's all right for you lot in the U.S., but poor me! We can always limit it again once we have thousands of users all over the globe. Aleta Curry 21:24, 2 October 2007 (CDT)
  • It is an unfortunate consequence to live in the Southern Waamisphere, particularly Austwailia. ;-)

LOL--you know, you have a serious attitude problem!

I'm harmless, I kid, I kid. Sorries =[.

You can make it all better by letting me play with your toys!

I'll let you play with my lego blocks. I still own them.

• What you guys are talking about??? Anyhow, I am with Aleta. I woke early in the morning to party today, and all the best stuff will happen tonight for me. Coffee in the evening might keep me awake, but hey, don't you mind for my healt? :) --Nereo Preto 01:36, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

Nereo, considering the amount we all drank last month--you're worried about a little java? Puh-LEEZE!  :) Aleta Curry 05:38, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

...and, indeed, I just had a lot of beer. I mean, real beer. It works! --Nereo Preto 17:44, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

• Don't you really really want to subscribe to SharedKnowing, my new general mailing list about "the nature of online knowledge production communities"? It's not just for Citizens, it's for everyone.

• Seeing little red dots in front of my eyes, I have to wonder what do they mean? Are they equivalent to belts in martial arts? These'd be the dots on pages with the subpages template. Anton Sweeney 17:36, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

• Is there such a thing as spare money?
• If suddenly everyone went colorblind, would colors still exist? How do you describe red to someone that has never seen it?

Well, after seeing a certain Calvin and Hobbes strip, I too have tried convincing children that colour was only invented in the 1950s and before that the whole world was black and white...

Anton, only do boring things! They build character!

Previous shindigs

• August 1, 2007
• September 5, 2007

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