Archive:Monthly Write-a-Thon

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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. It starts on Tuesday 1200 UTC, when it starts being Wednesday in New Zealand, and ends on Thursday 1200 UTC, when it finishes being Wednesday in Hawaii. Save the next month's 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 Saturday, 1200 UTC, when it starts being Sunday in New Zealand, and ends on Monday, 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.

July 7, 2010
Celebrations!

Inspired by a request for Christmas in July as this month's topic, we're expanding to all reasons to celebrate: holidays, parties, hatchings, matchings...dispatchings...whatever is celebrated in your neck of the woods.

Write-a-Thon starts on July 6th, 1200 UTC, when it starts being Wednesday in New Zealand, and ends on July 8th, 1200 UTC, when it finishes being Wednesday in Hawaii. Write-a-Thon II starts on July 10th, 1200 UTC, when it starts being Sunday in New Zealand, and ends on July 12th, 1200 UTC, when it finishes being Sunday in Hawaii.

Questions

 * I've just about finished writing a mystery story called "Le Père Noël on Christmas Island", which is about a story by that name by James Norman Hall, although he never actually wrote it, RIP -- does that count? Hayford Peirce 21:54, 1 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Sure! - like I would say 'no'? Aleta Curry 08:40, 3 July 2010 (UTC)


 * EQMM will pay 5 to 8 cents a word for it, and it's gonna run almost 10,000 words -- what does the Write-a-Thong pay? Hayford Peirce 17:25, 3 July 2010 (UTC)

Related pages
We had a special request for people to start stubs from the Related Pages of existing articles. A good idea which will help us to complete clusters.

Definitions
Please take a look at Category:Need def and help to bring the number of items on that list down. You will also find links for this by Workgroups!

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!

2010

 * January - Hot toddy - for our friends in the Northern Hemisphere.
 * April -- has to be a contextualizing mixer, or perhaps a nibble with the drink.

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)

Petréa Mitchell 19:15, 1 January 2009 (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.


 * 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)


 * Context (as provided by Related Articles or the addition of an image, e.g. from flickr) --Daniel Mietchen 14:49, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
 * This may involve blogging about an entry here at CZ, or about any aspect of the wiki. If you have never blogged before, please let me know, and I can help you set things up. --Daniel Mietchen 17:56, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Eyjafjallajökull‎ and anything that can be plausibly linked to or from it or its Related Articles. --Daniel Mietchen 14:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)


 * With a bang? I've been improving explosives, but also creating lots of linked things, conventional and nuclear, including United Kingdom nuclear weapons, and also hoping to find a physicist to help some in getting into theory of operation.  But not everything that goes bang is a weapon:  drums (well, maybe sometimes a weapon), more kinds of hammer, etc. One could even extend to booms, which gets you into sailing. Howard C. Berkowitz 13:34, 2 May 2010 (UTC)


 * For July: "Christmas in July" (possibly 'and other holidays'). "Christmas in July" is celebrated in many countries, and crafters often start making Christmas cards and presents at this time too. Lets join in! --Chris Key 16:41, 8 June 2010 (UTC)