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, September 2nd, 2009. Starts on September1st, 1200 UTC, when it starts being Wednesday in New Zealand, and ends on September 3rd, 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 September 5th, 1200 UTC, when it starts being Sunday in New Zealand, and ends on September 7thth, 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
Design and Designers

Your favourite architect, automobile manufacturer, jeweller, engineer...or their creations - you get the idea.

The Partiers

 * Aleta thought it was Tuesday, discovered her mistake, and is now incongrously trying to design a brunch for herself while setting up the September WAT. Ruined the raita by over-salting--have just rinsed the cucumbers, oh, lovely. Where to start on this article-writing?  I'll think of something! Aleta Curry 02:27, 2 September 2009 (UTC)
 * After getting the call from Aleta, Supten decided to plunge into the W-a-t pool and was delighted to see Raita on Aleta's recipe and started the page. However, he found out that preparing a dish of Raita is much easier for him than writing about it. Then he tweaked design to earn the partier tag and left the party.Supten Sarbadhikari 03:30, 2 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Meg jumped on-board the roller coaster, Led Zeppelin: The Ride, after jumping the gun and plucking additional notes at a string invention called the guitar, improved by designers such as Orville Gibson, Leo Fender, and Les Paul. Meg Ireland 03:40, 2 September 2009 (UTC)
 * What happened to Aleta? She's disappeared again. Meg Ireland 13:21, 2 September 2009 (UTC)
 * She's back; things have been busy in my little corner of the world. I'll have to find time to be my old chatty self. Aleta Curry 21:31, 2 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Paul does not recognize design, it must be pointed out and told to  him that something in front of him has a special design. But he heard by chance that Design Academy Eindhoven is a good school. --Paul Wormer 14:06, 2 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Tell me about it! Being the least visual of all people I know, I can relate.  The point is that form and function don't happen by accident (which doesn't usually occur to me), even the mug I'm drinking coffee from was designed by someone, as was the (woefully old) computer monitor I'm staring at. Aleta Curry 21:31, 2 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Daniel started out with Bionics and provided the missing Related Articles subpages to the above entries, either manually or per bot. --Daniel Mietchen 19:09, 2 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Bionics? Like the six million dollar man?  Have to go read this! Aleta Curry 22:01, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Rather late and missed the boat!
Hi, all! I've been doing a L-O-T of work with U.S. states' Related Articles pages and such as that. Just think of me as a bit later for this years' Spring Cleanup. James F. Perry 20:47, 2 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, I may have started it a little early, but I've been deep in cross-checking for Robert Baer, trying to ferret out whether there were designs for misuse of the CIA, or just your ordinary everyday greed, bureaucracy, and stupidity. Trust me that tracking Roger Tamraz is like following a design by M. C. Escher. Howard C. Berkowitz 02:41, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

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

 * Joe started a stub in honor of the 100-year anniversary of the 1909 Plan of Chicago.
 * He came back after the party ended to build off of Aleta's new stereotype article with caricature.


 * Well, I have done things, but I can still feel guilty, in that I'm still analyzing the latest CIA report on interrogation and am not yet ready to include its findings in intelligence interrogation, U.S., George W. Bush Administration. I really, really, really want people to review that article, as well as Iraq War and Afghanistan War (2001-) for flow and clarity. Please?


 * A recent one, just for fun, is the latter part of C. Christine Fair. How can you beat Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States? Howard C. Berkowitz 03:29, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

The shy ones, absent-minded profs, and other modest creatures

 * Absent-minded, but not modest. Anthony.Sebastian 03:20, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Special Requests
Please proofread orchid for approval. Thank you! --Daniel Mietchen 22:35, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Done! Supten Sarbadhikari 03:37, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Questions
Where is Aleta? No mention at the Welcome page or notifications! Completely forgot that yesterday was the first Wednesday of the month! Supten 03:38, 6 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Family emergency, would ya believe? Forgot it was Wednesday today, too--but I'm baaaaack!! Aleta Curry 02:14, 2 September 2009 (UTC)
 * It is Wednesday, isn't it? I forgot too.  Actually, I forgot it was even the first week of September.  Two days after my 25th birthday and my memory is already starting to go... :( --Joe Quick 19:36, 2 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Jeepers, Joe, if you're losin' it at 25, there's no hope for me at all! Aleta Curry 22:06, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

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!
 * }

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)


 * Continents: do one at a time. Anything or anyone associated with the continent. --Joe Quick 17:38, 16 September 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...?