Wikipedia:WikiProject Mammals/Collaboration

The monthly Mammal collaboration is a coordinated effort by WikiProject Mammals to improve Wikipedia's mammal-related content. Being a member of WikiProject Mammals is not a prerequisite for participation in this collaboration (nor, conversely, is participation here a requirement for membership in the WikiProject). All Wikipedians, regardless of their level of expertise in the subject area, are welcome to contribute.

Aside from the main benefit of creating better mammal articles on Wikipedia, it is hoped that a successful initiative will: a) Attract new editors to work on the Project; b) Improve the writing skills of existing editors; and c) Demonstrate the value of collaboration on Wikipedia. The ultimate goal of the Mammal Collaboration is to get at least one mammal or mammal-related article featured every couple of months. There are several mammals in particular that have very large articles because of their popularity and the volume of research devoted to them. These may be better worked on in a collaborative manner, rather than by a single editor, in attempting to reach Good or ultimately Featured status.

The first incarnation was active in early 2008, with four articles selected over four months from mid February to mid-June, one of which is now Featured (Primate) one a Good Article (Polar bear), and two B-class (Brown rat and Tiger). All are large articles. The collaboration was reactivated in mid 2009, with one article chosen (giraffe), but little activity ensured, although the article has since achieved Good status. The collaboration was reactivated in late 2010, the first collaboration (Fossa (animal)) is now Featured.

Nomination procedure
Any user may nominate an article to be collaborated upon. Nominees should:


 * Be about any mammal or directly mammal-related topic (including prehistoric ones).
 * Need a significant amount of work in terms of content, organization, prose, etc.
 * Not be in any edit conflict or be under protection.

If you would like to nominate an article, please add it at the bottom of the list of nominees along with a short note describing why you think it should be chosen.

For Nominators: Please use the following code when nominating an article.

===ARTICLE NAME=== Nominated MONTH DAY, YEAR;

Support:


 * 1) (sign with four tildes)

Comments:

* (put your reason for nomination, sign again)

For Voters: Please use the following code when voting to support an article. Note that you are allowed to vote for more than one, though it will dilute your vote if you feel very strongly about one candidate. Finally, if you feel inclined, noting what material should be included or gotten rid of to satisfy comprehensiveness may be very valuable on the article's talk page.

#~

Nominations...
A list of past collaborations can be viewed here.

''Please list nominees below using the code laid out in the above section. Newer nominees should be placed on the bottom of the list. Feel free to vote for as many nominees as you wish, but only once per nomination. Please only vote to indicate support, do not vote in the negative. If you like, add a comment in the comment's section under nomination, or on the collaboration talk page. Articles will remain on the list for 3 months, after which time the list will be blanked/refreshed and voting started anew. For the current collaboration, see the template at the top of the page. Voting will end one week after the nomination is made.''

Note: Please leave archived discussions here until we finish the collaboration on the article.

Vampire bat
Nominated January 30, 2011; Approved February 1, 2011

'''Approved! Now, VisionHolder, Sasata, me, and a few others are working on Slow loris still. You guys could start collaboration on this article, and we could help once we finish slow loris. All discussion should go to the talk page. Have fun! :)'''  T he A rbiter Talk 22:30, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

Support:


 * 1) Sabine's Sunbird   talk  06:45, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * 2) Casliber (talk · contribs) 10:44, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * 3) Jack (talk) 16:14, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * 4) Anaxial (talk) 21:48, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Comments:


 * In the spirit of having something that isn't a primate, and is an important but workable article, I nominate these little beauties. Sabine's Sunbird  talk  06:45, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Yeah, notable one, and should not be too ambitious an article to work on. Casliber (talk · contribs) 10:44, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, some non-primates would be good, and this is an important and doable one. Anaxial (talk) 21:48, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Would be nice to have an easier collaboration this time. Should wait for the slow loris to wind up first, I believe most of the work is there, it just needs to be incorporated into the main article. Jack (talk) 16:14, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * We've got a bit of work to do still, unfortunately. No one every claimed the anatomy section, the evolution and taxonomy may prove to be a bit of a beast, and the conservation section has turned into a complete article.  Today, I'm taking a break to write an article I promised someone over a month ago.  After that, I will finish the conservation article and move back towards the main article... although 2 of the most researched species have yet to be covered with quality articles.  What I would suggest is that unless more people want to get involved in the slow loris stuff, the people nominating and voting now could start their own collaboration, while Sasata, Ucucha, and I (along with whoever else is still involved) work to finish up the topic we started.  (If we have time to help you as well, we will.)  I don't see a reason why we should restrict ourselves to just one collaboration if we have enough willing editors to start a second. –  VisionHolder  « talk » 16:29, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * If this article gets chosen then I'm definitely up for going ahead with it. The current state of the anatomy section is in The Arbiter's sandbox [I can now see it has already been added]. Cheers, Jack (talk) 17:37, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * The anatomy section could be expanded significantly. I just asked him to source what was there already... before we decided to delete what was likely a copyright violation. –  VisionHolder  « talk » 17:46, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * I'll do expansion too. I'm so sorry, but I've been sick for quite a while, and now I'm better. Cheers,  T he A rbiter Talk 18:18, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Slow loris
Nominated May 19, 2010; '''Approved and ready for collaboration. All discussion should now go to the talk page. Let's get another FA guys! Cheers, The Arbiter  ★★★ ''' 16:57, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Support:


 * 1) –   VisionHolder  « talk »  14:29, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
 * 2) UtherSRG (talk) 15:13, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
 * 3) Jack (talk) 19:45, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
 * 4)  The Arbiter  ★★★  17:58, 28 November 2010 (UTC)
 * 5) Sasata (talk) 15:59, 1 December 2010 (UTC)
 * 6) Casliber (talk · contribs) 05:00, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Comments:


 * Sorry to stick with the strepsirrhine primates, but this article has been in the top 25 most popular primate pages for a long time, and I only recently discovered that it was likely due to a number of "cute slow loris pet videos" on youtube. For conservation reasons, I feel this genus article needs a significant overhaul.  We need to show what's known about these primates and explain the conservation status of its three species.  Since it's a article on a genus, it can be more broad, hitting some of the highlights of the individual species, as well as shared traits and behaviors. –   VisionHolder  « talk »  14:29, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Sounds good. This looks like a very interesting article. The Arbiter  ★★★  17:58, 28 November 2010 (UTC)
 * I think the chance of this getting promoted is much higher than monkey, would be a good start after a period of inactivity until folks find there feet. Casliber (talk · contribs) 05:00, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Hamadryas baboon
Nominated November 27, 2010;

Support:
 * 1) LittleJerry (talk) 02:55, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

Comments:


 * This is a widely studied primate and a high-importance article for WikiProject Primates. It should atleast get a good article status. LittleJerry (talk) 02:55, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

Monkey
Nominated November 28, 2010;

Support: #: Casliber (talk · contribs) 06:12, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * 1) Jack (talk) 14:18, 28 November 2010 (UTC)
 * 2) –  VisionHolder  « talk » 15:40, 28 November 2010 (UTC)
 * 3) Anaxial (talk) 18:06, 28 November 2010 (UTC)
 * 4) Gug01 (talk) 19:55, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Comments:


 * An article that's visited 115,000 times a month (3,700 times a day) and yet is only a start class article (the only one in the top 40 most visited mammal pages)! Lots of additional information is needed, and quite a bit can be pared from the current article. Was once the focus of Wikipedia Spotlight though little was achieved. Jack (talk) 14:18, 28 November 2010 (UTC)
 * If we do this one, I could write about evolution. However, I'm not sure if I have the resources, time, and energy to make it FA-quality though.  Anyway, with pages as broad as this, you'd almost have to take the approach of what I've been trying to do with Lemur—write a big, fairly general article, then create numerous sub-articles on each of its topics.  (Sadly, Primate is another article that needs this treatment.)  The evolution of monkeys, for instance, is such a big topic that it merits its own article: Simian evolution or Evolution of simians.  (There would need to be multiple redirects, of course.) –  VisionHolder  « talk » 15:40, 28 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Agree with VH. Very important & highly viewed article, but also a massive undertaking. Sub-article organization would require meta-planning & coordination, tons of literature to go through ... sounds like work to me. I prefer to keep my collaborations fun and FA-reachable without straining myself too hard, so have voted for the more easily handled Slow Loris above. Sasata (talk) 16:04, 1 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Ditto - look if the collab takes off well and gets a good head of steam, then I reckon this would be a fantastic candidate. Casliber (talk · contribs) 05:01, 4 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Fair enough, this is exactly the reason that the Spotlight nomination went nowhere, it will be a lot of work. However, we do need to revisit it in the future, I'm sure you all know its importance, not just to this WikiProject but to Wikipedia as a whole. Cheers, Jack (talk) 10:39, 4 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Absolutely. You might want to buff it up in the meantime and see how it looks. We'd all be happy to chip in with comments. cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 10:50, 4 December 2010 (UTC)
 * On the next collaboration, I will definitely favor this article. Alternatively, I'm also willing to work on this outside of the official collaboration if another person wants to work on everything else—I am more than willing to write B-quality (possibly GA-quality) sections on evolution and taxonomy.  I would also be willing to contribute to a section on interactions with humans (exotic animal trade, experimentation on monkeys, focus from animal rights, etc.). –  VisionHolder  « talk » 21:27, 4 December 2010 (UTC)
 * It's almost next collaboration time...I think the page counts do it for me. A good one to buff. Casliber (talk · contribs) 06:12, 30 January 2011 (UTC) If slow loris is moving slowly, then now isn't the time for a complex collaboration I think. Casliber (talk · contribs) 10:36, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Gorilla
Nominated December 5, 2010;

Support:
 * 1) LittleJerry (talk) 23:54, 5 December 2010 (UTC)
 * 2) Casliber (talk · contribs) 06:13, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Comments:


 * This article is Number 6 of the most visited Primate pages and a top-importance article for Wikiproject Primates. Not to mention they are well studied. How about this for next month? LittleJerry (talk) 23:54, 5 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, a good choice too. Casliber (talk · contribs) 06:13, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * It is a good choice, but I apologize for the delay. The Slow loris article collaboration has turned into a topic collaboration, which is moving slowly, but still moving in a very positive direction thanks to all the help from the research community and some very dedicated editors.  Unfortunately, it may be a while before we start a new collaboration.  And although I certainly favor the article nominated here, I'm wondering if we should shy away from a second consecutive primate in favor of another group... especially since this is for WP:Mammal, and primates have their own project (WP:Primates).  I was thinking about nominating Sugar glider, which gets about half as many hits as Gorilla (~2k vs. ~3.5k hits per day), but is another popular exotic pet.  Anyway, we'll put it all up for a vote when it comes time to think about a new collaboration. –  VisionHolder  « talk » 06:31, 30 January 2011 (UTC)