Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2010-12-27/WikiProject report

'''WikiProject National Basketball Association, started in July 2005, has 6 Featured articles and 66 Good articles. We interviewed and  in this week's WikiProject Report.'''

First, tell us a bit about yourself and your role in WikiProject National Basketball Association.


 * Yellow Evan (prefers to be called YE): I am a user with a bad reputation and bad spelling in another project. I mostly edit tropical cyclone articles, but due to recent conflicts I am trying to decease my activity. I first joined in August 2008 as an IP. I am currently helping out in a drive to improve LA Lakers Featured articles.
 * Coulaphobic123: I'm a sports enthusiast, predominantly basketball, and am also a mathematician. I enjoy keeping track of statistics: observing patterns, comparing current players with past players, and all-in-all, just working with numbers.  Nightly, after each NBA game is done, I update the eight career statistical pages (points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, turnovers, 3-point field goals, and free throws). I also wish to embark on the ultimate game logging project: BAA/NBA games played.  Pages for some teams' seasons don't exist (mostly the very early seasons), but I want to get some people together to show the game logs for each team and each season.

'''When did you first join WikiProject National Basketball Association? What are some of the challenges that the project has met since you joined, and how were they dealt with?'''


 * YE: : I joined in October 2008, but did not pay much attention for a while. I became active in the project (or its sub projects) in 2009. One issue is vandalism as IP's often remove all content and replace it with "Kobe Sucks". As a result, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Talk:Kobe Bryant, Rajon Rondo, Dwayne Wade, and Kevin Garnett are all semi-protected. We also made a move to remove depth charts for NBA articles, which resulted in minor discussion. Most notably, I started doing the same for FIBA (which is like FIFA, except it is basketball, not football/soccer) that resulted in two edit wars, both on the same article. The first debate involved a user and the second involved the user's sock. Because the user was blocked, I got my way, and the depth charts were removed from that article.
 * Coulraphobic123: I joined this WikiProject in late November 2010, but actually have been updating aforementioned career statistical pages for the past two seasons. The challenges that I've come across are random users (usually just IP users) editing/updating statistics for their favorite active players when they reach milestones without making other changes on other pages.  Predominantly, my biggest problem has been with people updating Ray Allen's information on the 3-point field goals page, (usually just adding in 3-pointers made without updating the attempts and/or average).  I run into similar problems every so often on the other pages.

'''What aspects of the project do you consider to be particularly successful? Has the project developed any unusual innovations, or uniquely adopted any common approaches?'''


 * YE: The most special thing about this project is our number of FL's and to some extent our FA's. I have also noticed that we do not have very high standards compared to some other projects, WP:TROP in particular.
 * Coulraphobic123: I believe what makes this project successful is the number of dedicated editors and it keeps growing.

'''Have any major initiatives by the project ended unsuccessfully? What lessons have you learned from them?'''


 * YE: No, we have been fine. I am trying to create an NBA IRC channel and it appears that this is going to be unsuccessful, but my efforts are not finished.
 * Coulraphobic123: Since I've only been a member for about a month, I have yet to discover many initiatives that have or have not failed. As I said before, I want to try to organize several editors to make game logs for each team and season, so I hope that doesn't fail.

'''The project maintains several "Year-by-Year chronicles" like 2009 NBA Playoffs. What unique challenges do these kinds of articles present compared to normal articles and lists?'''


 * YE: Those article tend to be stub class (exceptions do apply), so it hurts the project. However, these articles get vandalized less (until the Lakers/Celtics/Heat win the championship), and thus there are no major challenges.
 * Coulraphobic123: I would agree with YE's statement. Really, the only vandalism will be by those opposing certain teams or dynasties.

'''What experiences have you had with the WikiProjects whose scopes overlap with yours? Has your project developed particularly close relationships with any other projects?'''


 * YE: Any article within the scope of biography falls into WikiProject Biography.
 * Coulraphobic123: This is my first WikiProject that I'm actively involved in.

'''What is your vision for the project? How do you see the project itself, as well as the articles within its scope, developing over the next years and future improvements to basketball?'''


 * YE: The future of WikiProject National Basketball Association looks bright, and I hope that by the time the NBA seasons ends, every proposed article on the FA list will have become an FA.
 * Coulraphobic123: I too hope to have each proposed article become featured. Also, I want to make it a database of basketball statistics and information that is easily accessible and navigable.

Anything else you'd like to add?


 * YE: The LA Lakers article is currently at peer review.
 * Coulraphobic123: If anybody would like to join me in recording game logs for each team and season, contact me on my talk page.