Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-01-31/WikiProject report

This week, we took a look at WikiProject Warriors which focuses on the Warriors series of fantasy novels and other media that follow clans of feral cats living in a forest. The project also covers the related Seekers series about the adventures of four bear cubs. Both series were written by several authors under the pseudonym Erin Hunter. The small project is home to 13 active editors working on 57 articles and lists, including three Good Articles promoted in the fall of 2010. The project maintains a to-do list and patrols a watchlist. We interviewed project members Brambleclawx, Derild4921, and PrincessofLlyr.

'''What motivated you to join WikiProject Warriors? Which book is your favorite?'''
 * Brambleclawx: I joined WikiProject Warriors in October/November of 2009. I'd read the series, and the Wikipedia articles for quite some time. One thing that I noticed was the poor writing in the articles; at the time, many of the very active members of the past had disappeared, and it was mostly anonymous IP users doing the editing. When I first joined, there wasn't anyone to answer my queries. Eventually, I stumbled across Airplaneman and PrincessofLlyr, who basically helped revive the project. I currently watch the pages for vandalism and unnecessary information like excessive plot summaries, and am adding references to some articles, in addition to trying to get them to GA. In terms of a favourite book, I'd say my favourite is Bluestar's Prophecy, which was long, had a nice cover painting (under the shiny silver jacket), and had a really nice story.


 * Derild4921: I joined around February or March of 2009 when I just began actively editing. At that time, Warriors was one of the only articles I commonly visited and was surprised by the good coverage (all thanks to Bcx of course!). Soon, I began making small changes to the pages and joined the project. My activity in the project was sporadic, but i gained experience in novel articles by expanding other pages. I'd say my favorite book is Sunrise (Warriors) which was the conclusion of quite a good series with many mysteries.


 * PrincessofLlyr: Later than the above two, I didn't actually join until January of 2010. I had been involved in some of the pages before, just never joined. Motivation: I had read the series and was brought into the project by Brambleclawx's attempts to revive it (which ultimately worked!). I have since stopped reading the series, so I don't really have a favorite book. My main participation is just cleaning up vandalism and copyediting for grammar and form.

'''Have you contributed to any of the project's three Good Articles? Are you currently working on bringing an article up to GA or FA status?'''
 * Brambleclawx: I put in lots of work to get Warriors (novel series) to GA, which had been my main goal ever since I registered on Wikipedia, and found out about this "article ranking thing". I can't take all the credit for it though And I also helped out a little bit with Into the Wild (Warriors), but that was mostly just fixing grammar. I'm currently working on getting Moonrise (Warriors) to Good article, and hopefully FA after that, though it may be a little difficult.


 * Derild4921: I've worked on two of the threes GA's, Into the Wild and Seekers (novel series), though helped out the main Warriors article in the GAN. I currently am working on several articles, but within the Warriors scope.


 * PrincessofLlyr: I haven't actually involved myself in any of the GA reviews. However, I did copyedit Warriors (novel series) several times in preparation for GAR.

'''Has the project had any difficulty establishing notability for its articles? How does establishing notability for the Warriors articles compare to establishing notability for other literature projects?'''
 * Brambleclawx: The project has faced lots of notability problems in the past. Most of the book articles have been nominated for deletion around twice.


 * Derild4921: As Brambleclawx states above, the book articles have twice been nominated for deletion and luckily kept both times. We both have been added reliable sources to the articles in order to establish notability.


 * PrincessofLlyr: Notability is definitely difficult. As Derild mentions somewhere below, the fact that the series is so long running makes it much more difficult. The reviews tend to be much less in depth.

Do you have any tips for editors working on improving articles about books or stories in general?
 * Derild4921: A main thing many new editors do is write an extremly detailed plot summary. This adds unnecessary fluff and weight to one section. Only the important plot elements that are absolutely necessary should be added.


 * Brambleclawx: I'd say, to find some good reviews, before trying to write the article. Otherwise, it looks pretty empty, being only a plot summary.

Does WikiProject Warriors collaborate with any other projects?
 * PrincessofLlyr: Obviously, we fall under the scope of WikiProject Novels, but we are mostly free-standing. Many of us work in other novels related projects.

'''What are the greatest challenges facing WikiProject Warriors? How can a new editor help today?'''
 * Brambleclawx: I personally think that one of the greatest challenges for the project is the finding of reliable third-party sources. Although the series is rather popular, there aren't really that many reviews out there, especially for the later books in the series. Another point that's been brought up is the use of Wands and Worlds Author Chats as a source; although Wands and Worlds is a forum, I personally believe that the author chats can be counted as reliable sources, since they are essentially interviews (albeit with random chatting interspered between the questions and answers).


 * Derild4921: I totally agree with Brambleclawx on this one. Since I joined the project, finding reliable sources have also been a problem. In certain articles, I have resorted to using Barnes and Nobles reviews which can be considered unreliable since they may only publish the parts that praise the novel. However, much of the time I find that Barnes and Nobles posts whole reviews while Amazon only publishes snippets which I never use. Even with this, the more recent books have little to no sources due to the fact that the series has gone on so long.


 * PrincessofLlyr: I can only echo what they said about reliable sources. Particularly with reviews, because so many of them are subscription only. And also with the later books, they just aren't being reviewed that much.

Anything else you'd like to add?
 * PrincessofLlyr: We can always use fresh eyes. There are some things we just don't pick up, being so familiar with the books and our own writing. Of course, if anyone has great suggestions about where we can find sources, that would also be greatly appreciated.

Next week we'll launch monkeys into space. Until then, float over to our zero-G archive.