Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Community/Archive

Welcome
Thanks for your interest!

General comments, questions and suggestions
Top post, please! see LiquidThreads

Greetings. I just wanted to leave a brief note about two new and related projects 1) Media and 2) Journalism. Both projects need editors and advisors so if so minded, please sign up. Some of the work on the project pages is still new and tentative, other sections are more developed and I'm hopeful the work being done now will lay a foundation for a smoothly operating project as it developes. I hope this will be met with positive, helpful feedback and perhaps some good contributors and members. Cheers, Calicocat 04:10, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

Old discussion
I was asked in IRC to comment on this project. My reaction is that, after reading this page, I have no idea what this project is about. All it says (in the vaguest, most general of terms) is that it exists to help the community grow and to foster standards. Someone really, really needs to make this page more specific, and to explain just exactly how this project intends to accomplish its stated goals (goals that should also probably be clarified). &rarr;Raul654 17:05, Oct 8, 2004 (UTC)
 * You were asked if the project seemed worth your while. The project has been expanded somewhat but as you can see is in need of participants. Perhaps the query on IRC was to solicit your aid. Quinobi 03:36, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)

What the heck is this? --mav 04:41, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * As is evident in the boilerplate text, This is the todo list of the Wikipedia:WikiProject_Community. At this time, the top of the list is recruitment. See the project page and the /General and /Strategy pages for more details Quinobi 04:52, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * There. I added some text to maybe clarify the intent of the project Quinobi 05:45, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Perhaps now the intent of this project is clear.Quinobi 10:57, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Clear as MUD Ok so that synopsis isn't in fact very clear. This is a Fledgling project of emense scope.

In many ways Wikipedia has become a MUD. This project is to save the hurt and embarrasment that newcomers feel when they encounter trolls and elitists and to offer definitive guides to Wikipedians who are alienated by the current Wikipedia Culture. It also expands to the realm of Academic discipline in the field of Sociology and extends the concepts of computational sociology to the Wikipedia community without taking them into the Metacontext too quickly.

See Also WikiProject_Community and the Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Community.

Hello World Message me if you need help, no one messages me for some reason :). Also if you can do a task lisk for Fact and reference check that would be useful as well :D, im not quire sure how to do one yet, i should find out.  Bye for now! --ShaunMacPherson 09:04, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC) "Seth's Wikipedia Paradox:  The more resilient we become as a community,  the less time (proportionally)  that community spends developing articles." I think the word community is worn slap out. I'm going to start using crew.Quinobi 01:49, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * What I meant by that is this: In a group the size of the set of Wikipedians, social conventions and other community-like features are going to become necessary for the project to maintain social cohesion. Paradoxically, stronger those attributes which bind the community together before, the more time the development, monitoring, and analysis of those features consumes, drawing time away from the original goal which brought us here in the first place. We therefore walk a (probably fairly wide) tightrope between chaos and Nomic. -- Seth Ilys 01:52, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * I like the term set applied to the wikipedians. Heaven knows there are plenty of subsets!
 * Convention is a hard one. You need Status quo but then in a beehive like this, you can only hope for the hierarchy of nerves to achieve balence, structure and hopefully equilibrium. ((( equal.libre.um )))

project | maintain social cohesion Gaw what a mouthful!
 * I'm going to have to break this down.
 * Paradoxically,
 * stronger those attributes which bind the community together before,
 * the more time the development, monitoring, and analysis of those features consume,
 * This conversation is moving to my user space on meta folly the leado Quinobi --22:09, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

Project scope discussion
I could also use some help defining the scope of the project. Evidently I have failed to adequately describe the purpose and scope of the Community project. Quinobi 21:27, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Managing the Community Wikiportal
I've associated some articles on the project page. If you see any more that fit please feel free to add them. Quinobi 21:27, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I've opened Wikiportal/Community and pasted the associated articles there. I would like to keep the list on the main project page synced with the portal. I don't think this portal needs to be real flashy. After all it's intended to be an encyclopedic reference. Quinobi 5 July 2005 16:59 (UTC)

Managing this project's workspace
The project page seems to be broken. I don't understand how to fix this. Quinobi 21:27, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * OK eight months later. I worked hard on that puppy. I hope it is aligned properly, a bit more complete and well balenced.
 * Now at least it's organized, but it's still a bit long. I've made some space called Wikipedia:WikiProject_Community/WikiHash that can hold some of the organization things on there. Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Community I'm calling the Community Project Journal and WikiProject_Community I'm calling the Community Builder's Guide  I've made a nice Navbar, too.  Quinobi 5 July 2005 16:59 (UTC)


 * The subpages are being removed and merged in with the Project and talk pages to clean up the Wikipedia namespace and placed as sections on the Project page. Quinobi 20:32, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

Acknowlegements and commendations
These are just informal acknowlegements and commendations for folks that do things that help the community at Wikipedia to function as an organized whole and for helping me to better understand what my own focus as a Community Builder should be. Feel free to add anyone here that you think should be commended or add comments to these if you like. Quinobi
 * Thank you very much Raul654 for your suggestions. You're a great "administrator, bureaucrat, and  arbitrator" {I may even be changing my mind about polititians.) "I've respected your opinion since I first met you, although your yankee ways are a bit alien to me. hehe.
 * I'ld also like to thank and commend TheCustomOfLife for his determination in re-aligning the Southern Wikipedians message board and being so civil in #wikipedia. I especially enjoyed and was encourged, inspired and comforted by the conversation you and Raul654 had last night in the channel. It's refreshing to hear adults speaking intellegently and on topic in an IRC environment.
 * Thanks espescially to ShaunMacPherson for joining the Community project and bringing me in to the Fact and Reference Check project. I think that project is out in front in the fight for Wikipedia's honor. That is gruelling work and not for the faint of heart!
 * I think this ship is finally getting underway and hope to see her out there in the open seas with the rest of the fleet, sails full and flags a-flyin :)  Quinobi 22:15, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Very special thanks to _sj_ for joining the community builders task force! Your insight is of great worth!  Quinobi 5 July 2005 16:30 (UTC)
 * Thanks to Angela for providing leadership and tireless, consistant effort in maintaining the front portions (The Main Page and the Community_Portal) of Wikipedia and providing a solid presence on the "front lines". Quinobi 08:07, 24 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Special commendation to Beland for his technical expertise and management skills in providing tools and advice for the maintenence of the Wikipedia. Quinobi 21:58, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Special commendation to Ancheta Wis for his work on logically organizing and standardizing the Wikiportals.
 * Special commendations to Manning and Blank_Verse for leadership and insight in setting up the WikiProject way of orgaizing people and content.

Improvement Drive
Cultural appropriation has just been nominated on WP:IDRIVE. Public education and Flirting as well as Teenage pregnancy are also currently nominated on This week's improvement drive and may be of interest to you. If you are interested in contributing, please vote or comment here: This week's improvement drive--Fenice 09:23, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

Communities of Practice
Many web-based Communities of Practice have formed that could provide a useful perspective on the Wikipedia community. Features of Communities of Practice are that they are self-motivating, self-directed and self-organising. Wikipedia is a Community of Practice, formed around the shared goal of creating an encyclopedia written in a Neutral Point of View but also a variety of different Communities of Practice like Wikiprojects or even individual pages.

Examples: References Category:Wikipedia community forums
 * GeoSpatialCommunityofPractice
 * York essay

Rewrite of Community article
A total rewrite of the Community article has been called for and I agree, as the article as it stands today is essentially an essay written mostly by me. I have copied that version to my user space at User:CQ/Community. -- CQ 00:26, 18 November 2005 (UTC)