Wikipedia talk:WikiProject North of the Rio Grande

Project discussion
Please add any feedback about this project here.

FA and copy editing veterans willing to help
Anyone care for a list of editors willing to help guide jbmurray's students through? Count me in. --Moni3 (talk) 01:59, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I'll help out - jbmurray runs an excellent program! Karanacs (talk) 15:29, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
 * See also WP:FAT/MP. Geometry guy 17:33, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Many thanks for volunteering! Much appreciated. Watch this space... --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 20:42, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Best of Luck!
WikiProject AP Biology 2008. We too at Croatan High School, North Carolina are in a similar pursuit. You're welcome to share your experiences and frustrations at our project page as well. I'm finding the Wikipedia community to very supportive.--JimmyButler (talk) 16:33, 12 September 2008 (UTC)


 * OK, guys, we have competition! Do you want to be shamed by some high-schoolers...  from the USA of all places?!  Hehe.  --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 18:15, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

My Canadian friends to the north, we will take that challenge; comparing user pages - I'm somewhat optimistic. First to obtain a FA article wins! A keg of Molson for you chaps or a keg of .... ummm well... we will come up with something. Wassupwestcoast can be the referee (despite the potential Canadian bias). May the best man / boy win! --JimmyButler (talk) 19:17, 12 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Ha! OK, you guys are on.  (Though you should know that my students think I invented you, just to give them incentive to get going...)  Anyhow, today we started what's gonna be a kicking article.  Beat that!  Heh.  --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 01:54, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

(And gang, they seem to be making fun of your user pages! --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 02:01, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes... we are very real. Croatan High School. And ... No insult intended; clearly the user pages are not nominated for FA and for your sake, we will trust do not reflect skill or attitude. Mine are a tad slow to break out of the gate, they have two semesters (180 days) to procrastinate; however, a friendly competition may put a fire under them. This is our breakout entry by User:FoodPuma entitled Osteochondritis dissecans. Too bad we are are not operating on the same time frame... points for every FA / GA and maybe negative points for every student that land themselves in Wiki-court. Also, I can't help but notice some of your mentors... Sandy Georgia  ... the Wiki Goddess herself. That's ok.... I've got a few connections as well .... wonder what Raul654 is up to????? Either way, this should be exciting ...  Cheers --JimmyButler (talk) 02:25, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Okay, I think that for most of us this will be a our first time using Wikipedia to write articles. That said, the competition sounds like an interesting prospect. We should really be putting all our effort into these submissions anyways, seeing as our articles will reflect upon our grades. The only thing that is a little unnerving is the fact that we have to rush to get the first FA onto Wikipedia and win the competition. I think I like the idea of a point system for FA's, GA's and a negative for 'wiki court' (which I don't believe our class has been told about yet...). NOW I would like to propose another competition...between our two teachers. I mean, if the classes have different due dates then it's not really a fair fight, now is it? BUT, if the profs went head-to-head with articles of the same nature and with a set due date...THAT would be a great comp! Just a suggestion...any comments? --Katie322 (talk) 05:49, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Now there's a competition. OK, JimmyButler.  Up for it?  --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 10:01, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Interesting proposal... I thought the benefit of being the teacher is watching the students struggle--- not the other way around. Take a look at this sequence involving our FA attempt on Introduction to Evolution. First look at Featured article candidates/Introduction to evolution where the article was up for FA. However, even more revealing is the accompanying discussion page (one tab over) as the rhetoric became so very heated. I added to my account Random Replicator a self-imposed block - swearing never to return after that experience. There is a reason that FA is reached by only a few thousand of the 2 million + articles written. The challenge you will face is formidable; your success will require in depth research, late night edits, and an extreme effort in diplomacy. I'll let this be your trial by fire - one would be insane to volunteer for such abuse - not even for an ocean of beer! I'm back now, with my little cadre of kiddies, merely to expose them to a behind the scenes look at the reference they depend on daily. So I'll stand down on the competition between teachers and leave students in both groups with some solid advice. 1) Stay away from articles that by their nature are controversial 2) For god's sake people,don't procrastinate or you are doomed from the start.
 * I do like the idea of shifting the challenge from the first to FA to a point system. When is your projects due date --- I think my students will be inspired enough to work within your time frame --- assuming they do not read the links above and out of fear - drop the class. Cheers --JimmyButler (talk) 16:18, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

And now, oh the shame, from GA guru Geometry guy: Your team are already making appearances on my watchlist, while Jbm's team haven't done so yet. C'mon gang, or I'll lose what little status I have on this here website! ;) --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 22:46, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Considering that it is a group project and not an individual assignment for your students, I will be amazed if we succeed in this little competition. May the best man win! FoodPuma (talk) 00:31, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Setting a Common Goal
I propose:


 * 15 points for every FA article
 * 5 points for every GA article

We (Croatan) will likely have more articles on the table; however that should balance out the experience factor and group approach that you are following. We can include one article currently being edited by the instructor in the final total.

The game ends whenever your course closes. {If mine drag this out then they deserve to lose} Being first, although admirable for enthusiasm, may not be the best measure of the success of either project.


 * OK, sounds good! Let's make the deadline December 17.  That's officially the last day of our semester.  May the best team win! --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 18:02, 19 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I must warn you thou, my students are riding a wave of enthusiasm - in part to your kindness in recognizing our existence. They have found topics and they are actively researching their subjects. In addition, they have been bold in seeking help and are being adopted by some talented editors. I grow more confident by the day that youth will not be a factor.


 * Also, I'm sorry to say --- we can't play for beer. Apparently, even to "joke" about playing for beer is grounds for dismissal. Our policy is to "Just Say No" to beer or drugs or sex or whatever.... So to my students I say .... BEER IS BAD ....very very BAD. Any questions? If you have any suggestion to reward the winner that are not on the JUST SAY NO list; I'll run them by the boss for his approval! May the best team win!!!!! Cheers--JimmyButler (talk) 16:32, 18 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Oh, yes. You can tell your team that beer is indeed BAD. Very very BAD.  However, I am sure that we here can come up with some kind of souvenir of British Columbia and send it in your direction...  perhaps even a biology-related one.  We'd love a souvenir of North Carolina (but not boiled peanuts... boiled peanuts are also BAD) should we win!  --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 18:02, 19 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Apropos of this discussion, you may also want to consider an overall goal of creating a featured topic, which is a collection of FA and GA articles. (It appears that currently, the biology class may not have articles that are related enough for this, but that'll depend on the other articles chosen.) Just a thought. Mind  matrix  16:47, 18 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Score 15 to 5 and the clock is ticking. At the rate my students are dropping out --- I may not have enough bodies left to hit 15! That said...I come with hat in hand. Any chance we in the sunny south can extend the dead-line until the end of our first semester. As with most students; their best efforts will be just before the deadline - which in our case is a tad later than yours (Jan 16) assuming you use the The Gregorian Calendar in the far North. Accounting for the length of day-light as it relates to latitude I think the extra time can also be justified? - some how. May I also congratulate your group on some truly amazing work. I have little doubt that your current GA articles are on the verge of FA - making this competition a mute point anyway. However, at this point - I hope merely to salvage a shred of our dignity. Cheers! --JimmyButler (talk) 15:48, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Score update:

Croatan–25 points (5 GA's) University of British Columbia–20 points (4 GA's)

It's looking like a close competition...for now.

Regards, --Wikitrevor (talk) 15:50, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

What fun.
From a fellow editor. I wish you all the best of luck. There is a hard and rocky road ahead for all. But maybe rewards in the end. Will be happy to do reviews if any of you fall within my field of interest. I see that one article has already.

Remember all need to be up on formatting issues. You get crucified here if you falter on this very golden rules as I have learned by trial and error.

And finally a few useful links:

Reliable sources (medicine-related articles)

WP:MED

cite web cite journal cite book

Doc James (talk) 15:53, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Re. article traffic
(moved from the page itself:) I just stumbled on this page while looking through GAN. I hate to burst your bubble, but the amount of page views an article gets have nothing to do with how good the article is. The page views are a function of how many articles link to them (and how high traffic those are) and how many people are likely to search for it outright. The only way you can increase the number of views by improving the article is to get it listed as a GA or FA, and you'll get some views then. Sad, but true. - Oreo Priest  talk 17:57, 3 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Oh, I agree that article traffic isn't an indication of how good an article is. That's not the point: the point is that a lot of people look at these pages.  However, for articles that are simply stubs (as several of these once were), there's no doubt that traffic increases once they become fleshed out.  It might be interesting to do a proper "before" and "after" count for articles that have been significantly improved.  But again, the seal of quality we're looking for is GA and FA. --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 09:25, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Still active?
Is this project still active? Aristophanes68 (talk) 17:10, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

Comment on the WikiProject X proposal
Hello there! As you may already know, most WikiProjects here on Wikipedia struggle to stay active after they've been founded. I believe there is a lot of potential for WikiProjects to facilitate collaboration across subject areas, so I have submitted a grant proposal with the Wikimedia Foundation for the "WikiProject X" project. WikiProject X will study what makes WikiProjects succeed in retaining editors and then design a prototype WikiProject system that will recruit contributors to WikiProjects and help them run effectively. Please review the proposal here and leave feedback. If you have any questions, you can ask on the proposal page or leave a message on my talk page. Thank you for your time! (Also, sorry about the posting mistake earlier. If someone already moved my message to the talk page, feel free to remove this posting.) Harej (talk) 22:47, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

WikiProject X is live!


Hello everyone!

You may have received a message from me earlier asking you to comment on my WikiProject X proposal. The good news is that WikiProject X is now live! In our first phase, we are focusing on research. At this time, we are looking for people to share their experiences with WikiProjects: good, bad, or neutral. We are also looking for WikiProjects that may be interested in trying out new tools and layouts that will make participating easier and projects easier to maintain. If you or your WikiProject are interested, check us out! Note that this is an opt-in program; no WikiProject will be required to change anything against its wishes. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!

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Harej (talk) 16:57, 14 January 2015 (UTC)