Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Wikipedia essays/Archives/2011/February

Location for an essay not about Wikipedia policy?
Hi,

I'd like to write an essay called 'Wikis for science' or similar, discussing the various issues that scientists seem to consider when discussing 'wikis' or Wikipedia. This topic clearly doesn't fit under the banner of 'Wikipedia essays', so I'm wondering where would be a good place to create such an essay? Obviously I can use my user-space, but I thought there was a project called 'WikiEssays' or similar? Something people were using for preparing Wikimania papers? I can't seem to find that project now though. Cheers, --Dan|(talk) 18:58, 1 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Why do you think this isn't a proper "Wikipedia essay"? Depending on your main points, I could imagine it fitting into any of several subcats under Category:Wikipedia essays.   WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:29, 1 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Hmm... good point! I was thinking that it's not really related WP policy, but more about how scientists expect to deal with data provenance, attribution and quality metrics and a) the ways wikis can be adapted to meet these expectations or b) how scientists can start to understand WP better and how their expectations are met by the Wikipedia system. Perhaps I got mislead by an initial page describing all essays as being about aspects of WP policy rather than general musings. For example, do you think scientists could ever use Wikipedia to deposit research data? (Assuming it doesn't immediately violate WP:NOR) --Dan|(talk) 21:11, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

cont.

I had a quick look at the cats, are these the ones you were thinking of?
 * Category:Essays about what Wikipedia is : This category contains essays about what Wikipedia is, claims to be, or seeks to be.
 * Category:Wikipedia essays identifying problems and/or solutions : This category contains essays identifying problems and/or proposing solutions to problems.

However the fit doesn't seem perfect... What do you suggest?

Although I have just seen this text in the Template:Essay, which does suggest that there is plenty of scope for the above suggestion somewhere here: "This essay contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. Essays may represent widespread norms or minority viewpoints. Consider these views with discretion.

Cheers, --Dan|(talk) 21:11, 1 December 2010 (UTC)


 * I apologize for the late reply: I didn't notice your reply at the time.  I'd maybe go with the 'problems and solutions' category.  Ten Simple Rules for Editing Wikipedia and Expert editors are just tagged as plain essays, so that's also a possibility.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:40, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Changing essays
There's been a discussion at Wikipedia essays for a few days about whether it's okay to change an essay you disagree with, rather than writing a rebuttal essay. The problem seems to have originated at the essay Hardcore pornography images, which opposes certain uses of certain kinds of pornographic images in articles, for the usual reasons (Wikipedia does not want a reputation for being a porn site, won't somebody think of the children, some pornography is misogynistic, etc.). Editors here might like to put both pages on their watchlists. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:47, 21 February 2011 (UTC)