View source for Archive:Monthly Write-a-Thon/December 3, 2008

<center>[[Image:Retro_writeathon.jpg]]</center>
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== What's a Write-a-Thon? ==
It's a bunch of people getting together on a wiki at a particular time to do a bunch of writing.  It's like an online party!  Heck no, it ''is'' an online party!  It's also an excuse for infrequent wikiers to show up and party hardy; to exchange ideas with people we might not "meet" otherwise.

But hey, why not show up in between the write-ins, too!

== When? ==
Write-a-Thons happen the first Wednesday of every month.  The next Write-a-Thon is '''Wednesday, December 3, 2008'''.  Starts on December 2nd, 1200 UTC, when it starts being Wednesday in New Zealand, and ends on December 4th, 1200 UTC, when it finishes being Wednesday in Hawaii.  Save The Date!  Put it on your calendar!  Set yourself a reminder!

Any new article you create, and any edit you make to somebody else's Write-a-Thon article during that time period will count, though to be a ''bona fide'' partier, you have to write your new articles when it's that day in your part of the world.

Our first Write-a-Thon took place Wednesday, August 1, 2007 and was considered a roaring good time--we had about 30 partiers creating something like 50 articles, and editing lots.

== What are the rules? ==
Rules?  This is a party!  There are no rules!

Well, OK, maybe there are a couple rules:
* We'll have a Write-a-Thon the first Wednesday of every month.
* To participate, you only have to do two things: (1) start a ''new'' article (even just a stub will qualify, if not ''too'' short - and please remember to include the [[CZ:Subpages|subpages template]]!), and (2) make a substantive edit (not just a copyedit) to somebody else's ''new'' article.  Then you can list your name here as a partier.  Until then, sign in as a porch-sitter, party-crasher, or total party poop.

==This month's Party Theme==

Wednesday, December 3 2008 -- 
<center><font color="red"><big><big><big><big>'''Retro--The 1980s!</big></big></big></big></font></center>
<center>[[Image:Citizendium_Writeathon_1980s.jpg]]</center>

== The Partiers ==

*[[user:Aleta Curry|Aleta]] stumbled in early; no one in the room, stumbled out again.  Arrives a couple of hours later with a pot of [[coffee]] and sad memories of the [[Space Shuttle]] [[Challenger disaster]].  [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 23:09, 2 December 2008 (UTC) Muses quietly that she's probably the only one here who remembers [[The wedding of Charles and Di]] [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 00:06, 3 December 2008 (UTC) Turned up the volume on my [[Barry Manilow]] recordings.  I also came back to edit something, to be a bona fide partier, but I forget what.  Oh, [[Lucille Ball|Lucy]], of course!  [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 22:17, 4 December 2008 (UTC)  So I was writing that 'Die Hard was a thriller'...blah blah and of course it hit me--there's no CZ article about one of the greatest "[[Thriller (album)|thrillers]] ever! [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 06:44, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
*[[User:Supten Sarbadhikari|Supten]] thought of courting ''controversies'' a month ahead of the scheduled w-a-t theme and started a page on [[Holistic living]]. Then he added a couple of external links to [[Space_Shuttle_Challenger_Disaster/External_Links|Challenger disaster]]. Next he tried to add a brief section (that started from the 1980s!) to [[Minority government]]. Finally he added some external links and textbooks to [[Biomechanics]]. The memorable events of the 80s to him are those of the [[1983 Cricket World Cup]] or [[Prudential Cup, 1983]] that India had won and of [[Rakesh Sharma]] going to the Space on April 02, 1984, but he did not have the time to write on either of these two.
::5,000 extra bonus points! [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 03:22, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
*Probably the politically most significant event of the 80s: the rise to power of Mikhail "Glasnost" Gorbachev (stub). --[[User:Paul Wormer|Paul Wormer]] 12:16, 3 December 2008 (UTC) And one of the saddest: [[Lucille Ball|Lucy]] died. 
* [[User:Tom Morris|Tom Morris]] wanders in, creates ''[[Edwards v. Aguillard]]'', edits [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], and thinks it might be cool to watch ''[[Weekend at Bernies]]'' again, or maybe ''[[Wall Street (movie)|Wall Street]]'', ''[[Die Hard]]'' and ''[[Back to the Future]]''. I wonder if I can get the [[Betamax]] player to work. Also, I still have a fully operational alphanumeric [[pager]] even though I'm not a crack dealer. —[[User:Tom Morris|Tom Morris]] 13:04, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
::10,000 bonus points for the retro casette! [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 03:22, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
*[[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel]] provided the empty [[biomechanics]] page with some initial wording, as he was introduced to this topic in the late 1980s. He also provided some related articles to the [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] and [[Theoretical biology]] clusters. --[[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 21:04, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
* Bruce may be tied with Daniel for "new article with the most tenuous connection to the 1980s": [[Donald Justice]], who won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. It's pretty thin right now, mostly basic biographical facts, but I'll add more on his poetry soon. (''Six Degrees of Topic Informancy'' factoid: one of Justice's students was one of my creative-writing teachers.) Then I found out what [[Mikhail Gorbachev|Gorby]] is doing these days and added it to his article.  Seems he's got his own Party, just like us! I also vaguely remembered a news article about Oxford U. Press and the disappearance of the hyphen, looked it up, and added a bit about it to Ro's new [[hyphen]] article -- with regret, being a dyed-in-the-wool hyphen-loving guy myself. [[User:Bruce M.Tindall|Bruce M.Tindall]] 23:57, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
* [[User:Pat_Palmer]] is no longer just a party crasher; she has started [[Web services]], which needs a ton more work.[[User:Pat Palmer|Pat Palmer]] 01:29, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
*[[User:Hayford Peirce|Hayford]], as usual playing his role of scoff-law, disdained to do any 1980s-retro stuff (he was already '''SO''' old during that decade), but did what he thought would be a *brief* article about a French military novelist named [[Jean Lartéguy]], but it has now become inordinately long and he will abandon the last editing until tomorrow.  In the meantime, to make him the Compleat PartyGoer, he did do some editing on the [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] article. [[User:Hayford Peirce|Hayford Peirce]] 03:46, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
:Tried to think of a wise crack about Hayford's age, but it's been a hard week and I'm brain dead.  Is it possible to go [[Back to the Future]]? [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 06:22, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
::How about a [[Future of the Outback]]? [[User:Hayford Peirce|Hayford Peirce]] 16:17, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
:::Isn't that the working title of Baz Luhrman's sequel? [[User:Bruce M.Tindall|Bruce M.Tindall]] 19:29, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
::::Ouch, Bruce! [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 21:46, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
*[[User:Anthony.Sebastian|Anthony.Sebastian]] started [[Rheostasis (biology)]], but did not have time to edit any of the other partier's articles. Will try tomorrow. --[[User:Anthony.Sebastian|Anthony.Sebastian]] 04:58, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

==Keen-as-mustard and jumped the gun==
*It isn't yet Wednesday in [[Canada]], but that didn't stop [[User:Derek Hodges|Derek]] from [[minority government|getting political]].  I think that'll count towards January as well!
::Bonus points! [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 04:21, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
*Actually, Derek's been thinking about the [[Patriation of the Canadian constitution]], which took place in 1982. Right now, we're up to our necks in constitutional issues as the aforementioned minority government fights it out with the opposition. (I wish they'd get back to dealing with the frikken economy.). I've also started a bibliography for the [[Challenger disaster]].-[[User:Derek Hodges|Derek Hodges]] 07:30, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

==Rather late and missed the boat!==
* This sort of describes me.  Sorry, all...as you might have guessed, I've been very busy with WatchKnow stuff, and my only excuse is that that does pay the bills. --[[User:Larry Sanger|Larry Sanger]] 03:22, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

* Sorry all - have totally been swamped with work! But I grew up in the 80's, so this calls to mind many, many things ... that I have no idea whether or not they are actually part of the 80's. [[Degrassi Junior High]], [[My Little Pony|My Little Ponies]] (the original ones, that didn't have the rather creepy large anime eyes) ... hmm, big hair, [[Kylie Minogue]], [[Pippi Longstockings]], [[Popples]] toys ... I honestly can't remember many major events from the 80's 'cause I was a young pup, hence all of the pop-culture/recreation references. (Slap bands? Weren't they first around back then before they got banned for the first time?) I don't think I was even born yet when it was Charles and Di's wedding ... spooky. It's Thursday now but I'll get writing post-event. Thanks for the email [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta]]! [[User:Louise Valmoria|Louise Valmoria]] 04:44, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

== Porch sitters--article creators who didn't edit a new article ==
[[User:Anthony.Sebastian|Anthony.Sebastian]] qualifies here.  So sue me!  My favorite Japanese-Jewish restaurant: Sosumi.  No offense intended, and if taken, sincerest apologies. --[[User:Anthony.Sebastian|Anthony.Sebastian]] 19:02, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
:Actually, at a time where American television had three popular categories, Westerns, medicine, and law, there was a proposal for a show called "Sioux, the Doctor." [[User:Howard C. Berkowitz|Howard C. Berkowitz]] 19:06, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
::Sosumi--I think that's really funny!  [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 04:46, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

== Party crashers--article contributors who didn't create a new article ==
{{Image|ThePartyCrashers1958 small.JPG|right|200px|Bobby Driscoll and [[Connie Stevens]] in ''[[The Party Crashers]]'' - 1958}}
* [[User:Pat_Palmer]] is adding to computer articles related to the push to distribute programs across a network, which originated in the 1980's with things such as [[Computer_networking_session_protocols#Remote_Procedure_Call|RPC]], [[EDI]] and [[ASN.1]]. [[User:Pat Palmer|Pat Palmer]] 22:42, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
*I'm giving [[User:John Stephenson|John]] partial credit for editing [[Margaret Thatcher]], because I'm generous and goshdarnnit he's just such a nice guy! [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 05:17, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
{{Image|Chateau de Vincennes.jpg|right|200px|The donjon and moat at the Chateau de Vincennes}}
*Apart from the banner and a photo I uploaded for [[Chateau de Vincennes]] (not exactly 80's retro), I did squat. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 17:31, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
*I've been continuing to tweak [[Vietnam War]], not just to add details, but as what I hope will be an example of how to build a complex series of articles, which involve truly different viewpoints, as well as things that were later realized to be horrible misunderstandings and "if-only" bad decisions. If the approach works, it gives an idea of when to have subarticles, how to present different sides of a conflict, etc.  Both content and flow comments are welcome. [[User:Howard C. Berkowitz|Howard C. Berkowitz]] 17:32, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

==The shy ones, absent-minded profs, and other modest creatures==
I suppose that would include me: although some of the books I was consulting date from the 1980s, I've just been pottering away creating some stubs ready to be expanded such as
* [[Delta form]]
* [[Sum-of-divisors function]]
* [[Tau function]]
As always, the number of new red links created seems to outweigh the number turned blue.  [[User:Richard Pinch|Richard Pinch]] 21:37, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
:Sofixit!
:Okay, new write-a-thon rule:  no-one's allowed to put in more red links than they put in blue links--that is NEW blue links--no cheating!!! [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 22:11, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
::Soz. I am really late to the party but I'm making my redlinks blue now! [[User:Louise Valmoria|Louise Valmoria]] 01:52, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
:::What a good sport you are, Louise!  WTGG! [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 02:01, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

== The total party poops ==
I had really meant to be here for this one, but couldn't make it :-( On tuesday I wrote my first article in a long time so I suppose that counts... Kinda? [[User:Denis Cavanagh|Denis Cavanagh]] 22:38, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
:I'll count it if you tell me what the article was! :) [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 03:42, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

[[User:David E. Volk|David E. Volk]] was a total party poop, missing the whole thing, but if I could have made it, I would have started [[War on drugs]],
officially started sometime in the 1980s by President Reagen due to the [[Clear and present danger]].

==1980s Nobel Prize Winners==
In case anyone's interested, here, list:
{|class=wikitable
!Prize!!Recipient/s
|-
!1989 ||
|-
|Chemistry||[[Sidney Altman]], [[Thomas R. Cech]]
|-
|Economics||[[Trygve Haavelmo]]
|-
|Literature||[[Camilo José Cela]]
|-
|Medicine||[[J. Michael Bishop]], [[Harold E. Varmus]]
|-
|Peace||[[The 14th Dalai Lama]]
|-
|Physics||[[Hans G. Dehmelt]], [[Wolfgang Paul]], [[Norman F. Ramsey]]
|-
!1988 ||
|-
|Chemistry||[[Johann Deisenhofer]], [[Robert Huber]], [[Hartmut Michel]]
|-
|Economics||[[Maurice Allais]]
|-
|Literature||[[Naguib Mahfouz]]
|-
|Medicine||[[Sir James W. Black]], [[Gertrude B. Elion]], [[George H. Hitchings]]
|-
|Peace||[[United Nations Peacekeeping Forces]]
|-
|Physics||[[Leon M. Lederman]], [[Melvin Schwartz]], [[Jack Steinberger]]
|-
!1987 ||
|-
|Chemistry||[[Donald J. Cram]], [[Jean-Marie Lehn]], [[Charles J. Pedersen]]
|-
|Economics||[[Robert M. Solow]]
|-
|Literature||[[Joseph Brodsky]]
|-
|Medicine||[[Susumu Tonegawa]]
|-
|Peace||[[Oscar Arias Sánchez]]
|-
|Physics||[[J. Georg Bednorz]], [[K. Alex Müller]]
|-
!1986 ||
|-
|Chemistry||[[Dudley R. Herschbach]], [[Yuan T. Lee]], [[John C. Polanyi]]
|-
|Economics||[[James M. Buchanan Jr.]]
|-
|Literature||[[Wole Soyinka]]
|-
|Medicine||[[Stanley Cohen]], [[Rita Levi-Montalcini]]
|-
|Peace||[[Elie Wiesel]]
|-
|Physics||[[Gerd Binnig]], [[Heinrich Rohrer]], [[Ernst Ruska]]
|-
!1985 ||
|-
|Chemistry||[[Herbert A. Hauptman]], [[Jerome Karle]]
|-
|Economics||[[Franco Modigliani]]
|-
|Literature||[[Claude Simon]]
|-
|Medicine||[[Michael S. Brown]], [[Joseph L. Goldstein]]
|-
|Peace||[[International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War]]
|-
|Physics||[[Klaus von Klitzing]]
|-
!1984 ||
|-
|Chemistry||[[Bruce Merrifield]]
|-
|Economics||[[Richard Stone]]
|-
|Literature||[[Jaroslav Seifert]]
|-
|Medicine||[[Niels K. Jerne]], [[Georges J.F. Köhler]], [[César Milstein]]
|-
|Peace||[[Desmond Tutu]]
|-
|Physics||[[Carlo Rubbia]], [[Simon van der Meer]]
|-
!1983 ||
|-
|Chemistry||[[Henry Taube]]
|-
|Economics||[[Gerard Debreu]]
|-
|Literature||[[William Golding]]
|-
|Medicine||[[Barbara McClintock]]
|-
|Peace||[[Lech Walesa]]
|-
|Physics||[[Subramanyan Chandrasekhar]], [[William A. Fowler]]
|-
!1982 ||
|-
|Chemistry||[[Aaron Klug]]
|-
|Economics||[[George J. Stigler]]
|-
|Literature||[[Gabriel García Márquez]]
|-
|Medicine||[[Sune K. Bergström]], [[Bengt I. Samuelsson]], [[John R. Vane]]
|-
|Peace||[[Alfonso García Robles]], [[Alva Myrdal]]
|-
|Physics||[[Kenneth G. Wilson]]
|-
!1981 ||
|-
|Chemistry||[[Kenichi Fukui]], [[Roald Hoffmann]]
|-
|Economics||[[James Tobin]]
|-
|Literature||[[Elias Canetti]]
|-
|Medicine||[[David H. Hubel]], [[Roger W. Sperry]], [[Torsten N. Wiesel]]
|-
|Peace||[[Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees]]
|-
|Physics||[[Nicolaas Bloembergen]], [[Arthur L. Schawlow]], [[Kai M. Siegbahn]]
|-
!1980 ||
|-
|Chemistry||[[Paul Berg]], [[Walter Gilbert]], [[Frederick Sanger]]
|-
|Economics||[[Lawrence R. Klein]]
|-
|Literature||[[Czeslaw Milosz]]
|-
|Medicine||[[Baruj Benacerraf]], [[Jean Dausset]], [[George D. Snell]]
|-
|Peace||[[Adolfo Pérez Esquivel]]
|-
|Physics||[[James Cronin]], [[Val Fitch]]
|}

Let's do bios on those folks. Perhaps can get permission from Nobel Org to use theirs.  --[[User:Anthony.Sebastian|Anthony.Sebastian]] 19:16, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

==Special Requests==
Anybody with an interest in biology, please take a look at [[Theoretical biology]] and add some points to it. Thanks! --[[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 09:20, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

See Talk page for discussion re that. 10-Q. --[[User:Anthony.Sebastian|Anthony.Sebastian]] 19:16, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

== Questions ==
*I've been mostly out of touch with CZ for awhile and am delighted to see the colorful Write-A-Thon banner.  To whom should I send its praises?[[User:Pat Palmer|Pat Palmer]] 01:52, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
**I cobbled it together.  I'm glad you like it. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 02:37, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
::50,000 bonus points! [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 05:12, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

==It's a wrap!==

{{CZ:Monthly Write-a-Thon/Previous shindigs}}

== Official libations==
===2007===
* Inaugural - [[beer]]!
* September - [[champagne]]
* October - we were refurbishing the [[bar]] and only had [[coffee]]!
* November - made up for last month with more [[vodka]] than was good for us and plenty of [[rum]].
* December - [[eggnog]] and [[wine]]
===2008===
* January - [[Whisky]] and the ''Cocktail of the Month'', a [[pharisee (beverage)|pharisee]]
* February - [[schnapps]] and the ''Cocktail of the Month'', the [[caipirinha]] (considered the national drink of [[Brazil]])
* March - [[port wine]] (which should probably live at [[port (wine)]], no?  (Someone put that on their list, please....Oh, *someone* did--thanks, Ro) and the ''Cocktail of the Month'', a [[Dead Aunt]]
* April - [[Akpeteshie]] hot and fresh from Ghana.  And cool [[shandy|shandies]] and [[spritzer]]s if that took your fancy.  Lotsa staggering around the bar after this party!
* May - Was it [[champagne]]? ''No, we were dry, I think.''
* June - Were we abstaining yet again?
* July - [[Sherry]]
* August - [[pineapple]] [[juice]]  Well, that's all right, I guess!
* September - Given the music theme, i assume it was [[pop music|pop]]?
* October - [[Cranberry]] juice.  ''Some nut who shall remain nameless but whose initials are HP suggested [[Drano]], (i.e. what cleans better than Drano?) but....''
* November - [[Spring water]] (''Now Bruce just has to write it!'' [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 04:00, 3 December 2008 (UTC))
* December - [[Piña colada]] - get some light rum, mix it with pineapple and coconut cream. Instantly warp back to the eighties.

==Bonus point winners==

== Write-a-Thon Theme Suggestions==
===New Suggestions and Discussion===

* How about another Spring cleaning in March 2009? [[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 08:20, 6 October 2008 (CDT) 
::Not a bad idea at all, unless I get swamped with new, untried requests in the mean time. [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 18:47, 6 October 2008 (CDT)
:::Possibly the theme could be subpages.  Some of them need a lot of housekeeping. Or getting some decent images for the articles we do have. [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]] 19:17, 6 October 2008 (CDT)

* I've picked "Controversies".  Not just because it's an opportunity to show how we handle current ones, though that's an idea, too.  No, I was musing over how things can be controversial in one era, and not even raise an eyebrow in another.  Or how one can think a controversy is over, and then the social cycle changes, and all of a sudden it's controversial again.  ''In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking, but now God knows, anything goes!''.  [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 19:06, 6 October 2008 (CDT)

*What about red links in [[Special:Random|Random pages]]? --[[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 10:15, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

*I suggest "Numbers".  [[User:Richard Pinch|Richard Pinch]] 07:21, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

* "Hometown Heroes" - write about someone famous from your part of the world (either where you're from, or where you are now).
* "Poles Apart" - find the spot directly on the other side of Earth from you, and write about someone or something in the vicinity. (Contributors on other planets, follow a similar procedure for whatever planet you're on. Contributors not on planetary bodies permitted to write about whatever they feel like.)
* Fill in an item from [[French_republican_calendar#Months_and_days|this interesting list of natural objects]]. Or [[Positivist_calendar#Commemorations|this interesting list of people]].
* All articles must start with the same letter of the alphabet, allowing for diacritics and transliteration (so Å, Á, and あ would all count if A were the letter, for instance).
* Photo stubs - no minimum word length, no theme requirement, but must contain an image.
* Choose a random number from 1 to 500, then go to [[Special:WantedPages]] and start an article on the topic currently at that rank.
* How about an alternate weekend date, say the Sunday after the official Write-a-Thon, for those of us who spend our Wednesdays working at places that frown on extensive personal use of company computers?  --[[User:Petréa Mitchell|Petréa Mitchell]] 19:15, 1 January 2009 (UTC)
:There's a current forum thread on this-the proposal was to move the WaT to the weekend.  Your suggestion might pose a good compromise. [[User:Aleta Curry|Aleta Curry]] 21:33, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

===Future Theme Schedule===

*December - '''Retro!''' - <s>I have to pick a decade</s> ''<font color="purple"> <big>'''The 1980s!''' </big> </font>
*January - '''Controversies'''

== See also ==
* Larry Sanger, [http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/08/09/why-the-write-a-thon-worked/ Why the Write-a-Thon worked], Citizendium Blog, August 9, 2007
* [[CZ:Weekly Wiki|Weekly Wiki]]
* [[CZ:Article of the Week|Article of the Week]]
* [[CZ:New Article of the Week|New Article of the Week]]

{{initiatives}}