Wikipedia:WikiProject Alien

[edit] About us

Welcome to the main page of the Alien WikiProject. The project launched on February 25, 2008. Currently, we have 10 active members. Please see the discussion page for information on various project-related collaborations.

WikiProject Alien was formed to foster the creation and encyclopedic improvement of Alien-related articles, and to establish guidelines for those articles. Its members endeavor to produce a succinct, comprehensive, general, and authoritative reference on Alien materials (canon and some non-canon; see below). Additionally, the WikiProject works to ensure that all related articles attain the standards set by WP:FICT and WP:WAF. In order to reach these standards, the WikiProject discourages extreme details and encourages an out-of-universe perspective for all prose (excluding concise plot summaries). To participate, simply add your name to the participants section.

Recent changes in Alien-related articles

[edit] Parentage

Seeing as the Alien franchise covers multiple branches of entertainment, the WikiProject is therefore a sub-project of numerous collaborations:

• WikiProject Entertainment
  • WikiProject Films
  • WikiProject Television
  • WikiProject Books
  • WikiProject Comics
  • WikiProject Computer and video games
    • WikiProject Alien

If interested, please sign our participants section.

[edit] News

[edit] Scope and goals

[edit] Mission statement

The goal of the Alien Wikiproject is to organize, clean, and improve Alien information within a format that fits Wikipedia's fictional procedures to, ultimately, the level of quality stressed in the Featured Article and Featured List guidelines.

[edit] Scope

Currently, this WikiProject covers the following items:

1. Anyone affiliated with the concept of Alien, including the musicians, casts, and crews of every Alien film.
2. Anything featured on the Alien portal.
3. Anything located within an Alien or Alien-affiliated category, sub-category, list, article, stub, or template.

[edit] Goals and duties

Our goals and duties are as follows:

1. Discussions and debates relating to the above items, including merges, citations, other references, image issues, splits, cleanup, formatting, and expansion.
2. Reduce trivial information, speculation, point of view, and anything else that violates Wikipedia's Fictional Guidelines.
3. Monitoring all articles for violations of anything listed in the above two parts.
4. Work toward making all Alien-related articles and lists clean, organized, well-written, and accessible.
5. Bring numerous articles to Good Article, Featured Article, and/or Featured List status.

[edit] Your role

We need the participation of Wikipedians and Alien fans alike. Here are some general guidelines to follow.

[edit] How to help

1. Please sign your name below and introduce yourself in the monthly roll call section of the talk page.
2. Take a look at recent discussions and the things to do page to see if your ideas have already been or need to be addressed.
3. Get to know other users so that you can get a sense of the Project's attitude and each member's opinions on what should be merged, expanded, and so on. This will allow you to work better with the team, especially on major projects.
4. Make sure you cite your sources, follow the project's guidelines in addition to style guidelines, and follow the discussions and agreements for the project.
5. Look for text that seems biased (see WP:NPOV) and fix it.
6. Be bold, but do not be reckless. See the above items and the section below for further information on what to do and what not to do.

[edit] How not to help

Do not:

1. Insert un-cited and trivial information (see: WP:FICT, Fancruft).
2. Revert war (adherence to the One Revert Rule is encouraged)
3. Add original research, unsourced claims, speculation, point of view, excess video game information, vandalism, and patent nonsense.

[edit] Things to remember

1. This is a general interest encyclopedia, not GameFAQs or Wookieepedia. Full histories and backgrounds of characters go into far more detail than Wikipedia wants.
2. Only a few characters or creatures deserve their own entries. Items, spaceships, planets, and other miscellanea do not.
3. See: What Wikipedia is Not.
4. Again, we stress: this project is mainly for cleanup, organization, enhancement, factual fixes, and so on. Trivial information and fanfiction are frowned upon.

If some of these items seem redundant, it only underscores what we all believe in as a group.

[edit] Open/major tasks

The following is a chart of our largest tasks. For a complete list, please see the things to do subpage, in addition to our talk page. See the opentask template at the top of the page for the priority tasks. Project members, this chart should feature "priority one" tasks!

[edit] Alien Portal

Alien Portal

Make sure to visit the Alien Portal. Also you can vote for the selected article of the week at Portal:Alien/Vote.

[edit] Collaboration of the week

The Alien Collaboration of the week is a group effort to improve a specific Alien article on Wikipedia every week. To help out or vote for next week's candidate please see the Alien Collaboration of the week page.

[edit] Other

• See the Wikipedia:WikiProject Alien/index for a list of Alien-related articles that do not require significant attention. Chances are, if an item doesn't belong on that list or isn't on there, it needs to be fixed (make a note on the things to do page and/or the discussion page).

• Also remember that there is a Alien barnstar that you can give out to deserving editors (and a userbox for those who are awarded the barnstar).

[edit] Templates

What to type	What it makes	Template type
{{subst:Alienwelcome}} Talk Hello! Thank you for contributions. I have realized that you have edited an Alien related article. If you wish there is a Alien WikiProject which you can join and help us edit Wikipedia's Alien articles. Wikipedia also has a Alien Collaboration of the week and Alien Portal. If you have any questions just ask at the Alien WikiProject. Also here are a few good links for newcomers: The five pillars of Wikipedia How to edit a page Help pages Tutorial How to write a great article Manual of Style I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. Also remember to use the edit summary when you contribute. Again, thank you for your help! Template to greet new users and invite them to the Alien WikiProject. {{subst:Alienwelcome-E}} Talk Hello! Thank you for contributions. I have realized that you have edited an Alien related article. If you wish there is a Alien WikiProject which you can join and help us edit Wikipedia’s Alien articles. Wikipedia also has the following Alien related projects: Alien WikiProject discussion Index of the best Alien articles Alien things to do Alien Collaboration of the week Alien Portal Alien Selected Article voting If you have any questions just ask at the Alien WikiProject. Again, Thank you for your help! Template to invite experienced users to the Alien WikiProject. {{Alien-stub}} Talk ‹ The stub template below has been proposed for deletion or renaming. See stub types for deletion to help reach a consensus on what to do. Feel free to edit the template, but the template must not be blanked, and this notice must not be removed, until the discussion is closed. For more information, read the guide to deletion.› A  This Alien-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. The stub for Alien-related articles. {{AlienProject}} Talk Alien Portal This article is part of WikiProject Alien, which aims to build an encyclopedic guide to the Alien science fiction franchise on Wikipedia. To participate, you can improve this article or visit the project page for more information. ??? This article has not yet been assigned a rating on the quality scale. ??? This article has not yet been assigned a rating on the importance scale. The notice or template marking the article as part of the project. Placed on talk pages of fleshed out articles with no original research, copyvios, or speculation. It has optional paramaters to denote a selected article, list, or picture. {{User Alien WikiProject}} Talk This user is a member of WikiProject Alien. Userbox for project members. {{AlienCOTW}} Talk The current Alien Collaboration of the week is "Alien (film)". The next winner will be selected on May 22, 2008. Last week's article was Aliens (film) — [2] Template that shows the current and previous Alien Collaboration of the week. {{Current-AlienCOTW}} Talk This is the current Alien Collaboration of the week! Please help to improve it to match the quality of an ideal Wikipedia Alien article. Template to put on the front page of each week's collaboration. {{subst:AlienCOTWvoter}} Talk You showed support for the Alien Collaboration of the week. This week Alien (film) was selected to be improved to featured article status. We hope you can contribute. Template that informs supporters of an article that it is the current Alien Collaboration of the week. {{subst:Aliencandidate}} Talk This is a candidate to be the Alien Collaboration of the week. Please see this page's entry to support or comment on the nomination. Template to put on the front page of a candidate for the Collaboration of the week. {{subst:User AlienCOTW}} Talk Alien Alien (film) is the current Alien Collaboration of the week. Userbox for contributors to the Alien Collaboration of the Week.

[edit] Participants

Here is a list of Alien Wikiproject members, together with some of their interests. To join the group simply add yourself to the list of participants, being sure to maintain alphabetical order.