Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Dinosaurs/Dinosaur collaboration

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Interested Dinophiles

If you are interested in collaborating on Wikipedia's dinosaur content, please add your user name below using #~~~. Signing one's username to the list below should not be taken as an obligation to assist with this initiative or to edit any particular article(s), nor is putting one's name on the list a requirement for participation. All Wikipedians are free to contribute as much or as little as desired.

For any other questions, ideas or thoughts, please feel free to add a message to this talk page.

  1. Cas Liber - Co-Maintenance officer of Dinosaur Collaboration.
  2. Spawn Man - Co-Maintenance officer of Dinosaur Collaboration.
  1. Ballista.
  2. Dinoguy2.
  3. Firsfron of Ronchester.
  4. Sheep81.
  5. Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs.
  6. DinoBird.
  7. Mistyschism.
  8. RebSkii.

Also, when a new collaboration article arises, please visit the following page, which will update the link on the community portal: Wikipedia:WikiProject Dinosaurs/ Collaboration of the fortnight/current. Thanks, Spawn Man.


Contents

[edit] Questions

1) How long should collaborations run for?
2) Should collaborations get their own subpage or should we just use the articles' talk pages?

Sheep81 00:56, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

If I have my wiki terminology wrong let me know but, in a perfect world, a collaboration should go until the article is featured :) Dinoguy2 03:06, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
Well yes, the end of the official collaboration period doesn't mean we stop working on it. But it seems most collaborations are temporary (so that the group can move on to improve another article). A lot of them are only a week, others are longer (two weeks or a fortnight). Once an article gets to the point where we start thinking about getting it featured, it can be referred down to the bottom section of the page, I think. Sheep81 04:40, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
That sounds reasonable. By the way, near the top of the collaboration page, the phrase "Nothing yet!" is a bit out of date, now. :-) - Ballista 05:22, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ideas:

Hi everyone.... To make it seem like other collaborations, I feel we need a few things to be changed...

1)Collaborations should have a running time. I think 2 weeks should be ideal, as the editors needed are specialistic in nature & the subject may also not be familiar with some people. 1 week would not get the appropriate coverage needed or time, as we do not have as many editors as AID etc. Any longer than 2 weeks & we would risk boredom & neglect.
2)The sections need to be shuffled around a bit. At the moment, all the sections look the same, such as the participant's list & featured dinos section look exactly the same as the section we want to be looked at, the nominations section. It needs some clear border or difference from other sections & the others need to be smaller & less obvious sections. Also, the list of participants needs to be placed at the bottom, or even deleted. It has no real purpose. Anyone who signs that is already a member of wikiproject dinos or has voted for one of the nominees already. It takes up space & detracts from the other sections. If it absolutely needs to be kept, I suggest it goes at the bottom of the page or on its talk page.
3)The formatting of the nominations is lacking. It needs a "Stays to", "Nominated on" etc etc like AID, whos voting system works wonderously.

I can get onto any of these, & will probably fiddle around with the nominations anyway. Any improvements on my ideas? Only if somebody else wants to, I can do all this myself later on. Further, since we have this collaboration, the Big 20 can go from wikiproject dinos. Thanks, Spawn Man 00:45, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree with all of the above. I just kind of threw something together to get things rolling. If you think the page should be arranged differently, I think you probably know best. 2 weeks sounds good to me, and yeah, we don't really need the list of participants. Sheep81 00:50, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I think the page looks much better now. I've changed the nomination & voting procedure & shifted the participant's list to here. The sections are now much less alike & the template thingy that Kirill fixed is beautiful. I hope you like it. Spawn Man 01:32, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Nice. Looks really professional now, like we actually know what we are doing or something. Sheep81 07:26, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Heaven forbid that it should look like we know what we're doing! (seriously, page looking good) - Ballista 07:53, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thoughts on voting

I'm wondering if 4 votes a week isn't too high a bar to set, considering there are only 6 of us who even really come to this page. Maybe we should lower it to 2 per week for now, until more people start participating? Just a thought. Spawn? Anyone?Sheep81 08:26, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Yay! Someone asked my opinion! Yes bar should be dropped. I was just getting a good starting point... Spawn Man 21:46, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Could you clarify on the page what the new bar is set at? 2 or 3? Thanks! Sheep81 00:22, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
2 Spawn Man 00:02, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

.......first past the post maybe? Cas Liber 00:48, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Can we vote twice?????????? :-) - Ballista 03:56, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
No double voting.... :) Spawn Man 00:02, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
Yeah - only joking, of course, to bring a bit of the 'ridiculous' into this thread, as there were so few of us. :-) - Ballista 07:14, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New link

I finally noticed that the dino collaboration wasn't actually linked to via the collaboration section in the community portal. So I included it in & created the above link (below the participant's list), which is used much the same as a template, i.e. {{}}. All you have to do is change the link on the page & it will change the link on the community portal. No fiddling with it peoples other than that!!!! Thanks, Spawn Man 02:11, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nomination comments

Hey all, it's great that some of us are working on articles even before they get selected as the collaboration, but I think if we have extensive comments on what we are doing to articles that have only been nominated but not selected yet, we should probably have that discussion on the article talk page instead of the collaboration page, at least until the article actually gets nominated. I could be off base here and it's probably not that big of a deal, but just saying. Sheep81 10:54, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Good point-presumably as we get cracking on a few it is easier to have info close at hand and relevant rather than buried in an archive somewhere. Cas Liber 14:01, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Needs n votes?

I'm not sure I understand the 'needs n votes' part. Why does each dinosaur nominated have a different number of votes needed? Why is the number so high for T-rex (6), but the last dinosaur on the list needs only 2 votes? This seems really confused to me. What am I missing?--Firsfron of Ronchester 19:23, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

See the Article Improvement Drive voting system as we are using the exact same thing. For example: T rex was nominated on say the 1st. It will stay for a week unless it gets 2 votes, in that case it stays for an extra week. Once it has 2 votes by the deadline date (8th of the same month), it will need a further 2 votes to stay another week & so on. If a nominee gets enough votes, it could stay for a while! The reason T rex had 6 votes before a deadline was because it had already gotten the 4 votes needed to stay 2 extra weeks & needed 2 more votes (6) to stay yet another week. Hope this helps a bit.... But don't worry, just vote & I'll maintain everything... Spawn Man 01:26, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Next FAC?

Well, folks, what's up next? Do we go for the big guy (I mean T-rex), one of these other fine fellows listed here, or take a well-deserved break?--Firsfron of Ronchester 23:44, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Congrats all round on job well done. I vote we go for T. rex, while we're on a roll. - Ballista 04:36, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Hope you don't mind I moved this to the talk page. Don't want to clutter up the front page too much, you know? Anyway, Tyrannosaurus is a long way from featured quality still in my opinion. I think we should probably have it peer reviewed prior to FAC anyway just to make sure it's top-notch considering the importance of the article. Sheep81 04:41, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
I agree.--Firsfron of Ronchester 05:58, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Seems like a very sound plan - as you say, big feller tho' he is, with so much known about him, for some reason the article still lacks some weight. - Ballista 06:43, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Well, Agentsoo spun the popular culture section into a separate article, so it lost some weight right there.--Firsfron of Ronchester 06:56, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Hmmm ... true enough - but putting that back in would overpower the 'proper' stuff - what say to some extracts coming back in (highlights)? The separate article is a goody, too, so I wouldn't advocate losing that. - Ballista 08:49, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Oh, I wasn't advocating moving Agentsoo's article back in, just for the record. I think a separate article was needed, in this case.--Firsfron of Ronchester 00:43, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Awww, I don't know about being along way off from Featured Article Status - I foud it reads a bit easier that Velociraptor. Peer Reviewing it is a good idea if everyone has been tweaking it a bit here and there and feeling a little brain dead. The extra input may be good :) Cas Liber 11:19, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Gasp! Velociraptor not as good as T rex??!! I doubt it... ;). Anyway, yes, T rex is a way off from becoming a FA. In my experience, don't send any article to Peer review. You only waste valuable time on one or two comments. I put ap a couple of peer reiviews & recieved only two responses between them & lost a week of editing when I could be doing the same thing in an FAC. Generally, people respond more on an FAC page rather than peer review. So IMHO, I think in a week or so (because we still have velociraptor, pssita & alberta to go on the main page & we don't want to overload it!) we should simply nominate T rex for FAC & then do things from there, rather than waste time on a fruitless Peer review. Anyway, Spawn Man 02:57, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
OK, so do we, um, nominate it then? Cas Liber 06:04, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
Not yet. It'll get like 80 immediate objections if we nominate it now. Sheep81 06:22, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
Hence why I said in a week or two... Spawn Man 23:34, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] C'mon guys get fire wise!

Ohmigoshbatman! Our work efforts into the selected article collaboration has dwindled slowly. Velociraptor had good amounts of work on it, same with T rex. But honestly, work on Diplodocus is shameful! C'mon guys, boost up the tempo for the final days of this article's nomination! I expect to see another article either featured or in peer review (although peer review sucks!) before the next collaboration is chosen! Gosh, what ever you guys are doing, hugging trees (cause you all seem so mellow bout everything) or digging up fossils, you guys need a push into activity! *Sigh*.... Spawn Man 22:25, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

I've been at work for 48 out of the last 72 hours (I'm still there now actually)... I haven't had time. Sheep81 11:29, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
Umm...where's Tyrannosaurus now then in the production line.............?Cas Liber 11:49, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
Well, I dunno about you, but I'm somewhere between joning the 2nd & 3rd spinal discs... It needs some polishing & after that, send it straight to FAC IM(H)O... Spawn Man 03:57, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
I don't get the spinal discs comment. I guess we shift 'do do' ideas onm the bottom of the Tyrannosaurus talk page?Cas Liber 03:20, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
That comment was huge in America man! Gosh! Anyway, don't shift any to do's from any subpages, you can copy them, but don't move them. We need to record & keep recording... It'll stuff everything up.... Righteous... Spawn Man 00:56, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
Hmmmm....I actually can't add anything else to any dinosaurs articles because I dont anything about them. :-D ...Does anyone have any dino articles that need to be started from the scratch? Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 10:50, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
The List of short dinosaur articles lists most of the shortest articles. Almost anything could be added to make them longer: most are missing basic things like taxoboxes, pictures, and references, or details, like who discovered them, etc. Stuff that can easily be added, without a whole lot of research. --Firsfron of Ronchester 18:24, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
Okie Dokie, Thanks a lot for that! I'll do whatever I can. I know, I should've have noticed that page ealier but lately I haven't been following any discussions and all out of sorts with this dial-up internet and the fact that I am vacationing in Kuwait isn't doing any good to my edit count. :-( Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 23:45, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
It's not that old of a page (only a month old or so), so that's probably why you didn't see it earlier. Kuwait? During the summer? Sounds... hot... :/ --Firsfron of Ronchester 01:53, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
Yeah Yeah, I know... Whatever you may think, I am, infact, vacationing in Kuwait, in the summer, and I am not proud of it.. ;-) Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 15:13, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Hey looky, Diplodocus has been made a GA..Cas Liber 21:03, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Production Line

OK, is it worth putting the former collaborations at the bottom in a new line before "Dinos in Peer Review". Is it worth sticking Diplodocus in "Peer Review"? Anyone mind if I do this? Cas Liber 03:12, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Huh? I didn't get: "...is it worth putting the former collaborations at the bottom in a new line before "Dinos in Peer Review?" To answer your other question, no, it is not worth sticking it in peer review. I've been here long enough to know peer reviews do nothing. You may 1 or 2 responses, but nothing really useful. To get anything done, you just stick it straight on FAC, & people flock to it like pig sweat in winter! If you don't want to dod that, just ask at the WP: Dinosaur's talk page & we'll give it a once over before it goes to trial. Thanks, Spawn Man 06:06, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
What I meant was putting a heading of sorts for things which have been collaborations but in a bit of limbo, that is not nominated yet but had some work done (like where Diplodocus is now). Where the other headings are at the bottom of the collaboration page. Just so stuff doesn't get lost in the wikiwoodwork.Cas Liber 07:57, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
Makes sense to me, but I don't know what Spawn Man thinks.--Firsfron of Ronchester 08:08, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
..the main thing is that I am just ensuring things don't get lost along the way and it is the other step between being a winner and being collaborated on for two weeks and then polished up for FA. It is just insurance that there are no gaps.Cas Liber 08:11, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
Still not quite sure what you mean (maybe I've gone dumb!). If you mean like a record of past collaborations & nominations, we do have this page here Wikipedia:WikiProject Dinosaurs/Dinosaur collaboration/Past DCs, accessible from the collaboration page. If you meant anything else, I'm sorry but I still have no idea. Sorry, it is late here.... Spawn Man 11:22, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
OK, I'll show you.... Cas Liber 20:43, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
Looking at what you've done, it seems as possible idea, but at the same time a bit unneccessary (or how ever you spell it!). We do have the past DCs page for previous winners & non-winners, so the only reason we would be putting them on the main collaboration page would be to get more people to work on it. Although good intentioned, I feel it is not needed as of the moment. If I see that people are forgetting past winners & nominating other dinosaurs for FACs more frequently than not, I will definitely revise the proposal. Thanks a lot for your enthusiastic ideas & thoughts! If you have anything else to address on the page, please do so. Spawn Man 00:55, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
Ok then. How's about an algorithm which takes the time process out of it? All time limits and 2 weekly voting is disregarded. This way an article that, for instance, collaborators stop working on for any reason, is not forgotten and other folks can come at any time and pick up from where left off. This then eliminates 'former nominees' and 'former collaborations' completely. Also eliminates need for voting on one nominee over another (there are too few voters anyway and most of us are voting a few times). This way there may be a few collaborations that folk are working on an some may

reach FA status alot more quickly than others.

  • Step 1. A person nominates article 'X' as a possible one-day Featured Article. (cat=Nominee)
  • Step 2. Nominee either gets 3 supporting votes. This should be based on a combination of current plus projected article status (i.e. potential information)
  • Step 3. If successful, goes into 'Collaboration Article' cat.
  • Step 4. Then, by consensus, once collaborators feel an attempt at FAC is warranted, nomination. This can be informal or another 3 supports.

Cas Liber 01:22, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

The proccess is too complicatated for some of you already. Can't you just let things be simple? There is a page for those articles on the collaboration. I, or anyone else, can quite easily bring those articles into the spot light once again. For example, I brought Velociraptor & T rex to FAC. It's that simple. No need for another section, another complicated vote, no nothing. Until we get at least a few more voters, (see the Triceratops nomination on the main collaboration page for kore info), we shouldn't be doing anything that complicated. The system at the moment is working fine; the only problem is is the fact that no one is really working on the nominated article (I'm about the only major contributor to Struthiomimus!). First work on the nominated article before doing anything else guys! We don't want to become an inactive collaboration do we?? As the maintainer of this page, I feel any new editions will be both largely confusing & tiresome to update every 2 weeks or so. Thanks, Spawn Man 02:50, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
OK, well what about Diplodocus? Does this mean once an article is nominated, then there are two weeks to work on it and then.......what? Which do you consider to have priority? If you're keeping tabs on things well and good I guess...Cas Liber 08:18, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
Well actually 4 weeks, because it still appears under the current collaboration in "Last dinosaur collaboration...". I will keep tabs on everything, & anyway, Diplodocus has made it to GA status, which is one of the things we were aiming for. If that's our outcome for every collaboration we do, I thnik it's a job well done... Spawn Man 22:39, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New voting??

seems to me we have too few voting to make this whole business meaningful (yet another heresy) - that's why I made the joke about voting twice, a while back. All the ones we've had up on this board have been good possibilities & they just fade out for lack of votes, simply because our target is almost impossible, with our small numbers. I propose we should have three or four up, at each nomination, with each of us allowed to vote for two. One with the most votes goes through or we invent a tie-break, penalty shoot-out method of deciding ties. I now put my tin hat on and sit down. :-) - Ballista 07:03, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

  • With the same five or six people voting every time, I guess it's a little silly. But I like it anyway! :) --Firsfron of Ronchester 07:58, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
We could start by re-nominataing every former nomination again on Aug 2 (and then some) and get a real race with a load of starters. ;)Cas Liber 08:13, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
Oh! Yes! That's perfect! ;) Another idea: close your eyes and click randomly on the List of dinosaurs page. First ten clicks are collaboration articles. ;)--Firsfron of Ronchester 08:21, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
Oh - have we descended so far? :-) Cas's suggestion could work but we need a way of spreading our five or six voters, in a meaningful way (e.g., depending how many nominations, each have a set number of votes that we can use that is fewer than the number of nominations.) - Ballista 20:58, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
Until we get more voters, (& we will due to the 2 new voters that have appeared!), we can't really be too picky on how we vote. Put aside the voting, our most important task should be the improvement of nominated articles. It doesn't really matter which we vote for, as long as the articles are voted for. However, I do feel Cas's random selection is a good one! Since I'm Maintenance Officer, I could select say 5 or 4 dinosaur articles & then everyone could pick or choose on which they really want to vote on. If they want to vote for all, that should be allowed. This would of course only be in place until more voters (say at least 10 regular voters) arrive. Thoughts? Spawn Man 01:04, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
Yes, this is good, depending upon what we mean by random. I assume not computer randomisation (when an 80kB article could just as easily come up) but a selection of 'likely' dinos, based upon your own assessment. If so, I'm with you but I still think we'd need to be able to vote for at least two each, to create a ranking. - Ballista 07:11, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
I moved this conversation here to avoid too big a mess on the main page. Okay, Let's have a vote for the following rules on voting:

New rules: I, (Spawn Man) will pick 5 random articles from the List of Dinosaurs (Ensuring they actually need fixing etc...), as discussed above. Then, every person will be allowed to vote up to 3 times on different nominations (people aren't voting on everything now anyway so 3 seems better). From there voting & selection will continue as per normal. However, the process may change once numbers increase or it seems to be not working out. -- Spawn Man 23:31, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

  • Support:
  1. Spawn Man 23:31, 23 July 2006 (UTC).
  2. --Firsfron of Ronchester 23:36, 23 July 2006 (UTC) Sounds fine to me, although I never really quite understood the old version of voting, so take my vote with a grain of salt.
  3. I support this, of course, since it is close to my own proposal. However, I opened up this morning in order to put a further suggestion: that we should each have a first, second and third choice (scored 3, 2, 1). That way, the ranking may spread out better. - Ballista 04:13, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
    1. I agree that would be great, but it would be both lost & complicated on most people. And if someone made a mistake, & I tried to update it, I wouldn't know if the vote was worth 1,2 or 3 points. Although it is a good idea, I feel all votes should remain the same value for sake of easiness... Spawn Man 04:32, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
  4. Sounds fine.Cas Liber 04:16, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
    1. I can run with that but I think we DESPERATELY need to introduce something new, now :-). Voting is bogged down again. - Ballista 05:03, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
    2. I agree! --Firsfron of Ronchester 05:54, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Opposition:
  1. ....
Voting -- Voting seems to be going great now however, with Soo deciding to enter the mix. Maybe we should keep this plan for a rainy day. However, if you guys want to only pick one or two nominations to vote on, feel free to. Spawn Man 04:29, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Punctuation and references

This may appear to be a trifling issue (yes, I am pedantic :-)!) but we have an inconsistency in the way the in-text references are positioned, relative to the next punctuation mark. If a reference is to text that appears before a comma, should we perhaps have the reference also before the comma? The same applies to a full stop (period). If the reference is placed after a full stop or comma, it can appear to hang nowhere (IMO). I did try to alter the positioning, one one article (possibly T. rex), but was rapidly reverted. That made me think that there are clearly two sides to this question and perhaps we should try to agree a consistent approach. The inconsistency now shows on our latest projects. I don't really mind which, so long as it is agreed and consistent, esp. in our collaboration articles. - Ballista 07:07, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

I think it is pretty consistent among FAC reviewers, at least, that the ref will come after the punctuation. But I don't know if that is policy. I personally think it looks better after, as long as there is no space.Sheep81 21:51, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
There is no policy. According to WP:CITE#Templates, it doesn't matter; in fact, there's no requirement that inline citations be used at all. That's only the preference of the people who have been reviewing our FACs. I'm more than willing to do whatever they want to make the article better, but let's be clear: there's no policy that in-line refs be used, or that the punctuation must come before or after the ref.--Firsfron of Ronchester 23:14, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] ....Which one next on the production line to FAC then?

OK folks, from comparing the pages of Diplodocus, Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Struthiomimus and Triceratops, does anyone get a sense of which one is closest to being nominated (and possibly worked on to punt into the FAC?). I'd say the first 3 were pretty even (?) Cas Liber 06:17, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Good question as always, Cas. :) I'd like to go for a Jurassic dinosaur this time, so my vote is for Stegosaurus. I've done a bit of work on that one, and would like to see it come to fruition (in fact, I got so carried away I started on Kentrosaurus). On the other hand, if the consensus of the group was to get a different one to FA status, I'd gladly help.--Firsfron of Ronchester 06:35, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
OK, am plugging away at Stegosaurus as this one to me seems most do-able to FAC. Question is, when to submit> MOre images would be nice though. Cas Liber 04:53, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
Right - have played with it. Was about to nominate Stegosaurus as FAC and as I was trying to write nomination realised it needs some 'meat' in the plates section.Cas Liber 23:00, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
Sod it -tweaked a couple of things.Cas Liber 14:17, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New template!

Hello, in an attempt to help collaborate across COTW projects, I've made a template that displays the current picks of each. I've made a template for you to be able to add the name of the current article {{collab-dinosaurs}}, which you can also use to transclude in your other templates so you don't have to update those manually. You'd only need to update this new one to populate the others on rollover. The new template that will display your current pick is {{COTWCurrentPicks}}. plange 03:16, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Huh? Spawn Man 03:31, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
You would edit the new template with the name of the new collab article and if you also replace the hard-coding of the article name in any templates with the new template, then you will automate things. You'd only have to edit the new template to keep all templates up to date. --plange 18:50, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Main page

Good to see T. rex up there, on the Main page today, King where he belongs! - Ballista 04:23, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Good work everyone. Oh by the way, I think Soo wants to have a go at running this collaboration. I think everyone should get behind him & really give him good feedback. It's no easy task... Spawn Man 06:38, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Barsbold

As I was so fed up with there being none, I have made the very rash move of creating an article on Rinchen Barsbold. As he's such a crucial feller in paleontology, please could everyone take a look as soon as possible, to ensure accuracy, up-to-dateness, etc. Thanks - Ballista 11:52, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Away

Hi - I'll be away a while & may be unable to access the internet. Apologies in advance in case of non-responses etc. Ciao for now. - Ballista 03:50, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

have a nice holidayCas Liber 04:36, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
Ditto. :) Firsfron of Ronchester 04:44, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Stegosaurus on FAC list

OK everyone, I have nominated this beastie - it's pretty comprehensive. Would love folk to support it or give it a last tweak especially if a few objects turn up....Cas Liber 14:19, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dino collab production line

Hi everybody - Diplodocus is steadily shaping up to be nominated soon. There is a neck and neck race for the next nomination. I will be off and on in the next couple of weeks but the next nomiation will be decided next week, so vote if you want.Cas Liber 23:08, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I think ties are counterproductive

(Gasp, splutter, coming up for air)

Sorry all - been tied up and unable to contribute. I will extend the next vote up until December 21 as I think a tie will dilute efforts. Sorry. cheers Cas Liber 14:14, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree that a tie will dilute efforts, especially a three-way tie. Glad to see you active again, BTW. :) Firsfron of Ronchester 19:11, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] joining in

although i have little interest in dinosaurs, i decided i wanted to join this group. after i noticed the nomination of Diplodocus, i tried reading a couple of articles and noticed that there are some redundancies. maybe i can help in fixing. thanks and more power to the group. --RebSkii 18:12, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I goofed - I thought it was the 17th of Jan (d'oh!)

There I go - I should have announced Iggy on the 10th but for some reason had 17th in my head. Anyway, gave folks a bit of time on Triceratops....

Anyway, now we have two dinos to work on. One near to FAC, the other needing a quite a bit of going over yet...Cas Liber 04:52, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Triceratops nominated

OK, here we go.....Cas Liber 05:29, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

..........And through to FA (phew!) :) Cas Liber 06:53, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Next collaboration tied - voting extended by 7 days. Need tie-breaker

Alright folks - voting is tied at 4 apiece between Ankylosaurus and Compsognathus. I have extended voting by 7 days (well, people have only just started attacking the Iguanodon article anyways...). If it is still tied then I'll toss a coin and vote myself (I thought I'd give people a last chance to vote and I honestly couldn't decide myself) :) cheers Cas Liber 06:52, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hmmm....?

Hey Cas, why aren't the nominations under the nominations header? Currently they're under the "For more complete articles" header. See the TOC to see what I'm talking about. Thought I'd let you fix anything incase you had a plan for it or something.... Thnak,s Spawn Man 22:43, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Ummm yeah.......ok. will do cheers, Casliber | talk | contribs 00:28, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
Better? Can you vote now? cheers, Casliber | talk | contribs 00:31, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
Gee, calm down. ;) I don't really like any of the candidates.... But I guess I might vote on one... Spawn Man 04:42, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
Awww -ya don't like any...aaaaah you found Deinonychus then. I did think of nominating Giganotosaurus as it is a southern hemisphere one, At least Compy and Archie are from Europe....cheers, Casliber | talk | contribs 09:59, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New formatting

Hi everyone, changed formatting & tidied up the collaboration a bit as per discussions with Cas, current maintainor of collab. Hope the changes make the voting run a bit more smoothly... Thanks, Spawn Man 07:22, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A note on FA dinogeographics

OK folks, after some amazing work on Iggy, Compy, Archie and Thesky (with Deinonychus in the pipeline - can't think of a nickname) there's a bunch of candidates for the next collab and possibly no backlog (!). Now Thescelosaurus Allosaurus leads but a whole bunch of other dinos are tied for 2nd spot. Who will win.....take your chance and vote now....cheers, Casliber | talk | contribs 12:46, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

OK - stats:

  • generally we have 5 theropods (including 1 dino-bird), 2 ceratopsians, 1 sauropod, 1 stegosaur (or thyreophore as you like), and 2 ornithopods.
  • temporally we have 7 cretaceous and 4 jurassic
  • geographically we have 6 Nth American, 2 Asian and 3 European dinos (All from the Nthn Hemisphere!)

Something to think about anyway..cheers, Casliber | talk | contribs 22:10, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Preceding bit update FYI

OK - Given Thescelosaurus is polishing up so well I have fast tracked the next vote to April 1st (instead of mid-april), so knock yerselves out..........cheers, Casliber | talk | contribs 02:46, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Underrepresented categories - part uno

OK - Firsfron left me a note on whether/how/if/when we'd do an aussie dino. Much as I am a patriotic Australian I was amused to read how Australia has the most meagre dino fossil record.....even including Antarctica!!

The best idea for a dino FA maybe actually a Sea Monster - Kronosaurus queenslandicus, or Minmi may be another, the Victorian small ornithopod dinosaurs and a discussion on polar dinos may be a good bet too.

A much more fertile ground for southern hemisphere dinos would be Argentina - Amargasaurus, Argentinosaurus and Giganotosaurus all come to mind. Anyone see any other possiblilities? cheers, Casliber | talk | contribs 12:30, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Massospondylus or Spinosaurus would probably be your best bets, volume-wise, for info for a Gondwanan dinosaur. A dark horse: Heterodontosauridae, a quiet GA. J. Spencer 22:21, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
Spinosaurus is looking pretty meaty currently so is probably best bet, though strictly northern hemisphere (Egypt) but is African which I think is novel. There's loads of really interesting stuff about it too. cheers, Casliber | talk | contribs 00:18, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Underrepresented categories - part two-o

(Said in my best Joe Bob Briggs voice)

Ummm....a triassic dino would be nice. Plateosaurus really jumps out as the most obvious, though Massospondylus is both southern hemisphere and triassic....so there....cheers, Casliber | talk | contribs 12:32, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Triassic dinos, eh? My personal fav is Herrerasaurus, and there's lots to expand in it, in any case. Dåvid Fuchs (talk / frog blast the vent core!) 22:30, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
Agreed; that;s a great idea as there's alot to talk about in terms of taxonomy and where it lies in the scheme of things (actually this could be true with alot of triassic critters). cheers, Casliber | talk | contribs 00:13, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Three month turnover

The three months is up so all unsuccessful collab nominees have been archived. Plenty to work on now but is interesting to muse on what might complement what we have at Featured Status, so have a think and nominate away....cheers, Cas Liber | talk | contribs 04:27, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Co-Maintenance:

Hi all! Cas & I have spoken & come to the conclusion that it would be beneficial to both of us if we co-maintained the collab. A few changes have also been implemented - The nominations will be wiped clean every 1 month, rather than the old 3 months. This is to keep everything fresh etc. So, if you notice things haven't been updated in a while, leave a note on either of our talk pages & we'll try & get things going again ASAP. Cheers, Spawn Man 01:39, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Next FAC..?

We have a bolter! Daspletosaurus is racing down the home stretch to the FAC finishing line, with Deinonychus and Herrerasaurus neck and neck and Spinosaurus a big improver...things are happenin' cheers, Cas Liber | talk | contribs 05:01, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

One slight problem with Spinosaurus is the current instability of The Theropod Database; I'd put it in the back until a new version is up. Sauropelta ain't bad, either, or, dare I say it, Lambeosaurus. J. Spencer 05:11, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
You're right. I'd forgotten those....I think Daspletosaurus is probably closest then...cheers, Cas Liber | talk | contribs 07:17, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
Hmm, I thought Plateosaurus or Scelidosaurus were just as close? Cas, I didn't get your "Gawd Spawny..." comment on the WIKIDINO talk page, so you might have to explain it to me... Anyway, sorry I haven't been as active around here as I hoped to be Cas. Hopefully we can get some more articles up to scratch... :) Spawn Man 07:45, 11 June 2007 (UTC)
I just meant continuing the discussion here is all as I saw you create the new bit over there. Everytime I raise a topic here I wonder whether it isn't better placed on the general talk page. Agree about getting 'em up to scratch but I just got the first bird collab Common Raven and the first fungi collab Amanita phalloides over the line, and now the ^$%#$#@ schizophrenia article which I have too big an ego to ignore...cheers, Cas Liber | talk | contribs 07:52, 11 June 2007 (UTC)
Oh. I didn't see you'd made a section here until you said before. I think it would be better to place it on the main talk page. Anyway, I've finally corrected a few mistakes on the Tree of Life project page (communists...) that have been bugging me for a while regarding the placing of dinosaurs under reptiles, when they're actually not reptiles at all... Ignorant so & so's... ;) Spawn Man 08:02, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Some thoughts...

My thoughts, based on what has been published, on the dinosaur-related articles that can most likely become FAs. These aren't set in stone, just those that would be most likely.

Topics:
Origin of birds
Physiology of dinosaurs
Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event

Formations:
Morrison Formation
Yixian
Wealden Formation
Dinosaur Park Formation
Hell Creek Formation

Higher-order taxa:
Saurischia
Theropoda
Ceratosauria
Abelisauridae
Coelurosauria
Tyrannosauridae
Ornithomimosauria
Maniraptora
Dromaeosauridae
Troodontidae
Oviraptorosauria
Therizinosaur
Prosauropoda
Sauropodomorpha
Sauropoda
Diplodocid
Titanosaur
Ornithischia
Stegosauria
Ankylosauria
Ankylosauridae
Pachycephalosauria
Ceratopsia
Ornithopoda
Hypsilophodont
Iguanodont
Hadrosaurid

Genera:
Herrerasaurus
Coelophysis
Dilophosaurus
Carnotaurus
Megalosaurus
Spinosaurus
Allosaurus
Gorgosaurus
Struthiomimus
Tarbosaurus
Troodon
Plateosaurus
Massospondylus
Camarasaurus
Brachiosaurus
Apatosaurus
Edmontonia
Euoplocephalus
Protoceratops
Centrosaurus
Chasmosaurus
Hypsilophodon
Dryosaurus
Maiasaura
Edmontosaurus
Corythosaurus
Lambeosaurus


[edit] Biology collaboration

I've suggested we create a centralized Wikipedia:Biology collaboration of the month for all biology subjects. If interested, please show your support. Richard001 23:39, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New noms:

I've nominated a couple of articles and updated the community portal link Cas. Nice work with the chart too! It's a good guide. Well, there's me done. :) Cheers, Spawn Man (talk) 10:51, 7 December 2007 (UTC)