Hey everyone.
Since there's a lot of buzz about this street-team business, I'd like to throw out an idea that could be pretty productive and entertaining.
I spent a few weeks last year working on Devin Townsend's Wikipedia article. I improved it a whole lot but there's still a lot of work to be done. I know a lot of members here have worked on it too, and it's got a lot of potential. So I'd like to propose a semi-organized effort by everyone here to edit this article to brilliance. The goal is a tangible and exciting one: To get this article featured on the front page of Wikipedia in 2009. I think it's completely achievable and would be a great place to put our energy. The front page of Wikipedia gets something on the order of 7 million hits a day, so if we want to get Devin's name out there, this is the way to go.
The nice thing about Wikipedia is if everyone puts a tiny bit of effort in, it builds up fast. The bad thing is there's a lot of bureaucracy and method to getting an article featured. (Also, once an article achieves featured-article status, it takes a few months or even a year to actually end up on the front page.) But it's a challenge, and it's doable. The cool thing is SYL is already a featured article and will hopefully hit the front page soon, so that's a good motivator.
If people are up for it, I invite everyone to take a look and what they can do to contribute to the article. We really want to focus on the historical stuff more than the current work, because that's where the bulk of the article is and where the most holes are. The big rule is to have a source for everything, and don't add anything that can't be sourced (even if it seems obvious). That's the biggest criterion for a featured article. What this article really needs is more good sources, especially music magazines. The less internet-based material, the better. If anyone can find good magazine sources, obscure interviews, etc., that we can cite, it would be a huge help. Look at how it's been done in the article for some examples. I went through a lot of what's on the HDR site, and there's a lot of ground left to cover.
Posts by Devin on this board can be used as sources, but should be used as little as possible. Articles with a lot of primary-source material look amateur, and there's no need for it if we do our homework. There are plenty of interviews we can get material from. Obviously we don't have a lot of external coverage for the upcoming albums, so that's the exception.
The individual album articles all need a lot of work too, and working on those can be worthwhile too.
Anyway, just throwing this out there. I know this kind of thing doesn't appeal to everyone (really any sane person would be turned off by this!), so if no one cares that's fine. But I thought I'd draw some attention in that direction.
Peace.
Since there's a lot of buzz about this street-team business, I'd like to throw out an idea that could be pretty productive and entertaining.
I spent a few weeks last year working on Devin Townsend's Wikipedia article. I improved it a whole lot but there's still a lot of work to be done. I know a lot of members here have worked on it too, and it's got a lot of potential. So I'd like to propose a semi-organized effort by everyone here to edit this article to brilliance. The goal is a tangible and exciting one: To get this article featured on the front page of Wikipedia in 2009. I think it's completely achievable and would be a great place to put our energy. The front page of Wikipedia gets something on the order of 7 million hits a day, so if we want to get Devin's name out there, this is the way to go.
The nice thing about Wikipedia is if everyone puts a tiny bit of effort in, it builds up fast. The bad thing is there's a lot of bureaucracy and method to getting an article featured. (Also, once an article achieves featured-article status, it takes a few months or even a year to actually end up on the front page.) But it's a challenge, and it's doable. The cool thing is SYL is already a featured article and will hopefully hit the front page soon, so that's a good motivator.
If people are up for it, I invite everyone to take a look and what they can do to contribute to the article. We really want to focus on the historical stuff more than the current work, because that's where the bulk of the article is and where the most holes are. The big rule is to have a source for everything, and don't add anything that can't be sourced (even if it seems obvious). That's the biggest criterion for a featured article. What this article really needs is more good sources, especially music magazines. The less internet-based material, the better. If anyone can find good magazine sources, obscure interviews, etc., that we can cite, it would be a huge help. Look at how it's been done in the article for some examples. I went through a lot of what's on the HDR site, and there's a lot of ground left to cover.
Posts by Devin on this board can be used as sources, but should be used as little as possible. Articles with a lot of primary-source material look amateur, and there's no need for it if we do our homework. There are plenty of interviews we can get material from. Obviously we don't have a lot of external coverage for the upcoming albums, so that's the exception.
The individual album articles all need a lot of work too, and working on those can be worthwhile too.
Anyway, just throwing this out there. I know this kind of thing doesn't appeal to everyone (really any sane person would be turned off by this!), so if no one cares that's fine. But I thought I'd draw some attention in that direction.
Peace.
