Wikipedia:WikiProject Reference Desk Article Collaboration

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WP:RDAC

Welcome to the WikiProject Reference Desk Article Collaboration WikiProject, a collaboration area and group of editors dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of, well, everything!

(For more information on WikiProjects, please see the Guide to WikiProjects).

Goals

First and foremost, to improve Wikipedia through the addition of new articles on notable subjects and the improvement of existing articles.
To parlay the efforts made on the Reference Desks into more lasting contributions to the encyclopedia.
To leverage the fact that questioners on the Reference Desk represent a broader spectrum of the overall population than Wikipedia editors in general, and that their questions can help address the Wikipedia bias.
To have fun in the process.

Scope

All topics are fair game.
Concentration will be on new articles and existing stubs.
While "controversial" articles are not specifically excluded, all participants are reminded that this is a collaborative effort and that FUN is a part of it.

Guidelines[edit]

Article selection

New articles can be nominated by any participant. Before starting a new article, some research and a brief discussion is appropriate to ensure that the material is not already presented elsewhere or under a different name. This project is, to a large extent, about adding articles; if there is doubt or dispute after discussion, then the default would be to add the article and let the larger community decide whether to delete it by means of normal deletion processes.

Participants[edit]

Please feel free to add yourself here, and to indicate any areas of particular interest.

Morrison1630 (talk · contribs) (Anything Middle East related/anthropology/linguistics/history/culture/dress/etc)
Justanother (talk · contribs) (Mostly engineering/construction/cars/pool (the game)/who knows what else. But definitely not NRMs!!)
Maelwys (talk · contribs)
Rockpocket (talk · contribs) (biological science, particularly genetics)
Sluzzelin (talk · contribs) (replying to questions that weren't posted, and asking unrelated follow-ups)
V-Man737 (talk · contribs) (Most everything [except for bleach], especially interesting tidbits of miscellany, and a bit of religion)
Dweller (talk · contribs) (Assuming that trolls are misunderstood hairy people who just like bridges)
Vranak (talk · contribs)
TenOfAllTrades (talk · contribs) (Mostly the sciences, but I'm flexible)
Anchoress (talk · contribs) (Google Queen)
AndonicO (talk · contribs) (Everything except The weather in London! :))
AMP'd (talk · contribs) (Finally, a Wikiproject I can get involved in!)
Danielfolsom (talk · contribs)
Clio the Muse (talk · contribs) (History, philosophy, literature, politics, sociology, this, that and, of course, the other! )
Ghirlandajo (talk · contribs)
Dreftymac (talk · contribs) (common law, economics)
Smurrayinchester (talk · contribs) (science/technology/machinery)
Plasticup (talk · contribs)
Neil (talk · contribs) - anything that catches my eye, particularly the mundane stuff we often let slip through the cracks
Xn4 (talk · contribs) (language, literature, history, philosophy, this and that)
Sandstein (talk · contribs) (The humanities – mostly topics related to Switzerland, the law, and history)
Edison (talk · contribs) (Electricity, engineering, science, history, humanities, psychology)
Esskater11 (talk · contribs) ( I do whatever i can)
Marco polo (talk · contribs) (geography, history, language, economics)
Gwinva (talk · contribs) (eclectic and random)
Adam Bishop (talk · contribs) (history, popular cultue)
Marianian (talk · contribs) (Velology and Paper money)
Leif edling (talk · contribs) (Anything that I can help with)
Dr_Dima (talk · contribs) (physics, biology, neuroscience, languages)
Exxolon (talk · contribs) (music, video games, alternative culture)
Ghmyrtle (talk · contribs) (music, geography, history, UK popular culture and other topics, placenames, urban planning, bios of interesting people, lots of random other stuff)
Karenjc (talk · contribs) (history, particularly biographies, but anything else interesting that turns up)
Alansplodge (talk · contribs) (history, biography and anything that sparks an interest)
JackofOz (talk · contribs) (pretty much anything except computing; classical music specialist)
IlluminatingTrooper (talk · contribs) (since a lot of my favorites articles on Wikipedia are, well under referenced and or poor referenced specimens, biographies of historical females and film are of a particular interested to me)

Open tasks (other than articles)[edit]

Articles[edit]

New article collaboration[edit]

Please feel free to list your suggestions here for articles to be created by the WikiProject Reference Desk Article Collaboration. Any new articles that have an interesting or unusual fact in them should be suggested for the Did you know? box on the Main Page.

Latex paint - Neither paint not latex give decent treatment to this ubiquitous substance. --Justanother 17:16, 16 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Hard yakka or Hard Yakka from the same posting. At the moment, Yakka is a disambig page with unsatisfactory information about the hard variety. Google search V-Man737 07:05, 17 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Ojon. Google search V-Man737 07:20, 17 February 2007 (UTC).[reply]
See my reply here. Once it can be established that Ojon is used by several notable cosmetics companies or magazines, and even if it actually is nothing else but the American oil palm, I think think it might be worth an article or at least a redirect and mentioning in the oil palm article. Obviously people are going to look it up. ---Sluzzelin 11:52, 17 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Ok, this link] suggests that Ojon is a local word for the American oil palm used as a brand name. I don't know whether this warrants an article or not. I don't know enough about ad-spam concerns, and I'm not very familiar with wikipedia's cosmetics section. ---Sluzzelin 16:08, 17 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Compressed air canister clunky name for the compressed air clog buster. Also, cross-referencing needs to be added to a lot of the plumbing related articles. Anchoress 19:58, 17 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Efidac or Efidac 24, from a question by User:70.179.170.119. V-Man737 03:03, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Extreme Google Search!!!1 V-Man737 03:04, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Sonic repeller and Invisible Fence from WP:RD/M#Pets - unless there is a better name with an article already...? ("Sonic repeller?" I'm pulling a graveyard shift here, I have no clue what that actually should be called.) sauce... V-Man - ^T/_C 10:53, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
As far as sonic repeller goes, The Mosquito might be of some help. Neil ム 10:15, 21 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
El Alamein Fountain - From this question. El Alamein Fountain (Googley searchey) V-Man - ^T/_C 01:44, 30 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Standard print - referring to a style of penmanship that resembles typed writing (and is often asked for on job applications and similar forms). I wonder why there is not an article on this yet, as it seems as common as (if not more prevalent than) cursive. (A more appropriate article title appreciated if anyone can think of a better one) V-Man - ^T/_C 02:56, 20 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean block capitals or simply the opposite of joined-up writing? Modest Genius ^talk 20:18, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Rain out, from this question. (Rain out search; rain stopped play search) V-Man - ^T/_C 01:26, 1 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Reflector (medical), or Medical reflector, from this question. (Medical reflector Google search) V-Man - ^T/_C 01:04, 9 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Nanogrinding, from this question. little sauce and little sauce (that one is kind of like a paragraph full of haiku) and nanogrinding Google search! V-Man - ^T/_C 02:40, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Critical reading from Humanities desk, Aug 9th --Dweller 11:51, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Karl Bühler, important and influential in the history of cognitive and linguistic psychology. A question on the aha moment yielded a red link for Bühler. ---Sluzzelin talk 20:35, 11 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Existing article collaboration[edit]

Please feel free to list your suggestions here for existing articles for improvement by the WikiProject Reference Desk Article Collaboration. Any new articles that have an interesting or unusual fact in them should be suggested for the Did you know? box on the Main Page.

Airpark - This article has just been created (original question) and is still bare bones. I don't know if there is much more to add, but I thought I'd list it here and maybe it will catch someone's eye. Plasticup ^T/C 01:50, 21 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
University of Saskatchewan Please help Celebrate the Anniversary of the U of S Talk 1907-2007 by helping it to realize feature status !!! There are comments come sections could be filled out/expanded. Have started main articles to support some areas, don't know what direction to take to continue on as the U of S has become a vast entity. Thank you. SriMesh | talk 00:23, 6 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Preacher - a subject rich in culture and references; poor in Wikipedia.
Given name#Legality. Originally I wanted to suggest a new article on the history and worldwide variety of legal restrictions in naming your children (see above), but, as TOAT pointed out, this section of the Given name article needs expansion first. ---Sluzzelin 12:15, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Carnival#Europe needs a reference to Germany's Karneval (which redirects to the first link right now). V-Man737 01:26, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It could, specifically, use references to Fat Thursday and Berliners. V-Man737 01:33, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
One of the, if not the most famous one is the Cologne carnival which happens to have an article. I took a swift look at the German Wikipedia's article on Fasching, Fastnacht und Karneval and it looks like something to start out with. I'll give it a try in a few days. ---Sluzzelin
I'm going to attempt a timid translation of the German article on my user space. If it ends up looking correct, let's see about making it a full-on article. V-Man737 04:01, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Helau. I just saw Talk:Carnival#.22Germany.22-section_blank_.2F_deleted. I can't go though the history right now. ---Sluzzelin.
Wing walking - Great subject with lots of history and imagery, has just a line. --Justanother 17:19, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Cholera toxin - I just created this article based on a question on RD/S. (We had information in a couple of other articles that touched on cholera toxin, but nothing dedicated to this neat little protein complex.) It could probably use some beefing up from a biochemist, and some general formatting and copyediting from anyone. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 04:05, 22 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
- AB5 toxin for bonus points, we now have an article on AB₅ toxins, the family of exotoxins to which cholera toxin belongs. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 05:41, 22 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Squeegee man could use a picture. I'll also put this request up at requested pictures. V-Man - ^T/_C 03:42, 30 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Burden of proof could do with some expansion as a result of THIS discussion (the version I'm linking to is current as of May 4; it may have additions later). Anchoress 08:04, 4 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Requests by nonmembers[edit]

Requests by nonmembers are welcome. Please list your request here in brief and add any other detail to the talk page.

Dopamine reuptake inhibitor| Antidepressants | NEED REFERENCES --Parker007 21:29, 26 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
- Please see specific questions on Talk page. --Justanother 18:08, 2 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Culture club There has recently been a question about culture clubs (more specifically, whether there are white culture clubs) and I think this subject should have its own article. subsequent fallout 13:28, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Courtier and Favourite are both just dic-defs. Johnbod 19:11, 1 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Recent improvements[edit]

Listed here are the last 45 articles to have been created or significantly improved as a result of a question at the Reference Desks. If you are inspired to improve or create an article from a Ref Desk question, please list it here. If you improve one from the requests listed above, please also move it from there to here. Like all articles, please continue to improve these if you can. For a full list of the Wikiproject's output see here:

Featured content[edit]

Featured on the Main page at Wikipedia:Did you know...

...that pig fat, cannabis oil, fish, scorpions and hot sand were used in various offensive weapons in ancient and medieval warfare? (on 1 March 2008)
...that the Jacobin revolutionary André Antoine Bernard changed his given name to Pioche-fer ("Pickaxe") after his name day within the Revolutionary Calendar? (on September 28 2007)
...that Orator Hunt's presentation of the first petition in support of women's suffrage was received in Parliament with ribald laughter? (on 30 August, 2007)
...that Jane Storms was the first American female war correspondent? (on 29 August, 2007)
...that loose wheel nut indicators are fitted to vehicle lug nuts to allow mechanics to identify loose nuts before the wheel falls off? (on 24 August, 2007)
...that the Falklands Crisis of 1770 nearly touched off a war between Britain and Spain? (on 22 August, 2007)
...that Minnie D. Craig, the first female speaker of a legislative body in the US, was elected to the North Dakota House of Representatives just three years after gaining suffrage? (on 14 August, 2007)
...that Soviet diplomat Pyotr Voykov was assassinated in Warsaw for his part in the killing of Tsar Nicholas II and his family? (on 7 August, 2007)
...that the Hungarian-born Jew Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln was successively a Presbyterian missionary in Canada, a British Member of Parliament, an international double agent, a German right-wing politician, and a Buddhist abbot in China? (on 13 July, 2007)
...that the German historian Albert Brackmann argued that the Poles should be pushed farther eastwards, into the Ukraine? (on 12 July, 2007)
...that, during the Basque witch trials, 1,384 children voluntarily reported themselves and denounced their "accomplices"? (on 9 July, 2007)
...that Salazar's associate Fernando Santos Costa was appointed Deputy Minister of War when he held the junior rank of captain in the Portuguese army? (on 8 July, 2007)
...that, after driving the French Republicans from Italy, Russian Field-Marshal Alexander Suvorov managed to conduct a masterful flight across the snow-capped Alps? (on 5 July, 2007)
...that the Salerno Mutiny of 1943 saw the largest number of men charged with mutiny at any one time in all of British military history? (on 28 June, 2007)
...that among the toughest fighters of the Dahomey War were the corps of female warriors armed with rifles and double-edged machetes? (on 28 June, 2007)
...that the author of the term Third Reich predicted that "Germany might perish because of the Third Reich dream"? (on 25 June, 2007)
...that the sick and the wounded left behind by the Volunteer Army during the Ice March of 1919 shot themselves rather than be captured by the Bolsheviks? (on 31 May, 2007)
...that the Roman general Barbatio was beheaded for treason after his wife's indiscreet letter was intercepted by Emperor Constantius II? (on 28 May, 2007)

Candidates[edit]

Templates[edit]

WPRDAC[edit]

To indicate an article was created or significantly improved by WikiProject Reference Desk Article Collaboration, add: {{WikiProject Reference Desk Article Collaboration|LINK TO ORIGINAL QUESTION}} to the talk page (e.g. {{WikiProject Reference Desk Article Collaboration|Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2007 February 5#I need help}}). The link to the original question can usually be found in the article's What links here special page. Be aware the link will change after archiving.

WPRDAC attention[edit]

To indicate a Reference desk question has inspired an article to be created or significantly improved, add {{WPRDAC attention|NAME OF ARTICLE}} to the question.

User WPRDAC[edit]

You may add {{User WPRDAC}} on your user page to generate a userbox indicating project affiliation.

Categories[edit]

Category:WikiProject Reference Desk Article Collaboration

Resources[edit]

Related projects[edit]

Ref Desk thread of the week award. A selection of the best, weird, funny, informative or downright strange Reference Desk contributions, as chosen by Dweller.