< Forum
On 31 October 2007, I ran a bot to move over articles on authors from Wikipedia to Literature wikia. I shall not be moving any more articles, and on request can delete all articles already moved by the bot (approximately half of your current articles).
Successful wikias like Psychology have used WP content as a starting point upon which individuate their content. From perusing Psychology wikia, you will see that much has not yet been deepened and is indeed a "mirror" of WP as Rataube describes below.
I personally am indifferent to the decision you folks make regarding your wikia's attitude towards WP content. There are good arguments on either side, and I outlined the google and starting point arguments. Please feel free to contact me if you wish the bot to continue moving articles in some way, or if you would like me to remove them/ blank them. Continue the debate here taking as much time as you wish and inform me when you have made a decision. I shall not engage in advocacy as I do not intend to be an active contributor to this wikia.
What follows is the talk page interaction between myself and one of your administrators. Warm regards to all, and I wish you success in your wikia. I am here only to help with the technical implementation of whatever your community decides, not advocate any particular use of Bots.
~ Phlox 03:57, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
- A WP article is a good foundation upon which to build further content. You do not have articles on huge numbers of writers, and wp articles on them have the lists of books written by each of these writers.
- Leveraging WP content means that your wikia will appear in search hits in Google. This generates more users for your wikia- folks that can make the WP content retailored for your site.
- I would urge you to change your opinion. However, since the contributions of this Bot appear not to be welcome on your wikia, I have halted transfers on your site until I hear that it's activities are welcome.
Contact me at Genealogy:User:Phlox. Thanks.
- The bot took no offence. I only sent my bot here due to the invitation from Wikia Central to help bulk up the literature wikia. I am not particularly interested in making original content contributions at this time.
- I can certainly tell the bot to copy whatever portion of the category structure from Wikipedia that you like. For example, I was planning on copying these cats over: User:PhloxBot/Requested WP content. If that list is not to your liking, feel free to subtract or add to it- including templates and author articles- individually, or by indicating "all articles in category:X". I can get to it in the next few days. The bot can handle import thousands, including any images (eg bookcovers) attached to the article. ~ Phlox 01:13, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
((copied from Phlox's genealogy talk page- some out of time synq ))
Sorry. I didn't mean to make you or the Bot feel unwelcome. It's ok to use the articles as seeds -- especially since you've given appropriate credit. And you're right that a richer-content site may attract more contributors. I just meant that it's not ok to consider just copying content as an end point. Too many articles that are just copies will lead those new users to think that's all we have in mind -- copies of existing content. Are you planning to make at least a few original edits? -- CocoaZen 00:23, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
- Was it Wikia staff that recommended the use of the Bot? I'm only one admin on the site. If other users or staff want the imports, mine is just one opinion, and I'm ok with being overridden. I think books might be a better focus than authors (again, personal opinion), and I worry that all the links take people away from the Literature Wikia. Also, without any editing, these articles all reflect the Wikipedia style -- NPOV, lots of references, no reviews, recommendations and few comparisons to other authors, so if they are the vast majority of the content, they'll set the tone for prospective contributors, and the Wikia can loose its "flavor".
- On the other hand, we certainly could use more content. :-)
- The categories I was asking for are the Literature Wikia categories -- in this case the "Author" category to help tie it into the existing wiki. Please do finish importing the templates used in the articles so they won't have gaps. Thanks! -- CocoaZen 01:34, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
- It was a general request at Wikia Central to help Literature Wikia- yours is the designated one for October. No staff/ mucky muck made any request. Literature wikia is your baby- make the call how you wish. I can do some customization of the WP content as it is moved over. That's what we do at genealogy, and I know the psychology wikia also does bulk copies then works them over for a more technical treatment of the subject. Some templates may not be appropriate for your site- but if you wish, I can copy every one that appears on these pages.
- One customization I could do is to put a template at the intro of the article indicating whatever text you want. This would allow you or future folks modify it or make it go invisible in the future. It might state- this is a general article from Wikipedia on this author. Please help us deepen this article by adding a synopsis of each book, or better, create a new article on that book....blah blah blah.
- Re your question on categories. I don't know anything about Literature wikia's categories. I can move over the literature categories as they appear on WP. Those are the ones listed above. If you want any of those, don't want many, want to add some additional ones, or want some articles- just change the list. User:PhloxBot/Requested WP content
- Let me know if you'd like me to restart the bot. It was doing the wp american author category- approximately 4500 authors in that list. If you'd like to see the list and cull it, here it is: User:PhloxBot\WP article requests
- Leave your response here, and then ping me on genealogy when you are ready to go. Thanks. ~ Phlox 01:57, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
- I'll play a bit with what you've done so far, create a template and follow-up with you. I hope some other contributors make some comments too... -- CocoaZen 02:24, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
- No hurry. It can be done now, or weeks or months from now. Your choice. Let me know, as I will not be monitoring this wikia. If you have a more elaborate proposal (eg- selective moving of only portions of the article) that might be applicable to other wikias, I will consider spending some time coding something additional. The clearinghouse for proposals is at Genealogy:User:PhloxBot/_Proposals~ Phlox 03:16, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
I agree with Cocoazen. Mirroring wikipedia isn't a good way to make a small wiki grow, if the wiki isn't different from wikipedia in ignificant ways newcomers would rather edit wikipedia instead.--Rataube 03:39, 2 November 2007 (UTC)