User:Keilana/Casliber interview

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• From Crisco

You have fairly broad interests (birds, Australia, and vampires). What makes this interesting to you, and what different methods do you use for individual articles?

They are all subjects I have been greatly interested in at one time or another. I've wondered this myself that if I'd been editing 10 years earlier in my life I would have focussed much more on Dungeons & Dragons, Tolkien, mythology and/or folklore....or maybe not, I don't know. I do think a heap of content in those areas was added early on in wikipedia's history (pre-2006) and I was attracted to creating articles from scratch, so there was definitely more scope for this in the areas I focussed on. It is true that (well, for me anyway) there needs to be a significant amount of enthusiasm to really carry a subject/article all the way to FA status, and mine has waxed, waned and shifted over time (e.g. I haven't done much with dinosaur articles for some time, and little astronomy until recently). Regarding different methods - not sure exactly what you mean but I'll take a guess - for narrow/esoteric articles it is reasonably straightforward harvesting of all material and reviewing it. Broader articles become trickier as one needs to become more discerning about what to include, how much to weight it, and what to (possibly) leave out...and then on really big articles the subject of maximum prose size invariably comes up.... Casliber (talk · contribs) 02:35, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

What was your most difficult FAC? What issues were there, and how did you handle them?

Undoubtedly it was Major depressive disorder, which was finally promoted after something like six weeks, including a lengthy first page and restart. This was a group collaboration and to be fair I wasn't as thorough in checking sources as I am now. Medical articles have stricter sourcing guideline, but relations deteriorated badly with one reviewer which sidelined the FAC somewhat. Unfortuately I did get flustered and annoyed at one point, which did not help the situation, but at other times kept focussed on the article and correcting/improving it. Long articles are always tricky at FAC as alot can go wrong and be very time-consuming to correct. Casliber (talk · contribs) 01:14, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

How should new participants at FAC deal with issues?

Keep upbeat, try to do everything you can possibly think of to improve the article beforehand, and always respond to reviewers' concerns promptly - if you can't find sources say so, if you don't feel the point made is warranted, explain calmly why not, but never dismiss concerns. I can tell you I will place a lower priority on reviewing articles where I see concerns unanswered or dismissed out of hand. Casliber (talk · contribs) 01:14, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

What do you think the most important role of featured content is? How does it help the encyclopedia?

It is the best thing we have short of Stable Versions. It marks a point where consensus has been reached on quality, and can be referred easily to later by anyone if/when the article degrades. What attracted me to it initially was that it gives one's edits/improvements some permanence or stability, as I was dismayed with the idea that what I wrote would be subsequently erased. This still remains my biggest motivator for it. I also think it helps us all be better writers; by promoting collaboration and review we can find out about our own weaknesses in writing. For instance, I can be a slob so it helps me actually finish things in less of a slap-dash way :)

I almost forgot - the main benefit is for people not the encyclopedia. Now bear with me for a long explanation that follows.........

Think of a main street in the suburb where you live. Now try and list all the attributes you can think of about that street; shops, funny houses, broken streetlights, working streetlights, cracks in the footpath, no parking zones, residences, opening hours of shops, cross-streets, schools etc. You should be up to a few hundred items of information. Now think of other streets in your suburb, then other suburb. See how much you remember (alot, isn't it .....I'd reckon you could come up with 10-20,000 factoids for the city you live in easily) My take on this is you don't have to be some child prodigy to remember prodigious amounts of information and we can all be alot more knowledgeable than what we are. Unfortunately alot of what is written or produced for television or other media is really dumbed down to some imaginary lowest common denominator. The gulf in depth and detail between material produced for laypeople and that that appeared in journals and textbooks annoyed the hell out of me for treating joe public like a chump. I recall my elation when I read this book which showed that material can be both popular and accessible, yet thorough and referenced at the same time. Brilliant! Since then I've encountered many many books which are bridging this gap.

Wikipedia provides an opportunity to make sense of chaos and a great bridge between information for laypeople and detailed scientific information for enthusiasts and professionals, and hopefully help upskill several hundred thousand interested readers in the meantime. I see the role of Featured Articles as twofold - laypeople can soak up as above, and experts can scan the references for the sources to hunt up on if they've missed them elsewhere. Time will tell.... Casliber (talk · contribs) 14:29, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

• From Kei

What has surprised you the most in your featured content writing?

That's easy - often when I've tried to improve some large existing chunk of content, I've found it a more laborious process than if I'd started from scratch. Note that this is not always the case, but probable enough to make me wary. Oftentimes one has no choice if one decides to hoe into an established article to buff it for GA/FA, but is worth being aware of. I never would have thought this was the case when I started. Casliber (talk · contribs) 02:47, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

What article has taken you the longest, and why? What kept/keeps you motivated?

Generally work required goes up dramatically with the size and breadth of an article. As well, some articles seem to "come together" alot more easily than others and it can be hard to pinpoint why. Amanita muscaria took almost three years to nail down. The good thing is that one can always walk away for a while and come back later, which often brings new insights and a fresh look. This then is an interesting learning process at how to work through writing blocks as well, which inspires me to finish the job. Casliber (talk · contribs) 13:56, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

Do you think editors should make a concerted effort to focus on core content, or simply write in their area of expertise/enjoyment?

The level of enthusiasm required to carry an article "all the way" makes forcing people to work on core content difficult if not impossible. To this end, I much prefer the idea of carrots rather than sticks, which is why I've always tried to promote wikiproject collaborations (though this has met with very limited success in recent years) and the Core Contest... Casliber (talk · contribs) 02:35, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

What has been your favorite FA? Why?

I have soft spots for almost all of them, but some of the biggies were epic and a real pleasure afterwards to look back and go, "wow!". Vampire, Sirius, Lion and (to a lesser extent) Cockatoo and White Stork are some which come to mind which I look back on and feel most impressed by. Some are definitely easier than others - it is funny how sometimes they come together almost naturally and other times they just....don't. Casliber (talk · contribs) 02:35, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

Can you tell us about any remarkable collaborations you've done?

Some collaboration periods have been very enjoyable - many of the bird wikiproject editors have joined in on various bird articles I've worked on. Helpful in a different way are the reviewers. Sasata, Uchuca and J Milburn are three who come to mind who are incredibly thorough and clinical in their dissection of stuff I put forward. Guettarda and Hesperian with writing plant articles, Circeus loves taxonomic conundrums and of course Sasata with fungi (e.g. Boletus edulis). I miss some of the dino editors, who are not now editing, as we buffed a fair few articles, and I regret to doing more with the medicos in punting a few more FA medical articles...but maybe soon. I'm sure there are folks I've collaborated and I apologise for not mentioning more by name - so many segments of text and ideas here and there.... Casliber (talk · contribs) 14:19, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

Do you think the GA process is important? Why or why not?

Absolutely. The added rigour of the FA process combined with the lack of Peer Reviewing has meant that the GA reviewing process is a good thorough review-point and can act as a way-station on the way to FAC. It helps articles be better prepared for FAC. I try to give GA nominees a big a shove as possible toward FAC. Casliber (talk · contribs) 01:31, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

What advice would you give to aspiring FA writers?

For a first up, pick a reasonably narrow well-circumscribed topic you know well, and hopefully for which there is a template or format, then read the recipe below......

.....but seriously, it's a great way to improve writing and making sure some of your work "sticks".... Casliber (talk · contribs) 14:19, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

What writing achievement are you most proud of (doesn't have to be an FA)?

Pretty much the FAs above as I try and convert most of my efforts to GA/FA. I am also proud to have been a part of Betelgeuse, which is not there yet, but I think is an amazing read. Casliber (talk · contribs) 14:19, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

I know your real life work and areas of interest here are so different. Why is that?

Writing medical articles is too much like...ummm...work. But seriously, I have been meaning to. One has to reach a certain level of enthusiasm and sustain it to the end to carry it through the process. Best I can say is, "watch this space..". Casliber (talk · contribs) 23:02, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

What got you interested in editing in the first place, and how did you get involved in writing audited content?

I've been on a few game shows over the years and had read bits and pieces of wikipedia to remember lists of things. Then I figured making an account and improving/correcting things would help me remember things more, however I gravitated straightaway to editing banksias and dinosaurs, which I was interested in at the time. Hesperian (talk · contribs) and I discussed making Banksia a Featured Article very soon after I got here, and I was busy making new articles and my first DYK came as a bit of a (welcome) surprise...and off I went. The Dinosaur Wikiproject was quite active at the time so we had collaborations happening which were alot of fun and brougt out alot of collaborative editing. Meanwhile Hesperian, Gnangarra and I have all improved banksia articles over the years. This I find great as I can photograph and grow them, and write about them. Casliber (talk · contribs) 11:38, 29 July 2012 (UTC)