Standardization of Barnstars: Category stars (Credit for the original idea goes wholly to brian0918) Rather than be faced with a periodic addition of random topic barnstars, I propose that we preemptivey create a series of Category Barnstars, based primarily on the categories listed on the main page, used to reward brilliant work in articles in one of the following categories:
Part of a Wikipedia help series on |
Wikipedia Awards |
---|
![]() |
|
Awarded by co-founder Jimmy Wales |
Awards by WikiProject |
Barnstars and other personal awards |
Awards by number of edits |
See also |
|
Implementing this system would, in the end, keep the number of barnstars at a manageable level by providing a number of very categories, thus preventing a "Barnstar Creep" that could eventually result in dozens of "niche" stars. This would also allow us to implement a stylistic standardization to these articles, giving these barnstars a common theme and/or "look and feel". – Clockwork Soul 06:27, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)
In preparation for a ginormous discussion, I've moved each header up one size, and added sections for each. Please keep discussion in these sections so that nobody's comments are missed and each can be easily archived. Add any image proposals to the appropriate section's gallery along with a number and your name (see example in Technology section). -- BRIAN 0918 15:38, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Before we go and choose images, let's decide whether these are really the categories that we want. Anybody have any opinions? I for one, now think that we should roll Mathematics into Science. Also, for convenience and clarification, I took the categories from the scheme used in Wikipedia:Featured articles, and mapped it to an appropriate category. – Clockwork Soul 15:00, 5 Mar 2005 (UTC)
See archive for discussion.
The Barnstar of High Culture{{{1}}} |
The Epic BarnstarCategory:
History (archaeology, history) The Epic Barnstar may be awarded to an editor who makes particularly fine History-related contributions. This award was introduced on April 15, 2005 by brian0918 and ClockworkSoul, and was designed by ClockworkSoul. |
The Oddball Barnstar
|
E=MC2 BarnstarCategory:
Science and
Mathematics ("Hard" sciences, biology, geology, medicine, mathematics, medicine, minerology, physics) The E=MC2 Barnstar may be awarded to an editor who makes particularly fine contributions regarding science or mathematics-related topics This award was introduced on April 22, 2005 by brian0918 and ClockworkSoul. |
The Society BarnstarCategory:
Society (Economics, government & politics, law, media, royalty & nobility, war) The Society Barnstar is intended for those whose work advance the general understanding of any given society one may attain by consulting Wikipedia. Award introduced on March 23, 2005 by Clockworksoul; designed by grm_wnr. |
The Technology BarnstarCategory:
Technology (Technology, transportation) The Technology Barnstar may be awarded to an editor who makes particularly fine Technology-related contributions. This award was introduced on March 3, 2005 by brian0918 and ClockworkSoul, and was designed by brian0918. |
The Barnstar of National MeritCategory:
Geography (geography, nation-related articles) The Barnstar of National Merit may be awarded to an editor who creates a particularly fine article regarding geography or nation-related articles. This barnstar was proposed by Redux on February 23, 2005, and was designed by Zscout370. |
I made some very minor changes to the wording for the BoNM so that it may be converted into a categorical barnstar. Let me knoe what you guys think. – Clockwork Soul 00:17, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)
I too see where you're going. But when you think about it, we are creating category-based awards that are aimed at (but not limited to) preventing the random multiplication of awards on the project. In this process, we are creating some awards that will be scarcely used (I image the Life Barnstar will be one – discussion about it hasn't even started yet), but we have deemed that this is an acceptable side effect. Imho, however, whether an award is "popular" or "forgotten" depends more on the community's willingness to award Barnstars (vis a vis the Kindness Campaign) than the purpose of the award per se. As an example, the Running Man Barnstar: as a sports-related award, I thought it would rapidly become one of the most popular awards around. Instead, it was weeks after we installed it until someone finally awarded it (to the most obvious recipient:
Dale Arnett), and since that it's been forgotten again. It is quite possible that a Geography Barnstar could become a sought after award, if we manage to get more people interested in actually awarding barnstars.
But if we make the BoNM a geography barnstar (also), it will make little sense. Picture this: someone does intensive work about the Himalaias, the Andes or the Alps – or, in a "non mountain" example, the
Bodensee in Europe or the Great Lakes in North America – this person would have contributed a lot for our coverage of geography-related themes, but not to any one country in special. And as I see it, it would make little sense that this person should get the Barnstar of National Merit for this kind of work. Not to mention that the BoNM's appearence is not evocative of the theme geography, rather it is a medal-like award, something that any one country might give out to people it deems important for its history, culture, politics, national security, etc. As an extra problem, broadening the scope of the BoNM like this would also sort of "blurry" the purpose of the BoNM. In my view, the best way to go would be creating a geography-specific award. Regards,
Redux 05:42, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)
How about this one on the left? Redux 06:12, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Is this discussion going to die here? We do not have a Geography award yet... Anybody has anything to say about it? Regards, Redux 02:44, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)
(Two months later...) Shall we just go ahead with the idea and merge the two, placing The Barnstar of National Merit under geography category? Sango 123 July 7, 2005 18:23 (UTC)
Hmm...looks like the image is not work just quite yet. I will try to upload it here and see how it works.
Zscout370
(Sound Off) 9 July 2005 01:20 (UTC)
That looks good. Ok, go ahead and close this off. Seems like the category barnstar creation is finished!!
Bratsche
talk
5 pillars July 9, 2005 13:05 (UTC)
Standardization of Barnstars: Category stars (Credit for the original idea goes wholly to brian0918) Rather than be faced with a periodic addition of random topic barnstars, I propose that we preemptivey create a series of Category Barnstars, based primarily on the categories listed on the main page, used to reward brilliant work in articles in one of the following categories:
Part of a Wikipedia help series on |
Wikipedia Awards |
---|
![]() |
|
Awarded by co-founder Jimmy Wales |
Awards by WikiProject |
Barnstars and other personal awards |
Awards by number of edits |
See also |
|
Implementing this system would, in the end, keep the number of barnstars at a manageable level by providing a number of very categories, thus preventing a "Barnstar Creep" that could eventually result in dozens of "niche" stars. This would also allow us to implement a stylistic standardization to these articles, giving these barnstars a common theme and/or "look and feel". – Clockwork Soul 06:27, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)
In preparation for a ginormous discussion, I've moved each header up one size, and added sections for each. Please keep discussion in these sections so that nobody's comments are missed and each can be easily archived. Add any image proposals to the appropriate section's gallery along with a number and your name (see example in Technology section). -- BRIAN 0918 15:38, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Before we go and choose images, let's decide whether these are really the categories that we want. Anybody have any opinions? I for one, now think that we should roll Mathematics into Science. Also, for convenience and clarification, I took the categories from the scheme used in Wikipedia:Featured articles, and mapped it to an appropriate category. – Clockwork Soul 15:00, 5 Mar 2005 (UTC)
See archive for discussion.
The Barnstar of High Culture{{{1}}} |
The Epic BarnstarCategory:
History (archaeology, history) The Epic Barnstar may be awarded to an editor who makes particularly fine History-related contributions. This award was introduced on April 15, 2005 by brian0918 and ClockworkSoul, and was designed by ClockworkSoul. |
The Oddball Barnstar
|
E=MC2 BarnstarCategory:
Science and
Mathematics ("Hard" sciences, biology, geology, medicine, mathematics, medicine, minerology, physics) The E=MC2 Barnstar may be awarded to an editor who makes particularly fine contributions regarding science or mathematics-related topics This award was introduced on April 22, 2005 by brian0918 and ClockworkSoul. |
The Society BarnstarCategory:
Society (Economics, government & politics, law, media, royalty & nobility, war) The Society Barnstar is intended for those whose work advance the general understanding of any given society one may attain by consulting Wikipedia. Award introduced on March 23, 2005 by Clockworksoul; designed by grm_wnr. |
The Technology BarnstarCategory:
Technology (Technology, transportation) The Technology Barnstar may be awarded to an editor who makes particularly fine Technology-related contributions. This award was introduced on March 3, 2005 by brian0918 and ClockworkSoul, and was designed by brian0918. |
The Barnstar of National MeritCategory:
Geography (geography, nation-related articles) The Barnstar of National Merit may be awarded to an editor who creates a particularly fine article regarding geography or nation-related articles. This barnstar was proposed by Redux on February 23, 2005, and was designed by Zscout370. |
I made some very minor changes to the wording for the BoNM so that it may be converted into a categorical barnstar. Let me knoe what you guys think. – Clockwork Soul 00:17, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)
I too see where you're going. But when you think about it, we are creating category-based awards that are aimed at (but not limited to) preventing the random multiplication of awards on the project. In this process, we are creating some awards that will be scarcely used (I image the Life Barnstar will be one – discussion about it hasn't even started yet), but we have deemed that this is an acceptable side effect. Imho, however, whether an award is "popular" or "forgotten" depends more on the community's willingness to award Barnstars (vis a vis the Kindness Campaign) than the purpose of the award per se. As an example, the Running Man Barnstar: as a sports-related award, I thought it would rapidly become one of the most popular awards around. Instead, it was weeks after we installed it until someone finally awarded it (to the most obvious recipient:
Dale Arnett), and since that it's been forgotten again. It is quite possible that a Geography Barnstar could become a sought after award, if we manage to get more people interested in actually awarding barnstars.
But if we make the BoNM a geography barnstar (also), it will make little sense. Picture this: someone does intensive work about the Himalaias, the Andes or the Alps – or, in a "non mountain" example, the
Bodensee in Europe or the Great Lakes in North America – this person would have contributed a lot for our coverage of geography-related themes, but not to any one country in special. And as I see it, it would make little sense that this person should get the Barnstar of National Merit for this kind of work. Not to mention that the BoNM's appearence is not evocative of the theme geography, rather it is a medal-like award, something that any one country might give out to people it deems important for its history, culture, politics, national security, etc. As an extra problem, broadening the scope of the BoNM like this would also sort of "blurry" the purpose of the BoNM. In my view, the best way to go would be creating a geography-specific award. Regards,
Redux 05:42, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)
How about this one on the left? Redux 06:12, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Is this discussion going to die here? We do not have a Geography award yet... Anybody has anything to say about it? Regards, Redux 02:44, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)
(Two months later...) Shall we just go ahead with the idea and merge the two, placing The Barnstar of National Merit under geography category? Sango 123 July 7, 2005 18:23 (UTC)
Hmm...looks like the image is not work just quite yet. I will try to upload it here and see how it works.
Zscout370
(Sound Off) 9 July 2005 01:20 (UTC)
That looks good. Ok, go ahead and close this off. Seems like the category barnstar creation is finished!!
Bratsche
talk
5 pillars July 9, 2005 13:05 (UTC)