![]() | This
WikiProject is defunct. Consider looking for related projects for help or ask at the Teahouse. If you feel this project may be worth reviving,
please discuss with related projects first. Feel free to change this tag if the parameters were changed in error.
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Project Galatea is a proposed community of Wikipedians interested in making large-scale, sweeping stylistic improvements to articles. It is meant to be a community of dedicated and competent writers advising, helping and encouraging each other in what is an extremely necessary, but difficult and often underappreciated part of creating high-quality Wikipedia articles.
Project Galatea is named after the statue brought to life by the sculptor Pygmalion.
Wikipedia is a highly collaborative project. Articles are in constant flux; facts are added and removed, mistakes are fixed, vandalism is committed and reverted. All too often, regular contributors to an article become fixated on particular, contentious issues, losing sight of the structure and style of the article as a whole. The result can be "an incoherent hodge-podge of dubious factoids that adds up to something far less than the sum of its parts", as shown in this Register article. The two examples given were Bill Gates and Jane Fonda. (Note that both links are to the frozen snaphots of the articles as they were at the time of the Register article's publication. The current articles are Bill Gates and Jane Fonda.)
Both articles show signs of heavy stylistic fragmentation, and the lack of a unifying vision. Sentences follow each other without much rhyme or reason, making them a wearying and frustrating read. The problem was not a lack of contributors; both articles are high-profile, and had a huge number of editors. Unfortunately, Wikipedia's collaborative approach is, by default, not particularly conductive to creating elegant, vibrant, living articles. It is not enough for every sentence or even section to be brilliant prose in itself; without a dominant, overarching style, they will simply not come together to become parts of a greater whole.
Project Galatea aims to rectify this problem by encouraging editors to make extensive stylistic changes to articles, bringing them "to life", in a way. Sadly, Wikipedia can sometimes be somewhat unappreciative of this very necessary job; editcountitis runs rampant, and a volley of simple fixes is often rated far higher than a single complex, high-quality edit. Also, many editors are wary of sweeping changes to established articles, often with good reason. Project Galatea aims to create a social network for its members, with like-minded editors encouraging each other in making bold changes, and raising Wikipedia awareness of the importance of this type of article improvement.
If you agree with Project Galatea's purpose and philosophies, please consider joining it. Go to the sculptors' corner to see the current membership list, and to learn how you can join.
If and when the Project accumulates at least eight members, we can start discussing the charter, leadership, and similar issues.
![]() | This
WikiProject is defunct. Consider looking for related projects for help or ask at the Teahouse. If you feel this project may be worth reviving,
please discuss with related projects first. Feel free to change this tag if the parameters were changed in error.
|
Project Galatea is a proposed community of Wikipedians interested in making large-scale, sweeping stylistic improvements to articles. It is meant to be a community of dedicated and competent writers advising, helping and encouraging each other in what is an extremely necessary, but difficult and often underappreciated part of creating high-quality Wikipedia articles.
Project Galatea is named after the statue brought to life by the sculptor Pygmalion.
Wikipedia is a highly collaborative project. Articles are in constant flux; facts are added and removed, mistakes are fixed, vandalism is committed and reverted. All too often, regular contributors to an article become fixated on particular, contentious issues, losing sight of the structure and style of the article as a whole. The result can be "an incoherent hodge-podge of dubious factoids that adds up to something far less than the sum of its parts", as shown in this Register article. The two examples given were Bill Gates and Jane Fonda. (Note that both links are to the frozen snaphots of the articles as they were at the time of the Register article's publication. The current articles are Bill Gates and Jane Fonda.)
Both articles show signs of heavy stylistic fragmentation, and the lack of a unifying vision. Sentences follow each other without much rhyme or reason, making them a wearying and frustrating read. The problem was not a lack of contributors; both articles are high-profile, and had a huge number of editors. Unfortunately, Wikipedia's collaborative approach is, by default, not particularly conductive to creating elegant, vibrant, living articles. It is not enough for every sentence or even section to be brilliant prose in itself; without a dominant, overarching style, they will simply not come together to become parts of a greater whole.
Project Galatea aims to rectify this problem by encouraging editors to make extensive stylistic changes to articles, bringing them "to life", in a way. Sadly, Wikipedia can sometimes be somewhat unappreciative of this very necessary job; editcountitis runs rampant, and a volley of simple fixes is often rated far higher than a single complex, high-quality edit. Also, many editors are wary of sweeping changes to established articles, often with good reason. Project Galatea aims to create a social network for its members, with like-minded editors encouraging each other in making bold changes, and raising Wikipedia awareness of the importance of this type of article improvement.
If you agree with Project Galatea's purpose and philosophies, please consider joining it. Go to the sculptors' corner to see the current membership list, and to learn how you can join.
If and when the Project accumulates at least eight members, we can start discussing the charter, leadership, and similar issues.