Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/Extrasolar planets

The following discussion is an archived proposal of the WikiProject below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the project's talk page (if created) or the WikiProject Council). No further edits should be made to this page.

The resulting WikiProject was not created

Description

I am aware that there has been a proposal for a WikiProject on this same topic. However, for this WikiProject, there should be a new approach taken than the previous project.

First, I would like to put this project under the umbrella of Wikipedia:WikiProject Astronomical objects, in order to ensure a greater consistency between other areas of the study of astronomical objects and this project. In addition, many of the templates and policies used on that WikiProject can be applied to this project as well. While it may, in this scenario, seem to be a better idea to create a task force, extrasolar projects are an especially broad subject matter, and as technology advances the field will become even broader. For these reasons, a sub-project, as has already been suggested by others on the other page, seems to be the best way to go.

Unlike the other proposed WikiProject, the aim of this one will not be the creation of a page for every extrasolar planets - in fact, as the number grows larger, this will be impossible. Rather, the goal is to ensure that a reasonable treatment is given to all extrasolar planets - this includes the creation of list pages where less-notable bodies can be mentioned without the creation of an excessive number of stub pages and quasi-fancruft. In this goal, we also wish to ensure that more notable extrasolar planets, such as Kepler-22b, are covered more comprehensively. We would like to document not just the existence and properties of these exoplanets, but also the implications of their discoveries for science and popular cultures as shown in various sources.

A second part of the goal of this project is ensuring that information regarding extrasolar planets stays up-to-date. It is common that articles about extrasolar planets and their systems, and even exoplanets in general, are abuzz with activity when exoplanets are discovered, but then fall suddenly silent when there are no discoveries. When the rate of discoveries does pick up, some pages - list pages especially - are forgotten and become outdated. With a dedicated cadre of editors watching over extrasolar planets and related objects, this cannot happen.

Finally, this group aims to improve the quality of templates used on extrasolar planet pages to make them more navigable and improve the reading experience, as well as cover astrobiology. I encourage additional suggestions to improve this WikiProject idea.

The temporary page (as yet undone) can be found at User:Wer900/WikiProject Extrasolar planets. Various other information with regard to the project can be found there. Wer900 (talk) 20:29, 4 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

List of important pages and categories for this proposed group

Extrasolar planets (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
List of exoplanetary systems (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Planetary habitability (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Category:Gas giant planets in the habitable zone (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) (number of pages in the category: )
Category:Hot Jupiters (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) (number of pages in the category: )

List of WikiProjects currently on the talk pages of those articles: Please invite these and any other similar groups to join the discussion about this proposal. See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Council/Directory to find similar WikiProjects.

Wikipedia:WikiProject Astronomy (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
Wikipedia:WikiProject Astronomical objects (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Why do you want to start a new group, instead of joining one of these existing groups?

The purpose of starting a new project is because of the broadness of the subject matter and the special needs of this project, which cannot be handled by a task force alone. Nevertheless, this will be a sub-project of Wikipedia:WikiProject Astronomical objects due to the similarities and common interests which both projects share.

Member list

Please specify whether you would join the project.

Wer900 (talk) 20:29, 4 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
RJH (talk) 22:50, 7 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose

Oppose this should be proposed as a task force instead of as a new project. A task force of Wikipedia:WikiProject Astronomical objects would work better, IMHO. (Wikipedia:WikiProject Astronomical objects/Extrasolar planets) 70.24.251.71 (talk) 06:10, 7 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
- The only reason for a WikiProject was due to the semi-autonomy that this project would need to function (though it would still be under the astronomical objects WikiProject's umbrella) - but if a task force can afford that same autonomy while still retaining that autonomy, then by all means this should be constituted as a task force. Wer900 (talk) 00:06, 8 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

The one-month-older proposal is at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/Exoplanets if anyone is interested in looking at it. 70.24.251.71 (talk) 06:14, 7 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Since there seems to be a lot of interest in this topic, I think it's a reasonable idea to have a central place to encourage discussion. Personally, as long as it is associated with the WP:AST or WP:ASTRO, I'm not particular in whether it's called a sub-project or a task force. It can always be changed to a task force later on. But I'm not sure how much participation this project would actually gather over the long run. Many of the sub-projects and task forces just seem to run out of steam. Regards, RJH (talk) 19:36, 7 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the project's talk page (if created) or at the WikiProject Council). No further edits should be made to this page.