ISFDB talk:FAQ

I guess that the page didn't really need to be locked, but anyway let me point out that now the ISFDB templates on Wikipedia don't even require the title parameter, taking it from the article's name as default, and the ISFDB Name (and Series) can even do without the id, if it can be derived from the article name by substituting underscores for spaces (i. e. as is the case of authors called like John Doe without any difficult initials etc.) --JVjr 09:21, 1 Nov 2006 (CST)

Regarding "5 The old ISFDB had a place for author biographies; where did they go?"

I propose taking that functionality back from Wikipedia. The Science fiction critical and fan culture are radically at odds with the Wikipedian's insane notion of what constitutes editing and who should be allowed to say what. I have publicly proposed that the ISFDB take back this public function from Wikipedia. My blog post is here: A Proposal: SF Author Bios Should Be Moved from Wikipedia to the ISFDB Wiki: http://www.kathryncramer.com/kathryn_cramer/2007/01/a_proposal_shou.html

I gather that the problem in the past was one of bandwidth, which is to say one of money. Perhaps some money could be found to do this.

But if I contribute any further to Wikipedia bios, I will simply not read the nut letters I've been getting from their so-called editors who seem to be a specialized speceies of troll.

Kathryn Cramer

A Proposal: SF Author Bios Should Be Moved from Wikipedia to the ISFDB Wiki

I propose that science fiction author bios be moved from Wikipedia to the ISFDB Wiki.

After a brief experience with Wikipdia, its editors strike me as a pack of officious trolls whose main concern is to make sure that you don't actually know the people you are writing about. The science fiction field doesn't work that way. I know hundreds (maybe over a thousand) science fiction writers, editors, and fans. Many, many of them could be described as my "associates." Am I connected to most members of the professional science fiction community in some way? You bet.

I've helped run a Hugo-nominated SF semiprozine for a couple of decades, I edit two year's best volumes, and am married to one of the most eminent editors in the field. But this connectedness holds true of really a lot of the people doing the actual biographies: Perhaps their connections are not so visible or so obvious, but the SF field is like one big extended family. We've all slept on each other's couches. We've bought each other drinks. We marry each other's daughters. . . . It's Clan Fandom.

And of those creating biographies that don't know their subjects, what they are mostly doing is lifting the ISFDB bibliographies wholesale and transplanting the content over to Wikipedia.

So lets have a revolution. Let's take the SF and fantasy bios over to the ISFDB Wiki and pull out of Wikipedia. Can we do this?

Or have I misjudged the Wikipedia sysops? Are they really reasonable people who will let people who actually know what they are talking about write there?

SEE ALSO: Jed Hartman's mediation on the state of affairs at Wikipedia: Wikipedia and sf. He provides an excellent example of exactly what I'm talking about:

Somewhat similarly, [Teresa Nielsen Hayden] wrote a great article at Wikipedia a while back, about Roger Elwood, that consisted mostly of personal anecdotes. It was well-written and full of personality (like some of the old Britannica articles by major authors once were), and I couldn’t bring myself to attach a note to it saying “This is, unfortunately, not the right style or approach for Wikipedia.” But, sadly, it wasn’t. And the article has subsequently been rewritten to fit Wikipedia better, though the current version (last I checked) contains a link to TNH’s version. The Talk page for that article is a perfect example of clash of Wikipedia culture with sf culture: TNH gave a long and impassioned and compelling argument in favor of her version, but unfortunately her approach was wrong according to established Wikipedia policy. According to the rules and standards explained to me last night, none of the great living critics (TNH being one) ought to be allowed to write about sf writers. Also, since ISFDB now has a Wiki, it makes sense to move the Wiki entries on its writers closer to the source from which many of the SF writer bios are lifted.

SEE ALSO, John McDaid:

Let's take a concrete example, an icon of the sf field, Damon Knight. A driving force in the Golden Age of science fiction, author, editor, founder of SFWA and Clarion, I mean, you just can't overestimate his impact on the field. Here's what he gets in Wikipedia. What's not there is precisely the kind of insight offered by people who knew Damon.

Posted by Kathryn on Thursday, January 25, 2007 at 10:03 PM in Books, Science Fiction, Wikipedia | Permalink