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There
are three major re-org discussions in progress in Arts: The Photography re-org
is in its 5th
thread, the Composer's
re-org has begun, and we have begun discussing guidelines and changes for
Arts/Literature.
In light of the recent vote about Adult @links, discussion has begun on Inconsistencies
between Arts and Adult guidelines.
Things have been quiet in Arts lately, as they usually are this time of year, but we have several new editors, and the greens have been going down in some of the high submission categories.
After
a long period of quiet, Games/ has sprung
to life recently with the arrival of several new and eager editors; the promotion
of guerrilla
to Top level editor (congratulations!); and the beginning of several re-orgs,
the largest of which is the standardisation of Games/Board_Games/.
With the input of many knowledgable editors, we're cleaning it up, and sorting
all the games into easier to manage Genres. Other projects on the go include
some changes to the layout of Coin-op;
creating a larger set of standard sub-categories in Games/Video_Games/Shooters;
figuring out just where J. R. R. Tolkien games should go; and making a set of
guidelines for what to do with site categories in Games/Video_Games.
Future projects include more newbies, continued re-working of the top level
categories, and the creation of a set of guidelines of Games/
specific standards that can be used throughout the tree to help to set preferred
terms and category names.
- enarra
Firstly
welcome to all Animal Health editors, I know
that the rest of the Health team is tickled pink to have you aboard
and welcome you with open arms.
This brings me to the first major change to Health. Animal Health which has been a category looking for a home has hopefully found it once again back in the folds of Health. Their return has been thanks to meta editor bldarter who has worked diligently in reorganizing all animal health related sites in the ontology forum. Currently a number of additional changes to conform to the Health guidelines are occurring, so please wade in with your opinions.
Recently, pchere has started a title and description clean up within Health, in the hopes that it will drive out hype and spelling errors. He has taken a quality not quantity approach, in the hopes that it will "make Health the neatest of them all". Specific information on the drive can be found in Test.
I'm sad to report that for the first time unreviewed in Health has skyrocketed past the 7,000 unreviewed mark. This is, in some part, to do with the standards that have been set by the Health team to truly become comprehensive, but it is also partly due to the need for editors in this category. There are a number of categories that need help, both for clean-up, greens and all around growth; if there is a category that appeals to you then I urge you, I plead with you, I go on my hands and knees and beg you, to apply.
Home
continues to grow at a steady pace, as editors turn their own quests for information
into category-building missions. Patcwilson's
search for popcorn recipes proved the impetus behind a new Snacks
category. Ozfrance
recently launched new Pressure
Cooker and Fusion categories
in Home/Cooking. Elwoodsharp is
currently planning a new category to house the results of vehicle
crash tests.
Editors are also looking for ways to make existing categories more user friendly.
Recent
discussions have centered on defining
"family" web sites and describing
baby homepages.
The Soups
and Stews re-org continues as well, with a Fruit
and Vegetable category being the latest addition. A Beans
and
Legumes category also came into being recently and is now home to 150 sites.
On
November 14th, Kids and Teens celebrated its first birthday. In just one year,
Kids and Teens has grown from about 5,000 listings to more than 15,000. Most
recently, an International
category has been launched. This serves as the K&T equivalent to World,
providing a home for non-English kid-friendly sites. Special thanks to the World
editors who have helped to get this new project off to a strong start.
Following the September 11th attacks, Kids and Teens editors responded by creating several related categories filled with resources geared toward younger Internet users: 2001 World Trade Center and Pentagon Attack, Afghanistan, and Anthrax.
Other major accomplishments include the addition of a new top-level News category. Now children and teenagers will find it easier to track down up-to-the-minute reports geared just toward them. The category also provides a new home for a growing collection of Magazines and E-zines.
Special thanks to lindyhop123, Kids and Teens has also added a new collection of U.S. State Government sites.
Zeph15 has initiated a re-org of Insects. Katarina is trying to get Comics and Cartoons up to speed, and kennebec has revived last year's discussions about the future of Summer Camps and Yo-Yos. If you've got an interest in any of these topics, come join the discussions!
The
split of the Regional forum (moving UK
& Ireland, US
& Canada and Australia
& New Zealand into their own areas) seems to have worked well so far,
and has allowed a number of other countries to start and maintain forum threads
about their own issues without having them lost amongst the issues of the larger
sub-trees.
Countries/areas currently busy with re-orgs, clean-ups or general housekeeping issues include Regional/Europe/Croatia, Regional/Asia/India, Regional/Europe/Finland, Regional/Europe/Norway, Regional/Europe/Sweden, Regional/Europe/France, Regional/Europe/Italy, Regional/Asia/Malaysia, Regional/Europe/Greece, Regional/Asia/Thailand, Regional/Asia/Nepal, Regional/Middle_East and Regional/Europe/Czech_Republic - so if you live in or have an interest in any of these countries, do have a look at their threads in the forum - you might be able to help out.
The Regional - General forum has also seen a variety of cross-Regional topics under discussion, including The Adult Question (yes, it was born in Regional this time round), and the formation of a new template for dealing with Bands_and_Artists subcats within Regional. Editors have also discussed guidelines for handling vacation rental sites, which differ in nature depending upon area, and the standardisation of subcats for animal welfare and animal shelters.
A new project is the establishment of an Editor FAQ for real estate listings, and the Beyond the Template threads are still discussing issues including moving and storage, commercial printers, marine businesses and early education.
- merlin1
Since
the last newsletter, the UK and Ireland have been given their own forum within
Regional, so editors have had plenty of room for a variety of discussions.
Efforts have been made to clean up throughout the UK and Ireland, with hype, spelling and other non-compliant descriptions being corrected. Various areas within England have benefited from the advancement of keen editors, including London, York, County Durham, Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire, Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Belfast. Discussions continue about how to handle counties which no longer officially exist (such as Middlesex), and how to deal with geographical 'areas' like the Lake District, Snowdonia, or the Yorkshire Dales. The London Boroughs are proving an interesting challenge too, being almost incomprehensible to anyone without local knowledge!
There
have also been a number of topical re-thinks and re-orgs going on, including
editors in UK/Education,
UK/Business_and_Economy/Financial_Services,
UK/Recreation_and_Sports,
UK/Society_and_Culture
and UK/Business_and_Economy/Industries/Manufacturing.
New projects include a test category to handle the sensitive issue of the Northern
Ireland Troubles at Test/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Northern_Ireland/Society_and_Culture/Issues
and a re-think
of how to handle UK and Ireland based Bands and Artists.
As I write, Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom as a whole is poised to touch 100,000 sites, hopefully by Christmas, with England also poised to touch the 50,000 mark within the next couple of days.
- merlin1
Science
editors continue to quietly improve directory coverage in the numerous specialized
subfields of science. We are still finding new frontiers to explore. Earlier
this year, we made the embarrassing discovery that there were no categories
for Inorganic and
Physical Chemistry,
two major subfields of Chemistry.
They are covered now, thanks to khamar!
Meanwhile, the great "Flora
and Fauna" reorganization is finally nearing completion.
- orlady
The
editors in Shopping are working hard
to meet the challenge posed by lisagirl -- can we reduce the unreviewed total
by just 10% in 30 days. It's not easy; the unreviewed come in as fast as we
beat them down, but we are determined to make the goal. We'd love more help
with this challenge. Come on over to Shopping/
and lend a hand.
Shopping/Visual_Arts/ is
undergoing some reorganization and clarification of categories. A group of enthusiastic
editors, encouraged by timspfd,
who took on the category in November, has written new charters and is working
to define the subcategories under Artists and Galleries. The team is also
considering adding new categories such as Printmaking, Multiple Media, and Mixed
Media. You can see the sample new structure for the category in Test/Shopping/Visual_Arts/.
Shopping/Home_and_Garden/, which reorganized significantly about a year and a half ago, continues to solidify its taxonomy. They have recently added a Do-It-Yourself category, along with several leaf categories needed as the number of sites listed continues to climb.
The Shopping/Crafts editors have been working hard to reduce their unreviewed and now have less than 900 unlisted sites waiting for review, which put them at less than 10% unreviewed.
There are many other cleanup and reorganization activities going on in Shopping/ , along with our efforts to meet lisagirl's challenge. Last year at this time Shopping/ contained 64,000 listings, this year we stand at double that size with 111,000 sites listed. Who says e-commerce is dying?
To help us with all this busy commerce, we need more editors to join the group of friendly editors already helping out. If you want participate in the noble effort to keep e-capitalize alive, come on over and apply to edit in one of the Shopping/ categories.
- cscott
Since
the last edition, Society editors have been grappling with a variety of issues.
The categorization of sites handling the horrific events of September 11th has
been an important topic, leading to the creation of Society/Issues/Terrorism/Incidents/2001_World_Trade_Center_and_Pentagon_Attack
and associated categories for the aftermath, as well as a re-think of the Society/Issues/Terrorism
category structure as a whole.
Religion_and_Spirituality editors have been looking at a possible re-organization in the Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Baha'i category, in order to accommodate sites which belong to splinter groups within the religion, as well as having a lively discussion about the organization in Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Christianity/Evangelism.
The always-fascinating but often controversial world of Society/Issues has seen the creation of two new subcategories, Society/Issues/Health/Body_Image and Society/Issues/Hazing, and editors are currently discussing renaming Society/Issues/Violence to perhaps become Society/Issues/Violence_and_Abuse.
Editors within Society/Folklore and Society/Gay,_Lesbian_and_Bisexual continue to work on ways of expanding and categorizing their areas, and the Society/Law team has begun to look afresh at the ontology in their area too. Clean-ups in Society/Paranormal and Society/Death are on-going, and Society/Support_Groups has seen most of its subcategories moved to live with their topic as part of a re-structuring effort to allow expert subject editors easier access to component parts of their topic.
- merlin1
