User:KieranKinnare/sandbox

Group Report for the Lunar_eclipse page

Group Members: Victoria David, Kieran Kinnare, Jordan Wechsler, Andrew Boseman

Contributions to the Lunar eclipse article

We added the section [[Lunar_eclipse#March_1504_lunar_eclipse|'March 1504 Lunar Eclipse'. The information we added refers to Christopher Columbus and his prediction of a lunar eclipse in order to show to a group of inhabitants that he could make the moon disappear. We got the information for this section from an article we found online at https://www.sciencenews.org/article/eclipse-saved-columbus. We found this source after learning about Columbus’ famous prediction, and wanted to find a true article about it. We google searched the phrase ‘Christopher Columbus prediction’ and made other, similar searches, and found this article to be both trustworthy (sciencenews.org is a respectible website) and informative. We also added a picture to our section on the March 1504 eclipse, which we found on Wikipedia (via Google Images), so it was easy to insert into the article. We added the 'Selenelion' section as a subsection of 'Types of lunar eclipse' and changed the subsection 'Danjon scale' to a section by itself, which helped with the overall structure of the wikipedia page. We added the subsections 'Incans' and 'Mesopotamians' to the section 'Lunar eclipse in mythology' in order to bolster our mythology section, which we stated that we would help out with initially. The peer feedback we received from our peers and other Wikipedia users focused on formatting, spelling/capitalization, and wording. From this feedback, we made all of the adjustments we considered to be good suggestions. We wrote a short section on Lunar Eclipse in Culture. In the section I described some of the ways lunar eclipses are portrayed in different cultures. I focused mainly on the Asian cultures. We also added a new section on Lunar Eclipses versus Solar Eclipses and looked at the differences between the two of them

Class-C to Class-B: The article may not be ready to move up to a Class-B article due to lack of citations. In our group’s section, we added citations under our original material however much of what was written prior to our additions did not contain sufficient citations. We faced a couple challenges with this because we did not find any books or websites that directly state the claims these users were making and we did not want to make up a citation for someone else’s work. However we voiced our concerns for the lack of citations on the article’s Talk Page.

Evolution of the article

We were able to become motivated to help improve the article with Goal Setting Theory, which states that people use intrinsic/extrinsic motives in order to do work. We used intrinsic motives in order to want to create a better community and a better article, and we used the extrinsic motives of wanting to get a good grade to do the best that we can with the article. The article was fairly small at the very beginning when we looked at it. There was about one sentence on mythology and really only about two or three fully developed sections. We definitely focused a lot on creating new, original material to add to the page. We made minor edits to the existing content and moved around some sections structurally however the most significant accomplishment was adding new material and expanding the article. Our research played a big role in how the article evolved. For example, at first we were looking into expanding the mythology section but with all the research in different cultures, we adjusted our expansion to create a new section on culture.

Learning Wikipedian policies and techniques

We needed to learn how to correctly edit both article and talk pages, respond to feedback on talk pages, cite our sources, and correctly add pictures to the article. We learned these skills in the Thursday sections with Ishtiaque, in the TeaHouse, and also just by seeing how other Wikipedia users made their edits. Observing other users’ work was especially useful in learning the proper markup and formatting procedures. The only thing that prevents us from better learning the policies and technical aspects of Wikipedia is our lack of immersion in the site. We’ve only been users for a little over a month, so we’re still “newbies”. However, we’ve improved greatly since our first days in the community, so we believe that with more time spent on Wikipedia, the more familiar we would become with the site’s policies and technical aspects.

Community Experience

At first, we did not feel a sense of community. The talk page was not as active as were were hoping and despite attempts to reach out to those people, we did not receive any replies. It got to be very frustrating until we ultimately talked to our TA about our issues. We eventually reached out to Wikipedians in the Teahouse and Wikipedians who were active on other pages similar to Lunar Eclipses. We reached out to users editing the moon and other articles related to astronomy and the solar system. When dealing with the community, we dealt with someone who gave us unhelpful information, which we deemed as ‘deviant behavior’. Deviant behavior is defined as a way of acting against the norm of the community, and our deviant, SovalValtos, certainly was. SovalValtos went against the norms of assuming good faith and not biting the newbies. In order to become acquainted with our community, we needed to figure out the norms of writing on Wikipedia, such as adding 4 tildes at the end of our talk pages, how to best reference articles, and how to go about contacting other Wikipedians.

Breakdown of Group Work

JORDAN: Added the section 'March 1504 Lunar Eclipse'. The information he added refers to Christopher Columbus and his prediction of a lunar eclipse in order to show to a group of inhabitants that he could make the moon disappear. He got the information for this section from an article we found online at https://www.sciencenews.org/article/eclipse-saved-columbus. He found this source after learning about Columbus’ famous prediction, and wanted to find a true article about it. He google searched the phrase ‘Christopher Columbus prediction’ and made other, similar searches, and found this article to be both trustworthy (sciencenews.org is a respectible website) and informative. He added the 'Selenelion' section as a subsection of 'Types of lunar eclipse' and changed the subsection 'Danjon scale' to a section by itself, which helped with the overall structure of the wikipedia page. He added the subsections 'Incans' and 'Mesopotamians' to the section 'Lunar eclipse in mythology' in order to bolster our mythology section, which we stated that we would help out with initially. The article that he got this information from is http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140413-total-lunar-eclipse-myths-space-culture-science/, which is a reputable source (National Geographic) and was able to bolster the section on mythology. In addition, he reached out to a number of different Wikipedians, asking them to help out with the page, and to give us guidance. While no one responded, Timl did respond on our talk page.

KIERAN: Added a picture to our section on the March 1504 eclipse, which he found on Wikipedia (via Google Images), so it was easy to insert into the article. As of now, it is still on the page!!!! He also made many of the formatting, spelling/capitalization, and wording changes that were suggested by our peers and other editors.

VICTORIA: She wrote a short section on Lunar Eclipse in Culture. In the section I described some of the ways lunar eclipses are portrayed in different cultures. I focused mainly on the Asian cultures. Taking into consideration the peer feedback, I went back and edited the section in terms of content, structure, and style. In addition to adding original content, I reach out to multiple Wikipedians for advice

ANDREW: He added a new section on Lunar and Solar Eclipses. Although it was subject to scrutiny by a hostile Wikipedian, most of the content is still live on the webpage. He also helped with the structure and layout of the article.