Wikipedia:Barnstar and award proposals/Category barnstars

Standardization of Barnstars: Category stars (Credit for the original idea goes wholly to brian0918) Rather than be faced with a periodic addition of random topic barnstars, I propose that we preemptivey create a series of Category Barnstars, based primarily on the categories listed on the main page, used to reward brilliant work in articles in one of the following categories:

• Culture – Art, literature, music, philosophy, religion
• Geography – Geography, "nation" articles
• History – Archaeology, history
• Daily Life – Education, food & drink, language, sports & games
• Science and Mathematics – The "hard" sciences: Biology, geology, medicine, mathematics, medicine, minerology, physics
• Society – Economics, government & politics, law, media, royalty & nobility, war
• Technology – Technology, transportation
• Oddball – The types of articles listed in Wikipedia:Unusual articles

Implementing this system would, in the end, keep the number of barnstars at a manageable level by providing a number of very categories, thus preventing a "Barnstar Creep" that could eventually result in dozens of "niche" stars. This would also allow us to implement a stylistic standardization to these articles, giving these barnstars a common theme and/or "look and feel". – ClockworkSoul 06:27, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

In preparation for a ginormous discussion, I've moved each header up one size, and added sections for each. Please keep discussion in these sections so that nobody's comments are missed and each can be easily archived. Add any image proposals to the appropriate section's gallery along with a number and your name (see example in Technology section). -- BRIAN0918  15:38, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Before we go and choose images, let's decide whether these are really the categories that we want. Anybody have any opinions? I for one, now think that we should roll Mathematics into Science. Also, for convenience and clarification, I took the categories from the scheme used in Wikipedia:Featured articles, and mapped it to an appropriate category. – ClockworkSoul 15:00, 5 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Completed

See archive for discussion.

Culture

The Barnstar of High Culture   {{{1}}}

History

The Epic Barnstar   Category: History (archaeology, history) The Epic Barnstar may be awarded to an editor who makes particularly fine History-related contributions. This award was introduced on April 15, 2005 by brian0918 and ClockworkSoul, and was designed by ClockworkSoul.

Oddball

The Oddball Barnstar   {{{1}}}

Science and Mathematics

E=MC2 Barnstar   Category: Science and Mathematics ("Hard" sciences, biology, geology, medicine, mathematics, medicine, minerology, physics) The E=MC2 Barnstar may be awarded to an editor who makes particularly fine contributions regarding science or mathematics-related topics This award was introduced on April 22, 2005 by brian0918 and ClockworkSoul.

Society

The Society Barnstar   Category: Society (Economics, government & politics, law, media, royalty & nobility, war) The Society Barnstar is intended for those whose work advance the general understanding of any given society one may attain by consulting Wikipedia. Award introduced on March 23, 2005 by Clockworksoul; designed by grm_wnr.

Current Proposals

Geography

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  1. Blue Marble Barnstar (brian0918)

• ClockworkSoul, we can use the Barnstar of National Merit for the geography topics. Zscout370 12:10, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)
  • I like that idea as well. Less work. -- BRIAN0918  15:32, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)
  • Per Redux's request at Wikipedia talk:Barnstars on Wikipedia, I've created a separate barnstar for geography. Here is a rough draft. Because the image of the Earth is nicknamed the "Blue Marble", I think Blue Marble Barnstar would be a good name for it. -- BRIAN0918  14:58, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)
  • I think its a bit too soon to entirely take the BoNM off the table: after all, its a pretty good fit for a "Geography & Nation" star (which is pretty much what it is now, more or less). I just want to avoid as much redundancy as possible. – ClockworkSoul 16:29, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)

• So, this barnstar is supported to represent "Geography, and nation articles". Should we use the existing Barnstar of National Merit, or replace it with another barnstar? For the record, I'm still in favor or reusing the BoNM, and its creator, Zscout370, said it was okay as well. Thoughts? – ClockworkSoul 04:44, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)
• I'm all in favour of using the BoNM for the same reasons as you give. --Deathphoenix 21:41, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Cool, deal. Another proposal then

The Barnstar of National Merit   Category: Geography (geography, nation-related articles) The Barnstar of National Merit may be awarded to an editor who creates a particularly fine article regarding geography or nation-related articles. This barnstar was proposed by Redux on February 23, 2005, and was designed by Zscout370.

I made some very minor changes to the wording for the BoNM so that it may be converted into a categorical barnstar. Let me knoe what you guys think. – ClockworkSoul 00:17, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Well, I do agree that for all practical purposes there's a strong tendency to award the BoNM to geography-related work. But as I've said before, a very particular aspect of this award is that, regardless of the topic or topics edited, they all relate to the coverage of one given country. If it's awarded for geography works (which may not be focused on the geography of any particular country), how is it going to be a national merit? In fact, the award has already been given to a user who did extensive work in favor of our coverage of South Africa, but in this particular case, the focus of the work was in the Armed Forces of South Africa. When I wrote the specifics of the BoNM, I tried to make it clear that the award was not exclusively for work done in one category (although that was not excluded, as long as it was extensive work on behalf of one given country – and in fact, this one category could not even be geography. One can get this award for expanding considerably articles on notable people from one country, for instance), but rather for work done in multiple categories, which would have in common that one country. I don't believe that having a [exclusively] geography-related award would be redundant with the BoNM – there may be an area in common, but then again, so does the Original Barnstar with many of the other awards (I mean, theoretically, you could get the Original Barnstar for Diligence, or for tireless contribution, etc.). Regards, Redux 01:37, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I see what your saying. But honestly, as far as I can tell, nation and nation-related articles outnumber geography articles by one or more orders of magnitude. If we do allow geography articles to be awarded for by the star, it will be used rather infrequently. It would also make things much cleaner and nicer if we would allow geography to be added to it. – ClockworkSoul 02:15, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I too see where you're going. But when you think about it, we are creating category-based awards that are aimed at (but not limited to) preventing the random multiplication of awards on the project. In this process, we are creating some awards that will be scarcely used (I image the Life Barnstar will be one – discussion about it hasn't even started yet), but we have deemed that this is an acceptable side effect. Imho, however, whether an award is "popular" or "forgotten" depends more on the community's willingness to award Barnstars (vis a vis the Kindness Campaign) than the purpose of the award per se. As an example, the Running Man Barnstar: as a sports-related award, I thought it would rapidly become one of the most popular awards around. Instead, it was weeks after we installed it until someone finally awarded it (to the most obvious recipient: Dale Arnett), and since that it's been forgotten again. It is quite possible that a Geography Barnstar could become a sought after award, if we manage to get more people interested in actually awarding barnstars.
But if we make the BoNM a geography barnstar (also), it will make little sense. Picture this: someone does intensive work about the Himalaias, the Andes or the Alps – or, in a "non mountain" example, the Bodensee in Europe or the Great Lakes in North America – this person would have contributed a lot for our coverage of geography-related themes, but not to any one country in special. And as I see it, it would make little sense that this person should get the Barnstar of National Merit for this kind of work. Not to mention that the BoNM's appearence is not evocative of the theme geography, rather it is a medal-like award, something that any one country might give out to people it deems important for its history, culture, politics, national security, etc. As an extra problem, broadening the scope of the BoNM like this would also sort of "blurry" the purpose of the BoNM. In my view, the best way to go would be creating a geography-specific award. Regards, Redux 05:42, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)

 

The Barnstar of Geographic Merit, by Redux.

All of this has given me the idea for the image I'm posting now. I merged the Blue Marble image with the ribbon from the BoNM. The problem is that there's no barnstar on this Barnstar (but maybe someone could find some way of inserting it – my abilities as a graphic designer are somewhat limited). Regards, Redux 06:12, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)

 

The Barnstar of Geographic Merit 2, by Redux.

How about this one on the left? Redux 06:12, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)

If we're going to go in a different direction, then I kind of like thee blue marble... – ClockworkSoul 14:35, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Is this discussion going to die here? We do not have a Geography award yet... Anybody has anything to say about it? Regards, Redux 02:44, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Goodness, I hope not! I think we just got distracted by other items. To summarize my view, I advocated the following actions:

1. Refactor the BoNM to change it into the Geography Barnstar.
2. If others are opposed to that, I think we should use the blue marble star. If we do this, though, should we accept the overlap in the two stars?

Those are my current views in a nutshell. – ClockworkSoul 13:13, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Well, why not we change the crtieria for the BoNM so it includes geography and national topics. Oh wait, the BoNM says this "The Barnstar of National Merit may be awarded to fellow Wikipedians who edit with great distinction articles pertaining to any given country, in topics such as (but not limited to) geography, politics, notable people, etc." Everything is already included, so I think we sahould drop this idea and use the BoNM as the geographic/national topic Barnstar. Zscout370 13:29, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

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Life (education, food & drink, language, sports & games)

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  Tattoo (grm_wnr)
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  Bling bling (grm_wnr)
•  
  Possible image (Sango123)

• Perhaps the proposed Running Man Barnstar can be broadened in scope? (Just a passing thought)

I have a suggestion. Make a variant of the medal below with a Barnstar instead of the puzzle piece. -- AllyUnion (talk) 08:59, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

• I know this is probably a bit weird, but an idea just suddenly popped into my head... See above. -- grm_wnr Esc 03:22, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • Interesting concept, and I think it's in the right direction, but I think that I would prefer an actual barnstar of some kind here. My problem is this: what is it, that in a single image summarizes "daily life"? – ClockworkSoul 14:45, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
    • Ok now this is bordering on the ridiculous, but you wanted a real barnstar, a real barnstar you get. Doesn't get any realer! Complete with dorky Westside Wikipedia hand gesture. The chain made out of paper clips may make it just surreal enough to actually work, though. ;) -- grm_wnr Esc 16:58, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Here's a thought: How about an image (drawn, not photographed :P ) of a hand holding a barnstar? – ClockworkSoul 16:48, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • Maybe we could place a background of a line of city skyscrapers, a farm scene, or something on this Barnstar image. I think any daily scenery would work. Sango123 19:40, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)
  • Perhaps... I've never been a big fan of backgrounds on barnstars, though. – ClockworkSoul 20:13, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
    • You're probably right, Clockwork. Backgrounds can become tacky. How's this (third image)? I can clean it up a bit if necessary. (Sorry... I can't draw hands that well. ^_^) Sango123 23:27, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)
      • This is great. For being on the Barnstar pages for only a few days now, Sango, man, you are doing great work. Zscout370 (talk) 23:55, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
      • That's not bad at all... – ClockworkSoul 00:02, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
      • I like it too! Is that barnstar on the bottom anyway related to the resilent barnstar down at the bottom of this page? Bratsche^{talk random} 03:10, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC)
        • I'm sorry, Bratsche... could you tell me which Barnstars you are referring to? Sango123 20:00, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC)
          • Sorry, Sango. I meant your green proposal for the Resilient Barnstar. Bratsche^{talk random} 18:26, Apr 30, 2005 (UTC)
    • Well, if we do have a Vote or Die situation again, my vote is on the barnstar, with the flower, that was drawn by Sango. Zscout370 (talk) 20:16, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Shall we commence a Vote or Die and accept an image? Sango123 July 4, 2005 19:32 (UTC)

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Technology

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  1. Lightbulb1 (brian0918)
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  2. Lightbulb2 (brian0918)
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  3. Lightbulb3 (brian0918)

• Picture this: a barnstar made of wires and steel plating. Need I say more?
  • That idea sounds good (I was initially thinking of something similar), but it seems like it might go against the tradition of barnstars being very simple. Also, it might look weird to be awarded to someone who contributed a vast number of articles on the industrial revolution, for example. If someone made a high-tech barnstar that people liked, I'd probably vote for it, but for now, here's a rough draft of my attempt. Any comments? -- BRIAN0918  16:11, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)
    • At the moment, I would vote for this one, I think. I like the lightbulb idea. – ClockworkSoul 17:48, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)
    • I'm neutral on this. I like the idea, but I don't like how bright it is. I was also thinking of maybe using little LEDs in the shape of a star, or maybe replace the star with circuit boards. --Deathphoenix 21:06, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)
  • I've attempted to make a diamond-plated barnstar, but its harder to make than it seems. I can't do it with my photo-editing software. Maybe someone else can. -- Riffsyphon1024 04:59, Mar 19, 2005 (UTC)
    • I love the idea, though! – ClockworkSoul 05:10, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)
• The light bulb is too bright, how about a NON lit bulb like this where B stans for the bulb?
  

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-B-

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• • I've uploaded a 3rd version where the bulb is lit but the background isn't brightened by it. Let me know how this can be improved. -- BRIAN0918  14:14, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)
    • How about adding cartoon lines? --Cool Cat ^{My Talk} 05:16, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • Hmm, I actually like the brightness effect: lightbulb2 is the way I would go if I could choose right now. – ClockworkSoul 14:48, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• I say #2 with a light bulb that is not lit but is lit in a cartoon way.
  • I actually think that bulb2 is fine. It seems like the bulb is lit, without throwing out the barnstar. How cartoony are you talking about? Bratsche^{talk random} 17:20, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)
• In the absence of any better ideas, I'm going to move that we open a vote and accept one of the above images. Any seconds? – ClockworkSoul 03:50, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • Second. Bratsche^{talk random} 20:42, Apr 26, 2005 (UTC)

Vote or Die

I suppose we might as well open a vote and accept one of the three images. Sango123 16:25, Jun 18, 2005 (UTC)

Lightbulb1 Barnstar no votes

Lightbulb2 Barnstar Sango123 16:25, Jun 18, 2005 (UTC) Riffsyphon1024 08:24, Jun 21, 2005 (UTC) Bratschetalk 5 pillars 15:58, Jun 21, 2005 (UTC) Redux 19:15, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC) Zscout370 (Sound Off) 4 July 2005 16:51 (UTC)

Lightbulb3 Barnstar no votes