Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Science Fiction/Archive 3

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

the reality of Kalgash

Someone's done a study on the physical feasibility of the system as described in Asimov's Nightfall story.

• Smaran Deshmukh, Jayant Murthy (18 July 2014). "Nightfall: Can Kalgash Exist" (published July 2014). arXiv:1407.4895. Bibcode:2014arXiv1407.4895D. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |publicationdate= ignored (|publication-date= suggested) (help)

-- 65.94.169.222 (talk)

Scope and genre thread

In spite of the notice at the top of this page, it seems to be more watched than the Discussion Forum, so i want to draw attention to Wikipedia:WikiProject Science Fiction/Discussion Forum#Scope and genre, which I started. I hope for more project members to give their views. DES ^(talk) 17:49, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

RfC: Are personal pronouns (including "who") to be avoided for fictional characters?

Please take part in the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style#RfC: Are personal pronouns (including "who") to be avoided for fictional characters? Curly Turkey ¡gobble! 23:09, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Just FYI, this non-neutrally set up reductio ad absurdum RfC has actually moved on to a more serious discussion about whether MoS should advise rewording to avoid particularly confusing uses of "who[m]" and "[s]he" when writing about fictional characters in an out-of-universe way (e.g. as intellectual property). Further input from projects that actually write encyclopedically about fictional characters a lot would be useful.  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽^ʌⱷ҅_ᴥⱷ^ʌ≼  03:49, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

RfC on unusual prepositions in titles

FYI

 – Pointer to relevant discussion elsewhere.

Please see Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Capital letters#Proposal regarding unusual prepositions in titles (re: clarification request in RM closure).  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽^ʌⱷ҅_ᴥⱷ^ʌ≼  20:43, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

Time Patrol

Hi, I am French and I am sorry to see that there is no item about the Poul Anderson's book : Time Patrol (the most famous novel in Europe).

Can someone write something about the novel (see here in French) or the novella (see here) ? Thank you.

I had insert here the same message on 13rd of april, 2013, but nobody did answer.

Sincerely yours,

--Éric Messel ^{(Send a message)} 21:21, 14 September 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Éric Messel (talk • contribs)

Fork of the Astounding/Analog article

Editor Galerivs has created a fork of the Astounding/Analog article, and I've asked for comments on the talk page. Would any interested editors comment at Talk:Analog Science Fiction and Fact#Fork of this article? Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:38, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

The editor in question has reverted me again; I'd appreciate more comments at the talk page. P64 has commented there, against a split, and Orangemike reverted Galerivs without comment, so that's three to one, but I'd rather not edit war. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 00:23, 14 October 2015 (UTC)

Grants:IEG/Wikipedia likes Galactic Exploration for Posterity 2015

Dear Fellow Wikipedians,

I JethroBT (WMF) suggested that I consult with fellow Wikipedians to get feedback and help to improve my idea about "As an unparalleled way to raise awareness of the Wikimedia projects, I propose to create a tremendous media opportunity presented by launching Wikipedia via space travel."

Please see the idea at meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Wikipedia_likes_Galactic_Exploration_for_Posterity_2015. Please post your suggestions on the talk page and please feel free to edit the idea and join the project.

Thank you for your time and attention in this matter. I appreciate it.

My best regards, Geraldshields11 (talk) 22:07, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

Tank Girl at FAC

Tank Girl (film) is back as FAC again, after having undergone significant improvements. All comments on the nomination are welcome – see here. Thanks. Freikorp (talk) 04:07, 18 October 2015 (UTC)

From The Doctor to my son Thomas - featured article candidate

I've nominated the article about the video From The Doctor to my son Thomas for Featured Article consideration.

The article is about a message sent from actor Peter Capaldi in-character in his role as the Doctor on Doctor Who, to console an autistic young boy over grief from the death of his grandmother.

Comments would be appreciated, at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/From The Doctor to my son Thomas/archive1.

Thank you for your time,

— Cirt (talk) 01:05, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Deletion to Quality Award

I've created the WP:Deletion to Quality Award.

This recognizes editors who've taken a page previously considered for deletion — to Featured Article or Good Article quality.

The award is inspired by the Wikipedia:Million Award, the Wikipedia:Article Rescue Squadron, and the Wikipedia:WikiProject Quality Article Improvement.

Please see Wikipedia:Deletion to Quality Award.

Thank you,

— Cirt (talk) 00:36, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

Cool. That's a good award to have since it would encourage fixing all the problems that would cause it to be deleted. ···日本穣^? · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe · Join WP Japan! 01:13, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

Thank you, Nihonjoe, exactly, agreed ! — Cirt (talk) 05:19, 24 October 2015 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Temporal war

The article Temporal war has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

no references for ten years

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. BrightRoundCircle (talk) 11:21, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Illuminatus article review

I have nominated The Illuminatus! Trilogy for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. DrKay (talk) 09:56, 15 November 2015 (UTC)

Comparison of Star Trek and Star Wars

Help on editing Comparison of Star Trek and Star Wars would be appreciated. There are questions over the neutrality, e.g. it may be too pro-Trek. The quality of the sourcing has also been questioned. See the talk page for more on this debate. Finding additional sources that directly compare the two and/or better working in the existing sources would be welcome. Fences&Windows 20:47, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Proposal to create an infobox for fictional conflicts

I am proposing that an infobox be created for fictional conflicts, as currently many articles on fictional conflicts, as well as a real-time virtual battle, use Template:Infobox military conflict. To centralize discussion, please reply, if interested, at the infobox talk page I've linked to here.--3family6 (Talk to me | See what I have done) 05:34, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Good sources

I've recently started collecting reference work related to sf. This is the ones I know of, with notes on availability:

Brave new words the Oxford dictionary of science fiction by Jeff Prucher: semi-officially available offline: https://sfdictionary.com/

Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction (Library Movements) by Don D'Ammassa: found on Z-Library

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by Peter Nicholls, John Clute, David Langford: officially available online: http://sf-encyclopedia.com/

The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy by Gary Westfahl: list of chapters; partial preview on Google Books: Volume 1 (A-K), Volume 2 (L-Z) Volume 3

The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by George Mann: found on Z-Library

Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia by Brian Stableford: found on Z-Library

Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction - Brian Ash (index search only): found on Z-Library (not OCRed)

Please let me know if you know of any other good works to add to this list, which perhaps we could split into a subpage of this project? Ping User:Daranios, User:TompaDompa, User:Jclemens, User:BOZ... _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 04:07, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

I've got several volumes each on Babylon 5 and Stargate, but the one dead tree book in my collection that's a bit more general is Jan Johnson-Smith's 2005 American Science Fiction TV: Star Trek, Stargate, and Beyond ISBN 9780819567383. I don't have any of the others. Jclemens (talk) 05:23, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

The main site that I look at is http://isfdb.org/ which is not a reference in and of itself, but if you look at any page it may list any number of reviews for a given fiction or non-fiction work. For example, this page shows 6 reviews of one of the works you mentioned: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?651153 BOZ (talk) 14:47, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

Cool, should be enough to stub and even DYK an article on that (The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction). I'll add it to my to do list. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 14:54, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

I keep a list of sf references I own; see here. I haven't updated it in years but it hasn't changed that dramatically. I'll try to get it updated soon. Feel free to steal it and edit it as the basis of a project subpage if that would be useful. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 17:21, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

@Piotrus: I'd add Locus's Science Fiction Awards Database (SFADB), which is like an index of references (in addition to awards). It has both general and author-specific lists of citations.

The general list is here, and the more focused one is under the "Citations" tab for that author, e.g. Samuel Delany's page has a list of 31 references where his books have been cited. Olivaw-Daneel (talk) 20:17, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

@Piotrus: I would add Science Fiction Literature through History: An Encyclopedia by Gary Westfahl (partially available via Google Books) to that list. TompaDompa (talk) 16:29, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

Spoiler warnings needed!

I just added one for a detailed plot summary for "A Gift from the Culture," a classic short story by the late Iain M. Banks that I found particularly egregious. But I've noticed others almost as bad. That would be a useful project for someone, perhaps even me..... --Pete Tillman (talk) 19:11, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

See WP:SPOILER and this RfC on the spoiler template; we don't use spoiler warnings any more. The second link is more definite on this than the first; I can't find a clearer statement, but I'm pretty sure there is one somewhere. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 19:27, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

@Mike Christie Anyone interested in this - can you find something to show this story is notable? _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 17:15, 23 December 2021 (UTC)

1) It was announced that it was going to be turned into a film. Not a lot of Banks-related media projects out there, even ones that eventually don't go through.

2) Cramer and Hartwell singled it out for specific comment in their well-regarded book on the New Space Opera. --Orange Mike | Talk 17:20, 23 December 2021 (UTC)

See this list of reviews of the collection in which it was included. I don't know if any of those specifically discuss the story but they might well do. One of the reviews is by me, but I have no recollection of whether I mentioned that story and that issue is in a box somewhere in the basement. Searching Google Scholar also finds an article by Simon Guerrier in Foundation 28 that mentions it. There's also Simone Caroti's The Culture Series of Iain M. Banks. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 17:28, 23 December 2021 (UTC)

@Mike Christie and @Orangemike: 1) that announcement did not generate much buzz 2) that one-two sentence mention in passing fails WP:SIGCOV 3) thank you, that would be good review, although in the end, the requirement to check if those sources contain stuff remains on the people who want to keep it. WP:BEFORE of course applies, but only up to a reasonable level. I'll see if any of these sources are accessible online shortly and review those that are. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 09:16, 26 December 2021 (UTC)

Quatermass and the Pit under FA review

I have nominated Quatermass and the Pit for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. --George Ho (talk) 00:04, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

FAR for StarCraft

I have nominated StarCraft (video game) for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Hog Farm _Talk 04:43, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

User script to detect unreliable sources

Main page: User:Headbomb/unreliable

I have (with the help of others) made a small user script to detect and highlight various links to unreliable sources and predatory journals. Some of you may already be familiar with it, given it is currently the 39th most imported script on Wikipedia. The idea is that it takes something like

• John Smith "Article of things" Deprecated.com. Accessed 2020-02-14. (John Smith "[https://www.deprecated.com/article Article of things]" ''Deprecated.com''. Accessed 2020-02-14.)

and turns it into something like

• John Smith "Article of things" Deprecated.com. Accessed 2020-02-14.

It will work on a variety of links, including those from {{cite web}}, {{cite journal}} and {{doi}}.

The script is mostly based on WP:RSPSOURCES, WP:NPPSG and WP:CITEWATCH and a good dose of common sense. I'm always expanding coverage and tweaking the script's logic, so general feedback and suggestions to expand coverage to other unreliable sources are always welcomed.

Do note that this is not a script to be mindlessly used, and several caveats apply. Details and instructions are available at User:Headbomb/unreliable. Questions, comments and requests can be made at User talk:Headbomb/unreliable.

- Headbomb {t · c · p · b}

This is a one time notice and can't be unsubscribed from. Delivered by: MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:02, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

Contested Jack Vance novels merger to Demon Princes

There is a discussion at Talk:Demon Princes. Clarityfiend (talk) 09:11, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

References subpage

I've updated the References subpage with a list of good SF sources along with availability, as suggested by Piotrus in /Archive 3#Good sources. It has links to the Internet Archive and The Wikipedia Library, and if those two are unavailable, Google Books previews. I think everything Piotrus and TompaDompa mentioned are there; I haven't looked into Mike Christie's huge list yet. Please feel free to expand the list! (Note: the "Fannish references" section is from an old version of the page from 2011.) Olivaw-Daneel (talk) 05:48, 6 August 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for doing that. I am about to be limited to iPad editing for a day or so, and away from my books, so may not be able to post much, but I will try to post some suggestions. The library link in my signature is at least ten years out of date, and maybe this will give me the incentive to update it. Some suggestions off the top of my head:

• The Magill Survey of Science Fiction Literature and Survey of Fantasy Literature; five volumes of assessments of famous books.
• Mike Ashley's four volume History of the Science Fiction Magazine from the 1970s, and the updated history that began to appear in 2000, starting with The Time Machines.
• Ashley & Tymn's Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines.
• Galactic Central, a reliable source for bibliographic data, and which includes the Contento indexes.
• Unfortunately we need to note that the [http:isfdb.org ISFDB] is not reliable for FAs, per some FAC review discussions, though it's a great place to find information that can be verified elsewhere.
• Bleiler's Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years and Science Fiction: The Early Years.
• Ashley and Lowndes The Gernsback Days.
• For UK fannish history, Rob Hansen's Then is an encyclopedic source.
• There are bios of individual writers, such as Asimov's autobiographies and Mark Rich's book on Kornbluth, but I don't know if it's worth listing all of those -- I assume we're looking at fairly general references here?
• How about things like Damon Knight's The Futurians, which is heavily focused on a small group over a short time?

-- Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:36, 6 August 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for these! I've added everything you suggested except for the individual writer bios. Yes I think it'd be good to keep it to general references. Olivaw-Daneel (talk) 18:07, 6 August 2022 (UTC)

I added some more that I've used for various articles. I wasn't sure where to place all of them, so there's a bunch of "others" now. TompaDompa (talk) 17:01, 6 August 2022 (UTC)

Thanks! Renamed it to "general references" - maybe that sounds better? Feel free to re-org if you have a better idea. (We added a couple of books at the same time; I've removed duplicates.) Olivaw-Daneel (talk) 18:10, 6 August 2022 (UTC)

A few more possible additions:

• There's another volume of Mike Ashley's history out now, called Rise of the Cyberzines.
• How about a section on sf art? Great Balls of Fire by Harry Harrison, Infinite Worlds by Vincent di Fate, and Science Fiction Art by Brian Aldiss all come to mind. There's also James Gunn, Alternate Worlds: The Illustrated History of Science Fiction, but that's more of a general history with lots of illustrations. The same goes for David Kyle's A Pictorial History of Science Fiction.
• Leif Davin has two useful books: Partners in Wonder about women in sf 1926-65; and Pioneers of Wonder; interviews with early figures in sf, such as Eshbach, Moskowitz, Lasser, and Hornig.
• Paul Carter's The Creation of Tomorrow and del Rey's The World of Science Fiction should probably be added; Carter is primarily focused on magazines; del Rey covers 1926-50 and so does cover the magazines but is a bit more general.
• Alec Nevala-Lee's Astounding is focused on Campbell, Asimov, Heinlein, and Hubbard and is an excellent recent book.
• There's a 140-page history of pre-Amazing magazines in the back of Moskowitz's Under the Moons of Mars; that and Mike Ashley's The Age of the Storyteller are probably worth adding, though they focus on the genre before it became a genre.
• Sam Moskowitz has two volumes of biographical sketches of important sf figures, both genre and pre-genre, in Seekers of Tomorrow and Explorers of the Infinite. I have heard that there are some errors in these, so I use them sparingly, but they can be useful.
• Donald Tuck's three volume Encyclopedia of Science Fiction should be included. It only covers up to 1968, and large parts of it have been superseded by other bibliographical resources, but it's still quotable for opinions on stories and books, and it does have some bibliographical information that I've found useful and can't find elsewhere.
• The Dictionary of Literary Biography has a volume on sf writers; it's volume 8, in two physical volumes.
• Do we want to list books of scholarship about sf? These range from old books like Inquiry into Science Fiction by Basil Davenport, from 1955, through Dark Suvin's Metamorphoses of Science Fiction, to Westfahl's The Mechanics of Wonder. There may be too many of these to list, so perhaps we should only include the ones that editors have found useful in constructing articles. I've almost exclusively focused on magazine articles, so I have to say I haven't used this sort of book much, and can't speak to which are useful, though I do have quite a few.
• There must be a ton of references for film sf, which is an area I have few books on.
• Three old critical books I have found useful to get opinions on old classic stories (or old crappy stories): Damon Knight's In Search of Wonder, and James Blish's The Issue at Hand and More Issues at Hand, both under his William Atheling alias.
• When discussing a story or novel, it's always worth digging up reviews. I have an old review index by Hal Hall, but it's largely (but not completely) duplicated by the ISFDB now. The ISFDB isn't reliable, but for this purpose that doesn't matter since it's just a pointer to finding reviews elsewhere. Then of course you have to find someone who has the 1953 issue of F&SF or SF Adventures, which is usually the hard part. Locus has tons of reviews for more recent work and should probably be mentioned for that reason.
• Finally, given that many editors are going to want to write biographical articles about sf writers, perhaps we should include bios and autobiographies after all? After all, particularly for pre-1960 writers, the social circles were small enough that you can go to Fred Pohl's The Way the Future Was for information about Kornbluth, and to Rich's bio of Kornbluth for information about Lowndes, and so on.

-- Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 12:51, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

All done. Olivaw-Daneel (talk) 00:55, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

That was quick! I have a couple more biographies that are worth adding, now you've started that section: Fred Nadis, The Man From Mars, about Ray Palmer; Jeffrey Marks' Anthony Boucher; Amy Binns' Hidden Wyndham; and Philip Sherman's Leo Margulies. Perhaps as sf GAs and FAs are added, we can review their sources and see what else could be added to the page. Thanks for taking this on! Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 01:55, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

And two more I just remembered; Kingsley Amis's New Maps of Hell, and Hell's Cartographers, a collection of excellent autobiographical essays by Silverberg, Knight, Pohl, Harrison, Aldiss, and one other writer I forget. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 02:23, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Added; hope the era division is correct. And yes I agree about sources from FAs/GAs. If anyone is interested in a similar list for fantasy – WP:FANTASYREFS – feel free to comment on/expand that too. Olivaw-Daneel (talk) 17:49, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Reviewers needed for SF topics at FA level

My Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Venus in fiction/archive1, ,is apparently not of interest to regular FAC contributors and is about to expire due to a lack of comments. Perhaps some of you here would like to stop by and say something. TIA! _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 08:50, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

I should be able to take a look today. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 10:27, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

Dune character image changes

There are discussions at:

• Talk:Duncan Idaho#Image
• Talk:Chani (character)#Image

Thanks.— TAnthony^Talk 17:05, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

RFC at Talk:Star Control

There is an RFC concerning external links from the article about the classic game Star Control. Participation is welcome. Robert McClenon (talk) 01:31, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

WP:Peer review for Mars in fiction

I have opened a WP:Peer review request for Mars in fiction in preparation for WP:Featured article nomination, see Wikipedia:Peer review/Mars in fiction/archive1. Any and all feedback would be appreciated. TompaDompa (talk) 00:23, 7 January 2023 (UTC)

Good article reassessment for GLaDOS

GLaDOS has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. Onegreatjoke (talk) 16:16, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

The trainwreck at Afro-Surrealism

FYI

 – Pointer to relevant discussion elsewhere.

Please see: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject African diaspora#The trainwreck at Afro-Surrealism.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  05:32, 16 March 2023 (UTC)

Project-independent quality assessments

Quality assessments by Wikipedia editors rate articles in terms of completeness, organization, prose quality, sourcing, etc. Most wikiprojects follow the general guidelines at Wikipedia:Content assessment, but some have specialized assessment guidelines. A recent Village pump proposal was approved and has been implemented to add a |class= parameter to {{WikiProject banner shell}}, which can display a general quality assessment for an article, and to let project banner templates "inherit" this assessment.

No action is required if your wikiproject follows the standard assessment approach. Over time, quality assessments will be migrated up to {{WikiProject banner shell}}, and your project banner will automatically "inherit" any changes to the general assessments for the purpose of assigning categories.

However, if your project has decided to "opt out" and follow a non-standard quality assessment approach, all you have to do is modify your wikiproject banner template to pass {{WPBannerMeta}} a new |QUALITY_CRITERIA=custom parameter. If this is done, changes to the general quality assessment will be ignored, and your project-level assessment will be displayed and used to create categories, as at present. Aymatth2 (talk) 13:53, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

FAR for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series)

User:Buidhe has nominated The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series) for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets the featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" in regards to the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:04, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

WP:FAC for Mars in fiction

Mars in fiction is at WP:FAC, see WP:Featured article candidates/Mars in fiction/archive1. The discussion has been open since 5 May, and has now slowed down a fair amount in the last week. Further input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. TompaDompa (talk) 21:30, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

WP:FAC for Venus in fiction

Venus in fiction is at WP:FAC, see WP:Featured article candidates/Venus in fiction/archive2. Further input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. TompaDompa (talk) 00:44, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

RFC at Talk:Maske:Thaery

Please participate in a Request for Comments at Talk:Maske:_Thaery#RFC_on_Plot_Summary.  Maske: Thaery is a 1976 novel by Jack Vance.  The question in the RFC is which version of the plot summary should be used.

Robert McClenon (talk) 19:58, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

Anyone here has access to old Locus volumes?

I (and presumably others) sometimes need them for, well, article writing (the book review part, for example). Ex. Wikipedia:WikiProject_Resource_Exchange/Resource_Request#"Songs_of_Muad'Dib_review"s_in_Locus_and_Voice_of_Youth_Advocates. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 00:54, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

1997 to 2009 is archived here. I don't know of an older archive. I have a subscription and can check for more recent stuff on their website. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 01:11, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

And having never really looked at those old archive pages I now see they're not issue archives, though they might be useful. Still, my offer to search anything accessible via a subscription stands. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 01:14, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

@Mike Christie That's appreciated. Which years does your subscription cover? (The particular article I'd like for creation of the Mad'Dib songs page would be from May 1992...). _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 02:13, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

My subscription goes back to the mid-1980s, but I can only get access to whatever issues have been digitized, and they don't go anything like that far back, I'm afraid. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 02:39, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

No paper copies in the attic, I assume? :> _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 03:17, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

Not any more! I once had most issues from the 1980s through the early 2000s but they're all gone. Recycled, sadly; I sold most of my collection on eBay but as I recall these were not cost effective to sell. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 03:19, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

I wish WMF had a physical library to store this, digitize this, and compensate people in your situation for donating the materials. Sigh. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 03:31, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

Good article reassessment for Moonbase 3

Moonbase 3 has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. Spinixster (chat!) 09:34, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

Good article reassessment for Star Cops

Star Cops has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. Spinixster (chat!) 09:34, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:Doctor Who (series 14)#Requested move 2 December 2023

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Doctor Who (series 14)#Requested move 2 December 2023 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. UtherSRG (talk) 00:04, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

What are the most important concepts of science fiction?

Some interesting discussions are held at Wikipedia_talk:Vital_articles/Level/5/Subpage_3#SF_novels and Wikipedia_talk:Vital_articles/Level/5/Subpage_3#Add_the_following_sf_films. Those discussions concern Vital-5, i.e. chosing the corpus of 50k most vital Wikikipedia articles (V4 lists 10k, V3 1k, V2 100 and V1 10).

For context, science fiction is a Science fiction  4 V4-level article. It did not make it to V3 (see Wikipedia:Vital_articles#Arts_(45_articles), seems reasonable).

At V4, sf is listed at Wikipedia:Vital_articles/Level/4/Arts#Literature_(217_articles) with one subgenre/concept (Time travel  4). A number of sf/fantasy works of literature are listed but it is a bit hard to get a quick count as that list is done in chronological (era) not genra period. There are four sf/fantasy films listed at Wikipedia:Vital_articles/Level/4/Arts#Science_fiction/Fantasy_(4_articles). Television shows like Star Trek  4 are at Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4/Society and social sciences.

At V5, sf concepts can be found at Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/5/Arts (literatue, film), Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/5/Society and social sciences/Culture (television) and Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/5/Everyday life/Sports, games and recreation (video games).

And of course, people are at Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4/People and at V5, Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/5/People/Writers and journalists, Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/5/People/Entertainers, directors, producers, and screenwriters and Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/5/People/Artists, musicians, and composers are relevant.

It is not idea, but VA lists are one dimensional, so sometimes it's hard to figure out where a particular concept belongs.

One final observation and example: Wikipedia:Vital_articles/Level/5/Arts#Speculative_fiction_(9_articles) lists # Speculative fiction, # Alternate history, # Fantasy (Level 4), # Horror fiction (Level 4), # Science fiction (Level 4), ##  Cyberpunk, ## Time travel (Level 4), ## Teleportation and # Superhero fiction. The obvious (for me) ommssion of Steampunk  5 is not an ommission but one of those weird categorization - it is listed under Wikipedia:Vital_articles/Level/5/Arts#Concepts_and_forms_(99/100_articles) (for Visual arts, as a subtopic of retro style). Probably should be moved.

Anyway, if anyone is looking for a new fun time sink, and/or feels like making a case what are some of the most important works and creators or concepts of sf, sto by WP:VITAL :) _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 04:20, 12 December 2023 (UTC)

WP:FAC for George Griffith

George Griffith is at WP:FAC, see WP:Featured article candidates/George Griffith/archive1. Further input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. TompaDompa (talk) 08:08, 12 December 2023 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:Robots of Stanisław Lem#Requested move 6 January 2024

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Robots of Stanisław Lem#Requested move 6 January 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. Vanderwaalforces (talk) 13:04, 6 January 2024 (UTC)

List of films featuring androids

Cleaning up the See Also list at Ex Machina, it became obvious that we need a List of films featuring androids. Anyone feeling in the mood to get it going? I would but my list would be too trivial:

• Metropolis (1927 film)
• Blade Runner
• I, Robot
• Ex Machina
• Terminator series
• Star Wars series (though arguably the androids are background action, not lead characters).

That's it. I'm afraid that IMO there are very few SF films worth the time it takes to watch them 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 11:55, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

There already is a List of fictional robots and androids with a section for film. It's not exactly a quality piece of Wikipedia content, to put it mildly, but it exists. TompaDompa (talk) 12:12, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

TYVM, that's helpful. List articles can never be more that a set of pointers to specific articles, so we mustn't be too hard. The problem for my purposes with that one is that it is too non-selective and too open-ended. I think that there is an opening for a list that is restricted to movies where the android is leading actor or at least best supporting. Somebody who knows more about it than I do might mine that article to create the new one? --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 12:24, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

Can't say I see the point. Sounds like a better idea to write a proper prose article on androids in fiction, assuming we have the sources for it (compare e.g. Mars in fiction). For the record, Robots in fiction currently redirects to Robots in literature, while Robots in film redirects to Science fiction film#Robots. TompaDompa (talk) 12:50, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:Life, the Universe, & Everything#Requested move 18 February 2024

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Life, the Universe, & Everything#Requested move 18 February 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. – Hilst [talk] 11:35, 25 February 2024 (UTC)

Good article reassessment for Clare Winger Harris

Clare Winger Harris has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. Spinixster (chat!) 12:52, 25 February 2024 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:Superman (1978 film)#Requested move 1 March 2024

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Superman (1978 film)#Requested move 1 March 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. Vanderwaalforces (talk) 09:05, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

Requested merger at Talk:List of fictional computers#Merger proposal 18 March 2024

There is a requested merger discussion at Talk:List of fictional computers#Merger proposal 18 March 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. Dash77 (talk) 22:52, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

Good article reassessment for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 16:58, 23 March 2024 (UTC)

Talk:Dyson_sphere#Dyson spheres in fiction

After a protracted argument on the Dyson sphere talk page that seemed to be going nowhere, I decided to consolidate and restate the basic issues concerning this section in general, and one particular instance that has proven especially vexing, as I see them. I hope that members of this and other related WikiProjects might weigh in and give their opinions. P Aculeius (talk) 18:10, 24 March 2024 (UTC)

"Cosmic Stories Blog" by Elizabeth Stanway

I just came across something called "Cosmic Stories Blog" by Elizabeth Stanway, an astrophysicist at the University of Warwick (the blog is hosted on the university's website). I took a quick look at some of the blog entries, and they seem like they could be useful for quite a few Wikipedia articles—if they are usable, which is what I wanted to ask here.

My thinking is as follows: according to this page, Stanway has been published in Foundation, The Conversation, and a book on Doctor Who, among others. That should mean that, when it comes to science fiction, Stanway counts as established subject-matter expert, whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable, independent publications per WP:Self-published sources, making "Cosmic Stories Blog" a reliable enough (even if low-profile/marginal) source for science fiction content. I wanted to hear if others agree or disagree with that assessment.

Ping some editors I know to be knowledgeable about sci-fi sources: @Piotrus, Mike Christie, and Olivaw-Daneel: what do you think? TompaDompa (talk) 00:07, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

@TompaDompa That seems like a valid case. I'd recommend attributing her too. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 01:30, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

Good article reassessment for Solaris (1972 film)

Solaris (1972 film) has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. Spinixster (trout me!) 02:11, 31 March 2024 (UTC)

Requested split at Talk:First contact (science fiction)#Splitting off the list)

There is a requested split discussion at Talk:First contact (science fiction)#Splitting off the list) that may be of that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. Ships & Space_(Edits) 17:06, 26 April 2024 (UTC)