User blog:Kwiksilver/Article Expansion for Dummies

Hey all, Kwik here. Lately, my focus has been expanding LQAs. The reason being that I'd hate to see gaping holes in our database and redlinks. I've also noticed that, aside from adopting an article, there's no action taken, so I've decided to share some of my faultless strategies for Article Expansion.

As always, I'll start with the basics. Refer to Fig.1. I always start with the "DO YOUR PART" menu, then often choose the LQA category.

Fig.1

Then, I pick an article near the beginning. Most of the expandable LQAs start with numbers. (Fig. 2)

Fig. 2

1: Expansion Mania

Check out the article. What can you build on? The key to expanding is to add MOAR INFO. It says they were born in an unknown location, why is it unknown? Who do they associate with?

I'll use an example: Bow Tie Steve. (Fig.3) LQA, Stub. Brilliant, two birds with one stone.

Fig.3

It says in Trivia: "He has no pupils". Why does Steve have no pupils? Perhaps he was born without them, and now uses a state-of-the-art sonar system developed by G to see. Let's add that in:

"Steve was born with no pupils, so cannot see. However, he uses a state-of-the-art sonar system developed by G to see his surroundings. It has helped him a great deal in life and he now assists blind chicks."

Howzat? Trivia worthy of a king.

This strategy can be used to create fake history, fill in gaps, or pretty much everything.

2: Expand, edit links, delete

I have used this recently with the Pengyboo Betas article. They had two articles associated with the one, and all were LQA stubs. What I did was expand 23's article and Star's article into the Pengyboo Betas article, using sections and sub-sections, then deleted 23 and Star and redirected them to the "Members" section. What resulted was a very neat MQA and a cleaner database.

If you don't have enough information for a whole article, expand it into an article it is associated with. Great examples are groups. e.g Bow Tie Group. All the Bow Tie-ers' articles could be expanded into the Bow Tie Group article, history added using the Expansion Mania strategy, then bingo, it's a HQA with the works.

Before trying this strategy on ANY ARTICLE, click WHAT LINKS HERE down the bottom. (Fig.4)

Fig.4

Check what links to the article. If it has more than TEN links, which are not TEMPLATE LINKS (e.g Human), DO NOT USE THIS STRATEGY. The LQA is a Core Article, and should be expanded using the Expansion Mania strategy. If it's part of a set, put a little description in the group article where you've mentioned the others, then put a Main Article: Article Name Here In between the Title and the text.

If any of that didn't make sense, DON'T hesitate to tell me.

3: Pure Imagination

This is the obvious one. You can link any article to any article, provided you have a reason. Who would have thought Bow Tie Tom was involved in Holyberden? TS, that's who, who added more things to expand on. So easy.

So there's my strategies. Love em or hate em, they're good ones. Comments, anyone? --Sir Kwiksilver of TARDIS-Haud secundus chances , EGO sum ut typus of vir.. 12:35, May 1, 2010 (UTC)