PoliceWiki talk:To Do...

Propositions open for discussion

Moving this discussion from PoliceWiki:To Do.., as originally posted by User:Brandnew so as not to be confusing with two separate "To Do" lists. Also as this is really a discussion, not an endorsed "To Do..." list, it has been moved to the discussion page so as not to be confusing.--Sockii 06:48, 24 April 2008 (PDT)

First step (just to begin with)

These are only propositions...

A history in music (with samples)

I always wanted to try something with The Police music which would require to use samples of bootlegs. I'm looking if on MediaWiki, there's a way to upload audio content (or video content) or if simply there are media players. The general idea would be to explain musically what was the evolution they brought. Like, why Stewart's drumming was important in the punk/reggae era with samples and comparaisons. Comparaisons of, for example, The Clash and what was the big change in The Police. Of course, when I say Stewart's drumming, I don't want to say it was not a collective decision to bring something to music. They did. But most importantly, the task would be to use samples from bootlegs, to compare with other bands, to understand why their sounds was so important and their music so rich.

It would be divided by era, although I think I can say they really changed music in the beginning, then it was more about quality of composition than revolution.

The uploading of short audio .ogg samples has previously been enabled on the wiki, but beyond that I am, for the moment, hesitant to allow direct uploading of larger audio and video content. One reason is because of my hosting service. Video content can be a big bandwidth drain, and Dreamhost has been very tough in the past on coming down on users who include copyrighted video or run up high bandwidth usage due to video files. It is preferable at this time, therefore, that authors who want to reference or cite video content do so with external links. Uploading of various media types beyond simple graphics files and ogg samples can also open the database up to hacking & abusive scripts. I will look into some of the various extensions for this more in the future, to see which may be the easiest to install--if safe and easy on the bandwidth--but I really need to make sure it won't affect the stability of the wiki first.

On the other points, one thought I have had is to open up what I'd call an "essays" category on the wiki where articles such as a musical analysis of The Police could fit in. Because in general information articles (ie, the main page for The Police or a biography page on someone, it's best in a wiki to "stick to the basic facts" as much as possible -- avoiding what could be perceived as points of opinion. But I do believe it would be interesting and useful from a scholastic standpoint to have an area of the wiki open for more interpretive discussion and writings and not necessarily be as "dry" as the other articles.--Sockii 18:44, 21 April 2008 (PDT)

A history of bootlegs

Maybe it would be really time to regroup all the informations we have about bootlegs. Police is a bootlegged group and have a list of every single bootleg that exist would be a good idea (www.thepolicelive.com has already done a lot but it would be interesting to see this in a collaborative way). If we could only make a complete list of all known recordings, we would centralize a great source of information.

A comprehensive bootleg list would certainly be a nice idea and could fit in under the Performances category easily enough, especially as it could link then to individual tour dates directly from the article. If you have an idea for a tabular format for the data, I could fairly easily draft up a template that could be added to from there. (Also, the Performance template used for articles about specific performances has a section on recording information, where data can be included on the known bootlegs of that given show.--Sockii 18:48, 21 April 2008 (PDT)

Interviews

Why not a list of interviews we could find (www.thepolice.com has already a lot but once again a collaborative work on that would be a good thing). We would provide links only to interviews with licensed content (maybe a presentation of who interact in the interview and the general purpose of the conversation). If it's too redundant with what already exists, we could also make a "Stewart's Hall of Fame... of interviews" so it wouldn't be just encyclopedic but cheerful. With the funniest lines he said. And also the mot inspired since I myght venture that he's probably the most inspired during interview of them three.