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Wikipedia:WikiProject Magic (Draft new project page)

Welcome to the Magic WikiProject on the English Wikipedia! The Project was set up with the aim of significantly improving Wikipedia's coverage of topics related to magic as a performance art. If you would like to join us, please feel free to add your name to the list of project members. But perhaps the most important thing is to look around the current articles and contribute wherever you can.

Goals
  • To significantly improve the magic pages on Wikipedia and maintain their content and quality.
  • To get pages to featured status
  • A long-term aim to make a WikiReader some day
Scope

The project generally considers any article related to magic as a performance art to be within its scope. A more detailed description of the scope, and our primary focus areas within it, may be found in the section on project scope.

Structure

Structure

The structure of the project is reflected in a structured set of categories that fall within the main category -

Types of article

Main articles

These are articles that give a broad overview of the whole subject area. They are articles that help to define the project.

General magic topics

These are articles that have relevance to themes in a significant number of other articles within the project but which are more specialist in nature than the main articles. Current examples and future possibilities include:


Magician biographies

Hopefully a self explanatory heading. Articles within this section of the project should have regard to Wikipedia's general guidelines on biographical articles.

  • Notability guidelines - notability within the field of magic
  • Magic biographies should be placed in categories within
Magic tricks

These should be categorised into one of the branches of magic (see below). Branches of magic are included as sub-categories within but not all sub-categories of are branches of magic.

Magic publications

All articles within this section should be put in the main category - , whether or not they are also placed in sub-categories.

Magic organisations
  • includes Magic clubs - (need to merge these categories and re-categorise articles)

Branches of magic

  • "Grand illusion"
  • "Stage magic" (there might be some debate about where this overlaps Grand illusion
  • "Parlor magic"
  • "Close-up" magic
  • "Street magic"
  • "Mentalism"
  • Escapology
Sub-types within "Close-up"
  • "Coin magic"
  • Card magic (currently referred to as "Card manipulation")

Parentage

The part of the project that relates to magicians is a child of WikiProject Biography

Descendant WikiProjects

Currently there are no descendant projects.

Participants

  1. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]](coordinator)
  2. — Asbestos | Talk (can contribute a little on Coin magic)
  3. ~ Lewis1350 (talk) | (@) -- I'll try to contribute however I can. I'm interested in magic, so I should be able to get some information.
  4. filx | talk
  5. LegendsEnd (talk) | (@) -- Contributing to card flourish. Currently created list of flourishes and explained Card Spring.
  6. MagicValentina (talk) | (@) -- Contributing to List of magic effects. Have currently created entries on The Pass, Cups and Balls, The Thumb Tip, and The Square Circle. I've started the Wiki list of conjuring terms. I'm an experienced magician and I passionately believe in the Wiki ideals of open knowledge. I'm not a member of SAM, IBM or any restrictive organisation, so I'm free to contribute to the knowledge pool as required by Project Magic needs.
  7. Tiksustoo 01:01, 21 November 2005 (UTC) I have been assiduously editing just about every item on list of magicians. I am a 'highly knowledgeable' amateur but want to contribute my skills as a wordsmith and editor. Please go check out my edits (and Afds i have put up!). I am however getting magic fatigue or withdrawal fever on account of the truly awful pages I have tried to wikify. I was on the point of calling it a day but thought I should log in for solidarity.[reply]
  8. Krash (talk) Might as well list myself here after all this time. History of tricks, magicians. Blatant exposition of effects. Sorting/categorizing/formatting. Obsessed with notability, cruft and deletionism.
  9. Kingofspades (@) -- I'm an experienced Magician who has a great knowledge of Card Magic. I intend to contribute anyway I can really, in the hope of improving all the magic related pages on Wikipedia, especially those concerning card magic and sleight of hand.
  10. Tennessee Wood
  11. Deadferrets
  12. Wootking
  13. Elonka - magic conventions, living magician bios, and deleting non-notable bios
  14. Nsmith 84 (talk) Want to see card magic in its own article again, separate from Card manipulation. Also think Flourish should be merged into Card manipulation. Theres a lot I think needs cleaning up on the magic pages, I'll help out as much as I can.
  15. Circusandmagicfan - I'm a collector of books and materials rather than a magician. I'm intersted in design and methods for large illusions. Also history of magic and swindles, scams and cons. In addition I have an interest in aspects of circus (for example impalement arts)so maybe I can help if ever topics overlap into that area. I'll try to contribute where and when I can.Circusandmagicfan 20:33, 15 February 2007 (UTC)Circusandmagicfan[reply]
  16. DTGardner

Guidelines

The guidelines in this section

Structure of articles

Magic methods/Exposure

Because the publication of magic methods is controversial it is especially important that any attempt to do so should adhere strictly to the established policies and guidelines that are Wikipedia's foundation. In particular I think WP:Attribution is significant. If information about a method is quoted from another freely available source then it becomes more difficult for magicians to argue that Wikipedia is the point at which exposure is occurring. I would add here that some articles contain methods that are unsourced and seem speculative and inaccurate, which undermines the quality of the Magic Project generally and contravenes WP:NOR

If a method is added to an article but no reference is provided we should apply the section of WP:Attribution that says: "Any edit lacking attribution may be removed, and the final burden of evidence lies with the editor wishing to add or retain the material."

Normally I would add an "unreferenced" tag and leave the text for a while to see if someone could add a source, however because this is a controversial issue I think the material should be kept out of the article until it can be properly referenced.

Because the concept of intellectual property often forms part of arguments about exposure of methods and because magicians have occasionally resorted to the courts in an attempt to suppress publication of methods it is important that attention is paid to relevant areas of law. The Wikipedia policy on Copyright problems deals with part of this but there might also be additional issues to do with information that is covered by laws on confidentiality (eg. this might be because it is covered by a Non-disclosure agreement but could also be because, in some jurisdictions such as the UK, there are laws that automatically give certain information a confidential quality). The article on Intellectual rights to magic methods is good but is not yet comprehensive - in particular it should be noted that, even though international treaties have resulted in a certain amount of commonality, intellectual property law does vary from one country to another - the current entry has an American focus.

In any case I am not trying to pre-empt proper legal advice, which Wikipedia already has provisions for. I certainly don't want this to be taken as an argument in favour of prior restraint. It is merely intended as cautionary advice. What I suggest is that, before adding material concerning methods, contributors should take reasonable steps to confirm the material is not covered by copyright or confidentiality. Obviously there is a debate to be had about what constitutes "reasonable steps", but to some extent the solution again resides with application of WP:Attribution.


Resources

Project Templates

The Code:{{Magic}} template is positioned at the top of the talk page for each article within the project. It produces a box that looks like this...

WikiProject iconMagic NA‑class
WikiProject iconThis page is within the scope of WikiProject Magic, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of magic on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MagicWikipedia:WikiProject MagicTemplate:WikiProject MagicMagic
NAThis page does not require a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.


The Code:{{Magicbox}} template is positioned at the bottom of eaach article. It produces a box that looks like this...
Template:Magicbox


The Code:{{Magic-spoiler}} template is used to create a warning message ahead of any content that might explain information that some people might regard as secret or as likely to spoil the enjoyment of a trick if it were known to audience members. It produces a heading that looks like this...
Template:Magic-spoiler

The Code:{{magic-stub}} template is used to indicate stub articles within the project. It produces a footnote that looks like this...

Stub icon

This magic-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.



Current tasks

List of Open Tasks

WikiProject: Magic

(edit or discuss this box)



Code:{{MagicTasks}}

[[Category:WikiProject Performing arts|Magic]]

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