Wikijunior talk:Bugs

If you would like to discuss anything regarding the bugs project, please post here.

What does the word 'bugs' mean ? true bugs, insecta, arthopoda, or anything one can find under a rock? Regarding the target audience, learning the correct names of taxons and morphological structures is not much different from learning to speak. No doubt 8-12 years old can do this. They also need to understand phrases like "the beetle is black; pronotum and elitra are red".

New Proposed Main Bugs Page
I would like to propose an alternate layout for the wikijunior bugs page. . I have made a mock-up of the proposed layout on my personal sandbox which can be accessed by clicking this link or through my user page. All of the existing articles and other pages will remain unaltered by this as the only page that will change will be the main bugs page, if it is accepted that is.

I have proposed this new design to increase efficiency and reduce the amount of time that is spent moving articles from the stub list into the developing articles list and so on...

Please take a look and tell me what you think.

Regards, Urbane User (Talk)   (Contributions)  17:08, 15 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I think we should maintain a way to separate the stubs from articles with useful content. Currently there are only a couple articles that rise to the level of being more than stubs. Judging by past experience, some of these proposed articles will remain stubs for many months or even years. The problem arises when you are trying to put together a useful book, and a significant number of categories are stubs. This is a problem with Wikijunior Ancient Civilizations (where the existing format originated, as I recall) where we have enough good articles to make a decent book, but also many articles that contain no meaningful content whatsoever. The downside, as you've identified, is that it requires busy work, and that the "goal" table of contents gets messed up. I certainly think there's room for improvement in the current design and you've made a good start. I like the toolbox idea. --xixtas 17:49, 15 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Having thought about this some more, I suggest that you Be bold and do what you think is right. --xixtas 15:02, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Main Bugs Page
I have redesigned the main user bugs page to, hopefully, make it more efficient for us to use. If anybody has any problems with the new design, i have made an archive of the old page in case it needs to be reinstated (if you would like this then please ask) and will be happy to sort out any problems that people may have. Urbane User (Talk)   (Contributions)  18:15, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Where are the authors list

The link to the authors list can be found both in the introduction paragraph, and in the toolbox on the right. Urbane User (Talk)   (Contributions)  18:48, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

move protection
the page is move-protected, but should now be moved to Wikijunior:Bugs // tsca [re] 20:17, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Too American
This book seems to be targeted entirely at American kids. First there's the use of the name bug and the name used for some of those bugs (ladybug, for example). Secondly when you get to the section on Where does it live?, this section is generally just about naming different parts of the USA - the one about crickets talked about the USA for several sentences then mentioned, in passing kind of, that they may exist elsewhere in the world too.--ЗAНИA talk 12:34, 24 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Hm. Is the word "bug" itself still mainly US dialect?  The OED (the real one :-) says it's chiefly US, but that was written a century ago; en.wikt and en.wp don't seem to remark thereon (yes, that could be US bias on their part).  One can see how this book's authors would have hoped for an informal term to appeal to kids and, at the same time, a term with wide scope.  I'm not sure what alternative title to suggest; it doesn't seem appealing to call a kids' book "Arthropods" (and anyway, it excludes trilobites and crustaceans).  "Insects and spiders" is closer, though not precise and perhaps a bit bland.


 * Do you have suggestions for an alternative title?


 * Bias in specific article titles and article contents, presumably has to be dealt with on a per-article basis. --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 16:45, 24 August 2011 (UTC)