Wikipedia To Redelete WCCAs?

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on February 20, 2007 - 10:29

I had a notion to work on the WCCA entries at Comixpedia.org and checked in on whether or not there was still an entry at Wikipedia. There is, but it's up for deletion again (history-to-date: in, out, in, ?... call it the usual Wikipedia-webcomic hokey-pokey) and leading the charge is our old pal Dragonfiend:

Delete, has not garnered the type of verifiable coverage in reputable independent sources one would expect of a seven-year-old supposedly "notable" award, let alone enough to write from a neutral point of view. What, if we really stretch our standards, we might possibly almost have two reputable sources? We have better sources for last year's revisions to the Chelsea High School Perfect attendance award. [1] [2] [3] [4]. Also, the point of view that this is "the singularly most prominent and admired awards within an entire genre of art" is ridiculous when you have the awards' committee members blogging things like "The WCCAs are horribly mismanaged, they are not well organized and they don't do what they are supposed to. I know this because I have been part of the administrative process."[5] With a dearth of reputable sources, I don't see how to write this article without giving undue weight to wikipedia editor's personal points of view and original research about this topic. -- Dragonfiend 04:07, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

How much coverage do the annual pr0n awards get in the NY Times btw? Putting snark aside, if you're at all inclined to improve articles on the WCCAs please do it at Comixpedia.org - Wikipedia can always import our articles later if they come to their senses.

I love Wikipedia's deletion

by Gianna - 02/22/2007 - 09:01

I love Wikipedia's deletion discussions for their comedic value. In the discussion page of my recently deleted comic, the guy who asked for the deletion said that my gaming webcomic had never been mentioned in reputable publications like Forbes...

A gem like this is worth 100000 deletions.

-------- Gianna Masetti thenoobcomic.com

--------
Gianna Masetti
thenoobcomic.com

That Forbes, eh? They

by DAJB - 02/22/2007 - 15:15

That Forbes, eh? They really need to get their act together!

Or wait ... maybe it used to be in Forbes but got deleted?

Broken Voice Comics
Because comics are not just for kids

Press Releases Done Right

by Cayzle - 02/21/2007 - 19:42

As a journalist and as a person married to a journalist, let me tell you that local papers are often very keen to write about Internet trends and events ... but they are TIED and BOUND to the idea of the Local Angle. So a great way to get targetted coverage is to ask winners (or even nominees) what town they live in and if they would mind giving their names and e-mail addresses to local papers. Then send press releases to papers in those geographic areas with the local names and towns highlighted. Feed newspapers local stories about Web stuff, and I think many will eat that up. Especially if they can send a photographer to take a picture of the Web comic artist at his/her computer to go with the story.

Cayzle's Wemic Site | Web comic, D&D blog, liontaur links, and more | http://www.cayzle.com

Cayzle's Wemic Site

Web comic, D&D blog, liontaur links, and more

http://www.cayzle.com

Oh. Porn awards...

by Bear - 02/21/2007 - 13:34

Porn awards wouldn't be covered much in the New York Times anyway. They all happen in LA. To a first approximation all American Porn is made in California, and the industry tends to be big local news there.

They do *all* the dance steps: they rent halls, book hotels, have ceremonies and photo ops, and present monetary awards. And they send out press releases, starting months before the event. Big Glossy Press Releases. And they make a point of lavishly entertaining a whole squad of invited reporters (mostly the ones who gave them big coverage the previous year). They make a point of being "newsworthy" by talking about "newsworthy" business numbers.

And they get big press. Okay, not page-1 above-the-fold press, but you'll usually find a paragraph or so on page 1, and a big puff piece on it in the business section of the LA times.

Bear

Read my comic!

That's a good thought,

by Bear - 02/21/2007 - 13:24

That's a good thought, actually. If WCCA does the dance steps that other award-giving entities do, then the awards themselves become news that is notable outside our little corner. So what are the dance steps?

Monetary awards. A no-brainer, even if the amount is small. A bank draft or canceled check consitutes an irrefutable "authoritative" source that someone was paid something. Also, money changing hands is a base criteria for something being "newsworthy" in the eyes of newspapers, etc.

Photos! Have an actual physical awards ceremony with photos, for Gods' sakes. Aside from being eye candy for newspapers that won't run a story without photos, they are further proof that something actually happened. Furthermore, conventions at which such ceremonies can occur leave an "authoritative" paper trail a mile wide, they're easy to write press releases about, they're fun, and if done reasonably well, they're profitable enough to pay the award money.

Press releases. Already mentioned, but really crucial these days. This is because the consolidation of newspapers to the point where there's usually only one per city means that they don't do much actual journalism anymore. There's no competitive advantage to be had, since obviously you won't be buying the competitor's paper for better reporting.

In the modern world, it doesn't make the news unless you spoon-feed them the story as a press release, and they won't care unless the story involves strange people or things that people can go and look at (we got some, er, characters who show up for comics-related things that make good photo ops all by themselves...) and/or the disposition of palpable resources (ie, a hotel, money, etc).

Bear

read my comic!

"Have an actual physical

by Greg Carter - 02/21/2007 - 22:13

"Have an actual physical awards ceremony with photos"

There was an awards ceremony at MegaCon. I presented a couple of the awards. So did Jennie Breeden, Gina Biggs and lots of "name" webcomic people. So if/when pictures arrive it will be a good thing.

I think the WCCAs are a great theory, but the execution has been terrible. (Sorry, Mark.) Lateness and a lack of visible marketing doesn't help either. I don't even care about the actual awards, beauty pagents were never my thing, but lots of people do. Like them or not, the promotional opportunity for webcomics should not be wasted.

I'll put my money where my mouth is: Mark, if you're here, expect an email offering to help with the marketing, at least

Greg Carter Abandon UpDown Studio Mini-Komix

Greg Carter - Abandon: First Vampire - Online Graphic Novel

"How much coverage do the

by Gordon McAlpin - 02/20/2007 - 21:52

"How much coverage do the annual pr0n awards get in the NY Times btw?"

Yeah, but porn is a $14 billion industry. Webcomics is like a $1.4 million dollar industry. (And that's probably high.)

The guy has a valid point, though: if the WCCA bothered to issue press releases, then news sites outside of webcomics-specific sites might actually pay some small measure of attention to it...

Multiplex is a twice weekly humor comic about the staff of the Multiplex 10 Cinemas and the movies that play there.

Yes but

by Xaviar Xerexes - 02/20/2007 - 11:26

Yes - Google accepted Comixpedia to its news page some time ago (late 2003 or early 2004 I think). I'm not sure how "tough" of a std that is though.

____

Xaviar Xerexes

On second thought, let's not go to Comixpedia. It is a silly place.

I run this place! Tip the piano player on the way out.

Meh. Let them delete

by Boxjam B. Boxjam - 02/20/2007 - 11:24

Meh. Let them delete everything. Let it go.

Interesting sidenote on Comixpedia's notability - google news considers this site a valid news source.

Not worked up about it

by Xaviar Xerexes - 02/20/2007 - 11:30

I certainly wouldn't lose any sleep over any of it. I don't.

Some of it is entertaining to me though at this point and I think it's newsworthy sometimes. I don't write about it thinking anything is going to change (although I do think the deletion process at Wikipedia is fundamentally disconnected from the creation and editing process and that's a big reason why Wikipedia has so many problems with the deletion process).