Category talk:Contract bridge writers

"Writer"

Which biographies belong in this category? I doubt that it should be everyone who has written a bridge book, or covered bridge for a newspaper, or edited a bridge periodical. The category previously included a couple of all-time great players who wrote next to nothing (Bob Hamman and Jeff Meckstroth). Also people famous in other walks of life who evidently wrote one book (Iain Macleod and Hugh Darwen). So I added some others who wrote little, during my recent Coverage described just below.

--P64 (talk) 19:32, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

Do you really mean "doubt"? That would suggest that you don't think that those who have written a bridge book, or covered bridge for a newspaper, or edited a bridge periodical should automatically be included in the category. If that is what you mean then I disagree, as I think that they should automatically be included. Otherwise one has to make a lot of subjective judgements rather than going by a simple rule. I think Macleod should definitely be included, as his book was very influential on British players. Darwen was responsible for setting the monthly double dummy competition in Bridge Magazine for many years. JH (talk page) 20:53, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

Yes, before visiting (and "covering" as described below) I expected that the category would be treated as an occupation, which is not to say primary source of income from writing. But we credit David Beckham with three books and don't make him a football writer --neither in prose nor in the category structure.

How many bridge players, who merit wikipedia articles as bridge players, have no bridge publications? Many young ones (some of whose pages may be premature here), but how many at the stage of Hall of Fame induction or Seniors competition? Among the first generation Anglo-American giants, however, Jack Marx (bridge) and Michael T. Gottlieb alone wrote no books about bridge. Marx is a writer for shorter works. I did not put Gottlieb in the category; I know only that he was nominal co-author of all the Four Aces publications for a couple years.

I did accept the apparent standard and add Benito Garozzo and Pietro Forquet, quite obvious if Carl'Alberto Perroux is a bridge writer -- for example closer to their home, based on what we and the libraries say of him. (BTW, per my allusion elsewhere, Perroux is one now identified only by the Netherlands national library.[1])

Another way to make the point is that I expected the category would be and supposed it should be much closer to people whom I would call writers (editors, journalists) in the lead.

--P64 (talk) 17:13, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

I expected the category to include anyone who has written a book on bridge (that is, as few as one) or has been a regular contributor to a bridge periodical (that is, several articles over several years). It would be appropriate to add a description to the main page of the category of what the scope of the category is, if suitable words can be agreed upon. Remember, the 'writer' must already have met the criteria as 'notable' as a person. Newwhist (talk) 19:50, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Coverage

second of two new sections posted in one session -P64

Last fortnight I visited all of the biographies in this category and made some and made some uniform improvements. There were 81 when I started perhaps three weeks ago, 91 when I finished (among 84 and 94 pages including two bibliographies and the nominally main List of bridge books).

My primary purpose, two-fold, was to ensure that all possible have WorldCat links in the "Authority control" bar and that all with works in LC Catalog have explanatory Library of Congress Authorities" links. Thus as underlined below. Along the way i tried to attend to all of this list.

Footer

• Add pertinent templates {ACBLhof}, {WBFpeople}, {WPCBIndex}, {LCAuth} and thus Catalog[ue], {Authority control}
• Add to existing templates {Authority control} LCCN value [always look for it]; {Persondata} whatever is evident in the article or at LCAuth
• Add categories year of birth/death and hidden categories DoB PoB DoD PoD missing
• Add or delete {{contract-bridge-stub}}
• Attend to sequence and headings of sections
• 25em References columns {{reflist|25em}} if there are enough references, usually two

Body

• Move birthplace out of lead sentence and reword to accommodate
• Add/expand name and birthdate usu. as available at LCAuth
• wikilink ACBL Hall of Fame which redirects to our list of people

Talk

• {WPBIO} |sports-work-group=yes (replaces |a&e-work-group=yes, if applicable)
• Report in new section Identity if LCCN not found, hence no known top page at LCAuth or WorldCat, no "LC Authorities" or "WorldCat" footer link in our page.
  • Example Jeff Meckstroth#External links; Talk:Jeff Meckstroth#Identity
  • Counterexample Bob Hamman#External links

(If there is no {Authority control} footer template, that means VIAF id not found. For a bridge writer that probably means not identified by the Netherlands national library, such as Berry Westra, but Meckstroth is identified only by Canada--and now EN.wikipedia.)

• Example Albert Benjamin#External links --complicated by two common given names, or is it too common family names? (Identity talk not done yet)

In effect the Identity talk section explains why the External links section may, and commonly does, include a WorldCat search report.

Other stuff most likely to be covered, but nothing close to uniform: improve existing External links; improve existing See also (by annotation); expand/improve the list of Works. In particular, because these people are "Bridge writers", I very usually started a Works/Publications/Books section if there was none.

--P64 (talk) 19:58, 10 June 2014 (UTC)