My First Wikipedia Article - From "Virus" Starring Brian Bosworth to "Spill" by Les Standiford

For over a year some buddies and I have been getting together regularly to watch movies or play retro video games. This all started when we got together in the Fall of 2018 to get wings and beer at Wendell's then play old Sega and NES games afterward. We had such a great time that when one of us had an idea for a game to play or movie to watch, we would send a group email to discuss and coordinate schedules. A shared google document was even created to list the movies we all wanted to watch together. The list includes a variety of films ranging from horrible ones like The Room to Oscar nominated upsets like Face Off. Most of them are action movies with stars like Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme headlining.

The last movie we watched as a group was Virus starring former NFL linebacker Brian Bosworth. This 1996 action thriller was picked up by one member of our group for $1 at a church tag sale. What caught his eye was the awful photoshop job on the cover of a person in a spacesuit floating in water. He knew of Brian Bosworth, but forgot he was a Hollywood actor. And we love to make fun of awful action movies so why not add this to the list?

It sat in a pile of other renowned films such as Cobra and a Steven Seagal collection just waiting to be watched. What made us pick Virus over others had to do with current events. One of our meetups occurred in February during the time that the coronavirus was spreading like wildfire in the US. We all joked that Brian Bosworth was the only one who could stop it. We had to see how he would defeat this invisible foe!

Like the other B-rate films in our list, our expectations for Virus were quite low. Our group can enjoy any movie though. The good films we appreciate for their artistry, acting, and storytelling. We also have a ton of fun bashing the crappy movies, wondering how many people had to say "yes" to get such a horrible movie made! Not to say that Virus was not famous or had no artistry to be appreciated. No doubt, the rocket launcher scenes with the villain Skanz, the gay relationship the President had with his chief of staff, and the incessant cries of "We gotta get out of here" from Bosworth's character - these were all masterful touches approved by director Allan A. Goldstein.

The plot of the movie had us scratching our heads. Even with poorly made movies, you don't want to be left more confused about the world than you were before. You want answers! Especially when it involves something as serious as a deadly virus. We found ourselves asking the following questions:

• Why does the President have a gay lover?
• How can Ripley fall down so much?
• Is Brian Bosworth overly concerned about losing his shoes?
• The cover says there is no antidote. So how do they get rid of the virus?
• Can you set fire to water underground?

We read the synopsis on the back cover of the DVD to see if we could get more clarity after we had watched the film. The description was not helpful. Then we saw that the movie was based on a book called "Spill" by Les Standiford. We joked how funny it would be to buy the book, read it, and see if there was a story that made more sense.

And you know what, ladies and gentlemen? That's exactly what I did.

Immediately after finding out that the movie was based on a book, I ordered a used copy from Amazon. I read the book not once but TWICE! There were so many differences between the book and the movie that I wish the movie directors had stayed closer to the original story. The book had an actual love scene, did not involve a gay president, and Bosworth's character had a completely different occupation! There was a lot more background about why the virus was being transported and who was responsible for it. I actually enjoyed the novel so much that I decided to create a Wikipedia page for it. I kept this secret from the guys I watched the movie with because I wanted it to be a surprise.

I had heard that anyone can edit a Wikipedia page. But I didn't just want to edit one; I wanted to create one from scratch. The author of "Spill" is Les Standiford. He has a Wikipedia page already so I hoped that I could link to that. Creating a Wikipedia page is free and does not require the author to be an authority on the issue, but it does involve more time and attention than I had anticipated. Here are all of the things I had to overcome in order to get the page up:

• Become an expert on the novel, understanding the plot, places, characters, and all the information about the published product. This was the most fun part, and the part I thought would be the most difficult. It turns out, having references on your article are the most important. It has to be considered publish-worthy. Are there enough references out there to justify the page's existence in the body of knowledge that is Wikipedia.

• Learn Wikipedia page formatting. When you create a page you need to use certain markups to create headings, lists, or text boxes. The page does not appear as a template. You have to create that box that shows the book image on the right side. You have to tell the page how to show a list. Rather than try to learn all the rules from scratch, I went to an existing page of a novel similar to Spill, then copied that format. I think I used The Hot Zone and Jurrasic Park. I copied and pasted large swaths of the format and edited the information for Spill.

 

• Post an image of the book. I wanted to have the book cover in the box on the left. As you can see from the above image, the article still does not have this image. Why? Because in order to post an image it has to not infringe on any copyright. There are lists of rules about how to satisfy these requirements. I was able to get the following image up until some editor took it down because I did not do the right things. Perhaps in the future I will try to get the image posted again.

Copyright Peter Thorpe

• Have sufficient references. Let's face it - "Spill" was not exactly a best seller. There are so few references to it online that I had to search through every database I had access to from my public library to get even simple press releases about its publication. This was Standiford's first novel so he was not well known when he wrote this. His later works have gotten more attention. Still, I was able to find some blurbs about it. Plus, the book was adapted into a movie! The references I attached were not enough to get it published. It was at this time I told the group about the page I was creating. They thought it was hilarious I was making a Wikipedia page for it. I told them because I wanted to enlist their help in getting it published. Much to my surprise, while I was telling them about the page, a fairy godmother of an editor attached the necessary references and got my article published! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spill_(book) I sent him or her a thank you and asked them what they did to satisfy the reference requirements. They said that I just needed a couple more references and to put them in the right format. The person even linked the page to and from Standiford's Wikipedia page.

Who would have thought that a B-rate action movie purchased at a church tag sale, starring a former NFL linebacker, would result in a Wikipedia page about the book which inspired the movie to begin with?

This meetup has continued through the coronavirus lockdown. Instead of watching movies, though, we use the time to share what news we have been reading, games we have played, or any other thing that's on our minds. We can't wait to get back together when things get back to normal.