Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Wikify
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[edit] Support needed
Is anyone else's enthusiasm for Wikifying beginning to wane? I've put a high percentage of my Wikipedia time into WikiProject Wikify and get quite a bit of my motivation from seeing the backlog go down. From being regularly around 8500, it's crept downwards, but recently the rate of articles being wikified seems to have declined, and new articles are still being added of course. Especially seeing the November number suddenly jump by 141 today (no criticism of Elonka's great work intended) my heart sank. Well...I feel better for getting it off my chest, but any encouragement for me and others feeling the same, would be most welcome! --- Windymilla 17:12, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
- Cheered myself up a bit making a Wikification progress history template. It looks like this at the moment (I picked out the figures from the Wikification progress template history, taking the first edit on each Friday).
- Comments & improvements welcome of course --- Windymilla 23:12, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
- Interesting to see the history, my casual observations suggested that the total was drifting down in the short term. However, as the total is a balance between those articles being wikified and those being added and detected I´m not sure what conclusions to draw from this. Rich257 00:12, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
Yes, my enthusiam wanes from time to time. It seems that wikification is an endless task, and it does not look likely that the total will get within hundreds of zero for a long time. I am disappointed that some contributors appear to put little though in to what they add and seem to presume ¨someone¨ or a bot will come along and sort it out for them. Some people of course are simply confused by wiki syntax and contribute good content.
It´s actually quite easy to substantially raise the total by looking through the Wikipedia:Dead-end pages list, as I have done recently so will admit to raising the total. Some of those can be deleted but most need some work. I think it would be better if the dead-end pages list was closer to zero and the articles were moved to wikification, categorisation, cleanup and deletion ´bins´ because at least then there would be an idea of the task involved.
The number of fresh articles I have been wikifying has also fallen as I try to maintain the articles I have wikified in that state, so as my watchlist grows so does the daily maintenance of ´past´ articles.
I tend to think that perhaps a bit more co-ordination between those involved in wikification might speed it along. For example, do people prefer to work on longer articles or like a quick fix on a shorter one? Prefer biography or geography or technology articles or a mix? I sometimes find that if you are unfamiliar with an article´s category it takes longer to do, to find the categories, similar articles and standard infoboxes etc; equally sometimes I like a diversity. Perhaps by breaking them down in these ways rather than alphabetically by date people doing wikification could work faster and find an article to work on more quickly? An idea for discussion... Rich257 00:12, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
- Yes, it does get frustrating at times. Especially when you're correcting things which shouldn't have been there to start with. (I'm currently working on an article which requires me to put capital letters at the beginning of sentences! I know no-one is perfect, but it's such an elemantary thing!) I'm still plodding through the Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikify/Backlog cleanup taskforce, but am wikifying any stubs as I go - it doesn't seem much point leaving them undone really! -Ladybirdintheuk 10:16, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the empathy. It's a good point about moving articles to the wikify list from lists such as Wikipedia:Dead-end pages. As Rich257 says, getting that list (and others?) close to zero would give a better idea of the task involved. I guess one thing I don't have a handle on is how much of the addition to the wikify list is from existing unwikified articles being newly detected, and how much is from new unwikified articles being added to Wikipedia. Or to put it another way, are we gaining ground (wikifying articles faster than NEW unwikified ones are being added) or fighting a losing battle. Of course, even if it's the latter, things could turn around by having more wikifiers, "educating" new contributors, tackling the backlog more efficiently, etc. So I won't give up just yet! -- Windymilla 23:10, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
- I could turn my attention to the dead-end pages list, if project participants would like. As I said, this will raise the total of pages to be wikified, which could be demoralising! Rich257 13:27, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
- My current feeling is that it would be great to see the Wikify backlog go down for a bit, but it's all psychological I guess: articles are lurking hidden on other lists even if we don't transfer them to the Wikify project. What do others think? -- Windymilla 21:26, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
- I need to start doing more work on wikification, I know. I get sidetracked by other things... there are a million backlogs on Wikipedia that need fixing and there just isn't enough time. For all the prettiness of the Featured Articles and more prominent content, there's still massive amounts of work under the surface. Crystallina 03:11, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
Wikification is never-ending; new articles that need formatting are always being created and older articles that need formatting are always being discovered. To me, it's really the journey, not the destination (as we'll most likely never see the backlog totally disappear, we clear out a 2000 article "month" just in time for another to be added to the backlog) ... Wikification is one of the most important tasks that can be done, it covers a lot of ground, and if you're like me, you end up doing far more than just wikification if the article merits. I don't even mind when it's tagged for wikify incorrectly; I just look at it as a chance to examine and possibly improve an article in some way (that same concept is why I enjoy rolling the dice so much) ... I too get a good feeling when I see a particular month's backlog disappear, but I try not to think too much about whether or not there's a light at the end of the tunnel ... at least I know that when I log in, there's always going to be something to wikify! JubalHarshaw 20:26, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] How do you 'join' a project?
Hi- I'm planning to start my efforts to wikify articles, but was just wondering how i can actually join this project! As in how do I have my efforts "acknowledged" as part of this project? I'm pretty new here so can you please put it in layman terms! --khello 07:02, 22 November 2006 (UTC)
- Heya Khello! I just "officially" joined this project a few days ago, though it doesn't seem there's any real official process to it. I added the banner to my user page by clicking on my name in the upper corner and editing the page that pops up then adding "{{Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikify/Userpage banner}}" to that page. I also went to Wikipedia:WikiProject_Wikify#List_of_participants and added my name to the list of people currently involved in the project by clicking "edit" next to the "List of Participants" subheader and adding in "{{Wikipedia:WikiProject_Wikify/table|username|status}}" in the appropriate place (the list is arranged alphabetically by username) and being sure to substitute in my name for "username" and my status, which is "active", in for "status." I also added to my userpage a link to [[Category:Articles_that_need_to_be_wikified]] so I can access the list easily whenever I want. Sorry if I overexplain things here; I don't mean to patronize you. It's a pretty neat project, I think. Welcome! --Ben iarwain 09:29, 22 November 2006 (UTC)
- Welcome! You could let people know that your efforts are part of the project by using the edit summary shown on the project page: Wikified as part of the [[WP:WWF|Wikification wikiproject]]! Ollie 15:41, 22 November 2006 (UTC)
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- Haha, no worries! I said I wanted it in layman terms... I think this project will really help me get used to all the formatting etc... in wikipedia. Happy wikifying I Guess! --khello 18:55, 22 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Shortcut
lol, WP:WWF? Kind of humorous. I would prefer more something like WP:WIKI :P Anyways, I'll help as much I can. AQu01rius (User • Talk) 05:05, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Template stealing
I don't know if it's worth asking, but would it be alright if I nicked the source for your very nice user page banner? I seem to end up making a hash of <div> tags, so it would save me a bit of time.--CarrotMan 07:24, 7 December 2006 (UTC) p.s. I am a member of this Wikiproject, does that make any difference?
- I think I'm gonna go ahead with it, tell me if there's any complaints.--CarrotMan 07:12, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
- I'm sure that's fine - I didn't want to give you "permision", as I didn't create the banner in the first place, but I don't see why anyone would object :) -Ladybirdintheuk 11:34, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Backlog cleanup taskforce
Hello! Just thought I'd do a quick plug for the Backlog cleanup taskforce. Because at the moment, the taskforce seems to consist of just me! Not a problem at the mo, but my internet time is going to be disrupted soon - I'm going to be moving house at the weekend, so will be busy with that. And I'm starting a new job in the New Year. Presumably they will expect me to do some real work during the day ;) -Ladybirdintheuk 10:33, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Project page facelift
Hi, I propose to give this project page a total facelift. The new page would look exactly like the main page and yes there will be a featured article of our own, and instead of "in the news" and "on this day" we will have other features to encourge wikification! Please discuss. frummer 04:01, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
- If you have the time and know-how, then go for it? As long as the information stays in some form, I don't see any problems. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Oliver Brown (talk • contribs) 05:21, 15 December 2006 (UTC).
