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September 2007

DAFT

Wikipedia isn't censored when it comes to subject matter, but it also doesn't include profanity without reason. WP:DAFT is in the project namespace, and thus it's up to the community to decide what's appropriate there. In the discussion at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:Deleted articles with freaky titles (2nd nomination), the community is currently trying to decide if maybe the whole page should be deleted or not. One thing that was suggested is that perhaps the list could use some trimming. The spirit of compromise is what drove my deletion. You may want to check out that discussion and add your own arguments. Just FYI.  :) —DragonHawk (talk|hist) 20:08, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Invitation to WikiProject recruitment for WikiProjects

AstroHurricane001,

Would you be interested in trying to make your (proposed) WikiProject becoming a succes by actively involving yourself in a recruitment agency aimed at establishing an active base of participants for a WikiProject?--Daanschr 11:41, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi. I'm not sure what this recruitment agency is, but I guess I'll participate, as long as I won't have so much to do that I'll be needed when I'm busy doing something else off-wiki. I'm not sure exactly what your project does. Are you asking me to join in the list of participants on that project? I do wish I had time to do more on my project, although there is so much to do and so little to do at the same time, that what results is procrastination...and more procrastination. Maybe I don't know what to finish first, or I don't have enough time at that time to finish those individual tasks. How does your project help in improving Wikiprojects? Does it provide its participants with instructions on how to improve your Wikiproject, or the like? I'm still not quite decided on what your project does, so I guess I'll request more information. I'm still not very experienced in conducting a WikiProject, and yes, it is still in its early stages. I'm still a bit confused about what the participants do --- do they read what they could do, get assigned individual tasks or requests, etc? I would like some help on improving my WikiProject, and be more actively involved in it to help improve articles. Thanks. ~AH1^(TCU) 00:46, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

These are very good questions Astrohurricane. I have to tell you something about myself and my intentions in order to make myself clear. I have started two WikiProjects, both of them failed due to lack of participance.

The first one was WikiProject intellectual debate, which i deleted. This project was aimed at improving the quality of debate in talk pages. I wanted people to first read a couple of relevant books (books often contradict eachother, so they shouldn't read only one) and than have a debate about them, before editing. At the moment edits are done most often without reading books and without any debates.

Another WikiProject was WikiProject historical atlas. Aiming to create a historical atlas like a video, with countries and borders evolving. Despite the wide possibilities i could only find two other persons to make this, and now there hasn't been any activity for more than half a year. I really want to start that WikiProject up again. It could be linked to WikiProject intellectual debate with people watching maps and reading books in libraries all over the world and special themes being discussed during a month, something like the borders of medieval Serbia, or one of Napoleon's military campaigns.

A recruiting agency could be helpful in achieving a level of participance. What i am trying to reach is a base of commited people who are willing to start and develop projects. Not only participance is needed, but also commitment and quality. We are dealing with volunteers, so it is important that people have time and are enthusiastic about the project. The recruiting agency is focused at getting these kind of people. Experts on subjects are very welcome, because they know much about the relevance of information, where to find the right information and how this information can be analysed correctly. Of course there are many subjects where every human is enough of an expert.--Daanschr 08:20, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi. Thank you for your reply, but there are still a few things I don't yet get. How do I help make my project a success? Do I add my name into the list of participants in your project? Does my project get listed on a page where interested people could find which project to join? If I participate, what exactly do I, and the participants of my WikiProject do? Do we follow the to-do list, help improve the project in general, discuss what to do, etc? Where are the volunteers going to come from, and how do they discover your project and WikiProjects in need of a firm base of participants and experts? Is the project to be worked on whenever time is avalible? What do I do now? Thanks. ~AH1^(TCU) 17:34, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

My initial idea behind it was that the recruiters will focus on a few WikiProjects at a time. These WikiProjects will have their own active participants who will run the WikiProject seperately from the recruitment project once their are enough participants found. The recruitment project tries to find the best ways to recruit and make a WikiProject to a succes. The participants of a WikiProject will get self-responsibility eventually. WikiProjects that weren't a succes can be taken in by the recruitment project again to find new active participants. Given that the recruitment project becomes a succes, there will be a tricky part. People within the management department will have to decide which projects are worthwhile to be managed in order to find recruits. There can be several reasons for managing a wikiProject with the purpose of finding new participants. It could be a marketing strategy (more participants), effectivity (durability, expansion, use of a WikiProject), enthusiasm of the people behind the WikiProject (can be measured by the effort put behind the idea). The tricky part will be the politics behind it.

I didn't directly answer your questions above. The most important thing the recruitment department will do is to find volunteers. Management of the WikiProject is primarily self-management, in my view. If the right volunteers have been found, than they should be capable of making a WikiProject a succes for themselves.

John Carter, a new participant, has other ideas about the recruitment project. We have to examine all ideas for their effectivity and usefulness, including mine of course.

What can you do now? If you want to join the recruitment project, than you can think about what the management department can do, or try to find new participants for the recruitment project. That are the tasks for the moment. If you want the recruitment project to find participants for your WikiProject (Dinotopia), than we have to find a way to make that work. If the recruitment project runs, than the mangers could set recruiters for the task to find the right recruits for the WikiProject Dinotopia. However, the recruitment project doesn't have recruiters yet.--Daanschr 18:54, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi. Oh I see, so your project needs to expand and get more volunteers before it can be developed enough to help get more editors for my project and improve it. If I am to help get more people to join the recruitment project, where do I post? Do I post on some kind of "Wikipedia:" page to notify other editors of this project, or on someone's usertalkpage who is interested? Or, is it more complicated than that to have an exact idea of what needs to be done? If it works, when would my WikiProject start improving? If I join your project, do I simply add myself to the list of participants, or are there different places to show participatemanship on individual departments? Do the people involved get a to-do list, periodical newsletters, etc? Thanks. ~AH1^(TCU) 21:30, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Some of these topics are debated at the moment in the talk page of the recruitment project. My remarks on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject recruitment for WikiProjects#Management and authority can give some answers to your questions. I see recruitment as unlimited, you could recruit the person sitting next to you in public transport for instance. The whole methodology of the project has to be determined as yet in cooperation with other members. You are not obliged to join the recruitment project if you want to focus on your own project, but it will take effort to convince participants of the recruitment project to choose for a WikiProject, since there is a limit in the commitment of participants to this project.--Daanschr 21:44, 27 September 2007 (UTC)