Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Council
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Council | ||||
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WikiProject Council was featured in a WikiProject Report in the Signpost on 18 April 2011. |
Q1: What's a WikiProject?
A1: A WikiProject is a group of people who want to work together. It is not a subject area, a collection of pages, or a list of articles tagged by the group. Q2: How many WikiProjects are there?
A2: There are 924 WikiProjects tagged as "Active" (see Category:Active WikiProjects), and 232 WikiProjects tagged as "Semi-active" (see Category:Semi-active WikiProjects); many of these have one or more subsidiary task forces or work groups. Q3: What's the biggest WikiProject?
A3: Nobody knows, because not all participants add their names to a membership list, and membership lists are almost always out of date. You can find out which projects' main pages are being watched by the most users at Wikipedia:Database reports/WikiProject watchers. Q4: Which WikiProject has tagged the most articles as being within their scope?
A4: WikiProject Biography has tagged about 2.05 million articles, which is more than three times the size of the second largest number of pages tagged by a WikiProject. About ten groups have tagged more than 100,000 articles. You can see a list of projects and the number of articles they have assessed here. Q5: Who gets to decide whether a WikiProject is permitted to tag an article?
A5: That is the exclusive right of the participants of the WikiProject. Editors at an article may neither force the group to tag an article nor refuse to permit them to tag an article. See WP:PROJGUIDE#OWN. Q6: I think a couple of WikiProjects should be merged. Is that okay?
A6: You must ask the people who belong to those groups, even if the groups appear to be inactive. It's okay for different groups of people to be working on similar articles. WikiProjects are people, not lists of articles. If you identify and explain clear, practical benefits of a merger to all of the affected groups, they are likely to agree to combining into a larger group. However, if they object, then you may not merge the pages. For less-active groups, you may need to wait a month or more to make sure that no one objects. Q7: I want to start a WikiProject. Am I required to advertise it at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals and/or have a specific number of editors support it?
A7: No, there are no requirements. However, new WikiProjects, especially new groups that are proposed by new editors, rarely remain active for longer than a few months unless there are at least six or eight active editors involved at the time of creation. |
Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 | |
See earlier archives at: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject/Archive 1, Archive 2, Archive 3, Archive 4 |
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Systematically merging WikiProjects
editPicking up on something from the discussion above, I get the sense that most of us who think that WikiProjects are a good but underused model would like to see them quite aggressively merged into broader topics – based on the observation that big groups like WP:MILHIST or WP:WOMRED seem to be the most effective. (I get that those who don't think they're a good idea, or that they have run their course, don't see the point of this, but we don't lose anything by trying.)
There is a process for merging inactive WikiProjects but it is cumbersome and therefore underused:
- It assumes that inactive projects should become task forces of the merge target, which greatly increases the technical complexity of the merge – but why would we want an inactive project to become an inactive task force?
- It only really works for fully-inactive projects, but merging ten inactive projects is likely to just result in one inactive project. Ideally we want to be merging one or two active projects with a larger number of semi- or inactive projects.
- It has to be done case by case with individual discussions, making it very easy for a small number of objections ("We're very happy here in WikiProject Colourless Green Ideas, thank you very much") to wreck the whole process.
I think to have a chance of reviving the WikiProject model on a larger scale we need to be more aggressive. What I envisage is getting broad, community-level consensus that we should aim to have projects at a certain level of agglomeration – I'd suggest aligning it with the ORES topic taxonomy, which is derived from the WikiProject Council's directory and now used across a wide spectrum of tools and processes, but a potential RfC could present several options. Of course, if there are genuinely active projects under that level that don't want to be merged, then they could remain. But with the rest (the vast majority) we could proceed with merging on a WP:BRD basis, and without creating task forces. – Joe (talk) 09:59, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
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edit- Some good ideas, and definitely worth discussing more broadly with the community. WikiProjects are currently under utilised, and any ideas for revival should be actively explored — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 10:06, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
- I agree, and I think that trying to pull the history-related projects together is a good first step.
- Joe, I think that technical complexity, especially wrt the banner templates, is a problem we need to solve. We don't want to end up with duplicate banners, and there's an advantage to keeping old pages visible (e.g., if they contain lists of editors or ideas), but the goal of merging groups of people is to end up with one group of people. Consequently, I think archiving old talk pages and redirecting them to the main talk page should be encouraged. WhatamIdoing (talk) 06:29, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
- I agree. I think that and merging the banner templates/categories is the main benefit of merging, as opposed to just marking the inactive ones as inactive. – Joe (talk) 08:17, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
- There are a few reasons taskforces are useful, off the top of my head they can be separately noted on templates and maintain their own lists of articles. These can be useful tools for tracking, especially if the parent Wikiproject is huge. (Presumably task forces are also easier to re-convert into Wikiprojects if needed, although I'm unsure if this has ever happened.) For example, Wikipedia:WikiProject Brunei is totally dead, but it would feel suboptimal if a merging into the ORES/Articletopic Wikipedia:WikiProject Southeast Asia (Also dead but putting that aside for now) led to the loss of its tracking categories. CMD (talk) 06:48, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
- I totally agree that task forces are useful, but if a topic has proved not to have enough interest behind it to sustain a WikiProject, why would we assume it can sustain a task force? I think it's better (and easier!) to do a clean merge, then let the merged WikiProject decide which, if any, topics it wants to spin out again as task forces. It could also be done on a case-by-case basis so, yes, when merging countries it probably makes sense to retain a task force as that's a natural subdivision. – Joe (talk) 08:20, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
- I do not assume an inactive Wikiproject can sustain a task force, my point is that the technical tools developed as part of Wikiprojects are helpful even without an active editorbase. For example, I do not think there is enough interest to sustain Wikipedia:WikiProject Brunei, but there is a practical use to being able to follow Wikipedia:WikiProject Brunei/Article alerts. It is at least a fun curiosity to be able to see Wikipedia:WikiProject Brunei/Recognized content/Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Brunei articles by quality statistics, and the sum of having these for each country provides some rough pointers to think about systematic bias. To my understanding, these tools are linked to the existence of task forces, due to how the bots work. Some projects might not have useful tools of course, my mind went to inactive country projects as I've long wondered if/how they could be merged. CMD (talk) 09:34, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
- I see your point, but if there is not an active editor base tagging articles as within the scope of the WikiProject, then these bot-generated reports will also become less and less useful over time. There's a balance to be found but in general I agree with WAID above: WikiProjects are first and foremost a group of people. Their categorisation and quality assessment functions are secondary to that, and can be continued in other ways if the need for the WikiProject (the people) is no longer there. – Joe (talk) 10:01, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
- If the tools can be continued in other ways, that would make everything much simpler. At the very least, I use Wikipedia:WikiProject Brunei/Article alerts and would be sad to see it gone. CMD (talk) 10:26, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
- I would welcome any task forces under the umbrella for WikiProject History, just as one possible option, if that is useful to others here. Sm8900 (talk) 18:11, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
- @Chipmunkdavis, I'm pretty sure that your purpose could be met with a PetScan. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:16, 4 June 2024 (UTC)
- PetScan will show me when articles are nominated for various community processes on my watchlist? CMD (talk) 01:24, 5 June 2024 (UTC)
- No, it wouldn't appear on your watchlist. But you should be able to construct a query that asks, e.g., for a list of articles in Category:Articles for deletion and Category:Brunei. Compare Article Alerts against this PetScan result, for example. WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:49, 5 June 2024 (UTC)
- Useful then, but not the same purpose. CMD (talk) 03:05, 5 June 2024 (UTC)
- No, it wouldn't appear on your watchlist. But you should be able to construct a query that asks, e.g., for a list of articles in Category:Articles for deletion and Category:Brunei. Compare Article Alerts against this PetScan result, for example. WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:49, 5 June 2024 (UTC)
- PetScan will show me when articles are nominated for various community processes on my watchlist? CMD (talk) 01:24, 5 June 2024 (UTC)
- @Chipmunkdavis, I'm pretty sure that your purpose could be met with a PetScan. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:16, 4 June 2024 (UTC)
- I would welcome any task forces under the umbrella for WikiProject History, just as one possible option, if that is useful to others here. Sm8900 (talk) 18:11, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
- If the tools can be continued in other ways, that would make everything much simpler. At the very least, I use Wikipedia:WikiProject Brunei/Article alerts and would be sad to see it gone. CMD (talk) 10:26, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
- I see your point, but if there is not an active editor base tagging articles as within the scope of the WikiProject, then these bot-generated reports will also become less and less useful over time. There's a balance to be found but in general I agree with WAID above: WikiProjects are first and foremost a group of people. Their categorisation and quality assessment functions are secondary to that, and can be continued in other ways if the need for the WikiProject (the people) is no longer there. – Joe (talk) 10:01, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
- I do not assume an inactive Wikiproject can sustain a task force, my point is that the technical tools developed as part of Wikiprojects are helpful even without an active editorbase. For example, I do not think there is enough interest to sustain Wikipedia:WikiProject Brunei, but there is a practical use to being able to follow Wikipedia:WikiProject Brunei/Article alerts. It is at least a fun curiosity to be able to see Wikipedia:WikiProject Brunei/Recognized content/Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Brunei articles by quality statistics, and the sum of having these for each country provides some rough pointers to think about systematic bias. To my understanding, these tools are linked to the existence of task forces, due to how the bots work. Some projects might not have useful tools of course, my mind went to inactive country projects as I've long wondered if/how they could be merged. CMD (talk) 09:34, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
- I totally agree that task forces are useful, but if a topic has proved not to have enough interest behind it to sustain a WikiProject, why would we assume it can sustain a task force? I think it's better (and easier!) to do a clean merge, then let the merged WikiProject decide which, if any, topics it wants to spin out again as task forces. It could also be done on a case-by-case basis so, yes, when merging countries it probably makes sense to retain a task force as that's a natural subdivision. – Joe (talk) 08:20, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
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edit- I mean, I suppose it won't do any harm here, but I think this is basically a rearranging of the deck chairs. There are plenty of WikiProjects with a broad scope comparable to MILHIST or WOMRED that are functionally defunct; I think the long-term success of those two is at least in part stochastic, and I would not expect "aggressive merging" to form a comparably successful project. Over a decade ago, a user attempted a major upmerge of individual US state projects to WikiProject United States, coupled with a fairly aggressive tagging campaign. I didn't notice at the time any particularly sustained upswing in project activity, and the pushback from the state projects that were active enough not to want to be subsumed started that user's spiral towards long-term abuse.
- I think it is worth asking why WikiProjects were so active and useful in the early days of en.wikipedia and have undergone such a profound decline. I agree with the above comments about people being first and foremost. *Why*, on an internet full of knowledgeable people, are we unable to attract enough editors to keep these groups staffed and active. I certainly have some ideas, but I'd be curious to know what others think. Choess (talk) 06:04, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
- States were maybe not the best test case since, with enwiki's massive American editor base, they tend to be more active than a country of comparable size elsewhere. I don't know why WikiProjects have foundered – I think the fact that we have salami-sliced topics until they can no longer sustain a working group is one plausible explanation, and hence that merging is worth a try. I'd also be interested to hear other ideas and I do really think they're worth saving. My sense is that new editors that might have gotten involved in a WikiProject if they joined when we did are now more likely to end up invested in a 'patrol', because these still have an active community around them. – Joe (talk) 10:15, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
- I think that some of the problem is focusing on "topics" when a WikiProject is a "group of people".
- IMO people who want to work together will find a way to do that. However, I think three changes have hurt WikiProjects:
- lots of salami-sliced topics make it harder to find the other people,
- the existence of passable pages for most popular subjects reduces the demand for creating content, and
- the way people want to do that, in the present decade, is off wiki.
- Merging up people-less pages increases the odds that someone looking for a group will find someone to work with.
- When I was a new editor, I saw a link to Wikipedia:WikiProject Medicine on an article talk page. When I looked around, I saw requests for help with evidence that those requests were resulting in help. I also saw someone was asking for help on a large but simple task. I thought I could do that, and maybe that would free up other, more experienced editors to do more important things, like creating articles. Some 115K edits later, here I am. I don't think the same thing happens now. You find the pages, but there's nothing going on. If there is anything other than automated announcements, it's some kind of complaint or dispute. It gives you a different view of the group. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:26, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
- We merged a ton of TV related dead projects into WikiProject Television and converted them into task forces a few years ago. They are still dead but at least the tags take less place on talk pages. My thoughts on this are that we shouldn't support for all eternity dead projects or task forces. If no one finds them useful (and by useful, actively engaging with the project or task force; not by looking at the statistics), then support for them should stop - delete banner or task force entry in banner, delete article categories and leave only the main project page and talk pages as an archive. Some editors don't understand that even inactive pages require sometimes quite a lot of maintenance work. Gonnym (talk) 10:31, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
- tagging @Joe Roe, the originator of this topic, in case they might wish to comment on any topics here. Sm8900 (talk) 13:22, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
- States were maybe not the best test case since, with enwiki's massive American editor base, they tend to be more active than a country of comparable size elsewhere. I don't know why WikiProjects have foundered – I think the fact that we have salami-sliced topics until they can no longer sustain a working group is one plausible explanation, and hence that merging is worth a try. I'd also be interested to hear other ideas and I do really think they're worth saving. My sense is that new editors that might have gotten involved in a WikiProject if they joined when we did are now more likely to end up invested in a 'patrol', because these still have an active community around them. – Joe (talk) 10:15, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
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edit- Some of this seems like it could be subject to empirical examination: if we look back at the earliest WikiProject archives, are the articles and topics discussed more general or "popular" than at present? Are there a significant number of projects that were once active and have since become quiescent?
- I think Wikipedia:WikiProject Banksia might be an interesting study. Founded 2006, a rather niche topic, but consistently produced Featured Articles through 2018 and got about 10% of its articles above "Start"-class, which I think is pretty successful. Maybe I'm just grasping a different part of the elephant, but this is how I think of our content as developing: one or a few very energetic people doing most of the work, probably on a power law distribution, which stimulates less active users to align with that task (say, doing some reference formatting to help a *Banksia* article towards FA, or contributing a few sentences summarizing a relevant paper).
- WikiProjects are a group of people sharing a thematic interest. I think the crux of the problem is that we've become increasingly adamantine about refusing to acknowledge that some editors have more knowledge about subject matter than others; the only form of expertise we recognize is "expertise" about our internal rules. Energetically (mis)interpreting policy gives you moderator power over the work of others; energetically interpreting subject matter gets you moderated. Forming a project just creates a bigger target area for people to zoom in and declare that your work is OR, non-notable, fanboyism, etc. Of course our social energy has been diverted to criticism, not creation; that's what we reward. (Happy to take this elsewhere to avoid derailing Joe's concrete proposal—what's our replacement for User talk:Iridescent?) Choess (talk) 19:02, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
- @Choess, I don't think there's a replacement for Iri's page, but I'm willing to volunteer his page for this conversation. Alternative, you can have it here (maybe in a new section, and feel free to ping interesting/interested editors). WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:23, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
- Shared experiences help bond groups together, establishing a feeling of common purpose. While there is a good reason for Wikipedia not to be a host for general discussion, it means those shared experiences have to come through article editing and related discussion. This was easier to come by when Wikipedia was in a land rush phase, with many eager editors and a need to establish common agreements on article writing conventions, categories, suitable sources, standards for having an article, and so forth. Now that a lot of this has been set up, there is less need for daily discussions on operations. There is still higher level discussions to be had, such as reconciling different standards that were set up by different groups, but typically more abstract discussions garner less interest. Combined with the decrease in long-term editors due to the natural turnover of editors from earlier cohorts and the greater choices of pastimes now available online, more of the current generation of editors never experienced the busy times for their WikiProjects of interest. For new editors today, trying to connect with a group of Wikipedia editors who are mostly heads-down and working steadily away on mundane tasks isn't easy.
- One thing I think might help (without opening up WikiProjects to more general forum-like discussion) is to build lists of desired articles or tasks to complete, make them very visible, and get people to check off items as they are done. There's still lots of writing to be done, and having a visible tracking board would generate a bit of that common purpose feel again. For this idea to work, though, it needs some volunteers to help keep the status board current, perhaps generating stats at various checkpoints, and to reach out to editors who seem like good candidates based on their contribution history. Ideally this outreach would be assisted by the new editor mentors. I don't know how much interest there is, but the good news is that it is an initiative that can be managed by a fairly small number of people for any one given topic area. isaacl (talk) 22:24, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
- https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/ can do automated leaderboards for certain purposes (e.g., most refs added, most images uploaded to Commons, most words added to an article). That might appeal to some groups. You'd still have to have someone bringing the off-wiki information back to the group. WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:28, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
- I think a manual checking off of items would more readily create a shared experience feeling. Automated leaderboards by themselves are just counts. Maybe if they were used to award silly barnstars, it would be appealing to some users and thus foster a bit of esprit de corps. isaacl (talk) 06:25, 19 May 2024 (UTC)
- Small, achievable tasks are good, especially if everyone can see that multiple editors are involved. Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation sometimes brings lists of dab-needing articles to WPMED, and we usually get a few editors working on them. The Pareto principle applies, but the key point is that people need to feel like someone else needs to pitch in. Having one person do the whole list doesn't make the group feel important. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:41, 19 May 2024 (UTC)
- Yes, that's the idea: create a place where people can see the work being done by each person, to help establish common shared experiences. Additionally, help those who want a bit of direction to find tasks that need to be completed. isaacl (talk) 19:00, 19 May 2024 (UTC)
- Small, achievable tasks are good, especially if everyone can see that multiple editors are involved. Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation sometimes brings lists of dab-needing articles to WPMED, and we usually get a few editors working on them. The Pareto principle applies, but the key point is that people need to feel like someone else needs to pitch in. Having one person do the whole list doesn't make the group feel important. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:41, 19 May 2024 (UTC)
- I think a manual checking off of items would more readily create a shared experience feeling. Automated leaderboards by themselves are just counts. Maybe if they were used to award silly barnstars, it would be appealing to some users and thus foster a bit of esprit de corps. isaacl (talk) 06:25, 19 May 2024 (UTC)
- https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/ can do automated leaderboards for certain purposes (e.g., most refs added, most images uploaded to Commons, most words added to an article). That might appeal to some groups. You'd still have to have someone bringing the off-wiki information back to the group. WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:28, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
New section for discussion, June 4 2024
editI would like to suggest that we resume discussion of this topic, at least for a little while longer. I think that there are some interesting ideas here, perhaps we could discuss further, before this gets archived. I hope to add some comments myself a little later, but first I'd like to read this over, and give this a little thought. thanks. --Sm8900 (talk) 14:28, 4 June 2024 (UTC)
- There needs to be general broad fiction genre wikiprojects as targets for merging various small WPPs on individual fictional milieus into. We have WP:SciFi, Horror, Romance, Comedy; but there's no Fantasy/Myth-based/Legend-based, CrimeFic/LawFic/PoliceFic/Detective/Mystery, MilFic/Adventure/Western/Wuxia/Murim/Chanbara; and AltHist is inactive. -- 65.92.244.143 (talk) 23:06, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels would seem to cover this — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 08:13, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
- If they're not just books, that won't work -- 65.92.244.143 (talk) 21:47, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels would seem to cover this — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 08:13, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
- Musing here. If I felt I had figured out all the kinks around merging Wikiprojects (and I currently do not), I might be happy to propose merging some around topics I have edited where I have observed them being inactive for awhile. I would feel less comfortable jumping into say merging Wikipedia:WikiProject Geography of Canada into Wikipedia:WikiProject Canada. This seems twin hurdles others may likely face, potentially stepping on some toes, potentially proposing that someone else does a lot of cleanup. CMD (talk) 13:38, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
- I have proposed in the past redirecting the talk pages of sub Canada projects like Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Geography of Canada to Wikipedia talk:Canadian Wikipedians' notice board to no avail. Moxy🍁 19:01, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
- The core of my original idea is to making merging easier. There's a consensus to merge five history WikiProjects but I keep opening the merging instructions and then giving up. A lot of the complexity comes from converting the former WikiProjects into taskforces, but nobody in the linked discussion seems to care about that. Is there anyone who has done this before and is up for writing a shorter set of steps for just merging WikiProjects, without creating additional taskforces? – Joe (talk) 10:19, 22 June 2024 (UTC)
- i think that merging old wikiprojeects is more trouble than simply marking them as inactive, and then starting a new task force from scratch, for each one. Sm8900 (talk) 12:59, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
- @Joe Roe, I think I could do this for you. I've started Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Guide/Merging WikiProjects. I still need to sort out the banners/template steps, but please take a look and let me know if this is what you're hoping for. WhatamIdoing (talk) 15:42, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
- @WhatamIdoing: That looks great, thanks. I'll try it with the history projects now. Though the templates are of course an important step. – Joe (talk) 09:37, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
- I imagine the intent was to keep separate article alerts for a merged WikiProject. But if the merged WikiProject is inactive and no longer has any active participants, then it's probably better to also merge the article alerts into those for the parent project. isaacl (talk) 17:05, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
- Exactly. There also needs to be people actively tagging new articles or the article alerts will become progressively less useful over time. – Joe (talk) 09:36, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
- @Joe Roe, I think I could do this for you. I've started Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Guide/Merging WikiProjects. I still need to sort out the banners/template steps, but please take a look and let me know if this is what you're hoping for. WhatamIdoing (talk) 15:42, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
- i think that merging old wikiprojeects is more trouble than simply marking them as inactive, and then starting a new task force from scratch, for each one. Sm8900 (talk) 12:59, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
WikiProject mergers and templates
editWell, following WhatamIdoing's kindly-provided instructions went well with the history projects until I tried to redirect the obsolete templates to the merged project (given that I'm not merging task forces, that's all the needs to happen), at which point two template editors popped up to object (courtesy ping @MSGJ and Gonnym:). Discussions are taking place at Template talk:WikiProject Ancient Germanic studies#Duplicate banners resulting from merge and Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2024 June 25#Template:WikiProject Ancient Germanic studies – additional input would be very appreciated as I don't actually understand what they're objecting to. – Joe (talk) 07:30, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
- As I've clearly stated in both places. There is a difference between shutting done a project page and redirecting it, and merging a project page into another project. You've claimed you did a merge, when you seem to mean a redirect. In either case, both processes were left incomplete. How to complete them depends on what you actually want, but your last comment wasn't helpful. Gonnym (talk) 07:37, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
- They were "left incomplete" because while I was in the middle of doing them MSGJ reverted me and you started a pointless bloody TfD. – Joe (talk) 07:43, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
- Your edit to the template happened at 10:28, 25 June 2024. MSGJ's edit happened at 14:25, 25 June 2024. My edit happened at 18:03, 25 June 2024. If it takes you more than 4 hours to follow up on an edit to the banner template then you should let someone else do this part. Gonnym (talk) 08:27, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
- @Gonnym, are you volunteering to be that "someone else"? We are in the process of writing step-by-step directions for merging templates. Unfortunately, this does sometimes mean that we reach a certain step and need to stop and figure out what should happen next. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:11, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
- Either myself or someone else at TfD can do these things, which is why we have WP:TFD/H. Gonnym (talk) 18:33, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
- @Gonnym, are you volunteering to be that "someone else"? We are in the process of writing step-by-step directions for merging templates. Unfortunately, this does sometimes mean that we reach a certain step and need to stop and figure out what should happen next. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:11, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
- Your edit to the template happened at 10:28, 25 June 2024. MSGJ's edit happened at 14:25, 25 June 2024. My edit happened at 18:03, 25 June 2024. If it takes you more than 4 hours to follow up on an edit to the banner template then you should let someone else do this part. Gonnym (talk) 08:27, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
- They were "left incomplete" because while I was in the middle of doing them MSGJ reverted me and you started a pointless bloody TfD. – Joe (talk) 07:43, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
FYI Template:Project section header (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) has been nominated for deletion -- 65.92.244.143 (talk) 04:13, 4 June 2024 (UTC)
Sharing some of my recent WikiProject skunkworks results
editUsing the Database report tool and my growing understanding of the database, I've been able to create useful pages/tools for use in a WikiProject:
- Tracking old issues in articles (over 10 years old) - this is a good supplement to what the CleanupWorklistBot produces
- Knowing which articles are possibly undercategorized
- Viewing articles edited the most over the past 30 days
- Project-wide and focused change patrol
I've also used PetScan and Quarry to generate other useful lists to aid in project work. (Note: not everything in the table was created by me)
Any of the above can be copied over to almost any WikiProject with minor tweaks. Stefen Towers among the rest! Gab • Gruntwerk 01:44, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
- Since this post, I added two more features based on the Database report template:
- Viewing project-included articles newest to Wikipedia to see if they need cleanup, tagging or improved categorization
- Viewing the most volatile articles, size-wise, over the past 30 days
- Stefen Towers among the rest! Gab • Gruntwerk 22:32, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
Inactive national history projects
editSince my first attempt to merge inactive projects in the history topic was well received, I'm now looking to the remaining inactive projects in Wikipedia:WikiProject_Council/Directory/History_and_society#History (i.e. almost all of them!) There is a subset that are about the history of modern nation states:
- WikiProject Australian history
- WikiProject History of Canada
- WikiProject Indian history
- WikiProject Chinese history
- WikiProject Pakistani history
- WikiProject Russian history
- WikiProject United States History
Would it make more sense to propose merging these into Wikiproject History, or to the respective countries (e.g. Australian history into WikiProject Australia)?
Similarly, there's Wikipedia:WikiProject Women's History, which I can see fitting into history, but also into Wikipedia:WikiProject Women, which is more active and organised at the moment. Where's the best place to discuss these kind of issues? – Joe (talk) 13:52, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
- Question 6 above in the header of this page. But there are probably a heap of caveats that as a long term talk page tagger would in turn ask of the proposer for merges etc. A large amount. As for sense in merging proposals, it would be very useful to look at the history of the processes of the council in the last 18 years or so, and where some over time merges/changes might be looked at for the efficacy of such moves. JarrahTree 02:39, 7 July 2024 (UTC)
- I will of course propose the merge to the affected wikiprojects; as I did with the last batch. What I'm asking for here is input on which projects to propose it to. – Joe (talk) 08:36, 7 July 2024 (UTC)
- I previously converted Wikipedia:WikiProject Philippine History into Wikipedia:Tambayan Philippines/Philippine history task force; as broad as country wikiprojects can be they're less broad than all of history. CMD (talk) 08:49, 7 July 2024 (UTC)
- I will of course propose the merge to the affected wikiprojects; as I did with the last batch. What I'm asking for here is input on which projects to propose it to. – Joe (talk) 08:36, 7 July 2024 (UTC)
- @Joe Roe, you could ask on each talk page. I'd suggest recommending one over the other (not necessarily the same for every group), but if anyone responds, their preferences should be taken into account. I think I lean towards the individual country when that is a large or very active group, but WikiProject History when the country-specific group is small. The potential targets could be notified in a "Help us make a decision about merging here vs the other option" way. WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:25, 23 July 2024 (UTC)
- i appreciate the ideas for adding some of these to WikiProject History. if i can assist, please let me know. thanks! Sm8900 (talk) 13:41, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
Merge of business and companies WikiProjects
editPlease see the discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Business#Merge of business and companies WikiProjects. – Joe (talk) 18:20, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
- This proposal was made more than 30 days ago, and anything that was agreed to could be implemented now. WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:23, 6 August 2024 (UTC)
Requested move at Talk:Lady Henry Somerset#Requested move 14 July 2024
editThere is a requested move discussion at Talk:Lady Henry Somerset#Requested move 14 July 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. 98𝚃𝙸𝙶𝙴𝚁𝙸𝚄𝚂 • [𝚃𝙰𝙻𝙺] 22:39, 14 July 2024 (UTC)
- @98Tigerius: I'm struggling to see any relevance to this talk page? – Joe (talk) 13:02, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
Indigenous peoples
editI was surprised that we have two separate projects: WikiProject Indigenous peoples of the Americas and WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America. Perhaps these would be better merged? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 08:52, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
- There's also WikiProject Indigenous peoples of Australia, and none of the three are particularly active. I'd suggest merging them all to WikiProject Indigenous peoples, if not an even broader project (WikiProject Ethnic groups? WikiProject Anthropology?) – Joe (talk) 11:31, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
- Yes maybe. Can you post at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America#Related WikiProjects because that has generated some discussion? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:24, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
- It looks like this proposal is not welcomed by the people most affected by it, and therefore should not proceed at this time. WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:57, 23 July 2024 (UTC)
- Yes maybe. Can you post at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America#Related WikiProjects because that has generated some discussion? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:24, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
Several recently-created WikiProjects nominated for deletion
editPlease see the discussions at:
- Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject SZA (2nd nomination)
- Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Jerusalem
- Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Major League Cricket
- Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Dardistan
- Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Red Wolf
- Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Ledisi
– Joe (talk) 15:09, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
- I'm seeing a post elsewhere about the recent creation of Wikipedia:WikiProject Kamala Harris. I thought it would merit mention in this section because I find no evidence that the council was consulted on its creation. It appears to be yet another knee-jerk reaction to news headlines, destined to enjoy a short shelf life. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 01:42, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
- I suspect so. Maybe it's time to revise the guidance in Wikipedia:WikiProject#Creating and maintaining a project, i.e. to say "don't create a new wikiproject, look for an existing one to join or revive". – Joe (talk) 10:03, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
- I've copied the text from the proposals page. WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:06, 23 July 2024 (UTC)
- Turns out it's a pattern; the same editor created Wikipedia:WikiProject Joe Biden, Wikipedia:WikiProject Donald Trump and Wikipedia:WikiProject Hillary Clinton. I've nominated all four for deletion at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Kamala Harris. – Joe (talk) 15:09, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
- I suspect so. Maybe it's time to revise the guidance in Wikipedia:WikiProject#Creating and maintaining a project, i.e. to say "don't create a new wikiproject, look for an existing one to join or revive". – Joe (talk) 10:03, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
Noting the utility of the Wikiproject categories was raised at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Kamala Harris. Broadly, the question here is how/why Category:WikiProject Joe Biden differs from Category:Joe Biden, and if the functions of the first can be shifted to the second. CMD (talk) 10:54, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for noting this Chipmunkdavis. It has come up a few times when I've been proposing wikiproject merges and deletions.
- I think the major obstacle to decoupling tools like article alerts from is that mainspace categories are highly nested, so you have to be really careful how you specify the scope or you'll get all sorts of tangential stuff included. For example Category:Joe Biden contains Category:Presidency of Joe Biden which contains Category:COVID-19 pandemic in the United States which contains... a lot of stuff not related to Joe Biden. What makes WikiProject categories attractive is that they're 'flat': Category:WikiProject Joe Biden articles contains articles about Joe Biden and nothing else, and you can rest assured that nobody is likely to drop all of Category:WikiProject COVID-19 articles into it. The major downside of course is that these lists must be manually generated and maintained and quickly deteriorate if the wikiproject becomes inactive.
- But as it happens I've just learned that Harej is working on an solution to this very problem: Wikipedia:Pagesets, a way of creating automatically updated flat lists of articles. There's a great explanation of how these could fit into a revitalised wikiproject system on his blog. – Joe (talk) 11:59, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- @Chipmunkdavis, you can set up a 'watchlist' with any arbitrary list of pages. For example:
- That won't sort a list that says "Categories for discussion" on it, but it would let you find all the edits nominating the pages. WhatamIdoing (talk) 15:47, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- That is useful, but very few Wikiprojects will have the ability to maintain such a list. Could a bot maintain such a list based on word recognition? Sounds like a lot of computation. Could a tag similar to a taskforce tag be used without creating a taskforce page? It's really an interesting problem, that the social function of Wikipedia developed fast enough that functionality began to depend on it, and now that that social element has decreased, or at least changed, the functionality is stuck. We're on a particular mountain in a fitness landscape. Wikipedia:Pagesets does seem like what we might be looking for, creating a parallel system rather than grafting something on the existing one (not stuck on the same fitness landscape mountain). I'll have to read it more closely another time to see how responsiveness is being considered. CMD (talk) 16:24, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
Merge of inactive education wikiprojects
editI'm proposing to merge a number of inactive education-related wikiprojects to WikiProject Education. Please see the discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Education#Merge of inactive education wikiprojects. – Joe (talk) 17:50, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
Merge of inactive higher education wikiprojects
editI'm proposing to merge a number of inactive higher education-related wikiprojects to WikiProject Higher education. Please see the discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Higher education#Merge of inactive higher education wikiprojects. – Joe (talk) 18:08, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
The West Wing task force MfD
editYou are invited to participate at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Television/The West Wing task force :) theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 18:32, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
Finishing WikiProject X on the community wishlist
editI imagine many here will remember WikiProject X, a WMF-funded effort to increase the activity [of] WikiProjects and make WikiProjects more central to the experience of editing Wikipedia
. Sadly the project was under-resourced and never finished, leaving its work either in a prototype stage (the WPX UI, trialled e.g. at Wikipedia:WikiProject Women's Health) or unmaintained (the automated WikiProject Directory). However in their final report, the WikiProject X team did say that any full properly equipped team could pick this project up and see it through
. To that end I've made a request on the community wishlist for the WMF to see if they can equip someone to pick it up. Please comment there if you are interested. – Joe (talk) 13:05, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- @Joe Roe - I'm interested! I have done a lot of work with WikiProject Unreferenced articles and getting help from other projects when struggling to find sources would be tremendously improved by those projects actually being active and useful as resources. The last major update from WikiProject X was in 2015 - I think we're at a very different place in the project's development and hopefully it could be revitalized. Thanks for kicking off the discussion! Kazamzam (talk) 13:34, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- @Kazamzam: Great! If you don't mind voicing your support at meta:Talk:Community Wishlist/Wishes/Finish WikiProject X, it'll be more visible to the people making the decision there :) – Joe (talk) 11:16, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
New proposals
editHi, does anyone know how long it'll be before we can make proposals again? Kowal2701 (talk) 17:32, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- We don't have a timeline. Do you already have a group of editors? A WP:WikiProject is the people, not the subject area. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:20, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- I have a few, but I'd like to make a proposal to see whether others would be interested Kowal2701 (talk) 18:32, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- Making a proposal will not find you any more editors. Nobody watches those pages. What's your subject area? WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:04, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- Oral tradition Kowal2701 (talk) 19:05, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- It's very broad and trendy at the moment (as it's only starting to become respected in academia), and could absorb WP:Folklore. Personally my interest is just in traditional oral history, and institutionalised instances like Griot and Kouroukan Fouga Kowal2701 (talk) 19:08, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- That sounds too narrow to be sustainable. What do you think about merging the inactive Wikipedia:WikiProject Folklore into the semi-active Wikipedia:WikiProject Anthropology, and then trying to WP:REVIVE the anthro project? WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:33, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- Idk I think it has a good chance of being sustainable, enough people have passion for it and it's something that's on the up. I think it's quite attractive for new users, and we should be getting more users from sub-Saharan Africa in the coming years. It features in pretty much all countries and most people wouldn't do anything general, but focus on specific regions they're interested in. I have 5 definites atm, would it be possible to give it a go and start it, and then merge into WP:Anthropology if it becomes inactive? Kowal2701 (talk) 20:46, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- 6 now Kowal2701 (talk) 20:48, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- I can't actually stop you. But purely as a practical matter, it looks like Bloodofox is the only editor who is interested and has more experience than you, and that's not a recipe for success. I'm not saying the group is doomed, because I do think it has a chance at success, but it also looks like a bigger chance for being inactive in a year or two than being active.
- Creating the group requires work for you (I'd guess 5–50 hours), plus, if you want to succeed, several hours a month in finding and recruiting new editors for the next two years. Failure creates a couple of hours' work for other people (e.g., to merge it up to the anthro project). WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:26, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- Also, I suspect that you will want to talk to Pgallert, Pharos, and JarrahTree. WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:38, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you for your help, have a great day Kowal2701 (talk) 21:43, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- I agree that’s problematic. I intend to have resources on the main page for people that are intrigued and want to learn about it. The timing could be a bit better for me, and I’m not exactly the most competent person. I’ll get more familiar with wiki projects before starting it and have specific objectives. I’m going to try to get 10 or 15 before starting it Kowal2701 (talk) 21:39, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you for your help, have a great day Kowal2701 (talk) 21:43, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- Also, I suspect that you will want to talk to Pgallert, Pharos, and JarrahTree. WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:38, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- 6 now Kowal2701 (talk) 20:48, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- Idk I think it has a good chance of being sustainable, enough people have passion for it and it's something that's on the up. I think it's quite attractive for new users, and we should be getting more users from sub-Saharan Africa in the coming years. It features in pretty much all countries and most people wouldn't do anything general, but focus on specific regions they're interested in. I have 5 definites atm, would it be possible to give it a go and start it, and then merge into WP:Anthropology if it becomes inactive? Kowal2701 (talk) 20:46, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- That sounds too narrow to be sustainable. What do you think about merging the inactive Wikipedia:WikiProject Folklore into the semi-active Wikipedia:WikiProject Anthropology, and then trying to WP:REVIVE the anthro project? WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:33, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- Making a proposal will not find you any more editors. Nobody watches those pages. What's your subject area? WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:04, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- I have a few, but I'd like to make a proposal to see whether others would be interested Kowal2701 (talk) 18:32, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
@Kowal2701: I think you're off to a great start by contacting other wikiprojects and gathering a group, but I share WAID's concerns. Most wikiprojects (>75%) become inactive, even when people sign up to them, and the profusion of inactive wikiprojects makes it harder for new editors to find active groups that they can join. On the other hand, I think this could be a great opportunity to inject some new life into WikiProject Anthropology, which is something I've been wanting to do for a while. If you'd consider starting an oral tradition task force of WPAnthro, I'd be very happy to help. – Joe (talk) 11:38, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- Could we do a section in WP:Anthropology focussed on oral tradition and still have the same templates as a WP? I just think these would be really useful and oral tradition is quite a logical split as it’s segregated from other forms of literature Kowal2701 (talk) 12:21, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- Specifically an article template with all the oral tradition articles would be very helpful, the vast majority are stubs Kowal2701 (talk) 12:23, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- As per my previous comments, I agree with taking the group of interested editors and holding discussions on a related WikiProject talk page. After some months you can assess the effectiveness: having a broader audience for your discussions can be very helpful, but in some cases, the discussions may prove to be cumbersome to those not interested. You can create any guidance pages as needed. Grouping them as subpages under the WikiProject in question is helpful for organizational purposes. isaacl (talk) 14:16, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- Yes, a task force is usually structured as a subpage of the parent project (e.g. Wikipedia:WikiProject Anthropology/Oral tradition task force). You then add a new parameter to the WikiProject's banner which marks it as of interest to the task force, e.g.
{{WikiProject Anthropology|oral-tradition=yes}}
. This allows you to set up tools like article alerts for only those articles. You can look at Wikipedia:WikiProject Archaeology/Women in archaeology task force for an example of how it works in practice; Talk:Margaret Ursula Jones is an example of a page using the banner parameter. - The advantage of this approach for you is that you can build on an existing group of people (though WP:ANTHRO is not so active, nineteen of its members are still actively editing) and an existing set of articles rather than starting from scratch, while still using all the useful gadgets available for WikiProjects. Conversations relating to a task force usually take place on the parent WikiProject talk page too, unless it gets very big, which brings extra visibility. The advantage for others is that it channels activity back to the parent wikiproject and, should the task force becoming inactive, it's easier to fold it back into that wikiproject by simply redirecting the pages and deprecating the banner parameter. – Joe (talk) 15:33, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- That sounds great, I like that a lot Kowal2701 (talk) 15:53, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- Would it be possible to have pages also tagged by region, as I imagine a lot of editors will only be interested in a particular region. Maybe we could just group the WP country tags? Kowal2701 (talk) 16:21, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- If they're already tagged by country projects (e.g., Wikipedia:WikiProject United States), then that could probably be automated.
- BTW, Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history has made greater use of task forces than any other group, so I think you should poke around in their pages to get some ideas. Some of theirs are subject-focused and others are procedural (e.g., A-class article review). WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:26, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- Would it be possible to create the page now? Kowal2701 (talk) 16:56, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- In theory, you should talk to the hosting WikiProject first. This does not need to be a big discussion; just add a quick update to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Anthropology#WP:WikiProject Oral tradition. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:30, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Is this the right way to go about it? Draft:Wikipedia: WikiProject Anthropology/Oral tradition taskforce Kowal2701 (talk) 17:26, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- @Kowal2701, please WP:MOVE that out of the Draft: namespace. There is no need to use the Draft: namespace for non-articles. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:29, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- done Kowal2701 (talk) 17:37, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Sorry, I know I'm just creating work for you guys Kowal2701 (talk) 17:38, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- There's no need to apologize. You're doing most of the work yourself, and you're also presenting a great reminder of what we want to accomplish, as we think about how to fix the proposal process. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:59, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- I do think it'd be great to build the proposal process around task forces, as I imagine it's rare for someone to have an idea about a new viable wikiproject. Btw, I've found most editors through messaging large contributors of pages involving oral tradition (just going through the pages that link to oral tradition, I'll do folklore next). Messaging wikiprojects has attracted practically no-one but I could've done better messages Kowal2701 (talk) 19:32, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- hi, I’m a little confused as to what to do with the categories. Do I start tagging pages using WP:AWB? Kowal2701 (talk) 07:28, 28 July 2024 (UTC)
- Do I do it all manually or use bots? Kowal2701 (talk) 17:56, 28 July 2024 (UTC)
- If you make a list of pages or categories, then it's possible to use AWB or a bot to tag them. WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:34, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
- Do I do it all manually or use bots? Kowal2701 (talk) 17:56, 28 July 2024 (UTC)
- There's no need to apologize. You're doing most of the work yourself, and you're also presenting a great reminder of what we want to accomplish, as we think about how to fix the proposal process. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:59, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- @Kowal2701, please WP:MOVE that out of the Draft: namespace. There is no need to use the Draft: namespace for non-articles. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:29, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Would it be possible to create the page now? Kowal2701 (talk) 16:56, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
I think that's a good idea. Building on the above discussion, a new proposals process could look like:
- Find the closest wikiproject(s) and suggest working on the new topic
- If there's enough interest, propose creating a task force
- If the task force eventually outgrows its parent, spin it off to its own wikiproject
Of course this pretty strongly discourages actually creating any new wikiprojects. But at this point I think that's appropriate. – Joe (talk) 22:04, 30 July 2024 (UTC)
- That sounds appropriate. For example:
- Join Wikipedia:WikiProject Anthropology
- If that's not enough, make Wikipedia:WikiProject Anthropology/Oral tradition taskforce
- If that's not enough, and you've got lots of people, move that page to Wikipedia:WikiProject Oral tradition.
- Does that sound about right? WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:39, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
- I’d place emphasis on whether the WP develops with lots of core people Kowal2701 (talk) 06:30, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
- That’s an issue I’m running into atm, lots of people are happy to join but I’m struggling to see who would be coordinators Kowal2701 (talk) 06:32, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
- Having a lot of people actively participating doesn't mean they need to have a separate WikiProject page. My suggestion is to focus on getting content written and building up the roster of active editors. Creating a taskforce is mainly useful to have separate article alerts.
- A lot of WikiProjects don't have specific co-ordinators. The WikiProject talk page provides a place to hold discussions to generate consensus agreements on guidance, and the main project page points interested editors to that guidance and any initiatives, which can be driven by anyone. isaacl (talk) 17:02, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
- Think I need to take a step back and let it develop organically Kowal2701 (talk) 17:16, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
- Please do continue to look for interested editors, and point them to, say, the Anthropology WikiProject talk page for related discussions on initiatives or to develop guidance! Collaborating with other passionate editors is a good way for everyone involved to be motivated. isaacl (talk) 17:28, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
- spamming African history editors now lol, people seem to really appreciate the notification, although that may be availability bias since the ones that don't ignore it Kowal2701 (talk) 17:31, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
- Please do continue to look for interested editors, and point them to, say, the Anthropology WikiProject talk page for related discussions on initiatives or to develop guidance! Collaborating with other passionate editors is a good way for everyone involved to be motivated. isaacl (talk) 17:28, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
- Think I need to take a step back and let it develop organically Kowal2701 (talk) 17:16, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
- I’d place emphasis on whether the WP develops with lots of core people Kowal2701 (talk) 06:30, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
Share examples of WikiProjects or collaborations that you have worked on=
editHi Wikimedians!
The Campaigns Product and Programs Teams at the Wikimedia Foundation wants to learn more about WikiProjects and other on-wiki collaborations work. We would like to do more work that improves the quality of collaborations onwiki. We especially need examples of WikiProjects and other collaborations that have worked on different Wikimedia projects. Please help us by filling out a short survey on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns/WikiProjects
Never participated in a WikiProject or other collaborations, but have ideas on how we could make collaboration better? You can also share feedback on the talk page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Campaigns/WikiProjects
Please share the survey with anyone you think would help us have valuable insights, we are particularly looking for successful collaborations on non-English wikis. Astinson (WMF) (talk) 20:58, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
- I believe Rosiestep could offer useful background on Women in Red and its non-English extensions, and perhaps other collaborative initiatives.--Ipigott (talk) 10:47, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
WikiProject Women's sport
editWomen's sport has been discussed on the talk page of WP Women in Red. It has been suggested that the project is widely used and highly active. It should therefore no longer be listed as "inactive".--Ipigott (talk) 10:40, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- I marked it as inactive a few weeks ago, based primarily on the fact that there hasn't been a substantial discussion on its talk page for over a year and that participants do not appear to be coordinated collaborative efforts in any other ways. I can see from the WT:WOMRED discussion that you said you use it reviewing and assessing articles and that its template is used on many articles. I'm not sure that translates to widely-used and highly active. The purpose of a wikiproject is to facilitate a group of people engaging in collaborative editing; the system of tagging and assessing articles is supposed to be a means to an end, not an end in itself.
- You can change it back to active if you want, but I don't think that will change anything about the reality. It seems to me that this and most of the ~20 other projects on specific subsets of biographies of women are struggling to maintain activity levels and could benefit from being consolidated into a less niche group. Perhaps WiR, as one of the stand-out examples of a successful wikiproject, could be a focus point for this? Preserving the merged wikiprojects as task force would mean their tagging and assessment functions would remain essentially unchanged, though as discussed above a better long term solution would be to develop categorisation and monitoring tools that don't depend on an otherwise moribund wikiproject. – Joe (talk) 12:18, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- It's possible that this particular group will have intermittent activity (e.g., during the Olympics). I do think that merging it as a task force has significant possibilities. In particular, that would maintain separate 1.0 stats for anyone who uses that to choose subject areas (though independent means would be better), and the talk page could be redirected to the main page, so that people asking for help would actually get responses. Wikipedia:WikiProject Women might be a more willing target than Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red, since it is more generic (though distinctly less active).
- I have removed the idea of assessment as an indicator of group activity from Template:WikiProject status/doc. With the switch to sitewide assessment, it's become irrelevant. Articles get assessed regardless of whether the group is assessing them. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:13, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
Affiliates of WikiProject Women |
---|
African women |
Architecture & design |
Art |
Business |
Feminism |
Health |
Hip hop music |
History |
History Month (March) |
Jewish women |
Journalism |
Music |
Religion |
Scientists |
Sport |
Warfare & military |
Writers |
Missing articles department: Women in Red |
Article improvement department: Women in Green |
See also: Gender gap task force |
- Out of all the projects listed in the WiR sidebar, only Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Women in Religion and the recently created Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Women Do News show more than one reply in the past few years, if that. CMD (talk) 01:47, 6 August 2024 (UTC)