Brand new WikiProjects profiled
It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.
This week, we bring three of the most recently created WikiProjects to come into being on the English Wikipedia. While many long-established projects are becoming inactive, (as we have covered before), that doesn't stop new ones forming every now and then to cover a topic that a group of editors feel should be better cared for. Sometimes, they are branches and task forces of existing projects, or they may be completely new, where an editor has found a niche that needs to be represented.
It is important that, to stay alive, these projects gain a reasonable number of participants so that one or two users retiring does not completely halt its progress. Once formed, they still need to be able to respond to issues and tag articles relating to their subject. This means they should ensure their focus is not too narrow or too broad, the project's goals are clear, and the project receives adequate publicity.
So, this report will be profiling three newly founded projects to give them the exposure and, dare we say, kick start to ensure long-lived success.
Many Wikipedians have come across two certain categories: Wikipedia introduction cleanup and Pages missing lead section. There are maintenance tags for them available on Twinkle, and they are plastered atop many pages. But how many of us actually work specifically on improving and removing them? This is the question asked at the Teahouse by Tetra quark and DiscantX, who, despite only having been a Wikipedian for two months at the time, subsequently created this new maintenance project on January 18 this year. As many readers choose whether to read the remainder of an article based on its lead section, creating a project dedicated to lead improvement was definitely a good idea.
Noyster has shed some light on the project's goals, and how you can help:
Over 14,000 articles need their lede (or "lead") improving. More than 2,000 have no lede at all! The lede is the most-read part of any article. It is the introductory part that tells you briefly what the article is about, what it contains, and whether you want to read further. So improving ledes is one of the most important improvement tasks you can do. And anyone can do it—normally no research is needed, as the aim is to sum up the content already in the article itself.
A new WikiProject, WikiProject Lede Improvement Team, has been launched to bring together those who want to help with this work. Simple steps:
- Read this guidance about how the lede is normally written
- Mark yourself down as a participant on the WikiProject
- Pick any article from the Open task list and off you go!
Begun in late December, also by Tetra quark, this project already has around 16 members and looks as if it will continue to grow. Although one might think the subject is the territory of WikiProject Astronomy, founded back in 2006, any cosmologican (if that's the word) will be quick to tell you that this is less about the objects and places in the universe itself than the study of its actual existence, evolution, and eventual fate.
Cosmology also considers the physical forces and scientific laws at work around us, and indeed many of the projects highest-importance articles reflect this; articles such as Big Bang, dark energy, multiverse, blueshift and Hubble Bubble. Although most of the articles that come under this project have already been created, which might make some consider WP:Cosmology a latecomer with quite a few of its articles even at GA or FA status, there is still much to do. Their FAs (
) include general relativity, galaxy, redshift, formation and evolution of the Solar System and Cosmic Calendar.
The subject as a whole is actually pretty narrow, as only around 150 articles are marked with its banner at all. Many of them, though, are still at C, Start and even Stub class, so it goes without saying that there is still a whole lot of article improvement to do.
The smallest of the new projects featured so far, British Overseas Territories was formed back in November 2014 by Jaguar and so far, has acquired only two participants. Flying the Flag of the Falkland Islands with around 260 total articles within its realm, the project certainly seems as viable as any other geographically based project—except this one is spread throughout the world.
As with Cosmology, the articles in its scope were largely already created, and some had been improved to featured or good status, including British Empire (), Falkland Islands () and Hong Kong (
). The problem would seem to be that the newly-created project simply hasn't received enough exposure or publicity to gain the awareness of Wikipedians internationally who may have an interest in this area, whether that be historical or current territories. So, while they can look forward to getting their articles up to scratch and expanding their list of Featured pictures, here is a look at their recommended to-do list:
- Copyedit Hamilton, Bermuda
- Expand Plymouth, Montserrat and Grand Cayman
- Add infoboxes to articles here
- Reference British Antarctic Territory
It looks as if they may become as loaded with work as most other projects—and won't ever be finished.
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Whaler shipwreck at Grytviken, South Georgia
If you would like us to feature your underappreciated WikiProject in the Signpost with an interview, or you know of another that could use a bit more of a helping hand, contact us at the WikiProject desk. New ideas can be pitched at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals. You can browse previous reports in the archive.
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