Wikipedia:Take the lead!
Take the lead! is a short, intensive contest focusing on creating or improving the lead sections of articles across Wikipedia. Prizes in the form of electronic store vouchers will be awarded. The contest was run from November 1 to 30, 2021, with entries posted at Wikipedia:Take the lead!/Entries (deadline for posting 23:59 UTC 3 December). Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 12:29, 1 December 2021 (UTC)
Background[edit]
Many articles on the English Wikipedia have deficient or poorly written leads that do not summarise the article or present the information in an engaging manner. With increased mobile phone usage, this is becoming more of an issue, because mobile interfaces often show the lead alone, with other sections collapsed. And more often than not, readers on mobile phones only read the lead section, without looking at further sections.
.png){kind=link}
Previous attempts to improve leads include WikiProject Introductions from November 2005 (revived briefly in 2007), WikiProject Lead section cleanup (November 2007) and WikiProject Lede Improvement Team (January 2015). With almost 600 pages missing a lead and many more needing intro cleanup—and they're just the ones that are tagged—this will be interesting.
Rules[edit]
The aim of the contest is to encourage a short, sharp burst of activity, with each entrant selecting a bunch of articles lacking adequate leads to expand.
- The contest took place over one month from 00:01 UTC on 1 November, during which time an editor or editors knuckle down and improve as many articles as possible, and submit diffs of their work at Wikipedia:Take the lead!/Entries.
- The deadline for editing was 23:59 UTC on 30 November, and all entries have to be submitted to the contest by 23:59 UTC three days later (3 December) to be included in the final count.
Selecting articles[edit]
Editors can enter as many articles as they like. If in doubt, ask one of the judges whether a particular article qualifies. The aim is to improve article lead sections by (re-)writing and/or adjusting them to comply with our lead guidelines. Any article can be selected that either:
- lacks a lead section entirely
- has a lead section of only one or two sentences
- has a lead section that is not short but focuses in detail on only one aspect of the subject to the exclusion of other salient points.
These articles may or may not be already tagged as too short or needing attention. See:
Lead parameters[edit]
The lead section should briefly summarize the most important points covered in an article in such a way that it can stand on its own as a concise version of the article. The reason for a topic's noteworthiness should be established, or at least introduced. The aim is to produce accessible and engaging text for our readers.
A rough guide to lead size is:
| Article length | Lead length |
|---|---|
| Fewer than 15,000 characters | One or two paragraphs |
| 15,000–30,000 characters | Two or three paragraphs |
| More than 30,000 characters | Three or four paragraphs |
Scoring and prizes[edit]
The judges will select the best-written and most engaging lead for one prize, with all other eligible entries going in a pool for lucky dip prizes (i.e. they are not ranked as such, but only deemed eligible or not) The prize pool consists of £200 in Amazon vouchers that have been donated by Wikimedia UK via their Microgrants Project (as with the Core Contest and Stub Contest) – £25 for the best lead we have read, and £25 each for seven lucky-dip winners. All qualifying entries will be placed in a pool per the last Stub Contest. Once an entrant has won one lucky dip prize, they and their entries are removed from the pool. Hence more entries means a greater chance of winning a lucky dip prize but only one can be won by any contestant.