Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Backlog elimination drives/May 2010/Newsletter 6-1

Thanks very much to all who helped with the Guild of Copy Editors Backlog Elimination Drive. We were very close to meeting our target of 7,500 articles remaining in the backlog. Our most shining success is the incredible reduction in the backlog of Special Requests. That part of the project saw a drop from 62 articles in the queue, some dating back to February of 2009, down to a stunning THREE, all of which were being edited at the close of the drive. The Special Requests page will now be a great resource for people looking to tidy up their article in advance of a GA or FA nomination, instead of a place where articles go to die.

Moving forward

The drive has not only forced a great leap forward in reducing the backlog. It has helped promote the Guild, and led to a greater awareness of the level of vigilance required to keep the backlog manageable. Ideas such as charts, graphs, and barnstars helped motivate editors, and meeting other users helped quell any feelings gnomish editors may have had in the past that they were toiling all alone. Keep up the good work people!!

Stats

Almost everyone who participated will receive a barnstar. We will be handing these out over the next week or so.

Five people will receive the highest award for word count (80,000 or more), the Most Excellent Order of the Caretaker's Star: Bullock, Diannaa, NielsenGW, S Masters, and Torchiest.
The Order of the Superior Scribe (40,000+) goes to Auntieruth55, Bobnorwal, Kojozone, Lfstevens, and Mlpearc.
fds wins the Modern Guild of Copy Editors Barnstar (30,000+).
The Old School League of Copyeditors Barnstar for 20,000+ is awarded to A. Parrot, mono, Truthkeeper88, and The Utahraptor.
the Tireless Conributor Barnstar (12,000+) goes to dtgriffith, Laurinavicius, and Quinxorin.
Buggie111, Brickie, cymru lass, liquidluck, noraft, and Yellow Monkey get the Cleanup Barnstar for 8,000+ words.
The Working Man's Barnstar for 4,000+ words goes to Annalise and fetchcomms.
The Modest Barnstar is awarded to Theo10011 and The Tito.

Gold Star Award

The Gold Star Award goes to the top editor in three challenges: Number of special requests fulfilled, number of articles edited, and number of words. Here are the final results.

**Final results: Gold Star Award:**
	Requests	Articles	Words
1.	SMasters (17)	Torchiest (250)	NielsenGW (150,360)
2.	Bobnorwal (13)	Diannaa (212)	Diannaa (136,200)
3.	Bullock (9)	kojozone (76)	Torchiest (125,000)

Coordinator: ɳorɑfʈ^Talk! Co-coordinators: Diannaa ^TALK and S Masters (talk)