Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/Newsroom/WikiProject desk/Old requests

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Early conversations

  • Is it ok to feature Task Forces in the WikiProject Report? Perhaps a "Task Force Roundup"?-- iBentalk/contribsIf you reply here, please place a talkback notification on my page. 03:31, 3 February 2010 (UTC)
Go for it! I did a "Where are they now?" a couple weeks ago, so there shouldn't be a problem with doing a roundup. -Mabeenot (talk) 05:54, 3 February 2010 (UTC)
Sounds good! I'll be looking around!-- iBentalk/contribsIf you reply here, please place a talkback notification on my page. 00:18, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
Sure, I have 2 slots.--iBentalk/contribsIf you reply here, please place a talkback notification on my page. 00:23, 6 February 2010 (UTC)
That's a great idea, I'll start thinking of some questions!! Belugaboy535136 contribs 00:04, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
Take a look at some of the previous interviews.-- iBen 01:58, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
I've got my Questions ready. Belugaboy535136 contribs 12:34, 12 February 2010 (UTC)
  • I'd like to start including a little section dedicated to news about WikiProjects either at the beginning or end of each report. It would be no more than a list like the "In the News" and "News and Notes" sections often include. This might allow us to have greater coverage and we can highlight weekly and monthly collaborations. What does everyone think about that? -Mabeenot (talk) 03:43, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
    That's a good idea. Stuff like which project is having elections, what the COTW is in selected wikiprojects, and other news that may be of general interest. I like it! --RegentsPark (talk) 03:51, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
  • I agree!--mono (talk) 00:21, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
  • April 12 is open if anyone would like to take it. There are a couple recommended projects in the notes section, but you are not obligated to do any of those. It is wide open. -Mabeenot (talk) 04:20, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

How about featuring tools that generally help maintain and improve WikiProjects? I've added some bots to Wikipedia:WikiProject_Council/Guide#Use_bots_to_save_work. I'm sure there are other ideas too. Rd232 talk 13:53, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

 Doing... I'll try to feature a bot in the news sidebar each week. We could probably devote an entire article to bots at a later date. -Mabeenot (talk) 05:44, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Suitable

Hi, I was wondering, what makes a WikiProject suitable for an interview? Cheers, Rock drum (talk·contribs·guestbook) 12:17, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

Typically, we like to interview active projects that have some notable achievements (FAs, FLs, GAs) and/or have a large number of active contributors. Sometimes we feature smaller projects that focus on an unusual subject matter or have an interesting history that would normally be overlooked. We've also done smaller components of large projects, like task forces and collaborations of the month/fortnight/week. Brand new projects usually don't have enough information to make a full article (sometimes there are exceptions), although we're happy to include new projects in our new WikiProject News sidebar. In addition, we've done a "where are they now?" article looking at how projects have fared after being highlighted in the Signpost and we're currently contemplating doing a feature on tools and bots that are available to help WikiProjects.
As to which projects get selected and when they run in the Signpost, it's ultimately up to the article's writer, although we try not to show any favoritism toward projects. Most articles are intend to bring positive attention to the work of a project and attract new contributors, although the project's dirty laundry sometimes creeps into the interviews. If you've got an idea for an article, don't hesitate to share in the space at the top of the page.
-Mabeenot (talk) 19:07, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

WikiProject revived

I would like to announce the revival of WP:WikiProject U2, as of last week. I am not familiar with Wikipedia Signpost, but I am posting a notice here as suggested in the WikiProject revival section. Thanks. –Dream out loud (talk) 01:02, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

checkY Roger that. I'll add a note in the news section. -Mabeenot (talk) 01:22, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

WikiProject Desk page layout

I appreciate the effort put into making charts to organize everything, but I don't think they're all necessary and in some cases the charts may scare away new suggestions and contributors simply because it makes our "process" look complex and rigid. As we saw earlier this week, sometimes our best-laid plans hit a bump and we need some flexibility. I do like the chart for the workspaces since it makes clear who's using which "room." I also like removing the talk page discussions from the main page since some people have confused that location with the sidebar suggestions. However, our old list of suggested project does its job nicely and still attracts new suggestions. Our old open-ended design allowed people to express the reasons we should focus on a particular project and we can tell from the contributor's signature how long that suggestion has been up there (which sometimes tells us how likely the project is still active). We also need to keep "scheduled" projects on the list because sometimes the project doesn't immediately respond or an interview needs to be put on hold for a while. If we kept the suggestion on the list, we can just remove the "scheduled" notice and leave it up there for a later attempt. -Mabeenot (talk) 09:15, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

I see your point. Perhaps we should have a "Request" feature and we can organize it into a table ourselves. --monoNational Pretzel Day 16:38, 28 April 2010 (UTC)
I still think you're putting a little too much into this. Notice how someone has already added WikiProject Microformats to the list but not to the chart. We wouldn't know the project was added without looking through the old requests frequently, which defeats the purpose of the chart. KISS principle. -Mabeenot (talk) 20:42, 28 April 2010 (UTC)
I totally agree. It's an almost comical mess of different tables, colours and collapsed sections. Not everything has to be tabled and colour-coded - don't get carried away. — Pretzels Hii! 01:12, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Okay to add WikiProject Essays?

Would like to add WikiProject Essays to the next available slot. They've done a LOT of work in the last four months. Any objections? ɳorɑfʈ Talk! 03:19, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Copied request to proper place. I'll see what I can do about getting it in either May 24 or May 31. -Mabeenot (talk) 04:31, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

WikiProject Malaysia

I added WikiProject Malaysia into the Sidebar news requests section. May I know when it'll be put up? BejinhanTalk 06:18, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

It will be in the next issue. -Mabeenot (talk) 07:30, 12 June 2010 (UTC)
Thanks BejinhanTalk 07:58, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Prospective Reporter

Hi, I'm quite interested in becoming a writer for the WikiProject Report. Could someone please show me the ropes and if possible, let me become a reporter? Thanks, Rock drum (talk·contribs·guestbook) 16:37, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Welcome aboard! Take a look at some of the reports in the archive from this year to get a feel for what our Reports look like. We have templates to set up the articles, and we have sandboxes where you can conduct interviews and prepare the article. Feel free to add yourself to the schedule in my empty spot on August 2. Pick a project to report and take a look to see if they're fairly active. You could pick any project, although we typically try to avoid projects that have already been done several times (see the archive) and we also avoid writing an article about a project with which the writer is currently active (which is why I'm not writing the WP Universities report and mono isn't writing the WP Apple report). Aside from that, just pick something that sounds interesting. Look at the Directory of WikiProjects or our requests page for ideas. Both mono and I can help you write questions, locate interviewees, and format everything. Feel free to ask us any questions. -Mabeenot (talk) 17:42, 21 June 2010 (UTC)
I'm going to be on holiday around that time; (from about a week before to about two weeks after - I think). Is this going to be a problem? Rock drum (talk·contribs·guestbook) 18:48, 21 June 2010 (UTC)
We may be able to squeeze you in sooner. Depending on how the interview with WP Animals goes, there may be an opening on July 19. That would be before your holiday, correct? -Mabeenot (talk) 15:24, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
Thanks, July 19 would be great. I've just chatted with mono on IRC and he said I could have August 22. What shall I do? Rock drum (talk·contribs·guestbook) 15:26, 25 June 2010 (UTC)
August 22 would be fine if you don't mind the wait. If you get the interview done earlier, we could publish it for you on August 2 or August 16 while you're on holiday. -Mabeenot (talk) 04:13, 26 June 2010 (UTC)
Do you have any suggestions as to how I could choose a project to interview? Cheers, Rock drum Ba-dumCrash 07:52, 27 June 2010 (UTC)
You can flip through the Directory of WikiProjects to see if something catches your eye. Just be sure to check the project's talk page history to see if there's been significant activity within the past couple month. You could also try one of the projects suggested here, particularly WP Horror, WP Algae, or WP Microformats. Some other interesting projects that come to my mind are WP History of Science and WP Internet culture. Just make sure there are active members to interview and enough good/featured content that the article feels worthwhile. -Mabeenot (talk) 03:05, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
I've just dropped WikiProject Aviation. I'll probably use workspace 3 for questioning. Cheers, Rock drum Ba-dumCrash 18:40, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

Wikiproject Suriname

As part of our government's strategy to use the internet more for information exchange, I've been asked to assist to bring the Suriname related Wikipedia sources up to standards. I therefore announce the revival of WP:WikiProject Suriname. I will all the help I can get :) Stretsh (talk) 21:21, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

Report idea

Guys, I've got an idea for a different ype of report. Some time in October, I would like to do a report on the WikiProject Wikify October Backlog elimination drive. but, unlike our other reports, I would not like to do interviews. Instead, I would like to do a 'Wikifier's eye view' if you will. I would like to talk about Wikfying articles, what the drive involves, how it goes etc... Would this be ok? Thanks, Rock drum Ba-dumCrash (Driving well?) 07:53, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

2 years

Thought I'd point out something I noticed while putting together this week's occasional "This week in history" section: the first WikiProject Report was published just over two years ago. It's truly come a long way, so congratulations to all of you! — Pretzels Hii! 01:02, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

Problem

Just so you guys know, Mono's retired and is scheduled for two more interviews. Derild4921☼ 15:17, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

His two articles are partially done already. I will complete them to run as scheduled. Regards -Mabeenot (talk) 06:17, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Series/WikiProject report and redux query

Has the redux been done before looking at your comment (mabeenot) for earlier this year? If so where?

Secondly, what is the orange highlighting in the archives meant to show? Simply south (talk) 00:54, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

The redux issue has not been started yet. This is basically a roundup of the previous year's reports, similar to the original Where are they now? feature. The orange highlighting in the archives shows projects that have been covered more than once, with the intention being that we try to reduce the amount of repeated coverage. What comment are you referring to? -Mabeenot (talk) 01:53, 7 December 2010 (UTC)
Top of this page. Oh and MOTD seems to be all over the place. Simply south (talk) 16:46, 7 December 2010 (UTC)
I'm still not sure which comment you're referring to (my comment at the top of the page was a conversation about iBen/Mono doing a report on a task force). According to the archive, we've only covered MOTD once (back in January 2009). I'm not really sure what you're trying to point out to me. -Mabeenot (talk) 21:38, 7 December 2010 (UTC)
Ignore MOTD, i was just giving an update on what was happening now but that might have been last year so never mind. Anyway, i was referring to the first three comments at the top. So yes between you and iBen. And i think i have confused topics so never mind. Simply south (talk) 16:15, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Reviving Wikipedia:WikiProject Music theory

Hello. Just leaving a note here, as per the instructions here [1] that I am reviving Wikipedia:WikiProject Music theory. Any suggestions/guidance is welcome. Thanks. BassHistory (talk) 10:13, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

I'll add it to next week's article. -Mabeenot (talk) 00:12, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Helping

Hi,
I am interested in the signpost, and in particular the WikiProject Desk. I was wondering, are there any ways in which I can help this section of the signpost?
Thanks,
Thomas888b (Say Hi) 20:46, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

There are plenty of ways you can help:
  • Collect news for the news sidebar by visiting lots of active projects. Check out the directory of WikiProjects for places to search. Add anything interesting you find to the list at the WikiProject desk.
  • If you'd like to write for the WikiProject Report, select an active project that hasn't been done before (check the archive) and with which you are not actively involved. Add yourself to an empty spot in the schedule and start writing questions in one of the workspaces linked on the WikiProject Desk. There are lots of suggested projects listed at the WikiProject Desk if you need help picking a project. I can help you recruit interviewees and format your interview.
  • If you're really feeling adventurous, try doing a special report on useful bots WikiProjects can use (here are some examples) or how people can revive inactive WikiProjects (this is a good starting place).
Let me know if you have any other ideas or if you have any questions. Thanks for offering to help! -Mabeenot (talk) 21:45, 7 February 2011 (UTC)
Thanks, I'll look around. If i do a special report, where do I put it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thomas888b (talk • contribs) 18:30, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Scheduling

We have about 3 months worth of articles scheduled right now. I'm concerned that we've gone a little overboard on scheduling things far ahead of time. This makes it difficult to move things around when articles have to be rescheduled or when projects are suggested that have a time-sensitive element like celebrating an anniversary or starting a drive. Plus, three months is a long time and we sometimes change our minds during that time, resulting in the project that was originally scheduled getting miffed that we unscheduled. We don't have to schedule a requested article immediately. The request is typically not going to go away anytime soon.

Last year, we kept the schedule at about a month-and-a-half to two months. For three active writers, two months gives everyone at least two articles scheduled at any given time. If we leave the current schedule as it is until we've knocked off a month, I feel we'd be back to a more flexible schedule. What do you think? -Mabeenot (talk) 20:39, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Project statistics

Generally it is lots more fun creating new things rather than polishing existing reports. Here are some ideas for numbers that might be interesting:

  • Gender statistics
  • Fair use media used by Project pages as a percentage of all fair use media
  • Reversion rates (limited)
  • Article traffic
  • Geolocating IP editors
  • Time of day activity plots
  • Plots of history tab, e.g. When were the most Photos uploaded?
  • When articles were featured on the Main Page

You can suggest other ideas and I'll look at the feasibility of them. Please keep in mind if I actually do a report that the setup and integrity verification usually take at least an hour to do. Infographics take 4-20 hours depending on how much digging and cleansing is required. — Dispenser 17:38, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Are you offering to provide us with statistics on WikiProjects? If so, that's awesome! We'll take whatever you can get. The few stats we already have access to are available here. In addition to the things you've listed above, we'd probably be interested in knowing which projects have the most members, most sub-pages, rankings of projects based on number of articles in the various class ratings (projects with the most FAs, GAs, etc.), percentage of projects that use the importance rating, percentage of edits to the project's talk page that are from members versus non-members, projects with the most admins as members, projects with the highest average article traffic, and projects listed by age (first edit to their main project page). -Mabeenot (talk) 03:03, 24 June 2011 (UTC)
Self-maintained member lists are notoriously unreliable (Try useractivity). I was looking to clustering analysis to create lists from editing patterns, but its still a long ways off. I've tried it with simpler methods and they were not satisfactory. I'm not really looking to make "general WikiProject statistics", but more of the creative never have to revisit nor validate stuff. Like showing the impact of an outreach effort or creating a cartogram of WP United States. — Dispenser 14:22, 24 June 2011 (UTC)
I see what you're talking about now. A cartogram or any other graphics for WPUS would definitely be nice since we're planning on featuring that project on July 4th. As to outreach efforts, the Guild of Copyeditors and WikiProject Wikify hold bimonthly backlog drives during which they collect detailed info on who participated and which articles they edited (it's not perfect, but its better than outdated member lists). If you picked a drive or two, you might be able to create some interesting productivity charts, time of day activity plots, number of crossover editors between the two types of drives, or other analysis. Personally, I'd really like a ranking of the fifty oldest projects by first edit to their main project page for a future article I'm working on. Do whatever suits your fancy and we'll try to incorporate it into a future report. -Mabeenot (talk) 21:55, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

WP New Zealand interview

Hello SMasters, the WPNZ interview is coming along quite nicely. Well done! I wonder whether there's room for a photo of a Christchurch heritage building? There's some stunning photos available of heritage buildings that have been pulled down, e.g. The Civic or The Press Building. If it has to replace something, maybe the Wellington one? Let me know what you think. Schwede66 06:15, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

OK, I will replace one or two of those pictures, as I also thought of including a Featured sound file as well. Thanks for the suggestion! --SMasters (talk) 09:19, 30 September 2011 (UTC)
Thanks for being so accommodating! Schwede66 10:29, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

This talk page

To aid us in collecting WikiProject news, I'm going to subscribe this talk page to the few active WikiProject newsletters that are published on a regular basis. I've also set up archiving, so the older stuff on this page will be kept safe. -Mabeenot (talk) 17:24, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

There is no way to get Edwardsbot to deliver here, as it only looks at User/User talk: links (I tried redirecting a user page to here and that did not work either). I could add The Bugle here manually though? Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 18:49, 30 October 2011 (UTC)
That would be much appreciated. -Mabeenot (talk) 19:12, 30 October 2011 (UTC)
Alright. Would you like to personally subscribe to it in case I forget? Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 00:04, 31 October 2011 (UTC)
I may have found an alternative: User talk:NEWSLETTERS MAILBOX -Mabeenot (talk) 06:59, 21 November 2011 (UTC)

Signpost's feature

I would really love a TOC in the articles. Especially on social networks, I really need to point to a specific piece of news instead of the whole page. --Elitre (talk) 12:51, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Economics

I stated strong opinions to spur debate, as I did in the mathematics interview last Spring. As in the previous interview, I may edit my responses to conform better to my meek, mild, moderate, personality.  Kiefer.Wolfowitz 12:43, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

Ok. Please decide on your final wording and tone by next Saturday so we'll have time to format the article for the December 19 publishing date. -Mabeenot (talk) 16:55, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

January 2012 Newsletter for WikiProject United States and supported projects

The January 2012 issue of the WikiProject United States newsletter has been published. You may read the newsletter, change the format in which future issues will be delivered to you, or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Thank you.

 
--Kumioko (talk) 18:12, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Writing contest: Teylers Challenge

I think this project might be interesting to write about in the Signpost, see: Wikipedia:GLAM/Teylers/Multilingual Challenge and announcement writing contest. Romaine (talk) 20:43, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

Greetings

I am interested in contributing to the Signpost as an editor. If a regular contributor would be willing to guide me to productivity, I would remain appreciative. Thank you. My76Strat (talk) 00:15, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

The invitation

I would be happy to work with you, I'm just a little disappointed because none of the WikiProjectAthletics deigned to support the candidacy of Portal:Athletics, despite my requests, among the Featured portal candidacy. You still have time to do it. ;-) --Kasper2006 (talk) 06:26, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

WikiProject Fungi

The Mycological Society of America are considering how to contribute their expertise to a collaborative curation of mycological knowledge. Contributing to Wikipedia is one of the options on the table, and I will be giving a talk about that on July 14 (remotely from Wikimania) during a MSA meeting on the matter. Do you see any possibility of covering WP:FUNGI before that? Doing it shortly thereafter could also work to provide additional momentum after the meeting. -- Daniel Mietchen - WiR/OS (talk) 14:44, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

I've responded on your talk page and copied your note to the WikiProject Report's requests section. We can include WikiProject Fungi in the news sidebar immediately but it may be a while before we have an opening for a full-blown interview. -Mabeenot (talk) 02:17, 21 June 2012 (UTC)
OK, thanks. I'll try to get MSA involved in drafting the questions for that full-blown one then. -- Daniel Mietchen - WiR/OS (talk) 05:29, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

Another language

  • After the success of our interviews with Czech and French WikiProjects, I'd like to fit in one more of these special reports before the end of the year. I'm looking for someone who can read and write in either Japanese or Spanish. You'll help write the questions and translate as necessary. Experience working with folks at the language-specific Wikipedia would be a plus. Like the French interview, you'll be included in the byline. Anyone interested? -Mabeenot (talk) 20:39, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
well, i can help out with working relationship contacts to both es and ja.wp. the question is what in concrete terms you are looking fow, please send me an email :), regards --Jan eissfeldt (talk) 11:54, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Broader topics

  • I realize this might be considered dubious. But while I like the idea of "WikiProject of the Week" and such, I think that in some cases this degree of focus on sometimes quite limited subjects in a sense might draw attention away from broader topics. I was wondering what the individuals involved here would think of maybe, possibly in collaboration with the major WikiProjects in a given area, maybe having some sort of "Topic of the Week" feature. Maybe doing a breakdown of content into, perhaps, 10 broad areas of knowledge, like the Dewey Decimal system "hundreds," and having one of those topics included as a feature on an alternating basis in the Signpost might get a bit more input in some discussions. Alternately, maybe breaking content down into the 10 "categories" used by WP:1.0 might be better. Maybe, and this is just a maybe, a section of the Signpost dealing with some such groupings might include some sort of "contest" relating some of some of the core content on the topic, maybe an interview with a leading editor in that topic, maybe some information on recent developments in the field and how content related to it could change, that sort of thing. Granted, it is not the best idea, but I think it might be useful if it could be done. Any comments? John Carter (talk) 14:41, 23 August 2012 (UTC)
I had a similar idea (never followed through with it) where we'd ask a leading editor in a topic to author a short but interesting essay on a topic they researched for Wikipedia. In practice, I was hoping it'd be similar to the New York Times' Disunion, except that it'd draw content from more than just the American Civil War or even history in general. I suppose that this idea when compared to your is very narrow; you would bring in WP related matters. Still, if we left that out, we could certainly merge the two – such a section could encompass both essays from past stories and developments, say, in historiography that are relevant to editors active in (in this case) history. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 23:44, 23 August 2012 (UTC)
An essay section sounds interesting. Choosing a "leading editor" might cause some arguments and bruised egos, but the Signpost would be better for it. I'd be nice to have some more regular features or columns to run along side the "hard news". As to John Carter's original point, if you just want to try running some topic-specific articles on WikiProjects instead of the usual "interview with a WikiProject" format, we do run a few "specials" in the WikiProject Report each year that branch off from the usual track. In the past we've looked at reviving dead projects, customizing project banners, designing logos, and how foreign language WikiProjects in Czech and French compare to those on the English Wikipedia. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to run a special on something like "the WikiProjects of the social sciences" or the humanities or geography, etc. It could be a cross-project interview, some descriptive material, or even an essay about which projects are strongest and which need help. Let me know if this sort of thing interests you. -Mabeenot (talk) 20:59, 24 August 2012 (UTC)
At a minimal-end, it could be easy to include a weekly bullet-point in the "WikiProject news - News in brief" sidebar, pointing towards whichever of the Core topics lists/projects is the most up-to-date, every week, like the backlog-drives that are often mentioned; eg. "Join the Core 150/Vital 1110 articles project, working towards GA+ for all of these essential topics". Or something. -- Quiddity (talk) 22:02, 24 August 2012 (UTC)
The essay idea sounds like it could be both useful and helpful, and also, maybe, help stimulate similar actions in others. I also think if it could be done Mabeenot's idea would be great. Particularly the idea of maybe some sort of cross-project interview, and maybe on both the "academic" topics and, perhaps, continents and the like. I've seen comparative lack of interest in the broad "philosophy" field, which could use help, and in some of the less-populous and less-English-speaking parts of the world, like Africa, Oceania, South America, and the like. If we were to have any columns on either topic, maybe finding the editors might be a problem once in a while, but otherwise possibly very useful. Blofeld might be able to help in some. Quiddity's idea would work too. Personally, about all I could contribute in would probably be the religion/philosophy area, given the basic focus of my recent activity, but I might be able to help find editors in other fields. John Carter (talk) 22:31, 24 August 2012 (UTC)
These are all excellent ideas! Philosophy would be an interesting subject to touch on, as long as it relates to an audience that lacks training in that subject. ;-) For the essays, I think will go to User:Parsecboy first, as he's the closest thing to an academic historian I recognize near the top of WP:WBFAN, and his piece will provide some of the pattern for the following essays. There are many other potential good stories near the top of that list too – Awadewit, Malleus, etc. could all be good. WBFAN isn't a requirement though. I'll have to go through WikiProjects and article lists for editors in non-European/North American areas.
For the WikiProject report, I love the ideas here and I hope they happen, but I don't want to barge into Mabeenot's specialty. :-) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 06:05, 25 August 2012 (UTC)
An update for this thread: I've scheduled a special for the WikiProject Report on neglected geographic regions, countries, cites, etc. to be published on October 22. If anyone has some ideas they'd like to share, I'm collecting potential discussions and resources for the article here. -Mabeenot (talk) 20:44, 30 September 2012 (UTC)

WP:CBB merge to Sidebar here

I've suggested, as part of the current Community Portal overhaul, that the "Notices", "WikiProjects", and other top-left sections, that are listing currently/historically in the Template:Announcements/Community bulletin board should be migrated completely to here. (It's been very sporadically updated for many months now, with only 1 or 2 new wikiprojects/taskforce notices/portals each month).

You (sidebar) are already handling taskforce notices/backlog drives, and new WikiProject announcements - So I assume no one would object if we migrated those aspects to here. (?)

But what about Portals - would you be interested in new portals (completed only, not in-development stage) being submitted for inclusion in the sidebar? If not, we can just direct them to Wikipedia:Portal/Directory and Portal:Contents/Portals as the sole locations to note a "new portal" (as well as related WikiProjects, of course).

Thanks. —Quiddity (talk) 02:10, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

I actually check the community portal periodically for news to add to the sidebar. What you've proposed would definitely save me some time. I've found some good stuff through the community portal, along with a few halfbaked projects and some portals that weren't ready for primetime. I'm fine with incorporating the WikiProject and portal sections of the community portal with the sidebar as long as we have some kind of notice that we'll exercise editorial oversight of submissions published in the Signpost. -Mabeenot (talk) 04:35, 3 October 2012 (UTC)
Done. I've added instructions in a tmbox at the top of Template:Announcements/Community bulletin board, and in a code-comment in the community portal itself. Please tweak freely, if needed. Thanks again. —Quiddity (talk) 00:51, 8 October 2012 (UTC)

Ask the WikiProject Report

Sample questions from the WikiProject Council's FAQ:

  • What's a WikiProject?
  • How many WikiProjects are there?
  • What's the biggest WikiProject?
  • Which WikiProject has tagged the most articles as being within their scope?
  • Who gets to decide whether a WikiProject is permitted to tag an article?

–Mabeenot (talk) 05:30, 5 November 2012 (UTC) Hi,

I am an editor who is really ignorant about how wikiprojects are supposed to work, how they get started, how to go about joining them (and actually contributing) etc etc. As an example here are some things I have not yet figured out:

  • Is each wikiproject supposed to assess its own articles, or can assessments be done by anyone?
  • Where can wikipedians interested in learning more about assessments find info?
  • Where can they ask (stupid) questions?
  • How are articles added to a wikiproject?
  • Some wikiprojects provide a wikiproject Watchlist and some do not. Why? Ottawahitech (talk) 19:37, 2 November 2012 (UTC)
  • Under what circumstances are wikiprojects deleted from wikipedia rather than marked "historical"?
  • How are Wikipedians notified that a proposal to delete a wikiproject is underway at wp:MFD? Ottawahitech (talk) 14:40, 6 November 2012 (UTC)
  • Is there a standard definition of a "successful Wikiproject"?
  • Is there a success formula for Wikiprojects to follow?
  • What is the minimum amount of articles a Wikiproject must maintain?
  • What is the smallest Wikiproject on Wikipedia?--Lionratz (talk) 04:33, 9 November 2012 (UTC)
  • Is there a recommended standard for projects to display their scope?
  • Proposed deletions within scope: Some wikiprojects display all articles within their scope that are currently proposed for deletion, some display some proposed deletions but not all, and some do not display them at all. Where can wikiproject participants get help on setting up such a section on their project that will display all the articles/categories/templates/file/descendent wikiprojects within their scope that are in danger of deletion?
  • Is there a list of tools specific for w-projects such as this one for example: Wikipedia:Village_pump_(miscellaneous)#Most_active_editors Ottawahitech (talk) 19:59, 15 November 2012 (UTC)


Many of your questions are answered in Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Guide, Wikipedia:WikiProject Council and pages that they link to. I was intrigued by your question, "what is the smallest Wikiproject on Wikipedia?" There is a [All project index] that tabulates the number of articles that have been tagged by each WikiProject. Several projects have not tagged a single article. RockMagnetist (talk) 16:42, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

From an archived discussion at WikiProject Council:

What's the difference between a sister WikiProject and a related WikiProject? Emmette Hernandez Coleman (talk) 11:26, 27 September 2012 (UTC)
People tend to use them interchangeably, but I'd suggest that "related WikiProjects" is a broader term than "sister WikiProjects." In my mind, "sister projects" would be like grouping WikiProject Pittsburgh and WikiProject Philadelphia, while "related projects" would also include their parent projects (WikiProject Cities and WikiProject Pennsylvania in this case), any subprojects or task forces (WikiProject Pittsburgh Steelers comes to mind), and other geographically or culturally related projects (WikiProject Appalachia). One confusing bit about the term "sister projects" is that it has also been used to compare different wikis or language Wikipedias (i.e. Wikisource, Wikinews, English Wikipedia, German Wikipedia, etc.) which is evidenced by the Signpost's defunct sister projects column. -Mabeenot (talk) 18:38, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
Terms like "sister", "daughter" and "parent" also tend to be related to the organization of WikiProjects into categories. RockMagnetist (talk) 19:31, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

From another archived discussion:

At the recent London Meetup, one topic of conversation was that projects frequently seem to be dormant and contain editors who don't appear to have contributed in years. Wikipedia:WikiProject Pink Floyd has a policy that if you don't edit a related article on the project for six months, you get taken off the list. I like this as a policy, as did several others at the meetup, as it's obvious then who active project members are and who's worth contacting, before you waste time trying to talk to someone who last edited in 2007. Do any other projects have this policy, and if not, why not? --Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 10:37, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
That's one way to do it, but it's somewhat confrontational in that you're assuming a person doesn't care about the project. I could choose not to edit video gaming articles yet desire to be part of the project because I happen to enjoy reading the discussion that takes place on the talk page. That doesn't necessarily mean I would even edit the talk page. --Izno (talk) 16:24, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
Every couple of years, WPMED goes through its list and moves people who haven't edited at all (any page, regardless of subject) to the inactive list. I think that we usually leave a note on the user talk page inviting the person to become active again if they want (because what we really want is for them to be active, not to have the shortest possible list).
I think that most groups don't bother with membership list maintenance because it's tedious and time-consuming. I'd like to have a bot or script for doing it, but so far everyone seems to do it all by hand. WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:53, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
Ever project should decide what is considered an active user. Ever so often I use this tool to .. fix renames - hide indef blocked users and remove inactive users (i set it for a year) etc on the projects I am active with - i.e of outcome seen HERE.Moxy (talk) 22:36, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
  • Will cleaners remove |class= and |importance= parameters of banners of WikiProjects without ratings. i.e., if I add |class=stub for a WikiProject banner inside a talkpage but the banner doesn't have that parameter at present, will it get removed?···Vanischenu (alt) 06:49, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Unaffiliated editors

I realize most of the proposals in the past few weeks have been WikiProject-related, but I have yet another idea to brainstorm for a special issue of the WikiProject Report. I recently received a compliment from an editor who has enjoyed reading the WikiProject Report. When I engaged him in further conversation, he mentioned that he hasn't found an active project that interests him and to which he feels he can make a worthwhile contribution. I've been familiar with WikiProjects complaining that they can't find new members, but it never dawned on me that there are restless editors out there roaming aimlessly without a project to call "home". Is there any way we could turn this into an article? Would it be interesting to focus on unaffiliated editors for a special WikiProject Report? Or maybe try to match-up editors with projects? Any ideas? –Mabeenot (talk) 05:50, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

Heh, like a dating service? ;-) Unaffiliated editors could certainly make for an interesting report, if they aren't new or full of conspiracy theories... good luck finding them though, because as far as I know, there's no central page for those editors! Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 04:59, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
Why not? Sven Manguard Wha? 21:32, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
That's not exactly something I can answer? Although it would be bit silly to have a WikiProject No WikiProject. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 22:25, 19 October 2012 (UTC) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 22:25, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
WikiProject WikiProject Matchmaking? Sven Manguard Wha? 19:48, 20 October 2012 (UTC)
@Mabeenot:@Ed:@Sven Manguard: I am an editor who has been trying for a long time to find a WikiProject to call home, and I think I am not alone. If you check contributions of a few editors who have signed up for a wikiproject, you will soon discover that many of them do not contribute. Some continue to edit wikipedia, but many others simply disappear. Just wondering how others here feel about this issue? XOttawahitech (talk) 19:33, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

Using BOTs to populate assessment tables

To my surprise I find that most do not know how to utilize BOTs to tag articles related to the project. Actually it appears many don't even know how to traverse categories when looking for articles related to their project. An article about this topic would be great, since once articles are tagged they can be set up with automatic alerts to get the attention of project members when they are nominated for deletion/move/featured etc. XOttawahitech (talk) 15:55, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

HOPAU

Filling in the questionnaire on the Military History project, I was wondering if the Signpost could shine a similar spotlight on the History of the Paralympic movement in Australia Project? Hawkeye7 (talk) 02:57, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

Suggestion for project report - Commons

Seeing how often negative views (justified or not) are voiced about Commons, it may be worthwhile to dedicate a project report of some kind to their work. I know, it's not strictly an en-Wiki project, but has some close connections on all image-related issues. I do not consider myself a Commons regular, but maybe such a project report would 1) be of interest for many en-Wiki readers 2) help to clear up internal Commons processes and possible misperceptions about this sister project. Some of the "standard" project questions would need to be rephrased, but the usual report layout could work. GermanJoe (talk) 18:45, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

If you wish to develop this further, you might like to think about what things to talk about in the report, what questions to ask and perhaps some Commons users to speak to. I don't quite have time to set it up myself. Rcsprinter123 (post) @ 20:27, 7 December 2014 (UTC)
I can do that at a later point in time (currently I am also a bit busy with other stuff). I was just trying to figure out, if it's a suitable idea of interest first. GermanJoe (talk) 20:30, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

WikiProject Microsoft?

What happened here? I just noticed that WikiProject Microsoft has not been featured yet (even though my request went through and got approved even interviewed) and has been removed from the schedule completly! This is completly unaceptable! I expect more from a project of such splendour (A.K.A the Signpost!). Please resolve this issue as soon as is possible, I am fully aware of the holiday rush, but again, please resolve this as soon as possible.
STJMLCC (talk) 16:24, 31 December 2014 (UTC)

@STJMLCC: The article was published on Christmas Eve and is in The Signpost's current issue right now. Chris Troutman (talk) 17:12, 31 December 2014 (UTC)
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