Community bulletin board

2011-03-14 News and notes: Foundation reports editor trends, technology plans and communication changes; brief news In the news: Paying US$1,000 to correct a Wikipedia error; brief news Features and admins: The best of the week Arbitration report: New case on AE sanction handling; AUSC candidates; proposed decision in Kehrli 2 and Monty Hall problem Technology report: Left-aligned edit links and bugfixes abound; brief news About·Archives·Single-page·Newsroom·Suggestions Centralized discussion Proposal to set a mandatory term limit on administrators. Invitation to comment on candidates who have volunteered to serve on the Audit Subcommittee Ongoing RFCs regarding new users creating new articles; CSD criteria for new articles; being templated; socialising on WP; and being welcomed. Discussion to improve the general In the News criteria for the main page. Discussion: When a search title relates to two or more articles should readers be taken to the most likely article they are looking for or the most educational? Proposal to promote Notability (video games) to a Subject Notability Guideline. BLP public documents discussion on the proper use of legal filings Phase 2 of RfC on the future of pending changes

Notices

• WikiProject Wikify is hosting a mini drive to eliminate all articles from the 2008 backlog. A brand new award will be given to the first place Wikifier!
• The Military history WikiProject is hosting a month-long backlog reduction drive to reduce the number of military history articles needing attention. All editors are encouraged to participate!

Project pages seeking contributors

Discussions

Discussions in the following areas have requested wider attention:

Help out

Wikipedia is, by number of articles, the largest encyclopedia ever to exist. However, many articles are stubs, or otherwise need attention. If you like, go ahead, be bold, and jump right in. If you are not ready to fly solo, you can participate in a Collaboration.

Things to do

General tasks

• Patrol new pages and help improve new articles.
• Category:Wikipedia backlog always needs attention.
• Assess articles by quality or by importance—pick a topic of interest and grade according to that WikiProject's scale. (See links from article talk pages.)
• Adopt a basic topic list (Outline), to help develop and maintain a table of contents to a major subject on Wikipedia.
• Let SuggestBot suggest pages for you to improve.
• Update pages with old (ref or note template) citations to the new references format.
• Do you have a historical perspective? Articles slanted towards recent events might need to be looked at with a new eye.

Commenting

• Respond to a request for comment or Wikiquette alert, or provide a third opinion.
• Give a requested editor review.
• Peer review or give feedback on some articles.
• Comment at Featured portal candidates and Portals at peer review.
• Make recommendations on articles listed at Good article reassessment.
• Respond to the Reward board or Bounty board.

Special skills

• Can you draw or take pictures? Make a requested image.
• Are you good at photo editing? Then try cleaning up some of these images, or helping out at the Graphics Lab.
• Can you use GIS tools? Help make requested maps.
• Can you communicate in another language? There are articles that need translation into English. You can also proofread a translation.

Fix-up projects

Open tasks

Here are some tasks you can do:

• Wikify: Canton of Beaumetz-lès-Loges, World Challenge Expeditions, Holistic health, Alfred E. Hunt, The Visit, More...
• Orphans: Waliur Rahman Bhuiyan, Kaithaparampu, Peter Mayhew (biologist), Published Price to Dealer, Campmor, More...
• Copyedit: Nadir Ali Khan, Railway electrification in Great Britain, C.I.D. (TV series), Minimum description length, Mountain's Edge, Nevada, More...
• Update: Ginger Snaps (film), McMillan Academy of Law, Keegan-Michael Key, Kazaa, BARD Offshore 1, More...
• Style: Anthiyur, Garnet Crow, Pretty Good Dance Moves, Luisa Tetrazzini, Steve Morse, More...
• Translation: Repanidi, Raúl de Ramón, Leopold Blauensteiner, Gare de Pont-Rémy, Gare de Tricot, More...
• Cleanup: Mercedes-Benz R-Class, Modernity, W.F. Young, Inc., World Jump Day, Tulane University Law School, More...
• Verify: Global warming potential, Economy of Sweden, Steve England, Wiccan morality, Virginia Hotel, More...
• Neutrality: Salman Saad Al Khadi Mohammed, Hezbollah, Marc Ford, Golden Key International Honour Society, Northpine Christian College, More...
• Original research: Intelligent Collaboration Transparency, Texas country music, Ontology double articulation, Victor Mancha, Bumper canards, More...
• Merge: Lindale Mill, Lindale, Georgia, Primitive Advent Christian Church, Index of Economic Freedom 2003–2006, Gwynedd, More...
• Split: Field day (agriculture), Waipoua River, Waipapa River, Waiorongomai River, Wainui River, More...
• Stubs: Battle of Polonka, Olena Pakholchyk, Outcast (Michelle Paver novel), On the Oceans of Eternity, Morgan Knabe, More...
• Expand: 11th (Northern) Division, Soda Pop-Rip Off, Nils Liedholm, Next Big Thing, Olivier Coipel, More...
• Article Incubator: Fandangle, Vijai S. Shankar, Unreferenced BLPs/Andy Dannatt, Unreferenced BLPs/Athletes/Basil Richards, Elisabeth Ribbans, More...
• Article deletion discussions: Taskforce-Notability, Log/Yesterday, Europe, Deletion sorting, Arts and entertainment, More...
• Article Requests: Tourism in Ecuador, Jan-Erik Lundquist, Flora of Hawaii, Adamantine drill, Banking in Egypt, More...
• Image Requests: Northern river shark, Hong Kong Camellia, Octofone, Munchy box, New England Boy Scouts, More...
• Mediation Cabal: History of ancient Israel and Judah, Senkaku Islands, Seven Laws of Noah, Kendrick mass, File 18, Adding Redlinks, Time capsule, Christian apologetics, Albanian nationalism, jimbrossard, Blue Water Navy Humble Indie Bundle or Help mediate an open case!

Not sure where to report a certain type of problem with article content? If it exists, it is probably listed at Wikipedia:Maintenance.

Purge the cache of the list above

Collaborations

To improve the quality of articles that are short or lacking in detail, Wikipedia's community organizes collaborations to expand articles.

Collaborations by topic

Other collaborations

Active improvement teams

• Countering systemic bias
• Version 1.0
• Spam fighting team
• Categorization projects
• Spotlight

WikiProjects

WikiProjects are ongoing team efforts to improve articles having to do with a particular subject, and to manage the logistics of that topic. Hundreds exist—examine the master list to find one that interests you.

Language translation

Wikipedia is not just in English. Versions exist in many different languages. To fill in some of the English Wikipedia's gaps, we translate articles from other languages into English. You can view a list of articles that need translation from any language, or, in a few cases, by only one language (this is only available for the more popular languages).

Guidelines, help & resources

Wikipedia has many help pages, policies, and departments. Here are some of the most general. For a comprehensive list of Wikipedia's departments, see the Wikipedia department directory.

Help

• Wikipedia help contents – Browse help pages
• Help desk
• Where to ask questions

Editing

• The Manual of Style guidelines and tutorial
• How to edit a page
• Contributing
• How to write a great article
• A list of free online resources for research
• A list of template messages
• What special pages are
• Tools for editing
• Request newspapers or magazines

Policies and guidelines

Wikipedia has many established policies, guidelines, conventions, and traditions. This is a very brief sampling of some of the most important; for more information, see the main policies and guidelines page. Policies and guidelines apply to both articles and how to work with fellow editors. For easy access, the shortcuts to the pages are also listed.

Article standards

Working with others

Resources

New user information

Introduction · Sandbox · Help · Adoption · What Wikipedia is not · Glossary · Account benefits · Planning school assignments · New contributors' help page · FAQ

Ways to communicate

Contact (overview) · Discussion pages · Mailing lists · IRC chat · Meetups · User pages · Requests for comment · Public watchlists · Regional notice boards · Administrators' noticeboard · Requests for article feedback · Local Embassy

Community support groups and programs

Welcoming committee · Editor assistance · Wiki-adoption · Birthday Committee · Harmonious editing club · Wikipedia awards program · Dept. of Fun · Missing encyclopedic articles

Common procedures

Featured content · Good articles · Requests for feedback · Deleting a page (full policy) · Moving a page (naming policies) · Protecting a page (full policy) · Reverting a page · Administrator nominations (summaries) · Category-based access

How to resolve conflicts

Stay cool! · Be nice to newcomers · Alert others · Dispute resolution · Arbitration policy

Community information

About Wikipedia · Goings-on · About Wikimedia · Wikipedians · Wiki-adoption · Donations · Merchandise · Administrators · Babel · Culture · Games · Humor · Mottoes

Related communities

Tip of the day

Have you ever added an example image to a page, only to have it removed and receive a warning? Here's a solution. If you want to test some unfamiliar wiki-markup, or practice image placement, head to the Sandbox, where you can test to your heart's delight (or you can create your own sandbox for more demanding tests).

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