Community bulletin board

2010-03-29 News and notes: Usability rollout, downtime, admin phishing, Wikimania scholarships and more In the news: Overdue correction, Critical Point of View conference, brief headlines Sister projects: A handful of happenings WikiProject report: The WikiProject Bulletin: news roundup and WikiProject Chicago feature Features and admins: Approved this week Arbitration report: The Report on Lengthy Litigation About·Archives·Single-page·Newsroom·Suggestions WikiVoices Episode 51: WikiNews live article creation Join our next conversation!

Notices

• Please vote on the rules for the Wikipedia:Trading card game, or submit a new proposal.

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

• Respond to a request for comment, Wikiquette alert or provide a third opinion.
• Adopt a basic topic list, to help develop and maintain a table of contents to a major subject on Wikipedia.
• Give a requested editor review.
• Can you draw or take pictures? Make a requested image.
• 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.
• 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.
• Let SuggestBot suggest pages for you to improve.
• Update pages with old (ref or note template) citations to the new references format.
• Patrol new pages and help improving new articles.
• 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.)
• Do you have a historical perspective? Articles slanted towards recent events might need to be looked at with a new eye.
• Category:Wikipedia backlog always needs attention.

Fix-up projects

Open tasks

Here are some tasks you can do:

• Wikify: Arafat Rahman, Kumurdo Church, Julian Rosefeldt, Marlin Maddoux, Manuel Galduf, More...
• Copyedit: Matsuda Masachika, Nagai Michitoshi, Shimizu Muneharu, Toyotomi clan, Kuala Lumpur Composite Index, More...
• Update: Snohomish County, Washington, Spencer Place, Ragnarok Online, Isis (band), 2009 FIA WTCC Race of Italy, More...
• Style: Herbert Guðmundsson, Alliance of European National Movements, New Left, Fernando Sanchez Campos, Toral Rasputra, More...
• Translation: Military of Togo, Copa Bolivia, Toyota Carina ED, Infantry Battalion 744 (Indonesia), Włodzimierz Klata, More...
• Cleanup: Lennie Lee, Godzilla (comics), Ticket Granting Ticket, Marco Pereira, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, More...
• Verify: Effigia, Ophonus, Callistus lunatus, Declan de Barra, Dargwa language, More...
• Neutrality: Progressive Democratic Students Union, Animal treatment in rodeo, National Curriculum (England, Wales and Northern Ireland), Suraqa bin Malik, New York City teacher's strike of 1968, More...
• Original research: 2010 Melbourne live music rally, Nutmegger, CHQM-FM, Jane Eyre, Database management system, More...
• Merge: Little Miss Splendid and the Princess, Gensing, East Sussex, Textile processing, Cosmonautics Day, Ingeborg of Denmark (1175–1238), More...
• Split: Prometheus, Closed-circuit television, Incantation, List of life peerages, Workington, More...
• Stubs: Hugo Simon, Robert W. Thomson, Travis Meiners, KOSEKI Aquila Raphael, James Kilian, More...
• Expand: Transport in Armenia, St Thomas School, Kolkata, Collaborations between ex-Beatles, Nishi-Nasuno Station, Nozaki Station (Tochigi), More...
• Article deletion discussions: Thermal Exchanging Composite Materials, Squeeky Kleen, Waterless car wash, Chicago Cubs futility theories, Priya Basil, More...
• Article Requests: Hermes Lima, Tax liability, Surgical elevator, Epoxy cement, Maltese wine, Gloria de Campeao, More...
• Image Requests: John Tate, Stritch (saxophone), Ulster cherry, Jentink's Duiker, Wellington Square, Perth, More...
• Mediation Cabal: French phonology, Sopaipilla, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, Life-death-rebirth deity, HSL and HSV, 9/11 conspiracy theories, Rufus (Street Fighter), 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

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).

Gift shop

Share ideas of logos or other Wikipedia motifs to be used on clothing or for other purposes in Wikipedia merchandise.

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 – Browse help pages
• Where to ask questions

Editing

• The Manual of Style guidelines and tutorial
• How to edit a page
• Contributing
• How to write a great article
• Where to find information for articles
• 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

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 · One featured article per quarter · 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 · Administrators · Babel · Culture · Games · Humor · Mottoes

Related communities

Tip of the day...

Just as Google can be used to supplement Wikipedia's searchbox, your browser's toolbar can be used to supplement Wikipedia's navigation aids and the Main Page. Use it to create alternate access points to Wikipedia, and as your own customized navigation bar. To do this, bookmark the pages in Wikipedia you wish fast access to, saving each bookmark in the toolbar folder. Each one will immediately be available on the toolbar.

Prior tip - Next tip