Wikipedia:Maintenance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
 |
Category:Wikipedia articles needing style editing is the maintenance collaboration for Nov 06-12. This category has been somewhat neglected, but fixing these articles is relatively easy. |
As well as editing, many people at Wikipedia are involved in maintenance tasks. Most of these tasks can be done by any user, not just administrators. Maintenance work is a vital part of keeping Wikipedia running optimally. Be careful to avoid creating more maintenance work through instruction creep. Organise when you can, but always keep the big picture in sight: we're here to create an encyclopedia.
Collaborative cleanup projects
These are groups of people that get together to try to fix certain aspects of Wikipedia. Join them!
- Wikipedia:Cleaning department - Where to sign up to do many of the tasks listed below
- Wikipedia:Typo - Wikipedia Typo Department, fixing common spelling mistakes. Links to related lists.
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting - Classifying short articles to make them easier to find by interested parties
- Wikipedia:Welcoming committee
Things to watch
- Wikipedia:As of - Information that may be out of date
- Special:Recentchanges - Patrol for vandals and other bad edits
- New pages - Patrol for vandals and redundancy with existing articles
- Wikipedia:List of controversial issues - A simple list of pages on controversial subjects, not a place to argue about them. Patrol for vandals, POV pushers, and disputes in progress
- Wikipedia talk:Bots - Proposals for new bots
Reports
Active Wiki Fixup Projects +/-
Must be active, systematic, have lists, & need help.
| Bad links - A new page highlighting mangled links in Oct. 29 dump. |
| Most wanted articles - Help create the most popular "red links". Updated from Oct. 20 dump. |
| Disambiguation pages with links - Updated from the 2005-10-20 database dump with lots of work. |
| Commons:Untagged_images - Untagged images on the Commons. |
| Most visited articles - Based on page views, to be made into featured articles. |
| Shortpages - Possibly broken, possibly stubs, but definitely too short. Updated 9 Sept. |
| Templates with red links - By special request. Updated as of the Sept 9 dump. |
| Linkrot - Fix broken links to external websites. Updated from Sept. 9 dump. |
| Punctuation - Fix missing punctuation. Round 2 for Sep '05! |
| Blank pages - Updated from Sept. 9 dump. |
| Elements of Style improvement project Improve diction and style. |
| Duplicated sections - An experimental list of articles with possible duplicate sections. |
| User categorisation - Help replace unwieldy, unsorted lists with a robust categorisation system. |
| Dead-end pages - Just updated (20 Sep 2005); articles that need wikification and other help. |
| Broken categories - For your inspection, a fresh list of malformed categories. |
| Missing articles - Wikipedia is not as complete as you might think! |
| Most wanted stubs - Help add to the shortest stubs with the most links. |
| Transwiki log cleanup - Help resolve the list of articles that have been transwikied to Wikipedia's sister projects. Dictionary definitions, recipes, how-tos, etc. need to be checked for possible merging or deletion. |
| Stub sorting - Sort stubs into topical categories so editors can locate and expand stubs on subjects they are interested in. Remove stub notices attached to non-stub articles. |
| Image sleuthing - A convivial club investigating the origin and copyright and licence terms for unverified images. |
| Main - Inactive - Mini |
Special pages are updated either automatically or on request by the developers.
Offline reports are generated periodically from an offline copy of the Wikipedia database. These reports are always a bit out of date and should not be considered authoritative, but may provide useful guidance as to which articles may benefit from attention in particular areas. They need people with enough hard drive space and expertise to update them occasionally. Regular editors are also needed to prune already-fixed listings.
Currently updated reports are listed on Template:Active Wiki Fixup Projects (displayed to the right) and are most in need of editors to fix individual pages that are listed on them.
More:
- User:Topbanana/Reports
- Special:Specialpages (see chart at right)
- Wikipedia:Statistics (info only)
May no longer be necessary:
- Wikipedia:Non-local images (currently empty)
Link Analysis Database
A Link Analysis Database is created by running a set of scripts on a MySQL database into which a Wikipedia database dump has been loaded. It can be used to generate among others the reports dealing with articles and links to and from them below. Instructions on how to construct a Link Analysis Database can be found here.
Deletion
| Deletion Tools | |
|---|---|
Categories ( howto / log / C )
Miscellaneous {{md1}}
Redirects {{rfd}}
{{Move to Wiktionary}} |
|
Non-admins can help keep deletion pages clean by resolving discussions. Administrators are needed to actually delete pages. Anyone can nominate pages for deletion. See:
- Wikipedia:Articles for deletion and Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion - Instructions at Wikipedia:Deletion process
- Wikipedia:Categories for deletion
- Wikipedia:Templates for deletion
- Wikipedia:Redirects for deletion
- Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion
- Wikipedia:Stub types for deletion
- Wikipedia:Speedy deletions
Possible copyright violations
Wikipedia:Copyright problems lists articles which will be deleted if it can not be proven that we have permission to use them under the terms of the GFDL. For pages listed there, you could replace the infringing article's text with new (re-written) content of your own. This must be done on a temp page, so that the original "copyvio version" may be deleted by a sysop. Temp versions should be written at a page like: [[Talk:PAGE NAME/temp]]. If the original turns out not to be a copyvio, these two can be merged. Alternatively, you can write to the copyright owner and check whether they gave permission. You can also ask for permission using the boilerplate request for permission. If someone claims to have permission, but this has not been verified, you can send the confirmation of permission letter to check. If images have been listed, you may want to consider whether these constitute fair use and write the appropriate disclaimers on the image description page. See Wikipedia:Image description page#Fair use rationale for guidance on this.
Maintaining portals
See Wikipedia:Wikiportal for a list of existing portals and associated projects and maintainers.
Foreign language pages
For pages listed on Wikipedia:Pages needing translation into English, the Wikipedia:Embassy member of the Wikipedia that relates to the language the article is in should be contacted and invited to move the page to their own Wikipedia or to help translate it. There is also a list of translators at Wikipedia:translation. If you don't know what language the article is in you could use Language recognition chart and if that fails some language recognition web site to find out. If a page remains untranslated after two weeks, or if someone who speaks the language it is written in states that it is not worth translating, then article should be moved from pages needing translation to articles for deletion. The boilerplate text on the article should be changed from {{notenglish}} to {{subst:afd}}.
Welcoming newcomers
Welcome people using one of the standard user greetings or make up your own. Use {{Opentask}} to leave an automatically updated task list on a new user's page. New users can be found by looking for red talk page links on recent changes or by querying the database. Efforts to co-ordinate the activities of welcomers are being made at Wikipedia:Welcoming committee. The {{Opentask}} message gives newcomers some ideas of articles to work on. The tasks listed in this template can be changed at Template:Opentask.
Main page
The Main Page needs regular updating. Only sysops can edit the page itself. See Wikipedia:Editing the main page for links to the relevant templates and further guidance.
Protected pages
Though a log is kept of protected pages, they should still be listed at Wikipedia:protected page as well, as described in the Wikipedia:protection policy. Sometimes people forget to list them, so you can check the protection log to make sure there aren't any pages listed there as being protected that are not mentioned on Wikipedia:protected page. Any missing ones can be added to the temporarily protected pages section.
Vandalism
Anyone can revert vandalism. See Wikipedia:revert for instructions. If you see any recurrent vandalism, you can list it at Wikipedia:vandalism in progress. You can also check other listings on that page and follow them up by seeing if the users listed there have made any further vandalism since the listing. Do this typing the url http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/ followed by the username. Unreverted edits will still have (top) next to them. Sysops may choose to block recurrent vandals, following a warning on the user's talk page using Special:Blockip, or for unlogged-in users clicking the block link next to their IP on recent changes.
The pages linked to from the main page often see the most vandalism, so checking those pages via the links on Editing the Main Page can be a good place to look if you feel like vandal spotting.
See also: Wikipedia:How to spot vandalism
Current events
Not maintenance as such, but Current events is a page that needs to be updated daily. Please read Wikipedia:How the Current events page works before working on this.
Request and maintenance queues
Here are some tasks you can do ():
- Requests: African literature, African theatre, Adolphe Appia, Armando Diaz, Antony Tudor, Academy for Young Scholars, More...
- NPOV: Amir Abu al-Walid, Virtuoso Universal Server, Accession of Turkey to the European Union, Gwen Araujo, OML, Backlog...
- Copyedit: Gauhara Begum, Song Joon Seok, Ahmed Rida Khan, Empas, Bayfair Center, G-Market, Ace Industry, HSBC, More...
- Wikify: Ratheesh, The Wails, Usenet II, Mahindra and Mahindra Limited, Popstar Kids, Archbishop Curley High School, Backlog...
- Merge: Possessions of Sweden, Mark of the Beast, Vorarephilia, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hot wife, Backlog...
- Cleanup: Ikuko Tsukino, Hippocrates, White-on-black color scheme, Richard Kuranda, UK Underground, Computer datasheet, Backlog...
- Style: WikkaWiki, National Insurance Academy, Libby Gill, Cypher (freestyle rap circle), RuneScape economy, Soluna, More...
- Update: Japanese foreign policy on Africa, Crompton (Lancashire), Japan-United States relations, Geography of Kuwait, More...
- Verify: Manyame, Gay rights counter-movement, Action of 29 June 1694, Benevolence, Nigerian Open, Sakatayana, Backlog...
- Expand: Religion in the United States, List of women poets, V-Lancer, A. Philip Randolph, Computer file management, More...
- Stubs: Microsoft Campus Agreement, Noriko Ito, Oldies, Archostemata, Norwin Meneses Cantarero, Manych Canal, More...
- Cleanup backlogs - Active fixup projects - Maintenance projects - Maintenance COTW: Category:Wikipedia articles needing style editing
For each queue listed below, editors are needed to:
- Rotate individual articles and projects onto Template:Opentasks (shown above) as they are fixed or become stale.
- Publicize neglected lists or consolidate them with active pages
- Remove articles from the listings as they are fixed.
- Actually fix the individual articles that are listed.
Instructions are given on each page.
- Wikipedia:Requested articles
- Wikipedia:Cleanup
- Wikipedia:Pages needing attention - Cleanup, expansion, etc. sorted by topic. Usually most in need of attention from someone familiar with the subject. The listings here are in need of a lot of updating and consolidation with overlapping lists.
- Category:Articles that need to be wikified
- Wikipedia:Duplicate articles and Category:Articles to be merged
- Wikipedia:Requests for expansion - Articles longer than stubs, but which are still missing substantial material
- Wikipedia:Requests for summaries - No new requests are being taken, but old ones need to be filled. This page is not well-publicized.
- Articles to be moved off-site: Wikipedia:Things to be moved to Wiktionary, Wikipedia:Transwiki log ...
| Category | Description | Relevant page | Wikipedia custom message |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ancient pages | Ancient pages | Special:Ancientpages | |
| Cleanup | Articles to cleanup | Wikipedia:Cleanup | |
| Controversial issues | Articles that need watching for bias | Wikipedia:List of controversial issues | {{Controversial}} |
| Copyright infringement | Articles with possible copyright infringements | Wikipedia:Copyright problems | {{copyvio|url=<place URL of allegedly copied material here>}} |
| Deletion | Articles that should be deleted | Wikipedia:Articles for deletion | {{subst:vfd}} (not just {{vfd}}; see the instructions at the bottom of the AfD page) |
| Disputed accuracy | Articles of Accuracy dispute | Wikipedia:Accuracy dispute | {{Disputed}} |
| Disputed neutrality | Articles of NPOV dispute | Wikipedia:NPOV dispute | {{NPOV}} {{disputed}} |
| Duplicated articles | Articles on the same subject which need to be merged | Wikipedia:Duplicate articles | |
| Foreign language | Articles not in English | Wikipedia:Pages needing translation | {{notenglish}} |
| New pages | Newly created articles | Special:Newpages | |
| Open tasks | Mediawiki's open tasks | Mediawiki:Opentask | {{opentask}} |
| Pages needing attention | Articles that have good information, but need work for some reason | Wikipedia:Pages needing attention | |
| Requested images | Pages that need images | Wikipedia:Requested images | |
| Requested peer review | Articles that need peer editing | Wikipedia:Peer review | |
| Stubs | Stub articles | Wikipedia:Find or fix a stub | See Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting for a list of subject-specific stub templates. |
| Too short | Subjects that deserve a longer article | Wikipedia:Requests for expansion | |
| Subpages | Subpages that should be renamed to follow the do not use subpages convention | Wikipedia:Subpages to be moved |
Disputes
There are many pages in Category:Wikipedia dispute resolution which could use help in resolving various kinds of disputes. Some disputes are easy to resolve - someone needs to propose or implement a compromise (check out the appropriate talk page), or the dispute is over and someone just needs to declare the problem solved. Many disputes between parties can be resolved after uninvolved strangers wander in, read the article in question and the debate so far, and just give common-sense opinions. In rare cases, delicate negotiating skills are needed to bring warring parties to a satisfactory agreement, or administrative powers are needed to bad vandals or uncooperative editors.
The main page to list disputes is Wikipedia:Requests for comment. This is a static listing, and your help is needed to remove old requests, in addition to commenting on current requests.
There are lists of articles in dispute in:
Initial categorization efforts
- Category:Orphaned categories is a collaboration page for categories that need to be put in an appropriate category.
- Wikipedia:Auto-categorization is a collaboration page for articles that need to be put in an appropriate category. Articles are automatically pre-sorted to help speed the process.
- Special:Uncategorizedpages shows all articles that need to be categorized.
See also: Wikipedia:Categorization projects (current)
Images with missing articles
Several pages on the web offer their public domain images in a long list. To avoid checking these lists again and again for matching Wikipedia articles, Wikipedia:Images with missing articles has a list of specific images with missing articles. If you see that one of these articles exists, please add the image from the external link, and remove it from the list.
Discussions
Village pump
The village pump is not a place for lasting discussions, so anything older than 7 days from the date of the last comment are moved to an archive page below each of the Village pump's sections. These discussions will be kept in that archive for 7 more days. During this period (or before) the discussion can be moved to a relevant talk page in the article, Wikipedia or template namespace or to the user talk page of the user who started the discussion. For example, if a question about copyright was asked, and this is likely to be asked again, move the question to Wikipedia talk:copyrights. It may also be summarised, or refactored, if appropriate. If discussions are moved elsewhere, the links to where they have moved to should remain in the summarised section until the village pump is next cleaned.
After 7 days in the archive, the discussion will be permanently removed, although it will still be available from the history.
Often people ask things on the village pump that should have been asked at the Wikipedia:Reference desk. These should be moved. Leave behind a link in the same location the question was such as
- Question on beetles moved to the Wikipedia:Reference desk
Surveys
There is a list of current surveys that needs to be maintained by adding any current polls, moving closed polls to the closed polls section, and updating the results of polls once they are closed.
Talk pages
Talk pages are useful. 50,000 words on the topic might not be. Many articles have excessive numbers of talk page archives. While these provide an interesting history to the development of the article, they are next to useless for someone new to the article wanting to know what the past discussion was about. New Imperialism, for example, currently has 15 archives. It would be far more useful to have a summary of these that would be readable by a newcomer. See the archives of the VfD talk page for examples of how the previous discussion was summarised. An alternative to summarising the discussion is to split the archives by topic rather than purely chronologically. Look at User talk:Daniel C. Boyer/undelete and Talk:AKFD for examples of this. Wikipedia:Refactoring explains other alternatives to just archiving a talk page. See also how to archive a talk page
Featured articles
Wikipedia:Featured article candidates - Wikipedia:Featured pictures candidates
Peer review
Wikipedia:Peer review is designed to solicit comments on articles that have gotten major work by a single author, or which are going to be submitted to Wikipedia:Featured article candidates. Articles that don't successfully become featured are often referred back to this step.
Editors are needed to:
- Comment on articles listed
- Remove old requests (instructions are on the page itself)
Nomination
- If you find a really good article (or picture), and you think the wikipedia community should know about it, nominate it on the appropriate page.
- List it under its own subheading under Current nominations without objections.
- Write a short summary of why you think the page should be featured. Be sure to sign and time stamp your nomination.
Reviewing nominations
- Read the articles (look at the pictures) that have been nominated.
- If you like a nominee and think it should be included in Wikipedia:Featured articles or Wikipedia:Featured pictures, voice your support on the candidates page (Each article needs two supports to be featured). Be sure to sign and date your statement.
- If, however, you feel the article could be improved before being listed on featured articles or brilliant pictures, object and give a reason for the objection.
- If you are the first to object, move the nomination to Nominations with objections.
- The nominator, page contributors, or others will then address your objections, either by stating why your objection is invalid (rare), or by editing the article to address your concerns (much more common).
- Review the article again, and either better explain why you object, or withdraw your objection if you feel the page is now up to snuff.
- If yours was the only outstanding objection, move the article back to the without objections section.
- This process will continue until a consensus is reached.
Articles to be added
Observe the following procedure when adding to Featured articles or Pictures.
- If a week has gone by after the last objection was withdrawn, or a week after the nomination was listed, and the article has received two or more seconds, or voices of support, move the discussion to the section Recently added to Featured articles and add a line that states Added by ~~~~, so we know when and by whom a page was added to FA.
- Add the article to the list at Featured articles or pictures
- Remove the optional nomination boilerplate from the article, if the nominator chose to use it.
- Copy the discussion and paste it into the talk page for the article, and add the {{featured}} tag to the top of the talk page.
Archival of unaccepted nominations
Discussion about a proposed article that has been objected to for more than a month, or a nomination that fails to receive enough seconds for a month may be removed from the page by following this procedure.
- Copy the discussion and paste it in the article's talk page and in Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Archived nominations.
- Delete it from the nomination page.
Was brilliant, but isn't anymore
If you find an article on one of the featured lists that no longer is a good example to be emulated:
- If you are a sysop, remove it from the list and make an entry in the Recently removed articles, and reason for removal section of the candidates page explaining why it was removed; or if you are not a sysop, list it on the talk page, with your objections and a sysop will continue the process.
- Treat such articles as new nominations with built in objections; i.e. if the problem is fixed and no one objects for a week, add it back to the list. If a month goes by and the objection is not addressed, or a general consensus to put the article back is not reached, move the discussion to the archive and the article's talk page and delete the listing.
Archive
Every so often, when the page gets too big, some of the discussions on articles that were added to the Featured pages can be moved to Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Featured log and be deleted from the candidates page.
