Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Backlog elimination drives/November 2010

Invite

I know it's extremely early to be thinking about this, but we need to develop an invite for this drive. We need something new; like last month's invite, only a bit more...creative. The Utahraptor^{Talk to me}/_{Contributions} 04:11, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

We can develop it in a staging area as Newsletter 1 for this upcoming drive. - S Masters (talk) 04:31, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

Shall we use the same as the one for last drive? I'll change the font, BTW. Ocean Shores 23:03, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Change it up a little. Give it a different border, and perhaps even a different background color. S Masters should be able to help you with that. The Utahraptor^{Talk to me}/_{Contributions} 23:16, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Haha

I finally got ousted. Was wondering when that would happen. ɳorɑfʈ ^Talk! 05:46, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

Someone wrote me, concerned about my response. Was said in fun. I coordinated the first two drives in a hands-on way. This last one, not so much. Dianna and others deserve to coordinate, and I wish everyone the best! ɳorɑfʈ ^Talk! 22:41, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks Noraft, we appreciate all your hard work for all the previous drives. As both of us were the originators of the first drive, I would personally like to say that is has been a pleasure working with you. I hope that you will continue to copyedit here when you have the time, and never be a stranger. Cheers. – S Masters (talk) 02:50, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

So you discovered my coup! I realised you were not as keen as you were in the beginning and probably would not have had your name on the banner in September either if I had not been out of town. Thanks very much for your contributions. You know, everyone, it was Noraft who ignited the GOCE back into an active wikiproject and got the ball rolling on these drives. Hats off to Noraft! --Diannaa ^(Talk) 15:01, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Scheduled January drive to start early?

Hi, GOCE. Congratulations on the success of the September drive.

Now, one thing to address: if there is a scheduled January 2011 drive, could we start it roughly two weeks early? Most of us would be on our Christmas/Winter holidays then, and perhaps we could get more copyedits in. Thanks, Ocean Shores 15:00, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure if we're even having a drive in January. January is midterms for a lot of us younger copy editors, so we were planning on having the drive following the November drive in February as opposed to January. Welcome back, by the way. The Utahraptor^{Talk to me}/_{Contributions} 15:04, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

We will need to discuss this. Personally, I am opposed to having a drive in February. If we do that, it will cause us to have a December drive next year, which I think is far worse than a January drive. In terms of Ocean Shores' suggestion, we could have a 2-week "end of year bonus round" in December, which can be counted towards a January drive (if we have one). Just an idea. The other thing to remember is that our members come from diverse backgrounds (not everyone is a student), and from all around the world (where academic timetables differ). For example, students in Australia are on holidays in January (if I am not mistaken). – S Masters (talk) 15:36, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Most students in Canada are at the start of a semester in January, as well. December would be a rough month to get things done, IMO. Possibly two mini rounds (beginning of December & end of January) combined to make one drive? Canada Hky (talk) 17:36, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Invitation

This month's invitation is being developed here in case anybody's interested in helping. The Utahraptor^{Talk to me}/_{Contributions} 22:24, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

Banner ads

Has anyone thought of making drive-specific Talk page banner ads, like the one at Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikify? -- Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 16:34, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea to me. The Utahraptor^Talk/_Contribs 23:33, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

Requests page double word count clarification

I must have been away when the new rule for the double word count for the Requests page was made. As it stands, it does not mention anything about the leaderboard. All the other special rules we have had (e.g. rollover words) do not count in the leaderboard. Although I agree and support the double word count, I would not have made it eligible for the leaderboard. However, the drive has already started, and we can't go moving the goalposts now. Some people have already used this double scoring on the board. Is this correct? What is the position on this? – S Masters (talk) 09:31, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, this rule was added by me but it looks like I did not think it through. I included mine in the leader board word count but only counted it as one 5k article (word count was 5751). What should we do? I am tempted to just leave it alone and make it clearer for the next drive as I hate to tell people now that it doesn't count for leader board. --Diannaa ^(Talk) 18:12, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

If we change it now, it'll just cause a scene. Wait until the next drive to address it. That way, less feelings will be hurt. The Utahraptor^Talk/_Contribs 14:25, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

Some people are already counting it as double for total word count on the leaderboard. In this case, we all do the same as we will not be changing any rules? Otherwise, it will not be fair to all. - S Masters (talk) 04:57, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

It should be the same for everyone, I agree. Are there some who did not include it? --Diannaa ^(Talk)

Yes, me LOL. But I don't have enough now to make the top 5 for words. I will get cracking. :-) S Masters (talk) 00:20, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

So what's happening? So does a priority article get double credit for 5k+ word articles, 10k+ articles, longest article or just the general basic total word count but not the other stuff YellowMonkey (new photo poll) 04:14, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Let's make it just double word count for basic word count and the leader board. Don't double up when counting for 5k+ word articles, 10k+ articles, or longest article. We will have to re-word the rules for this if we decide to include it agin in the next drive, so it is clearer right from the get-go. --Diannaa ^(Talk) 05:10, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Coordinators for the next several drives

A discussion about future coordinators and the process by which we choose them is currently underway here. Anybody is welcome to participate in the discussion. The Utahraptor^Talk/_Contribs 22:46, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

FAQ

I have started a FAQ section for our drives. You are invited to copyedit and add to the page before it is linked to all the drive pages. – SMasters (talk) 05:50, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

My only concern is the length of questions. No one reads computer text. It is very hard to scan the page for the question you are looking for when some are two lines long. I suggest trimming them significantly. For example, "Do I have to be a member of the Guild of Copy Editors to participate in a drive?" --> "Do I have to be a member?" and first line of answer "No, you don't have to be a member of GOCE to...". Hope you get my drift. Otherwise, I've already expressed that FAQ is a good thing. —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 18:16, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

How do I help?

1. I found an article that I actually don't mind copy-editing baton (symbol). (Most of the backlog seem on obscure topics, not worth our time, sorry.) So, do I just copy-edit it and take off the box? How do I take it in/out of the queue, make sure I get credit, drive gets credit, etc.?

2. Maybe I'm just tired, but it seems like all the instructions here and at the Guild are so long and not really telling me how to join in the activity. I'm not the first to have these kinds of questions, from looking at talk logs (for instance in how to copy-edit).

3. And how "good" do I need to be? I bet I'm a help, a cut above the average Wikipedian in terms of Strunk and White, but I'm not some super MOS guy yet. Nor a professional writer or the like.

TCO (talk) 18:25, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

Please refer to our FAQ page if you have any questions concerning the drive. You may also want to have a look at this page if you're unsure about your copy editing skills. If you still have any questions, feel free to message me. The Utahraptor^Talk/_Contribs 22:12, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

I must be a little tired as it's still not clear to me, step by step what to do, but I will think it through. FYI, am working on baton (symbol) now. Not sure what needs to be done to get "credit" for it though.

Just copy-editing it would not be bad, but it needs a lot of structure as well. Anyway, working on it now...

 TCO (talk) 22:51, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

All right, I finished editing baton and took off the template. Please give me credit. TCO (talk) 00:30, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Adding the credit to the page is entirely up to you. Please see User talk:The Utahraptor#getting credit for copy-editing. The Utahraptor^Talk/_Contribs 01:12, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

OK. I think I did everything I was supposed to, but it's still not giving me credit. HELP?

P.s. Next one I do will be from the requested list. Doing stuff with iffy content is tricky and ends up I do content and logic work.

 TCO (talk) 02:16, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

race against time (painted turtle)

I have to get this long article done by end of day (we use Eastern time, or am I already screwed since we use GMT) to get my barnie. TCO (talk) 20:11, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm not gonna make it. No barnstar for me. Love my little turtle article and am spending a lot of time on it. TCO (talk)

I propose a toast:

To all the hard work that went into the cleanup and reduction of the number of articles in Wikipedia which required copyediting as of November, 2010. This is truly a time for celebration, and so:

• Everybody help themselves!
• 
• 
• 
• 

Cheers! Wilhelmina Will (talk) 01:15, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Yum! Thanks for the cake! And I must agree, every drive has been successful! Derild4921Review Me! 01:17, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

I second Wilhelmina Will's statement. Nice job everybody! The Utahraptor^Talk/_Contribs 01:22, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Barnstar calculations

Calculations for barnstars are done and are available at Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Backlog elimination drives/November 2010/Barnstars for review. Time to walk the dog (if its not already too late) --Diannaa ^(Talk) 02:34, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Graphs

Editors, congrats on a successful drive!

Just noticed that the two line charts show exactly the same data. One is just a squished version of the other. Possibly, the smaller chart wants to show 2009 articles only?

I don't understand why we have two line charts and one bar chart. Probably should stick to one style, which I would recommend to be lines rather than bars.

Finally, it would be great to see a chart showing progress against the backlog since the first drive began. I would find it motivating to see how far we've come since day 1.

HH Lfstevens (talk) 05:10, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes, you are right. One is a blown up version of the other. We will publish a comparison chart of all the drives for the whole year soon, in our final newsletter for the year. The bar chart illustrates the remaining tagged articles better, IMO. - SMasters (talk) 05:20, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

In the meantime, here is a progress chart that shows how we have progressed from our low point; the worst backlog was at some time in April 2009 with nearly 8200 articles at the end of April (8323 articles). --Diannaa ^(Talk) 05:41, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Monthly progress chart

Date	Number of articles	Change from previous month
December 31, 2009	8002	+156
January 31, 2010	8036	+34
February 28, 2010	8025	-9
March 31, 2010	8111	+86
April 30, 2010	8323	+212
May 31, 2010	7563	-760
June 30, 2010	7582	+19
July 31, 2010	6293	-1289
August 31, 2010	6300	+7
September 30, 2010	5,575	-725
October 31, 2010	5,601	+26
November 30, 2010	4,974	-627

Bar chart is better, because it shows the remaining backlog. Line chart is misleading because the y axis lacks a zero. TCO (talk) 15:03, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

phonograph

I'm in need of a decent passport photo; has anyone a proper phonograph?

be deleted. Encyclopedic content must — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jerimee (talk • contribs) 06:04, 16 May 2022 (UTC)