User:Unschool/Pages I've cleaned up

In December 2007, I realized that, once the tag is removed from an article that I've cleaned up, there's no evidence left of the work done. This bothered me, because I think that this kind of cleanup work is one of the most important things a Wikipedia editor can do, especially as we are leveling off in terms of total numbers of articles. If someone is working on Featured Articles, there is a wonderful icon to commemorate their work, but with cleanup, not only is there nothing like an icon, the only evidence that the article ever needed cleaning up is wiped out when the cleanup tag is removed! Depressing, if you want to be able to remember where those long hours on Wikipedia went to. So I decided I wanted a record of my labors, if only to make me feel like I've accomplished something.

My original goal was to clean up—to the point where the cleanup tag is no longer needed—one article every month. As of July 1, 2009, I'm challenging myself to do an average of two cleanups a month. And as of September, 2009, I'm now dividing my cleanups into two categories: General and Lead Only. User:TonyTheTiger focused some much-needed attention on lead sections that are not written as well as they should have. So I am going to add these to my workload, whether I find them here, or they are recommended to me.

Some of the links below will show only a relatively minor change, maybe even a change that will not be immediately noticeable. That doesn't mean that I just removed the tag; diffs will show significant improvements in each article.

One important thing I want anyone reading this to realize: Judging from the way that the listings at Category:Cleanup by month are regularly reduced, there are others who are doing a lot more of this work than I am. I wish there was a way of tracking these editors so that I could provide them with the recognition they deserve. I was lucky to have someone notice this work, but like I said, I'm not one of the major players in cleanup. If one of the articles you edit regularly has had a cleanup tag for a long time, and you notice one day that that article has been practically rewritten into a much better article, check the history to find out who's responsible, and make sure you drop in on their talk page to thank them. Even better still, clean up that page yourself. Happy editing!

My best work

 * Jefferson Davis Highway went from this to this
 * Dikir barat; went from this to this

Significantly improved articles

 * Rail transport in South Africa; went from this to this
 * Irene, Gauteng went from this to this
 * Tommy Faragher went from this to this
 * Tokhari; went from this to this
 * Sialoendoscopy; went from this to this
 * History of the periodic table; went from this to this
 * Chemical technologist; went from this to this
 * Chase Carey; went from this to this
 * Demographics of Estonia; went from this to this (This article didn't actually have a general cleanup tag on it, it had a tag indicating that the lede was too long. But the rest was a mess too, and I think the work merits a place on this page.)

Minimally improved articles

 * Information technology audit; went from this to this
 * Loaded language went from this to this
 * Economic and Social Committee went from this to this
 * Roman Catholic Diocese of Lugo went from this to this
 * Sacrifice (chess) went from this to this
 * Excite went from this to this
 * Blanket stitch; went from this to this
 * James Fenimore Cooper; went from this to this
 * Aynata; went from this to this

Articles improved by chainsaw

 * Steve Lovelady; went from this to this
 * James Fenimore Cooper; went from this to this (This article is intentionally listed twice. I did make changes in the text that cause it to be listed in the Minor Improvements section, but the biggest change I made was to slice out the list of Cooper's works and place it in a new article, List of James Fenimore Cooper writings, which made this article much more readable.)
 * Auto detailing went from this to this
 * Samuel Ashley Brown went from this to this. However, I took no joy in this "cleanup". I tried, but could not find sources for material that was borderline, and I just can't help but feel that good information was removed. I hope someone comes along and returns the information, with sources.

Who would've thunk it?

 * I went to cleanup Androgogy, only to find that the word was a misspelling of Andragogy, the latter of which was created years before the former. All I did was transfer a couple of external links and then turned it into a redirect.

Lead Section Cleanup
I believe that the lead section of an article is, arguably, the most important part of the article. Many readers will go no further. They need to find a clear synopsis of the subject within the lead, with just enough detail to make them able to understand the fundamentals of the subject. I spend a lot of time cleaning up leads, sometimes only needing to reorganize them, but oftentimes needing to take a pair of pruning shears (or sometimes a chain saw) to get them down to a readable size. This is a by-no-means-complete list of pages of which I've fixed up the lead, but it's a good sample.

Discovered by tag

 * Demographics of Estonia; went from this to this
 * Burroughs Corporation; went from this to this
 * Côte d'Ivoire; went from this to this

Recommended to me by fellow editors

 * Franklin D. Roosevelt; went from this to this
 * Eiffel Tower; went from this to this
 * Theodore Roosevelt; went from this to this
 * George Armstrong Custer; went from this to this
 * Sun; went from this to this

Cooperative Writing: Lead rewrites done by group effort

 * Alexander the Great; went from this to this, with thanks to User:MinisterForBadTimes and User:GK1973.