User talk:ToastGuard/Orcanami

Helping out Wikipedia
Let's work on how ou can improve wikipedia, there are many ways you can positively contribute. Please note that a user is not limited to contributing to wikipedia with the exception of a few responsibilities.

Countervandalism
You've probably heard of this before, and the name says it all. Users who contribute in this manner typically do things such as revert unhelpful edits and warn the users. If a vandal decides to edit a page with an untrue or reputation-damaging statement then somebody who counter-vandalizes will revert the edit to the last acceptable revision and warn the user who vandalized by placing a warning template on their page. This marks the user for other users to base judgement on, and is irrevocable. After 4 warnings or 1 warning (after continuous and damaging vandalism), then a user may be subsequently banned from editing, either permanently or for a certain amount of time. Warnings can be given by any editor to any editor, however, bans are limited to use only by administrators.

Quality Control
Users who contribute in this manner usually ensure articles are; free of grammatical and spelling errors, properly sourced and formatted, and ensure the content of articles are appropriate and necessary. After creation, many articles are "Start" class on the Article Grading Scale, this means that they have issues that need to be resolved before moving on to a higher grading level such as B class or Good Article class. There are several tools that users can edit with to help them, such as Auto-Wiki Browser and other gadgets that can be found in the special Preferences page.

Articles for Creation/Deletion
Pages don't just become pages overnight, first they are put in the Draft: namespace where users can edit them collaboratively. Once the editors determine it is sufficient to be indexed and included in the mainspace, it is submitted for review by a Articles for Creation reviewer. An AfC reviewer is a peer-reviewer who will determine the final outcome of a draft. If CSD criteria is met then it will be denied and tagged for speedy deletion, If it has too many errors or is lacking in content then it also may be denied. Content that does not meet Notability requirements may also be denied unless criteria is met. If an article is accepted to be included in the mainspace then it is moved over to the mainspace by the reviewer and tagged for either cleanup or expansion(Optional, but recommended). AfD, or Articles for Deletion is a place for editors to discuss deletion of pages that have made it through AfC or fall into certain criteria. Editors discuss why they think it should/should not be an article, Articles do not always get deleted, there are many other for an articles content to exist in the mainspace, not always in an article but as part of another article.

Categorizing/Templating
All articles are categorized by their content, these categories can be seen at the bottom of pages and allows users to quickly search articles by their correlation. These users typically add or remove categories for pages to better reflect the content of the article. Other users might go help create and manage templates that are widely used across wikipedia.

Expanding/Creating
Of course Wikipedia needs content in order for it to exsist. Users typically contribute by adding content to articles (with citations) in order to help readers better understand the content of the page. Users are also needed in order to actually create the articles, many articles created fail AfC because of a lack of citations, no notability, or they are joke articles. Any user can create an article by following the specific processes, some sensitive articles are Salted or prevented from being created because for various reasons. Furthermore, some articles are protected for reasons such as persistent vandalism, Sensitive material, and edit warring.

Assignment
These are all ways you can contribute to Wikipedia, these are not all that you can do but rather suggestions. If you feel that you can do it a different way, then do it! Be bold. Your assignment is to write 5 quality questions, as well as telling me one way you plan on contributing to WP.

Response
My particular interest is in (1) managing article quality, (2) expanding Wikipedia with new articles, (3) recruiting editors with special interest in this subject from other platforms, (4) culling content that seems to promote social media influencers without notable contributions, and (5) categorizing content such that it is easier to navigate the sub.

The ultimate goal would be to take 5 articles in a similar topic from stub to Featured. I stress 5 because 1 or 2 times might be a fluke, but 5 articles would establish a means of supporting articles and fulfill my goal of (1) managing article quality. Even 1 Featured Article would be monumental though.

To expand Wikipedia articles, I plan on recruiting a few new expert members from Ravelry, Reddit, or other forums for targeted topics (e.g., r/knitting or r/AdvancedKnitting might be a good place to recruit members for the Textile Arts WikiProject). While I myself would be expanding this sub with new article content, really it is more effective to think in terms of group. That ensures a real, long-lasting impact will be made rather than a few sporadic edits in fulfillment of (2) and (3).

For (4), I am really quite conflicted about mentions of social media stars. It is very difficult to measure their notability as so much publishing happens in these spaces. It is not for me alone to decide, but I do believe that it is imperative that any and all promotional content should be kept to a minimum. This is another reason why recruiting other members for this WikiProject is important.

Finally, adding a bunch of text and purging a lot more is only useful if we know where it belongs. Categorizing content provides a structure for editors. It is so much easier to know where and what to edit once an article has a proper category (or several) attached to it. I believe the Wikiprojects related to many different levels of Biology are excellent at distinguishing article types. My goal would be to replicate that structure except for Textile Arts (5). Even though I do not know much about Textile Arts outside of a few areas, I can at the very least give other folks pointers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Orcanami (talk • contribs) 18:27, 26 January 2023 (UTC)