Wikipedia:Cleaning department

The cleaning department takes care of maintaining pages that require regular updates, archiving and so forth. By sharing the responsibility for these activities, we reduce the amount of work necessary for the individuals. Simply put, volunteers list themselves here for a particular day in the month and pledge to help with the cleaning of a page on that day.

Cleaning pages is necessary to keep them well structured and at a reasonable size -- some people have problems editing large pages (which in part can be addressed using section editing), and higher loading time affects users with slow connections (and bogs down the servers). If you want to join the cleaning department for a particular page, sign your name after a day in the month on which you will check that particular page to help with its maintenance if necessary.

Developers
There are some tasks that not even bureaucrats can do, but rather, a developer is needed.

Bureaucrats
Similarly, there are some things that admins cannot do, but need a bureaucrat.

Trash removal
Since ordinary users cannot delete pages, there are a number of places where things are listed for admins to delete them.

Articles for deletion and Articles for deletion/Old
Please see Deletion process for an up-to-date explanation of what to do.

This page needs regular cleaning in several ways:
 * Items on which no consensus could be reached after 5 days must be removed from the page.
 * Items on which consensus could be reached need to be deleted after 5 days (requires admin status)
 * Items which have been deleted before the 5 days have elapsed (junk pages) need to be removed from the page
 * Items which should obviously not be deleted need to be removed from the page (leave a notice behind if there is some minimal controversy or the addition was made very recently, in any case explain your removal in the edit summary)

Team members

 * Every Day Jokeiroo
 * Every 15th in the month: &mdash;Eloquence
 * Every 31st of the month: Cimon Avaro on a pogo-stick
 * Usually daily for articles whose 7-day wait has expired: Delirium
 * If Delerium hasn't been around for a bit: Cyan
 * If I remember it, feel up to it and something needs to be done: Schnee
 * Ditto. &mdash;Noldoaran (Talk)
 * If I'm around: Evil saltine
 * Occasionally: Optim
 * Practically all the time! If there is a certain consensus (don't wanna meddle in neutral affairs). Ilyanep 21:51, 31 Jan 2004 (UTC)
 * Occasionally, until I get the feel for it (please feel extra free to comment on my decisions and methods, old hands!) Andrewa
 * I'm willing to join, but I may need some coaching. All the new rules about listing pages on vfd, etc. are confusing the heck out of me. --Uncle Ed 17:40, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)
 * As time permits Rossami
 * I'll come in at least 3 times a week.--Josiah 05:53, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * We seem to have a backlog; I'll make this one of my regular jobs. Cool Hand Luke
 * Whenever I have the time, and vfd needs cleaning out. --Flockmeal
 * every weekend i will try to cleanup -- kaal 21:54, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * I usually clean up some articles at least twice a week. Found some errors too :) --Nzo 23:16, Jan 17, 2005 (UTC)
 * Processing old vfd's is one of my favorite chores. At least twice a week.  Joyous 06:25, Jan 23, 2005 (UTC)
 * Whenever I feel like it... which means, once in awhile. I'll be making sure that the VFD List is updated and that my bot keeps updating VFD however. -- AllyUnion (talk) 14:56, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Anything but delete (since I can't). --Deathphoenix 19:19, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * Every now and then. – ABCD 22:40, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * Whenever I have the time to do so. - Mailer Diablo 03:52, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Now and again Grutness|hello? [[Image:Grutness.jpg|25px|]] 07:19, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * On occasion, usually about one day a week. Golbez 11:54, May 25, 2005 (UTC)
 * Whenever I can, usually once a week. --DropDeadGorgias (talk) 21:48, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * Me! Me! :) Doing vfds every day and trying to keep the page tidy. --Woohookitty 01:54, 15 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Old and old old ones. Rich Farmbrough 10:50, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Most days of the week, when availability permits.  (aeropagitica)   11:22, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Speedy Deletions
There is a category in which such pages show up when the SD header is added.

Team members

 * Whenever I can. Usually a few times a day.  --DropDeadGorgias (talk) 21:48, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * I usually stop by daily. Denni ☯ 00:36, 2005 July 10 (UTC)
 * Recently, I've been doing this a few times a day, most days, so I guess I should list myself here! Stewart Adcock 20:31, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Whenever I have the time to do so. - Mailer Diablo 05:47, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
 * From time to time. Rich  Farmbrough 20:05, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Usually check in every few days. - Trevor MacInnis (Talk | Contribs) 17:32, 16 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Usually every day. Kpjas 08:15, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
 * I stop in every few days or so and try to make a dent. ♠ P M  C ♠ 19:57, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Redirects for deletion
This page needs regular cleaning in several ways. Also, some requests get misfiled here, and have to be moved to the appropriate place (usually WP:RM).

Templates for deletion
This page needs regular cleaning in several ways. First, for templates for which there is consensus to delete, any pages which use them have to have the templates removed; any user can do this. Second, once no longer in use, an admin has to actually delete the template.

Team members

 * I'll do my best. -Frazzydee|✍ 15:25, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * As Tfd frequently overlaps with Cfd with categories contained in templates, I will start working on Tfd in general. --ssd 00:18, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Every now and again Grutness|hello? [[Image:Grutness.jpg|25px|]] 07:19, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Cleaned up the backlog, and intend to do it semi-daily. Radiant_* 10:04, May 25, 2005 (UTC)
 * Whenever I have the time to do so. - Mailer Diablo 11:10, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Categories for discussion
This page needs regular cleaning in several ways. First, for categories on which there is consensus to delete, any pages which use them have to have them removed; any user can do this. Since this is often a fair amount of work, several bots (among them the Pearle-bot usually do the worst ones. Second, on ones no longer in use, an admin has to actually delete the category.

Team members

 * ssd deletes agreed on categories and obvious stuff, and occasionally makes lists of obvious stuff that hasn't been taken care of yet.
 * Pearle (bot) handles moving articles between huge renamed categories and adds deletion warnings to large groups of categories under discussion and other mass changes.
 * Beland runs Pearle and finds large groupings that need help, and does some cleanup and archiving.
 * RedWolf does clean up and archiving.
 * User:Aranel does clean up and archiving.
 * Grutness does occasional deletion duty on categories that have reached a "delete" consensus.
 * User:Kbdank71 does a lot of work these days.

Images and media for deletion
Maintaining WP:IFD doesn't take too much time. It requires lots of care, though, since images can't be undeleted. Also, since many nominated images never get inspected by anyone else, it's important to consider not deleting an image even if it hasn't gotten any opposition.

Team members

 * Dbenbenn

Votes for undeletion
When debates end, they should be archived, and (if applicable) the relevant articles undeleted. Which obviously requires admin rights.
 * Radiant_ &gt;|&lt; 09:03, Jun 8, 2005 (UTC)

Vandalism prevention
Some pages are protected to prevent vandalism; admins have to help with updating them when needed.

Category:Wikipedia fully protected main page files
Images are protected while they are on the main page, but they need to be un-protected after falling off the main page. There is a template (and category) so that we can keep track of these, and make sure their protection is removed.

When protecting or unprotecting an image used on Today's featured article or Selected anniversaries, make sure to protect or unprotect the associated article, too.

Team members

 * I will. -Frazzydee|✍ 20:23, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Template:In the news
To prevent vandalism this is also protected; suitable items have to be selected from In the news section on the Main Page/Candidates and moved here.

Team members

 * on my watchlist. occasionally checking Current Events for suitable headlines. dab (ᛏ) 15:23, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Template:Did you know
Items that follow the rules (both listed at Template talk:Did you know are updated to the main page on a regular basis. Only admins can do this as it's protected against vandalism.

Team members

 * Mgm|(talk). I've been keeping this template up to date regularly for a few months now. And I'd like some people to help out.

Janitorial work
Other actions also sometimes require help from admins.

Requested moves
Sometimes "Move this page" doesn't work (e.g. because there's something at the target), and an admin has to lend a hand.

Team members

 * I'll try and help. – ABCD 22:03, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * I'll see what I can do. Hosterweis (talk) (contribs) 00:58, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
 * I'll make this a priority for now, there's a big backlog and I think I understand the issues both technical and temperament. Andrewa 19:52, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Of course me, LOL. WhiteNight T 02:57, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Cut and paste move repair holding pen
New users who don't seem to have noticed that there is a "Move this page" tab/button sometimes 'move' pages using cut and paste. This is a Bad Thing, as it separates the content from its history, which we need to keep for copyright reasons.

There is a procedure for repairing these, but i) only admins can do it, and ii) it's a bit tricky, so there's a page to request that these be done.

Housekeeping
Here are some tasks which don't necessarily need admin access, but which need regular attention.

Cleanup
Article triage and repair.

Team members

 * Esoltas Just joined, going to do as much as I can
 * Ryan B. (talk) As much as possible, it takes a back seat to fixing vandalism though. But it comes before other non-needy articles.
 * SV I'm glad to see this idea prosper, but I only show up every once in a while. :( Maybe that will change. I tend to go line by line, regardless of subject, and usually start with the last link on the main page.
 * Lyellin Basically, I go to the latest day, or the very last section, depending on my mood. I also try to clean up articles that haven't been removed that need to be. Timewise varies- that's the life of a college student.
 * ··gracefool |☺ I'm gradually working from oldest to newest on articles that I might know something about. I also check all articles for the tag. You can see my progress at User:Gracefool/Maintenance (and thus determine up till what date articles have been checked).
 * cohesion ☎ I'll mostly do the leftovers, probably mostly on weekends, but other times through the week as I have time. I am changing my username from rhyax.
 * Mgm|(talk) 21:01, Sep 24, 2004 (UTC) I usually check the latest additions first. I mostly do formatting and copyediting, but when an article catches my fancy, I might do some research to add to it.
 * Pakaran. As needed, when I have time, with a focus on the hard sciences, especially comp sci, especially security.
 * Bart133 As needed, when I have time.
 * aedean When I am needed, and I seldom have time
 * Crazynas I try to get on every other day or so, working from latest date back
 * Koblentz I'll spend a little bit of time every day on articles that have been marked, oldest to newest.
 * Niall Jackson General cleaning, when I have time
 *  ●R EDVERS  HELLO ●  EMAIL  ●  DOINGS Go on then, why not? :)
 * Snargle has been doing some cleaning lately, and will do more.
 * Defunkier Ill try spend a little bit of time this - sort of feelin my way here.
 * Zsinj - When I'm not combating vandalism, I'll be improving the quality of our articles.
 * Waggers - When time permits and I'm bored of fighting vandalism or categorising the uncategorised!
 * Dakart - I try to do some of this everyday.
 * General Eisenhower • (at war or at peace) (History of War) CleanBot will too.
 * Hmrox 18:08, 29 June 2006 (UTC)Maybe I could help out once a week.
 * Dvandersluis - I've been working off of Category:Cleanup by month, from oldest to newest. I try to do some cleanup everyday, if possible.
 * Hamco 11:42, 28 August 2006 (UTC) - Will try whenever I can... now's good.
 * ResonanteyeI won't really bother to combat vandalism, unless it is poorly spelled or constructed awkwardly. I just copyedit. Proofread. But I like it, so I'll keep doing that at least twice a week.
 * Idunno271828 - I'm using Category:Cleanup by month and going from oldest to newest typically two to three times a week. I enjoy cleaning up poorly written articles, making copy, grammar and style edits, as well as fixing and presenting references/citations properly per WP:MoS.
 * ocrasaroon : ?  I've been doing it all along...send more my way!

NPOV disputes
Although these usually resolve themselves on their own schedule, it pays to pay closer attention to those that seem to continue for a long time. In general it's a problem if such a dispute sits for more than a month. At any one time, there should, as a general guideline, be less than 100 articles on the list of disputes (at least, that's the number we'd like to brag about in press releases when the usual questions come up). So if there are in fact more than that, it might be useful to determine if in fact there are still such disputes, and if not, remove the notice.

Any page that has been protected due to a spat should as a matter of course be noted as being the subject of some kind of dispute. This helps ensure that we have a good handle on all disputes going on at one time. A page that has been subject of (as a rule of thumb) three disputes should go on list of controversial issues also as a matter of course.

Team members

 * FRS 16:39, 20 October 2005 (UTC) I see that there are now over 1200 disputed Category:NPOV disputes pages vs "target" of 100! I suspect that a lot of those disputes are stale and the NPOV tag can be removed, and I'll try that where I think appropriate and see what happens.
 * Jbamb 15:44, 24 December 2005 (UTC) There is about 1500 now in Category:NPOV disputes, I'm working on getting talk and user pages out of the list and going through all the stale ones. I made move to categorize by month for easy detection of old disputes.
 * Zsinj 21:08, 4 February 2006 (UTC) - Currently exceeding 1400. Hopefully my efforts will get this number closer to our goal.
 * BlueValour 00:11, 13 June 2006 (UTC) I am an experienced mediator and happy to step in on request.
 * Steve Hart 17:33, 3 August 2006 (UTC) I'm currently working on pages starting with the letter A (please don't laugh ;)). There are 2.900 pages listed as of July 2006. Drop me a note if you want to coordinate efforts.
 * TrevMrgn 00:32, 24 October 2006 (UTC) - I'm trying to do a few from the Category:NPOV disputes list
 * NinaEliza 09:36, 13 November 2006 (UTC) I will try to do a little bit each day. I like responding to RFCs so I think I've found my niche here. I'm a relatively new user, so any help/support would be appreciated.
 * Antonrojo 18:09, 28 May 2007 (UTC) I often edit NPOV disputes in the sections Y, Mi and occasionally other areas (Ki right now). I am also willing to coordinate efforts.

Team members

 * Infrogmation (more help needed!)
 * rbrwr (very limited time at the moment)

Team members

 * Infrogmation

Featured article candidates
This page needs less cleaning work than VfD, but might grow to be a problem if some approval process is itself approved. In any case, some regular cleaning will be required:


 * Items that have been listed for a week, seconded/supported by at least two editors not involved in the article, and with no outstanding objections for listing on Featured articles need to be moved there.
 * Items older than 30 days with objections can be removed and archived if the page gets too long.
 * Full instructions can be found at Wikipedia maintenance

Team members

 * The first Monday of every month (possibly earlier that weekend). -- Toby Bartels
 * Every 15th in the month: &mdash;Eloquence
 * Every 17th of the month: Cimon Avaro on a pogo-stick
 * If I remember it, feel up to it and something needs to be done: Schnee
 * When I can. Bmills
 * Occasionally. Pakaran 03:22, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * Every now and then. Gentgeen
 * When I remember. Ilyanep 21:51, 31 Jan 2004 (UTC)
 * Whenever help can be rendered. Wally
 * Probably once a day--Josiah 06:33, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Featured picture candidates
Nominations older than 14 days need to be removed and archived to the July archive.

When you  promote an image, please perform the following:
 * Add the image to Community Portal - latest on bottom
 * Add the image to Goings-on - latest on bottom
 * Add the image to Featured pictures - note the two sections (wikipedian / non-wikipedian)
 * Add the image to Featured pictures visible - note the two sections (wikipedian / non-wikipedian)
 * Update the picture's tag: ->
 * Optionally you can check Picture of the day and feature the image as upcoming POTD.

Team members

 * Solitude - among others, not sure if I can add them myself here.
 * BrokenSegue - I do it whenever I can.
 * Primate - I'm workin' on it.

Archiving
These pages need to be archived on a regular basis; again, admin powers are not needed to help here.

Team members

 * As much as I can do: Elias
 * Whenever I can: Optim
 * Occasionally. Ilyanep 21:51, 31 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Team members

 * Whenever I can: Optim
 * Sane here. Ilyanep 21:51, 31 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Administrators' noticeboard
Also the subpages, WP:AN/3RR and WP:AN/Incidents. Discussions which have terminated need to be archived to keep them reasonably sized.

Requests for comment
This page is far too big at times. There are archive pages:


 * Article content disputes archive
 * User conduct disputes archive
 * Wikipedia convention disputes

Team members

 * Radiant_* 08:08, May 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * It has been requested that a bot aid in this, to auto-archive any RFC that has not been edited for two weeks.

Centralized discussion
When discussions run to an end, they should be closed and conclusions drawn so that they become actionable. This happens infrequently.

Team members

 * Radiant_* 10:07, May 25, 2005 (UTC)

Watch
Occasionally, no longer pertinent items should be removed from the list.

Team members

 * Radiant_* 10:07, May 25, 2005 (UTC)

Dust removal
Several pages require regular checking to make sure that all the random detritus left by new editors is cleaned out.
 * Notice: The pages for dust cleaning have gotten easier. Sandbot will assist in your dust cleaning with a single click of the button on that particular page. --AllyUnion (talk) 11:41, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Team members

 * User:Sandbot (AllyUnion.) Using an automatic robot, Sandbot, to clean the sandbox every 6 hours.  This includes the Sandbox discussion page. -- AllyUnion (talk) 18:43, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Because User:Sandbot is ill, SANDBOT, editing under the aegis of User:Uncle G's 'bot, is taking up the slack here. See the user page for details. Uncle G 02:50:07, 2005-08-08 (UTC)

Introduction
This has replaced Introduction 2 as the intended place for test-editing, so there's no need to revert apparent nonsense unless it's profane or offensive, though it might be a good idea to check every once in a while to see that the first two lines are intact:

Team members

 * I think Sandbot is doing this as well. BrokenSegue 20:36, 5 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * I don't think so. I looked through several weeks of edit history, and saw only anons, and an occasional user, nothing from Sandbot. Noel (talk) 14:12, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * Sandbot was working for a few days around the 17th - but something is wrong - so need extra vigilance until User:Sandbot's owner finishes his move
 * I frequently check my watchlist, and will revert the page if I notice it's been vandalized. I'm on regularly, anywhere between 9am UTC - 3am UTC. Being a freelance coder working from home I keep strange hours ;) --Hooloovoo 22:55, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * I have this on my watchlist and generally check it when I log on, usually about once a day. JesseW 17:23, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Introduction is currently broken, because none of the images are showing up... only the "local sandbox". I can't figure out which version to revert to... can somebody help? Mamawrites 07:57, 21 August 2005 (UTC) Nevermind, I fixed it. I guess I'm on this team now! Mamawrites 08:06, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

Tutorial sandboxes
The first pages of the tutorial (not including the front page) have their own sandboxes. They reduce the chances of edit conflicts, since the main sandbox could potentially get pretty crowded; also, it was thought useful for newbies to be able to see other people's experiments, since each sandbox has a theme of sorts. They are:


 * Tutorial (Editing)/sandbox
 * Tutorial (Formatting)/sandbox
 * Tutorial (Wikipedia links)/sandbox
 * Tutorial (Keep in mind)/sandbox
 * Tutorial (External links)/sandbox
 * Wikipedia talk:Tutorial (Talk pages)

They need to be checked occasionally.

Team members

 * User:Sandbot (AllyUnion.) Using an automatic robot, Sandbot, to clean all Tutorial sandboxes + talk pages every week. -- AllyUnion (talk) 18:57, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Category:Wikipedia maintenance