Wikipedia:Intensive Care Unit

The Wikipedia Intensive Care Unit is a place for articles written about a subject that one or more editors believes is likely notable, but the article itself is in such poor condition that it may face deletion on other grounds. It is an effort to turn bad articles about good subjects into those that meet Wikipedia standards.

The ICU came about through an idea by Realkyhick, a self-described deletionist who spends quite a bit of time on new-page patrol. He had nominated some articles for AfD which were about subjects that were possibly notable, but the articles themselves were sorely lacking in many respects such as reliable sources. During the AfD process, other editors improved the articles to the point where they then met Wikipedia standards. Realkyhick then withdrew the nominations, satisfied that the issues prompting the nominations had been fixed. Some editors criticized him for what they saw as an abuse of the already-overloaded AfD process, so Realkyhick came up with the idea of the ICU for such articles, to perhaps take some strain off of AfD and put these articles in a place where those with expertise in specific issues such as references, citations, verification, style and copy editing, and so forth.

Editors would first place an icu tag on the article page, and then a icu-triage tag on the article's talk page that lists the problems that need to be fixed (in a parameter to the tag), in a process similar to triage in a hospital or emergency room.

The ICU concept was created on September 2, 2007. The concept is very much a work in progress. Any and all suggestions and help are most welcome. This cannot succeed as a one-editor project, so round up all the friends and neighbors. Let's put on our surgical masks, scrub up and get to work. (We may need a screen shot from an episode of M*A*S*H here.)

To Admit an Article to the ICU
""
 * Place a icu tag on the article page
 * Place a icu-triage on the article's talk page, with the issues to be fixed as a parameter, such as:
 * Similar criteria would apply for articles admitted directly, bypassing triage.


 * Create an ICU page named Intensive Care Unit/Article name, and place the following at the top of that page (specifying the appropriate article name):
 * Article name
 * This may be cut directly from here and pasted at the top of an article's ICU page.
 * Note that whitespace must not be placed between the | character and the article name.
 * The article's ICU page should be named Wikipedia:Intensive Care Unit/Article name, using the article's actual name.


 * List the article as having been admitted by inserting a line similar to the following into the appropriate section of this page, specifying the appropriate article name:

Treated Articles

 * If the article has survived an AfD, remove the icu and icu-triage templates. Please label the article's talk page with icu-saved. Then move the article from the main listing below to the Intensive Care Unit/Article archive.
 * If the article never came to an AfD, remove the icu and icu-triage templates as above, and tag the talk page with icu-treated. Then move the article to the archive as above.

Untreated Articles

 * If an article has been in the ICU for two weeks without ever being treated, and you feel that there is limited potential for improvement, the article can be removed from the ICU. To do so, remove any icu tags, and add whatever cleanup or  dispute you feel are needed. Then de-list it from this list.
 * Also, consider adding findsourcesnotice to the talk page as a way to suggest where editors may find reliable source material for the topic.
 * In severe cases, articles may be nominated for deletion under the deletion policy.  However, this should be a last resort for removing articles from the ICU, and is not a substitute for treatment.

User box
If you care to join our merry band of meatball surgeons, you can add one of those user boxes to your user page:

Archive of treated and released articles

 * Intensive Care Unit/Article archive

News (Updated July 26, 2008)
It's still been a bit slow around this project, perhaps because it seems that there aren't many "borderline cases" that needed treatment. The vast majority of articles have been fairly cut-and-dried — they are either easily bound for deletion or not, with little in between.

On July 26, 2008, User:Inclusionist took it upon himself to, in essence, hijack W*I*C*U and the Article Rescue Squadron and merge them into another project. Inclusionist did post a proposal to merge the projects on our talk page, but then waited a whopping two hours before merging the projects himself. Inclusionist redirected our talk page to that of ARS, and also changed or redirected all of our user boxes and templates. I'm still repairing the damage. While Inclusionist may have been well-meaning, it was definitely unwelcome, at least without gathering a consensus first. Please check our templates, user boxes and any articles still in "treatment" to see if I missed anything. Meanwhile, please go to our talk page and express your opinion on a propsed merging of the related projects. - Realkyhick (Talk to me) 20:58, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't have to be in AfD yet
Remember that an article does not have to be in any sort of deletion procedure (speedy, prod or AfD) to qualify for an icu tag and our attention. If it's an article that looks like it needs immediate attention before it does face deletion, go ahead and tag it. Don't be shy.

Articles admitted for treatment
Click the article names below to access their activity logs.

To add an article, edit this page and add the article using a similar format to the articles already listed.

Members
To join, simply add " * " to the list. That will post your name automatically without a timestamp. If you have a "fancy" signature, feel free to use it instead. (We wouldn't want to infringe on your creativity. :-) )


 * Realkyhick
 * &mdash; Timotab Timothy (not Timdagnabbit!)
 * Boracay Bill
 * Nick mallory
 * 1 redrun Talk
 * • nancy  •
 * DGG (talk) 00:49, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Helmsb
 * Blueboy96
 * LaMenta3
 * --Darkwind (talk)
 * Vgranucci
 * Kathleen.wright5
 * B figura (talk)
 * Itsmejudith 17:30, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
 * --  ALLSTAR    ECHO  09:07, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
 * NickSentowski
 * --victor falk 14:04, 2 November 2007 (UTC) talk• Contributions
 * Dc76\talk, but unfortunately I have very little time to browse regularly through AfD lists. I like to do 1-2 things at a time, not 100, so... If you need help, please leave me a note here. I can not promiss help within minutes, neither a wisard's stick, but I can be at your side and honestly help with all I can.
 * FW07 (talk) 17:00, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
 * -- Le Grand Roi des Citrouilles  Tally-ho! 17:55, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
 * -- Le Grand Roi des Citrouilles  Tally-ho! 17:55, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Celarnor Talk to me 21:59, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Protonk (talk) 19:00, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
 * J.T Pearson (talk)
 * "Honestyisbestpolicy (talk) 17:47, 18 June 2008 (UTC)"
 * Alx xlA (talk)
 * --  Tinu  Cherian  -
 * Oboler (talk)
 * DiverScout (talk) 13:43, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Famous Mortimer (talk) 17:14, 20 November 2008 (UTC)