Wikipedia:WikiProject

A WikiProject is a group of contributors who want to work together as a team to improve Wikipedia. These groups often focus on a specific topic area (for example, WikiProject Mathematics or WikiProject India), a specific part of the encyclopedia (for example, WikiProject Disambiguation), or a specific kind of task (for example, checking newly created pages). The English Wikipedia currently has over 2,000 WikiProjects, about 1,000 of which are monitored by 30–2,000 editors, all with varying levels of activity.

Function
The pages of a WikiProject are the central place for editor collaboration on a particular topic area. Editors there develop criteria, maintain various collaborative processes and keep track of work that needs to be done. It also provides a venue where issues of interest to the editors of a subject may be discussed. WikiProjects often write advice for editors, use bots to track what is happening at articles of interest to the group, and create lists of tools and templates the project's participants commonly use.

The discussion pages attached to a project page are a convenient venue for those involved in that project to talk about what they are doing, to ask questions, and to receive advice from other people interested in the group's work. Participants in WikiProjects also assist in performing quality assessments of articles pertaining to their specific topic area.

They typically are areas of interest or expertise and can be used for collaboration, coordination, competitions, outreach, decision-making, integration and mutual assistance.

WikiProjects are not rule-making organizations, nor can they assert ownership of articles within a specific topic area. WikiProjects have no special rights or privileges compared to other editors and may not impose their preferences on articles. A WikiProject is fundamentally a social construct: its success depends on its ability to function as a cohesive group of editors working towards a common goal.

Wikipedia has a very large number of WikiProjects. A number of them are fully active and have a number of active participants and even elected coordinators who help the WikiProject to run actively. Some WikiProjects are somewhat less active, but still exist as a collaboration and work-tracking venue where interested editors can exchange ideas and information. Some WikiProjects are completely inactive.

Finding a project
In addition to the search box above, you can also browse
 * Directory of WikiProjects: automatically curated & manually curated, or the BamBot list

WikiProjects welcome new participants; please feel free to participate in any or all that interest you!

Creating and maintaining a project
To create a WikiProject, follow the WikiProject guide and use the WikiProject proposals process.

Before starting, read the guide to WikiProject organization, and peruse some existing WikiProjects to understand how they operate in practice. If you're not sure about creating a new project, or aren't certain if anyone else is interested, you can make a WikiProject proposal. Groups of like-minded editors may start new WikiProjects at any time and are encouraged, but not obligated, to propose them before doing so. Formal proposals have many advantages, including receiving valuable input, saving a lot of work, and recruiting potential participants.

Inactive projects
Many WikiProjects fall inactive or semi-active because they have a lack of interested editors, or they simply  have served their initial purpose. Many small scope projects fall inactive or semi-active after establishing an organizational structure, advice pages, content assessment system, layout and inclusion standards, reliable sources, and navigational aids. These projects are retained for reference as they may be viable because they provide topic-specific considerations of the many site-wide policies and guidelines that still apply to a subset of articles.

The majority of WikiProjects - even inactive ones - still provide invaluable Quality Assessment tables which, though they may appear bewildering at first, actually serve an important role in helping any user find articles to edit and improve. They are sorted by both an 'importance' rating and a 'quality' or completeness rating. They also help users identify newly created 'unassessed' articles in need of a quality or an 'importance' rating. Any editor can contribute to this process at any time. In addition, many WikiProjects contain 'Article Alerts' and/or 'Hot article' notification sections which continue to serve a useful purpose by displaying automated, up-to-date activity notifications, irrespective of the level of current editor engagement with the WikiProject pages.

Some WikiProjects have been surpassed by other processes (e.g. WikiProject Policy and Guidelines), or are simply defunct (e.g. WikiProject X); and are  retained as a record of past Wikipedia processes. Any "inactive" WikiProject can be revived if the project has a "group" of new editors that would make the project an active place for discussions related to improvement of pages within the project's scope.