Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Membership/News/2018 Annual Report

Report by Reidgreg, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95, Miniapolis and Tdslk. | January 30, 2019

Introduction  Welcome to the Guild of Copy Editors' (GOCE) annual report for 2018, a summary of activity in our Drives and Blitzes, and the ever-busy Requests page. Thank you to everyone who has helped improve the standard of Wikipedia articles by making them "say what they mean and mean what they say". This year, editors working with the Guild helped remove 0 articles from the backlog and respond to over 660 requests for copy edit.



We have continued to reduce the backlog of articles tagged for copy editing (see graph to right); albeit with a pronounced see-saw pattern that reflects the alternating schedule of drives and blitzes. Because Wikipedia editors tag about 400 articles for copy editing every month, the backlog count tends to decrease in drive months and increase in non-drive months. 2018 started with 1,194 articles tagged; according to our monthly records, this count gradually climbed and peaked at 1,449 in April before being halved to an all-time low of 716 in May. In the subsequent months, the backlog total repeatedly crossed the 1,000 mark before hitting a six-month low of 825 in November and rebounding to 1,112 at year's end. The backlog was also shortened from eight to seven months.

The Requests page grew in both popularity and productivity, with more editors bringing more requests for copy edit which were completed at a quicker pace. The number of copy editors who remained active with the Guild throughout the year increased. Two editors were inducted into the GOCE Hall of Fame, and four editors were recognized for their long-term collaborations with the Guild.

Thank you all for your hard work throughout 2018; we hope you'll continue to be enthused and inspired to improve the standard of prose in Wikipedia. Happy editing!

In Memoriam
In March 2018, we were saddened to hear of the death of one of our coordinators; Corinne, a retired teacher of English as a second language, had been a Guild member since December 2013, and a coordinator since July 2016. Her good cheer, courtesy and tact are very much missed. Tributes to Corinne can be found on her talk page.

Membership
GOCE membership is open to all editors in good standing who are interested in copy editing. Please see our membership page for information about signing up, and remember to add your username to our mailing list to receive Guild news. Guild membership is voluntary and informal, and editors do not have to be members of the Guild to participate in its activities. Many editors perform copy editing outside of our organized events, but we have no means of tracking such efforts.

At the end of 2018 there were 1,697 pages populating the Guild's membership category, 1,215 names on the Guild's membership list and 575 names on the mailing list. This is a respective growth of, and  from the end of 2017.

Of the 84 editors who are listed as joining the Guild in 2018:


 * 18 completed a copy edit with a Guild-organized activity during 2018, including:
 * 11 who participated in one or more Drives
 * 9 who completed Requests
 * 5 who participated in one or more Blitzes
 * 1 who participated in all three activities

Coordinators
The GOCE coordinators are responsible for coordinating Guild activities, maintaining our pages, organizing Drives and Blitzes, looking after the Requests page, and performing other maintenance tasks that keep the Guild running smoothly. They are chosen twice a year through consensus voting.


 * Jonesey95 continued as lead coordinator for the first half of 2018, assisted by returning coordinators Corinne, Miniapolis and Tdslk, and first-time coordinator Reidgreg.


 * For the second half of 2018, Reidgreg served as lead coordinator, assisted by Jonesey95, Miniapolis, Tdslk, and veteran coordinator Baffle gab1978, who returned after a two-year absence.


 * In December 2018 elections, Miniapolis was chosen as lead coordinator for the first half of 2019, with Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95, Reidgreg, and Tdslk assisting as coordinators.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to participate. Elections are scheduled for June and December each year. All Wikipedians in good standing are welcome to nominate themselves or others. Please consider helping out if you can.

Hall of Fame
The GOCE Hall of Fame recognizes exceptional editors for unusually fabulous contributions to the Guild and its activities. In 2018, two editors were inducted into the Hall of Fame:
 * Corinne (posthumous) – For exceptional work copyediting requests, working closely with involved editors and fellow copyeditors, and mentoring newer editors.
 * Twofingered Typist – For unfailingly enthusiastic participation in all drives and blitzes for several years and outstanding work on the requests page.

Previous inductees to the Hall of Fame are Lfstevens, Diannaa, Baffle gab1978, Miniapolis and Jonesey95.

Requests page
Requests for copy editing are one of the Guild's main focal points. Our busy requests page saw an increase in use this year with 12% more editors requesting copy edits and 17% more requests being completed. The Guild received 692 requests in 2018, 57% of which were for good or featured reviews. Any editor can accept requests, although we prefer those new to or inexperienced with copy editing to gain experience with articles in the backlog before handling requests.

Among the requests received were:


 * 264 for GAN
 * 4 for GAR
 * 106 for FAC
 * 2 for FAR
 * 10 for FLC
 * 7 for PR
 * 4 for ACN
 * 2 for ACR
 * 4 for BCN
 * 4 for CCN
 * 32 for DYK
 * 2 for TFA
 * 4 for section copyedits
 * 1 for tone
 * 13 declined
 * 8 withdrawn
 * 231 unspecified


 * Monthly breakdown

Note that because some requests are declined or withdrawn, the overall received requests will always be slightly higher than those completed.

Some analysis and comparison to previous years:
 * 669 requests were completed in 2018 compared to 571 in 2017, 665 in 2016, 537 in 2015 and 486 in 2014.
 * 692 requests were received in 2018, compared to 588 in 2017, 690 in 2016, 543 in 2015 and 489 in 2014.
 * The mean average completion time was 15.36 days (the median and mode were 20 days), the fastest year on record. Previous times were 26 days in 2017, 17 days in 2016, 30 days in 2015 and 41 days in 2013.
 * Fewer than 12% of requests completed in 2018 waited for more than 26 days – the average wait time in 2017. Twenty-nine requests waited longer than 30 days and only one waited longer than 40 days.
 * 213 requests were completed as part of a blitz or drive, accounting for 31% of the total.

Distribution of time-to-completion of requests (in days) in 2016 (blue), 2017 (orange), and 2018 (green).

There were 13 pending requests at the beginning of the year, which quickly grew to the mid-40s by the third week of January. The February blitz helped bring this into the mid-20s but the number rose into the high 40s in early April. It stayed in the 40s for most of the remainder of the year, with occasional peaks in the mid-50s and dips into the high 30s. There were 36 pending requests at the end of the year.

692 requests were submitted in 2018, less 21 which were declined or withdrawn. 51 copy editors completed the 671 remaining requests, which were submitted by 238 editors.


 * Top-five request copy editors:
 * Twofingered Typist (253 and 2 assists)
 * Baffle gab1978 (126 and 6 assists)
 * Miniapolis (81 and 3 assists)
 * Gog the Mild (46)
 * PopularOutcast, Tdslk (19 each)


 * Top-five request submitters:
 * Aoba47 (37)
 * Tintor2 (28)
 * BabbaQ (17)
 * Another Believer, LouisAragon (15 each)
 * NeoBatfreak (14)

In recognition of their collaborations with the GOCE and insisting on clear, comprehensible and grammatically correct writing, four editors – Another Believer, BabbaQ, Aoba47 and NeoBatfreak – were awarded Teamwork Barnstars for years of work, each patiently bringing over 100 requests for copy edit.


 * Notes


 * Figures were arrived at by exporting tables from the 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013 request archives into a spreadsheet for analysis, particularly for completion periods.
 * Some requests were made for multiple reasons; these were listed in each applicable category.
 * Figures for completed requests discount any requests which were declined or withdrawn. Figures for requests submitted, received or addressed include requests which were ultimately declined or withdrawn.

A full list of the requests is available at our 2018 archive page.

Backlog Elimination Drives
The Guild's main efforts toward reducing the number of articles tagged with copy edit were six backlog-elimination drives held in alternating months, starting in January. At the beginning of the year, there were 1,194 articles in the backlog. A low of 713 articles was reached in May before rebounding to 1,112 articles at year's end. The backlog was also shortened from eight months to seven.

January Drive
 * In the first month-long Drive of the year, we set out to remove April, May and June 2017 from our backlog and all December 2017 requests. As with previous years, the January drive was an outstanding success with all but 57 of the target articles cleared by the end of the month.  Of the 38 who signed up, 21 editors removed  articles from the backlog and completed  requests for a total of 259 copy edits (490,256 words).

March Drive
 * The goal was to remove June, July and August 2017 from our backlog and all February 2018 requests—a total of articles.  This drive was an outstanding success, and by the end of the month all but 8 articles from August were cleared.  Of the 33 editors who signed up, 19 editors removed  articles from the backlog and completed 11 requests, recording a total of 277 copy edits (425,758 words).

May Drive
 * We set out to remove September, October and November 2017 from our backlog and all April 2018 requests—a total of articles.  There was great success this month with the backlog more than halved from 1,449 articles at the beginning of the month to a record low of 716 articles.  Officially, of the 20 who signed up, 15 editors removed  articles from the backlog and completed 18 requests, for a total of 151 copy edits (248,813 words).

July Drive
 * Of the 17 people who signed up, 13 editors removed articles from the backlog, clearing all articles tagged in 2017 and reducing the backlog to seven months.  Participants also completed 23 requests for a total of 194 copy edits (408,117 words).

September Drive
 * September's drive saw 19 editors remove articles from the backlog, clearing the target months of January, February and March 2018, and briefly bringing the backlog to six months.  They also completed 27 requests for a total of 294 copy edits (383,676 words).

November Drive
 * Eighteen editors removed articles from the backlog, clearing the oldest target month of April 2018 and helping to bring the backlog to a six-month low of 825 articles.  They also completed 31 requests for a total of 273 copy edits (436,549 words).

Drive totals for the year: 48 editors removed 0 articles from the backlog and  from the Requests page for a total of 0 copy edits or 0 words.

17 editors participated in two or more drives, 11 editors participated in three or more drives, and 9 editors participated in all six. Although 18% fewer editors participated in drives during 2018 than had in 2017, the number who participated in drives throughout the year increased by 50%.


 * Notes:


 * About 400 articles are tagged every month, so somewhere around 5,000 articles were removed from the backlog during the year.
 * Month-end backlog totals were taken from the drive pages. Participation was taken from the blitz and drive pages and their respective barnstar pages.  Numbers for request goals were taken from historical versions of the Requests page.  Some of the tables were exported and merged in a spreadsheet for easier counts and analysis.
 * These figures show articles for which editors took credit on the Drive page. Additional articles are removed during drives by editors who do a quick or minor copy edit and don't record it on the Drive page, remove a copy-edit tag because it is no longer needed, or nominate an article for deletion.

Blitzes
We ran six one-week Blitzes in 2018, in alternating months with the backlog drives.

February Blitz
 * This one-week copy-editing blitz ran from February 11 through 17, focusing on requests and the last articles tagged in May 2017. At the end of the week there were only 14 pending requests, with none older than 20 days.  Of the 11 who signed up, 10 editors completed 26 requests and removed 9 articles from the backlog for a total of 35 articles (98,538 words).

April Blitz
 * From April 15 to 21, we targeted requests and the last articles tagged in our oldest backlog month, August 2017. Of the eleven editors who signed up, eight editors completed 19 requests and 3 articles from the backlog (62,412 words).

June Blitz
 * From June 17 to 23, our blitz focused on requests and articles tagged in our oldest backlog month, October 2017. Of the eleven people who signed up, eight editors completed 7 requests and removed 21 articles from the backlog for a total of 28 articles (77,386 words), including 3 articles of more than 10,000 words.

August Blitz
 * From August 19 to 25, we focused on our oldest tagged articles, those from January 2018. Of the 20 editors who signed up, 11 editors copy edited 3 requests and 34 articles from the backlog for a total of 37 articles (71,990 words).

October Blitz
 * This blitz had themes of geography, and food and drink, which together supplied 103 tagged articles. Between October 14 and 20, eleven editors completed of these articles plus 14 requests for a total of 61 copy edits (90,313 words).

December Blitz
 * The final blitz of 2018, which ran from December 16 to 22, focused on requests and articles tagged in May and June 2018. Sixteen editors completed 15 requests and 65 tagged articles for a total of 80 copy edits (161,176 words).

Blitz totals for the year: 25 editors completed  requests and  articles from the backlog for a total of  copy edits (0 words).

13 editors participated in two or more blitzes, 8 editors participated in three or more, and 5 editors participated in all six.

The Guild awarded barnstars for participation on blitzes in 2018.

Leaderboard totals

 * Notes


 * Requests completed in 2018, counting a half-point when credit was split.
 * Includes blitzes and drives only.
 * Articles from the oldest or target backlog month(s) of each blitz and drive.
 * Number of articles of 5,000 words or more. An article of 10k+ words counts as 2, of 15k+ as 3, etc.

Plans for 2019
When I came in, in early 2011, the copyediting backlog was (if I remember correctly) about 8,000 articles. It's much lower now, which is great; however, what I'm beginning to see is that some of the oldest articles in our current backlog are still under construction (which makes copyediting them sort of a waste of time). A "cushion" of a year or so may be desirable in the backlog, to give new articles a chance to stabilize. It's wonderful to see new, enthusiastic copyeditors pitching in; I was a bit concerned about quantity versus quality, but am not aware of any complaints so it's all good. We have a good relationship with our requesters, and I look forward to another year helping to improve the encyclopedia with the GOCE. I really appreciate the help of my fellow coordinators, which makes being lead coordinator a breeze. You're a great group of editors, of which it's my privilege and pleasure to be a part. Have fun and all the best,  Mini  apolis  02:05, 30 January 2019 (UTC)