Wikipedia:WikiProject Molecular Biology/Molecular and Cell Biology/Task forces

Task forces
Task forces are groups of Wikipedians gathered for collaborative work on a particular topic within a WikiProject.

The MCB project is organized into task forces to deal with smaller chunks of MCB as this project has a wide scope. Everyone is encouraged to participate in any task forces that interest them.

List of WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology task forces

 * Metabolic Pathways Metabolic Pathways(talk)

To propose a new task force, please visit Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology/Task forces.

Why task forces?
The major reasons for using task forces are convenience and lifespan:
 * Maintaining an independent WikiProject entails some administrative hassle: You have to keep a current entry for the WikiProject in the WikiProject Council's directory.  You have to decide whether or not to be involved in article assessment, and if you are, then you have to create project-specific standards for assessment.  You have to create project-specific templates.  You have to find a source of new members.  In short, it can be a bureaucratic hassle that significantly distracts a small group from the major point, which is to improve articles.
 * Small WikiProjects often have short lifespans. When one or two active editors change their focus, or become inactive, the projects die.  Task forces, however, are meant to be smaller groups and can wax and wane as needed, without needing to worry about the task force itself disappearing.
 * Other reasons have been suggested at the MCB talk page Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Task force creation guidelines
Once a proposed task force has been discussed at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology/Task forces, follow the steps below. Replace name with the name of the task force (usually the name of the specialty).


 * Categories
 * Create a category called "name task force" within Category:WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology task forces
 * Create a category called "name task force articles" within "name task force" and Category:WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology articles by task force
 * Create a category called "name articles by quality" within "name task force articles" and Category:Wikipedia 1.0 assessments
 * Create the typical categories for article classification within "name articles by quality" (see Category:WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology articles by quality as an example)
 * Create a category called "name articles by importance" within "name task force articles" and Category:Wikipedia 1.0 assessments
 * Create the typical categories for article classification within "name articles by quality" (see Category:WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology articles by importance as an example)


 * Pages
 * Create "Wikipedia:WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology/name task force"
 * Add links to the task force and its talk page to WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology/Task forces (this page)
 * Add/update link to the task force at WikiProject_Council/Directory/Science
 * Add link to the task force at Portal:Molecular and Cellular Biology/WikiProjects

* Add links to the task force and its talk page to WPMED Navigation - Should MCB do the same on it's nav box?
 * Templates
 * Add coding to MCB to accept two new parameters (requires an administrator)
 * Document the two new parameters at both Template:WPMCB/doc and WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology/Assessment
 * Add assessment table to WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology/Assessment


 * Announce
 * Announce the creation of the task force at the announcements page.
 * Consider announcing its creation at a very small number of key articles within the task force's scope (such as Metabolism for the Metabolic Pathways task force).

Converting existing projects to task forces
To convert existing projects, follow the above steps with a few modifications.


 * Categories
 * If the project performed article assessments, some categories may already exist. These should be modified to fit the new category structure as mentioned above.


 * Pages
 * Instead of creating a new task force page, move the project and its talk page to "Wikipedia:WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology/name task force"
 * Check for subpages and move them as well. Be sure to update links that point to those pages.
 * Check for pre-existing auto-archiving on talk pages, and update those links as well.
 * Remove link to old WikiProject at WikiProject Biology

** Remove the old template from the list of alternatives at this page. - I suppose there is no MCB equivalent?
 * Templates
 * The project template used on article talk pages will become obsolete.
 * Article talk pages with both the project's banner and WPMED's banner need to have the project's banner removed, and the task force's parameters added to WPMCB
 * Article talk pages with only the project's banner need to have WPMCB added with the task force's parameters
 * Either redirect the old template or have it deleted.
 * These steps can be performed manually, or for larger projects, with the help of a bot. A bot has already been created for such a move.  See WP:MED examples here: Bot requests/Archive 22 and Bots/Requests for approval/AnomieBOT 7 for details.