Wikipedia talk:Database reports/WikiProject watchers

Active watchers?
What is the difference between a Watcher and an Active watcher? Thanks in advance, XOttawahitech (talk) 23:21, 27 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Active watchers are users that did something (logged in, edited a page, etc.) in the last 30 days. User&lt;Svick&gt;.Talk; 16:43, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Report problems?
I noticed a couple weird things about this report. First, HTML5 (the article) is listed. There is no WikiProject HTML5 and as far as I can tell there is no category or other aspect of that page that would lead it to be confused for one.

Second, one of the most active (and most watched) WikiProjects, WikiProject Medicine, is not listed at all. I suspect this is because it is not in Category:Active WikiProjects, while others that I sampled are. Is that category utilized with regard to specific levels of activity or participation required? --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:33, 16 June 2015 (UTC)


 * The latter seems like something that could be automated if it's not already -- assuming the category retains its technical significance. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:33, 16 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I don't think this report uses Category:Active WikiProjects because WikiProject Military history is in this list, but is not in that category. --Scott Alter (talk) 19:05, 16 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I've made a note that the information is flawed on the article page. Hopefully the bug will be fixed before the next report. If not, someone can always note it again. --RexxS (talk) 20:50, 17 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I will look into how the list is composed. In the meantime, the numeric data itself should be fine, since it's just pulled directly from the Wikipedia API.
 * , there is a HTML5, which is considered a WikiProject. I don't know why it's being represented as just "HTML5". Harej (talk) 06:24, 18 June 2015 (UTC)
 * , there is a HTML5, which is considered a WikiProject. I don't know why it's being represented as just "HTML5". Harej (talk) 06:24, 18 June 2015 (UTC)

Source code
Which query do you use for this database report? I would like to have such a list in German wikipedia, too.--Kopiersperre (talk) 05:16, 18 June 2015 (UTC)
 * The source code is on GitHub. The part that generates the list of pages depends a lot on English Wikipedia specific stuff but the number of people watching a page can be retrieved through the API, as so. Harej (talk) 06:19, 18 June 2015 (UTC)

Active watchers again
Would it be possible to list active watchers like it used to? The "raw" watchers number is misleading if many are inactive/retired users, particularly for projects with a long history, their "raw" number would tend to include many inactive editors. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 19:20, 18 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Roger (Dodger67), I'm glad you asked! I too want listings of active users, but the API only gives the total count without any way to cross-reference with some active user list. I think the way it worked in the Toolserver days was that users had access to the full watchlist table—including usernames—and were sworn on their honor not to leak usernames, but could still analyze the information for active user status. MZMcBride, do you have any more insight? In any case, unfortunately it is not yet possible to list active watchers. Harej (talk) 20:58, 18 June 2015 (UTC)
 * T51506 would probably enable what you want. WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:22, 18 June 2015 (UTC)

Why is medicine not currently listed?
Medicine used to be near the top. Any ideas?  Blue Rasberry  (talk)  21:29, 26 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I'm similarly baffled, Bluerasberry. By all accounts it should be included in the list. In the meantime, the information specific to WikiProject Medicine is available here. Harej (talk) 22:07, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Why is the Wikipedia article on HTML5 listed as a WikiProject?
See list. The wiki article is HTML5.  Blue Rasberry  (talk)  21:18, 25 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Bluerasberry, it's not the Wikipedia article on HTML5, but HTML5, which is considered a WikiProject based on its categorization. Harej (talk) 21:47, 25 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Please check the counts of watchers. The wiki article on HTML5 has 500 watchers whereas the project page you link has almost none. I think it is the wiki article which is being considered here. Or do you see something else? Or am I mistaken?  Blue Rasberry   (talk)  21:51, 25 July 2016 (UTC)
 * The Earwig, can you examine the projectindex to see whether it's HTML5 or HTML5 being indexed? Harej (talk) 21:54, 25 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Looks like it's not coming from the project index, but from this query. The issue was that the query selects pages in the WP namespace but doesn't add "Wikipedia:" to their titles. Should be fixed now. I am looking into the missing WP Medicine. —  Earwig   talk 23:37, 25 July 2016 (UTC)
 * The issue was that the API query not being built correctly—fixed that. All good now, I think. —  Earwig   talk 00:00, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

Template using these data for use on project pages?
I think it would be cool to have a template badge for WikiProject pages that dynamically posted the WikiProject's ranking from this report. For example, it could say "WikiProject Plants is the 46th most watched WikiProject on Wikipedia, with 333 watchers!" Is that possible to do? --Nessie (talk) 02:07, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Missing Projects
WikiProjects are missing from these results. I did not find a bug report link for the hot. —¿philoserf? (talk) 07:54, 12 March 2020 (UTC)