Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Africa/The Africa Destubathon

See
See Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Africa/The 10,000 Challenge

Gabon .ga
Gabon .ga was class=stub, but over 1,500 characters before I worked on its inline citations. Since it still has a tag, I am supposing that it does not qualify yet for this contest because it was already over 1,500 characters and it still has an unsatisfied citation. Perhaps I can satisfy that citation, but will .ga satisfy the rules? Tell me.--Dthomsen8 (talk) 19:38, 19 September 2016 (UTC)

The articles generally have to be under 1.5 kb prose when you start, but in cases where there is a still a stub tag/classed as a stub those will be permitted if you cleanup an article, remove some text and rewrite a bit. .ga stll has some unsourced claims. To qualify for the contest all entries will have to be fully verifiable.♦ Dr. Blofeld  09:37, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

Started
I notice a user has added an entry. Does this mean the contest has started? - Yellow Dingo&#160;(talk) 05:26, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

Hey it hasn't started yet ;-). Plus for a formal destub for the contest articles will have to be 1500 char (1.5kb of readable prose). This tool can measure that. In the meantime improvements can just go on the main 10,000 list. If we can try to drum up some interest in this I'd be grateful, given the massive potential of it I've been a little underwhelmed by the response so far. Thanks to both of you for seeing the light in it!♦ Dr. Blofeld  09:34, 21 September 2016 (UTC)
 * I took my name and the article out, and will await a start announcement.--Dthomsen8 (talk) 01:08, 22 September 2016 (UTC)

Tool size
This tool has no instructions. How does it work? Consider instead the Page size tool, in use for years by the Guild of Copy Editors.

Consider Page Size this script, which provides word and character sizes.--Dthomsen8 (talk) 01:26, 22 September 2016 (UTC)

Document statistics:
 * Sample output
 * File size: 89 kB
 * Prose size (including all HTML code): 28 kB
 * References (including all HTML code): 10 kB
 * Wiki text: 31.8 kB
 * Prose size (text only): 18 kB (3310 words) "readable prose size"
 * References (text only): 4 kB
 * Images: 443 kB


 * It turns out that both suggested tools produce the same result, as shown above.--Dthomsen8 (talk) 16:07, 31 October 2016 (UTC)

Funding link?
This seems to be WMF grant funded? Please provide link. I would like to learn more. Thanks! -- Erika aka BrillLyle (talk) 14:04, 5 October 2016 (UTC)


 * The main grant proposal is here. I've been careful to word my invites as the funding isn't approved yet. But I'm going to run it anyway, even if WM doesn't agree to fund it as I think something to try to attack 37,000 stubs on a poorly developed part of the world is a very worthy cause. One editor has pledged to donate something to a prize fund anyway. I think it needs larger funding so you can distribute funds to literally improve every African nation, and then offer reasonable prizes for women and geography articles. For people who are concerned that it might run too close to "paid editing" I have proposed setting up a book fund in which people can donate some of their winnings to a book fund for African Wikipedians which will help people buy books, and prizes for some of the ones like women can be books about women to produce further content for women on here, so all good!


 * BTW I was talking to Kirill about setting up a contest for Washington DC area in the new year, I'd be happy to help do one for NYC if it would interest you. I've done a fair bit of work on the city myself, including Waldorf Astoria New York and Smalls Paradise so would be very interested in working on that :-) One contest I ran produced this in a short period time. Now if we could emulate this in Africa and the US!♦ Dr. Blofeld  16:31, 5 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Hi ! It looks like a really great cause. I definitely hope it gets funded. Adding a link on the page to the fund might generate some endorsements, if you need more endorsements and visibility.
 * Are you familiar with the AfroCROWD initiative? Wikimedia NYC supports AfroCROWD on an ongoing basis. I am sure Alice and/or Sherry would be very interested in this project, as it dovetails with a lot of the African diaspora work they are doing so successfully. In addition to their Wiki Meetup namespace, their website has info, and they have a very active social media presence as well.
 * As far as paid editing, I think if you rephrase it to be a competition that's fine. I know that there are various competitions for photos (recent Commons one I believe) and other items (China User Group).
 * It looks like a very cool project. Good luck! -- Erika, Secretary, Wikimedia NYC aka BrillLyle (talk) 17:15, 5 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Hi, thanks, yes, I notified the AfroCROWD members of this contest today. An excellent initiative I think, Kirill first alerted me of it. A contest for African American topics might well be worth pursuing too, if there was support for it. I did some work on the early South a while back and found it fascinating.♦ Dr. Blofeld  17:55, 5 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Oh good! BrillLyle (talk) 17:56, 5 October 2016 (UTC)

Destubathon progress
As of this entry, there are 37,177 Africa class=stub articles, including 18,302 without importance values. These values will change with this contest, but also to updates unrelated to the contest, including new articles and articles changed to class=start or higher by reassessment. (I will update these numbers at the end of October 14, 2016, UMT.--Dthomsen8 (talk) 19:20, 5 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Cheers, most helpful. If you can think of anybody in the US or elsewhere who might be interested in helping with this ask them if you can. Ser Amantio though will be senidng out invites to the African country project members and sports projects within the next few days.♦ Dr. Blofeld  20:46, 5 October 2016 (UTC)

The map is old
South Sudan is not on the map. --Ugly Ketchup (talk) 21:51, 5 October 2016 (UTC)

Perhaps you could use some ketchup to quickly update the map with a red border then mate ;-)?♦ Dr. Blofeld  19:48, 6 October 2016 (UTC)

Spain
See Ceuta and Melilla Should we include Spain-related stubs? Only ones that are relevant to these two cities? —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 02:51, 7 October 2016 (UTC)

Good question. Yes, we could have a separate section at the bottom for loose non independent islands in Africa area. Could include the Canary Islands and Reunion too. Don't mind. If people work on them that's all good ;-)♦ Dr. Blofeld  19:47, 7 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't mean to be rude but we should clarify this ASAP, since the invites are all out, there are a few dozen who have signed up for the challenge, and the event begins in a few days. France: Mayotte and Réunion; Portugal: Madeira; Spain: Canary Islands, Ceuta, Melilla, and the plazas de soberanía; and the UK: Ascension Island, Saint Helena, and Tristan da Cunha. —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 08:30, 9 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I think for the contest we should exclude those and just keep it to the 55 countries as those entities are non African "owned". I would accept all those for the challenge though.♦ Dr. Blofeld  08:39, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

Going to add a new section for this at the bottom underneath Zimbabwe.♦ Dr. Blofeld  19:38, 16 October 2016 (UTC)

Clarifying content submissions
I am a little slow sometimes...just want to clarify how the de-stubbed articles are submitted. Do I strikethrough them on the Core Stubs page? Do I change User 1, User 2, etc to my username? I think that covers my questions. Kees08 (talk) 16:35, 9 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Seems to be change User 1, &c, to your namem under the appropriate country, and list your work there. It'd be ideal to strike out or remove the entry from the core lists so no-one else wastes time setting out to do work you have completed. What is as important is to change the WikiProject  values on the talk page from stub to start or C or whatever you have got the article to ... stub lists are generated with reference to the wikiproject ratings on the talk page. --Tagishsimon (talk) 15:13, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

It would be more ideal to delete the stub listing from the list page I think once done as it's a big page in kb size and will benefit from that.♦ Dr. Blofeld  15:17, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

Destub in progress
How to make sure that only one editor works on one article? The instructions tell us that we can embolden an article in the core list and add it under its relative country name in this project but can we do the same thing when we start working on an article e.g. assign an article to oneself for destubization, that way we can ensure that no other editor start working on same article. Sorry, I have a question and suggestion in this same comment.  Sh eri ff  |  ☎ 911  | 15:07, 10 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I suggest either strike-out the stub on the core list page, or remove the stub from the core list page. If you have or will take responsibility for it then it no longer needs to appear. Or put your name against it ... the method is less important than the outcome - that no-one else wastes their time doing what you are doing. Core lists are merely suggestions for things to work on, and have no importance beyond that. Fixed articles don't need to continue to be listed. Note my comments on the question above about tweaking wikiproject class ratings. thanks --Tagishsimon (talk) 15:17, 10 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Strongly suggest delete the stub from the core stub page once done!♦ Dr. Blofeld  15:18, 10 October 2016 (UTC)
 * In case it's an article which isn't on the core stub page, you might want to stick an inuse template on the article as an initial edit. That way it'll stop anyone else (or at least try to) from coming in and creating an edit conflict. Miyagawa (talk) 13:17, 11 October 2016 (UTC)
 * A good idea yup, but there's 37,000 stubs. Plenty of choice haha. And given that there's 55 countries plenty of time to space out edits and have a chance at winning something.♦ Dr. Blofeld  13:36, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

Watchlist promo message snafu?
"Win a share of 1,079500 in Amazon vouchers by participating in The Africa Destubathon between 15th October and 27th November." Do we mean 1,079500? --Tagishsimon (talk) 21:26, 12 October 2016 (UTC)
 * It's been fixed - when we drafted the message, we didn't realise that a dollar symbol was actually part of the template code and so messed things up. Colleagues with more experience than us on the Watchlist messaging sorted it out. Miyagawa (talk) 13:32, 13 October 2016 (UTC)

Suggestion: Make some on-wiki prizes
Quick suggestion, award some on-wiki prizes like barnstars (which cost nothing) that has a lower threshold to be given out. Not everyone wants to go after the cash prize and some editors may have limited time but they don't mind participating if there's something to entice them. OhanaUnitedTalk page 05:31, 13 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Of course. Barnstars will be rewarded to the most prolific editors anyway. And a national barnstar awarded to the winner of each country.♦ Dr. Blofeld  10:27, 13 October 2016 (UTC)
 * You may want to consider doing that for other 10,000 challenges. Gameify makes thing fun and keeps people engaged. OhanaUnitedTalk page 06:37, 14 October 2016 (UTC)

Consistency- Destubathon or De-stubathon or De-stub-a-thon
I have found the first two in this page- the third would be consistent with the majority spelling of edit-a-thon. Still its a great idea. --ClemRutter (talk) 15:51, 13 October 2016 (UTC)

Simply Destubathon I think is more visually pleasing and simpler.♦ Dr. Blofeld  16:27, 13 October 2016 (UTC)

Site notice banner: please comment

 * Call for comment here Thanks Anthere (talk)

Suggestion: standardize how we display the size change
I am a sucker for consistency. Any way we can just pick one way to display the change? Then I'll just copy/paste whichever way is chosen. If not I'll just pick one. Kees08 (talk) 19:13, 15 October 2016 (UTC)

It doesn't matter too much as I check each entry anyway! As with previous contests, people are different and have different styles of presentation. As long as the article is entered and there's a brief idea of what has been done it should be fine. I would avoid tables as much as possible for the entries though.♦ Dr. Blofeld  19:15, 15 October 2016 (UTC)

If I had to pick one it would 's style on Malawi. Feel free to go through and make them consistent like that and I'll try to get people to format it as consistently as possible.,♦ Dr. Blofeld  19:20, 15 October 2016 (UTC)

Like this:


 * Rodwell Munyenyembe – expanded on 15 October from 190 B (31 words) of readable prose to 3199 B (516 words) of readable prose
 * Etta Banda (core/women stub) – expanded on 15 October from 180 B (30 words) of readable prose to 2061 B (335 words) of readable prose

But then some contestants might not want to bother with three url links, takes more time. Really don't mind,. Something like]


 * Rodwell Munyenyembe – expanded on 15 October from 190 B of readable prose to 3199 B of readable prose would be fine with just one link.♦ Dr. Blofeld  19:22, 15 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Roger that. I'll go ahead and update my entries once I add another. Kees08 (talk) 19:24, 15 October 2016 (UTC)

request for rephrasing in instructions
The project page says here that "This is a Destubathon, so missing articles in general are not permitted." I suggest using a clearer phrasing: "Newly created articles do not count for the Destubathon." There is no violation of anything for an article to be missing or new, it just doesn't count for the contest. -- econterms (talk) 05:17, 16 October 2016 (UTC)

It's worded like that because new articles on women do actually count for the Destubathon! But general articles don't!♦ Dr. Blofeld  07:33, 16 October 2016 (UTC) People though can still create new articles (beyond 1.5 kb) and add them to the bottom list if they want though, but it's a Destubathon so if it's on anything other than a woman article is won't count for the entries page.♦  Dr. Blofeld  07:37, 16 October 2016 (UTC)

Amazon voucher prizes
If it's true that Amazon only ships to four African nations, I think we should allow cash for editors within Africa who win any of the prizes. Shouldn't be a problem, but it is a bit worrying if it's an African contest to win Amazon vouchers and only 4 out of 55 countries can receive items bought from Amazon. Don't want to send out the wrong message. We're offering subscriptions to resources too, so cash could be given towards those if people don't want the Amazon vouchers I guess.♦ Dr. Blofeld  11:31, 17 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, it was a good point made in a hostile way. Clearly we should be offering rewards open to the people of the continent. --Tagishsimon (talk) 12:49, 17 October 2016 (UTC)
 * If it's true I want some sort of confirmation first before I alter the ruling. I asked somebody at WM to look into it and they can't see anything which says items can't be shipped to more than 4 African countries.♦ Dr. Blofeld  13:23, 17 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I shipped a big medical book to The Gambia some years ago, slow but it got there. I have four books here in Philadelphia about Africa, and next week I can find out about shipping books to Africa via USPS book rate, insured. The winners might be in North America, not North Africa.--Dthomsen8 (talk) 02:30, 4 November 2016 (UTC)

Doubling, tripling, quadrupling doesn't seem fair
While in general this is a very wonderful contest, and thanks to the organisers for getting it going, I don't like the fact that some things count double or triple. In particular, on the prize page I read that certain articles can receive the same kudos for being promoted to GA as four others. That's clearly absurd. Someone who manages to get three or four articles promoted from stub all the way up to GA clearly needs more recognition than someone who only does one such. I suggest we proceed with each article counting equally. Thanks &mdash; Amakuru (talk) 22:20, 18 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Further to the above, I've just noticed that certain African women in a predefined somewhat arbitrary looking list get triple points, whereas others, such as Louise Mushikiwabo, who is Rwanda's foreign minister, are not on there and only get a single point. Thanks &mdash; Amakuru (talk) 22:31, 18 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I appreciate your concerns, Amakuru. You need to understand some background, I think. Let me take your second point first. Lists of stubs in this project are based (in the main) on talk-page categorisations of articles, notably via the WP Africa talk-page template and the  parameter within it. Where an article has not had an   parameter entered into it - as is the case for Louise Mushikiwabo for whom the appropriate categorisation reads "Unknown-importance Africa articles", then the article will not be included in our lists. Clearly this is "unfair", but so is life. We're trying to do the best we can with the information we have to hand. We do not have the resources to check the   parameter of every Africa stub, and so accept the consequential failure to list people who should be Top, High or Mid importance. (So, in passing, if you want to help: make sure that the   parameter is completed for all articles you touch, because people like us will be relying on them later).
 * As for bonus points. Dr. Blofeld, in his immense wisdom, has decided that he wishes to encourage certain outcomes, one of which is to get certain Africa articles - defined by their  having values of Top, Mid or High - to GA status, and is using points to influence behaviour. Clearly you are correct that someone taking a Top, High or Mid importance article to GA will score more than someone taking a Low or Null importance article, but a) rationally, if you crave points, you'll work on Top, High or Mid, b) you'll probably want to concede that if there is value to the   parameter, than prioritising higher importance articles over lower importance makes sense and c) you will recognise that poor categorisation of articles is the limiting factor here, and further recognise that that is largely out of our control.
 * Now, on specifics. It's my view that if an article which should, clearly, be Top or High or Mid is not on one of our bonus-point lists because its WP Africa talk-page tempate was not completed, or poorly completed, we should be able to heal that deficiency by a) amending the talk-page tags to show the appropriate importance and b) treating the article as if it was on the list - meaning that if it otherwise would have got triple points, it should get triple points and not be denied them merely because it was initially miscategorised. Blowers will have to rule on this, since it is his football. And, clearly, a good enough case needs to be made for the recategorisation of importance to prevent point-fraud.
 * I hope that helps.--Tagishsimon (talk) 23:10, 18 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't think it's a good idea for the stubbing part, so I won't be adding any further ones, but I disagree that it's absurd for GA. It was designed to motivate people to target the high importance articles/women articles and give people a chance of winning the prize with less # of articles and more quality and time into each article. A GA on Mugabe, the Rwandan genocide or Cape Town for instance would be very valuable. Why should articles like that be worth the same as GAs on more minor/lesser notable subjects which might require 1/3 or less the amount of time to promote them? If all articles are equal, then people are going to opt for articles which require much less time to promote as it goes to # of articles and not tackle ones which need heavier research and time. If I had more funding I'd probably just give prizes to the people who tackle the core articles, but I haven't so this is the best I can do. I would love to allow all women articles to be given triple scoring but then people would create lesser notable ones which don't require as much work and get them to GA rather than hit most of the ones which are more notable. So there needs to be a focus on the existing mid-top importance rated ones. And I need the rule on "existing current rated articles" for exactly the reason Tagishsimon mentioned to prevent anybody upping them to mid importance. I'll tweak the list though to allow "any woman in a government/political position in Africa, past or present". It's not ideal, but I'm trying my best here to create a mechanism which works. If somebody here volunteered to donate another prize for biggest effort on the central core articles for GA perhaps I'd scrap the multiple scoring.♦  Dr. Blofeld  07:54, 19 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the answers, and . That's fine then. I guess the issue is as much to do with the poor state of the tags on the articles as much as anything else. I had a bit of a trawl through for WikiProject Rwanda a couple of years ago, but I confess I didn't alter the Africa-wide assessments for those same articles... it's quite a thankless task, and we're limited enough with resources in this area anyway! I guess we'll just make the best of it then, and I do agree with the general aim of promoting the important ones rather than thousands of unknown species of African moth. If exceptions could be made for obvious errors (Louise Mushikiwabo seems like a clear example of a high importance African woman, for example), that would be great. Otherwise, I'll just stay focused on the target articles. Not that I'm too bothered about the prizes, by the way, but we want the contest to be both fair and productive. thanks!  &mdash; Amakuru (talk) 09:02, 19 October 2016 (UTC)

It's valid input all the same. There are some flaws in using lists like that which may not have proper assessment. But it was intended just as a rough list, if people cared enough to rate them then they might be more likely to be notable I hhough. And it was for exactly that reason you said I needed to give multiple scoring, because as you say one article might be worth 10 basic GAs on unknown moths or footballers etc. Anyway check out the updated list (which I was going to do anyway) and see if you can find some articles you can get triple scoring in. I've tried to offer something to people which cover the main interests being showed so far anyway. Apologies if there are topics and articles excluded but I will continue to develop the Quintruple list anyway, as a Core Article list for Africa which will come in handy in the future I'm future.

It is essentially a Destubathon, basic editing improvements, so this is really just a side dish offered, but given the level of interest in this it would be criminal in a way to not offer a good incentive for quality and core at the same time. Given the amount of time it will take to develop fully and balanced core article lists for every country then the lists given are never going to be anywhere near developed during this, but they can continue to be developed and work well in the future and you could run like the Africa Core Contest etc in which we can devote the entire contest to quality. There is at least a fair few in there already of the really notable ones to choose from anyway, if any of them get improved that it will have been worth it. Hope you enjoy this anyway and find something worthwhile to work on!♦ Dr. Blofeld  09:26, 19 October 2016 (UTC)

OK, I've updated WikiProject Africa/The Africa Destubathon/Prizes and bonuses. I think that's fairer and gives everybody a chance to focus on important articles and win triple scoring. I really think this is needed to encourage people to work on the important stuff, even if it means that some notable articles still get excluded. It's definitely needed IMO.♦ Dr. Blofeld  09:11, 19 October 2016 (UTC)

Tool addition
I don't see "Shared CSS/JavaScript for all skins:" in my preferences anywhere. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:20, 18 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Odd place to announce this. Still. In mine it is found in the Appearance tab of Preferences, under the Skin header, immediately beneath the radio-buttons facilitating choice between Cologne, vector, etc. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:24, 18 October 2016 (UTC)

Judging
I'm unlikely to be able to help much with content creation. However, I have assessed more than 10,000 pages against the WP:1.0 criteria, so I wanted to offer my assistance with any assessments or "judging" issues, if the contest needs a second opinion. Just ping me whenever you want my attention.

Thank you all for doing this, and good luck! WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:30, 19 October 2016 (UTC)


 * What time are you on, UK or US or Aus? I could certainly do with somebody to help judge entries between 10 pm and 8 am UTC + 0. When I log in in the morning, varies depending on the day it would be a great help to have people looking for entries and helping comment, approve and updating the scoreboard during that period to at least reduce the workload when I log in. I'd have more time to contribute myself then!. Yellow Dingo is also welcome to help with that. As long as you have a strong idea of what is needed, absolutely no unsourced paragraphs or poorly formatted references, and readable prose over 1.5 kb, and ensure that every entry makes it to the master list on the main page bottom you should be OK.♦  Dr. Blofeld  20:57, 19 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I'm in PDT at the moment. Can you give me a few diffs of what you'd like to have done while you sleep?  WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:03, 19 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I think I'm OK with the judging at the moment, but I'd be grateufl if a few people help check the current scoreboard and the ones approved on WikiProject Africa/The Africa Destubathon/Entries and see that they match up and are bang up to date as I'll have forgotten to update a few. ♦ Dr. Blofeld  14:45, 20 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Late follow-up: I checked through a string of articles about African women, and noticed no problems with those.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:08, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

thoughts on the book programm
Just wanted to push this initiative by WMF. Not sure it really really works well. But perhaps inspiration ? https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Merchandise_giveaways Anthere (talk)

WMF blog
Just wanted to report that we are mentioned in the community digest of the week on the WMF blog : Anthere (talk)
 * There is a link issue in Ed blog. I asked help fixing :)
 * To close the loop on this thread, I believe the link has been fixed. --GVarnum-WMF (talk) 19:06, 25 October 2016 (UTC)

What to do with stubs that aren't stubs?
I've noticed that quite a few articles (e.g. Eastern Highlands) on the stub list aren't in fact stubs but should be rated at least C-class. Presumably this is a result of the articles having been expanded at some previous point, without the article rating being updated to match. I'm happy to re-rate as I go through the list, but should these be marked as being destubbed or just removed from the stub list? Prioryman (talk) 19:27, 20 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I think they should just be removed from the stub list, they would not qualify as part of destubathon.  Sh eri ff  |  ☎ 911  | 19:28, 20 October 2016 (UTC)
 * According to the rules, any article currently marked as a stub with tag or assessed as stub on the talk page is eligible. If you see an article like Eastern Highlands you can add a little bit, make sure it's sourced and clean it up a little, update to start or c class and then claim a credit. Ideally of course most stubs would be under 1.5 kb to begin with.♦ Dr. Blofeld  20:09, 20 October 2016 (UTC)

Logo
I've noticed a logo has been created – should it be inserted into the main project page? MB298 (talk) 23:39, 20 October 2016 (UTC)

Standings
How can lurkers tell how close the standings are for some countries?--TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 19:44, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

I don't know what you mean. There's a scoreboard of approved entries near the bottom of the page! "Current leaders" section will tell you which entries only have 1 or 2, plenty still with only 1 entry so feel free to compete!♦ Dr. Blofeld  21:12, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

Leaderboard
Hi, I went through the entires list extensively and updated the leaderboard. I strictly only counted entries with ticks. I found a few issues that you should probably clarify:


 * 1) Morocco — AmaryllisGardener: You have ticked three of five articles, but you have responded to AG about the fourth and fifth articles in a positive manner. It seems like your accepting them but haven't ticked them
 * 2) Rwanda — Amakuru: You have ticked five of the six articles. The first article, Louise Mushikiwabo, had issues which Amakuru rectified three days ago. You may have missed it or forgotten to tick.
 * 3) Tanzania — Ask80: You have ticked seven out of eight but didn't tick the sixth entry, Jenista Mhagama, and didn't note any issues. I'm guessing you forgot to tick.

The only reason I bring this up is because I am very particular about stats. I think these examples are all just instances where you forgot to tick, which, of course, is not to surprising due to the extremely large volume of work your doing for this. I'm going to try to keep the leaderboard updated as much as I can, and I'm just clarifying a few issues. Thanks for all your work on WP:TAD, — Yellow <b style="color:brown">Dingo</b>&#160;<b style="color:BLUE">(talk)</b> 03:51, 22 October 2016 (UTC)

Thanks YD! , but as I said further up, you're welcome to do that and approve/correct/update the lists yourself. Yes, when I leave an article if it has issues it's difficult to remember which ones I need to look at again. I would appreciate it if you could fill in on that area and help judge yourself if I've forgotten something or left it. I can trust you on that. Appreciate you checking the scores! ♦ Dr. Blofeld  07:20, 22 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Ah, ok. I missed that above discussion. I'm happy to help out where help is needed. — <b style="color:#FFCC33">Yellow</b> <b style="color:brown">Dingo</b>&#160;<b style="color:BLUE">(talk)</b> 07:44, 22 October 2016 (UTC)

I can take take of most of the judging but yeah, when I'm asleep, I would certianly appreciate it if you could run a routine check for each country and fill in on that and help ensure it's as up to date as possible. If there's any you're ensure about then feel free to update me as here. Be careful on entries I've left though, sometimes I might add a citation needed tag to the article and leave the response.♦ Dr. Blofeld  07:59, 22 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Ok, sounds good. I'll try to go through the entries list once or twice a day, or if there is an especially large backlog. — <b style="color:#FFCC33">Yellow</b> <b style="color:brown">Dingo</b>&#160;<b style="color:BLUE">(talk)</b> 08:38, 22 October 2016 (UTC)

How many contributors?
Just did a quick scan and I think it's around 35 contributors so far, about what I guessed. 35 is good, but 135 people signed up haha.♦ Dr. Blofeld  20:42, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

New prize
Offering Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa by Kathleen Sheldon for the first person who can create or destub 50 biographies on African women. Contains 449 pages crammed full of biographies of women and institutions etc, many of which don't have articles. Remember to claim for this on the special claims page, the first person to claim 50 bios will automatically win it!♦ Dr. Blofeld  15:32, 24 October 2016 (UTC)

Core Woman destubbed
I have a question regarding the claims. I just destubbed Agnes Allafi who is a core woman for Chad. Can I list this entry in the special claims for both core stubs and woman stubs, or only one? --MrLinkinPark333 (talk) 16:22, 24 October 2016 (UTC)

Yes, that's the thing about this, doing core women stubs and you can try to win double prizes at once. Anybody can claim on both core stubs and most women bios. :-) $350 (£286) and a book with 600 bios to win potentially for the person who does the most destubs on women. ♦ Dr. Blofeld  08:17, 25 October 2016 (UTC)

Sisters Keepers was deleted A7, I translated from de
Hello, Dr.Blofeld and admins, My translation for Sisters Keepers bio was speedy deleted A7. Could you please help me to claim that I published in the namespace; I wish to have Sisters Keepers back so that I could link to Onejiru, afraid it would be an orphan again. Onejiru is a Kenyan-German and a core member of Sisters Keepers, an all Afro-German women group.
 * Published a translation from de:Sisters Keepers, or German article is not deleted in de yet.


 * Translation function on de:Sisters Keepers had given me very few citation as much as the original did.
 * I added 10+ citation on en:Sisters Keepers, before A7 deletion warning.
 * My mistake is that I overwritten the speedy delete Template when I contested the deletion notice, and somebody warned me before the article was deleted. Sorry to bother you, you might be super busy with debuathon... --Omotecho (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 22:31, 29 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Not at all. If it was well sourced it shouldn't have been deleted. Perhaps can look into it?♦  Dr. Blofeld  12:29, 30 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Thank you for crisp reply, Dr.Belfeld, it's published now. Doomo arigatoo gozaimasu. --Omotecho (talk) 02:07, 3 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Please check out Talk:Sisters Keepers and Talk:Brothers Keepers for class and importance parameters. I added WikiProject templates, but I am unsure about importance of this music.--Dthomsen8 (talk) 02:54, 4 November 2016 (UTC)

Hyperolius pusillus
Hyperolius pusillus has been claimed twice. The first editor did most of the work but did not remove the stub tag. Who is right? Micromesistius (talk) 10:25, 30 October 2016 (UTC)

This is why it's best to remove the stub tags and the articles from the stub pages once expanded as instructed to avoid this happening! There's no way Cwmhiraeth could have really known about that, as it still had a stub tag on it I think they should both be permitted it, though for the main list listing we'll just credit it as "destubbed by MainlyTwelve and Cwmhiraeth. If Mainly Twelve objects though I don't mind, whatever people are happy with.♦ Dr. Blofeld  10:31, 30 October 2016 (UTC)

Site notice
Hello. Did any one notice if the sitenotice has been up at some point ? Because I asked for it... it was approved. But I do not see it in the calendar and did not saw it ever on my screen. Can someone tell me if they saw anything ? I fear we were forgotten :( User:Romaine, can you help on this ? Anthere (talk)
 * I didn't notice it nope, I only saw it on the watchlist.♦ Dr. Blofeld  11:53, 4 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Yoooohooo. The site notice is UP !!! Anthere (talk) 10:37, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

Hall of Fame
How does one claim entry to the Hall of Fame (destubbing an article for each of the 55 countries)? Cwmhiraeth (talk) 14:40, 11 November 2016 (UTC)

You just did :-) I'll put you up on the board tomorrow!♦ Dr. Blofeld  20:22, 11 November 2016 (UTC)
 * User:Cwmhiraeth - superb effort.Ssriram mt (talk) 03:11, 12 November 2016 (UTC)
 * I may not have been the first, but one day short of closing, I've also managed to destub an article for each African country! Miyagawa (talk) 20:06, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Fantastic. Personally I took motivation from some of the users here, whom I see as stalwarts of the initiative. Dr.Blofeld (for the continuous motivation - Sir you read through 2,000 articles & edited some too - mind blowing!!), User:Cwmhiraeth, Miyagawa, Quetzal1964,Fsmatovu and Editorofthewiki. To be realistic, I wanted to be a passive editor at the start as I haven't done any articles related to Africa and never thought I would come this far. Wish you all very pleasant times ahead in Wiki as well as in all your personal endeavors. Thanks again.Ssriram mt (talk) 13:30, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Thankyou, and thanks for your work especially on the Level 1 regions, which when I planned the contest those were honestly the articles I wanted to see improved the most out of anything.♦ Dr. Blofeld  13:32, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Congratulations, Miyagawa. After the efforts we have all been putting in during the course of the competition, especially Dr Blofeld, what on earth are we going to do when it finishes? Cwmhiraeth (talk) 13:45, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Haha, looking forward to relaxing this December put it that way! I may resume with the Audrey Hepburn article or contribute a little to the challenges but I'll be enjoying more of my music I think, I'm a very keen jazz musician!♦ Dr. Blofeld  13:55, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * I plan on taking a nap! But as for Wiki work, I've got several projects I've been putting off for some time and I might see if I can finally work up Judy (dog) with the additional source I've got and then put it through a PR. I've only been working on the article on and off for six years! ;) Miyagawa (talk) 14:03, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Overall though I personally don't feel the Wikiburnout (on the level that the top contestants will) having run it for so long, as running it requires a different type of effort than contributing for 6 weeks straight and I can afford to find some time to recover during quieter spells!. I tried to do some articles as well though! I think 4 weeks is better for this sort of contest as around that 4 week mark it does get tough in weeks 4 and 5 I think. This could easily be replicated though, several people help with the assessing, a few bots employed to check for unsourced claims or badly formatted sources and run for Africa or different regions of the world every couple of months, it's manageable. We'll see how things go anyway, but given how productive this has been, I'd love to see this spread to other areas and not necessarily just me judging them either.♦ Dr. Blofeld  14:21, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

Houda Darwish
Can Houda Darwish, recently arrived article on an Algerian novelist, be saved? It's a big ask, but... --Tagishsimon (talk) 19:42, 11 November 2016 (UTC)

Sudan/South Sudan/Somalia = Arabic (note)
Please note that Sudan and Somalia at the very least are going to have information in Arabic. I discovered an example with a University in Sudan, which was easier to "put together" by realizing this. Google Translate to Arabic can work wonders, and other tools. The task below was performed for Blue Nile University


 * Sudan Universities on http://ar.wikipedia.org have University Logos


 * Use Google Translate to Translate the Title of the University to Arabic and Search


 * Save the Image, Wikimedia Commons requires an upload, most are uploaded "locally"


 * Templates such as; Template:Universities in Sudan and Template:Universities in South Sudan can be added at the bottom

Twillisjr (talk) 18:44, 17 November 2016 (UTC)

Deadline for claims
When is the deadline for claims? I'm just wondering because I don't think people have been updating the Special Claims section - there seems to be only a single entrant claiming articles for Geography/Biology whereas I can see a great number on the front page. Miyagawa (talk) 17:00, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

Last thing on the 27th before the end.♦ Dr. Blofeld  17:01, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

What's a stub
I might kinda sound dumb here, but I don't know what a stub is. It mentions them throughout the info but it never says what they are, and so I looked it up and didn't see anything. I'm kinda new to these contest deals I guess. Pls help. N. H. Feniak (talk) 07:38, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * There's three ways that an article qualifies as a stub for the purposes of this contest. It can meet any combination of the three, but only needs to have one. The first is simple - it has a stub template on the article (usually these are located right at the bottom of the article). The second is that on the talk page of the article, the class is set to "stub" in any WikiProject. The third is that the article is less than 1500 characters. Miyagawa (talk) 12:37, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

A short article, usually under 1200 or 1500 characters of readable prose but does depend. See Stubs. ♦ Dr. Blofeld  13:10, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

Project template
Perhaps it's a stupid suggestion but I wondered if it might be worth creating a template for the talk page of articles that have been expanded/created within the scope of this project? I'm sure a bot could be programmed to add them automatically and it might be beneficial in raising awareness for any future destubbing drives. —Brigade Piron (talk) 19:31, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * I'm sure  could sort that out.♦  Dr. Blofeld  22:34, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Template:The Africa Destubathon banner Needs shortening and editing but something like that.♦ Dr. Blofeld  22:42, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Sure. Shouldn't be too difficult to manage. -- Ser Amantio di Nicolao Che dicono a Signa?Lo dicono a Signa. 22:45, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Definitely worthwhile! Thanks to both of you for doing this. —Brigade Piron (talk) 23:47, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

Wow, what an effort!
Well done to everyone who took part, and a very special thanks to Dr. Blofeld for putting this whole thing together. What a lot of fun, and very very productive as well. &mdash; Amakuru (talk) 20:41, 28 November 2016 (UTC)


 * Very many excellent article improvements - especially to women biographies. Well done all & thanks; it's been great following your progress. --Tagishsimon (talk) 00:29, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

Geography/wildlife articles
Hi, what is the definition of a "geography/wildlife article"? I thought that all my effort (47 destubs, mostly frogs) would fall in this category, which should have been enough for the 5th place. Micromesistius (talk) 02:04, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

It is, yes you have 5th place.♦ Dr. Blofeld  18:18, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

Prizes
Apologies for the delay, I'm still awaiting WMF to wire me the money. I'll deal with them as soon as payment is confirmed.♦ Dr. Blofeld  18:31, 9 December 2016 (UTC)
 * No problem. Thank you for all your hard work. Jowaninpensans (talk) 19:49, 9 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I should get it Monday, the delay wasn't WMF's fault, but we were unsure originally of who would be dealing with the prizes, as when I've applied for grants for contests before I'm used to WMUK dealing with the prize. I was too busy running the contest to fully sort that out earlier on, so my fault ;-) Hopefully I can deal with this by mid next week anyway. I know some people will want the vouchers for Christmas!♦ Dr. Blofeld  20:10, 9 December 2016 (UTC)

Prize distribution
As I believe WMUK has paid Quetzal $200 and Cwm $100, and Dthomsen the $200 to Miyagawa I've deducted that from the main sums so now I have the grant money I owe the people the following amounts:


 * 1) - $425, sent email ✅,  Sent by Dr.B ✅, received voucher ✅
 * 2) - $200, Sent by Dr.B ✅ ,  received voucher ✅
 * 3) - $180,  Sent by Dr.B ✅, received thanks! ✅
 * 4) - $175, Sent by Dr.B ✅, received voucher. Thanks! ✅ Also received the money from Dthomsen as well ✅
 * 5) - $170 Sent by Dr.B ✅, received voucher.  ✅
 * 6) - $90,  Sent by Dr.B ✅, please confirm Fsmatovu when claimed (Fsmatovu currently offline)
 * 7) - $80, email sent ✅,  Sent by Dr.B ✅, received voucher. Thanks. ✅
 * 8) - $80, I emailed you ✅  Sent by Dr.B ✅, RECEIVED! Thank you! PLR✅
 * 9) - $55, email sent ✅, Sent by Dr.B ✅ — received, many thanks! ✅
 * 10) - $45 ✅, Sent by Dr.B ✅, received voucher, thank you ✅
 * 11) - $30 Sent by Dr.B ✅, received voucher. Thanks. ✅
 * 12) - $30 email sent,  Sent by Dr.B ✅, please confirm Jo when claimed, received with thanks ✅
 * 13) - $25 Sent by Dr.B ✅, Thank you! ✅
 * 14) - $20, Sent by Dr.B ✅, please confirm Amakuru when claimed. Received loud and clear. Thank you! ✅
 * 15) - $20 Info sent ✅, Sent by Dr.B ✅, please confirm Amaryllis when claimed - Received! Thank you very much! ✅
 * 16) - $20 Email sent✅,  Sent by Dr.B ✅, please confirm Ask80 when claimed. - Got it, thanks! ✅
 * 17) - $20 Sent by Dr.B ✅, please confirm BP when claimed ✅ Received. Thanks!
 * 18) - $20 Sent by Dr.B ✅, please confirm Redolta when claimed ✅ $20 added. Thank you very much!
 * 19) - $20 Sent by Dr.B ✅, received with thanks ✅
 * 20) - $20 Sent by Dr.B ✅, received ✅
 * 21) - $15, email sent ✅, Sent by Dr.B ✅, received, thanks! ✅
 * 22) - $15 email sent, Sent by Dr.B ✅, claimed, thanks ✅
 * 23) - $5 email sent, Sent by Dr.B ✅, received, thanks! ✅

Can all winners please email me, state your Wiki User name, your home country/currency, a functional email address, and the amount owed from above and I'll buy you a voucher and send it via email. Tick your name above when you have sent me the email and state that you've received the voucher, OK? Might be tricky in some cases as I have it in pounds not dollars so will often have to use the current pound equivalent.♦ Dr. Blofeld  13:25, 13 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't see Jaguar's name in this list. Hope he hasn't been forgotten! Cwmhiraeth (talk) 13:20, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

WMUK owe him £12-3 I think on that.♦ Dr. Blofeld  13:24, 13 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I've sent in the email, although being a dipstick, I only read this afterwards. British/Pounds. Miyagawa (talk) 13:26, 13 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Just confirm above when you've claimed it.♦  Dr. Blofeld  13:52, 13 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Done. I'm forever doing things back to front. Miyagawa (talk) 14:48, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

,, , , , please state above when you've claimed the voucher sent to you. please confirm via email whether you want it in dollars or pounds.♦ Dr. Blofeld  22:43, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

All sent. Only Fsmatovu to claim, but he's stated he is in Africa at the moment with access problems.♦ Dr. Blofeld  12:07, 18 December 2016 (UTC)

Barnstars
What's the status with country barnstars? Editors who destubbed the most from each country were supposed to receive a special barnstar, but I still haven't got mine. StAnselm (talk) 18:51, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

Contributors
Can you do me a favour and work out how many unique contributors there were. I have a report to write.♦ Dr. Blofeld  11:23, 1 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Shall do; I'll try to get around to it in the next couple of hours, but I'm a bit tied up right now. --Tagishsimon (talk) 20:08, 1 March 2017 (UTC)


 * - I count 118 distinct contributors, based on the article list in the main page.
 * 45 editors each improved 1 article
 * 13 editors each improved 2 articles
 * 22 editors each improved from 3 to 9 articles
 * 19 editors each improved from 10 to 39 articles
 * 9 editors each improved from 30 to 49 articles
 * 5 editors each improved from 50 to 99 articles
 * 5 editors each iproved more than 100 articles (145, 152, 175, 208, 218)
 * hth --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:40, 1 March 2017 (UTC)

Many thanks I'll add this to the review.♦  Dr. Blofeld  11:23, 2 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Can you work out how many articles of the lot were new and how many were expansions? Just need to know for the report, which I need to do before applying for another grant!♦ Dr. Blofeld  12:25, 2 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Is 89 new and 1952 improved. . --Tagishsimon (talk) 18:39, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

Excellent, thanks,♦ Dr. Blofeld  18:46, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

WikiProject Women in Red/The World Contest
Hi, I don't know if anybody is watching this still but I invite anybody to sign up for the women contest, over $4000 to win, Africa will very much be a part of it, a similar prize to be won for each country of Africa and any country in the world. Hopefully we can run another African Destubathon sometime!♦ Dr. Blofeld  16:04, 10 June 2017 (UTC)
 * I missed the above contest, but would love to see something like this or the Africa Destubathon again. Any prospect of it happening? Thanks &mdash; Amakuru (talk) 15:25, 30 April 2019 (UTC)