Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Coordinators/Archives/2022

Template suggestion for newsletters
Hi all; I'm just about to strip an old newsletter (nl) page of content to create the March nl. Might it be more efficient to have a blank template to start with, much the way we do for drive and blitz pages? The template could be populated in the edit window. It could be located at something like. If this might be beneficial, I can cobble something together. Thoughts and suggestions welcome. The March nl is created here, btw; feel free to edit. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  03:39, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
 * I think that would be helpful. In terms of using the template I think substituting it into a new newsletter page before working on it would make creating one easier. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 03:47, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
 * A template would be helpful, especially as it would be easier to maintain the list of coordinators that way, as I've had to make corrections to the draft in that regard ("Minipolis" gave a blue link, which is odd since there's no such page; Tenryuu was left off altogether). What's in the draft now looks a lot like how the template would be, with all the placeholders for the copy editing statistics. Dhtwiki (talk) 21:38, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks both; I'll start working on it tonight. Although newsletters don't go out very often, it's a chore to set them up, and I think some time and effort for future editors could be saved. Dhtwiki, thanks for stripping out the old data; I created the page quite quickly earlier this morning from an early edit to the March 2019 nl. I'll work on it in my user space and then move it to template space when ready. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  00:07, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

I've started working on it in my sandbox; next question is what variables do we want to include? I'm not sure we need a lot and I don't want to prescribe a set format for future nls to use. Right now, I'm thinking of including variables for the newsletter's month and year, and coordinators' user names. Perhaps drives and blitzes could be made variables too. There's no hurry anyway. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  18:09, 20 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the suggestion,, and thanks to Baffle for doing the grunt work. Anything beyond simple template editing is beyond me All the best,  Mini  apolis  19:44, 20 January 2022 (UTC)
 * No worries; it's a long time since I made any templates so I'm just a little bit rusty with the syntax. I even had to fix the drop-shadow decoration since the deletion of two templates. Interested editors could try it out now (link above); variables are listed on my sandbox page, so you can input whatever you like. Current variables are listed at the sandbox talk page. I'll worry about the documentation later. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  22:01, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

Question: While we are standardizing future newsletters, what sort of tone should we set for them? I was thinking more informal than the annual reports, fairly concise since they're going to 700+ talk pages, basically a quick keep-in-touch note. Thoughts? – Reidgreg (talk) 00:12, 21 January 2022 (UTC)
 * I didn't want to standardize newsletters, just to make it easier and quicker to create than copying over an earlier one, stripping out old data and inserting new data. I thought a template would be the best way to do that; and as I said above, I don't want to prescribe anything. They tend to be fairly standard anyway. Generally I think concise and informal is good. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  04:22, 21 January 2022 (UTC)
 * When I said "template", I didn't mean the sort of template that exists in its own space and requires a template editor to place it there, but merely a block of text with placeholders for frequently updated data, which would make it less likely that we would inadvertently carry over old data to the new newsletter. Only if we could automatically update statistics with it would the trouble of fashioning a new technical template possibly be worth the trouble, although I don't want to discourage anyone from trying, if they're wanting to take a crack at it. My understanding of templates is meager: it consists of knowing to denote variables by { – } and calling them by positional parameters. So, would result in "This is the GOCE newletter for March 2022." when the template is defined as  If my understanding is a fairly good one, then fashioning a technical template for the newsletter might not be too difficult, if we're just sticking to text. Dhtwiki (talk) 23:35, 21 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Dhtwiki; I'm working on making most of the parameters optional, meaning ignored parameters won't appear in the page when the template is substituted. I've found how to do this now. I'm aiming to have parameters for adding two old blitzes and drives, and a new/current drive and blitz, pretty much as we do with the blitz and drive page-creation templates. Drives and blitzes will be automatically linked using the same parameters. Anything else can be added or removed as normal. If anyone want to play, there's currently a transcluded test case in my sandbox talk page, and the template is here. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  01:02, 22 January 2022 (UTC)
 * The blitz and drive links could be done automatically, without parameters, assuming quarterly newsletters created/substituted in the month they are to be released. (I can do that, similar to how drive pages automatically generate links to the previous drive's rollover words.)  Election notices & results could be handled the same way.  I am concerned that having to input (or even having the option of inputting) a lot of parameters could make this more difficult/complicated than stripping text out of the previous newsletter.
 * BTW, would it be worth having a page somewhere that just lists the coordinators' names, for easy transclusion and/or substitution onto other pages? (I think I'm bound to make a typo spelling one name or another.) Although some pages list them inline and some as vertical lists, so maybe that isn't the best approach either. – Reidgreg (talk) 17:18, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks Reidgreg; I am wary of making this more complex than necessary to use, and I like the idea of subst'ing in the coordinators' names from another page. That feature could also be added to the Blitz and Drive templates; the only downside being remembering to update it every six months or so. If all else fails, the template could be a bare page that's ready to accept text; the current attempt at hiding unused params would be more confusing in the edit window (so much for being clever!). I haven't working on it for a fortnight, perhaps it's time for another attempt this week. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  01:20, 30 January 2022 (UTC)
 * We have lists of coordinators, at this project page and for setting up the [|new drive] and [|new blitz] templates, but within various label formats. Would either of those formats suit your purpose (the two template formats are identical)? Otherwise, maintaining a separate list that suits your format would seem the likely alternative. Dhtwiki (talk) 03:48, 30 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks Dhtwiki; I was planning to use the same parameters as those two templates but sust'ing them seems an easier solution for now. It'll be a few days before I get back to it. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  04:37, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

January drive
Guess it's about time to set it up. How about the June and July backlogs and October and November requests? Happy New Year and all the best,  Mini  apolis  16:07, 26 December 2021 (UTC)
 * That looks good to me. Those two backlog months have 136 articles in total, which is about right for a drive. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:23, 26 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Sounds good to me! — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 22:23, 26 December 2021 (UTC)
 * I agree. I was thinking about getting it set up myself. Dhtwiki (talk) 04:22, 27 December 2021 (UTC)
 * The drive page is up, thanks to Jonesey's template. All the best,  Mini  apolis  22:53, 27 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks, all! If we can, let's try to do a little reviewing of the first copyedits that are completed by newer copy editors.  BTW, here are links for this year's drives and blitzes if you'd like to watchlist them. – Reidgreg (talk) 18:47, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

The barnstar page is up. All the best,  Mini  apolis  20:49, 2 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I've handed barnstars out. Everyone should have gotten theirs by now. Dhtwiki (talk) 02:43, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Many thanks! That reminds me to update the community portal listing... — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 06:31, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Sorry folks, I was a bit late checking the results and found a couple addition errors and some copying errors. All fixed now, I believe. (FYI, you can spot most of these by comparing the script output to the manual tallies for each editor's totals and the leaderboard, then investigating discrepencies. The sortable table output by the script makes it relatively easy to verify the leaderboard.) – Reidgreg (talk) 16:32, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
 * That was a lot of errors to be corrected. In distributing barnstars, I was working just off the barnstar page and was (too much, evidently) in a hurry to get it done, to prevent another coordinator from beginning to duplicate my effort (I probably should have first posted here that I would undertake that task). Is there a check page I could be looking at in the future? I don't have a working barnstar script to run. When I calculate barnstar totals, I do it by hand; and, of course, that's much slower, but tends to be more accurate (especially given the recent need for correcting the script output), as I'm carefully checking each editor's totals against their itemized word counts (which I usually treat as valid, although I can check outliers), etc. By doing so, I tend to catch many mistakes before they make it onto the barnstar table. But, then again, it's a hard slog, especially for the drives. Dhtwiki (talk) 00:24, 4 February 2022 (UTC)
 * The barnstar table is typically copied from the drive page, and it accumulates little errors, since it is maintained during the drive by human editors. The basic steps of compiling the barnstar page are: 1. Copy the leaderboard table from the drive page and mark it "unverified". 2. Tidy the drive page so that the script can run nicely, or make a copy of the page and tidy your copy (see the script instructions for how to do this). 3. Use the script to generate the sortable table. 4. Check the script results for reasonableness. 5. Update the leaderboard table based on the sortable table. 6. Give out the barnstars using the usual template. (7. Copy the updated leaderboard back to the drive page, for posterity.) – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:40, 4 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Step 1 could be done at any point before step 4. Possibly add 6b. Place checkmarks on the barnstar page for awards given ( and for those who have opted out from awards).  And in practice, to leave progress notes here, since it's pretty rare for one coord to complete the entire checklist. (Though I think most of us have the pages watchlisted and could probably figure it out from edit summaries if someone was suddenly called away.) – Reidgreg (talk) 06:35, 4 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Apparently, I was mistaken in thinking that the leaderboard awards were being generated by the script. I will know to better check that in future. In my experience, one coordinator does do the barnstar calculations, while another may well undertake the job of actually distributing barnstars (with yet another possibly awarding the initial distributor's barnstars, a past practice that hasn't been always observed recently, for efficiency's sake, if for no other reason). Dhtwiki (talk) 23:53, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

February 2022 blitz
How about a blitz for 13–19 February? I'm not great with petscan but I tried looking for themes and came up with: biographies (64 articles), television (53 articles), music (49 articles), African diaspora history (25 articles). Thoughts/ideas? Articles will have to be vetted once a theme is decided, aiming for 30–40 articles based on recent activity. – Reidgreg (talk) 17:19, 6 February 2022 (UTC)


 * The timeframe is fine. We haven't been doing themes lately. In addition to the added work in vetting, to my mind they cut down on one's flexibility in choosing articles. Do we have evidence that choosing a theme spurs editing activity? Dhtwiki (talk) 20:13, 6 February 2022 (UTC) (edited, striking extra letter, 06:23, 9 February 2022 (UTC))
 * I thought they were fun, though I can't say you're wrong. I'll try to look into it tomorrow. – Reidgreg (talk) 15:43, 7 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Okay, here are some blitz statistics:
 * There was only one themed blitz in the past two years: April 2020 with a theme of Indian military history. The unthemed April 2021 blitz had 14% fewer participants (down 2 from 14), 60% lower article count and 19% lower wordcount.
 * In 2019, there were three themed blitzes (April, June and October). These were the second, third and fourth-most successful blitzes of the year, in terms of participation and completed copy edits (the December blitz beat out April by one article).
 * In 2018, there was one themed blitz (October). It was the second-most successful blitz by participation and articles (again being edged out by December).
 * It has occurred to me that when coordinators have time to organize a theme they might also have time to copyedit more articles. So perhaps this is unsurprising. – Reidgreg (talk) 01:21, 8 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Since time is getting tight, we should decide on one or more themes and start vetting; my preferences are below. All the best,  Mini  apolis  02:10, 8 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I enjoy themed blitzes more than generic ones, although I've never gotten PetScan to work for me; the instructions make my brain hurt. Since it's Black History Month in the US, I'd like African diaspora history to be one of the categories with TV or music. Forty articles should do it, and I can help with vetting. Thanks and all the best,  Mini  apolis  16:12, 7 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I think African diaspora articles would be appropriate; we could use another theme as a standby or as a co-theme. I haven't looked at any of those cats yet. Sometimes triage significantly reduces the number of themed articles.I'm fine with the other suggested themes, my only point is biographies of living people must follow BLP policy, which some less-experienced editors may not know about. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  02:33, 8 February 2022 (UTC)

Yes, that's why I'm hesitant about biographies; many of them are BLPs. All the best,  Mini  apolis  14:16, 8 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I would also stay away from biographies due to policy concerns that newcomers may easily violate unwittingly. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 17:19, 8 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Since we seem to want a theme, African diaspora is appropriate, given the month. However, no previously constructed, "psid" list of African diaspora articles is linked to from Reidgreg's post, where all others are already generated; and I'm unable to construct my own list, by intersecting the categories "All articles needing copy edit" and "WikiProject African diaspora". I would add "Music" to that theme. It's the next shortest, although it overlaps considerably with "Biography", which would have been (one of) my choice(s). However, I see the valid objections others raise, although I haven't noticed too many new editors participating in blitzes. In the past I have concentrated on Requests during blitzes (and the backlog during drives), which is one reason I'm reluctant to have themes, which concern the backlog only. Dhtwiki (talk) 06:23, 9 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks to and my monkey-see, monkey-do WP learning style, I think I'm starting to get the hang of PetScan. I got 40 hits when I just entered "African diaspora history", but none seem to be tagged for copyediting. I'm fine with music and television, since vetting should whittle the numbers down some. All the best,  Mini  apolis  14:27, 9 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Petscan has a lot of options (across five tabs/screens) which can get a bit complicated. I put "African diaspora history" and "All articles needing copy edit" in the category box (on different lines) and set the depth to 10. I wanted to go down the category tree to get little articles but this seems to have cast too wide a net and shown the category system to not be 'defining characteristics' but any old thing; it seems like it included (for example) some universities which teach black history and through them all their alumni and anything someone thought was associated with them. Yikes. It found some good articles but needs to be thinned out. – Reidgreg (talk) 15:10, 9 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Petscan can be fussy. Here are 41 articles tagged for copy editing that are somewhere in the "Africa" category tree. With only 1,000 articles tagged for copy editing, our choices are limited. "Africa" is straying from the intended topic a bit, but they could be checked manually for appropriateness. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:09, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

This has 25 hits (I'm learning to play with the depth, thanks again to ), and I'd rather not have two pop-culture topics (music and TV). All the best,  Mini  apolis  01:25, 10 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I'll go through those lists now, thanks! – Reidgreg (talk) 01:40, 10 February 2022 (UTC)
 * In Miniapolis's list of 25, I counted about 6 that had anything to do with my understanding of "African diaspora". Of previous lists, I saw many that had to do with Africa, but those aren't strictly articles on the diaspora (also, in Jonesey's list of 41 I spotted such non-relevant articles as "House of Grimaldi", "Krull (film)", "The Adventures of Tintin (TV series)", and "Turkish Cypriot folk dances"). Let's do music and television. Besides, February is Black History Month in Canada and the US; in the British Isles, it's in October. Dhtwiki (talk) 05:05, 10 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I've gone through the Africa-themed articles, as best as I could. I was left with 35 articles roughly on topic, with notes that may disqualify some for other tagged issues or BLPs. Handing this off to someone else now, whether it's to work further on this list or put forward an alternative list. Link to February 2022 blitz. – Reidgreg (talk) 06:33, 10 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I'm willing to go with what you have, especially as you've expanded the theme to "African and African diaspora history articles", where the only article on the list that might not belong is Gulf Cooperation Council, which doesn't show any African member nations. And, you've included requests (which might always have been included when we had themes; I'm not entirely sure of that), which adds to the choices that people have. Time is tight, and you've already fixed the blitz page. Dhtwiki (talk) 22:33, 10 February 2022 (UTC)
 * About 21 hours before the blitz starts, to check the list. – Reidgreg (talk) 02:32, 12 February 2022 (UTC) (edited 06:23, 12 February 2022 (UTC))
 * Okay, going to remove my comments now and tidy a bit. – Reidgreg (talk) 23:19, 12 February 2022 (UTC)

February blitz barnstars
I've made out a barnstar page for this blitz. Would someone like to check it and hand out the barnstars? I'll also note here that a notice of the blitz didn't get posted to the Community bulletin board, under "Monthly projects", which is what gets transcluded to the Community portal. There is also no instruction for doing that on the main blitz page, under "Instructions for coordinators " (and might not exist on the drive page either). Should such a reminder be added? Dhtwiki (talk) 05:07, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Dhtwiki! I checked one request and another is as-yet incomplete. Will try to check the barnstar figures in a few hours if nobody beats me to it. Not sure about the community bb, I don't deal much with portals.  Was there one person in particular who was handling that? – Reidgreg (talk) 06:19, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I'm usually the one who does it. I've been swamped this past week and completely forgot about it. I'll remember to do it for the drive that's coming up. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 07:41, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * No worries. But since you're the one who knows how to do it, maybe you could add some instructions for that to the collapsed instructions on the main blitz page, main drive page, and maybe under the Ombox updates on the coordinator tasklist? – Reidgreg (talk) 12:14, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * @Reidgreg: ✅. I've posted in those three pages. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 16:51, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Checked everything and distributed barnstars (except for my own). – Reidgreg (talk) 12:36, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * beat me to that . All the best,  Mini  apolis  19:54, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

2021 Annual Report
Hi all; I've created the page (from the 2019 version) here and I've still to strip out some of the old data but I plan to start populating it in the next few days. Please feel free to add data, make corrections, strip out old data, etc. But it's a start. Happy New Year and Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  04:07, 2 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Baffle! FYI, after upgrading my OS, I transferred my old spreadsheets from Excel to LibreCalc, but I've run into problems with date formats when it came to importing last year's data. I still have to figure that out (the documentation is not great). – Reidgreg (talk) 07:08, 2 January 2022 (UTC)
 * No problem; I'm using LibreOffice 6 on Linux so I might be able to help a little. My usual MO is copy / paste data from the archive page into a spreadsheet. I do have a couple of old versions of Excel for 'Doze (XP and '95) so I may be able to convert it to .ods or some other mutually readable format, if that's any use to you. You could send it to my WP email addy. I may even have Excel for 'Doze 7 on my other hard drive. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  07:57, 2 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Baffle and ; we need to include something about Twofingered Typist, of course. All the best,  Mini  apolis  16:42, 2 January 2022 (UTC)
 * No worries;, I've responded to your email, so feel free to send the files my way; I'll see what i can do. I agree Miniapolis, a memorial section would be welcome, the Signpost submission could be adapted for the report. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  20:57, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

Now the 2021 requests are all done and archived, I've restarted work on the Annual Report. It may be ready to be sent out by the end of Feb; I'm prepared to remove incomplete items if needs be. If anyone would like to add anything, please go ahead. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  06:58, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Well, that's about it, I think... I'd appreciate a general check; also I manually added the Leaderboard table so it might be wrong so someone with more maths skill than me and me pocket cal... clacul... addy-up thing could check my sums... thanks! :) Also, feel free to add anything that's missing. It would be nice to send it soon. Topsheet time now; it's here. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  11:15, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

Drafts and the copy edit template
I saw the recent exchange over at WT:GOCE/REQ, and that brought to mind a question: should drafts be under our purview? I see that it still has the copy edit template that was added a few weeks ago. Should we remove it? If so, I'll update the template's documentation to exclude pages in draftspace. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 20:28, 21 March 2022 (UTC)
 * IMO, yes, it should be removed; there's generally no point copy-editing drafts until they're accepted into the mainspace. I've no objection to editors being helped to get drafts accepted but stale drafts tend to be deleted after a few months. I'm also of the mindset that thinks students ought to complete their own homework! :) Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  20:56, 21 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Support removal of template. I've tagged the draft with .  – Reidgreg (talk) 22:34, 21 March 2022 (UTC)
 * I've gone and removed the template from the draft, and also added guidance to not use it in that namespace in its documentation. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 01:31, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

I've declined the request; the title is still redlinked and there's been no activity from the requester since 21 March. The requester is welcome to re-add the request once the draft has been accepted into the mainspace.  Baffle☿gab  20:23, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

March DB report ready
I just updated WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Database Report with the results from the March 20 dump. I noticed no items had been changed since the February 20 dump, so I just wanted to make sure it's still wanted and that you're the still right folks to ping upon upload. (If the Guide work queue was just already full enough last month without these additions, no worries.) -- Beland (talk) 20:35, 24 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, . Yes, we still want to help; I think you listed the last dump after the bimonthly backlog-reduction drive had begun, and we didn't want to expand the current backlog by that much. We'll get to both after the drive ends in a week. All the best,  Mini  apolis  20:44, 24 March 2022 (UTC)
 * When copy edit templates are placed on articles, based on this database report, could we find a way of marking them as such, possibly by summarizing the reasoning for the template or even copying the list of what usually seem to be minor mistakes of contractions or spacing? These are not necessarily articles that need major work to be made intelligible. I just got done copy editing Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, which you tagged for copy editing in August last year; and as I did so, I wondered what was wrong with it. It must have been the inappropriate use of "you". Otherwise, while I found a lot to do, I didn't feel I was rescuing an article from profound unintelligibility. Dhtwiki (talk) 00:01, 25 March 2022 (UTC)
 * , I saw when I checked the history that I was the one you referred to as tagging that page last August ; some articles need more copyediting than others, but in my experience most articles need some fixing – that's what got me started editing WP. and I have been working on the database reports because the Typo Team and the GOCE are a good fit. When Beland began notifying us of the database dumps, our backlog was at an all-time low and it's hard to encourage new copyeditors when there's not much to do. I don't tag pages willy-nilly; I go over each one and evaluate whether it needs copyediting or something else. It's tedious, but the results keep the GOCE gainfully employed. Anyone, of course, is welcome to work on the database report after the drive. Cheers to you both,  Mini  apolis  02:08, 25 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Ah right, I was travelling and didn't have access to my desktop box at the usual time and so it was actually March when the February report got posted. I'm both glad the backlog was big enough the delay did not cause a work shortage and glad that there are still lots of folks working on making the backlog smaller. 8) -- Beland (talk) 01:49, 25 March 2022 (UTC)
 * When I tag articles from this report with copy edit, I usually add a for parameter with an explanation of the problem. The two most common explanations are "spacing around punctuation" or a list of the typos (not really an explanation, but I think it gets the job done). – Jonesey95 (talk) 18:20, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

"Daily articles edited" column in progress table in Blitzes
The "Daily articles edited" column in Blitz progress tables is customarily removed from Blitz pages (example here). Should it be removed from the template GOCE-new-blitz-page too? This column confused me tonight (I am easily confused!), probably because it's been a while since I updated Blitz stats. The column seems to be redundant anyway and removing it would save coordinators the bother of doing so every two months. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  01:50, 18 April 2022 (UTC)
 * ✅. That column was always more hassle than it was worth. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:35, 18 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks Jonesey; I'm not sure why it was even there; probably a remnant of the way we used to do things. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  03:49, 18 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks both; I was just trying to get the daily update to work . All the best,  Mini  apolis  15:53, 18 April 2022 (UTC)

March 2022 drive
I've set up the March 2022 drive page, with July (39) and August (165), 2021, as the eligible backlog months and January and February (i.e. all that's there now) as the eligible requests. I thought to limit requests to January (32) but included February (34), as the wording on the drive page implies that all requests are eligible. That gives more choice for those who will find something more to there liking in February; however, taking requests in order that they're placed would indicate limiting requests to January, since there are plenty in that month alone. Dhtwiki (talk) 06:14, 23 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I've just marked two copy-edits from two editors partly done here and here; feel free to remove them if my assessments are too harsh. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  21:25, 29 March 2022 (UTC)
 * There are two blocked sockpuppet accounts at the Drive; see my note at the drive's talk page. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  18:55, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

March drive barnstars
I've made up the barnstar page, leaving off the two sockpuppet accounts mentioned by Baffle gab1978 and making somewhat unilateral decisions on some of the scoring, which should be evident by my edit summaries and comments on the drive page itself. Dhtwiki (talk) 07:40, 2 April 2022 (UTC)


 * thks. checked barnstar page and leaderboard; looks good! (Note: Rublov has zero 5k, You-are-my-armour given wordcount to compensate for underreported article but no long article leaderboard) Reidgreg (talk) 12:30, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
 * I checked the table and made edits that I'm pretty sure match 's comments. Please correct them if I misinterpreted something. I also tagged one editor for the coveted and rare 10K award. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:28, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
 * sorry; hardware issues; meant to say that I noticed those discrepancies and agreed with how it was handled. Reidgreg (talk) 16:43, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Unless someone beats me to it, I can give out the barnstars. All the best,  Mini  apolis  20:03, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

April 2022 blitz
We have Easter and the following week as the most likely period (April 17–23). There's one full week after that (April 24–30), but I assume that no one wants the week that abuts the start of the May drive. Do we want a theme, as we did in March, other than clearing the most recent backlog and working on requests? Dhtwiki (talk) 05:12, 12 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Dhtwiki. I'd be tempted to do a Requests only blitz, as it's gotten up to 77 requests now.  But for the newer editors, how about adding the August backlog (about 73 articles) along with requests?  I'm good with April 17–23.  I threw together a newsletter at WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Newsletters/April 2022 to advertise for the blitz. – Reidgreg (talk) 05:55, 12 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks both. When the blitz page is up, I'll tweak the ombox. All the best,  Mini  apolis  13:28, 12 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Courtesy link WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Blitzes/April 2022. – Reidgreg (talk) 14:06, 12 April 2022 (UTC)
 * In the meantime, I've updated the community bulletin board posting. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 14:11, 12 April 2022 (UTC)
 * I listed September 2021 (61 articles) along with August 2021 (73 articles) on the blitz page. I'm agreeable to trying to clear just August, but that would mean we should remove the mention of September on that page. Dhtwiki (talk) 22:02, 12 April 2022 (UTC)
 * I did put together a March newsletter here but nobody noticed... feel free to incorporate the material there. I'm fine with the dates proposed for the Blitz, and it'd be good to clear some requests. I may triage August if I get the time and patience. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  22:35, 12 April 2022 (UTC)
 * That might have been overlooked with focus shifting to discussion about setting up a newsletter template. Sent the April newsletter, no errors reported. – Reidgreg (talk) 17:20, 13 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks; I'll have the March one speedy deleted; I don't think there's anything useful there. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  21:40, 13 April 2022 (UTC)

Barnstars
We seem to have some newish copy editors who contributed a lot to the blitz. Would appreciate any help with reviewing before barnstars are calculated. – Reidgreg (talk) 01:34, 25 April 2022 (UTC)


 * I've gone ahead and created a preliminary barnstar page. I've left question marks beside the names where there could be questions as to work claimed. The first editor is where you have placed two challenges and where the credit claimed probably will be downgraded, although I've given full credit in my table. The second editor is where I've given partial credit for considerable work where none was claimed, as explained in my edit summary. The third editor made one edit to a 23k word article, which I, who have just made 64 edits to a 6k article and would have certainly made more to this article, find suspect but can't determine that that was inadequate (I spot-checked the prose, and didn't see problems with it). Consequently, I didn't total the word and article counts. Dhtwiki (talk) 04:13, 25 April 2022 (UTC)
 * For to copyedit Latin America (the 23k-word article) in one go is not the kind of "diligence" we want to encourage, although one of my early efforts was to spend all day on a long request article. FWIW, I've been working on Wings Over Jordan Choir (12k, give or take) for several days and am nowhere near done. I've always had mixed feelings about the blitzes, because they seem to encourage gaming the project. All the best,  Mini  apolis  13:49, 25 April 2022 (UTC)
 * I think that we should we give full credit, unless we can find something actually wrong. We should soon come to a decision to what credit is to be given, so that barnstars can be distributed before the May drive. I've thought that if you're gaming the project you would wait for the drive, to do your major work, where you get a 50% bonus, as well as the ability to earn higher-level barnstar for the time given (the requirements are halved for blitzes, but which last < 1/4 of the time given for drives). Dhtwiki (talk) 07:24, 26 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Agree with ; we should get the barnstars out before the drive starts. I hated to use the G-word (gaming), but new editors can be dazzled by barnstars and what-not; I was too, until they started piling up . Hopefully, with time at least some will come to appreciate the value of the work itself. I can do the barnstars later today, unless someone else beats me to it. All the best,  Mini  apolis  13:56, 26 April 2022 (UTC)
 * I want to be fair about discounting some claims. I propose to discount Urban Versis 32 to 10% of claimed copy edits.  I'd appreciate time to check some of the others.  BTW, I don't believe the new copy editors are gaming or sockpuppets, just that they're unclear on expectations. – Reidgreg (talk) 15:31, 26 April 2022 (UTC)
 * I gave out a few barnstars (to our regulars) before seeing this, and we can hold off on the rest for now. We have plenty of time before the drive starts. All the best,  Mini  apolis  16:48, 26 April 2022 (UTC)

May 2022 drive
I've set up a new drive page and have changed the tabs page to point to it. I've included the two oldest requests months (February 2022, 18 articles and March, 30), as well as the three oldest backlog months (July 2021, 1 article (which wasn't there at end of March drive); August, 54; and September, 58). Dhtwiki (talk) 06:35, 26 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that July article popped up as the result of a revert . Thanks and all the best,  Mini  apolis  13:48, 26 April 2022 (UTC)
 * I took care of that July article and adjusted the drive page accordingly. Reverts like this, which suddenly populate an old backlog month with an article, happen a few times per year. The article in question was TwitchCon, copy-edited in January 2022 by . All of those copy edits have been reverted, as far as I can tell. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:09, 26 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Also, we're going to need to add October 2021 to the drive at some point. There are currently only 112 articles in August and September. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:11, 26 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Awesome, I changed the posting on the community bulletin board. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 17:02, 26 April 2022 (UTC)

Barnstars
moved from Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Backlog elimination drives/May 2022

Haven't noticed any being handed out. Has the script been run yet? — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 04:59, 5 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately I can't run the script as I don't have a copy of it, and I don't run Windows, and I think Miniapolis is on wikibreak atm. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  06:37, 5 June 2022 (UTC)
 * you were working on this manually (courtesy link WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Backlog elimination drives/May 2022/Barnstars). Looks like you want second opinions on some of the copyedits. – Reidgreg (talk) 15:09, 5 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I've completed a preliminary barnstar table but have questions on how to credit many of the entries. For now, see my edit summaries there and on the drive page, as well as comments left with individual entries on the latter page. Dhtwiki (talk) 23:41, 5 June 2022 (UTC)
 * @Dhtwiki: Let me see if I understand your concerns. I'll list them below with what you did, though I'm not sure if you've resolved all of them:
 * Kravk: Edited an article without a copyedit tag or request (Avars (Caucasus)). Word count has been readjusted?
 * Lfstevens: Edited an article without a copyedit tag or request (Mathematics). Word count adjusted by Dhtwiki.
 * Quid Est Squid: Full credit given for partially done article. Word count adjusted?
 * JML1148: Edited an article without a copyedit tag or request (Statue of Queen Victoria (Hong Kong)). Word count adjusted by Dhtwiki.
 * TheRealSerenaJoy: Miscalculated own word count?
 * Zippybonzo: Full credit given for New Amsterdam Theatre, but maybe partial due to "insufficient" changes by Dhtwiki.
 * JTF2020: Edited an article (Tek Fog) that TheRealSerenaJoy also edited. As far as I can tell, JTF2020 never mentioned they would work on it on the Requests page, but had copyedited before TheRealSerenaJoy did. Possibly give them partial credit?
 * Cioriolio: Edited two articles, Abortion in Alabama and Abortion in Florida, but changes were insufficient to be considered full credit. My concern is the edit made in Abortion in Alabama, where they add medically unnecessary codes, which comes off as editorialising and unnecessary. Some changes I don't agree with, but I think at least half of the edits in Abortion in Alabama are improvements to the article.
 * — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 17:23, 6 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Kravk, Lfstevens, and JML1148 should be easy to resolve. They will probably not miss my not counting the articles in doubt, especially Lfstevens who in the past has claimed only a fraction of the work they've done. It's just that I worry that I might have missed some unusual tag in an unusual place.
 * TheRealSerenaJoy copy edited 12 requests (the quality of which wasn't reviewed), gave a total word count, but didn't include individual article entries. I did that, but my total word count didn't match theirs. However, that ammounted to only a small difference. That should stand.
 * Where I think we need to adjust credit based on perceived quality of work is the harder part of this, and I'm looking for feedback from others before deciding by myself.
 * Quid Est Squid's article was marked as partly done by Bafflegab.
 * Zippybonzo's work has been marked as not/partly done by both Baffle and me. They handled the New Amsterdam Theatre article, where they made few edits, and I spotted at least one improvement that could be made.
 * JTF2020 can probably be easily resolved by subtracting the 2k of Tek Fog from their 66k word count (none of which was reviewed), especially since they are not the editor of record.
 * Cioriolio's work I flagged as partly done. That could stand some adjustment.
 * Today is election day, and my making out my ballot yesterday is partly to blame for my delay in responding. I still need to hand in my ballot. Dhtwiki (talk) 18:33, 7 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I've resolved Kravk's issue in their favor, having found that the article was tagged. I've left a note on Lfsteven's talk page, to see if there wasn't something I missed there. I haven't yet asked for clarification from JML1148. Dhtwiki (talk) 19:35, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

Hi all, I'm sorry I didn't do more reviewing for this drive. RL has been a bit busier and it's summer where I live. TheRealSerenaJoy logged a word count but failed to specify which articles they worked on, even though I left a suggested to do so on their talk page. Therefore, I couldn't check their work. I don't think we should award more than a participation barnstar; it's not coordinators' task to rootle around in their contribs (but feel free if you wish). (withdrawn since the articles have since been added). Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  23:48, 7 June 2022 (UTC)
 * When reviewing copyedits, please sign your comments so we know who's saying what to whom. Absent obvious errors or omissions, we probably need to AGF to avoid getting bogged down scrutinizing every copyedit. All the best,  Mini  apolis  17:47, 8 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Sorry, Miniapolis, but these aren't my reviews; I signed the few reviews I made. I agree we shouldn't get bogged down with reviews, I believe the guide says "10% of each participant's copy edits from the backlog should be checked"; I usually only review editors who are new to the GOCE, or with whom I'm unfamiliar. I'm always happy to have my own work reviewed. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  22:13, 8 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I should have signed any of the comments I inserted; so, I don't know who is being asked to sign their comments. Of course, no one does more reviewing than Baffle. Dhtwiki (talk) 03:29, 9 June 2022 (UTC)
 * In fact, I haven't been signing comments within drive entries. Nor has Reidgreg. I've gone back and signed our comments and have gotten in the habit of signing with tildes. I've resolved some of the questionable entries, but there are still four editors left where giving full credit is questionable. Dhtwiki (talk) 08:25, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

I've finished the barnstar page, removing question marks (and giving full credit to entries in doubt) and adding up grand totals. Would someone like to check the page and hand out barnstars? Dhtwiki (talk) 23:32, 9 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks; I've started giving them out. All the best,  Mini  apolis  01:55, 10 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks all! Sorry, I've been so absent; really busy offline. Reidgreg (talk) 13:22, 10 June 2022 (UTC)

June newsletter
I've started setting up the June newsletter here; feel free to add stuff. I'll start work on the REQ stats later, once I get bored with my current c/e. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  22:30, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
 * I've updated the newsletter and I think it's ready to send once we choose the dates for the June Blitz. Feel free to check, correct and ad stuff.  Baffle☿gab  04:57, 8 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks very much, Baffle, although I haven't had a chance to check it yet (busy IRL here too ). IMO, we shouldn't even think about a blitz until the May barnstars are awarded. I'm not the only coord with a script, and think I sent it to Dhtwiki (although I may be mistaken); if not, I certainly can. All the best,  Mini  apolis  13:13, 8 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I keep a copy of the script(s) here, where everything except the "Python script (not GOCE script proper)" section are the "script". That's for anyone who is interested. Perhaps putting a copy and linking to it from a GOCE page would be useful. It does require a learning curve to get it to run, as well as having the right hardware. Dhtwiki (talk) 03:26, 9 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the link, although it may not be a good idea to have the script publicly available due to the possibility of corruption (accidental or otherwise). It have a learning curve (especially for non-techies like me), but with Torchiest and Jonesey's instructions and a little experience of what it doesn't like it's much easier than doing the table by hand. Checking all copyedits at the end of the drive isn't really working out, IMO. All the best,  Mini  apolis  13:05, 9 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I don't know what corruption to the script could take place that wouldn't be noticeable and reverted, such as the usual vandalism. Use of the script is at best a quick first pass and a check on hand calculations. Even with the script, some investigation and tweaking would have been necessary for this drive, such as for the editor who put in considerable effort into handling twelve requests but without itemizing under their drive entry, or the times I've had to add old-article or request flags to itemized entries, without which the script would not have given bonus credit. Dhtwiki (talk) 21:09, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

Your diligence is appreciated, but IMO we don't have to do the participants' work for them. All the best,  Mini  apolis  20:35, 10 June 2022 (UTC)

and, I've updated the newsletter and I think it's now ready to go; sorry for the delay. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  07:26, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Sent after I replied below . Thanks again and all the best,  Mini  apolis  13:39, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

June 2022 blitz
Baffle gab has started setting up the June blitz page, but without setting the time or the theme. The two remaining weeks are the 12th to the 18th (which includes Flag Day) and the 19th to the 25th (the week starting with Father's Day). I think that we're too close to the 12th and that 19–25 is the likeliest time. We cleared the August backlog in the drive just past. Would an appropriate "theme" be the September (21 articles) and October (101 articles) 2021 backlogs, along with March (7 outstanding - 1 being worked on) and April (25 outstanding) 2022 requests. Dhtwiki (talk) 05:51, 10 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Dhtwiki. I'm happy with either week but the later one will give an extra week to promote it, and a small break before the July drive. Perhaps Sept and Oct backlog, and March (if any's left), April and May requests should give us enough scope to keep everyone happy. But I'll defer to the consensus. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  08:26, 10 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Sounds good for 10–25, Sept+Oct backlog and oldest requests. Reidgreg (talk) 13:31, 10 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I agree, although family are visiting from out of town that week and I won't be too active. All the best,  Mini  apolis  20:37, 10 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I've added the dates and themes; I'll add it to the Ombox in a bit. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  07:28, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Baffle. Let me know when to send it out (forgot if I offered you the mass-message flag; if you'd like it, let me know). All the best,  Mini  apolis  13:31, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

Barnstars
I've made out the barnstar page. Please check and distribute the awards. The page was relatively easy to do because, unfortunately, the number of editors and words copy edited were a bit more than half of those in April, with only a slight decline in number of articles edited. Dhtwiki (talk) 05:07, 27 June 2022 (UTC)


 * I've gone ahead and distributed the barnstars. Dhtwiki (talk) 01:22, 28 June 2022 (UTC)

July 2022 drive
A preliminary July drive page has been set up, with the backlog target months of September through November 2021, and March through April, of this year, for requests. Friday is the 1st; so, we should confirm this and have it publicized. Dhtwiki (talk) 01:43, 28 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Targets sound good to me. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 02:41, 28 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I'm now working on the last March request so suggest April and May requests. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  03:27, 28 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I've removed March from the July drive page and have updated the Ombox, to account for the barnstars having gone out and to announce the new drive. Dhtwiki (talk) 05:55, 28 June 2022 (UTC)

Barnstars
The barnstar page should be in a shape to be checked, and barnstars to be distributed. Dhtwiki (talk) 06:18, 3 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Looks good to me. Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 06:28, 3 August 2022 (UTC)
 * , you may want to check your barnstars. I took a quick look at mine, and with a 65K total I should have a Superior barnstar (not Diligence). It's moot for me (since Baffle gab1978 and I have opted out of barnstars), but there may be other errors. Baffle's barnstar is the same (Diligence instead of Superior); they should be based on the grand total, not the raw total. In future, I'll be happy to run the script (which does the brainwork ) if desired. Thanks and all the best,  Mini  apolis  13:39, 3 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Diligence is 60k – <80k words; Superior is 80k – <100k. See here. Although I'm pretty careful (after all, I have to be in order to get the rollover word count right), I went ahead and rechecked the barnstars. They all look good. Dhtwiki (talk) 04:22, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Sorry for my mistake,, and thanks for the correction (and your work). All the best,  Mini  apolis  20:40, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
 * And they're given out.  Mini  apolis  23:32, 4 August 2022 (UTC)

A random suggestion
In order to increase participation in GOCE drives/blitzes, you can request watchlist notices at MediaWiki_talk:Watchlist-messages—these are the notices that appear periodically for RfAs, Signpost, and other events. We've had no trouble requesting them for GAN drives. (t &#183; c)  buidhe  19:36, 22 May 2022 (UTC)


 * (non-coordinator lurker) I think this is great idea. Pinging lead coordinator just in case the above message was not seen. —  PerfectSoundWhatever  (t; c) 03:08, 10 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Sounds good, but I feel that I should defer this to whoever replaces me in July. – Reidgreg (talk) 14:38, 10 June 2022 (UTC)
 * We don't have a successor to Reidgreg as lead coordinator, but should probably address this; it sounds like a good idea to me too, since drive and blitz participation is down. We already have Reidgreg's input; pinging Baffle gab1978,, and . All the best,  Mini  apolis  13:55, 10 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I’ve got no objections- I will also happily take the task of requesting notices if we come to consensus for it. Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 14:02, 10 August 2022 (UTC)
 * We've definitely seen a drop in participation, so maybe getting a watchlist message for the GOCE can help boost those numbers back up. — Tenryuu 🐲  ( 💬 • 📝 ) 20:20, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Message-wise, I’m thinking something like, The Guild of Copyeditors’ August Blitz starts at 00:00 UTC on the 14th August and runs until 23:59 UTC on the 20th August sign up here (insert link). Feel free to modify it and let me know what you think. Thanks, Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 21:24, 10 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Agree; hopefully it'll bring more skilled copy-editors than the other sort. Be careful what you ask for, as they say. ;). Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  21:33, 10 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I’ll do that tommorow then. Thanks, Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 21:51, 10 August 2022 (UTC)
 * ✅ Request made on talk page. Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 10:45, 11 August 2022 (UTC)


 * I'm also in agreement with this. We also have other options, such as limiting requests to *one*, not two, active requests per editor. Also, noting in our newsletter that we have fallen behind, and need help, might bring in extra hands. We have an extensive mailing list of those who have shown an interest in our project. Many more names there than participate in drives and blitzes, and they might respond to an appeal. Dhtwiki (talk) 04:15, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I've just been playing with the Sept NL so I'll add a note on there; btw as of my timestamp, according to the archive, we've processed 259 requests sine 1 Jan, inc. withdrawn and declined ones. I think it's a bit early for that limit yet; the current limit came in abt two years ago and it hasn't helped reduce the pressure. At a push, we could simply close REQ to new requests until the extant ones have been dealt with. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  05:13, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I'd rather see one request per editor than close the request page until further notice; some requests, which might be shut out without merit, are more deserving of prompt attention than others. Thanks for taking care of the notice, (and thanks  for the suggestion); with more hands on deck, much of this would be moot . All the best,  Mini  apolis  13:16, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Baffle gab1978 Miniapolis Dhtwiki Won’t this just influence socking and meatpuppeting to get multiple requests? Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 15:04, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
 * It's possible but socking and meating are blockable offenses that could shut down an editor's main account assuming they aren't socks to begin with. Back when I had more time to write articles I often maxed out GOCE requests (and tried to copyedit some articles to make up for it), but I would never have considered meating or socking. I'd rather see requests page switched to 1 per editor or have requests for highly viewed or important articles to be prioritized. (t &#183; c)  buidhe  16:01, 11 August 2022 (UTC)

I agree with Buidhe, and WP:BEANS comes to mind. All the best,  Mini  apolis  20:48, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Agree that sockpuppetry is unlikely, as those violations are taken very seriously. Not only can you be blocked, but even otherwise thoughtful contributions can be arbitrarily reverted just for being the product of someone who socks (and republished by someone more responsible, if the contributions are truly valuable). Dhtwiki (talk) 05:06, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

August 2022 blitz
The blitz page is already up. August 14–20 and 21–27 are the two full weeks remaining. The oldest backlog consists of October (56 articles) and November (68) 2021. May and June 2022 requests amount to 12 (5 being worked on) and 31 (1 partly done), respectively. Dhtwiki (talk) 06:23, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, . We should probably plan it for August 14–20, since the second week is too close to the September drive. All the best,  Mini  apolis  13:10, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Seconded, a break before the next drive is always good :-) Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  21:23, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Also agree with its being the 14th to the 20th. Baffle gab started the blitz page (as of July 27, no less), but it will need to be completed, once we're all agreed here. Dhtwiki (talk) 22:55, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Sorry for the late response, but I also agree with it starting next week; gives us some buffer space for the backlog in September. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 02:26, 10 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I’m good with next week - I completely forgot to check my watchlist. Thanks, Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 06:59, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Target wise, for tags; October - November and for requests; May - July. Any thoughts? Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 17:13, 10 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Sounds good to me. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 20:19, 10 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Me too, since the requests page is long again. All the best,  Mini  apolis  23:24, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Barnstars
The barnstar page is ready. Dhtwiki (talk) 05:31, 22 August 2022 (UTC)


 * I've gone ahead and handed out the barnstars. Dhtwiki (talk) 05:59, 23 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks; I was AFK yesterday. All the best,  Mini  apolis  13:23, 24 August 2022 (UTC)

Wikibreak
Hi all, I'll be away for a few days this week, should be back 21 September (UTC). Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  03:33, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Enjoy your wikibreak! All the best,  Mini  apolis  13:54, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Enjoy your break! — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 18:41, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

September 2022 drive
Guess it's time to start thinking about the September drive. Since I don't like to set unrealistic goals, I was thinking about the October and November backlogs and June and July requests; The Rolling Stones is a sword of Damocles. All the best,  Mini  apolis  22:21, 25 August 2022 (UTC)


 * Sounds fine to me. Dhtwiki (talk) 23:36, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
 * That looks good to me, Thanks, Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 07:44, 26 August 2022 (UTC)
 * October and November 2021 total 70 between them, which is lower than any actual backlog reduction from the specified oldest months over the past six drives. The lowest number of articles removed from the designated backlog was 88 this past May and January, with last September the highest at 131. Admittedly, December 2021 is 144 by itself, but it seems almost certain that it will need to be added to the backlog before the month is up. If you include December to start with (214 total), there won't be any momentum lost from people waiting to start on December entries until the bonus kicks in. BlueMoonset (talk) 23:51, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

I've gone and requested a watchlist message for the drive, hopefully this will increase participation if it's done earlier. Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 07:54, 26 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Jonesey set October–December as the backlog months, as of the 24th. So, I guess that may be that. However, leaving December to be added at the end would help ensure that the last one or two articles in previous months, that no one really wants, do get taken care of. Dhtwiki (talk) 08:42, 26 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Jonesey was right; BlueMoonset, thanks for your input. Hope we get more participation this time, and I make a point of doing the last couple of articles at the end of a backlog month; WP:G6 is one of my small pleasures . All the best,  Mini  apolis  13:41, 26 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for setting this up. I'll update the community portal as always. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 05:06, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

Sept 2022 Barnstars
While doing manual counts and checks, I found a couple possible discrepancies for review: Those are the ones I noticed. – Reidgreg (talk) 20:26, 2 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Lfstevens claimed 13500 words for the copyedit of Switzerland, but the pre-copyedit version (oldid) shows only a single section tagged (approx 530 words).
 * Edited the whole thing. Lfstevens (talk)
 * Rublamb claimed 31800 words for List of Art Deco architecture in the United States which is a fairly simple list of places with almost no prose.
 * Ruud Buitelaar claimed 864 for Suriname (Kingdom of the Netherlands) but it only had a single section tagged (oldid) for 315 words.
 * Puppies937 claimed Greg Horsman which does not appear to have been tagged for copy edit or at requests.
 * has been around a while (longer than I have), and probably copyedited the whole article; may have done the same. The others may be gaming, which we need to nip in the bud (without biting ). All the best,  Mini  apolis  00:09, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Guilty as charged! I am new to this and wasn´t really sure how this worked. Please count my copyedit of Suriname (Kingdom of the Netherlands) for 315 words instead of 864. Ruud Buitelaar (talk) 01:01, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * No need for that,, since you copyedited the whole thing; we just have enough to do as it is with tagged and requested content. I'm also in the habit of not looking for the tag at the top of the page; sometimes you have to search for "copy edit", which is occasionally just an inline tag . Thanks for your help and all the best,  Mini  apolis  13:26, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * On the drive FAQ page, under Page size, the last answer states: For the purposes of the drive or blitz, you should generally only count the words in the section that was tagged with. That's from January 2019.  The last edit to that page (diff) removed a sentence which entitled the copy editor to claim the entire article if they felt it needed copy editing. The removal of that sentence was based on discussions in Nov 2018 and Jan 2019. – Reidgreg (talk) 15:36, 3 October 2022 (UTC)


 * And I've found a few instances of considerable work that's gone unclaimed, where we might give partial credit:
 * GenQuest at Vogeti Ramakrishnayya
 * Copyedit begun three hours before end of drive, so little or no credit IMO.  Mini  apolis  00:19, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Yes, little work before the end of the 30th. Didn't give credit. Editor had a respectable score anyway. Dhtwiki (talk) 23:30, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * PacificDepths at Zhu Dehai
 * Partial credit.  Mini  apolis  00:22, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Gave 1/2 credit. More than half the article had been copy edited before the drive ended, and the editor finished copy editing this month. Dhtwiki (talk) 23:30, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Johnson524 at 2022 Tunisian constitutional referendum
 * Some credit deserved, but I have no intention of counting other editors' work; the instructions clearly state that we keep our own records.  Mini  apolis  00:25, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Gave 1/2 credit. Editor otherwise wouldn't earn a barnstar. Considerable work done but not all tense issues addressed. Article is still tagged, as it should be. Dhtwiki (talk) 23:30, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Otherwise, the barnstar page is fairly complete. Dhtwiki (talk) 22:14, 2 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I've taken totals and made some other finishing edits to the barnstar page. I've also rechecked individual totals, as Jonesey95 had found an error with his. Unless there are other adjustments to be made, the barnstars should be ready to be distributed. Dhtwiki (talk) 20:25, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I edit-conflicted with you when I started doing that . All the best,  Mini  apolis  22:46, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I hope that means that your totals agreed with mine. It took me several tries to get total-words right. There should be a wiki-spreadsheet where numbers in named ranges will be automatically totaled, as well as number columns automatically being right-aligned (I haven't seen those functions in wiki-tables, but I might have missed something). Dhtwiki (talk) 03:11, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your hard work, ; I was just getting started, ticking Baffle and me. FWIW, I find the script helpful. All the best,  Mini  apolis  13:17, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I was thinking of letting someone who could run the script do the calculating this time, there being so many signups; but with Reidgreg doing so much of the work, and with so many signups either not completing work or completing only 1 non-bonus article, without rollover word counts, it was manageable. I still haven't gotten an alternative to the script but may in the future try importing figures into a spreadsheet as a substitute. Dhtwiki (talk) 01:46, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

I'm always willing to run the script, which saves time. All the best,  Mini  apolis  13:43, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * This last time, I went over individual entries, to correct them if need be, before I started filling the barnstar table. This was so I could give it over to someone to run the script, which would not have caught those needed corrections. I still plan on having a script of my own to run, or to find a way to host a Windows environment on my Mac, or finding a way of using a spreadsheet to accomplish the same thing, etc. Dhtwiki (talk) 03:30, 10 October 2022 (UTC)

October newsletter
Hi all, I've finally done the overdue September newsletter; posting here for review before sending... feel free to add, amend, correct or remove anything. I've asked [|Miniapolis] for the mass-messenger right, but if anyone else would like to send it, that's fine. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  20:36, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
 * If nobody else gets to it, ping me and I'll send it. I'm around. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:52, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Looks okay to me. Thank you for getting it done. Dhtwiki (talk) 23:58, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Looks good, Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 06:04, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

October 2022 blitz
The page for the October blitz is up, thanks to Baffle gab1978 and Jonesey95; but we should decide on a week (October 16–22?) and theme (oldest backlog and requests months?). Dhtwiki (talk) 03:36, 10 October 2022 (UTC)


 * For the week, not the last week because all the halloween stuff takes up time, so I think the penultimate week. Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 05:35, 10 October 2022 (UTC)


 * That would be the 16th to the 22nd, which also gives a full week of downtime before the November drive. Oldest backlog months are December 2021 and January 2022 (with four older months suddenly having appeared, with one article each). Oldest requests months are June (only 2, which are already being worked on), July, and August 2022. Dhtwiki (talk) 05:53, 10 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, et al; I added the dates (16–22) to the blitz page. The requests page is pretty long at the moment; how about July and August, with the usual caveat about experienced editors working on GANs and FACs? I'll take a look at those four backlog articles; that usually happens when a page is reverted to an earlier version, and we can tell from the history that it's been copyedited. All the best,  Mini  apolis  19:37, 10 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I think I beat Miniapolis to those four backlog articles dated before Dec 2021. Someone changed them from general cleanup tags keeping the old cleanup dates. I deferred or copyedited them. Cheers. – Reidgreg (talk) 19:48, 10 October 2022 (UTC)
 * The four old months were emptied, tagged by AnomieBOT and G6'ed (thanks, ). All the best,  Mini  apolis  19:50, 10 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I'm good with 16th to 22nd for dates, and yes I'd like to see the REQ backlog reduced. I should be a bit more active now with the long nights and all... Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  03:47, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I’ve gone and added the blitz themes. I’ve also updated the blitz tabs and I’m going to request a watchlist notice closer to the time and then update the ombox now. Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 06:13, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Ignore that I lost track of the date, and instead take note that I have done all of the things I mentioned above. Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 06:29, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

Barnstars
The barnstar table should be complete and is ready for review. Dhtwiki (talk) 04:03, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Newsletters page
Hi all; our newsletters page lists newsletters and other stuff we've sent from the earliest to the latest. It occurred to me anyone looking for a recent NL needs to scroll right to the foot of the page to find the latest one. This would have been easy in the Guild's early years but now the list is growing longer, I'm thinking of reorganizing the page to list them in reverse order. Would this be acceptable and is there a reason I shouldn't do so? It's not an urgent task so I can do it whenever I get the time and inclination. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  20:43, 20 October 2022 (UTC)
 * That's a great idea, Baffle, and thanks for suggesting it. All the best,  Mini  apolis  22:54, 20 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Maybe a sortable table would do it?  Mini  apolis  22:56, 20 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I'd agree with using a sortable table, as that'd be easiest to list them chronologically by descending order. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 00:17, 21 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks both; I'll think about using a sortable table, which would make it easy to find the oldest entries. I'll likely work in my user-space sandbox, so I'll see how it goes. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  06:11, 21 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I've now reversed the order of the extant tables, but I haven't yet converted to a sortable table. I'm wondering what kind of sortation would be useful here; we could sort by month and/or year, but if entries are already chronologically listed, how useful would that be? Otherwise, I suppose it may sort into newsletters, annual reports, mid-drive updates and topsheets, etc. Alphabetical sorting would pick April items, Annual reports, December items... etc. So I'm not really convinced (a) sortable table(s) would be useful here. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  03:32, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Annual report and Dec nl 2022
I've set up the page for the annual report here and I'll be working on it over the next few weeks. I'm aware there's still some old data in there. Feel free to add / remove / correct / improve stuff. I also have created a newsletter for December here. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  06:01, 3 November 2022 (UTC)
 * I've fleshed out the newsletter, I'd also like to get the election news sent out. Can we set dates for the Dec Blitz this week? Last year we ran it on 12th to 18th Dec; this year, that week is 11th to 17th. December is always awkward for dates, I know. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  01:33, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Agree with the dates planned; I think people are going to be busier in the week leading up to Christmas. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 03:05, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
 * The proposed blitz dates look good to me, too. We should eventually start a new blitz section, though, as discussing it here might get lost. Dhtwiki (talk) 09:25, 3 December 2022 (UTC)

Finding a better way to measure the word counts of mathematical articles
User:Sarrail has claimed a word count of 86,147 for Distribution (mathematics). This is no doubt due to how "Page size" freaks out when measuring articles that have lots of mathematical markup. I usually roughly estimate such articles, and "Distribution" seemed to be around 3,000 words in length. I tried more scientific ways but got 21–25k in the word processing apps I use, which didn't completely render the copy-and-pasted page. I converted the article to a pdf, but haven't found the function that yields a word count, and screen scraping doesn't work easily. Can someone do better? How should the 86k word count, which is multiple times the largest article word count I've ever encountered on Wikipedia, be adjusted? Dhtwiki (talk) 10:09, 2 December 2022 (UTC)


 * When I examined the article, 86,147 words were "mind blown". Looking at the Wikipedia records, using the "page size" tool shows those articles at 17,000-21,000 range, but 86,000 needs to be adjusted. I'll agree with Dhtwiki here; something needs to be adjusted. Sarrail  (talk) 13:07, 2 December 2022 (UTC)
 * I copy-pasted the full article from my browser (not the edit window), minus the hatnote and maintenance template but including the mathematical notation, into a word-processor, giving me a word-count of 25,760 words. Removing the contents list and the common bit of notation "{\displaystyle" dropped it to 23,808. I'm not patient enough to remove the rest of it. So there's no way it's anywhere near 86,147 words, even with the maths. Given that probably 70% of the article is maths notation (that's a guess; I haven't checked), we could be generous and extract 70% of 23,808, giving 7,142.4 words of prose. Perhaps add a caveat that says; "This script does not work on articles with mathematical notation", or something similar. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  15:18, 2 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Agree that we need to fix the prose-calculation instructions, but I'm busy IRL at the moment and don't have time. All the best,  Mini  apolis  15:58, 2 December 2022 (UTC)
 * I'd be happy to extract 70% of the article, or nearly 1/4 of it. Sarrail  (talk) 15:28, 2 December 2022 (UTC)
 * I've noted the script's shortcomings here. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  18:25, 2 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Search results (link) peg it at 21,128 words, which is closer to the ballpark but still a bit high. The rendered page has 14,711 space characters (according to my web-browser, and including the left sidebar, etc.). Assuming a thorough copyedit, and given the complexity of the subject, I would tend to assess it in the 12k–14k range. (Unfortunately, this would knock it down 1–2 places on the leaderboard, which is a shame.) – Reidgreg (talk) 00:34, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
 * IT IS A SHAME. Nah, I’m kidding; I can always try another time to try pegging up the leaderboard. Sarrail  (talk) 01:00, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Another calculation I made was to take the number of lines (777, according to Unix's wc) x 80 (characters per line) / 5 (characters per word, an old typewriting estimation I learned in my youth) to get 12,432. Dhtwiki (talk) 09:20, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Isn't it 5 letters per word +1 space &rarr; a word every 6 characters? Then it's 10,360 words. – Reidgreg (talk) 16:34, 4 December 2022 (UTC)
 * I stripped out the math formulas using regular expressions, unindented all of the indented text (except a few theorem boxes), removed bullets and numbering, and ended up with 9,450 words from the page size script. If you round that number upwards to include the theorems and the notes, I would call it an even 10,000 so that in spirit, it's worth two "long articles". – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:15, 4 December 2022 (UTC)

November 2022 drive
The December 2021 backlog has 74 articles and January 2022 has 61. These were the backlog months from this month's blitz, and they weren't cleared. Do we want February 2022's 91 articles as well. Requests have 3 unclaimed articles left from June July 2022 (Baffle working on the fourth), 22 from August 2022, and 25 from September. The November drive page has already been started. Dhtwiki (talk) 05:26, 25 October 2022 (UTC) (edited 05:31, 25 October 2022 (UTC) and 20:40, 25 October 2022 (UTC))


 * Sounds good, let’s not add February because it’s quite a lot of work. And requests seem good. Thanks, Zippybonzo &#124; Talk (he&#124;him) 12:09, 25 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I'll say refrain from adding February 2022 for now as I don't think we'll finish all of December and January, though we've extended what's considered old articles in the past before when all the target articles had been cleared. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 13:15, 25 October 2022 (UTC)
 * +1. All the best,  Mini  apolis  14:40, 25 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Sounds good. Reidgreg (talk) 15:59, 25 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I have gone ahead and put December 2021 and January 2022, for backlog, and *July* to September 2022, for requests, at the drive page. Dhtwiki (talk) 20:40, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

As of my timestamp, there are only 20 articles left in the target months. Might it be best to add February or default to requests? While it would be great to get more requests done, it might be good for newer and less-well-versed editors to have an alternative option. Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  01:15, 22 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Adding a month is better than leaving Requests as the only option for bonus words. – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:08, 22 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Okay by me, although no one's taking Jacob Zuma (the last December article, a long one) and I don't see January getting done in eight days. All the best,  Mini  apolis  14:36, 22 November 2022 (UTC)
 * User:Jadedhippo is signed up for the drive, has made a number of edits to the Zuma article, but has let the GOCEinuse template lapse. In their entry at the drive page, it's still marked with a "Working" template. Dhtwiki (talk) 02:22, 23 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the info, . I was going to remove the tag and close out the month, but they haven't edited the article in four days; some newer editors don't know how the drives and blitzes work. I'll check their contribs and leave a note on their talk if needed. All the best,  Mini  apolis  14:39, 23 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Hello @Miniapolis and @Dhtwiki! Apologies. I was busy the last week or so and haven't had an opportunity to finish up the Jacob Zuma article. It's still on my radar and I intend on finishing up before the end of the November drive. Jadedhippo (talk) 02:51, 26 November 2022 (UTC)
 * @Jadedhippo: I just finished copyediting Jacob Zuma, as the copy edit tag was on for a few days already. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 03:39, 26 November 2022 (UTC)
 * @Tenryuu Thank you! I noticed you started copy editing after I posted the message above. Appreciate you stepping in and taking care of the article! Jadedhippo (talk) 17:06, 27 November 2022 (UTC)
 * I'd tentatively add February as a target month. There's a chance January articles could be finished in these eight days. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 18:20, 23 November 2022 (UTC)
 * You're right,, although the rapid pace makes me concerned about quality; I've added February to old articles. All the best,  Mini  apolis  21:52, 23 November 2022 (UTC)

I'm working on the barnstar page with the script (after giving 10,000 words for for the math article), and it stopped because  didn't list any individual-article totals. The drive instructions are clear on this point, and I feel no need to clean up after RK. Thoughts? All the best,  Mini  apolis  15:44, 6 December 2022 (UTC)
 * I went to the drive page and added word counts for 's articles. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:19, 6 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Jonesey, and AFAICT the barnstars are now ready to give out. Feel free to fix anything I might have missed. All the best,  Mini  apolis  21:37, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

December Blitz
Can we set dates for the Dec Blitz this week? Last year we ran it on 12th to 18th Dec; so proposing 11th to 17th. I've already created the page here. It would be good to send it out in the newsletter (see thread above -1). Cheers,  Baffle☿gab  21:16, 4 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Sounds good, Baffle, although AFAIK we haven't given out the November barnstars yet . All the best,  Mini  apolis  23:23, 4 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Since the barnstars are now ready for distribution and the blitz is scheduled to start in a few days, we need to determine its scope. Howzabout the February backlog (64 articles) and August and September requests (18 unclaimed total)? All the best,  Mini  apolis  21:43, 6 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Sounds good, thanks; I'll get the nl finished, feel free to add and correct anything in it. Hopefully it'll get sent out tomorrow (7 Dec). Cheers, Baffle☿gab  23:34, 6 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Barnstars distributed, with thanks to Baffle for putting the page together. All the best,  Mini  apolis  14:38, 20 December 2022 (UTC)