Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Council
Add topic | To help centralize discussions and keep related topics together, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject, as well as all subpages of this talk page itself, redirect here. |
 | WikiProject Council was featured in a WikiProject Report in the Signpost on 18 April 2011. |
Q1: What's a WikiProject?
A1: A WikiProject is a group of people who want to work together. It is not a subject area, a collection of pages, or a list of articles tagged by the group. Q2: How many WikiProjects are there?
A2: There are 631 WikiProjects tagged as "Active" (see Category:Active WikiProjects), and 309 WikiProjects tagged as "Semi-active" (see Category:Semi-active WikiProjects); many of these have one or more subsidiary task forces or work groups. Q3: What's the biggest WikiProject?
A3: Nobody knows, because not all participants add their names to a membership list, and membership lists are almost always out of date. You can find out which projects' main pages are being watched by the most users at Wikipedia:Database reports/WikiProject watchers. Q4: Which WikiProject has tagged the most articles as being within their scope?
A4: WikiProject Biography has tagged 2,184,736 articles, which is more than three times the size of the second largest number of pages tagged by a WikiProject. About six groups have tagged more than 500,000 articles. You can see a list of projects and the number of articles they have assessed here. Q5: Who gets to decide whether a WikiProject is permitted to tag an article?
A5: That is the exclusive right of the participants of the WikiProject. Editors at an article may neither force the group to tag an article nor refuse to permit them to tag an article. See WP:PROJGUIDE#OWN. Q6: I think a couple of WikiProjects should be merged. Is that okay?
A6: You must ask the people who belong to those groups, even if the groups appear to be inactive. It's okay for different groups of people to be working on similar articles. WikiProjects are people, not lists of articles. If you identify and explain clear, practical benefits of a merger to all of the affected groups, they are likely to agree to combining into a larger group. However, if they object, then you may not merge the pages. For less-active groups, you may need to wait a month or more to make sure that no one objects. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Guide/Merging WikiProjects for more information. Q7: I want to start a WikiProject. Am I required to do anything in particular?
A7: Because new WikiProjects, especially new groups that are proposed by new editors, rarely remain active for longer than a few months unless there are at least six or eight active editors involved at the time of creation, we are now imposing the requirements that are outlined at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals. Newly created pages are listed automatically at Wikipedia:Database reports/New WikiProjects; if a newly created page looks like it doesn't conform with the advice, it may be moved to your User: space or sent to Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion. Q8: Under what circumstances are WikiProjects deleted from Wikipedia rather than marked as defunct or historical?
A8: Typically, projects are only deleted when they are "false starts" (incomplete projects that never got off the ground), serve as a repository for material that infringes on copyright laws, exist solely as an attack page, or have no other redeeming value. It is more common for semi-active projects to be merged into their parent project, sometimes as a task force. Most inactive and defunct projects are simply left intact with the hope that the materials and discussions collected by the project may become useful at a later date. Q9: How do you revive an inactive WikiProject?
A9: The Signpost has written extensively on the subject. Keep in mind that some projects have run their course while others have a scope that is too narrow or too broad to attract a sizable community of editors. If you still want to revive the project, a good way to start is by updating the participants list, inviting new participants, reaching out to active projects for help, and fixing any broken templates and automation. Start discussions on the project's talk page about how to improve the project's organization, goals, and collaborations. Reviving a WikiProject often feels like an uphill battle. Just don't get discouraged. Q10: Who can assess articles?
A10: Anyone can assess articles, although it is wise to read and follow any assessment guidelines unique to a particular project before deciding what "class" and "importance" should be assigned to an article. For instance, WikiProject Biographies has a unique importance structure with 200 "core" articles. Good Articles, Featured Articles, and Featured Lists are determined through processes independent of the WikiProject, so using those assessments inappropriately may have negative repercussions. Q11: Is there a limit to the number of projects that can add their banner to an article?
A11: No. Each project determines its own scope and can include whatever articles they like. For instance, Elizabeth II is under the scope of 18 projects and task forces while Barack Obama is handled by 22 projects and task forces. Q12: Some WikiProjects provide a WikiProject Watchlist and some do not. Why?
A12: As with all tools available to WikiProjects, not every project has set up a watchlist and some projects may not desire to have one. There are multiple types of watchlists a project can use, from Tim1357's watchlists to new article notifications to article alerts to hot articles. A project can choose whatever watchlists they want to use or even devise their own unique tools. Q13: What's the difference between a sister WikiProject and a related WikiProject?
A13: People tend to use them interchangeably, but the term "related WikiProjects" is broader than "sister WikiProjects." The terms "parent," "sister," and "child" provide a way of categorizing projects. An example of sister projects would be WikiProject Pittsburgh and WikiProject Philadelphia, while related projects would also include their parent projects (WikiProject Cities and WikiProject Pennsylvania in this case), and any child projects or task forces (WikiProject Pittsburgh Steelers and WikiProject University of Pittsburgh come to mind). However, one confusing bit about the term "sister projects" is that it has also been used to compare different wikis or languages of Wikipedia (i.e. Wikisource, Wikinews, Chinese Wikipedia, German Wikipedia, etc.) which is evidenced by the Signpost's defunct sister projects column. Q14: How do I participate in a WikiProject?
A14: Participating in a WikiProject is easy. Most projects have a participants list to which you can add your name. Next, you'll want to add the project's talk page to your personal watchlist so that you can keep up to date on the latest discussions and help editors in need. Check out the project's Featured and Good Articles for ideas about how to improve articles under the project's scope. Take a look at the project's goals or browse the project's stubs and start-class articles to find areas where you can help today. Projects may offer a userbox you can add to your user page as a sign of pride that also doubles as a way to add yourself to categories listing all users who are interested in a particular topic. Q15: What can I do to improve Wikipedia's community of WikiProjects?
A15: The WikiProject Council is welcome to anyone with ideas for building stronger collaborative links between WikiProjects. Participate in discussions at a variety of projects and try to answer the questions of newcomers. If multiple projects are working on the same article, try to recruit participants from these projects to collaborate. Host meetups for the participants in projects in a particular geographic area. Create contests and backlog drives that anyone can enter. We've interviewed projects that have used social media to recruit participants, partnered with educational institutions, and even manufactured their own games. You can choose whether or not to vote for Wikipedia Foundation to prioritize improvements in a related focus area. |
 | This project page does not require a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||
| ||||||||
WikiProject Drafts
[edit]Hello, I was wondering through the WIKIproject area tonight and happened upon the draft WikiProjects at Category:Draft WikiProjects. Neither the main page nor the talk page for any of the proposed WikiProjects had any activity for the past few years. Is it time to archive them? Or should they be publicized? The two or three that I looked at more carefully were clearly the work of one enthusiastic editor, not a group of editors. I just wondered if there was a process to review them or propose new drafts. Thank you. Liz Read! Talk! 07:34, 1 August 2026 (UTC)
- Here's my first thoughts. Maybe you'll have better ones.
- If the editor is still active, then invite them to move it to their userspace until they're ready to recruit editors. @Levivich, for example, may have just forgotten about starting the Wikipedia:WikiProject Core Content page.
- If it feels hopeless (e.g., the subject is impossible plus editor who created the page was relatively inexperienced and is long gone), then it should go to Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion.
- If it's vaguely plausible but not likely to be successful, then consider whether a redirect to an existing group might work.
- WhatamIdoing (talk) 06:32, 2 August 2026 (UTC)
- Thank you for sharing your thoughts, WhatamIdoing! Liz Read! Talk! 18:54, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
Largest articles not included in WikiProjects
[edit]If you've ever wondered which articles haven't yet been added to any WikiProjects, we now have a report for that. Please let me know if you have any questions or find a bug in the results. This report will update on a daily basis. Enjoy! the Stefen 𝕋ower 04:11, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- Not many! If it would be easy for the report to include date creation, might be interesting to see which ones go the longest without WikiProjects. CMD (talk) 04:30, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- I'll look into adding a column for creation date - good idea! By the way, the report shows the 500 largest articles not in WikiProjects - I have to consider performance in building the list and users loading the results. the Stefen 𝕋ower 04:41, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
Done This was very straightforward to do. the Stefen 𝕋ower 05:10, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- 2004. Now that's old. CMD (talk) 07:06, 8 August 2026 (UTC)
- I'll look into adding a column for creation date - good idea! By the way, the report shows the 500 largest articles not in WikiProjects - I have to consider performance in building the list and users loading the results. the Stefen 𝕋ower 04:41, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
Community Wishlist's Focus Area
[edit]In Q15 of the FAQ, I've linked to the Community Wishlist's Focus Area for connecting like-minded contributors. --rootsmusic (talk) 15:49, 8 August 2026 (UTC)
- I have reverted this change as it added a request to vote on a wishlist item and removed existing content without any explanation. The better place to announce this wishlist item is here in this talk. The FAQ is for more permanent information related to WikiProjects. the Stefen 𝕋ower 18:18, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- @StefenTower I linked to a Focus Area, which is about "connecting like-minded contributors" and not any specific wish, because that Focus Area is relevant to Q15. If I simply announce as a Talk topic instead, this topic will get archived. Do you prefer that I link the Focus Area in the Project's article? rootsmusic (talk) 18:31, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- It's a vote-collecting concern at any rate. You can announce it here or at the Village Pump. Archived talk still exists after archiving. As for your last question, I don't understand what you mean by "the Project's article". the Stefen 𝕋ower 18:36, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- @StefenTower My edit was
You can also vote for Wikipedia Foundation to prioritize improvements in a related focus area.
It didn't ask or tell people to vote in support of that Focus Area. Would you prefer that I rephrase my edit in answering Q15? Or would you prefer that I link in the Project page? rootsmusic (talk) 18:43, 14 August 2026 (UTC)- Temporary concerns shouldn't be in the FAQ or linked from the council's information pages at all. the Stefen 𝕋ower 18:44, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- @StefenTower Why do you describe Wikipedia Foundation's Focus Areas as "temporary concerns"? rootsmusic (talk) 18:55, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- Because community wishlist items and focus areas are temporary by their design. These are not permanent structures. Further, whether you intend this or not, you are seeking votes for this focus area. Vote seeking does not belong in our informational pages. Last, please stop pinging me as I watch this page. the Stefen 𝕋ower 18:59, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- Would you connote any intention to seek votes, if I rephrase the edit in Q15 as: "You can choose whether or not to vote for Wikipedia Foundation to prioritize improvements in a related focus area."?
- The Council's FAQ also isn't a permanent structure. When Wikimedia Foundation removes the linked Focus Area, then you'll be free to update Q15 by deleting the sentence about it. Until then, that Focus Area is directly relevant to Q15. rootsmusic (talk) 19:13, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- I don't think that Focus Areas are "temporary". That's a bit like saying that Category:All articles lacking sources is "temporary". Sure, we hope that the cat will get emptied eventually, but it's going to be around for a long time.
- Also, just FYI, Meta-Wiki does not have any anti-canvassing rules, and the Community Wishlist has traditionally welcomed efforts to let editors at different wikis know about anything that might interest them. WhatamIdoing (talk) 03:34, 15 August 2026 (UTC)
- Another aspect is that this voting at this focus area really does nothing to help anyone get going on WikiProjects, which is what I thought our FAQ is for. Participation at the focus area is more for editors who already work on and understand WikiProjects.
- If that also isn't an issue, and you think putting this into the FAQ that is probably rarely read, rather than announcing it here and Village Pump where large numbers of editors will see it, is useful, then have at it. I honestly don't think it is a FAQ-worthy item, but if two or more editors here disagree with me, I'm outvoted.
- But beyond that, other material had been erased without any explanation to link to this focus area. If you really want to link to this focus area, other material shouldn't be erased unless there is a good reason to do so. the Stefen 𝕋ower 06:56, 15 August 2026 (UTC)
- Because community wishlist items and focus areas are temporary by their design. These are not permanent structures. Further, whether you intend this or not, you are seeking votes for this focus area. Vote seeking does not belong in our informational pages. Last, please stop pinging me as I watch this page. the Stefen 𝕋ower 18:59, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- @StefenTower Why do you describe Wikipedia Foundation's Focus Areas as "temporary concerns"? rootsmusic (talk) 18:55, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- Temporary concerns shouldn't be in the FAQ or linked from the council's information pages at all. the Stefen 𝕋ower 18:44, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- @StefenTower My edit was
- It's a vote-collecting concern at any rate. You can announce it here or at the Village Pump. Archived talk still exists after archiving. As for your last question, I don't understand what you mean by "the Project's article". the Stefen 𝕋ower 18:36, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- @StefenTower I linked to a Focus Area, which is about "connecting like-minded contributors" and not any specific wish, because that Focus Area is relevant to Q15. If I simply announce as a Talk topic instead, this topic will get archived. Do you prefer that I link the Focus Area in the Project's article? rootsmusic (talk) 18:31, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
Seeking new project contributors? Promote your WikiProject at WikiConference North America in Sepember
[edit]Lucy Iwuala and I are collaborating to develop a presentation for WikiConference North America "Intro to WikiProjects for New Contributors." We'd like to include a few more case studies of WikiProjects that welcome new contributors in the presentation. We're especially seeking projects that 1) have minimal barriers to entry (for example, they don't require knowledge of a specific language, technology, or specialized subject matter) and 2) have good onboarding resources for new contributors. Think projects where, out of 100 randomly chosen Wikimedians, a sizable percentage interact with the subject on a regular basis. We're happy to include any project as a case study, though, if you are willing to honestly self-assess on those two criteria. Reply or message me if you are interested in having your project included. JMMaok (talk) 16:56, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- @JMMaok, I'm not aware of any WikiProjects that are actively and systematically welcoming new contributors at this time. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:57, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- Well, if any are interested in changing that between now and WCNA, please get in touch. There were some excellent ideas shared at the recent WikiData WikiProject days, especially from the session on Quickstart Guides. The discussion was much broader than just creating guides, though. Here are notes from the session. JMMaok (talk) 17:35, 19 August 2026 (UTC)
- It would be nice if we had a boilerplate "WikiProject Newcomers FAQ" oriented to individual WikiProjects that they could mold to their needs. It could include a straightforward "Ways You Can Help" that lists tasks sorted by editor skill level (beginner -> intermediate -> advanced). The current boilerplate template {{Tasks}} is frankly rather dry and uninviting. the Stefen 𝕋ower 00:22, 20 August 2026 (UTC)
- That is a neat idea! The current template seems very thorough, but some redesign could make it more inviting. JMMaok (talk) 00:42, 20 August 2026 (UTC)
- There is a page at WP Climate change that also seems instructive as one possible way to design this. As for {{Tasks}}, my point is that it feels too much like a laundry list, and laundry lists don't really trigger self-motivation to want to assist (similar to laundry lists at home). the Stefen 𝕋ower 18:00, 21 August 2026 (UTC)
- That is a neat idea! The current template seems very thorough, but some redesign could make it more inviting. JMMaok (talk) 00:42, 20 August 2026 (UTC)
- I've made an effort to feature a range of tasks at different levels of difficulty on Wikipedia:WikiProject Computer Security, and I'd be delighted for new contributors to participate. We have a lot of articles in very poor shape, so it should be a bit easier to find something to improve than in a more mature WikiProject. Some articles require specific technical expertise, but we also have many articles about human factors (like Operational security, Password fatigue, Psychology in cybersecurity, and Computer security incident management) that an interested non-specialist could improve. Dreamyshade (talk) 01:37, 24 August 2026 (UTC)
- Hi, @Dreamyshade! That looks like a very cool project. Happy to include it as one of our case studies. JMMaok (talk) 01:44, 26 August 2026 (UTC)
WikiProject Crusades?
[edit]Where should WP:CRUSADES be listed? Should it be listed alongside the original task force or at the bottom of the section for milhist? 🌷Reverosie🌷★talk★ 17:02, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- It looks like you split that MILHIST task force off into a separate WikiProject last year. If you are asking where it should be listed on the Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history page, then the answer is: wherever MILHIST (=not WP:CRUSADES) wants to list it, including nowhere, if they choose not to list it.
- If you are asking about listing it on other pages, please give me a link. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:00, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- The related MILHIST task force is already listed in our directory at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory/History and society, although currently as a redirect. the Stefen 𝕋ower 18:51, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- I did mean in the directory, thank you :) 🌷Reverosie🌷★talk★ 21:38, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- The best bet seems to be to list it at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory/History and society#Military and warfare in a new table row above "Reenactment", filling in the Active, Assessment, Peer review, Collaboration, Portal, and Notes columns as needed. the Stefen 𝕋ower 22:42, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- Thanks so much! I'll add it when I have the time soon 🌷Reverosie🌷★talk★ 23:01, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- The best bet seems to be to list it at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory/History and society#Military and warfare in a new table row above "Reenactment", filling in the Active, Assessment, Peer review, Collaboration, Portal, and Notes columns as needed. the Stefen 𝕋ower 22:42, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
- I did mean in the directory, thank you :) 🌷Reverosie🌷★talk★ 21:38, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
New discovery: WikiProject Worthing
[edit]See this edit. The person who made that edit, Deveroonie (talk · contribs), has also created 26 related pages, but I cannot find where the WikiProject was proposed, let alone discussed. I don't see a need for this: it's not as if WikiProject Sussex is overburdened. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 09:40, 23 August 2026 (UTC)
- most of those pages were categories required for the functioning of the template. I'd also note that while wikiproject sussex does exist, so does WP:WikiProject Brighton (and it has done for years) - covering a similar (if slightly larger) sussex location Deveroonie (talk) 10:27, 23 August 2026 (UTC)
- My main concern is not with the categories, but with the wikiproject as a whole. Wikiproject Brighton was set up twenty years ago, when the rules were different. It also managed a fairly decent membership, although many have now left Wikipedia. Also, it's now considered to be inactive. So it's not a good example to follow. As it says at the top of Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals,
A WikiProject is a group of editors who want to work together. A WikiProject is not a subject area, a group of pages, a banner on talk pages, or any of the infrastructure used to support the group. If you do not have a group of editors, you do not have a WikiProject. Successful groups normally begin with about 10 active, experienced editors.
It also saysDo not create any new WikiProject pages without prior discussion. That includes all "WikiProject (Name)" pages, categories, and templates.
--Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 16:14, 23 August 2026 (UTC)- i've undone the edit referenced - i apologise for not doing the proposal / discussion but i'd note that WP:WikiProject Council/Proposals doesn't seem to be official wikipedia policy. i do intend to keep developing the project - and articles within - and will attempt to find more individuals interested in the project, and apologise for not doing so beforehand. Deveroonie (talk) 17:11, 23 August 2026 (UTC)
- True, but Wikipedia:Articles for deletion and Wikipedia:Requests for comment are also not "official wikipedia policy" pages. WP:NOTAG is normal for a process page. If you feel a need to follow only the advice on "official" pages, then Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Guide is an official {{guideline}}, and it tells editors to follow the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals process. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:15, 23 August 2026 (UTC)
- Deveroonie, my concern was not about the edit that I linked in my original post. My concern was, as I noted above, with the wikiproject as a whole. That is to say, Wikipedia:WikiProject Worthing; Template:WikiProject Worthing; Wikipedia:WikiProject Worthing/Template:Userbox; the 21 categories, etc. Reverting one edit does not do anything towards resolving the situation. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:59, 23 August 2026 (UTC)
- i've undone the edit referenced - i apologise for not doing the proposal / discussion but i'd note that WP:WikiProject Council/Proposals doesn't seem to be official wikipedia policy. i do intend to keep developing the project - and articles within - and will attempt to find more individuals interested in the project, and apologise for not doing so beforehand. Deveroonie (talk) 17:11, 23 August 2026 (UTC)
- My main concern is not with the categories, but with the wikiproject as a whole. Wikiproject Brighton was set up twenty years ago, when the rules were different. It also managed a fairly decent membership, although many have now left Wikipedia. Also, it's now considered to be inactive. So it's not a good example to follow. As it says at the top of Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals,
- The main Wikipedia:WikiProject Worthing page can be moved to their userspace until they collect a group of people (because Wikipedia:A WikiProject is a group of people). The template needs to go to Wikipedia:Templates for discussion, and then the cats can be cleaned up after the template has been deleted. If a group actually forms around this, we can always ask for a WP:REFUND later.
- (Also, aside from the WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS problem, WikiProject Brighton is inactive, which is the problem we're trying to solve by discouraging the creation of one-person "groups".) WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:13, 23 August 2026 (UTC)
Script to remove inactive participants from members lists
[edit]Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Guide#Tools for WikiProjects would ideally have a link to a script or bot that would remove or split lists of group participants according to whether they're active. Wikipedia:WikiProject X has a bot-managed Template:WikiProjectCard system, but I'm looking for a tool that will take an ordinary, years-old bullet list of usernames and remove/split anyone who hasn't edited in (e.g.,) a year.
I know that someone was taking such requests, but I can't remember who it was. Does anyone have ideas or favorite methods? WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:23, 23 August 2026 (UTC)
- Check out User:Yapperbot/Pruner. See an example at the bottom of Wikipedia:WikiProject Louisville/Active participants. Works great. the Stefen 𝕋ower 20:05, 23 August 2026 (UTC)
- Thanks. I've added it to Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Guide#Tools for WikiProjects. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:57, 27 August 2026 (UTC)
Semi-active pages
[edit]Should semi-active projects have a different highlight color than red on the directory? I feel like editors could still benefit from them and shouldn't be led astray. Perhaps they can have a yellow highlight. 🌷Reverosie🌷★talk★ 15:00, 27 August 2026 (UTC)
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory/WikiProject only has a yes/no state for
|active=. If you look at, e.g., Wikipedia:WikiProject Extinction in Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory/Science#Biology, you'll see that it's marked in green as 'active'. There's no reason why the others can't be marked the same way. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:06, 27 August 2026 (UTC)- ah. I was wondering that because so many semi-active projects are marked as "semi" in the template, causing them to be marked as "no". I'll go in and fix those myself later 🌷Reverosie🌷★talk★ 17:15, 27 August 2026 (UTC)
You are invited to join the discussion at Module talk:WikiProject banner § inactive vs defunct projects. CapnZapp (talk) 09:05, 28 August 2026 (UTC)
Your input would be appreciated on whether the current situation with having to change a WikiProject's status in two places should change. The direct link to the current state of the discussion is Module talk:WikiProject banner § one location (issue 2). Thank you CapnZapp (talk) 09:05, 28 August 2026 (UTC)
Automatic importance rating on banners
[edit]I'm trying to add more {{WikiProject Silesia}} banners across its scope articles. I use WP:Rater for this; but I can't quite figure how rater sets an automatic importance rating, just like it would for all other WikiProjects. Is there something missing in {{WikiProject Silesia}}? Fortek67 (talk) 12:38, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
- Importance/priority ratings are not normally set automatically. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:12, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
- How do I set them automatically? Fortek67 (talk) 16:45, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
- It is possible for a WikiProject to set the importance rating to something by default, such as is done at Template:WikiProject_Politics#TemplateData, which I assume RATER then reads to populate the dialog box. Most WikiProject don't do that though, as WhatamIdoing said. If you want to change that at {{WikiProject Silesia}} you'd probably be best getting consensus at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Silesia first, but I did note it's a fairly small and only semi-active project. I'm not aware if it's possible to set defaults in your own instance of RATER but the place to ask is probably User talk:Evad37/rater.js rather than here. -Kj cheetham (talk) 16:59, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
- Maybe it actually is a rater thing because (correct me if I'm wrong) Template:WikiProject Poland nor Template:WikiProject Poland/doc doesn't seem to have any of this. Thank you nonetheless. Fortek67 (talk) 17:07, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
- Yes, it's actually a feature called "Autofill low importance" on rater, I'll bring it up on there to see why it doesn't work. Fortek67 (talk) 17:08, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
- Thank you for flagging that, it's worth knowing it exists! -Kj cheetham (talk) 09:57, 1 September 2026 (UTC)
- Yes, it's actually a feature called "Autofill low importance" on rater, I'll bring it up on there to see why it doesn't work. Fortek67 (talk) 17:08, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
- Maybe it actually is a rater thing because (correct me if I'm wrong) Template:WikiProject Poland nor Template:WikiProject Poland/doc doesn't seem to have any of this. Thank you nonetheless. Fortek67 (talk) 17:07, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
- It is possible for a WikiProject to set the importance rating to something by default, such as is done at Template:WikiProject_Politics#TemplateData, which I assume RATER then reads to populate the dialog box. Most WikiProject don't do that though, as WhatamIdoing said. If you want to change that at {{WikiProject Silesia}} you'd probably be best getting consensus at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Silesia first, but I did note it's a fairly small and only semi-active project. I'm not aware if it's possible to set defaults in your own instance of RATER but the place to ask is probably User talk:Evad37/rater.js rather than here. -Kj cheetham (talk) 16:59, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
- How do I set them automatically? Fortek67 (talk) 16:45, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
Wikipedia:WikiProject Pre Islamic Arabia listed at Requested moves
[edit]
A requested move discussion has been initiated for Wikipedia:WikiProject Pre Islamic Arabia to be moved to Wikipedia:WikiProject Pre-Islamic Arabia. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 23:13, 1 September 2026 (UTC)
- To opt out of RM notifications on this page, transclude {{bots|deny=RMCD bot}}, or set up Article alerts for this WikiProject.
Bot assignment of WikiProject
[edit]I have come across a cluster of higher education related articles that were assigned WP:EDU by the Qwerfjk bot. Looks like this happened in 2024. Unfortunately, many that I have found should not have the WP:EDU banner due to the narrower focus of that project. These additions seem more like a semi-successful experiment. Does anyone know the history behind this tagging effort? Did it include other WikiProject? The edit summary is "Adding {WikiProject banner shell}; automatically added WikiProject(s): {WikiProject Education} (Task 19)" and the hidden note on the article's talkpage says "Automatically added by Qwerfjkl (bot)" Rublamb (talk) 14:16, 9 September 2026 (UTC)
- I believe task 19 was Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Qwerfjkl (bot) 19. That was just adding the banner shell around existing WikiProject tags, it shouldn't have been adding WP:EDU tags for articles which didn't already have one. Have you got an example article to look at? Thanks. -Kj cheetham (talk) 15:43, 9 September 2026 (UTC)
- Sure. NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program. I have already fixed it, but the bot clearly added the WikiProject. Rublamb (talk) 15:48, 9 September 2026 (UTC)
- Here's some more: Midori and Friends, Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow, Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources Rublamb (talk) 15:55, 9 September 2026 (UTC)
- Looking more closely that task was indeed adding Wikiprojects! It says
Using ORES (>90% probability results only), it will determine whether the article is a biography, the quality of the article, and what WikiProjects should be applied, and it will then add them
. The original discussion seems to be Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Council/Archive_25#h-Articles_without_Wikiprojects-20230226133100 and User_talk:Qwerfjkl/Archive_31#h-Bot_work-20230519113800. I believe it was a one-off run, not something still running. -Kj cheetham (talk) 16:04, 9 September 2026 (UTC)- Very interesting. Thanks for helping me to figure it out. Rublamb (talk) 16:06, 9 September 2026 (UTC)
- Looking more closely that task was indeed adding Wikiprojects! It says
- Here's some more: Midori and Friends, Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow, Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources Rublamb (talk) 15:55, 9 September 2026 (UTC)
- Sure. NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program. I have already fixed it, but the bot clearly added the WikiProject. Rublamb (talk) 15:48, 9 September 2026 (UTC)
- In terms of de-tagging articles: If you make a list of articles that shouldn't be tagged, and it's too long to do by hand, it's usually easy to find a bot operator or an AWB user to make the edits for you. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:28, 9 September 2026 (UTC)
Proposing a new WikiProject Middle Belt
[edit]This proposed WikiProject is a collaborative one aimed at documenting the history, peoples, languages, cultures, and landscape of the Middle Belt. In spite of how diverse the Nigerian Middle Belt is, only a small fraction of its diversity has been captured in the English Wikipedia. Of the about 509 living languages spoken in Nigeria, about 395 are spoken in this region alone, which is 77.6% of the languages spoken in Nigeria. These languages have speakers, ethnic groups with history, settlements with names, and all other attributes that define a human group, but most of these are underrepresented on Wikipedia. That is a huge knowledge gap. Even those with articles may not be sufficiently written. We are hoping to promote the Nigerian Middle Belt through this project, and for sustainability, we hope to start a campaign called Wiki Loves Middle Belt (WLMB) beginning in 2027. This WLMB campaign shall be backed by the Tyap Wikimedians User Group through its annual funding. Other Wikimedia communities within the Middle Belt and beyond may launch campaigns once they are ready to implement the WikiProject Middle Belt as a group project, create additional campaigns within this WikiProject, or join the WLMB campaign as official co-organizers. This would help ensure the project's sustainability.
Other editors with similar interest in this project are: Atibrarian, King ChristLike, Danjuma Anthony, Ogalihillary, Meritkosy, Zeerun, Dorcas Atule, AgnesAbah, Umasoyee, 787IYO, Zasan Doshiyak, Friday musa, and many more within the different Wikimedia communities of the Middle Belt. We await the decision of the WikiProject Council. Thanks. Kambai Akau (talk) 00:48, 29 September 2026 (UTC)
- Campaigns (i.e., scheduled editing events) are not usually considered WikiProjects. I suggest looking at Wiki Loves X campaigns and m:Wiki In Africa instead. Alternatively, why not join/take over/WP:REVIVE the Wikipedia:WikiProject Nigeria, and make it the main goal of that group for the year? WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:04, 29 September 2026 (UTC)
- Yeah @WhatamIdoing. We considered those different options. But then, we understand that WikiProjects are created to narrow down and deepen the documentation of particular subject matters, and that informed our decision to have this project so named. The WikiProject Middle Belt is not aimed at being a campaign. Its aim is to have a stand-alone project that concentrates on the Middle Belt alone, just like WikiProject Africa has the entire Africa as a focal point, and WikiProject Nigeria focuses on the whole of Nigeria as a focal point. The WikiProject Middle Belt is aimed at narrowing down further to this region alone. That is the reason why we are not thinking along the lines of WikiProject Nigeria, which may be a good thing if revived. However, our focus is not on the whole of Nigeria. That makes the difference. We have seen that many WikiProjects do get started and go obsolete later on due to one reason or the other, and we have taken note of the possible causes. The Wiki Loves Middle Belt campaign, which could be made a part of the Wiki Loves X campaigns and partner Wiki In Africa, aims at drawing articles from the WikiProject Middle Belt to work on them en masse annually, and after the campaigns, the articles created keep on being improved on in the WikiProject space. This is our aim, and we hope to be given a chance to prove its workability. Kambai Akau (talk) 01:20, 29 September 2026 (UTC)
- Great one,
- I strongly support this. Dorcas Atule (talk) 13:54, 29 September 2026 (UTC)
- @Kambai Akau, WikiProjects are not created "to narrow down and deepen the documentation of particular subject matters". WikiProjects are created to help people work together effectively, and a narrow subject matter generally hurts that goal, especially if you look at the group over the course of, say, five years. WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:29, 30 September 2026 (UTC)
- Yeah @WhatamIdoing. We considered those different options. But then, we understand that WikiProjects are created to narrow down and deepen the documentation of particular subject matters, and that informed our decision to have this project so named. The WikiProject Middle Belt is not aimed at being a campaign. Its aim is to have a stand-alone project that concentrates on the Middle Belt alone, just like WikiProject Africa has the entire Africa as a focal point, and WikiProject Nigeria focuses on the whole of Nigeria as a focal point. The WikiProject Middle Belt is aimed at narrowing down further to this region alone. That is the reason why we are not thinking along the lines of WikiProject Nigeria, which may be a good thing if revived. However, our focus is not on the whole of Nigeria. That makes the difference. We have seen that many WikiProjects do get started and go obsolete later on due to one reason or the other, and we have taken note of the possible causes. The Wiki Loves Middle Belt campaign, which could be made a part of the Wiki Loves X campaigns and partner Wiki In Africa, aims at drawing articles from the WikiProject Middle Belt to work on them en masse annually, and after the campaigns, the articles created keep on being improved on in the WikiProject space. This is our aim, and we hope to be given a chance to prove its workability. Kambai Akau (talk) 01:20, 29 September 2026 (UTC)
Proposing a new WikiProject 48toInfinity
[edit]A group of editors (mostly in the UK and Malawi) are currently concentrating on improving content relating to women in Malawi. The work started with Victuallers (editor for 20 years, co-founder of Wikipedia:WikiProject Women In Red, thousands of new articles) and Nakhwinda (a Malawian academic in Scotland) collaborating to work with the Scotland Malawi Partnership (SMP), and its Malawian counterpart the Malawi Scotland Partnership, to try to improve Wikipedia coverage of Malawian women. A significant achievement here was re-licensing of SMP images so that they could go on Commons. In 2025 Dsp13 (editor for 20 years, Women in Red fellow traveller, thousands of new articles) became involved and expanded Wikidata coverage of Malawian women. At this stage the project was known as Motokazi. In 2026 Nathingani (the Malawian lawyer and activist Sarai Chisala-Tempelhoff) independently conceived the idea of a project devoted to Malawian women, #48toInfinity. She and WomenInHistoryEditor started organizing training in editing Wikipedia at their organization, the Gender and Justice Unit in Malawi, and made contact with the previous group of editors. Joining forces, the group has had ongoing activity over the last few months. There has been a photoshoot with members of the Malawi Parliamentary Women's Caucus, and several training sessions and editathons (some with a topical focus, such as Malawian women's football or Malawian women in politics). You can see more on some of these, as well as a list of new articles relating to Malawian women written in August and September 2026, at the draft WikiProject page.
Goals:
- to improve the coverage of women in Malawi on English wikipedia, commons and Wikidata
- to provide an on-wiki talk space, along with periodic events, for building a #48toInfinity editor community in Malawi, the United Kingdom and elsewhere
Why a WikiProject rather than a task force?
- Victuallers and Dsp13 have considerable WikiProject experience. We considered making 48toInfinity a task force of either WP:WikiProject Women in Red or the (inactive) WP:WikiProject Malawi. However, we felt that we had built up a community of committed editors who wanted to give Malawian women dedicated focus, and that the specificity of this might be lost if we were forced to approach the project as a task force from either of those existing WikiProjects.
- Having this as a Wikiproject will also help in measuring progress, since we will then be able to use the Wikidata property Wikidata:Property:P6104 (maintained by WikiProject) to mark all Wikidata items of interest: all Malawian women, women's organizations, girls schools etc. in Wikidata, as well as Wikidata items corresponding to general pages like Abortion in Malawi.
Supporters of the project: Victuallers, Nakhwinda, Dsp13, Nathingani, WomenInHistoryEditor, Pearl Squarepants, Mcwamcwa, Pnthandah, MaleKate, Nyaka1, Heyitslue, NKHAKAMA, Cleo2368.
Look forward to hearing your thoughts! Dsp13 (talk) 17:33, 29 September 2026 (UTC)
- I strongly support this proposal! I am the creator of the Malawi initiative and one of the editors involved and I can vouch that this community is real and very active. Over the past few months we have held training sessions and hosted editathons on Malawian women and their wider ecosystem the organisations they have founded and and the villages that they live in and even the films they have co-written and narrated! Our editathons have covered women in politics, women footballers and we convened a photoshoot with the Parliamentary Women's Caucus. Many of us are new editors based in Malawi, having a dedicated WikiProject gives us a clear home on-wiki in a way that a task force of an inactive or much bigger project wouldn't. Being able to track our progress through Wikidata is a big plus too. I am really excited to see this move forward! Nathingani (talk) 19:47, 29 September 2026 (UTC)
- This project exists and it has a history back to early 2025. It's created over 200 new articles and we have run editathons in the UK and Scotland partnering with Uni of Edinburgh and WMUK. We have established links with several universities in Scotland and Malawi and I went out to Malawi to meet these people at the end of May. We have links with Women in Red, Rotary International, the NGO Scotland Malawi Partnership and with the parliaments in Malawi and Scotland. We have arranged for our photographs to join a tour around Scotland including a photo donated by a Wikimedian in Dzaleka refugee camp. We have arranged for several organisations to change their image policy including COSAFA and the Malawi Human Rights Commission. We have found a few editors who were active in Malawi, but we have now trained a good number of editors and interest is growing. There are 3 times more Malawian women on en:wiki, 5 times more on Wikidata. We have had maybe a dozen DYK appearances. Victuallers (talk) 23:06, 29 September 2026 (UTC)
- I think this proposal meets all the goals. Does anyone object? WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:45, 30 September 2026 (UTC)
- I agree with WhatamIdoing, so this is just out of curiosity: what's the significance of 48? Chess enjoyer (talk) 22:58, 30 September 2026 (UTC)
- Wouldn't it be better to give the project a name that indicated what its scope was? AndyTheGrump (talk) 23:11, 30 September 2026 (UTC)
- The coolest and I'm told most active wikiproject is Women in Red, Andy. The "48" refers to the relaunch of the project. Chess. Motokazi had written dozens of articles and was a successful wikiproject. I wrote an article about Sarai, she saw it and thought it was the 48th article about a Malawian woman and thought there should be more. She started 48toInfinity. We then discovered each other and chose 48toInfinity for the merged wikiproject. Victuallers (talk) 07:21, 1 October 2026 (UTC)
- Way too obscure, IMO. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:17, 1 October 2026 (UTC)
- While a WikiProject can of course have any name, please consider that the name appearing on talk pages is part of the recruiting efforts to find more editors interested in the subject matter. A more self-describing name would help with attracting new participants. isaacl (talk) 21:40, 1 October 2026 (UTC)