Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Orphanage

See also: Wikipedia talk:Orphan

Proposed change to Template:Underpopulated_category

Hi there,

I want to add a "suggestions may be available" section to the Underpopulated_category template. Basically, the template would accept a new argument "intersection" and a newline separated list of categories to intersect. For example, see the proposed change live on Category:Academics from Georgia (country).

Tell me what you think! Tim1357 ^talk|poke 19:39, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

Monthly Challenge Proposal

Hello there. I'm one of the participants in WikiProject Orphanage and also in WikiProject Disambiguation. In WP DAB, there's an ongoing monthly challenge to see who can fix the most dab links. I suggest a monthly contest here in WP Orphanage where we do the same thing. This contest would help reduce the long backlog of orphaned articles. In the goals section, it says that its not about keeping score. So, instead of keeping track of who deorphaned the most articles, there could be a goal of how many articles to be deorphaned (properly), but that's an afterthought. MrLinkinPark333 (talk) 01:39, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

Proposal to starting a backlog drive for this project

Hello members of WikiProject Orphanage, I'm a regular participant of this project. I have been deorphaning articles for quite sometime. I have noticed that day by day the activity of this project members were slowing down. The backlog of Orphan articles are now quite large. It is impossible for few editors to eliminate them. Our project have some enlisted members, half of them are active here. But they haven't shown cooperation with this project for quite sometime. So, my proposal is to start a new backlog drive system. A mass message will be send monthly either by a massmessage sender or by a bot to all the inactive project members talkpage. The message will ask them to cooperate again and in return they will get rewards. Rewards will be given in the form of barnstars. This help to reduce the backlog. Members of this project will get attracted by the reward barnstars and will try to eliminate as much they can.

I expect comments and opinnions from other editors, So that we can reach a conclusion. Thank you. Jim Carter ^(talk) 18:42, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea. I can support that idea! Go ahead and start a draft of a competition page, and if you are willing to judge/moderate, that would be awesome! Sadads (talk) 19:14, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Sounds good to me too. Notifying inactive participants is a good start. Where do we find new participants? ~KvnG

Hello @Kvng: and @Sadads: I have informed an admin about this and soon we will have a backlog drive system. The members who will recieve a notification can be seen here. This {{WPORPHANdrive}} will be send (please let me know on my talk page if any change is needed. Thank you. I know we will soon have a good number of new members. Jim Carter ^(talk) 01:53, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for getting the rolling. It is probably better to discuss plans for a backlog drive and notifications here than on your talkpage.

1. I fixed the here link. It was pointed at the mobile version of WP or something.
2. Eliminating the backlog seems like an unrealistic goal for a monthlong drive. Can we choose something more realistic. For instance:
   1. Make a dent in current backlog
   2. Clear backlog through the end of 2009
   3. Deorphan or attempt to deorphan 5000 articles
   4. Participants set their own personal goals when signing up
   5. Don't say anything about goals
3. What is the purpose of singling out November 2008 in the notification?

~KvnG 04:01, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

• Thank you Kvng for the quick reply. Actually my connection is very slow nowadays so I can't keep a watch on my watchlist so I told about my talkpage. Anyway, I think we have to start from the beginning. I have seen recent orphan tagged articles getting de-orphaned quickly but those which are earlier than 2011 are still in the same state. Yes, 5000 articles in two months might work. No purpose of slinging out November 2008 in the notification (I was just testing it) we can change it anytime. I think two month backlog drive can be effective (we can't send them notification of indefined backlog drive). We have to invite new participants by attractive templates like "Come join us!" etc. We have to advertise about this as much as possible. Can someone create a new section about the upcoming backlog system along with the link to join the backlog drive on the main project page? Jim Carter ^(talk) 04:38, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

Hello again, I have created a barnstar to award de-orphaners please have a look ({{The White Barnstar}}) and let me know if any changes are required. Thank you. Jim Carter ^(talk) 00:32, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

Orphan bot

I started by bot. It checks all pages that are already tagged as orphan. If pages are not orphan anymore it will remove the tag. Moreover, it will add {{Multiple issues}} if 2 or more tags are in the page. I think next step is to extend connectivity by creating pages such as List of... or updating existing pages. -- Magioladitis (talk) 12:09, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

Do you have a link to more information about this bot? ~KvnG 14:20, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

Kvng it is User:Yobot. It uses standard WP:AWB settings. -- Magioladitis (talk) 15:15, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

Done. Statistics: 117343 pages transcluding {{Orphan}}, 43012 inside {{Multiple issues}} and 74331 without since there the sole tag in the page. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:37, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

Is there something that can change the old style {{Multiple issues}} to the new style. You can't add an |att= to the old style. ~KvnG 04:03, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

KvnG I suggest that you do it manually where needed. I was thinking to ask GoingBatty to help me convert old style to new style in the case an orphan tag is included. -- Magioladitis (talk) 06:16, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

GoingBatty Category:Pages with multiple issues using deprecated parameters seems to be empty. -- Magioladitis (talk) 06:52, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

@Magioladitis: When my bot request to convert old style to new style was rejected, the code to populate the category was removed, but apparently the category was not. See Template talk:Multiple issues#Convert deprecated parameters to templates?. GoingBatty (talk) 12:38, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

Orphaned Articles Categories Questions

Hello there. In the subcategories of [[1]], it says that the earliest category is November 2006. However, in the orphaned articles column on the right hand side, it says the earliest is November 2007. Why is the November 2006 category missing from this list? Is there a way to add the November 2006 category to the column? Thank you. MrLinkinPark333 (talk) 23:08, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

BackLog Drive "DO" (De-Orphaning) script proposal

Hello WP:WPO! Jim came to my talk page yesterday asking for ideas (and a script) to be able to have a scored BLD for this project. As such, I thought about (and slept on) the issue and my thoughts on how such a scoring system would work are along the lines of:

• +1 point for attempting to de-orphan a page (whether successful or not)
• +1 point for de-orphaning a page for each article space link created to it
• +1 bonus point for de-orphaning a page by creating at least three article space links to it

There should also be some kind of accountability system so that people aren't claiming they attempted to deorphan or adding links to pages from pages that have nothing to do with them just for the sake of scoring points to win a virtual trophy that they can display on their userpage. For this, I'm thinking that there should be a "recheck" system in place so that anyone who rechecks a page that someone else already claimed to have done, and finds something out of place (of course AGF), should get a point for that. The person who did the original deorphan attempt should lose that point and there should be a threshold of a certain number of lost points = disqualification from the awards. Before I go on much further, I would like to hear the ideas and thoughts of the other project members on what I've suggested so far. Thanks. — {{U|Technical 13}} ^{(t • e • c)} 14:42, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Good proposal. I'd also recommend giving a point for each rereview. FoCuSandLeArN (talk) 14:57, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Interesting idea but what's "a scored BLD"? Mfbjr (talk) 03:21, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

A scored back-log drive (i.e. A competition to encourage people to work on removing the Orphan backlog) Jamesmcmahon0 (talk) 09:10, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

I had once written this script that made de-orphaning easy. It's one of the worst userscripts that I've ever written (I open tabs instead of using AJAX), but the idea is IMO still valid, and possibly something that can be remade as an AWB plugin. Why not try using that to battle the backlog? I'm not so enthused by simply gamifying the deorphaning process -- it will help, but gamification helps only so much, the process should be made scalable ManishEarth^{Talk • Stalk} 03:40, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

The BLD competition seems like a good idea with a well thought out scoring system. I don't see why that and an automation script have to be at all mutually exclusive though, surely both ideas are worth pursuing regardless of the outcome of the other? Jamesmcmahon0 (talk) 09:14, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

I would be in favour of going the WP:gadget route rather than the AWB route. With a gadget the tool is open to a much larger range of non-technical users and I see no technical reason that AWB should be required. Stuartyeates (talk) 23:56, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Support Sounds good. Could there be a goal of how many articles to deorphaned in a month, or a monthly list of articles that are the focus of the month? I proposed a monthly challenge here a few months ago, but I didn't hear any responses. By having this script, it will fulfill my previous proposal. Many thanks. MrLinkinPark333 (talk) 18:47, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Support Great idea. I like the monthly focus and challenge too. Someone would need to curate that, however. Chris Jefferies (talk) 19:53, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Counter proposal - I support doing a trial BLD to see what kind of dent we can make in the backlog with an effort like this. The effort is not going to live or die based on a scoring system. I propose that we try a low-overhead BLD without scoring.

In my opinion, what's going to make a significant dent in the backlog is recruiting more members for this project. I can see how the visible activity generated by a BLD can raise awareness of WP:ORPHAN and potentially bring in new members. But, perhaps I've underestimated interested in a BLD. Let's start this by collecting names of editors interested in participating in a BLD. We will want such a list no matter how we choose to proceed. ~KvnG 05:22, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

sure, why not --Jtle515 (talk) 05:34, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

• Support- as proposer. Jim Carter ^(talk) 07:40, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
• Support- Sounds good, and worth a try, if you can work out how to automate it all (which sounds daunting to me... so good luck with that). FWIW, my own personal experience was that I signed up on the de-orphaning when WP ran its Backlog Project a few years ago, and kept going for several years (attempting to tackle the oldest month of orphans each time, or the oldest month with only a few entries left in it). I stopped about a year ago... I just ran out of steam... that and more demands from my day job. Perhaps if I knew that my efforts were being logged in a points system, I might have continued. Perhaps. TheAMmollusc (talk) 08:39, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

• Support I'm a fan of the every-other-month drives we do at the Guild of Copy Editors and would happily participate in a de-orphaning drive as well. 174.88.147.216 (talk) 14:11, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

BLD participants

Please sign below if you are interested in participating in an orphan backlog drive. Timeframe and technicalities of such a drive are still under discussion. See above. (Note: This is the list of participants for the test de-orphan backlog drive. The original list is here.)

• ~KvnG 05:22, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
• Jamesmcmahon0 (talk) 08:08, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
• Stuartyeates (talk) 08:25, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
• Jim Carter ^(talk) 14:02, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

OrphanTabs

I agree with Jamesmcmahon0, automation is probably a separate discussion. @Manishearth:, can you please explain what your script does? The way I've been going about it, deorphaning is not a highly rote process. I wonder what I'm missing. ~KvnG 05:10, 7 April 2014 (UTC)