Wikipedia:WikiProject Orphanage
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WikiProject Orphanage is dedicated to clearing up the immense backlog of orphaned articles. There are thousands of articles and images on Wikipedia with few or no links to them. The value of this project should not be underestimated as the wikilink is one of the important characteristics of a wiki and is indeed what provides Wikipedia with its ease of quick information retrieval. Plus, if you are new to Wikipedia, de-orphaning articles is a great way to learn a wide variety of useful skills. De-orphaning, when done correctly, will allow you to learn how to navigate within Wikipedia, how to format wikilinks, how to utilize cleanup tags, as well as how to determine an article's notability — which in turn leads into learning how to look for references, how and when to perform a merge, and how and when to propose an article for deletion.
Goals and scope
While it may seem simple at first, not every article can be de-orphaned, and de-orphaning can be a difficult task, so this project aims to educate and make it easier. But please remember that de-orphaning is about maintaining and improving the quality of individual articles by integrating them with others in a relevant and meaningful way, it's not about keeping score. The value of de-orphaning is not determined by the number of incoming links you added or how many orphan tags you removed, but rather by the quality of integration. Therefore, the primary goal of the Orphanage is to improve Wikipedia by building the web in a way that enhances the quality of all affected articles.
Note that this project deals primarily with articles rather than images. For orphaned images see Category:Orphaned non-free use Wikipedia files.
Our current aim is to clear the backlog of orphaned articles on Wikipedia, so that all articles can be found by a series of links from the Main Page. Note that an article with categories can be found in this way because it can be reached from other articles that share the category; however categories currently are not counted in the definition of orphan.
The project also aims to make the process of de-orphaning easier. Through collaborating with other projects, providing information, and above all helping editors to cooperate, the Orphanage will make the task of de-orphaning a little less daunting. If you have any ideas or suggestions on how to help us improve in our goal please feel free to leave a message on the talk page.
There were, on last count, 53,602 articles tagged as orphans on Wikipedia. This is over 4% of the total articles, and an incredible amount to work on, so we need your help. As of January 2009[update], there were over 133,000 articles with NO links from other articles, and many more which fit the less strict definition of an orphan, out of about 2.5 million articles.[1] While de-orphaning an article is a simple idea, it is often a difficult task, so the more editors we have to help, the better.
What can we all do to help?
Surely you're wondering what you can do to help our cause. With the current backlog all the help that is offered is welcomed. De-orphaning an article is a good way to start.
Suggestions for how to de-orphan
Suggestions for how to de-orphan an article provides information regarding how to find articles that can be linked to orphans and add them. There is also a host of other relevant information in the main article.
Participants
To add yourself to the list of participants, edit this section and add your username to the bottom of the Active list using this format:
{{Wikipedia:WikiProject Orphanage/table|Your Username|Active}}
Active members
| Name | Status |
|---|---|
| Seraphim (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Adam Schwing (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Amwyll Rwden (talk • contribs) | ? |
| Ainlina (talk • contribs) | Active |
| nrswanson (talk • contribs) | Active |
| SkyWalker (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Puddingpie (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Correogsk (talk • contribs) | Active |
| VirtualSteve (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Penguin0267 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Manishearth (talk • contribs) | Writing de-orphaning app (Student) |
| Lamro (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Hippie Metalhead (talk • contribs) | Active |
| ErikTheBikeMan (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Arbitrarily0 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Mavromatis (talk • contribs) | Semi-Active |
| Danielspencer91 (talk • contribs) | Semi-Active (I'm a Student!) |
| Sultec (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Jtle515 (talk • contribs) | Active when I get around to it |
| Syed (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Mjquin_id (talk • contribs) | Active when I have time |
| Cae prince (talk • contribs) | Active whenever I can spare time |
| Annelid (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Pinkygirl91 (talk • contribs) | Active When I Can |
| ssaa08 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| OlEnglish (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Aditya (talk • contribs) | Sporadically active |
| PiFanatic (talk • contribs) | Active when I've got the time |
| AncientToaster (talk • contribs) | Active when I remember |
| Sgc21896 (talk • contribs) | Semi-Active |
| Leif edling (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Pastor Theo (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Josemanimala (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Annalise (talk • contribs) | Sporadically active |
| SaltedCracker (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Avalik (talk • contribs) | Semi-Active |
| Dylanfromthenorth (talk • contribs) | Active but new to it |
| Adamuu (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Postcard Cathy (talk • contribs) | Active |
| chrisjj (talk • contribs) | Active |
| wingedcheetah (talk • contribs) | Active but new and quite busy |
| Sebwite (talk • contribs) | Specializing in adding navboxes to pages |
| Unionhawk (talk • contribs) | Semi-Active |
| Flipper24 (talk • contribs) | Semi-Active |
| Scoreed (talk • contribs) | Active but new |
| shraktu (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Watercleave (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Carlton Bankz (talk • contribs) | Active, but new |
| Aboriginal Noise (talk • contribs) | Active, did this at another website |
| Lonefolf (talk • contribs) | Semi-Active |
| Jminthorne (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Miyagawa (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Deepak D'Souza (talk • contribs) | Active, at least 1 every day I log on |
| Rambler24 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Biglovinb (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Wackofnotrade (talk • contribs) | Actively trying 2 help w/out messing up |
| Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Fletch79 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| royalsabri (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Tech12 (talk • contribs) | Active when I can |
| Kamots (talk • contribs) | Semi-Active |
| scoutHawk_01 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Dan Tromedlov (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Georgejdorner (talk • contribs) | Active in field of World War I aviation |
| Blacktav (talk • contribs) | Actively wanting to learn |
| Blackash (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Majestic27 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| CheeseDeluxe (talk • contribs) | Active, when I'm not GA reviewing |
| Mattg82 (talk • contribs) | Active, remove unneeded tags using AWB |
| Youre dreaming eh? (talk • contribs) | Semi-Active, but new |
| slaporte (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Eguygabe (talk • contribs) | Semi-Active |
| Beeb144 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Twaitsey (talk • contribs) | Active |
| I like pie it tastes good (talk • contribs) | Sporadically Active |
| Chrisraynash (talk • contribs) | Sporadically Active |
| Optiguy54 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Gz33 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| kstueve (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Hippychickali (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Ajstov (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Aqua3993 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Bryher16 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| RAFIAMAN (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Lmaggiesmith (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Molestash (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Sadads (talk • contribs) | Active, particularly in novels. Also removing unneeded tags using AWB |
| LordVetinari (talk • contribs) | Active when I can |
| otr500 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Deadlyninja (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Lrkleine (talk • contribs) | Active, but learning |
| Scalziand (talk • contribs) | Semi-Active |
| USchick (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Adhirk (talk • contribs) | Active whenever I'm in office |
| DeFaultRyan (talk • contribs) | Sporadically active when I've got time |
| Kwamikagami (talk • contribs) | Scan the new lists for language articles: let me know if there's a search term I should add to the AWB filter. |
| TheAMmollusc (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Cwmhiraeth (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Wi2g (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Christopholes (talk • contribs) | Semi-active |
| ArcAngel (talk • contribs) | Active |
| fulleraaron (talk • contribs) | Active |
| HarveyMGB (talk • contribs) | Sporadically Active |
| lezelmaz (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Breawycker (talk • contribs) | Active when I can |
| Mgumn (talk • contribs) | Active, but very, very new |
| Feedintm (talk • contribs) | Semi-active. Mostly spending time on adding/removing orphan tags |
| ТимофейЛееСуда (talk • contribs) | Newly-Active |
| Jdcollins13 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| StewartNetAddict (talk • contribs) | Newly-Active. Introducing links and removing orphan tags. |
| Jonathandeamer (talk • contribs) | Newly active as of February 2012 |
| Adamkriesberg (talk • contribs) | Active, Feb '12 |
| DoctorKubla (talk • contribs) | Active |
| marie22446688 (talk • contribs) | Active, new and learning |
| Listmeister (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Ewokonfire (talk • contribs) | Semi-Active |
| Tosk_Albanian (talk • contribs) | V. active |
| Neuhmz (talk • contribs) | Semi active |
| Benjamil (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Adsandy (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Mrmagikpants (talk • contribs) | Active, new |
| StampArt (talk • contribs) | Semi-Active, new |
| Fylbecatulous (talk • contribs) | Semi active |
| Madeleined2 (talk • contribs) | Sporadically active |
| SirkusSystems (talk • contribs) | Active |
| DJB3.14 (talk • contribs) | Active |
| Mfbjr (talk • contribs) | Active, new |
| Acronin3 (talk • contribs) | Semi-Active |
Inactive list
These former members haven't been seen around in a while or are unfortunately no longer involved with WikiProject Orphanage. We hope they'll come back and move themselves to the active list!
Progress
Summary of tagged orphans (in Category:Orphaned articles)
Note that the bot addbot started tagging orphans in February 2009, which accounts for the large number of orphans tagged that month.
Toolserver list summarizing articles tagged or untagged, courtesy of User:Para.
Templates
- {{Orphan}} – a template to be put directly on the article if it satisfies the orphan criteria. Currently recommended for use only if an article has zero incoming links, but also use judgment depending on the nature or significance of the subject.
- {{Orphan|date=November 2024|att=November 2024}} – once you have unsuccessfully attempted to de-orphan the article. Leave "date" as the date on the original orphan template (if one exists), and set "att" to equal the month and year you attempted to de-orphan the article.
- {{Orphaned essay}} – for essays that are found to be orphaned.
- {{Multiple issues|do-attempt=November 2024|orphan=November 2024}} – if there are other issue tags (notability, refimprov, wikify, etc.) on the page, consider consolidating them into one box with {{multiple issues}}. Read the specs first to familiarize yourself with it, although it's pretty straightforward. (Needs both the orphan AND do-attempt parameters in order to categorize the article properly!)
- {{User Wikipedia Orphan}} – the userbox for this project.
- {{subst:Welcome de-orphaner}} – a welcoming template to encourage new project members.
- {{subst:Welcome de-orphaner2}} – a slightly different welcoming template, to invite de-orphaners to the project.
Categories
| Click on "►" below to display subcategories: |
|---|
Subpages
- List of all subpages of this page
See also
- Help:Drawing attention to new pages
- Wikipedia:Build the web
- Wikipedia:Integrate
- Wikipedia:Walled garden
- WikiProject Abandoned Articles
- WikiProject Council/Proposals/Navbox
Obsolete orphan lists
These are kept for historical purposes only, they are no longer used:
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Orphanage/Articles orphaned without redirects - List of orphans from a 2003 database dump
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Orphanage/Orphaned Articles - List of articles from a 2004 database dump
References
External links
