Wikipedia talk:New pages patrol/Backlog drives/May 2024

Next backlog drive

Howdy folks.

Looking at the article backlog graph, I think we need to have 3–4 article only backlog drives a year to maintain our current backlog levels and prevent major backlog growth. 4 backlog drives a year is too many for burnout reasons. So I think we should consider 3 backlog drives a year that focus on articles only (no redirects). That's a cadence of one every 4 months. Our last one was in January, so that would mean we should look into doing another backlog drive in May.

Thoughts on this? Shall we move forward, or do we need to adjust the details? Thanks. –Novem Linguae (talk) 08:10, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

Novem and I have been discussing this and I'm comfortable running 3 drives a year. We agree that the focus should be on articles over redirects. With that said, I would prefer to have at least one of the drives be mixed, with a lower weight provided to redirects (.2 pts each) than our last mixed drive (0.25). Hey man im josh (talk) 11:13, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

Since the backlog seems to be a recurring problem, I was wondering if maybe it'd be easier to organize a monthly/quarterly recognition barnstar based off database reports instead of constantly organizing backlog drives? That way people are still being recognized on a regular basis for their hard work keeping the backlog down (and it's more frequent than the yearly awards). It also encourages people to do what they can, when they can, somewhat frequently. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 21:37, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

See Wikipedia talk:New pages patrol/Coordination#Recognition for consistent reviewing. -Kj cheetham (talk) 22:16, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

Sadly, sending out a batch of barnstars for consistent reviewing has never resulted in a 6,000 article drop in the backlog graph like a backlog drive does. I still like sending out barnstars since it probably creates some motivation and staves off burnout a little, but it does not seem to be in the same league as backlog drives. –Novem Linguae (talk) 03:54, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

I like the idea of backlog drives as it helps to keep me focused on this during the period. 3 or 4 a year sound great, perhaps with a special barnstar for people who edit the older articles in the backlog, such as anything older than 3 or 4 months? I just did a check and we have 312 articles from December 1, 2023 and older. Perhaps those are more complicated ones, and it would be nice to clear them out also. FULBERT (talk) 14:29, 4 April 2024 (UTC)

Note: This discussion has been copied from Special:Permalink/1217230058#Next backlog drive so that it can be easily tracked in the future. Please feel free to continue here. Thank you. – DreamRimmer (talk) 11:33, 5 April 2024 (UTC)

Points

I propose awarding 1 point per review. – DreamRimmer (talk) 04:11, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

Pinging @Novem Linguae, @Hey man im josh, @Clovermoss, @Kj cheetham and @FULBERT. – DreamRimmer (talk) 08:38, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

Is the May one going to be articles-only, no redirects? If so, I'd happily support a simple 1 point per review. -Kj cheetham (talk) 16:38, 10 April 2024 (UTC)