Wikipedia:The Great Wikipedia Dramaout

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This page in a nutshell: For 5 days, Wikipedians are asked to voluntarily refrain from editing all non-article areas of Wikipedia, and instead dedicate themselves to creating, cleaning up, and building articles.

In the Great Wikipedia Dramaout, similar to the Great American Smokeout, editors are asked to engage in a five-day period of abstinence from drama at Wikipedia; the most addictive and yet cancerous aspect of our community. During this five-day drama blackout, it is requested that regular contributors to the non-article-space areas of Wikipedia, including but not limited to, the various administrator noticeboards, the reference desks, the village pumps, or any other non-essential areas of Wikipedia cease working at those areas for the length of the Dramaout and instead work on article content. With the exception of areas deemed essential to improving articles directly, all participating editors are asked to voluntarily abstain from non-article edits.

The purpose of this campaign is to improve article quality in Wikipedia.

The 1st Great Wikipedia Dramaout, took place from July 18 to July 22, 2009; its article-improvement log is located at Wikipedia:The Great Wikipedia Dramaout/1st/Log.

The 2nd Great Wikipedia Dramaout, began on 00:00, 18 January 2010 (UTC) and ended on 23:59, 22 January 2010 (UTC); its log is located at Wikipedia:The Great Wikipedia Dramaout/2nd/Log.

The 3rd Great Wikipedia Dramaout began on July 5, 2010 and ended at 23:59 (UTC) on Friday, July 9, 2010; its log is located at Wikipedia:The Great Wikipedia Dramaout/3rd/Log.

The 4th Great Wikipedia Dramaout started at March 1, 2012; its log is located at Wikipedia:The Great Wikipedia Dramaout/4th/Log.

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Frequently asked questions

Aren't the areas you are avoiding really important to Wikipedia?
Yes, they clearly are. However, this campaign is not a condemnation of the non-article space of Wikipedia. It is merely a recognition that some editors feel addicted to these sorts of discussions, and that their own article writing has suffered. This is giving people the opportunity to voluntarily refrain from the addiction for a few days and return to the reason we all came here for in the first place. Editing articles!
Isn't <name of page or process> going to suffer if no one handles it?
It isn't expected that no one will handle it. There are plenty of Wikipedians who will not participate in this campaign, and for those that do there are plenty of others who will do that work while they are gone. This is not a campaign for all Wikipedians, it is for those who have recognized a lack of article editing by themselves, and to give them an opportunity to return to article editing for a few days. If the sort of "addiction" described in Q1 does not ring true to you, then maybe this campaign is not for you.
Isn't this really more about improving articles than avoiding drama? Wouldn't some other name be more accurate?
Yes, it is. The name is something of a catchy title merely to get people involved. However, it is not entirely inaccurate. Many people who are addicted to the non-article spaces of Wikipedia are addicted to the drama contained there. Just like an alcoholic cannot "just have one drink", some people find themselves unable to avoid being dragged into the "drama" in the non-article areas of Wikipedia. Abstaining from all non-article-related editing is mainly about not putting yourself into a place where you can be dragged into drama; which of course then detracts from your article editing. Again, if this sort of addiction metaphor does not ring true for you, then you may not be understanding the purpose and focus of this campaign, and it may not be for you.
I spend some time at non-article spaces, but I edit lots of articles too. I don't really think I get involved in much drama myself, and my article editing is at a level where I like it. Should I sign up?
No, probably not. You sound like someone who has a well-balanced Wikilife, and this campaign really isn't for you. Of course, everyone is invited, and if you really want to take the pledge to edit ONLY articles for 5 days seriously, you are free to sign up. But if you don't think that you are interested, or that you will benefit from it, don't feel you have to sign up. No one will think less of you for doing so.
Why are there a list of exemptions here? What is the purpose of exempting areas if we are ONLY to edit articles?
The exemptions are to give editors the opportunity to improve their work in ways outside of direct article editing. For example, nominating an article you work on during the 5-day campaign for FA is exempt from the normal restriction against non-article editing. However, spending the five days hanging out at FAC and discussing dozens of articles you didn't work on, merely to discuss them, kinda misses the point of the campaign. Likewise, if an article you are working on is repeatedly vandalized, then by all means, please use RFPP and AIV to deal with the issue. However, patrolling these pages looking for people to block or pages to protect also kinda violates the spirit of the Dramaout. Please use your discretion, and if working outside of the article space is directly related to improving a specific article you have dedicated yourself to working on, then please go ahead and do so. But always remember the focus is on specific article improvement, not merely blocking vandals or commenting on discussions unrelated to your work.
Who came up with this idea?
User F203 raised the idea at Wikipedia talk:Administrators' noticeboard with the thread titled "Shut down ANI for 5 days? Would this help WP article writing?" Based on some positive response there, Jayron32 created the Great Wikipedia Dramaout campaign page using F203's basic ideas.

Areas of Wikipedia affected[edit]

Administrator's Noticeboard and all subboards (Incidents, edit wars, arbitration enforcement, etc.)
Reference Desks
Village pumps
All discussions to proposed changes to policies and guidelines
Talk page chatter, except for article collaboration
- including Jimbo's talk page, often an informal venue for theatrics
deletion discussions
requests for unblock
discussion about RfA/RfB
WP:RfC
the Abuse Response project

Areas of Wikipedia exempted[edit]

WP:AIV, for reporting blatant vandalism
WP:UAA, for reporting self-evidently unacceptable usernames
WP:RFPP, for requesting page protection due to edit warring, repeated vandalism and BLP violations
WP:ANI/3RR for reporting violations of WP:3RR
WP:COPYVIO and WP:BLP violations
WP:TEAMWORK, for collaborations to improve the quality of articles (but no arguing allowed!)
WP:CSD, for reporting blatant vandalism, spam, attack pages and the like
WP:AFC, for the purpose that it's devoted to article creation
WP:MEA, for missing encyclopedic articles
WP:DYK nominations for articles you worked on through this campaign, and reviewing other nominations
WP:ITN nominations for articles you worked on through this campaign, and reviewing other nominations
WP:GA and WP:FA/WP:FL nominations for articles/lists you worked on through this campaign, and reviewing other nominations
WP:PR for getting a peer review of an article you are working on through this campaign, and reviewing other articles
Patrolling and tagging of new articles at Special:NewPages
Anything else that helps with maintenance or writing articles

Ideas for things to do during the Dramaout[edit]

Create an article on a notable subject which is missing from Wikipedia
Expand a stub to a fully developed article
Improve a poorly written or incomplete section of an article
Find an article in need of WP:CLEANUP and resolve ALL of the issues noted in the cleanup tags
Take a substandard article, list, or portal and start bringing it up to good article or featured article status
Provide needed pictures, graphics, audio/video or maps to articles
Correct existing errors, particularly those that editors know are incorrect but need to look for a reference to document the correct facts
Make translations
Create or expand articles for WP:DYK
Create or expand articles for WP:ITN
Add references to quotations, and anywhere one is requested. Google Book Search can be helpful
Support your WikiProject's articles needing attention
Complete the tasks on any to-do lists that you see (Category:Wikipedia pages with to-do lists)
Help with licence migration. You can help determine if media files used on Wikipedia Projects can be migrated to dual license.

Related projects[edit]