This page is part of the
Military history WikiProject's online
Academy, and contains instructions, recommendations, or suggestions for editors working on military history articles. While it is not one of the project's formal guidelines, editors are encouraged to consider the advice presented here in the course of their editing work. |
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and while the basics of editing Wikipedia have not changed the size of Wikipedia has. As days go by more and more articles are added to the site, and with this, there has been an increased demand for contributors to assist with the site's back room administration and organization by tagging articles for respective projects, and updating their assessment ratings, and ensuring that they remain compliant with all of our policies and guidelines. These demands can be a major turn off for our editors. Moreover, as projects, task forces, and working groups grow the constant demands placed on our internal process increase.
Most of our members – indeed, most of Wikipedia's anonymous and registered users – are principally interested in article content. They come here not to tag, or assess, or aid with internal processes; instead, they come to add the content to the project that we need to ensure that we grow as a project. Additionally, many users are under the impression that all administrative or organizational tasks like tagging, assessing, and aiding with internal processes are the responsibility of the Military history Project coordinators. This is true only to a point. The project's coordinators represent a small number of our members and are simply unable to handle absolutely everything related to this particular aspect of our project, and many are also rightfully keen to work on content themselves. Nevertheless, the administrative and organizational aspects remain important to maintaining our infrastructure, and if left unaddressed slowly diminish the health of the project. This is rather like a space station over Earth whose orbit slowly but steadily declines due to drag until it crashes back to Earth.
To solve the problem of backlogs or to inspire our contributors to collaborate to improve certain, potentially neglected areas of the project, we at Milhist occasionally hold major contributor-driven events called drives. The thrust of each individual drive varies, but the general focus of a drive is to motivate the project's members to focus on a particular aspect to through editorial weight behind a small aspect of the project to help resolve an issue, or keep a backlog in check. Drives can be administrative or organizational in nature, or sometimes even focused on content, or both.
The following essay will serve as a walk through touching on all aspects of a drive. It will look at various aspects including establishing the drive, setting it up and then maintaining and closing it.
A drive is a major event. It aims to brings the entirety of the project to focus on a particular event that is considered to be of high enough importance to involve everyone, and as such drives within our project are few and far between (they are generally run annually, or sometimes twice a year). When they do occur we make a big to do out of them, offering several awards for participation and a mention in The Bugle, our in house newsletter. If the drive is big enough, you could also get a mention in The Signpost, Wikipedia's newsletter. The Signpost reaches many more people than our in house letter does, and can be a source of great pride for those who receive a mention.
If the problem or issue at hand is relatively minor, or could be solved locally (by a dedicated, but small group of contributors) then it is unlikely to require a drive to address the issue at hand. Since most of the major issues can be addressed in this manner there is rarely an immediate need to hold a drive.
On the other hand, if you determine that more than a few good contributors will be needed to solve a particular issue then you may have a need for a drive, and if you have what you believe is a good reason for Milhist to hold a drive then your next move should be to take your proposal to the coordinators of the project. Leave a message on their talk page concerning the reason for the drive, and outline the general idea of the drive (ie: clear out a backlog, gain needed content, etc). From here, the coordinators will weigh the matter, considering the pros and cons of the idea, and get back to you on the drive idea. If they turn down the drive idea do not be discouraged, it may be that at present other concerns prohibit a drive, or that a drive at the moment is simply not feasible with other project goings on.
When drives do occur their success depends upon involving as many project members as possibly. For this reason you should consider the need for a drive carefully and design it in a manner that appeals broadly, allowing as many editors as possible to get involved. When planning a drive proposal it is suggested that following be considered:
If your drive proposal is accepted the coordinators will set up a dedicated page for the project, including the thrust of the drive and its intended goal, the timeline, and the awards. Past examples of such pages can be found here: Category:WikiProject Military history backlog reduction drives, and these may serve as a useful guide to the infrastructure required. The coordinators will also work to advertise the drive and invite anyone interested to participate. This will usually entail mentioning the event on the main project talk page, as well as in The Bugle. Potentially a mass message should also be sent out by one of the project's administrators or someone with that user right.
Once the pages are set up they will remain active and open until the end of the drive. The pages will track the overall progress of those participating, including the preference of the user in question on the matter of his or her awards – some of our members like to receive awards as they earn them, others prefer to obtain their awards at the end of the drive.
As a matter of both efficiency and oversight the coordinators will usually appoint one or more co-ordinators to undertake the task of answering questions, verifying the claims of the contestants and awarding the barnstars to those who participated. The overall progress of the drive should also be monitored in relation to the stated goals throughout the drive, and the drive page maintained (including listings of participants and their worklists).
At the end of the drive the coordinators will hand out the remaining awards, including for first, second and third place, and will handle the process of archiving the pages created for the drive effort and promulgating the results. The closure of the drive should be officially noted on the drive page, and on the main project page, and congratulations issued to those who participated in the drive and those who took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. The results of the drive, including award recipients, and whether or not the stated goals were met should be published in The Bugle after the drive.