 | This is an information page. It is neither an encyclopedia article nor one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting. |
A WikiProject is a group of contributors who want to work together as a team to improve Wikipedia. These groups often focus on a specific topic area (for example, WikiProject Mathematics or WikiProject India), a specific part of the encyclopedia (for example, WikiProject Disambiguation), or a specific kind of task (for example, checking newly created pages). The English Wikipedia currently has over 2,000 WikiProjects, about 1,000 of which are monitored by 30–2,000 editors, all with varying levels of activity.
Function
A WikiProject collaborates to improve a particular topic area. The group uses its WikiProject pages to develop ideas, discuss sources, maintain various collaborative processes, and keep track of work that needs to be done. WikiProjects often write advice for editors, use bots to track what is happening at articles of interest to the group, and create lists of tools and templates the project's participants commonly use.
The discussion pages attached to a project page are a convenient venue for those involved in that project to talk about what they are doing, to ask questions, and to receive advice from other people interested in the group's work. Participants in WikiProjects also assist in performing quality assessments of articles pertaining to their specific topic area.
They typically are areas of interest or expertise and can be used for collaboration, coordination, competitions, outreach, decision-making, integration and mutual assistance.
WikiProjects are not rule-making organizations, nor can they assert ownership of articles within a specific topic area. WikiProjects have no special rights or privileges compared to other editors and may not impose their preferences on articles. A WikiProject is fundamentally a social construct: its success depends on its ability to function as a cohesive group of editors working towards a common goal.
Wikipedia has a very large number of WikiProjects. A fraction of them are fully active and have a number of active participants and even elected coordinators who help the WikiProject to run actively. Some WikiProjects are somewhat less active, but still exist as a collaboration and work-tracking venue where interested editors can exchange ideas and information. Some WikiProjects are completely inactive.
Finding a project
In addition to the search box below, you can also browse
- Directory of WikiProjects: automatically curated & manually curated, or the BamBot list
WikiProjects welcome new participants; please feel free to participate in any or all that interest you!
Creating and maintaining a project
| Do not create any new WikiProject pages without prior discussion. That includes all "WikiProject (Name)" pages, categories, and templates. We are trying to reduce the number of failed attempts to start groups. If you want to draft a page for your group, then use your personal sandbox. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals for more information. |
A WikiProject is a group of people. To create a WikiProject, find other editors who want to work with you. Once you have multiple other editors who want to work with you, see the WikiProject proposals process.
Before starting, read the guide to WikiProject organization, and join some existing WikiProjects to understand how they operate in practice.
Inactive projects
Many WikiProjects fall inactive or semi-active because they have a lack of interested editors, or they simply have served their initial purpose. Many small scope projects fall inactive or semi-active after establishing an organizational structure, advice pages, content assessment system, layout and inclusion standards, reliable sources, and navigational aids. These projects are retained for reference as they may be viable because they provide topic-specific considerations of the many site-wide policies and guidelines that still apply to a subset of articles.
Many WikiProjects – even inactive ones – still contain 'Article Alerts' and/or 'Hot article' notification sections which continue to serve a useful purpose by displaying automated, up-to-date activity notifications, irrespective of the level of current editor engagement with the WikiProject pages.
Some WikiProjects have been surpassed by other processes or are simply defunct and are retained as a record of past Wikipedia processes. Any "inactive" WikiProject can be revived if a group of editors (not just one editor) would make the project an active place for discussions related to improvement of pages within the project's scope.
See also
- For additional resources, or if you have any questions, please visit the WikiProject Council.
- Commons-based peer production
- Help:Wikipedia: The Missing Manual/Collaborating with other editors/WikiProjects and other group efforts
- Learning community
- {{User all WikiProjects}}
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