Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles
This is a WikiProject, an area for focused collaboration among Wikipedians. New participants are welcome; please feel free to participate!
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Ask yourselves: why didn't you look up Wikipedia's articles about economy, Dmitri Mendeleev, man, or land even though you know little about them? Simple, because they suck. Millions of people feel the same way too. This is not acceptable on our side and this must be changed by making these articles good.
Subpages[edit]
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles/Tools - technical how-to on how to use tools and scripts
Past work[edit]
- 30 kB drive
- 47 articles expanded to 30 kilobytes; 26 July 2022 – 31 August 2022
- Vital GA Drive
- Land to good article status, unsuccessful; 1 September – 15 November 2022
Function[edit]
This WikiProject is designed to be a public space that has neat stuff to do or learn about, and to serve as a place where you sit down, relax, and make edits or discuss with others. Its purpose is to improve the Vitals articles and lists. We always welcome anonymous and new people here (and if you are one of them, have a chat at the talk page!)
There is no such thing as "joining" or "registering" for this WikiProject, as it is an overarching project that aims to gather other WikiProjects together for collaboration. If you're actively improving vital articles, you're already a member of this WikiProject. If you want to find people that are working on Vital articles, use this link to find recent edits and talk to them directly.
Tasks[edit]
- Wikipedia:Database reports/Vital articles update report
- No backlogUnassessed vital articles – -2 articles in total
- No backlogVital articles with unknown topic – 0 articles in total
A list of articles needing cleanup associated with this project is available. See also the tool's wiki page and the index of WikiProjects.
Improving a Vital article[edit]
While we might not know the exact formula for mass-producing Vital GAs, we do know ways to tackle and improve these kind of articles. Here are some techniques that you can use:
- Don't be afraid to try and don't be a perfectionist. Yes, that paragraph that you just wrote might not be there once the article is at GAN, but it will be an important stepping stone for recognizing further improvement. As long as your own content is significantly better and more reliable than the rest of the article, you've done a good job.
- Be concise and keep the summary style in mind. An article should not be too long or else the readers will become dizzy (~60 kB of readable prose is the ideal size). Pro tip: one of the best way to quickly raise article quality is to trim bad content, such as cruft, unsourced sections, original research, etc.
- Be mindful of systematic bias. For vital articles specifically, the most commonly encountered bias is American-European bias. For example, there's a tendency of using European allegories or paintings to illustrate abstract ideas. Don't just swap these images for the sake of diversity however. Remember, the best images are the one that is relevant, high-resolution, sharp, shows the subject clearly in the small thumbnail and is applicable to all cultures.
- Patrol sources and ensure their quality. If you find a low-quality source, either replace it with higher-quality ones or jank the content if it doesn't warrant inclusion in the first place. The WP:RSP list, User:SuperHamster/CiteUnseen and User:Headbomb/unreliable are some of the best tools available to detect bad sources, though remember to use your own judgement as well.
- Copyedit the text and make sure that the text looks more Wikipedia-like. If in doubt, take a look at Wikipedia:Basic copyediting, Wikipedia:Writing better articles, WP:Manual of Style and more.
If you had completed all of these basic techniques, here are some of the more specialized yet powerful ways that you can improve Vital articles. Enjoy these dishes with extra Wikipedia:Ignore all rules and common sense:
- Use the bold, revert, discuss cycle to garner attention and quickly adding improvements the (old) Wikipedia way. This method is especially useful for editing popular country articles provided that you're prepared. Just make an edit that you think it would improve the article, the edit then gets reverted, and both people discuss to reach a better solution.
- Use AutoWikiBrowser and other automated tools to quickly correct errors in many Vital articles. For example, you can use AWB to monitor typos and fix them accordingly. Detailed instructions for some tools such as WP:PetScan and user scripts can be obtained at Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles/Tools.
- Import good content from subtopic articles. For example, in a section about the properties of numbers, it may be helpful to get the content from smaller scope articles such as natural numbers. However, you will need to attribute the source per Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia and can be pretty tedious when messing with the template. An IAR and simpler way might be to make a talk page section and list all of your articles that you've copied, including their oldid.
- And perhaps, the most spicy of 'em all is using large language models such as ChatGPT, GPT-3, etc. for brainstorming ideas on Wikipedia. These neural networks as of 2023 are one of the most powerful tool to face the writer's block and give clues at expanding broad-topic articles, and they have the potential to do far more in the future. It should NOT, however, be used to generate original content because of original research and verifiability policy. For tips on using large language models, see Wikipedia:Using neural network language models on Wikipedia and Wikipedia:Large language models.
Awards[edit]
We have a good roster of awards given to those that help us advance the goal to make all Vital Articles GAs and FAs. These awards may be awarded by anyone to anyone worthy.
Barnstars[edit]
{{subst:Vital Barnstar|1=message ~~~~}}
– good old barnstar, given to those that have done a good job.
Vital Barnstar | ||
{{{1}}} |
{{subst:The Vital Articles Barnstar|1=message ~~~~}}
The Vital Articles Barnstar | ||
{{{1}}} |
Userboxes[edit]
- {{User Vital}} – for members of the project.
This user is interested in improving vital articles. |
- {{Vital userbox}} – good old userbox, given to those that have done a good job.
This user has received a Vital barnstar. |
- {{Good Vital infobox}} – Userbox for those that have successfully nominated a Vital good article.
This user has helped promote vital good articles on Wikipedia. |
- {{Featured Vital infobox}} – Userbox for those that have successfully nominated a Vital featured article.
This user has helped promote vital featured articles on Wikipedia. |
Assessment[edit]
For mobile readers, you can click here to switch to desktop mode to read the table more easily. This Vital article assessment scheme is meant to be subjective and complementary to Wikipedia:Content assessment.
Class | Criteria | Reader's experience | Editing suggestions | Example |
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FA | The article is professional, complete, engaging, and has been vetted by WP:Featured article candidates. More detailed criteria
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Experts and casual readers alike will find the content easy to digest, accurate, and engaging. You can format the article to look like an actual Nature journal article and it would look believable. | Improve the prose, update the information, remove vandalism, make the text more professional and engaging, all the WikiGnome stuff! Try to make the text more readable and engaging to a wider audience if you dare. | Solar System |
A | The article is well organized, complete in terms of content, and has been examined by a dedicated WikiProject department such as WikiProject Military History A-class assessment. As a special assessment rank, it meets the A-Class criteria. The actual criteria can be slightly different due to nuances within individual WikiProjects. | Readers will find it complete, but experts will know better and still have grumbling at missing/incorrect information throughout the article. There will still be hiccups or typos when you read the article top-down. | Expert knowledge may be needed to tweak the article, and style problems may need to be addressed. Consider contacting experts at your relevant A-Class department for more advice. | Napoleon |
GA | The article is reasonably complete and suitable for translation to other languages, after being vetted WP:Good article nominations. More detailed criteria
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Fairly standard quality level for a top-tier Encyclopædia Britannica article but with less generalization and dumb-downness. Readers will at least not be drowned in text, and experts will find it usable for refreshing their memory. | Detect Wikipedia:Systemic bias in the article and address them; more viewpoints generally meant better article at this point. Touch-up on your citations and style and make sure the text is in line with your sources. Make sure that the text is appealing to a wide audience and not a slog to read. | Marie Curie |
B | The article is kinda complete, reliable and suitably organized. From this point on, there is no need to revamp the article layout. More detailed criteria
It meets the six B-Class criteria:
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"Seems good", a reader thought. Citations, prose and images are better than average, but lots of cruds still remain. Experts would likely look elsewhere for content, maybe at a specialist encyclopedia or journal articles if they need answer to specific questions. | A few aspects of content and style need to be addressed. Expert knowledge may be needed. Start addressing systematic bias since this article will be translated to other languages and the inclusion of media should be considered as well. | Atom |
C | The article is still missing important content or contains much irrelevant material. It may still have significant problems or require substantial cleanup. It may have some gaps or missing elements; need editing for clarity, balance, or flow; or contain policy violations, such as bias or original research. | When a reader scrolls down, they would see a vast amount of text no more useful than at a random website, with no coherent theme, and dumpster fire of terrible sources. "This article could be better" – they thought. | Providing references to reliable sources should come first; the article also needs substantial improvement in content and organization. Also improve the grammar, spelling, writing style and improve the jargon use. | Food preservation |
Start | The article sorely lacks content, and lacks a lot of it. The article has a usable amount of good content but is weak in many areas. Quality of the prose may be distinctly unencyclopedic. | Readers find it just a bit more useful than a dictionary definition, and experts will scoff on it. And they would definitely not read more than the lead portion of the article. | Find sources and add content based on them. Make sure that you make the article structure easy to expand upon. Think about a general "theme" or "flow" to the article – what do you want it to look like? | Equation |
Stub | A very basic description of the topic that needs a ton of content expansion. The article will need much work to become a meaningful article. | "Ah yes, that thing exists on Wikipedia" – a reader thought. Then they close Wikipedia and search on Google to hunt down more reliable/comprehensive content. | Add content like there's no tomorrow. Keep doing it. Add more content! | Rapids |
Dashboard[edit]
Article alerts[edit]
For article alerts about a specific level, see:
For article alerts on all vital articles (levels 1–5):
Today's featured articles
Today's featured article requests
- 05 Jul 2024 – July 2009 Ürümqi riots (talk · edit · hist) has been proposed for Today's Featured Article by Z1720 (t · c); see discussion
- 02 Jul 2024 – Thomas Cranmer (talk · edit · hist) has been proposed for Today's Featured Article by Z1720 (t · c); see discussion
Did you know
- 04 May 2024 – Giant panda (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Wolverine XI (t · c); see discussion
- 03 May 2024 – Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Keivan.f (t · c); see discussion
- 01 May 2024 – Lineage (anthropology) (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Me Da Wikipedian (t · c); see discussion
- 16 Apr 2024 – Global dimming (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by InformationToKnowledge (t · c); see discussion
Redirects for discussion
- 06 May 2024 – Huntington, South Carolina (talk · edit · hist) →South Carolina was RfDed by Shhhnotsoloud (t · c); see discussion
- 06 May 2024 – Unintelligible sequence of characters (talk · edit · hist) →Mojibake was RfDed by LaundryPizza03 (t · c); see discussion
- 06 May 2024 – Ancient United States (talk · edit · hist) →Pre-Columbian era was RfDed by Remsense (t · c); see discussion
- 04 May 2024 – Bedbg bite (talk · edit · hist) →Bed bug was RfDed by Plantdrew (t · c); see discussion
- 02 May 2024 – -ic (talk · edit · hist) →IUPAC nomenclature of inorganic chemistry was RfDed by MikutoH (t · c); see discussion
- 30 Apr 2024 – Radio-Canada (talk · edit · hist) →Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was RfDed by LilianaUwU (t · c); see discussion
- 30 Apr 2024 – Enbian (talk · edit · hist) →Non-binary gender was RfDed by MikutoH (t · c); see discussion
- 29 Apr 2024 – Man's red flower (talk · edit · hist) →Fire was RfDed by Okmrman (t · c); see discussion
- 29 Apr 2024 – Man's red fire (talk · edit · hist) →Fire was RfDed by Okmrman (t · c); see discussion
- 28 Apr 2024 – Na Se Contaethe (talk · edit · hist) →Northern Ireland was RfDed by JuniperChill (t · c); see discussion
- (32 more...)
Featured article candidates
- 07 May 2024 – AC/DC (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Vaughan J. (t · c); see discussion
- 25 Apr 2024 – Existence (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Phlsph7 (t · c); see discussion
- 22 Apr 2024 – Dracunculiasis (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Ajpolino (t · c); see discussion
- 13 Apr 2024 – Nonmetal (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Sandbh (t · c); see discussion
- 07 Apr 2024 – Jacques Offenbach (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Tim riley (t · c); see discussion
- 31 Mar 2024 – Galileo project (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Hawkeye7 (t · c); see discussion
- 17 Mar 2024 – Iron Man (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Thebiguglyalien (t · c); see discussion
Good article nominees
- 07 May 2024 – Anthony Albanese (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by DTH89 (t · c); see discussion
- 07 May 2024 – Software maintenance (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Buidhe paid (t · c); start discussion
- 05 May 2024 – Potato (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Chiswick Chap (t · c); start discussion
- 05 May 2024 – Kevin Rudd (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by DTH89 (t · c); start discussion
- 04 May 2024 – Rye (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Chiswick Chap (t · c); start discussion
- 02 May 2024 – Oat (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Chiswick Chap (t · c); start discussion
- 30 Apr 2024 – Carl Friedrich Gauss (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Dioskorides (t · c); start discussion
- 30 Apr 2024 – Voyager 2 (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by The Herald (t · c); start discussion
- 29 Apr 2024 – Sarah Geronimo (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by ScarletViolet (t · c); start discussion
- 27 Apr 2024 – Western Ghats (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Magentic Manifestations (t · c); start discussion
- (38 more...)
Good topic candidates
- 19 Feb 2024 – Black Mirror (talk · edit · hist) was GT nominated by Bilorv (t · c); see discussion
Featured article reviews
- 24 Feb 2024 – Polio (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by Z1720 (t · c); see discussion
- 20 Feb 2024 – Edward I of England (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by JimKillock (t · c); see discussion
- 17 Feb 2024 – Mariah Carey (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by ScarletViolet (t · c); see discussion
- 15 Jan 2024 – Emmy Noether (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by Z1720 (t · c); see discussion
- 09 Dec 2023 – Borobudur (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by SandyGeorgia (t · c); see discussion
- 30 Oct 2023 – Byzantine Empire (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by SandyGeorgia (t · c); see discussion
- 16 Aug 2023 – Minneapolis (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by SandyGeorgia (t · c); see discussion
- 24 Jul 2023 – Geography of Ireland (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by Z1720 (t · c); see discussion
- 14 May 2023 – Edward III of England (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by SandyGeorgia (t · c); see discussion
- 08 May 2023 – William Wilberforce (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by Buidhe (t · c); see discussion
Good article reassessments
- 30 Apr 2024 – Columbia University (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for GA reassessment by Nikkimaria (t · c); see discussion
Requests for comments
- 22 Apr 2024 – New York City (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Castncoot (t · c); see discussion
- 19 Apr 2024 – Climate change (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Robert McClenon (t · c); see discussion
- 19 Apr 2024 – Israel (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by JDiala (t · c); see discussion
- 17 Apr 2024 – Tesla, Inc. (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Emiya1980 (t · c); see discussion
- 15 Apr 2024 – Estonia (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by 117.53.77.84 (t · c); see discussion
- 12 Apr 2024 – Israel–Hamas war (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by BilledMammal (t · c); see discussion
- 04 May 2024 – Liverpool (talk · edit · hist) RfC by Liverpolitan1980 (t · c) was closed; see discussion
Peer reviews
- 04 May 2024 – Regency of Algiers (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Scope creep (t · c); see discussion
- 03 May 2024 – Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Keivan.f (t · c); see discussion
- 25 Apr 2024 – Ethics (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Phlsph7 (t · c); see discussion
- 18 Apr 2024 – Bill Gates (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by MSincccc (t · c); see discussion
- 16 Apr 2024 – Geologic time scale (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Jarred C Lloyd (t · c); see discussion
- 15 Apr 2024 – Tiger (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by LittleJerry (t · c); see discussion
- 13 Apr 2024 – Charles the Bold (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Amir Ghandi (t · c); see discussion
- 05 Apr 2024 – Narwhal (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Wolverine XI (t · c); see discussion
- 03 Apr 2024 – Campbell's Soup Cans (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by TonyTheTiger (t · c); see discussion
- 01 Apr 2024 – History of Christianity (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Jenhawk777 (t · c); see discussion
- (6 more...)
Requested moves
- 06 May 2024 – Phonograph (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Record player by Sateystnes (t · c); see discussion
- 06 May 2024 – Greek Orthodox Church (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Greek Orthodox Church (term) by Natemup (t · c); see discussion
- 03 May 2024 – Internet Protocol version 4 (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to IPv4 by PhotographyEdits (t · c); see discussion
- 03 May 2024 – Jin–Song Wars (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Jin–Song wars by Dicklyon (t · c); see discussion
- 03 May 2024 – KGB (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Committee for State Security (Soviet Union) by Leonard LMT (t · c); see discussion
- 30 Apr 2024 – Rashtrakuta Empire (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Rashtrakutas by ImperialAficionado (t · c); see discussion
- 28 Apr 2024 – Theory of forms (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Theory of Forms by Wolfdog (t · c); see discussion
- 27 Apr 2024 – Shays' Rebellion (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Shays's Rebellion by Dicklyon (t · c); see discussion
- 25 Apr 2024 – Space habitat (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Orbital space habitat by Bugghost (t · c); see discussion
- 23 Apr 2024 – Cranial nerves (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Cranial nerve by Tobiasi0 (t · c); see discussion
- (17 more...)
Articles to be merged
- 03 May 2024 – Forest gardening (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Silvopasture by Chidgk1 (t · c); see discussion
- 03 May 2024 – The gospel (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Gospel by LlywelynII (t · c); see discussion
- 30 Apr 2024 – Legal case (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Legal proceeding by Visviva (t · c); see discussion
- 28 Apr 2024 – Handgun (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Pistol by Ironmatic1 (t · c); see discussion
- 24 Apr 2024 – Alvarezsauridae (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Alvarezsauroidea by A Cynical Idealist (t · c); see discussion
- 24 Apr 2024 – Non-volatile memory (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Computer data storage by Fgnievinski (t · c); see discussion
- 22 Apr 2024 – Experience curve effects (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Learning curve by Ita140188 (t · c); see discussion
- 20 Mar 2024 – Physical geodesy (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Geodesy by GeogSage (t · c); see discussion
- 10 Mar 2024 – Multivalued function (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Relation (mathematics) by Rgdboer (t · c); see discussion
- 10 Mar 2024 – Megacity (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to List of largest cities by OrdinaryGiraffe (t · c); see discussion
- (16 more...)
Articles to be split
- 04 May 2024 – Gross domestic product (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by HudecEmil (t · c); see discussion
- 03 May 2024 – Social choice theory (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Closed Limelike Curves (t · c); see discussion
- 02 May 2024 – Slaughterhouse (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by GobsPint (t · c); see discussion
- 25 Apr 2024 – Jeffrey Epstein (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by DBrown SPS (t · c); see discussion
- 01 Apr 2024 – Mole salamander (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by TypistMonkey (t · c); see discussion
- 18 Mar 2024 – Gazelle (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Maykii (t · c); see discussion
- 12 Mar 2024 – Bioterrorism (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Geysirhead (t · c); see discussion
- 06 Mar 2024 – Submarine (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Piotrus (t · c); see discussion
- 04 Mar 2024 – Internet celebrity (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by SilverLocust (t · c); see discussion
- 02 Mar 2024 – Cebu (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Diannaa (t · c); see discussion
- (69 more...)
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Statistics[edit]
Vital pages by quality | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Quality | |||||||
Total | |||||||
FA | 1,231 | ||||||
FL | 10 | ||||||
A | 25 | ||||||
GA | 2,439 | ||||||
B | 12,239 | ||||||
C | 18,565 | ||||||
Start | 14,284 | ||||||
Stub | 1,061 | ||||||
List | 124 | ||||||
Assessed | 49,978 | ||||||
Total | 49,978 | ||||||
WikiWork factors (?) | ω = 193,552 | Ω = 3.88 |
See also[edit]
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles/Article alerts – specialized noticeboard for Vital articles
- File:Wikipedia’s poor treatment of its most important articles.pdf (2011)
- File:Fun or Functional? The Misalignment Between Content Quality and Popularity in Wikipedia (WMF Research Showcase 2015-09-16).pdf
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles/Readability (2016)