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
- 18 Jun 2024 – Planet (talk · edit · hist) will be Today's Featured Article; see blurb
- 11 Jun 2024 – Ronald Reagan (talk · edit · hist) will be Today's Featured Article; see blurb
- 06 Jun 2024 – Saving Private Ryan (talk · edit · hist) will be Today's Featured Article; see blurb
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
- 31 May 2024 – Ice (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by InformationToKnowledge (t · c); see discussion
- 30 May 2024 – Chinese characters (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Remsense (t · c); see discussion
- 28 May 2024 – Jude Law (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by B3251 (t · c); see discussion
- 23 May 2024 – Metaphysics (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Phlsph7 (t · c); see discussion
- 01 May 2024 – Lineage (anthropology) (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Me Da Wikipedian (t · c); see discussion
Redirects for discussion
- 05 Jun 2024 – LGBTP (talk · edit · hist) →LGBT was RfDed by J947 (t · c); see discussion
- 04 Jun 2024 – INDIA (talk · edit · hist) →India was RfDed by Cremastra (t · c); see discussion
- 02 Jun 2024 – Blur (gods) (talk · edit · hist) →Blur (band) was RfDed by Toweli (t · c); see discussion
- 01 Jun 2024 – Propaganda bullhorn (talk · edit · hist) →RT (TV network) was RfDed by Czello (t · c); see discussion
- 01 Jun 2024 – British intelligence services (talk · edit · hist) →MI6 was RfDed by UndercoverClassicist (t · c); see discussion
- 30 May 2024 – CS2 (talk · edit · hist) →Carbon disulfide was RfDed by Bugghost (t · c); see discussion
- 30 May 2024 – Oh, do not cry. Be good children and we will all meet in Heaven. (talk · edit · hist) →Andrew Jackson was RfDed by Bungle (t · c); see discussion
- 30 May 2024 – Kim Un (talk · edit · hist) →Kim Jong Un was RfDed by Champion (t · c); see discussion
- 30 May 2024 – Science Update (talk · edit · hist) →American Association for the Advancement of Science was RfDed by Steel1943 (t · c); see discussion
- 29 May 2024 – NYSE: F (talk · edit · hist) →Ford Motor Company was RfDed by Mwwv (t · c); see discussion
- (14 more...)
Files for discussion
- 28 May 2024 – File:PBS logo.svg (talk · edit · hist) (on 1, 2) was FfDed by JohnCWiesenthal (t · c); see discussion
Featured article candidates
- 01 Jun 2024 – Igor Stravinsky (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by MyCatIsAChonk (t · c); see discussion
- 31 May 2024 – Narwhal (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Wolverine XI (t · c); see discussion
- 24 May 2024 – Alia Bhatt (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Krimuk2.0 (t · c); see discussion
- 20 May 2024 – Tiger (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by LittleJerry (t · c); see discussion
- 17 May 2024 – Virgo interferometer (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Thuiop (t · c); see discussion
- 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
- 27 May 2024 – Nonmetal (talk · edit · hist) FA nominated by Sandbh (t · c) was not promoted; see discussion
A-Class review
Good article nominees
- 02 Jun 2024 – Human history (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Phlsph7 (t · c); see discussion
- 01 Jun 2024 – The arts (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by 48JCL (t · c); start discussion
- 31 May 2024 – NASA (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Cocobb8 (t · c); start discussion
- 27 May 2024 – Ernest J. King (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Hawkeye7 (t · c); see discussion
- 27 May 2024 – Arrow's impossibility theorem (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Closed Limelike Curves (t · c); start discussion
- 25 May 2024 – Parmotrema perlatum (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Esculenta (t · c); start discussion
- 13 May 2024 – Mind (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Phlsph7 (t · c); start discussion
- 12 May 2024 – Pikachu (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Pokelego999 (t · c); see discussion
- 11 May 2024 – Cassava (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Chiswick Chap (t · c); start discussion
- 09 May 2024 – Zinc chloride (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Keresluna (t · c); start discussion
- (32 more...)
Featured article reviews
- 24 May 2024 – Sun (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by 750h+ (t · c); see discussion
- 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
- 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
- 08 May 2023 – William Wilberforce (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by Buidhe (t · c); see discussion
Good article reassessments
- 04 Jun 2024 – Forbidden City (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for GA reassessment by Generalissima (t · c); see discussion
- 24 May 2024 – Winter Olympic Games (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for GA reassessment by AirshipJungleman29 (t · c); see discussion
Requests for comments
- 04 Jun 2024 – United States (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Alexanderkowal (t · c); see discussion
- 02 Jun 2024 – Greta Gerwig (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Nemov (t · c); see discussion
- 02 Jun 2024 – Jinn (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by TheEagle107 (t · c); see discussion
- 02 Jun 2024 – Israel (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Starship.paint (t · c); see discussion
- 02 Jun 2024 – Circumcision (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Prcc27 (t · c); see discussion
- 30 May 2024 – Donald Trump (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Politicdude (t · c); see discussion
- 29 May 2024 – Frederick the Great (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Emiya1980 (t · c); see discussion
- 28 May 2024 – Emir Abdelkader (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by 808 AD (t · c); see discussion
- 27 May 2024 – Benito Mussolini (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Emiya1980 (t · c); see discussion
- 26 May 2024 – Dmitri Shostakovich (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by CurryTime7-24 (t · c); see discussion
- (8 more...)
Peer reviews
- 03 Jun 2024 – Game Boy (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by RickyCourtney (t · c); see discussion
- 01 Jun 2024 – Science (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by 48JCL (t · c); see discussion
- 31 May 2024 – Arrow's impossibility theorem (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Closed Limelike Curves (t · c); see discussion
- 30 May 2024 – Chinese characters (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Remsense (t · c); see discussion
- 29 May 2024 – Botswana (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by 48JCL (t · c); see discussion
- 21 May 2024 – DJ Kool Herc (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by LunaEclipse (t · c); see discussion
- 17 May 2024 – Robert Schumann (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Tim riley (t · c); see discussion
- 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
- (7 more...)
Requested moves
- 05 Jun 2024 – Wu'erkaixi (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Wu'er Kaixi by Yue (t · c); see discussion
- 05 Jun 2024 – Objection (United States law) (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Objection (law) by Awesome Aasim (t · c); see discussion
- 05 Jun 2024 – Judge Judy (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved somewhere else by CookieMonster755 (t · c); see discussion
- 04 Jun 2024 – Toledo, Spain (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Toledo by Grnrchst (t · c); see discussion
- 04 Jun 2024 – William Adams (pilot) (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to William Adams (samurai) by Herostratus (t · c); see discussion
- 03 Jun 2024 – Zürich (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Zurich by Kashmiri (t · c); see discussion
- 02 Jun 2024 – Srebrenica massacre (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Srebrenica genocide by Njamu (t · c); see discussion
- 01 Jun 2024 – Madonna (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Madonna (entertainer) by Traumnovelle (t · c); see discussion
- 01 Jun 2024 – Muhammad Ayub Khan (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Ayub Khan by Schwede66 (t · c); see discussion
- 01 Jun 2024 – Binary search algorithm (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Binary search by IntGrah (t · c); see discussion
- (9 more...)
Articles to be merged
- 04 Jun 2024 – Calcium hydroxide (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Limewater by Smokefoot (t · c); see discussion
- 04 Jun 2024 – Limewater (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Calcium hydroxide by Smokefoot (t · c); see discussion
- 26 May 2024 – Carbon sequestration (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Carbon dioxide removal by Chidgk1 (t · c); see discussion
- 22 May 2024 – Stationary-action principle (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Action principles by Johnjbarton (t · c); see discussion
- 17 May 2024 – Open-source software (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Free and open-source software by Buidhe (t · c); see discussion
- 13 May 2024 – Rohingya genocide (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Persecution of Muslims in Myanmar by Vanisherman (t · c); see discussion
- 11 May 2024 – Agronomy (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Agricultural science by DuxLoKi (t · c); see discussion
- 11 May 2024 – Agricultural science (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Agronomy by DuxLoKi (t · c); see discussion
- 07 May 2024 – Asperger syndrome (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Autism spectrum by COArSe D1RTxxx (t · c); see discussion
- 07 May 2024 – Online chat (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Synchronous conferencing by Helpful Raccoon (t · c); see discussion
- (22 more...)
Articles to be split
- 05 Jun 2024 – Batman (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Lililolol (t · c); see discussion
- 04 Jun 2024 – Natural number (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Mathnerd314159 (t · c); see discussion
- 04 Jun 2024 – Illmatic (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by LunaEclipse (t · c); see discussion
- 27 May 2024 – Robert Menzies (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by ITBF (t · c); see discussion
- 25 May 2024 – Chechen language (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Kepler-1229b (t · c); see discussion
- 24 May 2024 – Separation of powers (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by LegesFundamentales (t · c); see discussion
- 19 May 2024 – Coal (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Smokefoot (t · c); see discussion
- 09 May 2024 – Michael Crawford (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by 2601:1C1:8200:260:1D7B:1660:F08F:1EAE (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
- (73 more...)
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Statistics[edit]
Vital pages by quality | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Quality | |||||||
Total | |||||||
FA | 1,234 | ||||||
FL | 10 | ||||||
A | 26 | ||||||
GA | 2,443 | ||||||
B | 12,292 | ||||||
C | 18,637 | ||||||
Start | 14,219 | ||||||
Stub | 984 | ||||||
List | 124 | ||||||
NA | 5 | ||||||
Assessed | 49,974 | ||||||
Total | 49,974 | ||||||
WikiWork factors (?) | ω = 193,340 | 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)