Core Attack is now closed. Obviously though the articles already submitted for GA as part of it will still count.
Core Attack! Attacking stale old core articles and getting them up to decent status....
Anybody can participate in this, contestant or editathon participant! The goal is to mass improve the number of core articles for Wales on wikipedia!
Core Attack. Now open, from 10th April until the 29th, as attacking core articles of course is the chief goal of this contest. Take the time to carefully read the rules below and how to score well for editing core articles. With this the main exercise is to try to target as many core articles as possible and get them improved. The emphasis with this is on scope and quantity, getting any core article listed to a minimum standard, consistently. Article improvements will require a minimum of 1.5kb of readable prose and for sourcing and prose to be to expected quality standards throughout. There will be a further 250 point bonus at the end of every week for the person who tackles the most articles, and a 500 point bonus and £20 Amazon voucher at the end of the month for whoever improves the most core articles overall. Obviously if contestants play this right, they can do a lot of basic expansions/improvements and then eye up further expansions and getting them to GA for greater points later on. See the "Other bonuses" section. If you do this well there's a chance to earn very heavily for doing this, mainly for minimum 3kb expansions.
Ensure that you provide a minimum of 1.5kb of new readable prose (meaning text that you've written yourself so the overall article might actually end up shorter if it's a bloated poorly sourced one which you partly nuke and rewrite with some new material). The important thing is that you take the time to check the existing material/re-source etc and copyedit the articles, ensuring that everything is verifiable and adequately sourced with the correct, consistent formatting. Contestants must demonstrate that they have at least spent some time copyediting and improving the article overall, making it sound to read as a whole, and not just grabbing points for pasting in 1.5kb of text. For instance, Corris would have to be fully cleaned up and likely a fair bit of text deleted and replaced with clean sourcing.
In many cases it may be easier for you to nuke a good part of articles which are unsourced or poorly sourced/written and partly or completely start them from scratch. This is permitted, as long as the overall articles at the end are at least 3 kb minimum prose in total and you make a good attempt to re-document or partly cover/salvage what may have been relevant or useful in the original version. Its advisable that if you find it easier to override the existing article by starting from scratch that you make a decent effort and write at least 5kb of your own new prose, particularly on level 1 articles, but do whatever you think is appropriate and acceptable. The important thing is that the overall article quality and sourcing improves and covers the basic facts, so length is really not a major issue unless you're going for GA where they're expected to have a reasonable overview and coverage.
If possible, try to make it a clear cut major expansion/improvement of at least 5kb of new text for the 50 points. The 5 kb expansion requirement for 50 points though isn't strictly set as the expansion count will always be blurry where text has been rewritten or altered. The most important thing is it that it is near enough what you've contributed overall and that you've made a decent effort to rewrite/improve it to get the points. If I feel like not enough work has gone into it to get the points I will judge that.
Provide a diff of your work, demonstrate what you've added and that you've improved the overall article.
Please remember to sign your name by an entry on the core list to indicate that you're working on it to avoid editing conflicts. Strike out the article once you consider it an adequate overall improvement.
Remember to reassess the article on the talk page once improved where applicable.
Bonuses you find on the main rules and scoring page apply, so remember to declare the bonuses you're claiming when listing here.
The normal scoring for 50 points for Level 1 and 40 points for Level 2 won't apply unless you do a minimum 3kb expansion in coordination with the overall contest rules.
You can't submit the same articles twice under the main entries and Core Attack. Enter them once, under one section. You'll get more bonus points for doing them as part of this, so you decide.
Scoring may be subject to change as this progresses and further bonuses may be added or removed on certain things depending on the distribution of articles submitted.
A minimum 5 kb prose expansion of any article - 50 points (if you do 3kb+ first and get the 25 you would get a further 25 for going 5kb + rather than an extra 50)
25 point 3kb expansion, 40/50 core article points and +20 woman points still apply but only if the articles are minimum 3kb + expansions of core articles.
Core attacking any article in the Geography section - 20 points (only for 3 kb or more)
Core attacking any article in the Architecture, Culture or Economy section - 15 points (only for 3 kb or more)
Core attacking an article in any other section -10 points (only for 3 kb or more)
Article not improved by minimum 1kb prose in five years -5 points
Improving any core article which is entirely unsourced/or has a ghastly tag slopped on it -5 points
Bonuses you can find in the "Other bonuses" section of the Rules and Scoring page still apply, such as "5 articles on Welsh towns on the core list by minimum 3kb of readable prose (100 points)" and 5 minimum 3kb expansions/improvements of any road on the core list" (60 points) etc. Hint: Working on Welsh towns will earn well as they're also the highest scoring being in the geography section and there is a bonus 500 points for 20 minimum 3kb expansions in the bonuses list. Of course getting any of the top towns or counties to GA are worth mega points, see the GA bonuses and below. There is also high earning potential for significant improvements in bulk of listed buildings.
Whoever improves the most articles on Welsh kings and historical figures by the end of the month will win the book Royal Wales by Deborah Fisher.
Burning furiously at the centre of the core are some articles badly in need of development. Remember that anybody who commits to getting History, Geography, Politics or Economy to GA I will give double points on basic new articles (10=20) and expansions (25=50) up to 3kb for the rest of the contest. But you will need to declare that you are committed to it be signing your name below. I will start giving double to the person who accepts in good faith that they will promote it, though if for some reason they fail to do so by the end, the double points will be retracted. Here are some of the highest earning articles you can possibly tackle for this and the total points you will earn (not extra bonuses) for writing a high-quality article and promoting to Good Article status. Please note that this is not a further bonus on top of the bonuses listed on the Rules and Scoring page but a combined total of points that these articles are worth for promoting.
Please list articles done for this in a subsection under your entry sections on the main entries page. You will need to list core articles improvements you do in this subsection to obtain full points allocated here. Claims for Royal Wales you'll find in its own section near the bottom of the main entries page.
