Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles/Newsletter/January 2013

by — ΛΧΣ²¹

What happened? Is this really the Skyfall of Wikipedia? We have been building this big project for so many years now that talking about 2004 seems like a century ago. We have been working hard on this country and some of us already feel like citizens. We have seen this site grow up and show the best of us: our skills at writing content, our diligence in achieving new goals, our willingness to work with others. Sadly, some of us have been here long enough to let the worst appear too. The chaos has been disturbing this precious website since more than one year by now, and no one seems to care about it.

Civility has been a big issue, and not writing about it is like ignoring that the sun comes up every day, but we cannot only focus on civility and ignore the rest either. Content work is what makes this site shine as it does when we all collaborate together. The content is the most important part of this site, and I worship what it represents inside a community which has fallen awry; a community which seems to be shaking the very foundations of what this encyclopedia means; a community that is putting the vested interests of soap opera above the interests of humanity. If we were one of those enterprises out there, we'd already filed bankrupcy.

Every day that goes, is another day we abandon the notion of making content, and spend more time talking, shouting and playing the wild card of challenging each other to see who's the most nasty of all. Since 2009, the number of good articles passed has decreased substantially; the number of FA reviewers is approaching zero, the number of productive users who stay is going backwards. Seems like we cannot teach the newbies what we haven't understood ourselves. We are having so much fun playing the game of the cop and the thief, that we don't pay attention to those who really are interested in producing content, and when they bother us enough, we block them. Is that what we want? Is that what really means being a Wikipedian? We all registered an user account to have our contributions under a name, to be easily recognizable, and to be known when we work with other users who registered an account too. We are here because we were interested in producing content, but it seems like we have already forgotten.

Jimbo Wales recently said that "the amount of quality work done by one editor in no way makes up for the astounding amount of quality work that they prevent by driving away good users and wasting the time of everyone." I have seen several users that have never got into trouble, who only worked on content (getting GAs and FAs on the way), being scared off by our bad behaviour, our increasing unpleasant way to communicate, our misleading sense of highness that avoids ourselves to touch the floor and see that, without a driver, we are headed to dystopia. If we don't realize this, if we don't stop and think, there will be no future. We'll soon be in a place like Rapture, where each one of us will be unrecognizable, and the main reason why the place exists will be lost in time.

• A record: 190 articles were passed in December, which represents a record. No other month of the year had such an amount of articles passed since June/July 2012 (during the previous drive, both months had around 250 passed articles).
• An issue: The recent drive showcased a big issue regarding the future of drives. The new format squashed several recurrent issues that were plaguing the project since it's very beginning, but at the same time brought new problems community has to face in 2013.
• A future: 2013 marks a new year with several projects on the line: An RFC with alternate proposals to drives is scheduled for March/May 2013. Several users have already made their proposals public. A message this February inviting all parties to post their proposals will be posted on WT:GAN.

• One of the most active users, and also one of the administrators giving a hand at WP:GAN, retired recently. Wizardman, who also worked on WP:CCI apart from his invaluable work on GAN, decided to stop being active "on stuff that isn't article writing" in the midst of increasing "drama" in projectspace. Wizardman also holds the position of delegate at the Featured Topics process.

• There are currently 228 members of WikiProject Good Articles! Welcome to all the new members that joined this past month! If you aren't yet part of WikiProject Good Articles and interested in joining, go here and add your name. Everyone is welcome!

• This WikiProject, and the Good Article program as a whole, would not be where it is today without each and every one of its members! Thank you to all!

Results from the November-December 2012 Backlog Elimination Drive:

• 144 articles were reviewed (including articles "on hold" as of December 27, 2012, excluding articles "quick-failed").
• Ed! reviewed the most articles (20 articles).

As mentioned in the "Project News" section, a second RfC will be help in the coming months. If you have any propsoals to what can be improved further in future Backlog Elimination Drives, click on the "Add a comment" button below and your proposal could be included in the RfC!

• Kīlauea by Resident Mario: A shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the island of Hawaiʻi. Located along the southern shore of the island, the volcano, at 300,000 to 600,000 years old, is the second youngest product of the Hawaiian hotspot and the current eruptive center of the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 by Thine Antique Pen: A 2011 fantasy film directed by David Yates and the second of two cinematic parts that form the screen adaptation of the novel by J. K. Rowling. It is the eighth and final instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman, David Barron, and Rowling. The story continues to follow Harry Potter's quest to find and destroy Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, alongside Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry's best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.