Wikipedia:WikiProject Abandoned Articles

WikiProject Abandoned Articles
This is the WikiProject for Abandoned Articles.
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Welcome to the Abandoned Articles WikiProject, a collaboration area and group of editors dedicated to bringing "abandoned" articles "back to life", or, if appropriate, merging information or recommending deletion.

Goals

  • Reviewing articles that haven't been edited in a long time, to bring them back into use if possible.
  • Finding editors who would be interested in maintaining and improving these articles.

Scope

  • To begin the project, we're using a list of the 1000 articles with the oldest "most recent edit", as listed at (the now-obsolete) Special:Ancientpages. This list was generated on December 29, 2006, and lists articles that were last edited between 21 November 2004 and 7 May 2005.
  • If the initial approach seems successful, more blocks will be added to cover all 1000 listed articles. (The articles will be listed on subpages, not on this page.)
    • Note 1: Special:Ancientpages in no longer functional and the list of 1000 articles is therefore no longer available. 700 of the 1000 were listed in this project before the list became unavailable.
    • Note 2: A newer source of information is Wikipedia:Database reports/Forgotten articles. The report dated March 17, 2012, shows that all articles in Wikipedia have been edited at least once since January 2007. The oldest 1000 "forgotten" articles have most-recent-edits ranging from February 2007 to December 2007. Thus it appears that all 1000 of the articles listed on December 29, 2006, which formed the basis for this project, have been edited at least once between December 2006 and March 2012.
    • Note 3: There is a new, shorter list of 500 articles at Wikipedia:Database reports/Forgotten articles. This is updated frequently and seems the best source for anyone interested in working in this area.

Open tasks

Blocks of articles to be reviewed

Guidelines for the review

  • Once you've claimed a block of 5 (or so) articles (see below), review each of the articles in the block.
  • The first thing to do is to check the article history. It's possible that someone else has edited the article since it was placed on the list in this project, in which case, if you want, you can consider that article to be "done" and move to the next article in your block. (Alternatively, you can still go through the steps below to see if you can improve the article further.)
  • What you do should depend on the type of article: list, disambiguation page, or real article:
    • For an "article" that is a list, if the list appears to be correct (some are automatically generated), you should "touch" the page by making a dummy edit - for example, inserting a space within some hidden text on the page - in such a way that the change isn't visible to the reader. "Touching" the page in this way will keep it out of "ancientpage" lists for the next year or two.
    • For a disambiguation page, you should check (a) that the page follows disambiguation standards (Wikipedia:Disambiguation, Wikipedia:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages)) (most do not), and (b) that there are no other pages in Wikipedia to which the disambiguation page might point (one way to check is to run a google search that is limited to Wikipedia pages - using "site:en.wikipedia.org" as part of the search). Optionally, you could also (c) check "what links here" for the disambiguation page, since incoming links generally should not be coming to a disambiguation page. If the page is okay as is, "touch" it with a non-visible edit to change the date of the last edit.
    • For a real article, you want to determine if the article should be merged into another article, including a redirect (again, a google search can be useful), or deleted via a speedy delete, proposed delete, or AfD. If it should be kept, then do the following:
      • Add the template (below) to the talk page
      • Look at "What links here" to see if wikilinks could be added to the article (that is, often there should be wikilinks going both ways, between two articles)
      • Look at text in the article to see if any text should be wikilinked (wikilinking dates isn't particularly helpful, at least for making an abandoned article less abandoned)
      • Look at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory to see if there are any projects that might want to include the article within their scope. If so, go to the WikiProject and find the template for the project; post that to the talk page of the article you're working on. (Posting the template on the talk page will "include" the article in the WikiProject).
      • Consider adding categories (see Wikipedia:Categorization), since that is how people often find articles.
      • Edit the article to improve it as much as you have time to do.
      • Decide whether or not the article will need extra help being found by editors. If so, place a link to the article under the "Articles which need to be adopted" section.
  • When you have completed a block, add DONE after your name in the heading of the block.

Blocks of articles for editing

Articles that need editing (possible adoptions) are listed on the following subpages (a section is 100 mainspace pages):

Sections with blocks of 10 each
  • /Section 1 - DONE - 10 blocks are claimed, 10 blocks are done.
  • /Section 2 - DONE - 10 blocks are claimed, 10 blocks are done.
  • /Section 3 - DONE - 10 blocks are claimed, 10 blocks are done.
  • /Section 4 - DONE - 10 blocks are claimed, 10 blocks are done.
  • /Section 5 - DONE - 10 blocks are claimed, 10 blocks are done.
Sections with about 20 blocks of about 5 pages each; each block being the same type of page (articles, disambiguation pages, etc.)
  • /Section 6 - DONE - 20 blocks are claimed, 20 blocks are done/closed.
  • /Section 7 - OPEN - 15 blocks (10 articles, 2 disambiguations) are open; 9 blocks are done/closed

Articles for adoption

Guidelines

When articles are placed in this section, do the following:

  1. Add the project template on the article's talk page, if it is not there.
  2. Add your name next to any articles which you want to adopt. More than one person can adopt one article.
  3. Categorize the article by adding Category:WikiProject Abandoned Articles at the bottom of the article.
  4. Look through user categories and find users who would possibly be interested in the article.
  5. Contact the user(s) and tell them that WP:PJAA believes that they may be interested in the article, and that it would be appreciated if they would continue editing it.
  6. Look through WikiProject categories/the WikiProject Directory and find WikiProjects that may be interested in the article.
  7. Contact the WikiProject and leave a message similar to the one stated earlier.
  8. Watchlist the article.
  9. Continue repeating steps 3-6 until you find that the article is being consistently edited (like once a week or more) by people not members of this project.
  10. Once the article is "brought back to life" (is being edited, and therefore visited, regularly), then remove the project template from the talk page and remove the article's name from the below list.

Articles which need to be adopted

Categories

The below category contains many articles which have effectively been abandoned. It may be worthwhile going through them and trying to expand them!

Articles

Arts and Culture
Chinese History
Computer Science
French History/ History of Police
Geography
Religion
Transportation

Participants

Active

Please feel free to add yourself here. If you wish, indicate any areas of particular interest.
Please place your name at the bottom of the list.

  1. John Broughton | Talk 16:26, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Graham87 02:59, 20 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Mr.Z-mantalk 00:08, 4 February 2007 (UTC) Count me in, I always want something to do on Wikipedia![reply]
  4. Daniel32708 20:28, 1 February 2007 (UTC)Daniel32708 Count me in! I love Wikipedia! Just tell me what to do! I brought back to life the Costa Rican Colón article some months ago which was totally outdated, with no images,etc. I would love to do something like that again.[reply]
  5. John Vandenberg 23:45, 18 February 2007 (UTC) Great idea.[reply]
  6. — SMcCandlish [talk] [contrib] ツ 10:54, 19 February 2007 (UTC) Just completed a block![reply]
  7. DGG 01:24, 13 March 2007 (UTC)I wish I had the time to do it this way as well. The group I work on is the ones up for deletion.[reply]
  8. Tech12 I will help the cause!
  9. Bearian (talk) 12:21, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  10. Miszatomic (talk) 22:25, 20 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  11. Uamaol (talk) 18:47, 16 February 2015 (UTC) Interested in geography and history. Reverter of vandalism and occasionally fix bad editing. Currently involved with rewrite of two British publishers which were abandoned.[reply]
  12. ~Kvng (talk) 17:49, 3 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  13. Reeves.ca (talk) 21:50, 21 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  14. Redolta (talk) 9:41, 6 June 2016 (CDT)
  15. Maxim Stoyalov
  16. User:Groiglery1217
  17. User:N.Nimesh
  18. User:MrShawAshley 7th January 2021
  19. RoboFridge | (talk) 1/17/2021; Technology and electronics is what I mainly have an interest in but I can flexible into whatever is needed.
  20. User:Starman2377 Helping with disambiguation pages.
  21. User:Clearfrienda I'll help with anything, really.
  22. Isabelle0934 (talk) 22:32, 21 August 2021 (UTC) this seems somewhat interesting[reply]
  23. User:Jlultimate (talk with me) Helping with geography.
  24. Pettymars0193 | Talk) 12:42, 17 November 2022 (UTC) I will help where ever is needed[reply]
  25. 多多123 (talk) | 19:49, 15 March 2023

Inactive

  1. Ninetywazup?Review meMy ToDo - co-founder
  2. user:ivygohnair
  3. Bduke Bduke (Discussion) 07:56, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Goldenglove Joining too. [Moved from active to Inactive. 2013-11-08.]
  5. —¡Randfan! - co-founder [Moved from active to Inactive. 2013-11-08.]
  6. I'm available if anything needs improving! Sr13 01:28, 15 December 2006 (UTC) [Moved from active to Inactive. 2013-11-08.][reply]
  7. I noted this on wikiwoohoo's page. Love to join if i'm allowed?--I'll bring the food 19:04, 16 December 2006 (UTC) [Moved from active to Inactive. 2013-11-08.][reply]
  8. Count me in, old bean. King Toadsworth 18:22, 17 December 2006 (UTC) [Moved from active to Inactive. 2013-11-08.][reply]
  9. Sounds interesting. Ehempstock 10:04, 2 January 2007 (UTC) [Moved from active to Inactive. 2013-11-08.][reply]
  10. Luffy487 09:31, 22 January 2007 (UTC) If I could be of any help, I would gladly accept it. [Moved from active to Inactive. 2013-11-08.][reply]
  11. General Eisenhower (t c)
  12. Cori Fournier Reporting Hoah!! [Moved from active to Inactive. 2013-11-08.]
  13. Politics rule 22:12, 8 May 2007 (UTC) [Moved from active to Inactive. 2013-11-08.][reply]
  14. artemisfowl2515:05,19 May 2007(UTC) I'd love to help! [Moved from active to Inactive. 2013-11-08.]
  15. Java7837 00:16, 22 August 2007 (UTC) [Moved from active to Inactive. 2013-11-08.][reply]
  16. Ansi [Moved from active to Inactive. 2013-11-08.]
  17. Defiantly whatever is requested. (Am I allowed to fix up the userbox because it kind of burns!!! — Seadog
  18. TerryfaeScotland You can count on me!
  19. Nearly Human 04:01, 13 September 2007 (UTC) working on a cleanup block[reply]
  20. I'll join in when I can. Neranei (talk) 15:59, 20 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  21. Vgautham 91 (talk) 10:48, 4 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  22. raven1977 (talk) 02:39, 12 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  23. Gomericuskahn
  24. Sillybillypiggy
  25. Er-vet-en
  26. Mckaywiii (talk)
  27. = NV1982 (talk) 08:53, 24 July 2014 (UTC) I'll do what I can to help this project along. Let me know about possibly collaborating on something.[reply]
  28. MiamiDolphins3 22:44, 27 May 2015 (UTC) Business, legal, sports, technology, other topics.[reply]

Template

In order to generate this template:
WikiProject iconAbandoned Articles
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of the Abandoned Articles WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve visitation to abandoned articles. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.Abandoned ArticlesWikipedia:WikiProject Abandoned ArticlesTemplate:WikiProject Abandoned ArticlesAbandoned Articles articles
Type {{WikiProject Abandoned Articles}} at the top of the article's talk page.

Recruitment

In order to generate this userbox:
Type {{WikiProject Abandoned Articles welcome}}.

Userbox

In order to generate this userbox:
This user participates in
WikiProject Abandoned Articles.
Type {{Abandoned Articles User}}.

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