User:Novem Linguae/Essays/Backlog drive checklist

Pros and cons of backlog drives

Pros

The goal of a backlog drive is to do this

• Decreased backlog
• Feels amazing to hit zero backlog
• Feels good to receive barnstars, recognition, a top place on the leaderboard
• Increase WikiProject morale and sense of community

Cons

• Burnout (the top people may be burned out for months afterward)
• Gamification may encourage sloppy editing/reviewing/whatever the drive is rewarding (but this con is often exaggerated, and can be mitigated with a re-review system)

Deciding the backlog drive essentials

• Pick a duration (week, two weeks, month)
• Find a backlog drive coordinator
• Find a backlog drive bot operator. (A bot is needed to convert actions into points and update the leaderboard daily. If a re-review system is being used, the bot can also assist with creating re-review pages, which are pages containing all the user's diffs/actions during the drive.)

Once you have a backlog drive coordinator

Pre drive

• Create drive page (copy/paste/tweak an old backlog drive page)
• Create a page to collect signups. Can do with a bulleted list, or using content model MassMessageListContent (MassMessageListContent creation link for non-admins)
• Create draft of WP:MMS message (copy/paste/tweak an old MMS message)
• Around two weeks before the drive, start marketing it
  • WikiProject talk page posts
  • MMS message blast
  • Watchlist notice?

During the drive

• Answer questions on the backlog drive talk page
• Be the decision maker for anything that comes up

After the drive

• Supervise the tallying of points
• Award barnstars

Example pages

Why reinvent the wheel? Use these pages as templates if you want. If copy/pasting, please provide edit summary attribution.

• AFC example
  • General backlog drive page: Wikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/Backlog elimination drives
  • Specific backlog drive page: Wikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/January 2023 Backlog Drive
  • MMS list for the WikiProject: Wikipedia:Wikiproject articles for creation/active users mailing list
  • User list for the backlog drive: Wikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/January 2023 Backlog Drive/Participants
  • MMS message: Template:WPAFCDrive
  • Re-review page: Wikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/January 2023 Backlog Drive/Participants/Mattdaviesfsic
  • Bot BRFA: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/IngenuityBot
  • Bot source code: User:IngenuityBot/backlogdrive.py
• NPP example
  • General backlog drive page: Wikipedia:New pages patrol/Backlog drives
  • Specific backlog drive page: Wikipedia:New pages patrol/Backlog drives/October 2022
  • MMS list for the WikiProject: Wikipedia:New pages patrol/Reviewers/Newsletter list
  • MMS list for the backlog drive: Wikipedia:New pages patrol/Backlog drives/October 2022/Participants
  • MMS message: User talk:Novem Linguae/Newsletters#October 2022 New Pages Patrol backlog drive
  • Re-review page: Wikipedia:New pages patrol/Backlog drives/October 2022/Re-reviews
  • Bot: User:TolBot/Task 8/Drives/2021-11 New Page Patrol