User:Ocaasi/Editing school

Wikipedia is plain and simple power. Not the power people lust after, for domination, but the power of sharing information and enabling others to do the same. The purpose of this course is to increase that kind of power in a way that furthers the encyclopedia's mission of opening up the sum total of the world's knowledge to every person. Specifically, the goal is to take a smart, thinking, computer-literate person and give them the tools and training to be an efficient, thoughtful, critical, capable editor and contributor. Also an administrator. No experience necessary.

Introduction and acclimation

• 1 month interested content - get comfortable with the interface on an area of familiarity, basic source requirements, verifiability vs original research
• 1 month proofreading and copyediting - get comfortable working and talking on a variety of articles, improve writing quality, distinguish major from minor edits
  • reading: WP:PLAIN, WP:SIMPLE, WP:Introduction, WP:Tutorial, Help:Editing, Help:Introduction to policies and guidelines, Help:TALK, Help:Edit summary, Wikipedia:Sign your posts on talk pages, Help:Show preview Community Portal, WP:NCHP, Wikipedia:Quick_directory, WP:SEARCH, WP:Referencing for beginners, WP:Referencing for beginners with citation templates, WP:ARTICLE, Help:HISTORY, Help:Search, WP:PIPE, WP:INLINE, User:Tony1/Beginners' guide to the Manual of Style, WP:Five_pillars, META:Founding, Wikipedia:Be_bold, WP:Ignore all rules, WP:CIVIL, WP:WIZ,
  • supplemental: Wikipedia, WP:WIKIPEDIA, WP:ABOUT, WP:COMMUNITY, Wikimedia Foundation, WP:TP, WP:Namespace, WP:SIGNPOST, WP:CENT, WP:USERPAGE, WP:WikiProjects, WP:HELP, Wikipedia:Questions, Wikipedia:FAQ, Wikipedia:BRIEF, WP:Trifecta, WP:Avoiding common mistakes, WP:TIPS, WP:Glossary, WP:Writing better articles, User:Jimbo_Wales/Statement of principles
  • skills: use all parts of edit toolbar, use history page, use edit summaries, add pages to watchlist, post on another user's talk page and watch it, join a wikiproject, add a reference using ref tags, distinguish wikilink and external link, use link piping, add inline reference using templates, distinguish Wikipedia from META, use {{help me}} and live help chat, create userpage and talkpage, personal link list, start an article using the Article Wizard, complete 50 edits, summarize basic content and conduct policies, explain the role of IAR

Content and controversy

• 1 month controversial areas - see patterns of conflict and resolution, neutrality,
• 1 month noticeboards - see venues for discussion and historical issues, identify most helpful editors
• 1 month mediation and request for comment - see intensive dispute process, contribute to deliberations
  • reading: WP:V, WP:OR, WP:NPOV, WP:BLP, WP:COPY, WP:BURDEN, WP:FRINGE, WP:WEIGHT, WP:ASF, WP:GEVAL, WP:PSEUDOSCIENCE, WP:SOURCE, WP:SPS, WP:PSTS, WP:NPA, WP:POINT, WP:OWN
  • supplemental: WP:ATTRIBUTEPOV, WP:WIKILAWYERING, WP:TENDENTIOUS, WP:GAME
  • skills: policy shortcuts, distinguish the core policies and summarize their main purpose, comment on an issue at each noticeboard, vote! in 3 RfCs

Quality control

• 1 month anti vandal patrol - see thousands of diffs, identify constructive content, communicate with new editors, rollback and twinkle
  • reading: WP:VANDAL, WP:SPAM, WP:EL, WP:REVERT, WP:ROLLBACK, WP:COPYVIO, WP:AGF, WP:BITE, WP:Etiquette, WP:NONSENSE, WP:HOAX, WP:COI,
  • supplemental: WP:EDITFILTER, WP:LTA, WP:HARASSMENT, WP:LIBEL, WP:LEGAL, WP:SOCK, WP:CHILD
  • skills: load and use Twinkle and Friendly, load and use Huggle/STiki, customize warnings for user level, get rollback, policy lookup, seek third opinion, submit 5 users to AIV, complete 500 edits, distinguish good from bad external links, distinguish encyclopedic from promotion content,

Maintenance and meaning

• 1 month maintenance and cleanup - get comfortable with the backlog, pick an area and improve it
• 1 month policy intensive - read all of the policies and guidelines you haven't, suggest improvements
  • Reading: WP:Categories, lists, and navigation templates, WP:TEMPLATE, WP:MAINTENANCE, WP:BACKLOG, WP:CATEGORIZATION, WP:DISAMBIGUATION, WP:HATNOTE,
  • skills: distinguish essays, guidelines, policies, help pages and info page; know the purpose of each maintenance area, tag pages using Friendly, clear out 100 items or 5% of any backlog, write a user essay about some aspect of Wikipedia, make a suggestion/proposed change to a policy

Content advancement

• 1 month ga/fa/dyk - article evaluation, see the rating and improvement process
  • reading: Wikipedia:Subpages, WP:PERFECT, WP:1.0, WP:FAR, WP:GAR, WP:Article size, WP:SUMMARY, WP:LEAD, WP:NOFULLTEXT
  • skills: distinguish stub, start, c, b, a, ga, and fa class articles, talk page project banners, talk page archives, talk page archiving, one dyk, improve an article one grade

Help, creation, deletion, and copyright

• 1 month help desk or live help chat - see common new editor concerns
• 1 month afc/afd - create and delete articles, get comfortable with the standards and common objections
• 1 month media, copyright and fair use -
  • reading: WP:DIR, WP:HELP, WP:N, WP:DEL, WP:UPLOAD, WP:IMAGE, WP:NFCC, WP:IUP
  • supplement:
  • skills: identify proper tags, apply non-free content criteria
  • grad: move 5 articles into the mainspace, upload a free file, upload a fair use file

Up and out

• 1 month admin noticeboards, jimbo's page, mailing lists, blogs, sister projects, outreach and strategic planning docs - see administrator level resolution and meta-discussion, fill gaps in knowledge
• 1 month arbitration review - review prior arbcom cases, continue monitoring ANI and AN
• 1 month RFA prep - review selection of past RfAs, contact supporters and likely opposers, review editing conflicts
  • reading: WP:AN, WP:ANI, WP:MAIL, WP:IRC, WP:RFA, WP:ADMIN, WP:ARBCOM, WP:LEGAL, WP:REVDEL, WP:BLOCK, WP:OTRS, WP:OVERSIGHT, WP:USERNAME
  • supplement:
  • skills: globalize account, customize signature, post to Jimbo's page, ANI, irc, and a mailing list, complete 2000 edits, complete RfA

-while subsequent areas are started, prior ones can continue to improve comfort and prolific-ness

-interface modification, customization, and optimization using preferences, scripts, and tools should be ongoing

-each stage has a group watchlists to be added and followed

-each stage should include Signpost reading and centralized discussions monitoring

-each stage has recommended user essays and articles

can run concurrent, 6-18 months, 8 off months max

recommended setup: vector, automatic watchlisting, expandable watchlist, email enabled, enable section [edit] links, advanced editing toolbar, Navigation popups, hotcat, Twinkle, Friendly, page and user options in menus, display quality assessment, [edit] link for lead, 50+ character edit summaries, sans-serif font, chrome browser/firefox 4/ie9

recommended editor: college background, computer comfortable, interested in the project, desire for understanding and capability, appreciation of the scope and power of Wikipedia