Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Membership/News/2024 Annual Report

Guild of Copy Editors 2024 End of Year Report

Report by Example, Example, Example, Example and Example. |February xx, 2025.

Introduction

Welcome to the Guild of Copy Editors' (GOCE) annual report for 2024, a summary of activity in our Drives and Blitzes, and our Requests page. Thank you to everyone who has helped improve the standard of Wikipedia articles by making them "say what they mean and mean what they say". In 2024, editors working with the Guild helped remove well over xxxx articles from the {{copy edit}} backlog and responded to almost xxxx requests for copy edit.

Let's keep that backlog count trending downwards!

Outstanding tags at the end of each month 2023 2024 January 1,861 2,280 February 1,952 2,509 March 1,751 2,312 April 2,024 2,843 May 1,820 2,766 June 2,113 2,930 July 1,926 2,918 August 2,146 2,969 September 1,935 2,634 October 2,243 xxxx November 2,072 xxxx December 2,419 xxxx

The backlog is edging towards 2,000 articles because each month, about 200 or more articles are added to the tracking category and as we write, the Requests page has a five-month backlog.

Thank you all for your hard work throughout 2024; we hope you'll continue to be enthused and inspired to improve the standard of prose in Wikipedia. Happy editing!

Membership

GOCE membership is open to all editors in good standing who are interested in copy editing. Please see our membership page for information about signing up, and remember to add your username to our mailing list to receive Guild news. Guild membership is voluntary and informal, and editors do not have to be members of the Guild to participate in its activities. Many editors perform copy editing outside our organized events but we have no means of tracking such efforts.

At the end of 2024, there were xxxx pages populating the Guild's membership category, xxx names on the Guild's list of participants and xxx names on the mailing list. This is a respective growth of (reveal hidden formulae when completed) from the end of 2023. Since we don't actively monitor or audit these lists, they include many inactive and deceased editors, and some whose accounts are blocked or banned.

The best way to know when the GOCE's bimonthly Drives and Blitzes are happening is to add Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Ombox to your watchlist.

Coordinators

The GOCE coordinators play an important role in the Guild. They are responsible for coordinating Guild activities, maintaining our pages, organizing Drives and Blitzes, looking after the Requests page, and performing other maintenance tasks that keep the Guild running smoothly. Coordinators are chosen twice a year through consensus voting.

Term	2024		2025
	January 1 – June 30	July 1 – December 31	January 1 – June 30
Election	December 2023	June 2024	December 2024
Lead coordinator	Dhtwiki (talk)	Dhtwiki (talk)
Coordinators	Miniapolis (talk) Wracking (talk)	Miniapolis (talk) Mox Eden (talk) Wracking (talk)

Thanks to everyone who took the time to participate. Elections are scheduled for June and December each year. All Wikipedians in good standing are welcome to nominate themselves or others with their permission. Please consider helping out if you can.

Requests page

Requests for copy editing are one of the Guild's main activities. Our ever-busy requests page saw (notes here); xx.x% more/fewer requests were made and xx.x% more/fewer requests were completed.¹ The Guild received xxx requests in 2024, xx.x% of which were for Good Article or Featured Article nominations. We copy-edited xxx of the xxx requests we processed; the remaining xx (xx.x%) were declined or withdrawn.

Any editor with good English-language skills can accept requests, but we prefer those who are new to or inexperienced with copy editing to gain experience with articles in the backlog before handling requests—particularly those for GAN, ACN and FAC.

Among the requests received were:²

• xxx for GAN
• xx for GAR
• xx for FAC
• xx for FAR
• xx for FLC
• xx for PR
• xx for ACN
• xx for ACR
• xx for BCN
• xx for CCN
• xx for DYK
• xx for TFA
• xx for section copyedits
• xx declined
• xx withdrawn
• xx unspecified

Monthly breakdown

2024 Month	Requests			Mean days to completion
	Received	Processed	Completed
January	33	20	18	53.6
February	28	25	24	76.4
March	45	57	55	44.8
April	24	29	27	60.5
May	35	27	25	49.2
June	30	26	23	66.7
July	23	20	18	60.9
August	26	20	19	75.6
September	23	23	22	xx.x
October	27	44	41	xx.x
November	xx	xx	xx	xx.x
December	xx	xx	xx	xx.x
Total	xxx	xxx	xxx	xx.x mean days

Note that because some requests are declined or withdrawn, the overall received requests will always be slightly higher than those completed.

Some analysis and comparison to previous years:

• xxx requests were completed³ in 2024 compared to 340 in 2022, 596 in 2021, 684 in 2020, 607 in 2019, 668 in 2018, 571 in 2017, 665 in 2016, 537 in 2015, and 486 in 2014.
• xxx requests were received in 2024 compared to 397 in 2022, 644 in 2021, 752 in 2020, 616 in 2019, 690 in 2018, 588 in 2017, 690 in 2016, 543 in 2015, and 489 in 2014.
• The mean average completion time was xx.x days. Previous averages were 67.7 days in 2022, 35 days in 2021, 23.3 days in 2020, 19 days in 2019, 15 days in 2018, 26 days in 2017, 17 days in 2016, 30 days in 2015, and 41 days in 2013.

There were xx pending requests at the beginning of 2024. There were xx pending requests at the end of the year.

In 2024, xxx requests were submitted, and xx were declined or withdrawn. xx copy editors completed the xxx remaining requests, which were submitted by xxx editors.

• Top five request copy editors:
  • Example (xxx)
  • Example (xxx)
  • Example (xx)
  • JExample (xx)
  • Example (xx)

• Top five request submitters:
  • Example (xx)
  • Example (xx)
  • Example (xx)
  • Example (xx)
  • Example (xx)

Notes

^1 Figures were arrived at by exporting tables from the relevant request archives into a spreadsheet for analysis.

^2 Some requests were made for multiple reasons; these were listed in each applicable category.

^3 Figures for completed requests omit any requests that were declined or withdrawn. Figures for requests submitted, received and processed include requests that were ultimately declined or withdrawn.

As of xx February 2025, requests from 2024 are still being processed or are waiting for an available copy editor. A full list of the year's requests will eventually be available at our 2024 and 2025 archive pages.

Backlog Elimination Drives

The Guild's main efforts toward reducing the number of articles tagged with {{copy edit}} were six backlog-elimination drives held in alternating months, starting in January. At the beginning of the year, there were xxx articles in the backlog and xxxx articles at year's end.

• 46 editors signed up for our January Drive, out of whom 32 claimed at least one copy edits. Between them, they copy-edited 289 articles comprising 626,729 words. Barnstars and data are here.

• For our March Drive, 53 editors signed up, 34 of whom claimed at least one copy-edit. Between them, they copy-edited 300 articles totaling 587,828 words. Barnstars awarded are here. Barnstars and data are here.

• Our May Drive saw 58 editors sign up; of these, 33 copy-edited at least one article. They copy edited 475,952 words comprising 251 articles. Barnstars and data are here.

• July Drive: For our mid-year drive, 38 of the 59 editors who signed up, completed at least one copy edit, and they copy-edited between them 482,133 words in 293 articles. Barnstars and data are here.

• For the September Drive, 67 editors signed up and 39 of those copy edited at least one article. Between them, they copy-edited 682,696 words comprising 507 articles. Barnstars and data are here.

• November Drive: In the last drive of the year, xx editors signed up, xx of whom claimed at least one copy-edit. xx requests were copy-edited and xxx articles were removed from the backlog. Barnstars and data are here.

Drive totals for the year: xx editors claimed credit for removing xxx articles from the backlog and the Requests page for a combined total of xx,xxx,xxx words. The Guild awarded xxx barnstars for participation in Drives in 2024.

Notes

^1 Month-end backlog totals were taken from the drive pages. Participation was taken from the blitz and drive pages and their respective barnstar pages. Numbers for requests were taken from historical versions of the Requests page. Some of the tables were exported and merged in a spreadsheet for easier counts and analysis.

^2 These figures show articles for which editors took credit on the Drive page. Additional articles are removed during drives by editors who do a quick or minor copy edit and don't record it on the Drive page, remove a copy-edit tag because it is inappropriate or no longer needed, or nominate an article for deletion.

Blitzes

We ran six one-week Blitzes in 2024, in alternating months with the backlog drives. Reports and statistics are taken from our newsletters.

• February Blitz: The year's first blitz focused on requests, with an additional theme of Africa and African diaspora history. Of the 12 editors who signed up, 6 editors recorded 21 copy edits, including four requests. Details are here

• April Blitz: Of the 16 editors who signed up for our April Copy Editing Blitz, 12 completed at least one copy-edit, and between them removed 21 articles from the copy-editing backlog. Barnstars awarded are here.

• June Blitz: 13 the 24 editors who signed up claimed at least one copy-edit. Between them, they copy edited 169,404 words comprising 41 articles. Results are available here.

• In our August Blitz, 10 of the 15 editors who signed up completed at least one copy edit, and between them, they edited 71,294 words comprising 31 articles. Barnstars awarded are noted here.

• October Blitz: for this blitz, 16 editors signed up and 15 of those claimed at least one copy-edit, and between them copy-edited 76,776 words comprising 35 articles. Barnstars awarded are here.

• December Blitz; for the year's final blitz, we worked on articles tagged for copy-edit in xxxxxxxxxx, and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx requests. Of the xx editors who signed up, xx copy-edited at least one article, and between them copy-edited xx articles. Barnstars are here

Blitz totals for the year: xx editors completed xxxx requests and articles from the backlog, for a total of xxxxxx words. The Guild awarded xx barnstars for participation in Blitzes in 2024.

Closing thoughts

The new or returning Lead Coordinator writes something deep and meaningful here (we hope!).