Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/The World Contest/FAQ

This page has been set up to try to answer some common questions or concerns and explain the contest better to the skeptics. Further concerns can be highlighted on the talk page before the contest begins.

1. What is the point of the contest? Why do we need a contest to create new articles when so many existing articles need our attention? Good point. I hope we will run quality improvement contests improving core articles and stubs in the future but this contest is being held to perfect a mechanism to speed up the creation process for women biographies on Wikipedia but in a way which is beneficial to the project. Given that the current percentage of women biographies on Wikipedia is just 17%, we really need to get that over 20%. If the contest is a success and a model is produced to replicate it then I believe that we have the potential to surpass 20% women biographies on Wikipedia possibly within two years instead of at least five years. We believe that the need to boost the Women in Red cause and the potential of the contest in producing global and occupational diversity outweighs any possible problems that the contest might cause.
2. "Can I contribute expanded articles to the contest as well as new creations? " - if you're entering the contest, to be eligible for prizes all entries have to be new article creations. However, if you're not competing for prizes or feel like expanding/improving an existing article this will be welcome on the main article achievements section of the main page which will list all entries for the contest and editathon combined.
3. "May I submit articles for this contest during October?" - The contest formally commences on November 1 so any articles created before then will not count. However, you are welcome to work on articles in draft or user space or offwiki before then as long as the articles are still red links when the contest begins.
4. " Do I have to be female or a feminist to contribute to this contest?" - No, the contest welcomes people of all genders and backgrounds, the greater the diversity of people contributing the greater the diversity in content which will be produced.
5. " Why is there a percentage bar on the main page, what use will it have?" - The percentage bar will be the sum of articles produced during the contest. The idea will be to set a target like 2000 or 3000 articles and use it as a mechanism during the contest to try to encourage more content production and reaching the target within a month.
6. " My country isn't on the Amazon.com mailing list, so if I win Amazon vouchers I won't be able to receive goods. " - Though there is a strong emphasis on Amazon voucher prizes or paid subscriptions if the contestant wins enough money, in cases where editors prove that they are living in countries not on the Amazon mailing list I will personally try to see that they receive something else and don't go unrewarded.
7. "This is a contest to produce 100,000 useless stubs for women, we're heading for a catastrophe" . No, the contest itself is aiming for nearer 3000 new entries, but it will depend on what happens as the contest proceeds and the level of participation. The contest is not aiming to dump 100,000 stubs. Wikipedia:The 100,000 Challenge is a long term challenge involving different continents to try to bring about 100,000 improvements to Wikipedia. The idea was that if the contest is a success we launch another 100,000 Challenge specifically for women long term as a vehicle to get us to over 20% women biographies, and largely fuelled by contests. The contest will need to fully run first and there be support for more contests before we can decide to venture into that.
8. "I have deep reservations about how productive this contest will be, I forsee massive problems with plagiarism and notability" . Though the bot is being programmed to only check for article length and that facts are verified, there are $250 of prizes available for judging the contest and the editors who put in the most effort to check for plagiarism, copyedit, ensure that articles are of reasonable minimum quality, and ensure are notable will be rewarded. Copypatrol is a tool which can be used to check for potential vios, and if editors are found to be creating articles with paraphrasing or quality issues and continue to do so after being warned they may be disqualified from further contributing.
9. "How can 1 kb possibly be enough text to demonstrate notability? I have a bad feeling that given such a low requirement this contest is only going to churn out thousands of dubious notability stubs and us be stuck with a huge cleanup problem " . - For developed world countries, particularly the US and UK, notable subjects do generally have plenty of sources which can be used to easily write a 1.5kb start class article, we encourage people to do that for developed world countries. The 1kb minimum requirement exists because there is a gross unneveness in quality sources which is reflective of general systematic bias in the world. For many developing countries often notable women such as Olympians etc will generally not have a great amount of material written about them. The African Destubathon demonstrated to me that it's often very difficult to find the material to write about traditional encyclopedic African biographies in detail. I believe that 1kb is sufficient enough to demonstrate notability and be a useful starter article on Wikipedia and it be a way to try to accommodate for unneveness in access to sources and ensure a truly global contest. If editors are consistently creating articles on very dubious non notable women or starting bios which don't give an indication of notability they may be disqualified from further contributing.
10. "If most prize money is going into quantity rather than quality, isn't the contest just going to attract masses of bare minimum quality entries or even generic bios such as the database-type entries on women in sports rather than produce anything decent? " - $400 of prizes have been allocated to people who produce work of quality. Quality work is more difficult to assess and I don't think we should use "number of Good articles" to judge it. At the end of the contest the editors who give attention to producing consistently high quality work and not just going for minimum length entries will be rewarded. Wikimedia UK is also funding a UK prize for the editors who produce the most consistently high quality new entries on missing Oxford Dictionary, Welsh dictionary and other biographies as well, and any other editor is welcome to also put up prizes to give further incentives to editors to produce work of quality.
11. "If I win more than I really want or need, how do I donate some winnings to other editors to buy books?" - After the contest winners are documented at the end of the contest and the prizes given out, please mention if you would like to donate anything you might earn and it will go into a book fund and used to buy somebody a new book at a later date.
12. "Is it OK if I contribute articles on female fictional characters for the contest?" No, it's a contest which is really intended to focus entirely on real women's biographies though certain women's works such as books or paintings and organizations etc are permitted. Try to focus on real women article creation as the overall goal is to get us a boost in percentage of women bios.
13. "Is there an invitation to the contest which I could paste on other editors' talkpages?" Yes, here it is.