Project Wiki Patrol
Project Wiki Patrol is an Urban Dead Wiki member group dedicated to patrolling the wiki and keeping everything on it clean, orderly, and smoothly-functioning. We welcome all wiki members who share in the goal of keeping the wiki junk-free, fixing problems when they occur, helping to deal with problematic users, and helping other wiki users to understand the policies and guidelines that are in place. It was created on June 3rd, 2006 as a response to the constant, naturally occurring problems created by an active wiki.
What We Do
We perform several activities as part of the Project:
- Fix problems when they occur - If we see a broken link, misuse of formatting, suggestion placed in the wrong place, unsigned comment, malformed XHTML or wiki code, or any other sort of structural or formatting problem that we can fix, we fix it.
- Inform users of their mistakes - When we see a new or inexperienced user make a mistake somewhere, we fix their mistake for them if possible, and leave a polite comment on their talk page informing them of their error, that we fixed it, and how to avoid it in the future.
- Help keep unused things off the wiki - Unneeded pages, unused images, insignificant disbanded group pages, double-redirects, and things of this nature can all be safely nominated for Speedy Deletions. Helping to keep the wiki clean helps everyone to find the information they need.
- Deal with problematic users - When we see trouble starting, we try to deflect it before it continues. However, some users consistently ignore the guidelines and policies of the wiki. When we are unable to educate them about their mistakes, we report these users to Vandal Banning or Arbitration, and try to clean up their unwanted contributions if possible.
- Keep the wiki running smoothly - Whatever the issue is, we try to address it if we can. If we can't, we inform someone who can deal with it about the problem.
How to Get Involved
Project Wiki Patrol is an open project, and welcomes any user that wishes to get involved themselves. As long as you're committed to helping keep the wiki running smoothly, and cleaning up problems when you see them, we're welcome to have you.
To officially join, you should place your name below on the Member register.
We also have a userbox that can be used to identify users as members of Project Wiki Patrol. You can use it simply by putting the following on your user page:
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{{projectwikipatrol}}
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Further, there's a fledgling convention of putting a link to Project Wiki Patrol within your signature. You can do this by doing the following:
- Go to the Preferences page, accessible from the set of links at the top of the page (or alternately, by pointing to Special:Preferences).
- Make sure you check the box labeled Raw signatures (without automatic link).
- In the field "Your nickname (for signatures)", put the following (replacing Your name with your user name):
[[User:YourName|Your Name]] <sup>[[Project Wiki Patrol|P!]]</sup>
- Press Save Preferences.
This will make your signature look exactly like it normally does, except it will now have P! appended to the end of your name, with a link to this page.
Flash Points
Project Wiki Patrol identifies areas where a lot of work is needed to keep things running properly. We leave these here so that Project Wiki Patrol members may work to improve the situation there. Place new flash points under a new ===subsection===.
Recruitment
This page, because of its cycling rules, can easily become unruly if unmaintained. Members of Project Wiki Patrol are requested to check and remove any recruitment advertisements which are more than two months old.
Recent Changes
This area may be "patrolled" by many people, but Project Wiki Patrol members are especially poised to use the wiki's built-in Track Changes features to assist in the process.
Known Bugs and Bug Reports
These pages frequently become outdated if not regularly archived and organized. Feel free to help out with the process by moving reports to the appropriate places.
Suggestions
Some of the frequent problems on this page:
- Unsigned votes (add the {{unsigned}} template and show the voter how to sign for the next time)
- Invalid votes (strike and remove from the vote count)
- Votes with no reason given (strike and remove from the vote count)
- Spaminated suggestions (follow the instructions for spamination)
- Suggestions that don't use the {{Suggestion}} template (fix the formatting and show the suggester how to use the template)
- Non-author replies (strike)
- Extended conversations (move to talk page and leave a note)
Speedy Deletions
Very often, pages, files, etc. will become unused on the wiki, and should be sent to Deletions or Speedy Deletions. Places to watch for pages meeting the Speedy Deletion criteria:
- Broken Redirects
- Dead-end pages
- Double redirects
- New pages
- Oldest pages
- Orphaned pages
- Short pages
- Uncategorized categories
- Uncategorized pages
- Unused categories
- Unused files
(In the case of Crit 9 pages, be sure to move the pages and issue the author a {{Subst:Crit9warning}}, with information about the page moved.)
The above links may also be useful for other wiki-maintenance tasks.
Member Register
The easiest way to place your name on the register is to use 3 tildes (i.e., ~~~). Try to keep the list in alphabetical order. The current member register is as follows:
