Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles
This is a WikiProject, an area for focused collaboration among Wikipedians. New participants are welcome; please feel free to participate!
|
Ask yourselves: why didn't you look up Wikipedia's articles about economy, Dmitri Mendeleev, man, or land even though you know little about them? Simple, because they suck. Millions of people feel the same way too. This is not acceptable on our side and this must be changed by making these articles good.
Subpages
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles/Tools - technical how-to on how to use tools and scripts
Past work
- 30 kB drive
- 47 articles expanded to 30 kilobytes; 26 July 2022 – 31 August 2022
- Vital GA Drive
- good article status, unsuccessful; 1 September – 15 November 2022
Function
This WikiProject is designed to be a public space that has neat stuff to do or learn about, and to serve as a place where you sit down, relax, and make edits or discuss with others. Its purpose is to improve the Vitals articles and lists. We always welcome anonymous and new people here (and if you are one of them, have a chat at the talk page!)
There is no such thing as "joining" or "registering" for this WikiProject, as it is an overarching project that aims to gather other WikiProjects together for collaboration. If you're actively improving vital articles, you're already a member of this WikiProject. If you want to find people that are working on Vital articles, use this link to find recent edits and talk to them directly.
Tasks
- Wikipedia:Database reports/Vital articles update report
- No backlogUnassessed vital articles – -2 articles in total
- No backlogVital articles with unknown topic – 0 articles in total
A list of articles needing cleanup associated with this project is available. See also the tool's wiki page and the index of WikiProjects.
Improving a Vital article
While we might not know the exact formula for mass-producing Vital GAs, we do know ways to tackle and improve these kind of articles. Here are some techniques that you can use:
- Don't be afraid to try and don't be a perfectionist. Yes, that paragraph that you just wrote might not be there once the article is at GAN, but it will be an important stepping stone for recognizing further improvement. As long as your own content is significantly better and more reliable than the rest of the article, you've done a good job.
- Be concise and keep the original research, etc.
- Be mindful of systematic bias. For vital articles specifically, the most commonly encountered bias is American-European bias. For example, there's a tendency of using European allegories or paintings to illustrate abstract ideas. Don't just swap these images for the sake of diversity however. Remember, the best images are the one that is relevant, high-resolution, sharp, shows the subject clearly in the small thumbnail and is applicable to all cultures.
- Patrol sources and ensure their quality. If you find a low-quality source, either replace it with higher-quality ones or jank the content if it doesn't warrant inclusion in the first place. The WP:RSP list, User:SuperHamster/CiteUnseen and User:Headbomb/unreliableare some of the best tools available to detect bad sources, though remember to use your own judgement as well.
- Copyedit the text and make sure that the text looks more Wikipedia-like. If in doubt, take a look at Wikipedia:Basic copyediting, Wikipedia:Writing better articles, WP:Manual of Style and more.
If you had completed all of these basic techniques, here are some of the more specialized yet powerful ways that you can improve Vital articles. Enjoy these dishes with extra Wikipedia:Ignore all rules and common sense:
- Use the bold, revert, discusscycle to garner attention and quickly adding improvements the (old) Wikipedia way. This method is especially useful for editing popular country articles provided that you're prepared. Just make an edit that you think it would improve the article, the edit then gets reverted, and both people discuss to reach a better solution.
- Use AutoWikiBrowser and other automated tools to quickly correct errors in many Vital articles. For example, you can use AWB to monitor typos and fix them accordingly. Detailed instructions for some tools such as WP:PetScan and user scripts can be obtained at Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles/Tools.
- Import good content from subtopic articles. For example, in a section about the properties of numbers, it may be helpful to get the content from smaller scope articles such as natural numbers. However, you will need to attribute the source per Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia and can be pretty tedious when messing with the template. An IAR and simpler way might be to make a talk page section and list all of your articles that you've copied, including their oldid.
- And perhaps, the most spicy of 'em all is using verifiability policy. For tips on using large language models, see Wikipedia:Using neural network language models on Wikipedia and Wikipedia:Large language models.
Awards
We have a good roster of awards given to those that help us advance the goal to make all Vital Articles GAs and FAs. These awards may be awarded by anyone to anyone worthy.
Barnstars
{{
barnstar, given to those that have done a good job.
Vital Barnstar | ||
{{{1}}} |
{{subst:The Vital Articles Barnstar|1=message ~~~~}}
The Vital Articles Barnstar | ||
{{{1}}} |
Userboxes
- {{User Vital}} – for members of the project.
This user is interested in improving vital articles. |
- {{userbox, given to those that have done a good job.
This user has received a Vital barnstar. |
- {{Good Vital infobox}} – Userbox for those that have successfully nominated a Vital good article.
This user has helped promote vital good articles on Wikipedia. |
- {{Featured Vital infobox}} – Userbox for those that have successfully nominated a Vital featured article.
This user has helped promote vital featured articles on Wikipedia. |
Assessment
For mobile readers, you can click here to switch to desktop mode to read the table more easily. This Vital article assessment scheme is meant to be subjective and complementary to Wikipedia:Content assessment.
Class | Criteria | Reader's experience | Editing suggestions | Example |
---|---|---|---|---|
FA | The article is professional, complete, engaging, and has been vetted by WP:Featured article candidates. More detailed criteria
|
Experts and casual readers alike will find the content easy to digest, accurate, and engaging. You can format the article to look like an actual Nature journal article and it would look believable. | Improve the prose, update the information, remove vandalism, make the text more professional and engaging, all the WikiGnome stuff! Try to make the text more readable and engaging to a wider audience if you dare. | Solar System |
A | The article is well organized, complete in terms of content, and has been examined by a dedicated WikiProject department such as WikiProject Military History A-class assessment. As a special assessment rank, it meets the A-Class criteria. The actual criteria can be slightly different due to nuances within individual WikiProjects. | Readers will find it complete, but experts will know better and still have grumbling at missing/incorrect information throughout the article. There will still be hiccups or typos when you read the article top-down. | Expert knowledge may be needed to tweak the article, and style problems may need to be addressed. Consider contacting experts at your relevant A-Class department for more advice. | Napoleon |
GA | The article is reasonably complete and suitable for translation to other languages, after being vetted WP:Good article nominations. More detailed criteria
|
Fairly standard quality level for a top-tier Encyclopædia Britannica article but with less generalization and dumb-downness. Readers will at least not be drowned in text, and experts will find it usable for refreshing their memory. | Detect Wikipedia:Systemic bias in the article and address them; more viewpoints generally meant better article at this point. Touch-up on your citations and style and make sure the text is in line with your sources. Make sure that the text is appealing to a wide audience and not a slog to read. | Marie Curie |
B | The article is kinda complete, reliable and suitably organized. From this point on, there is no need to revamp the article layout. More detailed criteria
It meets the six B-Class criteria:
|
"Seems good", a reader thought. Citations, prose and images are better than average, but lots of cruds still remain. Experts would likely look elsewhere for content, maybe at a specialist encyclopedia or journal articles if they need answer to specific questions. | A few aspects of content and style need to be addressed. Expert knowledge may be needed. Start addressing systematic bias since this article will be translated to other languages and the inclusion of media should be considered as well. | Atom |
C | The article is still missing important content or contains much irrelevant material. It may still have significant problems or require substantial cleanup. It may have some gaps or missing elements; need editing for clarity, balance, or flow; or contain policy violations, such as bias or original research. | When a reader scrolls down, they would see a vast amount of text no more useful than at a random website, with no coherent theme, and dumpster fire of terrible sources. "This article could be better" – they thought. | Providing references to reliable sources should come first; the article also needs substantial improvement in content and organization. Also improve the grammar, spelling, writing style and improve the jargon use. | Food preservation |
Start | The article sorely lacks content, and lacks a lot of it. The article has a usable amount of good content but is weak in many areas. Quality of the prose may be distinctly unencyclopedic. | Readers find it just a bit more useful than a dictionary definition, and experts will scoff on it. And they would definitely not read more than the lead portion of the article. | Find sources and add content based on them. Make sure that you make the article structure easy to expand upon. Think about a general "theme" or "flow" to the article – what do you want it to look like? | Equation |
Stub | A very basic description of the topic that needs a ton of content expansion. The article will need much work to become a meaningful article. | "Ah yes, that thing exists on Wikipedia" – a reader thought. Then they close Wikipedia and search on Google to hunt down more reliable/comprehensive content. | Add content like there's no tomorrow. Keep doing it. Add more content! | Rapids |
Dashboard
Article alerts
For article alerts about a specific level, see:
For article alerts on all vital articles (levels 1–5):
Today's featured articles
- 02 May 2024 – Western Chalukya Empire (talk · edit · hist) will be Today's Featured Article; see blurb
Today's featured article requests
- 26 Jun 2024 – Torture (talk · edit · hist) has been proposed for Today's Featured Article by Harizotoh9 (t · c); see discussion
- 23 Jun 2024 – Cyclone Taylor (talk · edit · hist) has been proposed for Today's Featured Article by Z1720 (t · c); see discussion
- 21 Jun 2024 – Giraffe (talk · edit · hist) has been proposed for Today's Featured Article by LittleJerry (t · c); see discussion
- 11 Jun 2024 – Ronald Reagan (talk · edit · hist) has been proposed for Today's Featured Article by 750h+ (t · c); see discussion
- 06 Jun 2024 – Saving Private Ryan (talk · edit · hist) has been proposed for Today's Featured Article by Sheila1988 (t · c); see discussion
Did you know
- 20 Apr 2024 – Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by MSincccc (t · c); see discussion
- 17 Apr 2024 – Joseph Déjacque (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Grnrchst (t · c); see discussion
- 16 Apr 2024 – Global dimming (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by InformationToKnowledge (t · c); see discussion
Redirects for discussion
- 25 Apr 2024 – App£€ (talk · edit · hist) →Apple Inc. was RfDed by StreetcarEnjoyer (t · c); see discussion
- 25 Apr 2024 – Kissing pussy (talk · edit · hist) →Cunnilingus was RfDed by Hey man im josh (t · c); see discussion
- 25 Apr 2024 – Peepee sucking (talk · edit · hist) →Fellatio was RfDed by Chaotic Enby (t · c); see discussion
- 25 Apr 2024 – Self loading freight (talk · edit · hist) →Passenger was RfDed by Utopes (t · c); see discussion
- 25 Apr 2024 – Quantum realm (talk · edit · hist) →Quantum mechanics was RfDed by Utopes (t · c); see discussion
- 24 Apr 2024 – Sucking peepee (talk · edit · hist) →Fellatio was RfDed by Chaotic Enby (t · c); see discussion
- 24 Apr 2024 – Star Wars™ (talk · edit · hist) →Star Wars was RfDed by Okmrman (t · c); see discussion
- 24 Apr 2024 – LeBron Jim (talk · edit · hist) →LeBron James was RfDed by Mazewaxie (t · c); see discussion
- 24 Apr 2024 – LeOld LeBald Le4and6 (talk · edit · hist) →LeBron James was RfDed by Mazewaxie (t · c); see discussion
- 24 Apr 2024 – The ceiling is the roof (talk · edit · hist) →Michael Jordan was RfDed by Mazewaxie (t · c); see discussion
- (63 more...)
Files for discussion
- 24 Apr 2024 – File:4-cube 4^4.png (talk · edit · hist) (on Rubik's Cube) was FfDed by MGA73 (t · c); see discussion
Featured article candidates
- 25 Apr 2024 – Existence (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Phlsph7 (t · c); see discussion
- 22 Apr 2024 – Dracunculiasis (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Ajpolino (t · c); see discussion
- 13 Apr 2024 – Nonmetal (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Sandbh (t · c); see discussion
- 07 Apr 2024 – Jacques Offenbach (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Tim riley (t · c); see discussion
- 03 Apr 2024 – Ed Bradley (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by M4V3R1CK32 (t · c); see discussion
- 31 Mar 2024 – Galileo project (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Hawkeye7 (t · c); see discussion
- 18 Mar 2024 – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Kyle Peake (t · c); see discussion
- 17 Mar 2024 – Iron Man (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Thebiguglyalien (t · c); see discussion
Good article nominees
- 24 Apr 2024 – Taj Mahal (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Magentic Manifestations (t · c); start discussion
- 24 Apr 2024 –
- 23 Apr 2024 – Heraclitus (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by MisterCake (t · c); start discussion
- 22 Apr 2024 – John Galsworthy (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Tim riley (t · c); start discussion
- 21 Apr 2024 – Niall Ó Glacáin (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by SkywalkerEccleston (t · c); start discussion
- 21 Apr 2024 – Bahmani Sultanate (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Flemmish Nietzsche (t · c); start discussion
- 13 Apr 2024 – Mark Zuckerberg (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by MSincccc (t · c); start discussion
- 11 Apr 2024 – Ice–albedo feedback (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by InformationToKnowledge (t · c); start discussion
- 11 Apr 2024 – Metaphysics (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Phlsph7 (t · c); start discussion
- 06 Apr 2024 – Maximiliano Hernández Martínez (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by PizzaKing13 (t · c); start discussion
- (32 more...)
Good topic candidates
- 19 Feb 2024 – Black Mirror (talk · edit · hist) was GT nominated by Bilorv (t · c); see discussion
Featured article reviews
- 06 Mar 2024 – Unification of Germany (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by Buidhe (t · c); see discussion
- 24 Feb 2024 – Polio (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by Z1720 (t · c); see discussion
- 20 Feb 2024 – Edward I of England (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by JimKillock (t · c); see discussion
- 17 Feb 2024 – Mariah Carey (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by ScarletViolet (t · c); see discussion
- 15 Jan 2024 – Emmy Noether (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by Z1720 (t · c); see discussion
- 07 Jan 2024 – Galaxy (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by Greenish Pickle! (t · c); see discussion
- 09 Dec 2023 – Borobudur (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by SandyGeorgia (t · c); see discussion
- 30 Oct 2023 – Byzantine Empire (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by SandyGeorgia (t · c); see discussion
- 16 Aug 2023 – Minneapolis (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by SandyGeorgia (t · c); see discussion
- 24 Jul 2023 – Geography of Ireland (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by Z1720 (t · c); see discussion
- (2 more...)
Good article reassessments
- 17 Apr 2024 – London, Ontario (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for GA reassessment by 750h+ (t · c); see discussion
- 16 Apr 2024 – Mohanlal (talk · edit · hist) nominated for GA reassessment by NoobThreePointOh (t · c) was closed; see discussion
Requests for comments
- 22 Apr 2024 –
- 19 Apr 2024 – China (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by CanonNi (t · c); see discussion
- 19 Apr 2024 – Climate change (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Robert McClenon (t · c); see discussion
- 19 Apr 2024 – Israel (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by JDiala (t · c); see discussion
- 17 Apr 2024 – Tesla, Inc. (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Emiya1980 (t · c); see discussion
- 15 Apr 2024 – Estonia (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by 117.53.77.84 (t · c); see discussion
- 12 Apr 2024 – Israel–Hamas war (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by BilledMammal (t · c); see discussion
- 06 Apr 2024 – Julian Assange (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Wikinetman (t · c); see discussion
- 04 Apr 2024 – Ariana Grande (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Aoi (t · c); see discussion
- 29 Mar 2024 – Reconquista (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by إيان (t · c); see discussion
- (1 more...)
Peer reviews
- 25 Apr 2024 – Ethics (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Phlsph7 (t · c); see discussion
- 18 Apr 2024 – Bill Gates (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by MSincccc (t · c); see discussion
- 16 Apr 2024 – Geologic time scale (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Jarred C Lloyd (t · c); see discussion
- 15 Apr 2024 – Tiger (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by LittleJerry (t · c); see discussion
- 13 Apr 2024 – Charles the Bold (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Amir Ghandi (t · c); see discussion
- 05 Apr 2024 – Narwhal (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Wolverine XI (t · c); see discussion
- 03 Apr 2024 – George Lazenby (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by OlifanofmrTennant (t · c); see discussion
- 03 Apr 2024 – Campbell's Soup Cans (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by TonyTheTiger (t · c); see discussion
- 01 Apr 2024 – History of Christianity (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Jenhawk777 (t · c); see discussion
- 31 Mar 2024 – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by SafariScribe (t · c); see discussion
- (6 more...)
Requested moves
- 25 Apr 2024 –
- 25 Apr 2024 –
- 23 Apr 2024 –
- 22 Apr 2024 –
- 22 Apr 2024 –
- 21 Apr 2024 –
- 19 Apr 2024 – t · c); see discussion
- 18 Apr 2024 – State of Palestine (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Palestine by Silence of Lambs (t · c); see discussion
- 17 Apr 2024 – Woo Bum-kon (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Woo Bum-kon incident by PARAKANYAA (t · c); see discussion
- 17 Apr 2024 –
- (16 more...)
Articles to be merged
- 24 Apr 2024 – Alvarezsauridae (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Alvarezsauroidea by A Cynical Idealist (t · c); see discussion
- 24 Apr 2024 –
- 22 Apr 2024 – Experience curve effects (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Learning curve by Ita140188 (t · c); see discussion
- 23 Mar 2024 – Hydrogen economy (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Low-carbon economy by Chidgk1 (t · c); see discussion
- 20 Mar 2024 – Physical geodesy (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Geodesy by GeogSage (t · c); see discussion
- 17 Mar 2024 – Alcoholic beverage (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Alcohol (drug) by 94.255.152.53 (t · c); see discussion
- 10 Mar 2024 – Multivalued function (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Relation (mathematics) by Rgdboer (t · c); see discussion
- 10 Mar 2024 – Megacity (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to List of largest cities by OrdinaryGiraffe (t · c); see discussion
- 06 Mar 2024 – Tanning (leather) (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Leather production processes by Oknazevad (t · c); see discussion
- 02 Mar 2024 – Autonomous administrative division (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to List of autonomous areas by country by Beland (t · c); see discussion
- (17 more...)
Articles to be split
- 25 Apr 2024 – Jeffrey Epstein (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by DBrown SPS (t · c); see discussion
- 01 Apr 2024 – Mole salamander (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by TypistMonkey (t · c); see discussion
- 18 Mar 2024 – Gazelle (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Maykii (t · c); see discussion
- 12 Mar 2024 – Bioterrorism (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Geysirhead (t · c); see discussion
- 06 Mar 2024 – Submarine (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Piotrus (t · c); see discussion
- 04 Mar 2024 – Internet celebrity (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by SilverLocust (t · c); see discussion
- 02 Mar 2024 – Cebu (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Diannaa (t · c); see discussion
- 13 Feb 2024 – Donald Tusk (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Piotrus (t · c); see discussion
- 25 Jan 2024 – History of Samoa (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by JJUPLOADS22 (t · c); see discussion
- 06 Jan 2024 – Philips (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by 58.152.37.116 (t · c); see discussion
- (71 more...)
Click to watch (Subscribe via RSS Atom) · Find Article Alerts for other topics!
Statistics
Vital pages by quality | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Quality | |||||||
Total | |||||||
FA | 1,230 | ||||||
FL | 10 | ||||||
A | 25 | ||||||
GA | 2,434 | ||||||
B | 12,214 | ||||||
C | 18,535 | ||||||
Start | 14,330 | ||||||
Stub | 1,075 | ||||||
List | 124 | ||||||
Assessed | 49,977 | ||||||
Unassessed | 1 | ||||||
Total | 49,978 | ||||||
WikiWork factors (?) | ω = 193,775 | Ω = 3.89 |
See also
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles/Article alerts – specialized noticeboard for Vital articles
- File:Wikipedia’s poor treatment of its most important articles.pdf (2011)
- File:Fun or Functional? The Misalignment Between Content Quality and Popularity in Wikipedia (WMF Research Showcase 2015-09-16).pdf
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles/Readability (2016)