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This is a rough draft proposal, not an official policy or guideline
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- ...and by rough draft I mean very rough. Please offer input or improvements!'
WoWWiki Projects are a collaboration of editors coordinating their efforts to improve a set of articles that cover a certain area of interest.
Projects have several visible benefits:
- Improved consistency and quality across articles of a certain subject.
- Central gathering areas for editors with similar interests to collaborate.
- New users have an easy to find a starting point for getting involved in an area they find interesting or have expertise.
Projects aren't meant to give a group of editors certain authority over a set of articles. This is only a collaboration tool to draw people together. All normal WoWWiki policies apply.
Starting a project
New projects should be started when enough editors have interest to start it.
A project is started up as a page in the WoWWiki: namespace, for example WoWWiki:Lore project. Project participants then use that page and the talk page to organize their efforts.
Some possible problems:
- Projects with little interest fizzle out and die
- Many small, inactive projects start up and pollute the project space.
- Duplicate projects
A simple project approval process would probably take care of most problems with starting up a project. It doesn't have to be too stringent, probably something simple like 3 editors signing up and final admin approval. And, some basic rules to prevent someone signing up three sock puppets with no edits to start his Thrall/WWE Crossover Fanfic project.
Also, dead projects will have to be monitored and deleted. Our deletion policy will probably need a caveat added for removing dead projects.
Finding projects
Projects should be easy to find. An editor should be able to get a list of all active projects and browse for one that interests him.
- The main project page should be placed in the WoWWiki Projects category. Place [[Category:WoWWiki Projects]] anywhere on the project page (usually at the bottom).
- Another option is to create an official {{WoWWiki Project}} template that does all categorization.
- Projects will also be listed on the main Projects directory with a one-sentence description.
What's on a project page
What to put on the project page is largely up to the project members, but some basic guidelines are possible:
- Project description and scope
- List of active participants
- List of tasks for editors
- General guidelines for writing project articles (i.e. follow this format for X, add this category for all Y articles)
- Links to major articles
With good active projects, this list will evolve and a general project layout will form and be reused on other projects.
Project categories and templates
Each project gets its own set of categories for project maintenance. Project categories and templates on articles are a good way to draw attention to the project. These templates and categories should not clutter up the main article. Instead, place them on the article top page at the top to signify that the article is in that projects scope. Note that some articles fall within the scope of multiple projects, and may have other project templates.
Templates (XXX denotes the project name):
- {{XXX Project}} - A small template that goes on article talk pages indicating that the article falls within the project scope. Do not place project templates on main articles, only the talk pages, and only for articles that are in the project's defined scope. This template should auto-cat the project category defined below.
Categories (XXX denotes the project name):
- [[Category:XXX project]] - Category for the project, to be added to article talk pages. This category should be automatically added by the project template, so there should be no need to add this manually.
- [[Category:Lore project members]] - participants add their user pages here. Only pages in the User: space should be present in this category.
- The philosophy here is to keep "content" seperate from "editorial activities." Projects and the categories for them are editorial by nature - related to expanding the wiki - which is why these things are kept to talk pages. The articles themselves should be a cleanly presented product.
Dead projects
Inactive projects clutter the project space and make it difficult to keep track of active areas of development. Dead projects will be removed from the project directory and category. If a substantial amount of project information is present, then it may be backed up at an inactive projects area for possible resurrection when interest arises again.
- Project spaces that have not had any updates for a period of XXX will be put up for deletion.
- Deletion criteria needs more input'
- Projects are otherwise subject to WoWWiki's deletion policy just as all other content on the site. Administrators have final say.
Personal projects
There's no reason someone's one man pet project needs to be completely excluded from the projects area. If a new project request is turned down for inclusion in the main project space, you can maintain your own project in your personal user space. The personal projects category exists for users to list their own pet projects. Personal projects fall under the rules of personal articles under WoWWiki policy.