Our World of Text:State of the Wiki

This State of the Wiki is a detailed overview of the quality of articles on the Wiki, where they should be improved, and how they can be improved. What follows is the most up-to-date information available on contributing to the OWOT Wiki.

State of the Wiki

The OWOT Wiki, which could be a valuable resource for new and veteran users alike, is currently in shambles. Go to a random page and you will see that the quality of most articles is low. There are barely any aspects of OWOT that are thoroughly documented.

Areas of needed improvement

Stubs

A stub is an article deemed too short and incomplete to cover a subject properly. Most articles on this Wiki are stubs. This urgently needs to improve.

Orphaned articles

An orphaned article is an article with no links from other pages in the main article namespace. Having no such links makes orphaned articles difficult to find, and are most likely to be found only by searching or by chance. Because of this, few people know they exist, and therefore, they receive less readership and improvement from those who would be able to improve them; it is, therefore, helpful to add links from other suitable pages with similar or related information. Many articles on this Wiki are currently orphaned.

The quickest way to find orphaned articles is to obtain a random article using Special:Random. Once having done so, check if it is an orphan by, at the toolbox, clicking the "What links here" link (or shortcut Alt+⇧ Shift+j). You will then be provided with a list of pages that link to that article. If there are none, the article is orphaned. See § De-orphaning articles for steps on how to de-orphan the article.

Suggestions for how to contribute

The following are methods of contribution that this Wiki recommends editors employ. You may choose any method you see fit. Keep in mind that you have no obligation to use any of these methods.

Random page patrol

The random page patrol, the most recommended method of improving this Wiki, refers to the process of regularly and frequently checking randomly selected pages through Special:Random. Once you have obtained a random article, first try to expand the article as best as possible. If the article is a stub, prioritize expanding it so that it is no longer a stub; if you cannot, make sure the {{stub}} template is present before finalizing your edits. Next, ensure that the article conforms to this Wiki's content guidelines and that its style and formatting are consistent and meet the basic principles laid out in the Manual of Style. Once the article has been improved to a satisfying degree, repeat with another random article.

De-orphaning articles

Before finalizing your edits, check if the article is an orphaned article (see § Orphaned articles). If it is, and you don't have the time or knowledge to de-orphan it right away, you can add {{Orphan|{{subst:DATE}}}} to the top of the page, marking it as an orphan. If you do, the simplest way to find articles that can be linked to the orphaned article is to click on "Related changes" (or shortcut Alt+⇧ Shift+k), to see changes on pages linked to or from that page. If this doesn't help, then a little more research is required. First, read the article. Then, follow some related-looking outgoing links from the orphan to other articles, and do a Wiki-wide search for the article topic. Doing this will give you a much better idea of what it relates to. Not only will it probably give you information you can use to add meaningful links from other articles, but it will probably give you enough info to flesh out and improve the orphan itself.

When you find an appropriate parent, insert a meaningful link to the orphaned article. The link can be a meaningful new sentence added within the article, or consider using the {{Further}} template. When adding a link to an orphaned article, please include this in your edit summary:

Adding link to orphaned article, Wikiproject Orphanage: [[Wikipedia:ORPHAN|You can help!]]