Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Backlog elimination drives/November 2018

Shorties

Traveling this November. I will hammer the shorties in January. We're getting ever closer. Lfstevens (talk) 14:22, 28 October 2018 (UTC)

I should have time to work on some of the short articles, but in nothing like the volume that Lfstevens does in their semi-annual attack. We should be able to get the month-end total back under 1,000 with a reasonable amount of work.

Also of note is that we have ended each year with a lower backlog total on December 31 than we had a year earlier. This year, that will be a challenge. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:49, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Finding some time to edit... Lfstevens (talk) 03:43, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

University of Richmond School of Professional & Continuing Studies

University of Richmond School of Professional & Continuing Studies was tagged in May for copyedit. I initially took this on and then realized that the article is entirely copied from the school's web page. I tagged it appropriately but I didn't take off the copyedit tag. Should I? It doesn't need a copyedit, it needs a rewrite. I'd hate to see it stay on the list of articles requiring copyedit when it really doesn't. Thoughts? PopularOutcast^talk2me! 21:20, 13 November 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for catching that. I removed the {{copy edit}} tag and added {{GOCEreviewed}} to the talk page. A link to the school's webpage (the copyvio) would be useful at WP:COPYPROB. All the best, Miniapolis 23:45, 13 November 2018 (UTC)

All right. Those instructions are convoluted and it took me way longer than I imagined to understand what they wanted me to do. I reverted the article to the point where it was not a copyvio and alerted on the article talk page and on the contributor's talk page. An administrator should come by to take a look at some point.

Separate question, on many of the articles that are older I have chosen not to do the copyedit because IMO the other issues facing the page need to be fixed before a copyedit can be done successfully. How should I alert the guild leaders to this so the article can be reviewed and taken off the copyedit backlog? PopularOutcast^talk2me! 01:53, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

No need to alert the coordinators :-). Removing the {{copy edit}} tag from the article removes it from the backlog, and adding the {{GOCEreviewed}} tag to the article's talk page explains why. All the best, Miniapolis 16:16, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

Got it. Thanks! Didn't know I had the power to do that. :D PopularOutcast^talk2me! 17:35, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

Amazon S3

I picked up Amazon S3to copyedit. It took me a while but I copyedited the lead to my satisfaction. I was about to start copyediting the rest when I realized that much of the rest of the article doesn't really need to be in the article and some of what is needs to be pared down a lot. For instance, the Design section has some good stuff that needs to be rewritten for a non-technical audience but a lot of it is too technical and more a how-to than a what. Some of the sections need to be merged into Design and others just need to be deleted. I don't think pricing or history (as is) should be in there although history can be rewritten to give a timeline of when new services were introduced.

This might be a project I pick up on my own because I find it interesting but I think a rewrite and restructuring is out of scope for the Guild. What do you all think? PopularOutcast^talk2me! 00:40, 15 November 2018 (UTC)

It's a judgment call, IMO. I often find myself overhauling articles as part of a copyedit (general article improvement), but sometimes it can be a real timesink :-). If you don't want to continue, just leave the {{copy edit}} tag and move on. All the best, Miniapolis 14:18, 15 November 2018 (UTC)

I am torn. I do want to continue but I want to work on other copyedit articles at the same time because this one will take so long. Basically, I need breaks. So I think I'll keep working on Amazon S3 as a separate project and leave {{copy edit}} tag on but take off the {{GOCEinuse}} tag as well as take it off my working list. That way another copyeditor can pick it up if they want, more articles get copyedited during the drive, and I can work on it as I have time. I just spent a good hour this morning on it (on a whole two paragraphs). Let me know if you have any objection to this. Thanks! PopularOutcast^talk2me! 15:07, 15 November 2018 (UTC)

Sounds good to me, but the object of the game is to reduce the backlog; hence, any other editor can remove the {{copy edit}} tag, copyedit the article and receive credit for it. All the best, Miniapolis 22:48, 15 November 2018 (UTC)

Yup, I don't have an issue with that. I'll do more helping with backlog if I am not working only on that article m'thinks. PopularOutcast^talk2me! 23:07, 15 November 2018 (UTC)

@PopularOutcast: The "if you can do it, fix it" protocol can eat up a lot of time. I seem to pick up three or four projects for every one completed. The article has been tagged for a while so you probably won't get any pushback from a rewrite, but all the same you might want to check the page stats and ping the top contributors on the article's talk page with your intentions. You never know, maybe someone else is already working on a rewrite. – Reidgreg (talk) 02:28, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Reidgreg, great idea, will do. PopularOutcast^talk2me! 02:33, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Copy edit section word count?

Hello, I'm Ben79487. When I picked up the article Pieter de Lange, which had a section copy edit tag, I was confused about which word count to put in the parentheses—the whole article, or the section? Can somebody please provide an answer? – Ben79487 (talk contribs) 03:13, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

EDIT: I am putting the whole article count. Let me know if I should use the other count instead. – Ben79487 (talk contribs) 03:17, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

EDIT: Turns out the whole article needed a copyedit job after all. – Ben79487 (talk contribs) 03:21, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

Ben79487, so far I have found that on those where only a section has been tagged for a copyedit, that the whole article requires one. You got to the same answer I did. :D PopularOutcast^talk2me! 03:26, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

FWIW, if only a section is tagged that's all we have to do; that's the purpose of that tag. If getting the word count for a section is a problem, click "Edit" and then "Preview"; that'll bluelink "Page size" in the left task bar (I'm assuming that you're using User:Dr pda/prosesize.js). All the best, Miniapolis 14:46, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

@Ben79487 and PopularOutcast: The aim of blitzes and drives is to remove copy edit tags and so we should only claim the tagged section(s). (Likewise if a requester only asks for copy edit of certain sections.) You are, of course, free to copy edit the entire article, and I usually give these at least a light copy edit. – Reidgreg (talk) 00:39, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

Okay, I'll use the section word count in the totals. – Ben79487 (talk contribs) 00:42, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

Reidgreg, noted, but, unfortunately, I don't remember which article had such a tag. I think I've only done one so far like this during the drive, though it could be two. If it's okay with y'all, I am going to dock myself the average word count of the articles I have copyedited times three. I know that I can go back and find them; that just doesn't seem like a good use of time. Alternatively, I can drop out of the running for the barnstar in the total words category. Thanks! PopularOutcast^talk2me! 01:06, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

@PopularOutcast: Shaving a bit off the total wordcount is probably fair; it may not affect the overall leaderboard rankings which can be considered at the end of the month. However, it might not be a bad idea to go over your copy edits for anything you may have missed, especially with the first few. There may be some things you've since learned that you could take care of. – Reidgreg (talk) 16:16, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

Reidgreg, okay. I will do the deduction. I will also go back and look at a few since we are close to the end of the month. PopularOutcast^talk2me! 18:01, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

What exactly is roll-over of words?

Hi, can someone please explain the concept of roll-over words to me? I came across this drive only 5 days back and have joined, and now intend to participate in the next drive from the first day onward. I have grasped how to go about it, but roll-over I have not been able to figure out. Can someone please explain? Thanks in advance, regards - Vinvibes

Each editor who participates is awarded a barnstar based on how many words they copy-edit during a drive. Rollover words are those left over when you subtract the number of words required for the barnstar from the actual number of words edited. Editors can count those rollover words in the next monthly drive.

For an example, take a look at Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Backlog elimination drives/September 2018/Barnstars. Editor Jonesey95 (that's me) ended up with a grand total of 4,814 words for the drive. That earned me the Modest barnstar, which requires 4,000 words to earn. The remaining 814 words are my rollover words. Those 814 words count toward the November drive if I participate in it.

If this is your first drive, or if you did not participate in the previous drive, your rollover word count is zero. – Jonesey95 (talk) 07:24, 30 November 2018 (UTC)