Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Reviewing FAQs

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These FAQs are designed to help new members of the Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Review Team, and people interested in joining. They are mostly based on real questions, and should give a suitable introduction for those who are new to the article reviewing and selection process.

I'd like to join the review team. Does someone have to approve me, or vote me in?

No, we're just glad to have your help!

I'm ready to help and take part in this wonderful project. What is your opinion about my joining, and how will I start this work - where can I help?

Thanks for considering signing on for the review team! As you guessed, right now the main work that needs to be done is to review articles carefully so we can get a good number of important, quality articles on the next release version. Please take a look at the to do list, and see what interests you. Much of the future selection work will be done by WikiProjects (with data compiled by bot), but we also have a general nominations page and set nominations page to the community; this helps ensure that all subject areas are covered. We'd really appreciate your help in clearing the backlog. I notice you list AAA and BBB as interests, and there are plenty of articles in those areas that need reviewing!

I've heard that there may be a bot choosing articles. Doesn't that make the review team redundant?

Not at all. MartinBotII will probably be our main source of articles for the next release. It will be a great asset, but many articles will still fall through the cracks unless we have humans to review things. Also, during this critical test period we need lots of guidance to ensure the bot does its job well.

How many articles will be published on the next release?

It's hard to say at this early stage, a lot depends on the supply of good reviewers and nice articles, as well as on MartinBotII. Version 0.5 was 2000 articles, the publisher would like Version 0.7 to include around 10,000 to 50,000 articles.

Who will make the last decisions about articles?

For Version 0.5, if a valid reviewer passed it, it went onto the CD. We run cleanup scripts to look for (& remove) inappropriate bad language, but no articles were removed from the Version 0.5 selection. Version 0.7 should be the same.

What is the process of reviewing and passing/failing an article?

Please see the right hand side of the nominations page, which describes this in detail. If you pass an article, please be sure (a) to change the "nomination" template to an "included in Version X" template, and (b) include a category, assessment and (ideally) importance for the article (see {{WP1.0}} for details). If you think an article is good but a little too obscure, add it to the held nominations page for discussion.

How do I know whether or not to pass an article?

Review the criteria, and also the assessment scheme. Generally speaking, unless the article is particularly important (or needed to complete a set) an article needs to be B-Class or better. Some articles may seem borderline (especially when you are just starting out), in which case you should ask another reviewer for a second opinion. Please ask if you need more guidance.

It's really hard to judge whether something is important enough to be in the release. Can you provide any guidelines and/or examples?

That's very true - is a certain American baseball player more important than a particular Chinese city? Yes, we're putting together some thorough guidelines at Wikipedia:Release Version/Scope which should help, though the page is still incomplete.

Can you tell me more about the 1.0 project in general?

Please take a look at the main project page and the Wikipedia:Version_1.0_Editorial_Team/FAQs.

Thanks for your help!