Wikipedia:Maintenance

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:Wiki-week

Resources for maintenance and collaboration edit
Cleanup General - By topic - Move to Wiktionary - Wiki syntax - English grammar - Spam - Cleanup Taskforce - Wikify an article
Categories Orphaned - General cleanup - Articles to be categorized - Underpopulated - More...
Create an article Most wanted - Requests 1 year+ - Requested articles - Blank pages - Missing encyclopedic topics
Stubs Advice - Stubs by topic - Most wanted - Short pages - Incomplete lists - Collaboration of the week
Disambig Articles to merge - Articles to split
Deletion Speedy - Articles - Categories - Redirects - Templates - Misc. pages - Jokes - Log - Discussion archives - Review
Polishing Expand an article - Peer review - Featured candidates - Fill a topic list - This week's improvement drive
Translation into English From foreign Wikipedias - Existing pages - Spanish Translation of the Week - Interwiki link checker
Images Requested pictures - Pictures needing attention - Images for cleanup - Image recreation requests - Caption review - Images with missing articles
Controversy Neutrality - Article accuracy - Statement accuracy - Copyright violations
To-do lists Articles - Projects - Books
More Cleaning department - Active Wiki Fixup Projects - Open tasks - Requests - Backlogs


As well as editing, many people at Wikipedia are involved in maintenance tasks. Most of these tasks can be done by any user, not just administrators. Maintenance work is a vital part of keeping Wikipedia running optimally. Be careful to avoid creating more maintenance work through instruction creep. Organise when you can, but always keep the big picture in sight: we're here to create an encyclopedia.

Contents

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Collaborative cleanup projects

These are groups of people that get together to try to fix certain aspects of Wikipedia. Join them!

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Things to watch

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Reports

Special pages (edit)
SpecialPage Other versions
Short pages Short pages (mythology)
Blank pages
DoubleRedirects Double redirects
Uncategorized Category needed
Uncategorized categories Orphaned categories
Long pages Long pages
Wanted pages Most wanted articles
Lonely pages Orphaned articles
Dead-end pages Dead-end pages
Dormant pages n/a
New pages n/a
Cross-namespace links n/a
Broken redirects n/a
Categories Categories-Alpha (~700k!)
See also: Maintenance Reports, Collaboration

Template:Active Wiki Fixup Projects Special pages are updated either automatically or on request by the developers.

Offline reports are generated periodically from an offline copy of the Wikipedia database. These reports are always a bit out of date and should not be considered authoritative, but may provide useful guidance as to which articles may benefit from attention in particular areas. They need people with enough hard drive space and expertise to update them occasionally. Regular editors are also needed to prune already-fixed listings.

Currently updated reports are listed on Template:Active Wiki Fixup Projects (displayed to the right) and are most in need of editors to fix individual pages that are listed on them.

Page Last known update
Short-term
Wikipedia:Duplicated sections 26 Jun 2005
Most wanted
Wikipedia:Most wanted articles 13 Dec 2005
Wikipedia:Most wanted stubs 13 Dec 2005
Wikipedia:Most referenced articles 29 Oct 2005
Wikipedia:Most visited articles 08 Oct 2005 (from 23 June stats)
Content problems
Wikipedia:Shortpages 09 Sep 2005
Wikipedia:List of blank pages 13 Dec 2005
Categories
Category:Orphaned categories 23 Jun 2005
Category:Wikipedia categories in need of attention 23 Jun 2005
Article classification
Wikipedia:Offline reports/Should this be a stub? 23 Oct 2004
Wikipedia:Offline reports/Is this really a stub? 20 Aug 2004
Wikipedia:Offline reports/Is this really a disambiguation page? 23 Oct 2004
Outgoing wikilinks
Wikipedia:Bad links 13 Dec 2005
Wikipedia:Templates with red links 09 Sep 2005
Wikipedia:Dead external links 09 Sep 2005 (not yet posted as wikitext)
Wikipedia:Non-local images 08 Feb 2006
Wikipedia:WikiProject Red Link Recovery 23 Jun 2005 (completed)
Wikipedia:Offline reports/This article has a lot of links 23 Oct 2004
Wikipedia:Offline reports/This page has a lot of red links 23 Oct 2004
Wikipedia:Offline reports/This page links many times to the same article 23 Oct 2004
Wikipedia:Offline reports/This article links to a redirect back to itself 14 Aug 2004
Incoming wikilinks
Wikipedia:Most referenced articles 29 Oct 2005
Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links 20 Oct 2005
Wikipedia:Offline reports/This is one of the most linked to redirect pages 23 Oct 2004
Wikipedia:Orphaned Articles 26 Jun 2004
User:R3m0t/Reports - Orphan talk pages Sept 2005
Misc.
Wikipedia:Subpages to be moved 23 May 2003
Wikipedia:Neglected articles 13 Nov 2005

More:

May no longer be necessary:

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Link Analysis Database

A Link Analysis Database is created by running a set of scripts on a MySQL database into which a Wikipedia database dump has been loaded. It can be used to generate among others the reports dealing with articles and links to and from them below. Instructions on how to construct a Link Analysis Database can be found here.

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Deletion

Deletion Tools Template:Edi
Articles (howto/[[[Template:Fullurl:Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Log/2025 June 11]] log])
Template:Tlsp Template:Tl
Templates (howto/[[[Template:Fullurl:Wikipedia:Templates for deletion/Log/2025 June 11]] log])
Template:Tlx
Template:Tlsp
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Images ([[[Template:Fullurl:Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion/2025 June 11]] log])
Template:Tlsp
Categories (howto/[[[Template:Fullurl:Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2025 June 11]] log])
Template:Tl Template:Tlx Template:Tlx
Template:Tlx Template:Tlx
Template:Tlx Template:Tlx
Template:Tlx
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Redirects (howto/[[[Template:Fullurl:Wikipedia:Redirects for deletion]] log])
Template:Tl
Stub types
Template:Tl Template:Tl Template:Tl
Miscellaneous ([[[Template:Fullurl:Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion]] log])
Template:Tl
Copyvios (howto/Template:Fullurl:Wikipedia:Copyright problems/2025 June 11 log)
Template:Tl
Deletion review
Mergers
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Page moves
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Speedy
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Unfree images
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Interwiki moves
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Deletion policy/log

Non-admins can help keep deletion pages clean by resolving discussions. Administrators are needed to actually delete pages. Anyone can nominate pages for deletion. See:

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Possible copyright violations

Wikipedia:Copyright problems lists articles which will be deleted if it can not be proven that we have permission to use them under the terms of the GFDL. For pages listed there, you could replace the infringing article's text with new (re-written) content of your own. This must be done on a temp page, so that the original "copyvio version" may be deleted by a sysop. Temp versions should be written at a page like: [[Talk:PAGE NAME/temp]]. If the original turns out not to be a copyvio, these two can be merged. Alternatively, you can write to the copyright owner and check whether they gave permission. You can also ask for permission using the boilerplate request for permission. If someone claims to have permission, but this has not been verified, you can send the confirmation of permission letter to check. If images have been listed, you may want to consider whether these constitute fair use and write the appropriate disclaimers on the image description page. See Wikipedia:Image description page#Fair use rationale for guidance on this.

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Maintaining portals

See Wikipedia:Portal for a list of existing portals and associated projects and maintainers.

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Foreign language pages

For pages listed on Wikipedia:Pages needing translation into English, the Wikipedia:Embassy member of the Wikipedia that relates to the language the article is in should be contacted and invited to move the page to their own Wikipedia or to help translate it. There is also a list of translators at Wikipedia:translation. If you don't know what language the article is in you could use Language recognition chart and if that fails some language recognition web site to find out. If a page remains untranslated after two weeks, or if someone who speaks the language it is written in states that it is not worth translating, then article should be moved from pages needing translation to articles for deletion. The boilerplate text on the article should be changed from {{notenglish}} to {{subst:afd}}.

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Welcoming newcomers

Welcome people using one of the standard user greetings or make up your own. Use {{Opentask}} to leave an automatically updated task list on a new user's page. New users can be found by looking for red talk page links on recent changes or by querying the database. Efforts to co-ordinate the activities of welcomers are being made at Wikipedia:Welcoming committee. The {{Opentask}} message gives newcomers some ideas of articles to work on. The tasks listed in this template can be changed at Template:Opentask.

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Main page

The Main Page needs regular updating. Only sysops can edit the page itself. See Wikipedia:Editing the main page for links to the relevant templates and further guidance.

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Protected pages

Though a log is kept of protected pages, they should still be listed at Wikipedia:protected page as well, as described in the Wikipedia:protection policy. Sometimes people forget to list them, so you can check the protection log to make sure there aren't any pages listed there as being protected that are not mentioned on Wikipedia:protected page. Any missing ones can be added to the temporarily protected pages section.

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Vandalism

Anyone can revert vandalism. See Wikipedia:revert for instructions. If you see any recurrent vandalism, you can list it at Wikipedia:vandalism in progress. You can also check other listings on that page and follow them up by seeing if the users listed there have made any further vandalism since the listing. Do this typing the url http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/ followed by the username. Unreverted edits will still have (top) next to them. Sysops may choose to block recurrent vandals, following a warning on the user's talk page using Special:Blockip, or for unlogged-in users clicking the block link next to their IP on recent changes.

The pages linked to from the main page often see the most vandalism, so checking those pages via the links on Editing the Main Page can be a good place to look if you feel like vandal spotting.

See also: Wikipedia:How to spot vandalism

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Current events

Not maintenance as such, but Current events is a page that needs to be updated daily. Please read Wikipedia:How the Current events page works before working on this.

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Request and maintenance queues

Template:Opentasks

For each queue listed below, editors are needed to:

  • Rotate individual articles and projects onto Template:Opentasks (shown above) as they are fixed or become stale.
  • Publicize neglected lists or consolidate them with active pages
  • Remove articles from the listings as they are fixed.
  • Actually fix the individual articles that are listed.

Instructions are given on each page.


</table>
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Disputes

There are many pages in Category:Wikipedia dispute resolution which could use help in resolving various kinds of disputes. Some disputes are easy to resolve - someone needs to propose or implement a compromise (check out the appropriate talk page), or the dispute is over and someone just needs to declare the problem solved. Many disputes between parties can be resolved after uninvolved strangers wander in, read the article in question and the debate so far, and just give common-sense opinions. In rare cases, delicate negotiating skills are needed to bring warring parties to a satisfactory agreement, or administrative powers are needed to bad vandals or uncooperative editors.

The main page to list disputes is Wikipedia:Requests for comment. This is a static listing, and your help is needed to remove old requests, in addition to commenting on current requests.

There are lists of articles in dispute in:

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Initial categorization efforts

See also: Wikipedia:Categorization projects (current)

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Images with missing articles

Several pages on the web offer their public domain images in a long list. To avoid checking these lists again and again for matching Wikipedia articles, Wikipedia:Images with missing articles has a list of specific images with missing articles. If you see that one of these articles exists, please add the image from the external link, and remove it from the list.

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Discussions

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Village pump

The village pump is not a place for lasting discussions, so anything older than 7 days from the date of the last comment are moved to an archive page below each of the Village pump's sections. These discussions will be kept in that archive for 7 more days. During this period (or before) the discussion can be moved to a relevant talk page in the article, Wikipedia or template namespace or to the user talk page of the user who started the discussion. For example, if a question about copyright was asked, and this is likely to be asked again, move the question to Wikipedia talk:copyrights. It may also be summarised, or refactored, if appropriate. If discussions are moved elsewhere, the links to where they have moved to should remain in the summarised section until the village pump is next cleaned.

After 7 days in the archive, the discussion will be permanently removed, although it will still be available from the history.

Often people ask things on the village pump that should have been asked at the Wikipedia:Reference desk. These should be moved. Leave behind a link in the same location the question was such as

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Surveys

There is a list of current surveys that needs to be maintained by adding any current polls, moving closed polls to the closed polls section, and updating the results of polls once they are closed.

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Talk pages

Talk pages are useful. 50,000 words on the topic might not be. Many articles have excessive numbers of talk page archives. While these provide an interesting history to the development of the article, they are next to useless for someone new to the article wanting to know what the past discussion was about. New Imperialism, for example, currently has 15 archives. It would be far more useful to have a summary of these that would be readable by a newcomer. See the archives of the VfD talk page for examples of how the previous discussion was summarised. An alternative to summarising the discussion is to split the archives by topic rather than purely chronologically. Look at User talk:Daniel C. Boyer/undelete and Talk:AKFD for examples of this. Wikipedia:Refactoring explains other alternatives to just archiving a talk page. See also how to archive a talk page

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Featured articles

Wikipedia:Featured article candidates - Wikipedia:Featured pictures candidates

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Peer review

Wikipedia:Peer review is designed to solicit comments on articles that have gotten major work by a single author, or which are going to be submitted to Wikipedia:Featured article candidates. Articles that don't successfully become featured are often referred back to this step.

Editors are needed to:

  • Comment on articles listed
  • Remove old requests (instructions are on the page itself)
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Nomination

  1. If you find a really good article (or picture), and you think the wikipedia community should know about it, nominate it on the appropriate page.
  2. List it under its own subheading under Current nominations without objections.
  3. Write a short summary of why you think the page should be featured. Be sure to sign and time stamp your nomination.
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Reviewing nominations

  1. Read the articles (look at the pictures) that have been nominated.
  2. If you like a nominee and think it should be included in Wikipedia:Featured articles or Wikipedia:Featured pictures, voice your support on the candidates page (Each article needs two supports to be featured). Be sure to sign and date your statement.
  3. If, however, you feel the article could be improved before being listed on featured articles or brilliant pictures, object and give a reason for the objection.
    1. If you are the first to object, move the nomination to Nominations with objections.
  4. The nominator, page contributors, or others will then address your objections, either by stating why your objection is invalid (rare), or by editing the article to address your concerns (much more common).
  5. Review the article again, and either better explain why you object, or withdraw your objection if you feel the page is now up to snuff.
    1. If yours was the only outstanding objection, move the article back to the without objections section.
  6. This process will continue until a consensus is reached.
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Articles to be added

Observe the following procedure when adding to Featured articles or Pictures.

  1. If a week has gone by after the last objection was withdrawn, or a week after the nomination was listed, and the article has received two or more seconds, or voices of support, move the discussion to the section Recently added to Featured articles and add a line that states Added by ~~~~, so we know when and by whom a page was added to FA.
  2. Add the article to the list at Featured articles or pictures
  3. Remove the optional nomination boilerplate from the article, if the nominator chose to use it.
  4. Copy the discussion and paste it into the talk page for the article, and add the {{featured}} tag to the top of the talk page.
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Archival of unaccepted nominations

Discussion about a proposed article that has been objected to for more than a month, or a nomination that fails to receive enough seconds for a month may be removed from the page by following this procedure.

  1. Copy the discussion and paste it in the article's talk page and in Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Archived nominations.
  2. Delete it from the nomination page.
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Was brilliant, but isn't anymore

If you find an article on one of the featured lists that no longer is a good example to be emulated:

  1. If you are a sysop, remove it from the list and make an entry in the Recently removed articles, and reason for removal section of the candidates page explaining why it was removed; or if you are not a sysop, list it on the talk page, with your objections and a sysop will continue the process.
  2. Treat such articles as new nominations with built in objections; i.e. if the problem is fixed and no one objects for a week, add it back to the list. If a month goes by and the objection is not addressed, or a general consensus to put the article back is not reached, move the discussion to the archive and the article's talk page and delete the listing.
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Archive

Every so often, when the page gets too big, some of the discussions on articles that were added to the Featured pages can be moved to Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Featured log and be deleted from the candidates page.

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See also

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Category Description Relevant page Wikipedia custom message
Ancient pages Ancient pages Special:Ancientpages  
Cleanup Articles to cleanup Wikipedia:Cleanup  
Controversial issues Articles that need watching for bias Wikipedia:List of controversial issues {{Controversial}}
Copyright infringement Articles with possible copyright infringements Wikipedia:Copyright problems {{copyvio|url=<place URL of allegedly copied material here>}}
Deletion Articles that should be deleted Wikipedia:Articles for deletion {{subst:vfd}} (not just {{vfd}}; see the instructions at the bottom of the AfD page)
Disputed accuracy Articles of Accuracy dispute Wikipedia:Accuracy dispute {{Disputed}}
Disputed neutrality Articles of NPOV dispute Wikipedia:NPOV dispute {{NPOV}}
{{disputed}}
Duplicated articles Articles on the same subject which need to be merged Wikipedia:Duplicate articles  
Foreign language Articles not in English Wikipedia:Pages needing translation {{notenglish}}
New pages Newly created articles Special:Newpages  
Open tasks Wikipedia's open tasks Template:Opentask {{opentask}}
Pages needing attention Articles that have good information, but need work for some reason Wikipedia:Pages needing attention  
Requested images Pages that need images Wikipedia:Requested images  
Requested peer review Articles that need peer editing Wikipedia:Peer review  
Stubs Stub articles Wikipedia:Find or fix a stub See Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting for a list of subject-specific stub templates.
Too short Subjects that deserve a longer article Wikipedia:Requests for expansion  
Too long Articles which strain browsers Category:Articles that are way too long  
Subpages Subpages that should be renamed to follow the do not use subpages convention Wikipedia:Subpages to be moved  
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