Wikipedia talk:Backlog

Question

Why is there a user page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Wastelanderone) on the backlog? (I'm an unexperienced and new user, so bear with me) Firestarforever (talk) 01:15, 11 April 2019 (UTC)

@Firestarforever: not sure, but it was manually categorized in the backlog category, so I removed the category. Thanks for pointing it out (and welcome to wikipedia)! --DannyS712 (talk) 01:22, 11 April 2019 (UTC)

Helping out from a former admin and Wikipedian in residence

Lady Wikipedia Backlog, forgive me. But I'm a bit confused. It seems there a lot of backlogs here and I will be happy to help out with them in times like tis as a show of brotherhood and communion like the early Christians showed (though if i have to work with Bradv, Zzuuzz or any of Worm's cronies -or Worm itself I may end up going WMF Trust and safety on you back) .There is always a backlog with gender gap things so i guess i can start dere. Peace and love

Kevin Gӧrmдn — Preceding unsigned comment added by 181.199.53.94 (talk) 03:15, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

Should we have extended protection?

I'm noticing a lot of IP users vandalizing this page every once in a while. Definitely have extended protection active on here in my opinion. Dylpickle2k (talk) 03:50, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

"multiple problems" template

Should we add a backlog category for articles with the 'multiple problems'tag? It might be useful for people who want to tackle heavily messed up pages. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 167.128.48.6 (talk) 17:58, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

The category is a mess

Category:Wikipedia backlog is completely useless. It is filled to the brim with things that have grown far too large to conceivably be backlogs anymore. We have Wikipedia:Maintenance for a list of maintenance tasks; backlogs should only list pages that need help at this specific moment. With the community's blessing, I would like to make a major trimming of transclusions of {{backlog}}:

• Fixable: A backlog must be something that might be closed in a reasonable amount of time. If this is not the case, the task is simply a flaw in the site's system, and an influx of attention cannot fix it.
• Urgent: A backlog must be something that needs attention, and if it doesn't get it, will cause problems. This does not mean that less "important" tasks cannot report as backlogs.

Notes

Snowmanonahoe (talk) 17:50, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

I like these criteria. Some categories can be good gnoming tasks, and others are for maintenance. But they're not urgent. But for some, there is a deadline. I also would like to say that Template:Backlog must only be allowed when there are clear instructions on how to deal with the pages in the category. More than once I've come here to clear some pages out, and there were no instructions. SWinxy (talk) 19:14, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

To get a better idea of what you're proposing, what are some examples of things that would stay and things that would go? Thebiguglyalien (talk) 21:03, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

@Thebiguglyalien:

Categories that will stay, ordered by how well I think they meet my criteria, from greatest to least:

• Anything that involves an editor making a new section on a project page or a new project page to request or propose something
  • Everything in Category:Administrative backlog
  • Everything in Category:Wikipedia requests
  • Proposal processes
    • Wikipedia:Articles for deletion
    • Wikipedia:Requested moves
  • Noticeboards that have a concept of being backlogged
    • Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations
    • Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism
• Anything that rarely reports as a backlog, which means they receive consistent, active attention
  • For obvious reasons, it's hard to provide examples of this
• Categories that meet one of the below rules, but are reasonable in size and very important
  • Category:All unreferenced BLPs

Categories that will go:

• Everything with more than 50,000 things in it, or has more than a few hundred things in it that are over a decade old
  • Category:Copy to Wikimedia Commons
  • Category:All stub articles (removed some time ago)
  • Category:Wikipedia non-free files for NFUR review
• Categories with backlog sizes orders of magnitude larger than the one on the template, or of arbitrarily high numbers that are entirely meaningless because the category doesn't have nearly enough input volume to justify them
  • Category:Pages with broken reference names
  • Category:All articles needing coordinates
  • Example of a backlog that is not an example of this, because it has a very high input volume, leading to a justifiably high backlog threshold: Wikipedia:New page patrol
• Categories that just list stuff that needs to be done to articles (this is what would remove the most categories by far. But here's the thing. No one clicks on these. There are approximately zero people on this website who open this category and decide that they are going to rewrite articles to make them less promotional. That's not what people who open this category are looking for).
  • Pretty much everything involving (inline) maintenance tags
    • Category:All articles with bare URLs for citations
    • Category:All articles lacking in-text citations
• Backlogs that represent absolutely zero harm whatsoever for their continued existence
  • Category:Stale userspace drafts
• Categories that are straight up not queues and I don't know how they were even added
  • Category:PD-Japan-oldphoto images for review—the template doesn't seem to have a way to remove the category
  • Category:Userboxes

Snowmanonahoe (talk · contribs · typos) 00:05, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

Looks good to me. Nothing jumps out at me. SWinxy (talk) 02:47, 19 May 2023 (UTC)

I often use the backlog categories to improve certain articles. It's a great place to go if you're trying to find something specific. Can you clarify what it is you're proposing? Nythar (💬-🍀) 22:30, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

The intended place to go for that is Wikipedia:Maintenance, but we have bludgeoned backlogs into meaning the exact same thing. I think backlogs should be changed to only show pages or tasks that need attention at this specific moment, and not just in general forever. Snowmanonahoe (talk · contribs · typos) 00:10, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

@Snowmanonahoe, I believe Category:All articles with bare URLs for citations is in fact an urgent backlog, given that links can become dead at any time, making it tricky to verify information (filling out a bare URL helps with rescuing dead links). WP:Verifability is one of the core policies of Wikipedia. — Qwerfjkltalk 11:57, 20 May 2023 (UTC)

I think there is a reasonable argument that the distinction between a backlog and a maintenance task is in fact nil if we now treat them the same.

I'd be fine with a "high priority backlog" category system of some sort, since that's what you actually seem to be seeking. I am not sure making "backlog" mean "high priority" is a plain text reading of the word "backlog" to the people who will no doubt come along in a decade and levy such a criticism. ;) Izno (talk) 22:33, 23 May 2023 (UTC)

Yes, I've been since wondering whether that's a better idea. Snowmanonahoe (talk · contribs · typos) 22:45, 23 May 2023 (UTC)

 Partly done by adding deltas. Signifying if a backlog is increasing or decreasing helps editors to gauge activity. CactiStaccingCrane (talk) 11:22, 13 January 2024 (UTC)