Wikipedia:WikiProject Mesoamerica/Cleanup

This is a subpage of WikiProject Mesoamerica. Some or all of this subpage may be transcluded on the main Project page(s). Portions of this page which are not meant to appear on the main Project page(s) should be placed between "noinclude" tags.

Links to Project Mainpages and commonly-used subpages:

WP Mesoamerica Article To-Do navigation:

• New & Requested • Stub expansion • Attention & Cleanup • Improvement • Review preparation •

This Project subpage lists the following article-related activities, as part of the current to-do worklist:

articles in need of a general cleanup (prose, wikifying, etc.)
articles with poor or lacking references/citations
articles with possible errors or dubious content
articles for merging or renaming
articles with POV/neutrality concerns
articles with copyvio concerns
articles with links needing disambiguation

If an article suffers from more than one of these deficiencies it need only be listed once, under whichever seems the most appropriate. Place new entries in the list in descending alphabetical order.

1. General cleanup - instructions

Articles such as these may (or may not) have some sort of cleanup tag affixed; generally it should be reasonably clear what needs to be addressed. If unclear you can either tag it yourself and/or note on the article's talk page what the issues are. Better still, also add them to this list as you come across them and then set about fixing them up!

2. References needed - instructions

All good articles need to explicitly state their sources, per the policy guidelines WP:CITE and others. Add to this list those you may come across that lack citations and references, those that have a number of [citation needed] flags, and those that might have references but they seem to be not particularly reliable ones. Then, to fix these, research the topic and locate some references (check the Project's tools and references subpage for some ideas), and add these in via one of the recognised referencing and footnoting styles per WP:CITE and WP:FN. Try to use a consistent style and formatting, for eg by using the citation templates such as {{cite book}} or {{cite web}}, and make sure all main points of information have some corresponding reference.

3. Fact checking - instructions

Articles that contain questionable, potentially misleading or contradictory statements can be listed here if you are not able to immediately redress the problem (eg further research is needed). You can also list here articles in need of general verification for accuracy or other specialist attention. You should also highlight your concerns on the article's talk page. To fix, research the topic and locate suitable references by which the statement can be clarified or amended.

4. Merge or rename - instructions

Articles needing merging (eg duplicate entries are found) or renaming (eg non-standard or ambiguous) may be listed here, if unable to immediately address the problem. For merge proposals, list the articles to be merged (indicating the direction of proposed merge); the {{mergefrom}} and {{mergeto}} templates should also be added to the articles themselves. On the talk page, set the {{WP Mesoamerica}} banner flag, merge=yes. For renaming, if it's a clear enough case for renaming simply move the article to the new title. If there's room for some doubt, or the move cannot be effected because the target exists with a non-trivial edit history, follow the procedures at WP:RM. These can be listed also at the Monitoring board.

5. POV concerns - instructions

Articles that appear in violation of WP:NPOV, or are otherwise unbalanced towards a particular interpretation can be listed here. As for those above, highlight your concerns on the article's talk page also. To fix follow the usual procedures to attempt to reach some sort of consensus (if disputed), calling on other project members to comment if needs be.

6. Copyvio concerns - instructions

For blatant cases, simply delete the text, following WP:COPYVIO. If copyright infringement is suspected, but perhaps the source cannot be immediately identified, note the concerns on the article's talk page. It can also be listed at WP:COPYVIO. If the entire article is a copyvio, but however the subject is a genuine one, it would be better to rewrite the text (even one or two replacement sentences would do) than have the page deleted.

7. link disambiguation - instructions

A number of articles contain links that point to disambiguation (or redirect pages) rather than the intended target article directly. Some of these dab pages will be identified by setting the dab=yes parameter on the project banner on the associated talk pages; if you encounter other dab pages that have a number of Mesoamerica-related articles listed, the project banner should also be added to these with the dab parameter set. Periodically, review these (which will appear in category:Mesoamerica disambiguation pages), and using the "what links here" facility resolve the link to its intended target article, depending on the context in which the link appears.

Once fixed, remove any cleanup tags and the article's entry on the lists below. To keep the article in the pool of current in-work articles, you can then add it to the Improvement or other appropriate listing.

To assign a particular article needing attention some degree of priority, you can also add it to the 'cleanup' section on the Project's priority Tasklist template, {{WP Mesoamerica tasklist}}. The number of such entries on this template should be kept to a handful, say around 6 to 10 maximum. Remember to update the template once you're through with fixing the article.

If the lists below begins to grow too long to appear comfortably when viewed from the Activities mainpage, additional entries can be placed under the "Holding queue" section below, awaiting action.

Specific instructions for the Mesoamerica article rating and assessment scheme:

Articles for attention and cleanup will typically have a rating of Stub-Class or Start-Class, which categorises them into Category:Stub-Class Mesoamerica articles and Category:Start-Class Mesoamerica articles, respectively. Update the rating if one has not yet been recorded by setting the {{WP Mesoamerica}} parameter, |class=Stub or |class=Start , as appropriate.
You can also set the |attention=yes parameter, which places the article into Category:Mesoamerica articles needing attention.
Once expanded/cleaned up, update the class to a new quality status as appropriate.
Set |reassess=yes if you wish to request another's opinion on the status.
Remove the |attention=yes parameter (if one was set, and the issue is now resolved).

The content of the lists below appears on the Activities mainpage.

Instructions/view all

Attention needed

Gen. cleanup

Lacking refs

Fact checking

(M)erge/(R)ename

none currently

POV concerns

Hernán Cortés several passages contain rather judgemental statements, needs overhaul
Human sacrifice in Aztec culture some POV-contentious statements need reference & balance

Copyvio concerns

none currently

Wikify

Aztec society - looks like its been cleaned up, but large chunks of text need to be wikified.

Disambig fixes

Certain disambig pages with links to Mesoamerican content need periodic review and cleanup of their 'what links here' articles. See category:Mesoamerica disambiguation pages for several of these that have been identified.

Holding queue

If the listing above becomes too long to be comfortably viewed on the Activities mainpage, any additional entries can be listed in this section, which will not appear on the Activities mainpage view. As the "active" listing is worked through, these can then be moved from the "holding" to the active list.

list here