Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Academy/Setting up drives

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and while the basics of editing Wikipedia have not changed the size of Wikipedia has. As days go by more and more articles are added to the site, and with this, there has been an increased demand for contributors to assist with the site's back room administration and organization by tagging articles for respective projects, and updating their assessment ratings, and ensuring that they remain compliant with all of our policies and guidelines. These demands can be a major turn off for our editors. Moreover, as projects, task forces, and working groups grow the constant demands placed on our internal process increase.

Most of our members – indeed, most of Wikipedia's anonymous and registered users – are principally interested in article content. They come here not to tag, or assess, or aid with internal processes; instead, they come to add the content to the project that we need to ensure that we grow as a project. Additionally, many users are under the impression that all administrative or organizational tasks like tagging, assessing, and aiding with internal processes are the responsibility of the Military history Project coordinators. This is true only to a point. The project's coordinators represent a small number of our members and are simply unable to handle absolutely everything related to this particular aspect of our project, and many are also rightfully keen to work on content themselves. Nevertheless, the administrative and organizational aspects remain important to maintaining our infrastructure, and if left unaddressed slowly diminish the health of the project. This is rather like a space station over Earth whose orbit slowly but steadily declines due to drag until it crashes back to Earth.

To solve the problem of backlogs or to inspire our contributors to collaborate to improve certain, potentially neglected areas of the project, we at Milhist occasionally hold major contributor-driven events called drives. The thrust of each individual drive varies, but the general focus of a drive is to motivate the project's members to focus on a particular aspect to through editorial weight behind a small aspect of the project to help resolve an issue, or keep a backlog in check. Drives can be administrative or organizational in nature, or sometimes even focused on content, or both.

The following essay will serve as a walk through touching on all aspects of a drive. It will look at various aspects including establishing the drive, setting it up and then maintaining and closing it.

Birth of a drive

A drive is a major event. It aims to brings the entirety of the project to focus on a particular event that is considered to be of high enough importance to involve everyone, and as such drives within our project are few and far between (they are generally run annually, or sometimes twice a year). When they do occur we make a big to do out of them, offering several awards for participation and a mention in The Bugle, our in house newsletter. If the drive is big enough, you could also get a mention in The Signpost, Wikipedia's newsletter. The Signpost reaches many more people than our in house letter does, and can be a source of great pride for those who receive a mention.

If the problem or issue at hand is relatively minor, or could be solved locally (by a dedicated, but small group of contributors) then it is unlikely to require a drive to address the issue at hand. Since most of the major issues can be addressed in this manner there is rarely an immediate need to hold a drive.

On the other hand, if you determine that more than a few good contributors will be needed to solve a particular issue then you may have a need for a drive, and if you have what you believe is a good reason for Milhist to hold a drive then your next move should be to take your proposal to the coordinators of the project. Leave a message on their talk page concerning the reason for the drive, and outline the general idea of the drive (ie: clear out a backlog, gain needed content, etc). From here, the coordinators will weigh the matter, considering the pros and cons of the idea, and get back to you on the drive idea. If they turn down the drive idea do not be discouraged, it may be that at present other concerns prohibit a drive, or that a drive at the moment is simply not feasible with other project goings on.

Setting up the drive

When drives do occur their success depends upon involving as many project members as possibly. For this reason you should consider the need for a drive carefully and design it in a manner that appeals broadly, allowing as many editors as possible to get involved. When planning a drive proposal it is suggested that following be considered:

Whats true of military planning is true of drive planning: it works best when everyone has sufficient lead in time to prepare for the task at hand. Admittedly, some of history's greatest moments were times when one force launched a surprise attack against the other, but in the case of Wikipedia's various editing, tagging, and assessing drives launching one unexpectedly or with little-to-no warning is generally a bad idea since folks are unlikely to participate en mass. Therefore, its best if you plan ahead and get the word out well in advance so that everyone knows what's going to happen and how they can contribute.

• Lead in time: Throwing a drive together takes more than a few minutes of discussion. To adequately get the word out and to allow time for the coordinators or other drive organizers to adequately collect the information needed to set up the drive requires that the proposal be floated weeks in advance of when the drive should run - ideally, there should be about 6-8 weeks of lead in time to allow for the lists to be established, cross project notifications to be sent, and to adequately prime the contributor base so that they are aware of the drive and its stated goals. We have occasionally had some success with "shotgun" style drives that come up unexpectedly, but for maximum participation and the best chance for cross project coordination you should begin laying the ground work for your proposed drive about two months ahead of when you want it to run so that everything can be assembled in well in advance of the intended start.
• A timeline: Drives can not go on forever, so we need a start and finish date. These dates do not have to be 100% specific during initial planning, we just need a rough idea of the start and end dates so we can think about the drive in that context. The beginning of one month and the end of another month are the most commonly offered start and end dates for a drive.
• Participation: Although a drive will aim to bring the entire project to bare on a particular problem a drive never brings absolutely everyone in to assist on the problem at hand. The reasons for this are various. Some members prefer to work on their own areas of interest, which is fine. Participation is always voluntary. Some may be unsure of their ability to do what is asked of them during a drive and as such prefer to stay away from the drive so as not to be chewed out for making a mistake. Some members may have prior commitments on or offline and therefore may be unable to participate on this account. In some cases members may simply find the drive a waste of time and/or resources and thus refrain from participating for this reason. For whatever reason they decide not to participate you should take this into account when planning the drive. Expect only a percentage to participate in a drive and set your goals accordingly.
• Focus: The design of the contest, or its focus, is key to getting editors involved. As mentioned above, a contest that includes many different tasks will likely appeal to more editors and therefore potentially get more people involved. It can, however, mean that concentration of force is not achieved, which can result in some of the more mundane tasks not being completed fully, or at all. This is a judgement call.
• Goals: intrinsically linked to the focus, the goals of the drive may be articulated in a number of ways. For instance, it might be a simple numerical value, e.g. to reduce a backlogged category from X number to Y number or by X percent, for instance, or to create X number new articles. Or, it may be articulated in a less tangible way, e.g. "to improve the project's coverage of X topic". It is important to be aware, though, that some numerical expressions are transient and may not accurately indicate whether or not a drive has been successful. For instance, where the goal is to reduce a backlog category, it should be remembered that over time the category will once again become populated, potentially leaving it to appear as if nothing was achieved during the drive. In this regard, if a numerical expression is sought then a more positive expression is probably best, e.g. "to create X new articles" or to "tag X number of articles"; ultimately, though, the less tangible approach is potentially best.
• Awards: A major aspect of a drive is the awards given to those who participate. As there is rarely funding available for physical prizes unless a Wikimedia grant can be obtained, a drive usually involves virtual awards, including something different awards tied to points or levels of participation plus awards for the top three scoring contributors in the drive; in the case of the latter, traditionally the top three are awarded the bronze, silver, and gold wikis respectively. Pick awards to present with your proposal, and if at all possible try to choose awards that relate to the material being covered (ie: guidance barnstars and motivational barnstars for self help work, editor and tireless contributor barnstars for content work, and so forth). Examples of relevant awards, and templates, can be found here: Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Awards.

If your drive proposal is accepted the coordinators will set up a dedicated page for the project, including the thrust of the drive and its intended goal, the timeline, and the awards. Past examples of such pages can be found here: Category:WikiProject Military history backlog reduction drives, and these may serve as a useful guide to the infrastructure required. The coordinators will also work to advertise the drive and invite anyone interested to participate. This will usually entail mentioning the event on the main project talk page, as well as in The Bugle. Potentially a mass message should also be sent out by one of the project's administrators or someone with that user right.

During the drive

Once the pages are set up they will remain active and open until the end of the drive. The pages will track the overall progress of those participating, including the preference of the user in question on the matter of his or her awards – some of our members like to receive awards as they earn them, others prefer to obtain their awards at the end of the drive.

As a matter of both efficiency and oversight the coordinators will usually appoint one or more co-ordinators to undertake the task of answering questions, verifying the claims of the contestants and awarding the barnstars to those who participated. The overall progress of the drive should also be monitored in relation to the stated goals throughout the drive, and the drive page maintained (including listings of participants and their worklists).

After the drive

At the end of the drive the coordinators will hand out the remaining awards, including for first, second and third place, and will handle the process of archiving the pages created for the drive effort and promulgating the results. The closure of the drive should be officially noted on the drive page, and on the main project page, and congratulations issued to those who participated in the drive and those who took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. The results of the drive, including award recipients, and whether or not the stated goals were met should be published in The Bugle after the drive.