Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/Drafts/WikiProject report/Rudget 2008-08-11

Fact checking

I'm unconvinced any of this is correct:

The project's one hundred members means it is one of the largest North American WikiProjects on Wikipedia in terms of contributors, but it is also the project that best represents its topic of interest with 38 featured pieces, 120 'good' pieces and slightly more than 15,000 other.

There are many Projects with over 100 members, and MilHist has an impressive showcase. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 22:59, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

I just did a brief check of the other major city wikiprojects (which I assumed are to, by default, incent more members) but yet they had less. I will rewrite the lead if you wish. Rudget 10:05, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

Maybe a wikilink ... one of the largest North American WikiProjects on Wikipedia ... would help define the scope, but reviewing those Projects, I'm stil not certain Chicago is one of the largest. Good to be careful that Signpost articles are neutral and accurate.

Also unsure of this statement:

As we watch our Good Article production and Featured Content production most of the articles are by users who claim an affiliation with the project.

Since I participated in most of the FACs for these articles, I was surprised not to see any of the names of the FA writers I recognized on the Chicago membership list. I recognize that many of the FAs were tagged by the Chicago Project, but the main contributors of the FAs marked NO below are not on the Chicago membership list—that is, the majority of the FA contributors do not claim an affiliation with the project as far as I can tell:

1. 1880 Republican National Convention – NO
2. Alpha Kappa Alpha – NO
3. Ann Bannon – NO
4. Barack Obama – NO
5. Blues – NO
6. Chicago Bears – NO
7. Chicago Board of Trade Building
8. CM Punk – NO
9. Dominik Hašek – NO
10. E. Urner Goodman – NO
11. Edward Teller – NO
12. Emma Goldman – NO
13. Harold Innis – NO
14. Interstate 355 – NO
15. Jim Thorpe – NO
16. Joseph W. Tkach – NO
17. Lee Smith – NO
18. Madman Muntz – NO
19. Michael Jordan – NO
20. Moe Berg – NO
21. Nancy Reagan – NO
22. Oliver Typewriter Company – NO
23. Pioneer Zephyr – NO
24. Prairie Avenue
25. Ronald Reagan – NO
26. South Side (Chicago)
27. SS Christopher Columbus – NO
28. The Smashing Pumpkins – NO
29. Wesley Clark – NO
30. Wilco – NO

So, all considered, I'm concerned that, for a Signpost entry, this article needs to be neutral, factual, and carefully checked. It would be good if any claims made were backed up by links to the facts.

Another concern is the "Director" title: the only thing I can find in archives is here; it would be helpful to provide a link to the discussion whereby a Director was named or chosen. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 00:53, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

Another suggested correction:

Speciate who is a member of the project and Kranar drogin who by his membership at WP:ILLINOIS is essentially a member were extremely dedicated in getting articles assessed. Once we got a handle on things we started producing assessing a lot of good work as a project. We had tagged 9 FAs and 41 GAs by June 30, 2007, 22 FAs and 78 GAs by December 30, 2007, and 30 FAs and 109 GAs by June 30, 2008.

Assessing may be a better word than producing, and adding the word "tagged", as the articles were tagged and assessed by the Project, rather than written by Project members. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 05:36, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

I'll delay this by another week so all content can be thoroughly checked. Rudget 08:10, 4 August 2008 (UTC)