Forum:Notice to Administrators

Seeing that CurrentBigThing is wanting to incite a massive deletion rally, explicitly targeting uncategorized pages on this page, I've been put on a bit of a worrisome mood. There are nearly 1,000 articles on that list, and I just went through 50 of them today. Taking a look at just the sample I took, I've decided I really need to put this up.

Finding the wide variety of articles listed in this page has made me decide that arranging them between Deletes, Keeps, and Improves fairly will not be a practical and efficient task unless the entire "CABAL," as Jasca puts it, participates in this "crusade." Only a few of the articles on that list are definite speedies in my mind. Most of them are probably candidates for the deletion page, at least by the guidelines on Forum:Deletion policy, and if we put so many articles in there in such a short time, our workload (and the community's) will quadruple at least, even with the premise of going through the entirety of the Special pages for deletion candidates. In fact, the only way the articles in the Uncategorized Pages list can be sorted through fairly and efficiently is if we had a large board of non-admins also sorting through the articles and fixing them if they are in the "Keep if improved" category.

Indeed, deleting all the articles in that list would be easier and faster, there are some pages in there that, though the authors are no longer active, are certainly worth keeping. As an inclusionist, I feel protective of these certain pages. So, I want every admin who is going to participate in this "crusade" (myself included) to ask himself/herself (if StarNeptune is going to participate, too) the following questions FOR EVERY ARTICLE ON THE UNCATEGORIZED PAGES LIST.


 * 1) How good is this article? Essentially, what is the quality (as in the variable in Forum:Deletion policy) of this article? If the article meets every standard except the categorization one in the Layout Guide, which even now is being suggested for deletion, DO NOT delete the article. Put in the necessary categories and move on.
 * 2) Was this article intended to help Star Wars Fanon? Is it good-faith? If its bad-faith, delete it no matter what. But if the author was really trying to make something good for Star Wars Fanon, hesitate a moment as you ask the next few questions.
 * 3) How much effort was put into the article? Obviously, the effort variable I introduced in that forum. If the article is long, well-written, and of substantial content, despite possible spelling errors or unprofessional appearance, the article shouldn't be deleted... yet. Put the cleanup template on (I will modify this template soon to be more convenient for anyone sweeping a large chunk of articles to search for deletion candidates) and move on. Anyone who wants to help this cause and doesn't have admin powers can check the articles for these templates and try to fix them.
 * 4) When was the article last edited? If the article hasn't been edited for a while, especially if by a relatively unknown user, then it probably won't be edited soon. So in this case, you may ignore any "improving" template. If the article is relatively complete, however, don't delete the article. If you have the mindset that when an author leaves, so do his articles, then you are telling yourself that Star Wars Fanon is all about selfish indulgence. Usually, if a user is active but the article isn't, the user either views the article as complete, or has forgot about it. Perhaps a little reminder on the author's talk page can suffice.
 * 5) When has the author last edited? If the author hasn't edited in a very long time, a message to the author's talk page concerning the article's improvement will likely be a waste of time. Otherwise, if the article is of significant substance and it seems to have fair effort put into it, notify the author if there are any additional problems to categorization, which you can do yourself.
 * 6) What is the purpose of this article? Check the "What links here" page in the toolbox on the left. This will give you a quick idea of the article's importance. If you have a short stub that provides little information, perhaps its purpose was to fill a redlink on a much better article. Maybe it played a role in a Featured Jedi's adventures or it's part of the Fauna list in a planet article that is being reviewed by the High Priests. If another article links to the page you're looking at, or several articles link to the page you're looking at, don't, I repeat, DON'T delete it. Assuming you got this far, it's a short article that you can fix quickly, with little more effort that it will take to type " ". This is the most important question you can ask in this "crusade," because the vast majority of articles on this site are supports for a larger series or a more qualified article, and those shouldn't be deleted.
 * 7) Does it have a category? As ridiculous as this question sounds, (you're on the UNCATEGORIZED pages list!) the special page only updates every so often, so the list as you see it is cached, and some thing may have changed since the last update. Make sure there isn't a category on the article before you hit the "blast" tab and type "no category."

I'd like to also use this page to gather an understanding of the quantity of users with the intent of helping CurrentBigThing get rid of the trash and me make as little trash as possible to get rid of. Say below if you think you will participate (non-admins too, can help clean up and categorize the good articles that fall short on the categorization rule). --C3PO the Dragon Slayer 6,000,000 forms of communication 22:28, 1 July 2007 (UTC)