Learning patterns/How to prepare and plan for Online Edit-a-thons

Thematic edit-a-thons are always helpful in increacing the content and improving the quality of articles for a particular theme.Often it's really difficult to track the edit-a-thon activity, like how many articles were added, how many bytes were added by an individual participant. Earlier, I used to track this manually, but recently in the Women's History Month edit-a-thon, I took help from a Malayalam Wikipedian and friend Ranjith who helped me in tracking the details of the edit-a-thon. This process is one of the best practice in the Malayalam community, and User Viswa also used this during the Punjab Edit-a-thon for the Wiki Conference India 2016. This learning pattern is documented from the Facebook and hangout conversation of mine and Ranjith and also I have added some tools in the learning pattern, which I learned during the Wikimania 2017.

A learning pattern foreditathons
How to prepare and plan for Online Edit-a-thons
problemWhile organizing an online Editathon, often it is difficult to track the numbers of articles created, articles created by number of participants, the total number of bytes added and many other problems.
solutionTools, templates and SQL can be used in finding the solutions for the solutions and keeping the track of the online Editathon.
creatorSaileshpat
endorse
created on13:20, 14 April 2017 (UTC)
status:DRAFT

What problem does this solve?

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In an online edit-a-thon, It is difficult to track the numbers of articles created, articles created by the number of participants, the total number of bytes added and many other problems.

What is the solution?

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A single step solution for getting information with the help of WMFlab tools and templates. This learning takes you through the tools and queries made by WMF staffs and community members, which will help in organising the Edit-a-thons very smoothly.

Things to consider

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Things to take care before the Edit-a-thon:

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Step-1
Initiate the discussion for the Edit-a-thon in your Wikipedia's village pump or community portal, You can search WP:VP.
Step-2
Create an event page, WP:<Place the Name here> Edit-a-thon'
Step-3
Make rules for the edit-a-thon, for example article with x number of bytes,images and references will be considered as an article of the edit-a-thon.
Step-4: Share the event page on village pump, mailing list, Facebook groups, Massmessage to active users, to get more participant on-board.
Step-5
Create a category for article improved or created in <Place the Name here> Edit-a-thon, Like Category:Year-Articles Created or Improved in <Place the Name here> Edit-a-thon.
Step-6
Place this source code to display the number of articles created in the <Place the Name here> Edit-a-thon

<center>
<div style="font-size: 25px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-weight: bold; border: 1px solid rgb(136, 136, 136); box-shadow: 2px 1px 4px rgb(136, 136, 136); border-radius: 4px; width: 395px; height: 110px; padding: 0px 40px; margin: 10px 0px;">
Total 
<span style="font-size:60px;">
{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Year-Articles Created or Improved in <Place the Name here> Edit-a-thon}}
</span>
Articles
<br/>
</div></center>

Step-7
Create a template to list all the articles to the edit a thon, to be used in the talkpage of the articles, to know whether the article is created or improved in the edit-a-thon. Source code below :

{{imbox
|type=notice
|textstyle="border: 1px solid #fceb92; background-color: #fdffe7; padding: 10px;"

|image={{#switch:{{{year}}}
|2013=[[File:Woman with sitar, Crafts Museum, New Delhi, India.jpg|100px]]
|2014=[[പ്രമാണം:Raja Ravi Varma, The Maharashtrian Lady.jpg|100px]]
|2015=[[File:Laxmibai's statue in Solapur.JPG|100px]]
|2016=[[File:8womenday.jpg|100px]]
|2017= <!-- Next Year Image -->
|}}

|text={{#if:{{{year|}}}
|THIS ARTICLE [[WP:WHMIN-{{{year}}}|{{{year}}}- NAME OF EDITATHON]]  PART {{#if:{{{expanded|}}}|EXPANDED|CREATED}}.|THIS ARTICLE [[WP:WHMIN2017-|NAMEOF EDIT A THON]] PART {{#if:{{{expanded|}}}|EXPANDED|CREATED}}. <includeonly>(THEN THE YEAR CODE NOT ADDED. FOR MORE DETAILS [[TEMPLATE:WHMIN/DESCRIPTION|DESCRIPTION OF TEMPLATE]] VIEW.)</includeonly> }} }}

<noinclude>{{doc}}</noinclude><includeonly>{{#if:{{{expanded|}}}|[[Category:{{{year}}}- ARTICLES PART OF WHMIN EDT A THON]]|[[Cateogry:{{{year}}}- ARTICLES PART OF WHMIN EDT A THON]]}}</includeonly>
<noinclude>
<templatedata>
{
	"params": {
		"year": {
			"label": "വർഷം",
			"description": "YEAR 4 Digits",
			"example": "{{CURRENTYEAR}}",
			"type": "number",
			"default": "2016",
			"autovalue": "{{CURRENTYEAR}}",
			"required": true,
			"suggested": true
		},
		"expanded": {
			"label": "Is the article Expanded ? ",
			"description": "If article expanded then put, yes. For new article nothing will be added.",
			"type": "boolean",
			"default": "yes",
			"autovalue": "",
			"suggested": true
		}
	},
	"description": "This template is used for womans day edit a thon every year. Must add year YYYY to this template. (Example: 2017 as year).\nand, for expanded articles put expanded = yes .",
	"format": "inline"
}
</templatedata>
</noinclude>

Step-8
Provide links for Resources to be used in the Edit-a-thon

During the Edit-a-thon

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Step-1-a
Create an event page on Outreach Dashboard, Ask participants to sign-up on the event page at Outreach Dashboard, which helps in following-up the activity.
Step-1-b
Create a hashtag for the edit-a-thon (For example: #1lib1ref, #100wikidays), track the hashtag at hashtag tool.
Step 1-c
Use Wikimedia Quarry to track the activity of the event.
Step-2-a
To use Outreach dashboard, follow the following steps.
Step-2-b
Track the hashtag and the activities at hashtag tool.
Step-2-c
To use the Wikimedia Quarry, Create a template to be used in the talkpage of the article, to know whether the article is created or Improved.

Source Code below:

{{Your editathon name |year= 2017|created=yes}}
  • Use the query forked by User:Ranjithsijhi on Quarry to track your activity. Change the category name to the category name of your event.
  • Then put a # on USE mlwiki_p; and remove the # from your wiki for example orwiki_p.
  • Run the query, the data will be executed within 1-2 Minutes.
  • Import the data into Google sheets.
  • Add add-on like Wikitable to transfer the data in the format of Wikitable.
Step-3
Encourage Wikimedians to take part in the edit-a-thon, Thank them for their first article, Make special mentions etc.
Step-4
Run the query and add an update section in the event page, to update Wikimedians about the activity of the event.

Source code from UNESCO Challenge:

{| {{#ifeq:{{PAGENAME}}|Edit-a-thon Name/Log||width="300px"}} align=right cellspacing=2 cellpadding=2 
| bgcolor=#E0EEE0 align=left| <big>Contest log</big> [http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Event name/Log&action=edit Edit]
|}

Post Edit-a-thon

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Step-1
Update the community members with the statistics of the activity.
Step-2
Take help from Quarry and make a statistics section on the event page (Process Explained in During the event steps)
Step-3
Share in a press release, contact Wikimedia Blog team to update the activity in the Community digest blog.
Step-4
Thank community members for participating in the edit-a-thon.
Step-5
Create a learning pattern on challenges you faced and how you overcame those challenges or success during the edit-a-thon.

When to use

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  • During Online Edit-a-thons.

Endorsements

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See also

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References

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