[WikiEN-l] Lists and redlinks and link maintenance

[Carcharoth]

I recently created three lists of winners of scientific awards, partly
because it needed doing, partly to see how good our coverage is now
(and how many articles remain to be written in such fields) and partly
to take a more systematic approach to checking links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_N._Potts_Medal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Medal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin_Medal_(Franklin_Institute)

The year ranges are: 1911-1991, 1915-1997, and 1998-2008 respectively.
The lists consist of scientists across a range of fields, with 99,
114, and 80 entries respectively. The number of redlinks vs blue links
(at the time of writing) are: 51 vs 48, 3 vs 111, and 18 vs 62,
respectively.

The relatively high numbers of redlinks for the Potts Medal is due to
it being a somewhat lesser medal than the other two (which are
essentially the same medal, but the latter one arising after a
reorganisation of the awards process of the Franklin Institute,
Pennsylvania, USA). It was very encouraging to see that there were
only 3 redlinks in the Franklin medal list, but given the calibre and
stature of some of the names there, that was to be expected. 18
redlinks (from 80) on the medal covering the last ten years is not too
bad when you consider that coverage of current scientists is not
always that good.

I've summarised this on the talk pages, and also laid out there the
approach I took to checking the links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Howard_N._Potts_Medal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Franklin_Medal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Benjamin_Franklin_Medal_(Franklin_Institute)

The process is essentially this:

1) Create list from reliable source

2) Check for typos and other mistakes

3) Check all redlinks to see if a redirect can be created

4) Check all blue links for wrong links and disambiguation pages

5) Disambiguate where possible

6) Disambiguate incorrect blue links to red links where possible

7) Leave sources behind that were found while disambiguating to redlinks

8) List redlinks on talk page and check back periodically to see if
articles created

9) Create articles on the redlink list as alternative to waiting for
others to create

10) Periodically repeat search for redirects to create, and checking
that links are accurate