[WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions

[Carcharoth]

On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 10:45 PM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:

<snip>

> Agreed with David G. on this point. The general sentiment to keep up
> with BLPs is ok, I think; but most of the time sources can be found
> for most bios. (And yes, I do make an occasional hobby of sourcing
> random BLPs

I do this sometimes as well, but not random ones. I pick ones I know
will have a plethora of sources. I guess that is cheating, but I don't
have the time or motivation to scrabble around for sources for some
random stubs, when I know in my heart of hearts that some articles
just aren't really suitable for Wikipedia (the question is whether to
allow others a chance, and for how long).

> it's hard work and takes at least a good hour or two
> per bio to do properly, and that's with access to a full university
> library).

To be fair, it only takes time if you allow yourself to get
distracted, and aim for relatively high standards (which you should do
for BLPs as a matter of course).

I took half an hour to do this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ronald_Urwick_Cooke&action=historysubmit&diff=340263275&oldid=306734087

Clearly, there is still more work both possible and needed.

But I could have just thrown in the "won the Gold Medal of the RGS"
statement and the accompanying reference, both to this article and to
two others I spotted:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Drewry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Holdgate

Indeed, I will now go and do just that for the other two (actually, I
will likely get distracted again - one source will lead to another,
and I will keep going until I've done the best I think I can do in a
half hour or so for each one - clearly, this amount of time is reduced
if you find yourself unable to find any suitable sources).

But the question is whether it is better to pass through all the
unsourced BLPs quickly (a "rough and ready" approach), or to take the
time to do each one to a higher standard, at the cost of taking
longer.

Ideally, someone would both set deadlines, say how much effort to
spend per BLP, work out how long it will take to clear the current
backlog, and cut off the incoming flow (or delegate a separate task
force to do rough-and-ready sourcing of newly created BLPs).

But that requires both leadership, organisation and a dedicated and
committed workforce.

Does Wikipedia have that? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
Depends on the workflow and the nature of the work.

Carcharoth