[WikiEN-l] Massive AfC backlog

[Matthew Bowker]

Hi, all. 

Replies inline.

On Jun 19, 2012, at 01:59 PM, Steven Walling <steven.walling at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 11:52 AM, Tom Morris <tom at tommorris.org> wrote:
>
> > There is currently an enormous backlog at Articles for Creation, of over
> > 700 articles.
> >
> > If you've got some time spare, it'd be great if you could help work on the
> > AfC backlog.
> >
> > See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:AFC
> >
> > Many hands make light wiki-work. ;-)
> >
>
> Thank you for bringing this up Tom.
>
> As a volunteer admin, it looks to me like AFC is horrible mess. Not only
> has there always been a large backlog, 
 
The backlog is routinely at 800+ articles, if anyone is curious.  Last time it wasn't marked at a backlog, a couple other editors and I spent about 36 hours off and on cutting the backlog.  It was back within two days.


> but articles that have references
> and would normally pass the CSD barrier at New Page Patrol are routinely
> rejected for trivial reasons.
 
Again, I see this a lot.  Actually, I sometimes override declines after users come into the IRC help channel asking for an explanation.  At the very least, a "guide" page should be developed outlining exactly what each decline reason is and how it should be applied. 

>
>
> I think we need to brainstorm ways to either drastically improve AFC's
> ability to review articles in a reasonable time, or discuss not
> highlighting it so prominently to authors of new articles. People who
> actively seek input from other editors before publishing articles in
> mainspace are our most promising new editors, and we're doing them a grave
> disservice right now.
>
> Steven
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Even through all that, I believe AfC needs to exist.  It does provide a great service to anon editors who won't create accounts for whatever reason. 

I think the biggest thing we should do right now is recruit more editors to AfC.  I sound like a broken record, but 3 or 4 of us really can't review articles effectively. 

Just my $0.02

Matthew Bowker