A little more than a week ago, I completed a rather project with our UIBs. I ended up “using them” on various subpages - that’s after months and months of fixing various other fixes from the much smaller textual fixes to standardize things to the more massive size changes to standardize these.
Now, I’ve made some changes to the information on Create a wikiHow User Information Box (UIB)
, but I know that we’re not done yet.
So as to prevent another massive buildup, we need to take a more proactive approach to teaching both patrollers and UIB creators alike the new workings of these templates. But I have no clue how we can teach them outside of changing the information and sending informational collaborative messages - all in trying to avoid another massive buildup.
I think these double-checks for new UIBs need to happen on an annual basis but given the extent of the last fix, I don’t think my heart will be much into another fix. I’ll continue to fix and add as I find them where and when needed, but if someone can become an assistant that would be much appreciated.
Where do we take things with UIBs from here?
JayneG
2
Thanks for bringing this up @EpcotMagic
. How many of those that you worked on do you think were created in the last 6 months? I feel like we’ve had a slow down of UIB creation (of course it’s not really the main focus of helping out on wikiHow!) so this might be something that we can coach creators on as they come along.
It’s not so much the UIBs that were created in the last 6 months but is towards a preventative measure so that this doesn’t happen again with our UIBs and templates. With me not having a main focus on RCP to watch for these things when I don’t have free moments enough in my day to watch for that, a patroller who comes along and thinks it’s okay to let it go with unstandard terminology or sizing will throw us all off and a resurgence of issues again in a few months. Or what about the case where titles (although the few I found) were not being translated in the fluency ones and displaying that translation as well? This was such an overwhelming project that knowing what can happen that will bump this number of issue UIBs up can happen again and if I can’t catch these issues before they make the presses is really something I"m not looking forward to see in months (planning to make a recheck of these on a yearly basis).
Although I’d be all in for messaging straight, there has to be something we can do to catch these issue-prone new ones and keeping these issues at an all-time low.
JayneG
4
Absolutely, I agree the goal here is prevention rather than cure - making sure UIBs are good as they are edited, rather than waiting one or more years to clean them up! I don’t think working on UIBs is as common as it might have once been, so it might be possible to keep up as they are edited.
Hi Epcot Magic,It’s great to see that you are taking preventative measures to ensure that issues with UIBs and templates don’t happen again in the future. I can understand how patrollers who let unstandard terminology or sizing go could cause problems down the line, and it’s good to be vigilant in catching these issues before they become more widespread.
The case with untranslated titles in the fluency ones is also concerning, and it’s important to catch these issues before they make it to publication. I appreciate your commitment to rechecking these issues on a yearly basis.
It’s understandable that messaging straight might not be the most efficient solution, but it’s great to see that you are exploring other ways to catch issue-prone new UIBs and keep issues at an all-time low.
Perhaps there are tools or processes that could be put in place to catch these issues before they become more widespread? Thank you for taking proactive steps to ensure the quality of the UIBs and templates on wikiHow.
Best Regards
Olivia devid
