Of late, there have been a lot of people talking about new projects, teams, and other sorts of pages. One issue that some of us in IRC have noticed with this is the sheer volume of projects and teams
that get created and then just ( http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Neutrality
) by
the
wayside
. Sometimes, the right course of action is to start a team, such as with the Help Team
or the Welcome Team
. However, oftentimes a simple forum thread suggesting that people might want to help out with whatever task is being ignored is quite enough to fix the problem completely. Another thing that should be noted before starting a team or project is whether there’s already a team or project that exists for that purpose. If there is, try sending a message to the original leader asking if you can take over or help in reviving the project. You’d be surprised how many of them would really like someone to help them out. In the end, making a project or team is up to you. There is no community consensus required or even suggested. You can just go ahead and do it. Just be aware that not everything needs a team, and that many people choose not to join teams in favor of just doing whatever they enjoy whenever they want to. (edited 5/24/11 0255UTC to correct HTML fails)
I think a good rule before creating a team to solve a problem is to point out the problem first
and see if it just gets solved by itself. For example, once, the proposed redirects were overflowing. There were hundreds that needed to be reviewed. Instead of jumping straight to creating a team to handle (and possibly bog down) the issue, I just brought it up to everyone’s attention via the forums and an informative how-to article. Within a week or two, all of the proposed redirects were handled, and it was no longer a problem. There was never any need for a team.
This is summed up great! I know the main concern is that projects usually end up abandoned. Usually what happens is people forget about the project, or leave to do other things. Which leaves a bunch of projects, that yes, may have been a great idea then, left sitting in the corner collecting dust. This is also why so many people oppose projects, or ones that seem pointless or unnecessary, because they have seen projects like that become forgotten. Also about what @KommaH
said, of you create a project about something such as redirects, evertually the task will have been done, but when there isn’t much to do on that certain task, say because the amount was under control by a few people, the others in that project might end up forgetting about it, leaving the project collecting dust. Overall while yes, projects can be a fun thing, and encourage people to do something, most of the time they aren’t needed, a simple statement in the forums in usually all that is needed. .
I do agree with everything said above. @Catspjs01
, the example of phased out teams/projects are deffinetly good examples. Allow me to go through them one by one: 1.“left”: The project was a good concept, but I think they could just make templates for it versus a whole team. Then they could tell the forums about the new templates. But they deffinetly didn’t have to make it a team. 2.“by”: That team seems like a pretty random idea, and it has no members. Either the founder didn’t tell people about it, or they did but no one thought it was worth joining. Seems to me like the founder just wanted to start a team, with no concept or point. 3.“the”: Sounded like a good idea, but it obviously got phased out. Either it wasn’t regularly upkept (meaning it wasn’t regularly promoted or checked) or it was too complicated/too much to handle. After all, it happened every single month, and there probably wasn’t enough people interested in it to participate in it each month while still having enough time to volunteer on wikiHow. 4.“wayside.”: Out of all those, this is the only one I’ve heard of before, probably through RC or something. Anyways, I don’t think the cause was important enough or motivational enough to run the team. Now you might be thinking “Ricardo has started a ton of teams/projects.” But technically, I’ve only started two, and they are both very different from each other (WUM http://m.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Wikihow-User-of-the-Month
and wikiTutor http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Wikitutor
). WUM is an awards program experiment, and if successful, will continue. wikiTutor is a just a wikiHow page that tells users who need help with English grammar specifically who to contact, and it tells experts with grammar specifically who they can help with it on their spare time. It’s more like a project than a team, however, tutors for it are considered wikiTutors, and it requires several people to sign up for it. The other things I suggested in the forums were just suggestions for other people to start - like the wikiHow survey or SRAC. Aside from those, I do indeed do a monthly poll regarding wikiHow through Twiigs.com
. New projects/teams do need to be regularly upkept (that means promotion in the forums if popularity levels drop or to make sure it all is running smoothly), and some of them need to regularly managed (meaning they need to be updated often). Projects/teams do help us build teamwork and solve problems together, but too many unreasonable projects/teams can be disastrous.
Why suggest that other people start a project rather than just saying “hey guys, there’s a bit of an issue here, maybe we could sort this out together?” rather than deciding it needs to be turned into a project, or a team needs to be created. Next time you notice an issue, why don’t you do that rather than suggesting someone starts a project to fix it? You’ll probably find more gets done that way, and people will get less irritated with the constant stream of “let’s start this project… but I don’t want to do any of the work!!!”
system
6
I have seen SO many projects/teams where the “leader” or “founder” has abandoned wikiHow completely, and no one seems to be getting anything done… not to criticize, I’m just saying what I’ve noticed about them.
Because I figured the problem would be more likely to be solved if I gave a possible solution. And it’s not that I don’t want to do any of the work, because I already have 2 projects underway and me focusing on just them increase their quality.
It doesn’t work like that. When most people here see the words “project” or “team” their reaction is to curl up into a little ball and cry, screaming “NO!!! NO!!! NO MORE!!! PLEASE!!! NO MORE PROJECTS!!! THERE CANNOT BE A GOD!!!” Feel free to suggest something needs to be worked on, but suggesting projects will likely result in the problem not being addressed at all. I simple request for people to help out with something, on the other hand, will receive a much more positive response.
A thing that I see about new teams/projects is the hype of the creation. They might spend so much time into creating UIBs, team pages, templates, and starting off with a list of what needs to be done. What keeps teams/projects alive for so long, such as the NFD Saviors or S.O.S (Save Our Stubs), is the trueinvolvement of the creator and hard work by whomever is interested, in addition to how much it can fully satisfy wikiHow & how interesting it is for future editors for them to join. “Vanity projects/teams” or ways to improve the site focusing on a very specific thing, such as Halloween, pet rocks, Facebook, etc. is only targeted on a very specific amount of people that may have an interest. When people see the creator push the project away (not committing, doing other things) or stop editing on wikiHow, they might not carry on with the project depending on their involvement with it. Communication between team members is also important in any project. If that fails, the entire thing falls apart. There’s no wrongdoing in reviving an existing project or team. It’s been done a lot in the past and very much encouraged.
I honestly see a lot of projects abandoned quickly, which is a shame. IMO, we don’t need projects for EVERYTHING. For example, a project about, say, improving wikiHow may be a little pointless when we remember that EVERYONE on the site, with the exclusion of vandals and spammers, is here to improve the site in some way, shape, or form. I’ve seen some really, really good projects here on wikiHow, but a lot of them get left behind. Before starting a project, it’s probably best to ask yourself whether you actually intend to stick around and keep the project alive.
I agree. A good example of it is the “Mmwmmw” team listed above. In fact, the articles in that category probably only make a mere fraction of the articles on wikiHow, showing that starting a team for that kind of thing is a very bad idea, since very few people write articles of that type (there were actually nomembers!). Plus, there is no point in starting a team like that if the only thing it does is persuade very few people to write more articles of that genre.
Bor
12
We don’t need teams for wikiHow’s everyday qualms. If something needs to be fixed, ask for help or do it yourself.
system
13
Hey I want to start a new project about ending projects. Sorry, couldn’t resist
Seriously, though, we don’t have a rule against creating projects, and unless the people create negative templates, it doesn’t really hurt wikiHow. I think what’s irritating sometimes is when a lot of projects get proposed in the Village Pump within a short time span. So if there are a lot of projects being proposed, I think they have a better place in Collaboration Corner. And if the projects don’t work out, which most of the time they don’t, oh well. wikiLife goes on.
Sorry, I think it was me who suggested two projects and then got other editors to decide to try starting a project. Chain reactions are often hard to predict and almost impossible to stop (I once caused a huge argument between to people besides me just because I moved someone’s pen a millimeter!).
