As part of our effort to take action against climate change
, I would like to propose a “wikiGreen Contest” to help improve articles about going green or sustainable living. I believe that this contest will help improve the articles that we currently have about these topics, and it would also help make it more funner.
This contest would be similar to the Bold Edit Contest
, but it has some key differences. First, it restricts editing only pages in certain categories about green living. Also, it allows the improvement of any article, not just demoted articles. This contest has a different goal than the Bold Edit Contest, so I believe that these changes are necessary. In this contest, I also propose adding a template to the discussion pages off the articles that are improved, like in the green edit contest, to recognize the contributors hard work.
Feel free to go to the contest page
to get a better feel of what this contest is about.
Do you think that this contest is a good idea, or do you have any suggestions? Please comment below. Also, feel free to edit the contest page to improve the wording or fix any errors that I made. Also, if you know of any other categories to include in the contest, please mention it in your comment.
6 Likes
We should have called this the wikiGreen contest.
But more seriously, I think the contest proposal looks good, and I would definitely support it. My only thought is that we tweak the bullet point on adding references to something like this:
Please make your best effort to add scientifically-supported references to articles when performing bold edits. References help readers verify the information in the article, and increase wikiHow’s credibility.
But I’m not certain, because it’s a double-edged sword here. On one hand, we do need scientific resources for quite a bit of ecological topics, both for site credibility and making sure readers have the most accurate information (rather than veiled nonsense from a blogger trying to sell “green” products, for instance). On the other hand, we don’t want the contest to feel like a school assignment or stressful research project, because that could reduce involvement. What do others think?
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OH NO! I got to request a title change for all of the pages now!
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Can some one please move wikiHow:Contests/Green Article Contest
to: wikiHow:Contests/wikiGreen Contest
And wikiHow:Contests/Green Article Contest/Hall of Fame
to wikiHow:Contests/wikiGreen Contest/Hall of Fame
And Template:Green Article Award
to Template:wikiGreen Award
And Template:Green Article Wrap Up
to Template:wikiGreen Wrap Up
Thank you.
XxVxX
5
Done! Though for some reason, I couldn’t get the templates to start with a lowercase letter. Nice idea for the name, @anon74718567
!
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For the bullet point about references, I changed it a bit here
to promote more reliable sources.
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XxVxX
7
That looks good. I wondered, though, if it might be helpful to make a larger list of potential sources to look at? It could perhaps be a separate page. That way, participants can have more sources to look through and it won’t seem more like a stressful research project, since participants won’t have to try and find more sources after using the two mentioned. We could say as well that they can use any other reputable sources they find, but these are just some ideas. I’d be happy to help with this.
4 Likes
That’s a good idea. I’ve created a page here
that you can put sources on. If anyone is reading this, feel free to add any reliable sources to that page that you know of.
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XxVxX
9
Alright, I added quite a few so far, though there are probably some I missed. Thanks for making the page R2!
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JayneG
10
I definitely support this contest and love the sources page! Thanks for adding all of those great resources XxVxX. I’ll pass that page on to Allyson too in case there are any partnership opportunities there.
4 Likes
Hmm… Great idea, @R2_d2000
! But do I need to add my name somewhere to participate?
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XxVxX
12
No problem! I just added a few more and may add more today. That would be amazing if there were potential partnership opportunities on that page! Thanks for passing them along.
2 Likes
I’ve added NASA Climate to the list of sources – it’s more news-oriented than goal-oriented, but they do have a useful FAQ page. (I came across some other NASA subdomains too, like sealevel.nasa.gov
, though I’m not sure how useful all of them are in comparison.)
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Ah, thanks for letting us (actually me!)
know!
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Okay, I had a wild idea and I have no idea how it would work logistically, but here goes: What if, for every article edited through this contest, we either make a donation to an organization or charity aimed at fighting climate change, or plant a tree?
Again, I don’t really know how the logistics would work – it’s just a random idea I came up with in the spur of the moment, and I certainly don’t want to volunteer somebody else’s money or time. But I wonder if maybe using this as a way to take both online and offline action would incentivize more of the community to participate, because it can’t just be written off as solely digital activism.
2 Likes
That’s an amazing idea! Quick question: Would articles about animals (e.g: Stuff on animal habitats and raising awareness for endangered species) count?
I can’t speak for @R2_d2000
, but at a glance, I don’t think it would – that would probably fall under the Animal Welfare Activism category
, which isn’t included in the scope of this project. (And extinction can be caused by things like hunting, smuggling, or disease outbreaks, which aren’t inherently related to climate change.) That being said, there is a degree of overlap (like with deforestation or ocean acidification), so if an article was in both the Animal Welfare Activism category and one of the environmental/sustainable living categories listed on the project page, it’d likely be fair game
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@anon74718567
is correct, that is not in the scope for this contest, since this contest is about writing articles to reduce climate change. However, since there is also a proposed idea about doing multiple contest every few months to help the environment, it’s possible (hopefully likely) that it will be in scope of a future one.
Also, I have not seen any opposition to this contest, so I believe that it’s almost ready to officially start. If anybody has any concerns about this contest, please post a comment below. If I don’t see any further concerns in the next day, then I will consider this contest to be approved, and I will work on starting it.
1 Like
