CZ:Core Articles

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Core Home	Talk	Natural Sciences	Social Sciences	Humanities	Arts	Applied Arts and Sciences	Recreation	Miscellaneous
What are core articles? Core articles are our top priority articles – articles that are most in demand and most important for us to include in an encyclopedia that has any hope of being comprehensive. Essentially, we list our unwritten core articles here, negotiating about which articles really are our highest priority. We hope you'll set aside your relatively specialized interests for a while, and create reliable introductions to the most basic topics.

Page format

This is one big long page, divided into sections, one for each workgroup. Each section should be written in three columns. However, make sure the columns break after each workgroup. (So each workgroup header is in one column which spans all three.) Total number of articles on page will be about 4,000. So it will be a big page, but that's OK, it's not too big.

Each line of a workgroup's section begins with # so that the entries are numbered. Most important (highest point value) entries should be listed first. Format of a line evolves like this:

The original entry simply says "French painting" is worth 5 points:

# [[French painting]] (5)

Once Jane Doe has written a draft article over 250 words, she may take credit:

# [[French painting]] (5) - [[User:Jane Doe|]]

Someone confirms that Jane has written 250 words, writing "OK":

# [[French painting]] (5) - [[User:Jane Doe|]] - OK

Finished.

Note: anyone may edit any section of this page so that the section is in conformity with these formatting guidelines! Be Bold!

Topic choice

Each workgroup nominates 99 topics (33 per column). Exceptions are Biology, Health Sciences, History, Geography, Mathematics, Business, Media, Games, Hobbies, and Sports, which may nominate 198 topics (66 per column). For some already-existing article lists, for ideas, please see [1] and [2] as well as, in many cases, workgroup homepages. Here are the 1000 most popular Wikipedia articles of September 2007. List articles in only one workgroup. All topics must be either completely unwritten, a micro-stub, or status=4.

Anyone may list articles here, but if workgroup editors wish to work out the list elsewhere, they may.

* Note: top priority articles that are status=4 (unedited from Wikipedia) should be listed, but with an asterisk--which indicates that, to get the points, a person must either completely replace or rewrite the article.

** Also note: "micro-stubs" (articles without pictures, 50 words or less) should also be listed, but with two asterisks.

Attaching points to topics

Each workgroup may award 10 points for the five most important articles in the group, 5 points for the ten next most important, and 2 points for the 18 next most important (down to #33, the bottom of the first column). The rest (in the middle and right columns) are worth a point apiece.

The first and/or most motivated editor attaches points to articles. If after a reasonable period it appears no editor is going to step up, then the most qualified and motivated author issues the points.

Claiming points

None of these articles may come from Wikipedia, if you want it to count. In fact, if you want, you can entirely replace a status = 4 Wikipedia-sourced article with a new CZ article. Please do.

For now, we do not track first draft authors on the talk page or the metadata page of an article, but only on CZ:Core Articles.

Authors may claim points on CZ:Core Articles/Scores only after their article length (and non-Wikipediahood) has been OK'd.

Core Articles Coordinator

The Core Articles Coordinator (Chris Day) ensures that these rules are being followed, and in particular, "locks in" or approves the article list and point assignment, by ensuring that the most qualified active person on CZ has looked over these things. The CAC would also be expected to make sure this page is correct--that formatting, "OK'ing," and other matters are done smoothly and correctly. He is also manager of the "Miscellaneous" section.

Stages of development

We can distinguish eight stages of development for each set of articles:

1. No topics nominated.
2. Fewer than half nominated.
3. Most or all have been nominated, but not assigned points.
4. All topics nominated and assigned points by someone.
5. All topics and point assignments "locked in" by the Core Articles Coordinator (who ensures that the most qualified active person on CZ has looked over the list).
6. At least one, but fewer than half, of the core article in the workgroup have been written and OK'd.
7. Most but not all of the articles have been written and OK'd.
8. All articles have been written and OK'd.

Already-written core articles

In the sections titled "Already-written core articles," please list top priority articles that were already written prior to September 25, 2007. List any articles that are as high or higher priority as any on the list of 99 (or 198). This is to prevent people from listing articles that have already been written, and so that this page is maximally useful to the end-user. Points are not given for articles in this section--well, not yet, anyway.

The "Miscellaneous" category

Articles that we'll definitely want, but which aren't obviously located in any existing workgroup, should be placed in Miscellaneous. There can be up to 300 articles listed here. Make sure there are no duplicates (overlap with workgroup lists). Each of these will be worth 1 point, unless any editor decides otherwise.

See also

• What's Your Article?
• What's Your Message?