CZ:The Article Checklist

The function of the proposed Article Checklist is to track certain metadata about an article that we can use to organize article improvement projects and to compile statistics meaningful to humans.

An example of the Article Checklist can be found at Talk:John Doherty (fiddler). If you're interested, feel free to play with the parameters of the template on that page, to see what they do. It makes use of a template found at Template:Checklist.

The blank template

Here's a copy of the blank template that you could (but don't yet!) copy and paste onto the talk page of an article.

{{checklist
|                cat1 = 
|                cat2 = 
|                cat3 = 
|           cat_check = 
|              status = 
|              orphan = 
| templates_to_import = 
|    images_to_import = 
|             cleanup = 
}}

The template fields explained

Here are explanations of each field on the checklist. Bear in mind that we can, especially now, add and remove fields.

Workgroup category or categories

Should be identical to the workgroup list found on the article itself. This is necessary in order to generate certain categories automatically.

Fill in 'cat1' before 'cat2' or 'cat3'. Template:Checklist permits only three categories, 'cat1', 'cat2', and 'cat3'.

Check categories?

The small-font parenthetical note is generated by 'cat_check'. This is used to indicate whether, in the opinion of the person filling out the checklist, the category list is OK or, instead, needs review by editors. Simply write 'y' or 'n' (or variations on these) for yes or no.

This generates handy "category check" categories, such as "Category:Philosophy Category Check" or, if no categories are specified, "Category:General Category Check".

Article status

There are four options for 'status' (examples to be given later):

1. Developed article: complete or nearly so
2. Undeveloped article: beyond a stub, but incomplete
3. Stub: no more than a few sentences
4. External article: from another source, with little change

This populates categories that could be very useful indeed for us, including categories corresponding to each of the four options, as well as "Internal Articles" (combination of 1-3) and "Nonstub Articles" (combination of 1-2)--and for each of the categories listed. Thus, for example, if we have the Article Checklist on all of our articles, then we can produce a complete list of "Philosophy Stub Articles" or "Music Developed Articles" or "Biology Internal Articles".

Basic cleanup done?

This variable, 'cleanup', is just yes or no (so, 'y', 'Yes', 'no', etc.). What it indicates is that the article has gone through a "basic cleanup," which means

• Bold the article title, if necessary.
• Remove certain templates.
• Add workgroup category tag(s).
• Add (or remove) CZ Live tag as appropriate.
• Remove any category tags that are red.
• Remove all interwiki links.
• Check the "Content is from Wikipedia?" box if the article is sourced from Wikipedia.
• Complete the Article Checklist.