User blog:Tullis/Improving the wiki in one click

New editors often ask what they can do to improve the wiki. There's obvious answers like addressing stubs, wanted pages, spelling and grammar checks, taking screenshots for pages that need them and so on. But there's a very simple way to help out that often gets overlooked.

Page ratings.

At the bottom of each wiki article is a star rating for that page, from 1-5. One click to rate the page develops our highest ranked articles list, which showcases the wiki's best work. This also helps the admins to see which pages people find most useful or appealing. That in turn lets us know what works so we can implement it elsewhere... maybe raising another page's ranking in the process.

This is not a perfect system; several times I've seen editors five-star their own article just after creation when the page may need more work, which skews the whole thing. But taking a second and a single click to decide what you honestly think the page is worth, is extremely helpful. For example, there are planet pages that are beautifully displayed and screenshot-illustrated and edited, and they go unnoticed because we simply have so many.

So next time you read a wiki article and think "huh, that was useful", why not take one extra second and make your opinion count?

Happy editing,

Tullis.

P.S. Alternatively, if you think a page is being vastly and unfairly overlooked, I'm currently looking for featured article nominations for the wiki's front page. Just mention the article's name on that page for it to be put forward for consideration--or even pop it in the comments field of this blog.

Useful Resources
Style & Editing Guide · List o' Templates · Community Guidelines · Wanted Pages · Screenshot Wishlist · Visitor Search Stats

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SpartHawg948 · Tullis · DRY