Biography Category‑class

This category is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles Category This category does not require a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

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Biography articles with listas parameter

Listas is a parameter found in the coding of the WikiProject Biography box and operates like DEFAULTSORT.

It is a sneaky, hidden and poorly documented template parameter which is one of the primary causes of the weird sorting orders in many categories, especially the maintenance categories created by those boxes and other maintence categories more likely to appear on talk pages.

The problem is that we have a very rudimentary, simplistic sort mechanism. Everything in the sort key is sorted. That includes spaces, punctuation marks, whatever. But it isn't sorted in accordance with anybody's sorting rules. It is simply sorted in accordance with Unicode numbers.

The essential factors that need to be noted, and that need to be included in the instructions to people who will be using "listas" or "DEFAULT" sort include these points:

1. Start the sort key with an uppercase letter to insure case-insensitivity at that level. Ideally, we should probably have totally case-insensitive sorting, but to change that just using sort keys rather than through some software change would be problematic.
2. Do not include ANY alphabetic characters other than the 26 letters of the English alphabet. No diacritics whatsoever.
3. Strip most punctuation from the sort key, especially if it is the first character in an article's name. The comma followed by a space is the conventional separator between surname and given name in people articles; it should be there, even if the name order is the same as in the article name, as in "Chan, Wai Ho" as the sort key for Chan Wai Ho.

See Wikipedia:Categorization of people#Ordering names in a category for more essential pointers. Note that this applies not only to articles about people, but to all articles.

One advantage linkas has over DEFAULTSORT is Category:Biography articles with listas parameter. It would be nice if somebody would help out and use that to start cleaning up the problems I mentioned. You could start by fixing everything that comes after Z. Gene Nygaard 05:13, 14 October 2007 (UTC) reply

Listas is a parameter found in the coding of the WikiProject Biography box and operates like DEFAULTSORT.

listas: This parameter, which is used in the template with the DEFAULTSORT magic word, is a sortkey for the article talk page, e.g. for Prince George of England, you can instead have listas=George of England, Prince -- so that it will show up in the G's. If no listas is provided, the DEFAULTSORT will be PAGENAME (the article title). Some talk pages have DEFAULTSORT placed on them manually, outside the talk page templates. Later placements of DEFAULTSORT on the talk page (inside or outside templates) will over-ride earlier placements. Category piping (in templates or done manually) will over-ride DEFAULTSORT. Guroadrunner 03:46, 21 August 2007 (UTC) reply

Thanks for your effort, but that's about as clear as Trinity River mud, amigo. Why would you have a sortkey for the talk page?? Please clarify further; when exactly (and why) should it be used? (I only ask this because the category listing that I've seen on biography articles seems to imply not having one is a flaw, but this doesn't tell me what to do about it.) Thanks! Eaglizard 13:11, 26 August 2007 (UTC) reply

The reason is that it is helpful for large, unsorted categories of people to be sorted by surname. This applies as much to talk pages as to the actual article. For example, Category:Science and academia work group articles. Hopefully the rewritten documentation at Template:WPBiography will make this clearer now. Carcharoth 21:12, 26 August 2007 (UTC) reply

Okay, I think that I kind of understand what it is now--but how does one use it? I get that it goes in the box on the talk page, but beyond that I don't know what to do. Could an example of usage maybe be provided? Also, just to make sure that I'm understanding this correctly, this is mostly for royalty and others who shouldn't be sorted by surname, right? 74.140.196.72 11:47, 5 September 2007 (UTC) reply

It is exactly equivalent to DEFAULTSORT on the article page. It is more important to put a DEFAULTSORT value on the article page for all biographical articles, so that they sort correctly in their categories. This saves having to put the pipe-sort value into the category tag. The listas on the talk page is convenient to keep things sorted correctly in the assessment and maintenance categories, but in the long run the need is to standardise. Some articles have listas on their talk page, but no DEFAULTSORT, and vice-versa. The advantage of listas is that the category can be used to see which talk pages lack listas (it is difficult to do this for articles to find out which ones lack DEFAULTSORT). When the state is reached where listas and DEFAULTSORT are are both the same on any particular article, then then "lacks listas" category will effectively be a "lacks DEFAULTSORT" category. Essentially, this is a kludgy workaround, as despite several requests, no-one seems to want to make the changes needed to track usage of DEFAULTSORT. Carcharoth 12:03, 5 September 2007 (UTC) reply

That makes much more sense now. Thanks greatly for your explanation! 74.140.196.72 00:00, 6 September 2007 (UTC) reply

Oy Vey. It's a cure without a disease. Oy Vey. RabbiVelocicaptor15 16:34, 2 October 2007 (UTC) reply

Do I have this right?

• Changes need to be made to track the usage of DEFAULTSORT.
• Those who can make the changes do not see a need to track the usage of DEFAULTSORT.
• A new level of arcana has been added so that a undefined but small group of editors can track the usage of DEFAULTSORT.

JimCubb 05:24, 5 October 2007 (UTC) reply

Okay, so where do I find a category for all the articles which "have listas" so that I can find all those where people have incorrectly used accented letters and the like in the "listas"? Gene Nygaard 12:04, 12 October 2007 (UTC) reply

Nevermind. I found it. Gene Nygaard 12:05, 12 October 2007 (UTC) reply

How about something like Category:Biography articles without listas parameter for DEFAULTSORT? If we're "supposed" to bu using DEFAULTSORT instead of listas, we could certainly use a pair of tracking categories.  — AnnaKucsma   Speak! 14:44, 7 November 2007 (UTC) reply

Could you add some examples - or brief usage either at the start of this page or on the template, I was just quickly popping here to see how to add it, just needed the basics... Leevanjackson ( talk) 12:54, 25 March 2008 (UTC) reply

Yes, in WikiProject Biography banner - thus {{ WikiProject Biography|listas=Smith, John}}. Rich  Farmbrough, 21:30, 1 March 2012 (UTC). reply

Just because this sounds so Spanish "las listas" ;) Gracias! ;p -andy 92.228.0.141 ( talk) 19:46, 8 May 2008 (UTC) reply

It should really be "list as" according to the way we now do things. All the best: Rich  Farmbrough, 23:39, 12 August 2016 (UTC). reply

I added an option to use "list as", which was reverted by User:Magioladitis citing the following reasons:

• People will insert more than one space, breaking things.
• A bug/feature in the Kingbotk code (and hence also AWB?) which treats spaces in banner parameters as an error.
• Possible duplicate parameter creation.

User:Bgwhite was also concerned at

• a "move to millions of transclusions"
  
  • (note no transclusions have been moved, though a few new ones were created).

All the best: Rich  Farmbrough, 08:49, 13 August 2016 (UTC). reply

There are three parameters that are recognised by all WikiProject banners, these are |category=, |listas= and |small=. Other than Milhist (which is different from the majority of project banners in many ways, including that it interprets |category= differently and doesn't recognise |listas= at all), I know of no exceptions, and none where a parameter alias exists for these three. To introduce an exception is undesirable, since it then means that a param cannot be copied directly from one WikiProject banner transclusion to another. -- Redrose64 ( talk) 09:24, 13 August 2016 (UTC) reply

Of course this particular parameter should never be in more than one WikiProject banner, as that will result in duplicate DEFAULTSORTs. All the best: Rich  Farmbrough, 09:28, 13 August 2016 (UTC). reply

It shouldn't, but so long as the values used are identical, it's harmless. Many WikiProject banners have something in the doc like

It is not required if another WikiProject template on the same page has its own |listas= set, since it not only affects categories used by the banner in which it is set, but it also affects the sortkey of all other banners and templates.

see for example {{ WikiProject Accessibility}}. If two WikiProject banners on the same talk page both have a |listas=, with different values (say |listas=Foo on the first and |listas=Bar on the second), an error is thrown by the second one: Warning: Default sort key "Bar" overrides earlier default sort key "Foo". and the page is placed in Category:Pages with DEFAULTSORT conflicts. -- Redrose64 ( talk) 11:15, 13 August 2016 (UTC) reply

Please register below with your user name, method of working, special expertise, time zone and comments as you feel are appropriate. The last three will become important as we get closer to the end.

• JimCubb
  • Manual - constructing values from the DEFAULTSORT, the relevant naming conventions articles, usage in the article and reliable sources in the article.
  • None in particular although I probably know more about the naming conventions of the systems who have articles than I should.
  • UTC-7
  • I also do minor fixes that I notice need to be done such as put the DEFAULTSORT above the categories on the article page, add the living value if it is missing, verify stubs that are automatically detected, and put WPBS if there are more than two project banners on the page.
• Mikaey
  • Mostly automated. My expertise is probably in programming, so I wield ListasBot and DefaultsortBot as my servants. Not a whole lot of expertise in any particular naming convention.
  • CST
  • My modus operandi is to figure out how to automate as much of the work as possible, and leave as little as possible for the human editors...hence the bots.
• Rpyle731
  • Manual and semi-automated, trying to fix listas and other phrases in WPBio and other templates.
• Pacific Time Zone
  • I try to do a chunk here and there when I have a chance.
• User:OccultZone
  • Long overdue but never too late.
• User:Rich Farmbrough
  • Have fixed many tens of thousands in the past. Hoping to clear this five year backlog as soon as possible - using all the tools at my disposal.
• User:sbbarker19
  • I'm just picking randomly
• User:Dreamy Jazz
  • I do some irregularly. I tend to focus on those which are easy to clear via AWB as the surname is in an expected format.
• SITH (talk) 12:14, 9 February 2019 (UTC) reply
• Contrawwftw ( talk) 21:23, 20 September 2021 (UTC) reply
  • Aus timezone, just using the random page link to clear the backlog, doing the simple and easy ones
• User:skycloud86
  • UK timezone, going through the list at random, already done a lot today. Skycloud86 ( talk) 18:31, 2 August 2022 (UTC) reply

As of a few seconds ago the backlog dropped below 100,000 — a mere shadow of its former self.

Rejoice!

All hail Listasbot who did most of the work.

JimCubb ( talk) 22:37, 15 May 2009 (UTC) reply

Look at how many of the members of this category are Bands or other Musical Ensembles. Why are they even in the purview of the project?

Be that as it may, since some one feels or felt strongly enough about the ListAs parameter to form a page that is populated by its absence, I will start at the top and work my way to the end, fixing the ones that are obvious. I will also put the DEFAULTSORT on the main page if it is missing.

Is anyone else working on this? JimCubb ( talk) 21:27, 12 December 2008 (UTC) reply

I am working on Category:Pages with DEFAULTSORT conflicts. The conflicts are mainly of two types.

1. A page is covered by two projects whose templates use the listas parameter, i.e., each template sets the sort criterion for the page. One has a completed listas parameter and the other does not.
2. Some one (or a bot) put a DEFAULTSORT after all the templates, and it conflicts with any of the listas values.
   

If an editor is working on either the pages with the listas parameter or the pages without the listas parameter, great care needs to be taken to insure that all the project templates have the same value for the listas parameter (Some templates do not use it but I have not found one yet that complains if it is there.) and delete any DEFAULTSORT line on the page. (The DEFAULTSORT line should be pasted onto the article page if one is not there but that involves a lot more time even though it will have to be done eventually.)
Isn't this fun!

JimCubb ( talk) 00:04, 23 December 2008 (UTC) reply

Now that Category:Pages with DEFAULTSORT conflicts is down to 14 trivial pages, sandboxes and java scripts, I am starting to work on these. I have started with the 1023 pages after Z. If anyone else wants to work on this may I suggest that you indicate that here and where you are starting?

I think the most efficient plan of attack is for the first new person to start at the top of the first page, go as far as is possible in a single session and start at the first page the next time the page changes. The next person could work on the third page exclusively. The next person start at the top of the fifth page. After all the ones after Z are done I will start two pages after the highest page number indicated in the list.

Does that make sense?

JimCubb ( talk) 18:30, 26 January 2009 (UTC) reply

I fixed the listas and DEFAULTSORT on almost 90 articles today. There are 154 more articles in this category than there were when I began. Editors are creating problems almost twice as fast as I can fix them. Feel free to jump in, anybody!

JimCubb ( talk) 23:55, 26 January 2009 (UTC) reply

I am one of those editors creating problems for you without understanding why. I added the Matthew S. Petersen article with the proper listas, but without DEFAULTSORT. More material was added by myself and others, and minor changes were made here and there, but the DEFAULTSORT is not there, unlike some bio articles I improved rather than started from scratch. If you will fix up the Matthew S. Petersen to have DEFAULTSORT, I will go ahead and fix the other members of the Federal Election Commission and then go on to other agency biographies. I have become a fairly experienced editor, but some techniques, such as this one, is arcane to me. I can at least stop adding to the problem, if I can understand it, and correct some of the articles I did not do with precision in this way. -- DThomsen8 ( talk) 12:15, 15 May 2009 (UTC) reply

Actually you were creating a false positive that would probably never have been caught. I have been told that it is impossible to track articles that lack a DEFAULTSORT value. This is why the listas parameter is tracked.

The editors who are creating problem are the ones who are creating articles and omitting any sort value whether on the article or on the talk page. The good news is that no one has complained that their wonderful article is listed incorrectly in the category that the editor created for it.

That is what the DEFAULTSORT value and listas parameter do. Without a DEFAULTSORT value Matthew S. Petersen would appear under M rather than P in the Category:Federal Election Commission. (It is correct and, unlike many I have seen, in the right place.) Likewise, without the listas parameter Talk:Matthew S. Petersen would appear in the wrong place in Category:Biography articles of living people and any other category where it is assigned by a project banner.

Now you know almost all you need to know about DEFAULTSORT and listas. The only other bit of arcana that may or may not be useful to you is that the LIFETIME template includes a sort value that can replace the DEFAULTSORT value. The folks who have developed and worked on LIFETIME really think it is necessary but I do not think that a way has been developed to locate pages where it has or has not been used.

Thank you for your response and cooperation. Keep creating articles of the caliber of Matthew S. Petersen. It was pleasant to read and a very welcome change from the articles I normally see.

JimCubb ( talk) 18:53, 15 May 2009 (UTC) reply

Thank you for the flattery on Matthew S. Peterson. I did four new articles on members of the Federal Election Commission, starting out in a sandbox, and after that updates to two existing articles lacking in the infoboxes and other information of the other four. Donald F. McGahn II is not as good as the others, because he has no official biography. At least one of these articles has LIFETIME rather than DEFAULTSORT. Are they compatible? Beyond that, if the articles are well done, should they have a higher rating than class=C, which I assigned to them (up from Stub to start), but I was modest about rating my own work, howbeit with some assistance from others.

You are welcome. As for the rating, I really do not know. There may be a checklist at WP Biog. I know WP Mil Hist has one. WP Biog is also a good place to get a reviewer if you want one.

As far as I know the LIFETIME sort value works just as well as the DEFAULTSORT.

Happy Editing!

JimCubb ( talk) 21:58, 15 May 2009 (UTC) reply

After over 2,000 edits resolving DEFAULTSORT conflicts and adding listas parameters I have observed some difficulties with assigning the listas parameter and specifically with the use of a bot to assign the listas parameter.

• There are two main ways to convert "Æ" and one rarely used way. Some editors merely break it apart so that Ælfflæd of Mercia becomes Aelfflæd of Mercia. Some editors go for what I believe was customary for many years, convert it to "E", so that Ælfric II becomes Elfric. (It should have been Elfric 02 and now is.) Some editors, so few that I cannot find an example right now, convert it to "A".

• A bot or AWB can be useful in assigning the listas parameter. It can also be disasterous. The first examples of the latter are the 15 Egyptian pharaohs named "Ptolemy". All of them have an epithet, Ptolemy I Soter, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, etc. Some editor used a mechanical device to go through these so that the first two were made to list as "Soter, Ptolemy I" and "Philadelphus, Ptolemy II".

• A Icelandic names confuse everyone even Icelandic editors. Pipes are used on the article page for each of the categories. For general categories the patronym is treated as a family name but for Iceland-specific categories the guideline is followed. For example, Ásgeir Ásgeirsson has Category:1972 deaths|Asgeirsson. Asgeir but Category:Prime Ministers of Iceland|Asgeir Asgeirsson.

I don't know if there are answers to these dilemmas.

• It would be nice to have a single universal conversion for "Æ" but I do not think it is going to happen and, even if it were to happen, changing the erroneous conversions would be a horrendous task.
• There will always be editors who will try to automate a tedious task and there will always be editors who will be unable to conceive the problems that such automation can cause.
• Iceland is not going to change its naming convention.

This is only a mild alert to the little difficulties that I have encountered and not inteded to be critical.

If anyone reads this, could something be done to encourage editors to work on this category? It is growing despite the efforts of a very few of us to correct the problem.

JimCubb ( talk) 19:42, 5 February 2009 (UTC) reply

Small trivia:The situation right now is: 375,812 articles without listas and 247,628 with. -- Magioladitis ( talk) 21:52, 6 February 2009 (UTC) reply

So what do I do with all the "Æ" articles? I don't want to skip them.

Not really. Right now we have 374,619 without and 248,855 with. The ranks of the unrighteous have been slightly depleted. It is still a 60-40 split but the good guys are gaining. I don't expect the good guys to take the lead in my lifetime.

JimCubb ( talk) 03:50, 7 February 2009 (UTC) reply

Greetings, two thousand edits is quite a bit, and changing 248 thousand articles would require that amount of edits. Impressive.-- Kiyarrlls- talk 03:10, 8 February 2009 (UTC) reply

Actually, it is the larger number that needs to be reduced. Right now it is 368,520. Some bots are doing some very good work. However, Kiyarrlls-, if you feel tempted to join in the fray, you are encouraged to yield to the temptation.

JimCubb ( talk) 00:07, 14 February 2009 (UTC) reply

There are no items after the Zs. All names that began with a letter that is not in the English alphabet has a value for the listas parameter. I hope it is the correct one.

There are only 364,972 articles yet to repair.

JimCubb ( talk) 23:05, 20 February 2009 (UTC) reply

Icelandic names

There was discussion and a sort of consensus regarding sorting of Icelandic names here: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Iceland#Sort_keys_for_Icelandic_names. I updated Wikipedia:Categorization of people#Sort by surname and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Iceland-related articles (which, for some reason has been tagged as {{ inactive}}) to mention the last bullet in comment by User:Magioladitis there. Illia Connell ( talk) 03:57, 28 November 2012 (UTC) reply

I propose that DEFAULTSORT and listas be the PAGENAME so that they will not appear in this category. What say all of you?

JimCubb ( talk) 03:49, 8 March 2009 (UTC) reply

Delete the banner or "tl" the banner?

Project banners should never appear on user pages or user subpages, right?

JimCubb ( talk) 04:54, 8 March 2009 (UTC) reply

Not unless you're someone like me, and you're testing out a plugin for AWB that you wrote... Matt ( talk) 09:50, 13 March 2009 (UTC) reply

Granted but there will have to be a way to get those pages excluded once the important items are resolved.

JimCubb ( talk) 19:03, 13 March 2009 (UTC) reply

Generally there would be code in the template to prevent this stuff from categorising userpages. Rich Farmbrough, 14:03 14 March 2009 (UTC).

I thought that the nocat tag would do that but I was told elsewhere that it will not.

JimCubb ( talk) 23:34, 14 March 2009 (UTC) reply

While I was off worrying about other categories the values aftrer "Z" became populated. I have just finished "Æ" and have done almost all the rest. All that remain are the invalid value that begin with "É". There are 56 of them and I hope to finish them by the end of the week. The values after "Z: will not repopulate. When other letters are emptied please name them here and I will watch them as well. (My schedule is to check for new DEFAULTSORT conflicts and resolve the ones that are not trivial, check for new "importance" parameters that should be "priority" then come here.)

Other editors and their bots are doing much better than I can at taking care of the pages here but I can take care of the alligators that are inadvertantly thrown in. I may start to look for incorrect values in the pages with the listas parameter. (I worked on the "X" entries in the pages without the living parameter yesterday. All of the Chinese generals were listed incorrectly.)

Isn't this fun!

JimCubb ( talk) 22:19, 22 April 2009 (UTC) reply

All the pages after "Z" have been fixed. I intend to monitor that section and will attend to any new pages. I will work on "Q" next and "X" after that. I look forward to the day when this category is empty, all the wonderful editors who have worked so hard to clean up this category have moved on and I can drop in once or twice a day to fix any pages.

JimCubb ( talk) 05:15, 26 April 2009 (UTC) reply

"Q" and "X" have been done for a long time. "V" is now done. I will empty them each day as well as after "Z" and before "A". The category would empty much more quickly if there were other editors working on it.

JimCubb ( talk) 21:24, 19 August 2009 (UTC) reply

The categories gets news entries very fast. Today I'll add about 10,000 articles by adding banners to new biography articles. -- Magioladitis ( talk) 09:13, 7 September 2009 (UTC) reply

Could you, would you develop a way to apply a value for |listas= if there is a sort value somewhere on the article page?

JimCubb ( talk) 22:27, 8 September 2009 (UTC) reply

I am adding banners with a naive way: If a death cat is found in article then I am adding the banner with living=no, if cat Living people is found I am adding the banner with living=yes. I think LivingBot or ListasBot can do more. -- Magioladitis ( talk) 23:48, 13 September 2009 (UTC) reply

Your "about 10,000" resulted in 14,000 articles that were added to this category. This category is not concerned with the |living= but the |listas=. I did not ask about |living=.

Why did you make this a hidden category? JimCubb ( talk) 03:58, 14 September 2009 (UTC) reply

Yes, I added 14,000 banners (attached with living parameter) in articles lacking it. I am not working with listas. I already posted a message in Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Biography about hidden categories. Dealing with a parameter is administrative work. You can enable hidden categories in Special:Preferences -> Appearance -> "Show hidden categories". -- Magioladitis ( talk) 08:01, 14 September 2009 (UTC) reply

We are back below 30,000. If I can do the nobility that will be about another 2-3000. Rich Farmbrough, 20:21, 21 September 2009 (UTC). reply

Now moved to Category talk:Biography articles without listas parameter/Archive/Biography articles with listas parameter to keep a record of past discussions. — Martin ( MSGJ ·  talk) 11:53, 29 October 2009 (UTC) reply

SmackBot is fixing up some talk pages by copying the DEFAULTSORT at last. Of course there several bots that do this, however I think they have not been running recently. We are about 35k when I started, short term target to get back under 30k again. Rich  Farmbrough, 00:18, 27 April 2010 (UTC). reply

I am on an unscheduled, unannounced but needed break and merely pop in from time to time. I wondered the last time if I should not have done it sooner as the number had dropped by about 12% as opposed to its previous steady rise. A drop of 40% in two days is a very good thing.

A very cursory glance suggests that, aside from the last page (special characters) most of the remaining items are covered by various special naming conventions, Arabic or Northeast Asian, or are bands.

Things are definitely looking up! JimCubb ( talk) 23:35, 28 April 2010 (UTC) reply

I found 30k people stubs with no template, so things will get worse for a bit. I also found about a thousand redirects which had the template and didn't need it - they are taken care of. There must be a lot more that have a listas and are redirects. Rich  Farmbrough, 09:58, 5 May 2010 (UTC). reply

". . . things will get worse for a bit." That's a mild way to characterize a jump to over 40,000. However, I understand the reason for the jump. I did the ones before 0 just to get an idea of the nature of the problems. Good luck on cleaning up the rest. I wish I had the time to help. JimCubb ( talk) 04:06, 6 May 2010 (UTC) reply

Per the above thread, is is possible to get Smackbot back on the task? The count is now 60k+. – S. Rich ( talk) 19:07, 3 August 2014 (UTC) reply

We are currently around 144,000. I am making renewed attempts to reduce the number to as near zero as possible by the end of the year, in memory of Jim Cubb. All the best: Rich  Farmbrough, 18:49, 10 August 2016 (UTC). reply

Down to 127k. A lot to do in just over a month! All the best: Rich  Farmbrough, 22:39, 28 November 2016 (UTC). reply

Under 100k! All the best: Rich  Farmbrough, 17:16, 11 December 2016 (UTC). reply

Under 80k.... All the best: Rich  Farmbrough, 00:15, 15 December 2016 (UTC). reply

65k, but I have been ill for a few days. All the best: Rich  Farmbrough, 19:49, 20 December 2016 (UTC). reply

Nearly down to 50k.... All the best: Rich  Farmbrough, 01:09, 27 December 2016 (UTC). reply

34,326.. getting there... All the best: Rich  Farmbrough, 11:27, 31 December 2016 (UTC). reply

16,821 goal met, I think. I can still do some more. Lets see how it goes. All the best: Rich  Farmbrough, 23:59, 3 January 2017 (UTC). reply

You can use a fork of the quarry SQL query I use to get keywords in the page name. This can be used if you want to target a surname or keyword. The SQL is at https://quarry.wmflabs.org/query/29855.

I also use User:Evad37/rater.js, which can autofill the listas parameter and determine class/importance automatically. Thanks for helping with the backlog. Dreamy Jazz 🎷 ^{talk to me | my contributions} 17:36, 22 September 2018 (UTC) reply

Thanks, Dreamy Jazz. I use that SQL for finding articles that don't need sorting but need a listas parameter still (bands, duos, dynasties, royal families etc) Nat965 ( talk) 20:38, 9 November 2018 (UTC) reply

Nat965 Your welcome. Dreamy Jazz 🎷 ^{talk to me | my contributions} 20:41, 9 November 2018 (UTC) reply

Hello. I've come across this category and would like to help tackle the backlog. My question is, how should I use listas for article names that are disambiguated? For example Arsen Harutyunyan (wrestler) would be listas= Harutyunyan, Arsen, but what about the (wrestler) part? Thanks! -- MrLinkinPark333 ( talk) 02:09, 5 August 2019 (UTC) reply

@ MrLinkinPark333: See Wikipedia:Categorization of people#Ordering names in a category. In brief: |listas=Harutyunyan, Arsen, wrestler -- Redrose64 🌹 ( talk) 19:52, 5 August 2019 (UTC) reply