This page documents the Unreferenced BLP Rescue Project's work on eliminating unreferenced BLPs from April 2008

Number of Unreferenced BLPs currently for April 2008: 0

SO I haven't seen as many flagrantly bad AfD nominations lately, and have been dabbling in Category:All unreferenced BLPs and adding sources, sometimes just bare URLs (but real newspaper-type sources nonetheless), to articles tagged as unreferenced BLPS. Then I either remove the tag or replace it with the "BLP refimprove" tag (i.e., it needs more citations, but it does have some).

There are currently 28,870 of these unreferenced BLPs (as of July 1, 2010, down from 43,000 in Feb. 2010, I believe). Anyone interested in joining me on a quest to eliminate one months' listing of these as a start? (The articles are marked according to when they were tagged as unreferenced, not when they were created, oftentimes the article existed for years without being tagged.) I guess this task is not wholly unrelated to Ikip's BLP contest idea, but that didn't get that far and this would be a collaborative team project).

I nominate April 2008 as a start: Category:Unreferenced_BLPs_from_April_2008, which has a manageable 458 articles tagged right now as a start (Now: 0). Who's interested? Also, if you source anything fascinating to you (even if its fascinatingly boring), add commentary as we keep a running tally of how the project is going.

One we close out a month, suitably creative barnstars will be distributed to those deserving!

• Project Team Members (optional signup page!)

Category:Unreferenced_BLPs_from_April_2008

Progress

• 458 -- Milowent ( talk) 20:51, 1 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 455 -- Milowent ( talk) 23:52, 1 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 450 -- Thanks to those beginning to help! DYK that Shelly Frank was the CEO of the Chi-Chi's restaurant chain from 1977 to 1986? I do now. Apparently chi-chi's went kaput a few years ago, long after Frank grew the chain from 1 store to 200, after a hepatitis outbreak at one of its locations.-- Milowent ( talk) 13:35, 2 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 436!!!-- Milowent ( talk) 20:44, 2 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 414. Wow, we are already making a good dent!!-- Milowent ( talk) 13:01, 4 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 382. Going strong!. I had to take some time to properly source out Phil Thornalley - a former member of The Cure no less! And it sorta disturbed and pleased me at the same time to learn he subsequently became a pop hit songwriter.-- Milowent ( talk) 17:00, 6 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 358. 100 down, 358 to go! I haven't tackled Clark Datchler yet by the way, he's the former lead singer of Johnny Hates Jazz, and its a lengthy one.-- Milowent ( talk) 12:52, 7 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 337 -- we cannot be stopped! Even by irish politicians!-- Milowent ( talk) 03:54, 8 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 299! -- come on people join in! Take a few minutes and add a single cite to an article. It's good for you.-- Milowent ( talk) 21:41, 9 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 265. -- Hallucegenia ( talk) 08:01, 12 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 250!! (I may have nightmares about Gaelic hurling for the next few weeks.  ;) )-- j⚛e decker ^talk 18:15, 12 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 229 -- Halfway from 458 to done! -- j⚛e decker ^talk 02:28, 13 July 2010 (UTC) reply
  • Awesome! We are gradually moving April 2008 into the ranks of the months with the fewest unreferenced BLPs (now at #8, next to pass is Oct 07 with 199)-- Milowent ( talk) 05:45, 13 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 193 -- Now all remaining articles appear on one page, and we have moved in the #7 slot for fewest unreferenced BLPs by tagged month.-- Milowent ( talk) 04:06, 14 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 174 -- ...into the #6 slot, edging past May 2008...
• 164 -- which rolls us into fifth. We only need 20 more to put us in third spot! -- Jezebel'sPonyo ^shhh 19:29, 14 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 157 -- ... into fourth ... -- j⚛e decker ^talk 20:45, 14 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 141 -- which puts in third behind June and August 2007. Note that the number will start dropping on its own once the PRODs and AFDs close as well.-- Jezebel'sPonyo ^shhh 16:47, 15 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 117 -- the end is in sight! well, at least the list looks much shorter. still more hurling to learn about.-- Milowent ( talk) 20:34, 15 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 99 --- let's keep going!!-- Milowent ( talk) 15:13, 16 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 88 -- and the F's are history! Cheers to Hogan Stand! -- j⚛e decker ^talk 16:49, 16 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 77 and falling!-- Milowent • ^{talk blp-r} 18:59, 16 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 57 -- Like the number of Heinz varieties, such is the number of remaining unref'd BLPs from April 2008. In the last day, I've learned new things about the "Laurel and Hardy" (well, just Laurel) of Nepalese comedy who is currently working on (no kidding) promoting the use of toilets, and a President of Sicily for who nearly every reliable secondary reference includes references to the Cosa Nostra. Where else can you have fun like this? -- j⚛e decker ^talk 15:31, 17 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 48 -- All Hurlers in Wikipedia from Cork, Kilkenny or Tipperary will now have a reference embedded in their team templates. This can be copied into the lead to create at least one in-line citation. Hallucegenia ( talk) 20:41, 17 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 36 -- Only 5 refs needed to overtake the oldest month still "alive".... -- j⚛e decker ^talk 04:16, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 32 -- we're now level with June 2007. I've done the remaining hurlers: someone else can do the Gaelic footballers. Hallucegenia ( talk) 10:22, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 25 -- The only ones left that are not flagged for deletion are the M's, R's and S's. Hallucegenia ( talk) 17:27, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply
  • Indeed--I now count 24, with only 11 unflagged/untagged. We're close!! -- j⚛e decker ^talk 18:46, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 17 - just knocked out three more, there are a few left that look potentially sourceable as well.-- Milowent • ^{talk blp-r} 04:50, 19 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 14 -- Only 4 left unflagged: Ramirez, Reed, Rosen and Rubin. If no-one finds sources for these by the end of today, can I suggest we just AfD them and then we're done? When these four are either sourced or flagged, I will set up a trophy cabinet for the BLP Rescue Squad. Hallucegenia ( talk) 10:39, 19 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 13 -- I figured out that Donald G. Reed is usually called "Don Reed" and found some sources to add. I also prodded Agustina Ramírez.-- Milowent • ^{talk blp-r} 13:58, 19 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 10 -- I've just done Rubin (not very well, but it's better than nothing). All 10 remaining articles are flagged for AfD, PROD or copyright issues. I think we can declare April 2008 completed. Beers all round. Hallucegenia ( talk) 14:44, 19 July 2010 (UTC) reply

Discussion

I've done all of the Ws except for three, which I can't find any references for. I'm not sure what to do with them now. Should I WP:AFD them, WP:PROD them, leave a note on the talk page saying I'm going to do this, or what? Any thoughts would be welcomed. Hallucegenia ( talk) 13:57, 4 July 2010 (UTC) reply

Hmm, since they are more than bare stubs, perhaps AFD, because that will draw out sources if any truly exist. Great work!-- Milowent ( talk) 04:46, 5 July 2010 (UTC) reply

• I made my way through the majority of the 'P's; all that remain are a gaelic hurler who shares a name with a former, more popular gaelic hurler, a couple young members of the Jordanian court, and an article that I sent to AfD. Perhaps someone can take a look at this small handfull remaining to catch what I may have missed? -- Jezebel'sPonyo ^shhh 18:31, 6 July 2010 (UTC) reply

There are a lot of unreferenced Gaelic hurlers in these lists. (At least, a good fraction of the ones that I have done.) There seem to be a few editors who have spent years writing the entire history of gaelic hurling into Wikipedia without a single reference. What can we do to persuade them to add sources as they do this? Hallucegenia ( talk) 08:26, 11 July 2010 (UTC) reply

I have run into a number of these as well - presumably some editor(s) went on a tagging spree of gaelic hurler articles in April 2008 - I haven't checked to see whether the editors who created these article are even still active. If they are, I guess we can notify them.-- Milowent ( talk) 19:46, 11 July 2010 (UTC) reply

• The 'N's are now done as well. Of the remaining two articles, one has a PROD tag and one is at AfD. -- Jezebel'sPonyo ^shhh 20:21, 6 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• I finshed off the 'G's - only one prod article remains. -- Jezebel'sPonyo ^shhh 19:49, 9 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• 'Js' are done now as well. Given the over-represented Hurling and Gaelic football articles for this particular month i'm dreading the Mc/Mac and O' sections...-- Jezebel'sPonyo ^shhh 18:44, 12 July 2010 (UTC) reply

I'm rather glad I could find a reference to keep this hurler in the encyclopedia. See diff [1]. Hallucegenia ( talk) 16:28, 16 July 2010 (UTC) reply

Yow! Congratulations! Saving something like that is worth putting up with dozens of self-promotional blurbs.  :) -- j⚛e decker ^talk 16:50, 16 July 2010 (UTC) reply

• The sum of all human knowledge is quite a thing, isn't it. :-) -- Milowent • ^{talk blp-r} 19:00, 16 July 2010 (UTC) reply

References for Hurlers

Rather than doing all the outstanding hurlers one at a time, I've started to add a reference to the team templates. If you look at Paddy Moran (hurler), he now has a reference contained within the template boxes for each Kilkenny team he played for: you have to "show" the templates to see the reference. I hope to add the equivalent reference to all 55 Kilkenny team templates in Category:Kilkenny Senior Hurling Team navigational boxes by the end of today. This should knock off several hundred completely unreferenced BLPs in one go. :).

But this only works for Kilkenny hurlers. If anyone here has come across similar comprehensive listings for other counties, please add them to the list below. By using them to reference the templates, we could save ourselves an enormous amount of work. Thanks. Hallucegenia ( talk) 14:09, 17 July 2010 (UTC) reply

• Kilkenny: http://www.kilkennygaa.ie/KK%20GAA%20Bible.pdf Hallucegenia ( talk) 14:09, 17 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• Cork, Tipperary, Limerick etc: http://munster.gaa.ie/history/sh_teams/ Hallucegenia ( talk) 16:43, 17 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• General: http://www.hoganstand.com Hallucegenia ( talk) 14:09, 17 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• Cork: http://www.sportsmanager.ie/cake/gaa2/cork/contentPage/10952/SHC_Teams_and_Results Hallucegenia ( talk) 16:58, 17 July 2010 (UTC) reply
• Tipperary: http://www.tippgaaarchives.com/

This is really cool. -- j⚛e decker ^talk 22:34, 17 July 2010 (UTC) reply

What's Next?

• Comment Since we're almost done with April 2008, what next? I have to admit I'm curious what the next month we tackle will hold - although I have learned much about Gaelic football and hurling, I'm ready for the next "adventure". -- Jezebel'sPonyo ^shhh 16:16, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply
  • Comment I'd love to take on another month in the old half of the backlog--or really any other "chunk" that's not too large, I think I'd want a larger squad before taking on a 3000 article "chunk". I find the decreasing numbers motivating. One other note--If we want to take a vacation from hurling and Gaelic football for a bit, I suggest not picking March 2008 as a next target...  ;) -- j⚛e decker ^talk 17:06, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply
    • Comment It would be good to do an adjacent one, to make a very visible gap in the month-by-month list. So how about May 2008? Hallucegenia ( talk) 17:30, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply
      • Comment With someone named " Odd Bondevik" in the month, how could it not be fun? (But only once we've got this month either sourced or tagged for AfD/Prop/copyright/etc., of course.) -- j⚛e decker ^talk 17:39, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply
        • Not any more. Bishop Odd has gone to a better place. Hallucegenia ( talk) 18:06, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply
          • User:DASHBot/Wikiprojects/Templates Gives you a convenient list of chunks by project. In some cases referencing should be easier if you pick up say our 266 Beauty pageant winners, alternatively Go has 75 and Skateboarding 22. Whatever your interest we have a project worth picking up. Ϣere SpielChequers 18:26, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply
            • Or even Wikipedia:WikiProject Gaelic games/Unreferenced BLPs? Perhaps not... Hallucegenia ( talk) 19:06, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply

(unindent). Awesome finishing up folks! I like the randomness of whats contained in a month myself. I'm all for doing May 2008 next, it is fun to see the numbers drop. I daresay we could even move the project out of my userspace because we seem to have a good thing going? I think I just move this page to Wikipedia:Unreferenced BLP Rescue? Then I'll see about getting our project featured on Signpost?-- Milowent • ^{talk blp-r} 18:45, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply

Endorse moving from userspace, but you might want to make this a subproject Wikipedia:Article Rescue Squadron/Unreferenced BLP Rescue - not least as something we can show anyone who thinks rescue is not about improving articles. Also I've created a userbox which anyone involved in this could use:

{{User:WereSpielChequers/Userbox uBLP|N}} (where N = number of uBLPs you've referenced) Ϣere SpielChequers 19:09, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply

I think having a tie to ARS is good, but I'd prefer doing it as a "sister" project rather than a child. They are related but ARS obviously has its primary focus on articles already nominated for deletion. I think it will still reflect well on ARS to the extent people contribute to both.-- Milowent • ^{talk blp-r} 13:05, 19 July 2010 (UTC) reply

OK well how about Wikipedia:WikiProject Unreferenced Biographies of Living Persons/Monthly rescue squad? I know this sounds pedantic, but for example the uBLP cup - Wikipedia:WikiProject Unreferenced Biographies of Living Persons/Contest was run that way. Ϣere SpielChequers 17:56, 19 July 2010 (UTC) reply

I think tying in to WP:URBLP makes sense - the goals are very similar and this group is essentially just parsing the ultimate goal of URBLP in to month-based 'chunks'. -- Jezebel'sPonyo ^shhh 20:25, 19 July 2010 (UTC) reply

We can't make the name too long, and in case our methods morph over time we don't want to pigeonhole ourselves as doing just monthly projects. I will now move to Wikipedia:Unreferenced BLP Rescue and we'll see how it goes!-- Milowent • ^{talk blp-r} 21:01, 19 July 2010 (UTC) reply

Neat! (Wish I had a better way to estimate my # of articles ref'd, I should've kept track.  ;) I cut/pasted my contributions through some grep/cut/sort mojo (and went back and subtracted out non-BLPs)... I suppose that's probably close enough... wouldn't be nearly so big if it hadn't been for my multiday "reference the French Assembly" pass, which is nearly half the total. -- j⚛e decker ^talk 20:05, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply

(unindent) if people want to stick to whole months, why not take the oldest? Category:Unreferenced BLPs from June 2007 only has 30 left and Category:Unreferenced BLPs from July 2007 130, so you could polish off quite a few months, and in theory the articles that have sat around unreferenced longest are in most need of TLC. Also I've got a little experiment running in later months where I reviewed the project tags of a whole month with a view to seeing how effective that was at getting them fixed - so if you don't mind I'd like to steer you away from that month and its neighbours for a little longer whilst I see how effective that project tagging is. Ϣere SpielChequers 14:07, 19 July 2010 (UTC) reply

• Well, there's no need to interfere with that information gathering experiment you have going on. July 2007 sounds good as well. I assume when a month goes to zero, it disappears off the list? (this question reminds me of this [2]!) That would a bit sad because I'd like to see the zeros on the list to get people wondering as to why some months have no tagged unreffed BLPs.-- Milowent • ^{talk blp-r} 14:38, 19 July 2010 (UTC) reply

The Trophy Cabinet should act as a placeholder for now, so that there will always be one page in the April 2008 category. (That is assuming that some po-faced jobsworth doesn't try to delete it.) With any luck, the solitary remaining page will serve to spread the word. Hallucegenia ( talk) 15:34, 19 July 2010 (UTC) reply

Very nice!-- Milowent • ^{talk blp-r} 21:01, 19 July 2010 (UTC) reply