WikiProject Good Articles: Open Tasks
This project identifies, organizes and improves good articles on Wikipedia.

The 2016 August GAN Backlog Drive was a month-long effort to reduce the backlog of Good Article nominations. Please ensure that you familiarise yourself with the Good Article review process before starting to review an article, and that you are familiar with the GA criteria and the Manual of Style. Also, it is recommended reading the essays What the Good article criteria are not and Reviewing good articles. The co-ordinator for this drive is Jaguar. If you have any questions, leave a message on this drive's talk page. The drive began on 1 August 2016 at 0:00:01 (BST) and ended on 31 August 2016 at 23:59:59 (BST). This was the first backlog elimination drive to be held in over two years.

The ultimate goal of this backlog elimination drive is to cut the number of outstanding GANs by 50% or 60%. Awards will be given out to those individuals who do the most work in helping reduce the size of the backlog and reach milestones, such as reviewing 15 GANs, vice versa. This backlog drive is modelled on the highly successful April 2010 and December 2011 drives; as a result, points will not be rewarded nor will the reviewer be judged on how long their review is. This is to ensure a faster rate of decreasing backlog whilst maintaining quality reviews. Consequently, 'quick-fails' are allowed, only if the article is in an exceptional bad standing. If a participant is found rapidly rubber-stamping GANs that do not meet the criteria, they may be disqualified. Each review will be checked by the co-ordinator to ensure that this does not happen.

Basic guidelines

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  1. Log completed GANs here. If you complete a GAN for an article, don't forget to list it here so that you can get credit for the review.
  2. No rubber-stamping GANs. Good Article nominations tend to result in even better improvements if a reasonable amount of issues are brought up in a review. This can be especially useful when approaching Featured Article standing. Quick-fails are allowed if the article is in exceptionally poor shape or per the GA criteria page. Each review and its article will be checked by the co-ordinator to ensure that rubber-stamping does not happen.
  3. Provide constructive criticism. If you see a problem or problems in a certain article you're reviewing, don't be afraid to point that out and indicate to the nominator what's wrong. Instead of merely pointing to the problems, guide the nominator to possible ways of fixing those problems. Similarly, if the article is not of Good Article quality yet, don't be afraid to fail, but make sure you provide guidance as to how to get the article up to GA quality.
  4. Stick with it. An article isn't improved if it remains on hold for months. Instead, make the smaller corrections, make sure the primary writer is actively editing, and make the pass/fail judgement if concerns are/are not addressed in a timely matter. Generally, it is standard for a GA review to be on hold for seven days, however the reviewer may close their review when they see fit.
  5. Have fun. We're here to help bring these articles up to their fullest potential and hence improving the overall quality of the encyclopaedia. If you do not enjoy doing that, then there is no motivation to improve these articles and the encyclopaedia as a whole.

Progress

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Date Outstanding
nominations
Unreviewed
nominations
Change since
previous day[N 1]
Change since
beginning[N 1]
1 August 2016 408 352
2 August 2016 412 351 Positive decrease  1 Positive decrease  1
3 August 2016 409 345 Positive decrease  6 Positive decrease  7
4 August 2016 407 338 Positive decrease  7 Positive decrease 14
5 August 2016 398 330 Positive decrease  8 Positive decrease 22
6 August 2016 395 317 Positive decrease 13 Positive decrease 35
7 August 2016 393 316 Positive decrease  1 Positive decrease 36
8 August 2016 395 311 Positive decrease  5 Positive decrease 41
9 August 2016 390 312 Negative increase  1 Positive decrease 40
10 August 2016 387 307 Positive decrease  5 Positive decrease 45
11 August 2016 385 302 Positive decrease  5 Positive decrease 50
12 August 2016 382 301 Positive decrease  1 Positive decrease 51
13 August 2016 394 308 Negative increase  7 Positive decrease 44
14 August 2016 387 307 Positive decrease  1 Positive decrease 45
15 August 2016 390 312 Negative increase  5 Positive decrease 40
16 August 2016 389 318 Negative increase  6 Positive decrease 34
17 August 2016 384 317 Positive decrease  1 Positive decrease 35
18 August 2016 390 321 Negative increase  4 Positive decrease 31
19 August 2016 387 315 Positive decrease  6 Positive decrease 37
20 August 2016 387 314 Positive decrease  1 Positive decrease 38
21 August 2016 397 327 Negative increase  13 Positive decrease 25
22 August 2016 395 327 Steady  0 Positive decrease 25
23 August 2016 390 323 Positive decrease  4 Positive decrease 29
24 August 2016 396 326 Negative increase  3 Positive decrease 26
25 August 2016 395 326 Steady  0 Positive decrease 26
26 August 2016 397 327 Negative increase  1 Positive decrease 25
27 August 2016 396 325 Positive decrease  2 Positive decrease 27
28 August 2016 402 330 Negative increase  5 Positive decrease 22
29 August 2016 392 332 Negative increase  2 Positive decrease 20
30 August 2016 393 323 Positive decrease  9 Positive decrease 29
31 August 2016 397 333 Negative increase  10 Positive decrease 19
  1. ^ a b Change only refers to unreviewed nominations.

Awards

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To receive an award, please include your name and the number of reviews you have completed as part of this drive. Please keep a running total next to your name. Awards will be given by the co-ordinator after this drive ends.

This is the scheme for the awards:

At least 2 GANs reviewed: The Invisible Barnstar.

At least 5 GANs reviewed: The Working Man's Barnstar.

At least 10 GANs reviewed: The Tireless Contributor Barnstar.

At least 15 GANs reviewed: The Multiple Good Article Reviewer Barnstar

At least 20 GANs reviewed: The WikiProject Good Articles Medal of Merit.

At least 30 GANs reviewed: The Order of the Superior Scribe of Wikipedia.

In addition, the person who reviews the most Good Article nominations during the backlog elimination drive will receive the Content Review Medal of Merit.

Running total

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Only passes and fails will be recognised as completing a review. If necessary, you can put the article on hold if the article needs to be edited further to be passed. Once you have passed or failed the article after putting it on hold, then include your review below. Article reviews started before 31 August but completed after 31 August are eligible to be counted into the running total. Reviews started before 1 August do not count. Please state if the article is a pass, fail, or on hold. Make sure you follow up reviews that have been placed on hold.

Please log entries in the following format:

=====[[User:Username|]]=====
{{Div col|cols=3}} 
#{{icon|GA}} [[Talk:Articlename/GAn|Articlename]]
#{{icon|DA}} [[Talk:Articlename/GAn|Articlename]]
#{{icon|GAH}} [[Talk:Articlename/GAn|Articlename]]
{{Div col end}}

Participants

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