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Proposal: Add to-do tasks on Main Page

This talk page section contains an unresolved talk page proposal. Please try to help and resolve the issue by voting or leaving a comment.

Current time: Sunday, December 22, 2024, 12:31 GMT

Based on the vote so far, this proposal may be eligible to close one week early. Please use {{proposal check|early=yes}} on December 25 at 23:59 GMT and close the proposal if applicable.

On nookipedia's main page they have a to-do list. I love how it lists the exact number of to-do tasks, based on the number within select maintenance categories, and the exact specifics. It seems like a perfect way to motivate people to edit and see ways how they can help. Because I think a question many ask while doing wikis is, "What do I do? Where do I start?" And having a to-do tasklist on the front page would be perfect for that. It's a lot more accessible than "Wiki maintenance" on the sidebar.

I don't have a particular visual in mind, especially images representing the maintenance categories on the front page, but I do imagine it would go right above the "Featured article" and "Mario & Nintendo news" boxes.

But what is a definite is that if this proposal passes, a to-do list similar to Nookipedia's will appear on the front page.

Proposer: Super Mario RPG (talk)
Deadline: January 1, 2025, 23:59 GMT

Support

1. Super Mario RPG (talk) Per.
2. Potato3003 (talk) Per.
3. Sparks (talk) If it's a way to provide more motivation and encouragement, yes!
4. Koopa con Carne (talk) this is a productive idea. Wikis are community-developed projects. One way the Mario Wiki can drive interest in potential new contributors is promoting its areas that need improvement. If there are concerns that this would make the wiki seem lacunar to visitors, think about it this way: if this site was the perfect resource of information on the Mario series, no one would bother to build it further, no? I think the site should embrace its current incompleteness and use it to achieve even better things than it already has.
5. Camwoodstock (talk) ...If the fact that seeing the "This page has an unresolved talk page proposal!" on the front page caught our attention as much as it did (seriously, we physically paused seeing that, wondering what the commotion was about!), we imagine that having a dedicated section on the main page for things that need help would be noticeably impactful as well. We could even take this a step further and integrate things like the Shroom Spotlight onto it as well, maybe show recent proposals that need help being implemented... Really, the sky's the limit when adding a "things to be done" module to the front page.
6. Pseudo (talk) Seems useful for keeping up wiki maintenance!
7. SONIC123CDMANIA+&K(B&ATSA) (talk) Per all. Needed.
8. Rykitu (talk) After I finish looking to see the new pages and checking my contributions, I often find myself scrolling through the wiki to find ways to improve. This will make the process much faster.
9. Altendo (talk) Per all.
10. EvieMaybe (talk) while i think this proposal is currently a bit too vague regarding the execution, i agree with the idea! we need to acknowledge that the wiki is never finished and encourage people to contribute
11. OmegaRuby (talk) A total no-brainer to get wiki editors to find things to do. Per all.
12. ThePowerPlayer (talk) At this point, whenever I visit the front page of the wiki, I almost always immediately go to MarioWiki:Proposals to see what's the latest thing on the wiki that could be discussed or worked on. This feels like simply cutting out the middleman, and would no doubt encourage that productive mindset.
13. Soshi The Yoshi (talk) Per all.

Comments

So, what kind of tasks do you imagine will be on the front page? What's going to determine which to-do is on the page? Mario^-HOHO! (Talk / Stalk) 18:57, December 18, 2024 (EST)

That's a very good question. I definitely think some of the things would be articles marked with {{rewrite}}, images marked with {{image-quality}}, articles marked with {{unreferenced}}, or a majority of articles marked with some maintenance tag at the top. And then some special pages like Special:WantedPages and Special:UnusedFiles being incorporated in some form as well. Super Mario RPG (talk) 19:05, December 18, 2024 (EST)

I think doing as Nookipedia does is a good option - they pretty much put links to articles with nearly every maintenance tag on it, as well as linking to "active discussions" which would be their version of Proposals. We could have fun with it and choose image icons for them or even draft up our own to fit with the style of the main page! Just throwing ideas out there. OmegaRuby [ Talk / Contribs ] 20:19, December 18, 2024 (EST)

At the very least, we think having what Nookipedia does is a no-brainer, though as mentioned in our vote, listing passed proposals that haven't been enacted yet (either newly passed or the oldest ones, whatever people decide is more conductive) and the current Shroom Spotlights couldn't hurt. ~Camwoodstock (talk) 20:22, December 18, 2024 (EST)

It's worth noting that in recent months, Bulbapedia has introduced a Bulletin Board that's very similar to Nookipedia's to-do list in its premise. That page is part of a broader Editor's Hub, accessed by clicking "Lend a Hand" on the wiki's main page. For what this proposal outlines, maybe the to-do list could link to its own page that lists specific tasks for different categories. (This might be unrelated, but Bulbapedia's "Community editing projects" remind me of the Mario Wiki's long-depecated PipeProjects.) ThePowerPlayer 00:48, December 19, 2024 (EST)