  
|
Introduction
Welcome to the Guild of Copy Editors' annual report for 2016. This report is a little late but will attempt to provide an accurate look back at the year, which was another successful one for improving the quality of writing in articles. Our Blitzes, Drives and Requests page were popular; the backlog was reduced to new lows and the volume of completed Requests increased with significantly lower wait times. Your coordinators have also been active behind the scenes, helping the Guild to run smoothly.
Our regular backlog reduction drives and blitzes continue to keep the backlog trending downwards (see graph to right); albeit with a pronounced yo-yo pattern reflecting the every-other-month schedule of our drives. Much progress has been made this year; we started 2016 at 2,019. According to our monthly records, the level peaked at 2,223 in April, fell to 1,496 in May, bounced to 1,937 and plummeted to a new all-time low of 1,414 at the end of November.
Our week-long blitzes focused primarily (and successfully) on reducing the backlog on our copy-editing Requests page, with an occasional diverting excursion into topic-based groups of articles, including video games and Asian geography and sports.
| 2015 | 2016 | |
|---|---|---|
| January | 2,186 | 1,774 |
| February | 2,432 | 1,981 |
| March | 2,423 | 1,966 |
| April | 2,627 | 2,223 |
| May | 2,022 | 1,496 |
| June | 2,216 | 1,713 |
| July | 2,188 | 1,656 |
| August | 2,322 | 1,886 |
| September | 2,336 | 1,789 |
| October | 2,557 | 1,937 |
| November | 1,849 | 1,414 |
| December | 2,019 | 1,626 |
The Guild attracted over 100 new members during the year. Two members stepped-up as first-time coordinators to help run the Guild.
Membership
GOCE membership is open to all editors in good standing who are interested in copyediting. Please see our membership page for details about signing up (and remember to add your username to our mailing list to receive Guild news).
- 114 editors joined the Guild membership list in 2016. Of these:
- 22 completed a copy edit with a Guild-organized activity, including:
- 15 who participated in one or more Drives
- 11 who participated in completing Requests
- 9 who participated in one or more Blitzes
- 10 new members signed-up for Blitzes or Drives but did not complete a copy edit
- 22 completed a copy edit with a Guild-organized activity, including:
Among the promising new members were BroVic, leschnei and MediaKill13.
Requests page
In 2016, the Guild responded to 680 1 copy-editing requests, including 19 made in December 2015 (similarly, 29 requests made in December 2016 were addressed in 2017). Among these requests were: 2
- 292 for GAN
- 2 for GAR
- 58 for FAC
- 1 for FAR
- 11 for FLC
- 3 for PR
- 3 for ACN
- 15 for BCN
- 1 for CCN
- 43 for DYK
- 2 for OTN
- 1 for TFA
- 1 for ITN
- 1 for comma splices
- 14 declined
- 1 withdrawn
- 234 unspecified
Some analysis and comparison to previous years:
- 665 requests were completed 3 in 2016 compared to 537 in 2015, 486 in 2014 and 545 in 2013.
- 690 requests were received in 2016, compared to 543 requests in 2015, 489 in 2014 and 585 in 2013.
- The mean average completion time was 17 days, with a median average of 17 days and a mode of 18 days. The mean average completion time was 24 days in 2015, 28 days in 2014 and 40 days in 2013.
- Fewer than 10% of requests completed in 2016 waited more than 30 days. Only 10 requests waited more than 40 days and the longest wait was 55 days. The longest wait was 83 days in 2015, 79 days in 2014 and 90 days in 2013. The number of requests waiting more than 55 days was 60 in 2015, 17 in 2014 and 109 in 2013.
- There were 19 pending requests at the beginning of the year and 29 at the end.
- There was a low of 10 pending requests at the end of February and a high of 53 near the end of September. The average number of pending requests was about 32.
The number of submissions per editor permitted on the Requests page was increased from two to three at the end of 2015. This occasionally resulted in a backlog of pending requests which was mitigated with extra attention during Drives and Blitzes. 267 requests were completed as part of Drives and Blitzes, accounting for 40% of the total requests fulfilled.
- 50 editors completed the 665 requests, which were submitted by 180 editors.
- Top-five request copy editors:
- Twofingered Typist (274 and 6 assists)
- Miniapolis (107 and 4 assists)
- Corinne (85 and 1 assist)
- Baffle gab1978 (48 and 7 assists)
- Jonesey95 (14 and 2 assists)
- Top-five request submitters:
- Another Believer (64)
- Aoba47 (38)
- MisterCake (31)
- BabbaQ (27)
- Doug Coldwell (19)
- Notes
- ^1 Figures were arrived at by exporting tables from the 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013 request archives into a spreadsheet for analysis, particularly for completion periods.
- ^2 Some requests were made for multiple reasons; these were listed in each applicable category.
- ^3 Figures for completed requests discount any requests which were declined or withdrawn. Figures for requests submitted, received or addressed include requests which were ultimately declined or withdrawn.
 | Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
Distribution of time to complete requests
Coordinators
Jonesey95 stayed on as lead coordinator throughout the year. Baffle gab1978 and Miniapolis continued as coordinators for the first half of the year. Following June elections, Corinne and Tdslk stepped up as first-time coordinators to assist Jonesey95.
In the December elections, Miniapolis was chosen as lead coordinator for the first half of 2017, with Corinne, Jonesey95 and Tdslk assisting as coordinators.
| Term | 2016 | 2017 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January – 30 June | 1 July – 31 December | 1 January – 30 June | |
| Election | December 2015 | June 2016 | December 2016 |
| Lead coordinator | Jonesey95 | Jonesey95 | Miniapolis |
| Coordinators | |||
Appreciation is given to all who participated in the elections. Elections are scheduled for June and December each year. All Wikipedians in good standing are welcome to nominate themselves or others.
Backlog Elimination Drives
At the beginning of the year, there were 2,019 articles in the {{ Copy edit}} backlog. A low of 1,414 articles was reached in November before rebounding to 1,626 at year's end. 1 The backlog shrank from seventeen to thirteen months. 2
- The first month-long drive of the year succeeded in clearing all articles from August, September, October and November 2014 from the backlog. Twenty-two editors removed 331 articles from the backlog 3 and completed 30 requests (a total of 422,063 words).
- Twenty-one editors cleared 268 articles from the backlog and completed 30 requests (493,057 words), and successfully cleared the backlog of articles tagged in December 2014 and in January and February 2015.
- Sixteen editors cleared 165 articles from the backlog and completed 32 requests (269,501 words). The target months were March, April and May 2015.
- Twenty editors cleared 223 articles from the backlog and completed 17 requests (326,351 words), and successfully cleared the backlog of articles tagged in April, May and June 2015.
- Nineteen editors cleared 209 articles from the backlog and completed 24 requests (378,705 words). The target months were July, August, September and October 2015.
- Fourteen editors cleared 174 articles from the backlog and completed 26 requests (312,311 words), and cleared the backlog of articles tagged in September and October 2015.
Drive totals for the year: 58 editors removed 1,370 articles from the backlog and 159 from the Requests page for a total of 2,201,988 words.
18 editors participated in two or more drives, 11 editors participated in three or more drives, and 6 editors participated in all six drives.
The Guild awarded 104 barnstars for participation on drives.
- Notes
- ^1 About 400 articles are tagged every month, so somewhere around 5,000 articles were removed from the backlog during the year.
- ^2 Month-end backlog totals were taken from the drive pages. Participation was taken from the blitz and drive pages and their respective barnstar pages. Numbers for request goals were taken from historical versions of the Requests page. Some of the tables were exported and merged in a spreadsheet for easier counts and analysis.
- ^3 These figures show articles for which editors took credit on the Drive page. Additional articles are removed during drives by editors who do a quick or minor copy edit and don't record it on the Drive page, remove a copy-edit tag because it is no longer needed, or nominate an article for deletion.
Blitzes
Six week-long blitzes were held, alternating months with the backlog elimination drives.
- Between 21 and 27 February, ten editors removed 40 articles from the Requests page (82,888 words).
- Between 17 and 23 April, five editors removed 22 articles from the Requests page (62,414 words).
- Between 12 and 18 June, eleven editors removed 47 articles (55,091 words) from the backlog on the themes of WikiProject Video Games and Asian geography.
- Between 21 and 27 August, five editors cleared 10 articles (7,177 words) from the backlog on the theme of sports-related articles.
- Between 16 and 22 October, ten editors removed 29 articles from the Requests page (82,869 words).
- Between 11 and 17 December, nine editors removed 12 articles from the backlog and 17 from the Requests page (77,901 words). This cleared the last articles tagged in November 2015 so that the year ended with the backlog at thirteen months.
Blitz totals for the year: 24 editors removed 69 articles from the backlog and 108 from the Requests page for a total of 368,340 words.
14 editors participated in two or more blitzes, 5 participated in three or more blitzes, and 1 participated in all six.
The Guild awarded 43 barnstars for participation on blitzes.
Plans for 2017
Thanks to the membership, excellent progress was made during 2016: the copy editing backlog was reduced so consistently that three new records were set for monthly lows. It was hoped to continue on these successes in 2017, to reduce both the total number of articles and the number of months in the backlog. It was recognized that regular attention had to be given to the Requests page, and that a consensus of editors might reduce the number of requests per editor to allow for timely copy edits. The coordinators also intended to support the membership and wider community through the Guild's project pages and regular newsletters.
Unlike a number of other WikiProjects, the GOCE continued to be strong after seven years. Monthly editing events attracted new members to the Guild's ranks to improve the quality of writing on Wikipedia, and new coordinators stepped up to help keep the project running. With best wishes, it was hoped to see many of these editors continue with the Guild in 2017.