Ballotpedia:Projects
From Ballotpedia
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A Ballotpedia Project is a way to organize the development and growth of a particular theme or topic on Ballotpedia. It allows editors to keep track of progress, inspire others to help finish a particular topic area, and helps topics that are covered on Ballotpedia develop in richness, quality and informational value.
The purpose of this page is to explain how you can start a project or join a project.
You can also go right to Ballotpedia:Project Directory to see a list of ongoing or finished projects, or to suggest one.
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What topics are suitable for projects?
Any theme or topic area that, ultimately, should include a series of articles on Ballotpedia is suitable for a project. Examples would include:
- A project to make sure that Ballotpedia has an article about every marijuana initiative that has ever been on a state's ballot.
- A project to enrich and improve Ballotpedia's articles about all South Dakota 2008 ballot measures.
- A project to review and improve Ballotpedia's articles for new editors.
- A project to expand and develop Ballotpedia's selection of articles about laws governing ballot access.
- A project to clean-up a certain set of articles, or to write requested articles.
You can start a project to expand or enrich an existing set of articles, or start an ambitious, bold project to create an entirely new set of articles on Ballotpedia covering a topic area that currently has few or no articles on Ballotpedia.
How to start a project
To start a project:
- Go to Ballotpedia:Project Directory and describe what you have in mind.
- Recruit writers and editors for your project. You can do this among your circle of friends and acquaintances who are not currently Ballotpedia editors. Probably the fastest way to get started, though, is the visit the talk pages of some current Ballotpedia editors, and leave them a note describing your project and inviting their participation.
- Write a note on your own user talk page describing your project and soliciting help.
- One way you can make it easy for others to help you is to come up with the titles of the articles they could add content to--or, to make it even easier for others, you could start stub articles that fit within your project. This makes it much easier for others to understand exactly how to help build your project.
Other tips for a successful project
- Be very specific about what you hope to accomplish. For example, "I am starting a project on recall laws. This project will be completed when there is at least a stub article on Ballotpedia about the recall laws in each of the fifty states."
- Use deadlines. For example, "I am starting a project to clean up red-links on Ballotpedia. The objective of this project is to write articles for each of the first 50 requested articles on Ballotpedia by the end of April 2008."
How to join a project
- Periodically review Ballotpedia:Project Directory for projects that need help.
- Leave a note on your user page saying that you're willing to work on projects.
- If you see a project you're interested in, leave a note on the user talk page of the editor who started it.
- Let that person know which articles you're volunteering to work on.
Creating a portal twinned with a project
A portal associated with your project can help you organize your project's material, help readers browse the collection of articles associated with your project, and help you attract people to help you with your project.
