View source for Wiki143:WikiProject Categories/uncategorized

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{{Categorization progress}}
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This is a [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Guide/Task forces|task force]] and a [[Wikipedia:Patrols|patrol]] whose goal is to [[Wikipedia:Categorization|categorize]] uncategorized articles (see left). Check out [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2010-09-06/WikiProject report|our article in the Signpost]]! Optionally, add yourself to [[/participants]] and put {{tl|User wikipedia/Uncat}} on your user page. 
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{{Shortcut|WP:UNCAT}}
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==Other tasks==
{{MiniAWFP}}
Traditionally, our primary task has been to clear out the oldest populated uncategorized-by-date-category (which is listed on the top of this page). Here are some other things you can work on:

* [[Special:UncategorizedTemplates]]
* [[:Category:Uncategorized pages]], divided by month. 
* [[Wikipedia:Uncategorized biographies of living people]], a sibling task force

==Hints and tips==
*Consider using an edit summary that links to this page, such as <code><nowiki>Categorizing article - [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Categories/uncategorized|You can help!]]</nowiki></code>.
*Take your time: it is more important to ensure a useful, precise categorization of articles than to clear the backlog at high speed. If in doubt, skip it.
* Use the most specific category you can find and remember that an article can often be placed in multiple categories.  While even partial categorization is of value, try to avoid placing articles ''only'' in very large categories that are not typically used for browsing, such as [[:Category:2001 albums]] or [[:Category:Living people]].
* Look at similar articles to see what categories are available. Clicking on internal links near the beginning of the article is often helpful.
* Articles may not be added to categories that do not exist. You must either create the new category immediately or find one that does exist; an article that is left sitting in redlinked categories ''will'' be returned to the uncategorized queue again.
* Articles with only stub categories still need to be included in non-stub categories.
* Some articles with the {{tl|uncat}} tag have already been categorized; simply remove the tag in that case.
* Check if the article needs to undergo one of the [[WP:Deletion|deletion]] processes ([[WP:CSD|speedy]]/[[WP:PROD|prod]]/[[WP:AFD|afd]]), or if [[WP:MERGE|merging]]/[[WP:REDIRECT|redirecting]]/[[WP:RENAME|renaming]] the article would be appropriate. Also, watch out for articles with [[WP:COPYVIO|copyright violations]].
* If an article has both a {{tl|prod}} tag and an {{tl|uncat}} tag, then either categorize it anyway or remove the uncat tag and put it on your watchlist, making sure it gets deleted.
*The search box has a nifty drop-down list feature; use it to your advantage. You can check to see if a category exists without navigating away from the article. Sometimes more than one category shows up after you've typed it in – this may mean the category in question is a parent category, and that there may be a more specific category the article can go into.
*Albums should be categorized by artist, year of release, and genre(s). Same for songs.

==Useful links==
*[[Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser]], a [[Wikipedia:Tools|tool]] which makes repetitive edits faster
*[[Wikipedia:HOTCAT]], used for adding, removing, and changing categories
*[[:Category:Uncategorized pages]]
*[[:Special:Uncategorizedpages]]
*[[:Wikipedia:Database_reports/Uncategorized_categories]]
*[[Help:Category]]
*[[Template:Categorization progress]]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AAllpages&from=&namespace=14 A searchable top level list of categories]
*[https://dplbot.toolforge.org/cat/uncategorized_articles.php Toolserver list of uncategorized articles]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Categories Uncategorized}}
[[Category:Wikipedians working on uncategorized articles]]
[[Category:WikiProject Categories pages|Uncategorized]]
[[Category:Wikipedia categorization|Uncategorized]]
[[Category:Wikipedia patrols]]
[[Category:WikiProject task forces]]