Wikipedia:De-stub-athon

The term "De-stub-athon", simplified as Destubathon for contest naming purposes, was termed by User:Encyclopædius in 2016 to describe a contest/editathon which specifically focuses on expanding Stub articles. "Destubbing" refers to any article fleshed out beyond a flesh to start class, during a contest or during the regular course of editing. Given that a lot of editors find it easier to create new articles and only edit articles and topics they display a keen interest in, it is difficult to get people to literally expand every article and try to ensure the highest quality and consistency across the site, even if the articles are not long. Given that well over half of all articles are stub articles, A Destubathon is one of the most productive and most needed practices possible in improving the overall wealth of content in the encyclopedia long term.

Destubathons held to date

The Africa Destubathon

• The Africa Destubathon (October–November 2016) - over 2000 articles, the pilot destubathon, ran for six weeks. Covered all 54 African nations.
• The Great Britain and Ireland Destubathon (currently running in March 2020). Ran for one month, covering all 134 counties, Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man.

Future Destubathons

If we are to be serious about reducing our millions of stubs across the entire site, the concept of the "Destubathon" needs to spread to different parts of the world and encourage active editors on different continents to approach their local or regional chapters and apply for grants for prizes to replicate what has been achieved with Africa and the UK and Ireland. The first two debstubathons lasted six weeks and one month respectively, which is certainly hard going for the average editor. It is difficult to maintain daily enthusiasm and avoid ultimate burnout at the end. Future large destubathons, with the exception of a few large continent ones, might typically last two weeks, or if smaller in scope, perhaps a state or county or a country, one week to 10 days. A Destubathon needs to be set up for every continent and every country on Wikipedia with at least 10 highly active interested editors, countries like the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India might benefit in particular from a national destubathon.

Regional British/Irish contests

• The South East England Destubathon (10 days, planned for May 1–10, 2020)

Destubathon contests are currently envisaged (but not yet planned) for the following areas:

Regional world contests

• The European Destubathon - covers all European nations and the UK.
• The Asian Destubathon -covers the Middle East and Russia through to Japan in the east, all Asian nations. - recommended one month contest. Possibly November 2020, coinciding with Asian Month.
• The Latin American Destubathon -covers Mexico down to Chile and the Caribbean - recommended one month contest.
• The Pacific Destubathon - covers the Pacific Island countries of Oceania
• The Far East Destubathon (China, Japan, eastern Russia, North and South Korea, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor)

National contests

• The United States Destubathon
• The Canadian Destubathon
• The Australian Destubathon
• The New Zealand Destubathon
• The Indian Destubathon

Subject contests

Some initial possibilities which might have the editors needed to sustain running them:

• The World Destubathon - a gigantic contest covering every country and topic, aiming to destub 5000 articles.
• The World Geo Destubathon
• The World Women Destubathon
• The World Architecture Destubathon
• The World Nature Destubathon
• The World Sports Destubathon
• The World Military History Destubathon

Future developments

To be sustainable, once set up, the contests will need a volunteer to help run them once or more each year, in close coordination with their chapters and a budget for prizes decided. Depending on the support and volunteers we have willing to take responsibility for running ones for different areas, Dr. Blofeld long term would like to commit more to developing smaller regional destubathons within the UK, Europe and the United States. All counting towards the Wikipedia:The 50,000 Destubbing Challenge long term. Obviously there is far more to building an encyclopedia of the highest quality than fleshing out stubs, there are many important articles needing restarting and writing and researching properly and if possible brought up to Good Article status. For those, a Wikipedia:De-bloat-athon series is a possibility. Even if it is only Dr. Blofeld who ends up running only a few of these over the next few years, this page should prove useful in envisaging what we need to do long term in terms of what can be done to significantly reduce our percentage of stub articles.