SomeWikipedians have formed aproject to better organize and categorizestubs andstub categories. This page and its subpages contain their suggestions; it is hoped that this project will help to focus the efforts of other Wikipedians. Everyone is welcome to help; for more information please inquire on thetalk page or see the"To do" list.
Stub articles are articles that are generally short, or below the high Wikipedia standard, or both. If they are not sorted, then it means they are less likely to be edited to higher quality as nobody necessarily knows the page is in need of attention. Even if a page is sorted into a category indicating it is in need of attention, such as the articles needing acleanup, it is still not as good as putting it in a stub category. This is because stub categories attract experts in specific areas (chemists can see chemistry stubs for example), whereas generic cleanup anddead-end categories do not.
To put an article into a stub category, change the existing stub tag (if it exists) from{{stub}} to, for example,{{chem-stub}} if it is a chemistry stub. If it has no stub template but is clearly a stub, then add an appropriate stub template at the bottom of the article (below any categories).
The guidelineWikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout § Standard appendices and footers states that any stub tags should be placed at the very bottom of the article, after all other templates and categories. As of December 2024, blank lines should no longer be left between the first stub tag and whatever precedes it.
When sorted, you may leave an edit summary like this to encourage others to help: Stub-sorting. [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting|You can help!]]
You may wish to inform the creator of the stub that the use of{{stub}} is no longer recommended by putting{{subst:stubsort}} on their talk page. Alternatively, you may use{{subst:Stub sort}}.
No stub article should sit in only a stub category as this association is meant to be temporary. If no other category is listed, please add the standard article category that is the parent of the stub category.
Please remember to use thelist of stub categories to make sure you are putting stubs in the correct category.
If the article is no longer a stub, remove the stub template. Refer toWikipedia:Stub for more information on this matter.
If it interests you, consider checking talk pages of stub articles to see whether they've been tagged by some appropriateWikiProject. Adding a suitable project banner to a stub's talk page can help bring it to the attention of the right editors more quickly.
See the project's"To do" list for those categories which are very large and those categories for which new sub categories have recently been added and thus need to be resorted.
Category:Stubs frequently reaches staggeringly large numbers; help is always needed sorting articles into more specific sub-stub categories.
All other stub categories need watching as well, to sort out mislabeled stubs and subsort them further, if applicable.
If a large (> 800 stubs) stub subcategory interests you and there are not yet any subcategories in it, propose some subcategories atWP:WSS/P.
A longer list of oversized stub categories to be split, in order of size, is here:Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/To do. This might also be used as a holding area for proposals not yet created, and for sub-categories in need of being sorted-down into.
User:SD0001/StubSorter: provides a HotCat-style search field for searching for stub templates and adding them.
User:Danski454/stubsearch: provides a hierarchical interface for searching for and adding a stub tag.
Navigation popups: This script causes a small box to pop up when your mouse hovers over a wikilink. The box can show you the first paragraph of an article, whether it's tagged as a stub, how many categories it has, etc. Can be useful for finding stubs and for categorizing an article according to the text in the first paragraph.
PetScan: Essentially a Boolean search tool. Enter a category or template and find items that use a different category or template, find all items under a certain size, find images, etc.
AutoWikiBrowser: A semi-automated Wikipedia editor for Microsoft Windows, designed to make tedious repetitive tasks quicker and easier. It is essentially a browser that automatically opens up a new page when the last is saved. When set to do so, it suggests some changes (typically formatting) that are generally meant to be incidental to the main change. AutoWikiBrowser can create a list of articles from single or multiple categories, "what links here", the wiki links on an article, a text file, a Google search, a user's watchlist, or a user's contributions.
{{DEFAULTSORT:}}: Used to set the default sort key for an article for all categories on a page. For instance, on George Washington, {{DEFAULTSORT:Washington, George}} would cause a subsequent [[Category:United States presidents]] to be equivalent to [[Category:United States presidents|Washington, George]], not [[Category:United States presidents|George Washington]]. This is especially useful when the article belongs in many categories.
These are the project's templates. They are not the same as the stub templates used by the project.
Template{{WPSS-cat}} is used at the top of stub categories. It appears like this:
This category is maintained byWikiProject Stub sorting. Pleasepropose new stub templates and categorieshere before creation.
Template{{Stub category}} is also used at the top of stub categories. It appears like this:
This category is forstub articles relating tofoo. You can help by expanding them. To add an article to this category, use{{Foo-stub}} instead of{{stub}}.
This category is forstub articles relating tofoo. You can help by expanding them. This stub category is aparent-only category, that is, all stubs within it should be in one of its subcategories, or marked with a template that may eventually have a separate subcategory. To add an article to this category, please use the appropriate template for one of its subcategories.
Template{{Upmerged stub category}} is used on category pages where there are upmerged templates feeding into that category. It appears like this:
Template{{WPSS-new}} is used on some of the project's discussion pages, and on other pages related to stubs. It appears like this:
To avoid unnecessary redirects and reverts,please discuss any new stub type you wish to create atWikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Proposalsprior to its creation and placement in articles or tables.
Template{{WikiProject Stub sorting}} is used on the talk pages of some more editwar-prone stub templates. It appears like this:
This article is maintained byWikiProject Stub sorting, an attempt to bring some sort of order to Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can choose to improve/expand the articles containing this stub notice, or visit theproject page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.Stub sortingWikipedia:WikiProject Stub sortingTemplate:WikiProject Stub sortingStub sorting
Template{{WPSS-talk}} is used on the talk pages of some stub categories and templates. It appears like this:
Most of the discussion relating to this and other stub categories occurs atWikipedia talk:WikiProject Stub sorting. You may wish to consider leaving a note there rather than here.
For a listing of current collaborations, tasks, and news, see theCommunity portal. For a listing of ongoing discussions and current requests, see theDashboard.
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