 | This is an essay on WikiProject scope. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
Over the decades of Wikipedia's existence, millions of articles have been created and with them came hundreds of WikiProjects, cabals of editors dedicated to the cause of advancing knowledge about a topic area they find fascinating. These WikiProjects almost universally declare their scope, those topics they consider to be under their stewardship. Some projects do this formally with a heading on their main page or subpage; others leave it to a short sentence in the lead or even to the title of the WikiProject itself. In theory, it should be easy to tell exactly what one might find under the purview of any properly named WikiProject. In practice, many projects have become bloated with responsibilities for articles thrust upon them with which they have only the most tenuous of connections, making it nearly impossible to set meaningful goals for the care of the knowledge they have claimed is in their stead. This is most present in WikiProjects for U.S. states.