Military history dominates writing contest
Results have been announced in the most recent "Danny's contest", a writing competition to improve Wikipedia articles. The field of military history proved to be a fertile source of material for the winning contest entries.
The latest competition, the third to be launched by Danny, was announced in September. Two previous contests were held in 2004 (see archived story). While writing contests have been held for several other languages since then, the English Wikipedia had not continued with similar efforts, although a number of Wikipedia:collaborations have been started.
Following up on Jimmy Wales's emphasis on "quality over quantity" at Wikimania 2006, the resurrected contest called for the improvement of articles that were lacking sources, noting that about 20% of Wikipedia articles fell into this category. The winner was to be the best improvement of a previously unsourced article, one relating to history or selected from Wikipedia:Vital articles, a list of subjects "for which the English Wikipedia should have a corresponding featured article."
Danny indicated that he would award a $100 Amazon gift certificate to the contest winner. He did not participate in the judging panel, which included Lar, Sannse, and Shanel. The judges also identified two runners-up, who were to receive $35 gift certificates.