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User:Tom (LT)/sandbox/WikiProject elections and referendums interview draft

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Hello again! Here we interview WikiProject Elections and Referendums. Snazzy intro pending.

  1. What motivated you to become involved with WikiProject Elections and Referendums?
    • Brexit - I was satisfied to see it finally go into effect. Shows the will of the people was respected. GoodDay (talk) 00:37, 30 August 2021 (UTC)
    • This is a kinda tough question for me to answer. I first became politically involved in 2015-16 due to the ongoing 2016 United States presidential election. I didn't edit Wikipedia much at the time, though I often read about the elections on the site and was impressed with the quality and comprehensiveness of data available. After 2016 I wasn't quite as interested in the topic, but came back during the midterms and in the run-up to the 2020 election. I started editing Wikipedia seriously during the COVID-19 pandemic and elections were a natural choice. Living in Michigan, I remembered that in the midterms we had passed a ballot measure prohibiting gerrymandering, and after a significant amount of searching realized we didn't have an article on this, leading me to create 2018 Michigan Proposal 2. Since then I've focused on documenting various other ballot measures, as those seem to have far less coverage on Wikipedia than normal elections do. Elli (talk | contribs) 05:30, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
  2. In what ways do editors on your WikiProject Elections and Referendums collaborate? Are there any goals that your WikiProject is working towards?
    • I've found interactions there, very civil. GoodDay (talk) 04:54, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
    • Many ways. Due to thousands of similar articles being in the project's scope, the coordination provided is important. For example, a 5% cut-off for inclusion in infoboxes provides a clear criteria instead of re-litigating this across many articles. Another good example, though it happened a bit before my time, is WP:NCELECT - a profoundly helpful guideline in naming articles, which can often have many possible names. Elli (talk | contribs) 05:30, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
  3. How does your WikiProject operate? How does your WikiProject approach where and how information about elections and referendums are stored?
  4. From passionate supporters, geopolitical tensions and the constant writing and rewriting of history, how does your WikiProject deal with different or impassioned perspectives of editors? And as an editor in this space, how do you separate your own perspectives whilst covering these articles neutrally?
    • If an editor is troublesome? I tend to let others deal with it. GoodDay (talk) 05:00, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
    • I've never actually ran into an editor in the project who has political views that I can't work with. There are some on articles sure, but those tend to be drive-by edits by IPs. I know there are editors who I strongly disagree with on many political issues, but have never had problems with on-wiki. For documenting a pretty controversial topic, people seem generally pretty relaxed - I guess it's kinda necessary to not get burnt out. Elli (talk | contribs) 05:30, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
  5. On the other hand, the details of many elections can be obscured by the depths of time (e.g. non recent municipal elections for hundreds of places). How do you approach editing those neglected articles? Do you have difficulty finding reliable sources as the events get older?
    • I only deal with federal/provincial/state level elections. Rarely bother with municipal levels. GoodDay (talk) 05:00, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
    • Occasionally. For example, another gap in our coverage is often state legislative elections. Finding who were majority and minority leaders (for the election infoboxes) is surprisingly hard, as well as even the number of seats won. I've found a few sources to be helpful - Ballotpedia is one, somewhat like Wikipedia, meaning their coverage of elections is often a good starting point to finding the primary sources with the results. Other times though, I just can't find certain information, and hope someone else will eventually. It's disappointing, for sure. Elli (talk | contribs) 05:30, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
  6. I imagine there is a big intersection between articles within your project's scope, and those of many other WikiProjects (e.g. historical regions and countries). How does your WikiProject fit into this wide wiki-ecosystem? Do you collaborate, and how do you deal with differences?
    • If I sense an editor is being hostile towards me, because of a position I've taken? I'll chose to ignore the editor. Such an environment is 'rare' at this WikiProject though. GoodDay (talk) 05:00, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
    • I haven't really experienced much of this. Elli (talk | contribs) 05:30, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
  7. What do you see as the greatest area of need for your WikiProject and its articles, and how can a new editor contribute?
    • I'm content with its current status. GoodDay (talk) 05:00, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
    • I'd love to see more work on United States state legislative races - as well as biographies of politicians. While not directly election articles, having comprehensive biographies help bring context and meaningfulness to the articles we have - who cares about the percentage of vote if no one knows who the candidates are? Additionally, these can be very helpful when trying to put together information on past elections - see my above comment about past leaders in state legislatures. Elli (talk | contribs) 05:30, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
  8. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
    • No. GoodDay (talk) 05:00, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
    • I appreciate you reaching out for this interview! Please feel free to follow up if you have any more questions for me, also feel free to edit my answers if I've been too verbose. Elli (talk | contribs) 05:30, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

That's it for this month; please feel free to suggest a WikiProject for an interview (or interview a WikiProject yourself!) here

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