Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Academy/Barnstars, Awards, and Honorable Mentions

As humans, we all like a little recognition for our work. Whether it is winning the parking spot for employee of the month or receiving a Nobel Prize for some major breakthrough for which the world is grateful, everyone appreciates getting a nod for their work.

Wikipedians are no different. On any given day, a number of Wikipedians receive barnstars, awards, and honorable mentions from their fellow contributors to honor and thank the editors in question for all manner of different tasks. These awards differ, depending on the tasks performed. From barnstars which honor work from a number of mainstream sources, to awards issued by individual Wikipedians to recognize unique assistance or accomplishments and honorable mentions for working on a lesser task, anyone and everyone can earn an award for almost any type of constructive edit.

This essay will serve as a walk through on the different kinds of awards offered, the general nature that the award in question seeks to honor, and the reasons for which they are given.

The beginning: earned, not given

As large as our project is, many members assume that our contributors routinely receive awards. In reality our project members have a reputation for being notoriously parsimonious about handing out our project awards (or any other award for that matter), to those who aid the project. Consequently, even very hard working editors may not receive many awards. This is by no means a deliberate policy, but the reality of a volunteer project and project members are encouraged to try to identify editors who they feel are deserving of recognition, and to either nominate them for awards through the project co-ordinators, or other mechanisms, or to issue awards personally.

It is important, however, to ensure that awards are issued for the right reasons, and are not done so in a cynical manner. As the old saying goes, anything worth having is worth working for. It is also true of awards on Wikipedia: no one should receive an award unless they earn it. Equally, you should refrain from giving yourself an award on Wikipedia. This is seen as being against the spirit of the award system, and while it is true that the purpose of an award is to honor hard work, you are honoring your own efforts. There is then no point in receiving the award. Likewise, you are not allowing anyone the chance to congratulate you for your work, so the whole exercise becomes pointless.

If you wish to receive an award, you may want to look at the Wikipedia:Reward board. This board serves as a place where Wikipedians offer barnstars and other awards to those willing to do work on requested articles. Alternatively, you may wish to consider that what goes around comes around. Therefore, if you start handing out awards, or nominating deserving editors for them, the odds are that you will receive an award sooner or later.

Barnstars

Barnstars are the standard awards on Wikipedia. They represent a wide collection of the largest fields of coverage we have. The barnstars here generally break down four ways: general fields, topics, Wikipedia-space, and WikiProject issued. Remember that anyone can give out barnstars, so if you see good work consider awarding a barnstar to that editor.

The first field covers general areas of Wikipedia work, like content building, anti-vandalism work, good ideas and good humor. These awards are the most commonly issued on Wikipedia, and are among the easiest to earn.

The second field is a little more specific, the barnstars here are intended to honor Wikipedians who have worked with articles that conform to a certain area of the encyclopedia like sports, history and technology. Earning these barnstars is a little more challenging because they are somewhat restricted by their intended fields. If you are willing to spend time on the field in question then sooner or later you are likely to earn the award.

The third field is Wikipedia space, like the topic field, this area is even more specific. The awards here are intended to recognize work with Wikipedia related functions, such as adopt-a-user work, translation assistance and administrative actions. Earning an award here is likely to take some time unless you happen to be good with foreign languages, computer coding or other high demand areas. Generally, it may take a year or more for you to earn an award in this field.

The last field is WikiProject related work. Nearly all big projects across Wikipedia have a project specific award to be issued to those who help the undertaking. Often, but not always, these awards are barnstars themselves, although every now and then a project will forgo the barnstar theme in favor of something more in line with their project scope. For example, our Military History Project award is the WikiChevrons, the chevrons being a military themed award; while WikiProject Aircraft issues the Wikiwings, a pair of feather wings in between which is the Wikipedia globe logo. Earning an award from a WP:WikiProject usually entails working with the project in question, although in some cases an award from a project can be received for outstanding assistance to the project in the course of working on an entirely different aspect of Wikipedia. For example, our project has been known to award WikiChevrons to those who have brought to our attention issues like copyright infringement on our articles, or similar exceptional work done.

To the right of this section you should see a box listing several different award categories on Wikipedia, this will give you a place to start looking into the awards we offer.

Awards and honorable mentions

Below the barnstars are awards and honorable mentions that can be bestowed on editors for completing different tasks. These are rare on Wikipedia, they are typically run from userspaces and usually require that you edit certain articles or assist with certain tasks.

Arguably, the single greatest honorable mention in this category is the Triple Crown. A Triple Crown award requires that an editor earn a DYK, GA, and FA credit, at which time the nomination is reviewed and if everything checks out their name is added to the list of triple crown recipients. Many of our members participate in the Triple Crown race, and as such have earned variants of the triple crown award.

In addition, some editors have in the past bestowed awards like Raul654 (talk · contribs)'s "Brick O' Common Sense" and Phaedriel (talk · contribs)'s "Today's Wikipedian" award (since continued by Rlevse (talk · contribs) and others as the Precious or Today's Wikipedian award), which serve to offer praise to Wikipedians who by their actions have demonstrated themselves worthy of an individual userspace award. Other awards and honorable mentions are offered as well. An incomplete list of these can be found at Wikipedia:Personal user awards for those interested in receiving such an award.

Alternatively, you can create your own award provided that the award in question is not adequately covered by an already existing award. For example, TomStar81 (talk · contribs), who freely admits to being what he calls "spellogically challenged", has issued his own spelling and grammar award to thank those who correct the spelling and grammar on the pages he edits.

Our awards

The various awards our project offers are listed on the page Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Awards, along with the winners of the "Military Historian of the Year" award and the "Military History Newcomer of the Year" award, and the names of those who have been awarded one of the A-class medals and those who have received the prestigious WikiChevron with Oak Leaves. You are more than welcome to issue any of the awards listed at the top of the page to an editor who has earned an award for hard work; however, there are a few awards that should not be issued personally.

DO NOT issue the A-class awards or the Chevron with Oak leaves award. These can only be issued by the project coordinators after consensus has been reached to award them. In the case of the A-class medals, these are earned through the A-class review process and are only bestowed on editors who improve the quality of the articles within our scope and successfully guide them through the A-class review process. After a certain number of articles pass the A-class review, the successful editor's name will be added to the A-class medal candidate page for the coordinators to check and confirm; when enough coordinators are in agreement they will receive the A-class medal.

In the case of the Chevrons with Oak Leaves, an editor must be nominated by a fellow contributor; if the coordinators agree with the rationale presented with the nomination they will support said nomination. If a majority of the coordinators are in agreement with the nominated user and the cited rationale they will award the Chevron with Oak Leaves to the candidate in the name of the project as a whole.

If these awards are not correctly issued then the project coordinators reserve the right to repeal them until such time as the proper procedures are followed for the award to be issued.

Barnstar-free zone

Although many of our editors enjoy sending and receiving awards there are some on site who are here solely for the purpose of writing for the encyclopedia. These contributors have explicitly identified their userspace as Barnstar-free zones, and ask that those wishing to express thanks for their hard work should refrain from giving awards.

Those who maintain barnstar free user pages typically have a user box or a disclaimer to this effect (for example: User:SPUI/barnstar-free), so before awarding a barnstar to someone, check first to ensure the user in question is not part of the Barnstar-free movement. If they are, then simply leave a message of thanks on their talk page.