OKA/Checklist

This page contains the instructions provided to OKA grant recipients for translating Wikipedia (WP) articles. For transparency, it is publicly available. OKA editors are usually new, with no prior experience in editing Wikipedia.

This checklist summarizes the key actions that are required for every new page published in Wikipedia. More detailed guidelines can be found in the Instructions for editors.

For translations to be published into the EN Wikipedia, it is mandatory to use the “Articles for Creation” tool and submit your draft for review instead of publishing it directly.

Terminology

In this document, the following terms are used:

• Source language: the language you are translating pages from (e.g., Spanish)
• Target language: the languages you are translating pages into, i.e., the languages in which you will be publishing articles (e.g., English)

These instructions are primarily written for translating into English Wikipedia. For publishing or editing articles into other languages of Wikipedia, please refer to this page.

Checklist

Before starting to work on an article:

1. Pick an article from oka.wiki/tracker
2. Check the article’s “Notes” column
3. Google search to ensure no equivalent or highly similar article already exists in the target language (if you have doubts, please add a comment tagging infookawiki or any of the admins)
4. Start recording your time at Clockify
5. Update oka.wiki/tracker with:
   1. Your Wikipedia username, to reflect that you are working on the article
   2. The status of the article (“in progress”)
   3. The working title of your article in the target language (it doesn't need to be final yet)

Important: The title is the most important thing to get right and it can be hard to change. If you have any doubt about it, check with your Team Manager, other translators, or start a new question topic here

Before publishing (or while working on your draft):

1. Proofread your article manually and in detail:
   1. Sense-check every sentence. “Does this make sense in the target language (TL)? Do I understand what is being said?”
   2. Bold only in the lead section (for the name of the article and its synonyms)
   3. List both the target language name and the original name in the first paragraph (if relevant)
   4. Italicize non-target language terms
   5. Translate the references when relevant (e.g., notes, quotes, etc.)
   6. Use consistent formatting throughout the article
   7. Maintain all original formatting (e.g., italics, links) of the source language (SL) when relevant but check on a case by case basis
   8. If a blue link in SL becomes red in TL, use Template:interlanguage link if you can, otherwise leave it red in TL
   9. Make sure red links are accurately translated
2. Make sure the working title is the best title option for your article
3. [EN Wiki only] Add a short description (if necessary)
4. Check similar articles in the target language and add relevant templates if needed
5. Address any relevant "Notes" from the Wiki pages tracker
6. Write an "Edit summary" that indicates your article is a translation (for English articles, use the standard template from here; for non-English articles, go here)
7. Mark “Watch page” to monitor the article on your "Watchlist" after publishing
8. Add 2-10 relevant "Categories" at the bottom of the page, wrapped with draft categories (important, as drafts should not have categories!)
9. Do a final check using the “Preview” option to make sure that there are no formatting issues. This includes:
   1. Titles
   2. Images & Media
   3. Tables
   4. References
   5. Other templates (e.g., infoboxes, cladograms, etc.)

After creating Draft

Note: for non-EN Wikis, the draft step is optional and you can publish directly in the mainspace if you prefer.

Reminder: always check your drafts, and respond to reviewers’ comments in the draft’s Talk page.

1. Add the OKA tag to the "Talk" page of your article draft (for English articles, use the standard template from here; for non-English articles, go here)
2. [EN Wiki only] Add the AfC submission template at the top of the page ({{subst:submit}})
3. Update oka.wiki/tracker as follows:
   1. Add the link to your new article (follow the pre-established format)
   2. Change the status of the article to “Submitted in AfC”
   3. Add the publishing date
   4. Add any relevant “red links” at the bottom (only when translating into English)
   5. If you’ve spent an unusually long amount of time in this article, add it to the “Notes” column of the Tracker spreadsheet
4. [Non-EN Wikis only] Publish article normally into Mainspace (without using AfC)
5. Stop time tracking

After publishing in Mainspace

1. Link your article to its source language equivalent (“Tools” side menu > “Add interlanguage links”)
2. Remove the Draft categories template wrap, so that categories show up
3. Move the Talk page of your draft to mainspace:
   1. If Talk page already exists in mainspace: ensure it contains the OKA template, and delete the “Draft talk” page
4. Find 3-5 other articles related to your new article (check the tracker's "Notes" or do a quick search), then link your article in them. These links can be:
   1. Direct links from within paragraphs
   2. “See also” sections at the bottom of the page (if there isn't a "See also" section, you can create one)
   3. “Main article” or "See also" templates under titles
   4. [Optional] Create redirects using alternative versions of the article's title