Wikipedia:WikiProject Conservatism/DYK For Newbies

Introduction

Did you know ...that in the U.S., the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and its Republican counterpart promote the election of members of their respective parties to the United States Congress? (2004-07-29)

There is a no shortage of official publications about the always fun and surprisingly rewarding contest known as "Did You Know". This guide will tell you all the things the other guides were afraid to put in print. Or electrons, as it were. Read. Enjoy. And remember: if in doubt, nominate!

Just how hard is it?

Did you know...that Nikki Haley of South Carolina is the first Republican Indian American state legislator in the USA? (2007-01-06)

I have some good news for you: it’s not that hard at all. It just takes a modicum of OCD to make sure the article meets the primary rules, the supplemental rules, the overlooked rules. But all kidding aside, there’s only one thing you need to know about the review process: DYKCHECK is your friend. DYKCHECK is a handy script (Wikijargon for an app) that checks your article against the primary criteria of newness and length. An article must be no more than 7 days old, and at least 1,500 characters of prose. There is a plethora of “exceptions” to this but for now we’ll just K.I.S.S. If you’re your article passes DYKCHECK then you’re most of the way to the Main Page.

Strategy 1: D.I.Y. article

Did you know... that an anti-abortion movement commercial, featuring a depiction of President Barack Obama, was CatholicVote.org's first advertisement and recorded over 700,000 hits? (2010-10-04)

Strategy 1 is where you write your own article from scratch. Wikipedia has dozens of great guides on writing articles--this one comes to mind--so no need to trample over well-trodden ground. I’ll just say this… Make sure your article has at least three solid sources that cover your topic in depth. The last thing you want is for your article to fail notability and get deleted before it even gets to the Main Page. Last thing, add our project banner to the Talk page {{WikiProject Conservatism|class=|importance=}}.

A picture’s worth a 1,000 views

This section is for the over-achievers out there. The old saying goes, “A picture’s worth a 1,000 words,” but in this case, “A picture’s worth a 1,000 views!” The key to maximizing pageviews is to get your hook placed in the lead spot of the DYK area on the Main Page. Think of it as the pole position. The lead spot gets the most attention and that means bonus views! And if you include an image with your nomination it greatly improves your chances nabbing the lead spot. But there’s a catch, and this is a big one, the image has to be “free.” And unless you took the picture yourself or it's in the public domain, this can get a little tricky when you take into account licenses, copyright, etc. American editors are lucky since all works of the Federal Government are public domain. Here’s a chart you can use to determine the copyright status of your image:

The "nom"

Did you know... that the picture in the Labour Isn't Working poster was used by both the UK Conservatives and the US Republicans in their respective 1979 and 2012 election campaigns? (2013-01-11)

So your article is ready to go. If you haven’t already, now is the time to run DYKCHECK. You’ll also want to write the “hook.” This is the catchy, sometimes quirky, hopefully clever as frak 1-liner that will actually appear on the Main Page, so make it good. Here are some pretty good tips for writing the perfect hook. Make one last check of the rules to make sure you’ve crossed your T’s, and go here to nominate your article. A reviewer will check the article against the criteria and get back to you. Be patient. The process from nomination to appearance on the Main Page can take several weeks. Feel free to invite a project member to review your nomination. Post your request here.

What’s next? The A-Team

If you’ve made it this far, then congratulations are in order. You will be receiving some Wikilove soon from a severely overworked severely underpaid bot. But there's one last thing, especially if this is your first DYK: you'll want to make a copy of it for your scrapbook. The problem is the Main Page changes all of the time. Once your DYK cycles off that's it. However, you can easily make a permanent copy at the Wayback Machine. Just enter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and click SAVE PAGE. You’re probably eager to continue improving the article. One of the best ways to get your article to the next level is WikiProject Conservatism A-Team. To get involved in one of our exciting collaborations click here.

See also

• Showcase highlighting all DYKs within WikiProject Conservatism