Wikichievements

Wikipedia's original Barnstar

“

I'll put it in my trophy room, with the othas. Click to listen — The Scout

”

Wikichievements are one of the primary ways for editors to give each other a pat on the back and a token of appreciation for their hard work. They are inspired by Wikipedia's Barnstars, which are similarly given to editors by other editors for their dedication to Wikipedia; be it for a single edit (full-page re-write), informative image upload, or for their on-going effort in improving Wikipedia as a whole.

Wikichievements can be granted by any editor to another editor, depending on the type of Wikichievement; some are reserved by moderators and admins for administration-specific tasks, whilst the vast majority can be given to any user regardless of their number of edits, the age of their account, etc., providing the person awarding the Wikichievement finds that the recipient lives up to the criteria defined in the description of the Wikichievement.

Awarding a Wikichievement

Awarding a Wikichievement is incredibly simple. Put the following code on the talk page belonging to the user you wish to award a Wikichievement:

{{Award Wikichievement
| wikichievement = Name of Wikichievement.
| from           = Your wiki username.
| reason         = Reason for awarding Wikichievement.
}}

The wikichievement parameter requires the lower-case name without punctuation at the end (such as a question mark) of the Wikichievement you're trying to award; see here for all available options.

All three parameters are mandatory.

Considerations

Receiving or awarding a Wikichievement shouldn't be considered something you do every day; they are reserved exclusively for the people who go that extra step to make the wiki a more enjoyable place. Please consider this before awarding a Wikichievement.

Displaying Wikichievements on your user page

Displaying Wikichievements on your user page require two different templates; namely {{Wikichievement table}} and {{Display Wikichievement}}. Documentation for those two templates can be found on their respective pages.

Creating a Wikichievement

Creating a Wikichievement is not simply a matter of modifying a template; in technical terms it is, but the Team Fortress Wiki community has a strong vote in what counts as a valuable contribution. As mentioned previously, the defined criteria are only guidelines as it is up to the awarder to determine whether a person has lived up to the criteria or not. That said, meaningless Wikichievements like "You've made your first edit!", "You've uploaded an arbitrary image", etc. should be discouraged versus if a person creates a highly useful infographic – which increases the quality of an article tenfold – or routinely patrols the Recent changes list to edit minor errors or provides a number of bot filters to overall increase the quality of the wiki.

To suggest a new Wikichievement, go to Team Fortress Wiki talk:Wikichievements. Create a new section prefixed with [SUGGESTION] and detail your plans below.

List of Wikichievements

Wikichievement	Author	Introduced	Notes
Silent Contributor Get a number of unnoticed but quality edits whilst appearing "invisible" to the Wiki.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	Used to award those who tirelessly work without any steps to get recognition; often seen with translators who do not participate in discussions in the main namespace, IRC, or other resources, but still contribute heavily.
Quality Editor Re-write or heavily expand an article to the point where it is considered great.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	A wiki is only as good as its worst page, or so Sun Tzu said. And I think he knows a little bit more about wiki editing than you, pal. This Wikichievement is meant for those who tirelessly work to clean up pages that have ended in a mess, and need serious revision.
Oilin' the Cogs Participate heavily in the Team Fortress Wiki community.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	In order to run a well-functioning community, interaction between its members is crucial to keep it alive. A wiki is far more than simply an editing platform; it's a discussion board, a place to exchange ideas, and a place that ensures that it itself can grow. This Wikichievement is given for involvement in discussions on project pages, IRC involvement, inter-member gaming, etc.
The Trivial Inquisition Carefully moderate new trivia additions based on the value they add to the article.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	Exactly what it says on the tin. For the people who tirelessly work cleaning out the trivia sections of the Wiki, keeping them interesting, tidy, and note-worthy.
Quick Draw Moderate the Recent Changes queue and quickly revert vandalism and low-quality edits.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	This Wikichievement is given to those who work quickly and swiftly to revert vandalism and otherwise unneeded/unwanted edits, usually from the Recent changes queue.
Bloody Merry Spread happiness on your journey throughout the Team Fortress Wiki.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	What's a community without fun and games? Certainly not a very interesting one. This Wikichievement is awarded to those who serve as an inspiration to others and provide users with laughs and lulz.
Audiophile Contribute significantly to the files of the audio category.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	When it comes to knowledge bases like the official Team Fortress Wiki, whose primary focus revolves around an interactive piece of multimedia, static text is often not enough. This Wikichievement is given to those who tirelessly upload and categorise relevant sound clips for use on the wiki pages.
Tron-o-Matic Provide technical edits to the Wiki in the form of bots, configuration, or complex styling.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	A Wiki doesn't function if the technical aspects aren't working, and a lot of the work involved requires a fair bit of technical flair, especially with regard to banners, templates, bot filters, and so on, all of which keep the quality of the Wiki exceptionally high and approachable. The Tron-o-Matic Wikichievement is for these people.
Show Me Your War Face! Create a damn fine user page.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	Do you know how to sell yourself? Well, you should do, on your user page. Because it might just earn you this Wikichievement.
It's the Little Things... Provide a large amount of edits whose primary goals are to correct grammar, punctuation, etc.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	Often, a misplaced comma or full-stop can make an article exceptionally confusing, a missing link can make the reader stop in their tracks and wonder what to do next, and a missing reference or citation can make the reader curious to see whether a statement is true or false. This Wikichievement is awarded to those who work to iron out the little kinks in the Wiki, and make it as easy to approach, one comma, one full-stop, and one link at a time.
Parlez-Vous Français? Provide help translating the Team Fortress Wiki to your language.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	The official Team Fortress Wiki supports a number of languages—these, however, are no good without adequate translations, allowing non-English speakers to take advantage of its information. This Wikichievement is granted to those who work tirelessly to translate the Wiki into their native language.
Frontier Notice Create new pages for recent contents and updates, keeping the Wiki up to date.	Moussekateer	November 2nd, 2010	Given to those few who, upon the release of a new update, rush to the Wiki to document their findings, rather than play the game for hours on end.
Photo Bomb Continuously upload and add screenshots to articles.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	An article is just not the same without an appropriate screenshot (...if appropriate). This Wikichievement is meant for those who upload, tag, improve and add images to pages, looking to make them easier to comprehend.
Market Analyst Provide helpful contributions in the form of graphs, charts, or other diagrams.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	Sometimes, an article can be vastly improved by adding interesting statistics visualisations, in the form of graphs, charts or other types of diagrams. This Wikichievement is for the people who aim to make the rest of our lives easier by providing us with appropriate diagrams in articles.
Recruiter Recruit new and helpful editors who contribute actively to the Wiki.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	Without fresh blood, a wiki can quickly become tiresome, old, and unmaintained. This Wikichievement is given to those who actively seek out new potential editors, instruct them in basic Wiki editing, and let them on their merry way – provided, of course, their recruits contribute actively to the Wiki.
Distinguished Editor Provide invaluable contributions to a Featured Article.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	Featured articles take up a large part of the Main Page. High-quality articles are considered to be featured here, and in order for one to be featured, the quality of the article must be near-perfect. This Wikichievement is awarded to those who take up large-scale projects like these, and end up with an amazing product.
He is Risen! Return to the Wiki and contribute actively after a longer hiatus.	Lhavelund	November 2nd, 2010	People come and go, but some people return, even after a longer hiatus. This Wikichievement is awarded to those who return as active contributors after having been away for a fair amount. The Wikichievement was originally called "Back From the Dead Once Again?", a reference to Medieval 2.
Jack of All Trades Contribute many quality edits over many different sections of the Wiki.	Firestorm	November 5th, 2010	This Wikichievement is for the editors which do not focus on one specific section or part of the Wiki, but dedicate themselves to improve the Wiki as a whole.
Taskmonkey Contribute to the Wiki by doing a lot of "manual edits" (such as migration of data to templates).	Lhavelund	November 7th, 2010	This Wikichievement is primarily intended for editors who do long, tedious tasks such as migration of information from standard tables to templates, and similar. Often these tasks are extremely repetitive and boring, but a definite necessity.
Videographer Create a video for the Weapon Demonstration project which gets added to the official YouTube channel.	Natemckn	January 16th, 2011	This Wikichievement is a little reward to the many contributors who have been creating videos for the Weapon Demonstration Project.
Haxtinguisher Carefully monitor the Wiki and give your time to remove hax pages (such as autotranslated pages).	Tturbo	March 8th, 2011	Some people tend to think that they can bend the rules of the Wiki system to obtain a Wiki Cap easily without giving the time and the work necessary to being valuable. This Wikichievement is awarded to people that dedicate some of their time to cleaning after those other people, because cleaning requires generally a lot of time.
Helping Hand Help other users to improve the Team Fortress Wiki with constant tips and coordination.	Epic Eric	August 23rd, 2011	It's natural that, with the constant updates and new players playing Team Fortress 2, new members may arrive on the Wiki. Most of them can get lost and easily give up if they have trouble with the Wiki code, Trivia guidelines, and so. The most helpful and community-minded members, however, will stop by their talk pages and welcome them to the official Team Fortress 2 Wiki, show them tasks they can do, and introduce them to the other members, allowing that several new contributors aid the wiki.
3D Wizard Create a 3D image for the 3D Models project.	Moussekateer	September 23rd, 2011	A wikichievement reward for those that contributed to the 3D Models project.
Credit to Team Collaborate with other users on a project.	ThatHatGuy	September 5th, 2019	Large ambitions come with large responsibility, but these users know that many hands make light work. This Wikichievement is given to users who work together on a project which benefits several articles.
Frivolous Fooler Make a notable contribution to an April Fools' event.	Limeaide	May 3rd, 2024	This Wikichievement is awarded to users who creatively collaborate to make our April Fools' events enjoyable and engaging.
The Practical Problems Address content issues for both English and other languages across the Wiki.	Gabrielwoj	May 3rd, 2024	This Wikichievement is awarded to editors who meticulously improve template and page content not only on English pages but across all languages, ensuring accuracy and accessibility. It should not be confused with Parlez-Vous Français? and It's the Little Things....
Team Fortress, Too Contribute to the Team Fortress section of the Wiki.	Tark	May 3rd, 2024	This Wikichievement is awarded to those who remember that we are the Team Fortress Wiki. It's also a great pun.

Retired Wikichievements

These Wikichievements have been retired, either due to being impossible to obtain or for some other reason

Wikichievement	Author	Introduced	Retire date	Notes
Lagg Pleaser Successfully infiltrate and improve one of Lagg's most carefully monitored pages or avoid irritating him in one life.	Lagg	March 8th, 2011	November 24th, 2023	Most can agree that this is an achievement in itself.

Template listing

• {{Achievement notification}} is used to display the styled box.
• {{Award Wikichievement}} is used to award other users Wikichievements.
• {{Wikichievement table}} is the barebone "trophy case" used to display the Wikichievements you have earned on your user page.
• {{Display Wikichievement}} is the template used within {{Wikichievement table}} to display the individual Wikichievements.
• {{Wikichievement}} contains all the individual Wikichievements, and is thus the primary template used for this purpose.

Special thanks

• Lhavelund for creating the Wikichievements.
• Seb26 for re-writing the {{Wikichievement}} template the first time.
• WindPower for help creating the templates.
• RJ for re-writing it a second time and troubleshooting the code.

External links

• Wikipedia's instructions for awarding Barnstars