Wikimedia CEE Hub/Microgrants/report/Filling the Gaps: Western Armenian Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

Status: Approved report

Filling the Gaps: Western Armenian Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

By: ShahenWasHere

The Filling the Gaps microgrant successfully achieved and went far beyond its main goal of addressing key informational gaps on Western Armenian Wikipedia while engaging and motivating the community. The project far exceeded expectations, resulting in 315 new and 19 substantially improved articles—over double the original target. Beyond numbers, it significantly boosted editor activity and visibility within the diaspora, proving that focused, incentivized edit-a-thons can effectively strengthen smaller language communities on Wikimedia projects.

full report...

We organized an online edit-a-thon focused on creating and improving essential articles missing from Western Armenian Wikipedia. The event was open to both experienced editors and newcomers from Armenia and the global diaspora. To encourage quality participation, we offered small financial incentives to the top five contributors. As a result, over 315 Wikipedia articles were created or improved—significantly surpassing the original goal of 150–200. The project also strengthened editor engagement and laid the foundation for ongoing community collaboration.

Additional part of the report (Lessons learned)

Lessons learned

The Filling the Gaps project was a major success, both in impact and in community engagement. While the number of consistently active editors (around 13-15) was slightly lower than our initial projection, the overall outcome far exceeded expectations. Together, participants created over 315 new articles and substantially improved 19, surpassing our original target of 150–200 by a wide margin.

This outcome confirmed that even a focused group of motivated editors can make an extraordinary impact when given clear goals and support. The model proved both scalable and sustainable, inspiring us to continue with Filling the Gaps – Part Two to build on this strong foundation and further strengthen the Western Armenian Wikipedia community.

Financial report

Financial report for your project
Type of expense	Description	Amount (EUR)	Notes
Prizes	Prizes for Top 5 Participants	400
Accountant	Accounting Fees	50
Fees	Bank Transfer Fees	80	Higher than expected
Promomotion costs	MailChimp payment for maintained upgraded newsletter outreach	50
Operational costs	-	20

Achieved metrics

We managed to achieve all our target metrics. Main results in the following table:

Achieved Metrics
Metric	Target	Result	Comments
150-200	New or improved articles	334	We had a much higher result, almost double what we had initially hoped for, marking this edit-a-thon one of our most successful initiatives yet.
Active Editors	20	13	We had higher expectations based on our monthly active editor numbers, but realized not all would want to participate in an edit-a-thon.
Organizers	2	2	N/A