Wikipedia:Good article initiatives

Reviewing initiatives:

Several initiatives have evolved as part of efforts to decrease the reviewing backlog at Wikipedia:Good article nominations (currently 730 out of 830 nominations listed). These include:

Backlog drives

GAN Backlog Drives are one-month-long efforts by the Wikipedia community as a group to reduce the backlog of articles nominated at WP:GAN. The coordinators and goals for each drive are listed on the respective drive page. Awards are given out to individuals who help reduce the size of the backlog.

Mentorship

Good article mentors provide assistance and feedback to editors who are new to reviewing. If you are interested in reviewing but are not sure where to start, requesting a mentor can make the process easier.

Mentors can:

Help find an article suitable for a new reviewer to review
Explain any of the good article criteria and how to assess them
Check a review to make sure it was done correctly
Answer any other questions about how to review a good article nomination

Mentors are not expected to complete any part of the review. Mentorship is optional, and you do not have to request a mentor to begin reviewing.

Review circles

Good article review circles (GARC) are for people who want their Good Article Nomination (GAN) reviewed and are willing to review someone else's GAN. GARC is not quid pro quo or horse trading arrangement, because those approaches can lead to low-quality reviews, quick approvals, and a culture of complacency. The GARC model uses groups of four users who list their GANs and form a circle. In this setup, no one reviews the GAN of someone reviewing their own work, reducing pressure to pass the work and ensuring more thorough reviews.

Pledges

The Good Article nomination process relies on having as many reviews performed as there are nominations to avoid having a long backlog. To speed things along, some users make pledges to review other articles once their own nomination is under review, such as:

When my article gets reviewed, I will review one other article.
When my article gets reviewed, I will review one other article, giving priority to nominations with review pledges.
When my article gets reviewed, I will review two other articles.
When my article gets reviewed, I will review two other articles, one of them with a review pledge if possible.
When my article gets reviewed, I will review an old nomination.
When my article gets reviewed, I will review a nomination by a newbie.

Anything goes as long as it involves promising at least one review.