Speaking of running up contribution numbers, Pip, I was working to clear out some top level notables categories the day before yesterday, and noticed a couple of things:
First, a lot of profiles have a category applied to their profile which places them somewhere down the notables category hierarchy, but they also show up in [[Category:Notables]], which should have no profiles in it at all, only subcategories.
(Remember that one of the principles of adding categories is to use the lowest level category that applies. So, for example, Pierre Abélard [whose profile I can't edit because I don't have the Pre-1500 badge] should be in the French Notables category, or even have a category created for French Philosophers and/or French Theologians and placed in there instead. [Actually, probably both, since there are plenty of other French Philosophers and French Theologians who should be placed in those categories as well.])
The reason for profiles to show up in both places is because, in addition to the more specific category, those profiles have either the Notables Template or the Notables Sticker. If either one of those is added to a profile, then it automatically shows up in [[Category:Notables]]. The way to fix that is to add the category where they should be using a parameter:
For profiles managed by the Notables Project, that would be the Notables Template, with a pipe (|), and then the category to use. Thus, for Abélard, it might be:
{{Notables|French Philosophers}}
or:
{{Notables|French Theologians}}
or even just:
{{Notables|French Notables}}
if his profile was managed by the Notables Project, but it isn't, so instead it should be:
{{Notables Sticker|French Philosophers}}
or:
{{Notables Sticker|French Theologians}}
or:
{{Notables Sticker|French Notables}}
I have even seen cases where a profile had both a Notables Template (or Sticker) and [[Category:Notables]] applied, so apparently there are people out there who don't understand that the one automatically counts as the other, at least as far as adding categories goes (or that nobody should be listed directly within [[Category:Notables]].)
There are way too many cases like this for anybody to tackle on their own, but if a whole bunch of people chip in, we should be able to move all the notables at least down to the country level (or into the Living Notables category) without taking forever about it. And that means that there are lots of contributions that people can rack up. (And, when I fix one of those profiles, I usually clean up a few other issues, if I see them.)