Forum:Featured Works

"A glorious utopia of fan-fiction writers and studious readers - celebrated and complimented and in turn, complimenting the vast majority of the article writers on Star Wars Fanon."

- Jedi Master 76 on the Featured Works

This is something that I've been thinking about for a couple months. The Star Wars Fanon Wiki counts among its members many writers, and the more talented and prolific of those are able to have some of their creations achieve the label of Featured Article, and have their work highlighted on the wiki's Main Page, receive accolades, enjoy punch and pie, and other nifty little perks. It's an honor, to be sure.

However, in the past year or so, the wiki has seen a rise in the number of quality fan-fiction works. And I'm not talking the laughable ones that have two paragraphs of text about Darth Awesome and how he had Epic Adventures. I'm talking novels of over 50,000 words. I'm talking short stories with more than 6,000 words. I'm talking real works. Believe it or not, there's plenty to choose from. Heritage, anyone? Knights of the Old Republic: Convict's Dawn. Force Exile I: Fugitive. A handful of partially-complete works like Star Wars: Episode I - The Chosen One, Star Wars: Knighthood, and Star Wars: The Lost Mantra. And don't feel bad if I left your work out&mdash;these were some of the ones that came to mind when I was writing this. The point is, the stuff is out there, and it's not getting any publicity despite its quality.

This has to do with an obvious limitation in the featured article system&mdash;it's not designed for fan-fiction. I've done the DL thing, and it just doesn't mesh. To put a novel or short story or novella into article format and make it an FA, is well, impossible, now that the bar on FAs has finally been upped. So, aside from the nebulous possibility of winning something in a Wiki Awards&mdash;so far a single award once a year&mdash;(and novels/fanfics only started to be recognized last year), there's no kind of recognition or status for these articles to achieve. And, having written a number of FAs on Wookieepedia, and several fanworks here, about a 150 KB FA is the work equivalent of a decent 60,000 word novel.

I'd like to change that. And not just because I write fanfic. If it was just me, I wouldn't propose something like this. I don't have the need to elevate myself on the internet by advertising what I write. I'm proposing it for the other hard-working authors out there who write a good story and hope that people randomly decide to read it instead of thinking "TL;DR". I'm proposing it so people from other fanfic communities, where narrative is the bread and butter, not the ubiquitous encyclopediac style seen on SWF, can see this wiki as a place to express their creativity. (Cough, TF.N cough.)

So, here's what I'm proposing. We make something new to go along with the FAs and GAs, because retooling those to work with narrative just won't work. Say, we call it a featured work. Now, to clarify, what exactly this means is:
 * 1) A featured work will have a new eras icon for the work in question.
 * 2) A featured work will have an author-selected excerpt from the work displayed on the Main Page for a month (since there aren't enough to go around for a week)
 * 3) A featured work will be recognized by the community as a quality work of prose.

To gain this status, here are the requirements:
 * 1) The work must be finished, unless it is a novel (> 50,000 words). Full completion on a novel is strongly recommended, but if it is not, then it should be at least roughly 3/4 finished and have no major edits pending. What defines sufficient completion for a mostly finished work will lie in the majority opinion of the review board defined below.
 * 2) The work must be of sufficient length as to merit featured work status. A general qualifier is 50,000 words for a novel and 5,000 words for a short story, at a minimum. If other categories of work are nominated, it will be at the discretion of the review board described below as to an appropriate length.
 * 3) The work must be of sufficient quality to merit featured work status and display on the Main Page. That said, a group of three (3) people will be appointed to examine the work overall and have various powers related to judgment calls on nominations as described above. This does not entail reading the whole thing&mdash;that's optional and/or recommended. This entails skimming over it and making sure there are no massive plot holes, gobs of ridiculousness, Mary Sues, inappropriate content, and/or utter stupidity. This is not as demanding a job as, say, the Council of Seers, but will require a decent amount of participation.
 * 4) It almost goes without saying that the Featured Work excerpt to be displayed on the Main Page must be of good taste, interesting, less than 300 words, and completely free of spelling and grammar errors. All of these considerations lie with the sole purview of the 3 people chosen to place in charge of this.
 * 5) It must receive at least (2/3) votes from the review board and, say, 5 votes from the community to become a featured work. The community vote number is somewhat negotiable. This is to encourage participation, without dragging out nominations forever. 2 out of 3 of these review board members can also remove a nomination if they believe it is of particularly low quality.
 * 6) A cover is preferred but not absolutely mandatory. Better to have no cover than a bad cover.


 * One last thing:


 * The idea of having photonovels as FWs has been brought to my attention&hellip;having never read or written a photonovel, I'm sort of neutral, but I put some thought into it, and come up with these ideas. A photonovel or fan comic would need to satisfy the last 4 requirements above.
 * 1) It would have to be finished if it has less than 100 separate images, or roughly 3/4 way complete if it has more.
 * 2) It must have a minimum of fifty separate images. I'm taking a ballpark guess at a reasonable number.

Now, all this said, I considered the idea of having a two-tier system, like FA and GA, but had a hard time justifying 2 new structures. That's too much, and there aren't that many fanfics. I've seen the pertinent categories, and didn't want to get carried away on this grand experiment.

Now, the voting. Here's what you're voting about:
 * To create the featured work system and its voting/quality requirements.
 * To place a different featured work excerpt on the Main Page for each month.
 * To create the review board organization (Sorry, I don't have a snappy name based on my fanon to put here). Oh, and vote on those people too.
 * Whether or not to include photonovels as Featured Works.
 * To necessitate a Main Page redesign to accommodate the featured work box. I've talked with Vic about this already and he has promised uber-l33tness of epic proportions. Or something like that. given us lies about a Main Page redesign. I've looked into that, and Drewton is revamping the Main Page in a shadowy lair as we speak.
 * To create a new eras icon to designate featured works. Suggestions welcome.
 * To create a page devoted to featured works and their nominations, along the lines of the FAN page.

This'll last until 17 October, though elections for the board can continue even if/once the FW structure itself is complete. If it looks like it'll be approved, I'll even make the FWN (Featured Work Nomination) page(s). Then, there'll be some nominations to get a queue going. If all goes according to plan, Featured Works will start appearing on the Main Page on 1 November.

Approve the idea, with photonovels and fan comics

 * 1) TL;DR &mdash;  JM ' 76 ' Ask Archives [[Image:Sabersmilyjm76.jpg|18px]] 03:48, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 2) As long as we keep true to the consensus to use proper grammar. None of that all-caps nonsense. ;) --Victor [[Image:Vic sig logo.png|15px]] talk 03:52, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 3) --Arav the Undersith (Contact Me ) (My contributions ) 03:52, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 4) Brandon Rhea (talk) (contribs) 04:06, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 5) -- Kathkira talk  04:14, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 6) Sure, why not?-- Lord Bender Nightmare975  05:20, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 7) Damn, I thought I'd approved this... --[[Image:Darth tom sig.png|100px]] (talk) (contributions) 16:49, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 8) Convengo, los camaradas. Unit 8311 [[Image:1110 Big small.jpg|20px]] Talk!  16:51, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 9) Sounds good. -- Michaeldsuarez [[Image:Sabersmilygreend.jpg|20px]] ( Talk ) ( Deeds ) 17:07, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 10) Indeed yes. Drewton  [[Image:Era-old.png|20px]] ( Drewton's Holocron ) 17:08, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 11) Belatedly, as proposer. I forgot to vote earlier. Atarumaster88  [[Image:Jedi_Order.svg|20px]] ( Talk page ) 18:23, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 12) Vagrant Lustoid (Talk) 02:30, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Review board members

 * Don't nominate/vote for yourself.

Support

 * 1) After discussing it with her on IRC, I believe Kathkira is qualified and committed to this process and would make a good review board candidate. This endorsement signed and approved by Atarumaster88  [[Image:Jedi_Order.svg|20px]] ( Talk page ) 18:34, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 2) Seconded. --[[Image:Darth tom sig.png|100px]] (talk) (contributions) 18:40, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 3) Aye. -- Michaeldsuarez [[Image:Sabersmilygreend.jpg|20px]] ( Talk ) ( Deeds ) 18:48, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 4) Per my interactions with her on IRC. - Brandon Rhea (talk) (contribs) 19:21, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 5) Yes. --Arav the Undersith <font color=Blue>(<font color=#C3B091>Contact Me ) <font color=#00416A>(<font color=#C3B091>My contributions ) 02:02, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 6) Drewton  [[Image:Era-old.png|20px]] ( Drewton's Holocron ) 02:05, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 7) &mdash;  JM ' 76 ' Ask Archives [[Image:Sabersmilyjm76.jpg|18px]] 02:23, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 8) Vagrant Lustoid (Talk) 02:29, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 9) Of course! --Victor [[Image:Vic sig logo.png|15px]] talk 00:05, 4 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 10) Why not!-- Lord Bender Nightmare975  06:57, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 11) Unit 8311 [[Image:1110 Big small.jpg|20px]] Talk!  14:48, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

Comments
The same goes for here as for my comments on Katana's nom below. Kathkira has only voted on one GAN in the last month, in which she supported the article and said "Good", and nothing more. -- Joe Butler (Obi Maul12)  (Chow) 23:24, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

Support

 * 1) After careful screening, I believe this user has the fanon expertise to help with this, and she accepted the nom on my talk page. Atarumaster88  [[Image:Jedi_Order.svg|20px]] ( Talk page ) 06:20, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 2) Yup. --Victor [[Image:Vic sig logo.png|15px]] talk 06:43, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 3) Perfect for this job.-- Lord Bender Nightmare975  06:57, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 4) --<font color=#00416A>Arav the Undersith <font color=Blue>(<font color=#C3B091>Contact Me ) <font color=#00416A>(<font color=#C3B091>My contributions ) 08:02, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 5) Per all the above. -- Michaeldsuarez [[Image:Sabersmilygreend.jpg|20px]] ( Talk ) ( Deeds ) 12:43, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 6) Yes. Drewton  [[Image:Era-old.png|20px]] ( Drewton's Holocron ) 13:39, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 7) Unit 8311 [[Image:1110 Big small.jpg|20px]] Talk!  14:51, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 8) Per Ataru. -- Kathkira talk  06:02, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Comments

 * Seems to be a little sporadic in activity. --[[Image:Darth tom sig.png|100px]] <font color="#000001">(talk) <font color="#000001">(contributions) 16:53, 6 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Ataru, what do you mean by "careful screening"? Do you mean a series of difficult questions related to this position, or what? The reason I ask is because, after searching the history on the GAN page, Katana has not voted or even commented once on any noms in the last month. I did not look back any further than a month, since I didn't feel it to be necessary. My point is, if you're basing these noms on screening, then boy, I'd love to be screened too. -- Joe Butler (Obi Maul12)  (Chow) 23:20, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

Since when does this have anything to do with Good article voting? Someone doesn't have to take GAN voting into consideration when looking to see who would be best on this review board if they don't want to, since it has nothing to do with Good articles. Based on conversations I've had with Ataru on IRC, I believe that his "careful screening" would be her works of fan fiction and her reviews of other works of fan fiction on TheForce.Net boards, where Katana is an active member in the Fan Fiction boards. - <font color="#1A2BBB">Brandon Rhea <font color="#1A2BBB">(talk) <font color="#1A2BBB">(contribs) 23:51, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

I see. I was not aware of her reviews on TheForce.net. -- Joe Butler (Obi Maul12)  (Chow) 23:56, 6 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Rhea's done a good job of answering this for me, so I'll be brief. For one, I don't give a wooden nickel about how active someone is in GAN, and the misconception that a user's critical judgment is somehow founded in that institution is well, absurd to me. Rhea is correct-I based my screenings on a number of things, including the quality of her own fan-fiction, and her own activities on TF.N. Particularly notable was the fact that, based on her TF.N postings, she does look to be involved in SWF and seeks to promote fan-fiction as well as encyclopediac articles. As for the idea of how I pick people to be screened, I will support the candidates I choose based on the criterion I have set for what I believe is a good member of this board. Atarumaster88  [[Image:Jedi_Order.svg|20px]] ( Talk page ) 23:57, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
 * is blushing*, thanks guys. <font color="#008080">Katana <font color="#008080">Geldar  09:43, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Support

 * 1) Vagrant Lustoid first approached me about the position on IRC, and I told him that I would give him the same screening process as I'd given Katana Geldar. The fact that he volunteered means a lot, and I can personally attest to the quality of his writing. It's more than sufficient, even if he's not had the time to put the tweaks on it and post it. He's also stated that he has plenty of time to handle this job and fully understands the responsibility. Therefore, I endorse this individual for the review board. Atarumaster88  [[Image:Jedi_Order.svg|20px]] ( Talk page ) 00:45, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 2) If Ataru thinks he's good for it, then I'll support him. Since this will be hard work, much harder than simply reviewing articles, we need everyone who wants to join, IMO. Drewton  [[Image:Era-old.png|20px]] ( Drewton's Holocron ) 00:54, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 3) Good guy, looks like the one for the job. &mdash;  JM ' 76 ' Ask Archives [[Image:Sabersmilyjm76.jpg|18px]] 01:02, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 4) It's a support, but not a full one. It has nothing to do with Vagrant's abilities to do the job, but because I haven't seen him do much in this regard. I'm just going by Ataru's standards here. - <font color="#1A2BBB">Brandon Rhea <font color="#1A2BBB">(talk) <font color="#1A2BBB">(contribs) 02:20, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 5) --Victor [[Image:Vic sig logo.png|15px]] talk 05:15, 17 October 2008 (UTC)