Forum:Proposal - Selection of Featured Articles

Proposal – Selection of Featured Articles

I, Squishy Vic, propose a change to the way featured articles are to be selected in the future. The reason I come up for this, is basically because the voting process for featured articles has not been going very well. For example, instead of users voting support for an article because it meets featured article requirements, they are voting because the article is their friend’s. That is not the way featured articles should be selected, because some friends realize that such articles are not featured article quality, while others do not. I got this idea mainly from our bureaucrat C3PO the Dragon Slayer. He said the following:

"What we need is a more determined way to select featured articles, not nominate them. Failed attempts to acquire featured status should provide excellent constructive criticism, which is often what many of the authors here are seeking when they put up their article. The reason every random article is being put on the Main Page is that votes are issued because "he's my friend and I owe him one," instead of "this is a great article.""

- C3PO the Dragon Slayer

So, my proposal is this; give the Decreton Lords a true and meaningful job, which would be to select the featured articles in a specific way. Here is, in a detailed fashion, how a featured article would be selected by the Decreton Lords. Please read the following very carefully before voting either way.


 * Process#1:
 * A user, who has been working on an article of his/hers for awhile and believes it to be up to featured article standards, decides he/she wants to “nominate” his article to become a featured one. What he/she does is message any of the five Decreton Lords notifying them of this. The Decreton Lord who was messaged then creates a page (such as DL:Article name) where the article will be critiqued and reviewed. The Decreton Lords will give all their suggestions and complaints about the article. Once their complaints are satisfied, the user’s article will be voted on, only by the five Decreton Lords. They must come to a unanimous decision in order for an article to become featured, which means all five of the Decreton Lords must support the article to make an article featured.


 * Process #2:
 * A Decreton Lord is closely watching an article and sees one he believes to be of featured article status. He then creates a page (such as DL:Article name) where the article will be critiqued and reviewed. The Decreton Lords will give all their suggestions and complaints about the article. They then will notify the creator of the article they wish to make their article FA, and then the creator can get to work on the article (to make it up to FA status). Once their complaints are satisfied, the user’s article will be voted on, only by the five Decreton Lords. They must come to a unanimous decision in order for an article to become featured, which means all five of the Decreton Lords must support the article to make an article featured.

Thank you for reading the proposal. Please vote on it and let me know what you believe should happen. This policy will be better than the nominating and voting process because users will all have a fair chance at getting an FA article, since no one will be cheated out of votes, whether it be due to users supporting an article simply because it’s their friend’s or whether it be because user’s are voting against someone’s article because their friend’s (or their own) article is running at the same time.

In a nutshell, the Decreton Lords will get to be one-on-one with a user and their article to put it up to FA status.

One last note; If this policy/proposal is to pass, then the voting policy will still be in tact, in case anyone was wondering. It just won't apply to FA voting anymore, since only the Decreton Lords will vote on such things. Everything else, such as UOTW or IDRIVE or PDRIVE or a proposal, the voting policy still would apply.

-- SV undefined =Voting=

Support (7)
Vote here if you support this proposal; make sure you state your reasons why, or your vote will be voided.
 * 1) Well, my reasons are above. I proposed this policy. Basically, so users can get a fair chance at getting an FA and so the voting process can be much easier. Plus, a lot more articles can be selected for FA status. Most importantly, the "one-on-one" is what is the best part.SV undefined
 * 2) I think this would indeed give us better articles as they'd be reviewed by five senior member of SW Fanon (whom all write greate featured articles, not to sound selfish or anything, but I'm not referring to myself) and there wouldn't be votea such as "I'll vote, he's my friend and a great guy" when it should be "I voted because the article is great". I mean, it's awesome if you have friends and everyone should have one or two, but just because you're somebody's friend doesn't mean that their articles would automatically be as great as the person. --Jack Phoenix (Contact) 09:01, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
 * 3) I think if this passes the DL count should be upped(SP?) to 7, since its all in their hands. Also, I like the override idea.
 * 4) I am sick and tired of people who nominate their articles or their friends because they "owe them one" or something like that, but when we&mdash;DL&mdash;give them some very constructive criticism, it falls on deaf ears. No more.
 * 5) Great idea
 * Yes, glad to see you got it up and running Vic. I support this for the same reasons it's being proposed.  I.E. Users nominate articles because they "Think it's cool."  There has also been a flood of articles that are nowhere near FA quality.
 * 1) Very Nice! However, we must also take into consideration oppositions, as I believe my pleas have fallen on deaf ears in the past. I'd like to point out, we do not oppose articles because we think the idea sux or the pictures r bad because those are opinionated oppositions. We should be opposing it because the article is lacking detail or the pictures are misplaced. Yes, no? The only other thing I can think of is trying to make weekly FA possible, which would be a hassle. -- [[Image:JM76Sig.gif]] Talk to an Admin Mind Trick Jedi Library [[Image:Sabersmilyjm76.jpg]]

Oppose (3)
Vote here if you oppose this proposal; make sure you state your reasons why, or your vote will be voided.

Alright, this is my reason for opposition to this proposal. I think it is up to other users you aren't on the Decreton Lords to vote for FA. Users who aren't admins or Decreton Lords really have no power on this site. Voting for FA is the only real power we have. If you strip this from us, it will really hurt the regular user community. Already you have hard standards for keeping FA status on an article, now it will be hard for an article to obtain that status. Sorry Victor, I didn't mean to come on like that. I prefer the system we have now.
 * Just because you think something's dumb doesn't mean you should say something like that. For now, I am declaring your vote void until you offer something constructive to your opposition vote. (If any admin thinks this too harsh, please remove this message, and Jango, I will know if you delete it, so don't try anything rash.)
 * "Stupid" is too broad a term to have any merit of reason. --C3PO the Dragon Slayer 6,000,000 forms of communication 17:45, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Don't ever falsely quote me. I never said that, so don't put it in a quote template. And you don't have valid opposition, as NKSCF said. All you say is "this is dumb". SV undefined

No. How has voting not gone well? Who says the DLs won't do the same thing?&mdash; Contact the GDE GDE's conquests  18:03, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Have we ever done something that wasn't good before? Because I'm pretty sure we haven't.

Voting hasn't gone well because the articles are being nominated for the wrong reasons and when we offer advice on how to help them, very few people listen.
 * It's explained in the proposal. And if you look at our reviews, (of the DLs) we offer constructive criticism. I helped Pinky get his Saber throw-off article to FA status; how? Well just ask him and look at the DL review of that article. He actually listened to the suggestions and critique we gave him. SV undefined
 * And come to think of it, your opposition is invalid. You must have a reason; like "I think the system works out best right now" or "I prefer voting of the people", not asking rhetorical questions. SV undefined

It totally takes away the community's voice in selection of FAs.
 * 1) Though it appears that I may be too late, my reasoning is below. - Brandon Rhea
 * 2) I agree with Brandon.&mdash;[[Image:DTylerSig.gif|150px]] Contact the GDE GDE's conquests HSM Wiki [[Image:Kuat Systems Engineering.jpg|25px]] 15:38, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

=Discussion= This section is for general discussion of the proposal, which would include comments, questions and suggestions.
 * Are you sure that having an unaminous decision is the best option? [[Image:DarthAb.gif|Jasca Ducato]] Sith Council Sith Campaign 08:18, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Well depends. If this policy passes, where Decreton Lords select the FAs, we can decide later what to have; either majority or unanimous. But my reasoning for unanimous is simple; if not all the DLs believe the article to be FA quality, then it shouldn't deserve FA status, because the DLs do (and should) know what they're talking about. SV undefined
 * A few things I'd like to mention:


 * If the Decretion Lords are given this much power, then there must be some way to override a 4-1 vote, or 4-abstinence vote. In this case, the selection should be turned over to "the people," or just any user. Chances are, if most of the Decretion Lords liked it, general users who don't have that [very very RED ] template on their user page will like it enough to override a single oppose with a unanimous, or at least two-thirds, support.
 * It might not be possible to get a featured article every week, but the week should still be the goal. It would not help to make it "article of the month." If an article is not passed for featured, the last week's featured article should be showcased for another week, until a new article is selected. Switching FA's should only be done on Sundays.

--C3PO the Dragon Slayer 6,000,000 forms of communication 13:59, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
 * This is a horrible, horrible idea. You are taking away power from the users of this site, aka. the LIFE of this site. Sure, you say that UOTW, IDRIVE and PDRIVE will still be the same, but hello: very few people actually vote in those elections, specifically the IDRIVE and PDRIVE. I am aware that I am probably too late here, since I just realized this now, but I had to express my disappoint in those that voted for this system because, to me, it seems lately that power is being taken away from members of the site. It started off first with the DLs being able to reject articles for FA status even if the members agreed that it should be a FA and now it is continuing with taking away the community’s voice in the selection of FAs. Regular users do not have all that much power here, which is a bad thing, and being able to vote for UOTW, IDRIVE and PDRIVE is not, I repeat NOT, power to decide things so very few people seem to even care about those elections. I definitely prefer the system we have now. It seems to me that many users come on here because they enjoy voting for FA articles. Maybe I’m wrong in that, but I enjoy coming on to the site each and every day and looking to see if there is a new FA nomination I can support/oppose and give constructive criticism to. I would have thought that those who have supported this proposal would have at least given thought to the possibly of the members being able to veto the DL decision. Another thing I have a problem with is something that Vic said. Vic, you said that it should be unanimous “because the DLs do (and should) know what they’re talking about” and that “if not all the DLs believe the article to be FA quality, then it shouldn’t deserve to be FA status”. Hold the phone: that is by far one of the most arrogant statements I have seen on SW Fanon. You are therefore saying that any DL who disagrees with the majority of the DLs does not know what they are talking about and that if you are not a member of the DLs then you do not know what deserves to be a FA. What if you find yourself as the one member of the DLs who disagrees with the other four. Going by your statement here, will you then end up conceding that you do not know what you are talking about? Let the power remain in the hands of the people. - Brandon Rhea
 * Rhea, I agree with what you have said. However, many of the articles nominated for FA were complete garbage.  The community frequently whines and complains about BS such as, why doesn't wookieepedia want to be our friend?  Why won't people vote for my article?  Why does everyone hate me?  No, it is because we are still very unorganized despite the best efforts of our admins.  Articles were receiving votes because "it's cool", or "good enough".  I don't want an article that is good enough, I want an article that is the BEST.
 * First of all, no one should be sitting here worrying about whether or not Wookieepedia should be our friend. We should do things the way we, the members of SW Fanon, want to, not what the standards of Wookieepedia want us to do. If we want to worry about things such as "why won't people vote for my article", "why does everyone hate me" or articles recieving votes because "it's cool" or "good enough" then what we need is a tighter voting policy for the members. Put this in the context of the real world. A majority of the United States voted for George W. Bush in 2004 and then looked back on it saying "you know, maybe that wasn't the best idea". What if suddenly a majority of Congress took the right to vote away from the people because they didn't like the way they were voting. Would any of you actually stand for that? I do not believe you would. Please, please, please do not take the power to vote away from the members of this site. - Brandon Rhea
 * First of all, no one should be sitting here worrying about whether or not Wookieepedia should be our friend. We should do things the way we, the members of SW Fanon, want to, not what the standards of Wookieepedia want us to do. If we want to worry about things such as "why won't people vote for my article", "why does everyone hate me" or articles recieving votes because "it's cool" or "good enough" then what we need is a tighter voting policy for the members. Put this in the context of the real world. A majority of the United States voted for George W. Bush in 2004 and then looked back on it saying "you know, maybe that wasn't the best idea". What if suddenly a majority of Congress took the right to vote away from the people because they didn't like the way they were voting. Would any of you actually stand for that? I do not believe you would. Please, please, please do not take the power to vote away from the members of this site. - Brandon Rhea