Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-06-06/Features and admins

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Debate over whether all content has feature potential

By Spangineer, 6 June 2005

Sparked by the nomination of Starfleet ranks and insignia for featured article status and the nominations of List of religious topics and List of lists of mathematical topics for featured list status, debate broke out on both fronts, addressing the issue of whether or not all non-deletable content is inherently featureable.

Last week also included the promotion of the first two featured lists. In addition, there were seven new administrators, nine new featured articles, and five new featured pictures.

If it's not deleted, can it be featured?

A number of users argued this week that some content, while not deletable on Votes for Deletion, is inherently ineligible for featured status. The nomination of the article Starfleet ranks and insignia on featured article candidates led to complaints that "fancruft" was becoming too prevalent on wikipedia, and that it should not be featured. Opposition focused on the presence of unverifiable information like obscure ranks that were the results of speculation by Star trek fans.

Featured Article Director Raul654 insisted that any article whose subject is notable enough for inclusion in the encyclopedia can theoretically be a featured article. After a lengthy discussion, most participants agreed to focus on actionable objections as provided by the guidelines for voting on candidates. Accordingly, some of those objecting to the topic rephrased their criticisms to address the content of the article; in the end, the nomination still failed.

Meanwhile, debate ensued over whether or not the featured list criteria should also include a requirement that all objections to list promotion be actionable, thereby asserting that all non-deletable lists are featureable. Two nominations in particular, List of religious topics and List of lists of mathematical topics, were the subject of much discussion, as some users suggested that they were inherently not comprehensive, and thus could not satisfy the feature criteria. Others argued that they were "reasonably" comprehensive, and suggested that it if any list survives votes for deletion, it should be eligible for featured status. The difficulty of providing references for such lists was also a concern, leading to the proposal that references not be required of all featured lists.

New admins

Since last week, seven new administrators were promoted, including Paul August (nom) and FreplySpang (nom), who were both promoted unanimously, as well as Seabhcan (nom), Thryduulf (nom), CesarB (nom), Marine 69-71 (nom), and Ugen64 (nom).

Featured articles

Ta bu shi da yu just couldn't stay out of the building—according to his user page, he's back for the "5:30 – 6:00 PM EST matinee", which apparently involves creating high quality content. His Windows 2000 article was promoted this week, and a spinoff from that article, Architecture of Windows 2000, is currently a candidate, alongside another article of his, Architecture of Btrieve. Additionally, Polish September Campaign was promoted, giving Piotrus his tenth featured article.

New featured articles in the last week were Gbe languages, The Brothers Karamazov, Polish September Campaign, Our Gang, Swedish language, Robert A. Heinlein, Sudoku, Windows 2000, and Blitzkrieg. The total for May was 33 articles, an increase over April's 31 but still significantly lower than the 46 promoted in March.

Mahatma Gandhi and Nuclear weapon, both featured article removal candidates, kept their featured status, while Assassination and Iraqi insurgency were both nominated for removal, joining current candidates Computer security and Copyright.

Featured lists

Two featured list candidates were promoted: List of popes and List of North American birds. These are the first of their kind, as the idea of having featured lists is just getting started (see archived story). Ten additional lists are currently candidates.