Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-02-18/Dispatches

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Dispatches: FA promotion despite adversity

By Karanacs, 18 February 2008

Happyme22 successfully brought both Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan (the subject of his first Wikipedia edit in February 2007) to Featured Article status in 2007. Happyme22 was an inexperienced user when he first nominated Ronald Reagan in March 2007, but through its record five FA nominations, he was accepting of all feedback, and kept a positive attitude. Happyme22 worked diligently both to grow as an editor and improve the articles, culminating in the promotion of Ronald Reagan in August 2007. Learning from his mistakes, Happyme22 brought Nancy Reagan through peer review and a successful WikiProject Biography A-class review before nominating it for FA status in October 2007. This nomination remained active for over three weeks as there was a great deal of comment from FA reviewers. One of the most heated issues was how to refer to the subject. She had achieved some degree of fame under her maiden name, and there was concern that readers would be confused that a reference to "Reagan" meant Ronald Reagan, instead of her. The discussion resulted in a consensus update to the Manual of Style for Biographies to provide further guidance for similar articles. The article was promoted on its next nomination in November 2007 with no users opposing.

DrKiernan had an equally exciting journey to FA with Mumia Abu-Jamal. The article was repeatedly brought to FAC by various sockpuppets of banned user DavidYork71, who used the sockpuppets to attack any reviewers who opposed the nomination. DrKiernan took charge of the article and rewrote it almost completely, despite the banned user's continued disruption attempts. The article was promoted to FA status in February 2008, adding to DrKiernan's featured article contributions and Featured article review "saves", mostly in the area of royalty and nobility.
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