Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-03-31/Dispatches
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Dispatches: Featured content overview
One of the holy grails of contributing to Wikipedia is writing a featured article. Featured articles are considered to be our best work, being well-written, comprehensive, factually accurate, neutral and stable. They can be de-featured if they no longer meet standards. However, if you are not a great article writer, don't panic! There are other ways you can contribute featured content to the encyclopedia.
Featured pictures
Featured pictures represent the most encyclopedic images Wikipedia has to offer. This is not the same as featured pictures on Commons, which aims to select what is best described as the prettiest pictures. Wikipedia featured pictures should also be of the highest technical quality possible.
Any freely licensed picture is eligible for featured status, however minimum size requirements are enforced for static media. Video files can be nominated for featured picture status, because they are considered to be moving pictures (hence the word movie). To become a featured picture, an image must meet the featured picture criteria and obtain consensus for promotion at Featured picture candidates in roughly seven days. There are currently 1163 featured pictures, approximately 0.04% of the eligible pictures that are here and on Commons. In comparison, there are 2085 featured articles.
Featured pictures are displayed on the Main Page as picture of the day (POTD) under the section "Today's featured picture". Commons also runs a POTD.
Pictures also have a good article equivalent on Commons, called Quality images. However, eligibility is restricted to photos taken by Wikimedians. Additionally, Valued images (not yet stable) aims to find the most encyclopedic images without putting too much emphasis on pretty pictures.
Pictures have their own peer review process at Picture peer review. In addition, the Graphic Lab can help you to improve your images. They also have a chapter on Commons, as well as the French, German, Spanish and Luxembourgish Wikipedias.
- Examples
 View from the Window at Le Gras, by Nicéphore Niépce - the earliest surviving photograph |
 Hoverflies mating in midair, by Fir0002 |
 Killing of "suspected Iraqi insurgents", by the US Department of Defense |
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 Steam turbine, by Siemens Pressebild |
 USS Shaw exploding during the attack on Pearl Harbor, by US Department of Defense |
Featured lists
- See Featured lists, criteria, candidates and peer review
We intuitively know what a list is. A featured list is one that enumerates articles whose subjects satisfy a certain encyclopedic criterion in a useful, comprehensive, factually accurate and well-constructed manner. To become featured, a list must undergo a ten-day featured list candidacy and emerge with a consensus to promote. There are currently 636 featured lists.
Lists are not eligible for good article status.
Various proposals relating to a "today's featured list" item on the Main Page have been made, some of which would require the appointment of a featured list director (for example Today's featured list proposal, another featured list proposal and List of the day), but discussion appears stalled.
Lists go through the same peer review process as articles.
- Examples
- List of snow events in Florida
- List of Indonesian volcanoes
- List of English words containing Q not followed by U
- List of molecules in interstellar space
- List of countries without armed forces
Featured portals
- See Featured portals, criteria, candidates and peer review
A portal serves as a miniature version of the Main Page for a broad subject area. Featured portals showcase Wikipedia's best content in that subject, although such content need not be featured. They should also be aesthetically pleasing, ergonomic, well-maintained and encourage contributions in the subject area per the featured portal criteria. Portals must also obtain consensus for promotion at Wikipedia:Featured portal candidates in order to be featured. There are currently 119 featured portals, comprising approximately 20% of the total portal population.
Besides featured articles, whose director is Raul654, featured portals are the only other featured content process to have formal directors, who are Dihydrogen Monoxide, OhanaUnited and Rudget.
Portals have their own peer review process.
- Examples
- Amusement parks portal
- Library and information science portal
- Business and economics portal
- Photography portal
- Physics portal
Featured topics
- See Featured topics, criteria and candidates
This is fairly self-explanatory – a featured topic is a set of exemplary articles that are somehow related. However, there is no glossing over the puny little stub on a subject that is a major part of the topic – all articles should be good articles with at least two, or 1 in 5 (whichever is greater) being featured articles or lists per the featured topic criteria (exceptions can be made for articles of limited scope). To become featured, the topic must also obtain consensus to promote at Featured topic candidates and be listed there for more than 10 days. Changes to featured topics (e.g. adding an article) should also be made through FTC. There are currently 36 featured topics encompassing 323 unique articles.
There is no such thing as "topic peer review"; individual articles can be reviewed at peer review.
- Examples
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25 articles
 Solar System |
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4 articles
Victoria Cross |
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Featured sounds
- See Featured sounds, criteria and candidates
The newest of the featured content processes, featured sounds, aims to highlight the most encyclopedic audio recordings. Any freely licensed audio file that is not a spoken article is eligible for nomination at Featured sound candidates, where it is checked against the featured sound criteria. Unfortunately, the featured sound process currently suffers from a lack of participation and nomination periods are lengthy. There are currently 14 featured sounds.
A media file, usually a sound (but usually not a featured sound), appears on the Commons Main Page as Media of the day. However, there is no featured sound designation on Commons – MOTDs are simply repeated each year unless someone changes them.
There is currently no specialized peer review venue for sounds.
- Examples
 "One small step for (a) man...", by Neil Armstrong |
First movement, Spring, of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, by John Harrison |
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| Also this week: Wikimania 2009 — Sister project interview — WikiWorld — News and notes — Dispatches — WikiProject report — Features and admins — Technology report — Arbitration report |
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