Wikipedia talk:Featured content/Archive 2

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This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Contents 1 No-longer-featured content? 2 Featured lists and portals on the Main Page 3 Updating/Rotating 4 Nav Bar 5 Status 6 registered member content 7 TfD nomination of Template:Featured topic 8 MfD nomination of entire project Wikipedia:Featured topics 9 Featured Templates? Galleries? 10 Featured Portal 11 Featured topics and FCpages 11.1 Color 12 Any way to know dates ahead of time? 13 Featured list criteria - proposed amendment 14 TOCs transclusion 15 Featured sounds 16 Commons Picture of the Year 2006 Competition

No-longer-featured content?

An issue that doesn't seem to have been discussed: rotating through the daily FA listing (and probably the FP listing?) will bring up a lot of articles that subsequently lost their FA status. While the ease of technical implementation is a good thing, I'm not sure that presenting them this way is genuinely a good idea; in many cases, the articles are nowhere near the current FA level, and thus don't really provide an accurate picture of the quality of our featured content. Thoughts? Kirill Lokshin 02:17, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Actually, since the inception of the 'past content display' on this page I have 'blocked out' items which have lost their featured status. I don't update it every time something is 'downgraded', so a particular item which has been rolled back might be displayed a few times after losing status but I don't think that's a major problem. It is also possible that I missed some as I worked primarily from those that have been marked as 'downgraded' in the archives, but that could be resolved by checking the archives against the current lists. There is a larger pool of 'old featured' materials and I agree that standards have changed... to the point that there are probably a few hundred featured articles which would never pass if they were going through today. We could try to identify and remove those from the display list, but it would seem to make more sense to handle that through a systematic 'featured articles review' rather than the semi-random downgrading which occurs currently (basically when someone decides to make an issue of a particular article). Though... as I expect standards to continue changing that might be an ongoing thing. On the horizon there is some indication of adopting standards of actually verifying all facts in an article (not just listing sources, but actually looking up the reference and confirming that it supports the article text)... which is a standard none of our featured articles would currently meet. So long as we classify something as 'featured' I think we can display it here, and the quality of the materials displayed will improve as the quality of our listed featured materials does. --CBD 11:54, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

I currently see Breastfeeding in the featured article, which is no longer featured, can that be added to your block list? Jay32183 01:49, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Featured lists and portals on the Main Page

What's the case about FLs and FPORs (at least a link at the top right corner) being excluded on the Main Page? Is there a place to suggest them? Village Pump? --Howard the Duck 03:37, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

They're not promoted fast enough to have one a day. Plus this page is a new invention. The links in the top right of the contents page take you to info about nominations. :) --Quiddity 03:48, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Ah, although I'd FLs to appear once a week, and FPortals once a month. About nominations, I was referring on how to suggest the appearance of FLs and FPortals on the Main Page... --Howard the Duck 03:52, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Would have to be suggested at Talk:Main Page and maybe Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals). It's unlikely though, as there's already ongoing arguments about the Main Page being too long (which is partly why the <20k interlanguage links are gone). This page is due to be added to the sidebar (in place of "featured articles" link) soon though :) --Quiddity 04:02, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

But it'll be just once a week... we can use the features that's on this page, we can even remove pics, it's like replacing a pane of the Main Page. About the navbox, it's about time. --Howard the Duck 08:33, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

My own suggestion in this regards is that 'lists' are just a type of 'article'. There seems no reason that the 'article of the day' could not sometimes be a 'featured list' rather than a 'featured article'. That would take up no additional space and side-step any problem of 'not enough lists for one per day'. --CBD 13:35, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

I too think it would be a good idea to get a list or a portal on the Main Page once in a while, but I'm sure that there would be some resistence. Perhaps the easiest would be to replace one of the existing panels on the Main Page with a list or a portal once or twice a week. However, I suspect that Raul654 would not be very keen to cede control of the TFA panel. Is anyone "in charge" of the FP slot? Can it be hijacked, perhaps :) -- ALoan (Talk) 14:16, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

I believe user:Solipsist does the featured pictures. Raul654 14:19, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

It's high time a featured list gets featured. But since FLs are few, once/twice a week will be good. I'm in favor of replacing one of the panes in the Main Page, even half a pane, like the DYK pane. --Howard the Duck 05:15, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

I have raised this on Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. -- ALoan (Talk) 15:12, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Updating/Rotating

Is there a set time table for changing the mentioned "newly featured" content, or maybe an all at once thing? Asking cause portals section is abit old, there are now four newly/newer featured portals. I was gonna change, but didn't want someone planning their day tomorrow around it.  :) Joe I 11:40, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

They're all in there. Click "other featured content examples" at the top or "purge page cache" at the bottom to reload the page and see a random selection from the list: Wikipedia:Featured content/Portals. --Quiddity 19:07, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

This rotational thing I'm getting sick of already. FAs long deteriorated are getting prominence on the page. LuciferMorgan 14:44, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Would that problem be solved by removing the dates from the list of possibilities of SetDate? There are currently 816 dates on there and by my calculation there should be at most 809 if the main page version of articles that have not yet appeared on the main page have been included. Jay32183 21:35, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

That just highlights that some of them need maintenance or reviewing for FA status. And as the date is mentioned, it gives the clue that some of them are older, and might have different standards or be deteriorating over time. --Quiddity 06:43, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Well some of them have lost their featured status and still appear. I've seen at least three former featured lists this week show up as featured content. Jay32183 09:25, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

There are only 4 Former featured lists, and they're not in the rotation. Do you mean articles? You already suggested a solution to that... (or am i missing something? :) --Quiddity 21:03, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes. There are former featured articles in the rotation. Jay32183 22:53, 3 December 2006 (UTC)Why this rotational thingy??--Darrendeng 10:43, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

I'll try to find some time to remove the FAs downgraded in the past couple of months. As to the 'newly featured' section... that is Template:Announcements/New featured pages. It is usually updated when new items are promoted. --CBD 12:52, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

This has now been updated. All 'previously featured' articles have been removed from the list. After adding new pages since the last update there are now 840 'articles of the day' in the random queue. --CBD 14:55, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Nav Bar

I would like to proposed changing "Featured Articles" in the navigation box to this page... I hadn't even noticed this page before today but I think it is great and considering there is now all sorts of work featured on Wikipedia linking to "Featured articles" in the first instance isn't that great. -- PageantUpdater • talk | contribs | esperanza 23:07, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

That'll be happening any week now, as part of the sidebar redesign. :) --Quiddity 23:19, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

1. Voting isn't over yet

2. People who lost will no doubt make a fight and filibuster the results as long as they possibly can

3. Developers will say they can only do X and Y right now, and Z will require more work

4. Some people will favor immediate implementation of X and Y, and others want to wait until everything is done

5. The whole thing is pushed into another consensus gathering

6. Another vote is held

7. See #2

8. Z is still taking time to implement

9. By the time Z is ready, people already want other changes

10. See #5

11. See #6

10. See #7

11. People using other skins start whining why they don't have new features

12. Others immediately start opposing the changes to their skin and ask to leave it as is

13. See #10, #11, and #12

...

So, ahem, any week of which year do you have in mind? :) Elvarg 07:37, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

To date, I don't think anyone (including the person who originally set it up the way it is now) has objected to switching 'Featured articles' to 'Featured content'. So even if the sidebar redesign were to go down in flames (which I don't think it will) I think we could go ahead and make that change independantly without controversy. Though I would like to hold off for a bit longer to increase the number of featured lists in the random queue, maybe fill out the remaining featured portals, and fix the alignment issue on the article/portal row. --CBD 10:38, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

You refused to vote Elvarg! As much as I enjoy pessimistic cynicism, you can't complain if you don't even try :P --Quiddity 18:27, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Refusal to vote IS a vote. As much as I like the new sidebar, I think the process could have been better, and I don't want to add another gear to this ridiculous machine the sole purpose of which is to make simple matters as complex as possible.

I have actively participated in the discussion, and helped make the candidates we now have. I just don't vote.

And I'm not complaning, I'm just stating the facts :) 142.33.66.37 (Elvarg) 20:03, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Just for the record, this change to show 'featured content' on the sidebar was finally made on November 24th, 2006. As expected, this led to an immediate increase in traffic, including vandalism, and semi-protection of the featured content page. --CBD 10:54, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Status

Just some info on the content which is currently included in the random display for this page:

1. All 840 'articles of the day' which have not subsequently been demoted are included. There are currently a total of 1,194 featured articles, but 354 of them have never appeared on the Main page.
2. All 306 'pictures of the day' since March 1, 2006 are included. There are currently 653 featured pictures, but most of them which have been 'picture of the day' were so before the 'POTD row' format we use was developed. We could expand the featured pictures selection by building back 'POTD row' entries for these older images.
3. Only 42 of the current 172 featured lists are included. Adding new lists requires putting inclusion tags around sections of text to be displayed and then updating Wikipedia:Featured content/Lists. I will continue to add more entries to this as time allows.
4. All 39 currently featured portals are included. Rfrisbie has been adding new ones to the list as they are promoted.
5. None of the five Wikipedia:Featured topics are currently displayed. This is a relatively recent and not fully active type of featured content. If the list continues to grow we should consider ways of displaying these here.

The only other 'non static' section of the page is the 'new featured content' section. This comes from Template:Announcements/New featured pages, which is generally updated by various users as different types of items are featured. This used to be included on the community portal, but now appears only here and on a few pages in user space. --CBD 11:18, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

registered member content

would there be more perks to registering? could this page have some of them? i just joined so i don't know what there really is as registeration perks, i may have even joined just to run my mouth. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dieselweasel (talk • contribs) 18:58, 15 December 2006 (UTC).

i must be missing how noob was fit in there without me noticing. i didn't know it was html and not some crazy thing made up by the webdesginer to be more 'user friendly' , HagermanBot.Dieselweasel (talk • contribs) 13:11, 15 December 2006 (CDT).

TfD nomination of Template:Featured topic

Template:Featured topic has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you. -- this newly created project is adding a big "constellation of stars" graphic on the main article space page of many FAs in contravention of the "no metadata on main article space" rule. please comment at the TFD discussion. 195.114.94.194 18:41, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

MfD nomination of entire project Wikipedia:Featured topics

The topics project is up for deletion at WP:MfD, in case someone here wants to weigh in on the issue. --Arctic Gnome 07:02, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

jeez. Just H 02:30, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

ok. It's closed now. Man, Wikipedia wouldn't be the same without a featured article on the front page. Just H 02:32, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Featured Templates? Galleries?

Is there any thoughts of having featured templates or featured galleries? Please reply at my talk page. TonyTheTiger 22:41, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

I'll put a link/notice on your talk page, but I'm going to reply here so that others can see the answer. The idea of 'featured templates' has been suggested before, but seems to me unlikely to happen because 'featured' status is meant to indicate that the material is something which shows people the benefits and strengths of Wikipedia. A well written and sourced article makes the case that Wikipedia is a good encyclopedia. A creative or effective template can be very important in helping to format or support that work, but isn't in and of itself something you could show to an 'outsider' to demonstrate the value of Wikipedia. There have been discussions of some sort of alternate program for 'recognition' of particularly valuable templates, but nothing which has gotten off the ground that I have seen. As to 'featured galleries'... I'm not sure what that would entail. We have featured pictures, but would the intent here to be showcasing collections of images which are particularly well selected / organized? Theoretically, I could see something like that if there were a group of pictures on an important theme... i.e. an individual photo of 9-11 might not qualify as a 'featured picture', but a well designed gallery of such which captured the event might be valuable. However, I haven't seen any previous discussion or efforts along those lines. --CBD 13:03, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

It should be noted that featured content serve as an additional motivation to improve our resources. Although featured templates might not be an important advertising component for outsiders it could serve as a motivational tool for editors. Many editors would increase their efforts at creating usful and creative templates that improve the efficiency of wikipedia as a resource if there were a featured template. We know that editors pursue WP:FA and WP:FP in a way that improves the quality of the encyclopedia. Better templates could better integrate the research.

Featured galleries would be the picture analogue to featured topics. TonyTheTiger 21:58, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Featured Portal

With this page linked to from the main nav bar, I think featuring the "War" portal is a bit much. How about a "Peace" portal? -- Macduff 15:05, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

They're randomly selected (on each page refresh) from the list of 44 Featured portals. If you create Portal:Peace and develop it to featured status it can be included :) —Quiddity 19:42, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

And from the realm of the weird... a good source for links and info on 'Peace' is... Portal:War. They've got a whole sub-category on it. :] --CBD 21:16, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Somebody complained that it was biased. ;-) Kirill Lokshin 21:43, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

I tried to resist the urge to just reply here with Ministry of Peace ;) —Quiddity 21:53, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Featured topics and FCpages

Someone has taken Featured Topics out of the {{FCpages}} template. I understand why people wouldn't want a new project grouped with the other ones, but I now have to wonder: how FT can let people know of its existence if there is not link to it on FA, FL, FP, and FPort? If no one has a way to find it, it will never grow. --Arctic Gnome 17:32, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

The 'topics' links were also removed from Template:Announcements/New featured pages and Wikipedia:Featured content/Info, all by the same user. I restored them on the /Info sub-page here because 'featured topics' (along with 'featured sounds') have always been included there... even when both of them were completely unused. The reason for that being pretty much what you refer to... advertising that these projects for other types of featured content exist. I can see keeping 'FCpages' limited to active projects, but since FT has been picking up lately I think it makes sense to include there as well. --CBD 18:00, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I've added the rest of the references to FT back. Calabrese went around deleting all references after his additions were reverted. —Quiddity 19:31, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Color

I changed the featured topics color to #F2FFE6 (hue 90) to match the color scheme used in the rest of the top level pages, as summarized in the table at the top of Wikipedia talk:Colours. Hope that works for everyone.

It might be a good idea to change the "featured" header box standard color to something else that matches, instead of #FFF7E6 . Possibly the blue (hue 210) as used in "Featured content procedures", and all the help pages? eg this diff. —Quiddity 19:16, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree that we should have different color schemes for each of the content types and then one overall which is used for {{FCpages}}, the top header on each 'featured' type page, Wikipedia:Featured content/Info, et cetera. I like the blue, but dunno if everyone on the sub-projects would want to switch over to that (from the current tan) for the headers of each page. --CBD 01:54, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

I've made the proposal at each of the subpages, and asked them to reply here. —Quiddity 21:42, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

I like it :) If you have any questions, please contact me at my talk page. Ian Manka 21:52, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

• Support hue 210 - I agree that we should use hue 210. All of the projects use colours in 60 degree shifts on the table at the top of Wikipedia_talk:Colours. Using the last of those as the main FC colour just makes since, all five projects would match it. --Arctic Gnome 22:10, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
• Go Colts! Blue! ;-) Rfrisbie^talk 00:40, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Done. If I missed or messed anything, let me know or fix it :) —Quiddity 21:04, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Should the tags on talk pages also be blue? I tried making {{featured}} blue in the sandbox and it looks okay. --Arctic Gnome 21:45, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

I think their talkpage location trumps their featured-content-relatedness. Otherwise long lists like at Talk:TGV would become distractingly colorful (because every subproject would want to color their box individually). It'd need to be proposed as part of a color-palette overhaul of everything at Wikipedia:Talk page templates at the least. Maybe in 2008 ;) —Quiddity 23:41, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Any way to know dates ahead of time?

Is there an easy way to find out when a particular article is going to appear here? It'd be nice to know when more traffic (and thus vandalism, etc.) can be expected so that FA authors/maintainers are prepared. --Spangineer^ws (háblame) 01:37, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

See this month's archive (which is linked from the main page) or the main page overview: Today's featured article. If you have any questions, please contact me at my talk page. Ian Manka 02:01, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

I meant on this page—for example, how could I have known ahead of time that the FA from August 14, 2006 was going to appear on Wikipedia:Featured content today? --Spangineer^ws (háblame) 02:27, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Er, a new one is shown at random every time the page is purged, so there's nothing to know here. You can make new items appear continuously just by clicking the link. (Maybe it should be placed more prominently, incidentally? People might miss it in the intro.) Kirill Lokshin 03:09, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Heh.... well, sorry about that. I edited the intro slightly to make it more clear for people with short attention spans, but it was probably ok before too. --Spangineer^ws (háblame) 04:49, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Featured list criteria - proposed amendment

There is a proposal to amend the Featured list criteria at Wikipedia talk:Featured list criteria#Proposal. The propsal is primarily intended to clarify certain matters. Comments would be apreciated. Tompw (talk) 14:34, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

TOCs transclusion

At Wikipedia: featured content/Lists, I encountered a list that had three sections within the <onlyinclude>, transcluding them and thus a TOC onto the page. I tried to insert __NOTOC__ but it seemed to mess up the transclusion. Somebody want to try and fix this? Thanks. --Fbv65edel / ☑t / ☛c || 19:54, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Do you remember which list it was? They shouldn't have that many sections and I haven't been able to find one which does. Also, the FC page itself has a 'NOTOC' setting and thus would take care of this issue when the list is transcluded here. --CBD 01:14, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, I'm afraid it was lost once I edited it, but as I recall it had something to do with ducks, or some type of bird? --Fbv65edel / ☑t / ☛c || 16:32, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Featured sounds

The featured sound project is trying to get off the ground with a nomination. Which, if they do remain active, will eventually mean we need a color scheme and eventually randomized sample type. Still a long way to go for that, but people might want to take a look over there. --CBD 21:57, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Commons Picture of the Year 2006 Competition

Interested in honouring the best of the best? Vote now in the Commons Picture of the Year competition 2006 Voting to select the finalists is open until 14th February.

The arrangements for the Commons Commons:Picture of the Year 2006 competition are now complete, and voting has opened today, Feb 1st. All Commons Commons:Featured Pictures promoted last year are automatically nominated. --MichaelMaggs 12:22, 1 February 2007 (UTC)