Dispatches: Featured article milestone
The English-language Wikipedia reached a milestone with the promotion of its 2,000th article to Featured Article (FA) status on 10 April. These 2,000 articles represent the best 0.09% of articles on Wikipedia—almost one in a thousand articles. Five articles were promoted simultaneously and share the distinction of being the 2,000th promotion: Walter de Coventre, Maximian, El Señor Presidente, Lord of the Universe, and Red-billed Chough.
The Featured article process (FAC) was initiated in June 2003 as "Brilliant prose"; it reached 500 featured articles in February 2005 (see archived story) and the 1,000th FA was promoted three years later, in June 2006 (see archived story). Although deterioration over time and rising standards in what constitutes Wikipedia's best work have meant that some previously promoted articles have had their Featured article status removed, the net number of FAs continues to rise, from an average of 44 articles promoted a month in early 2006 to a current average of almost 70 a month. In the first three months of 2008, 227 articles were promoted to FA and 25 were delisted, providing a net increase of 202 and bringing the total number of FAs to 1,981. In the first nine days of April, 14 articles were promoted, and early that morning (UTC) FA Director Raul654 promoted these five, bringing the total to an even 2,000.[1] These articles reflect the wide variety of topics that are represented at FAC: their topics include a medieval bishop, a Roman emperor, a novel written by a Nobel-Prize-winning Latin American author, a 1974 PBS documentary about a young "guru", and a bird in the crow family.
- Walter de Coventre
Walter de Coventre was first nominated for FA status on 20 March, just 18 days after its primary contributor, Deacon of Pndapetzim, had created it. The nomination was archived without promotion on 1 April after several reviewers expressed concern with the prose. Malleus Fatuarum performed a copyedit, and on 5 April, PMAnderson (who had previously peer reviewed the article) renominated it for FA status in conjunction with Deacon of Pndapetzim. Consensus was soon reached that the article met the FA criteria; in particular, reviewer Ealdgyth remarked that the article did an "excellent job of making an obscure subject shine", and reviewer GrahamColm called the re-nomination "proof of the importance of 'fresh eyes' and a bloody good copy editor".
- Maximian
Geuiwogbil began working on Maximian on 14 March and in less than two weeks expanded the article by a magnitude of seven. Geuiwogbil nominated the article at FAC on 5 April. Although several reviewers initially opposed on the basis of prose, after Roger Davies and Dulcem completed a copyedit, those reviewers struck their declarations of "Oppose". The article was promoted with unanimous support; reviewer Roger Davies noted that the article was "remarkably well-cited and referenced".
- Lord of the Universe
Lord of the Universe was nominated for featured article status by its recent primary contributor Cirt on 4 April. The article drew no opposes, and the few critical comments were addressed. Semifreddo remarked that it was an "informative article on [a] little-known film". The unanimous promotion was especially notable given that the article is part of Category:Prem Rawat, and all articles in this category have been placed on WP:1RR due to contentious editing.
- El Señor Presidente
El Señor Presidente was created on 15 January by Professor Jbmurray as part of a Spanish literature class assignment at the University of British Columbia. Three of his students, eecono, katekonyk, and Mfreud, were given the task of improving the article from a one-line stub to a featured article. The students, who had not previously edited Wikipedia, were assisted by members of WikiProject Novels and the recently created FA-Team, which aims to help editors unfamiliar with FAC to bring their articles to FA status. The students researched and wrote the article, while more experienced Wikipedians provided frequent peer reviews as well as MOS compliance and copy-editing assistance. FA-Team member Awadewit nominated the article for FAC on behalf of Mfreud, katekonykm, eecono, and Jbmurray, saying that "they have created one of the best Spanish-language literature articles on Wikipedia". Although the nomination generated debate on how to interpret some of Wikipedia's image policies, it received near-unanimous support. Maxim commented that it was "brilliant work".
- Red-billed Chough
After bringing the article to Good article status on 15 February, primary contributor Jimfbleak nominated Red-billed Chough for FA on 31 March. FA reviewers provided suggestions for improving the prose which Jimfbleak quickly implemented. In a pun on the article's avian subject, reviewer Shyamal noted that the article was "ready to fly".
As of 14 April, seven additional articles have been promoted to featured article status. Two others have been delisted after discussion at Featured article review, giving a net of 2,005 featured articles. Forty-one articles are nominated as Featured article candidates.
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