On 18 August, the English Wikipedia reached a milestone with the promotion of its 3,000th article to Featured article (FA) status. These 3,000 articles represent the best 0.09% of articles on Wikipedia—about one in every 1,120 articles. FAC Delegate User:SandyGeorgia said, "Congratulations to all the nominators and reviewers who contributed to reaching the 3,000 FA milestone on Wiki! I also note that FAC has reached a two-year high on monthly promotions, in spite of increasing standards, and congratulate all of the dedicated contributors – both writers and reviewers. We can always use more reviewers (without reviewers, we don't have FAs): see Reviewers achieving excellence for ways anyone can help out".
The threshold was reached when FAC delegate SandyGeorgia simultaneously promoted six articles, bringing the total to 3,001 articles. These articles were on a wide variety of topics: Whitechapel murders (11 murders in London between 1888 and 1891 by the notorious Jack the Ripper); Royal National College for the Blind (a residential college for the blind); Mount Cayley volcanic field (a volcanic field in Canada); " Road to the Multiverse" (a Family Guy episode); 90377 Sedna (a trans-Neptunian object orbiting the Sun); and Mark Tonelli (a retired Australian competitive swimmer).
The Featured article process (FAC) was initiated in June 2003 as "Brilliant prose"; we reached 500 FAs in February 2005 (see Signpost coverage); the 1,000th FA was promoted in June 2006 ( Signpost coverage); the 2,000th was reached just under two years later ( Signpost coverage). The deterioration over time of individual FAs and rising standards for promotion have meant that many early articles have been demoted; the number of FAs (promotions less demotions) has risen at an average rate of 34 articles a month from August 2008 to July 2010. In the first half of this year, 270 articles were promoted, and 70 were demoted, a rise of 200 articles or about 33 articles monthly.
August has seen ten promotions to adminship, five of them over the past week alone:
Choice of the week. Southpark is an FA veteran at the German Wikipedia, with many " Exzellente Artikels" under his belt. He has served on the jury of de.WP's "writing contest" three times, and is fluent in English. The Signpost asked him to select the best of the week's promotions on the English Wikipedia: "I enjoyed reading all of the articles and now have a new sightseeing destination for my next London trip. Maybe I'll even give cricket a second chance. I chose "The Body" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I especially like that this is an article that could never ever be written on the German Wikipedia. This in-depth treatment of a single television episode shows the special qualities of en.wp in an outstanding manner. It provides aesthetic and cultural background for a phenomenom that I hardly knew anything about except its mere existence. The article avoids fandom and insider-references without being overly technical or even boring. It tells the story of this special episode from several noteworthy angles. Thereby it communicates the emotional impact this episode has on its viewers (and producers) as well as it gives a detailed account of its production. I feel as much informed as I feel entertained." Southpark's blog on the judgment.
One stand-alone sound-file and a set of ten files were promoted:
Choice of the week. We asked FL nominator and reviewer Goodraise for his favorite: "It was an easy choice. The World's 25 Most Endangered Primates not only stands out for its well-written prose, but for its visual appeal, not to mention the rarity of biology lists with featured status. I particularly enjoyed reading the list because it surprised me. I wasn't aware that so many of our relatives live on the brink of extinction." (picture at right)
One topic was promoted:
Choice of the week. Jfitch, a regular reviewer and nominator at featured picture candidates, told The Signpost, "For me this week there was one nomination that really stood out over the rest. The Australian blenny has such quality and detail, which is made even more impressive when the fact that it is an underwater photograph is taken into account. The technical difficulties in achieving a shot like this are extremely difficult, and being able to capture the fish in such an elegant way really made this the only nomination that I could choose as my Choice of the week." (picture below)
On 18 August, the English Wikipedia reached a milestone with the promotion of its 3,000th article to Featured article (FA) status. These 3,000 articles represent the best 0.09% of articles on Wikipedia—about one in every 1,120 articles. FAC Delegate User:SandyGeorgia said, "Congratulations to all the nominators and reviewers who contributed to reaching the 3,000 FA milestone on Wiki! I also note that FAC has reached a two-year high on monthly promotions, in spite of increasing standards, and congratulate all of the dedicated contributors – both writers and reviewers. We can always use more reviewers (without reviewers, we don't have FAs): see Reviewers achieving excellence for ways anyone can help out".
The threshold was reached when FAC delegate SandyGeorgia simultaneously promoted six articles, bringing the total to 3,001 articles. These articles were on a wide variety of topics: Whitechapel murders (11 murders in London between 1888 and 1891 by the notorious Jack the Ripper); Royal National College for the Blind (a residential college for the blind); Mount Cayley volcanic field (a volcanic field in Canada); " Road to the Multiverse" (a Family Guy episode); 90377 Sedna (a trans-Neptunian object orbiting the Sun); and Mark Tonelli (a retired Australian competitive swimmer).
The Featured article process (FAC) was initiated in June 2003 as "Brilliant prose"; we reached 500 FAs in February 2005 (see Signpost coverage); the 1,000th FA was promoted in June 2006 ( Signpost coverage); the 2,000th was reached just under two years later ( Signpost coverage). The deterioration over time of individual FAs and rising standards for promotion have meant that many early articles have been demoted; the number of FAs (promotions less demotions) has risen at an average rate of 34 articles a month from August 2008 to July 2010. In the first half of this year, 270 articles were promoted, and 70 were demoted, a rise of 200 articles or about 33 articles monthly.
August has seen ten promotions to adminship, five of them over the past week alone:
Choice of the week. Southpark is an FA veteran at the German Wikipedia, with many " Exzellente Artikels" under his belt. He has served on the jury of de.WP's "writing contest" three times, and is fluent in English. The Signpost asked him to select the best of the week's promotions on the English Wikipedia: "I enjoyed reading all of the articles and now have a new sightseeing destination for my next London trip. Maybe I'll even give cricket a second chance. I chose "The Body" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I especially like that this is an article that could never ever be written on the German Wikipedia. This in-depth treatment of a single television episode shows the special qualities of en.wp in an outstanding manner. It provides aesthetic and cultural background for a phenomenom that I hardly knew anything about except its mere existence. The article avoids fandom and insider-references without being overly technical or even boring. It tells the story of this special episode from several noteworthy angles. Thereby it communicates the emotional impact this episode has on its viewers (and producers) as well as it gives a detailed account of its production. I feel as much informed as I feel entertained." Southpark's blog on the judgment.
One stand-alone sound-file and a set of ten files were promoted:
Choice of the week. We asked FL nominator and reviewer Goodraise for his favorite: "It was an easy choice. The World's 25 Most Endangered Primates not only stands out for its well-written prose, but for its visual appeal, not to mention the rarity of biology lists with featured status. I particularly enjoyed reading the list because it surprised me. I wasn't aware that so many of our relatives live on the brink of extinction." (picture at right)
One topic was promoted:
Choice of the week. Jfitch, a regular reviewer and nominator at featured picture candidates, told The Signpost, "For me this week there was one nomination that really stood out over the rest. The Australian blenny has such quality and detail, which is made even more impressive when the fact that it is an underwater photograph is taken into account. The technical difficulties in achieving a shot like this are extremely difficult, and being able to capture the fish in such an elegant way really made this the only nomination that I could choose as my Choice of the week." (picture below)
Discuss this story
Wow, interesting choice of editor for the FA choice of the week (from de?). I like it. Way to think outside the box! Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 18:02, 31 August 2010 (UTC) reply
Readers should know about WP:FCDW/3000. Res Mar 18:41, 31 August 2010 (UTC) reply
I too would like to congratulate everyone involved in creating and improving everything mentioned on this page. And celebrate the fact of 3,000 FAs. Hooray for us! -- bodnotbod ( talk) 00:56, 1 September 2010 (UTC) reply
congrats
Congrats to all on the 3,000th FA; and a note to say that I really like the new style of the Features & Admins section, especially the brief bios of the new admins and the "pick of the week." Very nice! And Resmar, don't take editing personally -- the Signpost runs as a newspaper, which means material isn't duplicated from week to week and the editor in chief's job is to help ensure this and make sure the whole issue is coherent. Bottom line, they may choose not to include things or rewrite them. -- phoebe / ( talk to me) 05:08, 1 September 2010 (UTC) reply
Hungry Lucy
I love that album which was released under CC-by-SA, it is absolutely magnificent. And I would never have heard of it if it wasn't for the Signpost, so thank you very much! Jon Harald Søby ( talk) 23:14, 6 September 2010 (UTC) reply