May was a big month for changes, topped by wholesale structural reform of the Featured list candidates process. We present the two most recent monthly updates, for April and May 2008. For feedback and any corrections that are required, please leave a note here. All monthly updates from the start of this year are listed here.
Non-breaking spaces. The scope of the recommendation to use a non-breaking (i.e., "hard") space was narrowed from all instances where:
to:
Compound items such as "20 chairs" are thus excluded from the recommendation.
En dashes vs. minus signs. Previously, en dashes were permitted as an alternative to minus signs. This is no longer the case:
Foreign terms and italics. The second of these two sentences was struck out:
Spelling and transliteration of foreign terms. The use of anglicized versus native spellings was clarified:
Identity. There was a change from:
Alignment of images. The previous preference for the right-alignment of images, with exceptions, was simplified to:
Symbols for bits and bytes. The following sentence was added:
Binary prefixes. A dispute tag still hangs over this section.
Units of measurement. The section "Follow the literature" is still the subject of a dispute tag and has been unstable.
Minus signs. A similar change was made to that listed above under "En dashes vs. minus signs". [Editorial note: The wording of both points now needs to be made consistent.]
Geographical coordinates. This section was restored with an edit summary to see WP:GEO.
[Editorial note: MOSNUM and the main page of MOS are now in need of housecleaning to ensure consistency in duplicated sections.]
Naming conventions (abbreviations) was merged into Manual of Style (abbreviations).
Capitalization of names of deities, etc. This was removed:
Capitalization of religious and mythical beings. This was clarified:
A long and discursive guideline for the See also section was replaced by a shorter one, introducing a new requirement:
The Further reading section may now be called "Books" if it contains only books; it is best to avoid the title "Bibliography", because it may mean different things to different readers.
Reference qualification in article text. This new section was added, opening with:
Examples were provided.
The criteria were reformatted to reduce redundant repetition; bolded titles were inserted for easier comprehension. The numbering and substantive meaning of the criteria are unaltered. The word count was reduced by about 11%.
The instructions now clarify and reinforce the proscription, in the lead, of dual nominations, with the addition of the underlined words:
The criteria underwent a major overhaul to produce a set of clearer, more concise tools for nominators and reviewers, reduced from 420 to 220 words. The major substantive changes involve the requirements that the writing be of "professional standard" and the lead "engaging", and the clarification of "scope" and "comprehensiveness". The need to take particular care in sourcing claims about living people was made explicit.
There were significant changes to the FLC instructions to legitimise the identity and roles of the first two Wikipedians to be appointed as FL directors. Some of the wording and new procedures were borrowed from the FAC instructions. Two important changes were (1) the abolition of the rule that a nomination must have a minimum of four declarations of support to be eligible for promotion, and (2) the way consensus is judged and the weight of "support" declarations compared with the resolution of critical comments, as embodied in the following insertion:
The criteria were amended in two ways. Added this sentence: "Article and biography summaries should not significantly exceed 200 words in length." Added these underlined words: "images where appropriate, with good captions, linked credits, and acceptable copyright status.
Non-free content policy statement. The following sentence was inserted: :"There is no automatic entitlement to use non-free content in an article".
WP:NFCC#3a. The criterion was amended from:
WP:NFCC#3b. The scope was broadened (italics replacing struck-through text):
Titles. Clarification that common nouns denoting deities or religious figures are not capitalized.
Acronyms and abbreviations. The terms "abbreviation", "acronym" and "initialism" were clarified.
Quotation marks. Clarification that (block-quoted) multiparagraph quotations "must be precise and exactly as in the source. The source should be cited clearly and precisely to enable readers to find the text that supports the article content in question." Instead of HTML tags, {{ quotation}} or {{ quote}} can be used to render block quotes.
SI symbols and unit abbreviations. This was added:
SI symbols and unit abbreviations. This was added:
Disputes over people's proper names. The previous statement:
was replaced with:
Alignment of images. The last four words were added to the statement:
An exception was added:
This was added:
Pronunciation. The last three words were added:
This sentence was added:
Decade abbreviations. Two-digit abbreviations for decades may have a preceding apostrophe only in reference to a social era or cultural phenomenon as a stock phrase that roughly corresponds to or defines a decade (the Roaring '20s, the Gay '90s), or where there is a notable connection between the period and the immediate topic (a sense of social justice informed by '60s counterculture, but grew up in 1960s Boston, moving to Dallas in 1971). [This is now inconsistent with the main page of the MoS.]
Units of measurement. A new section was inserted:
This was marked with a dispute tag and has been the subject of an edit war and page protection.
Units of measurement. The recommendation to use "sq" and "cu" with US-unit abbreviations was removed; now superscript exponents may be used in that system.
The piping of disambiguation pages. Clarification: piping may be used to add italics to the part of an article name inside parenthetical clarifiers (for instance [[Neo (The Matrix)|Neo (''The Matrix'')]]); until now the guideline only allowed italics and quotation marks for the part outside the parentheses.
The third bullet was added to the instructions (underlined here):
The following sentence was added to the Featured portal criteria:
The phrase that was removed from Non-free content Criterion 8 last month (underlined here) was reinstated and is currently under discussion:
May was a big month for changes, topped by wholesale structural reform of the Featured list candidates process. We present the two most recent monthly updates, for April and May 2008. For feedback and any corrections that are required, please leave a note here. All monthly updates from the start of this year are listed here.
Non-breaking spaces. The scope of the recommendation to use a non-breaking (i.e., "hard") space was narrowed from all instances where:
to:
Compound items such as "20 chairs" are thus excluded from the recommendation.
En dashes vs. minus signs. Previously, en dashes were permitted as an alternative to minus signs. This is no longer the case:
Foreign terms and italics. The second of these two sentences was struck out:
Spelling and transliteration of foreign terms. The use of anglicized versus native spellings was clarified:
Identity. There was a change from:
Alignment of images. The previous preference for the right-alignment of images, with exceptions, was simplified to:
Symbols for bits and bytes. The following sentence was added:
Binary prefixes. A dispute tag still hangs over this section.
Units of measurement. The section "Follow the literature" is still the subject of a dispute tag and has been unstable.
Minus signs. A similar change was made to that listed above under "En dashes vs. minus signs". [Editorial note: The wording of both points now needs to be made consistent.]
Geographical coordinates. This section was restored with an edit summary to see WP:GEO.
[Editorial note: MOSNUM and the main page of MOS are now in need of housecleaning to ensure consistency in duplicated sections.]
Naming conventions (abbreviations) was merged into Manual of Style (abbreviations).
Capitalization of names of deities, etc. This was removed:
Capitalization of religious and mythical beings. This was clarified:
A long and discursive guideline for the See also section was replaced by a shorter one, introducing a new requirement:
The Further reading section may now be called "Books" if it contains only books; it is best to avoid the title "Bibliography", because it may mean different things to different readers.
Reference qualification in article text. This new section was added, opening with:
Examples were provided.
The criteria were reformatted to reduce redundant repetition; bolded titles were inserted for easier comprehension. The numbering and substantive meaning of the criteria are unaltered. The word count was reduced by about 11%.
The instructions now clarify and reinforce the proscription, in the lead, of dual nominations, with the addition of the underlined words:
The criteria underwent a major overhaul to produce a set of clearer, more concise tools for nominators and reviewers, reduced from 420 to 220 words. The major substantive changes involve the requirements that the writing be of "professional standard" and the lead "engaging", and the clarification of "scope" and "comprehensiveness". The need to take particular care in sourcing claims about living people was made explicit.
There were significant changes to the FLC instructions to legitimise the identity and roles of the first two Wikipedians to be appointed as FL directors. Some of the wording and new procedures were borrowed from the FAC instructions. Two important changes were (1) the abolition of the rule that a nomination must have a minimum of four declarations of support to be eligible for promotion, and (2) the way consensus is judged and the weight of "support" declarations compared with the resolution of critical comments, as embodied in the following insertion:
The criteria were amended in two ways. Added this sentence: "Article and biography summaries should not significantly exceed 200 words in length." Added these underlined words: "images where appropriate, with good captions, linked credits, and acceptable copyright status.
Non-free content policy statement. The following sentence was inserted: :"There is no automatic entitlement to use non-free content in an article".
WP:NFCC#3a. The criterion was amended from:
WP:NFCC#3b. The scope was broadened (italics replacing struck-through text):
Titles. Clarification that common nouns denoting deities or religious figures are not capitalized.
Acronyms and abbreviations. The terms "abbreviation", "acronym" and "initialism" were clarified.
Quotation marks. Clarification that (block-quoted) multiparagraph quotations "must be precise and exactly as in the source. The source should be cited clearly and precisely to enable readers to find the text that supports the article content in question." Instead of HTML tags, {{ quotation}} or {{ quote}} can be used to render block quotes.
SI symbols and unit abbreviations. This was added:
SI symbols and unit abbreviations. This was added:
Disputes over people's proper names. The previous statement:
was replaced with:
Alignment of images. The last four words were added to the statement:
An exception was added:
This was added:
Pronunciation. The last three words were added:
This sentence was added:
Decade abbreviations. Two-digit abbreviations for decades may have a preceding apostrophe only in reference to a social era or cultural phenomenon as a stock phrase that roughly corresponds to or defines a decade (the Roaring '20s, the Gay '90s), or where there is a notable connection between the period and the immediate topic (a sense of social justice informed by '60s counterculture, but grew up in 1960s Boston, moving to Dallas in 1971). [This is now inconsistent with the main page of the MoS.]
Units of measurement. A new section was inserted:
This was marked with a dispute tag and has been the subject of an edit war and page protection.
Units of measurement. The recommendation to use "sq" and "cu" with US-unit abbreviations was removed; now superscript exponents may be used in that system.
The piping of disambiguation pages. Clarification: piping may be used to add italics to the part of an article name inside parenthetical clarifiers (for instance [[Neo (The Matrix)|Neo (''The Matrix'')]]); until now the guideline only allowed italics and quotation marks for the part outside the parentheses.
The third bullet was added to the instructions (underlined here):
The following sentence was added to the Featured portal criteria:
The phrase that was removed from Non-free content Criterion 8 last month (underlined here) was reinstated and is currently under discussion:
Discuss this story
Missing ?
Is something missing (I haven't read carefully) ...
Wasn't this TOC alignment business removed because it overrrode WP:ACCESSIBILITY? SandyGeorgia ( Talk) 15:59, 1 June 2008 (UTC) reply
NBSP
First time I've seen this; it needs to be fixed ...
Changing it to "measurements" defeats the purpose of NBSP in many cases, like Boeing 747, Gemini 7 or 7 World Trade Center. The previous wording was much better; this is a step in the wrong direction, which will lead to poor line breaks. SandyGeorgia ( Talk) 16:01, 1 June 2008 (UTC) replyWikipedia:Featured portal criteria
There was a change of criteria in May. [1] I'll summarize the change:
OhanaUnited Talk page 02:43, 8 June 2008 (UTC) reply