Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Academy/Today's Featured Article requests

One of the greatest feelings on Wikipedia is the feeling you get when an article that you have either created or substantially contributed to spends the day on our main page as "Today's Featured Article." Often the culmination of months of hard work and research, the appearance of an article on the main page is an honor bestowed to those who have the endurance needed to go the distance required to get their article up on the main page.

The basic criteria for the main page appearance remains the same: the article selected to appear on the main page must first be featured. Until 2007, requesting a main page appearance was comparatively easy, but the introduction of a new system in 2007 intended to help the featured article director better handle the ever increasing demand for a main page appearance has since severely hampered the ease with which one may now request a main page appearance. At present, the 2007 system is still in use as the method by which editors may make requests for a main page appearance, but as demand for article appearances is high, it is important that you understand how the current system works.

In difference to the need for editors to understand all parts of getting an article to the main page and what you can expect of the article while it is on the main page this course will serve as walk through on which articles qualify for main page appearances, how to go about requesting a main page appearance, and what to expect when your article is up on the main page.

Eligibility

The first and foremost criteria for an article to appear on the main page as today's featured article it must be a featured article. Absolutely no exceptions to this rule are made in any way, shape, or form. An article that is not featured will be removed from the suggested list of articles under consideration for a main page appearance by the first Wikipedian who discerns that the article in question is not featured. In addition, any featured article that no longer meets the current featured article criteria will be removed if the article in question is judged to be in need of a featured article review (FAR).

If the article you would like to have on the main page as Today's Featured Article is not featured then you will need to work on getting the article up to featured status before moving past this point. If your article is already featured, make sure it is up to date with all current featured article criteria before moving past this point. This latter point is very important, because featured article criteria do shift over time which does result in tighter FA standards.

In addition, owing to the ever increasing number of featured articles, there is a standing rule that any article that has already been on the main page is disqualified from reappearing on the main page. Therefore, the article you wish to have on the main page will only be permitted to appear once, after which it will be unable to appear on the main page again.

Summarizing your article

Before adding your article to the request page you must first summarize the article and if applicable select an image to be displayed with the article on the main page. Although not necessary, many who request an article to appear on the main page choose to create a summary box similar to the one that you see on the main page. If you decide to use the box you should note that the image size parameter in the box can not be adjusted for a main page appearance, so if the image you've chosen does not adequately convey the subject matter at such a small size you may need to pick a different image. Also note that any text added to the blurb is subject to modification prior to appearing on the main page, so your summary should be considered a rough draft until the article is selected to appear on the main page as Today's Featured Article.

When selecting an image to go with your TFA request refrain from picking maps; because of the small size parameters used maps are so tightly compressed that the details they attempt to convey do not show up at all. Additionally, any image selected for display on the main page must be a free image; or copyleft image. This requirement automatically disqualifies corporate logos and other trademarked images, so if the article you are writing relies on images used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use you should be prepared to accept that the article you are requesting will have to appear without any accompanying image.

Requesting a TFA appearance

Once you are satisfied that the article you would like to have up as Today's Featured Article (TFA) meets all points of the current featured article criteria your next stop will be the main page request page, located here. This page lists all articles currently under consideration for an appearance as the TFA. Its intent is to provide a mechanism by which the community may formally request a date for an article to appear on the main page as TFA. Follow all the instructions on the page, careful to note that your request meets the given time frame for a main page appearance. If you want the article to appear on the main page on a specific date that is closely related to the subject of the article, the place for such requests is this.

From the time you have added your request to the TFA request page until the time at which your request is either accepted or declined your article will be subject to review by the community at large. In most cases, if the community agrees with the nomination, they will support, and if they disagree, they will oppose.

If your article is selected

If your request is accepted you will find that the article history template on the article talk page has been updated to reflect the day on which your article will appear as the TFA. From here, its simply a matter of waiting for the day listed on the template. While waiting, most users take the opportunity to fine tune any last bits of the article, checking on things like article flow and touching up on any wayward spelling and grammar. During this time some users elect to leave a message on the main milhist talk page to inform project members of the impending appearance of an article within their scope on the main page. This is mainly to allow for better anti-vandalism coverage for the article, a point which will be addressed below.

While waiting for the date of the main page appearance to arrive make sure that you check all points of your article meticulously. When the article does go up on the main page it will be edited by our users and our visitors, which frequently results in new information being added and older information being updated. Therefore, use the time before a main page appearance to make any last second checks of your article to ensure that all links go to the right articles, all sources are correct, and the articles spelling and grammar are both correct and presentable.

Hours before your article goes up on the main page the image selected for display with the article will be uploaded to Wikipedia (if it was not here already) and protected from editing. Do not panic, this is a standard practice and is intended to prevent image vandalism, which will be addressed below.

On the main page

At 00:00 UTC on the day your article is to appear the main page will be updated to show your article as the current Today's Featured Article. From this point, every visitor to Wikipedia for the next 24 hours will see your article first if they visit the main page. As a result of this designation, a large amount of traffic will pass through your page as our visitors and editors interested in your article read about the material. Of those who will read and look at your article, some will edit the material to help update the article or fix mistakes they happen to encounter with the article.

During your article's appearance on the main page you should attempt to keep tabs on both the article and its talk page. Frequently, an unexpected point will arise on the talk page that will last past the article's main page appearance. Sometimes, the unexpected points are disagreements over article content or other matters that may not have been fully addressed; these have the potential to escalate into edit wars if they are not dealt with promptly. Other times these unexpected events may be related to information not mentioned in an article, or information from other sources that conflict with an article. These cases have the potential to go one of two ways: either editors insist on adding the information which can create conflict, or the editors leave the information on the talk page and ask that the matter be looked into by the article's main contributor(s). When dealing with these situations be polite and courteous, and always assume good faith: most of these editors are trying to help improve the article, and are not trying to undermine the hard work put into the article.

Rarely, editors may open a Featured Article Review or list the main page article in the Featured Article Removal Candidates section because they feel that the article is unsuited to appear on the main page. These should be closed and archived immediately, as standing policy is not to have any FAR/FARCs for a current TFA open while the article is on the main page.

After 24 hours have passed your article will be replaced by the next TFA, however a link to the article will be made available to main page visitors for three days after the article's initial appearance. Therefore, for a total of four days, your article will receive a higher amount of traffic than usual since its linked to the main page. Although most of the major edits and vandalism an article receives will occur while it is the current TFA some edits - beneficial and vandalous - will occur for as long as the article remains linked to from the main page.

Vandalism

An unfortunate side effect of having your article up on the main page as Today's Featured Article is that it becomes a major target for vandalism for the duration of its main page appearance. There is no way to avoid this. Administrators are not allowed to protect the main page article except under the most extreme circumstances, and as a result the general public has free rein to add or subtract any amount of information.

The type and intensity of vandalism each article receives varies. Sometimes articles are the subject of drive by edits that delete all material on the page. Sometimes editors add sexually explicit words or images to the article, or upload sexual explicit material to preexisting images linked in the article. Sometimes the article is hijacked to make political statement, or to advertise a particular point of view, regardless of whether the article is political in nature or not. Lastly, in some cases, the article is hit by multiple editors who add the same type of vandalism to the article.

Another rule of thumb concerning vandalism is that in almost all cases the vandalism an article receives is loosely based on the level of controversy surrounding the article's subject matter. As a rule, within our project, the most controversial articles are those dealing with skirmishes, battles, campaigns, and wars; the controversy in these articles is usually centered on the matter of who won, who lost, who fought, and the reason for the fighting. This is particularly true if the article in question covers a recent conflict between two or more opposing forces who have a long history of being at each others throats at the drop of a hat (consider, for example, the Korean DMZ and the near constant state of combat between Israel and the surrounding nations). If this sounds like the kind of article that you are requesting for a main page appearance then make sure you prepare yourself to deal with vandalism by nationalistic editors from both sides.

Although admins are not usually allowed to edit protect Today's Featured Article except under unusual or exceptional circumstances, you will be assisted by three parties: If you notified the project prior to the main page appearance you can expect project members to keep an eye on the page, otherwise those who are members of our project and who are on Wikipedia at the time will watch the page for vandalism. The second group that will assist you are the recent change patrollers, or RC patrollers for short. The users in this category watch the recent changes page and are quick to pick up and revert any vandalism they spot in the articles that cross the page. This is particularly true of the RC patrollers that are members of the Counter-Vandalism Unit, or CVU for short. Lastly, there are a limited number of AntiVandalBots that operate around the clock to check and revert the most obvious vandalism as it appears in articles. Between these three groups whatever vandalism is added to the article should be spotted and remove quickly.

Vandalism in articles has the potential to upset users, especial the first timers who have never experienced high amounts of vandalism on the article they edit. The natural response is usually to give the other guy a piece of your mind, but you should refrain from doing this at all cost. If you go after an editor who vandalized your article your article may end up the victim of repeated vandalism long after it leaves the main page. In most cases, the vandalism the article sees will diminish substantially after it leaves the main page, and about five days after the article appeared as the featured article for the day the vandalism the article sees should return to the level it was at before the article was on the main page.

After the TFA appearance

After your article leaves the main page, as noted above, it will be visible for the next three days until it is completely removed from the TFA box on the main page. Once the article is off the main page you should conduct a through search of the article to check and ensure that any remaining vandalism is removed and any newly added information is properly sourced to a reliable source. In addition, check all the internal and external links to ensure that they are still functional and point to the correct pages. Some smarter vandals have occasionally edited the internal and external links to point to articles and websites that have no association whatsoever with the article, this vandalism can go unnoticed if the sites appear legitimate.

In addition, you should consider rewarding those who helped keep the article vandal free. This can be accomplished by handing out barnstars or personal letters of thanks, and while not necessary insofar as policy is concerned these notes do serve as a positive reinforcer for editors on the site and help encourage editors to be vigilant in their pursuit and elimination of vandalism.