Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-01-17/Features
Featured article candidates on controversial subjects struggle
Several articles dealing with controversial topics tried to achieve featured article status last week, but were not successful in their efforts so far.
Reading David Irving at the British Library
Controversial World War II historian David Irving was nominated for featured article status for the second time by GeneralPatton on 7 January, following a failed nomination last September. Initially the improved article received an endorsement from Slim, but its comprehensiveness was soon questioned by Dbiv.
Dbiv also challenged an assertion in the article that Irving's book, Hitler's War, was restricted by the British Library to a desk in the Rare Books Room because it was deemed pornographic. This triggered an extensive discussion of whether the book could in fact be read elsewhere in the library, and whether the Rare Books Room was restricted to pornographic literature.
Finally, Peter O. made an attempt to turn things around by revisiting the original comprehensiveness objection. The objection was not resolved and the nomination ultimately failed.
Two articles related to abortion were also nominated last week, Morality and legality of abortion and the U.S. court decision Roe v. Wade. However, both still had unresolved objections, so it appears the nominations will not succeed.
Understanding the Kardashev scale
On a more esoteric note, the Kardashev scale, which is apparently used to measure the technological advancement of a civilization based on how much energy it can harness, also went through the featured article nomination process last week. The scale has been applied hypothetically in futurology and science fiction, but according to the article our present human civilization is not advanced enough to even qualify as a Type I civilization (it registers a "score" of 0.8 instead).
Well, it turns out that the article about the Kardashev scale is not advanced enough to qualify as a featured article either. Problems reported included confusing diagrams and failure to cite sources correctly, making it appear to be original research. Its nomination, which turned out to be a resubmission of a previous nomination by Ctrl build, received no new support and was rejected.
On the other hand, Albert Einstein, who might be described as one of the scientists who helped humanity make significant progress along the Kardashev scale, received overwhelming support and was designated as a new featured article last week. Other articles so honored included Matthew Brettingham, Pulaski Skyway, Cat's Eye Nebula, and Nintendo Entertainment System.
Meanwhile, it appears that being a famous painting can be helpful in becoming a featured picture as well, since Hans Holbein the Younger's portrait of Thomas More received this status. A gallery of last week's new featured pictures:
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Discuss this story
It's Kardashev scale, not Kardashev Scale. I twould also be good to have a link to FAC in the article. Otherwise, looks good. —Ben Brockert (42) UE News 22:32, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)
It's a decent start, even if you're not satisfied with it yet. At any rate, the effort to give the article some kind of theme is a good idea, whether or not this theme is the right one. Putting a theme together when dealing with disparate subjects can be a challenging art. There's still time left in the coming week to see what happens; events may make you reconsider what to write about.
Additional thoughts about covering FACs generally, not directed to any topic in particular. Articles that undergo significant change after nomination, or overcome major objections, will probably be of more interest than those that are slam dunks one way or the other. Also, if an article has been a Collaboration of the week before, that's an extra source to look for something interesting to say about it and its development. --Michael Snow 04:03, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)