Wikipedia:Featured article candidates

This page works similar to Wikipedia:Votes for deletion, only the other way around: If a page is listed here for a week with no objections, it is added to the Brilliant prose list. If there are objections, they have to be worked out, until a nearly unanimous consensus is reached.

If you nominate a page to which you have contributed all or a large majority of content, then it must be seconded by at least one more person in order to be accepted. Some people may object to self-nominations on principle.

Join the Wikipedia:Cleaning department to help maintain this page!

Current nominations

• Japan - good content, balanced and the format and heading are complete. -- Taku

• Dictionary - decent content and good references. Need some heading. -- Taku

• Bible code and possibly The Bible Code - informative, comprehensive, balanced Kpjas 08:28, 12 Oct 2003 (UTC)

• Garry Kasparov -- fun for anyone. comprehensive up the wazoo. Kingturtle 05:50, 9 Oct 2003 (UTC)
  • Headlines and a TOC, please.—Eloquence 06:55, Oct 9, 2003 (UTC)

• Wesley Clark - good balanced article. This is what wikipedia for. -- Taku
  • I agree, this could be a controversial article but it seems balanced and well done.Ark30inf 23:08, 16 Oct 2003 (UTC)
  • "During the Clinton administration, NATO tried to prevent Russian forces from occupying an airfield in Kosovo." - this sentence alone, not to mention some around it, besides being 100% untrue, is more POV then CNN. Nikola 19:53, 18 Oct 2003 (UTC)

• Vampire - wow! this is a tremendous piece of wikiwork! very informative. comprehensive! many authors. Kingturtle 22:40, 6 Oct 2003 (UTC)
  • Second. -- Infrogmation 17:14, 12 Oct 2003 (UTC)

• Social history of the piano - an excellent self-contained essay User:Wetman

• Galileo Galilei - very easy to read. very informative. thorough, yet not dull. Kingturtle 05:08, 30 Sep 2003 (UTC)
  • Can't second (contributor), but will say this: User:Dandrake, who has done a lot of work on this one, is the son of Galilei biographer Stillman Drake, and very knowledgeable about the subject.—Eloquence 06:55, Oct 9, 2003 (UTC)
    • Reading between the lines, I think you are fishing for a seconder :). I am happy to oblige as it looks like a very good page. Pete 08:21, 9 Oct 2003 (UTC)

• Pacifism. Nice, clear text, from lots of contributors. -- Viajero
  • Hm, I'm luke warm on this one; IMO needs more diferntiation with non-violence. -- Infrogmation 17:14, 12 Oct 2003 (UTC)

• Race - I was unsure whether to list this among self-nominations. I chose not to because the article was started by others and has since been worked on by two others contributing more than I have. It's been a long haul but I feel we have it to the point where this most contentious of topics is given a balanced, honest and detailed treatment. JDG 19:57, 18 Sep 2003 (UTC)

• Geyser -- Great info, fairly complete and great photos (Disclaimer: I took many of the photos). --mav 01:00, 1 Sep 2003 (UTC)
• I like this too but sadly can't be an official seconder ... the few photos mav didn't take I did! Pete 13:03, 9 Sep 2003 (EDT)
• Looks good. How about some more links and a bibliography?—Eloquence 06:55, Oct 9, 2003 (UTC)

• Victor Lustig - An interesting story, well told. -- Gaurav 19:27 20 Jul 2003 (UTC)
  • I'm afraid I object. It's copied almost in toto -- with some wikified modifications -- from the public domain document linked at the end of the page. I'm not saying it's not good -- it is quite good -- but I don't know if it really should be highlighted as "brilliant prose". I can be convinced otherwise, of course. -- ESP 07:04 21 Jul 2003 (UTC)
  • I'm not trying to make the most convincing argument here, but Computer numbering formats, by the same author, is already in there. That it wasn't written specifically for Wikipedia shouldn't be a factor against its inclusion in a list of the best written articles on Wikipedia. -- Jim Regan 03:59 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)
  • To me it is just simply an anecdote spiced with some biographical context, rather than a balanced and biographical encyclopædia article. That's just my 2¢. -- Cimon Avaro on a pogo-stick 11:14, Sep 7, 2003 (UTC)

• Lawrence v. Texas - in particular I like the way it treats the opinions of the dissenting judges calmly and fairly. Martin 19:21 27 Jun 2003 (UTC)
  • Good work, but I think it could use a little more info about the reactions to the case, both within and outside the gay movement. --Eloquence 02:32 28 Jun 2003 (UTC)

• Provinces of Thailand and the associated provincial subpages - a magnificent effort that synthesizes a body of information that one would be unlikely to find in most encyclopedias; and this is mainly the work of a single individual; very impressive IMO. Bill 15:24 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)
  • Love the work, but shouldn't we wait until all the articles are there? This is no objection. --Eloquence 02:32 28 Jun 2003 (UTC)

• Beach cricket - A nice little article about one of the joys of summer. Lisiate 06:59, 4 Aug 2003 (UTC)
  • Having read the article, I know I've played the game, but have never heard the name of it before. Is it a Australian name? Perhaps some geographical context, mentioning of the beach cricket world championship, etc could be thrown in? Pete 09:39, 15 Aug 2003 (UTC)

• Richard Wagner - thorough and (AFAICT) accurate article on a prominent classical composer, no brilliant prose listing of any classical music topics, demonstrates NPOV handling of a highly sensitive issue. --Robert Merkel 08:41, 6 Aug 2003 (UTC)
  • Object. Still needs much more on anti-Semitism, particularly concerning theories regarding anti-Semitic motives in Wagner's operas, also on the use of Wagner's music by Hitler (maybe in a separate atricle, but it needs to be there) and scholarly views on Wagner's actual influence on Hitler. Bibliography is hardly comprehensive.—Eloquence 07:32, Aug 9, 2003 (UTC)

• Command-Query Separation - A beautifully clear explanation of a technical topic. -- Bill 15:35, 8 Aug 2003 (UTC)
  • Object. Does not conform to MoS, provides little history of the concept (quotes from source material with original definition would be nice), does not really explain difference between query and program state change, does not contain practical examples or case studies, contained spelling error (now fixed), no bibliography -- no brilliant prose.—Eloquence 07:32, Aug 9, 2003 (UTC)

• Basic taste - Short but sweet. -- Cimon Avaro on a pogostick (on August 21)
  • object. shouldn't this be a subheading under "taste"??--Alex Tan 5 Oct 2003

• Not the Nine O'Clock News - Balanced, flows nicely, doesn't really need much more crucial info too badly, that I can tell. -- Cimon Avaro on a pogo-stick 11:14, Sep 7, 2003 (UTC)

• Brolga - The prose about this Australian crane makes great reading for schoolchildren or family. It starts with the dreamtime story of a woman who was captured by a willywilly but who returned as the crane, and then continues with the scientific description I was first expecting. 169.207.86.113 09:25, 18 Oct 2003 (UTC)

• War of 1812 - thorough. comprehensive. looks at different POVs. Kingturtle 18:58, 19 Oct 2003 (UTC)

• Bruno Kreisky -- an excellent article, obviously written by a not-logged-in Adam Carr (I myself just added two short paragraphs). --KF 22:04, 20 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Self-nominations (need to be seconded)

• Bobby Clarke. I dont know, I liked it..whatcha think? Antonio Self Nominated Martin

• Revised Standard Version - This was my favorite article to write! I feel like this article is complete and free of errors and very readable. I might be biased... -- hoshie

• Alliterative verse - This one was a lot of fun to write, and figuring out how to explain the drottkvætt stanza in a semi-intelligible fashion was something of a task -- Smerdis of Tlön 15:46, 9 Oct 2003 (UTC)

• Taiwanese language --Kaihsu Tai 08:21, 12 Oct 2003 (UTC)
  • Excellent! --Nanshu 02:24, 13 Oct 2003 (UTC)
  • This article is informative, well written, and impressively NPOV. --Sewing 16:27, 18 Oct 2003 (UTC)

• Phonograph cylinder - If you don't like it, I'd like suggestions for improving it. Infrogmation 17:14, 12 Oct 2003 (UTC)

• Marcus Antonius - Ok, i just dont resist: i rewrote the biography and i think is very nice, but what do i know? You tell me... And Adoption in Rome too (if i'm going to humiliate myself here, might as well do with style). Muriel Gottrop 12:20, 19 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Recently added to brilliant prose

• Pattern welding -- Damascus steel -- Homer Simpson

• Korean name. Nominated by Taku 05:09, 28 Sep 2003 (UTC)

• Attack on Pearl Harbor. Nominated by Taku 04:58, 28 Sep 2003 (UTC)

• Law of Demeter. Nominated by User:TakuyaMurata. RickK 03:44, 28 Sep 2003 (UTC)

• Heavy metal music - strikes me as in-depth, comprehensive, and good at explaining the significance of a genre that sometimes doesn't get much respect. Smerdis of Tlön 04:34, 22 Sep 2003 (UTC)

• American Pie (song) - Was added to BP by User:RickK without going through due process here. Pete 11:03, 21 Sep 2003 (UTC)

• John Major The prose in this informative article seems to flow very naturally considering it has had 20 or more different contributors. No glaring omissions spring to mind either. (Full disclosure: I added one sentence to the article in one minor edit sometime ago, however the credit for this article belongs to several major contributors, I am not one of these). Pete 18:17, 18 Sep 2003 (UTC)

• Bob Dylan -- seems fairly complete. Partly self-nominated, but seconded on this talk page by JDG
  • Support. This is one of the most widely used pages from WikiP under the GFDL, and deservedly so. JDG 20:52, 8 Oct 2003 (UTC)

• Miles Davis -- I like it, but I wrote it. Funro research too, some records there I haven't heard in ages -- GWO

Recently removed

• History of the United States -- This article is in the process of being rewritten (or so it seems to me). There are many sections with headings like For details, see the main History of the United States (1964-present) article without any text under that heading. DanKeshet