Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations: Difference between revisions

This is the list of Frequently asked questions about nominating and reviewing Good articles. If you cannot find the answer to your question here, you might want to ask for assistance at the GA nominations discussion page.

Nomination process

The backlog is huge! Is there something we can do to restrict nominations?: There have been complaints about the perceived backlog in reviewing since the Good article status was created in 2006. Generally speaking, we don't want to restrict nominations along their path to GA. In the beginning, as many as 100 nominations were waiting for a reviewer to volunteer. By 2011, each day typically listed 330 nominated articles, of which 260 were waiting. By 2016, 580 were listed, 460 waiting; by 2021, 470 were listed, 300 were waiting. For comparison, today there are currently 575 nominations listed and 485 waiting for a reviewer.; While it may seem overwhelming, a large backlog isn't a bad thing. It shows that many nominators want to use GA as a tool to improve the encyclopedia. It also allows reviewers to choose from a wide selection of articles that interest them. From a nominator's perspective, the main concern is the expected wait time before receiving a review, not the number of articles on the nominations page.
Can't we force nominators to review articles?: Quid pro quo reviewing (editors must review an article before nominating, perhaps after a grace period) was regularly proposed and always rejected as likely leading to lower quality reviews and fewer nominations from excellent content creators who may not wish to review another person's work.
What order do nominations appear on the Good article nominations page?: One advantage of reviewing articles to help the Wikipedia community is the GAN appearance order: the more articles you have reviewed relative to articles you have nominated, the higher up in the queue your nomination will appear on the GAN page. Note that above this, order preference is given to nominators who are new to GA.
What if the nominator is a (perhaps dynamic) IP address?: Any editor with significant contributions to the article may nominate an article for GA status (while only registered users may review), so significant-contributor IP nominators are permitted. Non-significant contributors should follow the advice above for editors who have not significantly contributed to the article. Dynamically changing IP nominators may want to clarify to the reviewer that, despite their signature, they remain the same person.
Can I nominate an article I haven't significantly contributed to?: No. Nominations from editors who have not substantially contributed will be removed unless the nomination shows that the article's regular editors were consulted on its talk page alongside a note on the GAN template showing their commitment to the process, e.g., |note=Adopted following extensive improvement by another editor. In the past, many drive-by nominators did not know the article or its sources and did not respond to questions by the reviewer.

Review process

I want to review an article. Do I have to review the oldest unreviewed nomination first?: Thank you for deciding to review an article for GA. You may review any nominated article you are not involved in, regardless of the nomination's age or position in the queue.
As a reviewer, I want to help the nominator improve the article, but it already meets the criteria. What am I supposed to do now?: The purpose of a GA review is to determine whether the article meets the GA criteria. Article-improvement discussions are intended to prevent near-misses in nominated articles that almost meet the criteria. If the article already meets the criteria when you first review it, then explain exactly what you've checked in each of the main criteria (e.g., "I have verified there is no original research, copyright violations, plagiarism, unreliable sources, bias, edit wars, or untagged images.") and list it as a Good article. "Quick passes" are as legitimate as quick fails, although they are less common. Please do not make a list of nitpicky details or exceed the written requirements of the Good article criteria in an effort to make the review look rigorous. Instead, thank the nominator for presenting such a polished article, and encourage them to submit another.
Who can respond to the review?: The nominator is expected to respond to the reviewer's suggestions to improve the article, while everyone interested in the article is encouraged to participate in the review, not just the person who happened to nominate it. Nominators have no special privileges over other editors except that they can withdraw the nomination.
Should nominators respond to reviewers' concerns? And what should reviewers do if they don't?: The nominator has an interest in seeing the article become GA, so the nominator will likely want to respond to the reviewer to improve the article. In fact, all editors interested in the article are encouraged to respond to reviewers' concerns. However, nobody, including the nominator, is required to. If the reviewer identifies concerns directly related to the Good article criteria and no one addresses the concerns, then no one should be surprised if the reviewer declines to list the article. If the article does not meet the Good article criteria after the reviewer has waited a reasonable amount of time for the nominator to make improvements, the reviewer is sure to fail the nomination. Future article editors may benefit from review comments on how to improve the article.
The nominator disagrees with the reviewer. Can another reviewer take over?: If your GAN experience is not going well or if you are disagreeing with the reviewer's decisions, then you may allow the review to fail, take the reviewer's suggestions into account, then renominate the article immediately (to get a different reviewer). If the reviewer has not yet failed the nomination, you may try asking them to ask for a second opinion. Other than these, another reviewer does not normally take over an active review. You might want to read What the Good article criteria are not. To prevent avoidable disputes, reviewers should either not make comments unrelated to the Good article criteria, or they should carefully label those suggestions as optional (e.g., "I know that citation formatting is not required by the Good article criteria, and I will not consider this when making my decision, but if you might send this to Wikipedia:Featured articles later, then that process requires consistent citation formatting").
Does an article have to be on hold for exactly seven days?: No. Whether to place the nomination on hold at all, and the length of any such hold, is for the reviewer to decide. Depending on the quality of the article and the responsiveness of the nominator, a hold may not be necessary. If the reviewer decides that it is, they may choose longer or shorter periods of hold time. The reviewer may even modify the {{GA nominee}} template on the article talk page to include a "time" parameter, for example, "time=fourteen days", and the {{GANotice}} template used to convey messages to the GA nominator to include a "days" parameter, for example "days=fourteen". Keep in mind that protracted reviews show up as exceptions on the GA nominations report page.
What should I do if a review page becomes inactive?: This can happen for a number of reasons. Review pages should only be started by reviewers who are willing to take an active interest in the article and are committed to completing their review of the article in a timely manner. Sometimes another editor (such as the nominator) starts the review page by mistake. A reviewer can fix this by placing their signature after "Reviewer:" towards the top of the review page, but if no reviewer is forthcoming, it may be best to delete the review page: requests for such deletions may be posted at the discussion page. If a new reviewer is truly needed, follow the instructions page under "What to do during a review if it seems abandoned". Do not use this process to void a review you disagree with.
I failed the article, and the nominator just nominated it again without fixing the problems I identified!: That's okay. There is no time limit between nominations, and this is the recommended process if the nominator disagrees with your review. Let someone else review it this time. The new reviewer is sure to read your comments while independently deciding on their assessment. If your concerns were legitimate, then the new reviewer will doubtless agree with you and also decline to list the article as GA. If the article is passed and you do not believe it meets the Good article criteria, you can initiate a reassessment.
How can GA be reliable when a single reviewer decides?: The quality of a Good article is only as reliable as the most recent review and articles may deteriorate if unattended. The GA process deals with both of these issues by allowing repeat reviews by any registered user at any time. The process aims to encourage article improvement and build consensus on quality through multiple reviews—even though a single reviewer makes the decision whether to list the article according to the GA criteria. Any editor may contribute to any review discussion and reassessment is available when the "one reviewer decides" model breaks down.
What if I have concerns about the quality of a review or need to resolve a dispute over the GA process?: You can bring those concerns to the discussion page to get help from other editors. Remember, however, to notify all users about whom concerns have been raised or who are involved in any dispute that you have.

This page, a part of the good article talk page collection, is archived by MiszaBot II. If your discussion was mistakenly archived, feel free to go retrieve it.
Current archive location: Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations/Archive 13.

Archives

This page has archives. Sections older than 7 days may be automatically archived by .

Basketball Association of America

I am not sure what is going on with this nomination. The previous review does not appear to have reached a conclusion. Feedback was left, but then someone came along, said it should be failed because the primary contributor wasn't consulted, and removed the GAN template from the talk page. The primary contributor then came along and implemented an article history stating that the nomination had failed. The article has since been renominated, but I am concerned that the first review hasn't finished yet and that some people seem to be of the opinion that permission is needed before an article can be nominated. GaryColemanFan (talk) 16:21, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I said I was wuickfailing it. I thought I did rm it from teh list maybe I didnt tweak teh talk page YellowMonkey (bananabucket) (Invincibles Featured topic drive:one left) 16:52, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans failed w/o any comments

Teancum failed Warcraft: Orcs & Humans with no explanation at all. I think Teancum's conduct need needs explanation. Philcha (talk) 23:43, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think it's more likely that Teancum screwed up. You can ask him/her on User talk:Teancum for an explanation. @harej 00:13, 22 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think that reviewer screwed up royally and I have posted to that effect on thir talk page. I suggest that the nomination be re-inserted at the original place in the queue, it was only nominated two days ago. Jezhotwells (talk) 01:45, 22 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I just shifted it up to the correct place, does Pilcha want to put another review template on the talk page? Jezhotwells (talk) 01:58, 22 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Jezhotwells, what did you mean about put another review template on the talk page? I was expectig that aother reviwerr would come along and create a .../GA2 page? --Philcha (talk) 07:02, 22 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I meant placing {{subst:GAN|subtopic=name of the subsection on this page where the article is listed}} on the talk page, but I have done that now. This enables the GA2 page to be easily created by following the link. Jezhotwells (talk) 14:02, 22 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! -Philcha (talk) 19:49, 22 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(undent)This case raised some procedure issues at WP:GAN:

I fail / pass reviews in the order: update the GA review page; update the Talk page (see WP:GAN); finally remove the nom from WP:GAN. That way if something distracted me I'm less likely to omit links. I think the current checklist WP:GAN could cause errors like this, as it removes the nom first.
Why the review failed to show at Talk:Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is more complex. At present transclusion the GA review page into the Talk page is manual, and occasionally I've deliberately held off if I need a day or 2 to read round, and at this stage the review is just a draft - then I transclusion and notify the nom. But Talk:Warcraft: Orcs & Humans/GA1 showed no reading round. Any what to make loose like this tie up? --Philcha (talk) 19:49, 22 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Reviewing is a transparent process, or it aught to be. If any GAN article is being reviewed, then I strongly beleive that the review should be visible from the article's talkpage during the review, i.e. by transcluding the review. If it is being suggested that so called "draft" views can be hidden until after a decission has been made, then that is not what GA reviews should be about. Pyrotec (talk) 20:11, 22 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed, and anyway the bot now transcludes the review automatically. Jezhotwells (talk) 21:15, 22 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In the view of recent events, transcluding the review automatically is best. If I need a think, I'll use a sub-page. --Philcha (talk) 21:40, 25 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What does the bot do?

Over at Talk:Polyethnicity, I've been doing a review. I've been doing it old school, with just a section on the talk page. I think this confused User:Harej, and he started the GA1 page, then noted that I was already doing it. Then the {{Talk:Polyethnicity/GA1} template is showing up at the bottom of the last section, which was annoying me, so I just removed it. I figured I'd fix all the stuff after the review was over. Then the bot puts it back. Automatically, I guess. So, what exactly does the bot do? The nominator is a newbie (part of a class assignment) who never put the GAN template at the top, and I started reviewing it before they nominated it on the GAN page. Stuff that's definitely not the bots fault, because it was so screwy. But, I'm not sure what the bot does so that I can anticipate what it needs and fix it before it happens. - Peregrine Fisher (talk) (contribs) 04:32, 23 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The {{Talk:Polyethnicity/GA1} template aught to be be visible on the talkpage whilst the article is under review; and pre-bot the reviewer had to manually add it to the talkpage. I've been doing reviews for the almost 15 months, so the "old school" is possbly a couple of years out of date, perhaps less. I noticed that, the problem was that Polyethnicity was not shown on WP:GAN as under review, neither was there a {{Talk:Polyethnicity/GA1}, so for all purposes the article did not appear to be under review. The bot will add the the GA/1 template if the article is under review and it is not there. Why not cut your review from the talkpage and paste it into {{Talk:Polyethnicity/GA1}? Pyrotec (talk) 15:55, 24 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Topic lists

Topic lists! Have at them! Great if you're only interested in watching part of the GAN listings! @harej 07:24, 29 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Pyrotec, "have at them" is a colloquial expression. @harej 18:07, 29 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry. Never heard of it. What does it mean? Pyrotec (talk) 20:29, 29 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Typically it means to attack "them", though in this context I am asking for eyes to look over the lists. What do you think of them? @harej 20:53, 29 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Yes, I like them. I seldom review the Arts, other than Architecture: and some of these subtopics have large backlogs; but I do have an interest in Geography and Places, amongst others. It would be nice to be able to put some of the Topic Lists that interest me on my watchlist, but with the bots updating them every 15 minutes, I'm not sure that that is a good idea. Alternatively, I could just look at the Topic Lists that interest me once or twice a day. Pyrotec (talk) 21:12, 29 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Considering that the topic lists have less volume by nature of being smaller parts to a larger list, it would be a lot more reasonable to watchlist a topic list than to watchlist the whole list. @harej 21:35, 29 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I agree with you on that point. Typically I review between 12 and 18 GANs per month, so I have to look at/edit the WP:GAN page on almost a daily basis; but these list could make choosing the next article to review a bit easier. Pyrotec (talk) 21:44, 29 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Reviews and reviewing

I placed an article for review on the list (William Stanley (Victorian inventor)), but I do not feel that I know the MOS in enough detail to be able to properly review another article.

Is this likely to prevent people from doing a review of the article?

Can anyone give more pointers on how to do a review of another article? Is it best to choose an article about a subject that you know, or one that you know nothing about?

As this is my first substantial article (researched and written from scratch), I really want feedback on if it is GA status, or if not, how I can bring it there. I am the main contributor (apart from 15 relatively minor edits) - and as I can't think of any other articles which I can create which are likely to be as substantial, I would like to get this to GA status (and onwards to A or FA standard). -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 15:13, 29 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. Don't worry too much about limited familiarity with the sprawling MoS. For GA reviewing, you really only need to make sure it complies with 6 of its guidelines. The fiction one only applies to certain articles; the lead one boils down to making sure the lead is a summary of all the key points of the article, without introducing new material absent from the main body; the list incorporation one can be summed up as bulleted lists are discouraged in favor of using prose paragraphs when possible; the rest are easy enough.

I shouldn't think that'll deter people from reviewing the article, no. Naturally, it's encouraged, but it isn't forced. You might even find yourself more confident about reviewing an article after you've gone through a review yourself.

Some people prefer to choose an article on a subject they know or are interested in. Sometimes it can be good to push oneself outside the comfort zone and review something unfamiliar, too. For first reviews it may be better to go for a subject you feel comfortable with. That way you don't have to struggle with getting on top of what the article's saying as well as assessing an article against the various criteria for the first time.

The reviewing guide is a good resource to look at if you haven't already. You can always contact a GA mentor for advice if you need help, or simply ask here. We all have to start somewhere. I'm sure you'll do fine. As for your nominated article, I know reviewers tend to really like working with nominators who have a genuine interest in their articles and want them to be good, even great. :) –Whitehorse1 18:33, 29 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Report bot

This bot is pretty good, but there are still issue. The bot doesn't seem to have picked up the fact that the article Bill Harry is under review and is currently on hold. Jezhotwells (talk) 16:39, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That particular talk page used "hold" instead of the supported "onhold" or "on hold". The bot should now recognize a plain "hold" as meaning "the review is on hold". Anything else? @harej 20:33, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, thanks for the explanation, I didn't notice that. Jezhotwells (talk) 22:03, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Probably harej knows this already, but the status (hold, on hold, second opinion, 2nd opinion etc.) is processed by {{GAN/Status}} to accommodate multiple usages. Any form supported by this template needs to be supported by the bot. Geometry guy 22:18, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Some strange GA reviews

Can someone take a look at the five GA reviews by LittleMissWikipoo (talk · contribs) in the last couple of hours? "Quick passes", all of them. I follow GA reviews regularly as I'm just starting to review articles myself, and found these to be a bit odd.-SpacemanSpiff 18:49, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I noticed them too. They are all starting with "I'm dispensing with the checklist" and then the article is passed with comments like "this article cannot be bettered". That's not up to standard. Hekerui (talk) 18:52, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think the profile was created today. Sock, maybe? MMagdalene722 ^{talk to me} 19:03, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Getting a bit too disruptive now, latest review was "Excellent, PASS with congratulations". Time for a block and mass revert. -SpacemanSpiff 19:42, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've checked Sussex spaniel now, and it looks okay. The articles selected are good candidates and look at first glance likely to pass GA - the new account has not placed them at GA yet either. So it begs the question what to do. The easiest I think is to double check as we go and place them on GA with a note on the GA review page. Casliber (talk · contribs) 19:52, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)Not denying that the articles are good. But so many reviews in such a short time without providing an evaluation seems a bit too much, I'd say the evaluation process is there for a reason. But then, I've just started working in the GA area, so take this as an uninformed opinion. cheers. -SpacemanSpiff 20:04, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(sigh) it's tricky I know..see my plan below. Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:13, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The others to check are - ~~Hudson County Courthouse~~, ~~Brad Follmer~~, Lord Guilford Dudley, I Miss You (Miley Cyrus song), and Shoegazing Kids. Can we strike and add to GA (or not as the case may be) as we go? Casliber (talk · contribs) 19:59, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

FWIW my take on it is this - proceeding above by quickly verifying the articles means that (a) if the new user is good faith, we double check her contributions to show them what they might have missed (b) if it is a sock, by reviewing the articles anyway and verifying, we erase any mischief and exclusiveness of sock contribs, and (c) we make sure the good-faith editors who worked hard on the six articles in question do not get their articles enmired in controversy. Is this okay with everyone? Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:10, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fine by me, but as a nominator, I would normally like to see feedback on the article, but all that is beside the point here, given that there's at least a second check going on. cheers. -SpacemanSpiff 20:13, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds reasonable to me, Casliber. Clearly any of these articles which do not pass at present but remain unreviewed should be reinserted in the nominations lists. I further concur with SpacemanSpiff that even very well written articles deserve more of a review than "Excellent, Pass".

In the list, the article that stands out the most as needing work (i.e. placing on hold) to meet the GA standard is Brad Follmer. Even the first sentence is inaccurate. The first section reads like in-universe synthesis, and the reliability of the sources may need attention. Geometry guy 20:23, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

To spaceman, absolutely, so adding extra feedback to the /GA1 template pages would be most valuable. Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:30, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, it's me. I was here months ago and worked quite a while on GAs and articles but forgot my user name and password so I reregistered. Don't even ask me to guess at my old name. Nothing comes to mind. Anyway, I noticed that the GAC is backlogged to the crack of doom and thought I would look for those GACs that appear to be well done FIRST (and get them out of the way) before tackling the toilet paper that require hours of concentration, haggling, and sleepless nights. I always look at the nominator's history FIRST and if that person has a record of arguing with others and making life difficult I throw their articles in my mental trash basket and leave the stuff for the hardier souls to take on. NO WAY am I getting involved with those sorts of editors! I want WP to be fun not a headache! Sorry if I upset others here but I thought I was helping. I'm ready to quit now because it's obvious I'm not wanted. One thing you people have to learn: a GOOD article is a GOOD article and you don't have to pick it apart at every comma, period and exclamation point! Good luck! LittleMissWikipoo (talk) 22:41, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

@@ Line 109: / Line 109: @@
 :: In the list, the article that stands out the most as needing work (i.e. placing on hold) to meet the GA standard is [[Brad Follmer]]. Even the first sentence is inaccurate. The first section reads like in-universe synthesis, and the reliability of the sources may need attention. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 20:23, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
 :::To spaceman, absolutely, so adding extra feedback to the /GA1 template pages would be most valuable. [[User:Casliber|Casliber]] ([[User talk:Casliber|talk]] '''·''' [[Special:Contributions/Casliber|contribs]]) 20:30, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
+:Hi, it's me.  I was here months ago and worked quite a while on GAs and articles but forgot my user name and password so I reregistered.  Don't even ask me to guess at my old name. Nothing comes to mind.  Anyway, I noticed that the GAC is backlogged to the crack of doom and thought I would look for those GACs that appear to be well done FIRST (and get them out of the way) before tackling the toilet paper that require hours of concentration, haggling, and sleepless nights.  I always look at the nominator's history FIRST and if that person has a record of arguing with others and making life difficult I throw their articles in my mental trash basket and leave the stuff for the hardier souls to take on. NO WAY am I getting involved with those sorts of editors!  I want WP to be fun not a headache! Sorry if I upset others here but I thought I was helping.  I'm ready to quit now because it's obvious I'm not wanted. One thing you people have to learn: a GOOD article is a GOOD article and you don't have to pick it apart at every comma, period and exclamation point! Good luck! [[User:LittleMissWikipoo|LittleMissWikipoo]] ([[User talk:LittleMissWikipoo|talk]]) 22:41, 30 November 2009 (UTC)