Please read through the policy below to familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page.
Featured articles are considered to be examples of Memory Alpha's best work and are showcased on the main page. They are especially well-written, informative, and comprehensive articles that cover all available information on a subject. As such, it is crucial that the following policies and guidelines concerning the nomination of featured articles be observed - they are intended to maintain adequate standards of quality for the list.
Nominations
Nominating an article
Featured article candidates are nominated on Nominations for featured articles.
- Any registered user may nominate articles, one at a time. Before nominating a second article, the first one must be resolved.
- Before nominating an article, make sure it fulfills the Featured article criteria. Consider letting other editors copyedit or comment on the article to make sure that potential flaws are detected and eliminated.
- It is allowed to nominate articles you worked on yourself, just make sure to mark any such nominations as a self-nomination.
- If you nominate an article, you are expected to address valid objections that are raised.
Discussing nominations
- Any registered user that has been in existence for at least two weeks and with at least twenty significant contributions can participate in nominations. You should not vote on an article you nominated.
- Before voting, be sure that you are familiar with the entire article before you form an opinion. This is only fair to the writers of the article, as it's likely that several hours' work went into writing it!
- If you approve of an article, write '''Support''' followed by your reasons. The nomination of an article is considered a vote of support unless it's a self-nomination.
- If you have any objections, write '''Oppose''' followed by your reasons. Any objections should be directly related to one or more of the Featured article criteria. Objections purely based on personal preference are considered invalid.
- If you want to comment without supporting or opposing, you may do so.
- To withdraw an objection, strike it out (with <s>...</s>) rather than removing it.
- As always, sign your comments (~~~~). This is important to keep track of voting.
Resolving nominations
A nomination can be resolved if it has been inactive for fourteen days, meaning that there were no new votes or work done to resolve objections in that time, or after a total of 6 weeks without any indication of resolution. The following results are possible:
- Less than five votes, whether supporting or opposing: The nomination is considered unsuccessful and removed from the list.
- Five or more votes with objections. The article is considered in dispute, therefor the nomination is unsuccessful and removed from the list.
- Five or more votes without objections or with all objections resolved. The nomination is considered successful and removed from the list.
The nomination discussion should be placed at the top of that article's talk page; with a link placed in the nomination archive.
Renominating an article
If a nomination has been unsuccessful for whatever reason, the article may be suggested again after a waiting period of four weeks from the date of the initial rejection. Before re-nominating, any unresolved objections that were made during the initial nomination process should be addressed.
Reconfirming featured articles
Ever two years a featured article will need to be brought up for reconfirmation, to ensure it is still an example of Memory Alpha's best work. It is expected that these articles will have undergone revisions over that time to keep them up to date, and it's important to make sure that these revisions have maintained the quality expected of a featured article. Featured articles requiring reconfirmation are listed on the Reconfirmation of featured articles page.
Reconfirmation discussions
- Any registered user that has been in existence for at least two weeks and with at least twenty significant contributions can participate in reconfirmations.
- An archivist may only bring up one article for reconfirmation at a time, and at least one vote needs to be cast. Unlike the an nomination, starting a reconfirmation discussion isn't a vote, so you will need to state any preference separately.
- If you want to comment without supporting or opposing, you may do so.
Resolving reconfirmations
The following two results are possible:
- If support during the reconfirmation is unanimous, independent of the actual number of votes, the current revision of the article becomes the featured revision after fourteen days. This should be done by updating the featured revision ID and date in the {{featured}} template at the bottom of the article.
- If there is opposition to the article - under the featured article criteria - the reconfirmation process turns into a nomination of the new revision, meaning that it will be handled and resolved under the featured article nomination policy as if it were a new nomination.
When a reconfirmation discussion is resolved, it should be placed with the nomination discussion on the article's talk page.
Removing featured articles
If you feel that an article currently listed as a Featured Articles should not be featured (for example, because it has been significantly changed for the worst), it should be listed on featured article removal candidates. Be sure to state the reasons why you think the article should no longer be featured. Then add the {{featuredremoval}} message to the top of the article and leave an edit summary informing other members that it was listed for removal.
Articles that were recently nominated for Featured Article status should not be listed for removal – if you had an objection or complaint about the article, it should have been brought up during the nomination period.
Do not list articles that previously survived removal attempts, unless the article in question has undergone major changes since the last time it was nominated for removal. Frivolous nominations for removal may be deleted by administrators without notice.
Once an article has been listed for a period of seven days, it will either be restored to the Featured Articles list or archived in the successful removal candidates log. Nominations for removal require at least one additional vote supporting removal (in addition to the original nomination), plus a majority of the total votes, in order to permanently remove the article from the Featured Articles list.