User:Asilvering/AfCguide

As I write this, the Articles for Creation "queue" contains more than 3300 articles, 123 of which have been in the queue for more than four months. If you're reading this, chances are one of those articles is yours. Having an article stuck in limbo really sucks! I'm sorry this is happening to you! This is a guide for getting through the process as quickly and painlessly as possible, written by an AfC reviewer who spends a lot of reviewing time on the articles that have been stuck in the queue for longest.

The short of it is this: Articles for Creation is entirely staffed by volunteers, who can review articles in any order they choose to. Most articles are reviewed within 24 hours. The easier you make your article to review, the more likely it is to be one of those.

About Articles for Creation
Here's the thing: the AfC "queue" isn't a queue at all. It's a giant, time-stamped slush pile. Reviewers, who are all volunteers (and who would probably prefer to be writing their own articles), can review any article in the queue. They are under no obligations whatsoever to review a certain number of articles, to finish a review they started, to review in any particular order, or indeed to review any articles at all. If they get bored, they can stop! If they open an article that looks like too much work to review, they can close it!

Personally, I often review articles while insomniac or while I'm in boring meetings. I can't do complicated reviews, or fix significant problems, while I'm running on 50% brainpower. So I don't. I skip those and look for easy accepts/declines instead. Other reviewers figure that the most helpful thing they can do to reduce the AfC backlog is to review as many drafts as possible, as quickly as possible. This has the same result: if it's an easy decision, you're through. If it isn't, you can end up in four-month limbo.

blah blah blah. most are through in 24 hours, some more in 48, some more within a week. If you're in the pile for more than a week, you're in it for the long haul. It might be tomorrow. It might be four month from tomorrow. Sorry.

What reviewers see
Category:AfC pending submissions by age Wikipedia:AfC sorting

What reviewers require
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Articles_for_creation/Reviewing_instructions#Reviewing_workflow

Improper declines
WP:AFCSTANDARDS