User:Marskell/TFA considerations

Today's featured article (TFA) is a central feature of Wikipedia's main page. As the volume of successful featured article candidacies has increased, so too has the number featured articles awaiting a TFA slot. Editors may place requests for a TFA at Today's featured article/Requests. Only five may be placed at one time. While it is first-come, first-serve, editors are asked not to place more than one in any 30 day period to be fair to others. TFA gives preference to:


 * Older featured articles. Priority is given to articles that have been waiting longest for a TFA slot where they are clearly of current standard.
 * Nominators who have multiple articles pending (e.g., "I have taken six through FAC but only two have gone to TFA").
 * Core topics of widespread interest. TFA attempts to balance the unusual with the well-known, but preference is given to subjects of universal interest; particularly, TFA is intended for an international and not merely English-speaking audience.
 * Subject matter that has not been recently on the mainpage. If Uranus was yesterday's TFA, we will wait some months to place Neptune.

When nominating, editors should describe the article in terms of these considerations.

Editors may also post a date request for their article, if the slot is unfilled. The date must be directly relevant to the subject and ideally be mentioned early in the article. In some cases there is no obvious date request that can be made, which does not alter the decision to award a slot.