Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Icelandic Phallological Museum

These nominations predate the introduction in April 2014 of article-specific subpages for nominations and have been created from the edit history of Today's featured article/requests.

Icelandic Phallological Museum (for non-specific date in 2012)

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the TFAR nomination of the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page unless you are renominating the article at TFAR. For renominations, please add   to the top of the discussion and   at the bottom, then complete a new TFAR nom underneath.

The result was: not scheduled (withdrawn by nominator at suggestion of principal author)  [link to deleted image removed]

The Icelandic Phallological Museum, in Reykjavík, Iceland, houses the world's largest collection of penises and penile parts. The collection of 280 specimens from 93 species of animals includes 55 penises taken from whales, 36 from seals and 118 from land mammals. In July 2011, the museum obtained its first human penis (one of four promised by would-be donors) though its detachment from the donor's body did not go very well and it is now a "greyish-brown, shrivelled mass" pickled in a jar of formaldehyde. The museum continues to search for "a younger and a bigger and better one." Founded in 1997 by retired teacher Sigurður Hjartarson and run by his son Hjörtur Gísli Sigurðsson, the museum grew out of an interest in penises that began when Sigurður was given a bull's penis to use as a cattle whip when he was a boy. The museum has become a popular tourist attraction with thousands of visitors a year—the majority of them women—and has attracted international media attention, including a Canadian documentary film called The Final Member, which covers the museum's quest to obtain a human penis. According to its mission statement, the museum aims to enable "individuals to undertake serious study into the field of phallology in an organized, scientific fashion." (more...)


 * Pumpkin Sky  talk  23:52, 19 September 2012 (UTC)


 * "Support", although I should point out that both Iceland and Idaho begin with “I”. pls give equal consideration to other letters of teh Elphaba. Br'er Rabbit (talk) 23:57, 19 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Support It's not often that we get such a well written article about a museum. And we haven't had many Iceland featured articles either. Mark Arsten (talk) 23:57, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm fine with holding onto this for a little longer, per Prioryman. Mark Arsten (talk) 18:21, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * To be honest (as the author) I'd prefer this to be held over until Valentine's Day, on the grounds that dicks are most relevant to that date. I wasn't intending to nominate it until next January for just that reason. Prioryman (talk) 00:05, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * What a romantic idea, Prioryman. Jonathunder (talk) 00:09, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * *cough* I'd have no problem with you withdrawing this ;) It does say in Valentine's Day that you should give a bit of dick to the one(s) you love… Br'er Rabbit (talk) 00:37, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Whot! An article that supports male dominance for V-day! what will SarahStierch think and Sue Gardner and the 9% editors that are female? Woooooo! MathewTownsend (talk) 01:16, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Don't take it that way, try it this way ;) Br'er Rabbi 01:38, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Romantic? No. Realistic? Yes. :-) Prioryman (talk) 04:13, 20 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Support - Agree with Mark. It's new and should run it before it gets trashed with maintenance tags. The Crater Lake article had two dead links and another tag.  MathewTownsend (talk) 01:16, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Sigh, why are we still promoting articles to TFA as "wiki's best" when they have tags? Pumpkin Sky   talk  01:27, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I clean up a lot of shite when pages are suggested for TFA; for FA, for that matters, or I check out what passes and fix the missed bits. Br'er Rabbit (talk) 01:35, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I know you do. I'm saying too many are getting through with blatant problems. You do good work, but one person can't catch everything. The promotor should check them for such issues before scheduling. No article should be on the MP with maintenance tags. That's hardly "wiki's best". Pumpkin Sky   talk  01:38, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Of course you do; this is a key reason that all of this needs to be kept more than a week ahead. Everything being main paged should get a buffing-up and if insufficient, given the boot. I fixed up the Crater page quite a bit, and recall fixing one dead link (NPS had move a page; “campgrounds”, I believe it was). One person can't get everything. Br'er Rabbi 01:49, 20 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Comment The pic is named "File:2008 Iceland national handball team". I support running it on Valentines Day for maximum potential for Dramahz, or on February 13 as a compromise date. -- Dianna (talk) 02:23, 21 September 2012 (UTC)
 * The name's accurate enough, it just doesn't show their faces. ;-) Prioryman (talk) 20:56, 21 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Cockblock... er... kinda oppose - Diannaa and the others have a good point, and I like da drahmaz. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 02:33, 21 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Comment What about holding this for April 1?--Wehwalt (talk) 20:59, 21 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I did think of it, but I don't want to do that. While it's certainly a topic that prompts sniggers, it seems too much like a cheap shot to treat it as a joke. The museum itself certainly doesn't, and I don't think it would do it justice to present it as such. Valentine's Day seems a much better option as there's genuine relevance to that date. Prioryman (talk) 21:07, 21 September 2012 (UTC)
 * See my talk page. There is a definite consensus for around Val Day, but not the specific day yet. I'll put it on the sked here: QAI and save the TFAR blurb here so we don't have to reinvent the wheel: QAI/TFA. Pumpkin Sky  talk  21:45, 21 September 2012 (UTC)

Icelandic Phallological Museum (for February 14, 2013)

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the TFAR nomination of the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page unless you are renominating the article at TFAR. For renominations, please add   to the top of the discussion and   at the bottom, then complete a new TFAR nom underneath.

The result was: not scheduled (withdrawn by nominator)



The Icelandic Phallological Museum, in Reykjavík, Iceland, houses the world's largest display of penises and penile parts. The collection of 280 specimens from 93 species of animals includes 55 penises taken from whales, 36 from seals and 118 from land mammals, allegedly including elves and trolls. In July 2011, the museum obtained its first human penis, one of four promised by would-be donors. Its detachment from the donor's body did not go according to plan and it was reduced to a greyish-brown shrivelled mass pickled in formaldehyde. The museum continues to search for "a younger and a bigger and better one". Founded in 1997 by retired teacher Sigurður Hjartarson and run by his son Hjörtur Gísli Sigurðsson, the museum grew out of an interest in penises that began during Sigurður's childhood when he was given a cattle whip made from a bull's penis. The museum attracts thousands of visitors a year—the majority of them women—and has received international media attention. A Canadian documentary film called The Final Member covers the museum's quest to obtain a human penis. According to its mission statement, the museum aims to enable "individuals to undertake serious study into the field of phallology in an organized, scientific fashion".

4 points: 2 points as there has been no similar article (on museums, Iceland or indeed phalluses) on the Main Page in the last six months; plus an extra point for date relevance (as phalluses are more likely to be relevant on Valentine's Day than any other day of the year - hopefully!). plus 2 more points for widely covered (20 languages). This was originally suggested for September by PumpkinSky with the blurb above but it was decided to hold it over to February, so I'm renominating it for consideration. Prioryman (talk) 22:31, 2 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Support for the dramahz, but two points as the date is not inherently relevant to the subject (an article on won tons for Chinese New Year would not get points either) — Crisco 1492 (talk) 23:20, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm thinking of it in terms of the subject being relevant to the date rather than the other way round... Prioryman (talk) 23:23, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
 * From above: "Note that just because an article might be appropriate for a date, for example Chinese language on Chinese New Year's, that does not mean a point should be awarded." — Crisco 1492 (talk) 23:31, 2 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Support as per my comments in September. I can't even remember the last time we had a Urology-related TFA. Mark Arsten (talk) 23:38, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

I've adjusted the blurb for excess size, WP:MOSDATE ("now" is redundant), logical punctuation, and a museum doesn't "attract" a documentary; please review the article for similar issues. Also, please review for and correct repetitive prose: " The museum attracts thousands of visitors a year—the majority of them women—and has attracted international media attention." ... attracts, attracted. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 23:46, 2 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Are we potentially going to be walking into a "omg penises on the front page" minefield here or have we asserted to ourselves that we'll accept any criticism about having such pictures on the front page to remain true to the project's mission and approach (eg that we don't censor ourselves?) I'm fine with the image as long as we've agreed to ourselves that we'll take whatever criticism people throw at us for using such an image (I don't know if this has been decided yet or not). --M ASEM  (t) 23:56, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
 * This is a perfectly interesting topic, but isn't the choice of picture (in particular) liable to disrupt Wikipedia in order to demonstrate how very not censored we are? AlexTiefling (talk) 00:02, 3 January 2013 (UTC)
 * To be fair, there's a choice of images so this one isn't set in stone, so to speak. Prioryman (talk) 00:05, 3 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Support A solid choice. Hawkeye7 (talk) 06:49, 3 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Weak oppose - When previous controversial front page articles, such as a recent instance of a festive talking turd, have attracted criticism, there are two responses: WP:NOTCENSORED, and WP:TFAR. I fully support NOTCENSORED, but I feel that 'edgy' topics are somewhat getting pushed to the front page to make a point, and I don't feel that's in the spirit of the exercise. I also think the date justification is exceedingly flimsy: the link between Valentine's Day and cocks is, frankly, tenuous. But it is a good article, and with a slightly more moderate write-up (without the 'greyish-brown shrivelled mass', for example) and a more representative picture (perhaps of the museum interior, or the selection of whale penises) I'd be prepared to reconsider my !vote. AlexTiefling (talk) 11:55, 3 January 2013 (UTC)
 * The "greyish brown shrivelled mass" is a direct quotation from a description of how it ended up. As for the image, I don't mind using a whale image (which I think we used without any objections for DYK) and I've swapped that in the blurb above. Prioryman (talk) 19:24, 4 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Strong oppose I have no problem with seeing this article (and a carefully chosen image) on Main Page, but this date is a terrible choice. Choosing this date implies that Wikipedia thinksValentine's day relates to sexual intercourse, rather than romantic love. This connection is factually incorrect and I strongly object to factual error on Wikipedia's Main Page. --Dweller (talk) 12:08, 3 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Comment To my mind, a far better nomination for this date would be Romances. --Dweller (talk) 12:14, 3 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Oppose  per Dweller and Alex. NOTCENSORED should be an excuse to see what we can get away with.  An  optimist on the  run!  12:24, 3 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Oppose - but only opposing the choice of date per Dweller. For me would be appropriate on any date except this one. Actually, it seems an absolutely ideal candidate for our main page featured article on 1 April, as it is one of those articles, like pigeon photography and wife selling, where you have to look twice to check "is it serious?!", and then find that it is both fun and informative. --RobertG ♬ talk 12:39, 3 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Would that be considered a phallacy?  An  optimist on the  run!  14:38, 3 January 2013 (UTC)
 * It's maybe a bit early to be thinking about it, but I quite like the 1st April idea. Andrew Gray (talk) 18:20, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I don't; we've already been critized for what was labeled as sophomoric penile humor on the April Fools, and we can certainly do better than that. I did suggest this for December 28, the Day of the Innocents, because it's less US-centric than April Fools.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 18:35, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Strong support. It's a museum. Are we offended by centres of learning? As for the date relevance, it certainly makes enough sense to run, but not enough for a point. I'm actually getting a little sick of seeing WP:NOTCENSORED attacked as an "excuse" to run valid articles—if we're okay with having an article, okay with it being readily linked to, there is no basis for subjective tastes being considered "better" than the application of a solid policy. GRAPPLE   X  19:08, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Comment: The article should run; it's unique and fun, and should be on the front page at some point. I'd fully support a nonspecific nomination, but when paired with the Beyonce article, I think the latter is more appropriate for V-Day. Maybe this should run on Feb 13th as a sort of in-joke, if you get my drift.--Chimino (talk) 09:01, 5 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Comment: I support the appearance of a great article, but consider Valentine's Day as not the best possible day, - the museum is not connected to love, and what it shows only in a narrow perspective. How about a little later? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:12, 5 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Support, and compliment it with an image of the world's largest love making tool in the museum.♦ Dr. ☠ Blofeld  22:36, 5 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Oppose This selection may not be a violation of WP:NOTCENSORED, but it's a violation of WP:POORTASTE. If it just happened to be scheduled on Valentine's Day, or some other love-related observance, that would be fine. But to intentionally select it for Valentine's Day (which, as previously stated, celebrates love, not sex) is just poor taste, irrelevant, and not even funny. --  tariq abjotu  23:13, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

Icelandic Phallological Museum (for non-specific date in 2013)

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the TFAR nomination of the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page unless you are renominating the article at TFAR. For renominations, please add   to the top of the discussion and   at the bottom, then complete a new TFAR nom underneath.

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/March 16, 2013 by BencherliteTalk 10:07, 25 February 2013 (UTC)



The Icelandic Phallological Museum, in Reykjavík, Iceland, houses the world's largest display of penises and penile parts. The collection of 280 specimens from 93 species of animals includes 55 penises taken from whales, 36 from seals and 118 from land mammals, allegedly including elves and trolls. In July 2011, the museum obtained its first human penis, one of four promised by would-be donors. Its detachment from the donor's body did not go according to plan and it was reduced to a greyish-brown shrivelled mass pickled in formaldehyde. The museum continues to search for "a younger and a bigger and better one". Founded in 1997 by retired teacher Sigurður Hjartarson and run by his son Hjörtur Gísli Sigurðsson, the museum grew out of an interest in penises that began during Sigurður's childhood when he was given a cattle whip made from a bull's penis. The museum attracts thousands of visitors a year—the majority of them women—and has received international media attention. A Canadian documentary film called The Final Member covers the museum's quest to obtain a human penis. According to its mission statement, the museum aims to enable "individuals to undertake serious study into the field of phallology in an organized, scientific fashion".

4 points: 2 points as there has been no similar article (on museums, Iceland or indeed phalluses) on the Main Page in the last six months; plus 2 more points for widely covered (20 languages). This was originally suggested for September by PumpkinSky with the blurb above. I'm renominating for a non-specific date following a suggestion from SandyGeorgia. Prioryman (talk) 10:15, 12 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Support for the third time. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 10:26, 12 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Support as said before, only the date 14 February was not to my liking, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:28, 12 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Support for a great article.--Chimino (talk) 13:14, 12 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Support for nonspecific date, may take a position in either direction for specific holidays.  Montanabw (talk) 23:46, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

I think this would be a good article to save for April Fools. Raul654 (talk) 14:15, 12 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Discussion of April Fools continued on talk. Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 02:42, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

I'm sure this will run at some point, but at the risk of stating the obvious, I doubt that I or the other delegates will pick it for the moment while there's discussion about whether it should run on 1st April. In the meantime, this nomination probably ought to be temporarily exempt from the "if not picked within 7 days it's rejected" rule. If we end up with two non-specific date nomination and someone then wants to add another one, I'd suggest leaving a request at WT:TFAR for Someone To Do Something About It. At that stage perhaps we can move this nomination to talk (or temporarily increase the limit to three) to avoid this causing a log-jam. BencherliteTalk 17:04, 14 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Support, high-quality article, and it's quite incredible that the article is available to readers in twenty (20) languages. Support either for non-specific date, or date proposed by, above. &mdash; Cirt (talk) 18:19, 14 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Support for any date, though an April Fools nom would be kind of funny. Canuck 89 (talk to me) 00:46, January 16, 2013 (UTC)
 * Support regular appearance, oppose use for fish day. GRAPPLE   X  00:52, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Support most days of the year. Strong oppose to Feb 14 or April 1. --Dweller (talk) 16:31, 30 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Support for 1 April (preferred) or any other day. Binksternet (talk) 22:30, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support any date but oppose 1 April, because the article writer doesn't want it to run on that date. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 22:34, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support for April 1 (also my preference), but willing to see it run any other day.  Imzadi 1979  →   00:34, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support for any day except February 14 (too crass) or April 1 (per editor request. Also, there's already going to be a pile of sophomoric jokes in DYK.  We gotta spread this out a bit!) Resolute 00:41, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * You don't need to worry about this running on 14th Feb - the next unscheduled date is currently 24th Feb... BencherliteTalk 00:44, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support I must say I don't have hugely strong feelings on this...I'd rather steer away from penile references on April fools' and have a more G-rated April 1. Casliber (talk · contribs) 11:44, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support with this blurb and picture, for any day except 14 February or 1 April. AlexTiefling (talk) 11:48, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support for April 1. If you bring an article like that to FA you have to have humour. Hekerui (talk) 19:19, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support for April 1 or any other day. The suggestion above that "the article writer doesn't want it to run on that date" is irrelevant. Wikipedia articles don't have single writers. As soon as I write anything here, it belongs to all of us, and the same is true for any other editor. Articles don't have owners. It's a good and well-written article, by the way. RomanSpa (talk) 23:09, 8 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support for any date other than 1 April or 14 February. GabeMc  (talk&#124;contribs)  23:14, 8 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support Hawkeye7 (talk) 09:38, 15 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support for random date. I'd prefer it didn't run on April 1st, per Prioryman's request. -- Dianna (talk) 19:36, 16 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support for any date but the first of April. — WP: PENGUIN  · [ TALK ]  00:54, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Closing comment. This nomination has been alive for about six weeks with no opposition to the principle of the article appearing on the main page, simply to the timing of its appearance. Six weeks is very much longer than the average request, giving plenty of opportunity for input from the community. During the course of this discussion, I have included general "adverts" for TFAR in the course of discussion at T:MP and WT:FAC For the sake of the completeness, it was previously nominated here for Valentine's Day, and the opposition there was predominantly the date suggestion itself rather than the principle of this article appearing on the main page. As I read both this discussion and the discussion that took place on the TFAR talk page about whether this article should be saved for 1st April, there is a consensus against that happening, even if there is no consensus yet on what should appear. (As a further note, the 1st April discussion was advertised by me at main page talk here.) has not commented on this issue since 19th January and (at the time of writing) has made only one edit since 1st February. In the absence of any further reply from him on- or off-wiki about this issue, I am scheduling this article. However, mindful of the sensitivies of our main page readers, the blurb that will appear uses the word "penis" only once rather than six times and pays less attention to the quest for a decent human specimen. I am sure that this will make everyone equally unhappy. TFAR discussions are not normally closed in this manner, but at least this way if there are any complaints about the subject matter or the wording, we have a record of what was discussed, when, where, by who, and why the decision to schedule it was taken. Thank you to all who participated in the discussion. BencherliteTalk 10:04, 25 February 2013 (UTC)