Wikipedia:WikiProject Ancient Near East/Assessment

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

 * 1. What is the purpose of the article ratings? : The rating system allows us to monitor the quality of articles in our area, and prioritize editor time for working on these articles. It is also used by the Wikipedia 1.0 program for static releases of Wikipedia content. These ratings are intended for internal use within the project, and do not necessarily constitute an official rating in any meaningful sense.


 * 2. How do I add an article to the WikiProject? : Just add WikiProject Ancient Near East to the top of the article's talk page.


 * 3. Who can assess articles? : Any editor or member of the WikiProject, is free to add or change the rating of an article between stub, start, C and B classes. Editors do not need to be professional historians nor members of this WikiProject to assess articles within this range of classes. However, quality assignments higher than B-class cannot be made outside of the formal review process; this is because the GA and FA-class designations require significant attention to detail and consensus.


 * 4. How do I rate an article? : Select from the quality scale, after reviewing in detail, the level that best matches the state of the article. Then add the rating onto the article, through the article's talk page project banner. Remember that quality ratings above B-class cannot be made unilaterally.


 * 5. Can I request that someone else rate an article? : Absolutely. You can the issue on the WikiProject's talk page.


 * 6. Why didn't the reviewer leave any comments? : Unfortunately, due to the volume of articles that need to be assessed, we may be unable to leave a detailed rationale. If you have particular questions, you might ask the person who assessed the article; they will usually be happy to provide you with their reasoning. If you require written, detailed feedback on your article, you may like to consider using peer review.


 * 7. What if I don't agree with a rating? : You are free to ask the original reviewer or any other member of the project to re-rate the article.


 * 8. Aren't the ratings subjective? : Yes, they are somewhat subjective, but it's the best system we've been able to devise. If you have a better idea, please don't hesitate to let us know!

If you have any other questions not listed here, please feel free to ask them on the talk page.

Criteria
As do most WikiProjects, we assess our articles for Quality and Importance. Quality designations are made according to a set of generally-accepted criteria, which are summarised below. Lower quality designations are conferred by individual project members. Higher quality designations are conferred once the article has passed a peer review by the relevant Wikipedia-wide assessment systems (for GA-class or FA-class status).

Requests for assessment of an article into B-class or any lower rank may be made at the talk page of the WikiProject. You should not assess an article you have made substantial contributions to, because – self-evidently – it is less likely you will be able to fairly and accurately judge your own work.

It is vital that people do not take these assessments personally. We each have our own opinions of the priorities of the objective criteria for a perfect article. Different projects may use their own variation of the criteria more tuned for the subject area.

Assessments of importance do not, and should not, reflect the importance of the subject within academia or ancient Near East studies, but rather its importance to an average reader with no background in the subject.