Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-06-13/Features, removal, admins

Debate over featured article removal policy started out slow but in recent days has intensified, with some users suggesting that the old rules made it too easy for featured articles to be nominated, while others argue that a waiting period between stating concerns and nominating the article is instruction creep.

There were 10 new admins, 3 new featured articles, 1 new featured list, and 2 new featured pictures.

Featured article removal rules
A tighter procedure for delisting featured articles was suggested by Nichalp and initially received little attention. Several users agreed that the old rules were faulty, as they allowed any article to be nominated for removal, without regard for those involved in the article's original featured candidacy. According to the new guidelines, the nominator must post a critique of the article on the article's talk page, and then must wait seven days before nominating it on featured article removal candidates so that any problems can be addressed.

After this discussion, the new rules were added to the process, and several nominations for removal that did not comply with the instructions were themselves removed. However, as more people encountered the change in guidelines, other users expressed renewed concern over the waiting period, suggesting that it is instruction creep and makes the process "too much hassle", as Bishonen put it. A quick poll showed support for eliminating the new requirements, although the level of attention so far has not been significantly higher than the attention paid to implementing them in the first place.

New admins
10 requests for adminship were approved last week: JYolkowski (nom), Mulad (nom), Fawcett5 (nom), Linuxbeak (nom), Zzyzx11 (nom), Ingoolemo (nom), Pjacobi (nom), Radiant! (nom), Eugene van der Pijll (nom), and Zocky (nom).

Featured content
Just three articles were featured last week, but a queue of 25 articles is waiting for approval at Featured article candidates. Sydney Riot of 1879 was the subject of the debate over whether or not two letters ought to be included in the article, even though they are also on Wikisource. In the end, consensus was to keep them, and the article was promoted. In summary, the new featured articles in the last week were Sydney Riot of 1879, Sandy Koufax, and Xiangqi. Articles demoted on featured article removal candidates were Copyright and Computer security.

One more featured list candidate was promoted this week, List of cultural references in The Cantos, after receiving praise from a number of wikipedians. The list complements The Cantos, which is already a featured article.

2 featured picture candidates were promoted, and San Francisco Bay Area Skyline and San Francisco Bay Area Skyline 2 both survived the featured picture removal process.