Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-06-13/Featured content





This week's "Featured content" covers Sunday 5 – Saturday 11 June

Featured lists on the main page


In the first structural change to the main page in some years, a featured list will now be included there once a week, on Mondays, starting today, 13 June. This is the outcome of an extended debate and a unanimous RfC in which 49 editors participated. The RfC was launched by WFC, who says the hope is that the Today's featured list process "will mature to a point where it's ready to take a daily spot [though] any future expansion would require a fresh proposal" at main-page talk. The featured list is in its own box under "Did you know" and "On this day", and above "Picture of the day". The blurb will be about 1000 characters in length, accompanied by a right-aligned image.

The backend for TFL has been developed by Edokter, with assistance from other editors, including main-page guru Raul654 and RexxS. Adam Cuerden put in a considerable amount of work on the design and coding before leaving Wikipedia. "We are very grateful", says WFC. "The template for submitting new suggestions, TFLcontent, has been designed for simplicity and efficiency. Detailed, user-friendly instructions are provided at the submissions page. But the real beauty is that the template is used all the way through the process. Once a blurb has been accepted, and if necessary copy-edited, the entire template can be copied and pasted into the pool of main page candidates, currently located here."

FL director The Rambling Man told The Signpost, "a long-held feeling that FLs should be represented on the main page really got going once the featured sounds crew made a serious bid to shake things up. We thought we'd head in on the crest of the revolutionary wave, but eventually it transpired that featured sounds requires more growth in editor input and its collection of promoted files. But featured lists has been pretty stable for a long time; we just needed to hold off until someone could adequately code the solution. That's now done, and that's where we are."

"Featured lists has matured as a process over the past three years. But I think the key to the main page bid has been not to run before we could walk: the very last thing we wanted to do was to head to main page, blow it, and suffer premature cancellation. It was going to be two days a week, but to be honest, one day a week for the next couple of months is amazing. I can't recall the last time the main page had a 'make over', but this will be the most recent one, no matter what, and we want it to succeed."

Dabomb87 says "initially it will be down to the FL directors to decide—that is, The Rambling Man, Giants2008, and me—perhaps a couple of weeks in advance so we can queue them up and ensure there are no major issues like deadlinks, dabs. We're following that model until we know things are running smoothly, and then we'll need to work out a more egalitarian method of selection. In this honeymoon period, the FL community will be thrilled to see its work finally acknowledged."

Featured lists
In our regular coverage, eight lists were promoted last week:
 * . (Nominated by )
 * List of accolades received by Winter's Bone (nom)
 * . (picture at right)
 * . (picture at right)
 * . (picture at right)
 * . (picture at right)
 * . (picture at right)
 * . (picture at right)

Featured articles
Six articles were promoted to featured status:
 * , completely rewritten by co-nominator as part of a possible featured topic related to the 2006 season. Co-nominator  says, "If you thought hurricanes are only for Florida, think again – individuals affected by Gordon may have well been eating fish and chips, drinking Guinness, or driving on the Autovía de los Pantanos." This photo-like image was acquired via NASA's Aqua satellite. (picture at top)
 * , a district on the eastern fringes of London's West End, now a popular shopping and tourist site. The precinct is home to the Royal Opera House, also known as "Covent Garden". (SilkTork) (picture at right)
 * , one of England's most enduring and unique spectacles, celebrated annually on or around 5 November. Initially it commemorated the deliverance of a Stuart king, but it wasn't long before it became embroiled in the religious turmoil between England's Protestant and Catholic religions.
 * Banksia paludosa (nom), commonly known as the marsh or swamp banksia, endemic to the mid-eastern regions of Australia, mostly close to the coast. (Nominated by )
 * Voalavo gymnocaudus (nom), a small rodent on the large island of Madagascar, off south-eastern Africa; the species was discovered only a little over a decade ago. (Ucucha)
 * The Sun Also Rises (nom), the first successful novel, written in 1926, by Nobel prize–winning American author Ernest Hemingway; in many ways it was a work that came to define a generation. (picture at right)

Featured pictures
Five images were promoted. Medium-sized images can be viewed by clicking on "nom":
 * Samuel Reshevsky as a kid (nom; related article), a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess grandmaster. Here, he is eight years old, in the process of defeating several grandmasters in France (created by Kadel & Herbert, appeared in The New York Times).
 * Taos Pueblo Church (nom; related article), a historic landmark—a church—photographed in 1942 by the significant American photographer Ansel Adams (restored by User:Kaldari).
 * Salt farmers in Thailand (nom; related article), sea-salt harvesting in Pak Thale, Phetchaburi, Thailand (created by User:JJ Harrison). (picture at bottom)
 * Black-breasted Thrush male (nom; related article), a species of bird found in Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam. This one was photographed by User:JJ Harrison in the Royal Agricultural Station, Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. (picture at right)
 * Black-breasted Thrush female (nom; related article), a female of the same species (created by User:JJ Harrison).

Featured sounds
There are nine new featured sounds
 * Debussy's "Sarabande" from Pour le piano (nom; related article), Debussy's Sarabande from Pour le piano, composed in 1901, performed by Wikipedian La Pianista in 2011.
 * America the beautiful (nom; related article), a patriotic hymn-like piece by an unknown composer, performed by the US Army Band Brass Quintet in 2007.
 * Four Central American national anthems (nom), performed by the US Navy Band.
 * Two Hispaniola National Anthems (nom), performed by the US Navy Band.
 * President Johnson's remarks on signing the Voting Rights Act (1965) (nom; related article), legislation that helped to protect the rights outlined in the 15th and 24th amendments to the US Constitution—an important step towards reducing the widespread disfranchisement of African Americans.



