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Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Wehwalt (talk | contribs) at 07:44, 19 March 2011 (→‎April 11). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Here the community can nominate articles to be selected as "Today's featured article" (TFA) on the main page. The TFA section aims to highlight the range of articles that have "featured article" status, from Art and architecture through to Warfare, and wherever possible it tries to avoid similar topics appearing too close together without good reason. Requests are not the only factor in scheduling the TFA (see Choosing Today's Featured Article); the final decision rests with the TFA coordinators: Wehwalt, Dank and Gog the Mild, who also select TFAs for dates where no suggestions are put forward. Please confine requests to this page, and remember that community endorsement on this page does not necessarily mean the article will appear on the requested date.

  • The article must be a featured article. Editors who are not significant contributors to the article should consult regular editors of the article before nominating it for TFAR.
  • The article must not have appeared as TFA before (see the list of possibilities here), except that:
    • The TFA coordinators may choose to fill up to two slots each week with FAs that have previously been on the main page, so long as the prior appearance was at least five years ago. The coordinators will invite discussion on general selection criteria for re-runnable TFAs, and aim to make individual selections within those criteria.
    • The request must be either for a specific date within the next 30 days that has not yet been scheduled, or a non-specific date. The template {{@TFA}} can be used in a message to "ping" the coordinators through the notification system.

If you have an exceptional request that deviates from these instructions (for example, an article making a second appearance as TFA, or a "double-header"), please discuss the matter with the TFA coordinators beforehand.

It can be helpful to add the article to the pending requests template, if the desired date for the article is beyond the 30-day period. This does not guarantee selection, but does help others see what nominations may be forthcoming. Requesters should still nominate the article here during the 30-day time-frame.

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Shortcuts

Featured content:

Featured article candidates (FAC)

Featured article review (FAR)

Today's featured article (TFA):

Featured article tools:

How to post a new nomination:

I.
Create the nomination subpage.

In the box below, enter the full name of the article you are nominating (without using any brackets around the article's name) and click the button to create your nomination page.


II.
Write the nomination.

On that nomination page, fill out as many of the relevant parts of the pre-loaded {{TFAR nom}} template as you can, then save the page.

Your nomination should mention:

  • when the last similar article was, since this helps towards diversity on the main page (browsing Wikipedia:Today's featured article/recent TFAs will help you find out);
  • when the article was promoted to FA status (since older articles may need extra checks);
  • and (for date-specific nominations) the article's relevance for the requested date.
III.
Write the blurb.
Some Featured Articles promoted between 2016 and 2020 have pre-prepared blurbs, found on the talk page of the FAC nomination (that's the page linked from "it has been identified" at the top of the article's talk page). If there is one, copy and paste that to the nomination, save it, and then edit as needed. For other FAs, you're welcome to create your own TFA text as a summary of the lead section, or you can ask for assistance at WT:TFAR. We use one paragraph only, with no reference tags or alternative names; the only thing bolded is the first link to the article title. The length when previewed is between 925 and 1025 characters including spaces, " (Full article...)" and the featured topic link if applicable. More characters may be used when no free-use image can be found. Fair use images are not allowed.
IV.
Post at TFAR.

After you have created the nomination page, add it here under a level-3 heading for the preferred date (or under a free non-specific date header). To do this, add (replacing "ARTICLE TITLE" with the name of your nominated article):
===February 29===
{{Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/ARTICLE TITLE}}

Nominations are ordered by requested date below the summary chart. More than one article can be nominated for the same date.

It would also then be helpful to add the nomination to the summary chart, following the examples there. Please include the name of the article that you are nominating in your edit summary.

If you are not one of the article's primary editors, please then notify the primary editors of the TFA nomination; if primary editors are no longer active, please add a message to the article talk page.

Scheduling:

In the absence of exceptional circumstances, TFAs are scheduled in date order, not according to how long nominations have been open or how many supportive comments they have. So, for example, January 31 will not be scheduled until January 30 has been scheduled (by TFAR nomination or otherwise).

Summary chart

Currently accepting requests from September 1 to October 1.

Date Article Points Notes Supports† Opposes†
Nonspecific
Mar 29 Battle of Towton 4 550th anniversary 8 0
Mar 31 Richard Williams (RAAF officer) 4 2+ years since FA; 90th anniversary of RAAF. 7 0
Apr 11 Luton Town F.C. 1 anniversary of founding (1885) 2 0
Apr 21 Royal Maundy 1 date of 2011 service (also the Queen's 85th birthday) Next to be replaced 2 0
Apr 23 Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall 5 (?) 2 years since FA, date relevance. 1 0

† Tally may not be up to date; please do not use these tallies for removing a nomination according to criteria 1 or 3 above unless you have verified the numbers.

Nonspecific date (1 only)

Date requests (5 max)

March 29

Battle of Towton, a depiction by Richard Caton Woodville (1856–1927)
The Battle of Towton was the "largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil." The engagement took place on 29 March 1461, a Palm Sunday, near a village of the same name in Yorkshire. It was part of the series of civil wars—the Wars of the Roses—fought between the Houses of Lancaster and York. More than 50,000 supporters were mustered for this battle. The reigning king of England, Henry VI, headed the Lancastrians, while the Yorkists were led by Edward IV, who had declared himself king and was using this battle to affirm his claim. Their armies met on a plateau near Towton amidst a snowstorm. The Lancastrians, superior in numbers, were lured out of their defensive positions by the Yorkist archers, who took advantage of the strong wind to outrange their counterparts and inflict casualties without suffering any in return. The ensuing melee raged for hours, and the Yorkists finally gained victory after the arrival of their reinforcements. Many Lancastrians were killed in their panicked flight from the battlefield, and the heralds reported a count of 28,000 dead. Henry fled to Scotland, leaving Edward free to start the Yorkist dynasty. (more...)

4 points for the 550th anniversary of the battle. Chronologically, no penalty since the nearest "battle" article is 19 February's Battle of Musa Qala (7 December 2007, is this 21st-century battle considered "similar" to one in the 15th-century one...). An alternative date for this as a TFA is 17 April 2011 (the 550th Palm Sunday since 1461). Jappalang (talk) 05:44, 1 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

March 31

Air Marshal Richard Williams
Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams KBE, CB, DSO (1890–1980) is regarded as the 'father' of the Royal Australian Air Force. He was the first military pilot trained in Australia, and commanded fighter units in World War I. A proponent for independent air power, Williams played a leading role in the establishment of the RAAF and became its first and longest-serving Chief of the Air Staff (CAS). Born into a working class family, he was an Army Lieutenant when he learned to fly in 1914. As a pilot with the Australian Flying Corps in World War I, Williams commanded No. 1 Squadron and later 40th Wing RAF, earning the Distinguished Service Order. Afterwards he campaigned for an Australian Air Force separate to the Army and Navy, and this came into being on 31 March 1921. The fledgling RAAF faced challenges to its existence for the next decade, and Williams was credited with maintaining its independence. However an adverse report on flying safety saw him dismissed as CAS prior to World War II. Despite promotion to Air Marshal in 1940, he never again commanded the RAAF. After the war he was forcibly retired and took up the position of Director-General of Civil Aviation. He was knighted shortly before his retirement in 1955. (more...)

Four points I believe, two for age as FA, two for 90th anniversary of the Royal Australian Air Force, of which he’s the acknowledged ‘father’. I hear Bob’s concerns with a perceived preponderance of military articles but had this pending for a bit and there’s no other date that fits like this. Williams specifically chose 31 March for the formation of the RAAF, rather than 1 April as might’ve been expected given it was the founding date of the Royal Air Force, so that nobody could label them “April Fools” – and yes that’s in the article.... His key importance was not during wartime but in the ‘20s and ‘30s as he worked to keep this new air arm from being swallowed whole by the Army or Navy. Anyway, I’ve done my bit, it’s up to others now... ;-) Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 11:33, 2 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Points look good This was obviously a significant date in Williams's life, not just that of the RAAF.--Wehwalt (talk) 11:45, 2 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Where's the link to the article? Please add it to the summary chart. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 11:53, 2 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Patience, dear Sandy, I had to reboot my machine... Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 12:05, 2 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

April 11

An association football team. Six men stand across the back, the third from the left of which is wearing a dark shirt and a cap. In front of them sits a row of seven men on chairs, with a mustachioed gentleman with hair that is quite long for the time sitting in the middle. Finally, two men recline on the floor in front of them, one on either side of a football marked "LTFC 1909–10".
Luton Town Football Club is an English Conference National (level five) football club based in Luton, Bedfordshire. Formed on 11 April 1885 by a merger, Luton became the first professional southern English club in 1891 and began to play home matches at their current Kenilworth Road ground in 1905. Luton were first promoted to the top division in 1955, and after defeat in the 1959 FA Cup Final were relegated a year later. A regular participant in the English top flight during the 1980s, the club is known for its narrow escape from demotion on the last day of the 1982–83 season, manager David Pleat's resultant dance across the Maine Road pitch, a four-year ban on visiting supporters after a 1985 riot and its so-called "plastic pitch", used from 1985 to 1991. During this period the club also won its only major honour, the 1987–88 Football League Cup. After Luton's last top-flight spell ended in 1992, a period of off-field instability between 2006 to 2009 contributed to successive relegations from the second tier to the fifth. The last of these came after the 2008–09 season, in which the club had 30 points deducted over various financial issues. (more...)

One point – A point each for user's first TFA, anniversary of founding (given in blurb) and age (nearly two years, but not quite), but loses two because of Seattle Sounders FC's featuring today (19 March). I nominated this last year for the 125th anniversary but failed to get it featured; not really relevant I know but I still thought it was worth mentioning. A bit of explanation on the blurb, because it may look a bit recentist: I did my best but it can only be so long and I wanted to try to cram in all of the things which an English football/soccer fan would think of when thinking about Luton Town. These would be the Pleat dance, the away fan ban, the plastic pitch and the 30-point deduction. Cheers. – Cliftonianthe orangey bit 02:31, 19 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

April 21

Royal Maundy is a religious service in the Church of England held on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. At the service, the British Monarch or a royal official ceremoniously distributes small silver coins known as "Maundy money" as symbolic alms to elderly recipients. The name "Maundy" and the ceremony itself derive from an instruction, or mandatum of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper that his followers should love one another. In the Middle Ages, English monarchs washed the feet of beggars as Jesus had, and presented gifts and money to the poor. Over time, additional money was substituted for the clothing and other items that had once been distributed; the custom of washing the feet did not survive the 18th century. Today, Queen Elizabeth II almost always attends (she has been absent only four times in her reign), and the service is held in a different cathedral every year. Maundy money is struck in denominations of one penny, two pence, three pence, and four pence. In most years there are fewer than 2,000 complete sets; they are highly sought after by collectors. (more…)

One point, the date the 2011 Royal Maundy will occur.--Wehwalt (talk) 16:36, 16 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've shortened it.--Wehwalt (talk) 23:17, 16 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Looks good. Bob talk 09:48, 18 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Comment I just happened upon a more recent edition (in fact, a retitled edition) of the Robinson book on the Royal Maundy, a major source for the article, plus I bought three Maundy bags and an Order of Service for the Royal Maundy, so I would expect that this article will be further improved by the 21st. Though I think it's pretty good as it stands. I've also swapped the image to show one featuring the Queen, in view of the fact that (I just realised) April 21 will be her 85th birthday.--Wehwalt (talk) 19:54, 18 March 2011 (UTC) Big text[reply]

April 23

Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall is the sixth album (and first live album) by the Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, released through Geffen Records in December 2007. The album consists of live recordings from his sold-out June 14–15, 2006 tribute concerts at Carnegie Hall to the legendary American actress and singer Judy Garland (pictured) Garland's 1961 double album, Judy at Carnegie Hall, a comeback performance with more than 25 American pop and jazz standards, was highly successful, initially spending 95 weeks on the Billboard charts and garnering five Grammy Awards. For his album, Wainwright was also recognized by the Grammy Awards, earning a 2009 nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. While the tribute concerts were popular and the album was well-received by critics, album sales were limited. Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall managed to chart in three nations, peaking at #84 in Belgium, #88 in the Netherlands, and #171 on the United States' Billboard 200. (more…)

5 points? Following is my reasoning: two points for being promoted more than two years ago, four points for a semicentennial anniversary (Garland's concert, considered to be one of "the greatest night[s] in show business history" was recorded on April 23, 1961), and one point for being a significant contributor without a previous TFA credit. This total comes to 7 points, but I subtracted two with the assumption that another album article has been featured on the Main Page within the past month. Even if the semicentennial anniversary is a stretch, I'd still like to proceed with the nomination. Do keep in mind that this this article is somewhat different from other album articles in that Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall is a live, double album (and tribute album) that also focuses on a series of live performances. Much thanks to Wehwalt for writing up this blurb, per request. I am not familiar with the TFA process, so please be patient and accommodating if I am going about this the wrong way. --Another Believer (Talk) 15:57, 18 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

  • Comment on points - I don't know if it is acceptable to claim the four points for timing when the semicentennial is for the event this is a tribute to and not this event itself. However, if you can count this as a semicentennial, then you have made the request too early. Requests with 5 or more points aren't allowed as early as requests with less points. Currently, requests with 5 or more points are only accepted for dates through April 14 (see the line directly above the summary chart). Also, I don't think there has been another album since Is This It on February 20th, which is more than a month before the requested date. So if this is allowed to have the semicentennial points, I think this would have 7 points (and should be removed for now and requested again once it is closer to the date). However, if it isn't allowed to have the semicentennial points and you instead only claim 1 point for a related date, I think this would have 4 points (and could be requested now). Calathan (talk) 17:50, 18 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for your response. I was expecting the semicentennial anniversary points to be questioned--I even mentioned above that requesting those points might be a stretch. Since it is up to reviewers to determine the validity of the points, I will go ahead and leave the nomination for now and revise the count to four if consensus produces the same conclusion. --Another Believer (Talk) 18:06, 18 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Since I helped AB write the blurb, I'm going to recuse myself on the question of points.--Wehwalt (talk) 19:55, 18 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
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