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This is the '''discussion''' page for [[Wikipedia:Good article nominations|good article nominations]] (GAN) and the [[Wikipedia:Good articles|good articles process]] in general. To ask a question or start a discussion about the good article nomination process, click the Add topic link above. Please check and see if your question may already be answered; click the link to the Frequently asked questions below or search the Archives below. If you are here to discuss concerns with a specific review, please consider discussing things with the reviewer first before posting here.
{{caution|This talk page should be used for discussions relating to the nominating and reviewing of [[WP:GAN|Good article nominations]]. Please direct any comments regarding the improvement of the GA program as a whole to [[WT:WGA|WikiProject Good Articles]]. Thank you.
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This page, a part of the [[Wikipedia:Good articles|good article]] talk page collection, is archived by [[User:MiszaBot II|MiszaBot II]]. If your discussion was mistakenly archived, feel free to go retrieve it.<br/>
Current archive location: '''[[Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations/Archive 10]]'''.
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{{central|text=several other GA talk pages redirect here.}}
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{{archive box|
* [[/Archive 1|18 March 2006 – 15 April 2006]]
* [[/Archive 2|15 April 2006 – June 3 2006]]
* [[/Archive 3|April 2006 – Jun 2006]]
* [[/Archive 4|Jun 2006 – Aug 2006]]
* [[/Archive 5|Sept 2006 – April 2007]]
* [[/Archive 6|April 2007 – July 2007]]
* [[/Archive 7|July 2007 – September 2007]]
* [[/Archive 8|September 2007 – February 2008]]
* [[/Archive 9|February 2008 – May 2008]]
* [[/Archive 10|May 2008 – September 2008]]
* [[/Archive 11|October 2008 –]]
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GA: [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 1|1]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 2|2]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 3|3]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 4|4]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 5|5]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 6|6]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 7|7]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 8|8]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 9|9]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 10|10]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 11|11]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 12|12]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 13|13]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 14|14]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 15|15]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good articles/Archive 16|16]]


Criteria: [[Wikipedia talk:Good article criteria/Archive 1|1]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good article criteria/Archive 2|2]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good article criteria/Archive 3|3]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good article criteria/Archive 4|4]]
== GA review reform ==


Reassessment: [[Wikipedia talk:Good article reassessment/archive1|1]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good article reassessment/archive2|2]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good article reassessment/archive3|3]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good article reassessment/archive4|4]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good article reassessment/archive5|5]], [[Wikipedia talk:Good article reassessment/archive6|6]]
Some of you may remember that, back in the summer, the [[WP:WGA/R|GA reform working party]] looked at the way GA reviews are carried out. We regularly hear concerns about issues such as inconsistent review quality, reviewer experience, the transparency of the process and so on, and our aim was to come up with a new process that—while keeping our strengths—reduces or eliminates the weaknesses. A draft proposal was posted for community review; the resulting debate can be found in the archives [[Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations/Archive 10#GA reform working party proposal|here]].


GA help: [[Wikipedia:Good article help/Archive 1|1]], [[Wikipedia:Good article help/Archive 2|2]]
Taking account of the feedback we received, we've re-drafted the original proposal and would like to place it before the GA community for approval. The process set out below is intended as a replacement for the current review process—in brief, we believe it has the advantages of retaining our collaborative, unbureaucratic approach to reviewing, while providing for increased input from reviewers, encouraging new reviewers to participate, and ensuring every article nominated gets a fair treatment.


Nominations/Instructions: [[Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations/Instructions/Archive 1|1]]
===Open review proposal===


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* The GA review process is started by the first reviewer to leave comments on an article's GA sub-page. By doing so, they become the ''lead reviewer'' for that article.
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* With the review now ''open'', other GA reviewers are encouraged (but not required) to participate and leave additional comments on the review sub-page.
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* The review should remain open for at least 3 days; this can be extended according to the lead reviewer's judgement.
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''Please indicate your opinion below; additional comments or questions are welcome! Per [[WP:PRACTICAL|standard practice]], consensus will be determined by weight of argument.''
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====Support====
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#'''Strong support.''' I think, given its increasing size and importance across Wikipedia and the dedication of our reviewers, we need to stop providing GA's detractors with ammunition to knock our credibility as a quality review process. [[User:EyeSerene|<span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#4B0082">EyeSerene</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:EyeSerene|<span style="color:#6B8E23">talk</span>]]</sup> 11:51, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
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#'''Strong support''' - The more people looking at the articles, the better. This still keeps one person ''in charge'' of the review, but it can potentially boost quality. We may not see an immediate change in the way reviews are done, but even if this opens a new door and reviewers begin to peek in, it's an improvement. Baby steps. Also, I still am not inclined to resume reviewing articles in full, but I would enjoy joining open reviews and dropping a few comments. [[User:Jennavecia|<span style="font-family:Lucida Handwriting Italic;color:#9B30FF">'''ل'''enna</span>]][[User talk:Jennavecia|<span style="font-family:Lucida Handwriting Italic;color:#63B8FF">vecia</span>]] 14:34, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
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#'''Support'''. I can't improve on what Eyeserene and Jennavecia said. - Dan [[User:Dank55|Dank55]] ([[User talk:Dank55|send/receive]]) 15:29, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
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#'''Support'''. Can't see it doing any harm, and it may do some good in encouraging reviewers who may not want the responsibility of deciding the outcome of a review to nevertheless take part in it. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 20:12, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
}}
#'''Support'''. This isn't actually a big change. In many ways it is no change. Editors can comment on review pages now, and they may influence the reviewer. Primarily, this proposal is a shift in attitude to encourage lead reviewers to seek and receive input before making their decision if they want to. They are perfectly at liberty not to seek such input, or to ignore it. The lead reviewer decides. Power and responsibility hand-in-hand.
#:The fundamental principle of GA is "one reviewer decides". I have and will defend that principle at every opportunity, because it is a key reason why GA benefits the encyclopedia: [[:File:FA-GA-monthly-growth.png|GA growth is linear, FA growth is static]]. GA should never become FA-lite, otherwise it is pointless, but it should evolve towards better practice, where each decision is informed by as much information as possible, ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 23:43, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#'''Support'''. This is simple refinement of the current ethos of GA. It allows the reviewer-editor relationship while encouraging further imput, a forum for new reviewers or those who haven't time to complete a full review, but can help out by checking sources or images or other opinion. It also eliminates the "driveby" or "you-scratch-my-back" reviews. [[User:Gwinva|Gwinva]] ([[User talk:Gwinva|talk]]) 00:32, 18 December 2008 (UTC)
#'''Support'''. You got me. I'm supporting because, as Gwinva says, "This is simple refinement". It really isn't all that different, of the proposals listed above, only the third is a departure from the current system. While I think it is great that we are encouraging new editors to participate in GA reviews by just chipping in with comments, I can't seriously see that happening. But then, how is that any different to now? So, I'm supporting because it's certainly worth a shot. But, if it doesn't, then we should repeal it. Meet back in mid-May. <font face="Impact">[[User:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">Aptery</font>]][[User talk:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">gial</font>]]</font> 10:15, 18 December 2008 (UTC)
# '''Support.''' I can't improve on what Eyeserene Jennavecia and Dan said. [[User:Edmund Patrick|Edmund Patrick]] &ndash;<small> [[User talk:Edmund Patrick|'''confer''']]</small> 21:18, 18 December 2008 (UTC)
#'''Support''' I am genuinely mystified how some of my colleagues, whose good sense and perceptions I respect and admire, are drawn to the conclusion that this proposal 'adds' a layer of bureaucracy or renders the nomination process more complex. Viewing this proposal from a policy and procedure perspective, there seems to be fewer objects to write about, for notions such as 'second opinion' and placing articles 'on hold' have been integrated into the ideas that ''all'' articles have a minimum open period (subsuming the heretofore distinct idea of putting an article on hold) and that reviewers can contribute to other reviewers efforts, subsuming the idea of second opinions. I also fail to see how this proposal exacerbates the problem of too few reviewers. On the contrary, it seems to me, the editor who does not have the time to conduct a review now has a way to contribute in a less time intensive way, so his or her input is garnered for the project. Some colleagues opine that Good Article reviews may very well turn into FAC jr. Writing on my own account, if I was a lead reviewer and found my review collecting collections of unsubstantiated 'support per nom' or 'oppose per foobar' I would disregard it as background noise. I suppose if I got ambitious enough, I would drop notes on peoples' talk pages suggesting that a contribution to a review I've taken a lead on should entail at least one analytical sentence on how a nomination is at variance with at least one Good Article criterion. Insofar as a review becoming 'bogged down' over disagreements, the solution and appeal routes are both plain. The lead reviewer decides. Members of the loyal opposition may appeal the decision at the Good Article Review. I appreciate the comments that manifestly obvious good articles wind up swimming in the tank for a bit. I do not regard that as big a problem as the one on the opposite side of the coin, flimsy articles passed in a New York minute; quick passing, as well as quick failing damages the integrity of the Good Article marque more often than not and undermines those who contribute genuinely thoughtful reviews. Take care. [[User:Gosgood|Gosgood]] ([[User talk:Gosgood|talk]]) 01:43, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
#'''Support''', this seems a very sensible method. It is definitely advisable to have a lead reviewer, but on the other hand, other opinions are often very helpful. [[User talk:Msgj|Martin]] 18:44, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

====Oppose====
#'''Oppose''' per the reasons stated by myself and others in the Neutral section. Sorry, but while this sounds like a reasonable proposal, the last thing we need is more instruction creep. &ndash;[[User:Juliancolton|Juliancolton]] [[User talk:Juliancolton|<sup><em><span style="color:red">'''Happy</span></em></sup>]] [[Special:Contributions/Juliancolton|<sup><em><span style="color:green">Holidays'''</span></em></sup>]] 20:19, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#: Actually, if this goes forward, I see it as an opportunity to reduce instruction creep. The open review process gives the lead reviewer flexibility. Who says holds should last 7 days? Most holds don't. Why do we need to regulate how long holds last, or formalize requests for a second opinion? This proposal allows reviewers to manage their reviews as they think best. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 20:31, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#::(comment). Is Geometry guy opposing, the statement above looks like a yes not a no?[[User:Pyrotec|Pyrotec]] ([[User talk:Pyrotec|talk]]) 20:46, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#:::No, I am responding to an oppose. I prefer to add my own view after I have read the concerns of other editors. I believe this to be good practice per [[WP:CONSENSUS]]. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 20:55, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#::::Thanks.[[User:Pyrotec|Pyrotec]] ([[User talk:Pyrotec|talk]]) 22:26, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#'''Oppose''' This is too much bureaucracy for the GA level; I see the point, and I think the motives are valid (I don't like it when new users review GAs), but this isn't the solution. --'''[[User:Rschen7754|Rschen7754]]''' ([[User talk:Rschen7754|T]] [[Special:Contributions/Rschen7754|C]]) 20:21, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#'''Oppose''' The system is broken, but this is not the right way to fix it. '''[[User:IMatthew|<span style="color:green">aye</span>]][[User talk:IMatthew|<span style="color:red">matthew</span>]]'''</span> <span style="color:blue">[[Hanukkah|✡]]</span> 20:22, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#I really like the idea in theory. But in practice, I see way too many problems. First off, we simply do not have the quantity of reviewers to pull this off, and if you take a look, those that are tagged as second opinion always hang around for months. Second, if we have disagreements between reviewers then it just slows down everything, making it unfair for the article writer. Third, it would turn us into FAC jr. in a sense, which we do not need to do. [[User:Wizardman|<span style="color:#060">'''''Wizardman'''''</span>]] 21:05, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#'''Oppose''' The benefits do not outweigh the added bureaucracy. Aberrancies can be, and are, dealt with as they arise. [[User:Jclemens|Jclemens]] ([[User talk:Jclemens|talk]]) 22:14, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#:What is the "added bureaucracy"? It seems pretty much like no change from current best practice to me. Encourage additional reviewers, discourage quickfails, but still keep the process agile. What's not to like? --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 22:23, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#::Mandatory 3 days? --'''[[User:Rschen7754|Rschen7754]]''' ([[User talk:Rschen7754|T]] [[Special:Contributions/Rschen7754|C]]) 23:33, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#:::Why is that a problem? It provides a minimal level of quality-control, and even if an article is then failed once the three days are up, the nominator has at least been given an opportunity to respond to the review per current best practice. The sole reason GA exists is to improve article quality, and I think we need to be doing everything we can (within reason!) to help those editors keen enough to use our project. [[User:EyeSerene|<span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#4B0082">EyeSerene</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:EyeSerene|<span style="color:#6B8E23">talk</span>]]</sup> 09:26, 18 December 2008 (UTC)
#'''Oppose''' - My big fear is that it will turn into a FAC-like experience. The way it is now, a reviewer has to put in a lot of work to do a GA review. The times I have responded to a "Second opinion" have also involved much work to justify. If reviewers were encouraged to "pop in" with ease and therefore with less weighty opinions (without thorough thought and justification), it might turn more into an FAC "counting the Supports" situation. Perhaps someone can reassure me this will not happen. &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 22:41, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#:This is why we clearly defined the role of the lead reviewer - the last thing we want is FA-lite! All additional opinions would be welcome, but it would be up to the lead reviewer's discretion to decide whether or not they are sufficiently grounded in [[WP:WIAGA]] to justify extending or even failing the assessment. I know I've missed things on articles I've reviewed, and comments such as "Source X looks a bit iffy" or "Sentence Y probably needs a citation" would have been useful to me ;) [[User:EyeSerene|<span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#4B0082">EyeSerene</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:EyeSerene|<span style="color:#6B8E23">talk</span>]]</sup> 09:11, 18 December 2008 (UTC)
#'''Oppose''' - These changes appear to have been "biased" towards marginal GANs that are heading towards a possible failure. On this basis holding the review open for a minimum of three days provides an opportunity for interested editors to improve the candidate. Fair enough perhaps, but why presumption of failure? The majority of the candidates do not fail. A "Good Article", under these guidelines cannot be declared a GA-pass until three days after the review has been opened!! I fail to see how this can shorten the GAN waiting lists, improve the quality, or motivate editors and GA reviewers.[[User:Pyrotec|Pyrotec]] ([[User talk:Pyrotec|talk]]) 20:32, 20 December 2008 (UTC)
# '''Oppose''' - While I appreciate the effort, I think this will discourage people from becoming the main GA reviewer. The way the system is set up right now, other reviewers can chime in during the review period if the article is placed on hold for changes to be fixed. Why make an editor (who is likely planning to improve other articles to GA when the review is done) wait three days if their article is perfectly fine? This change appears that it would both slow the reviewing of GA articles, and the production of GA articles. Do we really want that? [[User:Thegreatdr|Thegreatdr]] ([[User talk:Thegreatdr|talk]]) 22:25, 21 December 2008 (UTC)
# '''Oppose''' - Unnecessary change, seemingly for the sake of change. This is most definitely adding more bureacracy, and I don't think the benefits will come close to outweighing the harm done to the process. I certainly wouldn't be willing to review articles in such a complicated manner. As it stands now, we have the GA sweeps and people keep an eye on the GAN page. When suspicious passes are noticed, they are reverted or discussed here. If a poor quality GA is noticed at any time, people should know to go to GAR or discuss it here. The main page proclaims that "anyone can edit", not that "anyone can edit, but then a process will be initiated in which other editors will scrutinize the work done to ensure that it meets a certain standard, at which point the edit will be accepted, leaving the initial editor free to repeat the process if he or she hasn't been turned off by the lack of trust demonstrated by the close analysis of what was intended to be a helpful contribution." [[User:GaryColemanFan|GaryColemanFan]] ([[User talk:GaryColemanFan|talk]]) 05:30, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
#:I'm not sure what you're objecting to here. Anyone can edit, yes, but most edits are also scrutinised via watchlists, RCP etc. This proposal isn't saying "we don't trust our GA reviewers to do a decent job", but is rather about how we can help to make ''all'' reviews consistently high-quality, how we can welcome and support new reviewers, and how we can be seen to be doing so. I've no idea where your opinion lies on the in-article GA recognition issue, but I think if we're ever going to convince the doubters across WP at large, these small but important procedural changes are the sort of thing that will help. [[User:EyeSerene|<span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#4B0082">EyeSerene</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:EyeSerene|<span style="color:#6B8E23">talk</span>]]</sup> 18:12, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
#'''Oppose'''. The only real change being suggested is waiting 3 days before making a decision. That's an arbitrary time and has nothing to do with the quality of the review. Adding extra time will not of itself improve quality, simply delay activity. Somebody can spend an intense 3 hours on a review and explain in detail with helpful links why an article has failed and how to improve the article. Another person can open a review and do sod all for four weeks. What has time got to do with anything? <span style="border: 1px #F10; background-color:cream;">'''[[User:SilkTork|<font face="Script MT" color="#1111AA" size="2">SilkTork</font>]]''' *[[User talk:SilkTork|<sup>YES!</sup>]]</span> 22:01, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
#:I appreciate your concerns, but in your first hypothetical case what harm will be done by completing the review in three hours then leaving it open for further comment for the three-day minimum? Additional comments may well be helpful and improve the original review. In the second case, a review that has been listed as open for four weeks would hopefully attract attention from other reviewers, and appropriate action would be taken. The proposal is about actively encouraging collaborative reviewing and sharing best practice - the three-day minimum is a compromise between introducing a minimal level of quality-control and still allowing the process to function smoothly. [[User:EyeSerene|<span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#4B0082">EyeSerene</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:EyeSerene|<span style="color:#6B8E23">talk</span>]]</sup> 17:55, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
#::This change is driven, in part, by pressure from GAN nominators to reduce the time before "their" article is reviewed (and presumably passed). Under the current system we can pass an article in three hours - and I have done one in that timeframe - changing the system to a minimum of three days is not going to speed up the system. It provides no benefit to the GAN nominator and it provides no benefit to the reviewer. Why screw the reviewer?[[User:Pyrotec|Pyrotec]] ([[User talk:Pyrotec|talk]]) 23:04, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
#The GA criteria are light enough that anyone can do a complete review with a little training. Therefore there is no need to turn it into a discussion. GAR is the appropriate forum for difficult cases and faulty reviews. That said, I do support some sort of process improvement to cut down on the constant backlog. An idea that I have previously posted here is to speed up the rejection process for articles that aren't ready because the nominators have not read or didn't follow the GA criteria. [[User:Wronkiew|Wronkiew]] ([[User talk:Wronkiew|talk]]) 23:11, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
#I also do not see why a review needs to be open three days. Already I have passed two articles ([[George H.D. Gossip]] and [[Nico Ditch]]) almost without delay from the moment I read them because other reviewers who were familiar with the subject matter made sure the articles were high quality. Sometimes it is possible to say, "Okay, this article is fine and can be passed without delay." Usually this is not possible, but for the times that it is possible I wish not to wait 3 days. [[User:Crystal whacker|Crystal whacker]] ([[User talk:Crystal whacker|talk]]) 02:37, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

====Neutral====
#<s>'''Neutral, at this stage''': With the current backlog, I don't see how a system which requires the input of more reviewers, and seemingly more work, is feasible. However, I'm happy to move to a support !vote if the backog issue is 'addressed' (so to speak), or if anyone can argue effectively that this proposal could solve both issues (backlog and quality). <font face="Impact">[[User:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">Aptery</font>]][[User talk:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">gial</font>]]</font> 12:09, 17 December 2008 (UTC)</s>
#:The proposal encourages rather than requires additional reviewers - what we didn't want to end up with was FA-lite, or to introduce bottlenecks that would exacerbate the backlog :P The intention is to promote a non-intrusive and collaborative form of quality-control; the open review and the three-day minimum should prevent drive-by reviews and discourage inappropriate reviewers and poor reviews. Increasing our pool of reviewers is my preferred way of addressing the backlog, but with all the templates, criteria, multiple page updates etc, GA reviewing isn't the easiest task to just pick up. Providing newbies with a safe and welcoming way to get involved, under the eye of a more experienced reviewer, will certainly make things easier for them and I hope result in a long-term payoff. [[User:EyeSerene|<span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#4B0082">EyeSerene</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:EyeSerene|<span style="color:#6B8E23">talk</span>]]</sup> 13:01, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#:: But it will still worsen backlog. [[User:Ruslik0|Ruslik]] ([[User talk:Ruslik0|talk]]) 14:49, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#::: We can speculate on the likely effect, but one of the key ideas of the proposal is to encourage new reviewers. The backlog issue is not going to be solved by tweaking "stipulation x" or "process y". It is only going to be addressed by ensuring that reviewer numbers grow in proportion to nominations. Reviewer numbers have been growing, but not fast enough. This proposal may actually help. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 20:42, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#::::I'm still not entirely sure. For me, this system doesn't seem all that different to what we already have. People don't come along and comment now, my view is that it will just be the lead reviewer sitting there waiting for someone, anyone, to come along and comment. And it may not be all that welcoming; newbies may be afraid that their ideas don't count for anything because they don't seem to have any say in the final decision. Finally, I don't know about you, but I kind of like the one-on-one way the current system works: the nominator and the reviewer working together to improve an article. You said that you wanted to avoid FA-lite, I'm afraid you may have found it. <font face="Impact">[[User:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">Aptery</font>]][[User talk:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">gial</font>]]</font> 22:02, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#:::::I agree. Actually I don't think this proposal is significantly different from what we have now. It is a different way of looking at what we have now, which might actually lead to better practice. If you have enjoyed one-on-one, I think you've been lucky. GANs involving just two editors are the easiest ones to handle. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 23:23, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#::::::...and very rewarding, as Apterygial says ;) As noted above though, the lead reviewer should still perform their review as normal, and unlike FA the article still passes or fails at their discretion. This proposal is intended to make learning the GA review process and performing quality reviews easier - perhaps not so much for our experienced reviewers, but certainly for new or less-experienced reviewers. I think we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by giving it a try. [[User:EyeSerene|<span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#4B0082">EyeSerene</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:EyeSerene|<span style="color:#6B8E23">talk</span>]]</sup> 10:00, 18 December 2008 (UTC)
#:<s>'''Neutral''' - I agree with {{user|Apterygial}} that more instruction creep would worsen the persistent backlog. Also, GA is supposed to be a light process, and having multiple reviewers is FAC-esque. I don't know, I guess it could work, but reviewing GANs have become somewhat of a chore; I liked the days when one could open a thread on a talk page and preform the review right then and there. &ndash;[[User:Juliancolton|Juliancolton]] [[User talk:Juliancolton|<sup><em><span style="color:red">'''Happy</span></em></sup>]] [[Special:Contributions/Juliancolton|<sup><em><span style="color:green">Holidays'''</span></em></sup>]] 14:57, 17 December 2008 (UTC)</s>
#'''Neutral''' - I can't see "secondary" reviwers turning up very often, because we're short of reviewers. --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]])
# '''Neutral, lean Oppose''' The reviews have '''always''' been open. What's the point? And will add another layer of instructions, etc. [[User:Ling.Nut|Ling.Nut]] <sup>([[User talk:Ling.Nut|talk]]&mdash;[[User:Ling.Nut/3IAR|WP:3IAR]])</sup> 17:01, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#:Yes they have, in theory. How many actually get any secondary input though? True, that's partly due to the shortage of reviewers, but also I think due to an understandable reluctance to give the impression of 'muscling in' uninvited on someone else's review. The difference here is we're actively welcoming and encouraging it, while clearly defining roles to keep the lead reviewer in charge. I suspect many reviews under the proposed system would still be solo affairs, but formally welcoming other reviewers into the process can only benefit review quality. Re your other point, this is intended to replace, rather than add to, the current instructions. [[User:EyeSerene|<span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#4B0082">EyeSerene</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:EyeSerene|<span style="color:#6B8E23">talk</span>]]</sup> 17:37, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
# '''Neutral''' I'd be worried that this may lead to GA becoming FA lite. However, I see the benefits that it could encourage more people to help out with reviews who wouldn't normally, and also more eyes on a review lead to a better verdict, and potentially reduce the backlog. [[User:Peanut4|Peanut4]] ([[User talk:Peanut4|talk]]) 20:10, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
# '''Neutral''' Doesn't this statement already provide encouragement for further reviewers on GAN? "Review: this article is being reviewed (additional comments are welcome)." I'm unsure of the benefits of the proposed changes; I don't really see any problems either but surely additional policy should have clear benefits? I think drive-by reviews haven't been a problem as of late anyway. [[User:Sillyfolkboy|Sillyfolkboy]] ([[User talk:Sillyfolkboy|talk]]) 22:23, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
# '''Neutral''', as per comments from [[User:Sillyfolkboy|Sillyfolkboy]] above, adding the "On review" template under the GAN entry already provides encouragement for other reviewers to contribute. I'm less certain about the need for this mandatory three-day period.[[User:Pyrotec|Pyrotec]] ([[User talk:Pyrotec|talk]]) 23:50, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#'''Neutral''' but unfortunately I am leaning toward oppose. I appreciate and understand what the working party is trying to do, but I think that the GA process is confusing enough for new reviewers and I don't think this is going to improve things, only delay the passage of many articles that are good enough at first review. Although I don't have a solution to the issue of recruiting new reviewers (mentoring perhaps), I think there is a simple way to ensure that reviews are of consistent quality without imposing any delay or extra "paperwork": make all reviews appear at the top of the GA page for 48 hours after they pass. This way anyone looking at the page can see the newest reviews and those that don't measure up can instantly be put through [[WP:GAR]] to ensure they meet the requirements.--[[User:Jackyd101|Jackyd101]] ([[User talk:Jackyd101|talk]]) 13:04, 20 December 2008 (UTC)
#'''Neutral''' and skeptical. The idea might work, but it sounds cumbersome. I am agreeable to a limited test to see if the concept works. [[User:Majoreditor|Majoreditor]] ([[User talk:Majoreditor|talk]]) 14:50, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

====Questions====
#'''Question''': Will there be an expectation of the lead reviewer, as there currently is for the sole reviewer, to review the article thoroughly against all GA criteria? Because if there is, I don't see much of a functional difference, beyond the requirement to leave it open three days (which I think most are anyway). If there isn't, I'm concerned that will see reviews opened, but never completed for want of reviewer comments. [[User:Sarcasticidealist|Sarcasticidealist]] ([[User talk:Sarcasticidealist|talk]]) 11:55, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#:In short, yes, the lead reviewer would review as thoroughly as possible ;) You're right, in most ways there is no functional difference. The difference is, I think, more in emphasis - additional reviewers (while not required) are actively encouraged to take a look at the article. If they spot nothing, fine. If they do though, we end up with a better overall review. The other big benefit is that new reviewers can be encouraged to wet their feet by participating in a existing reviews until they feel ready to take on the lead role. [[User:EyeSerene|<span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#4B0082">EyeSerene</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:EyeSerene|<span style="color:#6B8E23">talk</span>]]</sup> 12:06, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#::Well then, I have no objection to this proposal. I'm still skeptical as to how much good it will do, because it doesn't really seem like we have an abundance of GA reviewers that might lead to multiple reviewers per article, but if formalizing a three day window and nominally encouraging multiple reviewers will help the GA brand be taken more seriously, it's fine with me. [[User:Sarcasticidealist|Sarcasticidealist]] ([[User talk:Sarcasticidealist|talk]]) 12:08, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#Does "The review should remain open for at least 3 days" mean no quick fails? I would be quite happy if it did mean that, as some editors respond quickly and are willingto work hard at imprving artciles? --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 15:57, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
#:I believe so, yes, and no 'quick-passes' either, though I'm open to correction by the other proposers. However, we could still handle utterly unsuitable articles or drive-by noms, as currently, on a case-by-case basis. [[User:EyeSerene|<span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#4B0082">EyeSerene</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:EyeSerene|<span style="color:#6B8E23">talk</span>]]</sup> 17:18, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
'''Another question'''
*What happens when the reviewers adamantly don't agree? Suppose the "lead reviewer" points out some flaws. Two other reviewers disagree vigorously and recommend listing the article as GAN. Or visa versa. Will this increase GARs? &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 20:04, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
*: It might, but I don't regard that as a bad thing. Since the introduction of review subpages, the number of GARs has dropped significantly. The initial decision is up to the lead reviewer, but that can certainly be challenged at GAR, just as it can be now. My observation is that an increase in accountability actually reduces the number of GARs. But GAR can certainly cope with more reassessments (there used to be dozens, but now there is typically only a handful). ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 20:51, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
*:: I did the GA<s>R</s> review on [[Western Wall]] - see [[Talk:Western Wall/GA1]] - I was expecting a possible rough ride. I still think my decisions were valid.[[User:Pyrotec|Pyrotec]] ([[User talk:Pyrotec|talk]]) 20:55, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
*:::I looked at [[Talk:Western Wall/GA1]] and couldn't figure out what happened there regarding the GAR? It occurred in the middle of the GA? The only ones I have experienced are [[Wikipedia:Good article reassessment/Brenda Song/1]] and [[Wikipedia:Good article reassessment/Attachment therapy/1]] - both of which seemed inefficient. I would not get involved in one again I don't think. &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 22:20, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
*::::It continues on the [[talk:Western Wall]]. I think some people find what the expect to find, even when it is not necessarily there.[[User:Pyrotec|Pyrotec]] ([[User talk:Pyrotec|talk]])
*:::::I don't understand what you mean in your comment above, [[User:Pyrotec|Pyrotec]]. If people only find what they expect, then what is the point of having GARs. Or am I missing your point? I don't understanding having a GAR in the middle of a GA. I just checked [[talk:Western Wall]] and see the article is listed as GA. Odd situation. &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 22:59, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
*::::::Woops, I see the problem I was not referring to Good Article Reassessment (GAR) I was using "GAR" as shorthand for GA review. My GA reviews tend to be split into three: initial review, problems and "holds", and summary and sentence. I hope that clarifies the first point.[[User:Pyrotec|Pyrotec]] ([[User talk:Pyrotec|talk]]) 23:42, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
*: (unindent so as not to disrupt the subthread) Those two GARs were very untypical and neither should have gone on for so long. If no one else can, or no one complains, I will move such GARs along more expediently in the future. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 23:14, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
::I thank you for doing so in those two cases! &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 00:14, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

===Getting editors interested in reviewing===
Upon asking for reviews in the past, I've often gotten replied like "I'm too lazy" or "I don't know how to go about doing so." To eliminate this type of problem, I wonder if an automated review-type sheet would be better. My suggestion would be the type of pop-up used with Twinkle, for reporting users, requesting protection and deletion, etc.

To open a review, an editor would click on the link to the page, which would bring them to an automated pop up. On the pop-up, there would be drop-down lists and text boxes. Each drop-down box would be for a specific article quality (ex. images, prose, references). In the drop-down box can be things comments (ex. Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor). Next to each drop-down box would be a text box where specific comments about the topic (images, prose, references...) could be made. It is an idea, and would be a work to get the coding and other issues banged out. '''[[User:IMatthew|<span style="color:green">aye</span>]][[User talk:IMatthew|<span style="color:red">matthew</span>]]'''</span> <span style="color:blue">[[Hanukkah|✡]]</span> 22:52, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
:I would support that because that is one of the main reasons I stopped GA Reviewing. But how would this come about?--'''''[[User:SRX|{{color|navy|S}}]][[User talk:SRX|{{color|black|R}}]][[Special:Contributions/SRX|{{color|navy|X}}]]''''' 23:30, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

*How would that differ from the template? The complaint about the template is that it encourages the supperfical types of reviews that have give GAs such a bad name. &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 23:36, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
:'''[[Wikipedia:Good article nominations|GA]] review''' (see [[Wikipedia:What is a good article?|here]] for criteria)

#It is '''reasonably well written'''.
#:a ''(prose)'': The prose stinks but is acceptable {{GAList/check|aye}} b ''([[Wikipedia:Manual of Style|MoS]])'': Only a few violations so it passes {{GAList/check|aye}}
#::
#It is '''factually accurate''' and '''[[Wikipedia:Verifiability|verifiable]]'''.
#:a ''(references)'': More, rather than less, accurate {{GAList/check|aye}} b ''(citations to [[WP:RS|reliable sources]])'': They are to books so I am assuming good faith. {{GAList/check|aye}} c ''([[Wikipedia:No original research|OR]])'': See previous comment. {{GAList/check|aye}}
#::
#It is '''broad in its coverage'''.
#:a ''(major aspects)'': yes {{GAList/check|aye}} b ''(focused)'': yes {{GAList/check|aye}}
#::
#It follows the '''[[WP:NPOV|neutral point of view]] policy'''.
#:''Fair representation without bias'': I think the same way so I can't tell. {{GAList/check|aye}}
#::
#It is '''stable'''.
#:''No edit wars etc.'': Stable {{GAList/check|aye}}
#::
#It is illustrated by '''[[Wikipedia:Images|images]]''', where possible and appropriate.
#:a ''(images are tagged and non-free images have [[Wikipedia:Image_description_page#Use_rationale|fair use rationales]])'': Yes, but I don't know much about fair use rationales {{GAList/check|aye}} b ''(appropriate use with [[WP:CAP|suitable captions]])'': They seem fine. {{GAList/check|aye}}
#::
#'''Overall''': A GA article
#:''Pass/Fail'': {{GAList/check|aye}}
#:: <!-- Template:GAList -->
&mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 23:36, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
:Yeah, I can't help but feel that any popups or anything would just lead to more disconnected superficiality. <font face="Impact">[[User:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">Aptery</font>]][[User talk:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">gial</font>]]</font> 23:42, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
::Although that template seems fine, it's the fact that it '''seems''' like more work. Whether people think it's a stupid reason for not reviewing or not, it's a reason people stop reviewing. A quick easy-looking way to conduct a review would certainly get me reviewing a lot more :) '''[[User:IMatthew|<span style="color:green">aye</span>]][[User talk:IMatthew|<span style="color:red">matthew</span>]]'''</span> <span style="color:blue">[[Hanukkah|✡]]</span> 00:25, 18 December 2008 (UTC)
:::The problem is that reviewing a GA is work. Any "quick easy-looking way" defeats the purpose of a quality review, to my way of thinking. When the reviews are superficial, then the FAC reviewers complain, because many editors take their article right to FAC, thinking that a GA review actually means something. That has been a problem in the past and that is why FAC complain that GA is at best useless, and mostly bad and misleading! &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 00:36, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

::::I think the open review proposal above is a good way to encourage new editors. It can indeed be daunting to look at the GAN page and instructions, but being invited to look at current open reviews and make a comment provides an easy way in for people. After contributing to a few, they may find they understand the process and criteria enough to have a go themselves. [[User:Gwinva|Gwinva]] ([[User talk:Gwinva|talk]]) 00:39, 18 December 2008 (UTC)
:::::Certainly, GA reviews should not be about filling in a couple of blanks on a form to fill in part of the process towards FAC. Indeed, process 1 on the pass procedure, says to explain how the article can be improved. [[User:Peanut4|Peanut4]] ([[User talk:Peanut4|talk]]) 00:43, 18 December 2008 (UTC)
::::Matisse, the problem you pose can just as simply be solved by reducing FA criteria to a point where mere mortals have a chance at succeeding if they follow directions. With millions--millions!--of articles, FA is an inordinate waste of time and drain on resources. Wikipedia would be a better place if all the FA participants took a month off from FA work and devoted all their effort to making mediocre articles good, rather than good articles great. Of course, they wouldn't be able to refer to [[WP:DASH]] all that often, but I'm sure most of them would survive. [[User:Jclemens|Jclemens]] ([[User talk:Jclemens|talk]]) 01:25, 18 December 2008 (UTC)
:::::Mere mortals passing FAC! [[WP:DASH]] to you!! (Or, up your [[WP:DASH]]!) &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 01:38, 18 December 2008 (UTC)
::::::I could see how a pop-up style GA review would both encourage new editors and simplify reviews. To be honest, I don't even know what a real GA review is supposed to be like. Just looking at the recent history we can see that approaches range from [[Talk:The Simpsons Hit & Run/GA1|the concise]], to [[Talk:The Mansion of Happiness/GA2|the well ordered]], from the [[Talk:Brook Farm/GA1|dialogue pow-wow]] to the [[Talk:Unforgiven (2008)/GA1|anally specific]]. This is perhaps one of GA's best features: the ability to transform itself in the face of various needs. A pop-up menu "(pass/fail/other)" style would severely restrict this. Perhaps we could use an auto-review popup to encourage a thorough reviewing style somehow? (Rather than: "Prose= Y comment= No speeling errors") At the moment the templates are very helpful, if slightly cumbersome. [[User:Sillyfolkboy|Sillyfolkboy]] ([[User talk:Sillyfolkboy|talk]]) 04:34, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

*I have never used the template in GA reviews, and I probably never will. Why? Because this template may tell you (the article writer) that something is wrong, but not where and how it can be fixed. Writing up prose improvement notes takes considerably longer than filling out the template, but the article will be ''so'' much better afterwards, and the article editor may learn something and avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future. What has my reply to do with "Getting editors interested in reviewing"? Nothing, except if we want more lousy and lazy editors for reviews. (I submitted four successful GANs before I felt comfortable to do my first GA review, and nothing could have piqued my interest before. That's the unfortunate game, but at least none of my GA reviews sucked... I hope.) &ndash; [[User:Sgeureka|sgeureka]] <sup>[[User_talk:Sgeureka|t]]•[[Special:Contributions/Sgeureka|c]]</sup> 18:27, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
**The template can be the ''basis'' of a good conveersation and instructions on how to make an article meet the criteria. [[Talk:Bunnies & Burrows/GA1]] and [[Talk:Gary Gygax/GA1]] are a couple of mine that I've used in that fashion--actually, any of my recent ones tend to use the template in this narrative way. [[User:Jclemens|Jclemens]] ([[User talk:Jclemens|talk]]) 18:38, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
***I don't disagree, but I usually summarize all points with "Broad in its coverage, stability, neutrality, MOS, sourcing all check out. Image XYZ could be problematic though." Maybe I always get lucky with my GANs to reviews, but an article either fails many of the WIAGA points, or nearly none, so why bother with a template that spans 1.5 screen pages and doesn't tell the article writer anything new. If your version works for you, great, don't let my comments stop you from using it. :-) &ndash; [[User:Sgeureka|sgeureka]] <sup>[[User_talk:Sgeureka|t]]•[[Special:Contributions/Sgeureka|c]]</sup> 18:54, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
*That is the pleasure of GA reviews, from my view. I usually go into way more detail than you do. We each can function at our own comfort level. I would hate to see this change. But if it does, through new rules, I will just move on to another aspect of Wikipedia. &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 03:08, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
**In the six GA reviews that I have done, I use the the template to organize my thoughts, but I ''always'' leave detailed comments below. I thought that all reviewers who used templates did it that way, evidently that is not the case. In addition, I wish that people would stop beating up on FAs and FAC. Yes, there is more focus on the MOS, as there should be; our best work should maintain some level of formatting consistency. However, I have yet to see an article fail or a reviewer oppose solely because of MOS issues. In fact, when there are MOS issues, reviewers usually take the time to fix them, rather than waste time explaining the simple things. If anybody feels that the reviews at FAC or articles being passed that they feel should not, they should help out with the reviewing instead of just criticizing. Not a rant, just a tired response to this uncalled-for bashing that seems to happen everywhere and belies the time and effort that the relatively few (compared to the long list of candidates that FAC seems to have) reviewers put in. [[User:Dabomb87|Dabomb87]] ([[User talk:Dabomb87|talk]]) 06:31, 1 January 2009 (UTC)
Happy New Year to everyone also! [[User:Dabomb87|Dabomb87]] ([[User talk:Dabomb87|talk]]) 06:32, 1 January 2009 (UTC)
:I do help out - at least I used to do so until it got too unpleasant. Now I just edited a few articles in the FAC queue and support those few. However, most reviewers just give long lists of MOS problems and it becomes impossible to follow the complaint thread with the interruptions and "discussion". Can't tell who said what after a while. Some editors make one or two edits, but mostly that say something like "I read the lead only, and this list represents only a sample of the problems." I have seen plenty of article fail on MoS issues alone. (I haven't seen your name reviewing there, however. When were you doing a lot of reviewing there? Get over to FAC and review some articles!) &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 02:00, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Happy New Year! &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 02:00, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

::''"I have seen plenty of article fail on MoS issues alone."'' Have you really? I defy you to provide a link to even one article you've seen fail "on MoS issues alone". --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 02:19, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
:::Seconded Malleus' request. "I read the lead only, and this list represents only a sample of the problems" As it should be, FAC is not a free fix-it service. Some FACs have become little more than [[WP:PR|peer reviews]] with little '''Support'''s or '''Oppose'''s tacked on. In the past I used to do that quite a bit; I am trying to shift away from that mentality and am allowing myself to be a bit more free with the opposes "(I haven't seen your name reviewing there, however" Quite true, I left FAC around October because of some problems with drama and such. I have since returned. From August to October, I would say that I reviewed about 25 or so FACs. [[User:Dabomb87|Dabomb87]] ([[User talk:Dabomb87|talk]]) 17:57, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
:Something should be done to get more reviewers to review, the sports section is insane (63 noms)--{{SUBST:UserTruco/Signature}} 02:42, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
::What would you suggest? --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 04:43, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
:::I think we need an incentive to promote reviews. The only currency we have is other reviews. Apparently this is a perrential sugguestion that never leads to anything, but I think we need some sort of quid pro quo. I know I'd review an article or two, if it would speed up my noms. - [[User:Peregrine Fisher|Peregrine Fisher]] ([[User talk:Peregrine Fisher|talk]]) ([[Special:Contributions/Peregrine_Fisher|contribs]]) 05:05, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
::::So why not just review a few articles above yours in the queue? Or am I missing something? --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 05:16, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
:::::There's about 30 articles ahead of one of my noms. It's not enough motivation. I do a review for each nom, but apparently that isn't the general case. - [[User:Peregrine Fisher|Peregrine Fisher]] ([[User talk:Peregrine Fisher|talk]]) ([[Special:Contributions/Peregrine_Fisher|contribs]]) 05:33, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
::::::Its been awhile since I reviewed, since I lost my motivation. Too bad there isn't anything like "Review X amount of articles an be an admin for a day", but I think we should set up like a tournament or something similar to the [[WP:CUP|WIkicup]].--'''''<small>[[User:Truco|<font color="navy">TRU</font>]]</small><small>[[User talk:Truco|<font color="black">CO</font>]]</small>''''' 00:40, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
:::::::It needs to be something self-sustaining. We have mass attacks on the backlog, and it just goes back up afterwards becuase people are drained. I'll tell you, right now I would review two articles of my choice, or one article of someone else's choice, if someone would review one of my articles. Since we don't have a system for that, I'm just working on my next GAN, which is going to increase the backlog. I see some people with a ton of noms, and I think they may be on to something. If you add 3-5 GANs every week, after a month you'll start gettin a review every couple days. It's like if you can create 15 GANS, in a way you don't have to wait anymore. - [[User:Peregrine Fisher|Peregrine Fisher]] ([[User talk:Peregrine Fisher|talk]]) ([[Special:Contributions/Peregrine_Fisher|contribs]]) 00:49, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
:(outdent) I think a system like that should restart, I will review yours if you review mines--'''''<small>[[User:Truco|<font color="navy">TRU</font>]]</small><small>[[User talk:Truco|<font color="black">CO</font>]]</small>''''' 01:55, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

===Informing nominators of GA expectations===
A lot of this comment is copied from an earlier comment of mine in another discussion, as this seems to be where the proposals are. With regards to reducing the backlog, I, for one, believe part of the solution needs to come from making it clearer to nominators what the GA process is, and what is expected of them. GAN isn't about "well, I've expanded this article a little and it looks pretty cool and the topic is interesting, what do I have to lose in a GA nom?" (as I, admittedly, first thought). We need to make it clearer that GA has (or at least, should have) quite high standards. I bet most reviewers look at the article before they sign up to review it, and if they see a one-line lead, typos and no references, it could sit at GAN for ages. On the other hand, reviewing articles from someone like TonyTheTiger is much better, because he knows what is expected. So we need to make [[Wikipedia:Guide for nominating good articles]] more prominent, and expand it so it makes clear that GA should not be an experiment or a push-over. Improvement in articles pre-nom would lead to more reviewers as the review itself would not be, as Philcha says (a long way above), "a grind". Any ideas how we could achieve this? <font face="Impact">[[User:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">Aptery</font>]][[User talk:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">gial</font>]]</font> 13:15, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

: I agree with all that you have said above. In addition, I would suggest that the potential submitter of a GAN should do at least three things:
:# The first is to look at existing GA-class articles within the same topic / subtopic and ask the question, does my article compare favourably against these articles?
:# Read [[Wikipedia:Good article criteria]] - which is given on the [[Wikipedia:Good article nominations]] page.
:# Read [[Wikipedia:Guide for nominating good articles]] - which is given on the [[Wikipedia:Good article nominations]] page.
:[[User:Pyrotec|Pyrotec]] ([[User talk:Pyrotec|talk]]) 18:14, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

::"Reviewing articles from someone like TonyTheTiger is much better" - How so? He's one of the leading contributors to the problem at hand. His race with Mitchazenia has led to countless nominations from both editors. As stated many times before, however, the problem is with nominators who are unwilling to review articles. He has nominated over 200 articles and has reviewed 8. I have left polite messages on both editors' talk pages, but neither have been willing to help cut down on the backlog to which they have contributed. I would much rather review an article nominated by someone who might be willing to review someone else's article in return. I think this points, quite conclusively, to the need to (very) strongly encourage editors to review a nomination for each nomination they put up. If they are familiar enough with the criteria to nominate an article (ie. they should have already read and becoem familiar with the criteria), it's time to start reviewing. [[User:GaryColemanFan|GaryColemanFan]] ([[User talk:GaryColemanFan|talk]]) 20:25, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

:::Doing a GA review properly would still be a grind, because of all the ref-checking. However making nominators aware of the requirements would reduce the frequency of a double grind, where a reviwer points out the problems in refs and then has to check them all again when the article's supporters say they are fixed.
:::I still think we need to think of incentives for reviewers, as reviewing is a lot less fun than editing. --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 22:15, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

::::The incentive is surely that the encyclopedia is improved by the review, albeit it only one article at a time. All adds up though. What other incentive is needed? --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 22:22, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

:::GaryColemanFan, I'm not interested in taking cheap shots at other editors. My point here was not to explain completely how to deal with the backlog, but to simply mention one thing that could be done. Reviewing an experienced nominator's articles ''is'' easier and less of a grind than reviewing one from a new editor. That's it. The way we combat this problem needs to come from all angles, not just that of the reviewer. <font face="Impact">[[User:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">Aptery</font>]][[User talk:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">gial</font>]]</font> 23:17, 21 December 2008 (UTC)
::::I have no interest in taking cheap shots either. When one looks at the GAN page objectively, however, it is hard to miss two things: (1) there is a serious backlog, and (2) TonyTheTiger has 18 nominations. Perhaps it's just a personal preference, but one of the things I look for when reviewing an article is the nominator's history at GAN: (1) Has the nominator nominated a ton of other articles? and (2) Does the nominator refuse to review other nominations? If the answer to either question is yes, I'm probably not going to review it. [[User:GaryColemanFan|GaryColemanFan]] ([[User talk:GaryColemanFan|talk]]) 23:26, 21 December 2008 (UTC)
:::::I'm with GaryColemanFan on this. I've managed over 100 reviews myself and nominated only about nine. To be honest, I don't do it for the competition, but I've seen nominators who aren't even appreciative of the review. We all have ways of picking out what to or what not to review. I've nothing against TonyTheTiger, especially when good and featured articles are merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to articles, so his efforts are to be highly applauded, but there will be potential reviewers out there who will be annoyed by nominators who don't care about the review, just the end result, and are totally unwilling to do any reviews themself. A "one in-one out" policy would reduce any backlog, but let's be honest, some people are good writers, some good reviewers. [[User:Peanut4|Peanut4]] ([[User talk:Peanut4|talk]]) 23:33, 21 December 2008 (UTC)
::::::I actually [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk%3AGood_article_nominations&diff=257613882&oldid=257612121 proposed] something like that about a week ago, but it failed to get any traction. I'd like to think I'm a good writer and a good reviewer, but I get little enjoyment out of reviewing. <font face="Impact">[[User:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">Aptery</font>]][[User talk:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">gial</font>]]</font> 23:41, 21 December 2008 (UTC)
:::::::I myself backed up the idea to cap nominations. But I don't agree any more. Users like TonyTheTiger are vital in improving the quality of work here, so why cap them from doing so. And just because he's a good writer, doesn't make him necessarily a good reviewer, so there's no need to limit his work that way either. [[User:Peanut4|Peanut4]] ([[User talk:Peanut4|talk]]) 23:46, 21 December 2008 (UTC)
::::::::I don't either now. What I do see is a lot of people complaining about the current system but providing little indication about how to fix it. So, my original proposal, 'Informing nominators of GA expectations'. Good idea? <font face="Impact">[[User:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">Aptery</font>]][[User talk:Apterygial|<font color="#006400">gial</font>]]</font> 23:55, 21 December 2008 (UTC)
(redent) I'm sure it's been brought up before, but how about some way to get your article reviewed faster if you review another article. We would need to prevent, "you pass mine, I'll pass yours", but I know I'd review more if it could get mine done quicker. - [[User:Peregrine Fisher|Peregrine Fisher]] ([[User talk:Peregrine Fisher|talk]]) ([[Special:Contributions/Peregrine_Fisher|contribs]]) 00:06, 22 December 2008 (UTC)
:Going back to your original point, I think you actually have a sound basis for some reasoning. I notice at FAC, that SandyGeorgia says she has clear ideas of what needs to be improved, etc, when an article is first proposed. Some GAs are very good, some are nearly there, but some are clearly not ready. Quick-fails aren't necessarily the best answer, and we can't force editors to go through a peer review first, but I support your proposals to put articles in a better shape when they are nominated. [[User:Peanut4|Peanut4]] ([[User talk:Peanut4|talk]]) 00:20, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

== Quid pro quo and backlog ==

I think the obvious way to get more reviews is to reward the reviewer. We should set something up that doesn't degrade quality, while rewarding effort. - [[User:Peregrine Fisher|Peregrine Fisher]] ([[User talk:Peregrine Fisher|talk]]) ([[Special:Contributions/Peregrine_Fisher|contribs]]) 08:28, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
: I don't know; doing article work in general on Wikipedia is more about doing it because you want to, not doing it because you want to get a reward. For instance, getting an article to GA doesn't get you any reward beyond bragging rights, which can be the same for doing good article reviews if you feel like it. <font face="Verdana">[[User:Gary King|<font color="#02b">Gary&nbsp;<b>King</b></font>]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Gary King|<font color="#02e">talk</font>]])</font> 15:12, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
:: Agree with Gary King. I review many GAs (and FACs) because I want to review those articles. I do not submit articles for awards myself because I don't want to. Isn't this the way Wikipedia is supported to work? (Besides, some reviews are already very superficial and articles get passed that should not be. Would not rewarding quantity without quality just encourage this?) &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 15:20, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

* Another form of ''[[quid pro quo]]'' which would resolve the problem is that each nominator should attempt to review another unrelated article. We would then automatically have as many reviews as nominations. I did this myself recently - I made my first nomination and then looked for an article to review. Which reminds me, I must get on with the review.... [[User:Colonel Warden|Colonel Warden]] ([[User talk:Colonel Warden|talk]]) 15:37, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
:: When this was discussed before, the consensus usually ended up being that some excellent article writers aren't great article reviewers. <font face="Verdana">[[User:Gary King|<font color="#02b">Gary&nbsp;<b>King</b></font>]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Gary King|<font color="#02e">talk</font>]])</font> 15:52, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

This has been discussed and rediscussed many times over, if you look through the archives of this page. There are good points on both sides, but so far it appears to have been decided that giving awards will only promote superficial reviews by people looking for awards. Instead of rehashing this discussion for the hundreth time, may I suggest everyone uses the time to instead conduct a few reviews that reduce the backlog? I apologize if this comes off as rude, but it occasionally annoys me to see this same topic pop up on the discussion board every few weeks and have the same discussion with the same points made by the same people be repeated each time. [[User:Dana boomer|Dana boomer]] ([[User talk:Dana boomer|talk]]) 16:01, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

* Well, I'm fairly new here myself. Regarding the original point, is there some form of record of reviews that one can use in the manner of a [[Ribbon bar|campaign ribbon]]. For example, a userbox which said that one had conducted 88 GA reviews would be an indication of one's standing and, with a suitable category attached, might be useful for locating editors with this experience. Little tokens of this sort are quite good motivators - that why real-world medals exist - and I've heard a real-world VIP tell me of his pleasure in achieving such minor awards in other online forums. [[User:Colonel Warden|Colonel Warden]] ([[User talk:Colonel Warden|talk]]) 18:31, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
:: That's like patting yourself on the back, which I think is perfectly acceptable. Here's the user box you might be looking for: {{tl|User Good Articles reviewed}} <font face="Verdana">[[User:Gary King|<font color="#02b">Gary&nbsp;<b>King</b></font>]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Gary King|<font color="#02e">talk</font>]])</font> 18:39, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
:::Thanks for the userbox, I didn't know about it. I like to keep track of all reviews I do because I can see the effect I have as a reviewer and also to keep track of what I have reviewed so far; it serves as a handy tool when my watchlist is overflowing. [[User:Dabomb87|Dabomb87]] ([[User talk:Dabomb87|talk]]) 18:49, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
[[File:GANonreview.png|thumb|right|250px]]
::::A previous incentive was "GAN reviewer of the month", but it requires someone with the dedication to trawl through WP:GAN to decide who deserves the award each month (check the archives). However, if the number of articles on review or on hold is anything to go by, GAN currently enjoys record numbers of reviewers, and the numbers are steadily increasing. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 20:37, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
:::::I was thinking about something that would let people see when a user who has an article up for review, has since reviewed another article. If a user did some good reviewing, and this was obvious to other reviewers, those other reviewers might be encouraged to give the user's nominated article priority. - [[User:Peregrine Fisher|Peregrine Fisher]] ([[User talk:Peregrine Fisher|talk]]) ([[Special:Contributions/Peregrine_Fisher|contribs]]) 20:48, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
(redent) Here's kind of how I wish it would work. Somewhere we would have a list with entries like this:
*[[User:Peregrine Fisher]] - nominated [[Cannabis in Oregon]] - has since reviewed [[Treehouse of Horror XIX]], [[Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words]], [[Homie the Clown]], [[Radioactive Man (The Simpsons episode)]]
Someone interested in reducing the backlog might see that reviewing my article is a good way to encourage me to do reviews and reduce the backlog. We could have a rule that states no trading of reviews. - [[User:Peregrine Fisher|Peregrine Fisher]] ([[User talk:Peregrine Fisher|talk]]) ([[Special:Contributions/Peregrine_Fisher|contribs]]) 21:17, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
:*I'm not fond of that idea for a number of reasons, not least because it's based on what I see as a false premiss. Reducing the backlog is not in the interest of any particular nominator; {s)he simply wants to see his/her own nomination attended to, not bothered about the rest. Besides, is the backlog really a problem? I wonder what the consensus would be on how long it's acceptable to wait for a GA review, and how that compares with the present reality? --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 20:08, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
:* I agree with Malleus. I also see another false premise here. Reviewers are surely primarily motivated by their interest in the nominated article, not by the extent to which they think the nominator is a solid contributor to GAN. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 20:57, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
::*I agree with much of what Malleus says. As for a consensus on how long a wait is reasonable, I have two current nominations. One is 46 days old, and the other is 44 days old. I believe that is too long. I have reviewed 112 articles. Almost all of the articles I nominate end up in the list of the five oldest nominations. I'm torn, though. Some sort of quid pro quo system would be nice, as I have a problem with someone nominating 100 articles and reviewing 3. However, I acknowledge that many people don't like reviewing wrestling articles (although branching out is nice, as I avoided many types of articles until the last GAN backlog reduction drive, at which point I realized that they aren't so bad). [[User:GaryColemanFan|GaryColemanFan]] ([[User talk:GaryColemanFan|talk]]) 21:27, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
:::*I'd agree that waiting for 40-odd days is too long, but I wonder whether that's more to do with the subject of the article, rather than the backlog? As Geometry guy says above I'm sure that many reviewers are motivated to look at article which grab their attention in some way. I've been caught out a couple of times by having a GA reviewer turn up sooner that I was truly ready for, but grateful for the attention nevertheless. Instead of looking at the absolute size of the backlog, I wonder whether we ought not instead to be considering what a reasonable wait might be? Two weeks, for instance? And then consider what steps might encourage reviewers to look at articles once they've been in the queue longer than that? --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 21:39, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
::::*Just curious. Am I the only reviewer who reviews because I like doing so, and not because I am submitting articles to be reviewed or looking for rewards? (I have reviewed wrestling articles, [[User:GaryColemanFan|GaryColemanFan]], including at least one of yours.) &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 21:44, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
:::::*No, you're not. I've also helped out with wrestling articles, although not at GAN so far as I can recall, and I'm certainly not in the market for any flashy baubles. But it would certainly be true to say that there are some areas of the GA nomination list that I usually don't even bother to look at, and probably wouldn't review even if the backlog extended to years rather than days. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 21:50, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
::::::*All this talk is having the strange effect of leaving me feeling like I am a fool for reviewing articles just to help out. There is so much emphasis on "rewards", it is getting exhausting! I am tired of this constant emphasis. Perhaps I need to move on. Perhaps because I am not out getting awards, this is beginning to seem like something I should not be doing any more. &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 21:58, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
:::::::*There is no emphasis on rewards, constant or otherwise. I can't recall ever getting any rewards for the over 200 articles I've reviewed, and neither have I expected one. In fact, I'm sure that if you look back you'll see that I've been one of those consistently against any kind of reward scheme. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 22:10, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
:::::::::*Oh. I thought that much of this talk page was about how to give people rewards, userboxes, etc. I must have misread it. &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 22:14, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
::::::::::::Yes, I think you have. Most of this talk page is about resolving issues with individual nominations and improving the nominations process. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 22:47, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
::::::::::*I apologize if my comments were frustrating to reviewers. I appreciate what you do, and I'm certainly not looking to be rewarded for reviewing articles. In my response, I was simply trying to answer the question above, which was about how long is too long to wait. I believe that 40+ days is quite a long time, as people move on to other articles and aren't necessarily as interested in something they wrote a month and a half earlier. My comment was simply to clarify that I review articles (including at times when I have no nomination up), as I believe that every nominator should. I'm not looking for a reward, per se, but I have little patience for people who put up a ton of nominations and don't feel the need to review articles in return. I don't believe for a second that any nominator should be able to say, "Sorry, I'm not a good reviewer." If the editor doesn't have a thorough understanding of the GA criteria and a solid grasp of the English language, he or she shouldn't be nominating articles in the first place. Again, though, I'm sorry if my comments have upset those who do such a great job with GA reviews. [[User:GaryColemanFan|GaryColemanFan]] ([[User talk:GaryColemanFan|talk]]) 22:27, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
← Your comments certainly haven't upset me, and I think that you make a very fair point about the length of time that some articles have to wait. Shows that it's not the backlog ''per se'' we need to be concerned about, but the average waiting time, as per [[queuing theory]]. Where are all the mathematicians when you need them? :-) --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 22:34, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
: Hehe! Yes, the waiting time is the main issue, and ideas to tackle it are valuable. It may be worth reminding reviewers of [[WP:GAN/R|the nominations report]], which lists the oldest nominations in several ways, and also [[User:VeblenBot/C/Good article nominees awaiting review]] which lists, by date, all nominations awaiting review. However, I do believe that most reviewers, like Mattisse, review because they enjoy it and like to help out. Consequently, as I said above, they will tend to pick nominations which interest them. I would encourage them to pick the oldest nominations which interest them! ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 22:47, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

::[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]] may be right that "most reviewers ... review because they enjoy it". However relying mainly on those who enjoy reviewing has left Wikipedia with a recurring GA backlog problem. Something is needed to motivate those who do not enjoy reviewing (which includes me). I've previously suggested a "one review per nomination" rule, with a starting credit of 3-5 articles because I would not want to see GA reviews done by people who have not been on the receiving end of a couple of reviews. However I've also admitted that this proposal requires an accounting system, which would need some thought. --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 16:03, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
:::I think putting in place a prescriptive system that ''requires'' nominators to review an article (disregarding any bureaucratic overhead) will actively discourage nominations. Some editors already stay away from GA and FA because, in their cost/benefit analysis of the process, they see the payoff as not being worth the work of achieving it, and I think it would be a shame if we did anything to reinforce that. I don't see a problem with handling the more egregious cases of multiple noms on an ad hoc basis, as we currently do, but forcing someone to review is asking for either a poor-quality, disinterested review or them to abandon the project altogether. Of course, reducing the number of nominations would be one way to reduce the backlog... ;) [[User:EyeSerene|<span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#4B0082">EyeSerene</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:EyeSerene|<span style="color:#6B8E23">talk</span>]]</sup> 17:17, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
::::We do not currently handle the more egregious cases of multiple noms on an ad hoc, or any other, basis. [[User:GaryColemanFan|GaryColemanFan]] ([[User talk:GaryColemanFan|talk]]) 17:22, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
:::::Well, they are discussed here on a regular basis, and multiple drive-by noms have been removed from the list in the past (please forgive my laziness in not hunting up the diffs, though of course I will if you insist). [[User:EyeSerene|<span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#4B0082">EyeSerene</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:EyeSerene|<span style="color:#6B8E23">talk</span>]]</sup> 18:14, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
::::EyeSerene sums up better than I could the fundamental reason why any ''quid pro quo'' scheme ought to be completely unacceptable. The whole point of the GA project is to improve the quality of articles across the encyclopedia, in as efficient and effective a way as possible. That precludes any rules about who can nominate an article, or how many one editor can nominate. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 17:39, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
:::::Well I've done 36 GA reviews at the current count, but I've never submitted an article, so under a rule proposed above I'm debarred from doing reviews (and possibly a few others may be as well) Is this really sensible; will it help reduce the article count; and should I (we) delist the articles that I (we) passed? [[User:Pyrotec|Pyrotec]] ([[User talk:Pyrotec|talk]]) 17:45, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

== Model GA reviews ==

I've been struck by the evidence that high quality reviews by one reviewer can influence, inspire and encourage others. This makes me think it would be a good idea to create a list of examples of some of the best GAN (or individual GAR) reviews in order to provide models and inspiration for future reviewers. Would reviewers like to nominate a few examples below? ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 22:25, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

I assume that you'll select a few later.
*[[Talk:Kimberella/GA1]]
*[[Talk:Arthropod/GA1]]
*[[Talk:Paleontology/GA1]]
*[[Talk:Adolf Anderssen/GA1]]
*[[Talk:Wilhelm Steinitz/GA1]] --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 23:42, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

*[[Talk:Powder Alarm/GA1]]? —'''<font face="Script MT Bold">[[User:the_ed17|<font color="800000">Ed]] [[User:the_ed17/N|<font color="00008B">17]] <sup>[[User talk:the_ed17|<font color="800000">(Talk]] / [[Special:Contributions/the_ed17|<font color="800000">Contribs)]]</sup></font></font face>''' 00:59, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

: Many thanks. Surely there must be more. Nominators, reviewers, editors, what reviews have you seen which provided great direction or inspired you to continue to improve the encyclopedia? Self nomination is allowed too. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 22:57, 12 January 2009 (UTC)
:: Here's one that I recently did: [[Talk:Guitar Hero World Tour/GA1]] <font face="Verdana">[[User:Gary King|<font color="#02b">Gary&nbsp;<b>King</b></font>]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Gary King|<font color="#02e">talk</font>]])</font> 03:30, 14 January 2009 (UTC)
::If we can nom reviews we did, [[Talk:Northern_Bald_Ibis/GA1]] was passed in 3 days, thanks to a very responsive editor. --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 16:02, 14 January 2009 (UTC)
:::As the main editor of Northern Bald Ibis, I'd also say that a thorough review such as the one by [[User:Philcha|Philcha]] is very helpful not only in maintaining the status of GA, but in ensuring quality before going to FAC. [[User:Jimfbleak|jimfbleak]] ([[User talk:Jimfbleak|talk]]) 16:43, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

== Criticism, not review ==

I just came across [[Talk:Seth Material/GA1|this]] GAN review for [[Seth Material]], and the review isn't much of a review; more of what the reviewer thinks the article is and no suggestions to help get the article along for improvements. I'm not too sure how to approach this, as it seems unfair for those who worked on the article to just receive criticism that doesn't help improve the article and a lack of a proper review. The article has not been failed, nor was it appropriately [[Wikipedia:Good article nominations#Philosophy|tagged as being reviewed or on hold]]. Thoughts? [[User:DiverseMentality|<font color="D24A4A">'''Diverse'''</font>]][[User talk:DiverseMentality|<font color="9F1616">'''Mentality'''</font>]] 06:05, 13 January 2009 (UTC)
:I don't think there's much we can do about a poor review. They're going to happen. The article would be a quick fail because of all the fact tags anyways. I agree that the reviewers tone was totally innapropriate. - [[User:Peregrine Fisher|Peregrine Fisher]] ([[User talk:Peregrine Fisher|talk]]) ([[Special:Contributions/Peregrine_Fisher|contribs]]) 06:10, 13 January 2009 (UTC)
::The "fact" tags are enough to prevent it from being ready for GA, but the review at least needs to be closed. [[User:GaryColemanFan|GaryColemanFan]] ([[User talk:GaryColemanFan|talk]]) 06:17, 13 January 2009 (UTC)
PeregrineFisher, thank you for notifying me of this vicious slagging of my comments, especially DiverseMentality's counterfactual claim that I offered no suggestions for improvement. Those who were around for the big redirect discussions on [[Seth Material]] will recall that I opposed strenuously efforts to turn the article into a redirect, asking for more time to be given so that it could improve. At the time I also explained at length what I meant by the criticism that the article is written too much from an "in-universe" view, a criticism that I uphold because ít is just as valid now as it was then.--[[User:Goodmorningworld|Goodmorningworld]] ([[User talk:Goodmorningworld|talk]]) 17:37, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

:After a very quick look, I don't think it's fair to describe [[Talk:Seth Material/GA1|the GA review]] for [[Seth Material]] as "a poor review". The reviewer drew attention to the "fact" tags and linked to the GA criteria. Like that reviewer, I'm not keen on quickfail as it does little to improve either articles or editors. Following that there was a lot of editing of the article up to 8 Jan, although little activity since. If I were reviewing the article I'd post a note asking when it it would be ready for the review to proceed, and maybe set a deadline. The article should have been flagged "being reviewed" at [[Wikipedia:Good article nominations#Philosophy]]. OTOH I have reservations about "on hold" as that may tempt others to apply their ideas about deadlines over-rigidly. -[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 17:21, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

::Are we looking at the same review? I see no mention of the <nowiki>{{fact}}</nowiki> tags, nor any indication that the article was reviewed with the GA-criteria in mind; there's certainly not a link to [[WP:WIAGA]]. I would call it an ''unproductive'' review by someone unaccustomed to the process. Constructive criticism should be given if it is necessary during a review, but this one unfortunately gives very little to go on. Perhaps you're referring to [[user:Skomorokh|Skomorokh]]'s comments on the talk page, which pre-date the actual GA-review done by Goodmorningworld? That indeed seems a little better informed. <span style="font-family:verdana">[[User:Yllosubmarine|María]] </span><small>([[User talk:Yllosubmarine|<span style="color:green">habla</span>]] con[[Special:Contributions/Yllosubmarine|<span style="color:green">migo</span>]])</small> 17:37, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

"GA criteria"? What criteria? Here's a hint: if you want reviewers to follow a specific set of criteria, post them on the page where editors are invited to comment. There was nothing at [[Talk:Seth Material]] or at [[Talk:Seth Material/GA1]]. See [[WP:RfA]] for an example of providing guidance to editors.--[[User:Goodmorningworld|Goodmorningworld]] ([[User talk:Goodmorningworld|talk]]) 18:47, 14 January 2009 (UTC)
:Excuse me? When you click in the GAN box on the talk page, where it says "follow this link" to review page? It also says in that box that editors "...may review it according to the good article criteria..." (with a link to the criteria). Then, when you click on the "follow this link" and are taken to the subpage, it says "All good articles must meet the Good article criteria. If you're new to reviewing, please read Wikipedia:Reviewing good articles for advice." (again, with a link to the criteria). This would feel to me to be enough links to the criteria for anyone. Would big red boxes with flashing lights make it easier for you? [[User:Dana boomer|Dana boomer]] ([[User talk:Dana boomer|talk]]) 18:55, 14 January 2009 (UTC)
::Either we're not talking about the same thing or we are having a serious problem communicating. On the Talk page of Seth Material, there is a section with this heading:

::<blockquote>
GA Review
</blockquote>

::Below that there is this:

::<blockquote>
This review is transcluded from [[Talk:Seth Material/GA1]]. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review
</blockquote>

::I click on the edit link, it takes me here: [[Talk:Seth Material/GA1]] where I enter my comments. At no step along the way were there any guidelines, instructions or criteria. I'm done here. You all need to think about how you interact with editors trying to provide good faith input based on what they have in front of their eyes.--[[User:Goodmorningworld|Goodmorningworld]] ([[User talk:Goodmorningworld|talk]]) 19:03, 14 January 2009 (UTC)
:::I see what happened here. The nominator (NoVomit) added the GAN tag to the article's talk page. NoVomit then clicked on the link to create the review page and saved the new page. NoVomit then transcluded the review page onto the article's talk page. From someone coming into it with no background in reviewing, the talk page had an empty section at the bottom for a Good Article review. It was awaiting comments, and comments were provided by Goodmorningworld (who apparently had not seen the GAN tag at the top of the article's talk page, which contains the link to the GA criteria). This is, apparently, a misunderstanding caused by a lack of knowledge of the GA review process on both editor's parts. If a review page wasn't created and transcluded prematurely, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion. [[User:GaryColemanFan|GaryColemanFan]] ([[User talk:GaryColemanFan|talk]]) 19:17, 14 January 2009 (UTC)
::::I see; that makes much more sense. Thanks for the detective work :) Is there anything we can do to make this not happen in the future? Perhaps some sort of box above the edit window for the review page (after the initial creation of the page) with a link to the GA criteria? At the moment, as we've discovered, there's nothing there. [[User:Dana boomer|Dana boomer]] ([[User talk:Dana boomer|talk]]) 19:24, 14 January 2009 (UTC)
::::I can see how that would be the case; I've seen new nominators doing the exact same thing, thinking that they were only helping the process along. It has caused me confusion in the past, in fact, when it looked like the nominators were attempting to review their own article. ''This'' review is still open, however, when it should probably be reviewed by another editor (since Goodmorningworld has apparently abdicated), and/or failed for now. <span style="font-family:verdana">[[User:Yllosubmarine|María]] </span><small>([[User talk:Yllosubmarine|<span style="color:green">habla</span>]] con[[Special:Contributions/Yllosubmarine|<span style="color:green">migo</span>]])</small> 19:26, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

::::I had to read this 3 times to reassure myself that I wan't hallucinating previously. What I saw under "GA review" at the time (17:21, 14 January 2009) turns out to be the last set of comments before [[User:Goodmorningworld|Goodmorningworld]]'s review. That set of comments was useful.
::::[[User:Goodmorningworld|Goodmorningworld]], do not take this personally, but your comments did nothing to help improve the article or its editors. I strongly suspect you have never been on the "receiving end" of a GA review.
::::IMO being on the "receiving end" of a few GA reviews is the most important training a reviewer can have. I suggest [[WP:GAN]]'s section "how to review" should emphasise that those who have not had this experience should not try to review.
::::I also suggest we should change the "beginning of review" temple to include links to the criteria. --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 21:08, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

:::::I'd be inclined to agree with that ... I might even go so far as to suggest that all GA reviewers ought to have at least one GA under their belt. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 21:19, 14 January 2009 (UTC)
::::::That's 2 votes. If we get a 3rd, we should [[WP:BRD]]. --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 19:24, 15 January 2009 (UTC)
← Call me number three. [[User:DiverseMentality|<font color="D24A4A">'''Diverse'''</font>]][[User talk:DiverseMentality|<font color="9F1616">'''Mentality'''</font>]] 19:28, 15 January 2009 (UTC)
::I'm confused: three votes for what? Linking the criteria at the beginning of the review, discouraging reviewers with no experience, or requiring all GAN reviewers to have a GA under their belt?
::I'm happy with the first, dubious about the second, and oppose the third, nice though it sounds at first.
::Care is needed when making changes based on a single incident. Introducing measures that reduce the pool of potential reviewers is hardly what GAN needs at the minute. Also, since anyone can nominate an article, what does it mean to have "one GA under one's belt"? I would imagine quite a few of GAN's regular reviewers started out with some unhelpful or dodgy reviews, but they got better. I see two alternative longer-term responses to this thread from [[User:Goodmorningworld|Goodmorningworld]]. They are, very approximately:
::# "These guys have publicly challenged my integrity and don't know what they are talking about. I'm never doing another GAN review."
::# "Okay, maybe on reflection I could have said more in my review. I will learn a bit more about GAN reviewing and try to give better reviews in the future."
:: In the first case, okay, we've had one weak review. In the second case, we may well have gained a valuable new reviewer. In other contexts I have had a positive impression of [[User:Goodmorningworld|Goodmorningworld]]. He or she being pissed off by this thread is entirely within the realm of normal Wikipedia experience. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 20:20, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

== Biology and medicine ==

Wondering if we can divide these into two as I think they are sufficiently different. Will do this if no one objects.

--[[User:Jmh649|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] ([[User talk:Jmh649|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Jmh649|contribs]] · [[Special:EmailUser/Jmh649|email]]) 18:09, 15 January 2009 (UTC)
:Shouldn't this proposal be at [[WP:GA]] not [[WP:GAN]]? I thought the categories here followed those at GA. [[User:Peanut4|Peanut4]] ([[User talk:Peanut4|talk]]) 19:04, 15 January 2009 (UTC)
::The categories here follow the first two levels at [[WP:GA]], which are in turn substantially coordinated with Wikipedia 1.0. I don't think the case is strong enough to split them. The list of Biology and Medicine nominations is a reasonable length. Also the subjects overlap: for instance current GAs include [[Poliovirus]], [[Canine parvovirus]], [[Opium]], [[Prion]], [[Earwax]] and [[Colony Collapse Disorder]]. Differentiating biologists and medical scientists may be difficult as well, especially in an historical context. No classification system is perfect, and the one we have adopted has worse combinations than this ("Social sciences and society" would be one example). ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 19:41, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

:::[[WP:FA]] and [[WP:GA]] actually has the two separated into Health and medicine vs Biology. I think most of us can easily tell what belongs to biology (animals, planets, etc) and what belongs to medicine (disease, infectious agents, drugs). These are also two different wiki projects. I am not sure which two levels you are referring to? --[[User:Jmh649|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] ([[User talk:Jmh649|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Jmh649|contribs]] · [[Special:EmailUser/Jmh649|email]]) 02:03, 16 January 2009 (UTC)
::::Articles at [[WP:GA]] are presented in a hierarchy with three levels. The top two levels of the hierarchy are what we use at GAN. The distinction between Health and medicine vs biology is at level 3. Further GA does not distinguish between biological and medical scientists, even at level 3. FA has its own scheme which is unconnected with GA or Wikipedia 1.0.
::::Plainly not everyone can distinguish between medicine and biology, as both [[Tooth]] and [[Earwax]] are listed under health and medicine. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 10:07, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

== Drive-by nomination ==

I have been working on an article [[Martin Bucer]] for quite a while and it is nowhere near finished. Someone came by with a GA nomination. Can I simply remove the nomination? It is clearly not ready and if someone were to review it now, it would be a waste of his/her time. See [[Talk:Martin Bucer#GA nomination is too early]]. --[[User:RelHistBuff|RelHistBuff]] ([[User talk:RelHistBuff|talk]]) 20:14, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

:Yes, just remove the nomination. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 20:16, 16 January 2009 (UTC)
::Thinking it marginally better if an independent editor did the removal, I have removed it, with, I hope, a suitably descriptive edit summary. Also the nominator (incorrectly) started the review subpage (leaving it empty), so I have deleted it.
::There have been other cases where a nomination needed to be removed without a review. On the talk page "quick-failing" was suggested as an option. To my mind this illustrates that [[Wikipedia:Reviewing_good_articles#First_things_to_look_for]] covers two quite distinct things. One is inappropriate nominations, which can be removed administratively without a review. The other is nominations which can be failed without a hold period, but leaving a review. I really think that these should be distinguished in our guidelines to reflect what we want to do in practice. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 20:46, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

:::I agree that there should be two separate procedures. Editors who feel diffident about GA reviews (as I did less than 9 months ago) might be deterred by having a fail recorded in the article's Talk page. What's the easy way to remove a review page in this situation? --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 20:56, 16 January 2009 (UTC)
::::Nominator's shouldn't start review pages, so it should only be necessary to remove the GAnominee template, and the listing at GAN. If the nominator does start a review page, as in this case, an admin is needed to delete it, but there are plenty of admins watchlisting this page. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 21:05, 16 January 2009 (UTC)
:::::Thanks! --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 21:30, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

::::::Thanks for removing the nomination. I will bring it back here when I am done. --[[User:RelHistBuff|RelHistBuff]] ([[User talk:RelHistBuff|talk]]) 12:02, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

We've had the same on [[Huntington's disease]], which led (eventually) to discussion on [[WP:ANI]]. Is there a procedure for removing bad-faith or drive-by nomination. [[User:Jfdwolff|JFW]]&nbsp;|&nbsp;[[User_talk:Jfdwolff|<small>T@lk</small>]] 08:36, 18 January 2009 (UTC)
: At the moment, the best we have is [[WP:IAR]] (i.e., common sense), but see above for the relation to "quick-failing" and a proposal to split the latter into "administrative removal" and "failing without a hold". ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 13:54, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

:: Definitely feel free to use [[WP:IAR]] for drive-by nominations. It doesn't happen ''that'' often from what I've seen at GAN (I try and check every incoming article when I can) but when it does happen, such as a person who has never edited an article that someone else has been working on for weeks nominates the article, then undo the nomination. <font face="Verdana">[[User:Gary King|<font color="#02b">Gary&nbsp;<b>King</b></font>]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Gary King|<font color="#02e">talk</font>]])</font> 15:13, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

==Drive-by fail==
I've been [[Talk:Dale's principle/GA1 | reviewing]] [[Dale's principle ]] and it's looking like a scientific detective story (who said what when?). There was a lull over Christmas & New Year. I asked for some action 3 days ago, and the main editor responded. At 20:17 to-day [[User:Jmh649|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] appeared out of the blue and failed the article. I consider this discourteous to all concerned. Please comment. --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 20:48, 18 January 2009 (UTC)


== I've changed my mind about hard caps on open nominations ==
::Will comment on the user talk page. --[[User:Jmh649|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] ([[User talk:Jmh649|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Jmh649|contribs]] · [[Special:EmailUser/Jmh649|email]]) 20:50, 18 January 2009 (UTC)


In the past, I've objected to hard caps on how many nominations someone can have open at once. My reasoning was that it's unfair punishment to our most active content creators and that it only masks the problem. After running the numbers, I believe these arguments are outweighed by other factors.
James, since you didn't start the initial review, you had no right to fail the article. [[User:DiverseMentality|<font color="D24A4A">'''Diverse'''</font>]][[User talk:DiverseMentality|<font color="9F1616">'''Mentality'''</font>]] 20:55, 18 January 2009 (UTC)


As of the most recent [[WP:GANR|GAN report]], there are 677 nominations under review or awaiting a reviewer. There are 58 nominators with at least three nominations, making up 340 noms in total. We make up almost exactly half of the backlog. If we emptied the "Nominators with multiple nominations" section by reducing everyone down to two noms, the backlog would instantly decrease by 224 nominations, bringing us down to 453. That's one third of the total backlog just made of those extra nominations. If we limit it to a more generous five noms, that's still 95 extra nominations beyond that limit.
::Doc James certainly acted discourtesly, and perhaps ought to be gently reminded of how the GA review process works. However, I think that a fail was the correct decision, as this article falls so far short of the GA criteria on so many levels. So in that sense at least, no real harm done I suppose. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 20:58, 18 January 2009 (UTC)


To the argument that limiting noms only hides the full backlog, it's about how the noms are weighted. Right now, these "power users" make up half the backlog despite being a minority of the total nominators. This is unfair to the people who wait months longer in line just so we can double, triple, quadruple dip. To the argument that it makes it harder for efficient nominators to nominate, there's a way to make your nom a higher priority: ''review''! Review the noms above yours in that category, or just review in general to lower the backlog. Even if new noms instantly take their place, those will have a more recent nom date. This way, there won't be one person who still has eight other nominations ahead of you after you review one of theirs. Or you could review for people who only have one nom and won't immediately replace it, which is often a new nominator who should get priority anyway. Alternatively, there's [[Wikipedia:Good article review circles]] where you can get a reviewer much more quickly.
:::I was less sure that a fail was inevitable. If the user got stuck into the research, mainly about who said what when, I think it would then have been easy to structure. After that, copyediting is not too hard (I'd have asked [[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] if I had doubts about that!) because it can generally be done para by para. --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 21:18, 18 January 2009 (UTC)


Once my current nominations are done, I'm going to voluntarily limit myself to no more than five at a time. But these limits only have significant effect if we adhere to them collectively, and I'm switching to a support !vote on such a measure. I'm also going to ping the few people who have more open noms than I do in case they'd be interested in a similar voluntary limitation: {{u|Magentic Manifestations}}, {{u|Chiswick Chap}}, {{u|Aszx5000}}, {{u|Gonzo fan2007}}, {{u|Ippantekina}}, {{u|Aintabli}}, {{u|Epicgenius}}. [[User:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:#324717">The</span><span style="color:#45631f">big</span><span style="color:#547826">ugly</span><span style="color:#68942f">alien</span>]] ([[User talk:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:sienna">talk</span>]]) 02:22, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::::You could always take it to [[WP:GAR]] yourself if you want a wider spectrum of opinion. From just a quick look I'd say that the biggest problem I see is with the article's structure. I'm like you though, in that I hate to have to fail an article (just take a look at [[Hubert Maga]], for instance), so I do agree that Doc James' action was unfortunate, and I hope he won't be tempted to repeat it. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 21:31, 18 January 2009 (UTC)


:Frankly, I think this is not a very good idea. The "power users" are often our most experienced and dedicated contributors - so notably, they tend to have articles that are high quality to begin with and thus easier to review. Reviewing a newer editor's GAN is often far more difficult, because they aren't used to all the inns and outs yet - this takes an entirely separate skillset from reviewing an Epicgenius or Chiswick GAN (namely, that only an experienced reviewer would be as good at it!) I really don't looking at reducing the backlog as a numbers game is beneficial; what's important is getting articles reviewed in timely manner, which I don't think the "power users"' GAs are contributing to. <small> [[User:Generalissima|Generalissima]] ([[User talk:Generalissima|talk]]) (it/she) </small> 02:46, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::Trouble with [[WP:GAR]] is that it assumes the article either is a borderline would-be GA or an old GA that's off the pace. [[Dale's principle]] is shortof that, but could be sorted out in well under week by a determined editor - it's not a long article. If I were acting unilaterally I'd just reverse the fail and tell the editor he has another 4 days. What do people think? --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 22:37, 18 January 2009 (UTC)
::Oh dear, this old chestnut again. I'll just say that it's bound to have something like the [[Poisson distribution]], that's just how nature is. [[User:Chiswick Chap|Chiswick Chap]] ([[User talk:Chiswick Chap|talk]]) 03:39, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::GAR wouldn't work, as there is too much to do. You could reverse the fail on a technicality, but I don't think that is the best way. There is simple solution, and it lies at the heart of GA: ''articles can be renominated at any time''. Tell the editor the main problems, ask them to fix them and renominate. Then take up the review yourself as soon as it is nominated and steer the article through the review process, hopefully with a happy outcome for the encyclopedia.
::Yes, generally an experienced editor's work is easier to review, given that the length and complexity of the article are the same. But by sheer volume, one experienced editor with lots of noms, myself included, is going to squeeze out those newer nominators who need the most attention. And like I said above, reviewing those nominations would be incentivized relative to an experienced nominator, as newer nominators wouldn't immediately have another nom ready to go. It's not a numbers game, it's about weight, and it would be fewer articles at a time being reviewed more quickly than a whole block of them being reviewed slowly.
::::::This is another case where we need to clarify the "lead reviewer" concept from the open review proposal to reflect current practice and allow reviewers to do their job more freely and effectively. At the moment, we cannot really say that Doc James action was incorrect. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 23:13, 18 January 2009 (UTC)
::And to approach from the other angle, I believe we should more readily (quick)fail nominations that aren't ready for GAN. It shouldn't just be "is it far from the criteria" but whether it fails the criteria in a way that puts an undue burden on a reviewer. These are ones that probably shouldn't have been nominated anyway, but they take up a disproportionate amount of reviewer time. When nominations aren't ready, we can direct editors to peer review, GOCE, the Teahouse, help pages, or wherever depending on where its weaknesses are. I'd say a limit on max noms plus holding nominators accountable for making sure nominations are ready is the best combo. We could get nominations in and out much more quickly that way while using GAN as a lightweight quality assurance/verification process instead of as Peer Review 2. [[User:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:#324717">The</span><span style="color:#45631f">big</span><span style="color:#547826">ugly</span><span style="color:#68942f">alien</span>]] ([[User talk:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:sienna">talk</span>]]) 03:44, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
(undent)This article in my opinion is so far from a GA status that it would take many weeks of hard work to bring it up to GA. It has been on review for a month with little work. It is still labeled as a start which I think is appropriate. It needs to work through C and B classes before it is nominated. I do not think it is good practice to have article at GA review for months on a time. Yes I agree that Philcha should have been the one to fail it and he or she can reverse what I have done if he or she sees fit. Wikipedia does need standards however.--[[User:Jmh649|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] ([[User talk:Jmh649|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Jmh649|contribs]] · [[Special:EmailUser/Jmh649|email]]) 23:30, 18 January 2009 (UTC)
:::Unfortunately, the trend has been to increase GA standards rather than to accept that GAs aren't expected to be perfect (and that no article is, honestly). I doubt we'll secure any kind of consensus for returning GA to the lightweight process it was written as. &spades;[[User:Premeditated Chaos|PMC]]&spades; [[User_talk:Premeditated Chaos|(talk)]] 04:29, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::::Given how little oversight there is, there's really nothing stopping individual reviewers from deciding how strict or lenient they want to be with the criteria, with failing, or with how they think the process should work. [[User:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:#324717">The</span><span style="color:#45631f">big</span><span style="color:#547826">ugly</span><span style="color:#68942f">alien</span>]] ([[User talk:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:sienna">talk</span>]]) 04:37, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::Generally I'd agree, except that people who are "caught" doing reviews that others find inadequate are regularly dragged here and castigated. And when mistakes are caught in a GA that passed, reviewers catch flak for it.
:::::On the other hand, people don't like being the "bad guy" and failing articles that aren't ready, so we give infinite time and chances for articles that frankly aren't up to snuff. Some noms will get upset that you failed their article, and nobody likes being on the other end of that conflict.
:::::Basically, there's a competing social pressure to be incredibly thorough yet infinitely forgiving. Reviewers can't win, they get discouraged, and difficult articles sit around for ages. We need to change the culture around GA reviewing if we ever want to make a meaningful change in the backlog. &spades;[[User:Premeditated Chaos|PMC]]&spades; [[User_talk:Premeditated Chaos|(talk)]] 04:54, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::Honestly, I'd be willing to strike out everything I said above and go in the opposite direction. We could just as easily say it's a free for all on nominating but then be more firm with reviewing and quickfailing so weak noms don't bog us down. I'm actually more inclined toward that than a hard cap, except right now there's no consistency in reviews, and of course many nominators feel entitled to a pass. I personally am willing to be the one to say "this isn't ready for nomination" (and I have been trying to look for those nominations lately), but like you said, it needs to be part of a broader cultural change.
::::::I'm going off on a slight tangent now, but I believe there are more sub-standard reviews that slip through the cracks than ones that get "caught". I watch many of them go by feeling like my hands are tied because there's also a stigma against accusing people of doing bad reviews, and it's gotten to the point where I just ignore them unless they start reviewing one of mine, in which case I ask them to return it. [[User:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:#324717">The</span><span style="color:#45631f">big</span><span style="color:#547826">ugly</span><span style="color:#68942f">alien</span>]] ([[User talk:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:sienna">talk</span>]]) 12:34, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::::I prefer to review the new nominators, starting with the ones who have done reviews, which usually means a higher failure rate and slower reviews for the passes because they are learning. I do this because I believe in encouraging a good review/nomination ratio, but another benefit is that it is an opportunity to teach those nominators how a good review should look. [[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] ([[User_talk:Mike Christie|talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Mike_Christie|contribs]] - [[User:Mike Christie/Reference library|library]]) 13:12, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::::I strongly disagree there is a stigma against accusing people of doing bad reviews. People do it on this talk page regularly, and the prospect of being publicly shamed creates a chilling effect for new reviewers.
:::::::I do want to point out the contradiction between suggesting that we use "GAN as a lightweight quality assurance/verification process" and saying reviewers should basically review how they want, but then bringing up "sub-standard reviews". We can't have speed and perfection. Either we accept that the process is supposed to be lightweight and allow reviews to be lightweight, or we keep tightening the screws and watch the backlog climb. &spades;[[User:Premeditated Chaos|PMC]]&spades; [[User_talk:Premeditated Chaos|(talk)]] 14:12, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::::I'm probably part of the problem -- I can't really do "lightweight" reviews. I personally want peer reviews and suggestions to improve my articles much more than I care about another green plus, and so my reviews tend to be in depth and address more than the GA criteria. And nobody calls me out on this, even for monstrosities like [[Talk:Chinese characters/GA1]]. I am not sure whether dedicated coordinators who look at every review for some quality assurance would help or harm, but this might be worth brainstorming about. —[[User:Kusma|Kusma]] ([[User talk:Kusma|talk]]) 09:49, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::::::I suspect coordination would start off at what we are de facto doing now in a haphazard and likely arbitrary manner, which is checking that reviews are 1) not checklists, 2) do source checks. I doubt it would crack down too much on being over-picky, especially as there is a lot of grey zone in the criteria. [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 11:02, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::::::I think it's OK to point out issues that go beyond the GA criteria, so long as the nominator is clear that those comments don't need to be addressed to get the article to GA, and so long as there are not too many -- some nominators don't want to bring the article up to FA standards and shouldn't be asked to. But letting them know that a link is dead or MoS issues that are not in the GA criteria is fine, so long as they understand what's a GA comment and what is not. [[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] ([[User_talk:Mike Christie|talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Mike_Christie|contribs]] - [[User:Mike Christie/Reference library|library]]) 11:31, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
:Reducing the backlog by artificially throttling nominations does nothing to increase the rate of promotions of GAs. It is hiding the problem (we aren't getting enough GA reviews done and enough GAs promoted) by addressing the symptom of the problem rather than doing anything to improve the unwillingness of editors to do more reviews. We could decrease the backlog to zero by shutting down the whole GA process and cancelling all current nominations; do you think that would be an improvement? —[[User:David Eppstein|David Eppstein]] ([[User talk:David Eppstein|talk]]) 04:35, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::{{tq|To the argument that limiting noms only hides the full backlog, it's about how the noms are weighted. Right now, these "power users" make up half the backlog despite being a minority of the total nominators. This is unfair to the people who wait months longer in line just so we can double, triple, quadruple dip.}} – Right there in the original post you're replying to. [[User:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:#324717">The</span><span style="color:#45631f">big</span><span style="color:#547826">ugly</span><span style="color:#68942f">alien</span>]] ([[User talk:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:sienna">talk</span>]]) 04:38, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
:::There is no line. Nobody requires review be done chronologically. Nobody will yell at your reviewer and you if your nomination attracts enough interest to get reviewed quickly. And we tried prioritizing frequent reviewers and new participants instead of listing nominations chronologically; it didn't help. —[[User:David Eppstein|David Eppstein]] ([[User talk:David Eppstein|talk]]) 04:55, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::::I'm inclined to agree with David Eppstein here. When we tried to push first-time nominators and frequent reviewers to the front of the line, it just increased the number of GANs that had been sitting in the queue for six months or longer.{{pb}}I think the issue here is that the review process is still fairly daunting. No one wants to be yelled at for looking at an article, determining that there are no (or very few) problems, and then quick-passing the article. Conversely, no one wants to be yelled at for looking at an article, seeing that it's riddled with problems, and then quick-failing the article. Quick-passing and quick-failing articles are both seen as problematic, even though there's nothing wrong with the latter. {{pb}}Therefore, many reviewers find themselves having to conduct intensive reviews, which means that fairly long articles are often skipped over by all except the most experienced reviewers. Many of these long articles come from power editors, which may be why it seems like the power editors are dominating the GAN queue. &ndash; [[User:Epicgenius|Epicgenius]] ([[User talk:Epicgenius|talk]]) 14:26, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::I'm not going to suggest a return to the old sort order (though I did prefer it), but I think it's wrong to say that "all it did was increase the age of the oldest GANs". That's exactly what you would expect from reducing the importance of age in the GAN sort order. It doesn't mean the old sort order achieved anything else, but neither is it evidence that it didn't make a difference. [[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] ([[User_talk:Mike Christie|talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Mike_Christie|contribs]] - [[User:Mike Christie/Reference library|library]]) 14:30, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::I meant to say that the change in sort order increased wait times for nominators near the bottom of the list. Currently, the newest nominations are near the bottom of each section, and the oldest nominations are near the top. Back when we were using the other sort order, we were grouping the nominations by username, so users near the bottom of the list saw their wait times increase. Granted, the other sort order did help decrease wait times for first-time nominators, but I think that came at the expense of everyone else, which is what I was getting at. &ndash; [[User:Epicgenius|Epicgenius]] ([[User talk:Epicgenius|talk]]) 14:39, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::::Wasn't that the point? If the sort order was causing those with better review ratios to have their wait times decreased (new submitters having a perfect ratio), then the system was achieving what it was meant to do. [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 17:39, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::::Yeah, in that respect, it was working as intended (i.e. people with better review-to-nomination ratios didn't have to wait as long).{{pb}}I was trying to make the point that reviewers' limited time was diverted to people who have a lot of reviews and relatively few or no GAs. If someone was a prolific reviewer but an even more prolific nominator, they would be disadvantaged; e.g. if they had 100 reviews and 200 nominations, they were pushed further down the review queue than someone with 100 reviews and 10 nominations. Power users are more likely to have dozens or hundreds of GAs, so under the old sort order, they would be inherently disadvantaged because of the raw numbers of GAs that they had (unless they conducted even more reviews to make up for this). {{pb}}Perhaps it may be a good idea to consider formatting the GAN lists as sortable tables. That way, reviewers could decide on whether to review nominations by people with better review-to-nomination ratios. &ndash; [[User:Epicgenius|Epicgenius]] ([[User talk:Epicgenius|talk]]) 18:23, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::::::{{u|Epicgenius}} We could make [[User:ChristieBot/SortableGANoms]] more prominent somehow. Right now it's just a link above the nominations. [[User:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:#324717">The</span><span style="color:#45631f">big</span><span style="color:#547826">ugly</span><span style="color:#68942f">alien</span>]] ([[User talk:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:sienna">talk</span>]]) 18:37, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::::::Thanks for the link. That is exactly what I was thinking, but I didn't even realize it already existed. &ndash; [[User:Epicgenius|Epicgenius]] ([[User talk:Epicgenius|talk]]) 18:59, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::::::I was also unaware of this page until now, and second Epicgenius' comment immediately above. [[User:Trainsandotherthings|Trainsandotherthings]] ([[User talk:Trainsandotherthings|talk]]) 19:08, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::::::::{{u|Thebiguglyalien}}, {{u|Epicgenius}}, {{u|Trainsandotherthings}}: this would be easy to do, and I agree it might be beneficial. That part of the layout is hardcoded in ChristieBot at the moment. If someone mocks up a GAN page header they think would be preferable, I can change the bot to hardcode that text, or possibly to transclude it. [[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] ([[User_talk:Mike Christie|talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Mike_Christie|contribs]] - [[User:Mike Christie/Reference library|library]]) 11:38, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::Quickfails are not problematic in the slightest, as long as the reasoning is there. The difficulty is merely in the length of the average review. When people say "I'm not good at reviewing", what they actually mean is "I find reviewing tediously boring and don't want to do it", which is perfectly understandable.{{pb}}To prevent [[WP:DCGAR]] happening again, we have decided that quality reviews must be directly enforced through the [[WP:GACR|GA criteria]]. Now, each review must go over the prose, images, sourcing, and do a source spotcheck. At FAC, this is handled by multiple people, and the source spotcheck is not needed after the first successful nomination. We have got ourselves into a situation where the "lightweight review process" is multiple times more onerous than the heavyweight process.{{pb}}Is there a better way? After DCGAR, I remember that {{u|SandyGeorgia}} was encouraging the institution of GAN coordinators who would check reviews, as the FAC coordinators do. I think that option, in combination with lowering GACR standards, could help encourage reviewing—but only, of course, if editors with high nomination/review ratios want to pick up their own slack. [[User:AirshipJungleman29|&#126;~ AirshipJungleman29]] ([[User talk:AirshipJungleman29|talk]]) 15:05, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::I agree, quickfails should not be problematic if done correctly. However, I noticed that nominators sometimes challenge GAN quickfails even if the reviewer has done everything correctly, e.g. [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Bneu2013&oldid=1228684846#I-485_review this thread] from a few days ago. I was trying to make the point that some reviewers may be afraid to quickfail articles because they fear being confronted by the nominator; sorry if that isn't clear. &ndash; [[User:Epicgenius|Epicgenius]] ([[User talk:Epicgenius|talk]]) 15:32, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::::Indeed, and not even just quick fails, but any fail that takes less than a day or two. There are a couple of noms I've had on my mind for awhile that have been submitted with eg. unsourced sections, but the idea of pulling them out and failing them feels like more effort than it is worth. [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 17:41, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
*'''Some thoughts''' generally agree with the above discussion that throttling noms doesn't solve the problem, that being stricter on reviews (i.e. quick failing) may push people to improve the quality more before nomming and that having a backlog in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing. My own reflections on the challenges of [[WP:GAN]] come down to a lack of incentive for reviewing articles. When I started nomination articles at [[WP:GAN]], I told myself that I would keep a 2-to-1 ratio of reviews versus my own GAs. I did that mostly out of fear of being ostracized by the community for not reciprocating. [[WP:DYK]] and [[WP:FLC]] provide good examples of the extremes (where [[WP:GAN]] is in the middle). DYK requires QPQ, increasing the QPQ requirements for frequent DYK users during backlogs. [[WP:FLC]] on the other hand, limits you to one active nomination at a time (allowing for a second nom after your first has substantial support). I would argue that neither process is running very well, with backlogs or lack of reviews still being a challenge.
:I think the most important thing to remember is that the purpose of recognition is to incentivize and encourage content ''creation''. So long as [[WP:GA]] encourages me and others to create fairly well-written articles, it's doing its job. To conclude on that point, I wouldn't support any changes that would limit the incentive for users (especially users who create a lot of good content) to keep writing. That little green icon will get up there at some point, it really doesn't matter when though.<span style="white-space:nowrap; font-family:Harlow Solid Italic;"><span style="font-size:small; color:teal;"> « Gonzo fan2007</span> [[User talk:Gonzo_fan2007|<small style="color:#2A2722">(talk)</small>]] @ </span> 15:07, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
:After reading the replies, I can say that I'm back in the "I don't know" camp, but at least we got a discussion going! I'm sympathetic to PMC's point above, and others that have expressed similar thoughts, that it's more of a cultural issue than anything that can be directly solved by fiddling with how we organize nominations. But it just happens that most of the people close to GA's "culture" monitor and participate in this talk page, so this is where any concentrated change would happen. Personally I've been trying to be more open to failing nominations that weren't ready to be nominated. [[User:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:#324717">The</span><span style="color:#45631f">big</span><span style="color:#547826">ugly</span><span style="color:#68942f">alien</span>]] ([[User talk:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:sienna">talk</span>]]) 18:36, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::Replying to myself so I can think aloud and express general thoughts. My takeaway here is that consensus is ''against'' limiting our own nominations as a means to reduce the backlog, and instead we should be more willing to fail nominations if they're not ready for a GAN review. Maybe we should be a little more firm with nominators who make a scene about reviewers who fail a nom, in the same way that we're being more firm with nominators who make a scene about inadequate reviews. I still don't love that the most active content writers have such a disproportionate number of nominations, but good points have been raised about other factors at play there. At the end of the day, like {{u|SusunW}} said, there's really no way to incentivize reviewing for someone whose focus on Wikipedia isn't reviewing and trying to do this can be counterproductive. And like I've said before, GAN reviewing is harder than other reviews because all of the pressure is on the one reviewer, even if they're better at reviewing some aspects than others (looking at you, source reviews). [[User:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:#324717">The</span><span style="color:#45631f">big</span><span style="color:#547826">ugly</span><span style="color:#68942f">alien</span>]] ([[User talk:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:sienna">talk</span>]]) 01:40, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
:My answer to this problem has been the same for a while now: I don't review nominations of those who refuse to meaningfully contribute to reviewing (and have a decent number of GAs, I'm not punishing people doing their first ever nomination). But when I see someone with 50 GAs and 0 reviews, I cannot in good conscience ever take up one of their nominations. I work hard to keep my review/GA ratio close to 1, so I'm not expecting anyone to do something I wouldn't do myself. We need a cultural shift towards this mindset, in my opinion (and some will disagree with me, which is their right). We also have the age-old problem of how to incentivize reviewers, which many brighter than I have tried to solve. {{pb}} I think large numbers of open nominations are in part a symptom of these known issues, excluding the (thankfully rare) bad actor nominating crappy articles en masse (and I'm sure some of you know exactly who I am referring to). Bottom line - when I see people argue so strongly against any reform yet refuse to do any reviews themselves, I really have no sympathy for them. If you don't want to do reviews, fine, but don't expect others to prioritize your nominations. [[User:Trainsandotherthings|Trainsandotherthings]] ([[User talk:Trainsandotherthings|talk]]) 18:52, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::been watching this conversation quietly - completely agree with the above that this is a cultural problem that really needs a broader informal shift rather than acute reforms addressing only the symptoms. <span style="color:#618A3D">... [[User:Sawyer777|<span style="color:#618A3D">sawyer</span>]] * <small>he/they</small> * [[User talk:Sawyer777|<span style="color:#618A3D">talk</span>]]</span> 01:08, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
:Comment – Every time these discussions come up I am less inclined to participate in the GA process, if I am being honest. I find the pressure to review more articles disheartening. Encouraging reviews is fine, reforming the processes is good too, but discouraging writing and limiting collaboration for improving articles is counter-productive. The entire point of GA, IMO, is improving article quality, but if all we are to do is focus on pushing reviews through, the processes begins to focus more on quantity, which to my mind is how we end up with so many poorly written articles to begin with. We are a very diverse community of volunteers. Not everyone's skill-sets are the same and assuming that we can all do the same tasks equally well fails to recognize our diversity. The constant chastisement of people who don't review more doesn't encourage people to participate, but in fact does the opposite, at least for me. (For the record, I have nominated only 1 GA all year (at the request of the reviewer). Although I have written articles that would benefit from collaboration, I have not nominated them, but forced myself instead to review other's work. I spent over a month helping an editor at peer review prepare their first FA nomination, reviewed 5 FA/GA nominations. Not big numbers to some people's standards, but that required a huge amount of effort for me, as my reviews are meticulous, and I am incapable of making them less so. I see no value in holding anyone to my standards, but rather think that all contributions which lead to a better encyclopedia are valuable.) [[User:SusunW|SusunW]] ([[User talk:SusunW|talk]]) 20:59, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::My comment was not directed at you, I specifically pointed the finger at people who refuse to review ''at all''. [[User:Trainsandotherthings|Trainsandotherthings]] ([[User talk:Trainsandotherthings|talk]]) 21:36, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
:::{{u|Trainsandotherthings}}, I didn't mean to imply that it was. If I did, I apologize. Communication is sometimes quite challenging {{wink}} [[User:SusunW|SusunW]] ([[User talk:SusunW|talk]]) 21:41, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::Generally I think we should try to be more positive about all contributors here. Perhaps we should celebrate reviewers more (COI alert: I tend to review more than I write) instead of looking down at non-reviewers (although it is a very human thing to do). I like reviewing {{u|SusunW}}'s biographies (and I really enjoy working with her) so I am sad there have been so few of them here recently.
::I am very interested in seeing whether the [[WP:GARC|review circles]] idea can work as a (completely voluntary) way where people who are OK with doing some reviewing get their own nomination reviewed faster. If this becomes popular, people will have a choice: do a review to get your own nom reviewed very soon/put your nom on the pile with no questions asked about reviewing (and that means you may have to wait until the next backlog drive). —[[User:Kusma|Kusma]] ([[User talk:Kusma|talk]]) 09:32, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
:::Thank you {{u|Kusma}} I enjoy working with you too a lot. I am going to rip a bandaid off here and be vulnerable for a minute, but maybe it will help some people understand that reviewing is not simple for everyone. When I review I file, I tell myself, this time I am just going to read it, make comments, do a spot check and move on. But that never happens, ever. I read through the article. I start a 2nd read through and when I get to the first citation, I check it. I tell myself at the second citation to just accept it, but my brain says, what if it doesn't verify the information or has a copyvio? You have to sign-off that it's okay, so I check it. And this continues through every single citation. If I find an inconsistency, instead of just asking the question do you have a source that supports this?, I must know if there is a source. Or, I encounter something that the context is unclear. If a source is off-line do I AGF? Totally depends on whether other checks have had no problems. So I research (sometimes for hours) to find a reference that supports the data, provides context, or is accessible. Only if I cannot find a source do I just ask the question.
:::By this time, an entire day has passed and I am probably only 1/3 to 1/2 way through the article, so I post what I have from my notes to WP. I rewrite each query to make sure that what I am asking is clear and a suggestion, not a demand. I preview it and rewrite it again before I finally save it and move on. Day 2 and Day 3 are more of the same until I finally reach the end of the article, drained and exhausted. I hope that the nominator will take at least a day to respond to give me time to regroup. I review the responses as meticulously as I did the queries and finally make a decision on the outcome. Instead of feeling successful, my feeling is relief that it's over. And then I see a post on this page, admonishing people about not doing enough reviews and I force myself to do it again. The struggle is real, and it is hard. Howie Mandel once said I know my approach is not logical, but in spite of that I am compelled to do the illogical. That's me. We cannot assume we know why people don't do reviews, but we can change our approach to one which encourages people to do what they can. (And yes, I rewrote this 5 times.) [[User:SusunW|SusunW]] ([[User talk:SusunW|talk]]) 16:04, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
::::Thanks for taking the time to write this out Susun. The work you have done over the years to improve articles on here has been amazing and very inspiring, it has always been a pleasure to read what you have written and to work with you not only on reviews but other projects too. It's heartbreaking to hear you have been so discouraged by these periodic discussions on reviews, and I apologise profusely if I have contributed to that discouragement. Discouraging others from doing such good work should ''never'' be what we aim to accomplish here, and it is not a good sign if we are going in that direction. I agree completely that we need to reevaluate how to encourage more reviews without discouraging nominations, and to be more holistically positive towards each other. --[[User:Grnrchst|Grnrchst]] ([[User talk:Grnrchst|talk]]) 19:40, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
::::So—to be direct—you find GA reviewing difficult because you don't actually do GA reviews. [[User:AirshipJungleman29|&#126;~ AirshipJungleman29]] ([[User talk:AirshipJungleman29|talk]]) 20:15, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::{{u|Grnrchst}} we're all good. I honestly just wanted to offer a different perspective to remind everyone that we don't all have the same access and abilities. The internet has been a great bridge but its anonymous nature can also make us forget that there is a real human on the other side. I don't often speak of my struggles, but perhaps it can help us be more "holistically positive towards each other". {{u|AirshipJungleman29}} I am uncertain what you are saying, I do and have done GA reviews. [[User:SusunW|SusunW]] ([[User talk:SusunW|talk]]) 20:26, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
:My two centimes: Since my foray into good article nominations, I have tried to maintain at least 2 reviews for each nomination. Not only do I enjoy reviewing articles, because it gives me a way to read in-depth on subjects that I normally wouldn't have spent more time on, but I also try to be a net contributor to cutting down the backlog. My frustrations with the ever-growing backlog has, at least in part, come from a selfishness on my part.
:Off the top of my head, there are at least a couple dozen or so articles that I have written to (I think) a GA standard, but which I haven't nominated due to the length of time it takes for nominations to get reviewed. Often I'll end up finishing an article, having polished off its prose and gone through every source I have in a number of languages, but then I just don't end up nominating it because I already had a number of months-old pending nominations that I was anxious to get reviewed. I think the only time I have exceeded five open nominations is during the ongoing WiG edit-a-thon.
:I seriously regret that I have let my frustration at this process bubble over into support for certain restrictions, so I can't rightly support TBUA's proposal, despite understanding where he's coming from. The reason I want the backlog to be reduced is so that we can get ''more'' articles nominated, not restrict incoming nominations and punish some of our best writers. I would like applaud GMH Melbourne's recent review circles initiative, which I think could be an excellent way forward with encouraging more reviews. Let's consider making more positive projects like this, rather than imposing negative restrictions. --[[User:Grnrchst|Grnrchst]] ([[User talk:Grnrchst|talk]]) 20:12, 18 June 2024 (UTC)


I have only seen the ping for me by the op of this thread. I am new to GA, so if I have made too many nominations, I can certainly take some off, and don't want to be disruptive. Given my nominations are in the niche area of climbing, I felt that I needed to give a range of noms to attract/tempt some interest from reviewers. Two of them have been given GA status (and a third is almost there), but I never considered that I would be able to do the reviewing, is that something that I am meant to be considering at this stage? thanks. [[User:Aszx5000|Aszx5000]] ([[User talk:Aszx5000|talk]]) 21:50, 20 June 2024 (UTC)
:Yes, the article should have been failed, but by Philcha. That being said, one cannot be afraid to fail an article. If it's not close, point out the issues and fail it, don't leave it at GAN for 3-4 months with no guarantees. [[User:Wizardman|<span style="color:#060">'''''Wizardman'''''</span>]] 01:10, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


:{{u|Aszx5000}}, reviewing is entirely up to you, and I was just trying to open another discussion on how to get articles reviewed more quickly. Based on the discussion above, it seems that we're largely okay with lots of nominations at once (and personally I'm glad to see more niches showing up). If you're interested in reviewing other people's nominations but not sure where to start, you can make a post at the [[WP:GANMENTOR|mentorship page]] so someone can help you with your first review. [[User:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:#324717">The</span><span style="color:#45631f">big</span><span style="color:#547826">ugly</span><span style="color:#68942f">alien</span>]] ([[User talk:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:sienna">talk</span>]]) 22:07, 20 June 2024 (UTC)
::I prefer not to assume that other editors can't do what I've done. While working on invertebrate phyla I noticed [[Spider]] was up for GAR, and was almost a citation-free zone. Since I already had a couple of good invertebrate zoology textbooks from a local library, I re-wrote the article. This took nearly 2 weeks rather than the "standard" 1 week, and I was grateful for the reviewer's patience. --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 10:01, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
::Thanks @[[User:Thebiguglyalien|Thebiguglyalien]]. I though I would have to have more GAs under my belt before doing reviews. Let me get through a few more as I am still learning new things, but would love to give it a try later, and will follow your steps. thanks. [[User:Aszx5000|Aszx5000]] ([[User talk:Aszx5000|talk]]) 10:32, 25 June 2024 (UTC)


== July backlog drive ==
== Drive by promotion of [[Zarqa River]] ==


Yes, it's happening! I'd apologize for the short notice, but a July backlog drive ''has'' been on the backlog page since April, so instead I'll apologize for disappearing for most of May-June and not getting to this earlier.
I signed my name to review [[Zarqa River]], but when I went to write the review I found someone else had just opened and filled out the review page: [[Talk:Zarqa River/GA1]]. Should I just write over it, or what? Regards, &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 22:17, 18 January 2009 (UTC)
: If the article had actually been listed, then it would be better to start an individual or community GAR. However, it hasn't: only the WikiProject rating has been changed and the review so far only states that the article "appears" to meet the criteria. I've fixed the talk page. You may have to negotiate with the other reviewer, but you need to add to the review shortly.
::*It turned out not to be a problem as it was clear that the first "review" was by an editor who did not know the process. The original reviewer registered on wikipedia in December and looking at the user page, seemed very much to be a newbie. I asked Geometry guy what to do, and I interpreted his actions to mean that I should just continue. So I posted my prepared review, prepared shortly after I flagged the article for for review. (I was just in that short time that the "new" review appeared.) The article's editor accepted my review with appreciation and we are working on the article. So - no problem after all! &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 05:53, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
: This is another case which shows to me that our guidelines do not reflect best practice or help reviewers carry out reviews in the way they want to. I think we need to encourage reviewers to start the review page early, with initial comments, and encourage the idea of a "lead reviewer" who guides the course of the review and makes the final decision. The "On review" template at [[WP:GAN]] sends the wrong message and apparently doesn't always work. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 22:44, 18 January 2009 (UTC)
::I think that's right. The lead reviewer needs to plant a flag on the review page early in the process. In this particular case, I think that Mattisse and the other reviewer just have to find a way of working together. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 22:59, 18 January 2009 (UTC)
:::Oh. I did not know there was a "flag" other than signing up in GAN to review the page and starting the review. The additional "flag" of which you speak definitely needs to be added to the instructions, as I do not know about it. I know that there is a problem when people sign up to review a page, but then do nothing for days or weeks. But I am not one of those. As far as the suggestion that I should work it out with the new reviewer, I would not put any energy in to doing that. If the new reviewer was clearly misguided, as in my case, there is no problem and the new revieweer did not insist. If the new reviewer insisted on doing the reviewing, I would remove myself from the case. I know how easily things can get ugly and I am not willing to engage over a fight over who reviewers the page. Too much potential for down side. &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 06:16, 19 January 2009 (UTC)


The aim this time around is to encourage participation by people who haven't done many GA reviews before. Experienced reviewers are encouraged to assist newbie reviewers with their reviews - but if you want to ignore the theme and just bang out a bunch of GA reviews as usual, go right ahead. This format is obviously somewhat experimental, so if anyone has suggestions, please do suggest away. And if anyone else would like to volunteer as co-ordinator, so far it's just me by my lonesome and I'd love to have you. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 05:42, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
::::I agree with [[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] - a fight over who reviews the page would be a very bad result. I suspect I'd check the Talk pages of the other reviewer, the article's editor(s) and the most recent contributors ot the article's Talk page to see if there was any sign of either collusion or feuding. If not, I'd back off but watch the review page. If the "background check" showed anything that bothered me, I might have a word with the other reviewer. If further events made me seriously uneasy, I'd post a message here. --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 09:55, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
----
Could I add a general request not to use the loaded phrase "Drive by" in section titles. It implies a knowledge of editor intentions which is contrary to [[WP:AGF]]. I do not address this request at any editor in particular, as it is an attractive meme which does convey the point very concisely. However, I know that colleagues at WP:GAN are intelligent and imaginative editors who can find other ways to convey their point with casting doubt on good faith. Thanks, ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 23:24, 18 January 2009 (UTC)
:You are right. In my case it was a pure case of a new "reviewer" not knowing the process, so no harm done. I just continued with my review with no protest but only thanks from those involved. So drive-by is needlessly stigmatizing. &mdash;[[User:Mattisse|<font color="navy">'''Mattisse'''</font>]] ([[User talk:Mattisse|Talk]]) 06:06, 19 January 2009 (UTC)


:@[[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]], is it possible to get a list of all editors who have reviewed 1-4 GANs? A list of editors who have GAs but have never reviewed would also be really helpful. I have no idea how to generate either of these. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 01:25, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
==Poor quality articles==
::For the first question, does [[User:GA bot/Stats]] give you what you need? For the second, yes; do you want it restricted to editors who have a GA in the last N years, for some value of N? [[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] ([[User_talk:Mike Christie|talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Mike_Christie|contribs]] - [[User:Mike Christie/Reference library|library]]) 01:29, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
:::Yes, for the first one, that's fine. Though if there's some way to restrict the list to only active accounts, that would be even more useful. For the second, yes, a restriction like that would be useful, though I'm not sure exactly where I'd draw the line. The last two years maybe? Or if there's a way to only get active accounts, that would be useful too. Define "active" however seems workable. My aim is to come up with a list of people who might be interested in participating in the backlog drive as a newbie reviewer. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 01:38, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
::::OK -- it'll be a few days, as I'm traveling, but I should be able to get you the data by some time this weekend. [[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] ([[User_talk:Mike Christie|talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Mike_Christie|contribs]] - [[User:Mike Christie/Reference library|library]]) 02:06, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
:{{ping|asilvering}} I've never been a co-ordinator of a GAN backlog before, but I have participated in previous ones, so I'm interested. What and where could I help? [[User:Vacant0|Vacant0]] ([[User talk:Vacant0|talk]]) 15:12, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
::Glad to have you! I'll add your name to the backlog drive page. While I'm at it, pinging @[[User:Ganesha811|Ganesha811]] and @[[User:Vaticidalprophet|Vaticidalprophet]], who were also co-ords of the last one - are you folks interested?
::The main part of the job is checking off reviews as editors post them as finished on the drive page - checking to make sure the reviews aren't seriously inadequate, and double-checking what additional points for length might be given, or if you think the review is so good you ought to give it a discretionary bonus point. Since this drive is specifically encouraging collaboration between newbie reviewers and more experienced reviewers, this will be a little (but only a little, I hope) more complicated than usual, since you'll also have to award a point to the assistant reviewer. I anticipate also that there will be more questions than usual and that we may need to assist with matching newbie reviewers with experienced ones.
::Also, if you'd like to revise the barnstar awards list, that would be great! I just copied the one from the March backlog drive. But I think it would be nice to tailor it a bit - for example, we could have a barnstar for the editor who assisted with the highest number of reviews, some kind of special "thanks for joining" barnstar for newbies (I think there's a "promising newbie" barnstar somewhere?), or so on. I haven't put any further thought into it than that, so if you want to go ahead and rework the list, it's much appreciated, and all yours! -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 18:33, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
:::Considering that assistant reviewers will get one point per review, I could create a couple of barnstars (e.g. a 5 point one, a 10/12 point one, and the one that reviewed the highest amount of GANs). Or we could only stick with one barnstar for assistant reviewers.
:::The only barnstar that I could have found similar to "promising newbie" is {{t|The New Editor's Barnstar}}.
:::Also, do we want to include qualifying old articles, like for previous GAN backlog drives? [[User:Vacant0|<span style="color:#5E9A4A;font-weight:bold">Vacant</span><span style="color:#A24B4B;font-weight:bold">0</span>]] <span style="font-size:small">([[User talk:Vacant0|talk]] &bull; [[Special:Contributions/Vacant0|contribs]])</span> 19:08, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
::::Hm too bad re: promising newbie. Since I imagine most GAN newbies will not actually be new editors. Whatever you find that you like, go for it.
::::This drive deliberately doesn't have points for reviewing really old articles, to keep the focus on bringing new people into GA reviewing. Earlier, when we discussed having multiple backlog drives as part of the broader discussions about what to do with the backlog, there were concerns about reviewer burn-out or reviewers holding off on doing reviews when there aren't backlog drives (since another one will be around the corner). So the idea is that the January drive is the "main" drive, the mid-year one is focused on recruitment, and the fall one addresses a specific portion of the backlog, to be determined closer to the date, depending on what looks like it needs the most help. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 19:46, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::Before uploading anything, I'll send it first on Discord in case of possible corrections . I'll be busy tomorrow so expect barnstars to come during the weekend. Cheers, {{smiley}} [[User:Vacant0|<span style="color:#5E9A4A;font-weight:bold">Vacant</span><span style="color:#A24B4B;font-weight:bold">0</span>]] <span style="font-size:small">([[User talk:Vacant0|talk]] &bull; [[Special:Contributions/Vacant0|contribs]])</span> 13:51, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:::I'm happy to assist as a co-ordinator, but I do have some work travel in July which means I'd have to take on more of a background role - checking a few reviews where I can, not making any big decisions. If that's ok, feel free to add my name! —[[User:Ganesha811|Ganesha811]] ([[User talk:Ganesha811|talk]]) 21:20, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
::::Sounds good to me! Thanks. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 02:50, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
{{u|BlueMoonset}}, are you available to update the progress tracker for this drive? If you are, that would be great! If not, no worries of course. —[[User:Ganesha811|Ganesha811]] ([[User talk:Ganesha811|talk]]) 17:44, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:[[User:Ganesha811|Ganesha811]], thanks for asking. I'm going to be away the first week; though I might be able to log on at night, it won't be as timely as usual. Another difficulty is that I would be required to make the second column the number of old nominations (90 days or more) rather than the number of unreviewed nominations (which we have always done before), per the general RfC that was held earlier in the year, so rather than just taking the number from the Reports page and adjusting back the hour), I'd have to do a more manual calculation. I'm not sure I'll have the time to deal with the extra work involved. [[User:BlueMoonset|BlueMoonset]] ([[User talk:BlueMoonset|talk]]) 00:10, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
::Hm, good point. And since we aren't targetting old noms specifically this time around, maybe we should rethink the progress list, at least for this drive. A running total of reviews opened/ended might be the way to go this time. I'm happy to do that one, since I tend to be around when a new day starts on UTC time. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 00:23, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
:::[[User:Asilvering|asilvering]], I'm not sure how that would work with the current {{tl|GAN changes}} template in terms of display. You may need to create your own table. But I would keep the total number of nominations as the first column, since that tracks how many are outstanding at the beginning of the drive, and all the way through to the end. Good luck! I'll sit this one out, then, unless you change your mind on how you want it to work. [[User:BlueMoonset|BlueMoonset]] ([[User talk:BlueMoonset|talk]]) 00:33, 28 June 2024 (UTC)


== Is this a list or an article ==
There have been a number of poor quality articles at GA review lately. They were at the stub/start/C levels see [[Talk:Dale's principle]], [[Talk:Gastritis]], [[Talk:Human musculoskeletal system]]. If this is not the case now I think we need to state that articles should be at a level B before they are nominated for GA review. Ie. you can find someone from a wiki project who also beleives it is of B quality. If the article is from many wiki project all should be of B level. Otherwise they should be peer reviewed. Anyway just my thoughts. --[[User:Jmh649|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] ([[User talk:Jmh649|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Jmh649|contribs]] · [[Special:EmailUser/Jmh649|email]]) 18:44, 19 January 2009 (UTC)


I nominated [[Grade (climbing)]] into the GA queue, which I overhauled and expanded, but given what happened with my GA nomination of [[Rock-climbing equipment]], I wonder if it is really a list, and therefore maybe an FLC? thanks. [[User:Aszx5000|Aszx5000]] ([[User talk:Aszx5000|talk]]) 13:45, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
:I don't think there needs to be a requirement for articles being at B-level to be nominated for GA. Articles must already meet the [[WP:WIAGA|GA criteria]] prior to listing, and as such, all listed GAs should cover the B-class criteria as well. But the stub/start/C/B/A system is governed by wikiprojects, some of which are more developed and some less developed. Some of the more developed wikiprojects may already have this unwritten rule of B-class prior to GA nomination, but I don't think we should penalize the less developed wikiprojects from this. [[User:Derek.cashman|Dr. Cash]] ([[User talk:Derek.cashman|talk]]) 18:49, 19 January 2009 (UTC)


:It looks like an article (with some incorporated list-like material) to me, without any obvious flaws of a type that would lead me to quickfail it. —[[User:David Eppstein|David Eppstein]] ([[User talk:David Eppstein|talk]]) 17:28, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
:: The good article process is lightweight. The only issue which should determine whether an article is listed or not is whether it meets the good article criteria. WikiProject ratings, in particular B-Class, have both a different purpose (tracking progress) and a different focus (content rather than style and policy). Some articles are not within the scope of any active WikiProject. Some WikiProjects (e.g. MILHIST, WP1.0) have devised their own B-Class criteria. These are '''not''' GA requirements. For all these reasons, in addition to those mentioned by Dr. Cash, it makes no sense to require B-Class for GA nominations. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 19:14, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
::Thanks for that - I will leave it in the GA queue. Feedback is much appreciated! [[User:Aszx5000|Aszx5000]] ([[User talk:Aszx5000|talk]]) 18:53, 25 June 2024 (UTC)


==Category organisation==
:::I agree that it makes no sense to require B-Class for GA nominations. In some cases Wikiprojects do not respond to requests for reviews. I've recently brought some articles on invertebrate phyla / sub-phyla to GA, and my earleir requests for comments from Wikiprojects got no response - I ''guess'' because these articles were too technical or required too much research for most members. And, as [[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]] said, some are not within the scope of any active WikiProject.
Grouping these here, if no further comments or consensus is reached I plan to implement these at the end of the month, before the backlog drive starts. [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 01:02, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
:::[[User:Jmh649|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] has a point though. I've reviewed some articles that were a long way off GA standard. A very few were hopeless unless a "super-hero" came to the rescue. A greater number had statements either not supported by refs or not actually supported by the refs they cited. I suggest the box "How to nominate an article" should be more emphatic, e.g. "Articles are expected to be at or ''very'' near GA standard before they are nominated. Please read the [[Wikipedia:Good article criteria]] and do your own review first." --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 20:02, 19 January 2009 (UTC)


===Video games===
::::The quality criteria are presented as a continuum. From stub / start always up to FA. This makes it appear that B class criteria are required before GA status can be obtained. If these are separate criteria and B quality does not relate to GA in any way then why order them? If they are indeed ordered then B is required before GA and GA required before FA. If an editor hasn't tried to get a B quality before they apply for GA I feel that this is a show of bad faith or poor understanding of how wiki article rating works. --[[User:Jmh649|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] ([[User talk:Jmh649|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Jmh649|contribs]] · [[Special:EmailUser/Jmh649|email]]) 23:04, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
:::::Correction: the WikiProject quality assessments are presented as a continuum. Some editors at Wikipedia 1.0 wish to promote this to a Wikipedia wide scale, which it plainly isn't. Please do not be fooled by GA-Class (this is widely recognized as a historical mistake). At GA we have a simple binary decision to make: does the article meet the criteria or not? For articles which are a long way short of the criteria, that decision is easier to make, and it is easier to leave a review pointing to some of the main failings. Or, alternatively, the reviewer may want to give hard-working editors a chance: it is up to the reviewer. ''That'' is what our guidelines need to clarify. ''[[User talk:Geometry guy|Geometry guy]]'' 23:19, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
::I agree with much that's been said, it makes little sense to introduce the requirement for a B-classification before submitting to GAN. I also take some exception to the implicit notion that all articles which do not meet the GA criteria are of therefore by definition of "poor quality". Some may be, perhaps even the majority, but we ought not to delude ourselves that GA means "good article" in any absolute sense. I've not infrequently come across I articles I would consider to be "good", but which would fail at GAN. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 20:31, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
:::Ha, you can say that again. Also, not all articles' assessments are up to date, so a quick look at the assessment might not mean anything. [[User:Grk1011|Grk1011/Stephen]] ([[User talk:Grk1011|talk]]) 21:53, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
::::Absolutely right. I've had to delist over 70 of the olders GAs myself. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 23:26, 19 January 2009 (UTC)


[[Wikipedia:Good articles/Video games]] is one of two long lv2 categories with no lv3 split <small>(the other is [[Wikipedia:Good articles/Language and literature|Lang & Lit]])</small>, and one that feels it has a very obvious split: between the Video Games (and series) themselves, and everything else (provisionally I propose "Context and content"). Regarding the lower splits, the video games are currently divided into five-year blocks, some of which are getting very large. There's no clean split there, but if there is a desire to maintain the chronological split it could transition into two-year chunks for at least the 21st century, imitating [[Wikipedia:Good articles/Music|Music]]. The other large sections is "Video game characters", currently at 200. This seems a simple candidate from pulling out series, with the two obvious candidates being Pokémon (26) and Final Fantasy (at least 34, I think, it's a complicated series). 13:45, 24 June 2024 (UTC) [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 13:45, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]], I would not suggest that all articles which do not meet the GA criteria are of therefore by definition of "poor quality". The problem is that quite a lot of articles submitted for GA review are a long way from meeting the GA criteria - perhaps as much as 40% that I've reviewed. That's why I suggested the box "How to nominate an article" should be more emphatic. --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 10:15, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


:Maybe break out some entire series into their own subcat? Eg you could put all Final Fantasy, Mario, Pokemon, etc grouped together (both games and game-adjacent articles). That seems more helpful to me than these huge by-half-decade chunks. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 01:23, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::"A long way from meeting the GA criteria" perhaps, but a motivated nominator can sometimes achieve miracles during the hold period with a little guidance from a motivated reviewer. Perhaps I just don't see the problem in the same way as some others. What's the purpose of GA? To improve the quality of the encyclopedia as effectively and efficiently as possible. So if articles are improved during their GANs, that aim is achieved even if they're ultimately not listed. So there's a backlog. So what? Better that than no editors submitting articles, or trying to choke off the supply of GANs by imposing restrictions. There will never be a perfect match between the number of nominations and the speed at which they are being processed anyway. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 14:35, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
::Well that would invalidate my lv3 split, but I'm not in opposition. I have pulled out just the characters for now, which can be a start for pulling relevant articles out from the other subsections too. Pokémon is easy enough, the games all include the word Pokémon, Final Fantasy has a list at [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Square Enix]]. [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 14:31, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
:::I would go the other way on this - games should be listed strictly chronologically. Having some sorted by series, and some sorted by chronology, seems strange and "surprising" (in the bad sense) to me. [[User:SnowFire|SnowFire]] ([[User talk:SnowFire|talk]]) 17:37, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
::::Do you have a better idea for how to separate them? The issue at hand here is that when the categories get super long, they should be subdivided. But the chronology sections are already divided in 5-year blocks. We could make the categories shorter by shortening that to 2-year blocks, I suppose, but I don't think that's likely to be helpful to anyone. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 02:53, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
:::An alternate lvl3 split could be "by date" and "by series", in that case. I do agree that your originally proposed lvl3 split is better than no lvl3 split at all. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 02:54, 30 June 2024 (UTC)


===Rail transport - time for some splitting?===
:::::::I agree that the aim of GA is "to improve the quality of the encyclopedia", and would add "to improve editors". I merel ysuggest we should make editors more aware of the GA criteria. If they learn how to be objective about their own articles, they will improve even faster. --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 16:27, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


In [[Wikipedia:Good articles/Engineering and technology#Transport]], we have 208 articles classified under "rail transport" and a whopping 243 articles under "Rail bridges, tunnels, and stations: United States". I think we should discuss breaking these into subcategories. Some ideas I have for breaking down the general rail transport category are "rail lines", "rail accidents and incidents", "rail companies", and "rapid transit/tram systems". Rail bridges, tunnels, and stations: United States could be divided into rapid transit stations and heavy rail stations, while we could add a "bridges, tunnels, and facilities" section to hold pretty much everything else, including freight facilities (I think the only one is [[Northup Avenue Yard]], my nomination). [[User:Trainsandotherthings|Trainsandotherthings]] ([[User talk:Trainsandotherthings|talk]]) 22:48, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::::... and the best place to learn about the GA criteria is at GAN. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 16:40, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


:Note the general rail transport category is basically an "others" group for all rail-related pages that don't fall within a subcategory. The proposed subcats make sense in the abstract, at a glance I can see a lot of incidents. Unsure if I'd cleanly split rail lines and rail systems, something encompassing systems and lines like it could pick up related articles like [[Northern line extension to Battersea]] too? Can't at a glance figure out how many company article there are. Splitting stations from bridges, tunnels, and facilities also sounds sensible, to the point it raises the question of whether to split them entirely rather than just in the United States, but that doesn't mean the smaller action won't work. [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 01:13, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
(undent) I have always assumed that the purpose of the GA is as part of a ranking system for article quality. That it can lead to improvements in Wikipedia is just a secondary goal. If it is only for wiki improvement then why have a separate system from a peer review? --[[User:Jmh649|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] ([[User talk:Jmh649|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Jmh649|contribs]] · [[Special:EmailUser/Jmh649|email]]) 16:52, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
::My thinking was I'd throw out some ideas and we as a community evaluate which make sense. A separate rail accidents and incidents section seems like a no-brainer to me, as does one for bridges, tunnels, and facilities. A lot of the U.S. articles on railroads cover both a company and the line(s) it operated in a single article, making them hard to split between lines vs. companies. We can always make more changes in the future. [[User:Trainsandotherthings|Trainsandotherthings]] ([[User talk:Trainsandotherthings|talk]]) 14:11, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
:::I've split the facilities etc. from the United States, a heavy/rapid station split will require more time and/or a subject matter expert. I looked at accidents and incidents quickly and only found 9 so left those alone for now. If splitting lines/companies/systems becomes a bit complex, perhaps splitting off just the United States here as well would be helpful. [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 10:30, 30 June 2024 (UTC)


== Biology and medicine reviews ==
:Because there are no criteria to be met at peer review, therefore it is not part of any quality ranking. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 16:55, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


I was looking over the GAN's in the Biology and medicine category and noticed that 11 of these were started by [[User:Wolverine XI|Wolverine XI]], all within the span of five days (June 10th through 15th). I thought to bring this up here because I'm concerned that the quality of these reviews will suffer from the quantity that this user has taken on, which I think is more than evident in the fact that 8 of them haven't even been started yet. Some of these reviews have received no comments for two whole weeks since their inception.
::The GA criteria should reflect what is required for an article to be good quality. And I think they do. So I do not understand Malleus statement that he comes across many article which would not meet GA criteria yet are still good. This must mean either the criteria are wrong or we have different ideas of what is a good article.


While I commend their ambition, I don't think this practise is conducive to the standard of quality that the Good Article system should uphold. Perhaps something can be done about it? [[User:The Morrison Man|The Morrison Man]] ([[User talk:The Morrison Man|talk]]) 13:54, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
::If as Malleus says GA is part of a quality ranking and it sits between B/A and FA than it must fullfil the B/A criteria aswell as the GA criteria. If this is not required than we do not have a quality ranking system.


:I'm busy with another project (at the moment). I should have all these articles reviewed by Saturday. After that, I'm retiring from reviewing GANs. Reviews can take some time, so people should be patient. [[User:Wolverine XI|<span style="color:#000080;">'''''Wolverine'''''</span> <span style="color:#8A307F;">'''''XI'''''</span>]] <sup>([[User talk:Wolverine XI|<span style="color:#2C5F2D;">talk to me</span>]])</sup> 14:10, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
::I disagree that the primary purpose of GA is to improve wikipedia. At [[Wikipedia:Good article criteria]] it makes it sound as if GA is here to recognize article that pass what are considered criteria needed for a article to be good. Article will improve with this process but this is just a side effect.
::If you haven't really gotten started on some of those, you may want to CSD them so that another reviewer can pick them up. You don't need to rush yourself to get through them all this week. You can call this a learning experience and toss some back into the queue. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 01:43, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
:::It is Saturday (at least where I am): I can see that [[User:Wolverine XI|Wolverine XI]] has managed to make comments on two of the open reviews, but the remainder appear to be blank. Wolverine XI, I would echo the concerns here that you may have taken on too much here: the reviews you have done (see e.g. [[Talk:Enchylium polycarpon/GA2]]) are really a short list of isolated prose and content points rather than full reviews. In particular, we need some evidence of source checking, image review, copyvio checks and so on. In other places, the comments are so brief as to be of little help: writing "please write a proper measurement" against {{green|that are 5–7 x 1-1.5 μm}} doesn't really tell the nominator what is wrong or how to fix it. Similarly, I don't think the review on [[Talk:Charles De Geer/GA1]] really gave the nominator a fair go: the article looks very close to GA standard to me and I would have thought it an excellent candidate to get up to that status in the course of the review.
:::As the other commenters here have said, reviewing is a learning process and we always have to go through practice to get good at it, but it would be polite to delete those review pages so that others can take them on, or return to them once you have finished your active reviews more fully, if they are still un-taken. ''[[User:UndercoverClassicist|<b style="color:#7F007F">UndercoverClassicist</b>]]'' <sup>[[User talk:UndercoverClassicist|T]]·[[Special:Contributions/UndercoverClassicist|C]]</sup> 16:13, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
:I'll add that I [[User talk:Wolverine XI#GA nomination of Charles De Geer|brought this up]] on their talk page, and I was not reassured by their response. [[User:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:#324717">The</span><span style="color:#45631f">big</span><span style="color:#547826">ugly</span><span style="color:#68942f">alien</span>]] ([[User talk:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:sienna">talk</span>]]) 17:14, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
::Having read it, neither am I honestly. [[User:The Morrison Man|The Morrison Man]] ([[User talk:The Morrison Man|talk]]) 18:38, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
:Since Wolverine XI seems not to understand the issue and is still editing without addressing the concerns here, I suggest the blank reviews be deleted. We may also wish to go over their completed reviews, as the ones they've worked on indicate that they don't totally understand how the review process works. [[User:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:#324717">The</span><span style="color:#45631f">big</span><span style="color:#547826">ugly</span><span style="color:#68942f">alien</span>]] ([[User talk:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:sienna">talk</span>]]) 02:26, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
::You can delete them; I have other projects—both on wiki and in RL—to complete. [[User:Wolverine XI|<span style="color:#000080;">'''''Wolverine'''''</span> <span style="color:#8A307F;">'''''XI'''''</span>]] <sup>([[User talk:Wolverine XI|<span style="color:#2C5F2D;">talk to me</span>]])</sup> 08:42, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
:::I have tagged the empty ones for deletion. Regarding [[Talk:Enchylium limosum/GA1]], [[Talk:Katablepharid/GA1]], and [[Talk:Enchylium polycarpon/GA2]], Wolverine XI left comments indicating some improvements needed on 15 June which have not been responded to, so my preference is to close those as failed. [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 09:50, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
::::That seems like a good solution. ''[[User:UndercoverClassicist|<b style="color:#7F007F">UndercoverClassicist</b>]]'' <sup>[[User talk:UndercoverClassicist|T]]·[[Special:Contributions/UndercoverClassicist|C]]</sup> 10:30, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
::::That would seem like the best course of action, yes. [[User:The Morrison Man|The Morrison Man]] ([[User talk:The Morrison Man|talk]]) 14:32, 30 June 2024 (UTC)


== Discussion at ANI ==
::An article should be nominated for GA status when someone feels it meets GA status. If an article is "A long way from meeting the GA criteria" than I do not think it should have been nominated in the first place. This is unfair to those who have brough articles up to GA status or very close to such.


[[File:Information icon4.svg|link=|25px|alt=Information icon]] There is currently a discussion at [[Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#GA-banned user violating topic ban]] which you may be interested in. Thank you.<!--Template:Discussion notice--><!--Template:ANI-notice--> [[User:AirshipJungleman29|&#126;~ AirshipJungleman29]] ([[User talk:AirshipJungleman29|talk]]) 14:47, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
::And finally the best place to learn about GA criteria is by reading them not by going through a good article nomination for an article that is no were close to being a GA.--[[User:Jmh649|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] ([[User talk:Jmh649|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Jmh649|contribs]] · [[Special:EmailUser/Jmh649|email]]) 17:13, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


== Rule of thumb for blank review CSDing ==
:::You have either misunderstood or mis-remembered what I said. I have said repeatedly that GA does ''not'' sit between B/A and FA, but rather that both GA and FA are independent of the stub-start-C-B-A project ranking system. That point has been made by others here as well. If the primary purpose of GA is not to improve wikipedia, then I am clearly wasting my time with this project, as that is my sole motivation for participating in it. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 19:42, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


There are some long-outstanding review pages that don't have any real activity on them at all. Normally, another editor will come in and check up on them, and eventually they get CSD'd when there's no response from the reviewer. [[Talk:Twilight Sparkle/GA1|Here]] is one where {{u|Thebiguglyalien}} just came through to do just that. But in the interests of not dragging out this procedure unnecessarily, could we perhaps institute a general guideline for when we should simply nominate these for CSD without further discussion? How about one month? To be clear, I'm talking only about reviews that have not been started at all, beyond the usual "I'll take this review" opening comment. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 00:47, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
== As a review ==


:I took a page from {{u|BlueMoonset}}'s book (as it's mostly just them doing it) and nudged some of the inactive reviews, but I didn't give more specific instructions specifically because we don't have an agreed upon procedure like this. Anything like this should also apply where the reviewer has set up a template or headings but didn't fill them in with a review. For the ones where there was activity, we might also consider talking about second opinions, because right now the second opinion system is kind of useless. [[User:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:#324717">The</span><span style="color:#45631f">big</span><span style="color:#547826">ugly</span><span style="color:#68942f">alien</span>]] ([[User talk:Thebiguglyalien|<span style="color:sienna">talk</span>]]) 01:01, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
I have read through many complaints about a backlog of articles. Have commented on a number of articles that were at a GA review much to early which contributes to the backlog. Many people are using GA reviews as peer reviews.
::Yes, I didn't mean to imply you'd done anything out of the ordinary, I just grabbed that one as a good example of what I mean by a blank review. I'm just suggesting that we make a guideline to cut down on this extra "are you still here" "[silence]" "nominator, what do you want to do?" in the process. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 01:13, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
:I think having a general procedure to point to is a great idea. I'd suggest a week. If you open a review but make no comment in a week, the review can be closed and the nomination returned to the queue. No penalty or particular shame, it's just a politeness to the nominator, so that the nomination has the chance to be picked up by a reviewer who has the time to dedicate to the review at the moment. [[User:Ajpolino|Ajpolino]] ([[User talk:Ajpolino|talk]]) 01:15, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
::My initial thought was that a week was much too short, but on reflection, automatically clearing out reviews that are still blank a week after they were opened would probably cut down on the number of reviews that get stretched out over several months. == [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 01:19, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
:I'm hesitant to recommend deleting without nudging, and also feel a week after opening is a bit short. Reviews can take time, and that time might only be possible on weekends or similar. That said, a week after ''nudging'' seems pretty harmless. If there is a consensus that nudging is not required, I would recommend multiple weeks, maybe 3-4, for CSD. There should be no prejudice of course to the same reviewer restarting the review page if they come back to it. [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 01:18, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
::What do you think about "nudge at one week, CSD after a week of no response"? -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 01:20, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
:::I suppose I could be convinced so long as the response can just be a brief "I am working on this", although it still feels a short timeframe for a nudge. As a general thought, the same principles being discussed here should not only apply to empty reviews but to partial ones, just with a different resulting process (CSD for empty, archiving and resetting for partial except in the few circumstances 2O may be useful). [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 01:23, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
::::Hm, I deliberately restricted this thought to blank reviews only, since I think partial reviews should be handled on a more case-by-case basis. There are lots of reasons why a review might have stalled out. Reviews that are simply blank, however, are all basically the same "case". -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 01:27, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::Fair enough, I was thinking of past nudging of months-old reviews, but appreciate the value of maintaining a narrow proposal here. [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 01:30, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
::::I like the idea of applying this to stalled reviews of any stripe (of course, as CMD said, we would archive rather than delete stalled partial reviews). The reviewer could always start the review again at any time. No one is being penalized. Asilvering's suggestion of one week til nudge, another week til close, sounds good to me. If the reviewer responds in any way that would reset the clock. The idea is just to return nominations to the queue if the reviewer truly doesn't have time to complete the review. [[User:Ajpolino|Ajpolino]] ([[User talk:Ajpolino|talk]]) 12:59, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::Is there anything the bot could do that would help? E.g. a "stalled review" section at the end of the GAN page, listing open reviews with no edits for more than N days? [[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] ([[User_talk:Mike Christie|talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Mike_Christie|contribs]] - [[User:Mike Christie/Reference library|library]]) 13:09, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::Yes, that would be excellent. In a perfect world, I assume we would want a blank review that gets removed (possibly even an incomplete "stalled review"?) to also be removed from the bot's count of an editor's GA reviews. Not a huge deal either way, of course. [[User:Ajpolino|Ajpolino]] ([[User talk:Ajpolino|talk]]) 21:07, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::::If a review is deleted and another review is later done with the same page number, the prior review is no longer included in an editor's GA review count, though if the later review never happens the earlier one won't get removed from the stats. If the review is just marked as failed and the page number is incremented, the reviewer does get credit. [[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] ([[User_talk:Mike Christie|talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Mike_Christie|contribs]] - [[User:Mike Christie/Reference library|library]]) 21:17, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::Yes, no edits for more than n days would be helpful. If it could check "no edits to article OR to GA review page" that would probably be the most helpful way to list them. N = 7? No one's suggested a time shorter than 7 days for any of the hypotheticals we've been discussing. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 06:03, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::::I'll have a look at this some time this weekend if I get time. I think what you're asking for should be possible. [[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] ([[User_talk:Mike Christie|talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Mike_Christie|contribs]] - [[User:Mike Christie/Reference library|library]]) 10:25, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::::Thinking about this some more, I'd like to get agreement on exactly what we'd want to see in a section called "Stalled reviews". Suppose the reviewer opens the review by posting a full review with their first edit -- that's not a stalled review, so is there a way to avoid including those? Some reviewers post an empty reviewing template as their first review; if they never edit it again that counts as stalled, but how could the bot tell those apart? [[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] ([[User_talk:Mike Christie|talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Mike_Christie|contribs]] - [[User:Mike Christie/Reference library|library]]) 17:27, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::::::Aren't they both "stalled" if there's no motion after n days? -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 02:49, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::::::Yes, but I think an automatic list is only going to be helpful if the entries mean that someone needs to look at the review. If the review were to be deleted, it would disappear from the list, but if the list includes reviews that aren't blank and aren't going to be deleted then it won't be possible to tell if someone has already taken action. I could remove anything from the list if someone else posts to that page -- i.e. someone not the nominator or reviewer. Would that work? {{u|Chipmunkdavis|CMD}}, any thoughts? Since you were dubious below about the process to deal with non-blank stalled reviews. [[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] ([[User_talk:Mike Christie|talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Mike_Christie|contribs]] - [[User:Mike Christie/Reference library|library]]) 15:31, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::::::::My first idea for the bot would be to place a talkpage reminders for reviews which were opened but have had ''no'' edits since. This would miss say a review where someone writes "Will get to this soon" and doesn't, but on the other hand it would have no false positives. I would not put a section on the GAN page itself, that feels a very public sort of reprimand. We already have [[Wikipedia:Good article nominations/Report]], which gives an indicator of what is stalled even if it doesn't state the time of last edit. [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 16:02, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::::::::Oh, I don't think we should have automated talk page reminders for this! I thought we were talking about a line on the Report page you mention here. Reading back up, I see I misunderstood Mike Christie's initial comment, where he said "at the end of the GAN page". I don't think that's a good idea either - I was thinking about the Report page. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 17:57, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::::::::::Actually I did mean on the main GAN page, in a section at the end, but if it would be perceived as a reprimand I agree that might be a bad idea. The way the FAC nominations viewer does it is to have "Inactive for N days/weeks" after each entry. Something like that might be possible; it doesn't single anyone out. That would not be easy to convert into "I need to go look at this particular review", though. [[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] ([[User_talk:Mike Christie|talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Mike_Christie|contribs]] - [[User:Mike Christie/Reference library|library]]) 18:29, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::::::::::I do think it could be perceived as a reprimand. The Report page, less so, I think, since barely anyone uses it. I've gone through the longest-running open reviews before both this backlog drive and the last one, and found in most of the cases that no other uninvolved editor had popped in to check on the reviews. For that reason, I don't think it would lead to significantly more people being hassled if there was a "no edits for n days" listing on the report page. I ''do'' think that having that list on the report page would allow stalled reviews to be noticed much earlier than they are now, which seems to be a timeframe of at least a couple of months. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 18:36, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
:It's worth noting that the speedy deletion of incomplete reviews is rather controversial whenever it gets brought up at MfD. [[User:AirshipJungleman29|&#126;~ AirshipJungleman29]] ([[User talk:AirshipJungleman29|talk]]) 15:42, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
::Sure. No need to CSD incomplete "stalled" reviews. They can just be closed and the nom returned to the queue. The same could be said of blank reviews of course. I don't have a strong preference on CSD vs. close-and-ignore for truly blank review pages. [[User:Ajpolino|Ajpolino]] ([[User talk:Ajpolino|talk]]) 21:04, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
::Yes, no intention of applying a CSD rule-of-thumb to incompletes, just the ones with no review whatsoever. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 05:55, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
:::Yes, that is what I was referring to {{ping|Ajpolino|Asilvering}} see [[Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Talk:Blackpink/GA1]]. [[User:AirshipJungleman29|&#126;~ AirshipJungleman29]] ([[User talk:AirshipJungleman29|talk]]) 13:11, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
::::Yes, I'm not talking about this kind of review. That's a complete review. It's a poor one, but it's complete, not blank. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 02:45, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::The current [[Talk:Blackpink/GA1]] was not the one that was the subject of a MfD, the MfD was about the previous version which was essentially blank. That said, it was an MfD complicated by a new user engaging in procedurally questionable actions rather that added to the page history, so that particular case is an outlier. (The current [[Talk:Blackpink/GA1]], being as you note poor but not empty, was invalidated and the counter incremented.) [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 15:00, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::I and the MfD were discussing the original review [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&logid=161908704 which was deleted] {{u|Asilvering}}. [[User:AirshipJungleman29|&#126;~ AirshipJungleman29]] ([[User talk:AirshipJungleman29|talk]]) 18:11, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
::::::Ah, I see. I suppose my confusion here is an argument in favour of ''not'' CSDing these pages... but I do strongly agree with you and jpxg in that discussion. -- [[User:Asilvering|asilvering]] ([[User talk:Asilvering|talk]]) 18:18, 30 June 2024 (UTC)


== Withdraw ==
There are two ways to deal with the backlog. One is to decrease the number of articles coming to GA review and the other is increasing the number reviewed.


I would like to withdraw ''[[Afraid of Tomorrows]]'' for GAN consideration. The article will certainly not pass as is, and I'd rather expand it first myself than wait for a review to tell me what I already know. [[User:QuietHere|QuietHere]] ([[User talk:QuietHere|talk]] &#124; [[Special:Contributions/QuietHere|contributions]]) 16:46, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
I personally think decreasing the number coming to review would be easier. If there are major glaring errors such as no structure to the article or no references, one should just fail these and inform the submitter about the peer review process.
:I see you've deleted the GA nomination template from the talk page; that's all you need to do if the review has not started. [[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] ([[User_talk:Mike Christie|talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Mike_Christie|contribs]] - [[User:Mike Christie/Reference library|library]]) 17:12, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
::Alright, good to know. Wasn't sure if it would be removed automatically but I see that it has been. Thanks. [[User:QuietHere|QuietHere]] ([[User talk:QuietHere|talk]] &#124; [[Special:Contributions/QuietHere|contributions]]) 15:52, 29 June 2024 (UTC)


== Is a reviewer allowed to contribute to an article during the review? ==
I think making criteria for an automatic fail would steam line the process.


While looking at a certain GAN nominee that needs a review (I have not decided yet whether to review it or not), I noticed that some of the statements in the article had dubious sourcing. I was able to find some sources that I felt were more reliable + had valuable information. I also noticed some translation errors; as the original language is a language I speak, I would be able to correct these translations. Would I as a reviewer be allowed to recommend these sources to the nominator + offer translation corrections? I understand that reviewers are not allowed to significantly contribute to the article before review. [[User:Jaguarnik|Jaguarnik]] ([[User talk:Jaguarnik|talk]]) 19:22, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
--[[User:Jmh649|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] ([[User talk:Jmh649|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Jmh649|contribs]] · [[Special:EmailUser/Jmh649|email]]) 02:56, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
: There is information on quick failing articles at [[Wikipedia:Reviewing_good_articles#How_to_review_an_article]]. <font face="Verdana">[[User:Gary King|<font color="#02b">Gary&nbsp;<b>King</b></font>]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Gary King|<font color="#02e">talk</font>]])</font> 03:04, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


:@[[User:Jaguarnik|Jaguarnik]], recommending sources is absolutely fine. It is always great when a GA reviewer's suggestions make an article substantially better. A problem only arises when you end up contributing so much to an article that you would have to review your own work; in such cases, best to ask for a second opinion. —[[User:Kusma|Kusma]] ([[User talk:Kusma|talk]]) 19:31, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
::[[User:Jmh649|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]], can you please clarify "automatic fail"? For example do you mean "mandatory immediate fail?" --[[User:Philcha|Philcha]] ([[User talk:Philcha|talk]]) 11:15, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
:(ec)You can certainly make suggestions to the nominator, and to be honest for minor corrections (punctuation and typos for example) I would recommend making the changes yourself, since it takes longer to type out "you have mispelt 'supersede'" than it does to correct it. However, do be sure you're right when you make such changes. I have frequently made more extensive copy edits than that when I am confident that the nominator won't mind -- e.g. when the author clearly has English as their second language, but the article is well-researched and close to GA standard, I'll do some clean up editing. This is more of a judgement call. For the translation corrections you're suggesting, you might ask the nominator if they would mind if you just did the fixes yourself, in case they disagree with your translation. Few nominators will object. One circumstance in which I will not make changes myself is if the point at issue is something I suspect the nominator is unfamiliar with -- I'd rather they made the fix so they understand the issue. None of the above is required, and many reviewers won't change a single comma on the article they're reviewing, and that's fine too -- it's your call. [[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] ([[User_talk:Mike Christie|talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Mike_Christie|contribs]] - [[User:Mike Christie/Reference library|library]]) 19:37, 28 June 2024 (UTC)


== Request Help with Abrupt GA Delist at Florida State University (Main article) ==
:::thanks Philcha what I mean is mandatory immediate fail. [[User:Jmh649|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] ([[User talk:Jmh649|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Jmh649|contribs]] · [[Special:EmailUser/Jmh649|email]]) 17:00, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


We are 3 days within the 7 days to contest an abrupt GA delist, so I am requesting additional editors and assistance today to resolve this delist while I simultaneously try to persuade the delisting editor to reverse their action. Another editor and I were in the middle of an appropriate GAR of the Florida State University main article. The cooperating editor and I were waiting for a subject matter expert to weigh into non-free materials assessment. All other matters were style and minor. A third editor enters and without establishing collaboration or consenus and abrupting delists the article, which has had GA status for years. Kindly help me resolve this matter. [[User:Sirberus|Sirberus]] ([[User talk:Sirberus|talk]]) 17:32, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
::::I find the notion of a ''mandatory'' fail to be entirely unacceptable. --[[User:Malleus Fatuorum|Malleus]] [[User_talk:Malleus_Fatuorum|Fatuorum]] 19:44, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


:[[Florida State University]], [[Wikipedia:Good article reassessment/Florida State University/1]]. [[User:Chipmunkdavis|CMD]] ([[User talk:Chipmunkdavis|talk]]) 01:05, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
''If there are major glaring errors such as no structure to the article or no references, one should just fail these and inform the submitter about the peer review process.'' It does not appear that such articles would qualify for peer review either. [[WP:Peer review]] states that "Wikipedia's Peer review process exposes articles to closer scrutiny from a broader group of editors, and is intended for high-quality articles that have already undergone extensive work, often as a way of preparing a featured article candidate." Also, "'''Articles must be free of major cleanup banners'''". [[User:PSWG1920|PSWG1920]] ([[User talk:PSWG1920|talk]]) 20:00, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
::The GAR was closed after two weeks of no activity on the reassessment page, and a week of no edits to the article, with copyright issues still unresolved. Closing the reassessment as delist in this situation does not seem problematic to me. That said, the reassessment has now been reopened – is there anything else that needs to be done here? [[User:Caeciliusinhorto|Caeciliusinhorto]] ([[User talk:Caeciliusinhorto|talk]]) 18:25, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
:::I agree—I have left comments at the reassessment, and will close it myself if there aren't arguments against. [[User:AirshipJungleman29|&#126;~ AirshipJungleman29]] ([[User talk:AirshipJungleman29|talk]]) 18:29, 30 June 2024 (UTC)

Latest revision as of 18:36, 30 June 2024

MainCriteriaInstructionsNominationsJuly Backlog DriveMentorshipDiscussionReassessmentReport
Good article nominations
Good article nominations

This is the discussion page for good article nominations (GAN) and the good articles process in general. To ask a question or start a discussion about the good article nomination process, click the Add topic link above. Please check and see if your question may already be answered; click the link to the Frequently asked questions below or search the Archives below. If you are here to discuss concerns with a specific review, please consider discussing things with the reviewer first before posting here.

I've changed my mind about hard caps on open nominations[edit]

In the past, I've objected to hard caps on how many nominations someone can have open at once. My reasoning was that it's unfair punishment to our most active content creators and that it only masks the problem. After running the numbers, I believe these arguments are outweighed by other factors.

As of the most recent GAN report, there are 677 nominations under review or awaiting a reviewer. There are 58 nominators with at least three nominations, making up 340 noms in total. We make up almost exactly half of the backlog. If we emptied the "Nominators with multiple nominations" section by reducing everyone down to two noms, the backlog would instantly decrease by 224 nominations, bringing us down to 453. That's one third of the total backlog just made of those extra nominations. If we limit it to a more generous five noms, that's still 95 extra nominations beyond that limit.

To the argument that limiting noms only hides the full backlog, it's about how the noms are weighted. Right now, these "power users" make up half the backlog despite being a minority of the total nominators. This is unfair to the people who wait months longer in line just so we can double, triple, quadruple dip. To the argument that it makes it harder for efficient nominators to nominate, there's a way to make your nom a higher priority: review! Review the noms above yours in that category, or just review in general to lower the backlog. Even if new noms instantly take their place, those will have a more recent nom date. This way, there won't be one person who still has eight other nominations ahead of you after you review one of theirs. Or you could review for people who only have one nom and won't immediately replace it, which is often a new nominator who should get priority anyway. Alternatively, there's Wikipedia:Good article review circles where you can get a reviewer much more quickly.

Once my current nominations are done, I'm going to voluntarily limit myself to no more than five at a time. But these limits only have significant effect if we adhere to them collectively, and I'm switching to a support !vote on such a measure. I'm also going to ping the few people who have more open noms than I do in case they'd be interested in a similar voluntary limitation: Magentic Manifestations, Chiswick Chap, Aszx5000, Gonzo fan2007, Ippantekina, Aintabli, Epicgenius. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 02:22, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Frankly, I think this is not a very good idea. The "power users" are often our most experienced and dedicated contributors - so notably, they tend to have articles that are high quality to begin with and thus easier to review. Reviewing a newer editor's GAN is often far more difficult, because they aren't used to all the inns and outs yet - this takes an entirely separate skillset from reviewing an Epicgenius or Chiswick GAN (namely, that only an experienced reviewer would be as good at it!) I really don't looking at reducing the backlog as a numbers game is beneficial; what's important is getting articles reviewed in timely manner, which I don't think the "power users"' GAs are contributing to. Generalissima (talk) (it/she) 02:46, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Oh dear, this old chestnut again. I'll just say that it's bound to have something like the Poisson distribution, that's just how nature is. Chiswick Chap (talk) 03:39, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, generally an experienced editor's work is easier to review, given that the length and complexity of the article are the same. But by sheer volume, one experienced editor with lots of noms, myself included, is going to squeeze out those newer nominators who need the most attention. And like I said above, reviewing those nominations would be incentivized relative to an experienced nominator, as newer nominators wouldn't immediately have another nom ready to go. It's not a numbers game, it's about weight, and it would be fewer articles at a time being reviewed more quickly than a whole block of them being reviewed slowly.
And to approach from the other angle, I believe we should more readily (quick)fail nominations that aren't ready for GAN. It shouldn't just be "is it far from the criteria" but whether it fails the criteria in a way that puts an undue burden on a reviewer. These are ones that probably shouldn't have been nominated anyway, but they take up a disproportionate amount of reviewer time. When nominations aren't ready, we can direct editors to peer review, GOCE, the Teahouse, help pages, or wherever depending on where its weaknesses are. I'd say a limit on max noms plus holding nominators accountable for making sure nominations are ready is the best combo. We could get nominations in and out much more quickly that way while using GAN as a lightweight quality assurance/verification process instead of as Peer Review 2. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 03:44, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Unfortunately, the trend has been to increase GA standards rather than to accept that GAs aren't expected to be perfect (and that no article is, honestly). I doubt we'll secure any kind of consensus for returning GA to the lightweight process it was written as. ♠PMC(talk) 04:29, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Given how little oversight there is, there's really nothing stopping individual reviewers from deciding how strict or lenient they want to be with the criteria, with failing, or with how they think the process should work. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 04:37, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Generally I'd agree, except that people who are "caught" doing reviews that others find inadequate are regularly dragged here and castigated. And when mistakes are caught in a GA that passed, reviewers catch flak for it.
On the other hand, people don't like being the "bad guy" and failing articles that aren't ready, so we give infinite time and chances for articles that frankly aren't up to snuff. Some noms will get upset that you failed their article, and nobody likes being on the other end of that conflict.
Basically, there's a competing social pressure to be incredibly thorough yet infinitely forgiving. Reviewers can't win, they get discouraged, and difficult articles sit around for ages. We need to change the culture around GA reviewing if we ever want to make a meaningful change in the backlog. ♠PMC(talk) 04:54, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Honestly, I'd be willing to strike out everything I said above and go in the opposite direction. We could just as easily say it's a free for all on nominating but then be more firm with reviewing and quickfailing so weak noms don't bog us down. I'm actually more inclined toward that than a hard cap, except right now there's no consistency in reviews, and of course many nominators feel entitled to a pass. I personally am willing to be the one to say "this isn't ready for nomination" (and I have been trying to look for those nominations lately), but like you said, it needs to be part of a broader cultural change.
I'm going off on a slight tangent now, but I believe there are more sub-standard reviews that slip through the cracks than ones that get "caught". I watch many of them go by feeling like my hands are tied because there's also a stigma against accusing people of doing bad reviews, and it's gotten to the point where I just ignore them unless they start reviewing one of mine, in which case I ask them to return it. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 12:34, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I prefer to review the new nominators, starting with the ones who have done reviews, which usually means a higher failure rate and slower reviews for the passes because they are learning. I do this because I believe in encouraging a good review/nomination ratio, but another benefit is that it is an opportunity to teach those nominators how a good review should look. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 13:12, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I strongly disagree there is a stigma against accusing people of doing bad reviews. People do it on this talk page regularly, and the prospect of being publicly shamed creates a chilling effect for new reviewers.
I do want to point out the contradiction between suggesting that we use "GAN as a lightweight quality assurance/verification process" and saying reviewers should basically review how they want, but then bringing up "sub-standard reviews". We can't have speed and perfection. Either we accept that the process is supposed to be lightweight and allow reviews to be lightweight, or we keep tightening the screws and watch the backlog climb. ♠PMC(talk) 14:12, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'm probably part of the problem -- I can't really do "lightweight" reviews. I personally want peer reviews and suggestions to improve my articles much more than I care about another green plus, and so my reviews tend to be in depth and address more than the GA criteria. And nobody calls me out on this, even for monstrosities like Talk:Chinese characters/GA1. I am not sure whether dedicated coordinators who look at every review for some quality assurance would help or harm, but this might be worth brainstorming about. —Kusma (talk) 09:49, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I suspect coordination would start off at what we are de facto doing now in a haphazard and likely arbitrary manner, which is checking that reviews are 1) not checklists, 2) do source checks. I doubt it would crack down too much on being over-picky, especially as there is a lot of grey zone in the criteria. CMD (talk) 11:02, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I think it's OK to point out issues that go beyond the GA criteria, so long as the nominator is clear that those comments don't need to be addressed to get the article to GA, and so long as there are not too many -- some nominators don't want to bring the article up to FA standards and shouldn't be asked to. But letting them know that a link is dead or MoS issues that are not in the GA criteria is fine, so long as they understand what's a GA comment and what is not. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:31, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Reducing the backlog by artificially throttling nominations does nothing to increase the rate of promotions of GAs. It is hiding the problem (we aren't getting enough GA reviews done and enough GAs promoted) by addressing the symptom of the problem rather than doing anything to improve the unwillingness of editors to do more reviews. We could decrease the backlog to zero by shutting down the whole GA process and cancelling all current nominations; do you think that would be an improvement? —David Eppstein (talk) 04:35, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
To the argument that limiting noms only hides the full backlog, it's about how the noms are weighted. Right now, these "power users" make up half the backlog despite being a minority of the total nominators. This is unfair to the people who wait months longer in line just so we can double, triple, quadruple dip. – Right there in the original post you're replying to. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 04:38, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
There is no line. Nobody requires review be done chronologically. Nobody will yell at your reviewer and you if your nomination attracts enough interest to get reviewed quickly. And we tried prioritizing frequent reviewers and new participants instead of listing nominations chronologically; it didn't help. —David Eppstein (talk) 04:55, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'm inclined to agree with David Eppstein here. When we tried to push first-time nominators and frequent reviewers to the front of the line, it just increased the number of GANs that had been sitting in the queue for six months or longer.
I think the issue here is that the review process is still fairly daunting. No one wants to be yelled at for looking at an article, determining that there are no (or very few) problems, and then quick-passing the article. Conversely, no one wants to be yelled at for looking at an article, seeing that it's riddled with problems, and then quick-failing the article. Quick-passing and quick-failing articles are both seen as problematic, even though there's nothing wrong with the latter.
Therefore, many reviewers find themselves having to conduct intensive reviews, which means that fairly long articles are often skipped over by all except the most experienced reviewers. Many of these long articles come from power editors, which may be why it seems like the power editors are dominating the GAN queue. – Epicgenius (talk) 14:26, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not going to suggest a return to the old sort order (though I did prefer it), but I think it's wrong to say that "all it did was increase the age of the oldest GANs". That's exactly what you would expect from reducing the importance of age in the GAN sort order. It doesn't mean the old sort order achieved anything else, but neither is it evidence that it didn't make a difference. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 14:30, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I meant to say that the change in sort order increased wait times for nominators near the bottom of the list. Currently, the newest nominations are near the bottom of each section, and the oldest nominations are near the top. Back when we were using the other sort order, we were grouping the nominations by username, so users near the bottom of the list saw their wait times increase. Granted, the other sort order did help decrease wait times for first-time nominators, but I think that came at the expense of everyone else, which is what I was getting at. – Epicgenius (talk) 14:39, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Wasn't that the point? If the sort order was causing those with better review ratios to have their wait times decreased (new submitters having a perfect ratio), then the system was achieving what it was meant to do. CMD (talk) 17:39, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, in that respect, it was working as intended (i.e. people with better review-to-nomination ratios didn't have to wait as long).
I was trying to make the point that reviewers' limited time was diverted to people who have a lot of reviews and relatively few or no GAs. If someone was a prolific reviewer but an even more prolific nominator, they would be disadvantaged; e.g. if they had 100 reviews and 200 nominations, they were pushed further down the review queue than someone with 100 reviews and 10 nominations. Power users are more likely to have dozens or hundreds of GAs, so under the old sort order, they would be inherently disadvantaged because of the raw numbers of GAs that they had (unless they conducted even more reviews to make up for this).
Perhaps it may be a good idea to consider formatting the GAN lists as sortable tables. That way, reviewers could decide on whether to review nominations by people with better review-to-nomination ratios. – Epicgenius (talk) 18:23, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Epicgenius We could make User:ChristieBot/SortableGANoms more prominent somehow. Right now it's just a link above the nominations. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 18:37, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the link. That is exactly what I was thinking, but I didn't even realize it already existed. – Epicgenius (talk) 18:59, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I was also unaware of this page until now, and second Epicgenius' comment immediately above. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 19:08, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thebiguglyalien, Epicgenius, Trainsandotherthings: this would be easy to do, and I agree it might be beneficial. That part of the layout is hardcoded in ChristieBot at the moment. If someone mocks up a GAN page header they think would be preferable, I can change the bot to hardcode that text, or possibly to transclude it. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:38, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Quickfails are not problematic in the slightest, as long as the reasoning is there. The difficulty is merely in the length of the average review. When people say "I'm not good at reviewing", what they actually mean is "I find reviewing tediously boring and don't want to do it", which is perfectly understandable.
To prevent WP:DCGAR happening again, we have decided that quality reviews must be directly enforced through the GA criteria. Now, each review must go over the prose, images, sourcing, and do a source spotcheck. At FAC, this is handled by multiple people, and the source spotcheck is not needed after the first successful nomination. We have got ourselves into a situation where the "lightweight review process" is multiple times more onerous than the heavyweight process.
Is there a better way? After DCGAR, I remember that SandyGeorgia was encouraging the institution of GAN coordinators who would check reviews, as the FAC coordinators do. I think that option, in combination with lowering GACR standards, could help encourage reviewing—but only, of course, if editors with high nomination/review ratios want to pick up their own slack. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 15:05, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I agree, quickfails should not be problematic if done correctly. However, I noticed that nominators sometimes challenge GAN quickfails even if the reviewer has done everything correctly, e.g. this thread from a few days ago. I was trying to make the point that some reviewers may be afraid to quickfail articles because they fear being confronted by the nominator; sorry if that isn't clear. – Epicgenius (talk) 15:32, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed, and not even just quick fails, but any fail that takes less than a day or two. There are a couple of noms I've had on my mind for awhile that have been submitted with eg. unsourced sections, but the idea of pulling them out and failing them feels like more effort than it is worth. CMD (talk) 17:41, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Some thoughts generally agree with the above discussion that throttling noms doesn't solve the problem, that being stricter on reviews (i.e. quick failing) may push people to improve the quality more before nomming and that having a backlog in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing. My own reflections on the challenges of WP:GAN come down to a lack of incentive for reviewing articles. When I started nomination articles at WP:GAN, I told myself that I would keep a 2-to-1 ratio of reviews versus my own GAs. I did that mostly out of fear of being ostracized by the community for not reciprocating. WP:DYK and WP:FLC provide good examples of the extremes (where WP:GAN is in the middle). DYK requires QPQ, increasing the QPQ requirements for frequent DYK users during backlogs. WP:FLC on the other hand, limits you to one active nomination at a time (allowing for a second nom after your first has substantial support). I would argue that neither process is running very well, with backlogs or lack of reviews still being a challenge.
I think the most important thing to remember is that the purpose of recognition is to incentivize and encourage content creation. So long as WP:GA encourages me and others to create fairly well-written articles, it's doing its job. To conclude on that point, I wouldn't support any changes that would limit the incentive for users (especially users who create a lot of good content) to keep writing. That little green icon will get up there at some point, it really doesn't matter when though. « Gonzo fan2007 (talk) @ 15:07, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
After reading the replies, I can say that I'm back in the "I don't know" camp, but at least we got a discussion going! I'm sympathetic to PMC's point above, and others that have expressed similar thoughts, that it's more of a cultural issue than anything that can be directly solved by fiddling with how we organize nominations. But it just happens that most of the people close to GA's "culture" monitor and participate in this talk page, so this is where any concentrated change would happen. Personally I've been trying to be more open to failing nominations that weren't ready to be nominated. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 18:36, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Replying to myself so I can think aloud and express general thoughts. My takeaway here is that consensus is against limiting our own nominations as a means to reduce the backlog, and instead we should be more willing to fail nominations if they're not ready for a GAN review. Maybe we should be a little more firm with nominators who make a scene about reviewers who fail a nom, in the same way that we're being more firm with nominators who make a scene about inadequate reviews. I still don't love that the most active content writers have such a disproportionate number of nominations, but good points have been raised about other factors at play there. At the end of the day, like SusunW said, there's really no way to incentivize reviewing for someone whose focus on Wikipedia isn't reviewing and trying to do this can be counterproductive. And like I've said before, GAN reviewing is harder than other reviews because all of the pressure is on the one reviewer, even if they're better at reviewing some aspects than others (looking at you, source reviews). Thebiguglyalien (talk) 01:40, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My answer to this problem has been the same for a while now: I don't review nominations of those who refuse to meaningfully contribute to reviewing (and have a decent number of GAs, I'm not punishing people doing their first ever nomination). But when I see someone with 50 GAs and 0 reviews, I cannot in good conscience ever take up one of their nominations. I work hard to keep my review/GA ratio close to 1, so I'm not expecting anyone to do something I wouldn't do myself. We need a cultural shift towards this mindset, in my opinion (and some will disagree with me, which is their right). We also have the age-old problem of how to incentivize reviewers, which many brighter than I have tried to solve.
I think large numbers of open nominations are in part a symptom of these known issues, excluding the (thankfully rare) bad actor nominating crappy articles en masse (and I'm sure some of you know exactly who I am referring to). Bottom line - when I see people argue so strongly against any reform yet refuse to do any reviews themselves, I really have no sympathy for them. If you don't want to do reviews, fine, but don't expect others to prioritize your nominations. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 18:52, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
been watching this conversation quietly - completely agree with the above that this is a cultural problem that really needs a broader informal shift rather than acute reforms addressing only the symptoms. ... sawyer * he/they * talk 01:08, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Comment – Every time these discussions come up I am less inclined to participate in the GA process, if I am being honest. I find the pressure to review more articles disheartening. Encouraging reviews is fine, reforming the processes is good too, but discouraging writing and limiting collaboration for improving articles is counter-productive. The entire point of GA, IMO, is improving article quality, but if all we are to do is focus on pushing reviews through, the processes begins to focus more on quantity, which to my mind is how we end up with so many poorly written articles to begin with. We are a very diverse community of volunteers. Not everyone's skill-sets are the same and assuming that we can all do the same tasks equally well fails to recognize our diversity. The constant chastisement of people who don't review more doesn't encourage people to participate, but in fact does the opposite, at least for me. (For the record, I have nominated only 1 GA all year (at the request of the reviewer). Although I have written articles that would benefit from collaboration, I have not nominated them, but forced myself instead to review other's work. I spent over a month helping an editor at peer review prepare their first FA nomination, reviewed 5 FA/GA nominations. Not big numbers to some people's standards, but that required a huge amount of effort for me, as my reviews are meticulous, and I am incapable of making them less so. I see no value in holding anyone to my standards, but rather think that all contributions which lead to a better encyclopedia are valuable.) SusunW (talk) 20:59, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My comment was not directed at you, I specifically pointed the finger at people who refuse to review at all. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 21:36, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Trainsandotherthings, I didn't mean to imply that it was. If I did, I apologize. Communication is sometimes quite challenging SusunW (talk) 21:41, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Generally I think we should try to be more positive about all contributors here. Perhaps we should celebrate reviewers more (COI alert: I tend to review more than I write) instead of looking down at non-reviewers (although it is a very human thing to do). I like reviewing SusunW's biographies (and I really enjoy working with her) so I am sad there have been so few of them here recently.
I am very interested in seeing whether the review circles idea can work as a (completely voluntary) way where people who are OK with doing some reviewing get their own nomination reviewed faster. If this becomes popular, people will have a choice: do a review to get your own nom reviewed very soon/put your nom on the pile with no questions asked about reviewing (and that means you may have to wait until the next backlog drive). —Kusma (talk) 09:32, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you Kusma I enjoy working with you too a lot. I am going to rip a bandaid off here and be vulnerable for a minute, but maybe it will help some people understand that reviewing is not simple for everyone. When I review I file, I tell myself, this time I am just going to read it, make comments, do a spot check and move on. But that never happens, ever. I read through the article. I start a 2nd read through and when I get to the first citation, I check it. I tell myself at the second citation to just accept it, but my brain says, what if it doesn't verify the information or has a copyvio? You have to sign-off that it's okay, so I check it. And this continues through every single citation. If I find an inconsistency, instead of just asking the question do you have a source that supports this?, I must know if there is a source. Or, I encounter something that the context is unclear. If a source is off-line do I AGF? Totally depends on whether other checks have had no problems. So I research (sometimes for hours) to find a reference that supports the data, provides context, or is accessible. Only if I cannot find a source do I just ask the question.
By this time, an entire day has passed and I am probably only 1/3 to 1/2 way through the article, so I post what I have from my notes to WP. I rewrite each query to make sure that what I am asking is clear and a suggestion, not a demand. I preview it and rewrite it again before I finally save it and move on. Day 2 and Day 3 are more of the same until I finally reach the end of the article, drained and exhausted. I hope that the nominator will take at least a day to respond to give me time to regroup. I review the responses as meticulously as I did the queries and finally make a decision on the outcome. Instead of feeling successful, my feeling is relief that it's over. And then I see a post on this page, admonishing people about not doing enough reviews and I force myself to do it again. The struggle is real, and it is hard. Howie Mandel once said I know my approach is not logical, but in spite of that I am compelled to do the illogical. That's me. We cannot assume we know why people don't do reviews, but we can change our approach to one which encourages people to do what they can. (And yes, I rewrote this 5 times.) SusunW (talk) 16:04, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for taking the time to write this out Susun. The work you have done over the years to improve articles on here has been amazing and very inspiring, it has always been a pleasure to read what you have written and to work with you not only on reviews but other projects too. It's heartbreaking to hear you have been so discouraged by these periodic discussions on reviews, and I apologise profusely if I have contributed to that discouragement. Discouraging others from doing such good work should never be what we aim to accomplish here, and it is not a good sign if we are going in that direction. I agree completely that we need to reevaluate how to encourage more reviews without discouraging nominations, and to be more holistically positive towards each other. --Grnrchst (talk) 19:40, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
So—to be direct—you find GA reviewing difficult because you don't actually do GA reviews. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 20:15, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Grnrchst we're all good. I honestly just wanted to offer a different perspective to remind everyone that we don't all have the same access and abilities. The internet has been a great bridge but its anonymous nature can also make us forget that there is a real human on the other side. I don't often speak of my struggles, but perhaps it can help us be more "holistically positive towards each other". AirshipJungleman29 I am uncertain what you are saying, I do and have done GA reviews. SusunW (talk) 20:26, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My two centimes: Since my foray into good article nominations, I have tried to maintain at least 2 reviews for each nomination. Not only do I enjoy reviewing articles, because it gives me a way to read in-depth on subjects that I normally wouldn't have spent more time on, but I also try to be a net contributor to cutting down the backlog. My frustrations with the ever-growing backlog has, at least in part, come from a selfishness on my part.
Off the top of my head, there are at least a couple dozen or so articles that I have written to (I think) a GA standard, but which I haven't nominated due to the length of time it takes for nominations to get reviewed. Often I'll end up finishing an article, having polished off its prose and gone through every source I have in a number of languages, but then I just don't end up nominating it because I already had a number of months-old pending nominations that I was anxious to get reviewed. I think the only time I have exceeded five open nominations is during the ongoing WiG edit-a-thon.
I seriously regret that I have let my frustration at this process bubble over into support for certain restrictions, so I can't rightly support TBUA's proposal, despite understanding where he's coming from. The reason I want the backlog to be reduced is so that we can get more articles nominated, not restrict incoming nominations and punish some of our best writers. I would like applaud GMH Melbourne's recent review circles initiative, which I think could be an excellent way forward with encouraging more reviews. Let's consider making more positive projects like this, rather than imposing negative restrictions. --Grnrchst (talk) 20:12, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I have only seen the ping for me by the op of this thread. I am new to GA, so if I have made too many nominations, I can certainly take some off, and don't want to be disruptive. Given my nominations are in the niche area of climbing, I felt that I needed to give a range of noms to attract/tempt some interest from reviewers. Two of them have been given GA status (and a third is almost there), but I never considered that I would be able to do the reviewing, is that something that I am meant to be considering at this stage? thanks. Aszx5000 (talk) 21:50, 20 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Aszx5000, reviewing is entirely up to you, and I was just trying to open another discussion on how to get articles reviewed more quickly. Based on the discussion above, it seems that we're largely okay with lots of nominations at once (and personally I'm glad to see more niches showing up). If you're interested in reviewing other people's nominations but not sure where to start, you can make a post at the mentorship page so someone can help you with your first review. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 22:07, 20 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks @Thebiguglyalien. I though I would have to have more GAs under my belt before doing reviews. Let me get through a few more as I am still learning new things, but would love to give it a try later, and will follow your steps. thanks. Aszx5000 (talk) 10:32, 25 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

July backlog drive[edit]

Yes, it's happening! I'd apologize for the short notice, but a July backlog drive has been on the backlog page since April, so instead I'll apologize for disappearing for most of May-June and not getting to this earlier.

The aim this time around is to encourage participation by people who haven't done many GA reviews before. Experienced reviewers are encouraged to assist newbie reviewers with their reviews - but if you want to ignore the theme and just bang out a bunch of GA reviews as usual, go right ahead. This format is obviously somewhat experimental, so if anyone has suggestions, please do suggest away. And if anyone else would like to volunteer as co-ordinator, so far it's just me by my lonesome and I'd love to have you. -- asilvering (talk) 05:42, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Mike Christie, is it possible to get a list of all editors who have reviewed 1-4 GANs? A list of editors who have GAs but have never reviewed would also be really helpful. I have no idea how to generate either of these. -- asilvering (talk) 01:25, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
For the first question, does User:GA bot/Stats give you what you need? For the second, yes; do you want it restricted to editors who have a GA in the last N years, for some value of N? Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 01:29, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, for the first one, that's fine. Though if there's some way to restrict the list to only active accounts, that would be even more useful. For the second, yes, a restriction like that would be useful, though I'm not sure exactly where I'd draw the line. The last two years maybe? Or if there's a way to only get active accounts, that would be useful too. Define "active" however seems workable. My aim is to come up with a list of people who might be interested in participating in the backlog drive as a newbie reviewer. -- asilvering (talk) 01:38, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
OK -- it'll be a few days, as I'm traveling, but I should be able to get you the data by some time this weekend. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 02:06, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Asilvering: I've never been a co-ordinator of a GAN backlog before, but I have participated in previous ones, so I'm interested. What and where could I help? Vacant0 (talk) 15:12, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Glad to have you! I'll add your name to the backlog drive page. While I'm at it, pinging @Ganesha811 and @Vaticidalprophet, who were also co-ords of the last one - are you folks interested?
The main part of the job is checking off reviews as editors post them as finished on the drive page - checking to make sure the reviews aren't seriously inadequate, and double-checking what additional points for length might be given, or if you think the review is so good you ought to give it a discretionary bonus point. Since this drive is specifically encouraging collaboration between newbie reviewers and more experienced reviewers, this will be a little (but only a little, I hope) more complicated than usual, since you'll also have to award a point to the assistant reviewer. I anticipate also that there will be more questions than usual and that we may need to assist with matching newbie reviewers with experienced ones.
Also, if you'd like to revise the barnstar awards list, that would be great! I just copied the one from the March backlog drive. But I think it would be nice to tailor it a bit - for example, we could have a barnstar for the editor who assisted with the highest number of reviews, some kind of special "thanks for joining" barnstar for newbies (I think there's a "promising newbie" barnstar somewhere?), or so on. I haven't put any further thought into it than that, so if you want to go ahead and rework the list, it's much appreciated, and all yours! -- asilvering (talk) 18:33, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Considering that assistant reviewers will get one point per review, I could create a couple of barnstars (e.g. a 5 point one, a 10/12 point one, and the one that reviewed the highest amount of GANs). Or we could only stick with one barnstar for assistant reviewers.
The only barnstar that I could have found similar to "promising newbie" is {{The New Editor's Barnstar}}.
Also, do we want to include qualifying old articles, like for previous GAN backlog drives? Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 19:08, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hm too bad re: promising newbie. Since I imagine most GAN newbies will not actually be new editors. Whatever you find that you like, go for it.
This drive deliberately doesn't have points for reviewing really old articles, to keep the focus on bringing new people into GA reviewing. Earlier, when we discussed having multiple backlog drives as part of the broader discussions about what to do with the backlog, there were concerns about reviewer burn-out or reviewers holding off on doing reviews when there aren't backlog drives (since another one will be around the corner). So the idea is that the January drive is the "main" drive, the mid-year one is focused on recruitment, and the fall one addresses a specific portion of the backlog, to be determined closer to the date, depending on what looks like it needs the most help. -- asilvering (talk) 19:46, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Before uploading anything, I'll send it first on Discord in case of possible corrections . I'll be busy tomorrow so expect barnstars to come during the weekend. Cheers, Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 13:51, 27 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'm happy to assist as a co-ordinator, but I do have some work travel in July which means I'd have to take on more of a background role - checking a few reviews where I can, not making any big decisions. If that's ok, feel free to add my name! —Ganesha811 (talk) 21:20, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Sounds good to me! Thanks. -- asilvering (talk) 02:50, 27 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

BlueMoonset, are you available to update the progress tracker for this drive? If you are, that would be great! If not, no worries of course. —Ganesha811 (talk) 17:44, 27 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ganesha811, thanks for asking. I'm going to be away the first week; though I might be able to log on at night, it won't be as timely as usual. Another difficulty is that I would be required to make the second column the number of old nominations (90 days or more) rather than the number of unreviewed nominations (which we have always done before), per the general RfC that was held earlier in the year, so rather than just taking the number from the Reports page and adjusting back the hour), I'd have to do a more manual calculation. I'm not sure I'll have the time to deal with the extra work involved. BlueMoonset (talk) 00:10, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hm, good point. And since we aren't targetting old noms specifically this time around, maybe we should rethink the progress list, at least for this drive. A running total of reviews opened/ended might be the way to go this time. I'm happy to do that one, since I tend to be around when a new day starts on UTC time. -- asilvering (talk) 00:23, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
asilvering, I'm not sure how that would work with the current {{GAN changes}} template in terms of display. You may need to create your own table. But I would keep the total number of nominations as the first column, since that tracks how many are outstanding at the beginning of the drive, and all the way through to the end. Good luck! I'll sit this one out, then, unless you change your mind on how you want it to work. BlueMoonset (talk) 00:33, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Is this a list or an article[edit]

I nominated Grade (climbing) into the GA queue, which I overhauled and expanded, but given what happened with my GA nomination of Rock-climbing equipment, I wonder if it is really a list, and therefore maybe an FLC? thanks. Aszx5000 (talk) 13:45, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like an article (with some incorporated list-like material) to me, without any obvious flaws of a type that would lead me to quickfail it. —David Eppstein (talk) 17:28, 25 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for that - I will leave it in the GA queue. Feedback is much appreciated! Aszx5000 (talk) 18:53, 25 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Category organisation[edit]

Grouping these here, if no further comments or consensus is reached I plan to implement these at the end of the month, before the backlog drive starts. CMD (talk) 01:02, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Video games[edit]

Wikipedia:Good articles/Video games is one of two long lv2 categories with no lv3 split (the other is Lang & Lit), and one that feels it has a very obvious split: between the Video Games (and series) themselves, and everything else (provisionally I propose "Context and content"). Regarding the lower splits, the video games are currently divided into five-year blocks, some of which are getting very large. There's no clean split there, but if there is a desire to maintain the chronological split it could transition into two-year chunks for at least the 21st century, imitating Music. The other large sections is "Video game characters", currently at 200. This seems a simple candidate from pulling out series, with the two obvious candidates being Pokémon (26) and Final Fantasy (at least 34, I think, it's a complicated series). 13:45, 24 June 2024 (UTC) CMD (talk) 13:45, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe break out some entire series into their own subcat? Eg you could put all Final Fantasy, Mario, Pokemon, etc grouped together (both games and game-adjacent articles). That seems more helpful to me than these huge by-half-decade chunks. -- asilvering (talk) 01:23, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Well that would invalidate my lv3 split, but I'm not in opposition. I have pulled out just the characters for now, which can be a start for pulling relevant articles out from the other subsections too. Pokémon is easy enough, the games all include the word Pokémon, Final Fantasy has a list at Wikipedia:WikiProject Square Enix. CMD (talk) 14:31, 29 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I would go the other way on this - games should be listed strictly chronologically. Having some sorted by series, and some sorted by chronology, seems strange and "surprising" (in the bad sense) to me. SnowFire (talk) 17:37, 29 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Do you have a better idea for how to separate them? The issue at hand here is that when the categories get super long, they should be subdivided. But the chronology sections are already divided in 5-year blocks. We could make the categories shorter by shortening that to 2-year blocks, I suppose, but I don't think that's likely to be helpful to anyone. -- asilvering (talk) 02:53, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
An alternate lvl3 split could be "by date" and "by series", in that case. I do agree that your originally proposed lvl3 split is better than no lvl3 split at all. -- asilvering (talk) 02:54, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Rail transport - time for some splitting?[edit]

In Wikipedia:Good articles/Engineering and technology#Transport, we have 208 articles classified under "rail transport" and a whopping 243 articles under "Rail bridges, tunnels, and stations: United States". I think we should discuss breaking these into subcategories. Some ideas I have for breaking down the general rail transport category are "rail lines", "rail accidents and incidents", "rail companies", and "rapid transit/tram systems". Rail bridges, tunnels, and stations: United States could be divided into rapid transit stations and heavy rail stations, while we could add a "bridges, tunnels, and facilities" section to hold pretty much everything else, including freight facilities (I think the only one is Northup Avenue Yard, my nomination). Trainsandotherthings (talk) 22:48, 25 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Note the general rail transport category is basically an "others" group for all rail-related pages that don't fall within a subcategory. The proposed subcats make sense in the abstract, at a glance I can see a lot of incidents. Unsure if I'd cleanly split rail lines and rail systems, something encompassing systems and lines like it could pick up related articles like Northern line extension to Battersea too? Can't at a glance figure out how many company article there are. Splitting stations from bridges, tunnels, and facilities also sounds sensible, to the point it raises the question of whether to split them entirely rather than just in the United States, but that doesn't mean the smaller action won't work. CMD (talk) 01:13, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My thinking was I'd throw out some ideas and we as a community evaluate which make sense. A separate rail accidents and incidents section seems like a no-brainer to me, as does one for bridges, tunnels, and facilities. A lot of the U.S. articles on railroads cover both a company and the line(s) it operated in a single article, making them hard to split between lines vs. companies. We can always make more changes in the future. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 14:11, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I've split the facilities etc. from the United States, a heavy/rapid station split will require more time and/or a subject matter expert. I looked at accidents and incidents quickly and only found 9 so left those alone for now. If splitting lines/companies/systems becomes a bit complex, perhaps splitting off just the United States here as well would be helpful. CMD (talk) 10:30, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Biology and medicine reviews[edit]

I was looking over the GAN's in the Biology and medicine category and noticed that 11 of these were started by Wolverine XI, all within the span of five days (June 10th through 15th). I thought to bring this up here because I'm concerned that the quality of these reviews will suffer from the quantity that this user has taken on, which I think is more than evident in the fact that 8 of them haven't even been started yet. Some of these reviews have received no comments for two whole weeks since their inception.

While I commend their ambition, I don't think this practise is conducive to the standard of quality that the Good Article system should uphold. Perhaps something can be done about it? The Morrison Man (talk) 13:54, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm busy with another project (at the moment). I should have all these articles reviewed by Saturday. After that, I'm retiring from reviewing GANs. Reviews can take some time, so people should be patient. Wolverine XI (talk to me) 14:10, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
If you haven't really gotten started on some of those, you may want to CSD them so that another reviewer can pick them up. You don't need to rush yourself to get through them all this week. You can call this a learning experience and toss some back into the queue. -- asilvering (talk) 01:43, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It is Saturday (at least where I am): I can see that Wolverine XI has managed to make comments on two of the open reviews, but the remainder appear to be blank. Wolverine XI, I would echo the concerns here that you may have taken on too much here: the reviews you have done (see e.g. Talk:Enchylium polycarpon/GA2) are really a short list of isolated prose and content points rather than full reviews. In particular, we need some evidence of source checking, image review, copyvio checks and so on. In other places, the comments are so brief as to be of little help: writing "please write a proper measurement" against that are 5–7 x 1-1.5 μm doesn't really tell the nominator what is wrong or how to fix it. Similarly, I don't think the review on Talk:Charles De Geer/GA1 really gave the nominator a fair go: the article looks very close to GA standard to me and I would have thought it an excellent candidate to get up to that status in the course of the review.
As the other commenters here have said, reviewing is a learning process and we always have to go through practice to get good at it, but it would be polite to delete those review pages so that others can take them on, or return to them once you have finished your active reviews more fully, if they are still un-taken. UndercoverClassicist T·C 16:13, 29 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'll add that I brought this up on their talk page, and I was not reassured by their response. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 17:14, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Having read it, neither am I honestly. The Morrison Man (talk) 18:38, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Since Wolverine XI seems not to understand the issue and is still editing without addressing the concerns here, I suggest the blank reviews be deleted. We may also wish to go over their completed reviews, as the ones they've worked on indicate that they don't totally understand how the review process works. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 02:26, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
You can delete them; I have other projects—both on wiki and in RL—to complete. Wolverine XI (talk to me) 08:42, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I have tagged the empty ones for deletion. Regarding Talk:Enchylium limosum/GA1, Talk:Katablepharid/GA1, and Talk:Enchylium polycarpon/GA2, Wolverine XI left comments indicating some improvements needed on 15 June which have not been responded to, so my preference is to close those as failed. CMD (talk) 09:50, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
That seems like a good solution. UndercoverClassicist T·C 10:30, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
That would seem like the best course of action, yes. The Morrison Man (talk) 14:32, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion at ANI[edit]

Information icon There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#GA-banned user violating topic ban which you may be interested in. Thank you. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 14:47, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Rule of thumb for blank review CSDing[edit]

There are some long-outstanding review pages that don't have any real activity on them at all. Normally, another editor will come in and check up on them, and eventually they get CSD'd when there's no response from the reviewer. Here is one where Thebiguglyalien just came through to do just that. But in the interests of not dragging out this procedure unnecessarily, could we perhaps institute a general guideline for when we should simply nominate these for CSD without further discussion? How about one month? To be clear, I'm talking only about reviews that have not been started at all, beyond the usual "I'll take this review" opening comment. -- asilvering (talk) 00:47, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I took a page from BlueMoonset's book (as it's mostly just them doing it) and nudged some of the inactive reviews, but I didn't give more specific instructions specifically because we don't have an agreed upon procedure like this. Anything like this should also apply where the reviewer has set up a template or headings but didn't fill them in with a review. For the ones where there was activity, we might also consider talking about second opinions, because right now the second opinion system is kind of useless. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 01:01, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, I didn't mean to imply you'd done anything out of the ordinary, I just grabbed that one as a good example of what I mean by a blank review. I'm just suggesting that we make a guideline to cut down on this extra "are you still here" "[silence]" "nominator, what do you want to do?" in the process. -- asilvering (talk) 01:13, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I think having a general procedure to point to is a great idea. I'd suggest a week. If you open a review but make no comment in a week, the review can be closed and the nomination returned to the queue. No penalty or particular shame, it's just a politeness to the nominator, so that the nomination has the chance to be picked up by a reviewer who has the time to dedicate to the review at the moment. Ajpolino (talk) 01:15, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My initial thought was that a week was much too short, but on reflection, automatically clearing out reviews that are still blank a week after they were opened would probably cut down on the number of reviews that get stretched out over several months. == asilvering (talk) 01:19, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'm hesitant to recommend deleting without nudging, and also feel a week after opening is a bit short. Reviews can take time, and that time might only be possible on weekends or similar. That said, a week after nudging seems pretty harmless. If there is a consensus that nudging is not required, I would recommend multiple weeks, maybe 3-4, for CSD. There should be no prejudice of course to the same reviewer restarting the review page if they come back to it. CMD (talk) 01:18, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
What do you think about "nudge at one week, CSD after a week of no response"? -- asilvering (talk) 01:20, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I suppose I could be convinced so long as the response can just be a brief "I am working on this", although it still feels a short timeframe for a nudge. As a general thought, the same principles being discussed here should not only apply to empty reviews but to partial ones, just with a different resulting process (CSD for empty, archiving and resetting for partial except in the few circumstances 2O may be useful). CMD (talk) 01:23, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hm, I deliberately restricted this thought to blank reviews only, since I think partial reviews should be handled on a more case-by-case basis. There are lots of reasons why a review might have stalled out. Reviews that are simply blank, however, are all basically the same "case". -- asilvering (talk) 01:27, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Fair enough, I was thinking of past nudging of months-old reviews, but appreciate the value of maintaining a narrow proposal here. CMD (talk) 01:30, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I like the idea of applying this to stalled reviews of any stripe (of course, as CMD said, we would archive rather than delete stalled partial reviews). The reviewer could always start the review again at any time. No one is being penalized. Asilvering's suggestion of one week til nudge, another week til close, sounds good to me. If the reviewer responds in any way that would reset the clock. The idea is just to return nominations to the queue if the reviewer truly doesn't have time to complete the review. Ajpolino (talk) 12:59, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Is there anything the bot could do that would help? E.g. a "stalled review" section at the end of the GAN page, listing open reviews with no edits for more than N days? Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 13:09, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, that would be excellent. In a perfect world, I assume we would want a blank review that gets removed (possibly even an incomplete "stalled review"?) to also be removed from the bot's count of an editor's GA reviews. Not a huge deal either way, of course. Ajpolino (talk) 21:07, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
If a review is deleted and another review is later done with the same page number, the prior review is no longer included in an editor's GA review count, though if the later review never happens the earlier one won't get removed from the stats. If the review is just marked as failed and the page number is incremented, the reviewer does get credit. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 21:17, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, no edits for more than n days would be helpful. If it could check "no edits to article OR to GA review page" that would probably be the most helpful way to list them. N = 7? No one's suggested a time shorter than 7 days for any of the hypotheticals we've been discussing. -- asilvering (talk) 06:03, 29 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'll have a look at this some time this weekend if I get time. I think what you're asking for should be possible. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 10:25, 29 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thinking about this some more, I'd like to get agreement on exactly what we'd want to see in a section called "Stalled reviews". Suppose the reviewer opens the review by posting a full review with their first edit -- that's not a stalled review, so is there a way to avoid including those? Some reviewers post an empty reviewing template as their first review; if they never edit it again that counts as stalled, but how could the bot tell those apart? Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 17:27, 29 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Aren't they both "stalled" if there's no motion after n days? -- asilvering (talk) 02:49, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, but I think an automatic list is only going to be helpful if the entries mean that someone needs to look at the review. If the review were to be deleted, it would disappear from the list, but if the list includes reviews that aren't blank and aren't going to be deleted then it won't be possible to tell if someone has already taken action. I could remove anything from the list if someone else posts to that page -- i.e. someone not the nominator or reviewer. Would that work? CMD, any thoughts? Since you were dubious below about the process to deal with non-blank stalled reviews. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 15:31, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My first idea for the bot would be to place a talkpage reminders for reviews which were opened but have had no edits since. This would miss say a review where someone writes "Will get to this soon" and doesn't, but on the other hand it would have no false positives. I would not put a section on the GAN page itself, that feels a very public sort of reprimand. We already have Wikipedia:Good article nominations/Report, which gives an indicator of what is stalled even if it doesn't state the time of last edit. CMD (talk) 16:02, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, I don't think we should have automated talk page reminders for this! I thought we were talking about a line on the Report page you mention here. Reading back up, I see I misunderstood Mike Christie's initial comment, where he said "at the end of the GAN page". I don't think that's a good idea either - I was thinking about the Report page. -- asilvering (talk) 17:57, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Actually I did mean on the main GAN page, in a section at the end, but if it would be perceived as a reprimand I agree that might be a bad idea. The way the FAC nominations viewer does it is to have "Inactive for N days/weeks" after each entry. Something like that might be possible; it doesn't single anyone out. That would not be easy to convert into "I need to go look at this particular review", though. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 18:29, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I do think it could be perceived as a reprimand. The Report page, less so, I think, since barely anyone uses it. I've gone through the longest-running open reviews before both this backlog drive and the last one, and found in most of the cases that no other uninvolved editor had popped in to check on the reviews. For that reason, I don't think it would lead to significantly more people being hassled if there was a "no edits for n days" listing on the report page. I do think that having that list on the report page would allow stalled reviews to be noticed much earlier than they are now, which seems to be a timeframe of at least a couple of months. -- asilvering (talk) 18:36, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It's worth noting that the speedy deletion of incomplete reviews is rather controversial whenever it gets brought up at MfD. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 15:42, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Sure. No need to CSD incomplete "stalled" reviews. They can just be closed and the nom returned to the queue. The same could be said of blank reviews of course. I don't have a strong preference on CSD vs. close-and-ignore for truly blank review pages. Ajpolino (talk) 21:04, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, no intention of applying a CSD rule-of-thumb to incompletes, just the ones with no review whatsoever. -- asilvering (talk) 05:55, 29 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, that is what I was referring to @Ajpolino and Asilvering: see Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Talk:Blackpink/GA1. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 13:11, 29 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, I'm not talking about this kind of review. That's a complete review. It's a poor one, but it's complete, not blank. -- asilvering (talk) 02:45, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The current Talk:Blackpink/GA1 was not the one that was the subject of a MfD, the MfD was about the previous version which was essentially blank. That said, it was an MfD complicated by a new user engaging in procedurally questionable actions rather that added to the page history, so that particular case is an outlier. (The current Talk:Blackpink/GA1, being as you note poor but not empty, was invalidated and the counter incremented.) CMD (talk) 15:00, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I and the MfD were discussing the original review which was deleted Asilvering. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 18:11, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, I see. I suppose my confusion here is an argument in favour of not CSDing these pages... but I do strongly agree with you and jpxg in that discussion. -- asilvering (talk) 18:18, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Withdraw[edit]

I would like to withdraw Afraid of Tomorrows for GAN consideration. The article will certainly not pass as is, and I'd rather expand it first myself than wait for a review to tell me what I already know. QuietHere (talk | contributions) 16:46, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I see you've deleted the GA nomination template from the talk page; that's all you need to do if the review has not started. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 17:12, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Alright, good to know. Wasn't sure if it would be removed automatically but I see that it has been. Thanks. QuietHere (talk | contributions) 15:52, 29 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Is a reviewer allowed to contribute to an article during the review?[edit]

While looking at a certain GAN nominee that needs a review (I have not decided yet whether to review it or not), I noticed that some of the statements in the article had dubious sourcing. I was able to find some sources that I felt were more reliable + had valuable information. I also noticed some translation errors; as the original language is a language I speak, I would be able to correct these translations. Would I as a reviewer be allowed to recommend these sources to the nominator + offer translation corrections? I understand that reviewers are not allowed to significantly contribute to the article before review. Jaguarnik (talk) 19:22, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Jaguarnik, recommending sources is absolutely fine. It is always great when a GA reviewer's suggestions make an article substantially better. A problem only arises when you end up contributing so much to an article that you would have to review your own work; in such cases, best to ask for a second opinion. —Kusma (talk) 19:31, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
(ec)You can certainly make suggestions to the nominator, and to be honest for minor corrections (punctuation and typos for example) I would recommend making the changes yourself, since it takes longer to type out "you have mispelt 'supersede'" than it does to correct it. However, do be sure you're right when you make such changes. I have frequently made more extensive copy edits than that when I am confident that the nominator won't mind -- e.g. when the author clearly has English as their second language, but the article is well-researched and close to GA standard, I'll do some clean up editing. This is more of a judgement call. For the translation corrections you're suggesting, you might ask the nominator if they would mind if you just did the fixes yourself, in case they disagree with your translation. Few nominators will object. One circumstance in which I will not make changes myself is if the point at issue is something I suspect the nominator is unfamiliar with -- I'd rather they made the fix so they understand the issue. None of the above is required, and many reviewers won't change a single comma on the article they're reviewing, and that's fine too -- it's your call. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 19:37, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Request Help with Abrupt GA Delist at Florida State University (Main article)[edit]

We are 3 days within the 7 days to contest an abrupt GA delist, so I am requesting additional editors and assistance today to resolve this delist while I simultaneously try to persuade the delisting editor to reverse their action. Another editor and I were in the middle of an appropriate GAR of the Florida State University main article. The cooperating editor and I were waiting for a subject matter expert to weigh into non-free materials assessment. All other matters were style and minor. A third editor enters and without establishing collaboration or consenus and abrupting delists the article, which has had GA status for years. Kindly help me resolve this matter. Sirberus (talk) 17:32, 29 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Florida State University, Wikipedia:Good article reassessment/Florida State University/1. CMD (talk) 01:05, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The GAR was closed after two weeks of no activity on the reassessment page, and a week of no edits to the article, with copyright issues still unresolved. Closing the reassessment as delist in this situation does not seem problematic to me. That said, the reassessment has now been reopened – is there anything else that needs to be done here? Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 18:25, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I agree—I have left comments at the reassessment, and will close it myself if there aren't arguments against. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 18:29, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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