The Elder Scrolls Wiki:What is a featured article?

A featured article represents the best quality article that TESWiki has to offer. Featured articles, or FAs, are the pinnacle of our writing and meet all the requirements listed below with professional standards of writing and presentation. Featured Articles also have the distinction of being displayed in a prominent location on the Main Page for a week each.

The FA process is becoming increasingly stringent as overall standards on TESWiki improve. This can make FAN frustrating for editors who aren't aware of how articles are judged against the featured article criteria. Featured article candidates are expected to meet a series of objective and subjective standards; it's not a prize that rewards any particular editor's work on an article or dedication to a subject. As Michael Corleone once said, "It's not personal. It's strictly business."

Spend some time looking through the other featured articles on related topics to get an idea of their basic quality, and the choices they have made in coverage and style. This should give you an idea of any major deficiencies in quality of the article you are looking to nominate. Keep in mind that featured article standards have been rising, so being better than a poorer quality FA or one that has degraded since nomination does not mean the article you are working on is a shoo-in or somehow deserves to be featured. Some may consider the criteria and these standards overly strict, but TESWiki is past the point where we need articles that just contain any information. We need high quality, accurate articles. If more articles already met the above criteria before being nominated, we could spend more time working on the final polishing and free up time to nominate and promote more articles.

In order to qualify as a Featured Article, the following requirements must be satisfied:

Be well-written and detailed.
All FAs should have prose that is not only understandable, but also well-written, with a diverse diction and syntax while not being overly verbose or wordy. In that regard, things such as run-on sentences, comma splices, and fragments should be corrected when submitting an article for FA. Repetitive sentence structures (i.e. three simple sentences in a row) create the impression of a poorly written article on the reader. Also, articles should be detailed without providing a play-by-play account of the subject matter. The prose should flow smoothly, with a reader being able to garner a reasonable understanding of the subject matter from the article or section. It is often useful to provide context for an event or action to create a more complete representation of what happened.

Be unbiased, non-point of view.
TESWiki strives to be a neutral source of information for its readers. With that in mind, Featured Articles should be written without a slant towards a particular side or stance. Even In-Universe beliefs such as "The Daedra are evil" should not be presented as the truth of the matter, as that would give undue credence and give evidence of bias. This principle is especially important when dealing with real-world topics or people, which may be controversial, with widely varying opinions. The best way to avoid POV (point-of-view) is to source your contributions.

Be sourced with all available sources and appearances.
The Manual of Style provides for a sources (for OOU mentions) and appearances (for IU mentions) for all In-Universe articles. As such, a Featured Article's list of Appearances and Sources should be complete, with all sources and appearances listed in the appropriate section. For OOU articles, the topic's or person's connection to The Elder Scrolls should be fully documented.

Follow the Manual of Style, Layout Guide, and all other policies on TESWiki.
The Manual of Style (MoS) and Layout Guide (LG) are the defining guidelines for articles on TESWiki. All of our articles should conform to the style and standards presented in these guidelines. An example of this is the IU chronological ordering of all Appearances and the alphabetical ordering of the Sources section.

Not be the object of any ongoing edit wars.
Featured Articles should be stable, without disagreement between revisions of the article causing rapid and numerous changes to the article's content. As the article will be displayed on the Main Page, such edit warring lowers the image of the community and the quality of the article.

Not be tagged with any sort of improvement tags (i.e. more sources, expand, etc).
Improvement tags such as cleanup or tone indicate that the article is not of the highest quality and needs improvement in a certain area. As such, an article in need of clear improvement is not be considered of Featured Article quality until the necessary improvements have been made to address the improvement tag.

Have a proper lead that gives a good summary of the topic and can be used for the front page featured box.
The introduction should be complete and well-written, as that is the portion of the article that will appear on the Main Page. No information should be presented in the introduction that is not addressed in the main body of the article.

Have no more than 3 redlinks.
Redlinks represent a need for an article that does not exist and a lack of information on the site. Our goal is not have main namespace article redlinks as part of our mission to be the most complete Elder Scrolls encyclopedia online. No redlinks are allowed in a Featured Article's introduction, infobox, or any templates, primarily for aesthetic purposes.

Have significant information from all sources and appearances, especially a biography for character articles.
If a topic has significant information provided in a source or appearance, it should be in the article. In other words, all significant information from all appearances and sources should be in the article. This requirement is similar to the first requirement for an article to be detailed.

Not have been previously featured on the Main Page. Otherwise, it can only be restored to featured status.
TESWiki seeks to provide a diverse array of high-quality articles. As such, an article may only be featured on the Main Page once, in order to provide other articles with a chance to be showcased in that fashion. Articles that have been stripped of their Featured status may still be improved and brought back to that level of quality, though they will not re-appear on the Main Page. Users are encouraged to help restore articles to that level of quality.

Be completely referenced for all available material and sources. See our sourcing policy for more information.
In an effort to be not only complete, but also accurate, TESWiki's articles should have the appropriate number and level of citations for all content, completely sourcing the article by the policy listed above. Introductions should not contain reference tags, and neither should articles which only have a single source or appearance.

Have all quotes and images sourced.
Similar to the above requirement, all images and quotes should be appropriately sourced to ensure verifiability. ===Provide at least one quote on the article; a leading quote at the beginning is required. Only one quote would be allowed at the beginning of each section at max, although quotes may be placed in the middle of the article.=== Quotes help provide an external perspective on the topic at hand. Relevant quotes can help provide an understanding of how the topic is viewed by people either outside the site or In-Universe.

Include a "personality and traits" section on all character articles.
"Personality and traits" sections should provide the reader with detail of who the character is and what they were like. Other sections that may provide valuable information include "Relationships" sections for romantic relationships, "Powers and abilities" sections for deities or magic characters, and possibly an "Equipment". As with the rest of the article, these supplementary sections should be well-written, detailed, and verifiable.

Include a reasonable number of images of good quality if said images are available.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and as such, they can help describe the topic in a way that words may not be nearly as adept in doing. Images should be of good quality, within a reasonable number so as to complement and not detract from the prose, and appropriately formatted. Naturally, all images should be official images or concept art, and not fanon.

Pass review by the IElder Council review panel.
The Elder Council is a body of TESWikians who have considerable experience in the Featured Article process. Their insights and knowledge have qualified them to review and have a say in the quality of articles chosen to be Featured by TESWiki. Any reasonable objections or suggestions raised by the Elder Council should be examined and the article appropriately adjusted. See the Elder Council page for more information on that body.

Counting the introduction and Behind the Scenes material, be at least 1000 words long (not including captions, quotes, or headers, etc).
Featured Articles should be of reasonable length, denoted by the 1000 words of prose requirement. Note that some articles may not be capable of reaching FA status, as they cannot be documented in a length of 1000 words without losing their conciseness or without adding unnecessary extrapolation or speculation.

You say, we say

 * 1) "It has more information than any other webpage/encyclopedia article on the Internet!" That's not a useful standard. Our articles should strive to outshine them all.
 * 2) "It's really long." Good for the length of your life, useless on TESWiki.
 * 3) "I worked, like, really hard on this!" We are truly sad to report that if the outcome is not up to snuff, no one besides your ego and imaginary friend cares how hard you worked on it. Blame Darwin.
 * 4) "We need more featured articles on Nords!" Well, maybe we do, but that's not a reason to elevate any given article about Nords to featured status; it's a reason for you to work on improving articles so that they are worthy of being featured.
 * 5) "It's SO awesome!" No matter how exciting, life-changing, 1337, and otherwise über-cool your article is, that will not help you get it approved. If the quality is pathetic, the nom will go nowhere.
 * 6) "It's so NOT awesome!" The reverse is also true. Articles are not chosen based on popularity. e4Opposing on basis of obscurity and/or coolness factor will result in an Elder Councillor striking your objection.

Furthermore

 * 1) An article based on the knowledge in your head, even if you are the world's leading expert on obscure Elder Scrolls information, doesn't make it a good reference document. The text has to be verifiable. Avoid weasel words, which are frequently used in an attempt to mask the lack of genuine scholarship in the article.
 * 2) If it hasn't been copy edited from top to bottom and if it isn't internally consistent&mdash;using the same style and notation method throughout&mdash;it's probably not ready to be featured. Style, grammar, punctuation and spelling count. Prepare to be confronted by rabid word-nerds who'll nit-pick your prose to shreds.
 * 3) Just because you want an image or sound to be fair use doesn't make it so. TESWiki has to protect itself and preserve intellectual property rights by only using free images and sounds. Make sure all of the images are correctly tagged.
 * 4) Remember, the lead section is your first and best chance to grab readers' attention and respect.
 * 5) If your article is mostly lists or mostly pictures, it should probably be nominated elsewhere. Featured articles on Wikipedia used to be called "brilliant prose" and that's just what voters expect on TESWiki, not lists or images, although those can certainly enhance an article.
 * 6) Keep in mind that the bigger your subject, the bigger the target for nitpicking. It's easier to present naysayers with proof of your comprehensiveness when your topic is Fargoth than it is when your topic is, say, Cyrodiil.

Issues of taste

 * 1) "It's too short! It's too long!" These objections are hard to combat, because they're vague and don't specify the best way to remedy the problem (adding filler or removing important details won't cut it), but most featured articles are at least 30k, so just keep that in mind.
 * 2) "There are too few pictures! There are too many pictures! The graphics suck!" There's no catch-all remedy to this kind of objection. Just try to make it look attractive, and avoid both excessive clusters of pictures and overlong stretches of unillustrated text wherever possible.
 * 3) *(a) Try not to overwhelm the text with "too many" pictures&mdash;one image or infographic every 250 words is a good guideline, provided the images are available. Try to space images out throughout the article and keep pictures from bumping into each other.
 * 4) *(b) Images aren't a requirement for any Featured Article, but asking for specific parts of articles which would benefit from having an image to be more illustrated is a valid objection. Having at least a few images for any FA is a good idea, and having about one image per screen is also valuable from an aesthetic perspective, drawing more readers into taking the time to read the article.
 * 5) *(c) Look at the page on different platforms and browsers to catch things other users might see that you aren't picking up.
 * 6) The generality, specificity or narrow viewpoint of any given topic is another frequent target. In general, featured articles are expected to provide a 360&deg; view of a subject.

Objections to common objections

 * FAN can be rough, but try to take any criticism you may receive as constructive. Automatically declaring every comment inactionable can come off as combative, and you may find that the combination of many small notes and resultant fixes becomes the basis for a substantial improvement in your article.

After you nominate the article

 * Be there, active. After you nominate the article, devote your time in this nomination and show to the reviewers that you are ready to address any concern they may have. FA nominations are often demanding and the nominators must follow them all the time, so that they don't miss something. It may be preferable to start a new FAN nomination only when you are over with your previous one. Two nominations at the same time will possibly distract your attention.
 * Be polite and avoid fighting with the FA reviewers. Be always polite. Don't forget to thank the reviewers for their comments, even if they are negative. They dedicate their time to your article and they deserve some praising for that. Believe me: A polite attitude can bring more supports. Assume that the comments or criticism that comes from the FA candidate reviewers are being made in good faith. Respond constructively and try to correct whatever they point out. If what they point out seems absurd to you, keep your polite attitude, but convincingly explain why the comments of the x reviewer are irrational. Have in mind that if somebody objects to something that isn't reasonable, another reviewer will usually come to your defense. In any case, avoid any personal attacks, insults or sentimental outbursts. If you are provoked, do not respond.
 * Ask for help. Someone on TESWiki has the information/skills/wherewithal to help you get a nom successfully through.
 * Don't get disappointed. If the nomination fails, do not resign. Start from scratch and keep improving the article. Vindication will eventually come!