This is the discussion page of the good article nominations (GAN). To ask a question or start a discussion about the good article nomination process, click the New section link above. Questions may also be asked at the GA Help desk. To check and see if your question may already be answered, click to show the frequently asked questions below or search the archives below.
|
Frequently asked questions (FAQ) (see also: GAN instructions) |
- Is there something we can do to restrict nominations?
- There have been complaints about the perceived backlog in reviewing since the good article status was created in 2006. Generally speaking, we don't want to restrict nominations along their path to GA. In 2011, each day typically listed 330 nominated articles, of which 260 were waiting for a reviewer to volunteer. For comparison, today there are currently 393 nominations listed and 331 waiting for a reviewer.
- While it may seem overwhelming, a large backlog isn't a bad thing. It shows that many nominators want to use GA as a tool to improve the encyclopedia, and it also allows reviewers to choose articles that interest them. From a nominator's perspective, the main concern is the expected wait time before receiving a review, not the number of articles on the nominations page.
- Can't we force nominators to review articles?
- Quid pro quo reviewing (editors must review an article before nominating, perhaps after a grace period) is regularly proposed and always rejected as likely leading to lower quality reviews and fewer nominations from excellent content creators who may not wish to review another person's work.
- I want to review an article. Do I have to review the oldest unreviewed nomination first?
- No. You may review any article you are not involved in, regardless of the nomination's age. As a courtesy to nominators who have been waiting a long time, however, you are encouraged to review the older nominations at the top of the queues first.
- The nominator disagrees with the reviewer. Can another reviewer take over?
- If your GAN experience is not going well or if you are disagreeing with the reviewer's decisions, then you can ask for a second opinion if the reviewer has not yet failed the nomination. You may also allow the review to fail, take the reviewer's suggestions into account, then immediately renominate the article (to get a different reviewer). You may even request a community reassessment. Other than these, another reviewer does not normally take over an active review. You might want to read What the Good article criteria are not.
- Is the "nominator" a special position?
- No. Anyone may nominate any article, including unregistered users and people who have never edited the article. Nominating an article is not the exclusive privilege of an article's primary authors, as nominators have no special privileges over other editors except that they can withdraw the nomination. Everyone interested in an article is encouraged to participate in the review, not just the person who happened to nominate it. However, "drive-by" nominations (nominations by editors who do not normally edit that article and may not be watching it) are not encouraged, as the nominator is expected to respond to the reviewer's suggestions to improve the article.
- Should nominators respond to reviewers' concerns? And what should reviewers do if they don't?
- Yes. All editors interested in the nominated article are encouraged, but not required, to respond to reviewers' concerns, not just the nominator. If they don't, no one should be surprised if the article is not listed. "Drive-by" nominations are permitted, but they are one source of non-responsiveness. If the article does not meet the good article criteria after the reviewer has explained how the article requires improvement and has waited a reasonable amount of time for the nominator to make improvements, the reviewer is sure to fail the nomination.
- What if the nominator is a (perhaps dynamic) IP address?
- Any editor may nominate an article for GA status (while only registered users may review), so IP nominators are permitted. Remember that communication between nominator and reviewer usually takes place on the review page, not via user talk. If the IP nominator's IP address dynamically changes as they sign their comments on the review page, they may want to clarify to the reviewer that they remain the same person. An IP nominator that is responsive to the reviewer presents no problem to a successful GA review. If a nominator or other article editors are unresponsive and the article does not meet the criteria, then the nomination may be failed. Future article editors will benefit from good review comments on how to improve the article.
- Does an article have to be on hold for exactly seven days?
- No. Whether to place the nomination on hold at all, and the length of any such hold, is for the reviewer to decide. Depending on the responsiveness of the nominator, a hold may not be necessary. If the reviewer decides that it is, they may choose longer or shorter periods of hold time. The reviewer may even modify the {{GA nominee}} template on the article talk page to include a "time" parameter, for example "time=fourteen days", and the {{GANotice}} template used to convey messages to the GA nominator to include a "days" parameter, for example "days=fourteen". Keep in mind that protracted reviews show up as exceptions on the GA nominations report page.
- How can GA be reliable when a single reviewer decides?
- The quality of a good article is only as reliable as the most recent review and articles may deteriorate if unattended. The GA process deals with both of these issues by allowing repeat reviews by any registered user at any time. The process aims to encourage article improvement and build consensus on quality through multiple reviews—even though a single reviewer makes the decision whether to list the article according to the GA criteria. Any editor may contribute to any review discussion and community reassessment is available when the "one reviewer decides" model breaks down.
- What should I do if a review page becomes inactive?
- This can happen for a number of reasons. Review pages should only be started by reviewers who are willing to take an active interest in the article and are committed to completing their review of the article in a timely manner. Sometimes another editor (such as the nominator) starts the review page by mistake. A reviewer can fix this by placing their signature after "Reviewer:" towards the top of the review page, but if no reviewer is forthcoming, it may be best to delete the review page: requests for such deletions may be posted at the discussion page.
- However, in rare occasions a review page is created by an editor who intends to review, but then withdraws due to illness or other reasons. In such cases, the first step would be to contact the reviewer. If this does not resolve the issue, then a new reviewer is needed. In order to find one, follow the instructions page under "If the reviewer withdraws". Do not use this process to void a review you disagree with.
- What is the difference between GA and GA-Class?
- GA status is determined according to the good article criteria, while GA-Class is a WikiProject classification. GA-Class is conventionally given to articles which have GA status. GA-Class is higher than B-Class but not as high as A-Class (although, depending on the WikiProject, an A-Class article may be required to be GA). The input of WikiProject editors can be invaluable in assessing GA nominations and involvement in WikiProjects is encouraged, but GA nominators and reviewers are not obliged to follow WikiProject criteria. GA reviewers who have passed the article should update any WikiProject templates on the article talk page by changing the "class" parameter value to "class=GA".
- I failed the article, and the nominator just nominated it again without fixing the problems I identified!
- That's okay. There is no time limit between nominations, and this is the recommended process if the nominator disagrees with your review. Let someone else review it this time. The new reviewer is sure to read your suggestions to improve the article while deciding on their review. If your concerns were legitimate, then the new reviewer will doubtless agree with you and fail the article again. If the article is passed and you do not believe it meets the GA criteria, you can initiate a reassessment.
- What if I have concerns about the quality of a review or need to resolve a dispute over the GA process?
- You can bring those concerns to the discussion page to get help from other editors. Remember, however, to notify all users about whom concerns have been raised or who are involved in any dispute that you have.
|
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20160827104328im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2a/Replacement_filing_cabinet.svg/40px-Replacement_filing_cabinet.svg.png)
Archives |
|
|
Threads older than 7 days may be archived by MiszaBot II. |
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20160827104328im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2a/Replacement_filing_cabinet.svg/40px-Replacement_filing_cabinet.svg.png)
Dated archives |
|
|
GAC discussion at FAC
There is a discussion at FAC that involves GAC that some might wish to comment on. — Maile (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 15:58, 19 July 2016 (UTC)
Data on GA trends over time?
Do we have any idea about the developments in the pace of GA nominations over the past few years? Have nominations gone down or up? Do we have fewer or more reviewers? Has the time between nominatoin and review beginning gone up or down? Has the average length of reviews (length measured in time to decision or in text size of reviews) gone up or down? If one or more such studies exist I would appreciate a link to them if anyone can provide one. If noone has done an empirical overview of this, I think it would be extremely helpful if someone would. Personally I would welcome such as study as I am working on a proposal for a general reform of all wikipedias peer review processes. ·maunus · snunɐɯ· 11:35, 11 August 2016 (UTC)
- @Maunus: There appears to be a big graph on the Wikipedia article page which compares the number of successful GA noms to FA noms, etc, which might be useful. Fountains-of-Paris (talk) 15:54, 13 August 2016 (UTC)
- Maunus, there's also the GAN backlog report at WP:GANR, which goes back a number of years with (mostly) daily information on the total number of nominations, the number not yet reviewed, and how many were on hold, under review but not on hold, and awaiting a second opinion reviewer. However, I don't know of any studies gathering the sort of data you mention. BlueMoonset (talk) 18:56, 14 August 2016 (UTC)
- Thanks!·maunus · snunɐɯ· 19:26, 14 August 2016 (UTC)
- @Maunus: I've actually compiled a ton of GA stats at User:Wugapodes/GAStats and am in the process of finishing a draft on it for the Signpost which I think you'd like to read. The questions I set out to answer were a bit different from the ones you are asking (I was looking at the effect of the GA Cup and backlog drives), but it might help give insight. My data are not fine grain enough to answer your questions directly, but through some fun calculus and intuition I'm of the opinion that the rate of nomination is relatively constant (no real differences between nom rates during and before GA Cups over the last 2 1/2 years for example), the time taken from nom to review tends to fluctuate (backlog grows, causing old noms to sit for a while, then an uptick in reviews happens and they get reviewed lowering the mean time to review, then the reviewers get burned out from all those reviews and the backlog grows and the cycle continues), the length of a review might vary based on when it is undertaken (there's greater turnover in reviews during GA Cups, for instance, so it's likely that they're being completed faster; this is more of an intuition though so don't take this as fact), and the number of reviewers is pretty hard to measure (my guess is that the number's pretty constant but I have pretty much no data to back that up). If you'd like I can also send you my data to play around with. Wugapodes [thɔk] [ˈkan.ˌʧɻɪbz] 21:50, 14 August 2016 (UTC)
- Reading through the draft again, I actually realized I did have an answer to your question on nomination rates. Over the past three years, the nomination rate has stayed incredibly consistent at about 10 nominations per day. Wugapodes [thɔk] [ˈkan.ˌʧɻɪbz] 02:03, 15 August 2016 (UTC)
- @Wugapodes:, thanks for this! Now this makes the last question even more interesting - whether we see fluctuations in review quality between GA-cup or GA-review drive periods and non-GA cup reviews. This could be estimated by having a count of the sheer bit-size of each review page - taking a longer review as indicative of being more thorough (which I think is justified) - maybe subtracting quickfails. If you could find a way to do this automated we would have some great data on the relation between GA drives and review quality.·maunus · snunɐɯ· 06:42, 15 August 2016 (UTC)
- The other measure of quality control would be to actually measure how long the article remains at GA once promoted, that is, how often or now long does the assessment stay the same at GA, how often does it get promoted to FA, and how often is it reviewed and delisted. Cheers. Fountains-of-Paris (talk) 17:27, 15 August 2016 (UTC)
How long should an article be on hold?
I've had Talk:Joseph Mitchell (city manager)/GA1 on hold for a while now (16 days, I think) and the nominator has been inactive this entire time, despite repeated pings. Now I'd fix the issues myself except that they require source access, and I don't feel comfortable passing as is. Does anybody have any advice on how long I should keep it on hold before failing? Regards, Vanamonde (talk) 11:52, 12 August 2016 (UTC)
- If the nominator is inactive for two weeks I think failing it is reasonable unless problems are minor and you can fix them yourself.·maunus · snunɐɯ· 12:29, 12 August 2016 (UTC)
First GA review
Hello, I've just started my first GA review (currently on hold) at Talk:Chestnuts Long Barrow and wondered if somebody could take a look at it and check I've done everything right. Thanks. Joe Roe (talk) 11:37, 17 August 2016 (UTC)
- Joe Roe, I took a quick look; you are off to a fine start. Simply look for any violations of the good article criteria and point them out. There are not likely to be very many; I know this nominator; she is one of the highest quality contributors to Wikipedia. Your own thoughts and opinions outside the criteria are welcome as well, even though the nominator need not follow all suggestions. Remember, Good article mentors are available to help you during your review; ping any of them on their Talk page to personally ask for assistance. —Prhartcom♥ 14:46, 17 August 2016 (UTC)
Quick fail of Decompression theory
I would like a second opinion on the quick fail of Decompression theory. It appears to me that the GA criteria are either not being applied correctly, or they are not explained adequately on the project page.
Cheers,
• • • Peter (Southwood) (talk): 09:44, 19 August 2016 (UTC)
|