Memory Alpha:Featured article reviews

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Articles nominated for removal

Cardassian ATR-4107

I do not think the Cardassian ATR-4107 article is worthy of FA status. Although it is detailed, I just do not think it compares with the likes of Force field or Cloaking device for example - similarly themed articles. Also, looking back at the voting process, there was only one vote for FA status. I think this article needs to be reconsidered. -- TrekFan ^Talk 16:32, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

• Remove as a FA. First, I agree that the fact there was only one vote in favor originally should at least cause us to re-discuss the issue. Second, it reads to me as little more than a summary of the episode. While there is nothing wrong with that, I think a FA should be unique and different.--31dot 16:49, 21 September 2008 (UTC)
• Oppose w/o any specific complaints against the article (as are below with regard to doomsday machine); I find the article well-written, comprehensive, accurate, and undisputed. As for the nomination, while only two editors explicitly supported the nomination, nobody opposed it or had any specific arguments (in fact, the parenthetical comment by User:Dmsdbo seems ot have been resolved since). — THOR ^=/\= 16:41, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

• Comment - But surely it should follow today's voting process where 5 votes are required? In my opinion two votes for an article is simply not enough for a community this size. -- TrekFan ^Talk 16:55, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

• There is a degree of "grandfathering" with a number of the articles that came pre-current FA policy, which is a good chunk of our existing list. In terms of the number of votes, this "removal suggestion" can suppliment that if enough people vote. As far as the article itself, it could be subsectioned up a bit, so as to not look so much like an episode summary. --Alan 17:33, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Grathon Tolar

This article simply does not meet the requirements for FA IMO. There is only one source for the information in this article and it is too short. -- TrekFan ^Talk 23:12, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Oppose for now. Just as a note, this has been discussed before.

As said on the nomination page, length is not relevant to its status as a FA. Also, there is only one source because the character was only in the one episode. --31dot 23:42, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Oppose; as brought up by User:31dot, this has been discussed previously and I have the same input as before. Allow me to paraphrase:

The [...] central point to my dissertation is that you are objecting to their FA status on the grounds that they don't meet with criteria which do not exist. When I originally nominated both of these articles as Featured Articles, I examined the stated criteria of being an "...especially well-written, informative, and comprehensive article that covers all available information on a subject." and I personally [decided] that they did, in fact, meet those criteria. Once up for nomination (see Talk:Grathon_Tolar#Votes_for_featured_status and Talk:Ethan_Novakovich#Moved_from_Nominations_for_featured_articles respectively), it was clearly stated in both nominations that the articles in question were covering "minor subjects"; in reply it was noted by an administer in support of the nomination that "The fact that it is a minor subject is irrelevant". Both of these articles were voted on by the Memory Alpha community with no objections and were made Featured Articles.

[...] There is nothing dictating [a required article] length, significance of subject matter, or "meta-Trek" as qualifiers for Featured Articles.

Succinctly, if this discourse led to a discussion where the Featured Article criteria were reevaluated and made more specific and detailing (such as, if the community wanted to change the parameters for a Featured Article and dictate that it should be a certain length in addition to being of high-quality to be featured), I would be in whole and complete support of helping with that process; and should any articles I contributed substantially to not qualify under those reevaluated rules, I would be the first to stand by their status removal. But the criteria now are the exact same as they were when those articles were initially nominated and accepted by a majority of MA contributers.

Based on the information presented above, I anticipate one of two results to occur. Either Ethan Novakovich will revert the loss of his FA removal status and Grathon Tolar will be removed from this list; or a new forum will be opened for discussion and decision-making for the purpose of defining new and more detailing/stringent criteria for the acceptance of Featured Articles, after which all current Featured Articles will have to undergo a reevaluation process to determine whether they may maintain their status under the new protocols. Either way, I greatly look forward to one or the other conclusion. — THOR ^=/\= 18:00, 25 Oct 2005 (UTC)

My expectations were apparently presumptuous, and some of the particulars of my points may not be wholly applicable here as I was previously discussing two articles, but I think you're making the same argument for defrocking as there was previously. If I sound too "bitch and moany", I apologize, I don't exactly have my head int he game today, but still wanted to provide input. Please take no offense or belligerentness from my comments here! — THOR ^=/\= 17:04, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Doomsday machine

Doomsday machine - has been awarded FA status in 2004. Since then parts of it have been shifted around, others have been considerably rewritten (diff), which at least warrants another look at this articles FA status.

I think this article no longer is "one of the best" MA has to offer. One thing that bugs me is the huge Apocrypha section making up about 1/3 of the page. While we do allow some of that stuff, I think an "excellent" article should restrict itself in that regard, and instead link to Memory Beta.

Instead, some more background info about the creative process might be a valuable addition. I think I read about the first designs of that device somewhere, and how it became what we saw due to budget restrictions. Some comparison between TOS and TOS-R might be added as well.

Finally, the structuring of the article could be better. There's just a tiny paragraph about the device (which is the topic of the article, after all), followed by a huge section about the battle against it. This should be restructured to have more of the modus operandi of the machine in the first section, and eventually a less detailed battle depiction in the second. -- Cid Highwind 09:51, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Support - I agree with Cid's reasoning.– Cleanse 10:05, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Support. As with the Dreadnought article, a FA should be more than a summary of the episode it was in(which, for some reason, was why it was nominated, according to the original discussion).--31dot 12:56, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Support - Agree with above comments. -- TrekFan ^Talk 16:56, 7 October 2008 (UTC)