BR Bullpen:Featured Criteria

The following are the criteria for Featured Articles, Lists, and Pictures on the Bullpen. These criteria are from Wikipedia:What is a featured article?, Wikipedia:What is a featured list?, and Wikipedia:What is a featured picture?.

Featured Article

A featured article should have the following qualities:

1. Exemplifies our very best work.
2. Is well written, comprehensive, factually accurate, neutral, and stable. Read Great writing and The perfect article to see how high the standards are set. In this respect:
   • (a) "well written" means that the prose is compelling, even brilliant;
   • (b) "comprehensive" means that an article covers the topic in its entirety, and does not neglect any major facts or details;
   • (c) "factually accurate" includes supporting of facts with specific evidence and external citations; these include a "References" section where the references are set out, complemented where appropriate by inline citations. For articles with footnotes or endnotes, the meta:cite format is strongly encouraged;
   • (d) "neutral" means that an article is uncontroversial in its neutrality and factual accuracy; and
   • (e) "stable" means that an article does not change significantly from day to day and is not the subject of ongoing edit wars.
3. It complies with the standards set out in the style manual. These include having:
   • (a) a concise lead section that summarizes the entire topic and prepares the reader for the higher level of detail in the subsequent sections;
   • (b) a proper system of hierarchical headings; and
   • (c) a substantial but not overwhelming table of contents.
4. Has images where appropriate, with succinct captions and acceptable copyright status; however, including images is not a prerequisite for a featured article.
5. Is of appropriate length, staying tightly focused on the main topic without going into unnecessary detail; it uses summary style to cover sub-topics that are treated in greater detail in any 'daughter' articles.

For some advice on how to reach featured article status, see Wikipedia:User:Taxman/Featured article advice and Wikipedia:User:Jengod/Some common objections to featured status and how to avoid them

Featured List

A featured list should have the following qualities:

1. Exemplifies our very best work.
2. Be useful, comprehensive, factually accurate, stable, and well-organised.
   • Useful: Covers a topic that lends itself to list format by bringing together a group of related articles that are likely to be of interest to a user researching that topic. A useful list must be composed of a large majority of links to existing articles (blue links).
   • Comprehensive: Covers the defined scope by including every member of a set, or, in the case of dynamic lists, by not omitting any major component of the subject.
   • Accurate: Support facts where appropriate with specifics and external citations. Includes references where appropriate, arranged in a ==References== section and enhanced by the appropriate use of inline citations.
   • Stable: Should be mostly static, and not change rapidly from day to day.
   • Well-constructed: Easy to navigate and find articles on. Annotated with additional information as appropriate.
3. Be uncontroversial and not have ongoing edit wars.
4. Comply with the standards set in the style manual. This includes having a lead section where appropriate, which is brief but sufficient to summarize the nature of the list, and, where appropriate, headings and a substantial, but not overwhelming, table of contents.
5. Have images where appropriate, with good captions and acceptable copyright status. However, a list does not have to have a picture to be featured.

Featured Picture

A featured picture should have the following qualities:

1. Exemplifies our very best work.
2. Be of high quality. It should be sharp and of pleasing colour balance, contrast and brightness, free of compression artifacts (such as in highly packed jpg files), burned-out highlights, graininess, and other distracting factors. The exception to this rule is the rarity or importance of the image being depicted. The more historically-important an image is, or the rarer the content of the scene, the lower the quality that can be allowed.
3. Be of a high resolution. The picture should be of sufficiently high resolution to allow quality reproductions. Generally, images should be at least 800 pixels in resolution in width or height to be supported, unless they are of historical significance or animated.
4. Have a free license. It should be available in the public domain or under a free license. Fair use images (including card images) are not allowed.
5. Add value to an article and help complete readers' understanding of an article in ways other pictures in the article do not.
6. Be accurate. Supported by facts in the article or references cited on the image page.
7. Be pleasing to the eye. Taken or created in a manner which best illustrates the subject of the image. The picture should make a reader want to know more.
8. Have a good caption. The picture should be displayed with a descriptive, informative and complete caption.