Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-07-11/Featured content

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Featured articles

From the new featured article on Dengue fever: the distribution of the disease in 2006. Red: Epidemic dengue and *Ae. aegypti*; Aqua: Just *Ae. aegypti*

Eight articles were promoted to featured status:

Deusdedit of Canterbury (nom), a rather obscure early Anglo-Saxon archbishop of Canterbury, and the first native holder of the office. (Nominated by Ealdgyth)
Californium (nom), a radioactive metallic element first produced in 1950 at the University of California, Berkeley. (Mav)
Dengue fever (nom), a viral tropical disease that is not as well-known as malaria (the WHO considers it a "neglected tropical disease"), but which affects 50–100 million people per year, and has been linked to thousands of deaths (often in young children). (Jfdwolff, Jmh649)
1952 Winter Olympics (nom), held in Oslo, Norway, that attracted 694 athletes representing 30 countries, who participated in six sports and 22 events. (H1nkles)
John McCauley (nom) (1899–1989), a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, who became a leading figure in the Royal Australian Air Force. (Ian Rose)
Vidkun Quisling (nom), the Nazi collaborationist leader of Norway, who seized power in 1940 in a Nazi-backed coup that garnered him international infamy. His government participated in Germany's Final Solution. He was executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress, Oslo, on 24 October 1945. During World War II, quisling became a synonym for traitor. (Jarry1250)
Kenneth Walker (nom), a US Army aviator and a US Army Air Forces general who had a significant influence on the development of air-power doctrine and posthumously received the Medal of Honor in World War II. (Hawkeye7)
Into Temptation (film) (nom), a 2009 film about a prostitute and a Catholic priest. (Hunter Kahn)

Featured topic

Thatgamecompany (nom), with seven articles, is an American independent video game developer. The studio is currently a second-party developer for Sony Computer Entertainment, and is under contract to create three downloadable games for the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network service. The company focuses on creating video games that provoke emotional responses from players. When designing a game, Thatgamecompany employees start by mapping out what they want the player to feel rather than by establishing game mechanics. Readers will find links to many technical and field-specific terms in the seven articles that make up the topic. (nominator PresN) (pictures at right)

Featured lists

Four lists were promoted:

List of colonial governors of Massachusetts (nom) (Nominated by Magicpiano.)
List of awards and nominations received by Madonna (nom) (Legolas2186.)
List of France national football team captains (nom) (Joao10Siamun.)
Philadelphia Phillies all-time roster (L) (nom) (Killervogel5.)

Featured pictures

Two images were promoted. Medium-sized images can be viewed by clicking on "nom":

Five and one-hundred dollar Confederate notes (nom; related article), part of the fascinating subject of Confederate war finance). The image shows the front sides of Confederate States of America banknotes, printed December 1862 (the back sides were unprinted). (Creator: unknown (Confederate government), scanned by User:Michael Holley).
Hurricane Rick (nom; related article), near peak intensity, with a clear view of the eye (created by NASA; MODIS]).

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11 July 2011

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What is the rationale for ordering of the bullets within each featured content section? Does not seem to be alphabetical. Nor in notability order, when the first article out of the gate is "rather obscure".TCO (reviews needed) 16:31, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How can you order a list of articles by notability? Juliancolton (talk) 17:15, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sometimes the obscure is the most interesting. We try not to order them consciously—often the order is according to chronological (or reverse chronological) promotion; occasionally I put the item related to the uppermost pic first. Tony (talk) 17:22, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Interestingness is a good way to order. Maybe alpha just makes most sense, if you are not going to group and arrange each week. Order within the week seems low value.

I can't imagine a more boring way to organize the week's progress in recognizing our best articles than bulleting them alphabetically... Juliancolton (talk) 17:30, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that "interestingness" is a better parameter. Perhaps "like with like" (implicit categories) makes sense. I think order promoted during the week is even worse than alpha though. At least alpha has some navigational benefit for the eye...TCO (reviews needed) 17:33, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Interestingness? Who's going to decide which article is most interesting? Juliancolton (talk) 17:39, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

And I can't imagine a more demoralizing virtual sight than seeing my hard work being classified as the most boring article of the week. Juliancolton (talk) 17:40, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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