Alternative History:Featured alternate history

Featured alternate histories are considered to be the best alternate histories on the Althistory Wiki, as determined by the Wiki's editors. Before being listed here, articles are reviewed as featured alternate history candidates against our featured alternate history criteria. Once approved, featured alternate histories will be allowed to have the Featured Alternate History Banner and will have the chance to appear on the Main Page.

At present, there are # featured articles, of a total of # articles on the English Althistory Wiki.

Step 1: Check to see if your alternate history meets the criteria
Before you nominate an alternate history, check to see if it meets the following criteria:

Featured Alternate History Criteria
 * Well-written: the prose of the alternate history is engaging, even brilliant, and of a professional standard;
 * Comprehensive: the alternate history neglects no major facts or details and places the subject in context; more then one article is used to convey the alternate history
 * Plausible: the POD and the altered events following the POD are logically what would happen if history was changed
 * Neutral: the alternate history does it's best to give an objective view of the altered history without being overly influenced by politics, religion, nationalism, etc.; it is not a “wankfest”
 * Peaceful collaboration: the alternate history is not subject to ongoing edit wars.
 * Portal Page: the alternate history has a portal page that summarizes the work and prepares the reader for the detail in the connected articles;
 * Appropriate structure: the majority of articles in the alternate history have a system of hierarchical section headings, a substantial but not overwhelming table of contents and a lead section to describe the article
 * External sources: the alternate history provides OTL sources to support the events after the POD either on the portal page or a separate article
 * Supplements: the alternate history makes use of pictures, flags, maps, tables, videos, etc.

Take the time to update the alternate history to meet these criteria before nominating it here.

Step 2: Nominating your alternate history
If you feel your alternate history meets the criteria then post a link to the portal page under Alternative History:Featured alternate history.

Use the following format: ===Name of Alternate History===

Also include with it a small explanation on why you think this alternate history should be listed as a featured alternate history, and don't forget to sign your name.

Step 3: Reviewing the alternate history
Alternate histories are approved for featured status after being reviewed and approved by other editors who can suggest changes to the alternate history that will make it meet the featured alternate history criteria. The nominator and anyone who supports him or her may then make the necessary changes to meet the reviewer(s)'s requirements. If all the suggested changes are met then the article will be considered a featured alternate history. There are some important rules regarding the reviewing process that you should be aware of:
 * No conflicts of interest: while anyone may nominate an alternate history, only certain people can review. The nominator, the original creator or any significant contributors to the alternate history are NOT allowed to review the nominated alternate history.  As long as you don't have a conflict of interest you can be a reviewer.
 * Number of reviewers does not matter: A featured alternate history can be approved by just one reviewer as long as he or she makes sure the alternate history meets the established criteria. If there is more than one reviewer then the alternate history can only be approved by consensus.
 * Consensus, NOT majority vote: featured alternate histories are approved by a consensus among the reviewers, NOT by a majority vote. While consensus does not mean unanimous, a simple majority will not be enough to approve an alternate history if a significant minority brings some valid concerns about the alternate history.
 * Do NOT have to make every suggested change: a featured alternate history does not have to meet every suggested change by the reviewer as long as the nominator or someone else can make a good argument about why the change is unnecessary.

Volunteer Reviewers
It may take time for some editor to come along and decide to review your alternate history. So to speed up the process the following editors have volunteered to be contacted and asked to be a reviewer. If you would like to be a volunteer, just add your name to the list:


 * Mitro
 * Realismadder

Step 4: Give notice to the featured alternate history admin
If there is consensus among the reviewers that the alternate history meets the featured alternate history criteria, then either the nominator or one of the reviewers will give notice to the admin who monitors the featured alternate histories. He or she will give one last check to make sure the criteria has been met, no conflict of interests exist and if there is a consensus among the reviewers before giving the final approval to the alternate history.

Once approved the alternate history will be listed as a featured alternate history and will have the opportunity to appear on the Main Page.

Challenging a Featured Alternate History
Sometimes a alternate history's featured status can be challenged, here are the reasons:
 * The reviewer(s) did not correctly apply the featured alternate history criteria during the nomination process.
 * An unknown conflict of interest existed that was not discovered until later.
 * True consensus did not exist at the time of approval.
 * Significant changes have been made to the alternate history since approval which causes it to no longer meet the criteria.

Challenging a featured alternate history is similar to nominating one except for the following differences:
 * Challenger lists the alternate history in question under Alternative History:Featured alternate history, doing it the same way he would if he was a nominator, except he lists why the alternate history does not meet the criteria.
 * Challenger has seven (7) days to find at least one other person to agree with him, once they do they have to give notice on the portal page of the alternate history and the notice will include a link to this page and the reasons for the challenge.
 * Once challenged any respondents have thirty (30) days to make the suggested changes or rebut the challengers arguments.
 * Once consensus is met (keep/remove) the featured alternate history admin will be notified of the outcome.
 * If consensus is not reached in thirty (30) days, the featured alternate history admin will make a decision on whether to keep or remove the alternate history's featured status.