Alternative History talk:Featured alternate history

Proposed Amendment: The Lone Objector
A question arises about what happens when a nomination has three or more supporters but has a lone objector. According to the rules of the process there can't be any objectors before a nomination is approved. Thus there is the potential that one lone objector can prevent a TL from reaching featured status. Any suggestions on how to avoid this problem? Mitro 01:58, October 23, 2009 (UTC)
 * I figure if there's one objector and the other supporters don't see any credence in the objections, or don't feel that it should stop a given article from being accepted, then the article should be accepted. Louisiannan 16:47, April 26, 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the response Louis, however since I wrote this message in October, I have been following a different procedure. Instead of simply deciding whether an objections is credible, I have instead promoted timelines if there is another supporter to cancel out an objector.  For example, if there is one objector I will make the TL featured if it gets three supporters plus one supporter for every objector, thus the TL will need 4 supporters to become a featured alternate history.  I feel this is a better way to do it since it avoids the necessity of making judgments about whether the objector is credible and favors consensus over majority voting.  Mitro 18:34, April 26, 2010 (UTC)

January 2010
After a random selection, Aztec Empire will be featured on the main page for the month of January 2010. Mitro 20:17, December 23, 2009 (UTC)

February 2010
After a random selection, Puget Sound-1 will be featured on the main page for the month of February 2010. Mitro 15:34, January 15, 2010 (UTC)

March 2010
After a random selection, Ætas ab Brian will be featured on the main page for the month of March 2010. Mitro 14:54, February 1, 2010 (UTC)

April 2010
After a random selection, Soviet defeat will be featured on the main page for the month of April 2010. Mitro 16:40, February 26, 2010 (UTC)

May 2010
After a random selection, Washington Shot at Murdering Town! will be featured on the main page for the month of May 2010.

Every Two Weeks
As we get closer to 26 featured TLs, we might want to look at having featured TLs spend 2 weeks on the main page instead of a month. Mitro 17:55, April 19, 2010 (UTC)

June 2010
After a random selection, Superpowers will be featured on the main page for the month of June 2010. Mitro 14:22, April 26, 2010 (UTC)

Proposed voting rules
This is not directed at anyone in particular, but I recently realized that there is a possibility that someone could edit as an anon or create a new user name just to inflate the votes for/against a nomination. To prevent this, I propose that only registered users with 100 or more edits will be allowed to vote in featured TL nominations. Thoughts? -Mitro
 * To be honest I thought that was already pretty much a rule. May I suggest that a part of this page, preferably not at the top, be added to carefully lay out the rules? Sure the limitations and requirements are put up, but there's no explicit "Rules" section. Just a thought.
 * No it was never a rule, but if there are no objections I will install it as a rule. -Mitro

July 2010
After a random selection, Vegetarian World will be featured on the main page for the month of July. -Mitro

Time Limits
To prevent a backup of nominations and to encourage nominators and their supporters to be more active, I propose that all nominations be closed after two weeks if no consensus is established on whether or not to mark a TL as featured. All current nominations won't be immediately closed, they will all have two weeks from the time the new rule goes into effect. Any objections? -Mitro
 * Time limits are now in place. Mitro 18:29, July 30, 2010 (UTC)
 * Tomorrow is the deadline for any nomination made before 7/29/10. If none are passed by then they will automatically be withdrawn.  Mitro 22:48, August 11, 2010 (UTC)

August 2010
After a random selection Cabotia and Brasil will be featured during the month of August. Mitro 21:53, July 30, 2010 (UTC)

September 2010
After a random selection, Great White South will be featured during the month of September. Mitro 16:45, August 30, 2010 (UTC)

Revising voting rules
I have been thinking about revising the voting rules. Instead of the cumbersome system in place, how about we follow the rules of the user rights page? Essentially the vote will be open for two weeks and if the nomination has 2/3 of the vote in support will become featured. Any objections? Mitro 01:43, September 9, 2010 (UTC)
 * One thing I would suggest is that if someone opposed, they should say why they do so that way the editor(s) of the timeline could make the appropriate changes if they so desire.--Marcpasquin 22:21, September 9, 2010 (UTC)

October 2010
Sorry to take so long getting on this. The random selector picked Easternized World as the featured TL for the month of October. The template should start working shortly in case the only thing you see is Chaos. Mitro 02:55, October 1, 2010 (UTC)

November 2010
The random selector has chosen Papatlaca to be the next featured alternate history. Mitro 17:09, October 21, 2010 (UTC)

December 2010
The random selector has chosen Central Victory to be the featured alternate history for the month of December. Mitro 18:23, November 22, 2010 (UTC)

February 2011
Basileus' Interference Timeline will be featured in February. Mitro 14:04, January 29, 2011 (UTC)

Proposed Featured Timelines
The recent nomination of two, quite honestly, poorly written timelines, by their authors started me thinking. Maybe we should add a rule saying that you cannot nominate your own timeline? Lordganon 03:48, February 13, 2011 (UTC)

What were those two poorly written TLs? PitaKang 22:53, February 15, 2011 (UTC)

The two in question are Austria and others and Cotton Party. But that just got me thinking. What of the thought? Lordganon 23:21, February 15, 2011 (UTC)

I agree. It should be like TFTPF, where only another person can nominate you. PitaKang 23:35, February 15, 2011 (UTC)

I personally agree with this idea and you should only be able to nominate one article. yes I know I've done two but I've reaized my folly in both and removed the last one (the first one got removed for me). So to help others not fall into the same mistakes as me I think you shouldn't be able to nominate your own and only one article Bobalugee1940 12:20, February 19, 2011 (UTC)

Repeat?
Didn't Welsh History Post Glyndwr already get featured? I'm pretty sure it had the featured article template on it before now... Michael Douglas 02:34, March 2, 2011 (UTC)

Mitro uses some sort of random generator to decide on a timeline to be featured in any given month from the list of possibilities. Often times this means repeats. Lordganon 08:09, March 2, 2011 (UTC)
 * Actually WHPG was never featured on the main page before. I went through the history to double check and this is actually the first time it has shown up on the main page. Also LG, I won't repeat any featured TLs until every TL has been on the main page once. The random generator only affects those that have yet to be shown, but it will reset once all have had their turn. Mitro 14:06, March 2, 2011 (UTC)
 * My bad. Michael Douglas 23:06, March 2, 2011 (UTC)
 * My bad. Michael Douglas 23:06, March 2, 2011 (UTC)

Sample Nomination
I am at wits end about this. I wrote the exact format for how nominations are to be presented under the section titled "Sample Nomination". All anyone has to do is copy it directly and insert the correct information. Simple right? Then why the hell has the last several nominations failed to do this? Is that hard to copy and paste something? Is there something confusing about the directions? Unless I hear some sort of logical explanation, for now on I am removing any nomination that does not follow the correct format. I am sorry if this is an overreaction to a minor problem, but I fail to grasp how people who are skilled enough to use a computer are incapable of following simple directions! Mitro 16:01, March 21, 2011 (UTC)

April 2011
March was The Wales one, since it wasn't written down. I used a random generator and it chose French Trafalgar, British Waterloo as the timeline for this month. Lordganon 10:04, April 1, 2011 (UTC)

May 2011
Toyotomi Japan has been chosen by a random generator to be featured for this month. Lordganon 07:26, April 29, 2011 (UTC)

June 2011
A Southron World has been selected for June of 2011. Lordganon 02:47, June 1, 2011 (UTC)

July 2011
New Union has been randomly selected to be the featured timeline this month. Lordganon 07:29, June 30, 2011 (UTC)

August 2011
Quetzalcoatl's World has been made the featured timeline for this month. Lordganon 07:18, August 1, 2011 (UTC)

Sample Nomination Confusion
Because of confusion that's been happening with copying the Sample Nomination I think we should make the text in (what I think is). It's much more noticeable, in my opinion. I've included a sample of the Sample Nomination below. I didn't want to change anything without getting the feedback from the community.

ChrisL123 17:33, August 1, 2011 (UTC)

There is nothing wrong with what we have, at all. The problem has always been, and remains, that people just don't bother to read how to make a nomination before making one, or read only small sections of it. Lordganon 17:39, August 1, 2011 (UTC)

Thank you Chris, for the suggestion. I have added a "sample nomination" to show what it is supposed to look like. The process should be easier if we all understand what it looks like. When a correct nomination is no longer on the page, we have no way of knowing if it looks right. SouthWriter 16:25, August 6, 2011 (UTC)

Another big confusion is does it go under Nomination or at the bottom of the page? Bobalugee1940 16:54, August 6, 2011 (UTC)

You are right, Bob. I noticed that, but am not good at multi-tasking. Maybe I should clear that up later. It is supposed to go at the bottom of the Nominations section - just in case there are other nominations pending. The instructions are clearer on the Source Mode version preferred for editting. Click on "Edit" next to "Nominations" it will bring it up the page in "Visual Mode," then you switch to Source Mode. There, in hidden text, it tells you to "put new nominations here. I think the problem is, folks usually edit in Visual Mode and most edits work better done in Source Mode.  Its a little trickier, at times, but if you use "Preview" you can see what it will look like before you publish. SouthWriter 17:18, August 6, 2011 (UTC)

It was easy to do before, with only a simple copy and paste being needed to do it correctly. People have always just declined to do so, despite the page telling them to do it. Nothing confusing about the page at all. Lordganon 17:54, August 6, 2011 (UTC)

Main Page Display
Why has the main display of "This Month's Featured Article" never once been changed? Or am I missing something in the history of the page? I looked at the Main Page display from BEFORE the feature was added until the most recent one and once the featured article was added it looks like it has always been the same. Is it a template that points to a file that is renamed? That would make sense seeing that it shows the presents month's choice no matter which version I look at. I was just wondering. SouthWriter 04:24, August 30, 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, it's separate templates that get changed each month. (Well, there's a separate one for each month called on by some sort of master template, but I digress....) Going to be the same through the history unless the template itself gets changed, or the month expires. Lordganon 04:48, August 30, 2011 (UTC)

September 2011
Dai-tō-a has been randomly selected to be featured this month. Lordganon 05:28, August 30, 2011 (UTC)