Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment
The assessment department of the Military history WikiProject focuses on assessing the quality of Wikipedia's military history articles. The resulting article ratings are used within the project to aid in recognizing excellent contributions and identifying topics in need of further work, and are also expected to play a role in the WP:1.0 program.
The assessment is done in a distributed fashion through parameters in the {{WPMILHIST}} project banner; this causes the articles to be placed in the appropriate sub-categories of Category:Military history articles by quality, which serve as the foundation for an automatically generated worklist.
FAQ
- See also the general assessment FAQ and the project's B-Class assessment & criteria FAQ.
- 1. What is the purpose of the article ratings?
- The rating system allows the project to monitor the quality of articles in our subject areas, and to prioritize work on these articles. It is also utilized by the Wikipedia 1.0 program to prepare for static releases of Wikipedia content. Please note, however, that these ratings are primarily intended for the internal use of the project, and do not necessarily imply any official standing within Wikipedia as a whole.
- 2. How do I add an article to the WikiProject?
- Just add {{WPMILHIST}} to the talk page; there's no need to do anything else.
- 3. Someone put a {{WPMILHIST}} template on an article, but it doesn't seem to be within the project's scope. What should I do?
- Because of the large number of articles we deal with, we occasionally make mistakes and add tags to articles that shouldn't have them. If you notice one, feel free to remove the tag, and optionally leave a note on the talk page of this department (or directly with the person who tagged the article).
- 4. Who can assess articles?
- Any member of the Military history WikiProject is free to add—or change—the rating of an article. Editors who are not participants in this project are also welcome to assess articles, but should defer to consensus within the project in case of procedural disputes.
- 5. How do I rate an article?
- Check the quality scale and select the level that best matches the state of the article; then, follow the instructions below to add the rating to the project banner on the article's talk page. Please note that some of the available levels have an associated formal review process; this is documented in the assessment scale.
- 6. Can I request that someone else rate an article?
- Of course; to do so, please list it in the section for assessment requests below.
- 7. Why didn't the reviewer leave any comments?
- Unfortunately, due to the volume of articles that need to be assessed, we are unable to leave detailed comments in most cases. If you have particular questions, you might ask the person who assessed the article; they will usually be happy to provide you with their reasoning.
- 8. Where can I get more comments about an article?
- The review department can conduct more thorough examination of articles; please submit it for peer review there.
- 9. What if I don't agree with a rating?
- You can list it in the section for assessment requests below, and someone will take a look at it. Alternately, you can ask any member of the project to rate the article again. Please note that some of the available levels have an associated formal review process; this is documented in the assessment scale.
- 10. Aren't the ratings subjective?
- Yes, they are somewhat subjective, but it's the best system we've been able to devise. If you have a better idea, please don't hesitate to let us know!
- 11. What about lists?
- Lists are assessed using the same scale as other articles; however, they progress towards featured list rather than featured article status.
- 12. What if I have a question not listed here?
- If your question concerns the article assessment process specifically, please refer to the discussion page for this department; for any other issues, you can go to the main project discussion page, or contact the project coordinators directly.
Assessment instructions
An article's assessment is generated from the class parameter in the {{WPMILHIST}} project banner on its talk page (see the project banner instructions for more details on the exact syntax):
- {{WPMILHIST| ... | class=??? | ...}}
The following values may be used:
- FA (adds articles to Category:FA-Class military history articles)
- A (adds articles to Category:A-Class military history articles)
- GA (adds articles to Category:GA-Class military history articles)
- B (adds articles to Category:B-Class military history articles)
- Start (adds articles to Category:Start-Class military history articles)
- Stub (adds articles to Category:Stub-Class military history articles)
- DAB (for disambiguation pages; adds pages to Category:Military history disambiguation pages)
Note that lists are assessed using the same scale as other articles; however, they progress towards featured list rather than featured article status.
Pages outside the main namespace (such as portals, images, categories, and user pages) are automatically assigned a class of "NA", indicating that they lie outside the assessment scheme.
Articles for which a valid class is not provided are listed in Category:Unassessed military history articles. The class should be assigned according to the quality scale below.
Quality scale
| Class | Criteria | Formal process | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
 FA
|
Reserved for articles that meet the featured article criteria and have received featured article status after community review. | Featured article candidates | Victoria Cross (as of April 2008) |
 A
|
Reserved for articles that have received A-Class status after review by the project. Such articles are expected to largely meet the featured article criteria, and must be comprehensive, accurate, well-sourced, and decently-written; however, they may require some further copyediting. | A-Class review | USS Siboney (ID-2999) (as of April 2008) |
 GA
|
Reserved for articles that meet the good article criteria and have received good article status. | Good article nominations | Siege of Damascus (as of April 2008) |
| B | The article meets the following five criteria:
See also the B-Class assessment & criteria FAQ. |
May be assigned by any reviewer
A checklist is available through {{WPMILHIST}} to track the criteria (see the project banner instructions for more details) |
Vicenzo Camporini (as of April 2008) |
| Start | The article has a meaningful amount of good content, but it is still weak in many areas, and may lack a key element; it has at least one serious element of gathered materials, including any one of the following:
|
May be assigned by any reviewer | Thomas Müller (SS officer) (as of April 2008) |
| Stub | The article is either a very short article or a rough collection of information that will need much work to bring it to A-Class level. It is usually very short, but can be of any length if the material is irrelevant or incomprehensible. | May be assigned by any reviewer | Bengal Regiment (as of April 2008) |
Statistics
Current status
| Military history pages by quality | ||
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ||
| Total | ||
| FA
|
1,437 | |
| FL
|
150 | |
| A
|
672 | |
| AL
|
35 | |
| GA
|
5,400 | |
| B | 20,398 | |
| BL | 330 | |
| C | 63,424 | |
| CL | 992 | |
| Start | 106,197 | |
| Stub | 27,028 | |
| List | 4,021 | |
| Category | 41,755 | |
| Disambig | 2,341 | |
| File | 4,543 | |
| Portal | 12 | |
| Project | 199 | |
| Redirect | 22,642 | |
| Template | 8,096 | |
| Draft | 382 | |
| Assessed | 310,054 | |
| Unassessed | 20 | |
| Total | 310,074 | |
Task force statistics
Requests for assessment
- Please also check Category:Unassessed military history articles for articles needing assessment.
If you have made significant changes to an article and would like an outside opinion on a new rating for it, please feel free to list it below. Requests for formal A-Class review should be made at the review department. You could also consider entering articles you have worked on in the military history article writing contest.
Charles Symonds, medical doctor who served in both World Wars, initially as dispatch rider, then army medical officer in WWI. Neurologist for the RAF in WWII. David Underdown (talk) 11:16, 12 June 2008 (UTC)- Done - assessed as start class. Does not meet B-class criteria 5 (the article lacks images/suporting materials). --Eurocopter (talk) 11:28, 12 June 2008 (UTC)
Treaty of Versailles This article seems to be suffering a lot from vandals and POV pushers. I think it needs re-assessing, also with regard to its current suitability for Wikipedia for Schools (CD). More watchers and possibly semi-protection might also be necessary to retain any semblance of quality.--Boson (talk) 19:34, 12 June 2008 (UTC)- Done - assessed as start class. Does not meet B-class criteria 1 (entire sections/paragraphs are unreferenced). --Eurocopter (talk) 19:47, 12 June 2008 (UTC)
- Carleton Island, in the St. Lawrence River, played role as site of British Fort Haldimand in Revolutionary War, captured by the US in War of 1812, only territorial gain made by either side in War of 1812. HMS Ontario built there. Phlegm Rooster (talk) 06:39, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
Add new requests above this line
If you are interested in more extensive comments on an article, please list it for peer review instead.
Backlog of articles for assessment by class
The articles in Category:Unassessed military history articles need assessing by class. After assessment, they are automatically removed from this category.
Backlog of articles for tagging by task force
The articles in Category:Military history articles with no associated task force need tagging to allocate to task forces. After task forces have been assigned, they are automatically removed from the category.
Log
A full log of assessment changes for the past thirty days is available; unfortunately, due to its extreme size, it cannot be transcluded directly.