If you are reading this page then I probably objected an article you nominated on the basis of one of the objections listed below. Since they are fairly common (and usually lead to a lot of repetitive arguing on FLC) I decided it would be more convenient for me to explain my objections once and refer nominators to them. All these objections are considered to be actionable and therefore cause the nomination to be unsuccesful if they are not addressed.
- 1.—Proper references are not optional. The fact that an article is a "list" does not excempt it from listing the references used to compile it in the article itself. Lists are still part of the article namespace and are still required to state their sources, specially if they are nominated to become Featured material. Additionally:
- Links to other Wikipedia articles do not serve as sources. If your list is of such nature that you need to add a different source for every item you still have to include them, even if it makes the references section longer than the list itself. Additionally, Wikipedia is not a "third party" as required in Wikipedia:Verifiability. Therefore the sources used to write a Wikipedia article should be stated again if used in a second article.
- For web references, use the {{cite web}} reference style and always fill the "accessdate" parameter. This is important because it gives the reader an idea of how old the information is and makes searches on the Internet Archive easier should the original link ever go dead. It is also standard academic practice, and since we are here to write an encyclopedia after all, we should probably include them too.
- 2.—Write rationales for all Fair Use images. This is seen often in lists of episodes where a screenshot is used in both the episode's article and the list. Custom has it that the text in the Fair Use license tag is enough rationale for the first use of the image, however additional uses of the image require a Fair Use rationale in the image's description page as stated in the Fair Use policy:
For each article for which fair use is claimed, the name of the article and a "fair use rationale" as explained in Wikipedia:Image description page. The rationale must be presented in a manner that can be clearly understood and which is relevant to the article in question. [Emphasis mine]
- 3.—On the subject of images, please make sure the source and copyright information of all images (including free ones) appearing in the list is clearly sorted out.
- 4.—Avoid an excess of red links. Lists are meant to be useful in two ways: they can set the context of an article better than a category or they can highlight missing articles within a topic. However it has been stablished that too many red links detract from the usefulness of the list.
- 5.—Abusive template usage. Do not do it, specially for formatting (e.g. table colours and such). It can be disruptive if a vandal strikes and their inclusion is rarely useful.
- 6.—State clear inclusion criteria on the lead section. Provide sufficient background lead as to give (a) a proper introduction to the subject of the list, and (b) a clear rationale for the in/exclusion of items in the list.
Other precedent edit
I keep this list for my own reference, but thought people may still find it useful.
- A consensus has been stablished that lists do not have to link to other articles, as long as the list is informative enough. This is often the case where the items on the list do not deserve their own separate article. While not a FL, List of Mega Man weapons is a potential example of this situation. (See brief discussion at Wikipedia_talk:Featured_list_candidates#Lists_that_don.27t_have_links)
- To my knowledge, there have not been significant objections over the majority of the articles linked from a list being stubs.
- Precedent for point 1 above (not comprehensive):
- Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/Trade bloc. Lack of sufficient references.
- Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of Stargate SG-1 episodes (Archive 1). Lack of references.
- Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of unusual deaths. Wikilinks are not enough, every item must be referenced.
- Precedent for point 2:
- Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of South Park episodes/archive2. Canonical example.
- Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of South Park episodes. When it finally passed.
- Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of Stargate SG-1 episodes (Archive 1).
- Precedent for point 4:
- Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of rock and roll albums.
- Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of state leaders in 1339.
- Wikipedia:Featured list removal candidates/Sri Lankan national cricket captains. A list that lost featured status for excess of redlinks.
- Precedent for point 5:
- Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of Prime Ministers of Canada
- Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of Liverpool F.C. players
- Precedent for point 6:
- Almost every nomination on FLC suffers of this problem. An interesting recent case was Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of world's expositions.