The following are my criteria for various debates on Wikipedia. They are not absolute, but nearly so.
FAC edit
- Sources—sources must be varied, and reliable secondary print sources must dominate. Inline citations must be used to document the source of all information in the article.
- Writing—language must comply with WP:NPOV, and writing quality must be high. Basic grammar rules must be observed, varied sentence structure and vocabulary should be employed, and basic structure must be strong.
- Formatting—basic Wikipedia formatting rules must be followed. Dates must be wikilinked; lone years should generally not be. Bold text should be used only in the first sentence of the lead. Inline citations should always follow punctuation. No inline external links should be present.
AfD edit
- Verifiable—the article's subject must be covered (with more than passing mention) in reliable, independent, and secondary print sources, including but not limited to books published by reputable publishing houses, magazines with significant circulation, local newspapers (not necessarily including college newspapers), and national newspapers. Note that online versions of print sources are generally sufficient.
RfA edit
- Level-headed—the user must demonstrate the ability to politely engage in debate over content that s/he created, divisive subjects (such as politics or religion), or Wikipedia policy. Fighting for a position is highly commendable; doing so in an impolite or agressive way (even if WP:CIVIL or WP:NPA are not broken) is unacceptable for an administrator.
- Policy knowledge—the user must demonstrate, through his/her actions and comments, a strong understanding of key Wikipedia policy, such as WP:NOT, WP:NPOV, WP:V, WP:NOR, WP:NPA, and WP:CIVIL.
- Corollary:Accusing others of "personal attacks" that fall outside the definition on WP:NPA is unacceptable for an administrator.
RfB edit
- Administrator—the user must demonstrate an exceptionally strong command of the points covered under RfA, which can only occur after lengthy service as an administrator.
- Need—a need for more bureaucrats must exist.