I was thinking today that we need to get the wikipedia page about FIRST to some seriously high quality standards. It’s pretty good already, but if we can make it a featured page and, Dean willing, get it as the page of the day, that would do a lot towards spreading the word of FIRST.
I understand there is FirstWiki, but FirstWiki is preaching to the converted and addicted. If you get the millions of visitors to wikipedia reading the FIRST page (especially if they are teachers or students), you could greatly increase the exposure of FIRST in the wider community.
Needed:
-Plenty of wiki links
-Perhaps move the Vex and Lego sections to their own pages and improve those pages as well
-Good Sources for each statement (i.e. the FIRST homepage or news articles. Linking to other wikis like Firstwiki is better than nothing, but since it is a wiki, it’s not a rock-hard source)
-Good, large, clear photos. I added one, but you can see that it is blurry at large size. Pictures taken with really good cameras by great photographers would be good.
-Longer descriptions
–Ideas for new areas:
—Awards
—FIRST in the community (what chairman’s awards do)
—History
—Monetary aspects (what it costs, where money comes from)
-Good descriptions of ALL the linked games from yesteryears, maybe even pictures of them in progress at each of the linked pages (I’ll work on this)
–For all the old games, a description of the game, who won the championship, a description of an average match, possible strategies, and maybe a discussion of the winning strategy would be good. I’m working on Maize Craze at the moment, but since I was 6 when that particular game happened, I don’t know any of those things.
Here’s the wikipedia criteria for featured articles:
It exemplifies our very best work.
It is well written, comprehensive, factually accurate, neutral, and stable. Read Great writing and The perfect article to see how high the standards are set. In this respect:
(a) “well written” means that the prose is compelling, even brilliant;
(b) “comprehensive” means that an article covers the topic in its entirety, and does not neglect any major facts or details;
© “factually accurate” includes the supporting of facts with specific evidence and external citations (see Wikipedia:Verifiability); these include a “References” section where the references are set out, complemented where appropriate by inline citations (see Wikipedia:Citing sources). For articles with footnotes or endnotes, the meta:cite format is strongly encouraged;
(d) “neutral” means that an article is uncontroversial in its neutrality and factual accuracy (see Wikipedia:Neutral point of view); and
(e) “stable” means that an article does not change significantly from day to day and is not the subject of ongoing edit wars.
It complies with the standards set out in the style manual and relevant WikiProjects. These include having:
(a) a concise lead section that summarizes the entire topic and prepares the reader for the higher level of detail in the subsequent sections;
(b) a proper system of hierarchical headings; and
© a substantial but not overwhelming table of contents (see Wikipedia:Section).
It has images where appropriate, with succinct captions and acceptable copyright status; however, including images is not a prerequisite for a featured article.
It is of appropriate length, staying tightly focused on the main topic without going into unnecessary detail; it uses summary style to cover sub-topics that are treated in greater detail in any “daughter” articles.