Forum:Featured Article: new system *needed*

The time has passed to judge the Featured Article on an "Article of the Month" basis. This is doubtless due to a decreased volume in editors—very natural for a show that's off the air and nothing to get pessimistic about. We can't pretend to force ourselves to try to re-energize the old system.

I propose we structure a new ballot criteria based on "vote threshold" instead of month-by-month. The only thing that will change is how votes are counted. The grunt work for labeling FAs will be the same, and so will the eligible voter rules. People can still vote 1 Support and 1 Oppose, and they are free to cancel and change these as desired.

This will be a more fluid system, and articles will remain on the Main Page longer like they already, naturally are doing anyway. We pick a realistic but slightly high number, perhaps 6 votes, at which point the next nominated article becomes featured. It could technically supplant the prior article if this happens in less than 1 month (it's just not likely because of our limited eligible voter traffic). But if 6 votes are not reached by 1 month, the vote threshold drops to 5 votes. If any nomination has 5 votes at that time, it becomes FA. If any nomination gets 5 votes in the upcoming month, it becomes FA. If not, the current one stays up for its second month. Then, at the next new month mark, the threshold drops to 4 votes. Any article with 4 votes at that moment becomes FA. If any nomination gets 4 votes, it becomes FA. If the 4-vote mark isn't reached, the current FA gets its third month as Featured.

This process keeps happening until it reaches 2 votes, at which point it stalls for good until an article gets 2 votes. (I would stop it at 2 because I don't feel comfortable with anything having only 1 vote becoming FA.)

This system may appear complicated, but it comes from my head, so it can't be particularly difficult to grasp. In fact I would like some help phrasing it more efficiently, if you guys agree with it. Thoughts? 11:52, February 23, 2011 (UTC)