Wikipedia:WikiProject California/San Francisco Bay Area task force/Assessment

One of the main tasks of the WikiProject San Francisco Bay Area is to assess the quality of Wikipedia's SFBA articles. The resulting article ratings are used within the project to help in recognizing excellent contributions and identifying topics in need of further work. They also play a role in the WP:1.0 program, which the WikiProject uses to help automate some of the assessing process.

The assessment is done in a distributed fashion through parameters in the Wikipedia:WikiProject California/San Francisco Bay Area task force project banner; this causes the articles to be placed in the appropriate sub-categories of Category:San Francisco Bay Area articles by quality. WP:1.0 then produces a statistics page, and a log of articles assessed, reassessed, and renamed. (a log showing older assessments exists here).

How to assess

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An article's assessment is generated on its talkpage from the class parameter in {{WikiProject California}}, the WikiProject's banner. To add the banner, add the following to its talkpage:

{{WikiProject California|sfba=yes|sfba-importance=}}, thus the exact text being added is "{{WikiProject California|class= |importance= |sfba=yes|sfba-importance= }}"

To add an assessment, simply fill in the class parameter with the appropriate letters. The following values may be used:

Quality scale

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WikiProject San Francisco Bay Area uses the same criteria for grading articles as set out by the Version 1.0 Editorial Team. If you are not sure what class an article falls under, leave a note on the WikiProject's talkpage, and someone will help you out.

Importance scale

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The criteria used for rating article importance are not meant to be an absolute or canonical view of how significant the topic is. Rather, they attempt to gauge the probability of the average reader of Wikipedia needing to look up the topic (and thus the immediate need to have a suitably well-written article on it). Thus, subjects with greater popular notability may be rated higher than topics which are arguably more "important" but which are of interest primarily to students of hagiography. Importance does not equate to quality; a featured article could rate 'mid' on importance. Note also that in cases where an article is covered by other WikiProjects in addition to than this one, the importance rating for that article may be different for this project than it is for the other projects. Importance is only part of several factors used to determine inclusion in release versions of Wikipedia content, see Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/SelectionBot for more information on how articles are scored for inclusion.

The criteria and examples given for the San Francisco Bay Area task force importance scale are works in progress. Please make modifications or add examples as needed, or discuss at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject San Francisco Bay Area

  • ??? (adds pages to Category:Unknown-importance San Francisco Bay Area articles); this is automatically assigned to any article whose importance is not graded. Ideally, this category should always be empty. Most Wikiprojects have a large number in this category. Our is currently empty! lets keep it that way!
Article importance grading scheme
Label Criteria Examples
Top Subject is a "core" or "key" topic for the SFBA, is widely famous woldwide and/or generally notable to people other than students of SFBA. This includes counties; the largest cities; main subject articles (SFBA history, geography, climate, economy, etc.); major universities; iconic structures and major geographic features known outside the area; and critical or defining events and persons. Oakland, San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Bridge, Bay Area Rapid Transit, San Jose, California, 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Berkeley, California, Apple Computer
High Subject is notable in a significant and important way within the SFBA, and known and/or notable to specialized audiences outside it. This includes county seats (not already in the Top list); cities of particular importance or populations above 80,000 to 100,000; most remaining accredited four-year colleges; major parks and other significant protected areas; the most prominent local companies and institutions; natural and geographic features of local significance; iconic buildings; regional governments; the most significant historical, cultural, musical or artistic figures and movements Año Nuevo State Reserve, Leland Stanford, Jack London, Grateful Dead, Beat Generation
Mid Subject contributes meaningfully to the SFBA. Subject may not necessarily be famous. This includes the remaining cities and towns; recognized neighborhoods of San Francisco; special districts; community colleges; school districts; subject articles of the form "Education in Foo;" significant Census Designated Places; notable aspects of natural history; major media; significant or large companies and organizations; notable aspects of cultural history, such as SFBA-based art movements; most biographies of important SFBA historical, cultural, and scientific figures, including the most notable SFBA bands Atherton, California, Bay Area Figurative Movement, De Anza College, Alice Eastwood, Dorothea Lange, Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, California,
Low Subject is notable enough for inclusion in Wikipedia but primarily of specialized or local interest, not particularly well known or significant, or included primarily to achieve comprehensive coverage of another topic. This includes most high schools; most buildings; most neighborhoods outside of San Francisco; lesser-known natural areas, such as county open spaces; minor geographic features and aspects of natural history (such as endemic plant and animal species); most companies, organizations, and structures; biographies of less well-known SFBA people, including most local bands, and all the biographies of people or bands originally from the SFBA that are not well connected to it. 16th Street Mission (BART station), Dogtown (Oakland, California), JP MorganChase Building, Rigo 23, San Francisco garter snake