Archive:Watch Rating for Articles
This is a proposal for a policy and should not be relied upon in any way.
In the Article Checklist added to all talk pages, there will be a new category added. This will be called the Watch Rating.
Definitions
For the purposes of this policy, an editor shall be considered "inactive" if they have not made an edit to the wiki within the most recent 10 days.
Who may rate?
Only editors and the Editor-in-Chief and his or her designee(s) may rate articles. It shall be the goal to proactively rate all articles. However, it is acceptable for the rating to occur upon specific request to an editor by any contributor.
The Watch-Ratings
There will be four Watch Ratings:
- Low
- Medium
- High
- Draft-Mode
Colloquially, the articles will be referred to as Low-Watch, Medium-Watch, High-Watch, and Draft-Mode.
Low-Watch articles
Low-watch articles are those deemed by an editor to be of little concern, controversy-wise. It will be helpful for editor, constabulary, and other functions to have these so categorized.
Additionally, for articles rated Low-Watch, fair use images may be added prior them being nominated for approval.
Medium-Watch articles
Medium-watch articles are those deemed by an editor to be of medium concern, controversy-wise. It will be helpful for editor, constabulary, and other functions to have these so categorized.
High-Watch articles
High-watch articles are those deemed by an editor to be of high concern, controversy-wise. It will be helpful for editor, constabulary, and other functions to have these so categorized.
High-Watch articles in Draft-Mode
Three area editors, in agreement, or in the absence of three two, or in the absence of two one, may move High-Watch articles into a draft-only mode. In this case, a simple "under construction" template shall be added to the article page stating words to the effect, "This article is being constructed on the Draft Page. Please join in."
Reasons for placing a High-Watch article into Draft-Mode include:
- When the article is not so bad as to be blanked but in some other way may serve to damage the reputation of Citizendium and its contributors and be a disservice to readers.
- As a conflict reducing measure to achieve cooler heads and thus higher-quality outputs.
It will additionally be helpful for constabulary and other functions to have these so categorized.
- Removing High-Watch articles from Draft-Mode
The editor(s) who initially assigned a High-Watch article to Draft-Mode may remove it to article space and/or reassign it to another rating. In cases where the assigning editor(s) are inactive, it should be reassigned by the same. In cases where one or two have become inactive, the remaining editor(s) may reassign the article. In cases where all have become inactive, another area editor may serve the function.
Reassigning articles from one watch-rating to another
Any area editor may reassign articles to either a lower or higher category. However, when the initially assigning editor is active, the task should be deferred to him or her.
Conflict of interests
An editor may not singularly assign a watch-list rating to an article he or she is a principle writer of. In such a case, an editor from a related area to which the article is assigned may assign the rating.
Conflict resolution
Authors may request an Article-rating Review from another area editor or in the absence of such the Editor-in-Chief or his or her designee(s). Editor disagreements over article assignments shall be decided by the Editor-in-Chief or his or her designee(s), who may also carry out all functions of this policy when area editors are unavailable or a lone editor is in a conflict of interest.