Wikipedia and the 2008 US elections/Manual of style for top pages
The "top pages" (that address a particular article) should have a consistent style and flow, in order to produce the most readable results. Substituted templates can be used to create a basic structure that can then be filled in and expanded upon.
Graphics
[edit | edit source]Most pages should have an infobox (Template:Wikipedia and the 2008 US elections-ibox), including:
- when the article was first created
- when the subject of the article first became notable in the context of the election
- a photo, if available and appropriate
- timeline graphic marking the period(s) when the subject of the article was notable
- total number of article and talk page edits from the beginning of the election until the inauguration
- how many times was the article protected, brought up on a noticeboard, AfDed, etc.
A more detailed timeline would also be good with edits by day, week, or month, sorted by:
- anon, user, and sysop
- content edits, minor edits (copyedits and so on), reverted edits, vandal edits, reverted vandal edits
- mark major campaign events on the timeline to see if there is any correlation between number of edits and news events
Basic questions
[edit | edit source]- was the article started as a stub? if so, how long did it take to lose the stub tag?
- did wikipedia have an article on the subject before the election? if so, compare the article before and after
- were daughter articles created? if so, when? were all of the daughter articles kept?
- what was the relationship between talk page edits and article edits?
- were there edit wars? if so, what were they about, and did they coincide with campaign events?
- was the article protected or placed under probation? if so, why and for how long?
- did the campaigns themselves edit the articles?
- was the article itself ever in the news?