The assessment department of WikiProject Iowa focuses on assessing the quality of Wikipedia's Iowa articles. The resulting article ratings are used within the project to aid in recognizing excellent contributions and identifying topics in need of further work, and are also expected to play a role in the Version 1.0 Editorial Team program.

The assessment is done in a distributed fashion through parameters in the {{WikiProject United States|class=|importance=|IA=yes|IA-importance=}} project banner; this causes the articles to be placed in the appropriate sub-categories of Category:Iowa articles by quality and Category:Iowa articles by importance, which serves as the foundation for an automatically generated worklist (Index · Statistics · Log)

Frequently ask questions edit

1. What is the purpose of the article ratings?
The rating system allows the project to monitor the quality of articles in our subject areas, and to prioritize work on these articles. It is also utilized by the Wikipedia 1.0 program to prepare for static releases of Wikipedia content. Please note, however, that these ratings are primarily intended for the internal use of the project, and do not necessarily imply any official standing within Wikipedia as a whole.
2. How do I add an article to the WikiProject?
Just add {{WikiProject United States|class=|importance=|IA=yes|IA-importance=}} to the talk page; there's no need to do anything else.
3. Someone put a {{WikiProject United States|IA=yes}} template on an article, but it doesn't seem to be within the project's scope. What should I do?
Because of the large number of articles we deal with, we occasionally make mistakes and add tags to articles that shouldn't have them. If you notice one, feel free to remove the tag, and optionally leave a note on the project talk page (or directly with the person who tagged the article).
4. Who can assess articles?
Any member of the Iowa WikiProject is free to add—or change—the rating of an article. Editors who are not participants in this project are also welcome to assess articles, but should defer to consensus within the project in case of procedural disputes.
5. How do I rate an article?
Check the quality scale and select the level that best matches the state of the article; then, follow the instructions below to add the rating to the project banner on the article's talk page. Please note that some of the available levels have an associated formal review process; this is documented in the assessment scale.
6. Why didn't the reviewer leave any comments?
Unfortunately, due to the volume of articles that need to be assessed, we are unable to leave detailed comments in most cases. If you have particular questions, you might ask the person who assessed the article; they will usually be happy to provide you with their reasoning.
7. What if I don't agree with a rating?
You can ask any member of the project to rate the article again. Please note that some of the available levels have an associated formal review process; this is documented in the assessment scale.
8. Aren't the ratings subjective?
Yes, they are somewhat subjective, but it's the best system we've been able to devise. If you have a better idea, please don't hesitate to let us know!

Instructions edit

Quality assessment edit

An article's quality assessment is generated from the class parameter in the {{WikiProject United States}} project banner on its talk page:

{{WikiProject United States|class=???|IA=yes}}

The following values may be used for the class parameter to describe the quality of the article (see Wikipedia:Content assessment for assessment criteria):

FA (for featured articles only; adds articles to Category:FA-Class Iowa articles)   FA
A (adds articles to Category:A-Class Iowa articles)   A
GA (for good articles only; adds articles to Category:GA-Class Iowa articles)   GA
B (adds articles to Category:B-Class Iowa articles) B
C (adds articles to Category:C-Class Iowa articles) C
Start (adds articles to Category:Start-Class Iowa articles) Start
Stub (adds articles to Category:Stub-Class Iowa articles) Stub
FL (for featured lists only; adds articles to Category:FL-Class Iowa articles)   FL
List (adds articles to Category:List-Class Iowa articles) List

For non-standard grades and non-mainspace content, the following values may be used for the class parameter:

Category (for categories; adds pages to Category:Category-Class Iowa articles) Category
Disambig (for disambiguation pages; adds pages to Category:Disambig-Class Iowa articles) Disambig
Draft (for drafts; adds pages to Category:Draft-Class Iowa articles) Draft
FM (for featured media only; adds pages to Category:FM-Class Iowa articles)   FM
File (for files and timed text; adds pages to Category:File-Class Iowa articles) File
Portal (for portal pages; adds pages to Category:Portal-Class Iowa articles) Portal
Project (for project pages; adds pages to Category:Project-Class Iowa articles) Project
Redirect (for redirect pages; adds pages to Category:Redirect-Class Iowa articles) Redirect
Template (for templates and modules; adds pages to Category:Template-Class Iowa articles) Template
NA (for any other pages where assessment is unnecessary; adds pages to Category:NA-Class Iowa articles) NA
??? (articles for which a valid class has not yet been provided are listed in Category:Unassessed Iowa articles) ???

Quality scale edit

Importance assessment edit

An article's importance assessment is generated from the importance parameter in the {{WikiProject United States}} project banner on its talk page:

{{WikiProject United States|importance=???|IA=yes|IA-importance=???}}

The following values may be used for the importance parameter to describe the relative importance of the article within the project (see Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Priority of topic for assessment criteria):

Top (adds articles to Category:Top-importance Iowa articles)  Top 
High (adds articles to Category:High-importance Iowa articles)  High 
Mid (adds articles to Category:Mid-importance Iowa articles)  Mid 
Low (adds articles to Category:Low-importance Iowa articles)  Low 
NA (adds articles to Category:NA-importance Iowa articles)  NA 
??? (articles for which a valid importance rating has not yet been provided are listed in Category:Unknown-importance Iowa articles)  ??? 

Importance scale edit

Importance must be regarded as a relative term. If priority values are applied within this project, these only reflect the perceived importance to this project and to the work groups the biography falls under. An article judged to be "Top-importance" in one context may be only "Mid-importance" in another project. The criteria used for rating article priority 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.)

April 26, 2024 edit

Reassessed edit

Assessed edit

Removed edit

April 25, 2024 edit

Reassessed edit

  • Austin Baeth (talk) reassessed. Quality rating changed from Unassessed-Class to Start-Class. (rev · t)

Assessed edit

April 24, 2024 edit

Reassessed edit

Assessed edit

April 23, 2024 edit

Reassessed edit

Assessed edit

April 22, 2024 edit

Assessed edit

  • Dan Gehlbach (talk) assessed. Quality assessed as Start-Class. (rev · t) Importance assessed as Unknown-Class. (rev · t)

April 21, 2024 edit

Assessed edit

April 20, 2024 edit

Renamed edit

Assessed edit

  1. ^ For example, this image of the Battle of Normandy is grainy, but very few pictures of that event exist. However, where quite a number of pictures exist, for instance, the moon landing, FPC attempts to select the best of the ones produced.
  2. ^ An image has more encyclopedic value (often abbreviated to "EV" or "enc" in discussions) if it contributes strongly to a single article, rather than contributing weakly to many. Adding an image to numerous articles to gain EV is counterproductive and may antagonize both FPC reviewers and article editors.
  3. ^ While effects such as black and white, sepia, oversaturation, and abnormal angles may be visually pleasing, they often detract from the accurate depiction of the subject.