User talk:SchroCat/TFA runs

Advice lifted from Gog, Dank, Wehwalt, Mike Christie and others:

Article selection

Use the table at User:SchroCat/TFA runs to plan - re-sorting on Topic can ensure not too many from one subject
Spread topics over the month, trying not to have too many from any subject - any with multiple subjects (popular music or MilHist, for example), spread apart where possible.
TFA Requests and Pending requests can do a lot of the heavy lifting
Wikipedia:Featured articles that haven't been on the Main Page is a source; the 'date connection' subpage is good, but out of date
Use TFA Requests, Pending requests and the 'date connection' page to populate specific dates first, which will give idea of a. how many gaps there are, and b. Where we are already too heavy on certain topics.
Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Featured log shows the newly promoted articles
Check User:SchroCat/TFA blurbs#Notes and possible spares for any possibles
Check selected articles are not listed as scheduled in the interim
Be wary with old articles; they degrade. This is particularly true with certain topics (like BLPs, for example)
If you run a William Etty painting, talk to user Iridescent nicely first.
Most of the FAs not to run, except the first three, are because the editors will make a fuss. A partial list is September Morn / Finn M. W. Caspersen / London Necropolis Company / Political history of medieval Karnataka / Western Chalukya Empire / Peter Sellers / Rod Steiger / Flrence Nagle / Blue men of the Minch. There will be others. Nothing from SagaciousPhil
Reruns: not from the last five years
Try to be sparing with max one or two a week
Note on the chart which are Featured topics, but not GT.

Writing the TFA blurb

Top and tail -
Cut and paste the entire lead; remove all citations and paragraph breaks
The first link in the blurb must be to the TFA article, and it must be in bold
Blurbs with images have total text of 925-1,025 characters. This includes "(Full article...)" or the Featured Topic sentence, but not "(Pictured)" or the caption
Blurbs without images have total text of 1,000 and 1,100 including spaces, including "(Full article...)" and FT info
Don't deviate from the meaning of the lead and/or article without checking with the nominating editor.
If cause-and-effect words (because, due to, so as to, in order to, therefore) aren't already present, don't add them. Same goes for contrast words (but, however, although, despite).
Avoid wall of blue. Max of two consecutive links.
Always place numbers in the context of events or facts rather than scholarly opinion, if possible.
No redirects at all on the MP - pipe anything that needs it

Images

Select image: it must be free - no fair use provisions for the MP
It's possible to crop the image, as it will be small on the MP
If there's no suitable image just leave this out completely
Use {{Main page image/TFA|image= |caption=  }}
If image is not directly of the article subject matter, add (pictured) - this is not counted in the character count

Scheduling TFAR requests

Open the TFAR nomination:
{{TFARsubpage |monthyear=May 2019 [Fill in the correct month and year] |passed= |date=

change this to


{{subst:TFARsubpage

|monthyear=May 2019 [Fill in the correct month and year]
 
|passed=yes

|date=January 1, 2015 (for instance)

If a nomination is withdrawn or rejected, close it and type "no" (instead of "yes" and "date") - leave edit summary with rationale
Remove the nomination from the TFAR page and the summary chart
Any entries in WP:TFARP should also be removed once the date has been scheduled

Creating Monthly template

Should end up with Wikipedia:Today's featured article/Month Year
Go to WP:TFAA and select the right month.
Click on "create" for the proper day. (Work sequentially by date or you'll confuse the bots.)
Paste the blurb and image template

update the {{TFAFULL}} template with the article name
add Featured Topic name (as {{TFAFULL|Fusō-class battleship|Battleships of Japan}}) Those with two topics need to be done manually (as ''('''[[Takin' It Back|This article]]''' is part of two [[Wikipedia:Featured topics|featured topic]]s: '''[[Wikipedia:Featured topics/Takin' It Back|Takin' It Back]]''' and '''''[[Wikipedia:Featured topics/Meghan Trainor albums|''Meghan Trainor albums'']]'''''.)'')

Bots will complete the {{TFAfooter}} elements

Notifications

On the talk page of the scheduled article, in the {{article history}}, below the "|currentstatus=FA" line, add |maindate= [date the TFA will run] and save with an edit summary that mentions TFA. For TFA reruns, use "|maindate2= [date]".
Notify the principal author(s) of the forthcoming appearance, unless it's clear from the TFAR discussion that they already know. (More often than not, notifying the FAC nominator(s) is sufficient ... either they have done most of the editing, or they will be in touch with the main editors. But feel free to notify other main editors as well.)
It's not necessary to apply move-protection to the article; TFA Protector Bot will do that.

Text suggestions

Paste to FAC review talk page as ==[[WP:TFA|TFA]] blurb review==
Include "xxx characters, including spaces.
End with " Hi {{u|}} and anyone else interested: a draft TFA blurb for this article is above. Thoughts, comments and edits are welcome. ~~~~
" Hi {{u|}} and congratulations. A draft TFA blurb for this article is above. Thoughts, comments and edits from you or from anyone else interested are welcome. ~~~~
Use edit summary of " Draft blurb. See [[User:Gog the Mild/Blurbs]] for attribution.
TFAP reminder: " Hi, you have listed [[]] for TFA at pending for February. I have tentatively reserved a date for it, but if you would still like it be considered you will need to nominate it at [[Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests]], which is now open. Cheers. ~~~~
Character limit: " '''Coordinator note''': The character limits for TFA blurbs are between 925 and 1,025 including spaces. The draft blurb above is characters and needs trimming if the nomination is to be valid. Thanks. ~~~~
" '''Coordinator note''': The character limits for TFA blurbs without images are between 1,000 and 1,100 including spaces. The draft blurb above is characters and needs trimming if the nomination is to be valid. Thanks. ~~~~

==[[]] scheduled for TFA==

This is to let you know that the above article has been scheduled as [[WP:TFA|today's featured article]] for August 2024. Please check that the article needs no amendments. Feel free to amend the draft blurb, which can be found at [[Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 2024]], or to make comments on other matters concerning the scheduling of this article at [[Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/August 2024]]. Please keep an eye on that page, as notifications of copy edits to or queries about the draft blurb may be left there by [[user:JennyOz]], who assists the coordinators by reviewing the blurbs, or by others. I also suggest that you watchlist [[Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors]] from two days before it appears on the Main Page. Thanks, and congratulations on your work! ~~~~

And more!

Once that page is created, remove the article from Wikipedia:Featured articles that haven't been on the Main Page/No date connection or Wikipedia:Featured articles that haven't been on the Main Page/Date connection as appropriate.

Monthly template

C&P the following into User:SchroCat/TFA runs for scheduling.

Extended content

Only TFA schedulers should make changes to the table immediately below. But please feel free to note any concerns, queries or thoughts below it. Thanks.

Date	Article	Topic	FAC nominator	Promoted	FTopic?	Rerun?	Request?	Blurb?	Notes
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31