User:MrWeeble/FA
Introduction[edit]
I have decided to attempt to take an article that I have created all the way to featured article status. Why do I want to do this? Well, I have been editing on wikipedia for a while now and, while I add information that is useful, tidy up some messy articles, and add templates and the like, I don't feel that I have made something spectacular. So with this in mind I shall attempt to take an ordinary article that I have created into one of wikipedia's best. An article I have created has already made it that far, however I made little contribution to that article beyond it initial creation, so I don't feel that counts.
Obviously in this I shall not be acting alone, by its very nature wikipedia is a collaborative medium and I of course welcome this, however I shall probably be taking more of an interest in this page than anybody else.
The page I have chose is Southend Pier. I initially wrote this article in the summer, in an earlier attempt to make a notable article - specifically I wanted it to appear on Did You Know.... Unfortunately for me, I took so long trying to write the perfect article, an anonymous user had added a one sentence sub-stub, thus depriving me of the opportunity to submit it.
So why Southend Pier. Well I live in Southend-on-Sea so have access to a number of primary sources, such as the pier museum, that people in other areas may not have access to, thus I am fairly well qualified to write on it. Also it is a notable structure due to it's record breaking length. Finally, it is notable in that it was recently severley damaged in a fire, and thus is currently undergoing reconstruction. This currency makes the process interesting for me, more so than a structure that no longer exists or has not changed for a long while.
Finally why have I decided to document my progress. Well it occurs to be that it may be of interest to other wikipedians, if I am successful, they can see what I did right and converely, if I fail, then they can see what I did wrong.
So anyway. How am I going to do this? Well, the path to a featured article (right) gives a number of suggestions. Step 1 is of course done. Step 2 is a little trickier, how do I know if it is great? Well cheking against the featured article criteria (step 3) it seems we lack some citations wich makes the article ungreat. So what I shall do is go though and add references and citations where I can. So that looks to be task #1