Jump to content

Wikipedia:April Fools/April Fools' Day 2022/Horrible articles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
MainCriteriaInstructionsNominationsDiscussion

Horrible articles in Wikipedia

A horrible article (HA) is considered to be one of the worst articles Wikipedia has to offer, as determined by Wikipedia's editors. They are used by editors to determine the best ways not to write an article. A horrible article is an article that fails to meet basic literary standards, the horrible article criteria, and completes the horrible article nomination process without revealing a shred of good faith. They are written by humans, contain biased or libelous information, are narrow in coverage, unstable and emotionally violent, and with many pasted paragraphs from news articles. Horrible articles do not have to be as terrible as deleted articles (DA), but they should not be suitable for any use whatsoever in order to qualify for consideration against the horrible article criteria.

Currently, out of the 6,915,010 articles on Wikipedia, 3,682 are categorized as horrible articles (about 1 in 1,879). Because articles cannot be a horrible article if they have been deleted, horrible article status is exclusive to deleted article status. A small minus sign inside a circle () in the top-right corner of an article indicates that the article is awful.

The process of designating an article as a horrible article is intentionally distressful. Any editor, preferably one who didn't create or have anything to do with the article, who believes the article is absolutely, entirely meets the horrible article criteria, may nominate the article for an impartial editor to assess. During the review period, the article is compared against the horrible article criteria. If it is accepted by at least two reviewers, it is added to the list of horrible articles below. Anyone may nominate or review an article by following the instructions. Likewise, anyone who believes an article has improved beyond the scope of a horrible article may propose to delist it by following the instructions for reassessment.

More awful content is available at Wikipedia:Articles for Deletion.