Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2013-04-15
How do we fix RfA inactivity?
- AutomaticStrikeout is a former candidate for administrator who began editing Wikipedia in April of 2012. He has written User:AutomaticStrikeout/Should you run for adminship? and Wikipedia:Admins are people too.
- The views expressed in this op-ed are those of the author only; responses and critical commentary are invited in the comments section. The Signpost welcomes proposals for op-eds at our opinion desk.
The RfA process is widely discussed here on the English Wikipedia and it has been well documented that fewer and fewer new Requests for adminship are being filed. There are an abundance of bytes devoted to the discussion and analysis of this situation and plenty of hands have been wrung over the matter. Various RfCs have attempted to find a way to fix the problem. Many proposals have been made offering solutions, some more potentially drastic than others, with the goal of making the changes necessary to kickstart RfA back into regular action. However, Wikipedia operates based on consensus and, to this point, there are have simply been too many disagreeing views for us to reach a consensus on how to increase RfA activity.
Will the new RfA reform come to the rescue of administrators?
16 May 2024
Jimbo's NFT, new arbs, fixing RfA, and financial statements
28 December 2021
Editors discuss Wikipedia's vetting process for administrators
26 September 2021
Administrator cadre continues to contract
31 July 2019
The Collective Consciousness of Admin Userpages
31 January 2019
The last leg of the Admin Ship's current cruise
31 July 2018
What do admins actually do?
29 June 2018
Has the wind gone out of the AdminShip's sails?
24 May 2018
Recent retirements typify problem of admin attrition
18 February 2015
Another admin reform attempt flops
15 April 2013
Requests for adminship reform moves forward
21 January 2013
Adminship from the German perspective
22 October 2012
AdminCom: A proposal for changing the way we select admins
15 October 2012
Is the requests for adminship process 'broken'?
18 June 2012
RFAs and active admins—concerns expressed over the continuing drought
14 February 2011
RfA drought worsens in 2010—wikigeneration gulf emerging
9 August 2010
Experimental request for adminship ends in failure
13 October 2008
Efforts to reform Requests for Adminship spark animated discussion
23 April 2007
News and notes: Arbitrators granted CheckUser rights, milestones
6 February 2006
Featured picture process tweaked, changes to adminship debated
27 June 2005
The problem of decreasing new candidates is clearly a real issue. As this chart details, the amount of new admins being promoted is much lower than it used to be. As recently as January 2008, there were more admins promoted in a month (36) than there were all of last year (28). This year got off to a good start, as we saw 14 successful RfA in the first three months (as opposed to five successful RfA in the first three months of 2012). The chart cited above also demonstrates that the total number of RfA (including unsuccessful) has been declining on a yearly basis, starting in 2008. In 2007, there were 920 RfA. Last year, there were 92. That is an astounding 90% drop!
What is causing the drastic decreases detailed above? Well, I'd imagine many of you have witnessed a scenario in which a prospective candidate is approached on their talk page by someone who offers to nominate them for adminship. The offer is declined, perhaps vehemently, as the prospective candidate does not want to go through the tortures of an RfA. It is no secret that the RfA process can be hard on a candidate. While one could argue that the rigors of the week of an RfA could be seen as preparation for adminship, more often than not, an RfA is unsuccessful and the candidate may not have much to show for his trouble. The high level of scrutiny at an RfA is often a deterrent for qualified candidates and understandably so. I recently wrote an essay titled "Admins are people too"; perhaps a similar essay for admin candidates is in order.
Different editors have different standards for RfA candidates. Arguing the importance of tangible things (like edit count and the candidate's promoted content) causes enough problems. Things can get really interesting when !voters begin exploring the subjective issue of a candidate's personality and if he or she has a demeanor suitable for an admin. Obviously, the standards are higher than they used to be. In 2005, a candidate for adminship began his self-nom statement with the following: "I've been here roughly nine months now, accumulating just about right at 1000 edits." He passed. Nowadays, that would lead to either a SNOW or NOTNOW, probably in a matter of hours. The standards have obviously gotten tougher and that trend could very well continue.
While the decreasing number of admins is cause for concern, it is not necessarily creating major problems just yet. We do have admin backlogs from time to time, and they can be frustrating, but the situation is not yet unworkable. Eventually, however, we recognize that it may be. Therefore, much time and energy has been spent trying to resolve the problem of lessening activity.
Recent major efforts include the attempted RfA reform in 2011 and a lengthy RfC from earlier this year. Obviously, the former has done little, at least noticeably, to improve the situation. The jury is still out on the RfC, but other than a WikiProject for nominators of RfA candidates, it has not yet resulted in anything substantial. The WikiProject has potential, but will it help to increase activity? Only time will tell.
A plethora of new or recycled proposals have been provided over time. It has been argued that we should "lower the bar", allowing candidates to pass with a lower percentage of support than currently required (we know that consensus is not just numbers, but numbers are very important at RfA). There are those who would be more willing to support a candidate if taking away the tools when necessary was easier to do. Others think that unbundling (giving out some of the administrator privileges to non–administrators) might help to prevent major admin backlogs in the future, but enough editors are opposed to this concept in general that it remains unlikely and cannot be relied upon as a solution.
At this point, I do not believe that prolonged discussions attempting to solve the problem are really the way to go. If a perfect answer existed that we could all agree on, it would have been found by now. The ideal goal is for us to have enough good candidates running and succeeding. How do we make that happen? By keeping an eye out for good candidates and by !voting responsibly. Of course, one positive aspect of the current situation is that it is very hard for a poor candidate to pass at RfA. We don't want to over–correct and start letting those poor candidates succeed, but the present status is hindering quality candidates, and thereby hindering Wikipedia. The candidates don't want to run because of the negativity surrounding the process, and I would argue that some of the discussion that attempted to improve RfA but went sour has made the process even less appealing.
All we can do is support the good candidates that do run and encourage more to try. If we ask enough of them, eventually somebody has to say "Yes", right? RfA has a public relations problem among prospective candidates and the best way to fix this is for good candidates to get good results. The problematic lack of candidates will not be changed by unfruitful discussion but rather by hard work.
Reader comments
Unity in Diversity: WikiProject South Africa
- WikiProject U2 is conducting a census to update the project's membership list
- The related projects of WikiProject Plants could use your help, including projects covering horticulture and gardening, carnivorous plants, algae, Banksia, pteridophytes, agriculture, and forestry
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This week, we ventured to WikiProject South Africa. The project was started in February 2005 and is home to 13 pieces of Featured material, 2 A-class Articles, and 21 Good Articles. The project's workload is very rough, with a relative WikiWork rating of 5.44. The members of WikiProject South Africa keep tabs on a variety of watchlists and maintain a list of resources for editors. We interviewed NJR_ZA, Roger (Dodger67), and HelenOnline.
- What motivated you to join WikiProject South Africa? Have you ever lived in South Africa? Do you contribute to the WikiProjects of any other African countries?
- NJR_ZA: WikiProject South Africa was stagnant with little activity and outdated information; I felt I could improve that and attract more support to the project. I am a South African citizen and have lived in the country all my life. I contribute to articles on other African countries, but do not actively participate in their WikiProjects.
- Roger: Joining was simply the logical thing to do. I am South African and I edit many SA related articles.
- HelenOnline: I write and edit articles about SA among other topics. I was born in SA and have lived here most of my life.
- Are any aspects of South Africa better covered by Wikipedia articles than others? What can be done to fill the gaps in coverage?
- NJR_ZA: The best covered South African topic must be List of South African locomotive classes. Apartheid and the Boer Wars are quite well covered, but suffer from a lack of inline citations and occasional bias. The best way to fill the gaps would be to attract additional editors with knowledgeable in the areas that are not so well covered., specifically Science and technology in South Africa, Geology of South Africa and Economy of South Africa.
- Roger: History is fairly well covered in terms of the existence of articles but there are systemic bias problems in many of them. Given the history of the country there are a multitude of South African "realities" - we need more participation particularly from editors who are not white English speaking male South Africans. Biography is quite good too. Gaps exist in, amongst others, Science, Technology, Economics, Business, Natural history, Arts, Linguistics, Current politics.
- HelenOnline: Historical topics seem to be better covered than current topics.
- Do you encounter any difficulties finding reliable sources for articles about South Africa? Has notability been a concern for many articles about South African communities or biographies? Are there any useful repositories of information about South Africa that can be used for sourcing Wikipedia articles?
- NJR_ZA: Except for pre-colonial history, sources are quite readily available. Notability is not a real concern, non-notable articles are generally identified and vfd'd quickly. WP:RSA contains shortlist of some useful repositories and sources, but this can be extended.
- Roger: Sources are generally quite easy to find, mainstream press all have a strong online presence, government publications are also all online.
- HelenOnline: Not really. Afrikaans news sources should not be overlooked. Many notable SA people are not covered or their articles are neglected.
- WikiProject South Africa has a task force for municipalities. Have you contributed to this task force? Are there any other aspects of South Africa that could be better handled by a dedicated task force?
- NJR_ZA: I have in the past contributed to the Municipal task force, but am not currently actively involved; there is a small group of dedicated contributors doing a good job in this area. A News/Current events task force may be useful to co-ordinate the addition of current events to the relevant articles in a structured and cited manner.
- Roger: I do occasionally participate in the Municipalities Task force. I believe we have at least a stub article containing demographic and political data for every single municipality in the country. Such data is very easy to obtain because of the way census and election information is published by the authorities. Expanding most of these articles beyond the bare numbers is however a far more difficult task.
- How does the activity at WikiProject South Africa compare to other African projects? In general, how difficult has it been to attract editors to improve articles about African countries? How can editors with little knownledge of African topics help improve articles about Africa?
- NJR_ZA: There are not many other African projects to compare with and I do not have enough experience with the ones that do exist to make a comparison. Attracting editors to WP:RSA is not all that hard, keeping new members focused and regularly contributing is a lot harder. See answers to the last question on the question below.
- Roger: WikiProject Africa and it's sub projects are not as active as they could be. I am also a member of WikiProject South Sudan, I joined when the project was created when the country was established - I was part of a flurry of activity on WP about South Sudan at the time but I have not seen much action there recently. WikiProject South Africa is by far the most active of the African Projects, I believe this is simply a matter of time and numbers, South Africa has more internet users than the rest of Africa combined, but this is changing slowly as internet infrastructure expands across the continent.
- What are WikiProject South Africa's most urgent needs? How can a new contributor help today?
- NJR_ZA: New contributors can help by:
- Finding references and adding inline citations
- Cleaning up external links
- Identifying and removing obvious bias
- Improving the structure of articles by adding info boxes and navboxes
- Identifying and improving articles that overlap other projects such as Geology of South Africa
- Updating South Africa portal on a more regular basis
- Anything else you'd like to add?
- NJR_ZA: More active participants in the project are required, particularly from across all cultural groups in South Africa.
- Roger: More participants and more demographic diversity among paricipants. Most of the WikiGnome work in the project is done by the same half-dozen or so "usual suspects".
- HelenOnline: We need to find a way to encourage more people to participate constructively.
Next week, we'll try to retain all the new recruits. Until then, show some compassion in the archive.
Reader comments
Another admin reform attempt flops
The most recent move to reform the requests for adminship (RfA) process on the English Wikipedia has failed, after a complex and drawn-out three-step procedure for community input was subject to decreasing participation as time wore on and came up with no clear consensus. The organisers of the RFC were Dank and The ed17 (who as Signpost editor-in-chief deliberately excluded himself from involvement in the writing of this story). Dank wrote that "in 10 years, no broad [RfC] has produced a single improvement to the process, ever, and it's easy to see why many people are pessimistic about what's possible at RfA, or in this RfC." One of the major fears among participants concerned the additional complexity that would result from the reform proposals.
- Round 1
As we reported in January, the current attempts began with a raft of proposals. These were put up for comment in a broad-ranging discussion to narrow down the issues. The first round of discussions involved seven broad categories, voted on over a one-week period:
- what to do about the negative comments in RfA discussions that may discourage a lot of potential worthy candidates (9 support – 14 oppose – 6 neutral)
- the possible imposition of restrictions on who can participate in RfAs (7–8–5)
- a package of improved training, oversight, and removal processes, and "unbundling" of the tools so that adminship is not an all-or-nothing role, but tailored so that more editors can be given fewer tools for specific tasks (30–5–5)
- whether there should be explicit criteria for adminship (22–12–7)
- whether consensus-style RfAs are appropriate (5–18)
- whether there should be a pro-active effort to identify suitable candidates (13–1), and
- whether the benchmark for passing RfA is too high (19–7–2).
Will the new RfA reform come to the rescue of administrators?
16 May 2024
Jimbo's NFT, new arbs, fixing RfA, and financial statements
28 December 2021
Editors discuss Wikipedia's vetting process for administrators
26 September 2021
Administrator cadre continues to contract
31 July 2019
The Collective Consciousness of Admin Userpages
31 January 2019
The last leg of the Admin Ship's current cruise
31 July 2018
What do admins actually do?
29 June 2018
Has the wind gone out of the AdminShip's sails?
24 May 2018
Recent retirements typify problem of admin attrition
18 February 2015
Another admin reform attempt flops
15 April 2013
Requests for adminship reform moves forward
21 January 2013
Adminship from the German perspective
22 October 2012
AdminCom: A proposal for changing the way we select admins
15 October 2012
Is the requests for adminship process 'broken'?
18 June 2012
RFAs and active admins—concerns expressed over the continuing drought
14 February 2011
RfA drought worsens in 2010—wikigeneration gulf emerging
9 August 2010
Experimental request for adminship ends in failure
13 October 2008
Efforts to reform Requests for Adminship spark animated discussion
23 April 2007
News and notes: Arbitrators granted CheckUser rights, milestones
6 February 2006
Featured picture process tweaked, changes to adminship debated
27 June 2005
- Round 2
Some of the issues in Round 1 were refined for this month-long second discussion:
- a probationary period – three or six months were mentioned (16–9–2)
- admin recall (16–8)
- admin apprenticeships – in the order of months (2–5)
- unbundling of certain deletion requests – rollback and account creator were mentioned as previous devolutions of tools (13–0)
- unbundling of limited block/unblock powers (7–2)
- establish criteria for adminship (13–13)
- elected admin "commissioners" to appoint and supervise admins (5–16)
- RfA pass contingent on strings attached – the not unless option (8–4)
- lower the level of numerical support required (3–12)
- automated recruitment of likely good candidates (24–3)
- create a WikiProject for admin nominators (13–0).
The last proposal was acted on by setting up WikiProject Admin Nominators; this is dedicated to supporting editors who are interested in acting as nominators for potential RfA candidates, and now has 24 participants.
- Round 3
For the final round, which lasted a week, the organisers identified three issues they felt stood some chance of gaining consensus; but the discussion was marked by generally lower participation rates and a much stronger reluctance to support reform. The first issue was the not unless proposal; it gained only 2 supports, against 18 opposes. There appeared to be significant concern among opposers about losing control of the standards for passing RfAs, whether by outsourcing judgements to bureacrats or by general messiness. Orlady wrote that it's "too complex, and I can't see it resolving the kinds of issues that can make RfAs problematic". Beeblebrox said: "this would fundamentally change the role of the crat, forcing them into an area that is the exact opposite of what they are normally expected to do". Arbitrator SilkTork was concerned as to why candidates who fail do not re-present themselves: "it might be better to work on the reasons they don't come back, rather than attempt to paint over the crack".
The second issue in round 3 was to create a new user-right for limited power to issue blocks for vandalism or unsuitable usernames, on the premise that the existing admin corps will soon be unable to manage these tasks satisfactorily (an assumption queried by Scottywong). Only 9 editors supported, against 31 opposes. SmokeyJoe said: "The ability to block newcomers is more dangerous to the future of the project than poor blocks of regulars who know how to respond." Kurtis said, "I think many regular editors involved in AIV, UAA, and SPI are sensible enough to avoid wantonly blocking good-faith contributors". Manning's opinion was: "How on earth would we discriminate between those good enough for "Admin-lite" but mysteriously not able to be trusted with the full janitorial toolset? To boot, adding yet another layer of hierarchy would only worsen the perceived gap between "full" admins and regular editors." To Wizardman and others, "this is the absolute last userright I'd unbundle."
The third and final proposal was for a probationary period for new admins. This failed 8–14–1, not helped by indecision as to whether it should apply to borderline or all RfAs, a matter that Hammersoft pointed out. Participants were generally unhappy with the lack of certainty involved in giving up the binary pass–fail system. Anthony Bradbury said: "An editor is either trustworthy in the eyes of the community, or s/he is not." Regentspark's comment seemed to sum up much of the sentiment: "We should be aiming to simplify the process, not complicate it."
The organisers stated that "The next step is to see how much of a difference the four proposals that passed in Round Two will make: Concerned editors start searching for quality candidates, Auto-prospecting, Project for nominators, and Unbundling - some U1 and G7s." In their view, if no consensus for reform is generated, "we'll need to take a closer look at what jobs aren't getting done as the admin corps shrinks, and what can be done about that".
WereSpielChequers, who has written several Signpost reports on the admin drought, told us:
| “ | Obviously it concerns me that the latest RFC has not resulted in major reform. ... Despite the strongest quarter at RfA for a couple of years, we have not yet broken the drought, though the decline in the number of new RfAs may have finally bottomed out. The RFC rejected both the solutions that in my view could have fixed the problem and the solution that would have stabilised the situation. So we are going to have to get used to a community where only a minority of even the experienced editors are admins, and as numbers decline we are going to have to find ways of reducing our need for admins. ... Many of those who opposed the unbundling of the ability to block IPs and editors with fewer than 100 edits only opposed it because we haven't yet run out of admins. Hopefully such editors will be more open to the idea as our admin numbers dwindle. | ” |
- International comparisons
Very little is known among each of the the 285 Wikipedia communities about this critical aspect of governance in their sister projects. The Signpost asked several prominent editors in foreign-language Wikipedias about their admin situation.
Canton-de-l'Est writes the widely read French WP news outlet RAW. He told the Signpost that over the past year 11 admins have been elected (equating to nearly 70 new admins on the English WP, given that the French WP has about 16% of the number of active editors); this brings the total numbers to around 180, he says. "There's a feeling that we don't have enough admins – a perception that comes mainly from the admin community". Interestingly, once a contributor gets the broom, anyone with the standard minimum qualifications on the site may challenge its status. This is a highly formalised system centering on a noticeboard. Cantons says that the way this operates has appeared to change over time. "A year ago, a challenge was received with some openness; but nowadays, challenges are receiving their share of criticisms – and not only from the sysop who is under fire (see examples here and here)". He says that many admins have resigned since the procedure was established. "While some years ago we worried that many challenges would try to pin down an admin on shaky grounds, this no longer seems to be a problem." A lot of admins work without scrutiny from day to day, according to Cantons, through their openness, willingness to explain, skill in writing French, and forgiveness. "For others, a wikiday can be like a rollercoaster."
The Signpost reported last year on the major reform of the German WP admin system, the introduction of an obligatory recall page; if 25 editors within three months, or 50 within six months, sign that they feel an admin should stand for re-election, the admin has the choice of either standing for re-election or standing down. This has been credited by some as bringing about a relatively low RfA barrier and better admin–community relations. We asked Gestumblindi, a key sponsor in the 2009 reforms, whether this will be the last change for a long time.
| “ | Currently, there's no really active proposal for further reforms. Some months ago, there was an attempt at creating an "admin on trial" permission which I was involved in. The idea was to get more admins by creating a time-limited "trial" admin permission with lower requirements, which would need confirmation through a "regular" candidature – e.g. after 3 months – to get permanent admin permissions. The first draft was shelved, however, after a negative response from the WMF. You can read our correspondence to Geoff Brigham, the WMF's General Counsel (in English), and the response here. A second draft was started, but is currently dormant. The prerequisites as set out by the WMF would make the requirements for an "admin on trial" very similar to those for regular admin privileges, and ideas of an "admin mentoring program" sound rather unattractive for new candidates, so I think it will not be revived in the near future. I'm not aware of other current "formalized" proposals, ... My personal guess is that there will be no major reform in 2013, but one never knows. | ” |
Simon Shek has been an admin sysop on the Chinese WP since 2007, which he says has 79 admins. "I have seen the RfA process on the Chinese WP become harsher than it was back when I started, with increasingly high expectations of community participants in RfAs (success requires at least 25 valid votes and 80% support within two weeks). Admins, he says, block about 27 users a day. Is admin behaviour ever regarded as a problem on the Chinese WP? "Yes! We sometimes have poor decisions about deletion and blocking. In such cases, another admin will review these decisions. Adminship can be removed by community consensus and voting. Two admins have been removed in this way. I don't think our RfA process will see any dramatic changes in the near future."
In brief
- Education in Namibia: The Wikimedia Blog, in conjunction with the Wikipedia Education Program, has published a piece by Peter Gallert, an English Wikipedia editor and lecturer at Polytechnic of Namibia, on his Wikipedia-related work in the African country.
- Core Contest begins: The Core Contest, an English Wikipedia initiative to increase the quality of important articles—which in the past has included topics like the Alps, Ecosystem, and the Middle Ages—has begun its first competition of 2013. £250 in prizes will be given out to multiple editors; article entries can be submitted until 12 May at Wikipedia:The Core Contest/Entries. Editors are encouraged to collaborate with others and participate in this initiative, which aims to "focus on improving Wikipedia's most important articles, particularly those in the worst state of disrepair."
- Audit Subcommittee candidates: The English Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee has invited the community to comment on the six Audit Subcommittee candidates. Nomination statements and answers to standard questions are available at the appointments page, and comments will be accepted until 17 April. The candidates are Guerillero, Jake Wartenberg, MBisanz, Penwhale, Richwales, and TParis.
- Language committee: The Language committee, which advises the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) on the creation of new language versions of the current WMF sites, has opened its mailing list to read-only subscribers.
- Quarterly reviews: The WMF's quarterly review process, which critically examines key WMF initiatives so that they are accountable, on the right track, and do not to reallocate resources, has met with the "E3" team (editor engagement experiments) for the second time. The notes from that have been published on Meta, the coordinating wiki for the Foundation, its component sister projects, and the volunteer communities involved in all of them.
Reader comments
The featured process swings into high gear
Featured articles
- Alcohol laws of New Jersey (nom) by ColonelHenry. The state laws governing the control of alcohol beverages in New Jersey are unique. They are among of the most complex in the United States and contain many peculiarities not found in other states. State law provides for 29 distinct liquor licenses granted to manufacturers and for the public warehousing and transporting of alcoholic beverages. General authority for the statutory and regulatory control of alcoholic beverages rests with the state government.
- George Harrison (nom) by Evanh2008. George Harrison (1943–2001) was an English musician, singer, and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Harrison also released several best-selling singles and albums as a solo performer, and in 1988 co-founded the supergroup the Traveling Wilburys.
- King Island Emu (nom) by FunkMonk. The King Island Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae ater) is an extinct subspecies of Emu, that was endemic to King Island. The King Island Emu was the smallest of all emus, and had darker plumage than the mainland Emu. It was black and brown, and had naked blue skin on the neck, although in common with mainland Emus its chicks were striped. They were distinct from the Kangaroo Island Emu in a number of osteological details, including size.
- George Herriman (nom) by Curly Turkey. George Herriman (1880–1944) was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Krazy Kat. Herriman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and grew up in Los Angeles. After he graduated from high school in 1897, he was employed in the newspaper industry as an illustrator and engraver. He moved on to cartooning and comic strips, and drew a variety of strips until he introduced his most famous character, Krazy Kat, in his strip The Dingbat Family in 1910.
Featured lists
- List of international cricket centuries by Aravinda de Silva (nom) by Vibhijain. Aravinda de Silva (born 1965) is a former cricketer and captain of the Sri Lanka national cricket team. During his career he scored twenty centuries in Test and eleven in ODI cricket matches organised by the ICC.
- BBC Sports Unsung Hero Award (nom) by The Rambling Man. The BBC Sports Unsung Hero Award is an award given annually as part of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony each December. The award is given to the sportsperson who has made a substantive yet unrecognised contribution to sport. Sportspeople are nominated by the public, and must be aged at least 16 years on 1 January that year.
- List of international cricket centuries by Michael Clarke (nom) by The Rambling Man. Michael Clarke (born 1981) is an Australian cricketer and captain of the Australia national cricket team. To date he has scored twenty-three centuries in Test and seven in ODI cricket matches during his international career.
- List of international cricket centuries by Mohammad Azharuddin (nom) by Vensatry. Mohammad Azharuddin (born 1963) is a former cricketer and captain of the Indian cricket team. During his career he scored twenty-two centuries in Test and seven in ODI cricket matches organised by the ICC.
- List of Major League Baseball pitchers with 18 strikeouts in one game (nom) by Bloom6132. In baseball a strikeout occurs when a pitcher throws three strikes to a batter during his time at bat. Eighteen different pitchers have struck out at least 18 batters in a single nine-inning Major League Baseball game as of 2013, the most recent being Ben Sheets of the Milwaukee Brewers on May 16, 2004.
- Gotye discography (nom) by Holiday56. Belgian-Australian singer Gotye (born 1980) has released three studio albums, one remix album, seven singles and sixteen music videos throughout his career. His debut, Boardface, was released in 2003.
- Satyajit Ray filmography (nom) by Vivvt. Satyajit Ray (1921–1992) was an Indian film-maker who worked prominently in Bengali cinema. He has often been regarded as one of the great directors of world cinema. During his career he directed thirty-one films, and contributed to thirty-nine others.
- List of awards and nominations received by Fiona Apple (nom) by Another Believer. Fiona Apple (born 1977) is an American pop singer-songwriter. During her career she received twenty-three nominations and won six awards. In 1998 she won a Grammy Award for her song Criminal.
- South Africa national women's cricket team record by opponent (nom) by Harrias. The South Africa national women's cricket team has represented South Africa in international women's cricket since 1960. Since then the team has played eleven Test, 105 ODI and thirty T20I cricket matches.
- List of New Mexico hurricanes (nom) by Yellow Evan. The inland U.S. state of New Mexico has experienced impacts from 78 known tropical cyclones and their remnants. There have been 65 known tropical cyclones from the Eastern Pacific that affected the state, compared to only 13 such Atlantic hurricanes. The biggest threat from such storms in the state is their associated rainfall and flooding.
- List of current Indian chief ministers (nom) by Indopug. The Chief Minister is the elected head of government of a state of India, who holds the executive authority and is appointed by the governor of the state. The chief minister' term is usually for a maximum of five years, but there are no limits to the number of terms he can serve.
- List of roller coaster rankings (nom) by Astros4477. Roller coasters are amusement rides developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. The first roller coasters, where the train was attached to a wooden track, appeared in France in the early 1800s. Although wooden roller coasters are still being produced, steel roller coasters are more common and can be found on every continent except Antarctica.
Featured pictures
- Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych (nom; related article), created by Jan van Eyck and nominated by Crisco 1492. The Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych consists of two small painted panels attributed to the Early Netherlandish artist Jan van Eyck, with areas finished by unidentified followers or members of his workshop.
- $5 U.S. banknote of the Demand Notes depicting Alexander Hamilton (nom; related article), created by the American Banknote Company, scanned and nominated by Godot13 at the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. A Demand Note is a type of United States paper money that was issued between August 1861 and April 1862 during the American Civil War in denominations of 5, 10, and 20 US$. The U.S. government placed the Demand Notes into circulation by using them to pay expenses incurred during the Civil War, including the salaries of its workers and military personnel. This image is part of a set of Demand Notes.
- $10 U.S. banknote of the Demand Notes depicting Abraham Lincoln (nom; related article), created by the American Banknote Company, scanned and nominated by Godot13 at the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. This image is part of a set of Demand Notes.
- $20 U.S. banknote of the Demand Notes depicting the Liberty Vignette (nom; related article), created by the American Banknote Company, scanned and nominated by Godot13 at the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. This image is part of a set of Demand Notes.
- Aurora Borealis (nom; related article), created by Frederic Edwin Church and nominated by Pine. Aurora Borealis is an 1865 painting by Frederic Edwin Church of the Aurora Borealis and the arctic expedition of Dr. Isaac Hayes. The painting measures 56 x 83 1/2 in. (142.3 x 212.2 cm) and is now owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
- A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie (nom; related article), created by Albert Bierstadt and nominated by Keraunoscopia. A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie is an 1866 landscape oil painting by German-American painter Albert Bierstadt that was inspired by sketches created on an 1863 expedition.
- Yacht racing (nom; related article), created and nominated by WPPilot. Yacht racing is a form of sport reserved for sailing vessels of substantial size and weight. “Yacht” is referred to as deriving from either Norwegian ("jagt"), Middle Low German ("jaght") or from the Dutch word jacht, which means a swift light vessel of war, commerce or pleasure.
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