A featured portal exemplifies our very best work; it showcases the best of Wikipedia's content in an area and encourages contributions to that area. It has the following attributes.
- It is:
- (a) Useful. It covers a topic that is broad and interesting. Portals that cover minor topic areas are less useful, because their content is limited. A featured portal covers an area that is sufficiently broad and prominent to justify it as an entry-point. Because portals promote the best of Wikipedia's content, a featured portal is selective in what it displays. It showcases only high-quality content that is preferably already featured.
- (b) Attractive. It displays Wikipedia's content in an aesthetically pleasing way. The colours are coherent and complementary, and do not detract from the content. Featured portals have no formatting issues. Red links are limited in number and restricted to aspects that encourage contribution. Article and biography summaries should not significantly exceed 200 words in length.
- (c) Ergonomic. It is coherently constructed to display Wikipedia's content logically and effectively in ways that enhance usefulness and attractiveness. This display is the primary aim, and encouraging contribution is secondary.
- (d) Well-maintained. It is updated regularly to display different aspects of Wikipedia's content in an area. Featured portals may be designed to reduce the required frequency of updating; however, they may be designed to have a higher turnover of content, using structures to ensure regular updates (e.g., WikiProjects). Featured portals that require maintenance and are not updated for three or more months are summarily demoted.
- It adheres to the standards in the Manual of Style and the relevant WikiProject guidelines; this includes conventions on naming, spelling, and style (see Portal and Portal guidelines).
- It has images where appropriate, with concise captions, linked credits, and acceptable copyright status (see Wikipedia:Non-free content).
- It is not self-referential: it does not speak of itself beyond (if at all) a welcome note. Aspects of portals that encourage contribution may be self-referential.
- It should include links to other Wikimedia Foundation projects when applicable. For all portals which have their central focus subject as a specific group of lifeforms, excluding humans, there should be a link to the Wikispecies project.
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