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This is where we determine whether an article is ready for be classified as Star status. Even though the criteria are fairly objective, it's good to get some additional eyes to look over a page and confirm that it's ready before elevating it to Star. For reference, here's the general description, from Wikitravel:Article status:

The article is essentially complete. It meets all of the above criteria. It follows the manual of style exactly or is the exception that proves the rule. Prose is not only near-perfect grammatically but also tight, effective, and enjoyable. It has appropriate illustrations, such as photos and a map. Enough breadth and depth of material is presented that anyone familiar with the subject of the article would have little to point out as absent. Future changes to this kind of article would reflect changes in the subject (e.g. a museum closes, a hotel price changes, a new airport is built) more than they'd require improvements in the coverage.

Objective criteria for Star status varies depending on the kind of article it is. For more concrete guidance on this, see:

• Wikitravel:City guide status
• Wikitravel:Region guide status
• Wikitravel:Country guide status
• Wikitravel:Park guide status
• Wikitravel:Itinerary status
• Wikitravel:Travel topic status
• Wikitravel:Phrasebook status

If you feel that an article currently at Star status is no longer worthy, or never was to begin with, this is also the place to nominate to de-star an article.

[edit] Nominate

You can nominate any "guide" quality article you think is ready to be declared a "star". Please do not nominate an article if you know that it falls short of the criterion above — refer to the info box for a last minute checklist. If there are other nominations on this page, add yours to the bottom of the list. The basic format of a nomination is as follows:

===[[Article name]]===
This has everything we're looking for,
plus a swell kitchen sink. ~~~~

Having done this, please replace the {{guide...}} tag with

{{starnomination}}

at the bottom of the nominated article. You also need to post a note at the Wikitravel:Travellers' Pub to publicize your nomination — remember to tell people that partial critiques and even just a few quick words of support are welcome. These steps help draw attention to the article's nomination, improving the discussion as to whether it should be awarded star status.

[edit] Discuss

Please comment on whether you agree that the nominated article is ready, with a bullet point (*) and your signed opinion. If you think it's ready, a simple "Support" will do. If not, explain what you think is missing or not up to standards. You don't have to leave a detailed critique to vote on the star — partial critiques are welcome, and feel free to just voice your support for the hard work someone else has done.

===[[Article name]]===
This has everything we're looking for, plus a swell kitchen sink.  TravelNut 25:25, 31 Feb 2525 (EDT)
* The sink isn't properly formatted, and there are no "budget" places to sleep. ~~~~

After three weeks of discussion, if a consensus is reached, then that an article becomes a star, and the discussion should be archived. Note that a consensus means that all outstanding objections should have been addressed and dropped; if issues remain then the discussion should either continue or, if they cannot or will not be addressed in reasonable time, the article should be added to the slush pile. Regardless of the outcome, it is useful to copy the nomination discussion to the article's talk page.

[edit] Nominations for Star status

For an archive of previous successful nominations please see Wikitravel:Star nominations/Archives.

[edit] Hilversum

I have been working for a while on my hometown, and I think it turned out nicely. This must be the most thorough coverage of Hilversum in any guidebook, as it is not a well-known travel destination... As I am not a native English speaker, there are probably things that can be improved. So I hope to get some advice and tips on how to make it better, and hopefully it will turn out as a star. Globe-trotter 19:46, 13 September 2009 (EDT)

• Looking good! Feels and reads like a thorough and complete guide. There are plenty of grammar errors sprinkled throughout the article, but they're easy enough to fix (I'll fix some myself when I get the time). A couple notes though - none of the Buy listings have hours, along with an Eat listing (Victor Consael) and a Drink listing (De Dokter), and there seems to be a lot of red links in here. I would look into fixing those two issues, but other than that it seems pretty good. PerryPlanet ^Talk 23:22, 13 September 2009 (EDT)

• Update. Yeah, the grammar errors are my fault, as I am not a native English writer ^^ I did not add the 'buy' hours on purpose, as they are all the same -- they follow the general shopping mall hours (and it's such a long list of hours). But for clarity, we could add them like this: M 1PM-6PM, Tu-W, F 10AM-6PM, Th 10AM-9PM, Sa 10AM-5PM, Su closed. I added the hours for Victor Consael and De Dokter. All the links I added are of the official website, but it couldn't hurt to look it through once more. Globe-trotter 11:19, 14 September 2009 (EDT)

I think you misunderstood my last point - by "red links" I don't mean the external links, I mean the links to other towns which don't have Wikitravel articles, such as Vinkeveen and Baarn in Get in. It just doesn't look very good; I usually just remove the link and leave the name of the town, until they have an article. PerryPlanet ^Talk 19:17, 14 September 2009 (EDT)

Ah yes, I misunderstood. I removed the red links, except in the 'Get Out' section. Globe-trotter 19:36, 14 September 2009 (EDT)

For the record, I believe red links on a Wiki are to be encouraged, where appropriate. Red links encourage article creation, which is vital for the health of a Wiki. LtPowers 08:51, 22 September 2009 (EDT)

I agree with LtPowers. Red links for valid cities should never be removed. If red links are so unbearable, then it's better to make them outlines than the get rid of them. As mentioned above, it encourages users to make these pages and shows us where there is work to be done rather than providing a false sense of completeness. Oh, and I support Hilversum, as well. ChubbyWimbus 23:21, 28 September 2009 (EDT)

• Support - Museum Hilversum and Fortuna's Pool Garden lacks opening hours, and I'd like to see some descriptions in the Internet section, but that's minor issues. --Stefan (sertmann) ^Talk 14:47, 28 September 2009 (EDT)

I added the hours for Museum Hilversum and modified the internet descriptions somewhat, Will add the hours of the pool center later. Globe-trotter 20:08, 29 September 2009 (EDT)

• Support (belatedly). Fantastic article, great work—I especially love this photo! I feel confident in assuming it to be the best guide to the city out there. Two suggestions to make the map a little more readable: 1) change map icon fonts to bitstream vera sans bold & enlarge a bit for better readability & 2) do the same for map text (street names, mostly) to bitstream vera sans bold for better readability when printed. --Peter ^Talk 06:04, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

• I will change the font of the map in the coming days. Globe-trotter 19:56, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

• Support, English is a little exotic in places, but has an appropriately Dutch feel to it. Pbsouthwood 10:17, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

About 5 weeks since nomination now, Any outstanding issues? Peter (Southwood) ^Talk 16:14, 26 October 2009 (EDT)

• Update, I fixed all the issues, except for the hours of Fortuna's Pool Garden. I cannot find them online, so I'll cycle over there tomorrow to check myself. Globe-trotter 21:02, 1 November 2009 (EST)

• Update. Also fixed Fortuna's hours, so now there are no outstanding issues left anymore. Globe-trotter 17:02, 6 November 2009 (EST)

Please do the honours yourself, I've heard it's mighty satisfying :) --Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 21:06, 6 November 2009 (EST)

[edit] Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay/Long Beach Simon's Town

Motivation: This is the first dive site to reach the stage where star nomination is appropriate (by my criteria), so I have nominated it to get feedback so that a standard can be set for dive sites. This site is reasonably typical of one of a range of site types. Pbsouthwood 13:36, 11 October 2009 (EDT)

My proposed criteria for star status for a dive site follow:

→ Moved to Talk page (Stefan)

Some edits have been done to keep formatting in line with modifications to Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay/Pinnacle, also a star nomination at this time, and which has has far more attention. Also a few content improvements. Still waiting for a direct comment on this one though. Peter (Southwood) ^Talk 16:21, 26 October 2009 (EDT)

[edit] Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay/Pinnacle

Motivation: This is the second dive site to reach the stage where it can be considered for Star status, and it is sufficiently different from Long Beach (nominated above) to be a useful comparison. Pbsouthwood 08:11, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

We're breaking new ground here, so I imagine there will be some issues to iron out, but to kick this one of.

• The position paragraph feels a bit awkward, maybe it will look better if the coordinates are just moved to the top and the info incorporated in the introduction.
• The depth paragraph could use a rephrase.
• It's a normal star criteria, that I think also fits here, that all "attractions" should be marked on the map; in this case I'm missing the the cave, the islet and especially the entry gully - it took me a while to to see that red path, let alone figure out this is probably the one leading to entry point. Also that green line is lost on me - pebbles/sand border?

Other than that, this is awesome work! And I like the feel of this guide much better than than the other nomination btw, it reads much more easily. --Stefan (sertmann) ^Talk 10:54, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

Thanks for the comments Stefan.

• I have rewritten the position paragraph. I am not sure what you mean in your comment. Are you suggeting that the information is put into the leader paragraph with the coordinates first item on the page? (and delete the 'Position' subsection). This would be possible with this site, but for some sites it may be necessary to provide more complex information involving bearings and distances, so the idea was to keep all that sort of information in one place. Moving the position subsection ahead of the access subsection might be an improvement, so I will look at that possibility.
• I have rewritten the depth paragraph. I dont know if it is much better. It should be a little clearer at least.
• Your comments on the map are valid. I will sort this out. Add labels for attractions and landmarks and make the path clearer.
• Thanks for the appreciation. A lot of hours went into mapping this site, as I swam each of the contour lines towing a GPS to record a track. The green line is, as you assume, the border between pebbles and sand. As all the colour codes for the water are depth bands, I didnt want to confuse the issue by using a colour code for bottom type. Not sure how to improve this, but will give it some thought.
• This site is very different from the other, which is why I chose to nominate them together, as any style and layout decisions should be applicable to both. Pbsouthwood 09:12, 14 October 2009 (EDT)

I have made the changes to the map, but although the full size image is changed, the thumbnail remains the same even after purging the cache for the page. Pbsouthwood 15:01, 14 October 2009 (EDT)

The new map shows up on my PC, so it's probably a local catching issue. Anyway, went over the article again, and my biggest remaining worry is that long list of nudibranches - long lists in articles are not my cup of tea - so I thought it over, and came up with a suggestion for a different organisation on the talk page. --Stefan (sertmann) ^Talk 16:52, 14 October 2009 (EDT)

• Interesting and very well written. Stefan's suggestions about the Nudibranch section on the talk page are very apt I think. A few other comments:

• I am wondering why the Understand section comes after Get in? That jars a bit.
• As a point of grammar, initial capitals are surely wrong when giving an English name of a species? Eg: ghost nudibranch and not Ghost nudibranch.
• Internal link markup is largely absent in the article. Eg: Gordon's Bay.--Burmesedays 10:56, 19 October 2009 (EDT)

Hi Burmesedays.

• I am still trying to think of a better way to deal with the nudibranchs. I dont want to have to leave out the ones I dont have photos for, and red links in a gallery would not look good.
• Understand after Get in can be changed if there is consensus or at least a second opinion. I don't have strong feelings about it. It is something that just happened as the formatting developed.
• My position on capitalising English names of species is mildly pragmatic. If I dont capitalise, in some cases it is impossible to tell if it is a proper name for the species or just a description. Agile klipfish is the accepted common name for a particular species. How would you know this if it was written as agile klipfish? If I do it for one, I would prefer for consistency to do it for all. I am open to discussion here.
• Good point on internal links. I will sort this out. Unfortunately I have about 150 dive sites to correct, but that just means it will take a while. You get this with R&D. Pbsouthwood 13:13, 19 October 2009 (EDT)

Regarding the missing pictures of Nudibranches, have you tried looking here and here? All those a freely licensed, and egliable for upload here. I understand if you don't find it entirely kosher to have "nudi" pictures from another site, but I always find myself rooting for pragmatism :) I'll be happy to try and help locate any missing pictures if you tell me which ones you are missing. --Stefan (sertmann) ^Talk 16:30, 19 October 2009 (EDT)

I have put in internal links in the leader paragraph of all the Cape Peninsula and False Bay sites.

• I will try out Get in after Understand. It makes sense.
• I will also look at how the article looks with a gallery as suggested, using photos from other sites as placeholders. Thanks for the links, Stefan. Many of the relevant photos were taken by a friend. Not really surprising I suppose. Pbsouthwood 12:18, 22 October 2009 (EDT)

Stefan and Burmesedays:

• I have rearranged the order of sections as suggested by Burmesedays, and moved "Position" into "Understamd", where it seems a little more at home. I am still hoping for a better heading than "Topography" for that section, but still have not thought of an improvement. "Layout" is the only alternative that seems appropriate, but I am not quite happy with it. (Topography is technically accurate, but maybe a bit technical)
• I would like opinions on the new arrangement: Keep, Revert or Try again?

I'm happy with it, I follows our general guidelines as far as it's feasible without sacrificing usability for those who really need it, the divers. Topography is fine in my book, where as "Suggested Routes" could probably be renamed to our standard "Itineraries" without sacrificing anything (I think?). That nudibranch list is still a (and about the only) dealbraker for me though, for a star guide I'm not really happy with good enough. If you can come up with a different way of presenting them from my suggestion I'd be more than willing to listen, but currently it doesn't have that professional feel that we generally want from our stars - so I'd really like to see if that gallery fixes that nagging feeling. --Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 17:25, 22 October 2009 (EDT)

Thanks Stefan, How would you feel about just "Routes"? Itineraries sounds a bit grandiose for an underwater swim. Maybe someone else will venture a second opinion.

I will get out a test run of your gallery suggestion, as I cant think of anything better. Maybe it will look better than I expect. Pbsouthwood 02:23, 23 October 2009 (EDT)

I have re-arranged the section as a gallery. It does not appear to work for the printable version. Peter (Southwood) ^Talk 10:56, 26 October 2009 (EDT)

• Support cool, think I'm happy now. Once we finally get a Mediawiki upgrade and access to common.js, it should be made collapsible, until then I'll be happy to slap a star after this one - great work. And the printable version works fine for me btw. --Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 11:21, 26 October 2009 (EDT)

• Very well done Peter. Having the understand section first really does help. And the gallery works nicely. My only slight caveat is the map. I think it is compulsory that a Star article should have a Wikitravelised map? You obviously put a lot of work into getting the data for this map. I can have a go at Wikitravelising it a little if you want and upload for you to check? I see that just a png is uploaded, do you have a svg version of the map? Otherwise it is a lot of re-tracing. Otherwise, the article seems perfect to me. --Burmesedays 08:30, 7 November 2009 (EST)

Hi Burmesedays, I see you have been quite active with mapwork recently. All my maps were done on CorelDraw, so are originally vector graphics. Unfortunately I have not yet found out how to convert an output from CorelDraw to SVG. I can produce any of the file types optional to CorelDraw 9, but then I am stuck. Do you have any suggestions? Converting the map manually will be at least tens of hours of work. the original took probably over 100 hours, not counting the sitework. -- Peter (Southwood) ^Talk 01:10, 8 November 2009 (EST)

Hi Peter. I am not a CorelDraw user so have no idea. It is apparently possible to output svg though in version 10 or newer. Anyone else ever managed this? If not, a re-trace in Inkscape is certainly possible and I am happy to try this - I did the main land section of this map quite quickly yesterday. Perhaps though someone else should put forward a view as to whether a WT style map is necessary for the article to gain star status. As I said, apart from that, to my eye this is now a star article. --Burmesedays 01:25, 8 November 2009 (EST)

Hi Burmesedays, Your "output svg" link does not work for me. I will upload the Coreldraw file to shared when I get back home later today so anyone who wants to try the conversion can have a go. Unfortunately upgrading CorelDraw is not a financially sensible option at this stage. I dont use it enough to justify the expense just to be able to output SVG files, which I only need for Wikitravel at present. -- Peter (Southwood) ^Talk 02:15, 8 November 2009 (EST)

It seems like you cant get there from here. Shared will not upload the source file as a .cdr. If anyone wants to try converting it I will have to mail it direct. -- Peter (Southwood) ^Talk 02:47, 8 November 2009 (EST)

Is CDR your only available output format? If you can export it as a WMF or PDF or EPS then InkScape can open it. LtPowers 10:10, 8 November 2009 (EST)

[edit] Teaching English

This was nominated some time back and rejected. It would have been our first star travel topic, and one of the issues was that we weren't entirely clear on criteria for a star topic. The same issue may come up for the dive site topics.

Some of the other issues raised in the earlier rejection have been addressed. Others, like not being "complete" in a sense that requires a book, have been ignored. Is it ready now? Pashley 21:46, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

Some of Gorilla Jones' concerns do not seem to have been addressed, but I think he made some valid points. This article doesn't offer much for those actually teaching it, nor does it offer much comparative information between countries/regions. I also think this article has an Asia focus that the title does not imply. There are scattered references to the Middle East and Europe, but a lot more could be said about these, I imagine. Latin America is on the list as a "popular" place for teaching English yet if I am considering doing this in Latin America, the article doesn't offer me much (absolutely nothing specific about this supposedly popular choice). If I am considering teaching English in Africa, the article is definitely not going to help. I think most people do end up in Asia, but the article should still mention the full scope of possibilities, because "Teaching English" is done elsewhere. Including these atypical destinations would also put our guide above most others, that are also focused around China, Japan, and Korea. ChubbyWimbus 02:21, 23 October 2009 (EDT)

A few observations:

1. Does the article have to provide much for those actually teaching? There are links to sites which presumably do just that. What information for people actually teaching would be considered appropriate?
2. Requiring equal representation for all possible places where English may be taught by a traveller might be an excessive requirement, and perhaps would prevent the article from ever reaching star status. One possible way around this might be to have the main article "Teaching English", and regional sub articles. In this way the main article could be rated a star if at least one region is a star. Also it might be useful to the user if it is split into regions.
3. Is "Teaching English" the best title? A large number of teachers of English do it with no connection to travelling except their daily commute. OK, I realise that this is Wikitravel and anything in it will automatically be assumed to have some connection with travel, but there may be a better title. Peter (Southwood) ^Talk 02:55, 3 November 2009 (EST)

Well, it is called "Teaching English", so it's not a stretch to think that someone might expect to find pointers and suggestions for those already teaching it. As far as number 2 is concerned, I think it is completely reasonable to expect an article to cover the topic fully in order to be a star, and no article is entitled to star status. If no one adds information about Latin America, Africa, Middle East, or Europe, then I don't see why it should be a star. If the New York City article only mentioned Manhattan, would we call it a star? If star status articles are supposed to be the best guide Wikitravel (or any source) could offer on a particular subject, then I don't think we can expect this article to ever be a star if we make assumptions about where people do or should teach English. I'm not sure if splitting it by region/continent/country would be better or not. ChubbyWimbus 19:10, 3 November 2009 (EST)

I've rewritten the "Destinations" section and made a few changes elsewhere to better cover other places. Comments? Pashley 06:48, 5 November 2009 (EST)

Hi ChubbyWimbus,

1. Your first point and my third point relate. If it had a different title which did not imply that information for people already teaching English should be expected, then that requirement would disappear. I am not advocating such a change, just pointing it out as an option. I dont know or care enough about the subject to have strong opinions on the content.
2. My point is that it should be reasonably practicable for any article to be improved to star status if it is intended for this to be a target. If the idea is that only some classes of article can have the potential to become stars that is different. Technically, requiring that an article is complete may mean that it is complete regardless of the status of sub-articles or other articles lower in the geographical hierarchy, or that the status of subordinate articles is a criterion. This appears to be the case for regions, countries etc, where if I understand correctly, a significant portion of the subordinate articles must be at star or guide level for the high level article to be considered. This is reasonable, as requiring all subordinate articles to be star or guide would make it almost impossible for any other than the lowest level to gain and retain star status. I dont suggest that all non-star subordinate articles be deleted from mention, just that at least some percentage other than all should be required to be at star and guide level. -- Peter (Southwood) ^Talk 01:10, 8 November 2009 (EST)

[edit] Nominations to remove Star status

Whenever possible, articles should be fixed rather than "de-starred". Only nominate articles which cannot be easily elevated/restored to "star" quality. Replace the Star status tag on the article with {{destarnomination}}. Vote "Star" or "Not Star".

[edit] Failed nominations

See Wikitravel:Star nominations/Slush pile for nominations that failed or were withdrawn. Articles should only be renominated when they address criticisms from the previous nomination. Please add the {{starpotential}} to the top of the article's discussion page.