User blog comment:Sprinklemist/Should Featured Image voting discontinue? (Admins please comment, but anyone can reply)/@comment-1874924-20100430031351

Having the admins select FI is acceptable to me, but I prefer the current system for several reasons:

First, as with the FS voting page, the FI voting page is a great place to publicize good new works. I owe a great deal to the ability to publicize unknown works in this way.

Second, without the current nomination process, a feature-worthy image might not come to the admins’ attention in a timely fashion.

Third, and most important, two of the wiki’s most prolific and accomplished artists (Sprink and Sunshine) are also admins. This would put the admins in a delicate position: do they vote for a fellow admin’s (or even their own) image and risk being accused of conflict of interest? Do they make a point of not voting for such images, and risk penalizing an image that deserves to be featured?

If voter turnout is a concern, the admins might consider setting a minimum vote requirement for FI status, and reserve the right to select the FI if no nominee meets that threshold in a given month.

In any case, I think the list of nominees--for all categories, not just FI--should be cleared periodically, possibly even every month.

Personally, the only category I don’t vote on is FC, because I’m mainly a noncomp reader, although that may change as I get more time to read things.