Wikivoyage:Article status

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Wikivoyage articles evolve and mature, as they are edited by various contributors, over time. When assessing an article's status, many factors must be taken into account. The following subjective guidelines are to assist editors in making this assessment, considering the amount of information in an article, and its quality and usefulness. The article's compliance with Wikivoyage's goals and Manual of Style should also be considered.

The status is on a 5-point scale:

Stub - An article with little or no information in it, or not formatted even close to the manual of style. An article with no skeleton template would have this status, which tends to be short-lived: If the article's subject is valid, adding the standard section headers will quickly bring it to "outline" status. If the page has no real chance of ever becoming an article (or even being redirected or merged to an existing article) that meets Wikivoyage's goals, it will typically be tagged {{delete}} and removed. An article unrelated to travel, or a page of graffiti with a nonsense title would be speedily deleted; an article whose ability to meet the criteria is merely questionable or borderline could be nominated for {{vfd}}.
Outline - Has at least an introduction and a template outline laid out for the article, but not much more. Some of the sections may have content, but others are empty. You can tell what this article is going to be about, but it doesn't have enough information to be useful (e.g. get you to a destination and keep you alive there) or it needs major content or Manual of Style fixes.
Usable - An adventurous person could use the article without recourse to other information sources. For most articles, this means they could probably get to the destination, eat, and sleep with just this information. It would probably enable them to find at least the most prominent attraction there. For countries and regions, linked sub-destinations like cities and other destinations should have meaningful content too.
Guide - The article would be helpful for the average voyager, offering alternatives (where applicable) for where to stay and eat, what to see and do, how to get in and out, etc. It provides enough information for at least a few days there, but at least a few things are missing to make this a star article. It follows the manual of style in spirit if not in detail.
Star - 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 each status vary depending on the kind of article it is. For more concrete guidance on assigning status, see:

Wikivoyage:City article status (also for districts and rural areas)
Wikivoyage:Region article status (also for continents and continental sections)
Wikivoyage:Country article status
Wikivoyage:Itinerary status
Wikivoyage:Travel topic status
Wikivoyage:Phrasebook status
Wikivoyage:Park article status
Wikivoyage:Airport article status

Star articles must go through a nomination process before their status is changed, but for any other article status anyone can plunge forward and change the status tag at the end of the article ({{guidecity}}, {{usablecountry}} and so on, see the links above for the full list). But if somebody objects and reverts your change, then state your reasons on the Talk page and let the community work out a consensus.

Only articles in the main namespace have a status.

Type/Status
Matrix

Unranked

Total (line)

Total (auto)

Outline

Usable