Big Three: 0–1 sections. The first stage of an article's evolution is E-Class. An E-Class article is an extremely short article that provides a basic description of the topic at best; it includes very little meaningful content, and may be little more than a dictionary definition. (This is equivalent to Stub-Class on Wikipedia.)
What are the "Big Three"?
Route description
A prose summary of where the route takes you. There is no set length to this section, but it is reasonable to expect a 300-mile-long highway's RD will be much longer than that of a three-mile-long highway.
History
A chronological listing of events that have happened to the highway, such as extensions, truncations, and reroutings. Length of the section depends on the highway's role in the highway system – sometimes there is a lot to say, other times not.
Route junction list
A sequential table that shows you in what locations highways meet and at what mileposts. In some instances, a bulleted list is used instead.
D-Class
Big Three: 2 sections. An article that undergoes some development will progress to the next stage of article evolution. An article at this stage provides some meaningful content, but is typically incomplete and lacks adequate references, structure, and supporting materials. At this stage, it usually contains a route description and a junction list and will be assessed as a D-Class article. (This is equivalent to Start-Class on Wikipedia.)
C-Class
Big Three: 3 sections. As the article continues to develop, it will reach the C-Class level. At this stage, the article has all three sections and contains substantial content and supporting materials, but may still be incomplete or poorly referenced. As articles progress to this stage, the assessment process begins to take on a more structured form, and specific criteria are introduced against which articles are rated.
B-Class
This would be the second-highest classification of the scale, roughly equivalent to GA-Class from the Wikipedia scheme. We'd craft a specific set of criteria used to evaluate an article for this grade and have a B-Class Review process for nomination and review. Like the GAN process on Wikipedia, a single editor who is not the nominator would be able to conduct and close the review.
In short, we have operated on a system where any editor can assess his or her own work up to C-Class without involving another editor. Once someone is comfortable with how assessments work, the community will trust them to be fair and honest in applying those assessments to articles they work on. B-Class will require an uninvolved editor to conduct the review of a nominated article, and A-Class will require multiple editors to offer comments before the review is closed by an uninvolved admin.
A-Class
This would be the pinnacle of the scale, equivalent to merging FA- and A-Class from the Wikipedia scheme. We'd craft a specific set of criteria used to evaluate an article for this grade and have an A-Class Review that would involved multiple editors reviewing and commenting on the article before promotion. An uninvolved admin would close the review.
Additional classes
List-Class
AL-Class for those lists reviewed against list-specific criteria in the ACR process. (needs a new graphic, perhaps just changing the shades of blue to purple)
Assessment
The AARoads Wiki
E-Class
D-Class
C-Class
B-Class
B-Class Review process for nomination and review. Like the GAN process on Wikipedia, a single editor who is not the nominator would be able to conduct and close the review.
A-Class
A-Class Review that would involved multiple editors reviewing and commenting on the article before promotion. An uninvolved admin would close the review.
List-Class
AL-Class for those lists reviewed against list-specific criteria in the ACR process. (needs a new graphic, perhaps just changing the shades of blue to purple)
File-Class
Category-Class
Project-Class
Disambig-Class, etc.
