Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Ricketts Glen State Park/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by SandyGeorgia 13:56, 15 August 2010 [1].

Ricketts Glen State Park[edit]

Featured article candidates/Ricketts Glen State Park/archive1

Nominator(s):Dincher (talk) and Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 01:31, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

We are nominating this for featured article because we believe it represents some of the best work that Wikipedia has to offer regarding state parks. It follows a format and style very similar to that of Black Moshannon State Park, Worlds End State Park, Leonard Harrison State Park, Colton Point State Park, and Cherry Springs State Park, which are all featured articles that we have worked on. Please note there is also an FA subarticle on Waterfalls in Ricketts Glen State Park. This article has undergone an extensive peer review (thanks to Finetooth, Niagara, and Ben MacDui) and we thank Michael Devore, who caught many of the typos. This follows the MOS here, specifically it uses "title case for common names of species throughout, and lower case for common names of groups of species (the Golden Eagle is a relatively large eagle)".

This park is one of the crown jewels of Pennsylvania's state park system, and we hope this article does it justice. Thanks in advance for any feedback, Dincher (talk) and Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 01:31, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comments: all of the image licenses check out. There are no disambiguation links nor any dead external links. Imzadi 1979 → 07:03, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Thanks for checking these, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 11:43, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  - You're quite welcome. Trust me, it was fun verifying all 24 component images of your waterfall series were properly licensed. After the eighth or ninth image I started wondering if I hadn't accidentally skipped one... the waterfalls all start to look alike. :) It's good to see that we have Wikipedians that can write and take good photos for their articles. Imzadi 1979 → 11:54, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    - Thanks for your kind words and sorry for the extra work. The park is much better in person, but glad the photos are appreciated. Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 13:57, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

My thanks too. --Dincher (talk) 22:03, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support for this excellent and beautifully illustrated article. As noted above, I was one of the peer reviewers, and all of my concerns have been addressed. Finetooth (talk) 16:58, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your support. --Dincher (talk) 22:03, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, thanks for your review, edits, kind words, and support, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 22:55, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sources comments

~~Tomasak book lacks ISBN~~

~~Ref 91: it is not clear exactly what is being cited here. In what physical form does this source exist?~~

~~Perhaps ref 122 should appear as a footnote, rather than here?~~

Otherwise, sources look OK, no outstanding issues. I hope to give the article a proper reading later. Brianboulton (talk) 18:22, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the quick review. I will have to defer to Ruhr on these. Dincher (talk) 22:09, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

My thanks too. I fixed ref 91 - it is web page, but I forgot the URL - sorry and thanks for catching it. I also moved ref 122 into the notes - it was already a ref to one of the notes, so I made it a parenthetical comment there. Tomasak's book does not have an ISBN or OCLC - it is a small print run and I think it may be self-published (not sure who is behind North Mountain Publishing). Tomasak is the author of three other books with ISBNs and OCLCs - one a Civil War soldier's journal he edited, one a history of R. Bruce Ricketts' battery in the Civil War, and one a history of the Mountain Springs ice operations and lake (see here), so he is a published author on Ricketts' life and the history of the region. He is also cited by the Pennsylvania Game Commission's officer for the State Game Lands by the park in the Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce's web page on the village of Ricketts - see here. The book is also good at providing sources used and where it overlaps with other sources, it usually checks out (i.e. the helicopter lumbering). Where it disagrees, it cites credible sources that I have not been able to check out myself (dates of the Lake Ganoga purchase and house construction cite a series of 1941 news articles and land office records, plus US Post office records). So I think it is a reliable source, even though it does not have an ISBN or OCLC. Thanks again, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 22:55, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That is fine. All sources matters resolved. Brianboulton (talk) 23:34, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your careful review, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 00:09, 11 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, thank you. Dincher (talk) 00:10, 11 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support, I peer reviewed this and have since added it to the list of PA state parks I'd like visit sometime.

How exact should the acreage of the park be? I was perusing the Pennsylvania Manual and noticed that it listed Ricketts Glen as 13,046.54 acres. Niagara ^{Don't give up the ship} 00:21, 11 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Thanks for the support. I am not sure about how exact the acreage should be, but it can't hurt to be as exact as possible. Does the manual have the acreage for all the parks? Dincher (talk) 01:20, 11 August 2010 (UTC)r[reply]
  - (ec) Thanks for your review and support. I did not think to check Pennsylvania Manual - I know when I checked it in the past, some of the results were really far off. Hyner View State Park is 6 acres in all sources but the Pennsylvania Manual, which lists it as 40 acres (667% bigger). In cases like this where they are very close, I am fine with using the Manual. Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 01:33, 11 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    - I added the acreage per the PA Manual - thanks for adding it to Presque Isle. Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 01:48, 11 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
      - I wonder if rounding the area to the nearest whole number in the prose would make it read better? The area for Hyner View could be an error, maybe an email to the PA DGS would be in order. Niagara ^{Don't give up the ship} 01:56, 11 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
        Great idea, I changed it in the text and kept the decimals in the infobox - thanks, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 02:08, 11 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support ~~Lookin' good so far...~~ - conditional on looking at the two things below. Made it all the way down to Geology and climate before finding anything to query....Casliber (talk · contribs) 01:59, 12 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

~~I think I'd move the from the Devonian and Carboniferous periods segment up a paragraph to were formed (xxxx) between 370 and 340 million years ago in here. It is disconcerting~~ to me to read the time period in one para and the named periods a para later. I think the rest is okay as is.

I moved the named periods back as you suggested and tweaked waht was left of the sentence they used to be in, thanks. Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 02:22, 12 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

~~Erm...I think birds and fish qualify as Wildlife - I think you need to renamed that bit, how about furry critters just mammals?~~

Well, the Important Bird Area used to be a subsection of Wildlife (so Wildlie was a level three header and IBA was level four). Would that be better? Thanks, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 02:22, 12 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I changed the header to Mammals. Thanks for your edits, kind words, and (conditional) support. Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 02:49, 12 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Then there's the issue of the fish, but now is fine :) Casliber (talk · contribs) 02:57, 12 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks again - if you have more suggestions, please make them. Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 03:06, 12 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your support. --Dincher (talk) 03:21, 12 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support. As noted above, I too was one of the peer reviewers, and all of my concerns have been addressed. A few small points.

Ref 6 - works just as well without the trailing "s" on Leonard Harrison State Parks, which suggests there are several of them.

fixed. Dincher (talk) 18:01, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ref 67 sic?

Has me stumped too. Dincher (talk) 18:01, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The title of the article spells Millennium with one "n" - the {{sic}} template won't work inside a cite web template, so it is at the end. Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 18:22, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Why the question mark in the template? Its optional. Ben Mac Dui 18:36, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I removed the question mark and moved the [sic] to directly after the "Millenium" in question. Thanks, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 20:29, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ref 103 - Shedding Light on the Eastern Coyote is bust.

fixed, thanks.

Refs 119, 121-22: "Note: shows Ricketts Glen State Park" isn't 100% clear. Perhaps "Includes map of Ricketts Glen State Park." (with a period)?

Ricketts Glen is a green splotch on these maps. They don't show a detailed map of the park. I am leaving them as is for now.

If its just a splotch, why bother with the note at all? Ben Mac Dui 18:36, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The splotches are labeled and they show the distances between the parks. I am not sure if we need the note or not. Dincher (talk) 19:21, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I removed the note from each of the three map refs. Thanks, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 04:02, 15 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There is probably a valid MOS style involved, but to me, "(1st ed.)." et seq. in the Works cited looks peculiar with two periods so close together. "(1st ed.)" or "(1st edition)." would be better IMHO.

The {{cite book}} template does this. Sorry, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 20:29, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It is frustrating that the etymology of "Glen" does not seem to be verifiable. Pls let me know if anything turns up. Ben Mac Dui 16:44, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

thank you for your support! Dincher (talk) 18:01, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

My thanks too. I have replied to one point above, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 18:22, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks again, I need to go to a library that has William Reynolds Ricketts' 1941 three-part series of newspaper articles on his father, R. Bruce Ricketts. It is cited in Tomasak's book, but it may have information not in the book. That is the only source I know of thay I have not checked. Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 04:02, 15 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support: I normally read these articles at leisure, taking time to look at the sumptuous images. For various reasons I've had to be a bit more hurried this time. However, my sense after a reasonably rapid reading is that it well up to the standard of previous articles in the series. I have three small prose queries/suggestions:-
- "Improvements since becoming a state park include..." This is not strictly grammatical. A better wording with the same sense would be "Improvements since the creation of the state park..."
- "...the land became part of Northumberland County, but was soon split into other counties." I don't think the park was "split into" three counties. How about "divided among"?
- "There are relatively few predators like Chain Pickerel and Largemouth Bass..." As worded, this is ambiguous. I take it that the sense intended is that Chain Pickerel and Largemouth Bass are examples of the few predators present. A little rephrasing is necessary to clarify that.

Otherwise I'm more than happy to add my voice in support. A great article. Brianboulton (talk) 13:29, 15 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your support. Dincher (talk) 18:04, 15 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.