Wikipedia:Featured article review/Sid McMath/archive1

Sid McMath

Review commentary

Messages left at Meeler, Bio, Politics, and Political figures. Sandy 19:11, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

This is a great article, but it does not satisfy criterion 1c. No sources are given (unless one considers the Further reading section as the References section). Hopefully, editors will bring this article up to current standards. RelHistBuff 12:07, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

• Comment - Lacks inline citations (1. c. violation). The further reading section, in my opinion, is real hard on the eyes. For a further reading section all I want is a list of books, book chapters in anthologies, weblinks etc., not prose (whether this is expected I'm unsure). LuciferMorgan 17:28, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

• Comment. Interesting sample text:
  • For an intimate family portrait and a behind-the-scenes narrative, see First Ladies of Arkansas: Women of Their Times, by Anne McMath, ISBN 0-87483-091-5 (August House, 1989). A Ribbon and a Star (Henry Holt, Inc., 1945) is an eye-witness memoir of the Bougainville campaign by one of McMath's staff officers, Capt. John Monks, Jr., written immediately after the engagement. Monks later became a noted playwright and film producer. For a colorful local history of Hot Springs, Arkansas during the McLaughlin period, including the mayor's 1947 indictment and trial, see Leo & Verne: The Spa's Heyday, by Orval Allbritton, with a foreword by McMath, ISBN 0929604-87(Garland County Historical Society, 2003). For another perspective, see P.H. Ramsey, "A Place at the Table: Hot Springs and the GI Revolt," Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Winter 2000).
• This text is—rather than compelling encyclopedic content— a Further reading list. Direct quotes with no citation
  • His Democratic run-off opponent, a former attorney general, accused him of "selling out to the Negro vote."
• Specific facts with no citation
  • In a 1999 opinion poll of political science professors McMath placed fourth on a list of top Arkansas Governors of the 20th century.
• Uncited quotes from editorial opinions, with prose referring to See further
  • George Arnold, Northwest Arkansas opinion editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, observed in a March 2004 column that, "If [McMath] had been able to take Arkansas further down the path to modernization and racial harmony, Arkansas history would have been quite different. Arkansas paid a big price when the public utilities muscled him out of office. [It is] still paying." See Further Reading, below, for continued utility pricing disparity in Arkansas compared to neighboring states.
• These are only a few samples of what is found throughout the text. With no sources, and a lot positive info about this politician, I wonder about POV. Sandy 23:20, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
• Retain: The text is drawn from the sources listed below and is digested and synthesized by the author. Given McMath's own life, it would be hard to be negative, and when the article was being composed I went looking for some anti-McMath sources. There weren't any that I could find. I have had no hand in writing even a single word, but I was called in very early to make sure that it wasn't a hagiography. From what I could tell, there was no way to avoid a positive tone, as every source had one. I suppose the Klan or some majorly biased Arkansas Republican group might have something bad to say, but they're not reliable sources. Geogre 14:52, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Comment: I don't think there is a FARC vote yet. The idea for the FAR is to get it up to current FA standards. The sources should be listed in a References section and there should be inline citations to the sources. RelHistBuff 15:06, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Correct: the current procedure allows for two weeks for review, followed by two weeks in FARC, if necessary. Sandy 21:48, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

FARC commentary

Suggested FA criteria concerns are lack of citations and section layout. Joelito (talk) 15:16, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Mr. McMath's Marine Corps nickname was "The Traveler", according to J. Mnnks, Ribbon and a Star, Henry Holt, Inc. NY 1945. This should be changed in the next edit.

• Remove No inline cites (1. c. violation) and the "Further reading" section needs a cleanup. LuciferMorgan 11:32, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
• Remove. Per above.--Yannismarou 11:03, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
• Strong Remove per all above. There's a distinct lack of academic rigor in this article.UberCryxic 17:43, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
• Comment Nobody is working on this at all, so defeature immediately since the month window has expired. LuciferMorgan 19:10, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

'Reader Comment' This excellent article, apparently by several knowledgable contributors working separately over more than 2 years, is precisely the kind of succinct, reader friendly product for which wikipedia strives. Although it has been read by hundreds of browsers over the past 2-plus years, none appears to have logged any significant complaint of error or mis-statement. If one who is a mere reader may do so, I would strongly urge that a less drastic yet more productive manner of dealing with lapses of source, form and lexicography would be to safeguard the article's featured status while urging in line referencing and source checking by readers familiar with Southern history and bibliography. Reader:Sam Hogg--No Handle.

• Comment The way to safeguard FA status is to repair the article and bring it up to proper standard. If no one works on it, then it still remains in Wikipedia to be enjoyed by those hundreds of browsers; it's just no longer FA. RelHistBuff 08:03, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

'Reader Comment' I see your point, without conceding that the piece is splendid as is and would suffer from "committee" beavering. It would be helpful if wiki contributors familiar with the area were encouraged to have a go at source verification, citation, etc. so as to steer the article into format compliance. Reader: Sam Hogg