Talk:Farm River State Park/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Ritchie333 (talk · contribs) 16:46, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Happy to review this. I have family living near here, so I might put this on my list of places to visit if I can ever stump up the cash to go roadtripping around New England. Sorry it's been on the queue for so long.

Lead

• I think the lead would sit better as two paragraphs

I did some clean up to reduce that need. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 18:52, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

• "a 61 acre Connecticut state park on Long Island Sound in the town of East Haven" - suggest "a 61 acre state park on Long Island Sound near East Haven, Connecticut".

Done. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 18:52, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

• "The undeveloped park" - why is it important to say "undeveloped" here?

An undeveloped park is undeveloped, it does not have facilities to further recreational activity - in a sense, it is essentially a natural setting. It is important to note between developed and undeveloped parks because it also refers to the accessibility and use of the park. This means a lack of sitting areas, bathrooms, and management facilities. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 18:52, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

• "which has been known by 15 different names" - do you mean the park or the river?

Removed, and yes it means the river, but this is not important in the lead. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 18:52, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

• "The park is managed for the state by Quinnipiac University" - suggest "it is managed" (and end the paragraph after this sentence)

Resolved in a different way. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 18:52, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

• "from Quinnipiac University." - suggest "the university", we know which one it is from an earlier context

Resolved in a different way. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 18:52, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

History

• "Farm River State Park is made of 61 acres" - suggest "Farm River State Park covers 61 acres"

Fixed. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "According to Leary" - use "Joseph Leary" here (first mention) and briefly describe who he is

Fixed. But no introduction really needed... he is just the author of the book .ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "One of these names, Deborah River," - why is this relevant to the park?

It is another name of the river which runs through the park, and historically the local area was known as such. Whether or not it was within the confines of the future park is debatable however.ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "relates to an incident with Governor Gurdon Saltonstall being stranded upon a rock in the river" - how exactly does this relate to Deborah Chidsey?

Fixed. She left him there and he didn't want to go into the water and ruin his impeccable suit. Townspeople gathered to mock the unpopular Saltonstall until the tide would recede. Any more would be coatracking, but it is implied that it was near or within the park that this occurred. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "as recently as the early 1970s" - just "since the early 1970s" should do

Fixed. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "when acreage was inexpensive" - will "land" do instead of "acreage"?

Fixed. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "before the construction of luxury condominiums" - "luxury homes" maybe? I'm not sure everyone would grasp what a condominium is

Fixed with link. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "a 57 acres parcel" - should be "a 57-acre parcel"

Fixed. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "on the former Lippincott property" - what Lippincott property? This is the first mention of the name in this article :-/

Removed - it was the former owner and it seeps into my writing all too easily because all historic designations follow this. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "which has a marina" - "including a marina" sits better here

Removed it, not really relevant once you think about it. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "The unique geology of the uplands and bedrock outcrops provide the landscape diversity" - this reads a little (but not a lot) too positive for a NPOV article, and is a bit too close to the original source - could things be toned down and reworded a little bit?

You say too positive for NPOV, but this is a civic and not personal matter which is a protected tidal marsh home to endangered species... I feel that these protected areas, known to be special, deserve at least a mention of why they are special. But I fixed it. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "In 2006, Quinnipiac University "received a grant for $86,000...." - rather than a grant, I think it would be better to rephrase the quotation, as the specific text in it isn't important, just the general meaning.

Fixed. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• wi-fi could use a link

Fixed. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "Also in 2006, a house on the site was destroyed by fire that was ruled arson, the building was vacant and planned to be demolished to make way for parking for the Farm River State Park" - I'd probably rewrite this sentence, indeed, probably split it into two sentences. "Ruled arson" is a strange term.

Fixed. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "In 2012, more than a mile of trail from the D.C. Moore School to Farm River State Park and Short Beach Road was cleared" - I don't understand what "clearing" a trail means?

There is no article on this, it just means that you "clear the trail" of debris. Though it is always referred to as "trail clearing" or just "cleared". ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• Do we know anything about the park's history before 1970? I appreciate the park itself is fairly new, so it might have well been in the middle of nowhere and of no importance, so this may not be possible.

Aside from its possible connection to the previous "incident" - nothing concrete. The river had a ferry, but it was not a mill site and was not important in any known way. If this site had native markings or importance it would almost assuredly be mentioned as others have. I always look to see if new information is availiable to update it, but only NRHP has been active. My key issue is that Leary has the only published book on these later parks and the previous volumes are from the 1920s and 1930s and even then it seems that actual study into the parks is non-existent. Some of these parks are little more than nature preserves for endangered species. This seems to fit the bill, don't you think? ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

Activities

• "The Farm River State Park is undeveloped and is difficult to access" - according to whom? Also, just say "the park" here, it's simpler and avoids inconsistencies with "The Farm River State Park" and "Farm River State Park".

New section, so I like to refer by the full name for clarity, but resolved the difficult to access issue. A restricted parking area and a 1500ft walk after getting permission is my thoughts on difficult. Also, I read an account that figures into and supports this - but from a blog - they found the area to be very unfriendly for kayaking. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:46, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "off-trail hiking leads to scenic vistas" - can you reword this - I don't understand what is meant be "scenic vistas"

A long or distant view, there is no article for it either. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:46, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "offers a limited number of passes" - as before, there's no real need to quote this, just rewriting the source in your own words will do

Fixed. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:46, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "In 2004, Leary wrote that a development plan being created that may" - I don't think this is gramatically correct, you probably want to say "In 2004, Leary reported a development plan being created that would"

Fixed. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:46, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• boardwalk could use a link, I don't think the word is common currency worldwide

Fixed. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:46, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "a 0.3 mile walk" - could use a conversion to metric for those strange places that use the metric system ;-)

Fixed. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:46, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "leads to the Farm River State Park waterfront" - as before, use "leads to the park's waterfront"

Fixed. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:46, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

• "Currently, "there is a $20 season pass fee" - as before, I don't think this needs a direct quotation, just paraphrase what the source says.

Fixed. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:46, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

Notes

• You could use the {{efn}} template on this paragraph, and attach it to the first sentence in "History"

Summary

• Not much to say on this, but the article seems to be a reasonable overview of the park and what it offers. The main comments are prose-related, all of which should be relatively quick to resolve, so I'll put the review on hold pending improvements. Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 16:53, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Ritchie333 Fixed everything. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 17:46, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

Chris, I think you've forgotten to save changes, as the only edit since I started the GA review is your one in the lead here. I spot checked the issues in "History" and I can't see evidence that any have been resolved. :-/ Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 17:54, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

Ack. You are correct. Sorry Ritchie333, should be fine now. I did forget to save! Left the edit window open. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 18:17, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

Okay, I've checked through everything. I'm still concerned that the article is a bit on the short side at just under 5K of text with only 7 sources, however having looked myself I'm happy to accept that this is a relatively new park (Yellowstone it ain't) that was previously more or less in the middle of nowhere, and therefore can meet the "broad in coverage" section of the GA criteria. Well done. Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 10:30, 20 November 2014 (UTC)