Template:Did you know nominations/David M. Wilson

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Cwmhiraeth (talk) 07:06, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

David M. Wilson

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Vikings invading England
Vikings invading England

2x expanded and sourced (BLP) by Usernameunique (talk). Self-nominated at 07:56, 7 January 2018 (UTC).

Interesting life, on good sources, no copyvio obvious. The image is licensed and pretty, but doesn't show too well in stamp size. - I have a few wishes for the article: Chronology in the career section / titles of his works consistently italic / infobox / drop every other "also". Also ;) - he doesn't have the children alone. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 17:45, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
Thanks, Gerda Arendt. I've incorporated most of your suggestions, and will try to clean up the publications. Technically the source does not explicitly say that the children were with his wife, so I don't want to make that connection. --Usernameunique (talk) 21:49, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
thank you! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 04:35, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
  • Sorry, this does not qualify as a 2xBLP because it had listed two references before expansion started, even though none of the paragraphs had a citation. The same problem often occurs with film biographies, where the whole article isn't sourced but the film star's website is listed in the References. The character count before expansion began was 836 char and the current character count is 2250, 1930 characters short of a 5x expansion. Yoninah (talk) 22:16, 24 January 2018 (UTC)
Sorry, I missed that. Usernameunique, any chance you could expand more, and write more lead? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:21, 24 January 2018 (UTC)
Yoninah & Gerda Arendt, one of the references was a dead link whose content is not retained on archive.org. The second reference is only a photo caption that speaks generally of a "Sir David Wilson" and says nothing to link him to the David Mackenzie Wilson that is the director of the British Museum. Therefore, I believe that this nomination still fits within the rule and spirit of the 2x BLP expansion. --Usernameunique (talk) 22:42, 24 January 2018 (UTC)
  • Not really. The rule is very specific. I'm not willing to IAR, sorry. Yoninah (talk) 22:44, 24 January 2018 (UTC)
I would, but ... - I had a similar case (of too little expansion, back in 2010 and not forgotten), but didn't rest until I made it ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:51, 24 January 2018 (UTC)
Which rule are you looking at, Yoninah? I've looked through the main and supplementary rules, yet all I see is general references to "unsourced BLPs". --Usernameunique (talk) 22:54, 24 January 2018 (UTC)
Right, "unsourced". Look, I see that there were no citations in the article text, and that one of the refs was a dead link and the other a photo. But the refs were there. I tend to be a stickler for rules, and I've also been on the burned end on one of these BLPs when I had to expand 5x instead of 2x to get a DYK nomination. Perhaps you could get consensus over at WT:DYK for a re-evaluation of this rule? Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 23:01, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

Yoninah, rather than pressing my case I've expanded the article. It now shows up as 4,192 characters ("readable prose size"), a whopping 12 more than the 4,180 necessary. --Usernameunique (talk) 17:38, 30 January 2018 (UTC)

  • @Usernameunique: Thank you! The article is well over a 5x expansion. But looking at it closely now, I have a question about the refs. Marquis Who's Who is not considered the most reliable source, as I've been told (surely not on the level of the Oxford Biographies), and Gale Contemporary Authors looks the same. The only other ref is a sporting newsletter. Does the subject have inherent nobility because he was director of the British Museum? And if so, are there more reliable sources about him out there? Yoninah (talk) 20:23, 30 January 2018 (UTC)
  • Yoninah, Marquis Who's Who is only used for one fact (Wilson lives on the Isle of Man). I think his notability is pretty solid: Director of the British Museum, knighthood, and a career as a serious academic beforehand. That he comes from an academic background is probably why there is not much published about him; that will likely have to wait for obituaries. Gale Contemporary Authors is mostly a string of uncontroversial dates, positions, memberships, and accolades; is there any problem with using it? --Usernameunique (talk) 14:18, 2 February 2018 (UTC)
  • No, there's no problem. I added a book review for another cite. Here's a full review: 5x expansion verified. New enough, long enough, neutrally written, adequately referenced, no close paraphrasing seen in online source. Offline hook ref AGF and cited inline. Image is public domain. QPQ done. Good to go. Yoninah (talk) 14:16, 5 February 2018 (UTC)