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Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/1970 Tonghai earthquake/archive1

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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 not promoted by SandyGeorgia 13:54, 30 January 2009 [1].

1970 Tonghai earthquake

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Nominator(s): ~EDDY (talk/contribs/editor review)~, Ceran→//forge

I'm nominating this article for featured article because it is the best we can muster for this earthquake. Comprehensive as possible, this may be the shortest FA ever, but I think it meets the criterion. The prose has been worked and there's not much that can be done. Editorofthewiki should be listed as nominator (or co-nominator?) Ceran→//forge 13:25, 25 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

  • Comment I raised a big stink about some elements of this article when it came through DYK in early November, and I can say now that it's improved a lot—POV has been controlled well. I would probably support it for FA now (full disclosure 1: I made about 10 minor copyedits to the article in November; full disclosure 2: this is my first FAC message), I just have a few minor things I noticed:
    • The word "offset" in the Damage and casualties section is jargon, linked to a general wiktionary page...is it possible on wikt to link to the relevant entry on the page (which I assume is the last one)? I had to scratch my head a moment to figure out what exactly "offset" meant in this context.
    • I presume the entire Background section is from Allen, p. 689. Since there's just one ref at the end of the paragraph, I wasn't sure (couldn't tell if the ref was "covering" the last fact only, or the whole paragraph) and had to go check the source. I don't know what FAC's standards are for duplicating references (personally, I would repeat the same footnote a couple times in that section, but I dunno), so I'll leave that up to someone else to decide.
    • The sentence "China broke its silence in response to a planned memorial service for survivors and relatives held on January 5 in Yuxi" in the Reaction section seemed a bit awkward to me; I can pretty much tell what it's trying to say, but it could be reworded to flow better. I didn't touch it for now, though, because the impression I got from the source was that the PRC spokesperson announced the quake after the memorial service...so is it accurate to say "planned memorial service" if it had already happened?
    • The first sentence of the Reaction section, "The Chinese government sent tens of thousands Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong books and badges in his honor to victims as part of the relief effort," was one of the major subjects of controversy when this went through DYK in November, because its source is a news article way after the fact (published 2008) and reporting on a different earthquake, while just mentioning this one as part of its intro—so it might not be technically accurate, since the author may have been using it for flowery prose, who knows. When this article was at DYK, the compromise I made was to reword that sentence as "One foreign observer characterized the Chinese government's as consisting mostly of sending," after not too long it was copyedited to something like "according to one observer, the Chinese government responded by..." which isn't a big problem since it's pretty much the same. But in this edit, Editorofthewiki restored the original wording, with the a summary of "ce," so I don't really know his rationale. I don't mind if people want to restore that wording as long as there is a good reason; I just want to know that reason.
      • I thought the reason at DYK was that the information was cited to a subscription-only site. Well, I found one that was completely free, and replaced it. Anyway, they relied on official government reports, so the information is accurate. Besides, aren't newspapers considered RS? ~EDDY (talk/contribs/editor review)~ 17:52, 25 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • The sentence "Effects of the rupture were felt through seven counties and over 8,781 km (5,456 miles) away" might not be accurate....what the source says is "over an area of 5,456 square miles in central Yunnan." Politizer talk/contribs 17:56, 25 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Other than that, things look fine to me (I just did some minor copyediting). Politizer talk/contribs 14:09, 25 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Comments - sources look okay, links checked out with the link checker tool. Ealdgyth - Talk 16:09, 25 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

–Juliancolton Tropical Cyclone 23:50, 25 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Google book search, for anyone interested. Dabomb87 (talk) 02:00, 27 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Considering Dabomb87's book list, and Ling's additional sources, I suggest withdrawing the article until it's ready. FAC is backlogged, and carrying an article that needs to still encompass many other sources isn't the best use of FAC resources. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 02:29, 27 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Not many of the Google books can be found at libraries, as they are more of an official report type of thing. Can't we at last let this run the full week? We wouldn't be having these problems, after all, if PR wasn't backlogged. ~EDDY (talk/contribs/editor review)~ 12:03, 27 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
PR isn't backlogged, which has nothing to do with this anyway. If you can't get people to review articles at PR, then you need to approach people who know about FAC and personally ask them to review. How likely is it that you can incorporate the new sources in a week (especially if they are not at your library)? If it is pretty unlikely, then you ought to withdraw the FAC. Karanacs (talk) 16:36, 28 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose for now, due to comprehensiveness issues. For 15,000 deaths, surely there's more information to be found. I've written twice this much on tropical cyclones that haven't killed anybody. I understand that tropical cyclones are different than earthquakes, and that the earthquake struck an area with little media coverage, but that Google books link confirms my concerns. –Juliancolton Tropical Cyclone 01:20, 28 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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