Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Barry Voight/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 Sarastro1 via FACBot (talk) 21:32, 6 September 2017 [1].

Barry Voight

Nominator(s): ceranthor 01:56, 9 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I've been working on this article about a star volcanologist and engineer—who happens to have some star siblings as well—for a while now, and I think it finally meets the FA criteria. ceranthor 01:56, 9 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Support on prose per my standard disclaimer. Welcome back to FAC, and well done. As always, feel free to revert my copyediting. These are my edits. - Dank (push to talk) 03:42, 9 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the support, Dank. ceranthor 12:26, 9 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Image review from Adityavagarwal

There is one image in the article, which is well-relevant, has proper description template, and is under public domain. No issues whatsoever. It is good to go!. Adityavagarwal (talk) 00:13, 10 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the review, Aditya. ceranthor 11:55, 10 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by Wehwalt

Interesting. I've probably read about him, but all I can think about with Mount St. Helens is old Harry Truman. Anyway, to business:

"Teaching career" Must this be one long paragraph?
Some mention of how he could have a teaching career and a career as a government geologist simultaneously would be useful.
"he published the first volume of a publication" published/publication
References are not always in numerical order [14][6]
"Voight insisted that the bulge could fail" Why insisted? Was there opposition?
"After a magnitude 5.1 earthquake centered directly below the north slope triggered that part of the volcano to slide" Maybe "caused" instead of"triggered"? It's the "to slide" that's bothering me.
"In 1985, Voight blamed human error for the Armero tragedy, where more than 23,000 died from an eruption from the Nevado del Ruiz volcano." I might toss a "in Colombia" in there somewhere.
"while categorically accurate predictions of volcanic eruptions were impossible, unpreparedness for the disaster and inaction in preventing it exacerbated the death toll.[25]" I'm not sure what "inaction in preventing it" means as distinct from "unpreparedness for the disaster". After all, the volcano was going to erupt no matter what.
"Voight began contemplating initiating an evacuation" That sounds a bit vague.
"it was largely unknown by volcanologists." probably should be "to", not "by"
"including guests of a wedding ceremony." No doubt "at" is meant.
"People in Pasto, located at the foot of the volcano, became alarmed by noises and shaking from Galeras." I imagine this is what caused Voight to visit, so possibly "had become alarmed" might be better.
"Voight still oversees hazard assessments at the volcano, including providing his input during eruptive periods in 2006 and 2010.[12]" I might cut "including"
"helping plan engineering projects in France, India, Ireland, Somalia, Papua New Guinea, Canada,[8] and Turkey, as well as the United States.[10]" I think you still need an "in" before "United States"
"monitoring of active volcanoes, and pyroclastic flows have brought him to Iceland, Columbia, " Presumably the nation of Colombia is meant. By the way, this list is somewhat duplicative of the one two paragraphs previously.
"For his service as a professor at Penn State, Voight has been given two awards, specifically for his research. In 1991, he gained a Faculty Scholar Medal for "Outstanding Achievement in the Physical Sciences and Engineering".[8] In 1990, he received the Wilson Research Award from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences for excellence in research.[33]" I would put this in year order. Paragraph breaks might also be welcome somewhere.
"In addition to journal articles, Voight has written or helped write at least 21 books and monographs since 1965, some of his co-authors including W. D. Gunther, R. T. Chase, Mary A. Voight, and George Stephens." I'mnot sure the grammar completely works in the second half of the sentence. I might put a semicolon after 1965 and change "including" to "include"
"The Eruption of Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat from 2000 to 2010," Looking at the front cover online, there seems to be a grave accent over the first e in Soufriere.--Wehwalt (talk) 21:57, 11 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Believe it or not, I wrote the article about Harry R. Truman, too! I'll get started on these in just a bit. Thanks for your comments. ceranthor 02:00, 12 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Wehwalt: I think everything has been taken care of except the government geologist comment. Isn't that explained in the career section where I mention that he was a USGS consultant, and that much of his research overlapped with his work for them? He wasn't a government geologist per se, just a consultant for them. ceranthor 18:48, 12 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Support all looks good. It's a bit technical, but it can't be helped given the subject matter. Nicely done.--Wehwalt (talk) 19:11, 12 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your comments and support. ceranthor 21:36, 12 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Source review from Ealdgyth

~~Current citation 2 ("Chip Taylor") - can we expand the NPR abbreviation for folks outside the US who will be clueless about what it means?~~
I randomly googled three sentences and nothing showed up except mirrors. Earwig's tool shows no signs of copyright violations - the things it's flagging up are properly quoted and attributed.

Otherwise everything looks good. Ealdgyth - Talk 18:39, 16 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Ealdgyth: Just took care of the NPR abbreviation. Thanks for the review! ceranthor 20:08, 16 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Passing comment from Vanamonde

I find it strange that we mention the names of famous relatives so early in the lede; it reads almost as though we are feeling defensive about his own claim to notability. That said, I recognize fitting the information elsewhere may be tricky (perhaps the end of the first paragraph?) and so this is entirely optional. Vanamonde (talk) 11:13, 21 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I think it makes more sense where it is. It follows the article's outline, and the rest of the lead discusses his career so it wouldn't really fit with the rest of the info as well. ceranthor 12:15, 23 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Vanamonde93: Would it be possible for you to provide more comments? The review has stalled a bit so any additional input would be greatly appreciated. ceranthor 00:22, 1 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Support on prose Comments by Finetooth

Lede

¶1 I'd consider adding "author" to the first sentence: "... an American geologist, volcanologist, author, and engineer." The 400+ publications seem absolutely essential to his impact on the field.

Teaching career

¶1 "From 1961−1963, he also served as" – I don't think you need "also" here.

Early assignments

¶2 "After a magnitude 5.1 earthquake..." – Link magnitude to Richter magnitude scale?
¶3 "propelled him to switch careers and dedicate himself to the field." – I think that overstates it a bit. How about "switch focus"? Or you could just delete "to switch careers".

Later studies

¶4 "to analyze Soufrière Hills utilizing seismic waves and explosions in the ocean." – Might I suggest adding a word, "by" and changing "utilizing" to "using"? That is, "to analyze Soufrière Hills by using seismic waves and explosions in the ocean."
¶4 Link seismic wave?
¶4 "this effort detected a major fault trending north-to-west..." – Link to fault (geology)?

Recognition and legacy

Paragraph 3 , which begins with "Fellow Penn State professor Rudy Slingerland..." makes me uncomfortable. The comments about Voight's personality, which are a little backhanded in places, come from a source, the Penn State public relations people, that I consider reliable for uses a and b but not necessarily for c and d. I'd simply delete paragraph 3, which I don't think you need.

References

The Glicken entry uses the "citation" family and should be changed to the "cite" family to match the others in the Reference section.

That's all. Finetooth (talk) 20:59, 2 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Finetooth: All fixed as you suggested. ceranthor 22:02, 2 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

All looks good. Happy to support on prose as noted above. Finetooth (talk) 22:21, 2 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your feedback and support! ceranthor 23:30, 2 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Closing comment: I shall be promoting this shortly, but I notice that ref 33 is currently dead. I don't know if it is a glitch or a bigger problem. It's not a big issue for this article and there is no need to delay promotion, but it should be taken care of (I don't imagine it would be hard to replace that ref if it is permanently dead). Sarastro1 (talk) 21:31, 6 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Closing note: This candidate has been promoted, but there may be a delay in bot processing of the close. Please see WP:FAC/ar, and leave the {{featured article candidates}} template in place on the talk page until the bot goes through. Sarastro1 (talk) 21:32, 6 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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