Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/George Went Hensley/archive2

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 Ucucha 16:09, 28 March 2012 [1].

George Went Hensley

Nominator(s): Mark Arsten & • Astynax ^talk

George Went Hensley was a fascinating, but little known, figure in American Christianity who pioneered the practice of snake handling. This article had an unsuccessful nomination last month. It was archived after three weeks with no supports and no opposes but we got a lot of valuable feedback and are trying again, having tried to implement said feedback. Mark Arsten (talk) 03:30, 14 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Crisco comments

Addressed comments by Crisco 1492 moved to talk

Support - My comments have been addressed to my satisfaction. Good read. Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:11, 15 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
- Thanks for your comments and support! Mark Arsten (talk) 00:15, 15 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Support with Comments

"In the 1890s, his family lived in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. In Big Stone Gap, he witnessed an elderly woman..."

I would lose the second "Big Stone Gap" and say something like "Whilst living there, he witnessed an elderly women..."

Ooltewah could do with a blue link.
Could the first of ref. 36 be moved down a few words to the period?

Nothing else from me. This is a very interesting read. -- Cassianto (talk) 10:31, 15 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for reading through and commenting on the article. Edits have been made to address your comments. • Astynax ^talk 17:00, 15 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, thanks for the support and comments! I had actually noticed the repetition of "Big Stone Gap" the other day, but didn't get around to fixing it for some reason. Note though that "Whilst" is typically avoided in contemporary American English. Mark Arsten (talk) 17:27, 15 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Images: Ok, but not perfect. The free image is great, the non-free one appropriate. I'm assuming there isn't much choice for non-free images, but do we know the author/copyright holder of the current image? If not, then that's OK, as I do feel that there is enough sourcing information present. Is it perhaps from a newspaper? If so, it's not ideal. J Milburn (talk) 00:14, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for checking that out. I just poked around a little, and it was taken by a newspaper reporter in 1945 during his research on snake handling[2][3]. There are at least two other potential fair use pictures we could use, but none that capture Hensley as this one does. Mark Arsten (talk) 00:41, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Newspaper images are usually best to avoid, unless you're talking about the image, rather than what is depicted; this is because of NFCC#2. Where are the other images from? J Milburn (talk) 16:31, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Didn't know that, too bad. There are two other images that I know of, one is from the same news reporter, but one was given to the author of his biography from a family member, I take it we should use that one? Mark Arsten (talk) 17:22, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The archive which holds the photograph is at East Tennessee State University (see here which restricts commercial use of the images and gives a brief bio). The picture was evidently published at the time, and The Roots of Appalachian Christianity describes it as "famous" (Sparks, Elder John. 2005. University Press of Kentucky, p. 288) and as an iconic image. Hensley is known to have distributed press release photos, but I don't know if he had Collins take such photos for his own publicity. • Astynax ^talk 17:31, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

~~Ok, I've swapped the picture taken by a reporter for a picture provided by Hensley's family to a biographer.~~ Mark Arsten (talk) 18:00, 17 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

After a discussion on my talk page, the one of him preaching was restored. Mark Arsten (talk) 16:30, 18 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

~~Ok, I've come to the conclusion that there are no suitable fair use images of Hensley for this article and have removed them. Mark Arsten (talk) 19:56, 18 March 2012 (UTC)~~[reply]
- And re-added the headshot with J Milburn's blessing. Not that it's a very good picture though. Mark Arsten (talk) 22:20, 18 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Support Great article about a fascinating figure. I have only one comment so far:

In "Resignation and return to ministry", you use "pastor" as a verb. It might be legit, but it sounds odd. Maybe "preaching"?
That's all I could find. I'll give it another read, but it looks like an FA to me. --Coemgenus (talk) 15:33, 17 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
- Thanks for the support. Funny about "pastoring"--my spell check picks it up, but I've always used "pastor" as a verb. Oh well, I've changed it to "ministry" in the article. Mark Arsten (talk) 15:56, 17 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Support ~~Comments~~ looks ok - ~~is there any information about which species these snakes actually were?~~ I haven't seen any deal-breakers prose-wise ~~on first read-through~~. Looks comprehensive ~~otherwise apart from my query~~. NB: Sources not spot checked. Casliber (talk · contribs) 06:30, 18 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
- Thanks, good to hear that we finally got the prose straightened out. I've added the species' names in. Funny that I didn't think to put those in before, snakes are snakes to me. Mark Arsten (talk) 16:30, 18 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Delegate's comments - Looking good, but I think we should let this nomination run for a few more days. I won't be insisting on any spotchecks on this occasion, but I can't speak on behalf of the other delegates. Graham Colm (talk) 22:05, 24 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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