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Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Yukon Quest/archive3

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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 promoted by SandyGeorgia 22:53, 6 September 2009 [1].

Yukon Quest

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Nominator(s): JKBrooks85 (talk) 12:48, 24 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
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Hello! I'm JKBrooks85. You might remember me from such FACs as 2009 Orange Bowl and Rampart Dam, but today I'd like to introduce you to something a little different. This is an article about the Yukon Quest, an annual 1,000-mile sled dog race from Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon. This is the third nomination for this article, and in order to ensure this time will be successful, I had the help of a number of superb editors in preparing the article. Maralia and Hoary did a complete copy edit, and Hoary also did a great deal of trimming to streamline the prose. Tony1, Dr. Blofeld, and Laser brain gave their nods to the article as well, and I hope you'll do the same. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please don't hesitate to drop a note on my talk page. JKBrooks85 (talk) 12:48, 24 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

  • Comments: Seems like a very good article, although the endorsement doesn't quench my prose regime! I have a couple of issues:
  • Lead:
    • "drop dogs at checkpoints and dog drops". You have "drop dogs" and "dog drops". Could "drop dogs" be replaced by "leave dogs" or similar, as the two are so close it could lead to confusion (as it did for me). Also I think "dog drops" needs to be put in quotation marks.
      • Changed first "drop" to "leave". I'm unsure about adding quote marks around the dog drops, since the term appears so much in the rest of the article and might need to be changed at other mentions. ... For consistency's sake, I think it might work better as is.
    • " "The statement at the bottom on Yukon Quest International, could that be incorporated into the first paragraph? It looks and reads awkwardly where it is, and I'm against such separation from main paragraphs.
      • I've folded it into the preceding paragraph. Putting it in the top paragraph might cause confusion, since the second paragraph references "the competition", and that sentence refers to two additional races.
  • History:
    • The text before Origins feels so strained and unnecessary. It needs to be given some purpose or removed.
      • Done. I don't like leading a section with a sub-section header, so I've also deleted the "origins" subsection header.
  • Participants:
  • No problem. I give my support for this article. MasterOfHisOwnDomain (talk) 13:47, 25 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Support. Pending the addressing of reviewers' comments. I was encouraging and believed this should be worked up to FA standard, but did not give a blanket endorsement. All the same, I think this is now pretty well-written; I do hope it succeeds. A few things towards the top:

  • Maybe there's a good reason not to convert "1000-mile" to metrics at the top? It's "1016 miles or more" below; bit confusing. Is it billed as "1000-mile"? If not, you might consider the less precise "long-distance", given that the exact minimum is provided further down in the lead.
  • Yeah, the 1,000-mile part is actually part of the official name. I bolded it up top on first reference to bring that out ... is there another way that would work better?
  • 80 km/h winds? Child's play, seriously.
  • "On February 25, 1984, 26 racers"—good case for spelling out 26.
  • Because of the introductory phrase?
  • "first-place prize"—couldn't be just "first prize"?
  • Works for me.
  • ... Alaska, Alaska ...
  • Reworded and shortened.

I've lashed out and made the image sizes more generous. The "eastern slope" and the one under it now probably need to go a little up. Change the sizes if you don't like the resizing, but most of the pics are good and contain a lot of detail the readers will want to see. The map and "Petty crossings" are still a bit on the small side, I think. Tony (talk) 11:33, 25 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Weak support This is just about there, my concern though is that in places I feel it could be made more concise still and given another copyedit. Also maybe you could reduce some of red links by starting new articles?Himalayan Explorer 12:56, 25 August 2009 (UTC) (formerly Blofeld)[reply]

Comment. Alt text is done and that is present is mostly very good; thanks. However, the alt text for the map File:2009 Yukon Quest map.svg doesn't convey the gist of the useful visual info in that map. It should mention the general location, direction, and major highlights of the map (no need to list all the cities; that's too much detail). Alt text is missing for File:Yukon Quest participants graph.svg (please give gist of what that graph says, rather than irrelevant visual detail such as color or whether it's a line graph) and for File:White Pass RR station.jpg. Eubulides (talk) 14:09, 26 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Provisional support – Supported the first time, abstained the second time, and am coming back on the support side now. I read through the lead, which looks good, but have gone no further yet; hence the provisional. I'll probably end up making any needed fixes myself because I'm in a time-saving mode at the moment. When I finish going through it, I plan on fully supporting. Shouldn't take too long, given that it was a great article before the copy-editing. Giants2008 (17–14) 01:12, 28 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Support, though with two major dislaimers: (i) I'm ignorant of the subject, (ii) some of the rephrasing is my own. So all in all my opinion is probably worthless. Still, I believe I can say that the article is most interesting and informative, scrupulously sourced (wherever I've checked), and well illustrated. (As somebody who has "frozen" during mere hour-long motorcyle rides in temperatures above freezing, I'd still rather like to know how the participants protect themselves against extensive frostbite in that vile-sounding combination of wind chill and long hours; but perhaps this will be more obvious to other readers.) -- Hoary (talk) 03:14, 30 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Support, with the mild disclaimer that I copyedited this fairly extensively before FAC. I have reviewed the changes since, and I'm confident it meets the criteria. Maralia (talk) 02:22, 31 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

On my browser, there are lots of image layout issues. There's a big white space in "Pre-race preparation", another in "Two Rivers to Fairbanks", and there are several left-aligned images under third-level headings. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:42, 6 September 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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