Talk:Thomas Broun/GA1

GA Review

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Nominator: UndercoverClassicist (talk · contribs) 10:21, 21 July 2024 (UTC)

Reviewer: Zawed (talk · contribs) 01:41, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

I will review this one. Comments to follow in due course. Zawed (talk) 01:41, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for taking it on. Looking forward to your comments. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 09:20, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Making a start on this.

Initial stuff

• Two images used in this article, both are appropriately tagged.
• Earwig copyvio tool run - a couple results of 25%+ similarity, one of which being a source for this article, but reviewing these, much of this is due to the use of job positions and titles, units, and names of works. I am not concerned.
• A couple of dupe links: lieutenant, South Auckland
  • Both fixed. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 14:17, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
• The list in the Selected publications section could be expanded using [1]. Many of his works are listed in the references section.
  • Good find -- added most of those there, except Descriptions of New Genera and Species of Coleoptera III, as the bibliographic data there is clearly not correct -- it should be a journal article -- and I can't find the right ones. Also found one or two extras in other sources, now added. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 14:17, 5 August 2024 (UTC)

Lead

• Upon leaving the army in 1866,...: technically, the militia is different from the army
  • Fair point. Now "leaving military service". UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 14:17, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
• The third para has a lot of 'years' within a few sentences. Suggest varying this a little. E.g. "though legal troubles forced him into bankruptcy the following year"
  • Done. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 14:17, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
• In the infobox, suggest adding Auckland after Waikumete Cemetery
  • Good idea: done. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 14:17, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
• Again in the infobox, the Militia in "New Zealand Militia" should not be capitalised - in contrast to the British Army, it is not a named military branch/formation. Waikato Militia is OK, that was a specific formation with this name
  • Fixed throughout: NZ sources vary slightly (some capitalise when it's the institution, rather than the general concept of part-time soldiering), but it isn't consistent enough to break the general principle here. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 14:17, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
• Finally, add (French) after Legion of Honour
  • That I don't think is necessary: there's only one award known as the Legion of Honour (not Honor) in the world, and the French one is by far the most famous by the Honor/Honour name. There isn't a NZ award by that name which could reasonably create confusion.

Biography

• Adding a couple of subheadings could help with structure
  • I've split it in half -- military service in one, entomology in the other. Not totally wedded to the headings. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 14:17, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
• I will have a closer look at sourcing later, but I am uncomfortable with the Bairstow ref and it doesn't strike me as the most reliable source; it seems to be the work of an amateur. You may want reconsider or at least reduce its usage. For example, I see that the mention of his father as an artist (I refer to cite 3) is covered in the NZ Herald Obit here: [2]
  • It's not the most prestigious journal, but it's a perfectly good academic work, as far as I can see -- it has an ISSN and is held by major reference libraries in NZ (e.g. the National Library of New Zealand and the Auckland Museum. Per WP:RS, a peer-reviewed academic journal should generally be considered reliable: the reliability comes from the standard of the editorial review and checking, not the professional status of the writer -- and even then, I'd push back on the idea that only people with university jobs can produce reliable research. Good find on the obituary, though: I've added that in support. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 14:17, 5 August 2024 (UTC) I think I'd misunderstood -- the above applies to Bairstow 1997, but not Bairstow 2005. Frustratingly, Bairstow is almost certainly the major expert on Broun's biography: where a better source exists, I'll go through and swap them in. As Bairstow has at least one publication in a scholarly journal, the source is admissible under WP:SPS, but agreed that we should only use it when nothing better is available. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 14:24, 5 August 2024 (UTC)

  I've now done this -- one or two statements still rely entirely on Bairstow 2005, but they're all fairly small points of detail and none are remotely contradicted by any other source. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 14:43, 5 August 2024 (UTC)

More to come. Zawed (talk) 10:25, 5 August 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for these -- replies above as needed. Looking forward to the next batch. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 14:17, 5 August 2024 (UTC)