Template:Did you know nominations/IND World's Fair Line

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Cwmhiraeth (talk) 19:13, 27 January 2018 (UTC)

IND World's Fair Line

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Improved to Good Article status by Kew Gardens 613 (talk), Tdorante10 (talk), and Epicgenius (talk). Nominated by Epicgenius (talk) at 19:05, 30 December 2017 (UTC).

  • Of appropriate size, and GA pass on the indicated date. Article is well referenced, and both hooks' facts (start date, end date, for-the-World's-Fair) all verified. Earwig checks indicates there should not be any copyplag concerns. QPQ done. This should be good to go. - The Bushranger One ping only 00:51, 31 December 2017 (UTC)
  • Returned from prep per discussion at WT:DYK. Several new hook ideas have been proposed. Here is the relevant discussion:
Extended content
Why is this hooky? Plenty of structures are built for Olympic villages and then dismantled. The same seems to apply here. This is a GA; could a better hook be found? Yoninah (talk) 16:38, 25 January 2018 (UTC)
I thought it was hooky when I read it, it's not too often that rail lines are laid down only to be torn up a few months later, especially in a major city. I think we sometimes strive too hard for the outlandish in hooks - a hook that is just plain informative is often all that is required. Gatoclass (talk) 18:43, 25 January 2018 (UTC)
Hmm, I think the same fact could be more hooky if phrased differently. What about ALT1 ... that the World's Fair subway line, built for 1939 New York World's Fair, was closed three days before the closure of the Fair?ALT1a ... that the World's Fair subway line, built for 1939 New York World's Fair, was closed the day after the closure of the Fair? Alex Shih (talk) 18:51, 25 January 2018 (UTC)
I think ALT1 is better, though there's no source for the date of the closure of the World's Fair. The 1939 New York World's Fair article says it closed on October 27 (so the train stopped running the next day, not 3 days before). Yoninah (talk) 19:44, 25 January 2018 (UTC)
@Yoninah: That would have been a bigger issue. I was following the IND World's Fair Line article, but apparently the 1939 New York World's Fair page had two separate dates (October 27 and October 31) for the closure. October 27 is the correct date, and I've added a source, and altered the ALT1 accordingly. What do you think? Alex Shih (talk) 20:14, 25 January 2018 (UTC)
@Alex Shih: I think your proposed hook sounds a bit better than what I originally proposed. The only thing is "closure" is repeated twice. How about ALT1b: epicgenius (talk) 20:21, 25 January 2018 (UTC)
ALT1b: ... that the World's Fair subway line, built for 1939 New York World's Fair, was closed the day after the Fair ended?
@Epicgenius: I like your 1b proposal better. I'd say let's go with this. Alex Shih (talk) 20:59, 25 January 2018 (UTC)
(edit conflict) I'm sorry, but what is hooky about that? You would only expect a specialty line to close after the event it serviced is ended. If nothing better can be found, we should just stick to the original hook, which in my opinion is perfectly acceptable. Gatoclass (talk) 21:01, 25 January 2018 (UTC)
@Gatoclass: Fair point, but wouldn't the same argument be used against the original hook? That you would only expect a specialty line to operate for the duration of the event. Alex Shih (talk) 21:17, 25 January 2018 (UTC)
The unhookiness is at least partly due to including too much info.
ALT1c: ... that a subway line in New York City only operated for nineteen months?
MANdARAX  XAЯAbИAM 22:16, 25 January 2018 (UTC)

None of the above are hooky. I'd like to see the quote "extravagant and wasteful" being used in the hook, that gets juices flowing. The Rambling Man (talk) 22:20, 25 January 2018 (UTC)

And actually, the idea of doubling the fare, and implementing a cool turnstile system (per To enter the station, an additional 5-cent fare was charged on top of the standard nickel fare. Eighteen special turnstiles were used at the World's Fair station that permitted traffic flow in both directions and accepted two different fares depending on the direction of travel. Fairgoers disembarking from trains paid a nickel as they exited through the turnstiles while passengers entering the station from the fairgrounds paid a ten-cent fare upon passing through the turnstiles) is far more interesting than anything I've seen written above.
ALT2: ... charged twice the fare...
ALT3: ... included special turnstiles which accepted different fares...
ALT4: ... to the double fare employed to finance ... in 1940 ... was finally ended in 1975....
Come on people!!!!! The Rambling Man (talk) 22:30, 25 January 2018 (UTC)

How about:

- That's the best I can do at short notice. Apologies for the failure to reply to other proposals above but I have to log off now. Gatoclass (talk) 23:37, 25 January 2018 (UTC)

@Gatoclass: That sounds good, especially with the fact that the 1964 World's Fair was hosted in the exact same spot. I'd like to also entertain The Rambling Man's proposal about turnstiles, too. epicgenius (talk) 00:13, 26 January 2018 (UTC)

Reprinting new alts suggested:

ALT1c: ... that a subway line in New York City only operated for nineteen months?
ALT2: ... that a proposal to make the World's Fair subway line to the 1939 New York World's Fair permanent was rejected?
ALT3: ... that the World's Fair subway line employed special turnstiles to collect different fares based on whether a passenger was going to or from the 1939 New York World's Fair?
Yoninah (talk) 00:31, 26 January 2018 (UTC)
Personally, I prefer the new ALT3. If we're going to mention a temporary subway line going to a temporary event with a unique pricing system, I think the gist can be summarized in ALT3. epicgenius (talk) 02:46, 26 January 2018 (UTC)
  • Great. ALT4 hook ref verified and cited inline. Rest of review per The Bushranger. ALT4 good to go. Yoninah (talk) 17:02, 27 January 2018 (UTC)