Template:Did you know nominations/William James (Carlisle MP)

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 Yoninah (talk) 09:31, 13 July 2017 (UTC)

William James (Carlisle MP) edit

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... ~~that when the British Slavery Abolition Act 1833 compensated slave-owners, the MP William James received £4,713, equivalent to about £6 million in 2017?~~ Source: "William James MP: Profile & Legacies Summary". Legacies of British Slave-ownership. UCL Department of History 2014.
- ALT1:... that in 1833 English slave-owner William James told Irish leader Daniel O'Connell that his campaigning would be futile if "the peasants of Ireland were as well off as the negroes of the West Indies"? Source: "Ministerial Plan For The Abolition Of Slavery". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. 31 July 1833. col. 216.
- ALT2:... that in 1833 English slave-owner William James told Daniel O'Connell that his campaigning would be futile if "the peasants of Ireland were as well off as the negroes of the West Indies"? Source: "Ministerial Plan For The Abolition Of Slavery". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. 31 July 1833. col. 216.
- ALT3:...the MP William James received £4,713, equivalent to about £6 million in 2017, as compensation following the British Slavery Abolition Act 1833? Source: "William James MP: Profile & Legacies Summary". Legacies of British Slave-ownership. UCL Department of History 2014.

Reviewed: Arabization of the Jordanian Army command
Comment: ALT2 is just ALT1, with the removal of the two words "Irish leader" to describe Daniel O'Connell.

5x expanded by BrownHairedGirl (talk). Self-nominated at 23:34, 9 July 2017 (UTC).

The article looks fine to me, but would benefit from a copyedit for spelling issues, spacing and position of in-lines refs and/or full-stops.

New: Expanded 5x from 9 July onwards.
Long enough: 3848 characters.
Within policy: Yes, couldn't see any standout issues.
Hook: I've proposed a new ALT3 which swaps the two parts of the sentence around to give the highlighted article prominence at the start. Reference is accurate and accessible.
WP:QPQ is done.
As long as @BrownHairedGirl: agrees with the ALT3 and the edits are made this one is sorted. Don't think the minor issues warrant a formal query on the DYK as they will be super quick to resolve. Zakhx150 (talk) 07:37, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

Hi Zakhx150, and thanks for the review.

ALT3 looks good to me as a less verbose recasting of the main hook. My own favourite is ALT2, but it is v long, so I'm fine with whatever you prefer.

Thanks for noting the copyedit issues. I have done a few tweaks[1] and hope that catches them all, but please let me know if you see outstanding issues. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 10:16, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

Hi, it's not clear to me why he was receiving compensation in ALT3. Isn't an MP a British official? I think you should identify him as a slave owner. Yoninah (talk) 22:23, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

@Yoninah: no, an MP, is not an official; it's a Member of Parliament, i.e. an elected political office-holder. So he was one of the people who voted on the passage of the Act which compensated him.

As to identifying him as a slave-owner, that was part of my original hook ... but brevity matters, so I see why Zakhx150 cut it out. This is is a hook, not a micro-article; the point of it is to encourage readers to read the full article, where all the details are explained. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 23:32, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

Yes, but if it's not clear, no one will be "hooked" by it. Yoninah (talk) 23:41, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

@BrownHairedGirl:@Yoninah: Apologies to BrownHairedGirl as this is clearly my fault from messing with the hook. I suppose Yoninah has a fair point about the use of MP in the hook. For the record though I'd argue that the point that anyone was being compensated for following the abolition of slavery will get users interested, the fact he was an elected British politician only makes it more so to my mind and I should think the fact that we was a slaveowner is somewhat implicit. In any case I propose the simple one-size-fits-all solution:
ALT4:... the the slave-owner and MP William James received £4,713, equivalent to about £6 million in 2017, as compensation following the British Slavery Abolition Act of 1833?

Zakhx150 (talk) 07:12, 13 July 2017 (UTC)

Yes, I think that's clearer. I tweaked ALT4 slightly, adding the British "the" to his titles. Restoring tick per Zakhx150's review. Yoninah (talk) 09:01, 13 July 2017 (UTC)