Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of 2008 Summer Olympics medal winners/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured list nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured list candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The list was promoted by Matthewedwards 21:53, 23 June 2009 [1].

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List of 2008 Summer Olympics medal winners

Nominator(s): Scorpion⁰⁴²² 20:52, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

• Featured list candidates/List of 2008 Summer Olympics medal winners/archive1

The irony is that I originally opposed the creation of this list. I felt it was recentism and going overboard, since we already list winners by sport and nation. However, I now believe that a big master list of medalists does have it's uses (and I doubt it would be deleted, so if it has to exist, I might as well try to make it as good as I can). I originally tried something different with the lead image, and tried to make it random, so that every time you visited you would see a new image. This was because there are a bunch of similar images I wanted to include but have no room (and it would also appease any anti-American/Phelps IPs that complain about the lead image. As silly as it sounds, this was a huge issue with the 2008 Summer Olympics medal table during the Games). I eventually removed it because it didn't appear to be working (I kept getting the same image over and over again) and I would be open to re-adding it if I can get it to work. Enjoy. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 20:52, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Comment - I tried the random image out in my sandbox. It works when you go to the page initially. But if you want to see another image when you are at the page already, you have to purge the page. Refreshing the page won't work.—Chris! _ct 21:47, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

• I just realized that this works the same way with the Template:Wikipedia ads, so maybe could ask someone there to help you. I personally think this is a good function to have. Olympics is an international event, some diversity is a good thing.—Chris! _ct 22:03, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

• Great list! I would only like a few more statistics in the lead. How many medals were awarded in general (a team medal counts as one; same as national sums)? How many total (counting every winning team member/athlete)? How many different athletes won medals? I also think there's a list of 2008 records set that you can link to. Everything else is fantastic. Reywas92^Talk 23:25, 9 June 2009 (UTC)
  • I was hoping nobody would ask for a total number of individual athletes. I can add how many medals were awarded, but adding how many individual athletes won is a lot harder. I looked for a source, but couldn't find one, so that would mean I would have to do it by counting manually. This would be immensely difficult (because of repeat winners) and I have neither the time or the will to do it. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 23:38, 9 June 2009 (UTC)
    • I hate doing long tasks like that too, like copy-editing Simpsons episode lists and ridiculously long ice hockey articles :). Do just a few sports a day, and keep track of your count via hidden comment. It will make things easier to manage. I wouldn't mind if you finished counting after FLC; I don't think it's a dealbreaker. Dabomb87 (talk) 00:20, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
      • 1,881 people won a medal in 2008. I told WP:AWB to find all the links on the page, and I removed those that weren't medal-winning athletes. I could be a couple too many, but I'm pretty sure I got them all. They take up 41 pages when I copied them to Word! Reywas92^Talk 00:38, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
        • That's the number I get too. Thanks for the suggestion. I added in some more stats. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 01:49, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
        • Support Everything's great! Reywas92^Talk 20:06, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Comments. Here are the things I spotted that could be resolved. Parutakupiu (talk) 15:57, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

• "Overall, 302 events in 28 sports were held. 165 events were opened to men(...)" — you could link both sentences; they're related.
  • Done.
• Place a source supporting that Athens 2004 only had 301 events (easy, just put the IOC 2004 Games page).
  • Done.
• "Nine new events were held, which included 2 from the new cycling discipline of BMX." — spell out single-digit numbers.
  • Done.
• "Women competed in the 3000 m steeplechase for the first time." — spell out meters/metres.
  • Done.
• "(...) namely baseball and boxing; while one sport (...)" — replace semicolon with regular comma.
  • Done.
• Two instances of both "baseball" and "softball" point to the same link. Leave the first instance linked.
  • Done.
• There's a bit of info duplication in the first sentences on the 3rd paragraph, when you state the number of countries that won medals. Perhaps you could merge some of those?
  • Done.
    • This change shifted the NBCOlympics ref to source the first sentence about the 1,881 medal-winning athletes, when in fact it does not.
      • Fixed.
• "Athletes from (...) won their first Olympic medals." — I suggest "won their NOC's first Olympic medals".
  • Done.
    • Don't forget to place the acronym after the first instance of National Olympic Committees in the lead.
      • Done.
• Any special reason for the weightlifting table layout to be different from the rest?
  • You can thank Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon. I wanted to make sure all of the tables were equal in width, and that one wasn't, so I had to make the winner columns wider and the events column narrower.
    • Too bad. It looks kinda awkward because it's the only one different. I've tested inserting a break between both names; it didn't look bad apart from the extra white space in the other event's medalists cells. Damned Thai names.
      • The other option is to use the {{small}} template on her name, but that may cause confusion/outrage amongst users as to why her name is smaller than the rest. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 18:49, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
• Medal winner changes
  • Note A → any developments on the Belarussian hammer throwers appeal?
    • Not that I could find.
  • Note B → "athlete" is linked here instead in the previous note. Also in this note, "International Olympic Committee" is not linked here but it is in note D below.
    • Fixed.
  • Note D → Correct "Kim Jong Su" to the previously linked "Kim Jong-su" spelling.
• In the "Notes" section, capitalize "games" as it refers to the Olympics, and perhaps replace "football games" with "football matches" to avoid any confusion with the (Olympic) Games.
  • Done.
• I found both "program" and "programme" variants.
  • Switched to programme. Thanks for taking a look. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 17:33, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
    • You're very much welcome. I'm ready to give my support once you've addressed these new minor points. Parutakupiu (talk) 18:37, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Support. Parutakupiu (talk) 19:22, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Resolved comments from Giants2008

Comments – I'm curious as to why the first sentence has dates in American format, while note 1 has them in international format. Human error. Fixed. Decapitalize Softball in second paragraph. Also, the sentence is redundant; to fix it, try "as the International Olympic Committee voted to remove them from the programme of the 2012 Olympics." Done. "won their NOC's first Olympic medals." Since this applies to more than one nation, move the apostrophe in NOCs to after the s. Next sentence needs a similar adjustment. Fixed. Medal winner changes: "had tested positive for the banned substance of propranolol and thus stripped of his two medals from the 2008 Summer Olympics." Missing word? Giants2008 (17-14) 22:19, 15 June 2009 (UTC) Fixed. Two of the International Herald Tribune links are dead. They're moving all the article to the New York Times website. Giants2008 (17-14) 22:23, 15 June 2009 (UTC) Fixed. Thanks for taking a look. -- Scorpion0422 01:00, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Support – Good work. Giants2008 (17-14) 21:15, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Support, all issues resolved. Dabomb87 (talk) 15:57, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Resolved issues, Dabomb87 (talk)

Comments from Dabomb87 (talk · contribs) A few too many issues in the lead for my taste, but... "8 August to 24 August, 2008." In international format, no comma after the month. Done. "Nine new events were held, which included two from the new cycling discipline of BMX."-->Nine new events were held, including two from the new cycling discipline of BMX. Done. "In addition, marathon open water swimming events for men and women, over the distance of 10 kilometres, were added to the swimming discipline." "In addition ... added" The repetition is annoying. Do we need those two words? Removed the "In addition" "Equestrian is the only sport where"-->Equestrian is the only sport in which Done. "Baseball and softball may have made their last appearances in Olympics history during these Games, as the International Olympic Committee voted to remove them from the programme of the 2012 Olympics." If the IOC voted them off, why is their uncertainty ("may have made") The two sports are applying to be re-added in 2016. "Chinese athletes won 51 gold medals and 100 medals altogether, and the United States won 36 gold medals and 110 total medals." You might mention that they won the most golds and most medals, respectively. Fixed. "Athletes from 87 countries won medals, 55 of which won gold medals, both setting new records for Olympic Games." This isn't worded right; sounds like 55 of the medals won gold medals. Took a stab at re-wording. "won their NOCs first Olympic medals. "-->won their NOC's first Olympic medal. Done. "won their nations first gold medals."-->won their nation's first gold medal. Done. "Phelps also set a new record for most career gold medals (14)" Comma after here. Done. "tied or bettered" I think "surpassed" sounds better than "bettered", although that's just me. Agreed, switched to "surpassed". "Tanya Harding of Australia won a bronze, all have four career medals"-->Tanya Harding of Australia won a bronze; all have four career medals Done. Don't change it if it breaks a precedent, but wouldn't it make more sense to link the events (in the tables) themselves, rather than having a "details" link? Dabomb87 (talk) 01:30, 17 June 2009 (UTC) It might, but that is the convention for all of the pages.

Sources look good. Dabomb87 (talk) 15:57, 22 June 2009 (UTC) *Ref 5 needs to denote that it's a PDF (add format=PDF to the cite template).

• "Federation Internationale d'Escrime"-->Fédération Internationale d'Escrime Dabomb87 (talk) 01:30, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
  • Done and done. Thanks for taking a look. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 14:51, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

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