Wikipedia:Good article reassessment/A500 road/1

A500 road edit

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · WatchWatch article reassessment pageMost recent review
Result: delisted 06:01, 1 May 2017 Bungle

Having looked through some existing GA-class highways articles for inspiration on improving some others, I noticed this article listed as GA but instantly felt it wasn't justified of its status. Primarily, the article is almost entirely sourcing information older than 10 years and much of those references have been broken for several years also. When compared to other GA class articles, such as A303 road and A4232 road, it's quite apparent that this article requires substanstial redevelopment, including an almost entire resourcing and bringing up to date with contemporary developments. Furthermore, it would seem the original GA review was some considerable time ago, and the supposed reassessment that took place was nothing more than a single editor putting their own "rubber stamp" back in 2009. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bungle (talkcontribs) 16:41, 26 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The "rubber stamp" appears to have been done by Eric Corbett, but a search through the article's history shows he did a bit of work on it, so the reassessment may simply be a matter of just doing it without needing to log anything. The sources all look reliable from a first glance, but one thing that leaps out is there doesn't seem to be very much on the politics. I checked the BBC retrospective (the first source I looked at) and it talks about the lack of a decent goods traffic connection hurting the economy of the Potteries, projects being stalled due to lack of Government funds, and there's Michael Heseltine's mugshot in there too, so he must have had a hand in it. Also it gives an opening date of 2 November 1977. None of this is in the article, and I think it ought to be.
A typical problem with these sorts of articles is that it's very easy to write "The B4824 starts at a T junction in Lesser Snoring, it progresses around the farmland to meet the B4912 at a crossroads which it yeilds to, in 1.23454 miles (1.98680 km) it reaches Troll Twittering where it turns left, gosh isn't this exciting" without actually going into detail that non road enthusiasts might find important. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 10:20, 27 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment. Per Ritchie333's post above, since the article hasn't been updated very much since 2006/2007 would it now fail GA Criteria 3A "It addresses the main aspects of the topic"? If there are major issues about the subject missing from the article - the politics about its construction, delays specifically - then can this article be said to address the main aspects of the topic? Also, it looks like the "Route" section is completely unsourced. And this last bit isn't at all part of the GA Criteria but Trent Vale is Wikilinked now. Shearonink (talk) 01:27, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Unless someone wishes to go through and fix many of the broken references, up date much of the info to be relevant and ideally sub-section the history as a starting point, then I am of the view it may be better to demote the article from GA and relist once the issues are resolved. If it were to go through a GA nom in it's current state, it would quick fail. Bungle (talkcontribs) 09:25, 1 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]