Wikipedia:The Core Contest/Entries/AprilMay2023 archive/June2016

Below are the submissions for the May/June 2016 running of the Core Contest:

Furniture

• Nominator - Amakuru (talk · contribs)
• Improvements
  • History section, from earliest furniture through to medieval grown and referenced (I did not have time to complete this up to the present day)
  • A little more prose in the types of furniture section
  • Lead expanded with new material from history
  • Beginning diff: [1]
  • End diff: [2]
  • Diff between beginning and end: [3]
• Comments

Comments by judges

Extremely broad and "core" candidate article. Less than 10kb prose size so could be massively expanded and still fit. Article contains some potted material and I suspect could contain alot more important historical material. Also lacks a summary of types of furniture and much more could be added about material and design. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 13:22, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

• Inline refs increased from 7 to 50, 1309 to 2757 words, Etymology added (important), some old history added, and stuff for sitting on. Some nice buffing. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 03:11, 3 July 2016 (UTC)

Comments by others

This seems a good candidate for an overhaul. I can't promise anything, it depends on my time availability, but unless anyone objects I'd like to have a go.  — Amakuru (talk) 10:47, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

• Plenty to do! Lots and lots of links to add for a start. 543 views per day (last 30), so about 130K pa. Johnbod (talk) 13:38, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

Definitely one of those really general ones which tend to get neglected.♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:25, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

Architecture

• Nominator - Johnbod (talk · contribs)
• Improvements, - didn't get going on this, see below Johnbod (talk) 10:38, 1 July 2016 (UTC)
• Comments: Meaty target, over 2,000 views a day, 500K+ pa. C-class (rather optimistically?), level 2 vital and core. Now under 35K bytes, but rather a lot of padding.Johnbod (talk) 13:50, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

Comments by judges

• Big, broad topic. Plenty of room for expansion. long list of See also topics that can either be incorporated or removed. Lots of reffing needed. Lots of choppy paras need melding. Appears to have a western/modern focus as well (but am not an expert on the topic..) Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 20:54, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

• Aah well, maybe next time we run the contest....Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 03:12, 3 July 2016 (UTC)

Comments by others

• Would be fantastic to see this taken on. Given the current state, it would be starting basically from scratch. Ceoil (talk) 07:03, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

Intelligence quotient

• Nominator - WeijiBaikeBianji (talk · contribs)
• Improvements, see
• Comments This article has been under ArbCom discretionary sanctions since the end of 2010. It has long needed a lot of fixing up. By unhappy coincidence, a lot of my research and writing off-wiki is about the topic of this article, and has been since the early 1990s, long before Wikipedia was founded. I've dreaded wading in to do a full fix, but maybe now is the time. I had a good experience a year ago (2015) with collaborative editing of English language as part of this same Core Contest. -- WeijiBaikeBianji (Watch my talk, How I edit) 16:36, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

Comments by judges

As we know, the core/vital criteria have been considered arbitrary by some, and really broad/important stuff sometimes gets missed...and this (I feel) is one of those topics. Kudos for picking it up - great choice. The article is already pretty hefty so it'll be a case of pruning and reorganising as much as anything else, though I think some credit could be given for sorting out any daughter articles. Bibliography section needs looking at and trimming definitely, either they should be used as sources or removed, or an explanation given as to why any book there does not fit in one of those two cats. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 20:48, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

Comments by others

• Other editors are most welcome to offer input on the merits of the improvement and what else needs doing etc. -- WeijiBaikeBianji (Watch my talk, How I edit) 16:36, 20 April 2016 (UTC)
• Doesn't seem to be listed as vital or core, but gets over 4,000 views per day, well over a million per year. B-class, and looks good to a non-specialist, though no doubt there are rocks below the surface. At 142K crude bytes, it is presumably well over the recommended length at WP:TOOLONG already. Johnbod (talk) 16:46, 20 April 2016 (UTC)
  • Thanks for the comment about page length. Yes, my idea of improving that particular article would actually be to shorten it by writing more in summary style and moving some points of discussion to the wikilinked subarticles. I recall a discussion among the expanded Core editors (the 10,000 level of articles) that identified that article as worthy of consideration at that level, and it is routinely a top-3000 article by page views year after year after year. High-priority for WikiProject Psychology and I think other WikiProjects. -- WeijiBaikeBianji (Watch my talk, How I edit) 16:54, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

Ancient Greek art

• Nominator - Johnbod (talk · contribs)
• Improvements, see diff, or from before to final. Expanded from 35,665 to 80,906 crude byte-count. Much rewriting, several new sections. Inline refs from zero to 129 (several combining different sources), and whole article referenced. Entirely new sections: (8-12) "Engraved gems, Ornament, Other arts, Diffusion and legacy, Historiography". Much rewriting and adding to other sections, which turned out to be needed - "Metalwork" in particular was very weak. Many pics added. Johnbod (talk) 10:44, 1 July 2016 (UTC)
• Comments: Former FA (promoted and demoted in 2004!). About 500 views pd. Content seems mainly ok, but image layout terrible, and only 1 ref in the whole article. Johnbod (talk) 14:10, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

Comments by judges

Impressive. It has exactly 0 (zero) inline references....Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 10:18, 7 May 2016 (UTC)

Wow! Looks like a run for GA might be on the cards...nice work. I wouldn't start teh first sentence by stating what isn't it and the lead could do with some polish (be wary of abbreviating Ancient Greek art to Greek art etc.). Looks very comprehensive (to my untrained eyes), though maybe some material on origins and relation to Aegean art (and/or other antecedents) is needed right at the beginning? Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 00:42, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Yes, I've taken a bit of a break, but am continuing to work on this and related articles - so much to do. Johnbod (talk) 17:00, 11 July 2016 (UTC)

Got alarmed at first glance...but Earwigs has a false positive of some sort of mirror site. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 00:49, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Comments by others

Wonderful article choice John.♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:24, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

Guitar

• Nominator - Laser brain (talk · contribs)
• Improvements: [4] I didn't get to delve into this as much as I would have liked, but i did perform a significant reorganization, cleanup of sources, removal of extraneous text, and some copyediting. --Laser brain (talk) 12:46, 1 July 2016 (UTC)
• Comments: A meandering article of very broad scope. Needs tightening and better sourcing/inline citations. I already have several books. --Laser brain (talk) 11:37, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

Comments by judges

Great choice - has 56 kb of prose so some relegation of material to daughter articles might be needed. Also raises issue of how to incorporate discussion of bass guitars into it. I am not knowledgeable on th topic. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 21:06, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

I can see it's been tightened to 48kb prose (nice). Now has 24 inlines (still needs a bunch more). Still looking... Looks more polished. I don't see any glaring omission of content (though concede am not terribly musical..) Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 00:50, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

It's pretty flimsy actually, but a start toward making serious improvements. The reorg took a lot of thought and shuffling of content. Now I need to actually edit and cite. --Laser brain (talk) 13:45, 7 July 2016 (UTC)

Comments by others

• 55K views in last 20 days. Not many refs, and probably fat too many sections. Johnbod (talk) 13:14, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

Excellent choice Laserbrain. I've long intended to write it myself as I know a lot about them!♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:26, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

@Dr. Blofeld: Great! So I can count on you for sanity checks and editing. :) --Laser brain (talk) 21:58, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

Yeah I'll watch over it and see how you're doing. Look forward to seeing it improved!♦ Dr. Blofeld 06:36, 10 May 2016 (UTC)

Habitat

• Nominator - Cwmhiraeth (talk · contribs)

• Improvements: I expanded the article by about 28kb, from 5,510 bytes to 33,694 bytes. and it achieved GA status with a few hours to go before the end of the contest. Here is a diff for the changes I made. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 17:14, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

• Comments: This is not on the core list and I could choose another subject if you did not approve it. At the moment, the article is nearly non-existent, and I think I can usefully expand it considerably. Some of the other language versions, such as French, are much more comprehensive.

Comments by judges

Interesting choice - it gets around 1000 views a day, which strikes me as pretty vital. Its in a rudimentary state. I am happy to include as pretty core-ish....Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 21:08, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

Looking Good - could do with some more wikilinks, and also information on government legislation to protect habitats. Also habitat disturbance leading to overgrowth by certain species (weeds, jellyfish, algae) - segueing into monohabitat. Habitat corridor deserves a small segment rather than a link at the bottom. Article has 18kb of prose, so all this can be incorporated easily. Nice work Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 10:59, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

@Casliber: I have made some alterations as a result of your comments. Here is a diff of my changes. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 13:13, 7 July 2016 (UTC)

Comments by others

This should definitely be on the core list IMO.♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:23, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

• Certainly deserves expansion. Johnbod (talk) 13:37, 12 May 2016 (UTC)

Danish language

• Nominator - Maunus (talk · contribs)
• Improvements:

• diff
• I have written the grammar section which was missing entirely, I have added lots of new academic references (from 37 to 83 citations) and improved existing referencing, I have improved the dialect section.

• Comments: This is a lvl 4 vital article. I've written a good deal of the article already, focusing on the history and dialectology sections. The grammar section however is still almost entirely missing. It gets about 1000 views per day.

Comments by judges

Go for it. I'd say something clever in Danish...but that's no feat given the availability of google translate....Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 04:41, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

Ok, at the beginning it was a 32 kB (5148 words) article with 37 inline references, some of which were incomplete. At the end of it, it is a 39 kB (6349 words) article with 83 inline references. Nice buffing of grammar section. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 14:02, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

Tyco Brahe

• Nominator - Maunus (talk · contribs)
• Improvements:

• Diff
• I've expanded and improved the biographical section so that it now gives an actual description of his life instead of just a collection of anecdotes, I have added many references to the newer biographical literature and improved already existing references (removing many references to low quality sources and replaced them with high quality academic sources), and standardized the referencing system, I have added useful illustrations of Tycho himself, his observatory and instruments.
• An overall expansion from 34kb to 49kb readable prose, and from 71kb to 85kb total bitsize.

• Comments: This is a lvl 4 vital article and on the core list. The current article is a mish mash of odd factoids with an entire section on his pet elk, and hardly anything not enough about his discoveries or their impact, or the details of his life and work. It gets about 1100 views per day.

Comments by judges

• At first glance looks in better condition than many articles, but could benefit greatly from a cleanup and emphasis on the science. has 34 kb prose so room for expansion. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 04:48, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

nice job of fixing up the biography. looks like it'd be close to a GA nomination. I concede that it did look in better condition to begin with than some other entries.. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 14:12, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

Comments by others

• Looking at the article, the content was a good deal better than I expected from reading the proposal, and seemed mostly written by specialists. But no doubt it can be improved. Johnbod (talk) 13:42, 12 May 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, I remembered it worse than it was - there is coverage of his main work. But it still needs a lot of sourcing and coherence. And the biography part is bad.·maunus · snunɐɯ· 13:53, 12 May 2016 (UTC)

Division (mathematics)

• Nominator: Esquivalience (talk · contribs)
• Improvements:
• Comments: Fundamental to arithmetic and a level 3 vital article; however lacks information and has only two sources, which is an embarrassment to the 750 or so readers who read this article every weekday.

Comments by judges

• Lacks a lead, lacks history.....agree - plenty to improve. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 04:49, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

Some work - now has a lead...which is good. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 14:13, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

Trial

• Nominator: Notecardforfree (talk · contribs)
• Improvements: Unfortunately, other obligations prevented me from devoting the time needed to improve this article. I will still work on it over the next few months, and I hope to participate in this contest again next year. Best, -- Notecardforfree (talk) 17:06, 6 July 2016 (UTC)
• Comments: This is a level-four vital article, but the content needs a lot of work. I'll try to tackle this over the next two weeks.

Comments by judges

Wow, great scope for improvement (one inline ref and no history at all!) and very broad/worthwhile article to improve. Something I'd never thought of. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 10:11, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

Comments by others

• 368 views p.d. History certainly needed - a big topic. Johnbod (talk) 16:54, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

Classics

• Nominator: Caeciliusinhorto (talk · contribs)
• Improvements: initial state, current state. Improvements include:

1. Amount of text has almost doubled (13 kB to 23 kB)
2. Many individual sections expanded significantly (lead, etymology, history, archaeology, philosophy, ancient Greek lit, legacy)
3. Other sections have been added ab initio (reception studies, all of the prose on ancient Rome)
4. The confusing listcruft (random list of people who had studied classics at some point in their lives, quotes about classics) has been removed
5. Inline citation count has gone from 8 to 75.
6. Structure of the article has changed, I think for the better, by putting section on "legacy" at the end.
7. The see also and external links sections have been compressed, making them much more digestible; citation style has been made consistent; further reading has been expanded into a few introductory books for each major part of classics.
8. A number of pictures have been added.

• Comments: unaccountably neither a vital article nor a core article(!), I believe that as a subject-area which covers many topics which are themselves vital articles (Ancient history, Latin, Ancient Greek philosophy), it ought to be counted. (Also note that many other similarly broad subject areas, including Geography, History, Mathematics, Philosophy, and Science are all included as vital articles). This article has been on my mental to-do list for ages, and with only 8 inline refs and 2k words of prose, there's plenty of scope for making it not as bad. The article averages around 550 page views per day.

Comments by judges

• Agreed - a great choice of article. And lots to improve - lacks a lead. lacks a history of study. lacks alot of references. Has only 13 kB of prose, and each subsection could be fleshed out. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 12:22, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Great job of tidying up the article, covering some huge gaps in information and giving it structure. Looks reasonably comprehensive now. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 14:25, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

Legal history

• Nominator - ONUnicorn (talk · contribs)
• Improvements: initial state
• Comments: Level 4 vital article. An important and neglected article. Right now it neglects huge and important developments in law in almost every legal system that it covers, as well as not covering at all the development of English Common Law except to note that the legal system of the United States is based on it. The paragraph on Islamic law does not talk about what Islamic law actually is. The section on Eastern Asia provides a link to the main article on Traditional Chinese Law but doesn't discuss it at all, simply talking about the recent modernization attempts. Even in the section on European law the process by which modern civil law developed from Roman law is glossed over. I'm hesitant to sign up for this because I'm beginning to study for the bar exam and don't know how much time I'll have to work on it, but I'd like to work on it. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 14:37, 18 May 2016 (UTC)

Comments by judges

@ONUnicorn: great choice of article. legal topics are often underdeveloped on wikipedia so kudos for offering to have a go. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 01:25, 8 June 2016 (UTC)

Skeleton

• Nominator: Mccullermi (talk · contribs)
• Improvements:
• Comments: Level 3 vital article that receives ~700 views a day. In its current state it includes only the bare minimum of information even on human skeletons and coverage regarding other skeleton types and animals that use skeletons is severely lacking. Needs so much work and I'd like to take a crack at it!

Comments by judges

@Mccullermi: great choice. I can see the article needs a beefier lead as well as well as astack of inline references Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 01:19, 8 June 2016 (UTC)

Comments by others

• I guess you could say that this is a "bare bones" article in its current state. -- Notecardforfree (talk) 15:55, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
  • Hyuk hyuk hyuk :) Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 01:19, 8 June 2016 (UTC)