Talk:Early life of Jan Smuts

Early life of Jan Smuts was one of the History good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
August 10, 2006	Peer review	Reviewed
October 16, 2006	WikiProject peer review	Reviewed
September 23, 2006	Good article nominee	Listed
September 23, 2006	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
November 25, 2023	Good article reassessment	Delisted
Current status: Delisted good article

Biography: Politics and Government

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Article essentially complete?[edit]

I think that this article is now essentially complete. Perhaps one aspect which could do with further exploration is that of Smuts's political awakening. I intend at some point to make an examination of the ideas Smuts expressed in his 1891 'South African Customs Union' essay for the Ebden prize (Smuts Papers, vol I, no. 4). I won't be able to do this for a while however, so if anyone fancies taking it on then feel free.

Xdamr^talk 16:32, 5 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Actually this seems like a good time to go for peer review - see above.

Xdamr^talk 19:23, 5 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Anyone watching this page?[edit]

This article doesn't see much editing from other users. I was wondering, just out of interest, how many people are watching the page. If you are then please sign your name below.

Xdamr^talk 22:17, 31 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Watching[edit]

Xdamr^talk
Bastin

GA promotion[edit]

This is a good article -- it's well laid-out, clearly written, and well supported. As a future direction, I suggest focusing more on the forces in Smuts' formative years that would shape his character in the future. Twinxor t 23:22, 30 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Make sure to provide sources for all and please no speculation. - Jallor 22:20, 31 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

GA Reassessment[edit]

Early life of Jan Smuts[edit]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch • Watch article reassessment page • GAN review not found

Result: Per general consensus. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 20:42, 25 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

GA from 2006. I was going to just tag and wait to see if there's anyone interested in fixing it, but the problems are very jarring. The article is written more like an essay, with weasel wording, non-neutral wording, etc. I have added 24 "citation needed" templates, but I have not done a thorough check of the sources, so there might be even more. It would take a long time to fix the article. Spinixster (chat!) 02:26, 17 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I am a delist barring substantial improvement, but willing to wait a week or two and see if anyone takes an interest in working on the article. 20+ instances of citation needed is pretty damning. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 00:55, 18 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Delist unless someone steps forward to start addressing the issues with the article. BennyOnTheLoose (talk) 20:25, 19 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Delist; The opening three paragraphs of the body of the article are simply not acceptable in their manner of phrasing. Eg. 1870 found Bovenplaats under the care of Jacobus Abraham Smuts and his wife Catharina Petronella. Jacobus Smuts lived in much the same manner as his forefathers — a hard-working farmer, a pillar of the Church, and one who took a leading part in the social and political affairs of the neighbourhood. Such was the regard in which he was held that he was later to be elected as the Member for Malmesbury in the Cape Parliament doesn't exactly read "encyclopedic" to me. The Citation Needed tags are certainly an issue.
- Farmwork combined with lessons from his mother — such was the order of Jan's life for the next few years. Not sure that is grammatically correct.
- The whole paragraph beginning "Farmwork combined with lessons from his mother" reeks of OR/SYTNH. The whole statement "on these Swartland farms there was little of the rigid segregation which was already emerging elsewhere in South Africa and which was later to have such profound consequences. Since 1828 the Cape had enshrined in law the principle of strict legal equality between the races." is cited to an 1828 legal ordinance, and I doubt that supports the sociological suppositions suggested.

-Indy beetle (talk) 11:18, 23 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Delist: this is not up to scratch for verifiability, and smells quite badly to me of hagiography. Given the extremely controversial nature of its subject, I'm not happy that WP:NPOV is fully met, let alone WP:TONE. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 09:48, 24 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Delist for issues with tone, sourcing and a lack of NPOV. Zawed (talk) 10:20, 25 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.