Template:Did you know nominations/Flag of Zimbabwe

The following discussion 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: rejected by — Crisco 1492 (talk) 13:16, 28 June 2013 (UTC)
Referencing

Flag of Zimbabwe[edit]

(

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... that the adoption and blessing of the flag of Zimbabwe (pictured) on April 18, 1980 coincided with the swearing-in of President Banana?

Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Intrepid RM-1
Comment: Previously unsourced. I shall take expansion start date as 1 June. As such, char size before that date was 1112. Article is now 5560++ chars long, which is an acceptable 5x.

5x expanded by Bonkers The Clown (talk). Self nominated at 08:21, 5 June 2013 (UTC).

I am unable to find an "About Us" or any similar page at this website to help establish reliability: I do see commercial mentions on that page, though. Could the nominator please explain how this site meets WP:RS or point to further information about the site somewhere on Wikipedia (for example, WP:RSN)? Similarly, CRW Flags seems to be a commercial source (a website selling flags): is there information establishing its reliability per Wikipedia guidelines somewhere? Thanks, SandyGeorgia (Talk) 05:12, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

I have faith in its reliability. If you don't feel comfortable, ask the higher ones and you will receive. ☯ Bonkers The Clown \(^_^)/ Nonsensical Babble ☯ 05:40, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

Needs a full review, which should include examining the reliability of the website questioned by SandyGeorgia. I am not nearly as sanguine as Bonkers The Clown: Wikipedia sourcing should have something more concrete than faith to go by. BlueMoonset (talk) 03:57, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

With regards to sourcing, the websites of concern look iffy and amateurish at best, with no sign of a reliable publisher or organization behind them. This why I only utilized reliable sources for my own flag DYKs (Flag of Senegal, Flag of Botswana, Flag of American Samoa, etc). You could try Google Books for sources (Flags by Carol P. Shaw and Complete Flags of the World by Dorling Kindersley). These are the 2 websites I always use, but unfortunately, Google removed the previews for them a few days after my 6th flag DYK. Maybe you could ask them to place them back up again. I'll give you a couple of days to find reliable sources to replace the ones in question before placing a check or ×. Good luck! —Bloom6132 (talk) 05:27, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice. I will take a look later. ☯ Bonkers The Clown \(^_^)/ Nonsensical Babble ☯ 01:54, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

In addition to the sourcing issues above, I have several additional comments:

The quote in the lead (i.e. A "reminder that the nation was born of pain"…) needs an inline citation since its a direct quote. This applies even though its cited later on in the article.
I'm concerned with the clearly non-neutral point of view expressed in the article (underlined), as well as the poor choice of words in general (italicized). These include phrases not limited to "broke free from colonial rule"; "[t]he very first Rhodesian flag, imposed on"; "[c]ome some time later"; "[t]his flag was rendered defunct"; "[t]he adoption and blessing of the new flag"; "discovered from piles of waste; "[s]hould the flag reach a stage where it is no longer deemed worthy of the public eye
"After which, the disposed flag should have a new one in its place." – fragment (i.e. not a complete sentence) and "after which" should never be at the start of a sentence.
"this helps to curb inflation rates" – that's not included in ref 10 (the inline citation that supposedly verifies the claim). Needs a new source, or else the claim must be removed.

—Bloom6132 (talk) 18:19, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

It's been 9 days since I first notified the nominator of the issue of unreliable sources. That's plenty of time already, and nothing's been done. —Bloom6132 (talk) 09:43, 27 June 2013 (UTC)