Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/John Babcock/archive1

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

The article was not promoted by SandyGeorgia 14:35, 23 September 2010 [1].

---

John Babcock

John Babcock (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

• Featured article candidates/John Babcock/archive1

Nominator(s): Canadian Paul 17:34, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

I am nominating this for featured article because I feel that it meets all the criteria of a featured article, and over half a year has passed since the subject's death, making it less susceptible to major changes in the future. It had an A-class review at the Military History Wikiproject where all concerns were addressed, but did not pass because it did not attract enough reviewers. It did, however, pass a Good Article review and was kept during the GA sweeps process. Canadian Paul 17:34, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

Comment. No problems with dablinks; the external link to Video Interview with John Babcock is dead. PL290 (talk) 19:20, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

I couldn't find it anywhere else, so I removed it, as it was merely supplemental. Canadian Paul 23:24, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

• Comments -
• Newspaper and magazine titles in the refs should be in italics. A few are, but the rest aren't, so it should be consistent.
• Need a page number for current ref 8 (Holmes...)

Otherwise, sources look okay, links checked out with the link checker tool (except for the deadlink as noted above) Ealdgyth - Talk 19:53, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

Fixed, hopefully. I replaced the Holmes reference because I couldn't find the information again in a search... plus I think it was referring to British soldiers anyhow... Canadian Paul 23:24, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

• Image copyright review: The only image is a pre-1923 one which is public domain. Stifle (talk) 14:19, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Weak oppose - interesting article, and I'd love to be able to support, but I don't think it's quite at FA standard. Nikkimaria (talk) 03:08, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

• Canadian spelling and conventions only please - particularly "First World War" vs "World War I" (and Two)
• Is the township called South Frontenac Township or simply South Frontenac? Be consistent
• Maclean's should be italicized
• "On growing up in the area, Babcock claims" - not fond of this phrasing, and since he's now deceased it should probably be past tense
• "He would return to the area in 1919...but soon after left for the United States" - grammar
• "Nevertheless, Babcock's relatives continue to work at the Crater Dairy farm...and the community grew to greatly respect John" - phrasing
• Specify $C vs $US - it's unclear for some values
• Some overlap between sections, and some statements contradict each other
• "Babcock then undertook an ocean voyage to England and, in Liverpool, he was stationed with the 26th Reserve and sent to Bexhill-on-Sea where he trained with about 1,300 others, about a third of whom were veterans from battles in France" - quite a long sentence, could it be split?
• "There Babcock underwent a physical, where it was discovered that he was underage. He was designated status A-4: physically fit, but underage.[6] At the time, the minimum age for combat was eighteen.[8] Babcock was turned down, but managed to make it all the way to Halifax by train before he was stopped by the company commander.[6]" - a bit repetitious
• "Soldiers holding acting ranks in the Canadian forces receive the salary and allowances of the rank, but can be reverted to a previous rank at any time due to their lack of the necessary training or experience to hold that position permanently" - the source uses past tense for this information - is it still true today?
• What head tax? Please explain briefly
• "moved there in the 1921" - missing word?
• Chronology in the first part of "After World War I" is unclear - did he move to the US before or after becoming an electrician? Before or after running the light plant? If before, when did he return to Canada? Section needs a bit of rearranging/clarifying
• Which wife produced the children?
• Being a Canadian veteran isn't necessarily the same thing as being a veteran of the Canadian military
• "He was proud of his status as the last surviving Canadian World War I veteran" - not supported by the source, and the rest of the article seems to suggest otherwise
• Did he receive greetings from the Queen for his 107th or 109th birthday?
• Don't repeat wikilinks, especially not in close proximity
• In References, be consistent in whether authors are listed first-name-first or last-name-first
• Elizabeth II ref should be formatted in a manner consistent with the other refs
• Name publishers consistently - CBC News or CBC.ca? etc
• Page for refs 5 and 7?
• Ref 17: if this is a web source, why is there no link or retrieval date?

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