Talk:Great Salt Lake whale hoax

	This article was reviewed by member(s) of WikiProject Articles for creation. The project works to allow users to contribute quality articles and media files to the encyclopedia and track their progress as they are developed. To participate, please visit the project page for more information.Articles for creationWikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creationTemplate:WikiProject Articles for creationAfC articles
	This article was accepted from this draft on 29 August 2024 by reviewer Samoht27 (talk · contribs).

United States: Utah

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.
	Utah portal This article is supported by WikiProject Utah.

History

	History portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject History, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the subject of History on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.HistoryWikipedia:WikiProject HistoryTemplate:WikiProject Historyhistory articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Folklore

	This article falls within the scope of WikiProject Folklore, a WikiProject dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of the topics of folklore and folklore studies. If you would like to participate, you may edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project's page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to discussion.FolkloreWikipedia:WikiProject FolkloreTemplate:WikiProject FolkloreFolklore articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

A fact from Great Salt Lake whale hoax appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 17 October 2024 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that a sensational story in 1888 claimed that James Wickham, a British scientist, introduced two whales to the Great Salt Lake in an attempt to start a whale oil industry?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2024/October. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Great Salt Lake whale hoax.

Wikipedia

Comments left by AfC reviewers

Comment: Thanks for the barnstar! It looks like you've addressed the "storybook" elements of the draft in this rendition of the page, particularly the lines of "the story continues to captivate imaginations and is retold in various forms even today" as being on the "opinion" end.
I'd wager the title may need to be changed, as calling it a "legend" while also calling it a "hoax" immediately in the lede is a bit of a discrepancy. Possibly something like Great Salt Lake whale hoax is a more preferable title, unless there were a specific piece titled "Legend of Whales" at some point. The draft looks much better now, but I'll leave it to someone else to review at this point. (I'd highly encourage moving the page to a the new title still.) Utopes _{(talk / cont)} 12:58, 29 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, that works too. I meant "moving the page" away from the "Legend of Whales" title, not necessarily the hoax title. Hoax / myth seem suitable. Utopes _{(talk / cont)} 16:01, 29 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, I think the "hoax" description in the title is a bit more accurate. Keeps contents inline with other articles throughout the Hoaxes category, to which this article has more in common with compared to the Mythology category.

@Samoht27: I think I'm going to move it back to include "hoax" instead of "myth". The definition on the category page for hoaxes states that "a hoax is widely publicized and intentional attempt to make people believe falsehoods". This seems to be the case here via the news stories about whales, in order to make people believe it and sell whale oil. (The requested move mentioned above already occurred, away from the previous title of "Legend of Whales in the Great Salt Lake"). Utopes _{(talk / cont)} 19:16, 29 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This sounds optimal, thank you. It's less of a myth in the traditional sense as it's just a piece of misinformation spread by some newspapers. -Samoht27 (talk) 20:34, 29 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Did you know nomination

The following 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: promoted by Rjjiii talk 14:02, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

... that in 1888, a sensational story claimed that a British scientist, James Wickham, introduced two whales to the Great Salt Lake in an attempt to start a whale oil industry?

Source: https://www.hjnews.com/news/local/the-beehive-archive-a-whale-of-a-tale-from-early-slc-newspapers/article_6c92436d-050b-5fd7-a2e5-57966dd2e7cd.html

Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Tropical Storm Chris (2024)

Moved to mainspace by RadicalUranium (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has less than 5 past nominations.

OhHaiMark (talk) 17:09, 29 August 2024 (UTC).[reply]

The hook is interesting and the article is new enough. I'll be checking through the rest of the DYK reqs shortly. ❯❯❯ Mccunicano ☕️ 00:49, 8 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
- Article appears to be free from copyvio, and the hook is backed up by a paywalled hook reference that I will AGF. I think the lead of the article could be expanded some before appearing on the Main Page. Once that's done I think it should be good to go! ❯❯❯ Mccunicano ☕️ 01:05, 8 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
- I've touched up the article and expanded the lead as suggested. Thanks for the review, and I believe it's now ready for further consideration. RadicalUranium (talk) 23:34, 8 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  - Great work, I'll go ahead and approve the article and hook. ❯❯❯ Mccunicano ☕️ 04:36, 9 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    - @Mccunicano: I'd make sure to use the updated name of the article, Great Salt Lake whale hoax, as the word "myth" appears in this nomination. Utopes _{(talk / cont)} 07:40, 9 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
      - (Never mind, just updated across the board. Hope that works, it's a fun article title :v) Utopes _{(talk / cont)} 07:51, 9 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]