Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Peer review/Duquesne Spy Ring

Duquesne Spy Ring

This quality article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 9 May, 2007. The topic has many interesting elements (e.g., Nazi Spies, a double-agent, major FBI sting operation, a colorful ring-leader in Fritz Duquesne, etc...) and many supporting documents in the public domain. Because of the heavy use of public domain material, a Wikipedia newbie worked hard to get the article deleted, even going so far as to submit an AfD on 17 May, 2007; however, his arguments were flawed and the article received a speed keep. Now that the unnecessary AfD debate has ended, it is time to look at ways to improve the article. Your comments and edits would be much appreciated.

-- Ctatkinson 01:15, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Jackyd101

• Sounds like you've had a tough time, well done for getting through it in a sensible manner. Its a nice article about an obscure by very interesting subject, however I do have a couple of comments. Firstly, the piece needs to be better cited. There are several links to the FBI source information at the bottom and several books listed, but it isn't clear exactly what information come from which source. Used citweb or citebook templates to create a proper notes section.

I'm also not wholly convinced by the article's structure. It might be better to take the information in the lead, William Sebold and Fritz Duquesne sections and create sections on the narrative history of the event (i.e. formation of the group, Sebold's double agent status, links with Germany, aims of the group, FBI monitoring of the ring, ring's collapse and arrest, aftermath). Then the small boilerplate mugshot sections could be placed below (Im not sure if it's just me, but some of the photos don't seem to match up with the personal information.) If anyone besides Duquesne and Sebold is notable enough for their own article then give it to them to save on size constraints. As it is, the article talks about the collapse of the group before the connection between Duquesne and Sebold. The information is all there it just seems to be in a slightly confusing order.

It should also be made clearer in the opening sections how the ring was recruited and organised, I didn't see anything really about that. Those are the major issues I have with the article right now, but it is an interesting read and can be relatively easily improved, good job.--Jackyd101 11:00, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

CJSC

I would second the above comments re: the article structure. In its current format I feel a better title for this article would be "List of Duquesne Spy Ring members", as it primarily consists of profiles of the various participants, rather than offering a summary overview of the ring's organization, activities, capture, and eventual conviction (as a minor aside, "brought to justice" in the lead has potential POV issues that might be better avoided through a more neutral rephrasing.) As Jackyd suggested, it's not clear that all 31 members need to be profiled, even in brief; rather I would focus on the ring as a whole, with specific attention being paid only to key members. Although the material is definitely public domain, Wikipedia's needs require a different narrative format from what's been provided by the FBI, so I would urge you not to lock yourself in to the existing article structure; the use of other sources, complementing the public domain FBI material, should help to bring out the history, which is likely to be of far greater interest to the average reader (and it does sound like a pretty fascinating case) than a detailed biography on each conspirator. Also, I understand your attachment to the article, but please do try to assume good faith on the part of the editor who nominated this article for deletion, as I saw no evidence that he meant it otherwise. Thanks, -- CJSC // Contact 14:18, 25 May 2007 (UTC)