Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Jesus College Boat Club (Oxford)/archive1

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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 promoted by Karanacs 15:11, 28 April 2009 [1].

Jesus College Boat Club (Oxford)[edit]

Nominator(s): BencherliteTalk 00:19, 21 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
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I am nominating this for featured article because I think it meets the criteria, and I'd like to see if I'm right. It had a good going-over by The Rambling Man to get GA status, it's had a recent peer review with all issues addressed and some experienced and helpful (could have been either way round) editors have taken a look and found little more to say. Hope you enjoy reading it, and thank you in advance for your views. BencherliteTalk 00:19, 21 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

  • Tech. Review
Thanks. BencherliteTalk 10:33, 21 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Otherwise, sources look okay, links checked out with the link checker tool. Ealdgyth - Talk 14:02, 21 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Drat! I thought I'd found a way to do this to keep you happy, following on fromour previous discussion on the matter by making it clear where the data for these charts come from, and that the information on achievements each year is also contained in college publications. What else would you suggest I add or do? Dudhia, the academic who maintains the chart, is a rowing historian who has co-authored a published history of St Catherine's College Oxford Boat Club, incidentally, so he's not completely clueless on rowing matters. BencherliteTalk 14:39, 21 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Just go ahead and add citations to the relevant books that back up the information, and we'll be good. Ealdgyth - Talk 16:52, 21 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Done; I'm no longing using the website in question as a reference, but have put it into an external links section, as it does illustrate the rise and (more often) fall of the boats in a way that words can't do quite as easily. How's it looking now? BencherliteTalk 19:14, 21 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Provisional support As previously discussed on my talk, I see no problems with this prose-wise; support with the proviso that someone familiar with rowing can verify that the technical aspects are accurate. – iridescent 17:28, 21 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • Thanks; I've asked The Rambling Man, who knows a thing or two about boats (even if he did go to Cambridge), whether he might be able to drop by here. WP:ROWING made no effort to help with GA status or Peer review, despite messages being left on the project talk page, so I thought I'd go direct to someone who's active. Trust that this is OK. BencherliteTalk 18:19, 21 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
      • While I'm no expert, I was a cox at Oxbridge back in the day... I'll happily verify the technical issues as soon as I get a moment. And I may even provide my own comments re:dark blue scourge... I'll pop back ASAP. The Rambling Man (talk) 18:20, 21 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comments
  • "...remain head of the river..." not capitalised while other instances are. Seems a little incongruous.
    • Reworded
  • "...with the eight going up three places in one night..." the significance of this is hard to fathom for a complete outsider. I know it's difficult but it's rather essential to allow the reader to get this concept to fully enjoy the rest of the article.
    • Reworded
  • "highest position on the river for thirty years" - which was? Maybe worth providing us with a context vs the Head of the River here...
    • If only I knew... the source doesn't say, so I'll have to track down online access to The Times to look there.
  • First barge image seems oddly placed since it isn't until the next section you talk about the barges. Opt for useful illustration in relevant sections rather than out of context images (if you ask me...)
    • The trouble is that I only have a short paragraph about barges, which can't really be expanded, and two useful images - any suggestions about where to place them both?
  • "...which dates in its current form from 1974..." don't understand this? Can you clarify what "form" it was before, or perhaps what was significant about the change that obviously took place in 1974?
    • Changed to "revitalised", which is what the source says. Not sure what the deal was pre-1974.
  • Old to new currency conversions should have a precise date in my opinion. I'd add an accessdate to ref 48 and instead of "today" I would opt for the old "as of..."
    • Fixed by Iridescent to use {{CURRENTYEAR}}; {{Inflation}} is only updated annually, it seems. The footnote text is generated via {{Inflation-fn}}, rather than being some wording that is individually adjustable for this article.
  • Is "Rowing on the Thames" really a relevant See also to this particular article? Go on, convince me...!
    • Shan't – I didn't add it in the first place! Gone.

Otherwise, a typically excellent piece of work from the wrong side of Varsity. Rowing technicalities-wise, I cannot find any issues with the article. Nice. The Rambling Man (talk) 18:37, 22 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

  • Thanks for these points; I have a busy couple of days ahead of me, and it looks as though I'm going to need to get to a library to find online access to The Times from 1930, so it'll be a little while until I can address these fully. BencherliteTalk 20:32, 23 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • I've fixed some - thoughts? BencherliteTalk 08:08, 24 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support - very enjoyable reading, comprehensive, well illustrated and technically correct. Nice work. The Rambling Man (talk) 11:21, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Comments -

  • Second paragraph: whilst→while.
  • History: "The first record of an inter-collge race dates from 1815, which was a race between eights...". Redundant use of "race" in this sentence, and I'm sure "which" isn't meant to refer to the year.
  • Another whilst later in the paragraph. Would be good to check for that throughout and switch it to the simpler version (while).
  • "with regulations being introduced" is a noun-plus ing sentence structure.
  • Here are a couple of "then"s that I think can be removed without causing any harm: "but then did not participate in the races again until 1844" and "and then finished in last place in 1864.
  • Rowers: is Engineering considered a proper noun in British English?
    • Changed to "Engineering Science", as per the source.
  • Two Oxford University Boat Club links in the section.
    • Well spotted!
  • College barges: Five straight sentence start with "It". More variation would be good. Giants2008 (17-14) 14:34, 24 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • All fixed, to your satisfaction I hope. Thanks for your comments. BencherliteTalk 07:18, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
      • Support - An article that I enjoyed reading and is high-quality throughout. Great job on this one. Giants2008 (17-14) 00:22, 28 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Near to Support Generally FAC. A few comments:
  • "... the main inter-college rowing competition at Oxford, Eights Week (an achievement termed being "Head of the River")" read awkwardly to me - "earning the title ..." perhaps? No brackets, since it is an important point.
  • The flow of the "rowers" section should be improved.
  • I've had a go, but would welcome further suggestions. BencherliteTalk 14:40, 27 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Some timeline or table to convey a sense of the position of the college in the Eights Week rankings over the years would be helpful.
  • Aargh! There is no central source that I've found (either for Jesus, or for Eights Week as a whole) after 1899 until the charts used as external links start in 1980. It would require probably another 100 additional references to be added to the article, even assuming I could track down the details for every year, and I'm reluctant to agree to do this extra work. BencherliteTalk 14:40, 27 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • There must be some figures available to give an idea of the current cost of running the club, and main sources of their income. Also something on the formal status & governance of the club. Since all the other OU rowing club articles are far less detailed, the only one to be FAC should cover these aspects.
  • Good idea. I've added a section on structure of the club and finance; the club is financed by the college, but details of the amounts paid to the boat club don't appear separately in the college's accounts so I can't say how much the club spends each year. Similarly, the website says that the club is sponsored by Barlow Lyde & Gilbert but I can't find out how much they pay. BencherliteTalk 14:40, 27 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Johnbod (talk) 14:32, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

  • Ok, confirm Support after points addressed. Those magnificently hard to follow charts in external links will have to do. Johnbod (talk) 16:10, 27 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Image review: images are verifiably in public domain or appropriately licensed. Jappalang (talk) 02:37, 27 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Comments: File:Jesus College Oxford Rowing Blade.svg: should it not be made clear in the Infobox (as with a caption) that this image represents the colours of the club's rowing blades, and is not a coat of arms or insignia that is typically found in Infoboxes? Jappalang (talk) 02:37, 27 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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