Talk:SS Alpena (1942)

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A fact from SS Alpena (1942) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 27 August 2021 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the SS Alpena, currently the oldest active steamship on the Great Lakes, was shortened by 120 feet (37 m) in 1991?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2021/August. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/SS Alpena (1942).

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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 Cwmhiraeth (talk) 08:45, 24 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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SS Alpena

... that the SS Alpena (pictured) is the oldest active steamship on the Great Lakes? Source: Ellison in MLive
- ALT1:... that the SS Alpena (pictured) was shortened by 120 feet (37 m) in 1991? Source: Ristow in The Times Herald
- ALT2:... that the SS Alpena (pictured) was shortened by 120 feet (37 m) in 1991 and is now the oldest active steamship on the Great Lakes? Source: Ristow in The Times Herald, Ellison in MLive
- ALT3:... that the SS Alpena (pictured), currently the oldest active steamship on the Great Lakes, was shortened by 120 feet (37 m) in 1991? Source: Ristow in The Times Herald, Ellison in MLive

Reviewed: Birgitta Odén

Moved to mainspace by Michael Barera (talk). Self-nominated at 23:22, 31 July 2021 (UTC).[reply]

@Michael Barera: The article is new and long enough, and within policy with lots of references. However, I think it needs to be structured better - with some headers to break things up, and the ordering of points checked - for example, the reasons why the ship was shortened need to come before how the shortening was done. With the hook, both sound good and interesting - I wonder if you could combine them both into a single hook? Also, a few other content requests: could you name the other 4 identical ships in the second paragraph? With the paragraph with 'she was the oldest active steamship' in it, could you also list the years the other ships were built, since that's a relevant fact for the point of this paragraph? And in the paragraph about the 2015 fire, could you add whether she was restored afterwards or not (presumably it was, but it's not clear)? Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 17:17, 4 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Mike Peel: I have attempted to address your suggestions and concerns, and I have also created a new hook (ALT2) per your suggestion. What do you think? Michael Barera (talk) 07:08, 8 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Michael Barera: The article looks much better, thanks! With ALT2, what would you think to presenting the facts the other way around? That would seem a bit more natural to me (name -> description -> length). Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 12:41, 8 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Mike Peel: I'd be okay with that. While I haven't been able to confirm this, I suspect that the Alpena did not become the oldest steamship on the lakes until after she was shortened in 1991. Michael Barera (talk) 18:18, 8 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Michael Barera: OK, I've added an ALT3, which I prefer, but it'll be up to the posting admin to make the final choice. I think this is good to go now! Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 18:24, 8 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]