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GA Review

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Nice job with this, this was a very interesting article. I hope you do follow through and ultimately push for FA status on this. Now, on to my review (please address each suggestion individually, and I'll cross them off as we go along)...

  • First of all, I think the Description section should actually come after the History section, rather than vice versa as it is now. Since Description describes and lays out what street newspapers really are, it places History in a much better context and I think the whole article just makes more sense that way. I also think you could really just do this by copying-and-pasting without too much trouble; just make sure the sources and wikilinks (for first references) still make sense. What do you think?--Hunter Kahn (talk) 05:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • I assume you mean before the History section? Anyway, I can move it pretty easily if you want, I just want to make sure it doesn't make it too confusing...I agree with you that having more context before the History section would be nice, but at the same time my impression is that History sections often go near the beginning...and since right now most of the article is the Description section, that would mean putting History at the end. I dunno if that would be a problem or not, just figured I should check with you. (I guess another option is to have a sort of brief description for context before hte history section, and the detailed stuff after...but I don't think there would be any logical way to divide things up for that, and it would probably be a bit arbitrary.) rʨanaɢ talk/contribs 06:14, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • This isn't a big deal, but when you have multiple citations in a row for a single fact, make sure the citation numbers are in order. For example, make sure it reads like, "Many street papers face financial difficulties because of insufficient funding.[11][21][34]" not "Many street papers face financial difficulties because of insufficient funding.[21][11][34]" I fixed all the instances of this that I saw.--Hunter Kahn (talk) 05:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • Ok, will do. I noticed that you cleaned up a lot of them; thanks :). Originally I think what I was doing is putting refs in one at a time and trying to put the best ones near the front, but I agree with you that this looks much better. rʨanaɢ talk/contribs 06:14, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Under Intro:

  • I think this first paragraph needs to be reworked. I think the first sentence places emphasis on the fact that they are partially written and produced by the homeless themselves, wheres I feel the emphasis should be on what the papers are and their primary aim. I'd recommend something like this, let me know what your thoughts are: "Street newspapers, or street papers, are newspapers that primarily provide coverage about homelessness and poverty-related issues and aim to strengthen networks of social benefits for the homeless and other marginalized individuals. Street papers also generally seek to provide employment opportunities, community networking and a voice for those marginalized individuals; the papers are often sold by, produced by and partially written by the homeless themselves. Street newspapers also seek to educate non-homeless readers about homelessness, although others place more concentration on mainstream news."--Hunter Kahn (talk) 05:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • I really like this wording of yours, and will probably paste it in almost exactly as you have it. The only issue that sticks out is that "primarily provide coverage about homelessness and poverty-related issues" really only describes one kind of street newspaper, and not the flashier The Big Issue-style ones. I'll try to think of a way to reword it to avoid excluding those ones. rʨanaɢ talk/contribs 06:14, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Under Historical foundations:

  • "Such newspapers were often created because mainstream news did not cover issues that were relevant to ordinary people..." This sounds like POV. Should perhaps be "...were often created because of the perception that mainstream news did not cover issues..." OR "...because the founders believed mainstream news..." ?--Hunter Kahn (talk) 05:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • "...and thus these papers have similar origins as yellow journalism, workers' papers, and other forms of alternative media in the late 1800s and early 1900s." I'm not clear on how these papers have similar origins to these things? Can you clarify or reword? --Hunter Kahn (talk) 05:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Under Modern street newspapers:

  • "(While Portland, Oregon's Homeless Times has been claimed to be the first modern street newspaper, Street News is the earliest-published paper that is still active.)" Drop the parenthesis here and work this into the normal prose of the article. Also, reword the phrase "has been claimed to be." And could you also perhaps add the date that Homeless Times allegedly started and disbanded, if that info is available?.--Hunter Kahn (talk) 05:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • Tried rewording it and putting it before the Street News sentence, but that didn't seem to work, so I ended up just keeping it similarly worded but sitting after a semicolon rather than in parentheses. Not sure if that'll get the job done or not...
    • As for the Homeless Times dates, unfortunately the NASNA reference doesn't say. I don't have access to the paper sources right now (I'll have to stop by the library to check), but I don't recall them saying anything either; the Green article might have it, but I'm not sure. Of course, there are also the four or five journal articles I have linked in the section above and haven't had time to read yet, so if I can't find the dates anywhere else I might give them a skim. rʨanaɢ talk/contribs 06:14, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
      • That's fine. I'm not going to hang up the GA nom on this, but for a future FA it would be worth including, so if you can ever get that info, I'd recommend you toss it in later down the road. --Hunter Kahn (talk) 02:51, 19 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • "By 2008, an estimated 32 million people per year read street newspapers, and 250,000 poor, disadvantaged, or homeless individuals sold or contributed to them." Is this in the U.S. or in the world? You mention "in over 30 countries" in the sentence right before this, so I'm guessing its in the world, but could you tweak the sentence slightly to verify this?--Hunter Kahn (talk) 05:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Under Coverage:

  • "Since the purpose of the papers is both to educate the general public about issues facing the homeless and to provide support for the homeless communities, most papers report on issues regarding homelessness and poverty." This sentence reads as a bit redundant. You describe the purpose of the papers right before this, so I don't think you need to reiterate it. I'd suggest hacking off the first part of this sentence, then merging the rest with the second sentence in this paragraph. So my suggestion would be this: "Most street newspaper report on issues regarding homelessness and poverty, and many of the paper also feature contributions from the homeless and the poor, in addition to articles by activists and community organizers." What do you think?--Hunter Kahn (talk) 05:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Unlike most street newspapers, the UK-based The Big Issue focuses mostly on celebrity news and interviews, rather than coverage of homelessness and poverty." Can you add something to this about why The Big Issue is still considered a street paper, despite its lack of coverage on homelessness and poverty. Based on the criteria you explained right under Description, it almost sounds like this paper wouldn't even be considered a street paper based on this description, so I'd recommend you could add something explaining why it is.--Hunter Kahn (talk) 05:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • Good point; I added the following text: "It is still sold by homeless vendors and uses the bulk of its proceeds to support homeless individuals and advocacy organizations for the homeless, but the paper's content is mostly written by professional staff and geared towards a broad audience." rʨanaɢ talk/contribs 06:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Although The Big Issue has attracted attention and controversy because of its stature, it is not the only street newspaper with this sort of business model; it is just an example of a whole category of street newspapers." This sentence reads ackwardly to me because of the second portion of it (after the semicolon). Could you try to reword it?--Hunter Kahn (talk) 05:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Under Social benefits:

Under Challenegs and criticisms:

  • I feel like the last paragraph is a little thin. Could you maybe add some examples of anti-homeless legislation that has targeted street newspapers and vendors? Or perhaps there's more to say on the issue of a lack of interest in homeless issue among some demographics? --Hunter Kahn (talk) 05:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • I added a bit about the anti-homeless legislation; there's more in Heinz but it's on a page I can't see from google books, so I might have to take a look tomorrow. I also added a little bit on the demographics (example of middle-class population in Calgary, same reference). rʨanaɢ talk/contribs 06:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
      • It's much, much better now. If you add more later, that's good too.
Thanks for your very detailed comments! I'll leave responses to issues above. rʨanaɢ talk/contribs 06:14, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

To do (notes for myself):

  1. Check Heinz for info about founding of INOSP and NASNA.
  2. Look for founding and ending dates of Homeless Times

rʨanaɢ talk/contribs 06:48, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A good article is:

  1. Well-written: Prose is good, MOS is good.
  2. Factually accurate and verifiable: Sources are good, no original research.
  3. Broad in its coverage: Covers main aspects, no unneeded detail.
  4. Neutral: Yes
  5. Stable: Yes
  6. Illustrated, if possible, by images: Yes