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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 not promoted by Ian Rose 16:27, 24 November 2012 [1].

Klondike Gold Rush

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Klondike Gold Rush (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

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Nominator(s): Soerfm (talk) 19:42, 21 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I am nominating this for featured article because...it is currently a Good Article and has had a thorough copy edit to meet the engaging prose criteria. Soerfm (talk) 19:42, 21 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Drive by overlinks: Dyea, Victoria, scurvy, Sam Steele, Martha Black, Jack London Jimfbleak - talk to me? 13:01, 22 October 2012 (UTCm

Comment
I've been watching the effort made on this article to what extent I've had time for. The talk page contains {{Canadian English}}. However, the tone suggests that too much weight has been given not to Canadian English, but a Canadian perspective and Canadian sources, perhaps at the expense of other perspectives and sources. Specifically, there is the strong suggestion in this article that nothing of importance happened in Alaska until this event happened in Canada. I gave up right away on trying to help the nominator when I received a response which I interpreted as "Oh, those are your sources. I already have my sources." A specific issue, which directly relates to this, is that Alaska Gold Rush redirects to this article, with Alaska Gold Rush (disambiguation) created as the dab, but no hatnote exists on this article. This could very well have been an honest oversight, but more than a bit strange to overlook such a thing, considering how quickly this article has been promoted. That dab serves little purpose than to tie in a few of the most widely-publicized aspects of the gold rush era in Alaska with modern-day pop culture references to same, which is another thing given perhaps too much weight in this article. I would think that referring in the article to the lasting impact on Alaskan society/culture/economy would be more important than providing a list of books, films and television shows. Also, there was consistent activity throughout Alaska during five consecutive decades (1870s through 1910s) which relates to a "gold rush" or "the gold rush", whether within the Panhandle or various river drainages and mountain ranges. For instance, the Circle gold rush was significant, took place on American soil and occurred several years before the Klondike discovery, yet it seems as if there is a concerted effort to not acknowledge or mention it because it did occur on American and not Canadian soil. My attempt to add an introductory paragraph to the dab page, providing a reasonable explanation of this, was reverted by the nominator. I'll try and take the time to read over the article again and suggest other things. RadioKAOS  – Talk to me, Billy 20:57, 22 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

  • Thanks for your comment. About...
  • Canada-USA: I think the article fairly states that gold was found in Canada but that most prospectors were Americans. Further, both London (American) and Service (British) are mentioned. Most controversial during the editing was Soapy Smith and the NWMP, I had to leave out any meetings between them.
  • Importance: The Background section states that Klondike was not the first gold rush in Alaska-Yukon, however it could expand on Circle and Juneau, the sources just aren't there. I think that the economical importance is covered in the Legacy section (tourism and growth of west coast cities). The main article about cultural legacy is split from this article since it is unsourced and reads like a list.
  • Sources: I am not aware that we have had a dispute about sources. Please present them.
  • Hat note: It is true there was a hat note to this article, but it wasn't me who deleted it. About the dab article: I introduced it and wrote the introduction which I believe you expanded. Later I found that the introduction was against MoS and deleted it. Soerfm (talk) 12:45, 7 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • Importance (2): I agree that the Klondike Gold Rush is a bit over-represented in the sources; it did attract more people than others to that region; however, if you look at the growth of Seattle during the Nome Gold Rush you can see that it is just as great as during the Klondike Gold Rush. I tried to explain about this when I wrote the Nome article, but again I couldn't find any sources. Soerfm (talk) 14:04, 10 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • In terms of importance, any wiki article should reflect the balance and weight of literature in the field. I'm not aware of the article missing out any major pieces of literature that have been written in recent years, and I'd certainly argue that the article follows the balance of the literature. Hchc2009 (talk) 17:00, 10 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • I am sorry; when I said sources I didn't mean sources used in this article, I meant sources about Alaskan gold rushes in general. For instance I haven't been able to find sources about Juneau or Nome. Soerfm (talk) 18:18, 10 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Source review - spotchecks not done

  • FN14 needs more information
  • FN252: why an external link rather than reflink here?
  • No citations to Bramble 1987
  • Be consistent in whether you include state or country for US locations, and if the latter whether you use US or U.S.
  • The source is being used to support non-exceptional claims (e.g. prices), and Ms Haggar's supervisor for the work was Prof Donald Hardesty, an expert in the history and archaeology of mining in the US. Hchc2009 (talk) 17:00, 10 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Delegate notes -- I'm going to archive this nom as it's been open over a month without any support for promotion and there's being no discussion for two weeks. I also think the prose needs further work, preferably by an independent copyeditor; some of the things that caught my eye during a cursory review:

  • Linking of common words, e.g. gold and stampede.
  • Lack of suitable punctuation, e.g. "In the gold fields the ore was distributed in a manner that could fool even experienced prospectors and digging was made slow by permafrost." (Given that two unrelated issues are being presented here, the least I'd expect is a comma before "and digging...")
  • Sentences that just don't read well, logically or grammatically, e.g. "Today the legacy draws tourists to the gold rush region and its historical places and contributes to keep them alive." and "In the 21st century Dawson City still has a small gold mining industry, just like tourism, drawing on the legacy of the gold rush, plays a role in the local economy."

Once the prose has had more work (and perhaps a Peer Review) you can re-nominate for FAC, provided a minimum of two weeks has passed since the archive date. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 16:20, 24 November 2012 (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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