Wikipedia:Peer review/Zambezi/archive1

Zambezi

A river that I have hitchhiked along the course of, swum in, fallen in, drunk from, canoed on and generally got very familiar with, so a while back I thought I would work on its article which was formerly far briefer than befits the fourth longest river in Africa. Anyway, I'm no hydrologist, and have taken an awful lot of content from the 1911 Britannica, so would really appreciate more eyes on the article to tell me what else it would need to bring it to featurable quality. Worldtraveller 21:36, 3 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Some points. 1) There is a wikipedia:wikiProject Rivers which might have some useful tips. 2) The river infobox is needed. The units formatting are bad. 3) Its best to have it in metric with the imperial equivalents alongside in brackets. Use a non breaking space (&.n.b.s.p.;) between the unit and the number 4) Towns along the river? 5) The river in local culture: Is is worshipped/revered by locals etc.? ancient settlements along the banks? 6) please don't start new paragraphs with a left aligned image. 7) Flora and fauna of the river? =Nichalp «Talk»= 12:45, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Great, thanks for the comments! I am now working towards including the sections suggested by the wikiproject. Have added infobox, and formatted units. Points 4 and 7 will be covered as I work on point 1, point 5 I will do some research on. Point 6 I'm not sure about, is that a general style guideline or more of a personal preference? My own preference is to alternate images left and right. Worldtraveller 15:34, 4 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

A left aligned image at the start of a section makes it harder to read. I'm not against left aligned images, but would like the left aligned images not be immediately after a new heading. It can be left-aligned wrt the second paragraph though. =Nichalp «Talk»= 17:51, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

The article looks very good. Please include any references you have used in a reference list. I have two questions - has the river been used for transport? Does the flooding affect human settlements? Fauna would make an interesing addition, there are probably at least a few species of freshwater fish that are endemic to the catchment.--nixie 03:24, 5 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the comments! I have added references, and a small section about transport as well as sections about the economy, ecology and wildlife of the river. The 'middle river' section mentions the annual Kuomboka festival when the Lozi king moves from a compound in the flood plain to one on higher ground - should that be made more prominent somehow? I've added a bit about fauna but probably need to do more research there. Will hopefully be able to expand on that, and also find out more about the river in local culture, in the next couple of days. Worldtraveller 12:44, 5 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Have done further work on this now, including a bit more about wildlife, a section listing major towns, expansion of transport section, and a few other small tweaks. Any more thoughts, anyone? Worldtraveller 16:04, 8 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]