Talk:Lord James Blears

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Sketchy references

I loked up three of the references, and they were all very very minor mentions. One said that Lord James Blears was at a party, another that someone ran into him while surfing. I'd suggest to the person inserting these references to read WP:RS and stick to stronger, significant mentions rather than such weak references. It might not apply to al of them, but there is someting funny goin on with the over-referencing here. It's immediately eident by the fact that many of the reference titles have nothing to do with the article subject. All in all, it greatly diminshes the relaibaility fo the article when such weak refs are used. HappyValleyEditor (talk) 23:24, 18 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps you could identify some claims in the article that you feel are not adequately supported by reliable sources? McPhail (talk) 16:59, 19 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Completely at random, #25 is from a book with two sentences on Blears. The ref amounts to a) he was a wrestler in honolulu, and b) he announced a surf competition. Other than that, I would need a major research grant to dive deep enough into this masterpiece of over-citing to answer your question with any precision! Or, you could cool it a bit on the thin references and stick to the strongest sources, as described above. HappyValleyEditor (talk) 06:04, 27 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The reference in question refers to Blears as "a standout at surfing events of the period", which evidences his prominence in Hawaii's surfing scene. But more to the point, "over-cited" is not the same as "unreliably sourced". Unless any of the sources quoted are considered unreliable, I don't see the logic in arbitrary pruning sources. McPhail (talk) 21:15, 27 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The subject has an obituary in The Times today and so is certainly quite notable. In general, the more references, the better as there are other busybodies who complain when just a few sources are used. Kudos to McPhail for his diligent work in finding them. Andrew D. (talk) 19:24, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

GA, anyone?

McPhail and Andrew Davidson I would encourage anyone with the sourcing and willingness, to keep working on this article and take it up to WP:GA. I don't know wrestling, and I missed his recent passing, but this man was certainly notable in Hawaii surfing. There was a time you could not turn on the evening TV news without seeing Lord Tallyho Blears reporting from the north shore, or at some other event happening in Hawaii. I can still hear his voice in my head, he was so omnipresent on TV. All of his children became surfers, and at least two were champions. In his Hawaii heyday, this man was everywhere. I did find a couple of sources not in the article: American Cowboy Chronicles, Maui News And just think, surfing was only one part of his life. Really and truly, I hope somebody has the resources and willingness to work this up to going through the Good Article process. — Maile (talk) 13:06, 8 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Maile66, I agree that Mr Blears was certainly a fascinating character with a colourful life. Sourcing his wrestling career is pretty tricky - the records for professional wrestling events in the fifties are not that comprehensive - but I will have a go at fleshing it out. McPhail (talk) 21:17, 8 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Gentleman Ed Francis Presents 50th State Big Time Wrestling! authored by the business partner of Blears. Can't access it in my local library, but if you can get a copy, it might have interesting stories.
Ed Francis on Facebook
Lots of Blears videos on YouTube

Hope these are of some help. — Maile (talk) 13:43, 9 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]