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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 SandyGeorgia 23:22, 12 January 2011 [1].

U.S. Route 30 in Iowa

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U.S. Route 30 in Iowa (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

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Nominator(s): –Fredddie™ 05:47, 9 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I am nominating this for featured article because I've worked on this article for the better part of the last year and feel it meets the criteria. It's one of the most important roads in the state of Iowa, probably the most historic road, and I feel I've done the road justice. It's my first time to FAC, so please be kind! –Fredddie™ 05:47, 9 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

File:US_30_(IA)_map.svg - I really have no idea where Iowa is or what it looks like, can this image be given some context Fasach Nua (talk) 19:44, 9 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I added in File:Map of USA IA.svg as an inset. Will that work? –Fredddie™
WP:FA Criteria 3 met Fasach Nua (talk) 18:35, 10 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support based on the criteria. It is my opinion that:

  1. It is well-written, , comprehensive, well-researched (all reliable sources), neutral, and stable.
  2. The lead is appropriate for the article; the structure is likewise appropriate and all of the citations are consistently formatted.
  3. All of the photos are either public domain or Creative-Commons-licensed. There are no fair-use images, and all of the captions are appropriate.
  4. The length of the article is appropriate for 330 miles of highway in the state of Iowa that is 97 years old, both in terms of description and history.
Imzadi 1979 → 06:23, 10 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comments –

  • The biggest problem I see in the article is overlinking. To provide a couple of examples, I saw four Ogden links at various points in the article, and one paragraph had multiple Ames and Iowa State University links. The whole article could use a good scrubbing in this regard.
  • "While US 30 was created in 1926, the route itself dates back to the 1913...".
  • Move reference 14 after the punctuation in the last paragraph of the section.
  • Also in this section, at the end, a period is needed before reference 11.
  • Not a big deal, but reference 2 could use a PDF indication like many of the other refs have. Giants2008 (27 and counting) 01:43, 13 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I removed a significant number of links, removed the erroneous the, and corrected the references. –Fredddie™
Left the first comment unstruck originally because I found a couple remaining examples of overlinking while checking the other comments. I just removed them, and am now content with the improvement in that regard. Giants2008 (27 and counting) 02:16, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sources comments

  • Many of the sources are maps. It is frequently very difficult to verify statements which are cited to these maps. Just one example: "In 1955 a couple of routing changes occurred. In Cedar Rapids, it began its move to the south, avoiding the downtown area, and in Clinton, it was rerouted over the Gateway Bridge, allowing Iowa Highway 136 to cross the Lyons-Fulton Bridge."[19] How do I verify this statement from the map?
    • Would it be helpful to provide a ref to the previous year's map? –Fredddie™
  • Ref 2: It is virtually impossible to verify the 15 citations to this source. Can you harness the helpful bookmarks provided to the left of the pdf? This would at least bring us to the right page.
    • The reference is, in actuality, a log of the average annual daily traffic for every segment of road in the primary highway system. The length was derived by adding the lengths of all segments listed for US 30. I will show my work to allay any questions about how it was derived. –Fredddie™ 01:32, 15 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Otherwise, the sources I can interpret look good, and spotchecking reveals no problems. Brianboulton (talk) 19:22, 14 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

  • I'm not questioning the use of maps as sources per se. As with books, online or offline is not an issue. I am suggesting that when maps are used to support statements, indications be given e.g. by grid references, to enable verification in much the same way that page numbers are given in books. I am also dubious about whether sentences such as the one I have quoted above can be verified entirely from a map. Brianboulton (talk) 19:57, 15 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Like I said before, I can provide refs to the previous year's map (where possible) to show the change. The downside is that would effectively double the number of map references. –Fredddie™ 00:28, 16 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

*Dab/EL check - no dabs or dead external links. --PresN 00:10, 15 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

  • Comments
    • "Despite the 1-mile (1.6 km) wide valley, due to the river's meandering course, the historic Kate Shelley High Bridge, which is 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) north of US 30, is not visible from the route" -- necessary?
      • Probably not, so I removed it. I only included it because it's the most notable feature in the Boone area. –Fredddie™
    • "While not ideal for transcontinental travel, Iowa's dirt roads were very good roads; that is, when they were dry. Some people even compared them to the best roads in France. The same could not be said, however, when the roads were wet. " -- you have some redundancies and unnecessary words here.
      • I moved around a few words trying not to change the meaning of the sentences. –Fredddie™
    • Overall this is pretty good writing, though not particularly engaging – however, I can't see how engaging a road article can be. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 04:35, 29 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the review! –Fredddie™ 05:16, 29 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Nice work. A couple more thoughts on the wet roads. "Vicious" is an interesting way to describe mud. And who said they were the equal of France's? Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 05:21, 29 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
"Some people" were just as vaguely referred to as "foreigners" and vicious is the word used in the source. I discovered that the booklet is now online, so I linked to it in the citation template. When I was doing my research, the library had a copy of the booklet. –Fredddie™ 06:38, 29 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Looks good. One last thing: ref 29 either needs a link or no retrieval date. :-) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 07:31, 29 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Removed. –Fredddie™ 04:39, 30 December 2010 (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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