Wikipedia:Good article reassessment/Winnipeg/1

Winnipeg

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch • Watch article reassessment page • Most recent review

Result: Kept per tremendous improvements made during this review. Geometry guy 21:46, 19 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There are a barrage dead links and unreferenced claims in the article i do not see how this passed the good article criteria. I was going to change the status back to B on the quality scale but i decided to do a community review to get more depth into the article. Kyle1278 04:19, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've fixed most of the dead links, there's only two that I can't find. As for the unreferenced claims, a) not everything requires a reference, and b) can you provide more detail as to your concerns? It's not perfect, but I'm not seeing a problem dire enough to preclude GA status. Cheers, Nikkimaria (talk) 16:58, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Comment. The article will benefit from copy editing. For example, the last paragraph in the lead is stubby, to say the least. I've only taken a brief preliminary look through the article, and so far the referencing look good. Hopefully the dead links and other minor issues can be addressed in short order. Majoreditor (talk) 04:08, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Comment Overall the article looks fairly good, if only a bit on the long side. I've added some refs as well as some {{citation needed}} tags to the article where I believe that additional references are required. As long as these are taken care of, I don't see any reason to delist. SnottyWong talk 13:07, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've added references to the places where you put citation tags. Are there any more statements requiring additional referencing? Nikkimaria (talk) 22:30, 5 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I now agree that the article has been cleaned up and it can stay at GA status. Kyle1278 20:47, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comment. In view of the above discussion I was planning to close this, but on reading through the article I found several problematic sentences/passages.
1. "Numerous archaeological clues have been found about their way of life." Vague, apparently uncited, and possible redundant to the last sentence of the first paragraph.
  Removed. Nikkimaria (talk)
2. "Lake Winnipeg was considered to be an inland sea, with important river links to the mountains in the West, to the Great Lakes in the East, and to the Arctic Ocean in the North." Considered by whom? "Important" according to what source?
  Reworded. Nikkimaria (talk)
3. "The bilingual Métis often took prominent roles in both cultures as settlement of the region continued." Is this in the sources?
  Sort of, but not clearly enough to stand. Nikkimaria (talk)
4. "The two companies competed fiercely over trade in the area." Is "fiercely" sourced?
  Yep; they fought wars over trade, they killed each other, burned forts...I'd say it was pretty fierce ;) Nikkimaria (talk)
5. "the first major colony and settlement in western Canada." This, and the last paragraph on the Red River Rebellion does not appear to have a source. It isn't clear who the "rebels" were.
  Referenced, clarified. Nikkimaria (talk)
6. "Canada was eager to settle the west before American interests and railways interfered. Agriculture was a booming industry, and many made massive fortunes on the prairies. The Manitoba Legislative Building reflects the optimism of the boom years." Unencyclopedic, unsourced.
  Reworded. Nikkimaria (talk)
7. "The strike was the result of a postwar recession, appalling labour conditions, and the presence of radical union organizers and a large influx of returning soldiers." Whose analysis is this?
  Referenced. Nikkimaria (talk)
8. "The Depression ended when World War II started in 1939." Seems unlikely. Also the story of Selby Roger Henderson seems somewhat off-topic to me.
  Henderson story removed. World War II is widely cited as the end of the Depression - from Great Depression: "The common view among economic historians is that the Great Depression ended with the advent of World War II". Nikkimaria (talk)
9. "The end of World War II brought a new sense of optimism in Winnipeg." According to whom?
  Removed. Nikkimaria (talk)
10. "According to Guinness World Records, Winnipeg has laid claim to the title of "World's Longest Skating Rink", along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.[45]" This appears to be "according to CBC News" - is this information up-to-date?
  I believe it's up-to-date, though I don't have a book to check and that's not one of the records on the Guinness website. Wording amended. Nikkimaria (talk)
11. "In the winter, Winnipeg has 58 days per year where the temperature falls below −20 °C (−4.0 °F) during at least one point of the day.[53]" Exactly 58 each year?! According to the source, this is the record, not the average.
  Wording changed, though I'm not confident in this statement. Nikkimaria (talk)
12. "According to the 1996 Census, there are 228 neighbourhoods in Winnipeg." It would be helpful to cite the census.
  Cited and updated. Nikkimaria (talk)
13. "elevated skywalk" seems redundant?
  Reworded. Nikkimaria (talk)
14. "Most Winnipeggers are of European descent, and/or classify themselves as Canadian. Those who self-describe as Canadian could also potentially be of First Nations, Métis or Inuit descent." Unclear - best to follow a source here.
  Clarified. Nikkimaria (talk)
15. "Of these, 35.1% are Protestant, 32.6% are Roman Catholic, and 5.2% are other Christian denominations." "Of these" seems wrong, as the percentages do not add up to 100%, but 72.9%.
  Fixed. Nikkimaria (talk)
16. "Manitoba has also had a running problem with auto thefts, almost all of it centred in Winnipeg." Presumably those with stolen cars had to run to work in the centre? :-)
  More like run to not work in the centre ;). Amended. Nikkimaria (talk)
17. "Winnipeg is an important economic base and regional centre. It has an extremely diversified economy, covering financial, manufacturing, transportation, food and beverage production, industry, culture, government, and retail and tourism." Words like "important" and "extremely" need to be used with care and/or citation.
  Removed. Nikkimaria (talk)
18. "A number of large private family-owned companies operate out of Winnipeg." "A number of" is redundant prose.
  Might've fixed...not sure how to word that. Nikkimaria (talk)
19. "In 2003 and 2004, Canadian Business magazine ranked Winnipeg in the top 10 cities for business." Unreferenced.
  Couldn't find a ref, so removed. Nikkimaria (talk)
20. "Winnipeg also has a thriving independent film community..." Unreferenced paragraph with several opinion points, including "thriving".
  Reworded. Nikkimaria (talk)
21. "Winnipeg is mentioned in the song..." Is this notable? If so, follow sources: according to the only citation here, the main refrain of "One Great City!" is "I hate Winnipeg"!
  Well, questionable, but I'll leave it...reduced. Nikkimaria (talk)
22. "Winnipeg is home to a number of theatre companies." Content-free sentence. Sunsequent sections also begin with rather bland short sentences.
  Fixed. Nikkimaria (talk)
23. "FemFest is a theatre festival mandated to showcase women playwrights." "Mandated" by whom? (Strange choice of words!)
  Removed, not notable. Nikkimaria (talk)
24. "Winnipeg also has a vibrant dance community." Vague and unsourced ("vibrant" according to whom?).
  Removed. Nikkimaria (talk)
25. "There are five weekly newspapers delivered free to most Winnipeg households based on geography." Wow, free geography newspapers! :-)
  Actually, one has a geography column...but amended. Nikkimaria (talk)
26. "Winnipeg lost the 2015 bid of the World Police and Fire Games to Washington D.C." Is this notable? (Seems like recentism to me.)
  Removed. Nikkimaria (talk)
27. "For decades, the city has explored the idea of a rapid transit link, either bus or rail, from downtown to the University of Manitoba's suburban campus." What is the source for this?
  Winnipeg Free Press; cited. Nikkimaria (talk)
28. I'm not sure about the flag icons for sister cities, but I don't know what is standard practice here.
  I'm not sure either, but a couple of the FA-level city articles I looked at (like Bratislava) have them, so I'll leave them for now. Nikkimaria (talk)
29. Finally, the lead does not adequately summarize the article: in particular the last paragraph seems to have a random selection of points in no particular order.

The article is otherwise a very nice work, and certainly close to GA standard. Geometry guy 22:37, 16 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Good work, Nikkimaria! I have made indicative edits to the lead for coherence and coverage, but you can undoubtedly do a better job than I can, so please fix as you see fit. I'm otherwise ready to do as I originally intended and close this reassessment as "keep". Geometry guy 19:37, 19 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Your reorganisation of the lead is a definite improvement, ~~but you may have accidentally dropped reference to sport and education?~~^Fixed Geometry guy 21:27, 19 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]