Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Hyderabad

Hyderabad

This nomination predates the introduction in April 2014 of article-specific subpages for nominations and has been created from the edit history of Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests.

This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page.

The result was: scheduled for Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 19, 2013 by Bencherlite ^Talk 09:30, 13 September 2013‎ (UTC)[reply]

Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Located along the Musi River, Hyderabad has a population of 6.8 million, making it the fourth-largest city in India. Established in 1591, Hyderabad was ruled by the Qutb Shahis for a century before falling under Mughal rule. In 1724, Mughal viceroy Asif Jah I created his own dynasty of nizams by establishing the State of Hyderabad, which ultimately became a princely state based in the city under the British. Relics of Qutb Shahi and Nizam rule remain visible today, with the Charminar (pictured)—dating from the city's founding—coming to symbolise Hyderabad. That legacy is also evident in the city's distinctive cuisine, which includes Hyderabadi biriyani and Hyderabadi haleem. Hyderabad has historically been known as a pearl and diamond trading centre. Today, due to the Telugu film industry, it is also the country's second-largest producer city of motion pictures. The formation of an infotech special economic zone has attracted firms from around the world, while the emergence of biotech industries in the 1990s has led to the title "Genome Valley" alongside the city's traditional status as the City of Pearls.(Full article...)

4 points for a geography vital article and 1 point for nominator being a major contributor who do not have any FA appearing in main page. Total points = 5.

In the history of Hyderabad, most of the important events happened in the month of September, and I wish along with WP main page appearance it will record one more hisotrical event. Regards :)--Omer123hussain (talk) 13:36, 29 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Comment If Istanbul gets scheduled for September 8 (see Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 8, 2013), I think this should be put off at least until October, maybe November. This just achieved featured status after all. Also, why this article isn't located at Hyderabad is beyond me. -- tariqabjotu 01:32, 30 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, if Istanbul gets featured on September 8, this would be too similar to feature in nearby dates. This can wait in that case for a month or so.--Dwaipayan (talk) 05:14, 30 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Now that Istanbul is not going to get featured soon, can this be pushed? Opinion, Tariq?--Dwaipayan (talk) 01:26, 8 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

@Dwaipayanc: I've responded below. -- tariqabjotu 05:17, 8 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

In the meantime... the blurb currently displays at 1,872 characters, over 50% too long (1,200 is the target) - a trim would be good. Bencherlite ^Talk 21:25, 4 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I tried to trim the blurb, please have a look.--Dwaipayan (talk) 01:24, 8 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Neutral We haven't had a city article in a long time, and this is certainly an interesting and important city. However, I feel the lead of the article is quite poor. Your proposed blurb (which is the whole of the article's lead) is very long for the TFA slot on the Main Page, but quite short -- and imbalanced -- as an introduction to a city article. It gives a good sense of the history of the city, but little sense of the city's culture (beyond the fact that the film industry is based there). Some of the sentences come across a bit choppy, and a list of places of interest and museums shouldn't be included in the lead (and, preferably, not anywhere else in the article without some explanation of the sites mentioned).

Going back to the history, I spotted the following sentence:

The Nizams ruled the princely state of Hyderabad in a subsidiary alliance with the British Raj for more than two centuries.

This doesn't seem to be correct. The British Raj is generally considered to begin around 1858, so it's best not to use that term to refer to British rule prior to then. Also, Hyderabad didn't become a princely state until 1798, seventy-four years after the State of Hyderabad was established. Even if you were to refer to pre-1858 British rule as the British Raj (and please don't), that would only be 150 years, not two centuries of rule.

The lead also includes the following sentence:

Between 1948 and 1956, Hyderabad city was the capital of the Hyderabad State.

This is very confusing, as one would expect this sentence to be talking about the Hyderabad State that existed for the 220 years prior to this one, and which had its capital in the city of Hyderabad for nearly two centuries.

Thankfully, the issues with the lead don't seem to extend to the body. Unfortunately, though, if the lead is poor, it's unlikely people are going to move on to read the rest of the article. (It's a shame this wasn't spotted during the FAC process, but it happens.)

Anyway, I tried coming up with another blurb based on the lead provided. (I half-wrote this earlier, before your rewrite, then came back to it later.) I feel this cuts out some of the unnecessary detail for the Main Page, highlights some more relevant and interesting points, and, ultimately, comes across as more engaging. (I apologize if my American English managed to creep in to the suggested blurb.) I believe it's 1198 characters.

Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Located along the Musi River, Hyderabad has a population of 6.8 million, making it the fourth-largest city in India. Established in 1591, Hyderabad was ruled by the Qutb Shahis for a century before falling under Mughal rule. In 1724, Mughal viceroy Asif Jah I created his own dynasty of nizams by establishing the State of Hyderabad, which ultimately became a princely state based in the city under the British. Relics of Qutb Shahi and Nizam rule remain visible today, with the Charminar (pictured)—dating from the city's founding—coming to symbolise Hyderabad. That legacy is also evident in the city's distinctive cuisine, which includes Hyderabadi biriyani and Hyderabadi haleem. Hyderabad has historically been known as a pearl and diamond trading centre, but today, due to the Telugu film industry, it is the country's second-largest producer of motion pictures. The formation of an infotech special economic zone has attracted firms from around the world, while the emergence of biotech industries in the 1990s has led to the title "Genome Valley" alongside the city's traditional status as the City of Pearls.

Just a suggestion. If you're curious why I excised some points, feel free to ask.

Part of the reason I'm neutral on this (rather than outright opposing) is that I may be nit-picking, owing to my own experiences writing a couple city articles. But I do really feel the lead needs to be improved to give that star first impression (and I'd be happy to help). As a new featured article, and with no particular anniversary you're shooting for, I feel there's no reason this can't be addressed first. -- tariqabjotu 05:17, 8 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi User:Tariqabjotu, I absolutely like your blurb, except for a point detailed below. Even though I am not the primary contributor to the article, I would rather have you edit the lead of the article for betterment. Please go ahead, and make changes. We can definitely wait, there is no deadline here!

The sentence that I have some disagreement with in your proposed blurb is " Hyderabad has historically been known as a pearl and diamond trading centre, but today, due to the Telugu film industry, it is the country's second-largest producer of motion pictures.". The Telugu cinema industry, although very large, is not perhaps weighty enough to contrast with the historical pearl and diamond trading. I mean, those trading were probably a major livelihood of the people at some historical time, and teh city was well-known for that. But at present, the film industry does not carry comparable weight for the livelihood of the citizens or the notability of the city. So, I think they somehow would better fit in a non-contrasted construction, probably in two separate sentences. What do you think?--Dwaipayan (talk) 21:29, 8 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion: Support the revised blurb of User:Tariqabjotu mean while I support the idea of Dwaipayanc about trimming the point of Telugu film industry. Though I am not much experienced in TFA blurb, would like to suggest if we can include Bazaars part as it is a notable feature of Hyderabad's traditional culture. Regards :)--Omer123hussain (talk) 16:30, 9 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

@Dwaipayanc: I'd be happy to help out with the lead, but later this week. As for the blurb here, how about splitting up the sentence as follows: "Hyderabad has historically been known as a pearl and diamond trading centre. Today, due to the Telugu film industry, it is also the country's second-largest producer of motion pictures." Or do you have an alternate suggestion? -- tariqabjotu 16:38, 9 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

@Tariqabjotu: Yes, these split sentences wor better And we'll await your edits in the lead. Regards.--Dwaipayan (talk) 04:30, 10 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Support: I haven't read the full article, but the parts I did sample seemed reasonably well put together. The article as a whole looks to be in good condition. Praemonitus (talk) 03:12, 9 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]