Well, a pretty ambitious nomination, that is the article of one of the world's largest countries. Currently receiving around 31900 views per day, and an enormous reflist with over 500 references, plus a bibliography and some "website sources". It certainly looks well-sourced, and has had many, many different contributors expanding it over the years, but with no preparation recently for GA and long list of article milestones including some failed GA nominations. However, the latest of these was in 2012, so even with the drive-by appearance of this nomination, I am willing to conduct a full review.
My strategy is to give overall comments about the article, then go through it section by section, check all the references, and finally to check it against the Good Article criteria. I'll let the nominator know when I'm ready for their response. As it is such a long article, this may take a few days. Rcsprinter123(sing) @
20:12, 18 December 2014 (UTC)reply
Overall comments
My initial reaction is about the large swathes of red and pink on
Checklinks for this page. All of these references need fixing or replacing before this nomination will pass. This probably won't be too hard as United States is a pretty well-covered topic. Apart from that, the article looks alright as far as general shape goes; there's plenty of images and charts/graphs, and each section manages to provide an overview instead of being too detailed and links to the dedicated article for the subtopic. I'm also happy to report that there are no links that need disambiguating, although there are many redirect links (some
unprintworthy).
The size of the article is a problem at 294,379 bytes it's in the worst category for size...in fact its the 97th biggest article we have and the example used as what an article should not look like when it comes to size. It would also be a good idea not to have all the pictures different forced sizes - "upright" should be used over various sizes all over. --
Moxy (
talk)
17:58, 24 December 2014 (UTC)reply
The map of all the U.S.'s territories stands out a little bit. Can you change to a vector one that doesn't have a white background and so fits in better?
The population field - should this be cited to the current source (
[1]), which changes all the time, or to the last reliable source, the 2010 census? Also, an out of date figure is given from that same source at the start of the demographics section of the article.
Question: Well, I am not involved in this article, but I came upon this by chance. I feel sticking to a constant value is better. 2010 is not that old, you see. Moreover, the 2014 estimate, as mentioned is not accurate: it's accessdate is December 26th, 5 days before the New Year. According to the statistics, the States had a population of 320,087,963 on December 31st.
EthicallyYours!11:53, 10 January 2015 (UTC)reply
Can the first sentence be made a little more coherent and less disjointed? Do so many alternative names need pointing out? Can "(US or U.S.)" be changed to just "(U.S.)" as "US" is not the American English spelling (per the
MOS)
I helped author that first sentence. Some of it has a distinct consensus that cannot change without discussion but I don't think the abbreviations are one of those but I will check.
MOS:NOTUSA is the section of the guideline in question.--
Mark Miller (
talk)
02:17, 21 December 2014 (UTC)reply
The statement of "world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area" looks a bit confusing and makes no attempt to clarify why it could be third or fourth. The linked article suggests fourth, so I would stick to that.
"emerged from 13 British colonies" - Is "emerged" a technical term? Is there a better, more politically correct word that could replace it?
"Disputes between Great Britain and these colonies" - the wording here seems a bit clunky. "These" colonies should be aforementioned in the same sentence, right? What's up with simply "the colonies"?
The sentence "At the same time however many natives and settlers came to depend on each other." should have a comma in it somewhere, I think. Near "however".
Recently several editors spent some care in reducing the History section. Some historians mark current events beginning at fifty years ago. Many contemporary events are covered later in the article, Should they be restated in the history section?
TheVirginiaHistorian (
talk)
12:20, 24 December 2014 (UTC)reply
"Much of the Western mountains are alpine." - This sentence suggests that the mountains are in the Alps, which are in Europe. Either specify that is is an Alpine climate, or use another term for that climate.
"The U.S. ecology is considered "megadiverse"" - by whom? I would change the word from "considered" to avoid having to say who considers it to be megadiverse and messing up the sentence.
The figures for the ethnic group numbers are wrong - should be 37 million Irish, 28 million English. Where has 31 million Mexicans come from; this is unsourced.
There's probably a better source to be found for the 3.5% gay, bisexual or transgender people. ABC News only mentions that figure once and could be inaccurate. Also, 2011 is out of date.
The title of this section indicates "enforcement of crime and law", which obviously is not correct as crime is not promoted. To avoid this potential confusion, I recommend "Law enforcement and crime"
Are there no more subsections that could be included under "Infrastructure" than transportation and energy? I suggest bridges, canals, levees, architecture, civil engineering, construction. Many more ideas can be found at
Template:Public infrastructure topics. A mention of each item only needs to be brief.
Transportation
A source needs to be found for "13 million roads"
Fixed I was unable to find any reference to that statement except for sources which took in from wikipedia. The number of roads is a nonsensical statement either way as such I have replaced in with a referenced statement about the number of miles of public roads which I believe fulfills the same purpose.
Winner 42Talk to me!16:15, 13 January 2015 (UTC)reply
Sources needed for "The civil airline industry [...], most major airports are publicly owned."
No mention of
school districts, as well as "state and local governments"?
I think "competitive [.] institutions of higher education" is an opinion, because there isn't a source to say that they are competitive. Is this
OR?
Health
No images included in this section - what about a hospital, a graph,
a healthcare form?
I am not sure an image is really needed in this section. There are too many hospitals to choose from unless I was going to pick randomly. The healthcare form seems a bit random. Maybe a graph, but a graph of what? Mortality rate in America? Obesity rate? There are so many different options to choose from in this case.
PointsofNoReturn (
talk)
02:07, 15 January 2015 (UTC)reply
I think this subsection could be expanded somewhat, seeing as how the US contains Hollywood, a great center for entertainment
Music
Music also needs expansion. There's lots more to mention!
@
Rcsprinter123: I will try to expand them. But this article's size is a huge problem. Like
User:Moxy said its the 97th biggest article (I think so). If those sections were to be expanded I don't think I can prevent it from getting bigger.--
Chamith(talk)14:01, 10 January 2015 (UTC)reply
Agree with
Rcsprinter123 since there is a main article on the subject. A quick summary is all that is needed, and what we have is really close to that. References should instead be the primary concern. --
Mr. Guye (
talk)
21:35, 15 January 2015 (UTC)reply
"Apple pie is a food synonymous with American culture." (image caption) - is this definitely true? I would associate the US with hamburgers more than apple pie, although that is a terrible stereotype. Anyway, that wording needs a change.
That's my review against the criteria. When the problems with the references (above section) are fixed, then criterions 2a and 2b will be satisfied and I will list as a Good Article. Rcsprinter123(intone) @
18:05, 20 January 2015 (UTC)reply
Well, a pretty ambitious nomination, that is the article of one of the world's largest countries. Currently receiving around 31900 views per day, and an enormous reflist with over 500 references, plus a bibliography and some "website sources". It certainly looks well-sourced, and has had many, many different contributors expanding it over the years, but with no preparation recently for GA and long list of article milestones including some failed GA nominations. However, the latest of these was in 2012, so even with the drive-by appearance of this nomination, I am willing to conduct a full review.
My strategy is to give overall comments about the article, then go through it section by section, check all the references, and finally to check it against the Good Article criteria. I'll let the nominator know when I'm ready for their response. As it is such a long article, this may take a few days. Rcsprinter123(sing) @
20:12, 18 December 2014 (UTC)reply
Overall comments
My initial reaction is about the large swathes of red and pink on
Checklinks for this page. All of these references need fixing or replacing before this nomination will pass. This probably won't be too hard as United States is a pretty well-covered topic. Apart from that, the article looks alright as far as general shape goes; there's plenty of images and charts/graphs, and each section manages to provide an overview instead of being too detailed and links to the dedicated article for the subtopic. I'm also happy to report that there are no links that need disambiguating, although there are many redirect links (some
unprintworthy).
The size of the article is a problem at 294,379 bytes it's in the worst category for size...in fact its the 97th biggest article we have and the example used as what an article should not look like when it comes to size. It would also be a good idea not to have all the pictures different forced sizes - "upright" should be used over various sizes all over. --
Moxy (
talk)
17:58, 24 December 2014 (UTC)reply
The map of all the U.S.'s territories stands out a little bit. Can you change to a vector one that doesn't have a white background and so fits in better?
The population field - should this be cited to the current source (
[1]), which changes all the time, or to the last reliable source, the 2010 census? Also, an out of date figure is given from that same source at the start of the demographics section of the article.
Question: Well, I am not involved in this article, but I came upon this by chance. I feel sticking to a constant value is better. 2010 is not that old, you see. Moreover, the 2014 estimate, as mentioned is not accurate: it's accessdate is December 26th, 5 days before the New Year. According to the statistics, the States had a population of 320,087,963 on December 31st.
EthicallyYours!11:53, 10 January 2015 (UTC)reply
Can the first sentence be made a little more coherent and less disjointed? Do so many alternative names need pointing out? Can "(US or U.S.)" be changed to just "(U.S.)" as "US" is not the American English spelling (per the
MOS)
I helped author that first sentence. Some of it has a distinct consensus that cannot change without discussion but I don't think the abbreviations are one of those but I will check.
MOS:NOTUSA is the section of the guideline in question.--
Mark Miller (
talk)
02:17, 21 December 2014 (UTC)reply
The statement of "world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area" looks a bit confusing and makes no attempt to clarify why it could be third or fourth. The linked article suggests fourth, so I would stick to that.
"emerged from 13 British colonies" - Is "emerged" a technical term? Is there a better, more politically correct word that could replace it?
"Disputes between Great Britain and these colonies" - the wording here seems a bit clunky. "These" colonies should be aforementioned in the same sentence, right? What's up with simply "the colonies"?
The sentence "At the same time however many natives and settlers came to depend on each other." should have a comma in it somewhere, I think. Near "however".
Recently several editors spent some care in reducing the History section. Some historians mark current events beginning at fifty years ago. Many contemporary events are covered later in the article, Should they be restated in the history section?
TheVirginiaHistorian (
talk)
12:20, 24 December 2014 (UTC)reply
"Much of the Western mountains are alpine." - This sentence suggests that the mountains are in the Alps, which are in Europe. Either specify that is is an Alpine climate, or use another term for that climate.
"The U.S. ecology is considered "megadiverse"" - by whom? I would change the word from "considered" to avoid having to say who considers it to be megadiverse and messing up the sentence.
The figures for the ethnic group numbers are wrong - should be 37 million Irish, 28 million English. Where has 31 million Mexicans come from; this is unsourced.
There's probably a better source to be found for the 3.5% gay, bisexual or transgender people. ABC News only mentions that figure once and could be inaccurate. Also, 2011 is out of date.
The title of this section indicates "enforcement of crime and law", which obviously is not correct as crime is not promoted. To avoid this potential confusion, I recommend "Law enforcement and crime"
Are there no more subsections that could be included under "Infrastructure" than transportation and energy? I suggest bridges, canals, levees, architecture, civil engineering, construction. Many more ideas can be found at
Template:Public infrastructure topics. A mention of each item only needs to be brief.
Transportation
A source needs to be found for "13 million roads"
Fixed I was unable to find any reference to that statement except for sources which took in from wikipedia. The number of roads is a nonsensical statement either way as such I have replaced in with a referenced statement about the number of miles of public roads which I believe fulfills the same purpose.
Winner 42Talk to me!16:15, 13 January 2015 (UTC)reply
Sources needed for "The civil airline industry [...], most major airports are publicly owned."
No mention of
school districts, as well as "state and local governments"?
I think "competitive [.] institutions of higher education" is an opinion, because there isn't a source to say that they are competitive. Is this
OR?
Health
No images included in this section - what about a hospital, a graph,
a healthcare form?
I am not sure an image is really needed in this section. There are too many hospitals to choose from unless I was going to pick randomly. The healthcare form seems a bit random. Maybe a graph, but a graph of what? Mortality rate in America? Obesity rate? There are so many different options to choose from in this case.
PointsofNoReturn (
talk)
02:07, 15 January 2015 (UTC)reply
I think this subsection could be expanded somewhat, seeing as how the US contains Hollywood, a great center for entertainment
Music
Music also needs expansion. There's lots more to mention!
@
Rcsprinter123: I will try to expand them. But this article's size is a huge problem. Like
User:Moxy said its the 97th biggest article (I think so). If those sections were to be expanded I don't think I can prevent it from getting bigger.--
Chamith(talk)14:01, 10 January 2015 (UTC)reply
Agree with
Rcsprinter123 since there is a main article on the subject. A quick summary is all that is needed, and what we have is really close to that. References should instead be the primary concern. --
Mr. Guye (
talk)
21:35, 15 January 2015 (UTC)reply
"Apple pie is a food synonymous with American culture." (image caption) - is this definitely true? I would associate the US with hamburgers more than apple pie, although that is a terrible stereotype. Anyway, that wording needs a change.
That's my review against the criteria. When the problems with the references (above section) are fixed, then criterions 2a and 2b will be satisfied and I will list as a Good Article. Rcsprinter123(intone) @
18:05, 20 January 2015 (UTC)reply