Wikipedia:Peer review/William Robinson Brown/archive2

William Robinson Brown

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This peer review discussion has been closed.
I've listed this article for peer review because we are going to be submitting it as a Featured Article candidate soon and would like comments on anything we still need to fix or simply comments and reviews from outside eyes. Lead editors are myself and User:Churn and change. Thanks, Montanabw^(talk) 19:01, 12 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by Wehwalt

I don't have much, really:

I think the first paragraph is way too long. Suggest you make for a short first paragraph, and lump the remainder into a second. You are allowed four paragraphs. One idea is to make "After graduating from Williams College ... " the start of the second paragraphs, and change "he" to "Brown"

LOL, it originally WAS two paragraphs; last PR we got a whine that we had too many paragraphs, so I consolidated! I'll split it out again (I like it better that way too, but if I get the other complaint again, I'll blame you, OK? (grin) --MTBW

"Berlin Mills changed its name to the Brown Company during World War I" I don't think this is necessary in the lede as you do not mention the company by name the rest of the lede.

Removed. --MTBW

Is a link possible to an explanation of what a remount agent is? Or a remount?

I linked to U.S. Army Remount Service as a piped link, which is a little iffy because I link the article itself directly just a few words later. I'm open to maybe adding a bit more on this, though, as the topic is poorly covered on WP. Question: would this be viewed as a reliable source at FA? It explains, "Stallions are delivered at Government expense to local agents who arrange for service and collect the fee therefor. A local horseman or farmer of good standing interested in breeding is usually selected as agent." This, clearly, is what Brown did, as well as selling/"providing" some of his own stallions to the remount service. I've also located a history of the remount here that looks like it's worth getting, but wonder how much I need for this particular article? How far down the rabbit hole shall I go? --MTBW

I looked at this a bit. This org has the support of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum, which with this web site is a military undertaking. That site links to the Foundation's website, so the Army does think this a legit site. They have a board that presumably does fact checking, one prime criteria for being an RS. Churn and change (talk) 00:28, 14 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I used that book as a source for the Remount article. It's good, but tends to focus more on the stallions used than the evolution of the service as a whole. Intothat darkness 15:42, 15 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Do you still have it? If so, anything in there on Brown, or on the stallion *Astraled? Can you toss us anything helpful? Montanabw^(talk) 22:07, 15 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"PhD". I'm not sure that's properly rendered.

Fixed --MTBW

You might want to mention he cast his ballots for Coolidge (and Dawes).

Added in body of article --MTBW

"He understood" Brown understood. You are getting remote from a mention of his name.

Fixed. --MTBW

"Brown also helped found " this sentence contains multiple semicolons

My view is that this is acceptable punctuation when you have multiple statements where commas are also needed. Open to better ways to do the whole sentence, though. --MTBW

Br'er prefers a text note should precede a footnote, not follow it.

Visually, I like the "letter after number" look a bit better, but if there is a MOS guideline anywhere, or a particularly logical reason for this, I'm open to changing it. Montanabw^(talk) 23:49, 13 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I am sure there is no MOS guideline. I see letter after number in William S. Sadler and in Charles Darwin where small Roman numerals are used instead of letters (the first is still 100% FA class; the second isn't with broken links). Churn and change (talk) 00:28, 14 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

" Family members sold off personal holdings, including Brown's Arabian horses" This sounds like family members sold off Brown's horses.

Rephrased. Better? --MTBW

Orton, I would imagine is the O.B. mentioned earlier? Odd to mention him by initial first and name later.

I think I was slavishly adhering to the source cited, which said "Orton" but I'll make it "O.B." throughout, as that appears to have been the more common use. That better? --MTBW

"Northeastern U.S." I would change to "northern New England, perhaps. More associated with severe winters than the Northeast generally.

Again, slavish adherence to the source, will tweak. Better? --MTBW

The whole Blunt matter may be too much of a frolic and detour. I'd cut it back a bit. Or footnote it.

I chopped a wee bit, found one bit I clearly could pop into a note. I admit it IS a bit of a frolic and detour, but anything Wilfrid Blunt touched turned into a three-ring circus that surpasses any modern reality show or soap opera, and the "loss" of *Berk and *Astraled to the Crabbet program with their very minimal siring of foals after arriving in America is considered one of those great tragedies within the Arabian breeding community. (I don't think Lady Wentworth ever got over losing *Berk, one of the only Arabians of the time who could trot worth a damn, which was a huge part of his genetic value that was lost) Maybe refine to me if anything left is total overkill and I'll see if I can whack it down a little more and move what has to be there for those who care into a note. --MTBW

"a journey notable for taking a long 21 days." Not the most elegant phrasing.

It's mostly trivia, I cut it, probably why the stallion only lived another year, had to be the trip from hell for an old horse, but probably more relevant to a "biography" of *Astraled than Brown! ;-) --MTBW

"producing few purebred Arabian offspring." An implication of this is that some of the foals might not be purebred. Surely this could not be unless they intended it?

No, what I meant is that when he was out in the boonies, he probably was bred to god-knows-what and didn't sire any registered foals, only when Brown got him did he once again get bred to Arabian mares to produce purebred foals. I rephrased it to say he had no purebred foals, but I'm going to have to check that against Datasource because Edwards worded this bit rather vaguely (but I think that was what she meant) --MTBW

Follow up: I had someone check datasource for me (it's a paid database owned by the Arabian Horse Association, allows tracking of all Arabians ever registered in the USA) and it confirms that *Astraled only sired six foals after importation to the USA, the last four were foaled in 1924 at Maynesboro, the other two were in the 'teens, interestingly one was born to a mare owned by Spencer Borden and one to a mare owned by HJ Brown. Interesting, but doesn't quite say how long he was out in the boonies as a remount stallion, either. So anyway, can you look at the wording in the article now and let me know if I've conveyed the information properly? --MTBW

I question the need for a link to "gelding". Ditto "Quebec".

Agreed for "Quebec," but someone is going to ask me what a "gelding" is, I just know it. (They'll be a troll for doing so, but they will; Ealdgyth has gotten whines for saying "sire" and "dam" on some of her horse FAs and people have literally asked her to explain that the "dam" is a mommy) --MTBW

Ummm, I would say gelding does need a link. And, hmmm, that "dam" needs an explanation. It is easy for experts and enthusiasts to misunderstand how much others know. Churn and change (talk) 00:28, 14 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, dam! ;-) That's why we have peer review! Montanabw^(talk) 00:32, 14 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like a nice effort. Definitely should go to FAC.--Wehwalt (talk) 21:47, 13 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the feedback. Did I hit everything you needed? Let me know what you think of my questions/comments. and THANK YOU! Montanabw^(talk) 23:49, 13 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]