Talk:Mason Mathews

Mason Mathews has been listed as one of the Social sciences and society good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it. Review: April 6, 2020. (Reviewed version).

This article is rated GA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Articles for creation This article was reviewed by member(s) of WikiProject Articles for creation. The project works to allow users to contribute quality articles and media files to the encyclopedia and track their progress as they are developed. To participate, please visit the project page for more information.Articles for creationWikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creationTemplate:WikiProject Articles for creationAfC This article was accepted on 27 October 2012 by reviewer FoCuSandLeArN (talk · contribs). Biography: Politics and Government This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography This article is supported by the politics and government work group (assessed as Low-importance). Virginia Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Virginia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of Virginia on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.VirginiaWikipedia:WikiProject VirginiaTemplate:WikiProject VirginiaVirginia Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. United States: State Legislatures / West Virginia Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. This article is supported by WikiProject U.S. State Legislatures (assessed as Low-importance). This article is supported by WikiProject West Virginia (assessed as Low-importance).

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Mason Mathews. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20131221002748/http://civilwardailygazette.com/2011/09/25/confederate-general-henry-wise-relieved-of-duty-contraband-allowed-in-navy/ to http://civilwardailygazette.com/2011/09/25/confederate-general-henry-wise-relieved-of-duty-contraband-allowed-in-navy/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 22:43, 20 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This review is transcluded from Talk:Mason Mathews/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Jon698 (talk · contribs) 17:32, 29 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):

   There are no spelling or grammatical mistakes and I have edited the prose of the article.

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (reference section): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism):

   All of the information in this article is cited with no extreme claims lacking any references.

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

   The article covers the entirety of his life from his early life and political career to his activities during the Civil War and his death.

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

   There is no bias towards or against Mason Mathews.

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

   The last edits made before mine were made in late September 2019.

6. It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free content have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

   The images in this article are appropriate and are in the proper place.

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

   There is nothing preventing this article from receiving GA status. There are no grammatical, spelling, or prose issues; all claims in this article are backed up by references; and has broad coverage of his life.

Newtack101, Jon698, while this appears to be a fine article, it is highly unusual that there are not any grammatical, spelling, or prose issues to be found, and generally not a good idea for a review to be posted and passed in the same moment. I read through the intro/lead section and found some issues immediately, including a dubious claim, so I'm reopening this review so that more time can be spent. What I've posted below is only based on a quick skim; there needs to be more done in depth. I've also made a few initial edits to the intro to fix some things proactively.

• Per MOS:LEAD, one of the GA criteria (see 1b), an article of under 10,000 prose characters should have a lead of one or two paragraphs; articles of over 30,000 characters can go up to the maximum of four. This has four.
  • corrected Newtack101 (talk) 20:17, 3 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• Number ranges should be indicated by en dashes ("–") rather than hyphens; the article uses either with no apparent pattern.
  • corrected Newtack101 (talk) 20:17, 3 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• He served seven terms in the Virginia House of Delegates, representing Greenbrier County from 1859 to 1861 as a Whig. This is an extraordinary sentence: seven terms, yet served from 1859 to 1861 (two years, plus or minus). There's nothing about how long terms were (was it two years? one? four?), and there's nothing about "seven terms" in the body of the article, where it certainly should be included if mentioned here. (The intro/lead is supposed to be a summary of the article, and not have any significant information that isn't in the body.)
  • thanks, that was supposed to be "years," not "terms," and "1865" rather than "1861." Oops! But I will look into how many terms and update it soon. Newtack101 (talk) 20:17, 3 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• Early life and business opening sentence: commas are expected in prose at the end of full mdy dates (so after "1803") and after city/state combos (so after "Lewisburg, Greenbrier County, Virginia").
  • corrected Newtack101 (talk) 20:17, 3 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• Virginia House of Delegates opening sentence: After Abraham Lincoln's victory in the 1860 presidential election Southerns discussed the possibility of secession. What is "Southerns"? Do you mean "Southerners"? (Regardless, there should probably be a comma before it.)
  • corrected Newtack101 (talk) 20:17, 3 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• The Personal life section needs to be better formatted: right now, there's nothing separating the childrens' dates and further explanation, which is ungrammatical.
  • I've changed the Personal Life section to Marriage and Children, and moved the bit about his house to Early Life and Business. Perhaps that could be changed to Private Life and Business? I'm open to recommendations if you have any Newtack101 (talk) 20:17, 3 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• It is not unreasonable to ask for consistent dating formats throughout the references. Indeed, a bit more consistency in the section as a whole would be welcome.
  • in progress Newtack101 (talk) 20:17, 3 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • done Newtack101 (talk) 14:47, 5 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have time to do more at the moment, but there is almost certainly more to be found with a closer reading. I have no doubt that the article can attain GA status, it's just that isn't there at the moment, though it will be by the time this has run its full course. BlueMoonset (talk) 20:36, 29 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

• • BlueMoonset, I have begun to make some corrections based on the review so far. thanks!
  • BlueMoonset, all identified issues to date have been addressed. Newtack101 (talk) 14:47, 5 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

• Newtack101, thank you for letting me know. I have asked Kingsif, who coincidentally is reviewing your other GA nomination, to take over here and do a comprehensive review, which I haven't been able to do; you should see the results in the coming days. BlueMoonset (talk) 15:26, 5 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

• • • BlueMoonset thansk! Newtack101 (talk) 15:28, 5 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

• Refs satisfactory, one is flagged as bad but it's the official society just hosted at a blog site
• Lead is a good length. The second paragraph could be expanded if wanted, though I feel the short list of relatives is unnecessary.
  • done Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• "U.S. State" doesn't need a wikilink
  • done Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• I would move his family ties closer to the start, above the wartime part (and maybe in the first sentence?)
  • done Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• Not sure whether it needs to say his seat was abolished
  • in the lead or infobox? I'll go ahead and delete it from the lead as it does probably go without saying. Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• Lead has a good overview
• In the infobox, his parents are listed in 'relations' - is there no father and mother parameter?
  • doneNewtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• Also, there's a lot of children without articles, could the list be turned into 'Eight (including [children with article])'?
  • done Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• Is there also no family parameter?
  • done Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• At "one of hardship and self-denial;", the punctuation should be outside the quotation mark
  • done Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• In 'Local offices', the last half of the paragraph has three refs at the end - is it that some of these could be spread around the text to show which source supports each part (unless all refs cover all the text)
  • moved one up to clarify its support, and removed another as it was superfluous. Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• The elder Mathews is confusing as to whether it is Mason, the son mentioned, or the eldest son - I believe it's Mason, which can be stated instead
  • done Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• If Wise is going to be wikilinked in the image caption, Floyd should be, too
  • done Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• The part He had arranged protection from such an event from a "Yankee friend and protector," but the Union officer in charge of the raiding had not been made aware that Mathews had multiple properties to protect. isn't quite clear - from it, I understand that Mathews hired presumably a Union friend to make sure his properties were avoided, that some other Union soldier was in charge of raiding and allowed one on a property of Mathews and (the part that doesn't make sense) didn't know it was Mathews' or he would have avoided it, even though he couldn't have known that they shouldn't be attacking Mathews' properties and probably didn't care. Can this be clarified?
  • Yes, you understood it correctly. After playing around with the sentence a bit, I decided to just get rid of it. It's a minor detail that probably takes more effort to explain than it's worth. Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • The sentence also needs a ref and take the comma out of the quotation
• "enslaved person" probably doesn't need a wikilink
  • done Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• Sentence on death could mention his age?
  • done 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)Newtack101 (talk)
• If the Mathews family link can be moved up to his early life, the see also section can be removed.
  • done
• Images sufficient, though the infobox one appears to be a photo of a photo (glare, at an angle); is it possible that there's a scan out there that would look a bit better?
  • Yes, I can make that happen, though I'll probably have to wait until after my state's stay-at-home order is lifted. Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• The coverage seems fine. It goes into a good amount of detail, that is all relevant. It would be interesting to know if he developed the county, was a philanthropist, or the like - the article mentions he had lots of properties and was very well respected there. If there's nothing on that, the article should be good.
  • I haven't been able to find anything like that from an appropriate source, aside from stuff like "he was a father to his people," whatever that means! Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Kingsif (talk) 16:33, 5 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

• • Kingsif, thank you for the review. I believe I have addressed all of the issues you've found. Let me know if you've seen any other issues. Newtack101 (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
    • Great - looks like BlueMoonset's comments covered some technical stuff, so I feel confident passing this. Kingsif (talk) 17:06, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]