Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Ayn Rand/Archive 1

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[edit] Ayn Rand

I feel that this article is worthy of being a featured article due to the accurate information about Miss Rand in the article and also due to Ayn Rand's important influence on Philosophy, the Libertarian Movement, and her general impact on American Literature in general. The only flaw that I can see is the minor controversy in the article (mostly a debate in the talk page) about Ayn Rand's stance on homosexuality but I believe that the issue has already been rectified. The Fading Light 9:08 20, March 2006

• Object, needs proper footnoting. I also noticed the use of some questionable sources, such as a php forum for the homosexuality section.--Fallout boy 03:54, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

"Object—needs a good copy-edit. Take the lead, for example:

"... was best known for her philosophy of Objectivism and her novels We the Living, Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged. Her philosophy and her fiction both emphasize, above all, the concepts of individualism, rational egoism ("rational self-interest"), and capitalism, which she believed should be implemented fully via Laissez-faire capitalism. Her politics have been described as minarchism and libertarianism, though she never used the first term and detested the second.

Her novels were based upon the projection of the Randian hero, a man whose ability and independence causes conflict with the masses, but who perseveres nevertheless to achieve his values. Rand viewed this hero as the ideal, and the express goal of her fiction was to showcase such heroes.

She believed: That man must choose his values and actions by reason; that the individual has a right to exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing self to others nor others to self; and that no one has the right to seek values from others by physical force, or impose ideas on others by physical force."

1. Too choppy—why the one-sentence paragraphs?

2. Can you provide piped links for "Objectivism" and "Laissez-faire", without the upper-case letters?

3. "described as "minarchism and libertarianism"—adjectives needed here, not nouns; otherwise reword—perhaps "described as exemplifying ...".

4. "to achieve his values"—no, he has his values to begin with; he perseveres to implement them, surely.

5. The last parasentence is listy and awkward, especially the upper-case T. "She held three basic beliefs: that people must choose their ...". Or do you want to reduplicate her sexism? Tony 07:46, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

• Object inline citations, awkward subsections, also inadequate treatment of her legacy (institutions, journals); needs broader references. "described as "minarchism and libertarianism" by whom? cite. Kaisershatner 21:19, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
• Object for lack of inline citations (see WP:FOOTNOTE) and other objections provided above. "Early life and education" has one huge paragraph that should be split up. Virtually every sentence in that paragraph starts with "she" ("She admired Rostand for ", "She admired Dostoevsky", "She continued to write", "She also encountered"). Thanks, AndyZ 21:42, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

• Object - I feel the spam of categories has been done in poor taste, and may be indicative of deeper problems with the editing of the article. -- infinity0 23:51, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

• Object - Still has formatting errors and is poorly laid out - links should be done with Wikipedia:Footnotes or something. Other reasons: redlinks and too many external links. Bibliography should probably be more selective. - FrancisTyers 23:57, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

• Object Rachel Orange 08:10, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
  • Note:: user's 6's edit, 4 of which were to her user page, and one to the reference desk. The edit after this one was this, basically just vandalism. She's also stated on User:A Man In Black's talk that she just wants to promote her site (which is what her edits to the reference desk and her user page were for). --Rory096 08:25, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

• Conditional support: I'm actually quite impressed by the overall substantive quality of the article. The writing is somewhat spotty in places and there is a very bad situation with regard to the footnotes (as noted by other commentators here). But if these problems can be addressed, I think this would be one of the most informative, reasonably balanced articles on Rand that I know of anyway. Keep working on it. Suggestion: Maybe a Peer Review might have been helpful first?--Lacatosias 12:31, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
• P.S. also due to Ayn Rand's important influence on Philosophy and her general impact on American Literature I think most of you know that I obviously don't agree with this. But I do think she was a significant contributor to American politics and that she was an important "character" (for lack of a better word). --Lacatosias 12:36, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

• Object. Rand has been often accused of being a cult leader, yet nothing is said of this outside of the title of an external link. -- LGagnon 01:22, 27 March 2006 (UTC)