Talk:David Falk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Good article David Falk has been listed as one of the Everyday life good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can delist it, or ask for a reassessment.
An entry from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on June 20, 2007.

Contents

[edit] Image Needed

I'm looking for a photo of David Falk that I could use for this article. I've had my eye on one, but don't know if it's acceptable to use or not. I would appreciate it if someone could 1) tell me if the image I give below is acceptable (in which case upload and post it in the article, or inform me and I can do it), and 2) if this image is not acceptable to use, it would be great if someone could find an acceptable photo.

I found the pic in an article entitled "Falk meets with Sport Management and Law Students," posted on 10/10/2006. The article can be found at this address: <http://hshp.syr.edu/news.asp?id=329&type=archive>

The direct link to the image is: <http://hshp.syr.edu/images/Falk(1).jpg>

I'm wondering if it could fall into fair use since I can only find one other photo (via ESPN). I've tried using a number of free photo searches, including Flickr search, yotophoto.com, and fotosearch.com. An e-mail to the site's administrator asking for the image's release got no response. Joseph Petek 07:41, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Repeated e-mails to the admin of the site above have yielded nothing. If anyone has a picture of Falk or knows how to get one, post here. The text of the article is fine, but it'll never be "A" or "Featured" with no pics. Joseph Petek 22:17, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
I have posted this image under fair use. I'm not at all certain that my rationales hold up. I'm not going to re-upload it if someone decides to delete it. Joseph Petek 06:16, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] IGTC.com

I recently removed links to two articles that I referenced in the article ("Group of NBA players asks former star's help," and "Jordan's agent shows his true colors"). I originally got the articles from their hard-copy sources at my university, so that's not an issue, but I had googled the articles to see if they were anywhere on the net and posted them as a courtesy. However, on further review, the website on which I found both articles (http://www.igtc.com/) seemed a little fishy, as it looked like just a plain messageboard (both articles I found are all in the section http://www.igtc.com/archives/celtics/). I removed the links to the articles because I suspected that igtc.com was in violation of copyright, but I'm not sure. Can anyone tell for sure one way or the other? If you can, please post here so I know. If igtc.com turns out to be legitimate, I can put the links back in. If you need a sample of one of the articles, try a Google search for "Jordan's agent shows his true colors" (with the quotation marks included). Thanks! Joseph Petek 07:32, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GA

[edit] Nomination on hold

GA review (see here for criteria)
  1. It is reasonably well written.
    a (prose): b (MoS):
  2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.
    a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):
  3. It is broad in its coverage.
    a (major aspects): b (focused):
  4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.
    a (fair representation): b (all significant views):
  5. It is stable.
  6. It contains images, where possible, to illustrate the topic.
    a (tagged and captioned): b lack of images (does not in itself exclude GA): c (non-free images have fair use rationales):
  7. Overall:
    a Pass/Fail:

Reasons for verdict and suggestions:

  • Section 1a - The most off putting thing in this article is that huge list at the bottom. That will need reorganized somehow; I suggest you place it in columns and/or separate current from non-current clients.
I split the Client List into three columns. Joseph Petek 01:58, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
  • Section 2a - This article is very well referenced, with the exception of the list of clients, which is completely unreferenced. Either find references that explicitly state that someone is a client, or remove them. Also, the statement that "A second trade which obviously resulted from Falk's influence" needs to be changed. Who said it was obvious?
I have now referenced every single client on the Client List. As for the problematic statement, I have left it mostly unchanged but provided two sources which express the statement's opinion. Joseph Petek 01:58, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
  • Section 6 - Section 6 does not apply as there are no images. However, if you are going to place any, please make sure they are either public domain, or have fair use rationales.
I only wish that I could find a free use image of Falk himself... unfortunately I have been unable to find anything. Boo! If you can find anything, it would be very much appreciated... Joseph Petek 01:58, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

On the whole, this article is approaching GA standard, with the exceptions of what I've noted above. The prose flows nicely with no confusing sentences, and most of the man's history is covered. It would be nice to have an image of the man himself, with a bit more about Falk outside of his career, for example, family. Ideally, an exact date of birth would be good too.

I have been unable to find Falk's exact birth date, and unfortunately there is precious little about his personal life floating around. I'm as annoyed as anyone about that, but it looks like his personal info is about as complete as it can be given the resources I have. Joseph Petek 01:58, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

As with all GAN that have been placed on hold, you have 7 days to address these issues. If they have been satisfactorily addressed, the article will pass, otherwise it will fail. If you have addressed these issues before then, please drop a note on my talk page. Good luck! Mouse Nightshirt | talk 21:50, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Comments Unfortunately, if you cannot find a reference about his birthdate, you'll have to remove what information you do have, and as a biographical entry, it would be hard to pass for GA unless such information is present. Mouse Nightshirt | talk 12:46, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! I'm very glad you pointed out that I had no proper reference for his birth year. In fact, I had found an article that said he was 50 in 2001, so I had assumed his birth year was 1951. Actually, that was incorrect... because of course if he was born later in the year than the article was printed (June 18), then he could have been born in 1950.
But with just a bit of digging, I have definitive proof of his birth year, at the very least, even though I am still unable to find his exact birth date. He was born in 1950... and here's how I know:
I've added two references to the article that list Falk's age (they appear right after his birth year). #1 says that he was 40 on August 14, 1991 (1991 - 40 = 1951)... but #2 says that he was 46 on November 17, 1996 (1996 - 46 = 1950). This proves that his birthday falls between August 14 and November 17, and that his actual birth year is definetely 1950.
Isn't this good enough? I've seen plenty of Wikipedia entries that don't list exact birth dates... It even says on the Biographies of living persons guidelines that some people consider birth date private information, and don't want it listed (identity theft, etc.). I'm hoping this article can pass GA if this is the only problem, because Falk's birthday simply isn't out there, short of contacting Falk himself, which I don't know how to do... Joseph Petek 15:18, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
The birth year should suffice, as long as it's accurately referenced, which the references suggest it is. I'll have a look tomorrow and hopefully should be able to pass the article! If not, you still have some spare time in which to fix stuff. Mouse Nightshirt | talk 00:49, 14 July 2007 (UTC)
I've given the article another once over and spotted a few things:
  • "He is best known for representing sports icon Michael Jordan..." - according to who? I know it seems obvious, but it needs to be referenced.
Done. Joseph Petek 00:06, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
  • "His parents were an odd match; Falk's father owned two butcher shops on Long Island and his mother had two master's degrees and spoke six languages." - who said this? I'm not sure it's even a quote; if it isn't, remove the speech marks.
The statement is indeed a quote from the Hirschberg article (ref 2). Joseph Petek 00:06, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
  • "fragmenting" is an ambiguous term; replace it with something with clearer meaning.
The word is a quote from a Marantz article (ref 6). But beyond that, I'm not sure what's unclear about it: "fragmenting" means "splitting up into smaller pieces" (via Dictionary.com, it's "To break or separate (something) into fragments"). If you'd like to use "splitting up," then that would be okay I suppose, but I think "fragmenting" says it more succinctly and less awkwardly. I've kept this the same; change it if you feel strongly about it. Joseph Petek 00:06, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
  • ""A press release announcing the sale noted that... FAME... 'represented an unprecedented 6 first-round draft picks in the NBA, negotiated over $400 million in contracts for its free-agent clients, and negotiated four of the five largest contracts in team sports history.'"" - This appeared in quotation marks; if it is a quote, please say in the article who said it.
Done. The ref # is 22. Joseph Petek 00:06, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
  • "Falk's visibility was never higher than during the 1995 NBA lockout." - in whose opinion?
Sentence changed to "Falk was one of the key players in the 1995 NBA lockout," with refs 20+21+30 as support. Joseph Petek 00:06, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
  • "During the 1998 lockout, Falk argubly [sic] exercised even more influence." - avoid words like "arguably" - arguably according to which groups? Again, I know it's obvious to most of us, but he exercised even more influence than when? I advise removing or completely rewording this sentence.
Sentence changed to: "During the 1998 lockout, Falk was often described as the 'invisible hand' that guided union negotiation," with refs 4+12+20+31+32 as sources. Joseph Petek 00:06, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
Otherwise, the article is fine. Mouse Nightshirt | talk 22:44, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
Glad to hear it! And thanks for the review! Joseph Petek 00:06, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
You may wish to note that I have just added new info to the section "1998 NBA lockout," and restructured it slightly. Joseph Petek 07:56, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] On-hold review passed

GA review (see here for criteria)
  1. It is reasonably well written.
    a (prose): b (MoS):
  2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.
    a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):
  3. It is broad in its coverage.
    a (major aspects): b (focused):
  4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.
    a (fair representation): b (all significant views):
  5. It is stable.
  6. It contains images, where possible, to illustrate the topic.
    a (tagged and captioned): b lack of images (does not in itself exclude GA): c (non-free images have fair use rationales):
  7. Overall:
    a Pass/Fail:

After reviewing this article today, I believe it has now met all the requirements to pass for GA standard. Congratulations! Mouse Nightshirt | talk 13:07, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much for the review! Your suggestions definetely improved the article! Joseph Petek 15:40, 20 July 2007 (UTC)