Talk:Lazare Ponticelli

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Featured article star Lazare Ponticelli is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do.
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[edit] Italian descent

If we say 'of Italian descent', that would include ANYONE who has Italian ancestors...→ R Young {yakłtalk} 11:35, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Including "Roberto Young" I might add. Extremely sexy 19:42, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Since that's NOT my name, what a stupid comment, Bart. Thanks for lowering the level of discussion.→ R Young {yakłtalk} 03:32, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

I was just joking, man: please, chill, and stop calling names (from now on I have to agree with all the others accusing you of this). Extremely sexy 14:40, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Why did you add "of Italian descent"? He's definitely Italian since he has Italian nationality. Mitch1981 (talk) 21:27, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

No: he was definitely French in fact. Extremely sexy (talk) 16:00, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
Okay, lets just make this clear before this becomes another Ruby Muhummad. His parents were born in italy. he was born in Italy. He moved to France, where he died. Now end these idle arguements and actually look at the page (which I mostly wrote, in fact.) Editorofthewiki 23:19, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] GA Review

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.
    Fair representation without bias:
  5. It is stable.
    No edit wars etc.:
  6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.
    a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
  7. Overall:
    Pass/Fail:

I have already made any changes that took me less time to make than it would have to explain. Here are some comments:

  1. The caption for the image needs to put it in more context, mainly when it was taken or something else to establish approximately how old he was when the picture was taken. Y Done
  2. I'm a bit confused with the "Awards" section in the infobox - Médaille Interalliée (World War I Victory Medal (United States)) supposed to be one award? In any case, the link should be piped so that it reads World War I Victory Medal, but I didn't do this myself because I feel like there's a reason that this wasn't done that I'm missing. Y Done
  3. Direct quotes must be directly cited, even if the reference appears again at the end of the sentence or paragraph. In the first paragraph of "Later life", Ponticelli is quoted as saying "in the name of all those who died, men and women", which requires a direct citation. Y Done
  4. I wonder if the Benoît Hopquin quote is necessary. For one thing, Hopquin does not appear to be a notable figure (and, if he is, this should be explained before the quote). For another, it seems like a needless unbalancing of the POV of the article. Overall, I don't see how this quote is relevant in an encyclopedic context. It's a nice tribute, but that's not what an encyclopedic entry is for. I don't understand why this quote was picked - it seems very arbitrary and unnecessary to me. Y Done Replaced by Sarkozy quote
  5. The "Biography" under "External links" needs to be described better (ie. Biography at such and such a site or something along those lines) Y Done
  6. The lead needs to conform to WP:LEAD. Specifically, it must not introduce facts that are not present in the body of the article. The following information is not present in the body of the article: "At the time of his death, Ponticelli was both the oldest living man born in Italy and the oldest man living in France. In his later years, he was very critical of war in general and kept his war awards in a shoe box", aside from the mention that he was "very critical of war in general" (although, to be a pedant, I'd argue that the article only shows that he was "critical" as opposed to being "very critical", but that's just me) Y Done

As a side comment, and not one that I'm going to hold against passing this as a Good Article, the article would probably benefit from more foreign-language sources. Obviously if you can't speak the language, then there's nothing that can be done but, if you're looking for ways to further improve the article, that might be something to think about. Anyhow, to allow for these concerns to be addressed, I am putting the article on hold for a period of up to seven days, after which it may be failed without further notice. Cheers, CP 01:43, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

    • I have addressed all the issues. I am wondering why you gave it a ? for NPOV, as you did not explain further. Personally, I am a mediocre French speaker and I will add more French sources. Editorofthewiki 02:15, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
Excellent. The ? for NPOV was because of the earlier quote that I felt unbalanced the POV, but the new one is relevant and good. One last tiny thing, the following sentence from the lead needs to be incorporated and cited somewhere in the body of the article per WP:LEAD and WP:V: "At the time of his death, Ponticelli was both the oldest living man born in Italy and the oldest man living in France." After that, I should be ready to pass it. Cheers, CP 19:17, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
I will now be passing the article as a Good Article. Congratulations, and thank you for your hard work! Cheers, CP 00:00, 31 March 2008 (UTC)