Talk:Shatzi Weisberger/GA1

GA Review
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Reviewer: Vaticidalprophet (talk · contribs) 09:01, 6 June 2023 (UTC)

Hey Ezlev, been a while :) I'm happy to pick this up. I can see your activity has been sporadic lately (which, hell, I'm one to talk), so I'm not holding you to any particular deadlines. I've read through the article and, at the moment, mostly want to comment on its earlier/sparser sections (I expect to say more about the later ones as we work through).

Lead and infobox

 * Should her birth name be bolded in the lead?
 * The first-para sentence describing her activism seems overdetailed. opposition to police brutality in the United States including through Black Lives Matter can easily drop the whole bit about BLM, and similarly anti-Zionism as a member of Jewish Voice for Peace doesn't require a mention of the specific organization. Her association with JVP is clarified elsewhere in the lead. The very earliest introduction doesn't seem like the right place to namedrop specific organizations (on the same note, I'd rephrase ACT UP to a more general "HIV/AIDS advocacy").
 * Why are "lesbian" and "homophobic" linked?
 * She additionally gained an interest in death education -- drop 'additionally'
 * I'm concerned about some of the statements around her family in the lead, but those comments fit more clearly in the next section.
 * In the infobox: I don't see a good reason to name a non-notable spouse here (I'm not sold on naming him at all, but the infobox moreso). I think the 'children' parameter can also take grandchildren, but I'm not sure.

Early life

 * Any clarity on why she changed her first name?
 * Later addendum: I've looked into this further, and it doesn't seem she did. Rather, she went by Joyce throughout her life formally (including some relatively recent e.g. internet comments), and "Shatzi" is a nickname. For clarity, the opening should be more like Joyce "Shatzi" Weisberger ( Schatzberg, June 17, 1930 – December 1, 2022). Vaticidalprophet 05:03, 26 June 2023 (UTC)
 * The citation patterns here are weird (this is true throughout the article). I'll pull the first sentence as an example: Shatzi Weisberger was born Joyce Schatzberg[1][2] in Brooklyn[2] on June 17, 1930.[1][3] This whole short sentence doesn't need three separate cited sections, though in this case I get the issue with it sometimes looking ugly to have three consecutive cites at the end of a sentence.
 * I'm a little concerned about the discussion of the foster care stuff. It's sourced to an obit from a close friend (a lot of the article is sourced to this, and it concerns me because of the source's obvious biases and dependence). Categorically blaming it on homophobia when this is represented only by that obit isn't something I'm fully comfortable with. It's also unclear how big a role this played in her childhood -- the article describes her as having "spent time" in the system, the obit more strongly says she "grew up" in it.
 * Similarly, it's not actually clear how much she knew about her mother's sexuality. The interview being used to support that she "didn't know" strongly implies she did. The obit says her mother was openly lesbian (though the interview disagrees).
 * Is there any particular reason to think Glorious Broads is reliable?
 * Is there any clarity on why her children were adopted? The obit also gives a little more detail about ages of adoption, and mentions she had grandchildren.
 * I'm concerned about the estrangement being barely touched on. The NYT article makes it clear her children had a pretty rough relationship with her. The article is very hagiographic/has some tone concerns; I don't like how it's just sitting there unexplored that her children didn't speak to her for fifty years. If there's any more information on this in particular, that could be usefully balancing (I find myself uncomfortable with the disconnect between this and the glowing obituaries from her 'chosen family').
 * I'm also concerned about what's being used to support the strong claim of an "unhappy marriage". The obit used as a source doesn't. The Glorious Broads interview says more narrowly that she "wasn't happy with [her] life"; I'd make a distinction between not liking the way your life is going, with a relationship as an element of that, and specifically being miserable with a specific person for 18 years. The sources that do support this support the former more clearly than the latter. I really have discomforts with the fact we're saying she was "unhappy" with a specific, named, non-notable individual. If we're fine using GB, then if there's anything that stands out to me as something she was unhappy with, it's more like 'not wanting to move to Delaware' than anything else.
 * I'm still picking hard on this and the estrangement/family thing (this is absolutely not your fault, and entirely the fault of the less-independent sources, but wow, I get madder every time I think about it -- she treated her children so poorly that neither of them talked to her for fifty years, that her daughter wasn't even willing to talk to her on her deathbed, and all these dependent sources just gloss over it and talk about how nice she was to her 'chosen family' -- as if she didn't choose to have a family, didn't go out of her way to adopt those kids!). I did find her husband's obituary, who is still probably not notable (but might barely scrape it) but seems that he was an interesting guy himself. I still think the clearly-independent sources don't support a hard "unhappy with/at this guy specifically" claim, and that the GB source supports a narrower claim than the one presented in the article. Vaticidalprophet 05:03, 26 June 2023 (UTC)
 * She attended summer camp as a child -- is this relevant?

Career

 * This section is really sparse, considering it's the dominating element of her life for almost fifty years. The 972 article talks more about it, the GB interview (modulo prior notes) talks more about it. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there's more information in archival material/contemporary news/otherwise not-FUTON sources; I have serious concerns about the reliance on FUTON sources in the article of someone who lived almost all of her life before the internet. This is a general but important note.
 * positive death movement The death-positive movement?

Those are my notes for now. I do have some real concerns here. I don't think it's impossible for this to pass, but it might take a while, especially given the sourcing concerns/absence of contemporary information for much of her life. From our past work together, I'm optimistic we can make good progress here, regardless of how the review ends up working out. Vaticidalprophet 09:01, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Noting here that the review has been open for 22 days without response or any edits to the article, the comments are very long while only dealing with the first third of the article, and the nominator seems to be inactive, I plan to close the nomination as unsuccessful if no progress happens within the next few days. I've been looking at the later sections over the course of the review, and the more I look into the subject the more I feel GAN isn't really the right place for this article at this time -- my comments on the bulk of the article are going to be fairly exhaustive and amount to significant rewrites. I'm happy to work something out if real progress is made in the next few days, but as it stands this GAN is in a holding pattern that isn't well-suited to an article needing this much revision. Vaticidalprophet 04:40, 28 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Due to continued inactivity, I'm closing the nomination as unsuccessful. <b style="color:black">Vaticidal</b><b style="color:#66023C">prophet</b> 05:24, 1 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Vaticidalprophet, thanks for all your notes here. I'm all laptopped up again and will pick this up at some point to start working toward GA status – but I agree with your feedback and it'll clearly take some work to get there. Your insight is appreciated as always.<span id="Ezlev:1691714729996:TalkFTTCLNShatzi_Weisberger/GA1" class="FTTCmt"> — ezlev (user/tlk/ctrbs) 00:45, 11 August 2023 (UTC)