User:EmmaForRome142497/Evaluate an Article

Is everything in the article relevant to the topic?

Yes, everything in the article is relevant to the topic.

Is there anything that distracted you?

The last section doesn't seem super related to the topic because it isn't about Ancient Rome, the small section opens up to discussions in Medieval Europe, simply because there is a common word between the two - meretrix - but it has nothing to do with the topic at large. It appears they decided to merge the Meretrix page and the Prostitution in Ancient Rome page, which was up for discussion, but no one really discussed it.

Is there any information that is out of date?

I do not believe there is out of date information - the article was most recently edited in September 2019. Its fourteen sources in the bibliography were published between 1963 and 2009. And while the most recently published source could be argued against for being ten years old - I think such a range of publication dates is quite good and there's nothing wrong with a ten year old article.

Is anything missing that could be added?

The Prostitution and Religion section is very, very lacking and only talks about festivals, rather than prostitutes in Roman mythology. It's like it talks about the itinerary of the festivals, as opposed to why they happened.

What else could be improved?

I would like to know about famous prostitutes - such as prostitutes who became martyrs and that sort of thing. It also just seems to be in passing that they mention males in prostitution, so that could also be explored more.

'''Is the article neutral? Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position? Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?'''

I think the article is pretty neutral, but I'm surprised to see so little about how the prostitutes attended key events in history as they were invited to many dinners and parties that the common woman wouldn't have been allowed to attend. It seems to just show the negative connotation thought of for prostitution.

'''Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in that article?'''

The links do work but most of them are to GoogleBooks were you can buy the book, as opposed to an article with that particular information, so it's hard to say if the source supports the claims.

Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable source?

Each fact is referenced, there are quite a few references for this article, actually. Some references elaborate on the particular sources, which is very helpful and a great addition.

'''Where does the information come from? Are they neutral sources? If biased, are the biases noted?'''

The information most often comes from books about Ancient Rome generally, women in Ancient Rome, and sexuality in Ancient Rome. It's hard to tell if they're neutral sources because you cannot easily gain access to the source itself.

What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?

The original post was based off of one source, but it has grown since then. The Talk page also indicates that there is more information on this topic on the German page - but this could be largely due to the merger of Greek and Roman topics on this page.

'''How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?'''

According to the Talk page, this is a Start-rate article of mid-importance. It's considered an "article of interest" for the WikiProjects of Classical Greece and Rome, Sexology and sexuality / sex work, and Women's History.

How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

We have not discussed this topic in class.