Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–927/archive1


 * The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was archived by Laser brain via FACBot (talk) 21:15, 6 May 2016.

Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–927

 * Nominator(s): Gligan (talk) 18:26, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

This article is about the Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–927 which is an important but largely unknown part of European history. I believe that by promoting this and other similar articles to Wikipedia's featured content with help understanding the complex history of the Balkans and hopefully, raising the awareness about the region. Before the nomination, the article was kindly copyedited by Corinne of the Guild of Copy Editors. Regards, Gligan (talk) 18:26, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

Comments: G'day, thanks for your efforts with the article. I only have a quick comment/observation at the moment (sorry, not feeling up to a full read through at the moment due to illness). AustralianRupert (talk) 03:38, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
 * there appear to be a lot of reference anchor errors. These refer to when the link for the short citation does not point correctly to a long citation/reference in your Sources or Reference list. I have a script installed which helps highlight these issues, which you might find beneficial. It can be found here. More information can also be found here. Regards, AustralianRupert (talk) 03:38, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the input. I would like to apologise for my lack of basic technical competence but I cannot use scripts, nor can figure out how to fix the problem on my own. May I ask you to fix just one link, so that I can see precisely the way it is done? Then, I will be able to fix all the rest. Regards, --Gligan (talk) 08:30, 25 March 2016 (UTC)
 * G'day, I've fixed what I can. The only ones left are those that you don't have specific citations for. Regards, AustralianRupert (talk) 09:36, 25 March 2016 (UTC)

Image review
 * Suggest scaling up the map - done
 * File:Byzantine_emperor_Leo_VI_receives_a_Bulgarian_delegation.jpg needs a US PD tag
 * File:Car_bed_pusk.jpg: please fix the machine-generated source - done
 * File:Byzantine_army_taking_oath_before_the_battle_of_Anchialus.JPG needs a US PD tag
 * File:Wars_of_tsar_Simeon_I.png: what is the source of the data presented in this map? - I have ask the author of the map to provide the source.
 * File:RadzivillChronicleFol21r.jpg needs a US PD tag
 * File:Skylitzes_Simeon_sending_envoys_to_the_Fatimids.jpg is tagged as lacking author info - done
 * File:Seal_of_Peter_I_of_Bulgaria_with_Irene_Lekapene.jpg should include an explicit statement on the licensing of the coin itself, for completeness. Nikkimaria (talk) 20:57, 19 March 2016 (UTC)


 * I tried to put a US PD tag following the instructions on the template given in the file "Byzantine_emperor_Leo_VI_receives_a_Bulgarian_delegation.jpg" but there seems to be a problem in the way I am doing it. The template asks for the year of the author's death, which is unknown, and the country of origin, which does not exist. When I try to put 12th century on the slot regarding the author's death, and the Byzantine Empire as a country of origin, the template does not work. May I ask you for assistance to put the tag on one of the images, so that I can follow the example?
 * Regarding the coin, I don't understand what I need to do. I looked through some uploaded files of Byzantine emperors and I saw no difference in the licensing. I hope you can assist me on that issue as well. Regards, --Gligan (talk) 08:30, 25 March 2016 (UTC)


 * I would like to once again apologize to AustralianRupert, Nikkimaria and all other editors who raise technical issues that I am not able to address these issues without some help regarding the manner how to fix them. --Gligan (talk) 08:30, 25 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Take a look at the list of tags at Template:PD-US - I think these should cover most of the circumstances here. As for the coin: you currently have a tag that tells us the licensing of the photo of the coin - one of those PD tags should cover the copyright status of the coin itself. Does that help? Nikkimaria (talk) 16:04, 25 March 2016 (UTC)

Comments This article looks great overall. I have only a few comments:
 * Political background:
 * "...imposed an annual tribute on the Byzantine Empire as a result of the Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 894–896." It might be useful to mention the outcome of the war, if it can be succinctly done. I.e., "...imposed an annual tribute on the Byzantine Empire after Bulgarian victory in the Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 894–896."
 * I added some commas where necessary, here and in other sections. Please feel free to revert if I've inadvertently changed the meaning of a sentence.


 * Crisis of 904:
 * "Simeon I decided to exploit that opportunity..." Maybe it's my own pet peeve, but this kind of construction stands out to me. The important thing is not that Simeon decided to exploit the situation, but taht he did so (or tried to do so). Maybe "Simeon I sought to exploit that opportunity..." would concentrate the sentence on the relevant action better?


 * Beginning of the war and Simeon I's coronation[edit]
 * Do we know Constantine's date of birth? Mentioning his exact age would help the reader understand the trouble the Empire was in.


 * Battle of Achelous
 * "However, the court in Preslav was warned about the negotiations by prince Michael of Zahumlje, a loyal ally of Bulgaria, and Simeon I was able to prevent an immediate Serb attack." The passive voice makes the sentence confusing. I'd try "However, prince Michael of Zahumlje, a loyal ally of Bulgaria, warned the court in Preslav about the negotiations, and Simeon I was able to prevent an immediate Serb attack."


 * Campaigns against the Serbs:
 * "This time, however, the Bulgarians had decided to change their approach to the Serbs." Again, "This time, however, the Bulgarians changed their approach to the Serbs." focuses on the important part of the action.

The article is a nice piece of work and, once these minor issues are resolved, I look forward to supporting. --Coemgenus (talk) 13:42, 21 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Comments Nitpicking:


 * If you've already established a monarch's regnal number, there is no need to keep on repeating it throughout. Please remove these.
 * "Battle" should always be capitalized, whether it's at the beginning of a sentence or not.
 * WP:MOSNUM numbers over ten should almost always be written as numbers.
 * Hyphenated words should not use an endash (i.e. 14th–century)
 * The section peace treaty links Byzantine–Bulgarian Treaty of 927 as its main article. As you can see, it's a red link. Therefore, either create it or remove it as the "main article".
 * Numbers such as 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 etc. should be spelled out as thirty, forty, fifty when indicating the length of something (e.g. forty-year, fifty-year, etc.)
 * Please adhere to WP:MOSDASH. 913–927 should be written 913–27, and this rule for indicating dates (whether it be for days of months or years) should apply throughout the article (except in the infobox, where 913–927 should suffice). Having said this, I suggest you move the article to Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–27
 * Shortened words like "reigned" (r) should be rendered as ( r. )
 * I would also suggest leaving any translations out of the intro so as not to go down the slippery slope of having to include Greek, Latin, Serbian, Arabic, etc. or otherwise being accused of bias. 23 editor (talk) 18:01, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

Other than that, this looks like a fine article, but I'll withhold my support until the above points are addressed since such issues appear throughout. 23 editor (talk) 15:46, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

Comment. Note for coords: the nominator has made two edits since March 25; this one said they would be back on April 24. - Dank (push to talk) 13:36, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

-- Laser brain  (talk)  21:15, 6 May 2016 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.