Wikipedia:Featured article review/Blaise Pascal/archive1


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

The article was removed by Nikkimaria 02:08, 12 September 2011.

Review commentary

 * Notified: Christopher Parham (nominator), Dbergan (added some of the text around the time of promotion) All WikiProjects on article talk.

I am nominating this featured article for review primarily because of plagiarism and copyright concerns that will result in a substantially smaller, less thorough and non-'criteria meeting' article when cleaned. The article was promoted in August 2005 and much of it is copied/close-paraphrased from The Story of Civilizaton by Will and Ariel Durant (starting PDF page 69). The work was published in 1963 and the copyright renewed in 1991. This article does not meet FA criteria right now and it is unlikely it will in the near future. Aside from the copyvio, there is citation and lead concerns. Concerns about plagiarism and FA criteria have been on the article talk since March/November 2010 and it was just reported to WP:CP recently. I have cleaned some text out already and will continue clean more. See the CP report and talk page for more details.--NortyNort (Holla) 03:40, 15 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Looking at the talk page, it doesn't sound as if the page will be fixed quickly. Unless someone comes forward quickly who is able to dedicate a lot of time, it is probably best to delist promptly.--Peter cohen (talk) 15:21, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Are you looking only at the talk page and not also at this discussion?
 * I agree. Plagiarized pages should be immediately stripped of their featured article status. Ryan Vesey  contribs  21:49, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

This matter is being discussed elsewhere: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Mathematics. Michael Hardy (talk) 00:43, 20 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Procedural note - The precedent-setting FAR for featured articles with significant copyright violations was Featured article review/Grace Sherwood/archive1, in November/December 2010. This article went through the full FAR/FARC process. If Raul disagrees with this (I see that someone has already left him a note, which is good), he of course has the authority to delist without going through the full process. However, as it looks like there is some discussion on the Mathematics WP talk page, it is IMO best to give the article a bit more time to see if anyone comes forward who is interested in fixing it. Dana boomer (talk) 02:09, 20 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Stating the obvious here but in its present condition the article fails 1b and 1c. I also believe that a full FAR process should be followed. Brad (talk) 20:22, 22 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Note: The article has been cleaned out by two editors.--NortyNort (Holla) 02:39, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

Comments
 * 1b After the copyvio cleanout the article dropped 8k in size. I'm not sure if that has any bearing on "comprehensiveness" but it's a good assumption at this point.
 * 1c May also be effected by 1b. Currently there are many citations needed throughout the article.
 * 3 File:PascalTriangleAnimated2.gif What sources were used to assemble the information? Without sources this is original research. File:001Paskal.JPG This photo is not licensed correctly. It should be an OTRS matter but that was not followed. Pasting an incoherent email exchange into the description box won't cut it.
 * The "miscellaneous" section should be deleted with fire. Brad (talk) 18:07, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

FARC commentary

 * Featured article criteria of concern mentioned in the review section originally focused mainly on copyright violations. Once these violations were rectified, the concerns changed to issues with comprehensiveness, referencing, images and trivia. Dana boomer (talk) 16:01, 28 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Delist per 1c concerns. Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • (Otters want attention) 17:10, 30 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Delist because we have to get tough on plagiarism, with leave to renominate immediately once it is felt that it has been legitimately brought to FA standards. Daniel Case (talk) 04:49, 31 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Delist Other than copyright cleanout many problems remain. Brad (talk) 03:57, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Comment: The copyright issue has been fixed. The material in question was added several years ago by a single editor and accounted for a relatively small proportion of the article. Imo that material could be just as well left out of the article even without the COPYVIO issue. I left a notification at WP:MATH on the current status since I think most people were not aware of remaining issues. Regarding the Pascal triangle animation (#3 above), I claim WP:CK since it is well known in the mathematical community. See Pascal's triangle for details. On the death mask photo, it seems clear that the image was released into the public domain. If there is an issue then I vote the image be removed pending an OTRS ruling, there are several other images of Pascal in the article so it is well illustrated without it.--RDBury (talk) 18:04, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Comment re Miscellaneous section: This was trimmed and incorporated into the Legacy section. The remaining material, concerning a movie and documentary special on the subject, seems noteworthy.--RDBury (talk) 18:17, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
 * If editors feel the concerns raised by the delists have been addressed, they should ping those reviewers to revisit. Nikkimaria (talk) 16:04, 8 August 2011 (UTC)
 * The material that RDBury addressed was the least of the article's problems. The more serious issues are still comprehensiveness and referencing. Brad (talk) 18:33, 23 August 2011 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.