Wikipedia:Peer review/Belarus/archive1

Belarus
I know some nation's articles are FA's, and to calm some folks down, I am going to try and get this article up to Featured status. I, wish to know, what should I do to fix this up. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:44, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
 * There's no culture?! Dmcdevit·t 22:02, August 31, 2005 (UTC)
 * I need to write that, but I am not sure how I will go about it. I wrote about specialty artwork called rushniks, but not sure what else. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 22:05, 31 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Australia and India are both good articles to model this kind of article on, it looks like you got quite a lot of sections that need to be fleshed out in this article. One useful thing to do will be to make a table like the one on Australia where you can keep all the miscellaneous but realted links. Also try and reference all the stats you add to the article so they are easily verifiable.--nixie 00:59, 1 September 2005 (UTC)
 * I added the table in. There is one reference so far, but I am going to add more in soon. Plus, not to mention stuff that needs to be flushed out, I also need to add a few things (if I can find them). Zscout370 (Sound Off) 01:47, 1 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Nixie is right. I'd suggest you use the Australia and India pages as a guide. For example, see what is there in the =history= section in India and match it in the Belarus article. Note the length of the history, the summary form and the flow of the history through time. In the geography section note the geology, rivers etc. Try and include the Belarus equivalents of food in India, dress in India etc mentioned. in the culture section. Keep adding references. =Nichalp   «Talk»=  10:14, September 1, 2005 (UTC)
 * I got the history fixed up, but I think the last bit on Lukashenko would be a point of contention. I know my country called him as Europe's Last Dictator, but I am not sure how that can be worded as NPOV. While I got sources left and right stating this stuff, but I am not sure how it can be worked, since it seems I am the only person who wants to edit the damn thing. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 05:31, 2 September 2005 (UTC)
 * There are some sections that I have not edited but they could use a healthy dose of POV checking. I mainly need it in the Politics article so far. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 07:53, 2 September 2005 (UTC)
 * One thing that strikes me is that the Belarusian name of the country is not very prominent in the first paragraph of the leader text. Consider, "The Republic of Belarus (Belarusian: ) ..." Rob Church Talk 08:50, 2 September 2005 (UTC)
 * India also discussed their name and the different languages at the last paragraph. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 18:19, 2 September 2005 (UTC)
 * I never knew Belarus was so flat! The highest pt in my city is 457 m ,higher than the entire country. =Nichalp   «Talk»=  19:09, September 3, 2005 (UTC)
 * I could see myself climing that. I still need to work on about a few more sections, but overall, do you think the article is ready for FAC? Zscout370 (Sound Off) 20:22, 3 September 2005 (UTC)
 * The demographics section is still pretty weak I think it should mention any demographic trends, eg is the population aging significantly, immigration/migration trends, whats the average level of education, perhaps some more detail on languages, rural/urban population distribution. Similarily the economics section is lacking, what makes up the economy in Belarus %GDP agriculture/manufacturing and so on, what does it export and to whom, whats the level of unemployment, is Belarus a popular country for foregin investment from Europe, is Belarus planning to try and join the EU? Culture could also mention the national media and sports, the music of Belarus article makes the traditional music sound pretty interesing so something could be added to this article about music, has Belarus produced any great artisits or writers that could be mentioned? Geography should mention climate. The symbols from earlier hisory seems strangely out of place and may be better a a captioned image in the history section that a section in the culture section. The reamining see alsos in the text should probably be merged into the table. --nixie 01:19, 4 September 2005 (UTC)
 * I removed the earlier symbols before, but I got reverted (probably by those who do not like the Luka-symbols. Though, to compensate, I have a photo of the 1991 flag in the history section.) I will focus on those issues as much as I can. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:02, 4 September 2005 (UTC)
 * No, its not ready for FAC, I would say its about 60% done. Nixie has some good points, I'd strongly suggest you implement it first before I review again. =Nichalp   «Talk»=  06:48, September 4, 2005 (UTC)
 * Except for a few small details, I nailed everything Nixie wanted to be done. I could try to do more tomorrow, but sleep is calling me. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 08:01, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

Ok now for the serious review: You'd have to take care of all these: Round 1 over: =Nichalp   «Talk»=  13:37, September 4, 2005 (UTC)
 * sanctioned by the United States and by Human Rights Watch. I don't think the statement belongs in the lead.
 *  Its borders, which have changed over the years due to wars and treaties -- is not necessary. India's borders have changed too.
 * What are the powers of the Prime minister. Who is more powerful, the prez or PM?
 * Can you tell me something more on the parliament?
 *  lakes and river can be seen in the country. --> abundance of lakes...
 * I've commented on Canberra above regarding the &amp;nbsp; issue. Please implement.
 * The size of the Belarusian territory can be compared roughly to the following areas: Remove this sentence and the list that follows. The country should stand up on its own, and not be compared with states in other countries.
 * monetary unit?
 * sex ratio, life exp'ncy, languages spoken %, density?
 * an estimate performed by the CIA, not required.
 * merge religion with demographics; remove second para of =religion= not req here.
 * =sport= is small, merge with culture
 * Under culture I want to see this: clothing, food, festivals, and literature produced in BLR.

--nixie 03:49, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
 * A few more things:
 * 1) I think a sentence or two about the variety of media, number of tv stations and daily newspapers ect would be a good addition to the culture section. I read in the music article that there are quite strict local content restictions on radio, is this the case across all media if so are there any popular local televsion productions and so on that could also be mentioned.
 * 2) What are the items listed in further reading, are they references? If so call this section references, and the section currently called references notes. If they weren't used to write the text then they probably don't need to be included.
 * 3) You may want to add a foreign realtion and miliary section like that in Australia, although it's not absolutely necessary.
 * 4) Some information on the governence of the subdivisions wouldn't hurt.
 * 5) I think some description of what is acturally produced by the economy of Belarus is necessary as are employment figures. While on the subject of the economy, the CIA data says Belarus is a net recipient of Aid- who's giving the aid and why? This section shouldn't focus too heavily on economic history.
 * 6) Some people dislike images of the head of State in a country article which may come up on FAC. All images also need a fair use rationale.


 * Some of the images are a mixture of Fair Use and PD. I uploaded about 5 photos (1 PD and four fair use). I also added some photos already at the Wikimedia Commons. There is a link to foreign relations in the politics section and has a little bit mentioned. I do not know much about the military, but I can always provide a link. As for how the subdivisions work, I need to find that out. The section on the further reading, not quite sure why those are there but I can remove them. I added the employment figures (mainly unemployment), but I need to add GDP, trading partners, etc. As for Luka's pic (which is PD), I am keeping it there since he is referenced a lot in the article. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:58, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
 * On second thought, I removed Lukashenko's photo. I added the food section and the economy information. Other than the media, government and some culture stuff, I think I got everything I needed. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 06:23, 5 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Another missing item is international rankings, I worked them into the text in Australia but article like India and Hong Kong have them in a list toward the end of the article.--nixie 07:04, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
 * I added them in the infobox. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 07:19, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
 * I disagree with having the country rankings to the main page. 2) Its not complete and the rankings vary. =Nichalp   «Talk»=  08:02, September 5, 2005 (UTC)


 * 1) Remove the religion subheading. It looks odd. 2) I'd strongly discourage the use of fair use images on the page. The page wont be free then. Search for free images here: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ . The atribution licence (-by-2.0), and share alike (by-sa-2.0) are allowed in WP. Also this search will throw up possible PD images. =Nichalp   «Talk»=  08:02, September 5, 2005 (UTC)
 * I still only have one fair use image still, but it could be in the public domain. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:42, 6 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Capital punishment could get a mention, possibly in the paragraph about human rights. Beyond the other things Nichalp and I have already suggested to do with format, the article could use a good copyedit, then its pbabably good to go to FAC.--nixie 04:24, 6 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Me and Evil Monkey are still toying with the Capital punishment article, but I can add a mention. I am asking folks in IRC to do a spell check and grammar check. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 04:37, 6 September 2005 (UTC)


 * You've inspired me to rewrite Bhutan: See work done so far: User:Nichalp/Bhutan. =Nichalp   «Talk»=  13:32, September 6, 2005 (UTC)
 * Blushes. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 13:48, 6 September 2005 (UTC)