Wikipedia:Peer review/List of counties in West Virginia/archive1

This peer review discussion has been closed.

This peer review discussion has been closed. I've listed this article for peer review because… I would like this to achieve a featured list status. It would certainly help out for Wikiprojects West Virginia. Many thanks

Thanks, Coal town guy (talk) 00:16, 31 January 2013 (UTC)

give me a few days ... Truthkeeper (talk) 02:18, 5 February 2013 (UTC) Hi, Coal town guy - you've have a nice beginning here. A few initial comments:

References and sources:
 * The first thing I noticed is that footnotes 1 and 10 to 26 are bare URLs. Those all have to be formatted.
 * Sources such as "find a grave" are not considered reliable. Not sure about genealogy sites, but all this information exists in books and should be cited to the best sources possible.

Lead:
 * I think the lead needs some expansion and re-organization. There's quite a bit of history involved in the choosing of the counties that I guess happened at the Wheeling Convention, the result of which gave WV it's distinctive shape. This book on google books gives more history in the chapter "The Thirty-fifth State". You should be able to view it. Also a search on google books for WV counties shows a lot of results,.
 * Consider reorganizing the lead so that all the historical background is together in one paragraph, and information about the county sizes (largest & smallest) kept in another paragraph.
 * I think the material about permitting the creation of a new county should, if possible, be sourced to something other than the WV constitution - maybe a secondary source?
 * Suggest scaling down the image to be more in line with List of counties in Massachusetts, which is FL.
 * Suggest trying to follow List of counties in Massachusetts format in regards to writing the lead. Eventually some copyediting will be required, but I wouldn't worry about that until the material is all in place and then consider listing at GOCE for a copyedit.

More later .... Truthkeeper (talk) 23:08, 5 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Looking at that now, in addition to some cite refs. I will be removing the find a grave sites for certain, No genealogy cittions will be used,because I contribute to those part time as well and thats a great info source, BUT NOT 100% reliable in the sense of an encyclopedia. I have an autographed copy of the 35th state. Not much on the shape of the actual state or specifics on county formation, HOWEVER, I think I can find another source for county formation requiremets besides the constitution itself if thats the issueCoal town guy (talk) 01:13, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Okay, sounds good. There is quite a lot in the link I added about county formations. The title of the book is West Virginia: A History by Otis K. Rice, Stephen W. Brown. It seems to be previewable on google books and I'm sure available in any local library. I'd assume too that any local library would have the information that's needed. I'll add another batch of comments tomorrow. Still thinking this through a bit. Truthkeeper (talk) 01:26, 6 February 2013 (UTC)


 * I just found an excellent book source for the criteria of forming a WV county. Additionally, I can use my own first edition 1890's copy of WV History by Virgil Lewis......The Rice book has an excellent blurb on the formation of WV and the county resistance to the new state even after its admission to the union, I have a copy of that as well here at the house....Coal town guy (talk) 02:51, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
 * That's great. You might be able to find something more recent in the library as well. Interlibrary loan is great for this kind of thing if your library doesn't have it. And reference librarians will always help - particularly if you tell them what you need the information for.

Lead map
 * It's boosted a bit high and should be shrunk a bit. Also, have a look at the lead map in List of counties in Utah where some color is used for contrast. Something like that would be nice.

Table:
 * It appears that some of the table columns are larger than needed (i.e. the one for date) and others are smaller than needed (i.e. etymology). I had a look at the tables in List of counties in Massachusetts and List of counties in Utah because both are FL. The Massachusetts one doesn't set parameters for the column width, the Utah one does. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to spend some time playing around with the mark-up to resize the columns.

Additional
 * If former counties existed that are now part of either VA, PA, Maryland, or Ohio, that should be added somewhere. I see that the Utah list does this in a separate table which might be a good way to go. I'm not that familiar but seem to have a vague idea that maybe there were some counties that didn't join WV and stayed with VA or Maryland? Garrett for instance is one I've always wondered about.


 * Got that covered with a book ref or 2 already. No counties were cut, but some did resistCoal town guy (talk) 02:02, 7 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Just a suggestion and something the other counties lists don't have - but would be nice to fit in a column with a picture from each county. It's a beautiful state - but feel free to ignore this because I don't really see how it can fit. You might try doing something like a panorama at the bottom of the table. An example is in the article Alps - panorama is placed below a table in one of the sections. Would be great to see something like that to make it pop.

Referencing
 * The citations all have to be written out in a consistent manner with consistently formatted retrieval dates (i.e either February 6th, 2013 or 2013-2-6 - but don't match styles). If websites. The Utah counties list is a particularly good example for this.

I think I'm almost done, but will have another look tomorrow and add additional comments if necessary. Truthkeeper (talk) 01:42, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I can do the col spacing, no problem, however, and in all candid honesty, I SUCK at formatting and colors. I did not want to shrink the map too much more as it is clickable and we are talking about 55 counties....IMO, too small a map would detract from the function. As to color, I would LOVE to use WV colors (surprise!) which would look ver cool in contrasting the map. As always I am very graeful, and will also take a peek at the date formatting. I have started to get away from web pages as refs as my library here at home is rather good.Coal town guy (talk) 02:00, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I agree that with 55 counties, all clickable, it needs to be fairly large. But there's a lot of white space around the edges, partially because of the shape of the state. Maybe the people at the graphic lab would help with a redesign.Truthkeeper (talk) 22:29, 7 February 2013 (UTC)


 * This is already looking much better. I'll swing through with a copyedit in a few days. But can't think of much else to add here. Truthkeeper (talk) 22:29, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * At this point its wikilinking some names and double checking some of pop stats for each county. They originally had a TX ref for FIPS not WV....SO, I am certain the pop stats are OK, but want to be very certain. Otherwise, I ytook your suggestions about the other FL's and did some formattinf and fleshed out the intro. I am however grateful for this little gem, I get to read more of my WV texts here at home. I started my Phd in Apalchian Studies but stopped due to family issue. I got a decent library, and BONUS, get to use it. Do you think after the copyedit, I can take it out of peer review and submit for FL candidacy????Coal town guy (talk) 22:49, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * It still needs a bit of tidying, but is coming along nicely. The peer review bot will automatically close the review two weeks after the last comment is made, and I suppose if you want it closed earlier then someone could do that - it's not anything I've ever done myself. I probably won't get to the copyedit until the weekend or maybe later, but in the meantime try listing at GOCE to see whether someone there picks it up. Truthkeeper (talk) 22:54, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * What do you think the chances are it will make it?Coal town guy (talk) 02:23, 8 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I just posted at GOCE, wish me luck. MANY MANY thanks to EVERYONE who has been helping thus far. AFTER GOCE, I will ask for help to get it sent to FL nominationCoal town guy (talk) 21:30, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Is the peer review finished? All- I wanted to ask if all of the concerns of this Peer Review have been met and addressed. IF thats the case, I will close this and submit the list for FL candidacy. A Copy Edit was performed by the GOCE.HOWEVER, ANY other editing, is always welcomedCoal town guy (talk) 17:10, 9 February 2013 (UTC)