Wikipedia:Peer review/Matchbox Educable Noughts and Crosses Engine/archive1

Matchbox Educable Noughts and Crosses Engine


I've listed this article for peer review because I'd like to nominate it for TFA. I brought it to GA in 2020, and "employed" as a mentor. After offering some improvements, they unfortunately had to pull out due to a need to balance time spent on Wikipedia better. (see here.) I'd appreciate some review and advice, especially on the mathematical front, as I think the article is lacking in that respect. Thanks,  Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon? 15:48, 2 March 2021 (UTC)


 * STANDARD NOTE: for quicker and more responses to pre-FAC peer review requests, please remember to add your PR page to Template:FAC peer review sidebar (this has been done for you). And when you close this peer review, please be sure to remove it from there. Also consider adding the sidebar to your userpage so you can help others by participating in other pre-FAC peer reviews.  Regards, Sandy Georgia  (Talk)  16:48, 14 March 2021 (UTC)
 * ✅  Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon? 17:03, 15 March 2021 (UTC)

Comments by Z1720
Hi, I'm sorry that no one has reviewed this article yet. I am hopeless at math-stuff, so consider this a non-expert review. I will assess this as if it was an FAC.


 * "(sometimes called the Machine Educable Noughts and Crosses Engine) or MENACE" put the second part in brackets.
 * ✅  Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon? 18:14, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * " by artificial intelligence pioneer Donald Michie in 1961." Pioneer is on the words to watch list. Can we replace it with a descriptor of his job title? (Engineer, designer, etc)
 * ✅  Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon? 18:14, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * "it was shown to be a successful computer." What does it mean to be successful?
 * ✅  Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon? 18:14, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * "Donald Michie teaching a group of students at Turing Institute" In the caption, can you identify which person is Michie? I think his wiki article has a better picture of him.
 * ✅ Replaced with the closeup  Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon? 18:14, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * "MENACE was reportedly constructed" delete reportedly
 * ✅  Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon? 18:16, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * "and by then had built up" delete "by then"
 * ✅  Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon? 18:16, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * "This model starts as completely random, and gradually learns." This needs a citation.
 * ✅ <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 18:35, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * "relevant to the "X" player.[17][14]" references should be in numerical order
 * ✅ <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 18:26, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * "It involves strategic placing to block the other player while simultaneously taking the win." This sentence confused me and I think needs to be expanded upon.
 * ✅ <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 18:26, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * " it always ends in a draw." "the game always ends in a draw."
 * ✅ <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 18:35, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * " This creates a stalemate." Delete, the average user knows what a draw is.
 * ✅ Haha, not sure how that one slipped by me. <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 18:35, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * "When the computer begins and plays a random-playing opponent, it has the odds of the computer winning turn quickly in its favour." -> "The likelihood of the computer winning increases quickly when the computer makes the first move against a random-playing opponent." or something similar.
 * ✅ <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 18:35, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * "In Donald Michie's official tournament against MENACE, (1961)" "against MENACE in 1961"
 * ✅ <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 18:35, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * " including a well-publicised demonstration" This sounds like WP:PUFFERY. What made this well-publicised?
 * ✅ You're right, I was slightly editorialising there. Switched it to "Public" <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 18:35, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * What makes reference 1 a high-quality source? See User:Ealdgyth/FAC, Sources, and You for more details.
 * ✅ Yeah, it looked pretty unprofessional. I replaced it with something that appears more credible. <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 18:49, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * The layout of your references needs to be consistent. Check out the formatting section of WP:FARS for what is expected in a reference.
 * ✅, I think. <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 11:03, 22 May 2021 (UTC)

Please ping me when you finish the comments above and I will re-assess. Z1720 (talk) 20:37, 13 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks very much for your feedback, I really appreciate it. I hope the changes I've made have brought the article up to an acceptable standard. <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 11:03, 22 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks thanks for making the edits above. Here are some more comments, specifically focusing on references:


 * The more sources you have, the more likely people will feel confident in your FAC. If you haven't already, check WP:LIBRARY, archive.org, Google Books, Google Scholar and any databases available at your local library for more sources.
 * What makes ref 2 a high-quality source?
 * ✅ <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 11:53, 29 July 2021 (UTC)


 * I could not find the editorial board of ref three on their website. Are they high-quality?
 * According to their page on mediabiasfactcheck, they're mostly factual, do you think that's enough? <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 11:57, 29 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Ref 3 needs a publication date
 * ✅ <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 09:01, 3 June 2021 (UTC)


 * Ref 4 (Chalkdust) seems to accept viewer submissions, which doesn't inspire confidence in me that this is a reliable source. Why is this high-quality?
 * Ref 5 has page numbers (232-236) so this should be included in the reference. Also, where was this originally published?
 * Ref 6 needs an access date.
 * ✅ <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 16:33, 25 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Ref 9 also seems to accept user submissions. Why is this a high quality source?
 * ✅ <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 09:42, 17 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Ref 11 has the same concerns as Ref 9
 * Ref 12: is this a book? An article? I am suspicious that there is no link, no ISBN and no author provided.
 * Ref 14: There's no author and no indication in the article that it is supplied by the University of Warwick. Is it possible to get better information, like if it was published in an academic journal?
 * Ref 15 is missing author name, and the link is not properly formatted.
 * ✅ Is that ok? <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 18:14, 26 July 2021 (UTC)

I'm going to pause there, but please check the other references and ensure that the refs are consistently and properly formatted, and information (like author name, page number) are included? Lastly, check all of the sources and ensure that they are high-quality sources. Z1720 (talk) 03:37, 24 May 2021 (UTC)

Hi it has been over a month since you last edited this PR. Are you still working on this? If not, would you like to close it and reopen when you have more time? Thanks. Z1720 (talk) 21:46, 23 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I'm very sorry, I've been busy with off-wiki things. What a coincidence, then, that I finished all my business a couple of days ago, and I am now able to continue with this PR. Thank you for reminding me, I'll get back on it ASAP.

Comments by Femke

 * Alts should convey the information that people who don't see (well) miss from the image. It should typically not duplicate too much information from the caption, which is also read by screen-readers. For the last image, you may want to describe the trend of the line, and maybe the behaviour after the introduction of new variants.
 * The trend in changes of beads in the "2" boxes runs -> don't understand. A table should have a caption, per MOS:DTAB
 * tasked to -> had to
 * ✅ <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 09:58, 7 August 2021 (UTC)


 * The subclause about Matthew Scroggs seems trivia.
 * ✅ Switched to the year, is that better? <b style="font-family:Kristen ITC"> Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon?</b> 17:49, 26 July 2021 (UTC)

FemkeMilene (talk) 20:13, 25 July 2021 (UTC)