Wikipedia:Peer review/Silver Reef, Utah/archive1

Silver Reef, Utah
This peer review discussion has been closed. I've listed this article for peer review because I want to upgrade it to GA status. I would like the entire article reviewed, and I would like advice on how to improve the article and get it ready for a GA nomination.

Thanks, The   Utahraptor My mistakes; I mean, er, contributions 02:40, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Finetooth comments: This is an interesting article, and in general it is easy to read. It's broad in coverage but might not be quite broad enough yet for GA. For example, is anything known about the history of the area before the mid-19th century? The biggest problem I see, however, is that the article relies heavily on sources that are probably not reliable as defined by WP:RS. Personal web sites, blogs, and dot-coms like Legends of America and Utah Travel Center, for example, are usually not considered reliable. It may be that the same or similar information might be found in the four books you list in the "Further reading" section. Those are most likely reliable sources per WP:RS and may include other valuable information about the town.

I made a small number of proofing changes to the article, and here is a short list of suggestions about prose, style, and other matters.

Geology
 * "This area features a variety of plant species not seen in any singular region." - I'm not sure what is meant by "singular region". Does it mean that these species are found together only in this region?


 * Some of the material in this section has little to do with geology. Perhaps the Geology and Geography sections would do better combined as "Geology and geography", and repetition of material about Red Cliffs Recreation Area could be eliminated. "Climate" could be its own section.

Discovery of silver
 * "During its first year, Silver Reef did not have a smelter." - Link smelter?

Town
 * "Immediately following the initial silver rush, a town site was plotted, and the town was hastily built." - "Platted" rather than "plotted"?


 * "Despite the fact that it was surrounded by Mormon settlements," - Tighten to "Although it was surrounded by Mormon settlements... "?


 * "Despite the fact that Mormonism was not Silver Reef's main religion," - Tighten?

Crime
 * "Despite the fact that it had good relations with other towns," - Tighten?

Decline
 * The Manual of Style advises against extremely short sections and subsections. I'd suggest removing the "Closure of the mines" subhead and just allowing it to be the last paragraph of the "Decline" section.

Tourism
 * This section has repetitious material and short subsections. I would suggest removing the subheads and the bolded, bulleted list, and re-writing this section in straight prose. For example, the section could still open with "Silver Reef has since become a popular tourist attraction." The next sentences might say, "After Silver Reef's mines closed, the Wells Fargo office was used as a residence until the late 1940s. After that, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the 21st century, the office is used as an art gallery and a museum." That it faced Main Street may not be important enough to include. The next paragraph could discuss the Rice Bank Building. And so on.

Notes
 * Some of the citations are incomplete, citation 13, for example. A good rule of thumb for citations to web sites is to include author, title, publisher, date of publication, url, and access date, if all of those are known or can be found.

Images
 * The image licenses look fine except for the File:View of Silver Reef.jpg and File:Cosmopolitan Restaurant 1800s.jpg. It's not clear where the originals for these two came from. The immediate sources listed on the licensing pages are not the same as the original sources. If you can find out from the immediate sources where they got the photographs, you might be able to find them (in old books maybe) and fill in the missing information. They are probably public domain because of their age, but that's not certain from the information provided.

I hope these suggestions prove helpful. If so, please consider reviewing another article, especially one from the PR backlog at WP:PR; that is where I found this one. I don't usually watch the PR archives or check corrections or changes. If my comments are unclear, please ping me on my talk page. Finetooth (talk) 00:12, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I'll get started improving the article. Thank you for your review. The   Utahraptor My mistakes; I mean, er, contributions 00:16, 22 September 2010 (UTC)