Wikisource:Featured text candidates/Archives/2019

Please do not post any new comments on this page. This is a discussion archive first created in 2019, although the comments contained were likely posted before and after this date. See current discussion or the archives index.

Featured

The First Men in the Moon

The following discussion is closed:

selected for January 2019. --EncycloPetey (talk) 21:52, 25 November 2018 (UTC)

Our copy of The First Men in the Moon first went up twelve years ago, in July in 2006, although it was a copy-paste job at that time (probably from Gutenberg). In June of last year, Jasonanaggie did a split-and-match and proofread the initial text. I added both illustrations and audio recordings of each chapter, and have now validated the whole thing. So we have now one of H. G. Wells' most popular science fiction novels, with Shepperson's illustrations, and a complete audio version as well. --EncycloPetey (talk) 19:37, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

•  Support —Beleg Tâl (talk) 13:28, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

The Bird of Time

The following discussion is closed:

selected for February 2019. --EncycloPetey (talk) 22:10, 25 November 2018 (UTC)

A collection of poems by Sarojini Naidu. Not only is this a wonderful collection of her poetry, but I think we need to feature more non-US/non-UK authors. --EncycloPetey (talk) 05:00, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

•  Support —Beleg Tâl (talk) 13:28, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

The Myths of Mexico and Peru

The following discussion is closed:

selected for March 2019. --EncycloPetey (talk) 16:40, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

Nominating this because it treats of a region that has never been featured by us before, and differs markedly from everything else nominated recently. --EncycloPetey (talk) 14:55, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

•  Support —Beleg Tâl (talk) 18:16, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
•  Support — Hrishikes (talk) 02:51, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

Orphée aux Enfers

The following discussion is closed:

selected for June 2019. --EncycloPetey (talk) 16:41, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Nominating this for June 2019, which marks the 200th birthday of German-born composer Jacques Offenbach. This is his most enduring comic opera, which included the galop infernal (known colloquially as the "can-can"). --EncycloPetey (talk) 02:59, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

 Support —Beleg Tâl (talk) 13:27, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

The Vampyre

The following discussion is closed:

selected for November 2019. --EncycloPetey (talk) 21:00, 13 October 2019 (UTC)

Another candidate to feature in a future October: "The Vampyre" (1819), by John William Polidori. One of the first appearances in English of a vampire, predating Bram Stoker's Dracula by almost 80 years. This coming year marks the 200th anniversary of its first publication. --EncycloPetey (talk) 21:30, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

•  Support - I skimmed through much of the main story and only found 1 error. Kaldari (talk) 00:51, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

The Life of the Spider

The following discussion is closed:

selected for December 2019. --EncycloPetey (talk) 17:41, 30 November 2019 (UTC)

My first Wikisource transcription! I've double-checked all the pages over the past 7 months and I'm pretty confident there are no errors in the entire text. If you can find one, I'll invent some kind of award for you! This book is one of Jean-Henri Fabre's many non-fiction classics and the first Fabre work on English Wikisource (probably because he's better known in French). Kaldari (talk) 02:14, 30 July 2019 (UTC)

•  Support Looks like an interesting book, definitely worthy of FT status. I have spot-checked a sample of pages. I did not detect any errors in the main body of the book, but corrected some in the front matter. The Preface is not PD in 70+ pma. countries until January, so I will merely note that I found errors on page 8 ("where" for "when") and page 15 ("tar" for "far"). Maybe the Preface would benefit from another go over. BethNaught (talk) 19:59, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
  • Dang, you're a thorough proof-reader! I thought I had caught all the errors! I'll give the Preface another go over. Kaldari (talk) 21:57, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
  • I looked over the Preface and found two more errors, which have now been fixed. Kaldari (talk) 14:48, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
•  Comment The transclusion uses the {{header}} template on some pages, but not others. The use of the template is preferred. --EncycloPetey (talk) 18:37, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
  • I'll try to fix that this week. Kaldari (talk) 19:15, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
    • Done Kaldari (talk) 10:41, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
•  Oppose The work does not follow the WS:Style guide on naming of chapters, which is a requirement for being Featured. --EncycloPetey (talk) 21:18, 13 October 2019 (UTC)
  • @EncycloPetey: Should all the sections be numbered or just the chapters? For example, would I still use "/Preface" and "/Appendix"? It's interesting that so few people seems to follow (or know about?) that guideline. Kaldari (talk) 22:54, 16 October 2019 (UTC)
    • @Kaldari: "Preface" and "Appendix" are fine. The WS:SG stipulation is that numbered chapters should be numbered as"/Chapter 1" "/Chapter 2" etc. rather than using the chapter titles. I think this is the only remaining problem, and one I didn't spot until I was setting the text for December. If the chapter numbering is corrected, and all the internal links corrected, there is still plenty of time to feature this in December, as I had planned. --EncycloPetey (talk) 00:36, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
      • @EncycloPetey: Done Thanks for the clarification. I've moved all the chapter pages and updates all the internal links. Should be good now. Kaldari (talk) 02:34, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

Not passed

The Lodger

The following discussion is closed:

Not selected for numerous errors despite validation. --EncycloPetey (talk) 21:47, 13 October 2019 (UTC)

A famous horror / thriller by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes, with five movie adaptations (including one by Hitchcock) and many more loose adaptations in television, comics, and other media. --EncycloPetey (talk) 20:15, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

•  Support —Beleg Tâl (talk) 13:28, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
• Perhaps could do with another go over: [1] BethNaught (talk) 21:35, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

   Oppose Definitely needs another proofread. My cursory inspections continue to find many errors: [2]. BethNaught (talk) 22:00, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

The Story of Doctor Dolittle

The following discussion is closed:

not selected; nomination withdrawn. --EncycloPetey (talk) 01:14, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

Classic children's book. I'm surprised that our validated copy has not been previously nominated nor featured. Next year (2020) will mark the 100th anniversary of the book's publication. --EncycloPetey (talk) 16:08, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

This wasn't nominated at the time because of some problems in very fast validation. However, now that it's been validated twice and has sat around for six years picking up the occasional amendments from readers, I'm happy for it go forward. I do have to say that this was one of the books I most enjoyed working on. Beeswaxcandle (talk) 03:13, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

 Support Apt-ark (talk) 04:31, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

 Support —Beleg Tâl (talk) 01:20, 19 June 2019 (UTC)

 Support Orlando the Cat (talk) 08:59, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

 Comment - I proofread one of the stories, The Ocean Gossips, today. Out of the 7 pages, it had 3 errors. All of them were em dashes that had been replaced with spaces (which can cause grammar/readability problems). I'm not sure if that's an acceptable amount of errors for a featured text or not. Kaldari (talk) 01:08, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

Those pages have been validated twice. Someone needs a reminder of how validation works I guess. —Beleg Tâl (talk) 01:53, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

Looks like it will need a third validation then. The first was User:ShakespeareFan00 who validated the entire work in less than an hour. The second was User:Kathleen.wright5 who came back to me three hours later and assured me that there were very few problems and they had been fixed. I believed her and carried on with other things. Beeswaxcandle (talk) 02:34, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

I only found 2 errors in the subsequent story. Also, it seems the transcription consistently uses a period followed by an ellipsis to emulate the 4 dot pause punctuation used in the book. That seems like an incorrect use of an ellipsis, but I'm not confident enough to change them. Kaldari (talk) 04:31, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

I am looking now for some of the issues Kaldari mentions. More eyes to get something that's a featured candidate to 99% would be welcome.ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 15:21, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

 Comment I will try to give this a thorough pass in the next two weeks. We should aim to feature this work in January since only is 2020 the 100th anniversary, but the new movie adaptation comes out that month. --EncycloPetey (talk) 00:39, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

I'm withdrawing my nomination of this work. On careful reading, I think it would be irresponsible to feature a work as a children's book that contains explicit racism. We don't bowdlerize or censor our texts, and a work for adults might still pass muster in regard to objectionable content, but in featuring a children's book I think extra care must be exercised. --EncycloPetey (talk) 01:06, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

The Swiss Family Robinson (Kingston)

The following discussion is closed:

not selected; work mixes formatting in violation of rules. --EncycloPetey (talk) 01:23, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

A fully complete, validated, transcluded version of a popular adventure story, with the appropriate original illustrations. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 01:29, 17 August 2019 (UTC)

• Comment - This transcription uses curly quotes, which currently aren't allowed by Wikisource:Style guide. However, there is an RFC about that which is currently ongoing: Wikisource:Scriptorium#RFC: Allow curly quotes under some conditions. Kaldari (talk) 03:37, 17 August 2019 (UTC)
•  Support. BTW, the curly quotes have already been allowed. --Jan Kameníček (talk) 23:13, 1 October 2019 (UTC)
•  Comment some of the images are set to a size as large as 600px, which will be too large for proper viewing. A maximum of 480px is better. --EncycloPetey (talk) 21:21, 13 October 2019 (UTC)

  The size of the pictures really seems just fine, I suggest to leave it as it is... I also looked at Feature text criteria and Image guidelines and nothing of that kind is demanded or recommended either for a featured text or for a Wikisource text generally. --Jan Kameníček (talk) 21:42, 13 October 2019 (UTC)

  The lack of any guidelines is why I commented rather than opposed. However, in my opinion, a work displaying oversized images does not represent the best that Wikisource has to offer. --EncycloPetey (talk) 17:39, 30 November 2019 (UTC)

•  Oppose The work uses a mix of straight and curly quotes, often on the same page. This work will need at least one thorough pass to correct this problem. --EncycloPetey (talk) 19:11, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

A Century of Roundels

The following discussion is closed:

not selected; transcription errors and lack of support. --EncycloPetey (talk) 01:38, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

Collection of "roundels" by Algernon Charles Swinburne. The roundel is a nine-line poetic form invented by Swinburne. --EncycloPetey (talk) 01:46, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

 Comment - I proofread the last poem, In Guernsey, and found 4 errors: 3 punctuation errors and one misspelling. Kaldari (talk) 01:20, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

 Comment: I gave it a casual once-over and fixed much punctuation, and I think it's now in decent shape accuracy-wise. However, I did not find the poetry particularly inspiring. To each their own, I suppose. BethNaught (talk) 20:51, 30 July 2019 (UTC)