Talk:Washington Blade

message: And I think you ought to consider going to GA. Dev920 (Have a nice day!) 15:35, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: This article is starting to shape up nicely, though I'm worried about the proliferation of short sections. Anyway, here's an FA newspaper that I found that you may find helpful: The Philadelphia Inquirer. Dev920 (Have a nice day!) 18:51, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Ok, I think the lead needs work but you can go for GA after that, I think. Even if there's other stuff they want they'll put it on hold for you to fix. I'd just like to say, well done, this article has been so improved. Dev920 (Have a nice day!) 22:50, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Recommendations

message: I am not going to pass or fail the article since I have been loosely involved with the article.  Currently, I would put it on hold:
:GA review (see here for criteria)
#It is reasonably well written.
#:a (prose):  b (MoS): 
#It is factually accurate and verifiable.
#:a (references):  b (citations to reliable sources):  c (OR): 
#It is broad in its coverage.
#:a (major aspects):  b (focused): 
#It follows the neutral point of view policy.
#:a (fair representation):  b (all significant views): 
#It is stable.
#:
#It contains images, where possible, to illustrate the topic.
#:a (tagged and captioned):  b lack of images (does not in itself exclude GA):  c (non-free images have fair use rationales): 
#Overall: 
#:a Pass/Fail: 
* 1b prose:
** Prose isn't a strong point of mine, so for now I'm going to leave it alone.
* 1b structure:
** Awards may make sense under history.  Actually, general overview may be a better home for it. (I think it makes sense anyhow, but it's not a large concern of mine)
:::Moved to the General overview area. jtowns 06:32, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Renamed to titles that give contextual clues to the section content jtowns 06:32, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Fixed footnotes for consistency with the MoS jtowns 06:32, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: 1993 March on Washington is referenced in a few other places in the Wiki -- so I put info in. Other links could be de-linked I suppose. jtowns 06:32, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

text: fixed dates and linked them jtowns 06:32, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

text: fixed numbers to fit style -- but I may have missed one or two of them....please double check me. jtowns 06:32, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

text: The above mentioned article is referenced with the same info and style of the rest of the citations. Please advise if this is the wrong style?? jtowns 06:32, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

text: I could not locate a better source but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I limited what I referenced from this page when I found a better source to reference said material -- but it was the only place I could find reader demographics. Better suggestions?? jtowns 06:32, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

text: After reading the fair use thing for scans of newspaper pages -- I think it is an approriate use. jtowns 06:32, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

text: Done. jtowns 06:32, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

text: Done. jtowns 06:32, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: GA nomination

message: At present, I don't think the article meets quite meets several elements of the GA criteria. I'll put it on hold to give time to address my concerns, which I'll explain below.
:GA review (see here for criteria)
#It is reasonably well written.
#:a (prose):  b (MoS): 
#It is factually accurate and verifiable.
#:a (references):  b (citations to reliable sources):  c (OR): 
#It is broad in its coverage.
#:a (major aspects):  b (focused): 
#It follows the neutral point of view policy.
#:a (fair representation):  b (all significant views): 
#It is stable.
#:
#It contains images, where possible, to illustrate the topic.
#:a (tagged and captioned):  b lack of images (does not in itself exclude GA):  c (non-free images have fair use rationales): 
#Overall: 
#:a Pass/Fail: 
===MoS===
The names of the subheadings in the history section are a bit of a problem. "Coming of age years" in particular seems rather informal and the phrase does not seem to have been used by any commentator. I suggest more factual descriptors of the period or subdividing by the dates involved. Ideas could be:
* Origins - 1974-1983 - 1983-2001 - 2001-present (though that seems a little clumsy)
* Origins - Early development - Effect of the AIDS crisis - Corporate ownership (or similar)
::Changed these to year time periods -- which is ironic because AshLux (see above on this talk page) advocated getting rid of the dates for dividers. My main issue is that the history section started as one long blob which needed something to make it seem to flow better and so I arbitraily broke it at these points -- the first being the origins, the second being when it switched to newsprint paper and stopped being a newsletter, the third when it started coming of age with AIDS reporting and professional journalism, and the last when they got bought for the corporate ownership. Maybe there is a better overall way to organize this section... but for now I'm going back to the year subheadings since that was what I originally had...  jtowns 13:50, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Removed  -- list came from a search of 'What links here' on the wiki to find folks who linked to this article, plus a couple of the big names that came up in doing the history research. They are red links meanign they probably aren't significant enough yet to warrant their own entries on the wiki. Perhaps this could be revisited in the future if someone stumbles across an independently made list. Since it adds little value to the article, I removed it for now. jtowns 13:52, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I attempted to do this by putting in the awards section and referencing how it is considered a gay newspaper of record at the start. My issue is that there was not a lot of info out there for awards won. I seached in most of the databases of journalism awards I could find, I followed leads off the Blade's own website, but I didn't stumble across more awards or praise for the paper that what is in the article. I know the criticism and controversy section is long, but there is a lot of criticism out there and I tried to make it as factually based and un-opinionated as possible while being concise and still detailing the issues some folks have. If the criticism section has NPOV issues itself, then by all means please bring them to my attention so I can fix them. It seems (like most things) that the critics are many in numbers and vocal, while the praises are few and quiet. If you have additional suggestions to improve this balance, please let me know. jtowns 13:59, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: No my issue is definitely not that the criticism section is written in an POV manner- its definitely not. More the undue weight/ fair representation problem if positive comment doesn't balance it. But if that isn't available too bad, it can still pass GA if a little shaky on a couple of the criteria... WjBscribe 14:03, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

text: Seeing as it was decorative -- I removed it jtowns 14:01, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

text: Tried to fix the rationale for fair use and importance to the article. Let me know if it doesn't make sense. jtowns 14:01, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

text: I know the caption is long, but I wanted it to be descriptive of the covers readers were seeing. I added the importance an fair use rational to this image as well. Please tell me if it doesn't make sense or needs further improvement. Thanks jtowns
===On hold===
The above concerns should not detract from the fact that the article is very well written and informative. Newspapers are extremely difficult to write strong articles about. There are few GA in this field and no FAs that I have seen. WjBscribe 23:32, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

text: I think I have addressed the issues you have raised and they may still need additional work, so please let me know. For reference, here is the only newspaper FA that Dev920 or I could find -- The Philadelphia Inquirer. For GA's -- here are the only two publications listed in the media section of the list: The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. Thanks! jtowns 14:05, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: GA review

message: The names of the subheadings in the history section are a bit of a problem. "Coming of age years" in particular seems rather informal and the phrase does not seem to have been used by any commentator. I suggest more factual descriptors of the period or subdividing by the dates involved. Ideas could be:
* Origins - 1974-1983 - 1983-2001 - 2001-present (though that seems a little clumsy)
* Origins - Early development - Effect of the AIDS crisis - Corporate ownership (or similar)
::Changed these to year time periods -- which is ironic because AshLux (see above on this talk page) advocated getting rid of the dates for dividers. My main issue is that the history section started as one long blob which needed something to make it seem to flow better and so I arbitraily broke it at these points -- the first being the origins, the second being when it switched to newsprint paper and stopped being a newsletter, the third when it started coming of age with AIDS reporting and professional journalism, and the last when they got bought for the corporate ownership. Maybe there is a better overall way to organize this section... but for now I'm going back to the year subheadings since that was what I originally had...  jtowns 13:50, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: MoS

message: The list of notable contributors is unsourced. It should referenced or removed.
::Removed  -- list came from a search of 'What links here' on the wiki to find folks who linked to this article, plus a couple of the big names that came up in doing the history research. They are red links meanign they probably aren't significant enough yet to warrant their own entries on the wiki. Perhaps this could be revisited in the future if someone stumbles across an independently made list. Since it adds little value to the article, I removed it for now. jtowns 13:52, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Original research

message: Not sure here but the coverage seems very critical of the paper. Are there any reliable sources that can be quoted that praise the newspaper that could counterbalance the "criticism and controversy" section?
::I attempted to do this by putting in the awards section and referencing how it is considered a gay newspaper of record at the start. My issue is that there was not a lot of info out there for awards won. I seached in most of the databases of journalism awards I could find, I followed leads off the Blade's own website, but I didn't stumble across more awards or praise for the paper that what is in the article. I know the criticism and controversy section is long, but there is a lot of criticism out there and I tried to make it as factually based and un-opinionated as possible while being concise and still detailing the issues some folks have. If the criticism section has NPOV issues itself, then by all means please bring them to my attention so I can fix them. It seems (like most things) that the critics are many in numbers and vocal, while the praises are few and quiet. If you have additional suggestions to improve this balance, please let me know. jtowns 13:59, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: No my issue is definitely not that the criticism section is written in an POV manner- its definitely not. More the undue weight/ fair representation problem if positive comment doesn't balance it. But if that isn't available too bad, it can still pass GA if a little shaky on a couple of the criteria... WjBscribe 14:03, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Neutral POV

message: The above concerns should not detract from the fact that the article is very well written and informative. Newspapers are extremely difficult to write strong articles about. There are few GA in this field and no FAs that I have seen. WjBscribe 23:32, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I think I have addressed the issues you have raised and they may still need additional work, so please let me know. For reference, here is the only newspaper FA that Dev920 or I could find -- The Philadelphia Inquirer. For GA's -- here are the only two publications listed in the media section of the list: The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. Thanks! jtowns 14:05, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: On hold

message: :GA review (see here for criteria)
#It is reasonably well written.
#:a (prose):  b (MoS): 
#It is factually accurate and verifiable.
#:a (references):  b (citations to reliable sources):  c (OR): 
#It is broad in its coverage.
#:a (major aspects):  b (focused): 
#It follows the neutral point of view policy.
#:a (fair representation):  b (all significant views): 
#It is stable.
#:
#It contains images, where possible, to illustrate the topic.
#:a (tagged and captioned):  b lack of images (does not in itself exclude GA):  c (non-free images have fair use rationales): 
#Overall: 
#:a Pass/Fail: 
Given the changes made following my comments, I believe the article now meets to GA criteria. It is weakest on 4b given the lack of positive critical comment to balance the criticism & contrversies section but this seems to reflect lack of availability of such information. I do not believe it enough in of itself to fail the article, but is definitely an area where improvements should focus. WjBscribe 15:15, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: GA review- passed

message: I removed the following block of text because I could find no sources to verify it with. It was added by an IP address only user and so therefore I removed it until it can be properly sourced... 
There is also controversy surrounding the promotion and resignation of features editor Rhonda Smith, who was offered the Arts Editor position over Brian Moylan in 2002. Rumors still run rampant that Smith, an African-American lesbian, was promoted from a reporter position to an editor, to add diversity to the Blade’s predominantly Caucasian gay male staff, as Moylan seemed a better fit (he still writes for the publication’s TV column). Smith’s inability to mesh well with others, also caused a stir and drew lots of complaints during her tenure as the paper’s arts editor. Rumors are that in 2004, the Blade’s then editorial assistant, who worked under her supervision, quit because of Smith’s continuous verbal abuse and demanding persona. The editorial intern at the time, was offered the EA’s position and turned it down, which is rumored to have eventually led the Blade’s higher ups to suggest that Smith leave. Before Smith resigned, the intern left the Blade in August 2005. Smith resigned in the fall of 2005, a few months after hiring a replacement for the editorial assistant who left the paper in May 2005, and Moylan took on the role of the paper's arts editor.  Anyone got any sources for this? jtowns 05:21, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Rumors removed

message: This article has been reviewed as part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles/Project quality task force. I believe the article currently meets the criteria and should remain listed as a Good article. The article history has been updated to reflect this review. Lampman (talk) 17:06, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: GA Sweeps

message: This article references the Blade in past tense as if to say it is defunct. However, recent announcements by former Blade staff at the DCAgenda announced its revival. Why then is the Blade still being referred to in the past tense? MKleid (talk) 13:35, 28 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Continuity

message: The tense changes from present to past and back. Please make consistent. Derekbd (talk) 20:16, 2 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: please fix the lede

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120820152321/http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-technology/oldest-us-newspaper-for-gays-and-lesbians-shutting-down-20091117-iij7.html to http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-technology/oldest-us-newspaper-for-gays-and-lesbians-shutting-down-20091117-iij7.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080704051858/http://www.vscmedia.org/TunnelVision5%28Web%29.pdf to http://www.vscmedia.org/TunnelVision5%28Web%29.pdf
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090206113156/http://www.rainbowhistory.org/blade.pdf to http://www.rainbowhistory.org/blade.pdf
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20081008220153/http://www.logcabin.org/logcabin/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=10152022 to http://www.logcabin.org/logcabin/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=10152022
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070103191459/http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/1996/il9603120.html to http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/1996/il9603120.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070922131235/http://www.rainbowhistory.org/HistoryWashingtonBlade.pdf to http://www.rainbowhistory.org/HistoryWashingtonBlade.pdf
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090206113156/http://www.rainbowhistory.org/blade.pdf to http://www.rainbowhistory.org/blade.pdf
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thread_title:  External links modified