Talk:Michigan State University Spartan Marching Band

message: This article is written a lot like a persuasive essay. It is most definately biased towards a positive outlook on this group and needs to be edited to be impartial. This article is not impartial.
Not all of the citations have links to where we can confirm this information. Also, one of the sources is from a WKAR off the record series which should not be used on this article considering that it cannot be confirmed.
I would also not include the big 10 flag corps and the color guard as a part of instrumentation. They are a part of the ensemble but they do not contribute to instrumentation.
Kibilos3 (talk) 22:31, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Revisions

message: Thanks to AStudent for an excellent job on getting this page started. A made a few edits today. I'm new to wiki so I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes here.
* Corrected the "instrumentation" section
* Added the "facts & figures" section
* Added detail to the "traditions" section
* Added info box
Since this is a wiki page and not a full-blown website, I propose that we cut way down on the lengthy "history" section and eliminate the "bowl games" section (which is covered in one bullet under "facts & figures").
When I get a bit of time, I'll upload some pictures and sound files.
Brad Halls 04:49, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Major Revision 

message: If you're talking about the "instrumentation" section, I would tend to agree. Even though the color guard doesn't play "instruments", we should probably have everyone included here. So how many people are in the color guard "block" nowadays?
Brad Halls 17:05, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Color Guard 

message: Moved traditions into subcatagories, expanded other parts of the article further. Could use some more pictures, especially some of the higher quality, sunny, gameday pictures (silver, grass, and blue sky look wonderful!). AStudent 09:45, 30 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Traditions 

message: Corrected the section on Band Day, which stated that it "typically happened on Saturday mornings when there was an away football game."  Not so.  I marched in Band Day 1983-1987 (and SMB 1988-1991) and they were all home games — either early in the season when the SMB was not yet finished with Pre-Season, or later in the season to give the SMB a much-deserved week off.  Kevin Forsyth 23:05, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Band Day 

message: It would be nice to have a "history" section near the beginning of the article, and have some references/cites on many of the claims made throughout the article. – Lordmontu (talk) • (contribs) 05:23, 9 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Just some suggestions

message: I'm failing this article for GA status.  It's nearly completely unreferenced, and the Facts & Figures section looks like trivia and should be merged into the main article text and converted to prose.  ShadowHalo 19:13, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Failed GA

message: I see no significance to this article. I think there should be a  tag. Bassgoonist 18:48, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The Spartan Marching Band is highly visible at Michigan State sporting events, has published recordings, and was awarded the Sudler Trophy.  It's very clearly not a canidate for speedy deletion. -- Upholder 19:15, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: This has been discussed for many marching band pages, and I personally think there is really no significance. It only has one source, that isn't even accessible anymore. With only once source of info, a source published by officials of the organization itself, I really see no claim of significance. Bassgoonist 19:21, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: There is a difference between being non-notable and the article not being completely sourced.  Speedy deletion is not an option for articles that are about notable subjects where the article being sourced to the desired level.  Regardless, the AfD process will sort things out now.  -- Upholder 19:54, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Bassgoonist, rather than trying to delete an article about a well known college band because you don't like marching bands, how about looking for references? It took a few minutes to find dozens of articles in the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, a few of which I added. Please read the Wikipedia polisies for  deletion, and do not make unfounded nominations.  Edison 22:45, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I did read them, and I stand by my decision to nominate it for deletion. I have nothing against this marching band, or any other marching band for that matter. If you really want to call my intentions into question I would appreciate it if you'd do it in a more private manner than publicly trying to discredit me for no reason. Bassgoonist 00:24, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: So how did that work out for you? 24.233.142.246 (talk) 06:49, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Significance 

message: The recently posted tag citing this article for advertisement does not seem appropriate to me and I would question if this is just one of the typical things we see between folks from rival universities. On the other hand, it really needs to be sourced better - but that does not justify an advert tag. I would ask exactly what commercial purpose is being served and by which sections/text. If there are those whith answers to that question, I believe we will see corrections that follow (perhaps those so noting might care to make said corrections themselves?)--Rwberndt (talk) 12:15, 12 October 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: It has been one month with no comment on this matter. If no-one sees any commercial content and notes it here, or removes it themselves, I will delete the tag one month from now as inappropriate (I might replace it with a source tag though . . .)--Rwberndt (talk) 14:59, 13 November 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: OK, its ben well over another month and no-one has voiced any concern or justification for the tag. As it seems base-less, I am removing it as just a partisan sniping by some fan of some other school.--Rwberndt (talk) 12:24, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

text: Removed the August 2015 advert tag after reviewing the article top to bottom and applying a few, select edits to address remaining "hot spots" of potential "puffery."ShoneBrooks (talk) 01:26, 26 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Claim of Advertisement 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: I found that a good chunk (if not all) of the section on Dr. Jon Weber was taken directly from the bio on the MSU faculty website.  
In general though, the sections on "Organization", "Gameday traditions", "Other traditions" and "Travel" have virtually no references or citations.
Should the unsourced content be removed?
reid.schneider 14:09, 17 April 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, citations/references continue to be a source of criticism. This issue is being observed on many college marching band articles. Options for improvement (and clearing out the flag/s) include adding a reliable/verifiable citation/reference for each statement made (labor intensive and time-consuming) or deleting content without citations (for now) until it can be re-added with supporting citations/references (still labor intensive, but resolves the flag/s more quickly). If the latter option is chosen, it can be helpful to find, select, and document the sources to be cited ahead of time, and then only add statements backed up by those sources which can be cited easily because that homework has already been done. Remember, while remove might seem extreme and there might be fear of losing valuable, but unreferenced content, in reality that content remains available in the article's history and can be resurrected from that history once it can be cited. Verbose Edit summaries (during deletion) help make such retrievable easier. ShoneBrooks (talk) 01:42, 26 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Plagiarism and sources?