Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of Minnesota state symbols/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured list nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured list candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The list was promoted by Hahc21 03:45, 9 March 2014 [1].

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List of Minnesota state symbols

List of Minnesota state symbols (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

• Featured list candidates/List of Minnesota state symbols/archive1

Nominator(s): Ruby 2010/2013 04:22, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

I am nominating this for featured list because, well, I believe it meets the criteria. I've modeled this largely after the featured Oregon list. It is a rather short one (with only 18 entries), so hopefully it won't take long to review. I see a large backlog on this page and will be happy to help clear some of it by jumping into reviewing tomorrow. Any comments here are much appreciated. Ruby 2010/2013 04:22, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Resolved comments from The Rambling Man (talk) 17:40, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Comments mainly minor technical issues... " the Minnesota State Legislature" the article doesn't have "State" in its official name. Removed. Ruby 2010/2013 04:47, 29 January 2014 (UTC) "Minnesota did not select " a touch anthropomorphic, the State itself doesn't select anything. Changed to "designated" (not sure if that's also anthropomorphic). I could perhaps change to "the Minnesota Legislature did not select..."? Ruby 2010/2013 04:47, 29 January 2014 (UTC) You have "State Seal" capitalised and "state song" uncapitalised, why the difference? Not really sure, other than that the former is capitalized in its own article and the latter is not in List of U.S. state songs. I tried to follow that standard. Ruby 2010/2013 04:47, 29 January 2014 (UTC) Not sure "Morel" needs to be capitalised. Agree, done Ruby 2010/2013 04:47, 29 January 2014 (UTC) Similarly "Blueberry", "Ice", "White" etc etc. I've fixed this and other examples, per the formats shown in their respective articles. In most cases, this meant that I added lower caps (some, like the Common Loon, I left capitalized). Ruby 2010/2013 04:47, 29 January 2014 (UTC) Consider linking poet laureate, probably more in need of a wikilink than, say, "muffin". Agree, done (linked one, delinked the other). Ruby 2010/2013 04:47, 29 January 2014 (UTC) "Rep." what's that? State Representative. I have made this more clear. Ruby 2010/2013 04:47, 29 January 2014 (UTC) "Honeycrisp apple" or "Honeycrisp Apple"? Probably the former. Be consistent. Agree, have changed them all to Honeycrisp apple. Ruby 2010/2013 04:47, 29 January 2014 (UTC) "Sen." again, no need for such abbreviations. Agree, done Ruby 2010/2013 04:47, 29 January 2014 (UTC) Last part of the last para in the lead is virtually the same as the second para of "Nicknames and unsuccessful proposals". I've added a bit more to the lead and tweaked it. I tried to summarize the Nicknames and unsuccessful proposals section in just a few sentences, which was difficult to do without boring readers. Let me know what you think. Thanks, Ruby 2010/2013 02:39, 30 January 2014 (UTC) The Rambling Man (talk) 08:27, 28 January 2014 (UTC) Thanks for reviewing! I have addressed most of your concerns -- will see what I can do about your last point when I get a chance, probably tomorrow. Thanks, Ruby 2010/2013 04:47, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

• Comments

• Have to say I'm surprised ice hockey, and not professional wresting, is the state sport. Jesse Ventura missed a trick here.

• Facepalm I was hoping you guys across the pond would remain unaware of that particular piece Minnesotan of history. :/ Governor indeed... Ruby 2010/2013 02:56, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

• Don't sound too ashamed—as I see it he's the only politician in history to be honest about his intention to "win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat". GRAPPLE X 12:09, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

• With no article to explain it, it might be worth adding a little bit about lester soil. With the image being so tall you could add a line in the description without the table growing any. Just something along the lines of "Lester is a [dense/loose] [loamy/sandy/silty] soil present in approximately sixteen Minnesota counties", or however it actually is.

• Agree, have added more about Lester. Ruby 2010/2013 02:56, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

• " the "Gopher State", which is inspired from an early political cartoon" -> inspired by. You take inspiration from, but are inspired by.

• Agree, have fixed to "by". Ruby 2010/2013 02:56, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

• "the most northern state excepting Alaska" -> might flow better as "the most northern of the contiguous United States" (I find that "the most within a defined scope" reads better "the most overall, bar X")

• Agree, have used your suggested language. Ruby 2010/2013 02:56, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

• The unsuccessful proposals—some of these seem a bit frivolous (not that official soils and muffins aren't...), if there's any particular quirk behind the proposals it might be worth noting (I imagine the Tilt-a-Whirl one may have been a promotional stunt, for example). It's not major but it would help address Rambler's last point about helping the lead and text differ a little more strongly.

• Yes, many do seem rather frivolous! I've sought to explain wherever possible the significance of particular proposals (unsuccessful and successful), but see that I failed to do so for the vaunted Tilt-a-Whirl. I have now added some more information on it to clarify why it was proposed. If I did the same for the animals, it would make the section rather bloated. Ruby 2010/2013 02:56, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

• On a similar note; given the state motto and sport, maybe a mention of the North Stars hockey team taking their name would help too.

• Good idea, have added a blurb on this. Ruby 2010/2013 02:56, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

• Not sure I'm keen on centred text in the description cells; totally an aesthetic opinion.

• Per your suggestion I previewed those cells with the left alignment, but unfortunately they looked odd when the others were centered. I've decided to leave as is. Ruby 2010/2013 02:56, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

• "as a signal to the state's dairy industry that Minnesota cares about them" -> wouldn't an industry be an "it"? Could be phrased as "workers in the state's dairy industry" instead to keep the plural.

• Agree, have changed to "it". Ruby 2010/2013 02:56, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

• "In 1904 and 1905, Minnesota's state song was written" -> Written in two stages, or should this be phrased as a range?

• The source indicates it is a range. I've changed the wording to say "from 1904 to 1905". Ruby 2010/2013 02:56, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

• That's all I can really see. GRAPPLE X 18:43, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

• Thanks very much for reviewing! Please let me know if there's anything else. Ruby 2010/2013 02:56, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

• Changes look good to me. Happy to support this one. GRAPPLE X 12:09, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

• Support: (having stumbled here from my FLC discussion page). Quite well sourced and great structure. Most educational. — Cirt (talk) 01:25, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

• Question: State of Minnesota is linked in many of the refs. Should it perhaps only be linked in its first appearance in the reflist? I may be ignorant of relevant policy with this question; excuse me if that's the case. BobAmnertiopsis∴_ChatMe! 18:48, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

• I think this is usually up to editor preference. IMO, it would look a bit odd to only include one link to State of MN but link all mentions of the Star Trib. I've always sought to link all my citations in my articles for consistency's sake (especially if the references list is rather long). Thanks, Ruby 2010/2013 20:30, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

Resolved comments from Dana boomer (talk) 17:33, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Comments - Muffin, link blueberry? Done Ruby 2010/2013 19:39, 2 March 2014 (UTC) Muffin, "where they grow in bogs, hillsides, and forests." One of these things is not like the other... Bogs and forests are habitats - hillsides can be found in either or neither. True, I've just removed "hillsides" altogether. Ruby 2010/2013 19:39, 2 March 2014 (UTC) Soil, link soybeans and corn? Done Ruby 2010/2013 19:39, 2 March 2014 (UTC) Song, "From 1904 to 1905" -> "In 1904 and 1905"? That was the old wording before an above reviewer suggested it be changed. I agreed, since "From 1904 to 1905" seems to indicate that it was written in a range (which it was). Ruby 2010/2013 19:39, 2 March 2014 (UTC) Perhaps "between 1904 and 1905" would work too? GRAPPLE X 19:50, 2 March 2014 (UTC) Yes, I like that wording. Done! Ruby 2010/2013 19:57, 2 March 2014 (UTC) Song, " it served as the school's official song until 1945," Is it still the university's official song? No, it was eventually replaced with the Minnesota Rouser. I will add this to the song blurb. Ruby 2010/2013 19:39, 2 March 2014 (UTC) Tree, "It can grow between 60 and 100 feet tall." Please add a conversion for metric readers. Good suggestion, done (my first time using the convert template, incidentally). Ruby 2010/2013 19:39, 2 March 2014 (UTC) Just a few minor comments; otherwise, it looks to be in great shape. Dana boomer (talk) 17:25, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

• Thanks for reviewing! Let me know if there's anything else. Ruby 2010/2013 19:39, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

• Support. Thanks for the fast response, everything now looks great. Dana boomer (talk) 17:33, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

• Support - tried to find something to nitpick about, but I got nothing. Consider archiving your online references with a site like webcitation.org or web.archive.org so that if the referenced websites change or go down, the list isn't affected. --PresN 06:27, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

• Thanks very much for the support. I've archived the two State of MN links that I use the most; most of the others are from Highbeam, which I imagines takes enough care of their links. Ruby 2010/2013 03:56, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

• Congrats on a quality list! (I've not looked closely enough to cast a vote, but at first glance it looks great. Just dropping in having come across the list by chance.) --Another Believer _(Talk) 03:37, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

• Thank you for creating it to begin with! I'm just happy to have (hopefully) gotten it to where it needs to be. Ruby 2010/2013 03:56, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.