This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the 2020 Midwest derecho article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the subject of the article.
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2020 Midwest derecho(final version) received a peer review by Wikipedia editors, which was archivedon 19 December 2020. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article.
A fact from 2020 Midwest derecho appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 11 September2020(check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that the August 2020 Midwest derecho destroyed millions of acres of Iowa corn (pictured) and soybean crops in just 14 hours?
Latest comment: 5 years ago21 comments4 people in discussion
The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
ALT2: (削除) ... that the August 2020 Midwest derecho destroyed millions of acres of field crops, with hundreds of millions of bushels of corn in Iowa in one day? (削除ここまで)
ALT2a: (削除) ... that the August 2020 Midwest derecho destroyed millions of acres of Iowafield crops, primarily corn, estimated at hundreds of millions of bushels in just 14 hours? (削除ここまで)
ALT2b: ... that the August 2020 Midwest derecho destroyed millions of acres of Iowa corn (pictured) and soybean crops in just 14 hours?
@SuitcaseFan17 and Gwenhope: New and long enough. There are a few paragraphs missing references and a [which?] that needs to be resolved. The hook isn't the most interesting fact in the article; I think one about the scope of agricultural damage would be better. Same for the image. There are probably many more people who should get credit for this article; theoretically everyone who contributed significant readable prose between the creation and the nomination could get credit. John P. Sadowski (NIOSH) (talk) 02:24, 19 August 2020 (UTC)Reply
@Gwenhope: To propose a different hook just write a response with "ALT1:" and the new hook after it. You can edit the wikitext above to add more contributors, but if you're not comfortable doing that, just list them in a response and I'll take care of adding them above. John P. Sadowski (NIOSH) (talk) 01:48, 21 August 2020 (UTC)Reply
@John P. Sadowski (NIOSH):, I entrust it to you as I am currently busy working to expand and update the source page. Also please note the NWS is saying the long-sustained winds are very rare and notable for this type of storm. (See NWS-DVN citation on page.) So that's a possible hook as well. GwenHope (talk) (contrib) 02:22, 21 August 2020 (UTC)Reply
@Gwenhope: I added credit for ChessEric and Oliveleaf4. I'd suggest an ALT hook myself, but then it would have to wait for someone else to approve it, since I can't approve mt own hook. Also, keep in mind that the image needs to display well at the ~140px size above, otherwise it won't be promoted along with the hook (which is not a big deal though). John P. Sadowski (NIOSH) (talk) 22:01, 21 August 2020 (UTC)Reply
Okay, within policy, Earwig finds no copyvios, QPQ done, hooks and images check out. I tweaked ALT2 because the "hundreds of bushels" seemed to refer to corn in general rather than storage space. John P. Sadowski (NIOSH) (talk) 01:47, 26 August 2020 (UTC)Reply
Hi, I came by to promote ALT2 with the image of the flattened Iowa cornfield. But the source doesn't say anything about 100 million bushels in one day, and the image needs to appear in the article to qualify for DYK. Yoninah (talk) 18:36, 31 August 2020 (UTC)Reply
@Yoninah: I added the image to the lead section of the page via infobox (two radar images was a bit much anyway). While the event, lasting under 24 hours, it could be implied that it happened in a single day. However, for better accuracy, I reworked ALT2 to list the official length of the derecho (14 hours), added "estimated" about the bushels, and reworded it a bit for clarity. GwenHope (talk) (contrib) 06:04, 1 September 2020 (UTC)Reply
Please do not edit over existing alts. It makes it impossible to follow the discussion. I restored the thread and added your new alt as ALT2a. Yoninah (talk) 11:54, 1 September 2020 (UTC)Reply
@Gwenhope: your new ALT2a is too statistic-heavy. ALT2 was much better in terms of a hook rather than a news report. I wonder if you could choose just one of the "millions" figures—millions of acres or millions of bushels—and write the hook around that? Also, please point out to me the sentence with the inline cite that supports your hook fact. Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 17:29, 1 September 2020 (UTC)Reply
@Yoninah: sorry this is my first time doing DYK so I'm learning how the process goes. ALT2b written. The section for August 2020 Midwest derecho §Agricultural damage contains the citations. You'll be looking for second paragraph, specifically the last line, which comes from the the who13.com August 15 article in which the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship's estimates were published along with statements from its Secretary, Mike Naig. GwenHope (talk) (contrib) 20:36, 1 September 2020 (UTC)Reply
ALT2b is excellent, thank you! Hook ref verified and cited inline. I tweaked the hook and reduced the overlinking. Image of corn field is freely licensed. ALT2b good to go with the image. Yoninah (talk) 21:13, 1 September 2020 (UTC)Reply
@Gwenhope: now we're just waiting for another editor to promote this to a prep set. From there it will eventually appear on the main page and you will get a notification on your talk page. Best, Yoninah (talk) 14:05, 2 September 2020 (UTC)Reply
@Gwenhope: Yes. There's the reviewer(s) who approve the nomination (checking both the hook fact and the image licensing), the prep set builder who promotes it to a prep set (who may or may not use the image), and the administrator who promotes the prep set to a queue. Each one evaluates the article and its sourcing. The most important thing is that the hook fact be verified by a reliable source, and properly cited in the article. While the hook is sitting in a prep set or queue, other editors may comment on it and tweak the wording. We want to have as many eyes as possible on a nomination to spot potential errors. Best, Yoninah (talk) 10:24, 3 September 2020 (UTC)Reply
@Gwenhope: I just want to clarify your question about the editors involved in a nomination. Besides the reviewer, there is not someone who finalizes what hook or picture. What happened here was that the reviewer approved the nomination. But I, the prep builder, came along and noticed that one of the images wasn't in the article (WP:DYK#Images #3), and also that the hook that goes with it wasn't verified in the article (WP:DYK#Eligibility criteria #3). So after we worked all that out, I gave an approval tick and thus became a second reviewer. Now we are waiting for a prep builder. Yoninah (talk) 10:32, 3 September 2020 (UTC)Reply
