Will review the article in detail in due course. ( Bodleyman ( talk) 13:11, 25 July 2008 (UTC))
Here is my review, based on the six GA criteria:
I would not give this article GA status right now, but I would definitely after a little tidying up. Erik the
Red 2 (
AVE·
CAESAR) 15:38, 27 July 2008 (UTC)
The section on Tempest implied certainty as to the dependency of Strachey as a source. I softened the language a bit on this, and added in a counter argument used by other researchers who have argued for an earlier dating that was not Strachey related. Smatprt ( talk) 01:00, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
I also added one of the main Oxfordian arguments against Bacon (and Stratfordianism) into the criticism section. Again, this should help any balance issues being raised. Smatprt ( talk) 01:13, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
Finally,(also addressing the balance issue) I added a section after the lead describing the mainstream view about Shakespeare of Stratford. Smatprt ( talk) 05:55, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
Support After the revisions by Smatprt, the article is now balance and thus addresses my main concern. Any other of my concerns with hindsight are really to nit-picky, every article has a spelling/punctuation/grammar error slipped in there somewhere, no reason to not give it GA because of it. I'll see if I can find any minor errors. Erik the Red 2 ( AVE· CAESAR) 14:03, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
Well, I was going to suggest cutting the Criticisms section, a section which seems to me like an afterthought, expanding the lead, and adding some opposing views to the Baconian theory. But all this seems to have been done quite recently with a new Mainstream section giving the Stratfordian view, and one or two other alternative viewpoints. The article is well written, clear, and fully referenced. So, not being able to find significant objections, for me, this article ticks all the boxes for GA status. Being the nominee, I record these comments to assist in the development of the article and recognise that they do not contribute to the final decision on GA status. Bodleyman ( talk) 13:22, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
I think it's a serious mistake to delete the criticism section, an omission that opens the article up to attack on various fronts. I know if I tried to delete the criticism section from Oxfordian theory, for example, that there would be serious objections - and I would agree. It seems to me that there should be 2 sections for proper balance: 1 on the mainstream Stratfordian theory (which I added) and one for critical reception to the Bacon Theory itself (which is now completely lacking). Without both sections, I would have a hard time seeing this article being taken seriously. Smatprt ( talk) 05:46, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
It appears Barry is in attack mode once again and in violation of numerous rules. I added in several sections to the Bacon theory article, got thanked by Barry on my talk page, then attacked here and elsewhere. I'm not sure but is this the definition of passive/aggressive? :) The good news is that he and other editors actually thanked me for making the Bacon theory article more balanced and more eligible for GA. Regarding Barry's accusations on the Shakespeare authorship talk page, Barry is misleading everyone by saying my edits were against the recommendations of the reviewers. The independent reviewers are not part of Barry's 2-man consensus. Just check the talk page above see for yourself. And his attempt at banning me for daring to touch his article resulted in a quick and immediate "NO" from the first administrator he whined to. Dredging up similar attacks that resulted in numerous administrators denying action and chastising the complainers about deleting properly referenced material (my pet peev) is just a smokescreen and a method of bullying other editors away from "his" article. Same old... Smatprt ( talk) 19:37, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
The first thing I wanted to say is that I could have chosen not to write this article. I didn't, and people can now get a reasonable idea why some people think Bacon did it, instead of believing that any opposition to Stratfordianism is the result of an oppressed childhood and a consequent desire to kick authority in the teeth!
I defy anyone to attempt to write this article by use of the internet alone because I found less than 5% of Baconian sites gave the sources for their "facts". It would have been easy to accept some of these claims without question, especially the one which maintained that Bacon had sent a letter to a friend mentioning the play Measure for Measure. I have never been able to trace the letter so I have never taken this "fact" seriously. Of course there were Baconian books but most of these were written 100 years ago and were so esoterically inclined that no sources were quoted in these either. So I've spent years searching through libraries in a desperate attempt to verify sources. The result is a body of research which I have called The Shakespeare Puzzle [3] and without it the article would have been impossible to write.
Over the lifetime of this article, some editors have been happy to believe that in some way, this article helps me profit from this book. This is sometimes framed as "Conflict of Interest". What interest? It's a free download and the cost of the paperback copy generates not a cent in profit. In fact, I've lost on the deal because I've spent hundreds of pounds of my own money on research and image copyright fees. Has it increased my personal fame? Certainly not on Wikipedia, and apart from a small facebook group, it hasn't anywhere else either. In fact, I can hereby declare that I had one agenda in writing the book and that is to save people the work that I went through. My agenda in writing the article is to save people downloading the book! For a long time I tried to get this book into the article as an external link for further research but it was repeatedly deleted. I gave up and took a break. But then months later I came back and someone had added it ... it wasn't me.
Over the last two years, I've been accused of putting OR into the article. Well, it's true that I researched the issue myself. Do the arguments originate with me? There is no way of knowing and I'll explain why. At first glance, the Baconian theory appears as a series of unrelated but interesting coincidences which appear in various books and on particular websites. It's no theory at all, because no one has bothered to coordinate the facts. So in one constructive leap, I posited the idea that some of them pointed to Bacon's motive for writing the plays as being to complete the moral philosophy component of his Great Instauration project. Original research on my part? Yes! At least I thought it was ... but Michell had suggested this before me in 1998. So there lies the difficulty: to construct arguments worthy of an article one needs to bind facts together but in doing so it is difficult to verify whether or not someone has reached the same conclusion.
I stated above that User:Xover was one of four people who "opposed" the Criticisms section. This was based on his statement "better present the Stratfordian view (because it is the mainstream view) in the general text, rather than focus it in the Criticisms section". Now there are two ways of interpreting "oppose" here: (1) part of the content of the Criticisms section is being opposed; (b) the existence of the Criticisms section is being opposed. I must have meant the former because if I had meant the latter then there would have been no point adding "at least two of us favouring replacement" which evidently refers to its existence. However, I'm willing to confess that I could have been clearer.
Hi all,
The GA review process is supposed to be a way to recognize the good articles produced by the many tireless editors on Wikipedia, and an excellent opportunity to further improve and refine already substantial quality articles. Yet somehow we seem to have got off to a bad start and taken a side track into critique of other Editors and their actions rather than the article itself. I'm sure I'm as much to blame for this as anyone so I don't want anyone to take this as an accusation!
This current bickering (if I can phrase it thus without implying insult to anyone here) doesn't seem to be furthering the goal of improving the article, nor of getting it to GA. In fact, the ongoing debate and tendencies to edit warring are of themselves cause to fail the article under the Good Article Criteria (see Criteria #5)!
So I would like to propose that we 1) ask the reviewer to fail the article, 2) take a short break to cool off, 3) pick up the ball on the main Talk page with the defined goal of making the article the best we can make it (within the constraints of our abilities and Wikipedia's policies), and 4) put it up for GA again when we've resolved all the points of contention (possibly by some of us swallowing a camel here and there).
In particular, I think if we approach point #3 with a determination to treat each other with respect, assume good faith, and be prepared to both compromise when compromise is needed as well as backing our point of view up with good, objective, reasoning; then we can have an article that will pass GA with flying colors in no time.
So far only one editor has suggested the article be deleted, and since he has so far not followed Wikipedia's procedures for getting an article deleted this suggestion can be taken as exactly that: one editor's suggestion. Everyone else involved genuinely want to improve the article, they only differ in their opinions on how best to do that. If we approach the task with the assumption that everyone genuinely wants to improve the article and the will to discuss how best to do that, not to mention the fortitude to bow to consensus even when it doesn't suit us, I'm quite convinced we can have an article on Baconian theory that everyone finds acceptable and ready for GA. -- Xover ( talk) 21:20, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
Following Felsommerfeld's suggestion I tried unsuccessfully to delete the article FOUR times. Didn't work. I think some administrator kept restoring it. I had to apologise to him for keeping him away from his computer game. OK, then, one of you dudes has got to rewrite it. Few guidelines to help.
As for me, I'm on holiday for the next 10 days so I won't be around to scoff at your efforts but I promise I'll join in on the collective bashing when I return. Enjoy! Puzzle Master ( talk) 07:47, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
Right, Xover has almost succeeded in getting me banned so I'm typing this fast before I'm history. I think this is a first class article. I spent years researching it and I defy ANYONE to do a better job writing it. But I know there are people waiting in the wings with hidden agendas to shape it their way. Smatprt (see history) who couldn't wait after I'd announced I was going on holiday to get his Oxfordian links in the article. Xover who came here when it went to GA nomination pretending he wanted to help but (I believe) wants a substantial Stratfordian contribution. I went to the Wiki administrator's noticeboard for help. NO ONE responded. There's no way in all this anarchy that this article can be defended (and I'm the ONLY Baconian here!) without other users. So I invented Felsommerfeld and Bodleyman. The GA nomination was the biggest mistake I made here. It really created a focus of attention that was never going to be favourable. Right, so what options are left because I know the article is basically finished as a quality article. I attack it myself hoping they'll lock it down. Partial success, but that's it for me here ... no more ideas left ... exhausted every avenue to protect the quality of this article. As someone said on the William Shakespeare forum "there are no academic standards here, the bad chase away the good". See ya! P.S. Watch Smatprt, he's itching to move in with his Oxfordian links and slants. Puzzle Master ( talk) 17:00, 31 July 2008 (UTC)