Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/December 7, 2010

Timing

A minor issue, but if there is no specific reason for the article to be TFA on the suggested date, is it wise to feature the surname "Lambert" on consecutive days? It will be made evident in the recently featured list for two days following its appearance, and readers will wonder... Kevin McE (talk) 11:04, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Gaol/jail

I note the note in the lead of the article defending this term. However, such an explanation is absent on the main page and so we are left with a term that is archaic in UK English and (I believe) unknown in US English. Even in the article, the issue is not the version of English current in the life of the article's subject: we describe Shakespeare as a playwright, not a ritere of playes. Kevin McE (talk) 11:04, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

"Gaol" is the correct British English term, then and now; look at the sign on the front of any existing British gaol. I don't know where "archaic" has come from. – iridescent 2 15:30, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

The phrase might be used to label historic sites, in which case it is part of a proper noun and should be capitalised which it is not here. There is no "existing British gaol": HMPS only runs prisons, although the word jail does appear on its website 262 times, compared to 42 times for gaol.The first google example of Gaol makes my point excellently: "Derby Gaol - haunted 18th century jail located in Derby, England ". If your claim is that existing historic sites only use the gaol spelling, consider these URLs that are among the first results on a UK Google search for jail: www.inverarayjail.co.uk, www.bodminjail.org, www.oldtownjail.com. UK only google search gives 150,000 occurences of gaol and >2,500,000 of jail. Google search of bbc.co.uk gives 22,100 over 3,080 (many of which refer to a Gaelic language propramme Ann an Gaol); at guardian.co.uk, the count is 52,500 compared with 622. All of that, plus WP:VNE and the purpose of an encyclopaedia (to inform rather than to confuse) ought to prescribe jail. Kevin McE (talk) 17:37, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Moved to WP:ERRORS Kevin McE (talk) 18:08, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Assertions or legends?

In the body of the article, some of the claims about this man are qualified by terms acknowledging the unreliability of comments at that time about "folk heroes": I'd be far happier to see a few "reportedly"s or "said to be"s in the extract. Eighteenth century public acclaim is not a RS. Kevin McE (talk) 11:14, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Which facts are you disputing? Lambert was weighed shortly before his death which verified that his weight in 1809 was 52 stone 11 lb. His clothes still exist and match a person of his reported size; he also lived his (later) life in an intense media spotlight, and none of those who met him disputed his weight. – iridescent 2 15:34, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Fighting with a bear for starters: in the main article, this is qualified with a "reportedly". Legends grow around legendary characters: rumours of accomplishments tend towards exaggeration. We can trust the sources to say that he was said to have done things, but in an era of little confirmation of facts, we cannot be so sure about what happened.Kevin McE (talk) 17:41, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Moved to WP:ERRORS Kevin McE (talk) 18:08, 6 December 2010 (UTC)