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A fact from Gerboise Verte appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 1 May 2024 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that according to witnesses, the plutonium charge in the bomb used in the nuclear weapons test Gerboise Verte was transported in an economy car?
Latest comment: 6 months ago7 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.
... that according to witnesses, the plutonium charge in the bomb used in the nuclear weapons test Gerboise Verte was transported in a Citroën 2CV? Source: "Le Président et la Bombe" and "L'héritage de la bombe: Sahara, Polynésie (1960-2002), les faits, les personnels, les populations"
Reviewed:
Comment: First time nominating - not sure if this is the correct form.
Overall: Article is new enough and long enough, QPQ is not required due to first nomination. I do not have access to that book nor can really read French, so I'm going to assume good faith that is accurate. However, I have concerns over the hook itself. Now feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but I don't find the hook provided particularly interesting or catching - I can't imagine most people would immediately know what a "Citroën 2CV" is. In addition, the source used to make that statement and the one cited here doesn't appear to be the same, but again, I can't read French so someone who can may need to weigh in here.
Also some inconsistencies I have noticed on a glance in the article itself is a few unsourced statements, such as under the "From a technical point of view, Gerboise Verte was a failure." and "Gerboise Verte is also discussed in Thomas Cantaloube's first novel, Requiem for a Republic (2019)." part, which I have marked. This needs citation to reliable sources. If these issues can be addressed and perhaps an alternate hook put forward then perhaps this could be accepted. TheBritinator (talk) 18:04, 3 April 2024 (UTC)Reply
I'm gonna have to disagree here with regards to the interestingness of the hook. Having a passenger car transport a material for a nuclear bomb does sound interesting and unusual. However, I do understand the argument and a reword might help make the point more obvious. How about:
ALT0a ... that according to witnesses, the plutonium charge in the bomb used in the nuclear weapons test Gerboise Verte was transported in an economy car?
The 2CV being an economy car is not in the article but is mentioned in the article for the 2CV, so that would need to be added if ALT0a is accepted. Still, I think this makes the point more obvious than the original proposal. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 09:00, 7 April 2024 (UTC)Reply
Article seems to be improved now, and I have updated the review as such. As for the hook - my point was more on the side that doesn't make it catching as it may be perceived as rather confusing. However, the alternate hook you provided seems to address this issue. May we have an input, @XabqEfdg:? TheBritinator (talk) 11:56, 7 April 2024 (UTC)Reply
I see why the original hook could be confusing since the 2CV is more of a French car. The alternate hook provided by Narutolovehinata5 makes it clearer and does not substantially change the information provided. So, I think that it would be a suitable replacement for the original hook. XabqEfdg (talk) 17:04, 7 April 2024 (UTC)Reply