Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of anthems by country/archive2

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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 not promoted by User:The Rambling Man 18:30, 9 July 2008 [1].

List of anthems by country[edit]

I am nominating this list. Only anthems of countries are found on this list; anthems of other things, including constituent countries, are found at List of anthems. Gary King (talk) 20:41, 28 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

  • Comment: Please get someone new to copyedit the article. The prose is very choppy; the sentences are short and the paragraphs do not flow. Maxim(talk) 21:50, 28 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    It should be better now. Gary King (talk) 20:08, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Shouldn't this be named "List of national anthems"? --Golbez (talk) 09:31, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment - might it not be better to transliterate titles in languages that do not use the Latin alphabet? Or conversely, why are the anthems of Afghanistan, Algeria, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burma [the name we use, by the way], Cambodia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, India, Laos, Qatar, Tajikistan, Thailand and Yemen [where the Arabic title is not even given] not rendered in their languages' alphabet, but in Latin? In other words, let's be consistent - I'd say Latin alphabet throughout. Biruitorul Talk 19:33, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    They have now been converted to Latin, and Myanmar is now Burma. Gary King (talk) 20:02, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    • Good - that was my main issue. I now Support promoting this list. Biruitorul Talk 20:41, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Comment - Have you considered using a footnote (in place of the numerous individual entries in the Notes column) to indicate that the UK anthem "God Save the Queen" is also the royal anthem of Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Tuvalu? --Orlady (talk) 18:16, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I am using Footnotes instead of a Notes column now. Gary King (talk) 18:36, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! I fear, though, that this has become a case of two steps forward and one step back. It is confusing that both the footnotes and the references use numbers -- could you change the footnotes to letters? Also, I find it odd that the footnote callout is attached to the country name; I'd expect to find this information in the National Anthem column. Finally, the current note for God Save the Queen is cryptic; I'd like to see more information, such as "The UK national anthem "God Save the Queen" is also the royal anthem of Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Tuvalu." --Orlady (talk) 15:04, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Regarding the footnotes, I am using WP:REFGROUP, and it does not allow letters – only numbers. It is used in some FAs so I believe it is acceptable to be used. I have also moved all of the notes to the national anthem column. I have also expanded that footnote. Gary King (talk) 18:05, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The new footnote for "God the Save the Queen" looks good, as does the repositioning. Regarding note format, my first thought on reading your response was "WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS, eh?". I am not reviewing anything other than this particular article, and in this article I found the two sets of numbered notes confusing. I suggest that you reformat the table notes using Template:Ref label, which is used in a bunch of FLs to help distinguish the notes. For example, it is used in List of cities and towns in Tennessee. --Orlady (talk) 18:43, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Additional comment: The introductory block on "The terms country, state, and nation can have various meanings..." is confusing (because it is not obvious to the reader why this extensive information is provided there) and misleading (because it mentions entities, such as dependent territories and subnational divisions, whose anthems are not included). I would prefer to see a more focused declaration of the scope of this list, along the general lines of the following: "Listed items are anthems of independent states. Anthems for subnational divisions and dependent territories are not included." --Orlady (talk) 20:47, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comments
    • Why isn't national anthem linked in the lead?
    • Provision links to a dab page.
    • A bit heavy on the linkage in the lead, e.g. does law really need linking?
    • I would try to work the lead to suggest that there are different types of anthem, and then discuss each one, rather than just launch into what a national anthem is. It seems to be confusing readers.
    • Opening sentence is verbatim repeat of title with "This is a " in front - can we not be more imaginative here?
    • "The usage of anthems increased among European countries during the 18th and 19th centuries.[4] " is out of chronological order as far as I'm concerned.
    • Column heading is "National anthem" - I thought they weren't all national anthems?
    • Some countries have blanks for Date adopted.
    • An awful lot of red links for lyrics/music writer.
  • Overall I'm still confused as to whether this is all types of anthem, national anthems or something else. The title implies all anthems, the actual list contains, seemingly, just national anthems. Perhaps this could be clarified in the lead/table?

The Rambling Man (talk) 11:45, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

  • Comment I think showing a picture of the Star Spangled Banner (rather than any other) constitutes bias. indopug (talk) 08:22, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    • Comment I think that's down to the availability of relevant free images rather than any bias. The Rambling Man (talk) 08:26, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
      • Chiming in, I'd reply that nonetheless, it does give an appearance of bias. There are plenty of images in articles on other anthems, e.g. Il Canto degli Italiani has a couple of portraits. Either scatter a few, or have none, I'd say. --Dweller (talk) 14:36, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        • Hmm, you're right; I see that there are plenty of images in articles on anthems. I like Image:Marseillaisenoframe.jpg (used in La Marseillaise) because it's more colorful than an image of sheet music and (unlike head-and-shoulders portraits of composers) it illustrates the anthem as music. I also note that it illustrates one of the oldest anthems, which is a logical basis for a selection. Other good choices exist, though. --Orlady (talk) 14:57, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
          • And Poland Is Not Yet Lost has some corking images too. NB Why does Poland's entry in the list not include "Poland Is Not Yet Lost" as translation of the Polish name? --Dweller (talk) 15:03, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment There are many blank cells in the table (in addition to the redlinks noted by The Rambling Man). I recognize that it can be very difficult to get information on details such as the years that Sudan and Swaziland adopted their official anthems, but the blank entries detract from the quality of the list. How can this be a featured list if it looks incomplete? --Orlady (talk) 14:57, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment You should unlink the red links.
  • Comments
    • In the lead, Dutch links to Dutch people which redirects to Dutch (ethnic group); surely it should link to Netherlands. Romansh is a disamb page.
    • Not sure what the coloured box above the table is for? It doesn't appear relevant to this list.
    • There are missing music writer cells on Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland which break the sorting.
    • What do the emdashes in the date column mean? if, as I assume, they mean "unknown", wouldn't it be better to say so. I tend to interpret a dash in a table as meaning either "none" or "not applicable", not "unknown".
    • Also, the date column doesn't sort properly (try pressing its sort button several times).
    • Is it sensible to sort columns of people's full names alphabetically?
    • Footnotes. Having both footnotes and references numbered is confusing for the reader. Suggest you give the footnotes letters instead.
    • Footnotes 3 and 5 could be combined to read something like "Hymn to Liberty" is the national anthem both of Greece and of Cyprus.
    • In footnote 9, what's neo-modal?
    • In the cite-web for reference #1, Reference.com is the work, and the publisher is Lexico Publishing Group. In ref#2, which year/edition of the Britannica?
    • Reference #13 is more of a footnote than a reference (seeing as you have both).
    • There are a lot of redlinks. Perhaps they'd be better unlinked.

cheers, Struway2 (talk) 16:03, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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