A fact from Amasa Converse appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 20 January 2022 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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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.
ALT1: ... that newspaper editor Amasa Converse performed the marriage of Edgar Allan Poe to his teenage cousin, Virginia Clemm? Source: see e. g. Edgar Allan Poe In Richmond. p. 53.
Overall: The article is new enough and sourced, but needs expansion because it falls below the minimum character count and now exceeds the minimum character count. The hook is cited and interesting, but I'm proposing ALT1 to be a little shorter. qpq is done and no copyvio detected. If the article can be expanded by a few hundred characters, it can be promoted. Approving this with a preference for ALT0 or ALT4. BuySomeApples (talk) 01:41, 7 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Appreciate the review. Don't think I realized or perhaps I forgot one needed both new enough and long enough. This article in particular needs some expansion (part of why hoping to get it out there with a DYK), so hopefully it won't be seen as padding to get it over 1500. I also prefer the alternative version for the hook. Cheers. Cake (talk) 17:38, 7 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@BuySomeApples:@MisterCake: Just to move this on a bit - the article now has 1522 characters according to DYK Check. ALTs 0 and 1 now have 150 and 117 characters respectively (the permissible max being 200). If, however, it was style rather than character numbers that you were concerned with, then how about:
I'm not reviewing this, but I personally think that the article should make clear that Clemm was Poe's cousin, not Converse's cousin (the syntax of the article makes it ambiguous) and that the girl was only 13 years old at the time. I don't think we need to conceal what Converse did, even though (like e.g. slavery) it was not considered reprehensible by a lot of people in that year - Just my opinion. Storye book (talk) 15:58, 8 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The more the merrier. I would hate to neglect linking Clemm's article, when hers is "featured" status. Your point about the ambiguity of just using "his" is a good one. I should say "Poe's cousin". It's also possible to use 13-year-old cousin instead of teenage cousin. I suppose I was being euphemistic. There is the same worry of ambiguity when you say "married" to mean "performed the marriage" not "was the spouse". Cake (talk) 00:12, 9 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Haha, I was just trying to help, and I agree with what you say. But if I put back all the things you want put back into the hook, we'll be back where we started. I'll leave the suggestion of new hooks to you, then. All the best. Storye book (talk) 12:22, 9 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Since you ask me - I am happy with all the ALTs, except that I personally would not offer "13-year-old" as a hook on the main page, as it would be reaching out to the more prurient (or even creepy?) browser. I do think that that fact should be in the article, because bad stuff should not be hidden, but I don't like the idea of thinking of that kind of material as hooky. That's just my personal opinion, though, and as they stand, all the hooks would work. Also, in connection with one of the above comments about length, they are all well within the 200-word limit. Storye book (talk) 10:14, 10 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Storye book: I was so caught up in the euphoria of cancelling Edgar Allen Poe that for a minute, I lived in a world where creepy users didn't exist. I added ALT4 which uses clearer wording without focusing on the age. I'm going to approve this with a slight preference for ALT0 or ALT4 since they balance everyone's input pretty well. BuySomeApples (talk) 18:55, 10 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
That's great. I would not have tried to stop you, whichever you had chosen, but I am glad you have made that choice.
Poe was a great writer, Jerry Lee Lewis was a a brilliant musician of his genre, and the great Benjamin Britten did what he did until his partner Peter Pears came along and stopped him. Desiderius Erasmus - one of the finest literary/philosophical minds and wits that I've ever come across - did what Britten did (according to his enemies). All these achieved great things in my opinion, and they all had the clayest of feet. But what can we do. I suppose the moral is, never have heroes. Meanwhile, we can still enjoy and admire their work, while on some level recognising the truths of their lives. So keep up the good work, and all the best. Storye book (talk) 20:30, 10 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]