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Talk:Rakoto Frah/GA1

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GA Review

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Reviewer: Maky (talk · contribs) 22:05, 6 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'll be doing this review. I'll start with comments about the file usage and other superficial matters, and then return with more comments once I've read the article. – Maky « talk » 22:05, 6 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Comments:

  • Can the genres in the infobox be covered in the article? If you cite it in the body, you won't need to cite it in the infobox.
  • Since none of the titles in the discography table are blue-linked, it may be best to remove the links. Honestly, I'm not sure how notable they are. But who knows what you will be able to dig up later.
  • "Rakoto Frah came to be recognized as the greatest player of..." – It might be best to say "regarded as" to sound more neutral. Also, that sentence seems long and run-on. I suggest breaking it in two.
  • I know it's not a requirement, but can the cited material in the lead be mentioned and cited in the body? WP:LEAD suggests that the lead should summarize the body and not provide information not covered below it.
  • Where you mention famadihana in the lead, I suggest explaining it with: "(the turning of the bones funerary tradition)"
  • I don't know why, but "the boys of the artist's family" part of the sentence seems unclear to me. Do you mean Rakoto's brothers?
  • "Tsiranana's government fell into disfavor in 1972..." – By this point, some people might have forgotten who Tsiranana was. Maybe just say the "Malagasy government", because later in the sentence you do mention his ties to the head of state.
  • "According to custom..." – Maybe mention and link famadihana here.
  • "Despite his popularity, the artist earned very little from his recorded music due to weak copyright laws..." – Was nothing said about his compensation for the contracts to produce the albums and all the international performances? I know album sales affects the artist's income, so piracy is a major concern. But if multiple albums were made, that suggests sales were strong enough for the producers to make money, which can only mean he was getting the short end of the stick from the record and tour companies... especially considering how little money it takes to rise above the poverty line Madagascar. I know you're constrained by your sources, but this strikes me as bias in favor of the music industry... unless I'm missing something.
  • The source I cited only described the problem of piracy. Most Malagasy artists earn very little, even when their albums are sold internationally. I suspect the deals they sign with international producers and distributors are pretty disadvantageous, but without being able to identify any sources that address the facts explicitly, I'm limited to what's included in the article here. Lemurbaby (talk) 05:41, 7 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
As I suspected, you are confined by your sources. It's too bad most people buy the one-sided line of the record labels, particularly in less advantaged countries. Consider the issue resolved, but I'm not striking the comments because I do feel the article shows some bias, not because of your work, but because of your sources. I want this concern to be left as an open issue, in case someone someday decided to research and write about it. – Maky « talk » 06:08, 7 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • I will rephrase slightly by breaking up the fact that he made little money and the bit about piracy, so it doesn't come across as piracy being the sole issue but rather an illustrative one. That way it leaves a little more room for interpretation. Lemurbaby (talk) 03:32, 8 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • There is a big problem with File:Malagasy 1000 francs 200 ariary.JPG. You scanned the original bill and claimed ownership, releasing it under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported. The bill and its design are the property of the Malagasy government, and although not all countries copyright their currency, there are usually strict laws about reproduction since images can be used to counterfeit. Information about currency copyright can be found at Commons:Currency, but unfortunately, Madagascar is not discussed. I tried to bring it up in a post here, but no one replied. Maybe with your ability to read French, we could answer that question, add Madagascar to the list with a proper yes/no answer and description, and correct licensing tags for this particular image. If scans of the currency can be uploaded, I can scan a few myself.
  • You raise a good point. I'd seen scans of other Malagasy ariary/francs on WP and followed their copyright info as a model (they did it the same way I did, and I thought maybe the same rules about reproducing images of art somehow applied). I see two options until I manage to confirm the law one way or another - 1) remove it; 2) take it out of Commons and claim fair use of non-free content. But maybe even then there's an issue with scanning. What if I do option 2 and crop the image so it's only him? Lemurbaby (talk) 05:41, 7 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Here is the thing I found online that I had hoped might answer the question: Portant sur la propriété littéraire et artistique. I don't know if it will mention currency, but maybe you can skim it to check. I can't remember how I found it or why I thought it might hold the answer. Otherwise, I'm not sure where to look. In the meantime, I would request its deletion, just to be safe. You have the original, so you can always add it back if you find out that it's okay. It doesn't surprise me that this was confusing when you uploaded it. I tried looking around for a good example of how to upload currency, and found many samples identical to yours. It would be a mess to clean up, but someday, someone will have to do it. For now, I vote that we don't make it worse and, if anything, try to help determine what is legally permitted so that we can add images of the Malagasy currency (if legal). – Maky « talk » 06:08, 7 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • The document you have is one I think I posted on another discussion about freedom of panorama. The law doesn't touch on government content, though, so it didn't help in determining whether the national anthem was copyrighted, and it doesn't have anything to say about currency either. I've been intending for a while to make a phone call over to the copyright office in Mada (emailing didn't get me the right information) but I keep forgetting. In the meantime I'll remove the image and request deletion. But that means there are no images of Rakoto Frah or a sodina in this article, and the only other ones I could potentially use would be one of the non-free ones from an album cover. If I cropped it to just be him and included it under fair use, do you think that would fly? Lemurbaby (talk) 03:32, 8 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
The ones I'd like to use are here... Do you think I could use one or both of these?:
I think the album cover would easily fall under fair use. Let's use that at the top. Otherwise I will try to conclude this review very soon. Sorry for the delays. – Maky « talk » 19:37, 11 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • The culturebase ref notes: "After independence in 1960, Rakoto Frah featured on the 1000 Ariary banknote, but his name was not added, as he was already widely known not only for his music but also for having ushered in the demise of the French colonial regime by leading a demonstration to the presidential palace." I know this isn't FAC, but why was the latter part not mentioned in the article?
  • I really wanted to include this - it makes Rakoto Frah sound like even more of a hero - but this was the only source to make that assertion (it's a pretty sweeping assertion, too), and it didn't at all match the sense of the event that I got from the other source that talked about the de Gaulle performance. The other described it not as a demonstration but as a tour where he accompanied de Gaulle and played some nice music for him, and this happened when Madagascar was already in the process of becoming independent, with France's full support. So I concluded it was not factually accurate and left it out. Lemurbaby (talk) 05:41, 7 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Very good observation! I'll defer to your better judgement. – Maky « talk » 06:08, 7 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Otherwise, the article reads very well and flows perfectly. – Maky « talk » 23:15, 6 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]


GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

As long as the album covered is added as a fair use image, ideally in the infobox, then this article meets all GA requirements.

  1. It is reasonably well written.
    a (prose): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):
  2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.
    a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):
  3. It is broad in its coverage.
    a (major aspects): b (focused):
  4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.
    Fair representation without bias:
  5. It is stable.
    No edit wars, etc.:
  6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.
    a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
  7. Overall:
    Pass/Fail:
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