Talk:Obliterate!

Did you know nomination

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.

The result was: rejected by BorgQueen (talk) 06:54, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

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• Comment or view
• Article history

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• ... that the Prestel-based video game Obliterate! gained widespread notoriety after it was updated to be based on the Falklands War? Source: UPI, Time, The Guardian, TWP
  • ALT1: ... that the Prestel-based video game Obliterate! was a huge hit when it was described as being in "appalling taste" in the Daily Mirror? Source: the daily mirror
  • Reviewed:

Created by Maury Markowitz (talk). Self-nominated at 15:58, 9 May 2023 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/Obliterate! (video game); consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.

• I will review this. TompaDompa (talk) 16:05, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy compliance:

• Adequate sourcing: - See below.
• Neutral:
• Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook eligibility:

• Cited: - See below.
• Interesting:

QPQ: - Not done.
Overall: Article created on 9 May, and is well beyond the required minimum length. All sources are, as far as I can tell, reliable for the material they are cited for—though I have not been able to access all of them. There are no obvious neutrality issues. Earwig reveals no copyvio and I didn't spot any instances of unacceptably WP:Close paraphrasing. Both hooks are interesting. For ALT0, I don't think we can say it was updated to "be based on" the war, though maybe "resemble" could work. I would have to WP:AGF on ALT1 since I can't access the source. QPQ has not been done. Some comments about the content:

• Videotext is a disambiguation page.
• Most of the first paragraph isn't verified by the cited source, which I'm guessing is intentional as it's basically all background information. That being said, to someone unfamiliar with Prestel, this is hardly WP:BLUE. I'll refer to Wikipedia:Did you know/Supplementary guidelines#D2, which says All content, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose).
• By 1982, the service had about 18,000 regular users in the UK and about 5,000 more in the United States – the source says "There are 23,000 global subscribers--18,000 of them in England". England/UK distinction aside, was the United States the only other country where it was available? This source suggests otherwise.
• using an emulator on the Apple II – the source says "Prestel is accessible on any Apple home computer", which would seem to suggest to me that other models were also used.
• Obliterate! was written by Bill Wadsworth and Gary Zabel in early 1981 – the source says "Obliterate had been on the British data base service Prestel for nearly a year before the Falklands crisis", which I don't think would make it early 1981.
• selecting a Spanish-sounding name for the enemy ship based on a UK brand of canned meat (itself named for a port city in Uruguay) and the submarine based on their own company – I don't find this in the cited source.
• The updated version went live on 7 April. – I don't find the date in the cited source.
• This initial coverage led to other newspapers picking up the story and creating a press frenzy with worldwide front-page coverage. – this seems mostly fair considering the source quotes Zabel as saying "the whole press seemed to seize on the idea and it really blew up out of proportion", but "worldwide front-page coverage" sounds hyperbolical and isn't supported by the source.
• saying "Prestel is a household name... due to our game!" – I don't find this quote in the cited source.

Ping Maury Markowitz. TompaDompa (talk) 17:37, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

QPQ will be provided when everything else passes. Can you please indicate which of the many items above are required to be passed? Maury Markowitz (talk) 17:52, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

All bullet points except the first relate to sourcing issues, so those. TompaDompa (talk) 18:16, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

• It appears that the issues raised in the review were not addressed at all. In addition, a QPQ was not provided within a week of the nomination, despite a reminder by the reviewer. It is not enough that a QPQ be provided "when everything else passes", one must be provided within seven days of a nomination and/or a reminder, neither of which was accomplished. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 14:49, 31 May 2023 (UTC)