Talk:William R. Ferguson/GA1

GA review

Passed. MCE89 (talk) 05:11, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Nominator: PARAKANYAA (talk · contribs) 07:58, 17 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Reviewer: MCE89 (talk · contribs) 07:57, 18 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi! I'll be reviewing this article as part of the May backlog drive. I'm a new reviewer, so as part of the backlog drive I'll also be listing this for a more experienced reviewer to come by and take a look at my review. I'll give some initial comments in the next day or so. MCE89 (talk) 07:57, 18 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

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

It is reasonably well written.
a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):
It is factually accurate and verifiable, as shown by a source spot-check.
a (reference section): b (inline citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism):
It is broad in its coverage.
a (major aspects): b (focused):
It follows the neutral point of view policy.
Fair representation without bias:
It is stable.
No edit wars, etc.:
It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.
a (images are tagged and non-free content have non-free use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions): Images are appropriate, well-placed and captioned, and have accurate PD tags. MCE89 (talk) 10:55, 18 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Preemptively noting this: as far as I am aware there are no published images of Ferguson. I checked every newspaper that mentioned him, every book, nothing. There is one way where I think I may be able to get a free image and I started on that but it's not a guarantee and it will probably take a few weeks to few months. PARAKANYAA (talk) 08:56, 18 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Overall:
Pass/Fail:

I've done an initial check and have found no issues with copyvio, MOS compliance, images, or article stability. No issues at all re the lack of a photo of Ferguson if there isn't a published one available. I've also done an initial scan of the prose and some of the the sources and so far haven't found any major concerns. Prose comments to come shortly. MCE89 (talk) 10:55, 18 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Prose comments now added below. I'll aim to add my source spot-checks tomorrow. MCE89 (talk) 11:49, 18 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Source check now added below. Just give me a ping when you're done with the comments and I'll take another look. MCE89 (talk) 15:25, 19 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@talk, ok, think I'm done. What took a while was rewriting the trial section because I wrote it in a way that was rather confusing. I believe I have addressed all of your points. Any more concerns? PARAKANYAA (talk) 02:15, 24 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

All looks good. Will pass this now, and thanks for the very interesting article! MCE89 (talk) 05:09, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hello @MCE89, I am the experienced reviewer looking over this review and so far it looks really good! Your comments are precise and actionable, and you did a really good job of focusing on clarity rather than nitpicking over wording and grammar. It appears you have properly evaluated every criteria too. The only point that jumps out at me, that you appear to have missed, is that the lead statement "name sometimes incorrectly given as William A. Ferguson" is not sourced anywhere in the article. Nice work, and let me know if you have any questions! IAWW (talk) 11:31, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

fixed that. PARAKANYAA (talk) 23:40, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, back to this, sorry I got distracted by working on a different article. PARAKANYAA (talk) 06:06, 21 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@It is a wonderful world Thanks very much, and thanks for picking up on that! MCE89 (talk) 05:09, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Prose and general comments

Overall the writing is excellent — I've made a few suggestions below, but please feel free to push back if you disagree with any of these. MCE89 (talk) 11:49, 18 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Lead and infobox

The infobox seems to be missing a year in "spouse" — it just says "Marie (death)"
- couldn'd find the year they got married. would it be preferable to remove?
I would suggest adding a sentence in the lead to give a little bit of context on the activities of the Cosmic Circle of Fellowship - i.e. perhaps inserting a sentence just before the final sentence of the lead to say that the Cosmic Circle of Fellowship set up chapters in multiple cities and that Ferguson travelled around the country lecturing on its ideas
- tried to

Early life

He had a sister, Ruth Seelman - is there a reason this is mentioned? If she isn’t notable and doesn’t appear elsewhere in the article I’m not sure her name really needs to be here
- I think that he had a sister is worth noting because it's one of the very few known facts about his early life that have been mentioned. I do agree her name is probably unnecessary and removed it. PARAKANYAA (talk) 17:59, 18 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Seventh Dimension and sixth dimension should probably have a consistent capitalisation
- standardized on lowercase PARAKANYAA (talk) 17:59, 18 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Claims of Martian encounters

...all of which occurred during mediation sessions - should this be "meditation"?
- Yes, fixed. PARAKANYAA (talk) 17:59, 18 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Zerret Applicator

The device actually was only paraffin wax, dust, and tap water, and made of two blue and white plastic globes which were originally from a baby rattle. - this sentence structure reads a little awkwardly to me ("actually was only... and made of..."). I'd suggest changing this to something like The device was made from two blue and white plastic globes taken from a baby rattle, which were combined with paraffin wax and dust and filled with tap water.
- tried to fix this in a different way - how it is now?
Would it be possible to provide an inflation calculation for the $25/$50 cost? If I’m not mistaken that would be about $800 in today’s dollars, which would be an interesting fact to note given how large that sum is
- I added a calculation from the {{inflation}} template, though I'm not sure if that's the best way to do that.
The Zerret was manufactured by Ferguson, who sold them to Stanakis, who sold them to a customer for $25, who then sold them to the public for $50. Zerret Applicators were sold through mail order. - I’m a bit confused by this section. Who was the customer who then sold the devices to the public? And were they sold through mail order directly to the public, or were they sold through mail order to this intermediary?
- I tried to make this clearer. Since the third person was never convicted. If this is still unclear I can workshop it more. PARAKANYAA (talk) 19:20, 21 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Stanakis would sell for $50 to individuals and $25 to groups - I think this needs to be Stanakis would sell Zerrets for $50 to individuals and $25 to groups or equivalent
- fixed
...were banned by from mailing by the post office. - you have an extra "by" here. I’d also suggest adding an object to "mailing" by changing this to banned from mailing items by the post office or similar
- fixed
gave its verdict May 17, 1950 - missing "on"?
- fixed PARAKANYAA (talk) 18:03, 18 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
He was found guilty and convicted of fraud, sentenced to two years in prison, of which he spent a year. - I'm not sure this syntax is quite correct. I'd suggest changing it to something like He was convicted of fraud and sentenced to two years in prison, of which he served a year
- fixed, yeah this was the product of a lot of rearranging so it ended up rather janky PARAKANYAA (talk) 18:13, 18 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
If I’m understanding this section correctly, there was an initial state trial following his arrest in 1948, followed by a federal trial in 1950 where he was found guilty. Do we know what the outcome of the first trial was?
- Hm. After reading the sources again, I am not sure. I will try to find the answer in other news sources. PARAKANYAA (talk) 06:15, 21 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think there was only one trial and they just only bothered to convict him on the federal ones. I am going to try to reshuffle that so it makes more sense. PARAKANYAA (talk) 19:21, 21 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
- this is the last thing, I should probably have it fixed by tommorow. PARAKANYAA (talk) 08:44, 22 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  - I think it is clearer now. PARAKANYAA (talk) 02:13, 24 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Cosmic Circle of Fellowship

...the police sought him for vagrancy - "sought" seems a little vague. I would suggest changing to "issued a warrant for his arrest" per source 11
- fixed
founding other "circles" in other cities - suggest removing the first "other" as redundant
- fixed

Source review

Sources are are all properly cited, and all appear to be suitably reliable sources for the material they are used to support. I didn't find any concerns around OR or close paraphrasing, and am satisfied that the article accurately and fully reflects the available sources. MCE89 (talk) 15:25, 19 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Spot-check

Works cited:

Melton (2009) Y all checks out
Lewis (2000) Y all checks out
Clark (2001)
- In 1954, Ferguson claimed that he had been picked up by a spacecraft from Venus, where he said that he learned that spacecraft were four dimensional and were typically invisible for this reason, but could also function in the third dimension, and that this is why sighted UFOs seemed to disappear. & Edward A. Surine and Edna I. Valverde were his two co-founders. & The group was incorporated the next year. - Unless I’m mistaken, these three should all cite page 358, not page 357
  - fixed
Janssen (1993) Y all checks out

Other sources:

Ref 4
- ...which gave its verdict May 17, 1950 - The source seems to say that the jury reached a verdict on May 17 and then delivered it on the morning of May 18. Since "gave its verdict" reads to me as slightly ambiguous, it might be more precise to change this to either "reached a verdict on May 17" or "delivered its verdict on May 18"?
  - i agree, fixed
Ref 12 Y all checks out
Ref 18 Y all checks out
Ref 20 Y all checks out
Ref 22 Y all checks out
Ref 23 Y all checks out
Ref 25
- The source seems to say that Ferguson and Stanakis met during a taxi ride on April 15, 1946, not in June 1946
  - Fixed, no clue where I got that from
Ref 33 Y all checks out

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.