Template:Did you know nominations/Dispatch (sternwheeler)

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: promoted by Panyd^{The muffin is not subtle} 17:05, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

Dispatch (sternwheeler)[edit]

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~~... that the Dispatch sternwheeler from Oregon had $18 worth of cigars stolen from its barbershop one night?~~

Created by Mtsmallwood (talk). Nominated by Aboutmovies (talk) at 14:56, 22 August 2014 (UTC).

Just a suggestion; consider rewording the hook. $18 was an impressive sum in 1904 no doubt but from the hook itself it looks like a rather lame amount as there's no specific indication of the time this occurred from the hook. Granted there are a lot less sternwheelers in operation now, but they're still around and one cigar stolen from one today could easily be worth more than $18. A lot of work has clearly been put into this article, I just think it deserves a hook that will get it more hits. Freikorp (talk) 15:56, 26 September 2014 (UTC)

ALT1 ~~... that the Dispatch sternwheeler from Oregon had cigars stolen from its barbershop one night?~~ Aboutmovies (talk) 07:09, 1 October 2014 (UTC)
- Article new enough (created by Mtsmallwood on 15 August 2014), long enough (10,915 characters). Fully referenced. Hook verified. Good to go. Hawkeye7 (talk) 02:29, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

The hooks have to be just about the most uninteresting ones I've ever read at DYK, so I've struck them. The article is difficult to mine for interesting hooks because it's a series of fact snapshots from newspaper reports, most of which aren't that interesting in and of themselves, but build a bit of a picture of the place and time. I think my suggestion would be to go for the baseball game. Let me know whether this works:

ALT2: ... that the Dispatch sternwheeler carried as many as 400 passengers over two hours downriver from Coquille to Bandon, Oregon, to attend baseball games there?

I'm basing "over two hours" on the advertised schedules that showed 2.5 hours each way in October 1908 (the ad listed 3 hours upstream and 4 hours downstream in 1904 and 1905, as odd as that seems). Could change it from "baseball games" to "a baseball game" if the source only mentions a single instance; since it's not online, I can't check it myself, but obviously it's a better hook if this wasn't a one-off occurrence. BlueMoonset (talk) 05:14, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

I can't check either, but let me comment why I selected the original hook. I'm not an old steamship person, so I found it rather interesting that one of these smaller ships even had a barbershop on board. Sure large, modern, steel-hulled ocean-going vessels due, but I thought it was interesting this old wooden ship had one. Aboutmovies (talk) 05:35, 22 October 2014 (UTC)

Comment (disclosure: Blue asked me to comment here): I'm not too sure that your hopes for the hook get across. I read it, and didn't think about the barbershop, but the price of the cigars. "So what?", I thought to myself. That the ship is small doesn't get through. I prefer something extraordinary, like a whole ship being used to bring people to a baseball game, gets my attention quicker. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 06:36, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

Why is this still waiting? The article passes DYK on either hook, both of which are directly cited. If you like ALT2 better, fine, go with ALT2. Maury Markowitz (talk) 00:42, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

Got me, I've been wondering the same thing since there is nothing I can do to move this along since I can't approve anything on my own nom. Aboutmovies (talk) 06:23, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

Go with ALT2. Article has passed requirements from the start. Ship it already. Maury Markowitz (talk) 12:10, 4 November 2014 (UTC)