GA Review[edit]

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch

Reviewer: Etriusus (talk · contribs) 23:03, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]


Oh boy, this is gonna be interesting. I'll be the sacrificial lamb for this GAN. Fair warning, due to the controversial nature of this article, it will likely be a lengthy review, and don't be surprised if I request a second or third opinion just to double-check our work. A cursory glance tells me the page is relatively stable (surprisingly) but I'll give it a more comprehensive look within the next few days. Etriusus 23:03, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Lead


Beliefs

the prose. Either move it to a more logical location or cut it.


Comments

@Etriusus: I took a careful look at history. The article was stable, but it was significantly destabilized with this no-summary edit (diff, January 22, 2022) which moved 90% of the lead to the body under h2 "Beliefs". Naming it "Beliefs" did not correspond sufficiently to the varied nature of the content. Also, there had already been a section title "Conspiracy claims" (i.e. beliefs) and the background, origin an spread content was also mostly about the beliefs – the lead content sectioned as "Beliefs" contained a summary thereof. That put the summary of the body in the body, leading to repetition and general confusion it seems.

Not a good edit. Not discussed, and it's as if it went unnoticed. GA should pause for a day or so until it can be seen if the lead should/can be restored and if subsequent edits can be saved. The lead had problems but it was much easier to trim it, than it is now to write a whole new lead (also likely leading to threefold repetition, which is difficult to assess on the go in a long article such as this). twsabin 00:47, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Twsabin: I appreciate the look into the revisions. I figured that there was going to be something (although I was expecting the pending changes log to be a mess). The lead and belief sections were already raising red flags, and I'm glad there's an explanation that doesn't require rewriting the page. I'll put the review on ice until AFreshStart has an opportunity to fix it. I do however, feel like this GAN will be a It takes a village to raise a child sort of situation. Etriusus 01:23, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Etriusus: I am repairing the article by manually remaking all of the edits (copy pasting from diffs) after the damaging edit. I will be done soon but I will stop at edits which are affected by the confusion (removing repetition which won't be repetition once the lead is restored). twsabin 01:31, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Oh thanks, that does make a lot of sense! I also wondered why there were effectively two sections on beliefs (Conspiracy claims and Beliefs). Sorry if my edits complicated anything by moving the section. –AFreshStart (talk) 01:33, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Etriusus and AFreshStart: Done – Special:Diff/1070353124. Please see the edit summary. The edits after this revision were not reimplemented. Thank you for your understanding AFreshStart. I will proceed to see what can be salvaged, and perhaps you could too. twsabin 01:47, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Twsabin: Greatly appreciated. Now we finally have a lead section to properly review. I'll still suspend the review until all of AFreshStart's revisions can be parsed out and reimplemented.
@AFreshStart:, I am certain that twsabin has already made great progress on this. Let me know if you need any additional help with the restoration and please ping me when the page has been properly restored and I can resume the GA review. On another note, that while technically having citations in the lead is generally frowned upon, WP:CITELEAD doesn't explicitly forbade them in controversial subjects. I'll leave that up for an open discussion for the time being. Etriusus 02:32, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I didn't feel confident making any further restorations myself. Luckily, I don't think that it's a serious issue. Maybe a word here and there. Instead I made edits of my own, removing a little content from the lead, and also removed the cleanup tag (not useful; yes everyone can see that the lead is long). twsabin 02:26, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Proposal: continue the review

Based on everything written above, I think that the GA review can proceed (from scratch I guess [sad to see time was wasted {mine included}]) as if it had been nominated at this state. twsabin 02:29, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds good. Fear not for your work has not gone unnoticed. @AFreshStart: is this alright with you? Etriusus 02:34, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
This is totally fine by me 🙂👍 –AFreshStart (talk) 12:52, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Restarting GAN With that crisis averted, there appears to be a consensus to resume the review. Please disregard my previous critiques, I'll get a fresh set out within the next few days. Etriusus 21:39, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by CactiStaccingCrane (talk)

@AFreshStart: What a legend! I will add comments here and there when possible, and hopefully don't get mad in the process :) CactiStaccingCrane (talk) 16:14, 8 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by twsabin (post-restart)

Add (/restore) a fifth paragraph to the lead which summarizes the incidents section. One sentence may be enough. A five-paragraph lead (but not six-paragraph, which was the starting state) is also MOS compliant. This is a complex, multifaceted, topic. An average person has difficulty grappling with this topic (personal opinion, from personal experience). A connection to concrete events in recent memory is helpful. twsabin 19:54, 10 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

 Done I have added another paragraph, I hope it's readable and understandable. AFreshStart (talk) 00:22, 11 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by Psychloppos

I took the liberty of making some of the changes suggested by Etriusus :

I replaced "nefarious plot" with "worldwide cabal" (indeed, if it involves kidnapping and raping children, it is nefarious by implication so the adjective was unnecessary), removed "cool" and "essentially", replaced "8chan (later 8 kun)" by "8chan/8kun" and "Belief in QAnon theories" by "QAnon beliefs".

As for "ostensibly", it was I who wrote that word, precisely because I wished to avoid another occurence of "purportedly" (which is used a lot in the article). Do as you please if it's too "big" a word.

In 'appealing possibility', maybe we could replace 'appealing' with 'rewarding' ? Psychloppos (talk) 08:56, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I moved your comment here because this is the space for comments. The bottom portion is probably where the reviewer will make some significant comments later on such as passing/failing the GAN, but it would be even better if you could integrate your comments in the working area where suggestions are being made, including striking resolved items. twsabin 17:28, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Psychloppos:, while I agree that 'ostensibly' is grammatically correct, it is a more technical word. This doesn't disqualify the article for GAN per se, but for readability the article, I recommended the change. In the end, I know I'm being a tad bit harsher than usual for this GA review but its just because of the controversial nature. Consider it my way of trying to idiotproof this page, but we can discuss it if you think it should be changed back. Thanks for helping with the GAN btw, you've been very busy with the copy editing and its very much appreciated. Etriusus 02:46, 20 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comment by Etriusus

@Psychloppos:, @AFreshStart:, and @Twsabin:. Excellent work to everyone involved. I will be giving the article one final pass before signing off and passing the GA review. I didn't see anything glaring yesterday but I'm going to double-check. This has been hard-fought, and I want to commend the hard work everyone has put into this GA review.


Review

Please don't place general comments in this section, place them above unless they are meant for article improvement

Refs

  • Either a justification for reliability or replacement is necessary.
*Important Clarification: Some of these are attributed quotes but others are in line citations. The quotes are fine and can remain as is.
 Done Removed unnecessary links to Daily Beast and BuzzFeed. Daily Beast refs that I think are noteworthy (i.e. saying that the house resolution has no force of law, or that are direct quotes from individuals) have been attributed. —AFreshStart (talk) 12:26, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Images

I have raised the issue at Commons, and can remove the image from the article in the meantime. I personally think deletion is better than fair use rationale – there is an abundance of Q-related imagery in this article, and I don't think this adds much to it. But I will admit that image copyright is not my forte. —AFreshStart (talk) 12:38, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I saw the thread on the commons. I agree that it probably doesn't meet the threshold of originality. If that is the case, I am fine with leaving the image on the page. I assume that it is used by QAnon, even if the original creator make up some other rational. Etriusus 03:06, 10 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I totally agree. Striking through all this and marking as  Done – think that is everything now, unless I have missed something... —AFreshStart (talk) 15:23, 10 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Copyvio

Intro

  • Examples include: Bill Mitchell, White Squall, etc. I see you're building a timeline but a much simpler approach should be taken.
  • The Twitter and Facebook segments can also be shortened substantially
 Done, the lead is now down to 4 paragraphs and I think it covers all the basics. There was a lot of information that needed including in the main text, which I did. Removed the Bill Mitchell bit totally as it didn't seem too relevant; if editors think this belongs in the article, happy to have it re-added in main text. Removed about the reaction to Biden winning the election as too recentist. Hopefully editors will agree that the article is in a much better place right now! —AFreshStart (talk) 15:22, 10 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Background

  • Additionally, how is this relevant to QAnon? It somewhat touched upon in 'Influence of 4chan culture' but this needs to be more explicit.
  • Move Influence of 4chan culture to before Anons.
 Done – a lot of this didn't seem relevant because the Pizzagate section was excerpted from the "Genesis" section of the Pizzagate article (also why it didn't mention the relation to QAnon as this was pre-Q). Completely rewrote the section so that it makes more sense in relation to the topic; apologies if this means that you will have to re-review this section again. —AFreshStart (talk) 11:50, 10 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Reviewed, it looks substantially better Etriusus 22:33, 10 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Origin

 Done, though I'm not sure how to clarify the Delaware LLC thing – they literally think that. As per the source: the Soviet Citizens ... believe that the Russian Federation is not a sovereign state, but a Delaware-registered offshore company controlled by global elites that illegally occupies the rightful territory of the Soviet Union. Just as the Reichsbürger groups think modern Germany is a corporation owned by the Allies of WWII. I can remove the Delaware bit as it's not that relevant really, but I'm not really sure how I can clarify something that makes no sense in the first place, sorry. Your reaction (below) is probably the same as mine right now... —AFreshStart (talk) 01:21, 11 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
No, no, its perfectly fine to leave the LLC thing in. I was commenting on the frankly insane subject matter. The prose is well done. I had to comment on that, I've seen some weird things on wikipedia but learning about the QAnon conspiracy is an absolute Rabbit Hole. Etriusus 01:42, 11 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Oh definitely. Russia-is-really-a-Delaware-LLC is bizarre even by QAnon standards. And that's saying something. I really appreciate you having the courage to go through this GA review, definitely not run-of-the-mill stuff and I know some editors wouldn't touch this page with a 10-foot pole. —AFreshStart (talk) 03:09, 11 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Claims

 Done – specified that a Q drop is just a post on 4chan, later 8chan/8kun, and added this to lead. I was unsure about "debunkers" and have changed it, although the source does use the term. Rmv "it is disseminated" – I haven't had a chance to read the whole paper but I've reworded that to reflect the source.
MMS is unrelated to ivermectin/hydroxychloroquine – it's basically bleach (chlorine dioxide). Though there are a lot of Q-quacks selling all of these as "cures" for just about anything (according to Miracle Mineral Supplement's WP article, it claims to cure HIV, malaria, all forms of flu and hepatitis, colds, autism, acne, and cancer. And all this is BC [before COVID]). Just your typical bleach panacea, available in oral or enema form. —AFreshStart (talk) 14:13, 11 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
 Question: I significantly restructured this section, instigated by this cleanup tag. The actual content changes were cosmetic adjustments, needed to reorder things basically. Further review needed here? twsabin 22:44, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Identity of Q

 Done The source doesn't specify which time period, so I added the quote that Q's "distinct signatures clearly correspond to separate periods in time and different online forums" (which is from the report). Hope this is okay. Re-written about the "conflict of interest", tried to clarify the situation, and added quotes from Brennan. Removed the part about a "similar conspiratorial movement" – this seemed to be the author's opinion on media owned by Viktor Medvedchuk promoting conspiracy theories. But his article doesn't mention this. And it's unclear how this is a "movement". —AFreshStart (talk) 14:13, 11 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Analysis

Done —AFreshStart (talk) 08:22, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Appeal

  • Also, check the tense in this paragraph. It is in the present tense and should be in past
 DoneAFreshStart (talk) 08:22, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Incidents

 DoneAFreshStart (talk) 08:22, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Reactions

  • This is probably a better place for Lin Wood and Sidney Powell
 Done, although I have not used the English link for Rabochaya Gazeta as enwiki page is a different newspaper by the same name. But tried to link better using interlanguage links. —AFreshStart (talk) 09:12, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Review Pt 2

Here are my notes now that the article has been given its first pass, all in all, excellent work to everyone involved in c/e and refining the page substantially. I didn't know 'anti-abortion' was an exception to WP:COMMONNAME it can remain as is then. I plan to get these out within the next day or so, its already apparent this pass will be a lot faster than the last one. Etriusus 23:53, 16 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Intro

Besides that minor edit, this section is impressively done.
I did the other thing which is moving the sidebar to the body based on a rationale that it didn't really serve it's real purpose as a navigational aid at the top (only directs to Capitol attack-related topics but not to QAnon-related topics such as the actual QAnon daughter articles; there are a few). Hope that's fine. twsabin 01:21, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Looks good. Much better than having a hanging info box. Etriusus 06:24, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Background

  • "and "adrenochrome harvest" by murdering a" this is also mentioned later on the in article and rexplained. Needs clean-up as a whole
 Not done – I removed this, but my removal was manually undone by Psychloppos. I have to say I agree with Psychloppos' reasoning – the exact nature of the alleged "harvesting" is particularly gruesome and unique within this particular conspiracy theory, so I think it ought to be mentioned. −AFreshStart (talk) 22:25, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
This is my subsequent take at this review suggestion: Special:Diff/1072465284. It consists of moving this content from 'Background'—as it is not background (it turned out that, despite 'Background' being a reasonably well-written section, much of the content in it was not chronologically in the background, i.e. preceding QAnon)—to 'Claims'. I am now pretty convinced that this makes both the 'Background' and 'Claims' better (more of what they should be about), but the adrenochrome detail in the 'Origin and spread' h2 may be a little too much, when the main place to cover this should be 'Claims'. However, I think that this is probably good enough. Moving a little more from Origin and spread to Claims would be a technicality. I'd support marking this as done. twsabin 22:44, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you very much! Marked as  Done. —AFreshStart (talk) 22:49, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Glad to see this was resolved. I didn't mean for the entire section to be cut out. I meant that the topic was covered twice without any additional benefit to the article. Combining these elements together and cutting down on repetitive info is what I was getting at, sorry if I was unclear. Etriusus 23:06, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@AFreshStart: I'm glad that you understood my reasoning. The idea of a gang of perverts murdering children for a substance contained in their blood is revolting per se and would normally not need to be explained twice. But the particular act contained in this alleged video was so cartoonishly gruesome and evil (involving a major political figure, no less) that it has to be included here (just as it is included in the Pizzagate page). Not only is this outlandish, even by QAnon standards : we have to keep in mind that it is an early QAnon rumor (the theory was only a few months old when this surfaced) which implies that instead of discrediting QAnon early on, it actually helped them gain traction. This means that this is exactly the kind of things that the QAnon crowd (at least the hardcore followers) will believe and appreciate. It makes the inclusion of this info all the more necessary. Psychloppos (talk) 23:07, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Done. This was substantially reworked by the content being integrated with the Antisemitism section, and the inadequate "someone" wording was removed. The reference was reused (Bloom & Moskalenko 2021, pp. 30–31, Chapt. 1.). twsabin 20:36, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Done. twsabin 20:38, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Origin

Done. twsabin 20:21, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Claims

There were changes here. I think it's okay now (per MOS:EMBED). Please un-resolve this item if you still think it's messy twsabin 19:36, 19 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Analysis

  • How necessary are both pics to the overall article?
Done: Special:Diff/1072847141 (see summary). twsabin 19:30, 19 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I see what you did there Etriusus 04:54, 19 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, antisemitism is a h4 subsection of the h3 Derivative and recurring elements, it being one of those elements. twsabin 17:23, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Gotcha, thx Etriusus 20:14, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Done. Special:Diff/1072856049 twsabin 20:29, 19 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Done – Special:Diff/1072870523. It's important information because there isn't much analysis on the psychology in the article. Switched to quote of source (book) to compensate for the seemingly casual tone. twsabin 22:09, 19 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]


Incidents

  • I think the infobox should stay but the other pic should be moved. Maybe move the infobox up a little so it fits in the section.

Reactions

  • move the patch image, not relevant to this segment
 Not done Content is chronological currently. Sorting per site would lose the chronology, and it's really the chronology that's important here because it positions QAnon centrally (what the escalating consequence for the QAnon online communities was), instead of centering on the platforms themselves (what each platform did – and could create an optic of comparing platforms one with another to see which one was the toughest on QAnon content, and that's not the WP:DUE angle). Struck provisionally, can discuss. twsabin 22:20, 19 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, I see that the section was restructured somewhat. Some of the segments were out initially out of chronological order but the issue seems resolved. I see the reasoning in keeping it in order, back when my initial comment was still relevant, there was a ton of repeat info that was confusing to read. The passage now reads substantially better and the timeline is very neatly done. Also, the 'migration to alt tech' subsection fits very well here. Very Good Job. Etriusus 02:37, 20 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This review will likely take a long time to both complete and to respond to. For the purposes of giving this topic the proper attention, I will be waving the 7 day time constraint (within reason of course). As suggestions are cleaned up, use the  Done template, a strikethrough, or some other means of indicating the recommendation is resolved. Etriusus 02:41, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

An accurate description of me after reading this page link

GA checklist

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)
  1. It is reasonably well written.
    a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):
    Prose is fine; article broadly meets standards of MOS.
  2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.
    a (reference section): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism):
    Sources are reliable, and appropriate for this type of article; several were checked against the statements they supported with no issues found.
  3. It is broad in its coverage.
    a (major aspects): b (focused):
    Article has broad coverage with appropriate level of details.
  4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.
    Fair representation without bias:
    Yes
  5. It is stable.
    No edit wars, etc.:
    Yes
  6. It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.
    a (images are tagged and non-free content have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
    All images have licenses making them available for use in this article, they are used appropriately, and have useful captions.
  7. Overall:
    Pass/Fail:
    Article passes GA review. Good work!

@AFreshStart:, following a herculean effort, the page has passed the GA review. I did some last-minute clean-up, feel free to check my work and revert anything you disagree with. This is still room for improvement (including a number of invisible templates for further expansion) but this is outside the scope of a GA review. Should the page get much larger, there will likely need to be a split. Etriusus 03:18, 23 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Also, just to be aware of: Newsweek. Newsweek isn't a particularly reliable source so it likely can't be added but I'm just mentioning it so it's on your radar. If a more reliable source picks this up, then perhaps it can be included.
Newsweek isn't reliable ?? (I'm asking this seriously because I've used it several times and I find this worrying) Psychloppos (talk) 08:43, 23 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]