Wikipedia:Peer review/California/archive1

California

Looking through this article would indicate to me that it is a candidate for peer review en route to featured article status. Therefore, I would appreciate any views on this article and also how to improve it. It seems like, with improvement, this article could be a candidate for featured article status and with over 22 Million Californians there shouldn't be shortage of ideas. --Chazz88 16:29, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

• I live far away from California in the UK, but I can give you some ideas anyway:

1. I don't like the image galleries, images should always go beside text on the left or right.
2. The Sports section needs more context: those lists need converting into prose and expanding.
3. 'Important cities and towns' section is a jumble of stuff - Can't that image gallery be taken away and some context be made? An image gallery, table and then a list looks very messy.
4. 'Religion' subsection in 'Demographics' section is just a list, convert it to prose and expand.
5. The article is seriously lacking references and footnotes - All statements and figures, (population, racial makeup, tables, etc) should all have references linking to a note in a 'Notes' section - See Wikipedia:Footnotes. Some more general book references would be good as well, and what about newspaper references and websites? All these can go in as footnotes or just in the 'References' section.
6. Please make sure all images have an acceptable copyright status and a source, and make sure that all fair use images (not sure if there are any on this page) have fair use rationales.
7. Before submitting to FAC, please make sure to check the spelling and grammar of the article.

That's all from me. — Wackymacs 20:47, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

• Overall, it looks good, but I echo Wackymacs suggestions above, particularly with regards to the lists present in the article -- they should be prose; hive off lists if necessary. The Transport section has too many short or one-sentence paragraphs. Also, make sure that the article refers directly to the United States and not ambiguously to "the nation" - we are writing for an international readership. --cj | talk 15:20, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

• I actually like the image galleries as presented. A few small suggestions:

I'm not sure the phrase "Important" cities is appropriate. Why are they important? Aren't they just the largest?

I'd spell out the names of collleges.

I'll leave additional comments and make some minor edits on the article page itself. It's easier than going back and forth to here. Crunch 20:44, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't know where to put this perhaps someone can help put this in the right place. This list has been compiled from the California Association of Counties, see http://www.csac.counties.org/default.asp?id=437

County - Population

Orange County 2,939,500 San Diego County 2,918,300 San Bernardino County 1,783,700 Santa Clara County 1,719,600 Riverside County 1,644,300 Sacramento County 1,279,900 Contra Costa County 981,600 Fresno County 826,600 San Francisco County 793,600 Ventura County 781,100 San Mateo County 717,000 Kern County 687,600 San Joaquin County 596,000 Sonoma County 471,000 Stanislaus County 469,500 Monterey County 409,600 Santa Barbara County 407,900 Solano County 405,800 Tulare County 379,200 Placer County 264,900

Santa Cruz County 260,200

San Luis Obispo County 253,600 Marin County 249,900 Merced County 218,900 Butte County 207,000 Yolo County 176,300 Shasta County 169,200 El Dorado County 163,600 Imperial County 150,800 Kings County 133,100 Napa County 128,000 Madera County 129,700 Humboldt County 127,700 Nevada County 95,300 Mendocino County 87,700 Sutter County 81,900 Yuba County 61,000 Lake County 60,300 Tehama County 56,900 San Benito County 55,900 Tuolumne County 55,800 Siskiyou County 44,450 Calaveras County 41,700 Amador County 36,100 Lassen County 34,200 Del Norte County 27,850 Glenn County 26,800 Plumas County 21,000 Colusa County 19,450 Inyo County 18,250 Mariposa County 17,250 Mono County 13,250 Trinity County 13,100 Modoc County 9,350 Sierra County 3,500 Alpine County 1,210