Talk:Gun-powered mousetrap

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A fact from Gun-powered mousetrap appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 22 November 2022 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the gun-powered mousetrap never gained wide popularity after being patented in 1882, but was hailed as the "best mousetrap ever" in 2012?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2022/November. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Gun powered mousetrap.

Wikipedia

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: promoted by RoySmith (talk) 22:42, 15 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

1882 gun powered mousetrap

... that in 1882 an inventor patented a gun powered mousetrap which could also be used to kill people who attempt to break into a home? Source: Is an 1882 mousetrap design which incorporated a handgun to dispatch the animal. The inventor James A. Williams stated that the trap could also be used kill people who may try to open a home's windows or doors.
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/How We Do (Party)

Created by Bruxton (talk). Self-nominated at 20:18, 22 October 2022 (UTC).[reply]

Comment only – shouldn’t this be "gun-powered mousetrap"? That is, lower case and with a hyphen? Schwede 66 18:49, 24 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I went ahead and took the initiative to make that change. Silver seren^C 01:19, 25 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The article is new enough, being nominated on the same day as creation. The length, however, isn't long enough I don't think. Since quotes aren't meant to be included in article length, that seems like that puts this in around 1400 characters. Otherwise, the article reads neutrally and properly uses in-line citations. The hook is short enough, cited in-line, and interesting. The QPQ has been done and the image is in the public domain, so no issues there. Just the length issue is a problem here. Silver seren^C 01:19, 25 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Silver seren: Thanks for the review! The article has 1559 characters (272 words) "readable prose size". Bruxton (talk) 02:11, 25 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Silver seren: From my reading of supplementary rules, block quotes are not included in length. There are no block quotes in the article, ~~but I can add prose if it is necessary~~. Edit: I added characters to increase the length.Bruxton (talk) 14:09, 25 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I'll say that's good to go then. Silver seren^C 23:50, 25 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Repeat comment (with emphasis added) – shouldn’t this be "gun-powered mousetrap"? That is, lower case and with a hyphen? The reason why I keep asking is because I look after Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors and I'm fairly certain that this would come up. Schwede 66 20:31, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Schwede66: none of the RS has it that way. I looked for the most common spelling, and I also looked for hyphenated versions but did not find any. But I defer to the consensus. Bruxton (talk) 01:52, 1 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I was going by grammar rather than sources. That said, having refreshed myself what it is that MOS:HYPHEN says, I'm no longer convinced that a hyphen is needed. Schwede 66 02:25, 1 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Bruxton and Silver seren:

The hook doesn't check out; if it's just the inventor saying it could be a useful way to kill people, we can't exactly say that in DYK's voice. How about: theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/her) 22:12, 4 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

ALT1: ... that the gun powered mousetrap (pictured) never gained wide popularity after being patented in 1882, but was hailed as "the best mousetrap ever" in 2012?

I am ok with whatever gets this nomination unstuck. I think it is interesting and the suggestion from theleekycauldron is a good one. Lightburst (talk) 14:48, 8 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Approving ALT1 as per source. Rest of the review per Silverseren. SL93 (talk) 00:08, 14 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

December of Ouch???

The second line of the Design section states the device was patented on the "December of Ouch"???? What up?? Dr.gregory.retzlaff (talk) 11:29, 22 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This IS the topic's talk page

The admonition above to NOT post to "this page" makes no sense as it further states that "Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page such as...the article's talk page". But this page IS the article's discussion page.Tmangray (talk) 17:46, 22 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Tmangray: Unsure if your comment is meant to be humorous. If not, the talk page template you refer to is used on over 660,000 talk page articles to give an explanation of what a talk page's purpose is. The talk header indicates that a talk page is to be used only for discussing edits and suggestions with regards to the article, not to discuss the article's subject. For example, an appropriate talk page discussion would be with regards to whether this article should have an infobox. An inappropriate talk page discussion would be questioning the merits and efficacy of a gun-powered mousetrap. Ping me if you have further questions. ~ Pbritti (talk) 18:58, 22 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Tmangray is not being humorous. He's referring to the boilerplate in the DYK nomination template, which is transcluded above and is indeed confusing. By "this page" it means itself, not this talk page. E Eng 21:50, 22 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Looking at Tmangray's edits, it's no wonder they never knew what this was despite editing so much for so long: their edits have almost exclusively been main space. Making it this long without encountering a transcluded DYK talk template almost deserves an award for being such a diligent and single-minded (in the best way) editor on the front-facing of the project. Tmangray, if you still have questions, the note you're seeing is copied in full from Template:Did you know nominations/Gun powered mousetrap, including the offending warning. ~ Pbritti (talk) 22:07, 22 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Notability?

I don't see the coverage existing for a stand-alone article. It gets a few paragraphs in a few click-baity articles that I just don't see establishing stand-alone notability. Most of the substantive discussion seems to come from the patent itself, also not indicative of notability. I can't see why this article couldn't/shouldn't just be merged into Mousetrap. Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 21:48, 11 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]