User talk:Biz

Some ideas for the Byzantine Empire rewrite

Hey Biz, now that we are in the final stretch of the rewrite, I think we should remove all the sources from before 1960 and replace them with newer sources. I am listing the pre-1960s sources here in alphabetical order for a quick count and easy recall:

Apostolides 1887, Austin 1934, Bryce 1901, Dawkins 1916, Miller 1907, Runciman 1933, Schaff 1953.

I also think we should split the References section into 3 separate sections: Notes, Citations and Bibliography. For the huge Bibliography section, I think we should split it further into 3 sections: Research papers, Books, and Book chapters; somewhat like the structure at the Battle of Mycale article. Please let me know if you are ok with these changes; if you are, I can implement them quickly, probably in one day. Matarisvan (talk) 11:23, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Great ideas! Thank you for your initiative. This article truly will be something once we are done with it.

I like the idea of splitting the references. Adding @AirshipJungleman29 for visibility as I'm not sure what best practice is.

• Apostolides: no problem, we have two other sources in that sentence now. I left it because it was just fun to see such a pioneer write about the topic in the 1800s.
• Austin (278): is referencing an image, we should replace it. I found it hard to find recent scholarship on this topic so unless there is better we need to keep it.
• Austin (283): it's a two citation sentence. While it is fine to leave just the one, it would be nice to have a replacement
• Bryce: That's now got three citations that sentence is fine to remove it
• Darkins: that's also referencing an image. We need a replacement source.
• Miller: I just reviewed this section. The scholarship is poor. I unfortunately need to find new scholarship, for now we need to keep this as this sentence has no other citations.
• Runciman: he is a famous historian, so it's worth keeping him as he is being quoted. Aged historians like Oikonomides and Obolensky are a similar category for me. Although the scholarship has progressed, these men moved us mountains forward (as did Apostolides as well).
• Schaff: that's in a section I have yet to review yet, leave for now.

I'm going to need at least a week to review legacy as I now need to hunt down quality scholarship in my limited free time, but I commit to having it done this month. Biz (talk) 17:15, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

I have replaced/removed all of the pre-1960s sources, except for Apostolides 1887, Dawkins 1916 and Runciman 1933, as you advised. For the reorganization discussion, tagging @AirshipJungleman29. Matarisvan (talk) 09:16, 11 January 2025 (UTC)