MS+St.+Louis

[|MS St. Louis Wikipedia Article]

// 1. Account for the postings (number of revisions, time range from first to last, notation of periods of activity) //

This article has been revised fewer than 500 times since its original post on June 4, 2004. The first posting was known as a stub with three total sentences. It has been much expanded since then, with the most recent update on October 20, 2010, which had undone a revision done earlier in the day. For the first year, most of the updates had a large period between them. For instance, the second overall posting came 4 months after the original. From September 2005 to 2008, the postings became more frequent with postings occurring between two and seven times a month. Starting in 2008, postings came an average of every two or three days. August 11, 2009 was the day with the most postings, 24. All of these postings were by a user named Parkwells, who won awards for being a Wikipedia Good Article Contributor.

// 2. Describe progress or development in the article from the original post to the most recent update //

As I mentioned above, the first posting was called a stub. Wikipedia even had a line at the bottom that said, “This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.” There are no references on the first page, nor are there any pictures. The article is three sentences long and there are obviously no sub categories. Over a year after the original posting (October 2005), the first external link was added to the website sending viewers to Jennifer Rosenberg’s Jewish Virtual Library to see “The Tragedy of the S.S. St. Louis.” At this point, there is still no reference page, but the information has extended to three paragraphs. The first picture from the MS St. Louis was added on January 12, 2006, and it was only of two women sticking their heads out a window. It is a famous picture of the voyage, but it had no caption and it is not easy to tell that the picture is of a boat (the caption was later added on January 27). In August of 2006, sub categories were added, including The Voyage of the Damned and Later Life. The first references for the article were not added until July 18, 2007 by John Z, when he added six references. At one point, there was a chart in the article with background and specifications of the ship. The chart was added on August 13, 2006 before the introduction section, it later moved to the Later Life section on January 8, 2007, and then moved to the right-hand sidebar where the current bibliographical information is found on Wikipedia on March 12, 2008.

Information wise, the article went from having a majority of its information in the introduction section, to moving it to the Voyage of the Damned section, which is what is most often referenced to the MS St. Louis. The Voyage of the Damned section is still the section with the most information, followed by short sections called Legacy and Later Career. More pictures were finally added to the website in 2008 and 2009 and the main picture was changed to be a picture of the actual ship. With Robert Rosen’s book // Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust // (2006), more information became available for the page. Eight of the 17 references refer to works from Rosen, as well as a link to his website. The article now has 13 paragraphs, with the large ones found in the Voyage of the Damned section. // 3. Critique the quality of the article in its current state (writing quality and factual information) //

// 4. Describe the discussion around the article //

// 5. Provide background information on the most active contributors. //