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Template:Did you know nominations/ZX Spectrum

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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 AirshipJungleman29 talk 15:14, 2 June 2024 (UTC)

ZX Spectrum

ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
  • ... that the ZX Spectrum (pictured) maintained the title of Britain's best-selling computer for over 30 years?
  • Source: Cellan-Jones, Rory (23 April 2012). "The Spectrum, the Pi - and the coding backlash". BBC News. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021. Mason, Graeme (18 February 2022). "ZX Spectrum at 40: a look back". NME. Archived from the original on 10 November 2022. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
Improved to Good Article status by Jaguar (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 83 past nominations.

DigitalIceAge (talk) 02:29, 22 May 2024 (UTC).

  • Wonderful to see that this machine (with a great keyboard... at least it's no Sinclair 1000 eh?) be promoted to good article status. Earwig's is clean, was promoted to GA a few days ago. For the first hook, neither of the given sources say how long the computer was a bestseller for -- the BBC source only says The ZX Spectrum may have been Britain's best-selling computer. ―Panamitsu (talk) 09:08, 23 May 2024 (UTC)
    • I did my own digging into the claim and found out that the Amstrad PCW actually outsold the ZX Spectrum some time in the 1990s (8 million units of the PCW across all models by at latest 1998 vs. 5 million units of the Spectrum across all units by 1992). In light of that, here's an alternative hook. Pinging @Panamitsu and Jaguar: DigitalIceAge (talk) 23:55, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
      • ALT0a: ... the ZX Spectrum (pictured) maintained the title of Britain's best-selling computer for over a decade? Source: Moran, Joe (28 August 2015). "Typewriter, you're fired! How writers learned to love the computer". The Guardian. p. 20. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Crookes, David (March 10, 2016). "Fancy a Fresh Slice of Pi?" (PDF). Micro Mart (1404). Dennis Publishing: 8–10, 12, 14, 16 – via the Internet Archive. ProQuest 1787168972.
        • @DigitalIceAge: I'm a bit puzzled with the given sources. The Guardian one doesn't appear to mention the ZX Spectrum at all; the Micro Mart appears to say with Raspberry Pi sales reporting, people forgot that the Amstrad PCW had outsold the ZX Spectrum; the Independent source talks the Pi rather than the ZX Spectrum. Am I completely overlooking something? ―Panamitsu (talk) 06:51, 27 May 2024 (UTC)
          • @Panamitsu: The Guardian source is there to establish that the PCW had surpassed the Spectrum in sales by the time of the PCW's discontinuation in 1998. The Micro Mart is there to establish explicitly that the PCW outsold the Spectrum. The Independent source is... pretty much redundant, so I've removed it. I think this shouldn't fall afoul of WP:SYNTH, as WP:CALC allows us to do routine calculations like numerical comparisons. If this is too SYNTH-y, though, I'm not opposed to other hooks. DigitalIceAge (talk) 08:14, 27 May 2024 (UTC)
            • @DigitalIceAge: Honestly this is too SYNTH-y for my liking. My interpretation of WP:CALC is more of something like "The 2016 Kaikōura earthquake occurred 6 years after the 2010 Canterbury earthquake." Anyway, I think it could have something to the effect of "is one of the best selling British computers", as it is brought up in the Raspberry Pi source, or we can have another hook. ―Panamitsu (talk) 11:32, 30 May 2024 (UTC)
              • @Panamitsu: That's fair. How about:
                • ALT0b: ... the ZX Spectrum (pictured) is one of the best-selling British computers of all time?
              DigitalIceAge (talk) 18:44, 30 May 2024 (UTC)