Talk:Robert Maxfield

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 SL93 talk 00:36, 13 April 2025 (UTC)

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• Comment or view
• Article history

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• ... that ROLM co-founder Robert Maxfield, without ever having access to a computer, built a rudimentary computer (a two-bit adder) from aviation relays as a high school science project?

• Source: Computer History Museum see p.3

• ALT1: ... that while Silicon Valley start-up ROLM's first product was a military computer, Robert Maxfield was the only one of the four co-founders who had any computer experience? Source: Roundtable: "ROLM Corporation, Competing with Giants": from 26:35 to 27:50

• ALT1A: "... that while ROLM's first product was a military computer, co-founder Robert Maxfield was the only one of its four founders with computer experience?

• ALT2: ... that after retiring from ROLM, co-founder Robert Maxfield developed and taught Stanford University's first business course for engineers? Source: Palo Alto online: "He developed and taught Stanford’s first course in 'Business Management for Engineers'"
• ALT3: ... that Eugene Kleiner turned down ROLM for start-up funding in 1969, and, ironically, 20 years later, ROLM co-founder Robert Maxfield joined Kleiner Perkins as a venture partner? Source: Computer History Museum see p.16 and Rice News
• ALT4: ... that while in high school, ROLM co-founder Robert Maxfield competed in swimming events in the Junior Olympics? Source: Computer History Museum see p.3
• ALT5: ... that ROLM co-founder Robert Maxfield turned down a swimming scholarship to the University of Texas, opting to attend Rice University, the alma mater of all of the ROLM founders? Source: Computer History Museum see p.4
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Yugoslav_corn_scandal
  • Comment: The history of the start-up of ROLM and the stories of its co-founders are engaging. Robert Maxfield's post-ROLM career is as storied as his time with ROLM.

Created by ERcheck (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 6 past nominations.

— ERcheck (talk) 00:56, 21 March 2025 (UTC).

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy compliance:

• Adequate sourcing: - The first paragraph in the "Biography" section is unsourced, and the same goes for some of the paragraphs in the "New professional and intellectual pursuits" section.
• Neutral:
• Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook eligibility:

• Cited:
• Interesting:
• Other problems: - While I really like the content of ALT1, I think that it should be rephrased due to a WP:SEAOFBLUE issue present in the hook. See overall comment for more.

QPQ: Done.

Overall: @ERcheck: New enough (created March 19), article is long enough, NPOV and QPQ is done. Earwig shows 37.1% similarity, but it mostly cites the author's works. While the article is well-researched overall, I noticed that the first paragraph in the "Biography" section is unsourced, along with some paragraphs in the "New professional and intellectual pursuits" section. Everything else appears to be sourced. I prefer ALT1, but original hook has a WP:SEAOFBLUE issue due to the consecutive links to Silicon Valley, start-up, and ROLM. To improve readability, I suggest removing the unnecessary links and simplifying the phrasing slightly (perhaps something along the lines of ALT1A: "... that while ROLM's first product was a military computer, co-founder Robert Maxfield was the only one of its four founders with any computer experience?). Cattos^💭 22:30, 21 March 2025 (UTC)

• @Cathodography: Thanks for the review and suggestions. I provided citations for the first paragraph of the Biography section ✓ and for the the "New professional and intellectual pursuits" section ✓; also removed wikilinks from ALT1 ✓. I'm fine with your ALT1A suggestion and moved it up into the main ALT section. — ERcheck (talk) 23:36, 21 March 2025 (UTC)
  • Good to go. Cattos^💭 01:01, 22 March 2025 (UTC)