This page contains an archived discussion among the participants of the moderated interview. Please do not modify this page. Further comments should go here.
Hi Zvika, another user just sent me this, which I think is probably correct (haven't had time to read this yet). Anyway, I thought I'd pass it on since it deals with fundamentals:
""""“Subjects which lie outside of mainstream science are referred to as fringe…” or something of the sort. [although SPOV advocates often refer even to things such as Creationism as "fringe"]
This is Martinphi: One of the questions reflected the fact that mainstream science often says nothing at all about a fringe subject, thus the need for OR if one uses the SPOV viewpoint. What you seem to have done is take the definition of pseudoscience "which claim to have scientific basis, but which are rejected by mainstream science" and apply it to fringe subjects, most of which don't even claim to be science.
Complex terms, because things have been totally twisted, and words are being used in several ways. However, I was using "SPOV" as defined in the current debate, not necessarily as they used to talk of it. I'll read this as soon as I can, have to go now... —— Martinphi ☎ Ψ Φ—— 00:01, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
First of all, I'd like to thank Zvika for his work on this matter.
However, I have a problem with the first sentence:
This isn't, in point of fact, correct and there are some stylistic issues with the sentence. I propose an alternative:
This at least is accurate, if maybe not necessarily a good lead-in for the interview.
The problem with the first sentence is that there are ideas about the way the world works which are not accepted by science that are not fringe theories. For example, Greek mythology is an idea about how the world works, but it is not a fringe theory. Secondly, the adjective "mainstream" confuses people. There is no "mainstream" science anymore than there is "mainstream" history or "mainstream" English. There is only science. The term "mainstream" is used by fringe-advocates and some skeptics overly-involved with debunking to distinguish between the "in-unverse" idiocy of pseudoscience advocates and actual science. So as to not get bogged down in the No True Scotsman fallacy, I think it's at minimum important that the adjective "mainstream" be excised from a neutral introduction of the interview.
Also, there are fringe theories which are not strictly pseudoscientific. For example, there are fringe theories related to pseudohistory that are arguably not in opposition to the paradigms, theories, and observations of science but are instead simply denialism (for example Holocaust denial). We should not indicate to uninitiated readers that all fringe theories are pseudoscience, as this first sentence seems to imply.
ScienceApologist ( talk) 14:44, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
I think I read somewhere that only ScienceApologist and Martinphi (and presumably Zvika) should edit this page. So I'm reporting 2 spelling errors in MartinPhi's answer to the second to the last question. At the end of the first paragraph, "priviledges" should be "privileges". At the end of the second paragraph, "lead" should be "led". Art LaPella ( talk) 18:15, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
Zvika, I love what you've done with it, I think both of us got our main ideas out for people to see. I have a couple comments:
First, there is a major error: you have my answer which starts out "Admins only enforce NPOV and RS if they are abusing their tools. NPOV and RS are content issues which even the arbitration committee doesn't usually rule on." As a response to a question you put only to SA. My answer is to a different question and obviously doesn't follow from the question in the interview as it now stands. You've got to put in the original question, or I'll have to re-write my response, which might not be as interesting. Also, when answering this question, I think it seems more as if I am advocating that enforcing CIV is a good idea when "something needs to be done", which is definitely not what I'm saying.
These ones aren't pressing:
"Both have proposed fundamental changes in Wikipedia's policies and bureaucratic structure."
When I say that they make pseudoscientific statements when they debunk, you took out the links. Instead of links, you might include "such as flat statements that no evidence or can exist." One cannot find sources for such statements, because science doesn't deal in negative evidence.
Thanks, Zvika (: —— Martinphi ☎ Ψ Φ—— 22:11, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
Right, I guess I do say those things.
Rephrase "Sometimes, pseudoscientific unsourced assertions are made, such as flat statements that no evidence does or can exist." Anyone who wants to ask me about that can get the longer explanation.
You fixed the major problem, thanks (: —— Martinphi ☎ Ψ Φ—— 06:28, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
Since there are no more comments, I presume you're both happy with the version as it is. (Whew—I managed to get you to agree on something!) I will send this to Ral315, the editor of the Signpost, and I hope he will publish it, even though it is substantially longer than most of the Signpost's articles. It has been lots of fun working with the two of you—thanks! -- Zvika ( talk) 09:32, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
It seems that Ral315 has decided not to publish this interview in the Signpost as he sees it as a soapbox (see User talk:Zvika). I disagree, but anyway, I'd like to publicize this in some other way. I thought of posting a notice in the Community Portal. Does that sound reasonable to you? Any other ideas? -- Zvika ( talk) 07:19, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
This page contains an archived discussion among the participants of the moderated interview. Please do not modify this page. Further comments should go here.
Hi Zvika, another user just sent me this, which I think is probably correct (haven't had time to read this yet). Anyway, I thought I'd pass it on since it deals with fundamentals:
""""“Subjects which lie outside of mainstream science are referred to as fringe…” or something of the sort. [although SPOV advocates often refer even to things such as Creationism as "fringe"]
This is Martinphi: One of the questions reflected the fact that mainstream science often says nothing at all about a fringe subject, thus the need for OR if one uses the SPOV viewpoint. What you seem to have done is take the definition of pseudoscience "which claim to have scientific basis, but which are rejected by mainstream science" and apply it to fringe subjects, most of which don't even claim to be science.
Complex terms, because things have been totally twisted, and words are being used in several ways. However, I was using "SPOV" as defined in the current debate, not necessarily as they used to talk of it. I'll read this as soon as I can, have to go now... —— Martinphi ☎ Ψ Φ—— 00:01, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
First of all, I'd like to thank Zvika for his work on this matter.
However, I have a problem with the first sentence:
This isn't, in point of fact, correct and there are some stylistic issues with the sentence. I propose an alternative:
This at least is accurate, if maybe not necessarily a good lead-in for the interview.
The problem with the first sentence is that there are ideas about the way the world works which are not accepted by science that are not fringe theories. For example, Greek mythology is an idea about how the world works, but it is not a fringe theory. Secondly, the adjective "mainstream" confuses people. There is no "mainstream" science anymore than there is "mainstream" history or "mainstream" English. There is only science. The term "mainstream" is used by fringe-advocates and some skeptics overly-involved with debunking to distinguish between the "in-unverse" idiocy of pseudoscience advocates and actual science. So as to not get bogged down in the No True Scotsman fallacy, I think it's at minimum important that the adjective "mainstream" be excised from a neutral introduction of the interview.
Also, there are fringe theories which are not strictly pseudoscientific. For example, there are fringe theories related to pseudohistory that are arguably not in opposition to the paradigms, theories, and observations of science but are instead simply denialism (for example Holocaust denial). We should not indicate to uninitiated readers that all fringe theories are pseudoscience, as this first sentence seems to imply.
ScienceApologist ( talk) 14:44, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
I think I read somewhere that only ScienceApologist and Martinphi (and presumably Zvika) should edit this page. So I'm reporting 2 spelling errors in MartinPhi's answer to the second to the last question. At the end of the first paragraph, "priviledges" should be "privileges". At the end of the second paragraph, "lead" should be "led". Art LaPella ( talk) 18:15, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
Zvika, I love what you've done with it, I think both of us got our main ideas out for people to see. I have a couple comments:
First, there is a major error: you have my answer which starts out "Admins only enforce NPOV and RS if they are abusing their tools. NPOV and RS are content issues which even the arbitration committee doesn't usually rule on." As a response to a question you put only to SA. My answer is to a different question and obviously doesn't follow from the question in the interview as it now stands. You've got to put in the original question, or I'll have to re-write my response, which might not be as interesting. Also, when answering this question, I think it seems more as if I am advocating that enforcing CIV is a good idea when "something needs to be done", which is definitely not what I'm saying.
These ones aren't pressing:
"Both have proposed fundamental changes in Wikipedia's policies and bureaucratic structure."
When I say that they make pseudoscientific statements when they debunk, you took out the links. Instead of links, you might include "such as flat statements that no evidence or can exist." One cannot find sources for such statements, because science doesn't deal in negative evidence.
Thanks, Zvika (: —— Martinphi ☎ Ψ Φ—— 22:11, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
Right, I guess I do say those things.
Rephrase "Sometimes, pseudoscientific unsourced assertions are made, such as flat statements that no evidence does or can exist." Anyone who wants to ask me about that can get the longer explanation.
You fixed the major problem, thanks (: —— Martinphi ☎ Ψ Φ—— 06:28, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
Since there are no more comments, I presume you're both happy with the version as it is. (Whew—I managed to get you to agree on something!) I will send this to Ral315, the editor of the Signpost, and I hope he will publish it, even though it is substantially longer than most of the Signpost's articles. It has been lots of fun working with the two of you—thanks! -- Zvika ( talk) 09:32, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
It seems that Ral315 has decided not to publish this interview in the Signpost as he sees it as a soapbox (see User talk:Zvika). I disagree, but anyway, I'd like to publicize this in some other way. I thought of posting a notice in the Community Portal. Does that sound reasonable to you? Any other ideas? -- Zvika ( talk) 07:19, 25 March 2008 (UTC)