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GMO conspiracy theories ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
We have a lot of sources attesting to the existence of GMO conspiracy theories that were removed from the article in violation of WP:PARITY. Now we have a user Tsavage ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) who has made some rather problematic claims on the talkpage about the subject. I note from his history that he looks to be WP:FRINGE-promoter of dubious sourcing standards with regards to this subject and may need to be sanctioned at WP:AE, but first I wanted to get some eyes on his contributions and on the pages he is problematically contributing to.
Thanks,
jps ( talk) 18:43, 28 February 2016 (UTC)
NOTE: As this is a behavioral comment about me, it seems relevant that excerpts from this article are nominated for "Did you know", by the article's originator (I9Q79oL78KiL0QTFHgyc aka jps), and my placement of the POV tag and comment today apparently threatens to derail that nomination, and are being argued against there by I9Q79oL78KiL0QTFHgyc/jps. (I was unaware of the nomination, and discovered it by ping, as I was mentioned in the DYK discussion.) -- Tsavage ( talk) 22:37, 28 February 2016 (UTC)
Recent edits removing Cancer Research UK as unreliable, etc. May need eyes. Alexbrn ( talk) 15:52, 2 March 2016 (UTC)
See [2]. More eyes needed for this article. Figureofnine ( talk • contribs) 13:06, 29 February 2016 (UTC)
Ideology of the SS and the main SS article, see [3] could use more eyes. Problem is SS theories/nomenclature/pseudoscientific bullhockey being presented in Wikipedia's voice, which I guess ain't a good thing is it? Being fixed in the "ideology" article but not yet addressed in the main SS article. Coretheapple ( talk) 16:34, 4 March 2016 (UTC)
There is a discussion here if that topic is of interest. It has been going on since Feb 26, but just wanted to make sure folks here are aware of it. Jytdog ( talk) 18:05, 4 March 2016 (UTC)
I trimmed out some text sourced to an OMICS Group journal, but even before that it was not obvious if this is notable bollocks. Please review and give it some thought. Guy ( Help!) 23:40, 4 March 2016 (UTC)
In List of oldest church buildings three Indian churches allegedly built in the 1st century were added. One of them already has an article where the construction date is cited to an (off-line) book; the two others even do not have articles (isn't it strange that the two of the three oldest churches in the world do not have articles?) but I assume these will be forthcoming.-- Ymblanter ( talk) 20:07, 9 March 2016 (UTC)
Looks like in part a coatrack for "Polarity Therapy", a variety of energy medicine bollocks. Anybody know of this guy and/or his works? Alexbrn ( talk) 12:32, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
Alexbrn, it may very well be bollocks, that doesn't mean the article subject isn't notable. Kindzmarauli ( talk) 19:05, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
An IP user is attempting to edit war with me. IP user talk:97.93.180.67 removed BLP, ref improve, and notability templates on Ann Louise Gittleman by misunderstaning the purpose of these tags. The article is about a Clayton College of Natural Health grad who wrote a bunch of books about fat-burning diets. The theories are obviously fringe and the article may not be notable, as it lacks reliable sources to verify the the subject. In my opinion, the article does not pass WP:AUTHOR, especially that it is a WP:BLP. More eyes please, also an admin look at the IP user would be good. Delta13C ( talk) 20:22, 1 March 2016 (UTC)
Do we have some general consensus on this? I changed "In 2002 she earned a PhD in Holistic Nutrition from Clayton College of Natural Health in Birmingham, Alabama" to "In 2002 she was given a PhD in Holistic Nutrition from Clayton College of Natural Health, a school known as a diploma mill", [4] as a placeholder. -- Ronz ( talk) 16:48, 2 March 2016 (UTC)
May need reviewing Jytdog ( talk) 20:20, 13 March 2016 (UTC)
Gulf Breeze UFO incident ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Strikes me as not being particularly article worthy. What do you think?
jps ( talk) 13:33, 14 March 2016 (UTC)
There's a request by an editor that their topic-ban be lifted for alt-med topics at ANI. Regardless of opinion on the editor, we could use thoughts from editors who've dealt alt-med topics on the outlook of lifting this particular ban. Kingofaces43 ( talk) 22:40, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
Chiropractic Biophysics ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
New chiropractic-related page. I'm not sure if it is notable. I can't find many sources on the topic. QuackGuru ( talk) 22:05, 15 March 2016 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Chiropractic Biophysics has started since the redirect was reverted. jps ( talk) 09:51, 16 March 2016 (UTC)
Got an IP editor bigging this up off the back of unreliable sources. Would be good if fringe-savvy editors watchlisted it. Alexbrn ( talk) 16:26, 16 March 2016 (UTC)
Electronic harassment ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
SPA revising this and similar articles, recently pushing tinfoil hattery about "rough government agents" [5]. Eyes appreciated. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 03:39, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
I see a lot of names of people he supposedly influenced or was influenced by, but not a lot of sources. Doug Weller talk 07:27, 13 March 2016 (UTC)
In the thread Past Life Regression Article, there is a user whose handle is the name of the author of some material about the subject attempting to make the case that the article in question should include claims that Reincarnation is a real phenomenon. So far, I'm the only one arguing against him (others have contributed their thoughts on policy, sometimes agreeing with or disagreeing with me). If anyone else could help explain why we can't do this, it'd be appreciated. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 18:27, 18 March 2016 (UTC)
The talk page for this article appears to be locked against editing by unregistered users - preventing me from drawing attention to the latest development, which casts serious doubts regarding claimed investment by Industrial Heat LCC in the device. See this article [6] and the statement from IH themselves [7] As it currently stands, the article (wisely) says nothing about IH's involvement anyway, but previous versions included such material, and there seems to be recent discussion on possibly restoring it. Accordingly it would seem wise to at least note on the talk page that as per every previous claimed 'investor' in the E-Cat, nothing has come of the venture beyond the usual flim-flam - the NET article possibly doesn't meet WP:RS, but the IH statement is certainly sufficient to invalidate earlier claims about the level of their involvement. It is probably too much to hope that the ever-optimistic promoters of this device on Wikipedia will finally get the point and find something a bit more credible to plug instead, but at least you can draw a line under this latest episode. Accordingly I would appreciate it if someone could copy this to the article talk page, and/or raise the matter there themselves. Thanks. 86.163.197.112 ( talk) 19:52, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
I feel bad for cold fusioneers. This situation is so transparently corrupt to outsiders looking in that it can't help but cast doubt on the entire community of cold fusion. I gather that Krivit's campaign against Rossi is motivated largely by this fear (as well correctly smelling the rat where it is, but I don't understand why Krivit can't smell it in the Kimmel Institute or in the SPAWAR claims either...). Rossi's machinations represent a real existential threat to those who have been patiently over the course of 25 years trying to convince the world that they balked too soon at Pons and Fleischmann type claims. jps ( talk) 15:22, 20 March 2016 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Hurricane Katrina as divine retribution
Of possible interest to board watchers.
jps ( talk) 16:40, 21 March 2016 (UTC)
Is it just me or do these concepts all sound like the same thing?
And these techniques...
Maybe some of them don't belong on the list. It's hard to tell. But what does one do about such a large number of articles on essentially the same thing? PermStrump (talk) 05:05, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
More eyes welcomed on Cryonics and Talk:Cryonics (again) - David Gerard ( talk) 10:33, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
Another in the long-running series of fad diets for which there is resistance to using that terminology (although the NHS seems okay with it). I almost wonder whether it's worth it since there seems to be no end of fad diets and no end to the debate calling them that causes. Alexbrn ( talk) 15:18, 25 March 2016 (UTC)
The Star of Bethlehem page attracts a lot of fringe theories, with lots of people eager to promote their own theories, despite the widespread scholarly assumption that the star is a literary construct.
I have been engaged with an editor who has one particular fringe view: that the birth of king Herod was four years later than generally accepted. This may seem a trivial point but it is of great importance to some fundamentalist Christians who are bothered by the fact that the Gospel of Luke says the birth of Jesus took place during the reign of Herod and at the time of the census - which took place ten years after Herod died. This is an old chestnut, and many elaborate theories have been put forward in the past to explain away the problem. Modern scholars have given up on this, dismissing such arguments as "exegetical acrobatics" (Geza Vermes).
The editor, Al Leluia81, has been trying to promote his own personal view on the Star of Bethlehem page. Section Star_of_Bethlehem#Relating_the_star_historically_to_Jesus.27_birth
Not only are his edits skewed towards equal treatment of this fringe view, he appears to be editing in bad faith. He has removed critical edits, claiming they are "promotional"; he has implied three bible versions promote a particular dubious version of the biblical text, when they actually include them only as possible aternatives; he has used poor quality, non- academic sources and demands they be given equal treatment to established mainstream scholarly sources; and he has accused me of harassment for calling him out for this.
An example of this is an edit based on poor sources and an amateur's error. I explained why this was wrong: /info/en/?search=Talk:Star_of_Bethlehem#Removal_of_Beyer_text It is a very clear and detailed explanation. This error has no support in modern Josehus scholarship. Anyone familiar with the issue would know this. Yet the editor simply reverted the text with a series of poor quality sources.
-- Rbreen ( talk) 20:35, 25 March 2016 (UTC)
Not really a fringe theory but more of a case of potential undue weight on certain topics/viewpoints, so related. Seeking outside opinion/request for comment on talk page of Yahweh. - KaJunl ( talk) 23:18, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
Ehrman, Bart (2010). "A Historical Assault on Faith". Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them). HarperCollins e-books. pp. 3–4.
ISBN
9780061173943. My hunch is that the majority of students coming into their first year of seminary training do not know what to expect from courses on the Bible. ... Most students expect these courses to be taught from a more or less pious perspective, showing them how, as future pastors, to take the Bible and make it applicable to people's lives in their weekly sermons.
Such students are in for a rude awakening. Mainline Protestant seminaries in this country are notorious for challenging students' cherished beliefs about the Bible—even if these cherished beliefs are simply a warm and fuzzy sense that the Bible is a wonderful guide to faith and practice, to be treated with reverence and piety. These seminaries teach serious, hard-core Bible scholarship. They don't pander to piety. They are taught by scholars who are familiar with what German- and English-speaking scholarship has been saying about the Bible over the past three hundred years. ...
The approach taken to the Bible in almost all Protestant (and now Catholic) mainline seminaries is what is called the "historical-critical" method. It is completely different from the "devotional" approach to the Bible one learns in church.{{
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Bloom, Allan (1987). "The Student and the University".
The Closing of the American Mind (Pbk ed.). New York: SIMON & SCHUSTER PAPERBACKS. pp. 374–375.
ISBN
0-671-65715-1. Retrieved 18 August 2010. I am distinguishing two related but different problems here. The contents of the classic books have become particularly difficult to defend in modern times, and the professors who teach them do not care to defend them, are not interested in their truth. One can most clearly see the latter in the case of the Bible. To include it in the humanities is already a blasphemy, a denial of its own claims. There it is almost inevitably treated in one of two ways: It is subjected to modern "scientific" analysis, called the Higher Criticism, where it is dismantled, to show how "sacred" books are put together, and they are not what they claim to be. It is useful as a mosaic in which one finds the footprints of many dead civilizations. Or else the Bible is used in courses of comparative religion as one expression of the need for the "sacred" and as a contribution to the very modern, very scientific study of the structure of "myths". (Here one can join up with the anthropologists and really be alive.) A teacher who treated the Bible naively, taking at its word, or Word, would be accused of scientific incompetence and lack of sophistication. Moreover, he might rock the boat and start the religious wars all over again, as well as a quarrel within the university between reason and revelation, which would upset comfortable arrangements and wind up by being humiliating to the humanities. Here one sees the traces of the Enlightenment's political project, which wanted precisely to render the Bible, and other old books, undangerous. This project is one of the underlying causes of the impotence of the humanities. The best that can be done, it appears, is to teach "The Bible as Literature," as opposed to "as Revelation," which it claims to be. In this way it can be read somewhat independently of deforming scholarly apparatus, as we read, for example, Pride and Prejudice. Thus the few professors who feel that there is something wrong with the other approaches tend to their consciences.
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Koren Specific Technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? It seems to have made something of a legal splash, so that might make it notable.
jps ( talk) 13:45, 17 March 2016 (UTC)
Look who is editing the article. QuackGuru ( talk) 23:13, 20 March 2016 (UTC)
Coatrack text about the legal bash and unreliable sources were restored. If all the coatrack and unreliable sources were deleted the article would not be notable IMO. This is the clean version. QuackGuru ( talk) 01:18, 27 March 2016 (UTC)
This article is pretty problematic, because, when you get into the meat of it, you find that by and large the scholarly world rejects that such influences exist outside some syncretism (maybe) in Nestorian India, and that indeed it seems more likely that whatever influences there are run the other direction. At least it doesn't mention Elizabeth Clare Prophet. Any ideas about fixing up the lead? Mangoe ( talk) 13:59, 29 March 2016 (UTC)
Sorcha Faal, see also Talk:Sorcha Faal. Doesn't appear to have improved in notability since the last AFD, with all the problems noted there and new ones added - but someone else can nominate it this time - David Gerard ( talk) 17:13, 26 March 2016 (UTC)
I came across this userpage while checking and fixing ref errors. I would like an opinion if this is fringe or not. The main header is "A FAR FROM EQUILIBRIUM THERMODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE OF METABOLICALLY GENERATED FREE RADICALS AS THE FOUNDATION OF HOMEOSTASIS". A Google search revealed part of it on [10]. -- Auric talk 14:48, 26 March 2016 (UTC)
There are a couple of editors over there, both of whom have stated their conviction that the argument from authority is always a fallacy trying to push an example and some bad sources into the article which supports their view. The specific example they're trying to push is the belief in the early 20th century that humans had 48 chromosomes, because the most popular count of 48 came from a highly respected cytologist ( Theophilus Painter). They're pushing sources from mathematicians and psychologists as experts on logic, and ignoring any arguments to the contrary. They've opened two sections at RSN, the latter of which boomeranged on them by bringing in a couple of additional editors to contest the inclusion. Most of the editors involved don't want to use this example because it's unclear, it implies that even relying on non-controversial expert claims is a fallacy (despite all the academic and scholarly sources flatly stating that it isn't), and because it's just so contentious that it wouldn't be stable. It has been suggested (by me) that one particular case in which a cytologist said he had to force a count of 48 when he didn't see 48 could be used, so long as it was balanced with examples of the argument used non-fallaciously and other forms of fallacious versions, but that compromise was flatly rejected. Any additional voices of reason would be appreciated. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 22:42, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
Graston Technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23118072
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22131563
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21589706
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15855909.
User:Onthost (
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02:21, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
Since it is not specifically about chiropractic I have moved the thread. QuackGuru ( talk) 20:31, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Curtis Yarvin ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views), one of the main theorists of the Dark Enlightenment - a fringe political figure who has done all manner of slightly notable things, some of which have made RSes. The article recently survived AFD. So the problem here is how to get it reliably sourced to BLP standards, particularly as a controversial figure.
There are a pile of warnings on the cites, but this post isn't intended to subtly ask for someone to steam in with an axe - instead, I'm asking for help with dredging up RSes on this fellow. So please don't go mad with the axe :-) We really seriously want help with good BLP-quality sourcing on this guy. Not primary sources, not blogs, but actual third-party verifiable RSes for everything worth noting about him. See the talk page for discussion hitherto - David Gerard ( talk) 21:46, 2 April 2016 (UTC)
Earth Similarity Index ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
I have been going through today cleaning up a lot of fringe material related to this article as can be seen in this edit. There seems to be a cottage industry of people who are trying to apply this index everywhere they possibly can which is, as far as I can tell, the curated and uncited invention of a single person with the only mention in one journal article that does not go as far as to propose consistent measurements for all the different exoplanets so far discovered. To be clear, the index has been mentioned in popular science work, but there is no rigorous use of it and it is far from standard in mainstream academic use. Contextualizing it properly is the key, so people familiar with how to use WP:FRINGE properly would be helpful.
Related to this are the following AfDs:
as well as a few templates at
Help contextualizing this issue would be greatly appreciated.
jps ( talk) 23:51, 1 April 2016 (UTC)
Amazingly, passed AfD. There is now resistance to using decent sources (Cochrane) and having a pseudoscience category. Could use eyes. Alexbrn ( talk) 15:15, 25 March 2016 (UTC)
Does the opening sentence over-attribute the mainstream view, with too many qualifiers? It seems odd, at the least, to write:
“ | Psychic surgery is a means of committing what most physicians in traditional medicine believe to be a pseudoscientific medical fraud using a possible conjuring trick[...] | ” |
— Preceding unsigned comment added by Adam Cuerden ( talk • contribs)
In related news Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2016_April_7#Template:Infobox_paranormal_term. jps ( talk) 12:57, 7 April 2016 (UTC)
Got some activity at Michael Greger again (deletion of skepticism, addition of health claims) which could probably use eyes. Alexbrn ( talk) 11:40, 26 March 2016 (UTC)
This isn't fringe per se but it touches on a lot of the kinds of problems we deal with in research. It's a statistical appearance that people are more likely to die within a few days of their birthday (and there appear to be Christmas and Passover effects as well)— except that some studies show it and some don't. From the one study I could readily see into the effect is very small. Someone who is more familiar with dealing with this sort of research than I am could help sort this out. Mangoe ( talk) 11:38, 8 April 2016 (UTC)
Needs eyes. Thanks. Doug Weller talk 17:26, 8 April 2016 (UTC)
This article is full of Scientology fringe and all sorts of other fringe. I've been trying to work on it, but it's a beast, so I could use help if anyone has time. It doesn't look like anyone is necessarily paying attention to my edits... at least not yet. PermStrump (talk) 18:01, 7 April 2016 (UTC)
Need more eyes in phosphorylethanolamine: [11]. Thanks. fgnievinski ( talk) 16:11, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
This isn't my expertise, but I'll see what I can do. ThePlatypusofDoom ( talk) 16:44, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
Revitalizer created a new page called Activated phenolics, a concept that falls outside current thinking about the physiological fate of ingested polyphenols ("phenolics"). Although research is extensive on potential physiological and anti-disease effects of polyphenols, there exists no in vivo evidence that they survive metabolism and extensive rapid excretion to play any significant role in the body, let alone being "activated" (no definition for how this occurs). In my opinion, this content is not worthy of article status.
Revitalizer uses old citations, mostly weak in substance, to support what seems to be a WP:OR theory certainly on the fringe of current science. Possibly, this is a student science project -- the user is a new contributor to Wikipedia as of Feb 2016.
I provided feedback on the user's Talk page, then transferred the discussion to the Talk page of Activated phenolics. -- Zefr ( talk) 03:02, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
Zefr mentioned no affiliation with any reputable scientific institution nor substantiated expertise in this topic. I suggest if Zefr indeed believes that those "old" and "weak" studies are wrong, please go to the journals which published those studies and scientifically criticise it. Zefr implied that this is a possible student science project is not only offensive but unfounded. So is the comment of me being a new contributor, suggesting that just because Zefr has been a contributor longer than I have somehow gives Zefr more authority? Revitalizer ( talk) 03:11, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
I patrolled the page when it was first created; unfortunately, I didn't have the scientific to feel comfortable nominating it for deletion, so I added {{ reflist}}, added a few cleanup tags, and moved on. I believe that if there's the possibility of false medical information being on Wikipedia, it needs to be removed or rephrased. -- I dream of horses ( My talk page) ( My edits) @ 06:44, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
Linda Moulton Howe ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Bio of a fringe author who'd rather be known as an "investigative reporter" overloaded with excessive puffery. I gave it a recent cleanup ( BEFORE and AFTER) but eyes appreciated as Howe fans frequently attempt to revert it. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 20:57, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
Tyler Henry ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
There appear to be two SPA accounts systematically removing all criticism from this bio of a celebrity/TV psychic medium. One of them has been warned and blanked the warning off his user page, I'm going to go call that attention of admins in a second. The two accounts are Brando628 ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) and Gizza2 ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). -- Krelnik ( talk) 17:17, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
SPA currently stripping criticism from the article again. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 23:16, 14 April 2016 (UTC)
Some disagreements here about sourcing and weight after a burst of activity from a newish WP:SPA and eggers-on. More eyes welcome. Alexbrn ( talk) 18:47, 14 April 2016 (UTC)
It appears editors would rather focus on others than address the problems. More eyes needed. -- Ronz ( talk) 16:28, 15 April 2016 (UTC)
I am having an edit skirmish with a user who insists that the page Anarcho-capitalism belongs in the "Schools of thought" category of the Anarchism sidebar; I do not. This is a long-running dispute which needs to be resolved. I am posting about this on this noticeboard because I argue that Anarcho-capitalism 1) exists pretty much only on the Internet and in theoretical journals and think-tanks whereas the other Anarchist schools of thought (with some exception; in Template talk:Anarchism sidebar I mention several other pages which probably also do not belong in the Schools of Thought section) have a long real-world history and shared ideological and social tradition, 2) is still not widely accepted as an Anarchist school of thought by mainstream scholars, 3) is already in another section of the sidebar where its best connection to the rest of Anarchism, whether or not it actually is part of it, is discussed. It seems clear to me that the person who is arguing for its continued inclusion is doing so for purely ideological reasons (and I won't deny having the opposite ideological stance), and s/he has repeatedly refused or failed to provide sufficiently strong arguments as well as intentionally misrepresenting my arguments.
What should be the next step for a conclusive resolution as to whether or not this page belongs on this sidebar? I'm asking on this noticeboard because I think that "Anarcho-capitalism" is a fringe theory in regards to Anarchism. 24.197.253.43 ( talk) 00:19, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
Talk:MMR vaccine controversy#Rename article
Some outside input may be helpful there.
jps ( talk) 22:29, 8 April 2016 (UTC)
Watseka Wonder ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) An IP on the edit warpath promising on the Talk page to correct "lazy knee-jerk skepticism about psychic phenomena". - LuckyLouie ( talk) 02:33, 20 April 2016 (UTC)
Halotherapy - although on a notable topic (it's in the news of late), this article appears credulous as heck and is a matter of some current interest. Also, for some reason the article is at Halotherapy but the talk page is at Talk:Salt therapy - David Gerard ( talk) 09:58, 20 April 2016 (UTC)
There's only 2 creeds in Sunni Islam Ash'ari & Maturidi. Athari is being pushed as a third on several Sunni Islam related pages. Athari has 1 or 2 books written on the subject, it has no encyclopedic entries while britanica for example mentions the 2 schools [13] [14]. I believe the Athari article should be deleted what do other editors think? Misdemenor ( talk) 00:12, 17 April 2016 (UTC)
Abolitionism (bioethics) is up for AFD, and there was a call to action on Facebook which has resulted in the predictable. Anyone else think they can explain Wikipedia sourcing rules to advocates, would be most welcomed - David Gerard ( talk) 10:14, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
No doubt individuals have all sorts of weird or idiosyncratic views. But to dismiss an entire bioethical tradition, ranging from the religious and utopian ("May all that hath life be delivered from suffering" - Gautama Buddha) to the scientific - or purportedly scientific - is too quick. None of this is to say that the existing entry can't be substantially improved. -- Davidcpearce ( talk) 18:47, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
David, if I were either to write, or contribute to, the entry, then I promise it would be (very) different. My point here wasn't to defend a linguistic usage - or the quality of the existing entry - but rather to query whether abolitionist bioethics - feel free to substitute whatever term you judge most apt - deserves to be placed under "fringe theories". Suffering? I wish the long-term goal of its abolition were always treated as axiomatic - in which case I'd agree with you. Sadly this isn't the case. -- Davidcpearce ( talk) 19:47, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
Faced with the choice of investing time, effort and energy working on an entry that needs improving and opting for "delete", the latter option is almost always going to be easier. I just worry that sometimes it's too easy...-- Davidcpearce ( talk) 21:53, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
And Davidcpearce has just been caught in blatant meatpuppetry with added gratuitous personal attack. Lovely - David Gerard ( talk) 10:00, 20 April 2016 (UTC)
"Caught"? David, like you I write under my own name: this is not a case for Sherlock Holmes. Sadly, I know we disagree on many things and will continue to do so - presumably both on and off Wikipedia.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Davidcpearce ( talk • contribs)
While trying to figure out if this removal was appropriate (seems ok given the burden of BLP), I looked at the ip's editing history and saw that the immediately prior edits were similar in nature but much larger (to Christopher Busby [26], and 7/7 Ripple Effect [27]. I think both articles could use some review with an eye to FRINGE. -- Ronz ( talk) 18:06, 15 April 2016 (UTC)
Even with citations, some parts of the article on Busby makes me wonder about the statistical numbers used in the article. "more than a million people have died between 1986 and 2004 as a direct result of Chernobyl.", "he referred to calculations made with his colleagues estimating that Chernobyl had killed 1,400,000 people", Are there really no sources commenting on the methods used in determining that number? The number is larger than the population of some European countries, and I find hard to believe that Busby would be the only one to notice that kind of increase in cancer deaths. Dimadick ( talk) 15:29, 23 April 2016 (UTC)
RMS Titanic alternative theories ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
This looks heavily WP:PROFRINGE to me. - Ad Orientem ( talk) 13:32, 15 April 2016 (UTC)
To be honest it probably should be entirely about the sister ship/insurance scam theories, as they actually have some legs and supporting evidence to them. The rest constitute a one line 'Alternative unsupported theories including aliens, ice floes and whale attacks also exist'. Only in death does duty end ( talk) 13:52, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
Fans of Andy Wakefield's anti-vaccine conspiracy propaganda film are infesting this article. More eyes, please. Guy ( Help!) 22:45, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
On it. 24.61.145.145 ( talk) 19:09, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
Bumping, as problems persist. See also new enforcement request at AE [28] against MjolnirPants. MarkBernstein ( talk) 22:07, 25 April 2016 (UTC)
Recent activity in this article and some discussion about sourcing (primary sources are being added for biomedical content). More eyes needed. Alexbrn ( talk) 20:10, 25 April 2016 (UTC)
The polarity therapy guy, could use some going-over. I especially like the admission that "even advocates of Stone's theory consider his books Health Building and Polarity Therapy to be difficult reading due to their inconsistencies and ambiguities." Mangoe ( talk) 14:52, 26 April 2016 (UTC)
This article is collecting loads of synthesis and original research, with what appears to be someone finding one or two studies vaguely agreeing with the authors' points, then saying "this is substantiated by independent research" after a lengthy setting out of the claims. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd have thought that if mainstream research agreed with the book that there'd be some major cancer organizations directly promoting its points, not merely a couple initial studies. Adam Cuerden ( talk) 00:36, 21 April 2016 (UTC)
It is about [29]. Small changes, according to the other editor these words are all synonyms, but they have different Wikipedia articles and the distinction is noted. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 23:28, 24 April 2016 (UTC)
To his credit, he wants to merge those articles. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 23:30, 24 April 2016 (UTC)
According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paranormal, supernatural, paranormal and preternatural all mean the same. I don't know how to merge articles. Tel yari ( talk) 05:14, 25 April 2016 (UTC)
Check synonyms, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paranormal. They are the same thing. Tel yari ( talk) 05:09, 26 April 2016 (UTC)
Supernatural and paranormal are exactly the same. "Full Definition of paranormal : not scientifically explainable : supernatural", that's the only full definition on http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paranormal. "Simple Definition of supernatural : unable to be explained by science or the laws of nature : of, relating to, or seeming to come from magic, a god, etc.", http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/supernatural. Okay, preternatural is different, "Simple Definition of preternatural : very unusual in a way that does not seem natural". Tel yari ( talk) 02:37, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
How words are often used is opinionated. When the definitions of the two words are the same as verified by a reliable source (I think Merriam-Webster's dictionary is reliable, right?), I think is of neutral point of view and verifiability. Tel yari ( talk) 03:39, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
I don't know much at all about the Wikipedia merging process or what to do about merging. Could you please explain that to me? Tel yari ( talk) 03:59, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
Travis Walton (UFO witness) ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
There appears to have been some significant PROFRINGE editing on this article which is a frequent target for such by UFO enthusiasts. Extra eyes would be appreciated. - Ad Orientem ( talk) 19:10, 26 April 2016 (UTC)
Wow, this article's a mess. I fixed a small amount of it, but do you think the polygraph test should be included, as it has been proven that they don't work or are easily fooled? ThePlatypusofDoom ( talk) 19:43, 26 April 2016 (UTC)
Bart D. Ehrman#Reception currently cites several conservative evangelical publications critical of Ehrman and his views.
The citations are properly attributed inline, but I worry that giving essentially equal weight to both sides of the dispute when in the real world it is more like 99-1 (or even 90-10) is a violation of WP:DUE.
When Ehrman says that every scholar of the New Testament with a university teaching position in the field agrees with him, he is not wrong -- if he was, other scholars of the New Testament with university teaching positions in the field would call him out on it. The scholarly consensuses he describes actually are scholarly consensuses, and citing the few authors who disagree as saying "no, they're not the consensus" seems very unbecoming of Wikipedia.
Thoughts?
Hijiri 88 ( 聖 やや) 13:01, 20 April 2016 (UTC)
(I'm sure there is a school of thought among contributors here that says "if it's verifiable, cite it; citing everything will give due weight": should we hunt down the hundreds of university syllabi that prescribes Ehrman's writings as textbooks, book reviews by scholars who agree with Ehrman, and so on? This seems impractical. Hijiri 88 ( 聖 やや) 13:04, 20 April 2016 (UTC) )
I can't see how to evaluate "aren't a large number of historians disagreeing with Ehrman".It means exactly what it says, I wasn't trying to imply anything by it. Some people disagree with Ehrman, and few of them are historians. Sure, they are out there, but there's not a lot of them. Not the way historians have come out against Richard Carrier, who's taken a decidedly non-consensus view of the historicity of Jesus. There are miles and miles of historians refuting him. In comparison, while Ehrman gets a lot of attention from religious non-historians, only the most conservative of religious historians tends to come out in opposition to him. Even then, as Ehrman says here, they generally don't take the typical tripartite approach of poking holes in Ehrman's narrative, establishing an alternative narrative and giving evidence for that narrative. They only do the first part (and yes, I read the book Ehrman wrote that in response to, and it is largely accurate.)
it's tantamount to saying that only people in secularist academia count, which is hardly a neutral position to take.I'm not so sure I can agree with that. First off, I'm not suggesting that history done by historians who are religious is necessarily bad, or that it doesn't count. There are religious historians who do good work. But when one approaches a scholarly subject like this with the unshakable conviction that everything written in the bible is factually accurate? Sorry, but that's going to have a huge, negative impact on one's reliability. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 18:58, 22 April 2016 (UTC)
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
According to this new article, "It should also be mentioned that psychosophia is a young science not yet acclaimed in international scientific community." This seems very fringe and new age-y. The article is not very coherent and the cited references are not helpful at all.- Mr X 11:27, 25 April 2016 (UTC)
Editors here may be interested in the AFD of that bio page, here. Yobol ( talk) 02:50, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
People analytics ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Appears to be a coatrack article, hanging a bunch of dimly related topics on the notion of data-driven human-resources. -- Salimfadhley ( talk) 20:51, 24 April 2016 (UTC)
Andrea Rossi is suing an investment form that decided his perennially-unproven Energy Catalyzer ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) was a bust. There are sources! The lawsuit itself, with Rossi's untested claims, and two low low low tier news reports which seem to be churnalism and contain quotes only from Rossi fanbois. It's all over the cold fusion crankosphere and I cannot find a single mention in any quality source at all. Guy ( Help!) 22:04, 14 April 2016 (UTC)
I'm sure that the The Hindu -- the 2nd largest English paper in India, 10th largest in India and 30th largest in the world List of newspapers in the world by circulation -- will be devastated to know that it is a "low low low tier" news outlet. Similarly Triangle Business Journal (part of the American City Business Journals network, whose combined circulation of about 200,000 puts it in the top five USA papers) appears to have an excellent reputation and good paid circulation in the Research Triangle region -- where IH/Cherokee are based. Secondly, even if the eCat is proved not to work, it is certainly relevant that IH was "conned" into signing a $110M contract, and has already paid Rossi $11.5M based on acceptance tests by an engineer they selected. Alanf777 ( talk) 18:03, 25 April 2016 (UTC)
Argh. The edit warring SPA has created a new section full of affirmations of Henry's psychic abilities called Praise ostensibly to balance criticism of Henry's powers. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 12:52, 2 May 2016 (UTC)
This was submitted for afd in 2007 with the agreement that a user would add "find some good sources", but this user never did. Also two books were put on the article but they do not mention the occult type of earth radiation this article is about instead they are mainstream books on geophysics which seems to discuss the earth's energy budget. Apart from one old paper there seems to be no reliable sources that discuss this topic. I would submit it for afd but it appears the previous vote in 2007 was keep. Any ideas? HealthyGirl ( talk) 21:11, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
I'm nominating it for deletion. WP:IAPD. ThePlatypusofDoom (Talk) 22:36, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
Nominated, see /info/en/?search=Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Earth_radiation_(3rd_nomination) . ThePlatypusofDoom (Talk) 23:41, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
Saw that nobody had written it yet, so went ahead and did so. It's a climate change denial documentary from CFACT and Marc Morano that Sarah Palin has been promoting recently. It's not an area I feel particularly at home writing in, though, so I've stuck to mainstream sources and left it in draftspace for now. Hoping to get some additional eyes on it before it goes to articlespace. It's in relatively rough shape for now. Some of the shortcomings are just things I haven't gotten to, but others are based on what's been covered (and what hasn't) in the major publications. There's a lot more in the other sources I posted to the talk page, but they're pretty shaky for what I'm sure will be a contentious subject. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 22:34, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
Well I waited almost one whole day, but now I've moved it into articlespace. :) Its shortcomings aren't egregious, but may be worth checking in on if it continues to get some press (e.g. the Palin vs. Nye thing was because of comments she made at the premiere). Can't say I'd be disappointed if it didn't get more press. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 21:55, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
Robert Bruce (author) ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
I can't tell if this person has any notability outside of the fringe bubble. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 15:34, 7 April 2016 (UTC)
"robert bruce" "out of body"
and "robert bruce" obe
in the database of journals my work subscribes to. With or without the "peer-reviewed only" filter, there are 2 hits. Both mentions are in book reviews written by Massimiliano Sassoli de Bianchi (odd?). The first one
[30] is a passing mention in the Journal of Conscientiology (
AFD/Journal of Conscientiology) from 2009. de Bianchi says Bruce was talked about more in the book he was reviewing though (Astral Projections by Michael Ross
[31]). The second one,
[32] also a book review by di Bianchi, this time in the
Journal of Scientific Exploration from 2013, talks about Bruce for a whole paragraph in the context of praising the book's author for refuting some of Bruce's hypotheses in a 2002 letter to the editor of... the Journal of Conscientiology. Apparently my library only has online access to Conscientiology for the years 2008 and 2009, so disappointingly, I could not access this letter. Letters to the editor don't go through the peer review process anyway, so regardless of the caliber (hehe) of peer review that usually happens at a journal called "Journal of Conscientiology," it wouldn't apply to that source. I'm thinking there's no way this guy passes
WP:NBIO.
PermStrump
(talk) 02:26, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
Robert Bruce "out of body"
and got nothing but breathy praise from non-notable fringe sources and harsh criticism from non-notable skeptics. And -of course- the WP page was the second link, right after the amazon page for his book with the obe phrase in the title. I think it may be time to do an AfD.
MjolnirPants
Tell me all about it. 13:15, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
"...And then I was going to chime in if an AFD had already been started or I'd start one if everyone else had forgotten about this guy like I had... So boy was I surprised when I came here to find the link was already red. Was there an AFD and it ended already? What did I miss?? PermStrump (talk) 05:29, 5 May 2016 (UTC)Apparently my library only has online access to Conscientiology for the years 2008 and 2009, so disappointingly, I could not access this letter.*The letter is just more of the same in-universe, self- and fringe-promoting chatter that we've already seen and doesn't do anything to demonstrate this guy's notability outside of a very small bubble.* Letters to the editor don't go through the peer review process anyway..."
Pseudoscience or not? More eyes welcome. Alexbrn ( talk) 05:57, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
New article on a fringe writer on Atlantis. Virtually unsourced, the only source being to a book by him. ELs need cleaning up, I've started. Doug Weller talk 17:04, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
I know there have been a lot of discussions about the proper terminology with regard to people (especially BLPs), websites, categories, etc. Could someone point me to (or summarize) best practices for such labels? My hope is that it's not the difficult "go with what the sources say". For the sake of discussion let's presume there are sources which talk about both "climate change denial" and "climate skepticism" (and various statements about disagreeing with the consensus among scientists). — Rhododendrites talk \\ 22:55, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
Would some other editors want to look at this article? I'm getting stuck trying to edit it, because I'm not sure if I should treat it as a coatrack of fringe creep that was originally supposed to be a legit branch off of Developmental psychology or Child development or if I should think of the whole thing as a fringe article. Based off of the sources used at Nandor Fodor#Prenatal psychology and the existence of the The Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (which is apparently peer-reviewed), my hunch is that is that there does still exist a fringe group within the field of psychology that considers "prenatal and perinatal psychology" a separate field of study and I'm pretty sure that individuals in that field believe a lot of pseudoscience that they're trying to mask under a generic title that's so broad they can claim to be associated with every field of science that ever discussed prenatal/perinatal development (which is exactly what the article tries to do, especially in this version before I removed a lot of it as WP:SYNTH). Also, it really bugs me that they seem to think the perinatal period starts at childbirth, because it's actually a vague time frame that people usually use starting from the point in the pregnancy when the fetus would technically be viable to several weeks after the actual birth. PermStrump (talk) 19:57, 7 May 2016 (UTC)
Much activity from a new editor; may need more eyes. Alexbrn ( talk) 16:58, 9 May 2016 (UTC)
Diversified technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
I recommend a merge to Chiropractic treatment techniques. A quick AFD discussion can resolve the debate. Same with the other techniques below. QuackGuru ( talk) 17:38, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
Note. Merge has been completed. User:HealthyGirl, thank you. QuackGuru ( talk) 21:41, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
Gonstead technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
Neuro Emotional Technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
It was nominate for deletion. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Neuro Emotional Technique. QuackGuru ( talk) 17:17, 15 April 2016 (UTC)
NUCCA ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
The AFD process has begun. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/NUCCA. QuackGuru ( talk) 11:30, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
Trigenics ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
Activator technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
Atlas Orthogonal Technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
It can be merged to Chiropractic treatment techniques. Should it be nominated for AFD? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:36, 2 April 2016 (UTC)
Sports chiropractic ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Unreliable sources everywhere. Too many problems to list. QuackGuru ( talk) 01:19, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
I removed the advert tag. There is still unsourced text in the article. QuackGuru ( talk) 03:20, 23 April 2016 (UTC)
Koren Specific Technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
I propose merging into Chiropractic treatment techniques. If it survives AFD then we can still merge it. QuackGuru ( talk) 02:06, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
Blatant WP:IDONTLIKEIT, we get it. Valoem talk contrib 03:13, 2 April 2016 (UTC)
A merge was proposed. QuackGuru ( talk) 23:39, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
Chiropractic neurology ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) I ended up on this one somehow after visiting sports chiropractic. Same issues as all of the above. Just wanted to add it to the list so I don't forget about it. Will comment more on discussion below. PermStrump (talk) 11:55, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
Merge all the techniques into Chiropractic treatment techniques. For example, each technique can be merged to Chiropractic treatment techniques#Techniques. QuackGuru ( talk) 02:06, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
I spotted another page. Spinal_adjustment#Adjustment_techniques is similar to Chiropractic treatment techniques#Techniques. I think Spinal adjustments are for techniques in general while Chiropractic treatment techniques is for only Chiropractic techniques. QuackGuru ( talk) 01:23, 1 April 2016 (UTC)
Merge discussion. See Talk:Koren_Specific_Technique#Selective_merge. QuackGuru ( talk) 01:00, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
I think these are the top four to merge. QuackGuru ( talk) 01:00, 17 April 2016 (UTC)
It looks like they tried to pull a fast one and merge without consensus.
Would some editors with a strong constitution care to take a look at the suicide bag article and weigh in on the talkpage about the WP:PROFRINGE issues raised? My assumption is that this article has been left alone for several years, because the topic is difficult for most people to read, as are the cited sources. Some of the sources have pictures that I wish I never saw. IMHO people might prefer to go to the talkpage first before the main article, because it's not quite as heavy. (P.S. I hope I didn't make it sound like there are pictures of dead people on the main article, because there aren't—there are in some of the sources though—but I imagine that the main article would probably be unsettling for most people the first time through and I have a strong feeling that that's why the sources haven't been combed through thoroughly in a long time, if ever, and also why only editors from one POV have essentially provided all of the sources for the article.) Other articles in peer-reviewed journals exist. I'm working on compiling a list, but haven't posted it on the talkpage yet. PermStrump (talk) 03:39, 10 May 2016 (UTC)
Article is a POV and PROFRINGE mess. I got to it from the page on UFOs, it needs some work too. ThePlatypusofDoom (Talk) 11:47, 11 May 2016 (UTC)
Many unreliable sources, a lot of the article promoting a fringe point of view. Seems this article has attracted a lot of attention from UFO believers, the skeptics section has been tagged with 'citation needed'. HealthyGirl ( talk) 01:39, 11 May 2016 (UTC)
Unreliable fringe sources all over the place. May need to be entirely re-written. HealthyGirl ( talk) 00:23, 11 May 2016 (UTC)
Another PROFRINGE article. The "Tension" section needs the most cleaning up. ThePlatypusofDoom (Talk) 11:55, 11 May 2016 (UTC)
Sorcha Faal reports ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) needs more eyes, there is an editing dispute. See history and talk page - David Gerard ( talk) 19:11, 12 May 2016 (UTC)
List of life forms ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
I would imagine that such a list would be something related to taxonomy, for example. It starts out as such, but quickly delves into a lot of WP:FRINGE areas including the "Origin of the universe and life" where various creation myths are listed and "Encounters with animate beings subject to skepticism" where such fantastic topics such as Close encounter, Electronic voice phenomenon, and Mystery airships make an appearance.
I would argue the purview of such a list should be biologically identified life only, but I grow tired of cleaning up these messes.
jps ( talk) 17:43, 12 May 2016 (UTC)
Hell, I was hoping you might be able to think of one.
List of life related topics, or something along those lines, maybe?
Outline of life forms? Maybe?
John Carter (
talk) 20:54, 12 May 2016 (UTC)
This is an account run by a family member of the ghost hunter Peter Underwood. I had my suspicions because all of this user edits seem to be promoting Underwood's books or ghost stories. It is now confirmed because of the twitter link he added found here [41] is his own Wikipedia username.
I will make it clear that this user is not disruptive or a vandal, and he seems to source his citations correctly. But in most cases they are all to Underwood's books. For example see recent edits on Speke Hall.
I would say that recent problematic edits from this user are on the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, inserting quotes from Underwood directly into the lead, and on the Raynham Hall. This seems to be promotion and may be a problem for WP:Fringe. I am at loss what to do here, because Sherlockpsy seems to be making some ok edits, he is here to improve Wikipedia and I don't have a problem if he cites Underwood. But in the case of Raynham Hall this seems to be over-promotion to a fringe point of view. WP:COI may come into play here, however. But can anyone offer any opinions on this? I am not going to revert this user because this user clearly has good intentions and I don't want to tread heavily or ruin anyone's day, but Underwood's opinions are about as fringe as it gets. So what should we do here? HealthyGirl ( talk) 01:16, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
There seem to have been at least a few RS obituaries on the individual, some of which can be found here. John Carter ( talk) 17:09, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
Just a heads up, the makers of the anti-vaccine movie Vaxxed (starring Andrew Wakefield) sent an email out to their supporters yesterday in which they solicited editors to "polish" some pages. The email is on a Mailchimp mailing list that anyone can sign up for, so I'll quote what they said here:
ANY WIKIPEDIANS OUT THERE?- We are looking for registered Wikipedians who can help polish some Wikipedia pages. If you're interested email <email redacted>, subject line: I CAN HELP WITH WIKIPEDIA
They don't say here what articles they are interested in, but it would likely include Vaxxed, Andrew Wakefield, Hear This Well and MMR vaccine controversy. ETA: oh, and of course Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I suppose it's possible they may attempt to create articles for the film's director Del Bigtree , activist and producer Polly Tommey, the "CDC Whistleblower" William Thompson or others, but the usual notability/sourcing stuff around new articles would of course apply. -- Krelnik ( talk) 17:15, 15 May 2016 (UTC)
Bioresonance therapy (
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talk |
history |
protect |
delete |
links |
watch |
logs |
views)
The description in the lead is so general that it also applies to radiology and radiation oncology: "it proposes that electromagnetic waves can be used to diagnose and treat human illness". I had a look at the "theory", but don't know how to summarize that drivel. Prevalence 03:05, 7 May 2016 (UTC)
Another UFO page which has many issues. ThePlatypusofDoom (Talk) 12:05, 11 May 2016 (UTC)
I wonder if other people think this article should be edited with WP:FRINGE in mind? Jobrot posted about it a few weeks ago on WT:PSYCH#Highly sensitive person (HSP) legit? and had also initiated an AFD for it in Jan that ended with the result to keep, "But cleanup to remove promotionalism, and consider merging with Sensitivity (human)." It reminds me of other fringe topics that use a string of common words that could easily appear in the same order in reliable sources that weren't intending to reference HSP the way it's meant in this article. The HSP in this article, refers to a phrase coined by Elaine Aron who sells books and other promotional materials on her website. I strongly recommend watching this trailer for the HSP "movie", if for no other reason than the entertainment value. —PermStrump (talk) 15:37, 17 May 2016 (UTC)
Many of the sources discuss "Sensory Processing Sensitivity" rather than "Highly Sensitive Persons" on the grounds that Aron claims on her website "Sensory Processing Sensitivity" to be the "scientific term" for "Highly Sensitive Person". I don't get why we a) don't have a page on that "scientific term" and b) instead have this page which is full of WP:Primary sources, WP:promo that's backed up by horse retreats, celebrity endorsements and borrows it's credibility from another term... another question being that "highly sensitive persons" is a natural turn of phrase that's going to appear in scientific case studies - it won't always refer to Aron's concept, and we need to protect from this phenomena. All in all I find it interesting that Aaron is protecting the term "Highly Sensitive Person" by not declaring it a diagnosis or statistical disorder - whilst encouraging individuals to adopt the term via a self-diagnostic survey on her website promoting the condition. Strange she has a scientific and non-scientific term for this diagnosis, non-diagnosis, scientific, non-scientific term. Anyways, I've found the sources to be choppy in the above regards. -- Jobrot ( talk) 9:55 pm, Yesterday (UTC−4)
(Outdenting 'cause I'm not sure how to best indent my reply)
@
Permstrump: I only read the abstracts, I don't have access anymore. But the journal supports open access (the program, not the concept) so anyone who's a current student at any public college should be able to get at it. I didn't find any of the criticism you found, but I do think that criticism is something we should keep in mind. I still think an RSN discussion is the way to go, because this is not at all clear, though given your most recent response, it does seem to lean towards this being some fringe work.
MjolnirPants
Tell me all about it. 13:42, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
There is a case involving conspiracy theories at the dispute resolution noticeboard. I am the moderator in this case, but extra input would be appreciated. The case hasn't started yet, so wait until I open the discussion. ThePlatypusofDoom (Talk) 13:11, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
State Crimes Against Democracy ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) Ran across this article in my travels. Seems to be using Wikipedia's voice to promote a term that's known within the conspiracy/Truther echo chamber. Also the section State Crimes_Against Democracy#Relation to conspiracy theory argues for an alternative definition of "conspiracy theory" that favors conspiracy theorists, in Wikipedia's voice. The WP:FRINGE problem is a complete lack of criticism and objective analysis that would indicate how narrowly held the views presented in the article actually are. Doesn't help that the creator of the term (Lance deHaven-Smith) and a single SPA/sock are the major contributors. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 12:55, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
Possible hoax article or is a non-notable chiropractic organisation. Recommending AFD. QuackGuru ( talk) 20:36, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Information-theoretic death Jytdog ( talk) 14:20, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
Decentralized autonomous organization and Talk:Decentralized autonomous organization could do with more eyes - questions over sourcing and tone on an article about an unlicensed investment scheme on a blockchain. More or less a carryover from similar at Ethereum - David Gerard ( talk) 10:58, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
Anyone up for it? —PermStrump (talk) 23:43, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
promotes a series of faddish weight loss diets which have found little favour with health professionals. The article is under constant assault from IPs (and lately a fresh account) wanting to remove criticism. Could probably use more eyes. Alexbrn ( talk) 10:03, 24 May 2016 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of Kepler exoplanet candidates by ESI (2nd nomination).
Please comment.
This page is an archive. Do not edit the contents of this page. Please direct any additional comments to the current main page. |
GMO conspiracy theories ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
We have a lot of sources attesting to the existence of GMO conspiracy theories that were removed from the article in violation of WP:PARITY. Now we have a user Tsavage ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) who has made some rather problematic claims on the talkpage about the subject. I note from his history that he looks to be WP:FRINGE-promoter of dubious sourcing standards with regards to this subject and may need to be sanctioned at WP:AE, but first I wanted to get some eyes on his contributions and on the pages he is problematically contributing to.
Thanks,
jps ( talk) 18:43, 28 February 2016 (UTC)
NOTE: As this is a behavioral comment about me, it seems relevant that excerpts from this article are nominated for "Did you know", by the article's originator (I9Q79oL78KiL0QTFHgyc aka jps), and my placement of the POV tag and comment today apparently threatens to derail that nomination, and are being argued against there by I9Q79oL78KiL0QTFHgyc/jps. (I was unaware of the nomination, and discovered it by ping, as I was mentioned in the DYK discussion.) -- Tsavage ( talk) 22:37, 28 February 2016 (UTC)
Recent edits removing Cancer Research UK as unreliable, etc. May need eyes. Alexbrn ( talk) 15:52, 2 March 2016 (UTC)
See [2]. More eyes needed for this article. Figureofnine ( talk • contribs) 13:06, 29 February 2016 (UTC)
Ideology of the SS and the main SS article, see [3] could use more eyes. Problem is SS theories/nomenclature/pseudoscientific bullhockey being presented in Wikipedia's voice, which I guess ain't a good thing is it? Being fixed in the "ideology" article but not yet addressed in the main SS article. Coretheapple ( talk) 16:34, 4 March 2016 (UTC)
There is a discussion here if that topic is of interest. It has been going on since Feb 26, but just wanted to make sure folks here are aware of it. Jytdog ( talk) 18:05, 4 March 2016 (UTC)
I trimmed out some text sourced to an OMICS Group journal, but even before that it was not obvious if this is notable bollocks. Please review and give it some thought. Guy ( Help!) 23:40, 4 March 2016 (UTC)
In List of oldest church buildings three Indian churches allegedly built in the 1st century were added. One of them already has an article where the construction date is cited to an (off-line) book; the two others even do not have articles (isn't it strange that the two of the three oldest churches in the world do not have articles?) but I assume these will be forthcoming.-- Ymblanter ( talk) 20:07, 9 March 2016 (UTC)
Looks like in part a coatrack for "Polarity Therapy", a variety of energy medicine bollocks. Anybody know of this guy and/or his works? Alexbrn ( talk) 12:32, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
Alexbrn, it may very well be bollocks, that doesn't mean the article subject isn't notable. Kindzmarauli ( talk) 19:05, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
An IP user is attempting to edit war with me. IP user talk:97.93.180.67 removed BLP, ref improve, and notability templates on Ann Louise Gittleman by misunderstaning the purpose of these tags. The article is about a Clayton College of Natural Health grad who wrote a bunch of books about fat-burning diets. The theories are obviously fringe and the article may not be notable, as it lacks reliable sources to verify the the subject. In my opinion, the article does not pass WP:AUTHOR, especially that it is a WP:BLP. More eyes please, also an admin look at the IP user would be good. Delta13C ( talk) 20:22, 1 March 2016 (UTC)
Do we have some general consensus on this? I changed "In 2002 she earned a PhD in Holistic Nutrition from Clayton College of Natural Health in Birmingham, Alabama" to "In 2002 she was given a PhD in Holistic Nutrition from Clayton College of Natural Health, a school known as a diploma mill", [4] as a placeholder. -- Ronz ( talk) 16:48, 2 March 2016 (UTC)
May need reviewing Jytdog ( talk) 20:20, 13 March 2016 (UTC)
Gulf Breeze UFO incident ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Strikes me as not being particularly article worthy. What do you think?
jps ( talk) 13:33, 14 March 2016 (UTC)
There's a request by an editor that their topic-ban be lifted for alt-med topics at ANI. Regardless of opinion on the editor, we could use thoughts from editors who've dealt alt-med topics on the outlook of lifting this particular ban. Kingofaces43 ( talk) 22:40, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
Chiropractic Biophysics ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
New chiropractic-related page. I'm not sure if it is notable. I can't find many sources on the topic. QuackGuru ( talk) 22:05, 15 March 2016 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Chiropractic Biophysics has started since the redirect was reverted. jps ( talk) 09:51, 16 March 2016 (UTC)
Got an IP editor bigging this up off the back of unreliable sources. Would be good if fringe-savvy editors watchlisted it. Alexbrn ( talk) 16:26, 16 March 2016 (UTC)
Electronic harassment ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
SPA revising this and similar articles, recently pushing tinfoil hattery about "rough government agents" [5]. Eyes appreciated. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 03:39, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
I see a lot of names of people he supposedly influenced or was influenced by, but not a lot of sources. Doug Weller talk 07:27, 13 March 2016 (UTC)
In the thread Past Life Regression Article, there is a user whose handle is the name of the author of some material about the subject attempting to make the case that the article in question should include claims that Reincarnation is a real phenomenon. So far, I'm the only one arguing against him (others have contributed their thoughts on policy, sometimes agreeing with or disagreeing with me). If anyone else could help explain why we can't do this, it'd be appreciated. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 18:27, 18 March 2016 (UTC)
The talk page for this article appears to be locked against editing by unregistered users - preventing me from drawing attention to the latest development, which casts serious doubts regarding claimed investment by Industrial Heat LCC in the device. See this article [6] and the statement from IH themselves [7] As it currently stands, the article (wisely) says nothing about IH's involvement anyway, but previous versions included such material, and there seems to be recent discussion on possibly restoring it. Accordingly it would seem wise to at least note on the talk page that as per every previous claimed 'investor' in the E-Cat, nothing has come of the venture beyond the usual flim-flam - the NET article possibly doesn't meet WP:RS, but the IH statement is certainly sufficient to invalidate earlier claims about the level of their involvement. It is probably too much to hope that the ever-optimistic promoters of this device on Wikipedia will finally get the point and find something a bit more credible to plug instead, but at least you can draw a line under this latest episode. Accordingly I would appreciate it if someone could copy this to the article talk page, and/or raise the matter there themselves. Thanks. 86.163.197.112 ( talk) 19:52, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
I feel bad for cold fusioneers. This situation is so transparently corrupt to outsiders looking in that it can't help but cast doubt on the entire community of cold fusion. I gather that Krivit's campaign against Rossi is motivated largely by this fear (as well correctly smelling the rat where it is, but I don't understand why Krivit can't smell it in the Kimmel Institute or in the SPAWAR claims either...). Rossi's machinations represent a real existential threat to those who have been patiently over the course of 25 years trying to convince the world that they balked too soon at Pons and Fleischmann type claims. jps ( talk) 15:22, 20 March 2016 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Hurricane Katrina as divine retribution
Of possible interest to board watchers.
jps ( talk) 16:40, 21 March 2016 (UTC)
Is it just me or do these concepts all sound like the same thing?
And these techniques...
Maybe some of them don't belong on the list. It's hard to tell. But what does one do about such a large number of articles on essentially the same thing? PermStrump (talk) 05:05, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
More eyes welcomed on Cryonics and Talk:Cryonics (again) - David Gerard ( talk) 10:33, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
Another in the long-running series of fad diets for which there is resistance to using that terminology (although the NHS seems okay with it). I almost wonder whether it's worth it since there seems to be no end of fad diets and no end to the debate calling them that causes. Alexbrn ( talk) 15:18, 25 March 2016 (UTC)
The Star of Bethlehem page attracts a lot of fringe theories, with lots of people eager to promote their own theories, despite the widespread scholarly assumption that the star is a literary construct.
I have been engaged with an editor who has one particular fringe view: that the birth of king Herod was four years later than generally accepted. This may seem a trivial point but it is of great importance to some fundamentalist Christians who are bothered by the fact that the Gospel of Luke says the birth of Jesus took place during the reign of Herod and at the time of the census - which took place ten years after Herod died. This is an old chestnut, and many elaborate theories have been put forward in the past to explain away the problem. Modern scholars have given up on this, dismissing such arguments as "exegetical acrobatics" (Geza Vermes).
The editor, Al Leluia81, has been trying to promote his own personal view on the Star of Bethlehem page. Section Star_of_Bethlehem#Relating_the_star_historically_to_Jesus.27_birth
Not only are his edits skewed towards equal treatment of this fringe view, he appears to be editing in bad faith. He has removed critical edits, claiming they are "promotional"; he has implied three bible versions promote a particular dubious version of the biblical text, when they actually include them only as possible aternatives; he has used poor quality, non- academic sources and demands they be given equal treatment to established mainstream scholarly sources; and he has accused me of harassment for calling him out for this.
An example of this is an edit based on poor sources and an amateur's error. I explained why this was wrong: /info/en/?search=Talk:Star_of_Bethlehem#Removal_of_Beyer_text It is a very clear and detailed explanation. This error has no support in modern Josehus scholarship. Anyone familiar with the issue would know this. Yet the editor simply reverted the text with a series of poor quality sources.
-- Rbreen ( talk) 20:35, 25 March 2016 (UTC)
Not really a fringe theory but more of a case of potential undue weight on certain topics/viewpoints, so related. Seeking outside opinion/request for comment on talk page of Yahweh. - KaJunl ( talk) 23:18, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
Ehrman, Bart (2010). "A Historical Assault on Faith". Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them). HarperCollins e-books. pp. 3–4.
ISBN
9780061173943. My hunch is that the majority of students coming into their first year of seminary training do not know what to expect from courses on the Bible. ... Most students expect these courses to be taught from a more or less pious perspective, showing them how, as future pastors, to take the Bible and make it applicable to people's lives in their weekly sermons.
Such students are in for a rude awakening. Mainline Protestant seminaries in this country are notorious for challenging students' cherished beliefs about the Bible—even if these cherished beliefs are simply a warm and fuzzy sense that the Bible is a wonderful guide to faith and practice, to be treated with reverence and piety. These seminaries teach serious, hard-core Bible scholarship. They don't pander to piety. They are taught by scholars who are familiar with what German- and English-speaking scholarship has been saying about the Bible over the past three hundred years. ...
The approach taken to the Bible in almost all Protestant (and now Catholic) mainline seminaries is what is called the "historical-critical" method. It is completely different from the "devotional" approach to the Bible one learns in church.{{
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Bloom, Allan (1987). "The Student and the University".
The Closing of the American Mind (Pbk ed.). New York: SIMON & SCHUSTER PAPERBACKS. pp. 374–375.
ISBN
0-671-65715-1. Retrieved 18 August 2010. I am distinguishing two related but different problems here. The contents of the classic books have become particularly difficult to defend in modern times, and the professors who teach them do not care to defend them, are not interested in their truth. One can most clearly see the latter in the case of the Bible. To include it in the humanities is already a blasphemy, a denial of its own claims. There it is almost inevitably treated in one of two ways: It is subjected to modern "scientific" analysis, called the Higher Criticism, where it is dismantled, to show how "sacred" books are put together, and they are not what they claim to be. It is useful as a mosaic in which one finds the footprints of many dead civilizations. Or else the Bible is used in courses of comparative religion as one expression of the need for the "sacred" and as a contribution to the very modern, very scientific study of the structure of "myths". (Here one can join up with the anthropologists and really be alive.) A teacher who treated the Bible naively, taking at its word, or Word, would be accused of scientific incompetence and lack of sophistication. Moreover, he might rock the boat and start the religious wars all over again, as well as a quarrel within the university between reason and revelation, which would upset comfortable arrangements and wind up by being humiliating to the humanities. Here one sees the traces of the Enlightenment's political project, which wanted precisely to render the Bible, and other old books, undangerous. This project is one of the underlying causes of the impotence of the humanities. The best that can be done, it appears, is to teach "The Bible as Literature," as opposed to "as Revelation," which it claims to be. In this way it can be read somewhat independently of deforming scholarly apparatus, as we read, for example, Pride and Prejudice. Thus the few professors who feel that there is something wrong with the other approaches tend to their consciences.
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Koren Specific Technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? It seems to have made something of a legal splash, so that might make it notable.
jps ( talk) 13:45, 17 March 2016 (UTC)
Look who is editing the article. QuackGuru ( talk) 23:13, 20 March 2016 (UTC)
Coatrack text about the legal bash and unreliable sources were restored. If all the coatrack and unreliable sources were deleted the article would not be notable IMO. This is the clean version. QuackGuru ( talk) 01:18, 27 March 2016 (UTC)
This article is pretty problematic, because, when you get into the meat of it, you find that by and large the scholarly world rejects that such influences exist outside some syncretism (maybe) in Nestorian India, and that indeed it seems more likely that whatever influences there are run the other direction. At least it doesn't mention Elizabeth Clare Prophet. Any ideas about fixing up the lead? Mangoe ( talk) 13:59, 29 March 2016 (UTC)
Sorcha Faal, see also Talk:Sorcha Faal. Doesn't appear to have improved in notability since the last AFD, with all the problems noted there and new ones added - but someone else can nominate it this time - David Gerard ( talk) 17:13, 26 March 2016 (UTC)
I came across this userpage while checking and fixing ref errors. I would like an opinion if this is fringe or not. The main header is "A FAR FROM EQUILIBRIUM THERMODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE OF METABOLICALLY GENERATED FREE RADICALS AS THE FOUNDATION OF HOMEOSTASIS". A Google search revealed part of it on [10]. -- Auric talk 14:48, 26 March 2016 (UTC)
There are a couple of editors over there, both of whom have stated their conviction that the argument from authority is always a fallacy trying to push an example and some bad sources into the article which supports their view. The specific example they're trying to push is the belief in the early 20th century that humans had 48 chromosomes, because the most popular count of 48 came from a highly respected cytologist ( Theophilus Painter). They're pushing sources from mathematicians and psychologists as experts on logic, and ignoring any arguments to the contrary. They've opened two sections at RSN, the latter of which boomeranged on them by bringing in a couple of additional editors to contest the inclusion. Most of the editors involved don't want to use this example because it's unclear, it implies that even relying on non-controversial expert claims is a fallacy (despite all the academic and scholarly sources flatly stating that it isn't), and because it's just so contentious that it wouldn't be stable. It has been suggested (by me) that one particular case in which a cytologist said he had to force a count of 48 when he didn't see 48 could be used, so long as it was balanced with examples of the argument used non-fallaciously and other forms of fallacious versions, but that compromise was flatly rejected. Any additional voices of reason would be appreciated. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 22:42, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
Graston Technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23118072
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22131563
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21589706
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15855909.
User:Onthost (
T
C)
02:21, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
Since it is not specifically about chiropractic I have moved the thread. QuackGuru ( talk) 20:31, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Curtis Yarvin ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views), one of the main theorists of the Dark Enlightenment - a fringe political figure who has done all manner of slightly notable things, some of which have made RSes. The article recently survived AFD. So the problem here is how to get it reliably sourced to BLP standards, particularly as a controversial figure.
There are a pile of warnings on the cites, but this post isn't intended to subtly ask for someone to steam in with an axe - instead, I'm asking for help with dredging up RSes on this fellow. So please don't go mad with the axe :-) We really seriously want help with good BLP-quality sourcing on this guy. Not primary sources, not blogs, but actual third-party verifiable RSes for everything worth noting about him. See the talk page for discussion hitherto - David Gerard ( talk) 21:46, 2 April 2016 (UTC)
Earth Similarity Index ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
I have been going through today cleaning up a lot of fringe material related to this article as can be seen in this edit. There seems to be a cottage industry of people who are trying to apply this index everywhere they possibly can which is, as far as I can tell, the curated and uncited invention of a single person with the only mention in one journal article that does not go as far as to propose consistent measurements for all the different exoplanets so far discovered. To be clear, the index has been mentioned in popular science work, but there is no rigorous use of it and it is far from standard in mainstream academic use. Contextualizing it properly is the key, so people familiar with how to use WP:FRINGE properly would be helpful.
Related to this are the following AfDs:
as well as a few templates at
Help contextualizing this issue would be greatly appreciated.
jps ( talk) 23:51, 1 April 2016 (UTC)
Amazingly, passed AfD. There is now resistance to using decent sources (Cochrane) and having a pseudoscience category. Could use eyes. Alexbrn ( talk) 15:15, 25 March 2016 (UTC)
Does the opening sentence over-attribute the mainstream view, with too many qualifiers? It seems odd, at the least, to write:
“ | Psychic surgery is a means of committing what most physicians in traditional medicine believe to be a pseudoscientific medical fraud using a possible conjuring trick[...] | ” |
— Preceding unsigned comment added by Adam Cuerden ( talk • contribs)
In related news Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2016_April_7#Template:Infobox_paranormal_term. jps ( talk) 12:57, 7 April 2016 (UTC)
Got some activity at Michael Greger again (deletion of skepticism, addition of health claims) which could probably use eyes. Alexbrn ( talk) 11:40, 26 March 2016 (UTC)
This isn't fringe per se but it touches on a lot of the kinds of problems we deal with in research. It's a statistical appearance that people are more likely to die within a few days of their birthday (and there appear to be Christmas and Passover effects as well)— except that some studies show it and some don't. From the one study I could readily see into the effect is very small. Someone who is more familiar with dealing with this sort of research than I am could help sort this out. Mangoe ( talk) 11:38, 8 April 2016 (UTC)
Needs eyes. Thanks. Doug Weller talk 17:26, 8 April 2016 (UTC)
This article is full of Scientology fringe and all sorts of other fringe. I've been trying to work on it, but it's a beast, so I could use help if anyone has time. It doesn't look like anyone is necessarily paying attention to my edits... at least not yet. PermStrump (talk) 18:01, 7 April 2016 (UTC)
Need more eyes in phosphorylethanolamine: [11]. Thanks. fgnievinski ( talk) 16:11, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
This isn't my expertise, but I'll see what I can do. ThePlatypusofDoom ( talk) 16:44, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
Revitalizer created a new page called Activated phenolics, a concept that falls outside current thinking about the physiological fate of ingested polyphenols ("phenolics"). Although research is extensive on potential physiological and anti-disease effects of polyphenols, there exists no in vivo evidence that they survive metabolism and extensive rapid excretion to play any significant role in the body, let alone being "activated" (no definition for how this occurs). In my opinion, this content is not worthy of article status.
Revitalizer uses old citations, mostly weak in substance, to support what seems to be a WP:OR theory certainly on the fringe of current science. Possibly, this is a student science project -- the user is a new contributor to Wikipedia as of Feb 2016.
I provided feedback on the user's Talk page, then transferred the discussion to the Talk page of Activated phenolics. -- Zefr ( talk) 03:02, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
Zefr mentioned no affiliation with any reputable scientific institution nor substantiated expertise in this topic. I suggest if Zefr indeed believes that those "old" and "weak" studies are wrong, please go to the journals which published those studies and scientifically criticise it. Zefr implied that this is a possible student science project is not only offensive but unfounded. So is the comment of me being a new contributor, suggesting that just because Zefr has been a contributor longer than I have somehow gives Zefr more authority? Revitalizer ( talk) 03:11, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
I patrolled the page when it was first created; unfortunately, I didn't have the scientific to feel comfortable nominating it for deletion, so I added {{ reflist}}, added a few cleanup tags, and moved on. I believe that if there's the possibility of false medical information being on Wikipedia, it needs to be removed or rephrased. -- I dream of horses ( My talk page) ( My edits) @ 06:44, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
Linda Moulton Howe ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Bio of a fringe author who'd rather be known as an "investigative reporter" overloaded with excessive puffery. I gave it a recent cleanup ( BEFORE and AFTER) but eyes appreciated as Howe fans frequently attempt to revert it. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 20:57, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
Tyler Henry ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
There appear to be two SPA accounts systematically removing all criticism from this bio of a celebrity/TV psychic medium. One of them has been warned and blanked the warning off his user page, I'm going to go call that attention of admins in a second. The two accounts are Brando628 ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) and Gizza2 ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). -- Krelnik ( talk) 17:17, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
SPA currently stripping criticism from the article again. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 23:16, 14 April 2016 (UTC)
Some disagreements here about sourcing and weight after a burst of activity from a newish WP:SPA and eggers-on. More eyes welcome. Alexbrn ( talk) 18:47, 14 April 2016 (UTC)
It appears editors would rather focus on others than address the problems. More eyes needed. -- Ronz ( talk) 16:28, 15 April 2016 (UTC)
I am having an edit skirmish with a user who insists that the page Anarcho-capitalism belongs in the "Schools of thought" category of the Anarchism sidebar; I do not. This is a long-running dispute which needs to be resolved. I am posting about this on this noticeboard because I argue that Anarcho-capitalism 1) exists pretty much only on the Internet and in theoretical journals and think-tanks whereas the other Anarchist schools of thought (with some exception; in Template talk:Anarchism sidebar I mention several other pages which probably also do not belong in the Schools of Thought section) have a long real-world history and shared ideological and social tradition, 2) is still not widely accepted as an Anarchist school of thought by mainstream scholars, 3) is already in another section of the sidebar where its best connection to the rest of Anarchism, whether or not it actually is part of it, is discussed. It seems clear to me that the person who is arguing for its continued inclusion is doing so for purely ideological reasons (and I won't deny having the opposite ideological stance), and s/he has repeatedly refused or failed to provide sufficiently strong arguments as well as intentionally misrepresenting my arguments.
What should be the next step for a conclusive resolution as to whether or not this page belongs on this sidebar? I'm asking on this noticeboard because I think that "Anarcho-capitalism" is a fringe theory in regards to Anarchism. 24.197.253.43 ( talk) 00:19, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
Talk:MMR vaccine controversy#Rename article
Some outside input may be helpful there.
jps ( talk) 22:29, 8 April 2016 (UTC)
Watseka Wonder ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) An IP on the edit warpath promising on the Talk page to correct "lazy knee-jerk skepticism about psychic phenomena". - LuckyLouie ( talk) 02:33, 20 April 2016 (UTC)
Halotherapy - although on a notable topic (it's in the news of late), this article appears credulous as heck and is a matter of some current interest. Also, for some reason the article is at Halotherapy but the talk page is at Talk:Salt therapy - David Gerard ( talk) 09:58, 20 April 2016 (UTC)
There's only 2 creeds in Sunni Islam Ash'ari & Maturidi. Athari is being pushed as a third on several Sunni Islam related pages. Athari has 1 or 2 books written on the subject, it has no encyclopedic entries while britanica for example mentions the 2 schools [13] [14]. I believe the Athari article should be deleted what do other editors think? Misdemenor ( talk) 00:12, 17 April 2016 (UTC)
Abolitionism (bioethics) is up for AFD, and there was a call to action on Facebook which has resulted in the predictable. Anyone else think they can explain Wikipedia sourcing rules to advocates, would be most welcomed - David Gerard ( talk) 10:14, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
No doubt individuals have all sorts of weird or idiosyncratic views. But to dismiss an entire bioethical tradition, ranging from the religious and utopian ("May all that hath life be delivered from suffering" - Gautama Buddha) to the scientific - or purportedly scientific - is too quick. None of this is to say that the existing entry can't be substantially improved. -- Davidcpearce ( talk) 18:47, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
David, if I were either to write, or contribute to, the entry, then I promise it would be (very) different. My point here wasn't to defend a linguistic usage - or the quality of the existing entry - but rather to query whether abolitionist bioethics - feel free to substitute whatever term you judge most apt - deserves to be placed under "fringe theories". Suffering? I wish the long-term goal of its abolition were always treated as axiomatic - in which case I'd agree with you. Sadly this isn't the case. -- Davidcpearce ( talk) 19:47, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
Faced with the choice of investing time, effort and energy working on an entry that needs improving and opting for "delete", the latter option is almost always going to be easier. I just worry that sometimes it's too easy...-- Davidcpearce ( talk) 21:53, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
And Davidcpearce has just been caught in blatant meatpuppetry with added gratuitous personal attack. Lovely - David Gerard ( talk) 10:00, 20 April 2016 (UTC)
"Caught"? David, like you I write under my own name: this is not a case for Sherlock Holmes. Sadly, I know we disagree on many things and will continue to do so - presumably both on and off Wikipedia.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Davidcpearce ( talk • contribs)
While trying to figure out if this removal was appropriate (seems ok given the burden of BLP), I looked at the ip's editing history and saw that the immediately prior edits were similar in nature but much larger (to Christopher Busby [26], and 7/7 Ripple Effect [27]. I think both articles could use some review with an eye to FRINGE. -- Ronz ( talk) 18:06, 15 April 2016 (UTC)
Even with citations, some parts of the article on Busby makes me wonder about the statistical numbers used in the article. "more than a million people have died between 1986 and 2004 as a direct result of Chernobyl.", "he referred to calculations made with his colleagues estimating that Chernobyl had killed 1,400,000 people", Are there really no sources commenting on the methods used in determining that number? The number is larger than the population of some European countries, and I find hard to believe that Busby would be the only one to notice that kind of increase in cancer deaths. Dimadick ( talk) 15:29, 23 April 2016 (UTC)
RMS Titanic alternative theories ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
This looks heavily WP:PROFRINGE to me. - Ad Orientem ( talk) 13:32, 15 April 2016 (UTC)
To be honest it probably should be entirely about the sister ship/insurance scam theories, as they actually have some legs and supporting evidence to them. The rest constitute a one line 'Alternative unsupported theories including aliens, ice floes and whale attacks also exist'. Only in death does duty end ( talk) 13:52, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
Fans of Andy Wakefield's anti-vaccine conspiracy propaganda film are infesting this article. More eyes, please. Guy ( Help!) 22:45, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
On it. 24.61.145.145 ( talk) 19:09, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
Bumping, as problems persist. See also new enforcement request at AE [28] against MjolnirPants. MarkBernstein ( talk) 22:07, 25 April 2016 (UTC)
Recent activity in this article and some discussion about sourcing (primary sources are being added for biomedical content). More eyes needed. Alexbrn ( talk) 20:10, 25 April 2016 (UTC)
The polarity therapy guy, could use some going-over. I especially like the admission that "even advocates of Stone's theory consider his books Health Building and Polarity Therapy to be difficult reading due to their inconsistencies and ambiguities." Mangoe ( talk) 14:52, 26 April 2016 (UTC)
This article is collecting loads of synthesis and original research, with what appears to be someone finding one or two studies vaguely agreeing with the authors' points, then saying "this is substantiated by independent research" after a lengthy setting out of the claims. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd have thought that if mainstream research agreed with the book that there'd be some major cancer organizations directly promoting its points, not merely a couple initial studies. Adam Cuerden ( talk) 00:36, 21 April 2016 (UTC)
It is about [29]. Small changes, according to the other editor these words are all synonyms, but they have different Wikipedia articles and the distinction is noted. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 23:28, 24 April 2016 (UTC)
To his credit, he wants to merge those articles. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 23:30, 24 April 2016 (UTC)
According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paranormal, supernatural, paranormal and preternatural all mean the same. I don't know how to merge articles. Tel yari ( talk) 05:14, 25 April 2016 (UTC)
Check synonyms, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paranormal. They are the same thing. Tel yari ( talk) 05:09, 26 April 2016 (UTC)
Supernatural and paranormal are exactly the same. "Full Definition of paranormal : not scientifically explainable : supernatural", that's the only full definition on http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paranormal. "Simple Definition of supernatural : unable to be explained by science or the laws of nature : of, relating to, or seeming to come from magic, a god, etc.", http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/supernatural. Okay, preternatural is different, "Simple Definition of preternatural : very unusual in a way that does not seem natural". Tel yari ( talk) 02:37, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
How words are often used is opinionated. When the definitions of the two words are the same as verified by a reliable source (I think Merriam-Webster's dictionary is reliable, right?), I think is of neutral point of view and verifiability. Tel yari ( talk) 03:39, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
I don't know much at all about the Wikipedia merging process or what to do about merging. Could you please explain that to me? Tel yari ( talk) 03:59, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
Travis Walton (UFO witness) ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
There appears to have been some significant PROFRINGE editing on this article which is a frequent target for such by UFO enthusiasts. Extra eyes would be appreciated. - Ad Orientem ( talk) 19:10, 26 April 2016 (UTC)
Wow, this article's a mess. I fixed a small amount of it, but do you think the polygraph test should be included, as it has been proven that they don't work or are easily fooled? ThePlatypusofDoom ( talk) 19:43, 26 April 2016 (UTC)
Bart D. Ehrman#Reception currently cites several conservative evangelical publications critical of Ehrman and his views.
The citations are properly attributed inline, but I worry that giving essentially equal weight to both sides of the dispute when in the real world it is more like 99-1 (or even 90-10) is a violation of WP:DUE.
When Ehrman says that every scholar of the New Testament with a university teaching position in the field agrees with him, he is not wrong -- if he was, other scholars of the New Testament with university teaching positions in the field would call him out on it. The scholarly consensuses he describes actually are scholarly consensuses, and citing the few authors who disagree as saying "no, they're not the consensus" seems very unbecoming of Wikipedia.
Thoughts?
Hijiri 88 ( 聖 やや) 13:01, 20 April 2016 (UTC)
(I'm sure there is a school of thought among contributors here that says "if it's verifiable, cite it; citing everything will give due weight": should we hunt down the hundreds of university syllabi that prescribes Ehrman's writings as textbooks, book reviews by scholars who agree with Ehrman, and so on? This seems impractical. Hijiri 88 ( 聖 やや) 13:04, 20 April 2016 (UTC) )
I can't see how to evaluate "aren't a large number of historians disagreeing with Ehrman".It means exactly what it says, I wasn't trying to imply anything by it. Some people disagree with Ehrman, and few of them are historians. Sure, they are out there, but there's not a lot of them. Not the way historians have come out against Richard Carrier, who's taken a decidedly non-consensus view of the historicity of Jesus. There are miles and miles of historians refuting him. In comparison, while Ehrman gets a lot of attention from religious non-historians, only the most conservative of religious historians tends to come out in opposition to him. Even then, as Ehrman says here, they generally don't take the typical tripartite approach of poking holes in Ehrman's narrative, establishing an alternative narrative and giving evidence for that narrative. They only do the first part (and yes, I read the book Ehrman wrote that in response to, and it is largely accurate.)
it's tantamount to saying that only people in secularist academia count, which is hardly a neutral position to take.I'm not so sure I can agree with that. First off, I'm not suggesting that history done by historians who are religious is necessarily bad, or that it doesn't count. There are religious historians who do good work. But when one approaches a scholarly subject like this with the unshakable conviction that everything written in the bible is factually accurate? Sorry, but that's going to have a huge, negative impact on one's reliability. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 18:58, 22 April 2016 (UTC)
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
According to this new article, "It should also be mentioned that psychosophia is a young science not yet acclaimed in international scientific community." This seems very fringe and new age-y. The article is not very coherent and the cited references are not helpful at all.- Mr X 11:27, 25 April 2016 (UTC)
Editors here may be interested in the AFD of that bio page, here. Yobol ( talk) 02:50, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
People analytics ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Appears to be a coatrack article, hanging a bunch of dimly related topics on the notion of data-driven human-resources. -- Salimfadhley ( talk) 20:51, 24 April 2016 (UTC)
Andrea Rossi is suing an investment form that decided his perennially-unproven Energy Catalyzer ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) was a bust. There are sources! The lawsuit itself, with Rossi's untested claims, and two low low low tier news reports which seem to be churnalism and contain quotes only from Rossi fanbois. It's all over the cold fusion crankosphere and I cannot find a single mention in any quality source at all. Guy ( Help!) 22:04, 14 April 2016 (UTC)
I'm sure that the The Hindu -- the 2nd largest English paper in India, 10th largest in India and 30th largest in the world List of newspapers in the world by circulation -- will be devastated to know that it is a "low low low tier" news outlet. Similarly Triangle Business Journal (part of the American City Business Journals network, whose combined circulation of about 200,000 puts it in the top five USA papers) appears to have an excellent reputation and good paid circulation in the Research Triangle region -- where IH/Cherokee are based. Secondly, even if the eCat is proved not to work, it is certainly relevant that IH was "conned" into signing a $110M contract, and has already paid Rossi $11.5M based on acceptance tests by an engineer they selected. Alanf777 ( talk) 18:03, 25 April 2016 (UTC)
Argh. The edit warring SPA has created a new section full of affirmations of Henry's psychic abilities called Praise ostensibly to balance criticism of Henry's powers. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 12:52, 2 May 2016 (UTC)
This was submitted for afd in 2007 with the agreement that a user would add "find some good sources", but this user never did. Also two books were put on the article but they do not mention the occult type of earth radiation this article is about instead they are mainstream books on geophysics which seems to discuss the earth's energy budget. Apart from one old paper there seems to be no reliable sources that discuss this topic. I would submit it for afd but it appears the previous vote in 2007 was keep. Any ideas? HealthyGirl ( talk) 21:11, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
I'm nominating it for deletion. WP:IAPD. ThePlatypusofDoom (Talk) 22:36, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
Nominated, see /info/en/?search=Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Earth_radiation_(3rd_nomination) . ThePlatypusofDoom (Talk) 23:41, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
Saw that nobody had written it yet, so went ahead and did so. It's a climate change denial documentary from CFACT and Marc Morano that Sarah Palin has been promoting recently. It's not an area I feel particularly at home writing in, though, so I've stuck to mainstream sources and left it in draftspace for now. Hoping to get some additional eyes on it before it goes to articlespace. It's in relatively rough shape for now. Some of the shortcomings are just things I haven't gotten to, but others are based on what's been covered (and what hasn't) in the major publications. There's a lot more in the other sources I posted to the talk page, but they're pretty shaky for what I'm sure will be a contentious subject. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 22:34, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
Well I waited almost one whole day, but now I've moved it into articlespace. :) Its shortcomings aren't egregious, but may be worth checking in on if it continues to get some press (e.g. the Palin vs. Nye thing was because of comments she made at the premiere). Can't say I'd be disappointed if it didn't get more press. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 21:55, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
Robert Bruce (author) ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
I can't tell if this person has any notability outside of the fringe bubble. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 15:34, 7 April 2016 (UTC)
"robert bruce" "out of body"
and "robert bruce" obe
in the database of journals my work subscribes to. With or without the "peer-reviewed only" filter, there are 2 hits. Both mentions are in book reviews written by Massimiliano Sassoli de Bianchi (odd?). The first one
[30] is a passing mention in the Journal of Conscientiology (
AFD/Journal of Conscientiology) from 2009. de Bianchi says Bruce was talked about more in the book he was reviewing though (Astral Projections by Michael Ross
[31]). The second one,
[32] also a book review by di Bianchi, this time in the
Journal of Scientific Exploration from 2013, talks about Bruce for a whole paragraph in the context of praising the book's author for refuting some of Bruce's hypotheses in a 2002 letter to the editor of... the Journal of Conscientiology. Apparently my library only has online access to Conscientiology for the years 2008 and 2009, so disappointingly, I could not access this letter. Letters to the editor don't go through the peer review process anyway, so regardless of the caliber (hehe) of peer review that usually happens at a journal called "Journal of Conscientiology," it wouldn't apply to that source. I'm thinking there's no way this guy passes
WP:NBIO.
PermStrump
(talk) 02:26, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
Robert Bruce "out of body"
and got nothing but breathy praise from non-notable fringe sources and harsh criticism from non-notable skeptics. And -of course- the WP page was the second link, right after the amazon page for his book with the obe phrase in the title. I think it may be time to do an AfD.
MjolnirPants
Tell me all about it. 13:15, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
"...And then I was going to chime in if an AFD had already been started or I'd start one if everyone else had forgotten about this guy like I had... So boy was I surprised when I came here to find the link was already red. Was there an AFD and it ended already? What did I miss?? PermStrump (talk) 05:29, 5 May 2016 (UTC)Apparently my library only has online access to Conscientiology for the years 2008 and 2009, so disappointingly, I could not access this letter.*The letter is just more of the same in-universe, self- and fringe-promoting chatter that we've already seen and doesn't do anything to demonstrate this guy's notability outside of a very small bubble.* Letters to the editor don't go through the peer review process anyway..."
Pseudoscience or not? More eyes welcome. Alexbrn ( talk) 05:57, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
New article on a fringe writer on Atlantis. Virtually unsourced, the only source being to a book by him. ELs need cleaning up, I've started. Doug Weller talk 17:04, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
I know there have been a lot of discussions about the proper terminology with regard to people (especially BLPs), websites, categories, etc. Could someone point me to (or summarize) best practices for such labels? My hope is that it's not the difficult "go with what the sources say". For the sake of discussion let's presume there are sources which talk about both "climate change denial" and "climate skepticism" (and various statements about disagreeing with the consensus among scientists). — Rhododendrites talk \\ 22:55, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
Would some other editors want to look at this article? I'm getting stuck trying to edit it, because I'm not sure if I should treat it as a coatrack of fringe creep that was originally supposed to be a legit branch off of Developmental psychology or Child development or if I should think of the whole thing as a fringe article. Based off of the sources used at Nandor Fodor#Prenatal psychology and the existence of the The Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (which is apparently peer-reviewed), my hunch is that is that there does still exist a fringe group within the field of psychology that considers "prenatal and perinatal psychology" a separate field of study and I'm pretty sure that individuals in that field believe a lot of pseudoscience that they're trying to mask under a generic title that's so broad they can claim to be associated with every field of science that ever discussed prenatal/perinatal development (which is exactly what the article tries to do, especially in this version before I removed a lot of it as WP:SYNTH). Also, it really bugs me that they seem to think the perinatal period starts at childbirth, because it's actually a vague time frame that people usually use starting from the point in the pregnancy when the fetus would technically be viable to several weeks after the actual birth. PermStrump (talk) 19:57, 7 May 2016 (UTC)
Much activity from a new editor; may need more eyes. Alexbrn ( talk) 16:58, 9 May 2016 (UTC)
Diversified technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
I recommend a merge to Chiropractic treatment techniques. A quick AFD discussion can resolve the debate. Same with the other techniques below. QuackGuru ( talk) 17:38, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
Note. Merge has been completed. User:HealthyGirl, thank you. QuackGuru ( talk) 21:41, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
Gonstead technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
Neuro Emotional Technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
It was nominate for deletion. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Neuro Emotional Technique. QuackGuru ( talk) 17:17, 15 April 2016 (UTC)
NUCCA ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
The AFD process has begun. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/NUCCA. QuackGuru ( talk) 11:30, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
Trigenics ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
Activator technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
Atlas Orthogonal Technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is an article appropriate? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:49, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
It can be merged to Chiropractic treatment techniques. Should it be nominated for AFD? QuackGuru ( talk) 00:36, 2 April 2016 (UTC)
Sports chiropractic ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Unreliable sources everywhere. Too many problems to list. QuackGuru ( talk) 01:19, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
I removed the advert tag. There is still unsourced text in the article. QuackGuru ( talk) 03:20, 23 April 2016 (UTC)
Koren Specific Technique ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
I propose merging into Chiropractic treatment techniques. If it survives AFD then we can still merge it. QuackGuru ( talk) 02:06, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
Blatant WP:IDONTLIKEIT, we get it. Valoem talk contrib 03:13, 2 April 2016 (UTC)
A merge was proposed. QuackGuru ( talk) 23:39, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
Chiropractic neurology ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) I ended up on this one somehow after visiting sports chiropractic. Same issues as all of the above. Just wanted to add it to the list so I don't forget about it. Will comment more on discussion below. PermStrump (talk) 11:55, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
Merge all the techniques into Chiropractic treatment techniques. For example, each technique can be merged to Chiropractic treatment techniques#Techniques. QuackGuru ( talk) 02:06, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
I spotted another page. Spinal_adjustment#Adjustment_techniques is similar to Chiropractic treatment techniques#Techniques. I think Spinal adjustments are for techniques in general while Chiropractic treatment techniques is for only Chiropractic techniques. QuackGuru ( talk) 01:23, 1 April 2016 (UTC)
Merge discussion. See Talk:Koren_Specific_Technique#Selective_merge. QuackGuru ( talk) 01:00, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
I think these are the top four to merge. QuackGuru ( talk) 01:00, 17 April 2016 (UTC)
It looks like they tried to pull a fast one and merge without consensus.
Would some editors with a strong constitution care to take a look at the suicide bag article and weigh in on the talkpage about the WP:PROFRINGE issues raised? My assumption is that this article has been left alone for several years, because the topic is difficult for most people to read, as are the cited sources. Some of the sources have pictures that I wish I never saw. IMHO people might prefer to go to the talkpage first before the main article, because it's not quite as heavy. (P.S. I hope I didn't make it sound like there are pictures of dead people on the main article, because there aren't—there are in some of the sources though—but I imagine that the main article would probably be unsettling for most people the first time through and I have a strong feeling that that's why the sources haven't been combed through thoroughly in a long time, if ever, and also why only editors from one POV have essentially provided all of the sources for the article.) Other articles in peer-reviewed journals exist. I'm working on compiling a list, but haven't posted it on the talkpage yet. PermStrump (talk) 03:39, 10 May 2016 (UTC)
Article is a POV and PROFRINGE mess. I got to it from the page on UFOs, it needs some work too. ThePlatypusofDoom (Talk) 11:47, 11 May 2016 (UTC)
Many unreliable sources, a lot of the article promoting a fringe point of view. Seems this article has attracted a lot of attention from UFO believers, the skeptics section has been tagged with 'citation needed'. HealthyGirl ( talk) 01:39, 11 May 2016 (UTC)
Unreliable fringe sources all over the place. May need to be entirely re-written. HealthyGirl ( talk) 00:23, 11 May 2016 (UTC)
Another PROFRINGE article. The "Tension" section needs the most cleaning up. ThePlatypusofDoom (Talk) 11:55, 11 May 2016 (UTC)
Sorcha Faal reports ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) needs more eyes, there is an editing dispute. See history and talk page - David Gerard ( talk) 19:11, 12 May 2016 (UTC)
List of life forms ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
I would imagine that such a list would be something related to taxonomy, for example. It starts out as such, but quickly delves into a lot of WP:FRINGE areas including the "Origin of the universe and life" where various creation myths are listed and "Encounters with animate beings subject to skepticism" where such fantastic topics such as Close encounter, Electronic voice phenomenon, and Mystery airships make an appearance.
I would argue the purview of such a list should be biologically identified life only, but I grow tired of cleaning up these messes.
jps ( talk) 17:43, 12 May 2016 (UTC)
Hell, I was hoping you might be able to think of one.
List of life related topics, or something along those lines, maybe?
Outline of life forms? Maybe?
John Carter (
talk) 20:54, 12 May 2016 (UTC)
This is an account run by a family member of the ghost hunter Peter Underwood. I had my suspicions because all of this user edits seem to be promoting Underwood's books or ghost stories. It is now confirmed because of the twitter link he added found here [41] is his own Wikipedia username.
I will make it clear that this user is not disruptive or a vandal, and he seems to source his citations correctly. But in most cases they are all to Underwood's books. For example see recent edits on Speke Hall.
I would say that recent problematic edits from this user are on the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, inserting quotes from Underwood directly into the lead, and on the Raynham Hall. This seems to be promotion and may be a problem for WP:Fringe. I am at loss what to do here, because Sherlockpsy seems to be making some ok edits, he is here to improve Wikipedia and I don't have a problem if he cites Underwood. But in the case of Raynham Hall this seems to be over-promotion to a fringe point of view. WP:COI may come into play here, however. But can anyone offer any opinions on this? I am not going to revert this user because this user clearly has good intentions and I don't want to tread heavily or ruin anyone's day, but Underwood's opinions are about as fringe as it gets. So what should we do here? HealthyGirl ( talk) 01:16, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
There seem to have been at least a few RS obituaries on the individual, some of which can be found here. John Carter ( talk) 17:09, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
Just a heads up, the makers of the anti-vaccine movie Vaxxed (starring Andrew Wakefield) sent an email out to their supporters yesterday in which they solicited editors to "polish" some pages. The email is on a Mailchimp mailing list that anyone can sign up for, so I'll quote what they said here:
ANY WIKIPEDIANS OUT THERE?- We are looking for registered Wikipedians who can help polish some Wikipedia pages. If you're interested email <email redacted>, subject line: I CAN HELP WITH WIKIPEDIA
They don't say here what articles they are interested in, but it would likely include Vaxxed, Andrew Wakefield, Hear This Well and MMR vaccine controversy. ETA: oh, and of course Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I suppose it's possible they may attempt to create articles for the film's director Del Bigtree , activist and producer Polly Tommey, the "CDC Whistleblower" William Thompson or others, but the usual notability/sourcing stuff around new articles would of course apply. -- Krelnik ( talk) 17:15, 15 May 2016 (UTC)
Bioresonance therapy (
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The description in the lead is so general that it also applies to radiology and radiation oncology: "it proposes that electromagnetic waves can be used to diagnose and treat human illness". I had a look at the "theory", but don't know how to summarize that drivel. Prevalence 03:05, 7 May 2016 (UTC)
Another UFO page which has many issues. ThePlatypusofDoom (Talk) 12:05, 11 May 2016 (UTC)
I wonder if other people think this article should be edited with WP:FRINGE in mind? Jobrot posted about it a few weeks ago on WT:PSYCH#Highly sensitive person (HSP) legit? and had also initiated an AFD for it in Jan that ended with the result to keep, "But cleanup to remove promotionalism, and consider merging with Sensitivity (human)." It reminds me of other fringe topics that use a string of common words that could easily appear in the same order in reliable sources that weren't intending to reference HSP the way it's meant in this article. The HSP in this article, refers to a phrase coined by Elaine Aron who sells books and other promotional materials on her website. I strongly recommend watching this trailer for the HSP "movie", if for no other reason than the entertainment value. —PermStrump (talk) 15:37, 17 May 2016 (UTC)
Many of the sources discuss "Sensory Processing Sensitivity" rather than "Highly Sensitive Persons" on the grounds that Aron claims on her website "Sensory Processing Sensitivity" to be the "scientific term" for "Highly Sensitive Person". I don't get why we a) don't have a page on that "scientific term" and b) instead have this page which is full of WP:Primary sources, WP:promo that's backed up by horse retreats, celebrity endorsements and borrows it's credibility from another term... another question being that "highly sensitive persons" is a natural turn of phrase that's going to appear in scientific case studies - it won't always refer to Aron's concept, and we need to protect from this phenomena. All in all I find it interesting that Aaron is protecting the term "Highly Sensitive Person" by not declaring it a diagnosis or statistical disorder - whilst encouraging individuals to adopt the term via a self-diagnostic survey on her website promoting the condition. Strange she has a scientific and non-scientific term for this diagnosis, non-diagnosis, scientific, non-scientific term. Anyways, I've found the sources to be choppy in the above regards. -- Jobrot ( talk) 9:55 pm, Yesterday (UTC−4)
(Outdenting 'cause I'm not sure how to best indent my reply)
@
Permstrump: I only read the abstracts, I don't have access anymore. But the journal supports open access (the program, not the concept) so anyone who's a current student at any public college should be able to get at it. I didn't find any of the criticism you found, but I do think that criticism is something we should keep in mind. I still think an RSN discussion is the way to go, because this is not at all clear, though given your most recent response, it does seem to lean towards this being some fringe work.
MjolnirPants
Tell me all about it. 13:42, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
There is a case involving conspiracy theories at the dispute resolution noticeboard. I am the moderator in this case, but extra input would be appreciated. The case hasn't started yet, so wait until I open the discussion. ThePlatypusofDoom (Talk) 13:11, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
State Crimes Against Democracy ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) Ran across this article in my travels. Seems to be using Wikipedia's voice to promote a term that's known within the conspiracy/Truther echo chamber. Also the section State Crimes_Against Democracy#Relation to conspiracy theory argues for an alternative definition of "conspiracy theory" that favors conspiracy theorists, in Wikipedia's voice. The WP:FRINGE problem is a complete lack of criticism and objective analysis that would indicate how narrowly held the views presented in the article actually are. Doesn't help that the creator of the term (Lance deHaven-Smith) and a single SPA/sock are the major contributors. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 12:55, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
Possible hoax article or is a non-notable chiropractic organisation. Recommending AFD. QuackGuru ( talk) 20:36, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Information-theoretic death Jytdog ( talk) 14:20, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
Decentralized autonomous organization and Talk:Decentralized autonomous organization could do with more eyes - questions over sourcing and tone on an article about an unlicensed investment scheme on a blockchain. More or less a carryover from similar at Ethereum - David Gerard ( talk) 10:58, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
Anyone up for it? —PermStrump (talk) 23:43, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
promotes a series of faddish weight loss diets which have found little favour with health professionals. The article is under constant assault from IPs (and lately a fresh account) wanting to remove criticism. Could probably use more eyes. Alexbrn ( talk) 10:03, 24 May 2016 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of Kepler exoplanet candidates by ESI (2nd nomination).
Please comment.