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Hello, all. Recently I've been taking a look at our reincarnation article (summary: it's a mess) and noticed that the paranormal template ( template:paranormal) appears in the lead. After removing it, my edit was reverted by Pfhorrest ( talk · contribs) ("this article is linked within that paranormal navbox, so it belongs"—with that logic, one can imagine the response to removing it from the navbox).
So, currently we've got reincarnation, a major aspect of religions both historically and contemporaneously, listed next to a bunch of western pseudosciences (like ghost hunting, cryptozoology, and parapsychology) under the guise of "paranormal". Meanwhile, heaven, hell, and all related articles receive no such treatment. What gives? I've started a thread about this topic here. :bloodofox: ( talk) 21:16, 18 October 2018 (UTC)
Following up on the discussion above, we've got an editor removing fringe and rewrite tags over at supernatural (@ GliderMaven:), and restoring large sections focused on Christian mythology ( [1]). This editor also added reincarnation and karma to this article earlier today ( [2]). I think adherents to belief systems featuring both concepts would be surprised to find the description of such systems as "supernatural"—a Western concept dating form the medieval period—to apply to their belief systems, but that's just where we're at on this article, I suppose. :bloodofox: ( talk) 00:29, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
I think that we've discovered perhaps why the article is problematic. In any case, bloodofox has stubbified the article into a version that I think serves us much better than the morass that came before. I encourage people who watch this board to join the conversation and help build out this relying on the best academic sources on the subject. jps ( talk) 10:32, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
If you finished exchanging insults, does anyone want to discuss the article's sources?
Could someone here please take a look at Talk:Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed?
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a propaganda film that portrays the scientific theory of evolution as a contributor to communism, fascism, atheism, eugenics and, in particular, Nazi atrocities in the Holocaust. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 04:29, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
The article Frederick Klenner is currently at AfD and may be of interest to editors who monitor or participate on this noticeboard. - Ad Orientem ( talk) 02:06, 27 October 2018 (UTC)
Requesting some help on the talk page regarding claims that the photograph is not genuine. There's dispute in how to interpret one of the sources and whether to give it weight in the lead. Catrìona ( talk) 13:53, 27 October 2018 (UTC)
See Category talk:Non-Darwinian evolution. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 07:19, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
Does anybody know what to do about this?
Seems legit - if one looks at the site only. But the content???
Of course "This is no longer true" is impossible in an article. Still I did not touch it yet. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 09:31, 28 October 2018 (UTC)
We have a dispute about [5] (forget the part with the Romanian Academy, that's not being disputed).
Namely going by JSTOR and EBSCO (Academic Search Alumni Edition and Business Source Alumni Edition) his Magnum Opus (Prehistoric Dacia) is not even considered for rejection, let alone approval. Therefore WP:PARITY applies and the rub is about some sources, one of which says that ND's book is "mystical delirium". Example: ND has stated that Orăștie is the place where lies buried Orestes. How does he know? Well, they sound similarly (which is a symptom of delirium, Alexe's claim is not rocket science). Other examples: "Atlas=Alutus=Olt=Muntii Oltului; Pharanx=Paring; Colchis=Colti (Buzau); Phasis=Buzau; Terrigenae=Tirighina; Ardalos=Ardeal; Zalmoxis=Zeul Mos; Latona=Letea; Selene=Sulina; Saturn-Noe-Novac etc. etc." (Mircea Babeș, [6]).
Alexe's book has been published by the prestigious Romanian publishing house Humanitas and it is corroborated by a source published by the reputable scholarly publisher Brill. Other luminaries of Romanian historiography consider ND's book as fantasy genre, fantasy ruling out delirium (but not because it would be reality-based). The statements are properly attributed to their authors. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 07:15, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
You again misunderstand or purposely misstate the nature of this debate. The argument is not over whether Densusianu is fringe, but rather if we should allow REDUNDANT AND NON FACTUAL comments (see Wiki guidelines above) from a blogger/filmmaker into an article that already violates WP:PARITY ("Inclusion and exclusion of content related to fringe theories and criticism of fringe theories may be done by means of a rough parity of sources.)? And this:
You may want to read my last comment again. My main contention is that Alexe's "comments" are REDUNDANT AND NON FACTUAL (as per Wiki guidelines). My secondary contention is that his comments are redundant and non factual in an article that already violates WP:PARITY. Since I've gotten to a point where I have to repeat my statements, I think it's time for 3O (feel free to list for 3O, since you started this, or your edit will be removed).? Tgeorgescu ( talk) 07:27, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
I started removing some fluff, but why should have all the fun changing this nightmare to an acceptable article?
There were actual copy-paste abstracts of his publications in there. He will probably add pictures of his daily meals next. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 06:52, 30 October 2018 (UTC)
We've got a UFO editor there deleting sourced material. Doug Weller talk 09:52, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
Waverly Hills Sanatorium ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Student assigned to improve article doesn't appear to accept that fringe sources aren't reliable. See Talk:Waverly_Hills_Sanatorium#More_Research_Found/_Basic_Editing. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 17:16, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
There is some querulousness over at talk:Sci-Hub where a couple of editors are absolutely adamant that Sci-Hub's use of credentials to which it has no legal right, to access copyright material and give it to users in violation of copyright, may not be described as computer fraud. Basically it's the guerilla open access viewpoint, which is WP:FRINGE in terms of the real-world position on copyright via the Berne convention, WTO rules and related national laws including laws relating to computer fraud and misuse. Guy ( Help!) 12:40, 1 November 2018 (UTC)
What the scientists actually said:
What The Usual Sources changed it to:
What the scientists said next:
The reaction of The Usual Sources:
(...silence...)
-- Guy Macon ( talk) 02:57, 3 November 2018 (UTC)
Got to that page via the TCM page. Is it me, or is it a little bit odder than usual. Can't pin it down. - Roxy, the Prod. wooF 01:11, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
Another candidate for WP:FRINGE theory of the month. User adding astrological mumbo jumbo to the Apollo 11 article. [11] Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:02, 13 November 2018 (UTC)
Talk:Posttraumatic stress disorder#Acupuncture -- Guy Macon ( talk) 14:48, 15 November 2018 (UTC)
https://qz.com/1010684/all-the-wellness-products-american-love-to-buy-are-sold-on-both-infowars-and-goop/ -- Guy Macon ( talk) 15:32, 15 November 2018 (UTC)
Daniel Power of God ( talk · contribs) is adding a fringe source to various articles.[ [14] Charles Finch III, [15] [16] [17] the author of the chapter used as a source [18] [19]seems to have a number of self-published books his LinkedIn profile which shows he is CEO of the company that publishes his books) and makes some extraordinary claims about the Dogon people and claims that Africans knew elements of modern science tens of thousands of years ago. [20] Doug Weller talk 13:39, 13 November 2018 (UTC)
"The source I referenced was from A Companion to African American Studies."
Could you name the publisher as well? In any case, the tale with the Dogon people isn't exactly new information. Marcel Griaule (1898-1956) claimed that they had advanced astronomical information on the star system Sirius, which supposedly was significant in their religion. The validity of Griaule's information has been called into question, but his original report has been circulating for many decades.
Personally. I have read repetitions of the tale in Greek books and magazines from the 1980s and the 1990s. It passes as "common knowledge" in some circles. Dimadick ( talk) 10:15, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
"The publisher is John Wiley & Sons"
The main article is John Wiley & Sons, an academic publisher based in New York City. Sounds good enough. As per the claims mentioned by Doug Weller, I would guess they are based on a mix of Afrocentrism and Biblical literalism.
"Jacob's descendants intermarried with black Egyptians" One descendant of the legendary Jacob did. Joseph supposedly married Asenath, an Egyptian woman. Their sons Manasseh and Ephraim were of partial Egyptian descent, and both the Tribe of Manasseh and the Tribe of Ephraim claimed Egyptian descent. A claim from the Book of Genesis which gets repeated in scripture and the works of those who assume Genesis to be a historical account. Aren't biblical genealogies familiar to just about anyone, despite being useless for historical purposes?
"he seems to be saying that monotheism was in Egypt extremely early, long before Akhenaten"
Not exactly a new theory either. I have spend a few weeks categorizing our articles on Pharaohs, and took the time to read them. Some egyptologists suspect that Seth-Peribsen (28th century BC) was trying to establish a monotheistic cult, with his patron deity Set as the only remaining god:
If true, tyrannical monotheists were already active in the 3rd millennium BC. Dimadick ( talk) 14:19, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
"Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, The Message of the Sphinx"
Graham Hancock, the pseudoarchaeology writer and Robert Bauval who attempts to revive Hermeticism? If yes, unreliable. Dimadick ( talk) 16:11, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
/info/en/?search=Talk:Jackie_Walker_(activist)#Request_for_comment_can_we_say_Jackie_Walker_is_Jewish Slatersteven ( talk) 13:02, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
List of alleged megalodon sightings could use some more eyes. It looks like it only exists because a lot of this material was considered too fringe for megalodon. This is a common point of fixation for, say, cryptozoologists. :bloodofox: ( talk) 21:25, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
Hey, folks! Quite a few of you weighed in on this, but this merge proposal still seems to be open from way back in August. Someone at some point mentioned what to do about this, but I've been pretty busy for the past few months and unable to spend much time here, and so can't remember who or where. What to do? :bloodofox: ( talk) 21:37, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
In more unclear, controversial cases, the determination that a consensus to merge has been achieved is normally made by an editor who is neutral and not directly involved in the merger proposal or the discussion. If necessary, one may request that an administrator who is not involved close the discussion and make a determination as to whether consensus has been established; such a request may be made at the Administrators' noticeboard." -- tronvillain ( talk) 22:40, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
This particular coatrack attempting to create a new school of early Feminist thought out of the racist inclinations of a few specific early feminists is something I tried to delete in drafts; and now it's in mainspace. This is clearly an attempt to promote a fringe view as if it were fact. I've launched an AfD. Simonm223 ( talk) 12:59, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
I would like to discuss our article on John Harvey Kellogg. For those who are not already familiar with him, I suggest looking at the following sources -- sources that paint quite a different picture than our article does.
But to read our article, you would think that Kellog was a medical pioneer.
Also interesting is that The Road to Wellville is only given the briefest mention, and there is a link to our article on Light therapy, despite the fact that Kellogg was doing something far different -- and far more fringe.
Kellogg thought that his "incandescent light bath" could prevent or cure "jaundice, gall-stones, hepatic abscess, pancreatic disease, appendicitis, hemorrhoids, the various forms of colitis, mesenteric tuberculosis, tubercular peritonitis, cancer of the intestines and peritoneum ... abdominal dropsy and hepatic cirrhosis ... vertigo, mental confusion, depression, pseudo- apoplexy, nervous irritability, nervous exhaustion, morbid fears..."
I smell a whitewash. There certainly is motivation for it: Last year Kellogg's had $13.484 billion US dollars in revenue and 5.102 billion us dollars in profit. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 19:10, 29 November 2018 (UTC)
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, once said:
So yes, we are biased towards
science and biased against
pseudoscience.
We are biased towards
astronomy, and biased against
astrology.
We are biased towards
chemistry, and biased against
alchemy.
We are biased towards
mathematics, and biased against
numerology.
We are biased towards
cargo planes, and biased against
cargo cults.
We are biased towards
crops, and biased against
crop circles.
We are biased towards
laundry soap, and biased against
laundry balls.
We are biased towards
water treatment, and biased against
magnetic water treatment.
We are biased towards
electromagnetic fields, and biased against
microlepton fields.
We are biased towards
evolution, and biased against
creationism.
We are biased towards medical treatments that have been shown to be effective in
double-blind
clinical trials, and biased against medical treatments that are based upon
preying on the gullible.
We are biased towards
NASA
astronauts, and biased against
ancient astronauts.
We are biased towards
psychology, and biased against
phrenology.
We are biased towards
Mendelian inheritance, and biased against
Lysenkoism.
--
Guy Macon (
talk) 23:52, 26 October 2018 (UTC)
The only big question the "bias" is what it entails in terms of article coverage, references, and the like. There must be some parameters that sort of give us editors some leeway in terms of how much we can expand said articles. For example: We should at least mention the alternate sciences and their views (pseudo-science, religious science, and other alternate "sciences"). Not as an argument, but as a brief acknowledgement of the alternate viewpoint. We have a whole bunch of science articles that include theories proven and unproven as well as non science articles with theories as well. What I'm trying to say, and what I have been trying to say all along is this, does a brief mentioning of the "biased" works/theories fit within Wikipiedia's guideline parameters? It feels like we should at the very least mention in a brief paragraph (with criticism by scientists) the alternate works/theories.-- Paleface Jack ( talk) 16:19, 27 October 2018 (UTC)
An RfC has been posted which may be of interest to people here. - Roxy, the naughty dog. wooF 08:43, 1 December 2018 (UTC)
There is a discussion[ [28]] on the RS noticeboard about the RS status of Climatefeedback.org, a climate science fact-checking website which debunks climate change falsehoods. Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 09:24, 2 December 2018 (UTC)
Just asking. Sorry, but I believe humor (note merkian spelling) is the best medicine. - Roxy, the dog. wooF 17:25, 3 December 2018 (UTC)
2604:2000:e84a:4100:1d2c:8fe7:88d7:4a0e ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) has been pushing a fringe POV on multiple pages:
[29] [30]: He starts out easy, posting a rather silly claim that Teller is not a magician. Odd, considering his next few edits, that he has an interest in a magician who is also noted for being a skeptic.
[31] [32] [33] [34] Now we are starting to see what he is on about. He rejects empirical evidence.
[35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] ...and there is is. He reveals the POV he is pushing. And that he is willing to edit war to get his POV into Wikipedia.
[43] [44] [45] [46] Now he is claiming that magicians do what they do through supernatural means. Perhaps this explains the earlier false claim that Teller isn't a magician? Perhaps he is a WIZARD! BURN HIM!!
We need to keep an eye on this one... -- Guy Macon ( talk) 21:50, 3 December 2018 (UTC)
We have a real live one at Talk:Electronic harassment. Pop up a big bowl of popcorn, come on over, and see the show! -- Guy Macon ( talk) 22:16, 26 November 2018 (UTC)
The show has moved. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 00:20, 4 December 2018 (UTC)
Quite a lot of activity here recently, impinging on the fringe space. Latest issue is whether it's undue to quote somebody describing the marketing of sugary products as "murder". More eyes welcome. Alexbrn ( talk) 12:52, 4 December 2018 (UTC)
Ricardo Carezani is the inventor of the fringe theory autodynamics. In the Ricardo Carezani article itself, the sections "About Autodynamics" and "Carezanian Velocity Addition" present autodynamics as if fact. There may be other problems in the article, but these two sections are the worst. (By the way, I was the same person who tagged the sections; I am just using a different IP now). Even the autodynamics article itself correctly presents the theory as rejected by mainstream scientists. I would fix it myself, but the problems are so pervasive in the Ricardo Carezani article that I'm not quite sure how to do it well. 24.5.8.227 ( talk) 01:39, 22 November 2018 (UTC)
After thinking about it for some time, I have decided to remove the sections altogether. Not only are they almost impossible to fix, autodynamics should be described in detail in its own article, not another article. If anyone wants to make sure the sections are rewritten to follow fringe theory guidelines (especially not presenting autodynamics as true) they may be included in the autodynamics article. 24.5.8.227 ( talk) 04:31, 1 December 2018 (UTC)
The usual wall-of-text war has resumed against the scientific view of acupuncture, with at least one admitted practitioner pressing, as he always does, to portray acupuncture as an effective treatment. Guy ( Help!) 08:24, 5 December 2018 (UTC)
Talk:Kreskin#Did Kreskin claim to have paranormal abilities? -- Guy Macon ( talk) 16:52, 4 December 2018 (UTC)
I noticed there is an SPA named Amdc538 who keeps removing criticism and skepticism of facilitated communication from the articles on Anne McDonald and Rosemary Crossley. Various editors keep reverting, of course.
In the edit summary of their latest whitewash attempt, they claim that the Australian Newspaper Herald Sun was sued for defamation over their investigations of Crossley and lost, paid damages, and took the article{s) down. I notice that the citations in the removed text cite not the original web version of the Andrew Rule Herald Sun article, but a PDF copy of it here. Sure enough, if you try to get the original article (which apparently was at this URL near as I can tell) it's gone. The only references to the this article on Herald Sun's site are in letters-to-the-editor section. However, perhaps because of the nature of the case, I can't even find any references to the case itself, even in non-Australian websites. (It is perhaps worth noting that the Herald Sun, although it is a Rupert Murdoch owned tabloid, is based in Melbourne, the same city where Crossley was based. So one might assume that they were in a good position to do some decent reporting on the case).
Now, there are other sources in the removed material, but the Rule article has the quotes from McDonald's family members, the film crew and others who closely interacted with Crossley and McDonald so its very compelling stuff. I'm certainly not suggesting that we hold ourselves to what may be a very flawed libel ruling by an Australian court. But on the other hand, if there were flaws in the reporting that came out in court, should we be using this article as a source? Can anyone find any references to the case against the Herald Sun, so we could add it to the Crossley, McDonald articles or even Rule's own article? -- Krelnik ( talk) 13:11, 5 December 2018 (UTC)
It seems this vital article mentions harm caused by anti vaxxers in the lede but does not have a sourced discussion of this later in the body. Hopefully someone here can help out. This is a contentious intersection but deserves coverage. Best. MrBill3 ( talk) 13:38, 8 December 2018 (UTC)
is a fake cancer cure. There's currently some debate about weight/sourcing around a use of this substance by a naturopath at Talk:Ukrain#Britt Marie Hermes. More eyes welcome. Alexbrn ( talk) 21:16, 25 November 2018 (UTC)
The Resistencia Ancestral Mapuche (Spanish: "Mapuche Ancestral Resistance", RAM) is an organization in Argentina that wants territories that they claim belonged to the Mapuche indigenous peoples, and who uses violence and vandalism to voice their protests. I had made a report a year ago at Wikipedia:Fringe theories/Noticeboard/Archive 58#Resistencia Ancestral Mapuche. There is a discussions about the existence of the group. Long story short: the governments of both Argentina and Chile, the Argentine minister of security, the local governor, the leader of the opposition party, the mainstream press, etc; all take its existence for granted, and act accordingly. On the other side, some obscure politicians and web pages claim that it is a big conspiracy of the president to justify police repression, and that the RAM does not exist at all. Note that it is not a huge organization (we are not talking ISIS or Al-Qaeda), but saying that it does not exist goes too far.
The users Agustin6 and Sietecolores insist in re-writing the article according to their view, adding "alleged" to the intro, removing the logo, adding dubius tags to perfectly referenced sentences, etc. And they insist that we should use the article in Spanish as a model, where this fringe theory is allowed. I explained all the problems in the references used in that article, and now in a coatrack section added recently, but they refuse to reply to those concerns.
Should the fringe theory be mentioned in the article in some way, or just be dismissed?
And now that we are at it, as the organization is small there is little info available in the mainstream media about it (actions, people, background, ideology, ongoing judicial cases, etc.), just a pair of notable cases. However, the Minister of Security and the involved provinces made a report, available here. Agustin6 made a claim about the report and referenced it with a link to the report itself, which clearly goes against the rules, but is the report a reliable source to expand the article with its contents? Cambalachero ( talk) 18:05, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
I couldn't left is as reference because you erased the whole section before I could. The article doesn't cast doubts about anything, it describes facts. Unless you got any prove that any of those facts aren't real you are breaking all the rules of this site, as many users are pointing you over and over in more than one article. Again, his whole aticle is a fake news charade, there is no judicial case about any guerrilla or anything like that in Argentina. -- Agustin6 ( talk) 18:01, 11 December 2018 (UTC)
There's been a persistent attempt to remove the fact that NLP is discredited pseudoscience at this article. The most recent removal repeats: "please site source". That source has already been pointed at before and also immediately follows the claim. More eyes welcome, — Paleo Neonate – 18:10, 4 December 2018 (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.
Totally unreferenced linklist/article claiming some kind of technological or electronic harassment. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 19:36, 11 December 2018 (UTC)
Their contribution history shows they are recreating their article under a different name, and vandalizing the electronic harassment article. We need more admin help here. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 14:14, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
Hi all, I don't know if this is the right place, but these articles seem like fringe theories and definitely need some attention. I'm just posting here to try and solicit help on revamping the many Anthroposophy-related articles. For many years, these articles have had pervasive POV issues mostly due to hyper-involved single-purpose editors with COIs. The articles in question are Anthroposophy, Waldorf education, Anthroposophic medicine, and Biodynamic agriculture. Most of these articles read like promotional material and desperately need our help. To get more specific Anthroposophic medicine is actually pretty good, but the others in that list are pretty good examples of WP:BROCHURE.
I could give you the diffs and the many ArbCom rulings, ANI postings, etc. (and will if asked) but suffice it to say that there is a very small group of editors who are themselves professionally linked to Anthroposophy and Waldorf education who are gatekeeping the articles so that all edits are filtered through their lens. As a result, many of the criticisms and less-favorable aspects of the history of this new age religion are dimmed in favor of excessive detail about the adherents' beliefs and positive praises of the subject material.
I of course want these articles to detail the beliefs of anthroposophists, no question about that. But overly favorable language and WP:WEASEL words are pretty rampant throughout. Then the many racist and unscientific views of adherents (anti-vax, anti-microbial theory of disease, their founder Steiner didn't believe in evolution, believed in racial "types", reincarnation, believed Jewish people should fully assimilate and abandon all Jewish identifiers, etc.) are minimized and reduced in size, book-ended with positive praise, and so on. Combine that with the overly wrought language and hyper-sophistry of the article text, and you have what we see today. I will tell you that if you agree to help me, you may become exhausted in the process. But if the wiki itself is less promotional in the process, it will have been worth it!!
Please don't come into this process with fiercely pro- or anti-Steiner views. The guy was just a random 19th century philosopher who had some interesting and crazy ideas. The only reason I'm interested in these articles is because of how clearly they are an example of what can happen when a very diligent, very obsessive, very biased group of editors are 99% of the edits on a set of controversial articles.
I personally am starting with the root article Anthroposophy and then hope to expand to revamp the daughter articles in the series. I've tried in the past to help bring these articles to NPOV, but was unsuccessful like many before me due to attrition, wiki-breaks, and a general dissatisfaction dealing with the very involved COI-editors. So I'm hoping that asking for help from more uninvolved editors will do the trick. Any takers? Thanks. -- Shibbolethink ( ♔ ♕) 17:57, 29 November 2018 (UTC)
And of course this is the kind of source which you'll never find being used on Wikipedia's Waldorf education article ... Alexbrn ( talk) 21:44, 29 November 2018 (UTC)
"hiding all disputations in an end criticism section"as described in WP:DESCF. -- tronvillain ( talk) 22:42, 3 December 2018 (UTC)
SO one thing I'd like to do is start to compile sources that are missing from these articles and have info that desperately needs to be added in. Sort of like a "wishlist" of what we think is missing. I'm sure there's more than what I've included, so please add your own! If you'd like to critcize a source as non-RS, do so briefly in an indented comment just below the link. And please strikethrough a source when you think it has satisfactorily been added into the page in question. I'm not sure if this noticeboard is the ideal place to compile these, and if not I'll happily move these lists to the respective talk pages or to a relevant wikiproject talk page. But otherwise see below.-- Shibbolethink ( ♔ ♕) 01:50, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
The tabloid sources (e.g. Daily Star and esp. Daily Mail) are no good. Really, sourcing quality needs to improve. Alexbrn ( talk) 07:07, 1 December 2018 (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.
-- Guy Macon ( talk) 18:11, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
There is disagreement here over whether the thesis promoted by John M. Riddle is a fringe one. In nutshell he rejects the long-held view that population stablity was largely a result of child mortality, and theorizes that "the relative stability of ancient and medieval populations [is due] to the extensive use of herbal contraceptives by married women, knowledge of which was passed on for centuries by means of a folk tradition". [53] Wisdom welcome! Alexbrn ( talk) 12:33, 6 December 2018 (UTC)
It is a different theory of Riddle that is at issue in the disagreement over my edit to Abortifacient, namely, his theory that there was a "Broken Chain of Knowledge" (the title of a chapter in his book) that prevented folk knowledge of abortifacient herbs to be transmitted to modern times. Riddle also maintains that the Demographic transition was due to the use of those herbs. The latter theory is very controversial among demographers, but I maintain that controversial is not the same thing as fringe. Riddle's books were published by Harvard University Press, and there's no indication on Riddle's Wikipedia page that Wikipedia regards him as fringe. Thanks. NightHeron ( talk) 13:29, 6 December 2018 (UTC)
It is perfectly possible that people in past ages knew some aspects of science better than we do in the modern age. [1]
References
Please see, for example, (1) the book Herbs and Healers from the Ancient Mediterranean through the Medieval West: Essays in Honor of John M. Riddle, ed. by Anne Van Arsdall and Timothy Graham, Routledge, 2012, ISBN 978-1409400387, and the reviews of it (2) by Nicholas Everett in Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 2014, Vol. 88(2), pp. 376-378, ISSN: 0007-5140, and (3) by C. F. Salazar in Isis, 2015, Vol. 106(1), pp. 159-160, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/681827. NightHeron ( talk) 00:27, 9 December 2018 (UTC)
Is Riddle Eric Von Daneken's secret alter-ego? - Roxy, the dog. wooF 11:48, 9 December 2018 (UTC)
Hello, folks. Recently a request to merge list of cryptids into cryptozoology resulted in a unique and interesting situation relevant to both this board and the fringe theories notice board. You can read the decision in full here. In short: Items that cannot be referenced with citations that meet WP:FRIND must be removed, and if removal results in, say, several items on the list, then the list needs to merge into the list's parent article, cryptozoology. (This section is a partial repost of a connected thread I authored at Noticeboard#Sneaky_Dino_Redux:_Sourcing_Pseudoscience_at_list_of_cryptids)
Well, you'd think that'd settle it, right? Nope! If this result is simply unacceptable, what do you do? As a last ditch effort, it seems that you might simply resort to faking sources. How? By placing sources that simply mention an entity next to their name on the list and then edit-warring to ensure that they remain on the article. For a complete outline of this situation, see this thread.
Has anyone ever seen anyone attempt a tactic like this before? Admittedly, this is the most comedic tactic I've seen in these circles yet—and here I thought I had seen it all! :bloodofox: ( talk) 03:14, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
"Has anyone ever seen anyone attempt a tactic like this before?" Try hanging out in Bible-related articles. People habitually insert irrelevant sources and misrepresent their content in support of their own pet theories. A few months ago, someone included a source talking about the archaelogical discovery of a Book of Daniel fragmentary copy from the 1st century BC as definite proof that the entire Book is older than the 2nd century BC (against current consensus). Naturally the source made no such claims.
Others have tried using outdated sources from the 19th century and modern newspaper articles as definite proof that The Exodus was a historical fact, Moses and Solomon were real people, that Ctesias abd Xenophon confirm the Biblical narrative concerning the Achaemenid Empire, etc.
I don't mind cryptozoologists, I can tolerate astrology fans, and alternate medicine fans can at least be amusing. Fans of Biblical literalism and other religious nuts are the ones that annoy me the most. (I already had 12 years of mandatory lessons in theology in my school years, and attended Sunday school as a child. Result: I became convinced that theologians and priests teach nonsense. I have a bigger chance at believing in bigfoot than Christian eschatology.) Dimadick ( talk) 10:53, 15 December 2018 (UTC)
A very active pseudoscience proponent has restored Cryptid ( [55]) despite universal consensus in 2016 to merge the article into list of cryptids, itself now under close source security and on its way to a merge with cryptozoology. Currently he claims nothing from the article may be removed, or else the prior merge was invalid, and responds with edit-warring. Discussion ongoing here. I'd revert it, but I'm not going to get into an edit war, and frankly I don't have the time at the moment to take to respond with current swarm of cryptozoologists, Young Earth creationists, and global warming 'skeptics' at the articles. :bloodofox: ( talk) 22:57, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
"Now if there is a copyright violation, that certainly must be addressed. But that content was to be merged, not deleted. "
Leaving aside Bloodofox's typical combative style, I am surprised by this line of thought. Fyunck, you are a veteran editor with over 10 years by experience. You should know by now that we can't copy a copyrighted work in its entirety. See this guideline: "Brief quotations of copyrighted text may be used to illustrate a point, establish context, or attribute a point of view or idea. In all cases, an inline citation following the quote or the sentence where it is used is required. Copyrighted text that is used verbatim must be attributed with quotation marks or other standard notation, such as block quotes. Any alterations must be clearly marked, i.e., [brackets] for added text, an ellipsis (...) for removed text, and emphasis noted after the quotation as "(emphasis added)" or "(emphasis in the original)". Extensive quotation of copyrighted text is prohibited. Please see both WP:QUOTE for use and formatting issues in using quotations, and WP:MOSQUOTE for style guidelines related to quoting."
If you want to cite a specific source, please take the effort to summarize its arguments in your own words. Dimadick ( talk) 11:07, 15 December 2018 (UTC)
There's a new editor over on electromagnetic hypersensitivity that felt compelled to identify themselves as an MD and really wants to soften the lede. Perhaps they're right that it's overly harsh, but to me it seemed a little wish-washy for the first paragraph of a fringe topic, and it could probably use a few more eyes to help sort things out. -- tronvillain ( talk) 14:34, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
To be pedantic, the text says "mention", and is framed as a request "please ..." (compare WP:ANI's emphatic "must"). So no biggie. I find it's often helpful to put a short notice on the article's talk page alerting editors to any new thread at WP:FT/N - then everybody knows. Alexbrn ( talk) 15:42, 15 December 2018 (UTC)
Operação Prato ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Did You Know?...UFOs killed people by firing light beams at them? And the truth is not “publicly” available? Won’t be able to clean this up til after holidays, if anyone has time, be my guest. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 20:35, 21 November 2018 (UTC)
"the military publicly reported they found no public phenomena, although the military had reported recording a number of UFO sightings". If there was no "public" record, what source are you citing for recorded military UFO sightings? - LuckyLouie ( talk) 16:19, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
Over at the List of Cryptids, we have pseudoscience proponents (eg. @ Fyunck(click):) restoring large swathes of unreferenced content ( diff), although an RfC was clear that unreferenced items were to be removed from the list ("every listed item must be properly sourced"), and, of course, baseline Wikipedia guidelines that state that material challenged must only be returned with a reliable source (e.g. WP:PROVEIT). :bloodofox: ( talk) 19:20, 18 December 2018 (UTC)
I came across Coherent breathing today. Items such as "Thus the technique can be used to regulate mood" are cited to the Guidepost. It states in Wiki's voice "Coherent breathing promotes resonance". The whole thing appears to me as pseudoscience without any or many PubMed citations. Can someone with more experience in these areas please take a look at this article? Thank you, -- VViking Talk Edits 14:34, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
Could someone who's an expert here take a look at the article? It's about a recently-deceased scientist who, among other things, worked on things that mixed Western and traditional Chinese medicine. It's been nominated for DYK and I just want to make sure that the article doesn't have any content that could fall afoul of WP:FRINGE. Thanks. Narutolovehinata5 t c csd new 01:43, 17 December 2018 (UTC)
[58] [59] [60] - Guy Macon ( talk) 01:15, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
"does anyone else mentally image a big talking ham" Isn't there one already occupying the office of President of the United States? Dimadick ( talk) 23:48, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
I added the lower attendance in the last three months. That Ken Ham doesn't like the numbers is nothing new, I just kept that at the end of the paragraph. -- mfb ( talk) 20:17, 6 November 2018 (UTC)
"I will ask, is it usual in theme park/tourist attraction articles to include visitor numbers"
It largely depends on the availability of information, self-reported from the companies which own them. The Disneyland Paris article reports an annual number of visitors at 14.8 million people, Tokyo Disneyland reported 16.6 million visitors, the Magic Kingdom reported 20.450 million visitors (the current world record-holder), Disneyland reported 18.3 million visitors, Hong Kong Disneyland reported between 8 and 9 million visitors, the Shanghai Disneyland Park reported 11 million visitors (which would mean it somehow doubled the number of visitors it received in its first year), and Parc Astérix reported about 2 million visitors. Note that the parks depend on fictional characters more marketable (and a bit more realistic) than Noah, such as Asterix and Mickey Mouse. Dimadick ( talk) 10:00, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
Wikipedia has this strange predilection for calling Genesis myths "narratives". So. However, in our articles that link to the subject, I think it is poor form to do so in this kind of violation of WP:NEO. To that end, I've started a discussion about trying to fix this wording that was objected to by creationist watchdogs: Talk:Ark_Encounter#Genesis flood narrative is a neologism. Input would be appreciated (of whatever sort). jps ( talk) 20:44, 26 November 2018 (UTC)
We have. It's just not possible with the intransigent believers (or those sympathetic to the believers' POV) arguing that by calling it the Genesis flood myth we would be scandalizing our Judeo-Christian readership. jps ( talk) 17:28, 22 December 2018 (UTC)
A new this really happened for reals guys UFO sighting stub. Challenge: most of the sources (excepting a few clearly non-reliable ones) are in Finnish. Anybody here actually read the language? Simonm223 ( talk) 21:05, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
Vice regent ( talk · contribs), who has never edited the article before, wants to dramatically expand and change the pov of the lede of this article, removing all mention of pseudoscience, and making no changes to the article body.
Given the history of the article and fringe nature of the claims around the product, this is my first stop before even responding on the talk page. -- Ronz ( talk) 01:54, 17 December 2018 (UTC)
Would this be a fringe theory? The only possible third party source which was brought up at Talk:Jeanne Calment/Archive 4#Jeanne vs Yvonne. The rest of the discussion centers around this source: [63] which I pointed out has vetting issues with the author. - Knowledgekid87 ( talk) 16:18, 22 December 2018 (UTC)
The hypothesis that she was 99 rather than 122 at death is hardly absurd or in contradiction of mainstream biology and there are several sources. It's not fringe. Jonathunder ( talk) 17:06, 26 December 2018 (UTC)
This may be of note to members [ [64]]. Slatersteven ( talk) 10:58, 28 December 2018 (UTC)
This RfC [65] may be of interest. Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 18:22, 28 December 2018 (UTC)
I just reverted a very dubious and unsourced edit at Cueva de los Tayos. I don't know what Gates is claiming, but I'd be very careful about using him for Cueva de los Tayos and his article and the program's article need a bit of scrubbing. Doug Weller talk 19:47, 24 December 2018 (UTC)
See Category talk:Pseudohistorians. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 17:04, 29 December 2018 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard#2nd RfC: Do alternative medicine practitioners have a conflict of interest? -- Guy Macon ( talk) 19:01, 30 December 2018 (UTC)
Please see:
-- K.e.coffman ( talk) 00:53, 3 January 2019 (UTC)
Gosh, I clicked on a link and this popped up. - Roxy, the dog. wooF 12:21, 6 January 2019 (UTC)
Text/sources being removed re: "Scientists have unsuccessfully attempted to reconcile the flood narrative with physical findings in geology and palaeontology." Eyes needed on edit war. Softlavender ( talk) 06:39, 1 January 2019 (UTC)
Aquatic ape hypothesis ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
In spite of posting about this subject every few months or so, again today I reverted more of the same apologetics that keep getting shoehorned into the AAH article (as well as a weird replacement of a scientist with a filmmaker).
It would be good to get some more people to monitor this page.
jps ( talk) 23:21, 7 January 2019 (UTC)
Related: Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Mvaneech. jps ( talk) 23:32, 7 January 2019 (UTC)
Still having a lot of trouble with practicing acupuncturists who refuse to admit that they have a COI whitewashing the article. The whitewashing ranges from heavy-handed to subtle. Dealing with this is like *cough* being poked with tiny needles... :( More eyes needed. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 16:25, 6 January 2019 (UTC)
Is this edit justified? Does anybody know more about this? He seems to be at least a conspiracy theorist, but I could not find any good sources quickly. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 05:26, 9 January 2019 (UTC)
Christians are persecuted in Denmark. This fringe opinion has been placed in the article "Persecution of Christians"( permalink). Attribution is given, but again the problems exist: A)too fringe opinion to be inserted, even with attribution B)Denmark, a safe heaven for religious freedom, is portrayed as a country where Muslims are oppressing Christian, which is a ridiculous pov. I did google-searched the term "persecution in Denmark" and the results are mostly related with (real) Jewish persecution during WWII. Cinadon36 ( talk) 17:00, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
I feel the scope of this article should be defined as persecutions that have some level of official backing. What is described in those sources relating to Denmark is more properly considered violence against Christians by individuals. Writers labeling that sort of thing "persecution" are being tendentious imo. Denmark is an officially Christian country with a state church, saying persecution of Christians happens there is misleading. Smeat75 ( talk) 19:21, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
OK< do any RS say support the removed text? Slatersteven ( talk) 19:23, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
A deletion review has been opened for Dingonek. Interested editors may join the discussion here. – dlthewave ☎ 23:18, 9 January 2019 (UTC)
Egypt SHOCK: Top secret KGB files reveal truth inside Great Pyramid. To be fair, it is in their "Weird" section. Doug Weller talk 11:01, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
I don't have time to work on this a lot now, but this article needs better references. Tornado chaser ( talk) 14:20, 6 January 2019 (UTC)
I am uncertain if this is the correct forum, but the fringey Mutual UFO Network could use an eye or two. A new, SPA editor (plus an IP, likely the same person based upon the similarity of added content) has of late been making promotional additions to the page. For whatever it is worth, and as as I mentioned on the editor's Talk page, the editor's username suggests a COI with the organization. Thanks. JoJo Anthrax ( talk) 21:11, 10 January 2019 (UTC)
An article on wellness in today's London Times [68] is provoking heated debate on whether it's a parody or not. Whatever, it does air some fringey article topics which might be usefully checked out here for compliance with WP:FRINGE. I have for example just found we have an article on the Pomodoro technique and learned about the "secret UFO base" under Es Vedrà. Alexbrn ( talk) 09:20, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
There have been some disputes recently about whether articles on fringe authors should include a "bibliography" of their fringe works. This is happening again at
And note also that the addition was by an account named JohnLauritsen so there may be a COI aspect here too. In general the approach we seem to take is to list fringe books only when there is coverage of them in secondary sources (roughly what happens at, e.g., Deepak Chopra). Maybe it would be good to codify this somewhere. Meanwhile, eyes are needed at John Lauritsen where a "bibliography" of AIDS denialism is now being edit-warred in. Alexbrn ( talk) 03:14, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
"I see no evidence of that"← So, poppers cause AIDS and Frankenstein wasn't written by Mary Shelley. Right. Alexbrn ( talk) 03:30, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
To write a biography we need sources which discuss the person, not just citing things the person authored. Are there any sources that attest to, for example, where this person was born, where this person was educated, what major influences in this person's life were? I think I might be able to dig up 21 articles that cite my publications. I am definitely not notable according to Wikipedia's standards. jps ( talk) 15:36, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
... I don't understand. If someone is notable enough for an article, why wouldn't you want a bibliography? Even if the person's entire notability stems from writing books for crazy people, why wouldn't you list the crazy-people books that made that crazy author notable? ApLundell ( talk) 06:14, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
...mirroring the approach RS would take...so couldn't we just base the notability of the books on RS? Having different criteria depending on the content of the books seems inconsistent with NPOV. Tornado chaser ( talk) 14:44, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
@ Outerlimits: I think your argument is so far the most compelling. Do we have good sources which document this person's activism so we can focus the biography on that? jps ( talk) 15:38, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
This should have been deleted in August 2010 under WP:CSD#G5. It was created 17:07, August 3, 2010 by Freakshownerd ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), a sockpuppet of ChildofMidnight ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), while ChildofMidnight was banned by ArbCom and blocked. Several articles and redirects were created by this ban-evading sock. So, that's a reminder to us all: check for page creations when block-evading socks are uncovered. Guy ( Help!) 10:38, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
Mydavidpaine ( talk · contribs) is adding what is presumably their blog. [69] I'm off to dinner. Doug Weller talk 17:54, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
Hi I am Myron [1] I have five blogs. The key link is LENAPE LAND. [2] LENAPE LAND is the first stanza on the Norse history (AD 800 - 1600) and links to other posts in the five blogs. The five blogs are: LENAPE LAND, The Catholics who spoke Norse called them selves, LENAPE, which means “abide with the pure.” LENAPE EPIC, which is a page of links to posts of information about North America before the Norse began to paddle their boats into the Mississippi River basln. LENAPE LEARNING (INDEX), which is a page of links to posts about events after the English invaded. PARADIGM SHIFT, which are posts that present evidence that the English suppressed the knowledge of Norse in America by omitted all evidence of the LENAPE. WYNLAND OF WEST, which are posts of the Norse settlement in Minnesota. Minnesota was settled by Norse because the land is the lowest elevation between the Christian Sea (a.k.a. Hudson Bay). Mydavidpaine ( talk) 19:29, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
References
What is going on here? I keep making edits that I believe are valid. Those edits appear on other devices. I am citing the evidence that the English Crown attempted to remove Norumbega from existence. [1] In the right hand column, you should be able to read that the “High and Mighty Prince Charles” did replace “Norumbega” with “New England” in 1616. So Norumbega is NOT a “legendary” settlement. It was a Norse settlement that had its name changed by the English in 1616.
The previous Wikipedia author did NOT reference evidence that Norumbega was “Legendary” or a “somewhat mythical name.” In fact the name Norumbrega is on the map in two places and as valid as any other name.
Another name on the map is “COR TEREALIS” which is authentic because Wikipedia has a reference to “Gaspar Corte-Real.” (Corte-Real and Columbus were Portuguese observers in boats rowed by Norwegians. The English in 1616, who were planning to conquer America, did not want anybody to know that Norse were in America. Thus they called the “Norumbega” map a map of a Mythical Island.”)
By continuing the MYTH, WIkipedia continues the suppression of factual history.
Wikipedia has a LONG TERM PROBLEM.
The 17th century English created a MYTH by suppressing all knowledge of Norse in America, like they did he 1616 map of John Smith. In the right hand column, you should be able to read that the “High and Mighty Prince Charles” did replace “Norumbega” with “New England” in 1616. The previous Wikipedia author did NOT reference evidence that Norumbega was “Legendary” or a “somewhat mythical name.” In fact the name Norumbrega is on the map in two places and as valid as any other name.
Another name on the map is “COR TEREALIS” which is authentic because Wikipedia has a reference to “Gaspar Corte-Real.” (Corte-Real and Columbus were Portuguese observers in boats rowed by Norwegians. The English in 1616, who were planning to conquer America, did not want anybody to know that Norse were in America. Thus they called the “Norumbega” map a map of a Mythical Island.”)
By continuing the MYTH, WIkipedia continues the suppressing of factual history. Wikipedia has a LONG TERM PROBLEM.
The 17th century English created a MYTH by suppressing all knowledge of Norse in America, like they did on the 1616 map of John Smith voyages. We, all, learned the English MYTH. Nearly every one in the world believes the MYTH. So, Wikipedia authors do NOT have to provide evidence of statements of “somewhat Mythical.” Those, who believe the MYTH, will defend the MYTH by taking actions such as re-editing Norumbega to the original text. Is that what is going on?
If so, please introduce me to the author who keeps suppressing history by omitting it. We need to settle this editing. Thanks.
Mydavidpaine ( talk) 22:23, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
(I've started a new section on this because it's distinct from the above general question about bibiographies). Digging around a bit further it seems we have quite a bit of iffy Frankenstein authorship stuff. I've trimmed Shelley Unbound: Discovering Frankenstein's True Creator but this looks awfully fringey. Alexbrn ( talk) 04:33, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
Authors have examined and investigated Percy Bysshe Shelley's scientific knowledge and experimentation, his two Gothic horror novels published in 1810 and 1811, his atheistic worldview, his antipathy to church and state, his 1818 Preface to Frankenstein, and his connection to the secret anti-Catholic organization, the Illuminati. These revelations showed that the novel was based on Shelley's life, background, his readings such as John Milton's Paradise Lost, Ruins of Empires (1791) by Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney, which also informed "Ozymandias", also published in 1818, Sir Humphry Davy's Elements of Chemical Philosophy (1812), a textbook which Percy Bysshe Shelley owned,[9] and the works of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin, whom Shelley had earlier cited as a major influence in Queen Mab (1813), his views on religion, his poetic style, and his themes and ideas." -- tronvillain ( talk) 14:03, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
An Angry Mob is being organised, Admins have authorised a donation of six groats for weaponry, specifically flaming torches and pitchforks. Acupuncturists welcome (they have their own specialist weapons.) The Baron gets home from work at 7:30, could members of the mob please make their way to the castle by 7:45. Thanks. - Roxy, the dog. wooF 18:02, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
Note on this topic we also have:
A book which seems to have been received with snorting contempt by serious scholars - which fact is getting push-back from reverting editors here. More eyes might help. Alexbrn ( talk) 20:21, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
I'm not talking above about determining whether something is fringe or not, I was talking about determining whether someone is a scholar. I actually don't consider fringe a dirty word. Most information is fringe in its beginning and we can determine fringe based on sources as they appear in the mainstream. The simple fact that Mary Shelley is considered the author by most in relation to those who don't is enough to determine the alternate theory is fringe. In most cases we can determine fringe content just by determining what the mainstream is. Littleolive oil ( talk) 05:27, 13 January 2019 (UTC)
A series of 21 edits to the article on a Texan antivax group which, for example, removed the sourced fact that it started off as a Facebook group (normal for antivax, so not sure why it would be controversial), removed the sourced fact that they are linked to increased levels of unvaccinated students, removed the PMID sourced fact that they engage in fake news and half truths (again, normal for antivax so not a surprise and not controversial), removed the sourced backing of an (unsuccessful) hard line antivax candidate for state senate and so on. Please watchlist this article, experience indicates that this will result in an extended argument. Guy ( Help!) 15:37, 15 January 2019 (UTC)
This page is an archive. Do not edit the contents of this page. Please direct any additional comments to the current main page. |
Hello, all. Recently I've been taking a look at our reincarnation article (summary: it's a mess) and noticed that the paranormal template ( template:paranormal) appears in the lead. After removing it, my edit was reverted by Pfhorrest ( talk · contribs) ("this article is linked within that paranormal navbox, so it belongs"—with that logic, one can imagine the response to removing it from the navbox).
So, currently we've got reincarnation, a major aspect of religions both historically and contemporaneously, listed next to a bunch of western pseudosciences (like ghost hunting, cryptozoology, and parapsychology) under the guise of "paranormal". Meanwhile, heaven, hell, and all related articles receive no such treatment. What gives? I've started a thread about this topic here. :bloodofox: ( talk) 21:16, 18 October 2018 (UTC)
Following up on the discussion above, we've got an editor removing fringe and rewrite tags over at supernatural (@ GliderMaven:), and restoring large sections focused on Christian mythology ( [1]). This editor also added reincarnation and karma to this article earlier today ( [2]). I think adherents to belief systems featuring both concepts would be surprised to find the description of such systems as "supernatural"—a Western concept dating form the medieval period—to apply to their belief systems, but that's just where we're at on this article, I suppose. :bloodofox: ( talk) 00:29, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
I think that we've discovered perhaps why the article is problematic. In any case, bloodofox has stubbified the article into a version that I think serves us much better than the morass that came before. I encourage people who watch this board to join the conversation and help build out this relying on the best academic sources on the subject. jps ( talk) 10:32, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
If you finished exchanging insults, does anyone want to discuss the article's sources?
Could someone here please take a look at Talk:Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed?
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a propaganda film that portrays the scientific theory of evolution as a contributor to communism, fascism, atheism, eugenics and, in particular, Nazi atrocities in the Holocaust. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 04:29, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
The article Frederick Klenner is currently at AfD and may be of interest to editors who monitor or participate on this noticeboard. - Ad Orientem ( talk) 02:06, 27 October 2018 (UTC)
Requesting some help on the talk page regarding claims that the photograph is not genuine. There's dispute in how to interpret one of the sources and whether to give it weight in the lead. Catrìona ( talk) 13:53, 27 October 2018 (UTC)
See Category talk:Non-Darwinian evolution. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 07:19, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
Does anybody know what to do about this?
Seems legit - if one looks at the site only. But the content???
Of course "This is no longer true" is impossible in an article. Still I did not touch it yet. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 09:31, 28 October 2018 (UTC)
We have a dispute about [5] (forget the part with the Romanian Academy, that's not being disputed).
Namely going by JSTOR and EBSCO (Academic Search Alumni Edition and Business Source Alumni Edition) his Magnum Opus (Prehistoric Dacia) is not even considered for rejection, let alone approval. Therefore WP:PARITY applies and the rub is about some sources, one of which says that ND's book is "mystical delirium". Example: ND has stated that Orăștie is the place where lies buried Orestes. How does he know? Well, they sound similarly (which is a symptom of delirium, Alexe's claim is not rocket science). Other examples: "Atlas=Alutus=Olt=Muntii Oltului; Pharanx=Paring; Colchis=Colti (Buzau); Phasis=Buzau; Terrigenae=Tirighina; Ardalos=Ardeal; Zalmoxis=Zeul Mos; Latona=Letea; Selene=Sulina; Saturn-Noe-Novac etc. etc." (Mircea Babeș, [6]).
Alexe's book has been published by the prestigious Romanian publishing house Humanitas and it is corroborated by a source published by the reputable scholarly publisher Brill. Other luminaries of Romanian historiography consider ND's book as fantasy genre, fantasy ruling out delirium (but not because it would be reality-based). The statements are properly attributed to their authors. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 07:15, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
You again misunderstand or purposely misstate the nature of this debate. The argument is not over whether Densusianu is fringe, but rather if we should allow REDUNDANT AND NON FACTUAL comments (see Wiki guidelines above) from a blogger/filmmaker into an article that already violates WP:PARITY ("Inclusion and exclusion of content related to fringe theories and criticism of fringe theories may be done by means of a rough parity of sources.)? And this:
You may want to read my last comment again. My main contention is that Alexe's "comments" are REDUNDANT AND NON FACTUAL (as per Wiki guidelines). My secondary contention is that his comments are redundant and non factual in an article that already violates WP:PARITY. Since I've gotten to a point where I have to repeat my statements, I think it's time for 3O (feel free to list for 3O, since you started this, or your edit will be removed).? Tgeorgescu ( talk) 07:27, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
I started removing some fluff, but why should have all the fun changing this nightmare to an acceptable article?
There were actual copy-paste abstracts of his publications in there. He will probably add pictures of his daily meals next. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 06:52, 30 October 2018 (UTC)
We've got a UFO editor there deleting sourced material. Doug Weller talk 09:52, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
Waverly Hills Sanatorium ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Student assigned to improve article doesn't appear to accept that fringe sources aren't reliable. See Talk:Waverly_Hills_Sanatorium#More_Research_Found/_Basic_Editing. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 17:16, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
There is some querulousness over at talk:Sci-Hub where a couple of editors are absolutely adamant that Sci-Hub's use of credentials to which it has no legal right, to access copyright material and give it to users in violation of copyright, may not be described as computer fraud. Basically it's the guerilla open access viewpoint, which is WP:FRINGE in terms of the real-world position on copyright via the Berne convention, WTO rules and related national laws including laws relating to computer fraud and misuse. Guy ( Help!) 12:40, 1 November 2018 (UTC)
What the scientists actually said:
What The Usual Sources changed it to:
What the scientists said next:
The reaction of The Usual Sources:
(...silence...)
-- Guy Macon ( talk) 02:57, 3 November 2018 (UTC)
Got to that page via the TCM page. Is it me, or is it a little bit odder than usual. Can't pin it down. - Roxy, the Prod. wooF 01:11, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
Another candidate for WP:FRINGE theory of the month. User adding astrological mumbo jumbo to the Apollo 11 article. [11] Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:02, 13 November 2018 (UTC)
Talk:Posttraumatic stress disorder#Acupuncture -- Guy Macon ( talk) 14:48, 15 November 2018 (UTC)
https://qz.com/1010684/all-the-wellness-products-american-love-to-buy-are-sold-on-both-infowars-and-goop/ -- Guy Macon ( talk) 15:32, 15 November 2018 (UTC)
Daniel Power of God ( talk · contribs) is adding a fringe source to various articles.[ [14] Charles Finch III, [15] [16] [17] the author of the chapter used as a source [18] [19]seems to have a number of self-published books his LinkedIn profile which shows he is CEO of the company that publishes his books) and makes some extraordinary claims about the Dogon people and claims that Africans knew elements of modern science tens of thousands of years ago. [20] Doug Weller talk 13:39, 13 November 2018 (UTC)
"The source I referenced was from A Companion to African American Studies."
Could you name the publisher as well? In any case, the tale with the Dogon people isn't exactly new information. Marcel Griaule (1898-1956) claimed that they had advanced astronomical information on the star system Sirius, which supposedly was significant in their religion. The validity of Griaule's information has been called into question, but his original report has been circulating for many decades.
Personally. I have read repetitions of the tale in Greek books and magazines from the 1980s and the 1990s. It passes as "common knowledge" in some circles. Dimadick ( talk) 10:15, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
"The publisher is John Wiley & Sons"
The main article is John Wiley & Sons, an academic publisher based in New York City. Sounds good enough. As per the claims mentioned by Doug Weller, I would guess they are based on a mix of Afrocentrism and Biblical literalism.
"Jacob's descendants intermarried with black Egyptians" One descendant of the legendary Jacob did. Joseph supposedly married Asenath, an Egyptian woman. Their sons Manasseh and Ephraim were of partial Egyptian descent, and both the Tribe of Manasseh and the Tribe of Ephraim claimed Egyptian descent. A claim from the Book of Genesis which gets repeated in scripture and the works of those who assume Genesis to be a historical account. Aren't biblical genealogies familiar to just about anyone, despite being useless for historical purposes?
"he seems to be saying that monotheism was in Egypt extremely early, long before Akhenaten"
Not exactly a new theory either. I have spend a few weeks categorizing our articles on Pharaohs, and took the time to read them. Some egyptologists suspect that Seth-Peribsen (28th century BC) was trying to establish a monotheistic cult, with his patron deity Set as the only remaining god:
If true, tyrannical monotheists were already active in the 3rd millennium BC. Dimadick ( talk) 14:19, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
"Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, The Message of the Sphinx"
Graham Hancock, the pseudoarchaeology writer and Robert Bauval who attempts to revive Hermeticism? If yes, unreliable. Dimadick ( talk) 16:11, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
/info/en/?search=Talk:Jackie_Walker_(activist)#Request_for_comment_can_we_say_Jackie_Walker_is_Jewish Slatersteven ( talk) 13:02, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
List of alleged megalodon sightings could use some more eyes. It looks like it only exists because a lot of this material was considered too fringe for megalodon. This is a common point of fixation for, say, cryptozoologists. :bloodofox: ( talk) 21:25, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
Hey, folks! Quite a few of you weighed in on this, but this merge proposal still seems to be open from way back in August. Someone at some point mentioned what to do about this, but I've been pretty busy for the past few months and unable to spend much time here, and so can't remember who or where. What to do? :bloodofox: ( talk) 21:37, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
In more unclear, controversial cases, the determination that a consensus to merge has been achieved is normally made by an editor who is neutral and not directly involved in the merger proposal or the discussion. If necessary, one may request that an administrator who is not involved close the discussion and make a determination as to whether consensus has been established; such a request may be made at the Administrators' noticeboard." -- tronvillain ( talk) 22:40, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
This particular coatrack attempting to create a new school of early Feminist thought out of the racist inclinations of a few specific early feminists is something I tried to delete in drafts; and now it's in mainspace. This is clearly an attempt to promote a fringe view as if it were fact. I've launched an AfD. Simonm223 ( talk) 12:59, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
I would like to discuss our article on John Harvey Kellogg. For those who are not already familiar with him, I suggest looking at the following sources -- sources that paint quite a different picture than our article does.
But to read our article, you would think that Kellog was a medical pioneer.
Also interesting is that The Road to Wellville is only given the briefest mention, and there is a link to our article on Light therapy, despite the fact that Kellogg was doing something far different -- and far more fringe.
Kellogg thought that his "incandescent light bath" could prevent or cure "jaundice, gall-stones, hepatic abscess, pancreatic disease, appendicitis, hemorrhoids, the various forms of colitis, mesenteric tuberculosis, tubercular peritonitis, cancer of the intestines and peritoneum ... abdominal dropsy and hepatic cirrhosis ... vertigo, mental confusion, depression, pseudo- apoplexy, nervous irritability, nervous exhaustion, morbid fears..."
I smell a whitewash. There certainly is motivation for it: Last year Kellogg's had $13.484 billion US dollars in revenue and 5.102 billion us dollars in profit. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 19:10, 29 November 2018 (UTC)
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, once said:
So yes, we are biased towards
science and biased against
pseudoscience.
We are biased towards
astronomy, and biased against
astrology.
We are biased towards
chemistry, and biased against
alchemy.
We are biased towards
mathematics, and biased against
numerology.
We are biased towards
cargo planes, and biased against
cargo cults.
We are biased towards
crops, and biased against
crop circles.
We are biased towards
laundry soap, and biased against
laundry balls.
We are biased towards
water treatment, and biased against
magnetic water treatment.
We are biased towards
electromagnetic fields, and biased against
microlepton fields.
We are biased towards
evolution, and biased against
creationism.
We are biased towards medical treatments that have been shown to be effective in
double-blind
clinical trials, and biased against medical treatments that are based upon
preying on the gullible.
We are biased towards
NASA
astronauts, and biased against
ancient astronauts.
We are biased towards
psychology, and biased against
phrenology.
We are biased towards
Mendelian inheritance, and biased against
Lysenkoism.
--
Guy Macon (
talk) 23:52, 26 October 2018 (UTC)
The only big question the "bias" is what it entails in terms of article coverage, references, and the like. There must be some parameters that sort of give us editors some leeway in terms of how much we can expand said articles. For example: We should at least mention the alternate sciences and their views (pseudo-science, religious science, and other alternate "sciences"). Not as an argument, but as a brief acknowledgement of the alternate viewpoint. We have a whole bunch of science articles that include theories proven and unproven as well as non science articles with theories as well. What I'm trying to say, and what I have been trying to say all along is this, does a brief mentioning of the "biased" works/theories fit within Wikipiedia's guideline parameters? It feels like we should at the very least mention in a brief paragraph (with criticism by scientists) the alternate works/theories.-- Paleface Jack ( talk) 16:19, 27 October 2018 (UTC)
An RfC has been posted which may be of interest to people here. - Roxy, the naughty dog. wooF 08:43, 1 December 2018 (UTC)
There is a discussion[ [28]] on the RS noticeboard about the RS status of Climatefeedback.org, a climate science fact-checking website which debunks climate change falsehoods. Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 09:24, 2 December 2018 (UTC)
Just asking. Sorry, but I believe humor (note merkian spelling) is the best medicine. - Roxy, the dog. wooF 17:25, 3 December 2018 (UTC)
2604:2000:e84a:4100:1d2c:8fe7:88d7:4a0e ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) has been pushing a fringe POV on multiple pages:
[29] [30]: He starts out easy, posting a rather silly claim that Teller is not a magician. Odd, considering his next few edits, that he has an interest in a magician who is also noted for being a skeptic.
[31] [32] [33] [34] Now we are starting to see what he is on about. He rejects empirical evidence.
[35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] ...and there is is. He reveals the POV he is pushing. And that he is willing to edit war to get his POV into Wikipedia.
[43] [44] [45] [46] Now he is claiming that magicians do what they do through supernatural means. Perhaps this explains the earlier false claim that Teller isn't a magician? Perhaps he is a WIZARD! BURN HIM!!
We need to keep an eye on this one... -- Guy Macon ( talk) 21:50, 3 December 2018 (UTC)
We have a real live one at Talk:Electronic harassment. Pop up a big bowl of popcorn, come on over, and see the show! -- Guy Macon ( talk) 22:16, 26 November 2018 (UTC)
The show has moved. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 00:20, 4 December 2018 (UTC)
Quite a lot of activity here recently, impinging on the fringe space. Latest issue is whether it's undue to quote somebody describing the marketing of sugary products as "murder". More eyes welcome. Alexbrn ( talk) 12:52, 4 December 2018 (UTC)
Ricardo Carezani is the inventor of the fringe theory autodynamics. In the Ricardo Carezani article itself, the sections "About Autodynamics" and "Carezanian Velocity Addition" present autodynamics as if fact. There may be other problems in the article, but these two sections are the worst. (By the way, I was the same person who tagged the sections; I am just using a different IP now). Even the autodynamics article itself correctly presents the theory as rejected by mainstream scientists. I would fix it myself, but the problems are so pervasive in the Ricardo Carezani article that I'm not quite sure how to do it well. 24.5.8.227 ( talk) 01:39, 22 November 2018 (UTC)
After thinking about it for some time, I have decided to remove the sections altogether. Not only are they almost impossible to fix, autodynamics should be described in detail in its own article, not another article. If anyone wants to make sure the sections are rewritten to follow fringe theory guidelines (especially not presenting autodynamics as true) they may be included in the autodynamics article. 24.5.8.227 ( talk) 04:31, 1 December 2018 (UTC)
The usual wall-of-text war has resumed against the scientific view of acupuncture, with at least one admitted practitioner pressing, as he always does, to portray acupuncture as an effective treatment. Guy ( Help!) 08:24, 5 December 2018 (UTC)
Talk:Kreskin#Did Kreskin claim to have paranormal abilities? -- Guy Macon ( talk) 16:52, 4 December 2018 (UTC)
I noticed there is an SPA named Amdc538 who keeps removing criticism and skepticism of facilitated communication from the articles on Anne McDonald and Rosemary Crossley. Various editors keep reverting, of course.
In the edit summary of their latest whitewash attempt, they claim that the Australian Newspaper Herald Sun was sued for defamation over their investigations of Crossley and lost, paid damages, and took the article{s) down. I notice that the citations in the removed text cite not the original web version of the Andrew Rule Herald Sun article, but a PDF copy of it here. Sure enough, if you try to get the original article (which apparently was at this URL near as I can tell) it's gone. The only references to the this article on Herald Sun's site are in letters-to-the-editor section. However, perhaps because of the nature of the case, I can't even find any references to the case itself, even in non-Australian websites. (It is perhaps worth noting that the Herald Sun, although it is a Rupert Murdoch owned tabloid, is based in Melbourne, the same city where Crossley was based. So one might assume that they were in a good position to do some decent reporting on the case).
Now, there are other sources in the removed material, but the Rule article has the quotes from McDonald's family members, the film crew and others who closely interacted with Crossley and McDonald so its very compelling stuff. I'm certainly not suggesting that we hold ourselves to what may be a very flawed libel ruling by an Australian court. But on the other hand, if there were flaws in the reporting that came out in court, should we be using this article as a source? Can anyone find any references to the case against the Herald Sun, so we could add it to the Crossley, McDonald articles or even Rule's own article? -- Krelnik ( talk) 13:11, 5 December 2018 (UTC)
It seems this vital article mentions harm caused by anti vaxxers in the lede but does not have a sourced discussion of this later in the body. Hopefully someone here can help out. This is a contentious intersection but deserves coverage. Best. MrBill3 ( talk) 13:38, 8 December 2018 (UTC)
is a fake cancer cure. There's currently some debate about weight/sourcing around a use of this substance by a naturopath at Talk:Ukrain#Britt Marie Hermes. More eyes welcome. Alexbrn ( talk) 21:16, 25 November 2018 (UTC)
The Resistencia Ancestral Mapuche (Spanish: "Mapuche Ancestral Resistance", RAM) is an organization in Argentina that wants territories that they claim belonged to the Mapuche indigenous peoples, and who uses violence and vandalism to voice their protests. I had made a report a year ago at Wikipedia:Fringe theories/Noticeboard/Archive 58#Resistencia Ancestral Mapuche. There is a discussions about the existence of the group. Long story short: the governments of both Argentina and Chile, the Argentine minister of security, the local governor, the leader of the opposition party, the mainstream press, etc; all take its existence for granted, and act accordingly. On the other side, some obscure politicians and web pages claim that it is a big conspiracy of the president to justify police repression, and that the RAM does not exist at all. Note that it is not a huge organization (we are not talking ISIS or Al-Qaeda), but saying that it does not exist goes too far.
The users Agustin6 and Sietecolores insist in re-writing the article according to their view, adding "alleged" to the intro, removing the logo, adding dubius tags to perfectly referenced sentences, etc. And they insist that we should use the article in Spanish as a model, where this fringe theory is allowed. I explained all the problems in the references used in that article, and now in a coatrack section added recently, but they refuse to reply to those concerns.
Should the fringe theory be mentioned in the article in some way, or just be dismissed?
And now that we are at it, as the organization is small there is little info available in the mainstream media about it (actions, people, background, ideology, ongoing judicial cases, etc.), just a pair of notable cases. However, the Minister of Security and the involved provinces made a report, available here. Agustin6 made a claim about the report and referenced it with a link to the report itself, which clearly goes against the rules, but is the report a reliable source to expand the article with its contents? Cambalachero ( talk) 18:05, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
I couldn't left is as reference because you erased the whole section before I could. The article doesn't cast doubts about anything, it describes facts. Unless you got any prove that any of those facts aren't real you are breaking all the rules of this site, as many users are pointing you over and over in more than one article. Again, his whole aticle is a fake news charade, there is no judicial case about any guerrilla or anything like that in Argentina. -- Agustin6 ( talk) 18:01, 11 December 2018 (UTC)
There's been a persistent attempt to remove the fact that NLP is discredited pseudoscience at this article. The most recent removal repeats: "please site source". That source has already been pointed at before and also immediately follows the claim. More eyes welcome, — Paleo Neonate – 18:10, 4 December 2018 (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.
Totally unreferenced linklist/article claiming some kind of technological or electronic harassment. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 19:36, 11 December 2018 (UTC)
Their contribution history shows they are recreating their article under a different name, and vandalizing the electronic harassment article. We need more admin help here. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 14:14, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
Hi all, I don't know if this is the right place, but these articles seem like fringe theories and definitely need some attention. I'm just posting here to try and solicit help on revamping the many Anthroposophy-related articles. For many years, these articles have had pervasive POV issues mostly due to hyper-involved single-purpose editors with COIs. The articles in question are Anthroposophy, Waldorf education, Anthroposophic medicine, and Biodynamic agriculture. Most of these articles read like promotional material and desperately need our help. To get more specific Anthroposophic medicine is actually pretty good, but the others in that list are pretty good examples of WP:BROCHURE.
I could give you the diffs and the many ArbCom rulings, ANI postings, etc. (and will if asked) but suffice it to say that there is a very small group of editors who are themselves professionally linked to Anthroposophy and Waldorf education who are gatekeeping the articles so that all edits are filtered through their lens. As a result, many of the criticisms and less-favorable aspects of the history of this new age religion are dimmed in favor of excessive detail about the adherents' beliefs and positive praises of the subject material.
I of course want these articles to detail the beliefs of anthroposophists, no question about that. But overly favorable language and WP:WEASEL words are pretty rampant throughout. Then the many racist and unscientific views of adherents (anti-vax, anti-microbial theory of disease, their founder Steiner didn't believe in evolution, believed in racial "types", reincarnation, believed Jewish people should fully assimilate and abandon all Jewish identifiers, etc.) are minimized and reduced in size, book-ended with positive praise, and so on. Combine that with the overly wrought language and hyper-sophistry of the article text, and you have what we see today. I will tell you that if you agree to help me, you may become exhausted in the process. But if the wiki itself is less promotional in the process, it will have been worth it!!
Please don't come into this process with fiercely pro- or anti-Steiner views. The guy was just a random 19th century philosopher who had some interesting and crazy ideas. The only reason I'm interested in these articles is because of how clearly they are an example of what can happen when a very diligent, very obsessive, very biased group of editors are 99% of the edits on a set of controversial articles.
I personally am starting with the root article Anthroposophy and then hope to expand to revamp the daughter articles in the series. I've tried in the past to help bring these articles to NPOV, but was unsuccessful like many before me due to attrition, wiki-breaks, and a general dissatisfaction dealing with the very involved COI-editors. So I'm hoping that asking for help from more uninvolved editors will do the trick. Any takers? Thanks. -- Shibbolethink ( ♔ ♕) 17:57, 29 November 2018 (UTC)
And of course this is the kind of source which you'll never find being used on Wikipedia's Waldorf education article ... Alexbrn ( talk) 21:44, 29 November 2018 (UTC)
"hiding all disputations in an end criticism section"as described in WP:DESCF. -- tronvillain ( talk) 22:42, 3 December 2018 (UTC)
SO one thing I'd like to do is start to compile sources that are missing from these articles and have info that desperately needs to be added in. Sort of like a "wishlist" of what we think is missing. I'm sure there's more than what I've included, so please add your own! If you'd like to critcize a source as non-RS, do so briefly in an indented comment just below the link. And please strikethrough a source when you think it has satisfactorily been added into the page in question. I'm not sure if this noticeboard is the ideal place to compile these, and if not I'll happily move these lists to the respective talk pages or to a relevant wikiproject talk page. But otherwise see below.-- Shibbolethink ( ♔ ♕) 01:50, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
The tabloid sources (e.g. Daily Star and esp. Daily Mail) are no good. Really, sourcing quality needs to improve. Alexbrn ( talk) 07:07, 1 December 2018 (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.
-- Guy Macon ( talk) 18:11, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
There is disagreement here over whether the thesis promoted by John M. Riddle is a fringe one. In nutshell he rejects the long-held view that population stablity was largely a result of child mortality, and theorizes that "the relative stability of ancient and medieval populations [is due] to the extensive use of herbal contraceptives by married women, knowledge of which was passed on for centuries by means of a folk tradition". [53] Wisdom welcome! Alexbrn ( talk) 12:33, 6 December 2018 (UTC)
It is a different theory of Riddle that is at issue in the disagreement over my edit to Abortifacient, namely, his theory that there was a "Broken Chain of Knowledge" (the title of a chapter in his book) that prevented folk knowledge of abortifacient herbs to be transmitted to modern times. Riddle also maintains that the Demographic transition was due to the use of those herbs. The latter theory is very controversial among demographers, but I maintain that controversial is not the same thing as fringe. Riddle's books were published by Harvard University Press, and there's no indication on Riddle's Wikipedia page that Wikipedia regards him as fringe. Thanks. NightHeron ( talk) 13:29, 6 December 2018 (UTC)
It is perfectly possible that people in past ages knew some aspects of science better than we do in the modern age. [1]
References
Please see, for example, (1) the book Herbs and Healers from the Ancient Mediterranean through the Medieval West: Essays in Honor of John M. Riddle, ed. by Anne Van Arsdall and Timothy Graham, Routledge, 2012, ISBN 978-1409400387, and the reviews of it (2) by Nicholas Everett in Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 2014, Vol. 88(2), pp. 376-378, ISSN: 0007-5140, and (3) by C. F. Salazar in Isis, 2015, Vol. 106(1), pp. 159-160, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/681827. NightHeron ( talk) 00:27, 9 December 2018 (UTC)
Is Riddle Eric Von Daneken's secret alter-ego? - Roxy, the dog. wooF 11:48, 9 December 2018 (UTC)
Hello, folks. Recently a request to merge list of cryptids into cryptozoology resulted in a unique and interesting situation relevant to both this board and the fringe theories notice board. You can read the decision in full here. In short: Items that cannot be referenced with citations that meet WP:FRIND must be removed, and if removal results in, say, several items on the list, then the list needs to merge into the list's parent article, cryptozoology. (This section is a partial repost of a connected thread I authored at Noticeboard#Sneaky_Dino_Redux:_Sourcing_Pseudoscience_at_list_of_cryptids)
Well, you'd think that'd settle it, right? Nope! If this result is simply unacceptable, what do you do? As a last ditch effort, it seems that you might simply resort to faking sources. How? By placing sources that simply mention an entity next to their name on the list and then edit-warring to ensure that they remain on the article. For a complete outline of this situation, see this thread.
Has anyone ever seen anyone attempt a tactic like this before? Admittedly, this is the most comedic tactic I've seen in these circles yet—and here I thought I had seen it all! :bloodofox: ( talk) 03:14, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
"Has anyone ever seen anyone attempt a tactic like this before?" Try hanging out in Bible-related articles. People habitually insert irrelevant sources and misrepresent their content in support of their own pet theories. A few months ago, someone included a source talking about the archaelogical discovery of a Book of Daniel fragmentary copy from the 1st century BC as definite proof that the entire Book is older than the 2nd century BC (against current consensus). Naturally the source made no such claims.
Others have tried using outdated sources from the 19th century and modern newspaper articles as definite proof that The Exodus was a historical fact, Moses and Solomon were real people, that Ctesias abd Xenophon confirm the Biblical narrative concerning the Achaemenid Empire, etc.
I don't mind cryptozoologists, I can tolerate astrology fans, and alternate medicine fans can at least be amusing. Fans of Biblical literalism and other religious nuts are the ones that annoy me the most. (I already had 12 years of mandatory lessons in theology in my school years, and attended Sunday school as a child. Result: I became convinced that theologians and priests teach nonsense. I have a bigger chance at believing in bigfoot than Christian eschatology.) Dimadick ( talk) 10:53, 15 December 2018 (UTC)
A very active pseudoscience proponent has restored Cryptid ( [55]) despite universal consensus in 2016 to merge the article into list of cryptids, itself now under close source security and on its way to a merge with cryptozoology. Currently he claims nothing from the article may be removed, or else the prior merge was invalid, and responds with edit-warring. Discussion ongoing here. I'd revert it, but I'm not going to get into an edit war, and frankly I don't have the time at the moment to take to respond with current swarm of cryptozoologists, Young Earth creationists, and global warming 'skeptics' at the articles. :bloodofox: ( talk) 22:57, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
"Now if there is a copyright violation, that certainly must be addressed. But that content was to be merged, not deleted. "
Leaving aside Bloodofox's typical combative style, I am surprised by this line of thought. Fyunck, you are a veteran editor with over 10 years by experience. You should know by now that we can't copy a copyrighted work in its entirety. See this guideline: "Brief quotations of copyrighted text may be used to illustrate a point, establish context, or attribute a point of view or idea. In all cases, an inline citation following the quote or the sentence where it is used is required. Copyrighted text that is used verbatim must be attributed with quotation marks or other standard notation, such as block quotes. Any alterations must be clearly marked, i.e., [brackets] for added text, an ellipsis (...) for removed text, and emphasis noted after the quotation as "(emphasis added)" or "(emphasis in the original)". Extensive quotation of copyrighted text is prohibited. Please see both WP:QUOTE for use and formatting issues in using quotations, and WP:MOSQUOTE for style guidelines related to quoting."
If you want to cite a specific source, please take the effort to summarize its arguments in your own words. Dimadick ( talk) 11:07, 15 December 2018 (UTC)
There's a new editor over on electromagnetic hypersensitivity that felt compelled to identify themselves as an MD and really wants to soften the lede. Perhaps they're right that it's overly harsh, but to me it seemed a little wish-washy for the first paragraph of a fringe topic, and it could probably use a few more eyes to help sort things out. -- tronvillain ( talk) 14:34, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
To be pedantic, the text says "mention", and is framed as a request "please ..." (compare WP:ANI's emphatic "must"). So no biggie. I find it's often helpful to put a short notice on the article's talk page alerting editors to any new thread at WP:FT/N - then everybody knows. Alexbrn ( talk) 15:42, 15 December 2018 (UTC)
Operação Prato ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Did You Know?...UFOs killed people by firing light beams at them? And the truth is not “publicly” available? Won’t be able to clean this up til after holidays, if anyone has time, be my guest. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 20:35, 21 November 2018 (UTC)
"the military publicly reported they found no public phenomena, although the military had reported recording a number of UFO sightings". If there was no "public" record, what source are you citing for recorded military UFO sightings? - LuckyLouie ( talk) 16:19, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
Over at the List of Cryptids, we have pseudoscience proponents (eg. @ Fyunck(click):) restoring large swathes of unreferenced content ( diff), although an RfC was clear that unreferenced items were to be removed from the list ("every listed item must be properly sourced"), and, of course, baseline Wikipedia guidelines that state that material challenged must only be returned with a reliable source (e.g. WP:PROVEIT). :bloodofox: ( talk) 19:20, 18 December 2018 (UTC)
I came across Coherent breathing today. Items such as "Thus the technique can be used to regulate mood" are cited to the Guidepost. It states in Wiki's voice "Coherent breathing promotes resonance". The whole thing appears to me as pseudoscience without any or many PubMed citations. Can someone with more experience in these areas please take a look at this article? Thank you, -- VViking Talk Edits 14:34, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
Could someone who's an expert here take a look at the article? It's about a recently-deceased scientist who, among other things, worked on things that mixed Western and traditional Chinese medicine. It's been nominated for DYK and I just want to make sure that the article doesn't have any content that could fall afoul of WP:FRINGE. Thanks. Narutolovehinata5 t c csd new 01:43, 17 December 2018 (UTC)
[58] [59] [60] - Guy Macon ( talk) 01:15, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
"does anyone else mentally image a big talking ham" Isn't there one already occupying the office of President of the United States? Dimadick ( talk) 23:48, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
I added the lower attendance in the last three months. That Ken Ham doesn't like the numbers is nothing new, I just kept that at the end of the paragraph. -- mfb ( talk) 20:17, 6 November 2018 (UTC)
"I will ask, is it usual in theme park/tourist attraction articles to include visitor numbers"
It largely depends on the availability of information, self-reported from the companies which own them. The Disneyland Paris article reports an annual number of visitors at 14.8 million people, Tokyo Disneyland reported 16.6 million visitors, the Magic Kingdom reported 20.450 million visitors (the current world record-holder), Disneyland reported 18.3 million visitors, Hong Kong Disneyland reported between 8 and 9 million visitors, the Shanghai Disneyland Park reported 11 million visitors (which would mean it somehow doubled the number of visitors it received in its first year), and Parc Astérix reported about 2 million visitors. Note that the parks depend on fictional characters more marketable (and a bit more realistic) than Noah, such as Asterix and Mickey Mouse. Dimadick ( talk) 10:00, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
Wikipedia has this strange predilection for calling Genesis myths "narratives". So. However, in our articles that link to the subject, I think it is poor form to do so in this kind of violation of WP:NEO. To that end, I've started a discussion about trying to fix this wording that was objected to by creationist watchdogs: Talk:Ark_Encounter#Genesis flood narrative is a neologism. Input would be appreciated (of whatever sort). jps ( talk) 20:44, 26 November 2018 (UTC)
We have. It's just not possible with the intransigent believers (or those sympathetic to the believers' POV) arguing that by calling it the Genesis flood myth we would be scandalizing our Judeo-Christian readership. jps ( talk) 17:28, 22 December 2018 (UTC)
A new this really happened for reals guys UFO sighting stub. Challenge: most of the sources (excepting a few clearly non-reliable ones) are in Finnish. Anybody here actually read the language? Simonm223 ( talk) 21:05, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
Vice regent ( talk · contribs), who has never edited the article before, wants to dramatically expand and change the pov of the lede of this article, removing all mention of pseudoscience, and making no changes to the article body.
Given the history of the article and fringe nature of the claims around the product, this is my first stop before even responding on the talk page. -- Ronz ( talk) 01:54, 17 December 2018 (UTC)
Would this be a fringe theory? The only possible third party source which was brought up at Talk:Jeanne Calment/Archive 4#Jeanne vs Yvonne. The rest of the discussion centers around this source: [63] which I pointed out has vetting issues with the author. - Knowledgekid87 ( talk) 16:18, 22 December 2018 (UTC)
The hypothesis that she was 99 rather than 122 at death is hardly absurd or in contradiction of mainstream biology and there are several sources. It's not fringe. Jonathunder ( talk) 17:06, 26 December 2018 (UTC)
This may be of note to members [ [64]]. Slatersteven ( talk) 10:58, 28 December 2018 (UTC)
This RfC [65] may be of interest. Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 18:22, 28 December 2018 (UTC)
I just reverted a very dubious and unsourced edit at Cueva de los Tayos. I don't know what Gates is claiming, but I'd be very careful about using him for Cueva de los Tayos and his article and the program's article need a bit of scrubbing. Doug Weller talk 19:47, 24 December 2018 (UTC)
See Category talk:Pseudohistorians. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 17:04, 29 December 2018 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard#2nd RfC: Do alternative medicine practitioners have a conflict of interest? -- Guy Macon ( talk) 19:01, 30 December 2018 (UTC)
Please see:
-- K.e.coffman ( talk) 00:53, 3 January 2019 (UTC)
Gosh, I clicked on a link and this popped up. - Roxy, the dog. wooF 12:21, 6 January 2019 (UTC)
Text/sources being removed re: "Scientists have unsuccessfully attempted to reconcile the flood narrative with physical findings in geology and palaeontology." Eyes needed on edit war. Softlavender ( talk) 06:39, 1 January 2019 (UTC)
Aquatic ape hypothesis ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
In spite of posting about this subject every few months or so, again today I reverted more of the same apologetics that keep getting shoehorned into the AAH article (as well as a weird replacement of a scientist with a filmmaker).
It would be good to get some more people to monitor this page.
jps ( talk) 23:21, 7 January 2019 (UTC)
Related: Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Mvaneech. jps ( talk) 23:32, 7 January 2019 (UTC)
Still having a lot of trouble with practicing acupuncturists who refuse to admit that they have a COI whitewashing the article. The whitewashing ranges from heavy-handed to subtle. Dealing with this is like *cough* being poked with tiny needles... :( More eyes needed. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 16:25, 6 January 2019 (UTC)
Is this edit justified? Does anybody know more about this? He seems to be at least a conspiracy theorist, but I could not find any good sources quickly. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 05:26, 9 January 2019 (UTC)
Christians are persecuted in Denmark. This fringe opinion has been placed in the article "Persecution of Christians"( permalink). Attribution is given, but again the problems exist: A)too fringe opinion to be inserted, even with attribution B)Denmark, a safe heaven for religious freedom, is portrayed as a country where Muslims are oppressing Christian, which is a ridiculous pov. I did google-searched the term "persecution in Denmark" and the results are mostly related with (real) Jewish persecution during WWII. Cinadon36 ( talk) 17:00, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
I feel the scope of this article should be defined as persecutions that have some level of official backing. What is described in those sources relating to Denmark is more properly considered violence against Christians by individuals. Writers labeling that sort of thing "persecution" are being tendentious imo. Denmark is an officially Christian country with a state church, saying persecution of Christians happens there is misleading. Smeat75 ( talk) 19:21, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
OK< do any RS say support the removed text? Slatersteven ( talk) 19:23, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
A deletion review has been opened for Dingonek. Interested editors may join the discussion here. – dlthewave ☎ 23:18, 9 January 2019 (UTC)
Egypt SHOCK: Top secret KGB files reveal truth inside Great Pyramid. To be fair, it is in their "Weird" section. Doug Weller talk 11:01, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
I don't have time to work on this a lot now, but this article needs better references. Tornado chaser ( talk) 14:20, 6 January 2019 (UTC)
I am uncertain if this is the correct forum, but the fringey Mutual UFO Network could use an eye or two. A new, SPA editor (plus an IP, likely the same person based upon the similarity of added content) has of late been making promotional additions to the page. For whatever it is worth, and as as I mentioned on the editor's Talk page, the editor's username suggests a COI with the organization. Thanks. JoJo Anthrax ( talk) 21:11, 10 January 2019 (UTC)
An article on wellness in today's London Times [68] is provoking heated debate on whether it's a parody or not. Whatever, it does air some fringey article topics which might be usefully checked out here for compliance with WP:FRINGE. I have for example just found we have an article on the Pomodoro technique and learned about the "secret UFO base" under Es Vedrà. Alexbrn ( talk) 09:20, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
There have been some disputes recently about whether articles on fringe authors should include a "bibliography" of their fringe works. This is happening again at
And note also that the addition was by an account named JohnLauritsen so there may be a COI aspect here too. In general the approach we seem to take is to list fringe books only when there is coverage of them in secondary sources (roughly what happens at, e.g., Deepak Chopra). Maybe it would be good to codify this somewhere. Meanwhile, eyes are needed at John Lauritsen where a "bibliography" of AIDS denialism is now being edit-warred in. Alexbrn ( talk) 03:14, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
"I see no evidence of that"← So, poppers cause AIDS and Frankenstein wasn't written by Mary Shelley. Right. Alexbrn ( talk) 03:30, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
To write a biography we need sources which discuss the person, not just citing things the person authored. Are there any sources that attest to, for example, where this person was born, where this person was educated, what major influences in this person's life were? I think I might be able to dig up 21 articles that cite my publications. I am definitely not notable according to Wikipedia's standards. jps ( talk) 15:36, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
... I don't understand. If someone is notable enough for an article, why wouldn't you want a bibliography? Even if the person's entire notability stems from writing books for crazy people, why wouldn't you list the crazy-people books that made that crazy author notable? ApLundell ( talk) 06:14, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
...mirroring the approach RS would take...so couldn't we just base the notability of the books on RS? Having different criteria depending on the content of the books seems inconsistent with NPOV. Tornado chaser ( talk) 14:44, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
@ Outerlimits: I think your argument is so far the most compelling. Do we have good sources which document this person's activism so we can focus the biography on that? jps ( talk) 15:38, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
This should have been deleted in August 2010 under WP:CSD#G5. It was created 17:07, August 3, 2010 by Freakshownerd ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), a sockpuppet of ChildofMidnight ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), while ChildofMidnight was banned by ArbCom and blocked. Several articles and redirects were created by this ban-evading sock. So, that's a reminder to us all: check for page creations when block-evading socks are uncovered. Guy ( Help!) 10:38, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
Mydavidpaine ( talk · contribs) is adding what is presumably their blog. [69] I'm off to dinner. Doug Weller talk 17:54, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
Hi I am Myron [1] I have five blogs. The key link is LENAPE LAND. [2] LENAPE LAND is the first stanza on the Norse history (AD 800 - 1600) and links to other posts in the five blogs. The five blogs are: LENAPE LAND, The Catholics who spoke Norse called them selves, LENAPE, which means “abide with the pure.” LENAPE EPIC, which is a page of links to posts of information about North America before the Norse began to paddle their boats into the Mississippi River basln. LENAPE LEARNING (INDEX), which is a page of links to posts about events after the English invaded. PARADIGM SHIFT, which are posts that present evidence that the English suppressed the knowledge of Norse in America by omitted all evidence of the LENAPE. WYNLAND OF WEST, which are posts of the Norse settlement in Minnesota. Minnesota was settled by Norse because the land is the lowest elevation between the Christian Sea (a.k.a. Hudson Bay). Mydavidpaine ( talk) 19:29, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
References
What is going on here? I keep making edits that I believe are valid. Those edits appear on other devices. I am citing the evidence that the English Crown attempted to remove Norumbega from existence. [1] In the right hand column, you should be able to read that the “High and Mighty Prince Charles” did replace “Norumbega” with “New England” in 1616. So Norumbega is NOT a “legendary” settlement. It was a Norse settlement that had its name changed by the English in 1616.
The previous Wikipedia author did NOT reference evidence that Norumbega was “Legendary” or a “somewhat mythical name.” In fact the name Norumbrega is on the map in two places and as valid as any other name.
Another name on the map is “COR TEREALIS” which is authentic because Wikipedia has a reference to “Gaspar Corte-Real.” (Corte-Real and Columbus were Portuguese observers in boats rowed by Norwegians. The English in 1616, who were planning to conquer America, did not want anybody to know that Norse were in America. Thus they called the “Norumbega” map a map of a Mythical Island.”)
By continuing the MYTH, WIkipedia continues the suppression of factual history.
Wikipedia has a LONG TERM PROBLEM.
The 17th century English created a MYTH by suppressing all knowledge of Norse in America, like they did he 1616 map of John Smith. In the right hand column, you should be able to read that the “High and Mighty Prince Charles” did replace “Norumbega” with “New England” in 1616. The previous Wikipedia author did NOT reference evidence that Norumbega was “Legendary” or a “somewhat mythical name.” In fact the name Norumbrega is on the map in two places and as valid as any other name.
Another name on the map is “COR TEREALIS” which is authentic because Wikipedia has a reference to “Gaspar Corte-Real.” (Corte-Real and Columbus were Portuguese observers in boats rowed by Norwegians. The English in 1616, who were planning to conquer America, did not want anybody to know that Norse were in America. Thus they called the “Norumbega” map a map of a Mythical Island.”)
By continuing the MYTH, WIkipedia continues the suppressing of factual history. Wikipedia has a LONG TERM PROBLEM.
The 17th century English created a MYTH by suppressing all knowledge of Norse in America, like they did on the 1616 map of John Smith voyages. We, all, learned the English MYTH. Nearly every one in the world believes the MYTH. So, Wikipedia authors do NOT have to provide evidence of statements of “somewhat Mythical.” Those, who believe the MYTH, will defend the MYTH by taking actions such as re-editing Norumbega to the original text. Is that what is going on?
If so, please introduce me to the author who keeps suppressing history by omitting it. We need to settle this editing. Thanks.
Mydavidpaine ( talk) 22:23, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
(I've started a new section on this because it's distinct from the above general question about bibiographies). Digging around a bit further it seems we have quite a bit of iffy Frankenstein authorship stuff. I've trimmed Shelley Unbound: Discovering Frankenstein's True Creator but this looks awfully fringey. Alexbrn ( talk) 04:33, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
Authors have examined and investigated Percy Bysshe Shelley's scientific knowledge and experimentation, his two Gothic horror novels published in 1810 and 1811, his atheistic worldview, his antipathy to church and state, his 1818 Preface to Frankenstein, and his connection to the secret anti-Catholic organization, the Illuminati. These revelations showed that the novel was based on Shelley's life, background, his readings such as John Milton's Paradise Lost, Ruins of Empires (1791) by Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney, which also informed "Ozymandias", also published in 1818, Sir Humphry Davy's Elements of Chemical Philosophy (1812), a textbook which Percy Bysshe Shelley owned,[9] and the works of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin, whom Shelley had earlier cited as a major influence in Queen Mab (1813), his views on religion, his poetic style, and his themes and ideas." -- tronvillain ( talk) 14:03, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
An Angry Mob is being organised, Admins have authorised a donation of six groats for weaponry, specifically flaming torches and pitchforks. Acupuncturists welcome (they have their own specialist weapons.) The Baron gets home from work at 7:30, could members of the mob please make their way to the castle by 7:45. Thanks. - Roxy, the dog. wooF 18:02, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
Note on this topic we also have:
A book which seems to have been received with snorting contempt by serious scholars - which fact is getting push-back from reverting editors here. More eyes might help. Alexbrn ( talk) 20:21, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
I'm not talking above about determining whether something is fringe or not, I was talking about determining whether someone is a scholar. I actually don't consider fringe a dirty word. Most information is fringe in its beginning and we can determine fringe based on sources as they appear in the mainstream. The simple fact that Mary Shelley is considered the author by most in relation to those who don't is enough to determine the alternate theory is fringe. In most cases we can determine fringe content just by determining what the mainstream is. Littleolive oil ( talk) 05:27, 13 January 2019 (UTC)
A series of 21 edits to the article on a Texan antivax group which, for example, removed the sourced fact that it started off as a Facebook group (normal for antivax, so not sure why it would be controversial), removed the sourced fact that they are linked to increased levels of unvaccinated students, removed the PMID sourced fact that they engage in fake news and half truths (again, normal for antivax so not a surprise and not controversial), removed the sourced backing of an (unsuccessful) hard line antivax candidate for state senate and so on. Please watchlist this article, experience indicates that this will result in an extended argument. Guy ( Help!) 15:37, 15 January 2019 (UTC)