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There's a content dispute on the Tucker Carlson page, see this [1]. The cited sources say it's false and it seems compliant with FRINGE to describe a clear falsehood as a falsehood. Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 13:02, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
Many schools that do plan to reopen will do so under a series of restrictions that have no basis of any kind in science. It's kind of a bizarre health theater. Students will be kept six feet apart, everyone will have to wear a mask, class sizes will be limited...
Teachers are people too. O3000 ( talk) 13:51, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
100's of deaths a day", if it's only the US you're speaking about, where at least 700 people died just yesterday. GPinkerton ( talk) 18:09, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
He doubled down a few days later. It is clear he does not intend to comment specifically about schools. - MrOllie ( talk) 13:53, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
Contrary to some of the suggestions above, the word false does not "imply intentional deception" or "suggest a knowing intent to mislead." False simply means "not according with truth or fact; incorrect." Other words convey intent, such as lie ("an intentionally false statement") or perjure ("willfully tell an untruth when giving evidence to a court"). This is pretty well established in the English language. If the reliable sources say that a statement is false (as they do here), we obviously have to reflect that in whatever text we have on the encyclopedia. WP:FRINGE comes into play. Neutrality talk 14:06, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
the ambiguity regarding intent is the problem, I thought that implied that you want to say it unambiguously. My understanding was that we have this choice:
The Hill's "Changing America" is an "editorial channel" and (probably?) not usable for statements of fact in a BLP. fiveby( zero) 14:47, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
There is no evidence that the extensive use of masks by healthy people will help reduce infections.Finland currently has 0 people in intensive care due to COVID-19. -- Pudeo ( talk) 20:42, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
Carlson's claim about masks was specifically related to school childrenThis is untrue. The secondary sources we have indicate that he was making a general claim about the effectiveness of masks. If you have a WP:SECONDARY source interpreting it differently, go ahead and present it; but your own personal reading of Carlson's primary quotes has no weight in a discussion where the secondary sources plainly disagree. --23:30, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
The comment, suggesting that social distancing and wearing face masks are not scientifically shown to reduce the spread of coronavirus, is wrong.) If you want to argue that the source got this wrong or is paraphrasing Carlson inaccurately you should contact them requesting a retraction or correction or produce a second source directly disputing them; but until then, we have to go with the sources we have. -- Aquillion ( talk) 23:17, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
For those questioning what precisely was said, here is the video of the statements: [12]. -- Softlavender ( talk) 01:10, 16 July 2020 (UTC)
The article about Wayfair is predictably receiving edits from some folks who think there is any amount of credibility in a conspiracy theory that they are involved in trafficking children in cabinetry. Extra eyes would be helpful. NorthBySouthBaranof ( talk) 20:19, 11 July 2020 (UTC)
The author seems much more wiki-notable than this particular book, about which very little has been said; possibly a candidate for merging. XOR'easter ( talk) 15:48, 16 July 2020 (UTC)
OK, I went ahead and implemented the merge to William James Sidis (and did a few copy edits along the way). XOR'easter ( talk) 23:42, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
A newly created editor is quibbling about whether the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons actually pushes "scientifically discredited hypotheses, including the belief that HIV does not cause AIDS, that being gay reduces life expectancy, that there is a link between abortion and breast cancer, and that there is a causal relationship between vaccines and autism." Is the editor right to remove the text? [13] Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 16:25, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
I am noticing a series of questions / requests for help with no replies. If each of us who asked for help also took a bit of time to give someone else some help, we would immediately achieve word peace,[ Citation Need ed universal happiness,[ Citation Need ed intelligent and honest politicians,[ Citation Need ed and an end to robocalls.[ Citation Need ed -- Guy Macon ( talk) 01:24, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
For anybody still unaware, this is an RfC at
which may be of interest to watchers of this noticeboard. Alexbrn ( talk) 11:44, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
Interested eyes wanted on if the sources used here are reasonable in context: "A pioneer of aviation,[4][5][6] Ibn Firnas built the first human carrying glider[7][8] [9][10] and is reputed to have survived two successful flights.[11][12][13][14] His works led the late investigators to define and invent some of the basics of rational aircraft design. According to John Harding, Ibn Firnas' glider was the first attempt at heavier-than-air flight in aviation history.[15]". Gråbergs Gråa Sång ( talk) 12:41, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
There's been an effort to suggest that work by Heide Göttner-Abendroth is equivalent to more obviously reliable sources. I'm not happy about her article which is badly sourced - anyone interested might want to see what I've deleted as well. Note that the sources linked to matriarchy.info which I had to find using Wayback are copyright violations (not added by the current editor. Doug Weller talk 09:36, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
@Doug Weller. I agree that it would be appropriate to remove the "well respected" before Göttner-Abendroth's reference, as that might indicate bias. However, it is equally biased to try to entirely erase the existence of a large academic movement (of whom she is one significant figure but not the only one). Note that the people you're referring to as "more obviously reliable" have equal or lesser academic qualifications. For instance, take Cynthia Eller. She is a professor of Religious Studies and Women's Studies, whose dissertation was on religious arguments in favor of pacifism in the second World War.
[1]. The book referenced in the Tiamat article was published by a NON-academic publisher, Beacon Press, which is associated with a church and no peer-review was done. As such, it can't be said to represent any kind of academic concensus.
Moreover, the book referenced in the Tiamat article was not received without academic debate. Historian Max Dashu's peer reviewed analysis of the book is even quoted here on Wikipedia to say that Eller mischaracterizes and misrepresents the theories she's arguing against. The_Myth_of_Matriarchal_Prehistory The abstract of this article explains that Eller has misrepresented the theories of matriarchal prehistory and that, contrary to her statements, there is widely accepted evidence of "egalitarian human societies... that embraced female personifications of the Divine, neither subordinating them to a masculine god, nor debarring masculine deities." [2]. Note that unlike Eller's book, this article is peer-reviewed, meaning that it has been accepted as legitimate scholarship by other academics.
I am not saying that Wikipedia should promote one or the other view of Tiamat. I am simply suggesting that it misrepresents the state of scholarship to ignore a sharp division within this field. When two different theories collide, it is not acceptable to just label the one an editor disagrees with as "fringe." I believe this misconception is based on outdated sources. It IS true that Robert Graves' ideas were dismissed by most historians during the 1960s. (Though it's worth noting that at the same time they were widely embraced by scholars in the fields of humanities and literature, due to their popularization in Joseph Campbell's work -- part of the reason I wanted to include more nuance is because otherwise it becomes harder to understand literary and artistic work that references these theories). However, it is also the case that these ideas have made a comeback due to the research of feminist historians. As Dashu characterizes the debate: "[the theory's] massive comeback as a result of the women’s movement has caused an alarmed re-action... All this polarization and oversimplification avoids the real issue." In other words, there is scholarly debate.
So what precisely makes Eller an example of an "obviously reliable" source and the people she's disagreeing with a "fringe theory"? You've updated Göttner-Abendroth's biography page to imply that her work was only widely accepted in Germany through the 1980s and that she only published through the 2000s (20 years ago). However, her most recent book was released in 2012 (more recently than Eller) and was released by the Peter Lang publishing group, an academic publisher who describes their publication process as follows: "manuscripts undergo a rigorous peer review by respected scholars from the subject in order to guarantee the academic quality of the work." [3] Additionally, Göttner-Abendroth's most recent journal publication was less than two years ago, in the Asian Journal of Women's Studies, which is another peer-reviewed academic journal. (This publication is even listed on the page you edited, which makes me question why you had the dates wrong)
As if that weren't enough, Oxford University Press currently maintains Göttner-Abendroth's extensive bibliography on matriarchal studies, which was last updated in March 2020. [4] I do not understand how a scholar who was chosen by Oxford University's 'Oxford Bibliographies' program, and as such endorsed by them as "an authoritative guide to the current scholarship," [5] can be considered a fringe theorist? Nor do I understand why you would claim she was obviously less reliable when all of her published work has undergone rigorous peer review ... while the book you're supporting was published by a random church-affiliated press. How is that "obviously" more mainstream?
Now, I'm not say that Eller isn't legitimate. Outside this book, she has done excellent peer-reviewed work documenting the historical (pre-21st century) development of these theories and outlining some of the debates surrounding this issue. Neither am I saying Göttner-Abendroth is the ultimate authority, though I'd certainly trust her bibliography to be a good guide. I suspect the truth of pre-history lies somewhere in the middle. However, it is simply incorrect to suggest that only one of these authors represents the "real" academic perspective. Yes, Göttner-Abendroth's Wiki page was woefully under done. But that doesn't mean she's a crackpot.
If there were only one acceptable academic perspective on something as complex as pre-historical religious belief systems, then that would point less to academia's actual knowledge of the situation and much more to an unwillingness to engage in meaningful debate. Academics disagree on politically oriented grounds, and often different fields also disagree, and that's wonderful.
The only conclusion I can draw is that you, Doug Weller, personally disagree with Göttner-Abendroth and/or are potentially unaware of her significance to the relevant fields. I'm appealing to your better nature not to try to enforce an arbitrary order on this magnificent chaos by using your power as an editor to simply erase entire academic debates or lines of reserch (e.g., suggesting archeomythology or matriarchal studies are not "real" academia)
The only conclusion I can draw is that you, Doug Weller, personally disagree withNever try to pull that one here. You have your opinion, someone disagrees with you, and instead of comparing notes to find out who has the better reasons, you simply declare that the other person is ignorant - since you are right and they are wrong, what else could it be? (Variation: they are paid to disagree with you. What else could it be?) That type of reasoning leads nowhere, and it is a mark of pseudoscienc proponents who need to use bad arguments for defending their position because good arguments for it do not exist. So, the only thing you achieve by this tactic is that you lose more standing. We have experience here with tricks like that.
"literally recognized by Oxford University as the leading expert in her field"🠔 citation required. Note that OUP is not the university, but a commercial publisher which publishes some right junk in their (perfectly proper) aim of making a whacking great profit. Alexbrn ( talk) 09:01, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
This is not a question of whether the matriarchy explanation will be in the articleTrue. That is why nobody questioned that, and there is no reason to bring it up.
But Doug removed "some" and claimed that NO academics supported this theory.I cannot find the place where he said that no academics supported it. Please provide a link. Of course he removed the "some", but because it is bad writing (see WP:WEASEL), not because he thinks all academics reject it. When we write "academics reject it", it should be very obvious to everybody that not every single academic in the world rejected it, if only because most academics, specializing in many different fields, are not interested enough to have an opinion.
enough of a specialist in mythologyDabbling is not enough. With that reasoning, you would have to accept Immanuel Velikovsky as a myth specialist too. The relevant fields for studying myths are folklorists.
I also cannot fathom any reasonYou are not supposed to fathom any reasons. See WP:AGF.
I don't want Göttner-Abendroth to continue to be listed as a fringe theoristThis is not a "list of fringe theorists" or something like that. It is a noticeboard. Doug slapped a Post-it note here in order to inform others: "hey folks, there is a conflict over at those articles". And now we are scribbling all over his note. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 10:16, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
References
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A decidedly sketchy "goddess" with next to no trace in scholarship: the only possibly legit sources I could find were in Spanish and Italian, neither of which I read well enough for this. My reading of the EnNglish sources is that it's a case of New Age reading by people who don't know how to read old Scandinavian poetry, but in any case it's up for AfD and could use looking at by people who are more familiar with the Finnish source material than I am. Mangoe ( talk) 16:47, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
Surya Siddhanta ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is the Society for Scientific Exploration a good source? Do "editors who are vandalizing the sections of dating of Surya Siddhanta" have "no standing in terms of modern science"? See also Wikipedia:Fringe_theories/Noticeboard/Archive_1#Surya_Siddhanta. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 14:18, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
Some of the wilder claims were sourced to an Indian Journal of History of Science [sic] so I posted here on another noticeboard. GPinkerton ( talk) 06:20, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
Right now Ksharsutra (sometimes called Kshar sutra -- google both versions) redirects to Ayurveda but that article doesn't mention it.
The old article was just a bunch of promotional material, so it got redirected. [15] [16] [17]
Clearly we shouldn't have redirects to articles that don't cover the subject of the redirect. So, what to do? MfD the redirect? Create a new Ksharsutra page with some WP:RSMED sources (if we can find any)? Put in a mention on the Ayurveda page?
To complicate matters, Proponents of Ayurveda keep claiming that Ksharsutra is far superipor to conventional treatments, citing the usual dodgy sources. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 03:22, 13 July 2020 (UTC)
Ulcerative colitis#Alternative medicine seems to have been loaded with pseudoscientific claims.
Turmeric#Medical research says "Turmeric and curcumin, one of its constituents, have been studied in numerous clinical trials for various human diseases and conditions, but the conclusions have either been uncertain or negative. Claims that curcumin in turmeric may help to reduce inflammation remain unproven as of 2020."
Ulcerative colitis#Alternative medicine says "Curcumin (turmeric) therapy, in conjunction with taking the medications mesalamine or sulfasalazine, may be effective and safe for maintaining remission in people with quiescent ulcerative colitis. The effect of curcumin therapy alone on quiescent ulcerative colitis is unknown."
-- Guy Macon ( talk) 02:44, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
Lahodny is (we are told) "... one of the world's leading experts in ozone therapy because of his personal contribution to increasing its therapeutic effectiveness through a bold innovative technique—that he developed and perfected on his own".
So, there are issues with this article pertinent to this noticeboard. I have also raised this (with some more background) at WT:MED#Johann Lahodny – please comment there not here to keep discussion together. Alexbrn ( talk) 06:05, 11 July 2020 (UTC)
Update: Now a redirect to Ozone therapy — Paleo Neonate – 23:06, 21 July 2020 (UTC)
Editors with experience with fringe theories, especially as that intersects with the GMO topic area, are requested to weigh in at the following discussions:
Talk:Genetic Literacy Project#RfC about the word nonpartisan for the Genetic Literacy Project
Talk:Genetic Literacy Project#Should we merge with Jon Entine?
Crossroads -talk- 18:07, 11 July 2020 (UTC)
the editors with a strong pro-GLP POV[19] when there hasn't been anyone like that at the page (at least since we removed a bunch of COI stuff years ago). I've tried to gently refocus them a few times on things like WP:NOTFORUM as have others, but that's just ended up as blowblack on talk pages, so I'm trying to distance myself from them at this point rather than have it continue towards me at least. It wasn't until they focused on another editor that I thought it was worth bringing here. Their history looks complicated related to a few fringe areas, so I was hoping someone here more familiar with them could try to deescalate them to head it off before it continues further as opposed to the ANI/AE route. This really seems to be a case of coming in too hot. Kingofaces43 ( talk) 23:57, 11 July 2020 (UTC)
Update: now merged to Jon Entine by Crossroads after talk page consensus — Paleo Neonate – 01:32, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
More input requested here:
Talk:Tom O'Carroll#Proposed merge of Paedophilia: The Radical Case into Tom O'Carroll
Crossroads -talk- 18:55, 12 July 2020 (UTC)
Update: Merged since (on 18th), — Paleo Neonate – 01:53, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
The page Alex Berenson could use some more eyes. He's a former reporter who is pushing claims about the coronavirus that appear to contradict mainstream public health recommendations and findings. [20] Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 02:48, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
A fringe conspiracy theory that the CIA intentionally poisoned the population of a small French town, sourced to a conspiracy book author. I've been through the article a couple times before, attributing it as a conspiracy theory and trimming the excessive coverage, but the attribution is eventually removed and the excess coverage added back in with a heavy dose of WP:GEVAL. Some reviewing appreciated. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 23:58, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
Foundational devotional text of the Hare Krishnas. No criticism of the book, purportedly a translation of the Bhagavad Gita, is evident on the page. Could use work from adepts of the fringe mysteries more knowledgeable in these matters than I, particularly on those areas where the great guru's reading differ from mainstream scholarly thinking on the actual ancient text "as it is [really]". GPinkerton ( talk) 17:49, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
There's a RfC on the Arthur Laffer page [21] about whether to mention in the lead there is a consensus among economists that the US is not on the wrong side of the Laffer curve (i.e. consensus against the notion that tax cuts will pay for themselves). Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 13:31, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
Snooganssnoogans has concocted the notion that there is some consensus among economists against the notion that tax cuts always pay for themselves.
Snooganssnoogans has concocted the notion that there is some consensus among economists against the notion that tax cuts always pay for themselvesis bullshit because the statement "tax cuts always pay for themselves" is wrong - obviously wrong for everybody who is not innumerate. Independent of that, nobody here is claiming that the Laffer curve is fringe. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 11:19, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
This is silly being here. WP:FRINGE covers pseudoscience, hoaxes and the like, not minority academic viewpoints (see the third bullet point in WP:FRINGE/PS). By this logic, all non-neoclassical economics ( heterodox economics) could be classified as "fringe". -- Pudeo ( talk) 18:05, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
No, the question also isn't whether we on the rising or falling side of the peak, and it certainly isn't about "where on the curve we lie". jps ( talk) 22:16, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
This recently created page has been getting some outside attention lately, receiving edits like this one. Fulton Brown is a tenured professor at the University of Chicago who has, for example, recieved media attention for promoting a conspiracy theory that the Christchurch mosque shootings may have been a false flag operation. :bloodofox: ( talk) 06:02, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
I strongly doubt that notability has been established here, for starters. XOR'easter ( talk) 20:26, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
This is escalating. DrL, Langan's wife, has resurfaced, and is arguing aggressively for a standalone article; she and Langan are both checkuser-blocked as there are five technically indistinguishable accounts editing around CTMU; Tim Smith, the original creator of the article who also argued at length against its deletion and at DRV, is back (he has about 1,100 edits total since 2004); another editor has written a draft ( Draft:Cognitive-Theoretic Model Universe) and is (of course!) proposing changes to the notability guidelines to allow coverage of topics without significant reality-based coverage, and (of course!) arguing for a "change of venue" to remove editors with WP:FRINGE experience from the discussion. This needs more eyes at user talk:Chris Langan, Christopher Langan ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) and talk:Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe. Guy ( help!) 09:16, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
Northwestern European people asserts that there is such a thing. As someone who apparently falls into that group, my subjective response to that would be: Umm... no there isn't. Maybe some folks would like to go over the science and check. Vexations ( talk) 12:13, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
Peipsi-Pihkva ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
I'm not sure what's going on here, but it looks like the editor's work took something of a shift on about 16 January of this year when a peculiar "genetic differences" claim was added to the article on East Asian people: [25] jps ( talk) 16:13, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
James Morris Blaut: "some with an amalgam of Germanic and Christian elements, some with medieval Northwest-Europeans"
Mary S. Hartman: "late-marriage patterns fostered obliged Northwestern Europeans to devise new institutions"
Ian Morris: "early modern Northwest Europeans around 1700 CE must have been consuming somewhere between 30,000 and 35,000 kcal/cap/day"
Herbert S. Klein: " the sixty years before 1640 more than seven out of every eight people shipped across the Atlantic by Northwestern Europeans were Europeans"
Steven Ruggles: These findings cast doubt on the hypothesis that Northwest Europeans and North Americans had an exceptional historical pattern of preference for nuclear families."
Arland Thornton: "it is not surprising that ethnocentrism encouraged northwest Europeans to place themselves, especially their middle and upper classes, at the apex of development."
Deirdre McCloskey: "for largely noneconomic reasons, the prestige of a bourgeois prudence rose around 1700, in the way northwest Euopean people talked, within an economic conversation still honoring a balance of virtues"
Laurence Hurst: "Over 80 per cent of northwest Europeans can, but in parts of East Asia, where milk is much less commonly drunk, an inability to digest lactose is the norm."
I can't find any evidence that the grouping is used usually in relation to eugenics or genetic stock claims, but I have created a section in Northwestern European Americans about the use of the category for racism and eugenics. It is also mentioned in the diaspora section of North America in Northwestern European people but I could work on making that a larger section. Peipsi-Pihkva ( talk) 16:36, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
Related:
yikes.
jps ( talk) 16:39, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
More articles created by this user (a complete list can be found here)
Peipsi-Pihkva are the Estonian names of Lake Peipus and Pskov respectively. I suspect that the user is from the Anglosphere and of Estonian ancestry, which would explain the obsession with ethnic identity and diasporas. Hemiauchenia ( talk) 19:03, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
Hello, an editor at the above article steadfastly maintains that this war was "a draw" and dismisses reliable sources as not "quality" somehow because they are, for example, written eminent journalist Pierre Berton rather than by someone with a doctorate in history. Therefore, by his count, more “quality” sources support his view than the alternate view that the British won, and therefore this view is WP:FRINGE and should not be included.
Note, this article concerns the US and Canada rather than the European theatre of the war, which has its own article. The article is currently badly written and poorly organized, and also extremely long, but the TL;DR is that each side invaded the other and was repulsed, and the war ended with very little change to the border.
Nobody is suggesting that the article say in Wikipedia's voice that Britain/Canada won, only that respected writers do exist who say this, because Canada is not currently a US colony. Some guidance would be welcome, since another editor has actually listed sources for him, and he does not seem inclined to re-read the definition of a reliable source as I have suggested. Elinruby ( talk) 08:22, 26 June 2020 (UTC)
it is a page for alerting people who know how to handle fringe subjects that there is a page where they could help.At that point, the readers of the board got an impression of what it is about, and they could decide if they could help or not. Those who thought they could help put the page on their watchlist and maybe participated in discussions on the Talk page. Purpose of messageboard served!
Elinruby, after I explained the problems with your first source instead of replying to my comments, you asked "Did you even look at the sources above?" Yes I did. But if your first source is problematic and you don't even defend it, I see no point in making a lengthy reply evaluating all of them. In my experience, that just leads to more flawed sources and a lot more words of discussion. TFD ( talk) 13:02, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
It's become axiomatic among historians that Canadians know they won the War of 1812, Americans somehow think they won, and the Indians — who'd continue to cede land to American expansion — definitely know they lost, despite fighting alongside British regulars and Canadian militia.look.-- Moxy 🍁 20:07, 1 July 2020 (UTC)
Disputed military stalemate/British winrather than
Military stalemate, but one of the many problems is that military stalemate is not really disputed as the proposed wording may imply; even those who say Britain/Canada won do not deny the countries fought to a military stalemate, but they claim that for example Britain won because the United States was going to annex Canada and it failed; then there are those who say the United States was not going to annex Canada and that it lost for other reasons, etc.
[t]he Canadian-victory viewpoint was widespread decades ago but is no longer found in Canadian scholarly articles & books or university textbooks. It may still be taught at the high school level in Canada, but I think it's now "fringe" in mainstream Canadian reliable sources in 21st century. Old notions become fringe when the RS drop them. A main flaw from Canadian perspective is it ignores the massive losses suffered by Canadian First Nations, who are now considered full partners in Canadian history.-- Davide King ( talk) 15:25, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
Canada Won!arguments; the onus is also on them to show us that this is actually disputed and we need secondary and tertiary sources talking about the result and writing that it is disputed. By the way, Donald Hickey does write in The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Bicentennial Edition (2012) that
[t]hus, after three years of campaigning, neither the United States nor Great Britain could claim any great advantage in the war, let alone victory. Militarily, the War of 1812 ended in a draw.So one more misinterpretation.-- Davide King ( talk) 03:37, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
If WP:FRINGE is applied for such as Don Hickey saying United States lost the war then there is something very wrong with the guideline.But Donald Hickey actually say it was a draw! See
Hickey 2012, p. 228: "Thus, after three years of campaigning, neither the United States nor Great Britain could claim any great advantage in the war, let alone victory. Militarily, the War of 1812 ended in a draw.So they have completely misinterpreted him!-- Davide King ( talk) 20:32, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
You completely misunderstand my position (you really shouldn't take one editor’s word about another editor's position). I also suspect you haven't looked at Deathlibrarian’s sources if you think they are poor. BUT thank you for this:
If WP:FRINGE is applied for such as Don Hickey saying United States lost the war then there is something very wrong with the guideline.
This is precisely my point. Balance and weight should apply, not a dismissal of RS to outer darkness because of their conclusions, eye roll. Elinruby ( talk) 17:24, 17 July 2020 (UTC)
Can we avoid identifying a "winner" and "loser" and instead just say both sides failed in their primary offensive objectives, and succeeded in their primary defensive objectives?But that is exactly what the majority of historians say and it is what
Drawand
Military stalemateimply. Some historians may say it was a military stalemate but that Britain, for example, succeeded in her primary defense objectives and so won; but the same is done to claim American victory.-- Davide King ( talk) 15:25, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
I don't know what this is doing here as none of the discussed possibilities are "fringe" IMO a result statement is like any other statement in an article and requires sourcing. In this case, an extraordinary claim in view of it being unclear / disputed. IMO such a statement needs particularly strong sourcing to stay in Wikipedia. Being disputed, such strong sourcing probably does not exist. IMO that means completely remove the "result" entry. The desire to include the entry and fill in the blank does not override the wp:verifiability policy. Further, IMO a mere majority/plurality view is not enough to state it as fact in the voice of Wikipedia. Further, IMO, in such situations trying to create one-word characterizations in an area where opinions are divided is not an encyclopedic quest. Sincerely, North8000 ( talk) 03:37, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
the term fringe theory is used in a very broad sense to describe an idea that departs significantly from the prevailing views or mainstream views in its particular field.An American or British win's views clearly depart from the prevailling or mainstream views that it was a draw; we would need to change this wording first. I also believe there is some misinterpretation in that the ones who claim one side won over another are making an interpretation; because de facto it was a draw and military stalemate, there was not a de jure winner or something like that. Even the op says
Nobody is suggesting that the article say in Wikipedia's voice that Britain/Canada won, only that respected writers do exist who say this [...].The solution is simple; we say it was a draw in the infobox and add the interpretations in the main body, which are already in. We simply cannot say the result is disputed because it actually is not; again, there seems to be a confusion and conflation between the actual result (draw) and the few interpretations who claim one side won, without disputing the de facto military stalemate.-- Davide King ( talk) 04:03, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Richard M. Dolan
jps ( talk) 19:41, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
The lead to Hockey stick controversy is very long (as is the lead to Hockey stick graph) and is overwhelmingly focused on criticisms before a final paragraph, which basically says that scientific consensus endorses the graph. Are the criticisms DUE and is their prominent and sizable placement in the lead consistent with FRINGE and NPOV? Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 19:27, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
Was there actually a hockey stick controversy? I am dubious. There was a coordinate effort to try to discredit Michael Mann which failed rather spectacularly, but surely this is not a "hockey stick controversy" but rather one of many pitched battles by deniers against the scientific consensus. jps ( talk) 20:17, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
Thanks. I did. And decided not to get involved in these articles, at least for now. I don't have the knowledge base to edit or engage in much discussion and these days don't have the time to learn enough to advance anything intelligently. I have a pretty good grip on policy and guideline in general but this is an area that needs experts and that's not me. Littleolive oil ( talk)
I think we should AfD or merge-request RfC this rather than just acting based on our local consensus. This article had a lot of traffic one upon a time (was slashdotted?) in spite of it basically being set-up as a "dumping ground": [29] jps ( talk) 14:52, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
Elastic therapeutic tape could use a few more eyes. - MrOllie ( talk) 01:26, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
CheeEng Goo ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) has started to make unverified edits to trilobite pages ( Coronocephalus, Crotalocephalus), claiming to observe sexual dimorphism based on preservational differences. This both qualifies as original research and as pushing fringe theories. For context, CheeEng Goo publishes "Petrified Embryology", [30] a blog focusing on supposed petrified dinosaur embryos. These claims are not founded in any scientific methodology, and instead simply constitute misinterpretation of rocks. I think there is a good case for calling his work pseudoscientific. Elsewhere on the blog he supports an outdated view of dinosaur metabolism and extinction (that they were cold-blooded reptiles whose embryos were very sensitive to changes in the climate). His biography mentions that his Co-Partner in his work is a self-proclaimed "dragonologist". I'm not sure how administrators deal with fringe theorists publishing their own work on Wikipedia, are warnings, blocks, or bans the proper response? Fanboyphilosopher ( talk) 13:38, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
There's a content dispute on the Presidency of George W. Bush article about whether a particular line can be inserted into the body of the article in the section covering the Bush administration's refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol. In 2006, Bush stated here existed a "debate over whether [climate change is] man-made or naturally caused". I want to add a clarification noting that a scientific consensus existed at the time that human activity was likely a primary contributor to climate change (or something worded along those lines). I believe it would be compliant with WP:FRINGE to clarify that both for present-day readers and for readers in the year 2050 who are reading about the US withdrawal from Kyoto. I believe it would be non-compliant with the WP:FRINGE guideline to simply regurgitate Bush's claim that there was an active scientific debate on the subject without any clarification. Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 01:29, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
scientific skeptics had a lot more influence among policy makers than they do todayNot sure about that. Will Happer seems to have a lot of influence today. jps ( talk) 16:59, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
This is a perfectly relevant page. Global warming denial is a fringe position. jps ( talk) 20:52, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
Or maybe you aren't paying attention to what I'm saying? A question can be "legitimately one about WP:DUE" and still be relevant to WP:FRINGE. jps ( talk) 15:40, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
@ User:Springee, this is a noticeboard frequented by people who know how to handle fringe subjects. Its purpose is to make those experts aware of articles where fringe subjects are discussed, especially those articles where fringe proponents are threatening to insert their fringe positions into the articles. Since you are trying to keep users from posting those hints here, that means you do not want fringe experts to know about these articles. That means you want the fringe proponents to be successful in their attempt to insert their fringe positions into the articles. Since this is about climate change denial - exactly the same fringe position whose proponents you have been defending for months now, and even before that - your behaviour makes a lot of sense. Maybe a topic ban is order? -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 08:58, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
those who typically follow and reply here are more likely to be sympathetic to his/her editorial stance- which is the stance that tries to keep this encyclopedia from embracing fringe positions. There is nothing wrong with that stance, it is actually part of the rules, and I cannot imagine opposition to gathering anti-fringe editors being motivated by anything other than a pro-fringe position. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 20:40, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
Recently Falun Gong leader Li Hongzhi's comments about aliens, homosexuality, race, and so on have seen media attention again, particularly in light of Falun Gong's pro-Trump activities via its various media extensions, such as The Epoch Times.
Currently these articles makes little to no mention of these topics. As this is deep in fringe territory, I invite readers of notice board to see this talk page section. :bloodofox: ( talk) 17:44, 27 July 2020 (UTC)
Could somebody take a look at Lynching of Wilbur Little? There's a long thread on Talk:Lynching of Wilbur Little where the idea that this is a hoax is being pushed. It seems to me that we have a large collection of good sources from major newspapers, books published by academic presses, peer-reviewed literature, and a PhD thesis which all take the existence of this as a given. Against that, we have a small-town local newspaper claiming it's a hoax. What started out as what I considered reasonable coverage to the hoax idea has grown to take over the majority of the article. There's now a discussion about whether the title of the article should be changed to include "hoax" or "controversy". -- RoySmith (talk) 15:16, 28 July 2020 (UTC)
Starting here, but sure to spread to other articles. The question is, considering WP:EXTRAORDINARY, how much weight to give this kind of speculative reporting, and how to treat it neutrally. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 18:04, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
A new article related to this mess: Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force. I keep finding To the Stars affiliates quoted breathlessly in the media and ending up in our articles. jps ( talk) 19:31, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
These articles are infested with so-called "active separatist movements" such as this added by @ Carvesoda3789:, which is referenced by nothing more than a wordpress blog with a domain name. That isn't an isolated example, any crackpot with a Facebook page or their own website advocating for the independence of somewhere is an active separatist movement. FDW777 ( talk) 20:24, 28 July 2020 (UTC)
This AfD may be of interest to the community here. XOR'easter ( talk) 18:36, 28 July 2020 (UTC)
See A message to any journalists who end up reading this page on the above AfD. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 17:28, 29 July 2020 (UTC)
Satanic ritual abuse ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
is "verified to be truthful and correct" now. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 08:58, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Clinical trials on Ayurvedic drugs
Please comment.
jps ( talk) 16:50, 30 July 2020 (UTC)
More comments are requested at Talk:A.C.A.B.#Request for comment on text removed from ACAB article. Crossroads -talk- 01:55, 29 July 2020 (UTC)
This article, mostly untouched since its creation in 2011, seems to oversell ideas that nobody has heard of. The subject apparently got involved with the LaRouche movement, and finding sources that aren't from that bubble is proving tricky. XOR'easter ( talk) 22:13, 31 July 2020 (UTC)
Proposal to merge the small Raw veganism article into the larger Raw foodism article which already has a section on raw veganism [41]. One user Hawaiisunfun is continuing to make pro-fringe edits in regard to medical claims and content. Psychologist Guy ( talk) 14:08, 1 August 2020 (UTC)
See the background information at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Cédric d'Udekem d'Acoz
If only poor Cedric was a creationist. Then he would get a highly-paid job at the Discovery Institute like Günter Bechly did. I'm just saying. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 14:27, 3 August 2020 (UTC)
Talk:Global_warming#Requested_move_3_August_2020.
I figure some of y'all might have some valuable insight here.
jps ( talk) 14:43, 4 August 2020 (UTC)
Stella Immanuel ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
BLP could probably use some work clarifying that her fringe views are fringe, and her medical advice re COVD-19 is not merely “controversial”. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 02:28, 29 July 2020 (UTC)
Could some editors take a look at Talk:2020 Beirut explosions#"bomb of some kind"? I figured the people who read this noticeboard are more knowledgeable about undue weight and stuff. Bait30 Talk 2 me pls? 17:17, 5 August 2020 (UTC)
The current basis for any efficacy of Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (past discussions: Wikipedia:Fringe_theories/Noticeboard/Archive_44#Eye_movement_desensitization_and_reprocessing and Wikipedia:Fringe_theories/Noticeboard/Archive_21#Eye_movement_desensitization_and_reprocessing_(EMDR). Currently open merge discussion with EMDR. I thought it best to bring it up here before a WP:MEDRS review, which it badly needs. -- Hipal/Ronz ( talk) 17:34, 31 July 2020 (UTC)
Stuart Hameroff ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Do philosophers count as critics of the claim that Gödel implies that the human brain has certain properties? -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 06:47, 9 August 2020 (UTC)
“ | If you feel strongly that this simply cannot be true, maintaining that “I don’t believe quantum processing is possible in the brain at all” then you will surely be uninterested in any attempt to reverse engineering this non-existent phenomena. (Sorry about that.) But for me, to get of[sic] the ground, it was necessary that I suspend disbelief. Indeed, I am going to work under the assumption that neural quantum processing is present. And then seek to reverse engineer. If I’m not successful then probably my assumption is just not true. But if I am successful, well... | ” |
One need not assume that quantum processing is present to engage in such speculation or even meaningful scientific investigation that may/may not be relevant. But for some reason, this motivated reasoning seems to be all the rage for those who want quantum consciousness. WHY IS THAT? jps ( talk) 12:57, 9 August 2020 (UTC)
Talk:Anne Frank#Sexuality in the Diary -- Guy Macon ( talk) 03:16, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
This fringe theory is being discussed for the fifth time at Talk:Anne Frank#Sexuality in the Diary. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 18:16, 27 July 2020 (UTC)
For what it's worth, I still don't see the topic as FRINGE. Newimpartial ( talk) 20:16, 27 July 2020 (UTC)
Since I'm not claiming that those sources say anything in particular, that would be hard to do: mind reading is notoriously difficult. I am merely pointing out that they exist and aren't FRINGE material. Newimpartial ( talk) 21:55, 28 July 2020 (UTC)
The argument for inclusion has to explain why the material is not WP:UNDUE. It seems that the only way to do that is to argue that those passages from the girl's diary reveal something important about her, namely, her sexual orientation. That claim is fringe, even though some opinions expressed in RS (such as Haaretz) have made that claim. The suggestion in Haaretz and elsewhere that it's important to talk about Anne Frank's sexual orientation because this helps the self-esteem of Jewish queer people is bizarre, and is a disservice to the LGBTQ community. The gay and lesbian people I know find self-esteem elsewhere, and do not need to find it in speculation about the sexuality of a child. NightHeron ( talk) 11:15, 28 July 2020 (UTC)
"reveal something important about her", NightHeron. We are not writing a novel. It must be significant, which it is not, because no actual sex act is alleged to have taken place. Bus stop ( talk) 19:28, 10 August 2020 (UTC)
Via this edit by David Eppstein at Golden ratio (which I have watchlisted), I was led to this paragraph at Duodecimal and thence to Lee Carroll. There may be enough in the "Criticism" section to establish wiki-notability, but even granting that, the page looks like it could stand a good trimming. XOR'easter ( talk) 07:20, 10 August 2020 (UTC)
Posting here because the discussion touched upon QAnon. XOR'easter ( talk) 22:14, 11 August 2020 (UTC)
Could someone evaluate content on the Ben Carson page regarding the notion that the human brain is incapable of forgetting and can be electronically stimulated to remember everything? [62] The long-standing version appears to say that Carson's claim is incorrect, but a new editor is arguing that the evidence for the claim is mixed. I do not know enough about the topic and do not have time to read the sources thoroughly, which appear to be WP:SYNTH. Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 04:39, 11 August 2020 (UTC)
possible worsening in patients below age 65 years with stimulation, interestingly.) CTV News and The Conversation fail WP:MEDRS, both studies mentioned probably do as well on account of being primary, and this page from Harvard is mislabeled as a "study" (it's just a website). XOR'easter ( talk) 04:58, 11 August 2020 (UTC)
Norwegian Child Welfare Services ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs) Centre of numerous conspiracy theories and target of (probably exaggerated) criticism apparently centred on Eastern Europe and supported by various fringe perspectives and (possibly justified) other criticism of various sorts. Many of the sources could use a look; nearly all are non-English language and potentially tainted by a curious mixture of political and/or religious biases of various colours. GPinkerton ( talk) 21:49, 11 August 2020 (UTC)
Yeah, I mean, histrionics are histrionics. I remember one blog which was written by an American who lost custody of her children frothing at the mouth over the influence of Satan (they were of the fundamentalist Christian ilk). The best thing to do is stick to reliable sources ( WP:RSN could help). BBC has some pretty good coverage of the subject that seems more-or-less balanced to me. jps ( talk) 14:02, 12 August 2020 (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.
I have proposed this sensible move that needs more eyes on Talk:Neil Ferguson (epidemiologist). It really is silly that he is categorized as a scientist. He's an international joke. Calling this quack a scientist an insult to science! Arthur Sparknottle ( talk) 18:49, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
Two previous deletion discussions resulted in a weak keep and there were some convincing merge arguments then, but they are still distinct, so I started the formal merge discussion. Thanks, — Paleo Neonate – 19:39, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
See Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard#Is The Media Fund a reliable source? -- Guy Macon ( talk) 19:08, 13 August 2020 (UTC)
For the interested, there's an ongoing discussion on what birther should redirect to. Gråbergs Gråa Sång ( talk) 08:51, 14 August 2020 (UTC)
This page is an archive. Do not edit the contents of this page. Please direct any additional comments to the current main page. |
There's a content dispute on the Tucker Carlson page, see this [1]. The cited sources say it's false and it seems compliant with FRINGE to describe a clear falsehood as a falsehood. Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 13:02, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
Many schools that do plan to reopen will do so under a series of restrictions that have no basis of any kind in science. It's kind of a bizarre health theater. Students will be kept six feet apart, everyone will have to wear a mask, class sizes will be limited...
Teachers are people too. O3000 ( talk) 13:51, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
100's of deaths a day", if it's only the US you're speaking about, where at least 700 people died just yesterday. GPinkerton ( talk) 18:09, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
He doubled down a few days later. It is clear he does not intend to comment specifically about schools. - MrOllie ( talk) 13:53, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
Contrary to some of the suggestions above, the word false does not "imply intentional deception" or "suggest a knowing intent to mislead." False simply means "not according with truth or fact; incorrect." Other words convey intent, such as lie ("an intentionally false statement") or perjure ("willfully tell an untruth when giving evidence to a court"). This is pretty well established in the English language. If the reliable sources say that a statement is false (as they do here), we obviously have to reflect that in whatever text we have on the encyclopedia. WP:FRINGE comes into play. Neutrality talk 14:06, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
the ambiguity regarding intent is the problem, I thought that implied that you want to say it unambiguously. My understanding was that we have this choice:
The Hill's "Changing America" is an "editorial channel" and (probably?) not usable for statements of fact in a BLP. fiveby( zero) 14:47, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
There is no evidence that the extensive use of masks by healthy people will help reduce infections.Finland currently has 0 people in intensive care due to COVID-19. -- Pudeo ( talk) 20:42, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
Carlson's claim about masks was specifically related to school childrenThis is untrue. The secondary sources we have indicate that he was making a general claim about the effectiveness of masks. If you have a WP:SECONDARY source interpreting it differently, go ahead and present it; but your own personal reading of Carlson's primary quotes has no weight in a discussion where the secondary sources plainly disagree. --23:30, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
The comment, suggesting that social distancing and wearing face masks are not scientifically shown to reduce the spread of coronavirus, is wrong.) If you want to argue that the source got this wrong or is paraphrasing Carlson inaccurately you should contact them requesting a retraction or correction or produce a second source directly disputing them; but until then, we have to go with the sources we have. -- Aquillion ( talk) 23:17, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
For those questioning what precisely was said, here is the video of the statements: [12]. -- Softlavender ( talk) 01:10, 16 July 2020 (UTC)
The article about Wayfair is predictably receiving edits from some folks who think there is any amount of credibility in a conspiracy theory that they are involved in trafficking children in cabinetry. Extra eyes would be helpful. NorthBySouthBaranof ( talk) 20:19, 11 July 2020 (UTC)
The author seems much more wiki-notable than this particular book, about which very little has been said; possibly a candidate for merging. XOR'easter ( talk) 15:48, 16 July 2020 (UTC)
OK, I went ahead and implemented the merge to William James Sidis (and did a few copy edits along the way). XOR'easter ( talk) 23:42, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
A newly created editor is quibbling about whether the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons actually pushes "scientifically discredited hypotheses, including the belief that HIV does not cause AIDS, that being gay reduces life expectancy, that there is a link between abortion and breast cancer, and that there is a causal relationship between vaccines and autism." Is the editor right to remove the text? [13] Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 16:25, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
I am noticing a series of questions / requests for help with no replies. If each of us who asked for help also took a bit of time to give someone else some help, we would immediately achieve word peace,[ Citation Need ed universal happiness,[ Citation Need ed intelligent and honest politicians,[ Citation Need ed and an end to robocalls.[ Citation Need ed -- Guy Macon ( talk) 01:24, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
For anybody still unaware, this is an RfC at
which may be of interest to watchers of this noticeboard. Alexbrn ( talk) 11:44, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
Interested eyes wanted on if the sources used here are reasonable in context: "A pioneer of aviation,[4][5][6] Ibn Firnas built the first human carrying glider[7][8] [9][10] and is reputed to have survived two successful flights.[11][12][13][14] His works led the late investigators to define and invent some of the basics of rational aircraft design. According to John Harding, Ibn Firnas' glider was the first attempt at heavier-than-air flight in aviation history.[15]". Gråbergs Gråa Sång ( talk) 12:41, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
There's been an effort to suggest that work by Heide Göttner-Abendroth is equivalent to more obviously reliable sources. I'm not happy about her article which is badly sourced - anyone interested might want to see what I've deleted as well. Note that the sources linked to matriarchy.info which I had to find using Wayback are copyright violations (not added by the current editor. Doug Weller talk 09:36, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
@Doug Weller. I agree that it would be appropriate to remove the "well respected" before Göttner-Abendroth's reference, as that might indicate bias. However, it is equally biased to try to entirely erase the existence of a large academic movement (of whom she is one significant figure but not the only one). Note that the people you're referring to as "more obviously reliable" have equal or lesser academic qualifications. For instance, take Cynthia Eller. She is a professor of Religious Studies and Women's Studies, whose dissertation was on religious arguments in favor of pacifism in the second World War.
[1]. The book referenced in the Tiamat article was published by a NON-academic publisher, Beacon Press, which is associated with a church and no peer-review was done. As such, it can't be said to represent any kind of academic concensus.
Moreover, the book referenced in the Tiamat article was not received without academic debate. Historian Max Dashu's peer reviewed analysis of the book is even quoted here on Wikipedia to say that Eller mischaracterizes and misrepresents the theories she's arguing against. The_Myth_of_Matriarchal_Prehistory The abstract of this article explains that Eller has misrepresented the theories of matriarchal prehistory and that, contrary to her statements, there is widely accepted evidence of "egalitarian human societies... that embraced female personifications of the Divine, neither subordinating them to a masculine god, nor debarring masculine deities." [2]. Note that unlike Eller's book, this article is peer-reviewed, meaning that it has been accepted as legitimate scholarship by other academics.
I am not saying that Wikipedia should promote one or the other view of Tiamat. I am simply suggesting that it misrepresents the state of scholarship to ignore a sharp division within this field. When two different theories collide, it is not acceptable to just label the one an editor disagrees with as "fringe." I believe this misconception is based on outdated sources. It IS true that Robert Graves' ideas were dismissed by most historians during the 1960s. (Though it's worth noting that at the same time they were widely embraced by scholars in the fields of humanities and literature, due to their popularization in Joseph Campbell's work -- part of the reason I wanted to include more nuance is because otherwise it becomes harder to understand literary and artistic work that references these theories). However, it is also the case that these ideas have made a comeback due to the research of feminist historians. As Dashu characterizes the debate: "[the theory's] massive comeback as a result of the women’s movement has caused an alarmed re-action... All this polarization and oversimplification avoids the real issue." In other words, there is scholarly debate.
So what precisely makes Eller an example of an "obviously reliable" source and the people she's disagreeing with a "fringe theory"? You've updated Göttner-Abendroth's biography page to imply that her work was only widely accepted in Germany through the 1980s and that she only published through the 2000s (20 years ago). However, her most recent book was released in 2012 (more recently than Eller) and was released by the Peter Lang publishing group, an academic publisher who describes their publication process as follows: "manuscripts undergo a rigorous peer review by respected scholars from the subject in order to guarantee the academic quality of the work." [3] Additionally, Göttner-Abendroth's most recent journal publication was less than two years ago, in the Asian Journal of Women's Studies, which is another peer-reviewed academic journal. (This publication is even listed on the page you edited, which makes me question why you had the dates wrong)
As if that weren't enough, Oxford University Press currently maintains Göttner-Abendroth's extensive bibliography on matriarchal studies, which was last updated in March 2020. [4] I do not understand how a scholar who was chosen by Oxford University's 'Oxford Bibliographies' program, and as such endorsed by them as "an authoritative guide to the current scholarship," [5] can be considered a fringe theorist? Nor do I understand why you would claim she was obviously less reliable when all of her published work has undergone rigorous peer review ... while the book you're supporting was published by a random church-affiliated press. How is that "obviously" more mainstream?
Now, I'm not say that Eller isn't legitimate. Outside this book, she has done excellent peer-reviewed work documenting the historical (pre-21st century) development of these theories and outlining some of the debates surrounding this issue. Neither am I saying Göttner-Abendroth is the ultimate authority, though I'd certainly trust her bibliography to be a good guide. I suspect the truth of pre-history lies somewhere in the middle. However, it is simply incorrect to suggest that only one of these authors represents the "real" academic perspective. Yes, Göttner-Abendroth's Wiki page was woefully under done. But that doesn't mean she's a crackpot.
If there were only one acceptable academic perspective on something as complex as pre-historical religious belief systems, then that would point less to academia's actual knowledge of the situation and much more to an unwillingness to engage in meaningful debate. Academics disagree on politically oriented grounds, and often different fields also disagree, and that's wonderful.
The only conclusion I can draw is that you, Doug Weller, personally disagree with Göttner-Abendroth and/or are potentially unaware of her significance to the relevant fields. I'm appealing to your better nature not to try to enforce an arbitrary order on this magnificent chaos by using your power as an editor to simply erase entire academic debates or lines of reserch (e.g., suggesting archeomythology or matriarchal studies are not "real" academia)
The only conclusion I can draw is that you, Doug Weller, personally disagree withNever try to pull that one here. You have your opinion, someone disagrees with you, and instead of comparing notes to find out who has the better reasons, you simply declare that the other person is ignorant - since you are right and they are wrong, what else could it be? (Variation: they are paid to disagree with you. What else could it be?) That type of reasoning leads nowhere, and it is a mark of pseudoscienc proponents who need to use bad arguments for defending their position because good arguments for it do not exist. So, the only thing you achieve by this tactic is that you lose more standing. We have experience here with tricks like that.
"literally recognized by Oxford University as the leading expert in her field"🠔 citation required. Note that OUP is not the university, but a commercial publisher which publishes some right junk in their (perfectly proper) aim of making a whacking great profit. Alexbrn ( talk) 09:01, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
This is not a question of whether the matriarchy explanation will be in the articleTrue. That is why nobody questioned that, and there is no reason to bring it up.
But Doug removed "some" and claimed that NO academics supported this theory.I cannot find the place where he said that no academics supported it. Please provide a link. Of course he removed the "some", but because it is bad writing (see WP:WEASEL), not because he thinks all academics reject it. When we write "academics reject it", it should be very obvious to everybody that not every single academic in the world rejected it, if only because most academics, specializing in many different fields, are not interested enough to have an opinion.
enough of a specialist in mythologyDabbling is not enough. With that reasoning, you would have to accept Immanuel Velikovsky as a myth specialist too. The relevant fields for studying myths are folklorists.
I also cannot fathom any reasonYou are not supposed to fathom any reasons. See WP:AGF.
I don't want Göttner-Abendroth to continue to be listed as a fringe theoristThis is not a "list of fringe theorists" or something like that. It is a noticeboard. Doug slapped a Post-it note here in order to inform others: "hey folks, there is a conflict over at those articles". And now we are scribbling all over his note. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 10:16, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
References
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A decidedly sketchy "goddess" with next to no trace in scholarship: the only possibly legit sources I could find were in Spanish and Italian, neither of which I read well enough for this. My reading of the EnNglish sources is that it's a case of New Age reading by people who don't know how to read old Scandinavian poetry, but in any case it's up for AfD and could use looking at by people who are more familiar with the Finnish source material than I am. Mangoe ( talk) 16:47, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
Surya Siddhanta ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Is the Society for Scientific Exploration a good source? Do "editors who are vandalizing the sections of dating of Surya Siddhanta" have "no standing in terms of modern science"? See also Wikipedia:Fringe_theories/Noticeboard/Archive_1#Surya_Siddhanta. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 14:18, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
Some of the wilder claims were sourced to an Indian Journal of History of Science [sic] so I posted here on another noticeboard. GPinkerton ( talk) 06:20, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
Right now Ksharsutra (sometimes called Kshar sutra -- google both versions) redirects to Ayurveda but that article doesn't mention it.
The old article was just a bunch of promotional material, so it got redirected. [15] [16] [17]
Clearly we shouldn't have redirects to articles that don't cover the subject of the redirect. So, what to do? MfD the redirect? Create a new Ksharsutra page with some WP:RSMED sources (if we can find any)? Put in a mention on the Ayurveda page?
To complicate matters, Proponents of Ayurveda keep claiming that Ksharsutra is far superipor to conventional treatments, citing the usual dodgy sources. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 03:22, 13 July 2020 (UTC)
Ulcerative colitis#Alternative medicine seems to have been loaded with pseudoscientific claims.
Turmeric#Medical research says "Turmeric and curcumin, one of its constituents, have been studied in numerous clinical trials for various human diseases and conditions, but the conclusions have either been uncertain or negative. Claims that curcumin in turmeric may help to reduce inflammation remain unproven as of 2020."
Ulcerative colitis#Alternative medicine says "Curcumin (turmeric) therapy, in conjunction with taking the medications mesalamine or sulfasalazine, may be effective and safe for maintaining remission in people with quiescent ulcerative colitis. The effect of curcumin therapy alone on quiescent ulcerative colitis is unknown."
-- Guy Macon ( talk) 02:44, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
Lahodny is (we are told) "... one of the world's leading experts in ozone therapy because of his personal contribution to increasing its therapeutic effectiveness through a bold innovative technique—that he developed and perfected on his own".
So, there are issues with this article pertinent to this noticeboard. I have also raised this (with some more background) at WT:MED#Johann Lahodny – please comment there not here to keep discussion together. Alexbrn ( talk) 06:05, 11 July 2020 (UTC)
Update: Now a redirect to Ozone therapy — Paleo Neonate – 23:06, 21 July 2020 (UTC)
Editors with experience with fringe theories, especially as that intersects with the GMO topic area, are requested to weigh in at the following discussions:
Talk:Genetic Literacy Project#RfC about the word nonpartisan for the Genetic Literacy Project
Talk:Genetic Literacy Project#Should we merge with Jon Entine?
Crossroads -talk- 18:07, 11 July 2020 (UTC)
the editors with a strong pro-GLP POV[19] when there hasn't been anyone like that at the page (at least since we removed a bunch of COI stuff years ago). I've tried to gently refocus them a few times on things like WP:NOTFORUM as have others, but that's just ended up as blowblack on talk pages, so I'm trying to distance myself from them at this point rather than have it continue towards me at least. It wasn't until they focused on another editor that I thought it was worth bringing here. Their history looks complicated related to a few fringe areas, so I was hoping someone here more familiar with them could try to deescalate them to head it off before it continues further as opposed to the ANI/AE route. This really seems to be a case of coming in too hot. Kingofaces43 ( talk) 23:57, 11 July 2020 (UTC)
Update: now merged to Jon Entine by Crossroads after talk page consensus — Paleo Neonate – 01:32, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
More input requested here:
Talk:Tom O'Carroll#Proposed merge of Paedophilia: The Radical Case into Tom O'Carroll
Crossroads -talk- 18:55, 12 July 2020 (UTC)
Update: Merged since (on 18th), — Paleo Neonate – 01:53, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
The page Alex Berenson could use some more eyes. He's a former reporter who is pushing claims about the coronavirus that appear to contradict mainstream public health recommendations and findings. [20] Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 02:48, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
A fringe conspiracy theory that the CIA intentionally poisoned the population of a small French town, sourced to a conspiracy book author. I've been through the article a couple times before, attributing it as a conspiracy theory and trimming the excessive coverage, but the attribution is eventually removed and the excess coverage added back in with a heavy dose of WP:GEVAL. Some reviewing appreciated. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 23:58, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
Foundational devotional text of the Hare Krishnas. No criticism of the book, purportedly a translation of the Bhagavad Gita, is evident on the page. Could use work from adepts of the fringe mysteries more knowledgeable in these matters than I, particularly on those areas where the great guru's reading differ from mainstream scholarly thinking on the actual ancient text "as it is [really]". GPinkerton ( talk) 17:49, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
There's a RfC on the Arthur Laffer page [21] about whether to mention in the lead there is a consensus among economists that the US is not on the wrong side of the Laffer curve (i.e. consensus against the notion that tax cuts will pay for themselves). Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 13:31, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
Snooganssnoogans has concocted the notion that there is some consensus among economists against the notion that tax cuts always pay for themselves.
Snooganssnoogans has concocted the notion that there is some consensus among economists against the notion that tax cuts always pay for themselvesis bullshit because the statement "tax cuts always pay for themselves" is wrong - obviously wrong for everybody who is not innumerate. Independent of that, nobody here is claiming that the Laffer curve is fringe. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 11:19, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
This is silly being here. WP:FRINGE covers pseudoscience, hoaxes and the like, not minority academic viewpoints (see the third bullet point in WP:FRINGE/PS). By this logic, all non-neoclassical economics ( heterodox economics) could be classified as "fringe". -- Pudeo ( talk) 18:05, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
No, the question also isn't whether we on the rising or falling side of the peak, and it certainly isn't about "where on the curve we lie". jps ( talk) 22:16, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
This recently created page has been getting some outside attention lately, receiving edits like this one. Fulton Brown is a tenured professor at the University of Chicago who has, for example, recieved media attention for promoting a conspiracy theory that the Christchurch mosque shootings may have been a false flag operation. :bloodofox: ( talk) 06:02, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
I strongly doubt that notability has been established here, for starters. XOR'easter ( talk) 20:26, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
This is escalating. DrL, Langan's wife, has resurfaced, and is arguing aggressively for a standalone article; she and Langan are both checkuser-blocked as there are five technically indistinguishable accounts editing around CTMU; Tim Smith, the original creator of the article who also argued at length against its deletion and at DRV, is back (he has about 1,100 edits total since 2004); another editor has written a draft ( Draft:Cognitive-Theoretic Model Universe) and is (of course!) proposing changes to the notability guidelines to allow coverage of topics without significant reality-based coverage, and (of course!) arguing for a "change of venue" to remove editors with WP:FRINGE experience from the discussion. This needs more eyes at user talk:Chris Langan, Christopher Langan ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) and talk:Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe. Guy ( help!) 09:16, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
Northwestern European people asserts that there is such a thing. As someone who apparently falls into that group, my subjective response to that would be: Umm... no there isn't. Maybe some folks would like to go over the science and check. Vexations ( talk) 12:13, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
Peipsi-Pihkva ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
I'm not sure what's going on here, but it looks like the editor's work took something of a shift on about 16 January of this year when a peculiar "genetic differences" claim was added to the article on East Asian people: [25] jps ( talk) 16:13, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
James Morris Blaut: "some with an amalgam of Germanic and Christian elements, some with medieval Northwest-Europeans"
Mary S. Hartman: "late-marriage patterns fostered obliged Northwestern Europeans to devise new institutions"
Ian Morris: "early modern Northwest Europeans around 1700 CE must have been consuming somewhere between 30,000 and 35,000 kcal/cap/day"
Herbert S. Klein: " the sixty years before 1640 more than seven out of every eight people shipped across the Atlantic by Northwestern Europeans were Europeans"
Steven Ruggles: These findings cast doubt on the hypothesis that Northwest Europeans and North Americans had an exceptional historical pattern of preference for nuclear families."
Arland Thornton: "it is not surprising that ethnocentrism encouraged northwest Europeans to place themselves, especially their middle and upper classes, at the apex of development."
Deirdre McCloskey: "for largely noneconomic reasons, the prestige of a bourgeois prudence rose around 1700, in the way northwest Euopean people talked, within an economic conversation still honoring a balance of virtues"
Laurence Hurst: "Over 80 per cent of northwest Europeans can, but in parts of East Asia, where milk is much less commonly drunk, an inability to digest lactose is the norm."
I can't find any evidence that the grouping is used usually in relation to eugenics or genetic stock claims, but I have created a section in Northwestern European Americans about the use of the category for racism and eugenics. It is also mentioned in the diaspora section of North America in Northwestern European people but I could work on making that a larger section. Peipsi-Pihkva ( talk) 16:36, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
Related:
yikes.
jps ( talk) 16:39, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
More articles created by this user (a complete list can be found here)
Peipsi-Pihkva are the Estonian names of Lake Peipus and Pskov respectively. I suspect that the user is from the Anglosphere and of Estonian ancestry, which would explain the obsession with ethnic identity and diasporas. Hemiauchenia ( talk) 19:03, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
Hello, an editor at the above article steadfastly maintains that this war was "a draw" and dismisses reliable sources as not "quality" somehow because they are, for example, written eminent journalist Pierre Berton rather than by someone with a doctorate in history. Therefore, by his count, more “quality” sources support his view than the alternate view that the British won, and therefore this view is WP:FRINGE and should not be included.
Note, this article concerns the US and Canada rather than the European theatre of the war, which has its own article. The article is currently badly written and poorly organized, and also extremely long, but the TL;DR is that each side invaded the other and was repulsed, and the war ended with very little change to the border.
Nobody is suggesting that the article say in Wikipedia's voice that Britain/Canada won, only that respected writers do exist who say this, because Canada is not currently a US colony. Some guidance would be welcome, since another editor has actually listed sources for him, and he does not seem inclined to re-read the definition of a reliable source as I have suggested. Elinruby ( talk) 08:22, 26 June 2020 (UTC)
it is a page for alerting people who know how to handle fringe subjects that there is a page where they could help.At that point, the readers of the board got an impression of what it is about, and they could decide if they could help or not. Those who thought they could help put the page on their watchlist and maybe participated in discussions on the Talk page. Purpose of messageboard served!
Elinruby, after I explained the problems with your first source instead of replying to my comments, you asked "Did you even look at the sources above?" Yes I did. But if your first source is problematic and you don't even defend it, I see no point in making a lengthy reply evaluating all of them. In my experience, that just leads to more flawed sources and a lot more words of discussion. TFD ( talk) 13:02, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
It's become axiomatic among historians that Canadians know they won the War of 1812, Americans somehow think they won, and the Indians — who'd continue to cede land to American expansion — definitely know they lost, despite fighting alongside British regulars and Canadian militia.look.-- Moxy 🍁 20:07, 1 July 2020 (UTC)
Disputed military stalemate/British winrather than
Military stalemate, but one of the many problems is that military stalemate is not really disputed as the proposed wording may imply; even those who say Britain/Canada won do not deny the countries fought to a military stalemate, but they claim that for example Britain won because the United States was going to annex Canada and it failed; then there are those who say the United States was not going to annex Canada and that it lost for other reasons, etc.
[t]he Canadian-victory viewpoint was widespread decades ago but is no longer found in Canadian scholarly articles & books or university textbooks. It may still be taught at the high school level in Canada, but I think it's now "fringe" in mainstream Canadian reliable sources in 21st century. Old notions become fringe when the RS drop them. A main flaw from Canadian perspective is it ignores the massive losses suffered by Canadian First Nations, who are now considered full partners in Canadian history.-- Davide King ( talk) 15:25, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
Canada Won!arguments; the onus is also on them to show us that this is actually disputed and we need secondary and tertiary sources talking about the result and writing that it is disputed. By the way, Donald Hickey does write in The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Bicentennial Edition (2012) that
[t]hus, after three years of campaigning, neither the United States nor Great Britain could claim any great advantage in the war, let alone victory. Militarily, the War of 1812 ended in a draw.So one more misinterpretation.-- Davide King ( talk) 03:37, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
If WP:FRINGE is applied for such as Don Hickey saying United States lost the war then there is something very wrong with the guideline.But Donald Hickey actually say it was a draw! See
Hickey 2012, p. 228: "Thus, after three years of campaigning, neither the United States nor Great Britain could claim any great advantage in the war, let alone victory. Militarily, the War of 1812 ended in a draw.So they have completely misinterpreted him!-- Davide King ( talk) 20:32, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
You completely misunderstand my position (you really shouldn't take one editor’s word about another editor's position). I also suspect you haven't looked at Deathlibrarian’s sources if you think they are poor. BUT thank you for this:
If WP:FRINGE is applied for such as Don Hickey saying United States lost the war then there is something very wrong with the guideline.
This is precisely my point. Balance and weight should apply, not a dismissal of RS to outer darkness because of their conclusions, eye roll. Elinruby ( talk) 17:24, 17 July 2020 (UTC)
Can we avoid identifying a "winner" and "loser" and instead just say both sides failed in their primary offensive objectives, and succeeded in their primary defensive objectives?But that is exactly what the majority of historians say and it is what
Drawand
Military stalemateimply. Some historians may say it was a military stalemate but that Britain, for example, succeeded in her primary defense objectives and so won; but the same is done to claim American victory.-- Davide King ( talk) 15:25, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
I don't know what this is doing here as none of the discussed possibilities are "fringe" IMO a result statement is like any other statement in an article and requires sourcing. In this case, an extraordinary claim in view of it being unclear / disputed. IMO such a statement needs particularly strong sourcing to stay in Wikipedia. Being disputed, such strong sourcing probably does not exist. IMO that means completely remove the "result" entry. The desire to include the entry and fill in the blank does not override the wp:verifiability policy. Further, IMO a mere majority/plurality view is not enough to state it as fact in the voice of Wikipedia. Further, IMO, in such situations trying to create one-word characterizations in an area where opinions are divided is not an encyclopedic quest. Sincerely, North8000 ( talk) 03:37, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
the term fringe theory is used in a very broad sense to describe an idea that departs significantly from the prevailing views or mainstream views in its particular field.An American or British win's views clearly depart from the prevailling or mainstream views that it was a draw; we would need to change this wording first. I also believe there is some misinterpretation in that the ones who claim one side won over another are making an interpretation; because de facto it was a draw and military stalemate, there was not a de jure winner or something like that. Even the op says
Nobody is suggesting that the article say in Wikipedia's voice that Britain/Canada won, only that respected writers do exist who say this [...].The solution is simple; we say it was a draw in the infobox and add the interpretations in the main body, which are already in. We simply cannot say the result is disputed because it actually is not; again, there seems to be a confusion and conflation between the actual result (draw) and the few interpretations who claim one side won, without disputing the de facto military stalemate.-- Davide King ( talk) 04:03, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Richard M. Dolan
jps ( talk) 19:41, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
The lead to Hockey stick controversy is very long (as is the lead to Hockey stick graph) and is overwhelmingly focused on criticisms before a final paragraph, which basically says that scientific consensus endorses the graph. Are the criticisms DUE and is their prominent and sizable placement in the lead consistent with FRINGE and NPOV? Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 19:27, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
Was there actually a hockey stick controversy? I am dubious. There was a coordinate effort to try to discredit Michael Mann which failed rather spectacularly, but surely this is not a "hockey stick controversy" but rather one of many pitched battles by deniers against the scientific consensus. jps ( talk) 20:17, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
Thanks. I did. And decided not to get involved in these articles, at least for now. I don't have the knowledge base to edit or engage in much discussion and these days don't have the time to learn enough to advance anything intelligently. I have a pretty good grip on policy and guideline in general but this is an area that needs experts and that's not me. Littleolive oil ( talk)
I think we should AfD or merge-request RfC this rather than just acting based on our local consensus. This article had a lot of traffic one upon a time (was slashdotted?) in spite of it basically being set-up as a "dumping ground": [29] jps ( talk) 14:52, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
Elastic therapeutic tape could use a few more eyes. - MrOllie ( talk) 01:26, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
CheeEng Goo ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) has started to make unverified edits to trilobite pages ( Coronocephalus, Crotalocephalus), claiming to observe sexual dimorphism based on preservational differences. This both qualifies as original research and as pushing fringe theories. For context, CheeEng Goo publishes "Petrified Embryology", [30] a blog focusing on supposed petrified dinosaur embryos. These claims are not founded in any scientific methodology, and instead simply constitute misinterpretation of rocks. I think there is a good case for calling his work pseudoscientific. Elsewhere on the blog he supports an outdated view of dinosaur metabolism and extinction (that they were cold-blooded reptiles whose embryos were very sensitive to changes in the climate). His biography mentions that his Co-Partner in his work is a self-proclaimed "dragonologist". I'm not sure how administrators deal with fringe theorists publishing their own work on Wikipedia, are warnings, blocks, or bans the proper response? Fanboyphilosopher ( talk) 13:38, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
There's a content dispute on the Presidency of George W. Bush article about whether a particular line can be inserted into the body of the article in the section covering the Bush administration's refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol. In 2006, Bush stated here existed a "debate over whether [climate change is] man-made or naturally caused". I want to add a clarification noting that a scientific consensus existed at the time that human activity was likely a primary contributor to climate change (or something worded along those lines). I believe it would be compliant with WP:FRINGE to clarify that both for present-day readers and for readers in the year 2050 who are reading about the US withdrawal from Kyoto. I believe it would be non-compliant with the WP:FRINGE guideline to simply regurgitate Bush's claim that there was an active scientific debate on the subject without any clarification. Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 01:29, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
scientific skeptics had a lot more influence among policy makers than they do todayNot sure about that. Will Happer seems to have a lot of influence today. jps ( talk) 16:59, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
This is a perfectly relevant page. Global warming denial is a fringe position. jps ( talk) 20:52, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
Or maybe you aren't paying attention to what I'm saying? A question can be "legitimately one about WP:DUE" and still be relevant to WP:FRINGE. jps ( talk) 15:40, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
@ User:Springee, this is a noticeboard frequented by people who know how to handle fringe subjects. Its purpose is to make those experts aware of articles where fringe subjects are discussed, especially those articles where fringe proponents are threatening to insert their fringe positions into the articles. Since you are trying to keep users from posting those hints here, that means you do not want fringe experts to know about these articles. That means you want the fringe proponents to be successful in their attempt to insert their fringe positions into the articles. Since this is about climate change denial - exactly the same fringe position whose proponents you have been defending for months now, and even before that - your behaviour makes a lot of sense. Maybe a topic ban is order? -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 08:58, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
those who typically follow and reply here are more likely to be sympathetic to his/her editorial stance- which is the stance that tries to keep this encyclopedia from embracing fringe positions. There is nothing wrong with that stance, it is actually part of the rules, and I cannot imagine opposition to gathering anti-fringe editors being motivated by anything other than a pro-fringe position. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 20:40, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
Recently Falun Gong leader Li Hongzhi's comments about aliens, homosexuality, race, and so on have seen media attention again, particularly in light of Falun Gong's pro-Trump activities via its various media extensions, such as The Epoch Times.
Currently these articles makes little to no mention of these topics. As this is deep in fringe territory, I invite readers of notice board to see this talk page section. :bloodofox: ( talk) 17:44, 27 July 2020 (UTC)
Could somebody take a look at Lynching of Wilbur Little? There's a long thread on Talk:Lynching of Wilbur Little where the idea that this is a hoax is being pushed. It seems to me that we have a large collection of good sources from major newspapers, books published by academic presses, peer-reviewed literature, and a PhD thesis which all take the existence of this as a given. Against that, we have a small-town local newspaper claiming it's a hoax. What started out as what I considered reasonable coverage to the hoax idea has grown to take over the majority of the article. There's now a discussion about whether the title of the article should be changed to include "hoax" or "controversy". -- RoySmith (talk) 15:16, 28 July 2020 (UTC)
Starting here, but sure to spread to other articles. The question is, considering WP:EXTRAORDINARY, how much weight to give this kind of speculative reporting, and how to treat it neutrally. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 18:04, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
A new article related to this mess: Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force. I keep finding To the Stars affiliates quoted breathlessly in the media and ending up in our articles. jps ( talk) 19:31, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
These articles are infested with so-called "active separatist movements" such as this added by @ Carvesoda3789:, which is referenced by nothing more than a wordpress blog with a domain name. That isn't an isolated example, any crackpot with a Facebook page or their own website advocating for the independence of somewhere is an active separatist movement. FDW777 ( talk) 20:24, 28 July 2020 (UTC)
This AfD may be of interest to the community here. XOR'easter ( talk) 18:36, 28 July 2020 (UTC)
See A message to any journalists who end up reading this page on the above AfD. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 17:28, 29 July 2020 (UTC)
Satanic ritual abuse ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
is "verified to be truthful and correct" now. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 08:58, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Clinical trials on Ayurvedic drugs
Please comment.
jps ( talk) 16:50, 30 July 2020 (UTC)
More comments are requested at Talk:A.C.A.B.#Request for comment on text removed from ACAB article. Crossroads -talk- 01:55, 29 July 2020 (UTC)
This article, mostly untouched since its creation in 2011, seems to oversell ideas that nobody has heard of. The subject apparently got involved with the LaRouche movement, and finding sources that aren't from that bubble is proving tricky. XOR'easter ( talk) 22:13, 31 July 2020 (UTC)
Proposal to merge the small Raw veganism article into the larger Raw foodism article which already has a section on raw veganism [41]. One user Hawaiisunfun is continuing to make pro-fringe edits in regard to medical claims and content. Psychologist Guy ( talk) 14:08, 1 August 2020 (UTC)
See the background information at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Cédric d'Udekem d'Acoz
If only poor Cedric was a creationist. Then he would get a highly-paid job at the Discovery Institute like Günter Bechly did. I'm just saying. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 14:27, 3 August 2020 (UTC)
Talk:Global_warming#Requested_move_3_August_2020.
I figure some of y'all might have some valuable insight here.
jps ( talk) 14:43, 4 August 2020 (UTC)
Stella Immanuel ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
BLP could probably use some work clarifying that her fringe views are fringe, and her medical advice re COVD-19 is not merely “controversial”. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 02:28, 29 July 2020 (UTC)
Could some editors take a look at Talk:2020 Beirut explosions#"bomb of some kind"? I figured the people who read this noticeboard are more knowledgeable about undue weight and stuff. Bait30 Talk 2 me pls? 17:17, 5 August 2020 (UTC)
The current basis for any efficacy of Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (past discussions: Wikipedia:Fringe_theories/Noticeboard/Archive_44#Eye_movement_desensitization_and_reprocessing and Wikipedia:Fringe_theories/Noticeboard/Archive_21#Eye_movement_desensitization_and_reprocessing_(EMDR). Currently open merge discussion with EMDR. I thought it best to bring it up here before a WP:MEDRS review, which it badly needs. -- Hipal/Ronz ( talk) 17:34, 31 July 2020 (UTC)
Stuart Hameroff ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Do philosophers count as critics of the claim that Gödel implies that the human brain has certain properties? -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 06:47, 9 August 2020 (UTC)
“ | If you feel strongly that this simply cannot be true, maintaining that “I don’t believe quantum processing is possible in the brain at all” then you will surely be uninterested in any attempt to reverse engineering this non-existent phenomena. (Sorry about that.) But for me, to get of[sic] the ground, it was necessary that I suspend disbelief. Indeed, I am going to work under the assumption that neural quantum processing is present. And then seek to reverse engineer. If I’m not successful then probably my assumption is just not true. But if I am successful, well... | ” |
One need not assume that quantum processing is present to engage in such speculation or even meaningful scientific investigation that may/may not be relevant. But for some reason, this motivated reasoning seems to be all the rage for those who want quantum consciousness. WHY IS THAT? jps ( talk) 12:57, 9 August 2020 (UTC)
Talk:Anne Frank#Sexuality in the Diary -- Guy Macon ( talk) 03:16, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
This fringe theory is being discussed for the fifth time at Talk:Anne Frank#Sexuality in the Diary. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 18:16, 27 July 2020 (UTC)
For what it's worth, I still don't see the topic as FRINGE. Newimpartial ( talk) 20:16, 27 July 2020 (UTC)
Since I'm not claiming that those sources say anything in particular, that would be hard to do: mind reading is notoriously difficult. I am merely pointing out that they exist and aren't FRINGE material. Newimpartial ( talk) 21:55, 28 July 2020 (UTC)
The argument for inclusion has to explain why the material is not WP:UNDUE. It seems that the only way to do that is to argue that those passages from the girl's diary reveal something important about her, namely, her sexual orientation. That claim is fringe, even though some opinions expressed in RS (such as Haaretz) have made that claim. The suggestion in Haaretz and elsewhere that it's important to talk about Anne Frank's sexual orientation because this helps the self-esteem of Jewish queer people is bizarre, and is a disservice to the LGBTQ community. The gay and lesbian people I know find self-esteem elsewhere, and do not need to find it in speculation about the sexuality of a child. NightHeron ( talk) 11:15, 28 July 2020 (UTC)
"reveal something important about her", NightHeron. We are not writing a novel. It must be significant, which it is not, because no actual sex act is alleged to have taken place. Bus stop ( talk) 19:28, 10 August 2020 (UTC)
Via this edit by David Eppstein at Golden ratio (which I have watchlisted), I was led to this paragraph at Duodecimal and thence to Lee Carroll. There may be enough in the "Criticism" section to establish wiki-notability, but even granting that, the page looks like it could stand a good trimming. XOR'easter ( talk) 07:20, 10 August 2020 (UTC)
Posting here because the discussion touched upon QAnon. XOR'easter ( talk) 22:14, 11 August 2020 (UTC)
Could someone evaluate content on the Ben Carson page regarding the notion that the human brain is incapable of forgetting and can be electronically stimulated to remember everything? [62] The long-standing version appears to say that Carson's claim is incorrect, but a new editor is arguing that the evidence for the claim is mixed. I do not know enough about the topic and do not have time to read the sources thoroughly, which appear to be WP:SYNTH. Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 04:39, 11 August 2020 (UTC)
possible worsening in patients below age 65 years with stimulation, interestingly.) CTV News and The Conversation fail WP:MEDRS, both studies mentioned probably do as well on account of being primary, and this page from Harvard is mislabeled as a "study" (it's just a website). XOR'easter ( talk) 04:58, 11 August 2020 (UTC)
Norwegian Child Welfare Services ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs) Centre of numerous conspiracy theories and target of (probably exaggerated) criticism apparently centred on Eastern Europe and supported by various fringe perspectives and (possibly justified) other criticism of various sorts. Many of the sources could use a look; nearly all are non-English language and potentially tainted by a curious mixture of political and/or religious biases of various colours. GPinkerton ( talk) 21:49, 11 August 2020 (UTC)
Yeah, I mean, histrionics are histrionics. I remember one blog which was written by an American who lost custody of her children frothing at the mouth over the influence of Satan (they were of the fundamentalist Christian ilk). The best thing to do is stick to reliable sources ( WP:RSN could help). BBC has some pretty good coverage of the subject that seems more-or-less balanced to me. jps ( talk) 14:02, 12 August 2020 (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.
I have proposed this sensible move that needs more eyes on Talk:Neil Ferguson (epidemiologist). It really is silly that he is categorized as a scientist. He's an international joke. Calling this quack a scientist an insult to science! Arthur Sparknottle ( talk) 18:49, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
Two previous deletion discussions resulted in a weak keep and there were some convincing merge arguments then, but they are still distinct, so I started the formal merge discussion. Thanks, — Paleo Neonate – 19:39, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
See Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard#Is The Media Fund a reliable source? -- Guy Macon ( talk) 19:08, 13 August 2020 (UTC)
For the interested, there's an ongoing discussion on what birther should redirect to. Gråbergs Gråa Sång ( talk) 08:51, 14 August 2020 (UTC)