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Just a heads up that a "brand new editor" [1] has been actively wikilawyering and edit warring this past week across a range of race-and-intelligence adjacent pages. I don't have time to counter their nonsense on my own, so more eyes on these pages would be helpful. See especially Dysgenics and Spearman's hypothesis. Thanks all, Generalrelative ( talk) 18:54, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
See also recent activity at Biosocial criminology and the reappearance of Ferahgo the Assassin once again challenging the consensus on race and intelligence at Talk:Heritability of IQ after being pinged by this "new user" elsewhere [2]. I'm not going to have time to engage substantively on all these fronts right now so more eyes would be helpful. Generalrelative ( talk) 19:24, 30 July 2022 (UTC)
I was suspicious when they directly joined in on a content dispute with no prior history on any similar pages in conjunction with them being a new account. See the start of their history editing debt-trap diplomacy, going to talk first and related users in the content dispute, versus prior history. This was a few hours after another user edit warred over the same content on another page and was reported and eventually indeffed. They both used similar language in their edit summaries. I reported the two users as possible sock and master but the CU was Unrelated. Qiushufang ( talk) 05:57, 31 July 2022 (UTC)
Far too much of this is self-sourced, apparently by one author who has written 29% of it. [3] And is this sort of comment ok? "For a summary of the manuscript tradition and interpretive scan, see researchgate.net, Barrie Wilson." A similar comment was also added to the unsourced BLP of Barrie Wilson. Doug Weller talk 10:30, 1 August 2022 (UTC)
This is about [4]. Another editor cites some stories about Barbro Karlén, but none of their sources seems reliable. tgeorgescu ( talk) 00:28, 24 July 2022 (UTC)
I am pretty sure that this story is notable enough for inclusion, but it's going to require someone dedicated to go through and really dig into references. For example, it seems that Chapter 11 of Remembering and Imagining the Holocaust: The Chain of Memory by Christopher Bigsby deals substantially with this claim. But I can't be bothered to dig up access to the text. Two texts that I could read on Google scholar I've now added to the article. jps ( talk) 10:59, 26 July 2022 (UTC)
There's
a lil discussion over at
the NPOV policy talk page about changing
WP:FALSEBALANCE to no longer apply to minority viewpoints. Several editors over there are arguing that the policy falsely equates FRINGE and minority views, and that we shouldn't treat a minority of relevant expert scholars as less valid just for being a numerical minority
.
[5]
And, furthermore, that If the majority and minority views come from sources of similar stature, even if the minority is due less space, they should be treated as equally valid.
[6]
Truly truly fascinating the many angles that this argument often comes from. And the absolute inability to hear/see any negative effects such a change would have. — Shibbolethink ( ♔ ♕) 18:05, 1 August 2022 (UTC)
Not sure what to do about this one. I'm not sure that arithmancy needs a separate article to numerology, or whether it should be included in it. Either way though, it needs proper sourcing, and at least something to suggest that it lacks anything in the way of credible evidence regarding its efficacy for 'divination'. AndyTheGrump ( talk) 19:09, 22 July 2022 (UTC)
Again, the editorial board did not do what reliable sources say they did. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 04:45, 30 July 2022 (UTC)
Hi, I have a problem with editor Richard Keatinge. Since July 6, I have been trying to tell him that scientific work/edition cannot use unfounded assumptions. For a discussion with him, see Dzierzon vs. ul Prokopowycza on the talk page of the article Johan Dzierzon. Please help. Kind regards, Andrew— Preceding unsigned comment added by Aserafin ( talk • contribs) 13:16, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
New article about a physics prof/UFO hunter. I took out a couple of obviously unreliable sources, could probably do with some eyes on it. Girth Summit (blether) 13:38, 26 July 2022 (UTC)
I note here that the pushback referred to by LuckyLouie is from a SPA. More eyes would be welcome. JoJo Anthrax ( talk) 01:50, 28 July 2022 (UTC)
Publishes with Bloomsbury and Routledge, gets reviewed by serious academics, but apart from some support from one scholar (Philippe Wajdenbaum), his theories seem to be universally rejected at this point.
I found no good secondary sourcing on him, so nominated for deletion: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Russell Gmirkin. ☿ Apaugasma ( talk ☉) 12:47, 3 August 2022 (UTC)
Revival of ye olde dead horse over at Talk:Heritability of IQ, now spilling over to Talk:Intelligence quotient. Generalrelative ( talk) 20:47, 5 August 2022 (UTC)
This discussion may be of interest to the community here. XOR'easter ( talk) 19:36, 3 August 2022 (UTC)
WaPo via Twitter: [9].
I like it when WP:PAG shows up in a court of law.
jps ( talk) 17:56, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
The Talk page thread "The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous" peaked my interest. I learned that AA's main opponent is a psychoanalyst, Lance Dodes. Huh. Freudies against goddies - who will science support? Since 2020, AA has a Cochrane review agreeing with it...
I guess more science-knowledgeable people could be useful. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 09:50, 6 August 2022 (UTC)
I have started a thread in Talk:John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories soliciting feedback regarding the use of conspiracy sources. See Talk:John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories#Use of conspiracy sources. Thanks! - Location ( talk) 16:07, 8 August 2022 (UTC)
Could someone with more experience than me please take a look at Draft:Bioenergy economy? Stuartyeates ( talk) 07:18, 10 August 2022 (UTC)
Thread "Tone of the article" on the Talk page. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 12:39, 13 August 2022 (UTC)
Anyone interested in working on this BLP of a fringe writer? Doug Weller talk 14:27, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
A man from Vietnam who claims that he can survive without sleep; see WP:Articles for deletion/Thái Ngọc. Deprodded by a sock in 2010. – LaundryPizza03 ( d c̄) 00:31, 18 August 2022 (UTC)
See [10]. Doug Weller talk 16:21, 6 August 2022 (UTC)
not entirely a kook. This is the danger of only looking at formal criteria instead of actual competence of the sources. To judge the competence (within a certain area of knowledge) of a source beyond formal criteria, of course, one has to be competent enough in that area of knowledge oneself. We actually have a page for that: WP:CIR. Colavito is one of those who seem to get the short end when the judgement is based only on formalities and CIR is ignored. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 06:08, 8 August 2022 (UTC)
Reliable source it is. You cannot use it to refer to living people as "pro-UFO loons" except as in-text attribution just as I might attribute to you the opinion that the article is "batshit crazy analysis" as evidence of a certain lack of competence. He has the qualifications that anyone might have in WP:FRINGE areas. After all, he is critiquing people who similarly lack credentials owing, mostly, to the fact that it's nearly impossible to get credentials in WP:FRINGE areas because they are fringe. That is what parity is all about. jps ( talk) 23:21, 6 August 2022 (UTC)
most of his books. Are you sure about that? jps ( talk) 23:26, 6 August 2022 (UTC)
As I have said a few times, if you have reason to suspect Colavito is in someway unreliable for describing the WP:MAINSTREAM understanding of these topics which he is debunking, go right ahead and make the case. I think he has established a name for himself as an expert skeptic and debunker as identified by other experts in the field. You can look through all the criticism of his work and you will find essentially praise from the mainstream and criticism from the WP:FRINGE which is exactly the standard by which we might identify who is able to do effective criticism of the fringe. That you quote the guideline that basically argues that work like this should be used at Wikipedia and then argue that it actually excludes such work is pretty remarkable to me. jps ( talk) 00:25, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
Sorry that the reference isn't up to your exacting standards. If you think WP:Wikidragon is a personal attack, I don't know what to say here. WP:SOFIXIT? jps ( talk) 02:10, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
Of course it allows personal blog posts. The entire point of this is that if in Wikipedia there are certain WP:FRINGE claims whose provenance is the equivalent of some proponent shooting their mouth off, there is no problem with quoting someone who explains what might be wrong with that argument. To boot, the uses of Colavito in these contexts was in a WP:ITA fashion. So we're essentially saying, as Wikipedia, that here is a response from a source. It's a response that the source said, but, per WP:PARITY, this is basically in response to an argument that was argued in a similar venue. jps ( talk) 01:16, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
As I think I've been saying, the problem is that there are people who will argue that WP:BLPSPS makes an exception when the blogs are written by the subject of the article and everyone agrees that she has the opinions that are being sourced to it. jps ( talk) 12:03, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
Hypothetically, if her claims were from unreliable self-published blogs, they should be removed from the article, which implies that when someone spreads FRINGE propaganda in a reliable source, we can help spreading that fringe propaganda without contextualizing it.
Hypothetically, if her claims were from unreliable self-published blogs, they should be removed from the articleseems to say it should only be deleted in some cases. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 07:07, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
It depends on how that's done. Even calling something a documentary when it is a film that seeks to propagandize a fringe claim ( What the Bleep Do We Know comes to mind) can lend credence to an idea. jps ( talk) 12:01, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
an established subject-matter expert, whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable, independent publications- bolded like that in the policy itself. Unless I'm misunderstanding something he fails the bolded part; he may have a degree in anthropology, but he has no RS publications that can reasonably be called relevant to the subject at hand. And even beyond that he obviously can't be used for statements about living third parties, which WP:SPS strictly bans under all circumstances. I don't think WP:PARITY can overcome this - if you're worried that removing him may leave fringe statements unopposed, I would just remove those fringe statements, since if he's the only person who has commented on them it's unlikely they're notable or due anyway. We're not required to include every time some kook is interviewed on the Discovery Channel. -- Aquillion ( talk) 13:10, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
established subject-matter expertwho has written material
published by reliable, independent publications.JoJo Anthrax ( talk) 17:58, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
Colavito gives exceptional podcast interviews. His blog has had 100,000 monthly readers and his social media posts regularly reach 10,000-30,000 impressions. Pyrrho the Skipper ( talk) 20:45, 8 August 2022 (UTC)
work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable, independent publications. As ever, reasonable minds may differ, and if I am the only one who feels this way, you can safely ignore me. Cheers. Dumuzid ( talk) 17:34, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
UFOs definitely are in Colavito's expertise as there is considerable overlap between the Lovecraftian ancient aliens stuff/pseudohistory and the beliefs of the UFO cultists of today. In fact, there are entire chapters in his book on the subject. It's particularly rich that certain commentators here are criticizing his expertise in these areas assuming, I imagine, that they understand the UFO genre better than he does! UFOs are part of anthropology, sorry to say. They are much more relevant to anthropology than they are to my field, in fact. jps ( talk) 19:22, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
really solid national security guysincorrect. As Colavito and others have shown, most of the people who have been marketed this way (even in otherwise reputable outfits like the New York Times) are bit players and either suffering from delusions of grandeur or just plain delusion. The propaganda that has been steadily drumming out of here is otherwise, but is simply isn't the case. That the Senate Committee was taken in by some pretty amateurish argumentation is worth noting for what it is. The "mainstream" perspective here is the one that experts hold to and, let me tell you, the experts in national security are snickering in private. They aren't commenting at all because it's that ridiculous. That's why Colavito is valuable as a source. Also, there is no way to determine what makes a "real" versus "amateur" anthropologist when it comes to UFO culture. You're trying out an impeachment that is falling flat. jps ( talk) 19:43, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
assumethat person has not read source B. Otherwise they would agree with you, right? -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 05:34, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
This Tuesday, more than a year after the story broke, the Department of Defense and Navy further clarified that the objects in these incidents were in fact drones in the aforementioned House of Representatives Intelligence, Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee hearing.But yeah, maybe it was actually nothing at all, someone said it on their blog, after all. ScottishFinnishRadish ( talk) 09:15, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
Let me underline this again for you, the Nimitz encounter with the Tic Tac proved that exotic technology that is widely thought of as the domain of science fiction actually exists. It is real. It isn't the result of altered perception, someone's lucid dream, a stray weather balloon, or swamp gas. Someone or something has crossed the technological Rubicon and has obtained what some would call the Holy Grail of aerospace engineering.But, yeah, totally not sensationalizing anything. ::Eyeroll. jps ( talk) 11:35, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
It seems backwards to me to argue that we include film critics because they are experts. No, we include film critics because they have something to say that is useful for the reader. jps ( talk) 22:04, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
Ufology#Flight_characteristics seems like WP:SYNTHESIS to me, but as an example of Knuth and others pushing the notion of fantasically advanced UFO technology which can only be explained by aliens, I would think Colavito could be used here. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 13:42, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
Ancient fossil of an article sourced entirely to Theosophist works, completely credulous. Given that it has hardly been edited since it was written over a decade ago, maybe it's not notable? Anyway, could use going over with a hatchet. Mangoe ( talk) 03:50, 14 August 2022 (UTC)
38.126.71.24 ( talk · contribs · WHOIS) edits could use some eyes. They were perviously suspended for making claims like Woodtstock being a plot to control hippies and the Who shot JR tv storyline was to cover up news of the JFK death anniversary, now that they are out of suspension their edits have a similar tone and could use a look by someone more experienced with this sort of thing than me. 2001:8003:34A3:800:F00C:80D0:21D4:4029 ( talk) 09:13, 18 August 2022 (UTC)
Apparently premiering tonight on Hulu and FX. Potentially useful source.
jps ( talk) 11:54, 19 August 2022 (UTC)
(Crossposting this from WP:Teahouse, since I forgot FTN existed:) I was taking a look at Lipstick effect, and the following paragraph was inserted some time in 2012:
"In a 2012 study by four university researchers, the effect was attributed to evolutionary psychology: "This effect is driven by women's desire to attract mates with resources and depends on the perceived mate attraction function served by these products. In addition to showing how and why economic recessions influence women's desire for beauty products, this research provides novel insights into women's mating psychology, consumer behavior, and the relationship between the two. [...] Although the lipstick effect has garnered some anecdotal lore, the present research suggests that women's spending on beauty products may be the third indicator of economic recessions—an indicator that may be rooted in our ancestral psychology."<ref>See Hill, S. E., Rodeheffer, C. D., Griskevicius, V., Durante, K., & White, A. E. (2012, May 28). "Boosting Beauty in an Economic Decline: Mating, Spending, and the Lipstick Effect". ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,'' available at http://personal.tcu.edu/sehill/LipstickEffectMS20March2012.pdf</ref>"
I'm not too well-versed on psychology papers and journals, but I have to admit it kinda sounds like pseudoscience a little to me. Or at least "we found some things that correlate, but that's not the same as causation". The journal, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, doesn't come up in Beall's list but did seemingly come to blows for some nonsense in 2011, 2012? I'd appreciate someone having a look in. Thanks!-- Ineffablebookkeeper ( talk) ({{ ping}} me!) 21:07, 20 August 2022 (UTC)
References
Dubious Russian superstition of a few years running. Up for AfD but needs a look by people who can read Russian better than I. Mangoe ( talk) 04:52, 21 August 2022 (UTC)
See Talk:Younger Dryas impact hypothesis#Undue use of Comet Group material, etc.. Doug Weller talk 10:25, 22 August 2022 (UTC)
Our bio describes Lerner as an "independent plasma researcher". Perhaps some physics types round here can say if that's legit? Alexbrn ( talk) 14:17, 21 August 2022 (UTC)
Ahmed Farag Ali ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ahmed Farag Ali.
Please comment. jps ( talk) 12:06, 24 August 2022 (UTC)
I'm not sure this article should even exist. Notable? Doug Weller talk 14:06, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
This RFC may be of interest to folks here. I can't really make heads or tails of any of it. 35.139.154.158 ( talk) 01:11, 23 August 2022 (UTC)
Wim Hof Method (WHM): a combination of frequent cold exposure, breathing techniques and meditation with many health and wellness claims. The article is heavily cited to non-independent, non-MEDRS (or even RS) sources. Could use some help. Firefangledfeathers ( talk / contribs) 18:25, 30 August 2022 (UTC)
This is a pretty bad article already, in terms of sourcing and phrasing, and there is an IP who has been trying shift the POV to remove suggestions that these people might not actually be able to 'intuit' what is ailing people. It looks to be leaning heavily on in-universe sourcing - more eyeballs might be useful. Girth Summit (blether) 18:38, 31 August 2022 (UTC)
This user is promoting fasting and making other POV edits on articles related to fasting, orthopathy and Herbert M. Shelton, just one recent example [38]. I have tried to engage this user a few weeks ago but it is impossible to get through to them. They admitted they have conflict of interest because their grandma or something was allegedly healed by an orthopath. I listed just one example of their bad edits in the previous diff "Since at least 1800s, many doctors (MDs, DOs, PhDs) carried out studies and wrote articles & books and were interviewed on fasting for many medical purposes", sources listed are John A. McDougall, Joel Fuhrman, Felix Leopold Oswald, Charles Edward Page (anti-vaxxer) and YouTube videos etc from Caldwell Esselstyn all fringe and primary sources, nothing reliable. When you confront this user with their bad editing you are accused of being "biased" or a promoter a scientism.
On the orthopathy article this user is making odd edits, check the "reception" section which has the same content added. "Since at least 1800s, many doctors (medical, MDs & osteopaths, DOs, philosophy, PhDs) carried out studies and wrote articles & books and were interviewed on fasting for many medical/health purposes" [39]. I don't know what's going on here, but as I have commented on the talk-page at orthopathy and list of orthopaths this type of bad editing is spilling out onto multiple articles. Please see current discussion at list of orthopaths [40] Psychologist Guy ( talk) 18:06, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
Your editing above is pretty badis among the crappiest defenses you can use. Nobody cares about typos on a Talk page. It this supposed to be a meek attempt at the tu quoque fallacy?
Drs [..] are standard medicine medical doctors [..]: you're libelling themDouble bullshit. Some random person does not magically become a reliable source by being a doctor, and pointing out that someone's ideas are fringe is not libel.
Dr Page was wrong about vaccinations but was a MD researcher/writer on fastingQuackeries tend to flock together in the same brains. Anti-vaxx ideas are a red flag.
They're all independent sourcesBut not RS or MEDRS.
isn't a guideline let alone policy/ruleThat is disingenuous and not the point. It was linked because it explains the guidelines policies, rules. WP:RS was also linked in the same contribution, and that one is a guideline. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 07:01, 13 August 2022 (UTC)
Looking at the responses above, it looks to me that this is a WP:CIR issue, involving a basic inability to constructively communicate. Probably better discussed on WP:ANI. AndyTheGrump ( talk) 21:41, 13 August 2022 (UTC)
See Why one Harvard scientist believes alien technology may be sitting on the ocean floor and tangentially NASA is assembling a team to figure out what UFOs are Doug Weller talk 13:54, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
Feels a bit lonely there with only four people. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 06:51, 4 September 2022 (UTC)
User:ScottsdalePrincess is pov deleting text from this article about a fringe author. Doug Weller talk 15:27, 4 September 2022 (UTC)
July–August 2022 United States floods has an RFC for possible consensus. A discussion is taking place. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments on the discussion page. Thank you. --- Aquillion ( talk) 18:54, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
Self-same editor seems to be pushing articles published in this fantastic journal as reliable sources about climate science. For real: [45] jps ( talk) 03:14, 3 September 2022 (UTC)
I am so thankful an editor actually notified me that my edits were being discussed and linked to on a noticeboard. Anyway, I feel my words kept getting twisted, so I just dropped the entire discussion and went back to my super huge draft article project; so I would greatly appreciate y'all stop talking about my edits without notifying me. Elijahandskip ( talk) 18:32, 4 September 2022 (UTC)
Is this imaginary continent really mythical? Doug Weller talk 15:34, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
Of course, Linus Pauling and nutrition together in one sentence should ring alarm bells. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 19:40, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
See the last edits of article and Talk page. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 07:17, 30 August 2022 (UTC)
I think this article is a bit unbalanced at the moment, especially the "recent findings" section, which treats the rather extraordinary claim that humans were present in the Americas 130,000 years ago, as if the 2020 study confirms it, when there is still incredible skepticism regarding the site, see [50]. For a quick primer on the site, see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343834817_The_Cerutti_Mastodon_Professional_Skepticism_and_the_Public Hemiauchenia ( talk) 15:58, 31 August 2022 (UTC)
This article is probably familiar to some of you, it appears several times in this Noticeboard's archives. A new editor has shown up and is adding a lot of in-universe stuff to the article, including removing criticism and making claims that The scientific status of socionics is confirmed
More eyes on the article would be appreciated. -
MrOllie (
talk) 15:59, 10 September 2022 (UTC)
Discussion posted at RSN regarding the reliability of globalsecurity.org, see-> link. Horse Eye's Back ( talk) 21:11, 10 September 2022 (UTC)
Hi all,
Please see Avatar Medicine.
Pete AU aka User:Shirt58 ( talk) 🦘 11:46, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
It seems to be argued at Talk:Masonic conspiracy theories#Unreliable sources become reliable...? that it should be acceptable to cite unreliable sources (such as crackpot self-hosted websites and individual blogs with deranged posts about conspiracy theories) to indicate that such conspiracy theories exist and are held by the authors. I contend that this is also a poor use of unreliable sources, because their existence does not really lend any credence or notability to the conspiracy theories in question. More input is welcome! Elizium23 ( talk) 23:19, 9 September 2022 (UTC)
The source is ForbiddenKnowledge.com, and it is not a reliable, secondary source. Firefangledfeathers ( talk / contribs) 16:27, 10 September 2022 (UTC)* That Freemasons intertwine various symbols and numerology into modern culture, such as corporate logos. [1]
Readers must be able to check.... How does a link such as [51] serve the reader in this case? In general as a reader I might want to occasionally see primary sources but here I have no idea what you are directing me to and how it should increase my trust in the article content. It fails to help me in any way "checking" the article, for that much more is required. If you can establish something about this source, why is it useful for me to look at, why more than just random ramblings that once appeared on the internet then it might increase my trust in the article content, otherwise it decreases trust. If you cite a journal or text in support then the burden is mostly on me as a reader to evaluate the sources, if you wish to cite a little known primary source then i think the burden should be on you as a writer to in fact establish some context and let me know why it would be worthwhile reading and how it would establish trust in the content. fiveby( zero) 17:54, 10 September 2022 (UTC)
References
talk about the conspiracy theories in broad scope, then we can quote primary sources
talk about the conspiracy theories in broad scope. If we quote a primary source claiming that
Freemasons intertwine various symbols and numerology into modern culture, such as corporate logos, then we need a secondary source refuting the claim that
Freemasons intertwine various symbols and numerology into modern culture, such as corporate logos. Otherwise we are spreading fringe ideas without proper context. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 08:22, 11 September 2022 (UTC)
Freemasons intertwine various symbols and numerology into modern culture, such as corporate logos? -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 13:36, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
Recent WP:POVFORK of UFO proposes UFOs are piloted by various aliens and interdimensional creatures. Any criticism is framed as mere "allegations". Fascinating. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 22:54, 10 September 2022 (UTC)
[[File:Scars from different "abductees".jpg|thumb|[[Budd Hopkins]] thought these scars on people's bodies were examples of evidence of the physical reality of alien abductions.]]remains as hidden text within the article. (And yes, Budd Hopkins is a ufologist.) The Giancarlo Cecconi image leaves out the identification as black plastic bags by the Italian Ministry of Defense. The mystery airship illustration again leaves out the context that airship reports were not taken very seriously even at the time of publication. And the technosignatures chart is lifted from a paper that isn't even vaguely related to UFOs-UAPs. Far from being a summary of academic thought on the topic, these images appear to have been added into the mix just to spice things up. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 19:46, 11 September 2022 (UTC)
You didn't follow WP:RS and WP:NPOV in this terrible article. So if you take your own medicine, it would be a great gesture of good faith for you to ask for the article to be removed from articlespace so that you can work with others who might be able to help you attain this. However, from your commentary in the off-wiki link I see above, it seems that you have already decided you are better than the rest of us here, so I won't be holding my breath that you're actually going to take this criticism on board. jps ( talk) 13:28, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
Read about the derision directed towards our community in those threads.Why? Third parties are totally free to deride us in other venues. We're a wiki -- finding fault with extant content is the first step to participation! If we see anons piling up at an AFD, we can compensate at closure. Feoffer ( talk) 13:40, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
The article Pentagon UFO videos severely violates WP:NPOVORLY? Perhaps you'd like to explain exactly how it violates NPOV? jps ( talk) 15:52, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
Quote: I'm not here for WP:AGENDA. Have you checked my contributions, does that look like a profringe agenda...
I'm going to go with 'yes', having looked at the history of the
Ufology article, and at its talk page, where Prototyperspective tried and failed to gain consensus to include content now found in the new article, tried to edit-war it in anyway, and having failed, created this blatant POV-fork. And I'd have to suggest that a statement that posts were made to the r/UFOs subreddit because I don't want my work to be wasted as in never getting read before getting deleted for no good reason
looks to me very like an admission of canvassing - an off-Wikipedia posting made with the intention of influencing the AfD result.
AndyTheGrump (
talk) 13:47, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
Have you checked my contributions, does that look like a profringe agenda or like trying to improve Wikipedia on a variety of mostly UFO-unrelated topics?. And concerning your other concern
That is not "coordination", I'm allowed to post links to articles there, especially as I don't want my work to be wasted as in never getting read before getting deleted for no good reason.As I have already stated, I don't think the way some of you apparently routinely (or very frequently) keep out content you don't like and coordinate on skeptics community noticeboards like this one here complies with WP:DEM (but I could be wrong about that and this is not meant personally but just as a concern I have which I think am allowed to express [if not please remove that part of the comment]). Decisions should not be made with voting but via arguments-discussion, proper rationales and Wikipedia policies, like WP:RS and WP:NPOV.. What I meant was that if people read my work before it is getting deleted or despite of it, then my, btw fully WP policies-compliant, work at least isn't completely wasted. Prototyperspective ( talk) 14:29, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
Can you see now why this is a bit exhausting for us? This isn't the only source like that included in the article. It isn't ready for mainspace. And yet you insist that there isn't anything wrong. WP:CLEANUP is one thing, but WP:TNT is closer to what is needed here. Again, if you would just allow this to be draftified and get some help, that would be one thing. But you keep insisting that you are right and everyone else is wrong in spite of evidence to the contrary. This does not bode well for future collaborative work on this sort of project, does it? jps ( talk) 16:30, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
There are references for these things in the article body.
There are not. That you think there are indicates to me that either you did not author this piece or you are very bad at remembering what you wrote. Saying things like "some scientists" is definitionally
WP:WEASEL. You need to do more work learning to write for Wikipedia. What you are doing right now is not good enough.
jps (
talk) 18:07, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
Prototyperspective I had some misguided optimism yesterday that maybe you would work together with me to get to an article that would be okay. Lord knows there are people out there who might like to learn about the (lack of) academic research that has gone into UFOs. But you seemed either willfully or obliviously impervious to understanding the basic problem of source-based writing. You want to make hasty generalizations and labeling of people as "some scientists" versus "other scientists" as if there are two opposing camps in these situations which is very much not what any reliable source says about the situation. What we have are a handful of, let's call them "mavericks" who are making noise in a way that gets media attention and we have a relatively quiet opposition in exactly the way that WP:FRINGE describes. The article then falls into WP:GEVAL traps almost immediately instead of patiently explaining the lack of academic research on the subject. Additionally, a tremendous amount of space is spent on explaining things that are manifestly not academic studies. And this was just the lede. I have given up trying to collaborate on this because I don't see a way forward that is not [[WP:TNT}]. You say you are worried about editors being driven away. I have to say that this is a legitimate worry, but it is the way of the wiki because fringe subjects are hard to write about. WP:PROFRINGE is just too easy a trap to fall into and you have fallen into it whether you want to believe it or not. I was hoping you might find your way out, but it doesn't appear to me that you will and I've seen this kind of circus too many times before to not identify the patterned behavior here. jps ( talk) 11:25, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
What we have are a handful of, let's call them "mavericks" who are making noise in a way that gets media attention and we have a relatively quiet oppositionThat's a statement of personal opinion as is. See WP:NPOV and WP:RS.
A smaller but still sizable share of the public (51%) says that UFOs reported by people in the military are likely evidence of intelligent life outside Earth. Most of this sentiment comes from people who say that military-reported UFOs are “probably” evidence of extraterrestrial life (40%), rather than “definitely” such evidence (11%), according to the survey of 10,417 U.S. adults, conducted June 14 to 24. On the other hand, 47% of Americans say the military reports are probably (36%) or definitely (11%) not evidence of life outside Earth.
that is civilised and organised like ours, the U.S.' Director of national intelligence Avril Haines has stated
There’s always the question of 'is there something else that we simply do not understand, that might come extraterrestrially?'. It is a valid possibility to take seriously. There are further WP:RS, many of which in the article, that show this to be a significant possibility that is not to be precluded (or reduced to ~one small sentence which nearly ridicules it) and to be (sufficiently) covered via WP:RS, including(!) statements from various experts / scientists.
This is at the very least not as fringe as you make it out to be at this point, and yes things do have changed in recent years.This is simply not true and is essentially a WP:PROFRINGE WP:POVPUSH. Until you recognize that you do not have reliable sources which indicate this we really cannot move forward because you will just be promoting a fringe understanding of this topic. jps ( talk) 11:46, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
things do have changed in recent yearsbeyond those three things many WP:RS of the article said so, often quite explicitly, I don't know if this info is included in the article (of the recent change, not just e.g. the current status) and would have to revisit them to check which ones it were. Prototyperspective ( talk) 12:00, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
Rv fringe POV pusherand
None of these are published in mainstream journals. They don't count as academic studied and there are no reliable sources that identify them as such.. You are not the one who decides what counts as academic studied, this is about what WP:RS said. Please see that policy – your removal is unwarranted and not compatible with Wikipedia policies. Per WP:BRD you should now consider that these are WP:RS – you can't just remove info about these studies & reports which are backed by lots of WP:RS and need to discuss the removal by addressing my point ( WP:RS).
Articles relating to the assassination of Huey Long appear to be giving undue weight to a conspiracy theory about Long's death. Huey Long was shot and killed by Carl Weiss in 1935, but text has been added to several articles to cast doubt on this, giving undue weight to a theory that Long was murdered by his own guards and that there was a "cover up". About half of the text in the article Assassination of Huey Long is dedicated to this theory. Thebiguglyalien ( talk) 07:16, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
Firefangledfeathers has been doing an excellent job mediating a protracted dispute over race and intelligence at Talk:Intelligence quotient#The "no evidence" statement. At this point, however, I don't think it's fair to be putting the entire weight on their shoulders. I know that there is reticence to get involved in this topic area, but wider participation here would be helpful. Generalrelative ( talk) 01:35, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
No specific recent activity, but probably worth watching and improving. Cokely gave over 5,000 lectures on the topic of global warming and corporate conspiracies, the Trilateral Commission, The Bilderberg Group, Rothchilds, Rockefellers, Boule, etc.
--
Hob Gadling (
talk) 13:44, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
has been turned into creationist propaganda. I reverted, but I guess that is not the last we will hear of this. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 18:26, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
There was an unusual incident at the article Sathya Sai Baba. A user changed the subject's religion to " Humanity" and added content which is unsourced and gave false balance to claims of supernatural powers. They're at AIV now, since they have resorted to long-winded personal attacks, such as [55], which typically accuse users of imperialist fact-distorting. – LaundryPizza03 ( d c̄) 21:39, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
After some months of stability, this has flared up again, with disagreements about Kulldorff's stance on various COVID-19 matters. Could use more eyes. Bon courage ( talk) 14:24, 19 September 2022 (UTC)
The spooky should be cut down, but I am unsure how much. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 15:37, 19 September 2022 (UTC)
I also removed the haunted category- um... are you aware of the huge category tree this is part of? One large branch of the tree is Category:Reportedly haunted locations in the United States by state. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 09:03, 20 September 2022 (UTC)
I was looking at the German Wikipedia article about Tiwanaku for recent information and found that it has several pargraphs discussing many of its building stones being manmade blocks composed of synthetic geopolymers. This concept is incorrectly presented as being main-stream, instead of fringe, science and give undue weight to this idea. Paul H. ( talk) 18:53, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
So the Lancet commission report dropped recently and has caused some consternation for its apparent suggestion of US/NIH involvement in SARS-CoV-2 origin. Lab leakers in particular seem upset this is the wrong kind of conspiracy theory (it should have been blaming China!). Anyway relevant edits/discussion at
and a recent thread at
could all uses input/oversight of fringe-savvy editors. Bon courage ( talk) 06:53, 25 September 2022 (UTC)
Lots of activity and some disagreement here recently. Could use eyes. The article in general has been in pretty poor shape for a long time. Bon courage ( talk) 06:47, 25 September 2022 (UTC)
I'm not interested in Edit War. Mistakes mainstream psychology for "bad faith". -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 12:14, 25 September 2022 (UTC)
Someone wants to add questionable fringey sources. Discussion has just started. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 21:15, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
What do you think about [58]?
Yes, that's the point. The naive churchgoer's understanding of Christianity is "the Bible, then the fundamental doctrines like the Trinity, then the patristic fathers debating other stuff." But in fact it was totally different: The NT was produced *by* the second generation of disciples, and reflects controversies that already had arisen in a church that was at least 40 years old by the time that the oldest material in the NT was written, then only centuries later did trinitarianism become a significant issue. There isn't really anyone who disputes this other than a small fringe of non-academic Protestants who will tell you that God prefigured later debates by divinely inspiring resolutions to them in material written centuries earlier. The article leads people to the wrong idea about the historical development of the doctrine and presents the false apologetic notion that trinitarianism was a commonly understood belief in the early church.
The beliefs of traditionalist Christians should be accurately included in the article, but its structure should not depend on them. Predestiprestidigitation ( talk) 11:13, 22 September 2022 (UTC)
I see [59] as WP:SOAPBOXING for WP:FRINGE views. tgeorgescu ( talk) 12:58, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
Wikipedia works on the basis that whatever scientists commonly consider to be true is true. Binksternet ( talk) 23:13, 11 June 2022 (UTC)
The text in 14 which was removed and may be some of what is at issue reads:
The claimed theological unity of the Christian Church was propaganda retrospectively projected by the clergy, rather than a genuine historical reality. Post-
Bauer historians give the lie to
Eusebius's Historia Ecclesiastica with its claim that true faith precedes heresy, and heresy being a wilful, devilish choice to disbelieve the theological truth.
There are some WP:WEASEL words and WP:PEACOCK terms in there. Was it " propaganda"? The word "propaganda" did not exist until the Counter-Reformation, so it seems at least somewhat anachronistic to label it as such in Wikipedia's voice. Surely another term could be used ("doctrine"?, "dogma"?, "belief"?) that does not suffer from this problem. "Genuine historical reality" as well didn't really exist as a rhetorical proposition until post-Enlightenment. You might as well say that it was "pseudoscience". And while post-Bauer historians may have consensus on a topic, do they really "give the lie to" a third/fourth century bishop? I'm not sure that you could find a quorum of scholars who would agree that this is what they are doing when they evaluate the context of the writing of the New Testament. The sources do not seem to be going on about "debunking" Eusebius in spite of what contradictions are evident from what we know happened in comparison to what may have been written about circa 400 CE.
Besides, to have any iron in the fire at all about whether "true faith precedes heresy" presupposes that true faith and heresy actually exist. Most non-believers reject that premise out of hand. Neither side is correct just as the there is not necessarily a correct "side" in the conflict between heaven and hell. :)
jps ( talk) 17:59, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
Of course, the drive towards unification did not succeed completely, ever. The house cult-groups and communities were too diverse and too diffused over different regions with their own cultural traditions, and individual Christian believers were too passionate and inventive for unity ever to be achieved in reality. But the ideal and illusion of unity as a church and as a grand (apostolic) tradition persisted, and had a powerful effect on Christian organization and self-representation. Christian church leaders repeatedly tried, at least from the middle of the third century onwards, to achieve unity of belief and practice.I think in some measure our author might have agreed with "propaganda" as a term if there were more expansion and explanation, but as is this is somewhat a disservice to his work. Hopkins is interested in the implications of:
One tentative but radical conclusion is that Christianity was for a century after Jesus' death the intellectual property at any one time of scarcely a few dozen, perhaps rising to two hundred, literate adult males, dispersed throughout the Mediterranean basin.How these numbers and dispersion played into dogma, exclusivity, and an illusory self-representation of unity are all very interesting and hit ideas appropriate for the article, but consider:
I don't think that anyone in the middle of the second century could have reasonably predicted that the policy of dogmatic exclusivism would end up with a triumphant monopoly. The success of the strategy was discovered only over time; it was not purposively invented as a marketing device.Editors should summarize sources, rather than pulling quotes to support a preconceived construction.
This paper is an experiment in both method and substance.
My methods are frankly speculative and exploratory. For the moment, I am interested more in competing probabilities, and in their logical implications, than in established or establishable facts.He is looking at Rodney Stark's work and speculating on implications. In the same way "primary" and "secondary" are often used on this board to describe how for instance an original paper shouldn't be used without reference to a review or more comprehensive source. fiveby( zero) 15:18, 25 September 2022 (UTC)
See Talk:Chiropractic in Canada#This article seems pretty non-neutral. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 12:38, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
This is a classic example of a non-neutral, fringe religious figure whose biography is written from the perspective of a member of their church (which I'm convinced, based on the edit history, is exactly what happened). Our biographical article on Robert Thieme and Berachah Church have flown under the radar for many years. Looking at the administrative archival record, the only thing I could find in regards to this problem was an edit war that took place back in 2017. [60] Moving forward, all the usual problems noted on this board can be found in the biographical article. (@ ජපස: as he is a recognized expert on this topic.) It isn't clear if we need the article on both the biography and the church. Someone might be able to make the case that we only require one article on both subjects.
I think Thieme is more notable than the church itself, but when one looks closely at the current biography (and the link to the edit war above), it is evident that the article was written by a member of the church as an overt hagiography of Thieme, as well as a deliberate whitewash of the published criticism of Thieme and his church, which have been repeatedly described as a Christian cult, most notably in the popular press for having the family of Dan Quale, the 44th vice president of the United States, as members and believers, specifically his wife's family. The Associated Press initially covered the story [61], followed by Elinor J. Brecher and Robert T. Garrett of The Courier-Journal, who published a brief expose in The New Republic back in November 14, 1988, followed by the New York Times in the Summer of 1989, [62] and the Chicago Tribune later that year. [63]
I'm fairly certain the cult literature has additional information on Thieme and his church, but it's not easy to find. In any case, the Christian literature, which is apparently highly skeptical and critical of Thieme and his church, isn't represented at all in the article. I would appreciate any help with this. Viriditas ( talk) 20:39, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
This page was created today and appears to be largely promotional, created by a user who's contributed little beyond pushing this model and fluffing its originator. I have a few concerns but unfortunately little time right now to devote to resolving them. First of all, the article contains lots of WP:PEACOCK language that I doubt is supported by the sources. Second, I'm not sure the topic merits a standalone article separate from Emotional intelligence, and may be a WP:POVFORK. Third, the model's originator has some prima facie WP:PROFRINGE associations –– allegedly serving on the board of Personality and Individual Differences (though this actually failed verification) and publications with Hans Eysenck. More eyes on this would be helpful. See also Konstantinos V. Petrides. Generalrelative ( talk) 20:09, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
This may be of interest to editors here: The article Todd Siler includes a section in something called a "fractal reactor". Here's the entire section:
In 2006, Siler used a multimedia exhibition at New York's Ronald Feldman Gallery to present his proposal for the nature-inspired "Fractal Reactor," which offers an environmental-friendly, alternative method of using controlled nuclear fusion for energy purposes. While the actual processes used by the fractal reactor, rely on highly sophisticated physical and mathematical formulations, its principles re-examine the hypotheses behind nuclear fusion in novel ways. This proposal has been taken up by the International Atomic Energy Agency for further study.
There is no citation, and the red flags are obvious, so I looked for sources. Most are reviews in arts journals which lack topic expertise. Here's a presentation PDF given by Siler at the 13th International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems. At a glance it's not quite as bizarre as the Wikipedia article makes it seem, but it's still above my level.
The current article is very poorly sourced, but an older version includes a lengthy list of sources, most of which are offline or not linked. Grayfell ( talk) 23:33, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
See Talk page "This is woeful". -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 03:22, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
An IP found a sentence embracing a witch-hunter POV in the lede. See Talk page.
The user who added it, User:Mysticalresearch (contributions [65]) has done similar things in other articles.
An earlier version said, Charles Miron discovered the fraud by making her drink holy water under the disguise of normal water
- yeah, that is how you find out if someone is possessed. --
Hob Gadling (
talk) 13:11, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
AfD: [66] -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 08:21, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
Where to begin? This biography of an American vedic astrologer was created on September 2012 by User:Babaji31085, an account that was locked for long-term abuse in 2018, [67] the details of which I am not privy to. As of 2022, the biography has 11 sources, none of which are considered reliable or secondary. I became aware of this subject due to their social media following and their presence in the QAnon and Trump community. I think it's best if the article is sent to deletion, but I'm no expert, so I bring this matter to the rest of the community to deal with. Viriditas ( talk) 20:59, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
This page is an archive. Do not edit the contents of this page. Please direct any additional comments to the current main page. |
Just a heads up that a "brand new editor" [1] has been actively wikilawyering and edit warring this past week across a range of race-and-intelligence adjacent pages. I don't have time to counter their nonsense on my own, so more eyes on these pages would be helpful. See especially Dysgenics and Spearman's hypothesis. Thanks all, Generalrelative ( talk) 18:54, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
See also recent activity at Biosocial criminology and the reappearance of Ferahgo the Assassin once again challenging the consensus on race and intelligence at Talk:Heritability of IQ after being pinged by this "new user" elsewhere [2]. I'm not going to have time to engage substantively on all these fronts right now so more eyes would be helpful. Generalrelative ( talk) 19:24, 30 July 2022 (UTC)
I was suspicious when they directly joined in on a content dispute with no prior history on any similar pages in conjunction with them being a new account. See the start of their history editing debt-trap diplomacy, going to talk first and related users in the content dispute, versus prior history. This was a few hours after another user edit warred over the same content on another page and was reported and eventually indeffed. They both used similar language in their edit summaries. I reported the two users as possible sock and master but the CU was Unrelated. Qiushufang ( talk) 05:57, 31 July 2022 (UTC)
Far too much of this is self-sourced, apparently by one author who has written 29% of it. [3] And is this sort of comment ok? "For a summary of the manuscript tradition and interpretive scan, see researchgate.net, Barrie Wilson." A similar comment was also added to the unsourced BLP of Barrie Wilson. Doug Weller talk 10:30, 1 August 2022 (UTC)
This is about [4]. Another editor cites some stories about Barbro Karlén, but none of their sources seems reliable. tgeorgescu ( talk) 00:28, 24 July 2022 (UTC)
I am pretty sure that this story is notable enough for inclusion, but it's going to require someone dedicated to go through and really dig into references. For example, it seems that Chapter 11 of Remembering and Imagining the Holocaust: The Chain of Memory by Christopher Bigsby deals substantially with this claim. But I can't be bothered to dig up access to the text. Two texts that I could read on Google scholar I've now added to the article. jps ( talk) 10:59, 26 July 2022 (UTC)
There's
a lil discussion over at
the NPOV policy talk page about changing
WP:FALSEBALANCE to no longer apply to minority viewpoints. Several editors over there are arguing that the policy falsely equates FRINGE and minority views, and that we shouldn't treat a minority of relevant expert scholars as less valid just for being a numerical minority
.
[5]
And, furthermore, that If the majority and minority views come from sources of similar stature, even if the minority is due less space, they should be treated as equally valid.
[6]
Truly truly fascinating the many angles that this argument often comes from. And the absolute inability to hear/see any negative effects such a change would have. — Shibbolethink ( ♔ ♕) 18:05, 1 August 2022 (UTC)
Not sure what to do about this one. I'm not sure that arithmancy needs a separate article to numerology, or whether it should be included in it. Either way though, it needs proper sourcing, and at least something to suggest that it lacks anything in the way of credible evidence regarding its efficacy for 'divination'. AndyTheGrump ( talk) 19:09, 22 July 2022 (UTC)
Again, the editorial board did not do what reliable sources say they did. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 04:45, 30 July 2022 (UTC)
Hi, I have a problem with editor Richard Keatinge. Since July 6, I have been trying to tell him that scientific work/edition cannot use unfounded assumptions. For a discussion with him, see Dzierzon vs. ul Prokopowycza on the talk page of the article Johan Dzierzon. Please help. Kind regards, Andrew— Preceding unsigned comment added by Aserafin ( talk • contribs) 13:16, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
New article about a physics prof/UFO hunter. I took out a couple of obviously unreliable sources, could probably do with some eyes on it. Girth Summit (blether) 13:38, 26 July 2022 (UTC)
I note here that the pushback referred to by LuckyLouie is from a SPA. More eyes would be welcome. JoJo Anthrax ( talk) 01:50, 28 July 2022 (UTC)
Publishes with Bloomsbury and Routledge, gets reviewed by serious academics, but apart from some support from one scholar (Philippe Wajdenbaum), his theories seem to be universally rejected at this point.
I found no good secondary sourcing on him, so nominated for deletion: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Russell Gmirkin. ☿ Apaugasma ( talk ☉) 12:47, 3 August 2022 (UTC)
Revival of ye olde dead horse over at Talk:Heritability of IQ, now spilling over to Talk:Intelligence quotient. Generalrelative ( talk) 20:47, 5 August 2022 (UTC)
This discussion may be of interest to the community here. XOR'easter ( talk) 19:36, 3 August 2022 (UTC)
WaPo via Twitter: [9].
I like it when WP:PAG shows up in a court of law.
jps ( talk) 17:56, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
The Talk page thread "The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous" peaked my interest. I learned that AA's main opponent is a psychoanalyst, Lance Dodes. Huh. Freudies against goddies - who will science support? Since 2020, AA has a Cochrane review agreeing with it...
I guess more science-knowledgeable people could be useful. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 09:50, 6 August 2022 (UTC)
I have started a thread in Talk:John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories soliciting feedback regarding the use of conspiracy sources. See Talk:John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories#Use of conspiracy sources. Thanks! - Location ( talk) 16:07, 8 August 2022 (UTC)
Could someone with more experience than me please take a look at Draft:Bioenergy economy? Stuartyeates ( talk) 07:18, 10 August 2022 (UTC)
Thread "Tone of the article" on the Talk page. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 12:39, 13 August 2022 (UTC)
Anyone interested in working on this BLP of a fringe writer? Doug Weller talk 14:27, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
A man from Vietnam who claims that he can survive without sleep; see WP:Articles for deletion/Thái Ngọc. Deprodded by a sock in 2010. – LaundryPizza03 ( d c̄) 00:31, 18 August 2022 (UTC)
See [10]. Doug Weller talk 16:21, 6 August 2022 (UTC)
not entirely a kook. This is the danger of only looking at formal criteria instead of actual competence of the sources. To judge the competence (within a certain area of knowledge) of a source beyond formal criteria, of course, one has to be competent enough in that area of knowledge oneself. We actually have a page for that: WP:CIR. Colavito is one of those who seem to get the short end when the judgement is based only on formalities and CIR is ignored. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 06:08, 8 August 2022 (UTC)
Reliable source it is. You cannot use it to refer to living people as "pro-UFO loons" except as in-text attribution just as I might attribute to you the opinion that the article is "batshit crazy analysis" as evidence of a certain lack of competence. He has the qualifications that anyone might have in WP:FRINGE areas. After all, he is critiquing people who similarly lack credentials owing, mostly, to the fact that it's nearly impossible to get credentials in WP:FRINGE areas because they are fringe. That is what parity is all about. jps ( talk) 23:21, 6 August 2022 (UTC)
most of his books. Are you sure about that? jps ( talk) 23:26, 6 August 2022 (UTC)
As I have said a few times, if you have reason to suspect Colavito is in someway unreliable for describing the WP:MAINSTREAM understanding of these topics which he is debunking, go right ahead and make the case. I think he has established a name for himself as an expert skeptic and debunker as identified by other experts in the field. You can look through all the criticism of his work and you will find essentially praise from the mainstream and criticism from the WP:FRINGE which is exactly the standard by which we might identify who is able to do effective criticism of the fringe. That you quote the guideline that basically argues that work like this should be used at Wikipedia and then argue that it actually excludes such work is pretty remarkable to me. jps ( talk) 00:25, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
Sorry that the reference isn't up to your exacting standards. If you think WP:Wikidragon is a personal attack, I don't know what to say here. WP:SOFIXIT? jps ( talk) 02:10, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
Of course it allows personal blog posts. The entire point of this is that if in Wikipedia there are certain WP:FRINGE claims whose provenance is the equivalent of some proponent shooting their mouth off, there is no problem with quoting someone who explains what might be wrong with that argument. To boot, the uses of Colavito in these contexts was in a WP:ITA fashion. So we're essentially saying, as Wikipedia, that here is a response from a source. It's a response that the source said, but, per WP:PARITY, this is basically in response to an argument that was argued in a similar venue. jps ( talk) 01:16, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
As I think I've been saying, the problem is that there are people who will argue that WP:BLPSPS makes an exception when the blogs are written by the subject of the article and everyone agrees that she has the opinions that are being sourced to it. jps ( talk) 12:03, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
Hypothetically, if her claims were from unreliable self-published blogs, they should be removed from the article, which implies that when someone spreads FRINGE propaganda in a reliable source, we can help spreading that fringe propaganda without contextualizing it.
Hypothetically, if her claims were from unreliable self-published blogs, they should be removed from the articleseems to say it should only be deleted in some cases. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 07:07, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
It depends on how that's done. Even calling something a documentary when it is a film that seeks to propagandize a fringe claim ( What the Bleep Do We Know comes to mind) can lend credence to an idea. jps ( talk) 12:01, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
an established subject-matter expert, whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable, independent publications- bolded like that in the policy itself. Unless I'm misunderstanding something he fails the bolded part; he may have a degree in anthropology, but he has no RS publications that can reasonably be called relevant to the subject at hand. And even beyond that he obviously can't be used for statements about living third parties, which WP:SPS strictly bans under all circumstances. I don't think WP:PARITY can overcome this - if you're worried that removing him may leave fringe statements unopposed, I would just remove those fringe statements, since if he's the only person who has commented on them it's unlikely they're notable or due anyway. We're not required to include every time some kook is interviewed on the Discovery Channel. -- Aquillion ( talk) 13:10, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
established subject-matter expertwho has written material
published by reliable, independent publications.JoJo Anthrax ( talk) 17:58, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
Colavito gives exceptional podcast interviews. His blog has had 100,000 monthly readers and his social media posts regularly reach 10,000-30,000 impressions. Pyrrho the Skipper ( talk) 20:45, 8 August 2022 (UTC)
work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable, independent publications. As ever, reasonable minds may differ, and if I am the only one who feels this way, you can safely ignore me. Cheers. Dumuzid ( talk) 17:34, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
UFOs definitely are in Colavito's expertise as there is considerable overlap between the Lovecraftian ancient aliens stuff/pseudohistory and the beliefs of the UFO cultists of today. In fact, there are entire chapters in his book on the subject. It's particularly rich that certain commentators here are criticizing his expertise in these areas assuming, I imagine, that they understand the UFO genre better than he does! UFOs are part of anthropology, sorry to say. They are much more relevant to anthropology than they are to my field, in fact. jps ( talk) 19:22, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
really solid national security guysincorrect. As Colavito and others have shown, most of the people who have been marketed this way (even in otherwise reputable outfits like the New York Times) are bit players and either suffering from delusions of grandeur or just plain delusion. The propaganda that has been steadily drumming out of here is otherwise, but is simply isn't the case. That the Senate Committee was taken in by some pretty amateurish argumentation is worth noting for what it is. The "mainstream" perspective here is the one that experts hold to and, let me tell you, the experts in national security are snickering in private. They aren't commenting at all because it's that ridiculous. That's why Colavito is valuable as a source. Also, there is no way to determine what makes a "real" versus "amateur" anthropologist when it comes to UFO culture. You're trying out an impeachment that is falling flat. jps ( talk) 19:43, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
assumethat person has not read source B. Otherwise they would agree with you, right? -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 05:34, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
This Tuesday, more than a year after the story broke, the Department of Defense and Navy further clarified that the objects in these incidents were in fact drones in the aforementioned House of Representatives Intelligence, Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee hearing.But yeah, maybe it was actually nothing at all, someone said it on their blog, after all. ScottishFinnishRadish ( talk) 09:15, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
Let me underline this again for you, the Nimitz encounter with the Tic Tac proved that exotic technology that is widely thought of as the domain of science fiction actually exists. It is real. It isn't the result of altered perception, someone's lucid dream, a stray weather balloon, or swamp gas. Someone or something has crossed the technological Rubicon and has obtained what some would call the Holy Grail of aerospace engineering.But, yeah, totally not sensationalizing anything. ::Eyeroll. jps ( talk) 11:35, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
It seems backwards to me to argue that we include film critics because they are experts. No, we include film critics because they have something to say that is useful for the reader. jps ( talk) 22:04, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
Ufology#Flight_characteristics seems like WP:SYNTHESIS to me, but as an example of Knuth and others pushing the notion of fantasically advanced UFO technology which can only be explained by aliens, I would think Colavito could be used here. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 13:42, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
Ancient fossil of an article sourced entirely to Theosophist works, completely credulous. Given that it has hardly been edited since it was written over a decade ago, maybe it's not notable? Anyway, could use going over with a hatchet. Mangoe ( talk) 03:50, 14 August 2022 (UTC)
38.126.71.24 ( talk · contribs · WHOIS) edits could use some eyes. They were perviously suspended for making claims like Woodtstock being a plot to control hippies and the Who shot JR tv storyline was to cover up news of the JFK death anniversary, now that they are out of suspension their edits have a similar tone and could use a look by someone more experienced with this sort of thing than me. 2001:8003:34A3:800:F00C:80D0:21D4:4029 ( talk) 09:13, 18 August 2022 (UTC)
Apparently premiering tonight on Hulu and FX. Potentially useful source.
jps ( talk) 11:54, 19 August 2022 (UTC)
(Crossposting this from WP:Teahouse, since I forgot FTN existed:) I was taking a look at Lipstick effect, and the following paragraph was inserted some time in 2012:
"In a 2012 study by four university researchers, the effect was attributed to evolutionary psychology: "This effect is driven by women's desire to attract mates with resources and depends on the perceived mate attraction function served by these products. In addition to showing how and why economic recessions influence women's desire for beauty products, this research provides novel insights into women's mating psychology, consumer behavior, and the relationship between the two. [...] Although the lipstick effect has garnered some anecdotal lore, the present research suggests that women's spending on beauty products may be the third indicator of economic recessions—an indicator that may be rooted in our ancestral psychology."<ref>See Hill, S. E., Rodeheffer, C. D., Griskevicius, V., Durante, K., & White, A. E. (2012, May 28). "Boosting Beauty in an Economic Decline: Mating, Spending, and the Lipstick Effect". ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,'' available at http://personal.tcu.edu/sehill/LipstickEffectMS20March2012.pdf</ref>"
I'm not too well-versed on psychology papers and journals, but I have to admit it kinda sounds like pseudoscience a little to me. Or at least "we found some things that correlate, but that's not the same as causation". The journal, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, doesn't come up in Beall's list but did seemingly come to blows for some nonsense in 2011, 2012? I'd appreciate someone having a look in. Thanks!-- Ineffablebookkeeper ( talk) ({{ ping}} me!) 21:07, 20 August 2022 (UTC)
References
Dubious Russian superstition of a few years running. Up for AfD but needs a look by people who can read Russian better than I. Mangoe ( talk) 04:52, 21 August 2022 (UTC)
See Talk:Younger Dryas impact hypothesis#Undue use of Comet Group material, etc.. Doug Weller talk 10:25, 22 August 2022 (UTC)
Our bio describes Lerner as an "independent plasma researcher". Perhaps some physics types round here can say if that's legit? Alexbrn ( talk) 14:17, 21 August 2022 (UTC)
Ahmed Farag Ali ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ahmed Farag Ali.
Please comment. jps ( talk) 12:06, 24 August 2022 (UTC)
I'm not sure this article should even exist. Notable? Doug Weller talk 14:06, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
This RFC may be of interest to folks here. I can't really make heads or tails of any of it. 35.139.154.158 ( talk) 01:11, 23 August 2022 (UTC)
Wim Hof Method (WHM): a combination of frequent cold exposure, breathing techniques and meditation with many health and wellness claims. The article is heavily cited to non-independent, non-MEDRS (or even RS) sources. Could use some help. Firefangledfeathers ( talk / contribs) 18:25, 30 August 2022 (UTC)
This is a pretty bad article already, in terms of sourcing and phrasing, and there is an IP who has been trying shift the POV to remove suggestions that these people might not actually be able to 'intuit' what is ailing people. It looks to be leaning heavily on in-universe sourcing - more eyeballs might be useful. Girth Summit (blether) 18:38, 31 August 2022 (UTC)
This user is promoting fasting and making other POV edits on articles related to fasting, orthopathy and Herbert M. Shelton, just one recent example [38]. I have tried to engage this user a few weeks ago but it is impossible to get through to them. They admitted they have conflict of interest because their grandma or something was allegedly healed by an orthopath. I listed just one example of their bad edits in the previous diff "Since at least 1800s, many doctors (MDs, DOs, PhDs) carried out studies and wrote articles & books and were interviewed on fasting for many medical purposes", sources listed are John A. McDougall, Joel Fuhrman, Felix Leopold Oswald, Charles Edward Page (anti-vaxxer) and YouTube videos etc from Caldwell Esselstyn all fringe and primary sources, nothing reliable. When you confront this user with their bad editing you are accused of being "biased" or a promoter a scientism.
On the orthopathy article this user is making odd edits, check the "reception" section which has the same content added. "Since at least 1800s, many doctors (medical, MDs & osteopaths, DOs, philosophy, PhDs) carried out studies and wrote articles & books and were interviewed on fasting for many medical/health purposes" [39]. I don't know what's going on here, but as I have commented on the talk-page at orthopathy and list of orthopaths this type of bad editing is spilling out onto multiple articles. Please see current discussion at list of orthopaths [40] Psychologist Guy ( talk) 18:06, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
Your editing above is pretty badis among the crappiest defenses you can use. Nobody cares about typos on a Talk page. It this supposed to be a meek attempt at the tu quoque fallacy?
Drs [..] are standard medicine medical doctors [..]: you're libelling themDouble bullshit. Some random person does not magically become a reliable source by being a doctor, and pointing out that someone's ideas are fringe is not libel.
Dr Page was wrong about vaccinations but was a MD researcher/writer on fastingQuackeries tend to flock together in the same brains. Anti-vaxx ideas are a red flag.
They're all independent sourcesBut not RS or MEDRS.
isn't a guideline let alone policy/ruleThat is disingenuous and not the point. It was linked because it explains the guidelines policies, rules. WP:RS was also linked in the same contribution, and that one is a guideline. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 07:01, 13 August 2022 (UTC)
Looking at the responses above, it looks to me that this is a WP:CIR issue, involving a basic inability to constructively communicate. Probably better discussed on WP:ANI. AndyTheGrump ( talk) 21:41, 13 August 2022 (UTC)
See Why one Harvard scientist believes alien technology may be sitting on the ocean floor and tangentially NASA is assembling a team to figure out what UFOs are Doug Weller talk 13:54, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
Feels a bit lonely there with only four people. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 06:51, 4 September 2022 (UTC)
User:ScottsdalePrincess is pov deleting text from this article about a fringe author. Doug Weller talk 15:27, 4 September 2022 (UTC)
July–August 2022 United States floods has an RFC for possible consensus. A discussion is taking place. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments on the discussion page. Thank you. --- Aquillion ( talk) 18:54, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
Self-same editor seems to be pushing articles published in this fantastic journal as reliable sources about climate science. For real: [45] jps ( talk) 03:14, 3 September 2022 (UTC)
I am so thankful an editor actually notified me that my edits were being discussed and linked to on a noticeboard. Anyway, I feel my words kept getting twisted, so I just dropped the entire discussion and went back to my super huge draft article project; so I would greatly appreciate y'all stop talking about my edits without notifying me. Elijahandskip ( talk) 18:32, 4 September 2022 (UTC)
Is this imaginary continent really mythical? Doug Weller talk 15:34, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
Of course, Linus Pauling and nutrition together in one sentence should ring alarm bells. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 19:40, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
See the last edits of article and Talk page. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 07:17, 30 August 2022 (UTC)
I think this article is a bit unbalanced at the moment, especially the "recent findings" section, which treats the rather extraordinary claim that humans were present in the Americas 130,000 years ago, as if the 2020 study confirms it, when there is still incredible skepticism regarding the site, see [50]. For a quick primer on the site, see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343834817_The_Cerutti_Mastodon_Professional_Skepticism_and_the_Public Hemiauchenia ( talk) 15:58, 31 August 2022 (UTC)
This article is probably familiar to some of you, it appears several times in this Noticeboard's archives. A new editor has shown up and is adding a lot of in-universe stuff to the article, including removing criticism and making claims that The scientific status of socionics is confirmed
More eyes on the article would be appreciated. -
MrOllie (
talk) 15:59, 10 September 2022 (UTC)
Discussion posted at RSN regarding the reliability of globalsecurity.org, see-> link. Horse Eye's Back ( talk) 21:11, 10 September 2022 (UTC)
Hi all,
Please see Avatar Medicine.
Pete AU aka User:Shirt58 ( talk) 🦘 11:46, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
It seems to be argued at Talk:Masonic conspiracy theories#Unreliable sources become reliable...? that it should be acceptable to cite unreliable sources (such as crackpot self-hosted websites and individual blogs with deranged posts about conspiracy theories) to indicate that such conspiracy theories exist and are held by the authors. I contend that this is also a poor use of unreliable sources, because their existence does not really lend any credence or notability to the conspiracy theories in question. More input is welcome! Elizium23 ( talk) 23:19, 9 September 2022 (UTC)
The source is ForbiddenKnowledge.com, and it is not a reliable, secondary source. Firefangledfeathers ( talk / contribs) 16:27, 10 September 2022 (UTC)* That Freemasons intertwine various symbols and numerology into modern culture, such as corporate logos. [1]
Readers must be able to check.... How does a link such as [51] serve the reader in this case? In general as a reader I might want to occasionally see primary sources but here I have no idea what you are directing me to and how it should increase my trust in the article content. It fails to help me in any way "checking" the article, for that much more is required. If you can establish something about this source, why is it useful for me to look at, why more than just random ramblings that once appeared on the internet then it might increase my trust in the article content, otherwise it decreases trust. If you cite a journal or text in support then the burden is mostly on me as a reader to evaluate the sources, if you wish to cite a little known primary source then i think the burden should be on you as a writer to in fact establish some context and let me know why it would be worthwhile reading and how it would establish trust in the content. fiveby( zero) 17:54, 10 September 2022 (UTC)
References
talk about the conspiracy theories in broad scope, then we can quote primary sources
talk about the conspiracy theories in broad scope. If we quote a primary source claiming that
Freemasons intertwine various symbols and numerology into modern culture, such as corporate logos, then we need a secondary source refuting the claim that
Freemasons intertwine various symbols and numerology into modern culture, such as corporate logos. Otherwise we are spreading fringe ideas without proper context. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 08:22, 11 September 2022 (UTC)
Freemasons intertwine various symbols and numerology into modern culture, such as corporate logos? -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 13:36, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
Recent WP:POVFORK of UFO proposes UFOs are piloted by various aliens and interdimensional creatures. Any criticism is framed as mere "allegations". Fascinating. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 22:54, 10 September 2022 (UTC)
[[File:Scars from different "abductees".jpg|thumb|[[Budd Hopkins]] thought these scars on people's bodies were examples of evidence of the physical reality of alien abductions.]]remains as hidden text within the article. (And yes, Budd Hopkins is a ufologist.) The Giancarlo Cecconi image leaves out the identification as black plastic bags by the Italian Ministry of Defense. The mystery airship illustration again leaves out the context that airship reports were not taken very seriously even at the time of publication. And the technosignatures chart is lifted from a paper that isn't even vaguely related to UFOs-UAPs. Far from being a summary of academic thought on the topic, these images appear to have been added into the mix just to spice things up. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 19:46, 11 September 2022 (UTC)
You didn't follow WP:RS and WP:NPOV in this terrible article. So if you take your own medicine, it would be a great gesture of good faith for you to ask for the article to be removed from articlespace so that you can work with others who might be able to help you attain this. However, from your commentary in the off-wiki link I see above, it seems that you have already decided you are better than the rest of us here, so I won't be holding my breath that you're actually going to take this criticism on board. jps ( talk) 13:28, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
Read about the derision directed towards our community in those threads.Why? Third parties are totally free to deride us in other venues. We're a wiki -- finding fault with extant content is the first step to participation! If we see anons piling up at an AFD, we can compensate at closure. Feoffer ( talk) 13:40, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
The article Pentagon UFO videos severely violates WP:NPOVORLY? Perhaps you'd like to explain exactly how it violates NPOV? jps ( talk) 15:52, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
Quote: I'm not here for WP:AGENDA. Have you checked my contributions, does that look like a profringe agenda...
I'm going to go with 'yes', having looked at the history of the
Ufology article, and at its talk page, where Prototyperspective tried and failed to gain consensus to include content now found in the new article, tried to edit-war it in anyway, and having failed, created this blatant POV-fork. And I'd have to suggest that a statement that posts were made to the r/UFOs subreddit because I don't want my work to be wasted as in never getting read before getting deleted for no good reason
looks to me very like an admission of canvassing - an off-Wikipedia posting made with the intention of influencing the AfD result.
AndyTheGrump (
talk) 13:47, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
Have you checked my contributions, does that look like a profringe agenda or like trying to improve Wikipedia on a variety of mostly UFO-unrelated topics?. And concerning your other concern
That is not "coordination", I'm allowed to post links to articles there, especially as I don't want my work to be wasted as in never getting read before getting deleted for no good reason.As I have already stated, I don't think the way some of you apparently routinely (or very frequently) keep out content you don't like and coordinate on skeptics community noticeboards like this one here complies with WP:DEM (but I could be wrong about that and this is not meant personally but just as a concern I have which I think am allowed to express [if not please remove that part of the comment]). Decisions should not be made with voting but via arguments-discussion, proper rationales and Wikipedia policies, like WP:RS and WP:NPOV.. What I meant was that if people read my work before it is getting deleted or despite of it, then my, btw fully WP policies-compliant, work at least isn't completely wasted. Prototyperspective ( talk) 14:29, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
Can you see now why this is a bit exhausting for us? This isn't the only source like that included in the article. It isn't ready for mainspace. And yet you insist that there isn't anything wrong. WP:CLEANUP is one thing, but WP:TNT is closer to what is needed here. Again, if you would just allow this to be draftified and get some help, that would be one thing. But you keep insisting that you are right and everyone else is wrong in spite of evidence to the contrary. This does not bode well for future collaborative work on this sort of project, does it? jps ( talk) 16:30, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
There are references for these things in the article body.
There are not. That you think there are indicates to me that either you did not author this piece or you are very bad at remembering what you wrote. Saying things like "some scientists" is definitionally
WP:WEASEL. You need to do more work learning to write for Wikipedia. What you are doing right now is not good enough.
jps (
talk) 18:07, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
Prototyperspective I had some misguided optimism yesterday that maybe you would work together with me to get to an article that would be okay. Lord knows there are people out there who might like to learn about the (lack of) academic research that has gone into UFOs. But you seemed either willfully or obliviously impervious to understanding the basic problem of source-based writing. You want to make hasty generalizations and labeling of people as "some scientists" versus "other scientists" as if there are two opposing camps in these situations which is very much not what any reliable source says about the situation. What we have are a handful of, let's call them "mavericks" who are making noise in a way that gets media attention and we have a relatively quiet opposition in exactly the way that WP:FRINGE describes. The article then falls into WP:GEVAL traps almost immediately instead of patiently explaining the lack of academic research on the subject. Additionally, a tremendous amount of space is spent on explaining things that are manifestly not academic studies. And this was just the lede. I have given up trying to collaborate on this because I don't see a way forward that is not [[WP:TNT}]. You say you are worried about editors being driven away. I have to say that this is a legitimate worry, but it is the way of the wiki because fringe subjects are hard to write about. WP:PROFRINGE is just too easy a trap to fall into and you have fallen into it whether you want to believe it or not. I was hoping you might find your way out, but it doesn't appear to me that you will and I've seen this kind of circus too many times before to not identify the patterned behavior here. jps ( talk) 11:25, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
What we have are a handful of, let's call them "mavericks" who are making noise in a way that gets media attention and we have a relatively quiet oppositionThat's a statement of personal opinion as is. See WP:NPOV and WP:RS.
A smaller but still sizable share of the public (51%) says that UFOs reported by people in the military are likely evidence of intelligent life outside Earth. Most of this sentiment comes from people who say that military-reported UFOs are “probably” evidence of extraterrestrial life (40%), rather than “definitely” such evidence (11%), according to the survey of 10,417 U.S. adults, conducted June 14 to 24. On the other hand, 47% of Americans say the military reports are probably (36%) or definitely (11%) not evidence of life outside Earth.
that is civilised and organised like ours, the U.S.' Director of national intelligence Avril Haines has stated
There’s always the question of 'is there something else that we simply do not understand, that might come extraterrestrially?'. It is a valid possibility to take seriously. There are further WP:RS, many of which in the article, that show this to be a significant possibility that is not to be precluded (or reduced to ~one small sentence which nearly ridicules it) and to be (sufficiently) covered via WP:RS, including(!) statements from various experts / scientists.
This is at the very least not as fringe as you make it out to be at this point, and yes things do have changed in recent years.This is simply not true and is essentially a WP:PROFRINGE WP:POVPUSH. Until you recognize that you do not have reliable sources which indicate this we really cannot move forward because you will just be promoting a fringe understanding of this topic. jps ( talk) 11:46, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
things do have changed in recent yearsbeyond those three things many WP:RS of the article said so, often quite explicitly, I don't know if this info is included in the article (of the recent change, not just e.g. the current status) and would have to revisit them to check which ones it were. Prototyperspective ( talk) 12:00, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
Rv fringe POV pusherand
None of these are published in mainstream journals. They don't count as academic studied and there are no reliable sources that identify them as such.. You are not the one who decides what counts as academic studied, this is about what WP:RS said. Please see that policy – your removal is unwarranted and not compatible with Wikipedia policies. Per WP:BRD you should now consider that these are WP:RS – you can't just remove info about these studies & reports which are backed by lots of WP:RS and need to discuss the removal by addressing my point ( WP:RS).
Articles relating to the assassination of Huey Long appear to be giving undue weight to a conspiracy theory about Long's death. Huey Long was shot and killed by Carl Weiss in 1935, but text has been added to several articles to cast doubt on this, giving undue weight to a theory that Long was murdered by his own guards and that there was a "cover up". About half of the text in the article Assassination of Huey Long is dedicated to this theory. Thebiguglyalien ( talk) 07:16, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
Firefangledfeathers has been doing an excellent job mediating a protracted dispute over race and intelligence at Talk:Intelligence quotient#The "no evidence" statement. At this point, however, I don't think it's fair to be putting the entire weight on their shoulders. I know that there is reticence to get involved in this topic area, but wider participation here would be helpful. Generalrelative ( talk) 01:35, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
No specific recent activity, but probably worth watching and improving. Cokely gave over 5,000 lectures on the topic of global warming and corporate conspiracies, the Trilateral Commission, The Bilderberg Group, Rothchilds, Rockefellers, Boule, etc.
--
Hob Gadling (
talk) 13:44, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
has been turned into creationist propaganda. I reverted, but I guess that is not the last we will hear of this. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 18:26, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
There was an unusual incident at the article Sathya Sai Baba. A user changed the subject's religion to " Humanity" and added content which is unsourced and gave false balance to claims of supernatural powers. They're at AIV now, since they have resorted to long-winded personal attacks, such as [55], which typically accuse users of imperialist fact-distorting. – LaundryPizza03 ( d c̄) 21:39, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
After some months of stability, this has flared up again, with disagreements about Kulldorff's stance on various COVID-19 matters. Could use more eyes. Bon courage ( talk) 14:24, 19 September 2022 (UTC)
The spooky should be cut down, but I am unsure how much. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 15:37, 19 September 2022 (UTC)
I also removed the haunted category- um... are you aware of the huge category tree this is part of? One large branch of the tree is Category:Reportedly haunted locations in the United States by state. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 09:03, 20 September 2022 (UTC)
I was looking at the German Wikipedia article about Tiwanaku for recent information and found that it has several pargraphs discussing many of its building stones being manmade blocks composed of synthetic geopolymers. This concept is incorrectly presented as being main-stream, instead of fringe, science and give undue weight to this idea. Paul H. ( talk) 18:53, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
So the Lancet commission report dropped recently and has caused some consternation for its apparent suggestion of US/NIH involvement in SARS-CoV-2 origin. Lab leakers in particular seem upset this is the wrong kind of conspiracy theory (it should have been blaming China!). Anyway relevant edits/discussion at
and a recent thread at
could all uses input/oversight of fringe-savvy editors. Bon courage ( talk) 06:53, 25 September 2022 (UTC)
Lots of activity and some disagreement here recently. Could use eyes. The article in general has been in pretty poor shape for a long time. Bon courage ( talk) 06:47, 25 September 2022 (UTC)
I'm not interested in Edit War. Mistakes mainstream psychology for "bad faith". -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 12:14, 25 September 2022 (UTC)
Someone wants to add questionable fringey sources. Discussion has just started. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 21:15, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
What do you think about [58]?
Yes, that's the point. The naive churchgoer's understanding of Christianity is "the Bible, then the fundamental doctrines like the Trinity, then the patristic fathers debating other stuff." But in fact it was totally different: The NT was produced *by* the second generation of disciples, and reflects controversies that already had arisen in a church that was at least 40 years old by the time that the oldest material in the NT was written, then only centuries later did trinitarianism become a significant issue. There isn't really anyone who disputes this other than a small fringe of non-academic Protestants who will tell you that God prefigured later debates by divinely inspiring resolutions to them in material written centuries earlier. The article leads people to the wrong idea about the historical development of the doctrine and presents the false apologetic notion that trinitarianism was a commonly understood belief in the early church.
The beliefs of traditionalist Christians should be accurately included in the article, but its structure should not depend on them. Predestiprestidigitation ( talk) 11:13, 22 September 2022 (UTC)
I see [59] as WP:SOAPBOXING for WP:FRINGE views. tgeorgescu ( talk) 12:58, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
Wikipedia works on the basis that whatever scientists commonly consider to be true is true. Binksternet ( talk) 23:13, 11 June 2022 (UTC)
The text in 14 which was removed and may be some of what is at issue reads:
The claimed theological unity of the Christian Church was propaganda retrospectively projected by the clergy, rather than a genuine historical reality. Post-
Bauer historians give the lie to
Eusebius's Historia Ecclesiastica with its claim that true faith precedes heresy, and heresy being a wilful, devilish choice to disbelieve the theological truth.
There are some WP:WEASEL words and WP:PEACOCK terms in there. Was it " propaganda"? The word "propaganda" did not exist until the Counter-Reformation, so it seems at least somewhat anachronistic to label it as such in Wikipedia's voice. Surely another term could be used ("doctrine"?, "dogma"?, "belief"?) that does not suffer from this problem. "Genuine historical reality" as well didn't really exist as a rhetorical proposition until post-Enlightenment. You might as well say that it was "pseudoscience". And while post-Bauer historians may have consensus on a topic, do they really "give the lie to" a third/fourth century bishop? I'm not sure that you could find a quorum of scholars who would agree that this is what they are doing when they evaluate the context of the writing of the New Testament. The sources do not seem to be going on about "debunking" Eusebius in spite of what contradictions are evident from what we know happened in comparison to what may have been written about circa 400 CE.
Besides, to have any iron in the fire at all about whether "true faith precedes heresy" presupposes that true faith and heresy actually exist. Most non-believers reject that premise out of hand. Neither side is correct just as the there is not necessarily a correct "side" in the conflict between heaven and hell. :)
jps ( talk) 17:59, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
Of course, the drive towards unification did not succeed completely, ever. The house cult-groups and communities were too diverse and too diffused over different regions with their own cultural traditions, and individual Christian believers were too passionate and inventive for unity ever to be achieved in reality. But the ideal and illusion of unity as a church and as a grand (apostolic) tradition persisted, and had a powerful effect on Christian organization and self-representation. Christian church leaders repeatedly tried, at least from the middle of the third century onwards, to achieve unity of belief and practice.I think in some measure our author might have agreed with "propaganda" as a term if there were more expansion and explanation, but as is this is somewhat a disservice to his work. Hopkins is interested in the implications of:
One tentative but radical conclusion is that Christianity was for a century after Jesus' death the intellectual property at any one time of scarcely a few dozen, perhaps rising to two hundred, literate adult males, dispersed throughout the Mediterranean basin.How these numbers and dispersion played into dogma, exclusivity, and an illusory self-representation of unity are all very interesting and hit ideas appropriate for the article, but consider:
I don't think that anyone in the middle of the second century could have reasonably predicted that the policy of dogmatic exclusivism would end up with a triumphant monopoly. The success of the strategy was discovered only over time; it was not purposively invented as a marketing device.Editors should summarize sources, rather than pulling quotes to support a preconceived construction.
This paper is an experiment in both method and substance.
My methods are frankly speculative and exploratory. For the moment, I am interested more in competing probabilities, and in their logical implications, than in established or establishable facts.He is looking at Rodney Stark's work and speculating on implications. In the same way "primary" and "secondary" are often used on this board to describe how for instance an original paper shouldn't be used without reference to a review or more comprehensive source. fiveby( zero) 15:18, 25 September 2022 (UTC)
See Talk:Chiropractic in Canada#This article seems pretty non-neutral. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 12:38, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
This is a classic example of a non-neutral, fringe religious figure whose biography is written from the perspective of a member of their church (which I'm convinced, based on the edit history, is exactly what happened). Our biographical article on Robert Thieme and Berachah Church have flown under the radar for many years. Looking at the administrative archival record, the only thing I could find in regards to this problem was an edit war that took place back in 2017. [60] Moving forward, all the usual problems noted on this board can be found in the biographical article. (@ ජපස: as he is a recognized expert on this topic.) It isn't clear if we need the article on both the biography and the church. Someone might be able to make the case that we only require one article on both subjects.
I think Thieme is more notable than the church itself, but when one looks closely at the current biography (and the link to the edit war above), it is evident that the article was written by a member of the church as an overt hagiography of Thieme, as well as a deliberate whitewash of the published criticism of Thieme and his church, which have been repeatedly described as a Christian cult, most notably in the popular press for having the family of Dan Quale, the 44th vice president of the United States, as members and believers, specifically his wife's family. The Associated Press initially covered the story [61], followed by Elinor J. Brecher and Robert T. Garrett of The Courier-Journal, who published a brief expose in The New Republic back in November 14, 1988, followed by the New York Times in the Summer of 1989, [62] and the Chicago Tribune later that year. [63]
I'm fairly certain the cult literature has additional information on Thieme and his church, but it's not easy to find. In any case, the Christian literature, which is apparently highly skeptical and critical of Thieme and his church, isn't represented at all in the article. I would appreciate any help with this. Viriditas ( talk) 20:39, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
This page was created today and appears to be largely promotional, created by a user who's contributed little beyond pushing this model and fluffing its originator. I have a few concerns but unfortunately little time right now to devote to resolving them. First of all, the article contains lots of WP:PEACOCK language that I doubt is supported by the sources. Second, I'm not sure the topic merits a standalone article separate from Emotional intelligence, and may be a WP:POVFORK. Third, the model's originator has some prima facie WP:PROFRINGE associations –– allegedly serving on the board of Personality and Individual Differences (though this actually failed verification) and publications with Hans Eysenck. More eyes on this would be helpful. See also Konstantinos V. Petrides. Generalrelative ( talk) 20:09, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
This may be of interest to editors here: The article Todd Siler includes a section in something called a "fractal reactor". Here's the entire section:
In 2006, Siler used a multimedia exhibition at New York's Ronald Feldman Gallery to present his proposal for the nature-inspired "Fractal Reactor," which offers an environmental-friendly, alternative method of using controlled nuclear fusion for energy purposes. While the actual processes used by the fractal reactor, rely on highly sophisticated physical and mathematical formulations, its principles re-examine the hypotheses behind nuclear fusion in novel ways. This proposal has been taken up by the International Atomic Energy Agency for further study.
There is no citation, and the red flags are obvious, so I looked for sources. Most are reviews in arts journals which lack topic expertise. Here's a presentation PDF given by Siler at the 13th International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems. At a glance it's not quite as bizarre as the Wikipedia article makes it seem, but it's still above my level.
The current article is very poorly sourced, but an older version includes a lengthy list of sources, most of which are offline or not linked. Grayfell ( talk) 23:33, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
See Talk page "This is woeful". -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 03:22, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
An IP found a sentence embracing a witch-hunter POV in the lede. See Talk page.
The user who added it, User:Mysticalresearch (contributions [65]) has done similar things in other articles.
An earlier version said, Charles Miron discovered the fraud by making her drink holy water under the disguise of normal water
- yeah, that is how you find out if someone is possessed. --
Hob Gadling (
talk) 13:11, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
AfD: [66] -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 08:21, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
Where to begin? This biography of an American vedic astrologer was created on September 2012 by User:Babaji31085, an account that was locked for long-term abuse in 2018, [67] the details of which I am not privy to. As of 2022, the biography has 11 sources, none of which are considered reliable or secondary. I became aware of this subject due to their social media following and their presence in the QAnon and Trump community. I think it's best if the article is sent to deletion, but I'm no expert, so I bring this matter to the rest of the community to deal with. Viriditas ( talk) 20:59, 5 October 2022 (UTC)