This page contains discussions that have been archived from Village pump (policy). Please do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to revive any of these discussions, either start a new thread or use the talk page associated with that topic.
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I want to present a potential new policy creation related to and dealing with backlogs. It would also have a relevant "guidelines" page that wasn't policy, but a community guideline. The idea is to offered policy of what kinds of pages to add cleanup and other tags to. SO we can cut down on the one's that are added needlessly, and help put tags on one that really needed it. Also in the policy we could add in to remove cleanup tags when not needed, and re-date them as needed. Not only that but perhaps other things to help prevent major backlog, like work on older ones first. The guideline could be step by step generally instructions on how to properly deal with backlog. I was going through the "needs cleanup" backlog by month. I finished up the oldest month, and most of the one after that. However about 40% of them had been cleaned since the one's where added. Another 10-20% of the ones I went through were improperly tagged The rest where horrible and really needed cleaned, which I either cleaned on the spot and removed the tag, or re-dated so we could eliminate the oldest months of the backlog. I think a well written, well placed policy and/or guideline would really help only tag the one's that really need it and also allow for the backlogs to be cleaned/dealt with properly. -- businessman332211 17:42, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
So apparently I've gotten into a bit of a predicament. I was taking a look over at the Light Yagami article. And I noticed this:
It doesn't satisfy the notability guidelines established by WP:FICT. It's basically just plot summary, which isn't allowed per WP:NOT.
It has little no real world content, which is supposed to be the focus of the article. The L Lawliet article is the same. I thought that it would be best to condense the two articles and merge them into List of Death Note characters.
A similar experience occured regarding the Characters of Kingdom Hearts article, which I helped clean up: most of the separate character articles were EXACTLY like those two articles: just plot summary. So we condensed the plot and merged them all into that article. The exception was Organization XIII. It was kept separate because we were able to find real world content for that article (specifically "Concept/Creation"), and less importantly because that article was already very long anyway.
Yet, at this proposal, some pointed out that making character articles like those two is a common practice. And I have noticed that this is true: Bleach is a good example. Ulquiorra Schiffer, last I checked, was basically little more than plot summary as well. Ichigo Kurosaki, ditto. It's like that with Naruto as well. I did notice one thing however: most, if not all of those articles are B-Class or lower, and have tags requesting cleanup regarding in-universe perspective, merge tags, among other things. So what exactly am I supposed to do? What's the policy regarding separate character articles? I still feel that the two articles should be merged. If enough real world content becomes available for them, we can split them again. HadesDragon 00:07, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
I came across this issue while looking into a novel by Stephen King, Gerald's Game, which I have yet to read. While I feel no particular attachment to this work, the presence in the discussion page of a rating system that ranks works of literature on the grounds of them being more important based on rather arbitrary standards strikes me as a biased way of talking about works. If this is indeed an impartial source of information, the only goal for any articles on artistic works ought to be matters of comprehensiveness. While singling out certain works as important to world culture etc makes sense in the text of their respective articles, including a system for determining how low on the metaphoric totem pole a work is in terms of value strikes me as decidedly unprofessional for an encyclopedia. This is inexcusable unless the actual point of wikipedia is to tell people what they should enjoy and value and what is a waste of their time, rather than the impartial information. More impartiality, less ideology! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Snyrt ( talk • contribs) 18:42, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
If you look at the discussion page for the novel "Gerald's Game" you will see that this book is low on the importance scale, which is explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels/Assessment#Importance_scale As you will notice, this chart rates works depending on their supposed overall importance to the field of literature, and gives examples of these various categories of important and less important works. If this categorization system is meant to put the books in order of priority for editors rather than ranking the books, I think it ought to be put differently, making it plain that the books are not being rated on their overall quality/importance in the world. User:Snyrt —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.192.68.117 ( talk) 06:40, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
Hey all. Over at Wikiproject College Football, we've been having a debate over one of our templates and what the proper use should be for it. We'd really appreciate it if you could pop over and give your two cents if you've got the time.
Basically, the debate is over whether this template should always be at the top of a single-game college football article or whether it should only be at the top of underdeveloped college football articles and in a statistics section in large ones. Please drop by if you get a chance, and thanks for your help! JKBrooks85 16:12, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
For many months now, WP:MUSIC has included a section on WP:MUSIC#Songs that is preceded by the announcement that This is a proposed new section, presently under discussion on the talk page. The conversation has been dormant for what seems to be about three months. On October 31st, I proposed removing the disclaimer if there were no objections, lacking any response at all, did so on November 2nd. Another editor has restored the disclaimer with the suggestion that the matter be raised here...and here I am. :) I believe that the section on songs either needs to be removed or confirmed; having it hang around on the guideline with the disclaimer can only be a source of confusion, particularly since the proposal is patently not "presently under discussion". Opinions either way would be greatly appreciated so that we can have this matter resolved. The discussion, such as it is, is currently located at songs section redux. -- Moonriddengirl (talk) 18:20, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
Why is that line there? If a mixtape passes all the core policies that every normal article needs to pass it's notable, these guidelines are slowly turning into style guidelines. Another issue is sections like this one from WP:Fiction,Demos, mixtapes, bootlegs and promo-only records are in general not notable.
So in other words, and how it is read by most users from my AFD experience is you don't need to satisfy WP:V, WP:RS, WP:N, or WP:Plot as long as the parent article is notable. Ridernyc 05:39, 9 November 2007 (UTC)To a limited extent, sub-articles are sometimes born for technical reasons of length or style. Even these articles need real-world information to prove their notability, but must rely on the parent article to provide some of this background material (due to said technical reasons).[3] In these situations, the sub-article should be viewed as an extension of the parent article, and judged as if it were still a section of that article. Such sub-articles should clearly identify themselves as fictional elements of the parent work within the lead section, and editors should still strive to provide real-world content.
A contradiction has been discovered between two guidelines: Wikipedia:Lists and Wikipedia:Avoid self-references. To solve the problems this guideline conflict has created see Wikipedia talk:Lists#Contradiction between Wikipedia:Lists and Wikipedia:Avoid self-references. The Transhumanist 09:03, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
Regarding Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907, there was an e-mail rumor claiming to have photos of the final moments of the Gol Airlines cabin. In fact the images are from a TV show called Lost. (Confirmed: I saw the images, and the show. They are from the show. 67.188.118.64 10:52, 10 November 2007 (UTC) )
One of the editors feels that reporting on the e-mail hoax is trivial, and that the sources describing the hoax, About.com (excluding the Wikipedia mirror) and Snopes, are not reliable enough.
About.com: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_photos_gol_737_crash.htm Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/brazil737.asp
The talk page: Talk:Gol_Transportes_Aéreos_Flight_1907
I feel that the fact that About.com and Snopes report on this prove that the hoax is widespread and that reporting on this is notable and not trivial. WhisperToMe 23:55, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
This may not be the best place to ask this, but an issue has come up with an editor who insists on adding the {{ in space}} template to their userpage. This causes their name to appear in the Category:People currently in space, which is not appropriate. I was not able to locate a guideline or policy about having article template tags on userspace, but in this case, it is pretty inappropriate. Attempts by another editor to request it be removed have not been successful, so I'm wondering if there is a policy anywhere I've overlooked that would explain this shouldn't be placed in userspace? Thanks in advance, Ariel ♥ Gold 18:58, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
{{#if:{{NAMESPACE}}||
" and "}}
"; that way, the template will only categorize pages when used in the main namespace. —
Ilmari Karonen (
talk) 00:05, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
What are the issues to be considered for Public Private Partnership in Education? What could be the different ideas for PPP for school education? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.95.128.95 ( talk) 03:15, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
Hello everybody, I'm coming from the french wikipedia... I think the picture of Foxy Brown in the english article is not legal. It is said that the picture is on public domain but I think it is false... Maybe somebody should delete it ??? I can't do it myself... Thank you in advance Sylfred1977 17:20, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
In my time at Wikipedia, I've noticed that most administrators will jump through hoops in order to avoid censuring an editor, even when that editor has been reprimanded multiple times and acted in a highly offensive way. Temporary blocks are not rare, however. My problem with this is that the administration is heavily weighing contributions while ignoring the extreme damage that can be caused by editors that have gotten out of control. I have seen threats against other users, dozens of puppets made, blatant personal attacks, and more, all from a single user. And yet this person continues to edit. I do not wish to speak their name because this has more to do with general policy that a single person. I think this hands-off policy is a sign of weakness among the admins and it will only lead to continuing problems on the site. We cannot ignore this kind of behavior — we are practically condoning it. I am a forgiving person and am willing to give second (and likely more) chances, but I would not let things get out of hand like this. No single editor's contribution to Wikipedia is invaluable in my opinion, not to the point where any type of offensive conduct from them would be overlooked. Editing Wikipedia is a privilege, not a right. - Cyborg Ninja 21:33, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
I don’t understand how to write an article neither copying from sources (paraphrasing is disallowed too) or creating Original Research. Please point me to Wikipedia guidelines on how to cope with both these issues simultaneously. Thanks. Dhammapal 08:17, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
First time I've posted here, i think, so just interested in some general reaction to this essay: WP:TROLL? No more bongos 08:01, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
The Television Stations Project has been dealing with a persistent vandal, Dingbat2007 ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), for over three months. The vandal was indef blocked, but began creating numerous sockpuppets, both as anonymous IP addresses (until reported to his ISP for abuse) and as registered users. See list of nearly 30 sockpuppets. This user has now been effectively community banned - when a sockpuppet is discovered, edits are reverted on sight without regard to merit and the username is reported to the admins with the result universally being an indef block. No admin has been willing to undo the blocks, for which we are grateful. However, the constant reverting is getting tiresome; does anyone know of any other recourse that we have, or have we pretty much exhausted our options? Although the user has effectively been banned, there is no formal ban in place on this user, nor am I sure what benefit there would be with a formal ban. Ideas? dhett ( talk • contribs) 22:06, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
I wrote an article Hyde Amendment (1997) today and another article Barry Cohen (attorney) that is linked to the first one. Another person cleaned up the Barry Cohen article. I have submitted them as a two-for DYK. Someone has put a {{limited}} tag on the Barry Cohen article. I am not sure what I can do to make it less limited. Would you take a look at it and advise me what to do to fix it? Thanks! Mattisse 02:29, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
Apparently, Wikipedia has a policy of mentioning the sexual orientation of celebrities who are known to be non-heterosexual. But celebrities known to be heterosexual/straight do not appear to have this information included.
While I can understand that heterosexuality is of little interest to anyone — what makes the other sexualities more interesting and more worthy of inclusion in Wikipedia?
There are many personal details about celebrities that most people would surely consider irrelevant to their public status, and unnecessary of inclusion in Wikipedia, such as their shoe size, hair colour, left-handedness, weight, race, etc. I don't see why their sexual preferences are any more relevant.
It may be relevant if the celebrity's sex life, or sexuality itself, are of particular relevance to their celebrity status or somehow feature in their work. In which case, the disclosure of their sexuality should surely be mentioned in relation to that, rather than in isolation.
So, rather than saying:
"Sarah is openly gay."
The article should say:
"Sarah is openly gay, her homosexuality playing a large part of her humour and often being the subject of public attention."
If the celebrity's homosexuality (or bisexuality) isn't actually relevant to their fame at all, it surely need not be specifically mentioned:
"Sarah has had numerous girlfriends, some of whom have appeared on the show with her." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Grand Dizzy ( talk • contribs) 22:47, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
Take, for example, color blindness. A phenomenon of comparable frequency. If some celebrity is known to be color blind, it makes sense to include that information in that person's Wikipedia article, if only for the reason that there are quite some (namely about 5 percent) people who struggle with their not being "normal" color-perception-wise and may be looking for someone who has success in life sharing that property. Or, putting it differently, ask yourself the question: Why don't we call 95 percent of the population "overly-color-sensitive"? -- 217.232.218.170 11:11, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
It is also the case that if nothing is mentioned, heterosexuality is presumed. It could be that leaving out the sexual orientation merely contributes to the marginalization of the LGBT community. It isn't the most elegant of solutions, but it may be preferable to simply ignoring the problem. HypatiasGirl 16:46, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
This page contains discussions that have been archived from Village pump (policy). Please do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to revive any of these discussions, either start a new thread or use the talk page associated with that topic.
< Older discussions · Archives: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, AA, AB, AC, AD, AE, AF, AG, AH, AI, AJ, AK, AL, AM, AN, AO, AP, AQ, AR, AS, AT, AU, AV, AW, AX, AY, AZ, BA, BB, BC, BD, BE, BF, BG, BH, BI, BJ, BK, BL, BM, BN, BO · 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191
I want to present a potential new policy creation related to and dealing with backlogs. It would also have a relevant "guidelines" page that wasn't policy, but a community guideline. The idea is to offered policy of what kinds of pages to add cleanup and other tags to. SO we can cut down on the one's that are added needlessly, and help put tags on one that really needed it. Also in the policy we could add in to remove cleanup tags when not needed, and re-date them as needed. Not only that but perhaps other things to help prevent major backlog, like work on older ones first. The guideline could be step by step generally instructions on how to properly deal with backlog. I was going through the "needs cleanup" backlog by month. I finished up the oldest month, and most of the one after that. However about 40% of them had been cleaned since the one's where added. Another 10-20% of the ones I went through were improperly tagged The rest where horrible and really needed cleaned, which I either cleaned on the spot and removed the tag, or re-dated so we could eliminate the oldest months of the backlog. I think a well written, well placed policy and/or guideline would really help only tag the one's that really need it and also allow for the backlogs to be cleaned/dealt with properly. -- businessman332211 17:42, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
So apparently I've gotten into a bit of a predicament. I was taking a look over at the Light Yagami article. And I noticed this:
It doesn't satisfy the notability guidelines established by WP:FICT. It's basically just plot summary, which isn't allowed per WP:NOT.
It has little no real world content, which is supposed to be the focus of the article. The L Lawliet article is the same. I thought that it would be best to condense the two articles and merge them into List of Death Note characters.
A similar experience occured regarding the Characters of Kingdom Hearts article, which I helped clean up: most of the separate character articles were EXACTLY like those two articles: just plot summary. So we condensed the plot and merged them all into that article. The exception was Organization XIII. It was kept separate because we were able to find real world content for that article (specifically "Concept/Creation"), and less importantly because that article was already very long anyway.
Yet, at this proposal, some pointed out that making character articles like those two is a common practice. And I have noticed that this is true: Bleach is a good example. Ulquiorra Schiffer, last I checked, was basically little more than plot summary as well. Ichigo Kurosaki, ditto. It's like that with Naruto as well. I did notice one thing however: most, if not all of those articles are B-Class or lower, and have tags requesting cleanup regarding in-universe perspective, merge tags, among other things. So what exactly am I supposed to do? What's the policy regarding separate character articles? I still feel that the two articles should be merged. If enough real world content becomes available for them, we can split them again. HadesDragon 00:07, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
I came across this issue while looking into a novel by Stephen King, Gerald's Game, which I have yet to read. While I feel no particular attachment to this work, the presence in the discussion page of a rating system that ranks works of literature on the grounds of them being more important based on rather arbitrary standards strikes me as a biased way of talking about works. If this is indeed an impartial source of information, the only goal for any articles on artistic works ought to be matters of comprehensiveness. While singling out certain works as important to world culture etc makes sense in the text of their respective articles, including a system for determining how low on the metaphoric totem pole a work is in terms of value strikes me as decidedly unprofessional for an encyclopedia. This is inexcusable unless the actual point of wikipedia is to tell people what they should enjoy and value and what is a waste of their time, rather than the impartial information. More impartiality, less ideology! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Snyrt ( talk • contribs) 18:42, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
If you look at the discussion page for the novel "Gerald's Game" you will see that this book is low on the importance scale, which is explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels/Assessment#Importance_scale As you will notice, this chart rates works depending on their supposed overall importance to the field of literature, and gives examples of these various categories of important and less important works. If this categorization system is meant to put the books in order of priority for editors rather than ranking the books, I think it ought to be put differently, making it plain that the books are not being rated on their overall quality/importance in the world. User:Snyrt —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.192.68.117 ( talk) 06:40, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
Hey all. Over at Wikiproject College Football, we've been having a debate over one of our templates and what the proper use should be for it. We'd really appreciate it if you could pop over and give your two cents if you've got the time.
Basically, the debate is over whether this template should always be at the top of a single-game college football article or whether it should only be at the top of underdeveloped college football articles and in a statistics section in large ones. Please drop by if you get a chance, and thanks for your help! JKBrooks85 16:12, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
For many months now, WP:MUSIC has included a section on WP:MUSIC#Songs that is preceded by the announcement that This is a proposed new section, presently under discussion on the talk page. The conversation has been dormant for what seems to be about three months. On October 31st, I proposed removing the disclaimer if there were no objections, lacking any response at all, did so on November 2nd. Another editor has restored the disclaimer with the suggestion that the matter be raised here...and here I am. :) I believe that the section on songs either needs to be removed or confirmed; having it hang around on the guideline with the disclaimer can only be a source of confusion, particularly since the proposal is patently not "presently under discussion". Opinions either way would be greatly appreciated so that we can have this matter resolved. The discussion, such as it is, is currently located at songs section redux. -- Moonriddengirl (talk) 18:20, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
Why is that line there? If a mixtape passes all the core policies that every normal article needs to pass it's notable, these guidelines are slowly turning into style guidelines. Another issue is sections like this one from WP:Fiction,Demos, mixtapes, bootlegs and promo-only records are in general not notable.
So in other words, and how it is read by most users from my AFD experience is you don't need to satisfy WP:V, WP:RS, WP:N, or WP:Plot as long as the parent article is notable. Ridernyc 05:39, 9 November 2007 (UTC)To a limited extent, sub-articles are sometimes born for technical reasons of length or style. Even these articles need real-world information to prove their notability, but must rely on the parent article to provide some of this background material (due to said technical reasons).[3] In these situations, the sub-article should be viewed as an extension of the parent article, and judged as if it were still a section of that article. Such sub-articles should clearly identify themselves as fictional elements of the parent work within the lead section, and editors should still strive to provide real-world content.
A contradiction has been discovered between two guidelines: Wikipedia:Lists and Wikipedia:Avoid self-references. To solve the problems this guideline conflict has created see Wikipedia talk:Lists#Contradiction between Wikipedia:Lists and Wikipedia:Avoid self-references. The Transhumanist 09:03, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
Regarding Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907, there was an e-mail rumor claiming to have photos of the final moments of the Gol Airlines cabin. In fact the images are from a TV show called Lost. (Confirmed: I saw the images, and the show. They are from the show. 67.188.118.64 10:52, 10 November 2007 (UTC) )
One of the editors feels that reporting on the e-mail hoax is trivial, and that the sources describing the hoax, About.com (excluding the Wikipedia mirror) and Snopes, are not reliable enough.
About.com: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_photos_gol_737_crash.htm Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/brazil737.asp
The talk page: Talk:Gol_Transportes_Aéreos_Flight_1907
I feel that the fact that About.com and Snopes report on this prove that the hoax is widespread and that reporting on this is notable and not trivial. WhisperToMe 23:55, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
This may not be the best place to ask this, but an issue has come up with an editor who insists on adding the {{ in space}} template to their userpage. This causes their name to appear in the Category:People currently in space, which is not appropriate. I was not able to locate a guideline or policy about having article template tags on userspace, but in this case, it is pretty inappropriate. Attempts by another editor to request it be removed have not been successful, so I'm wondering if there is a policy anywhere I've overlooked that would explain this shouldn't be placed in userspace? Thanks in advance, Ariel ♥ Gold 18:58, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
{{#if:{{NAMESPACE}}||
" and "}}
"; that way, the template will only categorize pages when used in the main namespace. —
Ilmari Karonen (
talk) 00:05, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
What are the issues to be considered for Public Private Partnership in Education? What could be the different ideas for PPP for school education? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.95.128.95 ( talk) 03:15, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
Hello everybody, I'm coming from the french wikipedia... I think the picture of Foxy Brown in the english article is not legal. It is said that the picture is on public domain but I think it is false... Maybe somebody should delete it ??? I can't do it myself... Thank you in advance Sylfred1977 17:20, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
In my time at Wikipedia, I've noticed that most administrators will jump through hoops in order to avoid censuring an editor, even when that editor has been reprimanded multiple times and acted in a highly offensive way. Temporary blocks are not rare, however. My problem with this is that the administration is heavily weighing contributions while ignoring the extreme damage that can be caused by editors that have gotten out of control. I have seen threats against other users, dozens of puppets made, blatant personal attacks, and more, all from a single user. And yet this person continues to edit. I do not wish to speak their name because this has more to do with general policy that a single person. I think this hands-off policy is a sign of weakness among the admins and it will only lead to continuing problems on the site. We cannot ignore this kind of behavior — we are practically condoning it. I am a forgiving person and am willing to give second (and likely more) chances, but I would not let things get out of hand like this. No single editor's contribution to Wikipedia is invaluable in my opinion, not to the point where any type of offensive conduct from them would be overlooked. Editing Wikipedia is a privilege, not a right. - Cyborg Ninja 21:33, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
I don’t understand how to write an article neither copying from sources (paraphrasing is disallowed too) or creating Original Research. Please point me to Wikipedia guidelines on how to cope with both these issues simultaneously. Thanks. Dhammapal 08:17, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
First time I've posted here, i think, so just interested in some general reaction to this essay: WP:TROLL? No more bongos 08:01, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
The Television Stations Project has been dealing with a persistent vandal, Dingbat2007 ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), for over three months. The vandal was indef blocked, but began creating numerous sockpuppets, both as anonymous IP addresses (until reported to his ISP for abuse) and as registered users. See list of nearly 30 sockpuppets. This user has now been effectively community banned - when a sockpuppet is discovered, edits are reverted on sight without regard to merit and the username is reported to the admins with the result universally being an indef block. No admin has been willing to undo the blocks, for which we are grateful. However, the constant reverting is getting tiresome; does anyone know of any other recourse that we have, or have we pretty much exhausted our options? Although the user has effectively been banned, there is no formal ban in place on this user, nor am I sure what benefit there would be with a formal ban. Ideas? dhett ( talk • contribs) 22:06, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
I wrote an article Hyde Amendment (1997) today and another article Barry Cohen (attorney) that is linked to the first one. Another person cleaned up the Barry Cohen article. I have submitted them as a two-for DYK. Someone has put a {{limited}} tag on the Barry Cohen article. I am not sure what I can do to make it less limited. Would you take a look at it and advise me what to do to fix it? Thanks! Mattisse 02:29, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
Apparently, Wikipedia has a policy of mentioning the sexual orientation of celebrities who are known to be non-heterosexual. But celebrities known to be heterosexual/straight do not appear to have this information included.
While I can understand that heterosexuality is of little interest to anyone — what makes the other sexualities more interesting and more worthy of inclusion in Wikipedia?
There are many personal details about celebrities that most people would surely consider irrelevant to their public status, and unnecessary of inclusion in Wikipedia, such as their shoe size, hair colour, left-handedness, weight, race, etc. I don't see why their sexual preferences are any more relevant.
It may be relevant if the celebrity's sex life, or sexuality itself, are of particular relevance to their celebrity status or somehow feature in their work. In which case, the disclosure of their sexuality should surely be mentioned in relation to that, rather than in isolation.
So, rather than saying:
"Sarah is openly gay."
The article should say:
"Sarah is openly gay, her homosexuality playing a large part of her humour and often being the subject of public attention."
If the celebrity's homosexuality (or bisexuality) isn't actually relevant to their fame at all, it surely need not be specifically mentioned:
"Sarah has had numerous girlfriends, some of whom have appeared on the show with her." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Grand Dizzy ( talk • contribs) 22:47, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
Take, for example, color blindness. A phenomenon of comparable frequency. If some celebrity is known to be color blind, it makes sense to include that information in that person's Wikipedia article, if only for the reason that there are quite some (namely about 5 percent) people who struggle with their not being "normal" color-perception-wise and may be looking for someone who has success in life sharing that property. Or, putting it differently, ask yourself the question: Why don't we call 95 percent of the population "overly-color-sensitive"? -- 217.232.218.170 11:11, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
It is also the case that if nothing is mentioned, heterosexuality is presumed. It could be that leaving out the sexual orientation merely contributes to the marginalization of the LGBT community. It isn't the most elegant of solutions, but it may be preferable to simply ignoring the problem. HypatiasGirl 16:46, 12 November 2007 (UTC)