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Please stop all these proposals for reform. The neutral point of view policy is a fundamental policy of Wikipedia. Yes, it is reasonable for newcomers to Wikipedia to have questions about it, and it is also fair to say that the comments on the project page are not as good as they could be in explaining to newcomers what the policy is, but that does not make it reasonable for you to make fundamental changes to it. Lumiere, Anon 84 and Sonny jim are all inexperienced editors (in some cases having no real experience of editing outside of this page). It is right for you to be curious, and good that you are willing to help to improve things - but changing the wording of our foremost content policy is not a good idea for newcomers. Please create content - write on subjects that interest you - and once you've gained experience of how we work, then by all means consider how you can improve the wording of our policies.
I have archived all the previous discussions - please leave them there. Try out our articles. Improve them. Write new ones of your own. Enjoy Wikipedia! jguk 18:29, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
I am sorry, but I am mainly interested in articles that could be controversial. I am not controversial myself, but I am interested in subject that push the frontiers ahead, and tdihese are always controversial. I am not interested in working on these articles without clear policies. Working on the policies would have to be the first step for me. I have seen enough what happens in controversial articles to know how to contribute to these policies. Your request is dismissed. Instead explain what is so inexperienced in my proposal. This will be more to the point. Moreover, we will have to put back some sections that you archived but are crucial to the understanding of the current issue. It is good that newcomers bring new ideas and I understand that it may seem to create disorder, but I read somewhere in the policies or guidelines that editors should consider that such apparent disorder can actually be positive and very healthy. -- Lumière 18:39, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Sorry, but I am unable to control myself. Please ask an admin to protect this page. -- Anon84.x 18:42, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Folks, there are some niggles with NPOV-as-written you know. At least give people a chance to look into it, but DO please keep an eye on the process, lest things go off the rails. Kim Bruning 19:07, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
M./Mme./Mlle. (I apologize, I do not know which) Lumière, I believe that you have a good point. It would seem to my eyes that all of these ideas for reform should not be banned, persay. In my opinion, I think that you should allow people to say their ideas for reform, and at least give them a gander (hell, there may be good ideas there!) I myself do not have any ideas for reform, but I would like to stand up for being able to say them.
In another point of view, it would be wise to watch what you propose for potential edits; there are some things that probably won't happen, mais non?
But, again, proposals for reform are "positive and very healthy".
I don't think it is necessary to prevent proposals for reform, but I think demonstrating a willingness to work on the project, before making such proposals, is a very good suggestion. Some possible ways for someone interested in controversial subjects to demonstrate such a willingess include, IMO:
Any of these actions, if repeated a few dozen times, would throughly demonstrate a willingness to work on the project. If anyone suggesting proposals here already has done these things, then I'm not talking to you - thanks for your work! If you are suggesting proposals, and have not done these things, I gently suggest that you would meet with more success if you did. JesseW, the juggling janitor 02:05, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
My interest is sincere but limited to one kind of actions: removing bad insinuations and not well supported and unfair criticisms about any topic. The topic per se need not be controversial. It only becomes controversial in Wikipedia because of these criticisms. I am only concerned by the fact that, in my opinion, Wikipedia is a platform that allows unfair and not well supported criticisms, and also includes plenty of bad insinuations. For many topics, readers will be better informed about the topic if the topic was deleted from Wikipedia. I really mean it, as strong a statement as it may seem. Unfortunately, people that care about the topic don't even have the power to remove it from Wikipedia. I know enough about what happens when you try to discuss with editors that devote their life to discredit some category of topics, if not a given topic, to do better than continue to discuss with them without clear policies. My line of actions is very simple. I want to first improve the clarity of policies in a very simple way: just add more references between policies and avoid conflicts. It is a simple thing. If people were a little bit open, it would not even take much time. Then, I will be better equipped to discuss and explain why some unfair criticisms or bad insinuations should be removed. -- Lumière 15:28, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
If Wikipedia can become a place reasonably free from this polution (bad insinuations, etc.), perhaps I might become interested in other forms of contributions, but not before. Sincerely, with the current level that Wikipedia has, I will not even be proud to say that I have contributed to it. -- Lumière 16:38, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
I know it seems like a stretch (okay, a really BIG stretch), but who thinks it would be interesting if they could write articles with opinions, but under a new namespace (like opinion)?
NOTE: I don't think that namespace is the right word.
Sonny Jim news/ poll 19:39, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Sonny Jim news/ poll 19:49, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Sonny jim - if you want opinion pieces, you may be interested in the Wikipedia fork, Wikinfo. It's run by Fred Bauder, one of the Arbitrators, and has been going a while. Wikipedia has declared itself firmly against this approach, and people will not be receptive to such a proposed change (remember Jimbo has declared the "neutral point of view" policy as being absolute and non-negotiable, jguk 20:14, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Thank you for clearing that up for me. I'm new :(.
On the other hand, the proposal is not at all a big modification to the policies, but in fact just a proposal for a better connection amongst them. Therefore, I don't see that I should start to work on a different encyclopedia. OTOH, I would like to acknowledge that perhaps I (and perhaps others with me) am responsible for a big confusion about the proposal. At some point, I suggested to put a dispute tag. I went along with others in using a new terminology, which was not really needed. In this way, the overall impression is that perhaps we want to completely change the policy. It is not the case at all. I think that the whole thing is just a big misunderstanding. The proposal is very simple: just add references to other policies as needed for clarification and avoid conflict amongst the policies. That's all. -- Lumière 20:58, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
The following live discussion was archived but looks important to me (who archived just started discussions?) Harald88 21:41, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
I went through the diff (actually, various sectional diffs, made with ediff) between the current version and the one from March 2005 (specifically, this version). There have been a number of important changes, which I'd like to alert people to.
I assume many of these things were discussed somewhere in the archives of this talk page; help finding and linking to the discussions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! JesseW, the juggling janitor 13:00, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Seems to have been originally broken out into a seperate section by SlimVirgin in this edit. Was re-written by Bensaccount as of this edit into it's current state. No talk page discussion that I am aware of. JesseW, the juggling janitor 04:29, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Heavily cut by Bensaccount.
Parts of the old version I think should be re-inserted, and why:
Removed by Bensaccount, saying it was: "misleading. Other editors or other POVs are not "the enemy". The section was not missed."
I agree that the title was misleading, but I think there were some good pieces that should be restored. I think the last part of it: "The other side might very well find your attempts to characterize their views substandard, but it's the thought that counts. In resolving disputes over neutrality issues, it's far better that we acknowledge that all sides must be presented fairly, and make at least a college try at presenting the other sides fairly. That will be appreciated much more than not trying at all." and " "Writing for the enemy" might make it seem as if we were adding deliberately flawed arguments to Wikipedia, which would be a very strange thing to do. But it's better to view this (otherwise puzzling) behavior as adding the best (published) arguments of the opposition, citing some prominent person who has actually made the argument in the form in which you present it, and stating them as sympathetically as possible. Academics, e.g., philosophers, do this all the time. Always cite your sources, and make sure your sources are reputable, and you won't go far wrong." are both good, and should be re-inserted, somewhere. I will go into more detail if requested. JesseW, the juggling janitor 04:29, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
The proposal is not at all a big modification to the policies, but in fact just a proposal for a better connection amongst them. Therefore, I don't see that I should start to work on a different encyclopedia. OTOH, I would like to acknowledge that perhaps I (and perhaps others with me) am responsible for a big confusion about the proposal. At some point, I suggested to put a dispute tag. I went along with others in using a new terminology, which was not really needed. In this way, the overall impression is that perhaps we want to completely change the policy. It is not the case at all. I think that the whole thing is just a big misunderstanding. The proposal is very simple: just add references to other policies as needed for clarification and avoid conflict amongst the policies. That's all. -- Lumière 20:58, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
The inclusion of a view that is held only by a tiny minority may constitute original research because there may be a lack of sufficiently credible, third-party, published sources to back it up.
From a mailing list post by Jimbo Wales, Wikipedia's founder:
See Wikipedia:Neutral point of view for more detailed information.
This is a non problem. It is already clear each of the major content policies are in force and you can't use an unusual understanding of one to violate another. What the policies allow is at the intersection of each of them, which should be obvious from them all being in force. That being said, minor changes to make that even clearer are not a big problem, and neither is pointing out any actually conflicting statements in policies (though there aren't really any major problems on that front). And since I can see no good evidence for there being a dispute I'm going to unprotect the page. Keep in mind that this is a bedrock principle, so significant changes to it must be backed by a community wide consensus. Just because one or even a few editors feel they disagree with it does not make a valid dispute given the level of consensus that this policy has. Continuing to re-add a dispute template is disruptive and instead consensus should be gathered for any desired changes. - Taxman Talk 22:10, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
Taxman, I disagree with your vague definition of consensus. It seems so much like a standard non-NPOV argument: "Every one knows ..." "The overall consensus is ...". There is only one definition of consensus in Wikipedia and it is the consensus amongst the active editors. Of course, anyone is free to call a Rfc etc. If really there are many wikipedians interested in the issue, they will come and be part of these active editors. There is no need for a special rule that is only a disguised non-NPOV argument. The standard rule is already very very efficient, perhaps too efficient, to preserve the statue quo. -- Lumière 23:35, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
This is ridiculous. It is impossible to prove that we have the consensus of the entire wikipedian community. You can only see that you have the consensus amongst those who participate in the discussion. With this community wide concensus requirement, all edits that were done thus far were not acceptable because not known to have the required concensus. Please revise your position. This is a call to common sense. What is going on here? -- Lumière 23:48, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
For some time now (first discussed here in November) we have a useful list with bad examples of how articles can be biased due to selective "omissions".
However, while it was first planned to be just a few clarifying sentences on the NPOV page, it has been expanded on and is now parked away for discussion "to make it policy" - something that doesn't make sense to me (and which caused negative comments). It already is the most basic policy of Wikipedia to fairly represent notable information and opinions, surely we don't need new policy on that!
Instead, I propose to spin it off to the NPOV_tutorial, where more good and bad examples about NPOV are given. Harald88 14:31, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
The obvious concern is that a tutorial does not seem a valid reference when you want to refer to the policy in a dispute. If the purpose of these examples (see Information suppression ) is to help use the policy to resolve a dispute, to move them in the tutorial will seriously reduce their usefulness. To the contrary, IMO, we should make sure that there is a "community wide consensus" on these examples so that they can be seriously used to resolve a dispute. An alternative is to rise the level of the entire tutorial so that it reflects a "community wide consensus" and essentially gains the authority of a policy, but it will take time. It is easier to focus on these examples. This comment is not a support for these specific examples. It only supports the general principle that examples are not going to be useful to resolve disputes if they are not part of a "community wide consensus." Please do not attack my opinion on the basis that I have been around for two months only. I believe that Wikipedia is welcoming new comers at every level. -- Lumière 15:22, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
Just noticed that Wikipedia:Neutral point of view/Examples is a proposal that, if accepted, will have the status of a policy or guideline. I hope it will have the status of policy. -- Lumière 16:27, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
PS I regard the NPOV_tutorial as a guideline; while hardly anyone will look at the specific NPOV examples, I'm afraid. Harald88 18:40, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
Harald88, the practical difference that I see between a guideline and a policy is that I already heard the argument "this is only a guideline, not policy". I agree that the examples are not policy in themselve, but they are a part that is necessary for their correct interpretation. Whether we try to communicate a policy or something else, a mathematical theory, etc., abstract concepts should always go together with examples. Editors should feel that they can refer to these examples with authority. In particular, the interpretation of the policy that is expressed in these examples should have a "community wide consensus." Also, the text of the policy should refer to these examples whenever needed. In this way, these examples will not be overlooked and they will gain authority. Perhaps, they should not be declared policy. Perhaps, we can declare them "policy examples" with some official header similar to the one that declares a policy a policy. What I meant is that I hope that they will not be declared only guidelines. -- Lumière 19:26, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
PS I regard the NPOV_tutorial as a guideline; while hardly anyone will look at the specific NPOV examples, I'm afraid. Harald88 18:40, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
OK -- but first of all, I don't think that that sign about "policy proposal" on the NPOV specific examples page means anything: it was added without discussion by someone in reaction to my suggestion to add the POV suppression examples to the NPOV tuturial!. Thus I will take that sign away.
To get back to my point (I will split it up):
- those guideline examples have been parked away for months, and few people noticed them at all; while a few corresponding policy explanation lines are still lacking; - meanwhile this NPOV article got a number of less relevant additions without a similar procedure (or, where are the coresponding opinion poll pages?).
In short, this essential part of NPOV still isn't mentioned at all; IMO, the recently added Bias and POV forking chapters may go to the NPOV tutorial, and this article should focus on the main issues.
Below is, slightly adjusted, the text of NPOVenforcer which wasn't so bad but which first was tranfered to this Talk page and extended etc. etc., so that still nothing on this problem can be found in the article space, eventhough you and others independently brought up this same missing issue.
It is high time to insert a statement like the one in italics in the article space - or, my suggestion, with a retake of the summary phrase:
Wikipedia policy is that all articles should be written from a neutral point of view, representing all views with significant support fairly and without bias. Thus it is not allowed to suppress notable, verifiable information related to a significant view if such suppression considerably biases the article; similarly, articles may not be biased by presenting information in an unfair manner.
Later we can link to the examples; I disagree that we only need to connect the different point better. NPOV boils down to an interdiction of thought manipulation together with explanations. Please read the policy again, and tell me what percentage is about phrasing, what percentage about content selection, and what percentage about content presentation. In fact, if articles are only corrected by more neutral sounding phrasing, they can be worse than not improved at all: they may give a false impression of being NPOV.
PS. about the excellent summarizing policy sentence: it's complete up in the header. As you missed it, probably because of the similar polcy block just above it, we should put that text box lower, and repeat that sentence in the body of the text. Harald88 22:35, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
I just did a cut and paste so that we can have a discussion. -- Lumière 17:54, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
My first comment is that the above sentence should be followed by a statement that specifies the respective role of the NPOV policy and the other policies. More specifically, it should be clear that the "significant support" is defined in the other policies. -- Lumière 18:03, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
This is a proposed variation on the first few sentences of "Undue Weight". Italic is used here to mark new content, but will not be used in the final version in the project page. -- Lumière 18:36, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
You just misinterpret the sentences. Your concern is taken care of in the sentence: "To be acceptable for inclusion a view must be neutral as described elsewhere in this policy...". I think you exagerate when you say this is dismantling the entire concept of NPOV. However, there is perhaps room for improvement. What about what is proposed in the next section Lumière
I have removed the bold emphasis. It is like saying that what came before is not important when in fact it prepares well what follows. -- Lumière 19:39, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
"we do not want to reject a view that is well supported in accordance with NOR and verifiability only because it is held by a tiny minority"
The existing policy is already clear on this: "Articles that compare views need not give minority views as much or as detailed a description as more popular views, and may not include tiny-minority views at all..." This is established and widely accepted policy, and your changes are attempting to alter that. I'm just one of many who'll object on a number of grounds.
"Perhaps, your definition of "significant" is "held by a significant minority or a larger group"
My point is exactly what the article has said for a very long time now: "NPOV says that the article should fairly represent all significant viewpoints, in proportion to the prominence of each." Nothing more, nothing less.
Changing "significant" in the sentence to "well supported" fundamentally and mistakenly shifts the issue and the topic from the amount of weight given any viewpoint in an article being based on its significance in the real world to the amount of weight given any one viewpoint in article based on its verifiability at Wikipedia, which is something else altogether.
The concept that the weight given a viewpoint in an article should be based on its verifiability is supported neither by convention nor policy. WP:V enjoins us to make sure that all content must be verifiable. It says nothing about the amount of weight given to relevant viewpoints.
Undue weight is a long-standing, fundamental part of one of Wikipedia's foundational policies. Changing it to mean something completely different from what it has traditionally meant is not going to meet with wide acceptance.
The confusion is very simple to understand. The paragraph strikes "significant" and replaces it with "well supported". So, naturally people interpret it as if the proposal is to reject significance as a criteria and to replace it with well supported. I almost cannot blame those who had this interpretation. However, the motivation to strike "significant" is, of course, not at all to reject the criteria. This criteria remains implicit in the remainder of the sentence: "in proportion to the prominence of each". We can put it back and write "significant and well supported". The tricky point is that it is not true that we reject all non significant views, as it is clearly explained in the remainer of the section Undue weight. However, this is issue is completely orthogonal to the essence of what is proposed in the new paragraph. Therefore, for now, I propose the paragraph
Later, we can discuss if we want to keep "significant" or remove it from the first and last sentences. I do not mean keep or remove the criteria, but only the word "significant". We could keep it, because the presence of two or more views to compare is kind of implicit in these sentences, and a non significant view should go into its own separate article. Also, as pointed out by FeloniousMonk, the policy is very clear that non significant views are acceptable in their own article. So, there will be no misunderstanding. OTOH, it is somehow redundant in the first sentence because of the "in proportion to the prominence of each", which could be rewritten as "in proportion to the significance of each". We obtain this other alternative
What people think? -- Lumière 01:34, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
I appreciate your intention not to dilute the policy, and your right that there was nothing (very) wrong with the formulation per se. However, I still think that it is necessary to place this section in its context. The formulation can be very good, but the link with other policies was missing. A situation in context is very standard and considered necessary to communicate well a new concept, and it is a new concept for the new comers. What I understand now is that I am better do that by adding new sentences. I propose to add two sentences at the end, after the three points:
Similar sentences (see above) were already accepted by many editors. I hope this will not be considered as a dilution of the policy. Clearly, the goal is to place the policy in its context. This was always my only goal. I am sorry that my first attempts diluted the policy. -- Lumière 03:56, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
This is a cut and paste from the current version of the section Undue weight of the policy. There is nothing from me in this sentence. I did not add the "fairly" nor the "significant". I never edited that section.
I propose to remove the "significant". This proposal has nothing to do with the previous proposal. The justification is that (1) the requirement that non significant viewpoints should only appear alone on separate articles is not expressed at all when we use "significant" as it is used in this sentence and (2) the fact that the significance of the view must be taken into account is already there in the sentence at the end: "in proportion to the prominence of each". So, it is completly useless. BTW, I also agree with FM that the "fairly" is not really useful, if it is what he/she meant when he/she said that the notion of fairness was not clear. -- Lumière 04:16, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
I now found that it was Bensaccount, who removed "significant" from the article summary on 15 december 2005, with the comment: "(What kind of view is an insignificant minority and why should it be ignored?)". Probably he remembered the similar original summary definition, which he pointed to on the Talk page around that time:
Wikipedia has an important policy: roughly stated, you should write articles without bias, representing all views fairly. Wikipedia uses the words "bias" and "neutral" in a special sense! This doesn't mean that it's possible to write an article from just one point of view, the neutral (unbiased, "objective") point of view. That's a common misunderstanding of the Wikipedia policy. The Wikipedia policy is that we should fairly represent all sides of a dispute, and not make an article state, imply, or insinuate that any one side is correct. It's crucial that we work together to make articles unbiased. It's one of the things that makes Wikipedia work so well. Writing unbiased text is an art that requires practice. The following essay explains this policy in depth, and is the result of much discussion. We strongly encourage you to read it. - http://meta.wikimedia.org/?title=Neutral_point_of_view--draft&oldid=20764#Executive_summary Harald88 03:56, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
The real problem is not whether or not we keep "significant". The problem is to keep it without a reasonable definition for it. There is no problem to keep "significant" if we define its meaning as follows: A view is significant relative to an article if (1) it is held by a significant minority or a larger group and is relevant to the article or (2) it is held by a tiny minority and the article is exclusively devoted to this view. With this definition, the requirement that a view is significant is perfectly in accord with the Undue weight section. The problem is that some people would like to keep "significant" with a definition that is so vague that, when it used to resolve a dispute, could exclude case (1) or (2) above. With this vague definition of significant, one gains the power to completely suppress well Sourced Information even if it held by a majority! I am not saying that someone will try that, but in principle it can happen. For example, one could say that an article about standard classical mechanics is not significant because it is too elementary. My point is that as long as we do not define what we mean by significant we open the door to any kind of argument like that.
Those who want to remove the term "significant" in the first sentence do not want to remove the concept that views must be selected in proportion to the prominence of each. The fact that the view of a tiny minority does not have its place in Wikipedia, except in their own ancillary articles, is very clear in the Undue weight section and nobody wants to change that. Removing "significant" in the first sentence will not change that. The problem with "significant" is that it is not well defined. It is a new term that is not defined at all in the section. Concretely, the problem is that such a vague notion allows the suppression of any well sourced information. Why would someone wants to insist to have this power? -- Lumière 16:39, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
The undue weight section is the part of the article describing how to "fairly represent" views. I find it vague and skewed towards certain details while ignoring the bigger picture. Heres how I would rewrite the section:
This could be followed by examples of what qualifies as a majority view, significant view, or an expert's view. etc. Bensaccount 19:21, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Reply to comment above by Bensaccount, reposted here: Have you even read the section in question? "Articles that compare views need not give minority views as much or as detailed a description as more popular views". According to the Undue Weight section, popularity is the only qualification. Bensaccount 16:28, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
This discussion started with another look at the NPOV policy summary:
All Wikipedia articles must be written from a neutral point of view, representing views fairly and without bias
The question is if this is a good summary of Jimbo's requirement, and if it is well expanded on in the article. It rapidly became clear that "representing views fairly" is not well described, instead some (but not all!) aspects of it are treated seperately; and that also an additional word "significant" in the article is ambiguous which could lead to a misunderstanding of NPOV.
lumiere did some suggestions how to correct this lack of explanation and his approach looked reasonable to me; it seems quite feasible to deal with this matter without introducing any new rules -right? Harald88 22:12, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
Harald88, of course, I think my proposed definition is fine. (-: It will solve the problem if others also do not see any problem with it. -- Lumière 01:23, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
Here is the defintion of significant that I suggested:
In contrast with other possible definitions, this proposed definition creates no conflict with other policies. In particular, it cannot be used to entirely remove a well sourced view from Wikipedia. It does not matter how we define "relevant" there will be no conflict with other policies. There is some hint to what is meant by relevant in the remainder of the section. I don't think more is needed, but if anyone has a way to better explain what it means, I see no problem with that. -- Lumière 02:44, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
It occurs to me that there is an alternative to avoid conflict with other policies:
I only added "when two or more viewpoints are considered for inclusion in an article" (and removed "fairly", but we can put it back). This may actually be exactly what was meant by the original sentence. Indeed, the context strongly suggests, and perhaps even implies, that there are more than one viewpoint in consideration. Then "significant viewpoints" can be taken as a shortcut for "viewpoints that are held by a significant minority or larger group", which is very natural given the context, and then the sentence is exactly saying what is explained in details in the remainder of the section. May I suggest that the issue with "significant" was perhaps just a non problem related to the non natural interpretation of the sentence where the article in consideration may have only one viewpoint. -- Lumière 13:15, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
If we add the phrase "when two or more... ", there will be no harm to further clarify that "significant viewpoints" means "viewpoints that are held by a significant minority or larger group", so that there is no misinterpretation. Of course, we can also continue to debate the actual meaning of "significant viewpoints". My point is that the policy should not be vague, and certainly not be self contradictory. -- Lumière 18:02, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
Somone added:
"These policies, which have mandatory application, are complementary and should not be interpreted in isolation."
Please back that up by references, in particular "are complementary". Next we can p[ut it back in (preferably with the links). Thanks in advance! Harald88 23:31, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
The policies have beeen and are complimentary, they work together. You need to have all three present in an article to claim compliance. See also WP:V in which same wording is used. ≈ jossi ≈ t • @ 14:58, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
Anyway, I now found that this change happened on your referred WP:V page by Slimvirgin, on 29 September, and also without any motivation nor any discussion on the Talk page, as far as I can see. Thus I'll demand Slimvirgin to back it up. Harald88 20:34, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
I placed the following post at the Help Desk, but thought that the experts on this matters are really found here. Kindly also see the response of Eequor at the HelpDesk. My thanks to those who can clarify this question well. Lafem 01:56, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
The NPOV policy states: "we should present competing views in proportion to their representation among experts on the subject, or among the concerned parties."
Since the conjunction used here is or implying that the second part is but an alternative, should we take this to mean that if there are experts on the subject with different points of view, there is no need to look into how the topic itself affects concerned parties nor much less how the ordinary people opine about the subject.
I base my interpretation in that the decision on what is majority and minority viewpoints is based on reference texts (experts I presume) and prominent adherents. See NPOV policy: "From Jimbo Wales, September 2003, on the mailing list: If a viewpoint is in the majority, then it should be easy to substantiate it with reference to commonly accepted reference texts;* If a viewpoint is held by a significant minority, then it should be easy to name prominent adherents."
To summarize: the "or" means that if there are experts, commonly referenced texts and prominent adherents, we should not look into the opinions of ordinary people or how people in general feel about the subject? Thanks. Lafem 12:33, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
Or is non-exclusive. And/or is redundent, since both meanings exist in or. Guettarda 16:13, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for this. But how about seeing this policy from the No Original Research Point of View:
In general I believe that you're interpretation is correct: the topic was in reference to minority points of view, and if the experts are fairly unanimous about something, and the references are fairly unanimous, you can express their views to a greater degree than the opposing view point. Thus, for instance, our article on the Common cold does not say that being cold gives you the cold, even though that is view held by a significant proportion of non-scientists. — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 15:01, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
Please stop adding new sections to this page to say the same thing you've said before again in a new section. This is getting quite old, quite quickly. Hipocrite - «Talk» 03:36, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
I'd put a large amount of money on it's stopping, possibly quite soon. Moreover, saying that you refuse to accept community consensus isn't helpful or advisable. -- Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης) 11:43, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
By judging on the profuse comments in this and WP:V, I would argue that Lumiere ( talk · contribs) and Light current ( talk · contribs) seem to be engaging in a campaing to change WP policy barehanded. Well, that will not work. They will need to learn more about this project, address fellow editors with more respect and be a tad more humble in their WP endavors. Then they may, and I mean may, have a chance to be heard and taken seriously. ≈ jossi ≈ t • @ 16:05, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
We were just discussing the "Role of truth in Wikipedia". We didn't know it was strictly prohibited by the rules. -- Lumière 16:19, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
Clearly, Bensaccount's proposal is dead. The following comments can be useful to consider the following proposals:
Please this is not a pool. Stop voting. We only want thoughtful comments. -- Lumière 06:50, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
I ignored anything written in this yet another new section, but in the event I missed a specific proposal, OBJECT. Discuss on reasonably formatted talk page first. Hipocrite - «Talk» 14:03, 6 February 2006 (UTC) I join Hipocrite in this objection This discussion is impossible to follow. ≈ jossi ≈ t • @ 15:56, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
Yet another member of the community agreeing with the objections mentioned above. Drop it. Come back in a year. Your stores of goodwill may have returned by then. JesseW, the juggling janitor 17:50, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
According to Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales, NPOV is "absolute and non-negotiable". I hereby include a useful definition:
Dogma:
NPOV is scripture set in stone. Do not attempt to modify, interpret or clarify it, or it will lose its original meaning. This is your God's wish, obey it. -- Anon84.x 12:22, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
I thought the following formulation good when I first came to Wikipedia. It seems to have disappeared sometime recently: is there objection to reinstating it? Septentrionalis 17:46, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
Related to the above, from an earlier discussion (pushed into archive oblition before discussion):
That sounded plausible. However, on this same talk page Saxifrage stated, among other things:
Instead, this policy does instruct editors, both on their own and as group how to strive for NPOV. It's essential that Wikipedia isn't seen as a battlegound of opinions, whereby each editor defends a single POV against that of others, so that only after negotiation a kind of NPOV will be obtained -- but still mostly biased towards the POV of the editor who has most persistence, or that of the majority of editors. IMO it's crucial that the contrary is emphasized, that such is not an acceptable way of operation.
Thus, now that its necessity has been demonstrated I disagree with the omission of the whole "writing for the enemy" paragraph, and insist that we put this deleted policy piece back.
Note that I don't disagree with rephrasing (for example enemy -> "enemy", taking Bensaccounts point) and also a little trimming is of course open for discussion. But first put it back. Harald88 20:07, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
On this page: "NPOV is one of Wikipedia's four content-guiding policy pages." On pages for the other three policies, mention is only made of "three content-guiding policies". In need of review. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 160.5.97.52 ( talk • contribs)
... I won't be supplying anymore of it, and encourage others to do the same. Watch the page, revert ill-formed, misguided or bad faith edits, and leave it at that. · Katefan0 (scribble)/ poll 04:33, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
We sometimes give an alternative formulation of the non-bias policy: assert facts, including facts about opinions — but don't assert opinions themselves. There is a difference between facts and values, or opinions. By "fact," we mean "a piece of information about which there is no serious dispute." In this sense, that a survey produced a certain published result is a fact. That there is a planet called Mars is a fact. That Plato was a philosopher is a fact. No one seriously disputes any of these things. So we can feel free to assert as many of them as we can.
By value or opinion, on the other hand, we mean "a piece of information about which there is some dispute." There are bound to be borderline cases where we're not sure if we should take a particular dispute seriously; but there are many propositions that very clearly express values or opinions. That stealing is wrong is a value or opinion. That the Beatles was the greatest band is a value or opinion. That the United States was wrong to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a value or opinion. That God exists... this might seem a troublesome one. Not with the definitions given above: That God exists... is a piece of information about which there is some dispute. This corresponds with how talking about God (or, alternatively, the non-existence of God) is experienced by most people: it's hard to talk about God or Atheism without mixing in opinion, or at least talk about value(s).
Wikipedia is devoted to stating facts in the sense as described above. Where we might want to state an opinion, we convert that opinion into a fact by attributing the opinion to someone. So, rather than asserting, "The Beatles were the greatest band", we can say, "Most Americans believe that the Beatles were the greatest band," which is a fact verifiable by survey results, or "The Beatles had many songs that made the Billboard Hot 100," which is also fact. In the first instance we assert an opinion; in the second and third instances we "convert" that opinion into fact by attributing it to someone. It's important to note this formulation is substantially different from the "some people believe ..." formulation popular in political debates. The reference requires an identifiable and subjectively quantifiable population or, better still, a name.
In presenting an opinion, moreover, it is important to bear in mind that there are disagreements about how opinions are best stated; sometimes, it will be necessary to qualify the description of an opinion or to present several formulations, simply to arrive at a solution that fairly represents all the leading views of the situation.
But it's not enough, to express the Wikipedia non-bias policy, just to say that we should state facts and not opinions. When asserting a fact about an opinion, it is important also to assert facts about competing opinions, and to do so without implying that any one of the opinions is correct. It's also generally important to give the facts about the reasons behind the views, and to make it clear who holds them. It's often best to cite a prominent representative of the view.
...I also cut out some parts that are treated separately in the "religion" section lower on the NPOV page.
Feel free to work on the text above! -- Francis Schonken 22:20, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
(edit conflict, @ Hipocrite:) "existence of God" is the fourth in a list of non borderline cases:
This fourth example is specifically described as NOT troublesome.
There are Wikipedia articles describing proofs of the existence of God (see e.g. Summa Theologica). The NPOV policy page describes how that is done without inflamed passions, and without needing a {{ NPOV}} template. Since, for example, the "Summa Theologica" article HAS a {{Cleanup}} template, I don't think the "existence of God" example is redundant on the NPOV policy page (irony, that template on that article was put up a few days before the "existence of God" example was removed from the NPOV guideline - no surprise that the "cleanup" of the "Summa Theologica" article seems to stall...).
The "avoid God" instruction you wrote in the edit summary [1] is against Wikipedia's NPOV policy, as intended by Jimbo (ask him!). The NPOV policy page is intended to show that Wikipedia can handle the most sensitive topics if treating them in a NPOV way.
Further the "existence of God" example was at the WP:NPOV policy for a longer period of time than your user account exists: the example was there when I started editing wikipedia (July 2004) and was there until three months ago. So I'm quite confident it is included in our shared vision for the NPOV as mentioned by Jimbo in User:Jimbo Wales/Statement of principles, rather than your "avoid god" instruction. -- Francis Schonken 18:49, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
We sometimes give an alternative formulation of the non-bias policy: assert facts, including facts about opinions — but don't assert opinions themselves. Certainly, there are bound to be borderline cases where a fact is disputed but we're not sure if we should take the dispute seriously, or where the distinction between fact and value will itself necessarily be in dispute. Nevertheless, there are many propositions that clearly express undisputed facts, and others that clearly express values or opinions. That a survey produced a certain published result is a fact. That there is a planet called Mars is a fact. That Plato was a philosopher is a fact. No one seriously disputes any of these things. So we can feel free to assert as many of them as we can. On the other hand, that stealing is wrong is a value or opinion. That the Beatles was the greatest band is a value or opinion. That the United States was wrong to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a value or opinion.
Where we might want to state an opinion, we convert that opinion into a fact by attributing the opinion to someone. So, rather than asserting, "The Beatles were the greatest band", we can say, "Most Americans believe that the Beatles were the greatest band," (... etc ...)
... there you go. I think this destroys the incoherencies while strengthening the main point of the section. Fool 14:09, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
Since the "truth"/"verifiability" discussion was revived on Wikipedia talk:Verifiability I'd definitely want to return to the version that was worked out as a collaboration of Nauraran, Func, myself, gilbertggoose and Ann Heneghan - and not Fool's version.
Sorry I didn't give a reaction to this before. -- Francis Schonken 08:09, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
Yesterday I added a paragraph with information suppression examples to the NPOV_tutorial; Francis Schonken however reverted the page. Interested people, please discuss on that article's Talk page about the reason to suppress this much demanded instruction part, or reinsert that information, thanks. Harald88 08:18, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
There shouldn't be edit warring over this page, THE foundation document for Wikipedia's editorial practices -- if there are reversions ongoing, that means those who sought to include (or exclude) the text in question have not adequately surveyed the community's opinion on whether it is proper. I've protected the page until this stuff can be sorted out. · Katefan0 (scribble)/ poll 16:34, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
From a recent discussion on this page as well as on my own page, it turns out that the whole intro is insufficiently sourced:
As this is supposedly not the result of us editors, but referring to sources provided by Jimbo: Anyone who can properly source this?
Note that, if I'm not mistaken, at the moment the only source with a link from this page is:
A few things are absolute and non-negotiable, though. NPOV for example. - Jimbo.
Sorry, but I disagree that that statement sufficiently backs up all the claims above! Harald88 22:05, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
I am curious to know why we don't ask Jimbo directly. Is he so hard to contact? Or is it that he shows no interest in the policies anymore? -- Lumière 04:22, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
The source you need is m:Foundation issues. In fact, much wikipedia "policy" is a misnomer. The foundation issues are policy. All else is guidelines or in rare cases (ie copyright) law. Kim Bruning 12:27, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
I would make a few comments on this subject:
Enchanter 00:29, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
Echoing Katefan's caution made here earlier, let's not supply anymore of it. As Katefan said, watch the page, revert ill-formed, misguided or bad faith edits, and leave it at that. Otherwise, feeding the trolls just keeps them around. FeloniousMonk 07:17, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
Are essays in wikipedia namespace expected to be NPOV? If not, how are content disputes to be resolved? Kappa 04:33, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
Hi there! I posted this at WP:RFC/P, but was hoping I might get some additional interested people here. There has been an ongoing argument at Flag of Western Sahara about the name of the flag.
Western Sahara is a region claimed by Morocco and a government in exile of indigenous people, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Both parties control a portion of the territory and both claim the whole of it. The flag is the flag flown by SADR, but it is generally known as the "Flag of Western Sahara", mainly because Morocco does not recognise the term Western Sahara (calling it Moroccan Sahara), so there is no other flag which also might bear the name. There have been extensive discussions about comparisons with Flag of Tibet, and Flag of Taiwan, but up until now no conclusion.
To break the stalemate, a vote has been proposed here, and we would very much appreciate any and every input. The more the merrier!
Thanks and greets, The Minist e r of War (Peace) 08:55, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
The article mentions "If a viewpoint is held by an extremely small (or vastly limited) minority, it doesn't belong in Wikipedia (except perhaps in some ancillary article) regardless of whether it's true or not; and regardless of whether you can prove it or not.". Surely if it can be proven to be true, this should be a valid reason for inclusion if it is in the "public interest"? Comments? -- User:Rebroad 14:17, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
It occured to me, while reading the AFD for Republicans Block Investigation of Domestic Spying Program, that the precedents used to delete such material would also be applicable to many historic documents which were/are POV, such as the United States Declaration of Independence, were they not already historic.
I'm not saying the article should have been kept. This is just a thought I wanted to bring up. - Keith D. Tyler ¶ 23:02, 22 February 2006 (UTC)
Is there a policy that states whether users may stamp a page as POV and not say why? I think it's common sense that POV claims should be explained — "whoever asserts must prove", and all that — and I think there's potential for abuse if users can tag pages as POV and not have to cite specific concerns. It's easy to imagine someone using the POV tag as a form of vandalism (forcing Wikipedians to make sure the article is not POV, and thus wasting their time), or as a way of discrediting a neutral article which simply discusses a subject they dislike.
If anyone cares, the example I'm thinking of is that of User:Drboisclair, who has recently added POV tags to three articles: Bruno Bauer, Michael Martin (philosopher), and J.M. Robertson. I can't figure out what specific POV problems there are with the latter two, and the first one is too long for me to examine right now anyway. It doesn't help that he hasn't explained why he tagged the Bauer article at all, and his explanations for the other two articles are no more complicated than "I contest the NPOV of this article."
— Elembis 06:02, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
Apparently this page has been protected or perhaps my account has tagged or blocked.
Better wording in section "Avoiding Constant Disputes":
"This has to be asked repeatedly as each new controversial point is stated. It is not our job to edit Wikipedia so that it reflects our own idiosyncratic views and then defend those edits against all-comers; it is our job to work together, mainly adding or improving content, but also, when necessary, coming to a compromise about how a controversy should be described, so that it is fair to all sides."
Would be "... It is not our stated goal to edit Wikipedia so that it reflects our own idiosyncratic views and then defend those edits against all-comers; it is our community's coordinated mission to work together, mainly adding or improving content, but also, when necessary, coming to a compromise about how a controversy should be described, so that it is fair to all sides."
For the priveleged editor who undertakes this clarification task ... feel free to use your own preferred alternate wording. The word I object to is "job". This word usually implies compensation via cash or some other consideration and while it might fairly be used to describe activities of some of the stacked Board members or perhaps our professional compensated staff members, they are a very tiny slice of a very large community of uncompensated volunteers. Lazyquasar 23:42, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
The section on Undue weight includes the qualification that "None of this, however, is to say that tiny-minority views cannot receive as much attention as we can possibly give them on pages specifically devoted to those views".
To me, this comes across as a difficult sentence to quote, because it does not explain "None of this", and comes across as a double negative. Can we (a) rewrite it in a more concise and positive form, (b) qualify that it will also apply to non-comparative, non-general subjects, eg:
-- Iantresman 14:12, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
To be consistent with the original sentence, it should be "However, tiny minority views...". - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 14:38, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
Also, though I am not against the idea that a given view in a comparative article can be expanded into its own separate non-comparative article, I don't think it was part of the original sentence. The original sentence was only about tiny-minority views. Again, it is not that I disagree with this addition. It is just that I am not sure that it is the correct place to mention it. It seems more like something that is part of what POV forking is not. We could perhaps extend the small section WP:NPOV#POV forks to mention it there at the policy level. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 14:46, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
Perhaps the point of Iantresman is the following. If tiny-minority views can have their own separate article, clearly this must also be true of other views. I agree. Again, the purpose of the original sentence was only to consider the specific case of tiny-minority views. The general case would fit better in the section WP:NPOV#POV forks. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 15:16, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
Ok, now that you explain it, I see that it fits in the Undue weight section. However, you were not entirely correct to say that it was just a clarification of the original sentence. Even though it is a very natural extension of the original sentence, it clearly remains an extension of this original sentence, not just a clarification. Moreover, I still think that your point will also fit in the POV forks section. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 19:06, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
Note that your point that we cannot quantify a "tiny-minority" is irrelevant here. It was explained before that the notion of "tiny-minority" together with the related notion of prominent adherents are indeed subject to interpretation amongst the editors. This does not mean that they are not useful and central concepts in the Undue weight section. Your point is a different issue. In fact, no offense, but it is a secondary point in the Undue weight section. The key point of the Undue weight section is to determine how much space can be attributed to each view in a given article. In this context, your point is only a secondary point: it says that if a view has no space or not enough space, it can still have all the space it needs in a separate article. It is just a useful reminder. This is why I would also mention your point in the POV forks section, where it is necessary to clarify what a POV forking is not. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 19:38, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
I think that the original wording was pretty good, and perfectly adapted to the secondary nature of the point. I would only remove the restriction to tiny-minority views, which was not necessary. We get something like:
I think that a more explicit statement that could be quoted would be more appropriate in the No forks section. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 20:17, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
Can you explain the sentence "This is including views based on relevance." I don't understand what it means. In any case, note that the proposed sentence does not need to refer to any of the factors relevance, popularity or expertise. An alternative sentence would be
Again, this sentence is about a secondary point in the Undue weight section. It does not even need to mention the factors used in the section. Whether or not the explanations for the main point of the section are clear or complete is a completely different issue. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 03:36, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
Certainly, it is shorter. However, it suggests that the only criteria used to partially or totally exclude a view is popularity, which is incorrect. I do agree with Bensaccount on this point. My sentence is a little bit clumsy, but it is a fair attempt to avoid this problem. I think we should continue to look for a sentence that is simple, but yet does not focus on popularity or any other specific factor. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 15:47, 4 March 2006 (UTC)<<
What about the following:
It is an attempt to keep the connection with the section and yet have a sentence that can be quoted. Moreover, it does not suggest that any specific criteria is more important than another. I still think it is necessary to separately explain the point of the second sentence in the POV fork section. Here, it should only be a reminder. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 15:56, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
It seems to me that this project page should include a discussion of how criticisms of topics fits into the Wikipedia articles about those topics. For exmaple Igor Stravinsky contain's a "Criticism" section while the criticisms of Country music where removed from that article and, presumably, some articles have criticism in each appropriate section (hypothetically, criticisms of Stravinsky's rhythmic prodedures could go in the "Rhythmic procedures" section of his article). Anyone else feel this need? Anythoughts on a guideline? Hyacinth 12:16, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Please stop all these proposals for reform. The neutral point of view policy is a fundamental policy of Wikipedia. Yes, it is reasonable for newcomers to Wikipedia to have questions about it, and it is also fair to say that the comments on the project page are not as good as they could be in explaining to newcomers what the policy is, but that does not make it reasonable for you to make fundamental changes to it. Lumiere, Anon 84 and Sonny jim are all inexperienced editors (in some cases having no real experience of editing outside of this page). It is right for you to be curious, and good that you are willing to help to improve things - but changing the wording of our foremost content policy is not a good idea for newcomers. Please create content - write on subjects that interest you - and once you've gained experience of how we work, then by all means consider how you can improve the wording of our policies.
I have archived all the previous discussions - please leave them there. Try out our articles. Improve them. Write new ones of your own. Enjoy Wikipedia! jguk 18:29, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
I am sorry, but I am mainly interested in articles that could be controversial. I am not controversial myself, but I am interested in subject that push the frontiers ahead, and tdihese are always controversial. I am not interested in working on these articles without clear policies. Working on the policies would have to be the first step for me. I have seen enough what happens in controversial articles to know how to contribute to these policies. Your request is dismissed. Instead explain what is so inexperienced in my proposal. This will be more to the point. Moreover, we will have to put back some sections that you archived but are crucial to the understanding of the current issue. It is good that newcomers bring new ideas and I understand that it may seem to create disorder, but I read somewhere in the policies or guidelines that editors should consider that such apparent disorder can actually be positive and very healthy. -- Lumière 18:39, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Sorry, but I am unable to control myself. Please ask an admin to protect this page. -- Anon84.x 18:42, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Folks, there are some niggles with NPOV-as-written you know. At least give people a chance to look into it, but DO please keep an eye on the process, lest things go off the rails. Kim Bruning 19:07, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
M./Mme./Mlle. (I apologize, I do not know which) Lumière, I believe that you have a good point. It would seem to my eyes that all of these ideas for reform should not be banned, persay. In my opinion, I think that you should allow people to say their ideas for reform, and at least give them a gander (hell, there may be good ideas there!) I myself do not have any ideas for reform, but I would like to stand up for being able to say them.
In another point of view, it would be wise to watch what you propose for potential edits; there are some things that probably won't happen, mais non?
But, again, proposals for reform are "positive and very healthy".
I don't think it is necessary to prevent proposals for reform, but I think demonstrating a willingness to work on the project, before making such proposals, is a very good suggestion. Some possible ways for someone interested in controversial subjects to demonstrate such a willingess include, IMO:
Any of these actions, if repeated a few dozen times, would throughly demonstrate a willingness to work on the project. If anyone suggesting proposals here already has done these things, then I'm not talking to you - thanks for your work! If you are suggesting proposals, and have not done these things, I gently suggest that you would meet with more success if you did. JesseW, the juggling janitor 02:05, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
My interest is sincere but limited to one kind of actions: removing bad insinuations and not well supported and unfair criticisms about any topic. The topic per se need not be controversial. It only becomes controversial in Wikipedia because of these criticisms. I am only concerned by the fact that, in my opinion, Wikipedia is a platform that allows unfair and not well supported criticisms, and also includes plenty of bad insinuations. For many topics, readers will be better informed about the topic if the topic was deleted from Wikipedia. I really mean it, as strong a statement as it may seem. Unfortunately, people that care about the topic don't even have the power to remove it from Wikipedia. I know enough about what happens when you try to discuss with editors that devote their life to discredit some category of topics, if not a given topic, to do better than continue to discuss with them without clear policies. My line of actions is very simple. I want to first improve the clarity of policies in a very simple way: just add more references between policies and avoid conflicts. It is a simple thing. If people were a little bit open, it would not even take much time. Then, I will be better equipped to discuss and explain why some unfair criticisms or bad insinuations should be removed. -- Lumière 15:28, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
If Wikipedia can become a place reasonably free from this polution (bad insinuations, etc.), perhaps I might become interested in other forms of contributions, but not before. Sincerely, with the current level that Wikipedia has, I will not even be proud to say that I have contributed to it. -- Lumière 16:38, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
I know it seems like a stretch (okay, a really BIG stretch), but who thinks it would be interesting if they could write articles with opinions, but under a new namespace (like opinion)?
NOTE: I don't think that namespace is the right word.
Sonny Jim news/ poll 19:39, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Sonny Jim news/ poll 19:49, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Sonny jim - if you want opinion pieces, you may be interested in the Wikipedia fork, Wikinfo. It's run by Fred Bauder, one of the Arbitrators, and has been going a while. Wikipedia has declared itself firmly against this approach, and people will not be receptive to such a proposed change (remember Jimbo has declared the "neutral point of view" policy as being absolute and non-negotiable, jguk 20:14, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Thank you for clearing that up for me. I'm new :(.
On the other hand, the proposal is not at all a big modification to the policies, but in fact just a proposal for a better connection amongst them. Therefore, I don't see that I should start to work on a different encyclopedia. OTOH, I would like to acknowledge that perhaps I (and perhaps others with me) am responsible for a big confusion about the proposal. At some point, I suggested to put a dispute tag. I went along with others in using a new terminology, which was not really needed. In this way, the overall impression is that perhaps we want to completely change the policy. It is not the case at all. I think that the whole thing is just a big misunderstanding. The proposal is very simple: just add references to other policies as needed for clarification and avoid conflict amongst the policies. That's all. -- Lumière 20:58, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
The following live discussion was archived but looks important to me (who archived just started discussions?) Harald88 21:41, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
I went through the diff (actually, various sectional diffs, made with ediff) between the current version and the one from March 2005 (specifically, this version). There have been a number of important changes, which I'd like to alert people to.
I assume many of these things were discussed somewhere in the archives of this talk page; help finding and linking to the discussions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! JesseW, the juggling janitor 13:00, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Seems to have been originally broken out into a seperate section by SlimVirgin in this edit. Was re-written by Bensaccount as of this edit into it's current state. No talk page discussion that I am aware of. JesseW, the juggling janitor 04:29, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Heavily cut by Bensaccount.
Parts of the old version I think should be re-inserted, and why:
Removed by Bensaccount, saying it was: "misleading. Other editors or other POVs are not "the enemy". The section was not missed."
I agree that the title was misleading, but I think there were some good pieces that should be restored. I think the last part of it: "The other side might very well find your attempts to characterize their views substandard, but it's the thought that counts. In resolving disputes over neutrality issues, it's far better that we acknowledge that all sides must be presented fairly, and make at least a college try at presenting the other sides fairly. That will be appreciated much more than not trying at all." and " "Writing for the enemy" might make it seem as if we were adding deliberately flawed arguments to Wikipedia, which would be a very strange thing to do. But it's better to view this (otherwise puzzling) behavior as adding the best (published) arguments of the opposition, citing some prominent person who has actually made the argument in the form in which you present it, and stating them as sympathetically as possible. Academics, e.g., philosophers, do this all the time. Always cite your sources, and make sure your sources are reputable, and you won't go far wrong." are both good, and should be re-inserted, somewhere. I will go into more detail if requested. JesseW, the juggling janitor 04:29, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
The proposal is not at all a big modification to the policies, but in fact just a proposal for a better connection amongst them. Therefore, I don't see that I should start to work on a different encyclopedia. OTOH, I would like to acknowledge that perhaps I (and perhaps others with me) am responsible for a big confusion about the proposal. At some point, I suggested to put a dispute tag. I went along with others in using a new terminology, which was not really needed. In this way, the overall impression is that perhaps we want to completely change the policy. It is not the case at all. I think that the whole thing is just a big misunderstanding. The proposal is very simple: just add references to other policies as needed for clarification and avoid conflict amongst the policies. That's all. -- Lumière 20:58, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
The inclusion of a view that is held only by a tiny minority may constitute original research because there may be a lack of sufficiently credible, third-party, published sources to back it up.
From a mailing list post by Jimbo Wales, Wikipedia's founder:
See Wikipedia:Neutral point of view for more detailed information.
This is a non problem. It is already clear each of the major content policies are in force and you can't use an unusual understanding of one to violate another. What the policies allow is at the intersection of each of them, which should be obvious from them all being in force. That being said, minor changes to make that even clearer are not a big problem, and neither is pointing out any actually conflicting statements in policies (though there aren't really any major problems on that front). And since I can see no good evidence for there being a dispute I'm going to unprotect the page. Keep in mind that this is a bedrock principle, so significant changes to it must be backed by a community wide consensus. Just because one or even a few editors feel they disagree with it does not make a valid dispute given the level of consensus that this policy has. Continuing to re-add a dispute template is disruptive and instead consensus should be gathered for any desired changes. - Taxman Talk 22:10, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
Taxman, I disagree with your vague definition of consensus. It seems so much like a standard non-NPOV argument: "Every one knows ..." "The overall consensus is ...". There is only one definition of consensus in Wikipedia and it is the consensus amongst the active editors. Of course, anyone is free to call a Rfc etc. If really there are many wikipedians interested in the issue, they will come and be part of these active editors. There is no need for a special rule that is only a disguised non-NPOV argument. The standard rule is already very very efficient, perhaps too efficient, to preserve the statue quo. -- Lumière 23:35, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
This is ridiculous. It is impossible to prove that we have the consensus of the entire wikipedian community. You can only see that you have the consensus amongst those who participate in the discussion. With this community wide concensus requirement, all edits that were done thus far were not acceptable because not known to have the required concensus. Please revise your position. This is a call to common sense. What is going on here? -- Lumière 23:48, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
For some time now (first discussed here in November) we have a useful list with bad examples of how articles can be biased due to selective "omissions".
However, while it was first planned to be just a few clarifying sentences on the NPOV page, it has been expanded on and is now parked away for discussion "to make it policy" - something that doesn't make sense to me (and which caused negative comments). It already is the most basic policy of Wikipedia to fairly represent notable information and opinions, surely we don't need new policy on that!
Instead, I propose to spin it off to the NPOV_tutorial, where more good and bad examples about NPOV are given. Harald88 14:31, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
The obvious concern is that a tutorial does not seem a valid reference when you want to refer to the policy in a dispute. If the purpose of these examples (see Information suppression ) is to help use the policy to resolve a dispute, to move them in the tutorial will seriously reduce their usefulness. To the contrary, IMO, we should make sure that there is a "community wide consensus" on these examples so that they can be seriously used to resolve a dispute. An alternative is to rise the level of the entire tutorial so that it reflects a "community wide consensus" and essentially gains the authority of a policy, but it will take time. It is easier to focus on these examples. This comment is not a support for these specific examples. It only supports the general principle that examples are not going to be useful to resolve disputes if they are not part of a "community wide consensus." Please do not attack my opinion on the basis that I have been around for two months only. I believe that Wikipedia is welcoming new comers at every level. -- Lumière 15:22, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
Just noticed that Wikipedia:Neutral point of view/Examples is a proposal that, if accepted, will have the status of a policy or guideline. I hope it will have the status of policy. -- Lumière 16:27, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
PS I regard the NPOV_tutorial as a guideline; while hardly anyone will look at the specific NPOV examples, I'm afraid. Harald88 18:40, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
Harald88, the practical difference that I see between a guideline and a policy is that I already heard the argument "this is only a guideline, not policy". I agree that the examples are not policy in themselve, but they are a part that is necessary for their correct interpretation. Whether we try to communicate a policy or something else, a mathematical theory, etc., abstract concepts should always go together with examples. Editors should feel that they can refer to these examples with authority. In particular, the interpretation of the policy that is expressed in these examples should have a "community wide consensus." Also, the text of the policy should refer to these examples whenever needed. In this way, these examples will not be overlooked and they will gain authority. Perhaps, they should not be declared policy. Perhaps, we can declare them "policy examples" with some official header similar to the one that declares a policy a policy. What I meant is that I hope that they will not be declared only guidelines. -- Lumière 19:26, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
PS I regard the NPOV_tutorial as a guideline; while hardly anyone will look at the specific NPOV examples, I'm afraid. Harald88 18:40, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
OK -- but first of all, I don't think that that sign about "policy proposal" on the NPOV specific examples page means anything: it was added without discussion by someone in reaction to my suggestion to add the POV suppression examples to the NPOV tuturial!. Thus I will take that sign away.
To get back to my point (I will split it up):
- those guideline examples have been parked away for months, and few people noticed them at all; while a few corresponding policy explanation lines are still lacking; - meanwhile this NPOV article got a number of less relevant additions without a similar procedure (or, where are the coresponding opinion poll pages?).
In short, this essential part of NPOV still isn't mentioned at all; IMO, the recently added Bias and POV forking chapters may go to the NPOV tutorial, and this article should focus on the main issues.
Below is, slightly adjusted, the text of NPOVenforcer which wasn't so bad but which first was tranfered to this Talk page and extended etc. etc., so that still nothing on this problem can be found in the article space, eventhough you and others independently brought up this same missing issue.
It is high time to insert a statement like the one in italics in the article space - or, my suggestion, with a retake of the summary phrase:
Wikipedia policy is that all articles should be written from a neutral point of view, representing all views with significant support fairly and without bias. Thus it is not allowed to suppress notable, verifiable information related to a significant view if such suppression considerably biases the article; similarly, articles may not be biased by presenting information in an unfair manner.
Later we can link to the examples; I disagree that we only need to connect the different point better. NPOV boils down to an interdiction of thought manipulation together with explanations. Please read the policy again, and tell me what percentage is about phrasing, what percentage about content selection, and what percentage about content presentation. In fact, if articles are only corrected by more neutral sounding phrasing, they can be worse than not improved at all: they may give a false impression of being NPOV.
PS. about the excellent summarizing policy sentence: it's complete up in the header. As you missed it, probably because of the similar polcy block just above it, we should put that text box lower, and repeat that sentence in the body of the text. Harald88 22:35, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
I just did a cut and paste so that we can have a discussion. -- Lumière 17:54, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
My first comment is that the above sentence should be followed by a statement that specifies the respective role of the NPOV policy and the other policies. More specifically, it should be clear that the "significant support" is defined in the other policies. -- Lumière 18:03, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
This is a proposed variation on the first few sentences of "Undue Weight". Italic is used here to mark new content, but will not be used in the final version in the project page. -- Lumière 18:36, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
You just misinterpret the sentences. Your concern is taken care of in the sentence: "To be acceptable for inclusion a view must be neutral as described elsewhere in this policy...". I think you exagerate when you say this is dismantling the entire concept of NPOV. However, there is perhaps room for improvement. What about what is proposed in the next section Lumière
I have removed the bold emphasis. It is like saying that what came before is not important when in fact it prepares well what follows. -- Lumière 19:39, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
"we do not want to reject a view that is well supported in accordance with NOR and verifiability only because it is held by a tiny minority"
The existing policy is already clear on this: "Articles that compare views need not give minority views as much or as detailed a description as more popular views, and may not include tiny-minority views at all..." This is established and widely accepted policy, and your changes are attempting to alter that. I'm just one of many who'll object on a number of grounds.
"Perhaps, your definition of "significant" is "held by a significant minority or a larger group"
My point is exactly what the article has said for a very long time now: "NPOV says that the article should fairly represent all significant viewpoints, in proportion to the prominence of each." Nothing more, nothing less.
Changing "significant" in the sentence to "well supported" fundamentally and mistakenly shifts the issue and the topic from the amount of weight given any viewpoint in an article being based on its significance in the real world to the amount of weight given any one viewpoint in article based on its verifiability at Wikipedia, which is something else altogether.
The concept that the weight given a viewpoint in an article should be based on its verifiability is supported neither by convention nor policy. WP:V enjoins us to make sure that all content must be verifiable. It says nothing about the amount of weight given to relevant viewpoints.
Undue weight is a long-standing, fundamental part of one of Wikipedia's foundational policies. Changing it to mean something completely different from what it has traditionally meant is not going to meet with wide acceptance.
The confusion is very simple to understand. The paragraph strikes "significant" and replaces it with "well supported". So, naturally people interpret it as if the proposal is to reject significance as a criteria and to replace it with well supported. I almost cannot blame those who had this interpretation. However, the motivation to strike "significant" is, of course, not at all to reject the criteria. This criteria remains implicit in the remainder of the sentence: "in proportion to the prominence of each". We can put it back and write "significant and well supported". The tricky point is that it is not true that we reject all non significant views, as it is clearly explained in the remainer of the section Undue weight. However, this is issue is completely orthogonal to the essence of what is proposed in the new paragraph. Therefore, for now, I propose the paragraph
Later, we can discuss if we want to keep "significant" or remove it from the first and last sentences. I do not mean keep or remove the criteria, but only the word "significant". We could keep it, because the presence of two or more views to compare is kind of implicit in these sentences, and a non significant view should go into its own separate article. Also, as pointed out by FeloniousMonk, the policy is very clear that non significant views are acceptable in their own article. So, there will be no misunderstanding. OTOH, it is somehow redundant in the first sentence because of the "in proportion to the prominence of each", which could be rewritten as "in proportion to the significance of each". We obtain this other alternative
What people think? -- Lumière 01:34, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
I appreciate your intention not to dilute the policy, and your right that there was nothing (very) wrong with the formulation per se. However, I still think that it is necessary to place this section in its context. The formulation can be very good, but the link with other policies was missing. A situation in context is very standard and considered necessary to communicate well a new concept, and it is a new concept for the new comers. What I understand now is that I am better do that by adding new sentences. I propose to add two sentences at the end, after the three points:
Similar sentences (see above) were already accepted by many editors. I hope this will not be considered as a dilution of the policy. Clearly, the goal is to place the policy in its context. This was always my only goal. I am sorry that my first attempts diluted the policy. -- Lumière 03:56, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
This is a cut and paste from the current version of the section Undue weight of the policy. There is nothing from me in this sentence. I did not add the "fairly" nor the "significant". I never edited that section.
I propose to remove the "significant". This proposal has nothing to do with the previous proposal. The justification is that (1) the requirement that non significant viewpoints should only appear alone on separate articles is not expressed at all when we use "significant" as it is used in this sentence and (2) the fact that the significance of the view must be taken into account is already there in the sentence at the end: "in proportion to the prominence of each". So, it is completly useless. BTW, I also agree with FM that the "fairly" is not really useful, if it is what he/she meant when he/she said that the notion of fairness was not clear. -- Lumière 04:16, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
I now found that it was Bensaccount, who removed "significant" from the article summary on 15 december 2005, with the comment: "(What kind of view is an insignificant minority and why should it be ignored?)". Probably he remembered the similar original summary definition, which he pointed to on the Talk page around that time:
Wikipedia has an important policy: roughly stated, you should write articles without bias, representing all views fairly. Wikipedia uses the words "bias" and "neutral" in a special sense! This doesn't mean that it's possible to write an article from just one point of view, the neutral (unbiased, "objective") point of view. That's a common misunderstanding of the Wikipedia policy. The Wikipedia policy is that we should fairly represent all sides of a dispute, and not make an article state, imply, or insinuate that any one side is correct. It's crucial that we work together to make articles unbiased. It's one of the things that makes Wikipedia work so well. Writing unbiased text is an art that requires practice. The following essay explains this policy in depth, and is the result of much discussion. We strongly encourage you to read it. - http://meta.wikimedia.org/?title=Neutral_point_of_view--draft&oldid=20764#Executive_summary Harald88 03:56, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
The real problem is not whether or not we keep "significant". The problem is to keep it without a reasonable definition for it. There is no problem to keep "significant" if we define its meaning as follows: A view is significant relative to an article if (1) it is held by a significant minority or a larger group and is relevant to the article or (2) it is held by a tiny minority and the article is exclusively devoted to this view. With this definition, the requirement that a view is significant is perfectly in accord with the Undue weight section. The problem is that some people would like to keep "significant" with a definition that is so vague that, when it used to resolve a dispute, could exclude case (1) or (2) above. With this vague definition of significant, one gains the power to completely suppress well Sourced Information even if it held by a majority! I am not saying that someone will try that, but in principle it can happen. For example, one could say that an article about standard classical mechanics is not significant because it is too elementary. My point is that as long as we do not define what we mean by significant we open the door to any kind of argument like that.
Those who want to remove the term "significant" in the first sentence do not want to remove the concept that views must be selected in proportion to the prominence of each. The fact that the view of a tiny minority does not have its place in Wikipedia, except in their own ancillary articles, is very clear in the Undue weight section and nobody wants to change that. Removing "significant" in the first sentence will not change that. The problem with "significant" is that it is not well defined. It is a new term that is not defined at all in the section. Concretely, the problem is that such a vague notion allows the suppression of any well sourced information. Why would someone wants to insist to have this power? -- Lumière 16:39, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
The undue weight section is the part of the article describing how to "fairly represent" views. I find it vague and skewed towards certain details while ignoring the bigger picture. Heres how I would rewrite the section:
This could be followed by examples of what qualifies as a majority view, significant view, or an expert's view. etc. Bensaccount 19:21, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Reply to comment above by Bensaccount, reposted here: Have you even read the section in question? "Articles that compare views need not give minority views as much or as detailed a description as more popular views". According to the Undue Weight section, popularity is the only qualification. Bensaccount 16:28, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
This discussion started with another look at the NPOV policy summary:
All Wikipedia articles must be written from a neutral point of view, representing views fairly and without bias
The question is if this is a good summary of Jimbo's requirement, and if it is well expanded on in the article. It rapidly became clear that "representing views fairly" is not well described, instead some (but not all!) aspects of it are treated seperately; and that also an additional word "significant" in the article is ambiguous which could lead to a misunderstanding of NPOV.
lumiere did some suggestions how to correct this lack of explanation and his approach looked reasonable to me; it seems quite feasible to deal with this matter without introducing any new rules -right? Harald88 22:12, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
Harald88, of course, I think my proposed definition is fine. (-: It will solve the problem if others also do not see any problem with it. -- Lumière 01:23, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
Here is the defintion of significant that I suggested:
In contrast with other possible definitions, this proposed definition creates no conflict with other policies. In particular, it cannot be used to entirely remove a well sourced view from Wikipedia. It does not matter how we define "relevant" there will be no conflict with other policies. There is some hint to what is meant by relevant in the remainder of the section. I don't think more is needed, but if anyone has a way to better explain what it means, I see no problem with that. -- Lumière 02:44, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
It occurs to me that there is an alternative to avoid conflict with other policies:
I only added "when two or more viewpoints are considered for inclusion in an article" (and removed "fairly", but we can put it back). This may actually be exactly what was meant by the original sentence. Indeed, the context strongly suggests, and perhaps even implies, that there are more than one viewpoint in consideration. Then "significant viewpoints" can be taken as a shortcut for "viewpoints that are held by a significant minority or larger group", which is very natural given the context, and then the sentence is exactly saying what is explained in details in the remainder of the section. May I suggest that the issue with "significant" was perhaps just a non problem related to the non natural interpretation of the sentence where the article in consideration may have only one viewpoint. -- Lumière 13:15, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
If we add the phrase "when two or more... ", there will be no harm to further clarify that "significant viewpoints" means "viewpoints that are held by a significant minority or larger group", so that there is no misinterpretation. Of course, we can also continue to debate the actual meaning of "significant viewpoints". My point is that the policy should not be vague, and certainly not be self contradictory. -- Lumière 18:02, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
Somone added:
"These policies, which have mandatory application, are complementary and should not be interpreted in isolation."
Please back that up by references, in particular "are complementary". Next we can p[ut it back in (preferably with the links). Thanks in advance! Harald88 23:31, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
The policies have beeen and are complimentary, they work together. You need to have all three present in an article to claim compliance. See also WP:V in which same wording is used. ≈ jossi ≈ t • @ 14:58, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
Anyway, I now found that this change happened on your referred WP:V page by Slimvirgin, on 29 September, and also without any motivation nor any discussion on the Talk page, as far as I can see. Thus I'll demand Slimvirgin to back it up. Harald88 20:34, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
I placed the following post at the Help Desk, but thought that the experts on this matters are really found here. Kindly also see the response of Eequor at the HelpDesk. My thanks to those who can clarify this question well. Lafem 01:56, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
The NPOV policy states: "we should present competing views in proportion to their representation among experts on the subject, or among the concerned parties."
Since the conjunction used here is or implying that the second part is but an alternative, should we take this to mean that if there are experts on the subject with different points of view, there is no need to look into how the topic itself affects concerned parties nor much less how the ordinary people opine about the subject.
I base my interpretation in that the decision on what is majority and minority viewpoints is based on reference texts (experts I presume) and prominent adherents. See NPOV policy: "From Jimbo Wales, September 2003, on the mailing list: If a viewpoint is in the majority, then it should be easy to substantiate it with reference to commonly accepted reference texts;* If a viewpoint is held by a significant minority, then it should be easy to name prominent adherents."
To summarize: the "or" means that if there are experts, commonly referenced texts and prominent adherents, we should not look into the opinions of ordinary people or how people in general feel about the subject? Thanks. Lafem 12:33, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
Or is non-exclusive. And/or is redundent, since both meanings exist in or. Guettarda 16:13, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for this. But how about seeing this policy from the No Original Research Point of View:
In general I believe that you're interpretation is correct: the topic was in reference to minority points of view, and if the experts are fairly unanimous about something, and the references are fairly unanimous, you can express their views to a greater degree than the opposing view point. Thus, for instance, our article on the Common cold does not say that being cold gives you the cold, even though that is view held by a significant proportion of non-scientists. — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 15:01, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
Please stop adding new sections to this page to say the same thing you've said before again in a new section. This is getting quite old, quite quickly. Hipocrite - «Talk» 03:36, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
I'd put a large amount of money on it's stopping, possibly quite soon. Moreover, saying that you refuse to accept community consensus isn't helpful or advisable. -- Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης) 11:43, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
By judging on the profuse comments in this and WP:V, I would argue that Lumiere ( talk · contribs) and Light current ( talk · contribs) seem to be engaging in a campaing to change WP policy barehanded. Well, that will not work. They will need to learn more about this project, address fellow editors with more respect and be a tad more humble in their WP endavors. Then they may, and I mean may, have a chance to be heard and taken seriously. ≈ jossi ≈ t • @ 16:05, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
We were just discussing the "Role of truth in Wikipedia". We didn't know it was strictly prohibited by the rules. -- Lumière 16:19, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
Clearly, Bensaccount's proposal is dead. The following comments can be useful to consider the following proposals:
Please this is not a pool. Stop voting. We only want thoughtful comments. -- Lumière 06:50, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
I ignored anything written in this yet another new section, but in the event I missed a specific proposal, OBJECT. Discuss on reasonably formatted talk page first. Hipocrite - «Talk» 14:03, 6 February 2006 (UTC) I join Hipocrite in this objection This discussion is impossible to follow. ≈ jossi ≈ t • @ 15:56, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
Yet another member of the community agreeing with the objections mentioned above. Drop it. Come back in a year. Your stores of goodwill may have returned by then. JesseW, the juggling janitor 17:50, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
According to Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales, NPOV is "absolute and non-negotiable". I hereby include a useful definition:
Dogma:
NPOV is scripture set in stone. Do not attempt to modify, interpret or clarify it, or it will lose its original meaning. This is your God's wish, obey it. -- Anon84.x 12:22, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
I thought the following formulation good when I first came to Wikipedia. It seems to have disappeared sometime recently: is there objection to reinstating it? Septentrionalis 17:46, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
Related to the above, from an earlier discussion (pushed into archive oblition before discussion):
That sounded plausible. However, on this same talk page Saxifrage stated, among other things:
Instead, this policy does instruct editors, both on their own and as group how to strive for NPOV. It's essential that Wikipedia isn't seen as a battlegound of opinions, whereby each editor defends a single POV against that of others, so that only after negotiation a kind of NPOV will be obtained -- but still mostly biased towards the POV of the editor who has most persistence, or that of the majority of editors. IMO it's crucial that the contrary is emphasized, that such is not an acceptable way of operation.
Thus, now that its necessity has been demonstrated I disagree with the omission of the whole "writing for the enemy" paragraph, and insist that we put this deleted policy piece back.
Note that I don't disagree with rephrasing (for example enemy -> "enemy", taking Bensaccounts point) and also a little trimming is of course open for discussion. But first put it back. Harald88 20:07, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
On this page: "NPOV is one of Wikipedia's four content-guiding policy pages." On pages for the other three policies, mention is only made of "three content-guiding policies". In need of review. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 160.5.97.52 ( talk • contribs)
... I won't be supplying anymore of it, and encourage others to do the same. Watch the page, revert ill-formed, misguided or bad faith edits, and leave it at that. · Katefan0 (scribble)/ poll 04:33, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
We sometimes give an alternative formulation of the non-bias policy: assert facts, including facts about opinions — but don't assert opinions themselves. There is a difference between facts and values, or opinions. By "fact," we mean "a piece of information about which there is no serious dispute." In this sense, that a survey produced a certain published result is a fact. That there is a planet called Mars is a fact. That Plato was a philosopher is a fact. No one seriously disputes any of these things. So we can feel free to assert as many of them as we can.
By value or opinion, on the other hand, we mean "a piece of information about which there is some dispute." There are bound to be borderline cases where we're not sure if we should take a particular dispute seriously; but there are many propositions that very clearly express values or opinions. That stealing is wrong is a value or opinion. That the Beatles was the greatest band is a value or opinion. That the United States was wrong to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a value or opinion. That God exists... this might seem a troublesome one. Not with the definitions given above: That God exists... is a piece of information about which there is some dispute. This corresponds with how talking about God (or, alternatively, the non-existence of God) is experienced by most people: it's hard to talk about God or Atheism without mixing in opinion, or at least talk about value(s).
Wikipedia is devoted to stating facts in the sense as described above. Where we might want to state an opinion, we convert that opinion into a fact by attributing the opinion to someone. So, rather than asserting, "The Beatles were the greatest band", we can say, "Most Americans believe that the Beatles were the greatest band," which is a fact verifiable by survey results, or "The Beatles had many songs that made the Billboard Hot 100," which is also fact. In the first instance we assert an opinion; in the second and third instances we "convert" that opinion into fact by attributing it to someone. It's important to note this formulation is substantially different from the "some people believe ..." formulation popular in political debates. The reference requires an identifiable and subjectively quantifiable population or, better still, a name.
In presenting an opinion, moreover, it is important to bear in mind that there are disagreements about how opinions are best stated; sometimes, it will be necessary to qualify the description of an opinion or to present several formulations, simply to arrive at a solution that fairly represents all the leading views of the situation.
But it's not enough, to express the Wikipedia non-bias policy, just to say that we should state facts and not opinions. When asserting a fact about an opinion, it is important also to assert facts about competing opinions, and to do so without implying that any one of the opinions is correct. It's also generally important to give the facts about the reasons behind the views, and to make it clear who holds them. It's often best to cite a prominent representative of the view.
...I also cut out some parts that are treated separately in the "religion" section lower on the NPOV page.
Feel free to work on the text above! -- Francis Schonken 22:20, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
(edit conflict, @ Hipocrite:) "existence of God" is the fourth in a list of non borderline cases:
This fourth example is specifically described as NOT troublesome.
There are Wikipedia articles describing proofs of the existence of God (see e.g. Summa Theologica). The NPOV policy page describes how that is done without inflamed passions, and without needing a {{ NPOV}} template. Since, for example, the "Summa Theologica" article HAS a {{Cleanup}} template, I don't think the "existence of God" example is redundant on the NPOV policy page (irony, that template on that article was put up a few days before the "existence of God" example was removed from the NPOV guideline - no surprise that the "cleanup" of the "Summa Theologica" article seems to stall...).
The "avoid God" instruction you wrote in the edit summary [1] is against Wikipedia's NPOV policy, as intended by Jimbo (ask him!). The NPOV policy page is intended to show that Wikipedia can handle the most sensitive topics if treating them in a NPOV way.
Further the "existence of God" example was at the WP:NPOV policy for a longer period of time than your user account exists: the example was there when I started editing wikipedia (July 2004) and was there until three months ago. So I'm quite confident it is included in our shared vision for the NPOV as mentioned by Jimbo in User:Jimbo Wales/Statement of principles, rather than your "avoid god" instruction. -- Francis Schonken 18:49, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
We sometimes give an alternative formulation of the non-bias policy: assert facts, including facts about opinions — but don't assert opinions themselves. Certainly, there are bound to be borderline cases where a fact is disputed but we're not sure if we should take the dispute seriously, or where the distinction between fact and value will itself necessarily be in dispute. Nevertheless, there are many propositions that clearly express undisputed facts, and others that clearly express values or opinions. That a survey produced a certain published result is a fact. That there is a planet called Mars is a fact. That Plato was a philosopher is a fact. No one seriously disputes any of these things. So we can feel free to assert as many of them as we can. On the other hand, that stealing is wrong is a value or opinion. That the Beatles was the greatest band is a value or opinion. That the United States was wrong to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a value or opinion.
Where we might want to state an opinion, we convert that opinion into a fact by attributing the opinion to someone. So, rather than asserting, "The Beatles were the greatest band", we can say, "Most Americans believe that the Beatles were the greatest band," (... etc ...)
... there you go. I think this destroys the incoherencies while strengthening the main point of the section. Fool 14:09, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
Since the "truth"/"verifiability" discussion was revived on Wikipedia talk:Verifiability I'd definitely want to return to the version that was worked out as a collaboration of Nauraran, Func, myself, gilbertggoose and Ann Heneghan - and not Fool's version.
Sorry I didn't give a reaction to this before. -- Francis Schonken 08:09, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
Yesterday I added a paragraph with information suppression examples to the NPOV_tutorial; Francis Schonken however reverted the page. Interested people, please discuss on that article's Talk page about the reason to suppress this much demanded instruction part, or reinsert that information, thanks. Harald88 08:18, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
There shouldn't be edit warring over this page, THE foundation document for Wikipedia's editorial practices -- if there are reversions ongoing, that means those who sought to include (or exclude) the text in question have not adequately surveyed the community's opinion on whether it is proper. I've protected the page until this stuff can be sorted out. · Katefan0 (scribble)/ poll 16:34, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
From a recent discussion on this page as well as on my own page, it turns out that the whole intro is insufficiently sourced:
As this is supposedly not the result of us editors, but referring to sources provided by Jimbo: Anyone who can properly source this?
Note that, if I'm not mistaken, at the moment the only source with a link from this page is:
A few things are absolute and non-negotiable, though. NPOV for example. - Jimbo.
Sorry, but I disagree that that statement sufficiently backs up all the claims above! Harald88 22:05, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
I am curious to know why we don't ask Jimbo directly. Is he so hard to contact? Or is it that he shows no interest in the policies anymore? -- Lumière 04:22, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
The source you need is m:Foundation issues. In fact, much wikipedia "policy" is a misnomer. The foundation issues are policy. All else is guidelines or in rare cases (ie copyright) law. Kim Bruning 12:27, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
I would make a few comments on this subject:
Enchanter 00:29, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
Echoing Katefan's caution made here earlier, let's not supply anymore of it. As Katefan said, watch the page, revert ill-formed, misguided or bad faith edits, and leave it at that. Otherwise, feeding the trolls just keeps them around. FeloniousMonk 07:17, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
Are essays in wikipedia namespace expected to be NPOV? If not, how are content disputes to be resolved? Kappa 04:33, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
Hi there! I posted this at WP:RFC/P, but was hoping I might get some additional interested people here. There has been an ongoing argument at Flag of Western Sahara about the name of the flag.
Western Sahara is a region claimed by Morocco and a government in exile of indigenous people, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Both parties control a portion of the territory and both claim the whole of it. The flag is the flag flown by SADR, but it is generally known as the "Flag of Western Sahara", mainly because Morocco does not recognise the term Western Sahara (calling it Moroccan Sahara), so there is no other flag which also might bear the name. There have been extensive discussions about comparisons with Flag of Tibet, and Flag of Taiwan, but up until now no conclusion.
To break the stalemate, a vote has been proposed here, and we would very much appreciate any and every input. The more the merrier!
Thanks and greets, The Minist e r of War (Peace) 08:55, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
The article mentions "If a viewpoint is held by an extremely small (or vastly limited) minority, it doesn't belong in Wikipedia (except perhaps in some ancillary article) regardless of whether it's true or not; and regardless of whether you can prove it or not.". Surely if it can be proven to be true, this should be a valid reason for inclusion if it is in the "public interest"? Comments? -- User:Rebroad 14:17, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
It occured to me, while reading the AFD for Republicans Block Investigation of Domestic Spying Program, that the precedents used to delete such material would also be applicable to many historic documents which were/are POV, such as the United States Declaration of Independence, were they not already historic.
I'm not saying the article should have been kept. This is just a thought I wanted to bring up. - Keith D. Tyler ¶ 23:02, 22 February 2006 (UTC)
Is there a policy that states whether users may stamp a page as POV and not say why? I think it's common sense that POV claims should be explained — "whoever asserts must prove", and all that — and I think there's potential for abuse if users can tag pages as POV and not have to cite specific concerns. It's easy to imagine someone using the POV tag as a form of vandalism (forcing Wikipedians to make sure the article is not POV, and thus wasting their time), or as a way of discrediting a neutral article which simply discusses a subject they dislike.
If anyone cares, the example I'm thinking of is that of User:Drboisclair, who has recently added POV tags to three articles: Bruno Bauer, Michael Martin (philosopher), and J.M. Robertson. I can't figure out what specific POV problems there are with the latter two, and the first one is too long for me to examine right now anyway. It doesn't help that he hasn't explained why he tagged the Bauer article at all, and his explanations for the other two articles are no more complicated than "I contest the NPOV of this article."
— Elembis 06:02, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
Apparently this page has been protected or perhaps my account has tagged or blocked.
Better wording in section "Avoiding Constant Disputes":
"This has to be asked repeatedly as each new controversial point is stated. It is not our job to edit Wikipedia so that it reflects our own idiosyncratic views and then defend those edits against all-comers; it is our job to work together, mainly adding or improving content, but also, when necessary, coming to a compromise about how a controversy should be described, so that it is fair to all sides."
Would be "... It is not our stated goal to edit Wikipedia so that it reflects our own idiosyncratic views and then defend those edits against all-comers; it is our community's coordinated mission to work together, mainly adding or improving content, but also, when necessary, coming to a compromise about how a controversy should be described, so that it is fair to all sides."
For the priveleged editor who undertakes this clarification task ... feel free to use your own preferred alternate wording. The word I object to is "job". This word usually implies compensation via cash or some other consideration and while it might fairly be used to describe activities of some of the stacked Board members or perhaps our professional compensated staff members, they are a very tiny slice of a very large community of uncompensated volunteers. Lazyquasar 23:42, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
The section on Undue weight includes the qualification that "None of this, however, is to say that tiny-minority views cannot receive as much attention as we can possibly give them on pages specifically devoted to those views".
To me, this comes across as a difficult sentence to quote, because it does not explain "None of this", and comes across as a double negative. Can we (a) rewrite it in a more concise and positive form, (b) qualify that it will also apply to non-comparative, non-general subjects, eg:
-- Iantresman 14:12, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
To be consistent with the original sentence, it should be "However, tiny minority views...". - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 14:38, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
Also, though I am not against the idea that a given view in a comparative article can be expanded into its own separate non-comparative article, I don't think it was part of the original sentence. The original sentence was only about tiny-minority views. Again, it is not that I disagree with this addition. It is just that I am not sure that it is the correct place to mention it. It seems more like something that is part of what POV forking is not. We could perhaps extend the small section WP:NPOV#POV forks to mention it there at the policy level. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 14:46, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
Perhaps the point of Iantresman is the following. If tiny-minority views can have their own separate article, clearly this must also be true of other views. I agree. Again, the purpose of the original sentence was only to consider the specific case of tiny-minority views. The general case would fit better in the section WP:NPOV#POV forks. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 15:16, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
Ok, now that you explain it, I see that it fits in the Undue weight section. However, you were not entirely correct to say that it was just a clarification of the original sentence. Even though it is a very natural extension of the original sentence, it clearly remains an extension of this original sentence, not just a clarification. Moreover, I still think that your point will also fit in the POV forks section. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 19:06, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
Note that your point that we cannot quantify a "tiny-minority" is irrelevant here. It was explained before that the notion of "tiny-minority" together with the related notion of prominent adherents are indeed subject to interpretation amongst the editors. This does not mean that they are not useful and central concepts in the Undue weight section. Your point is a different issue. In fact, no offense, but it is a secondary point in the Undue weight section. The key point of the Undue weight section is to determine how much space can be attributed to each view in a given article. In this context, your point is only a secondary point: it says that if a view has no space or not enough space, it can still have all the space it needs in a separate article. It is just a useful reminder. This is why I would also mention your point in the POV forks section, where it is necessary to clarify what a POV forking is not. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 19:38, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
I think that the original wording was pretty good, and perfectly adapted to the secondary nature of the point. I would only remove the restriction to tiny-minority views, which was not necessary. We get something like:
I think that a more explicit statement that could be quoted would be more appropriate in the No forks section. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 20:17, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
Can you explain the sentence "This is including views based on relevance." I don't understand what it means. In any case, note that the proposed sentence does not need to refer to any of the factors relevance, popularity or expertise. An alternative sentence would be
Again, this sentence is about a secondary point in the Undue weight section. It does not even need to mention the factors used in the section. Whether or not the explanations for the main point of the section are clear or complete is a completely different issue. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 03:36, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
Certainly, it is shorter. However, it suggests that the only criteria used to partially or totally exclude a view is popularity, which is incorrect. I do agree with Bensaccount on this point. My sentence is a little bit clumsy, but it is a fair attempt to avoid this problem. I think we should continue to look for a sentence that is simple, but yet does not focus on popularity or any other specific factor. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 15:47, 4 March 2006 (UTC)<<
What about the following:
It is an attempt to keep the connection with the section and yet have a sentence that can be quoted. Moreover, it does not suggest that any specific criteria is more important than another. I still think it is necessary to separately explain the point of the second sentence in the POV fork section. Here, it should only be a reminder. - Étincelle (formerly Lumiere) 15:56, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
It seems to me that this project page should include a discussion of how criticisms of topics fits into the Wikipedia articles about those topics. For exmaple Igor Stravinsky contain's a "Criticism" section while the criticisms of Country music where removed from that article and, presumably, some articles have criticism in each appropriate section (hypothetically, criticisms of Stravinsky's rhythmic prodedures could go in the "Rhythmic procedures" section of his article). Anyone else feel this need? Anythoughts on a guideline? Hyacinth 12:16, 5 March 2006 (UTC)