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One of the problems of trying to put all the old guidelines into a single guideline is that part of them gets lost. WP:UNDUE used to include explicitly not only undue weight with reference to the opinion of groups but also undue weight with respect to notability. It used to be clear that just because a news item mentioning an article topic reached a minimum threshold for notability did not mean it has a right for inclusion on the main article on the topic. The coverage of a topic should reflect the notability of what is included. Without this we will get a form of NPOV by inclusion of minor news items in too prominent articles and the job of reducing the size of some enormous articles gets harder. Things which reach a threshold for notability of course we can include somewhere but the main articles on big topics have to be balanced in choice of notable content. Are we happy that undue with respect to notability should be included in some form and if so would someone like to try and add it?-- BozMo talk 07:37, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
I believe I took care of these problems, recently, and was roundly hated for it. BozMo, take a look at this and see what you think [1]. I made things really clear. The fact that you said what you did proves my point that the thing is not written correctly. In fact, I made the change you suggest. So I'm personally feeling mistreated here, because everyone was against my changes, now they are all happy to discuss them. —— Martinphi ☎ Ψ Φ—— 02:19, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
I'm having trouble reconciling the rules regarding undue weight. I would like to think of Wikipedia as being fairly comprehensive being that it has virtually unlimited space for an article when compared to a traditional encyclopedia. And yet, it seems to have little interest in small minority viewpoints when there is ample space for the availability of such. Honestly, this disappoints me about Wikipedia and I, for one, would like to see this rule changed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Leomarth ( talk • contribs) 06:22, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
I have had my contributions removed from both the article and the talk pages several times over the last few days and replaced with material, which was there previously, that I know to be untrue. I was there. For example: - The number of Federal personnel involved in the 'snatch of Elian Gonzalez was given by Fox News at the time as being two hundred and thirty. It was certainly not just eight as is again stated in the article - there may have been only eight with SWAT equipment who actually stormed and entered the house.
I am not sure on reflection that this article is a notable subject for inclusion under Wikipedia guidelines, it certainly appears to be used as a means of propaganda for some persons with a political agenda rather than to be acurate encyclopedic information. ( ZigZag ( talk) 02:46, 4 October 2008 (UTC)).
Last week's ABC Radio National program The Media Report features an interview with Todd Hermann, the Seattle-based developer of a new online application called SpinSpotter. The application uses an algorithm to detect and highlight examples of 'spin' in online news stories and news sites. Wikipedia is mentioned by analogy. I wonder who in WP is best-placed to investigate whether the application—a free download—is suitable for use in trouble-shooting POV on WP. I suspect that such software applications will soon provide us with the opportunity to revolutionise our monitoring of POV in articles. The algorithms sound as though they're sophisticated; although they're currently set up based on the code of ethics of the American Society of Professional Journalists, to what extent do these ethics differ from those of WP?
The audio stream is available for another three weeks here, and the transcript is permanent, here.
Is this the best place to post this message? Tony (talk) 06:16, 4 October 2008 (UTC)
Everyone is invited to discuss the Policy status of a subpage FAQ of the WP:NPOV policy. The discussion also includes what should be moved from WP:NPOV/FAQ into WP:NPOV if the FAQ is changed from a Policy to a Guideline or Essay. Dreadstar † 04:18, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
I consider the link for phrase "published by reliable sources" in second sentence stated as Wikipedia:Verifiability is wrong. Should be Wikipedia:Reliable sources, shouldn't it? -- Юрцэвіч Дзьмітры ( talk) 19:54, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
See WP:Update for the September changes to all the Category:Wikipedia content policies pages (including this one) and also the most generally-used style guidelines (called, unsurprisingly, Category:General style guidelines). If anyone wants to take on the job of updating monthly content policy at WP:Update, please reply at WT:Update. Obviously, since this page is in WP-space, anyone can make any edit at any time, but regular updaters would be nice. - Dan Dank55 ( send/receive) 18:52, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
"All editors and all sources have biases (in other words, all editors and all sources have a point of view) — what matters is how we combine them to create a neutral article."
This, I think, is either opinionated or a poor assumption. Either it needs to be reworded in a way that doesn't make that assumption, or a citation is needed to prove that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.127.239.0 ( talk) 07:13, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
I'm not exactly sure, I'm a bit new to English. I was hoping someone might have a better alternative to it, though. 68.127.239.0 ( talk) 08:20, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
I can look at this section as well as the other two sections WP:MORALIZE and WP:SUBSTANTIATE and determine on my own that opinions should not be added and that facts should speak for themselves. Yet it has been argued, by some editors, on other talk pages that an opinion is OK if experts agree, and if experts agree on an opinion, then it is fact. I cited the example that Murder is bad, hoping that the other editor would see the reasoning, but I was told I was comparing apples to oranges. My question is:
The way it reads now is still just a bit ambiguous and can still be interpreted incorrectly. Perhaps I am still wrong but hopefully someone will comment soon.-- Jojhutton ( talk) 15:41, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
This is great, and makes things clearer. Does not change the meaning, but it does make things clearer and it is well written. —— Martinphi ☎ Ψ Φ—— 19:52, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
(undent) Jim: if you can point out where it actually changed any meanings, please do so. I meant this edit to be helpful, not problematic. and please don't suggest that I can't be wp:bold when it comes to what I view as minor revisions. I don't object to the disagreement or the revert, mind you, just the hostility behind it. however, since the topic is opened, let's discuss it now so that we can work out the kinks.
OM: asking you not to mark your reverts as minor constitutes a personal attack? dude, please... -- Ludwigs2 20:21, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
Guys... there's no need to descend into taking swipes at each other. I commend WP:BRD as a good read. Discussion doesn't always HAVE to come first. Ludwigs made a change. He thought it would stand. (thats the Bold in BRD) But it got reverted. (that's the Revert in BRD) So now... discuss the change and work out what would have consensus. L: Don't take offense that you got reverted (and spare us the "my personal ________" comments). OM: Don't take offense that L asked you to change your Twinkle settings. Both of you and everyone else, get back to the substance here, would be my advice. Thanks. ++ Lar: t/ c 22:21, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
Since Ludwig was asking for examples where his new wording] changed the meaning (emphasis added):
Hum, this new wording opens the word to some POV pusher saying "But I have here (link to biased page) serious arguments to the contrary" and "you can't assert until you can show that arguments on the contrary are not serious".
Ok, this is plainly removing the part saying that borderline statements should not be included. This looks uncomfortably like the same old dispute about leaving WP:FRINGE theories stuff out of articles, where Ludwig is partidary of including them. I think that Ludwig does not notice that he is unconsciously introducing his own bias, no offence intended :) -- Enric Naval ( talk) 01:09, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
(I continue) The part on the Beatles looks okay to me, and the wording is clearer on the old version. That part doesn't change meaning except to say that the forbidden statement "X was the best ever" can now be sourced like "[authoritative source] says that X was the best ever"
The added explanation of what 'mass attribution' means is quite good.
The rest of the last changed paragraph, however, has a huge problem. The example of "God exists" is not about an actual fact (unless you can prove that God exist, of course). You see what I mean, I'll just make the same sentence that Ludwig did, but with a different topic:
As it happens all the time on articles that have some pseudoscientific/fringe POVs, the capability of scientific authoritative sources to state scientific facts is put in doubt. As I say above, this appears to be unconscious bias (sorry, Ludwigs)
So, some parts of the text are rescuable (hell, maybe I'll try to add them myself other day :P) -- Enric Naval ( talk) 01:31, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
<ri> Thanks for reviewing the proposed changes, Enric. At first glance the Beatles paragraph looks reasonable, the mass attribution issue needs more careful consideration. Look forward to seeing proposals for any changes, with due care to avoid unintended consequences. . . dave souza, talk 08:36, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
Enric, NOR already does what you say- any POV pusher can ask for a source on something. You're talking about attribution here. Attributing something to Nature strengthens the claim. If some POV pusher insists on attribution, if the source is good the original claim is made stronger. If the source is not good, then it is rightly put in question in the mind of the reader. In either case, no harm has been done. WP has no business stating controversial things as fact in a context where that is disputed much as some editors want to. Example: See? In the article on Plato, there is no dispute. In an article on the Plato myth, you attribute. So it's a matter of context, as with so much else. A "serious controversy" is relative.
On Wikipedia, a " fact" is taken to mean "information about which there is no meaningful dispute in the article context." For example, in an article on the Earth it may be stated as fact that the earth is round, but in the section of that article which mentions Flat earth belief, a statement that "the earth is really round" must be attributed. Likewise, statements that a planet called Mars exists, or that Plato was a philosopher may be stated as facts in articles on those subjects. But in articles disputing the existence of Mars or denying that Plato existed, editors must source their claims.
Or something like that. Everyone here knows that we don't go into articles which deny the obvious and, after stating the position taken by the deniers of the obvious, blandly state the obvious as fact. Look at the Flat earth article. —— Martinphi ☎ Ψ Φ—— 01:21, 20 October 2008 (UTC)
I went ahead and used Ludwig's wording [2], as people here seem to like it and it doesn't change meaning. -- Enric Naval ( talk) 17:28, 23 October 2008 (UTC)
Just after the "mass attribution" words (right next to reference [3]), add Ludwig's explanation as a footnote:
{{note|mass|Mass attribution happens when a particular statement is applied as though it were true of a broad range of people. Statements of this sort may be prefaced by explicit qualifiers like 'everyone knows...' or 'all Ecuadorians support...' or it may merely be an implicit assumption in the text, but in either case such statements should not be included unless they can be traced back to reliable sources that demonstrate their truth. In some cases mass attribution may make an appeal to authority.}}
(using {{ ref}}/{{ note}} syntax to avoid cluttering the source code). As an alternative, it could be added to either Wikipedia:Avoid weasel words or Wikipedia:Avoid peacock terms and linked directly. -- Enric Naval ( talk) 17:39, 23 October 2008 (UTC)
davidz has kindly pointed out to me that I removed some long-standing material on article structure from Words to avoid. This material doesn't have anything to do with "words to avoid" and overlaps considerably with the article structure section here. In my view this material is fundamental to our NPOV policy, and we need to settle on what it says here, rather than farm it out to a style guideline. I've made an attempt to merge it in here. I realise that the issue of (for example) criticism sections has been a matter of debate, and I have done my best not to imply a point of view, but to reflect a consensus position. However, editors with more experience editing this policy will undoubtedly be able to do better. Geometry guy 12:34, 26 October 2008 (UTC)
Myself and a few other editors have agreed to allow Naturstud to edit the article Medical degree to include his degree with the only exception that he also equally include ALL other "complementary and alternative medicine" professional degrees, diplomas, and certificates equally as per Wiki (NPOV) policy. He refuses and has continued to push and promote his profession on wikipedia at the expense of others.
Could we please have some assistance cleaning up or rewriting this article to better comply with NPOV policy?
Thank you for your help. Jwri7474 ( talk) 04:28, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
Thanks, I'll repost there then. Jwri7474 ( talk) 04:58, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
I suggest that we change "main article" to "see" or "see also" or "see guideline" or something similar, as "main article" can be read to imply that the guideline in the section top note has precedence over the text in the section. -- Philip Baird Shearer ( talk) 09:54, 28 October 2008 (UTC)
I do not think this change should apply to "Main article: Wikipedia:Naming conventions" in the "Article naming" section as that is to a policy and not a guideline. -- Philip Baird Shearer ( talk) 09:58, 28 October 2008 (UTC)
A reminder: WP:Update has monthly updates of the 7 content policy pages. - Dan Dank55 ( send/receive) 20:49, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
Hello, A Wiki member has been thinking that I have been vandalizing a page but I haven't.
The Wikipedia page is the Sonic Unleashed section.
The user is SLJCOAAATR 1 and his / her posts are saved in the discussion topic.
He / she insulted me in the section and that user did not understand what I was talking about and they thought that I vandalized.
The main problem was only that the Night of the Werehog video was said in the article that it would be a full length animated 3D Movie 3D but that was incorrect. I changed it to a Short 3D Animated film because those sources were confirmed.
However the user SLJCOAAATR 1 thought that I was already posting the same video and information twice (because it was posted already, and I wasn't even actually trying to post the video again. The video was on the site but I was actually trying to show them the information). SLJCOAAATR 1 didn't listen.
SLJCOAAATR 1 then deleted my other post after I replied and insulted me yet again in a user talk page comment because I got irritated with that user because SLJCOAAATR 1 wasn't listening to me.
I hope this is the right place for these kind of things! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mamaluigibob ( talk • contribs) 20:47, 2 November 2008 (UTC)
I'd like to add "wikilinks" to "This applies not only to article text, but to images, external links, categories, and all other material as well." I got the idea from Rividian over at WT:Layout: "I just don't like the idea of someone going to the, say, Louisville Metro Council article and adding "See also: Nazi Germany" and saying that, under the letter of this guideline, it's okay since the guideline says nothing about a source. BLP is the biggest issue... but it could be done on any article... and note that my example is intentionally over-the-top, but incidents of this on Ralph Nader and Ashley Todd mugging hoax were more subtle. I don't see how policy would allow people to make such uncited comparisons, even if it's not a living person biography. The see also section shouldn't be a loophole to let people make controversial comparisons without a reference... I think we still need this wording." - Dan Dank55 ( send/receive) 17:08, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
I wrote a similar message to Ssolbergj (in Wikimedia Common) who created these retarded maps. I hope you guys here can back me. It's a clear bias and I don't think that being bias is a policy of Wikipedia. It is high time things are straightened out.
Dear Ssolbergj, your map of China colors Arunachal Pradesh in light green which implies it is somehow rather a part of China although under Indian administration and claimed as an integral part of India. I agree this is a disputed region by both countries. In that case why doesn't the India map have Aksai Chin (a Chinese administered region claimed by India) be colored light green on the India map? Why double standards apply for Aksai and Arunachal although they are both disputed?
Same goes with Pakistan occupied kashmir. Shouldn't those areas be indicated in light green too? Please maintain neutrality as prescribed under Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. I look forward to you recoloring those maps with a NPOV in mind and not China slanted views. Thank you.
If they don't want to change it, I suggest we change the map of India to its old form (2d one) as it is more accurate.
I look forward to all your replies / opinions / assistance as I am not an established user on Wikipedia. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.208.245.138 ( talk)
Well, now. It's been more than two years now since I proposed a change to the last paragraph of the Reasoning behind NPOV section. And...well, it seems nothing has changed. This, despite the fact that my proposal for change had simple majority support, and I even settled on a compromise version of the change, and even accepted a third alternative, failing the compromise solution. Something seems broken here, unless I'm mistaken about the way WP is supposed to work. Please see the following archives for background: [6] [7]. I'm very surprised that the section in question remains unchanged! » MonkeeSage « 16:24, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
Is there any rule about providing justification for actions occuring in History articles. For example can the words "in response", "because of" be used, with the reasons provided, however obvious and straightforward they may be, may come into question. For example a sentence like " 2 +2 =4 because according to definition of real numbers etc." is different from " Jack shot at Tom because of Tom's threat".
To give a better example how about this "Jack had said that he would shoot Tom but later changed his mind. In a few days Tom threatened Jack, in response Jack shot at Tom". Here with using the words "in response", the reader is left confused about weather Jack shoot Tom because of his threat, or because Jack wanted to shoot Tom anyway. This, I believe, goes beyond NPOV, unless it is rephrased " Jack claimed that he shot Tom because he was threatened". Is there any policy regarding giving reasons to actions and stating them as matter of fact , instead of simply trying to state the facts. The facts should speak for themselves about the reasons if given in a chronological order Kakaka79m ( talk) 17:57, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
I'm trying to get the conflict of interest guidelines rewritten to be clearer in terms of what is allowable from people with conflicts of interest. At the moment they seem to allow most edits, but there are also several parts saying COI editing is strongly discouraged. It is not clear whether COI editing is generally unacceptable or only when it results in bad edits. I have written a proposed revision of the guidelines, but because of my own conflict of interest I really don't want to make any kind of change without consensus. Since obviously a lot of conflicts of interest result in POV problems, people who monitor this should put forward their thoughts at User talk:Helenalex/coirewrite or on the conflict of interest guidelines talkpage. -- Helenalex ( talk) 05:31, 29 December 2008 (UTC)
A concern was raised that the clause, "a primary source may be used only to make descriptive claims, the accuracy of which is verifiable by any reasonable, educated person without specialist knowledge" conflicts with WP:NPOV by placing a higher duty of care with primary sourced claims than secondary or tertiary sourced claims. An RFC has been initiated to stimulate wider input on the issue. Professor marginalia ( talk) 06:30, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
In application to an article about a theory which is generally considered pseudoscience, does WP:Undue weight mean that the majority of the article should be specifically about criticisms? At Talk:Bates method, an editor has argued for that, citing UNDUE. PSWG1920 ( talk) 21:17, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
Perhaps it'd be best if everybody editing pseudoscience articles just calmed down for a while and waiting for the upcoming ArbCom decision on the topic. But, both as previous history goes and comments of some arbitrators in ongoing problem, NPOV policy means not attacking a fringe idea, but absolutely including and sourcing why the scientific community considers it pseudoscience throughout the article as appropriate. Not having the criticism there gives major undue weight to a minority view. DreamGuy ( talk) 22:44, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
Pardon if this issue is covered elsewhere, but I cannot find it: Is there a policy or discussion somewhere on how to determine "(i)f a viewpoint is in the majority" or "in the minority"? I did not see it in the FAQ. The project page only states to use "commonly accepted reference texts...." But what if both sides of an issue can give references? This occurs with the historical accuracy of accounts found in ancient texts accepted as scripture, such as Noah's Ark. Is there a recommended process that should be followed? Is it necessary to start listing scholarly references? How can WP editors sort through such issues? Thanks, SteveMc ( talk) 02:25, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
Thanks all, I found enough to help me at the locations mentioned above, leading me to the page WP:SYNTH on WP:NOR. SteveMc ( talk) 22:26, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
[8]. I thought this one is a no-brainer, but apparently User:John doesn't think so. Searching for "balanced" sources is not okay in, for example, the evolution article if you are seeking to balance it with creationism. Instead, we are supposed to chose reliable sources. ScienceApologist ( talk) 20:43, 31 December 2008 (UTC)
From WP:UNDUE:
An article which compares views should not give a minority viewpoint on its subject as much of or as detailed a description as a more popular view, and will generally not even mention a viewpoint which is in the tiny-minority relative to the overall subject. For example, the article on the Earth does not mention modern support for the Flat Earth concept, a view of a distinct minority.
I suggest changing "which compares views" to "which is not specifically about a viewpoint".
An article which is not specifically about a viewpoint should not give a minority viewpoint on its subject as much of or as detailed a description as a more popular view, and will generally not even mention a viewpoint which is in the tiny-minority relative to the overall subject. For example, the article on the Earth does not mention modern support for the Flat Earth concept, a view of a distinct minority.
The reason I am suggesting this is that I believe the current wording has an effective meaning which is likely unintended, though some will disagree that it is unintended. An article about a minority viewpoint meets the definition of an article which compares views, since it will necessarily be contrasted with the majority view. The current wording therefore has the effect of saying that an article about a theory which is generally considered pseudoscience should devote most of its space specifically to the majority view, i.e. criticisms. But in my opinion, this would normally be unfeasible, lest the reader be left wondering what exactly it is which is being criticized. I would further point out that the example given, Earth, is not really an article which compares views, which is why I doubt that this effective meaning is intended.
In interest of full disclosure, it was this discussion which got me started here. PSWG1920 ( talk) 21:49, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
An article should not generally give a minority viewpoint as much of or as detailed a description as a more popular or mainstream view on its subject, and will generally not even mention a viewpoint which is in the tiny-minority relative to the overall subject. For example, the article on the Earth does not mention modern support for the Flat Earth concept, a view of a distinct minority. However, for articles specifically related to the minority views, a bit more latitude is available to explain what the minority views are, but it should be clear that the minority view is a minority view, and the article should explain the mainstream view. In some cases, the evidence backing the mainstream view may be necessary to put the minority view in the overall context of mainstream thought on the issue. For instance, Holocaust denial explains what well-accepted facts on the Holocaust are generally denied by the holders of that fringe viewpoint, and briefly explains the types of evidence and the sheer amount of said evidence that backs the mainstream interpretation. Shoemaker's Holiday ( talk) 02:53, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
As I see it, there are basically two choices, which I have illustrated. The first would make explicit a logical implication of a literal reading of what is already stated in WP:UNDUE. The second would remove that implication. Once one or the other is settled on, it could then be worked on further if necessary. PSWG1920 ( talk) 19:56, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
wikipedia will never be fully neutral. humans have a tendency to think of themselves as superior to other animals. i found many examples of bias based on species difference and scientific ignorence.--00:42, 6 January 2009 (UTC) Guppy22 ( talk)
I have encountered, of late, a troubling trend of people dismissing peer-reviewed academic criticism as an insignificant and non-notable perspective, and removing accounts of academic criticism from articles. This, combined with the tendency we display by default to have articles based on what comes up on Google bothers me, in that it seems to me to cheapen our coverage. We're an encyclopedia, and part of that means respecting academic perspectives.
Accordingly, I would like to add a quick note somewhere in this policy, parallel to the declaration in WP:RS that "Academic and peer-reviewed publications are usually the most reliable sources when available" that notes that academic and scholarly views are a particularly important viewpoint to make sure is represented when possible.
Thoughts? Phil Sandifer ( talk) 20:27, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
I would like us to think about whether it would make sense to add a sentence or two about undue use of primary sources in the WP:Undue section.
The principle I am trying to get at is this: If there is a substantial body of secondary sources available on a topic, then Wikipedians should feel free to use and cite any primary sources (e.g. affidavits, self-published websites, quotations from an author's literary works, etc.) that are cited in these secondary sources. However, we shouldn't really bypass the body of secondary sources to select and cite primary sources ourselves, unless we can demonstrate that this primary source (i.e. affidavit, self-published website, quotation from an author's literary works, etc.) has been used in this way in a secondary source (news source, scholarly publication, etc.).
In my experience, misuse of primary sources, in a way that is unsupported by the existing secondary literature, can cause Wikipedia articles to deviate significantly from the picture presented in the most reliable sources. That is a NPOV and due weight problem. (Such primary-source use has arguably been a major factor in causing the fourth Scientology-related arbcom case in as many years: [9] [10]).
There has been a recent discussion at NOR talk concerning this topic – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:No_original_research#Primary_sources:_The_novel_example – but it has been stated there that this might be more appropriately addressed here. Thoughts? Jayen 466 17:43, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
(outdent) Is the concern here about using material from primary sources out of context (as determined by fair reading of the whole source and perhaps any secondary sources relevant to it), or about using a primary source which itself has not been synthesized from, or referenced in, (or refuted by,) one or more secondary sources? Or both? The first is a case of accurate (or not) representation of the source and is a editorial issue, but one which can evolve into a disruptive editing issue. The second is an issue about reliability of sources, in particular notability, keeping in mind that peer review can act in some sense as a proxy for notability in some cases. Baccyak4H ( Yak!) 19:47, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
I tend to see (direct use) of primary sources as a kind of illustration. This fits well with images (or other media sources) that are used as illustrations and over at WP:NOR have their separate section to explain how these sources are to be approached NOR-wise ( WP:NOR#Original images), a description that without much ado could be fitted for other primary sources like direct quotes.
I adopted and developed this idea in essays and proposals like Wikipedia:Use of primary sources in Wikipedia, Wikipedia:Wikipedia is a tertiary source and Wikipedia:Sources - SWOT analysis.
My idea is that ideally an article would have 30 to 50 percent of its surface devoted to "illustrations". For some topics illustrations would be mostly images (e.g. The Gates); for others mainly quotes (e.g. Tacitus). Going over 50% of the surface of an article being illustration would call for a move of most of it to commons (images) or wikiquote (quotes), or even wikisource for some. Less than approx. 20% would not make it to "Good Article" for example, and for a "Featured Article" approx. 30% would be a minimum. Well, this would be my answer to Jayen's question/suggestion above. In fact this idea includes Jayen's suggestion derived from German Wikipedia, without therefore being anti-primary source (...or anti-illustration). -- Francis Schonken ( talk) 20:29, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
Why is the issue of scientific point of view not discussed in this article? -- Wet dog fur ( talk) 15:51, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
Right after the Undue section comes a short "A vital component: good research" section. I propose that we specifically mention google books and google scholar. Many, many books these days have the majority of their pages visible in google books, including scholarly books that may be unavailable in smaller libraries, and/or expensive to buy. Any objections? Jayen 466 19:09, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
The first three paragraphs are unchanged except for the suggested change by olive shown in bold italic and are only given for context. Most of the rest is the same, too, but with a slightly more logical sequence, and some new additions in the last paragraph.
Neutrality requires that the article should fairly represent all significant viewpoints that have been published by a reliable source, and should do so in proportion to the prominence of each. Now an important qualification: In general, articles should not give minority views as much or as detailed a description as more popular views, and will generally not include tiny-minority views at all. For example, the article on the Earth does not mention modern support for the Flat Earth concept, a view of a distinct minority.
In articles where the subject matter of the article is specifically on an accepted minority viewpoint, the views which reflect the subject matter of the article should receive the most attention and space; however, on such pages, though, the minority view may (and usually should) be described, possibly at length, the article should make appropriate reference to the majority viewpoint wherever relevant, and must not reflect an attempt to rewrite majority-view content strictly from the perspective of the minority view. Specifically, it should always be clear which parts of the text describe the minority view (and that it is, in fact the minority view). The majority view should be explained in sufficient detail that the reader can understand how the minority view differs from the widely-accepted one, and controversies regarding parts of the minority view should clearly be identified and explained. How much detail is required depends on the subject: For instance, historical views such as flat earth, with few or no modern proponents, may be able to briefly state the modern position then discuss the history of the idea in great detail, neutrally presenting the history of a now-discredited belief. Other minority views may require much more extensive description of the majority view in order not to mislead the reader. Wikipedia:Fringe theories and the NPOV F.A.Q. provide additional advice on these points.
Wikipedia should not present a dispute as if a view held by a small minority deserved as much attention overall as a majority view. Views that are held by a tiny minority should not be represented except in articles devoted to those views. To give undue weight to a significant-minority view, or to include a tiny-minority view, might be misleading as to the shape of the dispute. Wikipedia aims to present competing views in proportion to their representation in reliable sources on the subject. This applies not only to article text, but to images, wikilinks, external links, categories, and all other material as well.
- From Jimbo Wales, paraphrased from this post from September 2003 on the WikiEN-l 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;
- If a viewpoint is held by an extremely small (or vastly limited) minority, it does not belong in Wikipedia regardless of whether it is true or not and regardless of whether you can prove it or not, except perhaps in some ancillary article.
If you are able to prove something that few or none currently believe, Wikipedia is not the place to première such a proof. Once a proof has been presented and discussed elsewhere, however, it may be referenced. See: Wikipedia:No original research and Wikipedia:Verifiability.
Keep in mind that in determining proper weight we consider a viewpoint's prevalence in reliable sources, not its prevalence among Wikipedia editors. This principle does not just apply to viewpoints. Just as giving undue weight to a viewpoint is not neutral, so is giving undue weight to selected primary sources and other verifiable and sourced statements. An article should strive to treat each aspect with the weight appropriate to its significance to the subject. If there is a substantial body of reliable secondary sources on a subject, for example a body of scholarly literature, then the weighting of information in the Wikipedia article should reflect the weight that information is given in the most reliable sources. Note that undue weight can be given in several ways, including, but not limited to, depth of detail, quantity of text, prominence of placement, and juxtaposition of statements.
As you'll see, our current text on the policy page meanders from "viewpoints" to "other things than viewpoints" and then back to "viewpoints" in a way that is somewhat unsatisfactory. The above rewrite consolidates all the viewpoint-related material, and puts the "other issues" in the last paragraph. This paragraph now also contains a reference to the importance of secondary sources in establishing proper weight.
As an afterthought, it seems to me that this section gives "undue weight" to the topic of fringe theories. These are already covered in a number of other places. I think I would prefer a little more emphasis on the importance of consulting secondary sources in establishing due weight generally in structuring an article, and selecting the information to be presented.
Any objections, thoughts, feedback on the above? Jayen 466 23:54, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
Neutrality requires that the article should fairly represent all significant viewpoints that have been published by a reliable source, and should do so in proportion to the prominence of each. Now an important qualification: In general, articles should not give minority views as much or as detailed a description as more popular views, and will generally not include tiny-minority views at all. For example, the article on the Earth does not mention modern support for the Flat Earth concept, a view of a distinct minority.
In articles specifically on the minority viewpoint, the views can receive more attention and space; however, on such pages, though the minority view may (and usually should) be described, possibly at length, the article should make appropriate reference to the majority viewpoint wherever relevant, and must not reflect an attempt to rewrite majority-view content strictly from the perspective of the minority view. Specifically, it should always be clear which parts of the text describe the minority view (and that it is, in fact the minority view). The majority view should be explained in sufficient detail that the reader can understand how the minority view differs from the widely-accepted one, and controversies regarding parts of the minority view should clearly be identified and explained. How much detail is required depends on the subject: For instance, articles on historical views such as flat earth, with few or no modern proponents, may be able to briefly state the modern position, then discuss the history of the idea in great detail, neutrally presenting the history of a now-discredited belief. Other minority views may require much more extensive description of the majority view in order not to mislead the reader. Wikipedia:Fringe theories and the NPOV F.A.Q. provide additional advice on these points.
Wikipedia should not present a dispute as if a view held by a small minority deserved as much attention overall as a majority view. Views that are held by a tiny minority should not be represented except in articles devoted to those views. To give undue weight to a significant-minority view, or to include a tiny-minority view, might be misleading as to the shape of the dispute. Wikipedia aims to present competing views in proportion to their representation in reliable sources on the subject. This applies not only to article text, but to images, wikilinks, external links, categories, and all other material as well.
If you are able to provide evidence in support of something that few or none currently believe, Wikipedia is not the place to première such evidence. Once an idea or an assertion of evidence has been presented and discussed elsewhere, however, it may be used, subject also to the other limitations prescribed in Wikipedia:No original research and Wikipedia:Verifiability. See also the guideline WP:FRINGE.
Keep in mind that in determining proper weight we consider a viewpoint's prevalence in reliable sources, not its prevalence among Wikipedia editors. This principle does not just apply to viewpoints. Just as giving undue weight to a viewpoint is not neutral, so is giving undue weight to selected primary sources and other verifiable and sourced statements. An article should strive to treat each aspect with the weight appropriate to its significance to the subject, as established by the most reliable sources. For example, if there is a substantial body of scholarly literature on a subject, then the weighting of information in the Wikipedia article should reflect the weight that information is given in the literature. Note that undue weight can be given in several ways, including, but not limited to, depth of detail, quantity of text, prominence of placement, and juxtaposition of statements.
Could we drop that in?
And Olive, can we leave the change you propose in the second para for a subsequent discussion? I'd like to take it one bit at a time. Cheers, Jayen 466 18:45, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
"I'm not a social worker. I don't do it for this reason. I do it for Christ. I do it for the church"
Mother Teresa [3]
Apart from some reordering,
-- Francis Schonken ( talk) 07:20, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
Jayen, your bias is getting tiring, there's no such inequality in WP:V, "...the most reliable sources are peer-reviewed journals and books published in university presses; university-level textbooks; magazines, journals, and books published by respected publishing houses; and mainstream newspapers." - bolding what you consistently try to minimize, and The appropriateness of any source always depends on the context, which goes hand in hand with "the idea that scholarly sources are usually the "most reliable" in areas where they are available": your policy writing is biased by omission of the context. -- Francis Schonken ( talk) 11:41, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
Keep in mind that in determining proper weight we consider a viewpoint's prevalence in reliable sources, not its prevalence among Wikipedia editors. This principle does not just apply to viewpoints. Just as giving undue weight to a viewpoint is not neutral, so is giving undue weight to selected primary sources and other verifiable and sourced statements. An article should strive to treat each aspect with the weight appropriate to its significance to the subject, as established by the most reliable sources. Note that undue weight can be given in several ways, including, but not limited to, depth of detail, quantity of text, prominence of placement, and juxtaposition of statements.
Yes, those were the words, *exactly* why I said you deformed the message, by omitting the rest of the paragraph that balances out an overemphasis on scholarly sources. How many repeats do we need?
As you picked out only two remarks out of my five or six objections, I don't see how you can imagine that I'd agree with your above proposal. Do I have to repeat each one of my thoughts twice or trice or even more before you'd be managed to notice them? This exercise is going nowhere if you're only prepared to pay attention to what you point out yourself, not even bothering to find alternate arguments to articulate objections or suggestions. -- Francis Schonken ( talk) 13:51, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
Paraphrasing: I liked the rationale behind these changes better than the actual execution.
And I note that it appears impossible for you to not deform what other have to say. E.g. in your comments describes present policy as "innocent and tedious gibberish" - more heat than actually rendering what I said. Not useful if you want to take this discussion anywhere. -- Francis Schonken ( talk) 15:26, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
"General principle: no "illustration" without treating the illustrated topic on the basis of secondary and/or tertiary sources. In other words, (links to) illustrations that are not covered by attributable descriptions have no place in Wikipedia."
Hi. At Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view#Characterizing_opinions_of_people.27s_work in the second sentence we have this: "Wikipedia articles about art, artists, and other creative topics (e.g. musicians, actors, books, etc.) have tended toward the effusive." What, all of them? Blimey! I would like, please, to add the word Some at the beginning of the sentence to give this: "Some Wikipedia articles about art, artists, and other creative topics (e.g. musicians, actors, books, etc.) have tended toward the effusive." I think this reads much better and more fairly - the original is itself perhaps a tiny touch POV, seeming to condemn whole swathes of editors as sensitive types so busy gibbering over the Appassionata that we lose our grip entirely. "Some" at least offers an exit route to a few of us arty, flamboyant, shrieking, long-haired bohemian editors who might try very hard to retain some semblance of control while tempted beyond all reason by the swell on the belly of a finely-honed Strad ... I mean come on ... what do you think? Thanks and best wishes DisillusionedBitterAndKnackered ( talk) 09:04, 15 January 2009 (UTC)
As I read it, the notion of POV contained within this policy (per the "Reasoning behind neutrality" section) is tied to the existence of competing opinions on a subject in reliable sources. For example, our article on
Cat needs to note that the domestic cat is considered both a popular pet and an environmental menace (and it does).
But is this policy intended to apply on a "meta" level as well and require that the scope of an article must cover all possible definitions of a term? For example, a broader definition of "cat" includes not only the domestic cats that our article covers, but a wide variety of wild cats including extinct varieties like the Sabre-tooth tiger. As I see it, this is a pragmatic issue of scoping an article, and is not a POV issue. What do others think?
(This issue has come up at
glider, and I wanted to check my understanding here before wading in any deeper! :) ) --
Rlandmann (
talk) 20:47, 15 January 2009 (UTC)
Am I correct in stating that Wikipedia's NPOV policy does not apply in practise to certain points of view, for example, some points of view regarding sexism, racism, racialism, homophobia, and anti-semitism feminism. Also, certain other points of view considered politically incorrect, those that might hurt the image Wikipedia hopes to project of itself to the public, or views that might hurt fund raising efforts. These points of view may be covered by the NPOV policy but not actually supported in practise. It seems that Wikipedia administrators apply their own individual policies regarding these views and it is an accepted practice. --
Slim five (
talk) 00:47, 22 January 2009 (UTC)
I see that what I wrote initially was confusing, perhaps because the person sitting at the computer next to me kept singing when I was typing and I was in a hurry. I apologize for this. I will try to restate it again more clearly. It seems that Wikipedia's NPOV policy is not always practiced with regards to POVs, statements, or information that can be considered sexist, racist, homophobic, or anti-semetic for example. (I am not referring specifically to the articles on sexism, racism, anti-semitism, etc.; that's not where the problem is.) For instance, someone deletes a statement from an article because it is sexist/racist/homophobic/anti-semetic regardless of its significance to the article. Other editors are less likely to object to this when it involves those types of subjects. Also, administrators are less likely to properly enforce the NPOV policy when dealing with those types of subjects, perhaps because they are concerned with Wikipedia's image to the public, it offends them personally, it is politically incorrect, or whatever. What I am saying is that it doesn't seem that Wikipedia's NPOV policy is always adhered to. -- Slim five ( talk) 05:49, 22 January 2009 (UTC)
congragulation for breaking the record for the shortest time in a royalrumble from caleb —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.226.150.44 ( talk) 20:08, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
In the section Neutrality_and_verifiability, the second comma in this sentence should be a colon or semicolon: In these types of disputes, it is important to note that verifiability lives alongside neutrality, it does not override it. It seems to me as though this kind of minor edit shouldn't need consensus, but practically given the nature of the internet it probably does. Dan Wylie-Sears 2 ( talk) 13:32, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
In this edit by User:Anonymous44, the editor changes the policy as follows.
Before:
After:
I've reverted for discussion. Does this strict characterization help or hinder? -- TS 21:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
What sort of general tests do people use to determine if application of "controversial" or "controversy" to an article is a neutral expression which helps the reader understand the subject, or an editor projecting a negative point of view? Is it merely sufficient to show that if "non-controversial" cannot be proven, the default of "controversial" applies? patsw ( talk) 02:03, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
I am interested, especially in light of the article on abortion, why the neutral point of view policy does not extend to the unborn child. -- T.M.M. Dowd ( talk) 20:27, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
Please see here for my proposal of a new template, that would be put on articles that need to have their sources globalized - i.e. on articles that rely on a very similar set of sources likely representing one and the same POV.-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk 13:58, 6 March 2009 (UTC)
I have had a couple of experiences where editors have used WP:WEIGHT as an excuse to distort or minimize the views of AIDS dissidents, even in articles about those views. My understanding of WP:WEIGHT is that it applies to subjects (like scientific claims) about which there are multiple points of view, and asks us to favor the most prominent viewpoint. But sometimes the subject is a person's opinion about a fact, rather than the fact itself, for instance as often occurs in a biography. As I understand it, in this case, WP:WEIGHT is not directly applicable, except as it pertains to mainstream and minority views on the opinion itself, and perhaps as it asks us to mention the existence of more mainstream opinions. In other words, if the opinion is relevant to the article, then it should be described in enough detail to convey its content and basic reasoning, and not trivialized because of any "fringe" nature.
But some people are using WP:WEIGHT to do just this. In this edit, MastCell removes the name and qualifications of Gordon Stewart and reduces his account of the Durban conference, and his reactions to the Durban Declaration, to a simple endorsement of free speech. In this edit, Keepcalmandcarryon replaces an accurate, referenced description of Henry Bauer's views with something misleading, inaccurate, and vaguely racist-sounding. In both instances, WP:WEIGHT was given as justification. My question is, are these kinds of edits justified under WP:WEIGHT? I can see why an article on the Solar system would not dwell on pre-Copernican views, or why the article on AIDS would not dwell on the views of the dissidents; what I don't really understand is how it is that Galileo affair can describe pre-Copernican views at length, while AIDS dissident views are censored even in articles about those views. A5 ( talk) 20:30, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
Thank you for your replies, Anonymous44 and Ludwigs2. Note that other declarations, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, feature criticism. Why not the Durban declaration? More to the point, is citing WP:WEIGHT valid for removing such criticism? The article is not about AIDS, after all, it is about the history of science. The present article reads like one side of a telephone conversation: the declaration condemns allegations which are nowhere summarized; and Wain-Hobson and Weiss's reply to Stewart is given without the context of Stewart's response to the Declaration. Without the material I had inserted, the article gives the impression that the dissidents have unquestioned answers; but Stewart alleges they have unanswered questions. Pulling the phlogiston card, as Wain-Hobson and Weiss do, seems less suave when they could have just enumerated the questions of Mbeki and their scientific answers. But readers of Wikipedia do not get to entertain this judgment, whether it is valid or invalid, because half of the historic exchange has been hidden from them.
I didn't try making my Durban Declaration edit shorter because MastCell's application of WP:WEIGHT seemed unamenable to compromise. I think that WP:WEIGHT is being consistently misused by people who, for whatever reason, want to make AIDS dissidents sound like fools. Perhaps they are only innocently defending, through censorship, a Truth which they see as precariously fragile against dissent.
But it would seem advisable to try to make the editing process more agenda-proof by deciding exactly how WP:WEIGHT should apply to descriptions of scientific theories found in biographies and history of science articles - and, in particular, if it can be used as an excuse to remove information which is otherwise relevant to the subject. Calling "AIDS denialism" one of "Wikipedia's bugaboos" sounds sadly fatalistic to me. A5 ( talk) 00:46, 16 February 2009 (UTC)
Since AIDS denialism has been scientifically discredited, it is promoted largely via the Internet ( Smith & Novella, 2007). This is a case in point. If AIDS denialism seems to be one of Wikipedia's "bugaboos", that may be because groups of advocates occasionally coordinate assaults on Wikipedia to attempt to slant our coverage toward their fringe view, and Wikipedia doesn't always handle such organized agenda-pushing as well as it should.
The Durban declaration generated numerous published responses in Nature. Curiously, A5 chose to excerpt only one of these at length - the one authored by an AIDS denialist. This is poor editing at best, and actively dishonest at worst; it gives the reader an incorrect impression of the actual debate, and makes the rhetoric about "censorship" seem rather hypocritical. My subsequent edit was an attempt to partially correct this oversight, by providing a somewhat fuller sample of the responses to the declaration. MastCell Talk 04:46, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
Ludwigs2, you've placed me (and the others) in the same category with a group of fringe POV editors, including single-purpose accounts who share passwords for the stated purpose of disrupting Wikipedia. That's not something for me to reflect on, it's an outright accusation of poor behaviour, backed up with no evidence. I'm not insulted, as it turns out, just confused about why you've assumed bad faith of me and other editors. It now appears it has something to do with a personal history I don't know about, and since we've veered far off the topic of NPOV (not that this was the proper forum for A5's concerns in the first place), I'm signing off on this one. Keepcalmandcarryon ( talk) 23:32, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
Thank you, Ludwigs2, for your warnings, advice, and observations; and especially for the risks and criticism you endured in making them. I was myself surprised to be warned on my talk page regarding WP:FORUM by the same user who directed me here - was I supposed to make my case without citing examples? Further, I seem to be the only editor in this conversation who has not expressed a personal view on AIDS, and in light of that it is especially ironic that I am also the only one who has been warned not to use this page as a "forum". I am still not sure which of my statements broke the WP:FORUM rule.
MastCell appears to argue that Durban declaration is a scientific paper on AIDS, which seems at odds with his view that Michael Specter's emotional state and the South African phrase for "trash can" are both relevant to it (and also at odds with the fact that it has no authors, 5000 signatories, and calls for "solidarity"). Perhaps a separate article could be created for the paper's scientific claims, which occupy less than one sentence in the present article; or they could be moved to a sub-section in which different rules are applicable. As it currently stands, the article seems to be mostly about the history of science.
So far as I can tell, nobody has answered my question concerning the proper interpretation of the WP:WEIGHT rule. My understanding is that it can always be used to add information to articles, to contextualise "fringe" views by contrasting them with their mainstream counterparts. I maintain that this positive application of WP:WEIGHT is always powerful enough to confront the danger, which has been voiced by some editors, that Wikipedia might mislead readers into confusing "pseudoscience" for science.
Also, we can always delete information which is irrelevant to an article. And WP:WEIGHT can be applied negatively, to delete information about controversial views from articles discussing the subject matter of those views, e.g. to delete pseudoscience from science articles. But can WP:WEIGHT be used to delete "fringe" views from contexts where they are otherwise relevant, for instance from articles about the history of science, or biographies - which happen to discuss the views themselves? As far as I understand it, the policy's answer is "no". We cannot try to explain theories, even ones which have been discredited, without reference to their own internal consistency. To make the situation clearer for editors, I propose adding a table like the following to Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view/FAQ or Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view/Examples. The "OK to remove?" column stands for "Is it OK to use WP:WEIGHT to remove information about the given subject from the given article?". For the Durban declaration, I have provided two rows, to address MC's concern, which would apply separately to the separate articles or sections covering each aspect of the declaration. Of course, there will always be other ways for editors to remove relevant information from articles, but it would at least be a step in the right direction to clarify the proper use of WP:WEIGHT.
Subject | Article | OK to remove? |
---|---|---|
pre-Copernican astronomy | Solar System | yes |
pre-Copernican astronomy | Galileo affair | no |
pre-Copernican astronomy | Ptolemy | no |
Phlogiston theory | Combustion | yes |
Phlogiston theory | Phlogiston | no |
Phlogiston theory | Johann Joachim Becher | no |
Biblical creation | Big Bang | yes |
Biblical creation | 1860 Oxford evolution debate | no |
Biblical creation | Christianity | no |
Moon landing hoax | Apollo program | yes |
Moon landing hoax | Apollo Moon Landing hoax conspiracy theories | no |
Moon landing hoax | Bill Kaysing | no |
AIDS dissent | AIDS | yes |
AIDS dissent | Durban declaration (scientific paper) | yes |
AIDS dissent | Durban declaration (declaration) | no |
AIDS dissent | AIDS denialism | no |
AIDS dissent | Henry H. Bauer | no |
Sorry for writing so much. Comments are welcome. Please let me know (with support from the policy text) if I have misinterpreted WP:WEIGHT. A5 ( talk) 00:47, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
KCCO's attempt to summarize my (long) suggestion without reading it says, "Thus, the flat earthers should have their say at Earth and anywhere else they like, so long as additional material is put into the article for balance.", which is quite incorrect. Perhaps a look at the table will clear this up. Articles such as Earth are exactly where I'm suggesting it is OK to remove material on "flat earth". But if it's OK to remove fringe views wherever they appear, such as "flat earth" from Flat earth, then I worry about the consequences for Wikipedia. For instance, will an article on biblical creation eventually describe it as "the discredited theory that the Big Bang happened 6,000 years ago" as anything more detailed would give undue weight to "fringe" views? How exactly does Wikipedia plan to avoid such a fate, if removing otherwise relevant "fringe" views from articles under WP:WEIGHT is always acceptable? And if that is a valid interpretation of WP:WEIGHT, then shouldn't the policy guidelines say so explicitly? A5 ( talk) 13:00, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
(outdent) It can be taken too far, I wholeheartedly agree. The problem is that advocates of pseudoscience try to abuse the language of science (q.v. "only a theory"), so keeping the articles jargon-free and plain spoken avoids that problem. There's no need to be judgmental (i.e. accusations of fraud), but there is a specific and active reason to go beyond the language of science and into common English. As the old yarn has it, "do not write to be understood, write so that you cannot be misunderstood." SDY ( talk) 20:49, 12 March 2009 (UTC)
I have introduced a policy proposal at WP:NOR that has some bearing on the NPOV and the treatment of fringe theories. Please join the discussion. -- Phenylalanine ( talk) 11:15, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
POV is a nice shield for people to hide behind. "YOUR EDIT BLA BLA IS POV BLA BLA" and "I DELETE THIS BECAUSE OF POV BLA BLA" is the two most popular lines on Wikipedia. I also see that some people dont even want to talk about this... too sad.-- hnnvansier ( talk) 14:33, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
Here is an organized and concerted conspiracy to violate NPOV by removing any use of the word "cold" to describe the mantle even though the verifiable and reliable peer-reviewed science uses the word "cold" over and over again to describe the mantle. Also see Expanding Earth where a deliberate organized attempt is being made to suppress any information that might portray the hypothesis in NPOV. And Subduction where all critical citation is suppressed. Wikkidd ( talk) 04:10, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
A discussion here deals with the question of whether the editing policy should recommend that editors remove material that "clearly fails" our content policies. Some input from editors with more experience of policy than I have would be appreciated. Tim Vickers ( talk) 17:21, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
Why dosent something to tell you how to nominate an article as biased? SJHQC ( talk) 21:40, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
Can we get a consensus on them? NPOV as it stands should/does discourage them because they are solely devoted to one view point (in violation of the concept of neutrality, let alone the policy). However, people keep pointing to the "no consensus" line in WP:CFORK to justify their existence. So, discuss away. Sceptre ( talk) 13:06, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
Just so that everybody's aware -- this discussion here is actually (very ironically!) a content fork from the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Content forking where Sceptre ( talk · contribs) decided to unilaterally remove an existing RFC and start a new one over here. Nice tactic, eh? -- 65.78.13.238 ( talk) 16:09, 22 March 2009 (UTC)
so much for NPOV. well, it was a blast while it lasted. see: http://www.xkcd.com/545/ Mercurywoodrose ( talk) 16:20, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
Frankly I have little time to go through all the finer points on NPOV (neutral meaning no bais). Instead why don't we go for holistic understanding (inclusive of all points of noteworthy views APOV that contributes to the whole understanding of the subject). Even within Science there are always the official mainstream version and significant other views that are repressed. For example the section Climate Change do not allow adding another equally strong group of scientists or views The Great Global Warming Swindle listed in wikipedia. If wikipedia is about collaboration and open sharing of knowledge then we must have space for all credible and significant sources and emerging unofficial views. May be not in the same article (to avoid edit wars) but in the end sections or external links like 'see also' which should always remain open an unprotected. SusMita Barua 14:36, 1 April 2009 (UTC) isis07
Can I please know why my edit was reverted? The only reason I reverted the revert was that I wasn't given a reason.-- Canaris 4 ( talk) 12:42, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
Ok SheffieldSteel had the better reason.-- Canaris 4 ( talk) 08:50, 15 April 2009 (UTC)
This page is kinda a critical policy page which we expect people to read. As a courtisy we should make it as short as posible. This section may be full of interest but it isn't policy and isn't needed therefor it should not be included. Geni 23:59, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
History and rationale
History of NPOV
The neutral point of view policy is one of the oldest policies on Wikipedia.
Reasoning behind neutrality
Wikipedia is a general encyclopedia, which means it is a representation of human knowledge at some level of generality. But human beings disagree about specific cases; for any topic on which there are competing views, each view represents a different idea of what the truth is, and insofar as that view contradicts other views, its adherents believe that the other views are false and therefore not knowledge. Where there is disagreement about what is true, there is disagreement about what constitutes knowledge. Wikipedia works because it is a collaborative effort; but, while collaborating, how can we solve the problem of endless " edit wars" in which one person asserts that p, whereupon the next person changes the text so that it asserts not-p?
A solution is that we accept, for the purposes of working on Wikipedia, that "human knowledge" includes all different significant theories on all different topics. We are committed to the goal of representing human knowledge in that sense, surely a well-established meaning of the word "knowledge". What is "known" changes constantly with the passage of time, and so when we use the word "know," we often enclose it in so-called scare quotes. Europeans in the Middle Ages "knew" that demons caused diseases [4] [5]; we now "know" otherwise.
We could sum up human knowledge (in this sense) in a biased way: we could state a series of theories about topic T and then claim that the truth about T is such-and-such. But then again, consider that Wikipedia is an international collaborative project, and that nearly every view on every subject will be found among our authors and readers. To avoid endless edit wars, we can agree to present each of the significant views fairly and not assert any one of them as correct. That is what makes an article "unbiased" or "neutral" in the sense presented here. To write from a neutral point of view, one presents controversial views without asserting them; to do that, it generally suffices to present competing views in a way that is more or less acceptable to their adherents, and also to attribute the views to their adherents. Disputes are characterized in Wikipedia; they are not re-enacted.
To sum up the primary reason for this policy: Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, a compilation of human knowledge. But because Wikipedia is a community-built, international resource, we cannot expect collaborators to agree in all cases, or even in many cases, on what constitutes knowledge in a strict sense. We can therefore adopt the looser sense of "human knowledge" according to which a wide variety of conflicting theories constitute what we call "knowledge." We should, both individually and collectively, make an effort to present these conflicting views fairly, without advocating any one of them—with the qualification that views held only by a tiny minority of people should not be represented as though they are significant minority views and perhaps should not be represented at all.
There is another reason to commit ourselves to this policy, that when it is clear to readers that we do not expect them to adopt any particular opinion, this leaves them free to make up their minds for themselves, thus encouraging intellectual independence. Totalitarian governments and dogmatic institutions everywhere might find reason to oppose Wikipedia, if we succeed in adhering to our non-bias policy: the presentation of many competing theories on a wide variety of subjects suggests that we, the editors of Wikipedia, trust readers to form their own opinions. Texts that present multiple viewpoints fairly, without demanding that the reader accept any particular one of them, are liberating. Neutrality subverts dogmatism. Nearly everyone working on Wikipedia can agree this is a good thing.
Example: Abortion
It might help to consider an example of how Wikipedians have improved a biased text.
On the abortion page, early in 2001, some advocates had used the page to exchange barbs, being unable to agree about what arguments should be on the page and how the competing positions should be represented. What was needed—and what was added—was an in-depth discussion of the different positions about the moral and legal aspects of abortion at different times. This discussion of the positions was carefully crafted so as not to favor any one of the positions outlined. This made it easier to organize and understand the arguments surrounding the topic of abortion, which were then presented impartially, each with its strengths and weaknesses.
There are numerous other success stories of articles that began life as virtual partisan screeds but were nicely cleaned up by people who concerned themselves with representing all views clearly and impartially.
I am reinstating the sections. So far less than a handful of editors have participated in the debate. I think if it is to be removed then it should be a decision made by more than that. It would be useful if someone would put in links at the top of this section to the sections in the archives which have already discussed the article section as there will be arguments there for why it was created and maintained in the first place, and at the moment the conversation seems to be taking place in a vacuum. -- PBS ( talk) 09:01, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
I have now looked through the archives and put in links at the top of this article to those sections in the archives that discuss this section. I may have missed some and if I have then please feel free to add some more.
I think that we need to discuss this in the context of the three subsections in the overall section and whether one or more of those subsections should be removed:
I think all three have some validity, and one important consideration is that "Well, the wikipedian way is to use summary style in situations like this" is not an option with policies. Information on policy pages is policy and that in other things are guidelines essays etc. This difference is important because as WP:Policy and guidelines says "Our list of policies are considered a standard that all editors should follow, whereas our guidelines are more advisory in nature,".
Of these subsections I think that the first one should stay in the article as it reminds people that this is not a new policy but one that has existed for a long time. Several times I have had to add the history of WP:NC into conversations on the talk pages of that policy and associated guidelines. Rather than deleting it from this policy it is something that is probably worth adding to WP:V, WP:NOR and WP:NC. As to the other two sections, we have to ask ourselves do they add anything to the policy or would it be better if they were deleted or moved into a FAQ or guideline? -- PBS ( talk) 17:27, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
This 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. |
One of the problems of trying to put all the old guidelines into a single guideline is that part of them gets lost. WP:UNDUE used to include explicitly not only undue weight with reference to the opinion of groups but also undue weight with respect to notability. It used to be clear that just because a news item mentioning an article topic reached a minimum threshold for notability did not mean it has a right for inclusion on the main article on the topic. The coverage of a topic should reflect the notability of what is included. Without this we will get a form of NPOV by inclusion of minor news items in too prominent articles and the job of reducing the size of some enormous articles gets harder. Things which reach a threshold for notability of course we can include somewhere but the main articles on big topics have to be balanced in choice of notable content. Are we happy that undue with respect to notability should be included in some form and if so would someone like to try and add it?-- BozMo talk 07:37, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
I believe I took care of these problems, recently, and was roundly hated for it. BozMo, take a look at this and see what you think [1]. I made things really clear. The fact that you said what you did proves my point that the thing is not written correctly. In fact, I made the change you suggest. So I'm personally feeling mistreated here, because everyone was against my changes, now they are all happy to discuss them. —— Martinphi ☎ Ψ Φ—— 02:19, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
I'm having trouble reconciling the rules regarding undue weight. I would like to think of Wikipedia as being fairly comprehensive being that it has virtually unlimited space for an article when compared to a traditional encyclopedia. And yet, it seems to have little interest in small minority viewpoints when there is ample space for the availability of such. Honestly, this disappoints me about Wikipedia and I, for one, would like to see this rule changed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Leomarth ( talk • contribs) 06:22, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
I have had my contributions removed from both the article and the talk pages several times over the last few days and replaced with material, which was there previously, that I know to be untrue. I was there. For example: - The number of Federal personnel involved in the 'snatch of Elian Gonzalez was given by Fox News at the time as being two hundred and thirty. It was certainly not just eight as is again stated in the article - there may have been only eight with SWAT equipment who actually stormed and entered the house.
I am not sure on reflection that this article is a notable subject for inclusion under Wikipedia guidelines, it certainly appears to be used as a means of propaganda for some persons with a political agenda rather than to be acurate encyclopedic information. ( ZigZag ( talk) 02:46, 4 October 2008 (UTC)).
Last week's ABC Radio National program The Media Report features an interview with Todd Hermann, the Seattle-based developer of a new online application called SpinSpotter. The application uses an algorithm to detect and highlight examples of 'spin' in online news stories and news sites. Wikipedia is mentioned by analogy. I wonder who in WP is best-placed to investigate whether the application—a free download—is suitable for use in trouble-shooting POV on WP. I suspect that such software applications will soon provide us with the opportunity to revolutionise our monitoring of POV in articles. The algorithms sound as though they're sophisticated; although they're currently set up based on the code of ethics of the American Society of Professional Journalists, to what extent do these ethics differ from those of WP?
The audio stream is available for another three weeks here, and the transcript is permanent, here.
Is this the best place to post this message? Tony (talk) 06:16, 4 October 2008 (UTC)
Everyone is invited to discuss the Policy status of a subpage FAQ of the WP:NPOV policy. The discussion also includes what should be moved from WP:NPOV/FAQ into WP:NPOV if the FAQ is changed from a Policy to a Guideline or Essay. Dreadstar † 04:18, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
I consider the link for phrase "published by reliable sources" in second sentence stated as Wikipedia:Verifiability is wrong. Should be Wikipedia:Reliable sources, shouldn't it? -- Юрцэвіч Дзьмітры ( talk) 19:54, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
See WP:Update for the September changes to all the Category:Wikipedia content policies pages (including this one) and also the most generally-used style guidelines (called, unsurprisingly, Category:General style guidelines). If anyone wants to take on the job of updating monthly content policy at WP:Update, please reply at WT:Update. Obviously, since this page is in WP-space, anyone can make any edit at any time, but regular updaters would be nice. - Dan Dank55 ( send/receive) 18:52, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
"All editors and all sources have biases (in other words, all editors and all sources have a point of view) — what matters is how we combine them to create a neutral article."
This, I think, is either opinionated or a poor assumption. Either it needs to be reworded in a way that doesn't make that assumption, or a citation is needed to prove that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.127.239.0 ( talk) 07:13, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
I'm not exactly sure, I'm a bit new to English. I was hoping someone might have a better alternative to it, though. 68.127.239.0 ( talk) 08:20, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
I can look at this section as well as the other two sections WP:MORALIZE and WP:SUBSTANTIATE and determine on my own that opinions should not be added and that facts should speak for themselves. Yet it has been argued, by some editors, on other talk pages that an opinion is OK if experts agree, and if experts agree on an opinion, then it is fact. I cited the example that Murder is bad, hoping that the other editor would see the reasoning, but I was told I was comparing apples to oranges. My question is:
The way it reads now is still just a bit ambiguous and can still be interpreted incorrectly. Perhaps I am still wrong but hopefully someone will comment soon.-- Jojhutton ( talk) 15:41, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
This is great, and makes things clearer. Does not change the meaning, but it does make things clearer and it is well written. —— Martinphi ☎ Ψ Φ—— 19:52, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
(undent) Jim: if you can point out where it actually changed any meanings, please do so. I meant this edit to be helpful, not problematic. and please don't suggest that I can't be wp:bold when it comes to what I view as minor revisions. I don't object to the disagreement or the revert, mind you, just the hostility behind it. however, since the topic is opened, let's discuss it now so that we can work out the kinks.
OM: asking you not to mark your reverts as minor constitutes a personal attack? dude, please... -- Ludwigs2 20:21, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
Guys... there's no need to descend into taking swipes at each other. I commend WP:BRD as a good read. Discussion doesn't always HAVE to come first. Ludwigs made a change. He thought it would stand. (thats the Bold in BRD) But it got reverted. (that's the Revert in BRD) So now... discuss the change and work out what would have consensus. L: Don't take offense that you got reverted (and spare us the "my personal ________" comments). OM: Don't take offense that L asked you to change your Twinkle settings. Both of you and everyone else, get back to the substance here, would be my advice. Thanks. ++ Lar: t/ c 22:21, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
Since Ludwig was asking for examples where his new wording] changed the meaning (emphasis added):
Hum, this new wording opens the word to some POV pusher saying "But I have here (link to biased page) serious arguments to the contrary" and "you can't assert until you can show that arguments on the contrary are not serious".
Ok, this is plainly removing the part saying that borderline statements should not be included. This looks uncomfortably like the same old dispute about leaving WP:FRINGE theories stuff out of articles, where Ludwig is partidary of including them. I think that Ludwig does not notice that he is unconsciously introducing his own bias, no offence intended :) -- Enric Naval ( talk) 01:09, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
(I continue) The part on the Beatles looks okay to me, and the wording is clearer on the old version. That part doesn't change meaning except to say that the forbidden statement "X was the best ever" can now be sourced like "[authoritative source] says that X was the best ever"
The added explanation of what 'mass attribution' means is quite good.
The rest of the last changed paragraph, however, has a huge problem. The example of "God exists" is not about an actual fact (unless you can prove that God exist, of course). You see what I mean, I'll just make the same sentence that Ludwig did, but with a different topic:
As it happens all the time on articles that have some pseudoscientific/fringe POVs, the capability of scientific authoritative sources to state scientific facts is put in doubt. As I say above, this appears to be unconscious bias (sorry, Ludwigs)
So, some parts of the text are rescuable (hell, maybe I'll try to add them myself other day :P) -- Enric Naval ( talk) 01:31, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
<ri> Thanks for reviewing the proposed changes, Enric. At first glance the Beatles paragraph looks reasonable, the mass attribution issue needs more careful consideration. Look forward to seeing proposals for any changes, with due care to avoid unintended consequences. . . dave souza, talk 08:36, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
Enric, NOR already does what you say- any POV pusher can ask for a source on something. You're talking about attribution here. Attributing something to Nature strengthens the claim. If some POV pusher insists on attribution, if the source is good the original claim is made stronger. If the source is not good, then it is rightly put in question in the mind of the reader. In either case, no harm has been done. WP has no business stating controversial things as fact in a context where that is disputed much as some editors want to. Example: See? In the article on Plato, there is no dispute. In an article on the Plato myth, you attribute. So it's a matter of context, as with so much else. A "serious controversy" is relative.
On Wikipedia, a " fact" is taken to mean "information about which there is no meaningful dispute in the article context." For example, in an article on the Earth it may be stated as fact that the earth is round, but in the section of that article which mentions Flat earth belief, a statement that "the earth is really round" must be attributed. Likewise, statements that a planet called Mars exists, or that Plato was a philosopher may be stated as facts in articles on those subjects. But in articles disputing the existence of Mars or denying that Plato existed, editors must source their claims.
Or something like that. Everyone here knows that we don't go into articles which deny the obvious and, after stating the position taken by the deniers of the obvious, blandly state the obvious as fact. Look at the Flat earth article. —— Martinphi ☎ Ψ Φ—— 01:21, 20 October 2008 (UTC)
I went ahead and used Ludwig's wording [2], as people here seem to like it and it doesn't change meaning. -- Enric Naval ( talk) 17:28, 23 October 2008 (UTC)
Just after the "mass attribution" words (right next to reference [3]), add Ludwig's explanation as a footnote:
{{note|mass|Mass attribution happens when a particular statement is applied as though it were true of a broad range of people. Statements of this sort may be prefaced by explicit qualifiers like 'everyone knows...' or 'all Ecuadorians support...' or it may merely be an implicit assumption in the text, but in either case such statements should not be included unless they can be traced back to reliable sources that demonstrate their truth. In some cases mass attribution may make an appeal to authority.}}
(using {{ ref}}/{{ note}} syntax to avoid cluttering the source code). As an alternative, it could be added to either Wikipedia:Avoid weasel words or Wikipedia:Avoid peacock terms and linked directly. -- Enric Naval ( talk) 17:39, 23 October 2008 (UTC)
davidz has kindly pointed out to me that I removed some long-standing material on article structure from Words to avoid. This material doesn't have anything to do with "words to avoid" and overlaps considerably with the article structure section here. In my view this material is fundamental to our NPOV policy, and we need to settle on what it says here, rather than farm it out to a style guideline. I've made an attempt to merge it in here. I realise that the issue of (for example) criticism sections has been a matter of debate, and I have done my best not to imply a point of view, but to reflect a consensus position. However, editors with more experience editing this policy will undoubtedly be able to do better. Geometry guy 12:34, 26 October 2008 (UTC)
Myself and a few other editors have agreed to allow Naturstud to edit the article Medical degree to include his degree with the only exception that he also equally include ALL other "complementary and alternative medicine" professional degrees, diplomas, and certificates equally as per Wiki (NPOV) policy. He refuses and has continued to push and promote his profession on wikipedia at the expense of others.
Could we please have some assistance cleaning up or rewriting this article to better comply with NPOV policy?
Thank you for your help. Jwri7474 ( talk) 04:28, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
Thanks, I'll repost there then. Jwri7474 ( talk) 04:58, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
I suggest that we change "main article" to "see" or "see also" or "see guideline" or something similar, as "main article" can be read to imply that the guideline in the section top note has precedence over the text in the section. -- Philip Baird Shearer ( talk) 09:54, 28 October 2008 (UTC)
I do not think this change should apply to "Main article: Wikipedia:Naming conventions" in the "Article naming" section as that is to a policy and not a guideline. -- Philip Baird Shearer ( talk) 09:58, 28 October 2008 (UTC)
A reminder: WP:Update has monthly updates of the 7 content policy pages. - Dan Dank55 ( send/receive) 20:49, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
Hello, A Wiki member has been thinking that I have been vandalizing a page but I haven't.
The Wikipedia page is the Sonic Unleashed section.
The user is SLJCOAAATR 1 and his / her posts are saved in the discussion topic.
He / she insulted me in the section and that user did not understand what I was talking about and they thought that I vandalized.
The main problem was only that the Night of the Werehog video was said in the article that it would be a full length animated 3D Movie 3D but that was incorrect. I changed it to a Short 3D Animated film because those sources were confirmed.
However the user SLJCOAAATR 1 thought that I was already posting the same video and information twice (because it was posted already, and I wasn't even actually trying to post the video again. The video was on the site but I was actually trying to show them the information). SLJCOAAATR 1 didn't listen.
SLJCOAAATR 1 then deleted my other post after I replied and insulted me yet again in a user talk page comment because I got irritated with that user because SLJCOAAATR 1 wasn't listening to me.
I hope this is the right place for these kind of things! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mamaluigibob ( talk • contribs) 20:47, 2 November 2008 (UTC)
I'd like to add "wikilinks" to "This applies not only to article text, but to images, external links, categories, and all other material as well." I got the idea from Rividian over at WT:Layout: "I just don't like the idea of someone going to the, say, Louisville Metro Council article and adding "See also: Nazi Germany" and saying that, under the letter of this guideline, it's okay since the guideline says nothing about a source. BLP is the biggest issue... but it could be done on any article... and note that my example is intentionally over-the-top, but incidents of this on Ralph Nader and Ashley Todd mugging hoax were more subtle. I don't see how policy would allow people to make such uncited comparisons, even if it's not a living person biography. The see also section shouldn't be a loophole to let people make controversial comparisons without a reference... I think we still need this wording." - Dan Dank55 ( send/receive) 17:08, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
I wrote a similar message to Ssolbergj (in Wikimedia Common) who created these retarded maps. I hope you guys here can back me. It's a clear bias and I don't think that being bias is a policy of Wikipedia. It is high time things are straightened out.
Dear Ssolbergj, your map of China colors Arunachal Pradesh in light green which implies it is somehow rather a part of China although under Indian administration and claimed as an integral part of India. I agree this is a disputed region by both countries. In that case why doesn't the India map have Aksai Chin (a Chinese administered region claimed by India) be colored light green on the India map? Why double standards apply for Aksai and Arunachal although they are both disputed?
Same goes with Pakistan occupied kashmir. Shouldn't those areas be indicated in light green too? Please maintain neutrality as prescribed under Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. I look forward to you recoloring those maps with a NPOV in mind and not China slanted views. Thank you.
If they don't want to change it, I suggest we change the map of India to its old form (2d one) as it is more accurate.
I look forward to all your replies / opinions / assistance as I am not an established user on Wikipedia. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.208.245.138 ( talk)
Well, now. It's been more than two years now since I proposed a change to the last paragraph of the Reasoning behind NPOV section. And...well, it seems nothing has changed. This, despite the fact that my proposal for change had simple majority support, and I even settled on a compromise version of the change, and even accepted a third alternative, failing the compromise solution. Something seems broken here, unless I'm mistaken about the way WP is supposed to work. Please see the following archives for background: [6] [7]. I'm very surprised that the section in question remains unchanged! » MonkeeSage « 16:24, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
Is there any rule about providing justification for actions occuring in History articles. For example can the words "in response", "because of" be used, with the reasons provided, however obvious and straightforward they may be, may come into question. For example a sentence like " 2 +2 =4 because according to definition of real numbers etc." is different from " Jack shot at Tom because of Tom's threat".
To give a better example how about this "Jack had said that he would shoot Tom but later changed his mind. In a few days Tom threatened Jack, in response Jack shot at Tom". Here with using the words "in response", the reader is left confused about weather Jack shoot Tom because of his threat, or because Jack wanted to shoot Tom anyway. This, I believe, goes beyond NPOV, unless it is rephrased " Jack claimed that he shot Tom because he was threatened". Is there any policy regarding giving reasons to actions and stating them as matter of fact , instead of simply trying to state the facts. The facts should speak for themselves about the reasons if given in a chronological order Kakaka79m ( talk) 17:57, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
I'm trying to get the conflict of interest guidelines rewritten to be clearer in terms of what is allowable from people with conflicts of interest. At the moment they seem to allow most edits, but there are also several parts saying COI editing is strongly discouraged. It is not clear whether COI editing is generally unacceptable or only when it results in bad edits. I have written a proposed revision of the guidelines, but because of my own conflict of interest I really don't want to make any kind of change without consensus. Since obviously a lot of conflicts of interest result in POV problems, people who monitor this should put forward their thoughts at User talk:Helenalex/coirewrite or on the conflict of interest guidelines talkpage. -- Helenalex ( talk) 05:31, 29 December 2008 (UTC)
A concern was raised that the clause, "a primary source may be used only to make descriptive claims, the accuracy of which is verifiable by any reasonable, educated person without specialist knowledge" conflicts with WP:NPOV by placing a higher duty of care with primary sourced claims than secondary or tertiary sourced claims. An RFC has been initiated to stimulate wider input on the issue. Professor marginalia ( talk) 06:30, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
In application to an article about a theory which is generally considered pseudoscience, does WP:Undue weight mean that the majority of the article should be specifically about criticisms? At Talk:Bates method, an editor has argued for that, citing UNDUE. PSWG1920 ( talk) 21:17, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
Perhaps it'd be best if everybody editing pseudoscience articles just calmed down for a while and waiting for the upcoming ArbCom decision on the topic. But, both as previous history goes and comments of some arbitrators in ongoing problem, NPOV policy means not attacking a fringe idea, but absolutely including and sourcing why the scientific community considers it pseudoscience throughout the article as appropriate. Not having the criticism there gives major undue weight to a minority view. DreamGuy ( talk) 22:44, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
Pardon if this issue is covered elsewhere, but I cannot find it: Is there a policy or discussion somewhere on how to determine "(i)f a viewpoint is in the majority" or "in the minority"? I did not see it in the FAQ. The project page only states to use "commonly accepted reference texts...." But what if both sides of an issue can give references? This occurs with the historical accuracy of accounts found in ancient texts accepted as scripture, such as Noah's Ark. Is there a recommended process that should be followed? Is it necessary to start listing scholarly references? How can WP editors sort through such issues? Thanks, SteveMc ( talk) 02:25, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
Thanks all, I found enough to help me at the locations mentioned above, leading me to the page WP:SYNTH on WP:NOR. SteveMc ( talk) 22:26, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
[8]. I thought this one is a no-brainer, but apparently User:John doesn't think so. Searching for "balanced" sources is not okay in, for example, the evolution article if you are seeking to balance it with creationism. Instead, we are supposed to chose reliable sources. ScienceApologist ( talk) 20:43, 31 December 2008 (UTC)
From WP:UNDUE:
An article which compares views should not give a minority viewpoint on its subject as much of or as detailed a description as a more popular view, and will generally not even mention a viewpoint which is in the tiny-minority relative to the overall subject. For example, the article on the Earth does not mention modern support for the Flat Earth concept, a view of a distinct minority.
I suggest changing "which compares views" to "which is not specifically about a viewpoint".
An article which is not specifically about a viewpoint should not give a minority viewpoint on its subject as much of or as detailed a description as a more popular view, and will generally not even mention a viewpoint which is in the tiny-minority relative to the overall subject. For example, the article on the Earth does not mention modern support for the Flat Earth concept, a view of a distinct minority.
The reason I am suggesting this is that I believe the current wording has an effective meaning which is likely unintended, though some will disagree that it is unintended. An article about a minority viewpoint meets the definition of an article which compares views, since it will necessarily be contrasted with the majority view. The current wording therefore has the effect of saying that an article about a theory which is generally considered pseudoscience should devote most of its space specifically to the majority view, i.e. criticisms. But in my opinion, this would normally be unfeasible, lest the reader be left wondering what exactly it is which is being criticized. I would further point out that the example given, Earth, is not really an article which compares views, which is why I doubt that this effective meaning is intended.
In interest of full disclosure, it was this discussion which got me started here. PSWG1920 ( talk) 21:49, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
An article should not generally give a minority viewpoint as much of or as detailed a description as a more popular or mainstream view on its subject, and will generally not even mention a viewpoint which is in the tiny-minority relative to the overall subject. For example, the article on the Earth does not mention modern support for the Flat Earth concept, a view of a distinct minority. However, for articles specifically related to the minority views, a bit more latitude is available to explain what the minority views are, but it should be clear that the minority view is a minority view, and the article should explain the mainstream view. In some cases, the evidence backing the mainstream view may be necessary to put the minority view in the overall context of mainstream thought on the issue. For instance, Holocaust denial explains what well-accepted facts on the Holocaust are generally denied by the holders of that fringe viewpoint, and briefly explains the types of evidence and the sheer amount of said evidence that backs the mainstream interpretation. Shoemaker's Holiday ( talk) 02:53, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
As I see it, there are basically two choices, which I have illustrated. The first would make explicit a logical implication of a literal reading of what is already stated in WP:UNDUE. The second would remove that implication. Once one or the other is settled on, it could then be worked on further if necessary. PSWG1920 ( talk) 19:56, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
wikipedia will never be fully neutral. humans have a tendency to think of themselves as superior to other animals. i found many examples of bias based on species difference and scientific ignorence.--00:42, 6 January 2009 (UTC) Guppy22 ( talk)
I have encountered, of late, a troubling trend of people dismissing peer-reviewed academic criticism as an insignificant and non-notable perspective, and removing accounts of academic criticism from articles. This, combined with the tendency we display by default to have articles based on what comes up on Google bothers me, in that it seems to me to cheapen our coverage. We're an encyclopedia, and part of that means respecting academic perspectives.
Accordingly, I would like to add a quick note somewhere in this policy, parallel to the declaration in WP:RS that "Academic and peer-reviewed publications are usually the most reliable sources when available" that notes that academic and scholarly views are a particularly important viewpoint to make sure is represented when possible.
Thoughts? Phil Sandifer ( talk) 20:27, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
I would like us to think about whether it would make sense to add a sentence or two about undue use of primary sources in the WP:Undue section.
The principle I am trying to get at is this: If there is a substantial body of secondary sources available on a topic, then Wikipedians should feel free to use and cite any primary sources (e.g. affidavits, self-published websites, quotations from an author's literary works, etc.) that are cited in these secondary sources. However, we shouldn't really bypass the body of secondary sources to select and cite primary sources ourselves, unless we can demonstrate that this primary source (i.e. affidavit, self-published website, quotation from an author's literary works, etc.) has been used in this way in a secondary source (news source, scholarly publication, etc.).
In my experience, misuse of primary sources, in a way that is unsupported by the existing secondary literature, can cause Wikipedia articles to deviate significantly from the picture presented in the most reliable sources. That is a NPOV and due weight problem. (Such primary-source use has arguably been a major factor in causing the fourth Scientology-related arbcom case in as many years: [9] [10]).
There has been a recent discussion at NOR talk concerning this topic – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:No_original_research#Primary_sources:_The_novel_example – but it has been stated there that this might be more appropriately addressed here. Thoughts? Jayen 466 17:43, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
(outdent) Is the concern here about using material from primary sources out of context (as determined by fair reading of the whole source and perhaps any secondary sources relevant to it), or about using a primary source which itself has not been synthesized from, or referenced in, (or refuted by,) one or more secondary sources? Or both? The first is a case of accurate (or not) representation of the source and is a editorial issue, but one which can evolve into a disruptive editing issue. The second is an issue about reliability of sources, in particular notability, keeping in mind that peer review can act in some sense as a proxy for notability in some cases. Baccyak4H ( Yak!) 19:47, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
I tend to see (direct use) of primary sources as a kind of illustration. This fits well with images (or other media sources) that are used as illustrations and over at WP:NOR have their separate section to explain how these sources are to be approached NOR-wise ( WP:NOR#Original images), a description that without much ado could be fitted for other primary sources like direct quotes.
I adopted and developed this idea in essays and proposals like Wikipedia:Use of primary sources in Wikipedia, Wikipedia:Wikipedia is a tertiary source and Wikipedia:Sources - SWOT analysis.
My idea is that ideally an article would have 30 to 50 percent of its surface devoted to "illustrations". For some topics illustrations would be mostly images (e.g. The Gates); for others mainly quotes (e.g. Tacitus). Going over 50% of the surface of an article being illustration would call for a move of most of it to commons (images) or wikiquote (quotes), or even wikisource for some. Less than approx. 20% would not make it to "Good Article" for example, and for a "Featured Article" approx. 30% would be a minimum. Well, this would be my answer to Jayen's question/suggestion above. In fact this idea includes Jayen's suggestion derived from German Wikipedia, without therefore being anti-primary source (...or anti-illustration). -- Francis Schonken ( talk) 20:29, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
Why is the issue of scientific point of view not discussed in this article? -- Wet dog fur ( talk) 15:51, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
Right after the Undue section comes a short "A vital component: good research" section. I propose that we specifically mention google books and google scholar. Many, many books these days have the majority of their pages visible in google books, including scholarly books that may be unavailable in smaller libraries, and/or expensive to buy. Any objections? Jayen 466 19:09, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
The first three paragraphs are unchanged except for the suggested change by olive shown in bold italic and are only given for context. Most of the rest is the same, too, but with a slightly more logical sequence, and some new additions in the last paragraph.
Neutrality requires that the article should fairly represent all significant viewpoints that have been published by a reliable source, and should do so in proportion to the prominence of each. Now an important qualification: In general, articles should not give minority views as much or as detailed a description as more popular views, and will generally not include tiny-minority views at all. For example, the article on the Earth does not mention modern support for the Flat Earth concept, a view of a distinct minority.
In articles where the subject matter of the article is specifically on an accepted minority viewpoint, the views which reflect the subject matter of the article should receive the most attention and space; however, on such pages, though, the minority view may (and usually should) be described, possibly at length, the article should make appropriate reference to the majority viewpoint wherever relevant, and must not reflect an attempt to rewrite majority-view content strictly from the perspective of the minority view. Specifically, it should always be clear which parts of the text describe the minority view (and that it is, in fact the minority view). The majority view should be explained in sufficient detail that the reader can understand how the minority view differs from the widely-accepted one, and controversies regarding parts of the minority view should clearly be identified and explained. How much detail is required depends on the subject: For instance, historical views such as flat earth, with few or no modern proponents, may be able to briefly state the modern position then discuss the history of the idea in great detail, neutrally presenting the history of a now-discredited belief. Other minority views may require much more extensive description of the majority view in order not to mislead the reader. Wikipedia:Fringe theories and the NPOV F.A.Q. provide additional advice on these points.
Wikipedia should not present a dispute as if a view held by a small minority deserved as much attention overall as a majority view. Views that are held by a tiny minority should not be represented except in articles devoted to those views. To give undue weight to a significant-minority view, or to include a tiny-minority view, might be misleading as to the shape of the dispute. Wikipedia aims to present competing views in proportion to their representation in reliable sources on the subject. This applies not only to article text, but to images, wikilinks, external links, categories, and all other material as well.
- From Jimbo Wales, paraphrased from this post from September 2003 on the WikiEN-l 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;
- If a viewpoint is held by an extremely small (or vastly limited) minority, it does not belong in Wikipedia regardless of whether it is true or not and regardless of whether you can prove it or not, except perhaps in some ancillary article.
If you are able to prove something that few or none currently believe, Wikipedia is not the place to première such a proof. Once a proof has been presented and discussed elsewhere, however, it may be referenced. See: Wikipedia:No original research and Wikipedia:Verifiability.
Keep in mind that in determining proper weight we consider a viewpoint's prevalence in reliable sources, not its prevalence among Wikipedia editors. This principle does not just apply to viewpoints. Just as giving undue weight to a viewpoint is not neutral, so is giving undue weight to selected primary sources and other verifiable and sourced statements. An article should strive to treat each aspect with the weight appropriate to its significance to the subject. If there is a substantial body of reliable secondary sources on a subject, for example a body of scholarly literature, then the weighting of information in the Wikipedia article should reflect the weight that information is given in the most reliable sources. Note that undue weight can be given in several ways, including, but not limited to, depth of detail, quantity of text, prominence of placement, and juxtaposition of statements.
As you'll see, our current text on the policy page meanders from "viewpoints" to "other things than viewpoints" and then back to "viewpoints" in a way that is somewhat unsatisfactory. The above rewrite consolidates all the viewpoint-related material, and puts the "other issues" in the last paragraph. This paragraph now also contains a reference to the importance of secondary sources in establishing proper weight.
As an afterthought, it seems to me that this section gives "undue weight" to the topic of fringe theories. These are already covered in a number of other places. I think I would prefer a little more emphasis on the importance of consulting secondary sources in establishing due weight generally in structuring an article, and selecting the information to be presented.
Any objections, thoughts, feedback on the above? Jayen 466 23:54, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
Neutrality requires that the article should fairly represent all significant viewpoints that have been published by a reliable source, and should do so in proportion to the prominence of each. Now an important qualification: In general, articles should not give minority views as much or as detailed a description as more popular views, and will generally not include tiny-minority views at all. For example, the article on the Earth does not mention modern support for the Flat Earth concept, a view of a distinct minority.
In articles specifically on the minority viewpoint, the views can receive more attention and space; however, on such pages, though the minority view may (and usually should) be described, possibly at length, the article should make appropriate reference to the majority viewpoint wherever relevant, and must not reflect an attempt to rewrite majority-view content strictly from the perspective of the minority view. Specifically, it should always be clear which parts of the text describe the minority view (and that it is, in fact the minority view). The majority view should be explained in sufficient detail that the reader can understand how the minority view differs from the widely-accepted one, and controversies regarding parts of the minority view should clearly be identified and explained. How much detail is required depends on the subject: For instance, articles on historical views such as flat earth, with few or no modern proponents, may be able to briefly state the modern position, then discuss the history of the idea in great detail, neutrally presenting the history of a now-discredited belief. Other minority views may require much more extensive description of the majority view in order not to mislead the reader. Wikipedia:Fringe theories and the NPOV F.A.Q. provide additional advice on these points.
Wikipedia should not present a dispute as if a view held by a small minority deserved as much attention overall as a majority view. Views that are held by a tiny minority should not be represented except in articles devoted to those views. To give undue weight to a significant-minority view, or to include a tiny-minority view, might be misleading as to the shape of the dispute. Wikipedia aims to present competing views in proportion to their representation in reliable sources on the subject. This applies not only to article text, but to images, wikilinks, external links, categories, and all other material as well.
If you are able to provide evidence in support of something that few or none currently believe, Wikipedia is not the place to première such evidence. Once an idea or an assertion of evidence has been presented and discussed elsewhere, however, it may be used, subject also to the other limitations prescribed in Wikipedia:No original research and Wikipedia:Verifiability. See also the guideline WP:FRINGE.
Keep in mind that in determining proper weight we consider a viewpoint's prevalence in reliable sources, not its prevalence among Wikipedia editors. This principle does not just apply to viewpoints. Just as giving undue weight to a viewpoint is not neutral, so is giving undue weight to selected primary sources and other verifiable and sourced statements. An article should strive to treat each aspect with the weight appropriate to its significance to the subject, as established by the most reliable sources. For example, if there is a substantial body of scholarly literature on a subject, then the weighting of information in the Wikipedia article should reflect the weight that information is given in the literature. Note that undue weight can be given in several ways, including, but not limited to, depth of detail, quantity of text, prominence of placement, and juxtaposition of statements.
Could we drop that in?
And Olive, can we leave the change you propose in the second para for a subsequent discussion? I'd like to take it one bit at a time. Cheers, Jayen 466 18:45, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
"I'm not a social worker. I don't do it for this reason. I do it for Christ. I do it for the church"
Mother Teresa [3]
Apart from some reordering,
-- Francis Schonken ( talk) 07:20, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
Jayen, your bias is getting tiring, there's no such inequality in WP:V, "...the most reliable sources are peer-reviewed journals and books published in university presses; university-level textbooks; magazines, journals, and books published by respected publishing houses; and mainstream newspapers." - bolding what you consistently try to minimize, and The appropriateness of any source always depends on the context, which goes hand in hand with "the idea that scholarly sources are usually the "most reliable" in areas where they are available": your policy writing is biased by omission of the context. -- Francis Schonken ( talk) 11:41, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
Keep in mind that in determining proper weight we consider a viewpoint's prevalence in reliable sources, not its prevalence among Wikipedia editors. This principle does not just apply to viewpoints. Just as giving undue weight to a viewpoint is not neutral, so is giving undue weight to selected primary sources and other verifiable and sourced statements. An article should strive to treat each aspect with the weight appropriate to its significance to the subject, as established by the most reliable sources. Note that undue weight can be given in several ways, including, but not limited to, depth of detail, quantity of text, prominence of placement, and juxtaposition of statements.
Yes, those were the words, *exactly* why I said you deformed the message, by omitting the rest of the paragraph that balances out an overemphasis on scholarly sources. How many repeats do we need?
As you picked out only two remarks out of my five or six objections, I don't see how you can imagine that I'd agree with your above proposal. Do I have to repeat each one of my thoughts twice or trice or even more before you'd be managed to notice them? This exercise is going nowhere if you're only prepared to pay attention to what you point out yourself, not even bothering to find alternate arguments to articulate objections or suggestions. -- Francis Schonken ( talk) 13:51, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
Paraphrasing: I liked the rationale behind these changes better than the actual execution.
And I note that it appears impossible for you to not deform what other have to say. E.g. in your comments describes present policy as "innocent and tedious gibberish" - more heat than actually rendering what I said. Not useful if you want to take this discussion anywhere. -- Francis Schonken ( talk) 15:26, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
"General principle: no "illustration" without treating the illustrated topic on the basis of secondary and/or tertiary sources. In other words, (links to) illustrations that are not covered by attributable descriptions have no place in Wikipedia."
Hi. At Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view#Characterizing_opinions_of_people.27s_work in the second sentence we have this: "Wikipedia articles about art, artists, and other creative topics (e.g. musicians, actors, books, etc.) have tended toward the effusive." What, all of them? Blimey! I would like, please, to add the word Some at the beginning of the sentence to give this: "Some Wikipedia articles about art, artists, and other creative topics (e.g. musicians, actors, books, etc.) have tended toward the effusive." I think this reads much better and more fairly - the original is itself perhaps a tiny touch POV, seeming to condemn whole swathes of editors as sensitive types so busy gibbering over the Appassionata that we lose our grip entirely. "Some" at least offers an exit route to a few of us arty, flamboyant, shrieking, long-haired bohemian editors who might try very hard to retain some semblance of control while tempted beyond all reason by the swell on the belly of a finely-honed Strad ... I mean come on ... what do you think? Thanks and best wishes DisillusionedBitterAndKnackered ( talk) 09:04, 15 January 2009 (UTC)
As I read it, the notion of POV contained within this policy (per the "Reasoning behind neutrality" section) is tied to the existence of competing opinions on a subject in reliable sources. For example, our article on
Cat needs to note that the domestic cat is considered both a popular pet and an environmental menace (and it does).
But is this policy intended to apply on a "meta" level as well and require that the scope of an article must cover all possible definitions of a term? For example, a broader definition of "cat" includes not only the domestic cats that our article covers, but a wide variety of wild cats including extinct varieties like the Sabre-tooth tiger. As I see it, this is a pragmatic issue of scoping an article, and is not a POV issue. What do others think?
(This issue has come up at
glider, and I wanted to check my understanding here before wading in any deeper! :) ) --
Rlandmann (
talk) 20:47, 15 January 2009 (UTC)
Am I correct in stating that Wikipedia's NPOV policy does not apply in practise to certain points of view, for example, some points of view regarding sexism, racism, racialism, homophobia, and anti-semitism feminism. Also, certain other points of view considered politically incorrect, those that might hurt the image Wikipedia hopes to project of itself to the public, or views that might hurt fund raising efforts. These points of view may be covered by the NPOV policy but not actually supported in practise. It seems that Wikipedia administrators apply their own individual policies regarding these views and it is an accepted practice. --
Slim five (
talk) 00:47, 22 January 2009 (UTC)
I see that what I wrote initially was confusing, perhaps because the person sitting at the computer next to me kept singing when I was typing and I was in a hurry. I apologize for this. I will try to restate it again more clearly. It seems that Wikipedia's NPOV policy is not always practiced with regards to POVs, statements, or information that can be considered sexist, racist, homophobic, or anti-semetic for example. (I am not referring specifically to the articles on sexism, racism, anti-semitism, etc.; that's not where the problem is.) For instance, someone deletes a statement from an article because it is sexist/racist/homophobic/anti-semetic regardless of its significance to the article. Other editors are less likely to object to this when it involves those types of subjects. Also, administrators are less likely to properly enforce the NPOV policy when dealing with those types of subjects, perhaps because they are concerned with Wikipedia's image to the public, it offends them personally, it is politically incorrect, or whatever. What I am saying is that it doesn't seem that Wikipedia's NPOV policy is always adhered to. -- Slim five ( talk) 05:49, 22 January 2009 (UTC)
congragulation for breaking the record for the shortest time in a royalrumble from caleb —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.226.150.44 ( talk) 20:08, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
In the section Neutrality_and_verifiability, the second comma in this sentence should be a colon or semicolon: In these types of disputes, it is important to note that verifiability lives alongside neutrality, it does not override it. It seems to me as though this kind of minor edit shouldn't need consensus, but practically given the nature of the internet it probably does. Dan Wylie-Sears 2 ( talk) 13:32, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
In this edit by User:Anonymous44, the editor changes the policy as follows.
Before:
After:
I've reverted for discussion. Does this strict characterization help or hinder? -- TS 21:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
What sort of general tests do people use to determine if application of "controversial" or "controversy" to an article is a neutral expression which helps the reader understand the subject, or an editor projecting a negative point of view? Is it merely sufficient to show that if "non-controversial" cannot be proven, the default of "controversial" applies? patsw ( talk) 02:03, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
I am interested, especially in light of the article on abortion, why the neutral point of view policy does not extend to the unborn child. -- T.M.M. Dowd ( talk) 20:27, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
Please see here for my proposal of a new template, that would be put on articles that need to have their sources globalized - i.e. on articles that rely on a very similar set of sources likely representing one and the same POV.-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk 13:58, 6 March 2009 (UTC)
I have had a couple of experiences where editors have used WP:WEIGHT as an excuse to distort or minimize the views of AIDS dissidents, even in articles about those views. My understanding of WP:WEIGHT is that it applies to subjects (like scientific claims) about which there are multiple points of view, and asks us to favor the most prominent viewpoint. But sometimes the subject is a person's opinion about a fact, rather than the fact itself, for instance as often occurs in a biography. As I understand it, in this case, WP:WEIGHT is not directly applicable, except as it pertains to mainstream and minority views on the opinion itself, and perhaps as it asks us to mention the existence of more mainstream opinions. In other words, if the opinion is relevant to the article, then it should be described in enough detail to convey its content and basic reasoning, and not trivialized because of any "fringe" nature.
But some people are using WP:WEIGHT to do just this. In this edit, MastCell removes the name and qualifications of Gordon Stewart and reduces his account of the Durban conference, and his reactions to the Durban Declaration, to a simple endorsement of free speech. In this edit, Keepcalmandcarryon replaces an accurate, referenced description of Henry Bauer's views with something misleading, inaccurate, and vaguely racist-sounding. In both instances, WP:WEIGHT was given as justification. My question is, are these kinds of edits justified under WP:WEIGHT? I can see why an article on the Solar system would not dwell on pre-Copernican views, or why the article on AIDS would not dwell on the views of the dissidents; what I don't really understand is how it is that Galileo affair can describe pre-Copernican views at length, while AIDS dissident views are censored even in articles about those views. A5 ( talk) 20:30, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
Thank you for your replies, Anonymous44 and Ludwigs2. Note that other declarations, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, feature criticism. Why not the Durban declaration? More to the point, is citing WP:WEIGHT valid for removing such criticism? The article is not about AIDS, after all, it is about the history of science. The present article reads like one side of a telephone conversation: the declaration condemns allegations which are nowhere summarized; and Wain-Hobson and Weiss's reply to Stewart is given without the context of Stewart's response to the Declaration. Without the material I had inserted, the article gives the impression that the dissidents have unquestioned answers; but Stewart alleges they have unanswered questions. Pulling the phlogiston card, as Wain-Hobson and Weiss do, seems less suave when they could have just enumerated the questions of Mbeki and their scientific answers. But readers of Wikipedia do not get to entertain this judgment, whether it is valid or invalid, because half of the historic exchange has been hidden from them.
I didn't try making my Durban Declaration edit shorter because MastCell's application of WP:WEIGHT seemed unamenable to compromise. I think that WP:WEIGHT is being consistently misused by people who, for whatever reason, want to make AIDS dissidents sound like fools. Perhaps they are only innocently defending, through censorship, a Truth which they see as precariously fragile against dissent.
But it would seem advisable to try to make the editing process more agenda-proof by deciding exactly how WP:WEIGHT should apply to descriptions of scientific theories found in biographies and history of science articles - and, in particular, if it can be used as an excuse to remove information which is otherwise relevant to the subject. Calling "AIDS denialism" one of "Wikipedia's bugaboos" sounds sadly fatalistic to me. A5 ( talk) 00:46, 16 February 2009 (UTC)
Since AIDS denialism has been scientifically discredited, it is promoted largely via the Internet ( Smith & Novella, 2007). This is a case in point. If AIDS denialism seems to be one of Wikipedia's "bugaboos", that may be because groups of advocates occasionally coordinate assaults on Wikipedia to attempt to slant our coverage toward their fringe view, and Wikipedia doesn't always handle such organized agenda-pushing as well as it should.
The Durban declaration generated numerous published responses in Nature. Curiously, A5 chose to excerpt only one of these at length - the one authored by an AIDS denialist. This is poor editing at best, and actively dishonest at worst; it gives the reader an incorrect impression of the actual debate, and makes the rhetoric about "censorship" seem rather hypocritical. My subsequent edit was an attempt to partially correct this oversight, by providing a somewhat fuller sample of the responses to the declaration. MastCell Talk 04:46, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
Ludwigs2, you've placed me (and the others) in the same category with a group of fringe POV editors, including single-purpose accounts who share passwords for the stated purpose of disrupting Wikipedia. That's not something for me to reflect on, it's an outright accusation of poor behaviour, backed up with no evidence. I'm not insulted, as it turns out, just confused about why you've assumed bad faith of me and other editors. It now appears it has something to do with a personal history I don't know about, and since we've veered far off the topic of NPOV (not that this was the proper forum for A5's concerns in the first place), I'm signing off on this one. Keepcalmandcarryon ( talk) 23:32, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
Thank you, Ludwigs2, for your warnings, advice, and observations; and especially for the risks and criticism you endured in making them. I was myself surprised to be warned on my talk page regarding WP:FORUM by the same user who directed me here - was I supposed to make my case without citing examples? Further, I seem to be the only editor in this conversation who has not expressed a personal view on AIDS, and in light of that it is especially ironic that I am also the only one who has been warned not to use this page as a "forum". I am still not sure which of my statements broke the WP:FORUM rule.
MastCell appears to argue that Durban declaration is a scientific paper on AIDS, which seems at odds with his view that Michael Specter's emotional state and the South African phrase for "trash can" are both relevant to it (and also at odds with the fact that it has no authors, 5000 signatories, and calls for "solidarity"). Perhaps a separate article could be created for the paper's scientific claims, which occupy less than one sentence in the present article; or they could be moved to a sub-section in which different rules are applicable. As it currently stands, the article seems to be mostly about the history of science.
So far as I can tell, nobody has answered my question concerning the proper interpretation of the WP:WEIGHT rule. My understanding is that it can always be used to add information to articles, to contextualise "fringe" views by contrasting them with their mainstream counterparts. I maintain that this positive application of WP:WEIGHT is always powerful enough to confront the danger, which has been voiced by some editors, that Wikipedia might mislead readers into confusing "pseudoscience" for science.
Also, we can always delete information which is irrelevant to an article. And WP:WEIGHT can be applied negatively, to delete information about controversial views from articles discussing the subject matter of those views, e.g. to delete pseudoscience from science articles. But can WP:WEIGHT be used to delete "fringe" views from contexts where they are otherwise relevant, for instance from articles about the history of science, or biographies - which happen to discuss the views themselves? As far as I understand it, the policy's answer is "no". We cannot try to explain theories, even ones which have been discredited, without reference to their own internal consistency. To make the situation clearer for editors, I propose adding a table like the following to Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view/FAQ or Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view/Examples. The "OK to remove?" column stands for "Is it OK to use WP:WEIGHT to remove information about the given subject from the given article?". For the Durban declaration, I have provided two rows, to address MC's concern, which would apply separately to the separate articles or sections covering each aspect of the declaration. Of course, there will always be other ways for editors to remove relevant information from articles, but it would at least be a step in the right direction to clarify the proper use of WP:WEIGHT.
Subject | Article | OK to remove? |
---|---|---|
pre-Copernican astronomy | Solar System | yes |
pre-Copernican astronomy | Galileo affair | no |
pre-Copernican astronomy | Ptolemy | no |
Phlogiston theory | Combustion | yes |
Phlogiston theory | Phlogiston | no |
Phlogiston theory | Johann Joachim Becher | no |
Biblical creation | Big Bang | yes |
Biblical creation | 1860 Oxford evolution debate | no |
Biblical creation | Christianity | no |
Moon landing hoax | Apollo program | yes |
Moon landing hoax | Apollo Moon Landing hoax conspiracy theories | no |
Moon landing hoax | Bill Kaysing | no |
AIDS dissent | AIDS | yes |
AIDS dissent | Durban declaration (scientific paper) | yes |
AIDS dissent | Durban declaration (declaration) | no |
AIDS dissent | AIDS denialism | no |
AIDS dissent | Henry H. Bauer | no |
Sorry for writing so much. Comments are welcome. Please let me know (with support from the policy text) if I have misinterpreted WP:WEIGHT. A5 ( talk) 00:47, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
KCCO's attempt to summarize my (long) suggestion without reading it says, "Thus, the flat earthers should have their say at Earth and anywhere else they like, so long as additional material is put into the article for balance.", which is quite incorrect. Perhaps a look at the table will clear this up. Articles such as Earth are exactly where I'm suggesting it is OK to remove material on "flat earth". But if it's OK to remove fringe views wherever they appear, such as "flat earth" from Flat earth, then I worry about the consequences for Wikipedia. For instance, will an article on biblical creation eventually describe it as "the discredited theory that the Big Bang happened 6,000 years ago" as anything more detailed would give undue weight to "fringe" views? How exactly does Wikipedia plan to avoid such a fate, if removing otherwise relevant "fringe" views from articles under WP:WEIGHT is always acceptable? And if that is a valid interpretation of WP:WEIGHT, then shouldn't the policy guidelines say so explicitly? A5 ( talk) 13:00, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
(outdent) It can be taken too far, I wholeheartedly agree. The problem is that advocates of pseudoscience try to abuse the language of science (q.v. "only a theory"), so keeping the articles jargon-free and plain spoken avoids that problem. There's no need to be judgmental (i.e. accusations of fraud), but there is a specific and active reason to go beyond the language of science and into common English. As the old yarn has it, "do not write to be understood, write so that you cannot be misunderstood." SDY ( talk) 20:49, 12 March 2009 (UTC)
I have introduced a policy proposal at WP:NOR that has some bearing on the NPOV and the treatment of fringe theories. Please join the discussion. -- Phenylalanine ( talk) 11:15, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
POV is a nice shield for people to hide behind. "YOUR EDIT BLA BLA IS POV BLA BLA" and "I DELETE THIS BECAUSE OF POV BLA BLA" is the two most popular lines on Wikipedia. I also see that some people dont even want to talk about this... too sad.-- hnnvansier ( talk) 14:33, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
Here is an organized and concerted conspiracy to violate NPOV by removing any use of the word "cold" to describe the mantle even though the verifiable and reliable peer-reviewed science uses the word "cold" over and over again to describe the mantle. Also see Expanding Earth where a deliberate organized attempt is being made to suppress any information that might portray the hypothesis in NPOV. And Subduction where all critical citation is suppressed. Wikkidd ( talk) 04:10, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
A discussion here deals with the question of whether the editing policy should recommend that editors remove material that "clearly fails" our content policies. Some input from editors with more experience of policy than I have would be appreciated. Tim Vickers ( talk) 17:21, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
Why dosent something to tell you how to nominate an article as biased? SJHQC ( talk) 21:40, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
Can we get a consensus on them? NPOV as it stands should/does discourage them because they are solely devoted to one view point (in violation of the concept of neutrality, let alone the policy). However, people keep pointing to the "no consensus" line in WP:CFORK to justify their existence. So, discuss away. Sceptre ( talk) 13:06, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
Just so that everybody's aware -- this discussion here is actually (very ironically!) a content fork from the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Content forking where Sceptre ( talk · contribs) decided to unilaterally remove an existing RFC and start a new one over here. Nice tactic, eh? -- 65.78.13.238 ( talk) 16:09, 22 March 2009 (UTC)
so much for NPOV. well, it was a blast while it lasted. see: http://www.xkcd.com/545/ Mercurywoodrose ( talk) 16:20, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
Frankly I have little time to go through all the finer points on NPOV (neutral meaning no bais). Instead why don't we go for holistic understanding (inclusive of all points of noteworthy views APOV that contributes to the whole understanding of the subject). Even within Science there are always the official mainstream version and significant other views that are repressed. For example the section Climate Change do not allow adding another equally strong group of scientists or views The Great Global Warming Swindle listed in wikipedia. If wikipedia is about collaboration and open sharing of knowledge then we must have space for all credible and significant sources and emerging unofficial views. May be not in the same article (to avoid edit wars) but in the end sections or external links like 'see also' which should always remain open an unprotected. SusMita Barua 14:36, 1 April 2009 (UTC) isis07
Can I please know why my edit was reverted? The only reason I reverted the revert was that I wasn't given a reason.-- Canaris 4 ( talk) 12:42, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
Ok SheffieldSteel had the better reason.-- Canaris 4 ( talk) 08:50, 15 April 2009 (UTC)
This page is kinda a critical policy page which we expect people to read. As a courtisy we should make it as short as posible. This section may be full of interest but it isn't policy and isn't needed therefor it should not be included. Geni 23:59, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
History and rationale
History of NPOV
The neutral point of view policy is one of the oldest policies on Wikipedia.
Reasoning behind neutrality
Wikipedia is a general encyclopedia, which means it is a representation of human knowledge at some level of generality. But human beings disagree about specific cases; for any topic on which there are competing views, each view represents a different idea of what the truth is, and insofar as that view contradicts other views, its adherents believe that the other views are false and therefore not knowledge. Where there is disagreement about what is true, there is disagreement about what constitutes knowledge. Wikipedia works because it is a collaborative effort; but, while collaborating, how can we solve the problem of endless " edit wars" in which one person asserts that p, whereupon the next person changes the text so that it asserts not-p?
A solution is that we accept, for the purposes of working on Wikipedia, that "human knowledge" includes all different significant theories on all different topics. We are committed to the goal of representing human knowledge in that sense, surely a well-established meaning of the word "knowledge". What is "known" changes constantly with the passage of time, and so when we use the word "know," we often enclose it in so-called scare quotes. Europeans in the Middle Ages "knew" that demons caused diseases [4] [5]; we now "know" otherwise.
We could sum up human knowledge (in this sense) in a biased way: we could state a series of theories about topic T and then claim that the truth about T is such-and-such. But then again, consider that Wikipedia is an international collaborative project, and that nearly every view on every subject will be found among our authors and readers. To avoid endless edit wars, we can agree to present each of the significant views fairly and not assert any one of them as correct. That is what makes an article "unbiased" or "neutral" in the sense presented here. To write from a neutral point of view, one presents controversial views without asserting them; to do that, it generally suffices to present competing views in a way that is more or less acceptable to their adherents, and also to attribute the views to their adherents. Disputes are characterized in Wikipedia; they are not re-enacted.
To sum up the primary reason for this policy: Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, a compilation of human knowledge. But because Wikipedia is a community-built, international resource, we cannot expect collaborators to agree in all cases, or even in many cases, on what constitutes knowledge in a strict sense. We can therefore adopt the looser sense of "human knowledge" according to which a wide variety of conflicting theories constitute what we call "knowledge." We should, both individually and collectively, make an effort to present these conflicting views fairly, without advocating any one of them—with the qualification that views held only by a tiny minority of people should not be represented as though they are significant minority views and perhaps should not be represented at all.
There is another reason to commit ourselves to this policy, that when it is clear to readers that we do not expect them to adopt any particular opinion, this leaves them free to make up their minds for themselves, thus encouraging intellectual independence. Totalitarian governments and dogmatic institutions everywhere might find reason to oppose Wikipedia, if we succeed in adhering to our non-bias policy: the presentation of many competing theories on a wide variety of subjects suggests that we, the editors of Wikipedia, trust readers to form their own opinions. Texts that present multiple viewpoints fairly, without demanding that the reader accept any particular one of them, are liberating. Neutrality subverts dogmatism. Nearly everyone working on Wikipedia can agree this is a good thing.
Example: Abortion
It might help to consider an example of how Wikipedians have improved a biased text.
On the abortion page, early in 2001, some advocates had used the page to exchange barbs, being unable to agree about what arguments should be on the page and how the competing positions should be represented. What was needed—and what was added—was an in-depth discussion of the different positions about the moral and legal aspects of abortion at different times. This discussion of the positions was carefully crafted so as not to favor any one of the positions outlined. This made it easier to organize and understand the arguments surrounding the topic of abortion, which were then presented impartially, each with its strengths and weaknesses.
There are numerous other success stories of articles that began life as virtual partisan screeds but were nicely cleaned up by people who concerned themselves with representing all views clearly and impartially.
I am reinstating the sections. So far less than a handful of editors have participated in the debate. I think if it is to be removed then it should be a decision made by more than that. It would be useful if someone would put in links at the top of this section to the sections in the archives which have already discussed the article section as there will be arguments there for why it was created and maintained in the first place, and at the moment the conversation seems to be taking place in a vacuum. -- PBS ( talk) 09:01, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
I have now looked through the archives and put in links at the top of this article to those sections in the archives that discuss this section. I may have missed some and if I have then please feel free to add some more.
I think that we need to discuss this in the context of the three subsections in the overall section and whether one or more of those subsections should be removed:
I think all three have some validity, and one important consideration is that "Well, the wikipedian way is to use summary style in situations like this" is not an option with policies. Information on policy pages is policy and that in other things are guidelines essays etc. This difference is important because as WP:Policy and guidelines says "Our list of policies are considered a standard that all editors should follow, whereas our guidelines are more advisory in nature,".
Of these subsections I think that the first one should stay in the article as it reminds people that this is not a new policy but one that has existed for a long time. Several times I have had to add the history of WP:NC into conversations on the talk pages of that policy and associated guidelines. Rather than deleting it from this policy it is something that is probably worth adding to WP:V, WP:NOR and WP:NC. As to the other two sections, we have to ask ourselves do they add anything to the policy or would it be better if they were deleted or moved into a FAQ or guideline? -- PBS ( talk) 17:27, 25 April 2009 (UTC)